The devil in fact had a written note for our debt,^[1] but Christ redeemed us with his own blood.^[2]

And my people has not understood me.^[1] They have not understood me, he says, that I am more brilliant than the sun. Woe to a sinful people.^[2] This also is typical of the prophets, to grieve over one who is sick with an incurable illness. Jeremiah does this in many places, and Christ as well, saying, Woe to you, Chorazin, woe to you, Bethsaida,^[3] because this also is a form of instruction. In fact, one who has not been brought back by reasoning can often be corrected by someone’s grief. People full of sins.^[4] Another accusation: all are so, and gravely. Perverse race.^[5] He does not accuse their birth but indicates that their wickedness began from the earliest age. Just as John, when he said, serpents, children of vipers,^[6] did not depreciate their nature (otherwise he would not have said, Produce fruit, then, worthy of repentance,^[7] if they had been such by nature and by birth), so also here, in saying Perverse race,^[8] the prophet does not accuse their birth. Lawless children.^[9] He did not say, outside of the law, but without law, with a disposition in no way better than those who had received no law at all, thus showing that the difference is in their previous choice. You have abandoned the Lord, angering him.^[10] He said this expressively: the name of God would have been enough to establish the accusation. It is what Jeremiah reproves, saying, Since they have departed from him and are drawn near to demons. The Holy One of Israel.^[11] This is the culmination of the accusation, by the fact that though he was the common Lord of all, it was to them that he had made himself known.

He calls her a widow because she was without the divine care, alone and desolate^[1]—clearly she who is now alone. Or, furthermore, the only one to have had the divine temple. Or the only one to have been encircled by the Assyrians but not conquered, because in fact the Lord tried me harshly but did not give me over to death.^[2] But above all it is the synagogue that deserves the name widow, which, having acted arrogantly toward Christ her spouse, has been abandoned.

God removed our sins from us,^[1] but we are attracted to them, and for them we are punished. It says that he sends, because nothing happens without God’s consent. The perverse nation was first the Babylonians, then the Romans. This can also be understood as those who teach false knowledge,^[2] resorting to the deceptions of the sophists.

I remain alone because of God’s absence. This could have been said by the saints, who made the condition of sinners their own; or by the synagogue of the Jews, when because of its arrogance toward Christ it was said to it, See, your house will be left desolate^[1]; or by the city, because of the desolation of the inhabitants.

Paul reasonably has said, his eternal power and godhead,^[1] thereby signifying the Son. He said this while accusing the Greeks of contemplating the harmony and order of the creation without reflecting on the framing Word within it (for the creatures witness to their own Framer) so as through the creation to apprehend the true God and abandon their worship of it. And where the sacred writers say, who exists before the ages,^[2] and, by whom he made the ages,^[3] they thereby as clearly preach the eternal and everlasting being of the Son, even while they are designating God. Thus, if Isaiah says, The everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth,^[4] and Susanna said, O everlasting God,^[5] and Baruch wrote, I will cry unto the Everlasting in my days, and shortly after, My hope is in the Everlasting, that he will save you, and joy is come to me from the Holy One,^[6] yet as the apostle, writing to the Hebrews, says, who being the radiance of his glory and the expression of his person,^[7] and David too in the psalm, And the brightness of the Lord be on us,^[8] and, In your light shall we see light,^[9] who has so little sense as to doubt of the eternity of the Son?

How great is the providence of the Lord! Where there is a fruit of a softer quality, the thickness of the leaves offers a more protective covering for its defense, as we see in the example of the fig tree. Therefore the more delicate creatures must be protected from the other sturdier ones, as the same Lord teaches by the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, Like these good figs, thus I will regard the deported ones of Judah that I have sent from this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good and will fix my eyes on them for their good.^[1] In fact, when they were exposed to offenses he encircled them, so to speak, with a more protective covering of his mercy so that those tender fruits would not perish prematurely. Moreover, he later on also says about them, The creatures of my possession have walked rough ways, and he says more to them further on, Be brave, my children, and cry to the Lord. This is the sole inviolable protection, the impregnable defense against all the storms and the injuries. Where there are delicate fruits, the protection and the defense of the leaves is thicker; on the contrary, where there are more resistant fruits, there the leaves are more delicate, as in the case of the apple.

That is, the Word of God, who became incarnate for us^[1] and made the church worthy to be called his spouse.^[2]

Jeremiah the prophet has pointed out that as many believers as God has prepared for this purpose, to multiply those left on earth, should both be under the rule of the saints to minister to his Jerusalem and that his kingdom shall be in it, saying, Look around Jerusalem towards the east, and behold the joy that comes to you from God. Behold, your children shall come whom you have sent forth; they shall come in a band from the east even to the west by the word of that Holy One, rejoicing in that splendor from your God.^[1] Now all these things being such as they are, they cannot be understood in reference to supercelestial matters, for God, it is said, will show the whole earth that is under heaven your glory.^[2] But in the times of the kingdom, the earth has been called again by Christ to its pristine condition, and Jerusalem will be rebuilt after the pattern of Jerusalem above,^[3] of which the prophet Isaiah says, Behold, I have depicted your walls on my hands, and you are always in my sight.^[4] John, the Lord’s disciple, says that the new Jerusalem above shall then descend, as a bride adorned for her husband,^[5] and that this is the tabernacle of God, in which God will dwell with humanity.^[6] Of this Jerusalem the former one is an image—the Jerusalem of the former earth in which the righteous are disciplined beforehand for incorruption and prepared for salvation.

Look toward the sun of justice,^[1] toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

Put off the old humanity with its desires,^[1] since as many of you as have been baptized in Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.^[2]

That is, the cross of Christ, which is marked on the foreheads of believers.^[1] Or it is said of the Lord, since Christ is the head of the church.^[2]

These are the distinguishing signs of the new Jerusalem. He added the term justice.^[1] Because, however, he is the peace of sinners,^[2] as David says, for this reason the Lord adds, My peace I leave you, my peace I give you.^[3] In fact, the enemies’ attacks can no longer destroy the peace of justice or defeat the glory of piety. And moreover, because Christ is our peace,^[4] he is also our justice and our glory and is the model for our behavior according to justice, and by him we also have been called.

Jeremiah the prophet has pointed out that as many believers as God has prepared to multiply those left on the earth should both be under the rule of the saints and minister to this [new] Jerusalem and that [his] kingdom shall be in it, saying, “Look around Jerusalem toward the east and behold the joy that comes to you from God himself. Behold, your sons whom you have sent forth shall come: They shall come in a band from the east to the west. . . . God shall go before you in the light of his splendor, with the mercy and righteousness which proceed from him” [Bar 4:36–5:9].