Jeremiah 5:3

(Verse 3) Lord, your eyes look upon faith: you struck them, and they did not hurt; you crushed them, and they refused to accept discipline. They hardened their faces like rock, and they refused to turn back. After the words of the Lord, in which he commanded, saying: Go around the streets of Jerusalem, etc., the Prophet speaks to the Lord: Lord, your eyes look upon faith, which in Hebrew is called Emuna: not the works of the Jews, in which they rejoiced according to the ceremonies of the Law; but the faith of the Christians, through which we have been saved by grace. In this chapter, we learn that punishments are inflicted in order to correct vices. Finally, it says, 'You have struck them, and they have not felt pain; you have crushed them, and they have refused to accept discipline.' Through all the torments and whips, Jerusalem is corrected, and yet they did not even have shame for their vices; but like a stone hardening their foreheads, they refused to be converted to better things.

"You consumed them, and they refused to receive instruction." When God, who exercises providence over all things, performs the purifying works for the salvation of a soul, then as far as it depends on him he has consumed it. And you will understand the words "You consumed them, and they refused to receive instruction" from the example of the one who hands on knowledge and the one who is unwilling to receive the knowledge from the one who hands it on. For let the teacher do everything that is in his power and bring everything to completion for the handing on of knowledge, while the other does not accept what is said; I would say concerning such a one to the teacher, "You consumed this man, and he was unwilling to receive instruction." Whenever, then, all that comes from providence is done toward us, so that we may be consumed and perfected, but we do not accept the things of the providence that draws us toward perfection, it might be said by one who understands, to God, "Lord, you consumed them, and they refused to receive instruction."

"They made their faces harder than rock." This too you will understand from things more bodily. Of those who sin, some, hearing words of rebuke over their sin, blush and shrink back and give way, when the rebuking word touches them; but others are of such a kind that they are shameless, feeling no shame over the things for which they are rebuked, for the things in which they have sinned. You might therefore say concerning these who feel no shame, "They made their faces harder than rock." If you have understood this in bodily terms, pass over with me in thought to the soul, understanding the "face" concerning which it is said, "but then face to face." And behold a hardened soul, such as was the hardened heart of Pharaoh, so that it stands unyielding against the things announced to it and, as it were, casts off what is said, not being molded according to the things announced. For there you will find that the words fit, "They made their faces harder than rock, and they refused to turn back. And I said, Perhaps they are poor, because they did not wish to know the way of the Lord and the judgment of God. I will go to the great ones and speak to them." Having understood these things concerning those who do not wish to be instructed, who take no notice of God's scourges, he speaks having understood the cause of these things. Poor is their soul. "And I said, Perhaps they are poor, because they were not able, because they did not know the way of the Lord and the judgment of God."