Jeremias 9
Origen of Alexandria · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Jeremias 9:21
One window is one of our senses. The Bridegroom looks out through it. Another window is another sense. Through it he gazes with active concern for our well-being. For what senses are there through which the Word of God does not look out? The following example teaches us what "looking out through the windows" means and in what way the Bridegroom sees through them. Where he does not look out, there is death found coming up, as we read in Jeremiah: "See, death is come up through your windows." When you look on a woman to lust after her, death comes up through your windows. — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 2:12
Jeremias 9:21
We can take the windows as meaning the bodily sense through which life or death gains entrance to the soul. That is what the prophet Jeremiah means when, speaking of sinners, he says, "Death is coming up through your windows." How does death come up through windows? If the eyes of a sinner should "look on a woman to lust after her." He who has looked on a woman thus "has committed adultery with her in his heart." Then death has gained entrance to that soul through the windows of the eyes. — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 3:13
Jeremias 9:23
"Let not the wise person glory in his wisdom or the strong person in his strength," for that which is worth boasting about is not ours but is the gift of God. The wisdom is from him, and the strength is from him and so with the rest. — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 10:19
Jeremias 9:23-24
The only true salvation is if Christ saves me, for then I will be saved. The horse is a false hope for deliverance. False also are all others besides God for salvation. On account of this I might say to him, "Save me, Lord, and I will be saved," and I say this if I can say also the next words after every boast that is renounced. For you are my boast or when I fulfill the commandment that says, "Let not the wise person boast in his wisdom, and let not the strong person boast in his strength, or the rich person in his riches; let him who boasts boast in this, to understand and know that I am Lord." Blessed is one who has renounced every boast here below, such as in so-called noble birth and in beauty and in corporeal things, in riches, in vainglory, since he is content with one boast, that he may say, For you are my boast. — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 17:5
Jeremias 9:26
The novelty of the expression may perhaps deter not only the Jews but even some of our brothers. For Paul, who introduces "circumcision of the heart," seems to assume things that are impossible. For how shall it be possible that a member be circumcised that, covered by the internal viscera, lies hidden even from the view of people? Let us return, therefore, to the words of the prophets that, with the aid of your prayers, these matters about which we are inquiring might become clear. Ezekiel the prophet says, "No stranger uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh shall enter my sanctuary." Likewise elsewhere no less the prophet, reproaching, says, "All strangers are uncircumcised in the flesh, but the sons of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart." It is pointed out, therefore, that unless one has been circumcised in the heart and the flesh, "he shall not enter the sanctuary" of God. — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 3