For many nations and great kings shall be served by them also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands.
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Athanasius the Apostolic
AD 373
Israel … killed those who were sent, and not even before the Lord of the vineyard were they ashamed, but even he was slain by them. Truly, when he came and found no fruit in them, he cursed them through the fig tree, saying, “From now on, let there be no fruit from you.” The fig tree was dead and fruitless so that even the disciples wondered when it withered away. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the prophet: “I will take away from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the scent of myrrh and the light of a lamp, and the whole land shall be destroyed.” For the whole service of the law has been abolished from them, and from now on and forever they remain without a feast. - "Festal Letters 6.5–6"
We have seen the promises that God made to Abraham—to be the father, first, of the Jewish race according to the flesh, and second, of all nations who were to embrace the faith. The development in history of the City of God will show how these promises were kept. The end of the preceding book brought us up to the reign of King David. I shall now begin with his reign and treat of what ensued in as much detail as the theme of this book requires. There is a period that begins with the prophecies of Samuel and continues through the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity (which Jeremiah had foretold) and ends with the rebuilding of the temple, after the Israelites came home. This period is known as the age of the prophets, although, of course, the patriarch Noah, in whose lifetime the whole earth was destroyed by the flood, and others before and after him up to the time of the kings were prophets also. At least, they prefigured, in some fashion, many things touching the City of God and th...
Kings. They perfidiously joined the Chaldeans, after making a league with Sedecias, chap. xxvii. 3. This is condemned, (Calmet) and not precisely their submitting to Nabuchodonosor, chap. xxviii. 8. Their league with Juda was indeed wrong; but the infringement of it was another crime. Septuagint is here much transposed almost to the end. See Grabe. (Haydock)
Jeremias had prophesied against the nations, though his words are given, chap. xlvi.
