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← Discours sur l'histoire universelle/Book 1 · Discours sur l'histoire universelle — Seconde partie : La suite de la religion
Chapter 8DiscoursHistUniv.1.8

Réflexions sur le châtiment des Juifs

The Witness of History

The author introduces the fall of Jerusalem as a historical event that confirms the truth of the Gospel through both Jewish and pagan testimonies.

Specific reflections on the punishment of the Jews and the predictions of Jesus Christ that foretold it. While I've worked to show you, without interruption, the continuous course of God's designs in the enduring life of his people, I've passed quickly over many facts that deserve deep reflection. Allow me to return to them, so that I don't let you miss such great things. First of all, my lord, I ask you to look more closely at the fall of the Jews, as every detail of it bears witness to the Gospel. These details are explained to us by non-believing authors, by Jews, and by pagans who, without understanding the sequence of God's plans, have provided the key facts through which it pleased him to reveal that sequence.1 We have Josephus, a Jewish author, a highly faithful historian and thoroughly versed in the affairs of his nation, whose antiquities he also set forth in an admirable work. He wrote of the last war, in which that nation perished, after he had been present for everything and had himself served his country there with a considerable command. The Jews also provide us with other very ancient authors, whose testimonies you'll see. They have ancient commentaries on the books of Scripture, including the Chaldean paraphrases that they print with their Bibles.2 They have a book they call the Talmud—which means 'doctrine'—that they revere just as much as Scripture itself.3 It's a compilation of treatises and sayings from their ancient masters; and although the parts that make up this massive work aren't all from the same era, the most recent authors cited in it lived during the first centuries of the Church.4 There, among countless absurd fables that mostly date from after the time of Our Lord, one finds fine remnants of the ancient traditions of the Jewish people, along with proofs that can be used to convince them.5 First of all, it's certain by the Jews' own admission that divine vengeance has never declared itself more terribly or more openly than it did during their final desolation.

Signs of Divine Abandonment

Portents in the temple and the persistent warnings of the prophet Jesus, son of Ananus, serve as visible signs of God's impending judgment.

It is a constant tradition, attested in their Talmud and confirmed by all their rabbis, that for forty years before the ruin of Jerusalem—which comes to roughly the time of Jesus Christ's death—strange things never stopped appearing in the temple. Every day new prodigies appeared there, so much so that one day a famous rabbi cried out: O temple, O temple, what is troubling you, and why are you frightening yourself? What could be more striking than that dreadful noise the priests heard in the sanctuary on the day of Pentecost, and that clear voice that came from the depths of that holy place: "Let us leave this place, let us leave this place"? The holy guardian angels of the temple openly declared they were abandoning it, because God, who had made his dwelling there for so many centuries, had rejected it. Josephus and even Tacitus have reported this wonder. Only the priests perceived it. But here is another wonder that burst into the sight of the whole people; no other nation had ever seen anything like it. Four years before the war was declared, a peasant, Josephus says, began to cry out: A voice has gone out from the East; a voice has gone out from the West; a voice has gone out from the four winds: a voice against Jerusalem and against the temple; a voice against the newly married men and the newly married women; a voice against the whole people. From that time on, day or night, he never stopped crying, Woe, woe to Jerusalem. He cried out all the louder on feast days. No other word ever left his mouth: those who pitied him, those who cursed him, and those who gave him what he needed never heard anything from him but that terrible word, Woe to Jerusalem. He was seized, questioned, and sentenced by the magistrates to be whipped; at every question and every blow, he answered without ever complaining, Woe to Jerusalem. Dismissed as a madman, he ran all over the country, endlessly repeating his grim prediction. He kept crying out like this for seven years without stopping, and his voice never grew weak. During the final siege of Jerusalem, he shut himself inside the city, tirelessly circling the walls and crying out with all his strength: Woe to the temple, woe to the city, woe to all the people.✦ Finally, he added, Woe to me myself; at that very moment, he was struck down by a stone flung from a siege engine.6 Wouldn't you say, my lord, that divine vengeance had almost made itself visible in this man, who lived only to pronounce its sentences; that it had filled him with its strength so that he could match the people's calamities with his cries; and that at last he was bound to perish by an effect of that very vengeance he had so long announced, so as to make it more keenly felt and more present when he would be not only its prophet and its witness, but its victim as well? This prophet of Jerusalem's calamities was named Jesus.7 It seemed that the name of Jesus—a name of salvation and of peace—was bound to turn, for the Jews who despised it in the person of our Savior, into a fatal omen; and that these ungrateful people, having rejected a Jesus who proclaimed grace, mercy, and life to them, God sent them another Jesus who had nothing to announce but irreparable evils and the inevitable decree of their imminent ruin.✦

Parallel Judgments: Nebuchadnezzar and Titus

The destruction of Jerusalem under Titus mirrors the earlier fall under Nebuchadnezzar, revealing a consistent pattern of divine justice and human hardness of heart.

Let's look deeper into God's judgments, guided by his Scriptures. Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed twice: once by Nebuchadnezzar, and once by Titus. But in each of these two times, God's justice showed itself by the same paths, though more openly in the last. To understand this order of God's designs more clearly, let us first set down this truth so often established in the Holy Scriptures: that one of the most terrible effects of divine vengeance is when, as punishment for our earlier sins, it hands us over to our reprobate mind, so that we are deaf to every wise warning, blind to the paths of salvation shown to us, quick to believe whatever ruins us so long as it flatters us, and bold enough to attempt anything without ever measuring our strength against that of the enemies we provoke.✦✦8 So, Jerusalem and its princes first perished under the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Weak and constantly beaten by that victorious king, they had often found their efforts against him to be futile, and they had been forced to swear loyalty to him. The prophet Jeremiah told them on God's behalf that God himself had handed them over to that prince, and that their only safety lay in submitting to the yoke. He said this to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and to all his people, and so on.9 They didn't believe his word. While Nebuchadnezzar kept them tightly trapped behind the massive siege works he had built around their city, they let themselves be enchanted by false prophets. These prophets filled their minds with imaginary victories and spoke to them in the name of God, even though God hadn't sent them.✦10 Seduced by these promises, the people suffered hunger, thirst, and the harshest extremities; their senseless boldness went so far that there was no longer any mercy left for them. The city was overthrown, the temple was burned, everything was lost.✦ By these signs, the Jews knew that the hand of God was upon them.✦ But so that divine vengeance would be as clear to them in Jerusalem's final ruin as it had been in the first, one saw in both the same seduction, the same recklessness, and the same hardness of heart.11 Although their rebellion had drawn the Roman armies down on them, and though they were recklessly shaking off a yoke under which the whole world had bent, Titus did not want to destroy them: on the contrary, he often had pardon offered to them—not only at the start of the war, but even when they could no longer escape his hands. He had already raised around Jerusalem a long and vast wall fortified with towers and redoubts as strong as the city itself, when he sent them Josephus, their fellow citizen, one of their captains, one of their priests, who had been taken in this war while defending his country. What didn't he say to move them? With how many powerful reasons did he urge them to return to obedience? He showed them heaven and earth leagued against them, their inevitable ruin if they resisted, and at the same time their salvation in Titus's clemency.12 "Save the holy city," he told them, and so on. But how can you save people so bent on destroying themselves? Seduced by their false prophets, they wouldn't listen to these wise words. They were reduced to the last extremity; hunger killed more of them than the war, and mothers were eating their children.✦ Titus, moved by their suffering, called his gods to witness that he was not the cause of their ruin. During these disasters, they put their faith in false predictions that promised them empire over the whole world. What's more, the city had been taken; fire was already all around it: and these madmen still believed the false prophets who assured them that the day of salvation had come—so that they would keep resisting, and so that no mercy would remain for them. Indeed, everyone was massacred, the city was torn down from top to bottom, and except for a few remnants of towers that Titus left as a monument for posterity, not one stone remained upon another.✦ So you see, my lord, the same vengeance breaking out over Jerusalem that had once appeared under Zedekiah. Titus is no less sent by God than Nebuchadnezzar was; the Jews perish in the same way. In Jerusalem, one sees the same rebellion, the same famine, the same extremities, the same paths of salvation left open, the same deception, the same hardening, and the same fall. To ensure everything matched, the second Temple was burned under Titus in the same month and on the same day that the first had been under Nebuchadnezzar; everything had to be marked, and the people had to be left unable to doubt the divine vengeance.✦

The Severity of the Final Ruin

The final destruction of Jerusalem is shown to be more severe than the first, marking a unique divine response to the crime of deicide.

Yet between these two falls of Jerusalem and of the Jews there are memorable differences — but every one of them goes to show, in the later fall, a justice more severe and more openly declared. Nebuchadnezzar had the temple set on fire; Titus left nothing undone to save it, even though his counselors pointed out to him that as long as it stood, the Jews, who tied their destiny to it, would never stop being rebels. But the fatal day had come: it was the tenth of August, which had already seen Solomon's temple burn. Despite Titus's orders, issued before the Romans and before the Jews, and despite the soldiers' natural bent, which should have driven them rather to plunder than to burn up such riches, a soldier, driven — Josephus says — by a divine inspiration, has his companions lift him to a window and sets fire to that august temple. Titus rushes up; Titus orders them to hurry and put out the flame just starting. It spreads everywhere in an instant, and that admirable building is reduced to ashes. And if the hardening of the Jews under Zedekiah was the most terrible effect and the surest mark of divine vengeance, what are we to say of the blindness that appeared in the time of Titus? In the first ruin of Jerusalem, the Jews at least got along with one another; in the last, Jerusalem, while besieged by the Romans, was torn apart by three hostile factions. Though the hatred they all had for the Romans rose as far as frenzy, they were no less ferocious against one another: the fighting outside cost the Jews less blood than the fighting within. Moments after resisting assaults from the foreigners, the citizens would resume their civil war; violence and banditry reigned everywhere in the city. The city was perishing; it was nothing more than a vast field covered with corpses, yet the faction leaders were still fighting there for control.13 Was it not an image of hell, where the damned hate one another just as much as they hate the demons who are their common enemies, and where everything is full of pride, confusion, and rage? So let us confess, my lord, that the justice God carried out on the Jews through Nebuchadnezzar was only a shadow of the justice of which Titus was the minister. What city has ever seen eleven hundred thousand people perish in seven months, and in a single siege?14 That is what the Jews saw at the final siege of Jerusalem. The Chaldeans hadn't made them suffer anything like that. Under the Chaldeans, their captivity lasted only seventy years; for sixteen hundred years now, they have been slaves throughout the world, and they still find no relief in their bondage.✦ We need no longer wonder that victorious Titus, after the capture of Jerusalem, would not receive the congratulations of the neighboring peoples, or the crowns they sent him to honor his victory. So many memorable circumstances—God's wrath so clearly marked, and his hand that Titus still saw so near—held him in deep astonishment; and that is what made him say what you have heard: that he was not the conqueror, that he was only a weak instrument of the divine vengeance. He did not know the whole secret of it: the hour had not yet come when the emperors were to acknowledge Jesus Christ. It was a time of humiliation and persecution for the Church. That is why Titus, though clear-sighted enough to recognize that Judea was perishing by a clear effect of God's justice, still didn't know what crime God had meant to punish so terribly. It was the greatest of all crimes—a crime unheard of until then, namely deicide—which also gave rise to a vengeance the world had never seen an example of before.15 But if we open our eyes a little and consider the course of events, neither this crime of the Jews nor its punishment can remain hidden from us.

The Fulfillment of Christ's Prophecies

The tragic history of the Jews is presented as the direct fulfillment of Jesus Christ's predictions regarding the city's desolation and the consequences of rejecting their Messiah.

Let's just remember what Jesus Christ had foretold them. He had foretold the complete ruin of Jerusalem and the temple. "Not one stone will be left on another," he said. He had foretold the way this ungrateful city would be besieged, and that dreadful ring of siege works that was to enclose it; he had foretold the horrible famine that would torment its citizens, and he had not forgotten the false prophets by whom they would be led astray.16 He had warned the Jews that the time of their misfortune was near; he had given the sure signs that were to mark its exact hour; he had explained to them the long succession of crimes that was to bring such a punishment upon them: in a word, he had set out the whole history of the siege and desolation of Jerusalem. And notice, my lord, that he made these predictions to them around the time of his Passion, so that they might better understand the cause of all their sufferings.17 His Passion was drawing near when he said to them: Divine Wisdom has sent you prophets, and so on.18 There you have the history of the Jews. They have persecuted their Messiah both in his own person and in his people; they have stirred the whole world against his disciples, leaving them no rest in any city; they have armed the Romans and the emperors against the infant Church; they have stoned Saint Stephen, killed the two Jameses—whose holiness made them venerable even among their own—and sacrificed Saint Peter and Saint Paul by the sword at the hands of the Gentiles. They must perish. So much blood, mixed with that of the prophets they massacred, cries out for vengeance before God; their houses and their city will be left deserted, and their desolation will be no less than their crime. Jesus Christ warns them of it: the time is near, and so on. In other words, the people living then were to be the witnesses of it.19 But let's listen to the rest of our Savior’s predictions. As he was making his entry into Jerusalem a few days before his death, moved by the evils that death would bring upon that wretched city, he looks at it weeping: “Ah,” he says, “unfortunate city,” and so on. That was to mark clearly enough both the manner of the siege and the final effects of the vengeance. But Jesus couldn't go to his execution without denouncing to Jerusalem how severely she would one day be punished for the shameful treatment she was giving him. As he walked toward Calvary carrying his cross on his shoulders, a great crowd of people followed him.✦ If the innocent one, if the just one, suffers such harsh torment, what must the guilty expect?✦ Did Jeremiah ever mourn the ruin of the Jews more bitterly? What stronger words could the Savior use to make them grasp their calamities and their despair, and that horrible famine, deadly to the children, deadly to the mothers who watched their breasts dry up, who had nothing left but tears to give their children, and who ate the fruit of their own wombs?

Read the original Latin

Réflexions particulieres sur le chastiment des Juifs, & sur les prédictions de Jesus-Christ qui l’avoient marqué.

Pendant que j’ay travaillé à vous faire voir sans interruption la suite des conseils de Dieu, dans la perpetuité de son peuple, j’ay passé rapidement sur beaucoup de faits qui meritent des réflexions profondes. Qu’il me soit permis d’y revenir pour ne vous laisser pas perdre de si grandes choses.

Et premierement, monseigneur, je vous prie de considerer avec une attention plus particuliere la chute des juifs, dont toutes les circonstances rendent témoignage à l’evangile. Ces circonstances nous sont expliquées par des auteurs infideles, par des juifs, et par des payens, qui sans entendre la suite des conseils de Dieu, nous ont raconté les faits importans par lesquels il luy a plû de la déclarer.

Nous avons Josephe auteur juif, historien tres-fidele, et tres instruit des affaires de sa nation, dont aussi il a illustré les antiquitez par un ouvrage admirable. Il a écrit la derniere guerre, où elle a peri, aprés avoir esté present à tout, et y avoir luy-mesme servi son païs avec un commandement considérable.

Les juifs nous fournissent encore d’autres auteurs tres-anciens, dont vous verrez les témoignages. Ils ont d’anciens commentaires sur les livres de l’ecriture, et entre autres les paraphrases chaldaïques qu’ils impriment avec leurs bibles. Ils ont leur livre qu’ils nomment talmud, c’est à dire doctrine, qu’ils ne respectent pas moins que l’ecriture elle-mesme. C’est un ramas des traitez et des sentences de leurs anciens maistres ; et encore que les parties dont ce grand ouvrage est composé ne soient pas toutes de la mesme antiquité, les derniers auteurs qui y sont citez ont vescu dans les premiers siecles de l’eglise. Là, parmi une infinité de fables impertinentes qu’on voit commencer pour la pluspart aprés les temps de Nostre Seigneur, on trouve de beaux restes des anciennes traditions du peuple juif, et des preuves pour le convaincre. Et d’abord il est certain de l’aveu des juifs que la vengeance divine ne s’est jamais plus terriblement ni plus manifestement déclarée, qu’elle fit dans leur derniere desolation.

C’est une tradition constante attestée dans leur talmud, et confirmée par tous leurs rabbins, que quarante ans avant la ruine de Jerusalem, ce qui revient à peu prés au temps de la mort de Jesus-Christ, on ne cessoit de voir dans le temple des choses étranges. Tous les jours il y paroissoit de nouveaux prodiges, de sorte qu’un fameux rabbin s’écria un jour : o temple, ô temple, qu’est-ce qui t’emeut, et pourquoy te fais-tu peur à toy-mesme ?

Qu’y a-t-il de plus marqué que ce bruit affreux qui fut oûï par les prestres dans le sanctuaire le jour de la pentecoste, et cette voix manifeste qui sortit du fond de ce lieu sacré, sortons d’icy, sortons d’icy . Les saints anges protecteurs du temple déclarerent hautement qu’ils l’abandonnoient, parce que Dieu qui y avoit établi sa demeure durant tant de siécles, l’avoit réprouvé.

Josephe et Tacite mesme ont raconté ce prodige. Il ne fut apperceû que des prestres. Mais voicy un autre prodige qui a éclaté aux yeux de tout le peuple ; et jamais aucun autre peuple n’avoit rien veû de semblable. quatre ans devant la guerre déclarée, un paysan, dit Josephe, se mit à crier, une voix est sortie du costé de l’Orient, une voix est sortie du costé de l’Occident, une voix est sortie du costé des quatre vents : voix contre Jérusalem et contre le temple ; voix contre les nouveaux mariez et les nouvelles mariées ; voix contre tout le peuple . Depuis ce temps, ni jour ni nuit il ne cessa de crier, malheur, malheur à Jérusalem . Il redoubloit ses cris les jours de feste. Aucune autre parole ne sortit jamais de sa bouche : ceux qui le plaignoient, ceux qui le maudissoient, ceux qui luy donnoient ses necessitez, n’entendirent jamais de luy que cette terrible parole, malheur à Jérusalem . Il fut pris, interrogé, et condamné au foûët par les magistrats : à chaque demande, et à chaque coup, il répondoit, sans jamais se plaindre, malheur à Jérusalem .

Renvoyé comme un insensé, il couroit tout le païs, en répetant sans cesse sa triste prédiction. Il continua durant sept ans à crier de cette sorte, sans se relascher, et sans que sa voix s’affoiblist. Au temps du dernier siege de Jérusalem, il se renferma dans la ville, tournant infatigablement autour des murailles, et criant de toute sa force : malheur au temple, malheur à la ville, malheur à tout le peuple . A la fin il ajousta, malheur à moy-mesme ; et en mesme temps il fut emporté d’un coup de pierre lancé par une machine.

Ne diroit-on pas, monseigneur, que la vengeance divine s’estoit comme renduë visible en cét homme qui ne subsistoit que pour prononcer ses arrests ; qu’elle l’avoit rempli de sa force, afin qu’il pust égaler les malheurs du peuple par ses cris ; et qu’enfin il devoit perir par un effet de cette vengeance qu’il avoit si long-temps annoncée, afin de la rendre plus sensible, et plus presente, quand il en seroit non seulement le prophete et le témoin, mais encore la victime ? Ce prophete des malheurs de Jérusalem s’appelloit Jesus. Il sembloit que le nom de Jesus, nom de salut et de paix, devoit tourner aux juifs qui le méprisoient en la personne de nostre sauveur, à un funeste présage ; et que ces ingrats ayant rejetté un Jesus qui leur annonçoit la grace, la misericorde et la vie, Dieu leur envoyoit un autre Jesus qui n’avoit à leur annoncer que des maux irremédiables, et l’inévitable decret de leur ruine prochaine.

Penetrons plus avant dans les jugemens de Dieu sous la conduite de ses ecritures. Jérusalem et son temple ont esté deux fois détruits ; l’une par Nabuchodonosor, l’autre par Tite. Mais en chacun de ces deux temps, la justice de Dieu s’est déclarée par les mesmes voyes, quoy-que plus à découvert dans le dernier. Pour mieux entendre cét ordre des conseils de Dieu, posons avant toutes choses cette verité si souvent établie dans les saintes lettres ; que l’un des plus terribles effets de la vengeance divine, est lors qu’en punition de nos pechez précedens, elle nous livre à nostre sens réprouvé, en sorte que nous sommes sourds à tous les sages avertissemens, aveugles aux voyes de salut qui nous sont montrées, prompts à croire tout ce qui nous perd pourveû qu’il nous flate, et hardis à tout entreprendre, sans jamais mesurer nos forces avec celles des ennemis que nous irritons. Ainsi perirent la premiere fois sous la main de Nabuchodonosor roy de Babylone, Jérusalem et ses princes. Foibles et toûjours batus par ce roy victorieux, ils avoient souvent éprouvé qu’ils ne faisoient contre luy que de vains efforts, et avoient esté obligez à luy jurer fidelité. Le prophete Jéremie leur déclaroit de la part de Dieu, que Dieu mesme les avoit livrez à ce prince, et qu’il n’y avoit de salut pour eux qu’à subir le joug. Il disoit à Sedecias roy de Judée et à tout son peuple, etc.

Ils ne crurent point à sa parole. Pendant que Nabuchodonosor les tenoit étroitement enfermez par les prodigieux travaux dont il avoit entouré leur ville, ils se laissoient enchanter par leurs faux prophetes qui leur remplissoient l’esprit de victoires imaginaires, et leur disoient au nom de Dieu, quoy-que Dieu ne les eust point envoyez, etc. Le peuple séduit par ces promesses, souffroit la faim et la soif et les plus dures extrémitez, et fit tant par son audace insensée, qu’il n’y eût plus pour luy de misericorde. La ville fut renversée, le temple fut bruslé, tout fut perdu. A ces marques les juifs connurent que la main de Dieu estoit sur eux. Mais afin que la vengeance divine leur fust aussi manifeste dans la derniere ruine de Jérusalem qu’elle l’avoit esté dans la premiere, on a veû dans l’une et dans l’autre la mesme séduction, la mesme temerité, et le mesme endurcissement.

Quoy-que leur rebellion eust attiré sur eux les armes romaines, et qu’ils secoûassent temerairement un joug sous lequel tout l’univers avoit ployé, Tite ne vouloit pas les perdre : au contraire, il leur fit souvent offrir le pardon, non seulement au commencement de la guerre, mais encore lors qu’ils ne pouvoient plus échaper de ses mains. Il avoit déja élevé autour de Jérusalem une longue et vaste muraille munie de tours et de redoutes aussi fortes que la ville mesme, quand il leur envoya Josephe leur concitoyen, un de leurs capitaines, un de leurs prestres qui avoit esté pris dans cette guerre en défendant son païs. Que ne leur dit-il pas pour les emouvoir ? Par combien de fortes raisons les invita-t-il à rentrer dans l’obéïssance ? Il leur fit voir le ciel et la terre conjurez contre eux, leur perte inévitable dans la résistance, et tout ensemble leur salut dans la clemence de Tite. sauvez, leur disoit-il, la cité sainte ; etc. mais le moyen de sauver des gens si obstinez à se perdre ? Séduits par leurs faux prophetes, ils n’écoutoient pas ces sages discours.

Ils estoient réduits à l’extrémité : la faim en tuoit plus que la guerre, et les meres mangeoient leurs enfans. Tite touché de leurs maux prenoit ses dieux à témoin, qu’il n’estoit pas cause de leur perte. Durant ces malheurs, ils ajoustoient foy aux fausses prédictions qui leur promettoient l’empire de l’univers. Bien plus, la ville estoit prise ; le feu y estoit déja de tous costez : et ces insensez croyoient encore les faux prophetes qui les asseûroient que le jour de salut estoit venu, afin qu’ils résistassent toûjours, et qu’il n’y eust plus pour eux de misericorde. En effet, tout fut massacré, la ville fut renversée de fonds en comble, et à la réserve de quelques restes de tours que Tite laissa pour servir de monument à la posterité, il n’y demeura pas pierre sur pierre. Vous voyez donc, monseigneur, éclater sur Jérusalem la mesme vengeance qui avoit autrefois paru sous Sedecias. Tite n’est pas moins envoyé de Dieu que Nabuchodonosor : les juifs perissent de la mesme sorte. On voit dans Jérusalem la mesme rebellion, la mesme famine, les mesmes extrémitez, les mesmes voyes de salut ouvertes, la mesme séduction, le mesme endurcissement, la mesme chute ; et afin que tout soit semblable, le second temple est bruslé sous Tite le mesme mois et le mesme jour que l’avoit esté le premier sous Nabuchodonosor : il falloit que tout fust marqué, et que le peuple ne pust douter de la vengeance divine.

Il y a pourtant entre ces deux chutes de Jérusalem et des juifs de memorables differences, mais qui toutes vont à faire voir dans la derniere une justice plus rigoureuse et plus déclarée. Nabuchodonosor fit mettre le feu dans le temple : Tite n’oublia rien pour le sauver, quoy-que ses conseillers luy representassent que tant qu’il subsisteroit, les juifs qui y attachoient leur destinée, ne cesseroient jamais d’estre rebelles. Mais le jour fatal estoit venu : c’estoit le dixiéme d’aoust qui avoit déja veû brusler le temple de Salomon. Malgré les défenses de Tite prononcées devant les romains et devant les juifs, et malgré l’inclination naturelle des soldats qui devoit les porter plûtost à piller qu’à consumer tant de richesses, un soldat, poussé, dit Josephe, par une inspiration divine , se fait lever par ses compagnons à une fenestre, et met le feu dans ce temple auguste. Tite accourt, Tite commande qu’on se haste d’éteindre la flame naissante. Elle prend par tout en un instant, et cét admirable édifice est réduit en cendres. Que si l’endurcissement des juifs sous Sedecias estoit l’effet le plus terrible et la marque la plus asseûrée de la vengeance divine, que dirons-nous de l’aveuglement qui a paru du temps de Tite ? Dans la premiere ruine de Jérusalem les juifs s’entendoient du moins entre eux : dans la derniere, Jérusalem assiégée par les romains estoit dechirée par trois factions ennemies.

Si la haine qu’elles avoient toutes pour les romains alloit jusqu’à la fureur ; elles n’estoient pas moins acharnées les unes contre les autres : les combats du dehors coustoient moins de sang aux juifs que ceux du dedans. Un moment aprés les assauts soustenus contre l’étranger, les citoyens recommençoient leur guerre intestine ; la violence et le brigandage regnoit par tout dans la ville. Elle perissoit, elle n’estoit plus qu’un grand champ couvert de corps morts, et les chefs des factions y combatoient pour l’empire. N’estoit-ce pas une image de l’enfer où les damnez ne se haïssent pas moins les uns les autres qu’ils haïssent les démons qui sont leurs ennemis communs, et où tout est plein d’orgueïl, de confusion et de rage ?

Confessons donc, monseigneur, que la justice que Dieu fit des juifs par Nabuchodonosor n’estoit qu’une ombre de celle dont Tite fut le ministre. Quelle ville a jamais veû perir onze cens mille hommes en sept mois de temps et dans un seul siége ? C’est ce que virent les juifs au dernier siége de Jérusalem. Les chaldéens ne leur avoient rien fait souffrir de semblable. Sous les chaldéens leur captivité ne dura que soixante et dix ans : il y a seize cens ans qu’ils sont esclaves par tout l’univers, et ils ne trouvent encore aucun adoucissement à leur esclavage. Il ne faut plus s’étonner si Tite victorieux, aprés la prise de Jerusalem, ne vouloit pas recevoir les congratulations des peuples voisins, ni les couronnes qu’ils luy envoyoient pour honorer sa victoire. Tant de mémorables circonstances, la colere de Dieu si marquée, et sa main qu’il voyoit encore si presente, le tenoient dans un profond étonnement ; et c’est ce qui luy fit dire ce que vous avez oûï, qu’il n’estoit pas le vainqueur, qu’il n’estoit qu’un foible instrument de la vengeance divine.

Il n’en sçavoit pas tout le secret : l’heure n’estoit pas encore venuë où les empereurs devoient reconnoistre Jesus-Christ. C’estoit le temps des humiliations et des persécutions de l’eglise. C’est pourquoy Tite assez éclairé pour connoistre que la Judée perissoit par un effet manifeste de la justice de Dieu, ne connut pas quel crime Dieu avoit voulu punir si terriblement. C’estoit le plus grand de tous les crimes ; crime jusques alors inoûï, c’est à dire le déïcide, qui aussi a donné lieu à une vengeance dont le monde n’avoit veû encore aucun exemple. Mais si nous ouvrons un peu les yeux, et si nous considerons la suite des choses, ni ce crime des juifs, ni son chastiment ne pourront nous estre cachez.

Souvenons-nous seulement de ce que Jesus-Christ leur avoit prédit. Il avoit prédit la ruine entiere de Jérusalem et du temple. il n’y restera pas, dit-il, pierre sur pierre . Il avoit prédit la maniere dont cette ville ingrate seroit assiégée, et cette effroyable circonvallation qui la devoit environner : il avoit prédit cette faim horrible qui devoit tourmenter ses citoyens, et n’avoit pas oublié les faux prophetes, par lesquels ils devoient estre séduits. Il avoit averti les juifs que le temps de leur malheur estoit proche : il avoit donné les signes certains qui devoient en marquer l’heure précise : il leur avoit expliqué la longue suite des crimes qui devoit leur attirer un tel chastiment : en un mot, il avoit fait toute l’histoire du siége et de la desolation de Jérusalem. Et remarquez, monseigneur, qu’il leur fit ces prédictions vers le temps de sa passion, afin qu’ils connussent mieux la cause de tous leurs maux. Sa passion approchoit quand il leur dit : la sagesse divine vous a envoyé des prophetes, etc. voilà l’histoire des juifs.

Ils ont persécuté leur messie et en sa personne et en celle des siens : ils ont remué tout l’univers contre ses disciples, et ne l’ont laissé en repos dans aucune ville : ils ont armé les romains et les empereurs contre l’eglise naissante : ils ont lapidé Saint Estienne, tué les deux Jacques que leur sainteté rendoit venérables mesme parmi eux, immolé Saint Pierre et Saint Paul par le glaive et par les mains des gentils. Il faut qu’ils perissent. Tant de sang meslé à celuy des prophetes qu’ils ont massacrez, crie vengeance devant Dieu : leurs maisons, et leur ville va estre deserte : leur desolation ne sera pas moindre que leur crime : Jesus-Christ les en avertit : le temps est proche : etc. , c’est à dire que les hommes qui vivoient alors en devoient estre les témoins. Mais écoutons la suite des prédictions de nostre sauveur. Comme il faisoit son entrée dans Jérusalem quelques jours avant sa mort, touché des maux que cette mort devoit attirer à cette malheureuse ville, il la regarde en pleurant : ha, dit-il, ville infortunée, etc. C’estoit marquer assez clairement et la maniere du siége et les derniers effets de la vengeance. Mais il ne falloit pas que Jesus allast au supplice sans dénoncer à Jérusalem combien elle seroit un jour punie de l’indigne traitement qu’elle luy faisoit.

Comme il alloit au calvaire portant sa croix sur ses épaules, il estoit suivi d’une grande multitude de peuple etc. si l’innocent, si le juste souffre un si rigoureux supplice, que doivent attendre les coupables ?

Jéremie a-t-il jamais plus amerement déploré la perte des juifs ? Quelles paroles plus fortes pouvoit employer le sauveur pour leur faire entendre leurs malheurs et leur desespoir, et cette horrible famine funeste aux enfans, funeste aux meres qui voyoient secher leurs mamelles, qui n’avoient plus que des larmes à donner à leurs enfans, et qui mangerent le fruit de leurs entrailles ?

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Jer.13.27 — Your adulteries and your lustful neighing, the depravity of your prostitution—on the hills, in the open fields I have seen your abominations. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! You will not be made clean. How long yet?
  2. ↩Matt.1.21 — She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
  3. ↩Rom.1.28 — And just as they did not see fit to keep God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a disapproved mind, to do what is not fitting.
  4. ↩Isa.6.9-Isa.6.10;Jer.5.21;Matt.13.13-Matt.13.15 — And he said, "Go and say to this people: Keep hearing, but do not understand; keep seeing, but do not know." Isa.6.10 — And Make the heart of this people dull; make their ears heavy and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and turn and be healed. Jer.5.21 — Hear this, O foolish people, and without understanding; they have eyes, but they do not see; they have ears, but they do not hear. Matt.13.13 — This is why I speak to them in parables: because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Matt.13.14 — And in them Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled: "You will keep hearing, but never understand; you will keep seeing, but never know." Matt.13.15 — For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they have heard heavily, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.
  5. ↩Jer.14.14 — Then the LORD said to me, "The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, and I did not command them, and I did not speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, and divination, and the deceit of their own hearts."
  6. ↩2Kgs.25.8-2Kgs.25.10;Jer.52.12-Jer.52.13;2Chr.36.19 — In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month — that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon — Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 2Kgs.25.9 — He burned the house of the LORD, and the house of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned with fire. 2Kgs.25.10 — And the walls of Jerusalem all around were torn down by the entire force of the Chaldeans who were with the commander of the guard. Jer.52.12 — Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month — that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon — Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. Jer.52.13 — And he burned the house of the LORD, the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned with fire. 2Chr.36.19 — They burned the house of God, broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its precious things.
  7. ↩1Sam.5.6;Exod.9.3;Deut.2.15 — But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon the Ashdodites, and He terrified them, and He struck them with tumors—Ashdod and its territories. Exod.9.3 — Behold, the hand of the LORD will come upon your livestock that are in the field—upon the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks—with a very severe pestilence. Deut.2.15 — And the hand of the LORD was also against them, to destroy them from the midst of the camp, until they were consumed.
  8. ↩2Kgs.6.28-2Kgs.6.29;Lam.2.20;Deut.28.53-Deut.28.57 — Then the king said to her, 'What is the matter with you?' And she answered, 'This woman said to me, "Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow."' 2Kgs.6.29 — So we boiled my son and ate him. And I said to her the next day, 'Give me your son so that we may eat him.' But she hid her son. Lam.2.20 — Look, LORD, and see — to whom you have done this! Shall women eat their own fruit, their tenderly cared-for children? Shall priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord? Deut.28.53 — You will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and your daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you, during the siege and distress with which your enemy will press you hard. Deut.28.54 — The man who is tender and very delicate among you—his eye will be hostile toward his brother, toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children who remain, Deut.28.55 — so that he will not give to any one of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because he has nothing left to him, in the siege and hardship that your enemy will inflict on you in all your towns. Deut.28.56 — The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her daintiness and tenderness, her eye will be hostile toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son and toward her daughter. Deut.28.57 — and the afterbirth that comes from between her feet, and the children whom she bears—she will eat them, because of utter lack, in secret, in the siege and distress with which your enemy will press you in your gates.
  9. ↩Matt.24.2;Mark.13.2;Luke.19.44 — But he answered them, 'Do you not see all these things? Truly I tell you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.' Mark.13.2 — And Jesus said to him, 'Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; every one will be thrown down.' Luke.19.44 — and they will dash you to the ground, and your children within you, and they will not leave upon you stone upon stone, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.
  10. ↩2Kgs.25.8-2Kgs.25.9;Jer.52.12-Jer.52.13 — In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month — that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon — Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 2Kgs.25.9 — He burned the house of the LORD, and the house of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned with fire. Jer.52.12 — Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month — that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon — Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. Jer.52.13 — And he burned the house of the LORD, the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned with fire.
  11. ↩Jer.25.11-Jer.25.12 — And this whole land shall become a ruin and a desolation, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Jer.25.12 — And when seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, declares the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and I will make it desolate forever.
  12. ↩Luke.23.26-Luke.23.27 — And as they led him away, they seized Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country, and laid the cross on him to carry it behind Jesus. Luke.23.27 — And a great multitude of the people followed him, and also women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him.
  13. ↩Luke.23.31 — For if they do these things in the green wood, what will happen in the dry?

Notes

  1. 1 ↩French infideles means non-Christians (unbelievers), not 'unfaithful' in a moral sense; payens is the older spelling of païens (pagans).
  2. 2 ↩«paraphrases chaldaïques» names the Aramaic Targums; kept as «Chaldean paraphrases» to match Bossuet’s period wording rather than modern scholarly Targum.
  3. 3 ↩Bossuet glosses «talmud» as «doctrine» (teaching); the etymological gloss is retained in apposition as in the source.
  4. 4 ↩«ramas» is a heap/collection; rendered «compilation» for natural modern prose without losing the sense of gathered material.
  5. 5 ↩«le convaincre»: «le» resumes «le peuple juif»; rendered as «them» for natural English.
  6. 6 ↩machine here is a war engine (catapult/ballista), not a modern machine; rendered as siege engine.
  7. 7 ↩Bossuet means Jesus son of Ananus (Josephus, Jewish War 6.5.3), not Jesus of Nazareth; the next sentence plays on the shared name.
  8. 8 ↩sens réprouvé is the traditional biblical phrase (cf. Rom 1:28); rendered as reprobate mind to preserve theological force rather than a looser modern paraphrase.
  9. 9 ↩Source ends with etc., signaling an unfinished or truncated quotation from Jeremiah's address to Zedekiah; not expanded beyond the supplied text.
  10. 10 ↩travaux here is military engineering (siege works/entrenchments), not labor in the ordinary sense; rendered as "siege works".
  11. 11 ↩endurcissement is the moral/spiritual hardening (cf. hardness of heart), not mere stubbornness of temperament; rendered as "hardness of heart".
  12. 12 ↩"conjurez" means sworn/banded together; rendered "leagued" for natural contemporary force without losing the sense of united hostility.
  13. 13 ↩l’empire here means supremacy or dominion over the city, not a territorial empire.
  14. 14 ↩onze cens mille = 1,100,000 (Bossuet's figure for the siege death toll).
  15. 15 ↩Kept the technical term 'deicide' (déïcide) for the crime of killing God; it is Bossuet's explicit theological label, not a modern paraphrase.
  16. 16 ↩circonvallation is a technical siege term (a continuous line of fortification surrounding a place); rendered here as "ring of siege works" for readability while preserving the military sense.
  17. 17 ↩monseigneur is Bossuet's address to the Dauphin; rendered as "my lord" for contemporary English while keeping the courtly direct address.
  18. 18 ↩The abbreviated quote (etc.) points to Christ's words about the sending of prophets; final biblical resolution belongs to a later stage.
  19. 19 ↩en points back to the near desolation / the approaching time just named; rendered as 'of it'.

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