Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
All Commentaries on Jeremiah 4:4 Go To Jeremiah 4
Jerome
AD 420
What we translate as “be circumcised to the Lord and remove the foreskin of your hearts,” Symmacus renders as “be purified to the Lord and remove the malice from your hearts,” understanding circumcision as purification and the foreskin as vice. But this was commanded to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, who followed the true faith and lived in the church, that they not sow among thorns, meaning that they should not spread the word of the gospel among those who would suffocate God’s planting, but that they should first sow on fallow ground and remove every thorn bush and briar patch, so that pure seeds may be received by pure soil. In other words, as it is said elsewhere, “Do not cast your pearls before swine, and do not give holy things to dogs.” For how is it possible for anyone to hear the word of God and to conceive and to bear fruit, whose soul is full of the hardness of the world? Hence, “be circumcised to the Lord and remove the foreskin of your hearts,” is commanded to none other than the men of Judah and residents of Jerusalem, that they might forsake the letter that kills and follow the vivifying Spirit instead. “If you fail to do this,” he adds, “my wrath will go forth like fire and burn, and there will be no one to extinguish it.” Therefore, he warns and cautions beforehand, lest he be compelled to do this, as we also observe among the Ninevites, to whom a warning was issued that they repent to avoid his imminent wrath. But all of this evil occurs because of our malicious thoughts or intentions. Where are those who say that sin is not located in one’s thoughts, when every wickedness, according to the truth of the Gospel, proceeds from the heart?
