Jeremias 31:18
Hearing I heard Ephraim when he went into captivity: thou hast chastised me, and I was instructed, as a young bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. Convert me, and I shall be converted, for thou art the Lord my God.
Open Jeremias 31:18 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Audiens audivi Ephraim transmigrantem : Castigasti me, et eruditus sum, quasi juvenculus indomitus : converte me, et convertar, quia tu Dominus Deus meus.
- Septuagint (Swete) shown from Jeremias 38:18
- ἀκοὴν ἤκουσα Ἐφράιμ ὀδυρομένου Ἐπαίδευσάς με καὶ ἐπαιδεύθην· ἐγὼ ὥσπερ μόσχος οὐκ ἐδιδάχθην· ἐπίστρεψόν με καὶ ἐπιστρέψω, ὅτι σὺ Κύριος ὁ θεός μου.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- שָׁמ֣וֹעַ שָׁמַ֗עְתִּי אֶפְרַ֨יִם֙ מִתְנוֹדֵ֔ד יִסַּרְתַּ֨נִי֙ וָֽאִוָּסֵ֔ר כְּעֵ֖גֶל לֹ֣א לֻמָּ֑ד הֲשִׁיבֵ֣נִי וְאָשׁ֔וּבָה כִּ֥י אַתָּ֖ה יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהָֽי
Haydock's commentary
I was. Chaldean, Theodoret, and St. Chrysostom have "not." But chastisement produced a salutary effect upon the ten tribes, Osee vi. 1., and xiv. 3.
Convert. Bring me back from captivity and from my evil ways. This must be attributed to grace. (Calmet)
We cannot repent without it. (St. Jerome)
Da quod jubes. (St. Augustine, Confessions x. 19, 31, and 37.)
God's grace is the principal cause of justification. Man's co-operation is the secondary cause. (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 Ambrose Concerning Repentance, Chapter V. As to the words of St. Peter to Simon Magus, from which the Novatians infer that there was no forgiveness for the latter, it is pointed out that St. Peter, knowing his evil heart, might well use words of doubt, and then by some Old Testament instances it is pointed out that “perchance” does not exclude forgiveness. The apostles transmitted to us that penitence, the fruits of which are shown in the case of David. St. Ambrose then adduces the example of the Ephraimites, whose penitence must be followed in order to gain the divine mercy and the sacraments
36. Let us, then, cover our falls by our subsequent acts; let us purify ourselves by tears, that the Lord our God may hear us when we lament, as He heard Ephraim when weeping, as it is written: “I have surely heard Ephraim weeping.” And He expressly repeats the very words of Ephraim: “Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised, like a calf I was not trained.” For a calf disports itself, and leaves its stall, and so Ephraim was untrained like a calf far away from the stall; because he had forsaken the stall of the Lord, followed Jeroboam, and worshipped the calves, which future event was prophetically indicated through Aaron, namely, that the people of the Jews would fall after this manner. And so repenting, Ephraim says: “Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned, for Thou art the Lord my God. …
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).