Глава 17

“The sin of Judas was written with an iron script, and with a nail I ate adamants” (Jer. 17:1). The prophet speaks of the sin of worshiping idols, and calls this sin ineradicable, either in the sense that the Jews decided in their hearts never to abandon this sin, or in the sense that neither sacrifices nor prayers will ever erase this recklessness of the Jews before God. The prophet calls idolatry the sin of Judah, because the Jews served idols, and this service was introduced by the king of Judah, Manasseh, for Jeremiah speaks of the same sin, which the Holy Scripture clearly proclaims in the Fourth Book of Kings: “Nevertheless the Lord turn away from the fury of His great wrath,... even after Manasseh had angered Him. And the Lord said: I will also cut off Judah from before Me” (2 Kings 23:26–27). In a mysterious sense, this was primarily fulfilled on the Apostle Judas, who betrayed his Teacher to the crucifiers, and behold, his sin was written and will never be erased. “This says the Lord: Cursed is the man who trusts in man... He will dwell in dryness and in the desert, in desolate and uninhabited lands” (Jer. 17:4-6). Since the Jews did not want to correct their evil morals, to leave pagan idols, they hoped for the help of the Egyptians, they expected that the Egyptians would go out to battle with the king of Babylon, their common enemy, the prophet denounces everyone who deviates from God and cleaves to man. In a mysterious sense, the prophet understands Satan, whom the holy apostles, by the power of God, force to flee from the minds of the believers, and he dwells in the souls of the pagans, as our Lord says: “When the unclean spirit goes out from a person, it passes through dry places, seeking rest” (Matthew 12:43). The pagans are rightly likened to an uninhabited desert, because they are in the darkness of error and deprived of the fruits of truth, like a dirty (salty) and barren land. “Cry out the pockmarks... do not give birth to them” (Jer. 17:11). The Prophet denounces those who acquire wealth not by law and not by righteousness. He says that the foolishness of such people will be exposed at the end of their lives and offers edification in the form of a parable. The partridge (grouse) steals eggs from the nests of other partridges, sits on them, warms them and hatches the chicks. But when the chicks grow up and fledge, then, as soon as they hear the voice of their real mothers, they follow them and leave the one who hatched them as a stranger, and although she calls them, they do not listen to her voice. And the prophet, as earlier admonished the princes of Judah not to rely on human strength, so in this place he says that their property, which they collected by deceit and deceit, will not remain with them, but will pass from their hands into the hands of their enemies, the Babylonians. And therefore their hope for wealth is vain, which will not bring them benefit and will not deliver them from the predators of the Babylonians. In another sense, this can be attributed to Nebuchadnezzar, whom the prophet had previously called “the destroyer of the tongues” (Jer. 4:7), and now says about him that he gathered “his wealth not with judgment” (Jer. 17:11), and therefore what he stole insidiously will be taken away from him, and his end will be inglorious. This is what happened to Nebuchadnezzar, who plundered the universe, and with the gains collected from the nations of the earth, he increased his wealth, but subsequently lost his mind and became like the beasts of the field, and lived with them in the forests. Or the prophet also predicts that the same will happen to Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson, Belshazzar, because his wealth, collected from all the ends of the earth, will leave him and go to the Medes and Persians, and he himself will be killed, and his royal city will be destroyed. “The throne of glory is exalted from the beginning, the place of our holiness” (Jer. 17:12). The prophet again denounces the wicked for placing their hope in their wealth, and encourages them to reflect on the economy of God, who sits in the place of holiness in the temple of Jerusalem, this throne of His glory, and from there penetrates and tests everything that is around Him. So, as the prophet says, let them know that Babylon and all her kings, who from the beginning were glorified on her throne, were exalted and exalted by God who dwells in our sanctuary. Therefore, kings have no reason to rely on their strength, and no one should be afraid of princes, because their treasures will be taken away from them according to the judgment pronounced by the truth, and for the oppression of the oppressed, the oppressors will perish at the hand of this truth. “But in adversity I did not toil, I followed You (the shepherd”), that is, when my enemies pursued me, I did not turn my face away from You. “You weigh... and you did not desire the day of man.” The day of man, that is, the wedding day, or the blessings that people desire. “That which proceeds from my lips is before Your face” ( Jer.17:16), that is, either the prophecy spoken by Jeremiah, or his prayer for his people. “Do not let my prophecy lead me to destruction,” that is, to death (Jer. 17:17). “Let them be crushed, but let me not be crushed...with deep contrition, wipe them out” (Jer. 17:18), that is, the wicked who set out to kill me. You might be interested in: