A way; that is, from the wicked, who did not walk in the royal way. For such now are the Jews, who transgress the law; wherefore they are said not to pass along, but to pass by, the way. Thus Wisdom in the Proverbs said of the youth deceived by the wicked woman, senseless, passing by the corner of the market, not passing along (Prov. 7. 7–8). 14. *The boar out of the wood hath laid it waste, and the strange wild beast hath devoured it.* Not only is the lion called the devil because of rapacity, nor the dragon because of the venom of his malice, nor other such things brought up in the divine Scriptures; but also the boar, because it revels in the mud of malice, and dwells in the unfruitful wood of wickedness; and "strange," because he alone is said to have carried himself arrogantly against God; "wild," moreover, as being fierce and untractable. This one devours the synagogue of the Jews, from the time that its hedge was destroyed, that is, from the time that Christ abrogated the legal institute; for they are inscribed in the portions of the enemy, because they possess neither the law, nor the altar, nor anything else of those that belonged to the worship of God. 15. *O God of hosts, turn and look from heaven, and see.* Since neither the law nor the prophets converted Israel, he necessarily begs Him to convert, that is, to correct. How is He to convert? By looking from heaven and seeing. When does He not see? But it is at that time that he begs Him to look with greater compassion, that He might confer upon us some benefit greater than before. What is that? It is declared in the following. *And visit this vine, 16. and make it perfect, which thy right hand hath planted, and upon the Son of man, whom thou hast strengthened to thyself.* Thou seest how he requests that God should undertake the office not only of a husbandman, but also of a physician. For it is the part of a physician to visit; which physician visits by himself, in order to make the vine perfect, and to remove the spiritual worm, to prune the redundant branches from which it will not be possible to cull any fruit. But for whose sake? Not of the vine, he says, whose hedge He destroyed, which He delivered to the enemy, but for the sake of the Lordic branch which is to come forth from it. Therefore, when he had said, *Visit this vine*, he subjoined, *And upon the Son of man, whom thou hast strengthened to thyself*; that is, upon account of that Son who is to be born from the Jewish vine, Whom thou hast strengthened for thyself, visit it. For the visitation of the Jewish people was truly the coming of the Only-Begotten, if they had only admitted that visitation. Wherefore John said: *He came into his own, and his own received him not* (John 1. 11); and the Lord Himself, *I am not come but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel* (Matt. 15. 24). 17. *Consumed with fire, and dug up; they shall perish from the rebuke of thy countenance.* Because he compared the synagogue of the Jews to a vine, he rightly divides his discourse, speaking now of the image, now of those very persons for whose sake he assumed the image. Therefore, the vine of the Jews, that is, the synagogue, has been consumed with fire. That is what Christ said: *I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I, but that it be kindled?* (Luke 12. 49). Therefore, a fire was cast, and it was dug up, in order that, upon its being dug up, the foundation hidden in it might be uncovered; of which Isaiah said: *Behold, I will lay in the foundations of Sion a stone, precious, chosen, corner, honorable; and he that believeth in him shall not be confounded* (Isa. 28. 16). Indeed, David also said: *Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem* (Ps. 136. 7); namely, of the Gentiles who said: *Empty it, even to the foundation thereof* (ibid.). For thus far are Jewish affairs dug up by the Gentiles, that is to say, examined and searched, until they have discovered the foundation which they conceal. Therefore, they shall perish from the rebuke of the face of God—understand of Christ. For He rebuked them because, having the keys of knowledge, they neither enter themselves, and those who wish to enter they hinder (Luke 11. 52). 18. *Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, and upon the Son of man, whom thou hast strengthened to thyself. 19. And we will not depart from thee.* He calls Christ the man of his right hand: "man" on account of his human nature; "of his right hand," first indeed because He sits in the right hand of the Father with his flesh; then because He established every creature. He also calls him the Son of man on account of B the flesh, but so that he might think him totally consubstantial with the Father on account of his divinity, he says, *Whom thou hast strengthened to thyself.* For He strengthened him as one who begat him; but He strengthened him to himself, because He begat him of the same power and to be similar in all things. He requests that the hand of the Father be sent upon these, that is, that signs and miracles might proceed unto us; for these are called, now the hand, now the finger of God. Furthermore, he does not request that signs be done upon us any longer through a prophet or any God-bearing man, as through Moses, through Elias, or those like them, but through the Son, promising that, if this be done, we will in no wise depart from him: for we often departed. *Thou shalt vivify us, and we shall call upon thy name.* Thou shalt vivify us by the living water of baptism. For then we call upon his name, called Christians from Christ. 20. *O Lord God of hosts, convert us, and show thy face, and we shall be saved.* These things are frequently said. For the prophet does not supplicate for the present time only: showing that we can be neither converted nor saved in any other way than by the coming of the face of God, that is, of the Word incarnate.
PSALM LXXX
Why did the prophet assign the present psalm to the wine-presses? For he makes no mention here of a wine-press, or of the vintage, or of the firstfruits from the field in any way; but he brings forward Joseph, who was an image and testimony of Christ, who trod the wine-press of torments for us, as he himself taught through the prophecy of Isaiah: *I have trodden the wine-press alone* (Isa. 63. 3). But why does he call torments a wine-press? Because we, drinking the blood flowing from them like must, rejoice. 2. *Rejoice to God our helper; sing aloud to the God of Jacob.* He rightly bids us rejoice in God as a powerful and sincere helper, not in any man: for neither among men is there any power or sincerity; because they are unstable in mind as well as in power. Moreover, he bids us rejoice, as we who are already victors through the help of God. But to which God? To the God of Jacob, he says. He is silent concerning Abraham, he omits Isaac, and remembers only Jacob, as being pertinent to the present matter. But by mentioning jubilation, he signifies that a certain victory or symbol is jubilation. For that victory was prepared for us by the enemy being supplanted through Christ. Therefore, he rightly brings the God of Jacob into the midst, because Jacob signifies "supplanter" (Gen. 27. 36). 3. *Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant psaltery with the harp.* The symbol of the Old Testament is the timbrel, as it emits an unmusical and obscure sound, and because Miriam the sister of Moses played dances before the people of the Jews with a timbrel. The Psalmist also expresses the New Testament: for those who sing psalms emit a clear and distinct voice; for in that way the Gospel follows. Because, therefore, he now addresses the Jewish people, and teaches them about what they ought to rejoice and sing, and what contract they ought to enter into with the Church from the Gentiles, he clearly exhorts them to receive the new and to give them the old; for those things interwoven turn out more useful. For he who has the truth is more filled when he accepts the image; but he who has the image is greatly benefited when he accepts the truth, for whose sake he possesses the image: wherefore he says: *The pleasant psaltery with the harp*, that is, the new with the old: just as Solomon says in the Canticles: *New and old, O my brother, I have kept for thee* (Cant. 7. 13). But why did he compare these to the psaltery and the harp? Because these instruments are related to each other, but have different arrangements of strings; for one is bound from above, the other from below: just as the Old and New Testaments are related to each other, and look to one end, namely, piety; but the commandments of the former incline downward, because of the subtlety of the precepts: those of the latter, however, upward, because of the loftiness and sublimity of those who were disciples of Christ.On the New Moon. 4. Sound the trumpet on the new moon, in the marked day of your festival.
It clearly declares that it was commanded in the Law to sound the trumpet on the new moon, yet not in every month; therefore, David remembered the marked day, wishing to direct the discourse to the first day of the seventh month. For this was marked, that is, distinguished by the Law. And he says thus: "Of the seventh month, on the first day of the month, there shall be a rest for you, a memorial of trumpets" (Lev. 23. 24). Hence the Psalmist now added: 5. "Because it is a precept for Israel, and a judgment for the God of Jacob," showing that he is not innovating the discourse, but is following some ancient legislation. But regarding why he has remembered the present occasion, he surely calls the time of the Savior’s arrival a new moon; for "if any one is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new," as Paul says (2 Cor. 5. 17). By trumpet he means the evangelical discourse; by marked day, the Lord’s Passover. Hence Aquila rendered it "Full Moon," but Symmachus "Monthly," both signifying the fifteenth day of the month. Yet it was not permitted by the Law to sound the trumpet on that day; therefore, he perhaps hints at the day on which Christ suffers for us. For having been handed over on the fourteenth at the time of the typical Passover, He undergoes the cross on the following—that is to say, the fifteenth. He calls that [day] a new moon and a full moon, as the beginning and simultaneously the completion of the time, in which our salvation comes to pass. On it, He commands to sound the trumpet, that is, to preach the Gospel, saying that this is a precept for Israel—and a precept not simply, but a "judgment for the God of Jacob," who, having taken the beginning of His activity from the cross, justified the evangelical preaching; therefore, He said to the apostles: "When I am lifted up, I will draw all men to myself" (John 12. 32). But that he named Christ the "God of Jacob," learn from what follows: 6. "He set it as a testimony in Joseph, when he went out of the land of Egypt." Which God of Jacob? He of whom he spoke before. But how is it a "testimony when he went out of the land of Egypt"? Because Joseph happened to be an image of Christ on account of the envy of his brothers, on account of the sale, on account of the servitude in exchange for liberty, on account of the worship of the stars, and other such things as it is permitted to select from the history concerning him; wishing to show by deed that Joseph was His testimony and monument, and that just as plots followed him, so also they followed Him. After Herod died, who attempted to kill Him, having returned from Egypt, He hides in Galilee for fear of Archelaus, as this one also, after Herod, was about to plot [against Him].2. "He heard a language which he did not know." Which? That of the sycophants, you will say; for this he did not know—not as being ignorant, but as not admitting falsehood into his ears; for such a thing is alien to God. But yet, because He became man, He was compelled to hear [the language] of the sycophants when He was being judged. But this was also a testimony to Joseph, because he too heard the Egyptian woman saying, "Lie with me" (Gen. 39. 7); yet he did not know the language of the one speaking, for he did not consent. "He turned his back away from burdens": he did not carry, he says, the [burden] of sin; for he calls burdens the loads of transgressions, the weight of which David, hinting at them, said: "As a heavy burden they were weighed upon me" (Ps. 37. 5). But Joseph refrained from adultery, and Christ refrained entirely from sin. "His hands served in the basket." Christ served in the present life, which is indeed rightly called a basket, because we carry all things, both good and bad, as if heaped together in a basket, on our shoulders when we travel from here. See, therefore, the accuracy of the prophecy, and marvel how he says concerning the new Joseph—Christ: "He turned his back away from burdens," because He did not bear a personal sin, yet His hands nevertheless served in the basket of the present life; for by carrying the basket of our sins, He served. However, the prophet used a great change of persons in the present psalmODY. For above, he converses with those who have conquered and therefore have a time of festival; thence, shifting, he transferred the discourse and the image to Joseph—to Christ; but now he clearly directs [his address] to the people out of Israel; and he says thus: 8. "In tribulation you called upon me, and I delivered you." Where and when? Surely when He said to Moses: "Seeing I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. For I know their pain, and have come down to deliver them." "I heard you in the secret place of the storm." When He descended upon Mount Sinai, and a murky cloud covered the mountain (such a cloud is called a storm), then He heard them. What were they saying? "The words which the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will hear." But a short while later He caught them lying; for what follows clearly demonstrates this. "I proved you at the water of contradiction." Where, while journeying, they reviled God, and having enjoyed many signs before, forgetting everything, they said to Moses: "Would that we had died by the destruction of our fathers before the Lord," and all that pertains to these things, acknowledging the blasphemy of the Jews. The Psalmist added the *diapsalma* to these verses, not simply, nor in vain, but perhaps having rested/paused the prophecy for some time; but the truer [reason is] because he clearly introduced the person of Christ. "Hear, my people, and I will testify to you." If you wish to be called the people of God, hear His commandment, that you may acquire this great [distinction and] dignity. But it is worth seeing what and which things He testifies. "Israel, if you will hear me, there shall be no new god for you, nor shall you worship a strange god. For I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt." The phrase "If you will hear me" was commanded for this reason: in order to show that while He foreknew their lawlessness, He did not for this reason destroy their power to change. For it was permitted [to them], if they had wished; and God’s foreknowledge does not harm repentance, since He also foreknows this, that it is possible for sinners to change if they wish. But yet, what new and mysterious thing does the prophet hint at? Or rather, God through the prophet? For what does He testify to the people of the Jews? That if they would hear Him. Him, whom? Was not Joseph a testimony, whose hands served in the basket? There shall not be a new god among them, nor shall they worship a strange god. For Christ was not a new god, nor a strange one; but He was the one who led them out of the land of Egypt; He was from the beginning, He was also after these things, as He made plain through the prophecy of Isaiah; for He says: "I am the first God, and there is no other besides me" (Is. 44. 6). And the Savior, without any contradiction, who was incarnate in order to save our race, is called [God]. 743 "Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it." Why does He not say your ears, nor your heart, but your mouth? Because the Word who descended from the heavens was the bread of life; and whoever opened his mouth wide through gratitude and received Him, became full of theology. "And my people did not hear my voice, and Israel did not heed me." For they did not endure to hear [Him] teaching or preaching the Gospel, nor were they willing to heed [Him] performing miracles; but they weighed down their ears, that they might not hear the commandments of the Lord: "They closed their eyes," as Isaiah said (Cap. 6. v. 10), that they might not see the signs. What then have they suffered for these things? "And I sent them away according to the devices of their hearts; they will walk in their own devices." By "devices of the hearts" he means the varied thoughts, and the methods of the reasonings, which the Jewish people used in plotting against the Lord, when they said: "What shall we do, for this man does many signs? If we let him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." According to this device, then, and according to this counsel, they were sent away and went; for the Romans took away both their city and their place, and they themselves went away as captives. "If my people had heard me, if Israel had walked in my ways, I would have humbled their enemies in nothing, and I would have laid my hand upon those who afflict them." He laments the people of the Jews, because while God was legislating, they did not hear, because they did not walk in His ways—the ways of Him who is unerring and saves; nor did He allow their enemies—the demons—to be humbled, nor [did He allow] the hand of God to be laid upon those who afflict them. God did indeed lay His own right hand upon [the invisible] enemies…
the persecuting enemies, and humiliated those who do not fall under our sight; yet not for the sake of the Jews: for the horn of the demons is still exalted over them; but they were humiliated for the sake of us Gentiles, who have denied them our servitude and destroyed their worship. Therefore, God, being angered with the Jews, set them as His own enemies, as the following points out: 16. The enemies of the Lord have lied to Him, and their time shall be for the ages. Which enemies? Those of whom Paul spoke: The enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction (Phil. 3:18-19). And therefore, he threatened that their time, that is, of the vengeance to be inflicted upon them, would be in the future age. And in what did they lie? Because He came unto them as to His own, and His own, as John says, did not receive Him (John 1:11). Moreover, He reproaches them, narrating the benefits with which they were gifted while remaining ungrateful, indicating this through sensible things by means of spiritual ones. For he calls grain "fat" because of the Spirit inhabiting the letter: wherefore in another Psalm he says, Who makes your borders peace, and satisfies you with the fat of grain (Ps. 147:14). What that is, he teaches in the following: Who sends forth His word to the earth (ibid. v. 15). For he calls the prophets "honey from the rock," since they have prophecy from Christ, who is the rock, with which God sated them, providing not one prophet or another, but many throughout many generations.