Father Augustin Calmet's Commentary on Jeremiah 20:1-18

Dom Augustin Calmet (1672–1757) was a French Benedictine monk, theologian, and renowned biblical scholar. Born in Ménil-la-Horgne, Lorraine, he entered the Benedictine order at age 15 and spent his life in monastic scholarship. Calmet served as abbot of several monasteries, including Saint-Léopold of Nancy and Senones Abbey.

His magnum opus was the Commentaire littéral sur tous les livres de l'Ancien et du Nouveau Testament (Literal Commentary on All the Books of the Old and New Testament), published 1707–1716—a comprehensive, verse-by-verse exegesis that synthesized patristic, medieval, and contemporary scholarship. Calmet was also notable for his historical works and even for writing one of the earliest scholarly treatises on vampires (Dissertations sur les apparitions des anges, des démons et des esprits, 1746). His commentary remained a standard reference work for Catholic biblical studies well into the 19th century. Translated by Qwen.

 Father Augustin Calmet's Commentary on Jeremiah 20

Verse 1 "And Pashur the son of Immer, the priest, who was appointed chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying."

Pashur, son of Immer, one of the priests, who was established as Intendant of the House of the Lord. Pashur was not the immediate son of Immer, but of Melchiah, as is expressly noted in Chronicles (1 Chron 9:12; cf. Jer 21:1): "Adaiah son of Jeroham, son of Pashur, son of Malchijah, son of Immer." Immer was one of his predecessors and head of the sixteenth priestly course (1 Chron 24:14: "The sixteenth course to Immer").

Pashur was not the High Priest, as some of the Ancients believed, but Captain or Intendant of the Temple. In this capacity, he had the authority to arrest and imprison false prophets and those who caused disturbance in the Temple. This appears from what is said below concerning Shemaiah to Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, who under King Zedekiah held the same office as Pashur. He tells him that the Lord has appointed him Chief or Intendant of His house in place of Jehoiada, so that he might arrest and imprison all who pretended to be inspired or prophets: "That you should be officer in the house of the Lord over every man that is mad and makes himself a prophet, that you should put him in prison and in the stocks" (Jer 29:26-27).

We know that during the reign of Josiah, it was Hilkiah who exercised the sovereign priesthood (2 Kings 22:4, 8, 10; 23:4; 2 Chron 34:14). Thus Pashur was not High Priest. In the Temple, as in the palace of a great prince, one saw the same officers, the same order, the same service, in proportion to what was observed in the court of the kings of Judah. The Intendant of the Temple is the same as those who in the Gospel are so often called "Chief Priests" (Matt 21:23; Toletus on John 18).

This chapter is a continuation of the preceding one. Pashur believed that Jeremiah's discourses, which announced too distinctly the overthrow of Jerusalem and the misfortunes that were to befall it, deserved that he be arrested and put in fetters to prevent him from speaking so freely. He treats him as false prophets were treated.

Verse 2 "Then Pashur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks."

He struck Jeremiah and had him put in the stocks. He apparently had him beaten with rods; he gave him thirty-nine lashes, or he slapped him, or simply seized him—for "to strike" is sometimes taken in this sense, as Grotius shows here.

Nervus (stocks) properly signifies a sinew, but it is also understood as the fetters in which prisoners were placed. These were two thick boards pierced at intervals, which separated and then fitted into one another. The prisoners' legs were passed through the holes, then the two boards were rejoined. The severity of the torture of the stocks depended on the distance from one hole to another. To have one's legs at the fourth or sixth hole was one of the cruelest torments. Sometimes the hands and neck were also placed in similar fetters.

The Hebrew term mahpeketh (מַהְפֶּכֶת) signifies, according to some, a prison or underground pit; according to others, the stocks of which we have spoken. Symmachus translates it "a place of torture," as we would say: "He put him to the question."

Verse 3 "In the upper gate of Benjamin, which was in the house of the Lord."

In the prison which was at the upper gate of Benjamin, in the House of the Lord. We know from other passages of Scripture that the gate of Benjamin was one of the gates of Jerusalem (Jer 37:12; 38:7; Zech 14:10), but we do not believe that any of the four great gates of the Temple bore this name. Moreover, the text suggests that there were two gates of Benjamin: one which led outside the city—this was the lower gate of Benjamin; the other which was adjacent to the Temple and led to it—and this is the upper gate of Benjamin of which it is spoken here. But it is impossible to fix its precise location.

Verse 3 (continued) "And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The Lord hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magor-missabib."

The Lord no longer calls your name Pashur, but gives you a name which signifies "terror on every side."

Pashur in Hebrew can signify, according to St. Jerome, "blackness of face"; according to others, "increase of splendor," or "one who causes pallor." God changes his name and gives him that of Magor-missabib (מָגוֹר מִסָּבִיב), which St. Jerome translates "terror on every side," or "misfortune from all quarters," or according to the Septuagint and Syriac, "one who leaves his country," an exile, a banished man. Pashur was led captive to Babylon.

When Jeremiah says that the Lord changes Pashur's name, he simply means that henceforth this man, once formidable—who made others turn pale by his authority and excessive violence—will be a miserable exile, despised by all. See verse 4.

Verse 4 "For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends..."

I will fill you with terror. Or: I will make you leave your country, following the etymology reported in the preceding verse, for this is the term Magor in the Hebrew in both places.

Verse 6 "And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity: and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and shalt be buried there, thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied lies."

Your friends, to whom you have prophesied lies. Pashur therefore also meddled in prophesying, and this is apparently what caused his outburst against Jeremiah when he saw that this Prophet overturned all his false predictions by his discourses.

Verse 7 "O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived; thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed..."

You have seduced me, O Lord, and I was seduced. You engaged me in the ministry of prophecy by Your promises, assuring me of constant protection; You were to make me like a fortified city and a pillar of iron against all my adversaries (Jer 1:18). I was never to succumb to their efforts and malice. Yet, Lord, You see it: I am a target for all my people—the princes, the priests, the false prophets—everyone is against me.

Where then are Your promises, my God? Are You like men, capable of failing in Your word?

Alternatively: You had promised me, Lord, that You destined me to be the Prophet of foreign and idolatrous nations ("I have made you a prophet to the nations," Jer 1:5), and yet for so many years that I have exercised this ministry, it is only to my own people that You send me. Would I have accepted such an office so easily if I had known Your design?

It was apparently in prison that Jeremiah pronounced these complaints, which seem so vivid and strong to us only because our ways of speaking are much more measured and simple than those of the Orientals. In the language of these peoples, expressions that would be exaggerated in our mouths signify only quite simple things. When the Prophet says, for example, that God has "deceived" him, he simply means that he had flattered himself that he would exercise his ministry peacefully and without contradiction, and that he had taken the Lord's promises in this sense—but that he now saw well that he had engaged in a painful and dangerous employment. See Lamentations 3:53-55.

One may observe throughout the rest of the chapter the diverse movements and unequal agitations of the Prophet's spirit. Sometimes he complains and appears quite dismayed and cast down; sometimes he rejoices and, so to speak, confronts danger. Here he curses the day of his birth; there he sings the praises of the Lord who delivered him from perils. Thus Saint Paul was so often seen overwhelmed with pains and troubles, even to falling into a kind of discouragement—and after that, strengthened by the virtue of the Most High, he breathed only sufferings and labors. Did not the Savior Himself become sorrowful even unto death, and even have need of an angel's consolation? After which He rises, encourages His disciples, walks to death with a firm step, and suffers without complaint the cruelest torments.

The example of Jeremiah and of Saint Paul admirably proves to us, on one hand, the weakness of man, and on the other, the strength of grace: what we do when God strengthens us and fills us with His Spirit—and to what point we are infirm and powerless without the supernatural help of grace.

Verse 8 "For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the Lord was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily."

The word of the Lord has become for me a subject of reproach. At every moment I am reproached with the vanity of my threats, the falsity of my prophecies. They ask me with insult: "Where then is the enemy who comes from the north? Where is the consternation, the pestilence, the famine with which you wish to frighten us?"

His pain is not so much at being treated as a false prophet as at seeing the word of the Lord despised and held in reproach.

Verse 9 "Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay."

I said within myself: I will no longer name the Lord, nor speak any more in His name. I will no longer make mention of prophecies, threats, invectives on the part of the Lord; I no longer wish to prophesy. I am no longer listened to, and the glory of the Lord is exposed; the part of silence suits me better.

"But His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones." But at the same time, there was kindled in my heart as a burning fire. In vain I wished to oppose Your orders, O my God; Your Holy Spirit who animates me has become master of myself; I will never resist Him. It is a fire that burns me; it is a flame that cannot remain confined within my heart; it leaps forth as if against my will. I feel forced to speak, and I cannot be silent.

Thus Saint Paul, being at Athens and seeing the superstitions that reigned there, could not resist the spirit that animated him: "His spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry" (Acts 17:16). And elsewhere he acknowledges that he is obliged by necessity to preach, and that in this he merits no praise, and woe to him if he does not preach (1 Cor 9:16). Elihu in Job says that, being filled with the spirit, he cannot refrain from speaking; that his breast is like a wine-skin full of new wine without a vent, which bursts the vessel in which it is confined (Job 32:18-19).

And if it is permitted to join the profane to the sacred: the Sibyl in Virgil struggles violently to discharge the God who has seized her and forces her to pronounce His pretended oracles:

"Not yet enduring Phoebus, in her cave / The prophetess raves, seeking if perchance / She may shake the great God from her breast; / So much the more he tires her rabid mouth, / Taming her savage heart, and molds by pressing."
(Aeneid VI, 77-81, paraphrased)

Sanctius believes that another sense can be given to the Hebrew of this passage. He remarks with some reason that this passage, explained in the sense we have just seen, is not well connected with what precedes and follows. He would like to translate:

"Since the word of God is held in reproach in me, I have said: I will no longer make mention of prophecy, nor speak in the name of the Lord—because His word is in my heart like a burning fire, shut up within my bones. It is for me a subject of continual sorrow; this employment attracts to me an infinity of enemies who leave me no rest. I am overwhelmed and can no longer resist so many contradictions."

Verse 10 "For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Denounce, and let us denounce him, say all my familiars, those that watch my side..."

Those who lived in peace with me and who were constantly at my side. My friends and those who never left me have finally turned against me.

One can translate the Hebrew as: "My friends who watched whether I limped," who were attentive to all my steps to see if I would not make some misstep. Thus the Pharisees and Priests, jealous of the glory of the Savior, sought to catch Him in His conduct or in His words.

Verse 11 "But the Lord is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten."

They will be covered with confusion because they have not understood what is this eternal reproach that will never be effaced.

The Hebrew: "They will be covered with confusion because their enterprises will not succeed; their eternal shame will not be effaced." But one can also translate as the Vulgate has done: "They have not known their eternal reproach." They have not paid attention that they are blackening themselves in the memory of all posterity.

Verse 12 "But, O Lord of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I opened my cause."

Make me see the vengeance that You will draw from them. Punish them in my presence; do not delay to take vengeance for their malice. Or: Reveal to me, Lord, the evils that You are preparing for them.

Jeremiah does not ask that God avenge him on his enemies. How could the Holy Spirit who animated him have inspired him with sentiments so contrary to charity? He makes him express in a human manner the prediction of the approaching misfortune of his persecutors.

Verse 13 "Sing unto the Lord, praise ye the Lord: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers."

Praise the Lord because He has delivered the soul of the poor. God having shown him, according to his request, that his enemies would be confounded, that their efforts against him would be without effect, that he would be protected from their hands—he here gives thanks to God as for a favor already received.

Or, according to Theodoret: he begins by praising the Lord before pronouncing the imprecations that are about to be read in the following verses, lest one imagine that these are blasphemies and outbursts.

Verses 14-18 "Cursed be the day wherein I was born..."

May the day on which I was born be cursed.

We have already noted that the Orientals were extraordinarily bold and vivid in their expressions, and that they often used the strongest exaggerations to express quite common things. Here is a passage where this observation is necessary. Jeremiah, overwhelmed with sorrows, to say that since he engaged in the ministry of prophecy he had had only contradictions and evils to endure, that he had led a life entirely laborious and filled with troubles, cries out:

"Woe to the day of my birth! Woe to him who announced to my father that I was born! Would that I had died in my mother's womb, or as soon as I saw the day!"

All this is hyperbolic. We pardon it to a violent passion and to an excess of pain. Among the Orientals, this says much less than among us. Job expresses himself in much the same way in the transport of his affliction (Job 3:2-3, etc.).

Jeremiah was struck all at once by the injustice of his enemies, by his own evils, by the calamities with which his nation was threatened, by the contempt into which the word of the Lord had fallen, by the disorder that reigned among his people. All these objects make such a violent impression on his spirit that he cannot resist it, and he expresses himself in terms so vivid and so inflated.

Grotius believes that Jeremiah said these words while still in prison.

Verse 15 "Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad."

Who thought he was giving him a subject of joy. The Hebrew: "And who truly made him rejoice."

Verse 16 "And let that man be as the cities which the Lord overthrew, and repented not..."

Like the cities that the Lord destroyed by an irrevocable decree—like Sodom and Gomorrah and so many others that were so ruined that no one ever thought of restoring them. May this man's house be like these unhappy cities.

"And let him hear the cry in the morning, and shouting at noontime."

May he hear cries in the morning and howlings at noon. May there be heard in the morning the cries of those surprised by fire and by unexpected misfortune, and at noon may there be heard the howlings of those who perish.

Or: May there be heard in his house in the morning and throughout the day only cries and howlings of wild beasts and of bad omen. This would not be so extraordinary if he had put "night." But to hear these cries in the morning and in broad daylight—this is what strikes and frightens more.

Or: May he hear all day long in his family and around him only complaints and afflicting cries.

Verse 17 "Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me."

Because he did not make me die before being born. The sequel seems to require that we translate thus, as have done the Septuagint, the Syriac, the Arabic, and Grotius: "That my mother's womb might become my grave."

But the Hebrew and the greatest number of Interpreters read as the Vulgate: "Because he did not make me die after my birth, as soon as I came forth from my mother's womb." And as for what follows, they translate: "Or would that my mother had become my grave, and that her womb, having conceived, had never given birth."

This latter explanation appears to me more literal: Would that I had died as soon as after my birth—or rather, would that I had died before seeing the day.

CONTINUE