When the Jewish people were led into captivity and the city was burned, an inhabitant of Jerusalem was either rare or nonexistent. But after the one who spoke first in the prophets and was in the beginning with God, God the Word, dwelt among us and became flesh, the deserts of Jerusalem were refreshed, and he came, of whom it is written, “He shall build my city and lead back the captivity of my people.” Thus Jeremiah does not lament for her: “How does the city that was filled with people sit solitary! She has become as a widow, she who was magnified among the nations.” Instead she hears David singing, “When the Lord converted the captivity of Zion, we became as comforted ones,” and a little later, “We were made to rejoice.”.
And that we may know that these things are not being said about the Jewish people, but about all who will come to believe in the Lord through the apostles, he records and says, He who has comforted her, or “has had mercy upon her,” and he who “has delivered” or redeemed her, has himself prepared or “revealed his holy arm in the sight of all the Gentiles, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.” From this it is clear that the arm of the Lord is being revealed to all nations, and all the ends of the earth are seeing his salvation, when the spiritual Jerusalem, that is, the church, which had been forsaken by the Jews, is built by the apostles.
Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 14
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