Complete Works of Saint Jerome, Vol. V

and is a sign of poverty. Whence also (a) he is fed by ravens, so that because he had not found food in Israel, he might be nourished by the food of nations which were unclean. The Law itself, which they read but do not understand, is the "ash-cake" referring to Ezekiel 4:12, bread baked on human dung and is covered with human excrement. Therefore, the Apostle Paul also says that he held the gains of the Law and the observance of former ceremonies as dung, that he might gain Christ (Phil. 3).

(Ver. 13 et seqq.) And the Lord said: So shall the children of Israel eat their bread polluted among the nations, whither I will cast them out. And he said: Ah, ah, ah, Lord God: Behold, my soul is not defiled, and from my infancy even until now I have not eaten anything that died of itself, or was torn by beasts: and no unclean flesh has entered into my mouth. And he said to me: Behold, I have given thee cow's dung for human dung, and thou shalt make thy bread thereon. We read in many places, according to Zechariah (Zech. 3), that the prophets are men of signs, who by their deeds portend the future, and of whom God speaks: I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets (Hos. 12:10). Therefore, just as Ezekiel ate bread on dung, so the children of Israel, or the whole people of the Jews, or as others think, the ten tribes, will eat variant: were eating polluted bread among the nations: although the threat is not for those who have already been cast out, but for those who are to be cast out from the land of promise. When the Prophet had learned this, according to Aquila, he protested a third time: ah, ah, ah. But according to Symmachus and the Seventy the Septuagint, he replied μηδαμῶς by no means, which in Latin is said as "not at all." For this, Theodotion translated: O Lord God. We should not think that he is contradicting the command of the Lord, but rather rendering the reasons, or indeed begging, why he cannot do this. In the end, he obtains what he asked for, and the austerity of the sentence is tempered by a milder command. It is asked why Ezekiel refused the easier tasks, while Hosea was immediately coupled with a harlot (Hos. 1) and did not contradict, nor even respond that he had a chaste body and should not be stained by the mixing of a harlot, even though the Apostle says: He who is joined to a harlot becomes one body with her (1 Cor. 6:16). From this, it is shown that it was a figure of the Synagogue or the Church, not something literally perpetrated, which we have already discussed more fully while explaining the prophet himself. That which loses life without the shedding of blood is called "died of itself," and that in which the soul dies, "torn by beasts," which in Greek is called θηριάλωτον beast-prey. But because cow dung is granted in place of human dung, lighter evils are signified: while they are indeed commanded to eat bread baked on cow dung, they are to be far from the uncleanness of human excrement. And even to this day, this opinion is preserved among the Jewish people, so that they do not eat their bread on human dung. For they do not serve idols, nor do they venerate the various portents of demons, but they do live on cow dung: while all things

are done for the sake of the flesh and the belly and the goods of this earth, according to what is said: He who shall do these things, shall live in them (Lev. 18:5; Deut. 4). But we despise earthly things, and we not only trample upon the foods of human excrement and consider earthly delights as nothing, but we eat the bread which descended from heaven (John 6), and we enjoy that food of which the Psalmist sings: Man ate the bread of angels (Ps. 77:25); living not at all on Egyptian meats, but on the thinness of manna.

(Ver. 16, 17.) And he said to me: Son of man, behold, I will break in pieces the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and in care, and they shall drink water by measure, and in distress: so that when bread and water fail, every man may fall against his brother, and they may pine away in their iniquities. For the Hebrew word MATE מטה, the first edition of Aquila translated staff, the second and Symmachus and Theodotion translated στερέωμα firmament/support. What he had shown would happen by deed, he also demonstrates by speech; and the whole sleeping on the left and right side, and the variety of the six kinds of bread mixed together, signifying the evils of the world, tends to the end that it may protest the hunger for food in Jerusalem and the incredible scarcity of water: so that every man may fall against his brother, hoping for help from another, which he does not see variant: foresee in himself. For it is the nature of men that when evils and the weight of distress press upon them, they have trust in their neighbor rather than in themselves: and they pine away in their iniquities, while they suffer everything for their iniquities. And I fear that this breaking of bread may also be found in our Jerusalem, in which the vision of peace is perceived, which the Lord breaks when He is angry and judges us unworthy of His bread. And would that we might at least deserve to receive it by weight and care, and that the last finger of Lazarus might moisten our tongue, parched with excessive dryness (Luke 16). However, with the bread and water of the Church failing, a man will fall against his brother, and there is discord everywhere, as we tear the tunic of Christ, which not even the soldiers dared to tear during the Passion of the Savior (John 19); and as we pine away in our iniquities, while we do not possess the justice of God. It is written in Jeremiah that the little ones, that is, the common people of the Church, asked for bread, and there was no one to break it for them (Lam. 4:4). But Paul, who was a man (b) of the Church and knew that Christ had broken the legal breads and had given them to the disciples to be distributed, speaks confidently: The bread which we break, is it not the partaking of the Body of Christ? (1 Cor. 10:16). And they cannot eat the staff or the strength of bread who are in need of the milk of infancy and are not able to receive solid food. And nothing so strengthens the soul of one who eats as the bread of life, of which it is written: And bread strengthens the heart of man (Ps. 103:15).

(a) Compare the commentaries on chapter 15 of Isaiah, where he seems to deny that those ravens were birds, but rather men who fed Elijah. See also what we have noted there.
(b) The word "Church" is missing in other books.