Jeremias 4:22
For my foolish people have not known me: they are foolish and senseless children: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
Open Jeremias 4:22 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Quia stultus populus meus me non cognovit : filii insipientes sunt et vecordes : sapientes sunt ut faciant mala, bene autem facere nescierunt.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- διότι οἱ ἡγούμενοι τοῦ λαοῦ μου ἐμὲ οὐκ ᾔδεισαν· υἱοὶ ἄφρονές εἰσιν καὶ οὐ συνετοί, σοφοί εἰσιν τοῦ κακοποιῆσαι, τὸ δὲ καλῶς ποιῆσαι οὐκ ἐπέγνωσαν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- כִּ֣י אֱוִ֣יל עַמִּ֗י אוֹתִי֙ לֹ֣א יָדָ֔עוּ בָּנִ֤ים סְכָלִים֙ הֵ֔מָּה וְלֹ֥א נְבוֹנִ֖ים הֵ֑מָּה חֲכָמִ֥ים הֵ֨מָּה֙ לְהָרַ֔ע וּלְהֵיטִ֖יב לֹ֥א יָדָֽעוּ
Haydock's commentary
Me, practically. They have not honoured me as they ought. (Calmet)
If they were indeed devoid of sense, they would be excused. (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 Irenaeus Against Heresies: Book IV, Chapter II. Proofs from the plain
7. But neither will these men be able to maintain that such words were uttered in an ironical manner, since it is proved to them by the words themselves that they were in earnest. For He who uttered them was Truth, and did truly vindicate His own house, by driving out of it the changers of money, who were buying and selling, saying unto them: “It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” And what reason had He for thus doing and saying, and vindicating His house, if He did preach another God? But [He did so], that He might point out the transgressors of His Father’s law; for neither did He bring any accusation against the house, nor did He blame the law, which He had come to fulfil; but He reproved those who were putting His house to an improper use, and those who were transgressing the law. …
St Jerome Jerome's Apology for Himself Against the Books of Rufinus, The object of Origen's letter, of which he translates only a part, is not to shew the falsification of his writings but to vituperate the Bishops who condemned him
“Why need I speak of the language in which the prophets constantly threaten and reprove the pastors, elders, the priests and the princes? These things you can of yourselves without my aid draw out from the Holy Scriptures, and you may clearly see that it may well be the present time of which it is said ‘Trust not in your friends, and do not hope in princes,’ and that the prophecy is now gaining its fulfilment, ‘The leaders of my people have not known me; my sons are fools and not wise: they are wise to do evil, but know not to do good.’ We ought to pity them, not to hate them, to pray for them, not to curse them. For we have been created for blessing, not for cursing. …
St Gregory Nazianzen On the Great Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria
22. The crowning feat of this faction was the council which sat first at Seleucia, the city of the holy and illustrious virgin Thekla, and afterwards at this mighty city, thus connecting their names, no longer with noble associations, but with these of deepest disgrace; whether we must call that council, which subverted and disturbed everything, a tower of Chalane, which deservedly confounded the tongues, would that theirs had been confounded for their harmony in evil! or a Sanhedrim of Caiaphas where Christ was condemned, or some other like name. The ancient and pious doctrine which defended the Trinity was abolished, by setting up a palisade and battering down the Consubstantial: opening the door to impiety by means of what is written, using as their pretext, their reverence for Scripture and for the use of approved terms, but really introducing unscriptural Arianism. …