Jeremias 6:29
The bellows have failed, the lead is consumed in the fire, the founder hath melted in vain: for their wicked deeds are not consumed.
Open Jeremias 6:29 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Defecit sufflatorium ; in igne consumptum est plumbum : frustra conflavit conflator, malitiæ enim eorum non sunt consumptæ.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἐξέλιπεν φυσητὴρ ἀπὸ πυρός ἐξέλιπεν μόλιβος· εἰς κενὸν ἀργυροκόπος ἀργυροκοπεῖ, πονηρία αὐτῶν οὐκ ἐτάκη.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- נָחַ֣ר מַפֻּ֔חַ מאשתם עֹפָ֑רֶת לַשָּׁוְא֙ צָרַ֣ף צָר֔וֹף וְרָעִ֖ים לֹ֥א נִתָּֽקוּ
Haydock's commentary
Bellows, or crucible.
Lead, which was intermixed to purify the dross (St. Jerome) of gold and silver. But brass and iron could not be thus purified. All would be lost labour. Afflictions do not correct the obstinate. (Calmet)
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 On His Father's Silence, Because of the Plague of Hail
11. Perchance He will say to me, who am not reformed even by blows, I know that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, the heedless is heedless and the lawless man acts lawlessly, naught is the heavenly correction, naught the scourges. The bellows are burnt, the lead is consumed, as I once reproached you by the mouth of Jeremiah, the founder melted the silver in vain, your wickednesses are not melted away. Can ye abide my wrath, saith the Lord. Has not My hand the power to inflict upon you other plagues also? There are still at My command the blains breaking forth from the ashes of the furnace, by sprinkling which toward heaven, Moses, or any other minister of God’s action, may chastise Egypt with disease. …
St John Cassian The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X, Chapter XI. Of the two kinds of trials, which come upon us in a three-fold way
Well then, though we say that trial is twofold, i.e., in prosperity and in adversity, yet you must know that all men are tried in three different ways. Often for their probation, sometimes for their improvement, and in some cases because their sins deserve it. For their probation indeed, as we read that the blessed Abraham and Job and many of the saints endured countless tribulations; or this which is said to the people in Deuteronomy by Moses: “And thou shalt remember all the way through which the Lord thy God hath brought thee for forty years through the desert, to afflict thee and to prove thee, and that the things that were in thy heart might be made known, whether thou wouldst keep His Commandments or no:” and this which we find in the Psalms: “I proved thee at the waters of strife.” To Job also: “Thinkest thou that I have spoken for any other cause than that thou mightest be seen t …
St Gregory the Great The Book of Pastoral Rule, How those who fear scourges and those who contemn them are to be admonished
But, on the other hand, those whom not even scourges restrain from iniquities are to be smitten with sharper rebuke in proportion as they have grown hard with greater insensibility. For generally they are to be disdained without disdain, and despaired of without despair, so, to wit, that the despair exhibited may strike them with dread, and admonition following may bring them back to hope. Sternly, therefore, against them should the Divine judgments be set forth, that they may be recalled by consideration of eternal retribution to knowledge of themselves. For let them hear that in them is fulfilled that which is written, If thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar, as if with a pestle pounding barley, his foolishness will not be taken away from him ( Prov. xxvii. 22 ). …