Bible Verses and Early Church Commentary | Historical Christian Faith

[AD 420] Jerome on Ezekiel 6:1-3

(Chapter 6, Verses 1 onwards) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, turn your face towards the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them. And you shall say: Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and hills, to the cliffs and valleys. That which is often said in this Prophet as 'Adonai Dominus' seems to be briefly explained for the Greeks and Latins who do not have knowledge of the Hebrew language. Adonai is one name from the ten names of God, and it signifies Lord, which we often use in reference to God. Finally, when Sarah called Abraham her lord, she used this name (Gen. XVIII). And when it is said 'O Lord, my king', it is written Adonai (Exod. XXVIII). Therefore, when the two names, Lord and Lord, are joined together, the first name is common, the second properly belongs to God, which is called ἄῤῥητον (ineffable), which was also written on the golden plate that was on the high priest's forehead. But the mountains of Israel, which were occupied by the idols of demons, hear and understand their Creator not with their ears, but with the command and power of the one who made them. Just as the sea saw and fled, the Jordan river turned back (Ps. CXIII): not, of course, with the eyes of flesh which it lacked. And it is said to the sea: Be silent, be calm (Mark IV, 39). And the winds are commanded by his breath; and the worm is commanded, which struck the shade of Jonah (Jonah IV). And from the same land it is written: Who looks at the earth and makes it tremble (Ps. CIII, 32). The Prophet speaks to those indicating that idols are to be destroyed and altars, and all the ceremonies they previously served to be crushed. We can understand the mountains of Israel and the leaders as those who excelled in power, wisdom, knowledge, and wealth. And it should be noted that the face is indeed hardened, and it is set against the mountains: but it does not speak only to the mountains, but also to the hills, rocks, and valleys, where inferior dignity and degrees of prudence and knowledge are known. They seem to me to be tropologically mountains, those who have reached perfect knowledge; hills, who are slightly lower; rocks, who have no knowledge and only rely on conversation, presuming something about the interpretation of the Scriptures, having zeal for God according to the Apostle, but not according to knowledge (Rom. X; James III); valleys, on the other hand, are called the lowest in the Church, who are inferior in both life and knowledge, yet do not depart from the gathering of the Lord's family. Those who are commanded to hear the word of God, so that each one may understand according to their own measure and understanding what the Lord commands.

Source: Commentary on Ezekiel

[AD 420] Jerome on Ezekiel 6:4-5

(Vers. 4, 5.) Behold, I will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. And I will overthrow your altars, and break your images, and cast down your slain before your idols. And I will give the dead bodies of the children of Israel before the face of their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars in all your dwellingplaces. It is said of the mountains of Israel that God will destroy their high places, where people worshiped false gods, and will break their altars and images, and cause their worshipers to be killed in front of their temples; so that the bodies of the dead may lie where the offerings used to lie; and the bones of those who were on the mountains, not the mountains themselves, will be scattered around the altars and in all the cities and villages of Israel. This literally. Otherwise, against those who are uplifted in pride, and of whom the Apostle speaks: Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up (I Cor. VIII, 1), the sword is brought forth, so that all their images, which they have fashioned in their own minds, may be crushed and lie dead, and they may feel themselves to be dead, realizing that their images and creations are of no benefit to them. And he says that the bones of the mountains shall be scattered around the altars, indicating that the strongest among them should be separated from one another. For it is beneficial for evil to be separated from evil by perverse knowledge. And as those who were building the tower with the worst consent were dispersed for their own utility, and their tongues were divided (Gen. XI), so will the bones of the mountains be scattered, that they may understand the vanity of their endeavors. This that we have set forth: 'And I will give the bodies of the children of Israel before the face of your idols,' is not found in the Septuagint.

Source: Commentary on Ezekiel

[AD 420] Jerome on Ezekiel 6:6-7

(Verse 6, 7.) The cities shall be deserted, and the lofty places shall be demolished; and your altars shall be scattered and your idols shall cease, and your temples shall be broken down and your works shall be destroyed. And the slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the Lord. The clear cause why the cities of the mountains are to be deserted: namely, that the lofty places may be demolished, and the altars and idols may be destroyed, and the temples may perish, and all worship of the idols may cease; and the slain may fall in the midst of the mountains; and they may know that he himself is the Lord. For this reason, we are given the opportunity to follow the spiritual intelligence more, so that the cities of heretics, which are interpreted as Churches, and the high pride of their teachings, and the altars of their perverse doctrines, are shattered, and the idols perish, which they simulated in their own hearts, and the shrines are destroyed, not the temples, which rose up against the temple of the Lord, and are called 'temples' in Greek, that is, shrines and all the works of mountains are crushed, which are not the works of God, but of false masters of knowledge. And when the slain shall fall in the midst of the mountains, either those whom the mountains themselves have slain, or the ecclesiastical men who have slain them wickedly to their own safety: then shall be the end of the proud mountains, that they may know that he is the Lord. But it may happen that from one people of the mountains of Israel, others being slain, others may know. For when a pestilent scourge is slain, the foolish will be wiser.

Source: Commentary on Ezekiel

[AD 420] Jerome on Ezekiel 6:8

(Verse 8.) And I will leave among you those who have escaped the sword among the nations, when I scatter you among the lands. And they shall remember me, the ones who were delivered, among the nations where they were taken captive. That which the Lord speaks to Elijah: I have left for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal (1 Kings 19:18); and the Apostle Paul writes: And now at this present time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace that has been saved (Romans 11:5), which may be applicable to this chapter. For indeed the Apostles, who were of the seed of Israel and had fled the sword, are therefore reserved, so that they might be scattered into the lands and preach the Gospel among the nations, and be remembered among the nations of God, in which they were living during the time of captivity. And it can also be said that some were reserved from the captivity of Judah, so that they might be remembered among the nations and preach the power of His name. The peoples of the heretics who were able to escape the sword of their destruction, and the wicked faction that had been incited against God, will remember the name of God, repenting and rejoicing that they were captured by the men of the Church.

Source: Commentary on Ezekiel

[AD 420] Jerome on Ezekiel 6:9-10

(Verse 9, 10) Because I have broken their heart by committing adultery and turning away from me, and their eyes are adulterous, looking after their idols. And they will displease each other with the evils they have done in all their abominations. And they will know that I, the Lord, have not spoken in vain, in order to bring harm upon them. Many things from this chapter have been omitted by the Septuagint, and that part has been changed. I have sworn to their adulterous heart: therefore we have put: I have broken their heart by committing adultery. But he swore and determined that he would do what he had shown through his actions; or he deceived by fornicating and turning away from God, concerning those about whom the Lord speaks through Hosea: They have been seduced by the spirit of prostitution (Hosea 4:12). And they fornicated their eyes after idols, through whose windows it is said that death entered. For this reason, in the book of Daniel, two elder men commanded that Susanna be revealed, so that they could enjoy the beauty of her naked body (Dan. 13). And the Lord spoke not in vain, when He brought evil or evils, when those who were subject to His sentence repent. But if the heart is hard and untamable, not even feeling the punishments of the correcting benefactor, it is said to them: I struck your children without cause: you have not received discipline. (Jeremiah 2:30). However, it is beneficial even to heretics, that their heart be broken, the worst treasure of perverse doctrines, because they have turned away from the Lord, and their eyes commit adultery after their own inventions. Those who remember the Lord will be displeased with all their abominations and those who understand the truth of the true faith will know that He is the Lord. Therefore, He often brings tribulation, which seems harmful and evil to the patient, so that they may be converted to repentance.

Source: Commentary on Ezekiel

[AD 420] Jerome on Ezekiel 6:11

(Verse 11.) Thus says the Lord God: Strike your hand, and stamp your foot, and say: Alas! for all the abominations of the evil house of Israel. The prophet is commanded to show the magnitude of sins with his hands, feet, and words, so that he may display through the movement of his body and the indignation of his voice, the appearance of one amazed and astonished, weeping and lamenting. For just as when we see something new and marvelous, we tremble both in body and mind, so that we clap our hands and stamp our feet on the ground, and bow our voice to weeping; in the same way, now the prophet, seeing with the eyes of his soul the coming punishments, speaks of all the abominations of the evil house of Israel that follow. We strike spiritually with our hand, when we separate ourselves from evil works. We stomp our foot, when we do not proceed on the path of sin. We weep and cry, when we are displeased with what is happening. What is shown in words, alas. For which Aquila interpreted as ἂ ἂ, Symmachus σχετλίασον, which means to lament or weep. LXX and Theodotion εὖγε, which is more of an insult than a lament.

Those who are going to perish by the sword, famine, and plague. This is indeed the cause of weeping, because the inhabitants of the mountains and the worshippers of altars and idols are going to perish by the sword, famine, and plague. Those who are led astray by various errors, and change their faith daily, are tossed about by every wind of doctrine: they are killed by the sword and divided into factions, abandoning the unity of the Catholic faith. But whoever does not have spiritual food dies of hunger, not knowing him who said: I am the life (John XIV, 6). Moreover, those who are devoted to either single or multiple vices cannot be separated from them, as if once they fell from an ancient pestilence, or rather a certain uterine pestilence.

Source: Commentary on Ezekiel

[AD 420] Jerome on Ezekiel 6:12

(Verse 12.) Whoever is far away will die from the plague; whoever is near will fall by the sword, and whoever is left and surrounded by famine will die, and I will fulfill my wrath upon them. Whoever escapes the siege of the city and migrates to the desert will die from the plague; whoever is near will fall by the enemy's sword. And whoever is surrounded by the enemy's army will perish from famine and lack: in all of these, the wrath of God will be fulfilled, so that those who remain may know that He is the Lord. Whoever departs from the Church will immediately die of the plague. Whoever considers themselves free and diligent, unless they take caution, will be struck by the sword of their enemies. Whoever is content with simple faith, like dumb animals, indeed belongs to the Church, but does not make any progress in good works; nor is he an imitator of the ant, which prepares and gathers food in the harvest, he will die of hunger, and the anger of the Lord will be fulfilled in all these things.

Source: Commentary on Ezekiel

[AD 420] Jerome on Ezekiel 6:13

(Verse 13.) And you shall know that I am the Lord, when your slain shall be in the midst of your idols, round about your altars, upon every high hill, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols. It is evident according to the literal sense, and needs no interpretation, that in the mountains of Israel, and in the high places, among the altars and groves, which are called thick trees, the army of Israel was slain, that they might be punished in the same places where they had sinned. According to allegory, let us follow the proposed order. When the masters of heretics, who are instructed in the knowledge of Scriptures, have been crushed and overcome by the Ecclesiastical men, we see them lying among the idols they created, and those who elevated themselves against the knowledge of God lie scattered on the mountains and hills beneath every leafy tree; those who have pompous words and the shadow of leaves, but do not have the fruits of good works; those who are under every leafy oak tree, which does not bear the fruits of men, but of pigs: where they burn fragrant incense not to God, but to their idols. And they could not say what is written about Noah: 'The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma' (Gen. VIII, 21): and that which Paul speaks: 'For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing' (II Cor. II, 15). But just as a holy person delights God with their fragrance, so sin is committed from whose person that psalm is sung: 'My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness' (Ps. XXXVII, 6), he kindles his foul incense for his idols. What we interpreted, on all the highest points of the mountains: and a little later: And under the whole leafy oak, they left seventy.

Source: Commentary on Ezekiel

[AD 420] Jerome on Ezekiel 6:14

(Verse 14.) And I will stretch out my hand upon them and make the land desolate and forsaken, from the wilderness of Deblath to all their dwellings. And they shall know that I am the Lord. O mountains of Israel, when your slain ones have fallen among your idols and on every high hill and on all the mountaintops, when I have filled your forests with the corpses of the dead, those whom you once burned incense to, then I will stretch out my hand against you in vengeance, which has been restrained until now, and I will make the whole land of Israel a desolation, from the wilderness of Deblath in the land of Hamath, which is called Epiphania of Syria, to all their dwellings. So that all may know that there is nothing between the wilderness and the Great Sea that the sword of the enemy has not consumed. Many people think that the same place is meant, about which it is written in Jeremiah: 'And they took Zedekiah in the desert that is near Jericho, and all his company fled from him.' And when they had captured the king, they brought him to the king of Babylon in Riblah, which is in the land of Hamath (Jer. 39:5). It may also be called Deblatha or Reblatha due to the close similarity of the Hebrew letters Daleth and Res, which are distinguished by a small dot. But according to mystical understanding, the Lord extends His hand over all those who have been deceived by heretical error, in order to make their land, which is interpreted as the Church, desolate from the desert of Deblatha, which in our language means 'mass of figs', and of compacted thistles, so that after they have discovered bitterness in the simulated sweetness, which was not of cultivated land but of solitude, then they may know that He Himself is the Lord. Honey drips from the lips of a prostitute, who temporarily satiates the mouths of those who eat, but afterwards is found bitter as gall (Prov. 5:3,4). This also signifies the two baskets of figs that were placed in front of the Temple in Jeremiah (Jer. 24): one basket of good figs and one of rotten figs. One of these refers to the Church of Christ, the other to the congregation of the wicked.

Source: Commentary on Ezekiel