Глава 9

“Who will give me the last place in the desert, and I will leave my people and live from them: for all of them commit adultery, a congregation of liars” (Jer. 9:2). In a mysterious sense, on behalf of all the righteous, the prophet longs for the coming of the Messiah. When our Lord came, the Jewish people were divided, and some believed in Christ, while others rejected Him and persecuted Him to death. And those who believed were given a habitat (refuge) in the Church of the Gentiles, which was previously called barren and empty (Is. 54:1). The prophet calls fornication and a congregation of liars either, in the proper sense, the debauchery and deceit of fornicators and liars among the Jewish people, or, in the mysterious sense, fornication (unfaithfulness to God) with pagan idols, that is, the veneration of the gods of other nations and the worship of vain idols. “And your tongue is clotted like your bow with lies, and not with faith. And... strengthened on the earth, for from evil men came forth into evil, and knew me not, saith the Lord” (Jer.9:3). The prophet denounces the pride of the rich and their hearts, which are rooted in wickedness, because they add wickedness to wickedness and constantly trample on the poor. Therefore, it shows that they will also be trampled upon and, having been delivered from the disaster of Egypt, they will end up in Babylonian captivity. “And do not trust in your brothers, for every brother will stumble” (Jer. 9:4). The Prophet advises simple people to beware of the deceit of liars, whose tongue is like a sharp arrow and their lips like a bow. “With lies, and not with faith.” And in the book of Psalms it is written: their word is like an arrow “to shoot in the darkness the upright in heart” (Ps. 10:2), that is, those who plot evil hide in the darkness, do not want their deception to be seen, so they look for darkness and secrecy, or, like arrows, they set up an ambush in the distance, and with charming, feigned and cunning words they catch to deceive his brethren. “Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, and let not the mighty boast in his strength, and let not the rich man boast in his wealth: but let him boast in this, even if he knows and knows, for I am the Lord who has done mercy and justice and righteousness on earth” (Jer. 9:23-24). The Jews trusted in the wisdom of their elders, in the power of their kings, in the wealth of their kingdom. Therefore, the prophet tries to eradicate this deceptive hope in their lost minds and teaches that everything will be useless for them if help does not come to them from the Lord; therefore, he convinces us to trust in one God, in whose hand everything is contained, and who, according to His will, according to the wealth of wisdom and advice, divides good into the good and evil into the evil. For the Jews denied God’s Providence, for which Zephaniah also reproaches them in the book of his prophecies, saying: “Those who say in their hearts: The Lord will not do good, but they will not do evil” (Zeph. 1:12). Jeremiah further testifies about them that they talk idle talk and consider service to heaven to be the cause of abundance and lack, saying: “And when the incense ceases... heaven am (goddess of heaven) and pour out drink offerings, poor... all of us” (Jer. 44:18). “And I will visit everyone who has their flesh circumcised... and every one who shears the flesh that dwells in the wilderness” (Jer. 9:25–26). Here the prophet takes away from the Jews the hope of circumcision of the flesh, and shows that the circumcision they observe is useless to other nations, and the Jews, who do not care about the circumcision of their hearts, face the judgment determined for the nations wandering in the deserts, who are “uncircumcised in the flesh” and cut off their beards. And you, Jews, as the Lord says through the mouth of the prophet, although you circumcise your flesh, you remain with an uncircumcised heart. You might be interested in: