Jeremias 6:10
To whom shall I speak? and to whom shall I testify, that he may hear? behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot hear: behold the word of the Lord is become unto them a reproach: and and they will not receive it.
Open Jeremias 6:10 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Cui loquar, et quem contestabor ut audiat ? ecce incircumcisæ aures eorum, et audire non possunt : ecce verbum Domini factum est eis in opprobrium, et non suscipient illud.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- πρὸς τίνα λαλήσω καὶ διαμαρτύρωμαι, καὶ ἀκούσεται; ἰδοὺ ἀπερίτμητα τὰ ὦτα αὐτῶν, καὶ οὐ δυνήσονται ἀκούειν· ἰδοὺ τὸ ῥῆμα Κυρίου ἐγένετο αὐτοῖς εἰς ὀνειδισμόν, οὐ μὴ βουληθῶσιν αὐτό.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- עַל מִ֨י אֲדַבְּרָ֤ה וְאָעִ֨ידָה֙ וְיִשְׁמָ֔עוּ הִנֵּה֙ עֲרֵלָ֣ה אָזְנָ֔ם וְלֹ֥א יוּכְל֖וּ לְהַקְשִׁ֑יב הִנֵּ֣ה דְבַר יְהוָ֗ה הָיָ֥ה לָהֶ֛ם לְחֶרְפָּ֖ה לֹ֥א יַחְפְּצוּ בֽוֹ
Haydock's commentary
Uncircumcised. Impure and deaf. (Calmet)
Non vocat impossibilitas supplicio quæ de contemptu et infidelitate descendit. (St. Jerome)
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
Clement of Alexandria The Instructor, Chapter IX. That It is the Prerogative of the Same Power to Be Beneficent and to Punish Justly. Also the Manner of the Instruction of the Logos
Bringing one to his senses ( φρένωσις ) is censure, which makes a man think. Neither from this form of instruction does he abstain, but says by Jeremiah, “How long shall I cry, and you not hear? So your ears are uncircumcised.” O blessed forbearance! And again, by the same: “All the heathen are uncircumcised, but this people is uncircumcised in heart:” “for the people are disobedient; children,” says He, “in whom is not faith.”
St Cyprian Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews, Testimony III
In Isaiah: “Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken; I have begotten and brought up children, but they have rejected me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel hath not known me, and my people hath not perceived me. Ah sinful nation, a people filled with sins, a wicked seed, corrupting children: ye have forsaken the Lord, and have sent that Holy One of Israel into anger.” In the same also the Lord says: “Go and tell this people, Ye shall hear with the ear, and shall not understand; and seeing, ye shall see, and shall not perceive. …
St John Chrysostom Homilies on First Corinthians, Homily XXIII
[6.] Now the Apostle’s word, as we have seen, was, “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall;” but we cannot say even this; all of us, so to speak, having fallen, and lying prostrate on the ground. For to whom am I to say this? To him that committeth extortion every day? Nay, he lies prostrate with a mighty fall. To the fornicator? He too is cast down to the ground. To the drunkard? He also is fallen, and knoweth not even that he is fallen. So that it is not the season for this word, but for that saying of the prophet which he spake even to the Jews, ( Jer. viii. 4 .), “He that falleth, doth he not rise again?” For all are fallen, and to rise again they have no mind. So that our exhortation is not concerning the not falling, but concerning the ability of them that are fallen to arise. …
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).