A Foolish People

Quia stultus populus meus me non cognovit: filii insipientes sunt et vecordes. Sapientes sunt ut faciant mala: bene autem facere nescierunt. Causa contritionis, vastitatis, fugaeque et buccinae, quia stultus factus est populus, non natura, sed studio voluntatis. Ipsaque stultitia hinc probatur: quia non cognoverunt Deum, et pro filiis sapientibus, stulti filii facti sunt et vecordes. Quae enim major potest esse stultitia, quam, cognoscente bove possessorem suum, et asino praesepe Domini sui, Israel Dominum non cognoscere, et praesentem contemnere quem semper videre cupiebat? Quodque infertur: Sapientes sunt ut faciant mala: bene autem facere nescierunt, hic sapientia pro malitia accipienda est, juxta quod et filii saeculi hujus sapientiores sunt filiis lucis: et villicus iniquitatis quaedam sapienter fecisse narratur; et serpens in paradiso prudentior cunctis bestiis legitur. Illa est ergo vera sapientia quae Dei timori jungitur. Alioquin ubi insidiae sunt et tergiversatio, non sapientia, sed versutia et calliditas appellanda est. Pro eo, quod nos diximus, quia stultus populus meus me non cognovit, Septuaginta transtulerunt: quia principes populi mei me non cognoverunt: ut magistrorum sit magis culpa quam populi Dei scientiam non habentis. Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum In Jeremiam Propheta, Lib I Cap IV Source Migne PL 24.738b-d

For my people are foolish, they do not know me; they are mindless and senseless children. They are wise in doing evil, but they do not know how to do good.1 The cause of the contrition, of the devastation, of the flight, and of the trumpeting, 2 is that the people have become foolish, not by nature but by the intent of their will. And this foolishness is shown by the fact that they do not know God. Instead of being wise sons they have become foolish and senseless sons. For what could be more foolish than when the ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib, Israel does not know the Lord, and despises Him present, Him whom they have always longed to see? And with what follows: 'They are wise in doing evil but they do not know how to do good, 'wise' should be understood in a wicked sense, as when the sons of his world are wiser than the sons of light, and the dishonest steward is said to have done certain things wisely, 3 or when it is read that the serpent in paradise is wiser than any other wild creature. 4 True wisdom, therefore, is wisdom joined to the fear of the Lord. Otherwise, where there are plots and deception, it should not be called wisdom but cleverness or cunning. Where it is said, 'For my people are foolish, they do not know me,' the Septuagint has translated, 'For the princes of my people do not know me,' so the fault of the teachers is greater than the people's when the people have no knowledge of God. Saint Jerome, from the Commentary on Jeremiah, Book 4, Chapter 4 1 Jerem 4.22 2 Jerem 4.19-21 3 Gen 3.1 4 Lk 16.1-8