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5 And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heaven.
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[AD 420] Jerome on Ezekiel 20:27-29:29
(Verse 27, 29 onwards) Therefore speak to the house of Israel, son of man, and tell them: Thus says the Lord God: Moreover, your fathers have blasphemed against me and have treated me with contempt, even as they spurned me. And I brought them into the land that I had lifted my hand to give them ((Vulgate adds: that land)): they saw every high hill and every leafy tree, and there they offered their sacrifices and presented there the irritation of their offerings, and they placed there the fragrance of their sweetness, and they poured out their ((Vulgate is silent on this)) libations there. And I said to them, 'What is the high place to which you are going?' And its name was called the High Place until this day. Therefore speak to the house of Israel, son of man, and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God: As for your fathers, they have provoked Me to anger by their iniquities, by the fact that they have fallen away from Me. So I brought them into the land that I had lifted My hand in an oath to give them.' They saw every high hill and every leafy tree, and there they offered their sacrifices. They also presented there the provocation of their gifts, and they set there their pleasing aroma, and they poured out there their drink offerings. And I said to them: What is abbana, because you enter there? And they called its name abbana until this day. I wanted, he said, to scatter them in the wilderness, and to give them not good precepts, so that they would sacrifice to idols what they should have offered to me, and consecrate all their first-fruits to them by fire, so that I might kill them and destroy them. But when he says, I wanted, he shows that he did not do what he wanted. And that which follows: 'And they shall know that I am the Lord,' is not found in the Septuagint. For it did not seem fitting to them to know after their destruction that he himself is the Lord. But you, son of man, speak again to them, that is, to the elders of the house of Israel, who have come to inquire of you: Your fathers, from whom you have descended, have also blasphemed against me and held me in contempt; after I brought them into the land which I had given them to possess, they turned against me to provoke me. For when they saw every high hill and leafy tree, they would sacrifice on the mountains and in the groves and thickets, and offer victims to the idols, and pour out libations. And when I saw this, I said to them: What is this, Bama? for it is called high: or why do you enter into such a place which you have chosen for yourselves in all the hills, so that even today these places are called Bamoth, and the ancient error retains its original name? Regarding Bama, which we translate as excelsum, there is an error in the Septuagint edition, where it is written as ἀββανὰ, which does not resonate in the Hebrew language. Bama can mean 'in which' if the two syllables are divided into two words, but in the present context, that sense does not fit. However, wherever it is written in the Books of Kings and Chronicles: 'The people still sacrificed and offered incense on the high places,' Bama in the singular and Bamoth in the plural mean 'high places.'

Source: Commentary on Ezekiel
[AD 420] Jerome on Ezekiel 20:35-36:38
(Verse 35, 36, and following) And I will bring you into a desert of peoples, and there I will judge you face to face. Just as I contended with your fathers in the desert of the land of Egypt, so I will judge you, says the Lord. And I will subject you to my scepter, and I will bring you into the bonds of the covenant, and I will choose from among you the transgressors and the wicked: from their place of residence I will bring them out, and they will not enter the land of Israel, and you will know that I am the Lord. Thus says the Lord: I will do for you who are in Babylon, and now serve idols, what I did for your ancestors in Egypt. I will lead you into the desert of the peoples, and there I will judge you face to face, just as I contended with them in judgment when they came out of Egypt. And after I have judged you, I will subject you to my scepter and rule, and I will make a covenant with you and bring you into your land with the bonds of love, so that bound by my love, you will never be able to depart from me. But I will choose from among you the transgressors and the wicked, who persist in the hardness of their hearts in evil deeds, not for possession, but for rejection. And I will indeed bring them out of the land of their dwelling, so that when they are brought out, they will not enter the land of Israel; but they will perish in various regions. And by the distinction between good and evil, you shall know that I am the Lord, who judges all things. The rest of the discourse hastens, and we briefly go through each point, in order to provide only the meaning to the readers.

Source: Commentary on Ezekiel
[AD 420] Jerome on Ezekiel 29:3-7
(Verse 3 onwards) Behold, I am coming to you, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, the great dragon, who lies (or sits) in the midst of your rivers, and you say: The river is mine, and I have made it for myself (or them). And I will put a bit (or a snare) in your jaws, and I will stick the fish of your rivers to your scales (or feathers), and I will draw you out of the midst of your rivers; and all your fish will cling to your scales (or feathers). And I will cast (or put) you out swiftly (or into the desert), and all the fish of your river will fall upon the face of the land (or your field). You shall not be gathered together, nor shall you be assembled; I have given you to the beasts of the earth and the birds of the air to be devoured. And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord; because you have become (or were) a staff (or reed) of the house of Israel, when they took (or he took) you with their hand ((Vulgate is silent on his hand)), and you were broken, and you bruised their every shoulder, and those leaning on you were shattered, and you broke (or shattered) all their loins. We combine both editions of brevity, where they do not differ much from each other. Otherwise, when there is a great difference, we present both. However, it speaks against Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, and under his figure it speaks to great power, to which Egypt is given to govern, and nevertheless it boasts against its Creator, claiming dominion over the land for itself, and entrusting itself to be worshipped by the Egyptian nations. And it speaks according to the location of the province, as if to a king, relying on the flood of the Nile and not greatly desiring rains from the sky, and thinking itself to be the author of itself, or of the rivers, that is, the canals and streams of the Nile made by itself. No, he said, I will not send an Angel, but, O great dragon, who lie and dwell in the middle of your rivers, I myself will come to you for punishment. For you have dared to say: The Nile river is mine, and I am its creator: or, I have made the river by which all Egypt is watered. And when I come, I will put a bridle in your jaws: or I will bind your mouth with reins, with which you boasted so mightily, and I will make all your allies and leaders, whom you call fish, cling to your feathers or scales, so that you are dragged out of the river and thrown out or cast down. For you have exalted yourself excessively in the desert. And you shall fall on the face of the field, or of your land, because Egypt is a flat province. Your body will not be gathered, nor will you be gathered, that is, you will not be buried, but I will give you to be devoured by beasts and birds of the sky, so that when the inhabitants of Egypt see these judgments executed upon you, they may know that I am the Lord. But these things shall happen to you because you have deceived my people Israel with your false aid, so that they would not trust in their God and Creator, but in you. You were a reed staff to them, according to Isaiah (Isa. XXX), or an empty rod, and a very fragile reed, which, when they leaned on it, proved to be useless, so that when they leaned on it, it would break and tear their shoulder, and the hand with which they held on. And while they trusted in you, all the loins of those who fell to the ground would be broken, and those who received help from you would be wounded. But these things are said metaphorically as if to the king of Egypt, because even the province itself was not an adversary to Israel, but while it made great promises, it would separate them from God's help. But according to the anagoge, we often read about the opposing power of the dragon. Therefore, Pharaoh is called the scatterer, because he separates and disconnects from God, and Egypt, that is, Egypt (), is turned into a tribulation and affliction for those whom it can subjugate. This dragon is a transgressor, of whom Job speaks very fully (Job 41). And in the Psalms it is written: You have broken the heads of the dragon, and have given him as food to the people of Ethiopia (Psalm 74:14). And the great dragon is said to be compared to the smaller dragons, of which it is sung in the psalm: You have broken the heads of the dragons in the waters (Ibid.). And in another place: This great and spacious sea with hands. There are reptiles there without number: small animals with large ones, there the ships will pass: This dragon which you have formed to mock him (Ibid., CIII, 25 seqq.). As it is said in another place: He is the king of all that are in the waters, and the beginning of the representation of the Lord, who was made to be mocked by his angels (Job. XLI, 24, sec. LXX). But he sits, or lies down, in the midst of his rivers, not of one river, but of many, which we receive in various heresies, through which he flowed into Egypt of this age, and watered the souls of the deceived, not with rain from heaven, but with turbid waters from the earth, which Jeremiah does not forbid to drink, saying: What to you and the ways of Egypt, that you drink the water of Geon (Jerem. XI, 18) ? For which it is written in Hebrew Sior (), which word is translated into turbid and muddy waters. But so that we may understand what the rivers of the Egyptian dragon are, we will be able to know from their opposites. The Lord speaks of his rivers: Whoever believes in me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water (John 7:37). And to the Samaritan woman: Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life (John 4:13-14). These are the rivers coming from heaven, of which David sings: The stream of the river makes the city of God glad (Psalm 46:4): undoubtedly it signifies the Church. Therefore, let us consider what is the punishment or penalty of the dragon. It follows: And I will put a bit or a noose in your jaws. This is similar to what Job says: You will draw out the dragon with a fishhook, and put a bridle around his nose. He trusts that the Jordan will enter into his mouth; he will receive it in his eye. However, a hook will pierce his nose, and a ring will be in his lips (Job 40:19). The Lord puts a bit in the jaws of this dragon, and pierces his lips and binds them with a ring. This happens when He silences him through Ecclesiastical men who are well-versed in the Holy Scriptures, and all the teachings of wickedness are dissolved. And the fish of its rivers agglutinate with its own wings, or scales, with which the heretics, through pride, hasten to high things, so that they themselves, bound together with the dragon, may become one body with it, and may be united to it either in the fellowship of error, or in the likeness of punishment: just as one who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit (I Cor. VI, 17). And indeed, the Egyptian dragon does not have one river, but many rivers, with which it waters humble and lowly Egypt, which has nothing in itself of mountains: nor the waters of Siloam, which flow silently, but turbid and muddy (Isa. VIII). And the Lord will remove him from the midst of his rivers, so that he does not incubate over them, nor sit upon them: and all the fish will adhere to his scales, according to the quality of his vices, throughout the body of the dragon, either to the head, or to the belly, or to the tail, and to the extremities sticking to it: so that when the dragon is removed, the fish also, which adhere to him, be likewise removed. And I will cast you, he says, into the desert, so that you will never find anyone to deceive. Surely, I will cast you down from the summit of your pride, and I will cast you down swiftly, according to the words of the Apostle: 'The God of peace will quickly crush Satan beneath your feet' (Rom. XVI, 20); so that the dragon, broken and cast down, the fish of that river may also be cast down, and the author of crimes may fall, who previously thought he could stand and run throughout the whole world. Let him fall upon the face of his own land, to which he was precipitated from heaven, so that he may no longer be gathered or congregated in the heretical Churches, nor buried among those who believed in him when they have been freed from him, but let him be given over to be devoured by the beasts of the earth and the birds of the sky. Regarding the beasts, it is written: 'Do not give the soul confessing to you to the beasts' (Psalm 73:19). And the birds of the sky, which eat the seed along the path, are interpreted to be the devils by the Savior (Matthew 13). For not only the prince of evil, but also his disciples are called devils, according to what is said of Judas: 'Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?' (John 6:71). The birds of the sky are called birds because they promise themselves things that are lofty, so that after the dragon with its fish is cast down and handed over to be devoured by the beasts of the earth, which have no gentleness in themselves, and by those who are blown about by every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4), then all the inhabitants of this world may understand that he himself is the Lord. But the whole reason for punishments is that Israel sought help in vain, and it was a rod or reed staff, empty and void, having nothing of fullness in itself, because it could not say: But we all received from his fullness (John 1:16); when the Scripture commands: You shall not appear before the Lord your God empty or void (Exodus 23:15). And that we should not seek help from Egypt, Scripture elsewhere testifies: Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help (Isaiah 31:1). He taunts King Hezekiah with a reed staff like this and Rabsaces in vain, saying: Behold, you trust in a reed staff and in this broken staff, over Egypt: on whom if anyone leans, it enters his hand. Thus is Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to all who trust in him. And indeed, he lied about the righteous king, mentioning these things, who is interpreted as 'multus poculo'. For he was intoxicated with the golden cup of Babylon, and therefore he fed his own people to the Lord who they confess. But here the pharaoh is reproached because he made the house of Israel to trust in a rod or reed, which promised them vain and fragile help, quickly to be broken. But that we may know what the reed rod is, on which the house of Israel ought not to trust, we may understand from the opposite rod and staff of the Lord, of which it is said to the Lord: Thy rod and thy staff, they have comforted me (Psalm 23:4). Aaron also had this rod, which devoured the Egyptian serpents, and when he struck the banks of the Nile, mosquitoes were generated in the whole of Egypt (Exodus VII, VIII). Moses also, according to the Septuagint, extended this rod and raised it to the heavens, and the Lord brought a south wind upon the land all that day and all that night, and in the morning the wind lifted locusts and brought them upon all the land of Egypt. I think that this rod is also mentioned in the Book of Numbers, that it blossomed and bore nuts or almonds (Numbers XVII). The Apostle had this when he said: What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod? (I Cor. IV, 21). And those who celebrated the Passover held staffs in their hands, without which they could not support the weakness of the human body and eat the flesh of the lamb. This is the rod from the root of Jesse, upon which the seven spirits rested. But not like Pharaoh, nor like the staff of Egypt and the reed rod that deceives those who grasp it and tears their shoulders, that is, their strength. And whoever leans on it, his loins are loosened and he cannot stand; nor can he celebrate Passover, girded with his loins. This is fitting for those whose hearts and kidneys God examines.

Source: Commentary on Ezekiel