Jeremiah 15:18

(Verse 17, 18.) I did not sit in the council of the jesters, and I boasted (or feared) from the face of your hand: I sat alone, for you filled me with bitterness ((Vulgate: threat)). Why has my pain become perpetual (or why do those who distress me, find comfort) and my incurable wound refuse to be healed (or my strong wound, from where shall I be cured)? It has become to me like the falsehood of unfaithful waters (or like water that deceives and lacks faith).

This the Hebrews believe to be said in the person of Jerusalem, which sat alone and was filled with bitterness and whose pain was unending and the word of whose prophets passed through it deceitfully, like flowing water. But it is better that we receive these words of a holy person as spoken from the person of a prophet, one who did not sit in the council or cabal of fools because he feared the impending hand of God but instead would glory in not having complicity with the evil ones. "I sat alone," he said, in accordance with what was written: "I did not sit with the council of the boastful, and I did not enter into fellowship with evildoers; I hate the company of liars, and I will not sit with the impious," and, in another location: "I am alone until I pass away." He also says, effectively, "I sat alone in the presence of your hand, while fearing you and constantly expecting your impending hand to come on me. I refused to sit in the company of fools, but I swallowed my bitterness to prepare myself for future joy. Nor did I have any relief from my suffering, but I was being oppressed by the misery of this yoke, such that I would not have expected any remedy. For those who afflicted me prevailed, and my wound was made worse. Yet, in this I took consolation, that it was like deceitful and passing waters. For, just as flowing waters are seen once and then slip away, so also every attack of the enemy passes away with help from you." Would that the Lord also grant to us not to sit in the council of fools and of those who fail to think of the future! […]

How then can one who is baptized among them seem to have obtained remission of sins and the grace of the divine mercy by his faith, when he has not the truth of the faith itself? For if, as some suppose, one could receive anything abroad out of the church according to his faith, certainly he has received what he believed. If he believes what is false, he could not receive what is true. Rather, he has received things adulterous and profane, according to what he believed. Jeremiah, the prophet, censures in detail this subject of profane and adulterous baptism, saying, "Why do those who grieve me prevail? My wound is incurable. When shall I be healed? When this is done, it is become for me as treacherous water not having faith." The Holy Spirit makes mention through the prophet of treacherous water also not having faith. What is this treacherous and faithless water? Assuredly it is that which asserts falsely the image of baptism and frustrates the grace of faith by its shadowy simulation.

"Why do those who hate me prevail?" He had many troubles; he suffered from those who did not wish to hear the truth, and those men were more powerful than he here in this age, since the kingdom of God is not from this age, but from the better regions, as the Savior says: "If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have striven, that I should not be delivered to the Jews." Those, then, who grieved the prophet prevailed over him in this world. For that they do prevail, look at the martyrs. The judge sits giving judgment and living luxuriously in the tribunal; the Christian, in whom Christ is being judged, was filled with bitterness and is overpowered by the unjust man and is condemned. "My wound is firm, whence shall I be healed?" Those who prevail over me strike me, and my wound is firm. Whether he prophesies the cross of the Lord (for the cross is a firm wound, so far as concerns those who crucify him), or whether it is said concerning all the righteous in whom a firm wound is received, or whether you hear this also of the prophet (for he too suffered the things recorded in the prophecy) — it admits the same sense according to the expression that says: "My wound is firm." "Whence shall I be healed?" And if the Savior says, "Whence shall I be healed," he prophesies the resurrection from the dead after the firm wound; and if it is taken of the righteous man too, after the wounds there comes healing again. "Becoming, it became to me as deceitful water that has no faithfulness"; for the wound does not remain, but passes away.

): " Why is my pain perpetual, and nothing done to ease it? Why are the wounds which my enemies are continually giving both to my peace and to my reputation incurable, and nothing done to retrieve either my comfort or my credit?

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens+odd-straight-quotes