Jeremias 2:8
The priests did not say: Where is the Lord? and they that held the law knew me not, and the pastors transgressed against me: and the prophets prophesied in Baal, and followed idols.
Open Jeremias 2:8 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Sacerdotes non dixerunt : Ubi est Dominus ? et tenentes legem nescierunt me, et pastores prævaricati sunt in me, et prophetæ prophetaverunt in Baal, et idola secuti sunt.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- οἱ ἱερεῖς οὐκ εἶπαν Ποῦ ἐστιν Κύριος; καὶ οἱ ἀντεχόμενοι τοῦ νόμου οὐκ ἠπίσταντό με, καὶ οἱ ποιμένες ἠσέβουν εἰς ἐμέ, καὶ οἱ προφῆται ἐπροφήτευον τῇ Βάαλ καὶ ὀπίσω ἀνωφελοῦς ἐπορεύθησαν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- הַכֹּהֲנִ֗ים לֹ֤א אָֽמְרוּ֙ אַיֵּ֣ה יְהוָ֔ה וְתֹפְשֵׂ֤י הַתּוֹרָה֙ לֹ֣א יְדָע֔וּנִי וְהָרֹעִ֖ים פָּ֣שְׁעוּ בִ֑י וְהַנְּבִיאִים֙ נִבְּא֣וּ בַבַּ֔עַל וְאַחֲרֵ֥י לֹֽא יוֹעִ֖לוּ הָלָֽכוּ
Haydock's commentary
Priests were silent, or abandoned themselves.
Pastors; "princes." (Chaldean) Manasses, Amon, &c.
In Baal, promoting his worship. (Haydock)
The land was full of false prophets, and none stood up for the Lord.
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 Gregory Nazianzen In Defence of His Flight to Pontus, and His Return, After His Ordination to the Priesthood, with an Exposition of the Character of the Priestly Office
68. God speaks to him in reproof of the priests: The priests said not, Where is the Lord, and they that handled the law knew Me not; the pastors also transgressed against Me. Again He says to him: The pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the Lord, and therefore all their flock did not understand, and was scattered. Again, Many pastors have destroyed My vineyard, and have polluted My pleasant portion, till it was reduced to a trackless wilderness. He further inveighs against the pastors again: Woe be to the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture! Therefore thus saith the Lord against them that feed My people: Ye have scattered My flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold I will visit upon you the evil of your doings. …
St Gregory the Great The Book of Pastoral Rule, That the unskilful venture not to approach an office of authority
No one presumes to teach an art till he has first, with intent meditation, learnt it. What rashness is it, then, for the unskilful to assume pastoral authority, since the government of souls is the art of arts! For who can be ignorant that the sores of the thoughts of men are more occult than the sores of the bowels? And yet how often do men who have no knowledge whatever of spiritual precepts fearlessly profess themselves physicians of the heart, though those who are ignorant of the effect of drugs blush to appear as physicians of the flesh! But because, through the ordering of God , all the highest in rank of this present age are inclined to reverence religion, there are some who, through the outward show of rule within the holy Church, affect the glory of distinction. …