Behold, I am against you, O you most proud,
says the Lord GOD of hosts:
for your day has come, the time that I will punish you.
All Commentaries on Jeremiah 50:31 Go To Jeremiah 50
Gregory the Theologian
AD 390
I am to speak against persons who pride themselves on their eloquence; so, to begin with a text of Scripture, “Behold, I am against you, O proud one,” not only in your system of teaching but also in your hearing and in your tone of mind. For there are certain persons who have not only their ears and their tongues but even, as I now perceive, their hands too, itching for our words; who delight in profane babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so-called and arguments about words that tend to no profit; for so Paul, the preacher and establisher of the “Word cut short,” the disciple and teacher of the fishermen, calls all that is excessive or superfluous in discourse. But as to those to whom we refer, would that they, whose tongue is so verbose and clever in applying itself to noble and approved language, would likewise pay some attention to actions. For then perhaps in a little while they would become less sophistical and less absurd and strange acrobats of words, if I may use a ridiculous expression about a ridiculous subject.