Jeremias 1:11
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: What seest thou, Jeremias? And I said: I see a rod watching.
Open Jeremias 1:11 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et factum est verbum Domini ad me, dicens : Quid tu vides, Jeremia ? Et dixi : Virgam vigilantem ego video.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Καὶ ἐγένετο λόγος Κυρίου πρὸς μὲ λέγων Τί σὺ ὁρᾷς; καὶ εἶπα Βακτηρίαν καρυίνην.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיְהִ֤י דְבַר יְהוָה֙ אֵלַ֣י לֵאמֹ֔ר מָה אַתָּ֥ה רֹאֶ֖ה יִרְמְיָ֑הוּ וָאֹמַ֕ר מַקֵּ֥ל שָׁקֵ֖ד אֲנִ֥י רֹאֶֽה
Haydock's commentary
Watching. Hebrew, "of an almond." Septuagint, "nut-tree." (Haydock)
The almond-tree flourishes in January, and bears fruit in March. (Theodoret) (Pliny, [Natural History?] xvi. 25.)
Thus God will speedily send his scourge from Babylon, to punish his people. (Calmet)
The sense is the same. (Menochius)
God's law is outwardly bitter, but the kernel is sweet. (Theodoret) (Worthington)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Paulinus
8. Genesis, we shall be told, needs no explanation; its topics are too simple, the birth of the world, the origin of the human race, the division of the earth, the confusion of tongues, and the descent of the Hebrews into Egypt! Exodus, no doubt, is equally plain, containing as it does merely an account of the ten plagues, the decalogue, and sundry mysterious and divine precepts! The meaning of Leviticus is of course self-evident, although every sacrifice that it describes, nay more every word that it contains, the description of Aaron’s vestments, and all the regulations connected with the Levites are symbols of things heavenly! The book of Numbers too, are not its very figures, and Balaam’s prophecy, and the forty-two camping places in the wilderness so many mysteries? Deuteronomy also, that is the second law or the foreshadowing of the law of the gospel, does it not, while exhibiting …
St Ambrose Letter XLI: To Marcellina on the Same
2. In the book of the prophet it is written: “Take to thyself the rod of an almond tree.” We ought to consider why the Lord said this to the prophet, for it was not written without a purpose, since in the Pentateuch too we read that the almond rod of Aaron the priest, after being long laid up, blossomed. For the Lord seems to signify by the rod that the prophetic or priestly authority ought to be straightforward, and to advise not so much what is pleasant as what is expedient.