| Douay RheimsDouay-Rheims Bible -- The New Testament was published at Rheims (1582), the Old Testament at Douay (1609). The Douay Rheims served as the main English bible for the Catholic world for centuries. Bishop Challoner updated it extensively mid-18th century. Biblical scholar Rev. George Haydock compiled a Catholic commentary mid-19th century. This text set is from an approved 1914 U.S. printing. | Haydock CommentaryHaydock Catholic Bible Commentary - based on the Douay-Rheims Bible; originally compiled by Catholic priest and biblical scholar Rev. George Leo Haydock (1774-1849). |
| 1 Woe to the pastors, that destroy and tear the sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord. | Pastors. Successors of Josias (C.) and false prophets. M.
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| 2 Therefore thus saith the Lord the God of Israel to the pastors that feed my people: You have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold I will visit upon you for the evil of your doings, saith the Lord. | |
| 3 And I will gather together the remnant of my flock, out of all the lands into which I have cast them out: and I will make them return to their own fields, and they shall increase and be multiplied. | Multiplied. The prophets subjoin tidings of peace to such as might cause affliction. Theodoret.
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| 4 And I will set up pastors over them, and they shall feed them: they shall fear no more, and they shall not be dismayed: and none shall be wanting of their number, saith the Lord. | |
| 5 Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will raise up to David a just branch: and a king shall reign, and shall be wise, and shall execute judgement and justice in the earth. | |
| 6 In those days shall Juda be saved, and Israel shall dwell confidently: and this is the name that they shall call him: the Lord our just one. | Saved: less disturbed. The world shall be redeemed. Lu. ii. 14. Eph. ii. 14. --- Just. Heb. "Justice," by whom we are made just. He is the true God. Col. ii. 9. 14. No man could bear this title: and Grotius insidiously attempts to apply it to the Jews, though the Chal. &c. clearly speak of the Messias. He must be read with great caution. C. --- Sept. "This is his name, which the Lord will call him, Josedech. In the prophets. 9. My," &c. H. --- Josedech means "the Lord justice." C. --- Sym. "Lord, justify us."
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| 7 Therefore behold the days to come, saith the Lord, and they shall say no more: The Lord liveth, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt: | |
| 8 But the Lord liveth, who hath brought out, and brought hither the seed of the house of Israel from the land of the north, and out of all the lands, to which I had cast them forth: and they shall dwell in their own land. | Land. The deliverance from Egypt and Babylon were emblems of man's redemption, which was accomplished by far greater miracles.
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| 9 To the prophets: My heart is broken within me, all my bones tremble: I am become as a drunken man, and as a man full of wine, at the presence of the Lord, and at the presence of his holy words. | Prophets of falsehood. He directs his discourse to them, and afterwards to the priests, being filled with amazement at their impending ruin.
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| 10 Because the land is full of adulterers, because the land hath mourned by reason of cursing, the fields of the desert are dried up: and their course is become evil, and their strength unlike. | Adulterers; impostors or idolaters. --- Cursing of the Lord, or the abuse of his sacred name. C. --- Unlike. Heb. "not right." H.
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| 11 For the prophet and the priest are defiled: and in my house I have found their wickedness, saith the Lord. | Defiled. Heb. "hypocrites." My priests retain the appearance of religion, to join with impostors in deluding the people.
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| 12 Therefore their way shall be as a slippery way in the dark: for they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evils upon them, the year of their visitation, saith the Lord. | |
| 13 And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria: they prophesied in Baal, and deceived my people Israel. | |
| 14 And I have seen the likeness of adulterers, and the way of lying in the prophets of Jerusalem: and they strengthened the hand of the wicked, that no man should return from his evil doings: that are all become unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrha. | Jerusalem. These were far worse, as they pretended to be inspired by God, whereas those of Samaria publicly adhered to Baal; so that the people must have been foolish to have been deceived by them. C.
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| 15 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts to the prophets: Behold I will feed them with wormwood, and I will give them gall to drink: for from the prophets of Jerusalem corruption has gone forth into all the land. | Gall, or something mortally bitter. C. ix. 15. H.
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| 16 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Hearken not to the words of the prophets that prophesy to you, and deceive you: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. | Own. To rely on private judgment, and not on the Church, is a mark of falsehood. W.
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| 17 They say to them that blaspheme me: The Lord hath said: You shall have peace: and to every one that walketh in the perverseness of his own heart, they have said: No evil shall come to you. | Blaspheme. Heb. "despise;" or Sept. "reject disdainfully the word of the Lord, you," &c. C. vi. 14. and viii. 11.
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| 18 For who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath seen and heard his word? Who hath considered his word and heard it? | Counsel. Heb. "secret." Which of you is acquainted with his designs? I will inform you, that your perdition is at hand. v. 20. C.
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| 19 Behold the whirlwind of the Lord's indignation shall come forth, and a tempest shall break out and come upon the head of the wicked. | |
| 20 The wrath of the Lord shall not return till he execute it, and till he accomplish the thought of his heart: in the latter days you shall understand his counsel. | |
| 21 I did not send prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. | Not send. The want of mission proves a prophet or preacher to be false. W.
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| 22 If they stood in my counsel, and had made my words known to my people, I should have turned them from their evil way and from their wicked doings. | I should. Some copies read avertissent, "they would have turned," conformably with the Heb. &c. and we should suspect that this was a mistake of the transcriber, if S. Jerom did not agree with the Vulg. in his commentary, (C.) though not in express terms: (H.) "I also should not have abandoned them to impurity...Let us behold how heretics, having once given way to despair,...seek the gratification of their sensual appetite." S. Jer.
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| 23 Am I, think ye, a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? | Off? Can you so easily penetrate my designs, or escape my fury? Am I like your idols of yesterday? Sept. and Theodot. "I am a God at hand," &c. which agrees with the sequel. C.
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| 24 Shall a man be hid in secret places, and I not see him, saith the Lord? do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord? | |
| 25 I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, and say: I have dreamed, I have dreamed. | |
| 26 How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies, and that prophesy the delusions of their own heart? | |
| 27 Who seek to make my people forget my name through their dreams, which they tell every man to his neighbor: as their fathers forgot my name for Baal. | Dreams, as if God had favoured them with his revelations. H. --- Fathers; the false prophets of Baal, whom these imitate.
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| 28 The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream: and he that hath my word, let him speak my word with truth: what hath the chaff to do with the wheat, saith the Lord? | Dream, to those who are really sent by God, (C.) and recognized. 1 Cor. xiv. 29. H.
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| 29 Are not my words as a fire, saith the Lord: and as a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? | Pieces? True prophets will have a zeal fo the conversion of souls. C. xx. 9. Heb. iv. 12.
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| 30 Therefore behold I am against the prophets, saith the Lord: who steal my words every one from his neighbor. | Neighbour, causing those whom I have sent to be disregarded.
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| 31 Behold I am against the prophets, saith the Lord: who use their tongues, and say: The Lord saith it. | Use. Hebrew also, "sharpen, or render smooth," and insinuating. Ps. xlix. 16. C.
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| 32 Behold I am against the prophets that have lying dreams, saith the Lord: and tell them, and cause my people to err by their lying, and by their wonders: when I sent them not, nor commanded them, who have not profited this people at all, saith the Lord. | Wonders. Prot. "lightness." Sept. "frauds," or pretended miracles. H. --- False prophets cannot work true miracles: but it is more difficult to distinguish these than the former mark of being lawfully sent. v. 21. W.
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| 33 If therefore this people, or the prophet, or the priest shall ask thee, saying: What is the burden of the Lord? thou shalt say to them: You are the burden: for I will cast you away, saith the Lord. | Burden, Massa, (H.) denotes a weight, or sometimes a prediction. C.
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| 34 And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people that shall say: The burden of the Lord: I will visit upon that man, and upon his house. | Burden of the Lord. This expression is here rejected and disallowed, at least for those times: because it was then used in mockery and contempt by the false prophets, and unbelieving people, who ridiculed the repeated threats of Jeremias under the name of his burdens. Ch.
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| 35 Thus shall you say every one to his neighbor, and to his brother: What hath the Lord answered? and what hath the Lord spoken? | Answered. I will make you alter your language by chastisements.
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| 36 And the burden of the Lord shall be mentioned no more, for every man's word shall be his burden: for you have perverted the words of the living God, of the Lord of hosts our God. | |
| 37 Thus shalt thou say to the prophet: What hath the Lord answered thee? and what hath the Lord spoken? | |
| 38 But if you shall say: The burden of the Lord: therefore thus saith the Lord: Because you have said this word: The burden of the Lord: and I have sent to you saying: Say not, The burden of the Lord: | |
| 39 Therefore behold I will take you away carrying you, and will forsake you, and the city which I gave to you, and to your fathers, out of my presence. |
Take.
Heb. of the Masorets, (C.) "I, even I, will utterly forget (Prot. H.)
or
abandon you." Chal. But the sense of the Sept. and Vulg. seems preferable. C.
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| 40 And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame which shall never be forgotten. | |
