Jeremiah 17:11

(Verse 11.) The partridge hatches (or gathers) what it did not lay. (And as the Septuagint translated: The partridge cried out, it gathered what it did not lay.) It acquired its riches not with justice. In the middle of its days, it will leave them (or in the middle of its days, they will leave it) and in its last days, it will be foolish. Writers of natural history, both of animals and birds, as well as of trees and plants (of whom the Greek leaders are, Aristotle and Theophrastus, and among us, Pliny the Second), say that this is the nature of the partridge, to steal the eggs of another partridge, that is, to steal from another, and to incubate and care for them: and when the offspring grow up, to fly away from them, and leave behind their adoptive parent. Such are the wealthy who plunder others, and without the consideration of God's judgment, amass riches without judgment, which they leave behind in the midst of time, taken away by sudden death, when it is said to them: Fool, this night they will demand your soul from you, what you have prepared, whose will it be? And nothing is more foolish than not to foresee the last things, and to consider the fleeting as eternal. Others, however, interpret the partridge to be the most aggressive and unclean bird both because of the earlier historical account and because of another reason they state, in that it contaminates the defeated, and they interpret the devil under its name, because it has gathered riches for itself, saying to the Lord: All these things I will give to You, if You fall down and worship me (Matthew 4:9). Those riches that were gathered poorly by him will be abandoned, and they will be converted (or rather, restored) to the Lord through the Apostles; and the one who seemed to be the most prudent to himself will be considered foolish by the judgment of all. And what is said by the LXX: The partridge cried out, is to be referred to the person of the heretics, that this partridge, the devil, cried out through the leaders of the heretics, and gathered what it did not bear, and gathered a multitude of those it deceived, which it will later dismiss; and it will be proven most foolish by the judgment of all.

On the notorious question we have come to see who the partridge is, concerning which Scripture now says: "The partridge cried out, it gathered what it did not bring forth, making its wealth not with judgment. In the midst of his days they shall forsake him, and at his end he shall be a fool." From the study of the nature of animals we must take up what has been recorded about the partridge, so that, knowing the facts about the animal, we may know whether the partridge now spoken of ought to be assigned to a better rank or to a worse one. It is said, then, to be a most malicious and crafty and cunning animal, one that wishes to deceive those who hunt it and that often rolls about the feet of the hunter, so as to draw him away, since the animal is nearby, in order that he may not come to the nest. And whenever it guesses that it has drawn the hunter off and that the chicks have fled, then it too flies away. And the animal is so utterly unclean that the males fight one another in single combat over mating, and male mounts male. If, then, this animal is both malicious and unclean, both cunning and deceitful, it is clear that to assign it to a better rank and to say that it can be referred to the Savior appears to be impious. We must therefore see, if we wish to interpret it of the adversary, whether the whole interpretation follows consistently for us. The mother partridge cried out; she gathered what she did not bring forth. So then, the devil does not gather his own creatures; he does not gather what he begot, but whenever he cries out, he gathers the creatures of another and makes them his own. The partridge cried out through Valentinus, the partridge cried out through Marcion, it cried out through Basilides, through all the heterodox; for none of those men could utter the voice of Jesus: "My sheep will hear my voice." But the voice of Jesus is in Paul and Peter; wherefore Paul said, "If you seek proof of the Christ who speaks in me?" And the voice of the partridge, which gathered what it did not bring forth, is among those who lead astray and deceive the simpler among believers because of their innocence and their unpreparedness. "The partridge," therefore, "cried out, she gathered what she did not bring forth, making her wealth not with judgment." The partridge grew rich. See how many are her myriads: many have become the partridge's own, the myriads of…