Jerome

Because there were found among my people wicked ones plotting like bird catchers, setting snares and traps to capture men; like a net full of birds, so is their house full of deceit. Why did a temporary and late rain deviate from them, and all good things not come? The reasons are given: because there were found among his people wicked ones. He did not say, the unjust and sinners (as the new heresy wants), but the wicked. Impiety openly denies God; if it confesses error iniquity and sin, it easily turns God to mercy. …

Commentary on Jeremiah ↗