Jeremiah 20:7

(Verse 7, 8.) You have deceived me, Lord, and I have been deceived (or you have beguiled me, Lord, and I have been beguiled). You were stronger than me and prevailed (or you obtained and were able to). I have become a mockery all day long, everyone mocks me; because now I speak, crying out injustice and devastation (or because with bitter words I will laugh at transgression and call upon misery). The Prophet says he was deceived by the Lord, because from the beginning hearing: I have appointed you as a Prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5). And again: Behold, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build up, and to plant (Jeremiah, 1:10), thinking that he would say nothing against the people of Judah, but rather against the various nations around. Therefore, he gladly accepted the prophecy; and it happened contrary, that while predicting the captivity of Jerusalem, he endured persecutions and hardships. And he accomplished it. I have become a laughingstock all day long, everyone mocks me, because they think that he has been lying about everything and that all the things he predicted would happen were lies. And the Prophet immediately thought that what the Lord had threatened would come true, and the people thought that it would not come any more because it had not come immediately. And I cry out about the destruction of Babylon and the wickedness of the enemies through which my people will be oppressed. […]

And indeed the one passage has been completed; but now let us begin the second also; for it too has matters, right from its first phrase, that are not trivial. And attending to the phrasing, let us again ask Jesus to come, and let us exhort him to come more manifestly and more brightly, so that coming he may teach us all whether the prophet spoke truthfully—as is fitting to think concerning a prophet—the things that follow, or falsely, which it is not lawful to say concerning a holy prophet. He says to God: "You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived; you prevailed and were mighty; I became a laughingstock, all the day long I continued being mocked; because with a bitter word of mine I will laugh, I will call upon faithlessness and misery; because the word of the Lord became to me a reproach and a derision all the day. And I said: I will not name the name of the Lord, and I will no longer speak upon his name. And it became in my heart as a burning fire blazing in my bones, and I am utterly loosened on every side and I am unable to bear it, because I heard the reviling of many gathering round about," and evidently "saying": "Conspire, and let us conspire against him, we his friends; watch his intention, whether he will be deceived, and we shall prevail against him and take our vengeance upon him." But while they say these things, the prophet says: "And the Lord is with me as a mighty warrior; therefore they persecuted and could not understand; they were exceedingly ashamed, because they did not perceive their dishonor, which through the age shall not be forgotten." This is the second passage of the reading. How then does the prophet say: "You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived"? Does God deceive? How I am to dispose of the saying, I am at a loss. For if, on account of God and his word, I look at all into it, what is to be said requires a noble disposition. […]

All the things written about God, even if they seem inappropriate on their face, must be understood to be worthy of a good God. For who will not say that it is unfitting for such things to be referred to God — that He has anger, that He employs wrath, that He repents, and indeed even that He sleeps? Yet each of these, in the judgment of one who knows how to "hear dark sayings," will be found worthy of God. For His anger is not fruitless, but as His word instructs, so also His anger instructs; for those who are not instructed by the word He instructs by anger. And it is necessary for God to make use of what is called anger, just as He makes use of what is named "word"; for neither is His word such as is the word of all others. For no one's word is a "living being," no one's word is "God," no one's word "was in the beginning" with Him with whom the Word was, even if He alone † be from some beginning. So too the anger of God is called anger, but not as is the anger of just anyone. And just as the Word of God has something foreign to it beyond every word of anyone whatsoever, and has, foreign to it, the being God, and the being a living being while being Word, the subsisting according to itself, the ministering to the Father — so, since the so-called anger of God has once been named, it too has something foreign and alien to all the anger of the one who is circumscribed. So also His wrath has something proper to it; for it is the wrath of the purpose that reproves, wishing to turn the one reproved through the reproof. The word also reproves, as the word instructs; but the word does not reprove in the way that wrath reproves. […]

Thus our Lord Jesus, on the cross, was reviled both by priests and people; and the revilings of each had their peculiar aggravation. And what was it that thus exposed him to contempt and scorn? It was nothing but his faithful and zealous discharge of the duty of his office,

), encouraging himself in God, lodging his appeal with him, not doubting but that he shall yet praise him, by which it appears that he had much grace (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation