Counsel in Trials

Unusquisque se a proximo suo custodiat: et in omni fratre suo non habeat fiduciam, quia omnis frater supplantatione supplantabit, et omnis amicus fraudulenter incedet; et vir fratrem suum deridebit et veritatem non loquentur. Docuerunt enim linguam suam loqui mendacium, sive didicit enim lingua eorum loqui mendacium, ut inique agarent, laboraverunt. sive inique egerunt et non intermiserunt ut converterentur. Habitation tua in medio doli, in dola, sive usura super usuram et dolus in dolo, renuerunt, sive noluerunt, scire me, dicit Dominus.  Hoc loco utendum est in tempore persecutionis et angustiae, quando aut rara, aut nulla fides est: quando nec fratri nec proximo credendum est et inimici hominis domestici eius, quando juxta Evangelium: Tradet pater filium, et filius patrem, et dividentur duo in tres et tres in duo. Quodque infert, 'Docuerunt linguam suam loqui mendacium', sive 'didicit lingua eorum loqui mendacium,' ostendit consuetudinem mentiendi quodamodo in naturam verti: studioseque eos agere, ut agant iniqua. Quodque sequitur, Habitatio tua in medio doli, in dolo, proprie ad Prophetam sermo dirigitur, quod habitet in medio populi mentientis; sive ut Septuaginta transtulerunt: Usura super usuram et dolus super dolum: et quod quotidie augeant scelera, et nequaquam eos prioris facti poeniteat, sed novis praeterita cumulent. Haec facientes, omni aguat studio, ut nesciant Dominum, qui haec non facienda praecepit. Propterea haec dicit Dominus exercituum: Ecce ego conflabo, sive, igne examinabo et probabo eos. Quid enim aliud faciam a facie filiae populi mei, sive quid faciam a facie malitiae filiae populi mei?   Quotiescumque angustiis subjacemus, mala recipimus a Deo, et examinamur persecutionibus, ut quidquid in nobis adulterinae materiae est, tribulationum et miseriarum exuratur ardoribus: 'Argentum enim Domini igne examinatum probatum terrae, purgatum septuplim.' Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum In Jeremiam Propheta, Lib II, Cap IX

Let everyone guard himself against his neighbour and have no trust in any brother, for every brother is a supplanter and every friend walks along with deceit, every man derides his brother and no one speaks the truth; they have shown their own tongues to speak lies, or they have taught their tongue to speak lies; 'they exert themselves so that they may do iniquity, or they do iniquity and do not cease, so as to repent. Your habitation is in the midst of deceit, in deceit, or usury on usury and deceit on deceit, they refuse, or they do not wish, to know me, says the Lord. This passage should be used in time of persecution and distress, when faith is either rare or does not exist at all, when neither brother nor neighbour can be trusted, when a man's enemies are of his own house, when, in accordance with the Gospel: Father deliverers up son, and son father, and two are divided against three and three against two. And by adding 'They have shown their own tongues to speak lies,' or 'They have taught their own tongues to speak lies,' he shows that their habit of lying turns into a lying nature, and that they are diligent to act, that is, iniquitously. And as for what follows, 'Your habitation is in the midst of deceit,' properly this word is addressed to the Prophet since he dwells in the midst of a lying people, or, as the Septuagint has translated: ' Usury on usury and deceit on deceit,' because every day they augment their crimes and they will not repent of what they have done but heap new evils on the old. They do such things, as they do all things with eagerness, so that they do not know the Lord, who commanded that these things should not be done. Therefore the Lord of Hosts says this: 'Behold I will burn them 'or 'I will examine them with fire, 'and test them, for what else can I do, because of my people,' or 'because of the evil of my people?' Whenever we are subject to trials, receive evil from God, and are tested by persecutions, it is so that whatever in us is impure material  may be burnt away by the fires of tribulation and mercy:  'We are silver examined by the fire of the Lord, refined on the ground, purified seven times.' Saint Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah, Book 2