Commentary on the Prophet Isaiah

OF OUR HOLY FATHER CYRIL, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, COMMENTARY ON THE PROPHET ISAIAH. BOOK I. SIX ORATIONS.

PROOEMIUM.

^A The discourse of the holy prophets is ever obscure, and filled with hidden meanings, and it brings forth for us the prediction of divine mysteries. For Christ is the end of the law and the prophets, as it is written. I affirm, however, that those who desire to make clear the breadth of these doctrines, so concise and enigmatic, must hasten to contemplate them with the eye of the mind; and most prudently, they must examine both the exact accuracy of the history and the interpretation of the spiritual sense, so that from every side there may result for those who read them a benefit, and the explanation of the matters under consideration may appear so complete that nothing is found to be lacking. I know, indeed, that some have already written upon these matters in the past, and have produced extensive discourses concerning them; and I think that this alone is sufficient to provide others with a not-unworthy excuse for hesitation, and to persuade them to choose to remain silent rather than to say nothing new in relation to what others have already spoken, but rather to repeat the same things and persist in the same observations. But since, even if this should happen to occur, there would be no harm at all, and since listeners may be confirmed in the truth through the agreement of many, I have resolved even now to shake off my leisure, believing that for the sake of ^B good things...

sweat and labor are better than the laziness of sleeping. I have not entirely despaired of being able at times to discover something new and varied, since God expands this path and way of reflection. For it is written: “Thy commandment is exceeding broad” (Ps. CXVII, 96).

^B The blessed Isaiah therefore prophesied in the times of the reigns of Uzziah, and Jotham, and Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Come, let us call to mind the times of each, and let us recount briefly and concisely how each lived. For from this we shall see that the prophetic word is suitable and most appropriate to the events and the times themselves. Uzziah, therefore, who is also called Azariah, was a pious man, and he advanced in such amplitude and power that he subdued the nations bordering on Judea, and imposed tributes upon many, and brought them under his own scepter by necessity; he rebuilt cities, and took others, and joined them to the borders of the land of the Jews. But at length he suffered something human. For, overcome by this immoderate affluence and grandeur of glory, he became in a certain way high-minded, and being seized by the disease of pride, he set himself even against the divine law, inasmuch as he thought he should be adorned and crowned with the prerogatives of the divine priesthood. For he attempted to break into the temple of God, and to burn incense to God himself, and to perform the things prescribed in the law in a manner contrary to the law. And for this reason he was immediately struck with leprosy, and became most contemptible; for he who is held by the disease of leprosy is accursed according to the law.

After Uzziah, his son Jotham succeeded to the kingdom, a man indeed pious, yet he did not tear down the high places, but the Israelites still sacrificed to the works of their own hands, occupying the mountains and the hills, under the oak and the poplar and the shady tree, because it is a good shadow, as Hosea says (Osee IV, 15). ^C When Jotham was dead, Ahaz took up the scepter, a man most execrable, abhorring divine religion, and covered in every kind of wickedness. He closed the temple of God itself, and forbade them to worship the God of the universe with sacrifices according to the prescription of the law, and prohibited the feasts of the Jews that were celebrated according to custom, and having erected altars in every place in Jerusalem, he ordered them to adore things made by hand and to venerate the host of heaven; and moreover, he led his own children through the fire, that is, he burned them in sacrifice to impure demons, and, to speak concisely and at once, he wallowed in every kind of impiety.

After him reigned Hezekiah, a man pious and religious, an administrator of equity and goodness, a follower of every good thing, and a worker of the divine will. He commanded all things to be done and to be valid which were contrary to the prevarications of Ahaz, as one who opened the doors of the temple, and established that sacrifices and libations be offered to God, so that He might be honored with legal ministries; and indeed he also took care that the law of the Passover, long ^D interrupted, should be recalled and renewed; and he cut down the altars made by hand: the soothsayers and false

tὸν ἐπὶ τῷ Πάσχα νόμον ἀνανεώσασθαι ὁρᾶται. Καθεῖλε τεμένη, καὶ βωμούς, καὶ χειρόκμητα, γνώστας τε καὶ ψευδομάντεις, καὶ τὰς τῶν ἐπῳδῶν ἀγέλας ἠρεμεῖν ἐκέλευσε, καὶ ἦν ἀνὴρ ἀγαθὸς ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς τοῦ Θεοῦ. Οὐκοῦν ἐπειδήπερ ἐν καιροῖς βασιλείας τῶν ἀρτίως ἡμῖν εἰρημένων, ποτὲ μὲν ὠξύνετο πρὸς ὀργὰς ὁ τῶν ὅλων Θεός, εἰδωλολατροῦντος τοῦ Ἰσραήλ· ποτὲ δὲ καὶ ἐμαλάσσετο πρὸς τὸ ἥμερον, μεταπλαττομένου πρὸς εὐσέβειαν διὰ τῆς τοῦ κρατοῦντος ἐπιεικείας· ταύτῃ τοι μέμικται τῆς προφητείας ὁ λόγος, καὶ πλείστην μὲν ὅσην ἔσθ' ὅτε ποιεῖται τὴν ἀπειλήν, ὡς δυσσεβοῦντος τοῦ Ἰσραήλ, ὑποσχέσεως δὲ τῆς ἐπ' ἀγαθοῖς εἰσκομίζει λόγον. Διαμέμνηται δὲ πανταχοῦ τῆς διὰ τοῦ Χριστοῦ λυτρώσεως, καὶ φησὶν ὅτι κατὰ καιροὺς μὲν ἔσται τῆς πρὸς Θεὸν οἰκειότητος ἀπόπεμπτος ὁ Ἰσραήλ, εἰσδεχθήσεται δὲ τῶν ἐθνῶν ἡ πληθὺς δικαιουμένη διὰ τῆς πίστεως τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ. Ὥστε μοι δοκεῖ στεφανοῦν εὖ μάλα τὸν μακάριον προφήτην Ἠσαΐαν, οὐχὶ τῇ τῆς προφητείας χάριτι μόνῃ, ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ τοῖς ἀποστολικοῖς αὐχήμασιν. Ἐν ταὐτῷ γάρ ἐστιν προφήτης τε ἅμα, καὶ ἀπόστολος, καὶ τῆς τῶν εὐαγγελικῶν κηρυγμάτων λαμπρότητος οὐκ ἠμοιρηκότας τοὺς τῆς ἑαυτοῦ συγγραφῆς ποιήσεται λόγους.

ΛΟΓΟΣ Α'

^A Ὅρασις ἣν εἶδεν Ἠσαΐας υἱὸς Ἀμώς, ἣν εἶδε κατὰ τῆς Ἰουδαίας, καὶ κατὰ Ἱερουσαλὴμ ἐν βασιλείᾳ Οὐζίου, καὶ Ἰωάθαμ, καὶ Ἄχαζ, καὶ Ἐζεκίου οἱ ἐβασίλευσαν τῆς Ἰουδαίας.

Οὐκ ἂν οἶμαι διαψεύσαιτό τις ἐκεῖνο εἰπὼν περὶ τῶν ἁγίων προφητῶν, ὡς οὐ μόνην ἐδέχοντο τῶν ἐσομένων τὴν γνῶσιν, καταλαμπρύνοντος τὸ χρῆμα αὐτοῖς τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος, καὶ ἐνηχοῦντος εἰς νοῦν, ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ αὐτῶν ἔσθ' ὅτε τῶν πραγμάτων εἰπὼν ὅτι ἐγίνοντο θεωροί. ^B Ἔοικε τοίνυν ὁ μακάριος προφήτης Ἠσαΐας τοῖς τῆς διανοίας ὄμμασι τὰ κατὰ καιροὺς ἐσόμενα κατὰ τῆς Ἰουδαίας τεθεᾶσθαι πάθη, τοῦτο μὲν τὰς τῶν πολεμίων φάλαγγας καταδραμούσας τὴν γῆν, τοῦτο δὲ τὰς πόλεις ἠρημωμένας, καὶ οἴκους ἐμπιπραμένους, καὶ ὅσα τοῖς τοῦ πολέμου νόμοις πράττεται παρ' ἐχθρῶν· ταύτῃ τοι προγέγραπται τῆς προφητείας· «Ὅρασις ἣν εἶδεν Ἠσαΐας υἱὸς Ἀμώς, κατὰ τῆς Ἰουδαίας καὶ κατὰ Ἱερουσαλήμ.» Ἐπισημαίνεται δὲ χρησίμως τοὺς τῶν βασιλέων καιρούς, ἵνα φαίνηται Θεὸς προσφόρως τοῖς ἑκάστου τρόποις τὰ ἐν τῷ προφήτῃ λαλῶν.

«Ἄκουε, οὐρανέ, καὶ ἐνωτίζου, γῆ, ὅτι Κύριος ἐλάλησεν, Υἱοὺς ἐγέννησα καὶ ὕψωσα, αὐτοὶ δέ με ἠθέτησαν. Ἔγνω βοῦς τὸν κτησάμενον, καὶ ὄνος τὴν φάτνην τοῦ κυρίου αὐτοῦ· Ἰσραὴλ δέ με οὐκ ἔγνω, καὶ ὁ λαός με οὐ συνῆκεν.»

^C Τί τὸ χρῆμα, τίς ὁ λόγος, καὶ τί ἂν βούλοιτο δηλοῦν περιαθρεῖν ἀναγκαῖον. Διαμαρτύρεται γὰρ ὥσπερ οὐρανόν τε καὶ γῆν ὁ μακάριος προφήτης, καὶ τοῦτο πράττων οὐκ ἀθεεί, πλὴν οὐκ ἰδίους, Θεοῦ δὲ μᾶλλον εἶναι τοὺς λόγους φησίν. Ὅτι πάντη τε καὶ πάντως πρὸς πέρας ἐκβήσονται διὰ τούτου σημαίνων, καὶ τοῖς τοῦ παθεῖν δείμασι καταπτοῶν τοὺς ἀκροωμένους. Ἀμήχανον γὰρ ψευδοεπῆσαι Θεόν· ὁμοῦ δὲ κἀκεῖνο, καθάπερ ἐγᾦμαι, κατασκευάζων. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἔμελλεν τὰς κατὰ τῆς Ἰουδαίας

Ἰουδαίας ^A Ἱερουσαλήμ προαγορεύσεις ποιεῖσθαι, καὶ τὰ λόγου παντὸς ἐπέκεινα προκαταμηνύσειν πάθη, καὶ τὰς ἀνηκέστους συμφοράς, οὐκ ἠγνόησεν ὅτι πάντη τε καὶ πάντως ἀκονηθήσονται πρὸς ὀργὰς οἱ πρὸς οὓς ὁ λόγος. Κύριον τοίνυν τὰ τοιάδε πρὸς αὐτοὺς λαλῆσαι φησιν, τὸν τῶν ἀνοσίων θυμὸν εὐτεχνέστατα διωθούμενος, καὶ οἷον ἐκδυσωπῶν τὰς ἀδίκους ὀργάς. Εἰ γὰρ παρελήφθη μεσίτης καὶ διάκονος, καὶ τοὺς ἄνωθεν καὶ παρὰ Θεοῦ διαπορθμεύοι λόγους, πῶς ἂν ἐπ' αὐτῷ δικαίως ὀργίζοιτό τις; μᾶλλον δὲ, πῶς οὐχὶ κατὰ Θεοῦ τοῦ λελαληκότος τὰ ἐξ ὀργῆς γένοιτ' ἂν δυσεβῆ τολμήματα. Διαμαρτύρεται τοίνυν σφόδρα εἰκότως οὐρανόν τε καὶ γῆν; Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἔμελλε τὰς κατὰ τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ ποιεῖσθαι μομφὰς, καὶ ἀγγέλους εἰδέναι βούλεται τοὺς κατ' οὐρανὸν, καὶ αὐτὴν δὲ τὴν σύμπασαν γῆν, τῆς ἐκείνου δυσσεβείας τοὺς τρόπους, ἵνα μή τις οἴηται κεκινῆσθαι μάτην ἢ καὶ προαλῶσι ἐπὶ μικροῖς τε καὶ εὐτελεστάτοις πταίσμασιν, ἀπόβλητον ποιεῖσθαι τὴν ἠγαπημένον, καὶ εἰς κλῆρον αὐτῷ τεθέντα λαὸν, καὶ τὸ πάλαι διὰ πολλῆς ἄγαν ἰσχύος, τῆς τῶν Αἰγυπτίων πλεονεξίας ἐξῃρημένον. Ἠλέησε μὲν γὰρ ὡς ἀδικούμενον παρά τε τὸ εἰκὸς, καὶ τὴν τοῖς πατράσι πρέπουσάν τε καὶ ἐνοῦσαν εὐγένειαν, ἀβουλήτῳ θητεία κατηχθισμένους. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἀντέπραττον οἱ πλεονεκτήσαντες, ἐκολάζοντο πικρῶς, πάντα τρόπον αὐτοῖς αἰκίας ἐπιῤῥιπτοῦντος Θεοῦ. Ὥσπερ τοίνυν ἐπισημοτάτη γέγονεν ἡ πρόσληψις τοῖς ἐξ Ἰσραήλ, οὕτω βούλεται καὶ τὸν τῆς ἀποβολῆς μὴ ἀγνοεῖσθαι τρόπον. Εἰ δὲ δὴ βούλοιντό τινες καὶ αὐτὰ καλεῖσθαι τὰ στοιχεῖα διὰ τῆς τοῦ προφήτου φωνῆς, οὐκ ἂν ἁμάρτοι τοῦ πρέποντος λόγου τῶν ἐννοιῶν ἡ δύναμις, ἐκεῖνο διεσκεμμένοις. ^B Ἐλυτροῦτο μὲν γὰρ, ὡς ἔφην, τῆς Αἰγυπτίων ἀνοσιότητος διὰ Μωσέως ὁ Ἰσραήλ. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ τοῖς τοῦ Θεοῦ νεύμασιν ἀνοσίως ἀντανιστάμενος ἔφασκεν ὁ Φαραώ, Οὐκ οἶδα τὸν Κύριον, καὶ τὸν Ἰσραὴλ οὐκ ἀποστελῶ, συνωπλίζετο τῷ ἰδίῳ δεσπότῃ κατὰ τῶν ἀπεχθούντων ἡ κτίσις. Ἄνωθεν μὲν γὰρ καὶ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ πλεῖστά τε ὅσα καὶ περιφανῆ γεγόνασι σημεῖα, πλεῖστα δὲ ὁμοίως καὶ οὐκ ἀθαύμαστα ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ γῇ. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ οὐρανὸς καθίει τὴν χάλαζαν, ἡ δὲ γῆ βατράχους ἐξέῤῥιψε, καθὰ γέγραπται· καὶ τὸ μὲν ὕδωρ εἰς αἷμα μετεσκευάζετο, αἰθάλης δὲ καμιναίας κατασκιδναμένης, καὶ τὸν ἀέρα θολούσης, ἕλκη καὶ φλυκτίδες ἀναζέουσαι ἐν τοῖς πάντων συνέβαινε σώμασιν. Ὡς οὖν καὶ αὐτῶν τῶν στοιχείων μονονουχὶ μάτην ἐπὶ τοῖς λελυτρωμένοις πεπονηκότων, «Ἄκουε, οὐρανέ, φησὶν, καὶ ἐνωτίζου, γῆ, ὅτι Κύριος ἐλάλησεν.» Προσβαλοῦμεν δὲ καὶ ἑτέρως ταῖς τῶν προκειμένων ἐννοίαις. ^C Ἀτιμήσαντες μὲν γὰρ τὴν διὰ νόμου παίδευσιν οἱ ἐξ Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ τῶν σωτηρίων μαθημάτων ὀλιγωρήσαντες τὸν ἕνα τε καὶ φύσει καταλελοιπότες Θεὸν τοῖς ἀκαθάρτοις δαίμοσιν τὰς θεραπείας προσήγον ἐν ὄρεσι καὶ βουνοῖς, καὶ ἐν ταῖς εὐδενδροτάταις φάραγξιν τεθυμιάκασί τε καὶ προσεκυνήκασι τοῖς ἔργοις τῶν ἰδίων χειρῶν. Καὶ ἠγανάκτει μὲν ἐπὶ τούτοις, καὶ μάλα εἰκότως, ὁ τῶν ὅλων Θεός, ἔφη δὲ πρὸς ἕνα τῶν ἁγίων προφητῶν·

προφητῶν· ^A «Ἀνάστηθι καὶ κρίθητι πρὸς τὰ ὄρη, καὶ ἀκουσάτω ^B οἱ βουνοὶ τὴν φωνήν σου. Ἀκούσατε, βουνοί, τὴν κρίσιν τοῦ Κυρίου, καὶ αἱ φάραγγες, θεμέλια τῆς γῆς, ὅτι κρίσις τῷ Κυρίῳ πρὸς τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ, καὶ μετὰ τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ διελεγχθήσεται.» Καὶ οὔτι που φαμὲν ὅτι πρός γε τὰ ὄρη καὶ τοὺς βουνοὺς γέγονεν ἡ κρίσις τῷ Κυρίῳ διὰ τῆς τοῦ προφήτου φωνῆς, ἐδικάζετο δὲ μᾶλλον τῷ πρὸς αὐτὴν τὴν ἀσέβειαν τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ τοῖς ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσι καὶ βουνοῖς καὶ νάπαις. Ἠλέγχετο γὰρ ἀμετρίως δεδυσσεβηκώς, καὶ βωμοὺς καὶ τεμένη κατασκευάσας ἐκεῖ τοῖς ἀκαθάρτοις δαίμοσιν. Οὐκοῦν ἐπειδήπερ οἱ ἐξ Ἰσραὴλ τῆς εἰς Θεὸν αἰδοῦς ἀλογήσαντες προσεκύνησαν τῇ στρατιᾷ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, ἡλίῳ τε φημὶ καὶ σελήνῃ, δεχόμενοι δὲ καὶ τὴν ἐκ γῆς ὕλην, ξύλα τέ φημι καὶ λίθους, ἐποίησαν ἑαυτοῖς εἴδωλα κατὰ τὸ ἑκάστῳ δοκοῦν, οἰκονομώτατα λίαν τὴν ἐν τούτοις αὐτῶν ἀσέβειαν ὑπαινίττεται, καὶ οἷον εἰς ἔλεγχον καὶ ἀπόδειξιν οὐρανόν τε καὶ γῆν εἰς μέσον ὥσπερ παρακομίζει λέγων, «Ἄκουε, οὐρανέ, καὶ ἐνωτίζου, γῆ, ὅτι Κύριος ἐλάλησεν.»

Καὶ καθ' ἕτερον δὲ τρόπον, πολλοὺς εἶναι φαμὲν τοὺς πατέρας ἐν οὐρανῷ, τοὺς πνευματικοὺς δῆλον ὅτι· πολλοὺς δὲ ὁμοίως καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, τοῦτο μὲν σαρκικούς, τοῦτο δὲ πνευματικούς. Ἀλλὰ τούτοις μὲν ἅπασι τοῖς πατράσι τοῖς ἄνω τε καὶ κάτω παρὰ τῶν ὑπὸ χεῖρα τέκνων προσάγονται τιμαί. Χαίρουσι δὲ λίαν οἱ τετιμημένοι, καὶ οὐδεὶς ἐστιν ἐν αὐτοῖς, ὃς οὐ πάντῃ τε καὶ πάντως ποιεῖται δυσφόρητον τὸ ἀχαριστεῖσθαι παρὰ τῶν τέκνων. Ὁ δὴ πεπονθὼς ὁ τῶν ὅλων Θεός, τούς τε ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς πατέρας διαμαρτύρεται λέγων· «Ἄκουε, οὐρανέ, καὶ ἐνωτίζου, γῆ, ὅτι Κύριος ἐλάλησεν· Υἱοὺς ἐγέννησα καὶ ὕψωσα, αὐτοὶ δέ με ἠθέτησαν.» Εἰσδεχθεὶς γὰρ ὁ Ἰσραὴλ διὰ τῆς χάριτος, καὶ τῆς τοῖς τέκνοις πρεπούσης ἠξιωμένος φειδοῦς, γεγεννῆσθαι λέγεται παρὰ Θεοῦ, τῆς ἀληθοῦς καὶ πνευματικῆς ἀναγεννήσεως ἐφ' ἡμῖν ἐκπεπερασμένης. Διὰ πίστεως δὲ δῆλον ὅτι τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ· γεγεννήμεθα γὰρ ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ πνεύματος, καὶ δέδοται μὲν τοῖς ἀρχαιοτέροις πνεῦμα δουλείας, εἰ καὶ πρωτότοκος ἦν καὶ ὠνόμασται λαός. Ἡμῖν δὲ, τῆς υἱοθεσίας ὄνομά τε καὶ πνεῦμα, κεχάρισται ὁ Θεός. «Ὅτι γάρ ἐστε,» φησίν, «υἱοί, ἐξαπέστειλεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ Υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ, εἰς τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν, κράζον· Ἀββὰ ὁ πατήρ.» Γεγέννηκα γάρ, φησίν, υἱοὺς, καὶ οὐ διὰ τοῦτο μόνον, ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ ὕψωσα, τοῦτ' ἔστιν, ἀνέθρεψα. Τοῦτο γὰρ ἡ τῶν ἑτέρων μηνυτῶν ἐπίδοσις ἔχει. Λελυτρωμένος γὰρ ὁ Ἰσραήλ, οὐκ ἀνεπικούρητος ἦν μετὰ τοῦτο, καὶ ἀγάπης ἔρημος τῆς παρὰ Θεοῦ. Τέθραπτο γὰρ καθάπερ τις υἱὸς ἐκ φιλόπαιδος ἀληθῶς καὶ φιλοστοργωτάτου πατρός, «Ἄρτον γὰρ οὐρανοῦ,» φησίν, «ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς, ἄρτον ἀγγέλων ἔφαγεν ἄνθρωπος.» Ἐτρέφετο δὲ ἑτέρως καὶ εἰς εὐεξίαν πνευματικὴν διὰ τῆς ἐννόμως σοφίας καὶ προφητικῶν παιδευμάτων, ἀποκομιζόντων ἀστείως εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν ἀληθείας, τοῦτ' ἔστι Χριστοῦ. Γράφει γοῦν ὁ Παῦλος, «Ὥστε ὁ νόμος παιδαγωγὸς ἡμῶν γέγονεν εἰς Χριστόν.»

Χριστόν.» ^A But he rejected Him who begat him. And what could the manner of this rejection be? For he turned aside to the desire of worshiping those who are not gods by nature, and he fell sick in another way as well, with much that is headstrong, and that which is still further beyond these into absurdity, in that he did not even imitate the goodwill of the irrational animals, which they might have toward their masters. Therefore He says: "The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel does not know me, and the people does not understand me." For if a man should buy an ox, he will certainly have it for the most useful tasks of husbandry, whether he wants to plow the land, or to thresh on the threshing floor, and to separate the chaff from the wheat. And if someone also buys an ass, he too is called by natural impulses to obedience, and he makes his subjection as a sort of recompense for those things that lie in the manger for him. For he carries a burden willingly, and becomes a companion and participant in his master's labor. But these things are so in these cases. Whereas wise Israel, instructed in the pedagogy of the Law, so that he might understand what is in accordance with the fact, taught by the majesty of God through many and admirable signs, proves himself inferior to the ass and the ox, and, surpassed by brutes in gentleness and honesty, knew not the Lord. ^B Rightly, indeed, did He say: "He knew not, he understood not." For although, as I said, he had learned the glory and majesty of God, yet because he had fallen into a certain unbridled perversity, he was for that reason not unlike him who had not known. For if this were not truly so, he would by no means have said to wood: "You are my God," and to a stone: "You have begotten me." Whence, He says: "The heaven was astonished at this, and shuddered exceedingly, says the Lord. For my people have committed two evil things: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have hewn out for themselves broken cisterns, which will not be able to hold water." Yet it would be fitting for Christ Himself also to say regarding them: "But Israel does not know me, and my people does not understand." For the ancient redemption also took place through Him. And the Law was set until the time of reformation, as it is written. But since it was impossible for the shadow to justify us, the only-begotten Word of God appeared to us in the flesh, that He might justify by faith those approaching Him, and deliver them from death and sin. ^C But Israel did not understand Him, even though He said clearly: "Amen, amen, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes Him who sent me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." ^D "Woe, sinful nation, a people full of sins, a wicked seed, lawless children; you have forsaken the Lord, and provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger." Having very well proclaimed the manner of the rejection, and having demonstrated the magnitude of the irrationality residing in them, He straightway transfers the discourse partly to the proclamation of their misery, and partly to their terrifying. For it is fitting, I think, for the prophetic person above all to almost lament them, and out of excessive zeal for piety to rise up and say: Woe to the wicked nation, to the people burdened with vices, se-

ed and lawless children. ^A It follows entirely for those who wish to reject me, the Giver of all good things to us, God, that they must have sin that cannot be washed away, and be burdened with terrible, inescapable accusations. For rejection always in some way brings about the disease of defection and apostasy, a migration into every kind of foulness. And this is why he immediately added, "You have forsaken the Lord." He calls them a "wicked seed," not as if they were such by nature or were created as such, but because from wicked fathers they have become wicked children, according to the voice of John; for he spoke to those very scribes and Pharisees coming to the baptism of repentance: "Brood of vipers." ^B For the first fathers, from the beginning, were admittedly holy, but those who followed them were most wicked. Being nurtured, therefore, in the customs of their fathers, and emulating ancestral impiety, he not undeservedly called them a wicked seed. For they have forsaken the Lord, and they did not cease from provoking the Holy One of Israel, that is, Christ. For they did not understand the mystery concerning Him. And therefore, they have remained in the fullness of their own sins. And this is what Christ also said to them: "Amen, amen, I say to you, if you do not believe that I am, you shall die in your sins." Israel, then, is full of sins, and has arrived at such a degree of worthlessness that it is proper for him to be punished. For they, too, have filled up the measure of their own fathers, according to the voice of the Savior. For God tolerates the contempt of transgressors up to a certain time and measure; but when they have already reached the fullness and maturity of sin known and perceived by Him, He inflicts punishment, and punishes the disobedient in proportion to their offenses. ^C And so the prophet Zechariah, having observed a measure, asked the blessed angel what this measure was that was going forth. And he said to him, "This is their iniquity in all the earth." Israel, therefore, remained with an indelible sin, and did not wish to receive the purification through Christ; nay, rather, he even forsook Him, both by not accepting the faith which is in Him, and in addition to this, by saying, "Away, away, crucify him," and, "We have no king but Caesar."

"Why should you still be struck, adding to your iniquity? Every head is for pain, and every heart for grief; ^D from the feet even to the head, there is no soundness in them, neither wound, nor bruise, nor festering sore; there is no poultice to apply, nor oil, nor bandages."

He speaks as if the Jewish society were one body, of the wicked, I say, both the great and those of middle rank. He seems to call the head the one adorned with the prerogatives of the kingdom, but the heart the holy and chosen tribe, that is, the Levitical one, as being instructed in the law and bearing the care of the whole body. "For the lips of the priest," he says, "shall guard judgment, and they shall seek the law from his mouth."

^A He says that those in the "feet" are they who are in the lowest place, and who possess, as it were, the bottom-most rank among the people. Since, therefore, the land of the Jews had already endured an untolerable calamity—ravaged at one time by the Babylonians, at another by the neighboring nations—and was destined to be burned by the hands of the Romans because of its impiety toward Christ; and since the kingdom among them was to be overturned (for those of another race had subdued them), and the works of the priesthood among them were to cease, with sacrifices overthrown, the temple razed, and no altars remaining—nor any priesthood, nor declarations, according to the voice of the prophet—on this account He says: "Why should you be stricken anymore, adding rebellion?" ^B He says that every kind of wrath and torment from God has been inflicted upon you, as He demanded fearful and successive punishments, one upon another; yet you are no less contemptuous and foster-children of iniquity. "Why then should you be stricken anymore?" What measure of torment will be sufficient for your amendment? And, in short, what bitterness, what calamity could be brought upon you that has not already occurred? "Every head is in pain, and every heart in sorrow, from the feet to the head." For those who possessed royal dignity have suffered not moderately, being unable to withstand the assaults of the enemies. The priests were also affected with grief, and afflicted because of their sacrifices, as I said, having been done away with. The "feet" were also smitten—that is, the ones who were at the extreme end and below. This, partly by being consumed by the swords of the enemy, partly by being worn down by famine and barrenness, and brought to the test of extreme misery. ^C Therefore He says, "There is no plaster to apply, nor oil, nor bandages." For when certain wounds are proportionate to the human body, and the damage affects only one member, then the contrivances of those who know how to heal are useful—such as a plaster, and bandages, and the anointing of oil, relaxing the parts that are tense. But when the whole body is sick and is corrupting itself, what mode of healing can benefit it? For the magnitude of the disease utterly defeats the power of any medical aid. The multitude of the Jews, therefore, having fallen into wounds and suffering intolerably from the things born of wrath, perished utterly, with no means helping them. Wherefore the divine prophets also used to say: "We have treated Babylon, and she is not healed; we have left her." ^D For to Babylon is the city of the nations likened; although it was called a holy city, it was compared to her, most of all because of its impiety toward Christ, and because they filled it with things made by hands, so that in no way did it depart from the custom and institution of Babylon, which is also called the city of carved images.

VERS. 7. *Your land is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers devour it before you. And it is desolate, destroyed by alien peoples.*

What seemed somewhat more obscure than it ought to have been stated, He now makes plain and open. For what does this mean, "There is no plaster to apply, nor oil, nor bandages"?

^A He interprets clearly that their land has been laid waste, saying that their cities have been burned, and that they have fallen under the power of enemies, and to such an extent that they were almost rooted up from their very foundations. Many times, indeed, it happened that Judea was captured by the Assyrians and Egyptians, by the Syrians and Moabites, by the Idumeans and by those called Philistines, or Palestinians. But having suffered only slightly, and having fallen into calamities that were sometimes moderate, it rose up again with God assisting, and He himself also striking the one who had struck it. But it perished totally after the cross of the Savior, when Vespasian and Titus ravaged it. For then it came to pass that cities were burned, the entire region was rendered empty of inhabitants and desolate, and fell into the hands of the conquerors; and what is most miserable of all, in their very sight—being present, that is, watching and grieving—the land was subject to others, and in a way eaten away and consumed. For to hear of it while absent might perhaps have caused them a bearable grief; but to see it while present, and then to be able to offer no help, and to groan over the necessary calamities, is something altogether insufferable and truly very grievous. ^B Therefore, we must not provoke the Holy One of Israel, lest we fall into visible and invisible enemies who bring us down into shameful passions, and overthrow every fortress of the mind that is in us, so as to graze upon the wretched soul in a way, and consume all its fruits, so that it is found to be like a dry and ignoble and thorny land, whose end is for burning, according to the word of blessed Paul.

VERS. 8. *The daughter of Sion shall be left as a booth in a vineyard, and as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.*

A miserable thing indeed; for who would not be worthy of lament and wailing? For that which was formerly a daughter, and honored by such a title, and living as it were under God, a most affectionate Father, and being, so to speak, inebriated by His mercy and love, and crowned by Him with the most noble lot, by which it subjugated enemies, and was filled and surrounded by an innumerable multitude of inhabitants—that most blessed and renowned ^C Sion, that is to say, Jerusalem—shall, He says, be left. That is to say, it will be desolate. And it shall remain exposed, stripped both of the power of the Savior and of its inhabitants. And it shall be left in such a way, as a booth in a vineyard, and as a lodge in a cucumber patch, and as a besieged city. For those who are appointed as guards of vineyards, while the clusters of grapes are still flourishing, take the greatest possible care, and they defy the robbers who want to pick them, and they drive away the kinds of wild beasts. It is the custom to do this also for the watchers, or rather the masters, of the cucumber patches. But when the clusters have been gathered in and trodden, and the produce has been removed from the cucumber patches, the diligence of the watchmen is later relaxed; and they, abandoning their shelters, grant free power of incursion to those who wish...

to meddle with the remainder. The prophetic word teaches us that something of this sort also befell the wretched Zion. For while she still possessed the fruits of righteousness, God deemed her worthy of safety, protection, and every mercy. For He said: “I will be unto her, saith the Lord, a wall of fire round about, and I will be glory in the midst of her.” ^A For the blessed David also sings: “Behold, He shall not slumber nor sleep, who keeps Israel.” But since, although Israel had become the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth, it was hedged about and deemed worthy of a fence, yet it brought forth thorns, it was handed over by God to the oppressors; for He says: “I will take away the fence thereof, and it shall be for plunder; and I will tear down the wall thereof, and it shall be for trampling, and I will abandon my vineyard; and it shall not be pruned, nor shall it be dug.” Therefore, a boar from the forest ravaged it, and a wild ass grazed upon it; and that God abandoned the vineyard and left it behind, the Savior teaches, saying: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” ^B And through the voice of the prophet He cried out this beforehand, saying: “I have abandoned my house, I have left my heritage; I have given the soul that I love into the hands of her enemies. My heritage has become unto me as a lion in the forest; it has lifted up its voice against me; therefore I have hated it.” Josephus, too, who recounted the tragedies of the evils in the land of the Jews, mentions somewhere that when Jerusalem was about to be captured, the priests heard in the temple a voice, as it were of angels crying out in it: “Let us depart from hence.” But that during the siege of a city, a way of flight is sought by all who are in it, who can doubt? From this one can infer what the evils of the Jewish land were. For to those besieged, it seemed most desirable only to be able to save their own lives. But of their home and possessions, or even of the city itself, there was no concern for them at all. ^C Furthermore, it should be known that the human soul is abandoned by God in many ways: if it does not choose to correct what has been prescribed, and to bow its neck to the commandments of the Master, and to bring forth the fruits of piety. For if any one of us has been upright from the beginning, if he has been named a son or daughter of God, if he has even become a Sion—that is, a watchtower—that is, possessing a lofty intellect and a most pure mind, and one capable of viewing mysteries; and then if he is seen doing what is not lawful, and provoking the Holy One of Israel: he shall be abandoned by Him, and like an unguarded vineyard, he shall be handed over to Satan and to the passions of the flesh, and he shall be shown to be destitute of all virtue, and naked of the adornments of a good way of life and conduct, and laden with every evil. ^D Verse 9. And unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us

^A a seed, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been made like unto Gomorrah. The land having been set on fire because of the impiety against Christ, the remnant of Israel has yet been saved, God having had compassion, and as a kind of gift bestowing this too among other marks of distinction for the memory of the fathers. For it has not utterly perished, nor has it been shaken from its very foundations, but it has remained in its remnants. For out of them came the divine disciples, and indeed all who have placed their hope and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ: and those who have not yet believed will also be called in the last times of the age. And the prophetic word will provide assurance to us regarding this. It says as follows: "For the children of Israel shall sit many days without a king, and without a prince, and without sacrifice, and without an altar, and without priesthood, and without manifestations. And after these things the children of Israel shall return, and shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and they shall be amazed at the Lord, and at his good things in the last days." And elsewhere ^B the God of all says: "What shall I do for thee, Ephraim? Shall I protect thee, Israel? What shall I do for thee? I will make thee as Adama, and as Seboim. My heart is turned within me, my repentance is troubled. I will not execute the fierceness of my wrath. I will not suffer Ephraim to be blotted out, for I am God, and not man; I am the holy one in thee." Do you hear how He promised not to act against them according to the magnitude of His wrath, but rather fore-announced clemency to the delinquents, and that Israel would remain in a few remnants?

He demonstrates this to us in the same way as in the previous account. For ^C the Israelites were unbelieving in the desert, when they were near the very stream of the Jordan, and were about to possess the land of promise, whence God said, "So I swore in my wrath, If they shall enter into my rest." For their limbs fell in the desert, and they were all consumed, except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun, who entered together with the new people, and crossed the Jordan, and obtained an inheritance from God. These may be a type of the remnant of Israel, which has been saved through the obedience of faith in Christ, and having crossed the holy Jordan with us, is also about to inherit the kingdom of heaven. The prophet therefore gives thanks, saying, "Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been made like unto Gomorrah." ^D For since Israel had served idols, and had even put prophets to death, and had denied Christ—or rather, had even killed the author of life—it was fitting for the God of all to have pronounced total destruction upon the whole race. But because He is good beyond what can be expressed, He preserved the remnant, and they have not been placed on equal footing with the Sodomites, who were consumed by fire along with their entire race and household, and with the cities themselves. If, indeed, there are those who wish to be held by the filth of vices and to be defiled by sin that is hard to blot out, to them also the same thing will happen; to whom it may not incorrectly be said by us: "Or [do you despise] the riches of His goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering?"

^A For you are ignorant that the kindness of God leads you to repentance. But according to your hardness and impenitent heart, you are storing up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God; for we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done through the body, according to what he has done, whether good or evil."

VERSES 10-14. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; attend to the law of God, you people of Gomorrah. Of what importance to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, says the Lord? I am full of burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of lambs, and the blood of bulls and goats I do not desire. Nor if you come to appear before me. For who has sought these things from your hands? You shall not continue to trample my court. If you bring fine flour, it is a vain incense, it is an abomination to me; your New Moons, and Sabbaths, and the great day I cannot endure, your fasting and idleness and your feasts my soul hates. ^B

Having sufficiently struck them with terror by the threats of things to come, and having announced to them that everything will certainly and in every way come to pass in its own time, if they do not choose to think and see what is better, and to act according to the divine laws, he shifts his discourse at the appropriate time and introduces that which is useful, so that, having chosen to think the better things, they might be delivered from the punishment hanging over them. For ^C because the Israelites acted with frenzy against Christ, they have perished; and furthermore we say that they fell because of the impiety of those who were assigned the duty of teaching. For although they knew that He was the heir, they nevertheless killed Him; for they wished to make His vineyard their own possession. Now that the foolish Israel fell away from the hope in Christ by following the wickedness of their leaders, God, who is over all things, confirms this by speaking through the voice of the prophets: "Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have polluted my inheritance, they have given my desirable portion into a pathless wilderness. It has become a desolation of destruction." And again: "For the shepherds have acted foolishly ^D and have not sought the Lord; therefore, the whole flock has not understood, and they have been scattered." For the shepherds truly acted foolishly and became the cause of destruction for the people under their hand. And yet, how was it not their duty rather, as those who were well instructed in the mystery of Christ through the Law and the Prophets, to become a path for others so that they might believe in Him? But the Savior says, "They received glory from men, and they did not seek the glory that is from the only God. For if you believed Moses, you would have believed Me, for he wrote about Me." They have therefore become blind and guides of the blind. For this reason they have slipped and have fallen into the pits of destruction. Why then does the prophet attempt to change them with good admonitions? In order that they might choose to think the better things and try to follow the words of the Savior. He also usefully mixes terror with these admonitions; for by applying various remedies, he heals

^A the wounds of their ill-counsel. Therefore, he says: “Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom, give heed to the Law of God, you people of Gomorrah.” Do you hear how he brings the rod of both love and God-loving prudence upon the people and the rulers, and strikes those who are greatly diseased with disobedience? He compares Jerusalem to the most impious cities, as though it were full of all manner of sin, and as though it possessed absolutely no goodness within itself. For the God of all was planning to burn down the cities of the Sodomites, and he shared this matter with Abraham. But he said to him: “Will you not destroy the righteous with the ungodly? And shall the righteous be as the ungodly?” ^B And God promised that if ten righteous men were found in Sodom, he would hold back from the anger that was to come upon them. But they were not found. Therefore, they have paid the penalty equal to their own impieties. Such also was this murderer of the Lord, Jerusalem, in which there was a great scarcity of righteous men. For when the prophet Jeremiah was interceding for it, God said: “Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see, and know, and seek in its squares if you find a man who practices justice and seeks truth, and I will be merciful to it, says the Lord.” Because, therefore, it was defiled and had wallowed in many ways in the filth of wickedness, and was suffering from a great scarcity of holy men, he calls it Sodom and Gomorrah, and sprinkles the stain of Sodomitic impurity upon both the people and the leaders. ^C And what indeed does he say? “Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; give heed to the Law of God, you people of Gomorrah.” Wake up, he says, for a little while. And with the eye of your mind fixed on the words of the all-wise Moses, understand the mystery of Christ. For Moses said: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers, like me; you shall listen to him in all things whatsoever he shall speak to you.” Therefore, “Hear the word of the Lord, give heed to the Law of God”; that is, understand for yourselves the power of the evangelical proclamations. This is what Moses commanded; for he acts as a tutor guiding us to Christ, and the goal of the legal decree looks to the mystery concerning him. But do you think, he says, that you please God by wishing to fulfill that which is in types and shadows? ^D Hear him who spoke the ancient law also saying to you: “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me, says the Lord. I am full.” For if you offer them as if to one in need, you have strayed from what is reasonable; you have missed the wise and true logic. For nothing at all is lacking to the nature that fills all things, because all things are its own, and from it they are supplied to others. “For what do you have that you did not receive?”—this ought properly to be said to the creature. For I am now sated, he says, and I am full, and I would no longer choose the sacrifices from you.

For tell me, what pleasure would God, the Lord of all, take from a burnt ram? Or what fat of lambs? And if the blood of goats and bulls were offered, how would God be pleased by this? For who has sought these things from your hands? For even if Moses has spoken concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices, yet the manner of this sort of worship was, even of old, unwelcome to God. ^A Since it was necessary to be tutored through type and shadow toward the truth, the things in the Law were established until the time of reformation; therefore, insofar as it pertains to truly pleasing God, he would not have spoken at all concerning the sacrifices of the Law. But since the mind of those who were being tutored at that time was infirm, they were led by the hand through type and the shadow according to the letter toward the truth. Since the time has now arrived in which the beauty of the truth had to be made manifest, the type is void, the shadow is useless. For this reason he says: "Do not tread my courts again. If you bring fine flour, it is a vain incense; it is an abomination to me." For we who have been illuminated by faith in Christ, offering spiritual sacrifices to God, fill his holy courts, that is to say, the churches. Now, Christ does not in the least receive the manner of the Jewish cult in the churches. For those who wish to offer fine flour mixed with oil and incense that falls under the senses would not be admitted at all. For we remember God saying concerning this: "It is an abomination to me." And we indeed celebrate the most holy feasts in Christ. But the Jews, not departing from the typical significations, blow trumpets on the day of the New Moon, consider the Sabbath a holy day, and honor the day which is called great. This is the last day of the feast called the Feast of Tabernacles, and even if they fast to God, they strike humble people with their fists. ^B Therefore let them hear him saying: "My soul hates your feasts." These things he says, moving them from types to the truth, and persuading them to bow the neck of their minds to the oracles of Christ, so that they might live with us according to the Gospel. Rejoicing God with intelligible fragrances, and offering to him as a kind of spiritual incense the kindness in their ways, love, brotherly affection, patience, temperance, and before others, faith. By such sacrifices God is propitiated, and the power of the evangelical oracles crowns the believers with such ornaments.

^C VERS. 15. You have become to me a satiety, I will no longer forgive your sins. When you stretch forth your hands to me, I will turn away my eyes from you. And if you multiply your prayer, I will not hear you. For your hands are full of blood.

Things that lead to satiety or nausea deserve to be despised, and are considered of little account, nay, they even come to be objects of hatred. For indeed the most wise Solomon says: "Bring your foot rarely to your friend, lest, being sated with you, he should hate you." Therefore the God of the universe says to the Jews: "I am sated with the worn-out shadow, and I consider you burdensome if you enter to appear before me. I even turn away ^D

^A your sins." For long ago the people from Israel, having unholily turned aside to choose to provoke the God of the universe against themselves by worshipping creation and bowing down to the very works of their own hands, were given over to the Babylonians and carried off as captives from Judea, and they dwelt in the mountains of the Persians and Medes, suffering a bitter and unbearable slavery. But when the seventieth year was completed for them, the compassionate God again had mercy. For, as it is written in Zechariah, the blessed angel offered supplications for them, saying: "O Lord Almighty, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, which thou hast despised? This is the seventieth year." And to these things God replied: "I am jealous for Jerusalem and Zion with a great jealousy, and I am angry with great wrath with the nations that take counsel together, because I was angry but a little, and they conspired to do evil." ^B Accordingly, He then removed their sins; for they were set free and were brought back again to their own land. But after the crucifixion of the Savior, He declares that He will no longer forgive them their sins, because they persisted in them for a long time, during which interval they remained subject to the fury and the stroke of His wrath. The holy Scripture indeed proclaims that in the last times they shall find mercy, being justified with us by the grace in Christ; but, as I said, the time of wrath lasted much longer than before, therefore He says: "I will no longer forgive your sins." You may add, if it pleases you, another interpretation to this sentence. The Israelites, according to the ancient rite and institution of the law, used to offer sacrifices for their own transgressions; a goat and a lamb were slaughtered, and God granted pardon. For since the old law was not ineffective in helping those of former times, the mystery of Christ was delineated in it. But when ^C Christ appeared, the purification according to the type had henceforth to be inactive, as the truth was already present. That the shadow of the law, therefore, would not suffice for the remission of their sins, since they do not embrace the redemption through Christ, He teaches, saying: "I will no longer forgive your sins." For, He says, the truth not yet being present, I conceded that the types could benefit those implicated in sins, doing this even out of reverence for the truth itself, by whose presence, already made manifest, the figure is weak and the shadow is of little effect. "And I will no longer forgive your sins; but if you spread out your hands, I will turn away my eyes, and if you multiply prayers, I will not listen." Has the Creator of the universe, then, ceased to be kind? Or has God forgotten to show mercy? By no means, He says; for I am, I am kind and good and compassionate, only I turn away my eyes, though almost against my will. "For your hands are full of blood." Do you hear how He has brought upon them the accusation of bloodguilt, ^D while passing over their other faults? Although we perceive them to be implicated in many vices. For they heard: "Woe to the wicked nation, a people loaded with sins, a corrupt seed, lawless children." Since...

they have slaughtered the prophets, and have laid their impious hands upon Christ himself, the Savior of us all, for this very reason he quite justly brings upon them the most grievous accusation, one sufficient for all condemnation, saying: "Your hands are full of blood." And God and Father turns his face away, as if unable to bear seeing the hands of the murderers, stained still with the blood of his Son. ^A

VERS. 16. Wash yourselves, be clean.

Having brought them to a remembrance of the things in which they had impiously acted, he does not allow them to be downcast, but very fittingly brings in the grace which proceeds from his goodness and clemency, and does not defraud them of the benefit which has been proposed through Christ to all who are under the whole heaven. "For all have turned aside, they have together become unprofitable." And the world has become answerable to God, since the nations served the creature, and those from Israel broke the law given to them through Moses. But Christ has shone forth for the nations, and they have been called to his marvelous light; and they who were once "not a people" have become a people. The miserable Jews, however, have acted violently against Christ, and have impiously put to death the Prince of life, even though he rose again as God. But since he is good, and desires all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth, he himself also opens wide the way of salvation and commands them to cast off their crimes, being justified freely and not from works of the law, ^B or rather, through faith and holy baptism; and therefore he says: "Wash yourselves, be clean."

This the old law also delineated for them as in shadows, and beforehand proclaimed the grace through holy baptism. For God says somewhere to the hierophant Moses: "Take the Levites from the midst of the children of Israel, and you shall purify them, and thus you shall perform their purification for them. You shall sprinkle upon them the water of purification, and a razor shall come over their whole body; and they shall wash their clothes, and shall be clean." Then the most wise Paul will teach us what this water of purification is by these words: "For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ?" Therefore, the law indeed effected a carnal purification through the water of purification; but Christ wipes away all the filth of our soul through holy baptism. For we have been baptized in the Holy Spirit and in fire, which consumes every kind of vice in us and melts it away, and, as if it were useless matter and rubbish, it consumes it; for this is the work and property of fire. The blessed Paul makes this clear, saying: "By faith Noah, being divinely admonished, prepared an ark for the salvation of his house; in which few, that is, eight souls were saved through water. ^C The baptism, of which this is the antitype, now saves us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God." This, then, he urges the Jewish people to do, saying: "Wash, be clean"—that is, ^D

wash away the stain, for He who was insulted by you justifies us out of His gentleness and philanthropy. ^A We also find the divine Peter rebuking them because they had killed the Prince of life and had asked for a murderer, Barabbas, to be granted to them. Nevertheless, he rouses them to repentance; for he says: "And now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. Repent therefore, and be baptized every one of you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promises are to you and to your children."

"Take away your wickedness from your souls before my eyes; cease from your wickednesses."

^B The saving and holy baptism is sufficient for the washing away of sin, and it wipes away the stain of offenses previously committed. But I say that those who have been sanctified once must keep their own souls pure and blameless, as far as is possible, and be mindful of Him who says: "Keep thy heart with all vigilance." And again: "If the spirit of one who has authority rise up against thee, do not leave thy place, for a remedy will quiet great sins." For there are very many pleasures that look toward baser things and throw the human soul into confusion, and before all others, the law that is innate in the members of the flesh and grows wild; ^C and in addition to these, evil thoughts, which drag down the mind that is in us quite ignobly into every kind of vice. It is therefore necessary for those who have been baptized to abstain from all such evils and to take away wickedness from their own soul; and not only in the eyes of men, but especially in the eyes of God, who knows and sees all things. For they sometimes pretend to be good, and stealthily assume the semblance of uprightness, while within they are ravenous wolves, according to what is written. And it is about such a person, I believe, that the God of all things speaks through the voice of the prophet Jeremiah: "With his mouth he speaks peaceable things, but in his heart he harbors enmity." ^D And indeed also by the voice of David: "Their words were softer than oil, and yet they are darts." But even if they were to make every effort to be able to escape notice, He who dwells in the heavens will laugh at them, and the Lord will hold them in derision. For He knows, He knows the heart and the reins. But he who is truly good will be such before God and before men, as Paul says: "Providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men." It is a great thing, therefore, to remove wickedness from before the eyes of God. And such a man was perhaps Nathanael, concerning whom Christ says: "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile." "Cease," He says, "from your wickednesses," that is, abandon the perversity that is your companion and habitual, and turn your own perversity toward better things.

^A If Christ says these things, and reproaches the Jews, you will perceive how many things they have committed, reveling against Him, setting traps, digging pitfalls, and sounding them out as to when He would come to them, and framing every sort of malice in their attempts against Him. For sometimes they sent some of their own disciples, along with those called Herodians, to ask and say, "Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?" And sometimes they approached Him again, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" so that they might accuse Him. Let them listen, therefore, to Him saying, "Remove the wickednesses from your souls before my eyes. Cease from your wicked deeds."

^B Verses 17, 18. "Learn to do good; seek judgment, rescue the oppressed, judge for the orphan, and justify the widow; and come, and let us reason together, says the Lord. And if your sins be as crimson, I will make them white as snow. And if they be as scarlet, I will make them white as wool."

He has defined the feebleness of the legal cult when He says, "Why to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, says the Lord? I am full." And upon this He added, "For who has sought these things from your hands?" He then conveniently explains once again the dignity and, as it were, elegance of the evangelical way of life, and shows the way of a truly holy life, which consists not in types and shadows, but in the things themselves and in the decorations of virtues, which possess excellence. For what does He say? "Learn to do good." Well then, one might say, tell me, does He altogether remove the legal commandment, and not allow [men] to look at all to those precepts delivered by God through Moses? But how does it come to pass that Christ later says, "Think not that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have not come to abolish, but to fulfill." And how did Paul also say, ^C "Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and just, and good"? To such things, we shall say again that the law is good, if it is understood spiritually; and Christ does not remove us entirely from the law, but rather leads us to that which is more excellent and superior, since He has laid down in us the pedagogy of the law as a foundation, and set forth those shadows as types, so to speak, of the true cult, as a pro-gymnasma and rudimentary training for the ancients.

Besides this, that which must be said is this: the Law through Moses teaches one to abstain from vice and sin, and is a demonstrator of turpitude. And thus Paul says, "I would not have known sin, except through the law." But the evangelical preaching renders us zealous for all virtue. Therefore, deservedly, and properly, and truly, it can be called the actual good. For that which says, "You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery," was indeed deterring the initiated from sin, yet it did not perfectly show what is good—namely, that one must not be angry with one's brother, nor [should one] lust—nor did it lead them to the peak and ornament of virtue. For it is excellent to conquer anger; it is wonderful to be able to root out the desires for evil, and not to allow the mind ^D to stray.

and to incline the mind, indeed, to the very beginnings of such an outrageous and most loathsome desire. Surely, the truly good thing would be the evangelical teaching and the power of the way of life in Christ. It must be proclaimed, then, to the lovers of the letter: “Learn to do good, seek out judgment,” that is, to judge rightly. ^A For in addition to all other errors, those who have obtained the leadership of the Jewish synagogue have also fallen prey to this disease—namely, not to make right judgments in every matter, but rather to cast their votes unjustly, to be overcome by the allurements of gifts and the pleasure of money, and to sell their own discernment to satisfy those wishing to commit injustice in accordance with their own unholy counsel. For as the prophet says: “Its rulers judged for gifts” (Isa. v, 23). The command is therefore necessary, and is not without benefit for righteousness for those also who wish to live evangelically—to judge rightly, not only in external matters but also in those things that pertain to the mind and the heart. For example, what I mean is this: when God condemns vice, Satan praises it. And the law of the Savior persuades us to make the good something desirable, while he pulls us toward the opposite. At that moment the mind is, as it were, a judge and arbiter within us; and if it has approved what is good and has awarded the victory to the necessity of holding fast to it, it has sought out judgment. But if it has granted the victory to vice, it departs from judging rightly, and will justly hear: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who call bitter sweet, and sweet bitter; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness” (Isa. v, 20). The glory, therefore, of the Gospel is to judge rightly and to defend the oppressed. For this, I believe, is what is meant by “Deliver the oppressed.” ^B Furthermore, a certain compassion must be exercised, and there should be no respect of persons. “Plead for the orphan,” he says, “and judge for the widow; and come, and let us reason together, says the Lord” (Isa. i, 17–18)—not as if contending in judgment with the Master? “For he will be justified,” he says, “in his words, and will prevail when he is judged” (Ps. L, 6). Indeed, no one will be found clean of filth, nor will anyone boast of having a pure heart, but rather they will be found guilty, and assessing themselves, as it were, if the magnitude of the divine generosity were not great and worthy of acceptance. As the wise Paul writes to us: “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. viii, 18). He promises, therefore, to those who are in a way passing over from the conduct of the law through faith to the beauty of the life according to Christ, the forgiveness of what they have already offended. For this is the incursion of our hope, and the firstfruits of the divine kindness toward us, like a door and a way. And that the grace through faith will suffice for the cleansing of even those who are utterly defiled, though they have fallen ill of it to a lesser degree, he produces conviction by saying: “If your sins are as purple, I will make them white as snow; and if they are as scarlet, I will make them white as wool” (Isa. i, 18). ^D For nothing is difficult to wash away when God is scrubbing it clean. As Paul says: “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Rom. v, 20). And again: “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?” (Rom. viii, 33–34).

^A “And if you be willing and hear me, you shall eat the good things of the land. But if you will not, and will not hear me, the sword shall devour you. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.” The God of all has addressed those from Israel somewhere through the all-wise Moses: “Behold, I have set before you the way of life and the way of death.” For the path to both has been set before us, and the fruit of the inclinations—that is, the wills—of each person might be to live brilliantly and lawfully, or otherwise to live in a cold and listless manner. But no one would doubt ^B that those who live a good and choice life, most dear to God, entirely and in every way arrive at life. Those, however, who are overcome by pleasures leading to base things have an end that leads to ruin and destruction. Therefore, the fruit of obedience will be to eat the good things of the land, which has been prepared for the saints, of which our own Lord Jesus Christ makes mention, saying: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” But the fruit of malice and of a flagitious life is a useless repentance, and the things that come from divine wrath—the sword and destruction, as I said—and indeed, what evils are there not of this sort? The prophet shows his own message to be worthy of belief by adding immediately: ^C “For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.” And since it is impossible for God to lie (for that which He is, remains always, and it is truth, clearly), how is it not necessary to understand that the things foretold will entirely and in every way come to pass? Yet it is necessary to consider this: how the prophetic word brings rich benefit both to the souls of those who are perfect and mature, and also to those who are not yet confirmed in a genuine and true faith. For since the God of all has placed in the inclinations of those being instructed both the power to choose the good and to depart from evil, He has confirmed that He has ^D given to each of those on earth the reins of things to be done and avoided, and that to whatever a man chooses, he shall proceed with authority. Since this is true, it is already a vain and cold and foolish thing to contend and say that evil is natural in man, or that fortune and fate and birth steer human affairs, and drive whomsoever they please according to their own will to cultivate vice or virtue, not by a voluntary impulse, but as if they were subjugated and submissive to an inevitable yoke, driven with difficulty by the force of those who rule over them. For if evil is by nature and inheres in the substance, as those triflers say, how is it that it waxes strong or grows weak according to the will of each individual? For if I should will to be good, nothing prevents me from appearing so. And if, in like manner, I should will to be wicked, nothing would prevent me from slipping into that as well. Where, then, is the power of fortune and fate? Or what kind of birth places the yoke of necessity on any person, if it follows the will of each individual, so that those who offer obedience eat the good things of the land, and indeed the work becomes

^A that of war," [or] rather, the work of being a slanderer.

VERS. 21. How has the faithful city Sion, full of judgment, become a harlot? In which justice slept, in it now are murderers.

He marvels, in a way, at the Jewish Synagogue’s transition—so flaccid, so slippery—a transition, I say, and passage into worse things, and from better things into baser. For through the law given by Moses, she was instructed in the knowledge of what is useful; and because she had the Word of God as an interpreter and courier to report and bring back each of the things that were to be done, she was brilliant, most reputable, and worthy of admiration, distinguished by a great many men among whom the fruit of justice flourished opulently, and she was acceptable to God. For there were in her prophets and priests, and those who performed the duties of justice; there were leaders of the people who guarded judgment, who had the law upon their tongue, and were adorned with every good and noble manner. Then, being stripped of all such things, and choosing rather to disregard that ancient urbanity, and holding in no account the reverence and love toward God, before the coming of our Savior she worshipped things that are not by nature gods, while impiety insulting the one and true Lord with the fornications ^B found therein. And like some common and brazen woman, she committed impiety in many ways. At one time she clung to different teachers, who knew how to convey her towards everything that is loathsome to God. The God of all therefore blames her through the voice of Jeremiah, saying: "See what the house of Israel has done to me: they have gone up upon every high mountain and under every leafy tree, and committed fornication there." And again as if to her: "If a man sends away his wife, and she departs from him and becomes another man's, will she return to him? Will not that woman be polluted? And you have committed fornication with many shepherds, and you were returning to me, says the Lord. Lift up your eyes to what is straight, and see, where have you not been defiled? You sat for them on the roads, as a solitary crow in the wilderness. And you defiled the land with your fornications and your wickednesses, and you had many shepherds for an offense to yourself. The face of a harlot ^C became yours, you were shameless before all." For, as I said, having despised the service under God, she turned toward apostasy and used as shepherds and teachers the unclean spirits and the worshippers of idols. These things, as I said, were the crimes of the Jewish Synagogue before the coming of our Savior. But after Christ shone upon those on earth (for God the Lord has appeared to us, as it is written), she did not use Him as her tutor; rather, she honored the teachings, the commandments of men; and having cast aside the good shepherd, who [was able to lead] to all that is most excellent...

she clung to the chief priests and Scribes, and indeed also to the Pharisees. In this way she has played the harlot. Although both the Law and the prophets had loudly proclaimed to her the mystery of Christ, and had announced that He would come in due time. "How, then," He says, "has the faithful city Sion, full of judgment, become a harlot?" It is as if He were saying: How is it that she who received so many opportunities for understanding, or rather, who abounded in spiritual aids, has lapsed into defection and apostasy—she who was once faithful and a worker of righteousness, in whom righteousness resided, ^B that is to say, in whom the Law rested? For the multitude of those being instructed was, as it were, a home for it, but now murderers have brought it to ruin. Do you hear how, while omitting all else, He charges them mainly with murder? For they drew upon their own heads the precious blood of Christ, saying to Pilate: "His blood be upon us and upon our children." They also slew the holy prophets; and this is what the blessed Stephen reproached them for, saying: "Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart, you always resist the Holy Spirit. Which of the prophets did your fathers not kill? As your fathers were, so are you."

VERS. 22, 23. *Your silver is dross. Thy tavern-keepers mix wine with water; thy princes are disobedient, companions of thieves, loving gifts, pursuing retribution, not judging for ^C the orphans, and not heeding the judgment of the widow.*

He clearly and plainly enumerates the causes of the change for the worse. And just as one of the most skilled physicians reveals to the sick the sources of their illness, so too He, who desires that "all men be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth," clearly explains to those who, through ignorance, have turned aside from what is honorable and becoming, the causes of the sufferings and transgressions within them. "For your silver," He says, "is dross." He calls their teachings—which had become customary among them, not noble or liberal, but rather filled with every abomination, and such as could harm rather than benefit ^D the hearers—"reprobate silver." It is the custom of the divinely inspired Scripture to call the discourses of instruction, which are delivered to the subject people, "silver." And indeed, our Lord Jesus Christ says that the kingdom of heaven is like a man, a householder, who, about to go on a journey, called his own servants; and to one He gave five talents, to another two, and to another one. And when they had completed their work, rendering them worthy praises, He says: "Well done, good and faithful servant." But to him who hid the talent, and had acquired absolutely nothing by his labor, He says: "Wicked and lazy servant, you ought to have put my money with the bankers, and having returned, I would have received my own with interest." The blessed David also sings somewhere: "The words of the Lord are pure words, silver tried in the fire, proven in the earth." Therefore, that which was among the Jews was adulterated and unproven silver, that is to say, whatever

the discourse coming from the Scribes ^A and Pharisees—which, like innkeepers mixing water with wine, they desired to adulterate. That is, they provided an interpretation of the Law that was spurious and adulterated, and not pure; weaving in certain ideas of their own, and inserting cold and insipid notions, they did not render the explanation of the lawgiver’s will, so to speak, as unmixed, nor simple and pure, but mixed with something inferior.

In fact, the Scribes and Pharisees once approached the Savior and said: "Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread." But he said to them: "Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, Honor thy father and thy mother; and, He that speaketh evil of father or mother, let him die the death. But you say, Whosoever shall say to father or mother, It is a gift, whatsoever thou mightest have been profited by me, he shall not honor his father or his mother. And you have made void the commandment of God for the sake of your ^B transgression."

Do you see in these things the manifest crimes of Jewish huckstering? For because they desired to follow their own traditions, they declared the laws of God to be void. While pretending on the one hand to be explaining them, they were surreptitiously introducing stale and cold traditions. He blames the rulers as being very sickly in their interpretation, and as holding their necks high in arrogance, and having chosen to be disobedient. For they were unwilling to accept faith in Christ, obviously, even though the Law clamoured of the mystery concerning him up and down, and displayed it in thousands of ways. And so our Lord Jesus Christ said to them: "Do you think that I will accuse you to the Father? There is one that accuseth you, Moses, in whom you have hoped. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me."

They were ^C therefore disobedient, neither wishing to interpret the will of the Law to others as pure and unadulterated, nor indeed honoring the faith proclaimed through Moses and the holy prophets. For they were unwilling to obey Christ when he said: "Come to me, all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you." And, besides being hard-hearted and disobedient, they became associates of thieves: partly by consenting to those who offered bribes, and partly by running together with the impious counsels of the one who betrayed our Lord Jesus Christ to them—who was both wicked and a most thievish disciple.

The teachers of the Jews were lovers of money in other ways as well, tithing mint and anise and every herb, but leaving behind the weightier things of the Law: judgment, and mercy, and faith. For they did not judge for the orphans and widows; but instead, seeking ^D a reward from those who brought cases to them, they sometimes impiously condemned those who were unjustly oppressed, bringing a most iniquitous calculation and judgment against them. And from that state of judging unjustly and basely serving bribes, they even raged furiously against Christ himself. For in order that they might receive gifts from the peoples, they did not receive the master of the vineyard, but him in

^A their own keeping, appropriating that which was proper and due to him alone. For they killed him, who was innocent and just, although the law says: "The innocent and just you shall not kill."

VERS. 24. Therefore thus says the lord Dominator of Sabaoth: Woe to the strong of Israel: for my fury shall not cease against the adversaries, and I will execute judgment against my enemies.

He attributes the causes of why Jerusalem perished to those who were chosen to lead, and very justly so. For the multitude that is under them follows them for the most part; just as certainly ^B is the condition with shepherds, to whom the flock is subject. For if they should lead them to fat and abundant pasture, they would become robust and very well-fed; but if into a salt land and a mother of thorns, they will utterly destroy them by starvation. We shall find this to be true in our own case as well. For the mind of those who are being instructed is fertilized and, as it were, grows fat by those interpretations that lead to rectitude, virtue, and blameless knowledge of God; but it slips very easily into the desire and greed for fouler things through counsels that incline toward impiety. The Israelites suffered some such thing and, miserable, perished through the traditions ^C and doctrines of the Scribes and Pharisees. For they did not allow them to walk the true and saving path, the path, I say, through faith, which is in our Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, when he who had been blind from birth was cured, while the whole of Jerusalem was admiring the greatness of the divine miracle, and when he who had been freed from the infirmity was proclaiming the physician, those whose duty it was to instruct in the truth explicitly shouted: "Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner." Moreover, one of the holy evangelists testifies that the Scribes and Pharisees had already reached an agreement that if anyone should confess him to be Christ, he should be cast out of the synagogue. Therefore, while they most imprudently preferred the shame and reverence ^D which they had toward themselves to their own salvation, they remained altogether empty and devoid of the glory that is from God. And this is what the Savior said to them: "How can you believe, receiving glory from one another, and not seeking the glory that is from God alone?" And, indeed, elsewhere: "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut the kingdom of heaven." Therefore they became a stumbling block to the peoples, and they do not cease to war against the glory of Christ. For this reason he says concerning them: "Woe to the strong. For my fury shall not cease against the adversaries, and I will execute judgment against my enemies." Do you see how he names them both adversaries and enemies? And he says that the divine wrath will most of all rush and rage against them. For it was fitting, it was fitting that they be punished more severely, and that they render accounts to the One who judges for the destruction of the others. Whom it was likely they could have saved, if they had been willing to think uprightly

and to point out to all others the path that leads to this. The divine John ^A also cried out to those coming to the baptism of repentance: "Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" Vengeance therefore came from God upon those in power—most especially, that is, those of authority among them, namely, the leaders—when their country was plundered and handed over to the most noble Roman armies. The Savior also foretold this to them: "When you see Jerusalem surrounded by camps, then you will say to the mountains, 'Cover us,' and to the hills, 'Fall upon us.'" It is a fearful thing, therefore, to fall into the hands of the living God; not because He is harsh and implacable—for He is rather kind and good—but because He is pained when He is despised, especially when we deprive ourselves of His gifts, even though it is possible for us to take them abundantly, and to enjoy them by choosing to obey the laws given by Him. And as we shake off the wicked and unholy teachers of things pertaining to this life—who strive to weaken the orthodoxy of the faith with their own words, and, pouring the venom of their own perversity into the souls of the simpler ones, turn them aside toward choosing evil things.

VERSES 25–28. And I will bring my hand upon thee, and will purify thee as if for cleansing, and I will destroy the disobedient, and I will humble all the proud. And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning. And after these things thou shalt be called the city of righteousness, the faithful mother-city Sion. For her captivity shall be saved with judgment, and with mercy. And the lawless and the sinners shall be broken together, and they that have forsaken the Lord shall be consumed.

God brings in His hand as if striking; for such is almost always the gesture of those who strike. That this bringing of the hand upon them—that is, this incursion and trial of adverse circumstances—will not be entirely without fruit for them, nor will these punishments fall indiscriminately upon all, but rather that He deems those who have believed worthy of care and mercy, and will bestow saving grace upon His genuine children, He clearly teaches. For formerly, when Jerusalem, opposing God, had played the harlot in many ways by worshipping foreign gods, God brought His hand upon her, and delivered her as if into some fire through the calamities of war. When, however, the Father had sent from heaven the Son, the Savior and Redeemer to us, and then it had raged furiously against Him, and performed acts out of impotent madness, and did not cease to insult Him through disobedience—Him who justifies the ungodly and frees them from ancient offenses through faith—He brought His hand upon her again; and like some craftsman, He separated them in the fire, and reserved for Himself the most tested and select ^D race of those who have believed; the adulterous

and reprobate He delivered over to destruction and annihilation. As, therefore, those who with fire smelt brass or silver purge the materials, so, He says, I also will purify ^A you into something clean. For it is written, "The Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and cleanse the blood from their midst, in a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning." It has also been said through the voice of one of the holy prophets: "Suddenly the Lord whom you seek shall come to His temple, and the Angel of the covenant whom you desire. Behold He comes, says the Lord, and who shall endure the day of His coming? Or who shall stand before His sight? For He Himself comes like a refiner's fire, and like the herb of the washers; and He shall sit refining, like silver and gold." ^B The wise Matthew also explains this to us in a different way, speaking of Christ: "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but He who comes after me is stronger than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire; whose winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His threshing floor, and will gather His wheat into the barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire." Therefore, the wheat is gathered into the barn, but everything useless—that is, the chaff—He declares shall be food for fire. And if anyone wishes to know the manner of this, the proposed words will clarify it. For He straightway says: "I will destroy the disobedient, ^C and I will remove all the lawless from you, and I will humble all the proud." For the ancient multitude of the Israelites perished, both having acted impiously against Christ and having denied the Redeemer; and all the proud ones and those living lawlessly were cast out—that is to say, those who had obtained the lot to lead the Jewish Synagogue, the chief priests and the Pharisees. For how would they not be lawless and arrogant, they who did not even care a little for reverence toward the law, but were even lifting their horn on high and speaking injustice against God? For they said: "Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him." ^D Their leadership of the peoples was taken away, and in their place were appointed the holy apostles, of whom He says: "I will establish your judges as at the first, and your counsellors as from the beginning." Now the divine disciples were in no way inferior to those ancient saints, whom He calls both judges and counsellors. For they performed both roles, inasmuch as they would, like judges, rebuke sinners, while they would exhort those who were weak with things that might be of use to them for spiritual strength. Truly, the most wise Paul delivered the one among the Corinthians who had committed fornication to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved; yet he gives good counsel, and says: "If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such a one not even to eat." Concerning the judges or counsellors mentioned here, the blessed David also said in the Holy Spirit to Jerusalem herself: "Instead of your fathers, children have been born to you," that is, in place of the fathers, children have been born to you; for being Jews, and from the Jews, they were His sons.

^A And that the divine disciples became fathers to those who have believed, hear Paul saying: "For in Christ Jesus through the Gospel I have begotten you" (1 Cor. 4, 15), and again: "My little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you" (Gal. 4, 19). Furthermore, another of His holy prophets also commemorates to us the Savior of us all, Christ, and the manifestation of His holy disciples, and says: "Behold, a just king shall reign, and princes shall rule with judgment" (Isa. 32, 1). For those who were the leaders of the Jewish Synagogue both clung to a life most contrary to the Law, and did not know how to rule with judgment, that is, with justice. But when Christ had reigned over those under heaven, the divine disciples, being just and good, became rulers with judgment; and, having been designated by these, it has been called again the city of justice and the faithful metropolis, Sion, that is, the Church.

And that this refining, or testing, by God does not occur without discernment, as I said, but with care, reason, and justice (a process which discriminates and clearly reveals the race approved through faith), he adds further and says: "Because her captivity shall be saved with judgment and with mercy, and the wicked and the sinners shall be broken together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed." For with the classes now distinguished—the one, which has believed, being approved, as I said, and the other, however, having stumbled not moderately—the chosen portion has been preserved; but all that was scandalous and hateful within them has perished, and what was bred of madness, and had lived impiously, and did not care for Christ, who knows how to save, and who forgives transgressions and justifies by grace. ^B

"For they shall be ashamed for their idols, which they themselves desired, and they shall be confounded for their gardens, which they coveted. For they shall be as a terebinth that has cast its leaves, and as a garden that has no water."

I have said that in these words the word of the prophet offers a twofold cause for the rejection of the Jews. For their crimes were twofold. For of old, having abandoned God the one and by nature the Redeemer, they have worshipped idols and have offered sacrifices to the host of heaven, and by attributing worship to the works of their own hands, they have committed impiety to no moderate degree. ^C But when God the Lord appeared to us, according to the Scriptures, they denied even Him, and have acted most wickedly against the Author of life. Thus, the crimes were kindred and sister-like, and the manner of this madness was not unlike the former; nay, rather, the dementia is greater and more grievous. And while they were indeed punished and chastened in the times that preceded the coming [of the Lord] by the incursions of enemies, the burning of cities, the overthrow of houses, the cruelty of the sword, the slaughter of children, and the captivity of women—for God permitted these things to be done by the Persians, Medes, Moabites, Idumaeans, and the neighboring nations—since, as I said, they also acted impiously against Christ Himself, they have not become ^D [subject to] less than the ancients.

For they have fallen into the hands of the Roman armies, who utterly destroyed the whole of Judaea; and there was no one to help, or rather, no one who could deliver them from a calamity so bitter. For this reason He says: *“They shall be covered with shame for their idols, which they themselves desired, and they shall be ashamed of their gardens, which they coveted.”* For they would take possession of groves and woods, and then, after setting up idols near the taller trees and building altars, they would call them saviors—these gods falsely so-called—and place all their hope in those works of their own hands, believing that they would be able to be superior to their enemies and easily defeat those who had risen up against them. But when their foes arrived and committed acts of hostility, and Israel was left destitute ^B by its own gods, they were put to shame for their idols. For they saw them, before anything else, being burned up together with the gardens—that is, the groves, the shrines themselves, and the altars. Consequently, they were baffled of their hope when they saw their own gods suffering; then, at last, they barely understood what was spoken by the voice of the prophet from God: *“And where are thy gods, which thou hast made for thyself? Shall they arise and save thee in the time of thine affliction?”* Having therefore suffered the ignominy that comes from their own gods—which they themselves had coveted—and indeed from the gardens, they shall be *“as a terebinth that has cast its leaves, and as a garden that has no water”*; that is, naked and most despised, and suffering much from sterility—spiritually, that is, regarding good works. For a terebinth, or any other kind of tree, as long as it is seen ^C thick and adorned with its own leaves, retains its proper glory; but once it has cast its leaves, it is dry, unsightly, and as it were dishonored. Again, a garden, if it has springs, will be very leafy and luxuriates in many ways with an abundance of fruits; but if it is dry and lacks moisture, it will be entirely sterile from a want of fruit, and indeed of the trees themselves. Therefore, Israel has remained dishonored and unfruitful. For what fruit of virtue is there among the worshipers of idols? Or how should he not be full of all disgrace and contempt who abandons the one God by nature, and says to the wood, *“You are my father,”* and to the stone, *“You have begotten me”*? Moreover, Israel will be, in another way, like a terebinth that has cast its leaves. For before the advent of our Savior, while they observed the shadow of the law, they were like trees that have no fruit, yet flourish ^D remarkably with the casting out and propagation of leaves. But once they had offended against Christ, they lost the very observance of the shadow itself. For they no longer observe the sacrifices according to the law, nor are they decorated with legal ornaments; but, retaining only a very few of the ancient nation’s customs in the cities, they are unfruitful and spoiled of their honors, and with very good reason. For they killed the Prince of Life, whom God raised from the dead, having broken the pains of death, inasmuch as it was not possible for Him to be held by it.

And it shall be that their strength shall be as the stubble of tow, and their work as the sparks of fire; and the ungodly and the sinners shall be burned together, and there shall be none to quench it. ^A

The wise man Solomon has said that "every man is bound by the cords of his own sins," and the saying is true. For our own transgressions bring destruction to each one of us, and invoke the punishments of divine wrath. Such happened to those from Israel. For they fashioned for themselves gods falsely so-called, and placed their hope in them, that they might be able to overcome their enemies. But this very thing became for them, as it were, fire and wood. For because of this iniquity they were delivered to a fire, and that an inextinguishable one—that is, to grievous and incessant calamities, with no one to bring help. And this he makes clear to us, saying: *And it shall be that their strength shall be as the stubble of tow, and their work as the sparks of fire.* The power which they expected to be theirs, he says, shall be as the stubble of tow, that is, fuel for the fire and kindling; and the works of their hands shall be as sparks of fire shot against them. The ungodly and the sinners, therefore, shall be burned together. We must therefore refrain from offending God, and from doing those things… for ^B our own works will be both fire for us and fuel for the fire, just as, to be sure, the boastings that arise from good deeds are found to be productive of life and glory for those who perform them well.

ORATION II

^C *The word that came from the Lord to Isaiah, son of Amoz, concerning Judea and Jerusalem.*

The matters proposed are akin to those that have gone before, and one who applies his mind and intellect even a little to understanding and considering this matter will see that they proceed in a manner with a similar tenor of thought. For words were spoken of old by God to the divine prophet concerning Judea and Jerusalem. However, the statement that it is *concerning* Judea and Jerusalem seems to hold a certain intermediate meaning, and not a very clear explanation of the vision. But we, as far as it is possible to do so, will briefly explain the force of the vision, having grasped it in our mind. ^D For since he endeavors to speak of the devastation of the sensible Judea and Jerusalem, and yet also of the manifestation and demonstration of that which is in Christ and is intelligible in this world, for this reason he says that he saw the vision *concerning* Judea and Jerusalem, and not *over* or *against* them. We call sensible Judea and Jerusalem the very region in which Israel dwelt, and the system of the Jewish synagogue itself. But we hold the intelligible Jerusalem—that is to say, Judea—to be the Church, or the circumcision which is in the spirit, that is, those who have in Christ the circumcision not made by hands, but of the mind and heart. For indeed, he cried out to the holy...

^A prophets: "Be circumcised to God, and circumcise the hardness of your heart, O men of Judea and inhabitants of Jerusalem." But the divine Paul knows another Jew, not the one according to the flesh, but rather the one in the spirit. For he writes thus: "For he is not a Jew who is one in appearance, nor is circumcision that which is in appearance in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one in secret, and circumcision is of the heart, in spirit, not in letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God." It must therefore be observed with a sober mind when the prophet speaks words against the sensible Jerusalem, or Judea; and again, when he refers to that which is in Christ and intelligible, which is also truly perfect and immaculate. What, then, does he say?

VERS. 2, 3. "For it shall be in the last days that the mountain of the Lord, and the house of God, shall be manifest upon the peaks of the mountains. And it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall come to it. And many nations shall go and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will declare to us His way, and we will walk in it. For out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."

The vision of the prophet had indeed been brought to an end, and that was the final clause of the preceding prediction. "Wherefore they shall be ashamed of their idols, which they themselves desired, and they shall be confounded for their groves, which they coveted." But how the Israelites were put to shame because of their idols, we have spoken at length. Since, however, there is mention of that prophecy concerning them, the prophet, beginning the next ^B and second vision in order, designates the time in which the power of the devil shall not fall in just one part of the world, nor in one region and city alone—with the worship and profane apparatus of idols being rooted out completely—but that disease and the tyranny of unclean demons shall be eliminated from every place under heaven. This was accomplished for mortals in the last days, that is, in the final times of this present age, in which the only-begotten Word of God, having become flesh, born of a woman, appeared; when He Himself presented and set before Himself an intelligible Judea or Jerusalem, that is, the Church, as a chaste virgin, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but rather as she is written to be: holy and immaculate. And concerning her he says, "For it shall be in the last days that the mountain of the Lord, and the house of the God of Jacob, shall be manifest upon the peaks of the mountains." That Sion of the Jews is indeed read to be situated and built upon a mountain; yet it can be understood ^C here not in a crude or sensible way, but spiritually as the Church, which is also likened to a mountain. For she is indeed truly high and conspicuous, and most widely known to all. She is high in another way, too: for she thinks of nothing earthly, but is above earthly things, and beholds the glory of God, as far as is permitted, with the eyes of the mind, and glories in the most sublime doctrines about Him. For the learned among the Greeks, even if they lifted their brows high in the name of wisdom, yet attribute divinity to the creature and worship to the elements of the world ^D...

For they have a lowly mind, and earth-bound speculations, and a darkened heart; professing themselves wise, they became fools, according as it is written. ^A But the intelligible Zion, that is to say, the Church, soars above every creature, both visible and invisible, and reaches unto the nature that is beyond all things. For it is filled with the divine light, and recognizing Him as the Creator and Artificer of all things, it ascribes to Him, and to Him alone, power over all; and with such glory it crowns the King of all, God and Lord. Therefore, the house of God could justly be called an intelligible mountain. And it is conspicuous, as being raised above the hills. Of it, one might indeed very aptly say what was spoken by the voice of the Savior as a clear example: "A city cannot be hid, being set on a mountain." There are many other things which could very easily be gathered, ^B from which it is possible to see in the divinely inspired Scriptures that the height of the intelligible Jerusalem—that is to say, the loftiness of the Church—is likened to hills and mountains. But we shall proceed to what follows, leaving these things for the studious to gather, if they should wish to do so. Let us see what results in benefit for those on earth from the fact that the house of God has become so conspicuous to all men everywhere, that it seems already, as it were, to be raised up upon hills and to be situated upon the tops of the mountains. The prophet will straightway confirm this, saying: "And all nations shall come unto it; and many nations shall go and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us His way, and we will walk in it." That all the nations were gathered together, and have flocked into the Church ^C through faith, there will be no need for us to use long arguments to prove. The very outcome of events itself will be an eyewitness and true witness. But it is worth while to marvel at this: for the multitude of the nations was called not through the pedagogy of the Law, nor through the holy prophets; but rather a certain divine and ineffable grace, shining intellectually and instilling the desire for salvation through Christ, gathered them. For behold how, with no one proclaiming it to them, they acclaim one to another: "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us His way, and we will walk in it." First they ascend, and then they seek to have the Word of God announced to them. ^D They promise also to walk the way of the Lord—it is clear, the evangelical way—which has as its prelude the purification through faith. They seem, in seeking to learn the way of the Lord, to have first accepted the condemnation of that ancient and profane error. For there will not be in us a desire for better things, unless we have first condemned the former things. Who, then, was their mystagogue? Who led them to the knowledge of the truth, and persuaded them to consider the former things ridiculous and to run to the latter? Is it not clearly God, who, as I said, shone into their minds and hearts, and led them to say and feel together: "From Zion

shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." ^A This phrase bears a double meaning within itself. For they either say: "We shall receive the word from the house of God, and being made there, we shall know the Word of God"; or it suggests that the law has abandoned Zion and, as it were, migrated from it, and from Jerusalem the Word of God has departed. For since they have raged against Christ and denied His kingdom, He has abandoned them and left them as orphans. And this was that which was spoken by the prophet: "And I said, I will not feed you: that which dies, let it die, and that which fails, let it fail, and let every one eat the flesh of his neighbor." Therefore the law went forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. For vision and prophecy were sealed after the Savior's cross. And no longer is the law and word of God with them. And so the divine Paul, as if losing hope and seeing the race of the Jews as incorrigible, said: "It was necessary that the word of the Lord should be spoken to you; but because you put it away, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us." Understand, therefore, how the nations boast in the grace of Christ. For they say that the law and word of the Lord have gone forth from Zion and Jerusalem, and have migrated entirely to them. For grace has passed from those who chose to be disobedient to those who have been called through faith.

Verse 4. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke much people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

^C Having predicted that the power of the devil would fall and come to nothing, and that the fashioning of idols would be made ineffective and void, as the nations cry out to one another in mutual exhortation: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us His way, and we will walk in it"; he then sets before the eyes of his listeners the time at which the aforementioned things will come to an end, and he makes it most plain from the very condition of events. For in former times, since the earth was not under one yoke, but the nations were divided according to cities and regions, and each possessed its own leader, there was division and no mixing or association of men; but rather combats and wars occurred among the inhabitants of the earth everywhere, as they destroyed one another and were always plundering the property of others, and considering rapine and savagery—against whomsoever they could—to be their highest glory. ^D Therefore they did not have a secure dwelling, always moving to another, and being driven out from the place they had occupied by those more powerful. But when the God of all brought the world under the Roman scepter, and from then on there was one [kingdom] over all, extend

established, the wars ceased, and battle and dissension were quieted, and justice prevailed, along with the security of good order; for no one was plundering, no one was laying waste, nor was anyone making incursions into cities or regions, nor was there anyone who might recklessly indulge in greed. And not only this, but the use of arms was handed over only to the most warlike, and to those holding military rank, and to those who were subjects under the hand and power of the king. It was also made clear that many nations were weak, whichever of them, having cast off the yoke of the Roman rule, cruelly infest cities and regions. For it is not permitted for them to overrun [the land] freely as they might wish. For the Roman arms stand against them, and they compel them to be quiet, and terrify them like wild beasts, and by their own might, they expose those [nations] for the cowards they are. The blessed prophet, therefore, defines the time, as I said, of the calling and conversion of the nations. And what is this? "When," he says, "God, the God of all, and Ruler and Lord, shall judge between the nations," that is, he shall exercise justice and judgment unto ^B all nations. For injustice had prevailed, as I said just now, with the nations plundering one another and inflicting every sort of savagery and greed. But when these things were removed from the midst, justice and judgment were given by God, and many nations were exposed, as I said, having been conquered by Roman arms; so that those under the hand of the king no longer feared the incursions of any, and matters for them had progressed to such a point of peace and prosperity, that they no longer needed the experience and training of warfare, but rather chose, and most gladly, to engage in the works of peace, and to busy themselves with the labors of farming, and to take care of things in the fields. For they exchange the implements of war for this purpose, so that a sword might be taken up for the use of plows, and a spear be made into a sickle, and they might entirely unlearn war, and refrain from fighting against one another. For since Christ, who is peace, has reigned over the nations, all dissension and strife and battles and every kind of greed have been removed from the midst; and the evils arising from war are taken away, and the terrors that are born therefrom; and His will has prevailed, saying to them: ^C "Peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you."

VERSES 5, 6. And now, O house of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of the Lord. For He has dismissed His people, the house of Israel.

Having sufficiently terrified them with the predictions of grievous evils, He does not allow those who have offended to perish in despair; but He faintly indicates that God will be propitious to those who choose to repent; and to those who desire to unlearn baser things and to aspire to better things, He will again open the path of salvation, and will receive them without remembering the wrong, even though they have committed the most numerous and unbearable sins. Therefore, he says, skillfully weaving the word of consolation into his reproofs: "And now, O house of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of the Lord." I suppose ^D

^A that it is most appropriate for the prophet to urge the word regarding this matter upon those from Israel, that they should listen to Christ, who says: "While you have the light, walk in the light, that darkness may not overtake you." For He Himself is the light; thus He declared clearly: "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." The "light of the Lord" may also most reasonably be called His proclamation—that is, the Gospel. It is as if he were to say: Let us live piously, let us cultivate the splendor of the evangelical life; let us put an end to typical things, let us cease from the shadow. Let us transform the letters of Moses into truth, and let us welcome the saving light. ^B Since the Jews were prideful, boasting of their fathers according to the flesh, and ever practiced carrying their brow high, as if they were beloved because of them, and were named the portion and lot of God, and a holy and chosen people; and since they then chattered on, fancying that they were in every respect and in every way held in concern and love by God, even if they did many things hateful to Him, and even if they counted the law as nothing, and even if they held it in dishonor and contempt, and would not accept the Savior's advent—that is, the grace of His coming in the flesh—the prophet necessarily demonstrates that the God of all is not so disposed, saying: "For He has abandoned His people, the house ^C of Israel." The God of all says something similar through another prophet, casting down the pride of the Jews and convicting them, senseless as they are. For He says: "And they coveted fields, and plundered orphans, and oppressed houses, and magnified themselves against the Lord, saying: 'Is not the Lord among us? No evil shall come upon us.' Therefore, because of you, Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall be as a garden house, and the mountain of the house as a thicket of the forest." If, therefore, he says, you do not desire to walk with us in the light of the Lord—that is, if you reject the proclamation made through Christ and turn away from the illumination that comes from Him—He Himself will altogether and utterly set aside His own people. And this is clearly what our Lord Jesus Christ said to them: ^D "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! Behold, your house is left to you desolate." And indeed, by the voice of Jeremiah, He says: "I have forsaken My house, I have abandoned My heritage." And: "For their land was filled from the beginning with divinations, as that of foreigners, and foreign children were born among them."

The prophet now presents a defense, in a certain manner, for the judgments of God, and renders the reasons why the house of Israel—or rather, His people—is most justly abandoned by God. He calls to mind, as I said, the ancient and recent transgressions of Israel, convicting them of being godless and showing them to be both very cruel and harsh, and carried away by unbridled passion toward everything that is...

^A in vice, and much to be reproved by the Law. For before the advent of our Savior, having cast aside all reverence toward God and paying no heed to the commandment given to them through Moses, they were entangled in many ways; and they committed the worst of all evils even against Christ himself, the Savior of all. Therefore, sometimes the discourse explains the charges of their madness against the Law and the punishments for this which they justly sought, while the Persians, Babylonians, Idumeans, Elamites, and other nations were making war upon them at that time; at other times, it reproaches their manners regarding their rage against Christ, and all that they happened to suffer on account of that cause, while Vespasian and Titus were subjugating all of Judea. ^B Therefore, the present discourse explains to us the transgressions of the Jewish Synagogue before the coming of the Savior; for this reason, it says that it was abandoned—that is, that its people were handed over by God to their enemies—because they preferred to labor again in their former vices and to return once more to their original impiety. For in Egypt they served the native and gentile gods, that is, demons; then they were redeemed through Moses as God took pity on them, and they were liberated from both the slavery of the soul and of the body. For just as they had shaken off the yoke of Egyptian tyranny, so too were they delivered from the impious savagery of the demons, and they no longer served the falsely named gods; rather, being trained by the Law through Moses toward the truth, they recognized the one God who is truly and by nature God. For they heard Him legislating and saying in Horeb: "You shall not make for yourself an idol, nor any likeness of what is in the heaven above, or of what is on the earth below, or of what is in the waters under the earth. You shall not worship them, for I am the Lord your God." ^C And it is also written in Deuteronomy: "But if you enter into the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to do according to the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found in you anyone who cleanses his son or daughter in the fire, one who prophesies prophecies, and one who divines, and an augur, and a sorcerer, and an enchanter, and a ventriloquist, and a seer of portents, and one who consults the dead. For everyone who does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God. You shall be perfect before the Lord your God. For those nations whose inheritance you will receive, they will listen to divinations and prophecies. But the Lord your God has not given such things to you." Such, indeed, is the Law. But since they were fickle and unstable, and very much inclined toward defection—that is, from God—He further commands, saying: "But if the Lord your God leads you into the land into which you go to inherit it, and you cast out great and many and strong nations before your face (he names one and another), and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands, and you strike them: you shall utterly destroy them, you shall not make a covenant with them, nor shall you have mercy on them, nor shall you contract affinity with them; your daughter you shall not give to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son: for he will turn your son away from Me, and he will serve alien gods, and the Lord will be angry with fury against you, and will quickly destroy you." For God guarded them in every way ^D

and, as the Holy Scripture says, gave the Law for their support. But they, having cast aside the care of such venerable precepts, turned heedlessly to everything contrary to the commandments. For they applied themselves to divinations and false vaticinations, and sought the knowledge of future things from those who were addicted and devoted to idols; and indeed they rebuked the holy prophets, saying, "Speak to us other things, and announce to us another error." They also had dealings with the daughters of neighboring nations, although the Law had forbidden this matter; and they lived, contrary to the Law, with evil women whom God hated and who were nurtured in the rites of idolatry. They became fathers of alien children, who, being educated according to the custom and institution of their mothers, did not want to appear to even know, so to speak, the Mosaic Law. ^A And so, he says, their region was filled from the beginning with divinations, as was the land of the aliens, and alien children were born to them. But it was very absurd, and truly most shameful, that those dwelling in the holy city, being sons born to them from alien women, should conduct their lives according to Hellenic customs and live outside the Law. And when God commanded every male child to be circumcised on the eighth day, and said clearly: "Three times of the year shall every male of yours appear before Me;" they did not do this, but they used to carry off their newborn to the demons, and in the shrines of the idols sacrifice on their behalf. You see them having trampled the law entirely. But was it consistent that those who had arrived at such a degree of impiety as not even to want to acknowledge the Redeemer should be called by the name of His very own people? Holy, therefore, is this judgment against them, and the reason for their turning away is not weak. "For the Judge of all is no respecter of persons." ^B You see them having arrived at such a state of impiety that they no longer even desired to know the Redeemer, let alone be called His people. Therefore, the verdict against them is a holy one, and the proposal for their turning away is not base. For the Judge of all is no respecter of persons.

VERS. 7, 8. For their land was filled with silver and gold, and there was no number of their treasures; and their land was filled with horses, and there was no number of their chariots.

He says that two of the most foul of all vices, namely greed and pride, were present in them. That greed is the root of all evils the most wise Paul testifies clearly. That arrogance is a thing hateful and hostile to God is evident to all. For it is written: "The Lord resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." ^C Indeed, from what kind of wickedness can you see those who are held fast by the pursuit of riches being absent? For such men scrape together gain and gather money from usury and interest, from covetousness and injustice, from rapine and calumny. Insolence accompanies their riches, and a great proclivity toward the proceeds of nefariously wicked and accursed pleasures. For where there is luxury, there one will surely find ^D revelries, drunkenness, brothels, lusts, and every kind of intemperance.

Who among those accustomed to sound reasoning would not hold in abomination the haughty man who treats the weaker with scorn, holding his own eyebrows aloft, looking down on those in poverty, unable to endure sympathy for those in distress, deeming himself beneath showing mercy to those in need and hardship, and forgetting, in the end, that he is but dust and ashes? Our God, therefore, who loves virtue, accuses them—and very rightly—as having minds insatiable for the acquisition of plunder, mounted as if on horses, and ensnared in the traps of vainglory. He says their land is filled with horses, not as though merely one or two were suffering from arrogance, but as if their whole country were gripped by this passion and the evil were spreading through everyone. ^B Yet he also rebukes them for having transgressed in this matter against the Law and having chosen disobedience to God, who clearly declared: "If you come into the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it, and you say, 'I will set a ruler over myself, like the rest of the nations around me,' you shall surely set over yourself a ruler whom the Lord your God chooses." Then, concerning the person being appointed, He says: "For he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he turn the people back to Egypt, so that he does not multiply horses for himself." And in addition to these: "And he shall not multiply silver and gold for himself exceedingly." Therefore, He blames them both for the accumulation of wealth—and this insatiably—and for multiplying horses for themselves. This reproach also touches, as is natural, those who have been allotted the task of leading, since they were the ones transgressing the commandment, they who, more than the others, ought to have been seen honoring the decreed laws and rebuking those who transgressed them.

And the land was filled with abominations of the works of their hands, and they worshipped what their fingers had fashioned. And man was bowed down, and a man was humbled, and I will not let them go.

He again accuses them of spiritual fornication, and of choosing for many to worship false gods, falsely so named. He explains that they have advanced to such a measure of impiety that they have reached the very summit of every evil, having meditated upon the ultimate apostasy from God, who knows all things, sustains them by His nod, and brings them into existence. He seems in a certain way even to grieve intensely for human nature, which has been treated with the utmost insult. For God, the Lord of all, honored man with the workmanship of His own hands; he was not fashioned by word along with the other creatures, as was the case, for instance, in the command, ^D "Let there be a firmament, and it was so," but He took dust from the earth and fashioned man, according to the words of the most wise Moses. And he became according to the image and likeness of God, and was, as it were, ordained a kind of ruler over those on earth. Beyond this, he is honored also with the spirit of life, for He breathed into his face the breath of life. Therefore, "man, being in honor, did not understand," according as it is written.

^A For he has worshipped graven things; and, as the prophetic discourse says, "They worshipped that which their own fingers made. And man has bowed down, and the man of low degree is humbled." This is an affront both to God Himself and to the nature of man. For although it was possible from the beauty of created things to see their Artificer in a relative way— "for the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead"—yet they have not done this; but by offering worship to stones, and by worshipping the wood, the miserable creatures have offended the Lord and God by nature, the Creator of all things; and they have failed to realize, as was to be expected, that they are also insulting their own nature, if indeed man is superior to wood and stones. Wherefore the Creator of all, justly indignant, says: "Man has bowed down, and the man of low degree is humbled, and I will not forgive them." By this He signifies the immutability of His wrath, even if because of both, as was to be expected, He has been stirred up against them: because they have offended the divine majesty, and have rendered their own nature most base. He says that their land was filled with abominations, hinting that those who were guilty of this vice of apostasy were not few in number, nor even easily numbered; and that their worship was not of one kind, but was worshipped by each according to his own whim, and a manifold swarm of idols filled their whole land. And thus it is said by the voice of Jeremiah: "According to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah. And according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem ye set up altars to burn incense unto Baal." ^C It is, therefore, a wicked and intolerable thing to God, the making of idols, both those that are manifest to the senses, and those that fall into the mind and understanding. For Satan plunders the souls of men, grievously and in many ways, with imaginations which he casts into the mind and heart, sometimes even leading them into sins by the fabrications of idols, and drawing them into base and unnatural pleasures.

VERS. 10, 11. "And now enter into the rocks, and hide yourselves in the earth for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when He arises to shake terribly the earth. For the eyes of the Lord are high, but man is low; and the height of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day."

^D Jerusalem being given to idolatry, or rather the whole of Judaea being led astray and unrestrainedly declining toward all manner of things hateful to the God who loves virtue, the war of the Babylonians in a certain way occupied the whole of Judaea; and when they had plundered it entirely, they slaughtered those they had captured, and carried off the women and children into their own region, and held them for a long time in the rank of captives. But when this expedition was announced, and was already impending, such fear seized the Jews, and they came to such a state of consternation, that they hid themselves in caves and in the fissures of the mountains, and took to inaccessible places; for since all their power

^A of resisting those who were advancing against them had grown weak. Therefore, since the evils are not just impending, but rather have already entered within the gates and are present in the very land, He commands them to hide, and all but bury themselves alive in the earth, from the fear of the Lord and from the glory of His strength, when He shall arise to strike the earth—that is, to crush the earth.

That the divine counsels and thoughts are lofty and above all men, and that no one of those on the earth shall be able to oppose them, He makes clear by saying: "For the eyes of the Lord are lofty." For by the eyes of the Lord in this passage, He refers to His as it were pre-vision and His counsels, and the judgments He makes on every matter. For men, being small in nature and mind, both deliberate small things and think humble things. But God, the Lord of all, being lofty in nature, and understood in secret transcendences over all things, possesses an invincible thought. For no one would be able to bring forward a plan or support powerful enough to subvert the machinations of the divine counsels. He says that the Jews will know this, even if they did not know it before, when the grave war of the Babylonians attacks them, and every aiding hand grows weak, and thought fails, as well as the inventions of human counsel by which they thought perhaps they might be able to escape the ^B calamities of war. Therefore, experience will show, He says, that man is lowly, and the loftiness of men will be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. As I have just said, while all their power is proven to be weak, the preeminence of the divine power will be most manifest to those who have trusted in Him. It is therefore a terrible thing to offend God, and this thing becomes the cause of every calamity for us. We ought not to rely on our own powers, but rather to attribute the ability to do all things to God, and to make Him our helper—it is good to do this when some of the evils that befall us are brought on because we have offended Him through sin.

"For the day of the Lord of Sabaoth is upon every one who is insolent and proud, and upon every one who is high and lifted up, and they shall be humbled. And upon every cedar of Lebanon, of the high and lifted up, and upon every oak of Bashan; and upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, and upon every high tower, and upon every high wall, and upon every ship of the sea, and upon every ^C spectacle of the beauty of ships; and the loftiness of men shall be humbled and shall fall, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day."

He calls the time of the war and the fulfillment of the anger against them "the day of the Lord." For this is the custom of the divinely inspired Scripture. And indeed, David marked the very time of the arrival of our Savior with the name of "day," saying: "This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." It will therefore, He says, be the time of wrath for all...

who are insolent and proud. ^A And he seems to call those insolent who dishonor the divine majesty, because they cannot bear to worship it, but instead are devoted to whatever gods they themselves may have fashioned; and proud, those who despise the divine laws and have trained themselves to hold the things decreed as of no account. And so the blessed David said: "The proud have transgressed the law exceedingly." Since, however, there were very many throughout Judea and truly in Jerusalem who were filled with wealth in abundance, and were flowing with a store of riches not moderately, and were excelling others and were fenced about and fortified by powers, and because they had leapt up to no small measure of glory among them, and were lifted on high, and as it were swelling, for this reason he says that this divine wrath will especially fall upon them, enigmatically insinuating the state and standing of each. For he compares them both to the cedars of Lebanon: "For I have seen the impious," he says, "propped up and exalted like the cedars of Lebanon"; nay, even to the trees of the terebinths of Bashan, that is, the oaks which are in the land of Bashan—now this is a place in Judea, which is now called Basanea, an excellent nurse of plants, having thick and very tall cedars. ^B And he likewise compares them to hills and mountains, and furthermore to towers and very high walls. And that they will also lose the means of being wealthy along with the land, he adds, saying: "And upon every ship of the sea, and upon every appearance of beautiful ships." This is understood in two ways. For when war was already announced on all sides, and the Babylonians were said to be approaching, the Israelites ceased to fix their hope on God, and invited the Egyptians to their aid, and hired the Tyrians and the surrounding nations. For all the Tyrians were seafaring, skilled in mercantile pursuits, and had magnificently constructed ships. But after the Babylonian arrived, before he devastated the land of the Jews, he plundered the Tyrians. Therefore, either this is what the prophetic word tells us in these things, or perhaps that: for very many of those who reigned over Israel had merchant ships, ^C which carried out merchandise for them from the region and land of the Jews, and in turn brought them in from foreign regions and cities; from which it came about that immense wealth accrued to them; they became more haughty, not unlike cedars, oaks, mountains, and towers. But that the occasion of the gathering of wealth—that is, the profits which flow in from trade and exchange—will perish together with the proud, he clearly denotes. That the Israelites also hired many for aid is not obscure, since God says of them through another prophet: "And Ephraim was a silly dove, not having a heart; he called upon Egypt, and went to the Assyrians. And when they go, I will cast my net over them, as birds of the air I will bring them down; I will instruct them with the report of their affliction." The judgment of God is therefore inevitable against those upon whom it comes. Is it not, then, impious ignorance, for hope...

in Him, and to be mocked by empty and foolish reasonings, thinking that even if He should wish to save them, some other, with the addition of human assistance, might rescue them and overcome His will? For if He closes against a man, it says, who will open? It is better, therefore, to trust in the Lord than to trust in man, according to the voice of the Psalmist.

"And all things made by hands they shall hide, bringing them into caves, and into the clefts ^B of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of His power, when He shall arise to shake the earth."

He shows the plan of the Jews to be worthy of ridicule, if they hide their gods and are eager to save those whom they worship. Yet how should they not have expected them to be their saviors, if indeed they knew them to be gods? But they themselves condemned their own decisions, and while witnessing to their utter impotence in every respect, they come to the aid of their gods. For they hide them in caves, and in the clefts of the rocks, and in the holes of the earth, so that the enemies, upon finding them, might not carry them away with the defeated as if they were captive gods. How then are they still gods to those who worship them, having received help? They are but soulless matter. And as the blessed David says: "The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of the hands of men." ^C Those who worship them suffer from an equal stupidity with them. For they themselves, having been their craftsmen and creators, lift them upon their shoulders, and go about, and worship them, and pray, saying: "Deliver me, for Thou art my God." Their heart is therefore ashes, and they go astray. It would be fitting for those accustomed to piety to bid farewell to the foolishness of the wandering and to cry out also that which is written: "The gods that have not made the heaven and the earth, let them perish from the earth and from those things that are under heaven." For to us there is one God the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him.

"In that day man shall cast away his abominations, the silver ^D and the gold, which he made to worship vain things and bats, to enter into the holes of the earth, of the solid rock, and into the clefts of the rocks, from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of His power, when He shall arise to shake the earth."

That they were about to hide the gods that they had made and were falsely named as such—not being overcome by any reverence for them, but rather having condemned them as useless and powerless material—he makes manifest when he subjoins to those things which he had said: "In that day a man shall cast away his abominations which he made to worship, and the bats..."

^A."

For having placed these man-made things in their shrines, they worshipped them irreligiously, for they thought them to be gods. But once they perceived the time of war to be at hand, and saw that there was absolutely no way for them to obtain help, and discovered that they were but stones and wood, and gold and silver material, which they had believed would be their saviors and deliverers, they cast them out of the temples and hid them in caves, sparing the material rather than rendering them any further honor as gods. And that their labor spent on the making of idols is vain and useless, he demonstrated by saying, "A man shall cast away his abominations which he made to worship, and the bats." For they themselves became the creators of their own gods and the craftsmen of the things they worshipped, yet they received no benefit from them at all. Perhaps it was for the bats alone that they built shrines. For such winged creatures, or rather vermin, always love to dwell in dark places, and they fill everything within them with horror and filth. "A man shall cast away," therefore, "the abominations which he made." And whither shall he cast them? He says, so that they may enter the holes of the hard rock and into the ^B clefts of the rocks, from before the face of the fear of the Lord. Observe, then, how the wretched creatures hastened to bury themselves along with their gods.

But they have not seen the God of all to be anything of this sort. For He did not hide in any way when they fled from the land of Egypt, and Pharaoh was pursuing them. For He broke through the sea and led them out with inexpressible power and inconceivable nods of His will, and while they were preserved, passing through as if on dry land, that senseless Pharaoh was drowned with his whole army. And indeed, when Rabsaces, the general of the Babylonians, was besieging Jerusalem on all sides and blathering against God, and saying that he would easily conquer the whole of Judea, God did not hide, nor did He seek out the rifts of rocks or the fissures of mountains. But Hezekiah prayed, saying, "Hear, O Lord, look down, O Lord, and see the words of Rabsaces, whom the king of the Assyrians has sent to cast reproaches upon the living God." And straightway he heard God speaking: "I will defend this city for my own sake, and for the sake of David my servant." And what then was the manner of the help that came to those in peril? It was miraculous and worthy of God. For "the angel of the Lord went forth and slew from the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand."

Therefore, let those who worship graven images be put to shame—those who have abandoned the all-powerful God and serve gods whom they hide away before themselves, lest they perish before them when they are exposed to the greed and avarice of their enemies. Let us say, then, according to the voice of the prophet Jeremiah: "A throne of glory ^C exalted, our sanctuary, the expectation of Israel, O Lord; let all who forsake Thee be put to shame. Let those who fall away be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of life."

But now, if it is permissible to say something spiritual regarding spiritual matters, whoever suffers from the idols of the mind and admits the thoughts of depraved images, let them know that they shall become nests of bats, ^D that is, of unclean spirits. For each one is tempted, as he says, by his own desires...

being drawn away and enticed. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is matured, brings forth death” (Jas. 1:14, 15). We must, therefore, reject the origins of the passions, and drive away the images that enter into the mind through mere thoughts, knowing what is written: “If the spirit of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place; for a remedy will quiet great sins” (Eccl. 10:4).

“Behold, then, the Lord God of hosts shall take away from Judea, and from Jerusalem, the strong man and the strong woman, the strength of bread, and the strength of water, the giant and the strong man, and the prince, the warrior and the judge.”

Having set out the account for us at sufficient length regarding their more ancient crimes, he turns the discourse again to the time of their final misfortunes, which they have justly endured for having impiously raged against our Lord Jesus Christ. For the wrath of the Lord has been commanded ^B against them, and most rightly so; for having put the prophets to death and stoned those who were sent, they did not even reverence the Son Himself, but leaped upon Him like wild beasts, and as much as it lay with them, they delivered the Author of life to death, saying, “Let us bind the just man, because he is useless to us” (Sap. 2:12). Most terrible, indeed, were the things that happened to them in the war, and they were consumed in many ways: partly by famine and sieges, by fire and sword, partly by the captivity of their women and children. That they also suffered the loss of the gifts from above and from God, and were deprived of the goods of mind and soul, he teaches ^C by saying: “Behold, the Lord of Sabaoth shall take away from Judea and Jerusalem the strong man and the strong woman.” And the word of the prophet now is not about physical strength—for it is foolish to understand it in such a way—but rather about the strength that is intelligible, and that which pertains to the mind and the heart, by which we are accustomed to practice virtue correctly. For the flesh wars against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; for these are opposed to one another, and many worldly and unclean pleasures overthrow the human mind and drag it down to sins. There is need, therefore, of strength from above and from God. ^D For in this way, one will prevail and barely be able to conquer, and be crowned. But he says that this is taken away from the Jews, and the facts themselves will cry it out. For what discourse is there still among them about the practice of virtue? Or who is the noble man who has trained himself to stand against the passions of the flesh, or rather, the assaults of strange pleasures? For the mind of all is exposed and, as it were, prostituted like a half-cooked beet, according to the voice of the prophet. For they cannot say, “I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13). The strength of bread and the strength of water are also taken from them: not again of perceptible bread, nor of waters placed in common use, but more truly of that of which David

^A says: "He gave them the bread of heaven; man ate the bread of angels." We also say that he mentions the waters of the intellect, which the prophet Isaiah himself mentions somewhere: "And you shall draw water with joy from the fountains of the Savior." And indeed the Savior himself says: "Everyone who drinks from this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks from the water that I shall give him, there shall be in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life." Understand carefully the words of the prophet. For he did not say simply that bread and water would be taken away from the Jews, but the strength of bread and the strength of water. And we must understand that he wishes to teach us something of this sort. For we, encountering the holy discourses and reading the divine Scriptures, and then understanding them, receive the strength of ^B intelligible bread. "For not by bread alone," he says, "shall man live, but by every word that proceeds through the mouth of God." In like manner you will understand concerning intelligible waters. The Jews, indeed, still have the bread and the water. For they are much occupied with the writings of Moses, and they read the law. But since they know nothing, they do not have the strength of the bread, nor indeed the strength of the water. For the bare letter alone is given to them, which has the appearance of bread and water, but in no way nourishes them for a spiritual condition and growth. Paul will attest to this, writing: "Until this day, when Moses is read, a veil is laid upon their hearts, not removed because it is abolished in Christ." But we also speak of the strength of bread and the strength of water being removed from the synagogue of the Jews in another way. And the discourse is mystical. For we who are called through faith to sanctification have the bread, I mean the bread ^C from heaven, that is, Christ, or rather his body. But if anyone should ask what kind of strength and power his is, we say that it is vivifying; for it gives life to the world. We also approach in like manner the grace through holy baptism, which sanctifies us, calling the strength of the water the abolition of sins, spiritual regeneration, for conformity to him, Christ. And in addition to these, a free entrance into the kingdom of heaven: "For unless a man," he says, "is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." The Jews, therefore, are deprived of such goods. For there is no strength of bread among them, that is, that vivification which is in Christ. They do not have the strength of water; for unwashed sin has remained among them. They will not enter into the kingdom of heaven, having dishonored Christ who brings one in; for they did not believe the one saying: "I am the way," and "I am the door." He will likewise take away ^D the giant and the mighty man. Who, then, is that giant? And who is the other? I indeed think that by the giant, he designates the one who has arrived at the limit and goal of spiritual strength, but by the mighty man, one who is a little lesser and more dejected, and inferior in that excellence which is understood in the former. For to each one of us

slightly diminished, and yielding to the superiority understood in him. For to each of us a measure of grace is given by God. This the most wise Paul makes evident to us, saying: "I wish that all men were even as I myself; but each of us has his own gift from God, one in this way, and another in that." It is also ^A a custom of divinely inspired Scripture to call those who are especially robust "giants." For indeed God once said concerning those Babylonians who had campaigned against the land of the Jews: "Giants are coming to fulfill my wrath, rejoicing at the same time and behaving insolently." And indeed the Psalmist also says: "He shall exult as a giant to run his course." But there shall be no warrior among the Jews, nor any judge. For we, who have honored the Lord of hosts through faith, are strengthened by Him, and we are rendered capable of resistance, specifically against wicked and impure powers. "For our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of this darkness; against the spiritual forces of wickedness ^B in the heavenly places." Equipped with the weapons of justice against these, and possessing the spiritual panoply, we resist in an intelligible way. The divine Paul also mentions these, saying: "Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins in truth." And what follows: "For our weapons are not carnal, but powerful in God; and walking in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh." But among the Jews no one of this kind exists anywhere; rather, they yield victory without a fight to every attacker, and to their own untamed pleasures. Nor would anyone find among them someone who knows how to judge rightly, whether in matters concerning the mind, or even in external and worldly affairs. For strange and wicked thoughts ^C invade the human mind, and a terrible tumult of impure desires causes confusion; but the mind of the wise and moderate man stands fixed, like a judge weighing each thing, and rejecting the bad, but crowning the useful with a silent vote. This too is entirely unpracticed among the throngs of the Jews. For God, who guides us in this also, is not with them; nor do they know how to test what is blameless and pleasing to God, even if they were to practice some of the external matters. For how could they know the precise aim of the law, having offended the Lawgiver? And for that reason, they are not undeservedly deprived of all understanding, I mean of the Sacred Scriptures.

^D VERS. 2-4. "He shall take away, moreover," he says, "prophet and conjecturer, and elder, and captain of fifty, and admirable counselor, and wise architect, and intelligent auditor: and I shall appoint youths as their princes, and mockers shall rule over them." That prophecy has been removed from the Synagogue of the Jews, no one would doubt, since the matter itself cries out. For the blessed prophets who lived at various times proclaimed Christ, [D-continuation] the, I say, to the holy Scriptures, [of which] they have been justly deprived; [those who] have collided with the Lawgiver.

55 Therefore, that prophecy has been withdrawn from the Judaic Synagogue, there is no reason for anyone to doubt, when the fact itself cries out. For the blessed prophets of old preached Jesus. But after that which was fulfilled arrived.

and the end of the law and the prophets had come (for God and Lord appeared to us, according to the Scriptures), then they acted insolently toward him; and the grace of prophecy ceased among them. For it was not consistent that those who were enemies of God and insolent, and who had even become killers of the Lord and had hands full of blood, should be honored with the spirit of prophecy. The blessed Daniel ^A will testify to these things also, saying that the vision and the prophet are sealed. Therefore, Israel has become bereft of such a bright and glorious grace; and they have become so ignorant and devoid of a good mind that there is no one among them who is a "conjecturer." By a conjecturer we mean one who, as it were, puts things together and correctly predicts each of the events, and clearly perceives where any matter will arrive and at what end it will finally settle. For those who approach the business of life thoughtlessly and with light-minded concepts depart from what is useful and, walking as if in darkness, stumble against rocks. But those who are possessed of exquisite understanding look with a sharp eye upon the outcomes of events; and they are not without cause for admiration, for this reason—that they see everything in an orderly ^B and economical way. This is the fruit of a good mind and the result of truly superior counsel. We call a "senior" not the one who is so by time (for there are very many among the Jews even now who reach the peak of advanced age), but the one who is so by understanding and knowledge, and who has reached, as it were, the end and pinnacle of prudence; to whom the blessed John also gives instructions, saying: "I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning." We therefore understand "elders" to be those who already have a calm mind, who are settled, and who are gray in their thinking and have practiced using their reason as one who has attained maturity. He mentions a "captain of fifty," not meaning absolutely one set over fifty men, but as one derived from this very fact, the one who is simply and entirely the leader, and who persuades those subject to him to behave and live in order and with decorum. ^C This, too, has fallen into sickness along with the rest in the case of the Synagogue of the Jews. For while the Savior of us all, Christ, still was with them, and was calling them through faith to eternal life, to the kingdom of heaven, and to intimacy with God, there were still among them chief priests and leaders, Scribes and Pharisees. But when the wretches had killed him, they were scattered to every wind; they became sojourners, vagabonds, and strangers everywhere among the nations, having no longer leaders and those set over them as they had in the past—but were like a flock that has been deprived of a shepherd and has no one to preside over it. And, what is even more burdensome, they have no admirable counselors like the prophets of old used to be, who instructed them in things conducive to salvation, who restrained those who were rebellious and unbridled, and who guided them skillfully toward everything necessary for benefit and utility. Furthermore, he threatens that he will take away from them both a wise architect and a sensible hearer—these also being spiritual gifts and God-given, and to be held in the highest honor and value. For we say that a man is a wise architect if he knows how to build the Church intelligently, with upright and in-

- ^A offensive mystagogies, and one who clears away the deceptions of so-called knowledge, while walling up the minds of the believers with the dogmas of truth. Such was the divine Paul, commissioning and saying: "According to the grace given to me, as a wise architect I laid a foundation, but another is building upon it. But let each one watch how he builds. For no one can lay any other foundation than the one that has been laid, which is Jesus Christ." Therefore, there is no wise architect among the Jews, nor even an intelligent listener; but we consider him to be such who possesses the discernment of spirits, and is able to understand who is speaking in the Spirit of God, and ^B who, on the other hand, in Beelzebub. For many have been the discourses given by many—discourses having both dogmatic explanation and bringing to mind the ways of gentleness. But the unintelligent and unlearned seize them without discernment, and receive the words without examination, even though they possess no benefit, and are much more accustomed to cause damage. But the intelligent listener, like an expert moneychanger, admits that which is accustomed to be beneficial, while he rejects as counterfeit—like a debased coin—that which is not so. A similar thing the blessed Paul says: "Be wise moneychangers, test everything, hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil." And moreover, another of the holy disciples commands things consonant with these, saying: "Brothers, test the spirits, whether they are from God."

"With all these having been removed," he says, "I will appoint adolescents as their princes, and mockers shall rule over them." ^C Here, again, he does not call them adolescents according to the time of their age, but those who have not yet reached the perfect peak in understanding. For youth is always foolish, and is tossed about and wavers in ignorance, and the best counsel fails them. And indeed, the Jews have such leaders even to this day—young in mind and mockers. For they steal away the reputation of men, although they labor under a great shortage of all goods and of all virtue. They are also mockers in another way, buying with money the right to be called "Rabbi," and for the sake of greed and the gathering of profit, they have obtained the office of teaching. But those who, having driven away the disease of hypocrisy, are true worshippers of our common Savior Christ, do not have the appearance of virtue falsified by outward adornments, but admit the ornaments of piety ^D into their mind and heart, and while they walk upon the earth, they live as citizens in heaven, having as their instructor our Lord Jesus Christ himself.

"And the people shall collapse, man against man, and man against his neighbor. The child shall stumble against the elder, and the dishonorable against the honorable."

The word has already given us a message beforehand that the strength of bread and the strength of water will be taken away from Judea, and the giant and the powerful man, the warrior and the judge, and

^A a prophet and a diviner, an elder, and a captain of fifty, and a wonderful counselor, and also a wise architect, and an intelligent listener. Then he makes clear where the matter will eventually lead for them, and into what kind of harm it will terminate for them, by adding immediately: "The people will fall upon one another, man upon man"—that is, they will be in a state of disorder, and will live a life full of tumult. When the young do not respect the venerable gray hair of the elder, when those of lower rank do not deem it worthy to honor their superior, but no one reproves, or leads each one to what is proper for them, all things among them will be in total disarray, with every kind of order and knowledge removed. For where the divine law is not present as the arbiter of what must be done, how or from where could it be possible for anyone to live honestly and decorously in the world? It is the same as if someone were to want a ship to sail a straight and ^B unimpeded course, devoid of both its rudder and its helmsman.

VERS. 6, 7. *Because a man shall take hold of his brother, or the relation of his father, saying: You have a garment, be thou our prince, and let my food be with you. But he answering shall say in that day: I will not be your prince, for there is no bread in my house, nor garment, I will not be prince of this people.*

The prophetic discourse signifies to us the magnitude of the misery and extreme calamity of the Jews. For they reigned at appointed times in Jerusalem, those who were of the tribe of Judah; and they were splendid, famous, and adorned with riches, and crowned in the lot of nobility in a truly excellent manner. They were led also in another way by those of the tribe of Levi, according to the order ^C of Aaron. Since the high priest presided, and the elders and Levites performed their services, these men were venerable to those throughout the whole region of the Jews. But when they had committed what was unlawful, and practiced every kind of impiety against Christ, they slipped from that ancient dignity and from the celebrity of their riches and fame, and their affairs arrived at such confusion and vileness that they could not have any leader among them who was illustrious in ancient excellence, nor endowed with wealth, nor power, nor knowledge of the law. He teaches this very thing when he says: "A man shall take hold of his brother, or the relation of his father, saying: You have a garment, be thou our prince, and let my food be with you." For when things are in confusion and great ^D disorder, to such a degree that they clash with one another, and there is no honor or modesty—neither of the young for the old, nor of the ignoble for the glorious—anyone, he says, will look for a leader for himself, and will choose him, scarcely even moving him by kinship of birth and drawing him to pity. And he will choose him, he says, not as one flourishing in riches, but as one not being naked, and he will love to be nourished and to serve as a beggar under him, even one who scarcely has a garment. But although he is such a one, he will not accept the rule, even if nothing is sought from those who wish to be subordinated. For they seek bread in order to be subordinated, and for the sake of the most meager nourishment they commit themselves into servitude to him. And what is this evasion and repudiation?

It is, of course, total mendicancy. For he will say: "There is no bread in my house, nor clothing; I will not be the leader of this people." ^A You see how that which was once held in the highest esteem by them—to be a leader, I mean—which was once sought by many contrivances and attained by few, will be offered to those who are willing. But because the affairs of all have fallen into a state of grievous and inactive poverty, even this position will appear something to be avoided. It is possible, therefore, to see from the facts themselves from what a state the affairs of the Jews have shifted into what a condition. For the wretched ones have offended Christ, who distributes all good things to us in abundance, who crowns with glory those who love him, and enriches the souls of the sincere with spiritual gifts. ^B

VERS. 8. For Jerusalem is dissolved, and Judea has fallen, and their tongue with iniquity, in the things that pertain to the Lord, they do not obey. He says that Judea has fallen, just like a wall; and he confirms the cause for which it suffers this. What, indeed, is meant by "it shall be forsaken"? This means it is deserted and abandoned, bereft of the care and concern of Christ. For they heard him saying clearly: "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." Judea has also fallen, having no one to raise it up, who knows how and is able to save. For Christ is the foundation, and upon him are we all built up, living and spiritual stones, joined and fitted together in mind into a holy temple, into a habitation of God, in the Spirit, and we are placed upon him. ^C And those who have attained him as a base have an immovable foundation and stability in all good things; but those who do not have him are ruinous and most easily carried away to any shameful thing whatsoever. Judea has fallen, therefore, and Jerusalem shall be forsaken. Something similar another of the holy prophets proclaimed beforehand, when he says: "The house of Israel has fallen, there is none to raise it up." And such things have happened to them because, alongside their disobedience, they had an impious and most iniquitous tongue. For what kind of foul thing have we not discovered them saying against our universal Savior Christ? When they called him a Samaritan, a demoniac, a glutton, a wine-bibber, and born of fornication? Accordingly, along with their disobedience, their tongue was always impiously petulant in things that pertained to Christ, concerning whom it can be said: "For not in vain are nets spread for the birds." ^D For those who have been companions and participants in murder store up evils for themselves as if in a treasury; and evil is the destruction of those men who violate the law.

VERS. 9. Why now is their glory humbled, and the confusion of their face stood against them, and they announced and manifested their sin as that of Sodom? He denotes the time of the rejection of the Jews, and says: "Now their glory is humbled," confirming for certain that in those times especially, in which their tongue, not without

^A wickedness, was impious toward Christ, then also every kind of misery was brought upon them, and they fell into disgrace. And in what manner their tongue was impious with disobedience, the prophet himself makes clear to us, passing over other things, but mentioning only their final impiety. For they were always hostile and averse to Christ, and being wounded by the arrows of envy, they plotted in many ways. But when they brought Him to Pilate, then indeed they most of all announced and manifested their own sin, just like those of Sodom. For just as the inhabitants of Sodom, sickening wildly with uncontrollableness in their desires, and overcome by pleasures contrary to nature, rushed upon the blessed Lot, demanding the men who had entered in to him for abuse, having trampled upon all shame and with unbridled shamelessness prevailing, I think that the Jews in the same way ^B announced and proclaimed their own iniquity, crying out and saying to Pilate concerning Christ: "Away with him, away with him, crucify him." This voice of theirs was arraigned even by one of the prophets, saying: "I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance, I have given my beloved soul into the hands of her enemies. My inheritance has become to me as a lion in the forest, it has given its voice against me, therefore I have hated it." Woe to their soul, because they have taken evil counsel against themselves, saying: "Let us bind the just, because he is useless to us." Therefore they shall eat the fruits of their works. Woe to the wicked, evils shall happen to him according to the works of his hands.

The prophet again bewails the people of the Jews, and explains the causes of the complaints against them: For they said, he says, within themselves: "Let us bind the just, because he is useless to us." For they did not receive through faith the Savior of all, Christ, but continued ^C to heap insults upon Him, and truly thought that He who had come for this purpose—that all things in Him should become common for us, and that he might transform those who had sprung from the blood of Israel from the legal manner of life into a spiritual conversation—would be in no way useful to their life. Therefore, having assumed He would bring them no advantage, they bound Him with death, as far as it depended on them, even though He rose again as God, emptying Hades and breaking the power of corruption. For He is Life and the Author of life. But against themselves they took counsel, wishing to bind the just; and they shall eat the fruits of their own works. For whatever a man sows, that also he shall reap. And those who are of upright character, and who burn with the love of God with their whole heart, will find good fruits from this; but those who fall away and are disobedient, and who fight against the divine majesty, shall eat the fruits of their ^D works, that is, fire, and judgment and punishment, and whatever things follow from wrath. For such things will certainly follow those who have chosen to fight against God.

It is, therefore, true: "Woe to the wicked, evil will befall them according to the works of their hands." For just as they delivered Jesus to Pilate and to the untamed rage of the soldiers, so, he says, they themselves will be delivered to the Roman armies. And we shall find that this is clearly stated also by the voice of Ezekiel. For it is said to that impious city which killed the Lord, Jerusalem: "As you have done, so shall it be to you; your recompense shall be returned upon your head." ^A

ORATION III

Chapter III, verse 12: "O my people, your exactors strip you, and those who demand rule over you." ^B

Since he has abundantly and very clearly explained that the region of the Jews would suffer from a scarcity of all good things, and has recounted what was to come upon those who had run riot against Christ, he again urges them to turn away from their transgressions. With gentle words, he almost effectively charms them, turning them toward better things, and teaching them to avoid those who have been the authors and causes of all their evils. For I do not think we ought to be subject to those who have the place and lot of teachers, unless they set out to teach things that are useful and are willing to refute what is truly believed to be sinful. For the virtue of a teacher consists in being able to lead those who are being instructed to an accurate knowledge of what is useful, to mark as spurious what is of a nature to be harmful, and to command them to turn away from what is wont to cause harm. ^C

Indeed, those who are considered disciples are worthy of all praise if they do not look simply at the commands of their teachers, but at the nature of things; and while they admire those who teach, if indeed they are good and knowledgeable and interpreters of the best things, they should find fault with those whose purpose is not such. For even though some graze herds of sheep on mountains and in wooded dales, if a pit lies open to the animals, or a precipice appears in view, the sheep go around it and do not bring death upon themselves; for, by a certain law planted in them by nature, they are taught to spare their own lives. Is it not, then, contrary to reason if this is seen to prevail in animals lacking reason, while in us, who are endued with reason, there should be no knowledge of the things that pertain to the utility, necessity, and cultivation of life?

Therefore, if any of those who have been appointed as our teachers and guides choose to lead us to things that are not fitting, we should not simply be content to love them, nor follow rashly and unthinkingly toward what pleases them, ^D but rather examine each of the things to be done, choosing that which is most wont to be of help. The teachers of the Jews, then, that is to say, the Scribes and Pharisees, were keen and industrious when it came to gathering in revenues of money and collecting from the people gifts, first fruits, tithes, and everything else that the law assigned to those who had the lot of the priesthood. But their purpose and plan, and where all their zeal was placed, was to create confidence among the common people that the law primarily...

^A It was to those who guarded the law in this way that the Word was primarily intended; regarding the other commandments, however, they had no great regard. Hence the Savior himself said to them: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith" (Matt. xxiii, 23). They were, therefore, devoted to gain and lovers of money, and they would sometimes impose harsh fines upon those who stumbled, so that, by terrifying those accused of any offense whatsoever, they might persuade them to offer them even more than they could afford. Hence He says to those who were wronged by them: "O my people, your exactors are gleaning you, and your collectors rule over you." By saying "people," He signifies even now Israel, as one who might still enjoy the benefit of gentleness and humanity, and not be entirely torn away from that union and association with Him, if indeed he would wish to turn himself toward what is pleasing to Him. But in calling the exactors "gleaners," He points to the magnitude of their insatiable greed and avarice. For in the harvest, some collect what falls from the hand of the reaper, leaving nothing behind in the fields; and those who pick grapes do the same. "Your exactors," He says, "are therefore gleaning you." Just as if He were saying: ^B They have harvested your resources, and their greed does not stop even there, but they already glean—that is, they lay their hands on what has still been left behind. And most beautifully and aptly, He does not call them instructors, or teachers, or anything of that sort, but rather names them exactors and collectors, teaching that they lord it over them, not as teachers treating disciples gently, but as rigid and savage masters, forcing them to think what they themselves think and compelling them toward anything at all, and sometimes even contrary to their will. But the intention of those in Christ was not so. Accordingly, the divine Peter writes to those who have been called to the episcopacy and who have been chosen to lead the rational flocks: not as dominating the clergy—that is, the people who are the Lord’s portion—but as becoming examples to the flock (1 Pet. v, 2, 3).

^C The mystical Word also knows of other exactors, whom those who intend to live rightly must needs reject. For the evil and opposing powers solicit the zeal of all mortals toward evil; they extort and, as it were, exact, collecting the mind’s inclination toward the passions as a kind of tribute. For the holy Word declares those blessed who have not heard the voice of the exactor. For those who separate themselves from the desires of the flesh, and who with youthful and vivid prudence repel the evils born of sin, trample upon principalities and overcome the spirits of wickedness, are stronger than to suffer themselves to be conquered by the voice of the exactor. ^D Therefore, such exactors are to be avoided, and we must not concede that they should collect the fruit of sin in us—no, not even glean it. This, however, we shall accomplish, being strengthened in power and, as it were, through the sinews of Christ, and having cast out the depraved thoughts of our mind, and foul desire, and every kind of viciousness.

^A "My people, they who call you blessed deceive you, and disturb the path of your feet." He rouses them again to vigilance, and wishes them to be examiners of things, not simply to be made lax toward sloth by flattering words. For the Pharisees used to wander around throughout the houses of the Jews, offering flattering words, and calling them a blessed people, and the inheritance of God. And perhaps they were echoing to them what was said through the voice of Baruch: "Blessed are we, Israel, for the things that are pleasing to God are known to us." And so, that they might induce them to offer the first-fruits and tithes appointed for them by the law, they used to feign flattering speech; they were often wishing to be easily accessible, and they pursued an appearance of friendliness; but for the sake of gains and profits, they taught even the common people under their hand to violate the Law. Our Lord Jesus Christ chided them for this, as those who make void the commandment of God because of their own transgression. "They deceive you, therefore," He says, "who call you blessed, and they disturb the path of your feet." For they do not allow you to walk with a straight foot. Leading them astray, as it were, from the straight path, they carry them toward precipices and pits. ^B Now the straight and level path is union and fellowship with Christ through faith. But because the leaders of the Jews knew that, once the commandment given through Moses was abolished, they would be stripped of their gains and profits, they disturbed, as it were, the path of the feet of the people, adulterating the word of Christ and ordering them to cling to the shadows of the Law. For the wretches dared to say, "We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this fellow, we do not know from where he is"; and again, "If this man were from God, he would not be breaking the Sabbath." And what is even more impious than these things, against those who wished to listen to Christ and attend to His words, they impiously said, "He has a demon and is mad; why do you listen to him?"

But it must be considered, also in another way, by the spiritual man and the worker of virtue, that he ought to avoid most strictly the thoughts that flatter him in his mind and heart. For Satan, being terrible in wickedness, when he cannot draw those who excel in the life and conduct most dear to themselves toward his own opinion, attempts to undo them by another way. For he praises them as having achieved success, he receives them as already holy, he calls them blessed as if they had already become friends of God and had ascended to the summit of every virtue. Then, having begotten in them the passion of pride, he prepares them to offend God, and finally he shakes them like a plant from its foundation. For he is not ignorant that the God of all gives grace to the humble, but resists the proud. We must, therefore, as I said, deprecate and detest the thoughts that flatter us within our mind and heart. ^C For they do not permit us to traverse the straight path, through which one might proceed even very easily toward that which is pleasing to God. But now he will be brought into judgment for the k-

^A

VERS. 13-15. *Sed nunc stabit in judicio Dominus, et in judicio sistet populum suum. Ipse Dominus in judicium veniet cum senioribus populi sui, et cum principibus ejus. Vos autem quid incendistis vineam meam? Et rapina pauperis in domibus vestris? Quid injuria afficitis populum meum, et faciem pauperum confunditis?*

The prophet says that the multitude of the oppressed is not destitute of help, nor empty of all care and abandoned; rather, he confirms that the Lord of all will take the greatest care of them. For, he says, He will plead their cause against those who harvest and who welcome them as if they were blessed; and He will disturb the path of their feet and will pursue in judgment the elders of the people and the princes or prefects. For He redeemed His people from the house of bondage, and He delivered them from the ^B importunity of their lords, stirring up all creation against them. And indeed, He worked changes of waters into blood, and struck them with hail, and with deep and three-day darkness, and with all other things; for it is a long task to recount each one. Then He led them through the midst of the sea and fed them in the desert; He brought them into the land of promise, and drove out great and most warlike nations like thorns. The divine David also declared this, addressing the Saviour and Redeemer of all: "You brought a vine out of Egypt, You cast out the nations and planted it, You prepared a way before it; it extended its branches as far as the sea, and its shoots as far as the rivers." For Israel, as the prophet Jeremiah says, was a vine thriving with branches, and its fruit was flourishing. But when the care of cultivating it had been entrusted to the princes of the people, they oppressed the Master’s vine in such unjust ways that it now appears to be completely burned up. Therefore, He will level this charge against them with these words: "Why have you set fire to My vine?" For those whom it was right to make that intelligible vine—namely, Israel—more fertile, these have reduced it to total desolation, and have made it dry and useless to the Master. It has been set on fire, therefore, by those from whom it was expected to be full of clusters and heavy with fruit, and to be preserved from every harm. Now, it is worth the effort to see how they are said to have set fire to this intelligible vine. For it was fitting that those who presided over the office of teaching, and who held the law which leads ^C to all things that please God, should live before all others according to the prescription of the law and be adorned with the glory of justice, so that their life might be a kind of singular exemplar and image of a most perfect life for the people subject to them. It was fitting, moreover, that they should lead those subject to them to every goodness through the instruction of the law, to rebuke the wayward, to raise up those who have fallen, to show the path of piety, to instruct them in higher things, and to persuade them to look toward the end of the law, that is, Christ. "For Christ is the end of the law and the prophets." But concerning ^D

^A Him Moses spoke through shadows and types, pre-announcing to those of old the venerable and great mystery. But having shown disregard for all these, they themselves were evil in their ways, unbridled in their greed, incontinent in their desire for gain, deeming that which judges rightly of almost no account at all; and as for the things over which they ought rather to have blushed, they were accustomed to boast in those very things. The vineyard, therefore, has been burned, being neither helped by the manner of life of those who were allotted the charge of leading others, nor instructed by the legal precepts unto a straight and blameless life, that is, unto the knowledge of Christ—and this, though He had already shone forth upon those on earth and was saying clearly: "I am the light of the world, I am the way, and I am the truth." Let them, therefore, hear: "But why did you burn my vineyard, and why is the plunder of the poor in your houses? Why do you wrong my people, and put to shame the faces of the poor?" For they were dragging the poor away from understanding unto what they thought fit, and caused their faces to be put to shame. For just as those who are diligent in justice stand before God almost with a shining face and one pregnant with much confidence, so we say that those who are lovers of wickedness have the face of their heart sullen and joyless, covered with shame and confusion. But just as the one who acts as pedagogue toward understanding and is an instructor in the most beautiful things brings aid, so, I believe, do all who are ordained as teachers bring harm, unless they make the one who is being instructed a lover of better things. For they suffuse his face with redness, and him who is poor and meager in knowledge they thrust downward, and snatch him away toward baser things. There were also, in another way, the leaders of the Jews who were unjust and rapacious, and while they put to shame the faces of the poor, they attached themselves to the wealthy, even though the law said: "Judge righteous judgment," and instructed everywhere that, "Thou shalt not accept a person in judgment." ^C

VERS. 16, 17. "Thus says the Lord: Because the daughters of Sion are lifted up, and have walked with a haughty neck, and with winks of their eyes, and with the stepping of their feet, together trailing their tunics, and at the same time sporting with their feet, the Lord will humble the leading daughters of Sion, and the Lord will uncover their apparel in that day."

The discourse has already declared to us that the leaders of the Jews were in the most earnest pursuit of the necessity of becoming wealthy and of having glory that was conspicuous in that regard. They were full of injustice and greed, so that they might receive magnificent revenues both in the city and in the country, riding on horses, and being not a little puffed up by the outward show of those accustomed to serve as their bodyguards. For He accused them in the preceding passages, saying: "And the land was filled with horses, and there was no number of their chariots; and the land was filled with silver and gold, and there was no"

^A number of their treasures." Following this, it transpired ^B that women who were wealthy, inasmuch as they lived in luxury, sought to be pampered, and took great pleasure in ornaments made of gold and stones, and in varied attire, and in the sumptuousness of their garments. For the female sex is always, in conditions of great prosperity, ambitious and ostentatious. They are very fond of elegant clothing, and indeed they clothe themselves in gold and, raising their eyebrows high, boast of the beauty of their bodies. And frequently, on this very account, the pride of those who dwell with them is puffed up, and some esteem the dissipation of their wives as a glory to themselves. Perhaps ^C the leaders of the Jews were afflicted with this same disease, while they held the piety that is towards God in contempt. For in order that they might always have the supplies of wealth remaining to them, while the people offered them according to the prescription of the law, they did not embrace the faith in Christ, nor did they wish to persuade others, shutting up the kingdom of God, as it is written, neither entering themselves, nor allowing those who wish to enter to do so. On this account, they were delivered to the Roman armies for devastation and for plunder, and they perished together with their wives and their most beloved ones, their houses, and their wealth. For what they had gathered with such great exertion and effort became the property of others, and they themselves are to be pitied, and are wanderers, and appear in the greatest misery. This discourse therefore inveighs against their women, or rather their daughters—those of the leaders, as it were, and the most magnificent, who even belonged to the powerful—and says: "Because the daughters of Sion were lifted up, and they went with a stretched-out neck, and with the winking ^D of their eyes," and what follows. But they were lifted up not on account of virtue, but as in a carnal and most earthly way of thinking. For it seemed to them a great thing, as I said, to be proud on account of wealth, and glory, and outward ornaments, which they gathered from stones, and gold, and varied attire. In these things, the prophetic word describes for us the character and the demeanor of a pleasure-loving and immodest woman, adorned with conspicuous finery, as if from one woman to demonstrate the haughtiness of all the women among them. For they walked, he says, with a stretched-out neck, and with the winking of their eyes; although for a most modest woman, who cultivates a life of gravity and integrity, modesty is most dear, and it would be fitting for her not even to be seen by the eyes of men. But these women have fallen into such folly and impudence, that in their processions and ways of walking they would sell themselves, lifting up and stretching out their necks, nodding to those who looked at them, and sometimes even laughing, and by their laughter almost promising themselves to those who looked at them. For a meretricious disposition is always unstable and fluctuating, and flows with much idleness, whence there arises a greater propensity for pleasures. He objects to them also the crime of sloth, and says they play the harlot: they draw along their tunics, and play with their feet. It is likely that they thought this too contributed to their elegance; but this is a meretricious practice and an argument of the utmost abomination. For where the stamping of feet resonates with rhythmic songs, there, clearly, the clapping of their own hands also resounds, and every kind of filth, and the spectators are invited to lewdness. At that time, he says, the Lord will humble the daughters of the princes

Zion, and will reveal their outward appearance, that is, he will either take away their finery, or will make their shame manifest. And this will happen when, desolate and stripped of all finery and covering, they shall be given over to the hands of their enemies, as slaves and captives, and filled with every misery.

And the Lord will take away the glory of their apparel, and their ornaments; and their hair-nets, and the little crescents, and the pendant, and the adornment of their face, and the composition of the glory of their ornaments, and the bracelets, and the armlets, and the network, and the trinkets, and the rings, and the earrings, and the purple-bordered garments, and the half-purple ones, and the [outer] garments, and those after the household, and the transparent Laconian [dresses], and the fine linen, and the hyacinthine, and the scarlet, and the woven [garments], and the summer-cloaks of reclined [embroidery].

Saying that on that day ^B their outward appearance would be revealed, he describes it accurately, and in what manner this outward appearance will happen to them. For he is persuading us that they will be in poverty and in the loss of all things that are subtly devised, and of that ancient prosperity and luxury, adding that they will be stripped of all finery, having cast away the nets, and the little crescents, and the pendant, and the things connected to these. Through which it is possible to see those who are insatiable for beautification, and for a mind that is fond of finery, or rather, even now, fond of fornication. For to women who are good in their mind and friends of modesty, such practices are entirely hateful, and those things through which they would be in an unseemly appearance are avoided and hated; they are set rather on [the idea] that they ought to be praised through good deeds. But as for harlots, to whom it seems pleasant to play the harlot and to be lewd, their ^C mind has shifted to everything contrary, and their desires lead them in the opposite direction. They are in all haste to be adorned, and to collect from everywhere things useful for this purpose. And it would be fitting for each such woman to hear: She is frivolous and wanton. Solomon also remembers such an unseemly and forward woman, saying: "The woman who is a trap of hunters, and her heart is a fishing net; bonds are in her hands. He who is good before the face of God will be delivered from her, and he who sins will be caught by her." ^D And these things, let us say for the present, are spoken by us concerning unseemly and wicked women.

But it must be known that God, through the voice of Ezekiel, speaks to the Synagogue of the Jews as if to one woman, whom he also says was adorned with varied finery. And the things written about her are as follows: "And I spread my wings over you, and I covered your nakedness, and I swore to you. And I entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord Adonai, and you became mine. And I washed you with water, and I washed the blood from you, and I anointed you with oil, and I clothed you with embroidered work, and I shod you with hyacinth, and I girded you with fine linen, and I clothed you in the finest silk, and I adorned you with an ornament, and I put bracelets upon your hands, and a chain about your neck, and I gave an earring upon

your nostrils, and rings upon your ears, and a crown of glory upon your head. I adorned you with gold and silver, and your raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and variegated work. ^A With variegated adornment, then, does God beautify the soul that has attached itself to Him, and He crowns it in many ways with the accolades of virtue. But for those who preserve their way of life blameless, and continue in holiness, the adornment of intellectual beauty will be in greater increments, and it will remain unshaken. Yet for those who fall easily and readily into things which are unbecoming, and lightly incline toward shameful deeds, it will happen that they are stripped of all good things, and will lack even those things which were once given to them. For they will fall into evil and impure lovers, into the princes of this world, and into the rulers of darkness, into the spiritual forces of wickedness, who indeed especially hunt and trap souls adorned with virtue. For it is their sport and their delight to destroy them, no less truly than bird-catchers think it a worthy and excellent thing to catch outstanding sparrows. And it is written also concerning Satan that his foodstuffs are choice. Wherefore it is fitting that we should be vigilant, and be of a masculine and manly spirit, by the benefit and help of God, and be mindful of the blessed Paul, who says: “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” ^B And approaching God who can do all things, we must say in our prayers: “Lord, in Your will grant strength to my beauty.”

VERS. 24-26. And it shall be instead of a sweet odor, dust; and instead of a girdle, you shall be girded with a cord; and instead of the golden ornament of the head, you shall have baldness because of your works; and instead of the tunic of checkered purple, you shall be girded with sackcloth. And your most beautiful son, whom you love, shall fall by the sword. And your mighty ones shall fall by the sword, and shall be humbled, and your storehouses of ornaments shall mourn, and you shall be left alone, and shall be dashed to the ground. ^C It is not without purpose here, as might appear to some, that the prophetic word treats all things so subtly and vividly; but while it follows exactly in these women who are delicate and flowing with pleasure, both the types of ornament and the very former delights and luxury—then, since it will happen that they are completely deprived of these, it desires that they be stung and tortured by the taking away of things so very pleasant, almost consuming them with sorrows, and as if they were already afflicted, it elegantly recalls to their memory their prosperity, so that by the expectation of future things, and by the terrors arising thence—or rather, by unbearable calamities—it might strike them down violently, so that it may lead them to honesty, and persuade them to return to the things that are pleasing to God. It will happen, therefore, he says, not only that those who have lived so luxuriously will be deprived of their ornament, but there shall be instead of a sweet odor, dust; that is to say, instead of the ^D

houses perfumed with incense, there will be long and dusty journeys, when they are carried away into captivity, with feet still tender and delicate. And not this alone, but they will also be in a state and appearance most abject, so that in place of a golden girdle, they will be bound only with a rope, and will suffer the nakedness of the head, that is to say, baldness, although it was once bound with golden knots of hair. ^B He also gives them an indument worthy of captives, thick and vile, which he calls a sack, and this in place of a purple tunic and delicate garments. He adds to these: And your most beautiful son, whom you love, shall fall by the sword. For it is the custom of those who capture a region or a city to snatch the little ones from the very breasts and bosom of the mother, and to slay the infants reared under nurses cruelly, so that their mothers might go on not burdened nor weighed down by the burden of the little ones. Therefore, he says that the son beloved to them will fall by the sword in this way, or perhaps otherwise in battle and killed by the hand of the enemy. However, he said that the caskets of their finery would mourn, not as if the caskets were endowed with sense so that they could mourn, but just as if someone were to say that a house mourns when no one dwells in it. He adds to these: And you shall be left alone, and shall be dashed to the earth, that is, you shall be someone pitiable and cast away, and as it were, lying upon the ground. For such, in a way, is the life of those who are in captivity and misery, and are pressed by harsh and unbearable servitude. It is therefore a most grievous thing to offend God, and to make light of the beauty of the soul. ^C For God strips those who have given themselves over to sloth and torpor of every ornament, clearly of the intellectual sort, and having rendered them naked of all virtue, delivers them to their enemies. Thus we say that some have been delivered into a reprobate mind and ignominious passions. For while God, who is God over all, holds and restrains us with spiritual strength, we retain in ourselves the splendid beauty of our own nature. But if He withdraws His help, we shall be stripped of all good and virtues, and, having lost the brightness of the ornaments of virtue, we shall be subjected to the passions of dishonor, and shall serve our enemies.

CHAPTER IV. VERSE 1. And seven women shall take hold of one man, saying: We will eat our own bread, and wear our own garments: only let your name be called upon us, take away our reproach.

Having concluded the discourse very well concerning the women of the Jews who, because of luxury and wealth, were to go into captivity, he attempts to show that the cities of Judea will remain destitute of men, and that there will be a great lack of men formerly most warlike. For he had said: ^D "All those of you who prevail shall fall by the sword." But what, pray, is the demonstration of these things that I have mentioned? It is very opportune and skilfully instituted. For since the Law given through Moses says to the sons of Israel: "There shall not be among you one who is barren nor sterile," it was considered a very great reproach among the Jews for a woman not to give birth, or to be considered among men as

^A barren. For immediately a spot of infamy for being barren and sterile was branded upon them. And the law was indeed spiritual; for the God of all things promised that the intelligible Israel, that is, a mind that beholds God, would not be unfruitful nor sterile, but rather fruitful, like some excellent and fertile land. But the Jews understood this according to the flesh; for they were animal men, having no spirit. "There shall be, therefore," he says, "such a scarcity of males throughout the land," the war having consumed the race, "that seven women," that is to say, many, "shall lay hold of one man, and say: 'We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing, only let your name be called upon us; take away our reproach.'" Do you see how they fear the reproach of childlessness, and how greatly they avoid the name of barren and sterile? For they approach him not seeking the customary things, and what it is the custom for wives to receive from their husbands—for they say that they will provide enough for themselves in this—but they ask only, as I said, for the removal of the reproach. ^B Observe then the depth of the word. For if he who was being asked had been rich, the women would by no means have said, "We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing." But since they know that those who were saved from the war and had barely escaped had fallen into the deepest poverty and were living in great misery, they seek nothing at all from them, but ask only to become mothers of children. And the historical discourse stands thus far.

But some, I know not how, twist the subject matter toward spiritual contemplation, though not, in truth, quite correctly; otherwise they would be worthy of all praise. For they claim that the seven women are the seven spirits, and the one man, Christ. Then, paying little heed to what is appropriate, they say that the seven spirits say to him: "Take away our reproach, and we will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing." Yet how is it not better to say that the seven women are many souls, who have laid hold of Christ through faith, seeking him ^C as bread and as a garment of salvation, and seeking from him the fruit? For the blessed David uttered something similar concerning the Savior of all, Christ: "Who makes the barren woman to dwell in a house, a joyful mother of children." And it is said that the barren woman shall bear seven, that is, many. For virtues are various, and not one, but many, of which God-loving souls are the mothers.

VERS. 2, 3. "And in that day God shall shine in counsel with glory upon the earth, to exalt and glorify the remnant of Israel. And it shall be, that what is left in Sion, and what remains in Jerusalem, all who are called to life in Jerusalem shall be called holy."

Since some are in doubt as to at what time these things, which were foretold by the voice of the prophet concerning the women of the Jews or their entire region, will happen, whether before or after the Savior's advent: if

^A the sense and force of these words persuade us certainly that the prophet signifies to us no other time than that very one in which, because of their impiety toward Christ, they railed against him and paid the penalty most worthy of themselves, when Jerusalem was besieged by armies—when, as we say, that terror was injected into the minds of the Jews, so that they said to the mountains: "Cover us," and to the hills, "Fall upon us." Therefore, he says, on that day, that is, at the time when these things that were foretold will run to their end, God will shine forth in counsel with glory upon the earth, in order to exalt and glorify what is remnant in Jerusalem. For the Word of God the Father did not count it robbery to be equal to God, but He devised something deep and secret concerning us. For existing in the form and equality of God the Father, He became participant of our condition, and appeared to us nations on earth, yet not without glory, although ^B He became flesh. For He worked things worthy of God, and performed signs which are indeed worthy of all speech and admiration; and after He appeared, He had mercy on Jerusalem. For it did not perish entirely, but a remnant was preserved, which was lifted up and glorified, and shining in holiness, was written in the book of life. But that this is the prophetic word, anyone can see, as in the first fruits of those who were saved, the holy apostles, who were indeed lifted up and illuminated by divine graces, and enriched with the brightness of glory. For they received power against unclean spirits, so as to cast them out. For they have healed many who were suffering from infirmities, but they were also written in the book of life. For indeed they rejoiced that the demons were subject to them, and when they tell this, Christ meets them and teaches them that they should rejoice ^C in even greater things: "Do not rejoice," He says, "because the demons are subject to you, but rejoice rather because your names are written in heaven." The Israelites, therefore, who, as in the portion of the remnant, have been saved, were lifted up; for they were deemed worthy of the generosity and grace from Christ. They have been called sons of God, and His brothers and friends; they have been set as companions of His glory; they have been deemed worthy also of the registration from above and in the heavens, and have been called citizens of the intelligible Jerusalem, which is the mother of the saints, of which the prophet Isaiah himself makes mention, saying: "Thy eyes shall behold Jerusalem, a rich city, tents that shall not be shaken."

"For the Lord shall wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Sion; and he shall purge the blood from the midst of them, in the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning."

The ^D discourse of the prophet returns to itself, and shows the commentaries of some to be vain, and since it permits no one in any way to resist divine judgments, it usefully provides a defense in advance, as if someone were calling out that: "The sons of Jerusalem shall be lifted up anew."

^A They shall be glorified, and they shall earn the heavenly inscription, even though they have committed impiety in no small measure; they have killed the prophets, stoned those sent to them, and at the end they have added the killing of Christ himself, and their hands have become full of blood. What then does the prophet say? "The Lord," he says, "will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will purge the blood from their midst in a spirit of judgment and in a spirit of burning." For beyond controversy they sinned, but grace through Christ justified all, and he granted amnesty even to those who had been the murderers. And indeed, the divine Peter addressed the Jewish crowds, saying at one time: "You denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you." At another time again: "And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. Repent therefore, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit; for the promises are for you and for your children." ^B Therefore, he says, the Creator and Lord of all, who is rich in mercy, who surpasses the constraints of the human mind with gentleness and clemency, who does not desire the death of the one who is dying, so that he may turn him from his evil way and he may live: he will wash away the filth of those who have sinned, and will cleanse the blood from their midst in a spirit of judgment and in a spirit of burning. By a spirit of judgment we mean the sentence passed upon us by God according to right judgment, that is, justice. For thus in some place the Savior says: "Now is the judgment of this world." For he judged this world and Satan; and he cast out the latter as one who treats with injury, but he justified those in the world through faith as those who have been injured. By a spirit of burning we mean ^C the grace bestowed in holy baptism, not generated in us without the Spirit. For we are baptized not in bare water, nor are we cleansed with the ashes of a heifer, for the sake of the purification of the flesh only, as the blessed Paul says, but in the Holy Spirit and in the divine and intelligible fire, which consumes and wears away the filth of the wickedness in us, and melts and smelts off the stain from sin. Another of the holy prophets has also signified this coming of the Savior to us, saying: "For behold, he shall come as the fire of a smelting furnace, and as the herb of the washers; and he shall sit, refining as if silver and as if gold." For regarding the Jews, who have remained liable to the charges of disobedience: "The bellows," he says, "failed ^D from fire; the lead failed, the silversmith refines in vain; their malice has not been melted; call them rejected silver, because the Lord has rejected them." But in us who have believed, the silversmith has not labored in vain, nor have the bellows failed from the fire, nor the lead; for we have been cleansed in a spirit of judgment and in a spirit of burning. But if anyone wishes to say that the cleansing in a spirit of judgment and in a spirit of combustion occurred for the Jewish people through warlike calamities, and through those things they suffered (for punishments indeed cleanse and purify,

and at times the undergoing of judgment before the judge of all relieves one of many transgressions); thus the discourse will correctly hold its course. ^A

Verses 5, 6. *And it shall come to pass, that every place of mount Sion, and all things round about it, a cloud shall overshadow by day, and as it were smoke, and as the light of a burning fire by night, it shall be covered with all glory. And it shall be for a shadow from the heat, and for a covering and a hiding place from harshness and rain.*

Of whom, then, does it say, "It shall come to pass"? Is it regarding the time in which these things shall be, or regarding Him who humbled Himself to emptiness and descended from heaven that He might save the human race? The discourse will therefore be fitting, whether someone should interpret these things as being spoken about the time of the coming, or whether one should prefer that they be declared of Christ Himself. For when He came, He made the sons of the intelligible Sion and of the free Jerusalem happy, crowning them with His own grace, and became like a protector to them, all but reinstating that ancient cloud which formerly overshadowed Israel in the desert. Hence he says: ^B *And it shall come to pass, that every place of mount Sion, and all things round about it, a cloud shall overshadow by day.* For so that those who inhabit the intelligible Sion—that is, the Church—may escape the heat of the present life and the testings, or rather combustions, arising from temptations, Christ, he says, will be an overshadowing protector, as it were, like a cloud; and He Himself, in turn, chases away the darkness arising from ignorance and diabolical perversity, shining into the mind, as a light in darkness, and as the brightness of fire. It is written also concerning the sons of Israel that He led them by a cloud of day, and all the night in the illumination of fire. But those were types ^C and images of intelligible things; the truth, however, is that which is through Christ. For He Himself is the truth. Those deemed worthy of His assistance will be, he says, altogether and in every way as in a shadow from the heat, and in a covering and a hiding place from harshness and rain. He compares anew the brilliance and most vigorous assault of temptations to harshness and rains. For thus, in a certain way, Christ says: "Every one therefore who hears these words of mine and does them, will be likened to a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain descended, and the rivers came, and the winds blew, and they fell upon that house, and it did not fall; for it had been founded upon ^D the rock." By adding that it "shall be covered with all glory," he gives one to understand that the grace from Christ to those who have believed in Him will not be some partial thing, but rather that every honor and treasure of mercy without exception will be bestowed upon them. And they shall be under the protection and shelter of Him who has the power to save, and who places one outside of every evil.

*I will sing now to my beloved a song of the beloved for my vineyard.*

As it were a boundary and a preface of the things that are to be sung,

Chapter V. Verse 1.

^A What the prophet intends to do, he indicates by saying: "I will sing to the beloved," that is, to Christ. For thus did God and Father name Him to us, saying: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matth. III, 17.) Shall we then, O prophet, listen to your voice? And do these words flow from your own thoughts alone? But observe whither the aim of the ode tends, and what it declares. Even if, he says, this discourse is delivered through me, it is not mine, but the beloved's. And it has been fashioned for my beloved vineyard, or, as other interpreters say, for his vineyard. But if he should say "my vineyard," he does not speak these things as though the vineyard were his own possession, but rather as one who is included among those who belong to the vineyard. ^B For we shall find that the prophets sometimes use such expressions concerning God's people. For example, the prophet Jeremiah: "Who will give me a final lodging in the wilderness, and I will forsake my people, and depart from them?" (Jerem. IX, 2.) For as one who is part of the people, he calls those who are his kinsmen by blood and race his people. The prophet therefore sings to the beloved, and the song is spoken of the beloved vineyard, that is, of Israel. For it is written: "The vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth is the man of Judah, a beloved plant." (Isa. V, 7.) But what the tenor of this song wishes to show, we shall understand from what follows.

Verse 2. The vineyard was made for the beloved, in a horn, in a fertile place. And I set a fence, and I hedged, and I planted the vine Sorec, and I built a tower in the midst of it, and I dug a winepress in it, and I waited for it to bring forth grapes, and it brought forth thorns.

Having compared Israel to a vineyard, he persists throughout the entire discourse in this metaphor. "There was therefore," he says, "a vineyard for the beloved, in a horn, in a fertile place." ^C Some of the interpreters say it suffices to say "in a fertile place," as if "in a horn" implied nothing else to us. But it pleases some to understand "in a horn" as if it were the virtue and power of God. For Israel received the promised land as an inheritance, having vanquished through divine aid those who had once inhabited it. Wherefore he addresses Him in the forty-third Psalm: "In thee shall we horn [push/toss] our enemies, and in thy name shall we treat with contempt those who rise up against us." (Psal. XLIII, 6.) Furthermore, the horn is taken in Divine Scripture for strength and power and royal glory. ^D One may therefore hear the blessed David, sometimes speaking as in the person of any righteous man: "My horn shall be exalted like that of a unicorn" (Psal. XCI, 11); and sometimes again concerning Christ: "His horn shall be exalted in glory." (Psal. CXI, 9.) For the kingdom of Christ is most splendid. That the land of promise is fertile, the sacred Scripture testifies. For everywhere it calls it a land flowing with milk and honey. The divine Psalmist afterward confirms this, singing and speaking of Israel: "Thou didst bring a vine out of Egypt, thou didst cast out the nations, and plant it." (Psal. LXXIX, 9.)

^A Dost thou see how "in a horn" signifies the power of God in these things? For it was planted after the nations had been cast out. And yet it seems also to others that "in a horn" is said as if in a lofty and elevated place; for such is Sion, situated on a mountain. Having then planted the vineyard, he says, "I both placed a hedge around it, and dug a trench, and planted a Sorec vine." Israel was surrounded as if by a certain hedge, both by the power of the angels and by assistances from above. And it was also staked in addition to this. And what is this? Those who are skilled in the cultivation of vineyards, nimbly planting stakes for each one, lift them up high and bind them off the ground. For thus the fruit from them will be safe and uninjured. The God of all has done something like this, almost fencing in the intelligible vineyard with the Law given through Moses, so that, lying on the ground and caring only for the things of the flesh, it might not perish in many ways, but might also be able to think of things above. For the Law of God draws one away from earthly things, as it were lifting up on high the mind of those who are being instructed. ^B And that the vineyard is also noble, he makes clear by saying not simply a vine planted in a rich place, but *Sorec*, which means "elect." And to the Hebrews it seems that the species and name of a beautiful and very fruitful vine are declared and expressed by *Sorec*. "And I built," he says, "a tower in the midst of it, and dug a wine vat in it." For that famous temple was raised up in Jerusalem, as a kind of tower and dwelling place of God; and indeed a wine vat also was dug, and a chest was placed in it, and a *corban*, which is a treasury, in which every offering of those who came was gathered together. But when I had shown the vineyard, he says, to be in good condition in every respect, I expected it to produce a grape. For I thought, I thought that it would produce nothing else than the noble fruit of the vine; but it produced thorns. Therefore, the hope was frustrated, and Israel deceived, and in place of clusters it brought forth thorns. For it neither observed the law, nor was it adorned with the fruits of probity, but it wandered off in a strange manner and has produced thorns, that is, works of fire, or rather, whatever wounds those who approach and draw near. And it vexes God more than any sin that might be committed by us; and what is a thorn for us, that is also a mode of wickedness for Him. But as the blessed Paul writes: "The earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh often upon it, and bringeth forth herbs suitable for them by whom it is cultivated, receiveth blessing from God; but that which bringeth forth thorns and briers is rejected and is near to a curse, ^C whose end is to be burned." (Hebr. vi, 7, 8.)

"And now, O man of Judah, and ye who dwell in Jerusalem, judge between me and between my vineyard. What shall I do more to my vineyard that I have not done to it? Because I waited for it to produce a grape, but it produced thorns."

He attempts to show the slothfulness of the Jews to be entirely inexcusable, and furthermore their impudence toward the law.

For when they could have very easily entered upon the glorious and celebrated way of life according to the law—that is, the way of life in Christ—they honored the crooked path instead. And indeed, having abandoned the ability to bear fruit as something stale, they have become like a plot of ground not for the nourishment of cultivated fruits, but rather one that is wild, thorn-bearing, and overgrown with weeds. ^A Let those among you who are wise come forward, therefore, he says, and judge between me, the owner of the vineyard, and the vines themselves. What good thing, pray, was lacking to them, such that they became useless? For if anything necessary for their benefit had perhaps been omitted by me who planted them, I would say nothing, nor would I exact penalties. For what, he says, could I have done that I have not done for it? Yet when I had made it full of useful things and lacking in nothing, it nevertheless brought forth thorns, even though I expected to see it bedecked with beautiful fruits. What judgment, then, will be rendered by the judge? Will he call the husbandman sluggish and lazy, ^B or will he rather blame those who have been the recipients of my care, yet showed such neglect of their own fruitfulness that they produced a useless forest and a mass of thorns instead of clusters of grapes? That his discourse is not about a literal thorn, nor about clusters or grapes, is clear to everyone. If the vineyard is to be understood intellectually, then the fruits are absolutely of the same nature.

81 VERS. 5, 6. *Now, however, I will announce to you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be for plunder; and I will pull down its wall, and it shall be for trampling. And I will leave my vineyard, and it shall not be pruned, nor shall it be hoed; and thorns shall grow up into it, as into untilled land. And I will command the clouds not to rain upon it.* ^C

This form of discourse, it seems to me, is not lacking in wonder; for although those who were called to judge between him and the vineyard are silent, he himself prescribes the penalty for them forthwith, and clearly announces the things that will happen to them. For when there was lacking to it nothing of those things that are useful for its wellbeing, it remained sterile of its own accord. Therefore, it was necessary that those who had descended to such perversity should henceforth be deprived of the hand, the care, and the assistance of the Lord. Thus, he says, *I will take away its hedge, and it shall be for plunder; and I will pull down its wall, and it shall be for trampling.* ^D A vineyard bereft of a hedge and a wall will inevitably lie exposed as a most ready feast to all those who wish to plunder it, and as a trodden path to those passing by, with no one to hinder them. For when Christ guards us, and—as it were—fences us about with certain mysterious supports, we will not be accessible or exposed to the incursion of unclean spirits, nor will we be subject to the plundering of the wild beasts of the field, nor a game and a delight for foxes, concerning which it is written in the Song of Songs: "Catch for us the little foxes that destroy the vineyards." It is said that there are also some…

IN ISAIAH BOOK I. ORATION III.

^A and the portion of the foxes. For if God leaves us to those who wish to do us injury, and strips and forsakes us of His care from above, we shall come into the danger of every evil; and anyone at all will easily invade us and our goods, whether it be some intelligible robber, or the law that rages in the members of the flesh, or any agitation and movement of our souls that will bear fruit for Satan. Therefore, without a hedge and without a wall, the vineyard will be left for anyone to plunder. And it shall not be pruned, and it shall not be hoed, that is to say, it shall not obtain any care that is able to correct it and lead it back for the better, and to deliver it from such grievous sterility. For I will command the intelligible clouds, that is, the holy prophets, or rather the angelic powers, not to rain down upon it rain, namely, that which is intelligible, which is accomplished in the mind and heart by exhortation and the divine word. But from this it is most possible to perceive that the prophetic word says that these things would happen to the children of Israel not before the times of the coming ^B of Christ, but when they had raged against Christ. For it is not, it is not possible to speak of, or rather to point out, a time when Israel remained destitute of holy prophets. For they were indeed taken captive at various times, and migrated to the country of the Persians and Medes together with their wives and beloved ones. Yet they did not go down into Egypt without holy prophets: when the Babylonians had overthrown the celebrated Jerusalem, the prophet Jeremiah was nevertheless present with them, instructed in celestial and divine words. But when they had vomited forth blasphemy against Christ, they were utterly deprived of their hedge, and all their security fell. For this, I think, is what we can call the breaking down of their wall. Moreover, every speech of the holy prophets among them ceased, and it was in a manner restrained like rain, and the voices of the saints failed; and this, I think, is what was said to them by God ^C through a certain one: "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will bring a famine upon the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord. And from the East to the West they shall run about seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it." And these things indeed, as I said, have happened to those from Israel, and most deservedly. For they themselves pushed away the Lord of all things, who spiritually irrigates souls and hearts, and makes them fat with spiritual dew; of which the blessed David also made mention when he said: "As the dew of Hermon that descends upon the mountains of Sion." But a new vineyard has risen in place of that one, that of those called through faith to sanctification. And of them the heavenly Bridegroom, that is, Christ, says: ^D "The vines blossom, they have given their scent." And He Himself is the first and most holy and true vine; and we hang from Him like branches, being filled with the life-giving richness from Him. And indeed He said clearly: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman; every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every one that bears fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit." Since we are indeed grafted and planted into Him by connection

it is clear that we have been rendered fruitful in the spiritual sense; and toward this end He confirms us, saying Himself: "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches: he who abides in me, and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." I argue, therefore, that we must be firmly attached through faith and love, and through obedience in all things, to the true vine, which is Christ. ^A For He Himself will show us to be fruitful; He Himself will set a hedge around us, and will raise up a wall, and will restrain those who pass by. And to Him the holy oracle says somewhere: "And your perpetual waste places shall be rebuilt, and you shall be called the rebuilder of a hedge, and you shall cause the paths in the midst to cease."

VERS. 7. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah is a beloved plantation. I waited for it to do judgment, but it did iniquity, and not righteousness, but a cry.

Clearly in these words He shows that He is not speaking of a vineyard that is an object of the senses, but one perceived by the intellect. ^B For Divine Scripture almost always takes examples that appear and are manifest for the demonstration of things more obscure and intelligible. "For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts," He says, "and the beloved plantation, is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah." Yet, although it was deemed worthy of My mercy and love, and had enjoyed every care, it did not become rich in grapes, nor a noble vine; it did not honor the law, nor did it lead an upright and holy life, but disappointed the expectation of the husbandman. "I," He says, "waited for judgment,"

^A but they cried out: "Away with him, away with him, crucify him; we have no king but Caesar." A wicked cry, then, is the fruit of the Jewish assembly, because of which they have been deprived of both the hedge and the wall, and the irrigation from the holy clouds. They have been deprived, too, of every care. For He says, "I will forsake my vineyard, and it shall not be pruned, nor shall it be dug." And it has been left to become wasteland, having brought forth thorns, which are fuel for the fire.

VERS. 8, 9. "Woe to those who join house to house, and bring field to field, that they may take something from their neighbor. Shall you alone dwell in the land? For these things have been heard in the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth."

Lest anyone think that He has spoken in vain against Israel, or that He has slandered the vine without cause—inasmuch as it brought forth not grapes but thorns, that is to say, instead of justice, which is to say, righteous judgments, unrighteousness, and instead of righteousness, a cry—He usefully enumerates the things through which it is possible to perceive and see why it was accused: not for standard and common things, but for things that are violently discordant with the law, and most abominable to the God who loves virtue. ^B Therefore He says: "Woe to those who join house to house, and bring field to field, that they may take something from their neighbor." For it is, in general, in the nature of those who wish to grow rich, and who also have the power to do so, to always desire to pile more onto what they have already acquired, and to make it appear that their own wealth and resources are growing by infinite additions. They always plot against their neighbors and fellow citizens, striving both to make their houses in the cities larger and to crush the owners of the lands bordering their own, joining them to their own property. For a rich man is an insatiable thing, if it happens that he has the power to easily achieve what he desires. For he ^C will never be quiet, nor will he cease to covet his neighbor’s goods: he thirsts for that which is not yet present, and lusts after those things not yet acquired. "Woe, therefore," He says, "to those who desire to join their houses to those of others, and field to field, that they may take something from their neighbor." For they always strive to fabricate a pretext for why they ought to have more, and why it is not right for others to live next to them; then they harass the weaker ones, and unholily seize what belongs to them, while the latter sometimes lament and cry out against their brutality. What then, ^D does the prophetic word say to them? "Shall you alone dwell in the land?" For do you think, He says, that you alone exist upon the earth, without God standing over you and overlooking what is done? And yet the Lord of all is very near, and what you have done has been heard. And in what way, you might ask? Evidently, by the crying out of those who have been wronged. Something similar the Savior's disciple has written: "Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you." And in addition to this he says: "Behold, the wages of the laborers who reaped your fields, which has been kept back by you, cries out; and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." For He has received the voices of those who were vexed by the rich—that most holy nature, and the enemy of wickedness—most promptly. What

is more, He will confirm that He has not departed from those who are on earth, saying Himself: "I am a God drawing near, says the Lord, and not a God far off." Let those, therefore, who desire to covet, and to use force, and to plunder their brothers, listen: Will you be the only ones to dwell upon the earth? For the God of the universe is present. ^A We must know, indeed, that by these things the prophet is intimating to us what is likely to happen to the over-sophisticated: "O you rich," he says, "why do you plunder the goods of your neighbor and have hated the one who is near? It will certainly come to pass that you alone will dwell in the land, while all others are driven out. You will therefore render the earth desolate of its inhabitants." It is excellent, then, and wise to be content only with what is sufficient and measured. For a small portion with the fear of the Lord is better than many fruits with injustice. If, however, one must take and say something from the Sacred Scriptures, a certain man once reigned over Israel in Samaria who, having built for himself a most sumptuous and magnificent house, fell from it and immediately perished. Reprimanding him as one who had labored in vain, God says: "You have built yourself a house, ^B well-fitted, with airy upper chambers, divided by windows, paneled with cedar, and painted with vermilion. You will not reign, because you were provoked by Ahaz, your father. It would have been better for you to have done judgment and noble justice." For, "Treasures will not profit the wicked," as it is written, "but righteousness will deliver from death."

VER. 9. 10. "For if there are many houses, great and beautiful, they will be desolate; and there will be no one to dwell in them. For ten yoke of oxen will produce one jar, and he who sows six artabae will produce three measures."

For the Lord of Sabaoth has indeed heard, He says, the accusations of the more powerful regarding the greed they have shown ^C towards others. What then? Has He been silent? Has He let it pass in quietness? Has He applied a bridle to His wrath? Not at all, he says. And a clear proof of this is that the effort of those who are possessed by the love of others' property is shown to be vain. For what profit, he says, is there in joining house to house, and in adorning dwellings splendidly and ambitiously, if no one is to be found, he says, to dwell in them, as war consumes both small and great? And what benefit will they have from the most spacious fields, when, on account of the greed of their possessors—that is, the plunderers—God does not permit the fruits to be gathered? For there will be, there will be such barrenness in the fields that, though twenty ^D calves, or ten yoke of oxen, labor in the vineyards, barely one jar of wine will be produced; and of the six measures sown, barely half the fruits will be forthcoming from the seed cast into the ground. Yet, I think, for the performance of the work, ten yoke of oxen will be sufficient for much land planted with vines, and likewise for much arable land. Therefore, the possession is useless, and the desire to possess more is vain, if neither anyone will dwell in the

houses in the cities. Certainly, that which is in the fields will not flourish, as God destroys it and refutes the injustice of the insatiable. Since each one of us has ^A a spiritual farm within his own soul and works ^B the seed of justice, let us be careful not to offend God. For then, and only then, will the manifold and various virtues dwell within us as in a safe and reinforced home; we will increase as the valleys do with grain, and the God of all will bless our seed and will increase the produce of our justice, as the inspired Paul says.

Verses 11, 12

He attaches other, most grievous crimes of the rich to the former ones. For in addition to their desire to overreach and to oppress the weaker ones insatiably, it will be present in them to love being in drinking bouts, to revel in luxuries, in ceaseless carousing and drunkenness, and to be defiled by the evils that spring from fleshly lust; and to think that they ought to do this continuously in every season. For wealth is sufficient to sharpen one towards luxuries and to destroy any satiety in them. But "he who sows in the flesh," as Paul says, "will reap corruption from the flesh." For the end of temporary luxury will be long and perpetual weeping, and the fruit of fleshly pleasure is destruction. Therefore, the prophet writes to us of the haughtiness ^C of the Jews, and their dissoluteness in luxuries, and their pouring forth into wantonness. For, he says, they assign every time to gluttony; at dawn they seek strong drink, and they extend their drinking bouts along the courses of the sun, and remain until evening itself. "For wine will burn them." For wine, when drunk to excess, undeniably causes a certain burning in the bowels. It will also "burn" in another way those who are lovers of drunkenness, for it will be for them a cause of, and an occasion for, punishment. They will be burned entirely and in every way, being sent into the eternal flames that are prepared for the devil and his angels. For this reason, the drunkard, along with other profane people, will be an outcast from God and will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. For look at how great the unbridled nature of the Jews was at times in their pursuing of luxury. For where there is the sound of the harp, and the beat of drums, and the symphony of those playing the pipes, together with rhythm and applause, there is surely every type of filth, and things are done by them in secret ^D which it is shameful even to speak of. This causes them to lose the ability to perceive the glory of God, and also not to gaze upon his works. For just as the eye of the body, when dust has been cast into it, or when gum or an infecting wound has been poured over it, cannot see clearly; so too the human mind

if it should be thickened by the pleasures of the flesh, cannot open its eye toward God, nor can it firmly fix its gaze upon the things done by Him; through which it is possible to perceive—and that very clearly—who and how great the Creator is. For He is known from the beauty of created things, and he who chooses to be captivated by the wonder of the things made by Him will be well able to admire and look up to Him. For as blessed Paul writes: "The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead." ^B It is probable that the prophet accuses the Jews because they abandon themselves to drinking parties and fly most greedily after pleasures, while in the meantime they do not keep in mind the future—that is, the things which were to happen to them from, as it were, divine wrath, which he also calls the "works of the hands of God." For He establishes peace for those who love Him, but for those who provoke Him to anger, He creates evils. For if they had seen the works of the Lord that were to come against them, they would not have indulged in heavy drinking; rather, tears would have been their concern and in their heart, and mourning, labors, prayers, and the duties of repentance would have been welcome to them, being far more precious than the evils which proceed from intemperance.

^C VERS. 15, 16. "Therefore my people is gone into captivity, because they have not known the Lord; and a multitude of men have died of hunger, and were parched with thirst for water. And hell hath enlarged its soul, and opened its mouth without intermission; and the glorious and the great, and the wealthy and their shepherds shall go down into it. And man shall be brought down, and man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled; but the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God the holy one shall be glorified in justice."

That this thing ends in destruction and leads to ultimate evils for those who wish to live delicately and softly, the divine discourse teaches us in these words. For since the inhabitants of the Jewish region—more illustrious and famous than others—neglected the care and work of God as useless, and since they bestowed no zeal upon the works of His hands, but instead had leisure for perpetual revelries, indulged in drunkenness, and spent their entire days in intemperance and singing to the flute: He says that they shall surely depart as captives and will serve their enemies, and that there will be such a multitude of dead throughout the entire region, perishing from famine and thirst, that hell, with its very wide and insatiable ^D mouth and gaping jaws, swallowing those who descend and despoiling them into its own treasures, will, in a manner of speaking, exult. For when you hear of the soul of hell being dilated, you must believe it means nothing other than what I have just said. For the divinely inspired Scripture uses names figuratively at times, and as if metaphorically, even for things which lack souls, nay, which are not even numbered in the order and series of animals, or which in truth do not…

^A exist. For what is the animal of hell? It is the place of torment, and the horrid prison of miserable souls. The souls, therefore, of those who in this life indulge in delights and pleasures shall descend into hell, and they shall fill up, as it were, its soul. Of such a kind is that which the divine melodist indicates to us, speaking, I think, of every soul that is addicted to pleasures and vices: "It shall enter the generation of its fathers, for ever it shall not see light." For as the sacred Scripture commemorates that the saints, having departed from this our mortal condition, are gathered to their fathers—for it was said to the blessed Abraham: "And thou shalt be added to thy fathers, having been nurtured in a good old age"—so we say that those who die in sins recur to the race of their fathers, calling those fathers who are in all things similar, and who live a life equal in character. But if one should say that there is a multitude of dead through famine and thirst for water, we say that which Josephus wrote, who recounted the magnitude of the Jewish calamity in tragedy. When Jerusalem was besieged, women ate the children they had brought forth, and everything that came into their teeth was devoured, with famine and necessity pressing upon them. And that this did not happen in Jerusalem alone, but also in the other cities of Judea, who could doubt, and on what grounds? For very many were consumed by war and fell by the sword; but though many were thus removed from the midst, the fury of famine destroyed even more. But if anyone should say that there was a scarcity of intelligible waters and of divine food for the Jews, living impiously and wickedly, and that they therefore perished and went down, as it were, to hell, because they were not recalled to life through Christ, after the manner of those who had believed in Him, he would not at all wander from the truth. For this also befell them. But as to who those are who descend, to whom hell itself even expands its soul, and will open an insatiable mouth, he proceeds to show, saying: "The nobles, and the great, and the rich, and its pests." ^B Since they were the leaders of the whole region and more conspicuous, it was fitting that the subjects should have been rightly instructed through them by pedagogical principles; but this they did not do. For they became types and examples to others of an execrable life, to whom the sacred oracle says somewhere: "For you have become a snare for the watch-tower, and as a net spread upon Tabor, which those who hunt the prey have set." Do you see how they have become a snare and a trap for the rest, because the subjects are wont—in some way always—to follow both the kindnesses and indeed the negligences of those who lead them? Therefore, as having become the causes of ruin both to themselves and to all others, they shall descend first and shall hasten to hell, the divine wrath leaping upon them, in a certain manner, even before the others. They shall be punished, however, not because they are rich and noble, but because they are "pests"—that is, the ruin and the plague, both of themselves, as I said, and of the whole flock. They, he says, who were inflated with great swelling, shall be rendered abject and dishonored. Whom

indeed, does the terror of death not humble? Or what eye that is lifted high and looking upward does a terrible and unbearable calamity not lull ^B to sleep? But, he says, when all these things have come to pass, the Lord Sabaoth shall be exalted in that day; that is, at that time when the things foretold concerning them proceed to their conclusion. The Lord Sabaoth alone is exalted in judgment and in justice, in that He has punished the arrogant people, the disobedient and the pleasure-loving, with His upright and holy sentence. Therefore, we must renounce luxury, and we must strive to cast asunder as far as possible those useless, or rather most foul, carnal gratifications, lest the insatiable Hades exult against us. For we remember the Savior saying: “Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” And again, that: “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.” For labor will end in rest, and the finish of good sweats will procure for us pleasures that endure forever. “For he who sows to the flesh, will from the flesh reap corruption,” just as it is written, “and he who sows to the spirit, will from the spirit reap eternal life.”

Verse 17. And the plundered shall feed as bulls, and lambs shall feed on the solitudes of those who are taken captive.

While the region of the Jews was still established ^C and flourishing in prosperous times, the neighboring nations used to wage war against those who were sprung from the blood of Israel. And because God of the universe was He who shielded Israel, He conquered the rebels in such a way that He vanquished and broke them without a battle, and plundered their lands, and devastated their cities, and took and carried off the possessions of others as if endowed with some power and authority. But when they acted impiously toward Christ, and were given over to the Roman armies for destruction and plunder, their cities were burned, and all their goods were plundered by the victors. Then, as the Roman army withdrew slightly, those who were formerly plundered made an incursion, searching through cities and houses, gathering up what remained, and carrying it off into their own lands. And the God of the universe signifies something of this sort to us, saying through the voice of the prophet: “Glean, glean as a vine the remnants of Israel; return as a vintager to his basket.” Because, therefore, it would not be enough for them to have suffered only the things from the Roman ^D army, but in addition to these things, those from the cruelty of the neighboring enemies would also be added, he predicts, saying: “And the plundered shall feed as bulls.” For those who were formerly, he says, easily exposed to their plunder, because God was bringing help, these will feed on their territory as bulls, that is, fierce and haughty, and having an invincible power to resist. “And lambs shall feed on the solitudes of those who are left.” He calls the besieged those who are left. Lambs shall eat, that is, those who are once again of the nations. For when He had spoken as it were of bulls, persisting in the trope, He added lambs: so that we may understand the bulls to be very robust. But others who are not such, but inferior and mi-

remains in the turning, and has added lambs, so that we may conceive of the very strong as calves. But those who are not in this state, but have fallen back into less strength, we call lambs. In this way, too, the hearts of each of those who are indolent will be grazed upon by evil and unclean powers, as though they were calves and lambs. And their food is hedonism, and the inclination of the mind looking toward what is sinful.

ORATION IV

Woe to those who draw sins as with a long rope, and iniquities as with a heifer’s yoke-strap, who say: Let his speed draw near, that we may see, and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we may know.

The Creator and Lord of all, overcoming the weakness of human nature with His clemency, used to speak to those of old through the holy prophets, from whom it was reasonable ^B that they should turn themselves toward better things, leaving behind the worse, and cease from depravity and sin, and rather to live in virtue, and choose to accomplish what is good. For this reason, He sometimes set before them the rewards prepared for the saints; at other times He described the modes of the punishments befitting those who love sin, so that He might constrain them from every side toward what is profitable. But there was no way that could ward off the perishability of the Jews. For having slipped into greed and luxury, and suffering by now from the ultimate madness against God, they became grievously excited against the holy prophets. And some, disbelieving entirely what was said through them, said: "Speak other things to us, and declare to us another delusion"; ^C but others, almost accusing the forbearance of the divine nature, speaking among themselves as it seems, and mocking, said: "The days are far off, all vision has perished." And so, God once said to the blessed Ezekiel: "Son of man, behold the house of Israel that provokes, always saying: 'The vision that he sees is for many days, and he prophesies for long times.' Therefore say to them: Thus says Adonai the Lord: All my words which I shall speak shall not be prolonged; for I shall speak a word and I shall do it, says Adonai the Lord." Others again, almost despairing of their own salvation and life, became so emboldened and audacious that they even said: ^D "Let the time of war come quickly; those who wish to lay us waste will not find us unwarlike and trembling at every sound. We too are experienced in war, and well-versed in tactical matters." He justly laments those who have thought these things, and says: "Woe to those who draw sins as with a long rope, and iniquities as with a heifer’s yoke-strap." By sins and iniquities here He refers to the punishments or castigations for sins, which are indeed still far off, and not yet near, because God still wishes to be forbearing, but which are in a way being dragged by them, through their desire to experience the sharpness and severity of divine wrath. Regarding each of these, I think it most fitting and true to say: "Do you despise the riches of His goodness and forbearance and gentleness? Are you ignorant..."

that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness and impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." For as I said, they pull down upon themselves the time of punishment, perhaps feeling faint-hearted because He delays in punishing them and does not immediately inflict judgment upon those who do wickedly. They drag their sins as it were with a long cord, and their iniquities as it were with the harness of a heifer. For just as those who bring heifers or oxen under the yoke sometimes pull with much force and bind them to their labors, so I believe that those who expose themselves to divine wrath were saying, "Let it hasten and come, that which He will do, so that we may see, and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, so that we may know." ^B Another of the holy prophets also laments those who say this and think in this way, saying, "Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord! And it is darkness and not light, and a gloom which has no brightness of its own." Therefore, when we understand that God has been offended, it is necessary to be immediately led to repentance and rather to appease Him with constant prayers, not to provoke Him when He is already stirred, nor to despise Him when He is threatening; for He is gentle and very merciful, taking away iniquities and overcoming injustices, and by the few tears of those who sin, He is sometimes brought back to the serenity which is most dear to Him.

VERS. 20, 21. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil; who set darkness for light and light for darkness; who set bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who seem to themselves to be wise, and are ^C prudent before themselves.

He convicts them of being altogether foolish, even through these words, who drag their sins as it were with a long cord. For when they ought to deem repentance worthy of all praise and preserve themselves from the impending wrath by living well and uprightly, and—having offended the almighty God—to prove themselves through prayer and supplication, they have turned out to be dishonest money-changers, holding the baser things in high regard and marking as counterfeit, without distinction, that which is far superior and most beneficial to their own salvation. Therefore, this "Woe" is fitting for those so affected, because they have proven to be impious and foolish judges ^D of themselves. For when they said that evil was good, and assumed darkness to be light, and affirmed the bitter to be sweet and the sweet to be bitter; and when they preferred to undergo the calamities of war, whereas otherwise they could easily have remained immune from evils, and having even rejected the illumination which comes through Christ, they remained in darkness. And the prophet says: "When they expected light, darkness came upon them; waiting for brightness, they walked in gloom." They have fallen into such folly and such cruelty of mind that, even though the sweetest fruit of God's clemency and the hope proceeding from it was set before their enjoyment, yet they themselves...

chose rather to be ravaged, and to be worn down by such dire evils. And he says that this happened to them because they became wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own regard. It is true, as the voice of the writer of Proverbs says: “Wisdom that is impatient of reproof goes astray.” ^A For it is burdensome and injurious for people to love to be headstrong, accustomed as they are to follow this course, and to ascribe to their own judgment alone the appearance of knowing what is profitable. So also the holy Scripture says: “An insolent and contemptuous man, one who is arrogant, shall not prosper.” The leaders of the Judeans, laboring under this disease of the soul, did not comply with the counsel of the Savior. For they were indeed prudent, not before the Lord, but before themselves; they were haughty and were highly opinionated because of their knowledge of the divine laws, though they knew absolutely nothing. For, according to the voice of the Savior himself, they were blind leaders of the blind.

Vers. 22, 23. Woe to you that are mighty to drink wine, and valiant at mixing strong drink: who justify the wicked for rewards, and take away the justice of the just from him.

The principal and most noble men of the Judean synagogue, and those who excelled among others in the knowledge of the divine laws and exercised judgments among them, were grievously accused of this crime, as if extending an insatiable hand to receive bribes, and readily selling their own vote ^B to those who willed to do injustice to their brothers, even though the law clearly says: “Judge a just judgment.” That what I say is true, the prophet Habakkuk will testify, saying: “How long, O Lord, shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? I will cry to thee suffering violence, and thou wilt not save? Why hast thou shown me labor and sorrows, to behold misery and impiety? Judgment is against me, and the judge receives a bribe. Therefore the law is torn in pieces, and judgment does not come to an end, because the wicked prevails over the just. Therefore judgment shall come forth perverted.” ^C Divine Isaiah himself also speaks to Jerusalem, or rather to Sion: “Thy princes are disobedient, companions of thieves, they love bribes, they run after rewards; they judge not for the fatherless, and do not attend to the cause of the widow.” These things they did, overcome by shameful gains, and perhaps even gathering them in an unholy manner for drinking bouts and luxuries, and collecting them from injustices. For he accuses them through the voice of the prophet, saying: “And binding their garments with cords, they made curtains adjoining the altar, and drank wine from slanders in the house of their God.” Woe, therefore, he says, to the mighty and the strong, to those who carefully prepare the ^D strong drink, to those who love drinking and delight in drunkenness, to those who take away the justice from the just—that is, those who condemn the wronged man while they assign a vote in favor of those accustomed to greed. And this, I think, is to say clearly that the evil is good, and the good is evil, and darkness is light, and light is darkness, the bitter is sweet, and the sweet is bitter. He laments, however, in all these the robust,

^B those who are robust will be tested in a robust manner; and he from whom much has been entrusted, from him they will require much more, according to the voice of the Savior. For not by an equal measure of punishment will princes and subjects be affected. For the former sometimes pretend that they did not know the will of their lord; but the latter, even though they knew it most exactly, did not do it. For this reason, they will justly undergo a more grievous movement from the one who inflicts the punishment.

VERS. 24. Therefore as the chaff is burned by the coal of fire, and is burned up by the burning flame, their root will be as down, and their flower will ascend as dust.

Since they have drawn sins upon themselves, he says, as with a long rope, and have become not upright judges of affairs, speaking evil of the good, and praising the wicked, being wise in themselves, and prudent before their own eyes, looking towards things even more shameful than these; and have declared the impious man just for the sake of bribes, and have taken away the right from the just: for all these causes, they will be material apt to burn; like straw, they will be food for fire, and his burning flames will consume them: so that along with the roots, their fruits also may be consumed—that is, so that together with the parents, those begotten of them may also perish, and like dust or soot, they may be scattered by the force of a most violent wind. ^C He calls it a “burning flame” which is quenched by no one. For sometimes fire falls upon corn-fields or vineyards, but they are not burned up, because many aid them and do not allow it to draw near, nor indeed to devour the fields without obstacle. But when no one labors, or rather, no one checks the further course of the flame, then indeed it will be burning and free and unbridled, invading everything in its path. Wherefore, since God Almighty delivered them to the calamities of war, and punished them by a holy decree, with no one among all men to aid them: for this reason, he most rightly names this the burning torch. For as the blessed Moses says: “Our God is a consuming fire; and if He closes against a man, who shall open?” (Deut. IV, 24). Knowing this, the divine David also sings: “Thou art terrible, O Lord, and who shall stand against Thee in Thy wrath?” (Ps. LXXV, 8). Therefore, with all our strength, we must strive to avoid this wrath, inasmuch as it is terrible and inevitable. And so we are taught to say in our prayers: “O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy fury, and do not chastise me in Thy wrath” (Ps. VI, 2). For it is not the being chastened that is bitter, but that it should be done against us as if in anger and fury—that is what is grievous and intolerable. Thus also the prophet says: “Chastise us, O Lord, but in judgment, and not in fury; lest Thou make us few in number.” ^D

VERS. 25. For they would not have the law of the Lord of Sabaoth, but provoked the oracle of the Holy One of Israel. And the Lord of Sabaoth was moved with wrath against His people, and He stretched out His hand against them, and smote them, and they were provoked

^A, and their dead bodies became as dung in the midst of the way. The most wise Jeremiah rebukes the ignorance and arrogance of the Jews, saying: "How will you say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? In vain has the ink been made, the scribe is a liar; the wise are ashamed, they are dismayed and caught. What wisdom is in them? Because they have rejected the word of the Lord." For they did in no way receive the preaching of the Gospel; nay, they did not even honor the law itself that was delivered through Moses, as Christ Himself said: "If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me." They have transgressed, therefore, against both, and the miserable ones have rejected the word of God, neither receiving the predictions through the law as true, nor giving credence to the saving evangelical message. Because of this, God spoke by the voice of Jeremiah concerning them: "To whom shall I speak, and testify, and he will hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot hear. Behold, the word of the Lord has become to them a reproach; they do not wish to hear it." For they kept railing against the word of Christ, saying to those who heard Him speak of Himself: "He has a demon, and is mad; why do you hear him?" Since, therefore, they refused the law of the Lord of Sabaoth and provoked the oracle of the Holy One of Israel—that is, Christ—He says, "He was stirred with wrath, and smote them, and the mountains were provoked ^B." And what mountains, he says, are these? Are they not plainly the Roman authorities, because of their splendor of glory and the eminence of their dignity? And because the mountains were provoked, their dead bodies became as dung—that is, those who died in war, cast about everywhere, and perhaps lying in heaps, filling their whole land. Furthermore, this can be understood in another way concerning those who, through disobedience, provoked the Savior of all, God. For the intelligible mountains—that is, the principalities and powers, and the world-rulers of this darkness—are provoked. When this happens, it is absolutely necessary for those who are subject to them to undergo the death of the soul. For if God, who is all-powerful, brings us help, even if the mountains be provoked against us, no account of them is to be taken. For it is written: "The angel of the Lord shall encamp round about them that fear Him, and shall deliver them." But if He withdraws His hand and no longer deigns to save, then we shall fall, and like dung we shall be trampled under the feet ^C of our enemies.

In addition to all these things, His anger was not turned away, but His hand is still uplifted. Therefore, He will raise a signal among the nations from afar, and will whistle to them from the ends of the earth. And behold, they shall come quickly and lightly; they shall not hunger, nor labor, nor do they slumber, nor shall they sleep, nor shall they loosen their belts from their loins, nor shall the thongs of their

^A sandals, whose arrows are sharp, and their bows bent. The feet of their horses were reckoned as solid rock; the wheels of their chariots as a storm. They rush like lions, and stand fast like a lion’s whelp. And he shall seize, and shall roar like a wild beast, and shall cast out, and there shall be none to deliver. And he shall roar against them in that day, like the sound of the surging sea, and they shall look upon the earth, and behold, hard darkness in their distress.

That the wrath of Him who judges justly shall not stop here against them, but shall proceed further, will be manifest from what has already been proposed. For although the miserable wretches have been cruelly devastated, and pressed by hunger and thirst, and involved in the calamities of war, yet they have persisted in this turning away from God, nor have they been free or exempt from wrath. For this, I think, is what is signified where He says: "His hand is still raised up," in that it strikes those who have sinned. For the hand of one who strikes is always, in a way, lifted on high.

Then, as to what and how great the provocation of the mountains shall be, and who shall be the ministers of their fury, and with what fortitude and audacity, and with a ferocity toward men unaccustomed, they shall set upon them, He declares when He says: "Therefore He shall raise a standard among the nations from afar." For it was not those near or bordering on the territory of the Jews who devastated it and burned Jerusalem and all the cities of the Jews, but they were gathered from far-off regions and from every land. For very many—or rather, perhaps, even beyond count—are they who shielded Vespasian and Titus with combined forces.

And a standard, He says, shall be given, as in the time of war and battle. For it is customary for generals, when about to lead the multitude serving under them into battle array, to give a certain signal and to raise on high the so-called standards. Of these the prophet Isaiah also makes mention, saying: "It shall be taken like a banner upon a mountain, and as one bearing a signal upon a hill." For by planting standards on high hillocks, they either raise them, or lower them, or even hang something from them toward which the fighting force looks. For in this manner it knows the will of the commander. "Therefore," He says, "He shall raise a standard, and shall whistle to them." He takes this again, as if from the custom of bees. For it is the habit of beekeepers to whistle to them, and thus to lead them out from their hives to flowers and herbs, and indeed to bring them back from the fields and cause them to dwell at home. "He shall whistle, therefore," He says. But they shall arrive, winged and swift, caring little for hunger, and fearing no labors, but being sleepless and most lightly equipped, and most fully instructed in tactical maneuvers, and riding untamed horses, and rushing like a storm, and in the same way devouring like wild beasts. And they shall be so unapproachable and terrible that they are able to conquer without a fight, with no one opposing them, or having enough strength to bring help.

There shall also be wailing at that time, and a confused cry, so that one would think it nothing other than the sound of the sea spreading across the region of the Jews. And there shall also be a hard darkness, not entirely to be understood as if in a fog or night, but rather that which comes from terrors and lack of counsel. For graver evils cast shadows upon the mind.

God, therefore, promotes in every way the usefulness of our life; for not without purpose does He make predictions of future things, and accurately narrate the magnitude of evils, so that, since we are often unteachable and neglect the word that calls us to repentance, we may at least, fearing lest we be involved in such great punishment, receive the fear of God into ourselves and, unlearning evil, subsequently turn our mind to embrace the good. ^A

CAP. VI. VERS. 1-5. Et factum est anno quo mortuus est Ozias rex vidi Dominum Sabaoth sedentem in solio excelso et elevato; et plena domus gloria ejus. Et Seraphim steterunt circum eum : sex alæ uni, et sex alæ alteri; duabus quidem velabant faciem, duabus vero obvelabant pedes, et duabus volabant. Clamabantque alter ad alterum, et dixerunt: Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus Dominus Sabaoth, plena est omnis terra gloria ejus.

Not simultaneously, nor without interval, did the blessed prophets receive revelations of visions from God, but gradually and bit by bit, as it seemed good to the Lord, and at the time when He who reveals deep and secret things and knows what is hidden willed to do so. For light is with Him, as it is written. ^B Accordingly, while Uzziah—who is also called Azariah—was still alive and occupying the throne of the kingdom in Jerusalem, the blessed prophet Isaiah spoke the preceding words. For Uzziah, or Azariah, was most devoted to God, since it is read that he did what was right in the eyes of God. Yet he did not keep the beautiful and blameless glory of his religion perfect until the end. For, having conquered neighboring nations through the help and benefit of God, and having accomplished many admirable things against them, he became intoxicated with this happy success and struck against the rock of pride. For he arrived at such a state of madness that he snatched for himself the holy ministry and, of his own volition, without being called, approached the office of offering sacrifice. For, having entered the temple of God, he did not wish to use the vicarious work of the Levites or priests in offering sacrifices to God, but, leaping onto the very divine altar, he attempted to offer incense contrary to custom and the law. ^C And he was rebuked by the priestly tribe as one acting impiously and attempting to violate the law. But he, growing arrogant with regal dignity, usurped this function of the priesthood for himself, and, having scorned the counsel of the priests, he was immediately rebuked by God, being smitten with leprosy, with the disease germinating on his very forehead. But in order that these things which have been said might be more fully understood, I consider it necessary that the divine oracles themselves, which are written concerning this matter, be set forth. And they are as follows: “In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, reigned Azariah son of Amaziah, king of Judah. He was sixteen years old when he began to reign. And he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Jecholiah ^D of Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the eyes of Lo-

-^Ard, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. Yet he did not take away the high places; the people were still sacrificing and burning incense in the high places. And the Lord touched the king. And he was a leper until the day of his death.

Such are the accounts in the Books of Kingdoms. But in Paralipomenon, as I have said: “And when he had waxed strong,” he says, “his heart was lifted up to his destruction. And he transgressed against the Lord his God, and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense. And there went in after him Azariah the priest, and with him eighty-two priests of the Lord, who were valiant men. And they withstood Uzziah the king, and said to him: It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for us, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have revolted from the Lord, and this shall not be to your honor from the Lord God. And Uzziah was angered; and there was a censer in his hand to burn incense in the temple. And when he was angered against the priests, the leprosy arose in his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord, above the altar of incense. And the chief priest and the priests turned to him, and behold, he was a leper in his forehead, and they thrust him out quickly; and he himself also made haste to go out, because the Lord had rebuked him.”

Since, however, the Law given through Moses ordained that the leper must by all means be cast out of the camp as unclean, and that the leper, by his uncleanness, polluted and rendered common whoever came into contact with him, yet Uzziah dwelt in Jerusalem, thereby polluting almost the whole of Jerusalem—the Lord held His peace, not indeed offering insult to the holy prophets, but rather declaring those who dwelt with the unclean against the will of the Legislator to be unworthy of His admonition. For so He says somewhere also to the blessed Ezekiel: “And I will bind your tongue, and you shall be dumb, and you shall not be to them a corrector and censor: for it is a provoking house.” ^B He kept silence, therefore, while showing, indeed, His indignation. For Jerusalem was shaken, and the whole land of the Jews was struck.

We shall understand this also from what the prophet Amos wrote. It is as follows: “The words of Amos, which were in Accarim of Thecue, which he saw concerning Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joas, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.” But after Uzziah had died, the season of silence came to an end for him. And the God of all again granted divine visions to the holy prophets. Therefore the prophet Isaiah says: “And it came to pass in the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord Sabaoth sitting upon a throne high and lifted up.” That the prophet beheld the Son in the glory ^C of God and the Father, no one will be able to doubt, since John writes openly concerning Him: “These things said Isaiah, when he saw His glory, and spoke of Him.” See, I pray you, the excellence of the divine dignity, and the sovereignty over every creature. For He is upon the throne high and lifted up, remarkably ^D

⟫ ^A crowned with the most splendid ornaments of the kingdom. The highest powers, than whom it is said nothing created is higher, stand round about, holding the place of domestics, and honoring Him with praises. “The whole earth,” He says, “is full of His glory.” But I consider that one should not think the divine throne is placed on local heights. For such a notion is altogether foolish and devoid of understanding. But the divine throne is placed on high, inasmuch as the glory of God’s kingdom is understood to surpass every nature that falls under the intellect. And the sitting which is spoken of regarding Him seems to signify, as it were, steadfastness and immutability in the same tenor of goodness. For the blessed David also chants thus: “God sits upon His holy throne.” ^B And the prophet Jeremiah also says somewhere to Him: “For You sit forever, and we perish forever.” For created nature is always and in every time subject to corruption; and for things that have a beginning there is a certain measure and end. But Wisdom, the architect and fashioner of all things, sits—as I said—that is, it is immovable and abides in the same state. He says that His house is full of His glory. For as long as Israel had not committed impiety against our Lord Jesus Christ, the glory of God filled the house in Jerusalem. But after they denied His kingdom, they fell into an impious state of life. Therefore, they heard the voice of One saying: “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” He says that each of the Seraphim has six wings grown upon him, so that with two they cover their face, with two their feet, and with the remaining two they fly. Seraphim is translated as “ignited” or “fervent.” For there is nothing cold among the powers above, as they are most intimate and near to God. ^C By this means, we ourselves, being joined to Him through faith and a good and most law-abiding way of life, are made fervent in spirit and burning with love toward God. But the symbol of the Seraphim covering their face and feet with their wings at that time, and flying with two, is a sign that no one can peer into the beginning or the end of thoughts or words regarding God. For the head and face signify the beginning, and the feet the end. But the Divine is without beginning and knows no end. We barely grasp those things which lie in between—I mean, those things that come into being in time, in which those things that were not yet are produced into existence. Yet they fly, as having nothing trodden underfoot or abject; rather, their mind is always carried on high toward God. For these supreme powers do not think of low things as we do, but the highest powers have their mind ^D fixed and joined to certain secret sublimities of thought. Their mouth also is full of auspicious utterances and praises. For they chant glory, and that in alternate turns—not because they are fatigued, as I at least judge, but they yield honor to one another, and render praises in turn. For all things above are done in an orderly and decent manner. And when they say “Holy” three times, they conclude the hymn with this, “Lord of Sabaoth,” establishing the holy Trinity in one nature of deity.

^A For we confess that the Father subsists admittedly; and in this same way also the Son and the Holy Spirit. And no reasoning cuts off each of the ones named towards a natural difference, but in three hypostases one deity is understood. And through these holy Seraphim this is witnessed to us, who say that the whole earth is full of his glory, foretelling things to come, and announcing in advance the mystery of the dispensation that took place through Christ. For before the Word was made flesh, that demon, that destroyer, that dragon, that apostate, was occupying the world, and the creature was being worshipped instead of the Creator and Maker; but when the only-begotten Word of God became man, all the earth was filled with his glory. For every knee shall bow to him, and every tribe and tongue shall confess and serve him, according to that which is written. The blessed David also proclaimed this beforehand in the Spirit; for he said: “All the nations which you have made shall come and worship before you, Lord.” This was brought to fulfillment when the multitude of the nations was called, and when all were worshipping him who was made of us and for us, and who remains in himself above all things.

104 VERS. 4. *An entrance lintel was lifted up at the voice with which they cried, and the house was filled with smoke.*

He has contemplated indeed the prophet, the Lord of Sabaoth sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, with the holy Seraphim ^B standing round about, and celebrating him with continuous praises. He had also affirmed the house to have been full of his glory. But now he says that the lintel was moved, and the house filled with smoke, and that as if by the voice with which the holy Seraphim cried out. Shall we therefore say that the voice was the cause of the things that happened in the house? ^C But how is it not entirely inept to choose to think such things? By what manner, then, shall we attain to the understanding of these words? Excellently and wisely. Before the inhumation and advent of our Savior, while Israel was still leading its life in accordance with the Law, unoffendingly and blamelessly, that celebrated temple which Solomon built in Jerusalem was filled with the glory of God. For they were sacrificing in it according to the prescription of the Law. But when they did not receive him who arrived from heaven in human form, and who had been preached by the Law and the prophets, nay rather, when they even killed the Prince of life, he abandoned his house, he let go of his inheritance. For he turned to the nations, and all the earth was filled with his glory. The country of the Jews was handed over to desolation, and the temple itself was burned. When, therefore, according to the prophecy—or rather, the proclamation, or rather the voice—of the holy Seraphim, all the earth was filled with his glory, then the lintel of the temple ^D was lifted up, and it was filled with smoke. Therefore this, “at the voice with which they cried,” has a signification of time: and the work of the doxology does not at all [need]

to be considered the effect. But it signifies, I think, that "the lintel was shaken," [indicating] that the temple was left desolate. And the fact that he says it was "filled with smoke" indicates that it had been burned. But if anyone should wish to understand these things in another way, and to say that they had been figuratively accomplished concerning the entire Jewish nation, he would not deviate from a proper line of reasoning. For when the whole earth was filled with the glory of our Savior, they having been called through faith from among the nations, then all spiritual security of the Jewish mind was dissolved. And like smoke, these wretches, having taken the mist of ignorance into their mind, became blind in their understanding. For this reason the Savior also exclaimed to them, saying: “While you have the light, believe in the light, that the darkness may not overtake you.” But what mind is so unstable and vulnerable to every sort of passion as that of the Jews, destitute ^B of help from above? And who, being deserted, would doubt that this is the case for those who are well-disposed?

VERS. 5. *And I said, O miserable me, for I am pricked to the heart, because I am a man, and have unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people having unclean lips: and I have seen the King Lord Sabaoth with my eyes.*

The law given through most wise Moses ordained that the profane should have no communion with the holy, and there was among the Jews a very great strictness in these matters. Thus, when the holy apostles were still fishing, the Lord addressed them, saying: “Let down your nets for a catch.” When this was done, a great multitude ^C of fish had been caught, and divine Peter, having marveled at the power of the Word, “fell,” he says, “at the knees of Jesus, saying: Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Yet Peter did not wish Christ to depart from him, but, having known the goal of the law, he confessed that he was a sinner, while fearing to be with the Holy One, according to the custom that always prevailed among the Jews. And when Christ had once arrived in the region of the Gergesenes, and then had healed those in the tombs who were being cruelly vexed by a demon, they did indeed marvel at the divine sign; yet Matthew said, that “the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw him, they requested that he would depart from their borders.” And yet, was it fitting not rather to cherish him ^D who had healed them, and to request that he remain with them and become the creator of many other miracles? But in those times, to be careful lest any should approach the holy ones was a demonstration of a certain reverence, and a certain manner of honor due to the holy. When Matthew was called and followed Christ, and afterwards had invited him into his house: “Behold,” he says, “many sinners and publicans came and reclined with Jesus and his disciples.” Seeing this, the Pharisees said to his disciples: “Why does your teacher eat with publicans and sinners?” You understand, therefore, that they were accusing Christ because, setting aside the law, he was willing to be with the wicked.

^A God also somewhere reproaches those who happened to be preoccupied with the Jewish Synagogue through the prophet, saying, “They did not distinguish between the holy and the profane.” Therefore, as I said, the manner of reverence and the tradition of the legal precepts was that they would not wish to be with those in whom a suspicion of vice might cling, and who did not possess a conscience free from sins. Something of this sort seems to have happened to the blessed prophet as well, and therefore he says, “Woe is me, because I am pricked.” And he was not miserable because he was pricked—how would it not be foolish to understand it that way?—but he says he was pricked by his conscience; and it is clear that it was for this reason he said, “Woe is me, because being a man, and having unclean lips, I dwell in the midst of a people having unclean lips; and I have seen the King, the Lord Sabaoth, with my eyes.” For since the holy Seraphim were singing their praises with pure and all-holy mouths, he himself, being taught by God and not ignorant that honor is not comely in the mouth of a sinner, as it is written, felt fear. For the lips of the Israelites were confessedly unclean, inasmuch as they had cast insults upon our Lord Jesus Christ. But if the prophet also says that he himself has such lips, even though he was entirely free from the impiety of Israel, we say that he speaks modestly as a saint, and it is probable that, insofar as he was of the blood of Israel, he does not exclude himself from the blame, but marks the vice that was rife in the people, so that he may thus preserve those who had sinned. Or he confesses the disease of human nature: such is that saying of the blessed David against every man: “I said in my haste, Every man is a liar.” For the human mind is infected with the disease of falsehood and vanity, even if some are delivered from this evil by acquiring sobriety. ^B The prophet therefore feared that, since he was not pure as the holy Seraphim surely are, he had looked upon the Lord Sabaoth and remained silent, and so had refrained from celebrating His praises because he was not endowed with a mouth so pure. That it is necessary to sing praises with pure mouths can be made clear from what one of the holy disciples says concerning the tongue: “With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the likeness of God. My brethren, these things should not be so. Does a spring send forth from the same opening sweet and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives? Or a vine, figs? Thus no spring can yield salt and sweet water.”

VERS. 6, 7. And one of the Seraphim was sent to me, and he had in his hand a coal, which he took with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth, and said: Behold, this has touched thy lips, and it will take away thy iniquities, and will cleanse thy sins.

^D The divine Paul writes concerning the holy

^A angels, that they are all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. And this matter is not obscure. For all things in the world are administered by the powers above, and the measures of honor or ministry are set for them, and the bounds of each one's glory are fixed, namely by God who distributes all things according to his own will. Yet there is one yoke over them all, and they serve the Despotic nods, not deeming the service unworthy, but counting the sincerity thereof as a portion of honor and glory. The mystery of Christ is therefore prefigured before the eyes of the prophet, being excellently served by the powers above. For one of the Seraphim is sent, having a coal which he took with the tongs from the altar. And this then was a symbol of Christ, who for us and on our behalf offered himself to God and the Father, as a spiritual sacrifice, pure and undefiled, and for an odor of a sweet smell. Therefore, it is with very good reason that it is taken from the altar.

But it is necessary to say for what reason he is likened to a coal. It is a custom of the divinely inspired Scripture to liken the divine nature to fire. For thus it appeared to the blessed Israel on Mount Choreb, that is, Sinai, on the day of the convocation. Thus also, it appeared to the blessed Moses himself while he was pasturing in the wilderness, in the form of fire in the bush, and spoke to him. As, therefore, the coal is wood by nature, ^B but is completely, through and through, filled with fire and possesses its power and efficacy; in this manner, I think, our Lord Jesus Christ himself may also be reasonably understood: "For the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." But although he was seen as a man like us in the way of the economy, yet all the fullness of divinity dwelt in him, according to the mode of union, I say. Hence, even in his own flesh, he is seen to possess the most divine power of working. For he touched the bier and raised the widow’s son who had died. And moreover, by spitting, he gave to the blind the power to see, smearing their eyes with clay. Therefore, Emmanuel is to be very well compared to a coal, who, if he should in a certain way be on our lips, utterly takes away sins and will purge transgressions.

But how will he be on our lips? When we confess the faith which is in him. Thus also the divine Paul writes: "The word is near thee, in thy mouth and in your heart; this is the word of faith which we preach. ^C For if thou shalt confess with thy mouth that Jesus is Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Let the divine coal, therefore, be on our lips, which burns up the refuse of sin, and melts the mire of iniquity, and makes us fervent in spirit. But if he is said to be taken with the tongs, you will understand it elegantly: that we grasp the faith in him and the knowledge of him through legal and prophetic institutions or predictions, as if by some tongs. Whence, throughout, to prove the truth, the holy ^D

For, using testimonies from the Law and the prophets, they create faith in their hearers, and they themselves, in a manner, apply the coal to their own lips, when they expound the faith into Christ plainly and simply.

VERS. 8. *And I heard the voice of the Lord saying: Whom shall I send? and who will go to this people? And I said: Behold I am here, send me.*

After the coal has touched the lips of the prophet and removed his iniquities, then he hears the voice of the Lord and fears no more, and is silent on that: "Woe is me!" But he steadies himself most eagerly for the performing of his mission, and, as if uncalled, thrusts himself forward: "Behold I am here, send me." Now when God says, "Whom shall I send? and who will go to this people?" we do not claim that this is the voice of one doubting, or as one in need of someone to send, but rather of one who is rebuking Israel as being very disobedient, and one who has obeyed none of those who were sent, but has rather even killed them. For they treated some contumeliously, they stoned others, and others they even killed, just as Christ said, weaving for us the parable in the Gospels. Whom, therefore, shall I send? Who will go to this people, who believed not those sent before, who was hard, who was cruel? And they proved by the fact itself ^C that it is not for just any man to have dealings with them, but only for one who is steadfast and who denies his own life. That Israel was, in fact, unyielding and altogether uncorrectable, one might learn from the things which God said to the blessed prophet Ezekiel. It is as follows: "Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak my words unto them: for thou art not sent to a people of a deep lip and a hard language unto the house of Israel, nor to many peoples of an unknown voice or an alien tongue; nor to those who are of a hard tongue, whose words thou shalt not hear. And if I had sent thee to such, they would have hearkened unto thee: but the house of Israel will not want to hearken unto thee, because they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel is contentious, and of a hard heart." ^D Being thus, so to speak, in perplexity, and, as I said just now, accusing the people of Israel because of their very great cruelty—"Whom, therefore, shall I send?"—the prophet, having cast aside all hesitation, says, "Behold I am here, send me." When, therefore, the divine coal also touches us, we shall be pure from our offenses, and ready and young-spirited for the mission, which the divine disciples also did. For although they were from the Jews, and before the love for Christ was granted they had, with the others, lips that were somehow impure; yet after they had admitted the faith and given forth a glorious confession, the coal did touch them, and then indeed they were called to their mission and followed without delay.

^A although the all-wise Moses said: “I beseech you, Lord, select someone else who has power, whom you might send,” and Jeremiah likewise said: “Who are you, Sovereign Lord? Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am too young.” Those who are in Christ, therefore, are more fervent toward their mission and ministry than the saints of old. A clear archetype of this matter might be the blessed prophet Isaiah, who, after the touch of the coal, cried out and said: “Behold me, send me.”

Verses 9, 10. And he said: Go, and say to this people: By hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive. For the heart of this people has been made fat, and they have heard heavily with their ears, and have closed their eyes, lest at any time they should see ^B with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

The divine Paul writes that a hardening in part has happened to Israel, interpreting, as it were, in what manner it came to pass that they suffered this hardness: “For until this day,” he says, “whenever Moses is read, a veil lies upon their heart.” For it was consistent that those who had fallen into such a state of savagery of character, being so unbridled that they were willing to obey neither the writings of Moses, nor the holy prophets—I would add even Christ himself—should be ^C encompassed by the darkness of an intellectual mist, and be scarcely different from senseless stones. Therefore, the God of all makes this prophecy and commands the prophet to declare to them beforehand: “By hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive.” For they were eyewitnesses and auditors of the voice of the Savior; he taught in the synagogues, he cried out very often in Jerusalem, and yet they were as though they had heard nothing at all. They were spectators of things ^D done miraculously beyond belief. They saw lepers freed from their disease, the lame leaping, the blind recovering their sight, the dead rising from their tombs; yet these things profited them not at all, but the wretches remained as though they were themselves deprived of their very eyes. For this reason, it is cast in their teeth by the voice of the saints that they were ever stiff-necked and disobedient in heart, and had killed the saints. He says that blindness was given to them, that they might not see with their eyes and understand in their heart, and be converted, and he should heal them. And this was, indeed, most clearly what Christ said to those who did not wish to believe: “Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me draws him.” And again: “Everyone who has heard from the Father and has learned, comes to me.” Therefore, they were not called to the acknowledgment of the Son through the revelation of God the Father, because they were not worthy of the salvation and life that comes through him. If it pleases anyone to assign another meaning to these words, he will understand it in this way. For the God of all things predicts, as one who knows that...

which is hidden and that which is to come, and says that they will by all means see and hear, and yet they will remain ^A as if they had neither heard nor agreed, and they have suffered this because of their own wicked will. He adds moreover to these things that, in doing these things, they are plotting against their own heads. For they are sick with the difficulty of hearing and the inability to see clearly, "Lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should turn, and I should heal them." They have therefore become the authors of their own destruction, neither having sharpened their eye to the things spoken by Christ. For if they had done this, they would have turned back and preserved their mind whole and sound, nor, further, by broadening their understanding, would they have obtained the necessary healing, sound and...

VERS. 11, 12. And I said: How long, O Lord? And he said: Until cities be wasted without inhabitant, and houses without men, and the land shall be left desolate. And after this God will remove men far off, and they that are left shall be multiplied in the land.

The prophet fears lest a perpetual and everlasting blindness be brought upon those from Israel. Therefore, he asks to know the time when this will be, and how long this as it were sickness will be prolonged. To which God responds, foretelling the devastation of Jerusalem itself and of the entire region of the Jews, and says: "Until cities be wasted without inhabitant, and houses without men." This, indeed, came to pass in the end, when Vespasian and Titus laid waste to the Jewish land after the Savior's crucifixion and ^B ascension into heaven. That this measure of punishment ^C for the disobedient will not be applied only so far and no further, and that Israel will not perish entirely with its whole race, He signifies by saying: "And after this God will remove men far off, and they that are left shall be multiplied in the land." For they were made far from God, both having killed the saints and, furthermore, the Prince of life. But those that were left, that is, those who were saved and survived, and who believed in Christ, who also are the remnant of Israel, they shall be multiplied in great abundance, he says. For a not insignificant part of Israel believed, and this the blessed prophet Isaiah himself also indicated at the beginning of the book, saying: "And unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been made like unto Gomorrah." But to some it seems that the power of the things set forth should be understood in another way. For while the prophet asks and wishes to learn to what extent and for how long a time the blindness will be extended, God answers: "Until cities be wasted without inhabitant, and houses without men, and after this God will remove men far off"; ^D that through this we may understand the time of the consummation. For it is necessary first to hear of wars and rumors of wars, and for nation to rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and for cities and houses to be laid waste. Then it will be so until the end, at which point those who have been made far off—men—will afterwards...

hear, and rumors of wars, and nation rising against nation, and kingdoms against kingdoms, and the devastation of cities and houses, and then the end; after which men will live long, ^A clearly in the time of the resurrection, living a holy and long-lived life, with corruption entirely destroyed, death abolished, and every sin removed. But that Israel has been blinded, and yet will be called in the last times of the age, since the divinely inspired Scripture states this clearly and plainly, I think it is idle to contend and to seek arguments to produce faith.

Verse 15. And yet in it there is a tenth part, and again they will be for plundering as a terebinth and as an acorn ^B when it falls from its case.

The prophetic discourse now makes mention of history, which it is necessary, as it seems, to recount; for that which is being explained will be so clear. Therefore, when Vespasian and Titus were making war against the Jewish region, as I have already said, the land of the Jews was consumed, being burned along with the cities and the houses themselves; it was a terrible spectacle, and full of every lamentation for those who saw it, and the nation of them had reached such a paucity ^C that he who says that barely the tenth part of the whole people had survived in it would not be far from the truth. Then they remained for some time, being nourished in peace, yet not free from fear of suffering devastation again—which has indeed happened. For Hadrian, when he was holding the throne of the Roman empire, and Antiochus, surnamed Epiphanes, made a descent upon the land of the Jews, and there was nothing of the previous evils that was not present in these, with even the remaining of the ^D remnants being devastated, and those who were caught being sent into captivity, at which time the sufferings of the Maccabees also happened to occur. God, the Lord of all, again makes mention of such histories to us in His prophecy and says: “And yet in it there is a tenth part, and again it will be for plundering.” He says that the people of the Jews will not be cast out of His care, even if they should exist in small remnants; but they will again be for plundering. And then the land will again be to them as a terebinth, and they themselves as an acorn when it falls from its case. For the terebinth is indeed a plant, but if it should experience the shedding of its leaves, it has a very unpleasing appearance, having very dry branches. In this way, I think, the land also, having suffered the devastation of those dwelling in it, will be altogether equal to dry plants that do not have their bloom, but have also suffered the shedding of their foliage. Likewise, the acorn is the fruit of the oak; and when it falls from its case, then it will lie exposed to the animals accustomed to feed upon it. Therefore, the land of the Jews has imitated the terebinth that has cast off its leaves. But those who have fallen away from it by running into captivity will lie like acorns, having been cast, so to speak, from their own case—the land, I mean, that bore them. Solomon also says something similar: “As a bird when it has fallen from its own nest, so is a man when he is moved from his own place.” For what can be more miserable than those who are in captivity? What

indeed is so pitiable and downtrodden as for men to fall into the hands of their conquerors?

^A Cap. VII, vers. 1. *And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, and could not prevail against it.*

Those who reject the history in the divinely inspired Scriptures as a trifling matter, avoid, as it seems, the ability to understand, in the way that is appropriate, what is written within them. For while spiritual contemplation is good and useful, and illuminates the eyes of the mind exceedingly well, making men most discerning, yet when something that has happened historically is brought to us from the holy Letters, then indeed we ought to hunt for the utility that arises from the history, so that the divinely inspired Scripture may appear in every way to be saving and beneficial to us. The prophetic discourse therefore recounts to us in these words the things that occurred in the times of the reign of Uzziah to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and to the ten tribes in Samaria, which were also named Ephraim, and indeed Israel. And since the entire prophetic discourse was delivered in the times of four kings, the prophet sets forth the things that happened in the times of each one, and necessarily marks them out, applying the best order to his visions, or rather to his own words. ^B Therefore, upon the death of Azariah, who is also Uzziah, Jotham succeeds to the kingdom, and pursued the goal and customs of his own father. For he is said to have done what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as Uzziah had; but he did not remove the high places, and the people were still sacrificing on the high places. Uzziah, to be sure, sought to go beyond what was permitted and exercised the sacred office, and set out to offer incense, and for this reason he was afflicted with leprosy. Jotham, however, was not like this. ^C After he also had departed from the living, Ahaz was substituted in the kingdom, while Pekah the son of Remaliah was still ruling over Israel, that is, over the twelve tribes. This man stirred up war against Ahaz and Judah, and killed one hundred and twenty thousand in a single day. For the God of all was provoked by the impieties of Ahaz, concerning whom it is written in the fourth book of Kings that he walked in the way of the king of Israel. For he was a godless man, and served idols, and led his own children through the fire, sacrificing to unclean demons. Therefore, in the times of his reign, both Pekah the son of Remaliah and Rezin the king of Aram, that is, of Syria, conspired against Jerusalem and Judah, and came like destroyers. But they did not take the city. ^D Now Ahaz, fearing the intolerable assault and having gathered a large heap of money, sends envoys to the king of the Assyrians, Tiglath-pileser, asking that he be willing to be a help to him, and that he take up arms against Rezin. And this was also brought to an end; the Assyrian set out and took Damascus, and slaughtered Rezin. After the death of Pekah the son of Remaliah, who reigned in Samaria over Israel, Hoshea the son of Elah took hold of the scepter; in whose reign, the Assyrian Shalmaneser invades Samaria, and occupied it entirely,

and led Israel away captive, and transplanted them into the mountains of the Persians and Medes; then he commanded some of those under him to inhabit Samaria, namely, those from Cuthah and Sepharvaim. For it is written thus in the Books of Kings, and the report of each of these matters is indeed long in the divinely inspired Scripture, but I have fashioned this narrative with as much brevity as possible. ^A We shall speak in turn of each part, following the senses of that which is set before us. "In the days, therefore," he says, "of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rhesin the king of Aram"—that is, Syria—"and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, conspired against Jerusalem, and they came to destroy it, yet they were not able to besiege it." These things have been said for the time being in the capacity of a preface, and as a narrative of what happened. For he reveals the intent and the very undertaking itself, and adds immediately the conclusion of the matter: "For they were not able," he says, "to besiege it." ^B "And it was told to the house of David, saying, ‘Aram has conspired with Ephraim,’ and his soul was shaken, and the soul of his people, as a tree in a wood is shaken by the wind."

Having defined, as I said, the occasion for the narratives, and having summed up in a brief chapter the undertaking of the two kings, and that their purpose did not reach its end for them, he begins now to treat each part in detail. For "it was told," he says, "to the house of David"—that is, the one reigning—"and they reported that Aram had conspired with Ephraim." By Aram, he means the Syrian, and by Ephraim, likewise, the ten tribes in Samaria. ^C Since these things were in this state, the house of David—that is, Ahaz—heard and believed. "His soul was shaken, and the soul of his people, as a tree in a wood is shaken by the wind." He uses "shaken" in a common sense, for "was terrified," and almost fell out of his mind. For the terrible of terrors are, in a way, sufficient to be able to shake the mind and to disturb the soul, and to make it seem to undergo something like what a tree in the woods would suffer, thrown hither and thither by the onsets of wild winds. The cause of the fear, or rather of the ^D stupor, that occurred to him was what had happened. For I had already said that in his reign, Pekah had waged war against Judah, and had slain one hundred and twenty thousand of the people in one day. When, therefore, even Pekah alone had proved so great as to easily overcome those in Jerusalem, how was it not necessary for the one in such extremities to show fear, both Ahaz himself and the people with him, when the Syrian had conspired and was arming himself alongside Ephraim against Jerusalem?

"And the Lord said to Isaiah, ‘Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Jasub who is left, to the conduit of the upper pool of the way of the fuller’s field.’"

^A And you shall say to him: "Watch to be quiet, and do not fear, nor let your soul be weakened by these two pieces of wood—these smoking firebrands. For when the wrath of my fury shall occur, I will heal again."

The Lord is truly merciful and compassionate, and wills for all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth; and He directs all things wisely, making the way of salvation level and plain for each. That this is the case is evident to us from the facts themselves. For Ahaz had become an idolater, abominable and profane. But since he was already in unavoidable evils and, as it were, intoxicated and overwhelmed by calamities, the most merciful One, seeing him, immediately offers the hope of salvation to be obtained from Him, and promises help so that he might cease from his idol-mania, and might already strive to refrain from his former vices and receive the light of the true knowledge of God. Therefore, the prophet is ordered to go meet him in the presence of Jasub, which is interpreted as "remission" and "the one left behind." This figure ^B almost signifies, as if in a symbol to Ahaz, that the remnant of Judah that had adhered to God would be saved. For the prophet takes up the type of God, and very fittingly brings the promise of help at the pool of the upper road of the fuller’s field. The pool is again a type of the salutary fountain of holy baptism, which also leads us to the upper way and to the understanding of the "fuller," that is, of Him who washes away all our filth and frees us from defilements. This promise, therefore, is firm; and in the particular figure, a wise enigma and insinuation of the general matter, and through Christ, has been handed down by the prophet.

He says, "Watch to be quiet, and do not fear, nor let your soul be weakened by these two pieces of wood—these smoking firebrands." That he commands them to be quiet and free from anxieties, ^C and indeed to be delivered from grievous terrors, is the mark of One calling—and most prudently so—to obedience, and as one leading them back to principles, so that he might reverence the divine words and readily assent to the truth of what I have said. He calls those who have conspired against him "torches" and "smoking wood," as those who are very soon to cease both to be and to reign. For just as a piece of wood or a firebrand, when it is taken out of the fire, smokes indeed, but ceases to have fire in itself any longer; by the same token, I think, a man who is about to come to the end of his life or of some affair could justly be called a torch or wood still smoking. But when He understood that they were exceedingly fearful and despondent, because they were being defeated in fighting against Phacee and because ^D, as I said, one hundred and twenty thousand of Judah had fallen in one day, He relieves them even of these terrors and says: "For when the wrath of my fury shall occur, I will heal again," that is, they would by no means have fallen had not my fury delivered them into the hand of the enemy. But, He says, if my wrath has been kindled against certain ones, I will heal again those who have suffered. For He who delivered them because of wrath, easily...

delivers them through innate gentleness and love for mankind.

And the son of Aram, and the son of Romelia, because they have taken evil counsel against you, saying: "Let us go up into Judea, and having conferred with them, let us turn them toward us, and we will make the son of Tabeel king over them." Thus says the Lord Sabaoth: "This counsel shall not stand, nor shall it be."

He neither permits the report of the plots against him to be disbelieved, nor indeed does He allow him to be excessively crushed by fear. But by confirming it all the more, and declaring as true the agreements, or rather the conspiracy of the two kings, He promises help and transfers and leads them, as I said, so that they might rely on Him and consider Him, and not be devoted to the worship of idols or to the words of false prophets, who say ^B ten thousand things according to the desire of those who bring inquiries to them, but say nothing of the truth. That they conspired, therefore, He says, to go up into Judea and to converse with those under your hand, and to persuade them to follow their own opinions, is true and acknowledged. For they wish to set up the son of Tabeel over them. But, He says, this shall not be. And who is the one who promises? The Lord Sabaoth, that is, the Lord of powers, or of armies; when He wills that one should conquer, whomsoever He might choose, who is there who shall turn back what has been decreed? And who is able to withstand His divine judgments? He therefore confirms the faith even in those who are still unbelieving. For those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are ill, as the Savior Himself has said. It should be known, moreover, that He calls the Syrian the son of Aram, that is, Rhaasson, and the son of Romelia, Phacee, who reigned over Israel, that is, over the ten tribes in Samaria.

^C Vers. 8. But the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rhaasson: but in sixty and five years, the kingdom of Ephraim shall fail from among the people, and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Romelia. And if you do not believe, neither shall you understand.

Those who wish to make clear what is contained in the divinely inspired Scripture have absolutely need of a narrative of histories, so that from every side the truth may follow the divine words. The prophet, therefore, explains those things that have been recorded in the sacred Scriptures, through which we can most of all best arrive at the meaning of these words. Accordingly, in the times of the reign of Achaz, Rhaasson, the king of Syria and Damascus, ^D and Phacee, the son of Romelia, who reigned over Israel in Samaria, conspired against Judah and Jerusalem. Fearing the invasion, therefore, Achaz persuades Theglaphallasar, the king of the Assyrians, with money to bring help to him and to repel the invasion of those who had conspired. And he, having come, destroyed Damascus, which was the metropolis of the Syrians, and killed Rhaasson himself. With the passing of

^A Phacee also, who was the son of Romelia, in Samaria, Osee the son of Ela receives the kingdom—an impious man, and more addicted to the deceits of demons. While he was governing the kingdom, Salmanasar the Assyrian marched against all of Samaria and immediately captured Osee and kept him in the state of a servant. Having laid waste to the entire region and left the land of the children of Israel desolate and deserted, he appointed in place of its original inhabitants certain tenants, or rather some of his own subjects, namely Ecchutham and Sappharvian (these are, I believe, Persian nations, for it is so written in the books of Kings). The prophet recalls for us this historical account, saying: "Thus saith the Lord: This counsel shall not stand, nor shall it come to pass, but the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rhaasson; but within sixty and five years the kingdom of Ephraim shall cease from being a people." ^B And although the arrangement of these words is obscure, it must be understood in this way: "The head," he says, "of Aram"—that is, of Syria—"is Damascus; and the head of Damascus is Rhaassim"—that is, Rhaasson; for the one who reigns over them is the head of the region and the city. "And the kingdom of Ephraim shall cease from being a people; in sixty and five years the kingdom of Ephraim"—that is, Israel—"shall cease; and the head of Aram—that is, Damascus—shall cease, and the head of Damascus—that is, Rhaasson—shall cease." For as I said, Theglaphallasarus captured Damascus and Rhaasson, and Salmanasar captured Osee, the king of Ephraim, that is, of Israel, and Somorrha, that is, Samaria, with the verb "shall cease" applying to all of them in common; and the head of Ephraim, Somorrha, shall likewise cease. He calls Somorrha the head of Ephraim—that is, Samaria—for Somorrha is the metropolis of Samaria. And when he says "Ephraim," he signifies Israel; and the head of Somorrha is the son of Romelia, that is, Phacee. The word "shall cease" returns and recurs again for all of them. He further adds: "And if ye will not believe, ye shall not understand." ^C And these things are not said without merit. For those who heap insults upon the word of God because of their unbelief cannot be endowed with its knowledge. It is necessary, therefore, to receive without hesitation what is offered by God, and to assent readily to what He promises and speaks. For thus will good knowledge be within us, and the light of His wisdom will illuminate our mind.

VERS. 10. *And the Lord proceeded to speak to Achaz, saying: Ask for thyself a sign from thy Lord God, in the depth, or in the height. And Achaz said: I will not ask, and I will not tempt the Lord.*

Achaz, who held the throne of the kingdom in Jerusalem and who had fallen very far into a certain unbridled nature and was clinging to the false worship of demons, ^D the Lord attempts in every way to lead to something better, that he might pursue and desire the views of truth and choose to think rightly about God. Since, therefore, he held the worshippers of idols in high regard and it was his concern and aim to inquire with curiosity into the outcomes of events and to consult oracles from shrines, and to be mocked by the words of false prophets with dangers hanging over him, the Lord draws Achaz back from these practices.

^A and instructs him to ask for a sign, not from his customary shrines, nor from the false prophets anymore, but rather from the Lord God. He even assigns the manner and mode of the request by his own decree, saying, "In the deep or in the height," which is to say, either into heaven or into the earth, and even into things lower still. By these words, he proves and signifies that God is the Lord of the universe, and that he is able through his power and authority to bring about whatever he sees fit, whether he chooses to undertake the management of heavenly things or of earthly things.

Achaz, however, declines—not as one who reveres God, but as a pitiable wretch who rather offers him an insult, even if he boasts in pious and religious words. For "I will not ask," he says, "nor will I put the Lord to the test." ^B Since it is manifest that, when God commands one to ask, the desire not to ask is ungodly, he feigns a desire not to put him to the test, and he sets forth a legal statement as a sort of pretext: "For you shall not put the Lord your God to the test." Yet, how should a speech not cry out against the perversity of Achaz? For, since God himself invited him to ask, how was it not better to choose to do that which he commanded, rather than to perversely invent sophistries and pretend to be obedient with a hollow excuse—namely, "I will not put the Lord to the test"? But his purpose was not to accept words from on high and from God, but rather to crown the oracle-monger with a better vote, and to seek the help of demons, perhaps by curiously prying into the flight of birds and false divinations.

Verse 13. And he said, Hear now, O house of David: Is it a small thing for you to weary men? And how do you weary the Lord? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.

Since Achaz had refused the request for a sign, ^C and would not endure to honor or recognize God as being by nature and in truth the Lord of the universe, [God] attempts to teach him that he would not be altogether unknown to Israel, nor would he lose his own inheritance, but that they would recognize him in due time. However, he no longer deems Achaz worthy of a word, being as he is insolent and a hater of God, but rather addresses the house of David—that is, those from the tribe of Judah, from which Christ himself was born according to the flesh. ^D Yet, as God, he makes the prophecy with great long-suffering. For, having first reproached them for regarding it as nothing to offend even the all-powerful God, and as it were to weary him and put him to trouble—as far as it concerned them—by their refusal to walk uprightly, he then brings forth the prediction of the universal and most comprehensive help.

"O, therefore," he says, "house of David, if it is not lawful to offend men with impunity, why do you weary the Lord, who does not wish to punish, yet is able to do so most easily? Since you refuse to ask for a sign, I myself come to this," he says, "and even if you wish to be sick, I bring the medicine, since I am kind and a lover of mankind. The Lord himself will give you a sign," certainly through

the fulfilling ^A of the time that Israel, which had wandered, will be saved, and will not be ignorant of the Master, but will be a worshipper of the God who has saved them. This has been accomplished through Christ, who called Israel to knowledge and freed them from every sin and from the desire to worship wood and stones. "Behold, the virgin shall be in the womb and shall bear a son, and ye shall call his name Emmanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat; before he knows evil to propose it, he shall choose the good. Because before the child knows good and evil, he disobeys wickedness to choose the good. And the land which thou fearest shall be left desert from the face of the two kings." ^B Some of those who have interpreted the divine Scriptures have given the translation: "Behold, the young woman shall be in the womb." It seems, indeed, to the Jews that by the name of "young woman" the Mother of the Lord ought to be designated, and not to be called "virgin." For they think it is permissible to sap the power of the mystery if she is called "young woman" and not rather "virgin." But one may see that they are ignorant in many ways. For, in the first place, even if the virgin were called "young woman," she would not be excluded from being in fact a virgin. Then they assert that the prophet spoke that word about the wife of Ahaz: "Behold, the young woman shall be in the womb and shall bear a son," in order that we might understand Hezekiah, who was born of her. But, failing to examine the words of the prophecy, they inconsiderately snatch at what they please, and then imagine that they have established their own purpose and opinion by this alone. But, O excellent men, one might say to them, who called Hezekiah "Emmanuel"? Or whence could they demonstrate that before he knew good or evil, he disobeyed wickedness to choose the good? Therefore, having bid farewell to their ^C delusions, let us embrace what is right and true; let us believe that the holy Virgin is signified to us by God through the prophecy set before us. For thus will the sign be truly paradoxical, incredible, and most great, extending at once into the deep and into the height, according to the divine promise. For the only-begotten Son, born by nature from above and from God the Father, emptied himself and was brought forth from the virginal womb according to the flesh, his generation not having its origin from human seed, but by the power and activity of the Holy Spirit. For thus it was said to the holy Virgin by the voice of the blessed Gabriel: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee." He shall bear, therefore, he says, a son. And you, O house of David, who now, he says, refuse to trust in God and to ask for a sign from him for the confirmation of those things which were promised, because you are ^D rather attached and addicted to idols, you shall call his name Emmanuel, that is to say, you shall confess God appearing in human form. For when the only-begotten Word of God appeared in our likeness, then he also became with us. For he who was above every creature became like us. Observe

the only-begotten Word of God, then became also [our fellow]—or rather, He who is above all creation became as we are. ^A Observe how, in order to show that He is truly God and man at once, he attributes to Him both divine and human things. For that He truly became in flesh, he tries to confirm by saying that the food for Him would be that which is suited to infants, butter and honey. But that, although He had become flesh, He would nonetheless be superior to sin as God, he teaches again by adding straightaway: "Before the child knows good or evil, he disobeys wickedness, in order to choose the good." For humans, not yet having arrived at puberty, nor having reached the measure of age (which is cultivated and adorned by prudence at that time), would not be at all capable or fit to discern what is vicious and what is good; but when they are called to that time, they then have the free power of things to be done. ^B But the divine and supreme nature, not indeed in those things that are in us, but in its own heights that are suitable to it, is always inaccessible to wickedness; and it shakes off the manners of vice, being neither tempted from anywhere, nor enduring any disturbance, but rather refusing wickedness naturally and essentially. And in no other way, I think, than if one were to say of light that it refuses to be darkness. For it does not endure to suffer [the state of] not being light. Therefore, it indicates the nature of the divine, which is always fixed towards the good, saying that it "disobeys wickedness in order to choose the good." And this is true in the case of Christ Himself. For although He was born according to the flesh through the holy Virgin, being God by nature and the Word manifested from God, yet He was from the womb and before it, or rather even before every age, holy as God, not having slipped from His own prerogatives because of the humanity, ^C nor having neglected human things because of the economy; so that He might be believed to have truly become as we are, and to have sanctified our very birth. And he says that the earth, about which he is suspicious and afraid because of the face of the two kings, will be abandoned. This is similar to if he said clearly: "When the Virgin, having conceived, shall bring forth, O house of David, you shall call His name Emmanuel; then all those who afflict the holy land will abandon it, and it will no longer be accessible to those who wish to ravage it." The interpretation is spiritual. For when Emmanuel was born, the truly holy earth and city, that is to say, the Church, was placed in a good hope and has trampled upon every enemy, who, seeing her as invincible, have withdrawn, having left her as one preserved by God. "For I will be to her," says the Lord, "a wall of fire all around, and I will be for glory in her midst." ^D

ORATION V

Ver. 17. "But the Lord will bring upon you, and upon your people, and upon your father's house, days such as have not come, from the day that He took Ephraim away from Judah, the prince of the Assyrians."

Much disturbed was Achaz because of the conspiracy of the two kings, Rhaasson and Phacee, having promised

^A to them the assistance of the God of all; but since He wished to establish him in faith, He commanded him to ask for a sign, "in the depth or in the height." But when Achaz declined, and said most perversely, "I will not ask, and I will not tempt the Lord" (for he sought rather the deceptions of false prophets), God in a certain way acted on His own initiative, and He Himself gave a sign to the house of David. For He said: "Behold, the virgin shall have in the womb, and shall bear a son, and ye shall call his name Emmanuel."

When the discourse regarding these things had been very thoroughly brought to a close, He shifts again the prediction of future events to the person of Achaz himself. For it was necessary, it was necessary that the foretelling of the salvation through Christ be made to those of the Davidic family, that is, those of the tribe of Judah, from which Christ Himself has sprung according to the flesh; but He makes the foretelling of the heavy and most untoward evils that were to happen in due time to those who had chosen to be disobedient, so that they might know that it is truly bitter, and not without penalty for those who dishonor divine glory, to provide conflict for the Lord and to choose to worship, alongside Him, others who are not gods. Consequently, He clearly indicates in detail that the time would come when both Jerusalem itself and the entire land of the Jews would fall into the ultimate calamities and be subjected to the hands of their enemies.

But I shall endeavor, before other things, to unravel the somewhat obscure composition and structure of the words as best I can. "God will bring upon thee," He says, "and upon thy people, and upon the house of thy father, days such as have not come, from the day that Ephraim took away from Judah." The meaning of these verses is as follows: In the times of the reign of Roboam the son of Solomon, Ephraim took away, that is, tore himself ^B apart, that is to say, the ten tribes again, from the tribe of Judah. For they were divided, and the ten tribes indeed inhabited Samaria, but the tribe of Judah and half the tribe of Manasseh remained in Jerusalem. But in the passage of time many adverse things befell them. For Samaria was devastated, and the neighboring nations—the Idumeans, Moabites, and those from Philistia—made incursions into Judea. Therefore, both these and those have suffered many and grave things, and have experienced harsh times. ^C God, therefore, will bring days such as have not been, or have not come upon you since that time, from when Ephraim took away, or tore himself apart, from Judah. What, then, is this time for us, or what are these days? The king, He says, of the Assyrians—that is to say, Nabuchodonosor, who devastated Jerusalem and conquered the whole of Judea by force, and burned the divine temple, and left behind absolutely nothing of beast-like cruelty that is not found to have been committed against the entire nation. ^D

Vers. 18. "And it shall be in that day, the Lord shall hiss to the flies that rule over the part of the river of Egypt, and to the bee that is in the land of the Assyrians; and they shall all come, and shall rest in the ravines of the land, and in the hollows of the rocks, and into the caves, and into every hedge, and in every tree."

^A He amplifies the narrative and describes minutely the onset of the war, and that those who were to invade their land in those times would ravage all their country, their villages, and their cities. I think it necessary to repeat here what is written in the Fourth Book of Kings, for the sake of an accurate clarification of the events that were to come. There was, then, the son of Achaz, to whom the word now refers, Hezekiah; and of Hezekiah, Manasses; and of Manasses, Amos. The son of this man was Josiah, a pious man, yet he departed from life in such a way as this: Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, left his own country and led out all his forces, and made an expedition in haste against the land of the Assyrians. Josiah, fearing lest he should invade the land of Judea and bring it under his own hand and rule over it, wished to draw up his forces against him, even though Pharaoh declined the battle with him. But because he persisted, he fell in the battle, and the Egyptian prevailed over the land of the Judeans; and he attained to such power that he even removed from the kingdom Joachaz, the son of Josiah, who was holding the realm, and carried him off in bonds to his own country, ^B and appointed Eliachim as king, and imposed tributes on the nation, and exacted a large sum of money. Then, when Eliachim had reigned over Judea for eleven whole years, his son Jechonias succeeded to the throne; then after him, Zedekiah, during whose reign the king of Babylon, Nabuchodonosor, made war against Judea, who also burned everything, and in addition to the other cities, even Jerusalem itself, and took Israel captive, along with the sacred vessels, and did those things which are recorded in the sacred Scriptures. These histories are what the subject content points out and hints at for us. "It shall be, therefore, in that day," He says (that is, at that time), "the Lord shall hiss for the fly that rules a part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of the Assyrians." The discourse is therefore fashioned as if from a metaphor of the experience of beekeepers, who by hisses lead the flies from the hives into the fields, and again bring them back, ^C enclosing them as if in certain stalls like cattle. He compares the Egyptians to flies, as I suppose, because of their multitude and because of the not very pleasant sound of their voice. The bee is the nation of the Assyrians; for the bee is varied, beautifully colored, and marked and spotted in many ways. Such, in a way, as far as relates to their clothing and attire, were the Assyrians and the Persians; for they were fond of adornment, and always valued being dressed in a varied manner, and in addition to this were also "stinging." These, He says, "shall all come, and shall rest in the ravines of the land, and in the hollows of the rocks, and in the caves, and upon every hedge, and in every tree." For since He has fashioned the discourse as though about flies, He persists in the trope. He signifies, indeed, that they will search the whole of their land, so that no one of those who are hidden could escape notice, even if by chance they should have hidden themselves in rocks, or in ravines, or even in thickets and dales. And in another way, too, in those who provoke the God of all and do not shrink from offending Him, ^D hostile powers and the base desires that are within us settle like wasps, with no one to hold them back or to aid us. For if...

^A God is willing to afflict, who is he who can bring us aid?

VERS. 20. In that day the Lord shall shave with a great and drunken razor, which is across the river, the King of the Assyrians, and he shall take away the head and the hair of the feet and the beard.

It is necessary to arrange and set the statement in these words in order, and thus finally to say what these sentences import. Therefore, he says, in that day, that is, at that time, with a great and drunken razor, which is of the King of the Assyrians who is across the river—that is to say, the Euphrates—God shall shave the head and the hair of the feet and shall take away the beard. ^B By the great and drunken razor of the King of the Assyrians who is across the river, he calls his sword, which shaves, as it were, unsparingly and delights to be drunk with the blood of the fallen. And this is the meaning of the words. But we say that it was a mode of extreme infamy to be seen at one time or another with the head and beard shaved. And indeed, the God of all somewhere threatened the daughters of Sion, who were exalted and walking with a stiff neck and with the winks of their eyes, with the removal of their prosperity. For He said: And it shall come to pass, and instead of a sweet smell there shall be dust, and instead of a girdle thou shalt be girded with a rope, and instead of the golden ornament of the head, ^C thou shalt have baldness because of thy works. Some did this even over the dead, afflicting themselves with disgrace; whence also the law given through Moses enjoins those who have attained the divine ministry not to shave themselves over a corpse after the manner of others, nor to destroy the shape of the beard. For it is thus written. But when Jerusalem had been laid waste by Nebuchadnezzar, men went up from Shechem, and from Salem, and Samaria, just as Jeremiah says: Eighty men with their beards shaved, and their garments rent, and cut, and with manna and frankincense in their hands, to bring them into the house of the Lord. Thus, it was a form of mourning and at the same time of disgrace to cut the head and the beard with a razor. The prophetic word confirms that this would happen to the region of the Jews at certain times. For it will remain, he says, with its children destroyed, mourning and most contemptible. ^D But if anyone wishes to comment in another way, he will understand something of this sort. For perhaps he calls the hairs of the head those who are most honorable, in wealth and in the prerogatives of other things, standing high above others; for there is nothing above the head; but by the hairs of the beard, he means those endowed with understanding and mind. For thus the beard is always taken in the divinely inspired Scripture. But when he also names the hairs of the feet, he seems to denote, as may be supposed, those who are placed in the lowest and last rank. But the drunken razor spared absolutely no one, but together with the preeminent men, it cut out and amputated the middle and the last and the prudent from the land of the Jews, so as to leave it naked and despoiled. For into the mountains of the Persians and Medes, almost the whole of Israel, Nebu...

Nebuchadnezzar transported. ^A

VERS. 21. *And it shall be in that day, a man shall nourish a heifer of oxen, and two sheep: and it shall be from the abundance of making milk, [he shall eat butter and honey,] every one that is left upon the earth.*

The Significance of the Great and Inebriated Razor

VERS. 23. *And it shall be in that day, every place, where there shall be a thousand vines of a thousand shekels, shall be for desolation and for thorns: with arrows and bow one shall come there, because all the land shall be desolation and thorns.* ^D This would be the work of that great and inebriated razor, and an evident demonstration of the scarcity of men in that nation. For war has so consumed the inhabitants of Judea that those in it have been left scarce in number. On this account, he says, it will be neglected and will be for desolation and for thorns—the most beautiful and excellent possessions of theirs...

^A being left to neglect, for there will be none left who know how to till the land. For if there were, he says, in one place a thousand vines of a thousand shekels, so that each vine is worth a single shekel (this being the measure of its price), it would turn into desolation and into thorns; so that if anyone wished to approach the field and merely enter into it, he would be unable to do so without arrow or bow. For thorns are no less effective than arrows and darts, and they would immediately wound the feet of anyone wishing to walk there. And so the cause and reason efficient of all evils for us will be the willing of that which is not right to do. For we are, in a manner, abandoned by God if we do not fear to offend Him. For if we manifest both that which is pleasing and friendly to Him, and if we are willing to be wise and do not shrink back, we shall bear the fruits of virtue, and we shall be deemed worthy of His care. For we shall hear Christ saying: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." But if we are ^B unrestrainedly carried toward an impiety of ways, we are filled with intellectual thorns, with every kind of vice growing strong in us. But the end of the thorn is fire; and the fuel of the fire is useless material. This, too, the blessed Paul will make clear to us, saying: "For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned."

VERS. 25. And all mountains that shall be digged shall be digged, and fear shall not come thither. For it shall be from desolation and from the brier for the feeding of sheep, and for the treading of the ox.

He says that few will be left in Judaea, and that they will reach such a state of cowardice and unmanliness that, because of an immense and incredible fear, they will dwell in the mountains, and will depart from the cities and their most desirable habitations, and will hasten to hide themselves in the mountains and in ^C ravines. For it is the custom for the whole region and city to do this if there should ever be an incursion of enemies. For they run to the high and inaccessible mountains, and they fortify themselves by the difficulty of the place as if by armor, and a remedy and medicine for their cowardice is to be in the fissures of the rocks. Nay, this even the Savior himself said to the Jewish people: "Then," he says, "let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains." Therefore, he says, their most beautiful estates will be turned into desolation and into briers: for the few who are left will be afraid even to enter into them, or will not be permitted to do so by the thorns; but they will flee rather into the mountains, and sobbing there, they will set their hands to rustic labors. For every mountain and every hill will be plowed by those who flee ^D to them, desiring to gather not that which looks toward wealth or pleasures, but as much as provides for the necessary use of the body, and

^A puts forth a poor and difficult food. What reason is there, then, that they should even wish to dwell in the mountains and cultivate them, while overlooking the choice, superior lands? "There shall not come upon them," he says, "fear." They will reckon this to themselves, that fear will not reach those who wish to dwell there. Then he shows the magnitude of the extreme desolation. For he says that the whole region, from being a wasteland and full of thorns, will become a pasture for sheep and a trampling ground for oxen—that is, it will become the browsing place for cattle—a region, I say, once very fat, fertile in vines, rich in olive trees, wondrously planted with trees, always adorned with fruits and cultivated, flowing with milk and honey, according to that which is written. Therefore, as long as we please God by obedience in all things, we shall safely cultivate and inhabit virtue as a city or a region, and we shall be superior to our enemies; nor will anyone at all terrify us. But rather, we shall be followers of all probity and good works, and we shall abound in the wealth and richness of fruits pleasing to God; we shall be freed from the intelligible briar, and we shall be willing ground, according to the voice of the prophet, and truly the field of God.

^B And the Lord said to me: "Take for yourself a scroll of a large new volume, and write upon it with the pen of a man, so that it may quickly seize the spoils. For he is present, and take as witnesses for me faithful men, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Berechiah."

Having made a very sufficient prediction of the things which were to happen in due time to the region of the Jews, and having shown the magnitude of the calamity, he profitably adds matters concerning Emmanuel, and God points out His mystery to the prophet more clearly. For He said: "Behold, the virgin shall have in her womb, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel." ^C That He shall be the mediator of the New Testament—the first one being clearly abolished, as having much feebleness, and being antiquated, and perfecting no one according to conscience—He indicates, saying: "Take for yourself a scroll of a large new volume." And what could "for yourself" signify, if not precisely this? For, he says, the things which are in the new volume will be given not to those who have chosen to be disobedient, but to those who have honored by faith the word concerning Him. This means that the mystery of Christ will be revealed. This volume, therefore, is new and great. For that which speaks of the mystery of Christ, being the new and latest covenant, is not composed after the likeness of the first covenant, nor will it be seen to possess the lowliness of legal history, but will be observed to exist in the excellence and height of knowledge and dogmas. ^D Whence also the divine Paul most sweetly says that he counts all things under the law as loss, because of the excellence of the knowledge of Christ. It is clear, therefore, that the first having been antiquated, as I said, the new and great volume of the second covenant is taken: which is sanctioned by better sacrifices, just as the most holy Paul says. It is written

^A that the volume is written with the stylus of a man. For what reason? When we search into the mystery of the holy and consubstantial Trinity with the eyes of the mind, and then attempt to relate to others the arcane origin of the only-begotten Son of God: then, indeed, we have no need of a human stylus, or one familiar to us. For what oration could be sufficient to express that which is above mind and speech? For those subtleties, which rise above all mind and thought, that stylus alone suffices, concerning which God and Father speaks through the voice of David: "My tongue is the pen of a scribe, writing swiftly." For no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone recognize who the Father is, except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal him. But when we speak words concerning his humanity, then, indeed, there is need of the human stylus: which also the wise John did, saying: "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." Nor is it difficult at all, to announce even his death according to the flesh, and the resurrection from the dead, in our own words; and how, as the first-fruits of human nature renewed unto incorruption, he ascended to the Father, and sat down in the heavens, and at the appointed time he shall come, and sit as judge. Therefore, men inspired by the Spirit write with a human pen concerning the humanity of the Only-begotten. ^B Moreover, he gives instruction, saying: "Take for me faithful men as witnesses, Uriah and Zechariah the son of Berechiah." It must be known at what time the discourse concerning these things was held by God to the blessed Isaiah, that Uriah was a prophet, and Zechariah a priest and doctor of the law. Therefore, to the testimony concerning Christ, the mystagogies are summoned, which consist of the law and the holy prophets, and the cognition, or rather the prediction. For Christ is the end of the law and the prophets. We assert that something of this kind was shown to the holy apostles at the time of Christ's transfiguration on the mountain. For it is written that "After six days Jesus took Peter, and James, and John his brother, and leads them up into a very high mountain apart: and he was transfigured before them. And his face shone as the sun, and his garments were made white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elias appeared to them, talking with him." Observe, therefore, how Moses and Elias, ^C that is, the priesthood and the law (for both were in Moses), and indeed ^D Elias also, assumed before the face of the holy prophets, were talking among themselves of the exodus which he was about to fulfill in Jerusalem. What, finally, is this exodus? It is surely the end of the dispensation: the cross, death, resurrection from the dead, and the assumption into the heavens. For the law prefigured all these things through a shadow, and the illustrious and great chorus of the holy prophets also foretold them.

^A And he went unto the prophetess, and she conceived, and bare a son. That the birth of Christ according to the flesh was not brought to pass of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but was of a new and unaccustomed sort, and above the laws of human nature, God revealed to the prophet. For He Himself, he says—He who says, "Take thee a great new scroll"—went unto the prophetess. Consider, then, how the mystery of Christ is written at once by the pen of a man and in words familiar to us. For it is the custom of divine Scripture to use the word "went unto" in place of "cohabited," or "joined in matrimonial rite." The prophet therefore perceives the form of a union also with the holy Virgin—whom he calls the prophetess as well, teaching the true matter—and then says that conception took place, and that a son was born. Very swift is the revelation of this vision, setting everything before the prophet for his understanding. For who could doubt that that most holy body, which was united to the Word, was fashioned by the Holy Spirit? Therefore, the power and virtue of the Spirit, by which that body was fashioned in the holy Virgin, is enigmatically signified by the form and figure of this union. For Christ has become the first-fruits of those who have been sanctified in the Spirit—they who were born not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. He was born, then, of the Spirit according to the flesh, and He before the others, so that we too might be born in these things through Him. It is necessary to note that He commanded Uriah and Zechariah to be made witnesses to Him, so that he might quickly make spoil of the plunder. He added, ^B "For it is present." For the law, and indeed the pre-announcement of the holy prophets, has testified that Christ, when born, will despoil Satan and plunder his vessels—as He Himself says—meaning that He will make those who were once his worshippers His own. For Christ Himself also said this, speaking by way of example: "Or how can one enter into the strong man's house, and plunder his vessels, unless he first bind the strong man, and then plunder his vessels?" In saying, "For it is present," He announced that the manifestation of Emmanuel was not far off. This is why it is also found that he said to the blessed Habakkuk: "Yet a little while, he that cometh shall come, and will not tarry." ^C And the Lord said to me: Call his name, "Speedily plunder, quickly spoil." For before the child shall know how to call father or mother, he shall take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria, before the king of the Assyrians. Having said above, "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name ^D Emmanuel," He now commands his name to be called, "Speedily plunder, quickly spoil." For before the child knows how to call father or mother, he shall take away the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria, before the king of the Assyrians. Having said above, "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name...

Emmanuel," He now commands that his name be called, "Make haste to plunder, speed to take spoil." Are we to say, then, that the first name given to Him—that is, Emmanuel—is empty and vain, and that the name, "Make haste to plunder, speed to take spoil," is more appropriate? We do not say this, but rather the following: It is the custom of divinely inspired Scripture to refer to the God of all by various names, and sometimes to derive these titles from events that occur in due season. This is also observed in the case of Christ Himself. For He is the true God, and that God, existing by nature, the Word became with us when He appeared in our form, which the name Emmanuel most wisely signifies. But when He became man and had despoiled Satan, having rescued those who were long ago dragged away and enslaved to him by sin, He revealed and declared the name: "Make haste to plunder, ^B speed to take spoil."

That He, as God, was about to accomplish human redemption by ineffable power, He prefigured by saying: "For before the child shall know to call father or mother, He shall take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria, before the king of the Assyrians." The meaning of these words is very profound, and the narrative spiritual. For the divine word is almost always veiled in obscurities, and we will not find from history and sensible facts that Christ, immediately upon being born, either despoiled Damascus or the region of the king of the Assyrians, delivering those who had been deported from Samaria into his land. But when we take the matter spiritually, then indeed we shall fully perceive the truth. For Damascus—that is, all of Syria—and truly the region of the Assyrians, namely that of the Persians and Medes, was filled with idols; and for this reason it was called the land of graven images. For there were altars and shrines everywhere, and those who habitually frequented the shrines—I mean the ^C clans of false prophets and those skilled in sorcery. All their strength and foundation were the demons whom they individually worshipped, and their prince and leader, Satan.

Therefore, when Christ was about—if I may say so—to plunder the power of Damascus and the king of the Assyrians, that is, Satan and the wicked and profane crowds of demons, and to deliver from his service those who had been deceived, even before He reached that age at which it is fitting for one to know how to call father or mother, He declared this, saying: "For before the child knows to call father or mother, He shall take the power of Damascus." "He shall take," stands for "He shall overpower." And He shall likewise take the spoils of Samaria—that is, He shall deliver the captives, having fought on their behalf. "Before the king of the Assyrians," that is, the intelligible one, I mean Satan. For he was the power of Damascus ^D and of Syria. That those who worship idols have all their hope of salvation in themselves, and that Christ, as soon as He was born, despoiled Satan is easy to see. For Matthew writes: "When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship him." They worshipped Him, therefore, and brought

^A gold and frankincense and myrrh. Do you see how He despoiled Satan and plundered him rapidly? Furthermore, Christ Himself indicates that the aim and end of His advent was the redemption of those who are in intelligible captivity, by saying through the voice of Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me; He has sent me to preach the gospel to the poor, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind." Blessed David also sings of Him: "Ascending on high, He led captivity captive." And He Himself taught this when He said: "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself."

^B VERSE 5-8. And the Lord proceeded to speak to me yet again: Because this people does not want the water of Siloam that flows placidly, but wishes to have Raasson and the son of Romelia as king over you, therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up upon you the water of the river, strong and abundant, the king of the Assyrians and his glory. And he shall ascend upon all your valleys, and shall pass over all your walls, and shall take away from Judea the man who is able to lift his head or perform anything. And his encampment shall be such as to fill the breadth of your land.

^C That the birth of Emmanuel from the holy Virgin would be, beyond what is common to men, strange and worthy of all admiration, and that it would be the producer of very many and truly illustrious divine signs at their appointed times, has been very well explained; subsequently, the Prophet reveals the future insanity of the Jews against Him at the time of His incarnation. The only-begotten Word of God came into this world in the likeness of sinful flesh, not having the glory of divine majesty manifest and visible, nor dwelling in the light that is inaccessible as is His custom, nor attended clearly by angelic hosts; no, nor even in the glory of a mortal king, but most modestly and submissively, and without any noise.

^D And this God and Father signaled to us through the voice of the saints, saying: "Behold, my beloved Son will understand, in whom I am well pleased; He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles; He shall not contend, nor shall He cry out, nor shall His voice be heard in the streets. A bruised reed He shall not break, and smoking flax He shall not quench." This, then, was the manner of the dispensation of the Only-Begotten in the flesh. But the miserable Jews, not understanding the mystery concerning Him at all, or rather, impiously opposing it, were gravely incensed against Him and plotted His death, saying: "For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God." Yet they continued to be stubborn and unyielding in all things, and besides this, they added to their impiety. For they brought Him to Pilate, saying: "Take,"

^A take, crucify Him." And while He, in response to these things, was almost smiling and saying, "Shall I crucify your king?" they cried out, saying: "We have no king but Caesar." Observe, then, how they denied being governed by Him, while choosing Caesar and men as their kings. ^B Therefore, God makes this very thing clear enigmatically through the prophet. Since I consider it fitting to provide the explanation of this statement, adapted to the events of that time, we say that by the water of Siloam, He represents the kingdom under God, which the Jews, having despised, became subject to another and were delivered to the enemies. For this reason He says: "Because this people does not wish to have the water of Siloam flowing gently, but prefers to have Rezin and the son of Remaliah as king over you, therefore, behold, the Lord brings upon you the powerful and abundant water of the river, the king of the Assyrians." They say that the water of Siloam flows so gently that it passes by quietly without any sound. Moreover, Siloam is translated as "sent." Therefore, it is accepted as an image and type of the coming of our Savior, which took place without noise, as I just said. For Christ is truly the "Sent One." For this reason, the wise Paul ^C also calls Him the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. Likewise, Siloam is simply accepted as a type of the kingdom under God. Since, therefore, this people, stubborn and unruly, does not wish to have the water of Siloam flowing gently—for they cast off the yoke under God—but desires rather to be under the kingdom of men, and for those who wish to profit from them—I mean Rezin and Pekah—to prevail over them, for this cause I will send upon them the water of the river, that is, the Euphrates. And since the speech was somewhat obscure, He adds immediately, and says: "The king of the Assyrians, and his glory," that is, all those under him, and every nation that bows its neck to them. He compares the multitudes to water, and this is a custom of the divinely-inspired Scripture. Therefore, concerning Nineveh and the countless multitude in it, He says through the voice of the prophets: "And Nineveh is like a pool ^D of waters, her waters." He continues with the metaphor and says, "As over water and a river, it will ascend over all your valleys, and will walk over every wall of yours, and will take away from Judea a man who will be able to lift up his head, or achieve anything. And his camp will be so as to fill the breadths of your land." All these things were brought to an end when Jeremiah was prophesying, at the time when Nebuchadnezzar waged war upon the region of the Jews and destroyed the famous Jerusalem, and after burning the temple and killing the most illustrious men of the Jews, he brought the entire multitude that had survived the war, together with the sacred vessels, into his own lands. It is clear, therefore, that those who do not wish to have the water of Siloam flowing gently, that is, Christ or the kingdom of God, will be insulted by the king of the Assyrians—that is, Satan—who will place his yoke upon his captives and, having bound them with the manifold snares of sins, will make them his slaves.

^A Vers. 9-10. *With us is God, know, O nations, and be overcome; hearken unto the ends of the earth: you who have been strong, be overcome. For if you again be strong, you shall again be overcome. And whatever counsel you shall form, the Lord shall dissipate it: and the word which you shall speak shall not stand, because with us is the Lord God.*

The mind of the prophet leaps for joy, as one who has clearly recognized the mystery of Christ. Then, assuming the character and the voice of the holy evangelists and apostles, he protests—to Greeks and Jews alike—that if they make Him their weapon, there shall be nothing that can resist them. He commands the nations, therefore, to do these two things rightly and diligently: to know the mystery of Christ, and to allow themselves to be overcome by those who teach it. "Know," he says, "and receive the word that is in Him, and be overcome"—that is, yield, and do not resist the holy mystagogues; but rather obey them, and hearken unto the ends of the earth—[meaning] those who are in every city and region, even unto the very limits of the world under heaven. For those who are overcome, and who are willing to grant the victory to the teachers of the truth, will easily accede to their word; and having believed in Christ, they will walk straight toward every good, and, cultivating the virtue most pleasing to Him, they will inherit a glorious and truly enviable renown.

And these things the prophet says to the host of the Greeks, as if in the person of the holy apostles and evangelists. But as for you, O Jews, ^B "having been strong, be overcome." For in so far as it concerned the intention that existed in the Jews, they prevailed over Christ, the wretches, by delivering Him to the cross. Yet they formed a counsel which they could not establish, according to that which is written. For it was not possible for them to hold the Prince of Life in the grip of death. Therefore, he says, even if you thought you had gained the advantage when you murdered the Lord, nevertheless, be overcome henceforth; show obedience, embrace the faith, and know this: that even if you should prevail hereafter, yet if you are unwilling to bear the mystagogy, but instead cruelly insult those who announce the Gospel, you will be overcome once again by the Judge who finally punishes and requires payment for such a long and lasting madness.

^C Which thing indeed has come to pass. For after Christ had revived and returned to heaven, they laid snares for the holy apostles themselves, and having dragged them into councils, they struck them, bringing charges and saying, "Did we not strictly charge you not to speak to anyone in this name? And behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching." Thus, in this they seemed to prevail, but their counsel, and their prudence, and their words were all of no avail to them. For the divine disciples conquered, saying, "The Lord God is with us." But they have paid bitter penalties, being overcome—even against their will—by the Roman forces. ^D

VERS. 11, 12. Thus saith the Lord: They are disobedient to the strong hand, to the path of the way of this people, saying: Lest they say, It is hard. For whatsoever this people saith, it is hard.

I said that the blessed prophet had put upon himself the person of the holy apostles and evangelists, and had urged both Gentiles and Jews to be subjected to Christ, and for those who dwell in the remotest ends of the earth to hearken unto Him. Then God, as if wondering at the perversity and signal ignorance of Israel, ^A says: "They are disobedient to the strong hand." For the right hand of God and the Father—which is the Son, through whom are all things and in whom are all things—is all-powerful, unbroken, and omnipotent; He who abolished all things, contrited Satan, despoiled hell, bestowed incorruptibility upon those subject to corruption, and renovated all things to what they were in the beginning. Thus also, through the voice of the Psalmist, those who are saved in Christ say: "The right hand of the Lord hath exalted me; the right hand of the Lord hath wrought power" (Ps. CXVII, 16). It is said also in the Canticles: "Thy right hand, O Lord, is glorified in power; Thy right hand, O Lord, hath broken the enemies" (Exod. xv, 6). Therefore, they have reached such a pitch of impiety and insanity as to choose to be disobedient to the strong, hand—which ^B easily saves—and to reckon the matter as naught. "They are disobedient," He says, "to the path of the way of this people," Whose person he had just taken upon himself when he said: "God is with us." What, then, is the way of this people? It is the faith in Him of those who have Emmanuel, the evangelical conduct and conversation, having rejected what is legal and shadowy. "And they are disobedient to the path of the way of this people, saying, Lest you say, Hard. For all that this people says is hard." For the word of the holy apostles seemed in some way hard to the Jews, because they were opportunely setting aside the shadow and would not allow them to live according to the Law of Moses, but rather evangelically and spiritually.

VERS. 14. And fear not their fear, neither be troubled; sanctify the Lord Himself, and He shall be your fear. And if you have trusted in Him, He shall be to you for a sanctuary, and you shall not meet Him as a stumbling-stone, nor as a rock of fall.

Having previously accused those from Israel of choosing to be disobedient to the path of the people—that is, clearly, the people in Christ—and to the mystical initiations of the holy apostles, ^C He turns to them with a word of consolation and implants an unbroken mind in them, saying that they ought not to fear those who are disobedient to them, nor at all be confounded by their ferocity; but rather, trusting in God, to insult the enemies with youthful alacrity, holding for certain that He will be to them both arms and a tower of strength, and that they will easily overcome those who have resisted. Hence He says: "And fear not their fear, neither be troubled." But if anyone should wish to examine these things more subtly, and to interpret this in another way, ^D the matter stands thus. For the Jews were not a little

^A fearful that they might in some way offend God if they were to reject the path of the legal institution and receive the word of the Savior, who calls us away from figures and commands us to esteem the shadow as nothing. Indeed, they used to say of Him: "If this man were from God, he would not be breaking the Sabbath."

Since, therefore, although the divine disciples were from among the Jews, they were to turn away the fear of those who did not believe—who were, as I said, fearful of offending against the Law if they preferred the evangelical life to the legal one—He instructs them, saying: "Do not fear their fear, nor be troubled; but let the Lord of glory, that is, Christ, be sanctified by you, and let Him be honored by your faith, and let Him be fearful to you." For thus He will be a sanctification to you, and you will not meet Him as a stumbling-block of a stone, ^B nor as a falling of a rock.

He sets forth two great and excellent things in Him. For, first, He says, He will sanctify you who believe, and will make you partakers of His divine nature through the Holy Spirit; and besides this, you will gain the benefit of not falling into either a stone or a rock of stumbling. This is exactly what befell the wretched Jews, through their very great ignorance, when they said: "We know that God has spoken to Moses; but as for this man, we do not know where He is from." Therefore, because they neither sanctified Him nor were willing to trust in Him, they remained altogether devoid of sanctification, and having stumbled, they fell as if upon a stone, and were caught in every evil.

^C VERS. 15, 16. "Domus Jacob in laqueo, et in volutabro sedentes in Jerusalem: propterea infirmi erunt inter eos multi, et cadent, et conterentur, et appropinquabunt, et capientur homines in securitate exsistentes. Tunc manifesti erunt qui obsignantur legem ut non discant."

The wise Paroemiastes said: "My son, let not your heart envy sinners, but be in the fear of the Lord all the day." For it would be fitting for those who are truly sound of mind to be imitators, not of the perversity of the wicked, but of the goodness of the righteous. Since, therefore, He had advised His holy disciples to make Christ their sanctification, and to trust rather in Him, and to account the madness of their persecutors as nothing, He necessarily added how great and what kind of harm ^D would befall those who have chosen to be disobedient.

For the house, he says, of Jacob, that is, the Jews, suffering from the greatest and perpetual madness against Christ as if from a disease, will be like those who are held in a snare and caught for destruction, or like those in pits, that is, those who have slipped into a ditch. For this reason, many among them will be weak, and will fall, and will be crushed, and will draw near, that is, they will be near and not far from the destruction that is natural to them. For they will be weak and crushed and captives to those who make war against them. And this was, then, what had been said of them by God through the voice of the prophet: "Behold, I am giving weakness upon this people; and they will be weakened in it..."

^A And the father and the sons together, neighbor and friend, shall perish; and this, although those who are called in Christ unto sanctification do not have it in this way. For their strength and praise is the Lord, according to what is written. And this truth is confirmed by the words of the divine Paul: "I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me." They shall then be captured, he says, those who disbelieve, though they be men existing in security. For as far as the heavenly aid that always belonged to those from Israel went, they were inviolable and hard for enemies to combat, both visible and invisible. For God once said concerning Jerusalem: "And I will be a wall of fire for her round about, says the Lord, and I will be for glory in her midst." But since they stumbled by behaving insolently toward Christ, they dwell in the world destitute and forsaken of all protection, both intelligible and sensible. For the grace of the Savior has migrated to others, that is, to those from the Gentiles. ^B "And there shall be then," he says, "manifest those who are sealed, that they may not learn the law." And who in turn would these be? Clearly those who are justified and sanctified in Christ through the Spirit; to whom it would be fitting to say: "The light of your countenance, O Lord, has been sealed upon us." For the Son is the image and likeness and, as it were, the face of God and the Father. And the light sent from Him unto us is the Holy Spirit, through Whom we are sealed, being fashioned anew unto the first image through sanctification. For we have been made unto the image and likeness of God who created us. They shall therefore be manifest, he says—that is, illustrious and most well-known to God, and conspicuous in the world—those who are sealed by the Holy Spirit that they may not learn the law. Shall we then abstain from the reading of the law? Yet how is it not ignorant to think in this way, when Christ clearly says: "Therefore I say to you, that every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a man who is rich, who brings out from his treasure things new and old." ^C Therefore, we do not refuse to know the law; however, we must take care not to know it so as to choose to live legally, that is, Judaically. For we shall not sacrifice oxen, nor shall we honor the God of all with blood-stained offerings, but we will rather offer him spiritual worship unto a sweet-smelling savor. For as the Savior says: "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." But that it is a great loss for those sealed by the Holy Spirit to seek to live and conduct themselves Judaically—that is, according to the shadow of the law—the blessed Paul will prove, speaking to those who, after faith, turn back as it were to shadowy worship: "Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being brought to completion by the flesh?" And again: ^D "But I say to you, that if you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. You have been alienated from Christ, you who are being justified in the law; you have fallen from grace. For we by faith are waiting for the hope of righteousness."

Vers. 17. And he shall say: I will wait for God, who is turning away His face from the house of Jacob, and I will trust in Him.

That those who are in Christ are endowed with a spirit of ready obedience, the prophet attempts to convince us through these words. For the God of the universe addressed them concerning Emmanuel: "Sanctify the Lord Himself, and He shall be your fear. And if you have trusted in Him, He shall be for a sanctuary." But they, having welcomed ^A the word of this mystical instruction very gladly, casting aside all hesitation, promise obedience; and putting all their hope in Him, they say: "I will wait for God, who has turned away His face from the house of Jacob, and I will trust in Him." And what might "I will wait" signify? Is it not entirely that which the inspired David also said: "Waiting, I waited for the Lord, and He attended to me"? He waits for the Lord who has chosen to think according to His will and who follows His beckoning, and who very gladly sustains the struggles on behalf of piety toward Him. For toward this the Spirit stirs them through the voice of the Psalmist, saying: "Act manfully, and let your heart be strengthened, and wait for the Lord." "I will wait, therefore," he says, "for God, who has turned away His face from the house of Jacob." Observe then, observe, beyond obedience, how great a prudence they possess. For where others stumbled and suffered the turning away of the divine countenance, from that selfsame point ^B these men make their own souls more tranquil and less slippery, and more inclined toward better things. For they feared the turning away of the divine eyes. For the Judge is no respecter of persons, and no one could doubt that everywhere and always, according to each person's merits, He fittingly and worthily distributes either praise or punishment; and those who have been stubborn through disobedience, He will remove from His sight and will judge them worthy of hatred. But those who have served Him by faith, He will hold dear as those who preserve the faith; yet those who abandon and cast aside this integrity, He will turn away from, and will hold them in a place equal to, or perhaps even worse than, those who have never believed at all. For it is written concerning some: "For it were better for them not to have known the way of truth, than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them." ^C

"Behold, I and the children whom God has given me, and they shall be for signs and for portents in Israel from the Lord of Sabaoth, who dwells in Mount Zion."

Having made a fine confession (for they said: "I will wait for God, who has turned away His face from the house of Jacob, and I will trust in Him"), He immediately introduces the person of Emmanuel Himself, who grants to those who have placed their hope in Him a spiritual communion, that is to say. For the Son poured out His own Spirit upon us, and we have become His household and intimates; and in Him we cry out, "Abba, Father." Therefore, He calls us children of the Father, as having the regeneration through the Spirit, so that we might also be named brothers of Him who is truly and by nature the Son. For He said—

^A through the voice of the Psalmist: "I will declare thy name unto my brethren." Nevertheless, although He has become our brother and has been named our firstborn because of His humanity, even though He is God and the only-begotten Son, we do not ignore His glory or His excellence above all creation. We know, rather, that we have been given to Him by God and the Father. And this is what He Himself is found saying to the Father and God in heaven: "Those whom thou hast given me from the world, they were thine, and thou hast given them to me." For the Son is Lord of all things by nature, and shares the kingdom over everything created with God and the Father. Since He became man, to whom all things are God-given, it is said that He received those things of which He was Lord as God: "Ask of me," He says, "and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the ends of the earth for thy possession." He rejoices, therefore, in those who trust in Him—that is, those who have been called to the knowledge of the truth through faith—and, almost stretching out His hand, He points them out, saying: "Behold, I and the children whom God has given me." Who, then, is he that says these things? Emmanuel, clearly; who, he says, will be "for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hosts, who dwelleth in Mount Zion." For in order that the inhabitants of all the earth might believe that He who is God by nature became man, and that He who is Lord of all wore the form of a servant by the economy for our sake, He performed very many signs throughout Judea, and produced the most clear proof of His divine excellence, accomplishing things that were paradoxical and beyond reason: raising the dead, rebuking unclean spirits, and granting sight to the blind by His own right and authority. But the prophetic discourse shall be an indictment of the perversity and impiety of the Jews. For it says that the signs and wonders were done by the Lord of Hosts who dwells on Mount Zion; but those men, leaving nothing of wicked deeds or words unattempted, dared to blaspheme, saying: "This man does not cast out demons except by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons."

"And if they shall say unto you: Seek out the seers from the land who utter voices, the ventriloquists, the vain-talkers who speak from the belly; does not a nation seek unto its God? Why do they consult the dead for the living? For He has given the Law for help, that they may say: It is not as this word, concerning which there is no gift to give for it." ^D Emmanuel Himself weaves a sermon of instruction for those who have put their hope in Him, who were counted among the children and were given to Him by God and the Father, as to a Savior, Redeemer, and Life-giver, who is able to enlighten and deliver from every evil, and who in every way rescues them from their ancient customs and their former insanity. For it is the custom of those who worship idols to embrace the oracles of demons,

^A and to cling to certain empty-talking necromancers, who say nothing that is true; but they belch forth whatever happens to come into their minds quite simply. But you, he says, even if someone should approach you and say: "Consult those who speak from the earth"—that is, those who pretend to bring up the dead, and to deliver oracles as if from Hades; or the ventriloquists, who pretend to have certain gods within their belly, and thus to speak to those who approach them from these—do not accept their counsel. For they speak only from their own belly, and they are not a discerning nation, so as to seek out God and learn anything from Him. But say to those who offer such counsel: "Why do they seek the dead concerning the living?" Do you see how he makes them very discerning? For he commands them not only to depart from the perversity and insanity of those ^B people, but he also commands them to become good counselors for those who are wandering. For tell them, he says: "Why do they seek the dead concerning the living?" For this is a common and human faculty of reason. For what sense would it make to want to inquire about those who are still living from those who lie upon the earth, or from souls that have by chance ended up in Hades? And in another way also, it is completely ignorant to pay attention to necromancy and to the false utterances of sorcerers who have a dead mind and, as it were, a frozen heart. For they do not know the Creator of all things, nor do they have in themselves the life-giving Word of God. And they are, moreover, practitioners of dead works. How then do the living—that is, those who have the life-giving power from above within themselves, and who have been enriched by the living Word of God—consult the dead concerning them? These things, therefore, say, he ^C says, adding that he has given the law for our aid—that is, the evangelical law—so that those who pay attention to it may say: "Not like this word, concerning which it is not permitted to give gifts for it." For those who speak only from their own heart sell falsehood; but the saving and true law of God—that is, the evangelical message, which is given for the aid of those on earth—is not like that word, namely, of the false prophets. Nor is it permitted to give gifts for it. For, as I said just now, some purchase the false prophecies of sorcerers with silver. But the heavenly prophecy is set forth for those who wish, through which we have been guided toward all good things, and we have even learned those things which are to come and must happen. For to whom is it obscure that, to those who do good and preserve sincere love for Christ, all things will be according to their prayer? For He shows them to be blessed both in ^D this world and in the world to come. It is set forth, therefore, without silver and without any gift, for those who wish to know the law given by Christ for our aid. And this, indeed, was what was wisely said through the voice of Isaiah: "Those who thirst, come to the water, and those who have no silver, go and buy without silver and price." [Isa. LV, 1]

VERS. 21, 22. And a hard famine shall come upon you, and it shall be that when you hunger, you shall be grieved, and you shall speak evil of the ruler and of the ancestral customs. And they shall look up...

^A to heaven above, and to the earth below. And behold, distress and straits, and darkness, and narrow trouble, and darkness so as not to see, and he who is in distress shall not faint until a time.

He transfers the discourse to the disobedient nation, that is to say, Israel, who, though they were receiving a broad and bountiful consolation from God, and were abundantly and opulently supplied with the institutions and precepts of the Law, did not accept Christ, even though they might have understood that it would result in their own benefit. Hence they were deprived of the union that is with Him, that is to say, of the understanding that is intellectual and spiritual, and they perished as if by famine. For the God of all things said through the voice of the prophets: "Behold, I am bringing a famine upon the earth, says the Lord; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord; and they shall run to and fro from east to west seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it." ^B When, therefore, He says, having put to death the Prince of life, you suffer a grievous and intolerable famine, not having the word of God, or the bread that descends from heaven, that gives life to the world, then, truly then, you will hunger; and being moved to a realization of what has occurred, you will speak evil of your ruler and of your ancestral customs. And what, then, is the meaning of this? The leaders of the Jews, I mean the Scribes and Pharisees, did not cease to incite the multitude subject to them against the Savior of us all, Christ. And as a pretext for their madness against Him, they made use of their reverence for Moses and the Law. For they persecuted Him, saying, "If this man were from God, he would not have broken the Sabbath." Consequently, they ^C persuaded them to persecute Him as a transgressor of the law. When, therefore, He says, you, having been deceived by them, shall hunger, then you will speak evil of your ruler and of all your ancestral customs, that is to say, the lawful traditions. For you will remember that you were incited by your leaders; and the pretext of the rulers for the madness against Christ was the ancestral customs, that is to say, the habits and the traditions—and not entirely those which flowed from the Law, but also those which they received from empty observations, doctrines, and commandments of men. Therefore, a hard famine shall be upon you, and however much you may look up and down, and peer about on every side, and turn the eyes of your mind, you shall see, He says, nothing else but narrow trouble and darkness, so that you shall be able to see nothing ^D of what is useful. And regarding that which He says: "And he who is in distress shall not faint until a time," He again foretells the calling of the Gentiles. For those who are now, He says, pressed by distress and by a famine of divine teachings, shall not fail. For Emmanuel will bestow upon them the blessing, and will set before them spiritual food, and will spread for them the divine table, saying: "Eat and drink, and be inebriated, ye neighbors." But this shall be, He says, until a time—that is to say, it will not now reach its end, when the word of the prophecy concerning them has been fulfilled, but in the fitting time, at which Emmanuel will shine forth upon those on the earth. For then

^A the multitude of nations has been called.

"Drink this first, do it quickly, land of Zabulon, land of Nephthalim, the way of the sea, and the rest [of you] by the seashore and beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people walking in darkness, see a great light. You who dwell in the region and shadow of death, a light shall shine upon you; the greatest part of the people, whom you have brought down in your gladness; and they shall rejoice before you as those who rejoice in the harvest, and as those who divide the spoils."

^B He said that those who chose to disobey Emmanuel would be oppressed by hard famine and distress; yet he predicted that those who were in straits would not fail until the time previously mentioned, in accordance with the meaning already set forth. He begins to show also who were the first to believe, and who became the first-fruits of those called to the knowledge of Emmanuel, saying: "Behold, I and the children whom God has given me," who indeed became also for signs and wonders in the house of Israel from the Lord of Sabaoth, who dwells on Mount Zion. They say, namely, that ^C the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim also lie by the Sea of Tiberias, and are at the extremities of the Jewish territory, so as to be contiguous to the Galilee of the nations, the latter being in the region near the Phoenicians. They say that the holy apostles were for the most part from these very tribes. And indeed, the blessed evangelist Matthew, in narrating to us the events concerning their calling, first brings Jesus into the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim. Then he clearly adds how he chose the holy apostles. He writes so concerning Christ: "And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capharnaum, ^D by the sea in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations; the people sitting in darkness saw a great light, and to those sitting in the land and shadow of death, light has sprung up." He adds to these: "And walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen; and Jesus said to them, Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they immediately, leaving the nets, followed him. And going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother in the ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. And they immediately, leaving the ship and their father, followed him." One should know that the sacred Scripture calls the Sea of Galilee the Lake of Tiberias, where the divine disciples were found practicing the fishermen's trade. Therefore, God by the voice of the prophet addresses words in the presence of all, as it were to the regions or cities of the tribes of Zabulon and Nephthalim, which were adjacent to the Sea of Tiberias: to which not only

^A does he offer the cup of salvation, but he also serves the wine that cheers the heart of man, namely, the preaching concerning Christ. Drink this first, he says, and do it quickly: that is, O region of Zabulon and Nephthalim, receive the saving preaching. But "do it quickly," that is, without any delay. Quick, as I said, were the disciples, and they sprang forth with great alacrity to believe in Christ. For immediately, having abandoned their nets and their father, they followed him; and they had no need of long instruction. For they heard: "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men," and they followed him.

In the same manner, we shall find that other holy apostles, having been called, also delivered themselves to the discipline of Christ. For John writes thus concerning our Savior Christ: "On the next day he willed to go forth into Galilee, and finds Philip; and Jesus says to him, Follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip finds Nathanael and says to him, Him of whom Moses wrote in the law, and the prophets, we have found: Jesus, the son of Joseph, from Nazareth." But when he reached Jesus, and subsequently heard him saying, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you," he believed immediately and cried out, saying: "Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel." Bethsaida again, from which Philip and also Nathanael originated, was adjacent to the Sea of Tiberias.

The blessed David also remembers the election of the disciples, and he says: "There is Benjamin the younger in amazement, the princes of Juda their leaders, the princes of Zabulon, the princes of Nephthalim." That the divine disciples were not to be the only ones called in their own times, but also the multitude ^B of the nations, he designates, saying: "And the rest of those by the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations, the people who walk in darkness have seen a great light; and you who dwell in the region and shadow of death, light shall shine upon you." For they were already walking just as the heathens, and they were passing their time in this world as though in night and in darkness, because they did not have the light of the true knowledge of God in their minds, but were falling as if into every pit, and staggering against every evil as if against a stone.

He says that they dwell in the region and shadow of death, because there was nothing among them—that is, in their regions—other than only mist and darkness, namely of the mind and understanding, and that they were like the dead, yet still living. For the shadow of bodies entirely imitates their forms, and as far as the likeness of shape is concerned, it differs in no way. But failing to know God, who is by nature truly God, is in a certain way an imitation and a shadow of death. However, to those laboring under this sickness, a great light shone forth, after which Christ himself brought in the evangelical oracle. Hence was the "greatest part of the people whom you led in your gladness." For many more from the nations have been called, beyond those who believed out of Israel. Therefore, he says, "the greatest part of the people whom you led in gladness saw a great light." That ^C saying, "You led,"

he has put in place of "You called back," or "You redeemed," just as if those who had been held by ^A diabolic greed were captives. "These shall be glad before you, as those who are glad in harvest, and as those who divide the spoils." We shall understand the explanation of what is set before us in two ways. For if the divine disciples are those who are glad in the harvest and divide the spoils, we say that they are glad in the same way as those who reap in the fields because they gather the Gentiles like grain into the Lord's granary, and cut away their ancient error; but they rejoice as those who divide the spoils because, snatching those deceived by Satan as if by tyrannical greed ^B and transferring them through faith to piety, they obtain gain. For some persuaded these, and others those; and to each, the saved are a profit, just as the spoils of war are to the victors. But if he should be saying this about those who have believed, we understand that, whereas in the time of their being in error they had no fruit of righteousness, they have become rich in this by having believed in Christ. But also, having long been ravaged and plundered by both the demons and Satan, they have conquered through Christ those who formerly despoiled them, and have become superior to their wickedness. So they too are glad, as the prophet says, as those who are glad in the harvest, and as those who divide the spoils.

^C "For the yoke that was laid upon them will be taken away, and the rod that is upon their neck. For the Lord has scattered the rod of the exactors as in the day of Madian." Those who were on the earth and had been very beautifully created in the divine image, and made, as the blessed Paul says, for good works, which God had prepared beforehand so that we might walk in them, the inventor of iniquity has greedily taken in no small measure; and having turned them away from the love toward God, he made them his own worshippers, having fastened upon them the yoke of sin which is hard to escape. Therefore, Christ rescued those who were acting miserably, and especially those from among the Gentiles who were caught in these evils, and made them free again. For this reason he says: "The yoke that was laid upon them will be taken away, and the rod which is on their neck." ^D I think that by "rod," he means either the scepter—that is, the kingdom, and it is clear that this is the kingdom of Satan—or perhaps the necessity, and the, so to speak, blow and lash. For the vile and profane band of demons keeps us bound to its own will, and their leader Satan, almost striking with a rod by the might of the passions which he brings upon the mind, forces the heart to wish to see things that are not lawful. They will shake off, therefore, he says, the yoke from greed, and indeed also the rod which they have always had upon their neck, just as servants subject to the blows of a master. He introduces again a mention of the history that is set down in the book of Judges. It is as follows: When they had all abandoned

^A the God of the universe, the people of Israel in the days of the Judges turned toward unholy ways and, having grievously offended God who was their champion, they attached themselves to idols and offered worship to the works of their own hands. For this reason, they were delivered over to the Midianites; these laid waste to all their land, plundering cities and villages and everything that was in the fields. And they struck such terror into the wretched people that they chose to dwell in caves and in the inaccessible heights of the mountains and to search out the retreats of deep caverns, being oppressed by a cruel and lasting famine. But God had mercy on them as they were failing and laboring severely, and then he saved them by the hand of Gideon, who defeated the Midianites and freed Israel from the necessity and the rod that was hanging over them. Thus, therefore, the Lord dissipated the rod of the exactors, as in the day of Midian. For just as he snatched those who were then ^B held fast by intolerable tyranny, having driven out the tyrannical nation, so he saved the Gentiles, having driven away the rod of the exactors. He calls the exactors Satan himself and the demons with him, whose goal and entire effort is to exact from men — like some sort of tax or tribute — their customary sins. For they seek by all means: from him who is accustomed to fornicate, the fornication; from him who is accustomed to stealing, the theft; or that he should pillage clothes or steal them simply; and from individual men, in whom these passions dwell, they demand those things that are familiar and dear to them. Whence, I think, the Holy Scriptures proclaim blessed those who do not listen to the voice of him who demands tribute.

VERSES 6, 7. For they shall return every garment gathered ^C by fraud, and a cloak with a change; and they shall wish to be burned by fire. For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, whose principality has been placed upon his shoulder, and his name is called the Angel of great counsel. For I will bring peace upon the rulers, peace and their health. Great is his principality, and of his peace there shall be no end; upon the throne of David and his kingdom, to direct it aright and to assist it, in justice and judgment from henceforth and for the age to come. The zeal of the Lord of Sabaoth shall do these things.

The remnant of Israel has been called to the acknowledgment of Emmanuel through the holy apostles, and the Gentiles have also been called. For surely he said: The region of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim; and to these he then adds, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people that sits in darkness saw a great light, that is to say, the light ^D that shines through Christ, who now illuminates with the light of understanding not only the Israelite nation, but the whole world. And that those who were illuminated were destined to cast off the yoke of the devil’s wickedness and to escape the rod, he made fully certain when he added: Therefore the yoke that is laid upon them shall be taken away, and the rod upon their neck. But we see that upon those who serve the creature and have worshiped the works of their own hands, the yoke of diabolical wickedness had settled; and for the Israelites, the weight of the law was not to be borne, and was a burden truly intolerable. Since indeed the blessed disciples rebuked those who

^A after the faith tried to persuade some to keep the things in the law, saying: "And now why do you tempt God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear?" The yoke of the law, therefore, was altogether unbearable to those from Israel; and furthermore, what was even more oppressive than this was the wickedness of the Pharisees, which wore them down and crushed them not a little with their greed. For the leaders of the Jewish synagogue were lovers of money, and having this one goal before them—to collect from everywhere and to constrain and oppress the peoples under their hand—it would therefore be very rightly said of those from Israel: "The yoke that was laid upon them will be taken away, and the rod that is upon their neck." By the rod he names, as is likely, the greed of the leaders, because of their leaning terribly toward the love of gain. For this reason, the wretches even killed the Son Himself. For although they saw that He is the heir, "They said among themselves," he says, "Come, let us kill him, and let us take possession of his inheritance." That the leaders of the Jews, having an impious and wicked purpose of this kind, would have most gladly suffered the loss of all their goods ^B rather than see Emmanuel shining forth upon the world, he signifies by saying: "For every garment gathered with deceit, and the robe with commutation, they shall pay back, and they shall wish that they had been burned with fire. For a child has been born to us, a son has been given to us." For they amassed a heap of wealth from deceit and fraud and from judging unjustly, he says; but it would have been pleasant and agreeable to them to put aside and cast away even the very robe and clothes together with the "commutation," that is, with the addition, or rather, he says, they would have wished even to be burned with fire, being extremely distressed that a child had been born as a son to us. For those to whom the care of the Master's vineyard had been entrusted wished to have the fruits for themselves alone, bringing nothing at all to the Master. Now by saying that a child has been born to us, he clearly refutes the weakness of the Manichaean opinion, ^C who refuse to say that the Word became flesh—that is, that He bore our flesh for our sake by way of dispensation. But if they wish to think correctly and to condemn their own folly, let them not insult the words of the prophet who says that a child has been born to us. For where there is a birth from a woman in truth, what room could there be for the claim that His coming was by opinion, by a shadow, or, so to speak, in mere phantasms? Nevertheless, He says that the Son has been given to us. For the only-begotten Word of God became man, not for His own sake, but rather to restore our state to what it was in the beginning, and as a ransom for the life of all, to offer His own body to God and the Father as a fragrant aroma. He says that the beginning of His rule was "upon His shoulder," and some seem ^D to understand something of this sort: For since, he says, our Lord Jesus Christ, carrying the cross upon His shoulders, came to the saving passion, and was exalted, and by Himself [the] orb of the world

for this reason it is said that His government is upon His shoulder. And this interpretation has some probability, for the sentiment is rightly laid down and should not be disparaged, even if one should be pleased to praise it. But the prophetic word seems to me here to wish to signify strength by the shoulder; for all our strength is situated in our arms and shoulders. And, accordingly, the Son is called ^B the right hand and arm of God and the Father. "For Lord," he says, "who has believed our report? and the arm of the Lord, to whom has it been revealed?" Christ, therefore, began to rule over the orb of the world through His own power, for He is the strength of God and the Father. He is called also the Angel of Great Counsel, which plainly signifies [the Angel] of God and the Father. And the wise John will bear witness, speaking of Him: "He that has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God." And He Himself somewhere ^C says to the holy apostles: "You are my friends, if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, because the servant does not know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, because all things that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you." Therefore, for this cause He names Emmanuel the Angel of Great Counsel. But after He had become man, He Himself attributed the force and virtue of all things done by Him to God and the Father. And God and the Father Himself shows this to us through these things, when He says: "For I will bring peace upon the princes, their peace and health." Christ gave ^D the very peace itself to the holy apostles as His own. For all things that are the Father's are His. He said also: "My peace I give to you; my peace I leave with you." But if Emmanuel Himself be said to receive peace and health, consider again the plan of the dispensation in the flesh, which is simple. For He was receiving the peace that is from the world, manifestly, as the Father was handing over all things to Him, and persuading them to have peace toward Him, by adoring Him and taking up the yoke of His kingdom. "No one," He says, "can come to me, unless the Father who sent me shall draw him." The wise Isaiah also cries out somewhere: "Let us make peace with Him, let us make peace as we approach Him." He receives, therefore, the peace from the Father in this manner, as I said. For we have heard Him speaking to the Father and heavenly God: "Those whom You have given me out of the world, they were Yours, and You have given them to me." He receives also health, that is to say, the restoration of life from the dead. For since He is said to have been weakened for a little while, because He allowed His own flesh to taste death for the sake of everyone by the grace of God, He receives health—that is, the restoration to life—and this He again performed Himself. For He raised up His own temple, since He Himself is the power of the Father. For if He Himself is the resurrection and the life, what, ultimately, would Life have needed for vivification? And if He is seen to have raised the bodies of others by His own power and strength, why would He not have raised His own before the bodies of others? But He Himself addresses the Jews: "Destroy this temple, and in three"

is the resurrection, and the life, of whom would the Life have need for the sake of being made alive? And if He is seen raising the bodies of others, how then would He not have raised His own even before the others? Yet, he says, to the Jews Himself: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." For he teaches that the kingdom of Christ is unshakable and possesses stability forever, saying: "Great is His rule, and of His peace there is no end." For it began to rule no longer over Judea only, but rather over the whole world under heaven. And there will be no end of the peace offered to Him by us. For we are at peace with Him; we worship Him, as I said, and through Him and in Him, the God and Father. And we make haste to remove from our midst the sin that is the cause of war. And that He arrived to liberate the nation of the Jews, he teaches by adding: ^B "Upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, to establish it and to support it with justice and judgment, from henceforth and for ever." And since the blessed prophet has sufficiently made for us the discourse concerning the Emmanuel, he declares the time of the incarnation, saying: "The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will do these things." But it is necessary to say what this zeal is and for whom it is. For the Dragon, the apostate, seized the world under heaven, and subjected to his own scepters man, who was made according to the image of God. It was therefore truly worthy of all zeal, and full of all tyranny, that which was done against us. Therefore the zeal of the Lord of Hosts liberated all the inhabitants of the earth. But it is also to be understood in another way: the Israelites provoked Him to jealousy with "no-gods," as it is written, and with their vanities, and finally they nailed the Emmanuel to the cross. But they themselves were provoked to jealousy by the nations, just as He Himself says: "They provoked me to jealousy with no-gods; they angered me with their idols; and I will provoke them to jealousy with a no-people; with a foolish nation I will provoke them." ^C

ORATION VI.

Death the Lord sent upon Jacob, and it came into Israel, and all the people of Ephraim shall know, and those sitting in Samaria, in insolence and with a haughty heart saying: "The bricks have fallen, but come, let us hew stones, and let us cut down sycamores and cedars, and build for ourselves a tower."

The discourse of the prophet concerning the Emmanuel has been long, which, having concluded gracefully, he returns again to the beginning. And these were these: for he was accusing Israel deeply, as being disobedient and provoking the God who had always saved them, and on account of this cause, delivering himself into the utmost evils. For he said that they did not want the law of the Lord of Hosts, but they provoked the oracle of the Holy One of Israel. And the Lord was angry with wrath against His people, and He laid His hand upon them, and struck them. And the mountains were provoked, and their dead bodies became as dung in the midst of the way. And by "mountains" he says the kings of the Assyrians were provoked: for they were proud,

^A and haughty in their minds. They are the ones who shook Samaria from its very foundations, took Israel captive, and carried them off into the mountains of the Persians and Medes. Having thus finished, as I was saying, the prophecy concerning Emmanuel, he returns again to the intent set forth at the beginning, and describes the desolation of Samaria, saying: "The Lord sent death upon Jacob, and it came upon Israel." One should know that the Hebrew edition, as well as several other interpreters, have placed "word" in place of "death." For it says: "The Lord sent a word upon Jacob, and it came upon Israel." And what sort of word? One that condemns, clearly, those who have acted impiously, and imposes penalties upon those who have abandoned Him and prostrated themselves before the works of their own hands. Whether it be said that God sent "death," or "ruin," or a "word," the power of the thoughts will not be inconsistent, but rather will tend toward one and the same goal. He makes mention, however, of history in these matters, which I shall tell briefly. For thus that which is clarified will be difficult to overlook. There reigned, then, at different times in Jerusalem over Judah—or Jacob—men both good and wicked; and no less so over Israel, those of the tribe of Ephraim in Samaria. For the first of them to reign, Jeroboam the son of Nabat, who also persuaded them to worship the golden calves, was from the tribe of Ephraim. Now of those who reigned at different times in Jerusalem and in Samaria, many, as I said, have offended God without fear, being profane and idolaters, worshipping the host of heaven, and impiously serving wood and stones; such a one also was this Ahaz, who even led his own children through the fire, and wrought many evils against Jerusalem, and even transgressed against the divine temple itself. When he was taken out from the midst by death, Hezekiah took up the scepter, while Hoshea son of Elah was reigning in Samaria over Israel, that is, over the ten tribes. While he was managing the kingdom, the king of the Assyrians made war against Samaria. He also captured with it many other cities of Judea. Then, after this, when Sennacherib was invading the land of the Jews, God miraculously saved Jerusalem, since Hezekiah was pious. It is thus written in the fourth book of Kings: ^B It came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of the Assyrians went up against Samaria and besieged it. And he took it after the end of three years, in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Israel. And Samaria was captured, and the king of the Assyrians transported Samaria into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Abor by the river Gozan, and into the mountains of the Medes; because they did not hearken to the voice of the Lord their God, and they violated His covenant, and did not hear all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, nor did they do it. But in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of the Assyrians went up against the fortified cities of Judea and occupied them. And these things are from the sacred Scriptures. But that he desolated Samaria ^C

^A while going up against Jerusalem, we shall easily see from what the blessed prophet Isaiah himself has written. For Rabshakeh called out thus to those sitting upon the wall: "Let not Hezekiah deceive you, saying: Your God will deliver you. Have the gods of the nations delivered each his own land from the hand of the king of the Assyrians? Where is the god of Hamath and Arpad? And where is the god of the city of Sepharvaim? Could they save Samaria from my hand?" Sennacherib then had previously ruined Samaria together with the other cities and regions; and afterwards he besieged Jerusalem. For since he had railed against the divine glory, an angel went out from the Lord and killed one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians in one night. Since, therefore, Sennacherib had arrived against Jerusalem, yet had previously destroyed Samaria—God having handed it over because those in Jerusalem ^B had chosen to look upon worse things—the prophet necessarily says: "The Lord sent death upon Jacob, and it came upon Israel." But the city of the Samaritans, in which Israel (that is, the ten tribes) dwelt, was burned and utterly perished. It was wisdom, I believe, for those who were left in it thereafter to consider that to offend God is in truth a very grievous thing; and then, acknowledging and perceiving this, that it was necessary to appease the One who had been offended and to mitigate the provocation by changes for the better. But they did not do this, nor did they take it into their minds from anywhere; but being senseless, they said even more arrogantly: "The bricks have fallen, but come, let us cut stones, and let us fell sycamores and cedars, and let us build a tower for ourselves." O great ignorance! For was it not more fitting ^C to say, "We have offended the all-powerful God through our folly and thoughtlessness; for this reason our cities and villages are vexed: come, let us cast off this wrath by repentance"? But these men did not say these things at all, but rather, arrogantly scorning the help and protection from God, they kept saying that the walls of the cities of Samaria had been built of rotten brick. "But if we quarry stones, and fit them with incorruptible wood—I speak of sycamores and cedars—and erect a tower, we shall be impregnable to our enemies and shall remain unconquered." Those who say these things, he says, with arrogance and a haughty heart, shall know—that is, they shall learn again where their planning will lead them at all, and that their counsel will again end in destruction. It must be known, however, that after the desolation of Sennacherib, in the times of Jeremiah, Nebuchadnezzar attacked Judea and captured it, and desolated ^D all Samaria, and Jerusalem herself as well. Therefore the prophet Jeremiah says: "Cursed is the man who has hope in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord." For no one will save him who is subject to divine wrath: "For who shall turn away the high hand?" as it is written.

And God will dash those rising up against Mount Sion against them, and will scatter the enemies: Syria from the rising of the sun, and the Greeks from the setting of the sun, those who devour Israel with their whole mouth.

When God strikes because of many sins, he brings a healing to those who have suffered, so that by every means he might appear to be calling them to repentance, I say, both by pain and consolation. Something of this kind he now promises to those who have suffered plunder. The matter in question has a historical explanation, which it is necessary, as I have said, to state briefly. For the last war against the whole of Judea at once, and indeed also against Samaria, was that waged by ^B Nebuchadnezzar, in which they were carried away captive and served their enemies for seventy years. But when the time of the wrath had been completed, the God of all again had mercy, and indeed prepared for them to be released, after Cyrus the son of Cambyses had conquered the Babylonians. And when those who had suffered reached the holy city, they wished to rebuild it. And indeed they did so, and they restored their divine temple. Yet nonetheless, although they had suffered so many things and had paid the penalties for their ancient transgressions, the surrounding nations attacked them again out of envy. For they did not wish Jerusalem to gain strength. But most of all, the neighbors from Syria and Damascus pressed them most bitterly. ^C However, they were defeated, with God both saving and defending those from the captivity. For they prevailed over their enemies. Then, as time went on, Antiochus, nicknamed Epiphanes, reigning over Asia, was offended at Ptolemy, who at that time was reigning over the land of the Egyptians; and having joined battle, he was defeated, and he escaped only with difficulty. But that he might not return home completely empty-handed, possessing no monument of victory, he made war upon Judea, and took Jerusalem, and having brought it under his hand and power, and having plundered all the holy vessels, he appointed a certain Lysias as commander in Judea, ordering him to guard the government. And when the aforementioned Antiochus had returned to his own ^D kingdom, the Jews made war with Lysias the commander, and were victorious. Having learned these things, Antiochus died of grief. Therefore, the God of all promises help to those who had been ravaged by Nebuchadnezzar, but who had barely escaped the captivity, saying: "And God will dash those rising up against Mount Sion against them." Do you hear how he who strikes also heals? Who then are those rising up? Syria from the rising of the sun, and the Greeks from the setting of the sun. For Antiochus, who had sprung from Macedonia, was a Greek by birth. And this is situated to the west; for the land of the Macedonians is a part of the West, especially when it is understood as if by comparison regarding position to those from the rising of the sun. And these are the Syrians and

^A the Damascenes. Since he says concerning the Greeks that they are "devouring Israel with their whole mouth," it must be known that Antiochus behaved cruelly and inhumanely toward the Jews and slaughtered countless numbers of them in a pitiful and wretched manner, at the time when the Maccabees struggled, and the solemn victories of those men were won. Josephus records these things in the book he wrote about them. But the sons of the Greeks also devour Israel in another way, and it is necessary to say how. For their poets and orators, having arrived at the highest peak of eloquence and being outstanding in the power of speech, and being wise men, sometimes snatch away the spiritual Israel—that is, the mind that contemplates God—and they deceive those who have already believed in Christ, so that they choose to worship the creature along with them, instead of the Creator. These devour Israel with their whole mouth, to whom we must not pay attention. For the splendor of speech, if it were seen to be combined with good works, would be an acceptable and God-pleasing speech. But if it is naked and solitary, what else could it offer, as the most wise Paul says, but "a clanging bronze or a resounding cymbal"? ^B

VERS. 13. *In all these things his anger has not turned away, but his hand is still lifted high. And the people have not turned away until they were struck, and they did not seek the Lord.*

For the God of all things preserved Israel even while they were sinning, and granted them support so that they became even greater than those from neighboring Syria and from the sunsets of the sun who were devouring him with their whole mouth. But, he says, the anger of the Lord over them has not turned away—that is, it has not ceased; rather, the hand of the one striking them has remained lifted high, clearly ready to inflict other blows upon them. For what reason? For the people, he says, has not turned away, nor ceased from its own sins. It did not seek the Lord, because it desired to think and to do what seemed right and pleasing to itself. And they have remained holding such an opinion until the lifted and all-powerful hand was brought upon them. But what again is the subsequent blow, and how is it not worth seeing? For finally, as I was saying, Nebuchadnezzar took all Judea. And he also moved Israel into the mountains of the Persians and Medes. ^C But since, as I said, the times of the captivity had already passed, they were brought back to Judea and inhabited Jerusalem, no longer divided into two tribes, but all having become subjects of one king. For this was what was spoken by one of the holy prophets: "And they shall rise up from the earth, and shall set for themselves one head." After, therefore, the return of all of them from the captivity to Judea, those from Syria and those from the rising of the sun have warred against them, but they too have been defeated, for God shields those who have been redeemed. Then they continued the intermediate time until the coming of our Savior not living holy lives, nor at all departing from those primitive vices, but neither behaving with propriety nor according to the law, being very negligent and careless ^D

^A Since Christ shone forth upon all who are under heaven—for God appeared to us, according to the voice of the Psalmist—they have kept their madness and have done things that are not lawful, not receiving the word from Him, nor honoring Him with faith. And why do I say these things? By outrageously insulting Him, they reached such a point of impiety and holiness of ways that they even handed Him over to the cross, denied the Holy and Righteous One, and attempted to encompass with death the Author of life, who justifies the ungodly; and for this very reason, having shone forth upon all who are upon the earth, so that He might abolish death and render the sting of sin dull and ineffective. For all these causes, the hand of the striker remained lifted high, and the wrath was not turned away. For they were given over to desolation, with Vespasian and Titus warring against them, and the whole Roman army, when those wretches perished utterly, according to the word of the Savior, with the region burning, the Temple itself torn up and collapsing entirely, so that not a stone was seen lying upon a stone. ^B Since, therefore, the merciful God now winks at our offenses, it is altogether a very grave matter to be thoughtless, and I say that it is fitting in every way that we propitiate the One we have offended. For although He heaps benefits upon those who sin, and preserves the disobedient because of His own clemency. Let there not, therefore, be a spirit in us that is more obstinate, nor one slow to perceive the gifts from Him, but through those things by which He knows how to benefit even the wicked, let us, coming through these very things to a recognition of the kindness inherent in Him, repent over our past deeds. Let us transform our own will toward the need to serve Him, and choose for ourselves the ways of gentleness. ^C

VERS. 14-16. *And the Lord will take away from Israel head and tail, great and small in one day, the elder and those who respect persons; this is the beginning, and the prophet, and he who teaches lawless things; this is the tail. And they will be those who call this people blessed, leading them astray; and they lead them astray so that they may devour them.*

Because He says that the hand of the striker is stretched out against all, he clearly declares that the divine wrath is not about to have an end, and what manner of punishment is to be exacted from them with the passage of time. For he says, *He will take away in one day*, that is, at one and the same time—it is clear that this is by all means at the time of the war by the Romans—*head and tail*. And what the meaning of this riddle is, he explains when he says: *Great and small*, that is, both the illustrious and the obscure. He demonstrates again who these are when he adds: *The elder, and those who respect persons*. ^D By these, as I indeed suppose, he hints at the tribe which obtained the office of the priesthood, that is, those who are from the blood of Levi, whom the subject peoples also used to call elders. And indeed the divine disciples addressed them thus, saying: *Princes of the people and elders, if we today of a benefit conferred upon an infirm man...*

by what means he has been saved, let it be known to you and to all the people, that it is in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.* ^A For these elders, who held the authority to judge, did not make righteous decisions regarding each of those judged before them, but receiving bribes insatiably, and showing partiality to the persons of the rich, although the law which cried out through Moses said: *Judge a righteous judgment*; and also, *You shall not show partiality in judgment*, which is established everywhere. This, therefore, he says, is the beginning; and it has been accounted as the head. For the priest is the head of the peoples, when he is understood as being in one body. He says that the elder, along with the prophet and the one who teaches iniquity, is to be taken away; which he says is the tail, that is, that which follows. For there were certain men among the Jews who interpreted the law given by the all-wise Moses, but did so perversely, ^B introducing, under Mosaic words, traditions not written down—the commandments and doctrines of men—not rightly. These men misled the Jewish populace and caused them to raise a proud neck against Christ. Since, therefore, these men also followed the opinions of the priests, who were placed in the rank and position of the head, he named them the tail. For, as I was saying, when we understand [them] as a single body, the tail always follows the head. But when he calls them prophets, we must by no means think that they are holy and true. For he added that they teach iniquity. However, we state this: there were indeed in Israel false prophets at various times, namely when there were also true prophets. But after the times of the captivity, no one could conveniently or truly say that there were others; unless perhaps one refers to those whom Gamaliel, a teacher of the law and a man venerable to all the people, commemorated, ^C as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles. For he addressed those who were in the council concerning the holy apostles thus, saying: *“Men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what you intend to do regarding these men. For before these days Theudas rose up, claiming himself to be somebody great, to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves; he was slain, and all who obeyed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him rose up Judas the Galilean in the days of the census, and drew away people after him; he also perished, and all who obeyed him were scattered.”* He says, therefore, that the head and the tail shall be taken away, according to the sense we have just provided. Furthermore, he says that there will be those who call this people ^D blessed, deceiving and being practiced in deception, so that they may devour them. For the leaders of the Jews, to whom the holy and divine tabernacle had been entrusted, and who were appointed to perform the sacrifices according to the law, exhorted the people subject to them to the offering of gifts, calling them blessed if they offered abundantly with both hands, and they did this intensely, not from a care for religion toward God, but looking to their own gain. By this method, he says, they deceive, that they may devour them. For because of an insatiable

desire to be rich, as I said, not as is fitting, by choosing to fulfill the law—to gladden the God of all—they taught the peoples; but rather they exhorted them to honor them with offerings beyond their strength. ^A For this cause, neither did they themselves accept the faith in Christ, but, as though shutting the kingdom of heaven, they did not permit others either to enter into it. For they knew that when the shadow of the law should be passing away and the evangelical proclamations should be received, the worship in types and through blood would surely cease, and sacrifices would come to an end, with the worship in spirit having been brought in. And this is the complete destruction of the insatiable greed that was in them.

VERS. 17. *Therefore God shall not take pleasure in their young men, and their orphans and their widows He will not pity, because all are lawless and wicked, and every mouth speaks unrighteous things.*

^B The word now carries us away again, from manifest examples, to things beyond sense and those which fall under the intellect. For here it calls them "young men," not necessarily those flourishing in bodily strength, or those in their prime and in the bloom of the flesh; but it signifies rather those who might have in mind and heart a spiritual strength, so that they are able to perform, even with youthful alacrity, those things whereby they shall be illustrious, and most known to God, and filled with every kind of uprightness. ^C And to those who are thus disposed, the blessed John also has addressed himself, saying: *I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and you have overcome the evil one.* But before the coming of our Savior, there were some even among the Jews who, in the way I have just mentioned, had exerted themselves to act courageously, both in the will to fulfill the commandment without reproach and in the splendor of legal observances. And they were not rejected by God. For the time of the legal shadow was still present, and since the evangelical and Christian life had not yet been revealed, these things were of the highest praise. Thus it is written concerning Zacharias and Elizabeth: *There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia; and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and justifications of the Lord without blame.* In this way, I suppose, the holy prophets also lived. And indeed, although the divine Paul plainly says that he had been blameless according to the righteousness which is in the law, he says nevertheless: *What things were for me gain, these I count as loss for the sake of Christ.* Therefore, before the advent of our Savior Christ, some were conspicuous by the praise of the law itself, and were both strong and youthful. But after his appearance, and the evangelical preaching, the legal observances ceased; the shadow passed into the truth, and a spiritual and true worship was introduced. Wherefore God does not take pleasure in the young men of the Jews, that is, who virilely still

choose to live according to the Law. Bloody sacrifices, the circumcision of the flesh, the instructions of washings, and the rest of the Sabbaths are unacceptable. We have been taught, as I said, the way of life that pleases God. Most deservedly, then, after the cessation of the shadow, those who remain young men according to it are rejected; and they are far from mercy, as are the orphans and the widows. He calls those orphans who are, as it were, in need of spiritual sustenance and the training of teachers. Likewise, we say that the souls are widows which, since they do not have the Sower and Provider of all good teachings, are destitute of the power to bear fruit. But that we shall find the Israelites bereft of true doctrine on account of their mad rage against Christ, no one can deny. For their eyes were darkened so that they could not see, according to the voice of the Psalmist, and their backs were bowed down ^A altogether, so that they could not look upward, but, as if bent double, were fixed upon earthly things. This will happen to them, he says, not without cause, but because all, he says, have become evil, and every mouth speaks iniquities. For who are they that, covered with every wickedness, were eager to put to death Him who was calling them to life, who knew no sin, even though the Law says clearly, "You shall not slay the innocent and the righteous"? Has not every tongue of the Jews also spoken unjustly? For they cried out against Christ to Pilate, saying, "Away, away, crucify him." And, "If you do not kill this man, you are not a friend of Caesar." ^B

In all these things, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is still uplifted. And iniquity shall be kindled as a fire, and as dry grass it shall be consumed by the fire; and it shall be kindled in the thickets of the forest, and it shall consume everything round about the hills. By the wrath of the fury of the Lord the whole earth is burned, and the people shall be as if burned by fire. A man will not pity his brother, but he will turn to the right because he is hungry, and he will eat from the left, and a man will not be satisfied, eating the flesh of his own arm. For Manasseh will eat Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh, because they will fight together against Judah. ^C

While the divine anger was still flourishing, and this very hand which inflicts the scourge and torments upon them was hanging over them, He attempts to foretell clearly each of the things that are to happen, making the hearers more moderate through their fears. For this reason God instituted the predictions of heavy evils, so that, fearing to offend Him, they might not be liable to the evils brought on by wrath, but rather might be delivered from those heavy things. Therefore, he says, iniquity shall be kindled like fire. He calls iniquity, not the thing itself—for this, whether in intellect or ^D

^A speech, is absurd—but those who have succumbed to iniquities and who have already reached such a perversity of ways that they must no longer be called iniquitous, but rather "iniquity" itself. These, therefore, shall be burned as fire, he says; that is, they will become a fire unto themselves. For no one else will bring the flame upon them, but they will be sufficient unto this for one another. They shall be burned like dry grass and like the thickets of a forest. For a flame always rages, once it has fallen upon combustible material—by which I mean dry grass and the wood in the forests.

I believe, for my part, that the prophetic word intends to show us by these things that since Vespasian and Titus, as I have already said, were laying waste to Judea and besieging its cities, there was the greatest tumult everywhere, partly by the wasting of famine, and partly by turbulent men everywhere, who were both plundering homes and attacking those who appeared more ^B distinguished, so that the internal machinations of the inhabitants became more grave than the external warfare itself. Josephus clearly relates the history of these things. Therefore, he says, they shall burn as if in a density of forest. By the wild grass and the dry density of the forest, I think he denotes the common multitude. For the peoples were divided against one another into factions and dissensions.

Furthermore, he shows that the evil would reach even to those who appeared to be "somebody," saying: *And it shall devour all things that are round about the hills.* By hills, I suppose he calls those who are superior to others and preeminent, whether through glory, or through wealth, or in any other way. I have already said that those who were accustomed to stir up seditions in each city were accustomed to violently attack those who appeared more splendid, to the extent that, in their desperation, they performed deeds which not even the hand of the enemy herself had ever committed. These things, he says, are in the wrath of the fury of the Lord. For so the whole land of the Jews was set on fire.

Now, having made plain what he had said enigmatically to his hearers, he immediately adds: *And the people shall be as if burned by fire: a man shall not spare his brother.* For just as those who bring fire to oxen excite them to rage and make them prepare to carry out their attacks with greater ferocity against those whom they assail, so, he says, each one of the people will be as if burned by fire. For they will be impetuous and pitiless, and they will not acknowledge brothers; they will all be terrible and fierce-spirited against one another, and like beasts ^C sharpened by famine, they will incline toward ferocity against some, turning to the right and devouring from the left; that is, they will turn themselves hither and thither, biting those on the right and those on the left, sparing no one, and having an insatiable desire for the attack upon one another. *For* ^D *a man shall not be satisfied, eating the flesh of his own arm.* O wonderful and incredible thing! They will not, he says, spare even themselves, in their impotent madness. For once they have broken out and are emboldened by desperate audacity, they will advance most sharply and with youthful impetuosity toward all the deepest depravities.

Afterward he says: *For Manasses shall eat Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasses.* Ephraim and Manasses were two brothers, and sons of Joseph. But, he says, nature herself will not then establish peace even among those joined by the charity of blood: the laws of kinship will be empty and void.

^A For brothers and those sown from the same seed shall rise up against one another, one against one, and two against another. For Manasseh, he says, shall devour Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh, because together they shall besiege Judah. Everything, then, was filled with confusion, and matters of anger were indiscriminately directed against all, against those against whom it was not lawful, and by those by whom it was not lawful. And these things, as I have said, happened historically to the flocks of the Jews. But we too must be on our guard ourselves. For disobedience is punished, and he who falls into this will be burned as if by fire, with carnal pleasure and burning lust inflaming him; and there will be an intolerable battle in his mind and heart, for the flesh shall rise up against the spirit, and there shall be great tumult. Therefore, as the divine Paul says: “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” ^B For by being subject to God, we shall walk in the Spirit, and we shall be superior to carnal desires, and we shall overcome the flames within our minds, and we shall keep our heart free from discord. For the peace of God, as it is written, which surpasses all understanding, shall guard our hearts and our thoughts.

Above all these things is his anger not turned away, but his hand is still raised up. Woe to those who write iniquity. For they write iniquity and inscribe it, perverting the judgment of the poor and stealing the rights of the needy of my people, so that the widow may be their plunder and the orphan their spoil. And what will you do in the day of visitation? For affliction shall come upon you from afar; and to whom will you flee for help? And where will you leave your glory, so as not to fall into captivity?

^C When the prophetic word sets forth for us more broadly the calamities of the Jews and the harms that were to come through the hand of their enemies, then most wisely and appropriately it introduces the causes on account of which the God of the universe was offended, and tries to teach that this cause is a holy decree of God calling them to punishment. For not unjustly, according to what is written, are nets spread for birds. Woe, therefore, he says, to those who write iniquity. For in writing, they write iniquity, perverting the judgment of the poor and stealing the rights of the needy of my people. For there were among the Jews those called scribes. And their work was to make the goal of the Law in every matter clear to those wishing to learn, and to suggest such things to those entrusted with judging the peoples. But it is written: ^D “The lips of the priest shall keep judgment, and they shall seek the law from his mouth.” Being overcome, therefore, by disgraceful gain, they used to produce unjust writings, impiously trafficking in what seemed to be the divine law, and, as it were, mixing wine with water, and rendering pure silver into base metal, so as to inflict injury upon the widow,

^A and to expose the orphan like some easy prey to those who desire to grow rich. But, he says, what will these men do in the day of visitation? He calls the time of war the day of visitation, in which God looked upon those who write wickedness and distort the upright judgments of the law. For what wealth, he says, will help you? And in what way will the gathering of things collected by you from avarice profit you? You have committed injury, you have corrupted the law, you have trampled upon the counsel of the lawgiver. Where, then, will you flee? And what, by seeing or saying, will you do to escape the day of visitation? For affliction will come to you from afar. The Jews indeed used to fight many times against the neighboring nations—I mean the Idumeans, the Elamites, the Moabites, the Syrians, and those who are called Philistines—and it happened that they were seen to be better than many and superior in battle. But now, he says, your affliction will come from afar; ^B that is, your struggle will not be against the Idumeans, the war will not be against the Moabites, nor even against any of the neighbors whom at times you have conquered, and, having gained the better vote in battle, you have bound the crown of renown upon yourselves; but now affliction will come to you from afar. It seems in this place that he implies either the incursion of the Assyrians or that of the Romans. For both these and those came from afar. But when the affliction is pressing upon you, where will you leave your glory, so as not to fall into captivity? For you have often, he says, broken the enemy, and you have resisted those invading, and preserved your cities and regions: but now where will you leave this glory? For you shall all fall, and the fortitude which has often availed against others shall in no way aid you. For what will you do so as not to fall into captivity? He calls the calamity brought upon them by the divine wrath and the war "captivity." ^C For when God brings punishments upon those who transgress, who shall avert them? Or by what manner shall those who are liable to penalty and chastisement be helped? None. For the divine David also chants, saying: "O Lord, rebuke me not in thy fury, nor chasten me in thy wrath." And again: "Thou art terrible, and who shall stand against thee? From that time is thy wrath." No one, therefore, shall ward off the divine wrath, or rather, it would not be shaken at all from the beginning, if one would choose to live rightly and lawfully and according to the decrees of his oracles. Repentance, as it were, softens it; nay, it would not be shaken at all, if one would choose to live rightly and lawfully and according to the decrees of his oracles. ^D VER. 5-10. In all these things his fury is not turned away, but his hand is still uplifted. Woe to the Assyrians, the rod of my fury, and wrath is in their hands. I will send my wrath against an unrighteous nation, and I will command my people to make spoil and take booty, and to trample the cities, and to lay them as dust. But he did not so think, and did not so suppose in his mind: but his mind shall change, so as to destroy not a few nations. And if they say to him: Thou art the only prince; and he shall say: I have not taken the region which is above Babylon, and Calane, where

the tower was built? Have I not taken Arabia, and Damascus, and Samaria? As I have taken these, so shall I take all the regions. ^B We shall find that God has everywhere had a care for His own glory. For He is indignant when He sees some choosing to despise His decrees, and making haste to esteem as nothing what seems good to Him, and shaking off as it were every restraint so as to incline toward the most extreme things. Yet He converts such people, almost dragging them forcibly to that which results in the greatest advantage to them. For thus, somewhere, the blessed David says: "With bit and bridle thou shalt constrain the jaws of those who do not draw near to thee. Many are the scourges of the sinner" (Ps. XXXI, 9, 10). He brings punishment upon those who do wrong, handing over His own wrath as a kind of rod into the hands of men who are not good, that they themselves might become the chastisers of those who have acted impiously. But it happens that those who are taken for this purpose think highly of themselves against those who are punished, and even more so against Him who delivered them. For they do not consider that they have prevailed over them by the permission of God, Who also brings the decree that they must suffer; they imagine, rather, that they have prevailed even when He wished to save. He therefore turns His wrath upon them, and with very good reason. And since He opposes the proud, He humbles their arrogance, and by subjecting them to the punishments that are fitting for them, He tries to ensure they are fully persuaded that it was not the work of their own strength, but of the promptings from Him that they prevailed over those who were punished. ^C The king of the Assyrians experienced something of this sort. For since he had captured Judea and had devastated its cities, he thought highly of himself, and indeed he imagined he would conquer the Holy Land, contrary to the will of God who presides over it and who had promised to save it. For this reason He says that His anger is not yet turned away, but that a "woe" is to be brought upon the Assyrians. And what is the cause of this? "For the rod," He says, "of my anger is given into their hands," meaning, obviously, from me, so that it might strike those who have acted impiously toward me. I commanded them to make spoils, and to take my people as prey, and to trample the cities, and to lay them into dust. For if I had not withdrawn the hand that would save, and had not stripped them of the help that is always familiar to them and given by me, they would never have been captured, having always been made superior to their enemies through me. ^D Yet the Assyrian himself did not think in this way, nor did he reason thus in his soul, but as far as his own mind was concerned, he would "change"—that is, he would destroy not a few nations. He thinks that no one can resist his forces, and that he will conquer them all without labor, no one opposing him, and that he will be the master of every nation, with no one to dispute him. And to one who has a soul that is so insatiable, and who always wishes to rule over all things, even if someone should approach him saying: "Art thou the only prince?"—that is, "Could you alone be able to rule over all the world?"—to these things, I say, he will emit a proud voice, saying: "Have I not taken the region which is above Babylon, and Calane, where the tower was built? Have I not taken Arabia, and Damascus, and Samaria?"

As I have taken these, so shall I take all the regions." ^A Calane, where the tower was built by the ancients, lies in a way in the uttermost parts of the East, beyond the region and land of Babylon. Just as, therefore, he says, I have set the boundaries of my kingdom from the very ends of the eastern land, and I have taken Damascus and Samaria, which were not at all helped by their gods, so shall I also seize the outer regions. It is necessary to remember that Rapsaces also, reporting the words from the king of the Assyrians, has called out to those sitting on the wall: "Thus says the king of the Assyrians: Let not Ezechias deceive you with words which will not be able to deliver you; and let not Ezechias say to you that God will deliver us." And after other things again: "Did the gods of the nations deliver their own region, each one from the hand of the king of the Assyrians? Where is the god of Amath and Arphath? And where is the god of the city of Sepharvaim? Were they able to deliver Samaria from my hand? Who among all the gods of these nations has delivered his land from my hand, that the Lord should deliver Israel from my hand?" He therefore declares that the king of the Assyrians, who thought magnificently of himself and wished to mock the divine majesty, is to be subjected to punishments. For even to us ourselves the disease of pride is to be held in hatred; but when one has been inflated with an audacious mind against the divine majesty itself, then, then woe, and indeed most justly, will be inflicted upon those wishing to do this.

^B VER. 11. *Ululate sculptilia in Jerusalem et in Samaria. Quemadmodum enim feci Samariae ejusque manufactis, sic faciam et Jerusalem, et idolis ejus.*

He has just now brought in the Assyrian thinking high and swollen thoughts. For since the cities of Samaria had been destroyed, and the gods falsely so-called did not succor them, nay, and were even burned together with the very shrines and altars; and since he had intended to subject to his own rule Jerusalem, or rather Judea, even against the will of its eternal champion and preserver, God, the prophetic discourse immediately adds for us the causes why Samaria itself was captured, as well as very many cities of Judea. Hence not without reason does it bring into memory that very kind of impiety, and commands them to howl and to weep; and as if stupefied by that abandonment of such singular piety, it proclaims: "Ululate, sculptilia in Jerusalem et in Samaria." For where it was fitting to worship the God of the universe with worthy honors, there He is despised, and is deprived of the honor congruous and due to Him. For inasmuch as veneration was attributed to carved images, the wretches have dared to say to wood: "Thou art my God," and to stone: "Thou hast begotten me." Therefore, as if stunned, the prophet makes this exclamation: namely, "Sculptilia in Jerusalem et in Samaria." Of such a kind is that which is also said by the voice of Jeremiah regarding Jerusalem: "What hath the beloved done in ^{C D}

my house, an abomination?" And he said somewhere by one of the prophets: "Ephraim is a watcher with God, the prophet is a crooked snare, on all his ways they have fixed madness in the house of the Lord." For having set up altars and manufactured things in Jerusalem, they have sacrificed to Baal and to the host of heaven. And those in Samaria have done these things as well. ^A In what manner, therefore, he says, I have done to Samaria and to its man-made things, so shall I do to Jerusalem and to its idols. For to those whose wicked deeds are kin, a penalty that is equal and alike should rightly follow. The Assyrian did indeed take Damascus and Samaria. But the path to this occurrence, and the pretext for his prevailing, was the fashioning of idols, both in Samaria and in Jerusalem. For this reason, those who are accustomed to doing such things have been required to pay the most fitting penalties. It is therefore a grave sin, and one that summons upon us everywhere the wrath of God, the fashioning of idols, even if one should perhaps construct this in his soul and mind. For these things lead one away from the love of God, they bewitch the soul, and they drag it toward things to which it ought not to be drawn.

And it shall be when the Lord has finished doing everything on Mount Sion and in Jerusalem, he will bring [it] upon the great mind, the ruler of the Assyrians, and upon the height of the glory of his eyes. ^B For he said: "By my strength I will do it, and by my wisdom and understanding, I will remove the boundaries of the nations, and I will plunder their strength; and I will shake inhabited cities, and I will take the whole inhabited world in my hand like a nest, and as one takes eggs that have been left, I will lift them up; and there is no one who shall escape me or contradict me."

He says that the Assyrian, who has puffed himself up with such arrogant pride, will not escape unpunished. For the Lord resists the proud, according to that which is written, and he demands an account of the words of those who suffer from the vice of arrogance, and he renders them wretched and cast down, so that they might know not to lift up their horn on high, according to what is written, and might rather be mindful of their own nature and infirmity. ^C For "When," he says, "the Lord has finished doing everything on Mount Sion and in Jerusalem," that is, when the things of his anger against them have come to an end, then he will bring the hand and the rod that strikes upon the great mind, the ruler of the Assyrians. He has called him a "great mind," not attributing this word to him as a praise, but rather as a reproach, as he is nothing other than pride, which is hateful to God. For he has thought nothing human, but rather he has meditated on things that surpass and exceed every mortal nature. He will therefore bring [it] upon the height of the glory of his eyes; by "eyes" in these passages, he means thoughts, or rather, reflections. ^D For those are, as I said, lofty and over-swollen. But God, being one who looks into the heart and the reins, and who examines secret things, demonstrates these things clearly to us as well, and says: "He said, in strength I will act, and by the wisdom of in-

intelligence I will take away the boundaries of the nations, and I will plunder their might, and I will shake inhabited cities." ^A Observe, therefore, how, as if he were in no need of help from above, he attributes the power to be able to do everything he might wish ^B to his own forces alone; and he thinks that he is so wise and adept in military matters that he can quite easily shift the boundaries of nations for himself, break down their strength, take it as plunder, and shake down cities—not cowardly or deserted ones, but even if they might have very many and countless inhabitants. And his arrogance does not stop with these things. For he boasts that he will take the entire inhabited world, and he determines and decides that he will do this very easily, promptly, and without a fight, as far as he imagines in his own mind. "I will grasp," he says, "the whole world as a nest, and I will gather it as eggs that have been left behind, and there is no one who will escape me, or say against me." O terrible arrogance, O foolish thoughts! He looks upon the whole world as the nest of a single sparrow, and he likens the inhabitants of all the earth to eggs left behind by a brooding bird, so that he might come upon them like a dragon and swallow them. And he hates those who contradict him, and he does not even expect that those who are besieged will come to speak with him. It is fitting to refer these things also to the person of Satan himself. For he is the father of pride, and he thinks that he will take possession of the world with no one to contradict him. But the matter does not end that way; rather, the outcome of events turns out for him to be far to the contrary. For Christ has spoken against him for our sake; and he did not only speak against him, but he also wrestled beyond the life of all, he overcame the destroyer, and he placed him beneath the feet of his saints. For he said to them: "Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy." ^C

Vers. 15, 16. "Shall the axe boast itself without him who cuts with it? Or shall the saw be lifted up without him who draws it? Similarly, if one were to lift a staff or a piece of wood, would it not be so? But the Lord of hosts will send into your honor ignominy, and into your glory a burning fire shall be kindled."

He openly refutes the Assyrian, who is rashly puffed up and ^D utterly ignorant that to destroy Samaria—and together with it to take other cities—was not the work of his own hand, but rather of a supreme decree, which brings upon those who have been intolerably impious, like a certain axe, or a staff, or a piece of wood. "Tell me," he says, "O most senseless of all, shall the axe boast without him who cuts with it?" For an axe, even if it is very well sharpened, would be suitable for being able to cut down the wood in the fields. Would one, therefore, praise the axe, as if it were able to do this without him who cuts with it? And what will a saw accomplish by itself, if someone does not draw it, and push it back again? And if anyone were to raise up any staff, or piece of wood, would it not be so? For the staff will lie upon the ground,

will be again? For the rod will lie upon the ground, and the wood too is cast away; but if anyone takes and applies them, then at that point, whatever is done ^A by them will certainly come into effect. Why then, he says, are you high-minded? Why do you lift up your brow? Do you think that by your own power you have succeeded in capturing cities, having been taken up in the rank of heaven by the hand that does those things, clearly the divine hand? The glory, therefore, is not yours, but rather God's, who used your cruelty as a kind of axe, or rod, or wood against those who had offended Him. You shall not, therefore, he says, be as you yourself have thought. Nor will you remain in the same tenor of glory, nor will you revel in such extravagant honors. You will not accomplish this by your strength, nor will you take away the boundaries of the nations by the wisdom of your understanding. You will not seize the inhabited world as if they were things left behind. But the Lord of Sabaoth will send dishonor in place of your honor, and against your glory a burning fire shall be kindled. By His honor, he means the army that operated under Him and was subject to Him. For it was in it that he boasted. Fire, therefore, will come against it, he says, and will burn up your honor. And he explains once more, and not at length, ^B how this also came to pass.

VERS. 17-19. *And the light of Israel shall be for fire, and it shall sanctify it with burning fire, and it shall eat the forest like grass. In that day the mountains and the hills and the woods shall be extinguished, and it shall devour from the soul even to the flesh. And he who flees shall be as one fleeing from a burning flame. And the survivors of them shall be a number, and a little child shall write them.*

The statement is very difficult to grasp, and the structure of the phrase renders the meaning most hard to understand. But we shall again explain the meaning hidden in the things set before us, having prefaced this: for Shalmaneser, the king of the Assyrians, took Samaria, and sent Rapsaces from Laches to Jerusalem; and he, having come and besieged it, addressed those on the walls with the things he had received from the one who sent him. To these he added blasphemies and insults against God, saying that God would not deliver Jerusalem from the hand of the king of the Assyrians. ^C King Hezekiah, having taken such things ill, offered prayers to God, saying: *Hear, O Lord, look, O Lord, and behold the words of Rapsaces, which the king of the Assyrians sent to reproach the living God.* And God promised them salvation. And indeed, the angel of the Lord went forth and slew in one night one hundred and eighty-five thousand from the camp of the Assyrians. When this had happened, the Assyrian was struck with an unbearable panic. And having heard the report that Sarsatha, king of the Ethiopians, had marched against his land with only a few who had been left behind, he went away a fugitive. This is what the prophetic word now interprets for us in riddles. For the God of all became a light to Israel, having ordained the law that has the power to enlighten. But this light, he says, which existed for Israel, will not be a light to the Assyrian armies, but will be for a destructive fire. ^D And that the God of all considers the Jerusalemites to be His own and consecrated people by the burning fire among

^A the nations, He will teach all men everywhere. ^A And this is what is meant by, "He shall sanctify him in a burning fire." For the term "to be sanctified" does not always imply participation in all holiness, but rather signifies that which has been consecrated to the glory of God. Of such a kind is that which He says to Moses: "Sanctify unto me every firstborn that opens the womb, the males to the Lord." And "sanctify" in these places, he says, is for "consecrate." Therefore, he says, the God of all will sanctify Israel—that is, He will show him to be consecrated and set apart to Himself—in a burning fire, through the fire that has been kindled against the Assyrians. By fire here he signifies a sudden destruction. For had He not considered this people His own, He would not have kindled against the adversaries such a fire as also consumed, like hay or wood, the multitude of the Assyrians. ^B "On that day," he says—that is, at that time—"the mountains shall be extinguished, and the hills, and the forest, and it shall consume both soul and flesh." With hills, mountains, and forests, he beautifully compares the very hosts of the Assyrians and their leaders, and those who tower above others like hills or mountains. But these indeed shall be extinguished—that is, those who were formerly hot and terrible will, even against their will, grow cold. For this is what "they shall be extinguished" means. For death shall consume them, not merely destroying souls and bodies, for it is clear to everyone that souls did not perish together with the bodies; rather, by this he indicates the force of the wrath. But, he says, "there shall be one who flees, as one fleeing from a burning flame, and those who are left of them shall be a number, and a child shall write them." For very few indeed, as I said, ^C as if leaping away from a burning flame, barely escaped with the king. And he says they are so few in number that the mind of a child, being still an infant, can grasp and describe or measure them. For the tradition of the Hebrews holds that only ten remained, the number of those who, together with Rabsaces, reported to the king of the Assyrians what had occurred. These are the wages of his pride. This type is useful to us also. For if one wishes to escape the divine wrath and not be ensnared by the ills sent by God, let him take great heed not to fall into the diseases that are similar and equal to their perversity.

VERS. 20, 21. "And it shall be in that day, the remnant of Israel shall no longer trust, and those who have escaped of Jacob, in those who do them injury, but they shall trust in the Holy God of Israel ^D in truth. And the remnant of Jacob shall trust upon God the mighty."

Because the fire has been kindled against the army of the Assyrians, two things, he says, will fittingly come to pass and exist: for that proud and wicked one will, whether he wishes it or not, cease to lift up that so grievous and hateful eyebrow. For he will depart in fear, and broken and weakened beyond expectation. And he will understand through this very event, even if

he does not wish it perhaps, that he has become an instrument of divine wrath against sinners, and that he did not by any means overcome them by his own power. And this will happen to the Barbarian. ^A To those, however, from Israel, the miracle will result in benefit, and those who remain in Samaria—that is, in Israel—and indeed those in Jacob—that is, again, the two tribes that are in Jerusalem—will desist from their ancient error and their cold and foolish notions. For they will no longer be trusting in those who have done them injury. ^B For since the enemy has fallen, destroyed by the hand of an angel, they have accurately recognized the all-powerful right hand of Him who saves, and they will make Him their savior and redeemer, and they will place all their hope in Him, spurning those who have injured them. It is necessary to say who these are and in what way they have done injury. For the God of all things had saved those descended from the blood of Israel, standing before them and shielding them, and showing them to be stronger than those who opposed them. But since they turned toward resistance—and some fashioned golden calves, while others [turned] to Chamos and Beelphegor and offered worship to them, and they even worshipped the host of heaven—God from time to time delivered those who resisted ^C to the nations round about and dwelling near the Jews, I mean the Idumeans and Moabites and those from Elam, and sometimes to those far off, I mean the Assyrians and the Egyptians. When war therefore was falling upon them and being proclaimed throughout the whole region, how was it not better for those from Israel to make satisfaction to the offended God who is all-powerful, and by a change for the better to ward off the wrath? For it was necessary to remove from their midst the profane multitude of idols and to proclaim Him alone as savior and redeemer. But the reason for this was completely of little account to them. ^D For they were sending embassies, sometimes to the Egyptians, sometimes to the Assyrians, and were calling for help from them. Hence, I think, God was even more greatly provoked against them. Therefore they did injury to Israel and to Jacob: on the one hand the falsely-named gods, by calling down divine wrath upon them and making them trust in themselves; and on the other hand, those who were selling their useless aid to them for money and gifts. When the multitude of the warriors therefore was consumed in one night, being now, he says, confident in God, and having known by that very experience the all-powerful right hand of Him who saved them, they will not place their hope in those who injured them, but in Him who is the Holy One of Israel in truth. And it will be that they will no longer take courage in wood and stones, but rather they will place their defense in Him who has always been their helper and shield-bearer, a weapon and an unbreakable wall.

Verses 22, 23. *And if the people of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant of them shall be saved. For the Lord, perfecting and cutting short the account in justice, because the Lord will make a finished account in all the world.*

That God counts as nothing those who have chosen to be disobedient and are much diseased in their stubbornness and intractability, yet saves [all] in mercy...

He shows us very clearly through these things. For the Assyrian came against the whole nation of the Jews; and his purpose was to spare no one, but to cut down the whole land root and branch, and to leave it devoid of men and empty of inhabitants. ^B And while it is true that he destroyed Samaria, he also captured with it countless cities of Judea; but God miraculously saved those who were in Jerusalem. What, then, is the rationale for this? Indeed, he says, because not all of Israel was defiled by impiety, but there were perchance some who were exceedingly grieved at those who acted impiously against God; therefore, a holy and most just decree was passed, bringing judgment only upon those who had sinned. And that this word is true, we shall see without difficulty, even from those things recorded by the prophet Ezekiel. For he said he saw certain ones of Israel worshipping the sun, and he heard God saying concerning them: “Hast thou seen, son of man, is it a light thing to the house of Israel to commit the iniquities which they have committed here? For they have filled the land with iniquity, and they have returned to provoke me to anger.” Then he says he saw a man wearing a long robe reaching to his feet and girded, to whom the God of all said: “Pass through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men who are groaning and suffering ^C over all the iniquities being done in the midst of it.” And to those who followed him, he said, while I was listening: “Go into the city after him, and strike, and let not your eyes spare, and have no pity. Slay to destruction the old man, and the young man, and the virgin, and infants and women. But approach not any one on whom the mark is.” Observe, then, how God seals with His own grace the pious and the genuine, who are sorely troubled and bewail the things for which others dare to offend Him. Therefore, he says, even if the multitude of the Israelites be numerous, so as to seem comparable to the sands upon the seashores, a remnant shall be saved. And this truly happened in the times of Hezekiah. For Samaria was destroyed, as I said, and very many cities of Judea were also taken. This has also taken place in the final times of the age, when the Only-Begotten shone upon us in the flesh. For then, indeed, did God make a word cut short in righteousness ^D throughout the whole world. For the law given through Moses comes through long detours, and indicates what is useful through a certain convoluted circuit, barely hinting through enigma and shadow at that which pertains to use and utility. But the saving and evangelical word for us is brief, and as it were cut short or abbreviated, possessing the truth naked, and making the way of life plain, not hindered by complexities, nor veiled by obscure proclamations. For the business of truth, as I said, is simple. Furthermore, a remnant of Israel has been saved, that is, those who by faith honored His appearing, while the other multitude turned away. For they acted with rage against the Savior and Lord of all Himself, just as they had formerly slaughtered the prophets, and those who were sent.

^A

Verses 24, 25. Therefore thus says the Lord Sabaoth: Do not fear, my people who dwell in Sion, the Assyrians, for with a rod He shall strike you. For I bring a blow upon you, that you may see the way of Egypt. For yet a little while, and the anger shall cease, and my wrath shall be against their counsel.

Since the God of all uses a holy judgment and a gentleness worthy of Himself, He saves His own, but delivers up those who have offended Him. “Do not fear,” He says, “my people who dwell in Sion, the Assyrians.” For while Rhapsaces reached Jerusalem, and besieged it, and threatened that he would burn and destroy everyone, he harmed them not at all. For he went away a fugitive, after his army collapsed beyond expectation and was destroyed in a single night; therefore, he killed with the sword those who dwelt in Sion. ^B But since he had once terrified them with his incursions and caused them some fear of suffering harm, he is seen almost as having raised a rod against them—and nothing more. “Do not, therefore,” He says, “be afraid of the Assyrians, for with a rod He shall strike you,” and He will inflict a blow that is brief, as if it were only for the sake of terror, with My permission that this also be done against you, “that you may see the way of Egypt”—that is, that you may learn how much you have harmed yourself by going away to Egypt and seeking help from there, while scorning God the author of salvation. ^C Now, when Ezechias was reigning, the Assyrian who besieged Jerusalem did not seek the help of the Egyptians. But Oseas, the son of Ela, is found to have done this while reigning over Israel. It is written thus in the fourth book of Kingdoms: “And Achaz slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David. And Ezechias his son reigned in his stead. In the twelfth year of Achaz king of Juda, Oseas son of Ela reigned in Samaria over Israel for nine years. And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel who were before him. Against him went up Salmanasar, king of the Assyrians, and Oseas became his servant; and he rendered to him tribute. And the king of the Assyrians found injustice in Oseas, because he had sent messengers to Segor king of Egypt; and he did not bring tribute to the king of the Assyrians in that year. And the king of the Assyrians besieged him, and bound him in a house of custody, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it for three years.” ^D It should be known, moreover, that Achaz, the father of Ezechias, when the king of the Damascenes was making war upon him, sought for himself help from the Assyrians, at which God was very greatly offended. “I bring, therefore,” He says, “a blow upon you, that you may see the way of Egypt; but yet a little while, and the anger shall cease, and my wrath shall be against their counsel.” For they have perished, as I said, by the divine wrath. And when they had determined to capture Jerusalem itself, they went astray from their goal, and their scheme was made vain, God turning the outcome in every way against expectation.

^A

VERS. 26. *And God will raise up against them according to the plague of Midian, in the place of affliction, and his fury shall be in the way that is by the sea, into the way that is toward Egypt.*

They shall fall, he says, by an anger brought upon them from above and from God; and there will be no need of labor at all for the Israelites. For they will emerge victorious, not by the shooting of bows, not by the strength of hands, not by using military experience, but rather by the hand of God, smiting and consuming the proud people; ^B just as, indeed, it happened that the Midianites suffered. For those who were gathered in dense throngs and as a whole nation assaulted almost the entire land of the Jews, and causing them unbearable dread, they forced them to migrate unwillingly from cities and villages, so that they might sit timidly on the mountain tops. But God came to their rescue then too, and saved them in their peril by the hand of Gideon, who was equipped with a very small auxiliary force; and he, by night and in the darkness, by shattering pitchers, displaying torches, and blowing trumpets, threw the ranks of the adversaries into confusion. From which it finally happened to the Midianites that, with their ranks dispersed, God striking and crushing them, and not distinguishing between friend and kinsman and enemy in the night, they were mingled and clashed with one another, and raged against one another, and perished miserably by the hands of their own men. ^C Therefore, he says, it shall be brought about according to the plague of Midian in the place of affliction. And he names the “place of affliction” or time, during which these things happened to occur.

But that God would all but lead the fury of the barbarian astray and turn it toward others, he indicates by saying: *And his fury shall be in the way that is by the sea, into the way that is toward Egypt.* For the king of the Assyrians, Tiglath-Pileser (this is the one who had conquered Samaria by force), imposed tribute on its inhabitants and exacted taxes from those who would reign in Israel in succeeding times. When matters had come to this, and Hoshea son of Elah had taken over Samaria, he did not send to the king of the Assyrians—as it is written—and when he understood that he was greatly offended, he hired a force of Egyptians for support, if the one who had imposed tribute and taxes wished to arm himself against them by right of war. Those who were then ruling the Egyptians promised him this very willingly. But the Assyrian, offended by these things, prepared an expedition with his whole army against the Egyptians, accusing their rulers of this crime, that Hoshea had recoiled and shaken off his yoke, having seized the pretext of insolence because they had promised support. ^D That God, therefore, will turn the fury of the barbarian, as I have just said, toward others, he has signified by saying: *And his fury shall be in the way that is by the sea, into the way that is toward Egypt.* For Jerusalem is adjacent to the sea, and they call the road leading to the land of the Egyptians—and indeed, to the part near the sea—the road by the sea even to this day.

^A Ver. 27. *And it shall be in that day, his fear shall be taken from thee, and his yoke from thy shoulder, and the yoke shall be destroyed from your shoulders.*

I said that the Assyrian, after having conquered, had imposed tributes upon those of Israel and wished to subject to his own scepter the people dedicated in a special way to the all-holy God, and for this reason had armed himself against the Egyptians. What then, he says, does this mean? Will he, having conquered the Egyptians, again put his own yoke upon those who have always kept their necks free and have acknowledged only the rule under God? By no means, he says. For *in that time his fear shall be taken from thee, and his yoke from thy shoulder.* For since that people, which was superior to numbering, had fallen and perished in one night, when the angel destroyed them, had not every fear been taken away? Or how was the yoke upon every ^B shoulder not only shaken off, but furthermore also destroyed—that is to say, had it not entirely perished? He seeks only to be saved and to run home, and no longer lifts up his first brow against Judea. For he was intending, as I said, to place it under the yokes of the Jews. But his hope was frustrated, and the outcome has turned out to be the exact opposite of what he expected. For it was saved sufficiently, not by being conquered by weapons, but rather by divine will and the hand of the angel, and that in an admirable way. For in order that it may appear that God knows all things, and that He has before His eyes, as God, the end of events even if they have not yet come to pass, He most manifesty and clearly declares the manner of his flight, the places and the lodgings, and that he will fill very many of the cities of Judea with fear, although the wretch will have fled ^C as a fugitive. For he says, *He will come to the city of Ai, and he will pass over to Mageddo.* These are the names of cities and villages, or rather, of places. *And in Machmas he shall put his baggage.* For the Hebrews say that the Assyrian, having arrived at Machmas, left behind all his baggage there, fearing the attack of the Israelites, since he thought they would rush out to pursue them. Then he says:

Ver. 29. *And he shall pass over the valley, and shall come to Ai. Fear shall take hold of Rama, the city of Saul. The daughter of Gallim shall flee; it shall be heard in Anathoth; Madebena is struck with astonishment, and the inhabitants of Gibbir.*

The tradition of the Hebrews has something to this effect. For they say that only [ten] survivors returned to him from Jerusalem and reported what had happened. Then he was led back to his ^D own country with very few, and he threw into turmoil all the villages and cities, and his passage, as if in flight and cowardice, was made intolerable. But wherever God assists and wishes to save, there is nothing that causes sorrow; rather, every hand of those who fight will grow weak, and their strength, and their experience of war, and their art of tactics will come to nothing.

Ver. 32. *Be comforted today in the way, so that it may remain in the hand. Be comforted, O mountain daughter of Sion, and the hills that are in Jerusalem.*

Since the structure of the prayer has been set in order, it is necessary to introduce an explanation of the meaning. O therefore, he says, you hills—this is meant...

that is, "O you who excel and stand above, and who rise above the others in Jerusalem." By this expression he signifies either the holy prophets or even the chorus of priests. "Comfort the mountain," that is, my daughter Zion. Comfort her, as it were, by touching her with your hand and laying hold of her head, so that she may remain in this way. And what way is this? Manifestly, in the confidence toward God. For He has promised that He will rescue and save her with ease, and that He will strike down ^B the Assyrian, and dispel his terror, and shatter the yoke, and deliver them from all tyranny. But, he says, these things shall be, provided they continue in this way, which is, clearly, in the confidence toward God. Therefore, comfort her today—that is, at a time fitting for such an action—and work to keep her mind steadfast. For the Truth cannot lie, nor will God speak falsehoods. For if He has promised anything, it will assuredly reach its fulfillment, if we cherish Him with faith and gladden with a sincere mind Him who promised salvation. In the same way, the saints also comfort us, saying: "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you," and, "The angel of the Lord shall encamp round about those who fear Him, and He shall deliver them." He Himself has also spoken through the voice of David concerning every man who believes and places his hope in Him: "Because he has hoped in Me, I will deliver him. He shall cry to Me, and I will hear him, I am with him in affliction, and I will rescue him, and will glorify him." For our Savior and Lord of us all, Jesus Christ, will glorify those who glorify Him—by whom and with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory to all ages. Amen.

BOOK TWO, FIVE TOMES.

BOOK SECOND, FIVE VOLUMES.

TOMUS I.

Cap. X. Vers. 33, 34. *Behold, the Sovereign Lord Sabaoth shall shake the glorious ones with power, and those who are elated in pride shall be crushed, and they shall be humbled, and the lofty shall fall by the sword, and Libanus shall fall with the high ones.*

In the book just completed, the discourse was concerning the Assyrians and the king of the Persians, at the time when he was warring against Judea and Jerusalem, and suddenly felt the severity of the divine wrath. For Israel was saved miraculously, having neither stretched the bow, nor seized the shield, nor with cavalry, nor with military art resisting his phalanx, nor by the warlike law of adversaries

^A but by the power and grace of God, did he obtain the mastery. For the angel of the Lord went out, it is said, and slew in one night from the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand. And this having become manifest, those who had expected to perish danced for joy, and rendered to the God who saved them songs of thanksgiving, saying: "At evening weeping shall tarry, and in the morning there shall be gladness." And in addition to these: "You have turned my mourning into joy for me; you have broken my sackcloth and girded me with gladness." But the bold and arrogant one, who was crying out that great and vain-glorious boast, "I shall seize the whole inhabited world by my hand, as a nest, and as eggs that have been abandoned I shall gather them up, and there is no one who will escape me, or say against me," was proved to be vainly thinking high thoughts for himself. For he fled with difficulty, and as a fugitive departed to his home, having abandoned Judea. ^B Wherefore also the God of all was saying: "Fear not, my people who dwell in Sion, because of the Assyrians." And the manner of the flight was recorded, he almost shaking cities and villages as he passed through. And again: "Fear shall take hold of the city of Rama of Saul." In interpreting these things, we have indeed fashioned a more historical narrative, but not one alien to the truth. For it is altogether necessary for the interpretation to be accommodated to the quality and force of the matters proposed. But since it is customary for the divinely inspired Scripture to make manifest, through things that are done quickly and historically, the mysteries at times, and to model the images of hidden meanings, we say that the inventor of ^C sin has played the tyrant against us; and he has jumped cruelly and bitterly upon the people of the Savior who have been sanctified—that is, through the Spirit—and purified by faith, and he has warred against the Church of God, inciting against her the most unholy phalanx of the spirits who obey his command; and perhaps he thought that he could, without any effort and labor, overthrow the venerable and most holy city of God, the intelligible Jerusalem. But he was caught having imagined in himself things which could by no means come to pass. For he was not able to besiege the holy city, nor to storm that most strong right hand. For who shall stand against God, who is powerful in all things? He has perished, therefore, ^D together with his attendant soldiers, and has been driven away from the flock of the devout, leaping upon them like an untamed beast; and he has been cast out from the tyranny he held over us. And this the Savior taught us, saying: "Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." For the passion of Christ has been the overthrow of death, and the defeat of the devil, and the destruction of sin, as he was lifted up upon the cross, and as he brought down and cast to the earth the pride of the devil. Appropriately, therefore, after this, does the God of all even now introduce the word concerning the birth of the Only-begotten in the flesh, and reveals the mystery beforehand by a prophetic voice, so that, when the events have reached their fulfillment, he might establish an indubitable faith for all. Hence he says: "Behold, the Lord"

^A God of Sabaoth will disturb the glorious with power." He is reforming those upon the earth unto the newness of the evangelical life of Christ, naturally having overturned the more ancient customs, and those things in shadows and types, which were no longer able to retain their force. But the very goal of his arrival into this world was this: he came to proclaim, even before others, to those of Israel, that the things which were laid down until the time of correction—that is, the law placed in formal letters—is for the future brought to an end, with the mind of those who believe being transformed, as I said, into a better and spiritual manner of life. For all things are new in Christ. But although it was their duty to obey him, and before all others the leaders of the Jewish synagogue, ^B and those who were not moderately haughty in their priestly honors, they on the contrary resisted childishly and petulantly, opposing impiously; and while always having on their lips the law promulgated by the most wise Moses, they wished as much as in them lay to make the mystery of the Incarnation of the Only-Begotten of no effect. But it was not in their power to accomplish this, and by setting their own will against the Savior and God of all, they wickedly perished in a wicked way, partly by attacking one another and plotting with the law of war, and partly by falling into the hands of the Romans, who even ^C burned the temple itself. "Behold, therefore, the Lord God of Sabaoth will disturb the glorious with power." He calls the one who disturbs "Lord of Sabaoth," striking terror into the hearers, so that no one might perhaps imagine that he will be weak, or that he has used empty threats, and ones which will not at all reach their end. For what of the things undertaken by the Lord of Sabaoth, that is, of hosts, will be ineffectual or incomplete? He says that he will crush those who are lifted up with pride. For they were truly high and lifted up with pride, who not only slaughtered the holy prophets, and said impudently to those who advised them most rightly: "Speak other things to us, and announce to us another error" (Isa. xxx, 10), but also sharpened their tongue against Christ himself, and lifted their horns on high, and, as it is written, spoke injustice against God (cf. Ps. lxxiii, 8). These, he says, will be humbled and will fall by the sword. For they perished, as I was saying, either when God, having inflicted most vehement wrath, consumed them as if with a ^D sharp sword, took away the insignia of the priesthood, and dismissed them from the office of governing the people, or he also speaks in another way of those who are to fall by the sword, namely that of their enemies, as I have just said. "But also Lebanon," he says, "will fall with the high ones." In these things, as is probable, he calls the temple "Lebanon," which was overturned and burned, and fell together with those who had an eye raised high. For the gatherings of the priests were truly fastidious, and Israel itself with them, which besmirched with disgrace the Savior and Redeemer of all. We will find also that Jerusalem itself is called Lebanon. For the prophet Zechariah says somewhere: "Open, O Lebanon, thy gates, and let fire devour thy cedars. Let the pine tree weep, for the cedar has fallen; wail" (Zachar. xi, 1).

-2). ^A Since he has compared Jerusalem to Mount Lebanon and named it as such, he must necessarily dwell upon the trope of the speech, appropriately calling the peoples and princes therein by the names of cedars and planted forests, which he commands to mourn because those who have destroyed them insult them as if they were mere woods. If, however, one wishes to uncover the hidden and recondite meaning and apply the force and sense of these words to Satan and the wicked powers subject to him, he would by no means depart from the proper aim. For the band of demons, cast out and profligate in every kind of malice, has been crushed and perished, and with them the apostate dragon himself, who is haughty and arrogant, and as it were likened to Mount Lebanon. For before the arrival of our Savior, he was conspicuous to all, and insolent, worshipped in every place, and he snatched the glory of the divinity unto himself. ^B

"And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise out of his root. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of strength, the spirit of knowledge and of godliness, and he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord" (Isa. xi, 1-3).

The prophet, foreknowing future events through light from above, makes a clear prediction. For in later times it was said to the blessed David by God, the ruler of all: "Of the fruit of thy loins I will set upon thy throne" (Ps. cxxxi, 11). ^C Since, however, He who knows all things was instilling the foreknowledge of future events into the holy prophets, this was also heralded by them, so that the mystery might be attested from every side and, when it had come to pass, it might be believed. He says, therefore, that a rod will come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower will rise; and after those who were famous for their strength have been troubled, and the haughty have been humbled, and Lebanon has fallen with them, he says that then the rod will sprout from the root of Jesse. But in the former parts, the power of the whole matter was shown more summarily. For we have learned in a few words what was destined to befall those from Israel who acted unholily against our Lord Jesus Christ. But now the narrative turns back to what is, as it were, the primary ^D principle of the matter—I mean, the becoming-man of the Only-begotten, and the birth according to the flesh which would occur from a woman by way of economy. He calls Christ, who is from the root of Jesse according to the flesh, a "rod," and moreover a "flower"; and through the rod, it seems to be indicated obliquely that He possesses royal dignity. For the rod is a token and sign of kingship. And indeed the divine David says to the Son Himself: "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a rod of rectitude is the rod of thy kingdom" (Ps. xliv, 7). Indeed, it can also be said that He is a rod because He holds all things and, in a right state,

^A causes that which is weak to stand fast, namely human nature, which is all but crushed, overwhelmed by troubles and afflictions, and in a way intoxicated. Therefore the blessed David sings, having taken upon himself the common person of all: "Thy rod and thy staff, they have comforted me" (Ps. xxii, 4). For God confirms the righteous, just as it is written; and He is called by the voice of the prophets a glorious staff, a rod of magnificence 37.

He is a rod also in another sense, because He is a good shepherd, laying down His life for His sheep 38. Therefore it was said to Him by one of the holy prophets: "Feed thy people with thy rod, the tribe of thine inheritance, the sheep of thy heritage" (Mic. vii, 14). But if it seems to anyone that, because He is the Judge and renders to each according to his works, He is on that account most rightfully named a rod, he will understand it well. For it was said to Him, when Israel raged against Him and impotently lapsed into disobedience: "Thou shalt feed them with a rod of iron, and shalt break them in pieces as a potter's vessel" (Ps. ii, 9). ^B

Thus the law of the all-wise Moses designates Him to us. For the rod of Aaron, which budded and was brought into the Holy of Holies, is also taken as a type of Christ. For it blossomed with walnuts; but we must speak of what the cause is, and what the meaning of these shadows is. For some touch upon natural science and declare that a rod of walnut, if it be placed at anyone's head, naturally induces wakefulness. And so, since Christ was about to taste death for everyone by the grace of God, as the blessed Paul says [Heb. ii, 9], and being as it were for a short time slumbering, was to be wakened again as if from sleep, and was to revive divinely, having trodden down death, on this account He is compared to the rod of walnuts. By this divine and intelligible rod Moses performed miracles while delivering Israel from Egyptian servitude; and for this reason he called it the rod of God. For it was to him a rod of power, as it is written. ^C

Therefore, when the prophet, enigmatically and more secretively hinting at the mystery of Christ, says that a rod for us springs forth from the root of Jesse, then indeed, then with the eyes of the mind one must behold Him, the only-begotten Word of God, He through whom are all things and in whom are all things, having been incarnate and made man, and having let Himself down into a voluntary emptying, and having undergone for our sake His birth according to the dispensation—I mean, that according to the flesh and from a woman—and saying together with the prophet: "O Lord, I have heard thy report, and was afraid; I considered thy works, and was amazed" (Hab. iii, 2). He is called a rod, therefore, for the reasons we have just mentioned. ^D

And again a flower: for human nature blossomed again in Him unto incorruption, and unto life, and unto the newness of an evangelical way of life; and a flower also in another way, because of the sweet fragrance that falls under the apprehension of the mind. "For I am," He says, "the flower of the field, the lily of the valleys" (Cant. ii, 1). It was indeed to us as it were a certain odor of the knowledge of God and the Father. Truly the divine Paul says in his epistle: "Thanks be to God, who always triumphs"

^A over us in Christ, and manifests the odor of his knowledge through us in every place; for we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to some an odor of death unto death, to others an odor of life unto life." He says that upon this rod, that is, the flower about to spring forth from the root of Jesse, the Spirit of God, being powerful in many virtues and strengths, would rest at the proper times. For he calls it the Spirit of counsel and understanding, of knowledge and wisdom, of piety and the fear of God. We say, however, that the proclamation of this prophetic art does not introduce to us an Jesus who is a mere man, and then one who has become spirit-bearing, and made a partaker of divine gifts in the order of those bestowed upon us, but rather it declares that the Word of ^B God assumed human nature, being full of every good thing insofar as it pertains to His own nature, and claiming as His own those things that belong to humanity. For it is proper to humanity to have nothing of the gifts from above of itself or as if from its own nature—for it has been said to it, "What do you have that you did not receive?"—but rather to be enriched externally and adventitiously, clearly from God, with things that transcend its own nature. It was necessary, therefore, that the only-begotten Word of God, having brought Himself down to emptying, should not refuse the humility of that emptying, which is thought to be mean, but rather that He should accept it for the sake of humanity, not for His own cause, but rather for ours, who struggle with the lack of all good things. ^C And so, even if it be said that He at some time receives the Spirit, although He Himself is the dispenser of the Holy Spirit, and gives not by measure, but distributes it to the worthy as if from His own fullness, let this receiving be understood in terms of the measures of the emptying; for thus shall we arrive directly at the truth. But take note of this: "For the Spirit of God," he says, "will rest upon him." For it was given in the beginning to the first-fruits of our race, that is, to Adam; but he became sluggish regarding the observance of the commandment given to him; he neglected the things commanded; he was brought down to sin; the Spirit did not find rest in men. "For all have turned aside; together they have become useless; there was no one who did good, there was not even one." Then the only-begotten Word of God became man, ^D although He did not cease to be God. And since, even though having become as we are, He was inviolable by sin, the Holy Spirit rested upon human nature, as in Him first, and as in the second first-fruits of the race, so that He might rest upon us too, and subsequently remain, dwelling with pleasure in the minds of those who believe. For this is how the divine John also says that he saw the Spirit descending from heaven upon Christ. For just as we have become co-heirs of the evils that befell the first-formed man, so shall we be partakers of those things that have come to be through the dispensation for the second first-fruits of our race, that is, Christ. That, however,

^B he did not work in Him a partial grace, as the Spirit is said to rest in the saints, but that the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in His most holy flesh as in His own temple, and not in one devoid of soul, but rather in an animate soul possessed of intelligence, the prophet will make clear, saying: "He shall fill Him with the spirit of the fear of God." And He has bestowed a manifold operation upon the one Spirit. For the Spirit of wisdom is not one thing, and that of understanding, or counsel, and fortitude, and the rest another; but just as the Word who is from God the Father is one, yet is named an energy and efficiency in many ways (for He is life, and light, and virtue), so also in the Holy Spirit you must understand: while He is indubitably one, He is understood in a manifold way, and so also He operates. For the most wise Paul, when he enumerated to us the species of diverse charisms, said: "All these, one and the same Spirit operates, dividing to each one individually, as He wills." ^C

VERS. 4, 5. "He shall not judge according to glory, nor shall He reprove according to speech, but He shall judge the humble with judgment, and shall reprove the humble of the earth, and He shall strike the earth with the word of His mouth, and with the spirit through His lips He shall slay the ungodly. And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and truth the garment of His sides."

Having most excellently foretold that Immanuel would be born in His own time, he proceeds very opportunely to those things by which He might become illustrious, namely, from the divine virtue that is in Him, and the splendor of His works. For it was necessary, it was necessary, I say, that those who have the prophetic predictions should diligently persuade beforehand those who were about to embrace faith in Him, who and what sort of person He is, and in what excellent ways He would come. For just as if someone among us, wishing to point out some man to those who do not know him, describes him with words from those things which he knows, and speaks concerning him, saying that he is not dense of hair, but moderately thin and sparse, and that he has a graceful eye, and a smiling gaze, and a wondrously slender and delicate nose, and goes through the other parts of the body: in an equal manner, I believe, the blessed prophet also, since his discourse is concerning the Word who took on humanity for our sake, for ^D this reason enumerates the signs of divine preeminence and excellence, and concerning Him says: "He shall not judge according to glory, nor shall He reprove according to speech." A thing worthy of God and consonant with the supreme nature. For to look not at the glory of men, but to exercise a judgment that is right and unmoved in every matter, and altogether irreprehensible, does this not befit the nature that is the queen of all things? For He does not know how to respect persons, nor does He deem worthy of honor or esteem anyone adorned with the trappings of riches, or elegance of dress, or authority, if he wishes to despoil others, but He altogether condemns the worker of iniquity and renders him detestable. As to how "He shall not reprove according to speech" ought to be understood, it is necessary to discourse. For most of us, who wish to praise,

praised assign honor, and even if some are not good in their ways, they bestow upon them a reward as if for flattery, so that they sometimes even court and observe them, and suppress reproofs. But no one would ever see the Lord and our God Jesus Christ doing this. For those who choose to speak smoothly, but are not yet truly good, He often transforms with sharp reproofs, so that they might choose to live more temperately. For there approached Him once some of the so-called Herodians—who were collectors of taxes—and laying an artful trap for Him, they said: "Teacher, we know that You teach the way of God in truth and You do not care about anyone; for You do not look upon the person of men. Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?" He, however, replied to this: "Why do you test me, you hypocrites? Show Me the coin of the tribute." ^B Observe, therefore, how He refutes those who fawn and repels those who flatter. He convicts them, and not by their own speech; for while they were expecting to be praised—perhaps indulging in irony, yet practicing a clever and most glib elegance—He unexpectedly called them tempters and hypocrites. Thus, the judge will not judge according to outward appearance, that is, He will not be a respecter of persons, nor will He reprove according to speech. For He will not endure, he says, those who choose to think impious things while putting on a mask of elegance, as if for the sake of deception and guile. He says this ^C clearly: "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven." And again: "Many will say to Me on that day"—in that day of judgment, evidently—"Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and do many mighty works?" But then, He says, I will say to them: "Amen, I say to you, I never knew you." But what, then, does this judge, who is free from the acceptance of persons, do besides this? "He shall judge the humble with judgment," that is, He will not look down upon any of the humble, but will bring forth a right and blameless judgment concerning him. He will likewise convict the "humble of the earth." For just as He will not blush at the person of the rich man who wishes to gain more and plunder, but will render a just ^D judgment concerning the humble person, so, he says, if any one of those who are in a lowly position and in the brevity of life goes beyond the divine laws and is caught and constrained by accusations of injustice, he too, he says, shall be reproved. For it is written: "You shall not show mercy to a poor man in judgment." For just as the prominence of one who is in wealth and eminence and, indeed, in power will not exempt him from charges if he is convicted of some of the forbidden things, so it will not liberate one who is of lowly and humble status from being evil, nor will it exempt from the need to be punished him who is weighed down by poverty and who passes an abhorrent and thrice-wretched life. He adds, moreover, to these things other kinds of divine excellence, which He says in all

^A respects accompany the Savior of all, Christ, because He was not a mere man such as we are, but was, as I have said, the only-begotten Word of God incarnate and made man. What then will He do? He says: He shall smite the earth with the word of His mouth. And what earth, then? Most of all presumably that which He cursed. And it would be true to say this concerning all [earth]. For He cursed the whole earth, that is to say, human nature, when He said in Adam: "Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou return" (Gen. III, 19). For He cursed no less the world of the ungodly by drowning it with water. And furthermore He cursed Judea, since those who inhabited it acted insolently toward Him. For He said: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate" (Matth. XXIII, 37, 38). For in the words, "Your house is left unto you," the magnitude of the abandonment which came upon it is made manifest. And having been abandoned by Him, it was consumed by war, and fire, and by the hands of those who slaughtered its inhabitants.

There is also another sign besides this, and an accomplishment of supreme power: He will slay the ungodly with the spirit of His lips. For He rebuked the unclean spirits, and insofar as it concerned human nature, the voice was expressed by mouth and lips, but by the ineffable power of the Spirit the multitude of demons was shattered. ^B "And," he says, "righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins." For it is the same as if one were to say, He has no power or authority whatsoever in worldly matters, but rather a glory that is divine, and is, as it were, girded with righteousness and truth. Now a girdle is a sign of authority, and when he says that his reins are girded, it means nothing else but that He signifies that He will put on righteousness, and in addition to it, truth, just like a belt. It is likely, moreover, that he calls righteousness and truth the new and evangelical preaching, according to what was said to Him by the voice of the psalmist: "Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is truth" (Ps. CXVII, 142). For the law was a teacher of righteousness, but it did not remain for ever, as a better and more perfect one has been brought in—clearly that which is through Christ. And the law of old was not truth, but rather a type and a shadow. But Christ and His laws are purely and simply the truth. For He even said: "I am the truth" (Joan. XIV, 6). ^C

VERS. 6-9. "And the wolf shall feed together with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the bull and the lion shall feed together; and a little child shall lead them: and the ox and the bear shall feed together, and their young ones shall be together; and the lion and the ox shall eat straw together. And a little child shall put his hand on the den of asps, and on the nest of the young asps, and they shall not hurt, nor shall they be able to destroy any one on my holy mountain; for the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as much water covers the sea." ^D

^A To the things already said before, one may add this great and preeminent sign, and the marvelous effect of the coming of our Savior; and very reasonably so. For before the only-begotten Word of God became man like us, before He took hold of the seed of Abraham and was made like His brethren in all things, as it is written, the entire race on earth—I mean the human race—was divided into two nations: that of the Jews, and that of those who worshipped the creature instead of the Creator. And while God was known in Judea, a vast and boundless swarm of idols was worshipped by the others, and the honor due to the majesty of God was dispensed according to the whim of each. "For all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there was none who did good, there was not even one." ^B But the Jews, as if tamed by the pedagogy of the Law and disciplined by the ways of righteousness, cultivated a life worthy of human beings. But those others, that is, those who served lifeless idols and did not possess the guiding Law, were savage in their minds, wild and rapacious, addicted to greed, impetuous and prone to pleasures—and those most indecent—and most ready for anything among the foulest things. Of these, one was like a wolf, another like a leopard, by reason of having, so to speak, one's mind branded by the most numerous and varied differences of passions; and another, being unrestrained in his disposition, easily pursuing greed wherever he chose, spent his life likened to lions. But those who were nurtured in such wild habits and ways, with Christ transforming them into a most mild and holy life, abandoned their inherent cruelty; and they themselves cultivated a life becoming to humanity, that is, one joined with gentleness. For they have believed in Christ saying: ^C "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Therefore, together with faith they have gained both the putting away of their ancient cruelty, and the state of being good and gentle, and of living in common with the saints. For they have been named fellow-citizens of the saints and members of the household of God. This, I think, the prophetic word signifies to us in these things in various ways. For it says, "the wolf shall feed with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid," that is, through Christ the savage shall be joined with the mild, and those in no way holy with the holy and sacred. For insofar as Israel had been instructed by the Law and knew the ways of gentleness, it was mild and gentle, and at once holy, and like to a sheep or a goat; for both are sacred and clean animals, and furthermore have received from nature itself a disposition toward tameness. ^D But the wolf and the leopard, and indeed the lion, are naturally wild and incompatible with others; but in Christ even this has been accomplished. For they have been brought together with one another, Jews and Greeks, as if taking a common food, that is to say, the evangelical and apostolic preaching, and being subject to the one shepherd and prince of all, who knows how to pasture, as the prophet says, in good pastures and in a place

^A that is fertile. And the calf, he says, and the bull and the lion shall feed together. It seems that he calls the calf the newly budding and young people of those who have believed, that is to say, those who are infants in Christ; but by the bull perhaps Israel, as being of an older generation. For the bull is prior to the new-born calf in time. Or rather, by the calf he designates him who excels in knowledge and virtue. Such as is the saying that the small are to be blessed by the Lord along with the great, and the elders along with the younger, according to the voice of the Psalmist. Now the most wise John also knows of such an age of mind and soul. He writes, therefore, both to fathers and to children, and in addition to this, to young men, likening, I think, the measure of each person’s mind, that is, of understanding and knowledge of God, to the ages of their bodies. They shall therefore be pastured, he says, together and in the same place: the calf, and the bull, and the lion. And again, he usefully connects the lion ^B with the calf and the bull, so that you may again enigmatically and obscurely understand that those who are justified by faith, and have come under the scepter of our Savior Christ, who is Savior of us all, are not only from the clean and the holy ones—that is, from the gentle and the meek, who have been tamed by the law—but also indeed from the wild, that is manifestly from the Gentiles, since our Savior Christ joins them into a concord of souls, and transmits the good that comes from this even to the children of the children, that is, to those born from them. For the peace of Christ extends even hither among us, and the good that comes from concord of soul and unity of faith. This, I think, is what he indicates by adding, that their young shall be together, and the lion and the ox shall graze on chaff ^C together, he says. Observe that he says not that the tame nature passes over into food used by the wild, but that the wild passes over into the nourishment of the tame. For bears and lions are confessedly carnivorous; but the ox and the calf, or a kid, are not; rather, such animals are herbivorous. But he says that they shall depart from their accustomed and usual ways, and the wild ones shall pass over to the food of the tame, and shall eat chaff. And this pasturing may be a type of teachings. It is therefore to be understood that, before faith in Christ, the nations had wicked teachers, who set before them a bestial type of learning and persuaded them to honor the works of corruption and perdition. But when they were called to the knowledge of Him who is truly God, they at once retreated from their former error and from the doctrines in which they had been nurtured and educated, ^D and joined with the Israelites in seeking the flourishing and delight-affluent pasture of evangelical instructions. Moreover, he says, a little child shall lead them, that is, they shall be subject to teachers and formers of children who are not endowed with a bitter mind and addicted to vices, but rather are simple, and infants in malice, but wise in spirit, such as Christians altogether are, having the divine treasure in earthen vessels, and endowed with a heart free from perversity and wickedness, and in no respect inferior to new-born children. For our Savior Himself says that such are worthy of the kingdom of heaven: "Suffer the children," He says, "and forbid them not to come to Me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." But as to the fact that, although they are most innocent...

and of a most simple mind, they are to be impregnable, unassailable, and superior to all terrors, He indicates this by saying: "And a little child shall put his hand into the holes of asps, and into the den of the offspring of asps, and they shall not hurt, nor shall they be able to destroy any one in My holy mountain." By "holes and dens of asps," I believe He refers to the evil throngs of demons, or the dens and lurking-places of the impious heretics—for I am reluctant to call them churches—into which those who are infants in Christ often put their hands, yet they overcome them easily, being harmed in no way at all. For Christ defends them, represses the bites of their sinister perversity, and renders their venom ineffectual. For "they shall not be able," He says, "to destroy anyone in My holy mountain." He calls the Church the holy mountain, because it is stationed on a high pinnacle of glory, and because of the sublimity of the dogmas within it. For there is nothing humble among us. We are not accustomed to offer worship to the creature above the Creator, nor do we depose the Maker of all, God the Word, from His due glory, nor do we count Him among the creatures. He then says that the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord, being as full of religion toward Him as the spacious and wide sea is covered with its waters. That this is true can be perceived and understood by anyone. For where, and among whom, is Christ not named? And what race of men does not submit to Him? For every knee shall bend to Him, and every tongue shall confess to Him, as it is written: "That the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father." ^C

VERS. 10. *And it shall be in that day, the root of Jesse, and he who rises up to rule over the nations, in Him shall the nations hope, and His rest shall be honor.*

The intelligence of those things which were said obscurely gradually shines forth, and what He spoke through riddles, He here explains most excellently to attentive listeners. For how the wolf will pasture with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the bull and the lion shall eat straw together, and when these things will truly happen, and who those are who, once cruel, will later turn out to be tame and gentle, and how they will be mingled with the peaceful and holy, feeding under the one supreme Shepherd of all—this He declares clearly and openly when He says: "And it shall be the root of Jesse." And what will be, and in whom? "So that he may rule," He says, "over the nations, and be a hope for those who have no hope," that is, for the nations themselves, to whom the most wise Paul writes, saying: "Therefore remember that you, the nations, who were called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision in the flesh, made by hands, that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from Israel, and strangers to the covenants, ^D and having no hope of the promise...

and without God in this world. But now you who sometimes were far off are made near by the blood of Christ. ^B But even if they were without hope, and worshipped not the true God according to the world (for they fell down before the works of their own hands), yet called by faith to the knowledge of Christ, and placed under Him, they have obtained God who is by nature and in truth God, and have become partakers of the hope of the saints. "And His rest," He says, "shall be honor." You may understand what is said in two ways. For if anyone were to choose to indicate by this rest the death of Christ in the flesh, which He voluntarily endured for us—not as one suffering death (for He was Life by nature), but as though causing His flesh to rest for a time—this matter was nothing other than honor. For the Savior and our Lord Jesus Christ, of all, was glorified when He had undergone slaughter for the world, and had voluntarily sustained death for the life of all. ^C And indeed He said to the Father in heaven, when He was about to go to the precious cross: "Father, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee"; and again: "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him." For as far as concerned the madness of those who crucified Him, and their impious and cruel attempt, the passion cast upon Him stain and ignominy; for they thought, perhaps, that He had suffered against His will. But when He rose again, having despoiled hell, and by this very thing showing Himself superior to death, we shall find that the outcome of the event resulted in honor and glory to Him. "And His rest shall be honor" in this way, He says. ^D But if anyone should wish to approach the contemplations in another way, he will receive the meaning of what has been said thus: For Christ shall not be to the nations for hope alone, but shall be manifested at the set course of times, that is, He shall arise not only to rule over them, but shall also grant them rest, which shall be for them for glory and honor. For the mind of the saints is a dwelling-place pleasing to Him, and He lodges with those who are worthy, and rests with the holy souls of those who worship Him; and to those who have obtained this, it is an honor and a glory. For what can be compared in terms of nobility and glory to having God lodging and dwelling within one’s heart? "And His rest shall be honor" in us in this way also, if only we are willing: "For if anyone," He says, "hears my word, my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."

VERS. 11. "And it shall be in that day, the Lord shall extend His hand to be jealous for the remnant of the people, which shall be left from the Assyrians, and from Egypt, and from Babylonia, and from Ethiopia, and from the rising of the sun, and from Arabia."

By "day" in this passage, the prophet designates the time when the presence of Christ took place, and...

the mystery of the Economy of the Only-begotten in the flesh was manifested. ^A Then, indeed, he says—then the Lord will show His hand; that is, there shall be a great demonstration of power. And this not in vain, but in order to provoke to emulation the remnant of the people that were left, if any should be left by the Assyrians, he says, and by the other nations. I believe, however, that I ought to broaden the force of what has been said, and make it clearer. For in former times, the Jewish nation had been harassed not a little by those who ravaged it—on one hand by the Assyrians and Elamites, and on the other by those who came from Egypt, Babylon, from the rising of the sun, and from Arabia. But after this, when Christ had shone forth, the omnipotent hand and the all-working right hand of God and the Father manifested itself through miracles, and hastened to assure those from Israel ^B that He was truly God, and truly the Son of God. For what was there among the things greatly wondered at that was not accomplished among them? All things were divine and beyond common opinion, holding a clear and most evident demonstration of the highest power. Therefore, at that time, he says, the Lord will proceed to show His hand, to provoke Israel to emulation: namely, not so that Christ should come only to the nations, but that they too might have hope in Him, and be subject to Him, and make Him their prince and leader—the prince and teacher who became man for this very reason. And so He said through the voice of David: "But I have been constituted king by Him upon Sion, His holy mountain, declaring the commandment of the Lord." For Christ came, saying that He was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And indeed, He preached to them first, and commanded the holy apostles: ^C "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But since the wretched men, out of exceeding madness, persisted in insulting with their disobedience Him who came for this purpose, He subsequently transferred Himself to the Gentiles, and the last have become first, and the first last. Hence also the prophet now, inasmuch as he is a man filled with the Spirit and enriched with knowledge of future things by a torch shining from above, mentions the nations first, and then after them Israel, as one having been cast behind those who were sanctified through faith, and placed in the background and among the leftovers, just as it is written. ^D Verse 12. "And He shall lift up a sign to the nations, and shall gather the lost of Israel, and He shall gather the dispersed of Judah from the four wings of the earth. And the jealousy of Ephraim shall be taken away, and the enemies of Judah shall perish. Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not afflict Ephraim."

The prophet wondrously brings his discourse to a conclusion with these words. For he takes that which happened historically to describe by way of image a thing perceived by the mind. I think it necessary, as far as possible, to describe this clearly. For the kingdom of Solomon was succeeded by his son, who was cast behind those who were sanctified through faith, as it is written.

split into discord; and the ten tribes, together with half the tribe of Ephraim, migrated to Samaria, while the tribe of Judah and half the tribe of Manasseh remained in Jerusalem. ^A And monarchs reigned over them at different times—over those in Jerusalem, those from the tribe of Judah; and over those in Samaria, those from the tribe of Ephraim—and much rivalry burned between the parties, with frequent wars and uprisings against one another, as is clearly described in the books of the Kingdoms. But when the Chaldeans and the kings of Babylon of Persia had laid waste, so to speak, almost the entire land of Judea, they led away captive into their own land both Israel and Judah—that is, both those who dwelt in Samaria and those who dwelt in Jerusalem. ^B Afterward, having been freed from captivity, they returned again to their own country and dwelt no longer separately and dividedly, but all of them in Jerusalem; and they ceased to anoint kings and princes for themselves by turns, and to afflict and envy one another as before. For at that time they were subject to one, Zorobabel son of Salathiel, who was of the tribe of Judah, and indeed also to Jesus son of Josedech, who flourished in the priesthood.

And this is the historical account concerning these matters. But the aim and scope of the prophet was, by means of more evident occurrences and those things which happened in ancient times, to set forth the illustrious achievements of the coming of our Savior. ^C For when the sign—that is, the precious cross—had been raised and exhibited to the nations and peoples throughout the whole inhabited world, there came about the release of those who were held in captivity (it being understood that this is the intelligible captivity), a gathering toward unanimity, and a zeal for harmony and unity of faith among those who had been divided of old. Being yoked to many unholy tyrants (for they had served unclean spirits), they shook off their yoke and flocked very eagerly to the intelligible Sion, that is, Jerusalem—namely, the Church—and became subject to one king, that is, Christ, of whom Zerubbabel, who led Israel back from captivity, acted as a type, with Jesus the great priest being with him, so that in him might be understood Christ, who is at once king and high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and become higher than the heavens, as the divine Paul saith. ^D That the sign of Christ, that is, the precious cross, has become the cause of those throughout the whole earth being brought into unity of faith and thus being reconciled through it to the most holy Father, might be rendered clear and perspicuous through the things which the divine John the Evangelist has written. For he introduced that accursed Caiaphas in the council saying, "You know nothing at all, nor do you deliberate that it is advantageous for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish." And he added to these very things, "But this he did not say of his own accord, but being high priest of that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation

alone, but that he might also gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad." ^A For Christ has become our peace, according to the Scriptures, he who broke down the middle wall of the partition, and abolished the law of commandments in ordinances, and created the two peoples into one new man; and reconciling both to God and the Father through himself, and destroying the enmity between them, so that all, in one spirit and in one body, being united to one another and fellow-members, and manifestly in Christ himself, might bear fruit unto him, the righteousness which is above the law, and the purity of the evangelical life. Therefore, if you come from these things which were historically done to spiritual theory and contemplation, you will understand the mystery of Christ very well. ^B

"And they shall fly in the ships of the aliens, they shall plunder the sea together, and they shall lay hands first upon those from the rising of the sun, and Idumea, and upon Moab; but the sons of Ammon shall be the first to obey."

In what manner those from the four wings of the earth, that is, all the nations, were to be brought together into the unity which is in Christ through faith, and into the bond of holy love, he declares again in these words. For before the precious cross, Christ said to the holy apostles, "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." ^C For as he himself said again, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But when, having reached the height and pinnacle of all impiety, they had raved against Christ, and had slain the author of life, and denied the holy and just one, then indeed, then having trampled upon death, and having been raised from the dead, he commanded his holy disciples, "Go therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." But after he had ascended into heaven, and then the power from on high had descended upon them, they no longer remained only in Judea evangelizing Jesus, but some went to the East and preached in its cities; others occupied the West, and others imparted the words of instruction freely to the neighboring nations; ^D and it was somehow necessary that those who were about to travel throughout the whole world under the sun should also use a ship. And indeed, the divine Paul asserts that he had spent a night and a day in the deep of the sea. And he who wrote the Acts of the holy apostles says that he and those with him boarded an Alexandrian ship having the sign of the Dioscuri. For it was a custom, especially in Alexandrian ships, to have such paintings at the prow on the right and on the left. And since it is likely, as idolatry was prevalent at that time, that the Dioscuri were inscribed on the ship, hence the owner of the ship was an alien, that is, an idolater.

^A Therefore, "they shall be spread forth in the ships of the aliens," he says, which is to say, they shall cross over swiftly, like birds, and shall plunder the sea. It is a custom of Holy Scripture to call the western parts the sea, because that sea is very large and broad in those regions. Indeed, the blessed David, ^B declaring the God of all to be the Architect of the whole world, says, "The north and the sea thou didst create." That the divine Peter and the most wise Paul himself, having occupied the western parts, proclaimed Christ, there is no one who can doubt. "They shall plunder," he says, "also those who are from the sunrise, and they shall cast their hands upon Idumea and upon the Moabites." The sons of Ammon shall be the first to obey. For after the region of the Jews, all the adjoining neighbors, and even those further away, were full of idolaters, differing in sense and opinion from those who know the one God both by nature and in truth. The Idumeans then, and the Moabites, and the sons of Ammon, were indeed neighbors to the Israelites and inhabited the bordering region, yet they dissented and proved themselves grave and most bellicose enemies; they worshipped the stars, and out of complete piety they pursued Lucifer, ^C and named him the prince and high priest of the other gods. Into their mind and heart, however, there first shone the true Lucifer, and the light of the day dawned upon their understanding. For having cast off that ancient mist, and having already repudiated the worship of the creature, they adored Christ, and they constituted those once most bitter enemies—I mean those of Israel—as mystagogues, and ministers of sacred rites, and guides of the way leading into salvation.

VERS. 15, 16. And the Lord shall devastate the sea of Egypt, and shall move his hand over the river with a violent wind, and shall strike seven valleys, so that one may pass through in shoes. And there shall be a passage for my people left in Egypt, and it shall be for Israel as the day when he went out from the land of Egypt.

The inventor and father of sin, having usurped power and tyranny over all inhabitants of the world, and having seduced man outside the ^D enclosures of truth, rendered him a worshipper of the herd of demons and subjected him to his own yoke. The Egyptians, truly, were more superstitious than the others and proved themselves most keen and energetic in this. For there were shrines and altars everywhere throughout the region, and countless images, and a swarm of statues, and these multiform within the sanctuaries. For they worshipped birds and fishes, the goat and the sheep, and a calf was held in honor by them. Yet God visited them in such a state, and together with others called them to the light and to the knowledge of the truth. For the Gospel of Christ was preached among them, both by Mark the blessed evangelist, and by others after him in their own times, partly those who came from the region of the Hebrews, and partly by those who had believed, as guides of the mysteries, and

^A teachers and masters, were revealed in due time. In what manner this was brought to pass is necessary to explain, by broadening the account of the history. For before the Roman power prevailed over all, when each country had its own leader or king, there was a great difference among the nations; this was because the difference in religion fueled enmity between them, and because it was permitted for those who wished to plunder from another land, with no one to censure them. There was therefore a great lack of intercourse between the nations, and it was not without punishment for some to be found within the territory of others. But when the Roman Empire prevailed over all, and they became subject to one leader and were taught to live according to the laws issued by them, the intercourse among the nations thereafter became safe, and great gentleness prevailed. Then, indeed, then a passage, or way, was opened for those evangelizing Jesus, so that they were also able to pass through Egypt.

The prophetic discourse interprets for us in what manner Augustus Caesar captured Egypt. For the river of Egypt, being broad and great, and overflowing at certain times, moves through seven mouths but bestows its stream on the neighboring land; yet, having grown in the parts belonging to marsh-land dwellers, it creates long and wide lakes and floods their entire land, so that the grain-bearing region even becomes navigable. When, therefore, Augustus Caesar, having conquered the land of the Jews, came into the region of the Egyptians, its inhabitants thought that even if they chose to remain quiet, and to abstain from war and arms, the country could not be captured by him because it was surrounded by lakes and rivers. But after it pleased God, the ruler of all, to submit this land also, along with others, to the Roman scepters, He drove the water of the river toward the sea with a most violent south wind, and made the whole region level and passable, so that those who wished to cross the lakes and also the channels themselves—that is, the seven mouths of the river—would not, so to speak, even need to loosen the strap of their sandal.

God, therefore, making the passage smooth for the Roman army, the strength of the Egyptians was broken. The prophet again teaches us this, saying: "Thus says the Lord Sabaoth, And the Egyptians shall drink the water that is by the sea; but the river shall fail and be dried up. And the rivers, and the canals of the river, shall fail; and every collection of water shall be dried up. And every marsh of reed and papyrus, and all the green ^B herb around the river, and everything that is sown by the river, shall be dried up by the wind’s corruption." He will therefore, he says, lay waste the sea of Egypt. It is the custom of divine Scripture to call the lakes themselves seas. "And He shall stretch forth His hand over the river with a violent wind." For we say that the introduction of a most violent wind upon the waters is the work of a hand, that is, of divine power. "He struck the seven channels," that is, the mouths, "and caused them to be so dry that they crossed them with their sandals." Then, he says, then shall there be a passage in Egypt for my forsaken people. And what kind, and who? Those who believed in Israel, of whom ^C

also the prophet Isaiah says: "If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved." The first-fruits, as it were, of the remnant were the blessed disciples and those who were with them, of whom the divine Mark was one. "And it shall be," he says, "as in the day when they came out of the land of Egypt"; that is to say, those who were of the blood of Israel, who proclaimed the divine and heavenly Word to those in Egypt, shall rejoice exceedingly, just as indeed they rejoiced on that day when they came out of the land of Egypt. For, on the one hand, they themselves were again delivered from the slavery in Egypt. But as ministers of the divine proclamations and true and genuine guardians of the evangelical prophecies, they were not setting the Egyptians free from carnal slavery, but having snatched them from the hand of the devil, they rendered them free. And while the most ^B wise Moses acted as mediator, the river was transformed into blood; now, however, water has become life-saving for them in Christ. For we have been saved through holy baptism. Those who entered the Red Sea pursuing Israel were suffocated then; but by the holy apostles they have been taught to swim out from the waves of this life, and to struggle forth bravely from worldly floods. A heavy and most violent hail fell upon them; but when they were initiated by the mystical word of the dispensation in the flesh, the divine rain descended into their mind, rendering them fruitful. A deep and three-day darkness was brought on; but they have been in the light. They have mourned for the first-born; but the First-born from the dead, that is, Christ, has saved them from death and corruption. Therefore, it was consistent in all these things that the Israelites should rejoice, just as when they themselves had gone forth out of the land of Egypt.

VERS. 1, 2. "And you shall say in that day: I will bless you, O Lord, because you were angry with me, and have turned away your anger from me, and have had mercy on me. Behold my God, my Savior, the Lord. I will trust in him, and I shall be saved in him, and I will not fear, because the Lord is my glory and my praise, and he has become my salvation."

Having said that the Gentiles were saved through faith in Christ and had come to the knowledge of the truth—who were indeed more superstitious than others—he ^C rightly introduces them giving thanks. For that they had been delivered entirely from the earlier ignorance with which they labored at first, and finally had been converted so as to understand those things which alone are pleasing to the God who saves, would be a manifest proof, since they are urged to sing of the glory of God and to offer him, as it were, a spiritual sacrifice of thanksgiving. Therefore, at that time, he says, when there is a passage in Egypt—that is, to those heralds of the evangelical and saving word—"You," he says, "who once were involved in deep darkness and were a great idolater and were troubled by the deceits of the demons, when with the eyes of your soul you have seen the light..."

when you have beheld the glory of him who called you, and have been brought to an awareness of from what things to what things you have been transferred; and that you, who were bound to a bitter tyrant, have become free from his greed, and have fled to the protection of God, who is powerful in all things and saves those who are lost: ^A then, truly, then, rejoicing in yourself very greatly and very deservedly, you will cry out, saying: 'I will bless you, O Lord, for you were angry with me, and you turned away your wrath from me, and you had mercy on me.' They bring back offerings of thanks, and they kindle hymns of praise, not because they have succumbed to divine wrath, but because, having been such, they have received mercy. We say that the God of the universe is angry with those who speak such things—it is clear—namely, with idolaters. For what reason? The divine Paul will make it clear to us, writing: 'Claiming to be wise they became fools. And they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles.' For this reason, he says, 'God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct to do what should not be done.' For those who dishonored the divine glory, and attributed the preeminent beauty of the highest nature to such wretched creatures, how could they not very justly be subjected to the severities of divine wrath? ^B But since, he says, 'you turned away your wrath, you had mercy on me' (for I have been called to recognition through faith, not according to the works that we have done, as it is written, but according to his great mercy); for this reason, he says, being brought to an awareness of your magnificence, I will unceasingly offer you glory, and I will say: 'Behold my God, my Savior, the Lord; I will trust in him and I will be saved in him.' For formerly, falling down before woods and stones, and offering sacrifices to insensate statues, they prayed to be saved by them. But since they have known the true God, having thrust aside the falsely named, they point to him and him alone, saying: 'Behold my God, my Savior, the Lord.' Not in woods and stones, he says, will I trust any longer, but in him and him alone, and through him I will be saved. And even if the one who formerly defrauded and snatched into deception approaches again, tempting and warring, I will conquer, he says, because my glory and my praise is the Lord. Do you see how they have known that it is a saving thing to offer praise? ^C 'Sacrifice,' he says, 'to God a sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High.' And, 'Call upon me in the day of your trouble, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.'

'And you shall draw water with joy from the fountains of the Savior.'

The one who has called is generous; God, who saves, is ready to give in return, he does good to those who have recognized him, and he enriches with divine and spiritual gifts those who praise him. For observe how, while they were confessing, saying: 'Behold my God, my Savior, the Lord; I will trust in him,' he at once promises them both fountains and saving water. It was necessary

^A indeed, for those who had run from darkness to light and were called from the ignorance of the Greeks to the knowledge of Him who is God in truth, not to be deprived of the guidance and of the Word that exhilarates and is able to preserve them in piety. 'For man,' he says, 'shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.' ^B By water, therefore, he designates the life-giving Word of God; by fountains, the holy apostles and evangelists—and I would add the prophets themselves; by the 'Saving One,' Christ. You therefore, he says, who by your confessions of faith exhilarate me, the God by nature and of all, shall receive in return divine and spiritual joy, drawing for yourselves—from the fountains of the Savior, that is, Christ—the Word which has power to preserve and strengthen you in this. For He Himself established the holy apostles, concerning whom the blessed David also sings: 'The fountains of waters appeared, and the foundations of the world were uncovered.' For the fountains of waters are the wondrous disciples, who pour down upon the whole world beneath the heavens the words from above and through the Spirit. They are likewise the foundations of the world. For Christ is the elect Stone, who is also said to be placed by God and the Father as the foundations of Sion, that is, of the Church. For we lean upon Him and through faith are built up as a spiritual house into a holy temple, into a habitation of God in the spirit. And the stones after Him—that is, the foundations of the world—might very justly be named those who proclaim Him throughout the whole earth. For their writings support us and uphold us with the firmness and constancy of faith and truth. ^C

VERS. 4-6. And you shall say in that day, Hymn the Lord, call upon his name, announce among the nations his glorious works; remember that his name has been exalted. Sing unto the name of the Lord, for he has done exalted things; announce these things in all the earth. Exult and rejoice, you who dwell in Sion, for the Holy One of Israel is exalted in the midst of thee.

O wondrous and incredible thing! He who has just been initiated into the mysteries, then having approached the fountains of the Savior and drunk the life-giving stream, appears to have made so great a progression—unto the point, I mean, of being a faithful and genuine believer—that he at once demonstrates4 an apostolic ministry. And not only was he urged to glorify God himself, but he now commands all others also to do this, saying: 'Hymn the Lord, call upon his name.' And to whom he enjoins to call upon Him, he makes manifest by adding immediately: 'Announce among the nations his glorious works.' For let not the glory of the Savior, he says, be hidden; let His God-befitting power and authority be evident to all. ^D He has saved without holding grudges; He has overthrown the unconquerable tyranny of the devil and the demons; He has redeemed those who were deceived; He has set free those chained in captivity; He has brought good tidings to the blind, that they might receive their sight.

He has justified through faith, he has sanctified through the Spirit, he has rendered those who were once fugitives ^A sons of God, and those who were living an ignoble and accursed life. He has given assurance through actual events that he is by nature and in truth God. He has raised the dead, he has made clean those who were in leprosy. He has healed those suffering from infirmities by his nods; he has cut short the assaults of spirits; he has abated the savage sea with his countenance. Therefore, “Declare his glorious deeds among the nations, and keep in memory that his name has been magnified,” for he has done sublime things. For these achievements are truly beyond the capacity of man, nay, rather, they are beyond every wonder, and were magnificently performed by him. “Exult therefore and be glad, you who dwell in Sion,” that is, you who hold a firm faith in the Churches, “because the holy one of Israel is magnified in your midst.” For even if the holy one of Israel has become man, ^B and has come in the form of a servant economically for our sake, yet we have recognized, from the results and from the splendor of his works, that he has been exalted in a manner befitting God, and who he is by nature.

TOMUS II.

CAP. XIII. VERS. 1. The vision which Isaiah the son of Amos saw against Babylon.

This vision against Babylon—and indeed those that follow in order, against the Idumeans, and the Moabites, and moreover the Egyptians, and the rest—are set forth for the consolation of Israel. They have, however, a more historical explanation than what is signified; yet it is permitted to those who are more acute to convert ^C what has happened to the ancients, as if from a crude figure and image, gracefully toward a spiritual study; and as the discourse progresses, by interpreting individually even the things that were written, as far as is possible, it will make the narrative most clear to the readers. Now, as I judge, we must recur to the beginning of the matter and pre-explain the causes of the vision. For Israel, having been called through the all-wise Moses to the knowledge and worship of the God who is in truth, and having the law to direct them toward every marvelous thing, neglected the commandment given to them, and turned toward the doctrines and commandments of men, nay rather, having involved themselves in things still worse, they slipped into the pits of idolatry. Therefore, ^D the God of all cried out through every prophet against those who committed such things, and made a great outcry against him who bound himself to such impiety. He said therefore: “This people draws near to me; with their lips they honor me, but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching the doctrines, the commandments of men.” And again: “What has the beloved done in my house, even an abomination?” He calls the idol an abomination. And so, as they were turning gravely toward a foul sluggishness, and withdrawing their necks from the service of God, and raising up their own arrogant disposition against him, he delivered them from time to time—sometimes to those inhabiting the neighboring region, I mean the Idumeans, and indeed also the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Philistines, and at other times by inflicting a heavier blow upon them, the cruellest of mortals against them

I mean the Babylonians, who, having laid waste the entire land of the Judeans without resistance, carried off a multitude greater than they could number into their own country. ^A Yet that these things would happen, should they provoke the God of the universe to anger, the blessed prophets had foretold long ago. And they, although the things already foretold had reached their consummation, were nonetheless stubborn and disobedient, pursuing a detestable life, utterly estranged from the rule of the Law. Therefore, the God of the universe, with supreme wisdom, after the blow and the scourges and the events which from time to time came upon them from their enemies, makes a pre-announcement of things most sweet and capable of bringing delight. He promises that He will now prepare the return for those who have already been made captive, and will loosen the bonds of their misery, and will deliver those who had formerly conquered them into the hands of their enemies. For it was surely most fitting, that even if they had remained uncorrected by those former events, they might henceforth rejoice exceedingly in these later ones, and, being lifted up as if on wings ^B into the hope of the things desired, might hold in high esteem the worship most pleasing to God, and keep their mind fixed and immovable upon Him. Since, therefore, although there were many who at various times had devastated the land of the Judeans, yet the Chaldeans were more savage and wild than the rest, and especially those who reigned over Babylon at those times—against them, as it were first of all, the prophetic discourse leaps, and says:

Vers. 2. Lift up a standard on a mountain of the plain.

"I have been jealous for Jerusalem and for Sion with great jealousy, and I am angry with great anger against the nations that have conspired against them; for I was angered a little, but they have conspired against them in order to do evil." And regarding Babylon, He says: "I have delivered them into thy hands, but thou hast not granted them mercy." God delivered up the arrogant and insolent one, the mother and nurse of all depravity—I speak of Babylon—to Cyrus. And this may be made manifest by the fact that He Himself speaks through Isaiah as follows: "Thus saith the Lord to my anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I have taken hold of, to cause nations to listen before him, and the gates shall not be shut: I will go before thee, and level the mountains. I will shatter bronze doors, and I will break through iron bars." Having conquered, Cyrus released Israel from captivity, and commanded them to go home rejoicing, and furthermore to rebuild the divine temple themselves. And thus the prophet Jeremiah says: "The word which the Lord spoke regarding Babylon: Declare among the nations, and make it heard, and hide it not. Say: Babylon has been taken, Bel has been confounded; the fearless, the delicate one has been put to shame. Merodach has been delivered up, because a nation has come up against it from the north; he shall make its land a desolation, and there shall be no one dwelling in it, from man even to beast. In those days, and at that time, shall the children of Israel and the children of Judah come, walking together and weeping shall they go, seeking their God; they shall ask the way to Sion. For there they shall turn their faces, and they shall come, and flee for refuge unto the Lord. For an eternal covenant shall not be forgotten." And again: "For this reason, thus says the Lord: Behold, I will take vengeance upon the king of Babylon, and upon his land, just as I have taken vengeance upon the king of Assyria; and I will restore Israel to his pasture, and he shall feed in Carmel, and on Mount Ephraim, and in Gilead, and his soul shall be filled." ^C

VERS. 2, 3. On a level mountain lift up a sign, raise your voice to them, beckon with the hand, open, O rulers. I command, and I lead them. They have been sanctified, and I lead them along. Giants are coming to fulfill my wrath, rejoicing at the same time and exulting.

The blessed prophet, having a mind filled with the Holy Spirit and being placed on a watchtower so as to contemplate things as if they were described for him and placed before his eyes, almost exults, crying out to the Persians and the Medes as if they had already subjugated the Babylonians, so that they might raise high the symbol of victory—for this, I think, is the "sign"—and that they might raise their voice against the army of the Chaldeans, as though it were already falling and surrendering to them that ^D arrogant and renowned region, which the prophet Jeremiah called the "hammer of the whole earth," saying regarding the land of the Babylonians: "How is the hammer of the whole earth cut off and broken?" For every city and country is ruined, being struck in the manner

^A of a hammer by their greed. And I think he calls a plain "mountain," as being low and akin to a hillock. For they do not plant their signs—that is, the trophies, or the standard—on high-rising mountains, but on hills that are not too lofty, so that they might escape being placed in a location too high, and yet be most recognizable to the whole army. Lift up, therefore, he says, a sign, as those who are already victorious with God defending them. Lift up the voice—that is, raise a clamor against the phalanx of the enemies; do not be afraid. ^B For the hand of the Babylonians is admittedly terrible and invincible to all nations everywhere, and no one would blame those who fear it. But now, he says, do not fear, when God opposes His own wrath to their arrogance. "Call out with the hand." And what at length is this? It is perhaps a custom for military commanders to spur on with the hand and to encourage the most valiant with nods in order to incite them to make assaults against some, when the voice is too weak to lead to this in the midst of a great tumult. He therefore commands those who are set over the affairs to offer encouragements by means of hands and gestures to the armies under them, and to sharpen them to a certain invincible eagerness. ^C And he calls out again, "Open, O princes." For either he commands the Babylonians, as those who are already overcome, to open the gates and surrender the city that was once arrogant and insolent; or perhaps he signals the holy forces, shielding the Medes by the command of God, and making the difficult and steep places accessible for their horses. But to show the invincible hand of the combatants, he adds and says: "I instruct, and I lead them; they are sanctified, and I lead them." For it is almost as if he were saying: The multitude of the Median army did not come to you of its own accord, nor did the host of the Persians arrive by the sole movement of its own will, but I rather have sanctified them for this. And here, he says "sanctified" for "set apart," and as if "chosen" to carry out the things which I have determined against you. ^D Therefore they come, he says, whom I lead, like some giants to fulfill my fury, rejoicing at once and insulting: rejoicing indeed as those who trust that they will gain the victory; insulting, however, as those who spit upon them as very cowardly and men of no value. For such is always, in some way, the barbarian spirit, leaning toward the hope of victory, and always exalting itself against the adversaries and casting them down. For wrath especially leads them to this, and generates in them such an ardor of courage that they despise every danger and fear.

VERS. 4, 5. The voice of many nations on the mountains, like many nations: the voice of kings and nations gathered together. The Lord of Sabaoth has commanded a warlike nation to come from a far land, from the end of the foundation of heaven, the Lord and his warriors to destroy the whole world. As the Medes are now crying out and raising a voice suitable for wars, as a horse neighing, and per

^Asuaded by some to turn to flight, while the sound of a great and confused multitude is dispersed, "A voice," he says, "of many nations on the mountains, like to many nations." It is not, he says, such a voice that one might surmise those who cried out are few, but rather one might consider the multitude of those shouting to be beyond number. The Word declares together with what follows that those who have been appointed to lead the way have been struck with terror. He insists that it is the voice of nations and kings. And so, those who have raised the shouts would be the boundless multitude of the Babylonians, and with them the more prominent ones, seeing the city already captured—or rather the Persians and Medes crying out as they take it. And I believe he also calls them warriors, considering them a nation coming from a land far away, "from the extremity of the foundation of heaven," that is, from the very borders of Media and the innermost parts of the land in the far north. Since they undertook this incursion by the counsel and will of God, he calls these warriors the Lord's own, and says they have been brought to destroy the whole world—not, indeed, the entire world which we inhabit; for we shall not find that this was done by Cyrus and his company. Rather, he calls the land of the Chaldeans the "world," inasmuch as it is very large and immensely wide, and, as it were, rivals the world in the multitude of its inhabitants. ^B "Howl, for the day of the Lord is near, and destruction will come from God. Therefore every hand shall be weakened, and every soul of man shall be afraid. And the ambassadors shall be troubled, and pangs shall take hold of them, as of a woman in labor; and one shall lament to another, and they shall be amazed, and their faces shall be changed as a flame." As every hope has been snatched away, and nothing is left for the Babylonians except that they must simply lament, he says, "Howl." He bids them, as it were, to despair of salvation and not to undertake useless things, nor to exercise themselves in resistance, since the divine wrath is armed against them, and destruction has been brought about by a decree from above. For the matter is altogether irresistible: "For who shall turn back the hand of the exalted one?" as it is written. And again: "If he shuts against a man, who shall open?" For what strength, or whose at all, shall fight against God? Therefore he says that every hand shall be weakened, and every soul of man shall be afraid; for since the all-powerful God shakes the souls of men into fear, who will summon up courage, or, that is, who will show himself stout-hearted and sufficiently capable of resistance? He says that the ambassadors will be troubled, and will fall into pangs as of a woman in labor, and that one will lament to another, and they will even be amazed, and will change their faces like a flame. By ambassadors, I believe, he means the priests of the idols, those who ^D [by]... [index: entries preserved]

^A by their distinct skills were most renowned among the Babylonians, the ministers of demons, who in all likelihood, expecting the arrival of the Medes—now anticipated by Cyrus and the Persians—were prophesying prosperous things, and were summoning helps from the demons, offering prayers and presenting the customary gifts, evidently performing rites and profane sacrifices, and promising to intercede on behalf of the whole country. These, then, says he, the ministers and suppliants of demons, those who perform sacrifices on behalf of all, when they see that conditions have been turned against their expectations, will be troubled and will be in severe pangs, and one will lament to another; that is to say, they will exclaim to one another, as if in boundless distress, that word "woe," clearly, and the like. And they shall change their countenance as if by a flame. For the face of those who are dejected is accustomed somehow to darken, so that it appears to be nothing else but embers and the remains of extinguished ash. ^B

VERS. 9–11. *Ecce enim dies Domini venit insanabilis, furoris et iræ, ut redigat orbem terrarum in vastitatem, et ex ea peccatores tollat. Astra enim cœli, et Orion, et omnis ornatus cœli lumen non dabunt: et tenebræ offundentur sole oriente, et luna non dabit lucem suam. Et mandabo universo orbi mala, ac impiis peccata sua: delebo insolentiam iniquorum, et insolentiam superborum deprimam.*

Clearly, in these words he attempts to teach what the final cause is, why the princes grieve with one another, and change their countenances as if by a flame. For since they were prophesying, as I said, according to their own heart’s desire—and to all the Babylonians—but have fallen short of their expectation, for this reason he says: *They will be filled with grief.* For an incurable day has invaded them, the Lord of all bringing it in. He calls "day" again the time in which this divine and inevitable wrath has existed, so that it has rendered the land of the Chaldeans a desert, and destroyed the sinners out of it. And it is not at all as if there were any there who were immune to the wrath because they were good men, that he says he will destroy the sinners; rather, this name would more justly apply to all the inhabitants of the Chaldean region, seeing that they were all wicked and idolaters. Since, however, the magnitude of calamities sometimes fills the human mind with something akin to darkness and mist, so that ^D even when it is day, the light of the sun seems to be absent, and all that host of heaven and the orb of the moon itself appear ineffective at providing light, therefore it says: *The stars of heaven and Orion, and all the host of heaven shall not give their light*, and darkness shall be poured upon the Babylonians, that is, upon the mind of the Babylonians, even when the sun is rising and the moon is shining—not because the elements have withheld their light, but because they, as if subject to great terror from the divine wrath, have within their minds night and darkness. *And I will command*, he says, *evils upon the whole world.* "I will command," he says, instead of "I will threaten," or "I will order to be brought about," so that I may overthrow the pride of the wicked, and humble those proud ones, that is, the arrogant. ^C

^A For the nation of the Assyrians has always been, in a way, exceedingly contemptuous and corrupt, and, in addition to this, hateful to God. For among them nothing of the best was ever esteemed; but all things were rather inclined to offend the God of the universe. One must know that those who have interpreted the divine Scripture have made mention of Orion, to signify some one of the most distinguished stars; and, while they say those things, they have not followed the enchantments of the Greeks, but have rather used a name that is customary and worn, just as indeed it is written in Job: "Who makes the Pleiades and the Evening Star, and Arcturus, and the secret chambers of the South."

^B Vers. 12. "And those who are left shall be more precious than untarnished gold; and a man shall be more precious than the stone from Sophir."

What is "precious" in these things must be sought. He says, therefore, that the land of the Babylonians and the whole region of the Assyrians will be so stripped of men that it will be difficult to find the living in it, and there will be such a scarcity of those who remain as there is of Indian stones and of the most refined gold. For such things seem to be precious among some people, because they are very difficult to procure, and also because they are few and rare. Thus, he says, as those things which are admired by men are difficult to obtain—precious stones and untarnished gold, that is, the most refined—so shall they be few and rare, those who, left behind after the war, have escaped the troop of the combatants.

^C VERS. 13. "For the heaven shall be angered, and the earth shall be shaken from its foundations, through the fury of the anger of the Lord of Sabaoth, in the day when His fury shall come."

The blessed prophets speak hyperbolically, and, conceiving in their minds the divine and ineffable power and glory, they raise their voices on high and contemplate an extraordinary magnitude in their narratives. ^D And in some way, when God is angry, the created world, which is His servant, is also sharpened toward anger, since He who commands all things surely urges it toward this. And so, He was angry at the Egyptians, but the created world did not refrain from acting. For the water changed into blood, and the earth brought forth frogs, as it is written, and the heaven sent down hail; and, moreover, deep darkness was spread over the whole of their region for the space of three days. Therefore, he says, the heaven itself shall be angered, and the earth shall be shaken, as it were, from its foundations, because of the fury of the anger of the Lord. For the creation fights along with Him against the foolish, and, the Master being grieved, it, too, is all but drawn into this. For all things concur with the supreme will, and there is nothing in the nature of things that does not yield to the divine beckoning, even against its will.

223 VERS. 14-16. "And those who are left shall be as a fleeing gazelle..."

and as a wandering sheep, ^A and there shall be none to gather them, so that a man might turn back to his own people, and a man might flee to his own land. For whoever is caught shall be defeated, and whoever are gathered together shall fall by the sword, and their children they shall dash before them, and their houses they shall plunder, and their wives they shall have."

He says that those left behind will be very few in number, and moreover, they will be utterly unmanly and lacking in all love of battle, and so cast down by cowardice that they will choose to do nothing else but flee, like a gazelle, and—as he puts it—to save themselves shamefully, and to abandon entirely even the thought of merely resisting the calamities brought by the enemy. That they will remain without a leader and without a ruler, even while being few in number, he indicates by saying that they will be like a "wandering sheep," deprived of the shepherd’s gentle care, going ^B somewhere far from pasture, and even far from the customary sheepfolds. For he says, "there shall be none to gather them, so that a man might turn back to his own people, and a man might flee to his own land." By "flee," he means "hasten," although his own country is dear to everyone, and there is nothing better than one’s ancestral dwellings. But even the deprivation of things so dear to them will be welcome, he says, because whoever is caught will immediately perish and become fodder for the sword of the Medes.

The prophetic discourse also confirms that another thing, by far the most grievous, will happen: "Their children, he says, they shall dash before them, and their houses they shall plunder, and their wives they shall have." But what could be more painful to parents than the slaughter of their children? Or how could it be anything but ^C more grievous and intolerable than any punishment to see their houses plundered and the modesty of their wives injured and subjected to the unbridled lust of the victors? The blessed Psalmist also mentions something of this sort somewhere. Speaking of the Babylonians, he says: "Blessed is he who shall take and dash your little ones against the rock."

But while these things happened historically to the land of the Assyrians and the cities and regions therein—because they were all idolaters and insufferably insolent, and cruel enemies of God, and skilled in the art of magic—they themselves had even ravaged the holy city and laid waste to the inheritance of God, that is, Israel, treating them as captives and ^D placing upon them a new and unaccustomed yoke of servitude. Yet the discourse concerning them will not come to a stand only with these things that have been done historically and conspicuously; rather, those who wish to can understand them spiritually, if they wisely transfer the force of the events to the very inventor of all wickedness, the most savage enemy of God, I mean Satan, especially since the prophetic discourse, having already rightly applied the mystery of Christ and the prediction concerning Him, has introduced a vision close at hand against Babylon, all but rousing the minds of the auditors so that what was done historically against Babylon and against the entire land of the Assyrians might be understood spiritually. Therefore, this dragon, this apostate, continues in many ways to lay snares for the worshippers of God

^A and persists even very youthfully, always overturning things in accordance with his own will; and he carries them off many times, as if having taken them captive, and casts them into the pits of passions. Having placed upon them, as it were, a severe and inescapable yoke of slavery, he glories over those who have been taken and acts arrogantly, just as indeed those who reigned among the Assyrians from time to time used to exult over those from Israel, because, having become outside their own land and the holy city, they were serving those of a different race. But the tyranny of the devil did not prevail over those who were plundered for all time. For the standard of the Saviour has been raised—that is, we have dedicated hymns of victory to Him who conquered for us and on our behalf—and we have made the confession of the true faith. For this, I think, is what is meant by "Lift up your voice to yourselves." The Lord also has commanded a warlike nation to come, it being clear that these are the saints, whose struggle and war is not against blood and flesh, but rather against principalities and powers, and against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. These have arrayed themselves and have conquered, and even until now they prevail, and they besiege the host of opposing powers, and have laid waste to idolatry as if it were a city, that ancient, terrible, and unconquerable one. ^B And they exercise authority over those who have resisted, as though Christ were leading the army and the holy angels were shielding them, so that those who still worship their powers are altogether few in number, and they themselves are wretched and unmanly and fearful, and have utterly despaired of resistance—I mean the resistance against those who serve Christ. But let everyone who is intelligent, and capable of understanding a parable and a dark saying, the words of the wise and riddles, as he runs through this vision and the words that follow, derive some knowledge of this kind of spiritual sense.

"Behold, I will stir up against you the Medes, who do not reckon silver, nor have they need of gold. They will shatter the bows of the young men, and they shall not have pity on your children, nor shall their eyes spare your children. And Babylon, which is called Glorious by the kings of the Chaldeans, shall be as when God overturned Sodom and Gomorrah; it shall not be inhabited for an eternal age, nor shall they enter into it for many generations, nor shall they pass through it."

Very clearly in these words does He thereafter provide the prediction of the war; and as it were stripping away the obscurity that had been cast over the words like a veil, He sets the calamity, which is to happen before long, bare and manifest and, so to speak, in plain view. For "They will come," He says, "they will come, the Medes," not being overcome by money and not dreading the bribery from you ^C, nor [will the] Arabians, nor shepherds, nor shall they rest in it.

Indeed, they will ^A be even better than the Medes regarding gain, and they will disregard profits, that they may bring down the pride of the Babylonians. For their boasting is always great regarding their archery, and they consider the success in these things of great importance. But they shall be inferior to their enemies. And the conquerors shall be so harsh and pitiless that they will not wish to feel any pity even for a pitiable age, nor to shed any tear of humanity for infants perishing miserably. But Babylon, which is called "Glorious" by the king of the Chaldeans, will be reduced to such desolation, he says, that it will in no way differ from burned Sodom and Gomorrah; and it will be uninhabited; and it will be so avoided even by neighbors, that those of a distant nation will shun it, so that not even the shepherds from the Arabs will graze any of their own flocks in it, because of it being totally ravaged. It should be known that he calls "Arabs" the nations of the Saracens, who reach as far as the land of the Assyrians itself and who inhabit the inner desert. For they have the land of the Arabs as a neighbor. And it is probable that these Saracens from Arabia traverse the deserts of the Assyrians indiscriminately.

VERS. 21, 22. And beasts will rest there, and the houses will be filled with sound; there will sirens rest, and demons will dance there. And onocentaurs will dwell there, and hedgehogs will make nests in their houses. It comes quickly, and will not delay.

Wild animals love to make their dwelling in deserted regions, and a ruined city provides them with many caves ^C that shelter them, being rough and as if found by chance and at random. And in the desert and quiet places, a certain thin sound, quite contrary to the great silence, I know not how, arises and enters the ears of those who inhabit the desert. Therefore, he says, beasts shall rest, and the houses shall be filled with sound—that is, having no inhabitant at all, they shall give forth a sound suitable for deserts. And demons, he says, shall dance there. For they say that it is peculiar to them also to dwell willingly in desert places, and to establish them as a quiet lodging. By "sirenas" (sirens), I believe he means birds that know how to sing sweetly, or, according to the Hebrew edition, the owl. He calls wild asses "onocentauri" (onocentaurs); and by hedgehogs (echinos), he means those mice ^D that are, as it were, bristling with sharp spines. All these things might reasonably be fitting for cities or houses that have been completely devastated. He adds to these: "It comes quickly, and will not delay": either exciting sharper care for the Assyrians, or by the same work bringing no little consolation to those who are of the seed of Israel. For when they were in captivity, and Cyrus with the Persians and Medes [brought] Babylonian...

Babylonians [brought] relief, he promises them a swift deliverance from their afflictions, and that what they prayed for would not be long delayed, but would follow at his heels, as it were, point by point.

And the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and they shall rest upon their own land, and the proselyte shall be added unto them. And they shall be added to the house of Jacob; and the nations shall take them, and bring them into their place. And they shall inherit, and be multiplied upon the land of God, for menservants and maidservants; and they shall be captives who took them captive, and they shall be lords over their oppressors; and it shall come to pass in that day, that God shall cause thee to rest from thy sorrow and from thy wrath, and from the hard bondage ^B wherein thou hast served them.

He raises up again to good hope those of the seed of Israel who had labored, and confirms them in good cheer by his promises, having been oppressed beyond endurance by the greed of those who had captured them. For that they would depart from their captivity, and strike off the yoke of their unusual bondage, Babylon having been laid waste, and the whole land of the Assyrians, he clearly predicted. For Israel, he says, shall not be cast off for ever; nor shall he suffer unending punishment for his transgressions; but he who has been chosen shall find mercy and shall find respite for a time. And because he is set ^C as a firstborn among children, he shall not be forsaken by the visitation and mercy of God.

He says they shall return to the land that bore them, and the proselyte shall go up with them. By "proselyte" he means the native and inhabitant, that is to say, the Babylonian. For very many of the Babylonians would follow those of Israel, partly because they had attained to kinship with them, and partly because they had become devoted to the law and its worship. For since they had spent long times in the captivity, it is likely that no small multitude from that people had been added to them. Therefore, he says, the proselyte shall be added to them; that is, the foster-son and native of the land shall follow and accompany them. "And the nations shall take them, and bring them into their place." For when Cyrus released Israel, he ordered the rulers of the regions to escort them safely and securely. ^D The same was done after him by the one who took up the scepters of the Assyrians, and this was Xerxes.

Those who wish to examine these things more exactly may read the books of Ezra, and obtain the most accurate knowledge of all that I have recounted. For they ascended from the land of the Assyrians into Judaea, while the kingdom was being governed by Zerubbabel the son of Salathiel, who was of the tribe of Judah, and the holy order was led by Joshua the son of Jozadak, the high priest. The nations, therefore, he says, shall escort them, and shall bring them into their land, and they shall possess the lot that was distributed to them from above. And what is even more paradoxical, they who were once worshippers of idols, who called upon many and innumerable gods, shall be multiplied in the land of God as menservants and handmaidens, and they shall be captives who [formerly] took captive.

For those who took Israel captive, having been brought back together with him, and having arrived, he says, in Judea, will place their neck under the yokes of the Law, and having endured a sort of noble and saving captivity, they will inscribe and name as Lord and God the Creator of all. For it is either this, he says, or perhaps he wishes to indicate that those who formerly gained the victory and led Israel away from Judea, and made him subject to their own yokes, will be mastered and taken captive ^A in their turn, since Cyrus, the Persians, and the Medes have overcome them. For "on that day," that is, at that time, you will be released from your pain and your wrath; that is, from the anger that is hanging over you, namely, the divine [anger]; for you will escape the bitter servitude, and you will be released from pains.

But come now again, shifting the heavy surface of the history toward a spiritual contemplation, let us observe something similar that has come to pass in Satan and in those who have been redeemed by Christ. For they were captives ^B bound to the service of idols, and venerating the commands of him who exercised the supreme tyranny; but the Creator of the universe, having pity on us as ones unjustly violated, sent us from heaven a redeemer, His own Son, in the name of the Lord—that is, not as one of the holy prophets, but in the glory of dominion—who has also sacked [that power] as if it were some arrogant and insolent city, with his men-at-arms, that is, the holy apostles, shielding him, who as it were cut through the entire region of the devil and brought back with them into the holy city, the intelligible Jerusalem—I mean the Church—those who had been deceived and shackled by the yoke of servitude, who also were multiplied ^C in the land of God, and became menservants and handmaidens. And those who formerly held them under their hand and as captives—that is, the worshippers of demons and those who taught their customs and ensnared them unto destruction—these have become captives, that is, they have been overcome by the preaching of the holy apostles, and have been sold under Christ; for He mastered them as they were delivered from the harsh servitude to which they had already previously been enslaved, namely, the faith. For they rested also from the servitude to which they had served before being subjected to the Lord and His soldiers.

VERS. 4-7. *And you shall take up this lamentation against the king of Babylon, and you shall say on that day: How hath ^D the exactor ceased, and the seeker ceased? God hath broken the yoke of the sinners, the yoke of the princes; smiting a nation in wrath with an incurable wound, striking a nation with a wound of wrath, and he did not spare, he rested having confidence.*

He says that the calamities of war for the Babylonians and for Nebuchadnezzar himself will reach such a degree of hardness that even their enemies are moved to pity; and those whom one would expect, having suffered unbearable things, to at least—if not more—exult over the one who has fallen, these, on the contrary, should instead sympathize, and, by the multitude of the things that have befallen them, be brought to compassion: or even in some other way lament those who have fallen, and not, certainly, in every case pity them, [but rather]...

been caught beyond their expectations. He also weaves together his lamentation and gives a song suited to the events. You will say, he says, "How has the exactor ceased?" By "ceased," he expresses, in a milder term, that he has perished and come to an end. ^A He calls the Babylonian the exactor and instigator, who, out of excessive arrogance, did not impose the yoke of his tyranny only upon his neighbors, but even went so far as to send out tax collectors to distant cities and regions, demanding tolls and tributes. They marvel, therefore, how such a one has ceased, and how that hand which was grabbing everything has desisted. But that they are not unaware of the reasons for his fall is shown by what they say: "God has broken the yoke of the sinners, the yoke of the princes." Do you hear how he calls those of arrogant disposition "princes"? For, as I said, they were leaping upon everyone, so to speak, in all the earth, subjecting them to their own yokes. To rule was, for them, both the intent and the goal. ^B "But," he says, "God struck the arrogant race," that is, the nation, "with an incurable wound." And he who was confident in himself and greatly minded, and would not have ceased of his own will—that is, suffered the end most worthy of him—underwent the incurable wound of wrath, with all mercy removed. But it is fitting for us ourselves to say these things, and as it were to shout them at Satan, the one who demands and presses, and that most bitterly. For he assaults the mind of each person, diverting it from the best and noble pursuits—those of piety and justice, I say—and as if by force taking it off wherever he pleases, like some rigid exactor of sin seeking persistence and diligence from each individual. ^C But the Savior "broke the yoke of the sinners," casting that one away, and attaching us rather to His own yokes, and striking the nation with an incurable wound. And what nation is this, if not, of course, that of the demons, whom He even ordered to go into the abyss? And indeed, He inflicted upon them most grievous torments; and thus they shouted out, saying: "Ah, what have we to do with Thee, Jesus of Nazareth? Hast Thou come hither before the time to destroy us?"

Verse 8. All the earth shouts with joy, and the wood of Lebanon has rejoiced over thee, and the cedar of Lebanon, since thou hast fallen asleep, no one has come up who cuts us down.

This is also a part of the lamentation; and in so far as it pertains to the historical account, there was joy ^D throughout all the earth, with the region of the Assyrians laid waste, and the exactor fallen—he who demanded subjection from everyone, whom the prophetic discourse also calls the "wood of Lebanon," likening those who are in authority and power among the nations to cedars. Yet, like some woodcutter, Nebuchadnezzar, shaking them, subjected them to his own yokes. The cedars, therefore, he says, rejoicing because of thee, they say: "Since thou hast fallen asleep, there has not come up one who cuts us down." But if one should wish to apply such a discourse strictly to the…

^A Israel, he will perceive it follows this mode. Lebanon is a massive mountain in the land of the Phoenicians, covered and adorned as if with cedars and incense-trees, thick and wooded. Therefore, divinely inspired Scripture frequently compares it to the land of the Jews, because there were many in it who were most illustrious in power and glory, and others who were lifted high by the emblems of the priesthood and were, as it were, most fragrant. And so indeed the prophet Zechariah compares Judea to Lebanon: those who were in it to cedars, oaks, and pines; but the all-consuming fire to the Roman army, which, after the cross of the Savior, burned up their whole country, and thus he says: "Open, O Lebanon, thy doors, and let fire devour thy cedars. Let the pine wail, because the cedar has fallen. Wail, O ye oaks of Bashan, because the thick forest has been torn up." Let this, therefore, be the utterance of the Jews, as if taken from the trees of Lebanon, which rejoice and say to the Babylonian and those with him: "Since thou hast fallen asleep, there has not come up one who cuts us down." He has lingered most elegantly on this translation of the discourse. For because the voice is made as if from the trees of Lebanon, they say: "There has not come up one who cuts us down." For after the return of the Israelites from Babylon, no war was ever again stirred up against them from the land of the Assyrians. And we fittingly shall say to Satan—we who were once overthrown by him, but now have kept our mind stable in Christ, and our spirit firm in piety, having struck roots, and possessing a most flourishing breast—"Since thou hast fallen asleep, there has not come up one who cuts us down."

^B

VERS. 9-11. "Hades from beneath was stirred up to meet thee: all the giants who ruled over the earth were raised up together for thee, those who raised from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All shall answer and say to thee: Even thou hast been taken as we also; and thou hast been reckoned among us. Thy glory has descended into Hades, and thy much rejoicing. Under thee they shall strew rottenness, and thy covering shall be worms."

It is the custom of divinely inspired Scripture to fashion ^C persons at times, and to accommodate voices to the things themselves, as is that saying: "Be ashamed, O Sidon," said the sea; and the strength of the sea said: "I have not travailed, nor brought forth, nor reared young men, nor raised up virgins." He applies this discourse to the city of the Tyrians, which was once cut off by the Babylonians; and we say that this speech squares with the nature of things. Thus also the prophet Micah introduced Jerusalem addressing Babylon: "Do not rejoice over me, my enemy, because I have fallen, and I shall rise again. Therefore, if I sit in darkness, the Lord will shine for me; I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him, until He Himself judges my cause; and He will execute judgment for me, and bring me forth into the light. I shall see His righteousness, and my enemy shall see it, and shame shall clothe her who says to me: Where is the Lord thy God?"

^A My eyes shall look upon her; she shall now be for trampling, as mire in the streets, in the days of the washing of clay; that day shall be your blotting out. In this, evidently, Cyrus and the Medes together with the Persians have taken the land of the Babylonians. The blessed prophet, therefore, adopts a personification here no less than before; he says that Hades is incensed, or rather embittered, at meeting him as he descends. And observe for me the economy and arrangement of the discourse. Through this, he demonstrates that he was a man-slayer and full of blood, such that almost the entire underworld—that is, those who are in the underworld—became the work and material of the cruelty that was in him. For the proud man did not cease from uprooting both nations and kings, and filling Hades with miserable souls. "All the giants, therefore," he says—that is, those who have been famous for their strength and reigned over many nations—"having been slain by you, shall answer and say: And you are captured even as we. For you were a man," they say, "but you did not deem it worthy to know and consider this; nor did you even think that there would be anyone who could overcome your brow and your savage and horrendous hand; nay, perhaps you did not even despair of being able to conquer death. But the Median sword, even against your will, scarcely persuaded you, so that by experience of it you might learn that you, too, were of our condition and lot. And you are captured even as we; and your glory has descended to Hades," instead of: it has been extinguished by death; "and the grim power of corruption has been brought upon you. Your joy ^B shall be taken away, and you shall scarcely have placed it out of the midst. Rottenness shall be spread under you, and the worm shall be as a garment for you." And this is indeed common, for as soon as human bodies have once suffered death, corruption and the worm will invariably happen to them. However, it is said well of him as a form of bitter reproach. For those who have fallen into forgetfulness of their own weakness, and out of excessive arrogance do not even expect that they will suffer human things, would rightly be reproached and mocked; so that, by suffering these very things, they might learn, albeit with difficulty, what they ought to have known in choosing to think more modestly. He who, therefore, he says, lived in dissolute, royal luxuries, shall lie together with the others without a shroud, and shall not be deemed worthy of anything decreed and ordained for the dead.

VERS. 12. How did Lucifer, who rose in the morning, fall from heaven? He is crushed upon the earth, he who sent to all nations?

Lucifer is a most illustrious star; he rises a little before the dawn, and is as it were a forerunner of the sun's radiance. ^C That he shines with abundant light could be evidenced by the fact that he appears shortly before the dawn. For while the ethereal body is still darkened by a night as it were condensed, and while the darkness is prevailing, the heavenly stars have a more brilliant luster; but when the day draws near, and is, so to speak, at the first outskirts of the solar circle, the light of each one is constricted, yielding to the one that excels and being surpassed by the greater beam. And Lucifer's light is so copious that, ^D

^A as it were, it shines forth even in the day itself, and by the rays of the sun, it is made to appear somehow as a neighbor, so that it manifests its brilliance. He compares the Babylonian, therefore, to Lucifer, because he excels others, and no one among those in power and sovereignty is seen to be like him; and he is so conspicuous and visible, as if Lucifer were also among all the other stars. But he who is wrapped in such glory, he says, and raised on high, and resplendent with unconquered fame, how did he fall as if from heaven? And was he crushed even to the ground, he who used to send to all nations? And by "sending," he means commanding, or in some other way. For it always seemed to the tyrants of the Babylonians to bring the whole race of men under their own hand and power, and to drag them under the yoke of servitude. They used, therefore, to send to everyone, demanding a clod of earth and water in a vessel: as it were, seeking the whole from a part—I mean earth and sea—as if they were masters of all things.

VERS. 13-17. *But you said in your heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will set my throne above the stars of heaven, I will sit on a high mountain, upon the high mountains that are towards the North, I will ascend above the clouds, I will be like the Most High. But now you shall descend into hell, and to the foundations of the earth. They who shall see you, shall wonder at you, and shall say: Is this the man that troubled the whole earth, that shook kings, that made the whole world a wilderness, and destroyed the cities, and did not set open the prison?*

He says that he is involved in unexpected calamities, and having met with evils beyond hope and expectation, he at last with difficulty learned from the things themselves that he is a man, and similar to those who died before him. For as far as concerns words of pride, and a mind burning with hatred for God, and thus most full of the highest insolence and disdain; you thought, he says, that you were but a little removed from the height of divine excellence, and you perhaps expected that heaven itself would be passable for you, and that your throne would challenge the supreme throne; foolishly you thought yourself equal to God and above creation; you believed you were climbing above the clouds, and sitting among the very stars. But you have been caught having thought these things in vain. The outcome of events refutes your perverse lack of reflection. For you shall descend into hell, and to the ^D foundations of the earth. And he says these things, in order to signify perhaps the lowest place, that is, the outer darkness. And you will be, he says, a marvel to those who see you, and very rightly so. For sudden changes, especially those which are beyond hope, strike with astonishment those who behold them. And what is the wonder, and what will be the speech about him? For they will say, "Is this the man?" Having suffered, they with difficulty name him a man; perhaps, in that they once feared to say this. "But is this the man who troubled the whole earth, shaking kings, who made the whole world a wilderness, and destroyed the cities?" They have wondered rightly, if one man had stirred up the whole world under heaven, had shaken kings, had rendered the world inhabited by men a wilderness, and had also shaken the

cities. And what, in addition to these things, is the other [meaning of]: *He did not release those who were in the induction*? Since some of the copies have: *Those in the abduction*, if one should wish to understand it thus, we shall say that the name of "abduction" could signify the captivity and the uprising of those from Israel. For they were carried away from Judæa into the land of the Assyrians. But if indeed the Sacred Scripture means ^A by "those in the induction," you will understand it no less, [meaning] those who were in the induction of the wrath of the Lord. For wrath was brought upon them because of much sin. Nabuchodonosor did not release [them], that is, he did not relax their misery. For it was necessary—it was necessary for the wicked one to be seen not only as arrogant, but truly also as a fighter against God, and as one who had ravaged the land, and [was] harsh and unmerciful, and who in no way knew how to have pity on those who were in the last extremities of calamity, and who had fared wretchedly. One could—and indeed with ^B very good reason—apply these things which have been said historically to the head of him who crushed all things; I mean, to the dragon who is the author of evil, the prince of evils. For he was indeed an exactor and an instigator, in the ways which we have already mentioned; but he has ceased and has been removed from the midst, as God has struck him with the incurable plague of His wrath; and he has ceased from cutting down, like some vigorous woodcutter, the intellectual cedars, of which the blessed David also makes mention, speaking to the God of the universe: *The cedars of Libanus which thou hast planted.* But since the wretch has descended into Hades, condemned in every way, and is there held fast by the all-consuming flame, the evil powers under him—and it is likely the fallen spirits themselves—have wondered that he suffers this, and perhaps have lamented, saying: *And you have been caught even as we, and you have been reckoned among us,* and what follows thereafter. For he was, as far as glory was concerned, distinguished among the angels, and conspicuous among the powers on high, just ^C as, to be sure, Lucifer was among the stars. He fell and was crushed, having thought proud things, and having dared to snatch the honor and glory that befit only the supreme nature, in so far as it was within his power to attempt and to conceive in his mind. But as the prophet says: *He has descended into Hades, and to the foundations of the earth, he who formerly used to shake all the earth, he who set the inhabited world as a desert*; for he rendered the whole world beneath the heavens a desert of the true knowledge of God, having no cultivator of virtue at all. And he did not release those who were in the induction. But the Lord has granted this to those who believe in Him, saying to those in bonds: *Come forth,* and to those in the darkness: *Be revealed.* And indeed, even to those who were subject to divine wrath because they ^D had acted wantonly against the divine laws, He has granted remission of faults, obliterating their sins in forgetfulness, and delivering from punishment those who were entangled in many vices through human infirmity.

VERS. 18, 19. All the kings of the nations have slept in honor, every one in his own house. But thou shalt be cast out in the mountains as a dead man abominable, with many that have been killed thrust through with the sword, that go down to the infernal regions.

^A Sometimes, he says, he shows his calamity to be heavier than those of the past; and what I said is true. For it did not fall to him to obtain the same lot as the rest, he who is so proud and stiff-necked and raised to an incomparable dignity, so that he seemed to be placed on a high peak. For they have slept, he says, not without honor, nor far from the dwellings most dear to them. But thou, being completely bereft of these, shalt lie in the mountains, abominable and cast out, 236 that is, stinking and unlovely to the sight. For what could be more abominable than a dead body that has no covering? Thou shalt therefore lie together with the rest who have become the work of the Median sword, with no one mourning for thee, nor shedding a tear that follows the dead, nor honoring thee with funeral rites; but thou shalt be so miserable and so trodden underfoot that thou wilt in no respect differ from thy own subjects, even the most despised among them. But it must be known that the lamentation will proceed as far as those things. ^B

VER. 20. *As a garment stained with blood is not clean, so neither shalt thou be clean: because thou hast destroyed my land, and hast killed my people, thou shalt not remain for ever.*

Such sins, which are very grave and can be washed away with difficulty by their authors, are like being stained as if by some dye. He shows, however, that they have committed deeds worthy of extreme wrath, and worthy of a punishment corresponding to their vices. Thou shalt not, therefore, be absolved, he says, from thy sins, nor shalt thou be clean, nor worthy of mercy. Thou shalt be contaminated and stained with the indelible crime of murder, just as, indeed, a garment mixed with blood. For thou hast destroyed the holy land, and hast killed the people assigned to me. ^C *“When,”* he says, *“the Most High divided the nations, the sons of Adam whom he dispersed, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God; and his people Jacob became a portion of the Lord, Israel the line of his inheritance.”* It is therefore a most terrible thing to exalt oneself against the land of the Lord, that is, the Church, and to dare to commit the crime of homicide against the people assigned to Christ. For he who is ensnared by such monstrous crimes will in no way be clean. But someone might say, I suppose, when considering in his mind and thought the calamities of Judea and of Jerusalem itself: Did the Babylonian tyrant come of his own accord, and did he attack the land of the Jews, and did he take the holy city, without God permitting him to do this, or rather, not delivering it into his hand? Indeed, the prophet Isaiah himself says to us: *“The Lord will hiss for the flies that rule a part of the river of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of the Assyrians, and all shall come, and they shall rest in the ditches of thy land, and in the clefts of the rocks, and in the caves, and in every cranny, and in every tree.”* ^D How, then, did it happen that the Babylonian, who depended on the divine will, was lost in incurable wickedness, and thus gravely pus

punished, ^A so that nothing beyond the wrath inflicted upon him could be seen? And very reasonably so. For the God of all desired to convict Israel, which had inclined toward apostasy, and by moderate afflictions to persuade it to return to its accustomed worship, I mean the legal one. But he, although led to this, was cruel like a beast and used unbridled wrath; and for this he is accused by God, who says clearly: “I have been jealous for Jerusalem and for Sion with great jealousy, and I am angry with great anger against the nations that conspire against them; for whereas I was but a little angry, they conspired for evil.” And just as ^B he stirred up Pharaoh, who was a vessel of wrath and anger and already subject to punishment for his own offenses, as He himself says, in order that He might demonstrate in him His own power and the accuracy of His just judgment, so you should understand also in the case of the Babylonians. For being vessels of wrath and owing to be justly punished, they were brought against Jerusalem, so that after they had chastised Israel, they themselves might also be required to pay the punishment that was most suitable and fitting for them.

“Semen improbum, præpara liberos tuos ut occidantur ob culpas patris tui, ne resurgant et terræ hæreditatem adeant, impleantque terram bellis. Et consurgam super eos, dicit Dominus Sabaoth, et perdam nomen eorum, et reliquias, et semen.”

Nabuchodonosor ^C has done terrible things against every nation; and those who came after him and were born of him, up to Baltasar, following the perversity of their father, have even surpassed his, and have shown themselves cruel and savage toward every nation, and they trampled upon Israel, although they were in captivity and bound by the yoke of servitude. They thought so highly of themselves, even against the very glory of God, that the wicked Baltasar, while making a feast for his grandees, brought out the holy vessels into the midst, and drank from them together with his concubines and bedfellows, when also there went forth a joint of a hand, as Daniel says, and wrote upon the wall: ^D Mane, Thechel, Phares; which the divine Daniel, interpreting it, said meant that his kingdom was divided and given to the Medes and Persians. They say, therefore, that at that time the race of Nabuchodonosor, and indeed that of Baltasar, perished entirely, so that no one at all of their blood ascended the royal thrones after them. This, I think, the prophetic word shown to us declares. For behold how the divine wrath has advanced against the whole wicked seed. “Prepare, therefore,” he says, “your children to be slaughtered for the sins of your father.” For since the fathers were impious, their entire future progeny has been destroyed. For what cause? “So that they may not rise up,” he says, “and take possession of the land, and fill the land with wars”; that is to say, so that they might not, by following the insolence of their fathers, and by being emulators of their ancestral impieties, fill the land with wars, just as they did, and become its masters. And I will rise up against

them, says the Lord Sabaoth, and I will destroy their name and their remnant and their seed. For just as God promised to those kings of Israel who pleased Him that a fourth generation would sit upon their thrones, extending the blessing even to the race that would come from them, so does He cut off the propagation of the race of those who are exceedingly impious. For the impious, he says, shall perish root and branch from the earth. Let then even the enemy of all, the inventor of sin, and the one who has become the cause of all evils for us, listen: Just as a garment stained with blood shall not be clean, so neither shalt thou be clean, because thou hast destroyed my land and slain my people. For it was not enough to have turned the root of our race toward transgression, but he also seduced the entire world under heaven from God, and having diverted the man on earth from the love of God, he made him his own worshipper and cast him into the pits of destruction. Therefore he shall not be clean, nor will he endure for all time; for he has not held the reins of injustice forever, since God checked his tyranny, and restrained and retarded his assault against us. For he perished along with his own children, that is, with the unclean demons; for they were an evil seed. They have perished, ^B bound in chains of gloom in Tartarus, just as the disciple of the Saviour says; so that they might not rise up and inherit the earth, and fill the land with wars. For they have been driven out from their tyranny over us, and Christ has become our peace. For as the blessed Paul writes: "The peace of Christ, which surpasses all understanding, shall guard our hearts and our thoughts." And how this came to pass for them, God of all things will Himself clarify for us, saying: "And I will rise up against them," says the Lord Sabaoth, "and I will destroy their name, and remnant, and seed."

VERS. 23. Thus says the Lord: And I will make Babylon a desert, so that hedgehogs dwell in it, and it shall come to nothing; and I will make it a pit of mire unto destruction.

This oracle set before us seems to be a most concise recapitulation ^C of those things which were spoken more broadly and at greater length. For it indicates nothing else but precisely that: that Babylon will be entirely destitute of men, but full of animals to whom solitude is a pleasing habitat. And since, as it appears, it has a very great flow of waters, and it is said that a river cuts it in two, it happened that because no stream diverted its force to those places ^D where it was fitting to go, it spread throughout the entire region, and created a multitude of marshes; so that the region which was once bright and famous, and was called the queen of the rest and most glorious, ended up as a pit of mire and a deep hole for those falling into destruction.

^A Thus says the Lord of hosts: As I have spoken, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it remain, to destroy the Assyrians in my land and upon my mountains; and they shall be for a trampling, and their yoke shall be taken away from them, and their glory shall be removed from their shoulders.

The blessed Isaiah prophesies during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah; yet his words seem to be directed against Babylon, or indeed the whole land of the Assyrians, even while Uzziah—who is also Azariah—was still surviving and maintaining the royal honor. But when, in the reign of Hezekiah, Sennacherib the Assyrian made war against Judea and had taken most of the cities of the Samaritans, and had been rebuked by the hand of God, although he insulted even Jerusalem itself (for one hundred and eighty-five thousand of the foreigners died in one night, consumed by the hand of an angel): for this reason, so that nothing of what was said by God for the consolation of Israel might seem to fall away, he proclaims also this, saying: "As I have spoken, so shall it be." For he says that the Babylonian power shall descend into a pit of mire, and it shall be desolate, and that too shall remain: and he says that what I have purposed and what I have confirmed with my own decrees shall surely and utterly come to an end, to destroy the Assyrians in my land and upon my mountains; and they shall be for a trampling; and their yoke shall be taken away, and their glory shall be removed from their shoulders. ^B For the Rabshakeh had been sent by Sennacherib himself from Lachish to Jerusalem. Then, having surrounded everything on all sides with the Babylonian forces, he mocked the divine majesty not a little and uttered a voice worthy of a barbarian spirit: "Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, he says, saying that God will deliver you from the hand of the Assyrians." And because he sought to impose a yoke of slavery upon men who were free in the preceding memory, attributing great glory—that is, honor—to himself and to his own master, he was brought down into an unexpected calamity. "For rising," he says, "in the morning, they found all the bodies dead." And he learned through experience that the one who presides over the saints is all-powerful, and that nothing can withstand his divine nods.

^C This is the counsel that the Lord has purposed over the whole world; and this is the hand that is high over all the nations of the world. For what the holy God has purposed, who shall dissipate? And the high hand, who shall turn back?

It must be known again that the power of this prophecy does not roam throughout the whole world, that is, the region under heaven; but rather the word of this prediction came forth against the whole land of the Assyrians, which he also calls the world, because it is great and wide, and has been richly filled with countless nations that exceed enumeration. Therefore, he says, what has been spoken shall come against the whole land of the Assyrians, ^D and those things which are predicted shall surely reach their end.

Since no one can loosen the bonds, or at any rate bring aid to those liable to divine wrath, he proceeds to discourse further, and says: "For what God the Holy One has determined, who shall overturn? And His high hand, who shall turn away?" For He cuts off entirely the hope of the Babylonians; but He confirms those from Israel ^A usefully, so that they might be securely disposed and think that in every way and altogether the divine and transcendent hand, being most powerful and prevailing over all things, will carry out what has been promised. For because they thought the power of the Assyrians was terrible and irresistible and yielded to no one, and would not allow itself to be defeated, and therefore it was natural for them to distrust the words of the prophecy: for this reason, he very reasonably does not allow this to happen to them, but rather persuades them to the contrary, and cuts away the disease of unbelief, when he says: "And his high hand, who shall turn away?" ^B

VER. 28, 29. "In the year when king Ahaz died, this word occurred: Do not rejoice, all you foreigners. For the yoke of him who strikes you has been broken. For from the seed of serpents shall come forth the offspring of asps, and their offspring shall come forth as flying serpents."

Different revelations were given at different times to the holy prophets, consistent with the nature of things, for the benefit of those who lived at that time. For God, the Lord of all, wished to lead Israel—which had withered away and had cast aside the care of the divine laws—to a better mind, affecting them with many benefits, and kindling His wrath against those who opposed Him, and calling back those who dwelt in the holy city, I mean Jerusalem, to a good hope, so that they might know ^C that there is one and only Lord of all, and no other besides Him. But they, offering honor and veneration to the creature instead of the Creator, and bringing libations to falsely-named gods, have offended not insignificantly. Such, then, is the order and artifice that the tenor of the prophetic reading set before us now suggests. It is worth the effort, however, first to set forth the historical events and to explain each thing clearly; for it will thus be most clear to the readers what is being explained.

Ozias, who is also Azarias, therefore reigned in Jerusalem over Israel. This man was indeed a cultivator of piety; for he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as it is written about him. He was also most powerful and very formidable to his enemies, ^D indeed exercising martial strength against the foreigners. So, having besieged, taken, and devastated many cities of the Philistines, that is, of the foreigners—meaning the Palestinians and those in what is called Coele-Syria—he was successful. It is written thus about him in the second book of Paralipomenon: "And he went out and fought against the foreigners, and he leveled the walls of Geth, and the walls of Jamnia, and the walls of Azotus, and he built cities of Azotus, and in the foreigners the Lord strengthened him, and against the Arabians who inhabited Petra,

and against the Minaeans. And the Minaeans gave gifts to Ozias, and his name was renowned even unto the entrance of Egypt, because he had prevailed even unto the heights. But when he departed from the living, ^B his son Joatham succeeded to his kingdom. Then after him came Achaz, a wicked and apostate man, and one sunken into the mire of deceit. For he worshipped woods and stones, and all the host of heaven; and he also led his son through the fire, for he offered him to the demons. There is written thus concerning him in the fourth book of Kings: “And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God faithfully, as David his father; but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and he led his son through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations which the Lord drove out from before the faces of the children of Israel. And he burned incense in the high places, and upon the hills, and under every leaf-bearing tree.” Then ^C Rhaasson king of Syria, and Phacee son of Rhomelia, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem for war; and they besieged Achaz, but they could not overcome him, etc. And Achaz sent messengers to Theglaphalassar, king of the Assyrians, saying: “I am your servant and your son; come up and save me from the hand of the king of Syria, and from the hand of the king of Israel, who rise up against me.” And Achaz took the silver and gold that was found in the treasuries of the house of the Lord, and of the house of the king, and sent gifts to the king. And the king of the Assyrians heard him, and came to Damascus, and took it, and carried it away captive, and slew Rhaasson. Therefore, first of all, Ozias, who is also Azarias, had despoiled the foreigners, and having wasted all their land, he exacted tributes and taxes. But the second after him, Achaz, hired the Assyrian for wages and let him loose upon them; and he, having laid waste the whole region of the Philistines ^D (for these he calls the foreigners), carried away captive into his own land those who were left from the war. And when Achaz had died, the cities of the foreigners exulted at this, as if he who had been striking them, and had laid upon them a yoke of covetousness that was hard to bear, had passed away. For, having once been weakened and plundered by the hand of the Assyrians, they were indeed embittered against Achaz, but they were not able to take vengeance. “Therefore you foreigners,” he says, “since, as you say and believe, now that Achaz is dead, the yoke of him who was striking you—that is to say, of him who was crushing you—has been broken, do not rejoice over this.” Yet someone might say: since Achaz was an idolater and profane and a hater of God, how then does God repress the mockery of the adversaries against him? Therefore, the mockery was not by any means directed wholly against him; but if any adversity had befallen Judea, the adversaries would try to pursue them with jeers and insults, not so much because they were patient, but because they sought to attack the hand of God which defended Israel as with a shield. For they thought that the most powerful right hand had been weakened and enfeebled, and that their own gods were better than the protector of Israel. Accordingly, although Achaz was profane, yet because the foreigners, as I was just saying, held the Israelites in derision, He suppresses the joy, and as it were draws back and restrains their exultation, saying: that they have not been liberated from the yoke

^B of those who are accustomed to afflict Judea. It happened, however, not so much to those who suffered, but rather the hand of God, which was shielding Israel, was what those who were on the opposite side attempted to mock. For they thought that the all-powerful right hand had grown weak, and that the gods who were with them were better than the One who guards Israel. Therefore, even if Ahaz was unholy, still, because the aliens were mocking, as I said just now, those of Israel, He curbs their joy, and as it were tests their boasting, saying that they have not been delivered from the yoke that afflicts them, and that they will suffer things which it is natural for them not to bear willingly, and with no small amount of distress. For what does He say? Do not rejoice, saying that the yoke of him who strikes you has been broken. But know rather that from the seed of a serpent will come forth the offspring of vipers. You may understand this in two ways. For ^C there was Uzziah, who was also Azariah, as I said, both cruel and very warlike; and he subdued them in such a way that he imposed tribute on their cities and villages in an unusual manner. Then after him, Ahaz, even if perhaps not with his own hand and local forces, nevertheless by the power of the Assyrians, accomplished equal things against them. For Tiglath-Pileser took Damascus, and the cities of the aliens, and slew Rezin himself. After Ahaz had died, Hezekiah, who was just and pious, succeeded to the kingdom. And it is written concerning him in the fourth book of Kings: "And he rebelled against the king of the Assyrians, and did not serve him. He smote the aliens even to Gaza, and to its border, from the tower of the keepers to the fenced city." Therefore, as from the seed of a serpent, Uzziah, there came forth ^D as an offspring of a viper, Ahaz; then after him a flying serpent, that is to say, the swift Hezekiah. For they bit, in a certain way, the aliens, and laid waste their cities. But if Uzziah and Hezekiah, although being pious, were called serpents, it is necessary to consider this very intelligently, as the aim of the discourse has been turned and looks toward what it most especially aims to typify: the Philistines, or rather the aliens. It was necessary, therefore, not to say that those people would be gentle and mild, but fierce and sharp, accustomed, like serpents, to leap upon those on the opposite side. Accordingly, you will either understand "From the seed of a serpent will come forth the offspring of vipers" in this way, or if you wish, in another manner. Ahaz had indeed hired Tiglath-Pileser the Assyrian, and set him against the land of the aliens, who, having laid waste everything, also killed, as I said, the king Rezin himself. But in the times of King Hezekiah, Shalmaneser, who was himself also king of the Assyrians, campaigned against Samaria. And having descended first upon the land of the Palestinians, that is to say, the land of the aliens, he practiced upon all of them the cruelty that comes from barbarian savagery. Therefore, as from the seed of a serpent, Tiglath-Pileser, there came forth an offspring of a viper, Shalmaneser—being also like a serpent, not sluggish in an assault, nor slow in movement when it came to besieging, but swift rather, and, like a winged thing, looming over the cities.

VERS. 30. *And the beggars shall feed by him, and the poor men shall rest in peace, and he shall kill your seed with famine, and he shall slay your remnant.*

^A I have said previously that, upon the death of Ahaz, the foreigners were poured out into gladness and mocked — not just him, but the all-powerful right hand which saved Israel, namely God. Furthermore, that those fighting against them would not cease even after Uzziah, he has declared very well when he says that from the seed of serpents, offspring of asps would emerge. But since they danced upon the divine glory, the prophet necessarily shows us, in these things, that He who shields Israel will save him, and that upon those who are in every way and altogether opposed to Him, He will bring destruction. For Shalmaneser besieged Jerusalem after capturing all the land of the Samaritans. Rabshakeh also besieged it, having been sent from Lachish, as it is written; but God, the God of all, unexpectedly saved those from Israel. For the Assyrians fell, consumed by the angel of the Lord; and the seed of the foreigners, and all the remainder from the first siege which occurred in the times of Tiglath-Pileser, were utterly destroyed and perished to the last soul, perhaps pressed by famine: for the besieging of cities is always accompanied by other evils. Therefore, the beggars and humble men will be fed by God, that is, they will pasture in their own land and rest in peace. But your seed and remnant will perish by famine. It is a dreadful thing, therefore, to mock those who are under the hand of God, and to become arrogant against those who have come to be under His care. For He will in no wise overlook them, but will certainly run to the aid of His own acquaintances, that the heathens may not laugh openly and gape, and assail God with insults, as if He were unable to preserve and save His own subjects efficiently. ^{B C} VERS. 31. *Howl, O gates of cities; let the cities be shaken, all you foreigners, because smoke comes from the North, and there is none that is.*

As for the phrase, "Out of the serpent's seed shall come forth offspring of asps," we said, when explaining how this should be understood, that Tiglath-Pileser devastated the cities of the foreigners and took Damascus; then, after him, Shalmaneser brought upon them even more burdensome calamities in the times of the reign of Hezekiah, when he besieged the cities of the Samaritans. As if the battle line were now drawn and the army of the Assyrians were present, as if the enemies were now brought to the gates of every city, and were now ready to strike the walls with their intolerable siege engines, he bids the gates to weep and the cities to cry out—no longer boasting against those born of the blood of Israel, no longer railing against the glory of the all-powerful God with insults and gibes, no longer insulting the dead Ahaz, but rather meditating on tragic mourning and lamentations, and being not lightly afflicted with pain by the miseries already present. For, he says, the reason I have commanded the cities to wail is that "smoke comes from the North, and there is none that is." In these words, he calls the one coming from the North — the one rushing forth from the land of the Assyrians — "smoke," either meaning Shalmaneser himself or the army that was with him. For the region of the Jews is southernmost, while that of the Assyrians is more northerly. He compares the warlike army to smoke, since, as it were, ^D

it produces tears for those who are captured. For smoke always draws tears from the eyes in some way. It is not unreasonable either for wars to be compared to smoke in another way. For just as smoke, by falling into the eyes of the body, completely takes away their keenness of sight, so also the fear of death virtually inebriates the mind and disturbs the heart, all but blackening it with terrible and unbearable dreads. ^A Therefore, "smoke will come from the north." Then what is the end of the incursion? He says it is not as if it were to be, that is, a total destruction shall consume the cities and houses, and those who are in them.

VERS. 32. And what shall the kings of the nations answer? That the Lord has founded Sion, and by him the humble of the people shall be saved. ^B

When the impression of the Assyrians was made, the cities of the aliens were captured; nevertheless, the cities of the Samaritans were also devastated. But Jerusalem was preserved, alone and in a way far more miraculous than the others, despite the Assyrian forces, by the hand of Him who can easily and rightly bring all things to pass. For one hundred and eighty-five thousand of the aliens died in a single night. When, therefore, these northerners have burned the cities of the aliens, and have also ravaged Samaria, neighbor to Judea, and then encircling Jerusalem itself, with no one resisting, have fallen in a single night: then, says he, whether they will or no, the kings of the nations will confess that the Lord has founded Sion, and that through Him the humble of the people shall be saved. He calls those the "humble of the people" who place the hope of their salvation in Him alone; such as was King Hezekiah himself, and those with him who fell down before God and said: "Hearken, O Lord, look, O Lord, and see the words of Rabshakeh, which he sent the king of the Assyrians to reproach the living God." ^C But he also heard God speaking in return, clearly saying: "Thus saith the Lord: I will defend this city for my own sake, and for David my servant’s sake." It is good, therefore, to trust in God. The blessed prophets were not ignorant of this either. For Jeremiah says: "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and the Lord shall be his hope." And the most wise David: "O Lord God of hosts, blessed is the man who hopes in thee." For no one will ruin him who is helped by His divine nod, and well-encompassed as if by a wall with favor and benevolence from above. ^D For He deigns with His care for those who love Him, and He will readily grant that those who strive diligently to think and act upon what is pleasing to Him may enjoy firm and lasting goods.

TOMUS III. THE ORACLE AGAINST MOAB

Having finished the discourse concerning the Babylonians and the aliens most fittingly, he shifts the prophecy again toward the Moabites; that is, against

^A of the metropolis of the Moabites and their entire country and kingdom itself. For they too were a barbarian nation, hateful to God, because they clave entirely to the worship of idols and trusted most in the art of the magician, and set themselves against the glory of God, and were among those most hostile to the people of Israel. And so, when, delivered from the greed of the Egyptians, they were proceeding to the land of promise, they had almost all perished, so far as the attempt of Balak, who was at that time king of the Moabites, could effect. It is written thus in Numbers: "And all the children of Israel encamped on the west of Moab, by the Jordan near Jericho. And Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorite; and Moab feared the people greatly, because they were many. And Moab was grieved because of the children of Israel." ^B And what then was the wicked deed that befell him? He hired Balaam from Mesopotamia—for this man was a false prophet and an augur—and he invited him, saying: "Curse Israel for me. For I know," he said, "that whom you bless are blessed, and whom you curse are cursed." And the modes of sorcery were practiced by him, with altars raised up and sacrifices brought forth. But Balak was disappointed of his hope and missed the mark of his intention, since he who had been invited to invoke evil blessed Israel contrary to his expectation. But when this attempt had turned out against his expectation, he proceeded again to another manner of mischief against them. For he ensnared those from Israel; being carried away by the beauty of the women, they departed from the love toward God and chose to worship Beelphegor—for this is an idol of the Moabites. ^C It is written again thus in Numbers: "And Israel remained in Shittim, and the people were defiled by committing fornication with the daughters of Moab, and they called them to the sacrifices of their idols, and the people ate of their sacrifices; and they worshipped their idols; and Israel was joined to Beelphegor, and the Lord was angry with wrath against Israel." For because Israel was powerful and invincible with God helping him, they therefore, with great bitterness and malice, by taking away his protection, persuaded them to offend against the God of all. And they continued even to the end holding such a mind, and even if it happened that Israel, having offended God, shared in calamities, they would act haughtily and mock them, accusing God of being able to do nothing at all, though He had promised to save those who worshipped Him. And a witness to this is the blessed Jeremiah in his vision concerning them, saying: ^D "The horn of Moab is broken, and his arm is crushed. Make him drunk, because he magnified himself against the Lord." And again: "For thus says the Lord, Ar is taken, and the strongholds are captured. And Moab shall perish from being a people, because he magnified himself against the Lord." For once the tyrant of the Assyrians and Babylonians came to destroy Judaea: he captured the cities of Samaria; but the Moabites from the beginning [re-]mocked those who had perished, and vexed them with sneers and insults, and not indecorously did they constantly bespatter the divine majesty with reproaches. For this cause they were also themselves delivered to slaughter, and when

^A cities and houses and the whole populace have perished utterly, so that they now seem in some way not even to exist. The proposed vision therefore remembers those things which, as we noted previously, happened to them from the beginning, and it says:

VERS. 1. *Moab shall perish by night, for by night the wall of Moab shall perish.* Certain of those who have studied these things carefully have handed down that, while the Babylonians were preparing to wage war upon them, an earthquake occurred which shook the metropolis of the Moabites so violently that its entire wall collapsed of its own accord in the night and in the darkness. Once this had happened, even before the onset of the enemy, their every hope of salvation had all but perished. Therefore he says that Moab shall perish by night.

VERS. 2. *But, he says, be sorrowful for yourselves.* It is as if he were to say: "Often, with eyebrows raised high, you have mocked the calamities of others; but now the war runs toward you yourselves, and the evils resulting from it hang over your impious heads. Be sorrowful, therefore, not for others, but on your own account."

*For Lebedon shall perish, where your altar is.* I have said that the Moabites were cruel and arrogant, and that, relying on the deceptions of demons and on the art of magic, they thought they would overcome the power of all men, and even Israel itself, ^B even if God were to defend it. Consequently, in the place called Lebedon, they had an altar and a shrine that was most admirable so far as its structure went. There they performed their divinations, and they held themselves in high esteem, and esteemed this place more venerable and august than others. But, he says, even the workshop of your divination shall perish.

*There you shall go up to weep over Nabay of Moab.* But this city is most strongly fortified. *Weep, he says; for upon every head there is baldness.* That is, one shame shall pervade you all; for baldness is a symbol of disgrace. *And all arms shall be cut.* Through wailing and lamentation; or because it was customary for idolaters to inflict incisions upon their cheeks and arms. It is in vain, then, that you will do this, he says, for the matter is entirely useless.

VERS. 3, 4. *Therefore, in its streets be girded with sackcloth, and wail in the houses, and in the streets, and in its lanes. All of you howl with lamentation, because Heshbon has cried out, and has spoken until its voice was heard.* Representing cities to us that are shaken by no moderate terrors ^C and have been caught in such events; evidently because of the wrath of God.

πένθει. ^A Δὲ τῆς προφητείας ἡ δύναμις, τοιαύτη τις οὖσα, διηγεῖται τὰ ἐσόμενα. Πολέμου γὰρ περισχόντος, καὶ συμφορᾶς τῆς ἐσχάτης ἐπενηνεγμένης πόλεσί τε καὶ οἴκοις, οἱ μὲν ἐν πλατείαις καὶ στενωποῖς οἰμώζοντες διαθέουσι. Τό γε μὴν ὅσον ἐστὶν ἀσθενές τε καὶ ἄμαχον, οἷον τὸ θηλύων γένος, καὶ τὸ νηπίων ἐπ’ αὐτῶν ἀνεπήδησε δωμάτων, κομμὸν ποιεῖται καὶ ὀλολυγήν, ταῖς τῶν πολεμίων ἐνορῶν φάλαγξι, καὶ τὴν ὅσον οὐδέπω παρεσομένην ἐννοήσαντες σφαγήν. Ὀλολύξετε τοίνυν· κέκραγε γὰρ Ἐσεβών, καὶ ἐλάλησεν ἕως ἠκούσθη ἡ φωνὴ αὐτῆς. Πόλεις δὲ ταύτας εἶναί φησι τὰς Μωαβίτιδος τὰς μαχιμωτάτας. Ἀλλ’ εἰ καὶ οὕτως ἔχοιεν, φησί, τοσαύτην ποιήσονται τὴν ὀλολυγήν, ὡς μὴ λεληθότως, μηδὲ ἐν παραβύστῳ κλαίειν, ἀκουστὴν δὲ μᾶλλον γενέσθαι τὴν φωνήν, καὶ ἀναφανδὸν ὀλοφύρεσθαι, κατημεληκότων τῶν ἐν αὐταῖς τῆς αὐτῆς συνήθους ἀνδρείας, συντεθραυσμένων δὲ οὕτως, ὡς ἀμοιρῆσαι παντελῶς εὐσθενείας τε καὶ θράσους, καὶ τῶν εἰς ἀλκὴν ἐννοιῶν καὶ ἐγχειρημάτων. ^B

V. 5. Ἡ ὀσφὺς τῆς Μωαβίτιδος βοᾷ, ἡ ψυχὴ αὐτῆς γνώσεται, καὶ καρδία τῆς Μωαβίτιδος βοᾷ ἐν αὐτῇ, ἕως Σηγώρ· δάμαλις γάρ ἐστι τριέτης. Ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς ἀναβάσεως τῆς πρὸς σέ, κλαίοντες ἀναβήσονται τῇ ὁδῷ Ἀρωνιείμ· βοᾷ σύντριμμα καὶ σεισμός.

Προσβάλλουσιν ἀεὶ τῶν ἀνηκέστων συμφορῶν δριμεῖαί τε λῦπαι, καὶ ἀθυμίαι παγχάλεποι, καὶ δειμάτων ἔφοδος, οὐκ ἀνικάνως ἔχουσα καὶ τὴν ἄγαν εὐτολμοτάτην καταθραῦσαι καρδίαν. Ἐντεῦθεν οἶμαι τισι πρόσωπα μὲν γενέσθαι σκυθρωπά, καὶ οἷον ἐκ βάθους ἀναπηδώντας στεναγμούς, καὶ τῆς ἔσω φλογὸς τὴν ζέσιν διερμηνεύοντα. Ἡ ὀσφὺς τοιγαροῦν τῆς Μωαβίτιδος βοᾷ· τοῦτ’ ἔστιν, ἐν ὠδῖσίν ἐστιν, καὶ κεκρυμμένους ἔχει τοὺς πόνους, προκαταπτοουμένη δηλονότι ταῖς φήμαις, καὶ τὸν οὐδέπω παρεσόμενον ἐννοοῦσα πόλεμον. Ἔγνω γὰρ τοῦτο ἡ ψυχὴ αὐτῆς. Ταύτης τε ἕνεκα τῆς αἰτίας, ὀλοφύρεταί τε καὶ κέκραγεν ἐν αὐτῇ ἕως Σηγώρ, τοῦτ’ ἔστι, Μωαβῖτις ἅπασα χώρα, μέχρι καὶ αὐτῶν τερμάτων. Φασὶ γὰρ ἐπ’ αὐτοῖς τοῖς ὅροις τῶν Μωαβιτῶν τεθεῖσθαι τὴν Σηγώρ. Τίνος οὖν ἕνεκα ταῦτα συμβήσεται παθεῖν αὐτήν; Δάμαλίς ἐστι τριέτης. Ὁ τρίτος ἐνιαυτὸς τοῖς ἀλόγοις τῶν ζώων ἀρκεῖ πρὸς ἀκμήν, καὶ εἰς τὸ σφριγῶσαν αὐτοῖς ἐνεργήσασθαι δύναμιν. Τοιγάρτοι καὶ τοῦ χρῆναι δαμάζεσθαι καιρὸς αὐτοῖς ἐκεῖνος ἐστιν. ^C Ἕως τοίνυν ἐστὶν ἡ δάμαλις ἀπειρόζυγος, σφριγῶσά τε καὶ νέα, καὶ ἀρτιφυὲς ἐκφέρουσα κέρας, κατασκιρτῶσα τῶν αὐλῶν καὶ τῶν ἐπαύλεων καταρχεῖται πλειστάκις· τοιαύτη τις γέγονεν ἡ Μωαβίτις, ἐπιπηδῶσα τοῖς πέλας, καὶ κατασκιρτῶσα τῶν ἀσθενεστέρων. Ὑψηλὴν δὲ εἶναί φασιν αὐτήν, καὶ λεωφόρον τινὰ τὴν Ἀρωνιεὶμ οὕτω κεκλημένην, ἀνακομίζειν τε εἰς αὐτὴν τοὺς ἐξ ἑτέρων ἤκοντας ἢ πόλεων ἢ χωρῶν. Ἐπ’ αὐτῆς τοίνυν, φησί, τῆς ἀναβάσεως τῆς Ἀρωνιεὶμ, κλαίοντες ἀναβήσονται. Φωνὴ δὲ τοῖς κλαίουσι, σύντριμμα καὶ συσσεισμός. Προανακεκράγασι γὰρ τὰ ἐκ τοῦ πολέμου συμβησόμενα πάθη, μονονουχὶ συσσείοντος ἅπαντα, πόλεις τε καὶ οἴκους, καὶ τοὺς ἐν αὐτοῖς συντρίβοντος.

V. 6. Τὸ ὕδωρ τῆς Νεβρεὶμ ἔρημον ἔσται, καὶ ὁ χόρ

χόρ τος αὐτῆς ἐκλείψει· χόρτος γὰρ χλωρὸς οὐκ ἔσται· μὴ καὶ οὕτως μέλλει σωθῆναι; Πόλιν εἶναί φασι τὴν Νεβρεὶμ κειμένην μὲν ἐν ἐσχατιαῖς τῆς χώρας, γειτνιῶσαν θαλάσσῃ τῇ Ἐρυθρᾷ, εὔυδρον δὲ οὕτως καὶ εὔβοτον, ὡς καὶ ἵππον δύνασθαι κεκτῆσθαι πολλὴν τοὺς ἐν αὐτῇ· ταύτῃ τοι καὶ εἶναι μαχιμωτάτους, ἔχειν τε τὴν ἵππον ἐμπειροπόλεμον. Ἐκ θείας τοίνυν, φησίν, ὀργῆς, ἐκ τῆς τῶν πολεμίων ἐφόδου, ἔρημος ἔσται καὶ ὑδάτων καὶ χόρτου χλωροῦ. Οὗ δὴ γεγονότος, ἀτονήσει πάντως ἡ τῶν τακτικῶν ἐμπειρία προανῃρημένων τῶν ἵππων, καὶ διολωλότων ὑπὸ λιμοῦ. Ἀλλ᾽ εἰ τοῦτο γένοιτο, φησί, μὴ ἄρα φρονήσει μέγα καὶ οὕτως ἐφ' ἑαυτῇ; μὴ τούτου συμβεβηκότος μέλλει σωθῆναι, καὶ τὰς τῶν πολεμίων διαδράναι χεῖρας; προανῃρημένης γὰρ αὐτῶν τῆς ἰσχύος, ποία τις ἔσται λοιπὸν ἡ τῆς σωτηρίας ἐλπίς;

^A Ἐπάξω γὰρ ἐπὶ τὴν φάραγγα Ἄραβας, καὶ λήψονται αὐτήν. Συνῆψε ἡ βοὴ τὸ ὅριον τῆς Μωαβίτιδος τῆς Ἀγαλλεὶμ, καὶ ὀλολυγμὸς αὐτῆς ἕως τοῦ φρέατος τοῦ Ἐλείμ. Τὸ δὲ ὕδωρ τὸ Ῥεμμὼρ πλησθήσεται αἵματος· ἐπάξω γὰρ ἐπὶ Ῥεμμὼρ Ἄραβας. Καὶ ὁρῶ τὸ σπέρμα Μωάβ, καὶ Ἀριὴλ, καὶ τὸ κατάλοιπον Ἄδαμια ἀποστελῶ ὡς ἑρπετὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς.

^B Τὰ νοτιώτατα μέρη τῶν Δαμασκηνῶν κατανέμεσθαί φασι τὰ τῶν καλουμένων Σαρακηνῶν ἀναρίθμητα γένη, καὶ μέχρι αὐτῆς παρατείνοντα τῆς Περσῶν. Αὐτοὶ συνωπλίζοντο τοῖς Βαβυλωνίοις, καὶ κατεδήουν τὴν Μωαβιτῶν· εἴποντο γὰρ καὶ αὐτοὶ καίτοι τάχα που καὶ γένος ὄντες, καὶ γείτονες τῇ Μωαβιτῶν. Κέκληντο γὰρ καὶ Ἄραβες καὶ αὐτοί. Ληφθήσεσθαι τοίνυν φησὶ τὴν Νεβρείμ· Ἐπάξω γὰρ ἐπὶ τὴν φάραγγα Ἄραβας, καὶ λήψονται αὐτήν. Φάραγγα δὲ κατὰ τὸ εἰκὸς ὀνομάζει τὴν Νεβρείμ, διὰ τὸ ἐν κοίλῳ κεῖσθαι τόπῳ. Καίτοι τῶν ἑτέρων πόλεων ᾑρμένων ὑψοῦ, καὶ ἐν ὄρεσιν οὐσῶν. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ οὐ μέρος ἦν τῆς Μωαβιτῶν τὸ τῷ πολέμῳ συντετριμμένον, ἀλλ' ὅλη δι' ὅλου κατεδονήθη τε καὶ σεσάλευται μεθύοντος δίκην· ταύτῃ τοι φησὶν ἐκ περάτων εἰς πέρατα συναφθήσεσθαι τὴν βοήν, τῶν ὀλολυζόντων δηλονότι, καὶ τὸν τοῖς ἀπολεῖσθαι μέλλουσι θρήνον ἐκμελετᾷν εἰωθότων. Συνῆψε γὰρ ἡ βοὴ τὸ ὅριον τῆς Μωαβίτιδος, φησί, τῆς Ἀγαλλεὶμ, καὶ ὀλολυγμὸς αὐτῆς ἕως τοῦ φρέατος τοῦ Ἐλείμ. Τὰς δὲ ἔξω πόλεις, καὶ ἐπ' αὐτοῖς τοῖς τέρμασι κειμένας ὀνομάζει, τήν τε Ἀγαλλεὶμ φημι, καὶ τὸ φρέαρ τοῦ Ἐλείμ. Τεθεῖσθαι δὲ τὸν θρῆνον εἰς πᾶσαν αὐτῶν τὴν χώραν διαβεβαιούμενος, ὡς ἔφην, εἶτά φησιν, ὅτι τὸ ὕδωρ τὸ Ῥεμμὼρ πλησθήσεται αἵματος. Ἐνυδροτάτην δὲ εἶναι λόγος τὴν Ῥεμμών. Ἀλλὰ πλησθήσεται, φησίν, αἵματος, ἐκεῖνό που λέγων, ὅτι ταῖς τῶν ὑδάτων δαψιλείαις φιλονεικήσει κατὰ τὸν τοῦ πολέμου καιρὸν τῶν πιπτόντων τὸ αἷμα· καὶ πεφοινιγμένοι μὲν ὀφθήσονται ποταμοί, κατασκεδασθήσεται δὲ τῆς γῆς τὸ ὕδωρ, οὐκέτι καθαρόν, οὔτε μὴν ὕδατος ὄψιν ἔχον, ἀλλ' ἑτερόχρουν καὶ αἱματοειδές. Ληφθήσεσθαι δὲ καὶ αὐτὴν ἐξ Ἀράβων φησίν, ὥστε ἅπαν ^D μὲν σπέρμα Μωάβ, καὶ Ἀριὴλ ἐξαρθῆναι,

ἐξαρθῆναι, that is, to be destroyed and consumed. For indeed, concerning those who remain, he says, “I will send” them, like snakes upon the earth. For being bitter, they shall always walk toward captivity, just as some snakes, charmed by the incantations of certain men, as if nodding off, are rendered unusually mild. For the expression “I will send” signifies to cast forth. For it is the custom for those who take a region or city not always to destroy everyone utterly, but once the most warlike multitude is consumed, to place the remainder in the rank and class of captives. ^B If it is necessary also to adapt a useful interpretation to the history, it must be understood that the soul which is walled about by the fear of God is strong and difficult to capture, and proves superior to the hand of those who fight against it. For it conquers principalities and powers, the world-rulers of this darkness, the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. But if it should turn aside toward what is not fitting, and be carried outside the straight path, and by bypassing the things pleasing to God, be carried off toward the passions of this world, and shake off the yoke of obedience, he strips it of every support and makes it as it were without a wall, rendering it unguarded to enemies and preparing and leveling a path for the assaults of passions against it, so that in no way can it escape. Thus some are delivered to a debased mind and become attackable, exposed to monstrous passions, and nothing defends them, but they are cast ignobly under the feet of enemies. For if, he says, the God of all should close against a man, who shall open? And who shall overcome the all-powerful right hand of Him who delivers? Let us therefore remain in the fear of God. For thus we shall gain the grace of the favor from above, and spiritually we shall overcome sin and passions, and counting the tyranny of the devil as of very little account, we shall proceed toward the prize of the upward calling, perfecting a glorious and most approved life.

Num petra deserta est mons Sion? Eris enim veluti avis volantis pullus ablatus, filia Moab.

Shalmaneser the Assyrian campaigned against Samaria at opportune times, and took the cities in it, and furthermore mistreated many of those in Judea, and carried off a captive multitude into his own land. For this reason, the nations of the Moabites mocked Zion, that is, Jerusalem, and called it a desert rock, ^D not perhaps laughing so much at it, the wretched men, as at the God who is over all; for they were saying that His helping hand had grown weak, and for this reason it had come under the feet of enemies. “O then, daughter of Moab,” he says—for the logic is entirely consistent—“Is the mount of Zion a desert rock? Has Zion alone, he says, labored and fallen? Has she alone fallen under the feet of enemies? And has she succumbed to the desertion of her inhabitants? Or have you fallen into even worse things than she? For you shall be taken by enemies, and like a fledgling snatched from a nest you shall migrate into a foreign land, and to the enemies

^A you shall be a miserable captive, castaway, and subjected to the yokes of slavery. And so, that command is useful and necessary: "If your enemy falls, do not rejoice over him, because the Lord will see, and it will not please Him; and He will turn His wrath away from him." For it is not fitting to rejoice at the calamities of others, nor to take what happens to a neighbor as an occasion or pretext for our own delight; but if anyone should happen to be consumed by sorrow, we ought rather to sympathize with him, and with an eye fixed upon our own sins, to fear greatly, lest the wrath of Him who strikes should come upon us as well.

VERSES 3 AND 4. Then, O Arnon, deliberate more, and always make a covering of lamentation for it; in the noonday darkness they flee, they were astonished. Exiles of Moab shall not dwell with you from the start. They shall be a covering for you from the face of the pursuer, because your alliance is taken away, and the ruler who trampled upon the earth has perished.

The meaning of these words is exceedingly difficult to interpret, on account of the transitions from person to person, and the harshness of the composition, and it is not immediately obvious to everyone’s understanding. Nevertheless, as far as I am able, I shall strive to explain it. ^B Therefore, with the whole of the Moabitide wiped out, its cities torn down, its houses burned, and the Babylonians raging altogether rabidly, those who were able to escape took refuge in Arnon. This city is most fortified, and adjacent, perhaps, to the Moabitide. The address, then, is directed to it. "You however," He says, "after this, O Arnon, deliberate more." Observe, He says, in what way you might be able to save the survivors, and those who were able to escape the cruelty of the ravagers. "And make a covering of lamentation for it always." And make, He says, consider something humane; be a hiding place for those consumed by intolerable grief. For they flee in noonday darkness—that is, when it is day and the sun is shining at its zenith, they carry about a darkness of the mind. For the fear of death is enough to greatly disturb the soul, and it pours out upon the mind, as it were, a sort of night, the assault of extreme desperation. Hence He also says: "And they were astonished." For, struck by the terrors of war, ^C they were all but deprived of mind and sense. "But if," He says, "you do receive the Moabites, know, however, most plainly, that you have not saved everyone, but only a small and few remnants of those who have been extinguished." This, I think, He wishes to point out when He says: "Exiles of Moab shall not dwell with you from the start." You did not, He says, receive the fugitives when the war was first set in motion; were not those who were able to escape extremely few and all together rare? And so, the things spoken by God against the Moabites have been brought to their end. For they have perished, even if a small, and indeed hardly preserved, remnant remains. "But, O Arnon," He says, "you have received the Moabites, perhaps hoping that they too would one day be a hiding place for you from the face of the pursuer. But this will be not at all." Whence? ^D

^A For your alliance is removed, and the prince has perished, the one trampling upon the earth. For the one who always stood in arms for you, he says, the ruler of the Moabites, terrible and arrogant, and accustomed to trampling down those who opposed him like some dust, he has gone away and perished. For he was removed and taken from the midst. He teaches through these things that the hope for the Moabites to be able to seize power again has been utterly destroyed. For the wicked, he says, will be destroyed root and branch from the earth; and when divine wrath falls upon them entirely, what remnant of the sufferers will there be? Or who can restore them if God is subverting them?

And the throne shall be established with mercy, ^B and he shall sit upon it with truth in the the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking judgment, and hastening justice. In these words, it is clearly promised that Israel will be delivered in due time from the unbearable tribulation and the evils of captivity. For when Cyrus captured Babylon, Israel was released and was brought back by the pitying God to the holy city, under the leadership of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, who was of the tribe of Judah and David, and also Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest. The throne, therefore, he says—that is, the kingdom among the Jews—will be established with mercy; that is, it will return to its own proper order, by the pity of God. And he shall sit again upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking judgment. ^C And he calls the palaces a "tabernacle," as it seems, where those who held office used to pass their time, judging lawfully those who administered the seats of the kingdom. And as far as the will of God is concerned, they have been cultivators of justice, even if some have strayed from virtue, declining toward worse things. It must be known that after the return from Babylon, those of Israel no longer dwelt apart, such that the ten tribes and half of the tribe of Ephraim were in Samaria, with one reigning over them, and in Jerusalem the tribe of Judah, and half the tribe of Manasseh, with another reigning over them specifically; but, joined in one mind and conspiring together, they dwelt in Jerusalem, anointing one king thereafter. And this was, then, what had been said regarding them through the voice of the prophet: "And they shall ascend from the earth, and they shall labor a little to anoint a king and a prince." Yet God promises ^D the restoration of the Jewish throne, all but reproachfully casting back these things against Moab. For He twisted those scoffings, saying: "Petra is a desert, the mount of Zion is." No, he says, this and that shall happen to you, who laugh at the Israelites with a gaping and wide mouth. But God will certainly and entirely have mercy on them, and He will release them from what has happened; He will restore them to their former state, reforming their kingdom.

"We have heard of the pride of Moab, he is exceeding arrogant." Having declared very clearly the return from captivity

^A along the lines previously explained, and that there will be a return to their ancient form of authority, that is, their kingdom, he returns again to Moab and transfers his discourse to them. The text is spoken as if from the person of the holy prophets: "We have heard of the pride of Moab, he is exceeding arrogant." For by these words they agree that God is punishing them in justice, bringing upon them the punishment that is both due and fitting. They say they have heard of the pride of Moab, first of all not being ignorant of that most ancient history which the divine Moses expounds. For as we said above, Balak hired Balaam, saying, "Come, curse Israel for me," and furthermore, very many things were done long ago by the arrogance and pride of the Moabites, fighting against the divine majesty.

"I have removed the pride." ^B While the holy prophets confess most clearly that they have heard of the pride of the Moabitess, and know that she is altogether arrogant, God answers from the opposite side and says: "I have removed the pride," that is, I have not simply removed Moab as being overweening, but I have taken care that the arrogance itself, as if it were a physical thing, should be taken away from the midst. For I wage war with the proud, and I fight against those who choose not to have a modest opinion of themselves, but rather swell up in vain and lift their eyebrows high, being ignorant of the weakness of their own nature. It is written that "God opposes the proud." ^C Then, teaching that He punishes justly and does not bring punishments simply without cause, He levels an accusation against Moab, as suffering intolerably from pride as if from a disease.

"Not so thy divination, not so." I have, therefore, removed the pride, He says, that is, I have cut down Moab, but your divinations did not foretell these things to you. For false prophets announced that you would overcome the incursions of war, and would easily conquer your adversaries, and would not be able to be captured by enemies, but would mock the defeated. But these things are not so; it is far from it, ^D nay, it has turned out to the contrary, and the outcome of events is not according to your wish or hope. It is therefore difficult and truly harmful to pay heed to the words of those who mock, and to be carried away by the voices of sorcerers, which never come to pass according to one's hope.

VERS. 7. "Ululabit Moab: in Moabitide enim omnes plorabunt, inhabitantibus Deseth meditatio." That the divination has not turned out as they expected, but rather otherwise and altogether differently, He demonstrates clearly when He says: "Moab shall wail," even though those who practiced divination and the magic art did not predict that she would wail—nay rather, that having destroyed the enemies, they would applaud and insult those lying prostrate. Therefore, He says, all in the Moabitess shall lament. "And meditation shall be for those inhabiting Deseth." Now this city of Moab,

^A which must have devised for itself mournful songs and numerous lamentations, is indicated by this.

VERS. 8. *And they shall not revere the fields of Esebon, the vine of Sebama shall lament. You who absorb the nations, trample the vines even unto Jaser.* In these words, the discourse seems to be directed to those who destroyed Moab—I mean the Assyrians and Babylonians—to whom He gave command not to revere the fields of Esebon any longer, but to set fire to Esebon itself, and so to dispose of Sebama that they might lament for the vines that are in it. To them He also says: *You who absorb the nations.* For I command you, He says, O ruin of the nations and insatiable slayers, who like cruel and most savage beasts absorb the nations, trample its vines even unto Jaser. Now this is also ^B a city of the Moabites. By "vines" again in these passages, He designates the inhabitants of the Moabites. For it is customary for divinely inspired Scripture to compare those who are in each city and province to thickets, and forests, and indeed to vines. And certainly concerning Israel He says: "For the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah is a favorite plant." By saying "Trample its vines," He shows again that the victory over Moab was not the work of the strength of the Assyrians, but it was the all-powerful God who subjects those who oppose to their feet, and grants that their hand should be able to overcome.

*Do not approach, wander through the wilderness, you who have been sent; they have been left behind, they have crossed the wilderness.* They say ^C that when the Assyrians broke in, a great number of the Moabites fled into the bordering and neighboring wilderness, and strove to hide, and that only a very few in number were barely saved. And perhaps it was not difficult for the Babylonians even to find them, God permitting and extending His wrath even unto them. But since He chastises with measure, being benevolent, He almost commands those who have ravaged Moab not to join themselves to those who are destroying the fugitives, but to let them wander as if through a desert—that is, to consign them to oblivion and to let go the search for those who have fled thither. Hence He says: *Wander in the wilderness.* You who have been sent, He says, who have been sent forth because of My wrath to take Moab by force, wander through the wilderness, give [them] to oblivion, and abandon the search; for they have passed through it. Then the phrase *They have been left behind* is thrown in ^D between, again teaching that the province of the Moabites would not have found itself in these evils, had it not offended the all-powerful God immoderately.

VERS. 9, 10. *Therefore I will weep as the weeping of Jaser, the vine of Sebama; Esebon has cast down your trees, and He said: In your harvest and in your vintage I will trample, and all things shall fall, and joy and exultation shall be taken away from...*

your vineyards. ^A The prophetic word fashions for us the person of one weeping over the calamities of the Moabites, and perhaps of Jaser, which was devastated more than the others, and he says that the others too are to be lamented as was fitting for Jaser herself. By vines and trees he names those who inhabited the cities. He also enumerates the cities that were ravaged, Sabama and Esebon. But the hostile people speaks: In your harvest and your vintage, he says; but what does he say? Namely, I will trample, and all things shall fall. And in addition to these: Joy and exultation shall be taken away from your vineyards; for the Moabite is a lover of feasts, and one who offers many rites to demons, who spends the night at altars, and who always has at hand the pretext of joy, which is to sacrifice. He will wail and weep, and will be far from all gladness. For they shall not rejoice; nor shall they trample wine in the winepresses, for it has ceased. There will be, he says, no fruit on the vines; for the things born of them shall perish along with them. And as for the vines, if they are utterly cut down, this is a true saying. But if it pertains to us, as by way of an example concerning human affairs, the discourse teaches again that, along with the things that bring forth, the things that were brought forth shall perish, so that no mercy whatsoever should be granted by the enemies even to the pregnant women themselves. We say that ^B Jerusalem suffered this in the war against the Romans. Indeed, the Savior spoke, foretelling the things that were to happen to her, that she would be surrounded by armies; and the "Woe" would occur especially to those who are with child and to those who are nursing in those days.

VER. 11. Therefore my belly shall sound like a harp over Moab, and my interior like the wall which you renewed. ^C Since joy and gladness are removed from your vineyards, he says, and no one is to rejoice in them, when this event comes to pass, my interior shall become a harp, and a song, and a melody over you. For I am announcing your evils, and I am making famous the calamity brought upon you. And I shall cry out like a well-tuned lyre, and I shall strike it thus, and I shall make the song audible, like the wall which you renewed. For the blessed prophet said at the beginning of the vision: At night Moab shall perish; for at night the wall of Moab shall be destroyed. ^D Interpreting the meaning of these words, we said that upon an earthquake occurring, the wall of Moab was shattered, and before the incursion of the enemies, it was all but uprooted from its foundations, and it terrified the land of the Moabites as if by thunder. This they even restored, but they spent their labor on it in vain. For the Assyrians and the Babylonians captured the entire land easily and without effort. Therefore, my interior shall sound, he says, over your calamities like a harp, and I shall make your affliction so famous; just as, indeed, your wall was brought down, which you indeed renewed, but to no purpose. For as its own

wall fell of its own accord, there was no one in all the land of the Moabites, or even in the other cities and provinces, who was unaware of what had happened. ^A

Verse 12. And it shall be to your dishonor and shame, because Moab has labored over the altars, and will enter into its man-made things to pray, and will not be able to deliver it.

Furthermore, he says, another thing will happen, which will cause you disgrace and shame; for you will endure vain toils, filling the altars among you with blood, and performing ceaseless sacrifices, and offering prayers to things made by hand. You will obtain nothing that contributes to your profit or salvation. For they will not be able to deliver you from the impending evils. For what power is there in lifeless idols, which are also inventions of human art, and have creators who worship them? Therefore, as the blessed David says: "Let those who make them be like them, and all who trust in them" (Ps. CXVII, 8). It should be known, however, that the Moabites have become very superstitious—augurs, false prophets, and dealers in marvels, and they placed very great confidence in the evils of sorcery. For it is likely, I think, that they thought they could overcome the hand of their enemies, not so much by the experience of tactical warfare, as by the aid of the gods among them. But they have missed their hope, having called upon lifeless matter through sacrifices and prayers for aid. ^B

This is the word which the Lord spoke concerning Moab, when he also spoke.

This vision, he says, is that which has been spoken against the Moabites by God; when he also spoke, that is to say, even if, before the words were spoken through me, he had spoken a great many things about it, and had accused it of infinite evils. For as I said before, the divine Moses mentions the perversity of this nation, and commanded that they be held in the utmost hatred and hostility. He said, therefore: "An Ammonite and a Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of the Lord, even unto the tenth generation." It once led Israel away from the love of God, and persuaded them to worship Beelphegor, having stimulated them to filth through pleasures, and having ensnared them to destruction through the beauty of women. Therefore, the God of all has spoken concerning it. And now, he says, this word has come to pass concerning it through me. ^C

Verse 14. And now I say, in three years as the years of a hireling, the glory of Moab will be dishonored, with all the great wealth, and it will be left few and not honored.

The prophetic word now recalls us to a remembrance of history. For the ten tribes of Israel withdrew from Jerusalem, and half the tribe of Ephraim, and dwelt in Samaria; and they provoked him to anger with their golden calves, as Jeroboam the son of Nabat induced them to do this and impiously urged them on. Then they also devised other false ^D cults there, each one

^A dedicating what he saw fit as God. The Lord of all was therefore angered by these things; and, as His glory had been insultingly defiled and the laws of their fathers had been trampled upon, He all but hired the Assyrian Salmanasar and launched him against them. He, in turn, seized the whole land of the Samaritans and held sovereignty over it, settling upon it for three whole years; during this same time, the land of Moab was forcibly taken. ^B Therefore, He says, although God spoke long ago, yet I say now that within the three years of the years of a hireling—that is, of the king of the Assyrians—the glory of Moab shall be dishonored. By this word, he refers either to the kingdom among them, or to the magnitude of their cities, or to the multitude of the inhabitants, or perhaps to the age-group experienced in war. He shall be left, he says, very few and without honor; that is, everything that is honorable among them shall be consumed by war; and those who remain shall be few indeed, utterly despised, unmanly, and worthy of no account. How terrible, then, it is to fall into the hands of the living God! And to dare to offend the Almighty, what else is it but to fetch upon oneself all calamities? But salvation lies in willingly obeying Him, acknowledging Him alone, avoiding the snares of error, and saying to Him with good disposition: "O Lord, besides Thee we have known no other, Thy name we invoke."

THE WORD AGAINST DAMASCUS

The city of the Damascenes was most powerful and renowned; but it was impious and God-opposing, and most hateful to the all-holy God. ^C It was idolatrous and in no way fell short of the Assyrians in their abominations and haughtiness. Moreover, they offended the all-powerful God in another way. For those of the blood of Israel—that is, the ten tribes and the half-tribe of Ephraim—who had migrated from Jerusalem and dwelt in Samaria, had prostrated themselves before the golden calves, having been led to this and impiously urged on by Jeroboam the son of Nabat. They had broken away completely, and had leapt away in every way from the love of God, and had been brought to forgetfulness of the law given to them through the all-wise Moses. When the time called for it, and war was about to come upon them, they did not place their hope in the living God, but preferred rather to call upon those who at that time held the kingdom of Damascus and of all the land of the Syrians, that they might bring them aid and snatch them from the hand of the enemy. ^D For this reason, the God of all was angered and incensed against them. For they had utterly forgotten that they had been redeemed from Egypt and had cast off the unbearable yoke of servitude; that they had passed through the midst of the sea, and then had eaten manna, and had been given drink from the rock, and had prevailed over all their enemies, and had become heirs of the good things promised to their fathers; yet the miserable ones implored help from men, all but marking God with a black stone, as if He were unable to save them. For this reason, therefore, they were handed over to the king of the Assyrians, who, having captured all of Samaria

sowed destruction upon Damascus itself and laid waste to the entire land of the Syrians. ^A That the things said by us concerning these events are true, the prophet Isaiah himself will confirm, saying: "And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Aram, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up against Jerusalem to war against it, but they could not besiege it." And it was reported to the house of David, saying: "Aram has conspired with Ephraim," that is to say, the Syrian with those in Samaria. For "Aram" is interpreted as "Syrian," while "Ephraim," as if from the tribe of Ephraim, signifies all of Israel that dwelt in Samaria. Since it was from the tribe of Ephraim that Jeroboam, their first king, had arisen, and those who followed him in order, ^B as if from the royal tribe—I mean that of Ephraim—all of Israel in Samaria is intended. For we shall find in the fourth book of Kings that, while Pekah was reigning in Samaria, the Syrians were opposed to the Israelites, and Rezin managed the kingdom of Damascus. Then Ahaz persuades the tyrant of the Assyrians with money, and entreats him to come at a run, and to aid him, and to ravage Damascus; which is exactly what came to pass. In what manner, then, this most warlike and powerful and insolent city was destroyed, the prophet again proclaims to us in these words, and says: "Behold, Damascus shall be taken away from cities, and it shall be for a ruin, abandoned forever, for a bed of flocks and for rest, and there shall be none to chase them away." He does not say that it will simply undergo the trial of wars and the evils arising from them, but rather that it will be "taken away," that is to say, destroyed root and branch, and fall entirely so as not to be a city at all. For it shall be, he says, "for a ruin, abandoned forever"—and abandoned by whom, if not by those who inhabited it? Not as those who have migrated elsewhere, ^C but as those who have been consumed and destroyed by the swords of the enemy. By saying it would be a "bed of flocks," he has demonstrated a total desolation; for shepherds would not be resting and the herds of cattle would not be sheltering within it, if there were any inhabitants in its houses. For this reason, he very rightly adds, saying: "And there shall be none to chase them away." For no one, he says, will rebuke the shepherds because they have made a stable out of such a brilliant and celebrated city. "And there shall no longer be a stronghold for Ephraim to flee to, and there shall no longer be a kingdom in Damascus and the remnant of the Syrians. For thou art no better than the sons of Israel, and their glory." For the sake of an accurate clarification of the matters proposed, I think it needful to recall again the history laid down in the books of Kings. For when Ahaz was reigning over

^A Judah in Jerusalem, Pekah, son of Remaliah, reigning in Samaria over the ten tribes, was campaigning against Jerusalem. Since he feared that he might be too weak to capture it, he made Raasson, the king of the Syrians and of Damascus, his ally and fellow soldier. The blessed prophet Isaiah says this, as follows: "And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Raasson king of Aram (this is interpreted as Syrians or Syria) and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to fight against it. And it was told to the house of David, saying: Aram has conspired with Ephraim; that is, the Syrian with him who is of the tribe of Ephraim and rules over those in Samaria. And his soul and the soul of his people were dismayed, as a tree in the forest is shaken by the wind."

Ephraim, therefore, having abandoned God, the Saviour of all, and having held His hand and assistance in very small account, took as his helper the ruler of Damascus and of the Syrians; and for this reason, he not unjustly offended God. Damascus, he says, having been ravaged and reduced to desolation, and having undergone the calamities of war, will no longer be a stronghold for Ephraim to flee to, nor will there be a kingdom in it. Even if someone might say, "But even after its destruction, certain kings of Damascus were found," Paul also mentions this, saying: "In Damascus, the ethnarch of Aretas the king sought to arrest me." The prophetic discourse, however, carries great emphasis. ^B For he does not say that there will not be a kingdom in Damascus at all—though there were to be afterward certain toparchs or rather tribal prefects, who nevertheless did not attain to the splendour of a true kingdom. Therefore, he says, there will not be a kingdom in Damascus; but with it, the rest of the Syrians will also be weakened—that is, the entire nation under it. For Damascus is the metropolis of Syria.

Then he says to it: "For you are not better than the children of Israel and their glory." For if, he says, I have not spared the portion allotted and assigned to me—that is, the Israelites who have sinned against me—how shall you not entirely and by all means endure the injuries brought by war, being in no respect better than Israel?

^C VERS. 4. "Thus says the Lord Sabaoth: It shall be in that day, the failure of the glory of Jacob, and the fat things of his glory shall be shaken."

By these words he designates as Jacob those born of Jacob—that is, the ten tribes in Samaria and the half-tribe of Ephraim—who so turned away from the love toward God and from placing the hope of salvation in Him that they trusted in themselves, and exalted their brows high on account of their number and glory alone. Such were their ways. And the prophet declares this to us again most clearly. For he said regarding them: "Their glories are from births and childbearings and conceptions." Then to these he adds: "Give them, O Lord." What will you give them? "Give them a barren womb." Therefore it shall be at that ^D time...

he says, that there shall be "a failure of the glory of Jacob" ^A, that is to say, the great and innumerable multitude of those from Jacob, in which they also gloried and took pride, will be consumed by the swords of the enemy. "But the fat things of his glory shall be shaken," which is to say, their kingdom shall be brought down. For it is written in the Fourth Book of Kingdoms that when Hosea, son of Elah, was reigning in Samaria, the Assyrian Salmanasar came and besieged Samaria for three whole years, and he captured it and carried Hosea away to Babylon. Consequently, by the "fat things of the glory of Jacob" one might understand him who was reigning in Samaria at that time, or perhaps those throughout the whole region who were splendid and more notable than others, exceeding the measure of others in wealth and power, and indulging themselves in luxuries and honors from all.

Verses 5, 6. And it shall be as when one gathers the standing harvest, and reaps the seed of the ears; and it shall be as when one gathers an ear in a hard valley. And there shall be left in it stubble, or as berries of an olive, two or three, on the top of a high branch, or four or five, left on the branches thereof.

^B That the Assyrians fighting against those in Samaria would be victorious easily and without sweat, and furthermore, that they would not go to total and complete destruction, but that a small remnant would exist, the prophetic word has clearly revealed to us in these expressions. For those who have the skill for reaping ears of corn expertly cut and gather the grain, but always leaving behind the stubble as useless, they traverse the whole breadth of the fields. And those who are accustomed to harvest the fruit of the olive trees partly strike them down with a rod, and partly touch them also with their hands and gather them by stripping the branches; but it is likely that three or four, or perhaps five, remain on the top of the branches and escape the eyes of the harvesters. He says that something of this kind will happen to those in Samaria; for he asserts ^C that they will suffer the same fate as the ear of corn when it falls into the hands of the harvesters, and that they will be left behind just like stubble in it—that is, a few of the more obscure ones—or as two or three olive berries escaping the eye of the harvesters, because they are hidden on the highest branches.

Verses 7, 8. Thus says the Lord God of Israel: In that day a man shall trust in Him who made him, and his eyes shall look to the Holy One of Israel; and they shall not be trusting in the altars, nor in the works of their hands, which their fingers made, but they shall be trusting in the Holy One of Israel, and they shall not look to their wooden images, nor to their ^D abominations.

The most wise Paul, seeing that it is neither useless nor vain for men to be instructed by God,

those who have been called by Him to the knowledge of the truth, he writes in these words: "If you endure discipline, God is offering Himself to you as to sons; for what son is there whom a father does not discipline?" He also adds those things from the divinely inspired ^A Scripture; for he immediately brings forward: "My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord, nor lose heart when reproved by Him. For whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives." Since the Creator of all is good, He desires all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Therefore, He has often admonished through the holy prophets those of the blood of Israel, but especially those who migrated from Jerusalem to Samaria. ^B But they, intemperately turning toward what was pleasing to themselves, and having truly and naturally abandoned God, became worshipers of demons and offered worship to inanimate idols. Since they labored under such great ignorance that they refused to repent, at last God punished them. For those whom words do not assist, affliction changes, turning them, as it were by necessity and force, to that which is pleasing to God. Something similar is found to have been said by the blessed David: "With bit and bridle you shall restrain their jaws, ^C of those who do not draw near to You." For just as those accustomed to taming colts, and those skilled in such matters, turn with bridles the horses that are wilder toward a controlled course, so the God of all, by the necessities of labor and pain, often urges and circumflects the rebellious and unbridled so that they may desire to live rightly. Such a thing happened to the inhabitants of Samaria, who, after having sustained the calamities of war, barely recognized Him who was punishing and offended; and, having cast off the worship of idols, they turned the eye of their soul to the Holy One of Israel, expecting, of course, to receive from Him assistance and deliverance from the evils brought upon them. ^D For, he says, they will not trust in altars, nor in the works of their hands, which their fingers have made, and they will not look to their own groves, nor to their abominations. For it was their custom to ascend the summits of the mountains, and, as it is written, to fall down under the oak and the poplar before the works of their own hands. But, he says, they will no longer look to these things, having learned by experience that the matter is vain and altogether unprofitable to them, or rather, even the cause of every disaster. For it is on account of this cause that they have perished and been delivered to enemies. It is therefore most wise to be cautious and with all strength to decline the divine wrath, and not to learn to meet evils by experiencing them, but rather to maturely remove beforehand the causes for which God might be angry, and, when God is moved to anger, to purge oneself by avoiding more shameful things before the plague and lashes, by cultivating the best, and by exercising every kind of virtue.

Vers. 9, 10. On that day your cities will be forsaken, as the Amorites and the Hivites forsook them from the face of the

^A sons of Israel; and they shall be desolate, because you have forsaken God your Savior, and have not remembered the Lord your helper. From these events, he convinces them to recognize that matters turned out for them quite the opposite. For in the past, they were victorious while God assisted them, and they were formidable to the cities and regions of the Gentiles. For they took them without sweat, as God made everything steep and difficult smooth for them. But since they became imitators of the impiety of those people, they became cowardly and easily captured just like them. For their cities have been laid waste, and have been abandoned by those who lived in them, in the same manner as the Hivites and Amorites once fell, consumed by their own swords. He sets forth the cause clearly, immediately for the weakness into which they had slipped, and for their having endured such a cruel and unbearable calamity. "For you have forsaken the God your Savior," he says, "and have not remembered the Lord your God." For though they ought to have given thanks for the benefits by which they were affected—in part because they were redeemed from slavery in Egypt, in part because they became superior to their enemies and plundered the cities of those who resisted them, and in part because they were brought into the very land of promise—they repaid the Lord with evil, offending Him without fear and not suffering any remorse in any way, but on the contrary, considering the Law prescribed through the all-wise Moses of very little account, and kicking away entirely the piety toward God, and bestowing worship upon lifeless materials, saying to the golden calves, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt." ^B When, therefore, we are with God, and are eager to care for the things that are His, and have chosen to accomplish what is pleasing to Him, then indeed we shall be altogether superior to our enemies; and we shall trample upon principalities and powers, and the world-rulers of this darkness, the spiritual forces of wickedness; then we shall master, and very quickly too, strange pleasures and the impulses of the flesh; then we shall conquer evil thoughts, and the spirits of him who exercises power will find no place in us. But when we have neglected to keep close to God, we become weak and unmanly, and we shall be under the feet of our enemies, and no way will be found to check the grasping Satan.

Therefore you will plant an unfaithful planting, and an unfaithful seed. On the day you plant, you will be led astray. But if you sow in the morning, it will bloom for the harvest, on the day you inherit, and as a father you will distribute inheritance to your sons. ^C

I shall attempt to clarify as best I can the meaning of the passage before us, which has been cloaked in much obscurity. The meaning is therefore as follows: I have already said that those of Israel (that is to say, Ephraim, so that you may understand the ten tribes transferred to Samaria) being deceivers and deceived, and having devised what was unlawful, had a high brow, and thought that absolutely none of the enemies could overcome their hand, because they were ^D innumerable and extremely populous. But they were frustrated in their hope. They have fallen; and [alt-version omitted]

^A some have been consumed in war, while others have been carried away into the lands of the victors, as captives and fearful ones, and have come to be in every kind of misery. But when time had passed and they were brought back from the land of the Persians to the holy city, and afterwards they ceased to have kings in their turn, and all of them dwelt in Jerusalem and honored the law of God, then their children were also in safety, and the successions ran on to children's children. The discourse now teaches something of this kind, presenting an enigma as it were concerning grain and ears. For since, he says, you did not remember the Lord your God, for this cause, what you plant—that is, the seed and offspring from your midst—will be unreliable and not stable for preservation. ^B But when you plant, and see that it has become numerous, then you shall be led astray; for you will think, he says, that you are confident in the multitude, but you will not reckon truly. For they shall fall like ears of grain, and you will find the hope placed in them to be altogether profitless. But the phrase, "If you sow in the morning," that is, if you have come to be in the light, and have finally acknowledged the One who is by nature and in truth the Lord, who saves easily and has the power to aid; then what has been planted, or sown, shall bloom for the harvest, that is, it shall be brought to completion. For the ear of grain to be consumed prematurely brings to those accustomed to farming a loss of both labor and hope; but to reach the harvest grants the most complete hope for good things. Your plantation, therefore, will bloom for the harvest—that is, will bring forth full fruit—when it becomes morning for you; that is, when you are found as if in the light and day, and having come to the acknowledgment of God. Then, as a father, you will bequeath it to your children as their lot. For you will pass on to your sons, as a kind of inheritance, serenity of soul and the participation of the help from above.

VERS. 12, 13. Woe to the multitude of many nations! As the sea surging, so shall you be troubled; and the back of many nations shall sound like many waters; like many waters, many nations, as many waters driven with force. And He shall drive him out, and shall pursue him afar off, as the chaff of the winnowers before the wind, and as the dust of a wheel ^C which a storm carries.

The God of all, being a lover of mankind, does not leave those from Israel bereft of consolation, but frequently couples hope for good things with fear, and does this through a divine plan, so that he may benefit those who listen by means of both. That their cities will indeed be laid waste has been stated clearly; and he has taught the cause of the suffering by saying, "Because you have forsaken the Lord your God, and have not remembered the Lord your God, your helper." But He who has struck soon promises also that He will heal. He explains something that happened, and it is necessary to speak of it briefly because of its usefulness. When Hezekiah was occupying the throne of the kingdom in Jerusalem in those times, Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, made an expedition against the fortified cities of Judea and took them. For it is written thus: He then sends Rabsaces from Lachis to Jerusalem in order that

to besiege it; and upon his arrival, he mocked the glory of the God and Savior of us all. For the senseless man insisted that He could not save them, even if He wished to do so. But, having used barbaric language and having practiced a barbaric mindset, he recognized—taught by experience—that it is hard for any man to exalt himself against the supreme majesty. For the angel of the Lord went out and slew, in one night, one hundred and eighty-five thousand from the camps of the aliens; and as they rose in the morning, they found all the bodies dead. Since the one who sent him—I mean Sennacherib—was frustrated in his expectations, he returned as a fugitive, and he was barely saved upon reaching home; indeed, not long after he was killed by his own sons. For it happened, it says, that while he was worshipping at home before his own patriarch, Sarach, his sons Adrammelech and Sarasar butchered him with swords. The prophetic word remembers this history for us in these passages, and it foretells the incursion of the Assyrians, saying: "Woe to the multitude of many nations!" and the things that follow. For it laments their wretched state as if they were about to die, with the angel destroying them. That it was not one nation, but many, it demonstrates clearly when it names them a "multitude of nations." They invaded the lands, or rather the cities of Judea, like abundant water and like the force of water leaping down and murmuring, flooding against their adversaries like nothing less than the sea. Those who are in pursuit always strike at the backs of those who are fleeing. He calls their "back" the nations here, because many nations at their hands are pressed by persecution. "Then afterwards," it says, it will "exterminate" him—that is, it will send him from the rear ^B and pursue him from afar—"like the chaff of the dried grain winnowed by the wind, and as the dust of a wheel carrying a tempest." For what is so light and mobile as the dust from a wheel and threshing floor, which a violent wind scatters? That Sennacherib went away as a fugitive will be confirmed by God, the Lord of all, as He says to him through the voice of Isaiah: "And I will put a muzzle in your nose and a bridle on your lips, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came."

"Towards evening there shall be mourning, before morning, and it shall not be. This is the portion of those who plundered you, and the inheritance of those who inherited you."

I had previously said that Rabsaces had surrounded Jerusalem with his fighting men ^C and had threatened that he would take it not long after, but he perished with his whole army before dawn and daybreak. There shall be mourning, therefore, it says, towards evening, when those in Jerusalem were surely expecting that there would be a morning attack and the onset of war; but it ceased before dawn. Therefore He says: There shall indeed be mourning towards evening; but it shall not be before morning, that is, the tear shall cease and come to an end; and together with the fears of suffering, it shall depart, with God giving aid and paradoxically destroying the battle lines of the enemies, and moreover ^D the leader from the land of the Jews. The blessed David accounts for this, saying...

"Weeping shall tarry for the evening, and there shall be joy in the morning" (Ps. XXIX, 6). ^A But he says, this is the lot, this is the portion of those who have plundered you and torn you apart as their own property. By these words he reproaches those from Israel, because they themselves have committed acts that were likely to result in the entire nation being utterly rooted out; yet he himself again has compassion, and punishes with death those who had plundered the people marked out for him. For he says: "When the Most High divided the nations, when he dispersed the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. And the Lord's portion became his people Jacob, the lot of his inheritance, Israel" (Deut. XXXII, 8, 9). But in addition to this, examine this for me more minutely, and as one who from things historically enacted sets out toward deeper meanings. When evil and opposing powers, like violent water poured out upon our soul, ^B or invading with external temptations, or with the innate impulses of the flesh, set out to besiege the well-disposed mind: let no one who knows how to distinguish himself as a hero with God fall into a state of listless cowardice. Rather, having placed his hope in Him, let him be stronger than every fear. For who can doubt that he will obtain help from Him? For the Lord knows how to rescue the pious from temptation, and the blessed Paul also writes: "God is powerful, who will not suffer you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but will, along with the temptation, make a way out, that you may be able to bear it" (I Cor. X, 13). And as the Psalmist says: "The angel of the Lord shall encamp round about those who fear him, and shall deliver them" (Ps. XXXIII, 8). And when ^C heretics, ignorant of holy dogmata and confident in their own perversity, rise up against the worshippers of truth, and attack them, fierce and bold, either by stirring up wars and persecutions, or by heaping afflictions upon them and the fear of death, nonetheless they too shall be weakened; for the Lord wages war with a secret hand against Amalek throughout all generations, as it is written.

CHAPTER XVIII. VERSES 1, 2. "Woe to the land of the wings of ships, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia! That sends messengers by sea, and paper letters upon the waters. For light messengers shall go to a nation lofty and a strange people, and a hard one. Who is beyond it? A nation desperate and trodden down."

One might wonder to himself, and perhaps reason and say: For what reason, when the prophetic word here was against Damascus, does he also introduce the mention of the land which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia? We say, therefore, that at many and various times the Israelites, ^D having heedlessly abandoned the God who is the preserver of all, and having fallen into the error of many gods, and having completely neglected the Mosaic commandment, were chastised by God, with wars stirred up against them at various times, and by the calamities that wasted them away from these. And they,

^A though they ought to have healed their grief by repentance and to have turned away from their own wickedness, and returned to what was pleasing to the lawgiver, and sought the assistance that comes from Him, they instead hired for themselves the alliances of neighboring nations. Sometimes they approached the kings of Damascus, and sometimes those of the Egyptians; and not only this, but they also learned the worship of the nations that aided them, and hastened to emulate them. And so, Ahaz, the son of Jotham, king of Judah, when he was in Damascus, having seen an altar set up for an idol, fashioned with a novel elegance, constructed one similar to it and dedicated it in the house of God. Therefore, the vision came against Damascus. ^B For, "Behold," He says, "Damascus shall be taken away from cities, and there shall no longer be a stronghold for Ephraim to flee to." Do you see the reason immediately brought forward for saying that Damascus shall be taken away from cities? For it will no longer be, He says, so fortified that Ephraim, who reigned in Samaria, might flee to it. Therefore, He shifts the discourse to the land of the Egyptians. For they of Israel, and especially those inhabiting Jerusalem, were approaching them too, and were intensely seeking after their company and aid, especially as the Babylonians were invading. And so, through the voice of the prophet, He says: "Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who trust in horses and chariots!" ^C Now, something like this occurred. Nebuchadnezzar was campaigning against the land of the Jews at various times. And in passing by, he plundered, so to speak, all the cities of the East. And when he wished to take the city of the Tyrians, which was an island at that time, and then fell into a shortage of ships to carry them across, possessed of Persian spirit and pride, and relying upon the multitude of his troops, he ordered the sea to be made passable by the raising of a mole, which would form a wide, public road for him from the mainland as far as the city of the Tyrians itself. The Tyrians, therefore, fearing that the city might be captured—the efforts of the Babylonians having been brought to an end—gathered ships from everywhere and ^D removed from the island, leaving the city empty for him. When Nebuchadnezzar learned of this, he moved his army to take the land of the Egyptians, and he seized it without resistance, God inciting him against the Egyptians; because they, too, always raising their eyebrows high, boasted arrogantly against those of Israel, as though they did not have a God who had the power to save them. For when called upon for help and to defend them, they claimed that the gods among them were stronger than the God of Judah. And that the Babylonian took the land of the Egyptians after the toil at Tyre becomes clear from God saying to the prophet Ezekiel: "Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, subjected his forces to great servitude against Tyre. Every head was bald, and every shoulder peeled, and there was no reward for him and his forces for the hard servitude with which he served against Tyre. Therefore, I have given him the land of Egypt." The prophet therefore adds to this word: "Woe," saying: "Woe to the land of the wings of ships beyond the rivers of Ethiopia." The rivers of Ethiopia are seven.

mouths, by which the broad and great river of Egypt mingles with the sea. He calls the land beyond the rivers that which is now Alexandria, but was then called On. It was indeed very populous and had very courageous inhabitants, and it stood a little way off from the rivers of Egypt. For from the last mouth (its name is Heracleum), it is distinguished toward the west by about eighty stadia. Since it was the custom for those living in the aforementioned city to sail back and forth across the river, as it was always navigable, and to export goods to others and import them, and to acquire very abundant profit from the markets and trade, the prophetic discourse therefore exclaims at the ships, but not bringing the "Woe" against the ships, but rather against those who were always using them, rejoicing and luxuriating, as I said, in the profit gained from them. For with the whole region having been occupied by Nebuchadnezzar, every form of trade ceased, and the extent of the confidence in this was cut off, with those who possessed them perishing at the same time. "Woe, therefore," he says, "to the wings of the ships of that land which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia." He calls the sails "wings of the ships," into which the force of the winds falling, they carry them along like a bird through the midst of the waves. "Who sends ambassadors by the sea, and paper letters upon the water." The meaning of these words is very difficult; ^B yet it teems with a narration of Greek history, which we must necessarily relate, not standing outside what is reasonable or becoming to Christian discourse, but in order to make the explanation of the thoughts clear to the hearers. The history goes in this way: Some of the poets among the Greeks fable that Myrrha was the daughter of a certain Cinyras, who, being carried away by unbridled impulses toward pleasure, lewdly consorted with his own daughter and made her the mother of a boy, whom he also named Adonis. Having done this, acting out of shame and convicted of an impious crime against the laws of nature, he exposed the infant, as they say, on a mountain. But certain nymphs there, whom they also call mountain demons, took him, nurtured him, and kept him safe; and when he had reached puberty and the maturity of youth, he appeared to be of a most beautiful form; he practiced hunting and diligently cultivated that pursuit in the woods. ^C Then, as they say, Venus, a harlot-like woman, having caught sight of him there, loved him, consorted with him, and was always embracing him. Mars, who was offended by this, being a rival and competitor of Venus, assumed the form of a wild beast and leaped upon the young man. He died on the spot. This event caused grief to Venus; and so she was distraught and overcome with fear, such that she descended even to Hades to bring back her lover. But when Pluto’s wife, seeing that the young man was someone she greatly embraced and being of admirable beauty, would not let him go, they agreed among themselves that, with the period of the year divided, they would have him by alternating turns. When Venus returned and announced this to her own intimates, or friends, or worshippers, the matter turned into a festival and a celebration. And so the Greeks devised such a festival from this. ^D

They would pretend, for the sake of the mourning Venus, on account of the death of Adonis, to join in the lamentations and weeping; but when he had returned from Hades and she declared that the one sought for had been found, they would join in the rejoicing and leaping for joy; and right down to our own times this sport was performed in the temples at Alexandria. Those who were of the blood of Israel learned this too, and actually performed it, having abandoned the God who is ^B by nature and in truth, and having turned aside to what is not permitted, and having been senselessly snatched away into destruction and ruin by the deceits of demons. The blessed prophet Ezekiel also makes mention of this; for he spoke thus: "And I saw, and behold, women sitting there, lamenting for Thammuz" (now Thammuz is interpreted as Adonis).

Something of this kind was also done by those who were in the land beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, about which we spoke a little more clearly above. Taking a piece of pottery, then writing a letter to the women in Byblos, as if Adonis had been found, and placing it in the pottery, and sealing it, they would cast it into the sea, having performed certain rites over it; and as they alleged, it was carried automatically to Byblos on the manifest days of the year. And when certain women, friends of Venus, received it, and took the letter, they would cease their mourning, as if Adonis had been found by Venus. The prophetic word, therefore, mocks for us those who dwell in the land beyond the rivers of Ethiopia as being at one time idolaters and ^C impious, and deceivers, and haters of God, and says: "Who sends hostages by the sea, and paper letters upon the water." And to this there follows entirely the "Woe," just as it does to the "wings of ships." For "Woe to the land of the wings of ships," it says. Therefore, the "Woe" is applied in common to the one sending "hostages by the sea"; that is to say, pledges of mutual friendship. For just as if they were celebrating the mysteries of Venus for those who worshipped her in Byblos, and suffering from the same madness as them, they sent the letters—not by putting them on ships with messengers, but as if upon the water, because, as I said, they had placed them in a pot. We have been forced, only in order to declare the understanding of the words, to commemorate rotten and old-wives' tales, and Greek abomination. "For swift messengers will go to a tall nation, and a strange and harsh people. Who is beyond it? A desperate and trodden-down nation." I said that the kings of the Assyrians had offended those who dwelt in the land ^D beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, because they not only promised aid to the Israelites who were seeking it, but even sent it, even if they did not help them at all. From this, they were stirred; and after they had depopulated the whole of Judea—to use this word—having brought war upon the Egyptians, they captured the entire land without any labor, God granting them to defeat the hand of their adversaries, because they had been stirred up against the Egyptians. Therefore, with the Babylonian about to conquer their region, certain couriers set out from Judea and announced that an incursion was not far off. Concerning whom the prophet:

^A *They shall go, light messengers;* that is to say, swift and as if winged and agile, and they shall announce the calamity of war that is near and already at the gates. He calls the Egyptians an *exalted nation and a foreign and harsh people*; "exalted" and "lofty" in place of proud, or light and agile, and exposed to no wound or blow; "foreign and harsh" as endowed with a rare kind of cruelty and an unusual savagery, which has no superior here. For who, he says, is beyond him? In place of "Who is so light and ignorant and unskilled, and who has exercised such an unaccustomed perversity against good things as the Egyptian people?" For they were the greatest worshippers of idols. Therefore, he also calls them a "desperate nation" and a "trampled people": desperate, in that they were ignorant of Him who is by nature and truly God; trampled, because, having their spirit subjected and laid down under the errors of demons, they all but succumbed under their feet. But do not understand the saying differently. For while they were falling into the hands of the Assyrians, with every hope of joy cast away, they were so trampled that, if it is permitted to say so, they could never be restored, but must lie subject to and be laid under the feet of the victors. ^B

VERS. 3. *Now all the rivers of the earth, as a inhabited region, their region shall be inhabited.*

He also conveniently predicts the manner of their captivity. For the inhabitants of the Egyptian land believed they could not be captured by the Babylonians, because their whole region was girded by very many and great rivers, and had spacious and huge marshes. For regions of this kind are inaccessible to marauders and not very convenient for incursions. But when God was angry with them, He rendered this prepared and easy for the Babylonians. ^C For by drying up every confluence of waters, He made the damp ground fit for cavalry. I suppose the prophet denotes this here when he says: *Now all the rivers of the earth, as an inhabited region, their region shall be inhabited.* For, he says, those places which were always navigable and damp will be such at the time of war, that the region will henceforth be completely inhabited, and the land altogether bereft of waters. For what could the divine and omnipotent and supreme nature not be able to accomplish?

*As if a sign should be lifted up from a mountain, as the voice of a trumpet, it shall fall under the hearing.*

Leaders of military affairs in time of war station certain men on heights and order them to lift a sign again and again; which thing it is manifest is ^D known to the whole army

They use also the sounds of trumpets, either rousing them to fight to some customary rhythm, or calling them away from war when it seems good to them. Therefore, even that which is raised on high is a most notable sign. For those who are accustomed to doing this stand upon a mountain, and the sound of the trumpets is audible and clear to all who are in the battle. Therefore, he says, the suffering of the Egyptians will be so well known everywhere as to be comparable to a sign raised upon one of the mountains; and it will be as renowned, just as, indeed, is the chime of the trumpets. From such things we shall understand that, and it will be of great benefit to us, by no means to provoke to anger the incorruptible nature; or by seeing what is unlawful in every way and altogether, and by rejecting the worship due to Him, or by conspiring with deserters and apostates and by imitating the characters of those who are subject to divine wrath, we might come into society with them in their calamities and pay the same penalty from God. One may see that this has happened to the inhabitants of Egypt. For since those from Israel were offended, and then those who promised to save them were given over to their enemies for destruction and ruin, even when God would not have it so.

"For thus the Lord said to me: Security shall be in my city, as the light of the heat of midday, and as a cloud of dew in the day of harvest it shall be before the harvest."

The account of the history is clear, yet we shall recount it cursorily. For God saved Jerusalem when Rabshakeh was besieging it and had surrounded it with the numberless multitude of the Assyrians; how did He save it? "For the angel of the Lord went out," he says, "and killed in the camp of the Assyrians in one night one hundred and eighty-five thousand." It shall therefore be, he says, security in my city. And that I have become a helper to those in danger, it shall be so manifest to all everywhere, as the light at midday is bright and most flourishing. For when the sun is at high noon, and is sending its ray from above in the most flourishing manner upon those on earth, all things are illuminated with most abundant light. Therefore, he says, the grace and security given by me at that time to those in danger shall be just as if a cloud of dew were in the days of harvest before the reaping. And what it is that he wishes to signify, I will say again: It is the custom of those who reap not to apply the iron to the ears of grain before the dew has descended and made the stalk easier to them to the touch. The thing is therefore a matter of prayer for them, I mean the dew descending from God. Therefore the security from God has become thrice-desirable to those in Jerusalem, just as also the dew falling in the days of harvest before the reaping. "When the ear is finished, and the unripe grape has flowered, putting forth a blossom. And he shall take away the small clusters with sickles, and shall take away the branches,"

^A and at the same time he shall cut down and take away with the birds of heaven and the beasts of the earth. And the birds of heaven shall be gathered upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall come upon him.

The meaning of these words is extremely difficult and by no means obscure, ^B and the composition of the diction is likewise so; but, as far as I am able, I will endeavor to explain it. He transfers the discourse, therefore, as if from the knowledge of husbandmen. For it is their custom, when they see that the vines have flowered and now possess somewhat of the appearance of unripe grapes, to prune away the redundant shoots, and to cut away with sickles the small clusters that are superfluously attached to the larger ones, so that the larger clusters, receiving a more nourishing sap, may be able to yield their fruit. The God of all is said to have done something of this kind, whether concerning the Assyrians, or even concerning the Egyptians; for the discourse is not sufficiently clear as to whom it most applies. If, therefore, anyone prefers to understand the multitude of the Assyrians—which besieged the holy city—as one vine, we say that we can find a great cluster signified therein, namely, he who, shining from the royal throne, did not perish with the rest, but he indeed escaped, whereas the remaining crowd, occupying the order and series of the smaller grapes, was consumed, and the most ready sword of the Lord, as if it were a sickle, pruned them away like superfluous shoots. For they fell, as I said, destroyed by the hand of an angel, and their corpses became a delight for the creatures of the field and the birds of heaven. But if you wish these things to be said of the Egyptians, you will understand that the ^C Assyrians, while they ravaged it, did not destroy everyone root and branch, nor did they commit them to utter slaughter, but, as if striking with a sword places and villages that were like small clusters, they tempered their actions to the angers of the merciful God, who indeed punishes those who offend, yet often cuts short the penalties, and does not permit those who are being punished to perish entirely, God, who is a lover of mercy, instructing their judgments and not permitting those who are being instructed to be destroyed once and for all.

VERS. 7. *In that time shall gifts be brought to the Lord of Sabaoth from a people afflicted and torn away, and from a people great, from this time forth and forever. A nation hoping and trodden under foot, which is in the part of the river of its country, to the place where the name of the Lord of Sabaoth is invoked, mount Sion.* ^D Having most excellently explained the events that were about to befall the tribes of the Egyptians in war, he makes mention subsequently also of their conversion to God, and how, having sent away the ancient mist of error from the eyes of their mind, and having said farewell to the worship of idols, they will betake themselves to better things; and they will recognize Him who is by nature and truly God and the Creator and Lord of all, and being transformed as it were toward a new and select life, they will bear fruit to God in those things by which they can be acceptable, and abundant in all praises, they will bring as it were gifts unto an odor of sweetness to God: faith, hope, charity. He calls them an afflicted people, inasmuch as they sustain very many calamities and undergo the force of divine wrath. To these things, he says "torn away": perhaps [meaning] the transit

to endure the distress of those who have undergone sufferings from the divine wrath. And furthermore, [it is] also "plucked up"—perhaps indicating thereby their transition to better things. For indeed, a plant is transplanted, and being plucked up from the pit in which it was, it moves to another; and this is the best method of agriculture for those practiced in farming. Thus, too, the mind of those in errors is transplanted in a certain way, as if plucked up from the ancient deceit, and planted toward different thoughts, and furthermore to pursuits and knowledge that are superior—or rather, incomparably better than the ancient ones. And that they will bear fruit for an age of time, that is, continuously, with no interruption occurring in between, but always rather until the end. Hence, he also calls it a "great people," signifying either its fruitfulness spread far and wide thereby, or that it has become illustrious, having been called through the faith which is in Christ. For those who once surpassed all others in the crimes of idolatry are now better and more prudent than many, possessing a most ardent love for Christ and fortitude and confidence for every one of the goods. For where sin abounded, he says, grace did superabound ^B. Where, then, shall they bear fruit? In the place, he says, where the name of the Lord Sabaoth has been invoked—that is, on Mount Sion, where the name of the Lord Sabaoth would be invoked. By this, he signifies the Church, the great and intelligible mountain; for nothing in it is lowly, nor are its dogmas trodden underfoot or cast aside, but whatever is great and high: the knowledge of God in truth, clearly, and the clearest manifestation of the mysteries of our Savior. Frequently, the divinely inspired Scripture calls the Church of Christ "Mount Sion," as though naming, from the first, the spiritually truer Sion, which is high and a watchtower. And thrown into the middle is: "A nation hoping and trodden underfoot, which is in part of the river of his land." For the conversion of the Egyptians to God began from a certain part of the region situated beyond the river, so that you may understand one of the cities of the Rhinocoruritae that are there. For he says in the following, in the vision of Egypt: "In that day there shall be an altar to the Lord in the land of the Egyptians, and a pillar to the Lord at its border. And it shall be for a sign to the Lord, and for an age in the land of Egypt." And "trodden underfoot," as being crushed by the calamities of war; but "hoping," because afterwards it fixed its hope on Christ, and submitted its neck to the yokes under Him, and served Him, and produced the modes of piety as fruits ^C.

TOMUS IV

THE VISION OF EGYPT

Behold, the Lord sits upon a light cloud, and will come into Egypt, and the things made by hands of Egypt shall be shaken from His face, and their heart shall fail within them.

How the region of the Egyptians has been saved, and to

piety as if ensnared, through faith—clearly that which is in Christ—although it was polytheistic and strangely sick with error, the prophet attempts to teach in these words. For they were as if cast into deep darkness, being altogether ignorant of the God who is by nature and truly the Creator of all things and the Lord, and attributing worship to the creature; and—what is still more absurd than this—showing themselves to be the artificers of their own gods, and having a manifold swarm of idols in their temples, so as even to fashion the forms of irrational animals, and setting up altars to sacrifice to them. It behooved, therefore, where sin abounded in them, for grace to superabound, and for the Physician to shine forth upon those sick with so hateful a malady, and for the divine and heavenly light to shine upon those who had their hearts darkened. ^B "Behold, therefore," He says, "the Lord sits upon a light cloud, and shall come into Egypt." But what might it mean for the Lord to be seen upon a light cloud? Come, let us explain as far as we are able. Some of the interpreters have said the light cloud is the holy flesh of the Lord, that is to say, the temple taken from the Virgin; and they liken it to a cloud, perhaps for the reason that it is free from the movements and desires of more earthly things and is lifted up as if on high. For the holy body of Christ, our common Savior, is truly all-pure and free from all earthly defilement. Others again have supposed the holy Virgin to be called the light cloud. But I myself think that the breadth of another meaning is perhaps suggested to us ^C by saying that He sits upon a light cloud. For in manifold ways the blessed prophets, beholding the glory of God, have written down their visions. For Isaiah says he saw the Lord Sabaoth on a high and lifted-up throne, with the highest rational powers standing around on every side, hymning Him, and saying that heaven and earth are full of His glory. And the all-wise Daniel sets the Ancient of Days on a throne; he contends that thousand thousands minister to Him, and that ten thousand times ten thousand stand around, and says that He appeared as a Son of Man coming with the clouds, and he has placed other things in succession to these. Ezekiel similarly says he saw a firmament, with the Seraphim beneath it; and that a man was seen, or the appearance of a man, upon the throne, whose parts above, he says, looked like electrum, ^D but from the loins downward, like the appearance of fire. In each of these visions, a certain manifestation and image of the divine majesty, and of the mystery concerning Christ, is elegantly suggested to us. Nothing, therefore, hinders us from understanding Christ also in this as being seen upon a light cloud; indeed, it will be done most fittingly and necessarily. For the cloud fully represents to us the type of the spiritual rain and dew, and of the saving laver itself. For indeed the blessed Paul says that those born of Israelite blood were baptized in the cloud and in the sea; and as they were crossing that vast wilderness, by day the cloud hung over them, and by night a pillar of fire went before them. By both of which Christ, or the mystery of Him, is described, namely

^A that justification and sanctification in the faith and in holy baptism. It was fitting, therefore, for the Lord, when He was to come for the purification and transformation of the Egyptians, to appear—following a divine and spiritual manner, clearly—in a light cloud. For it was not possible for the stain which had attached itself to the souls of those who were being led astray to be wiped away in any other manner than through holy baptism, of which we define the cloud to be a type. And it is very reasonably called a "light" cloud. For we are baptized into the putting away of sin, and, as if putting off impiety as a truly intolerable burden, we become, in a certain way, winged through this, and we learn to set our minds on what is above and to have our hearts fixed ^B and intent on high. That the Lord should "sit" upon the cloud, I think, signifies this: the sitting implies for us either rest or power. Christ, therefore, will never rest in the legal worship, but rather in that perfection which is through holy baptism. And thus He has reigned over those on earth. He says that the man-made idols of Egypt will be shaken from His presence. For when holy baptism has already been displayed, and Christ has subsequently shone forth, it is entirely necessary that the playthings of the ancient deceit should be obscured and vanish, and that the snares of the devil should be seen to be shattered. He has netted, so to speak, for destruction and ruin every nation and every race, but especially, beyond others, the Egyptians. For they have been more superstitious than the others, and perhaps in their error surpassed even the Persians and ^C Assyrians; even though the divinely inspired Scripture says concerning that region that it is a land of carved images. He says that the heart of the Egyptians will fail, having given way, I think, to the necessity of being overcome by the evangelical proclamations, even though it was formerly god-opposing and set itself against the words of truth. We shall find Pharaoh clearly to be such a one. For the hierophant Moses said clearly: "The God of the Hebrews has sent us to you, saying: 'Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.'" But he said to them: "Who is he, whose voice I shall hear? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go." For their heart will fail within them, that is, it will not remain refractory and stubborn, nor hard and uncorrectable; but it will rather admit the saving proclamation. ^D And the Egyptians will be stirred up against the Egyptians, and man will fight against his brother, and man against his neighbor. And city will be stirred up against city, and district against district. And the spirit of the Egyptians will be troubled within them, and I will dissipate their counsel.

This, I think, is clearly nothing else than that which Christ said: "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set man against his father, and daughter against her mother, and bride against

^A her mother-in-law, and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.≫ For when the divine and evangelical preaching has been proclaimed, people have neglected the reverence due to parents, and have become enemies and hateful to them, and, having armed themselves with the law of war, so to speak, they have risen up against their brothers. For those who agree with the ancient error, and have rushed headlong without restraint into the deceits of idols, do not accept the word of faith. But others, considering it a ridiculous and entirely impious thing to choose to worship gods fashioned by themselves, have run to the words of truth; and although they were once far off, they have become near, and have been declared through faith to be of the household of Christ, and his intimate friends, and have been written as heirs of the hope of the saints and of faith that will endure forever. Since the things made by hands in Egypt are shaken, he says, because the Lord comes to it upon a light cloud, there will be great dissension between families and relatives, and indeed wars, both individual and universal: so that city will make incursions against city, and province against province. Now, a "province" (nomos) is what is called by those who inhabit the region of the Egyptians each city and its surrounding territories and the villages subject to it; this term is accustomed among them. Then he says: ^B *The spirit of the Egyptians will be troubled within them, and I will dissipate their counsel.* We say that since they differed with diverse opinions, they were not moderately tumultuous; but when those who were led astray stirred up riots and wars against the believers, they will find the God of all warring with them and resisting them. For "I will dissipate their counsels," he says, that is, I will show all their ingenuity to be vain, and the efforts of those who are directed against those who have fled to me to be entirely useless.

VER. 4. *And they will inquire of their gods, and their idols, and those who speak from the earth, and the ventriloquists, and the seers. And I will deliver Egypt into the hands of hard masters/lords; and hard kings shall rule over them.*

In what way, or at what time at all, the Egyptians received the riches of the saving preaching, the prophet strives to explain. The meaning of the history will not be useless to those who are intent on the study of good things. When Vespasian had laid waste the region of the Jews ^C and had burned Jerusalem, he descended with all his forces and strength into the land of the Egyptians, to subdue it also. He did this in accordance with the will of God, who subjected all the provinces and cities at once to the Roman scepters. The Egyptians indeed thought that they could easily escape the yoke of servitude and that they were placed beyond the reach of captivity, because the region had been surrounded by very many waters. But they were mistaken in their hope. For if God wishes to accomplish anything, all things yield easily; and things that are inaccessible and ^D

^A difficult are unexpectedly settled. "For the high hand," as it is written, "who shall turn it back?" (Isa. xiv, 27). It came to pass, therefore, that all their water, both that in the lakes and surely also that in the rivers, was completely destroyed, so that it could be traversed on foot. Thus, having found the land of the Egyptians stripped of all such difficulty, Vespasian conquered it. And at that time, it came to pass that the ministers of the divine and saving proclamation entered into Egypt and ensnared the nations through faith in Christ toward the knowledge of the truth.

Therefore, the Egyptians, having learned, he says, of the all-powerful and invincible invasion of the Roman army, and being greatly troubled, and wishing to learn whither the end of the matter would lead them, inquired of their gods and their statues, and those speaking from the earth, and the ventriloquists, and indeed also the soothsayers. For there were various ways of false prophecy among them, and forged prophets. Some pretended to consult the dead; others poured forth words from their own hearts. Others were inspectors—that is, those who curiously and impiously scrutinized the smoke from sacrifices and the palpitations in the livers of slaughtered animals. ^B But, he says, there shall be no profit for them from divination; nor shall they find those who were thought to be gods able to assist them. "For I will deliver Egypt into the hands of hard masters, and hard kings shall rule over them" (Isa. xix, 4). When you hear "hard," do not think of the most cruel, but rather of the unconquered and invulnerable, and those who know not how to yield victory to anyone. Such were the most celebrated Roman emperors, with the divine and secret counsel, as I said, subjecting all things to them; for they subjugated the entire world. ^C

VERS. 5-10. *Thus saith the Lord Sabaoth: And the Egyptians shall drink the water that is by the sea; but the river shall fail and be dried up. The rivers and the canals of the river shall fail, and all the collection of water shall be dried up in every marsh, of reed and papyrus, and the green achi, everything around the river, everything sown along the river shall be dried up by the wind, and it shall perish. And the fishermen shall groan, and all those who cast a hook into the river shall groan, and those who cast nets, and the casters of casting-nets shall mourn. And confusion shall seize those who work the combed flax, and those who work the fine linen; and those who work them shall be in pain, and all who make beer shall be sorrowful, and their souls shall grieve.*

You may join these words as well to those we have just spoken. For God, who is powerful in all things, manifested the land of the Egyptians, which was very moist, to be dry, so that it might even be traversable ^D without sweat for those desiring to go through the lakes and rivers. The region of the Egyptians is divided in a certain way: some possess arable and most fertile land, and are most studious cultivators of the vine. Others dwell by the lakes, and [reap] those things from them...

For they are fishermen, and they cut papyrus, and they are makers of paper, and they work the split flax. And men of the marshes, or herdsmen, are so named; for indeed there are among them herds of cattle beyond counting; but there is a great scarcity of bread and wine and other things. Therefore, when the waters have failed, he says, they shall drink water. For by digging in the shores, sometimes some draw out a potable stream. But the rivers and channels shall fail and dry up. And there shall be a scarcity of water in every marsh of reed and papyrus. And everything that grows in the waters, he says, shall dry up, so that the hunters of fish and those working the split flax shall lament, and they who work these things shall be in great pain; and besides these, also those who prepare the zythum (beer) among them. For the waters having failed, they shall be in need of everything that knows how to gladden and to provide abundantly those things which are suitable for life. And this, indeed, so far as it pertains to the explanation of the history, has been clearly stated. But if anyone wishes to take the scarcity of waters in another way, and to descend into the depth of a more subtle intelligence, he will not wander from the mark if he compares the talk of the Greek wise men—driveling and senseless—to waters; and indeed the multitude of men to fish, ^B and also to the papyrus, the reed, and the rest, of which the nature of the waters is the nurse and foster-mother. But as for the fishermen, and those whose work it might be [to deal with] the things in the waters—those who know how to catch the gregarious multitude with nets, and, as if with certain threads, prepare to entangle them in words that lead them into error. These will lament and be saddened, and will grieve in their souls, since the word that is among them becomes somehow ineffective; which, as we were just asserting, we compared clearly to waters, because it has failed completely, and all things nurtured by it shall dry up. They make the zythum; for they do not offer wine that gladdens the heart of man, but a certain spurious and useless doctrine, and they bring it forth with words subtle and refined, as they indeed think. For this, as I suppose, the byssus signifies, that he should say they study excessive subtlety and arguments. And the split flax. For minutiae among them are discussed subtly and thinly, but they are utterly frivolous, and filled with frigid speculations. For the zythum is frigid. ^C It is, however, a certain drink of the Egyptians, but frigid and turbid; such, indeed, is their oration, and such are their doctrines, which, when imbibed, do not quench thirst, but rather inflame, and are unpleasant to those who drink, and on account of their vehement frigidity bring forth incurable diseases.

Verse 11. And the princes of Tanis shall be fools, the wise counselors of the king, and their counsel shall be made foolish.

For the inevitable calamity being imminent to the Egyptians, and the land being near to captivity, and when now, even if reluctant, they were about to give their necks to the yoke of another: the one who had obtained the principate was disturbed not moderately, and struck with intolerable terrors, ^D

he gathered those called wise, that is to say, the magi; and he asked with great earnestness where indeed the outcome of these matters would lead for them, and in what manner they might ward off the onslaught of war. But they are so far, he says, from being able to speak any of the necessary things—or, to put it better, of the true things—that they are even condemned for manifest folly. For if God wills to bring evil, the counsel and power of any man will be of no avail. For if He shuts against a man, who shall open? according to that which is written. Therefore, he calls the wise men of Tanis the false prophets and the caretakers of those who are in the temples. These men, who also prided themselves on the magical art, were proved by the very events to be nothing at all.

^B VERSE 12. "How will you say to the king: We are sons of the wise, sons of kings of old? Where now are your wise men, and let them announce to you, and let them say: What has the Lord of Hosts planned against Egypt?"

On what basis, he asks, will you raise your eyebrows? What help have you brought to the land of the Egyptians, that you should be admired by them? Or what argument will you use when you rebuke the king, saying: "We are sons of the wise," that is to say, of the prophets? Magi, and ones from magi; who have all but reigned over the entire land, having obtained a famous reputation among the worshippers of idols, and always being present with and living among those in power—inasmuch as they were accustomed to introduce counsel in all things to be done, with their falsely named gods whispering to them the hunt for what is advantageous. When, therefore, you are refuted in your false speeches, he says, and knowing nothing of the truth, how will you say to the king: "We are sons of the wise; sons of kings of old?" And although the prophetic word has been delivered to us in these matters as if to those who think themselves wise, then it passes over to the person of him who had obtained the principate, and says: "Where now are your wise men? And let them ^C announce to you, and let them say what the Lord of Hosts has planned against Egypt." For if they are not impostors and deceivers and buffoons, he says, and accustomed to speak falsely, and speaking only from their own hearts, and not from the mouth of the Lord: learn from them the things hanging over the Egyptians, and those things which are to come to pass right away through the counsel of the Lord of Hosts. The word mocks, as it were, those who do not know God, but who lie, as it were, in deep darkness, because of their attachment to the love of idol worship. Therefore, it is a terrible thing—or rather, utterly vain—to place confidence in the deceits of false diviners; for since they know absolutely nothing of the things that will be, or of the things that God brings upon them, they make false divination a subject for gaining money, and, pretending to hear from God, they vomit forth things from their own counsel alone, and bewitch the mind of those who adhere to them. For they speak whatever one might wish, and maintain only that which they could guess to be pleasing to their listeners. But the divine law commands us to depart from such...

^A men. For it is written thus: "If you enter into the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to act according to the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found in you one who purifies his son or his daughter by fire, nor one who practices divination, nor a soothsayer, nor an augur, nor a sorcerer, nor a charmer, nor a ventriloquist, nor a diviner of portents, nor one who consults the dead. For everyone who does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God." He further adds to these things and says: "You shall be perfect before the Lord your God." For these nations, which you will possess by inheritance, listen to divinations and oracles. But the Lord your God has not granted such things to you; the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers; you shall listen to him in all things he may speak to you. ^B Truly, he is completely devoid of the love of God and stripped of the ornaments of piety, who applies his mind to oracles, divinations, auguries, and the delusions of enchanters. But that man shall be truly full of good hope, who directs his mind to the evangelical oracles and brings the judgment of truth to those things which Christ says. For He is the Lord of the prophets and the bestower of all knowledge, even if He is called a prophet according to the measure of His humanity.

VERS. 13-15. "The princes of Tanis have failed, and the princes of Memphis have been exalted, and they will lead Egypt astray by tribes. For the Lord has mingled among them a spirit of error, and they have led Egypt astray in all their works, as a drunken man wanders and vomits at the same time. And the Egyptians shall have no work which shall make head and tail, ^C beginning and end."

The prophetic word mocks in a certain way the trifles and vanities of the false prophets in these words. For the ruler of the Egyptians, who always had with him those jugglers and vain seers—who were even called "wise men"—inquired into what end the things he anticipated might come. But since they failed in their counsel and were convicted of lying, and there was no one who could indicate a path of useful counsel, they were brought to nothing; and others, who were then considered wise, were sought out. And indeed, some marveled at the princes of Memphis—that is, the priests and magi who, I say, inhabited Memphis. For these men seemed at that time to be extraordinary, and since they had reached ^D the highest peak of skill in magic, they were held in all veneration by the idolaters. "The princes of Tanis," he says, "have failed," that is, they were regarded as nothing; and the leaders and chief priests of the Memphites appeared to be supreme and admirable to the king and all who were around him. But they, too, led Egypt astray by tribes, that is, city by city and village by village, not only individually, but also collectively. For they had faith in them, even if they said nothing that was to the point: for how had they been emboldened? For the Lord, he says, confounded them with a spirit of error, that is, He cast out all speech of truth

from their tongue, so as to be unable either to think or to speak any true things. For it was not right that the truth should dwell in the tongues of those who worship idols. They have, therefore, led Egypt astray, even as one who is drunk and vomiting at the same time is led astray. For it is the custom of those who are drunk to fall into the intemperance of their own vomit. Therefore He says: ^A *The Egyptians shall not have any work which shall make head and tail, beginning and end.* For they will not even take in hand any youthful enterprises; for this is the beginning and the head. Nor will their deeds reach any most desirable end for them; for this is the tail and the end. For every human deliberation is useless, and every defense frail and in no way able to help, since God, as I said, is doing them harm and bringing His all-powerful hand against those who kick out, and is turning the natures of things to what seems good to Him.

^B *And in that day the Egyptians shall be as women in fear and in trembling, from the face of the hand of the Lord Sabaoth, which He shall cast upon them. And the country of the Jews shall be to the Egyptians for a terror. Everyone who shall name it to them shall be afraid, because of the counsel which the Lord has devised against it.*

For those who were once bold and fierce, and scorners of every danger, shall be exceedingly fearful, he says, and they shall find their heart broken within them, so as to differ in nothing from the weakest of women, but to slip as it were into a womanish effeminacy. The cause, however, of the fear and terror for them in this regard ^C shall be the hand of the Lord Sabaoth, which He Himself shall cast upon them. And here, the hand of the Lord Sabaoth is defined as the omnipotent will of God, which subjects the Egyptian nation to the Roman empire. Invincible is the divine counsel, and whatever has pleased the supreme nature, it is by all means necessary that it be accomplished. Furthermore, the country of the Jews shall be to the Egyptians for a terror. And what exactly does He say in this? Let us look closely; for what is stated is very obscure. The country of the Jews was preserved of old while God protected it, and rendered it invincible, so to speak, to all the kingdoms of the nations round about. But although it had such a helper, it was captured and subjected to the Romans, and every city was burned, and houses and villages remained void of men. ^D And what, then, was the cause of its being captured? The counsel, clearly, which the Lord had devised against it. For it too, together with others, is delivered into the most powerful hand of the Romans. The country of the Jews, therefore, shall be to the Egyptians for a terror. For the false prophets wished to hearten them with their words, saying that they would be stronger than the hand of those coming against them, and would prevail if they stood to oppose them. But since the very territory of the Jews itself, which once had God as its conqueror, has been delivered to them, it struck a most terrible fear into them. For they consistently expected thenceforth that they would be subjected to any who might wish to ravage them, since, as I said, this had happened to the land of the Jews: not that He who saves was weaker, but that He subjected it to His own nod and submitted it to the Roman scepters. Others prefer to understand what is proposed herein even otherwise. For after He visited in uni

^A unity with the Egyptians, and God, the Lord of all, transferred them from darkness to light, and turned them away from the customs of idolatry, He granted them to know from then on who is truly and by nature God, and the Creator of all things. For they have believed in Christ; they have known the Father through Him and in Him. Therefore, He says, the land of the Jews shall be a terror to them, out of very great character and piety. But when He says "for a terror," you shall understand a fear born of piety. For all honor Jerusalem, because Christ was born there, and endured the cross for the salvation of the world, and was placed in a tomb, and arose again, and ascended to the Father. Long ago, then, the land of the Jews had been hated by the Egyptians; for indeed the manner of their religion was at war with them. For the former used to worship the creature and the works of their own hands; but the latter served the all-holy God and became practitioners of a virtuous life. This region, therefore, once hated, shall be for them a terror, as it were, and a cause and matter of religion, because Christ was born in it, as I said, He who called them from darkness to His own marvelous light.

VERS. 18. *In that day shall five cities in Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and shall swear by the name of the Lord. The city of Asedec shall be called one city.*

^C One might marvel—and very reasonably so—at the penetrating and exquisite treatment of the blessed prophet in these matters, who was utterly ignorant of nothing of those things that were to happen in the land of the Egyptians at the time of the visitation, but who also foretells the particulars one by one, and clearly sets forth how the evangelical preaching was received. "There shall be," he says, "five cities in Egypt speaking the language of Canaan," that is, of the Syrians, or those in Palestine. For the Phoenicians and Palestinians speak one language. Moreover, the Palestinians and Egyptians are ^D adjacent and bordering upon one another, and there is nothing in between, but rather, at the extreme borders of Egypt that look toward the east and the sea—I mean, the first entrances and as it were the jaws of the land of the Palestinians—they appear. Egypt is, therefore, bordering upon the Chanaanites. Accordingly, those cities on the border of Egypt received the preaching of the Gospel first; and these five were they, of which we say that the one which is now called Rhinocorura is the first. For they speak the language of Canaan. For it is a matter of diligence for those in these cities not so much to concern themselves with the Egyptian speech as with the Syrian language. Some, indeed, relate in their own writings that Josephus clearly records that a certain man named Onias, having performed service among those who are of Levitical blood and adorned with the priesthood according to the law, as he had departed from the land of Judea—either because he had exercised some hostility with a relative of his, or perhaps had suffered persecution—had reached these five cities bordering upon Chanaan. This man, he says, having gathered a vast multitude of Jews...

^A migrated to one of these five cities, which is also called the city of Asedek, that is to say, of justice. From this they say that those in the borderlands of the Egyptians were accustomed to speak the Chanaanite tongue. They will also learn, he says, to swear by the name of the Lord. And this is also a marvelous thing. For it is customary for those who worship vain things to make an oath according to the distinct whim of each as to the elements of the world. For some name the heavens, others the sun, and others still things manufactured in shrines; but they do not make mention of the true God in any way, whom they do not even know. But it is the duty and office of those who have already come to know and believe, to swear even by His name. Thus also the all-wise Moses, guiding Israel as they moved away from the Egyptian cult toward the knowledge of the true God, said: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.” ^B He added to these words, “And by His name you shall swear.” It is therefore a clear proof and demonstration that those five cities have accepted the faith, because they have not sworn by any vain idol, but have taken the name of the Lord for the purpose of an oath.

*Verse 19. That day there shall be an altar to the Lord in the land of the Egyptians, and a pillar at its border to the Lord; and it shall be for a sign and for a testimony unto eternity to the Lord in the land of Egypt.*

For the entire land of the Egyptians abounded with shrines and was full of altars; libations and sacrifices were everywhere, offered by them both to the elements of the world and also, as I have said, to the images located in the shrines, which are ^C plainly the pillars of demons. And why do I say this, when they even attributed the glory that is proper to God to the forms of irrational animals that they had set up? See, therefore, from what state to what state the affairs of the Egyptians have been overturned and collapsed. For those who were formerly more superstitious than all others and had rushed forth with unrestrained, loose reins—on that day, he says, that is to say, from the time when the saving proclamation shall shine upon them, they will embrace the worship of the God who is such by nature and in truth. For there shall be an altar to the Lord in the land of the Egyptians. The discourse carries great emphasis. For it is spoken with wonder. For is it not paradoxical that in the very land of the Egyptians an altar of the Lord should be seen? And in addition to this, even a pillar ^D at its border to the Lord? By "pillar" here he means, as it seems to me, either a holy temple of God, that is to say, the Church, which perhaps was the first of all to be raised up at its border, or perhaps the sign of the holy cross, by which it is the custom for believers to be fenced in and strengthened. For we have always made use of this matter, overturning every diabolical assault and breaking the onsets of the demons. For the cross is an unbroken wall for us, and the boast in it is truly saving; "But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of Christ." Marvelous, therefore, and beyond common opinion were the things that were then predicted by prophecy, and which have now even been brought to their fulfillment. For altars...

^A to the Lord, and those very many and exceeding all number, are throughout the land of the Egyptians; and the sign of the cross is adorable to the inhabitants. For they have believed in our Lord Jesus Christ. It seemed good to some of the interpreters to call it a "title" instead of a "pillar," and they say this is the holy Gospel. But let the prudent man judge again what seems to be in the best and most proper state.

VERS. 20, 21. *Because they shall cry unto the Lord because of those who afflict them, and the Lord shall send them a man who shall save them. And the Lord shall be known to the Egyptians; and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and they shall do sacrifices, and shall vow vows unto the Lord, and shall perform them.*

Consider with me, once again, the excellent and ingenious vigilance of the prophetic art. For, as if someone were inquiring and saying: "What is this matter? What is the cause that the Lord should come into Egypt upon a light cloud, and bestow this and that gift freely?" the prophet, anticipating, answers and says: *"Because they shall cry unto the Lord because of those who afflict them, and the Lord shall send them a man who shall save them."* For the father of sin, that is to say, Satan, had leaped upon the inhabitants of the whole earth, and having placed the yoke of his own perversity upon all, he led them away, as it were, from the folds of divine charity; and holding them, ^B as it were, bound under him, he coerced them bitterly and impiously by force. But the nature of the matter, having within itself a heavy and unbearable violence, cried out against his tyranny. Thus you will understand the Egyptians to have cried out. Yet how can it not be true to say that those who did not by nature know the Lord of all would not have cried out to Him at all? But just as the blood of Abel is said to have cried out to God, though it has no voice of its own, but because God pursues the very indignity of the deed; in the same way, I think, one may understand this also concerning those who were accustomed to worship unclean spirits. For even if they did not know the God of all, yet because they suffered violence from Satan, they cried out, in a manner of speaking, through the very nature of the matter itself, requesting aid for themselves ^C in every way. Thus we say that the Egyptians also cried out to God because of those who afflicted them, that is, those who had brought them under their own hand and power, and who were oppressing them as if with a most bitter servitude—namely, the unclean demons. *But the Lord shall send them a man who shall save them.* And who is this man, if not obviously Christ? That is to say, the Only-begotten Word of God, having appeared in human form; this One has saved not only the Egyptians, but indeed the whole earth. And He saved them *judging*. What is that, *judging*? That is to say, pronouncing a just judgment upon them. For He cast down Satan, who had inflicted the violence, and with him those very unclean demons, by a holy decree, and kept them in the chains of darkness in Tartarus, having handed them over to be kept for the judgment of the great day, so that they might be punished. But those who had endured the ^D tyranny, He saved and delivered, and made them His own worshippers: verily

^A illuminating them with the light of truth, and clothing them with the ornaments of liberty. Thus, too, our Saviour Himself says somewhere: "Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself." Do you see how He has judged the world, and has cast out Satan who long played the tyrant against it, and has drawn all to Himself? For the Egyptians have known Him. And lo, having known Him, they offer sacrifices, and they make vows, and they bring to completion that which they have promised. For this is that which was sung by the voice of David: "Vow and pay unto the Lord our God." Behold, therefore, the novelty of these things. For they who were formerly accustomed to sacrifice to demons, who used to offer worship to Satan and dedicate thank-offerings—and indeed, even diligently fulfilling vows, that is, promises—now, being illuminated in their minds through Christ and brightened by the dogmas of truth, flee from their ancient error. And having once recognized the Creator of all and the Lord, they offer to Him worship in spirit, fulfilling most pure vows and offering sacrifices, not now through blood and the slaughter of irrational animals, but rather, as I said, spiritual sacrifices ^B that are acceptable because of their purity.

"And the Lord shall strike the Egyptians with a great strike, and shall heal them with a healing; and they shall turn to the Lord, and He shall hear them, and shall heal them."

When God visits, He indeed at times strikes those who have acted impiously, and exacts penalties for the things in which they have behaved wantonly against Him, but by this very method He helps. For He does not bring the scourge conquered by anger, but rather converts them to what is better. For He either transfers them from error to truth, or He teaches those who are inclining uncontrollably toward base sin to recover their senses, and to hasten quickly to return to what is pleasing to Him. Therefore, knowing that to be disciplined is a profitable thing, the blessed prophets have cried out to Him: "Chasten us, O Lord, but in judgment, and not in anger." And again: "O Lord, in affliction we have remembered Thee; in slight affliction Thy discipline is upon us." And He said somewhere also to the synagogue of the Jews: "In pain and with a scourge shalt thou be disciplined, O Jerusalem." Therefore, He disciplines ^C those whom He chooses and loves. The prophet says that He will grant this also to the Egyptians: "For the Lord shall strike them with a great strike, and shall heal them with a healing." For even if they have perhaps been given over to the Roman commanders, and their soldiers, armed by the law of war, have conquered the land, nevertheless, by the divine preaching finding a place among them, they have been relieved of this damage of their error, and have passed over to the divine and heavenly light; and, having cast off that ancient opinion, they have henceforth had a healthy heart. "For they shall turn to the Lord, and He shall hear them," that is, they who were formerly debarred from God on account of their great impiety ^D will henceforth learn no longer to offer supplications to abominable idols for the things they wish to be done, but to

cry out instead to Him who heals the brokenhearted. And God will not be slow to them; rather, He will be prepared to grant their petitions, being merciful and kind. Therefore, to know God, who is such by nature and in truth, and the Creator and Lord of all, would be the cause of every good thing for every human being. ^A

VERS. 23. *In that day there shall be a way from Egypt to the Assyrians, and the Assyrians shall enter into Egypt, and the Egyptians shall go to the Assyrians, and the Egyptians shall serve the Assyrians.*

The blessed Paul writes concerning Christ, the Savior of us all, that *He is our peace.* For He not only joined those on earth with the heavenly ministering spirits and holy ones, but He also prepared nations to come together with nations. For before this association of one people with another arrived, provinces and cities were separated, and there were frequent uprisings and the incursions of wars everywhere; the prizes and rewards of the victors against the vanquished, and unbridled violence, held sway, and to oppress whomsoever one could in any way whatsoever was considered something noble and, indeed, most admirable. But Christ has become this peace for us as well. ^B For after He illuminated the world with the evangelical oracles and taught all the way of piety, and that they should embrace love toward God and toward one another, those ancient things became obsolete, the old passed away, and new things came to be, just as it is written; for peace prevailed everywhere among the nations. And this, I think, is also what the prophet Isaiah says elsewhere concerning all the nations: *And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, and nation shall not take up sword against nation, and they shall not learn to war any more.* For since all serve under one yoke—spiritually indeed under God, but bodily under the Romans—they live a calm, undisturbed life, free from war, so that having been freed from every fear, even those who were formerly the greatest of enemies ^C agree with one another in unity of mind. For, he says, the Egyptians shall have a way to the Assyrians, and the Assyrians to the Egyptians; *and the Egyptians shall go to the Assyrians, and the Egyptians shall serve the Assyrians,*—not that they cast upon them a yoke of servitude, but that they have them taken and held fast by the bonds of love and enter into the most delightful social unions. By Assyrians, he mentions those who inhabit the eastern region.

VERS. 24, 25. *In that day shall Israel be third among the Assyrians and among the Egyptians, blessed in the land which the Lord of Hosts has blessed, saying: Blessed is my people that is in Egypt, and they that are in Assyria, and mine inheritance, Israel.*

Israel is called the firstborn among the children. But since they acted lawlessly against Christ, ^D they were made subject to the nations, and they were allotted a second rank, as it were.

^A For the time of their conversion is also kept in store for them. For it is written: "When the fullness of the nations has entered, then all Israel shall be saved." Consider, then—consider the third one named among these, among the Assyrians and Egyptians. By the Assyrians, as I was saying, he refers to those who occupy the whole of the eastern land, especially that which lies between the rivers, where they say there are genuine worshipers, and who practice an observance akin and neighborly to that of the Egyptians, so that in their zeal and eagerness for all things good, and indeed in their virtue, they seem to contend on completely equal terms. Hence the God of all says: "Blessed is my people, who are in Egypt and who are in Assyria," and Israel is numbered third. For he adds: "And my inheritance, Israel." And of this, the Word has shown us the cause beforehand; for they killed the Lord, and were turned to the back, as David says, and among the remainder he has become the firstborn.

^B CAP. XX. VERS. 1-4. In the year that Tartan came to Azotus, when he was sent by Sargon, king of the Assyrians, and fought against Azotus and took it, then the Lord spoke to Isaiah, saying: "Go and take the sackcloth from off your loins, and loose your sandals from your feet." And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. And the Lord said: "Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot, three years shall be signs and wonders to the Egyptians and Ethiopians; for thus shall the king of the Assyrians lead the captivity of Egypt and the Ethiopians, young men and old, naked and barefoot, uncovered ^C to the shame of Egypt.

Having finished well the discourse concerning the Egyptians, and having foretold the manner in which they would be called through faith to the acknowledgment of the truth, he again weaves in what is useful and necessary for the salvation of those from Israel; and what these things are, I shall say in brief. For having disregarded the very reverence for the law given through Moses, and having spurned the love toward God, they descended in their great lack of wisdom to the point that they were enveloped in the error of many gods, and served the works of their own hands. Once this had settled into their minds, there was no evil they did not commit. For this cause, ^D the God of all frequently harassed them with wars and battles, now by the neighboring nations, now by the Persians and Medes; who, having made an incursion into Judea, and having laid waste other nations first, often terrified the people of Israel with grave and intolerable fears. But they—though it was their duty to appease the God of all, and to depart from impious pursuits, and rather to change to what is pleasing to Him, and to make apology to Him whom they had grieved, by turning from their baser ways to better things, and thus to seek salvation from Him and Him alone, and to seek the hand that always preserves and defends—this, the poor wretches did not do; but, having begged and solicited aid from men, they sometimes summoned certain neighboring peoples to this, and meanwhile

summoned the neighboring Egyptians, adding iniquity to their iniquity, as it is written, and provoking to anger, by this very thing, God who is almighty. For instance, He said through one of the holy prophets: “And Ephraim was a foolish dove, having no heart; he called upon Egypt, and they went to the Assyrians” (Osee VII, 11). And indeed, through the prophet Isaiah himself: “Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, who trust in horses, and in chariots. For there is a great multitude in the horses; and they trusted not in the Holy One of Israel, and have not sought after God; and He indeed is wise, and hath brought evil upon them, and His word shall not be made void” (Isa. XXXI, 1, 2). ^B When, therefore, Tanath, the general of the King of the Assyrians, had besieged Azotus and taken it by force (for it was a city neighboring the region of the Jews), the Israelites expected that they themselves would very soon suffer the same things without respite. For this reason, having hired the Egyptian arm, they desired to oppose it to the Assyrian phalanxes to bring them aid. God, therefore, declares their hope to be vain; and He prophesies clearly that they themselves shall be as prey to the power of the Assyrians; and they shall be captured in due time, and shall be in the rank of prisoners of war. For they say that Egypt was under the hand of the King of the Assyrians at different times; and in three successive years, after a battle was joined with it, he took the whole of it by force, and returned to his own country with a vast crowd of prisoners ^C in his train. God therefore commands the prophet to take on the guise befitting and customary for captives—that is to say, nudity and the lack of sandals. For the victors have no great regard for those whom they have captured; and those who have fallen into such misery, whether they be noble by birth according to the flesh or from the common crowd, are wrapped in one and the same garment of wretchedness, having neither clothing nor anything else pertaining to decoration or their own refreshment, but are forced to submit to this contempt according to the caprice of their captors. The divine prophet is, therefore, commanded—as I said—to take off the sackcloth from his loins, and to loosen his sandals, and to walk through the midst of Jerusalem naked and without sandals. And he did this, not ^D being at all anxious about how he might appear elegant or graceful; and he added nothing to the command of God, even though it seemed burdensome and exposed to reproach. But perhaps someone might say: Why did he not rather simply foretell to the Israelites the things that would come to pass for the Egyptians in the course of time? Why did so famous a prophet go about so naked and without sandals, having neglected every proper habit? To this we say that they did not obey the words of the prophets, nay rather, when they predicted future events, they rebuked them, saying: “Speak unto us other things, and announce to us a different error” (Isa. XXX, 10). Hence this prudent man, modest and replete with every virtue, and as it were crowned with the gift of prophecy, and illustrious in contemplation, stripped off the very sackcloth—not, indeed, a soft or splendid garment, but rather one thick and vile—and he even loosened the footwear of his feet, entering in such a habit, that those who see him may wonder at it, and realize the causes

you speak to us, and declare to us another delusion." ^A For this reason, quite plainly, the prudent, orderly man, full of every virtue, crowned with prophetic grace, and conspicuous in his ascetic practice, even strips off his own sackcloth—not a soft garment, but thick and rather cheap—and he also takes the sandals off his feet, and walks in such a guise, so that those who see him, marveling at this very thing, may inquire the causes and, eager to know for what reason he has done this, may be assured that they have a vain hope in men; and it was surely necessary for them rather to desire prosperity from above and to make it their love to seek as a helper the God who has always saved them. Therefore, as the blessed prophet was going about Judaea naked and barefoot, and no small fear was being brought upon those who saw him, "The Lord said," he says, ^B "As my servant Isaiah has gone, naked and barefoot, for three years shall there be signs and wonders upon the Egyptians and the Ethiopians." For as I have already said, when the king of the Assyrians had for three whole years ravaged Egypt, the neighboring Ethiopians, and those dwelling in the land of the Thebans, and had taken many captives, exulting and becoming insolent at the calamities of the Egyptians, then, then the illustrious one is led back home again.

And the Egyptians shall be put to shame, having been defeated regarding the Ethiopians, in whom the Egyptians had trusted; for they were their glory. And the inhabitants of this island shall say: "Behold, we had trusted to flee to them for help, and they could not be saved from the king of the Assyrians; and how shall we be saved?"

The barbarian peoples dwelling near the Thebans—these are the Blemmyes, ^C who are also Ethiopians—are most skilled in the exercise of throwing and hurling weapons, which they dip in a most deadly poison and release against those with whom they are fighting; and if they should touch them, the one struck will die entirely, and, as if bitten by a serpent, will immediately fall. It was, therefore, in the custom and habit of the Egyptians, when war and battle were impending, to hire the phalanxes of the Ethiopians and to boast greatly in them; but they were taken along with them, being defeated by the strength of the Assyrians. Therefore, he says, the Egyptians shall be put to shame regarding the Ethiopians in whom they had trusted. For when these were themselves captured and defeated, those dwelling in this island shall say: "Behold, we had once trusted to flee to them for help, they who could not be saved from the king of the Assyrians; and how shall we be saved?" By "island" he refers to Egypt, because it is surrounded by rivers and encircled everywhere by pools of water. ^D Yet he introduces those who inhabit it, condemning their own hope placed in the Ethiopians. For if they were captured themselves, he says, how could they save those who had trusted in them? It is better, therefore, to hope in the Lord than to trust in man, and as the prophet Jeremiah says: "Cursed is the man who has his hope in man, and leans on the flesh of his arm; but blessed is he who has trusted in the Lord, and the Lord shall be his hope." The prophetic word is always useful to us, and even if this history perhaps does not have a spiritual interpretation, nevertheless, no small fruit comes from it.

For Paul says that these things happened to the ancients figuratively, but they were written for our admonition.

THE VISION OF THE DESERT

^BHaving concluded most beautifully the discourse which, as I said, was held concerning the Egyptians, and having explained when and how they would be called through faith to the knowledge of Him who is truly God, the prophet turns to another vision: that concerning the desert. He does not here make mention simply of land that is desolate and a desert, but he calls Babylon a desert—a city which once had inhabitants beyond number, powerful and most ready for battle, but which was so devastated by wrath sent from above that it remained entirely void of men when Cyrus, son of Cambyses, besieged Babylon. The prophet mentions this elsewhere as well, saying: "Thus saith the Lord to my anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I have taken hold of, to cause nations to hear before him; and cities shall not be shut." He took by force that city which was once arrogant and lifted up against every nation and formidable in battle—I speak of Babylon. The prophet makes mention of it again now, and calls it a desert. ^C And he clearly explains, as I believe, the manner of the wretchedness into which it fell, for two reasons: either to turn the Jews away from the hope they had placed in them—"For Ephraim was as a silly dove," as another of the holy prophets says, "calling upon Egypt, and they went to the Assyrians"—or to console those who were grieved because their region had been devastated, their temple burned, and they had been led captive with their wives and children into Babylon. By this he clearly teaches that God would rise up against those who had devastated them, if they were willing to live according to the law and be genuine keepers of His divine commandments.

Therefore, the prophet provides the account, and the context of the vision has variations of speakers. For sometimes, as an eyewitness of the things to come and a spectator of what has been shown to him by God, he narrates them; and sometimes, by a prophetic spirit, he proclaims beforehand what will happen in the course and lapse of time; and sometimes he introduces the person of the Babylonians lamenting themselves over such bitter and unexpected calamities. ^D Having thus contemplated the expedition of the Persians and Medes and Elamites against Babylon, he says: "They shall ride," and "they shall traverse the desert."

CAP. XXI. VERS. 1. *As a whirlwind of winds passes through the desert.* Raising the dust, and overturning everything. He adds: VERS. 2. *A harsh vision, and a hard thing is declared unto me.* For the mere sight of the enemies is sufficient, and the most powerful multitude of men of war...

^A prepared for war, to strike a harsh terror into the beholders. But he says it is not merely to be seen, but rather, *It is announced to me*, he says; for along with the sight, he was also taught the outcome of the events—it is clear, from God.

*The transgressor transgresses, and the lawless acts lawlessly.* He says that the audacity of the invaders is unrebukeable. For they are not attached to human reasoning toward mildness; nor does any one of them contemplate any of the things that have come to pass, but he acts lawlessly without restraint, and transgresses according to what seems good to him, with no sense of mercy present. For they do not look to mercy, but instead, he says, it is their labor and their concern to act lawlessly and to transgress. He said something of this sort also through the voice of the same one, to the inhabitants of the Assyrians: *Behold, I bring upon you the Medes, who do not reckon silver, nor have they need of gold.* ^B *They will shatter the bows of the young men.* For when God brings wrath upon those who offend, there will be nothing that can provide help. Rather, for those who wish to devastate those against whom they might run, a beast-like mind dwells within them.

*VERS. 3, 4. The Elamites and the messengers of the Persians come against me. Now I will groan and comfort myself. Therefore my loins have been filled with loosening, and pains have taken hold of me, as a woman in labor; I have acted unjustly so as not to hear, I have been zealous so as not to see. My heart wanders, and iniquity plunges me, my soul is set in fear.*

This discourse has the power of personification. For the Assyrian is introduced, and fearing the incursion, and not being ignorant of the enemy phalanxes, and against whom the goal of this war is aimed. For he says, *Not against any other, but against me have the Elamites and the most excellent of the Persians* made their attack. *Therefore I will groan and comfort myself.* For to those who have arrived at the ultimate calamity, it seems that there is a way of comfort: to mourn and wail. For the tear is pressed out from pain. Yet it is a strange thing if the Assyrians mourn, having become always harsh and arrogant, and overly supercilious against all nations, and considering that they have no resistance that is easy to encounter. But those who were so bold and swollen with pride beyond what is human, admit a womanly tear, and prepare mourning for themselves, broken and crushed toward weakness before the trial of the war. *For my loins have been filled with loosening, and pains have taken hold of me as a woman in labor.* But for what cause, O Assyrian, will such things happen to thee? Thou mightest say to the one asking: *Yes*, he says; *for I know that I have offended against the God who rules over all things by much sin.* *I have acted unjustly so as not to hear, I have been zealous so as not to see.* In this, he says, I have wronged myself, because I have practiced much stubbornness, and I have made it a work of zeal not to see; that is, who is the one by nature and in truth God. For I heard the worship of the Jews, I took the holy city by force, I have plundered the temple. I possessed from what I heard a moderate knowledge of the things commanded to those of Israel. Or rather, even the prophet Jonah was sent ^C by God, preaching and saying, *Yet three days, and Nineveh...* ^D

shall be overthrown*; and I, fearing the threat immediately, repented indeed, yet I did wrong again by not listening, and I was careful in my haste not to see what it was necessary to see. For my heart has wandered. And iniquity has made me sink, as it were, overwhelming me. Hence my soul also has been cast into fear, for I have been in extreme dread. These, therefore, may be the voices of the Assyrians. For it is customary for the holy prophets to feign voices and persons for the benefit of the hearers. ^A

VERS. 5. *Prepare the table, drink, eat. Arise, ye princes, take up the shields.*

I have said that the prophetic discourse is very beautifully distinguished at times by the variety of persons: therefore, all who wish to know and interpret these things correctly must observe such things carefully. For the understanding of these sayings will thus be clear, and will have nothing abrupt or difficult about it. He introduced, therefore, the person of the Assyrians mourning among themselves, broken by cowardice, and suffering from an unbearable fear of the future evils. Then he mentions the time when it will come to pass that they are captured and fall into incurable distresses; and he also declares the cause of the wrath that has come upon them. For the blessed Daniel wrote that *Baltasar the king made a supper for his grandees; a thousand for a thousand did he drink.* Then he says that he also impiously offered the holy vessels taken from Jerusalem long ago, and drank from them, both he himself and his concubines and his bedfellows. ^B But this was nothing else than to exalt himself against the divine majesty with a great and proud spirit, and to rise up against the leader and protector of the Israelites, as if he could in no way help his own people. Therefore, while Baltasar was drinking, and yet not mocking the holy vessels: *There appeared,* he says, *an article of a hand, and it wrote upon the wall, Mane, Thecel, Phares*, which writing the divine Daniel interpreted, addressing the Assyrian: *God hath broken thy kingdom, and divided it, and it is given to the Medes and Persians.* It is this history, as I think, that the prophet calls to mind as he addresses the princes themselves, or the grandees, and indeed Baltasar: *Prepare the table, drink, eat. Arise, ye princes, take up the shields*; indulge in luxury, he says, at intemperate tables (for this is a customary way of speaking); be filled, drinking insatiably. ^C What then? Wars shall follow the feast, and your suffering shall not be far off; but from the very drinking bout you shall run to your arms and seek your shields. For it is truly a very grave thing to be exalted against God and to lift up one's mind and spirit against the majesty, than which there is nothing more sublime. For Israel had been delivered to the Assyrians, God imposing the penalty of captivity on account of their supreme iniquity. For it was not fitting for them to come by their own counsel into such stupidity and into these foolish thoughts, so as to think and bring into their minds that they could prevail over the hand of Him who

desires their salvation, and become superior to the ineffable power of God, who is exalted above all things and excels in might. ^A

Verses 6, 7. For thus the Lord said to me: Go, set a watchman for yourself; and whatever you see, report it. And I saw two horsemen riders: a rider of an ass, and a rider of a camel.

It is the custom of the holy prophets, during the time of divine contemplation or visions, as it were to gather and collect their mind within themselves, and with most acute and attentive thought to survey the things shown by God, and, as if having become in a high and secret watchtower, to give ear to the divine words. For one of the holy prophets said: ^B "I will stand upon my watch, and will climb upon the rock, and will watch to see what He will say in me, and what I shall answer to my correction." Therefore, the prophet now teaches that he hears from God: "Go, set a watchman for yourself; and whatever you see, report it." He is not commanded to set some other watchman, but entirely to prepare himself for divine contemplation, and, as a watchman in a high place, with purpose and mind, to survey the future, and to attain the inspection of things by [inner] sight and appearance. "I saw, therefore," he says, "two horsemen riders: a rider of an ass, and a rider of a camel." And that this is so, the ^C Lamentation over the Assyrians will clearly teach. For it said: "Against me the Elamites, and the legates of the Persians come unto me." The Elamites are a barbarian nation, and accustomed to ride upon camels. But who else would the rider of the ass be, if not the chosen and eminent men of the Persians? Whom they say were accustomed to go to battle mounted on mules and in *sciadia* (light carriages), so that no fatigue might enervate them; but when they see the place of battle, then, leaping down from the *sciadia*, they use choice horses. Therefore, he calls him who is carried on mules the rider of the ass. Or even in another way: it is probable the prophet saw the host of the enemies moving on horses, and a multitude of camels and ^D mules following, perhaps prepared for the carrying away of spoils. For he says this elsewhere: "In the affliction and distress, the lion and the lion’s cub: there were also asps and a brood of flying asps, who carried their wealth upon asses and camels." For he called Cyrus the lion and the lion’s cub, and the Persians and Medes under him the asps and the brood of flying asps, that is, those who are wont to run ahead quickly and be carried in the manner of birds; he speaks of those who were from other nations, who were also accustomed by practice and habit to be carried upon camels.

Verse 8. Hear a great hearing, and call Uria into the watchtower of the Lord.

The prophet confessed that he had seen certain ones

^A of these, we have already spoken. Since, however, he has seen them once, he is commanded henceforth to hasten to learn what follows from this incursion, and the terrible accounts of the catastrophe of the Chaldeans. For such a hearing is indeed great in truth. Therefore, the things that befell Babylon were terrible, beyond all speech, and reached the height of evils. For Cyrus captured it in such a way that he rendered it entirely desolate, and destroyed those who were in it, even dragging from the caves those who hoped they could entirely hide themselves. And indeed the God of the universe said to him: "I will give you treasures that are dark, hidden, I will open invisible things to you." ^B There is also introduced somewhere the person of Jerusalem as if addressing Babylon, saying: "Do not rejoice over me, my enemy, because I have fallen and shall arise; for if I sit in darkness, the Lord will enlighten me. I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he justifies my righteousness, and performs my judgment, and leads me forth into the light; and I shall see his righteousness. And my enemy shall see, and shall be covered with shame, who says to me, 'Where is the Lord your God?' My eyes shall see her. Now she shall be for a trampling as mud in the ways." The day of the smearing of brick, that day is your destruction: at which, clearly, it was devastated and wiped out by the Persians and Medes and Elamites, as I said. "Hear, therefore," he says, "a great hearing," that is, the long and horrible accounts concerning the captivity; "and call Uria into the watchtower of the Lord." They say that Uria was one of those most distinguished in the ministries according to the law. "Call, therefore," he says, "as a witness of the watchfulness, that is, the vision shown to you, Uria, and let him be taught by you the things that are to come." For since those who were less yielding to the narrations of the prophets said: "Speak other things to us, and announce to us another error," ^C on that account, most fittingly, the God of the universe employed those most honored among the Jews as witnesses of the things shown at different times, as though they possessed the spirit of prophecy in a prophetic vision, so that if they were unwilling to comply with their words, they might at least be swayed by those who were adorned and honored among them with the legal priesthood.

And he said: "I stood always by day, and in the camp I stood the whole night; and behold, he comes, the rider of a pair." ^D Having been commanded by the prophet to set a watchman for himself, and to announce clearly whatever had been shown to him by God: "I stood," he says, "throughout the whole day and throughout the whole night. And behold, he comes, the rider of a pair." Who then is he? The Persian and the Elamite, that is, the commander of the army, which is to say, Cyrus.

VERS. 9. And answering he said: "Babylon has fallen, and all its images, and its hand-made things have been crushed to the ground." When the prophet had said: "Behold, he comes, the rider of a pair,"

^A how this incursion was to happen, and that it was not far off, he saw very well; then God answers and says: "Babylon has fallen," that is, the proud and insolent hammer of the whole earth, as Jeremiah says, and which invades all nations in a beastly manner, which lifts its haughty neck, and levels countries and cities to the ground. "It has fallen," he says; that is, it has utterly perished; it has gone away and been trampled, and cast down completely, and is seen lying henceforth beneath the feet of those who have captured it. And all its images and hand-made things have also been crushed. For it is a land of graven images, as another of the holy prophets says; and it trusted greatly in its falsely-named gods; and expecting to be saved by the help from them, it has been trampled along with them, and together with its own objects of worship has been crushed. ^B

"Hear, you who are left behind and pained, hear what I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel has announced to us." Israel was carried off as a captive, and served the Babylonians, God permitting this on account of many sins, and allowing him to be consumed by such long calamities. Yet many remained in Jerusalem and in Judea; but they continued groaning and pained, as their country had been ravaged, and the temple itself burned, and Jerusalem itself destroyed by force. Therefore, the prophet usefully weaves into this vision a medicinal remedy for their consolation, and says to them: "Hear, you who are left behind and pained, hear what I have heard from the Lord of hosts; the God of Israel has announced to us." For he knew, he knew that the calamity of the Babylonians would be a cause of joy to them, and that reports about those who had caused their grief—such as their being cut down and overturned—would be a source of consolation to those who had been so devastated. ^C

THE VISION OF IDUMAEA

And I think it necessary to set forth the argument of the proposed vision. For those who read it may understand it in this way and no other. There were, then, two sons born to Isaac, Esau and Jacob; and the one, Esau, was surnamed Edom, that is, "earthy"; for such was his life, and he sold his birthright for a single meal, as it is written. Jacob was a man without guile, dwelling at home; for the sacred Scripture said this about him. And from Jacob, who was also renamed Israel, the Jews have come to be; but from Esau, that is, from Edom, the Idumaeans, that is, the Hagarenes, and these are the Saracens. ^D Therefore the Idumaeans were brothers and kin to those who were from Israel; and the country of the Jews and the country of the Idumaeans were also bordering and adjacent to each other. But neither being kin, nor indeed living in proximity, could secure and foster benevolence between these relatives. For they disagreed, and the Idumaeans, living according to the customs and laws of the Greeks, plundered…

the land of the Judaeans, and dared to commit against them the most shameful acts of all. Indeed, when the Israelites, having unburdened themselves from the yoke of the Egyptian oppression, were returning to the land promised to their fathers, "Moses," it is said, "sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, saying: Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the hardship that has come upon us; and our fathers went down into Egypt, and we lived in Egypt many days, and the Egyptians mistreated us and our fathers; and we cried to the Lord, and the Lord heard our voice, and having sent an angel, brought us out of Egypt; and now we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your borders; we will pass through your land; we will not pass through fields, nor through vineyards, nor will we drink water from your cistern; we will go by the royal road; we will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left, until we have passed your borders. And Edom said to him: You shall not pass through me, OR ELSE I will come out against you in war." Do you see how hard and devoid of all pity the Idumaeans became, and this even toward their own brethren? But their crimes did not stop there; rather, they committed another act that was both impious and savage. For when the land of the Judaeans was taken by the Babylonian, and the temple was burned and the ^B Israel was laid waste, he (the Babylonian) did things beyond all speech against those who lived there. And so, some of those who had been saved from the Persian sword were rushing to take refuge in the neighboring land of the Judaeans, as if to brethren and kinsmen; but they, although they ought to have brought aid as to brothers, and to have pitied them for acting miserably, and indeed to have restored them in a friendly manner, instead fell upon them in a beast-like way, and exercised their cruelty upon the fugitives. Because of this very thing, the God of the universe severely rebuked them through the voice of the prophet Obadiah; for it is written thus: "In that day, says the Lord, I will destroy the wise men out of Idumaea, and understanding from the mount of Esau; and your warriors from Teman will be terrified, so that man may be cut off from the mount of Esau, for the slaughter and the impiety against your brother Jacob; and shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever; from the day you stood over against him, in the day the foreigners were taking captive his army; and foreigners entered his gates, and cast lots on Jerusalem, and you were as one of them." ^C Consider then how they became imitators of the Persian cruelty, and those who expected salvation, and for this reason were going [to them] as to brethren and neighbors, they slaughtered mercilessly. Therefore, when the Babylonians had captured the land of the Judaeans, and were subsequently returning to their own country, they made the devastation of Idumaea a task by the way. For they captured them all very easily, and without any struggle, as the anger of God was hanging over them. And again He said by the voice of Obadiah: "Therefore the day of the Lord is near upon all nations; as you have done, so it shall be done to you; your retribution will be turned back upon your own head." This, therefore, is as it were a brief summary of the argument of the vision that is before us. It is necessary to proceed ^D

to each part, in so far as it is possible to set forth what has been written. ^A

*Vers. 11. Ad me clama de Seir.* This is the voice of the omnipotent God speaking to the prophet, as if the war were to fall upon the land of the Idumeans at any moment, and all who inhabit it are to turn to flight. Seir is a huge mountain of Idumea, upon which an illustrious city of theirs is said to be. ^B As though, therefore, the mountaineers of Seir—that is, the Idumeans—were now on the point of fleeing, He says, "Cry to me," that is, let those who are fleeing from thence come into Judea. For just as they mocked those from Israel who were refugees among them, so, He says, will they be mocked, seeing the same things happen to themselves, and being vanquished by the hand of the Babylonians.

*Vers. 12. Custodite propugnacula, custodiam mane et noctu.* The discourse is as if to the Idumeans, the God of all reproachfully pointing out to them the vanity of their efforts in the labors which they expended in defending themselves against the enemy, while in no way seeking salvation and assistance from Him. For with the incursion of the Assyrians impending, and the approaches to their cities blocked and closed, they were guarding and defending the bulwarks. But the thing was useless to them. For their cities were captured, and there was no one at all who was saved. ^C The discourse from God, then, is adapted to their character: "Yes," He says, "you decide rightly and reasonably, guard the ramparts." Then, as if from them: "I will guard in the morning and by night." "But unless the Lord keeps the city, the keeper watches in vain." For it was necessary rather to seek the help from above and from God, and not to place one’s confidence in stones. For they say that the walls of their cities were so shaken that not one stone was seen lying upon another.

*Vers. 13. Si quæsieris, quære, et apud me habita, in saltu vesperi dormies.* For if you should wish, He says, to seek for defense, seek it from me, who have the power to save, and "dwell with me," that is, be mine and meditate on my ways, separating yourself from the worship of falsely named gods. ^D The Savior says something like this: "He that loveth me, let him follow me; and where I am, there also shall my servant be." When, therefore, the enemy's phalanx is overrunning the entire land of the Idumeans, you will be driven out of your houses and cities, and "you shall sleep in the forest in the evening," that is, you will lodge together with the wild beasts; you will also dwell in the marshes, and thus, finally, you will pay the penalties for your cruelty towards your brothers.

*Vers. 14, 15. In via Dædan, in occursum sitienti aquam ferte, qui inhabitatis regionem Themani, panibus occurrite fugientibus propter multitudinem

^A of those fleeing, and because of the multitude of the wandering, and because of the multitude of the sword, and because of the multitude of those with bows stretched out, and because of the multitude of those fallen in war.

He accuses the Idumeans of having acted impiously, as I have already said, and as through the voice of the prophet Obadiah. For although they ought to have sympathized and come to the aid of the Israelites who had fallen into incurable calamities, they did not do this; rather, they appeared alienated from every affection of piety, stubborn, and more savage than the cruelty of the Assyrians, slaughtering those who were completely unable to escape their hands. Therefore, he accuses them for not doing that which, if they had done, would have brought them praise, saying: "In the way of Dedan, bring water to meet him who thirsts, you who inhabit the region of ^B Teman, meet those fleeing with bread." For it was necessary, he says, it was necessary for you, who possess the southern region—for Teman is interpreted as South—to bring bread and water to those fleeing and wandering in the way of Dedan, and to be eager to perform the duties of charity befitting brothers, as is right, and not to oppose those who are already suffering in a beastly manner, and to assault them in a way, and to aggravate the yoke of those already weighed down by such bitter and untamable calamities. Therefore, it was right to meet the fugitives lovingly. For they were turned to flight, having abandoned their homes and cities because of the multitude of swords and the most cruel bows—and because many had fallen, and those dead among them had become beyond counting.

*Vers. 16, 17. For thus the Lord said to me: Yet a year, as the year of a hireling, the glory of Kedar shall fail, and the remnant of the bows of the mighty sons of Kedar shall be few, because the Lord the God of Israel has spoken.*

He clearly foretells that the destruction of Idumea is near, and as it were, at the doors, and that they will utterly and completely meet with destruction, as the Babylonians burn their cities and ravage the entire region. For he says there shall be one intervening year, and the archers of Kedar—who, he says, were wondrously pleased with themselves in this regard—will fail and perish. But this prophecy will be true. For the Lord has spoken, the Lord God of Israel. And the Truth will not lie at all. He calls it the year of a hireling, exactly and precisely reduced to calculation. ^D For he who endures sweat in servitude, and has bound himself by wages to another, always subtly and accurately calculates the measure of the time of his hire. And this much, as far as the letter and history are concerned, let it be said for now. But applying the force of this discourse to the holy Church and her foster-children, and indeed also to the flocks of the heterodox, we say this: that the throngs of the Greeks very often set themselves against those who are accustomed to think rightly and who choose by nature and truly to worship the Creator and Lord of all. Then, having subjected them to bitter persecutions, they sometimes wrap them in intolerable

pains. Similarly, those who have the poison of unholy heresies in their mind and heart, though they steal the name of Christians and feign a fellowship with us, sometimes surpass the savagery of enemies, and are unloving and cruel. For why are they not proved by their own deeds to be such? But God will not endure them forever, nor will He tolerate those who have hardened themselves against every feeling of humanity and piety, but He will inflict upon them the things that wrath and justice demand.

TOMUS V. THE VISION OF THE VALLEY OF SION.

^B Having foretold the captivity of the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Idumeans, the prophet comes to the holy city itself, that is, to Jerusalem, and usefully foretells the things that will happen to it in due time as a result of divine wrath. He does this so that they might understand that God, the governor of all, is justice itself, or rather that He is justice in substance; and that He does not honor and prize them simply because they were intimately connected with Him through instruction in the law, but rather that He examines what is done in life by each person, distributing good things to those who have established in themselves the habit of virtue, but regarding the lover of vice as a stranger and in no way related to Him, even if he happens to be beloved for the sake of his fathers. The masses of the Jews, therefore, out of great ignorance, thought ^C that they would be completely impregnable to their enemies and that no one would attack them at all, and that they would lead a quiet life flowing with great prosperity, even though they provoked God and had descended into great impiety. For they worshipped idols, and under oak and poplar trees raised shrines and altars where they offered sacrifices to vain gods and performed libations, having wholly spared none of the glory due to the most holy God. And so, through the voice of Jeremiah, He says to them concerning Jerusalem: "And do not say that it is the Lord’s temple, for if you do not thoroughly amend your ways and your deeds, I will make this house like Shiloh." And He reproved them again ^D through the prophet Micah, saying: "Her leaders judged for gifts, and her priests answered for hire, and her prophets divined for silver, and they rested upon the Lord, saying: Is not the Lord in our midst? No evil shall come upon us. Therefore, on your account, Sion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall be as a garden hut, and the mountain of the house as a grove of the woods." But that the judgment of God comes sharply against everyone accustomed to sin, the divine Baptist John also made plain to them, saying: "Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say among yourselves, We have Abraham as our father: for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And already the axe is laid at the root of the trees—

^A therefore, every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire. Since Israel then possessed an unbridled impulse toward sinning, and as I just said, was clinging to the fictitious worship of idols, God prefigures by the prophet the captivity of Jerusalem that would come in the course of time, and says:

CHAP. XXII. VERS. 1, 2. What has happened to you, that you have all now climbed onto empty rooftops? The city is full of those crying out; your wounded are not wounded by sword, and your dead are not dead of war.

It seems that he is indicating here the devastation in the times of Jeconiah; he speaks sternly to those from Israel, as people who, even in these very evils and in the most urgent and grave calamities, refused to do that which was appropriate and which would have procured for them benevolence from above. For they ought to have been weeping and lamenting and going up into the house of God, and proclaiming repentance, and asking for oblivion for those things in which they have acted riotously, and seeking from Him alone a helping hand. ^B And He Himself taught this, saying through one of the holy prophets: “Gird yourselves and wail, O priests; lament, you who minister at the altar; enter in, sleep in sackcloth, you who minister to God, because sacrifice and libation have failed from the house of your God; sanctify a fast, preach a service, gather all the elders dwelling in the land into the house of your God, and cry out to the Lord incessantly: Woe, woe, for the day.” These things, then, they ought to have done, and by doing so, to appease Him who is powerful to save. But they, perhaps because they were lifted up and swollen with confidence, did not even think that they ought to do these things; and contrary to ancestral and native rites, they ascended to the high places. ^C But there was wailing everywhere, and lamentations of women and children, consumed by hunger and thirst. For when cities are surrounded by siege, it is necessary that these things happen. Hence He says: "What has happened to you, that you have all now climbed onto empty rooftops?" Why indeed, He says, in such unbearable terrors, and while your total conflict—your entire struggle—is at stake, did you not cry out to God, but rather leapt onto rooftops, even though the act brings you no benefit at all? For this reason also He calls them empty rooftops. Why also is the city full of those crying out? Not, indeed, to God, but crying out in vain, and all but complaining not without reason ^D at the evils that had happened within the doors. The wailing ought to have been toward repentance, the tear ought to have been poured out to God. Behold, He says, before you took up the war, before you seized the sword, before you devised the resistance, the city became full of corpses. It is useful, therefore, and necessary for salvation, for one to know how to perform those things through which one might have a saving God, even if one should be in the midst of bitter calamities. The blessed David therefore sings and says: “O Lord God of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in You.” It should be known, moreover, that he calls Jerusalem the valley of Sion. For it is a mountain, or rather Zion is on a mountain; [it]

^A and it is situated at the roots of the mountain of Jerusalem, whence he calls it the valley of Sion.

VERS. 3. All your princes have fled, and those who were captured have been harshly bound, and the powerful men among you have fled far away.

The Jewish people, as I said, having abandoned God, the preserver of all things, and trusting in human assistance, expected to be saved. But when the enemies arrived, and the fear of evils had grown and, as it were, ripened, and they had seen the cohorts of the Assyrians already surrounding the region and the holy city, those who were at the pinnacle and held the highest honors leaped down and, just as if a ship were ^B sinking, they swam away, taking leave of the hope of salvation which they had placed in themselves, and they drifted. Therefore all have fled, he says, who formerly promised to save you, and who were thought to possess an irresistible hand; but those who were actually captured have been harshly bound and severely. For Zedekias was captured together with his children; and the Babylonians slaughtered the latter, and having gouged out his eyes, they carried him off to their own land. “Vain, therefore, is the salvation of man,” as it is written; but one must cleave to God alone, crying out that wise saying: “I will not hope in my bow, and my sword will not save me.” For the Lord of hosts alone saves those who love Him, and delivers them from every evil, so that they also say in their joy: “For You have saved us from those who afflict us, and You have put to shame those who hate us.”

VERS. 4, 5. Therefore I said, Let me be, I will weep bitterly; do not labor to console me for the destruction of the daughter of my race, because it is a day of trepidation, and ruin, and trampling from the Lord of hosts in the valley of Sion. ^C

This is the voice of the prophet, all but weeping and lamenting the calamities of his race. And by the fact that he begs those who are powerful to console him, he reveals the magnitude of the wound, that it has no medicine, but rather has been inflicted upon them unendurably, and has a bitter and unmanageable assault. For a day of trepidation and ruin and trampling has been brought by the Lord of hosts. “For who shall turn back the high hand?” For if the incursion from the Assyrians had taken place without anger from above, there would be a very great hope for the weary and faint that they might, at some time, be able to overcome the invaders, with God, the ruler of all, always extending a saving hand to them. But since He Himself is the one who strikes, and the trampling is from the Lord, who is it that will overturn or ^D undo it? “For if He shuts against a man,” he says, “who will open?”

They wander from the small to the great, they wander in the mountains.

Marvel at the vigilance of the one who was inspired by the Spirit. Since he said that the trepidation and the ruin and the day of the trampling were to be brought by the Lord of hosts, lest someone might think that it was in vain that he attributed the divine...

^A indignation to have leaped upon them, he immediately cuts off the suspicion of those who, out of levity, might sometimes think that they had descended into this folly; and he attaches this apology, so that the Creator of the universe might appear to be a just judge. "For they err," he says, "from the small to the great; they err upon the mountains." What this truly means, you shall learn from the very words of God. For the blessed Jeremiah said somewhere: "Dost thou see what the house of Israel has done to me? They went up to every high mountain and to every high hill, and under every shady tree, and there they committed fornication." For, possessing the heights of the mountains, they prepared altars and shrines. Then, having fashioned an idol according to their own whim, they offered sacrifices to it, and having utterly renounced piety toward God, they said to the wood: "Thou art my father," and to the stone, "Thou hast begotten me." Have, then, only a few suffered this? By no means, he says; for they have all fallen away, ^B both small and great. And thus, again, he said to the blessed prophet Jeremiah: "And do not pray for this people, and do not make supplication for them in prayer, for I will not hear. Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? Their children gather wood, and their fathers kindle fire, and their wives knead dough to make barley cakes for the host of heaven; and they have poured libations to strange gods, so as to provoke me to anger." By a just reckoning, therefore, they are punished. For by attributing worship to the creature and serving the works of their own hands, they have brought the divine wrath upon their own heads. For the net is not unjustly spread for winged creatures, as it is written; and God subjects to penalties him who disgraces His glory and who, with an erring mind, has inclined to every sort of wickedness.

*Verses 6-8. But the Elamites took their quivers, men mounted on horses, and they gathered for battle against thee. And thy choice valleys shall be filled with chariots, and the horsemen shall block up thy gates, and they shall lay open the gates of Judah; and they shall look in that day upon the choice houses of the city, and they shall uncover the hidden things of the houses of the citadel of David.*

He amplifies the narrative and, as it were, paints the assault of war, and strikes the hearers with terror, artfully constraining ^D them and driving them into a narrow strait, so that they might repent; and he speaks of these things as if he already saw the troops present and before the gates. The Elamites are, so to speak, from a Persian city, and are named from it. Some say that those horsemen are Saracens, and that these are mounted archers, most skillful and expert, harsh and inflexible, and knowing not how to pity. And he teaches that they are innumerable, saying: "Thy choice valleys shall be filled with chariots," and that "the horsemen shall block up thy gates," so that those who wish to enter are pressed by wondrous straits and are hemmed in by narrowness. And breaking into every splendid house,

they shall curiously ^A explore, and shall uncover the hidden things of the houses of the citadel of David, that is to say, the wealth of the kings. For those from the tribe of Judah, from which the blessed David was also born, reigned. But this has been said according to history; let us treat of it again. If the ranks of enemies, or of foolish reasonings, or of carnal pleasures, break into the human mind like invaders, they dominate it as if it were a captured city, and they destroy all its spiritual wealth, driving out all piety, and stripping and despoiling it of the illustrious deeds of virtue. Therefore the divinely inspired Scripture says: "If the spirit of the one having power rise up against thee, leave not thy place, for health shall cause great sins to cease." ^B For such passions, when cut short and circumcised, pass almost into nothingness. Usefulness, however, comes from vigilance to those who exercise it; but those who, with a loose and undisciplined impulse, always tend and creep toward the worse, it uproots and shakes by their foundations as they slumber spiritually.

VERS. 9-11. And they saw that they are many, and that they turned away the water of the old pool into the city, and that they tore down the houses of Jerusalem to fortify the walls of the city. And you made for yourselves water between the two walls, inside the old pool, and you did not look to him who made it from the beginning, and him who fashioned it, you did not see.

He again accuses the Jewish people, namely the leaders and those adorned with the highest honors, ^C as having departed from sound reason, and having acted imprudently, not in those things by which ^D the endangered Jerusalem could be seen to be saved, but by those things from which they would further aggravate and exasperate the anger of the omnipotent God assailing them—God, who was held in contempt and disdain, in whom no one now reposed their faith, but the Israelites imagining that they could overcome the hostile hand by human zeal and effort. For they say that, having counted the houses of the city, and then having measured the water kept in store as if by estimation, they perceived that they were many, and they diverted the water of the old pool into the city, so that they might have, as they thought, enough to suffice, even if the time of the siege were to be prolonged. And in addition to this, he says, they made fortifications for the walls by tearing down the houses of the city. *And you did not look to him who made it from the beginning, and him who fashioned it, you did not see.* For it was necessary, he says, it was necessary not to rely on their own resources or arts, but rather to direct the eye of the mind to Him who always fortifies the holy city like a wall. For [Ecl. x, 4] "Mountains are round about it," he says, "and the Lord is round about his people," which was also promised to it by the voice of the prophet, when he says: "And I will be to it, says the Lord, a wall of fire round about, and I will be for a glory in the midst of it." But you did not do this, he says, divine

^A aid, as if you were in no way in need of it, you have foolishly trusted in stone ramparts. But it would have been far better to call upon the unconquerable hand, and to seek to receive those things that come from the gentleness and philanthropy of God, and to name Him Savior and Redeemer, and, being so disposed, to allow the tear of repentance to trickle down.

VERS. 12-14. And the Lord of Sabaoth called in that day for weeping, and lamentation, and shaving off the hair, and girding with sackcloth; but they made joy and gladness, slaying calves, and sacrificing sheep, so as to eat flesh and drink wine, saying: Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. And these things are revealed in the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, that this sin shall not be forgiven you until you die.

It is true, as it is written: "When an ungodly man comes into the depth of evils, he scorns." That the Israelites had suffered this, one might observe. For, having become terrified by every evil, and seeing the danger looming over them from the cruelty of the Assyrians, whereas they ought, while bewailing their own sloth, to appease God, and to engage in lamentation and the shaving of hair, and the wearing of sackcloth, as the time called for this, they turned completely to the contrary. For as if having become weary, and having, so to represent it, become entirely calloused, they pursued luxuries, and strove to fulfill the works of gaiety, slaughtering calves and sheep, and getting drunk and reveling in ^C luxuries beyond measure, and saying to one another with a desperate, wild, and careless spirit: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." For they thought, as is to be expected, that God would not hear such things. But, He says, these things are revealed in His ears; and this sin shall not be forgiven you until you die; that is to say, you shall utterly go down to death and destruction, and that on account of this sin of yours.

It behooves us, therefore, in the days of wrath—that is, when we are broken by the terrors arising from temptations—not to be supine in sloth, but rather to mourn and to draw near with tears to the lover of good, God, and to seek to be shown mercy by afflicting ourselves with the labors of fasting, crying out with the voice of the Psalmist: "Look upon my humility and my labor, and forgive all my sins." And since the prophet says in these passages ^D that "The Lord of Sabaoth called in that day for weeping and lamentation, and shaving, and girding with sackcloth," I thought it worthwhile to interweave into these words the utterances of Micah—or rather, the words spoken by God through the prophet. It is written as follows: "And now says the Lord our God: Turn you to me with all your heart, in fasting and in weeping and in lamentation; and rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God, for He is merciful and gracious, long-suffering and very merciful, repent-

^Aing over evils. Who knows if He will turn and repent, and leave behind Him a blessing, a sacrifice and a libation to the Lord our God? Sound the trumpet in Sion, sanctify a fast, proclaim a service, gather the people, sanctify the Church, choose the elders, gather the infants sucking at the breasts. Let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride from her bridal chamber. Between the foundation and the altar the priests who minister unto the Lord shall weep, and shall say: Spare, O Lord, Thy people, and give not Thine inheritance to reproach, for the nations to rule over them; lest they should say among the nations, Where is their God? ^B Therefore, at that time, when God was calling for weeping and lamentation, and for the shaving of hair and the wearing of sackcloth, they gave themselves over to pleasures, whetting against themselves all the more heavily unto an uncontrollable wrath Him who is able both to destroy and to save.

Verses 15-19. Thus says the Lord Sabaoth: Go into the pastophorium to Somnas the treasurer, and say to him: What are you doing here, and what is your business here? For you have hewn out for yourself a monument here, and have made for yourself a monument on high, and have written for yourself a tabernacle in the rock? Behold, the Lord Sabaoth will cast out and destroy the man, and will take away your stole, and your glorious crown, and will cast you into a land great and vast, and there you shall die; and He will set your handsome chariot for a reproach, and the house of your prince for a trampling, and you shall be removed from your administration and from your station.

Somnas was a treasurer of funds, though it is unclear whether of the sacred funds set apart for the temple, or of the royal ones; but it seems more likely that he was appointed to the collection of sacred funds, and for those things necessary and useful at times for the restoration of the sacred vessels. They describe him as being also of the blood of Levi, and conspicuous for the ornaments of the priesthood. Yet he was a man of great and excessively haughty spirit, harsh to those who offended him, eager for greedy gain and overcome by sordid profit-seeking, a lover of display, and always hunting for honors from men. ^C For this reason, he was, quite justly, detested by God; and so, when Judea was on the very brink of being ravaged, and Jerusalem itself was about to be taken—at the time when the Babylonians had already conquered and carried away Israel captive into their own land—Somnas was building for himself a conspicuous monument, and lavishing upon it the most expensive construction. ^D Therefore, the word from God comes to him. For what does the prophet say? Go into the pastophorium—this was a place in the temple—to Somnas the treasurer, and say to him: What are you doing here? And what is your business here? That is, what lot do you have here? Or how do you remain here? Why then have you hewn out for yourself a monument and written for yourself a tabernacle in the rock? For what will exist? And what is it that hangs over you? Or

with what evils, he says, will you be involved? Behold, the Lord Sabaoth shall cast out and crush the man. For those who were most powerful, along with the common soldiers, and who possessed an excellence chosen above the rest, have gone away, as I said, into captivity. But when he too was led away into captivity, the crown of his priesthood was taken away, and he was thrown out like a useless vessel into a vast land, there to die without any mercy, no longer sitting in splendid chariots as before, but rather cast out, and altogether deposed from the dispensation committed to him and from his rank—that is, from the position in which he presided and ministered to God. ^B

VERS. 20-24. And it shall be in that day, I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Chelcias, and I will clothe him with your robe, and your crown I will give to him, and your power and dispensation I will give into his hands; and he shall be as a father to those dwelling in Jerusalem, and to those dwelling in Judah, and I will give the glory of David to him, and he shall rule, and there shall be none to contradict, and I will set him up as a prince in a faithful place, and he shall be for a throne of glory to the house of his father, and all the glorious ones in the house of his father shall trust in him, and small as well as great, and they shall hang upon him in that day.

The narrative does not yet depart from history. For it is still directed against Sobna the treasurer, who indeed attained the dignity of the priesthood, but who abused it so much, and set himself against all who opposed him, that he was inflamed with an intolerable greed for the belongings of others, so that he had known and meditated upon every kind of indecency whatsoever. Wherefore, upon him being cast out—that is, carried off into a far and vast region—he says: I will call, at that time, my servant Eliakim the son of Chelcias. By calling him his own servant ^C he bears witness to his docility; and that he will bestow upon him the glory of the priesthood, he makes evident by promising to crown him and saying that he will give him the robe, and the dispensation and power—that is, the ability to rule over the peoples under his hand. He has further testified that he will be kind, not high-browed like Sobna, but like a father, faithful and good; and for this reason he shall be established in a faithful place, through him—that is, firmly and solidly preserved and remaining—so that everyone who is distinguished and conspicuous might desire, I shall not say to place his hope in him as in God—for that is far from being the case—but as in a most kind father. For he will preside over and protect both small and great, he says. And he shall be so loved that the peoples under his hand appear to hang upon him. And these things, as I said, the historical account brings to us. ^D But by a more interior and deeper understanding, it seems to hint to us at the mystery of Christ. For the Scribes and Pharisees, indeed, crowned and adorned with the legal priesthood, were by no means docile, but were hard and arrogant, and lovers of money, and [slaves] to purses.

and practiced everything that was hateful to God. For the prophet Isaiah himself says at the beginning of his book: “How has the faithful city, Zion, become a harlot! She who was full of judgment, in whom righteousness lodged, but now murderers! Your silver is dross; your wine-merchants mix wine with water; your princes are rebellious, companions of thieves, loving gifts, pursuing rewards, not judging for the orphan, nor heeding the judgment of the widow.” The Savior himself also rebukes them, saying thus: “Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith.” [B ] And what is even more impious than these, they have become the slayers of the Lord. For this reason, they were pushed out of the honors of the priesthood, have been removed from presiding over the peoples, and have been cast out of the administration entrusted to them according to the law, and have become stripped of sacred crowns and the priestly robe; and after them our Lord Jesus Christ has been called our great high priest. For as the blessed Paul writes: “And one does not take the honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Christ did not glorify himself to become high priest, but He who said to him, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’” For God, being by nature Lord of all, and receiving worship from all, since He became man, has been called also our high priest. He is said also to receive the glory of David; that is to say, the authority and kingdom over Israel. But by Israel we do not mean entirely the one according to the flesh, but the one perceived by the intellect and in the spirit. For not all who are of Israel, he says, are Israel, nor because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children; but as many as have been justified by faith, having followed the footsteps of the father Abraham, these are his children, and are called children of the promise and Israel. [C ] Christ, therefore, having been revealed as the high priest of all of us, "There shall be," he says, "no one contradicting Him." For the enemy will not profit in Him, and the son of iniquity will not add to harassing Him. And in another way: Israel has indeed contradicted, but the nations have embraced His kingdom. For it is found written by the voice of David, saying regarding Israel: “Deliver me from the contradictions of the people”; but regarding the nations: “You shall make me head of the nations; a people whom I have not known has served me; at the hearing of the ear it has obeyed me. Alien sons have lied to me; alien sons have grown old, and have limped from their paths.” For they have grown old and have become near to destruction, and they possess a mind that is, as it were, broken; they have become alien sons, that is to say, those from Israel. For formerly he was the firstborn, but since they lied to Christ, they have become aliens. For children of perdition and children of hell have they been called from then on. [D ] But when, he says, I shall reveal Eliakim (which is translated "resurrection of God," for God the Word has been raised up for our aid, who also says: “Because...”)

of the misery of the needy and the groaning of the poor, now I will arise,” says the Lord), then, he says, every glorious one in the house of his father shall trust in Him. And what ^A house of the Father of Christ could there be, other than the Church? But if anyone is glorious in it, this person shall have trusted in Christ, and not only one who is glorious, but truly also anyone who might be humble, according to the world, I mean. For the God of all is just and impartial, according to the measure of spiritual age; for some are fathers, but others are still little children, and youths, and adolescents in an intelligible sense.

VERS. 25. *Thus says the Lord Sabaoth: The man who is established in a faithful place shall be moved, and shall fall, and the glory that is upon him shall be taken away, because the Lord has spoken.*

After such a long narrative, a concise and brief speech is brought in, declaring the severity of the divine judgments, as if a king were commanding it to be done with the authority that is fitting. ^B But the force of this sentence again looks, if one wishes, to Shebna the steward; but if one wishes more broadly, to those who perform sacrifices according to the law, you will understand it just as we have already rendered it. For those who seemed to be settled in the security of prosperity (for this is what it is to seem established in a faithful place) have fallen, and have been deprived of the glory that was present to them, with no one providing help, or being able to raise up those who have fallen, because the Lord has spoken. For if he has shut against a man, who, he says, shall open?

THE VISION OF TYRE

CAP. XXIII, VERS. 1. *Wail, you ships of Carthage, because it has perished, and they no longer return; from the land of the Kittians it has been led captive.*

Come, then, again, as much as we are able, let us hasten to set forth clearly the things spoken by God in oracles concerning Tyre; let us first recount the history, and let us make clear in what way it was captured and perished and was led captive, according to what is written. Therefore, when the Babylonians had ravaged Judea, and had burned the holy city itself, and were leading Israel away captive, the tribes of the Gentiles that were neighbors and lived roundabout, opening a bold and unrestrained mouth, ^C attempted to deride the glory of God. For they said that He had not been able to save them, and that even the God who helped them had been overcome by the hand of the Assyrians; and they thought that their own native gods were indeed both stronger than the God of the Hebrews, and that they stood before them and walled them about, and kept them safe from every incursion, and rendered them superior to the Babylonians. ^D And in another way also they were plundering the Jewish nation themselves, partly by lying in wait for and threatening those who were suffering and plundering the survivors, and partly by consecrating the sacred vessels to their falsely named gods, and by forcing those who had been oppressed by them under the yoke of servitude to abandon the worship of the Law, and by almost compelling them by force. Since God said through one of the holy prophets:

^A “And what are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the Galilee of the Gentiles? Do you return a recompense to me, or do you bear grudges against me? Swiftly and speedily I will return your recompense upon your heads, because you took my silver and my gold, and brought my choice and beautiful things into your temples; and you sold the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel to the sons of the Greeks, so that you might cast them out of their own borders.” Tyre, then, was also taken by the wrath of God in the following manner: for it was an island, with a strait running through the middle and separating it by no long distance from the mainland. But when the Babylonian arrived and sought to capture it along with the others, he ordered the troops under his command to fill in the intervening sea with a mole, and to join it to the mainland, so that it would no longer remain an island. After this had happened, or was expected to happen in a short time, most of the people in Tyre, inasmuch as they followed the pursuit of trade and were accustomed to seafaring, escaped from the island with their children and wives and migrated to other cities and villages. The Babylonians, therefore, rushing in, killed those who remained and captured many, and did what is customary for victors; yet they were not a little grieved to learn that a great number, including those who were far more illustrious among them, had loaded their goods onto ships and fled. The discourse also remembers this history as well as the prophecy of Ezekiel. For the God of all said this to him: ^B “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, made his army serve a great service against Tyre; every head was bald and every shoulder was worn, and there was no pay for him or his army for the harsh service he served against Tyre. Therefore I have given him the land of Egypt.” For after the capture of the Tyrians, the Babylonian transferred the fight to the Egyptian nation. The blessed prophet Isaiah now makes mention of this history, and commands the ships of Carthage to wail. To wail, it is manifest, means for Tyre, because it perished and no longer do they come from the land of the Citians. Some say that the Citians are the Hellenic islands, that is, the Macedonian; others assert that Cyprus is signified by this, as being so named after one of the cities in it. “Wail,” he says, for what cause? Because she is taken captive. But perhaps someone will say: Does he command Carthage, or the ships which are there, to lament for Tyre? For what reason? For the Carthaginians were colonists of the Tyrians; and they boasted of having Tyre as a most noble and most valiant mother among the islands, at least those in the East. They say that even those from the land of the Citians prided themselves upon her, and revelled in the profits of the markets. “Wail, therefore,” he says, “you merchants of Carthage,” or rather the ships, “for it has perished.” And let Tyre also wail, “for they no longer come from the land of the Citians; for she is taken captive.”

^A Ver. 2, 3. To whom have those who dwell in the island, the merchants of Phoenicia, passing over the sea in much water, been made like? The seed of the merchants, as a harvest brought in, the merchants of the nations. To what nations, he says, shall we liken those who inhabit this island? Who has suffered such things, or been so devastated, as these merchants of Phoenicia? For trade was the practice of the Tyrians, and crossing the sea was a matter of study for them, for the sake of profit and gain. When he adds, “the seed of the merchants,” he shows that their native race was ignoble, and that they were sprouted from an evil root, and that their ancestors before them were dedicated and addicted to avarice. He teaches that there were also innumerable peoples who practice this sordid life, when he says: As a harvest brought in, the merchants of the nations. For when grain or ears of corn are reaped in a field, there is a great bringing in of sheaves from every side, and a collection into the threshing floor.

^B Ver. 4. Be ashamed, O Sidon, said the sea; and the strength of the sea said, I have not travailed, nor brought forth, nor have I nursed virgins, nor raised up young men. The Carthaginians were colonists of the Tyrians; but the Tyrians had Sidon as their mother, for Tyre was from Sidon. Yet Sidon was very proud of Tyre as of a brilliant and famous daughter. But when she was captured and brought away captive, then the sea, that is, all the islands by the sea, will say in turn: Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the most beautiful of your ornaments has perished, since it was a very ancient, strong, and most mighty fortress, and most celebrated for its many riches. Therefore the sea will say these things. But the very strength of the sea, that is, she who prevails over the islands—namely Tyre itself—lamenting its own calamities when it sees itself stripped of its inhabitants and deserted by its children, then surely it will say, “I have not travailed, nor brought forth, nor have I nurtured young men, nor raised up virgins.” For I have come to be, it says, in the same position as those who have not given birth at all, nor educated young men, nor virgins, for all have gone down to destruction from the very foundations, and absolutely no one has remained.

^C Ver. 5. But when it is heard in Egypt, pain will seize them concerning Tyre. The prophet was not unaware that, as I have already said, the Assyrian, after the capture of the Tyrians, was going to advance on the region of the Egyptians. When, therefore, he says, these things are heard by the Egyptians, then they too will be utterly and completely pained, not because Tyre has been devastated, but because the evils of war are advancing toward them.

^D Ver. 6. Pass over into Carthage, wail, you who inhabit this island. This is a very solemn manner of speech among the prophets. For he does not literally and truly urge them to depart from the city of the Tyrians and move into Carthage, nor even simply to wail, but it is as if he reproaches those who are fleeing and those who are broken beyond measure by immense cowardice. He says that it is fitting for them to bewail themselves, and

^A both these things are womanly, and more suitable to young men and those already advanced in age. For when war is announced, and it is expected that it will come against the land or the city, all who are in the flower of their age and are mature are prepared for battle, and they exercise their military tactics, and they rage against the phalanxes of the enemy, even if they are not yet present, nor are they prepared. But womanish little men and youths consider flight, and they howl and weep. For the young man and the woman are always somehow ready for fear and lamentations. Therefore, the God of the universe laughs at the unmanliness of the Tyrians. For they flee and howl, they who once held sway in battles, being terrible and difficult to encounter, bold and unconquerable.

VERS. 8. *Hath this your contumely been from the beginning, before she was delivered up? Who hath devised these things against Tyre? Is he weaker, and does he not prevail?*

I have said before that when Jerusalem was sacked, and the very temple was set on fire by the army of the Assyrians, the surrounding and neighboring nations insulted the Israelites as if they were lost and utterly cut off; and they shook their heads at them, and they thought that they had fallen under the hands of enemies, not because of their own sins, but rather because He who saves them had grown weak, and those who had conquered had proven themselves stronger than the hand of God. What then, O Tyrians, he says, ^B is it not the case that before she was delivered up, you committed this outrage against me? Did you not say that my power was lesser and inferior to your gods? Who then, he says, hath devised these things against Tyre? I, evidently, whom you dared to call weaker and powerless. Judge, therefore, easily from the things themselves whether he is inferior to the gods among you, or whether he does not prevail. For I delivered Israel, for having offended against me, to the enemies. But since you abound in gods, and there are many among you who are honored, which of them devised such a plan against Tyre? Who delivered you to the enemies? It is hard, therefore, to learn through the experience itself the things that one ought to suffer. But I think it is necessary for the most prudent to see from afar, with the keen eyes of the mind, what leads to benefit, and not to exult over the saints who are scourged, nor to think that the hand which always saves them has grown weak, but to consider rather that they fall into temptations sometimes ^C when God permits it.

VERS. 9. *Her merchants are glorious, the princes of the earth. The Lord of Sabaoth hath devised to destroy all the pride of the glorious, and to dishonor all that is glorious upon the earth.*

The discourse moves again to the need to strip away from them the arrogance that is in them, and furthermore, in addition to this, their insatiable greed for gain. For, he says, although they are merchants, and enter upon such a shameful and ignoble practice, they have arrived at such glory and pre-eminence that they take for themselves honors most fitting for princes, and they become most conspicuous with crowns of nobility and splendor. But the Lord of hosts, he says, hath devised ^D to break down and to debase the outrage of the glorious,

^A and to bring contempt upon all such. When God ^B determines such a decree for them, and brings upon them a cutting judgment, who is able to offer defense, or who could turn aside the divine wrath? For who shall be stronger than the omnipotent power? Or who shall turn back His uplifted hand, as it is written? Let them not, therefore, he says, think that because they offended their own gods they were brought down from glory to ignominy, but let them understand rather that the judgment of the Lord of hosts has come to pass, against whom they dared to say: He is weaker, and He has no power. Let us therefore also say to those who transgress the law and to those who sin: Do not exalt your horn, nor speak wickedness unholily against God, who is ruler over all things.

VERSES 10, 11. *Till thy land, for ships no longer come from Carthage. Thy hand shall no longer prevail over the sea, O thou that provocatest kings.*

He says, turn your pursuit from the practice of trading to agriculture. For you shall no longer employ the trading that is most agreeable to you, nor shall those come from Carthage who bring you immense wealth, and who flee to your hand—that is, your power. For you shall be able to do nothing at all anymore, although you were once very powerful at sea—that is, having proved most valiant against every island and every city adjacent to the sea, and having provoked many kings. For Tyre was, as I have said, a savage place of old, and terrible both to those far away and to neighbors, and to the leaders of the nations. ^C But the Lord of hosts gave a command concerning Chanaan (that is, concerning the land of the aliens), that He would destroy its strength. For the evils of war have been brought about by the cruelty of the Assyrians, not to Tyre alone, but also to other nations, to the Moabites and the Idumaeans, and to certain others. In general, all who were worshippers of idols, and not of the seed of Israel, are called Chanaanites; and a man is rightly reproached if he hears it said: "You are the seed of Chanaan and not of Juda." When, therefore, he says, the hurts of war shall have reached across all the Chanaanites at once, then some, having perceived and understood the causes of the things that have happened to them, shall say: "Do not proceed any further to insult and wrong the daughter of Sion." For I said that they used to cast reproaches upon Judaea, and to hold the Israelites in derision as captives, and to harass the wretched Jerusalem and Sion—not as if she were despised by God the Savior, ^D but as if she had fallen into captivity and affliction because the God whom they worshipped, and to whom they offered worship according to the Law, had been overcome and weakened.

VERSES 12, 13. *And if thou goest to the Citians, not even there shall there be rest for thee; and even to the land of the Chaldaeans, it also has been laid waste by the Assyrians, its wall has fallen.*

^B And I think that by the wall of the land of the Chaldaeans, he refers either to their leader and king, or indeed to the wall itself, upon which the Babylonians, relying greatly, expected that they would suffer no adversity, and that the assault of the enemy would prove fruitless against them. For it was constructed in such a way that, even if wagons passed in opposite directions, a broad and spacious road could be seen upon it. And hence, through the voice of Jeremiah, the God of all says, shaking the hope of the Babylonians in this very thing: “The wall of Babylon has been widened; being undermined, it shall be undermined.”

^C ♦ *Ululate, O ships of Carthage, for your fortress has perished.*

A song and a lamentation—that which was set at the beginning of the vision—is placed here in the middle; the prophetic word affirms that such voices, celebrated by all, were most fitting to be spoken concerning Tyre. And to howl, O ships of Carthage, [is fitting] because their fortress, that is to say, Tyre, has perished. And the occasion for the matter has been clearly set forth through things that have already passed.

♦ *And it shall be in that day, Tyre shall be forsaken for seventy years, as the time of a king, as the time of a man.*

Tyre had mocked Jerusalem, as though it had been wiped out, and it did not attribute the causes of their sufferings so much to the sloth of the Jews, as to those who had offended God through their arrogance against the Law and His decrees; rather, it thought that their leader—that is, the God of all—had been unable to save them. Therefore, she too was captured for this reason, and reduced to desolation, and she endured a ruin equal [in time] to the captivity of those from Israel. For they remained for seventy years among the Chaldaeans, held by a yoke of slavery ^D that was hardly tolerable. At that time, therefore, Tyre shall be forsaken, that is to say, she shall be desolated; and she shall remain empty of men, and shall continue for such a length of time that it would seem to be the time of a man's life, or of a reign, that is to say, the seventieth year, just as the blessed David chants: “The days of our years in them are seventy years; but as for...

them in might, eighty years; and most of them are labor and sorrow.” ^A

Vers. 16. And it shall be after seventy years, Tyre shall be as the song of a harlot. Take a harp, go about, O city, harlot given over to oblivion, strike the harp well, sing much, that there may be a remembrance of you.

A common and lewd woman, who prostituted the beauty of her body to her lovers, while she is in the bloom of youth and young, ensnares many, and the bloom of her body is as a trap and a snare to those who behold her. But when her age has become more advanced, at that very time, her beauty having withered and faded, as she is useless for this sort of hunting and fowling, she attempts another way to devise sources of income for her wretched gains. For her practice consists in song and melody; for many are charmed while she strikes the harp. Hence, a small and brief remembrance of her past life will exist, and some will praise the beauty she once had in her prime. Something similar, he says, will happen to the Tyrians. For she shall be as the song of a forgotten harlot, and no longer possessing the adornment she had at the beginning. It will be a song and melody to many. For they will remember the things that formerly belonged to her. But do you, O Tyre, like some old and worn-out harlot, take a harp, go about, O city, as one having become like some forgotten harlot. For, as I said, when the beauty of women withers away, those who were once enticed by it, her former lovers, forget her. Strike the harp well, therefore, and sing much, that there may be even some remembrance of you. ^B

Vers. 17, 18. And it shall be after seventy years, God will visit Tyre, and she shall be restored again to her former state, and she shall be an emporium for all the kingdoms of the world, and her traffic and her merchandise shall be holy to the Lord; it shall not be gathered for them, but for those who dwell before the Lord; all her merchandise [shall be] to eat and to drink, and to be filled to satiety, as a memorial before the Lord.

By a just judgment, God, as I said, made the captivity of those from Israel and the desolation of the Tyrians equal in time. But when Cyrus, having with the Persians and Medes forcibly overthrown the Babylonian kingdom, and having ravaged the entire land of the Chaldeans, Israel was released from captivity and returned again to his own land and inhabited the holy city. But God, the Lord of all, without resentment, also turned away His anger from the Tyrians; ^C she again gathered herself, and returned to her former state, and became an emporium and a resting place, as formerly, for all the kingdoms of the earth. But observe the difference. For formerly the profit that arose from trade was gathered only by those who practiced it; and no fruits at all were brought by anyone to God. But when, after the nations were called into the grace through faith, she herself had acknowledged the Savior and Redeemer of all, and a holy temple was built by them, and a divine altar was erected, ^D not to them alone is the profit from the trade now...

the profit from the trade is no longer just for them; but it shall also be sacred to the Lord—that is, as an offering and fruit-bearing, so that they may also eat and drink before the Lord. For previously, those who used to frequent the shrines of the idols and the precincts of the demons would bring sacrifices and celebrate festivals in their honor, for the glory and honor of their own fabrications; for they were still wandering in error. But since, as I have said, they have known the true God, the profit of the trade has become holy to the Lord, and they eat and drink in remembrance before the Lord, clearly dedicating to God the thanksgivings for the things in which they might be prospering. ^{A B}

Cap. XXIV. Vers. 1. *Ecce Dominus dissipabit orbem terrarum, et delebit eum; et reteget faciem ejus, et disperget ejus habitatores.*

I have already said that Jerusalem had been plundered, and that the remaining cities of Judea had been devastated along with it. The nations round about and the neighboring peoples used to mock her as she lay there, and, as they stood there shaking their heads and laughing with wide mouths, they were saying that the God of the Jews had been defeated by the hand of the Assyrians; just as, indeed, the Rabshakeh, full of Persian arrogance, was saying to those sitting on the wall: "Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, saying that God will save Jerusalem from my hand" (IV Reg. xviii, 29, 30). Since, therefore, along with Babylon, the other nations also were railing against the glory of God, declaring that their former leader had been unable to save them, for this reason they too quite rightly paid the penalty for their transgressions and for such ungodly insolence, and were themselves delivered to the Babylonians for devastation. ^C But the prophetic discourse has explained to us the vision concerning each individual nation. For they were all subjected to the upheavals of divine wrath: the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Damascenes, the Egyptians, and those from the desert, the Azotians, the Idumeans, and, in addition to these, Tyre, and finally Babylon itself; and the entire land of the Chaldeans was devastated after the manner of the others, when Cyrus, the son of Cambyses and Mandane, stirred up the Assyrians and the Medes against it. Therefore, having recounted the things brought upon each of the named nations by the divine wrath, the blessed prophet, by means of the words set before us, makes a summary, as it were, of the whole discourse, and calls the destruction that happened to many nations an destruction of the whole world. Hence he says: "Behold, the Lord will destroy the world, and will lay it waste, and will uncover the face thereof." For it is not one or two cities that have fallen, but provinces and nations have been destroyed in the ways already mentioned. He will therefore destroy and lay waste the world, he says, and will uncover its face. For as long as God, the Lord of all, is long-suffering and postpones the punishments, the life of the ungodly is in a way hidden, and the face—that is, the appearance—of each person's life is, as it were, covered and concealed. But when He brings on the wrath and ^D

^A causes the punishment to be imposed, their person is laid bare. For what kind of people they are and have become is shown by the manner of their punishment—if it be true that God will render to each according to his works. I think I ought also to say this: since the prophet named the world and said that it would be utterly destroyed and even come to desolation, some wish to believe that the prophetic discourse moves from a particular indignation to a general one against all men; and they affirm that he clearly foretells those things which are to happen to the world at the time of the consummation. Therefore, we ought to follow their insights and choose to give a twofold interpretation to each of the things spoken. He says, then, that the world will be utterly destroyed and laid waste, and its face will be uncovered, as it were, by the open manifestation of the things done by each, whether good or evil. He adds, "He shall scatter the inhabitants in it." If one wishes to take the force of this interpretation with regard to the nations, you will understand that when the aforementioned regions are brought to desolation, the inhabitants of them are in part scattered and dispersed, and in part have become captives serving those who took them, having left their own fatherland and migrated to others. But if it be taken with regard to the universal judgment, "to scatter the inhabitants in the earth" could signify "to divide," which the Savior will teach clearly, saying: "When the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of His glory, He shall set the sheep on the right hand, but the goats on the left" ^B. Therefore, instead of "divide," or "separate" the inhabitants of the earth, He has here placed "scatter."

VERS. 2, 3. And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest; and as with the servant, so with his master; and as with the maidservant, so with her mistress; it shall be as with the buyer, so with the seller; and as with the lender, so with the borrower; and as with the debtor, so with him to whom he owes. The earth shall be utterly destroyed and the earth shall be plundered, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.

When peace is flourishing, it is altogether necessary that both cities and provinces be administered according to appropriate laws, both divine and human, and that the ranks of dignity and preeminence be preserved, and wealth be established for the wealthy, and liberty for the free. But if the phalanxes of the enemy should descend, and a city or province should become fuel and material for barbaric cruelty, there will be a confusion of affairs, and nothing will any longer be in order. For the honor of the priests will be ^C void, and the servant and the master will be in an equal position, as will the maidservant and the mistress, the buyer and the seller, the lender and the borrower, the debtor and him to whom he owes; by these are denoted the rich and the poor. For destruction and consumption—that is, spoliation and plunder—pervade all men in the same way. The prophet confirms that what is said is true, by adding: For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things. But who would not dare to say that the judgment before the divine tribunal will be without respect of persons? For no eminence of authority will save anyone, unless he has the good fruits of a lawful life; nor will riches profit those who were endowed with them, but all of us shall be set before the Judge in an equal and impartial state, whether a man be small or

^A great, rich or poor. For there is no respect of persons with God. Something similar is written in Job: “Small and great is there, and the servant who fears his master.”

VERS. 3, 4. *The earth mourned, and the world is corrupted; the lofty ones of the earth mourned; and the earth acted unrighteously because of those who inhabit it.*

Mournful is the bearing of those who grieve, and the eyes and the cheeks are filled with dejection, and the forehead turns pale. For like fire, sorrow for the dead consumes the human heart. One may see something of this sort befall a city, or land and region, that has been captured by barbarians; for all things become mournful and gloomy, as those within them are consumed by the sword, their houses burned, and they suffer the damages of war. Thus you will understand the earth to mourn, for when it suffers such things, the lofty ones in it—that is, the more distinguished—must necessarily mourn. For those who are most deprived of honor and wealth and other goods, which are accustomed to follow noble and princely men, are afflicted with a heavier sorrow among those who suffer. He says the earth acted unrighteously because of those who inhabit it. For a city is called unrighteous, and often a region too, even if the earth, bereft of sense, knows not how to commit iniquity; but on account of the wickedness of the inhabitants, it undergoes this judgment. You may take this saying again in a general sense. For if, as one of the holy disciples says, the earth and the works in it will all be burned up ^B at the time of the consummation, the face of the earth will be mournful and like one in mourning. Since the earth also [is] unrighteous—that is, because it serves the impious—it is burned. For we look for new heavens and a new earth, and His promises, according to that which is written; and Paul also writes that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.

VERS. 5, 6. *Because they transgressed the law, and changed the commandments, [and] the eternal covenant, therefore a curse will devour the earth, because they who inhabit it have sinned.*

The discourse recovers again to the precision of the prophecy. For that some may not think that the God of all brings punishments upon any without cause, he joins and adds the causes to the movements of his wrath, and ^C clearly announces the offenses of those who are punished. Therefore the earth shall mourn; for what reason? Because they transgressed the law and broke the eternal covenant. For this reason he says: *And the earth shall be accursed.* For those who inhabit it have sinned. And the prophet seems again, since he has also demanded penalties from Judaea along with the other cities or regions—for it was devastated, as I said—to bring into the center the sins of those who are under the law: *For they transgressed the law*, he says, since the Israelites cared for it not at all, but ^D as if turning to another path

^A and attending to the doctrines and commandments of men. For since we are bringing the general argument—the interpretation of the thoughts—to a conclusion, we say that the God of all created man in the beginning, and he engraved upon him a natural law, schooling him toward the knowledge of both evil and good. And this, I think, is what was spoken by the voice of John concerning the only-begotten Son of God: *That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.* We understand this also to have come about in these last times—I mean, in the days of his advent. For it is written: *In those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts.* Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth transgressed this law, which steers us by nature toward the knowledge of good and evil, and they changed the commandments. For though created for good works, they turned toward the desires of the flesh and an earthly mindset. ^B Thus, even the earth has become cursed, for those who dwell upon it have offended the Creator with many and various transgressions.

*Therefore the poor shall dwell in the land, and few men shall be left.* For since, he says, the earth has become cursed because of the very great wickedness that has occurred within it, for this reason they shall be burdened with unexpected poverty and will barely be saved; for few and easily numbered ones shall remain. And thus far, as concerns the letter and the external surface of the history. But regarding the inner understanding, we say again that those who, in every way and altogether, are to be convicted of many crimes before the divine tribunal shall surely be poor, being deprived of the goods from above, ^C and naked of the hope prepared for the saints; for they shall go down to Hades to be punished, and *few shall be left*, that is, those who have pleased God through righteousness and have acquired riches from noble and courageous deeds. And these few are, according to the voice of the Savior: *For many are called, but few are chosen.*

VERS. 7-12. *The wine shall mourn, the vine shall mourn, all who are glad in heart shall groan. The joy of tabrets hath ceased, the insolence and wealth of the ungodly hath ceased, the voice of the harp hath ceased. They have been put to shame, they have not drunk wine, the strong drink hath become bitter to those who drink it. Every city is laid waste, every house shall be shut up, so that none shall enter. Wail for the wine everywhere. All joy has ceased from the earth, and the cities shall be left desolate, and the abandoned houses shall perish.*

The God of all has often accused those of the blood of Israel, inasmuch as they had committed intolerable sins, and though they knew beforehand that they would be punished for this, ^D yet they did not strive to restrain his wrath by the labors of repentance. For he said that the Lord of Sabaoth had called on that day for mourning, and lamentation, and shaving, and the girding of sackcloth, but they made

^A merry and rejoiced, slaying calves and sacrificing sheep, in order to eat flesh and drink wine, saying: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." And indeed another prophet says: "Those sleeping on ivory beds and indulging in their couches; those who eat kids from the flocks, and sucking calves from the midst of the herds; who drink filtered wine and anoint themselves with the finest ^B perfumes, and have suffered nothing for the sake of the contrition of Joseph." Therefore, having inclined toward excessive debauchery, they lived in luxury out of season, although it was fitting to bathe their cheeks with ceaseless tears and to ask for the forgetting of their sins. Thus, the evils rising from war have been justly brought upon them; and those who formerly lived in luxury have fallen into misfortunes beyond their expectation. The vine has mourned, and not the plant itself, but those who drink the fruit from it; those who formerly, he says, cheered their soul will wail, and howling will rather be their practice. For the joy of timbrels has ceased, ^C the insolence and the wealth of the ungodly has ceased. And he calls "insolence" that overweening pride, or arrogance. He lists also those things that arise from wealth, he says: both the sound of the lyre and the wine that is bitter to those who once lived in luxury; and cities and houses have become desolate. For all the joy of the earth has ceased. If someone were to contemplate the end of the world, during which the time of judgment shall be, he will say again that all luxury of earthly things shall pass away, and there shall rather be groaning and gnashing of teeth for those descending into Hades. Wealth will be of no service to those who have possessed it; all delicateness shall vanish; bodily things shall cease, ^D and for those who have taken delight in their sins, that carnal pleasure, once so highly desired, shall even result in a bitter catastrophe. For they shall render an account to the Judge of all; for as the most wise Paul writes, we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive the things done through the body, whether good or evil.

VERS. 13. "As if one should glean an olive tree, so shall they glean them; and if the vintage has ceased, they shall cry out with a voice."

He shows again, as if from manifestations placed before the eyes and most evident examples, the perverse nature of the enemies and their cruelty, as they spare no one, nor do they tolerate leaving anyone immune from the cruelty that is in them. For with a sharp eye they look upon the plant, and those seeking the fruit from the olives; and if anything should fall, they snatch it up greedily and gather it down to the last one. "So," he says, "the enemies shall glean them, destroying them with utter ruin, and even if the vintage ceases, they shall cry out with a voice." As is the custom, because it is natural for this to be done at the completion of a vintage, he also accepts this. For the vintage workers, when they arrive at the end of their labors, shout with joy and, having composed some rustic song, return from the fields. When, therefore, he says, every one of the enemies has gleaned, and leave no one at all [remaining...

^A entirely, then, as when the vintage is over, they shall cry out with a voice, mocking, of course, those who are lying low and have fallen. We say again, looking into the more profound meaning, that at the time of the judgment there will be no one of those who have lived unholily who will be able to escape notice. But those who have lived and conducted themselves rightly and piously shall walk into the abodes above; but the profane and the wicked shall be the food of the all-devouring fire. Precise, therefore, he says, shall be the gathering of such men, and the Savior himself shall teach this, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a net cast into the sea, and which gathers of every kind, which when full, they drew up, and sitting on the shore, they gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.” ^B Precise, therefore, he says, will be the inquiry of the unholy, and not one of those who have lived in such a way will be left out; for He who knows the hearts and the reins will point out all of them to the angels appointed for this task.

Those who are left on the earth shall be gladdened with the glory of the Lord.

Having said that there will be a careful investigation of those who were caught in sins, so that no one could escape notice, he does not allow the pious and God-fearing ^C man to be broken and dismayed by these fears. For even if anger is said to pass through all, yet the God of all does not destroy the just with the impious. And He teaches this, saying through the voice of Ezekiel: “Son of man, the land upon which I bring the judgment of blood, even if Noah, and Daniel, and Job were in the midst of it, they shall be saved in their own righteousness, but the land shall be for destruction.” And indeed, the same prophet says to us elsewhere also: that he had seen a man clothed in a long robe, and having a girdle, and six men following after him; and he says of each that the battle-axe was in his hand, and he said: “Go into the city after him, and smite, and do not spare, and do not show pity on the elder; kill the young man, the infants, and the women unto destruction; but upon all those over whom is the mark, draw not near, and begin at my sanctuary.” ^D Since, however, I think we must not leave unexamined the words of the prophet, come, let us say, why does he say that Noah and Job, already dead, and perhaps even Daniel himself, would be saved in their own righteousness, even if the rest of all the earth, against which the sentence of death was brought forth, were being destroyed and ruined? It seems, therefore, that he compares to Noah those who please Him through faith in God; to Daniel, the wise and discerning; to Job, again, those who please Him through that patience—it is evident, that is, in every one of the things worthy of praise. When, therefore, he says, the anger consumes those who are on the earth, not of the Jews only, but also of the gentiles, those who remain and, by the just judgment of God who weighs and balances all that concerns us, have escaped destruction, shall be gladdened with the glory of the Lord. They shall rejoice, obviously, having been saved through the ineffable glory of Him who is the president of the saints,

^A and who fences in the pious with the mercy and grace that come from Him. We shall add to what has been said this, too: for at the time of the consummation of the present age, those who have become lovers of wicked practices will indeed be sent away to Hades to be punished. But those who are left behind—that is, the righteous—will be gladdened together with the glory of the Lord, for they shall be with Christ, who is the glory of God and the Father. For He Himself said: "I have glorified Thee on the earth, I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me that I should do it" (John xvii, 4). And indeed, He Himself also says somewhere: "I live, and my name lives"—surely it shall be filled with the glory of Christ.

"The water of the sea shall be troubled; therefore the glory of the Lord shall be in the islands ^B of the sea, the name of the Lord shall be glorious."

He enigmatically calls the multitude of the nations "water and sea." For it is the custom for the holy prophets to do this. Indeed, the blessed David says concerning the earth and those who are in it: "This is the great and wide sea, there are creeping things without number, small animals with great. There the ships pass through, this dragon which Thou hast formed to play in it" (Ps. civ, 25, 26). And we certainly do not say that his discourse was about things swimming in the sea, nor did he wish to denote the differences of fish; nor do we say that any corporeal and sensible dragon exists in the waters of the sea. But, as I was saying, he indicates to us through these things the turbulence in this life, and the life in this salt-sea, and also the dragon—that is, Satan—who goes about all men and traverses the inhabited world among us, plotting against the souls of the saints. ^C Therefore, he calls the multitude of the nations the water of the sea; and perhaps he calls the cities the islands. And he says that all who are in them will be troubled, with divine wrath leaping upon them. Furthermore, he says that the glory of Christ will be in all of them in a certain way. For they will recognize that they have been laid waste and destroyed by divine nods, and that by the ungodliness within them, they have offended the all-powerful God not moderately; wherefore they have been delivered unto desolation, and everywhere and always they will simulate their own gods, which in no way bring them help. But this was nothing other than the glory of the Lord being raised to great height. The goal of the prophetic ^D foretellings seems, henceforth, to shift to the mystery of Christ, and to make mention of the salvation that is to be through Him. For those who are left on earth, he says, will be gladdened together with the glory of the Lord. "For we have been saved, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His great mercy, and not by being justified through the shadow in the Law" (Gal. ii, 16; Tit. iii, 5). For the Law justifies us not in the least; rather, the grace which is through holy baptism delivers us from sins, and it refreshes and recreates the hope of future blessings, and abundantly makes it fruitful and, as it were, fattens it. For we look forward to being with Christ Himself, who

is the glory of the Father, as I said just now. And since the word of the holy apostles has gone forth from the ends to the ends of the world under heaven, both moving the nations away from the error of many gods and bringing them to grace through Christ, he says that the water of the sea is troubled, that is to say, the peoples under the sun. And they are troubled, speaking a foreign tongue, and withdrawing from their ancient error, and finding a new anchorage toward the knowledge of the truth. On this account he says: "The glory of the Lord shall be in the islands of the sea." By islands, as I suppose, he means the holy Churches of God, which, situated in this world as in a sea, possess the turbulence therein, and yet are carried over it by Christ preserving them, ^B and not allowing them to be shattered by the waves of persecutions. For since he called the nations "sea" in a figurative sense, he prudently lingers on this transition of language, naming the Churches "islands," in which the glory of God is admirable.

VERS. 16. "O Lord God of Israel, we have heard wonders from the wings of the earth; hope to the pious."

The prophet introduces to us in these words the person of those who are left on the earth, and are made glad with the glory of the Lord, and who dwell in these very islands, I mean the Churches, to those who glorify God the Savior of all and say: "From the wings of the earth you have heard wonders," and furthermore, believe that for the pious there shall be a good hope of being justified by Him, and indeed of partaking abundantly of His kindness. And by wings of the earth he seems to name the holy mystagogues and ministers of the sacred things, by whose words, as if on wings, we are all but carried off, and we set our minds on things above, ^C leaping away from earthly things, and casting off our earthy and carnal frame of mind, we have our citizenship in heaven. From these "wings of the earth," thus understood, they say they hear the wonders, namely, those through Christ. For we are initiated by the writings of the holy apostles and evangelists, and learning the divine miracles of the Savior, we have the most solid hope in them, and we trust, and are possessed of a firm and constant affection, and we believe the hope of the pious to be excellent. For we look forward to the kingdom of heaven, and the honors and glory which are destined and prepared for those who love God.

VERS. 17, 18. "And they shall say: Woe to those who transgress, who transgress the law; fear, and the pit, and the snare are upon you who dwell on the earth. And it shall be, that he who flees from the fear shall fall into the pit; and he who escapes from the pit shall be caught in the snare."

Who shall say this? Those who are left behind, after all, on the earth, and are made glad with the glory of the Lord, and those who inhabit the islands, that is to say, the Churches. And to whom shall they say it? To those who transgress the law, that is, to those who have not believed. For if they had believed Moses, they would have believed Christ, for he wrote about Him. See how those who have received the faith, ^D immediately admonish those who reject the law, and

induce the fear of the punishment that will befall them, and terrify them with the dread of what is foretold. "Fear," he says, "and a pit and a snare," that is, every kind of evil is upon you, and there will be no escape from the calamity. But even if one should perchance flee from one of the evils, he will be caught by another, and in every way and altogether he will be captured by one of the evils brought upon him. This is what happened to the Jews after the cross of the Savior, when their land was devastated, and cities and houses were shaken down; it is a long matter to relate ^A each detail, especially to those who are nurtured in the Church and are knowledgeable.

"For the windows from heaven have been opened, and the foundations of the earth shall be shaken. With tumult the earth shall be shaken, and with helplessness the earth shall be made helpless. The earth has inclined and shall be shaken like a fruit-keeper's hut, like one who is drunk and reeling, and it shall fall, and it shall not be able to rise, for iniquity has prevailed over it."

He gives the reason for what was foretold, and that they will fall into bitter and inextricable calamities. For he said, "Fear and a pit and a snare are upon you," and that if anyone escapes the pit, he will be caught by the snare. What then is the cause of this? "The windows," he says, "from heaven were opened," that is, God has looked upon those who are on the earth. For as long as He is patient with those who are accustomed to offend, it seems as if He does not look, and that the heavens are rather closed. But when He looks upon the ways of those on earth, then, and only then, as if windows had been opened, He keeps those who are on the earth in His sight; and inflicting the causes for each one’s offenses accordingly, He fills everything with tumult and fear; and as if from drunkenness, all those who are on the earth are tossed about into every ^B kind of evil. It is wisely added that the earth has been shaken "like one of the fruit-keeper's huts in the fields," because "iniquity has prevailed over it." For as long as those upon it sin in a tolerable manner, the Lord of all holds back the punishments and checks the shaking. But when the impiety of all has become unbridled, there is every necessity that the earth be looked upon by God, and that, as iniquity prevails upon it, it should be in a way drunken and reeling, and be agitated by every ^C kind of calamity.

"And God shall bring His hand upon the ornament of heaven and upon the kings of the earth. And they shall gather and shall shut them into a stronghold and into a prison; after many generations will be their visitation, and the brick shall be dissolved, and the wall shall fall."

This is also a brilliant proof of the Incarnation of the Only-Begotten. For it was necessary, it was necessary, once the Sun of righteousness had shone forth, for that intellectual darkness to be dissipated, which Satan had poured into the hearts of all. For he darkened the minds of the unbelievers, according to what is written, and persuaded them to worship the creature rather than the Creator. For those who were led astray divided up the elements of the world, and some called the sun ^D

God, others the moon, and others yet others from among the stars, according to their own desire. The crowds of the Jews themselves also suffered from this impiety. And so, God once said to the prophet Jeremiah while he was offering prayers for them: "And do not pray for this people, and do not entreat, and do not approach me for them in supplication and prayer, because I will not listen. Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? Their children gather wood, and their fathers kindle fire, and their wives knead the dough to make cakes for the host of heaven, and they have poured out drink offerings to alien gods, that they might provoke me to anger." And indeed, he also speaks to them through another prophet: "Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel, says the Lord? And you took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Rephan, the figures which you made for yourselves to worship them." He will therefore bring, he says, the hand of God upon the host of heaven; that is to say, he will scatter those who worship the host of heaven—I mean the sun and ^B the moon and the stars. It is likely, however, that all idolatry is designated in these things as if by a part. For since Christ has been manifested and revealed, the worship of the elements of the world has ceased. If, moreover, we understand the very ornament of heaven to be the inventor and father of sin—that is to say, Satan—we shall surely arrive at the truth. For it was said concerning him: "How did Lucifer, who appeared in the morning, fall from heaven?" Since, however, because of his ancient glory prior to his fall, he was likened to Lucifer, the prophetic word even now calls him the ornament of heaven. And he says that a hand shall be brought against not only the ornament of heaven, but also against the kings of the earth—that is, those who hold this sublunary globe by force—namely, the worldly rulers of this age, the wicked and opposing powers. For they reigned over the earth, declaring those who are in it to be their own worshippers, and persuading them altogether to despise the love for God. Those, therefore, who reigned by fraud, falsehood, and greed, they shall gather together and shut up in a fortress and a prison. For the power ^C of the Savior cast them down into the prison of punishment, into the inescapable fortress. For the demons, approaching Him, begged that He not command them to go into the abyss. The prophet adds and says that "for many ages there shall be a visitation of them." For from the foundation of the world they occupied a tyranny, and did not cease warring against the divine and secret majesty. Now this madness of theirs was continued down to the advent of our Savior Christ, and after the visitation was made by Him, they were shut up into custody and into a prison; but this they suffered through many ages. He speaks of the brick being melted down, and the fallen wall—perhaps comparing Satan to a wall. For he was powerful in resisting, and like a city most fortified with towers; but when Christ shook it, he was captured and laid low. For he could not sustain or receive His invincible power. But as to the fact that, with Satan destroyed and falling, the trifles ^D of idolatry

have been brought to nothing, and those who formerly wandered have been called through faith to the knowledge of the truth—the Savior Himself, His all-powerful right hand as it were snatching them away, will teach us by saying: "Or how can one enter into the house of the strong man, and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his goods?" It is the custom of divinely inspired Scripture to compare those who are mightiest to walls and cities, just as, indeed, it did toward ^B the blessed prophet Jeremiah; for God said, "Behold, I have made you this day as a strong city, and as a strong brass wall, to all the kings of the earth, and they shall fight against you, and shall not prevail against you, because I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord." It is necessary also to remember that Joshua, son of Nun, having mighty power, overcame five kings of the nations, and having conquered them, shut them up in a cave, and rolled stones against it, obstructing their flight. This was an image of the true obstruction; for the evil and opposing powers which once subdued the world under heaven were shut up into a stronghold and a prison through the power of Christ. And with them, the great and formerly unspeakable wall was also brought to nought—that is to say, Satan. Thus, those who wandered have been called through faith to know, from now on, the One who is truly and by nature the Creator of all things, and God and Lord. It should be known, moreover, that some refer these matters in another sense to the order of heaven, and say that at the time of the consummation the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give her light. But I think it is right that the interpretation should always correspond to the meaning of the words set forth, in a fitting and very consistent manner.

"For the Lord will reign in Zion, and in Jerusalem, and He will be glorified before the elders."

Sion is interpreted as "high" and a "watchtower," and Jerusalem as "vision of peace." Therefore, the true watchtower, and indeed the vision of peace, might truly be the Church of Christ. For in it, the most sublime contemplation of His divine mysteries is wont to take place, and indeed the vision of peace. We say that Christ is peace, whom we recognize from divinely inspired Scripture, the all-wise Moses writing about Him, and besides him, also the holy prophets. Therefore, with profane and detestable idolatry having been removed, and the worship ^C of the creature put out of the way, and those who through greed had gained control of the world under heaven having been shut up into a stronghold and a prison, and the wall having been melted and shaken from its very foundations, according to the meanings already set forth, the Lord will reign in Zion, and He will be glorified before the elders. I think he calls those "elders" here who are upright and perfect in mind, and endowed with a spirit as if it were hoary, so that they might be able to behold the depth of His mysteries with the eyes of the heart. To these, the wise one also...

[As this is the first page of the chain:]

^A ...as, I think, he signifies in these words those who are mature in mind, and who, so to speak, have a mind gray with age, so that they are able to gaze with the eyes of the heart upon the depth of the mysteries concerning Him. To these the wise John also writes, saying: "I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning." But those who have known Him wonder, and ascribe to Him divine glory, acknowledging Him to be the King and Lord of all. But that Christ has reigned, having wholly removed the tyranny of the devil, He Himself will teach, saying, when He offered Himself to God the Father as the price of redemption for the life of all, enduring for our sake the precious cross: "Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself." Therefore, He has subjected to His own scepters those who dwell in all the earth, having cast out the prince of this present age. And the name of "casting out" seems to denote the overthrow of his tyranny over all.

BOOK III. FIVE TOMES

TOMUS I

In the book which we have finished, the prophet has composed a long discourse, full of recondite sentiments, beginning with the malice of the devil, and the judgment and punishment destined for him, and furthermore with the overthrow of the wicked and opposing powers; in addition to which he joined the prediction of the kingdom of Christ. For he said that the Lord would reign in Sion, and in Jerusalem, and would be glorified in the presence of the elders. On account of all these things, therefore, the prophet becomes full of joy, and honors with praises the Author of such admirable things. Therefore he says: *O Lord my God, I will glorify thee, and with hymns I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things, an ancient and true counsel.* But because he says "thou hast done" regarding things which at that time were not yet done, he indicates that they were not yet performed, but were utterly and altogether to be, by adding the words, *So be it, O Lord.* For although they beheld the time of the coming (of the Lord) with the eyes of the mind as if it were present, yet they were not at all ignorant that it was not yet present. Moreover, he calls the mystery of the Incarnation of the Only-begotten an "ancient counsel" and "wonderful things," and (refers to) the things that were accomplished through it throughout all the earth. ^C For we have been saved in Christ, who was foreknown before the foundation of the world, and in the last

^A times of this age manifested; as the most wise Paul says: "For the mystery of Christ is neither new nor recently appeared, but was preordained before the foundation of the world, yet has been manifested in due times."

Vers. 2. *Because thou hast set cities as a heap, strong cities, that their foundations might fall; but the city of the ungodly shall not be built up for the age.*

This too is of that true counsel and blameless decrees of the all-powerful God: that strong cities should be shaken, and be made into a heap, and be overturned as it were from their very foundations, losing all hope of ever being able to be restored. For, he says, it shall not be built up for the age. We say that the cities which have been shaken are not those perceived by the senses, or the men who are in them, but we deem that each of the wicked and opposing powers, and before all others Satan himself, is called a city, and a strong one at that. For it is the custom of the divinely inspired Scripture to compare those who are most powerful to towers and walls or even cities, just as we have said before, that the blessed prophet Jeremiah was also appointed by God as a fenced city and as a wall of bronze. But when Emmanuel appeared and shone forth upon the world, the unholy host of opposing powers was removed, and Satan was cast down from his very foundations; and he has fallen in such a way as to fall into an endless infirmity, and to have no expectation of rising again or recovering at any time.

^B Vers. 3-5. *Therefore shall the poor people bless thee, and the cities of men oppressed by injury shall bless thee. For thou hast been a helper to every humble city, and a shelter to those who have fainted for want; thou shalt deliver them from wicked men: a shelter for the thirsty, and a respite for men oppressed by injury; they shall bless thee as men of little spirit who are thirsty in Sion, from the ungodly men to whom thou didst deliver us.*

Israel was called to the knowledge of God through the instruction of the Law, and was enriched with the things from God. For he was saved, and obtained the land of promise by inheritance. But the countless multitude of the other nations, who, I say, dwell under the whole heaven, were altogether alien to spiritual and heavenly goods, and had not tasted the gifts from God; they were, in a manner, naked and unclothed, possessing no divine shelter, no covering from above, no wealth of soul derived from virtue, nor anything else whatsoever that is full of praise ^C and worthy of all admiration. But when Christ himself appeared, and removed the tyranny of the devil, and brought them to God and the Father, and they were enriched with the light of truth, the participation in his glory, and the greatness of the evangelical life: therefore they send forth songs of thanksgiving to God and the Father.

^A Therefore, since, O Lord, you have both formed an ancient and true counsel, having summed up all things in Christ, and have enlightened those who sat in darkness, having cast down the rulers of this world—even though the poor people will bless you as if they were like certain powerful cities, and entire cities will glorify you. For you have become a helper and a shelter for all those who, because of their poverty in spiritual goods, were afflicted with unbearable sorrow, and you have delivered them from wicked men. ^B For there were indeed also in Zion some who were faint-hearted, just like people who were parched with thirst. And perhaps through these words the prophet indicates that to us. For there were, there were also in Israel those who thirsted for the coming of the Savior, and who longed to see the Savior and Redeemer of all; such a person was Simeon the just, who, when he had taken the newborn Jesus into his arms, said: "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared before the face of all peoples. A light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel." And, moreover, the blessed Zacharias, the father of John, filled with the Holy Spirit, sang glory, crying aloud: "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and wrought redemption for his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets who have been since the world began, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; ^C to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; the oath which he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life." Do you see how the ancient and true counsel of God and the Father was also promised to the holy fathers? I mean, the manifestation of Emmanuel to the world as salvation, who has become a respite for men oppressed by injury. For they have taken breath from their enemies, and have been delivered from the wicked men to whom they had been handed over. And if someone were to take these words as applying to the Gentiles, we say that the unholy demons, who once dominated those who dwell upon the earth, are called human beings—the weakness of whom is very well demonstrated by the fact that they are called human. And it is also probable that their false teachers, and so-called hierophants, or even poets and orators, ^D and the inventors of the eloquence which was prized among the Greeks, are called wicked men, inasmuch as through the power of speech in which they excelled, they cast those who were deceived into the pit of destruction. But if this is said concerning those of Israel, we affirm that those who gained the lot of teaching, namely the Scribes and Pharisees, were wicked men; those who, having obtained the glory of the priesthood, having been adorned with the dignity and authority thereof, received the key of knowledge, and neither did they themselves believe, nor did they allow others to do so. They were, however, [handed over] to legal

instructors, that is, the people under their hand, and the ones being led astray [were handed over] to unclean demons, since God permitted them to suffer this surrender; just as, indeed, some who have shown themselves unworthy of His compassion and aid are delivered over to a reprobate mind. ^A

And the Lord Sabaoth will do these things for all the nations: upon this mountain they shall drink gladness, they shall drink wine; they shall be anointed with ointment on this mountain. Deliver all these things to the nations. For this decree is for all the nations.

Having previously stated that the Lord will reign in Sion and in Jerusalem, he weaves a mystical meaning as if from the likeness of things that fall under the senses and sight. For Sion is an elevated place and a watchtower, while Jerusalem is interpreted as a vision of peace. Both, however, are in truth the Church of Christ: for it is high and conspicuous, and placed as it were on a mountain. And it is also understood as high ^B by us in another way, for there is nothing lowly in it, and it dwells far removed from earthly concerns. For it is written: “The strong ones of the earth have been greatly exalted by God.” Similarly, the dogmas within it are high and divine and true. For it is a discourse concerning God, or rather concerning the holy and consubstantial Trinity, refined and polished, and turned solely toward the truth. And again, Christ is seen in it, who is peace. ^C Therefore, he says, the Lord Sabaoth will do [this], and not, I suspect, for the Israelites alone as beloved and approved on account of the fathers, but for all the nations—that is, for those throughout the whole world under heaven. And what will He do? They shall drink, he says, gladness; they shall drink wine; they shall be anointed with ointment on this mountain. Through gladness, he seems to indicate cheerfulness in hope, clearly that which is in Christ; for we shall reign with Him, and gaining things that we can attain neither by thought nor by speech, we shall enjoy every pleasure of the soul. By wine, however, he signifies the mystical eulogia and the manner of the unbloody sacrifice, which we are accustomed to perform in the holy churches. ^D The ointment, however, signifies for us, very beautifully, the anointing of the Holy Spirit. For the wise John writes: “And you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you have no need that anyone should teach you, but as His anointing teaches you concerning all things.” We are anointed with ointment especially at the time of holy baptism, establishing the chrisma as a sign and symbol of our participation in the Holy Spirit. But, he says, deliver all these things to the nations; for this decree is for all the nations. For the ancient law, and the worship according to it, administered through angels, was not simply given to all the nations, but to one alone, to that which was of the blood of Israel. But the grace in Christ, and the calling through faith, and moreover the sanctification through the Spirit, and this mystery itself through the decree of God and the Father has come upon all nations. For Christ is, according to the voice of the Holy One, the expectation of the nations.

^A

VERS. 8. *He has swallowed up death while it was powerful, and again God has taken away every tear from every face. He has taken away the reproach of the people from all the earth. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.* ^A

Most fittingly and necessarily is the discourse concerning the resurrection of the dead joined with the tradition of the mystery. Therefore, at the time of holy baptism, while we offer the confession of faith, we also expect that the resurrection of the flesh will come to pass, and thus we believe. Death, therefore, prevailed against our first parent Adam on account of the transgression, and like some wild and cruel beast, leaping upon him, it carried him off. Thenceforth, laments and wailings, and tears, and mourning for the dead have taken hold of the inhabitants of the earth. But in Christ these have ceased; for on the third day He rose again, having trodden upon death, and having become a way for human nature to repel destruction. For He has become the firstborn from the dead, and the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep; and the firstfruits will surely be followed by that which is posterior, namely, us. The mourning is therefore turned into joy; the sackcloth is rent asunder, and we are girded with the gladness given by God, so that rejoicing we may say: "O death, where is thy victory? O Hades, where is thy sting?" For the sting of death, he says, is sin. Every tear, therefore, has been taken away; for believing that Christ fully and entirely raises the dead, we do not follow them with tears, nor do we fall into immoderate sadness, as the rest who have no hope. And by the reproach of the people, he seems to mean death itself, inasmuch as through it the transgression first invaded us, and sin, through which destruction entered, and the empire of death held dominion over the inhabitants of the earth. But since the mystery of the resurrection was not acceptable to many, and seemed incredible on account of its magnificence, the blessed prophet necessarily adds: *The mouth of the Lord has spoken.* For who dares to say that God lies, and does not truly and entirely bring to pass what has been announced? "For heaven and earth," he says, "shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." ^C

VERS. 9. *And they will say in that day: Behold our God in whom we hoped and exulted, and He will save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for Him, and we will exult, and we will rejoice in our salvation, because God will give rest upon this mountain.* ^D

You shall recognize, he says, Him who proffers joy, and wine besides, and who anoints with ointment those who are in the intelligible Sion. You shall recognize that He is truly God, and by nature the Son from God, even if He appears in the form of a servant, having become man for the cause of the salvation and life of all, and in all things made like to men on earth, except for sin alone. For indeed,

^A they will say, as it were, stretching out their hand: "Behold, this is our God, in whom we hoped and rejoiced in our salvation." I think that this saying is most fittingly applied to the Israelites, who, being nourished by the Mosaic words and not ignorant of the predictions of the holy prophets, expected that the Savior and Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ, would arrive in his own time. And so, as I have already said, Zacharias, the father of John, prophesying in the Spirit, spoke concerning Christ, saying that "a horn of salvation has been raised up for the people." Simon also, having taken the holy Infant into his arms, said: "My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples." Having therefore recognized Him who was long ago announced as the hope of all, the Savior and Redeemer, they will say: "Behold our God." And they will confess that God will grant rest upon this mountain. And consider for me, again, that the Church is called a mountain, for in it is rest given. For we have heard Christ saying: "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest." For we have been unburdened through faith in Him of the difficult and heavy sin. We have found rest in another way, too, having been delivered from the terrors of the punishment that was to be endured and from the penalties incurred for our transgressions. And the grace of Christ, the Savior of us all, toward us has not extended only to these things, but there are also added the good things in hope, and the possession of the kingdom of heaven, and long-lasting and incorruptible life, and the removal of everything that is wont to cause sadness. For it is written concerning the holy ones that "everlasting joy shall be upon their head."

And Moab will be trampled down, as they trample a threshing floor in wagons, and in the harvest. And he will stretch out his hands, as he himself also humbled [man] to destroy him. And he will humble his pride, ^B against which he put forth his hands. And the height of the refuge of your wall he will humble, and it will descend even to the ground.

The word of the holy prophets is always, in some way, deep, and it creeps along an inward and hidden path. One must not, therefore, believe that the outward surface of the letter is true in every way and altogether, but rather one must consider the sense that is as it were buried in the letter. The Moabites, therefore, were neighbors to the Jews, but they were most strangely disposed toward deception and, furthermore, toward being devoted to the worship of idols. Since, therefore, it was about to come to pass, upon the dawning of Christ and the calling of the nations unto his august and divine mystery, and their sanctification through faith, that the abominable and unclean idolatry would be entirely and thoroughly exterminated from the midst, with Satan subjected to the feet of the believers—for He gave us power to "trample upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy"—He teaches and says that the Moabite [land] will be trampled down, as they trample a threshing floor in wagons. And by these words [He teaches that] either the whole Moabite ^C [people] ^D

^A or that one might take from one idol-worshipping region a complete example, extending the discourse as I have said to include all idol-worship. It will therefore be trampled down, he says, as if placed under the feet of those threshing. And he shall let down his hands, even as he himself humbled [others] to destroy them. Who shall let down his hands? The inventor of idol-worship, he who tangles [men] in error and leads man astray from God, namely, Satan. For he shall let down his hands, that is, all his power and practical energy shall be dissolved; for hands are taken as a figure for energy and action. For just as he humbled those living on the earth so as to destroy everyone, in this very same way Christ shall humble his pride—that is, the intolerable insolence which he exercised against all, not only laying [his] hands [upon them], but tyrannically subjecting to his own scepter those who were rewarded by God for good works.

Then the prophetic word returns to the Moabite [land] itself, or rather to profane idol-worship, and says: ^B The height of the refuge of your wall he will bring down. We say that the height of the refuge of the wall is the very high priest of idol-worship and of error, who encircles it as if with a wall and restrains it so that it may stand. But, he says, it shall fall. For Christ shall tear it down and shall level it to the ground, that is, completely; and we see through the events themselves that what was foretold has reached its completion. For the shrines have fallen and everything that was in the temples has been taken out of the way; there are no longer altars, nor sacrifices, nor incantations, nor those who practiced the travesties of error. But all things have ceased through Christ, and the light of truth has risen for the inhabitants of the earth, and the sun of righteousness has come forth, illuminating the hearts of those who believe in him. ^C

CAP. XXVI. VERS. 1. *On that day they shall sing this canticle in the land of Judah, saying: Behold a fortified city, and our salvation shall set a wall and a bulwark.*

For when the Moabite [land] has been trampled down, that is, when the worship of idols has been utterly destroyed, according to the sense already set forth, those who have been liberated from error and have reached the light of truth will, with the eyes of their understanding opened, acknowledge, he says, the Creator of all and the Lord Saviour and Redeemer, through whom are all things and in whom are all things, who for our sake was brought down to our condition. ^D To Him, as if playing upon a lyre, they strike up an ode and a song, glorifying Him and saying: Behold a fortified city and our salvation. For it is truly like a certain city, well-defended by towers and completely indestructible, our Lord Jesus Christ, or rather the hope in Him. For He receives those who flee the tyranny of the devil, and receives and preserves them. Therefore He used to say: *My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and no one shall snatch them from my hand.* A fortified and saving city, therefore, is the Saviour of all, and a city having a wall and a bulwark, namely, each [person]

^A of its own hand. A city, therefore, is fortified, and saving—the Saviour of all; and a city having a wall and containing a wall, this is, every safety. For cities [that are] well-fortified do not have a simple enclosure, but are strengthened with a great wall and another bulwark. And it is likely, then, that those who offer up this song concerning the Church of our Saviour would say, "Behold a fortified city and our salvation." For the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it, according to the voice of the Saviour; for it is girded as if with a double wall by the assistance of the holy angels, and indeed by that from above and from God, who is a bulwark. For indeed the strength of the holy spirits is themselves, since He is both their [strength] and the only Lord of all the powers. And it must be known that in the holy Scriptures, Christ is sometimes called Judah, as having been born from the tribe of Judah, according to the voice of ^B Jacob, saying, "Judah, your brothers shall praise you." Therefore, the melody is sung in the land of Judah. For the Church is the city of Christ.

Verses 2-4. Open the gates; let the people enter that keeps righteousness, and keeps truth, grasping truth, and keeping peace; because we have hoped in Thee, O Lord, forever.

As those throughout all the earth have already recognized our Lord Jesus Christ, and have confessed that the city will be fortified and saving, having a wall and a bulwark, the Holy Spirit henceforth quite opportunely commands the holy mystagogues—I speak of the apostles and evangelists—through the voice of the prophet, saying: "Open the gates"; that is, widen the entrance through faith for those who desire it, [widen] the path through the blameless ^C initiation into the mysteries, and let the people enter who keep righteousness and who keep truth. For the divine and evangelical and saving proclamation teaches those who believe [the] righteousness that is above the law, and to be firm regarding the keeping of truth. For it no longer brings in the worship that is in types and shadows, as indeed the old law did, but that which is in spirit and in truth, and this is the truth. "Grasping the truth." For it seeks, as I said, not those things that are situated in shadows, but the things that are through Christ, who is the truth. "Keeping peace." How, or in what manner? For having been entirely accepted by Christ, and that ancient enmity having been destroyed—for he who was wandering was at variance with Him—he will be an immovable ^D worshipper. And the blessed Paul convinces us that this is being fulfilled [in us], writing: "Having been justified, therefore, by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." For we used to war against God, serving the creation and being held by the passions of the flesh. But we are called His friends and peaceful ones, saying to Him alone: "O Lord, besides Thee we know no other. Thy name we name." And in addition to this, having bound upon ourselves like a crown the adornment of an excellent life and evangelical conduct, the boasts concerning such things might reasonably be spoken through this voice of the holy ones to God: "In Thee, O Lord, we have ho"

hoped ^A even unto the age." For they will not cease from the hope that is in God, but rather will they boast in Him continuously.

**VERS 5, 6. O great, eternal God, who humblest and hast brought down those that dwell in high places; Thou shalt overthrow fortified cities, and shalt raze them even unto the ground. And the feet of the meek, and the steps of the humble, shall trample them.**

It is the custom of the holy prophets, regarding things that are most wondrous, to render thanks to God, the Lord of all, and as it were to leap for joy. An evident proof of such sincerity might be this very thing. For they rejoice exceedingly, seeing the glory of God amplified, and those who envy Him—the impure demons, I say—taken from the midst, and together with these, Satan also, whom He compares to fortified cities, and who strives to dwell in high places. ^B For the mindset in them is always somewhat lofty and swollen, so that they set themselves even against the hand of God, and imagine that by resisting savagely, they will suffer no harm, but will reign everywhere over the inhabitants of the earth. But Thou, He says, art alone the great and eternal God, and Thou hast demonstrated this from the very facts; for by humbling them, Thou hast brought down those who were in high places; that is, Thou hast shattered the strength of the proud, and those who were exalted and arrogant Thou hast pressed down to the earth, and as if they were fortified cities, Thou hast razed them to the foundations. For this is what "even unto the ground" means. And Thou hast given them to be trampled under the feet of the meek and humble. Who, moreover, are these, if not the genuine guardians of the Savior's oracles? Who strive to imitate their own Master, ^C crying out and saying: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." And we remember again His saying: "Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy." For the apostate dragon has been trampled; and we, who desire to dwell in the aid of the Most High and have come to be under the shadow of the God of heaven—that is to say, of Christ, for He is worshipped in heaven—tread upon the asp and the basilisk. "For when," He says, "He bringeth the firstborn into the world, He saith: And let all the angels of God worship Him."

**VERS 7, 8. The path of the righteous became straight, and the path of the righteous has been prepared. For the way of the Lord is judgment. We have hoped in Thy name, and in the memory which our soul hath desired.**

The blessed prophet Jeremiah makes mention of the evangelical ^D manner of life and of the righteousness in Christ, saying to the lovers of truth: "Stand ye in the ways, and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord, and see what is the good way, and walk in it, and ye shall find purification for your souls." For the ways

of the Lord are indeed the words of the holy prophets, and ^A the proclamation of the mystery concerning Christ through the Mosaic precept, as if in shadow and types. By searching out these paths, therefore, we learn the good way—that is, the conduct of life in Christ; and by walking in it with our own souls, we shall find true and spiritual purification. He says, therefore, that the way of the pious has become straight; for how could it not be straight and smooth, having nothing at all that is steep, when we are justified by speaking the word of faith, and when we are enriched with the cleansing that comes through holy baptism? But the way of the pious is straight in another sense as well. For when the enemies have been destroyed, and when the tyranny of the devil has been cast down, and all difficulty has been removed, what is there that can stand against those who love piety, or what is there that can shake them? Observe, ^B however, how he declares that when the way of the pious has been, as it were, leveled, there will be an overturning of the things that were in types and shadows. For he does not add simply: "The way of the Lord is judgment" (that is, not the presenting of calves, not the slaughtering of sheep, not libations and frankincense), but rather "judgment," that is, righteousness. For it is the custom of the divinely inspired Scripture to signify righteousness by the name of judgment. Just as, indeed, the blessed David also says: "The honor of a king loves judgment,"—that is, righteousness; for every kingdom that loves righteousness is in honor both with God and with men. Therefore, the way of the Lord is judgment. And he again introduces those who walk this straight way as rejoicing greatly; for they say: "We have hoped in thy name, and in the remembrance which our soul desired." For our entire hope is in Christ, of whom we are always mindful, having this desire, because we have been saved by Him as well.

"From the night my spirit watches for thee, O God, because thy commandments are light upon the earth."

He calls the time before the incarnation of the Lord "night"; the prophetic foreknowledge, "morning"; and the true light, the Gospel of the Sun of Righteousness, Christ, which it is commanded to learn everywhere on earth. For he does not say it should be learned by nature, just as seeing or walking, but by zeal and diligence. But he who has not learned shall be taken from the midst of the living, and shall not see the glory of Christ. Those who say: ^D "We have hoped in thy name, and in the remembrance which our soul desired," provide this also by necessity. For having admitted the divine light into their mind as a dwelling, and having driven away the darkness of ancient error, and seeing the mist of sin cleared away, they offer songs of thanksgiving, saying as it were that they watch and rise from night and darkness, now that the day which falls under the conception of the mind is shining in them, and the morning star is springing up in their hearts, as it is written. To such as these the divine Paul also writes, saying: "Ye were once darkness, but now ye are light in the Lord." And again elsewhere: "For we are not of night or of darkness, but of light."

^A For the mind of those who believe is illuminated by the evangelical pronouncements. Wherefore the divinely inspired David also says, as if to our Lord Jesus, "Thy law is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my paths." For the law given through the all-wise Moses was, as it were, obscured by a certain mist and shadows of the letter. But in the evangelical proclamations, the form of truth appears naked and translucent, and it exhilarates the mind, being poured into the senses of the pious like light.

VERS. 10. *Learn justice, ye that inhabit the earth. For the ungodly hath ceased. Everyone who shall not have learned justice upon the earth, shall not do the truth. Let the ungodly be taken away, that he may not see the glory of the Lord.*

God says somewhere through the voice of the prophet: ^B "And they shall all be taught of God." See, therefore, how in these words the discourse introduces Christ to us as having become a kind of mystagogue to those from the Gentiles who have believed in Him. For since they once acknowledged that His commandments are light upon the earth, it was fitting—I say, it was fitting—that the knowledge of what is useful should be implanted in them by Him. "O ye," He says, "who inhabit the earth, learn justice." Similar to this is the voice of David: "Hear this, all ye nations; give ear, all ye that inhabit the world." For the law which is in the letter instructed only the Israel according to the flesh, but our Lord Jesus Christ, having spread out the net of His gentleness, has taken the entire world under heaven. With reason, therefore, He counsels those who inhabit the whole earth, saying that they must learn the justice proclaimed by Him—that is, the evangelical justice. And that failing to obey His words is not without penalty, He adds and says: *For the ungodly hath ceased. Everyone who shall not have learned justice upon the earth, shall not do the truth.* For he will exist, He says, for ruin and destruction, and will be, as it were, extinguished. For this, I think, is what "hath ceased" implies—everyone who does not accept the knowledge of the evangelical justice, and who does not do the truth. By "truth" here, He again speaks of the power of the Christian ^C life, and the worship and service in spirit and truth. For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, was not the truth. But Christ and His pronouncements may with reason be understood as justice and truth. And I think it must also be said: Christ has become for us justice from the Father, and besides this, He is also the truth. "Learn ^D therefore," He says, "justice and truth"—that is, acknowledge the One who is truly the Son and the Creator of all and Lord. For every ungodly person shall be taken away and removed from the midst, that he may not see the glory of the Lord. Of this kind is that which is spoken by Christ Himself to the crowds of the Jews: "Amen, amen, I say unto you, that if you do not believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins." And again: "He that believeth in the Son is not judged; but he that doth not believe, is already judged, because he hath not believ

believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God." ^A But he who is once condemned, and having died in his own sins, how could he see the glory of the Lord? For he shall not be with Christ, and being in no way a participant of His glory, he shall not see the lot of the saints.

VERS. 11. *Domine, excelsum tuum brachium, et non cognoverunt : cum vero sciverint, erubescent. Æmulatio apprehendet populum ineruditum, et nunc ignis adversarios comedet.*

Since God has threatened those who do not learn justice and do not practice the truth, in accordance with the words already set forth by us, the prophet begins to make mention of the ignorance and disobedience of Israel simultaneously. For the Creator of all, the God-Word, the all-powerful arm of the Father, through whom all things were brought into existence and birth, existing in the form and equality of the Father, lowered Himself to a voluntary emptying and humbled Himself, as it is written, by becoming human, in order that He might justify those who are on earth, through faith in Himself, that is to say. And while He was performing works that surpass speech, and was counting it worthy to be known, through the majesty of the things seen, that He is both God and by nature from God, saying: "If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not. But if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works," ^B yet these men, being eye-witnesses of such miraculous things, and having heard His very words, remained stubborn and unadmonished, or rather, they even let their mouths run wild and unrestrained. For they dared to call Him a Samaritan, and a drunkard, and the son of a carpenter, and, being impious, to address Him with even more hateful names than these. When the Spirit had foreseen these things, the prophet directs these words to the Father and God in heaven, and says: "Lord, Your arm is high, and they did not know." For by the worthiness of His own excellence, and as in divine, god-befitting glory, He is great and high; and indeed, He is the all-powerful arm of the Father, that is to say, the God-Word, through whom all things came to be. But since He appeared in the flesh, they did not know His glory. "But they will be ashamed," he says, "when they learn that He is, clearly, the life-giving Word of God." And how did they learn? For they themselves killed the Prince of life and denied the Holy One of Israel, ^C just as the divine Peter says. But after Christ had broken the bonds of death and rose again on the third day, and even the chief teachers of the Jews knew this, then indeed, then they were ashamed, and fearing lest the mystery of the resurrection might somehow become widely known to all, they gave much money to the soldiers, as it is written, so that they might say: "His disciples came by night and stole Him away." They will be ashamed also in another way. For when they see Him coming at the consummation of the age in the glory of the Father with the holy angels, then also they will be covered with infinite shame. For though they were the children of the bridegroom, because of their fathers—for the promises, and the legislation, and the testament were theirs—yet having been sent...

^A into the outer darkness. Therefore, he rightly calls the people uninstructed, and says that zeal will seize them, and that fire will eat those who stand against them. For since they have become castaways, and have been cast out from the hope in Christ, and have been shown to be strangers to the promises, while the nations have been accepted, for this reason they are consumed by zeal, and as if consumed by a certain fire—manifestly that of envy—the wretches continue to exist. Something of this kind is written also in the songs concerning those who are sprung from the blood of Israel: "They provoked me to jealousy with those that are no gods; they angered me with their idols. And I will provoke them to jealousy with those that are no people; I will anger them with a foolish nation." ^B

VERS. 12, 13. O Lord our God, give us peace, for Thou hast rendered all things to us; O Lord our God, take possession of us. O Lord, beside Thee we know no other; we name Thy name.

It was the custom of the holy prophets to pour out prayers for Israel, for they were friends of God and beautifully crowned with the ornaments of piety. For since they had once been satisfied from the root of Abraham and from the blood of the holy fathers, it was fitting that they should grieve for the Israelite tribes when they saw them perishing because of their impiety toward Christ. Hence, now also the blessed prophet Isaiah proceeds, saying, "O Lord our God, give us peace, for Thou hast rendered all things to us." For if Thou shalt grant, he says, peace to us, we shall be full of every good, and shall have attained to the most perfect participation ^C of the gifts from Thee. And it is necessary to see what peace they ask for; for they are asking for Christ Himself, since He Himself is our peace, according to the Scriptures, and through Him we have been joined to the Father, namely, by a spiritual relationship. Or they say this: those who have not yet believed, and who do not have the stain of sin cast off and removed, are separated from God and are justly counted in the rank of enemies, and have a stiff neck, and fight against the laws of the Lord. But those who are tractable, and yielding to the bit, and prepared for all things that are pleasing to Him, are most beloved and have peace with Him. But in truth it is a gift of God, and comes from the munificence from above. Grant us therefore, O Lord, that we may have peace toward Thee, and having driven from the midst the profane and detestable sin, may we be united to Thee spiritually through the mediator Christ. Of this kind is that which is rightly said by the Pauline voice: ^D "Being justified therefore by faith, we have peace toward God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." When this has been done, we shall become the possession and inheritance of God. Hence, it is wisely inferred: "O Lord, take possession of us. Beside Thee we know no other; we name Thy name." For it is necessary that those who have peace with God be of singular mind and joined to Him alone, so that they may know Him alone, and not even have on their tongue the name of any other so-called god. For it is necessary to name Him alone, because He alone is our God by nature and by truth. Of such a kind is that which the law of the wisest Moses has declared to us:

"You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve, and in His name." Amen. ^A Ver. 14, 15. "The dead shall not see life, nor shall the physicians raise them up. Therefore You have led on, and destroyed, and taken away every male of them. Add evils to them, O Lord; add evils to all the glorious ones of the earth." Those who alone know the One who is God by nature and in truth, and who name His name, and count absolutely no one else alongside Him, and who therefore say, "Lord, besides You we know no other," necessarily connect what follows: "The dead shall not see life, except through You." For since He is the Life by nature, the Creator and Lord of all, He brings all things into life, and in Him we live and move and are. "But neither," He says, "shall the ^B physicians raise them up"—with that "except through You" clearly following here as well. For all things are given to us by God, and He Himself fashioned medicines from the earth, according to that which is written. As far, therefore, as the letter is concerned, I say, and the obvious and manifest meaning of the word, this exposition of the sentiments is correct and not otherwise. But since it is necessary to understand the word according to the mind and to strip bare the aim of the prophetic precision, we necessarily say this: there are some who are not yet dead in the flesh, but are rather dead through worldly pleasure and do not possess the holy life which is in Christ and which is angelic. "But besides You," He says, "such as these could not partake of life," that is, of the life-giving grace. But again, "besides You," those who were able to deliver from the diseases of the soul those who had fallen prey to them—who might deservedly be understood as spiritual physicians—could not raise up any of the sick. We say that the spiritual physicians are the holy prophets, the apostles, and the evangelists, who, endowed with the grace from above and the gift of the Spirit, rich in the word that has power to heal, treat those who have been wounded by both sin and ^C the malignity of the devil. It is also probable that the prophetic word hints at something else to us. For our Lord Jesus Christ, showing Himself equal in power and glory to the Begetter, raised the dead from the tombs and healed those gripped by extreme diseases. Yet, although He was the doer of such wondrous and incredible things, He was not worshipped by those who saw them, but was even persecuted by the leaders and doctors of the Jews in particular. Since, therefore, He says, "Besides You the dead cannot see life," for You alone are able to rouse to life, and no physician could raise from the tombs those whom You Yourself raised, they were unbelievers; and more than that, they were powerless, and were even driven into a rage—those who it was fitting should have been the first to be faithful. "Therefore You have led on, and destroyed, and taken away every male of them." For You have brought anger upon them, which did not totally destroy the whole of Israel (for a remnant was saved), but every male of them, that is, the primary order. For it is indeed the most primary, if the female is the species, and the male [is the principal]. Even the males... ^D

^A he perhaps calls those who are, as it were, more youthful among the Jews, not in bodily strength, but rather in the knowledge of legal precepts—such as that which was spoken by God to one of the prophets: "I will go to the men of rank, and I will speak to them." And behold, with one mind they have broken the yoke, they have torn asunder the bonds. But why he deservedly laments the pre-eminent and holier ones among the Jews, and poured out anger upon them more vehemently, Christ himself will make plain, saying: "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you traverse sea and dry land to make one proselyte, and when it happens, you make him a son of hell twofold more than you are." And again: "Woe to you lawyers, because you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves have not entered, and those who were entering you have hindered." ^B Deservedly, therefore, is the male punished, that is, that which is in pre-eminence and is honored, and has come to the knowledge of the law as if by spiritual fortitude: to these he also wishes evils to be added. For not only have they fallen from the intimacy which is with God, while they raged against Christ, but they have also been consumed by famine, and hence have fallen into calamities, their region being laid waste and utterly overturned. But those whom he called males, these he also calls glorious, as being distinctly pre-eminent and standing before others, because they were crowned with the insignia of the priesthood. "Every male of them," divinely delivered and helping; but he calls "evils" those things which have the power to afflict, whether they be wrath divinely inflicted, famines, pestilences, wars, and things similar to these. "Glorious" are those who are conspicuous in evils, and renowned in power.

VERS. 16, 17. O Lord, in affliction we have remembered you; in small affliction is your instruction to us. And as she who travails draws near to give birth, and cries out in her labor, so have we become to your beloved. ^C

The blessed prophet, moved by very great piety against the Judaic acts of daring, having said, "Add evils to all the glorious ones of the earth," lest anyone should think him harsh and pitiless—as one who does not pray that those who have sinned might be lamented, but rather that they should be involved in affliction and evils—necessarily introduced what is wont to happen to all, namely, that in afflictions and necessities they have been accustomed to remember God who is all-powerful. For the highest and deep tranquility makes people remiss, sometimes even to the point of contempt, and by reason of too much sloth, it takes away the sense of sins, when they have slipped into such a frame of mind and opinion. ^D But affliction draws people back as if to God, and leads them to the acknowledgment of offenses. For this reason, therefore, he says, "Add evils to the glorious of the earth," since it is common to all then most especially to hold you in memory, and to think and feel your concerns, when they have shared in calamities. For in small affliction we are instructed: God not inflicting a punishment too grievous, nor too dire, but rather tempering his anger with gentleness. It was not, therefore, of one who hates

those who have sinned to pray that affliction be brought upon them, but rather of one who loves them and prays that they be disciplined; so that, since they have not of their own will and purpose reaped the fruit of piety, they might at least, as if by necessity, be turned toward it, having been called to the perception of divine anger. Such, I think, is what was rightly said by the voice of David: "With bridle and bit, you will constrain the jaws of those who do not draw near to you." But they, having committed unbearable transgressions and acted wantonly against Christ, will fall into affliction. We, however, who are your own and think and speak your thoughts, are disposed no otherwise toward your beloved one, that is, the Son; just as, indeed, a woman in labor all but cries out against those who heap dishonor upon him, and we grieve greatly because of this, and utter the ^B loudest clamor against those who do not obey him. And what they say is true; for the blessed Isaiah himself, rebuking the insolence of the Jews which they have held against Christ, says: "Come hither, you lawless children, offspring of adulterers and a harlot; whom did you insult? Against whom did you open your mouth, and against whom did you wag your tongue? Are you not children of destruction, a lawless offspring?" And indeed, the blessed David also says concerning them: "Let their eyes be darkened so that they may not see, and bow down their back continually." And very many are the words of the holy prophets against the Jewish synagogue because of this impiety toward Christ.

"On account of your fear, O Lord, we conceived in the womb, and we were in pain, and we brought forth a spirit of salvation, which we have brought forth upon the earth." ^C Those who say that this happened out of love for the beloved of the Father, it is clear that they mean the Son, wisely dwelling upon the metaphor of the speech, just as a woman in labor, say that they conceived and carried in the womb, and brought forth the spirit of salvation upon the earth. And as I have said, such an expression can be fitting for the prophets, and for the holy apostles and evangelists, who, enriched by the bounty of heavenly mystery, and having received a sort of intelligible seed, have brought forth a spirit of salvation upon the earth—that is, the teaching in the Spirit, which is the conciliator and provider of life eternal. For it is the custom of divine Scripture to call the writings of some people a "spirit." "And so," he says, "test the spirits, whether they are from God." For the saving proclamation is always spoken in the Holy Spirit, or, in the spirit of the world, whatever things are contrary to the truth. Thus the divine Paul writes concerning himself and the other saints: "But we have not received the spirit of this world, ^D but the spirit that is from God, that we may know the things that have been freely given us by God." Therefore, he calls the evangelical preaching a "spirit of salvation," for it leads to unending life and long-lasting existence.

the soul of man, and restrains the motion of carnal desires. For the human mind is like the womb of a woman, which, if it has received from God the seeds of piety, brings forth entirely good fruits. Therefore, those who are in Christ are fruitful; for they bring forth, as if from a womb and spiritual matrix, fruits—as I have said—that are good. ^A *Isaiah* 19. We shall not fall, but those who dwell upon the earth shall fall. The dead shall rise again, and those who are in the monuments shall be awakened, and they who are in the earth shall rejoice. For the dew which is from Thee is health to them; the earth of the impious shall fall.

Truly worthy of admiration is the vigilance of the saints. For they always understand that the words which we make are accustomed to be countered. Therefore, when they had said that they had produced a spirit of salvation for those who are on the earth, yet nevertheless see death continuing to prevail ^B against the inhabitants of the earth, as if someone had said: "What profit is there for us in divine proclamations? Where is the spirit of salvation? For those who are on the earth are falling," they necessarily oppose an apology, and say: The dead shall rise again, by the grace of God, just as the blessed Paul says. Our Lord Jesus Christ tasted death for everyone, but He came to life again on the third day, and became the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep, and the root of those who are transformed through Him into life, and as it were the beginning of human nature putting off corruption; and we have possessed life eternal in unshaken hopes. But it is fixed that the dead will rise again fully and in every way, and the empire of death will be abolished ^C entirely; but since the time for the future resurrection is not yet present, the nature of man meanwhile succumbs, because it must die, and endures death—which was long ago weakened in Christ, and will be made weak in us also—at its own time. "Will this," he says, "contradict our words and salutary proclamations, that those who are on the earth are still falling?" Truly, this is nothing at all. For the dead shall rise again, and the bodies which are in the earth and in monuments shall return to life. And what, then, shall be the manner of this again? The dew which is from Thee is health to them. And by "dew" in these texts they signify the life-giving efficacy and power of the Spirit, by which the blessed David ^D says the dead are to be awakened. For he sings to God and says: "If Thou turnest away Thy face, they shall be troubled, and they shall return into their dust. Thou shalt send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created, and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth." The dew, therefore, is the life-giving Spirit from the Father through the Son, and by it immortality is infused into those very bodies that are of the earth. And again, I think that "dew" signifies the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit and the energy that destroys death, as it is of God and life. And again, by "dew" in these texts he signifies nothing other than the Spirit, or the life-giving efficacy of the Spirit, which, even to those bodies already corrupted, pours forth/infuses [its] destructive...

^A incorruptibility. But while those who have fallen into the earth shall live again, the earth of the impious will itself fall, and this actually came to pass for the land of the Jews; for they acted outrageously against Christ and the holy heralds of the mysteries, though they brought forth the Spirit of salvation to those upon the earth.

*Vade, popule mi, ingredere in conclavia tua, claude ostium tuum, abscondere modicum quantulumcunque, donec pertranseat ira Domini. Ecce enim Dominus a sancto loco inducit iram in eos qui habitant super terram. Et revelabit terra sanguinem suum, et non abscondet interfectos.*

The person of God is introduced to us in these words, exhorting the resolve of the saints to patience and, as it were, emboldening them. For since those who administered the Spirit of salvation—that is, the sacred preaching of the Gospel—both to those of Israelite blood and to those throughout the whole world under heaven, were about to fall into grave and intolerable trials, and even to undergo the peril of life and blood; ^B for this very reason he very fittingly persuades them to bear up with a brave spirit against such things, saying: *Go, my people, enter into your chambers.* He calls the chambers quite aptly and auspiciously, perhaps the monuments in the earth; and he urges them, as if they were exposed, to close the doors and to endure lying hidden for a short while, until the wrath of the Lord passes by. For it was said to the beginning of the race, that is, to Adam: "You are earth, and into earth you shall return" (Gen. III, 19); and the nature of man was cursed on account of the transgression; for this reason it was also made subject to corruption. But what was brought about by divine wrath shall be loosed. And this shall happen in its entirety at the time of the consummation, when death is abolished, ^C the tyranny of the devil is destroyed, and sin is buried and put away. "Hide yourself, therefore," he says, "O my people, and bear up for a little while, as little as may be, until the death brought by the wrath of the Lord passes by, and the time of the resurrection of all is manifested. For even if," he says, "you suffer the state of dying, you will see it banished, and as though being prepared to find life again."

For just as dew descending upon the earth gently and softly causes the seeds stored within it to grow and increase, in the same way, "the dew from you" will provide healing and life and salvation to your dead, whose bodies ^D have been sown in the earth in their own time. And you would not be mistaken if you said that this dew is the Only-begotten Word of God, who, having distilled His own life-giving drops upon His own dead, will provide at once the healing of sins—if any offense was committed by them after the manner of men—and will together bestow upon them resurrection, salvation, and eternal life. But the case of the impious is not such. For they lived impiously and shall fall. This is what came to pass for the region of the Jews, seeing that they raged against Christ and the holy ministers of the mysteries, although they had brought forth the Spirit of salvation to those living on the earth.

^A For if, he says, one should even chance to die, with the perversity of those who hate them thrusting this also upon the holy ministers of the mysteries, yet the Master of all will bring punishment upon those who have killed the saints. For the Lord brings out wrath from the sanctuary upon those who dwell on the earth. This is similar to that saying: "And the Lord rained from the Lord fire and brimstone upon Sodom." Therefore, the Son will bring wrath from the holy Spirit of the Father upon those who dwell on the earth. For as He Himself says somewhere: "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father." But when the time is at hand, in which wrath shall be brought upon those who have committed unholy deeds against the sanctified, the earth will reveal its blood, and will not conceal those who have been slaughtered—that is, every drop of blood that has fallen to the earth will be manifest, and no one will be hidden, or rather, it will reach the truth for those who have been wronged. For the Creator will remember all things, and there will be no one at all of those unjustly slaughtered who will not be known and in the memory of God.

^B CHAPTER XXVII. VERSE 1. In that day God will bring the holy, and great, and strong sword upon the dragon the fleeing serpent, upon the dragon the crooked serpent, and he will slay the dragon.

Having spoken very beautifully about the bringing of wrath upon those who acted impiously and killed the saints, he says that Satan himself, along with his children, is to be taken away—he whose stratagems they yielded to when they fought against the saints and resisted their preaching. For in that time, he says, when the earth shall reveal its blood, the Father will bring the holy and most piercing, and great sword—the all-powerful and invincible One, that is, the Only-begotten Word—upon the dragon the fleeing serpent, upon the dragon the crooked serpent, and He will slay the dragon. And by dragon and serpent he designates Satan. For he is bitter and a hurler of venom, and in addition to this, cowardly. For it is always habitual for him to flee. He is also terrible and delights in evil deeds. For he runs crookedly like a beast; yet he will be taken away, since he will produce nothing henceforth, but instead will pay the penalty for his words of impiety, having suffered the final punishment, and having been held fast by the gates of Hades, and enduring the material and labor of the eternal fire, a long and endless torment.

VERSES 2, 3. In that day a good vineyard, a desire to begin against it. I am a fortified city, a besieged city; in vain will I give drink to it. For it will be taken at night, and in the day the wall will fall.

Having finished very aptly the discourse concerning those who have been, as it were, caught by the net through faith, and having most clearly shown that they will be anointed with ointment and given drink of wine on the holy mountain of Christ, the Savior of us all—and by mountain we mean the Church—and having added that there will be vengeance for those who were slaughtered for the sake of piety, and

^A that the apostate dragon will perish utterly and completely by the holy and great sword, he restores the discourse to those things which happened, through ignorance, to those who are of the blood of Israel. For at that time, he says, in which they will show themselves to be unreceptive to faith in Christ: "I am the beautiful vine, the desire for which someone might say to begin: I am the fortified city." For this speech is held as if by Jerusalem: "I will be a city besieged." Then the prophet brings before us the person of God, saying that: "In vain will I give it drink." For even if, he says, Israel had been a leafy vine, according to the voice of Jeremiah [Hosea], yet it brought forth thorns, and made the exhortation of the Law useless for itself. In vain, therefore, he watered it through the ancient Law; and even if he were to water it still through the evangelical preaching, it will remain useless. What then will happen from this? "It will be captured by night, and by day the wall will fall." For since he named it a fortified city, and ^B yet besieged, in accordance with the sequence of the thoughts he says both that it is captured, and affirms that the walls will fall. That, however, it is captured by night, and that the walls will fall in the daytime, seems to indicate something of this sort. For it was occupied and laid waste, as one that had been as if in mist and darkness, because it did not endure Christ saying: "While you have the light, walk in the light, lest darkness overcome you." And because they have spent their time caring little for the words from Him, the wretches were overtaken as if in the dark. For sin prevailed over them. And this was, then, that which was said to them by the voice of Christ: "Amen I say to you, unless you believe that I AM, you will die in your sins." It was captured, therefore, and it has remained in sins; the wall fell as if in the day, that is, conspicuously and manifestly it was deprived of the divine protection. Of such a kind also the blessed prophet ^C Isaiah says in the beginning: "For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts, the man of Judah, is a beloved planting. I waited for it to make grapes, but it made thorns." Then he adds: "And now I will announce to you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be for plunder; and I will pull down its wall, and it will be for trampling. And I will let my vineyard go, and it will not be pruned, nor will it be dug, and thorns will ascend upon it as if upon uncultivated ground; and I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it." You see how true that which I said is, that is to say: "In vain will I give it drink." For He did not grant the intelligible rain to those from Israel any longer; but He tore down its hedge, and in addition to this, the wall. And perhaps by the hedge he calls the assistance from the angels; by the wall, the insuperable and fixed protection of His own power. For, "Mountains," he says, "are in its circuit, ^D and the Lord is in the circuit of His people." And if he says that "it has fallen," it does not signify entirely that it was cast down, but rather that it has been taken away. For Israel has remained destitute of protection, and entirely devoid of the mercy and love from above.

^A

*Verse 4. And there is not one that does not apprehend it. Who will place me as a keeper of stubble in the field? Because of this hostile region, I have cast it away.*

The region of the Jews was besieged after the Savior was nailed to the cross, and those gathered from every nation—that is, the all-powerful army of the Romans—rose up manfully against the Jewish nation. It was also devastated in another way, namely, intelligibly and secretly; for it was given over to be trampled upon by unclean spirits. For if it were deprived of its hedge, and the wall that guarded it were torn down, who could doubt that it became exposed to the plundering of intellectual beasts? Truly, this was what was said of it through the voice of David to Christ, the Savior of all: "Why have you broken down its hedge, and all who pass by along the way gather its grapes? The boar from the forest has devastated it, and the wild ass has fed upon it." For by these things he signifies the varied passions by which the mind of the Jews is mastered—the ass signifying the utter lack of reason, and the boar signifying pleasure. ^B Therefore, that it became easily accessible to anyone wishing to plunder it, he teaches, saying: "There is not one that does not apprehend it," for there is no hand or power, whether of men or of wicked spirits, that does not apprehend it. "But, O Master," one might say, "did you not save your people? Did you not guard them? Were you not a mighty wall for them?" "Indeed," He says, "I did guard them, and by my grace and power it was fitting for them to be surrounded and guarded when they had the fruit of the Law. But," He says, "when it [the nation] had been led down into such wretchedness, and labored under such a spiritual hatred of work that it produced no fruit of virtue, and seemed like empty and fruitless ^C stubble, who would place me as a keeper of it? For what benefit comes from this protection of mine, if it has become empty of good fruits? Who would persuade me to do this?" For this is what "to place as a keeper of stubble in the field" signifies. But he also renders the reason for how it arrived at such misery, saying: "Because of this hostile region, I have cast it away." By these words he points out, as it were with a finger, Jerusalem. "Since," he says, "it has become most hostile to me, for this reason, and most justly, I have cast it away." He does not mean, therefore, that he is speaking of another hostile region and then casting away yet another, but rather he demonstrates that Jerusalem itself is the hostile one, and says that he has cast it away—having cast it out, ^D clearly, from the spiritual intimacy with himself. For he said to it: "How often have I willed to gather your children, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not? Behold, your house is left to you desolate."

*Verse 5. For this reason, therefore, the Lord God did all things whatsoever He had ordained. I have been burned, all who dwell in it shall cry out.*

For since it became hostile, he says, and resisted the Savior, and waged war as an enemy against the one calling it to life, for this reason all things whatsoever he had ordained—that is...

^A defined, and determined should come to pass—he brought to an end. And what at last are these things? Being altogether repudiated, no longer to have the intelligible rain, to suffer siege, to exist in want of the favor and fortification from above. For it has been set on fire and brought to complete uselessness. "And I am burned up," all who dwell in it will cry out, he says. And if one should wish to apply [these things] more historically to what is at hand, he will find Jerusalem burned. But if [applied] in another way, the burning in these words signifies total uselessness, and the desolation pressing upon the Jews in every way, with the divine wrath all but burning them up and rendering them like dust and ashes. The divine prophet Jeremiah says something similar, as though addressing Jerusalem: "The Lord called your name a fair, shady olive tree, beautiful in aspect; at the sound of the outcry of her pruning, a fire was kindled upon her, great is the affliction upon her. Her branches have become useless." For it makes the soul of a man useless in every way when it departs from God and is utterly deprived of His grace and help. For "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God," ^B and as Moses says, "Our God is a consuming fire."

"Let us make peace with Him, let us make peace who are coming, O children of Jacob. Israel shall sprout and blossom, and the inhabited world shall be filled with his fruit."

Perinde quasi (as though) the Jews had renounced the love and faith in the Savior of all, Christ, and as though the Beloved had rejected them and transferred the calling to the Gentiles, and Christ, through the holy apostles, were netting men from the ends of the earth, the blessed prophet now appears as a faithful counselor to the nations everywhere, and says: "Israel has departed, the firstborn has kicked in defiance, he denies the faith, he has become impious toward the Redeemer; but let us who are coming—that is, who are destined to come in due times, and who will come ^C altogether as from darkness to light, from Greek ignorance to the knowledge of the true God, from sins to righteousness—let us make peace with Him," that is, having dissolved the ancient enmity, let us be at peace with God. For with sin removed and Satan abolished, and with no one left to hinder, who might stand between and separate us from Christ, let us consent to the prophecies of His Gospel; let us follow what He might wish and say; let us bow the neck to the Evangelical proclamations; for thus we shall make peace with Him. The all-wise Paul says something similar to those called from the Gentiles: "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Having, therefore, exhorted those who are coming—of whom the blessed David also said: ^D "A generation to come shall be announced to the Lord"—he turns the word to the holy apostles themselves; and when he had perceived, or learned through the Holy Spirit, that the whole world was to be brought to God, he exults in a certain manner, and out of great joy says: "The children of Jacob shall sprout, and Israel shall blossom, and the world shall be filled"

with his fruit. For they were born from the blood of Jacob, who was also named Israel, the divine disciples. ^A Since "their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world," the multitude of the nations was called to knowledge, and, as the word of the prophecy says, the world was filled with his fruit. And with whose, then? Clearly with that of Israel; that is, of those who were born from the blood of Israel. For those who believe are the fruits of apostolic labors; and the divine Paul termed them his joy and crown; for those who are saved through them are truly the boast and glory of the holy mystagogues.

^B VER. 7. *Nunquid ut ipse percussit, sic et ipse cædetur? et sicut ipse occidit, sic occidetur? Rigans et exprobrans emittet eos.*

The meaning of these words hangs clearly upon what has been said, and we shall state in what manner this is possible. For we said that the children of Jacob will germinate, and Israel will bloom, and the world will be filled with his fruit. But it is as if someone were urging [the point] and saying: "Israel has acted impiously beyond measure; he became hard and stubborn, he killed the saints, and he stormed against every just man and prophet, and he has his hand full of blood; how then will he bloom again? And how, as if no wickedness had been committed, will the world be filled with his fruit?" To such [objections] the prophet says: "Nunquid," he says, "as he himself struck, shall he himself be struck? Or as he killed, shall he be killed?" For using ^C impotent anger and unbridled impulse against the saints, he put them to death, as if he knew no way to show mercy. Shall then the fount of clemency use equal and like vengeance against them, and thus take them away, just as they took away the saints? Or shall He rather prevail as God, and not utterly destroy the one once beloved and chosen for the sake of his fathers? A similar thing is said by God through one of the holy prophets: "What shall I do to you, Ephraim? What shall I do to you, Judah? I will make you as Adama, and as Seboim; my heart has been changed in this. My repentance was troubled. I will not act according to the wrath of my fury. I will not abandon Ephraim so that he should be blotted out, because I am God ^D and not man in the midst of you, the Holy One." For it behooved, it behooved, I say, Him who is God and not man like us, both to precede us in clemency, and, as nature surpasses everything that has been originated, so in this, I say, He must excel mortal men in [this] humanity. Therefore Israel will bloom, and the world will be filled with his fruit, in the manner that has already been set forth. For he will not be killed, he says, as he himself killed, nor will he be struck in like manner, even if, agitated by an immense fury, he struck the saints. What, then, will finally be the measure of these commotions against them? Arguing,

^A he says, and reproaching, he will send them forth. "He will send forth," understand "on account of His own separation," which the Savior did; for He relegated and cast off Israel. ^B *Rixans* (contending) and reproaching. For *rixans*, he put *increpans* (rebuking). For the Savior, rebuking the Jews and also reproaching them, was saying: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who killest the prophets and stonest those who are sent unto thee: how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not? Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." This was nothing other than to affirm that the separation from them was not far off. By this same path perished Israel, even if the remnant were saved, just as Isaiah himself says: "And if the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved."

VERS. 8. *Were you not the one who was meditating with a hard spirit to kill them with a spirit of fury?*

Contemplate the prophet in these things using a freedom worthy of the saints, and arguing that Israel had warred against the saints, and had exercised a study, as it were, of using a hard and savage spirit to remove them from the midst, and was rushing upon them with a beast-like mind. ^C If, therefore, I should say, he says, that he [Israel] destroyed and struck them, this will in no way be a false doctrine, but what was said will appear true. For, O Israel, were you not the one who was meditating—that is, accustomed—with a hard spirit, as I said, to behave in a beast-like manner against those who had been sent by God? And if you deny it, he says, I will bring forward as witness the Judge of all. For Christ said somewhere to them: "Which of the prophets did your fathers not kill?" And again: "It cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem."

VERS. 9. *For this reason the iniquity of Jacob shall be taken away, and this is his blessing, when I shall take away his sin, when they shall have placed all the stones of the altars broken like very fine lime, and their trees shall not remain, and their idols shall be cut down like a distant forest.*

Having interrupted with a rebuke against those who had acted impiously against the holy prophets, ^D the blessed prophet proceeds anew with the context of his thoughts, and says, as if from the person of God: *For this reason the iniquity of Jacob shall be taken away.* For what reason? Because, indeed, he shall not be killed as he himself killed, nor shall he be struck as he himself struck, since God is endowed with clemency, which always overcomes human frailty, and never takes equal punishment for sins committed upon the earth, but tempers His anger with gentleness; hence he says: *The iniquity of Jacob shall be remitted*—that is, he will experience humanity, and in His own time He will remit to him his faults and absolve him of his crimes. And this is his blessing. For He promised to Abraham, saying: "Surely in blessing I will bless"

thy seed. ^A Yet the divine Abraham was not truly blessed, nor was his seed multiplied, in proportion and ratio to the punishments paid by those who had sprung from his blood for their many sins. But since, even though they had practiced nothing good, but had rather been led down to the uttermost impiety, they have nonetheless been enriched by this remission, the promise of the blessing has been kept and has passed over unto them. When, therefore, He says, I shall take away his sin, this shall be for him the mode of the blessing. And He makes manifest the time in which he shall be free from faults. For He says, when those who have been called through faith to the knowledge of the true God shall take up arms against their ancient error, when altars and shrines and the swarm of idols are removed from the midst, when they shall consume with fire the temples built for inanimate idols, ^B when they shall cut down their trees, and besides these, the things fashioned by hands, even as one would a grove: then, indeed, then God will remit to those who are of Israel also their past sins. And this, I think, is what that divine light Paul said: "When the fullness of the Gentiles shall have entered, then all Israel shall be saved." For to utterly burn down temples, and to prune back the groves fixed to them, and to add to this the destruction of the images themselves, would signify nothing else than that those who formerly wandered and worshipped the works of their own hands shall pass over to the knowledge of the truth, so as to have come with such love for God to this [knowledge] that they let their hands loose upon those things formerly worshipped by them, and cut down their gods made of wood as though they were a grove.

VERS. 10. The dwelling flock shall be released, as a flock abandoned, and shall be for a long time in depasturation, and they shall rest there, and after a time there shall not be in it anything green, because it will be dried up.

He calls Israel the moved flock, because they have had very many and good shepherds, ^C who were all but living with them, and knew how to lead and direct them to everything that is praiseworthy. Thus it was filled with good shepherds. But it shall be, He says, released. But what "released" means, He Himself immediately explained, saying: As a flock abandoned, that is, destitute of every overseer and guardian. And when this happens, for a long time it shall be made a prey. For the beasts that fall under the understanding—that is, Satan, and the evil powers which are with him and under him—will tear them to pieces. For when no one repels the incursions of the evil demons from the human heart, it will be most easily captured, and will be led astray into whatever seems good to them. But if we must also speak of what follows from history, they became a prey, after the Cross of the Savior, even to the Roman army. For [the army] remained among them, and rested therein like a certain vigorous shoot; but for a small, He says, time. ^D

^A There will be nothing green in it, he says, because it will have dried up; that is, they will forage over the land to such an extent that it will appear parched, no longer having any pasture. This is a clear demonstration that those who lay it waste will not depart from their land until they have, as it were, eaten up everything useful within it, even down to the most insignificant trifles, and have made it their own possession. The same argument could also apply if one were to choose to describe the hearts of the Jews as certain shoots that unclean demons have grazed upon; for they have devoured them to such an extent that they are perhaps even in want of pasture, so that nothing good remains in them that is of a nature to be consumed by them.

^B “Women coming from the spectacle, draw near. For it is not a people having understanding. Therefore, the One who made them will not have compassion, and the One who formed them will not have pity.” ^C Having said that the inhabited flock will be abandoned, and that it will become pasture, and will be set out for grazing—according to the words already set forth—as if Israel had already been cast out from the intimacy which is with God on account of their impiety toward Christ, and with the first testament and the rites according to the law having ceased, He commands the holy women to evangelize the resurrection of our Savior, women whom Matthew also mentions, saying thus: “Now on the evening of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher. And behold, there was a great earthquake. But when they were greatly terrified, the blessed angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. For I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified; he is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he was laid, and go quickly, tell his disciples that he has been raised from the dead, and behold, he goes before you into Galilee; there you will see him.’ And after the words of the angel, behold Jesus met them, saying, ‘Hail.’ And they drew near and took hold of his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus says to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go, announce to my disciples that they should go into Galilee, and there they will see me.’”

Therefore, Israel having been dismissed, “Come,” He says, “you wise women, and evangelize most vigorously the resurrection of Him who killed death, and destroyed corruption, and justifies by faith those who have sinned, and delivers those entangled in defilements, who transforms those coming to Him into newness of life, who revealed to those on earth the new life—that is, the evangelical—and who abolished the weakness of the legal worship, but illuminated the truth, and made plain the path of worship in spirit and truth for those who revere Him. Come, therefore.” ^D For Israel has fallen from hope. For it is not an understanding people. For it has been blinded in heart, and remains in darkness, and is detained in the gloom of sin. For it would not attend to Christ saying: “As long as you have the light, walk in the light, lest darkness…

^A comprehend you.” I say that the dispensation of the Savior is indeed to be admired, even in these most wise women. For one might say, I think: Were there not holy disciples to whom it would perhaps have been better, as being the sacred ministers of divine dogmas, to preach the joyful news of the resurrection before others? Why, then, did they not see Jesus first, dissolving the power of death, but He appeared to women, and bestowed upon them the dignity of the apostolate, and commanded them to go and report to the disciples that Christ had risen from the dead, and they were the first to behold His glory? To these things we say that the only-begotten Word of God became man so that He might heal the infirm, and deliver man from ancient accusations. It was therefore necessary, it was necessary, to grant to women the prerogative of announcing the ^B resurrection. Since the first and more ancient woman had led Adam into transgression, serving the suggestions of the serpent, and had been the procurest and conciliator of death, why should she not have been allowed to dispel the causes of such grave crimes by the apostolate? “For where,” He says, “sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” The Gospel of salvation is given to the woman who ministered to death. For it was said to them with necessity: "Hail," by Him who had imposed the curse in the beginning. For He said to her: “In sorrow you shall bring forth children.” Thus the first things have been undone by the second, and that which was infirm has been healed. And so He commissions them to preach the Gospel, as the love of Christ toward the Jews was growing cold. For, he says, because they have remained senseless and foolish, He who made them will not take pity on them, nor are they worthy of being pitied. ^C

VERS. 12. *And it shall come to pass in that day, the Lord shall hedge in from the channel of the river, unto Rhinocorura. But you gather the children of Israel one by one.*

Christ having risen, and having commanded the holy apostles: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” and having ascended into heaven, the divine wrath—that is, from above—descended upon those who had impiously raged against Him. For they were consumed by sword and fire, the hand of the Romans rising against them, burning all their cities, and even Jerusalem itself, and tearing down that famous temple. The region of Judea is therefore bounded by the streams of the Euphrates, towards the orient and south, and by that which is called Rhinocorura. For ^D this is a city bounding Egypt and Palestine. Since, therefore, He has named for us the boundaries of Judea, He asserts that the Lord will hedge in all things round about, that is, the whole of Judea. He has used "shall hedge in" for "shall besiege" and "shall press," and shall reduce to the greatest difficulties. For a hedging-in, or encompassing, can signify an inevitable affliction or calamity. Nay, even

in another way you may understand the ^A hedging-in. For the mind of the Jews has been hedged in, so that they are able in no way to receive the light of true divine contemplation, nor indeed to understand the mystery of Christ, just as the blessed Paul writes: "A hardening in part has happened to Israel, and until this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies upon their heart." And this, I think, is the hedging-in. That this, however, did not happen against the whole world under heaven, that is, against all the nations, but against Judea alone and those within it, he demonstrated clearly, by saying that the hedging-in did not happen simply, but from the channel of the river even to Rhinocorura. And this, he says, will happen to the crowds of the Jews who killed the prophets, and stoned those sent by God, and added to these even the Son himself, and ^B crucified him.

Then he transfers the discourse to the person of our common Savior Christ, discussing and saying to the holy apostles, that is, to all who in due time serve his Gospel and are accustomed to conduct the sacred mysteries: "But gather together the sons of Israel one by one." That is to say, let not the discourse of those entrusted with the province of teaching be excessive, even if Israel is not seen entering in a crowd; but if there be any among them who is understanding, let him be called through faith, and let him come individually, and as one chosen. For the remnant of Israel has been saved. And indeed the divine disciples addressed them very often, just as the divine Peter indeed says: "And now, brothers, I know that you did it in ignorance, as also your rulers. Repent therefore and let each one of you be baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For to you are the promises, and to your children." And a no small multitude has been caught in the net; ^C yet, so far as the whole Jewish nation is concerned, they were very few indeed, and as it were, one by one, those who were saved were received, through faith, that is to say, in Christ.

Verse 13. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come who were lost in the land of the Assyrians, and they who were lost in Egypt, and they shall worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

It is the custom of the holy prophets to conceal their own discourse with a certain obscurity, and since the people from Israel were unbridled and headlong in their anger, to tread a middle path of meanings, so that what is signified is often unclear. To sound the trumpet at that time, he says—not others, as I suppose, but the holy ministers of the mysteries—and to sound not simply, but with a "great trumpet," that is, using the evangelical proclamations to call out, as it were, and to cry out something great and wondrous to those dwelling upon ^D the earth. "For indeed truly their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world."

For the great Moses also used a trumpet at times, but not a great one; for he was thin-voiced and slow of tongue, and the power of the legal proclamations was confined to the region of the Jews alone. But the divine and saving proclamation comes through every city and region, and it has thundered, as it were, over the whole world under heaven. Something of this kind is also written in the books of Moses: "For the God of all descended in the appearance of fire upon Mount Sinai ^A." And there were smokes and hail, and the ethereal body was darkened by deep gloom; but the voice of the trumpet, he says, sounded loudly. Then he adds to this, saying: "The voices of the trumpet became proceeding much stronger." For in the beginning the law resounded with a thin voice; but as time went on, the voices of the trumpet became very, very strong. At that time, he says, they will sound the great trumpet, that is, they will cause the evangelical proclamation to resound, gathering together those who have wandered, and those who have come into the rank of prisoners, and dragging them forth from the snares of their ancient error of idolatry. For they shall come, he says, who were lost in the land of the Assyrians, and those who were lost in Egypt, and they shall worship the Lord upon the holy mountain in Jerusalem. He has set forth two regions that were more superstitious than the rest, I mean the Assyrians and the Egyptians. But those who were lost in them, he says, shall come, called through faith to the knowledge of the Lord and God who is in truth, and they shall worship Him, not in defiled temples anymore, but upon the holy mountain, that is, the Church, which he also calls Jerusalem. A mountain, because nothing in the Churches is altogether lowly or creeping upon the ground, but it shines forth with high and exalted doctrines. And Jerusalem, because it is truly a vision of peace.

Chapter XXVIII. Verse 1. Woe to the crown of pride, the hirelings of Ephraim, the flower falling from the glory upon the head of the fat mountain, those who are drunk without wine.

Having previously declared ^C that all those who have perished, being entangled in the snares of idolatry, shall be called through faith to the knowledge of the truth and shall worship the Lord, he transfers his discourse to the leaders of the Jews, who became the source and occasion of impiety against Christ for the people subject to them. For they did not lead them through the law and the prophets to the knowledge of those things which had been promised of old, but rather, plunging them into the pits of destruction, they excommunicated and cast out of the synagogue those who confessed that He is the Christ. For so, in a way, says the divine John. And shaking and, as it were, undermining the faith in Him, and leading the mind of the unlearned away from the right faith, they called Jesus a Samaritan, and a drunkard, and one born of fornication. And what is still more impious than these things, they brought Him to Pilate, and indeed they requested that He be crucified, and as far as in them lay, they killed the Author of life, to the extent

that He was life by nature as God, even though He existed in the flesh. Woe, therefore, he says, to the crown of pride. He calls them a crown. For they were to all of Israel a crown and a kind of glory, excelling in the insignia of the priesthood, and having obtained the dignity of leadership. But they have not remained in the glories and elevations that had been bestowed upon them; rather, they have fallen away, having become a crown of pride. For they have been clothed in dishonor and blemish, and having become guilty of the charges of impiety, they have withered like a flower. For they have also become the hirelings of Ephraim. By Ephraim he designates Judah, because he was of the tribe of Ephraim. The leaders of the Jewish Synagogue, therefore, hired him so that they might be the administrators of their murders and hand over the Teacher. And this, indeed, has been done. Woe therefore, he says, to the crown of pride, that is, to the ^B leaders, who even hired Ephraim, that is, him who was of the tribe of Ephraim. And because of this cause they have become like a flower falling from its glory. For just as the glory of flowers is to be without withering and to be seen in the beauty of their own nature, in the same way, I think, it may be understood also in our own case. For as long as we are in those things in which it is proper for us to be, we carefully keep the beauty of our soul uncorrupted; but when our mind is turned aside to things which are not fitting, we shall be a flower whose comely glory has flowed away. This is what also happened to the Scribes and Pharisees, who sharpened their purpose, and words, and attempts, and every strange thing against Christ. But where was the flower that fell from its glory, and what place did it occupy? Upon the peak of the fat mountain. He calls Israel a fat mountain; fat, indeed, because it was fattened by prosperity; ^C and a mountain, on account of being set on high by God, regarding its fame, I say. For He Himself says somewhere about the Israelites: "I have begotten and raised up children." It is also customary for divine Scripture to compare the mother of the Jews, I mean Jerusalem, to a mountain at times. They were set, therefore, as a flower on the peak of the mountain, that is, above all, and as leaders over all, and chosen by the vote of the law to exercise authority over others. These were they who were drunk without wine. For their vine was from the vine of Sodom, and their branch was from Gomorrah; their grape was a grape of gall, a cluster of bitterness to them, and the wrath of dragons is incurable. For they were becoming drunk, not by drinking this wine subject to the senses, but by admitting into the dwelling place, so to speak, of their minds ^D the drunkenness and the darkening of diabolical perversity, issuing from impotent wrath and fury.

Behold, the wrath of the Lord is strong and harsh as hail being brought down, having no shelter, violently brought down, as a great force of water dragging the region into the earth, it will make repose for hands and feet, and the crown of pride, the hirelings of Ephraim, will be trampled underfoot.

Vers. 2, 3. Behold, the wrath of the Lord is strong and harsh, as hail which is cast down, having no covering, is violently cast down, even as a great force of water dragging the region; it shall bring about rest in the earth for hands and feet, and the crown of pride, the hirelings of Ephraim, shall be trampled underfoot.

^A The prophetic word shows us by these expressions how those dire events shall come to them, and that they shall pay the penalties for their impiety toward Christ, falling into the harsh and implacable wrath of the just Judge. For it says: The wrath of the Lord shall come, it shall come, hard and unassailable against you; and it shall come as when hail is carried down against those who have no shelter, but carried down with violence—that is, unendurably, and rather more keenly, and as if someone were hurling it with a sling, and bringing it fiercely upon some. It shall come, therefore, as hail, it says, or as a great multitude of water dragging [along] the region. And this, too, is insurmountable. For if I may say so, what is able to oppose or withstand a river, or rather a torrent, sweeping down most impetuously, and not yield to the rush of the waters? It shall come, then, as water flooding the whole region, clearly that of the Jews. And the fall shall be so horrible that it will bring about rest in the earth. But what sort of rest, and for whom? For the hands and for the feet. And the meaning of what has been said is as follows. For those who are accustomed to swim, if the state of the waters ^B happens to be calm and, so to speak, manageable, by drawing up and extending their hands and feet, and laboring moderately, they escape the danger of drowning. But if the onrush of the waters breaks in completely, so that there is no escape, the one caught in it ceases and stops swimming altogether, and seems to be freed from labor, but is thenceforth being drowned of necessity and by force, having been completely submerged. Therefore, the word is mocking in a way, and using irony, when it says that the water will bring about rest to the earth, and rest to the hands and feet. For it is as if one were to say, "Let no one labor in vain to oppose the calamity that is coming upon all." For it will rush so impetuously that even if they should wish to labor, they would be unable to provide for it by counsel or anticipate it by thought. For no one will swim out, and willy-nilly, he will be pressed down, wherever the water dragging him carries him—that is, the most violent and invincible hand of the Roman army. ^C Then, even then, the crown of pride, the hirelings of Ephraim, shall be trampled underfoot—that is, it shall lie beneath the feet of those whom I mentioned. Who these are, we have learned from what has already been said above.

VER. 4. And it shall be the flower which falls from the hope of glory, on the top of the high mountain, like the early fig which, as soon as anyone sees it, before putting it into his hand, he will desire to devour. ^D What the flower is that falls from the hope of glory, and what, moreover, it might signify that it is situated and seen on the top of the high mountain, has become clear from what was said a little before. For you will most aptly understand the flower, as being conspicuous on the mountain, to be either Israel or those who have been chosen to preside. But it shall be, he says, like the early fig. For when the fruits in a fig tree are maturing, if someone happens to forestall and precede the rest, and it thus becomes fit for eating, the one who sees it invades it eagerly and desires to devour it, and perhaps, with his impulse inflamed toward this, as far as appetite is concerned, he blames his hand for hesitating, and with his mouth opened wide...

he leaps to the branches. Thus, he says, it shall be for those despoiling Israel. For it has been devoured, as I said, by the Romans, and has become a sweet meal for those who have taken it.

"On that day the Lord of Sabaoth shall be the crown of hope, the weaving of glory to my remnant people. They shall be left in a spirit of judgment for judgment, and (the) strength hindering [preventing] them from destroying."

^B What and how it shall come to pass for the killers of the Lord, the discourse has clarified for us in these words; next, it brings forward the explanation concerning the faithful: for Israel has not perished in its entirety, but, according to the voice of the prophet, a remnant has been saved. For no small multitude has believed in Christ, of which the choir of the holy apostles has become a kind of beginning and as it were first-fruits. At that time then, he says, "the Lord of Sabaoth shall be the crown of hope, the weaving of glory to my remnant people." For the Lord of hosts himself shall crown those who have believed with hope and glory, with hope clearly regarding future good things, and with glory because they shall reign together with him, and having come within the highest honors, they shall be enviable and conspicuous. For what shall be comparable in terms of glory for those who hope to receive the crown of the kingdom in Christ? Regarding these, the prophet Isaiah himself says elsewhere: "And you shall be a crown of beauty, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God." For Christ shall crown those who believe in him with endless glory, and he shall refresh them with most pleasant hope, and as it were feed them up. ^C Of such, he says, shall my remnant people be a partaker, that is, the remnant of the Jews, with the other people also having been brought in, clearly from the nations, who, having conceived great confidence in Christ, pray and cry out to the Father and God in the heavens: "O Lord, as with a weapon of good will you have crowned us." For, the God and Father being favorable, Christ emerged and became for us an unbreakable weapon, placing himself over against the arrows of the evil one on our behalf, and preserved his own people invulnerable and immune and untouched by the wickedness of that one. This, finally, as I think, is signified by what he says concerning the adopted people, that is, those justified by faith: "They shall be left in a spirit of judgment, over judgment and strength, hindering them from destroying." For once, long ago, one might say, Satan destroyed the earth-born, having cast them into the pits of sin. "For there was none who did good, there was not even one; but all have turned aside together, they have become useless," according to the voice of the Psalmist. But since the only-begotten Word of God became man, he judged our judgment, and he has adjudicated, as it were, for us and for the one who practiced greed, Satan; and he condemned that one to destruction, ^D and removed him from those upon the earth as a destroyer and murderer, and saved. And he teaches this, saying: "Now is the judgment of this world; now the prince of this world shall be cast out;" and: "If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself." For he says plainly: "For God did not send"

his Son into the world so that it might judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” How then does He say: “There is judgment of this world”? For we are they who long ago cried out through the voice of the prophets: ^A “Awaken, O Lord, and attend to my judgment, my God and my Lord, to my cause.” For even when a just judgment has been passed upon us, we give thanks and say: “I will confess to You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will recount all Your wondrous works, I will sing to Your name, O Most High.” And for what reason? “For You have performed my judgment and my cause: You sat on the throne, the Judge of righteousness, You rebuked the nations, and the ungodly one has perished.” For the bands of demons were rebuked, ^B and with them perished the ungodly one, that is, Satan. They shall be left, therefore—that is, they shall be preserved in the spirit of judgment. For He judged and justified, as I have said, over judgment and power, that is, by upright judgment and divine power, preventing those who believe in Him from being destroyed.

VERS. 7. For these have wandered through wine; they have wandered through strong drink; priest and prophet have been alienated in mind through wine. They have staggered because of the drunkenness of strong drink, they have wandered. This is the vision.

He describes in a certain way those who have lapsed, and those who have offended God through this long-standing disobedience. For such persons, he says, have wandered, ^C staggering with wine and drunkenness, not indeed with things subject to the senses or corporeal, but rather, they are possessed by a blindness of mind which the dire dragon inflicts upon those who are accustomed to be slothful. For the divine Paul writes that the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that the light of the Gospel of the glory of God might not shine upon them. He most correctly calls “wine” and “strong drink” the darkness injected into the souls of men by the perversity of the devil. He is, as it were, struck with stupor and wonder that not only the most unlearned multitude of the common people appears to suffer from this malady, but that even the priest and the prophet have lost their mind through ^D wine. He again calls the drunkenness resulting from ignorance “wine.” It is indeed a wonder to see the priest and the prophet suffering this together with the rest. For those whom it was proper to instruct others, and to direct them in searching out and pursuing what is advantageous, and to show them the path of salvation, these have received the darkness even more than others; so that they were vacillating and being carried about by every wind, and this because of this drunkenness of the mind. And someone might say, he says, that this matter is like a phasma and a vision—that is, a miracle or a stupor. For when something happens beyond hope and opinion, it then strikes those who see it with a certain vehement stupor. By these words, moreover, he speaks of a prophet—not of one who is true and sent by God, but rather of one who ascribes to himself the glory and reputation of a prophet; of whom he speaks through the voice of Ezechiel: “Woe to those who prophesy from their own heart, and not from the mouth of the Lord.”

^A They are also accused by the voice of Isaias; for he says somewhere concerning Jerusalem: "Her leaders judged for bribes, her prophets divined for silver."

VERS. 8. *Execration shall devour this counsel.* For this counsel is because of greed.

Since he says that priest and prophet alike have wandered, and have been moved from a sound mind because of the wine from the vines of Sodom, and the intoxication of the spirit; and when he adds that this is a vision or a phantom, that is to say, a stupefaction and a kind of miracle, he straightway demonstrates the occasion of this stupor and excess and intoxication—the crimes of the priests. And therefore he says: *Execration shall devour this counsel.* For the consultation of the Jews against Christ, I say, the Savior of us all, was truly execrable. For God and Father sent forth holy prophets, and they killed them. Then, after them, He sent the Beloved to gather ^B the fruits of His vineyard, as it is held in the evangelical parable. But the most foolish farmers who were set over the vineyard, although they understood that He was the Son and the Master of the estate, yet said, as it is written, among themselves: "This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us have his inheritance for ourselves." An execrable counsel, therefore, he says, is such as this. The blessed David also makes mention of it, saying at one time: "Why did the nations rage, and the peoples imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against His Christ"; and at another time, again, concerning those who committed such things: "You shall cast them down, and shall not build them up, because they turned evils against You, and devised a counsel which they could not establish." For as far as their strength and attempts went, they killed the Son, thinking that they would possess the Master's inheritance; but He rose again as God, and destroyed the evil ones evilly—the wicked and foolish farmers—and gave the land to others, clearly to the holy apostles and evangelists, and to the teachers of the holy Churches. The counsel of the Jews, therefore, is execrable, for it was made because of greed. For it is truly greed to wish that servants should be superior to the master, and that their own patrimony should become that which they were set to cultivate—especially when they already have a sufficiently ^C ample reward, the prizes of the priesthood and the honors by which they preside over others.

*To whom have we announced, evils? and to whom have we announced a message?*

It is the custom of the holy prophets, and indeed of the whole of divine Scripture, to induce and impel man by two things to choose to live rightly. For either they break the hardened mind by the terrors of punishment and urge it toward what is better, or by the promises of rewards they make them more courageous to endure bravely in matters of piety; such as that which is spoken through the voice of Isaias to the Jews: “And if you be willing and hear me, you shall eat the good things of the land. But if you will not, nor hear me…” ^D

the sword shall devour you. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.” ^A Thus, he points out that Israel, having become unbridled, has all but treated the words of the holy prophets with contempt, saying: “To whom have we announced a message? For see, see to whom,” he says; meaning, “To a hard, disobedient, and foolish people have we ministered, and though we brought them messages from God above, we announced to them evils,” that is, punishments and threats, which certainly and surely shall fall upon the heads of those who are accustomed to be stubborn. “We have announced a message,” that is, we have brought good news of the good things prepared by God for those who are accustomed to do right. ^B Yet the intractable Israel is improved not one whit, having stiffened into wrongdoing and ailing greatly from the sickness of disobedience. When, therefore, he asks, “To whom?”, he indicates that there is no one worthy; for even after such a clear prediction by the holy prophets, they remained no less refractory and wicked, and their hearts were filled to the brim with every kind of perversity. They even became ready ministers of diabolic cruelty and bitterness; for they handed over to the cross the Savior and Redeemer of all, I mean Christ, through whom and with whom to the Father be glory with the Holy Spirit forever. Amen.

TOMUS II.

^C VERS. 1. “Weaned from the milk, taken away from the breasts, expect affliction upon affliction, hope upon hope, yet a little, yet a little, for the derision of lips, for an alien tongue.”

Our first discourse concluded at this point: “To whom have we announced evils? And to whom have we announced a message?” Interpreting the meaning of the aforementioned words, we say that the person of the holy prophets is introduced, in a way rebuking those who are of the blood of Israel, inasmuch as they heed their words rashly and in vain, but are made no better ^D thereby, even though both evils and a message had been proclaimed to them. And we confirmed that "evils" are the punishments destined for those who transgress, and "a message" signifies promises of honors in good hope. Since, therefore, those who are sprung from the blood of Israel were helped not at all, even though the prophets had announced to them these things from God, I mean threats and promises of future good things, he says: “To whom have we announced evils? And to whom have we announced a message?” Now when the holy prophets have as it were fallen silent and finished their own speech, God himself, the God of all, calls out to the holy ones, saying: “Weaned from the milk, taken away from the breasts, add affliction to affliction, hope to hope.” For those who kick against instruction and have long since cast away the bridle are deservedly rejected, and being destitute of the salvation in Christ, they will go toward destruction. But you, however, who have since been called through faith to the knowledge of the truth, who, having been taken away as if from the breast and milk of the legal pedagogy, are receiving food once accommodated to little ones and endued with a ruder mind, but have advanced indeed

weaned from the breast and from the milk of the discipline of the Law; you who formerly received food befitting children, and possessed a less learned mind, but now have advanced to a perfect man, to the measure of the age of ^A the fulness of Christ, and have passed over to food suitable for the perfect, and have not remained ignorant of the word of righteousness: prepare your own hearts for the reception of the new preaching of the evangelical polity, of the commandments ordained through Christ. Show yourselves men with respect to patience, and if a frequent and successive affliction arises from raised-up temptations, and the cruelty of the persecutors presses upon you, endure for a little while, and for a little while bear the afflictions, that you may also be rich in hope—in the hope, I say, that surpasses the human mind. "For eye," he says, "has not seen, and ear has not heard, and it has not ascended into the heart of man, those things which God has prepared for them that love Him." Next, he demonstrates what that first affliction against them will be. For it is on account of the mocking of lips, and on account of a foreign tongue. Now the meaning of the prophecy is of this sort. In the Acts of the ^B holy apostles it is written that "On the day of Pentecost they were all gathered together in one place, and behold there came from heaven a sound as of a rushing violent wind." Next he says: "And there appeared to them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each one of them, and they began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them to utter." For Christ had commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, until they should be endued with power from on high. Then, going down, they spoke to those from Israel, and also to all those from other regions, in the tongues given to them by God, "and they were struck with amazement hearing them, and indeed they said, 'Are not all who are speaking Jews? And how do we all hear, each in our own tongue in which they speak?' Others, however, said," he says, "'that they are filled with new wine,' that is, they are drunk." This, I think, is the "mocking of lips" through a foreign tongue. For they were speaking ^C in foreign tongues, God who is all-powerful having also foretold this. For "in men of strange tongues," he says, "and with the lips of others I will speak to this people, and not even so will they believe." But although they ought to have received the sign for confirmation, considering the prediction made by God regarding this, they did not do this, but keeping on with taunts of drunkenness, they persisted in disobedience.

"For that they will speak to this people telling it: This is the rest to him that is thirsty, and this is the crushing, and they would not hear." God says somewhere, being indignant at the insolence of the Jews: "Behold, I am bringing a famine upon the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. And from the east even to the west they shall run about seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it." Therefore, an intelligible famine has been brought upon those from Israel, and inasmuch as they did not receive through faith the bread of life which descended from heaven ^D and gave life to the world; for this reason, very rightly, they have come to be in need

of the food given by God. "For man," he says, "shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." ^A And they have raged against the Savior and Redeemer of all; yet, since He is good, even though they had practiced impiety in an intolerable manner, He called them to repentance through the holy apostles. The blessed Peter, therefore, addressed them, because they had denied the Holy and Righteous One, and had killed the Prince of life, and had asked for a murderer to be granted to them. Yet he also added this: "And now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. Repent therefore, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promises are to you and to your children." Therefore, he says, those who have been weaned from the breast and from milk, those who have been called to the apostleship, and have become ministers of the new proclamations, will speak to this people, showing clearly what rest is for the one who drinks, and what is the contrition, that is to say, what is useful and what is the contrary. But they would not listen. Whence, I think, one of the saints, moved, said to them: "Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart, you always resist the Holy Spirit." ^B Observe, indeed, how, although they had acted with such intolerable impiety, they had the holy apostles as pedagogues, bringing them to repentance and instilling in them the knowledge of what is useful; but they were possessed of hard and excessively stubborn characters, and were carried aside uncontrollably toward what is disobedient and refractory in their manner of life.

Vers. 13. *And it will be to them the word of the Lord of God, affliction upon affliction, hope upon hope.*

To whom, then, will it be? To the holy apostles, clearly, and the evangelists, who, ^C administering the divine office of sacred preaching, traveled throughout the world, ensnaring those who were wandering, bringing to Christ through faith those who of old used to say to the wood: "You are my father," and to the stone: "You have begotten me." But they did not complete the course of their own apostleship without sweat, but rather were afflicted, maltreated, and endured the plots of the enemies of God. The word of the Lord became for them, therefore, affliction upon affliction, and not this alone, but also hope upon hope. For, having exhausted their labors for piety toward Christ, they will be in long, or rather infinite, hopes, and, reigning together with Christ, they will be wreathed with the crown of incorruption.

*Yet a little, yet a little, that they may go, and fall backward, and be endangered, and broken, and taken.*

He stirs them up to courage and anoints the holy ^D mystagogues to patience. For they used to preach to the Israelites and announce to them the favorable word of salvation. But they would leap upon them like untamed beasts, drag them into the councils, and—counting as some sort of most extravagant transgression the sincerity of their love toward Christ—they would assail them with bitter taunts, and

^A by inflicting blows and scourges, and by flaying them alive, they would say: “Did we not strictly charge you not to speak in this name? And behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching.” ^B And by pressing them in other ways as well, and by lying in wait for them with savage intent, they became the cause of their brokenness and sweat. God, the Lord of all, therefore weaves for them a lasting consolation, and reveals ahead of time the destruction of their persecutors, which was soon to come, saying: “Yet a little while, yet a little while.” For, He says, the time will not be long before they themselves shall fall backward, and be broken, and be brought into danger, and be caught, and rush headlong into destruction. We say that this happened to the Jewish people both spiritually and corporally, that is, sensibly. For they have been imperiled and have perished in two ways: partly by being consumed by war and sieges, and partly because they turned into a sweet prey for Satan, and by their own impiety drew down destruction upon their own heads.

VERSES 14, 15. Hear the word of the Lord, you afflicted men, and the princes of this people in Jerusalem, for you have said: "We have made a covenant with hell, and with death we have made agreements. If a rushing whirlwind shall pass through, it shall not come to us; for we have placed our hope in a lie, and by a lie we shall be protected." ^C For, He says, because the things that will come upon you are unbearable, and because a bitter and inescapable punishment will seize those who have surrendered themselves to every impiety, therefore hear the word of the Lord. For it was possible for them to turn away from evil if they had applied their minds to the apostolic preaching, and truly yielded to the things which Christ has spoken. Hear, therefore, the word of the Lord, you afflicted men, and the princes of this people in Jerusalem. He calls "afflicted" those from Israel, as being burdened by the law which condemns. For the law works wrath; and anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. Therefore, the most wise Paul also, in the epistle sent to those who, after the faith—I mean that in Christ—wished to return to the shadows of the law, writes and says: “Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians, our heart has been enlarged; you are not restricted in us, but you are restricted in your own affections. Now in return the same [payment]—I speak as to children—you also be enlarged. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.” ^D Those, therefore, who are still lying under the commandment of Moses, and are squeezed in a way, and have the burden of the law in their mind and heart, might be the afflicted ones. He has thus addressed both the princes and the people. Then, meanwhile, he interposes a certain speech of the Jews, which was devised by them out of their contumacy and, as it were, out of desperation. And it is necessary for me to say what this is: for God, the God of all, being longsuffering and patient with the wicked, does not immediately inflict punishment upon those who offend, but defers his wrath, striking them with terror, and by declaring future evils sometimes calls them to repentance. Hence, often

^A through the holy prophets we shall find him saying: "Behold, he comes," and, "a little, a little," and, "how much, how much." But the bold and proud, although they ought to have corrected their errors through [his] subsequent [actions], turned the gentleness of the Lord into an occasion for laughter. For as soon as they heard the prophet saying, "A little, a little, how much, how much," they immediately said among themselves: "A long time lies between the words of the prophet and the fulfillment of what is predicted. We shall die, and the divine wrath will leap upon those after us." And indeed, ^B God said to the prophet Ezekiel: "Son of man, the sons of your people say: The vision which he sees is for many days, and he prophesies for long times. Therefore say: Thus says the Lord Adonai: None of my words which I shall speak will be delayed any longer. For I will speak a word and I will perform it, says the Lord Adonai." He reproaches the Israelites, then, as those accustomed to despise, and they as much as say: "We have made a covenant with Hades, and agreements with death." What are these? "If a rushing storm passes by, it will not invade us." For he says that, even if they do not speak the words, yet by their very actions they almost cried out: "We have made covenants with Hades; for they will take us. And if a storm should happen to come, or danger against us, it will not come upon us. For we have placed our hope in a lie, and we shall be covered by a lie." For those who imagined for themselves what they pleased and said, "We shall die before the storm rushes in," that is, before the calamities, how did they not place their hope in a lie? For it was not in their power to escape, and by death to anticipate the onslaught of those things threatened; rather, it lay in the authority of ^C divine and ineffable power and majesty.

VERS. 16. Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I cast into the foundations of Zion a stone, costly, elect, corner, precious, into its foundations; and he who believes in it shall not be put to shame. And I will place judgment for hope, and my mercy in scales.

These things must be connected to what is above, which are inserted in the middle: "Therefore, he says, hear the word of the Lord, you afflicted men, and rulers of this people in Jerusalem." And what is it that he has commanded them to hear? "Behold, I cast into the foundations of Zion a stone, costly, elect, corner, precious, into its foundations; and he who believes in it shall not be put to shame." He calls our Lord Jesus Christ—excellent in the glory and preeminence of his divinity—a stone that is elect, costly, and precious. ^D He himself is the base, and the hope, and the fulcrum, and the immovable foundation of the Zion understood in the intellect, that is, the Church; and he explains this by saying that he was cast into the foundations by the Father. He says that he is "corner" because, through one faith, he unites the two peoples, the Israelite...

I mean, and the Gentile; for always in the corners of buildings two walls happen to meet, and being joined together, they are bound into unity. ^A "But he who believes," he says, "in him shall not be put to shame." And observe how he in a way relaxes those who are oppressed, and opens up the freedom of the evangelical way of life to those who are afflicted. For to those who are afflicted, he says: "Behold, I place the elect stone into the foundations of Sion." And what is the benefit from this? "He who believes in him shall not be put to shame." By this, he urges them to remove the yoke from the burden of the Law, and to depart from the foolish and useless shadow, and instead to choose the grace that comes through faith, and to seize the justification in Christ, which carries no toil at all. ^B "And I will place," he says, "judgment for hope, and my mercy for balances." For indeed, as the Savior himself says: "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father." Understanding this, the blessed Paul writes in an Epistle and says: "We must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what he has done through the body, whether good or evil." We hope, therefore, that the judgment will follow, and that we shall be shown mercy in a way that is fitting for each one, and obviously in proportion to what has been achieved. For this, I think, signifies that mercy is granted by Him who judges us "for balances," that is, according to the reason of equity and kindness, as it were corresponding to good works.

And those who trust in vain are liars, in that the storm will not pass you by, nor will it take from you the covenant of death, and your hope that is towards Hades will not remain? If a rushing storm comes upon you, you will be a trampling place for it. When it passes, it will take you. Morning, morning it will pass, by day, and in the night there will be an evil hope.

I said that when the holy prophets were proclaiming to those of the blood of Israel the things that were to come, and were pointing out to them the divine wrath as if it were almost present, they, puffed up with an extraordinary madness, reasoned and said that even if these things should happen, by chance, they would at least be delayed in time, and the end of the things foretold would not be immediately at hand, but the time of our life will be consumed, and the terrible things will be after us. By saying and thinking these things, they seemed to be making covenants with death, and to have a hope, as it were, in Hades. ^D Therefore he says to them: "Those who trust in vain are liars, in that the storm will not pass you by." "Fear lest it take from you the covenant of death, and the hope that is towards Hades will not remain." For the Creator of all things knows, he knows hearts and kidneys, and the power of the movements that enter the mind. When, therefore, they have such a hope, he says: "Does he who knows what is in you not perhaps do away with this covenant of yours with death?" And in what way will he do away with it? For if the things of wrath come, that is, the storm, then...

you yourselves shall be made into a trampling ground. And it shall take you early in the morning, that is, not far off, but as if at dawn and on the morrow. There shall be no rest at all from evils, but by day and by night you shall be consumed in the expectation of terrible things. For if God wills to afflict, who shall avert the onset of the calamity? Or who shall struggle against divine wrath? ^B

VERS. 20, 21. "Discite audire, qui estis in tribulatione: Non possumus pugnare. Ipsi autem debilitamur, ut vos congregemini." As the mountain of the impious shall arise, and it shall be in the valley of Gabaon. He shall perform his works with fury, a work of bitterness; but his fury shall be used for others, and his bitterness shall be for others. ^C

The all-good God of the universe wills that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Therefore, admonishing those who were weak and calling back to the straight and undeviating path those who had neglected the salvation of their own souls, He employs every manner and word. For sometimes He strikes terror into them for their improvement with the threats of punishments and the fears born of anger, and at other times He lures them toward what is profitable with the promises of good things. Having therefore threatened and foretold that they would be entirely and utterly ensnared by the storm—that is, by the calamity which would soon be upon them—and that they would be in evil hope at every moment, He offers a word of consolation and does not allow them to despair. Just as one of the most wise and skillful physicians, who treats the diseased members of the body at times with harsh medicine and very strong remedies, checking the progress of the diseases toward the worse, and at other times with moderate and as it were most mild remedies, by charming them as it were, softens them well. Having threatened, therefore, He admonishes, and urges them to apply their mind to the evangelical preaching, saying: "Learn to listen, you who are constrained." Then He says: "We cannot fight." He makes mention also of the things that once happened in the valley of Gabaon. But the exposition of the words, as well as the very thread and context of the composition, render it quite obscure. I think, however, that these things should be referred to history. For thus it will scarcely be clear to the studious what is signified. When Jesus, the son of Nave, was acting as general and leader of the Israelites, and was making an intolerably heavy assault upon the regions of the Gentiles, and very many had been destroyed, the Gabaonites, fearing lest they should suffer similar things, since they were from the cities of the aliens, ran to him, and by lying deceived him at first, and were received. But after they were known, and who they were and whence they came, they became water-carriers and wood-cutters for the assembly. When the kings of the nations (for there were five of them) had learned this, they waged war against Gabaon, charging them with the crime of having fled to the Israelites. But when the Gabaonites were in critical straits, and considered that they were not equal to resisting, they asked to be set free by the hand of Jesus. He, immediately bringing help to his subjects, resisted the leaders of the aliens. Then the Holy Scriptures will teach what was done at that time by the hand of God. For they have it thus: "And when Josue had attacked," etc. ^D

come upon them suddenly, having traveled all night from Galgala, the Lord threw them into confusion before the children of Israel, and He struck them with a great slaughter in Gabaon, and they pursued them along the way of the ascent of Oronim [LXX, Ectheron], and they cut them down as far as Azeca and as far as Madaica. And when they were fleeing from before the children of Israel on the descent of Oronim, the Lord cast upon them hailstones from heaven as far as Azeca; and there were more who died because of the hailstones than those whom the children of Israel killed with the sword in the war." ^B He takes, therefore, from what happened to the ancients, an image and figure of the help that will come to the Israelites from God, who is able to save, if indeed they are willing to obey the words of our Savior. "For you," He says, "who are hemmed in"—that is, those who have passed through much pain, who are in a way crushed by losses and the terrors of things to come—"learn to listen; call also for Jesus to assist you; say just as the Gabaonites surely did: 'We are unable to fight, and we are weak in gathering ourselves to resist the incoming enemies.'" And what, they ask, will this be? "You shall know," He says, "that even if an onslaught of impious men should be borne against you like a mountain, those things which happened in the valley of Gabaon will befall them. ^C For against those who war against you with fury, He shall perform His works, and works of bitterness—that is, of wrath. And who, then, is this? No other, clearly, than God, the avenger. But His fury shall be used in a manner foreign to Him, and His bitterness shall be foreign. For wrath," he says, "strange and unaccustomed, wars against those who persecute you. And the heaven from on high and from above will fight against them, pouring down like a certain hail the things of unmixed wrath." A similar thing He says also through the voice of the Psalmist: "If my people, Israel, had listened to me, if they had walked in my ways, I would have reduced their enemies to nothing, and I would have laid my hand upon those who oppress them." (Ps. LXXX, 14)

^D VER. 22. "And do not you rejoice, neither let your bonds be strengthened, because I have heard things concluded and cut short from the Lord Sabaoth, which He will do upon all the earth."

The person of the blessed prophet is introduced again, attacking the teachers of the Jews and saying: It is by no means fitting that they should rejoice—that is, not to be insolent with their most audacious attempts against Christ—but rather to be sorrowful and to shed tears over their own impieties; and indeed not to tighten the bonds of the law upon the people under their hand, but rather to allow those who believe in Christ to be exempt from the ancient precept, and, abandoning the things that were in shadows and types, to admit the worship in spirit and in truth. "For God is a Spirit, and it is in spirit and truth that he must be worshiped." And because the law was like a certain bond, perfecting no one—for it finished nothing—but as though [it left] the infirm and those [bound] by manifest transgressions

^A in a state of being constrained as if for punishment, no one can doubt this. Hence, I think, the blessed prophet David ^B rightly urges the Israelites to hasten to the grace [offered] through faith, saying: "Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their yoke from us." For the teachers of the Jews did indeed load their subjects impiously, and they placed upon them a heavy yoke, clearly that of the legal commandments, and they bound them as if in certain unbreakable chains. Therefore the prophet says to them: "Let not their bonds be strengthened, for I have heard of finished and concise things from the Lord of Sabaoth, which he will do upon all the earth." And what are these finished and concise things? The evangelical preaching, the grace which is through faith, the justification through Christ, the sanctification through the Spirit. For the law was neither concise nor finished, since, as I said, it perfected nothing. Its theorems and discussions were, as it were, wandering mazes and long circuits of the letter. Yet this saving preaching has a most perfect and concise path, which leads, in fact, through faith to righteousness and sanctification. Now, the law was given to the Israelites alone, with Moses as minister. But grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, and no longer to the Israelites alone, but to all the inhabitants of the earth. For that divine Moses addressed the Israelites, saying in this manner: "Hear, O Israel." But our Lord Jesus Christ, through the lyre of the Psalmist: "Hear ^C these things, all ye nations; give ear, all ye that inhabit the earth."

VERS. 23. Give ear, and hear my voice; attend, and hear my words.

Again, by these words the person of the Savior himself is introduced, well-nigh enchanting the Israelites and persuading them, indeed most eloquently, to admit the message of evangelical preaching and not to prefer its voices to the Mosaic precept. But that one ought not to apply one’s mind to divine and evangelical discourses negligently and listlessly, he shows by saying: "Attend, and hear my words." For attention is needed, and indeed obedience, for those who are strong in prudence and counsel, so that they may strive to fill the breadth of their minds with the instruction and training which is above the law—namely, the Christian [instruction]. But that it is dangerous and harmful to follow the legal worship once that [Christian] way has been exhibited, Paul will confirm, saying to those who, from immense folly, after faith in Him and the cleansing through the holy laver, have returned to Mosaic practices—that is, the legal ones: "You are abolished from Christ, whoever of you are justified by the law; you have fallen from grace. For we through faith wait for the hope of righteousness." It is likely that something else is also hinted at by the fact that Christ says: "Attend, and hear my words." For if you wish, he says, to ponder the shadows of the law in your mind with subtlety, and to value the types with worthy attention, you will entirely...

attend to my words. For I am recorded in types, and the power of my pronouncements has introduced nothing foreign, if the law is understood ^A spiritually. "For if you believed," he says, "Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me."

VERS. 24, 25. *Does the plower plow all day to prepare the seed, before he works the earth? Does he not, when he has leveled its surface, then sow small poppy and cumin? And again, he sows wheat, and barley, and spelt in your borders.*

The meaning of the proposed words is indeed most profound and highly obscure, but I will speak as I am able, and to the extent that it is permitted. ^B The wretched Jews rejected the word of the Savior, and their justification was their desire to cling stubbornly to the commandment given through Moses. For they thought that they were perhaps even practicing piety by occupying themselves with the types, while spitting upon, as it were, the beauty of the truth. Therefore, they also persecuted Jesus, as one who was diverting the power of the legal commandment elsewhere, and leading them to another worship—I mean the evangelical [worship]. He takes, therefore, the example as if from the agriculture that was familiar to them, and says: *Does the plower plow all day?* And he wishes to signify something like this: The hearts of those who worship idols are hard and unyielding, ^C and like some wild, uncultivated land. They need, therefore, as if by a plow, the word that breaks them open—namely, the word of instruction—so that they might receive the seed from above and from heaven; and so, finally, they might bear fruit for God, in desire and zeal for every good thing. Such was the case for those from Israel. For they were in Egypt, worshiping the gods who were there, but they were called through the all-wise Moses; and a law was also given to them, as a plow to cut through their calloused hearts and their uncultivated mind. ^D But it was necessary not only for them to be called to the beginnings of agriculture—understood under the concept [of instruction]—but also, as our Savior Christ had now dawned upon all, to bear fruit for God in the power of spiritual worship. Therefore, since, as I said, they rejected the word through Christ, keeping before them those of Moses, for this very reason he very reasonably removes them from such a frame of mind, saying: *Does the plower plow all day?* Or does he not plow the untilled, wild, and thorn-bearing land, breaking it up, he says, so that it might be ready for the reception of seeds—does he not plow it forever? And the one who wishes to work the land, he says, does he not prepare the seed before he takes this into his mind? When he has leveled its surface, does he not then sow small poppy and cumin? And again, he sows wheat, and barley, and spelt in your borders. It was necessary, he says, it was necessary for the hearts of those who had been trained by the instruction to be smoothed beforehand, and to be pre-tilled with the typical commandments, and for the surface of the land, as it were, to be prepared, so that subsequently, to produce fruits...

it might be found most ready. But the husbandman, he says, even if he smooths the surface of the land, does not immediately, nor from the start, perform the sowing of the more solid seeds, but rather [sows] whatever seeds are for the time being small and weak—that is to say, ^A *melanthion* (nigella) and cumin; and when the land has already been exercised for fruit-bearing, then, he says, he sows both wheat and barley and spelt. For this is the method of skillful husbandry within your borders. The Law, therefore, has become to all almost a preliminary smoother; and like some most skillful farmer, sowing among the pupils as it were a kind of *melanthion* and cumin—things both small and, as it were, in shadow, and whatever seeds, when by themselves and alone, are not at all fit for eating, but always seek to be joined and attached to others in order to appear useful. For if they are joined to wheat and barley—that is, to loaves made from wheat and barley—then they seem in a certain way to be most useful. Such indeed is the power of the worship according to the Law. For if it does not have the capacity to be brought—through spiritual interpretation—to the more solid food, that is to say, to the evangelical [food], it would, being alone and by itself, have nothing that provides benefit. ^B

VERS. 26-29. *And you shall be instructed by the judgment of God, and you shall rejoice. For black poppy is not cleansed with hardness, nor does a wagon wheel revolve around cumin; but the melanthion is shaken out with a rod, and the cumin shall be eaten with bread. For I will not be angry with you forever, nor shall the voice of My bitterness trample you down. And these marvels have proceeded from the Lord Sabaoth.*

When the Law, he says, was ineffective for the cleansing of sins, the shadow was removed, and that which was in types appeared useless, and a life-giving and truly most useful judgment was introduced. And what, then, is this? Since it was not possible for man to be justified by the Law, the only-begotten Word of God appeared to us, setting forth a completed and concise matter, that is to say, justification through faith. You, therefore, he says, O Israel, having subjected your neck with an obedient nape to Christ, the Savior of all, shall be instructed by the judgment ^C that comes from Him, learning, that is to say, from Him the way of salvation. For thus you shall be in rejoicing. But since he has once made mention of the black poppy and the cumin, he derives something useful from them and says: *Black poppy is not cleansed with hardness*, and the things that follow thereafter. For Israel was guilty of transgressions and was convicted of being sluggish toward the very observation of the Law. Therefore, the God of all said: *"This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me."* "In vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." Could He not, then, most justly have exacted penalties for such sluggishness regarding the Law? Yes, he says. But the intention of the Lawgiver is philanthropic. For just as, he says, [when the] black poppy...

is not threshed roughly, nor does the wagon wheel roll over the cummin—clearly, in the process of threshing and thinning it out, as is done, to be sure, with wheat—but rather it is cleaned or shaken out with a rod; so will the Lawgiver act toward those who have sinned against the Law, not demanding harsh penalties, but rather cleansing them with a rod and with measured movements. And by adding that the cummin shall be eaten with bread, he has shown that the external form of legal worship, by itself and in isolation, is of little value for utility. ^B It will be useful and necessary, however, if it be joined to solid food, that is, to the evangelical proclamations. But since I have interpreted the enigma concerning the cummin and the black poppy, and what it would mean to say that the black poppy is shaken out with a rod, he adds and says: *For I will not be angry with you forever, nor shall the voice of my bitterness trample you.* I will not, he says, be prone to anger, nor shall I adjudge you to the ultimate penalty, nor shall I bring forth a bitter judgment against you, such that it results in trampling, which commonly happens when things happen through wrath. That he has arrived at the peak of all patience, God of all again appears to show further, saying: *And these things came forth from the Lord of Sabaoth.* For it is truly a portent, and a wonder not unworthy of admiration, that Israel, being in such transgressions, should obtain mercy, and gain the remission of innumerable crimes through the compassion of God. ^C *Take counsel, lift up a vain comfort.* By promising to them the forgiveness of what they have committed in their drunken rage, and by having explicitly stated that he would not be overly bitter toward them, he bids them to lay hold of good counsel. But he rebukes them, because they, having considered a vain comfort to be something great and high, were running outside the bounds of what is reasonable. What is this comfort that was considered great by them, yet possesses nothing of utility? It is surely this. For they said: *We have made a covenant with Hades and agreements with death; if a torrential storm comes, it shall not come to us; we have placed our hope in a lie, and by a lie we shall be covered.* But those who think these things, and have a vain hope, and supposed that they would be dead before the heavy calamities, heard clearly: *If the torrential storm comes, you shall be for it a trampling; whenever it passes, it shall take you.* ^D *Woe, city of Ariel, which David besieged. Gather fruits, year upon year. For you shall eat with Moab; for I will straiten Ariel, and its strength and wealth shall be mine. And I will circle about you, as David did, and I will place a rampart about you, and I will set up towers about you, and your words shall be humbled to the ground, and your words shall sink into the ground. And your voice shall be as them that speak out of the earth, and your voice shall be weakened toward the pavement.* He takes something that happened historically in the time of the reign of the blessed David, and he makes this almost as if for the Jewish Synagogue.

^A For the things that occurred in the shadows of the ancients are types of the true realities. Therefore, what is now Jerusalem was once called Jebus. The blessed David besieged this, and we shall learn the reason from the Holy Scriptures themselves. It is related thus in the second book of Kings: "And David and all his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusite inhabiting the land, and it was said to David: David shall not enter here, because the blind and the lame resisted, saying: He shall not enter here. But David captured the fortified Sion. This is the city of David. And David said in that day: Let everyone striking a Jebusite touch with a dagger the blind and the lame who fight against the soul of David." ^B Therefore, to the blessed David, those of Jerusalem, that is, the Jebusites, blind and lame as they were, resisted, and having done this, they miserably perished. For he captured it. But at the time of the coming of the Savior Christ, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the lame and the blind, resisted him. For they were not able to walk with a straight foot, nor did they comprehend the divine light with their mind, and they did not receive the faith—the scribes and Pharisees most especially. For he had said of those who were so affected, by the voice of David: "The alien sons lied to me; the alien sons grew old and grew lame from their paths." ^C And Paul also writes to them, saying: "Wherefore lift up the drooping hands and the paralyzed knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the lame member may not be turned out of the way, but rather be healed." That they were also blind, the Savior himself will confirm, saying: "For judgment I came into this world, that those not seeing might see, and those seeing might become blind." For the Gentiles regained their sight, even though they had never seen before. But the crowds of the Jews have been blinded, even though they saw the mystery of Christ, so far as it pertains to the legal instruction. Therefore he cries out against Jerusalem, and says: "Woe to the city Ariel, which David fought against." And he calls it Ariel, using a name common to many. ^D For Ariel is interpreted "Lion of God." And since Jerusalem used to make invincible expeditions against all other regions and nations, prevailing by the help of God, and like a lion seizing and tearing those who resisted, it earned such a surname. "Woe, therefore," he says, "O miserable city, which once was, as it were, a lioness gnashing at the nations, but having fallen since then into such bitter and incurable calamities." For David once fought against it, and he who was born of his seed after him—that is, Christ. Then he says to them: "Gather the produce from year to year. For you shall eat with Moab." For throughout two whole years, our Lord Jesus Christ, traversing the whole of Judea, employed all-wise teachings and imparted to them his divine and evangelical preaching. Since, therefore, the opportunity of time is present, and he offers the occasion to gather spiritual foods, and to heap them up in mind and heart as if in a granary, do not be sluggish in this, but rather, with all hesitation cast aside, gather them eagerly. For you shall eat with

^A Moab; the land of the Moabites was once most superstitious, and there was absolutely no one in it who endured to worship God who is truly God by nature. Therefore, since from one land of idolatry he receives at once the whole person of those who are wandering, he says, "For you shall eat with Moab." For the nations have been called in, and the food has become common both to those from the blood of Israel and to those themselves who were once wandering—the evangelical and saving proclamation. Then he adds, and says, "For I will distress Ariel," and you shall attribute this to the former. For he had said, "Woe, city of Ariel." Then, having inserted the matters regarding the council, he again holds to his purpose, and says: "I said that, 'Woe, city of Ariel'; for I will distress it, and its strength and wealth shall be mine," that is to say, "I will take all its wealth and all its strength." And you shall understand this both sensibly ^B and spiritually. For their earthly wealth has been emptied out, clearly by those who were besieging it snatching it away. The strength that was once great and famous has also been broken, for they were defeated by the hand of the Romans. Moreover, they have been stripped bare of the adornments of virtue, having fallen into a poverty of every good thing, and they have cast aside with the others the wealth of the wisdom in the Law. I say, furthermore, that "I will encircle you with a rampart, and I will place towers around you," indicates the siege against Jerusalem that took place after the cross of the Savior. Since the Pharisees were arrogant, and were uttering ^C savage and haughty voices against Christ—for they kept saying, "We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this fellow, we do not know from where He is"—therefore he says, "Your words shall be humbled to the ground." And it is not necessarily that the words themselves will suffer this in truth, but those who dared to speak them shall be cast down—they who were once accustomed to speak burdensome and overweening things, having been subjected to the evils of war. They shall have a small and very weak voice, and shall utter sound in this way, just as indeed those who speak from the earth do—that is, the necromancers, who, whenever they pretend to bring up a soul, mutter with difficulty something thin and squeaking, as if the soul itself were speaking lightly and from the earth.

"And the wealth of the ungodly shall be as dust from a wheel, and as chaff being carried away, and it shall be as a moment suddenly from the Lord of Sabaoth." ^D

He calls "ungodly" those who acted insolently toward Christ and delivered the Redeemer to the cross, and dared to deliver the Giver of salvation to death, even if He lived again as God in the flesh. He says that this wealth shall go away like dust, and that it shall fly off like dust from a wheel—and not in a long space of time, but in a short one, and as it were in a moment. And

^A that this matter will occur from the Lord of Sabaoth, he has necessarily signified, so that no vain hope may mock those who look forward, thinking that they will also escape. For there will be a visitation with thunder and commotion, and with a great voice, a storm rushing on, and a flame of fire consuming. What it might mean to say, "From the Lord of Sabaoth," he explains by saying that there will be a certain visitation upon them. For God and Father will in no wise disregard the crime of impiety against the Son. But he will stir up, he says, as if some thunder, and a commotion, and a tempest, and a flame of fire consuming, the attack of the war.

Vers. 7, 8. *And the wealth of all the nations, as many as have warred against Jerusalem, and all who have gathered against her and were afflicting her, shall be as one dreaming in sleep: and they shall be as those who in sleep are hungry and eating, and when they rise, their dream is in vain. And as one who is thirsty dreams that he is drinking, and when he is risen, he is still thirsty, and his soul has hoped in vain, so shall be the wealth of all the nations, as many as have warred against Mount Sion.*

In saying that the wealth of the ungodly—that is, of those who have behaved wantonly against Christ—shall be as ash and as dust from the wheel, he confirms that not even the devastators themselves will enjoy a safe and secure possession. For those who have thus become rich, he says, will be just as if some people in a nightly vision believed themselves to have become rich, but have gained absolutely nothing. For when they have become wide awake, they will recognize the deception of their dreams, and that which they thought to be true, they will find to be altogether a shadow and a mere opinion. And something of this sort happens also to those who are gripped by hunger or thirst; for the nature of the body necessarily desires what belongs to it, and although sleep sometimes delights the mind, nevertheless the nature is inflamed by the desire of the things it wishes to have. Hence, I suppose, certain thin imaginations and phantasies of the thing, as if they were vapors, beset the mind and hover about it, but the opinion will be vain and altogether useless when sleep has thereafter departed from the eyes. Such, he says, is the wealth of all the nations, as many as wage war against Mount Sion. But when or how these things have happened, I omit to say. ^D

Vers. 9, 10. *Be dissolved, and be astonished, and be drunken, not with strong drink, nor with wine, because the Lord has made you drink with a spirit of compunction, and He will close their eyes, and the eyes of their prophets, and of their princes who see the graven things.*

He proceeds further to argue anew with those who despise the divine oracles and who consider the divine and heavenly—that is, the evangelical—preaching as nothing. Although they could have gained the grace through Christ, and that most easily, if they had submitted the neck of their mind as a follower: this which—

they did not do, the wretches, but being puffed up with pride and having high thoughts of themselves, they brazenly said: "We are disciples of Moses; we know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he is from." Yet they heard Christ clearly saying: "I am the light of the world." And again: "While you have the light, walk in the light, so that darkness may not overtake you." Since, however, even though they heard such solemn words, they became in no way better or wiser than themselves, but were thereafter found to be hard and unyielding: then indeed, and most deservedly, they were overtaken by the darkness, and were in a way undone and deranged in their good sense, and like those who are intoxicated with wine, they were easily cast down into every kind of turpitude. ^B Such is the meaning of what he says to them: "Fail and be astonished, and be drunk, not with strong drink, nor with wine." For it knows, it knows how to intoxicate the mind—not entirely and altogether the sensible wine, or the intoxicating mixture, that is, the strong drink. Rather, calamities, and a certain kind of blindness resulting from the contemplation of divine wrath, bring this about more quickly and effectively. For this, I think, he teaches by saying: "And he will close their eyes, and the eyes of their prophets and of their rulers who see the carved images." For those who, he says, were once instructed through the tutelage of the Law, and who beheld the beauty of the truth as if in still-obscure shadows, and understood the words of the holy prophets in part, will be deprived even of this. For he will close the eyes of their minds, even if they formerly saw the carved images. ^C But this, he says, will happen to the prince and the prophet, that is, to the governor and the priest. For they called those "prophets" who investigated with the greatest intensity the prophecies of the holy prophets. There were among the Jews certain teachers and masters who had the reputation of being learned in the law, just as surely there was Gamaliel, about whom there was much discourse among them.

VERSE 11, 12. And all these words shall be unto you as the words of this sealed book, which if they give to a man who knows letters, saying: Read this, and he will say: I cannot read, for it is sealed. And this book shall be given into the hands of a man who does not know letters, and he will say to him: Read this, and he will say: I do not know letters.

^D Our Lord Jesus Christ once said to the Jews: "Search the Scriptures, because in them you think you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of me, and you are not willing to come to me that you may have life." Therefore, the Israelites labored in vain, seeking upward and downward, always having the commandments of Moses in their mouths, and pretending indeed that they had stored up in their mind and heart an understanding of the Law that was not common, yet not seeking Christ, although the mystery of the Law speaks of him. For they heard again: "If you believed…"

^A Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote about me." Since, therefore, the word of the Law was not deeply rooted in them—or rather, they had killed the One announced beforehand through it, and having disregarded the honor due to Moses—the God-inspired Scripture was, in a certain way, sealed up by God, just like a single book. For Scripture is one, the whole of it, and it was uttered by one Holy Spirit. But in what way was it sealed? For neither those who are able to read and know their letters are able to understand anything of what is in it, nor, indeed, if someone does not know letters, will he know anything of the things hidden within it; but the Law will be sealed in an equal way for all, as being completely ungraspable, both for those who know the wording and for those who [lack] the power to grasp the meanings. And this, then, was what was celebrated in the song to God by the voice of David: "Let their eyes be darkened so that they may not see, and make their backs bend always." ^B

VER. 13. And the Lord said: "This people draws near to me with their mouth, and with their lips they honor me, but their heart is far from me; and in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men."

For the Jews, professing to discern the depth of the commandments of the Law, and having on their tongue and lips the commandment once written for the fathers, measured the power of worship towards God by this alone. They did nothing at all of what had been delivered by the oracle; but, having held the will of the Lawgiver in contempt, they turned towards teachings and the commandments of men. For by inventing certain empty traditions for themselves, they thought themselves to be pious and good, but by their very actions they were exposed as having foolishly retreated from the love of God. Therefore, regarding the Law that was kept only as far as the tongue, they thought themselves to be close to God. But because they did not wish to fulfill it, they were exposed as having withdrawn and become strangers to Him. ^C Furthermore, that they adhered more to the commandments of men could be made clear from this: for the Scribes and Pharisees once approached the Savior, saying: "Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread." And to these things the Lord said: "Why do you also transgress the commandment of God? For God said: 'Honor your father and your mother,' and 'Whoever speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death.' But you say: 'Whoever says to his father or mother, "Whatever gift is from me will benefit you," he shall not honor his father or his mother'; and you have invalidated the commandment of God because of your tradition." And he added to these the saying that is before you; for he said: "Hypocrites, Isaiah prophesied well about you, saying: 'This people honors me with their lips.'" ^D Therefore, since they had despised the pedagogue and had deemed the Law from God worthy of no account, and had turned towards the doctrines and commandments of men, hence the book of the divinely inspired Scripture was most justly sealed up.

[...to the teachings and commandments of men, it was sealed, and most fittingly so, the book of the divinely-inspired Scripture. For it was not consistent that those who hold it in contempt should be enriched with the understanding that comes through divinely-inspired Scripture.

^A VERSE 14. *Propter hoc ecce rursus transferam populum istum, et transferam illos; et perdam sapientiam sapientum, et intelligentiam intelligentium abscondam.* For the Jewish people were, as it were, transported in many ways, I think. For they were called the lot of God, and his portion and measuring line; yet they were transported in a way. For they were no longer called his lot; but they became a portion for foxes, and were given as food to Satan and to the unclean spirits, and they were transported also from thinking rightly to a reprobate mind, from glory to dishonor, from strength to weakness, from being wise to the extreme of foolishness. ^B "For I will destroy," he says, "the wisdom of the wise, and I will hide the understanding of the prudent." For the Scribes and Pharisees seemed to be wise and very sagacious, having gained a reputation for knowledge of the Law, but it has been hidden by God, and the understanding of the wise, that is to say, the Law or the divinely-inspired Scripture, has been almost entirely withdrawn.

VERSE 15. *Væ his qui profundum consilium capiunt, et non per Dominum; qui in abscondito consilium capiunt, et quorum opera erunt in tenebris, et dicent: Quis nos vidit? aut quis nos cognoscet, aut quæ nos facimus?*

When God, the Lord of all, determines a punishment and penalty for certain ones, he immediately brings forward the causes of the matter, and makes the crimes of those who undergo these things manifest, so that he may also appear just in punishing all things with justice. ^C He was saying, therefore, that the Jewish masses would be altogether without understanding when the Law was sealed, and with all their perception removed, remaining blind—mentally, that is to say. What, then, are their crimes, and for what reasons it befell them to slip into this state, he explains presently. For very many were the counsels they formed against Christ, and at variance with God. This, I think, is what is meant by "not per Dominum." Furthermore, they thought they were deliberating in secret among themselves, and undertaking grievous matters, even to the point of saying: "Who has seen us? or who will know what we do?" But they were ignorant that counsel and the thought of man, ^D and the power of deeds, cannot escape the divine and incorruptible mind, even if one does these things, perhaps, in darkness and secretly. For they had hired the traitor Judas, almost saying: "Let us bind this just man, for he is useless to us." And indeed they delivered him to the cross, and as much as it lay in them, they killed the Prince of life; and when he was raised again from the dead, they fiercely insulted him, and did these things secretly out of impiety and a malevolent spirit. For when they knew he had been raised, they gave a fair amount of silver to the soldiers guarding the sepulcher, so that they would say his disciples came by night and stole him away. Woe, therefore, he says,

to those who are accustomed to forming such counsels, not through the Lord, but as if in Beelzebul. ^A

VERS. 16. *Nonne ut lutum figuli reputabimini? Nunquid dicet figmentum fictori, Non tu me finxisti? aut opus ei qui fecit: Non tu me fecisti?*

Having said, "I will transfer this people," by these words he shows clearly and thoroughly that he will amend this matter, and indeed easily, without labor, when he says that they must be transformed as the creator wills, just as surely as a work is fashioned by the hands of a potter. Of this kind is also what the prophet Jeremiah was taught, saying: "Arise, he says, and go down to the house of the potter, and there you will hear my words. And I went down to the house of the potter, and behold, he was doing work upon the stones, and the vessel which he was making with his hands fell; and again he made another vessel from it, as it pleased him to do. And the Lord said to me: Shall I not be able to do to you as this potter, O house of Israel? ^B Behold, as the clay of the potter, you are in my hands." For the Artificer and Maker of all things easily transforms what is made by Him to whatever He wishes.

VERS. 17. *Nonne adhuc modicum, et transferetur Libanus, quasi mons Chermel, et mons Chermel in silvam reputabitur?*

When he says that they will be like the clay of the potter and transformed into baser states because there are in them very many sins, he demonstrates clearly how the future event will come to pass, and what seemed to be spoken obscurely, he reveals in a certain way clearly and plainly. Lebanon, therefore, is a mountain in Phoenicia, and all those who dwelt in it and around it were most superstitious men. Similarly, Chermel—or Chermelus—was a very great mountain in the region ^C of the Jews, on which Elias the Thesbite is said to have dwelt. And so, by the mountains or the regions in which the mountains are, he wishes to signify those who dwell in them, and says: "It shall be transferred," that is to say, Lebanon shall be transmuted, and it shall be as Mount Chermel; but the mountain of Chermel shall be as Lebanon, that is, those who once served idols shall acknowledge the God who is worshiped in Judea, and shall be reckoned in the number and rank of the firstborn Israel. Those, however, who are of the seed of Israel will one day become similar to those who inhabit Lebanon and who wander. For Israel has been cast out from the union which is with God, on account of their impiety toward Christ. ^D The Gentiles, however, have been gathered in, and sanctified through the Spirit, have become partakers of the divine nature. Lebanon, therefore, he says, shall be transferred as Mount Chermel, and the mountain of Chermel shall be reckoned as a forest, that is, as a forest of wild trees, whose end is for burning. Or even in another way. For they were as the wood of

it were for them. That which, I ^A opine, the prophet Zechariah signifies, saying: "Open, O Lebanon, thy doors, and let the fire devour thy cedars. Howl, O fir tree, for the cedar is fallen; howl, O ye oaks of Bashan, for the forest that was planted is cut down." See, therefore, how he compares Judea also to Lebanon, inasmuch as it differs in no way from those who were once in it, clearly deceived by error. He calls the fir, and the cedar, and also the oak, those in it who were to fall. For being high and lifted up on high, they have been consumed as it were by the fire of divine wrath.

VERS. 18, 19. And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and those who are in darkness, and those who are in the mist. The eyes of the blind shall see, and the poor shall exult because of the Lord in gladness, and the hopeless of the Gentiles shall be filled with gladness.

He most clearly manifests the calling of the Gentiles by the things set before us. It is possible to see the nature of the things which happened as if in reverse. For he had said that the book of the Law, or rather ^B of the entire divinely-inspired Scripture, would be sealed, and the knowledge of the divine oracles would be hidden from the mind of the Jews; so that he who knows letters says, "I cannot read, for it is sealed," and he who does not know, says, "I know no letters." But that the Gentiles will be called to the knowledge of God and will receive into their mind and heart the light of the evangelical preaching, and will understand the very Law given through Moses, even though they were once deaf and unhearing, and were as it were spending their time in mist and darkness, as in ignorance and error, he makes plain and clear. He says that they will rejoice, not in any other matters of this life, but in the Lord, that is, in Christ. For being poor, and having no good thing in their mind, but laboring in a lack of all virtue, and having no hope—for they were atheists in the world, as it is written—they will be filled with gladness. For they will be both free from sin and full of ^C holiness, and superior to death, and filled with hopes from God, and partakers of eternal gladness.

VERS. 20, 21. The lawless one has failed, and the proud has perished, and all who work lawlessness for the sake of malice have been destroyed, and those who make men sin by a word; and all those who reprove in the gates they will set as a stumbling-block, and they have turned aside the just for unjust causes.

As the Israelites were taken from the midst and cast out from the fellowship and union with God, even if not entirely—for a remnant has been saved, according to the voice of the prophet—he says that the lawless and the proud have failed. Lawless indeed, as those who did not keep the law itself, but turned rather to the teachings and commandments of men; and proud, being exceedingly haughty and ^D terribly arrogant, as they treated Christ with contumely. For at one time they said, "Is not this the carpenter’s son, whose

father and mother we know? How then does he say that he has come down from heaven?" And at another time: "Abraham is dead, and the prophets are dead, and you say, 'If anyone hears my word, he shall never see death.' Who do you make yourself out to be?" And yet, one might also see the Scribes and Pharisees elsewhere speaking most impiously: "He has a demon and is mad; why do you listen to him?" Therefore, those who dealt wickedly were destroyed because of their ingrained malice and the magnitude of the perversity that was in them. These were the ones who caused men to sin in word; for, as I have said, by leading the people subject to their power away from reverence for the law, they caused them to sin, persuading them to observe their own private discourse—that is, their own commandments—and causing them to regard these as the law. And, what is even more impious than this, they acted as a stumbling block to those who set them straight ^B in the gates. For the holy prophets, acting as ambassadors delivering divine messages from above, would at times rebuke the inhabitants of Israel, and they did this openly and not secretly, but as it were in the gates. But those who had been chosen to provide instruction for the flocks committed to their hand and care, and who were obligated to train them in everything useful, acted as a stumbling block to those who were departing from the straight and blameless path, by labeling these useful corrections as, perhaps, deceptive and lying words. For their aim and purpose was always to pervert the power of justice in unjust matters. This, I imagine, is what is meant by "perverting the righteous to injustice," for instance, when the Law says: "Honor your father and your mother," and "He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death." They taught those born ^C of them to say to their parents, "Whatever benefit you might receive from me is a gift." If one says this, he will not honor his father or his mother. "It is permitted," they say, "not to honor father or mother." This is what Christ reproached them with, saying, "You have made void the commandment of God because of your tradition."

VERS. 22, 23. Therefore thus says the Lord, concerning the house of Jacob, which He separated from Abraham: Jacob shall not now be ashamed, nor shall Israel now change his countenance: but when their children see my works, they shall for my sake sanctify my name, and they shall sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.

The prophetic word is always vigilant, and it anticipates the malice of those who are intent on the ^D urge to find fault. For it said: "The wicked fails, the proud man is destroyed, the workers of iniquity have been destroyed because of their malice." But since, due to extreme ignorance, it was likely that some might think that God had spoken falsely, since Israel had not perished entirely but, as I have said, a remnant had been saved, for this reason it very opportunely makes mention of the hope reserved for Israel in the last times of the age. For they too shall be called through faith in Christ, and shall run after the nations. For, it says, when the fullness

of the nations has entered, then all Israel shall be saved. What ^A then does it say? "Therefore thus says the Lord, concerning the house of Jacob, whom He set apart from Abraham?" For Israel had been chosen from all the nations, and, as a kind of special portion for God, the race of Abraham and Jacob was reckoned. "But now," He says, "they shall not be ashamed, nor shall they now change their face"—that is to say, they will not be ashamed immediately when they have acted impiously against Christ, having come into a realization of their own sin; and they will not, as it were, turn back, so as no longer to be seen as such. This, I think, is what "changing the face" means. But as time goes on, when those born of them see my works—that is, when they behold the world beneath the heavens called, and those throughout the whole earth believing in me; when they see the power of the devil shattered, since that ancient and profane error has clearly been abolished, and at the same time the shrines of idols burned down—then they shall sanctify my name; that is, they shall consider me holy, and they themselves, also, shall sanctify as being in truth the Holy One of Jacob and the God of Israel. For thus they shall fear me. The way to salvation is always, in some manner, the fear of God. For it is written: "The fear of the Lord produces life."

"And those who err in spirit shall know understanding, and those who murmur shall learn to obey, and stammering tongues shall learn to speak peace." ^B For when they have sanctified the name of Christ, the Savior of us all, and have firmly believed that He Himself is the Holy One of Jacob and the God of Israel, they shall know understanding—even though they were at one time held fast by a spirit of error, and had the law signed and sealed; and those who were always murmuring shall learn to obey. For the crowds of the Jews were murmuring against Christ, sometimes saying: "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?" and at other times, in addition to these things, they did not refrain from persecuting Him, and they ascribed for Him the truth as a crime. For the Savior of all called Himself the Son of God the Father, and, showing the shadow of the law to be nothing, He contributed the beauty of spiritual worship. But they persecuted Him: "Not only," it says, "because He broke the Sabbath, but because He also called God His own father, making Himself equal to God." ^C Therefore, those who were murmuring shall learn to obey, it says, "and stammering tongues shall learn to speak peace." For the tongues of those who were accustomed to speak nothing right about Christ were stammering; but they shall learn, it says, to speak of His things, and rather to utter things that pertain to peace—not returning again to their former madness, but rather submitting the neck of their mind to Him. And if anyone says to Jesus, "Lord our God, take possession of us; apart from You we know no other, we call upon Your name," he speaks peace.

"Woe, apostate children, thus says the Lord," ^D

^A you have taken counsel, but not from me; and you have made covenants, but not by my spirit, to add sin to sin. They go down into Egypt, but they have not asked of me, to be helped by Pharaoh and to be protected by the Egyptians. For Pharaoh’s shelter will be to you for shame, and for those who trust in Egypt for reproach, because there are princes in Tanes, evil messengers; they shall labor in vain for a people that will not profit them for help, nor for utility, but for disgrace and reproach."

He exclaims again against the Israelites as those who have given themselves over to sins and become apostates and most wicked, taking on loathsome counsels, not from God. For it is not right for those who desire to have a common sentiment in any evil thing to take counsel from God. But every one who is pious and good and a lover of justice will take counsel from God and proceed toward the things that are to be done. For it is written: "The thoughts of the just are judgments" (Prov. xii, 5). He accuses, therefore, the foolish Israel, as one who has brought forward an opinion concerning Christ that disagrees with God. For they consulted while sitting in assembly, and said, ^B "What are we doing? For this man performs many signs? If we let him go this way, the Romans will come and take away both our city and our nation." And another of those who were in authority and dignity said: "You know nothing at all; it is expedient that one man should die, and not the whole nation perish" (John xi, 47 ff.). The Lord teaches this clearly in the evangelical parables, saying: "The landowner who planted a vineyard sent his own servants to receive the fruits, but the husbandmen killed them" (Matt. xxi, 33). And the crimes of their impiety did not end with these; but when they saw the Son sent by the Father after the servants, they said among themselves, he says, ^C "'This is the heir; come, let us kill him and take his inheritance for ourselves'" (Ibid., 38). They are, therefore, apostates, the guides of such bitter and unholy designs, adding sin to sins; for they killed, as I said, the holy prophets, and then, after them, the heir himself, that is, the Son. And that their opinion had long since looked toward apostasy and defection from God, he attempts to convince us fully, saying: "Who are setting out to go down into Egypt (but me they have not asked), to have help from Pharaoh and be protected by the Egyptians." The phrase "but me they have not asked" is inserted in the middle, but the sequence of thought is in this manner: "Woe," he says, "to those who go down into Egypt to seek help from Pharaoh and to find protection from the Egyptians." For when war and battle were proclaimed against them, and the king of the Assyrians moved weapons against the land of the Judeans, they ran ahead to the Egyptians and called for the aid from them, although they ought to have appeased God and to have blotted out and turned away the things by which they had offended Him by a return to better things. For, being sated with the goodness and favor of Him, they ^D

^A would not have submitted to the feet of those warring against them, as the experience of those who have already gone before will bear witness. For whom have they not conquered? Whom have they not overcome through God? But considering it to be nothing to be saved by Him, or rather, determining that His omnipotent right hand was unable to save anyone, they sought for help from men. But this matter, He says, shall turn to their shame and reproach. For "There are in Tani," He says, "evil messengers." For the Israelites went down into Egypt, and, as I just said, they thought that the help of those in Tani, that is, the kings, would suffice for them. But even from there came some people, reporting evil and intolerable things to the rulers of the region; for the Assyrian had made an expedition against the Egyptians, after the war waged against the Tyrians. In vain, therefore, He says, will the Israelites labor, running to a people who will be able to help them in no way. For it will have neither enough to aid them, nor indeed to be able to deliver them from the evils threatening them, but rather to their shame and reproach. For it always follows those who have turned their heart away from hope in God, that they fall totally and completely into every evil. And the blessed David speaks truly when he says: "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man." ^B But He rescues and delivers from every evil those who love Him and are zealous to adhere to Him.

THE VISION OF THE FOUR-FOOTED ANIMALS IN THE DESERT

That he had contemplated certain future events to occur in their own time against the region of the Jews, the prophet now declares to us. But I think it worthwhile for us to recall again the history for the sake of which this discourse was held by him, for thus the sense and force of these words will become clear to those who read. ^C When Jechoniah, the son of Eliakim, was reigning over the region of Judea, and Israel had since declined greatly into defection from God and was attached to the worship of idols—and was excessively provoking the God of all against itself—many were the discourses among them through the voice of Jeremiah, calling them to repentance and counseling them very wisely to wipe away and wash off the stain of error, and indeed to shake off the crimes of extreme impiety, having returned to what is better and having turned back to the truth. But they were hard and uncorrectable, and, rejecting the words of the holy prophets, they caused difficulties for them. ^D Therefore, God Almighty, having become sharpened against them, raised up Nebuchadnezzar, who captured Judea and, having burned the cities and villages in it, set Zedekiah as ruler over them. But when he too rebelled, the Assyrian, being offended, made war against Jerusalem again. And indeed, having taken it, and having burned the divine temple itself, he returned to his own land. Then, therefore, those who were left and spared, and those who were able to escape the sword of the Babylonians, went down with their whole family into Egypt, even though God had forbidden them to do this, and stated most clearly by the voice of Jeremiah: No-

^A-t descend into Egypt. But since they nonetheless remained disobedient, they perished in Egypt. For Nabuchodonosor took it also, and destroyed the Egyptians together with those from Israel. This, therefore, is the cause and the occasion of the vision, and this is, as it were, the whole situation. But we must, I think, discuss each point as far as possible.

VERS. 6, 7. *In affliction and distress, the lion and the lion’s whelp from thence, and asps and the offspring of flying asps, which carried their wealth upon asses and camels to a nation which shall not profit them for help, but for shame and reproach. The Egyptians shall succor you in vain and to no purpose. Announce to them: This consolation of yours is vain.*

The divine Jesus, that is to say, the son of Nave, gave the land of promise by lot to those who were of the blood of Israel. They say, however, that the tribe of Juda especially obtained by lot the regions looking toward the East and the South, in the area of Judea, with the desert lying adjacent ^B and looming over them, from where anyone who wished could cross over into Egypt. Therefore, in the time of affliction and distress, that is, when Nabuchodonosor was besieging, pressing upon, and afflicting the cities of Judea: *the lion and the lion’s whelp from thence.* Perhaps he calls those who obtained the primacy "lions," and the most powerful, and those who were not lacking in strength against others; and he calls those born of them "lion’s whelps": and again, "asps and the offspring of asps" are others, bitter and pestiferous, and nurtured in the extreme of wickedness. But by "flying," you will understand those who with a winged course hasten rapidly toward all wicked deeds. All are indeed, by common consent, wicked and most bitter who have departed from the love toward God, and say to the wood: *You are my father,* and to the stone: *You have begotten me,* and who render worship to the works of their own hands. These, therefore, carried away the wealth that was left to them upon asses and camels to a nation which will not profit them for help, but for shame and reproach. For the thing is utterly useless to them, and the consolation—that is, what they thought would be a comfort to them—has become vain. For, as I said, they perished together with the inhabitants of the land of the Egyptians, because Nabuchodonosor destroyed it also with might. It is, therefore, a most terrible thing to offend God, and even if He brings wrath upon some, every plan is vain, and nothing at all will preserve those against whom these things happen. *“For who shall turn back the high hand?”* as it is written.

VERS. 8-11. *Now therefore sit and write on this boxwood, and in a book: that these things shall be in the days of times, and even unto eternity. Because the people are disobedient, lying children, who would not hear the law of God; who say to the prophets: Do not announce to us, and to those who see visions: Do not speak to us*

^A of these things, but speak to us other errors, and turn us away from this path; take away from us this way, and remove from us the word of the Holy One of Israel.

He commands that these things be written and orders them to be sealed, as if they were to occur in their own time. For he says that they will occur in the days of times, and are worthy of eternal remembrance. And the word is true. For there will always be the testimonies of the prophets, even until the consummation of this present age. It is necessary, he says, to seal them, for they are a disobedient people. But this matter will be for their benefit. For if they should be disobedient to the holy prophets who will be at that time, it is very likely that they will be put to shame because these things were predicted even through you.

He calls them "lying" children, as I judge, again for this reason: because they did not preserve their genuine piety and religion toward God, but falsified the pledge which they had made at the times when Moses was defining laws for them on Mount Sinai, under God who rules over us all. For we shall find them clearly saying: "Everything that the Lord God has said, we will do, and we will listen." Therefore, when the law instructed and said: "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve. And you shall not make an idol for yourself," they held the commandment as nothing; for they served idols. For this reason, he quite naturally calls them lying children. David also sings somewhere and says: "The enemies of the Lord lied to Him [Ps. LXV, 3]," and indeed, as if in the person of Christ: "Strange children," he says, "lied to me [Ps. XVII, 46]." The cause of such a disease for them was that they did not deign to hold the law in any reverence, and they held the very words of the holy prophets in contempt. ^B And he teaches this, saying: They who did not wish to hear the law of God, saying to the prophets: "Do not announce to us," and to those who see visions: "Do not speak to us, but speak to us other things, and announce to us another error, and turn us away from this path, and take away from us the word of the Holy One of Israel." For bitter men, the Israelites, have often attacked many holy prophets, crying out these things and saying so. One might see this quite clearly when, as Jeremiah was exhorting them not to go down to Egypt, they met these things with lies, saying: "The Lord did not send you; but the son of Neriah sent you to us," and the rest.

^C *Verse 12-14.* "Because you have not believed these words, and have hoped in a lie; and because you murmured and trusted in this word; therefore this sin of yours shall be as a falling wall, suddenly, of an invincible city, whose ruin is immediately present; and its ruin shall be as the smashing of an earthen vessel from a potter’s workshop, broken so that there is not found among them a shard with which you might take up fire, or with which you might draw a little water."

He proceeds to teach that a grave outcome is altogether impending for them, because they chose to be disobedient to the monitions of the holy prophets.

^A to make a lie their hope, and to endeavor thoughtlessly to fortify that which has come into their mind. For since you have disparaged the words of the prophets, naming them a deception, and saying impiously, "Take away from us the word of the Lord," on this account, as of a captured city, this sin shall fall upon you, and that immediately—that is, not long hence. I speak of the city so crushed that it is as if an earthen vessel were shattered into small pieces, so that each of the fragments is utterly useless, and no one can carry fire in it, nor even spread a small collection of water. By these words he signifies that such is the penalty that will rush upon the disobedient, and such will be the calamity that will leap upon them, that it will bring them down to ^B extreme misery, and there will be found among them absolutely no one who has remained outside the lot of these evils.

VERS. 15. *Thus says the Lord, the holy One of Israel: When you return and groan, you shall then be saved, and you shall know where you were, because you had trusted in vain things.*

Having hung the ultimate possible penalty over them, and having alarmed them with the terrors of things to come, he fittingly shows at once the reason for the wrath that is upon them, and the way of salvation. For the Creator is kind and humane, and as He Himself says somewhere by the voice of Ezechiel: ^C *"He does not desire the death of the one who is dying, but that he should turn from his evil way and live."* Israel is therefore punished, inasmuch as he has turned away completely from the love of God, and has addicted himself to the cults of idols, yet He permits one who wishes to repent to be delivered from the evil. "For," he says, "when you [will] turn from a wicked and criminal way—from adoring, I say, the creature, and from offering veneration to wood and stone—then you shall be saved; and in addition to this, you will learn at last into what state of mind, or rather into what stupidity, you had fallen, having trusted in vain things." For if they cannot help themselves, how could they bring aid to others? For what is weaker than an idol? They are, to be sure, inanimate matter, and nothing else, these gods of the erring.

^D VERS. 16, 17. *Your strength has become vain, and you would not listen; but you said: We will flee on horses; therefore you shall flee; and on swift ones we will ride; therefore those who pursue you shall be swift. By the voice of one, a thousand shall flee, and by the voice of many, many shall flee, until you are left like the mast of a ship upon a mountain, and like a sign-bearer upon a hill.*

Even though, he says, you have found by experience that the hope in those who were held to be gods is vain, and see their strength to be empty, you have nevertheless remained disobedient. For hearing that you must not descend into Egypt, but must honor with faith Him who promised to save, you would not listen, but said: "We will flee on horses, and we will ride on swift ones." For you thought it sufficient for your salvation, in

^A Judea, to run away. But, He says, those who pursue you will be swift, that is, winged and rapid, and so terrible and fearsome to you, and the mind of the disobedient will lapse into such cowardice that if one of the enemy only shouts, a thousand will turn in flight; and if five should happen upon the phalanx of the Jews, many will flee. So remarkable will they endure the calamity that it will become conspicuous and absolutely unknown to none, appearing as clearly as if one were to set up a pole on the mountains or a standard on a hill. He says that the standard and the pole is the wood raised on the hills or heights, bearing certain signs by which those who have been chosen to lead the troops indicate either that they have conquered and the fortune of war has fallen out well for them, or perhaps that they should gather themselves to them, so that they might hear something of the holy things.

And again, God will wait to have mercy on you and for this reason will be exalted to show you mercy, because the Lord your God ^B is a judge. And where will you leave your glory?

Again, He has kept hope for those from Israel. For the remnant has been saved. For the Beloved, He says, will not depart into destruction root and branch, nor will God forget to have mercy, as the blessed David says; but His name will be glorious and high when He has shown you mercy. But you will say: "Is it not the property of a good one not to have inflicted the punishment at all?" But it is necessary to consider that He is both kind and a judge. It is the duty of one who judges rightly and incorruptly to mete out punishments in proportion to each person's offenses; and, again, it is of a good one to transform those who have been punished into something better by a gentle nod. "And you," He says, "where will you leave your glory?" Instead of "you will leave," He says, "it will be left." For Scripture, breathed into by God, sometimes does not trouble itself much about specific words. He therefore reproaches them because they esteemed as nothing their own glory—that of being and being called God’s, for they were His inheritance. For they have abandoned it, turning themselves to baser things, and serving the works of their own hands, and being disobedient to the holy prophets, and having neglected even the salvation from God itself, and having honored a false ^C and senseless hope in men. For they have descended, as I said, into Egypt.

Blessed are all who persevere in Him, because a holy people will dwell in Zion, and Jerusalem wept with weeping. "Have mercy on me." He will have mercy on you; when He saw, He heard the voice of your cry.

Having called the Savior God of all the "glory of Israel," He demonstrates that those who do not wish to depart from Him, but rather rely on Him through obedience and subjection in every single thing, He declares completely and utterly blessed. That at the time of the coming of our Savior, many from the blood of Abraham will repent, and being justified through faith, and from every sin ^D liberated, through the Spirit, the riches of sanctification...

^A, for He teaches, saying, that “A holy people shall dwell in Sion.” For Jerusalem, he says, wept with weeping, “Have mercy on me.” And since the God of all is inclined to philanthropy, and most ready to have compassion, knowing this, he says, “He shall have mercy on you,” and He shall be attentive to your cry; for as soon as He has looked upon one repenting, He immediately and readily grants the grace of forgiveness. So far as depended upon the will of the Lord of all, all would have been saved through faith in Christ. But since they did not accept the Redeemer, for this reason they are given over to destruction. For they chose this rather for themselves.

VERS. 20, 21. And the Lord shall give you the bread of affliction and the water of distress, and they who deceive you shall no longer approach you; for your eyes shall see those who deceive you, and your ears shall hear the words of those who deceived you behind you, saying: This is the way, let us walk in it, whether to the right or to the left.

The Lord our Jesus Christ has become for us the bread of life ^B. For He said openly, “I am the bread which descended from heaven, and gives life to the world.” But let it also be water, not something sensible and material, but rather divine and intelligible. Indeed, He has been called a river of peace and a torrent of delight, and we say this as the blessed David chants and speaks to God the Father concerning those who have been justified by faith: “With Thee is the fountain of life, and with the torrent of Thy delight Thou shalt give them to drink.” Therefore, Christ is the life-giving bread and water; yet He is found with sweat and labor. For great and excellent goods are not attained by those who lie idle and live luxuriously, but by those who scorn ^C the sweat and labor expended in this matter. Thus the divine David searched the mystery of Christ, chanting and saying: “If I shall ascend to the bed of my couch, if I shall give sleep to my eyes, and slumber to my eyelids, and rest to my temples, until I find a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. Lo, we heard of it in Ephratha, we found it in the fields of the wood.” For Emmanuel was born in Bethlehem, which is Ephratha. The God of all, therefore, promises to those of Israel who turn to Him that He will give bread of affliction and water of distress, that is, that He will grant the life which is in Christ, and the knowledge concerning Him, which one might collect and store up in the treasures of his own mind, not by falling into ^D pleasures, not by leading a slothful life, not by walking the broad and spacious way, but by rather entering through the narrow gate that leads to life. If, he says, you receive this bread, then you shall also become secure, neither prone to error, nor easily snatched away by the words of deceivers. For you shall see them, and hear their words. For formerly, when you were unable to judge their words, you were like those who do not see at all, while hearing the speeches of those who are accustomed to deceive; but having received this bread, you shall see.

^A them perfectly, and you shall understand very well what their character is: how they differ simply [from the truth], and say: "This is the way, let us walk in it," whether to the right or to the left. For there was no distinction between one who was naturally inclined to injustice and one who was not, but the words of all of them led them headlong thoughtlessly toward anything whatsoever.

And you shall remove the silvered and gilded idols; you shall break them into pieces, and you shall scatter them like the water of a menstruating woman, and like dung you shall push them away.

It would be fitting, I think, to achieve this—to choose this—both for those called from the nations through faith to the acknowledgment of the truth, and indeed for those also who are of the blood of Israel. There is no harm, moreover, in saying that it is fitting to apply to those who have come out of the error of the Greeks the [word]: ^B "The Lord will give you the bread of affliction and water in scarcity, and those who deceive you shall no longer draw near to you." The wretched Jews have had wicked teachers, I mean the Scribes and Pharisees, who wished to lead them toward whatever they themselves took a liking to, turning them away from the commandments of Moses and persuading them to pay attention to the teachings and commandments of men. Furthermore, Israel was condemned because it had progressed to such a state of madness as to choose to worship inanimate idols. And the sons of the Greeks have had impious teachers who, possessing an animal and demonic wisdom, proclaimed an unnumbered mob of demons in their life, and taught them to worship the creature alongside the Creator. ^C Having therefore received the bread of life and the life-giving water, both these and those were delivered from their ancient teachers—or rather, their deceivers—and, having condemned their deception, they removed the idols. For they have been justified through faith, having basically said farewell to Satan and the unclean spirits, and having cursed and fled from those who were once thought by them to be high—I mean the falsely named gods—as if from something most odious and extremely filthy. For what could be more detestable than dung and the water of a menstruating woman?

^D VERS. 23, 24. Then there shall be rain for the seed of your land, and the bread of the produce of your land shall be abundant and fat. And your cattle shall be pastured on that day in a rich and spacious place. Your bulls and your oxen and those that work the land shall eat chaff winnowed with barley.

The figure of speech is taken from farmers who, after they have received abundantly a great plenty of rains poured down from above, from heaven, then indeed have much fruitfulness and large harvests that provide enough for their sustenance, and they harvest grass from the field for their pack animals. The meaning of what is proposed is transferred again from sensible things to the spiritual contemplation of those...

to the things of the mind. ^A For when, he says, God gives you bread of affliction and water of constraint, when you see those who deceive you and turn your own mind away from them, when you remove the idols and receive the illumination of true knowledge of God, then you will also abound in spiritual fruits. For there shall be rain for the seed of your land. By "rain" he means the intelligible consolation of the Spirit, which refreshes the hearts of those who worship God, and makes them fruitful. David sings indeed regarding those who have been justified by faith in Christ: "You will set apart a voluntary rain, O God, for your inheritance," meaning clearly the evangelical and saving preaching, and the consolation through the Holy Spirit, as I said. ^B And the prophet Isaiah also said somewhere, as from the person of God, concerning those of Israel, who were the vine: "And I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it." There shall therefore, he says, be rain for the seed of your land. Moreover, even the bread of the produce of your land shall be abundant and rich—that is, the fruit of your works shall be for assistance and utility. For it shall yield fruit, and it shall be rich and abundant. For the prophet Malachi was addressing those of Israel who had defected, saying: "Because your calf was deceitful, Samaria, because they sowed wind, and their destruction shall await them." A sheaf having no strength to make meal. Again, another of the saints rebukes some and says: "And you did not remember the Lord your God; therefore you shall plant an unfaithful planting." For the fruit of the ungodly is unfruitful, and their labors are useless, and the outcome of their endeavors has nothing that is profitable. ^C But the godly are fruitful, to whom the divine Paul very rightly prays, saying: "But may the God of righteousness increase your seed, and multiply the fruits of your righteousness." The prophet adds to these that the pack animals will also graze in a rich and spacious place. By "pack animals," I suppose him to mean perhaps those of small understanding and the more simple-minded, who are slow in mind, but once called to the knowledge of God through faith, they will find the nourishment of understanding, and will be grazed in a rich place—that is, in the divinely inspired Scripture, which is truly spacious. For it is broad and large, and leading toward piety. And ^D he says that the bulls, or oxen working the land, will eat straw winnowed with barley—that is, they will be in spiritual abundance. And being filled with solid teachings, they will work the land. By "bulls," I think he refers in these words to those who perform the divine ministry of preaching and evangelize with great power. And the all-wise Paul will make us confident of this again, understanding the legal precept spiritually. For he said, "It is written: You shall not muzzle the ox that is treading." Then he adds, "Is it for the oxen that God is concerned? Or does He speak entirely for our sake?" Therefore, as if from the best of the

nourishment, he fashions spiritual things, and signifies that this most beautiful and solid nourishment will be ready for those who have been chosen, and for those who, like fertile ground, manifest those who worship Christ. For it was necessary—it was necessary for the leaders of the peoples to be the first to taste the goods of the Spirit, in order that they might have the means to benefit their subjects. ^A

“And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every lofty hill, water flowing in that day, when many perish, and when towers fall.” And you will understand this spiritually. For by “hills” and “mountains” he means the holy evangelists and apostles, and all the others who have come after them as caretakers of the holy Churches and ministers of the divine mysteries, who think nothing of earthly things but are, as it were, lifted up on high. For it is written that the mighty of the earth have been lifted up greatly by God, and divine and heavenly discourse flows from their minds as if from a spring, as they themselves have been enriched from above with grace. This water is abundant; for there are many mountains, and just as many hills, and the stream from them is sweet and plentiful everywhere. ^B

But, he says, in that day this too shall come to pass. And by “day” he again designates the time of the coming of our Savior, during which those of whom the discourse speaks were manifested, and many perished, and towers were destroyed—that is, the teachers of the Jews, the scribes and the Pharisees. For although they had been exalted above all others through the glory of the priesthood and the authority of their leadership, they acted impiously toward Christ, and they put to death the very One who had caused them to be lofty, and in addition to this, they led the peoples under their hand astray. Other towers have also fallen: the illustrious throngs of the unholy spirits. ^C

“And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold in the day when the Lord shall heal the breach of His people, and heal the pain of your wound.”

Some of the interpreters wish to refer the meaning of the proposed words to the time of the consummation of the age. For then, they say, there will be an increase of light, and the very elements themselves, which are by nature luminous, will be as we have said. But we will find the holy Scripture saying that “At that time the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall, as leaves fall from a fig tree.” Forgoing, therefore, such a way of understanding it, we say this instead. For he does not say that there will be an increase of light for the elements. Rather, he calls those who live in the light of the moon “moon,” and those who are, as it were, adulterately and moderately illuminated. These could be those who were accustomed to live only by the natural prudence implanted in us by man, not yet enriched by the illumination from above; such are those who have not yet recognized the God who exists by nature and in truth, but remain as if in the night, having only a moderate splendor, which God bestowed upon human nature from its very creation. When these have received the light of true knowledge of God, they do not remain as if in the night, nor do they possess a small and lunar

have light, but afterwards they look upon the solar ray as if in the day. Those who exist as if in the day and are as it were illuminated by the sun, because they know God by nature, will receive a ^A sevenfold greater illumination. Such were those who were learned in the Law, having in their minds, as it were, the radiance of a solar ray—in that they knew the Creator and Lord of all. For they had heard: Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God, the Lord is one; yet they did not fully understand the Law. But when Christ shone forth, their knowledge progressing for the better, and the Law being thenceforth viewed spiritually, the light that is in them will be, not just seven times, but brighter. For the Sun of righteousness is the God of all, both in being and in being understood, and He is Himself all wisdom. Now He shone forth to the Israelites through the Law. For He brought them out as if from the ancient gloom of the error in Egypt, and made them understand and confess that He alone is the God and Lord of all. But, He says, these things will be when the Lord shall have healed the contrition of His people, and the pain of thy wound. For us, who were crushed and overcome by the pain of the wound (for the fear of punishment hung over both Greeks and Jews), Christ has healed. We were in a way dejected in spirit, and possessed of a weak and lax mind toward the works of righteousness, but we did not remain in this state. For the God of all freely gave the medicine, and made us free from the old disease, and most strong for all things that are pleasing to Him, and justified by faith in Christ. Through whom and with whom be glory to the Father with the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen.

TOMUS III

^B VERS. 27, 28. Behold the name of the Lord cometh from far, burning wrath with glory. The ^C utterance of his lips, an utterance full of wrath; and the wrath of his fury is as a devouring fire. And his breath is as water dragging in a valley, it shall come even to the neck, and ^D shall be divided, to trouble the nations with a vain error, and a vain error shall pursue them, and shall take them before their face.

Having declared very clearly that the light of the sun will be sevenfold brighter for those who believe in Christ at that time when He shall have healed the contrition of His people, he opportunely adds that the divine wrath will also be against Satan, who crushed them, and against the demons that are with him. For they were not to exercise perpetual tyranny over us, nor were they to have firm and unshaken power, especially when Christ, the Savior of all, had shone forth upon the human race. But the prophetic discourse is not as if naked and revealed, but rather overshadowed and deep. For it is formed as if about the Assyrians, who devastated Jerusalem and took the whole of Judaea; and having the beloved Israel captive, they returned to their own land, all but insulting the divine glory, and thinking that even without God's will they had mastered those who worship Him. For indeed Rabsaces had addressed those who were on the wall.

saying, "Let not Ezechias deceive you, saying that the God of Israel will deliver you from my hand. Have the gods of the gentiles, each one, delivered his own country from my hand?" ^A Those, therefore, who behave so insolently and prattle so much against the ineffable glory are convicted, about whom the discourse is. But when Israel had endured seventy years in captivity and servitude under them, the God of all things once again rescued and saved them. For He brought them back into Judea, with Zorobabel, son of Salathiel, who was of the tribe of Judah, and also Jesus the high priest, as their leaders at that time.

The power of the prophecy, therefore, seems in a certain sense to make mention—as far as the surface of the events is concerned—of what happened to the Chaldeans and Babylon. But the true meaning of the words pertains to the intelligible Assyrian, that is to say, to Satan, to whom it is said by God: "In such a way as a garment stained with blood will not be clean, so you also shall not be clean, because you destroyed my land and killed my people; you shall not remain for all time, O evil seed. Prepare your children to be slaughtered for the sins of your father; lest they rise up and inherit the land, and fill the land with war, and I shall rise up against them, says the Lord Sabaoth, and I will destroy their name, and their remnant, and their seed." ^B "The name of the Lord," He says, "will therefore come after a long time." And if one should choose to understand this historically, God had mercy on Israel after seventy years. But if one should travel the inner and hidden path of the meanings, he will perceive in his mind that the inventor of sin, having long persisted in laying the yoke of his perversity upon all those on the earth, so as to make them his own worshippers, and having entangled them in the snares of sin, finally, after a long time, the only-begotten Word of God appeared to us. And a burning fury was made with glory, and the utterance of His lips is an utterance full of wrath.

For Cyrus, son of Cambyses, with God urging and inciting him, made war upon the Chaldeans and captured the land of the Babylonians by force. And he became like wrath and fire to them, for he devoured everyone, as it were, and having an unbearable onset, he was seen like water dragging along in a ravine by those who were there, and he filled all the nations of the Chaldeans with tumult and confusion, justly condemned because of their vain error. For they thought, as I said, that they had conquered Judea even against the will of God. A vain error, therefore, took hold of them. For a punishment was inflicted upon them from out of unbridled and vehement fury, and they perished by their own impieties. ^C And one can see that the prince of wickedness, the dragon, has also suffered this very thing. For the oracle of the Lord became for him an oracle full of wrath. For he and the evil powers with him were commanded to go into the abyss, and were consumed as by fire and much water, driven and tossed in the lowest caverns by the force of the spirit. For they were confounded by their own vain error. For He said: "The whole world..." ^D

I will take in my hand like a nest, and like eggs that have been left I will take them up, and there is no one who will escape me or gainsay me." He thought ^A indeed that He was God in truth, and having transferred to himself the glory that befits the Creator of all alone, he perpetually thought he could hold sway over those upon the earth. They were troubled, therefore, at the vain error in which they were convicted, and were caught by it. For justice, and fury, and punishment were brought upon them, and for this cause.

VERS. 29. *Must you always be rejoicing and entering into my sanctuaries as though celebrating a feast, and like those rejoicing, enter with a flute into the mount of the Lord, toward the God of Israel?*

I said that the Babylonians, having conquered the land of Judea, mocked those who had been captured, and most impiously continued to scoff at the divine temple itself. But they themselves were also captured; and in what manner, it is not obscure. You Assyrians, he says, must you therefore not at all times be rejoicing over my worshippers, and using the occasion for festivals, and preventing no one from entering into my sanctuaries, and that with flute and harp? And these things, indeed, are to be taken historically. But if it should be said against Satan and those who are of his frame of mind, you will understand it in this way: ^B He rejoiced for a long time, exalting himself against the ineffable Majesty, and crushing the saints, and resisting the workers of righteousness with savagery, and, as it were, attempting to defile the holy things of God, counting the matter as a feast and pleasure, and triumphing over those he plundered and possessed. But the wretch has fallen from such things, with Christ thrusting him down into what was past hope, and driving him from the tyranny over us. Every pleasure and gladness of his has therefore ceased, he has stopped his revelry against us, and the nature of things has changed and turned into its exact opposite. For we have found our delight and joy in the salvation through Christ, and justification through faith, ^C and sanctification through the Spirit. But he, frustrated in his rule, is in constant sorrow, and laments the overthrow of his own power.

VERS. 30, 31, 32. *For by the voice of the Lord the Assyrians shall be defeated, by the plague with which He shall strike them. And it shall be for him on every side from whence was their hope of help, in which he himself trusted; they with flutes and harps will war against him by a change.*

"By the voice of the Lord," he says, instead of "by the command of the Lord." For indeed the Assyrians were defeated, and exposed to the plague brought upon them, with Cyrus and the Persians and the Medes, as I said, ^D ravaging them and taking them by force and by the will of God. But before these things, the Medes and the Persians were the defenders of the Chaldeans, and had hope in them that they could luckily succeed and easily subdue what regions and peoples they wished. Those very ones then, he says—those in whom for the Babylonians was the hope of

^A aid, those who, all but experiencing a conversion and an overturning of their affairs into the complete opposite, will fight against him with lyres and flutes—that is, rejoicing and celebrating a festival. This could be seen to have happened in the case of Satan and the herd of unclean spirits. For they had in this world countless, or rather numberless, worshippers; but through the voice of the Lord—that is, through the preaching of Christ—they have been struck and defeated, and those whom they expected to have as their own supporters have, paradoxically, endured a conversion into the complete opposite. For they have been called by faith and have fought against them. For shrines have been torn down, hills have been shaken, and a multitude of unclean demons have been consumed by fire; and having condemned the one who formerly reigned, they have registered as their own the God who is by nature and in truth King and Lord. And they have made it a matter of great importance to live a life truly approved and distinguished by every virtue, throwing away the life spent in baseness as far as possible.

"For will you not be called to account before the days? Was it not also prepared for you to reign? A deep valley, fallen timber, fire, and much wood. The fury of the Lord, as a valley burning because of sulfur."

^B That the Assyrian would be fought by those from whom it was natural to expect aid rather, and that he would suffer things more bitter than all evils, he mentions, and necessarily he brings forward these things also. For since God is seen to have been long-suffering toward them for a long time, and having only with difficulty brought upon those who had committed intolerable wrongs the punishments, He makes a defense, as it were, and says: "For will you not be called to account before the days?" For the God of all is long-suffering, and He lavishes goodness upon those who err, so that perhaps their minds might be turned toward better things, and by choosing to repent, they might escape the punishment owed to them. ^C But since none of these things has happened, he henceforth introduces wrath, not doing this before the days, but as in the proper time and having come, as it were, to a measure, which is most becoming to the serenity and humanity of the God who is Lord of all. Therefore, He says, "O Assyrian, I have been kind to you and long-suffering. For you will not be called to account before the days"—namely, for the punishments, because you have acted with excessive insolence against my people. Such is that which was said to the blessed Abraham: "For the sins of the Amorites are not yet filled up ^D until this time." Moreover, the blessed prophet Zechariah says he saw women having wings like a hoopoe, carrying a measure, and sin sitting in their midst in the form of a woman. For the Lawgiver measures out punishments analogously and appropriately to the transgressions of each one. But you thought, O Assyrian, He says, that it was prepared even for you to reign continuously, or to be able to hold dominion and have an unshaken mastery over all? But you have erred from the truth; for you will rather inherit a deep valley, and fallen timber, and fire. For so will the fury of the Lord be upon you and yours. I would say, however, that this applies most especially to Satan. For he possessed the whole earth by force, before Christ

^A shone upon it. But since God and Lord has shone upon us, he has been driven away like some savage beast from the flock of believers, and he has gone down into the fire of Hades, there to inherit it, along with the flames. For the fury of the Lord shall be to him like a gorge burning with sulfur. Therefore, he was not requited before his time, but rather when the hour finally summoned him to this; for it was not decreed that he should reign forever, as it certainly is for Christ, the Savior of all, to whom it would be fitting for us to say what was spoken through the voice of David: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.” ^B

CHAPTER XXXI. VERSES 1, 2. Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, who trust in horses and chariots; for they are many, and in horses there is a very great multitude. And they have not trusted in the Holy One of Israel, and have not sought God. And he has wisely brought evils upon them, and his word shall not be set at naught, and he shall rise up against the houses of wicked men, and against their vain hope. An Egyptian man and not God, the flesh of horses; and there is no help.

Having learned what was to happen to the Assyrians in the fullness of time, and that they would be utterly destroyed and perish by slaughter as the Persians and Medes laid waste to their land—with God, of course, raising up Cyrus against them—the prophet comes to a recollection of the disobedience of the Israelites. For the Babylonian captured Judea, and the holy city itself, I mean Jerusalem, and he led Israel away captive; then God showed mercy to those who were left behind in Judea. But when they wanted to defect ^C to the Egyptians, fearing lest the war brought upon them by the Assyrians might be brought upon them again, He who is able to save commanded them, through the voice of Jeremiah, not to go down into the land of the Egyptians. But when, even after this, they became rebellious and thought that human aid would rather save them, they fell in Egypt and all perished utterly. The prophet therefore laments over them: “Woe,” he says, “to them that go down to Egypt for help.” For they did not rely on God, who is powerful in all things, but rather on horses and chariots, for there were very many in Egypt. But being wise, the God of all brought evils upon them, and his word shall not be set at naught. For He said to them through the voice of Jeremiah the things that are set forth below. So, he shall rise up against the houses of wicked men—that is, clearly, those who have fled for refuge into Egypt—and against their vain hope. For they chose, he says, an Egyptian man as a helper, and not God, the flesh of horses. The prophet speaks with the greatest emphasis, ^D rebuking the ignorance of those from Israel. For what is a horse, other than mere flesh? And what is the strength of flesh, so weak and subject to corruption? The prophet Jeremiah says something similar: “Cursed is the man who has his hope in man, and will make flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from

^A the Lord.” For it is truly better to hope in the Lord than to hope in man.

Vers. 3. *Dominus autem adducet manum suam in eos, et laborabunt auxiliantes, et simul omnes peribunt.*

After the Egyptians, lifting up their arrogant and haughty brows, had received the Israelites and had fancied that the power of their falsely so-called gods was superior to that of the God of the Hebrews, they themselves were handed over to the Babylonians. For they conquered the region, and those of the Israelites who had been caught there perished together with its inhabitants. The prophet therefore says that the Lord will lay his hand upon them, and that those who promise them impregnable defense will labor—that is, they will be weakened—and that they will all perish together.

Vers. 4, 5. *Quia sic dixit mihi Dominus: Quemadmodum, si clamarit leo vel catulus leonis ob prædam quam cepit, et vociferabitur super ea, donec impleti sint montes voce ejus, et victi sint, et magnitudine furoris perterriti: sic descendet Dominus ut prælietur in monte Sion, in montibus ejus. Ut aves volantes, sic proteget Dominus Jerusalem, et eripiet, et fovebit, et servabit.*

The prophet interjected a warning, I mean, against those who go down into Egypt ^B and who have preferred to have an Egyptian man as a helper rather than God, and at the same time he said that they would perish together with those who promised to aid them. Then he returns again to his initial discourse. For having said that the Assyrians would possess the deep valley as their inheritance, he declares clearly that God will bring help to those who worship him rightly, and that he will fight on behalf of those in Judea, and will thus attack those who desire to harm it—like a lion, indeed, roaring with a great and horrible voice at those who stand against it. For they say that this wild beast, when driven by hunger to attack herds of cattle or other livestock, first terrifies them with a profound ^C and most terrifying roar, and makes its onset intolerable for the shepherds. "In this way," he says, "the Lord will descend to battle on Mount Sion," that is, Jerusalem, "and on its mountains." "As flying birds, so will the Lord shield Jerusalem." For birds raise their young in the mountains and build their nests in dense trees. But if any other bird or snake wishes to snatch away the nestlings, the mother fights for them fiercely, demonstrating the power of the affection she possesses, flying around, chirping, and—one might almost say—making as great a clamor as possible to paralyze the one who wants to destroy them. "In this way," he says, "the ^D Lord of all will shield Jerusalem, and will rescue, and foster, and save it." And these things happened when Babylon was laid waste and Cyrus released Israel from captivity. For they returned, while the kingdom was being administered among them by Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, who was of the tribe of Judah, sa-

^Acerdotal duties being fulfilled by Joshua the son of Josedec, the high priest. And when they wanted to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, certain of the neighboring peoples set upon them, wishing to hinder them; yet no one conquered, for God was strengthening Israel. Such also has been the power of our Savior's aid toward us. For he who was thought to be the god of this age had taken all as captives; but Christ leaped upon him like some lion, or a lion’s whelp, and destroyed him by the word of his power. He is the Lord Sabaoth. And he campaigned upon Mount Sion, that is, he struggled for the intelligible Sion, which is the Church of the living God, and firmly saved it as if it were his own nest. For the father of sin, with great arrogance, boasted: “I will seize the whole inhabited world by hand like a nest; and I will take them as if they were forsaken eggs, and there is no one who will escape me, or contradict me.” But the Savior of all and the Lord brought together the faithful into one, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and placed them outside of all snares. For He snatched them away and cherished them, and claimed the whole earth for himself, and saved the world under heaven.

VERS. 6. *Convert yourselves, you who have devised a deep and wicked counsel.*

As God declares that he will campaign upon Mount Sion, and that he will leap upon those who treat Israel—that is, those who believe in him—unjustly, after the manner of a most brave lion, and as he adds that he will protect, and rescue, and claim, and save them, the prophet again cries out against those who cannot bear to believe that the right hand of God is all-powerful, and that he easily saves whomsoever he wishes from their enemies. “Therefore,” he says, “you who suffer from such shameful and most detestable infidelity, who have abandoned the God of all, and who foolishly scrape together aid from men, and who have—I know not how—followed an impious and ridiculous plan in this, convert yourselves to God, devise better plans, and say also yourselves: ‘O Lord God of hosts, blessed is the man who hopes in thee.’” ^B

VERS. 7-9. *For in that day men shall cast away their hand-made silver and gold things, which their hands have made, and Asshur shall fall. Not by the sword of a man, nor by the sword of a human shall he be devoured, and he shall flee not from the face of the sword. But the young men shall be for a defeat; for they shall be surrounded by a rock, as with a rampart, and they shall be defeated: but he who flees shall be caught.*

The discourse returns even now to the purpose it had set before itself. For the Lord, he says, will protect Jerusalem, that is, he will struggle for his own Church, which is his city. And he will rescue those who believe in him, and will claim them for himself, and will count them as his own portion, and in addition to this, he will also save them. And in what manner? They will free themselves from profane and detestable idolatry, and will no longer worship

the works of their own hands, whether they be made of gold or silver, or fashioned in any other way at great expense. For before the coming of the Savior, the human race was struck with stupidity regarding these things, and some worshipped the creature, and attributed to the elements of the world the glory that is due to God, as the prophet says: "Their silver and their gold they made into idols for themselves." ^B But after Christ shone forth, the whole earth was made free from such foul and detestable crimes. For the temples were dismantled, and the altars, and the man-made things; and the error of Satan, which of old defiled the whole earth, was removed. Since, therefore, the man-made things have been destroyed, he says, their inventor will also perish along with the error—that is to say, Satan, the intelligible Assur, or the Assyrian. For he will fall, not struck by the sword of a man, and he will be cowardly; for he will depart into Hades together with the other evil powers. For this is what he implies to us when he says: "And the youths shall be for a defeat"—that is to say, those who are powerful and hold dominion over the inhabitants of the earth by greed shall be defeated and shall fall. In what manner or by what means? For they shall be enclosed by the Rock as if by a rampart. ^C In these words he calls the unbreakable and unshakeable power of the Savior a "Rock." Therefore, being surrounded by the divine power as by a Rock, and as if by a rampart—that is, a barricade and an enclosure—they will concede victory, and not one of them shall escape. For if any one of them wishes to do this, he will be caught on every side. This signifies, I think, that which is written: "He that flees shall be caught." Who then of them will henceforth escape being saved, if they are enclosed by the Rock as if by a rampart, and no place of flight at all is given to them? But the power of the Savior has accomplished these things, having both abolished Assur and the evil powers with him, and having, as it were, shut them up with a rampart into the recesses of Hades to be punished, that is, Satan, having brought him down together with this, and having enclosed him, and rendered him ineffectual.

CAP. XXXII. VERS. 1, 2. Thus saith the Lord: Blessed is he that hath seed in Sion, and domestic servants in Jerusalem. For behold, a righteous king shall reign, and princes shall rule with judgment. And the man shall be one concealing his words; and he shall be hidden as water borne along, and he shall appear in Sion as a glorious river flowing in a thirsty land.

^D The blessed prophet openly proclaims in these words the mystery of the dispensation of the Only-begotten in the flesh. For he says those who inhabit Sion at that time will be blessed—it is clear that he means the intelligible Sion, which is the Church of the living God. For they are truly blessed, and the Savior himself will convince us of this, saying to those who believe in him: "Amen, amen, I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see the things which you see, and have not seen them; and to hear the things which you hear, and have not heard them. But your eyes are blessed, because they see, and your ears, because they hear." Those, therefore, he says, who have had an internal and, as it were, domestic relationship through the spirit...

^A to our Lord Jesus Christ, and have borne fruit in the intelligible Sion, and have held those who are their own in Jerusalem, which is nothing other than Sion itself, are thrice-blessed and have become perfect in every good thing. We too have held our own, namely those who are our own according to the spirit, the holy mystagogues and the overseers of sacred rites. "For behold, a righteous king shall reign, and princes shall rule with judgment." For Christ has reigned over us, being both righteous and spotless, the arbiter of all justice, and the instructor of those things which are above the law. And princes also have ruled with judgment. But "with judgment," he says, means "secretly." For the righteous King shall indeed be a man, even a brother in all things to those who are on the earth; yet He is God in truth. For the Word became flesh, according to the Scriptures. "And he shall be concealing his words." For our Lord Jesus Christ has spoken very many things in parables, who also cried out this very thing beforehand by the voice of David, saying: "I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden from the foundation [of the world]." And he says not only this, but also that he will hide—as if from water that is carried along. For holy Scripture is accustomed to compare the onset of temptations to water carried along, or to the streams of rivers which flow rapidly on the earth. When, therefore, he says, temptations set upon them, and they are like water carried along, He Himself will be hidden—that is, He will be immune to the plots of those tempting Him, so that He may not be ensnared. And David said concerning Him: "The enemy shall not profit against him, and the son of iniquity shall not add to harm him." For very often did the crowds of the Jews lay snares, being incited to this by those who at that time held the lead, I mean the Scribes and Pharisees. But it was not possible for Christ to suffer anything of the things that are accustomed to be troublesome against His will. For they indeed began to stone Him, but He, as the blessed evangelist says, passed through the midst of them, and so passed by, that is, He was unconcerned. "And there shall be to those who are in Sion as a river carried along, glorious, in a thirsty land." For to those who were thirsty, called from the nations to the knowledge of Him, and having no word that knows to save, He has become like a certain river, abounding with a rich stream, and in addition to this, also glorious, that is, distinguished. For very many others have also been called rivers. And indeed the blessed David, comparing to rivers the holy ministers of the mysteries, and those who have drawn the word from on high and from heaven, and who have admitted the faith, said: "The rivers have lifted up, O Lord, the rivers have lifted up their voice." For the voices of the holy apostles were clear and audible; but no one of them was so glorious, as indeed is this torrent of delights, that is, Christ. From Him, we say, it has also been granted to ^D all others that they might have in abundance whence they could deliver the mysteries, and instill the life-giving word of God into the souls of those who believe.

Vers. 3-8. And they shall no longer be trusting in men,

but ears they shall give to hear; and the heart of the infirm will attend so as to hear, and the stammering tongues will quickly learn to speak peace, and thy ministers shall no longer say, Be silent. For the fool shall speak foolish things, and his heart shall conceive vain things, to perform iniquities, and to speak error against the Lord, to corrupt hungry souls, and to make the thirsty souls empty. For the counsel of the wicked shall devise iniquities, and to corrupt the humble with unjust words, and to scatter the words of the humble in judgment. But the pious have devised prudent things, and their counsel remains. ^A

The meaning of the words proposed is very fitting, both for those called from the nations through faith, and for those born of Israelite blood.

^A to adulterate them, certain of those who are accustomed to serve them leap forth and cry out for silence, wanting their words to be beyond contradiction. For they relate that it was the custom, when the disciples of Pythagoras uttered things at times cold, ridiculous, and to many incredible, to say this, "He himself said it": that is, "Be silent, and give credence to the inventor of the dogma, even without examination." Your ministers, therefore, he says, shall no longer say, "Be silent." For the fool will altogether speak foolish things, and his heart will conceive vanities, having one goal, to perform iniquities, and to speak error against the Lord. For the trifles of the Greeks are nothing else than error, devised against the glory of God, to corrupt hungering souls and to empty out the souls that thirst. For some at times burn with a desire for learning, then, approaching these men imprudently, they perceive no utility at all: and although they seem to hunger and thirst to learn something at all times which is necessary and useful to them for the salvation of their soul, yet, he says, the counsel of the ungodly shall think iniquities, and it looks to this, that it may corrupt by unjust words, and in judgment scatter the words of the humble. ^B For the lovers of worldly wisdom, and the maintainers of perverse dogmas, exert all zeal and diligence so that they may scatter and dissipate the words of the doctrine of the holy mystagogues, whom he also calls humble, however much they may have been formed in judgment—that is, not drowsily, but thoughtfully and accurately, and in wisdom from above, and from God. For this, I think, he teaches by adding: "But the pious have devised things of understanding, and this counsel remains." For the ornate loquacity of the wise of this world has vanished. But the counsel of the pious—that is, the doctrine or preaching—has prevailed. And we call them pious who minister the divine and evangelical word to those who are throughout the whole earth.

VERS. 9, 10. *Mulieres divites, surgite, et audite vocem meam. Filiæ, in spe audite sermones meos. Diei anni mentionem facite in dolore cum spe.*

It is the custom of divinely inspired Scripture often to set the person of women ^C either for cities or even for villages, and when there is one metropolis, to call the others its daughters, just as also the divine David says concerning Sion, that is Jerusalem, and its neighbors: "Sion heard, and was glad, and the daughters of Judæa rejoiced." For around the mother, who is the lady of all, there are almost always small and subject cities. Here, therefore, the person of the Savior himself is introduced to us, giving counsel to the cities of Judæa, and saying: "Rich women, arise, and hear my voice." He exhorts them, therefore, that they may wish to cultivate obedience, and to admit his own words, namely, the evangelical and saving preaching. And he calls them "rich" now ^D very appropriately, as being already very populous, and having an innumerable multitude of inhabitants.

However, they will not long be desolate and most destitute, at least so far as it pertains to having none of their inhabitants, unless they were to choose to submit the neck of their own mind to His oracles. ^A *Therefore, O women*, he says, *O daughters, hear my words in hope*, that is, not without reward, but rather with an ample and splendid hope. What then is it that is commanded? Make mention, he says, of the days of the year in which Christ appeared and clearly preached in the cities and villages throughout all Judea. For He Himself said through the voice of Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me; he hath sent me to preach the gospel to the poor, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to send away the crushed in forgiveness, to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." ^B Arise therefore, he says, that is, wake up, and having taken up good hope in your mind, commemorate the days of the year in which, as I was saying, the preaching by Christ, the Savior of us all, took place. He commands that they do this not remissly or negligently, but with zeal and care; for thus are good things rightly accomplished.

*The vintage is consumed, the sowing has ceased, it shall not come again. Be amazed, be grieved, you who trust; strip yourselves, become naked, gird your loins, and beat upon your breasts. For the field of desire, and for the fruit of the vine, the land of my people shall bring forth thorns and grass, and joy shall be taken away from every house. The rich city, the deserted houses, shall lose the wealth of the city and the desirable houses. And the villages shall be caves forever, the joy of wild asses, and the pastures of shepherds.*

That it would not be without punishment for those of Israel—nay rather, that the refusal to accept the word from Christ would be the cause of all ^C affliction and calamity—he demonstrates in these words. For the cities throughout all Judea were to be devastated, with the hand of the Romans setting them on fire, so that they would be seen to be void of men, and their choice places destroyed, and those who barely managed to escape would be turned to flight, and they would be deprived of home and wealth, and a city or village once filled with many people would become a habitation for wild beasts. But if someone should wish to receive also a spiritual contemplation regarding what is set before us, he will understand this: he calls the power of intelligible fruitfulness a vintage and a sowing, according to which we are pleasing to God, not producing, like a thorn, the manifold fruit of sin, but being honored by God as a fat and fruitful land. The wretched ^D Jews, therefore, have fallen away from this intelligible fruitfulness; and the intelligible vineyard has become land producing and bearing thorns. "For I expected," he says, "that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth thorns." And it has been said through the voice of the prophet concerning Israel, that they "have sown the wind, and their ruin shall overtake them. The sheaf has no power to produce meal." The vintage is consumed, therefore, he says, that is, you shall no longer be called a vineyard, for there is nothing ripe in you. The sowing has ceased.

^A You shall not be a land bearing good fruit, nor a nurse of growth. Hence, and most deservedly, "be amazed," that is, be struck and wonder. "Be sorrowful, be confident." For you, he says, who once boasted in God, when you see your heart stripped of every good thing, then, then be sorrowful. "Strip yourselves, become naked, gird your loins, and beat upon your breasts" for the field of desire and the fruit of the vine. The cause of the mourning, he says, is that the desirable field and the admirable vineyard is perishing and being utterly wasted. By these things he signifies Israel. He makes it clear also in another way, and says, "The land of my people shall bring forth thorns and grass." For Israel has been laid waste, as I said. For he let go his vineyard, and commanded the clouds that they should not rain rain upon it. And it has become the joy of wild asses ^B and the pasture of evil shepherds, that is to say, of the unclean spirits. Thus also the blessed David, as if composing a prayer concerning the vineyard of Israel to the Savior of all, God, says: "A vine, he says, you brought out of Egypt, you cast out the nations, and planted it." Then he adds, saying: "Why have you broken down her fence, and all who pass by the way harvest her? The wild boar has wasted her, and the wild ass has devoured her." For just as owners neglect and discard places that lie uncultivated, and have no care for them, whatever harm may be brought upon them, so also our God, who loves virtue, abandons a soul and renders it naked and destitute of all mercy if it be empty of the fruits of good works.

VERS. 15-18. "Until the Spirit from on high comes upon you. And the wilderness of Carmel shall be, and Carmel shall be reckoned as a forest. And judgment shall rest in the wilderness, ^C and righteousness shall dwell in Carmel. And the works of righteousness shall be peace, and righteousness shall hold rest, and they shall be confident until the age; and his people shall dwell in a city of peace, and shall dwell confident, and shall rest with riches."

He declares the time when the rebellious race of Israel shall be empty of intelligible fruitfulness. For he transfers his discourse to those who have honored our Lord Jesus Christ with submission and obedience, and to those who have been purified through faith in Him, and have also become participants in the Holy Spirit. For, he says, the aforesaid things shall be, and Israel shall be desolated on account of his unbridled contumacy, "until the Spirit from on high comes upon you." For just as we have read in the Acts of the holy apostles: "All were gathered in one place, ^D about the days of the holy Pentecost. And lo, there came suddenly from heaven a sound as of a rushing, violent wind, and it filled the house where they were gathered,"

^A and there appeared to them cloven tongues as of fire, and they sat upon each one of them, and they began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. When, therefore, he says, the Spirit of God from above and from on high shall come upon you who believe, then also Chermel shall be a wilderness. But Chermel, that is to say, Carmel, is a mountain in Judea, of great size and covered with a thick forest. He compares, therefore, Jerusalem itself, and all the region round about it, to Chermel, as also having an innumerable multitude of inhabitants. But it shall be, he says, ^B a wilderness, and it shall be reckoned as a forest. By a forest he means wild undergrowth, the use of which is for burning. For the wild trees are cut down, and they are fuel for the flame. Once Chermel is cut down, and reckoned as wild undergrowth, judgment shall rest in the wilderness. By "wilderness" he enigmatically denotes the region of the Gentiles, which the prophet Isaiah himself mentions elsewhere, saying: "Rejoice, wilderness that thirsts; let the wilderness exult and blossom as the lily." But it is compared to a wilderness because it was fruitless and as if stripped bare, in which no tree had ever grown. Yet this has been enriched and has become spiritually most densely wooded, because Christ has dwelt in it. And indeed, he said again by the voice of the prophet Isaiah: "And I will make water in the wilderness, ^C and set rivers in the thirsty land; I will set the cedar, and the box tree, and the myrtle, and the cypress, and the poplar." For by these are signified the souls that are approved through faith in Him, and raised to a height by their diverse and manifold virtue. Judgment, therefore, he says, shall rest in the wilderness, and justice shall dwell in Carmel—that is to say, goodness shall hold civil governance in both the wilderness and in Carmel. But Chermel and Carmel are not two different things, but represent one and the same mountain by both names. How then shall it be both a wilderness and reckoned as a forest, and yet justice shall dwell in it? We say that Israel has not altogether fallen away from intimacy with God, but a remnant is saved, and those who have believed from among them are gathered together with those from the Gentiles. And Christ has dwelt in these and in those, He who is justice and judgment. For we have been justified in Him, by a just and righteous judgment, sin having been abolished and Satan destroyed. ^D What, then, will Christ, who has dwelt there—who is justice—bring about in the wilderness? He clarifies it, saying: "And the works of justice shall be peace." For our Lord Jesus Christ coming, as Paul says, "preached peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near," that is, both to Greeks and Jews; and justice established peace among us. For having made peace with God, and having dissolved the enmity, we are in cities of rest and of eternal delight. And we have become confident in Him, even unto eternity, and we have lived in the city of peace, that is, the Church of the living God. For in her dwells Christ, who is peace. And we have found rest with riches. For we who were in need of all goods and all virtue, being alienated from God in the world, and having no hope,

^A are already rich through Christ, and shall be even more so, having obtained an abundant increase of the gifts from above and from God.

Vers. 19. *And if the hail descends, it shall not come upon you; and they who dwell in the woods shall be as confident as those in the plain.*

When the Jews had acted impiously against our Lord Jesus Christ, and had killed Him—as far as the power of their wicked designs and attempts could reach—a most violent hail, that is to say, the divine wrath, fell upon the whole land. ^B It was delivered unto desolation, was captured and laid waste, and they were dispersed into every wind, according to the voice of the prophet. When therefore the hail, he says, shall have descended, that is, the things coming from divine wrath, it shall not come upon you who believe and dwell in the city of peace, nor shall it corrupt the fruits of our righteousness, nor shall it destroy our good labors; but they who dwell in the woods shall be as confident as those in the plain. What is this? For land filled with thick trees is rugged and ill-suited for plowing; but that which is level and flat is, for those accustomed to farm-work, ^C suitable for the production of edible seeds. Through God’s consent, therefore, all things shall be fruitful, and the land that was once rugged will be shown to be a nurturer of cultivated seeds. For all things bear fruit through Christ, intellectually, of course, and spiritually. And no one sows among thorns. But having broken up our fallow ground, according to the voice of the prophet, let us sow in righteousness, living no longer according to the flesh and voluptuously, but conversing rather in an evangelical manner.

Vers. 20. *Blessed are they that sow upon every water, where the ox and the ass tread.*

Having directed the discourse to the works of agriculture and the fertility of fields, He lingers on the metaphor, and calls blessed those who sow upon water, where the ox and the ass tread. For Scripture, ^D brought forth by the Holy Spirit, calls the divine and heavenly Word "water," as well as the preaching of the holy mystagogues. For they too speak in the Spirit. And the Savior Himself will confirm this, saying: *"It is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you."* Since the Word of God is life-giving, for that reason He is quite rightly likened to water. For water is life-giving, and the cause of all fertility. Having been supplied, therefore, with such intelligible waters, we are accustomed to cultivate the tasks of virtue and strive to labor in the works of piety. In these waters the ox and the ass tread; that is, the people from the Jews, and indeed also those from the nations (Gentiles). For God has justified circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. And as Paul says: *The middle*

^A wall of the fence having broken down, and having abolished the law of commandments in ordinances, he created the two into one new man, making peace. And He reconciled them to God, laying a single yoke upon both, and joined them into one mind, through faith and love and sanctification. And indeed he compares the nation from the Jews to an ox; for according to the law, the ox is a clean animal, and it was brought as an odor of sweet fragrance to God. But the ass is unclean. And indeed, when He had commanded the firstborn of the animals to be brought to God: *You shall sanctify for me*, He says, *every firstborn that opens the womb*. . . *of an ass you shall exchange for a sheep*. Yet, even if the people from the nations were peradventure unclean because they had wandered, nevertheless they were sanctified through faith. For in Christ they have been justified; they have washed away the stains of their ancient charges through the holy ^B baptism, and, as I said, they have been subjected to the yoke of our Savior alongside those from Israel.

*Woe to those who make you miserable; but no one makes you miserable, and he who rejects you does not reject you. Those who reject will be captured, and will be handed over, and as a moth on a garment, so shall they be defeated.*

He calls those blessed who sow upon every water, where the ox and the ass tread. We have said that through these are signified both those from the Jews, and indeed also those from the nations who have been called through faith to the acknowledgment of Christ. But it was likely that some might reason, and indeed also say: How then are such as these blessed, when those who think on worldly things persecute them, and surround them with intolerable ^C difficulties always, and oftentimes even bring them to the very point of death? The Word therefore recovers itself for the consolation of the believers and says: *Woe to those who make you miserable, but no one makes you miserable.* For to suffer for Christ is glorious for the saints, but for those who inflict the persecutions, it is the cause of destruction. They therefore prove themselves to be the miserable ones, and not rather those who have suffered, if indeed those who suffer together shall also reign together with Christ. But, he says, if anyone rejects you, he also rejects himself. For those who are accustomed to doing this will be captured, that is, they will not escape the things from the divine wrath; and they shall be, to the punishments brought upon them, as if for consumption, just as, for instance, a garment is by a moth. Thus, the labor is, as I said, to the saints the procurer of eternal goods. But to choose to do evil is not without penalty. Or rather, it is the cause of the supreme punishment for them ^D who treat those dedicated to God in this way.

*Lord, have mercy on us, for in Thee we have trusted. The seed of the disobedient has been brought to ruin. But our salvation is in the time of affliction.*

God having addressed the saints: *Woe to those who make you miserable; but no one makes you miserable*, they themselves, out of exceeding great joy, all but leap for, and exulting say: that all labor of those who have chosen to be disobedient shall be fruitless, and that, suffering from much fruitlessness, they shall walk toward destruction, but [of salvation...]

suffering from sterility and unfruitful, are about to rush to their destruction, when salvation shall be granted to them; it will always be demonstrated in its own time. For all their strength is in Christ, even if they should seem at times to be utterly weak, in so far, I mean, as they are oppressed by the persecution of enemies. But then most especially does He who knows how to save manifest the greatness of His gentleness toward them and of His help from above. And so, in the time of affliction, there is salvation for the holy teachers of the mysteries. This the most wise Paul will show, writing: "When I am weak, then I am strong." And to him the Savior of all also says: "My grace is sufficient for you. For My power is made perfect in weakness."

VERS. 3, 4. *Because of the voice of thy fear the peoples have been stunned: from thy fear and from thy sublimity the nations have been scattered. But now your spoils shall be gathered, small and great: just as if one should gather locusts, so shall they mock you.*

That the unbelieving Israelites, who have not admitted the Christian faith, would suffer the most shameful and unworthy things of all, the Mosaic law proclaimed beforehand, and the words of the holy prophets show no less. And the Christ Himself even said: "When you see Jerusalem surrounded on all sides by soldiers, then you shall say to the mountains: Cover us; and to the hills: Fall upon us." Because of the voice, therefore, of Thy fear, He says—that is, which strikes them with fear—the peoples have been stunned; and this, "have been stunned," He says for "have been struck." ^B And in what manner have they been struck with stupor? By the magnitude, I suppose, of the calamity. For intolerable evils drive men to madness and make the sufferer appear as if foolish. But if one should prefer to understand "have been stunned" in another way, the word might indicate that they have been cast out of their fatherland and have thus been scattered among all the nations. And thus far the voice of the holy prophets. Now the person of God is introduced, saying to them, clearly to those who are struck with terror and scattered, that "now your spoils shall be gathered, small and great." For not for long, He says, will you be handed over to [your] enemies, nor will the threatened things be delayed, but at the very first opportunity you shall be booty, small and great. And thus shall they who ravage you collect you, just as if one were to gather a multitude of locusts in the fields, not accomplishing this with labor, but easily and as if in sport. One might say that Israel has suffered this very thing, having been delivered up, in a spiritual sense, to Satan and to unclean spirits as if to enemies, for plunder, and to be mocked just like locusts. ^C

VERS. 5, 6. *Holy is God who dwells on high. Sion has been filled with judgment and justice: in the law they shall be delivered, in the treasures is our salvation. There is wisdom, and knowledge, and piety toward the Lord: these are the treasures of justice.* ^D

^A The saints speak among themselves again, and they hasten to adorn with fitting praises God, the Savior of all, who dwells on high—obviously either in the heavens or within rational creatures, whose height may be understood as the intelligible magnitude of manifold virtue. They sing glory to God, looking upon Sion, that is, the Church of Christ, and seeing it filled with judgment and justice. For the earthly Jerusalem is devoid of such brilliant glory. It did not admit in any way the justice of God and the Father, that is, Christ. But the Church from the nations, which is the intelligible and truer Sion, has become full of judgment and justice; and “judgment” here denotes a just decision in every matter. For it is the custom of the saints to live rationally and lawfully, and to delight themselves in the evangelical decrees. Then they admire the Israelites, who had the law given by God for their aid, yet were perishing through it. For, as the blessed Paul writes, "Rejecting the justice of God and seeking to establish their own, they were not subject to the justice of God; for Christ is the end of the law unto justice to everyone that believeth" (Rom. x, 3, 4). For the law was placed in shadows until the time of correction. But when the new proclamation shone forth and the truth had been introduced, it was necessary for the types to cease altogether and for the shadow to fade away. ^B But the contentious and obstinate Israel, even though wishing to agree with the law and to persist in the precepts of Moses, thinking that he was practicing piety through this, is delivered to the enemies. For it was not fitting to dishonor the truth with such long-continued disobedience. Therefore, they shall be delivered in the law. But to us who have believed from the nations, the law once spoken through angels, with Moses as mediator, was found to be a treasure of salvation. For there—that is, in it—is wisdom and knowledge and piety toward the Lord. For the law of Moses clearly proclaimed the mystery of Christ, and we shall find the power of the evangelical commonwealth as if in shadows, applying our mind subtly and exquisitely to the things that are written. For the Savior said to the crowds of the Jews: "If you did believe Moses, you would perhaps believe me also; for he wrote of me" (John v, 46). The law, therefore, is a treasure of justice not to those who attend to the shadow, but to those who look deeply into it and strive to investigate the beauty of the truth. ^C VERS. 7, 8. *Behold, with your fear they themselves shall fear; whom you feared, they shall fear you.* Angels shall be sent, requesting peace, weeping bitterly, exhorting to peace. For their paths shall be stripped. The fear of the nations has ceased, and the covenant which concerned them is taken away, and you shall not reckon them as men. Again, by these words, the Lord of hosts is seen encouraging the holy mystagogues and delivering them from every fear, and revealing beforehand the greatness of the good things to come for them. For the miserable Jews were persecuting the holy apostles, partly summoning them to the council, partly

^A beating them with rods, and counting their devotion to Christ and their zeal and readiness in divine preaching as a crime worthy of accusation. For they were saying: "We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, and behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching." We will also find the holy apostles themselves fearing the assault of the Jews, yet falling down before the all-holy God and saying: "Look upon their threats, and grant to your servants that they may speak your word with all boldness." ^B And so, he says, they shall be the ones to fear you, not you them; those whom you feared shall fear you. They will even send messengers in their own time, seeking peace and weeping bitterly. For their ways shall be deserted, that is, they shall not prosper, having chosen to fight against God and to oppose the beckoning of the Lord. For while Israel, in the beginning—I mean at the start of the divine preaching—was once hard for the holy mystagogues to bear, when the multitude of those who believed became greater in number, their pride was finally conquered throughout the entire city and region; they were subjected to the feet of the believers, weeping and considering it sufficient consolation if they were deemed worthy of peace with them. Such, I suppose, is the meaning of the prophecy. For the fear of the nations—that is, clearly, of the Jews—has ceased, and the covenant with them is taken away. ^C For they have become strangers to the intimacy with God and foreigners to the promises; because "not all who are from Israel, [are] Israel; nor because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children; but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed," that is, those who are of faith in Christ. For the forefather Abraham was justified through faith. Having therefore taken away the covenant that pertains to them, you shall not account them as men, that is, you shall deem them worthy of no regard.

VERS. 9. *Luxit terra, erubuit Libanus, saltus factus est Saron. Manifesta erit Galilaea et Carmelus.* (The land has mourned, Lebanon has blushed, Saron has become a forest. Galilee shall be manifest, and Carmel.)

Lebanon is a mountain in Phoenicia, most celebrated and very thickly covered with cedars and other trees. ^D To this mountain, the divinely inspired Scripture is accustomed to compare the synagogue of the Jews, inasmuch as it possesses a numerous multitude of inhabitants, just as it says to it through the voice of another prophet: "Open, O Lebanon, your gates." Therefore the earth has mourned—not, indeed, the whole earth absolutely, but this land of the Jews, which, having been abandoned by God and excluded from His mercy, has been devastated by the Romans. Lebanon, that is, Jerusalem, has blushed. For this city, once clear and celebrated, inflamed by the fire of grace from above, and possessing an invincible power against all, has fallen under the feet of enemies, has been burned, and has been deserted, and has been deprived of the mercy of the Lord. *Saltus factus est Saron* (Saron has become a forest). There is a place in Judaea called Saron, having arable fields and very well-suited for agriculture. But, he says,

the land that was so fruitful and fertile has become a marsh, that is, overgrown and thick, with an abundance of thorns having sprung up in it. He takes again, as if from the similarity of visible things, a spiritual understanding. For Israel has been laid waste; and the food of cultivated fruits of old, as if it were a good and fat-yielding land, that is, the synagogue of the Jews, has become a producer of thorns. *For I waited*, he says, *that it might bring forth grapes, and it brought forth thorns* (Isa. 5, 2). But these things will happen to the Jews, because they have acted impiously against Christ. But Galilee and Carmel will be manifest, that is, visible and conspicuous to those living everywhere. He calls Galilee the region of the nations, or the nations themselves, and perhaps the Church from the nations, which he deems worthy to be compared to Carmel. Carmel is a dense and high mountain. Such in a way is the Church of Christ. For very many have flourished in it, possessing a God-loving mind, full of every good, raised on high, and removed from earthly things. For it is written that the mighty ones of the earth of God have been greatly exalted (Ps. 46, 10). It is the custom of divinely inspired Scripture to liken the Church to mountains.

^A VERS. 10-12. *Nunc exsurgam, dicit Dominus, nunc gloriose prædicabor, nunc evehar* (Now I will arise, says the Lord, now I will be glorified, now I will be exalted). Now you will see, now you will perceive; vain will be the strength of your spirit, fire will devour you, and nations will be burnt up, as a thorn thrown into a field and burned.

The Only-begotten Word of God, existing in the form and equality of God and the Father, as being begotten of Him primarily and in an ineffable manner, emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant and being made in the likeness of men, humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. But when, having undergone the cross for the life of all, He revived again as God, then, yes then, He inflicted the punishment worthy of them upon those who had driven themselves to such impiety, so as not only to disobey Him even as He was calling them to life, but even to dare to insult Him ^B and scourge Him, and to inflict death itself upon Him. For the wicked perished wickedly, their cities being burned and their land utterly devastated. Then they learned the glory of Him who had suffered, and having fallen into such heavy and inevitable calamities, they barely came to know at last that it was not against one of the prophets that this impiety was wickedly perpetrated by them, but against the Savior and Redeemer of all Himself. As if the divine wrath were about to fall upon them immediately, *Now I will arise*, He says, says the Lord. For having been patient as God before the precious cross, having already suffered the things against Him, He almost rises up against His enemies. He was glorified and exalted, having delivered to destruction those who had fought against Him to the very end, and having called the nations through faith, and enlightened them with the intelligible and divine light, who were once in darkness and had their mind and breast enveloped by the mist of ignorance. Now, therefore, glorifica-

- ^B tion shall be mine, now you shall see, now you shall perceive; for the strength of your spirit shall be vain, that is, it shall end in nothing. For I shall overcome, and even against your will you shall become food for fire, like thorns in a field that are burned and cast away. They have been consumed, as I said, by the impulses of divine wrath. For as the blessed Moses says: “Our God is a consuming fire” (Deut. IV, 24).

VERS. 13. *Audient qui longe sunt quæ feci, scient qui prope sunt fortitudinem meam. Recesserunt qui in Sion erant iniqui, apprehendet enim tremor iniquos.* ^C

Our Lord Jesus Christ was indeed sent by God and the Father to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. For theirs were the promises, the laws, the covenant, and the fathers; and He remained throughout all Judea manifesting Himself, partly by using a doctrine above the law, and partly by striking them with divine wonders beyond reason. But this was altogether useless to the Jews, because of their great perversity of mind. For the Lord taught: but the Scribes and Pharisees, rebuking the hearers, said: “He has a demon, and is mad; why do you listen to Him?” (John X, 20). He rebuked evil and unclean spirits, and this with authority, as God: but they, truly slandering such a supernatural and ineffable power, dared to say: “This man does not cast out demons except by Beelzebul the prince of demons” (Matt. XII, 24). Hence they have been cast out, and most justly, as having no share in the hope in Him. And to these mysteries the Gentiles were brought in, and they received the saving and evangelical preaching. This, I think, He teaches, saying: *Audient qui longe sunt quæ feci.* For as far as the institution of the law was concerned, Israel was near: but the Gentiles had been removed from the knowledge and conjunction with God—namely, the spiritual [conjunction]—worshiping the creature above the Creator. But these, He says, shall hear what I have done, when Israel was unwilling to hear. *Scient qui propinqui sunt fortitudinem meam.* For not all Israel perished: but very many of them believed, and became as if near to God. Because they had already been instructed in the law, they recognized the power of God. For they believed that He had performed miracles, as God. But these, He says, shall know. ^D But those who are iniquitous in Sion have retreated and have become altogether devoid of the hope of the saints. Trembling shall also seize them, however remarkably impious they may be. For the experience of the calamities which have been inflicted upon them will suffice to repress their insolence henceforth.

VERS. 14. *Quis annuntiabit vobis, quod ignis ardeat? Quis annuntiabit vobis locum æternum?*

That they shall fall into bitter and unavoidable punishment, becoming food for the fire at the time of the future judgment, those who have acted impiously toward Christ, it demonstrates here. He said

indeed somewhere even He: "Amen, I say to you, he who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who ^A does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him." Therefore, for those who are of a hard heart, and who have chosen to disobey, He announces the eternal place, and that fire is prepared and is being kindled, and this perpetually. For as the prophet himself says again concerning those who are dead in their own offenses: "Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be a spectacle to all flesh."

VERS. 15-17. *Ambulans in justitia, loquens reclam viam, odio habens iniquitatem et injustitiam, et manus retrahens a muneribus, obturans aures, ne audiat judicium sanguinis, claudens oculos, ne videat injustitiam: hic habitabit in excelsa spelunca petrae fortis; panis ei dabitur, et aqua ejus fidelis. Regem cum gloria videbitis, et oculi vestri videbunt terram procul, anima vestra meditabitur timorem.*

He shows most beautifully that those who are involved in impiety against Christ are to go to the underworld to be punished and shall fall into the unquenchable flame. He fittingly adds, however, what makes it clear who they are that are to possess eternal life and who are to abound in His gifts, namely the divine and spiritual ones, in their own time. For he says, "Walking in justice," that is, he who cultivates the works of justice and has practiced an excellent life; and "he who speaks a straight way," that is, he who has on his tongue everything that leads to what is right; and he who hates injustice, and whoever is superior to greed and is an enemy of the corruption of gifts, and he who turns his ears away from the judgment of blood, and averts his eyes so that he might not look upon any unjust thing, ^B this man shall dwell in a high cave of a strong rock. For he shall be in safety, he says, and as if having his dwelling on a rock, unmoved, he shall find a state of permanence in all desirable things. And it is likely, I suppose, that the Lord our Jesus Christ is called "rock" for us through these words, in whom, as in a cave or a sheepfold, the Church is understood, having a safe and unshakable place to dwell. "For you are Peter," says the Savior, "and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." To him, therefore, he says, who dwells in such a rock, bread shall be given, and faithful water shall be supplied. For to those who dwell in the Church, the Bread of Life, Christ, is given by God and the Father, and indeed also the faithful water, namely that of holy baptism, which renders those who are deemed worthy of it faithful and steadfast. For the grace of holy baptism is given to those who have been purified through holy baptism. "But you, receiving the king," he says, "shall see Him with glory," that is, Christ. "You shall also see the land from afar," for they have not yet caught sight of the land of which the Savior says: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit..."

the land." Let us contemplate it, as it were, from afar with the eyes of the mind while it is still before us. For this reason we are accustomed to meditate on the fear of God, that we may be in it; and together with the other saints, being filled with the gifts through Christ, we glorify Him. ^A

VERS. 18, 19. "Where are the scribes? Where are the counselors? Where is he who numbers those who gather the small and great people?" To whom they gave no counsel, nor did he know the one having a deep voice, so that the despised people might not hear, and there is no understanding for the one who hears.

Having set forth the rewards of those who have embraced piety, he passes again to reproaching and justly bringing disgrace upon the teachers of the Jews, because they had unwisely fallen from that state in which they could have lived happily through the grace from above and abounded in all good things. For whereas they could have appeared better, had a pious zeal for virtue, and accepted the faith, the miserable ones did not do this, but rather, tumbling into worse things, they were entangled and seized in many ways. For although they had been accustomed always to speak of the law and to search curiously into the words of the holy prophets, so as to know God the Word who appeared to them in human form and shone upon the inhabitants of the earth, ^B they did not recognize Him, or perhaps even having recognized the mystery, they set upon Him bitterly. For having known the Son, who was sent by God and the Father after the servants, they said: "This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us have his inheritance." And indeed they did kill Him, so far as the power of their attempts reached, although He could not be held by the gates of Hades, inciting the subject people to this, and they cried out against Him, saying to Pilate: "Take him away, take him away, crucify him." For this reason, as guilty of the highest impiety and implicated in the crime of the Lord’s murder, they became strangers to the hope in Christ, were thrust out from the communion which is with God, and were precipitated into incurable calamities. He says therefore to them: "Where are the learned?"—that is, in what evils are they? He calls the scribes "grammarians" or "the learned." "Where are the counselors?" And who, pray, are these? They are the ones who were established in the priesthood, ^C concerning whom the law of Moses says: "For the lips of a priest will guard judgment, and they will seek the law from his mouth." For by the admonitions of the priests, the people who are under their hand are instructed. "Where, then, are the counselors? Where is he who numbers those who gather the small and great people?" Here, again, contemplate for me the pride-swollen scribes and priests, or Pharisees, who gathered the people under their hand against Christ, and collected crowds and assemblies of small and great people; who, surrounding the house of Pilate, demanded that the murderer Barabbas be granted to them, but that He who was guilty of no crime at all, Christ— ^D

^A for He committed no sin. Matthew and Mark, those blessed evangelists, make mention of this. For when Pilate said that Jesus, who had done nothing wrong, ought rather to be released to them at the feast, Matthew narrates that the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to destroy Jesus. And Mark, as I have said, also states this most clearly. Where, then, is he who counts those who are gathered together, both small and great? To whom they gave no counsel, neither did the despised people know the one who has a deep voice, so that they might not hear, for there is no understanding in the hearer. The structure of these words is extremely difficult, and the meaning within them is hard to discern. I will, however, explain it as best I can. For where, he says, is he who counts those who are gathered together, both small and great? To which people they gave no counsel. For as it seemed, the large multitude did not know Christ to be the Son of God, against whom they were shouting; they did this because those who did know—that is, the leaders—did not counsel them ^B rather to accept faith in Him. For the people did not know, he says, the one with the deep voice—that is, Christ. He calls Him "the one with the deep voice" because His words are hidden and given, as it were, in riddles and parables. And indeed, this is introduced through the lyre of the Psalmist as saying: "I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world." He also addressed the Jews through parables. Therefore, he says, they gave no counsel to the people, nor did they even know the one with the deep voice. And they gave no counsel, so that the despised people might not hear. For if they had counseled them, the despised people would not have heard. But blessed are they rather who have recognized the Redeemer. But, he says, there was no understanding ^C in the hearer. For the Jews, being senseless, did not judge the voices of their leaders, nor did they discern whether they were counseling things that were good or were doing the opposite.

"Behold Sion our city, our Salvation; your eyes shall see Jerusalem, a rich city, tabernacles that shall not be shaken, the pins of its tent shall not be moved for ever, nor shall its ropes be broken, for the name of the Lord is great to you. A place for you shall be, rivers and broad and spacious canals."

Having set forth in the midst the words of God which He spoke to the senseless scribes of the Jews and their impious counselors, the person of the lovers of truth is again introduced, those who have recognized the appearing of Christ and say: "Behold Sion the city, our Salvation." By these words, they signify either the Church on earth or, in the heavens, the supreme and beautiful city that nourishes the saints. Wherefore ^D whether one names this Church on earth or conceives of that one in the mind, the same thing will be signified by both. For they who have been in this lower one will, in the progress of time, exist also in that supreme and heavenly one. Therefore, since from great rejoicing they almost leap for joy, having recognized Sion, [our Savior’s…]

salvation, that is to say Christ, while they point it out to one another, the divine word immediately catches the voices from them and says: *Thy eyes shall see Jerusalem, a rich city.* He speaks as if from a similarity to the ancient tent that was in the desert. He calls Sion rich, and the tabernacle unshakable. For he confirms that it possesses unbroken cords and stakes fixed firmly forever. For the Church is supported, and is solid and immovable, and its dwelling is secure. *For the gates of hell,* he says, *shall not prevail against it.* And he delivers the cause for why it shall be of such a nature, and he says to those who have believed in Christ, *For the name of the Lord is great among you.* For to those who did not accept the faith, the name of Christ is neither great nor glorified; but among us who have believed, it is great and sublime. For we worship Him as God, as the Son truly of the Father, as the Word having become man for the salvation of all. This, therefore, he says, is the tent that remains forever, a place for you. For we have made the Church of Christ like a city, a figure ^B of that one above. *There shall be in it rivers and broad and spacious trenches.* By these words he signifies the holy evangelists, the apostles, and those who at various times preside over the Churches, who, like a river of water, irrigate the minds of believers, flooding them with the divine words, and instilling in them a bounteous consolation—it is clear that this is through the Holy Spirit. But all these rivers and trenches receive one from above, clearly Christ, of whom it is written: *The impetuous streams make glad the city of God.* And He Himself says somewhere through the voice of the prophet regarding His own worshippers: *Behold, I decline towards them like a river of peace, and like a torrent overflowing with the glory of the nations.*

VERS. 22. *Thou shalt not walk this way, nor shall a navigable ship pass. For my God is great. The Lord shall not pass by me. The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our prince, the Lord is our king; He Himself shall save us.* ^C

The discourse returns again to the person of the believers. For since he had made mention of rivers and trenches, therefore, and indeed very deservedly, he speaks as if of a ship. What, then, he means by this, I shall endeavor to make clear. For before the advent of our Savior, Satan was plundering the habitable world, with no one to restrain him. But after we were redeemed through Christ, and we inhabit the holy tabernacle—I mean the Church—we luxuriously enjoy the evangelical and apostolic words as if they were a feast, and we have become more courageous against him who was formerly able to plunder us; and because we believe that Christ will guard our hearts and will not permit the inventor of iniquity to enter into them, we address him: *Thou shalt not walk this way, nor shall a navigable ship* pass—that is to say, we shall not ^D

be exposed to your ravages anymore, nor will you be found in these rivers, like some inaudible ^A ship. But perhaps someone might say: "Whence do you dare to say this?" Certainly, he says, we have reason to be confident. For "My God is great, and He shall not pass by me"—that is, He shall not move past me, as Satan once did. I shall not be subject to his feet; for the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our ruler, the Lord is our king, the Lord Himself will save us. For that one—that most ill-tempered and cruel ruler—was once ours. But since we have submitted to the evangelical and saving yoke, we have found a judge, a ruler, a king, the Lord, this very Son, and He will save us. ^B The prophet Isaiah himself teaches this in another way, speaking concerning the Church of God and those justified by faith in Christ: "There shall be a pure way there, and it shall be called a holy way; and there shall not be there an unclean way, nor shall there be a lion there, nor shall any evil beast go up thereon. But the redeemed shall walk in it through the Lord."

Vers. 22, 23. *Thy ropes are broken, because they did not prevail. Thy mast has leaned, it shall not slacken the sails, it shall not lift a standard, until it is delivered to plunder.*

Having made mention of a ship and named a tabernacle, [the Word] resumes the interjected discourse of God, and says to the Jewish Synagogue—or rather, the tabernacle—"Thy ropes are broken, because they did not prevail." For He says that the ropes of the city of Sion, that wealthy city, shall not be broken for all time. For, as I said, our Lord Jesus Christ has founded His ^C Church upon a rock. But the ropes of the Jewish tabernacle were broken, inasmuch as they did not prevail. And just as when a violent wind is pouring down, the sails of a ship are stretched out and are by no means loosened—for the blast does not permit it—and yet it suffers shipwreck, so, he says, "thy mast has leaned, and thou shalt not slacken the sails." Therefore, as if taking an image from those who sail, he shows what happened to the Jewish Synagogue. "But neither shall it lift a standard," he says. "But it shall remain so until it is delivered to plunder." See, he uses this example as well, signifying to us in many ways the things that have happened to them. For it is customary for those who have conquered in war to lift a standard, ^D or to raise a trophy. But those who are defeated do not lift a standard. Therefore, he says, "It shall not lift a standard"—that is, it shall not be superior to its enemies, but shall rather be weaker, until it is delivered to plunder. Through all these things he signifies that it shall also lie under the feet of Satan and suffer shipwreck, and it shall never prevail against his wickedness—just as, indeed, those who dwell in the unshaken tabernacle do—but it shall rather be for plunder to him.

Vers. 24. *Therefore many lame shall take prey, and the people that dwell in them shall not say: I labor; for sin has been remitted to them.*

For the Jews, although they had been able to walk with a straight foot through the pedagogy of the Law, are delivered as plunder to Sa-

^A Satan. But the Gentiles, although they had a limping mind—for they had wandered and did not know how to walk in straight paths—will take plunder. For they will gain the things of God, conquering Satan. And that they will also have spiritual rest, having cast off the burdensome load of sin, he declares, saying: “Let not the people who dwell in them say, I am in labor; for the sin has been remitted to them.” For those who are of the blood of Israel, since sin weighed upon them—for they did not in any way accept the justifying grace—were deservedly given over to plunder, and found themselves as captives to the inventor of sin. But those who have come from the Gentiles, having become better than to be accused on account of sin—for it has been removed, as Christ wipes it away—will be within the reach of all delight, and will be free and exempt from every labor, with every trouble banished. The blessed David also makes mention of these, saying: “Blessed are they whose iniquities have been remitted, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” Although he who is accustomed to sin says: “My iniquities have passed over my head, like a heavy burden they have weighed upon me.” For the Law was ^B intolerable and merciless. And indeed Christ said: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you.”

CAP. XXIV. VERS. 1-4. Approach, you Gentiles, and listen, you princes. Let the earth hear, and those who are in it; the habitable world, and the people who are in it. For the fury of the Lord is upon all nations, and his wrath upon all their number, to destroy them, and to deliver them to slaughter. And their wounded shall be cast out, and their dead; and their stench shall rise, and the mountains shall be drenched with their blood. And the heaven shall be rolled up like a scroll, and all the stars shall fall as leaves from a vine, and as figs fall from the fig tree. My sword is made drunk in heaven.

Having spoken very beautifully of the fact that the Synagogue of the Jews would suffer shipwreck, and that it would be handed over to those who are to ravage it for plunder and conquest; and having ^C added to this the calling of the Gentiles—for “many who are lame,” he says, “will take plunder”—he proceeds to a necessary catechesis and instruction for those who once had a mind that limped, but now have learned to walk with a straight foot through faith in Christ. He therefore commemorates the judgment that is to come upon all, both small and great. Hence he speaks to the Gentiles as to those who are still standing far off: “Approach, you Gentiles, and listen, you princes.” He has used the word “approach” in place of “draw near.” For as long as they are in error and serve the creature above the Creator, they are set far from God. But when the cause for which they are said to be far off is removed, they are joined with God and are perceived as being near; they become partakers of Him, in that they are companions of the Holy Spirit. “Draw near therefore,” he says, “you Gentiles ^D and princes. And let the earth hear, and those who are in it,

^A and the whole world, and the people that are in it. And what is meant by this? For he says that wrath is impending over all those who are in it, and not simply or indiscriminately; rather, it shall come more especially upon those who have retained an unremovable sin, and have deep-seated in their own souls the filth resulting from their transgression. And that they shall perish, and be surrendered as it were to destruction and slaughter, and shall pollute the entire space as if with the bodies of the dead, the scheme of the discourse depicts. For he says, “The mountains shall be drenched with their blood.” Then, establishing the time of this, he brings into the midst the consummation of the world, and says: “The heaven shall be rolled up like a scroll, and the stars shall fall like leaves.” For as the disciple of the Savior has said concerning the last day: “In which the heavens shall pass away with a great rush, and the elements shall be dissolved with heat, and the earth and the works that are in it shall be burned up. But we expect new heavens and a new earth according to His promises.” Therefore, that the heaven is to be rolled up, and the stars are to fall, could signify the renovation of this universe. And the divine Paul also said that creation is to be delivered from the slavery of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. ^B When he adds, “My sword is made drunk in heaven,” he allows us to understand that the onrush of divine wrath will not come only against those upon the earth, but will run its course even against the impure spirits themselves, whom the Sacred Scriptures are accustomed to call “world-rulers of darkness” and “spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” For they shall be punished and, as it were, shall saturate the sword of God with the penalty that they endure, since they have exercised tyranny for long ages, and, as far as it depended on them, have destroyed the whole round world, paying the penalties for such notable impiety, and having lost all that they had ^C in the reckoning of the judgments.

VERS. 5, 6. Behold, it shall descend upon Idumea, and upon the people of destruction with judgment. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is fattened with the fat of lambs, and from the fat of bulls and rams.

From the general judgment he lowers the discourse to the punishment brought upon the Idumeans because of their impiety toward Christ. He calls Judea "Idumea," changing it only slightly so that he might appear also to be mocking it. For Esau, who was born of Isaac and who sold his birthright for a single meal, was justly called Edom, which is to say "earthly," for such were the affections that were in him; and from him those who came after him have been called Idumeans. For they also were earthly, and one might imagine that they had an earthly disposition, from the interpretation of the name, as I said. ^D Therefore, he calls Judea "Idumea," as one that did not know how to set its mind on things above, but rather settled upon earthly things and possessed a carnal disposition. Behold, therefore, he says, the sword that has become drunk in heaven shall descend now upon Judea, or Idumea, and upon the people of destruction; yet with judgment. And what people of destruction could there be other than Israel? For it did not desire to honor by faith the Redeemer. But the sword is drunk with judgment, or with just judgment, for it is not simply or without discrimination, and

as it were utterly, that Israel has perished, but the remnant has been saved through faith, namely that in Christ. For there were called from among the Jews no small number, and they have believed in Christ. But against the disobedient the sword of the Lord was filled with blood, that is to say, ^A His wrath, which all but slaughtered them, and as it were laid low certain rams and sturdy and fat bulls, of whom it might rightly be said by us: "Come now, you rich, weep, howling over your miseries that are coming upon you (Jas. v, 1)." And we shall add to these that which follows: "You have lived in luxury and debauchery upon the earth; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter." For such were the leaders of the Jews, grazing in a way on a fat and spacious place, from the revenues of the people, grown obese as it were with every honor. But as rams and bulls they have fallen, having, ^B poor wretches, rushed into the sword of the Lord.

VERS. 7. *For there is a sacrifice in Bosor to the Lord, and a great slaughter in Idumea; and the sturdy shall fall with them, and the rams and the bulls, and the earth shall be drunken with their blood, and shall be filled with their fat.*

Bosor is interpreted as "distress," and "fortification," and "good tidings," and, indeed, "flesh." He calls Idumea "Bosor," therefore, that you may understand it as "fleshy," or "distressed"—that is, "besieged"—or as "good tidings," for Christ proclaimed good tidings in it. I might also add that it signifies "fortification," for the Lord was in its circuit and in the circuit of His people, as it is written. But, he says, in this very place there is a sacrifice to the Lord. For they have been sacrificed by the swords of those who besieged them, and not as ascending to God in an odor of sweetness, but for the satiation of the sword that smites them. ^C That not only the multitude in Idumea is to be destroyed, but that there shall be a very great and miserable slaughter of the notable men among them, he enigmatically implies by saying that the "sturdy," and the "rams," and the "bulls" shall fall with them, and that "the earth shall be drunken with their blood, and shall be filled with their fat." He says these things as though speaking of bulls and rams cast upon the ground, and pouring out much blood, in that they flow out and all but irrigate the earth.

VERS. 8-11. *For it is the day of the Lord's judgment, and the year of retribution for the judgment of Sion. And her valleys shall be turned into pitch, and her earth into sulphur. And her earth shall be burning like pitch by night and by day, ^D and it shall not be quenched for all time, and her smoke shall ascend upwards. It shall be deserted for generations, and birds, and hedgehogs, and ibises, and ravens shall dwell in it; and the measuring line of desolation shall be cast upon it, and onocentaurs shall dwell therein.*

^A He sets forth more clearly in these words what he had spoken through riddles. For He names Sion, to which He says the day of judgment and the year of requital are impending, when, as if pitch and sulphur had been poured out upon their whole region, they shall be consumed by unsoftened fire and shall have restless flames. And perhaps it is reasonable to understand the smoke that rises as the rumor, as it were, of the afflictions, which signifies to those who are far away the magnitude of the calamity that has been inflicted upon them. He says it will be deserted for generations, and he tells of the things that happen to deserted cities. For He says that birds, and hedgehogs, and ibises, and ravens shall dwell in it; and that it will be measured out into a wilderness, with onocentaurs dwelling therein. He calls the wild asses "onocentaurs," to whom it is indeed a favorite dwelling-place to make their home in the entirely desolate regions. And by hedgehogs, he refers to the mice that are covered with spines. But if anyone should choose to take a deeper contemplation upon these things, we say that minds that are deserted and, as it were, isolated from men—because God, the Lord of all, does not dwell in them through the Spirit—shall be fed upon by wicked beasts, and impure spirits shall dwell there, as in the form of the aforementioned hedgehogs, and ravens, and wild asses.

^B His princes shall not be, for her kings and her princes, and her magnates shall be for destruction.

Having spoken of pillars and rams and bulls in the preceding passages—by which he meant the leaders of the Jews, that is, those who had attained to conspicuous glory, either by way of the priesthood or because they had become great in wealth and splendor—he calls them princes in these words, designating them by a clearer term. Therefore, he says, those who were once their kings, and the princes, and the magnates shall not be. For they shall no longer revel in powers over everyone, nor indeed shall they lift up their eyebrows in vain, luxuriating in such highly exalted honors; but they shall be thrust from their thrones and their principate, and, having fallen as it were from royalty and been cast down from authority, they shall go away into destruction together with the others who perished through them. For they became the cause of ruin to the people committed to their hand. And God, the Lord of all, will teach this, saying: "Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have defiled my portion." They have given my desirable portion into an untrodden wilderness. It has been brought to a most miserable ruin.

^C And thorn-wood shall spring up in their cities, and in its strongholds; and it shall be a habitation of sirens, and a court for ostriches. And demons shall meet with onocentaurs, and one shall call to another; there shall onocentaurs rest. For they have found for themselves a resting place; there the hedgehog has made its nest.

Again, in another way, he attempts to clarify for us the things that happen in wildernesses. For as long as cities are filled with a multitude of men, no wild wood—

^A grows therein; but those beasts that delight in deserts also depart. When, however, they become void of men and stripped of inhabitants, then the land will be found to be like a certain uncultivated tract, full of thorns, and a dwelling-place for ostriches and especially for sirens. By "sirens" he means those birds that emit a mournful voice by night and all but wail; creatures that by day are solitary and abide in desert places, but rather fly in the darkness, such as the owl and the like. Now, that demons and onocentaurs meet one another and clamor, the one to the other, hints at the extreme desolation of the cities. For evil spirits are said to dwell willingly in lonely places; and even the wild beasts, which desire with great intensity to be away from men and are by the law of nature inclined to savagery, most gladly resort thither.

VERS. 15-17. *And the land saved its children with security: there the harts met, and saw the faces of one another. They passed over by number, and not one of them perished; one did not seek another, because the Lord commanded them, and His spirit gathered them. And He Himself will cast lots for them, and His hand divided to them to feed. For an eternal time you shall inherit it, in all ages they shall rest upon it.*

When he has said that the region of the Jews is to be delivered into extreme desolation, and is to be utterly destitute of help from above and of divine mercy and love, he again makes mention of those who have been saved ^C therein. These may be the remnant, namely the faithful. And concerning them he says here: *The land saved its children with security.* For the believing Israelites were the children of the Jewish region, finding security and, as it were, an immovable tower of assistance in our Lord Jesus Christ. From these children who have been saved, the divine disciples have in a certain way been produced as harts; and they are compared to harts, and most deservedly so. For the animal is a serpent-killer, and is accustomed to frequent springs of water often and gladly. Such are all those who have been taken into the lot of divine religion, equipped and fit to overthrow the intelligible dragon, subverting his glory and rendering the poison of his wickedness infirm and ineffectual. But they also revel in the springs of water—that is, in the conceptual waters, the ministries of spiritual goods—as it were watering the mind and rendering it fruitful to God. There, then, ^D he says—that is, among those who have been saved—*the harts met one another, and admired themselves.* For this, I imagine, is the meaning of *they saw the faces of one another.* No one was endangered, for this is what is meant by *they passed over by number, and not one of them perished; one did not seek another.* Who, then, is the one who saved them? *The Lord commanded them, and His spirit*

^A gathered them, and commanded [him] to disciple all the nations, and to baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. His hand also cast lots for them, and He divided [them] to be pastured for an eternal time. For they were distributed to the holy apostles as certain lots, according to which each one ought to preach. Thus the inspired Peter indeed was stationed for the circumcision; yet the Spirit also uttered a word, saying: *Separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them*, and they became apostles of the nations. His hand, therefore, divided for them lots, so that they might be pastured for an eternal time. For since He had made mention of harts, He has necessarily added the [phrase] *to be pastured*; for they did not merely browse the regions, but rather delighted themselves in those who through faith were called to the knowledge of the truth—and this, for them, was their lot. Thus, the inspired Paul also spoke to those saved through him, saying: *My joy and crown.* And that this boasting in them shall be kept for them by God without end, he clarifies by saying: *They shall rest upon it.* Upon which, indeed? Obviously, upon the inheritance distributed to them by God. It is also necessary to keep in mind what the blessed psalmist David said concerning them: *The voice of the Lord [prepares the harts], and He shall reveal the forests.* For the forests were demonstrated by God to be ^B for the intelligible harts—the multitude of the nations, greater than count, which were distributed to them, they conceptually grazing upon the gentleness of those who believe.

CHAPTER XXXV. VERSES 1, 2. Let the thirsty desert rejoice; let the wilderness exult, and bloom as the lily. The desert places of the Jordan shall bloom and exult; and the glory of Libanus has been given to it, and the honor of Carmel. And my people shall see the glory of the Lord, and the height of our God.

The divinely inspired Scripture is accustomed to call the Church of the nations "desert" and "barren," which once had been among them: not having the intelligible bridegroom from heaven—I mean Christ—but laboring in the lack of all good things, and being as it were a nurse of thorns, thirsty and without water. But since Christ came to be in her (for He was accepted through faith, and she was enriched by His divine stream: for He is the fountain of life and the torrent of luxury, and He Himself was the one saying through one of the holy prophets: *Behold, I incline toward them as a river of peace, and as a torrent overflowing with the glory of the nations*), she was no longer barren and a desert; but rather ^C very fruitful, and under a bridegroom, and conceptually blooming. Therefore, let her who was formerly thirsty now rejoice, he says; let her bloom also as a lily, having both the flowery state and the fragrance together. For she has become the fragrance of Christ, and Paul will confirm this, writing that *we are the sweet fragrance of Christ to God.* But by the "desert places of the Jordan," he means the desert round about it. For the river of the Jordan was not given to the rebellious Israelites, but to us, the nations, and to those among them who believe; it is with us, for we are baptized in it, and, as I said, it is our holy spring. Therefore, in this desert, he says, which was formerly thirsty, but now has acquired the famous Jordan, the glory of Libanus has been given to it, and the honor of Carmel.

Libanus and Carmel are often called Jerusalem, and the very temple of God. But glory worthy of the holy city and the divine temple has been given ^A to the Church of the Gentiles: and in it we have seen the glory of the Lord, and the height of God. For the Jews were brought to the Lord as if to a naked man, having nothing more remarkable than others; but we have seen the height of His glory. For we know Him to be God, who for our sake, by dispensation and providence, became man, and thus is God.

VERS. 3-6. *Be strengthened, ye slackened hands, and ye weakened knees. Be comforted, ye pusillanimous; be strengthened, fear not. Behold, our God shall render judgment and will render: He Himself shall come and save us. Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be plain.*

Digna is the mystagogy, and spiritual consolation to those who from the Gentiles have been called to the knowledge of Christ: *Be strengthened, ye slackened hands, and ye weakened knees.* For to those who still wander, hands are sluggish, and knees are enfeebled. Nor does He always say these things of the parts of the body, but we shall find the infirm in mind and intelligence who are deceived, and who dwell in errors. For it is not possible to find any work of piety among them, nor firmness of knees, that is, of the mind, walking in a pure way in justice. But "be robust," He says, so that you may be able to run to God. But you who are, as it were, ordained to the ministry of divine preaching, comfort the infirm, say wisely to those who are endowed with a small spirit: *Be strengthened, fear not.* For the mind is not robust in those who know not God; for they fear as if they were [subject to] the impressions of afflictions, and Satan, who once occupied tyranny against them, and furthermore, death. But behold, He says, God, that is, not long after, the Savior, who shall render judgment. For He shall condemn the prince of this world, and shall deliver from the servitude under him those who were oppressed. For He shall come, He shall come and save us. What then? He shall come then to those who are upon the earth. *The eyes of the blind shall be opened:* for those who formerly served the creature beyond the Creator, shall make that very creature, which once seduced them, a kind of guide, beautifully leading them to the knowledge of the Maker. For from the beauty of the workmanship, the architect of them is analogically perceived: and, as Paul says, *His invisible things, from the creation of the world, by the things that are made, are understood and seen, even His eternal power and divinity.* ^D Therefore, He says, the eyes of those who were once blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf shall hear. For those who formerly, having rejected the divine discourses, did not study to receive the mystical instruction of the saints, will willingly admit it. *The lame man also shall leap as a hart, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be plain.* For indeed, as He says, those who formerly knew not how to stand with a right foot, but were as it were of a slack mind, shall leap in the manner of harts, that is,

they shall be agile of course and firm of limb—intellectually, of course—and furthermore, they shall be killers of serpents and skilled in speaking well. For they shall speak of divine things, no longer saying to the wood, "You are my father," and to the stone, "You begat me." It must be known also that Christ fulfilled these things corporeally as well, astounding Judæa with ineffable miracles. ^B

VERS. 7. *Because water has broken forth in the desert, and a valley in the thirsty land.*

He has commanded the thirsty wilderness to rejoice; then he immediately subjoins the cause of the joy. For water, he says, has broken forth in it. And it is well said that it "broken forth," so that the abundance of the provision might be signified thereby. He speaks of a valley in place of a river; which having occurred, the land that was once without water shall henceforth be turned into marshes. It shall have also a fountain of water, either the holy Jordan, or even the Saviour of all, Christ Himself; for He is the fountain of life and the well of living water. Among them there has occurred the gathering and joy of the birds. By "birds," he means those who fly above earthly things, and who are elevated through virtue, and choose to mind the things that are above; these rejoice in Christ as in a fountain, who has made the desert a fold of reed and marshes. ^C For water-laden places are always wont to be adorned, as it were, with marshes. And the Church of the Gentiles, enriched with the heavenly stream, and watered with divine gifts, and abounding in the, teaching of the saints and, as it were, lush, is a nurse of marshes and reeds, that is, of those who in Christ are flourishing unto life eternal through sanctification.

VERS. 8-10. *There shall be a pure way, and it shall be called a holy way, and the unclean shall not pass through it: nor shall there be an unclean way; but the dispersed shall walk in it, and shall not err. And there shall be no lion there, nor shall any evil beast ascend to it, nor be found there: but the redeemed by the Lord shall walk in it, and the gathered shall return, and shall come to Sion with joy, and everlasting joy shall be upon their head. For upon their head shall be praise and exultation, and joy shall overtake them; pain, and sorrow, and sighing have fled away.*

He calls the power of the evangelical life a pure way, or otherwise, the purification through the Spirit. ^D For it wipes away the stain impressed upon the souls of men, and absolves them from transgressions, and renders them superior to every defilement. The way, therefore, is holy and pure, and rightfully so named, but it is inaccessible to those who are not yet cleansed. For no one lives according to the Gospel who has not first been enriched with the cleansing through holy baptism; hence no unbeliever does so. For these, he says, are the unclean who shall walk therein; but rather the "dispersed" shall walk in it, that is, those whom Satan has scattered—he implies, indeed, the Gentiles; and they shall not err. For of old they were indeed erring,

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serving wood and stone, and persisting in crooked paths. But now they shall learn the path that is straight and pure, leading to a holy life. That they will be free from the diabolical way, and carry out this glorious life, he indicates clearly and plainly, saying: "Neither shall there be a lion, nor any other evil beast there," that is, on the pure way. For formerly, the inventor of sin, like some wild beast, leaped upon the inhabitants of the earth along with the unholy spirits; but he has been broken by Christ, and has been driven away from the flock of believers, and has been expelled by Christ from his tyranny against them. In this pure way, therefore, those redeemed through Christ, and gathered together through faith, shall unite in a single harmony of souls; and leaving behind their old path, they shall be converted and shall come to Sion, that is, to the Church, possessing everlasting joy both on earth and in heaven. ^A For they shall praise God who saved them. Exultation and gladness, and every kind of delight in Christ, shall seize them, and they shall taste absolutely no pain or groaning. For those who have been called to such a great hope, who are to be heirs of eternal life, and are to be enriched with the ornaments of the glory from above, and who await ruling together with Christ himself, what pain could they perceive? Or what groaning could they receive? Since the God of all is about to destroy and lay waste the evil beasts. ^B Rather, they shall rejoice, as those who are destined to be partakers of all good things in every way and by all means.

TOMUS IV

[c]CAP. XXXVI. VERS. 1, 2. And it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, that Sennacherib the king of Assyria came up against the fenced cities of Judea, and took them. And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem unto King Hezekiah with a great army, and he stood in the conduit of the upper pool, in the way of the fuller's field.[c]

The history is known to all students; nevertheless, I will explain it with a few words, as well as I can. While Ahaz was reigning in Jerusalem, and when Pekah, the son of Remaliah, and Rezin, the king of Syria, were pressing Judea with a siege, and were thinking of laying hands on Jerusalem itself, he whom I ^D have mentioned, being not strong enough to resist, sent messengers and called the king of the Assyrians, Tiglath-Pileser, to his aid; and with many gifts he persuaded him to bring him help, and to restrain the violence of the kings who had conspired against him—the one of Samaria, I mean, and the one of Syria. This having been done, those who were warring against him perished. For the Assyrian took Damascus and Syria, and they were reduced into his power and authority, and Ahaz was forced to pay tribute and taxes from then on. Now he was most impious, being a worshipper of idols and a hater of God,

^A and perhaps he had surpassed all others in his perversities against God. When Ahaz had departed from human life, Hezekiah succeeded to his kingdom, being his son, yet a man who loved God, and having attained the glory of the highest justice and piety. He revolted, it is said, against the king of the Assyrians. For he did not endure that his own kingdom should be held under tribute, as in truth Ahaz had. For this reason, Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians—as one who thought he ought to hold all of Judea under tribute, and their kingdom itself—was inflamed with rage. Having devastated Samaria, he led his army also against the cities of Judea; and having captured many, he finally sent the Rabshakeh to Jerusalem itself: not that he might then move arms according to the law of war, but that he might ensnare the common people with both threats and alluring promises. ^B

VERS. 3–6. *And there went out to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, the steward, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder. And the Rabshakeh said to them: Say to Hezekiah: Thus saith the king, the great king of the Assyrians: Is it in counsel or words of lips that the battle is waged? And now in whom dost thou trust, that thou disobeyest me? Behold, thou trustest upon this staff of a reed, this broken one, upon Egypt, upon which if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all that trust in him.*

The gates being closed, evidently, and the people standing on the walls—and it was always the most valiant who performed the office of embassy—the chosen ones of the king went out to the Rabshakeh, and those who were superior in priestly standing. But he, ^C being endowed with Persian cruelty, and having a mouth speaking great things, according to what is written, set himself boldly against the glory of God. And he names Hezekiah by his bare name, without adding "king," not observing any other of the things that are most appropriate for men of such dignity. But the king of the Assyrians he does not call just this simply, but even calls him "great." And he says: "Is it in counsel or words of lips that the battle is waged?" For because the Jews, having the law given through Moses, were deemed wiser than the other nations—and they used to say, "Blessed are we, O Israel, because the things that are pleasing to God are known to us"—the Rabshakeh reduces to nothing the boast in this, when war and battle are at hand, saying that it would be entirely useless for their aid, ^D and that knowledge of the laws, and understanding, and whatever depends solely on counsel or words, is as it were practiced. And since some of the kings of Judea had called the arm of the Egyptians to their aid (and that was indeed a base thing to do), the Assyrian thought that now too Hezekiah had not placed his trust in God, but in certain others, especially those who hold the land of the Egyptians. For this reason he also names it a "staff of a reed." For, he says, the hope in them is always weak and fragile, and

^A causes harm rather than being able to help those who use it; just as, indeed, a reed staff, if one were to lean upon it, would certainly shatter, and it would injure the one who trusted in it.

VERS. 7-9. *But if you say: We trust in the Lord our God: now intermingle with my lord the king of the Assyrians, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to provide riders for them. And how can you compare yourselves even before one toparch?*

He prattles on again with an unbridled mouth, and lifts his horn on high, and speaks unjustly against God. For if, he says, you trust in Him, intermingle with my lord; that is, take up arms and stand ready for battle. "I myself will add two thousand horses for you, and this," he says, "will be sufficient proof that you will prevail over the hand of the Assyrians, if you can find those who will mount them or are at all skilled in cavalry warfare." Then, since you cannot even fulfill this, how will you prevail over one toparch? For the empire of the Assyrians is divided, and the one who is greatest of all has kings subject to him, who are also called toparchs.

VERS. 10. *They are servants who trust in the Egyptians, in horse and rider. And now, has not my lord come up without the Lord against this land to attack it? The Lord said to me: Go up against this land, and destroy it.*

He cuts off and removes all hope in the Egyptians, saying that those who trust in them are already to be numbered among servants. For, he says, those who trust in horse and rider will be easily captured. Then he utters something bitter—and as if from his own malice—asserting that he does not take up the war against Judea without the Lord. For if, he says, as you yourselves say, the God among you is great and most mighty, and champions the land, how did we come up against it? For if we have surpassed the strength of the one defending it, he is not great, but rather small and unwarlike. But if he is great and powerful, we are not hindered, if we wish, from ravaging Judea: we have not come up against it without the Lord.

VERS. 11, 12. *And Eliakim said to him, and Somnas the scribe, and Joach: Speak to your servants in Syrian, for we understand it; and do not speak to us in Judaic. And why do you speak into the ears of the men upon the wall? But Rabsaces said to them: Did my lord send me to your lord, or to you, to speak these words? Is it not to the men sitting upon the wall, that they may eat their dung and drink their urine with you?*

The common people are always easily alarmed, and very prone to contempt, especially when war is building, when slaughter is expected, or the burning of the city. Hence, those who have the discussion with Rabsaces most prudently say that he ought not to speak in Judaic, but rather ought to use the language of the Syrians. They were unwilling...

^A that he should instill into the ears of the common people words full of barbaric arrogance, although King Ezechias was exhorting them to courage, and saying clearly ^B that the Lord was with them, and that for those who trust in God there is unshakable hope, while things human are easily shaken, and are nothing at all in comparison to His power. But Rabsaces understands this, and he is not ignorant of the reason why he is forbidden to speak in Judaic. Hence he says that the purpose of this coming was not to them, nor to the king, but that he might argue with those on the wall. He is insulting again, and belches forth words from an impure heart, saying that for this reason they sit on the wall and guard the city, that because of the lack of bread and water they might be led to such necessity that they would make that which is loathsome even to dogs their own food and drink.

^B VERS. 13-17. And Rabsaces stood and cried with a loud voice in Judaic, and said: Hear the words of the great king, the king of the Assyrians. Thus says the king: Let not Ezechias deceive you with words that will not be able to deliver you, nor let Ezechias say to you: God will deliver you, and this city shall not be given into the hands of the king of the Assyrians. Do not listen to Ezechias. Thus says the king of the Assyrians: If you wish to be blessed, come out to me, and eat each man of his own vine, and of his own fig tree, and drink the water of your cistern until I come and take you to a land that is as your land, a land of grain and wine, and of bread and vineyards.

He now directs his words toward those who were sitting upon the ramparts, prepared to resist those who wished to besiege them; ^C he calls the Assyrian the great king over and over, and belittles the hope placed in God, and calls Ezechias a liar and a deceiver, for saying that it is better to rest in God, and that the assaults of men are by no means to be feared, since He is there to assist. Finally, he promises those who defect to him that they will be in their own possessions for a time—for this is what "until I come and take you" means—and will enjoy their own fields. He mitigates the horror of captivity, as it were, and covers the harshness of the matter with deceitful words, ^D adding: "Until I come and take you to a land that is as your land." For he compares the land of the Assyrians to the land of the Jews, saying as it were: Even if you abandon Judea and come to us, you will nevertheless find your own land. For it is a land of grain and wine, and of bread and vineyards, this region of the Persians and Assyrians.

VERS. 18-21. Let not Ezechias deceive you, saying: God will deliver you. Have the gods of the nations delivered each his own region from the hand of the king of the Assyrians? Where is the god of Emath and Arphath? And where is the god of the city of Seppharim? Were they able to deliver Samaria from my hand? Who among all the gods of these nations has delivered his land out of my hand?

^A And they were silent, and no one answered him a word, because the king had commanded that nothing should be answered.

Rabsaces once again behaves like a barbarian in his mind, and becomes burdensome with words against God, and he thinks highly of himself because the king of the Assyrians has captured many cities of the nations, and not one of them was saved by those falsely-named gods who were in it. But he did not know that those were wood and stone, and the clever craft of human hands, and nothing more. But the God of Judea, or rather the God of the whole world, is a living and true God, not recently fashioned, but rather the maker of the ages themselves, and the creator of all things, and the Lord of hosts. Rabsaces therefore thinks ^B that it will be a most evident proof to the Jews that they will be captured completely and utterly, even if the great God brings them help, because none of the gods of the Greeks has been able to save the city or the region in which he was honored. For this reason he says, "Where is the god of Emath and Arphath?" And he adds, "Were they able to deliver Samaria from my hand?" But, O most wretched one, I would say, they themselves also worshiped golden calves, and the region was captured because God withdrew his aid. And, as I have said before, if none of the gods of the Greeks has saved his own, this pertains nothing at all to the God who is truly and by nature great. For those things obtained their being through human art, so that they might only appear to be; but this one rules over all, and has an unconquerable hand, as being the Lord of hosts. No one answers Rabsaces, because the king had ordered silence, and most wisely. For to ignorant words, and to barbarian arrogance, and to insolence against God, it was more appropriate to weep than to make a retort. And this, I think, teaches the blessed David, saying: "I set a guard for my mouth, when the sinner stood against me; I became deaf and humbled and was silent from good things."

CHAPTER XXXVII. VERSE 1.

On account of the boasting of Rabsaces, and his unbridled prattling ^C of tongue against God, they who were sent to him rend their garments, and announce to the king the foul utterances spoken with such extreme Persian madness. But he rent his robe, and clothed himself in sackcloth, that is, a garment of mourning, and, he says, went up into the house of the Lord. And what was the reason for rending their garments? It was the custom among the Jews to do this upon blasphemies and insults spoken against God. For tradition tells that the Savior

^A was delivered to the Jewish rulers, and the Judge of the world was judged by them. But He kept silence, not answering the voices of those who bore false witness. Then the high priest says to Him: "I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God?" Jesus says to him: "You have said it. Nevertheless I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven." Then the high priest tore his garments, saying: "He has blasphemed." ^B And God of the universe also said through one of the prophets to the blood of Israel: "Rend your hearts, and not your garments." For perhaps they supposed they were acting piously and delighting God with the highest honors by tearing their tunics upon blasphemies against Him, even if they disregarded the prophecies of Moses. But Hezekiah put on sackcloth—that is, a mourning garment—and he goes up to the house of God, and very rightly so. For it is consistent to mourn, and to weep, and to be afflicted for those who are in the greatest danger and at the very peak of evils, and to make God the hope of salvation, and to sit ^C and adhere to Him, where one might most fittingly pour out prayers to Him.

And he sent Eliakim the steward, and Shebna the scribe, and the seniors of the priests clothed in sackcloth to Isaiah the son of Amoz the prophet, and they said to him: "Thus says Hezekiah: This day is a day of affliction, and reproach, and rebuke, and wrath; for the pang has come to the woman in labor, but she has no strength to deliver. If perhaps the Lord your God might hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria sent to reproach the living God, and to reproach the words that the Lord ^D your God heard, and you will pray to the Lord your God for these who are left."

He commands those preeminent in the priesthood and adorned by the law with the highest honors to go, along with the others, to the blessed prophet Isaiah—not dressed in sacred vestments, and those more suitable to the ministry, but rather in sackcloths, that is, mourning garments—in order to report that a day of affliction has fallen upon them. For he says as much as that God reproaches the inhabitants of the holy city, as if those who had neglected the righteousness and moderation prescribed in the law; and He rebukes the transgressors, and thus brings in the signs of wrath. And they openly affirm that their affairs have come to such a state that Israel is like a woman in labor, who is tortured with extreme pains because she is unable to deliver. And he wishes that the God of the universe, through the intercession of the prophet, might hear the words of Rabshakeh, which He heard by Himself. For it escapes Him—that is, the emptiness of those things—as if, with many buildings already destroyed in other cities...

^A their houses having been burned, “Pray,” he says, “for these that are left.” Hezekiah is very pious, invoking as an assistant him who is held in honor by God, namely, the prophet. It is profitable, therefore, to fall to one’s knees before God while holy men are assisting. For He yields on their account, and often has pity even on the tears of the slothful.

VERS. 5-7. *And Isaiah said to them: Thus shall you say to your lord: Thus says the Lord: Be not afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the ambassadors of the king of the Assyrians have blasphemed Me. Behold, I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a report and return to his own land, and he shall fall by the sword in his own land.*

God confirms and refreshes him who trusts in Him, and not long after, but immediately and at once, reveals to him an expectant hope. And it did not lack its reward that he ran to the house of God and at the same time, with his prayers, also shed tears of sorrow. Thus the most humane Lord of all is appeased. For since Rabshakeh had cut off from the Israelites all hope of salvation—even if God, who has power over all things, were willing to save them—he was impiously saying: “Let not Hezekiah deceive you, that God will deliver Jerusalem from my hand. Did the gods of those nations deliver each his own land from my hand?” Hence, not without cause does He set them free from these terrors, and does not permit them to be cast down by cold and old wives’ tales and barbaric flippancy, but rather He raises them to the most desired hope, when He says that he will cause the proud tyrant, willy-nilly, to be brought back into his own lands by ^B an evil spirit terrifying him, casting into him an intolerable fear concerning his own kingdom, and that he will fall by the sword, not while in danger in a foreign land, nor exulting in the slaughter of enemies, or enriched with splendid honors for his bravery against his foes, but in his own land, and that, contrary to hope and expectation, he is called into peril by those by whom it was fitting he should be saved. Who these are, we shall see from what follows.

VERS. 8-13.

^A Once Lachish was captured and brought under the barbarous power, Libnah was besieged thereafter; it is said that the Assyrian found Rabsaces there, and he was greatly distressed: for Tharatha, king of the Ethiopians, had campaigned against him. Then, fearing that while he was seizing some other region, he might be stripped of his own most beautiful territories, he abandoned Judea and made haste to his own country; yet he did not relax the cruelty that was in him. Being inflamed with uncontrolled rage—perhaps for the reason that the children of Israel, that is, those living in the holy city, had not wished to defect to him, even after being persuaded by the words of Rabsaces—the wretch once again spoke recklessly against the glory of God; and he ordered some of his servants to go at a run to Hezekiah and report those things on his behalf. These were blasphemies against God, clearly saying that since the gods of other lands—or nations—had perished together with those who worshipped them, the God of the Hebrews would not be able to rescue them either, or deliver them from the hand of the Assyrians. Then he enumerates the cities that had been laid waste, which it is likely had possessed much power, from which others had suffered; through these very things he was striking terror into those who had trusted in the God who rules over all, as if they were already about to die.

Vers. 14-17. *And Hezekiah took the book from the messengers, and opened it before the Lord; and Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying: O Lord Sabaoth, God of Israel, who sittest upon the Cherubim, thou alone art the God of every kingdom of the inhabited world. Thou hast made the heaven and the earth. Hearken, O Lord, look upon us, O Lord, and see, and hear the words which Sennacherim has sent to blaspheme the living God.*

^B Out of an exceeding great piety toward God, he unfolds the book before God, not as if to one who was ignorant of the magnitude of Sennacherim's arrogance, but rather to cry out against that barbarous madness, and to make the Lord who rules over all a witness to the audacity and hard-mouthed impudence of that man. And see how he opposes the words of Sennacherim, presenting this supplication. For that man, as much as lay in his power, was assailing the majesty of God, saying: "Let not your God, in whom you trust, deceive you, saying: Jerusalem shall not be handed over into the hands of the king of the Assyrians." But he confesses the magnitude of His authority, naming Him Lord Sabaoth, and God of Israel, and superior to all creation, both the heavenly and the rational. "For you are," he says, "he who sits upon the Cherubim." He further confesses that even if some are called kings on earth, this one is by nature and in truth the King, and has all things under his feet; that he is the one and only Creator of earth and heaven, and by a nod sustains things that once were not. He entreats Him to hearken and to look upon this—that is, not to overlook or pass by such bitter blasphemies, but to punish the wicked man justly. ^C For he has blasphemed the living God, he says—that is, one who is in no way like the gods of the nations, to whom that man, in his audacity, was impiously comparing Him.

^A For in truth the kings of the Assyrians have laid waste the whole world and their land, and have cast their idols into the fire. For they were not gods, but works of men’s hands, wood and stone, and they destroyed them. But do Thou, O Lord our God, save us from their hands, that every kingdom of the earth may know that Thou art God alone.

"I have heard," he says, "the barbarian saying: 'Have the gods of the nations delivered, each one his own land, from my hand?'" And if anyone should say this, I praise it and I believe it. For they have conquered all the earth and burned the cities, the falsely-named gods having been able to provide no help whatever, for they saved no one. For how, or whence, could they—made of wood and stone and being the work of the stonemason's art and the handiwork of carpenters? Hence, they perished together with their own worshippers. But do Thou save us, O Master. For this, too, will be a proof, and will persuade all under heaven how it behooves them to be disposed, and firmly that Thou alone art God. For just as the subduing of the nations' lands bore witness against the falsely-named gods that they were nothing at all, so too the fleeing and escaping of Jerusalem from his hand—which is subject to Thee and is Thine—will manifest, as it were, and make clear to all men everywhere the declaration of Thy power and most pure glory, and that Thou alone art God in heaven and on earth.

VERS. 21. *And Isaiah the son of Amos was sent to Hezekiah, and said to him: Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: I have heard what thou hast prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of the Assyrians.*

He does not keep the help far off, but it is near, and as it were at the feet of the prayer and petition of those who have made their request. For the prophet is sent, who before these things had been silent regarding the barbarian, and had not reported this calculation and judgment of God against him: "Thus saith," he says, "the Lord God of Israel." He encourages the believer, and he does not say that one of the falsely-named gods has sent him, but, calling him to a good hope, he names Him Lord and God of Israel. He praises and in a certain way approves, saying: "I have heard what thou hast prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of the Assyrians." For I truly prove, he says, this zeal and affection; I know the piety: thou couldst not endure this blasphemy and malediction against Me, and thou didst approach weeping, and as it were grieving in My name, and didst make thy sorrow the insults ^{B C} that were cast upon Me. Most worthy of praise, therefore, is the zeal of the saints; and when they grieve because the glory of God is assailed with contumelies and maledictions, God is gladdened.

VERS. 22, 23. *This is the word which God has spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Sion despises thee and mocks thee; the daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head at thee. Whom hast thou reproached and provoked? Or against whom hast thou lifted up thy voice? And thou hast not lifted up thy eyes on high to the Holy One of Israel, because by messengers thou hast reproached the Lord.*

He sets forth next the calculation and judgment against the barbarian.

and says that the virgin daughter of Sion, that is to say Jerusalem, will mock him and shake her head at him. We say that he calls Sion, or Jerusalem, both a virgin and a daughter: a virgin, inasmuch as she is undefiled and uninfected by the stain of loathsome idolatry; and a daughter, in that she has received from him the affection which a father owes to his own children. She treated the Assyrian with scorn, or in a manner shook her head at him; for she laughed at the defeated man, and turned his calamities into a ditty and a harmonious song. Then she says to him: Whom hast thou reproached and provoked? Or against whom hast thou raised thy voice? For didst thou offend one of the falsely-named gods with such burning and inflamed words? Was it not proper, he says, to lift the eyes of the mind on high, and to consider who and how great the God of ^B Israel is? It was proper, also, looking at the very creation itself, to perceive by a certain ratio and analogy the magnitude of the Creator's power; it was proper to gaze upon the height of His majesty, and to think nothing low or earthly against Him. But, he says, nothing of this kind came into thy mind; thou hast cast reproaches upon the Lord.

VERS. 24, 25. *Tu enim dixisti: Multitudine curruum ego conscendi altitudinem montium, et extrema Libani, et succidi altitudinem cedri ejus, et pulchritudinem ejus, et intravi in altitudinem partis silvae, et posui pontem, et vastavi aquas, et omnem collectionem aquae.*

He exposes the pride of Persian arrogance, their foolish puffing up, and the magnitude of their boasting. For he compares, as we said before, the region of the Jews to Lebanon, and perhaps also Samaria, which the ten tribes inhabited. For Lebanon is a mountain in Phoenicia, flourishing and dense with cedar trees of very great height. But such is understood to be the land of the Jews: high indeed, because God was He who succoured it; and dense, because those in it appear to be beyond number. But the Assyrian tyrants captured Samaria, and along with it they devastated countless cities of Judea. Thou therefore, he says, O Assyrian, having a haughty spirit, and attributing the outcome of events to thine own forces, hast said: "By the multitude of my chariots I have ascended to the height of the mountains, and to the extremities of Lebanon," that is to say, to the very Israelite kingdom. "I have cut down the height of his cedar." Whose, indeed? Of Lebanon, clearly, of Judea. By the height of the cedar, he refers to their kingdom. "And I entered into the height of the part of the forest." For as I said, along with the land of the Samaritans, many cities of Judea were also destroyed. Thou saidst also: "I have placed a bridge, and have laid waste waters, and all the collection of water." For the Persians and Assyrians, attributing it to their own forces that they governed all things splendidly, when they infested regions with incursions, were wont to build bridges over certain rivers, and often they would carry them away, being so great in number that they were able to consume springs and the very gathering of waters, nor at times did the rivers themselves suffice for men and horses who were thirsty. Now, the Greek writers,

as many as have made mention of Persian affairs in their own histories, say that they even bridged the Hellespont; and if, they say, a river were to be found in the midst of the lands or cities through which they were passing, the tyrant would command them, saying: "Let it be consumed by being drunk." The God of all things, therefore, makes mention of this arrogance of the Persians, and refutes those who are accustomed to boast. Then, after this, He shows that they themselves ^A were not able to accomplish these things about which they were so proud; but rather that this decree of His, brought forth against the offenders, created in them the opinion that they had been able to do it.

VERS. 26, 27. *Hast thou not heard long ago, how I have done it? from ancient times I have formed it; now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldst be made to lay waste defenced cities into ruinous heaps. And their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded: they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the house-tops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.*

All these things, therefore, He says, which you think you have accomplished, attributing them to your own powers, are you not ashamed to ascribe them to yourself? But, O you who lift up a vain eyebrow over nothing, have you not heard long ago what I have done? For, He says, if you wish to examine the words of My prophets, I have already said in advance that these things would come to pass. For "from ancient days I have formed it," that is, I have ordained and consented; and I have now displayed, when the time called for it, the things that were announced for fulfillment: that you should lay waste to nations in defenced cities, that is, those not weak or easily captured. "I have let go the hands, and they were dried up." For those whom I once held together and preserved by long-suffering and patience, so that they might be and endure, I withdrew My helping hand, and they were dried up like herbs, and I delivered them as dry grass for the fire. This is also what He says to him elsewhere; for when the impious man had performed the things ordained by God, and was very pleased with himself, he heard God again saying: "Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it?" ^C Since, just as such instruments do not move themselves toward any work, but rather await the hand of the one brandishing them: so also, He says, you have been an instrument of divine wrath; you did not perform the work yourself by your own powers, but you stood as an axe and a saw, which is destined to serve ^D the will of the mover.

VERS. 28. *But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.*

You are insolent, therefore, He says, having become a minister of divine judgments, and perhaps you think to yourself that you alone have grandly subdued so many nations and lands, so as to burn and capture them. But I know your rest, and your going out, and your coming in. By "rest," I suppose, He calls death; and by "going out and coming in," the path for doing all things. For nothing at all

^A escapes the mind that knows all things. And adding, "Your rage, with which you have raged, and your bitterness has ascended to me," He says, in effect: You shall not be unpunished for having blasphemed; for I shall not fail to see the malice and bitterness of your impious thoughts, but, moved as it were to sorrow, I shall inflict upon your rage the punishment proper to it.

"And I will put a hook into your nose, and a bridle into your lips, and I will turn you back by the way in which you came." ^B Since the Assyrian, possessing an irrationality very similar to that of a beast, mocked God, and, leaping forward as if in unbridled ferocity, uttered impious voices against the glory of God, for this very reason, and most fittingly, He speaks as if to a beast, that "I will put a hook into your nose, and a bridle into your lips," almost, by the infliction of blows, drawing him back, and with the magnitude of the calamities, as with a certain bridle, checking such extraordinary undertakings. He says that the Assyrian will also return to his own land. For he returned when he heard that Tirhakah, king of the Ethiopians, had come out against him. And yet, one might say, why, when his entire army had fallen, was not only he himself saved, but why did he even return to his own land? For it was necessary, it was necessary for him, having been stripped naked of the multitude under his command, to escape by some providence and counsel the hand of the consuming angel, so that he might lament his own calamity, and might know against whom he had cast his reproaches, and might announce this admirable and incredible fact to all others. ^C

"And this shall be a sign for you: Eat this year what you have sown, and in the second year the leftovers; and in the third, sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. And the survivors in Judea shall strike root downward, and shall bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem shall be the survivors, and those who are saved from Mount Sion. The zeal of the Lord of Sabaoth shall do this."

Saying that the Assyrian would return to his own land and would depart from the land of the Jews, He sets the time at which this would happen, and says: "Eat this year what you have sown," and so forth. It is not yet clear to everyone whether the sign was given to Sennacherib or to Hezekiah and those with him. However, we shall state the meaning of the written words. Then it must be adapted either to those or to these. If we say the sign was given to Hezekiah, we understand it thus: Jerusalem was under siege. And since a great army of the Assyrians was attempting to burn and take it, there was a very great import of foodstuffs, and fruits were stored up, and things by which those who were saved in Jerusalem could live. "You, therefore, O Hezekiah," He says, "and all the people with you, eat this year what you have sown; and in the second year, the leftovers. In the third, when you have sown, reap, and plant vineyards." For for two whole years the Assyrian had besieged ^D and devastated the land of the Samaritans.

^A but at the approach of the third, he went away in flight, especially since those with Rabshakeh had perished around Jerusalem, and were besieging it. Therefore, he says, in the third year let there now be remission, and let there be enough for the farmers and for the keepers of the vineyards, if they should choose to plant them; peace, clearly, granting them also security. That those saved and left over from the war will be in safety and tranquility, he indicates when he says, as if of trees: "They will extend a root downward, and a seed upward." That they will dwell securely and safely, and outside of all fear, is suited to those who have a deep root. That this tranquility will also endure to the end can be understood from the fact that it yields seed upward. He adds then: "The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do these things." For because the Assyrian was committing blasphemy, and had dared to compare Him to gods falsely so named, and to say: "Will not the God of Jerusalem deliver her from my hand?" All these things shall come to pass, he says, when the Almighty is stirred to zeal. ^B But if the saying, "Eat this year what you have sown, and in the second the leftovers," is brought against Sennacherib, we say that those accustomed to making war, either against regions or against cities, when the siege and war are sometimes prolonged for them for many days, touch upon and engage in farming, so that they might have food. And in this same way, the statement made can be understood regarding him also.

VERS. 33. Therefore thus says the Lord against the king of the Assyrians: He shall not come into this city, nor shall he shoot an arrow at it, nor shall he set a shield against it, nor shall he surround it with a rampart, but by the way that he came, by the same he shall return.

He gathers up in a way the meaning of the things said, and, as if weaving an epitome in a few words, he sets forth the course and outcome of the matter clearly. For he says, he will not take up war; nay, before the battle, before he brandishes weapons, before he threatens and shoots an arrow, before he raises a shield, before he surrounds it with a rampart, by the very same way he shall return, and, he says, he will run back home. It must be known that he calls the ^C rampart in these words the pile of wood fixed and heaped in the embankments or mounds, which are sharp, so that no one who falls [on them] is saved.

VERS. 34, 35. This says the Lord: I will protect this city to save it for my own sake, and for the sake of David my servant.

He cuts down and suppresses the haughtiness of those who have been saved by the divine mercy, nor does he allow those inhabiting the holy city to think high thoughts and grow puffed up. For it was indeed very likely that they would think and say that they were honored by God because of the gentleness of their character and the spiritual fragrance of the justice that was in them. Therefore, while He saves as God, He benefits those saved by not allowing them to be overwhelmed by the currents of arrogance. For He said He would protect the city, clearly the holy one, not on account of those dwelling in it, nor for the sake of anyone living at that time, but on account of Himself; ^D

^A and David, whom he also calls his own son. He does this for His own sake, because He is kind and merciful, and because it was necessary for the divine majesty to inflict a punishment worthy of those who spoke insultingly against Him. And again for David’s sake, because He often grants the favor of not remembering their faults to those who honor the memory of holy men, even when their descendants sometimes commit transgressions.

And the angel of the Lord went out, and struck from the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and rising in the morning, they found all the bodies dead. And Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, turned back and departed, and dwelt in Nineveh. And as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his patron, Adrammelech and Sarasar his sons struck him with swords; and they were saved in Armenia, and his son Achordan reigned in his stead.

The end of the expected events is now appropriately added to the promises, so that the God of all might not appear a liar. For the multitude of the Assyrians was consumed, not taken by the hands of the Jews, nor by anyone stretching a bow against them, nor by anyone lifting a spear for battle or drawing a sword, nor by horses ^B or by any strenuous battle begun, but the angel prostrated them with an ineffable power, making the multitude of carcasses countless. This warlike man, Sennacherib—although he was extremely bold—was therefore struck with astonishment by the miracle, and he was barely brought back home. He returned wretchedly, stripped entirely of the army he had led, and, as it says, he dwelt in Nineveh. Thus, at last, the promises made by God were brought to their end. For he fell in his own house while worshipping a certain patriarch or patron, evidently one of his ancestors or forefathers according to the flesh. For it is the custom for those who have once gone astray not only to give this honor to unclean spirits, but also to whatever dead persons they may choose to serve. For having once fallen from the straight path, they run without discernment toward whatever they please. He says they were his sons who killed him; for when the divine judgment is delivered against certain men, they fall into danger from all sides and in all ways, so that those who suffer this may encounter what they deserve, even from their own. Not having the kinship of blood as a pledge of safety, nor the affection and devotion owed by children to parents, they are thrust into pits of destruction precisely by those from whom it was natural for them to be saved.

And these things, as far as they pertain to the outer historical aspect, I think have been stated ^C not inelegantly. But I think I must also say something about the more profound insights for the consolation of those who are spiritual. For the holy city, that is, Sion or Jerusalem, may be a type of the Church of Christ, the truer Sion; this, sometimes, or rather almost always, the enemies of the truth besiege, that is, the inventors of impious heresies; and they do not besiege it alone, but having, as it were, hired the powers and dynasties of the world, with that intelligible Sennacherib,—that is, Satan—breathing into them and, as it were, sending forth his own subordinates and those who are accustomed to serve his wickedness. Who ^D

when they come and fight against the defenders of the truth and mock the divine majesty, do not accomplish anything worthwhile. ^A For those who are besieged will be silent. And for what reason, blessed Paul will teach, saying: "Not to strive about words to no profit," and again: "A man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject; knowing that he that is such is subverted." For to those who have once fallen wholly into errors and deceits, and are bound by falsehood, the speech of those who are accustomed to be profitable is perhaps superfluous. For it is written: "Speak in the ears of them that will hear." When, therefore, the enemies of the truth promise honors or rest, just like the wicked Rabshakeh, or threaten dangers and battles, we must approach God and depend upon his help from above alone. ^B For his superior and all-powerful right hand will suffice, both for the preservation of those who are accustomed to walk with a straight foot, and for the destruction of those who resist. For he will drive them away, using a certain ineffable strength, and will deliver from war Zion, truly holy and undefiled—that is, the Church—against which the gates of hell shall not prevail.

CAP. XXXVIII. VERS. 1-3. Factum est autem eo tempore, aegrotavit Ezechias usque ad mortem, accessitque ad eum Isaias filius Amos propheta, et dixit ei: Haec dicit Dominus: Dispone de domo tua, morieris enim tu, et non vives. Et convertit Ezechias faciem suam ad parietem, et oravit ad Dominum dicens: Memento, Domine, quemadmodum ambulavi in conspectu tuo, cum veritate, in corde vero, et quae placita sunt in conspectu tuo, feci. Et flevit Ezechias fletu magno.

Ezechias was endowed with most remarkable piety towards God, and therefore obtained a famous glory. For he tore down the altars, destroyed the shrines, burned the inner sanctuaries, cut down the groves, and never ceased worshipping God with sacrifices in accordance with the Law. ^C He also conquered the barbarian neighbors of Judea, so as to make many of them tributaries and subject to taxes. He also restored cities, and to say it in a word, abounding in the highest praise and glory, he was deservedly an object of admiration. But he was soon led away, as the sons of the Hebrews say, from what is fitting, and was of a great and lifted-up mind, and fell into the snares of pride. For this reason, out of love, God wielded the rod against him: "For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." For he strikes as a father who loves his children, moving them to better things and leading away from the more shameful those who are entangled in them. ^D For just as the most acute and skilled physicians either melt away and consume with fire what has rotted in the body, or cut it with iron, not doing this out of hatred towards the sick person, but rather out of mercy, so, I believe, in the same manner, the Creator of all...

^A cuts away the damage from the diseases within us with measured indignation, that we may not be condemned along with the world, according to what is written. King Hezekiah, therefore, fell into sickness, and indeed had arrived at the end of all the evil; for he was in extreme danger through the words of the prophet, who says that he would die and that it was fitting for him to set his house in order. But this was not because Hephaestus—or rather, God—did not know that he would live and would escape the grievousness of the illness through His mercy; rather, He was calling and urging him toward prayer, that by asking, he might obtain mercy from Him. For He has compassion on those who are beloved, and to those who are genuine, He grants the finding of the things they desire and accepts the words of their supplications. And this is indeed what has been done. For Hezekiah prayed, saying: "Remember, O Lord, how I walked before You in truth, with a sincere heart, and have done what is pleasing in Your sight." Beautiful is the boldness and confidence of the just; for they nearly demand the reward for their labors and the fruits of their sincerity. The God of all also rejoices in those who have lived legally, and He readily yields to those who have led an excellent life when He sees them weeping and joining their labor with prayer. ^B And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah saying: "Go and say to Hezekiah: Thus says the God of David your father: I have heard the voice of your prayer and have seen your tears; behold, I add to your time fifteen years, and out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians I will save you, and I will defend this city. And this shall be a sign to you from the Lord, that God will do this word which He has spoken. Behold, I will turn back the shadow of the steps upon which the sun has gone down, the ten steps." And the sun went up the ten steps upon which the shadow had gone down. ^C Not much time elapsed, but God immediately assented and received the supplications of the righteous man. For as it is written in the Books of Kings, before the blessed prophet had gone out of the king's courtyard, the word of God came to him. Having therefore returned immediately, he sets forth the words that had come to him from God. For He said that He had heard his voice—that is, that He had accepted the prayer and had looked upon the tears—and He gives to him immediately the ability to escape the terror of death; and He signifies the measure of the added life, so that by looking toward the end, and knowing that he will strictly and altogether die, he might not allow the disease of pride to enter his mind. And He promises that, just as He had previously promised, He will prove him superior to the hand of the Assyrians, and that He will also fight for Jerusalem. He performed these things, removing all manner of despondency from the midst, and restoring the one who had been extremely afflicted with pain, through the kindness of His gentleness and mercy. For "He who has struck us will heal us." For the God of all is kind and merciful. ^D And He also confirms by faith that these things are brought toward their completion as promised by the sign of the sun,

^A by the retreat of the shadow that occurred at that time on the ten steps. They say that Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah, had caused some steps to be made in his own house, as if by some machine and art, which might count the hours like a clock, and were accustomed to measure the course of the sun by the movement of the shadow that fell upon them. Therefore, God made it clear that Hezekiah was about to recover his life, by the shadow of the sun moving backward and the day being extended to an unusual measure of hours. There is nothing at all difficult for the Lord of all; but whatever He chooses, He accomplishes it by merely nodding His assent.

THE PRAYER OF HEZEKIAH, KING OF JUDAH,

VERS. 10-13. I said: In the height of my days I shall go to the gates of the grave; I shall leave the remaining years. I said: I shall no longer see the salvation of God on the earth; I shall no longer see man among my kinsfolk. I have left the remainder of my life; it has gone out and departed from me, as if one who sets up a tent should take it down. My spirit became within me like the web of a worker in wool, which draws near to the cutting. In that day I was delivered, until morning, as to a lion, so He crushed my bones; for from the day until the night I was delivered to Him. ^B

It is necessary to say this before other things: for the Seventy have set down here "in the height of my days," although other interpreters have rendered it "in the midst of my days." I, for my part, believe that the words of the Seventy were set down very wisely. For the holy city had been besieged, with Rabshakeh and the innumerable multitude of the Assyrians surrounding it on every side. But God promised, through the voice of Isaiah, that He would perform wonders beyond expectation, that He would save those in danger, and would drive the tyrant from Judea, and that he himself would die once he had settled his domestic affairs. ^C When all these things had been brought to their conclusion, at the time the God of all had spoken, the insignias of Hezekiah’s kingdom were already being raised on high. "I therefore," he says, "was saying to myself, 'In the time of glory, or in the height of my days, I shall be at the gates of the grave, and I shall leave the remaining years.'"

Then he further adds those things which befall those who are seized by illness and see death not long after, being dismayed by extreme terrors. ^D These are: "I shall no longer see salvation from God, nor shall I see man among my kinsfolk; I have forsaken the remainder of my life; it has departed from me: I have become like a dissolving tent, and like the web of a woman working in wool," that is, laboring or weaving, and finally drawing near to the cutting. Then he says, "In the whole night and day I was delivered as to a certain lion, crushing my bones." And who is this lion? It is the burden of the illness, and—

^A in a manner almost devouring like a beast, is death, threatening its approach—that is to say, the fear that easily arises from the expectation of dying. For fear and despondency together crush the soul and break all its strength.

"Like a swallow, so shall I cry, and like a dove, so shall I meditate. For my eyes have failed from looking to the height of heaven toward the Lord, who took me away, and took from me the pain of the soul. O Lord, it has been told to Thee concerning it, and Thou hast awakened my breath, and being comforted I lived. For Thou didst choose my soul, that it might not perish, and Thou hast cast behind me all my sins."

^B He declares that by raising up songs of thanksgiving, he imitates the birds that are accustomed to sing very sweetly, and makes his hymns perpetual. He says, moreover, that having raised the eyes of his mind toward God, he has been saved, and has escaped both the pain of the soul and death itself. "For Thou didst awaken," he says, "the life, and I lived, and Thou hast preserved my soul, that it might not perish, and Thou hast cast behind me all my sins." This does not come from a man suffering from the disease of arrogance, but from one who already recognizes his own nature and knows precisely that we are all guilty of many sins, and that if God did not wish to save us through mercy, no one would boast of having a pure heart, nor would anyone freely claim to be clean from sin. Therefore, in the benefits which we receive from God, let Him be glorified by us, as one who has forgotten those things for which it was just that we should be punished. "For wise," he says, "are those who know themselves."

"For those who are in Hell will not praise Thee; nor will the dead bless Thee; nor will those who are in Hell hope for Thy mercy. The living will bless Thee, as I do. For from this day I shall make children, who shall declare Thy justice, O Lord of my salvation, and I shall not cease to bless Thee with the psaltery all the days of my life."

^C The words spoken by the voice of the Psalmist contain the same thought as the matters at hand: "What profit is there in my blood, when I descend into corruption? Shall the dust confess to Thee, or shall it declare Thy wonders?" For those who have once died, and have become held by the gates of Hell, will perhaps also cease from glorifying [God]. ^D They will add absolutely nothing to what they have done, but will rather remain in the state in which they were left, and will await the time of the general judgment. Therefore, he says, the living—and those who have the power to do good, since they have received benefits—will bless Thee, just as I do. He then promises to raise up children, who will declare the justice of God. And some say that he promises a choral procession, and the singers of psalms within the holy temple.

^A stabiliens, qui bene canant. Others, turning their minds to deeper matters, say that Hezekiah, thinking highly of himself, perhaps imagined that his kingdom was endless and his life immortal, persuaded that the things written concerning Christ, as Son of David, were spoken of him and looked toward him. Whence they say that, although he had reigned for fourteen years, he was never seen to have been concerned with begetting children; now, therefore, being taught the limit of his life, he takes thought for his successors, and that he says "children," and adds "they shall announce the righteousness of the Lord." Yet his statement missed the truth, for Manasseh was born wicked and impious; but as far as the intent of the father goes, he was indeed pious, and a proclaimer of the glory of God.

Vers. 21, 22. And Isaiah said to Hezekiah: Take a lump of figs, and crush it, and apply it as a plaster, and you shall be sound. And Hezekiah said: This is the sign that I shall go up into the house of the Lord.

In the fourth book of Kings it is written that the cause of Hezekiah's illness was a sore, malignant and intractable, such that it defied even the skills of physicians. But once God granted life to the righteous man, and commanded also that the disease be taken away and worn down—and from these things it is probable, or rather, certainly assured, that the pain of the wound was increasing—He by these means provided that he should be delivered. For the hand of the Almighty is always the worker of paradoxical and incredible things, and this helping hand traverses ways that depart from common opinion. "Crush, therefore," He says, "a lump of figs, so that you may apply it as a plaster, and you shall be sound." And it was to be expected, as I have said, that the wound would be harmed, or at least feel no benefit. But since God had commanded it, the most prudent Hezekiah uses this for the power of a sign and says: "If I am healed by the lump of figs, the disease ceasing and all pain in me being lulled to sleep, this shall be to me a firm and true sign that I shall go up into the house of the Lord," evidently for the purpose of offering sacrifices to Him and praying, now that the illness, and every pain, has in a manner of speaking been calmed within me. ^C

Cap. XXXIX. Vers. 1, 2. At that time Merodach, son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and delegates and gifts to Hezekiah; for he heard that he had been ill unto death, and had recovered. And Hezekiah rejoiced over them with great joy, and showed them the house of Nechotha, and of stacte, and of spices, and of unguent, and of silver, and of gold, and all the houses of the vessels of the treasury, and all things that were in his treasuries, and there was nothing that Hezekiah did not show in his house.

The Holy Scripture relates that when Sennacherib died at the hands of his own sons, his son Nergilasser reigned in his stead.

^A But, as it appears, he also having been removed from the midst, Merodach, son of Baladan, received the throne by inheritance. This man is said to have sent to Hezekiah both gifts and letters, and envoys; and it is necessary to state what the reason for this was. For he heard, he says, that he had been sick unto death and had recovered: yet it was not this alone—that Hezekiah had been sick, I say, and had surged back again to good health—that struck the Babylonian with amazement, but rather that great and truly extraordinary sign: that by an ineffable and divine nod, the sun was commanded to return and go backward, so that the shadow also went back ten steps. Now the wise men of the Babylonians and Chaldeans, by surname *Sophi*, that is to say sages, though they boast themselves to be subtly learned in the course of the sun, and the rising and setting of the stars, did not, as is likely, remain ignorant of this backward turning, and of the unusual length of that day. And it was very likely that the power of the sign was noised abroad throughout all the earth, and that it had been given for the confirmation of the promise of God, which, I say, had been made to Hezekiah. ^B And in another way, too, we may say that Merodach admired that which had happened beyond expectation to those who had besieged Jerusalem with Rabshakeh, whom the hand of an angel, striking them in one night, consumed, so that in the morning all the bodies were found dead. Therefore the envoys came, Merodach admiring Hezekiah's righteousness because of these very signs that were beyond all reason. Now he, when those who had arrived from Babylon were present, ought to have made a brilliant account of the aids of the all-powerful God, which had occurred at various times, and of the splendor and greatness of these incredible things, so that they, too, admiring even more the divine excellence and the invincible power of the Lord of all, might return to their own country—guided by the words taught them by him—enriched with the knowledge of God (for thus it was permitted to benefit others also, when they reported what they had learned): but this he did not do at all. ^C Instead, he fell into human vainglory, and he did not order his own glory from these matters by which he was honored by God, but from the wealth involved in his kingdom, and he defines the power of the honor inherent in him by these things. For he showed them, he says, the house of *Nechotha*; now *Nechotha*, if you translate it, signifies aromatics, and stacte, and ointment, and silver, and gold, and all the houses of the vessels of the *gaza*, that is to say, of riches. For the word *gaza* is said to be Persian, and denotes wealth or riches. ^D

VERS. 3-7. *And Isaiah the prophet came to king Hezekiah, and said to him: What do these men say, and from where do they come to thee? And Hezekiah said: From a far land they have come to me, from Babylon. And Isaiah said: What have they seen in thy house? And Hezekiah said: All things that are in my house they have seen, and there is nothing in my house that they have not seen, and moreover they saw those things which are in my treasuries. And Isaiah said to him:*

^A “Hear the word of the Lord of Sabaoth: that also from thy children whom thou hast begotten they shall take, and they shall make eunuchs in the house of the king of the Babylonians.”

The prophet is sent indeed by God, but upon first arriving and meeting Hezekiah, he feigns to speak as if of his own opinion. Hence he says: “What do these men say?” Now this manner of speech is very habitual to him. For the Babylonians had arrived, perhaps, as I said, being eager to learn the reason of the retrogradation of the sun, and why such a celebrated sign had occurred. But he, although he ought, as I was saying, rather to have recounted to them the divine excellence, and that it is by His nods that creation gives way, showed them the house of perfumes and treasures. Therefore, the prophet inquires why they had come, and what their discourse with him had been: but he answered him nothing at all to this; he says only this, that they had come from Babylon and from a land far away: perhaps having taken no small pleasure in this, that such men, separated by so long an interval, had sought his friendship with no ordinary zeal. When the prophet then asked what they had beheld, and the king replied that there was nothing left which had not been seen by them: he says that days will come when all things that were in his treasuries, gathered together by the zeal and care of those before him, would move over to the Babylonians: and he added to these that of the children who would be born to him in the course of time, as if in a more remote succession of his line, they would make spadones, that is, eunuchs, in the house of the king of the Babylonians, being, so to speak, the artificers of these things. Now, they narrate—or rather, the Book of Kingdoms ^B testifies—that these things happened in the days of Jechoniah, when Nebuchadnezzar, having taken all of Judea by force, burned Jerusalem and, moreover, the divine temple, and led Israel away captive; among whom were the divine Daniel and his companions in the house of the king of the Babylonians, whom they also say became spadones, that is, eunuchs. Of what sort is this, and to what use is this prediction? God here implies either that it would have been better and more wise to have instituted a necessary account of those things which were wondrously done by the divine excellence and magnificence for those who came from Babylon, or also that he had not a little enticed the eyes of the Babylonians by the fact that he showed them what was hidden in his treasuries. ^C

VERS. 8. And Hezekiah said to Isaiah: A good word is the word of the Lord which He has spoken: but let there be peace and justice in my days.

He is destitute of apology and defense, and since he has no speech wherewith to bring aid to his own faults, he says that the word of the Lord is good, although it has foretold these things, over which it was fitting that abundant ^D tears should fall from his eyes.

^A Then he seeks peace for his own days, saying in effect farewell to those who would come after him, and abandoning his own country, city, and race entirely. But it would have been better for him to have lamented over what was foretold, to have sought mercy from God, and to have asked for a happiness for his descendants that was not merely temporary and restricted. But the human mind is extremely weak, and we all stumble in many things, according to that which is written; nor can any of us be prudent and wise in every respect; but even a heart that loves God, and an admirable mind, often impinges upon that which is less right.

Chapter 40. Verses 1-2. Comfort, comfort my people, says God: Priests, speak to the heart of Jerusalem, comfort her, because her humiliation is complete; her sin is forgiven, because she has received from the Lord's hand double for her sins.

^B The discourse shifts to the things of Christ, and henceforth makes clear the declaration of the grace that comes through Him; yet it is not seen to have progressed outside of what is reasonable, nor to have been introduced at an unfitting time. For some who are not very well versed in the holy Scriptures might perhaps say: "In what way does the prophet make the prediction concerning Christ a neighbor to the words of Hezekiah?" To this we shall offer our defense by saying this: that since the discourse had commemorated the last conquest of the land of the Jews, and of Jerusalem itself, it has now, as if in season and of necessity, introduced the consolation that occurred thereafter from God. I shall speak briefly and explain accurately what we have just said. For very many incursions have been made against Jerusalem, and the land of the Jews has been ravaged many times—at one time by the hand of the Assyrians, at another by neighboring barbarians, and indeed by others who were laying it waste. Finally, the last capture occurred through ^C Nebuchadnezzar, in the times of the reign of Jeconiah, when Israel was led away captive into the region of those who had conquered them. And in the times of the reign of Cyrus, it was released from captivity and returned to Judea, and rebuilt the temple, and dwelt there, not dispersed, until the advent of our Savior. Since, therefore, it has made mention of the last captivity—when the Babylonians, having taken all the treasures in the treasuries of the kings of Judea, returned to their own land—it necessarily makes the prediction of the consolation that happened after these things, namely through Christ, commanding those who minister the divine Gospel and saying, "Comfort, comfort my people, says God." For the consolation unto salvation ^D was, especially for those from Israel, first of all the advent of Christ, and the oracles through Him, when He says openly: "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." O, therefore, he says, you priests, you ministers of the new and Christ-centered prophecies, speak to the heart of Jerusalem, that is, to those who are acceptable listeners.

For the Law was burdensome to all, both teaching by shadows and types; it did not instill the instruction concerning necessary things into the mind and heart of the hearers, but transmitted, as it were, an external appearance of knowledge only, and that with difficulty, as if it were in letters alone. But the saving and evangelical preaching speaks, for the Holy Spirit reveals the depth of each person’s mind, introducing spiritual meditations and contemplations, and fixing the words of the saints, and, as it were, burning them into the innermost recesses of the intellect. Such was blessed David when he sang and said: "In my heart I have hidden your words, that I might not sin against you" (Ps. CXVIII, 11). Moreover, the Savior addressed the holy apostles, saying: "Place in your hearts the word," clearly the one provided by Him, and which is saving. And that the evangelical preaching is spoken to the mind and heart by the holy ministers of mysteries, with the Holy Spirit cooperating toward this, or rather, perfecting the whole, faith may be sought from the sacred Scriptures. For God said through one of the holy prophets: "Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, and I will conclude with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day I took hold of their hand, to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not remain in my covenant. And I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant which I will covenant with them in those days, says the Lord: giving my laws into their mind, and upon their hearts I will write them" (Jer. XXXI, 31-33). Also blessed Paul writes to some: "You are our epistle, known and read by all men, being manifested that you are an epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, the heart" (2 Cor. III, 2-3). It seems to some that by these words, "priests" and "ministers of the divine preaching," the holy angels are meant, to whom that power—to be able to speak into hearts—might most especially apply. Comfort her, therefore. But by saying what? Truly, that the Lord of all has ceased from the wrath that was stirred up against them. "Her humiliation is complete" (Isa. XL, 2): for she has been humiliated, he says, abundantly, and her sin is dissolved. "Because she has received from the Lord’s hand double for her sins." Did God, therefore, punish beyond what was fitting, and did He not impose penalties equal to the crimes, but far, and as it were, doubly more severe? But who would think this plausible? For what is true is what He says: "Will the Lord not punish twice for the same thing in affliction?" (cf. Job XXXIV, 14). How, then, is what is said to be understood? Just as a father, loving his children and merciful in his deepest bowels, when he is slightly offended by some delinquent child, is perhaps thought to have become more agitated than is proper (the cause of this, however, is his indulgence and the fatherly affection owed to his children); so, he says, Jerusalem, whom He is comforting, is spoken of as receiving from the hand of the Lord double for her sins: which is most often [the judgment of] heavy and intolerable matters.

and yet at the same time moderated ^A by the hand of Him who punished her, not according to the dignity of her deeds. For the Lord is truly merciful and compassionate, long-suffering and of great mercy, and true; and He has not dealt with us according to our iniquities, nor has He repaid us according to our sins.

Verses 3-5. The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low: and all things that are crooked shall be straight, and the rough ways into plain ways: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God, for the Lord hath spoken.

Having said that Israel had been redeemed, ^B and that Jerusalem had been released from its own offenses, and having commanded that comfort be brought to her, he indicates the time of comfort, being near and just at the feet of the words spoken, so to speak—namely, the advent of our Savior, whose forerunner and precursor that divine Baptist came in the desert of Judea, crying out and saying: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God."

Foreknowing this in the Spirit, the blessed Zacharias, the father of this John, also prophesied, ^C saying: "And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Most High: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways." And the Savior said to them regarding him: "He was a burning and shining light, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light." For Christ is the Sun of Justice and the true light. Yet the holy Scripture compares the blessed Baptist to a lamp. For if you look toward the divine and ineffable light, toward the inexplicable and immense splendor, the measure of the human mind, even if it be full of light and wisdom, might ^D rightly be compared to a small lamp.

What, then, is “Prepare the way of the Lord, and make straight his paths”? He explains, adding: "Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low: and all things that are crooked shall be straight, and the rough ways into plain ways." For there are certain public roads—or rather, paths—that are not at all passable; they are rough and difficult to travel, so that at one point you must rise up toward mountains and hills, and at another point descend through them, now hanging over precipices, now being carried down into deep hollows. But if it should happen that these elevated and rugged places settle down, and those things that are in a hollow and depth are filled: then, then shall those things which were crooked be in every way straight, and the fields level, and the path clear that was once rough and abrupt. This has happened intellectually through the power of our Savior. For formerly, the sublime life was inaccessable—if I may say so—to all men, and

the path of the evangelical conversation was untrodden, because the mind of all men was held fast by worldly and earthly desires, and subjected to the strange movements of the flesh. But since, having become man—that is, flesh, according to the Scriptures—He abolished sin in the flesh, and despoiled the principalities and powers and the world-rulers of this world, He made the path to piety smooth and easy for us, having nothing steep or raised on high, nor anything hollow or deep, but all of it leveled into plains. All the crooked things have been made straight. And not only this, but also "the glory of the Lord shall be revealed," he says, "and all flesh shall see the salvation of God, for the Lord has spoken." ^B But in what way, or in what manner, does he say the glory is to be revealed? For the Only-begotten Word of God was and is—insofar as He exists as God and was begotten of God the Father in an ineffable manner—in the excellence of the Godhead above every principality and power, and throne, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come; and He Himself is the Lord of glory, and we too have known His glory, even if we did not know it formerly; for when, by the dispensation, He became man like us, He manifested Himself as equal in power and operation and glory to God and the Father, bearing all things by the word of His power, easily performing divine wonders, rebuking creation, raising the dead, and perfectng other miraculous works without labor. The glory of the Lord therefore appeared, and all flesh beheld the salvation of God, obviously that of the Father. For He sent the Son to us from heaven as Savior and Redeemer. For since the Law perfected nothing, and the typical sacrifices did not have the power to wash away sins, we are perfected in Christ, and being delivered from every stain, we have been honored with the Spirit of adoption. ^C This grace, insofar as it relates to the intention and purpose of the One who wills to save, has passed through all flesh, that is, through all men. For by "flesh" one must understand man. But if some appear to be lacking in this salvation, the word of the prophet is nonetheless true. For it is the intent of the One who honors [us] and desires to save that is examined, not the slothfulness of those who are called. He adds, moreover, of necessity: "For the Lord has spoken," lest anyone think He is uttering falsehoods, or perchance belching forth something from his own heart or what seems right to him. Rather, it is because He has foreannounced what is the glory of God, and what is to be in every way and altogether.

VERS. 6-8. A voice of one saying: Cry out. And I said: What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass has withered, and the flower has fallen; but the word of the Lord remains forever. ^D He demonstrates clearly that it is not possible for those who truly love God, and desire to attain Him, to see the salvation of God in any other way, except by this alone: that to choose to think and

^A to do the things that are pleasing and dear to Him, He makes evident. For it is fit, I think, for those who desire to live acting in a holy manner, and to choose the pure and excellent life, and to bind upon themselves, as it were, a crown of the dignities of living in Christ, to treat as nothing the distractions that occur in this life, and to cast away human and temporary glory as far as possible, and to consider in truth that human things are like hay and herbs, and to have in mind and heart the Word of God, that is, the Word from God and the Father. For He dwells in our hearts through faith, and being enriched by His divine Spirit, we have Him in ourselves. For the treasure is worthy of possession, and is the procurer of eternal life. For the Word of God, remaining for ever, preserves and gives life. But if anyone wishes to understand the "word of God" as His commandment, we say that this also brings no small utility. For that too preserves those who rightly obey it unto a blessed life, according to that spoken by the Savior Himself: ^B "Amen, amen, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he shall not see death for ever" (John VIII, 51).

"Go up upon a high mountain, you that bring good tidings to Zion; lift up your voice with strength, you that bring good tidings to Jerusalem; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah: Behold your God! Behold, the Lord comes with strength, and His arm with dominion. Behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him. As a shepherd He shall feed His flock, and with His arm He shall gather the lambs, and will comfort those that are with young."

^C By these words He shows to those who minister the divine and saving preaching—I mean the holy apostles and evangelists, or even, to speak simply, those who in any given time are set over the rational flocks and have the care of the sacred mysteries—in what manner they might be God-lovers, and renowned, and full of the highest glory. For it is not fitting, He says, for those who evangelize to all the glory and salvation of God to do so timidly and submissively, and striving to remain unnoticed; but having become, as it were, on high and visible to all, and in great boldness, as if having leaped onto a mountain, to use a piercing voice in a certain manner, and one free from fear. ^D That this might be granted to them, the divine disciples prayed, saying to God, the ruler of all: "And now, Lord, look upon their threats"—meaning, clearly, those of the Jews—"and grant to Thy servants with boldness to speak Thy word." "Lift it up, therefore, fear not," He says. "Announce to the cities of Judah: Behold your God! Behold, the Lord comes with strength, and His arm with dominion." By adding "Behold," He does not allow the hope of His coming to be stretched out into the long future, but shows that the Redeemer is soon and briefly to arrive, or rather, that He is already in a way at the very threshold. For He bids them...

^A to extend it, and to point out with a finger Him who was foretold. That He will not be as one of the holy prophets, nor indeed as a suppliant, but furnished with the authority, power, and dominion befitting God, he clearly shows by saying, “He comes with strength, and His arm with dominion.” For the divine prophets used to pray that certain things might come from God and exist for the peoples under their hand. But the Savior and Lord of all, not pouring forth prayers, nor receiving or bestowing anything precariously, but as truly the Son, distributed the goods of the Father with a dignity befitting the Free One to those who believe in Him, and He performed all things by using His own power and, indeed, His own authority.

That this mystery of the dispensation will not be fruitless for Him who became our own for our sake, and endured the cross and the death upon it, He shows by saying, “Behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him,” calling by the name of reward the fruit resulting from His having died according to the flesh. For He said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.” And again, “If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to myself.” For as ^B Paul says, “He endured the cross, despising the shame. Therefore God also highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth; and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Knowing this beforehand in the Spirit, the divine David also chanted and said to Him, “All the nations which You have made shall come and shall worship before You, O Lord.”

Therefore, this dispensation is not without reward, nor is it fruitless. They followed and were, as it were, before the eyes of Him who was shepherding His own flocks, and with His arm—that is, with His strength—He gathers the lambs. For those who believe in Him, as though they were newly born and recently produced sheep, have been built up into newness of life, having obtained, clearly, the regeneration from above and through the Spirit. Therefore, they desire that rational milk, being nurtured in the manner of infants, but they grow up into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

The lambs, therefore, were pastured, and certain females ^C or pregnant ones also received consolation. For the lambs, as though newly appeared and newly born, can rightly be understood to be the Gentiles. But one might say that the pregnant ones, or those bearing in the womb, are those who are already bringing forth His word, as if from the teachings of the Law and the prophetic proclamations. For Christ saved not only the Gentiles, but also those born of the blood of Israel, to whom He even says He was sent most especially. These also received consolation, while they confirmed with faith the exact knowledge of this mystery, which was ^D coming to them and, as it were, offered to them.

VERS. 12-14. Who has measured the water with his hand, and the heaven

^A with the span, and all the earth with his fist? Who has set the mountains in a balance, and the ravines with a scale? Who has known the mind of the Lord, and who has become his counselor, who shall instruct him? Or with whom did he take counsel, and he instructed him? Or who showed him judgment? Or who showed him the way of understanding?

By things impossible and unattainable to all men—or rather, perhaps, even to the powers above and in heaven—He attempts to demonstrate the surpassing and incomprehensible nature of the wisdom in God. For the mystery of Christ is to be marveled at, and the Word concerning the economy is viewed among the ineffable mysteries. And it seems to me that it is timely to use the words of Paul and say: "O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord?" Could one not very reasonably say that these things are akin to what is proposed? For a deep depth and an incomprehensible one is revealed in divine meditations. And just as it is completely unachievable and impossible for a human hand to measure all the water, and the heaven with a span, and all the earth with a fist, and to make manifest with a balance and a scale what the total weight of the mountains is, in the same way, no one can grasp the mind of the Lord. And He Himself will certify this by saying through one of the holy prophets: "For my ways are not as your ways, but as the heaven is ^B distant from the earth, so do my ways stand apart from your ways, and your thoughts from my thought." For, He says, what need had I ever of one counseling or instructing, or showing Him judgment—that is, justice, or a just judgment, or a way of understanding? For if He is wisdom itself, and He Himself gives wisdom to every mind, and is the provider of light according to understanding to the rational creation, how would He have need of another, or in what manner could anyone find fault with that which He might counsel?

But the prophet effects great profit for those who listen from this. For already some of the unbelievers still dare to say: "For what need was there for the Word of God to come to be among us, and to endure flesh, and the filth from it, wishing to save those on earth," even though He says that nothing is difficult for God to accomplish as He deems fit. And then, how is it not in vain that He became man? And having surrounded the economy with strange notions, they impiously defile it with ugliness, and fight against the glory of the mystery. The prophet therefore cuts off ^C their senseless empty-headedness with these words; and he says that the wisdom in God is incomprehensible, and the mind in Him, even if He is wisdom itself and the most supreme and purest mind, so that henceforth the speech of the unbelievers would not be acceptable, or rather, would be justly mocked, since they have dared, I know not how, to slander the economy of the Only-Begotten in the flesh as not having been done rightly. And it pleases some: "Who has measured with the hand the water, and the heaven with a span, ^D and all the earth with the fist? Who has set the mountains in a balance, and the ravines with a scale? Who has known the mind of the Lord, and who has been his counselor, who shall instruct him? Or whom did he consult, and he instructed him? Or who showed him judgment? Or who showed him the way of understanding?"

palmo, and what follows, to the Lord and Master of all, as one who is able to measure the water, and the heaven and the earth, and the mountains and the crags, and who has knowledge of all things whatsoever, even those that are inaccessible, and comprehends all that has been made, and considers as nothing everything that is in the creation, however great, swollen, immense, and numerous it may be. If anyone wishes to understand this in such a way, he will take no offense. ^B

TOMUS V.

VERS. 15-21. *If all the nations are reckoned as a drop from a bucket, and as the turning of a scale, and shall be reckoned as saliva. And Libanus is not sufficient for burning, and all the four-footed beasts are not sufficient for a whole burnt offering, and all the nations are nothing, and have been reckoned as nothing. To whom have you likened the Lord, and with what likeness have you likened him? Has the craftsman made an image, or has the goldsmith, having smelted gold, gilded it? For the craftsman chooses wood that does not rot, and wisely seeks how he might set up that image, so that it may not be moved. Will you not know? Will you not hear? Has it not been announced to you from the beginning? Have you not known the foundations of the earth?*

The prophetic discourse has commemorated for us the dispensation and ministry of the Only-Begotten in the flesh, and has abundantly admired the hidden wisdom, by which we have also been saved, and having acknowledged the Creator by nature and in truth, we have been deemed worthy of his grace, gathered like lambs by his arm, and having been brought under him as under a most good shepherd; for he laid down his life for his own sheep. And since he has shown it to be impossible that we should be able to perceive his mind and to measure it, and has confessed him to be the highest wisdom, and above all things: he enters of necessity into discourses with the nations, or rather with those who worship the creature above the Creator, and leads them away from the ancient, ancestral, and traditionary error, and translates them to better things, and leads them back to a knowledge worthy of human beings. He demonstrates, therefore, the immense excellence ^D of God, the Master of all, and the surpassing dignity of his magnificence, and that all things are small before him, and are accounted as nothing, insofar, I say, as concerns the height of his power and glory. Hence he says: *If all the nations are reckoned as a drop from a bucket, and as the turning of a scale, and shall be reckoned as saliva.* For these are meager and of no value at all. For what is one drop falling from a bucket? What would the turning of a scale be, bringing to equality that which seems to be less? Or what is saliva, that is, human spittle? But not even that, he says, would Libanus suffice for burning, or all the four-footed beasts for a whole burnt offering. For such things are indeed contemptible; and if all were to be brought to him for a whole burnt offering, even those would be, in comparison with divine majesty,

^A cast behind his back. ^A For if all the nations, he says, are as nothing, and are accounted as nothing, to what likeness have you likened him? For what will there be that is like him, and equal in weight, either in nature, or in substance, or in the consideration of glory? For is it by the arts of a craftsman and the skills of a woodworker? Or is it by the skill of goldsmiths, or has he been fashioned, as in an image, into any of the things that are created? Or rather, he says, has a human-like statue been made? By no means. For there could be nothing equal to him. For since he is God by nature, and because there is no other existing from himself, he will be absolutely superior to all things. Having therefore shown that he is beyond all that has been made and called into existence, he mocks thereafter the fashioning of idols, and says that a carpenter chooses wood that does not rot, and wisely seeks how he might set up his image so that it might not be shaken; ^B so that it would be a matter of the carpenter's skill, for those who are led astray according to the measure of the understanding in them, to fashion a god according to their own opinion, and for it to be supported by the greatest security, so that it might not be shaken and shattered by falling. Were there then a scarcity of gods for the idolaters, while there was no carpentry skill upon the earth? Yet even the things that were made by hands would not have been preserved, if the craftsman had not wisely sought those things by means of which they could stand and have an immovable base. One might, I think, and very reasonably, say that which is spoken by the voice of David: ^C “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the works of men’s hands.” And he adds to these: “May all those who make them and all who trust in them become like them.” Having therefore mocked the construction of idols, he shifts his speech toward the shaming and correction of those who have been led astray, and declares their sin in this matter to be inexcusable, saying: Will you not know? Will you not hear? Instead of, have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been announced to you from the beginning? Have you not known the foundations of the earth? By the foundations of the earth he means its ultimate and furthest parts. You have known, therefore, he says, from end to end. You have heard, and it has been announced to you from the beginning. And what has been announced? That God, by nature and truly, is one and alone; but wood and stones, and nothing else, are what are crafted by men to be gods for us. For the divinely-inspired Scripture has not been silent; rather, the knowledge of the truth has been proclaimed from above, through the patriarchs, through the law, and through the prophets. For it is not the case that when the Only-begotten Word of God became man as we are, and shone upon those on the earth, that then for the first time he censured the error of being led astray. But, as I said, this accusation of idolatry was ancient. For the chorus of the saints has not ceased to denounce it, and to show it to be detestable, and to make manifest the Creator and Lord of all.

^D “He who holds the circle of the earth, and those who dwell in it are as locusts. He who set the heaven as a vault, and stretched it out as a tent in which to dwell.”

^A For as the prophet himself says somewhere: “He did not make it in vain, but to be inhabited.” Is, then, he asks, this multitude of those dwelling on the earth great before God, however immense it may be? By no means. For in comparison with the magnificence and excellence of God, they would be as locusts. Or indeed, in another way. For He holds the circle of the earth, that is, its entire compass, and those who inhabit it are nothing before Him, even though they feed upon it in swarms like locusts, and exceed all number. This is wonderful, and a great thing for the celebration and commendation of the almighty God.

Vers. 23, 24. “Who makes princes to be as nothing, and has made the earth as a void. For they shall not be planted, they shall not sow, nor shall their root take root in the ground. He has breathed upon them a wind, and they have withered, and a storm shall take them away as stubble.”

Those who were deceived by error, and were ignorant of the one who is by nature and truly God, were wont ^C not only to worship the herds of demons and to say to the wood, “You are my God,” and to the stone, “You have begotten me,” but also thoughtlessly to make men who had become renowned on the earth into gods. Thus, Sennacherib, having returned from Judea to his own land, is said to have worshipped his patriarch. For they even offered sacrifices to the dead, and calling them heroes, they enrolled them as gods. It was appropriate, therefore, since he had openly exposed the multitude of idols, to proceed to this discourse as well, and to produce faith in those who were wandering, that they should count human things as nothing. For even if some who have been famous and admirable on the earth in times past, or who have been eminent in the highest and royal thrones, or who have been deemed worthy of some other privilege of honor in those times, exist, let them in no way imagine them to be gods; but rather let them consider that this very power to command some is not given from elsewhere than from God. And that the thing is by no means difficult with the almighty God, he shows clearly when he says that princes are made by Him to be as nothing, and that they do not reign. He further amplifies, and says: To the earth

^A he reduces it as to nothing. But that it is placed in the power of God to preserve or not the memory of those who have been famous and distinguished on earth, He signifies by saying: For they shall not sow, neither shall they plant. For if God does not will it, He says, they shall have no fruit on the earth, nor even a root or memory; but, as if a wind rushed upon them, they shall vanish into nothingness, like twigs. For all human things are small, easily scattered, and utterly unstable, and wither away like grass. Therefore, God alone ^B is to be worshipped, God, I say, by nature and in truth; and let there be no account of those invented by the craft of workmen, nor indeed of men upon whom the name of gods has been attached by some. For this is necrolatry and the cult of the dead, and nothing else.

Now therefore, to whom have you likened me? And the Holy One said, I shall be exalted. Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has shown all these things: He who brings forth his host by number, he will call them all by name for his great glory, and in the might of his strength nothing has escaped Thee.

The all-wise Paul cried out not without reason ^C against the ignorance of those who wander, and he makes a most just denunciation against the multitude of those who worship idols. For when it was possible for them to know the Creator and Architect of all things from the very creation itself, they were led away into pseudo-worship, and have worshipped those who are not gods. And he said thus concerning the God who rules over all: "For his invisible things from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things." ^D Since, therefore, He says, I hold the circuit of the earth, and have stretched out the heaven as a kind of tent, and I give to princes to rule over nothing, and I liken those upon the earth to locusts, to whom have you likened me? That is to say: To whom, by likening me, would you not depart from what is reasonable, nor miss the truth? Do you think that by calling me the heaven, or by wishing to liken me to one of the elements, you are exalting me? But no creature is like to me, nor corresponds to me in everything without exception. For no one will be able to equal in terms of substance Him who calls to existence things that never were. That I am not like the gods among you, who have received their origin from human art, perceive from the creatures themselves. Lift up your eyes on high, see the firmament, the choir of the stars; consider who has shown all these things, who is the one bringing forth the world by number, it is clear that he means the heaven. And he calls the stars the world of the heaven, which he says he knows

^A in himself, not only as seen in a multitude, but also one by one, and as it were by name. This is a divine and excellent thing; indeed, the prophet marvels much at this, and addresses him saying: From great glory and in the strength of power, nothing has escaped thee. For as the holy Scripture says, The drops of rain are numbered by him. For absolutely nothing escapes this ineffable wisdom and the mind that knows all things.

VERS. 27. *For do not say, O Jacob, and why hast thou spoken, O Israel? My way is hidden from God, and my God hath taken away my judgment, and hath departed.*

He has discussed excellently how those who are wandering will be called in their own time, and, enriched by the light of truth, will recognize in mind and heart the Creator and Artificer of the universe; and how they will be wise and understanding, and from the beauty of creatures will contemplate by a certain reason and proportion him who brought all this, whatever it is, into existence by ineffable power. Having now woven together from these things a sufficiently just initiation and instruction, he transfers his speech to those who have sprung from the blood of Jacob, that is, Israel. For after they had stumbled on the stone of stumbling, and not having received the author and leader of salvation, they were far removed from the union which is with him, they murmured not now against the shadow received in the Law, but against the adoration and worship in spirit and in truth, that is, the evangelic, and they say: My way is hidden from God, that is, he does not regard the legal way of life and instruction. ^B For he deems those who live thus—namely, as the commandment of the most wise Moses enjoined—no longer worthy of his own regard. And he hath taken away my judgment, and departed, that is, he has made the Law to cease. They call the Law "judgment," which the blessed David will teach when he addresses the God of all: *Judgment and justice thou hast made in Jacob*, that is, thou hast established the Law through angels or through the intercession of Moses. And Moses also said concerning Israel: *There he gave him justifications and judgments.* He has taken away my judgment, therefore, that is, he has, so to speak, cast away the observance of the Law, and has taken it away from us, and has departed. For he no longer cares for the chosen ones, and the firstborn Israel has vanished into nothing.

VERS. 28. *And now hast thou not known, nor hast thou heard? The eternal God, the God who fashioned the ends of the earth, will neither hunger, nor will he labor, nor is there any searching of his understanding.*

For long ago, O Israel, thou wert instructed by the Law, and thou hast known through the prophets the mode of the dispensation that was to be after the Law. For the Law was brought forth, having shadows and types of future good things, and possessing the power of the mystery of Christ in the letter as if in travail; ^C for in many ways Christ was prefigured through the commandment of the Law, and the mystery concerning him was enigmatically recorded. This he himself will confirm, when he says to the disobedient Israelites: If ^D

you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me. Since, he says, he complains, saying: "My way is not considered in the Law"—for this is what "My way is hidden from God" means—and that He has taken away our judgment, that is, the Law, and departed; as though one who had perhaps not at all known Him who is hidden in God, he says such things as these: Suppose, he says, that even now you have not known, if you have not heard? That is, if you have not listened? It is similar to if he were to say: I accept the pretense which you have constructed economically. You have not known, if you have not learned, or if you have not heard. Hear, therefore: God is eternal, God who has fashioned the ends of the earth will not hunger, nor will He weary. You were bringing forward, he says, blood sacrifices—you were sacrificing sheep and oxen, you were fulfilling vows; you were honoring Him with incense and smoke, with turtledoves and pigeons; but know, and do not be ignorant, that God who is eternal fashioned the ends of the earth. By the "ends of the earth," he means its boundaries, so that by this the whole may be understood. He will not hunger, nor will He weary. I say that this is similar to what was said to them through the voice of the Psalmist: "Shall I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?" For how, he says, do you bring sacrifices to me? As if I were hungry and accustomed to wearying from famine? Away with such foolishness. For the eternal God, who knows no corruption, will neither hunger nor weary; nor will any human things touch Him. But there is also no finding out of His understanding. For you complain, he says, saying: If you now have made the commandment through Moses, or the shadow in the Law, unacceptable, why did you establish the Law at all in the beginning? If the new things, that is, the evangelical decrees, are better than the ancient ones, why are these added to the Law itself? But do not say this, he says. For you cannot find the incomprehensible understanding, or wisdom, of God. For the commandment through Moses was indeed given; but for what, and for what cause, Paul will teach, saying that "the Law entered, that the offence might abound." And again: "For Scripture has concluded all under disobedience, that He might have mercy upon all." It is determined, therefore, to be a pointer of sin, and as it were a conviction of the weakness of all, so that, since it does not know how to justify those who have sinned, but rather condemns them, thereupon the grace of the generosity through Christ is necessarily introduced, justifying the ungodly and delivering those who are entangled in offenses from them. Therefore, there is no finding out of the understanding of God, who governs all things wisely, and who fore-showed the Law for the conviction of sin, and sent the Son from heaven, that He might justify those in sins through faith.

Giving to those who hunger strength, and to those not sorrowing, grief. For the young shall hunger, and the adolescents shall weary, and the elect shall be infirm. But those who wait for God shall exchange strength, they shall grow wings like eagles, they shall run and not weary, they shall walk and not hunger.

^A Understand this for me at once and collectively: God is eternal; God who fashioned the ends of the earth is Himself He who gives strength to the hungry. For God, being eternal, is never in need of food. Rather, He Himself gives to the hungry spiritual strength—that is to say, righteousness—and in like manner He gives sorrow to those who do not sorrow. And this you shall understand in two ways. For either because of great and extreme senselessness, and because of not having known what is pleasing to God, nor even knowing that by offending Him they would fall into grievous and unavoidable calamities, He gives them sorrow for the sake of help, so that they may henceforth grieve over those things in which they have stumbled. For the sorrow that is according to God works repentance unto salvation that is not to be repented of. ^B Or, to those who crucified Jesus—and perhaps even rejoiced in it (for the leaders of the Jews, and whoever dared to say, "His blood be upon us and upon our children," were so disposed)—He gives sorrow, having prepared them to encounter calamities and the evils of war; and because they have slipped away from intimacy with Him, they have become destitute of all strength and spiritual food. Therefore, almost as if interpreting the saying, He adds, saying: "For the young shall hunger, and the adolescents shall labor, and the elect shall be infirm." For as far as the Gentiles were concerned, who had fallen away and were weak, and were thus cast under demonic feet, and were doing without hesitation whatever seemed good to the unclean spirits, they were indeed strong and young in a sense; but clearly, in an intelligible and spiritual way, they were oppressed by hunger and labor. But as for those who, through the instruction of the Law, knew how to do good, and were once and for all fulfilling the commandment given to them, these, He says, shall hunger and shall labor—that is to say, they shall be infirm for every good work whatsoever. For a hunger for the divine words, if it happens ^C to someone, proves quite certainly that they are infirm, and listless, and unable to perform any good thing excellently and bravely. But that the Jewish nation has perished from hunger—while those who have believed in our Lord Jesus Christ have been delivered from evil—God foretells, speaking long ago through one of the prophets: "Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, and I will bring a hunger upon the land, not a hunger of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a hunger for hearing the word of the Lord; and they shall run to and fro from east to west seeking the word of the Lord, and they shall not find it." For how were they not to be infirm, and how were they not to labor and perish with an intelligible hunger, when they did not receive Christ, even when He said clearly: "I am the living bread which descended from heaven, and gives life to the world; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever"? ^D Yet since, because of great folly, even though it was possible for them to partake, they did not eat the bread of life, they are wasted away by hunger while the Gentiles live in luxury. For it is true that, as Solomon says: "The Lord will not let the righteous soul die of hunger, but He will frustrate the life of the ungodly." But these things happened to the Jews, because they have been impious toward the Author of life. For those who wait for the Lord, that is to say, those who serve Christ and...

^A mind his will and strive to act rightly, shall renew their strength. For they have not remained in those infirmities in which they were once wandering and subjected to the yoke of Satan and to worldly pleasures, but they shall have a different strength, with Christ clearly supplying to them the ability to be superior to every loathsome pleasure and to be carried outside the snares of sin. For it is written, "My strength and my praise is the Lord." They shall be renewed then, he says, as if like eagles. And the blessed David will teach this by saying, "Thy youth shall be renewed as the eagle's." They shall run and shall not grow weary. For being eager and youthful, they shall traverse the paths of piety toward God, with Christ giving them what supports life and not allowing them to grow weary. For He fills the hearts of those who love Him with strength from above, so that even if it should happen that they fall into temptations and labors, those who live consistently with virtue overcome the labor, knowing well that patience is greatly to be desired. If this is present in some, it always makes them most approved in all things. "For patience works probation, and probation hope, and hope does not put to shame those who are accustomed to live in this way." He urges toward manliness—and it is evident that this is in all good things—when the blessed David says, "Be manly, and let your heart be strengthened, all you who hope in the Lord."

^B "Be renewed toward me, islands. For the rulers shall change their strength; let them draw near, and let them speak together, then let them announce the judgment."

Islands are understood in various ways. For there are many in the seas, and cities are also sometimes called so, even villages that have around them a wide extent of land untilled and uncultivated; they say that such are those of the Idumeans and Moabites, as being situated in a desert. But these were impious and idolaters, and not far from the region of the Jews. We say, therefore, that wanting to mark the accession of the Gentiles, and as if bringing the power of the matter from the middle to the whole, he addresses the cities of those who wander, saying: "Be renewed toward me, islands," that is, putting away the agedness and rottenness of your own hearts resulting from wandering and sinning, be renewed through repentance. Consider better things, receive the grace, which is clearly that of Christ, which renews into newness of life. It is also likely that the Churches are termed islands here in another sense, which are, as it were, set amidst worldly difficulties and are flooded by the waves of those rising up against them, but have a secure station and remain unshaken. For they have been founded upon the rock, and in it is Christ. These, therefore, were called as islands, that is, the Churches. And by them is signified the multitude called through faith, which, having been formerly given over to sins, detestable and impure, corrupt and wrinkled, has passed through Christ to newness of life and has become a virgin, pure, not ^C

^B having spot or wrinkle, but rather holy and blameless. "Therefore be renewed toward me," He says. But He also very strongly asserts the strength of the princes. Here He calls the heralds of the truth "princes," those who were substituted, one after another, after their calling, as Peter and Paul and the rest of the catalog of the apostles declare, to whom that which follows fits more aptly: "They shall mount wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not hunger." For such are the miracles which their Acts demonstrate. For the disciples of our Savior were not like those first ones—namely, the leaders of the Jews—but were endowed with another power, as if spiritual; and truly they were far better and incomparably superior in the marks of virtue. "These princes, therefore, let them draw near, and let them speak together." By "draw near," you shall understand the time. For if the right time reveals them, they shall speak together. It is just as if He were saying: All those whom they teach the mysteries will recount the same thing; as if speaking from one Spirit, they will not fight among themselves with words, but will preach with the highest harmony and consent concerning divine dogmas, and will announce the hidden mystery of Christ. For this, I think, is what it means: "Then let them announce a judgment." For since the Israelites named the law given through Moses a "judgment," for this reason, and very rightly so, by setting the evangelical and saving preaching against it, He calls it a "judgment" through these words. For truly a just judgment, and the efficacy of the lawgiving that pleases God, is shown not in the shadow of the law, but in the preaching of the holy mystagogues, the new princes. Who, having learned the judgment from Christ—that is, the will of God and the Father—have also announced it to us with one mouth and consent. ^C

VERS. 2. *Who raised up righteousness from the east, called it to his feet, and it shall go?*

Not on account of the naked and solitary magnificence of created things is it fitting to admire God, the Lord of all, but rather through the benefits by which He entices us, He gives a display of the serenity and placability that reside in Him. For He has saved mortals, and has delivered from death, and corruption, and the greed of the devil, the human race, which had been wholly lost. For He has rendered him powerless, together with the powers that are with him, and has justified us through faith, having driven away the sin that was tyrannizing against us. But all these things were excellently accomplished through Christ: "For He has become for us, from God and the Father, righteousness and redemption, and sanctification" (1 Cor. 1:30). And we have been enlightened by Him, and we have become partakers of mercy and love, and of everything at all that contributes to salvation. This also, one of the holy prophets foretold to us, when he said: "And there shall arise to you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness, and healing is in his wings" (Mal. 4:2). Who then, He says, caused righteousness to rise as if a sun from the east? That is to say, Christ. Who called it? That is, who caused it to arrive and to appear to the inhabitants of the earth, and to appear in such a way that it goes to the feet of the one who calls, and

^A that is, just about following in the footsteps of God and the Father? For in this way the Lord walked upon the earth, both by fulfilling the works of the Father and by exhibiting Him to us in His own nature. For He was and is equal to Him in power, and by the very deeds themselves He fully persuaded those on earth that He has equality of measure in every respect with the One who begat Him. And so He said clearly: "If I do not the works of my Father, do not believe me. But if I do them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works." And following in every way the will of the Father—or rather, being Himself the will of the Father—He addressed the crowds of the Jews, saying: "You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. And even if I do judge, my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of Him who sent me." You see, then, how He walks, as it were, at the feet of the Father. Therefore He also said: "I am in the Father, and the Father is in me," and, "He who has seen me has seen my Father."

Ver. 2-4. He shall give before the nations, and shall strike kings with amazement. And He shall give their swords to the earth, and their bows as cast-away stubble. And He shall pursue them, and the way of His feet shall pass in peace. Who has wrought and done these things? He called it, He who calls it from ancient generations.

For before the coming of our Savior, the inhabitants of the earth, in no way differing from brute beasts, appeared to lead their lives in great ignorance; they were held fast by ignorance and darkness, and were enslaved to the rulers of this world and to the will of the devil, having bowed the neck of their own mind, and were carried down into destruction by the tracks of wickedness. ^C But Christ shone upon them. For He Himself is the expectation of the nations. And having rescued those who were formerly occupied by them, He made them free and children of God, and wiped away every stain that was in them; for He justified them through faith, and rendered them bright and illuminated by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This righteousness, then, occupying the place of the sun, as it were, and having arisen from the east, He gave to the nations, Israel having evidently been thrust aside on account of their impiety toward Him. ^D When this had happened, and so great a multitude had been saved, the kings rose up. For an ecstasy, as it were, and a stupor has fallen upon the rulers of this world, and they have feared the divine and unbearable judgment which (I say) has come to pass among the nations. Those who were formerly terrible and strong, and who fought against the divine glory, and who were accustomed to wield weapons against it, as it were, and to draw forth swords, and to bend the bow of their madness, have fallen to the earth; and having cast aside their instruments of war, they have become like stubble. The discourse here is taken again from the likeness of things among us. For the evil powers have been defeated, and their every mode of malice has been weakened, as Christ plunders their vessels. "For it shall not profit,"

it says, "the enemy in him, and the son of iniquity shall not add to harm him." ^A For it was necessary, truly necessary, that the wicked and evil powers having been removed, and the enemy of all mankind having been cast down to the earth, then and there, and at the most opportune time, the redemption of the Gentiles should be accomplished. For Christ pursued them, that is, he put them to flight. For it was not possible for them to resist God, who also put an end to their ancient tyranny, lest those who had destroyed the earth should not suffer, in every way and altogether, the things which it was fitting should be brought upon them by Him. With the enemies, therefore, put to flight—for "the way of his feet," he says, "shall pass on in peace"—no obstacle was cast before Christ, the Savior of us all, as he managed our affairs. But as one walking on a flat and level road, he accomplished the salvation of us all, with no enemy hindering or resisting him. For they have fallen. Who, then, has wrought all these things, or who called righteousness? "Was it not I," he says, "who even now and in the last times have shown it, having called it from ancient generations?" For the mystery of Christ is not recent, but rather it was foreordained before the foundation of the world, God foreknowing what would be. For as soon as Adam fell—or rather, before he slipped into this—the Creator ^B foreknew, and he foreordained the time for the remedy that would come to him in its own proper season, that is to say, the remedy through Christ. And do not marvel that He is found to have foreknown us as justified through faith in Him. For, he says, "whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, these he also called." Since, therefore, we were foreordained by foreknowledge, how much more was He through whom we have been saved and called?

But since we have been foreordained according to foreknowledge, how— ^C

VERS. 4-6. "I God am first, and to things future I am. The nations saw, and they feared; the ends of the earth approached, and drew near together, judging each one to his neighbor, and to his brother to help."

He declares himself to be God first, not as if there were a second after him. For how, or whence? For there is one God of all, not having a beginning to his existence, but rather he who calls all things into existence. He, therefore, is first and alone, and God without beginning, the Creator of all, and into the infinite ages which follow he will not be in any other way; for he is, and he is alone. Now, since the nations have seen Christ, and the righteousness brought to us by him, and all have seen his glory with the eyes of the mind, they have feared, he says, from the ends of the earth even to the ends, ^D that is, throughout the whole world. And they were gathered and drew near, no longer remaining far off, and as if alienated through sin, but as having become near through spiritual relationship, and brought together into one faith and consensus of soul. For this, I think, is what is signified by: "They approached, and drew near together." And having tasted of the Lord, and having understood that he is good, and having admired the beauty of the truth, they have not kept the gift to themselves alone, but—

^A they have acted well, and with fairness they have judged, each one, he says, to help his brother and his friend.

And he will say: "The craftsman and the smith who strikes the hammer, and at the same time is forging, has prevailed." Sometimes he will say: "The fusion is good. They have strengthened them with nails, they will place them, and they shall not be moved."

The manner of the help he sets before the eyes. For everyone of those who have judged to bring help to their neighbor and their brother, having been initiated into the mysteries, he says, and having known the truth, will also admonish others, saying: "The craftsman and the smith who strikes the hammer and at the same time is forging has prevailed." And in what manner has he prevailed? For having composed idols and carved them into a god, the man who possesses the experience of the craft, and furthermore the smith, having made a hammered image, brought those who are deceived into a reprobate mind, and those who were made in the image of God he has rendered worshippers of his own labors, or rather, his inventions. Then he derides the manufacture of the idols, and as it were mimics the words of those who fashion them, as they applaud one another, saying that "The fusion is beautiful." For the makers of the idols, having finished perhaps a hand, or a foot, or some other of the parts of the body, bring them to completion through the joining of parts, and by fitting limb to limb, and by making them strong with nails; then having set them up and secured them so that they might stand and not be shaken. But these things are nothing but laughter, and are proof of the vanity of those who worship them and of their sheer folly. For to know that the idol was brought to completion ^C from small fragments and parts joined together, and that it has its stability in its being brought into existence, and furthermore its persistence, and has its security in nails—and then to worship them and call them gods, how is this not truly full of all folly?

"But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, whom I have loved, whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and I have called you from its furthest bounds, and said to you: 'You are my servant, I have chosen you and have not abandoned you. Do not fear. For I am with you. Do not wander. For I am your God who has strengthened you, and I have helped you, and I have secured you with my righteous right hand.'"

Having instructed the Gentiles most beautifully in the mysteries, and having prepared them to know that there is a God and Creator of all things, and that all things yield to him and to his divine nods, and that they have come into existence in the beginning, and have been brought forth and fixed in beauty, and have a firm and unshakable persistence, he then necessarily encourages the ministers of the evangelical prophecies, through whom they were about to speak the word of instruction to those from the Gentiles. ^D He renders them wise and most courageous, and recalls to their memory the virtue of the holy fathers, and wishes them to know the love that came to be toward them. For this reason he says: "But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, whom I have loved." Jacob and Israel, and the seed of the beloved Abraham, would be none other than the Israelites who believe in Christ, of whom the divine disciples were as it were the first-fruits. Furthermore, he says that the fathers are chosen and beloved, that which as

^A it were he says: "You who are from a noble root, and so honored and loved by me, you who are from the blood of Abraham, emulate the renown of ancestral virtue, and become imitators of their piety." He says that he indeed took hold of Abraham, and called him from the ends of the earth, or rather from its watchtowers, because he was summoned from afar and from the land of the Chaldeans to Judea. For he heard God saying: "Go forth from your land, and from your kindred, and from the house of your father, and come into the land which I will show you." And then he speaks as if about the whole of Israel, that "I said to you: You are my servant." For he has been named first-born. ^B He has indeed become chosen, as I said, and was not abandoned by God. He heard: "Do not fear," and furthermore: "Do not wander. For I am your God who strengthened you." For he was instructed through the law that God is one, and Lord is one, and that one must worship him alone, and that he is assisted by him also through his right hand, which is his creating and fashioning power, that is to say, the Son. And he was in safety, and immune from all plots. For he conquered the nations, and inherited their land.

VERS. 11-14. Behold, all who oppose you will be ashamed and confounded. For they will be as though they are not, and all your adversaries will perish. You will seek them, and will not find the men who will rage against you. For they will be as though they are not, and there will be no one fighting against you, because I am your God, who holds your right hand, who says to you: "Do not fear, worm Jacob, little Israel. I have assisted you," says God, who redeems you, the Holy One of Israel. ^C

This also is a rendering of the things above. "For you, Israel, are my servant," he says, "and Jacob, whom I chose, the seed of Abraham whom I loved. Behold, all who oppose you will be ashamed and confounded." For very many have existed at various times who have wickedly plotted against the holy teachers of the mysteries, and have attempted to oppose the saving proclamations out of their own perversity. But they have become as nothing, and the adversaries of piety have perished. For in that they have clamored against the ministers of divine preaching, they were contending for nothing other than to resist the dogmas and opinions of piety. "They will not exist, therefore," he says, "but you will seek them, and you will by no means find those who have acted outrageously toward you. For they will ^D be as though they are not." And this is that which is sung by the voice of the blessed David: "I saw the impious one lifted up and exalted like the cedars of Lebanon, and I passed by, and behold he was not, and I sought him, and his place was not found." For many who are accustomed to think haughty things do indeed exalt themselves against the age of holy bishops, but they will be destroyed root and branch from the earth, as the holy Scripture says. And those who think haughty things will suffer a grievous and unexpected ruin. For it is written: "Whoever makes his house high, seeks ruin." Therefore, he says,

^A you will not have those who war against you. Nor, indeed, does he say that no one will ever stand against the holy apostles, nor that they will always live in splendor and tranquility. For this is not true; countless numbers have fought against them, but they shall not even be found to exist—cast down, clearly, and falling under the surges of divine wrath.

For this reason, he encourages them toward courage, saying: "I am your God, who holds your right hand," that is, who sustains you and renders you superior to all temptations. "I," he says, "who say to you: Fear not, Jacob, little Israel." For as far as the multitude of those warring, or the powers of the world are concerned, Israel was entirely small; and I do not speak of the whole nation, but of those taken by him for the apostleship. Yet he who saves them is great, strong, and mighty to bring aid, having an unconquerable hand. For when God redeems, who is able to do harm ^B?

"Behold, I have made you as the wheels of a threshing wagon, new, like a whirlwind. And you shall thresh the mountains, and beat the hills small, and make them as dust, and the wind shall take them, and the storm shall scatter them." The children of the Egyptians, having brought sheaves from the fields to the threshing floor, then yanking oxen onto them and driving them in a circle, crush the ears of corn with their hooves. And they winnow and separate the wheat from the chaff, but they also use wagons and wheels like whirlwinds in other cities and regions. They have made it their practice to accomplish this very thing. Behold, therefore, he says, O Israel, I have made you like the wheels of a threshing wagon, new, like a whirlwind. And what is to be threshed? Is it grains and wheat, and the things gathered from the fields to the threshing floor? By no means, but mountains and hills. And who, then, might these be? First, ^C the evil and opposing powers. For the Savior of all has given us [the authority] to tread upon snakes and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy. Then, he seems to compare to mountains and hills those who are accustomed to think haughty thoughts, who have a puffed-up and elevated mind, who are set firmly in worldly powers and who set themselves against the holy mystagogues, and, like mountains or hills, are accustomed to stand in the way, making it as difficult as possible for them—making it difficult, I say, to fulfill the course of the apostleship in due time. But those who are such, he says, you will crush, and you will make them fly away like chaff, scattered by the breezes ^D of the winds, and you will give them over like a storm, so that it scatters them. For thus will they depart into nothingness.

"But you shall rejoice in the holy ones, Israel. And the poor and the needy shall exult. For they shall seek water, and there shall be none, and their tongue has dried up from thirst."

^A I am the Lord God, I the God of Israel will hearken, and I will not forsake them.

The enemies of the divine preaching, he says, and those who impede your path, O Israel, shall depart into destruction. But you shall rejoice in the holy ones, Israel; that is, you shall take delight when you see many having become holy and counted among the sons of Israel. "For not all who are from Israel, these are Israel; nor because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children; but the children of the promise are reckoned for seed." That it was the custom for the holy apostles to rejoice and exult over those who were approved and rendered notable—clearly through faith in Christ—Paul also clarifies, writing to them and saying: "My joy and crown." And I would say that each of the holy disciples was also disposed in the same manner, and indeed with very good reason. For the cause of their supreme pleasure was the conversion of those who were wandering, and the restoration to a better state of those who did not know the truth. You shall rejoice, therefore, in the holy ones, Israel. And he reveals who these are, saying: "The poor and the needy shall exult," that is, the nations. For they were in need of every good thing, and entirely devoid of divine gifts. For those who are wholly ignorant of Him must necessarily lack the ornaments of virtue. The poor, therefore, and the needy shall exult. How, or in what manner? "For they shall seek water," he says, "and it shall not be, and their tongue has dried up from thirst." By "shall seek," in these words, he means "they have sought." For since they did not find it, their tongue dried up from thirst. For there existed among the Greeks many philologists, and disputants, and searchers after truth; but there was no one among them who knew how to teach these things. There was no life-giving water. There was no one who could satiate those who love the truth with the dogmas of truth. Therefore their tongue dried up from thirst. "But I will hearken to them," says the God of Israel, "and I will not forsake them." For He had mercy on the multitude of those who were wandering, and did not leave them in this want of heavenly gifts; rather, He filled them, and how He did so, He clarifies quite beautifully in what follows. ^C

Verse 18-20. But I will open rivers on the mountains, and fountains in the midst of the plains; I will turn the desert into marshes, and the thirsty land into watercourses. I will set in the land lacking water the cedar, and the box tree, and the myrtle, and the cypress, and the poplar, that they may see and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord has done all these things, and the Holy One of Israel has shown them.

He calls the region of the nations a desert and a land lacking water. A desert, because it was, in a certain way, stripped bare and deserted, and destitute of the most flourishing trees—meaning, of course, those understood in an intellectual sense—but seen only as a nurse of thorns, and a mother of wild woods, and things suitable for consumption by fire. These nations once

^A bore fruit, but to those who formerly thirsted, He says: "I will open rivers on the mountains," meaning clearly the holy men who have been enriched from above with the divine word, and who pour it forth like river streams to the thirsty, and as it were make it gush out. So that the desert, having one day changed its appearance, seems to be marshes and woods, and the land that thirsts becomes channels. And these channels, again, might be the mystagogues and teachers of the churches who have arisen at various times in every land and city; they, who as if from the springs and rivers of the divinely inspired Scripture have received the word into their minds and hearts as into a dwelling, transfer it to others, just like certain channels watering the most flourishing gardens. But in what way the desert will be changed into marshes, and of what trees it will be the nurse, He teaches, saying: "I will set in the waterless land the cedar, and the box, and the myrtle, and the cypress, and the poplar." And all these are sweet-smelling and incorruptible trees. There is added also to the saints a fragrance, understood intellectually through a holy manner of life; and the fact that they do not decay, having been ^B set apart, not relaxed into worldly desires, but standing firm and rooted in God, and supported by His assistance. For "The Lord upholds the righteous," as it is written. "There shall be," He says, "rivers, and springs, and channels, even on mountains and plains, and as it were everywhere." And the desert shall become marshes, so that those who are called through faith may see even with their own eyes, and recognize through good thoughts, and indeed learn from the magnificence of the deeds done and the unexpected change, that such great and celebrated things do not tend to be accomplished simply or automatically. For the hand of the Lord has rather shown them—that is, the power and authority of God, to wit, the Son, through whom all things have been and are—and by whom all things have already been done and have been wondrously wrought by the Father. For it is not falsely named gods, nor cosmic elements, nor even the one who is thought to be the God of this age, who has proved to be the worker of these things, but the Holy One of Israel has shown them.

"Your judgment draws near," says God; "your counsels have drawn near," says the King of Jacob.

Having spoken very well concerning how the calling of the nations will be in its own time, and having promised to turn the desert into marshes, and to render the thirsty land thick with channels, ^C cedars, box, and the other trees, and saying that His own hand would be an object of wonder, as the creator of such great things, He again enters into a dialogue with the makers of idols and the artisans of such things, and says that their judgment is near. And by judgment he means either the punishment due to them, or [the equivalent] shame and embarrassment. For they might be punished by the holy vote of God and by a just judgment, as they have deceived that which is under heaven and have brought in counsels that are not true. For they taught those upon the ^D earth...

For the inhabitants of the earth have taught ^A them to say to the wood: You are my father; and to the stone: You have begotten me. Hence he says that their counsels have drawn near, that is, have come to an end, for God shakes off the error and dissipates the darkness of ignorance—not a god from among those falsely so-called by them, we mean, but the Lord and God in truth, and the King of Jacob, that is, of those who are of the blood of Israel. Through these words, he recalls to memory the signs that were wrought for the deliverance of the Israelites, out of which the divine authority belonging to Him and the power of His incomparable excellence is very well recognized.

Vers. 22-24. Let them approach, and announce to you what shall occur; or what the former things were; tell us, and we will apply our mind, and we shall know what are the last things, and what are the things to come. Tell us, announce the things that come in the last time, and we shall know that you are gods. Do good, and do evil, and we shall marvel, and see at the same time, whence you are, and whence your work is: out of the earth the abomination has chosen you. ^B

It is proper and peculiar to the divine and ineffable glory to know all things, and to be ignorant of absolutely nothing, whether of things past, or of things present, or of things to come. And indeed, through the most wise Moses, He makes clear to the inhabitants of the earth those things that were before the founding of this world, and those that were in the beginning, saying: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was invisible and unarranged, and darkness was upon the abyss." And he goes through the creation of the entire world with the greatest precision. But also our Lord Jesus Christ, who long ago spoke those things ^C through Moses, has announced to us what is to happen in the last times; for as His disciple says: "We look for new heavens and a new earth, and His promises." It is also possible to hear Him saying clearly: "Shall anything be hidden from me?" For "the Word of God is truly living, and effective, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and reaching even unto the division of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and there is no created thing invisible before Him, but all things are naked and laid open to His eyes." Since, therefore, He is God, He saves and benefits, and fills with all spiritual joy, those who worship Him; but He harms and brings punishment upon those who are accustomed to despise Him, ^D and who refuse to do good. But nothing of these things can one see in those made of stone. For what does inanimate matter know? Or how could they do good to anyone, or even do evil, which are not able to help even themselves, but receive from others the fact that they stand and that they are merely seen? Let them come, therefore, he says, those who are thought by you to be gods; let them announce what shall occur, let them say the former things, and the last, and the things to come. For we shall know then, he says, that you are gods. But you cannot, he says, announce;

^A nor is it difficult to see whence you are, and whence your work: for you are an abomination made from the earth. For either the idol might be made from wood, for instance, or from some famous and select stone, or from some other material; but all these things are from the earth. And it is necessary, I think, to be utterly amazed at the worshippers of idols, if they have not even known this from them, namely, where their affairs will ever end. For they have not known, nor have they previously announced, that they themselves will be burned up along with their temples, and will lie as a laughingstock for the times that follow, even to those who formerly wandered.

VERS. 25. Ego vero excitavi eum qui ab aquilone, et eum qui ab ortu solis: vocabuntur nomine meo. ^B

For the swarm of unclean idols, since they were nothing else but only wood and stones, have led those who were deceived into error; and they have announced to them absolutely nothing of the former or the last things, nor have they been able to benefit anyone with good things, or even to harm them. But I, he says, since I am a good God, have willed that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. I have saved [all] under heaven, and I have raised many who were lying as if dead. And who, pray, might these be? He teaches, saying: Him who is from the north, and him from the rising of the sun, that is, the people from the Gentiles. ^C For if you look toward the region of the Jews, which faces most toward the south, the land of the Gentiles is more northerly, and occupies a place that looks toward the sun’s ray. Therefore, he who is from the north and from the rising of the sun could be the people from the Gentiles, who have been called by the name of Christ. For we are named Christians, and we are such. ^D For he acquired us with his own blood, and we have been bought with a price, and we are not our own. For one died for all, in order that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised. Therefore we say as to our own Savior and Redeemer: O Lord, besides you we know no other, we invoke your name. We have been called, then, by his name, and this was, after all, what was spoken through the voice of the prophet: But for those who serve me a new name shall be called, which shall be blessed upon the earth. It seems, he says, that he means Christ by the "rising of the sun," for the reason that it has been written about him: "Behold the man, whose name is the East [Oriens]." And again, as God and Father saying concerning him: "Who raised up righteousness from the East?" For Christ has become for us righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption besides.

VERS. 26. Veniant principes, et ut lutum figuli, et ut figulus conculcans lutum, sic conculcabimini. Quis enim annuntiabit ea quæ a principio, ut cognoscamus ea quæ ad faciem sunt? Et dicemus quod verum sit. Nullus est qui prædicat, neque qui audiat sermones vestros. For by the will of God, the multitude of idols was to be burned, and by the feet of the believers, like mud con-

^A trodden under foot. For they have been trampled, either as dust, or as the potter’s clay, and being nothing else beside this. For their birth was from the earth. That all these things were to be brought to an end at the proper time, by the saints who wage war and who serve the divine will with youthful alacrity, He declares by saying: *Come, ye princes*, that is, let the leaders of the peoples be designated, who recall those believing in Me from error, and who arm them against the inanimate gods. For who among them, He says, will announce things from the beginning, that we may know, or things from before, that upon the fulfillment of what was spoken, we may assent and prove that they have spoken the truth? But, He says, there is not among the falsely named gods, that is, among the unclean spirits, one who foretells; nor is there among men ^B one who hears your words. For formerly, throughout the districts and cities, in the shrines of idols, there were false divinations and false predictions of demons, tripods and cauldrons, and an innumerable multitude of those accustomed to deceive, and many went to seek oracles from them. But when the Word of God shone upon us, the idols in the shrines fell, and the deceiving demons were silenced; or rather, they were even sent into Hades and are kept in Tartarus. But they who formerly held their words in esteem have been called to the recognition of the truth. Which He teaches by saying: *Neither is there any who hears your words.*

VERS. 27, 28. *I will give a principality to Sion, and I will console Jerusalem on the way. For behold, there is no one from the nations, and from their idols there was none who would announce. And if I ask them, Whence are you? They will not answer me. For your makers are but vanity, and those who deceive you in vain.*

He promises again the manifestation of the Savior, through whom the whole world has been saved, and the multitude of those who wander has been called to the recognition of the truth. For that we might have an instructor who knows how and is able to lead to the path of salvation, the only-begotten Word of God became man. ^C And although He is King by nature (insofar as He is also understood as God and from God the Father, ruling over all things and subjecting creation beneath His feet), yet He is said to be constituted and chosen King over us. For it is written concerning Him: *Behold, a just king shall reign, and princes shall rule with judgment.* For Christ has reigned and ruled over the world. And He renders this manifest to us when He says: *All power is given to Me in heaven and on earth.* For although He possessed power over the universe as God, because of the economy of the flesh He says that those things were given to Him which He had as God. Having obtained the kingdom, therefore, He set over us the holy apostles as princes, who also ruled over us with judgment, that is, with justice. I will give therefore, He says, to Sion, that is, to the Church, or to the multitude of the believers, the saving ^D principality, that is, Christ. And I will console Jerusalem, which is again the entrance of the Church. I will console

^A you, for we are strengthened through Christ, and we have been taught the path that leads to eternal life. For among the gentiles, he says, behold there is no one, and among their idols there was none who could announce it. For there have been very many among the Greeks [who were] wise and eloquent, but there was no one among them who was able to teach the way to piety. Their shrines were full of idols, but there was no one among the idols, that is, among the falsely named gods, who could announce the path of usefulness, or guide [one] into the way of righteousness. Indeed, I say this: not even if they were asked, he says, "Whence are you?" could they answer. But those who do not know themselves—for they are mute matter and devoid of senses—how could they become guides for others? Or how could they show to any at all that which leads to benefit? For there are, indeed there are [those] who make you, fashioning falsely named gods, ^B and they in turn deceive you who worship them.

Jacob my servant, I will take hold of him; Israel my elect, my soul has accepted him. I have given my spirit upon him. He will bring forth judgment to the gentiles. He will not cry out, nor will he relax, nor will his voice be heard outside. A bruised reed he will not break, and smoking flax he will not quench, but he will bring forth judgment unto truth. He will shine, and he will not be broken, until he places judgment on the earth, and in his name the gentiles and nations shall hope.

It has been promised beforehand, saying, "I will give a principality to Zion," and he shows clearly what this is. For there has been ordained over the intelligible Zion, that is, over the Church, a prince and guide, not ascending to the principality ^C at that time when he is said to be brought to this. For the Word from the Virgin was and is always King and Lord of all. But since he became man, he makes the measure of humanity his own. For thus we can believe truly and without doubt that he has become as we are. Therefore, even if it is said that he received power over all, the "receiving" will be of the economy in the flesh, not of his divine superiority, according to which he is understood to be the Lord of all. And he calls him Jacob and Israel, as born according to the flesh from the blood of Jacob, who was also surnamed Israel. He says, furthermore, "I will take hold," and he names [him] the elect. For the Father was working with the Son, and was performing the wonders as by His own power. He is also truly ^D elect, because he is fair in beauty above the sons of men, and acceptable as one who is beloved, in whom God and Father was well pleased. He said therefore: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." That he is anointed according to the human [nature], and is said to have shared in the Holy Spirit—even though he himself gives the Spirit and sanctifies the creation—he will make clear by saying: "I have given my spirit upon him." For [he says that] to him, when he was baptized, the Spirit descended from heaven in the form of a dove and remained upon him. But if at the time in which he is baptized he receives the Spirit, according to the measure of humanity,

this would belong to the other things as well. For he is not sanctified as God when he receives the Spirit—since he himself, as I have said, is the one who sanctifies—but rather as he appeared ^A as man, in the way of the dispensation. He has been anointed, therefore, so that he might bring forth judgment to the nations. By judgment, he means righteous judgment among them; for he has justified them by condemning Satan who had seized them. And he himself taught us this, saying, "Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." For he has passed sentence upon the ruin of the usurper, as I said, of the world below, and by a holy judgment he has saved those who had been deceived. "But he shall not cry out," he says, "nor shall he raise his voice, nor will his voice be heard outside." For the Savior and Lord of all sojourned among us in great subjection and humility, and as it were without noise, and injuring no one, but in silence and quiet, so that he did not crush the bruised reed, nor extinguish the smoking flax; that is, he did not trample with his foot upon those who were most abject and most accustomed to endure harm with great cowardice. What, then, will he do, and what will he accomplish for the nations? "He will bring forth judgment in truth." By judgment here, he seems to mean the Law. For it is written concerning Israel and the God who rules over all, that "he gave him commandments and judgment there"; and again, "Thou hast executed judgment and righteousness in Jacob." He will therefore bring forth this judgment, or Law, which was in shadows and types, into the truth of the evangelical ^B decrees, through which he has revealed the way of the life pleasing to him, and has transferred the worship of the Law from the letter into the truth. But the wretched Jews have raged against him, and have dared to afflict him with the death of the flesh. Yet he shone forth as light, and he was not crushed; that is, he was not conquered by corruption, nor did the madness of those who laid snares for him prevail. For death is undone, and he has revived in a divine manner, and has trampled upon his enemies, and his passion has become an occasion of salvation for the whole world. "He shall not be bruised, therefore, until he set judgment in the earth." And do not suppose that he is defining some time after which he will be bruised, after he has set judgment on the earth; but he says rather that he will prevail over his adversaries, and will conquer to such a degree that he will set his judgment in the whole earth. For the Gospel has been heralded through all the earth, and his decrees have been as it were firmly fixed. For it is written, "Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is truth." "The nations," he says, "shall hope in his name." For having recognized that he is truly God, even if he has appeared in the flesh, they shall make him their hope, as the Psalmist says: "In his name shall they rejoice all the day." For we have been called Christians, and in him we have all our hope. ^C

VERS. 5-7. Thus says the Lord God, who made the heaven and fixed it, who established the earth and what is in it, and who gave breath to the people who are upon it, and spirit to those who trample it: I, the Lord God, have called thee... ^D

in righteousness, and will hold thy hand, and will strengthen thee. And I have given thee for a covenant of the race, for a light of the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to lead the bound out of their chains, and those sitting in deep darkness out of the prison house.

^B Pseudoprophets and false vates were numerous in Israel at different times. Because of this, it happened that those who were sent by God, and who truly were prophets and accustomed to speaking in the Holy Spirit, were not believed. And the paradoxical thing is that Christ himself was mocked, as if he were not sent by God, as if he were not truly holy, and as if he did not perform those miraculous deeds by the prerogative of divinity. For the leaders of the Jews, although they saw his wonders, would sometimes claim he cast out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons; and other times they would say to one another: "If this man were from God, he would not have broken the Sabbath." Yet against these things, Christ often tried to defend himself and to prove that he was not like those who were merely thought to have been sent by God according to opinion. Therefore he said: "The thief does not come except to steal, and to slay, and to destroy. I came that they might have life." And again: "I came in the name of my Father." ^C Therefore, so that he might have the heavenly Father himself as his witness, he said also through the holy prophets, usefully and necessarily: "I the Lord God, who fixed the heaven, who made the earth most stable and unshaken, who live and give life, and give breath to all. I, the Lord and God of all, have called thee in righteousness." For he says he did not come of his own accord, like those pseudoprophets who speak from their own heart and not from the mouth of the Lord: "But I have called thee," that is, I have brought thee forth in righteousness according to my own good pleasure. "I will hold thy hand, and will strengthen thee," that is, I will be a helper to thee, and I will show thee to be all-powerful. And we do not mean by this that the Father knew the Son to be infirm and weak and in need of assistance. For he is the Lord of hosts, and the unconquered right hand of the Father, through whom all things were brought into existence. But he speaks these words again as if to one of our own condition, insofar as he appeared as man, and seems in a way, because of his humanity, to be strengthened by the Father. For thus he is said to have raised him up, and to have granted him glory, and to have rendered him stronger than the snares of those who sought to kill him. For if he humbled himself, and voluntarily allowed himself ^D to descend into [the state of] emptying, it is necessary that both the manner and measure of the emptying should appear, and that his humility be understood from the deeds themselves. See, however, how he speaks of him as if of a man: "I will hold thy hand and I will strengthen thee," and yet he immediately shows him to be God by nature, and truly the Son, and light from light. "For I have given thee," he says, "for a covenant of the race, for a light of the nations, to open the eyes of the blind." For the only-begotten Word of God came into this world with flesh, and to the men of his own race, that is, of Israelitish blood (for it is from them that he appeared according to

the flesh, having been born of a woman), he gave the new covenant, which had long been foretold by the voice of the prophets. He became also a light to the Gentiles. And this, too, is worthy of God; for to be the lawgiver, and to render void the shadow of the all-wise Moses, and to add new things to the ancient ones with a most divine authority, and, furthermore, to be able to illuminate those who walk in darkness and to open the eyes of the blind—for the divine and heavenly light shone forth upon the nations—how could this not be a clear proof and argument that he is both God and by nature from God? ^A And that Christ went and preached to the spirits in Hades, and appeared to those held in the house of custody, and liberated them all from chains, and necessity, and punishment, and justice, he further proceeds to show, when he says, bringing out prisoners from chains and those sitting in darkness from the house of custody. ^B

Verses 8, 9. *I am the Lord thy God; this is my name. My glory I will not give to another, nor my virtues to graven images. Things from the beginning, behold, they have come; and new things, which I will announce, and before they are announced, they have been indicated to you.*

For he is properly and truly and alone the Maker of all things, as he is also called by us. And as the all-wise Paul says: *For though there be many that are called gods and lords, whether in heaven or on earth, yet to us there is but one God and Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.* ^C Since, however, he has presented himself to us as the author of great and wonderful things, he says that he will not give his glory or his divine virtues to inanimate idols, nor indeed to any other creature, but has reserved them for himself alone. For it is not consistent that the glory of the divinity should belong to any other substance, except to that nature alone which is ineffable and above all things. But when he says that he will give his glory to no one, he has given it to the Son; for he is glorified, just as indeed the Father is who is worshipped in heaven and on earth. How, then, did he give it to one who is not another from himself, by reason of equality of substance, although each is distinguished into his own subsistence? For the nature of the supreme divinity is one, understood and worshipped in three distinct subsistences by those who are accustomed to think aright. ^D When he says, *Things from the beginning, behold, they have come; and new things, which I will announce, and before they are announced, they have been indicated to us*, he does not permit the word of the Savior to be disbelieved by us in any point at all. For just as, he says, the things spoken from the beginning concerning his advent were brought to their end, so will those things also come to pass in truth which he calls "new," and they are indicated before they become manifest. And what are these? For our Lord Jesus Christ has promised us the life of the world to come, which is, obviously, in incorruption, and sanctification, and righteousness, the kingdom of heaven: a glorious participation in spiritual goods, the fruits of probity, the rewards of piety, and charity toward

the crown itself. May we attain this, by his grace and kindness! And through him and with him, may there be glory to God and the Father, with the Holy Spirit, unto eternity. Amen.

BOOK FOURTH. ORATION I.

^B God the Lord has appeared among us, as it is in the Scriptures, and by him the flock of the wandering has been netted for the grace that is through faith. For he was the expectation of the nations, and through him God and the Father has called those who were living in the mist and darkness of mind and understanding to the light of truth. And he made this clear to us by the preceding words, saying briefly: "I the Lord God have called you in righteousness, and I will hold your hand, and will strengthen you, and I have given you as a covenant of the race, as a light of the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to lead the bound out of their chains, and those sitting in deep darkness out of the house of custody." ^C For our Lord Jesus Christ has been set by God and the Father as a covenant of the race according to the flesh, I mean of those from Israel, to whom also God of old promised through a certain prophet, saying: "Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, and I will consummate upon the house of Israel and upon the house of Judah a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I covenanted with their fathers." For Moses, the inspired, was a minister of shadow and type, bearing the measure and person of a suppliant; but Christ, as Son and Lord, has become the mediator of a new covenant. Of the new, I say, which reforms man unto the newness of a holy life, and, through the evangelical manner of living, demonstrates him to be a proven and true worshipper. "For God," he says, "is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." ^D Therefore he is set as a covenant of the race, and as a light of the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, and to lead the bound out of their chains. For Satan, the first author of evil, darkened the hearts of the nations; "for they became vain in their reasonings, and professing to be wise they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of quadrupeds, and of reptiles." But the true light, that is to say, Christ, has risen for us as an intelligible morning star, and as the sun of righteousness, having spread the ray of true knowledge of God, bringing him who was held in the devil's deception...

^A away, and having delivered from their bonds those who were caught in the inescapable chains of their own transgressions. That those who formerly worshipped the creature rather than the Creator, who possessed darkness in their minds, who were persuaded to bow down to the works of their own hands, who were far from God, shall be called through the faith which is in Christ, and shall acknowledge the King and Lord of all, the word of the prophecy declares very well. For it commands those who have obtained mercy through God to glorify him, and it says thus:

Verse 10. Sing to the Lord a new song; his beginning, celebrate his name from the end of the earth: those who descend into the sea, and those who sail in it, the islands, and those who dwell in them.

New is the hymn or song, fitting for the newness of things. «For if any one is in Christ, he is a new creature, according to the scripture; and the old things have passed away, and behold, all things have become new.» For those who were of the blood of Israel were ^B redeemed from the tyranny of the Egyptians, with the all-wise Moses as mediator at that time; and they were delivered from the making of bricks, and from the vain labors on earthly pursuits, and from the cruelty of the taskmasters, and from the inhumanity of the ruler; they passed through the midst of the sea, they ate manna in the desert, they drank water from the rock, they crossed the Jordan on dry feet, and they were brought into the land of promise. But these things among us are all new, and incomparably better than the old ones. For we have been delivered from slavery, not carnal but rather spiritual, and instead of pursuits concerning the earth, we have been freed from the defilements of carnal desire: we did not flee from Egyptian taskmasters, nor from a tyrant—wicked and unmerciful, indeed, but still a man like us—but rather we have fled from the evil and impure demons who incite us to sin, and from the one who is set over their flocks, that is, Satan. We passed over, as if through a certain sea, the waves of the present life, and the turmoil and truly vain distractions within it. We ate the intelligible manna, the bread from heaven, which gives life to the world; we drank water from the rock, delighting in the streams of Christ, intelligible ones, clearly. We crossed the Jordan, being ^C accounted worthy of the holy baptism; we entered into the land promised and fitting for the saints, of which the Savior himself also makes mention, saying: «Blessed are the meek, for they themselves shall inherit the earth.» Therefore, because of these new achievements, it was necessary for a new hymn to be sung by his beginning—that is, by those who are under him and obey him; and it was necessary for the hymn to be sung, or the glorification worthy of him, not only in the region of the Jews, but from the ends of the earth to the ends, that is, over the whole world. For formerly God was known in Judea, and his name was great in Israel alone. But after we were called through Christ to the ^D acknowledgment of the truth, heaven and earth were filled with his glory. For thus also the Psalmist says:

"And the whole earth shall be filled with his glory." ^A Who then are they that bid his name be glorified from the ends of the earth, who appoint singers for him, and who persuade them to form a choral symphony, and call them into a spiritual choir; who go down to the sea, and sail upon it, the islands, and those who inhabit them? He makes mention, as I think, of the holy apostles. For they did not preach Jesus and grace through him in Judea alone, but even crossed the sea and proclaimed the Gospel to the regions of the nations. They arrived, indeed, even as far as Illyricum and beyond, so that even the islands in the sea did not remain unheard of the sacred preachings, nor did those who dwell in them. And historically you may interpret what has been said in this way. But you may also understand, if you please, the prophetic words in another way. For the divinely inspired Scripture frequently compares this world, or human life, to a sea, according to that which is sung in the Psalms: "This sea is great and wide; there are creeping things without number, small animals with great." ^B It asserts, perhaps, that our life is like the sea, because of the instability of things in it, and because they are tossed up and down in great confusion. Those who do not drown in it, but swim out as it were, and extricate themselves from worldly preoccupations, cross this sea: these, having obtained divine help and being always mindful of the gifts through Christ, glorify him. The islands, too, that is to say the Churches, which all but encircle the intelligible sea and receive those tossed by the waves of the evil spirit, these glorify Christ, that is, those who inhabit them. For when we say or name Churches, we signify the holy worshippers within them. One must also know this: islands are also called villages or cities, ^C whatever they may be that are situated in the midst of a great and wide wilderness.

"Rejoice, O wilderness, and its villages, the courts, and those who inhabit Kedar. Those who inhabit Petra shall rejoice; from the tops of the mountains they shall cry out. They shall give glory to God; they shall announce his virtues in the islands."

The blessed prophets, when they weave together discourses concerning the coming of our Savior, for the most part make mention of the calling of the nations. For Christ was, as I said, the expectation of nations. But they do not apply their discourses concerning such things to every nation and people throughout the whole world ^D absolutely. For it was not likely, as an innumerable multitude filled the world under heaven, that they would wish to speak so finely and minutely as to make mention of everyone by name and individually; but by taking the regions bordering on Judea, which were most devoted to idolatry, and saying that these would be called in their own time, they demonstrated the whole by a part. Therefore, since there was a wilderness bordering on the Judean land

^A lying toward the south, where the nations of the Saracens and Arabs habitually dwelt, he says that those who lived in it would at some time obtain grace and salvation through Christ. The names of the villages, or small towns, that are in the wilderness, I say, are the habitations, and Kedar, and Petra, which is situated even to this day in the land of the Arabs, and so named. Very superstitious, as I have said, are those of whom the discourse is, that is to say, the inhabitants of these places, and they had leaned entirely toward apostasy and defection from God. For they had worshipped impure spirits. But since they were about to become, as I said, partakers of the calling and of salvation, which is through evangelical preaching and faith in Christ; hence, and indeed most rightly, the prophet, as one having beautiful feet, evangelizes good things, and all but lifts up his voice to the heights, and says: "Rejoice, O wilderness, and its villages, the habitations, and they that dwell in Kedar; they that dwell in Petra shall rejoice." This is a great and admirable demonstration of the power and excellence of our Saviour, who so easily softened such hard and unyielding hearts, and persuaded them to depart from their inveterate error, to prefer better things, and to apply themselves to the truth. And this he had already signified to us by the voice of Ezekiel, saying: "I will take away their stony heart out of their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh," that is, a tender one, "that they may know that I am the Lord." ^B Therefore, that these also were to be called, he indicated by saying: "Rejoice, O wilderness," and what follows. But who they are who cry from the tops of the mountains, and give glory to God, and announce his virtues in the islands, it is worth the effort to see. Nothing prevents them from being understood as those who inhabit Petra, so lofty and elevated a region and city; those who have been called, who no longer weave hymns and odes to falsely named gods, but rather celebrate the God who has illumined them, and attracted them to the truth, and as it were snared them. Or those who cry from the tops of the mountains can also be said, and indeed quite rightly, to be the divine disciples, to whom the prophet also says elsewhere: "Get thee up into the high mountain, thou that bringest good tidings to Sion; lift up thy voice with strength, thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem. Lift it up, be not afraid." For they preached with the utmost confidence and freedom of speech, and did not wish to escape the notice of any mortal, but were visible to all men everywhere, as a city set ^C upon a mountain; and their word was not in a corner, and secretly held, but with great freedom and confidence, just as I was saying a moment ago. For the Saviour himself also commanded them this, when he said: "What I tell you in darkness, speak ye in the light; and what ye hear in the ear, preach ye upon the housetops." They gave glory, therefore, to God, and announced his virtues in the islands. For the discourse of the holy apostles and evangelists seems to have been the messenger of the glory of the Saviour. For now they speak words regarding his ineffable deity, and extol his excellent virtue with praises, and they do not reckon him among those born of mortals, but place him above all that exists, and make him ^D of the same nature with God and the Father.

^A Now, he continues with his miracles, which we can neither sufficiently admire nor express in words. For to raise the dead from the tombs, to make the sea like dry land and traverse it on foot, to rebuke the winds, and to crush Satan by a word, most diligently proclaim his divine glory.

^B VERSE 13, 14. *The Lord God of hosts shall go forth, and shall crush the war; he shall stir up zeal, and shall cry out against his enemies with power. I have held my peace, shall I also always hold my peace and endure? I have suffered as a woman in labor.*

The discourse now proceeds in good order and holds a wonderful economy and dispensation. For the ministers of our Savior’s oracles were going to proclaim his virtues to all men everywhere, and intended to speak of these same matters with great boldness. But it was necessary to consider that the enemies of the truth—men who were clearly corrupt and superstitious, instruments of diabolical wickedness, and defenders of his perversity—would by all means and in every way rise up against their holy zeal and readiness, and intrigue against the Savior’s glory in manifold ways. Along with them, perhaps, there were the swarms of demons themselves, at the very time when their glory and the power they had gained by force were being shaken. For they had ruled over the world through deceit. The prophet shows by these words that it would come to pass that [the apostles] would not be captured by their enemies, nor would anyone overcome them, when God acts as their shield, saying: *The Lord of hosts shall go forth;* and he says "shall go forth" as if of some earthly king who attacks the enemy phalanxes with unbearable force, together with the troops that obey his scepter. ^C That the Lord of hosts would surely prevail, he revealed when he said, *he shall crush the war.* For the power from God is not easily met by any, nay, rather it is unbearable to any existing thing, when it rises and strikes—whether we think of evil powers, or the apostate and destructive Satan himself, or any mortal who makes these things their concern. But these, too, shall be broken in pieces, and that without toil or dust. For *who shall turn away the high hand?* according to that which is written. The prophet has therefore confirmed that the war which was, and still is, waged against those who resisted the choir of the holy apostles was not against the holy angels alone, but against the Lord of hosts himself, saying that he would go forth to crush the war. *He shall stir up zeal,* he says—that is, provocation, or his own against his enemies, according to what is written in the words of Zechariah: *I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Sion with a great jealousy;* or rather, that [he stirs up] those who struggle for his glory—that is, those who worship him, one of whom we say was the chosen and most holy Paul, who also says: *Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? Or distress? Or persecution? Or famine? Or nakedness? Or peril?* ^D

Again, *For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.* ^A Thus we say that the holy martyrs have become zealous, who have proved stronger than Satan and have warred against his power for the sake of piety toward Christ. For they have kept the faith, and the genuineness of their love toward Him. *He shall stir up zeal, therefore,* he says, *and shall shout against his enemies with strength.* He uses "shall shout" for "shall cry out [against]." This voice is most fitting for the victors, as it were triumphantly mocking the vanquished. Then he says: *I have been silent; shall I also always be silent and endure? I have patiently endured as a woman in labor.* From this, one might very well perceive that at that time, when the multitude of the nations was in error, with Satan tearing them apart, blackening them with the darkness of sin, and pulling them away even from knowing who is by nature and in truth the God of all, the God who is above all indeed wished to help them, but He deferred the matter, and clearly endured, waiting for the fitting time to bring aid; and this was the time when His Only-begotten Word was incarnate and became man. For then, then He waged war against those who had overcome us, and snatched us from their perversity, and took us by the hand and saved us, and placed us under His own yoke. ^B Therefore, concerning the time that had passed by, while those on earth were being torn apart, and Satan, like a lion, was devouring everyone, He said: *I have been silent; shall I also always be silent and endure? I have patiently endured as a woman in labor.* See, therefore, with what mercy the God of all treated those who dwell on the earth, even though, as the Psalmist says, *no one was doing good, but all had turned aside, even to one, and were altogether useless.* And when He felt sorrow regarding this (insofar as sadness could fall upon Him), and suffered this for our sake, He observed, as I have said, the time opportune for aid.

^C VERS. 15. *I will make [them] desolate, and will dry up at the same time, and I will make rivers into isles, and I will dry up the marshes.*

It is necessary to inquire what the word *ekstēsō* [I will make desolate/cause to stand outside] signifies in these passages. For he either says: Those who now rule over those on the earth, I will cast out, and I will cause them to be removed, and to be driven out from the authority given to them over all, according to that which was said by Christ: *Now the prince of this world shall be cast out:* or you will understand *ekstēsō* to mean: I will cause those who see the accomplished deeds, and the modes of my dispensation, and the surpassing nature of my ineffable power, to marvel; just as, indeed, the prophet Habakkuk was struck with this same astonishment on these very matters when he said: *O Lord, I have heard thy report, and was afraid; I considered thy works, and was amazed.* ^D Or, if it pleases one, you will understand *ekstēsō* in another way. For those who are now deceived and are in darkness and diabolical fog, I will transfer to the recognition of the truth, and to the divine and intelligible and heavenly light; those who are now polluted and pro-

prostituted with an unclean and defiled mind, I will transform to a disposition incomparably better, so that they may depart from their ancient stains and choose rather to concern themselves with doing good. ^A And the phrase “I will dry up [at the same time]” signifies something of this kind, which the force of the following passage will make clear. For it says: “I will put the rivers into islands, and I will dry up the marshes.” Who might these rivers be that are set into islands, and these marshes that are being dried up? We say that they are the poets and orators among the Greeks, who have been the heralds of the polytheistic delusion. For they deified the creature, and introduced innumerable gods into life. And they were like certain rivers, watering—with a turbulent turning-away, as it is written—those who were deceived, and flooding the mind of those who admired them with streams of elaborate discourses, keeping them through this in error, and setting before them, as if for food, the sweetness and charm of their own fine writing. ^B Therefore, they might reasonably be compared to rivers and marshes, that is, to thickets or woods in which grass flourishes and grows most abundantly. God therefore promises to change such rivers into islands—that is, He promises to render them arid and dry—and to dry up the marshes as well, which has also come to pass. For their fine speaking and the charm of their eloquence now prove ineffective, and nothing at all remains for them. And those who were formerly deceived, having trampled underfoot the corrupted, profane, and old-wives' tales of those who deceived them, take hold of the wisdom in Christ. For Paul writes: ^C “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” We say, therefore, that by the rivers being set into islands are meant the discourses of the wise men among the Greeks, which hold fast to the Greek deception. Or we have understood in what preceded that there are other islands, the Churches of Christ, which receive those who are sailing—intelligibly, that is, and spiritually—and who, like certain bulwarks, provide safe harbor for their teachers within them, and who escape the wicked spirit that always stirs up a storm for those who descend into the sea in ships and do work in many waters. For the sea is to be likened, as I said, to the surge of our life and the turbulence of earthly things. But the marshes also are dried up—that is, the pastures of the flocks that were once under the satanic hand—so that they might hereafter be under Him who is the chief shepherd of all, ^D I mean Christ. He does not lead his own sheep into thorns and thistles, like those false shepherds, but rather pastures them among lilies. For His divine, sacred, and proper oracles are, intelligibly, most fragrant.

“And I will lead the blind in a way that they knew not, and paths which they did not know I will make them tread. I will make their darkness into light, and their crooked things into a straight way. These words I will perform, and I will not forsake them, says the Lord God.”

For when the Lord of hosts has come, that he might crush war, and the enemies have been destroyed,

and the rivers dried up, and the marshes parched—as is the discourse we have just now treated—those who were numbered among the captives and were subject to the wickedness of the devil are entirely redeemed. And ^A whereas they were blind (for that apostate blinded their hearts), they are led in turn, by Christ, of course, into ways which they previously did not know. For these are entirely the evangelical decrees, and a life consistent with knowledge and virtue, and the beauty of a holy manner of existence. Therefore, the divine Paul also addressed the Gentiles: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” Thus, darkness became light for them; in other words, matters have changed to the very opposite. For the ignorant have become wise, those who once wandered have known the straight paths of all justice, and they who knew nothing of the good have shown themselves learned in all virtue and diligent in the offices of piety. Things that were crooked have been made straight, that is, what was difficult and arduous has become passable and level, even and smooth. ^B Such a thing is also hinted at in the preaching of John the Baptist: “For every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough into smooth ways.” For hills and hollows render the road uneven. But when there is no mound, nor any cavity, the road is always straight, and passable, and extricated from every difficulty. This is also what the blessed prophet Isaiah says elsewhere: “For the way of the pious,” he says, “became straight, and the way of the pious is prepared.” For the way of a truly evangelical conversation is not rough and impassable, but rather level and, as it were, like a plain to those who love a distinct and excellent life. Therefore, God promises that He will bring these words, or promises, to an end, and will not abandon them—that is, He will be with them always, according to the saying: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the consummation of the age.”

VERS. 17. But they shall be turned backward. Be ashamed with shame, you who trust in graven images, who say to molten images, You are our gods.

^C Quite opportunely, He transfers the discourse to the Jewish nation, who, although they had the law of Moses, which leads one by the hand toward the knowledge of God, and toward the desire to perform the things in which it was likely they would have gained praise, have lapsed into apostasy, and having fallen into the pits of the worship of many gods, have descended into the chasm of destruction; on account of which they have, not without cause, offended God, who granted them every mercy and benevolence. ^D Since, therefore, the discourse had previously proclaimed that the nations would be called in their own time, and would tread paths they had not known, and that darkness would be turned into light, and the crooked into the straight, it exposes the ignorance of those who are sprung from the blood of Israel, saying: “But they themselves have been turned backward.” The word “themselves” must be taken emphatically; that is, those who

have been instructed by the divine Law, and who have been placed under my hand, and who have kept Moses as their mediator, who heard clearly: “The Lord your God, the Lord is one; and you shall have no other gods beside me.” ^A These, while the multitude of the nations was in good hope, have turned backward, having wickedly returned to the pollutions in Egypt, and have taken upon themselves the stain of their former deception. And that which is in the true proverb has come upon them: “The dog has returned to his own vomit, and the sow that was washed into the wallowing of mire.” Our Lord Jesus Christ said something similar to this, showing Israel returning to their ancient impiety: ^B “When, he says, the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, it goes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding it, it returns to the place from whence it came. And having come, it finds it empty, and swept. Then it takes seven other spirits more evil than itself, and entering they dwell there. And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.” For indeed they have worshipped the gods of the Egyptians, but the demon was cast out, since they had been called to the knowledge of God, by the Law, I say. But because they erred, they were accused; yet they were in a worse state, because, although they knew God by nature, they became apostates, inasmuch as they worshipped gods who were not gods. “Be ashamed, therefore, with shame,” he says, “you who trust in graven images, and who attribute the august name of the Godhead, which is above all—that is, the glory—to things hewn by hands and made by hands.”

“You deaf, hear; and you blind, look up so that you may see. And who is deaf, but my children? And blind, but those who rule over them? And the servants of God have been blinded. You have seen often, and you did not keep watch; the ears are opened, and you did not hear.” ^C

He calls those who have served idols “deaf” and “blind” most beautifully. For as the most wise Paul writes: “The god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ might not shine through.” The force of the discourse would most appropriately apply to those from Israel, to whom, although it was possible for them to enrich their minds with the divine light, the Law sending forth the irradiation of the knowledge of God unto them, they foolishly loved to walk in darkness and to be ensnared in the traps of deception. But they are blind in another way as well. For while nothing prevented them from seeing the Creator of these things from the beauty of the creatures in a rational and analogous way—for as the most wise Paul writes: “His invisible things from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead”—they have fallen into such a state of ignorance ^D as to say to the molten images: “You are our gods.” For that the prophet is not now speaking of the multitude of the nations, but of those who are from the blood of Israel, he demonstrated by saying: “And who is blind, if not my children? and

^A deaf, if not my servants?” For the multitude under their hand is blinded, having fallen into this state through the slothfulness of their guides. For they themselves were the authors of ignorance to them, and the masters of their wandering. Deaf also were those who ruled over them; that is, those who had received the leadership: for although they had seen the glory of God, and had advanced thus far through long use and experience, they turned toward apostasy. For they were unwilling to obey God, who clearly says: “There shall be no other gods for you besides me.” But since, though they were learned and skilled in divine oracles, they descended, together with those who were subject to their yoke, into defection and apostasy, He is all but struck with shock, saying: “The servants of God were blinded.” And what was to them the cause of their blindness? Willingly, he says, have you been led into this. For since it had been permitted you many times, seeing, to keep guard, and hearing, to know—that is, to understand what had been written—you did not keep guard, nor did you endure for them to be brought forward and spoken, nor did you apply care, nor obedience, so as to open even your ears to the sacrosanct laws. Inexcusable, therefore, are the crimes of the Jews. For although they could have known the truth, and had the law as if it were a guide to lead them to it, they were nonetheless like those who are not endowed with eyes, or who have ears that protrude from their heads in vain, since they did not wish to listen to the sacred laws.

VERS. 21. *The Lord God has willed, that He might be justified, and might magnify the praise.* ^B I snatched them, He says, from the greed of the Egyptians, I liberated them when they were serving others against that which is right; I educated them through the law toward the knowledge of God; I gave them Moses as a minister of order. For it was my purpose, who am the Lord of all things, to render Israel a worker of justice and a student of the most excellent works, so that, having been brought into the perception and understanding of the gifts bestowed upon him by me, he might magnify praise—that is, he might unceasingly glorify me, clearly as the dispenser of all their prosperity and the provider of those things with which they had been enriched. But perceiving nothing of these things, they repaid evil for good to the Lord, and casting the yoke from their necks, they served Satan; and wallowing in the mire of the polytheistic error, they became abominable and hated ^C by God, who is a lover of virtue. This is exactly what I said elsewhere concerning them, as if of a vineyard: “I expected it to bring forth grapes, but it brought forth thorns.”

VERS. 22. *And I saw, and the people were plundered and spoiled.* For the trap was in the chambers everywhere, and in the houses at the same time, where they hid them, they became a plunder, and there was no one who was delivering them from the spoilage, and there was no one who was saying: “Give back.” He recalls to their memory the things that happened to their fathers, because they were caught in the nets of the execrable superstition of many gods. And He has done this not to no purpose, but that He might render them more sober, fearing lest they suffer things similar to their ancestors. For since, he says, they became blind ^D

and deaf, having rejected the worship of God, they offered veneration to woods and stones. I have seen this indeed, and the people has become spoiled and plundered. For when God considers the crimes of the intolerably impious, then He also brings upon them punishments ^A commensurate with their iniquities. The people then were plundered, and became a spoil to their enemies. And for what cause? For the snare was everywhere in their private chambers, and in their houses they hid them together. And whom? The molten gods, clearly. For while the leaders of the Jews pretended to worship God, and, as far as outward appearance went, to submit their necks to the legal oracles, they concealed in their minds and hearts the disease of apostasy, worshipping those who are not gods by nature; and by locking these up in the inner rooms of their own houses, they made secret ^B offerings of sacrifices to them. Thus it is written in Ezekiel: "Son of man, dig." And I dug through the wall. And I saw, he says, and behold every likeness of creeping thing and cattle, and all the idols of the house of Israel depicted on it round about. And He said to me: "Hast thou seen, son of man, are the things which each in the house of Israel does in their secret sleeping-chamber small?" Look, then, how each one of them, having in his secret sleeping-chamber the snare that had been set for him—that is, the idolatry—still feigned for the laws a show of reverence. Hence He says: "They became a spoil, and there was no one to deliver the spoil, and there was no one saying, 'Restore.'" For with God not defending them, ^C who was there to rescue them from a calamity so heavy and incurable? And since He did not rebuke those who were plundering them, who would say to them, "Restore"? For God no longer sought them as His own portion, but cast them off as having become alien to Him because they had inclined toward those who are not gods. And by these words He seems to intimate the time of the captivity, during which those from Israel were perpetually under the power and hand of their enemies. For until the seventieth year, there was no one to rescue them, nor, indeed, was there anyone to say to the plunderers, "Restore." But most ^D fitly and appropriately, after He has set forth the calling, I say, of the Gentiles, and the reasons for which the Israelites were cast out from fellowship with God, it is clearly stated, so that God may appear in all things to have used righteous judgment. For it was necessary, it was necessary that those who practiced impiety against God should be destitute of His mercy and love; but as for those who through ignorance were entangled in the snares of sin and fell under the devil's hand, it was fitting that they, inflamed with the acknowledgment of God and the light of truth, should obtain mercy from the Maker of all. For this, indeed, is found also through the all-wise Moses, who says: "They provoked Me to jealousy with those that are no gods, they incited Me with their graven images. And I will provoke them to jealousy with a people that is no nation; I will irritate them with a foolish nation." And the divine Psalmist also said somewhere: "They provoked Him with their graven images, and in their pursuits they provoked Him to jealousy. And the Lord God saw and despised, and He brought Israel to absolutely nothing." But if the spiritual

^A contemplation is to be applied also to the things mentioned, let us beware of keeping a diabolical snare in our mind and heart, and evil idols of false imaginations which call us to lasciviousness and unnatural pleasures, so that we do not become a prey to Satan and a spoil for demons. For it is written: "If the spirit of him that hath power rise up against thee, leave not thy place, because a cure shall make great sins to cease."

VERS. 23. Who among you will give ear to this? Hear for the future.

It is characteristic of divinely inspired Scripture to speak of "giving ear," when the word is to be received not cursorily or listlessly, but vigilantly in things that are necessary, so that we may keep what is proclaimed stored up in mind and heart. ^B Such is what was said by the voice of the Psalmist: "In my heart I have hidden Thy words, that I might not sin against Thee." For it is written also in the forty-eighth Psalm: "Hear these things, all ye nations, give ear, all ye that inhabit the world." For to hear is common to all who once receive a voice or any other sound into their ears; but to "give ear" is, as I said, to house within the mind some of the things that have been divinely decreed. The prophetic word here seems then to search for those who have listened more reasonable or rather more prudently, so that they might receive the things that befell those of old for the security of future things. For as Paul says: "These things happened to them by way of example, but they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come." For we must not read narrations about these things in vain, but receive these things for the benefit of the soul, and carefully take heed not to be overtaken by the same sins, that we may not fall into their calamities.

VERS. 24, 25. Who gave Jacob to be spoiled, and Israel to those who plundered him? Did not God, against whom they sinned, and they would not walk in His ways, nor hear His law? And He brought upon them the anger of His fury, and war ^C and those burning them round about prevailed against them; and they did not know, and did not lay it to heart.

Very emphatically, it seems, does He name both Jacob and Israel in these words. And that the force of this emphasis might be understood by us, we shall speak briefly. For at various times the Israelites served the Egyptians, but they were delivered by God through the mediation of Moses, indeed with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, as it is written. For He exerted vengeance with countless and intolerable plagues upon those who plundered them. But after they had fled from the land of the Egyptians, they crossed the sea on foot, they ate the bread of angels, they drank water from a rock, they were brought into the land of promise, they conquered kingdoms, they overcame enemies, ^D and powerful and horri-

and they had a terrible and irresistible hand and a famous glory on account of this. But their weapon was the God of all, who stayed the course of the sun and moon at Gabaon, and sent down hail from heaven upon the aliens, and raised his own people to the lot of every dignity. Who then, he says, has given the famous Israel, the much-emulated Jacob, the one unconquerable by enemies, the mighty and most warlike, and the one always accustomed to conquer, into plunder and to those who despoil? How has he who knew not how to be conquered become weakened? How has he who was raised over all, and who was raising his horn unbroken, been brought down and placed under the feet of those who stood against him? Since it was necessary that we, who have followed them, should not be ignorant of the causes for which so bright and chosen a people was delivered over, he added necessarily: Did not God, to whom they sinned and to whom they did not want to walk in his ways, nor listen to his law? ^B This inquiry into ambiguous matters holds a manifest confession of the fact. For it was God, entirely, who gave him over, and who attached the wrath becoming to their crimes. Therefore then, war prevailed over them. This was unusual for those from Israel, for they had always prevailed with God shielding them. But since they have raged against his divine laws, they have become destitute and shorn of their ornaments of old. They have fallen into feebleness, they have been brought to an unmanly state; roundabout were those who burned them up, and as if by some fire consuming them by the magnitude of the things brought upon them, or burning their cities, just as it is clearly said elsewhere: Your cities are burned with fire. But, he says, they did not know, each of them, nor did they set it to heart; they endure the charge of insensibility in these matters. For they would be perfect in understanding who would avoid offending God, and who would stretch their foot outside of suffering anything from wrath, for the sake of offering to him a tender and flexible neck. But those who, even when having fallen into the experience of human errors, would not perceive the things brought upon them, such men would be far from any good hope. That those from Israel had become guilty of such ^C crimes, one might confirm by the words of Jeremiah to the God of all: "O Lord, your eyes are toward faithfulness, you have scourged them, and they were unwilling to receive discipline." We remember that after Jerusalem had been captured and Israel had been led off captive, the prophet Jeremiah spoke to those who remained, saying what God had said, that they should not go down into Egypt. Then the women impudently said to him, or rather, not having even been brought to a perception of the wrath, "The Lord did not send you." They added to these things matters from sheer insanity. For since, they said, we ceased to sacrifice to the queen of heaven, all these evils have come upon us. Therefore, it is true what is said, that they did not know, each of them, nor did they set it to heart, when war had oppressed them, and they were surrounded on all sides by those who burned them, and by those who were burning them completely.

^A CHAPTER XLIII. VERSES 1, 2. *And now thus saith the Lord God who made thee, Jacob, who formed thee, Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. And if thou passest through the water, I am with thee, and the rivers shall not cover thee; and if thou passest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, the flame shall not burn thee; for I am the Lord thy God, the holy One of Israel, who saves thee.*

It is worth the effort even now to marvel at the merciful God. For since God is good by nature, and is the Creator of all things, even if it happens that some, for the washing away of their sins, fall into the movements of just wrath, He crosses over to mercy, and not long after, He who struck also heals; He removes the scourge, and restores those led by repentance. He resurrects us who had fallen, and to those held fast by evils and calamities, He extends a healing hand, drawing them out of every distress and leading them to happiness. Watch how He comes as if to a forgetting of their offenses, and promises to blot out and trample upon their divine-reckoned sins; adding as it were another beginning of time, which might lead them to tranquility. And we say that "Now" is equivalent to that which is said in the book of Psalms: *Today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.* ^B For just as there "Today" defines a beginning of other times, so here "Now" holds the argument of both the oblivion of those things which have already been mentioned, and leads to a beginning of the way and of other things to be from God. Therefore, He does not permit them to wither away entirely in despair, nor does He turn away forever, but He frees them from all fear, and bestows confidence, and creates hope that they will attain every good thing, as God changes the nature of their affairs to that which is incomparably better.

*For I have redeemed thee,* He says. But in what way? The most wise Paul will clarify this when he speaks of Christ, the Savior of us all: *It pleased God and the Father to summarize all things in Him, both those in heaven and those on earth.* For in Him is the redemption and remission of all, and the oblivion of past things, and the method of spiritual kinship, which (I say) is with Him, perfected and consummated through sanctification, which also leads us to communion with God and the Father. For this reason He says: *I have called thee by thy name.* By what name? ^C Namely: *Thou art mine.* For we are said to be of Christ, and this is the glorious name by which we are surnamed. But it should be known that in another Scripture it is said: *I have called thee by my name*; however, when He adds and says: *Thou art mine*, He dissolves the alienation which those who are held fast by sins are accustomed to undergo. For they are not of God, although He holds dominion over all things, since the inclination toward evil things disturbs the society and connection which is with Him. Whence we say that those who are contaminated by defilements are not of God. Therefore, the phrase "Thou art mine" is a certain emphasis of spiritual connection and kinship. And He promises him invincible aid,

^A so that he may be unassailable by every temptation. For rivers, and water, and flames signify the manifold assaults of temptations. It is written: "All who wish to live piously in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (II Tim. III, 12). And Christ himself said somewhere to those who believed in Him: "You have affliction in the world." But, He says, if you pass through water, I am with you. For if Christ is with them, nothing will harm those who are His. ^B Indeed, they will run toward such spiritual strength that they will consider as nothing anyone who is able to storm and submerge them, provided they know that God is the one who saves. For it is the habit of divinely inspired Scripture to liken the assaults of temptations to rivers and waters, which the Savior himself will demonstrate by saying, as in the form of a parable or example: "Everyone, therefore, who hears these words of mine and does them, will be likened to a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the rivers came, and the winds blew, and assaulted that house, and it did not fall. For it was founded upon the rock, and the rock is Christ" (Matth. VII, 24, 25).

VERS. 4, 5. "I made thy exchange Egypt and Ethiopia, and Syene for thee, from the time thou becamest honorable before me. Thou becamest glorious, and I loved thee; and I will give many men for thee, and princes for thy head. Fear not, for I am with thee."

^C It is difficult indeed to grasp the meaning of these words; yet I shall narrate, God guiding me, as I am able: for He himself gives wisdom and knowledge. Therefore, before Christ had shone upon the world—who is the true light—the whole earth was wandering and was darkened by deep and most profound shadows of ignorance, and there were very many cults everywhere, according to regions and nations. Now the Chaldeans and Phoenicians were more superstitious than the rest, as were all those who occupied the land of the Egyptians, as far as Syene and Ethiopia. For they inhabit the territory bordering the land of the Egyptians. Israel alone was the chosen lot of God and the portion of the Lord, as it is written. But since they have acted impiously against our Lord Jesus Christ, ^D and have become killers of the Lord, they no longer remained the lot of God; rather, they fell away from the kinship that was with Him, and the nations were taken up, and a commutation for Israel was made. And those who were once more superstitious than all the others, and who on that account had filth not to be washed away—I have said the Egyptians were vehement and bitter, especially regarding the invention of idols, and deeply immersed in pseudo-idolatory and false cults, thinking high things because they philosophized in an excessive and sophisticated way regarding the adoration and names of demons. Therefore, he says, for you who are beloved, for you who were given to me as a lot, I have made an exchange, Egypt and Ethiopia—that is, again, Egypt. Ethiopians

are what Scripture is accustomed to call the Egyptians by divine inspiration. ^A Hence, through one of the holy prophets, it said: "And you, O Ethiopians, you are wounded by my sword." I received, therefore, in your stead, he says, those who were in grievous uncleanness, and who had, in a certain way, an indelible impurity. But from the time that you became honorable in my sight, you were glorified. For Israel did not remain in this repudiation and shame forever; for he himself will be called through the faith which is in Christ, and he will be a companion and participant in the glory of the saints. "For you have been glorified," he says, "and I have loved you."

The phrase, "I will give many men for you, and princes for your head," seems to demonstrate that, at the time of the calling of the Israelites to the knowledge of Christ, there will be very many who know how to instruct them in the mysteries, being wise and most eloquent men. For your sake, he says, I will give many men, and I will give princes for your head. But the head of those who believe is Christ; toward whom ^B all mystagogy looks, and the instruction of the peoples who are taught and led in their own time, by the suffrage and will of Christ himself. Therefore, "for you" could signify "to your advantage," or "for your utility," which will redound to you as you learn the august and great mystery of your Head, that is, of Christ.

Or you may understand it in another way: "I will give many men for you, and princes for your head." For you were rejected and banished, he says, and altogether alienated from friendship and communion with me. Hence, also, I accepted, in exchange for you, nations that had been surrendered to ultimate infamy. But from the time that you became honored in my sight—that is, inasmuch as you believed and obtained glory on that account—I have loved you. And I have loved you in such a way that, if the time or need arose that it were necessary that many men and princes be given for your head, I would indeed give them. For it is a hypothetical statement, and it has the greatest emphasis and argument that Israel is honored by God. ^C And it gives a certain hope that God is with them at all times and from everywhere. "For I am with you." That indeed is enough for them for every happiness. For if God is with us, evils are removed from our midst, and every kind of tranquility is introduced for us in their place.

VERS. 5, 6. *I will bring your seed from the east, and I will gather you from the west. I will say to the North: Bring; and to the South: Do not forbid; bring my sons from a land far away, and my daughters from the ends of the earth, as many as are called by my name.*

He appeared to those who were on earth in our form—that is, the only-begotten Word of God became man—so that he might draw the Greeks and the Jews, who had been cast down by many and various offenses into apostasy and defection from the Creator of all, I say, to the true and undefiled knowledge of God, and gather them into a spiritual unity, ^D very beautifully perfected through faith and sanctification, and finally by union

and that he might render them worthy of the intimacy with Him, and thus unite them through Himself to God and the Father. For that Christ became man for this very reason, it is not difficult to discern from the holy Gospel scriptures. For Lazarus lived ^A again miraculously and beyond all expectation from the dead; yet the multitude of the impious Jews, or rather the God-hated workshop of the Pharisees, gathered in council and said, "What are we doing? For this man performs many signs. If we let Him alone, the Romans will come and take away both our nation and place." And one of them, Caiaphas, said to them, "You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish." Then immediately the divine evangelist added to these words, "This he did not speak on his own authority; but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together

^A all the children of God who were scattered abroad.

VERS. 7, 8. For in my glory I have created him, and formed and made him. And I have led forth a blind people, and their eyes are likewise blind, and they have deaf ears. All the nations have been gathered together, and the princes shall be gathered together from them.

All things have been made new in Christ. This the most holy Paul will confirm, writing: "Wherefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away." He writes also to those called to a renewal, namely, a spiritual one: "And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, the good and perfect and acceptable." For we have been renewed in Christ through sanctification, having returned to the ancient beauty of nature, which is, clearly, to the image of Him who created [it], through Him and in Him; and we are instructed unto the newness of life, as if through certain elements, with sin and every inveterate depravity cast away, and we have put off the old man who is being corrupted according to the desires of error, and have put on the new man who is being renewed according to the image of Him who created him. But the reformation, and what is called the new creation, has come to pass in Christ: which we have not obtained from corruptible seed, but through the word of the living and abiding God. ^B Therefore this people, gathered from the four corners of the earth and called by my name, not any other person, but I myself have created, and formed, and made in my glory. But one might say that the Son is the glory of God and the Father; for through Him and in Him He is gloriously exalted, according to that saying: "I have glorified Thee on the earth," which was clearly spoken by Him. For we are assured that those of us who believe in Him have been formed through Him, because they are made conformable to Him, and have the beauty of the divine nature shining into their souls. The divine Psalmist said something similar: "Posterity to come shall declare to the Lord, and the people that shall be created shall praise the Lord."

And by adding to these things, "I have led forth a blind people," He sets forth clearly the excellence of His own power, which is beyond all speech and truly admirable. For those whose mind and heart were formerly covered by the darkness and error of diabolical perversity, He made illustrious and radiant, like some day-star, and the sun of righteousness rising upon them, and making them sons, no longer of night and darkness, but rather of light and of the day, according to the voice of the most wise Paul. ^C That, therefore, He led forth a blind people is obscure to no mortal. But as if someone were to meet this statement and say: "Even now one can see that their eyes are blind and that they have deaf ears," He institutes a defense and says: "All the nations have been gathered together, and the princes shall be gathered together from them." O you men, accept the prophetic utterances; for the time of the events is not yet at hand, yet all the nations shall absolutely and entirely be gathered together in their own time. For he says "have been gathered together" instead of "shall be gathered together," as Scripture [is accustomed to do] ^D by divine inspiration, giving the force of the future to the past.

For things that are altogether and entirely going to happen, it sometimes sets down as if they had already happened. It is stated, for example, as if in the person of Christ, through the voice of Isaiah: "I have given my back to the scourges," instead of "I will give." And through the Psalmist: "They divided my garments among themselves, and upon my vesture they cast lots," which also came to pass at the time of His advent. Therefore, He says, all the nations shall be gathered together, and not only this, but there shall also be princes from among them, that is, leaders of peoples and hierophants; and those who formerly wandered and lay in deep darkness shall be bringers of divine light to those initiated into the mysteries by them. The Psalmist said something of this sort about the Church from the nations: "As is her darkness, so is her light." ^B For just as she was kept in measureless and deep darkness during the time of error, so again has she become exceedingly radiant, and miraculously whitened. For it is true, as the inspired Paul says: "Where sin abounded, grace did superabound."

VERS. 9. Who will announce these things? Or who of those from the beginning will announce them to you? Let them bring forth their witnesses, and let them be justified, and let them say what is true, and let them listen.

Having once made mention of the nations, that is, of those who have been called through faith to the knowledge of the truth, he weaves a kind of path and method of initiation for them, in which he rebukes not a little the error of the demons, and declares clearly that the creation of idols is absolutely nothing. For to know all things from the beginning unto the end would befit only Him who is by nature God. ^C For all understanding is from Him, and He is the fountain of all knowledge, and in Him are all the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge, according to what is written. But if any of those coming after appears to have obtained knowledge, he is seen to have received the gift from His revelation. He proceeds, then, as I said, to converse with those from the nations, and indeed he says: "I have announced and told you all things that are to come, and that you shall be called in due time to the knowledge of the truth; but who else among you will announce these things, or is seen to have spoken them? Let them bring forth their witnesses, and let them be justified, and let them say what is true, and let them listen." For I, He says, have spoken through the prophets; I proclaimed beforehand the things that were to come in their respective times, through holy men, and I have as witnesses of my ^D foreknowledge of future events those who served by my commands in these utterances. But who would testify for the demons, that is, for the inanimate idols, as having said something of this kind through them? For very numerous are the orators and poets among the Greeks, but not one of them ever said, as if from their own gods, that these things would happen to them in their times; nor, indeed, is it possible to see any of the wise men among the Greeks who had predicted that Satan would be driven out for his tyranny at his appointed time, from the glory attributed to him, or that the orb of the world would be illuminated through faith in Christ, and that the nations would be called—

^A to the acknowledgment of him, or rather that the darkness of idolatry would depart, and the truth would prevail under heaven. Let them, therefore, bring forward their witnesses, and let them demonstrate that they have spoken the truth. And if this were to happen, let them listen to them—that is, let them follow and acknowledge that the herd of demons is enriched with the knowledge of things to come. But there is no one who has testified for them, nor is there any announcer of future things. They have wandered, therefore, beyond controversy, those who have thought them to be gods; for they are profane, and deceitful, and buffoons.

VERS. 10. *Be ye my witnesses, and I am a witness, saith the Lord God, and the child whom I have chosen, that ye may know, and believe, and understand that I am. And before me there was no other god, and after me there will be none.*

Having said that the knowledge of future things would not support the impure demons or the works of men’s hands by any testimony, He proceeds to address His own prophets, and says: *Be ye my witnesses.* For I have spoken through you, and my Spirit has shone forth within you concerning the knowledge of things to come. Therefore, I shall call witnesses to my own glory and divine eminence. I shall testify also for myself, and the Son whom I have chosen. Similar to this is that which was said by the voice of our Savior to the Jews: ^B "If I bear witness concerning myself, my witness is true, for I know whence I am and whither I go." And again: "I bear witness concerning myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness concerning me." For the voice of God is worthy of faith, whatever it may wish to say concerning its own glory and excellence. There follows, in the second place, the suffrage and knowledge of holy men, which renders to Him whatever things may befit a nature that is beyond all natures. Therefore, having taken the holy prophets as witnesses, He proceeds further, and to that which is beyond controversy and in no way vain—to Himself, I say, and to His own Son. For it suffices, as I have said, for the faith ^C of sensible men, the voice of God. "These things," He says, "I have spoken to you, not in vain, but that ye may know, and believe, and understand that I am." For through knowledge is faith, and through faith is understanding. For unless, He says, ye believe, neither shall ye understand: believe, however, that before me there was no other God, and after me there will be none. For neither was there another God before Him, but He Himself is the beginning of all things and beyond all mind, and after Him there shall be none. For He remains the same, and has an immutable nature, and a prerogative inviolable over all, and an everlasting kingdom. For he who has no beginning of essence, toward what end shall he go? ^D

VERS. 11-13. *I am God, and there is no one who saves besides me. I have announced, and I have saved. I have reproached, and there was no stranger among you. You are my witnesses, and I am witness, saith the Lord God, that even from the beginning, and there is no one who can rescue out of my hands. I will do it, and who shall avert it?*

^A Testify, He says, that I alone am the God of all, with no one having existed before Me, nor indeed anyone to exist after Me. For I alone am He who saves, and this I have announced to you long ago, and what was spoken I have brought to completion. For I have saved in Christ; I have reproached, and there was no stranger among you. For those from Israel were from time to time forgetting the sacred prophecies, those, I say, provided through the most wise Moses, and they were lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Then, paying the penalties for their sloth, they were at times endangered by enemies invading them. But in the time of affliction, they would attempt to call upon Him who always saves for aid. And this I reproached them for, through the voice of Jeremiah, saying: “And in the time of their evils they will say: Arise, and save us. And where are thy gods which thou hast made for thyself? If they arise, shall they save thee in the time of thy affliction?” Therefore, I have reproached you frequently, you who are of the blood of Israel, and you have learned through experience that there was no god among you—a stranger, evidently. For no one of them saved you. I am, therefore, the only Savior. Do you testify, then, and I will be witness to Myself, says the Lord God. Or according to that: “Every one therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.” Testify, then, that I am He who is from the beginning, that is, He who from the beginning until now is announcing what is to come, and is able to save without struggle those who thirst for familiarity with Me.

And I save in such a way that no one is able to snatch from My hands at all the one who has once been taken hold of. For there is no one, He says, who can rescue out of My hands. I will do it, and who shall avert it? For I have accomplished the calling of the nations, He says, that is, I have saved those who were wandering. And who shall change this, or shift it so that it is not so? For that no one shall snatch from the hand of God those who have been saved by Him, the Savior Himself will confirm, saying: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give to them eternal life, and they shall not perish forever, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who hath given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the hand of My Father.” This is clearly what is written: “There is no one who can rescue out of My hands.” ^D

Verse 14. Thus saith the Lord God, who redeems you, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake will I send to Babylon, and I will raise up all the fugitives, and the Chaldeans shall be bound in ships.

Having wove together an exhortation that is not weak from the things recently said to us for those called from the nations to the knowledge of Him, and having shown that He alone possesses the knowledge of things at the beginning, and through the middle, and at the end, and indeed that there is no one else at all apart from Him who is able to save, and having through these things established their faith in Him as firm and solid, He transfers the discourse to those who are of the blood of Israel, and attempts to fulfill

^A His promise to show that He is all-powerful and a worker of wonders, and that the natures of things yield to His commands; indeed, even the very elements of the world serve Him, and whatever He wills is altogether accomplished, with nothing standing in the way. For there was need, I say, there was great need for the Israelites to have the greatest illumination, and exhortations, and warnings, which would render their mind stable and constant. Moreover, since they were slipping into things that were not lawful, and were inclining toward other gods, they sacrificed to idols and to the host of heaven, as it is written. Therefore, He institutes for them a prediction of future events, and very artfully unveils the calamities of the Babylonians beforehand, signifying that they themselves would be captives among them, yet showing in advance, as I said, that those others would suffer most indignified things on their account. And because the discourse to them was regarding the greatest matters, He necessarily displays the incomparable glory of His power and the eminence of His strength, saying: "Thus saith the Lord God, who redeemed you, the Holy One of Israel." ^B For in order to bring them to a recollection of things past—I mean of that which occurred in the deliverance from Egypt, when a multitude of miracles bore witness to His glory—for this reason He named Himself the Lord God and confirmed that He is the Redeemer. And this is thus far concerning these things. But what is this that is to be? "For your sake," He says, "I will send to Babylon." For the Babylonian took Israel captive, and removed them from their fatherland; nay rather, he burned the entire region of the Jews along with that most celebrated temple, and transferred them to the mountains of the Persians and Medes. And when these miseries had befallen them, the seventieth year having ended, God took pity on them and roused Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, against the Chaldeans, with the Persians and Medes bringing aid; these conquered by force the land of the Chaldeans, or rather of the Babylonians, even though they had formerly feared them and avoided their tyrannical hand. It is handed down, indeed, that Cyrus took certain of the magnates there, then bound them with iron ^C and sent them off into inaccessible and uncultivated regions by the Caspian Sea. But Cyrus was aroused against the Babylonians as God urged him on, and granted him the power to conquer. For He says somewhere concerning him by the voice of Isaiah: "Thus saith the Lord to my anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him." And again: "I will go before thee, and will level the mountains, I will break in pieces the gates of bronze, and I will shatter the iron bars; and I will give thee treasures, dark, hidden, and invisible, and I will open them to thee." For since the Babylonians, having been excited to fierce and impotent wrath against the Israelites, had offended God, for this reason they too were given over to the Persians and Medes, who ^D also treated them with intolerable inhumanity. It was said, of course, to Babylon by one of the holy prophets: "As thou hast done, so shall it be to thee; thy retribution shall be rendered upon thy head." For your sake, therefore, He says, O Israel, I will send to Babylon. But whom shall I send? Shall it not be that celebrated Cyrus and his forces? That word "I will send" signifies: I will dispatch, or I will send forth. I will also rouse against them those who once had fled,

and yielded to them, fearing them as warriors, and even more valiant ones. And the Chaldeans shall be fettered in ships. For as I said before, they too were transported into remote and inaccessible regions, having sailed across what is called the Caspian Sea. It should be noted, however, that another version is in circulation. For it says that the Chaldeans shall be fettered ^A not in ships, but in shackles—that is, in chains or bindings. Truly, the Savior and Lord of all has also saved all the inhabitants of the earth in an intellectual sense, having struck down the hosts of demons and raised up against them His invincible and supernatural power, which is to say, Christ. For thus He redeemed us who were captives, and rendered us, who were as it were serving their wills, free; and, having snatched us as it were from a barbarian land, He brought us back into the intelligible Judea, which is the Church that He acquired for Himself, having delivered it from every stain and pollution, and having rendered it holy and blameless.

I am your holy God, who showed you your king.

^A from God the Father, the Only-Begotten shone forth, he descended into self-emptying, and took the form of a servant, so that he might deliver those who lay under the tyranny of the devil, and bring them under his own scepters. The discourse therefore makes mention here of this, as of a partial redemption that was to be at its own proper time, which was given only to those who were of the blood of Israel, and of the general and most universal one through Christ, obviously, through whom God and Father has saved those throughout the whole inhabited world.

VERS. 16, 17. *Thus says the Lord: Who makes a way in the sea, and a path in the violent water, who brings out the chariot and the horse, and a strong multitude. But they slept, and shall not rise; they have been extinguished as extinguished flax.*

Good and useful things, even if they are often spoken by God and men, are in no way burdensome to the wise, but are rather necessary for salvation. Hence, the most wise Paul writes to some in an epistle: *To say the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.* For since human a mind is corrupted by a certain great sloth, so that it sometimes falls into oblivion of the things that have been given to each by God, therefore the divine discourse repeatedly refreshes our memory of them, and does not allow us to grow cold because of sloth, but inflames us through the love of piety and zeal for all good things. Therefore, when Israel had been redeemed, having received very many and incredible benefits, and then, having forgotten them, had turned toward defection and had declined toward those who were not gods, God necessarily brings back to their memory his own power, saying that he had given a way in the sea and a path in the violent water. For they crossed the middle of the sea when they were departing from the region of the Egyptians, and they also crossed the Jordan on foot. And this we say is the path in the violent water. The divine David, marveling at this, ^B sings: *What is it to you, O sea, that you fled? And you, Jordan, that you turned back?* And again, speaking of God: *Who turns the sea into dry land; they shall pass through the river on foot.* And so he gave a way in the sea, and a path in the violent water. *And he brought out the chariot and the horse, and a strong multitude.* For Pharaoh indeed pursued those who were born of the blood of Israel, using chariots and horses, and employing the hand of his accompanying soldiers in a way that was hard to resist, but he did not in any way conquer or do injury to the redeemed. *For they slept, and shall not rise,* he says, *but they have been extinguished as extinguished flax.* For they were drowned in the waters, horses and all, and they perished, and they were consumed by divine wrath like easily-burned flax, and they were extinguished without labor, that is, they have passed into nothingness, and have been reduced ^C as it were to ashes. For flax is easily consumed by fire, and it is extinguished immediately before you can turn your hand, and it produces a very thin flame. But if anyone should say: "When the leader of the land of Egypt makes an incursion against Israel by his own will, how does God himself, the God of all, [deal with] the horses and..." ^D

chariots, and the army under them?" We answer that it was said to Pharaoh by God, who is the ruler of all: "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be declared in all the earth." And let this be said again historically. But we say that those who have chosen to live uprightly, and who reject the slavery under the devil, and who depart from worldly pursuits, and who wish, so to speak, to depart from all impurity—the wicked one indeed pursues them, but God saves them miraculously, proving for them that the swelling of the present life is passable, and with inexpressible power leading them across, and not allowing them to be submerged by the distractions of the present life, but preparing them to be beyond the carnal waves, ^B and calming and stilling for them, like a sea, the temptations that befall them in various ways; so that, having become strong in a desert land—that is, in a state of mind pure and at leisure—they might be able to eat the bread from heaven and drink water from the rock, that is, to become partakers of Christ, and to cross the Jordan, and thus to be led into the land of promise. Thus, the spiritual man will surely understand what I say.

VERS. 18-21. Ne memineritis priorum, et antiqua ne recogitetis. Ecce facio nova, quæ exorientur, et cognosces ea; et faciam in deserto viam, et in loco ubi aqua non est, flumina. Laudabunt me bestiæ agri, sirenes, et filiæ struthionum, quod dederim in deserto aquam, et flumina in aquis carente, ut potum dem generi meo electo, populoque quem acquisivi, ut virtutes meas narret.

Just as in the foregoing he proposed the particular redemption that was to come to the Israelites for them to know, and by advancing the narrative of events to incomparably greater things, made mention of the salvation through Christ, saying that he had shown Israel as our king, or rather the origin from the blood of Israel; so here also, when he has opportunely commemorated the Red Sea, and the waves of the Jordan, and the passage of the Israelites, he returns entirely to the mystery of Christ. For this reason he says: "Do not remember the former things, and do not consider the ancient things." For the bringing in of things that are incomparably superior sometimes causes one to forget that which is lesser; and illustrious things, in a way, dull and obscure those that are not such by nature, even if the former are prior in time. Such a thing also the most wise Paul conveys: "Now we know in part; but when that which is perfect comes, then that which is in part will be done away." For great indeed, and beyond all speech, are the things performed by God through the most wise Moses, but those [wrought] through the power and excellence of our Savior are superior and stand higher. For through him and by him, the multitude of nations throughout the whole inhabited world has been saved. ^D For this reason, he almost commands them even to forget the former things.

^A but rather to fix their mind on things that are incomparably superior and possess brilliant glory.

I will make, he says, a way in the desert.

to whom ^A the all-wise Peter has addressed himself, saying: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people, but now are a people in the Lord”?

Verses 22-24. *Not now have I called you, O Jacob, nor have I made you to labor, O Israel. You have not brought me the sheep of your whole burnt offering, neither have you glorified me in your sacrifices, nor have you served me in your sacrifices. You have not labored for me with incense, nor have you bought me incense with silver, nor have I desired the fat of your sacrifices. But you have occupied me with your sins, and in your transgressions and injustices.*

By the things already examined—that is, already read—he was offering a prediction of the covenant in Christ and the gifts from Him. For he said that He would make a way in the desert and rivers in a waterless place; and for this cause he says that the beasts of the field will glorify Him. This ^B may be understood as a way of describing the intelligible sacrifice, the fruit of the new covenant in Christ. But in the present passage, he attempts to convince Israel that he was indeed liberated from Egypt and delivered from the servitude there, and rescued from such grievous toils, not so that he might offer calves to Him or gain access through blood and smoke. For such things as these are rejected before God, and are shadow rather than truth.

He says, therefore: “Not now have I called you, O Jacob.” The word “now” must be taken to mean: “I did not call you at the time when you are sacrificing,” that is, “I did not call you when you were engaged in ox-slaying and sheep-culling, lest you might imagine that you had obtained your liberation as a kind of recompense for your offering—but rather, when you were involved in sins and ensnared in defilements (for you were worshiping the gods of the Egyptians), then I deemed you worthy of pity and love.” Thus, the gift is one of placability, and grace is the fruit of philanthropy, and liberation is as it were from love. ^C For he says: “The sheep of your burnt offering are nothing to me, nor indeed have you glorified me in your sacrifices.” For how could that which is entirely unacceptable and offered in vain turn into my glory? “Neither have you served me in your sacrifices.” For he who practices some good and becomes a worker of those things which are the marks of virtue, who subjects his neck to my internal promptings and is a doer of the holy oracles, he might be said to serve God who is above all. But the one who fills the holy tabernacle with the smoke of incense and offers oxen or sheep—by what noble act will he obtain true and genuine glory? For such a person has done nothing at all that is pleasing to me. ^D Therefore, service does not consist in sacrificing, but in submitting a tender and, so to speak, pliant neck to His will. For as far as concerns that which is pleasing to me, He says, I have not made you labor with incense, nor have you bought me incense with silver, nor have I desired the fat of your sacrifices. Simile huic est, quod per alium

Similar to this is that which was said to them through another prophet: ^A "Gather your whole burnt offerings with your sacrifices and eat the meat, for I did not speak to your fathers concerning whole burnt offerings and sacrifices in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt." The same prophet Jeremiah also says elsewhere: "Why do you bring me frankincense from Sheba, and cinnamon from a land far away? Your whole burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices have not pleased me." Indeed, even through the voice of the Psalmist: "I will not accept calves from your house, nor he-goats from your flocks." He declares that the shadowy worship is altogether cast off, leading them away from the types, while drawing them as it were toward justification in Christ, and teaching them to take up the care of the evangelical way of life, through which alone it is possible to please God, and to retain a worship that is truly blameless and sincere—spiritual, that is. "For God is spirit," He says, "and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

576 VERS. 25, 26. I am, I am He who blots out your iniquities, and I will not remember. But do you remember, and let us be judged. Tell your iniquities first, that you may be justified.

Look again, I pray, how God has not granted to the power of the legal worship the ability to free those who use it from the impurity that is in them. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins, and in these the shadow of the law is useless. For no one is justified by the law, according to the voice of the divine Paul. He writes, indeed, in the Epistle concerning himself and the other apostles or those who believed from the circumcision: "We," he says, "are Jews by nature, and not sinners from the Gentiles; knowing ^C that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ; and we also have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified in Him." Do not, therefore, he says, think that you could ever render yourself free from the charge of wickedness by means of sacrifices and smoke. Know rather that "I am He who blots out your iniquities, and I will not remember." For we have been justified not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His great mercy, since He is willing to be unmindful of our offenses. For this alone preserves the inhabitants of the earth, who have a weak mind and are easily inclined to all things that are condemned by the law. ^D "For the mind of man," he says, "is carefully inclined to evil from his youth." Hence, with very good reason, the divine David remembers human stumblings, saying: "If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, who could stand? Because with You there is propitiation." The God of all things shows mercy, and indeed, by using divine nods and forgetfulness as befits God, He removes the causes, and

we shall find that this is beneficial and has become a matter of zeal for the saints. For the blessed David chants and says, at one time, "I know my iniquity, and my sin is before me always," and again, "I will declare my iniquity, and I will be troubled for my sin." Therefore, He says, "I will be forgetful of the accusations. Do you, however, remember them, and let us indeed be judged; but do you confess, and hold your forgetfulness to be sure." For it is written, "The righteous is his own accuser in the beginning of his speech." And again, "Do not be ashamed to confess your sins." The arrogant Pharisee did not keep this commandment, whom the Savior sets forth in the Gospel parables praying in the synagogue, suffering greatly from the disease of ignorance and empty pride, and saying: "God, I thank You that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, or even as this publican: I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess." He did not endure to speak his own sins. Therefore, he was condemned as an arrogant man and a liar; for no one is clean from filth, and we all stumble in many things. But the publican knew and confessed his own sins. For he stood beating his breast, and saying: "God, be merciful to me a sinner." Justified, therefore, is he who has confessed his failings, and not hidden them, so that he might be cleansed. ^A

VERSES 27, 28: Your fathers were first, and your princes have transgressed against me. And the princes have profaned my holy things; and I gave Jacob to be destroyed, and Israel to reproach.

Having said, "I am He who blots out your iniquities, and I will not remember," He saw that perhaps some would rise against these things that have been said, and would indeed say: If You have honored Israel with the forgetfulness of his sins, if a certain exceeding great tranquility has come upon him, if he has been cleansed from filth, and has washed away the stains of his ancient accusations, how or for what sins has he demanded satisfaction while being consumed by the swords of the enemy? Then, having been taken prisoner, and having left his motherland, he has come under the hand and yoke of those who conquered him? For he was given over to the warriors who came from Babylon. He therefore apologizes for the act, saying, "Let us be judged," and says that they themselves became the authors of this, and brought these things upon their own heads. "For your fathers," He says, "and your princes have transgressed against me." ^B And He does not simply blame our ancestors by saying "fathers" in this context. Rather, He seems to wish to indicate something like this: For those who were chosen for the ministry—the wise and the lawyers—who were accustomed to instruct the peoples under their hand, could be called fathers of those who were subject to them, as well as princes and leaders. When, therefore, some of these wicked things are committed not by the multitude of the common flock, but rather by those from whom it was expected that they could correct the things of others, the matter is burdensome, and the retribution is inescapable, and due to those who have acted wickedly. ^{C D}

^A Therefore, those who were placed in the rank of fathers, he says, and who were allotted to rule over you, acted lawlessly against me. By saying "against me," he demonstrates that it was not against any one person of our own common stock that the things perversely and impiously committed by them were done, but against the very majesty of God, who is above all things. Consider this: when someone injures one of his neighbors, or surrounds him with greed and insolence, or circumvents him in any other way, he indeed sins, but it is against a human being of the same nature, and by no means against God. But he who rejects the worship due to Him, and exposes himself to the deceptions of demons, and worships them, stands against God, and as far as it lies within him, he drives Him from the seats of divinity and attempts to shake Him from the prerogative and glory that belong to Him and Him alone. The Israelites did this at various times. For they served idols, and having bidden farewell to the holy oracles, they wished to raise a stiff and proud neck against God. He accuses them, therefore, and says: "The priests did not say, 'Where is the Lord?' And those who handle the law did not know me, and the prophets acted impiously against me." And again: "Why do you speak to me? You all have acted unjustly, and you all have acted impiously against me, says the Lord Almighty." ^B Therefore, he says, your princes have polluted my holy things. For they have dared to raise up pillars of demons not only in Jerusalem, but they have even been caught doing this impiously within the very divine temple. Therefore, the God of all said concerning the synagogue of the Jews: "What is this abominable crime that my beloved has committed in my house?" By "abomination," he means a statue and image fashioned in the likeness of God and placed in God's stead. Holy things are also polluted in another way, if those things which are commanded to be done reverently and holily for the glory of God are held in contempt by some, and if some make nothing of the transgression of His divine laws. Therefore, because, he says, your fathers were impious against me, and the princes polluted my holy things, therefore I gave them to enemies to destroy Jacob, and because of these things, I have marked Israel with infamy.

Chap. XLIV. Vers. 1. Now hear, O Jacob my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen.

not unreasonably rejecting the law that guides him, but turning to what is unlawful, and indulging himself in the crimes of disobedience. But let those things, he says, be dismissed. Now listen, that is to say, lower your haughty spirit. Know your own Master; submit to the yoke of obedience, considering that you have been named my child. I have chosen you from all—that is, from the nations dwelling upon the earth. For when the Most High divided the nations, when he dispersed the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. ^A And the Lord’s people became his portion, the line of his inheritance, Israel. He puts them to shame, therefore, and in a way rebukes those who have transgressed and offended not lightly, since they had been placed in the rank of children to him, and were situated in the lot of the chosen. ^B

ORATIO II

VERS. 2. *Thus says the Lord God, who made you and formed you from the womb: You shall still have help.*

When he has accused the Israelites of apostasy, and of having fallen away from the love for him, and having attached themselves to those who are no gods—for he said, *Your fathers and your rulers acted impiously against me, and the rulers polluted my holy things*—he adds these things most appropriately; for he does not allow them to be reduced to despair, or to fall entirely from hope in him; but he promises reconciliation anew, and according to his accustomed humanity, refreshes them and leads them back to repentance. And he gives them to understand that he has not turned away from those who have sinned entirely, nor that Israel will perish utterly, since he takes pity on them and beautifully smooths the path of salvation for those who believe in him; ^C and by calling himself Lord and God, who made and formed him from his mother's womb, he seems to intimate that he [Israel] has erred by attributing the name of divinity to others, and by rashly transferring the glory of sovereignty to non-gods. And that he did not know the Creator, and him who brought into existence the man upon the earth who did not exist before, he again hints, affirming himself to be the former and creator, and as it were indicting for ingratitude those who had jumped away from love for him. For it is most absurd that the highest honors should be offered by us to our parents according to the flesh, as the divine law itself prescribes, and yet that the Creator of all things should not be much more decorated with the praises fitting for him, and honored by us with submission and obedience in all things. Of such a kind is that which he says through one of the holy prophets: *A son honors his father, and a servant his master. And if I am a father, where is my glory? And if I am a lord, where is my fear? says the Lord Almighty* (Mal. 1, 6). ^D For it is at once both Lord, as one who has the whole creation under a yoke and servitude. For the divine Psalmist said to him: *All things are yours*; and likewise, *Father*, as being the former and maker, and the procreator of essence.

for those who formerly were not. But when He says to sinners, *You shall still have help*, He stirs them up to hope and confidence; for although they may be entangled in many unavoidable faults, yet remnants of goodness and humanity are preserved, and nothing stands in the way of their also being saved, if indeed they are willing to return to better and more becoming things, and those in accordance with His laws.

Verses 3-5. *Do not fear, my servant Jacob, and beloved Israel whom I chose, for I will give water in thirst to those walking in a place lacking water. I will put my spirit upon your seed, and my blessings upon your children. And they shall spring up like grass in the midst of water, and as a willow beside flowing water. This one will say, I am God's, and that one shall call in the name of Jacob. And another shall write, I am God's, in the name of Israel.* ^B

It seems that by these words He names Israel and Jacob as one chorus of the holy apostles, understood as a single person; for they all are one in Christ. For consider how He calls him beloved and elect: even though it is manifest to all, He would never have called those beloved and elect who have rejected faith in Him. But because they were of the blood of Jacob and Israel, vessels honorable and elect, and were called to the sacred work of evangelical preaching, He deemed it necessary to crown them with such splendid names, as those who were to be as lights in the world, containing the word of life, and mystagogues of the whole earth under the sun. *Do not fear, therefore*, He says—that is, act like a man, and be strengthened, and be endowed with a patient and youthful spirit; and mocking the assaults and tumults of those who persecute you, have firm confidence in God. ^C For many struggle against the most holy preaching, and an impious multitude shall rise up in opposition, resisting your words. But, He says, overcome cowardice and sloth and unmanly softness. *For I will give water to those walking in a place lacking water.* For it is pleasant and salutary, for those journeying in a thirsty place, to happen upon fountains of water. And we say that for those who are languishing for the love of piety, it is thrice desirable, and even more to be wished for, to be drenched with divine and intelligible streams, that is, with the consolations of the Spirit, by which it may come about that the human mind, even if it has been somewhat weakened, may be restored to manly strength and vigor. The water which God here promises He will supply to those walking in a place lacking water, is the Holy Spirit. ^D Truly the Savior Himself said, as the Scripture says: *Rivers of living water shall flow from his belly.*

^A Explaining the power of the things said, the all-wise evangelist added immediately: *This he said concerning the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive.* For water is a life-giving thing, and causes plants and grasses to grow, and in a way it imitates the energy of the Holy Spirit, through whom all things have been constituted and are kept existing for their well-being, and the intellectual creation is enriched by the addition of every good thing, and as it were leaps up, going toward spiritual increase. That the Holy Spirit signifies life-giving power and energy, and the consolation perceived by the intellect, when He promises water to those walking through a place lacking water, the following passage will clarify. *For I will put,* He says, *my Spirit upon your seed, and my blessings upon your children.* We say that the seed and children of the holy apostles are those who have been called through them to the knowledge of the truth and to spiritual regeneration, whom they regenerate not from corruptible seed, but through the living and abiding word of God, and through the energy of the Holy Spirit Himself. The divine Paul therefore writes to those called through him, ^B and says: *For even if you have ten thousand pedagogues in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel.* And we will find him everywhere calling those who have believed in Him through themselves, children. *I will put, therefore,* He says, *my Spirit upon your seed, and my blessings upon your children.* By blessings we mean those things supplied by God to the saints, the manifold variety of spiritual gifts. For to one is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, and the things that follow these. The all-wise Paul also writes somewhere that: *Each of you has his own gift from God.* Then, what the utility of the blessings might be, He clarified by adding: *They shall spring up as grass in the midst of water, and as a willow by the flowing water.* Grasses and plants which might be in waterless places grow very slowly, and having grown, they instantly wither. But those ^C which the flow of streams and the course of waters wash, which preserves life, bloom excellently; and the plant of the willow is always flourishing, having always grown up by fountains and rivers. Being intoxicated, therefore, He says, with the intelligible streams, those who have been enriched by these will confess that they know only Me, and will call Him God who called them. And when He says that *this one will say, I am of God, and that one will cry out, and another will write,* He indicates the multitude of those running to Him through faith in Christ. For not just one people will be called, but rather the whole multitude of the nations which is under the sun, and all will confess that they have become God's, and will call Him Savior and Redeemer, and they will be named thereafter by the name of Jacob, which means that they are the measuring-line and the inheritance of God. For, He says, *the people of the Lord became His portion, the measuring-line of His inheritance, Israel.* ^D And we who have believed boast

^A that we are the portion of God and the share of Christ, the Savior of us all. VERS. 6, 7. *Thus saith the Lord, the God, the King of Israel, who delivered him, the God of Sabaoth: I am the first, and I am hereafter; besides Me there is no God. Who is like Me? Let him stand, and let him call, and let him prepare for Me, since I made man for eternity. And let them announce to you the things that are coming before they come. Do not be hidden, and I have announced to you.* Having made mention of the knowledge in Christ through the readings just now presented to us, he turns the discourse to another necessary matter. For because, at that time when the inspired prophet Isaiah composed these words for us regarding such matters, one who was an enemy of God was reigning over them, and everything was full of intolerable vices—for everyone’s own desire was to him a god and a religion—God introduces a necessary admonition, wrapped in most fitting arguments: ^B turning them away from the worship of many gods and the vices which arise from them, and exhorting them through repentance to the knowledge of the truth, and reviving the memory of His own glory and incomparable power. Hence He says: *Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, who delivered him, the God of Sabaoth.* For He wishes them to know that He is God and Lord of hosts, and that they might see, as if recovering from drunkenness, that they had been delivered from the tyranny of the Egyptians by God working wonders and displaying the magnitude of His power and greatness. For what has been done that is not wonderful? What plague was not inflicted upon those who attacked them? Could the sea being divided, ^C and the waters standing fixed and firm like a wall, and the fugitives passing through the midst, be any other than an open demonstration of His inexplicable power? And what, indeed, were the miracles that occurred in the desert? Did He not give them bread from heaven? Did He not break the rock in the desert, and give them drink as if in a great abyss? And did He not lead down waters like rivers? Did He not put a kind of bridle on the streams of the Jordan, so that He prepared a passage for their feet? Necessarily, therefore, He does not simply call Himself Lord and God in these words, but has added, *who delivered him*, bringing into memory, as I said, the things unbelievably accomplished by Him. Know, therefore, He says: ^D *that I am God, the first, and I am hereafter, and besides Me there was no God.* For God is the beginning of all things, He Himself being without beginning, and all things have received their being from Him; He Himself, however, has been brought into being by no one, but is He Who is and Who is to be. For this is His name, and a memorial eternal unto ages everlasting. Therefore, neither was there another God before Him, nor will there be any besides Him. This exhortation is, however, extremely useful to those who have denied Him, and who, out of great lack of understanding, have slipped into the opinion that there are many gods. And that there is no one like Him, or that any other is to be numbered besides Him—

^A He shows this, saying: "Who is like Me? Which of those supposed by you to be gods"—or rather, those foolishly named so—"shall be equal to My glory and power? From what great works have you believed them to be gods? Let someone stand forward, if he is like Me. Let someone prepare one who has a nature, strength, or glory equal to Mine. Let them call whomsoever they wish of these falsely-named gods, from the time that I made man for the eternal age." For, He says, "I have fashioned the heavens and all that is in them, having hosts of numberless holy spirits worshiping and serving Me; but from the time that I made man upon the earth—and in the things that follow—that is, unto the eternal age, let someone show Me one [who is] My equal." And by saying again, "From the time I made man," He reveals Himself as Creator, and that the falsely-named gods are nothing at all. ^B For which of those who worship them have they brought into existence? I am known as Creator and Fashioner of all things, possessing knowledge of everything. Seek this from those you call gods: let them announce to you things that are to come before they happen. For it is fitting for God by nature to possess all knowledge, both of things already past and of things that will be. But if no one is found among these falsely-named gods who has attained this, it is not obscure that those who do not have the knowledge of God cannot be gods. Do not keep hidden—that is, Do not be silent, and do not dissimulate.

"Have you not heard from the beginning, and have I not announced it to you?"

For as one who is God by nature, and who knows all things that will be and all things that have already come to pass, I announced it to you through the holy prophets, through the wisest Moses. For I revealed the mystery of Christ, and there is nothing of which it was appropriate for you to have knowledge that has not been announced by Me. ^C Therefore, those [idols] are not gods, possessing nothing that is like to God. But I am, by nature, what I have been believed to be: God, clearly over all things, and having a divine generation. Therefore, the word initiates those who have been led away from the true vision of God and have leaned toward lifeless idols, saying to the wood, "You are my father," and to the stone, "You have begotten me."

"You are My witnesses if there is a God besides Me."

^D He again recalls to their memory the power and authority exhibited to them, which would be fitting for the One who is truly God by nature and Lord of all, when they were redeemed from the land of the Egyptians. For then, indeed, the very creation stood armed with the Lord, and it resisted the perversity of those who had tyrannized them; for there were changes in the elements. For the water was transformed into blood, and a deep, three-day darkness was spread out. And the heaven brought down hail upon them, and gadflies, frogs, and swarms of flies; and the death of the firstborn was brought upon them, and they passed through the midst of the sea. But after they had reached the land of promise.

^A they conquered many nations, and ones more powerful than the strength that was in them, and they became terrible and unassailable to the neighboring nations, and were regarded with awe and became celebrated even to those far off. Therefore, no others could see more clearly than you yourselves what concerned you, who it was that brought these things to pass, who it was that held all creation in his hand as visible in your affairs; who it was that shattered the powers of your enemies, and crowned you with victory over all: you yourselves are witnesses of my excellence, if you would only choose to think rightly, and you will have no need of other teachers. For very many were the gods among the Egyptians, and their sanctuaries were filled with images; and very many were there likewise among the Amorites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, and the other nations—but no one of those was seen to have sufficed for the salvation of their own people; nay, even those who were worshipped you shattered, together with their worshippers. For it has been proclaimed through ^B Moses that "you shall tear down their altars, and break their pillars in pieces, and burn their graven images with fire." Therefore, if you wish to speak the truth, you will be witnesses to me, whether there is any God besides me. For if a god has risen up among you and fought against my forces and conquered, let him be reckoned as a god among you. But if they are discovered to be nothing, and through you they have become food and fuel for the fire, by actual experience, he says, you have learned that there is no God besides me.

VERS. 9, 10. And those who formed and carved them did not listen then; all of them are vain who fashion the things that please them, which will not profit them: but those who fashion a god and carve useless things shall be put to shame, and all as many as were made withered away, and were ^C deaf from among men.

Through these words he manifests the dire and most heavy crimes of the apostates, since, endowed with such conviction that there is no other God by nature and in truth beside Him, and having been persuaded by the glorious deeds themselves that He alone is, they slipped into such stupidity that even when the law itself proclaimed to them clearly and said: "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve, and you shall not make for yourself an idol, nor any likeness of any thing, whatever is in heaven above, or whatever is in the earth beneath, or whatever is in the waters under the earth," they nevertheless counted obeying Him as nothing; but turned rather godlessly to the necessity of fashioning and forming gods out of wood and ^D stone. Vain, therefore, are such persons, and very reasonably so, going after these things for no necessary reason, but rather doing what pleased their own desires; for they became lovers of vanity. For what profit is there from wood and stone? Therefore, the making of an idol is the fruit of an unwise counsel and a manifest argument of a cold imagination. But he threatens that this matter will not pass for them unpunished, saying: "All who fashion a god and carve useless things shall be put to shame; and all as many as were made withered away, and were deaf from among men." For if these words are taken to refer to those fashioned by hand, "They withered away,"

^A we must understand as, "they perished." But if they are to be taken as referring to those who are accustomed to doing such things, it would be well to understand it in this way also: it is spoken as of trees which are accustomed to be fruitless, if they should somehow wither and eventually be hewn down for flame and burning. And the phrase, "deaf from among men," means: no longer acting among men, but rather deaf and entirely without perception, so that in no way do they resemble those who have come to be among them. For the blessed Psalmist also sings and says: "The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have a mouth, and will not speak; they have eyes, and will not see; they have ears, and will not hear." And he adds to these: "Let those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them." For such evils may be understood as the fruits of extreme stupidity. Although they know by experience itself that He is by nature and truly God, they nonetheless accord to stones and woods the glory that is most proper to Him alone; how then could they not be considered foolish and heartless, ^B possessing a heart filled with madness, and not differing much from those things which are fashioned?

Vers. 11, 12. Let them all be gathered together, and stand at once, and let them be put to shame, and blush together; for the smith sharpeneth the iron, hath worked it with an axe, and hath bored it with a drill. He hath worked it with the arm of his strength, and he shall be hungry, and shall be weak, and shall not drink water.

Not only individuals, but, if they wish, even all idol-worshippers gathered together collectively, he says are to be put to shame, and he dissolves by their own foolishness what they themselves allege. And what sort of thing this is, he brings in immediately, saying: "The smith sharpeneth the iron." He also mentions the tools by which the making is done, in order to declare that they do not worship the wood itself, but the stonemason's art. For if it were a god, it would not have need of his art or of any knowledge; ^C rather, it would be God in that way also. But if you consider wood that is neither fashioned nor given a form to be vain material, yet worship it once it has been fashioned and call it a god, then that art has become for you a god—and that, too, the art of a man who is weak and subject to corruption. For the need of food and drink is proof of corruption. Therefore, we do not say that the text "He shall not drink water" is stated affirmatively; rather, it should be read as a question with a pause. For the sense follows that "it will surely drink." Then how shall a corruptible being be the maker of incorruptible gods, or how shall a mortal make those who are immortal? For it is necessary that in the One who is truly God, there must reside incorruption and an absence of destruction, and furthermore, that He should live and be able to grant life to those to whom He might wish life to be present. The worship of those who are led astray is therefore clearly based on the axe and the drill, and on the smith's strength and art; if indeed it is true, as I said, that ^D they do not wish to worship wood or stone that is unformed, but rather [believe] that all things which are observed by them, with their form induced by the lathe, are gods.

^B

Verses 13-20. *When the craftsman has chosen wood, he set it in measure, and with glue he straightened it, and made it as the form of a man, and as the beauty of a man, to set it in a house. He cut down wood from the forest, which the Lord planted, the pine, and the rain made it grow, that it might be for men for burning; and having taken from it he was warmed, and having burned it they baked bread upon it, and the rest they wrought into gods, and they worship them: of which the half of it they burned in fire, and having burned bread they baked upon it, and upon it he roasted meat and ate, and was filled, and being warmed he said: "Pleasant it is to me that I have been warmed, and have seen the fire." And the rest he made into a carved god, and worships it, and prays saying: "Deliver me, for you are my god." They did not know how to understand, because they were blinded from seeing with their eyes, and from understanding with their heart. And he did not consider in his heart, nor did he reason in his mind, nor did he know by prudence, that the half of it he burned in fire, and baked bread upon its coals, and having roasted meat he ate, and the remainder of it he made into an abomination, and they worship it. Know that their heart is ashes, and they go astray, and no one can deliver his own soul. See, you shall not say that there is a lie in my right hand.*

The sense of the words set before us is very clear, and there is nothing rugged or arduous within them. For the worshipper of idols, and likewise the craftsman, is described as heartless, and as one having become entirely outside of his mind, and completely deprived of the reason and sense that is due. ^C He dwells much, however, upon the narration and description of them: at once putting them to shame as those who are led astray, and opening the eyes of those ensnared by the evil, and persuading them to behold the truth itself; which, if they would take it to heart, they will be immune from the plague, and will deliver their own heads from the wounds of foolishness. But this we say: that this discourse seems to us to be tempered gravely and wisely, so as to be sufficiently efficacious for persuading many to desist from the error of many gods, and to wish to be subject to the One who is by nature and truly God.

*When the craftsman had chosen,* he says, *wood, he set it in measure, and with glue he straightened it; he made it as the form of a man, and as the beauty of a man, to set it in a house.* The art, he says, of those who are accustomed to make gods, would then indeed be most worthy of all admiration, when it fashions in wood a form and the beauty of a man. But that which is fashioned by some man according to the imitation of another, is always inferior to the truth itself, and comes, so to speak, behind. Therefore, those who worship wood or stone that has been fashioned into the likeness of a man, would be convicted of worshipping their own likeness, and being far superior to those things expressed by way of imitation, they insult their own nature, as they bestow a richer glory upon them. It is then an accusation of extreme stupidity, and a criminal charge of the highest insipidity. For he sets it in a house, that is, in a temple

^A a piece of wood which he has cut from the forest. By these things he points out those who are accustomed to make gods, and who are not even ignorant of the material from which they have been made, so that they might not speak, according to the custom of the Greeks, of things fallen from Jove or self-originated, or as they say, "self-sprung," those things which have been set up in shrines. But that they mark the object of God’s creation, he refutes by saying that the wood was planted in the forest and nourished also by the bounty of the rains, so that it might be for the use of men for burning. But those who treat as gods that which has come into being for burning will themselves become food for fire along with them. He is almost struck with horror while saying that he burned half in the fire and spent it for his own needs. This, indeed, while cooking food and receiving for the baking of bread the portions of the gods. Then he has fallen into such an absence of understanding as to worship the remnants of his use, and to pray, and to say: "Deliver me, for you are my God." The heart of them, therefore, is ash and nothing else, and they have been led astray, and no one could deliver the souls of those who have fallen into this state, except only God, if He should choose, who does all things, and refashions, and illuminates that which is darkened, and turns back that which has wandered. But there is uselessness and vanity in the man-made gods, for they are deaf and senseless material. "See," that is, understand, "and you will not say that there is a lie in my right hand." For all things upon them, he says, are lied about, both names and glory. But in my right hand, that is, in the Son; for the Son is named the right hand of the Father everywhere in the divinely inspired Scripture; nothing falsely imagined could be found, but even if He were called God, He is true God; and if Lord, He does not have the matter as something added, but is rather by nature the Master of all. Even if He is King, even if light, even if life and power, even if Creator, all these things are not falsely applied to Him; for He is not a generated being, but would be understood to be by nature beyond every thing that has been brought to generation, being God from God, and true light from true light.

"Remember these things, Jacob and Israel, for you are my servant; I have formed you as my servant; and you, Israel, do not forget me. For behold, I have blotted out as a cloud your iniquities, and as a mist your sins. Return to me, and I will redeem you."

Christ said: "He who knows the will of his lord and does not do it shall be beaten with many stripes; but he who does not know, and does not do it, shall be beaten with few." ^D Most holy, then, is the verdict in either case. For one might grant forgiveness to those who, not knowing the master’s will and then stumbling, are involved in the charges of transgression, taking their ignorance as an occasion for mercy. But as for those who, when they knew the laws, preferred to be slothful, it is right that punishment should be visited upon them. For the charge of negligence is manifest. Therefore, in order that Israel might become better than himself, although he has been convicted of a great many crimes, being nevertheless held in such price and honor by God that He would not forget him, he is commanded to remember his own slothfulness.

^A and the gentleness of Him who has compassion. For remember these things, He says, O Jacob. And what are these things? The things already mentioned above, and that you are My child; and I have formed you as My child. He demonstrates very clearly in these words that ^B Israel did not lack tutors, but was under the law and a yoke, and had a great many who knew how to admonish him: he was, therefore, in this respect a child, and formed for this. And in what manner, we shall say as best we can. For a man is formed simply, just as, indeed, the first parent Adam was from the earth. For He took, He says, dust from the earth, and formed man. Then, following this mode of creation, he proceeds to the form with which we are endowed. For each one is formed in his mother’s womb, and this path leads the inhabitants of the earth to being, so that they become participants in essence. He is also formed into a child of God, being intelligibly informed by the knowledge of divine laws toward an excellent form and likeness, which by the adornment of virtues adheres and resides in the souls of men. This beauty may be understood as spiritual. They are also formed, as it were, in Christ through participation in the Holy Spirit, toward His own shape. For the divine Paul writes to the Galatians: "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ is formed in you." Now Christ is formed in us, the Holy Spirit imparting to us a certain divine form through sanctification and righteousness. For thus, in this way, does the character of the essence of God and the Father shine forth in our souls, the Holy Spirit, as I said, refashioning us unto Him through sanctification. For even the most holy Paul again said: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God." And He says that a veil ^C was placed upon the hearts of the Jews, but we all, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. We are formed, therefore, into a child of God. But since the name of "child" is in a way common—for it is taken to mean both servants and sons—we say that it is more fitting that those formed under the Law be formed as servants. For there was a spirit of bondage upon Israel, and their slothfulness did not go unpunished for them; for the Law punished them as servants. But if anyone is formed in Christ, he is formed into a son of God, according to the modes we have just spoken of. Therefore, it is necessary to remember both the philanthropy of Him who justifies, and that we have been formed unto sonship and glory, and that we are, as it were, making return to God the Father for what has been done for us by Him. And how this might rightly be done, He teaches, when He says: "And you, Israel, do not be forgetful of Me." For one might forget God by neglecting the piety toward Him, or by falling away entirely. The people from Israel ^D truly did this by worshiping gods that were not gods; and some even now do so, when they draw back from the faith, where

^A their judgment is just, as it is written. That the forgetting of God frequently signifies a falling away from piety toward Him, we shall understand from His own words to the Israelites: "You are they who forget Me, and prepare a table for the demon, and fill the cup for Fortune, and abandon My holy mountain. I will deliver you to the sword, and you shall all fall by slaughter." And for precisely this same reason He cried out against the Israelites through the voice of Jeremiah, saying: "Will a bride forget her ornaments, or a virgin her breast-band? But My people have forgotten Me days without number." ^B Therefore, forgetfulness may often denote apostasy, whereas memory is the steadfastness of faith, the stability of love, and a constant strength in everything that is pleasing to Him. Do not, therefore, forget Me, He says, but rather remember Me. "For behold, I have blotted out your iniquities like a cloud." By "I have blotted out," He says here, instead of "I shall blot out," as if by dispersing a certain darkness or cloud, I shall remove them. For that He says "I have blotted out" instead of "I shall blot out" is very well demonstrated by what follows: "Return to Me," He says, "and I will redeem you." For how did He blot them out, He who calls to conversion? It is as if they had not yet returned, but would come in their own time, when Christ should shine upon the world, through whom is every remission of sins, and conversion, and the calling to God, through faith in Him, the evangelical manner of life, and excellent good works.

^C "Rejoice, O heavens, because God has had mercy on Israel. Sound the trumpet, you foundations of the earth; cry out, you mountains, with joy, you hills, and all the trees that are in them, because God has redeemed Jacob, and Israel shall be glorified."

One may perceive from this without difficulty that the remission of sins, and indeed the conversion and redemption of all, as something to take place through Christ, was proclaimed beforehand by the holy prophets at those times. For since God and Lord appeared to us, and dwelt among the inhabitants of the earth as man—the true Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, ^D the all-holy sacrifice—then, truly then, the event became the cause of a festival for the rational powers above and in heaven, that is, for the ranks of the holy angels. For they saw, they saw at His birth—His birth in the flesh, I mean—and indeed they said: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men." And if it be true—and it is indeed entirely true—according to the word of the Savior, that there is joy in heaven before the holy angels over one sinner who repents, how could anyone doubt that when Christ brings the whole world back to the knowledge of the truth, and calls it to conversion, and justifies it by faith, and renders it illustrious through sanctification, there was joy and a festival among the spirits on high? With the heavens, then, rejoicing that God has had mercy on Israel, and not necessarily only the carnal Israel, but also him who is understood spiritually,

^A the foundations of the earth have sounded the trumpet; that is to say, the ministers of the evangelical oracles. Their sound has been carried abroad everywhere, and like certain sacred trumpets they have resounded, proclaiming the Savior’s glory to all men everywhere, and calling to the acknowledgement of Christ both those who were of the circumcision, and those who once worshipped the creature rather than the Creator. But why do we say that they are called the foundations of the earth? For Christ is the foundation and unshakable base of all things, who holds fast and contains all things, that they may be firmly established; for in Him we are all being built up, a spiritual house, compacted by the Spirit into a holy temple, into His dwelling place; for He dwells in our hearts through faith. But those foundations which are more proximate and nearer to us might be understood as the apostles and evangelists, who became eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word, and became a bulwark of faith. For knowing that we must follow their traditions, we shall keep the faith straight and in no way alien or deviating from Christ. For it was said by Him to the ^B divine Peter (when he wisely and blamelessly confessed his faith in Him, saying: "Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God"): "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church"; calling, I think, the unshakable faith of the disciple the rock. It has also been said by the voice of the Psalmist: "His foundations are in the holy mountains." The holy apostles and evangelists are most aptly to be compared to the holy mountains, the firm knowledge of whom stands like a foundation for those who come after, not allowing those who have been caught by them to fall into a reprobate faith. The foundations of the earth, therefore, sound the trumpet. But look now at my observation here. For Moses was of a thin voice and a slow tongue. For the law was not audible except through Judea alone. Sound the trumpet, therefore, you who fulfill the embassy for Christ. "Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world." But He ^C commands the mountains to cry out gladness. Here, again, He calls the foundations of the earth mountains. For the divine disciples were conspicuous and visible, illustrious in deed and word, and most familiar to all everywhere, to whom also the prophetic word spoke: "Get thee up into the high mountain, thou that bringest good tidings to Sion. Exalt thy strength, thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem." He commands these intelligible mountains, therefore, to cry out gladness. From this it is also possible to see the power of the law, and the far more excellent difference of the evangelical preaching. For the law, threatening punishments to those who transgress, and holding out inevitable penalties to those who are convicted, did not cry out gladness, but rather sadness. But the ministers of the evangelical oracles and the dispensers of the gifts from Christ proclaim gladness to the world. For where there is ^D remission of sins, and justification by faith, and participation in the Holy Spirit, and the splendor of adoption, and the kingdom of heaven, and no vain hope of honors which the mind cannot grasp, there is continuous cheer and joy. We say, however, that the hills and the tongue are in them, which are lower than the mountains.

trees in them are those who are defeated by the mountains and are slightly lower, according to the measure of the good life that is in them, as the holy apostles and evangelists are, of course, superior. The hills, then, might be those who have subsided slightly from their glory and are surpassed by the magnitude of their virtue, although these too excel, and are superior to earthly things, and set their minds on things above, and are counted worthy to consider the things on high according to virtue. By the trees in them, which are nourished by them, one might understand those who have believed through them, and have grown, as it were, into a perfect man and have arrived at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. These might also be teachers of peoples and guides of flocks, who, by the intelligible fruits that come from them, restore those who come to them. Therefore, hills and the trees in them proclaim the joy understood in Christ to the foundations of the earth, and they rejoice that God has redeemed Jacob, and Israel will be glorified. For he was not only redeemed by having the stains of sin wiped away and being rescued from fire and punishment, but he was also glorified, having become a member of God’s household, and having been called His son, and having obtained a brotherhood with Him who is one both by nature and truly the Son, that is, Christ. ^C VERS. 24, 25. *Thus says the Lord your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb: I am the Lord who accomplishes all things. I alone stretched out the heaven and established the earth.* Who else will scatter the signs of the soothsayers and divinations from the heart? Who turns the wise back and makes their counsel foolish, and establishes the words of His servant, and makes the counsel of His angels come to pass?

Most economically, the God of the universe discourses with us also in these matters, and attempts to produce faith in those who have turned to others—those who are, of course, not gods—by showing that He Himself is the generator of the universe, and the steward, and the creator, and the maker of those who are being instructed. Since He was making promises concerning the many and wonderful things which were likely to be disbelieved by some, He usefully, as I said, reveals His own power and preeminence to them beforehand, so that they might understand that whatever He might decide to accomplish in any way, this will run to its conclusion. For what is impossible for Him? What is He not able to do? How could He not be able to redeem, He who formed from the womb, that is, who even called into being and brought into existence those who did not exist before, who accomplishes all things, that is, the steward of the universe, and who arranges and directs each thing according to what seems good to Him? This is always correct. For God would not miss what is most becoming to His own glory. Or how could He not be all-powerful and beyond everything, both mind and word, He who stretched out this vast heaven and established the earth, as the Psalmist also says: «Fun

«He founded the earth upon its stability» ^A. But He who has ascended to this power—or rather, He who is all-power—will surely bring to pass whatever He might will to do, with nothing hindering Him. And when He says, «He who alone stretches out the heaven,» He does not exclude Him who is from His essence, the Only-begotten God the Word—He, I say, through whom all things are and in whom all things are—but rather He signifies that no one at all among the falsely-named gods joined in working with God who is over all. For since they do not exist at all, how could they be received as workers, or rather, as fellow-workers with the creating God? We do not, therefore, say that in these words there is a distinction made regarding the Son who is by nature begotten of Him; but rather that the stretching out of the heaven, or the having of the earth upon unshakeable foundations, became an effect of no other than God.

Having therefore demonstrated through these words His glory, and incomparable ^B excellence, and the magnitude of His power, in what follows He clearly demonstrates and explains who it is that will, in coming times, be the accomplisher of such things. For who else, He says, will dissipate the signs of ventriloquists and the divinations of the heart? For when the Savior of us all, Christ, had not yet shone upon us from the heavens, the violence of the devil’s tyranny was extended over all, and a deep darkness devoured all those upon the earth. For there were—there were, throughout every region and city—altars and shrines, and a swarm of images, and an uncountable multitude of falsely-named gods, and enchantments, and false divinations everywhere, and the impostures and trickery of demons, who feigned that they knew and could proclaim ^C things to come, while they neither said nor knew anything at all. But when the true Light, that is, the Only-begotten Word of God, had illuminated the whole world round about with evangelical oracles, and the mist of ignorance had been dispersed, and that deep darkness had ceased, and those who were wandering had been called to the knowledge of the truth: then, then the signs of the ventriloquists were dissipated.

By ventriloquists, He means the false prophets, or pythonics, who belch forth what they choose from the sense of their own hearts, and yet know nothing of the truth. Regarding such, the prophet Ezekiel also says: «Woe to those who prophesy from their own heart, and see nothing at all» ^D. The signs, therefore, oracles, or pre-announcements given to some by such people through false divination, were dissipated. For the Greek oracles everywhere became silent, and those who were accustomed to lie—the gods of the Greeks—were silenced. And the prudent were turned back, and their counsels were made foolish. By "prudent" in these words He seems to mean the magicians of the Greeks—for they were called "sages" among them—or perhaps those who had attained a reputation for wisdom among them, and were sharp in understanding, and possessed a power and faculty of speaking, and were excellent in volubility of tongue, and were not unskilled in eloquence, but were able to adorn a lie with the elegance of their diction. These we say have been turned back, since their wisdom has henceforth been proven to be unfruitful and useless.

^A For the all-wise Paul also says that the wisdom of the world has been made foolish, clearly by God. But, he says, when the prudent were turned back, and all their counsel was shown to be altogether ignorant and senseless, God and Father established the words of His own Child—that is, the evangelical and saving proclamation which Christ Himself spoke to us—and He proved the counsel of His angels to be true and valid. For angels may be understood as those who fulfill the office of ambassadors in the name of Christ and preach to the world as heralds. Their counsel was good, and an exhortation to all in every place to depart from their ancient transgressions, to be strengthened for deeds of virtue, to cling to better things, to know God who is God by nature and in truth, and to submit their neck to His laws, and in this way to hasten toward salvation and life. Therefore, the words from them are full of all truth; but the ravings of the Greeks were made foolish, having no beauty of truth: for all things among them were false—both prophecy, and knowledge, and the rank of their imaginary gods, a multitude unknown even to those who were themselves being led astray.

He who says to Jerusalem: Thou shalt be inhabited, and to the cities of Judah: ^B Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the ruins thereof.

It will follow in this way: "I am," that is to say, "Jerusalem, who redeems thee, who brings all things to pass, and who stretched out the heaven." I am, therefore, He says, who says to Jerusalem: "Thou shalt be inhabited." For the Babylonians did take it by force, having ravaged the entire land of the Jews. But they have been redeemed by God, and have cast off the yoke of captivity, for Cyrus—I mean the father of Cambyses, who burned Babylon—allowed them to do this. And indeed, having returned to Judea, they rebuilt their cities and the temple, and they lived in peace. Most cleverly, therefore, does the prophetic word, in saying that Jerusalem ^C will be built, give those who hear it to understand that it will be captured at certain times and will be destroyed. And it does not make the prediction of the things that would happen to them starting from the woeful things, but rather from those about which it was likely they would rejoice greatly; yet in such a way that, as I said, the harsher matters might also enter into their minds and thoughts. When, therefore, God commands that Jerusalem be built, the prophetic oration implies that it must first be captured entirely.

^A And God speaks through the voice of the saints: “I will put in the thirsty land the cedar, and the box tree, and the myrtle, and the cypress, and the white poplar.” It has also been said through the voice of the Psalmist concerning the saints before God, sometimes that: “The trees of the field shall be satisfied, the cedars of Lebanon which Thou hast planted;” ^B and sometimes again: “Then all the trees of the wood will rejoice before the face of the Lord, for He comes to judge the earth. He shall judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in His truth.” We do not say that it is the sense-less trees that rejoice; the term would better befit the saints, who, he says, will rejoice when Christ has shone upon the world. For He thus judged the world in righteousness, having justified those who once wandered in the faith, and condemned the destruction of Satan and his angels.

VERS. 27, 28. *Who says to the deep: Thou shalt be desolate, and I will dry up thy rivers. Who says to Cyrus, that he might be wise, and he will do all My will. Who says to Jerusalem: Thou shalt be built, and I will lay the foundations of My holy house.*

Israel was led away captive, as I said, in the course of time; for the Babylonians took the land of Judea. But when the seventieth year for the captives had already been completed, and the time for clemency—divine clemency, that is—was at last pressing, He aroused against the Chaldeans Cyrus, the father of Cambyses, who was administering the empire of the Persians and Medes. ^C He took them and released the Jews, having been taught that the God whom they worshipped had prophesied concerning him, that he would be fortified by His protection, superior to his enemies, and thoroughly formidable to those willing to resist, and that he himself would restore the divine temple. That the territory of the Babylonians, however populous, was therefore to be reduced to total desolation, he indicates when he says: “I am He who says to the deep: Thou shalt be desolate.” For here he referred to the uncountable multitude of the Babylonians as the “deep,” and as its “rivers,” the nations that flowed into it—those that were neighboring or held bordering lands, summoned by them for assistance. Furthermore, it is customary for Divine Scripture always to liken the multitude of nations to rivers, the sea, and waters. The inspired Psalmist indeed said concerning the Savior of us all, Christ, and the multitude of nations that has been snared and captured by His voice and words: “The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory has thundered: the Lord.” ^D For the voice of the Lord, that is, the evangelical and saving preaching, has spread through all nations when it thundered, as it were, over them. For the holy and saving preaching resounded, as it were, throughout the whole world. It is also written again: “The floods have lifted up their voices.” For we say that the holy apostles are named as the “floods” in this passage, whose voices, that is, whose doctrines, have become known to people everywhere. It has also been said somewhere concerning Babylon itself and Nineveh, that her waters are a pool of water. It was therefore God who said to the deep: “Thou shalt be desolate, and I will dry up thy rivers.” He was likewise the One who says to Cyrus, that he might be wise, so that he might administer all things knowingly.

is that God who says to the abyss: "Be desolate, and I will dry up thy rivers." And He it is, likewise, who says to Cyrus to be mindful, instead of acting in all things with understanding and fulfilling all that seems good to him. For this purpose was it to exact punishment from the Babylonians for what they had done, devastating Judaea and burning the holy and divine temple, for releasing Israel in addition to this, and for rebuilding the house, or rather, laying its foundations. For this is a more accurate way to put it. Cyrus had indeed commanded that the temple be raised, adding funds for it, and had laid the foundations. But after he passed from human life, the completion and furtherance of the work were hindered by the envy of certain people under his successor. Yet later, it was finally brought to completion, with God’s consent. We have the exact history in Holy Scripture, and I think it is superfluous to spend long discourses on these things. Nor let any say that the divine word is false because Cyrus, being an idol-worshipping man, did not do everything God willed. For the statement ^B is set forth: "He shall fulfill all my pleasure," meaning, certainly, those things which it is reasonable that God should wish to demonstrate: the taking, I mean, of the region of the Babylonians, the freeing of Israel from bonds and servitude, the raising of the temple, and the rebuilding of the cities of Judaea.

"Thus says the Lord God to my Christ, Cyrus, whose right hand I have taken hold of, that nations might obey before him; and I will break the strength of kings, I will open doors before him, and the cities shall not be shut. I will go before thee, and level the mountains; I will shatter the bronze doors and crush the iron bars. And I will give thee hidden treasures, dark, invisible, I will open them to thee, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord God, am calling thy name, the God of Israel. For the sake of Jacob my servant, and Israel my elect, I will call thee by my name, and I will receive thee. But thou hast not known me, that I am the Lord God, and there is no God besides me. Thou didst not know me. That they may know from the rising ^C of the sun and from the west that there is none but me. I am the Lord God, and there is none else. I am He who prepared light and made darkness, creating peace and creating evils. I, the Lord God, do all these things."

We say that the most valiant Cyrus encountered this prophecy and rejoiced exceedingly at what was foretold of him by God, and came to such a frame of mind that, even in the cities and regions subject to him, he made proclamation of God’s glory, clearly confessing that He alone was God and Lord of all, who was worshipped by the Jews. The power, or meaning, of the prophecy—that is, of the prophetic declarations—is, I think, very clear. Let us go through each of the things said, as far as is permitted, and let us explain what occasionally appears to be obscure and rugged. For He calls Cyrus "Christ," not as one of the saints to whom that ^D name might apply in a derived sense, as taken from his having been anointed, but because it had been the custom that those called by God to kingdoms

^A even if they were not holy and reverent, were anointed with oil. For we shall find that the holy prophets have said to some of those who were designated for this: "The Lord has anointed you as king over Israel." Cyrus, therefore, was "Christ," or "the anointed one," as king. But the fact that he obtained dominion through God, and was raised to this illustrious glory, he suggests by calling him anointed, that is, called to the kingdom by his anointing and by his suffrage. Hence he says that he has taken hold of his right hand. And this could be a clear sign of his assumption, just as it is said by the saints in the book of Psalms: "You have held my right hand; in your counsel you have guided me." He says he has taken hold of his right hand, so that the nations may listen to him, that is, that they may be subjected and yield to him, and that the power of kings may be broken. For they say there are seven kings subject to the one who is preeminent among the Babylonians. ^B That the cities would open of their own accord, and that nothing would hinder Cyrus as he marched against the strength of the enemy, he demonstrates by saying: "The cities will not be shut. I will go before you, and I will level the mountains," that is, I will make all things bare and flat, and I will prepare them to be easily approached, so that there is nothing that can resist. But even if anyone should come against you, and should meet your forces like a mountain, even this I will level, that is, I will render him wretched and humble and unwarlike. "I will shatter bronze gates, and I will break in pieces iron bars for you, and I will open to you dark, hidden, and invisible treasures." They recount that the Babylonians, after the city was taken, hid and buried themselves in dark caves, especially those among them who were more prominent than the rest; who, fearing death, like serpents entered every cave and crevice of the rocks and hid themselves, but they could not remain hidden. ^C For some pointed this out to Cyrus, who ordered torches to be lit and those who had fled in fear to be dragged out from the dark recesses, and so to be subjected to dire punishments. Others, however, say that he emptied the treasures of the Babylonians which were hidden under the earth. "So you will be illustrious and famous, that you may know that I am the Lord God, who calls your name, the God of Israel, for the sake of Jacob my servant, and Israel my chosen one." For I have called you to this, he says, "I, God alone, and I have honored you with such illustrious glory, so that you might be a benefactor to my servant Israel." I have called you, he says, and crowned you with glory. "But you did not know me, that I am the Lord, and that there is no God besides me. And you did not know me," which is as if he said openly: You have not received this such glory from me as a reward for illustrious deeds pertaining to piety: ^D but I have honored you, even when you did not know my divinity and excellence, and indeed when you were not even among those who worship me, but that those who are from the rising of the sun and from the setting may know that there is no other besides me. For because I willed, he says, to deliver my own, even through those who do not know my glory I will bring this matter to pass, that those who are in the whole world may see that there is no God besides me. For I am the Lord of hosts, and the Lord of every nation and race, and if I were to choose,

I turn the hearts of those who are on the earth, so that even if they are not mine, they perform my will, that those who were not mine might be shown to be my ministers. ^A I, therefore, am the Lord God, who fashioned light and created darkness—that is, day and night, or light for the redeemed, and darkness for the perishing. For the former rejoiced as those being delivered from bonds, while the others were in inescapable calamities. I am the one who makes peace and creates evils. And you shall understand this in the same sense as I said just now: peace for the redeemed, but evils—that is, things that cause affliction, or the efficient cause of all evil affliction—for the cruel and savage ones who invaded Israel. For that this matter offended God can be made clear when He says by the voice of the angel to the prophet Zechariah: "I have been jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy, and with great anger I am angry at the nations that joined in the attack; ^B for while I was angry a little, they joined in the attack for evil." And furthermore, as to the Babylonians themselves: "I have delivered them into your hands, but you did not show them mercy." And we shall understand that it was by the will of God that Cyrus, being bold, exceedingly strong, and using the cruelty becoming to those who are to be punished, leaped upon the arrogance of the Babylonians, when He says, by the voice of Jeremiah, as if to Cyrus: "Sharply invade her and those who inhabit her. Take vengeance with the sword, and destroy, says the Lord, and do according to all that I command you." And in addition to these things: "The Lord has opened His treasury, and has brought out the vessels of His wrath, for there is a work for the Lord in the land of the Chaldeans, for her times have come. Open her storehouses, search her out as a cave, and destroy her. Let there be no survivor of her; ^C dry up all her fruits, let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come, and the time of their vengeance." The prophet Isaiah himself also said, as if in the person of God, to the Babylonians: "Behold, I will stir up against you the Medes, who do not reckon silver, nor have they need of gold. They will break the bows of the young men, and they will not have mercy on your children, and their eyes will not spare your children"—that is to say, the eyes of the Medes, because their day has come, and the time of their vengeance. Isaiah also said, as it were in the person of God to the Babylonians, that they do not reckon silver, nor have they need of gold; they will not have mercy on your [people], nor will they spare your children.

^D VERS. 8. Let the heaven rejoice from above, and let the clouds sprinkle righteousness; let the earth open, and let mercy sprout, and let righteousness spring up together.

It is a customary and familiar practice for the divinely inspired Scripture often to extend its discourse from those things that were done singly and particularly concerning some, to the universal kind and to all, and, as from a bright image of things historically performed, to skillfully lead the mind of those being instructed to more mystical considerations. This also may be seen in the verses that are at hand. For a long discourse has been spent through the preceding

^A pages about Cyrus, the prince of the Persians and Medes, as one who ravaged the land of the Babylonians and conquered it by force, and released Israel from the servitude and the bonds of captivity therein, and founded the temple in Jerusalem, and was stirred up against the Chaldeans, with God himself inciting him, and opening to him bronze gates and shattering iron bars. But this was a particular narrative. For it was only those of the blood of Israel who were to be brought into tranquility and delivered from the toils of captivity.

But now he transfers the force of the meaning to Emmanuel himself, who was set forth by God the Father ^B that he might preach remission to captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, that he might rescue from evil those inevitably shackled by the chains of their own sins, and having rendered them free from the tyranny of the devil, might cause those on earth to return to himself, and thus bring them through himself to God and Father. For he has become the mediator of God and men, and through him we have obtained reconciliation in one Spirit to the Father, and he is our peace according to the Scriptures: he himself restored his divine, that is, his own temple, which is the Church. For he presented it to himself as a pure virgin, ^C not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but rather holy and unblemished. Therefore, one may see very well in Cyrus and the things done by him, as in an image, the divine and illustrious benefits divinely bestowed upon the inhabitants of the whole earth. This, then, is the scope of the proposed words. But we will interpret each of the written points in order, as far as we are able.

"Let the heaven rejoice from above," he says, that is, those who tread the path to the city above and hold the bright and admirable dwelling, the angels and ^D archangels, and those beyond them, thrones and dominions, and powers partaking of reason, and those who stand as attendants at the highest seats. We say that the cause of the joy for these very heavenly spirits as well is the turning of the wanderers on earth to God, through Christ, I say, the Savior of us all, and the recovery of sight for the blind, and, to speak once, the salvation of those who were lost. For if they rejoice over one sinner who repents, how is it lawful to doubt that they rejoice and are glad when they behold the world saved? Therefore he says: "Let the heaven rejoice from above, and let the clouds pour down justice." We say that the intelligible clouds are the supernal powers, from whom spiritual consolations are sent down like rain, and distill into the hearts of believers: according to what is clearly said elsewhere concerning the Israelites, as if concerning a vine: "And I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon them": or even the holy mystagogues themselves, and those who are on earth, of whom the divine disciples were the first-fruits and the beginning, who, traversing the whole earth, scattered the divine and sacrosanct word, and, as if for some parched and unfruitful land, exhilarating all who are everywhere, and like intelligently irrigating, the cause of spiritual fruitfulness

Therefore, because the Jews were ^A murderers of the Lord, and acted lawlessly against Christ himself, the dispenser of the intelligible streams, God commanded the clouds not to give rain; but to those who believe in Him, they are ordered to descend and lavishly irrigate the hearts of those who approach Him. “Let the earth be opened,” He says, “when the rains have descended, and let mercy germinate, and let justice spring up together.” 18 For it was necessary for the intelligible clouds, as I have said, by irrigating the world under heaven with the teachings of justice, just as if from good seeds, to cause good fruits to grow and bloom. For as the inventor of sin, as it were, held sway over the earth, and through the wise of this world cast abominable and profane seeds everywhere, and there was no one doing kindness—there was not one, but all turned aside, together they became useless, and the whole earth was empty of the fruits of probity and the teachings of justice, like rain that had not yet fallen anywhere—it was subsequently fitting for there to be fruits of piety toward God. By mercy, we mean the charity which is the fulfillment of the law, with the evangelical justice accompanying it, the dispenser and teacher of which Christ Himself has become for us. Someone may also say that mercy and justice, sprouting and germinating from the earth, is our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. For He has become for us mercy and justice from God and the Father, if it is true that we have obtained mercy in Him, and having received the remission of our ancient offenses, have been justified, and have received from Him that justice ^C which can lead us into the lot of all good things, and through which we are saved. If, however, the earth is commanded to sprout justice, let no one be offended, reflecting that the Psalmist also says somewhere concerning God and the Father, and concerning the Emmanuel Himself: “He has wrought justice in the midst of the earth.” 19 For Christ did not bring His flesh down to us from above and from heaven, but rather was born according to the flesh from a woman, who is one of those things that are upon the earth. When, therefore, it is said to be the fruit and sprout of the earth, you will understand, as I have said, that He was born according to the flesh from a woman, who was assumed for this ministry, though she was one of those from the earth.

“I am the Lord God who created you: whom did I prepare as better, like the clay of the potter?”

He renders here the cause for which, although He is God and Son by nature, He emptied Himself and chose to suffer for us, and deemed the inhabitants of the earth worthy of such great mercy that He poured out His own life as a price, as it were, for redemption, and indeed even endured to take the form of a servant and to exchange the highest glory for the ^D smallness of human nature. Therefore He says, “I am,” which must now be taken for, “I subsist and live,” being true God and Lord of hosts, and

bringing all things into existence, not creating death, but rather creating all things for incorruption. Then, honoring the nature of man, and because no animal on earth can in any way be compared to it, He says, “What have I prepared better than the clay of the potter?” For we have been fashioned by Him, taking dust from the earth, and ^A beautifully formed like a piece of pottery. But the dignity of human nature does not stop here; there is in us a greater gift and endowment of divine craftsmanship, in that we have been fashioned according to His image and likeness, and have been enriched with the character of His majesty, intelligibly beaming within our souls, even if in terms of the flesh we are earth and from the earth. Therefore, man is not a thing to be despised, but rather a creature to be wondered at upon the earth; and so God prides Himself in him. Thus He said to the most long-suffering Job, setting forth His own magnificent works: “Or did you, having taken clay of the earth, fashion an animal, and place it upon the earth as a talking creature?” And the divine David also sings: “O Lord, what is man, that you are mindful of him? Or the son of man, that you visit him?” Then he recounts the excellence of human nature, saying: “You have made him a little lower than the angels, you have crowned him with glory and honor, and set him over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet.” Now the all-wise Paul applied some ^B of the aforementioned verses to Christ. Yet it may also be fittingly said of every man of our condition; for there is nothing false in these things.

VERS. 9, 10. *Shall the ploughman plough the earth all the day? Shall the clay say to the potter, What are you doing, for you do not labor, nor do you have hands? Woe to him who says to his father, What will you beget? and to the mother, What will you bring forth?*

The discourse is profound and overshadowed by much obscurity: yet, that you may understand what is profitable and true, I believe it must first be explained in a few words what is the scope of the thoughts. For thus it will be, as it were, palpable ^C and acceptable to the hearers. The God of all, therefore, redeemed Israel from Egypt, and delivered him from the error of many gods and from the deception of demons, bringing him back by the Law given through Moses to the very light of the true knowledge of God. For He taught him to worship one God and to adore one Lord; then, through type and shadow, He wished to lead him up to things yet greater and more perfect, that is, to the things which are in Christ. For the Law was a pedagogue, and it was established until the time of reformation, which was the advent of our Savior Jesus Christ; when, having removed the shadow of the legal precepts and the types in the letter, He introduced the beauty of spiritual and true worship to those who dwell on earth, ^D plainly and openly. But the Jews took this very thing with difficulty, and still championing the types, they resisted Christ, and charged Him with the subversion of the Mosaic oracles, saying now: “If this man were from God, He would not violate the Sabbath”; now with other word-

words, casting them as from a sling. Since, therefore, they treated as unacceptable the proclamation of the Gospel, which raises them from a fruitless shadow to spiritual fruitfulness, He says for this reason: “Does the plowman plow the earth all day?” ^A Foolish ones, He says; the husbandman indeed cleaves the field with plows, but he does not do this forever, nor will he consume the entire time of husbandry with the plows. For he cleaves the ground not that it may merely suffer this, but that it may be receptive to the seeds cast into it, and appear fruitful. Therefore, I formerly tilled and prepared the previously wild and, as it were, uncultivated hearts of you all, having used the Law given through Moses in a certain way as a plow, and like a husbandman cleaving it, I made them fit for the casting in of good seeds. But the sower of every good thing is my Son. Receive, therefore, what is from Him, and do not wish always to love and cherish the plowing Law. For it plowed, as I have said, not that you should remain in it—for what benefit is there in that?—but that you should produce the fruits of truth.

Since, however, we have been transformed and transfigured intelligibly in Christ—some from Greek error to the knowledge of truth and to a holy life, through our Savior Christ; others, indeed, from circumcision to the acceptance of evangelical teachings and to a common worship which no longer has the unpleasantness of types, but rather shines forth with the most becoming spiritual beauty—and this grace of regeneration through water and spirit in Christ has been bestowed upon us and them alike; ^B similarly, also, because the Jewish people rejected and did not receive this grace of theirs (for they resisted, as I said, Christ’s oracles), He says for this reason: “Shall the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing? For you are not working, and you have no hands?’ Woe to him who says to his father, ‘What will you beget?’ and to his mother, ‘What will you bring forth?’” I indeed, He says, wish to reform you to better things, and as it were to refashion you for higher things through an intelligible birth, namely, the one which is through water and spirit. But you foolishly resist My decrees. Does, He says, the clay ever rebuke the potter, as though he did not have an artful hand, or as though he did not know in what way it is fitting to form what is in his hands? But even the one about to be born, He says, does he ask his father, “Will you beget?” Now, how is it that you, being like clay in the hands of the potter, and not knowing at all in what way the intelligible regeneration concerning you will be, are not afraid to contend? And why have you not rather known how to yield to Him as artful worker and Father, ^C and to leave the manner of production to Him? That the Jews contended against the Savior’s words which He spoke to them concerning these things, it is not difficult to discern. For He said to Nicodemus: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” But he, insulting and recalcitrant, rashly opposed these things which cannot be grasped by the mind, and says: “Can a man, when he is old, enter into his mother’s womb and be born?” ^D

He added to these another mystery: “How can these things be?” What, then, does Christ say to this? “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” ^A It is necessary, therefore, to yield to whatever God says. He Himself knows the way of His own works, and the things fashioned by Him cannot be attacked by anyone who is inquisitive; and those things which surpass the mind ought to be honored and respected by men like us with indubitable faith. Moreover, it should be known that the prophet Jeremiah was also sent into the house of the potter, so that he might see him working: and when the clay had fallen apart, and it was remade into another vessel, God said to him: “Cannot I do even as this potter with you, O house of Israel? Behold, as the clay of the potter, so are you in my hands.” That we are transformed intellectually into a holy and most beautiful life, Paul will declare, saying: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord”; ^B through whom also we are regenerated, possessing seed no longer subject to corruption, but that which is through the living and abiding word of God.

VERS. 11, 12. "For thus says the Lord God, the holy One of Israel, who has made the things that are to come: Ask me concerning my sons and daughters, and concerning the works of my hands command me. I made the earth, and man upon it. I with my hand established the heaven. I have commanded all the stars."

The exposition of the sense of the preceding words appears in these statements. And the meaning of these verses is as follows: If, he says, clay ever rebuked the potter, and accused the hand of the molder as being somehow unskilled or too slow; if anyone concerning those things which are not yet, or are made but are expected to come to pass, has inquisitively asked what kind of future sower of his children his father is: do you also, who shall be my sons and daughters in the passing of time, ask me how this will come to pass, and in what way you shall be my sons and daughters. ^C "Command me" also concerning the works of my hands. "Command," he says, instead of "order," as if to one ignorant of the way of doing things, and do not hesitate to give counsel to God. Therefore, the all-wise Paul is worthy of admiration, and most deservedly so, who has written thus: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” For the Wisdom that is the artificer of all things is in no need of anything at all in those things that are Her own. But there would not even be anything among us that is difficult or impossible for Her. For She who has all-encompassing power can do all things, or rather, She is everything that is power. ^D For the God of all is the Lord of powers, and He alone knows the way of His own works.

^A Since His deeds are beyond investigation and above our reach, and though they are inaccessible to human minds, they are nevertheless known to Him. We surely believe that the intelligible regeneration through water and the Spirit has been given to those who have come to know the appearing of Christ. Since Christ wished to render this grace manifest to Nicodemus, He explained the way of the matter; but he, understanding nothing of what was said, complained of the inexplicable difficulty of the Savior's words. But Him who wished to confirm this state of mind, so that he might receive the miracle by faith, He met with the saying: "We speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen." Since, therefore, we do not comprehend the way of the divine works, and having freed our minds from every doubt, we say to God: "I know that You can do all things, and nothing is impossible for You." Let us not inquire about His daughters and His sons. Nor let us command or instruct Him concerning the works of His hands; but as clay to the potter, let us surrender ourselves and grant that He may work whatever seems good to Him. ^B For He shifts our state without effort to whatever He wills, and He transforms the mind from the baser to the better, and He implants in us a new heart, having rooted out the former one. Indeed, He said something of this sort through the voice of Ezekiel: "I will take away their heart of stone from their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh," that is, tender and compliant, that they may know Me, that I am the Lord. For as we withdraw from every depravity and defilement, and then compose our own mind to desire the fulfillment of what is good, adding to this also the intelligible regeneration through water and the Spirit, we shall be sons and daughters of God. For that all-encompassing power dwells in Him, He demonstrates by saying: "I made the earth and man upon it." But the discoverer and author of human generation, who brought it into being when it was not, how would He be powerless and inept for the spiritual reformation? ^C Would it not rather be possible that by His nod and will, the nature of created things could shift and pass over into any form whatsoever? And why should it seem so strange or incredible if He who established the heaven with His own hand should otherwise form and fashion the mind of man according to His own will? We say, moreover, that the Son is the all-working Hand of the Father, through whom are all things, and in whom are all things. For by the Word of the Lord, he says, the heavens were established. He Himself commanded all the stars, that is, He ordained how each of them ought to be. For the sun is placed for the beginnings of the day, and the moon for the night. But as the Psalmist says: "The sun knows its setting. And God of all set darkness, and it became night." The divinely inspired David sings again, and says: "Yours is the day, and Yours is the night. You established the sun and the moon." Therefore, each of these accomplishes the course appointed to it by an orderly motion, and with measured intervals of hours. ^D Likewise also the rest of the stars, according to the law given to them by God...

both rise at their own times and set. For He Himself, who is God by nature and the maker and Lord of all things, gave the command to them.

VERS. 13. *I have raised him up with justice as king, all his ways are straight. He shall build my city, and he shall turn back the captivity of my people, not for ransom nor for gifts, saith the Lord Sabaoth.*

Some perhaps might say that these things are spoken concerning Cyrus, the father of Cambyses, for the reason that he released Israel and delivered them from the bonds of captivity, and also founded the temple in Jerusalem; but the consideration of the following context will draw the sense and force of the passages not to him, ^B but rather to the Savior of us all, Christ, who has been raised up with justice. For God and Lord has shone upon us, it having pleased God and the Father to gather together in Him all things, both those in the heavens and those upon the earth. He has been raised up, therefore, together with, or through, justice—not justice that is adopted or learned, but as He is Himself in reality justice. It is written also elsewhere concerning Him: *Behold! A righteous king shall reign, and princes shall rule with judgment* 17*. For the only-begotten Word of God was always King of the universe, together with God and the Father, and He subjected beneath His feet every creature, both visible and invisible. Yet if any man of the earth should fall away and revolt from His kingdom, and should belittle His scepters, because he was in the hand and power of the devil and held fast by the snares of sin ^C, He again subjected him to His own yoke, as one who is the minister and bestower of all justice. *For all His ways are straight.* And we say that the ways of Christ are the evangelical oracles, through which, tending toward every virtue and adorning our own heads with the insignia of piety, we arrive at the prize of the heavenly calling. For these ways are indeed straight, and there is nothing crooked or perverse in them, but they are direct, as it were, and navigable. For it is written: *The way of the pious has been made straight, and the way of the pious is prepared.* For the path of the law is rough, traversing through many types and figures, and is of intolerable difficulty. But the way of the evangelical oracles is level, and has nothing at all rugged or harsh. The ways of Christ, therefore, are straight, and He Himself ^D built the holy city, that is to say, the Church, in which He Himself also dwells; for He dwells in the saints, and we have become temples of the living God, having Christ within ourselves through the participation of the Holy Spirit. He has therefore founded the Church, and He Himself is the foundation upon which we too are built up, as precious and costly stones, into a holy temple, into a habitation of God in the Spirit. The Church is altogether unshaken, having Christ as its foundation and immovable base. *For behold*, he says, *I lay the foundations of Sion, a stone, elect, cornerstone, precious: and he who believes in him shall not be ashamed* 29*. He Himself, therefore, having founded the Church, turns away also his people's

captivity. For He has saved and delivered us, who were oppressed on earth by Satan and sin, and has brought us under his own yokes—yet not with prices, nor with gifts. For as his disciple says: ^A “Not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, have you been redeemed from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers, but with the precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, Christ.” For He gave His own blood for us, and we are not our own, but belong to Him who bought and saved us. Hence, and quite rightly, those who stray from the straight canon of the right faith are accused by the voice of the saints, as they deny the Lord who redeemed them.

^B VERS. 14-16. “Thus says the Lord God of Sabaoth: Egypt has labored, and the merchandise of the Ethiopians, and the Sabaeim, men of stature, shall pass over to thee, and they shall be thy servants, and shall follow after thee bound in manacles, and shall worship thee, and shall pray in thee. Because God is in thee, and there is no God besides thee. For thou art God, and we knew it not, the God of Israel the Savior. All those who oppose him shall be ashamed and brought to confusion, and shall walk in confusion.”

Having introduced the discourse concerning Christ, the Savior of us all, and having announced that he will turn back his own people not with prices, nor with gifts, he straightway shows those who are to be called to redemption, it being evident that these are the ones from the Gentiles, upon whom Christ is seen to have shone forth most especially. Yet he says clearly: “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel 30.” But upon them, indeed, and first, the divine and evangelical light shone. Since, however, as it is written, “the beloved Israel grew fat, and thick, and kicked 31” (for they killed the Prince of life), hence indeed, and quite rightly, Christ shone upon the herds ^C of the Gentiles; and this very thing we shall find included in the consideration and contemplation of the present words. He names the most superstitious of all the Gentiles, so that the power of Him who calls to repentance might be admired. For just as the skill of those who are expert in medicine is then especially praised when they are able to deliver those suffering from desperate diseases by using their own experience in due time, so also God renders his own transcendent glory more manifest when he causes some who have turned greatly aside, and who have been cast down to the very lowest abyss of baseness and impiety, to recover and to go forth, to desire virtue, and to turn away from evil, and to take up the things which are worthy of praise. The Egyptians, therefore, and the merchandise of the Ethiopians—that is, the Theban cities, to which those called Sabaeim are neighbors and conterminous, that is, the nations of the Ethiopians or of the Indians (having perhaps received their name from Saba, who in former times ruled over their region and land)—“have labored,” he says. They have labored, in two ways in ^D

^A truth it should be understood: for either it signifies that they were weary and intolerably afflicted during the time of error, being subjugated to a cruel tyrant, Satan, and serving the flocks of demons that demanded sacrifices and the very fruits of their own bodies, I mean sons and daughters; or it means that formerly they were terrible and unyielding, and as it were the shield-bearers of ancient error, and relied on every strength so as to cling with youthful vigor to the Greek impiety set before them. But after Christ shone forth, and cast the true light into the hearts of all, and arose as a certain mental and intellectual Morning Star, they “have labored,” that is, they have not remained ^B persistent, as they were before, but they have slackened as it were from their former tension, yielding the victory to the preachings concerning Him; nor was the statement concerning them in any way false or mendacious. For thus writes the all-wise Paul: “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” For the land of the Egyptians is seen to be full of august and holy churches. Altars are everywhere, and flocks of monks, and companies of virgins, and the labors of asceticism with great delight, and a race toward virtue, and great readiness, and a fervor that cannot be broken; and the worship of Christ extends and propagates itself even unto the Sabaeans themselves, that is, the Indian nations. For it is possible, yes, possible to see among them also, and at the emporia of Ethiopia ^C—that is, in the land of the Thebans—the same things as in Egypt. These Egyptians, therefore, he says, and the Sabaeans, being high-minded men—that is, conspicuous and most well-known to all, and to no one unknown for having been preeminently worshippers of demons and shield-bearers of diabolical inventions—shall pass over to you; that is, having first abandoned error, and leaping out from the pit of destruction, they will come to you and will be your servants, that is, the ministers of your will. For this name of slavery applied to God signifies this. “They shall follow you bound in manacles.” For they shall go, he says, in your footprints, led by the hand by the evangelical laws toward all things that are to be done, and they shall traverse the path of an excelling life ^D bound in manacles, that is, in the bonds of charity and with the fetters of an ineffable piety toward God, so that they might be able to say: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” These, he says, shall worship you and shall pray in you, because God is in you, and there is no God except you. For you are God, and we did not know it, the God of Israel, the Savior. For every knee bows to the Savior of all, Christ, and every tongue confesses, and every end of prayer comes unto Him. For in Christ we ask for requests from God the Father, and in Him we pray, confessing that even in Him God is, and there is no God except Him. But He also taught us to think this, when He said to the divine disciple, that is, Philip: “Have I been so long time with you, and yet you have not known me, Philip? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? He who has seen me has seen my Father. I and the Father are one.” Therefore, that which is said, “God is in you,” and, “There is no God except you,” mean the same thing and denote the same, which is that

^A “the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”

But if someone should wish to transfer the power of the things said to the person of Christ alone, in a skillful manner, we say that, according to the voice of the divine Paul, “all the fullness of deity dwells bodily in Christ.” For he himself was God, not divided into two sons, but the Word, as it were, having his own flesh, in which he is said also to have dwelt. Therefore, God is understood even in this, just as the soul in the human body; yet there is one Son, who is God. Indeed, it must be known that we say the flesh of the Lord is enlivened by an intellectual soul. Therefore they confess: “And in you is God, and there is no God except you. For you are God, and we did not know it, the God of Israel, the Savior.” This is the voice of those repenting, and of those already moving away from error and darkness toward the light, and having passed over into the knowledge of the truth, and having recognized him who is by nature and truly God, the Creator and Lord of all. They call him the Savior of Israel who took on humanity and became flesh, believing him to be the same one who long ago was the ally of those from Israel. Or rather, you will understand Israel to be not only the one according to the flesh, but also if there is anyone else able to see God. For Israel is interpreted as “a mind seeing God.” And a person sees God with the eyes of the intellect when one looks upon the character of God and the Father, that is, the Son, by whom he says those who have resisted will be ashamed, and will walk in disgrace. For they who have not accepted faith in him, but have fought against God, as indeed the Jews did, all will be put to shame, defeated by his immovable hand; they do not inflict any injury at all upon his majesty, but they create destruction for their own heads, and draw upon themselves disgrace and ignominy. For they will be a spectacle to all flesh, according to the voice of the prophet.

VERS. 17. Renew yourselves unto me, you islands. Israel is saved by the Lord with an everlasting salvation. They shall not be confounded, nor shall they be ashamed even forever, says the Lord Almighty.

He again expands the prediction of the calling and conversion of the nations; and he does not stop only at those of the Egyptians, and the commerce of the Ethiopians, and those very Sabeans themselves, but by these words he has indicated that all who are everywhere on the earth will be called, and there will be a manifestation of holy Churches everywhere. For, as it were, the all-powerful Word of God calls out to the Churches to be renewed unto him, which he also deigns to call “islands.” For just as the islands in this sea are always buffeted by the onsets of the waves, but remain unmoved, and sometimes receive ships that are in danger, and by extending a harbor free from those waves, save them from the billows: so the Churches of Christ lie

^A in the very midst of the turmoil and confusion of life, and endure countless temptations, yet they possess an immovable stability in Christ, and they receive those who flee from the useless and vain agitation of the affairs of this world, and who have been driven, as it were, by tempests caused by Satan and sin. Islands, therefore, are to be compared to them. For this is what the divine word intends in these passages. Be renewed, therefore, unto me, it says, O islands. Indeed, the name of the Church signifies the multitude of those who have believed in Christ—ministers and peoples, pastors and teachers, and those who are subject to them—but all these were renewed in Christ, at the times, clearly, when God the Lord shone upon us. For then, then we were also renewed unto a newness of life, of habits, and of customs, and moreover of worship. For we have cast off the aging brought on by sin, and have become a new creature in Christ, instructed by His laws and pedagogy, and led toward a noble and desirable manner of life. And indeed, the most wise Paul writes to those called by faith and says, at one time: ^B "Put off the old man with his troubles and desires, and put on the new, renewed after the image of him who created him." At another time again: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God." And he says that our old man also is crucified, that we may put on the new through conduct and life in Christ. We are renewed, therefore, also in the manner of worship: by some, who follow Jewish rites, the shadows and figures being left behind. For they shall no longer use the sacrifices of oxen and frankincense, but rather spiritual and immaterial [worship], as if it were a matter of most fragrant incense; others, drawn and ensnared from the multitude of the Gentiles, shall migrate toward better things, and toward those which are incomparably superior and preeminent. For they shall no longer have the ancient darkness in their minds, but, the divine and intelligible light being introduced, they shall be holy and true worshippers. ^C For they will cease from worshipping the creature and matter which is mute and devoid of sense; and they will desist from divinations and sorceries, and will prune away and cut off the absurdity of Greek buffoonery and the error of demons, and, to speak once for all, having abandoned what is fouler and withdrawing from detestable practices, they shall be adorned with every virtue and be skilled in the dogmas of truth. This renewal, therefore, concerns us. For it is a new creature in Christ. The God of all things promises, in fact, that He will save with an eternal salvation all those, I say, who are according to the flesh, and who are numbered among the sons of Abraham by promise ("For not all who are of Israel are Israel, but the children of promise are accounted for seed"), so that they may be free from both disgrace and ignominy, and that perpetually. For, having cast off profane sin in Christ and unloosed the yoke of diabolical tyranny, ^D and having cast aside corruption along with them, and having put on incorruption, we shall be in these things forever. For sin shall no longer insult us, nor...

shall Satan again subject us to his former greed; but he shall be undone and perish utterly forever, trampled underfoot in Christ, through whom and with whom be glory and dominion to God and the Father with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

ORATION III

^BVERSES 18, 19. "Thus saith the Lord who made heaven, this God who showed the earth and made it, this one separated it. He did not make it in vain, but to be inhabited. I am the Lord, and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret, nor in a dark place of the earth. I did not say to the seed of Jacob, 'Seek vanity.' I am the Lord, speaking righteousness and announcing truth."

Having foretold the arrival of Christ, the Savior of us all, and having signified the time of salvation, at which all, abandoning the darkness of ancient ignorance, will move on to the light of true knowledge of God, He here attaches a necessary exhortation, explaining and setting before the eyes of both Jews and Greeks ground from which they may know most clearly that He Himself is God and the Creator of the universe, and that there is no other besides Him. Hence He says, "Thus saith the Lord"—and not simply "Lord," for there are many in heaven and on earth who have acquired this name by misuse—but He Himself, who by nature and truly exists as that which He is called, and who, from His glorious deeds, possesses this glory, which is neither counterfeited nor false. For He is, he says, the Lord who made heaven. He performs a great deal for the demonstration of supreme nobility and omnipotent pre-eminence, by making the heaven, and showing the earth, and establishing it. For He Himself distinguished it—that is to say, that which was of old hidden in the abyss, invisible and unformed, He rendered visible and fashioned. For He distinguished it; for he said according to the faith of the Mosaic books: "Let the water be gathered into one congregation, and let the dry land appear." ^C It appeared, therefore, out of the waters, and He separated that which was submerged and altogether unworked and uncultivated, setting aside for it barriers and gates for the abysses, and separating it very well from the waters. And that He brought it forth for this purpose, usefully and necessarily—not so that it might only be seen, but so that it might have inhabitants, specifically those formed from it, just as He evidently declared that heaven has the holy angels, when He said, "He did not make it in vain, but to be inhabited"—it is shown that it was displayed as a vehicle and, as it were, a home for those walking upon it, that is to say, for us. If, then, we were brought forth by Him into existence, how is it not true to say that we have surely been created for this very reason: that we might worship Him and Him alone, and, recognizing Him as the Creator of the universe, might offer up hymns of thanksgiving? "I, therefore, am, and there is no other besides." For if He is the one who made heaven and showed the earth, and did not make it in vain, but for the sake of being inhabited; ^D if Satan is to subject us again, he will perish once and for all, having been destined to be trampled underfoot in Christ, through whom and with whom

^A what other than Him could be understood to exist as God? Or who will equal Him in power and glory? Or who will draw near at all? And why should not every mortal nature be vanquished by this glory, fortitude, and wisdom, so great and surpassing all things? There is no one else. He alone, therefore, and apart from Him, no one at all can by nature and truly be understood as God.

Yet someone may indeed say at some point: "Who has known His aim and purpose?" or "Who can say whether He perhaps also wishes others to be crowned with the glory and calling of God, or Himself alone?" He therefore defends Himself and says: "I have not spoken in secret, nor in a dark place of the earth: I did not say to the seed of Jacob, Seek what is vain." I have set forth laws, He says, concerning these things, not speaking in a hidden place, nor seeking to be veiled, but clearly and openly. For the Lord descended upon Mount Sinai, in the likeness of fire; there was darkness there, and a tempest, and smoke, and the piercing sound of trumpets. For all the people stood by, with ^B Moses as mediator, and laws were delivered by God, not commanding Israel to seek anything vain—that is, an idol or so-called worship—but, on the contrary, commandments warding them off from such things. For it was said to him: "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve, and there shall be no other gods for you besides Me. And you shall not make to yourself an idol, nor the likeness of any thing, whatever is in heaven above, and whatever is on the earth below, and whatever is in the waters under the earth." Therefore it is said to him: "I am the Lord." Similar to this is what He says not once, but very often: "I am God alone, and the Lord of all, speaking righteousness and announcing truth." By righteousness, as I think, He means the law: for the law is the dispenser of righteousness; but by truth, the teaching and institutions of Christ. For there is in the law the form of truth, and the mystery of Christ is hidden in the shadows. For Moses wrote ^C concerning Him. Therefore, in the fact that He speaks righteousness, there is announced together with it also the power of truth, if indeed it is true that the law was a shadow, and in it were the form and appearance of truth.

VERS. 20. "Assemble and come, take counsel together, you who are saved from the nations. They have not known who carry the wood of their carving, and pray as to gods those who do not save."

The apostate dragon led away those who are upon the earth from intimate conjunction and fellowship with God, and having removed them from the true knowledge of God, he scattered and cast them into seduction and the error of many gods; and by precipitating them into the ways of wickedness, he rendered the net of his own perversion inextricable and inextricable for them. But Emmanuel appeared, leading out those who were fettered with might and strength, and He endured death in the flesh for our sake, so that, as the evangelist says, He might gather together into one the children of God who were scattered. For those whom he scattered as a savage and fierce

wolf, Satan, leaping upon them, Christ, the good shepherd, who laid down his soul for the sheep, has gathered together. ^A Therefore, he signifies this very thing saying: "Gather yourselves together," that is, be bound together by one faith and unity of mind. Gather yourselves to God, the ruler of all, through sanctification and justice. Come near, you who are still far off and separated by reason of sin, and because you have been carried away into a most shameful and detestable disposition of mind. We say that those who have wandered are far from God, but they shall also be near through faith in Christ. Indeed, the all-wise Paul addressed those who have run toward this: "But now you who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ." And again ^B concerning the same: "He came and preached peace to us who were far off, and to those who were near." For this reason it was said through the holy prophets to those who were still far off: "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." Come, therefore, he says, and consult together, you who are saved from the nations. But "consult," he says, stands for: "Let the things pertaining to conversion be carried out by you, not unadvisedly nor inconsiderately, but with admirable prudence." For through faith understanding increases: since there is no doubt that if we condemn our error and folly, and turn away from our ancestral vanity, we hasten and run to God, receive the light of true knowledge of God, and subscribe with the calculation of sound judgment—incomparably—to better things. Consult, therefore—that is, be wise—you who are saved from the nations. For he commands those full of foolishness to return to a wise mind, to an admirable and irreproachable understanding, through which one might be able to behold the power and glory of the God who rules all things. ^C But they did not know this, he says, that is, they could be understood as being completely senseless and full of the utmost ignorance. "Who carry their wooden sculpture." And "carry" in this context refers to those who lift up, so that they ascribe to it a glory worthy of God, even though it is wood, and sculpted by them. Then they pray as if to gods, which do not save. They are, therefore, ignorant, and not far from those who are worshiped in terms of insensibility, those who worship their own crafts, and seek help from matter that lacks sense, and attribute the name of God to things fashioned by themselves. Let them hear the lyre of the Psalmist mocking them and crying out: "Let those who make them be like them, and all who trust in them."

If they declare, let them draw near, that they may know ^D together, who made these things heard from the beginning. Then it was announced to you: "I am God, and there is no other besides Me; there is no just and saving one besides Me. Turn to Me, and you shall be saved, you who are at the end of the earth."

Setting terrible and manifold snares for the inhabitants of the earth, and digging the pits of destruction, the wicked demons

and those who impiously plunder ^A and rob the glory of the Divinity, and attach it to their own heads, those most audacious ones, strove to forge and construct the machines of their own error. For they always feigned that they knew the future for a certain time, and that they could announce those things to those wishing to learn. Therefore, oracles throughout regions and cities, and false divinations were everywhere, and omens, and a multitude of impostors, as it is written, speaking from their own heart, and guessers, and necromancers, and those who utter a voice from the earth, and ventriloquists, and those who divine from flour, and to speak once for all, the world was full of lies and impostors. Neither, therefore, were they endowed with any true knowledge of future things, but with vanity, trifles, error, and deceit, and there was nothing else besides. Hence the God of all says: "If they announce, let them draw near, that they may know at the same time." For if they can announce, He says, let them come that they may know at the same time, that all of them, gathered together into one, may declare it openly. For, as I said, the oracles were separate and scattered here and there. And some went in one direction and some in another, and they worshipped the lying, impure demons. If they can truly announce, He says, let them all be gathered together in the same place, and let them know something of the future, "who has made these things known to the hearing from the beginning?" For who of the superstitious, or of those false prophets among them, or of those who sat by the oracles, ever knew and announced that Christ would shine forth in the world at the appropriate time, and that the cloud of error would depart, and the darkness of the falsely-named knowledge would be dispelled, and that it would shine forth to the inhabitants of the earth as an intelligible Day-star, as brilliance and day, as the Sun of Righteousness, Christ? But not even, He says, did those demons who pretended to possess knowledge of future things announce these things from the beginning, nor did the ministers of their vanity. For none of the poets or rhetoricians among the Greeks mentioned such illustrious things. Who then has made these things known to be heard from ^B the beginning? Then it was also announced to you, that is, from the beginning. And they were announced by no other, but rather by Me, who know all things, and have predicted them before they came to pass. For I spoke those things to you through Moses and the holy prophets, who transported my words to you as ambassadors. "Therefore," He says, "I am God, and there is no other besides Me. And I am just and a Savior." For the wicked demons are unjust, and pernicious, and bloodthirsty, thrusting the inhabitants of the earth into destruction. The God of all is just and a Savior, succouring the oppressed, loosening those snatched away from bonds, and those bound by the chains of sins, enlightening the darkened, strengthening the weak, raising up what lies low, and turning back what is wandering. Hence He says: "Turn to Me, and you shall be saved, you who are at the ends of the earth." From these words one may very well clearly perceive the magnitude of the grace through Christ, passing through to all who are on the earth. For salvation and grace were contracted, passing through Moses to one nation, that of Israel: but grace spread through Christ as though to the ends

of the earth. For the entire earth has been caught by faith in Him for salvation and life.

^A *Vers. 23, 24.* I am God, and there is no other. By myself I swear, if justice shall not go forth from my mouth, my words shall not be turned back: for to me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear by God, saying: Justice and glory shall come to Him.

Having taken away the falsely-named worship, it was necessary for the truth to come into the midst, and for the light, as if the darkness had been driven away, to shine forth from every side. Hence, most deservedly, after this useful and fruitful exhortation, He declares His own glory. For, "I am God," He says, "and there is no other." Then He signifies the power of those things which are expected to come through Christ, confirming by an oath that the justice spoken through Him—that is, which is in Christ, given freely by faith to all those living upon the earth—and His words, namely, the evangelical and salvific preaching, will shine forth in all places and at all times. For I think that this, "They shall not be turned back," indicates this: for when God promises, and speaks that something will be completely and utterly, who is able to hinder it? Therefore He swears by Himself. For men swear by one greater, and an oath is to them the end of all contradiction for the confirmation of a matter. But God, who is above all things ^B and excels the rest in incomparable excellence, swears by Himself. For He could not swear by another, since He Himself, as I have said, is the highest of all, and has been raised to the highest pinnacle in both nature and glory. What, therefore, is this that has been announced? The salvation and conversion of all nations everywhere. "For to Me," He says, "every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear by God." And that the knee shall bow to God, and His name be used by all in an oath—what else could this be understood to mean, but the conversion and recognition of all, and the revelation of their union with Him? For those who return to God through conversion no longer bow the knee to unclean spirits, nor do they carry them about with their tongues as gods (for they do not swear by anything as if it were God), but, recognizing one who is by nature and truly God, they submit their necks to His yoke, and they bow the knee, and if they might wish to swear legitimately, they make mention of Him and Him alone, saying that "All justice and all glory shall come to Him," that is, it befits Him and Him alone. For it is necessary that all the most excellent of works, and everything that is uttered in words unto the glory of God, should be attributed by us to Him alone. ^C

*Vers. 25, 26.* All who separate themselves from the Lord shall be put to shame: they shall be justified, and in God shall all the seed of the sons of Israel be glorified.

The statement is true on both counts, and the divine word cannot lie. For it will surely follow upon those

who wish to withdraw from union and fellowship with God—clearly a spiritual one—that they must be put to shame; but for those who love Him with a pure heart, it will come to pass that they shall be glorified in Him and shine forth in righteousness. These, however, would not entirely be the Israel according to the flesh, but rather the seed of the sons of Israel. ^A And to make the thought of what is proposed clearer and plainer, we say this: For the only-begotten Word of God shone upon the inhabitants of the earth, in a form like ours—that is, having become flesh, according to the Scriptures—and He came preaching remission to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, sending away the broken in remission, and healing those who are broken in heart, and proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord. And although the Jews especially ought to have accepted faith in Him, since they had obtained the law as a pedagogue and the holy prophets as mystagogues, they did not do this, but rather recoiled from Him as if from something foreign, and have become filled with shame, having an indelible sin which brands them with ignominy and infamy. It is true, therefore, that "All who separate themselves from the Lord shall be put to shame." For they heard Him say: "Amen, amen, I say to you: Unless you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins." But those who knew His advent were justified through faith, and gained a great and everlasting glory, being revealed as partakers of the Holy Spirit, ^B and enriched with the brilliant dignity of adoption as sons. For He gave them the power to become children of God, and in addition to this they have acquired a hope worthy and not subject to calumny; for they shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. ^C These might be understood to be the "seed of the sons of Israel." And we say that the holy apostles and evangelists are called "sons of Israel" in these words, for they were of the Jews according to the flesh; and furthermore [we call] "sons of them" those who were called through them to the knowledge of Christ. The divine Paul addressed those who believed through him: "For if you have ten thousand pedagogues in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel." We also find on many occasions other of the holy apostles calling "little children" those who have been caught by them for the salvation which is in Christ.

Chapter 46. Verse 1. Bel has fallen, Dagon is crushed, their carved images have become like beasts and cattle.

^D The prophecies which occur through the holy prophets concerning Christ, the Savior of us all, are always followed by necessary predictions of the things accomplished by Him, or of those things rightly administered in the world. But the most distinguished achievement of all was the removal from the midst of Satan and the unholy and man-slaying multitude of demons. When, therefore, He had shone upon the world, the vast and execrable darkness of sin—which Satan had instilled into the minds of all so that they might not behold the light of truth—was dissipated. Furthermore, the tyranny of the demons and the mockeries of idolatry have ceased. Therefore, of necessity, as I said, this discourse follows for us on these matters

^A and says that Bel has fallen. Now this was the idol especially of the Babylonians, though it was honored in other cities as well. They say that Bel is the one who among the godless Greeks is mythologized as Saturn, whom they also hold to be cruel, bloodthirsty, and a lover of human slaughter. It is recorded in Greek histories, in fact, that one day some people slaughtered three hundred strangers to him, holding an abominable festival, hateful to God and men. And so the God of all, being indignant at such dire impieties, says through one of the holy prophets to those accustomed to doing such things: "Sacrifice men, for calves have ceased." For he says that the unclean demons had arrived at such a point of inhumanity and savagery that they thirsted insatiably for human blood and rejoiced in the destruction of those who were caught. For perhaps a bleating calf on the altar, or incense and sheep, did not suit them; rather, they longed more for the slaughter of men. "Bel has fallen, therefore," he says—that is, he has been brought down—"and the power of the demon has fallen," so that henceforth, having cast off the yoke of their perversity, those who were once bound by his wickedness might run toward God with a free and unimpeded will.

^B "Dagon also is broken." This was a deity of those dwelling along the seacoast, which is adjacent to Judea—I mean the Ascalonites and the Gazaeans, whom the divine Scripture frequently names the Philistines, or "foreigners." And the prophet says very skillfully, "is broken," as if from the event that befell him in time past; and now the prophet continues the discourse concerning him. For we have learned in the Books of Kings ^C that the foreigners once took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon; then, the worshippers of the demon having entered, they saw the idol fallen before the ark and having suffered such a breaking as to lose its hands, feet, and head. Most gracefully, therefore, as if from the event that truly happened in that time, he says, "is broken." We say, however, that the prophetic discourse indicates to us the abolition of idolatry, having named Bel and Dagon as if from the part. For it was not possible to make mention of all the idols on earth, but as for a part, he designates the whole again.

"Lift them up, bound as a burden for the weary, and for the hungry, one who is faint, and not strong at the same time; they will not be able to be saved from war, but they themselves have been taken captive and put to shame."

^D This discourse demonstrates again to us in these words the uselessness and vanity of things fashioned by hands, and, as if from the games performed for them, it reveals the worship of those who are led astray to be full of shame. For they used to perform for the demons cold and sometimes ridiculous festivals; then, bringing the images out from the shrines and placing them upon the priests, some would go around in the squares, staggering and as if drunk, as if carrying a very heavy burden, and wherever that which they wished to carry would weigh them down, there they would be pressed and carry the burden

But the unwise and herd-like populace, and weak-minded women, would exalt the inanimate material with praises, even though they saw some semblance of a man or a woman, and they truly thought that the one being carried by those who dedicated it was of an intolerable weight. ^A The divine discourse, therefore, here mocks the great stupidity of the Greeks, and says regarding the images that were in the shrines, which they heedlessly wished to adore: "You carry them bound up as a burden to the weary, hungry, and, in short, powerless." For these things, as I said, certain priests would feign as they carried around their handmade objects. But by what reasoning the weakness of those things that were being adored may be discerned, it is possible to see from many other things. For wood or stone or some other matter is the composition of idols of this kind. ^B But since it was necessary to demonstrate this from the most pertinent matters, he brings them into the remembrance of their future captivity—by the Babylonians, I mean, which they actually suffered—when, having abandoned the fulfillment of the law and the worship of the one and natural God, they turned to all the most hostile things and bowed down to the works of their own hands, and, as it is written, they offered sacrifice even to the host of heaven. Whence, therefore, will the weakness of the feigned gods be apparent? They will not be able, he says, to escape from war, but they themselves were led away captive. For when a city or region is captured, if there are any gods of gold and silver among them, they are seized before all other things by the destroyers, whereas it would behoove them, if indeed they were gods, to come to the aid of their own authors and to declare themselves superior to the hand of the enemy. What profit, therefore, is an idol, because they carved it, according to the word of the prophet, and formed it as a molten image with a deceptive appearance, if it can neither help itself nor others? For how could something of this kind come from wood and stone?

"Hear me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of Israel, who are carried from the womb and instructed from infancy even unto old age. I am, until you grow old. I am. I will sustain you. I have made, and I will be lenient; I will take up and I will save you."

^D The discourse is again woven most artfully and proceeds in an orderly and composed fashion. For after he had made mention of war, in which it happened that an infinite multitude of men and women perished, and the region of the Jews was reduced to a great scarcity of men, for this reason he speaks as though to one house, as though to a remnant, and as a relic of barbaric cruelty: "Hear me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of Israel." This discourse would have brought no small utility to the hearers, if indeed they had been wise and weighed what was in their interest. For sad and intolerable things, when they are announced beforehand, one may easily evade, avoiding the causes of the incursion; but when they have arrived and are, as it were, leaping upon one, how could one repel them? He calls them therefore "remnant," all but shouting that they will be consumed by war and will be booty for the bar-

- ^A barous cruelty, if they do not desist from such foul pursuits. That the minds of the Jews were indocile, and that the meditation of the Law was of no use to them, he shows, saying: "Who have been carried from the womb, and instructed from infancy even to old age." For from childhood to their old age, they were exercised in the sacred and divine Scriptures, yet they derived no benefit, and as if they had been deemed worthy of no admonition at all, they fell away into apostasy from God. But yet, he says, even if a long time has been spent by you in fruitless exercises, and I see you to be most inept at learning, I shall not desist from my innate placability; but I manifest myself to you thus and say: "I am," that is, I live and subsist, not as one having a beginning of generation or foreseeing an end, but as the same always, and similar to myself, and again until you grow old, I shall be the same. For old age does not befall me as it does you, but I am living and all-powerful. And I brought about the calamities that befall you from war, calling those who have ignominiously defiled my glory to punishment by a holy and righteous judgment. Nevertheless, I will release, that is, I will remit, and, having forgotten all injuries, I will restore you who have labored. I will take up and save you. For I who gave you into the hands of enemies will again receive you into favor and will loose you from the bonds of captivity. And so, as with a manifold medicine, he heals the hearts of those who have acted wantonly against Him, and who out of excessive ignorance have slipped into things which were not permissible, partly by threats and partly by good promises. For his aim and purpose is to save what was lost, and to snatch from the hands of the devil what has wandered. ^B

Vers. 5-7. "To whom have you compared me? Contrive, you who have wandered, who contribute gold from the purse, and weigh silver in a balance; they place it on a pair of scales, and having hired a goldsmith, they have made hand-made things, and having bowed down, they worshiped it. They carry it upon their shoulders, and they go. But if they place it in a spot, it remains, it will not be moved; and whoever shall cry out to it, it will not hear, it will not save him from evils."

He reproves those who worship idols as being insolent and of narrow mind, and for transgressing against the divine and supreme nature itself. ^C For as much as lies in them, they drag down and cast into inanimate matter the transcendency of His glory—to which it does not pertain—while they transfer it to their own handiwork and figments, and then entangle their own wretched heads in the ultimate penalties. "To whom, therefore," he says, "have you compared me, who am preeminent in nature over all things, and raised on high by incomparable excellence, and superior to all mortals, the creator of all things, king and lord at the same time?" And it is likely indeed that God wishes to signify something else when he says to those who have wandered: "To whom have you compared me? Look and contrive, you who have wandered." For he says: "Contributing gold and silver, then, having hired a goldsmith, they fashion the form of a man, or a woman, or, if I may say so, of a wild beast, or a beast of burden, and give the name"

^A of God immediately to the statue fashioned by them. Consider then, he says, to what have you likened me? For it is either to a man or a woman, or even to wild beasts or irrational animals. Furthermore, how is this thing not beyond all impiety? Devise something by way of a defense; absolve yourselves of the crime. But you will not find a supporting argument for this. For since you bring down the nature that surpasses all things to the level of beasts and cattle, what words will you use that could suffice to ward off the force of the charges? That the crafting of idols is nothing other than vanity and meanness of thought, he strives to show; hence he speaks quite precisely and incisively. For they gather, he says, silver and gold from the purse, and place it on a scale and in an equal balance, with each perhaps contributing, so that in all fairness, he who contributes more might be more favored and inclined toward by the one who is being fashioned. ^B One might say, I suppose, that if they were in need of funds, they would not have a God at all, and if the world did not abound in craftsmen, there would be no one at all to be worshipped by them. But they reach such a depth of ignorance and unintelligent reasoning that, while they exist before their gods and honor those who were born after them—and whom they themselves make, while it were fitting that they (the gods) rather be seen as their makers—and while they are the masters of the material, they take it for a necessary use and seek salvation from it. They carry a burden, having lifted the gods onto their shoulders, though they see them to be motionless and such that they are led away wherever anyone might please, and they offer prayers to them. Therefore, when you see them accepting your prayers, then expect there to be help. But if you see that they are devoid of both sense and motion, what benefit, pray, do you expect from them? ^C You are suffering from a similar disease, and you perceive nothing, being extremely stupid and senseless.

VERS. 8-11. Mementote horum, et ingemiscite; pœnitentiam agite qui errastis, redite ad cor. Et mementote priorum a sæculo, quoniam ego sum Deus, et non est præter me: annuntians prius ultima, antequam ipsa fiant, et completa sint. Et dixi: Omne meum consilium stabit, et omnia quæcunque cogitavi faciam, vocans ab oriente volucrem, et de terra remota. De quibus cogitavi locutus sum, adduxi, creavi, et feci. Duxi eum, et faustum effeci iter ejus.

Seeing them held fast in error, darkness, and grievous ignorance, God again takes pity on them and commands them to look back, as it were, and apply the eye of the mind diligently to the facts, so that they may be transferred from evil to better things, and keeping in everlasting remembrance the prayers addressed to them, they may repent: not doing this merely with the tongue, simply and lightly, but from the heart itself and from the soul. For such a manner of repentance is most worthy of praise and true. Therefore, he bids them perceive from the things he has already foretold that the making of idols is a ridiculous thing. But he persuades them to understand that he himself is the God of all, from the dignities most worthy of God that are by nature inherent in him. For, he says, I am God, and I possess the knowledge of all,

and whatever happens before it comes to pass, I signify it, and I bring what has been promised to its end. And I affirm in regard to this, that everything that I have planned has been completed, and there is nothing at all of those things that seem good to me that would remain unaccomplished. This is also a matter of great weight for the demonstration of strength that is insurmountable and worthy of God. For men, although they may have obtained the highest honors and hold supreme powers, propose to themselves some goal and plan to achieve something, yet it does not always and in every way go according to their wishes with the things they have devised. For very many things happen in between, and they have an influence that is difficult to resist. But God, the Lord of all, if he should wish to do anything, what could there be that would stand against him and oppose him? ^A For what the holy God wills, who shall scatter? And his high hand, who shall turn back? Therefore, for the demonstration of the fact that he is God by nature and truly, it might rightly be said by him: My every counsel shall stand, and all things whatsoever I have planned, I will do. ^B Then, in addition to this, he says: Calling a bird from the east, and from a land far away, concerning the things I have planned; and with this will follow, I am. Moreover, we say that the bird called from the east and from a land far away is the Babylonian, who, after burning up the entire land of the Jews, captured Jerusalem and shook the temple in it; then, having removed many from among both the common and the illustrious people, he carried them away from the land that had reared them, and deposited them in the land and country of the Persians, having cast upon them the yoke of captivity, harshly and intolerably. ^C And this will be clear to you from the things which God said to the blessed prophet Ezekiel. It is as follows: And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, tell a story, and speak a parable to the house of Israel, and you shall say: Thus says the Lord Adonai: The great eagle, long of wing, full of claws, which had the will to enter into Lebanon, and took the choice parts of the cedar, plucked the tops of its tenderness, and brought them into the land of Canaan, and placed them in a walled city; and took of the seed of the land, and transplanted it into a sown field, in much water, and set it to be gazed upon. And it became a weak vine, and small in size, so that its shoots appeared in it, and its roots were beneath its own earth. ^D And it became a vine, and made shoots, and extended its branches. These things, then, God said to the blessed prophet Ezekiel. But because the discourse was difficult to grasp, and the power of the thoughts was not very clear to the listeners, he himself clarifies it again, saying: And I said to the house of Israel that provokes me: Do you not know what these things are that I have said? When the king of Babylon comes to Jerusalem, and will take its king, and its princes, and will lead them to him to Babylon. And he will take of the seed of the kingdom, and will make a covenant with him, and will bring him under a curse, and will take the princes of the land, so that the kingdom may be weak, and never rise up, so that he may keep the covenant, and strengthen it. For as we read in the book of Chronicles: After the holy city had been captured, Sedecia

^A a captive, and some of the prominent men bound with him, were carried off to the land of the Chaldeans by the Babylonian; and these are the elect trees of the cedar. "I, therefore," he says, "am he who calls a bird from the east." Concerning those about whom I have planned, I have spoken and brought them, and I have not lied. I have proclaimed beforehand that they would come at their appropriate times, but what was spoken has been brought to pass. "I have created," that is, I have prepared evils, clearly those that cause suffering, and the calamities of war, for those who have defiled my glory and have turned aside to inanimate idols. ^B And I acted; I led him, and I prosperous his way. For it was not the work of his hand to conquer Israel, if indeed God was his helper. But rather, I, who preserve and set over affairs, made his path prosperous so that he might exact punishment from those who made little of piety toward him, or rather who had turned away entirely, to such an extent that they attributed the honor and glory fitting for him and him alone, to wood and stone.

VERS. 12. 13. Hear me, you who have lost heart, you who are far from justice. I have brought near my justice, and the salvation that comes from me I will not delay. I have given salvation in Sion to Israel for a glory.

Behold, he again promises them salvation, and does not allow them to lose heart, lest, ^C overcome and cast down by boundless sadness, they should be far from the hope that they might be saved, should they choose to repent. For they were heartless, wandering astray, and the saying concerning them was true. For with what kind of mind were those affected, who worship what they themselves create, and by offering veneration to wood and stones, seek salvation from them? Yet even so, God bears with them, and pities those who have been deceived, and has compassion on those who have fallen, and by good promises leads them back to understanding, and bids them wake up, and tells those who are far away and removed from the lot of justice—that is, from God—to come to him. It seems, moreover, that with the promise of a particular salvation, he is at the same time weaving in a demonstration of that which is universal and most general. For he had saved from the land of the Chaldeans those who had been carried off into it in the rank of captives, and this, I think, it will be allowed to call a particular ^D aid; but the most general one was that through Christ, which was proclaimed to those of old, not long before it was to be exhibited. For, "I have brought near," he says, "my justice; and the salvation that comes from me, I will not delay." We say this is similar to: "For yet a little while, and he who is to come will come and will not delay." And salvation is given in Sion to Israel for a glory. By these words he names as Sion that which falls under the understanding, that is, the Church of Christ, in which we all who count ourselves as the intelligible Israel receive his salvation in glory. For just as the Jew is not he who is so only by the flesh, but if anyone is considered worthy of circumcision in the Spirit: so also Israel is not [merely…]

those who are born from the blood of Israel, but truly as many as have possessed a mind that sees God, who have been placed as children, and according to the promise of Abraham, we say that these are the truer Israel.

CHAPTER XLVII. VERS. 1-3.

Having said that "I have given salvation to Israel for glory," and having promised to them redemption from captivity, he mentions and narrates clearly thereafter in what manner and how she was plundered, and he describes the state of the captives as if on a tablet. For just as he had pre-announced to the land of the Jews the upheaval from the war of the Babylonians, detailing each thing minutely and saying: "Because the daughters of Zion were lifted up, and walked with an outstretched neck, and with winks of the eyes, and with the moving of their feet, at once dragging their tunics and at the same time sporting with their feet, God will also humble the rulers of the daughters of Zion; ^C and the Lord shall uncover their shape in that day, and the Lord shall take away the glory of their apparel, and their ornaments, and their braided hair, and their baubles," and what follows these; then he adds to these: "And it shall be instead of a sweet smell, a stench; and instead of a girdle, thou shalt be girded with a rope; and instead of the golden ornament of thy head, thou shalt have baldness because of thy works; and instead of the mid-purple tunic, thou shalt gird thyself with sackcloth"—so he points out now also what the daughters of the Babylonians, that is, the co-habitants, are about to suffer, with the Persians and Medes dragging them around, saying: "Descend, sit upon the ground, O virgin daughter of Babylon." "Sit on the ground" signifies, become humble, you who have labored under the very grave disease of pride. Descend, therefore, from the mountain—from an elated mind to humility, from glory to infamy, from delights to misery, from boundless wealth to extreme poverty, from liberty into servitude, and, to speak once for all, from all the most pleasant things to the worse and most miserable. "Sit in the darkness," namely, that which arises from the incurable calamity. For sharp grief, poured into the soul, subjugates the mind, as does an onslaught of unexpected labors, and fear falling upon one like a burden. That the time of her ancient prosperity has passed, he shows by saying: "Thou shalt no longer be added to be called soft and delicate." For it is not unlike that the women of the Chaldeans lived splendidly, and were studious of elegance, and did not hold the art of artfully painting themselves in low esteem. Nay, they even report that they—as those knowledgeable in the drawing up of battle lines—[scintillated in gold and stones].

and were not impatient to be distinguished by a display that invites admiration, even in the very thick of battles. You shall no longer, He says, be called delicate, but you shall undergo, whether you will or not, the misery of servitude. You shall grind flour; you shall be seen naked of the coverings for your head, with your hair—which formerly had been variously braided—now being carelessly disheveled on every side. ^B Uncover your gray hairs; and this may be a clear sign that those who have captured you have descended to such cruelty that they will not spare even an old woman. Uncover your shins; cross the rivers. Your ignominy shall be uncovered, and your disgraces shall be made manifest. For as for those who have once been taken into captivity and led away from their homeland into the land of the victors, it is necessary to cross the intervening rivers on foot, keeping their legs bare, of course, and no longer bearing before their eyes that modesty which befits women, but by necessity even exposing the secret parts of the body to many. One may also speak in another way of her ignominy and disgraces being about to appear, since she who has now been taken, and is about to be in a sad state, had formerly lived softly and delicately, and had flourished in every kind of happiness. He further says: "I will take justice of you," that is, I will take of you that which you deserved to suffer. And what that may be, He has pre-signified through another of the holy prophets, saying: "As he has done, so will I do to her." And again: "As you have done, so shall it be to you; your recompense shall be returned to you upon your own head." It has been said elsewhere, too, concerning everyone the habit of whose life is to sin: "Woe to the wicked; evil things shall befall him according to his works."

VERS. 4. *No longer will I deliver you to men, says He who has delivered you, the Lord Sabaoth; the Holy One of Israel is His name.*

Another discourse is inserted here, and this, as it were, to Israel; and God promises that they shall never again fall under the hand of their enemies. For He says that He had mercy on those who had paid penalties worthy of, and as it were equal to, their sins, and who had even been punished beyond what was just. ^C For He said somewhere concerning him: "O priests, speak to the heart of Jerusalem; comfort her, because her humiliation is fulfilled; her sin is pardoned, because she has received from the hand of the Lord double for her sins." Therefore, He says, He who has delivered you, the Lord Sabaoth, to whom also the name is the Holy One of Israel, has said that henceforth you shall not be delivered to evil and unmerciful men—that is, to those who had conquered because God was angry, and had left Israel void of mercy and love, having seen them turned to apostasy and moving with unbridled impulse to do things that are condemned by His divine laws.

*Sit, pricked with sorrow; enter into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; you shall no longer be called the Strength of a kingdom. I was angered against my people; you have defiled my inheritance. I gave them into your hands, but you did not show them mercy; you have made the yoke of the elder excessively heavy, and you said: I shall be a princess forever.*

^A You did not consider these things in your heart, nor did you remember your final end.

He shows that He always uses a just measure, inflicting upon some punishments that correspond equally to their transgressions. For the crimes of the Babylonians were very many, and Scripture writes of them as having great cruelty and inhumanity; it also shows them to be arrogant and foolishly confident in their own strength, so much so that they believed that a change for the worse would in no way ever happen to them. ^B Therefore, He says, when you undergo captivity, then you shall sit pierced with remorse. To be "pierced with remorse," He says, is equivalent to "having understood," albeit too late, and especially concerning yourself; accept then this dizziness. For He says that incurable evils pour, as it were, a sort of darkness over the mind, and like dust they fall into the soul. Therefore, He says, you shall no longer be called the Strength of the kingdom. For Babylon was so named, as it possessed a multitude greater than could be counted, and a most belligerent force, and one sufficient for resistance, if indeed there were any to oppose them and to lead out armies against those who held authority among them.

Then, He explains the reason why the things brought from divine wrath were inflicted upon the Babylonians, saying: "I was provoked against my people, you have defiled my inheritance. I gave them into your hands, but you did not show them mercy." He seems to say something similar through the voice of Zechariah, saying: "I am jealous for Jerusalem and Zion with a great jealousy, and with great wrath I am angry at the nations that conspire against them, for I was angry only a little, but they conspired for evil." ^C For God sometimes chastens out of love, and those who have become unheeding of admonition, and who have raised a proud neck against Him, He shifts through labors to a more tractable state, either by bringing the hand of enemies upon them, or by inflicting other griefs upon them. For just as fire or iron often heals the most difficult wounds, as they cannot endure the balance of salves, in the same way, I believe, our God, who is a lover of virtue, when He sees a soul rushing with unbridled impulse toward the rocks, and tenaciously clinging to the ways of worthlessness, heals it with sharp pains.

But there are some who, having been invited into the order of those who exact punishment, ^D flare up with grievous and uncontrolled anger, and go beyond measure and fairness, and intolerably burden those who are subject to them. It is then a very grave thing, and God is provoked against those who are accustomed to doing this. We must, therefore, refrain from such evil; and even if some pay penalties by God's chastening, let us gaze toward mercy and placability, knowing well that the Chastener is greatly incensed if the punishments are inflicted by us immoderately. Therefore, He says, you did not have mercy on the aged, and although you took them not by your own strength, but by my granting, you became harsh and savage in spirit; and, what is still more grievous, you have proceeded to such arrogance as to think and say that you would possess an empire that would not end, and power that would not...

^A be shaken. But then, he says, these things happening to you, you did not think it worth your while to keep in mind, nor did you receive into your memory, the things that were at the end. And what were these? The captivity, clearly, and the misery brought upon her by God.

VERS. 8-10. *But now hear these things, O delicate one, who sittest, who art confident, saying in thy heart: I am, and there is none other; I shall not sit as a widow, nor shall I know bereavement. But now these two things shall come upon thee suddenly in one day: widowhood and childlessness shall come suddenly upon thee, in thy sorcery, in the strength of thy enchantments exceedingly, in the hope of thy wickedness. For thou hast said: I am, and there is none other. Know that the cleverness and the fornication of these shall be to thee for disgrace and confusion.*

He discourses as if with some wicked and wanton woman, who lives delicately and loosely, and is intent upon elegance. But we say this: there were very many among the Chaldeans who were magi, whom they also called wise men, by whose counsels and false prophecies the Babylonians did everything. For, pretending to have an exact knowledge of future events, they would prophesy nothing sad to the rulers of the land, but rather those things by which they saw their hearers would be pleased. One must consider, therefore, that when Cyrus was threatening them with war and was already bringing forward a hostile force, these men ^B were surely always present among them, speaking falsely and saying that they would immediately and very easily prevail over him, and would overcome their enemies, and would rule over them as they lay defeated. So much for them. But now hear, O delicate one [that is, learn the truth from me, O delicate one]. By these words he rebukes and attacks the way of life of the Babylonians, as being too loose and lax. For they were effeminate, anointed with the most fragrant ointments, using varied attire, and valuing the elegance of adornment very highly, so that the art of beautifying was held in high esteem among them, and there was a contest for beauty. She is called "delicate" for this reason. He also calls her "sitting," meaning "reigning" over those who were near, or rather, even over nations far away. She was also "confident," that is, relying on an infinite multitude of warriors, so as even to say: "I am, and there is none other." For she thought that there would be absolutely no other compared with her. But she was frustrated in her hope, and went astray from the truth. For Cyrus was roused, and brought the Persians and Medes ^C against them. And she scarcely realized, through this experience, that there was another stronger than she—the territory and land of the Persians and Medes, clearly—by whom she was made a widow and childless, even though she had never expected to suffer this at any time in the past. For she was widowed, being deprived of her king, who was delivered to death there; and she became childless, being bereft of the multitude of her warriors, consumed by the swords of those laying her waste. Therefore, widowhood and childlessness came upon her. "These things," he says, "shall come upon thee in thy sorcery, and in the great strength of thy enchanters, in the hope of thy wickedness." Since, he says, you had an evil hope in your sorceries and enchantments, therefore you have become both childless and a widow. For, lifting up your eyebrow in pride, and in your soul ^D

with [incantations] and charms, on account of this you have become both childless and a widow; for lifting high your eyebrow, and possessing a mind full of arrogance, you assumed ^A yourself to be better and more valiant than all other regions. For you said that there is no other. Know then that the wisdom of these, and your fornication, shall be to you a disgrace. I have already said that they called the magicians, that is, the prudent ones, wise. Know then, O Babylon, says He, that the wisdom of the magicians, or rather of the false prophets, and of the enchanters, and your fornication in addition to these, shall be a disgrace to you. For you have fallen under the hand of the enemies, because you trusted in these things, from which it is impossible to derive any benefit, except that you will only be put to shame for having placed a vain hope in them. Does He speak here of the fornication of the Babylonians? It is not, I suppose, altogether of the bodily kind, but rather of that wanton and unbridled departure from ^B God. For the land was full of graven images and, as with full sails, was carried away by the seductions of demons.

VERS. 11. *And you said in your heart: I am, and there is none other; and destruction shall come upon you, and you shall not know [it]: a pit, and you shall fall into it. And misery shall come upon you, and you shall not be able to be cleansed; and destruction shall come upon you suddenly, and you shall not know it.*

He accuses it again of arrogance, and because it had completely turned its own heart away from being willing to know that among men nothing is firm, and that it depends on the divine will whether those who are on the earth exist or not; but since they could not endure to know this, they attributed to their own heads the ability to accomplish everything, and whatever they were able to perform for their own prosperity, such people admired, and having placed as it were a cane ^C of reed beneath themselves, they would be broken, for they fall unexpectedly, and they mourn over a destruction beyond their expectation. Since, therefore, you said in your heart: "I am, and there is none other," the bitter end of such terrible arrogance shall overtake you. "Destruction shall come upon you, and you shall not know it," that is, your divination regarding this shall be of no use to you. For you shall suffer things you did not know, and a bitter and unexpected calamity shall happen to you. "A pit shall come, and you shall fall into it"; it is similar as if He were saying, a terrible and inescapable evil. For to those once cast down into a pit, if it happens to be deep, it is sometimes impossible to escape. And "misery shall come upon you, and you shall not be able to be cleansed; and destruction shall come upon you, and you shall not know it." For the magicians could not know what was to come at all; but as they were prophesying to find favor and speaking from their own heart, according to what is written, they saw that the end of what had been expected ^D had happened, contrary to their predictions.

VERS. 12-15. *Stand now in your incantations, and in your many sorceries, which you learned from your youth, if you might be helped. You have labored in your counsels: let the astrologers of heaven stand and save you, they who contemplate the stars, let them declare to you what is about to come upon you. Behold, all shall be burned up like stubble in the fire, and they shall not deliver their soul from the flame; because you have coals of fire, sit upon them: these shall be your help, you have labored in your exchange from your youth; humanity has wandered within itself, but to you there shall be no salvation.*

^A He mocks and, as it were, ironically derides the vain superstition of the magi, and demonstrates that such a way of life is altogether useless. For, he says, when your warriors are gathered, and Cyrus is opposed to you, and the hostile phalanx prevails against your arrows, your shields will be weak, and the skill of archery will be of no avail when the riders of horses fall along with the infantry and their mounts. "Stand in your incantations," he says, "and in your many sorceries, which you learned from your youth, if you can be helped. Rouse," he says, "the magi against those who besiege you, those skilled in the ordering of battle, try your cold incantations; but you will not be able," he says. "You have labored in your counsels": he says "you have labored" in place of "you were weak and debilitated in your sorcerous counsels." For the counsels of the magi, which seem to be wisdom, have helped you not at all. But if you think that my word has strayed from the truth, let those who observe the heavens stand and save you: let those who watch the stars announce to you what is to come upon you. ^B This is another order of triflers, besides, I say, the magi and the enchanters. For certain people among them pretended to know the risings and settings of the stars and to measure the motion of each, where they are, and whence they come: and they claimed that through this false discipline they attained the knowledge of future things. Therefore, if they are not mere babblers, and if the stars that occupy the firmament act for them in the order of prophets, let them speak the things that are to happen. But they would not be able to say, he says, for they shall be to others like stubble, the work and fuel of fire, and no one of them shall escape. Then, in a way mocking the Babylonian as one who is deluded, he adds and says: "You have coals of fire," that is, hot and burning men, of whom the discourse treats, "when you sit upon them." And this sitting might signify rest. These will be your help; for if you should choose, he says, to acquiesce in the lying deceits of the magi and the empty trifling of others, you will find much help from there. Then again he addresses her: "You have labored in your exchange from your youth." Again, "you have labored" must be understood as "you were weakened." For having departed from God and migrated toward departure through bowing down to the deceits of demons, and this from your youth, you have become weak and vulnerable. For you were not enriched by the protection of Him who alone knows how to save, and who is the Lord of hosts. He adds to these that "Humanity has wandered within itself, but to you there shall be no salvation"; it is similar to saying: many men have wandered in a human way, offending God with a tolerable departure, either by descending toward carnal things or by laboring under some other kind of malady. But you have progressed to such a degree of impiety that no place is left for your salvation. For always, grave transgressions are followed by an equal penalty. ^{C D} CAP. XLVIII. VERS. 1-3. Hear these things, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who have come forth from Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord God of Israel, remembering, not with truth, nor with

righteousness, and holding fast to the name of the holy city, and relying on the God of Israel: The Lord of Sabaoth is his name. Former things I have already announced, and they have come forth from my mouth, and it was heard. Suddenly I have acted, and it has come to pass.

Having finished his discourse regarding the Babylonians, he shifts the power of his warning again toward those of the blood of Israel, seeing that they had turned away entirely, and, as with slackened reins, had been borne away into apostasy. For after the death of Hezekiah, who had managed the throne of the kingdom, Manasseh, who was born of him, became a most impious man, and was carried away in every way by the deceits of demons. He proceeded to such a depth of wickedness, baseness, and impious deeds that he filled the holy city with altars and statues, and in the divine temple itself, ^B he set up an abomination—that is, an image made to take the place of God. Consequently, the God of all indicted Jerusalem in these matters, saying thus: "What has the beloved one done in my house, committing abomination? Shall prayers and the flesh of holy things take away your iniquity from you, or shall you escape by these things?" And again elsewhere: "According to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah, and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you set up altars to sacrifice to Baal. Why do you speak to me? All of you have dealt unjustly, and all of you have acted impiously against me, says the Lord." And when Jeremiah was falling down and raising up prayers for the sake of Israel, God said: "And you, do not pray for this people, ^C and do not ask that I should show them mercy, and do not approach me for them in supplication or prayer, for I will not listen. Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? Their sons gather wood, and their fathers kindle fire, and their wives knead dough to make cakes for the host of heaven; and they have poured out drink offerings to strange gods, that they might provoke me to anger." For as I said before, Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, worshipped the host of heaven, and he wished to count as worthy of every word [of influence] sorcerers, false prophets, enchanters, and augurs, and he sacrificed to idols even one of his own children. Therefore, God of all wished to bring back to the light of truth Israel, who had slipped into such baseness and impiety, by frequent warnings. ^D For this reason, he granted them the word of consolation very often, so that, having opened the eye of their own understanding and having delivered it from demoniacal mist, they might at least, even if late and with difficulty, be able to see who is the Creator and Lord of the universe. Hence he says: "Hear these things, O house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and who have come forth from Judah." Very aptly does he make mention of the nobility of their fathers—in their conduct, I mean, and their way of life—for the shaming of those who have lapsed. For they were, indeed they were, of them as far as the flesh was concerned; but they were alien and stood far from their integrity, endowed with other habits and a different mind, having only the naked name of them, but in mind they dissented from those whose nobility they boast. Moreover, it is vain...

for them to make this a matter of profit, as our Lord Jesus Christ clearly showed. For the Jews, ^A priding themselves greatly on the splendor of their fathers, and making their virtues a matter of boasting, foolishly said: "We have Abraham as our father." But He said to them: "If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham." Therefore, the name is not sufficient for the power of nobility for those who are descended from glorious fathers, unless they should become imitators of the brightness that was in them. He puts them to shame, therefore, by saying that while they are called by the name of Israel, and have come forth from Judah—that is, have sprung from the seed of Judah—they are in no matter whatever like them. ^B Furthermore, He rebukes them for swearing by the name of the Lord the God of Israel, and for performing the precept of the law (for He says: "By His name you shall swear, reaping the fruits of the oaths"—though not in true or just matters, but in false ones, contrary to the prescription of the law); and thereafter for the fact that they clung to the holy city and were established in the God of Israel. For they wished to lift their eyebrows on high because they inhabited the city named after God. For they heard the sacred ministers chanting in the divine temple concerning Jerusalem: "Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God." ^C The Lord Himself also makes mention of this, saying that no one ought to swear by his own head, because they cannot make one hair white or black, nor by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King. For they swore by Jerusalem, calling it, as I said, the city of God. They also relied upon Him, saying that the Lord of hosts was their strength. But it was necessary for those who had supposed that matters stood thus not to profane the city of God with altars and sacrifices, nor to be implicated in the errors of demons, nor to stir up against themselves Him in whom they trusted, but rather to gladden Him with good pursuits and to offer to Him the solidity of piety as a kind of sacrifice. ^D "But hear these things," He says. What are these things? "The former things I have already announced; they went forth from My mouth, and were heard. I did them suddenly, and they came to pass." For because, as I said from the beginning, Manasseh, the enemy of God, having gathered together from all sides those called conjurers and soothsayers, was always inquiring what was to be, and being carried away by their trifles, thought that they knew this manifestly, for this reason the God of all says: "I announced the first things to you, and they were not announced by any other of the falsely-named gods; but they went forth from My mouth, and it became audible to you; and I did them suddenly, and they came to pass," that is, even if

you did not expect that they would reach their completion, yet you know, through the things themselves and by the test of experience, that I have both acted and it has come to pass. ^A It seems he refers first to the misery brought upon them by the war, when they were taken from their homeland and, having accepted the yoke of bitter slavery, were carried off to the land of the Persians and Medes. For the second thing that happened to them after that was the calamity brought upon them by divine wrath from the Babylonians, which has already been described by us in a great many words.

“I know that you are stubborn, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your forehead is bronze. And I have announced them to you of old before they came upon you; I have made them audible to you.” ^B

In these words, He reveals the incomparable gentleness of the supreme Nature, and how much mercy He exerts toward men, even if they have been accustomed to offend Him. For He possesses a clemency equal to His own glory. And just as His immense excellence surpasses and, as it were, towers over the measure of mortal things, so also is He incomparably humane. For see how, although He knows Israel to be hard, and to have a neck that is arrogant and unyielding—so that it appears to be even an iron sinew, hard, that is, and inflexible—and a bronze forehead—that is, shameless, and having rejected all modesty ^C and shame—He nevertheless proclaimed to him the things that were to be, and made them audible before they came to pass. And He did this not in vain, but because they had an heart impatient of admonition, He made the prediction and mention of sad things, so that, perhaps being for a little while broken by these terrors, they might withdraw from their monstrous and most abominable life, and might turn themselves to seek what is better, and, abandoning the accursed and most abominable false worship which they rendered to falsely-named gods, they might choose to worship the one God, who is such by nature and in truth. For those whom persuasion does not turn away from wicked undertakings, fear sometimes makes them desist, even against their will. Indeed, the divine David seems to ^D intimate something of this kind to us, chanting and saying to the Savior God of all: “With bit and bridle You will constrict their jaws, of those who do not approach You.” (Ps. XXXII, 9.)

“Do not say that the idols did these things for me, and do not say that the graven and molten images commanded them for me. You have heard these things, and you have not understood; and I have made new things audible to you from now, which are going to come to pass. And you did not say: ‘Now they are happening, and not long ago’; neither in former days have you heard them. Do not say: ‘I know them.’ You did not know, nor did you understand, nor from the beginning did I open your ears. For I knew that you would act treacherously, and you will be called a lawless one from the womb. For the sake of My Name I will show you My wrath, and I will bring My glorious things upon you, that I may not destroy you. Lo, I have sold you, not for silver; and I have rescued you from the furnace of poverty. For My own sake I will do this for you, because My Name is profaned, and My glory I will not give to another.”

In the words of the prophet Jeremiah we find that when the Babylonians had one day stormed the holy city, laid waste all Judea, and carried off Israel captive, the...

^A women who were left behind desired to go down into Egypt with those of Israel who had been preserved, even though the prophet resisted them, urging them to remain at home and clearly explaining the reason why. Against this, however, they cried out in reply: “Since we have ceased to sacrifice to the queen of heaven, all these evils have come upon us.” For they thought, even after suffering the capture, that because they had offended the falsely so-called gods and were bereft of their protection, they had fallen under the feet of their enemies. For this reason the prophet Jeremiah also said to God: “Lord, thine eyes are upon faith; thou hast scourged them, but they felt no pain; thou hast consumed them, but they refused to receive instruction.”

“Since, therefore,” He says, “I have declared things to you before the events occurred, do not say again, ‘My idols have done these things for me.’ What have they done? Manifestly, they have brought about that state of being caught in the calamities of war. It was not because of their wrath that you were led away captive, nor was it because you spurned their protection that they brought upon you this inevitable punishment. For they are carved and molten images.” And He further says, “Do not say to yourself, ‘The idols have commanded me,’ meaning, they have threatened, that is, they have announced beforehand that I would suffer such evils. You heard these things from me, and you did not know, that is, you did not understand, nor have you become wise. For this is what we say it means to understand in truth. For it was the task and duty of understanding, and the fruit of admirable prudence, to turn away from those things which had been predicted and not to await the sorrowful end, but to escape all wrath and punishment. And so I have declared to you new things from this time forward, which are going to come to pass. For predictions regarding things which had not yet happened, nor taken place, were made by God. Do not say, therefore, that you did not hear them long ago or in former days; for I predicted them from the beginning. Do not say, ‘I know these things,’ meaning, of course, through the false prophets and vain talkers. For you neither knew these things, nor did you understand, nor did I open your ears from the beginning; that is, before these words of mine were spoken, I did not make this known or testified to you through another: but I have brought about the end of those things which were predicted. For I knew that you would act treacherously, and you shall be called a transgressor from the womb.”

Since it was fitting that for those who had chosen to be treacherous and to act impiously, and this from the womb (for they were taught from childhood to serve foreign gods), there should be imposed punishments worthy of them. “I have shown you my wrath for my name’s sake, but I will bring my glorious deeds upon you, that I may not destroy you.” For it was necessary for Israel, having shown contempt and having reached the height of every kind of wickedness, and having no regard whatsoever for the honor due to God, to have the wrath shown to them; yet, in order that we might again perceive the greatness of the humanity that is in Him, it was worthwhile for unexpected things to be mingled with the sorrowful, so that they might not be destroyed. For He saved them from the hand of the enemies, and when they had fallen into the snare of punishment, He rescued them again and loosened the bonds of captivity, so that He might not utterly destroy Israel. “Behold, therefore,” He says, “you have sold yourself, not for silver,” that is, not for the sake of money. For I have sought nothing of that kind from you,

nor have I been in need of any worldly things—neither calves, nor sheep, nor slaughtered goats. But because you sinned, and were slothful regarding the honor and glory owed to me by you. Nevertheless, even so, I delivered you, He says, from the furnace of poverty—for you were enslaved to the Babylonians. But the evils of servitude are inevitably followed by the condition of being in want of every good thing. “For my own sake I will do it for you, because my name is profaned.” For those who took them captive thought that, even though God was willing to save them and was their protector, they had still conquered, and had overcome the one being helped without His consent. My name is therefore profaned, He says, because they have such opinions about me. “But I will not give my glory to another.” Now, the glory of God is to save, and to show mercy, and to be able to rule over all things, and to be able, without labor, to accomplish whatever He might choose to bring to fruition. ^B

VERS. 12, 13. “Listen to me, Jacob, and Israel, whom I call. I am the first, and I am for eternity; and my hand has founded the earth, and my right hand has established the heaven.”

He calls them back again to a remembrance of the honor and glory that had been given to them, and, furthermore, of His compassion and love. For they were deemed worthy of the highest rewards, they who alone out of all the nations were called to a relationship and intimacy with Him, and who had become His portion and lot. Indeed, the divine Moses once addressed the people from Israel, speaking thus: “Behold, the heaven of heaven belongs to the Lord your God, and the Lord chose you out of all the nations to be His people.” And again: “When the Most High divided the nations, when He scattered the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God; and Jacob became the Lord’s portion, His people; Israel was the lot of His inheritance.” It was fitting, therefore—it was fitting that those who were so honored, who had obtained a glorious and chosen name, who had been enrolled into the portion of God, and who were enriched by the privilege of being among the chosen, should not decline toward things that are not lawful, nor choose to grieve the Benefactor, the giver of all honor to them, and the provider of such exquisite and most desirable blessings. But the wretched ones, thinking of none of these things, were stuck fast in the mire of idolatry, and, abandoning the true God, they worshipped the elements of the world. Yet even so, He pities them again; for He calls them to obedience: “Listen to me,” He says, and commands them to perform, even if late, that which it would have been better to perform in the beginning, so that they might possess their prosperity unshaken, and so that they might set a foot outside of punishment, and loosen the bonds of the slavery that had been brought upon them. But since they bowed down to the host of heaven, and, abandoning the Creator, attributed worship to things brought into the light by Him, He initiates them once again into mystical principles. For as the blessed Paul said: “Whereas you ought, by reason of the time, to be teachers, you again have need of someone to teach you the first principles of the divine oracles.”

That He Himself is “He who is,” and is before all things, and possesses a boundless existence, being God by nature, He demonstrates, saying: “I am the first, and I am unto eternity.” For who could be conceived of as prior to the First? ^A Just as no principle could be conceived of as prior to the true and first Principle, so no one else could be conceived of as prior to the First. Therefore, the God of all things exists always, before all things, and unto endless ages. For he who has no beginning, in what end shall he ever terminate? And this much regarding the divine glory. But the swarm of falsely named gods, or the elements of the world, can neither be considered first, nor can they continue to exist in the same way and manner unto eternity. For the stars, the sun, and the moon, and in addition to these the heaven itself, were brought into being and had a beginning and an origin, and will at length even cease to exist. Nor is there anything to be seen in them which is not altogether and entirely subject to the glory of the divine and immortal nature. That this discourse does not stray from the truth, He shows shortly after, when He says: “My hand has founded the earth, and my right hand has established the heaven.” Then how shall that which has been made contend on terms of equality with Him who fashioned it? How shall it vie for glory with Him who created it? He demonstrates, therefore, that it is most absurd, and indeed bears the marks of every impiety, to choose to worship the creature rather than the Creator, and to forsake Him who is always and First, in order to bestow the name and dignity of true Divinity upon things made in time, and to grant this to the works of their own arts. ^B For they worshipped what their own fingers had made, according to what is written. Now God and Father names the Son His own hand and right hand. For thus we find Him called very often in the divinely inspired Scripture. Indeed, the divine Moses also said: “Thy right hand, O Lord, has been glorified in power; thy right hand, O Lord, has shattered the enemies.” And the blessed David: “Let thy hand be strengthened, let thy right hand be lifted up.”

Vers. 14. *I will call them, and they shall stand together, and all shall be gathered, and they shall hear. Who has announced these things to them?* ^C I desired, He says, when they were gathered together, to pose a question, so that they might clearly identify whom they consider to have truly been the foreknower or predictor of those things which were brought upon them unexpectedly—namely, the calamity which arises from war. For no one of the false prophets is seen to have announced these things beforehand. For they pretended to call upon God, and to labor, and to be inspired by the numen of demons. But there was no foreknowledge of future events in the impure spirits, nor in the inanimate materials which have been fashioned into gods. Therefore, none of the imaginary gods has announced anything at all. But I have revealed each detail carefully through the holy prophets: yet, ^D when it were possible to escape the evil and

^A to be carried outside the snare, you have been drowsy, awaiting the experience of these evils as a true witness to my words. What need, then, have you of sorcerers? What profit is there in false prophets? What knowledge could you gain from the workshops of those who are accustomed to observing omens? These men occupy the precincts of idols and, sitting by unclean altars, sell for the cheapest of coins the lie that springs from their own hearts as if it were from God; and they belch forth to those who approach them what they imagine to be true, for the sake of a handful of barley and a morsel of bread, according to that which was spoken by the voice of Ezekiel.

"For your sake I sent to Babylon, and brought down all the nobles, and the Chaldeans whose cry is in the ships." ^B I have spoken, I have called, I have brought him, and I have made his way prosperous. Draw near to me and hear this: from the beginning I have not spoken in secret; when it was happening, I was there; and now the Lord has sent me, and his Spirit.

He does not allow them to be carried away again toward false notions. For it was very likely—since they possessed a mind lacking instruction, and were far too easily inclined toward apostasy and vulnerable to the snares of error—that they might think and say that these evils of war happened to them because of the anger of the so-called gods, because the worship due and owed to them had been overlooked and their sacrifices were no longer offered. And yet, if those people had been merciful, and if, when they suffered such things ^C again, they believed these punishments were measured out from anger, there would be nothing illogical in this reasoning. For we have shown before that when Jerusalem was ravaged, and when the whole of Judea was burned down together with the divine temple, the women who were left behind stated that these things had happened to them because they had ceased sacrificing to the Queen of Heaven. In order, therefore, that they might know the Redeemer, and might attribute their salvation not to alien gods, but rather to Him, He says most clearly that, moved by His mercy and love, He brought to completion that which was most desired and prayed for by them: namely, that the seed of the Chaldeans—since they had captured them and shown every kind of inhumanity, and had entangled them in these most grievous evils—should be removed. "Because of the love I have for you," He says, "I was impelled to accomplish what was pleasing to you in the land of the Babylonians, so as to remove the ^D seed of the Chaldeans." Then He speaks concerning Cyrus, that it was by His nod that he was brought and called to lay waste the land and to take it by force. "I have brought him," He says, "and I have made his way prosperous. And I have spoken these things from the beginning," He says, "and not in secret; I have proclaimed them clearly through the holy prophets: Thus says the Lord to my anointed, Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, that nations might be obedient before him, and I will break the strength of kings." Therefore, I have not spoken concerning him stealthily or in a hidden place, but I have brought him, and I have called him, and I have made his way prosperous; and not only have I spoken, but I have also in actual view

^A of my most omnipotent right hand, turning aside the strength of the Chaldeans, and rendering him who laid them waste all-conquering and irresistible; so that the events were not to be attributed to the hand of Cyrus, but to my own most all-powerful right hand, inflicting justice upon them for the sake of the insolence offered to you, or rather because of their measureless inhumanity and absolute cruelty. For He said: "I have delivered them into your hands, but you did not show them mercy." Then, between these words, He also places the voice of Cyrus himself, confessing that God had incited him and had rendered him invincible and stronger than the might of the Babylonians. For he says: "And now the Lord has sent me, and His Spirit." He puts "And now," instead of saying: even if none of the things that have happened had been foretold by God, yet behold, now Cyrus confesses that God has stirred him up and crowned him with supreme glory, so that I might come forth superior to the Babylonians. For when Cyrus had heard from the Jews inhabiting Babylon that God had spoken concerning him in the holy prophets, ^B that he would come in the passage of time and by force lay waste the land of the Chaldeans, and set Israel free from captivity; then, as they say, when they had shown him the sacred Books, they brought him to such a state of mind that in his own proclamations he named the God of Israel Lord and Most High. For it is written as follows in the first book of Esdras: "In the first year of Cyrus king of the Persians, that the word of the Lord might be fulfilled by the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of the Persians, and he proclaimed throughout his whole kingdom, and also by letters saying: Thus says Cyrus, king of the Persians: The Lord, the Most High of Israel, has appointed me king of the world, and has signified to me to build Him a house in Jerusalem in Judea. If there is, therefore, any one of you from His people, may the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judea, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel; He is the ^C Lord who dwells in Jerusalem." Since, therefore, He says, you know that these things which have happened were revealed to you before they occurred, not through falsely named gods, but through Me, hear Cyrus saying: "The Lord has sent me, and His Spirit."

VERS. 17-19. *Thus says the Lord who has delivered you, the Holy One of Israel: I am your God; I have shown you so that you might find the way in which you should walk. And if you had hearkened to My commandments, your peace would have been as a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea; and your seed would have been as the sand, and the offspring of your womb as the dust of the earth; nor even now shall you be cut off, nor shall your name be destroyed before Me. Go out of Babylon, fleeing from the Chaldeans.*

He again implants in them a steadfast soul and a well-settled mind, so that they may recognize the God who is ^D by nature and truly existent; and He reveals His own glory to them, so that they might not be carried away by the words of those who lead them astray to some vanity, so that, evidently, they may perceive and sense that the God who is by nature and truly is the one whose glory they recognize, and they should not be carried away by the voices of those who lead them astray to what is fleeting, or rather towards

those who are falsely called gods, to whom they have brought relief, though they are not gods at all. ^A For this reason, I think, He says, “I am your God,” the word “I am” signifying that I exist. This is what He also declared to the all-wise Moses when He said, “I am who I am.” For the God of all things is truly and properly He who is. But things that have been brought into being by Him so as to exist can also be said to be, except for the fact that they have come into being and have obtained a beginning of their existence. So, therefore, the Lord who delivered you, the Holy One of Israel, says: “I am your God.” “But, O Lord,” someone of those who have sprung from the blood of Israel might say, “I believe that You have redeemed and saved us; You have snatched us from fire and punishment, from the yoke and slavery of a barbarian hand, being obviously all-powerful and accomplishing whatever You might choose by Your mere nod. ^B Why, then, have we, who depend upon Your mercy and love, and who always glory in You as our helper, been brought to such misery that we even fall under the feet of our enemies, and we who are free-born have been reduced to servitude contrary to what is right?” What, then, does God say to these things? “I have shown you the way in which you should walk. I have set for you a law,” He says, “as a definer of things to be done, one that knows how to guide towards all things that are most pleasing to Me, a leader to righteousness, a teacher of piety, bringing you onto a straight path, by which, if you had wished to act, you would have arrived at being a genuine and true worshipper, and most beautifully crowned with the ornaments of virtue. But you have gone off the straight path and, having abandoned the track, you have deviated into ways that were not lawful; you have worshipped the host of heaven, you have sacrificed to idols, you have bowed down to those who are not gods, you have forgotten the Creator, you have counted the given law as nothing. For if you had been obedient to My commandments, your peace would have been as a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea.” ^C And what He wishes to signify is of this sort: They say that mountain torrents, when heavy rain descends upon them, are carried down violently and intolerably, so that nothing at all can resist their rush. And I think that this other thing is also clear: the onsets of the waves of the sea are terrible and hard to withstand, and not only for sailors and merchant ships, but sometimes even for the very rocks themselves. For even these are broken apart by the waters crashing against them with great force. Therefore He says: “If you had hearkened to My words, if you had applied a compliant and obedient mind, your peace would have become, in the manner of a river and waves, inexpugnable to enemies and to any who might encounter you.” Or also in another way, so as to show the abundance and perpetuity of peace, He compares it to a river and to waves; to a river indeed as always and abundantly flowing and passing by, and to waves as always being arched and as if perpetually encroaching upon the land. ^D “And your seed would have been as the sand, and the offspring of your womb as the dust of the earth.” It is as if He were saying: With no one even drawing a sword, and no hand of enemies destroying anyone, you would have been fruitful and innumerable, so that your children could be compared to sand and dust. But because you have raged in

^A rage against God, and have stumbled not moderately, having deviated into every manner of transgression, you have been brought low to a small remnant, and you no longer possess that expansion of the nation into a multitude; yet not even now shall you be utterly destroyed. For the remnant of Israel ^B is preserved everywhere. For God said that it would not fall root and branch, because of the promise given to the fathers. Then he says, "Go out of Babylon, fleeing from the Chaldeans." This is the royal nod and will, delivering Israel from captivity. For just as those who hold the supreme power on earth, and occupy the thrones of the kingdom, sometimes grant a remission of exile to those beneath the earth, indicating the matter with a benevolent nod and voice; thus also the God of all granted a benevolent nod to those who had labored, and says plainly: "Go out," that they might know there is a Redeemer, and a provider of all tranquility.

653 VERS. 20-22. *Proclaim a voice of gladness, and let this be heard. Proclaim it to the end of the earth. Say: The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob; and if they thirst, He will lead them through the desert; the rocks shall be split and waters shall flow, and My people shall drink. There is no joy for the wicked, says the Lord.*

^C Things which God does are admittedly all worthy of admiration. But those which excel his other works, and obtain the highest glory, if they remain hidden, harm those who are deprived of the knowledge of them; but if they are known, they are of no small benefit. For from this it is possible to see his ineffable glory, and his excellence in all things, and his sublime hand, and his omnipotent majesty. For he redeemed Israel from Egypt. But that he might appear magnificent, and his glory might become illustrious to those inhabiting the whole world, Pharaoh was taken as a sort of vessel, that by resisting the Mosaic words, he might call forth God, in order to demonstrate his glory thereafter to all, and to declare the magnitude of his immense power. For it was said to him: "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be declared in all the earth." ^D And these things indeed happened to the ancients, but they occurred for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. It was necessary, therefore, it was necessary that the redemption of the Israelites from Babylon should not be passed over in silence, but should be as it were proclaimed everywhere to all. And therefore he says: "Proclaim a voice of gladness." Now we say that the voice of gladness is the doxology which anyone might offer, celebrating him for such great and illustrious deeds. This is properly and truly the voice of gladness befitting the righteous, whom it is right to sing praises. The divine David also sings, and says: "The voice of exultation and salvation in the tabernacles of the righteous." He intends the voice to have the narration of the redemption of the Israelites, such as it is in the book of Psalms. Truly it is...

as it is: “You have blessed, O Lord, your land; you have turned away the captivity of Jacob, you have forgiven the iniquities of your people, you have covered all their sins.” ^A For although these things contain the explanation of spiritual realities, yet they are also useful historically. He promises, moreover, that if those traveling through the desert should thirst, He will bring forth water for them from a rock. The rock shall be split, and water shall flow, and my people shall drink. And we say that He shows in these things that it was not some other God who delivered Israel from the cruelty of the Egyptians, who led them through the midst of the sea, who supplied food in the desert, and who brought forth water from the rock; but the same One, always existing in the same way and similarly, and who is able to perform miracles equal to those of old. For if, he says, they should go through a desert, and then be in need of drink and water, that ancient sign will be displayed to them; for water shall be brought forth from a rock. And one would not find that this happened ^B to those of Israel ascending into Judea from Babylon. But it has been stated, as I said, according to the economy [of salvation], so that they might know that the God who was of old, also exists now, and is able to employ equal power and similar miracles, and that He possesses an unchangeable strength, and He cries out as if issuing a general law. “For there is no joy for the impious,” says the Lord. And this is true. For the countenance of the impious is always, in a way, downcast, with the heart as it were struck, and the mind bearing the burden of a reproving conscience. For it does not expect crowns, nor the honor of praise, but rather fire and punishment, which are prepared for those who offend. Or perhaps this voice might also fit the Babylonians. For they were rejoicing because they had carried off the people of God, and they thought ^C that, having prevailed over His right hand, they had gained possession of Judea. But they were mistaken regarding the truth. For the former, because they were caught offending, were deprived of His mercy; the latter, because they were hard and unyielding and knew not how to pity, were sought out for deserved punishments and were henceforth deprived of joy, having their brow now afflicted, their spirit afflicted. For not because they once conquered the Israelites will they henceforth be affected with joy, but because, being evil, they have perished miserably, with their own country destroyed, they received the bitterness of grief.

ORATION IV

“Hear me, you islands, and pay attention, O nations; after a long time it shall stand,” says the Lord. “From my mother’s womb He called my name, He made my mouth like a sharp sword, and under the protection of His hand He hid me. He made me like a chosen arrow, and in His quiver He concealed me, and ^D He said to me, ‘You are my servant, Israel, and in you I will be glorified.’”

With very many exhortations and admonitions he has helped Israel, and turns the mystagogy to the flocks of the Gentiles, and indeed the mystery of the

^A Christ shines forth for them again, through whom they were about to abandon their beast-like and cursed way of life and be brought back to the manner of living most dear to Him, and to receive into their mind the true light, so that they might clearly know who is by nature and truly God, and the nature that holds sway over all things. He addresses the islands, which we say are the Churches of Christ, ^B situated as if in the sea—that is, in the tempest of the present life—and tossed by the unbearable onrush of its waves: persecutions, that is, and afflictions, which the enemies of the truth, fighting against the divine calling, bring upon them. Concerning such islands, it has been said in many places in the divinely inspired Scripture. Blessed David also chants somewhere and says: “The Lord has reigned, let the earth exult, let many islands rejoice.” For when Christ held the kingdom of the world and took the whole earth into His own hands and authority, and rescued it from the tyranny of the demons, then the Churches throughout the whole earth also exulted—that is, they became full of joy. For that the prophet in these words designates the Churches from the Gentiles when he names the islands, would become clear from what follows. For he immediately added after that, “Hear me, O islands,” this: “Listen, O nations.” Then he says, “For a long time it shall stand, says the Lord.” He promises, as I said, the manifestation of the Savior of us all, Christ, and that the Word being God, will associate with those on earth in a form like ours. Furthermore, that it was a time of prophecy then, and likewise also of the manifestation of the things themselves, He shows by saying, “For a long time it shall stand”—that is, what was promised, or rather what was prophesied. What then is this? The very person of the Savior was brought in, saying: “From my mother’s womb He called my name.” ^C He interweaves here a deep and great mystery, which has need of a heavenly mystagogy. For it was revealed thus to the divine Peter. For the Word, being God, was and is of equal power, and sharing the same throne with God and the Father, existing at once and co-eternal. Names also before the incarnation were appropriate to His nature: God, and Wisdom, and Light, and Life, and Power, and others in addition to these that are found in the sacred Scriptures. But after He emptied Himself and became in the likeness of man, and was found in fashion as a man, He receives a common name, that is to say, Christ and Jesus, or “God with us.” The “with us” indicates that which pertains to our condition and nature. For it is written: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel.” Blessed Gabriel ^D also, revealing the mystery to the holy and God-bearing virgin, says, “Do not fear, Mary. For you have found grace with God. And behold, you shall conceive in the womb, and shall bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus. For He Himself shall save His people from their sins.” Did then this blessed angel and the prophet speak words at variance with one another? By no means. For the divine prophet, speaking mysteries by the Spirit, gave a presignification of God having been made with us, by nature and dis-

dispensation ^A which is joined with the flesh, thus naming him. But the blessed angel bestowed a name upon him from his operation and efficacy; for he saved his own people: wherefore he was called Savior. For when he had undergone this generation of the flesh for our sake, the hosts of the angels announced the auspicious and happy birth to the shepherds, saying: “Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people; for unto you is born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David.” Thus, he is called Emmanuel, because being God by nature he became with us—that is, man. And Jesus, because he was to save the world, being himself God and having become man. When, therefore, he came forth from the womb of his own mother—for he was born of her according to the flesh—then also his name was called. The name of Christ is therefore inappropriate for the Word of God before the birth according to the flesh, I say. For since he was not yet anointed, how could he be called Christ? For when he came forth from the womb of his mother as man, then he received a title consistent with his fleshly birth. ^B And he says his mouth is placed like a sharp sword. And this is true. For it is written concerning him, or rather the prophet Isaiah himself says: “And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and truth the belt of his sides. And with the spirit he shall take away the impious.” For the divine and heavenly proclamation—that is, the evangelical, spoken through the mouth of Christ—became a sharp and most cutting sword against the tyranny of the devil, destroying the world-rulers of this darkness and the spiritual powers of wickedness. For it dispersed the mist of deceit and cast into the hearts of all the ray of the true knowledge of God; for it transformed the world under heaven into a godly life, and rendered all men lovers of holy institutions; it reaped and mowed down sin from the world, justifying the impious by faith, filling those who approach with the Holy Spirit, and making them sons of God, implanting in them a brave and most warlike courage, and giving them the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, so that those who once resisted the victors might run toward the prize of the upward calling, with nothing hindering them. ^C That this instruction and mystagogy through Christ has proven destructive to the tyranny of the devil for those on earth, the prophet Isaiah will make clear, saying: “In that day God shall bring the sword, the holy, the great, upon the dragon, the crooked serpent; and he shall destroy the dragon.” He adds: “And under the protection of his hand he hid me.” He speaks in a manner befitting a human, yet to those of sound mind there is nothing difficult in these words either to see that the Son is not separate from God and the Father, and that he has been made man. For he says ^D that he was under the protection of his right hand, so as to intimate the power of his nature, which cannot be captured or overcome, that it remains for itself, even if he has undergone our condition. For no one shall defeat the omnipotent right hand; but, as I said, by the reason and measure of his humanity, the Word is distinguished. For the Word is from God the Father for-

- ^A he is all-powerful, and he is himself the Lord of hosts. But since he has become man, the Father, not dishonoring the power of the mystery, joins in the dispensation, and says to him through the lyre of the Psalmist: "The enemy shall not profit against him, and the son of iniquity shall not continue to afflict him. And I will cut his enemies down from his face, and those who hate him I will put to flight. And my truth and my mercy shall be with him." See, therefore—see also him speaking in the prophetic voice in a human manner, he who for our sake became like us: "Under the protection of his hand he hid me." He set me, he says, as a chosen arrow, and in his quiver he covered me. For there have been many arrows of God, hidden in their own times in his foreknowledge as in a quiver, and brought forth, each at its appropriate time; but the chosen arrow, and above all, was Christ, hidden, as I said, in the foreknowledge of the Father. For he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was brought into our midst when it was necessary to visit the whole earth, which had fallen into ruin and destruction because it served the creature rather than the Creator, and was subject to unclean spirits, and had been bound by the snares of sin. This chosen arrow, as I said, shall destroy Satan himself and the evil powers that are with him. ^B It shall likewise destroy the enemies of the truth and those who have impiously resisted his holy preachings. But it also wounds in another way, for benefit and salvation. For so says the wounded bride in the Song of Songs: "I am wounded by love." And he says to me, the Father, namely: "You are my servant, Israel, and in you I will be glorified." O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! as it is written. For the Son was and is free, as one who has sprung in an ineffable manner from the essence that is the queen of all things. But he heard the Father saying: "You are my servant." Therefore, the Word, free by nature, by the carnal dispensation—and understood according to the flesh—is fashioned as a servant, so that you may again consider his birth from a woman in time according to the flesh. And he calls him "Israel" because he was born from the blood of Israel, as far as the flesh is concerned; but he also says, "And in you I will be glorified." For the God of the universe had indeed been glorified also through the holy prophets, yet not in them. But in Christ [it happened] in an unaccustomed and unusual way: as one who was glorified in him. And with Christ glorified, the Father is glorified in him. We see him shining forth in him through divine authority, and power, and energy in all things, through sanctification, and justice, and altogether through his clemency. For the Divinity is thus expressed intelligibly. Since Christ also said: "He who has seen me, has seen my Father." ^C And the most wise Paul said that he who begot him is glorified in the person of Christ. Therefore he says: "In you I will be glorified." For every knee shall bow to the Son, even when born in the flesh—of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that the Lord Jesus

Christ is to the glory of God the Father.

And I said: I have labored in vain, and for nothing, and for vanity have I given my strength. Therefore my judgment is with the Lord, and my toil before my God.

^B The Savior of all appeared, that He might deliver the whole world under heaven from the wickedness of the devil, and from death, and from sin, and that He might enlighten with holy gifts those who approach Him through faith. Those who were of the blood of Israel were called to this before others; they were so preferred before the nations that Jesus could say: "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But they, having obtained a dignity so glorious and exceptional, became faithless, and bold apostates, and terribly dishonorable and arrogant. And yet, though they ought to have approached the grace most gladly, and to have profited by the faith and the good things from it, they did not do this. Whence would they? Rather, they stood against it, speaking ill without restraint of Him who was calling them to salvation, slandering Him uncontrollably; and what terrible thing did they not utter openly? And in the end, they crucified Him.

Therefore, as far as the stubbornness of the disobedient went, and the contradiction that they had perversely studied against Him, the Savior labored in vain, and for vanity and for nothing He gave His strength. For the senseless Israel would not endure—as I just said—His holy proclamations; they did not honor His toil. For it was a toil for the Word to become as we are, and to endure human pettiness. "But my judgment," He says, "is with the Father, concerning the pains I have expended for their salvation." Therefore, the judgment has been brought forth by Him.

And what was the judgment? They have been cast out from the intimacy with Him, they have been thrust away from being the people of God, they have become bereft of salvation from Him, they have remained without foretaste of the hope of the saints, and the multitude of the nations has been called in instead of them. And instead of the shepherds who were among them, others have been appointed—just men, and beloved of God, and caretakers of holy pursuits, able to lead the people as lights in the world, holding the word of life, as the all-wise Paul ^C says.

Do you wish to see the judgment of the Father, or rather the vote passed upon them? Hear the Savior saying to the leaders of the Jews: "There was a certain man, a householder, who planted a vineyard, and set a hedge about it, and dug a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into another country." And then He says: "He sent servants to receive the fruits, and they have all been endangered." And since later—

^A He sent the Son, and they saw Him, He says, "they said, This is the heir; come, let us kill Him, and take His inheritance to ourselves. And they did indeed kill Him." Having told this parable to them, the Lord is again introduced, saying: "When, therefore, the lord of the vineyard shall come, what will he do to those husbandmen?" And they answer Him: "He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons." And concerning these things, Christ says, "Therefore I say unto you, The kingdom of heaven shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." Which has indeed come to pass. For other keepers of the vineyards have been placed, and wise husbandmen, that is to say, the inspired disciples. Under them, the clouds have sent down rain, even though they were commanded no longer to irrigate the Jewish vineyard. Under them, Christ has harvested grapes rather than thorns. For we have ^B been taught to say: "The Lord shall give goodness, and our land shall yield her fruit." One might also say in another way that the labor of the Son was before the eyes of the Father, and a righteous judgment has gone forth. Observe with me again the power of the word, and consider the dispensation which the all-wise Paul also explains to us, saying: "Being in the form and equality of the Father, the Son thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, and became obedient to the Father unto death, even the death of the cross; wherefore also God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name, that in His name every knee should bow." For He was, and is, God the Word; but since He was named man, and this was truly brought about, He has ascended in His glory with the flesh. For He was recognized as God, nor did He labor in vain. For this kind of dispensation resulted for Him in glory: not that He might render Himself some insolent and strange being, but that He might declare Himself the Savior and Redeemer of the world. Because this was known, it came ^C to pass that heaven, and earth, and even things below, should bow down before Him.

VERS. 5, 6. And now thus saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be His servant, to bring Jacob again to Him, and Israel. I shall be gathered to Him, and I shall be glorified before the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And He said to me, It is a great thing for thee to be called my child, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to turn again the dispersion of Israel.

We say that here also it is the Lord Jesus Christ who has none the less used human words, even though He unfolds the greatest mystery of godliness, and reveals the manner of His emptying. For observe in what way, although by nature and truly He is His own master, He says that the Father formed Him as a servant to Himself, yet from the womb. For not when the ^D Word was naked and had not flesh, in ser-

^Avitutem, but after it had pleased God and the Father, but rather from the womb, that is, when He was born according to the flesh from a woman. For then, being God by nature and free, as being from God and a free Father, He receives the form, or the shaping, of a servant. For no one in their right mind would say that one who is a servant by nature is formed into servitude; but rather one who is beyond servitude and the yoke, and who is illustrious with the insignia of natural liberty, may justly take upon himself the formation or figure of a servant. For that the Free One and the Son submits Himself to this willingly, who would doubt, when Paul says that He was in the form of God and did not think it robbery to be equal with God, but from this equality and likeness in all things, [not unwillingly] He descended to this form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. For God was with Him, yet He showed us none the less that He was free by nature and truly, and not unwillingly a servant, in the contribution of the didrachma. ^B For the tax collectors asked the divine Peter whether Christ would contribute the didrachma with the others, or if He would decline the payment. Then the Lord said to him: "From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or tribute? From their own sons, or from strangers?" And when the disciple correctly answered that kings collect the appointed tax from strangers, He said: "Then the children are free. But lest we should offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first; and when you have opened its mouth, you will find a stater; take that and give it to them for Me and for you." Therefore, the One who is free by nature is formed into a servant by economy, when He was also born from the womb of the mother according to the flesh. For this is the time suitable to the measures of the emptying. And that He was formed in the manner of a minister, He confirms by saying: "To gather together Jacob and Israel." For God the Word, being what we are, descended for no other reason than to save Israel and to gather together Jacob. For the inventor of all evil had scattered all who are upon the earth into ^C manifold and polymorphous sin. For he caused some to depart entirely from the Creator, and prepared them to be subject to himself and to unclean demons, and cast upon them the inescapable yoke of sin, and led them entirely away so that they were ignorant of who is by nature the God and Lord of all. Others, who had the Mosaic law as the arbiter of their actions, he rendered sluggish and indolent, and drew them to every turpitude, so that they regarded the law very little, but rather did what seemed good to each one, and taught as doctrines the commandments of men. But when Christ appeared to the world, those things which Satan had scattered were gathered together through faith into one, ^D right, and blameless judgment; and those who had once departed from the love of God hastened to Him, and having cast behind them sin, the cause of enmity, through their zeal for good things, they have peace in Christ. For the divine prophets also exhorted them to hasten here immediately. Thus Isaiah says: "Let us make peace with Him, let us make peace as we come." The divine disciples also cried out:

^A "We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." We make our reconciliations to God when we come to Christ through faith. For as the most holy Paul himself says elsewhere: "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself." For in Christ the world is being reconciled to God. Therefore, he clarifies the ministry of the incarnation when he says that he was formed as a servant by the Father from the womb, in order that he might gather Israel and Jacob. Even if someone were to say that the Jewish nation is indicated by these words, he would not be wide of the mark. For Christ once said: "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But if one were to wish to name all those saved through faith Israel and Jacob, that would also be correct. For it is true that he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is the circumcision in the flesh to be called truly circumcision; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and who has circumcision of the heart in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God. If, therefore, he is a Jew who has circumcision in the spirit, then it would be appropriate for ^B none other than such as these to be named Israel and Jacob. Inserted into the middle of the discourse is the voice of those who have been called through faith, putting forward and promising their faith: "I shall be gathered to him, and I shall be glorified before the Lord, and my God shall be my strength." For truly, God commands it to come to pass, and the end of the things commanded and commemorated in this place comes almost immediately. For not all Israel was saved, but some did not believe, and because of their own wickedness they did not accept the grace of the evangelical doctrines. But the multitude of the Gentiles was called together with the remnant; these are also numbered among the children of Abraham, so that, as far as the dispensation is concerned, the purpose of his advent might never be frustrated. For everyone has been gathered, if anyone is Israel, and indeed also Jacob, according to the words just recently set forth for us. ^C The people called in Christ therefore promise that they will be gathered to God, clearly through faith, and that they will be glorified before God, having gained the illustrious glory of adoption, and having become partakers of the divine nature, ornamented by the Holy Spirit, and shown to be followers of the best practices, and furthermore that they will believe God to be their own strength. For it is fitting that those who desire salvation and glory from him should be so disposed. He adds further to these: "And he said to me: It is a great thing for you to be called my servant, in order that you might raise up the tribes of Jacob and convert the dispersion of Israel." If it is permissible to speak in a human manner, the Father ^D does not permit the Son to perform the dispensation remissly and hesitantly, nor does he allow the humility of the servile form to lack its reward; but he renders this office fruitful, and he does not leave this abjection without recompense, and the burden of the dispensation will not be without admiration, but will even become glorious, even if it might appear inglorious. For it was indeed humble for the Word born of God to be called a boy, that is, a servant.

^A For the name denotes now the Son, now, as I said, the servant; and the need of the meanings makes this and that introduced at the time appropriate to each. Since, however, the discourse is about the dispensation in the flesh, it is fitting that the "boy" should be understood as a servant. Therefore, even if the ignobility of servitude was, as I said, a small thing for the Son, yet the matter stood otherwise. For it was not a small thing for Him who is glorified by all, who, when He did not count it robbery to be equal to God, even lived here in a servile manner, and came down to this emptying, and endured the cross and the evils in it, and laid down His own soul as a ransom for the life of all, that He might destroy the diabolic tyranny and drive away the troops of demons from their intolerable violence against us, that He might remove the destructive sin from the midst, that He might abolish death, and remold the nature of man toward that which it was from the beginning, and deliver to God His own kingdom, no longer tyrannized by anyone, but rather casting off the yoke of the covetousness of others.

"Behold, I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, that you may be for salvation unto the extremity of the earth."

^C The Father was not ignorant of the hardened spirit of the Jews, impatient of admonition, and thoroughly turned toward extravagance. For they did not accept the instruction through Christ at all, although it was fitting to admire the gentleness and incomparable philanthropy of the Redeemer, and to receive His generosity with open hands, as it were. That, therefore, our Savior's dispensation might not seem to have been frustrated in its goal and purpose, seeing that the leading people had kicked away and did not accept, as I said, His own redemption, the Father added that He would show the way of salvation and would cast the light of true knowledge of God upon those wandering in mist and darkness. For Israel had been called to this, with Christ saying clearly: "I am the light of the world." (John viii, 12). And: "While you have the light, walk in the light, lest darkness overtake you." (John xii, 35).

^D Since, however, they loved darkness more than light, they were overtaken by it, even though the holy prophets had foretold to them the grace in Christ. For one said: "Shine, shine, Jerusalem; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Behold, darkness and gloom shall cover the earth over the Gentiles. But the Lord shall appear upon you, and His glory shall be seen upon you." (Isa. lx, 1-2). And another said: "And to you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise, and healing in his wings." (Mal. iv, 2). But because, as the sacred Scripture says, their ears were made heavy so as not to hear, and their eyes were closed, Christ shone upon the Gentiles, and filled the inhabited world with divine light, so that from the rising even unto the setting, and to

the ends of the earth, they might reap the fruit of His glory, and with the pure eyes of the mind perceive the divine and supreme nature, and consecrate to Him and to Him alone their spiritual worship.

^A VERS. 7. *Thus saith the Lord, who delivered thee, the God of Israel: Sanctify him who despiseth his soul, who is held in abomination by the Gentiles, by the servants of rulers. Kings shall see him, and princes shall arise, and shall worship him for the Lord's sake, because the Holy One of Israel is faithful, and I have chosen thee. Thus saith the Lord: In an acceptable time I have heard thee, and in the day of salvation I have helped thee.*

That God and Father considered those who were called through Christ worthy of great mercy, you may learn from this as well. For He initiates them into the mystic rites and reveals the deep and great mystery of the Incarnation, not allowing any to be crushed by the stone of stumbling or to trip through imprudence upon the rock of offense; for so was the foolish Israel crushed. What then is it that He says? "I, the God who delivered thee, Israel, thus say unto thee: 'Sanctify him who despiseth his soul,'" that is, esteem Him as venerable and holy, and strive to honor Him who humbled his own soul, that is, made it of no account. For the Word of God, being the only-begotten, became man for our sakes, and laid down His own soul for us, and willed to suffer for our sakes the death in the flesh, though He underwent nothing ^B that pertains to His own nature. For as God, He was inherently above suffering; yet, as I say, He thus cast it aside, and that for the sake of sinners—a fact which the all-wise Paul also admired. For he says: "But God commendeth his own love toward us: in that, while we were yet sinners, at the proper time he died for the ungodly." And Christ Himself somewhere says: "The good shepherd layeth down his soul for the sheep." He laid it down, therefore, for us, for "by his stripes we were healed," and He was made infirm because of our iniquities, and for our sins was He delivered up. "Let him be sanctified," He says, that is, let Him be proclaimed holy. This, indeed, is proper and peculiar to God alone; for although there are many who are holy, whether they be rational powers or indeed men upon the earth, they are still called holy through participation in Him who is holy by nature and who alone truly exists as such. ^C For just as He is the true light, yet has imparted the dignity to others, saying, "For ye are the light of the world," so also He who alone is holy together with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, gives sanctification to His partakers as out of His own fullness. Thus we say even in our prayers: "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." And we do not mean that we pray for some addition of holiness to be made to the name of the Father (for that is utterly absurd); ^D but rather that we pray that exactly what is true regarding all...

^A that is holy and terrible should also be understood here: “Sanctify.” Even, he says, he who lowered his soul—that is, who is said to have suffered something human, and caused his own flesh to taste of death, and “laid down his own life for many.” The discourse proceeds and brings to mind other things that might sometimes be an obstacle to believing in him for those who do not see the depth of the dispensation; but to those who are intelligent, it will bring no harm. For when Jesus was delivered to Pilate, some of the soldiers treated him with utter contempt, partly by striking him impiously, partly by disgracing him with spittle, and by insulting him with a crown of thorns, mocking him and saying: “Hail, King of the Jews.” Therefore, he speaks of him who is held in abomination by the nations, by servants, and by rulers. But ^B following this will certainly be the command to “Sanctify,” for although he has suffered the mockery of the nations by way of the dispensation, he will shine forth after this, and will be glorified by all, both those in the highest positions and those in inferior honors. He foretells this, saying: “Kings shall see him, and shall rise up,” clearly from their royal thrones. “Rulers also shall worship him.” They shall see him, not with the eyes of the body, but as if by a searching of the mind and heart. For this is how we see the glory of Christ. And they shall worship him for the sake of the Lord, that is, for my sake. For he is glorified as the Son of God and Father, and because the Holy One of Israel is faithful. Now “faithful” in these contexts signifies the one who always abides. For the kingdom of God and the Father is unshaken, ^C and likewise that of the Son; while the falsely so-called gods are not faithful, for they are newly born, they perish, and do not abide. But the Savior and Lord of all is truly faithful—that is, he is well-established in his own exalted state, and possesses it unshakably; and he himself chose those who have been called through Christ. “For whom he foreknew,” he says, “he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, and these he also called, and sanctified besides, and glorified.” It was necessary, therefore—it was necessary for the chosen ones to sanctify him who indwells the soul, and not to gaze upon the dimensions of his humanity and fall away from what is proper and wander from the accurate knowledge of him, but rather to understand the wisdom of the dispensation, to worship him, ^D and to be steadfastly disposed in mind and persuaded that he is by nature the Son of the faithful Lord and is truly the Son, even if, according to the dispensation, he appeared in our form and took on the measure of self-emptying. He addresses the chosen ones further and says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Christ and his mystery were foreknown before the foundation of the world; but it shone forth at the times which the Sovereign willed, in which he brought us aid, and he calls the time of the incarnation the day of salvation. For so also does the divine Paul say: “Behold, now,” he says, “the accepted time; behold, now the day of salvation.” The prophet David also chants and says: “This is the day...

which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” ^A

VERS. 8-12. And I gave you as a covenant of the nations, to establish the earth, and to inherit the inheritance of the wilderness, saying to those in bonds: Go forth; and to those in darkness: Be revealed. And in all their ways they shall be fed, and in all their ways shall be their pasture. They shall not hunger, nor thirst, nor shall the heat nor the sun strike them; but he who has mercy on them shall comfort them, and shall lead them by fountains of water. And I will make every mountain a way, and every path for them a pasture. Behold, these come from afar; these from the north, and these from the sea, and others from the land of the Persians. ^B

It seemed to some of the earlier interpreters that they should make the beginning of this chapter thus: “Thus says the Lord: In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” And they say these things are spoken by God and Father to the Saviour of us all, Christ, and they weave into them a sense such as this. He prayed, they say, before the precious cross, saying: “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me”; and he was not heard, for he drank it. But after he had trampled upon death, with the Father assisting, it was said to him necessarily: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” ^C But this interpretation seems to me to be very far from probability. For since he knew that he must drink the cup, and that the world could not be saved except through the death of his flesh and the resurrection from the dead, the mode of the prayer was formed in a manner most expedient; so that the petition against the passion might be an accusation of the Jewish murder. For in what way would Israel be held guilty of the crime of impiety against him, if this passion had not been towards him something compelled and violent, by reason of its ignominy? Yet it was also in this way voluntary, both to take away the sin of the world, and to reform our nature to the newness of a holy life. For we must know that it was thus said by him: “I have descended from heaven, not that I might do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me, that of all which he has given me, I should lose nothing of it, but should raise it up in the last day.” For Christ appeared to the world, and inaugurated his sacred preaching among the Israelites. But because they were disobedient and hardened, unbridled and bold, they did not receive the faith, but sinned against it in many ways, and finally even crucified him. Here, see for me the power of his ineffable wisdom. For from the perversity of the Jews, he brought about for himself—I mean the death—the cause of salvation, I say, for the inhabitants of the whole earth. And mortality was abolished through his resurrection, and corruption was trampled underfoot, and we have flourished again into life, we who through the transgression of Adam were thrust down into the opposite. ^D Not

^A that we say this prayer of our Savior Christ was uttered out of despair—far from it—but rather as a dispensation, which it is right to admire. We also say that this prayer, offered before the precious cross, was made with prudent counsel. For it has stood as an example and a form of necessary conduct for us. For when temptation hangs over us and fear floods in, we ought not to be slothful and supine, but rather vigilant and intent upon prayer, and to entreat God the Savior that, if it be His will, we may extricate our foot from snares and traps. But if we must suffer, He knows that it will be more beneficial for us if it proceeds to the end, He Himself granting the patience.

Since, therefore, the opinion of some has been shown to be less probable, let us come again to what we have in hand. For the Father says He gave Him as a covenant of the nations, to establish the earth and to possess the inheritance of the desert, saying to those in bonds: "Go forth," and to those in darkness: "Be enlightened." For when Israel rebelled and turned away from love for Him through unbelief, Christ brought laws to the nations and prescribed for them the New Testament, that is, the evangelical and saving preaching, and He established the earth—being, as is evident, troubled and not sufficiently prudent. For it had wandered, worshiping the creature and serving the flocks of unclean spirits. For it performed only what was deemed right by them. And others led it into every kind of turpitude and ordered it to live a bestial life. The earth, therefore, was not moderately troubled and in tumult; yet it was settled through Christ, and, as if from a storm and fluctuation, was turned into serenity. For it has become His portion and lot. And this is that which was said in the second Psalm to Him by God and the Father: "Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, ^B and the ends of the earth for thy possession." He calls the multitude of the nations the "desert," comparing it to an unfruitful and thirsty land. But, as I said, it has become the lot of Christ.

And how, and in what manner? For to those who were in bonds and constricted by the chains of their own sins, He cried out: "Go forth." And those who were in darkness and in intellectual gloom, and were, so to speak, buried in deep night, He ordered to be enlightened, and to come to the light, and to open the eyes of the mind, and to harbor the divine light ^C which is from Him. And those who were deemed worthy of these good things, He says, "shall feed in all their ways, and their pasture shall be in all the paths." For while there were many ways of probity, none were passable for the nations; they were rough and steep. And they had been overcome by the impulses of their own passions and by the greed of the devil, who set before them the good as impassable. But since the grace ^D of Christ has shone forth, it loosed their bonds, enlightened the heart, and enabled them from then on to run in every way and to gather the good food of the mind and understanding (for this is what "they shall feed" signifies) and to pass quickly through every path of probity. And nothing forbids us to say that the paths and ways lead our souls

^A to God, that is, to a holy and excellent manner of life, namely the divinely inspired Scriptures; these were least of all known to those who were wandering. But because they have been called to the light of the truth, they have become pastures for them, and fodder nourishing them for spiritual manliness and for the desire of every good. For God promises them the abundance of His grace, and assistance, and spiritual consolation. "For they shall not hunger, nor shall they thirst," He says. For formerly they were in need of spiritual consolation, since there was for them no divine law, no prophet, no pedagogue, no guide, no teacher, no fountain of intelligible waters. But when they have obtained mercy from God, the supply of spiritual goods has since ^B been provided in abundance for them, as they have possessed food beneficial to the soul. For they have eaten the bread from heaven, and have drunk the living water, concerning which Christ Himself spoke when addressing the Samaritan woman: "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will have in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life." The prophet Isaiah also spoke somewhere concerning those justified by faith, who bow the neck of their mind to the evangelical decrees: "He will dwell in a high cave of a strong rock; bread will be given to him, and his water shall be trustworthy." But neither shall the heat nor the sun strike them. For Christ has become a protector to them: who also formerly suspended a cloud by day for the children of Israel, and in a night of fire went before them in a pillar. Therefore, he says, they shall be outside the sun and the heat, that is, they shall be covered by a divine shelter, so that nothing may happen to them that is troublesome, or that might lead to faint-heartedness. ^C Of this kind is what the divine Paul also said: "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but will, along with the temptation, make a way out, that you may be able to bear it." For this, I think, signifies the fact that He who has mercy on them will console them. For "He will lead them by fountains of waters, and will turn every mountain into a road, and every path into pasture for them." By fountains here we mean the holy prophets, and apostles, and evangelists, by whom, conversing wisely and skillfully, we draw from them the life-giving and divine word, which is abundantly sufficient to be able to confirm our souls in piety, and to generate spiritual pleasure in us. For thus it is written: "And you will draw ^D waters with joy from the fountains of salvation." That no noble deed, however, will be arduous or difficult for those who have been saved through Christ, that statement may suggest when it says that every mountain is to be turned into a road. For it appears sublime, and high, and inaccessible to many, for one to cultivate virtue—for example, self-control, temperance, long-suffering, patience, meekness, charity, and the rest—but the Savior has rendered this whole way plain and level for us, so that what appeared impassable and unnavigable has been made smooth and accessible for those wishing to go that way. And that is, I believe, what is openly said

^A by one of the holy prophets: "Every valley shall be filled, and all the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways into smooth paths." And again: "The way of the righteous has become straight, and the way of the righteous has been prepared." That those who have been called are beyond number, and have been gathered together from every part under heaven, he shows by saying: "Behold, these come from afar, and these from the north and the sea, and others from the land of the Persians." For "from afar" seems to signify the southern regions; "the north," the northern regions; and "the sea," the western regions. For thus the Psalmist also makes mention of them, saying: "The north and the sea Thou hast created." But those from the land of the Persians would be those ^B who have been caught and ensnared from the East; for the land of the Persians is to the East. Perhaps it is also fitting to understand the Magi who worshipped Him. For they came into Judea, inquiring and saying: "Where is He who has been born, King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the East, and have come to worship Him." For they worshipped, and honored Him with gifts—I mean with frankincense, and gold, and myrrh. The Psalmist also makes mention of this when he speaks of the Savior of us all, Christ: "And He shall live, and there shall be given to Him of the gold of Arabia." For here he calls the region of the Persians Arabia.

"Rejoice, O heavens, and let the earth exult; ^C let the mountains break forth with gladness, because God has had mercy on His people and has comforted the humble of His people."

He summons into one assembly heaven and earth, and commands them right well to celebrate the feast for those who have been saved by Him. By "heavens," one might understand not the element itself, but those who dwell in the abodes above and possess heaven as their dwelling-place: the holy Powers, Principalities, and Thrones, and Dominions, and those even beyond them, the Seraphim. The "earth," likewise, signifies those who among them expect His epiphany, and know that He is to be present for the redemption of those from Israel and of all the nations that are upon the whole earth; just as, ^D clearly, Simeon the righteous, while still holding the child Jesus in his arms, gave glory to God, saying: "Now dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy word, in peace; because my eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all the nations," and so forth. If, perhaps, it is proper to understand as those who have been saved, those who therefore celebrate the feast and crown the Redeemer with worthy praises, then the "mountains" that break forth with gladness must be thought to be, just as I said a moment ago, those rational powers raised up on high in virtue, or the ministers of the evangelical preaching, who speak of Christ and the things that are His, and fill the earth with the joy that

God has had mercy on His people, and has comforted the humble of His people. For Christ, having shone upon them, has had mercy on all; if it be true, they have been rescued from the hand of the devil and the cruelty ^B of demons. And they have been delivered from the sin that formerly exercised tyranny over them, and moreover have been deemed worthy of the bonds of death; and they have been made partakers of the grace and the super-cosmic gift, having become participants of the Holy Spirit, and having been illuminated by the glory of adoption, and enriched with a hope that surpasses mind and thought. But observe the strictness of the prophet’s words; for he says: "He has comforted the humble of His people." And we say that those are humble who have subjected a flexible and tractable neck to Christ, and have not despised the yoke of His kingdom; because they have embraced the faith, and have also been prepared to render to Him the adoration and worship in spirit and in truth. Whereas those who have not embraced the faith are not humble, but raise their horn on high and speak injustice against Him, and lift up the proud neck of their mind, as it were, against His holy oracles. These have not been deemed worthy of the spiritual consolation: for they were not worthy. For what portion have believers with unbelievers, according to that which is written?

For Sion has said: "The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me. Will a mother forget her child, so as not to have mercy, and the fruit of her womb? But even if a woman should forget these things, yet I will not forget you."

For the Saviour and Lord of all set forth before others—to the children of Sion, or those from the blood of Israel—the grace through faith; and by countless words He endeavored to persuade them, saying: "Lay hold of the opportunity, in which it is possible for you, if you have believed in Him, to be enriched with the glories promised to your fathers." But they were stiff-necked and disobedient, and having despised the laws ^C described through the all-wise Moses, and having cared little for the prophetic proclamations, they slipped away from believing and were ensnared in the snares of the Lord-killing. For this cause they fell and were alienated far from the intimacy that is with Him. The remnant, however, has been saved, and Israel has not perished utterly. Nevertheless, those who have been saved are very few, and altogether a small number compared to the multitude of those who disobeyed. ^D Therefore very elegantly, Sion, bearing the person of the mother of Judea, is introduced now as it were weeping, as though she were despised by the God who gathers her together. Hence, with very few children remaining to her, she says: "The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me." And what does God say to these things? He declares His incomparable love toward men, and to the intelligible Sion, He promises the blessings of His mercies, and seeks to assure her that He could never forget His own handiwork. For just as a woman who has given birth cannot forget her own children, as one who has the law of nature as the dispenser and administrator of supreme piety and indulgence, so, He says, I…

having as a guarantor the highest philanthropy, or rather affection, the law of nature; thus, he says, not even I could forget my own, if perchance the affection that is even in mothers is surpassed by those divine things. For that one, indeed, it is not unreasonable that he should even lapse into forgetfulness. But for me to suffer this is not right. Therefore, the discourse is as if from the earthly Sion, or rather the mother of the Jews having suffered childlessness, or rather having few children; but the promise is as towards the intelligible Sion, to which the all-wise Paul says those who have believed have come ^B; so that you may understand the Church gathered from the Gentiles and the Jews, holding the type of the one above, of which also the all-wise Paul makes mention, saying: "But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all." [Galat. iv, 26] For it is the city of the living God, and the nurse of the firstborn, and the mother of the saints who are enrolled in heaven, whom Christ could never forget. For he loves the Church, which he set before himself, having made the two peoples into one new man, and reconciled both in one body unto the Father. How then could he forget his own body? That is to say, the Church, of which he is the head.

"Behold, I have graven your walls upon my hands, and you are before me always; and you shall be quickly built by those by whom you were torn down, and they that devastated you shall go forth from you."

The meaning of what is set before us is quite hard to find. For what are we to suppose the hands of God to be, upon which it is right to think that the walls of Sion have been inscribed? ^C For the most part, indeed, Holy Scripture names the hands of God his active powers, through which he brought all things into being, and through which he effects something according to his own judgment; as, for instance, the Psalmist declares the passage of every man into being, saying: "Your hands have fashioned me and made me," [Psal. cxviii, 73] because the sea is his, and he made it, and his hands have fashioned the dry land. [Psal. xciv, 5] And again: "And you, Lord, in the beginning did lay the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands." [Psal. ci, 26] Then how, one might suppose, could the walls of the Sion here understood be pictured, as on a tablet, by the active powers of God? Or of what kind of walls, in sum, does the discourse make mention? What, then, do we say? Nothing, I think, would prevent a disciple of Christ from applying to the things set before us a meaning of this kind. ^D Sion was accusing the Lord, as though he had forgotten her. But that this is not true, our Lord Jesus Christ attempts to show from the perspective of his incarnation, and from what he endured for our sake, becoming like us. For although it was within his power to exist in the form and equality of God and the Father, he did not consider this something to be seized, but rather descended to this emptying. He took the form of a servant, and became obedient to the Father even unto death, even the death of the cross. [Phil. ii, 6-8] For he was hung upon the wood, with his hands pierced by nails. But his saving passion cast down the principalities, and triumphed over the cosmic powers of the age.

^A and freed all from the tyranny of the devil, and brought us to God. For by his stripe we were healed, and he bore our sins in his body upon the wood; and though he himself was afflicted, we have been saved, and his passion has become for us a security and a wall. For he bought us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for our sake; and in that he suffered when tempted, he has come to the aid of those who are tempted; and he suffered outside the city, so that he might sanctify the people with his own blood.

Therefore—for I will say it again—the passion of Christ, and the precious cross, and the fixing of his hands, became a security and a wall inaccessible and unbroken for those who have believed in him. Rightly, therefore, one might say: "Behold, I have painted your walls upon my hands." You shall understand the piercing of the hands, or the passion, to be signified by this one thing. ^B "I have painted," he says, instead of "I have fashioned." "And you are before me always." For if he suffered for our sake, how could he forget us? Or how could they not be in his eyes, for whose sake he was fixed to the wood? But if anyone should wish, in another way also, to approach the sense of the things laid before us, I think it not at all absurd to understand it in this manner: that all who have believed in Christ are in the hands of God the Father, and one who says this would not err from the truth. For he himself said: "My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life." And furthermore: "No one shall snatch them from the hand of my Father," ^C inasmuch as they are under the protection on high, and fortified like a tower by the help from above.

When, therefore, God and Father holds us as it were in his hands, saving us and keeping us with himself, and not allowing us to be carried off anywhere to what is forbidden, nor to be subjected to the malice of those lying in wait, nor to become prey to diabolical violence, nothing prevents you from understanding even the walls of Sion as being, as it were, painted by his own hands—that is, trained toward spiritual elegance, and having a beauty that is well-distinguished by every kind of virtue.

Now, we say that the walls of Sion ^D are the holy apostles and evangelists, set for this purpose by God, and having their resolve toward him uninterrupted. For their names were written in heaven, and they were set in the book of the living. And do not marvel if he says the holy ones are the bulwarks and walls of the Church. For he himself is the wall, and the circumvallation, and the safeguard of all who have believed in him; yet he has given to his holy mystagogues, as in a rank of brilliant dignity, the title of being walls of his Church.

"You shall be quickly built," he says, "by those by whom you were destroyed." For the Jews, or rather the teachers of the Jews, destroyed the earthly Sion, that is to say, their own mother, while taking her away from Christ and teaching that this faith was not to be accepted. For they said: "We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he is." And when they had fallen into the lot of all evils,

^A and had slain the heir, they were the cause of its falling. But just as the Jews tore it down, so again the disciples—Jews by race—raised it up, transformed, of course; it did not remain as it was, that is to say, rebellious and a slayer of the Lord, but shining forth in faith, and clearly the faith that is in Christ. Those who had laid it waste departed from it; for the first teachers were cast out and others stood in their place, those whom we have just mentioned. For it was not possible to change it otherwise, and to love Christ, and to choose the truth instead of the shadow of the Law, unless the first ones had been driven out, lest they govern it iniquitously. The choir of the holy mystagogues was stirred up, of whom that divine David makes most beautiful mention, ^B chanting and saying to Christ, the Savior of all: "You shall make them princes over all the earth, and they shall remember your name in every generation and generation."

VERS. 18. Lift up your eyes round about, and see all. Behold, they are gathered, and have come to you. As I live, says the Lord, you shall clothe yourself with them all, and you shall put them on as a bride’s ornament.

In all the holy and divinely inspired Scripture, it is clearly stated that the portion and lot of Christ is those who are sprung from the blood of Israel, or the children of the earthly Sion, in the last times of the age. "For they shall return," ^C he says, "unto the Lord their God, and unto David their king. And they shall be amazed at the Lord and at His blessings in the last days." For the Church of the nations, which we also call the intelligible Sion, has entered in because of their unbelief. But they too shall be called, and there shall be one fold, one shepherd, so that they may no longer be called two Sions, but both may be consummated into one Church, subjected under the hand of one supreme shepherd. That these things will indeed and entirely come to pass, He proves when He speaks to the mother of the Jews: "Lift up your eyes round about, and see all. Behold, they are gathered, and have come to you. As I live, says the Lord, because you shall clothe yourself with them ^D all, and you shall put them on as a bride's ornament." For they were scattered, as if no shepherd had been over them. For it has been said through one of the holy prophets, as if in the person of Christ: "And I said, I will not shepherd you; let that which is dying die, and that which is failing fail, and the rest. And let each one eat the flesh of his neighbor." For what harm is that which has fallen away entirely from the mercy and love of God not prone to suffer? For they will be exposed to those who wish to rend them, and to carry them off, wheresoever it may seem good to each of those who are accustomed to do injury; and evil and destructive demons lead them away from God. For it is written: "They shall be portions for foxes." The varied passions that are in us also do this. For the all-wise Paul says that some were delivered into passions of dishonor and into a reprobate mind. What then, in

^A these words does the divine discourse promise? The calling and gathering of those who were dispersed, and the return in the Spirit of those who had perished, and the restoration of those who had fled, and the return and awakening, and the rewards of the love for Christ. "Look around," he says, "and behold them all. Behold, they are gathered to you." And in order to show the promise to be firm and valid, he confirms what has been said with an oath, and says: "As I live, says the Lord, for I will clothe all of them as if with the adornment of a bride." For the gathering is the ornament of the churches. And for this reason, it is the custom of divinely inspired Scripture to adorn the Church with golden and variegated clothing. For just as the various and most precious species of stones—I mean those of India—clinging to golden settings, add a certain wonderful and spectacular ornament; so also the souls of the saints, adorned with the distinctions of virtues, shine with the most splendid beauty before the eyes of the Godhead, so that each one gives thanks to Christ and says: "My soul shall exult in the Lord. For he has clothed me in the garment of salvation, and he has wrapped around me a tunic of joy as with a bridegroom's ornament, and as a bride he has placed a mitre on me."

^B VERSE 19-21. "For your desolate and scattered and fallen places will now be too narrow for those inhabiting them, and those who devoured you will be far removed from you. For your sons, whom you had lost, will say in your ears: 'The place is too narrow for me; make room for me, that I may dwell.' And you will say in your heart: 'Who has begotten these for me? I am childless and a widow; and who has brought these up for me? I was left solitary; but where were these for me?'"

By means of things that are perceived as if by sight and are more manifest, he continues the character of the discourse even now. For when Israel did not believe, and had laid hands upon Christ himself, the whole land of the Jews was ravaged, and the very temple, together with Jerusalem, was burned, and so great a dearth of men seized Judea that the blessed prophet Isaiah frequently indicates this very thing enigmatically. For he says: ^C "And seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, 'We will eat our own bread, and we will wear our own clothing; only let your name be called upon us. Take away our reproach.'" For it was said through the Law: "There shall be no barren or sterile person among the children of Israel." And they considered the disgrace of childlessness to be intolerable. When, therefore, the war had consumed the entire male sex, and those who remained were very few, he said that seven women would entreat one man, so that he might take away their disgrace, that is, their childlessness. But since it was burdensome for one man to provide sufficiently for seven women—to eat his bread and to be clothed with his clothes ^D

^A, they declare that they shall need nothing at all from him. For they asserted that they feared only the disgrace of childlessness, as I have said. Since, therefore, their land had reached a state of complete desolation, He promises a release from what had occurred, and says that the desolate and ruined places will be too narrow for the inhabitants who will occupy them. For those who were devouring it are removed—those, evidently, who had been allotted the leadership, who had practically ravaged it like wild beasts and swallowed it up. He shows also the multitude of those who were to be called, as being great and numberless. For "Thy sons," He says, "whom thou hast lost, shall say into thine ears, 'Make room for me.'" It has also been said elsewhere to the intelligible Sion: "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and fix thy curtains. ^B Spare not, extend [them] to the right and left." We have also read in the books of Moses that in the tabernacle made of skins in the desert, spacious and very long curtains were erected, some looking toward the east and the sun's ray, others toward the west behind the tabernacle, and indeed toward the north and the south, which type signified the future size and length of the sacred tents, that is, of the churches, in their own time. Nevertheless, with the grace of Christ always abounding, the places are cramped for those who believe, so that the Church, which is the intelligible Sion, might reckon with herself and cry out: "Who has begotten these for me?" But I would say that it is faith in Christ that has begotten them. For through it, though thou wast bereaved and widowed, thou hast become numerous in children; this [faith] has nurtured thy peoples for thee, and thou who wast once found alone, hast been enriched beyond expectation, and hast appeared fruitful in children, thou who wast once naked and solitary.

"Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I lift up my hand to the nations, and I will raise my signal to the isles, and they shall bring thy sons in their bosom, and they shall carry thy daughters on their shoulders. And kings shall be thy foster-fathers, and their queens thy nurses upon the face of the earth. And they shall worship thee, and lick the dust of thy feet. And thou shalt know that I am the Lord, and thou shalt not be ashamed, nor indeed shalt thou be confounded."

Having promised to Sion that she shall have many children and goodly children, and that her children will come to such a multitude ^D that they will stand in need of places wider than they had before, and that they will call for the tent to be widened, He shows immediately that the multitude of children promised to her will appear, not mainly from Israel, but from the flock of the nations. And the matter is true, and it is possible to see it from the very facts. For the remnant of those from Israel has been saved; but this is small and easily numbered. However, the world under heaven has been caught by the net through faith in Christ, and the power of the apostolic and evangelical preaching has brought to Him those throughout the whole earth. That this will therefore come to pass, He shows, saying: "Behold, I lift up to the nations..."

my hand." By "I lift up," He means "I exalt," "I raise on high." And the hand ^A signifies strength or power. For when Christ became known to the nations through the evangelical preaching, and became high and conspicuous by the miracles He wrought, and by His resurrection from the dead, when the sign of the precious cross was shown to those who had not previously known the God who is such by nature and in truth, then Sion grew rich with an abundance of children; then they came running to her from every quarter, cheering one another on and saying: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will announce to us His way, and we will walk in it." That there will be no steep or rough path, or any obstacle at all, for those going to the house of God, He makes clear, saying: "They shall bring thy sons in their bosom, and shall carry thy daughters upon their shoulders." For the blessed disciples, and those who after them still offer the discourse of the holy mysteries and preside over the Churches, have become like nurses to those from the nations. For they all but carry in their bosoms those who approach through faith, and place them upon their shoulders and bear them, imposing no heavy burden, but nourishing them like infants in a manner suited to their childhood, and setting before them the simple and very easy-to-understand discourse of catechesis. This, again, the prophet Isaiah himself taught us, saying elsewhere: "The way of the godly has been made straight, and the way of the godly has been prepared." For the way of the Lord is judgment. He also brought in the divine Baptist, crying and saying: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God. Every valley shall be filled, ^B and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways into smooth ways." That, therefore, for those who strive to go to Sion as to a mother, the approach will be without any toil, this being taken into the bosom and carried upon the shoulders of her sons and daughters would signify. That they will also abound in the highest honor, and glory, and happiness, he further demonstrates, saying: "Their kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers." For it is possible, it is indeed possible to see, by reason of the piety of those in authority, how those who have believed in Christ are treated with honor and deemed worthy of every mercy, so that they appear to be nothing other than their nurslings. For if they fall upon their faces and adore Sion—that is to say, the Church—and, cast ^C upon the ground with hands extended, all but lick the dust of her feet, there is no doubt that those who have progressed to this knowledge, and have been illuminated by this grace of piety, would add to their own deeds the necessity of honoring those who have been chosen; and those who have believed in Christ, they would count in the place of children. This having come to pass, Sion, who as far as the Jews were concerned was bereaved of children, will no longer be put to shame as a barren woman and a widow, but shall be crowned with glory. ^D

VERS. 24. Shall a man take spoils from a giant? And if one has taken captives unjustly, shall he be saved?

^A The form of the discourse is presented as an interrogation, but it requires understanding. The meaning of the words set forth is something like this: The orb of the earth had been captured by the devil and the herd of demons; there was no one on earth who could escape the tyranny of their perversity. For there was not one who did good, not one even so much as one, but the cord of sin was stretched out over all, and darkness and mist had descended upon the hearts of all, and had diverted them from knowing Him who is by nature and truly God, and had delivered them over to those who had gained mastery. Therefore, some worshipped the creature instead of the Creator, and the elements of the world, while others worshipped even those who had imposed their intolerable greed upon them. They became, then, as if under a harsh tyrant, taken by the spear, and captives, and—insofar as it refers to the mind that is within—prisoners to the one who had mastered them. But there was absolutely no one who could bring aid to those suffering injury. Therefore, the devil, puffed up with immoderate pride, said: "I will grasp the whole world with my hand like a nest, and I will take it up like abandoned eggs, and there is no one who will escape me, or say against me." ^B Since the devil had such an arrogant spirit against those on earth, the Savior inquires and says: "Shall one take spoils from a giant?" It is difficult, He says, and arduous to conquer the strong—for here he calls the strong a giant—and to take spoils from him. For how is this not a matter of doubt? Such beings are very fierce, and not easily overcome by just anyone, but are vulnerable only to those who have the power to raise a stretched out and invincible hand against them. "But I," He says, "will take them, and deliver those who have been injured; and, having broken their yoke of slavery, I will make them brilliant with the grace of freedom." Furthermore, that it is the just sentence of God that will despoil Satan, and will demand from the wicked one the penalties for the offenses committed against us, He will confirm when He adds: "And if one takes captives unjustly, shall he be saved?" We shall understand this verse as though it were by way of interrogation and a slight pause. For one who falls unjustly upon those who have done no wrong, and then carries them off as captives, and casts them into inescapable calamities, shall not be saved, but will pay the penalties for what he has dared to do. ^C Therefore, he will not only relinquish those who were in the rank of spoils, or rather, who had been made booty by them, but he will also be held to account for those who were not rightly under them. Something similar is said elsewhere: "As a garment stained with blood will not be clean, so neither shall you be clean, because you have destroyed my land, and killed my people, and you shall not endure for all time." One might also remind those who will read this composition that the Savior Himself is found to have said something of this sort in the evangelical oracles: "Or how," He says, "can one enter into the house of the strong man, and plunder his vessels, unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his vessels?" For by the house of the strong man—that is, of Satan—He referred to the earthly realm, ^D not as if it truly belonged to him, but because it had been occupied by him. But after the Incarnate Word entered it, having bound the strong man with ineffable power, his vessels,

^A that is, those who once thought his thoughts, he translated to himself. For just as we call the saints vessels of election, so we name as diabolical vessels those who are under him, and who either wished, or were compelled, to think his thoughts.

VERS. 25. *Thus saith the Lord: If anyone shall have taken captive a giant, he shall receive spoils; but receiving from the strong, he shall be saved.*

I said just now that our Lord Jesus Christ, using ineffable and god-befitting powers, entered the house of the strong man—that is, he came in the flesh into this world—and he despoiled him who formerly plundered and oppressed those throughout the whole earth, and subjected them to the yokes of sin, and treated them as war-captives. Having cast him as if into unbreakable bonds, and plunged him into the chains of darkness in Tartarus, he delivered ^B him to be kept for the judgment of the great day, there to be punished. And after this he plundered him, and persuaded those who were under him to return, and to desire to be truly subject to God, and to hold fast to His will, and to hasten to fulfill what leads them to the finding of salvation. And since Christ gained the victory, he transmitted the power to conquer to us ourselves, yet not without him; for he himself is the boast of the strength of the saints, according to the voice of the Psalmist. And indeed, the all-wise Paul says: *I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.* Accordingly, he shows that the ability to plunder the strong man—that is, the giant, I mean Satan—has become accessible ^C to us as well. *If anyone shall have taken captive a giant*, he says, *he shall receive spoils.* For when we rise above the devil’s power, and evade the assaults of the enemies, having Christ himself as the weapon of goodwill in all things, then we plunder the evil one, and bringing back the victorious vote, we are shown to be stronger than the perversity and malice that is in him. But that the power to conquer can come to those who show themselves manly—through Christ, and that no one can arrive at this dignity otherwise—he shows most beautifully by adding: *But receiving from the strong, he shall be saved.* For if he grants that we may overcome that murderous ^D dragon, we shall plunder him, and furthermore we shall be saved, as this victory transmits us to eternal life, to glory, to praise, and to the kingdom of heaven. Christ himself also said, having plundered Satan, and having rendered the way to obtain victory plain and easy for those who have believed in him: *Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall harm you.* It is true, therefore, that receiving from the strong—that is, from him (for he is the Lord of hosts)—we are both saved and we have conquered. Moreover, one might also plunder Satan in another way, if one were to skillfully bring back his subjects and those who have strayed to the light of the true knowledge of God, and lead them from their depravity to a holy manner of living.

^A Ver. 26. *Ego autem judicium tuum judicabo, et ego filios tuos liberabo, et comedent qui afflixerunt te carnes suas, et bibent quasi vinum novum sanguinem suum, et ebrii erunt, et sentiet omnis caro quia ego Dominus qui liberavi te, et qui adjuvi fortitudinem Jacob.*

He speaks, as I have said, to Zion; and by her sons he here seems to mean the holy apostles and evangelists, and those who after them were called to the ministry: for they have become lights in the world, applying the word of life, and everywhere proclaiming the glory of Christ and making manifest the power of his salvation to those who dwell throughout the whole world. Against them, even like some savage and brutal wild beast, and the dragon who is the prince of evils, accumulated afflictions and persecutions and intolerably incited ^B against them the satellites of his own wickedness. Thus, persecutions were often stirred up against the holy Churches, and the cruelty of tyrants, rushing in savagely, brought many into the contest and peril of martyrdom. But, he says, O Zion (and we say that this is the Church, which he calls Zion), "I will judge your judgment, and I will deliver your sons."

For those who offered no injury, who cleaved to God, and were accused of no foul crime, and who then endured the struggle unto life and blood—these run with such illustrious deeds to the heavenly habitations; but as for the counsel of those who prepared the snares, they have died and perished. Therefore, the judgment against them, that is, the righteous judgment, will be altogether from God. For those who through piety have emerged from these most noble contests and arrived at the prize of the upward calling shall be crowned with the crown of incorruption. But those who pursued them and unjustly slew them, whom it would have been better to emulate, shall eat their own flesh, and shall drink, as it were, not the blood of those who suffered, but their own. ^C For what they unjustly inflicted upon others, they shall suffer themselves by the righteous decree of God, who crowns those who have suffered and subjects those who committed injustice to long and unending punishment. And this righteous judgment will be most well known to all flesh, that is, to every human being. For those who fall into danger on account of piety will assuredly receive aid from me, who am able to help you, Jacob, that is, from the seed of Jacob.

I have said, moreover, that the prophetic word in these passages is written in the person of the holy apostles and evangelists, who were of Jacob, as far, I say, as the flesh is concerned. Nor yet is it absurd that Jacob should be named as any supplanter, that is, one who supplants ^D Satan and who skillfully and with youthful vigor leaps over the snares of sin. For Jacob is interpreted as "supplanter."

Cap. L. Vers. 1. *Sic dicit Dominus: Qualis est liber repudii matris vestræ? cui dimisi eam? aut cui*

^A creditori vendidi vos? Ecce peccatis vestris dimisi (id est, expepuli) matrem vestram.

The Divinity is incorporeal, separated from matter, and without outward form, and simple; and no one who acts rightly would ever suppose any corporeal form concerning It. But Holy Scripture speaks to us about It in a human manner. For those who are in this palpable and gross body could not understand matters otherwise, unless these things which are among us were brought forward by way of example, so that from things which come under the senses and sight, we might at least in part understand something concerning the Divine and supreme Essence, ^B which surpasses every corporeal form. Observe also here that the discourse is shaped by the prophet in a human manner. For just as a man dwelling with his wife, and joined to her, so He converses with the crowds of the Jews, and speaks concerning their mother: I mean, that is, the earthly and sensible Jerusalem; so that again, through him, and as in the person of one woman, their entire society might be understood. For just as when we say "Church," we do not apply the force of this term to the circuit of the walls, but rather signify the most holy multitude of the pious who are therein; so even if someone says "the mother of the Jews," he nonetheless designates them. Therefore, "I have not," He says, "cast out your mother, though I was to her in the place of a spouse, and have sown the seeds of probity, both through the Law and through the Prophets; but rather she herself departed, having made light of the rights that are owed to me, and holding as naught, in a manner of speaking, the being with God." For what writ of divorce was given to her ^C by me? For God drives no one from His fellowship, nor does He reject any of those who are accustomed to walk with a straight foot; but whosoever are genuine in faith and knowledgeable in all honesty, to these He permits that it may be lawful to possess, as if they were firm riches, the society and conjunction with Him forever. From so great glory falls away whosoever with his whole mind struggles against and dissents from His divine oracles, and is more a lover of pleasure than a lover of God. Therefore, as if in the place of a husband, living with the mother of the Jews: "What," He says, "is the writ of divorce of your mother, in which I have cast her out?" For no one, He says, can show that I have cast her out or have hated her, but rather one will accuse her, as having chosen her departure of her own accord. "But to what creditor have I sold you?" There is another habit and figure of speech in these words. ^D For He addresses them as a master to his servants. "For have I," He says, "like a man pressed by a lack of money, and falling in with creditors, gone abroad and exposed my servants to other masters? But how truly stupid this is even to think, or to say! For the Divinity is above necessity and destitution, and It has nothing to do with such commerce. Therefore I have not sold, nor have I hired you out to other masters, you who love me and are attached to my oracles. How then, therefore, did you submit to the yoke of another's servitude? The cause of this evil for you has become [your] sin. For of this, the father of sin and the inventor of all vice has forged you all, and he who

^A snatches those falling away from intimacy with God unto himself, and casts them into the pits of evils, and carries them down into the precipice of Hades. For it will follow in every way for those who have slipped from intimacy with God that they must be entangled in inescapable snares. For Satan is terrible in his greed, and whomsoever of those on earth he might see choosing to neglect being with God, these he subjects to his own ^B yokes, and carries them down into the uttermost evils, making them slaves instead of free, and dishonored instead of glorious. For such are always the wages of his perverse wickedness.

Vers. 2, 3. *Why, when I came, was there no man? I called, and there was none to hear? Shall my hand not have power to deliver? Behold, by my threatening I will make the sea a desert, and I will make the rivers deserts, and their fish shall rot for want of water, and shall die of thirst. And I will clothe the heaven with darkness, and will make its covering like sackcloth.*

The children of Zion, that is, those of Israelitish blood, and Zion herself, namely the earthly Jerusalem, having been sold by their own sins and cast out from intimacy with Him, he has spoken of very well, and brings them under accusation and a charge of remarkable mindlessness and ignorance ^C at once. For when the Only-begotten shone upon the inhabitants of the earth in the flesh, and appeared in a form similar to our own, they impiously forgot both the law and the prophets, and remained hard and unyielding, and were intemperately unbridled. For they did not want to recognize the Redeemer, the prince of salvation, who justifies the ungodly and is able to deliver from every charge those who are entangled in human infirmities. "I have come, therefore," he says, "that is, I put on humanity and appeared to those of Israel, and there was no man among them," that is, clearly, no sensible person, and one capable of knowing the time of redemption. "I called, and there was none to hear." For as the prophet Isaiah himself says again elsewhere ^D in the person of our common Savior Christ: "I was found by those who did not seek me, I became manifest to those who did not ask for me. I said, Behold, I am here, to a nation that knew me not. All the day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people."

And in the evangelical writings, we shall find the Lord very often calling His own [Jews] to faith: "Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you." And at another time: "He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." And furthermore, declaring that believing in them is fruitful and profitable: "Amen I say," He says, "to you, that he who believes has eternal life." And one could pile up very many other sayings having the same power, if one should choose to speak at length. Therefore, "I called, and there was none to hear," He says. But perhaps those who have thus offended out of remarkable mindlessness, with a hard and unyielding heart, will say that my hand is not able to deliver the world. And yet here truly he does not

^A know anything of the truth. For he was, as I said, in the likeness of our nature, although the Word was God. He became man, having undergone the birth in the flesh from a woman. But those who knew this, and were not ignorant of the depth of his divine mysteries, knew that he could do all things, being God by nature, and that he was sufficient for the redemption of the world under heaven. But the faithless and ignorant approached him as a common man, so that they even assailed him, saying: “For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” It would be consistent for these both to think and to say that his hand would not be able to succor those on earth, nor deliver those who have been conquered by the devil and sin. ^B "But," he says, "when you calculate these things, consider also something better; for I am not as you are, simply a man, but rather God having become in the likeness of our nature for the sake of the economy, that I might deliver you from both death and sin. For I myself who speak, am present, who formerly worked miracles through Moses, and with ineffable power divided the sea—and it is clear that this is the Red Sea. For the waters stood fast as a wall, and the redeemed crossed over, having cast off the yoke of slavery in Egypt. 'I will make the sea a desert,' he says here, meaning instead: 'I made it dry.' 'And I will set the rivers as a desert.' And the word 'I will set' should again be understood as 'I set.' For he caused the Jordan to stand, and rendered it devoid of waters, while Jesus brought Israel across and led them into the land of promise. But if he says that the fish are to be dried up in the waters, understand that this is added to signify that the Jordan was completely dried up, and mention was made of this so illustrious and great miracle also by the divine David, saying elsewhere: 'What is it to you, sea, that you fled? And you, Jordan, that you turned back?' ^C And at another time again: 'The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you, and they were afraid; the abysses were troubled, the multitude of the sound of the waters.' And concerning the Jordan he says again thus: 'You dried up the rivers of Etham,' that is, the southern ones. He also recalls another miracle, and says: 'I will clothe the heaven with darkness, and I will place its covering as sackcloth.' And 'I will clothe' is to be understood instead of 'I clothed.' For we remember that the all-wise Moses wrote that a three-day and deep darkness was scattered over the land of the Egyptians; but it did not harm those from Israel at all. For there was day and light for them. This is also paradoxical, and beyond all reason. Since, therefore, he says, I am that same one, and I have appeared in the flesh, who formerly made the sea a desert—that is, rendered it dry—and having worked this also in the rivers, and having clothed this vast heaven in darkness, and having made it manifest through the experience itself that I am the Lord of all, ^D there is nothing that is impossible for my powers.

Who would not justly incur laughter, or rather, the accusation of impiety, if one chose to think and say, "Is my hand not strong enough to deliver?"

^A *Vers. 4, 5. The Lord gives me a tongue of discipline, that I may know when it is time to speak a word. He placed it in me in the morning; He added an ear for me to hear, and the discipline of the Lord opens my ears.*

It is not discordant, but rather quite consonant with the most upright reasoned discourse, for us to apply these words set before us to the choir of the holy apostles, or indeed to all who believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, and who have been instructed by the Spirit, and who possess for this reason an abundantly illumined soul and mind, and who have become partakers of divine gifts, and have had the strength to behold with the pure eyes of the mind the depth of divinely inspired Scripture, and who have entered into the evangelical fineness of life and a holiness-befitting understanding. These, then, as they raise up hymns of thanksgiving, say that a tongue of discipline has been given to them, that is to say, the ability to speak with good instruction and to explain the divine mysteries blamelessly, and to know when and how it is fitting to use words ^B of consolation. This is exactly what the divine disciples did, filling and heaping up in mind and heart, in a healthy and unblemished way, the knowledge of the faith in Christ, and offering to each of those approaching the divine preachings the word that was proper and suitable for him. For to those who were still little children, they offered very well, as it were in the order of milk, the word of simple instruction, but to those who had arrived at the perfect man, and had reached the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, they gave solid and most nourishing food.

This, then, is the tongue of discipline, and the gift of knowing when it is proper to speak a word. And they say that it was placed in them "in the morning," that is to say, the brightness of the day in mind and heart, the illumination of divine and intelligible light, the rising of the morning star. And we shall understand this again from what the blessed Paul wrote thus: "Giving thanks to God and the Father, who delivered us from the power of darkness, and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love in the light." (Col. 1, 12). For the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers so that the illumination of the Gospel of Christ might not shine upon them. But for us, the Sun of righteousness has risen, shining with divine light upon our minds, so that we are and are called sons of light and of day. Then he says, "He added an ear for me to hear, and the discipline of the Lord opens my ears." For having accepted the faith in Christ, and having been enriched by the illumination from Him, we have had an addition of an ear—that is, a power of hearing that is unusual and formerly unknown. For the Jews, when they read the Law, do not go beyond the shadow, but sit amidst the types, bare and alone. "For the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God," as it is written. But we, believing the Law to be a pedagogue, when we receive what is through Moses into our ears, understand it through other [ears],

we turn this into an occasion for ourselves. We have, therefore, the addition of ears, ^A translating the types into truth and making the shadow a pretext for spiritual contemplation. For the instruction through Christ, that is, the evangelical proclamation and the mystagogy through him, spiritually persuades one to understand the Law. It opens, as it were, the ears of those who have believed in him—a thing which those of Israel do not possess. Our Lord Jesus Christ therefore says to them: "Search the Scriptures, because in them you think you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me; and you refuse to come to me that you may have life." And the all-wise and inspired Paul writes concerning them, "When Moses is read, a veil lies upon their hearts, not being unveiled, because it is abolished in Christ Jesus our Lord and Redeemer."

ORATION V

VERS. 6, 7. "But I do not resist, nor do I contradict. I have given my back to the scourges, and my cheeks to the slaps, and I did not turn away my face from the shame of spittings, and the Lord became my helper. Therefore I have not been confounded, but I have set my face as a firm rock, and I know that I shall not be ashamed, for he who justifies me is near."

From the things already read and examined above, he has leveled a very great reproach against the disobedience of the Jews. For he said, "I came and there was no man; I called and there was no one listening." Meanwhile, the person of those who have embraced the faith is interjected, who said, "The Lord gives me the tongue of instruction, so that I may know when it is necessary to speak a word," and the things that were added to these, and they also resounded with thanksgiving voices. Again, the person of Christ himself intervenes, ^C striving to contrast his own obedience with the contumacy of the Jews, so that he may convict them of being entirely enemies of God, and of lifting up a proud and stiff neck against him who calls them to salvation. "For I called," he says, "and there was no one listening." They have become slothful toward obedience, sluggish and utterly ignorant regarding what it behooves them to understand—that which ends in their own benefit—and also the ways by which it was probable that they could, and with no labor at all, escape both the tyranny of sin and the snares of diabolical perversity; but they refused. "But I do not resist," he says, "nor do I contradict." For since God and the Father willed to gather together all things in me, both those in heaven and those on earth, I humbled myself to empty myself, ^D and I descended to the measure of human poverty, appearing as a man so that I might become obedient even to death, and death upon a cross. "I have therefore given my back to the scourges, and my cheeks to the slaps. But I did not turn away my face from the shame of spittings." For it befell him to suffer these things, while the ignorance of the Jews raged against him, and Pilate lacerated him with scourges, and one of the impious ministers treated him contumeliously, and struck him, and the others spat upon him. But this one

^A aim of the sufferer was to carry out to the end the good will of the Father. And indeed Christ said somewhere, "I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me. This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all that he has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day." Therefore, in order to accomplish life for those who believe in him, he did not refuse insults, nor scourges, nor the trial of spitting, even though he is God by nature and true Lord. Then he speaks as a man: "And the Lord became my helper; therefore I was not put to shame, but I set my face as a hard rock, and I knew that I would not be put to shame, because he who justifies me is near." He discourses, as I said, in a human manner, and in no way inappropriately to the measures of the kenosis. ^B Yet he seems to hint through these words at the justice that has fallen upon those who committed impiety against him. For he says, "The Lord became my helper." It is as if he were to say: "When I gave my back to the scourges, and my cheeks to the smitings, and suffered the passion of the cross, the Father became my helper." For he assisted, nor did he allow his own Son to be utterly covered with shame or to be disgraced. For those who dared to fight against God have been punished and have paid the penalties for their transgressions against me. And by adding "He who justifies me is near," he revealed wittily again that the punishment for those who raved against him is not far off, nor ^C to be delayed, but is as if near, and will follow the deeds themselves as if as a companion and footman. We say that the Son is "justified" in a certain way. For since they dared to kill one who was just and in no way subject to crimes, as I said, they were punished; and the punishment of those who suffered testifies to the innocence of him who was contumeliously and impiously mistreated by them. God and the Father said something of this sort: "And I will give the wicked for his burial, and the rich for his death." By "the rich and the wicked," he names the leaders of the Jews. For burning with an incredible love of money, they were driven by it into the wickedness against him. And although they had recognized him, they said: "This is the heir; come, let us kill him and hold his inheritance for ourselves."

VERS. 8. "Who is it that contends with me? Let him stand against me at the same time. And who is it that contends with me? Let him draw near to me."

That he is just and completely innocent, and did not commit the sins which the Jews in their rage heaped upon him, the divine prophet Isaiah himself will confirm, speaking of him: "See how the righteous perished, and no one understands in his heart." And again, as if in the person of the Jews concerning him: "Let us bind the righteous man, because he is useless to us." And the matter itself would proclaim this. For with regard to the divine and undefiled nature of the Word, how was it possible for him [to commit] sin

a fault or to incur a stain? It ^A has been said, then, regarding Christ, the Savior of us all, that "He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth." Since, therefore, he declares himself to be innocent and righteous, having endured the plots of the Jewish Synagogue, he necessarily addresses those who either were altogether ignorant of his innocence, or perhaps thought that something wrong had been done to him, and judged that [the things] which [happened] upon the cross had been endured justly; and he says: "Who is it that contends with me? Let him stand against me together." Similar to this is what was clearly said by Christ himself to the Scribes and Pharisees: "Which of you convicts me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me?" Although the only-begotten Word of God had indeed become as we are and had put on the likeness in every respect, yet for this very reason he is believed to be the only one who has a nature beyond our own. For since every man is subject to trespass and sin, and there is no one whose life is altogether free from reproach in every part, he alone, even when he became man, ^B retained the God-befitting dignity for himself. For the nature of God, one might reasonably think, is beyond the capacity to transgress. Therefore, he also said, that "the prince of this world is coming, and he will find nothing in me." For he who became as we are, that he might deliver us from the snares of sin, how could he himself be overcome along with us, or how could he have come under stain and judgment, he who relieves all those who believe in him of judgment and stain? "For it is God who justifies; who is it that condemns?"

VERS. 9. Behold, the Lord will help me; who will harm me? Behold, all you [shall] grow old like a garment, and the moth shall eat you up.

He wishes to teach those who labored with impious and unjust envy against him two things at once, which are both useful and necessary. First, that their counsel and nefarious undertaking against him would be altogether futile; second, that they who transgressed against him would pay bitter and unbearable penalties. For they thought that they could hand over to death the Lord, the author of life. But, as the Psalmist says: ^D "They devised a counsel which they shall not be able to establish." For it was impossible, since he himself was life, for him to be overcome by death. He was raised, therefore, by the power of God and the Father, as it is written, and not because he himself was weak, as far as he is understood to be the Word and God, in the sense that I mean of being [unable] to cast off the corruption of his own flesh; but because he became man, and this he seemed to receive from the Father. For all things are given to man by God. For that God and the Father abolished through him the power of death, by his resurrection from the dead, would be clear from his saying to the crowds of the Jews: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." But since it is his custom to attribute what is above the hand and nature of man to the person of the Father

^A he also says here in a human manner: "Behold, the Lord helps me; who shall harm me?" For, he says, with God and the Father coming to my aid and destroying all your insolence, and establishing my glory, who among you will be so great as to resist his invincible counsel, and be able to harm him who is helped by him? Therefore, if the Scribes and Pharisees had been sensible, they would have refrained from their schemes and attempts against him, having learned before from the holy prophets that no one would have the power to harm Christ, being God, and Lord, and true Son of the Father; but they themselves, rather, brought down upon their own heads a terrible and most searching punishment. And he teaches this by adding: "Behold, you shall all grow old like a garment, and the moth shall eat you up," that is, you shall go away into aging, and rottenness, and disappearance, ^B being consumed by many and inescapable evils, and by an incurable calamity devouring you like a moth. The prophet Isaiah says this again elsewhere, somewhere: "Why will you still be struck, adding sin? Every head is for pain, and every heart for grief; from the feet to the head, there is no soundness in it, neither wound, nor bruise, nor festering sore; it is not possible to apply a poultice, nor oil, nor bandages. Your land is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, strangers devour your country in your presence, and it is desolate, overturned by alien peoples." The prediction of these thus-abhorred things was more than sufficient to persuade the Jews to be quiet, and by no means to choose to offend God, ^C since, as I said, their intrigue was going to be fruitless, and they themselves were going to pay the penalty for their unaccomplished attempts, and to fall into utter destruction and ruin.

Who among you is he that fears the Lord? Let him hear the voice of his Servant.

Saying that they shall grow old like a garment—those who wish to labor in vain, and to revel in their own outrages against him (for he says: "Behold, you shall all grow old like a garment, and the moth shall eat you up"), he henceforth offers his kindness to the gentle, and points out to them the path of salvation; for very many of those from Israel have believed, as was also clearly declared in the Acts of the Apostles. For the remnant has been saved, ^D of which the divine disciples were like a first-fruit and beginning. Therefore, to those who are more ready for faith, he holds out things from compassion, saying: "Who among you is he that fears the Lord? Let him hear the voice of his Servant." By calling himself the Servant of God, he allows it to be understood that, although he has become man, he is the true Son of God and the Father. And to hear the voice of his Servant was not a transgression of the law, but a confirmation of the law, which through type and shadow described beforehand the truth, which is Christ and his predictions. Hence also the most wise Paul writes and says: "Do we then abolish the law through

^A faith? By no means; on the contrary, we uphold the law. It is written: 'The righteous shall live by faith.'" And the mystery of Christ was the end of the law and the prophets, justifying the ungodly through faith, and delivering from charges those who were entangled by their own transgressions. Therefore, to hear his voice—that is, the voice of Christ—is to accept the evangelical and saving proclamation, and it was a confirmation of the law. That it is well-pleasing to God the Father for those on earth to be instructed by the words of the Son, the power of the evangelical Scriptures might demonstrate to those of more understanding. For Christ was transfigured on the mountain, and his face shone as the sun, and his garments became white as the light; and Moses and Elijah were seen ^B conversing with each other; then a voice came from God the Father, enjoining the holy apostles and saying: "This is my beloved Son, hear him." If any one, then, he says, has the fear of God in his mind, and has hidden and stored it up within himself like some treasure, let him hear the voice of his Son. For the evangelical and divine proclamation is, as I said, a calling to redemption through faith in Christ, and to a holy manner of life, far more excellent than the legal conversation. For the latter, as I said, was in shadows: the former has a bright and manifest truth.

VERS. 10. *You who walk in darkness, to whom there is no light, trust in the name of the Lord, and lean upon God.*

^C The most skilled physicians sometimes mix certain helps of mild remedies with sharp drugs, soothing the bitter and harsher pain as if by an incantation. Such a thing we discover our Lord Jesus Christ to have done now. For he rebukes them as walking in darkness, and held as it were in a mist, and entirely deprived of light—obviously of the divine and intelligible light—and directing their paths toward nothing that contributes to salvation, or rather to what is useful for them, but toward those things which easily cast them down into the pit of destruction. For it is not possible, it is not possible, for those who are in darkness to ever walk with a straight foot. For they are carried down into a pit if one is found, and if stones have been thrown about, they stumble ^D through carelessness. To you, therefore, he says, I propose admonitions, you who walk in darkness and foolishly do not admit the light from me. "Trust in the name of the Lord, and lean upon God." For the Jewish people, when from great stupidity they saw the only-begotten Word of God in a form similar to ours—that is, having become man—did not understand the mystery concerning him; but, being foolish, they often offended him with shameful words, sometimes calling him a Samaritan and a drunkard; sometimes being incited to anger by a false zeal. For they said: "For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy: because you, being a man, make yourself God." Necessarily, as I have already said, having become man...

He manifests to them His transcendent and God-befitting glory and power, and He brings those who might wish to think insignificantly of Him to a different frame of mind, saying: "Trust in the name of the Lord, and rely upon God." Most clearly, then, He affirms that He is Lord and God, leading them away, as I said, from wishing to think or speak anything base or abject concerning Him. And it is a boast for those who have received the faith to trust in Him, and to make Him their rod and support. For He sustains all things so that they may be well. And this, I think, the inspired Psalmist teaches, saying to the Father and God of all: "Your rod and your staff, they have comforted me." For the human mind is slippery regarding the things of this world, and inclines much toward ^B extravagant pleasures and carnal interests; it always needs One to save it, and to stretch out a saving hand, so that even those who have become partakers of this aid may say: "He set my feet upon a rock, and He directed my steps." That the mind of the Jews had been enveloped in darkness and gloom, one may see from the Holy Scriptures. For the most wise Paul says: "The god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that the illumination of the Gospel of the glory of Christ might not shine forth." And the inspired prophet Isaiah also speaks thus concerning those who are of the blood of Israel: "When they expected light, darkness came upon them; and when they awaited splendor, they walked in darkness." Christ Himself also called them to the light, saying: "I am the light ^C of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life." It is therefore established, and it is true, that for those who do not choose to follow Him in every way and altogether, it will follow that they walk as if in night and darkness.

VER. 41. "Behold, all you who kindle a fire, and strengthen a flame. Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame which you have kindled. By me these things have come to pass for you; you shall sleep in sorrow."

He shows them something else also, which seemed able to lead them without labor to think rightly. For the remembrance of punishments renders even the disobedient and hardened mind somehow tractable and compliant through useful terror. He says, therefore, that they kindle ^D a fire against themselves, and strengthen a flame. For as they stumble through long-standing disobedience, and wish to have so unadmonished a heart, they stir up against themselves the unquenchable flame, clearly that of punishment. The saying stated by our Savior Christ of all to the same effect matches these thoughts: "He who believes in the Son is not judged. But he who does not believe is already judged, because he has not believed in the name of the Son of God." For what else is it to be judged, if not to fall into a flame, and into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels? But when He adds, "you have strengthened the flame," He implies something harsh.

For those who add fuel to a fire that is able to burn, strengthen it. Indeed, the flame rages in much fuel, but it grows somewhat weaker when it does not abound in many things. The Jews, therefore, kindled a fire against themselves, having killed the prophets and having stoned those who were sent, and they strengthened their own flame by adding their outrages against Christ to their previous crimes. For they added the Son to the servants, and as far as they were concerned, they killed the Prince of life, even though He rose again, being God and Life. But since they did not accept the instruction through Christ, remaining in the shadows of the Law—for this reason, and very reasonably, as those who think they have the light of the Law, but do not truly have it, He casts them off from His union and fellowship, saying: "Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame which you have kindled." For there was no light in them, but since they thought they knew the Law, and yet refused to accept the Christian doctrine delivered to them, this produced for them this flame and conflagration. That they have paid the penalties for their outrage against Christ, and will die entangled in their sins, He declares when He adds: "Because of Me these things have happened to you; you shall sleep in sorrow." And what are these things? For their region has been laid waste, the wicked have perished miserably, ^B and the holy city has been captured and has fallen into the hands of enemies, and the temple itself has been burned, and they have slept in sorrow. For those who finish their lives uncircumcised, and refuse to accept the redemption through Christ, will not sleep in the hope of rewards and in spiritual tranquility, but in the fear of punishments and in sorrow on account of them.

Cap. LI. Vers. 1, 2. Audite me, vos qui quod justum est persequimini, et qui Dominum quaeritis. Intuemini in solidam petram quam excidistis, et in foveam lacus quam effodistis. Intuemini in Abraham patrem vestrum, et in Sarram quae peperit vos, quia unus erat, et vocavi eum, et benedixi ei, et dilexi eum, et multiplicavi eum.

Having reproached sufficiently those who have hardened themselves against the truth, and having rendered manifest the punishment that will befall them if they do not wish to follow the evangelical precepts, and if they persist in raising the proud and stubborn neck of their own mind, He appropriately transfers the words of exhortation to those who believed from the blood of Israel. For the nation of the Jews has not perished entirely, ^D but a remnant has been saved according to the voice of the prophet. And indeed, as it is written in the Acts of the holy apostles, very many accepted the word concerning Christ, and recognized the manifestation of His glory. To these, therefore, He speaks, and says: "Hear me, you who pursue the just, and who seek the Lord." By "the just" He means "justice," and it is clear that He means the justice through Christ, that which is, I say, through faith in Him, which justifies the ungodly, and frees from all filth those who are stained, and which sanctifies in the Spirit, and produces the illustrious praise of adoption. They persecute...

^A righteousness, not as though they were driving it away or casting it from their own minds, but as those running toward it, so that they might apprehend it. Something like this the inspired David also said: "Seek peace, and pursue it." Or you might understand it also in accordance with that which is brought forward by one of the holy prophets, saying: "Wherewith shall I apprehend the Lord, shall I take hold of my God the Most High?" Therefore, they pursue righteousness, as I have said, that they might seize it once they have found it. These would be they who are also seeking the Lord Himself, that is to say, Christ. For they find Him through faith, the God and Father calling them to this. And indeed, Christ said somewhere to the crowds of the ^B Jews: "Murmur not among yourselves. No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him." But mark this: God does not discourse to all simply, but rather to those who would be pursuing righteousness, and seeking Him as well, according to the ways just mentioned by us. Therefore all who have been called through faith in Christ to the knowledge of the truth are taught by God. And as for what might be meant by the meaning of these notions, we shall say as best we can. For there was a very great multitude of the Jews, but very few indeed from among them believed. Yet that those who believed would in time increase into a ^C superior multitude of a vast number—those gathered by God—is what He attempts to confirm, having taken the inspired Abraham, and with him Sarah, for the sake of an example and to confirm hope, by being added to those from the circumcision and the so-called uncircumcision, that is to say, the Gentiles. For they were the root of the whole nation, even though they had reached a senile and more than mature age, nor was there any hope left of being able to conceive. For he was one hundred years old, and she was barren and childless. But since nothing is difficult for God, and all things are smooth and easily driven, they became the origin and root of a multitude of people ^D that rivals the stars. For it was said somewhere to the inspired Abraham that he should look up to the stars and believe that his seed would be equal in number to those that were seen. And as for the fact that Sarah had not given birth according to the law of human nature, and the inspired Abraham had become the father of a child, being already an old man and past the age of generation, he takes two examples: a solid rock being hewn out, and a deep pit being dug. For just as it is one of the most difficult things to be able to hew stones out of a solid and stubborn rock, and to dig a deep well, in the same way, I think, it was not easy—or rather, it was impossible—for a child to spring from an old man and a barren woman. But it has been accomplished paradoxically, and this, with God assenting. When, therefore, you who have believed consider yourselves to be few—inasmuch as the divine and holy proclamation is in its beginnings—yet be firmly disposed, He says, because it will still increase into a multitude exceeding in number.

For there is one Abraham, and I called him, and I blessed him, and having blessed him I loved him, and having loved him I multiplied him; that is to say, I have established him as the father of the whole Jewish race, or rather nation, and in addition to this, of those who are of promise. For it was said to Abraham, "I have established thee a father of many nations." ^A Therefore, the one who is called is blessed, and whoever is blessed shall in every way and altogether be loved; and he who attains to this will be numerous—spiritually, of course. For he shall have varied fruits from virtues and evangelical distinctions. Moreover, even according to the account of history, it is possible to see the promise as true through the events themselves; for the world beneath the heavens worships Christ, the Savior of all, and all things have become full of Him, and the whole earth is filled with His glory.

VER. 3. *And I will now comfort thee, O Sion, and I have comforted all her deserts, and I will make her deserts as the paradise of the Lord. Gladness and exultation shall be found in her, confession and the voice of praise.*

The discourse ^B of the holy prophets is always fashioned in some way toward visible things and things that fall under the senses. Yet it has its reference to things beyond sense and to intelligible things. Therefore, even if he names Sion, do not imagine the earthly one, but rather accept the intelligible one, which is the Church of the living God; for otherwise how could one see the words of the prophet coming out into truth? For God promised that He would comfort her, yet we shall nowhere find this to have happened [to the earthly Sion]; but on the contrary, one can see her desolate and ravaged. Consequently, the prophet’s discourse is now addressed to the multitude of those who believe, which is the Church of the living God. And what, then, does He say? Just as, He says, I have called ^C Abraham, and being one I established him as the father of many nations, so too will I comfort thee, O Sion. Now the comfort here is a promise that brings gladness and implants a firm hope in the hearers, that because God is gathering from everywhere those who are to be called through faith, she will not be deserted and laid waste, but will be like a certain flourishing and most fruit-bearing paradise, thick with beautiful and noble plants, and possessing an intelligible fertility, that is to say, gladness and exultation, confession and the voice of praise. Understand from this that He promises to lead away from the legal ^D worship those who are to be in the rank of plants, and who are to fill the intelligible garden, which He also calls the paradise of God. For of old the law of Moses commanded one to sacrifice oxen, to slaughter sheep, to offer turtledoves to God, and fine flour mixed with oil. But the God of all is no longer accessible through these sacrifices, but as Christ Himself said, "God is a Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." Now the worship in spirit and truth, and the power of the intelligible service, has a sweet fragrance, a spiritual gladness and exultation in the hope in Christ. For we are confident that He will also transfigure the body of our lowliness, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory; and we shall be together and reign together with Him, being ordered in

^A the rank of the children of God, and enriched with His divine and life-giving Spirit. We, too, bring to Him an intelligible fruitfulness, confession, and a voice of praise—that is, hymns, doxologies, and odes of thanksgiving. For it is with such sacrifices that God is well pleased.

“Hear me, my people, and ^B you kings, give ear to me; for a law shall go forth from me, and my judgment for a light of the gentiles.”

Promising that He would manifest a vast and uncountable multitude of those believing in Him, He addresses them thus, as though it were already gathered together, and instructs them and initiates them from henceforth as His own true worshippers, so that what was written concerning them might appear true: “And they shall all be taught of God.” The divinely inspired David, therefore, also sings, and says thus to Christ, the Saviour of all: “Blessed is the man whom Thou shalt chasten, O Lord, and shalt instruct him out of Thy law.” He promised, furthermore, glory on account of this to those who had recognized His manifestation. And indeed, He says through one of the holy prophets concerning His own presence, which took place in this world in the flesh: “In that time, says the Lord, I will give my laws into their mind, and I will write them upon their hearts.” The all-wise Paul, rightly understanding this, writes and says to those who have attained this: “You are our epistle, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.” Therefore, “Hear me,” He says; that is, receive my words, and do not become intractable and rebellious like Israel, clinging to the antiquity of the legal letter and seeing nothing beyond the shadows. He says that the commandment ^C given through Moses was until the time of reformation. But since the time of the incarnation is no longer awaited, but is already present, let the shadow pass over to the truth. “Hear me, therefore, my people.” By saying “my people,” He puts forward the spiritual intimacy granted to them at the present time, persuading them, as I suppose, and by this means also making them more ready, as I say, to accept the word from Him. He calls not only those who are numbered among the common people, but together with them He calls also kings, so that you may understand the princes or those who are set over the nations. For many were brought to this from the multitude of believers, of whom the divine disciples were the first-fruits; then, after them, those who followed in their footsteps were invested with the name of royalty—since they were indeed enriched with the name of royalty and were also appointed to lead the peoples. And so, as if from exceeding great joy, they offer songs of thanksgiving to God, saying: “He has subjected peoples under us, and nations under our feet.” The divine singer also sings concerning them: “The princes of the peoples are gathered together with the God of Abraham.” Therefore, O peoples and kings, ^D hear me and hearken, and announce what is to come. “A law shall go forth from me, and my judgment for a light of the gentiles.” By this He speaks of the divine law and the evangelical preaching. For it is in one way a certain...

different sort of thing, like the ^A new and saving decree; yet it is a transformation of the ancient law for the better, and a transition of types that have run their course toward the truth. For Christ said: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For I say to you, that not one iota or one serif shall pass from the law, until all things are done.” For the law in letters was given through Moses; but the saving—that is, the evangelical—preaching went forth through Christ. For it was fitting, as it seems, for Moses to be the minister of the shadow and the type, but for Christ to be the illuminator of knowledge and the true worship in the Spirit. For He is the true light. ^B He adds to these: “My judgment for a light of the gentiles.” By “judgment” here He means either His holy and philanthropic decree, which brought forth the grace from Him into the light of the gentiles, or “judgment” as rectitude and just judgment—that is, the evangelical justice. For so the inspired David makes mention of the sacred preachings, saying: “Thou hast prepared rectitude, judgment, and justice in Jacob, Thou hast established them.” But if He says that the divine and saving preaching was established in Jacob in these instances, and not rather among the rest of the gentiles—yet one must remember God saying clearly: “I was not sent except to the lost ^C sheep of the house of Israel.” And indeed also through the voice of the inspired David himself: “But I was established king by Him (it is clear that this means by God and the Father) upon Zion, His holy mountain, proclaiming the commandment of the Lord.” For the fathers and the promise, the legislation and the covenant, were indeed from Israel. But since they became disobedient apostates and slayers of the Lord, grace has therefore since migrated, and has become a light to all the gentiles.

VERS 5. “My justice draws near quickly, and my salvation shall go forth, and in my arm the gentiles shall hope. The islands shall await me, and in my arm they shall hope.”

He does not allow the zeal of the called to be extinguished, or to wither as it were ^D in sorrow, nor does He say that the delay of hope will be for a long time; but He shows that the promise follows these words, as it were, at heel. Of such a kind is that which, by the voice of Habakkuk, or which was said to him by God: “Yet a little while, a little while, and He who comes will arrive, and will not delay.” For the hopes of good things, when thirsty for that which they await, melt away from hesitation and procrastination. Hence He says that His justice draws near. And if we should wish to attribute these words to the person of God and the Father, we say that He calls the Son His justice. For we have been justified in Him, and not from works done in justice which we have performed, but according to His great mercy. For He came into this world, not that He might judge it, but that it might be saved through Him. And it was saved in no other way except that

^A by means of much kindness. For He says, "I, I am He who blots out your iniquities, and I will not remember them." And again, "And you, Israel, do not forget me. For behold, I have blotted out your iniquities as a cloud, and your sins as thick darkness." David also sings, and indeed says to Him: "You have been favorable, O Lord, to Your land; You have turned back the captivity of Jacob; You have forgiven the iniquities of Your people, You have covered all their sins." Therefore, in the righteousness of God and the Father, that is, in Christ, we have been saved and sanctified, having washed away the stains of our depravity. But if it is Christ Himself who says, "My righteousness draws near quickly," you shall understand "righteousness" in this context no less as the justifying grace that comes from Him, or rather the evangelical and heavenly proclamation, through which we have known the way of the righteousness that is pleasing to Him, and have been led toward every one of the best deeds, ^B according to what is said in the Psalms: "Your law is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths." And indeed, He calls righteousness "salvation," and with very good reason. For it draws us out of every evil, and by releasing us from the bonds of death, carries us up to undying life. But He promises something else, too. "For the nations," He says, "shall hope in My arm." And He even asserts that the islands shall wait for Him. For in times past, the multitude of the nations, entangled in unbreakable bonds—by which I mean the bonds of sin—and subjected to the rapacity of the all-wicked and original-evil serpent, was captive, and in the utmost miseries was utterly without help. For there was no one who could deliver them from so bitter and inescapable a calamity; there was no one who could break the yoke of that rapacity. But they were, as I said, in the place of captives, stripped of all hope that leads to life, and destitute of every good thing. For those who did not know Him who is by nature and truly Lord, being altogether ^C estranged from God and "having no hope," continued in the world, according to the voice of the blessed Paul. But, He says, those who were once weak, and as though cast down to the ground, taking My arm for salvation, will gain an unexpected hope. Now, holy Scripture everywhere calls the Son the arm of the Father. For He is His power. But if anyone should also wish to understand the arm of the Son Himself, upon which the hope of the nations who are called to salvation will rest, you shall understand it to be His divine and extraordinary power, through which, having crushed Satan and the world-rulers, He has saved those from the nations. For He Himself said: "Or how can anyone enter into the house of the strong man and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his goods?" And David also said: "You have humbled the proud as one wounded, and with the arm of Your power You have scattered Your enemies." Consequently, Christ is hope and the way of salvation, not ^D only for the Israelites, but also for all the nations; for whom also the islands shall wait. And by islands, I suppose, He means the churches of the nations, which, set in the midst as if in a sea, [are]...

are struck by the assaults of circumstances as if by waves, yet take away the crown of approval through patience. For patience works probation, and probation hope, and hope does not confound. Therefore, to wait for God should be understood as nothing else than to please Him rightly through endurance and patience, and for this reason to be deemed worthy of His mercy and oversight. For it is written: “Waiting I waited for the Lord, and He attended to me.”

VERS. 6. *Lift up your eyes to heaven, and look down to the earth; for heaven has been established like smoke, and the earth shall grow old like a garment, and those who dwell in the earth shall die in like manner. But my salvation shall be for ever, and my justice shall not fail.*

Since He declares that He will be a hope to the nations, He weaves for them a necessary mystagogy. For they who knew Him not could not otherwise be joined to God by spiritual kinship, unless they were freed from their former error and loosed from the snares and diabolical perversity, and enriched with a true and irreprehensible knowledge of God. For as it were an approach into familiarity and conjunction with God is to know clearly and to confess that there is no other God besides Him. Since, therefore, they opined ^B that heaven was God, and were persuaded to worship the brighter stars, and worshipped the very earth that lies under the feet of all, departing entirely from the opinions of piety, and from Him who is by nature the God of the universe, and who brings into existence things that once were not—hence, showing that the creature has a nature other than His own, and declaring the incomparable difference between the Maker and the thing made, He commands them to lift their eyes to heaven, that is, to contemplate the firmament itself and what is in it, and to cast their mind down again to the earth, or rather, to the contemplation of the living things in it, and, to speak once for all, to contemplate everything; and if they wish to admire Him, not to let their mind rest there, but from the magnitude of the works to measure the power of the Artificer, and the supreme and ineffable glory of the Creator of all. We are accustomed, however, to gather the knowledge of God both from the divinely inspired Scripture and from the magnificence and order of the creatures. For Paul derides the wise men of the Greeks because, while they imagined themselves wise with the error of opinion, they had a heart filled with every folly. ^C “They worshipped,” he says, “and served the creature rather than the Creator.” He also rebukes others who turn back again to the weak and beggarly elements of the world, and wish to serve them contrary to what is right. For he declared that for the more discerning, the beauty of the workmanship does not provide a cause for error, but an occasion for the true knowledge of God, when he says: “For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the works, even His eternal power and divinity.” When, therefore, He says, you shall marvel at the established heaven, and as if

it were seen in the form of smoke, ^A know also, He says, that those things which have been brought forth to exist shall again be dissolved. For those things which have the beginnings of their generation shall again at some time end in that which is not. The earth, therefore, shall be worn out by age, He says—that is, it shall be destroyed—and they that dwell upon the earth shall die, even as these things shall. He aptly names the change for the better the “death” of the elements. For as Paul says, “And the creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.” But in what manner shall it be delivered? The disciple of Christ shall make it clear, saying, “For the day of the Lord will come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with a rushing noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with heat, and the earth and the works that are in it shall be burned up. But we wait for new heavens and a new earth according to His promises.” He says, therefore, that the renovation of the creation shall be as it were a resurrection from the dead, just as with human bodies. But while the elements are being dissolved, “My salvation shall be for ever,” He says, “and My righteousness shall not fail.” Now, as we have said very often, He calls the Son “Salvation” and “Righteousness”; and by saying “My,” He shows ^B the property which He has with Him, and that the Son is by nature from Him and in Him. But “He shall be for ever,” He says, “and shall not fail.” Moreover, He makes clear by these words how great the difference is between the Creator and the creation, between the Maker and the made, saying: For the creation shall be worn out by age, and as it was brought from that which was not into that which is, so it shall not be alien to corruption. And the Creator and Artificer of all, the God the Word, through whom are all things, and in whom are all things, shall be for ever, and shall not fail. This the divine Melodist also teaches, saying: “Thou, O Lord, didst lay the foundations of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the works of Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou shalt abide, and they all shall grow old as a garment, and as a vesture Thou shalt fold them up, and they shall be changed; but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail.”

“Hearken unto Me, ye that know judgment, My people, in whose heart is My law: fear ye not the reproach of men, nor be overcome by their contempt. For they shall be as a garment that shall be eaten away by time, and as wool that shall be eaten by the moth; ^C but My righteousness shall be for ever, and My salvation unto generations of generations.”

Having instructed those from the nations, and having woven for them a discourse simpler and suited to their minds (for milk is more appropriate for those yet childish in their habit), He addresses again those who are already manly, and who possess a stronger heart and a mind well-established, and who consider nothing ^D of piety to be a hardship.

^A He declares clearly who these are: "You who know judgment," that is, who, like certain proven money-changers, examine each of the things that ought to be done, and judge accurately, and hold fast to what is good, while abstaining from every evil thing. These are they who have the law of God deposited in their mind and heart, and have accustomed themselves to accept it as a kind of pedagogue and wise guide. David indeed psalms and says concerning every just and wise man, that "the law of his God is in his heart, and his steps shall not be tripped." It is therefore a salutary thing to deposit and store up the divine law as it were in our mind and heart. For just as a vessel made of brass or some other such material, when fire is brought near and piled up, remains hot, so too the soul of a man having the divine law in his mind is in every way fervent in the Spirit. And one of the holy disciples says that because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold. ^B Hear then, He says, you who know judgment and who carry my law in your heart. Do not fear the reproach of men, and be not overcome by their scorn. For all who desire to live piously in Christ will suffer persecution; and as they suffer for the sake of piety, they bear the mockery of those who do not know it. But one must hold such things as nothing, and rather understand that even the Savior of all and Lord Himself endured the cross, despising shame. And for this reason He said: "The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more his household." ^C Furthermore: "Blessed are you when they shall persecute you, and revile you, and shall say all manner of evil against you, falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in the heavens. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." You ought, therefore, to have a mind unbroken concerning these things, and to spit upon the laughter of your persecutors as stale, and to scorn all railing, and rather to consider it a cause of all honor to be persecuted for the sake of piety, and to be reviled for Christ. For what will insult harm, and a word stirred up from an unintelligent heart, against him who has attained the praise of patience? For that the glory of those who have suffered will shine forth at the proper times, and that those who have scorned and heaped reproaches will depart into nothingness, He has confirmed by saying, that "they shall grow old like a garment by time, and they shall be eaten like wool by a moth." ^D Now wool and a garment suffer growing old and corruption most easily. "But my justice," that is, the justification through me, "and the salvation which has been given shall be long and unending, and it shall run unto many generations," that is, it shall stand perpetually. Therefore, if we have suffered a few things for the sake of piety, we shall find a most bountiful recompense. And the all-wise Paul will bear witness, saying: "For this light and momentary affliction of ours produces for us a weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen"

are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

^B VERS. 9. *Awake, awake, Jerusalem, and put on the strength of your arm; awake as in the beginning of the day, as a generation of the age.*

It seems that in these words he is making mention of the calling and conversion of Israel. For they too shall be called to the recognition of the glory of our common Savior, Christ, after the arrival of the Gentiles. For it is written in the prophets: *For the children of Israel shall sit many days without a king, and without a prince, and without priesthood, and without revelations; and after this the children of Israel shall return, and seek the Lord their God and David their king, and they shall be amazed at the Lord and at His goods in the last of the days.* For that the prophet here names as David Him who is of the seed of David according to the flesh, Christ, I think no one will doubt at all. For when the divine David had already died, these prophetic words occurred many years later. The all-wise Paul also knew of the future calling of those of the blood of Israel by faith in his own times. For he says ^C at one time, *When the fullness of the Gentiles has entered, then all Israel shall be saved*; and at another time he speaks to those among the Gentiles who have believed, saying, as if concerning a plant and an olive tree: *But if some of the branches were broken off, that you might be grafted in, do not boast against the branches. For you do not support the root, but the root supports you.* For just as you were cut off from the olive tree that is wild by nature and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, so too shall they be grafted according to nature into their own olive tree. Jerusalem, therefore, he says, awake. This, I think, is clearly what the most holy Paul wrote to some: *Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon you.* Wake up, therefore, that is, arise as if from the dead, he says; put on the strength of your arm—and not a sensory arm, but rather a mental one, that of the soul, by which one is clearly directed towards the achievement of virtue. For it is confessed that Israel was debilitated and infirm when they raged against Christ; but when they return and wake up, they will again put on the power from Christ. And this was, then, ^D what was said to them through one of the holy prophets: *Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, because you have been infirm in your iniquities.* It is also said concerning them by the voice of Jeremiah by our common Savior Christ: *Behold, I give infirmity upon this people, and fathers and sons shall be infirm therein, and the neighbor and his kinsman shall perish.* For Israel has fallen away completely, because of their impiety toward Christ, so as to be unable at all to fulfill the things that achieve a distinguished life. But, he says, awake, as in the beginning of the day, as in the generation of the age, so that you may run toward this, and return again to what you were

datum. Christ, therefore, refashions us in Him and inscribes again upon us the ancient beauty of our nature, imprinting as it were His own character. For we were made in His image and likeness. The excellent Paul therefore writes to those who, after receiving the faith, were led back through ignorance to the shadow of the law: "My little children, of whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you." ^A

VERS. 10. *Art thou not it that hath dried the sea, the water of the deep, a multitude? That hast made the depths of the sea a way of passage for them that were delivered and redeemed?*

He brings back to Israel's memory the magnificent deeds in Egypt. For He delivered them from a hard and inevitable servitude, He snatched them from the hand of one who oppressed them intolerably, and He led them through the midst of the sea. ^B For the waters were compacted as a wall, and the surge was passable to the redeemed; they ran indeed as if on dry land. And these were not their works, but a declaration of the incredible marvel of the most powerful right hand. For it was God, as I said, who made the liquid element passable for them. Yet, as though the works done for Jerusalem were her own, He says they were performed by her: and at the same time He persuades her to be of good and confident mind, because those who have believed in Christ shall overcome every temptation and will vanquish all the powers of the enemy. For He who once led them through the midst of the sea and manifested it as a way of passage for those who were rescued and redeemed, will again drive back with all-powerful might those things which at times shall be done by others, and He will pursue them most strongly. For it is written: "All who wish to live godly in Christ will suffer persecution." ^C God therefore says to Jerusalem: "Art thou not it that hath dried the sea?" and what follows.

Or you may understand the meaning of these words in another way. After she had been called to the recognition of Christ, with God and the Father saying: "Awake, awake, O Jerusalem, and put on the strength of thy arm," being in a way aroused and brought back to the memory of His strength, He addresses her and says: "Art thou not it that hath dried the sea, and the multitude of the abyss? Which hast made the depths of the sea a way of passage for us who were rescued and redeemed, a way made open through the waves?" And it is ^D likely, indeed, that from these things already done, they would receive the pattern for having unshakable faith in the things to come. For He who led them through the midst of the sea will surely dissipate the surge of this present life as well, and will render the vain and discordant turbulence of worldly matters stale, so that in no way may the souls of the called be smothered by worldly cares; but moreover, He will also bring them through every temptation, so that, having been saved and redeemed, they may glorify Him, saying: "Sing to the Lord a new song, for the Lord hath done wonderful things. His right hand and His holy arm have saved him." But the right hand and the arm of God and the Father cannot be anyone else but our Lord Jesus Christ.

"For they shall be turned back by the Lord, and shall come ^A to Sion with gladness and everlasting joy." "For on their head shall be joy and praise, and gladness shall take hold of them; pain, sorrow, and sighing shall flee away." He shapes the form of his discourse again according to the power of the things that have already happened to them. For having offended God in many ways, and having slipped into the worship of idols as if into certain pits, they were not moderately defiled; and having pushed aside the commandment of the all-wise Moses, they turned to the teachings and commandments of men. For these reasons, they were all delivered over at various times to the Babylonians, and were captives inhabiting the land of the Persians and Medes. But they have been treated with mercy again. For when Cyrus released them by the will of God, and allowed them to return, they were restored to Judea rejoicing and shouting, and having their hymns to God as if a kind of crown upon their head. Therefore, as from the things that happened historically, he very well depicts the joy in the final callings. For they shall be returned by the Lord, he says, and shall come to Sion—understood intellectually, that is, the Church—rejoicing and glad. For "there shall be on their head praise and joy, and gladness shall take hold of them." For the Savior of all crowns, as it were, the souls of those who believe, and fills them with all joy, gladness, and rejoicing, being glorified by them, and having become to them a stringed instrument and a lyre. ^B And where there is altogether a calling that summons to repentance and turning, and to the washing away of sin—through faith, that is, in Christ—where there is the ministry and grace of the Holy Spirit, and the honor of adoption, and the enjoyment of endless good things, and the hope of the kingdom of heaven, there surely is also the need to rejoice; and "pain, sorrow, and sighing shall flee away." For what place will pain have, and for what causes would there be sighing, where there is absolutely no occasion for sighing and grieving, but rather hope, gladness, and joy, and irrepressible delight holds sway? ^C

"I am, I am He who comforts you. Know who you are that you feared mortal man, and the son of man who have withered like hay. And you forgot God who made you, who made the heaven, and founded the earth. And you feared always all the days the face of him who afflicts you. As he thought to take you away, and now where is the fury of him who afflicts you? For when you are saved, he shall not stand, nor shall he remain."

"I am," he says in these words, instead of "I live and exist"; for he is himself "He who is." ^D And it is a dignity, and a kind of privilege

^A divine and excellent. For to be and to live belongs to this nature alone which surpasses all things, not having received these as a participation from another, nor as something given, but rather as it is life itself. Therefore, He says: "I am He who consoles you," that is, I who impart every spiritual consolation and sustain you with safeguards, so that, beautifully supported, you may press forward bravely and boldly toward the rectitude of every virtue. Or perhaps you might understand the consolation here in another way. For the Savior, through the preaching of the Gospel, called men to the washing away of sin—through faith in Him, that is to say—to the participation of the Holy Spirit, and to the praise and glory of adoption. But you, He says, O Israel, while I am He who is, did not fear to despise and contemn Me who call you to life, but you feared for yourself before mortal man and the son of man, who have withered like grass. Then you forgot the God who made you, who fashioned the heaven and established the earth, and you feared the face of the one ^B who afflicts you. In these words, God accuses the leaders of the Jews, who always and assiduously resisted the Savior’s glory, and as far as it was in their power, rendered it altogether of no effect. For He performed various miracles here, but they, against divine signs more than admirable, poured forth bitter words, and maintained that He cast out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons. He often mollified His hearers with doctrines and teachings more than legal. They slipped into such impiety that they would reproach those who praised Him, and say: "He has a demon, and is mad; why do you listen to Him?" They feared, therefore, the plots of the Pharisees: and the blessed evangelist will testify to this, saying: "The rulers, however, knew that He was Christ; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess it." For the Jews had already conspired ^C that if any man confessed Him to be Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. The Savior Himself also reproves the teachers of the law, saying: "Woe also to you lawyers, because you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves do not enter, and you hinder those who are entering." He accuses, therefore, the Jewish people, inasmuch as, from a very great lack of understanding, they despised the God who is and who lives, who established the heaven by His word and founded the earth, and preferred reverence toward men, and heeded the voices of mortal men who wither just like grass. For He proved that those who have struck this base fear into them, and by this means have led them away from worshipping Him who calls to salvation, are destined to undergo the ultimate punishment, ^D when He added: "For just as they plotted to remove you, so now where is the fury of him who afflicts you? For in you being saved, he shall not stand, nor shall he abide." For the fury of the Scribes and Pharisees was temporary, against the people subject to their hand and power; but they themselves went off to destruction, and were exposed to slaughter. And those who believed in Christ rejoiced, having been saved and freed from divine wrath. Yet they did not endure; that is, not in this

^A long duration have they perished, with all of Judea laid waste, and Jerusalem burnt, along with those who inhabited it.

VERS. 15, 16. *For I am your God, who disturbs the sea, and makes its waves roar. The Lord of Sabaoth is my name. I will put my words into your mouth, and I will shelter you under the shadow of my hand, with which I established the heaven and founded the earth; and Sion shall say, that you are my God.*

Having accused those from Israel, as men who feared ^B other men—that is, those whom they had chosen to preside over the synagogue—and who, out of regard for them, had unwisely stepped into the mire of impiety, having utterly despised the love for Him, He shows in these words that He renders light and easy whatever calamities and persecutions may befall those who have chosen piety, and He proves the perversity of their oppressors to be ineffective and weak, turning sad things into better, and changing the assault of harsh circumstances into tranquility. He takes, for the sake of example, this vast sea that we see. "For I am," He says, "who disturbs the sea, and who makes its ^C waves roar. The Lord of Sabaoth is my name." Just as, therefore, a wave is sometimes arched and dashed onto the shore with violent force, pushed by the might of the winds, but then again, at God's will, it shifts immediately into calm and stillness, in the same way, He says, I change even things that are grievous and intolerable and leading to every extreme of evil, as if merely by bowing towards serenity. For when every tumult is lulled to sleep, I relax and restore those who have chosen to contend for piety into the vastness of gladness. ^D And this, I think, is what is sung enigmatically by the lyre of the Psalmist: *He commanded the storm, and it stood still as a breeze, and its waves were silenced.* But in order that they might receive confidence without any hesitation, that the things promised will surely and in every way run to their conclusion, and that the help offered by Him could never be false, He necessarily says, "The Lord of Sabaoth is my name." For if He is the Lord of hosts, how would He be weak to save some? Or what is so difficult, or arduous, or impossible among things to be accomplished by the almighty right hand? Furthermore, He adds something else that is sufficient for aid, and at the same time declares that their anger has been dissolved and extinguished, and the disadvantage of hatred has ceased; and that henceforth He will take account of them and count them worthy of mercy and love, which is fitting for those who have acknowledged His appearance. "For I will put," He says, "my words into your mouth." And what this is, the divine David said somewhere, singing: *But to the sinner God said: Why do you declare my righteous decrees, and take up my covenant through your mouth?* For, as it is written, praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner. He therefore forbids and prohibits profa—

^Ane and wicked men from remembering his words at all. For it is said: "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." How is it not evident to all that those who have a wicked heart cannot belch forth good words? To the saints, therefore, it is most fitting both to have the law of God in their mind and to heave it up, as it were, through their tongue and their speech. The God of the universe promises, then, as if to those who are already righteous and sanctified in faith and have obtained the praise of noble character, that he will put his own words into their mouths, so that by using the divine law in frequent speech, they may discern the path that is adapted to their salvation. For it is written concerning every righteous man that: "The law of his God is in his heart, and his footsteps shall not be subverted." And again: "In my heart I have hidden your oracles, that I might not sin against you." For the law of God supports us so that we may be beautifully solidified and grounded, and may rightly direct our mind toward all the best institutions of life; and it does not allow it to slip toward worse things, and it leads it away—as if with youthful vigor—from that which is accustomed to cause harm. But because, as I said, he addresses them as though they were already noble and genuine, he promises yet another thing. "I will cover you," he says, "under the shadow of my hand." This is also a good worth possessing, and an exceptional one, and sufficiently great for salvation for those once granted the grace to enjoy it. For we understand the hand of God and the Father to be nothing else than the Son born of him, our Lord Jesus Christ. But to those who obey him, nothing of those things that are accustomed to harm will be able to do harm. For they shall be robust and very courageous, surpassing every tumult and every temptation, nor shall they be captured by Satan; they shall overcome all the filth of the flesh, and shall not succumb to the impulses or affections of soul or body. And that the right hand of the Father is all-powerful, he shows by adding: ^B "By which I established the heaven, and founded the earth." For if, as it is written, the heavens were established by the word of the Lord, and the earth was fixed so that it remains immovable; why would it not be sufficiently powerful to save those who choose to value his protection highly? "Then, then," he says, "shall Sion say: You are my God." Consider here for me how clearly and evidently the confession of the Christian faith is introduced. For formerly, though Christ performed many miracles and was illustrated by the splendor of divine signs—which surpasses all speech and admiration—out of a certain notable impiety, they said they did not know him, when yet they had not truly been ignorant, but acted with insult. For men notably delirious, and foolish, and possessed of an impious mind, dared to say: "We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know from where he is." But, he says, those who deny and have slipped into this impiety, while carrying my words upon their tongue, and having lived under the protection of my right hand, shall again acknowledge the Redeemer and shall confess him, saying to him: "You are my God." The faith, therefore, is a saving thing, and a way leading to life.

the power of the confession unto Christ. Verse 17, 18. Excite yourself, excite yourself, arise, Jerusalem, who drank the cup of the wrath from the hand of the Lord. For the cup of ruin, the goblet of wrath, you have drained and emptied, and there was none to console you from all your children whom you bore; and there was none taking hold of your hand, nor from all your sons whom you raised up.

^B He addresses the Jewish Synagogue, as if it were fallen and still lying there, and commands it to rise, providing the hand, as it were, and having compassion as God. And we do not by any means say that the rising is bodily, for neither is it fitting for such a fall to be understood in that way, but rather intellectually, as having been finished in unbelief. Therefore, the good of the resurrection in these [people] is in faith. For they have fallen, by common consent, into destruction, since they did not accept the evangelical and saving proclamation, but rather paid heed to the doctrines and commandments of men, even though God says clearly through the voice of Isaiah: "My people, those who call you blessed deceive you, and disturb the path of your feet." For those who held the lead among them, babbling about the Law of Moses and repeatedly shouting, "We are blessed, Israel, because those things which are acceptable to God are known to us," were drawing the mind of their own people away from the love of Christ, and by persuading them to count His grace as nothing, they have deceived them and confounded the path of their feet, not letting them walk with a straight foot, nor tend by a straight way toward justification in faith, even though the Law profited nothing. Therefore, He says, "Excite yourself"; this is clearly that which was said by the voice of Paul: "Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine upon you." And furthermore, besides that: "Therefore, lift up the slack hands and the paralyzed knees, and make straight paths for your feet."

That they paid a penalty worthy of and equal to their own impieties, having acted wantonly against Christ and having dared to subject to death the Author of life, as far as it was in their power, He makes clear by saying: "You who drank the cup of the wrath from the hand of the Lord." For the cup of ruin, the goblet of wrath, you have drained and emptied. And by "goblet," he means the judgment; but the word "emptied" does not indicate in these words "you poured out," but rather this instead, that "you have drunk the whole thing," that is, you received the full wrath from the Lord and have endured a wrath equal to your transgressions. For the wicked miserably perished: partly by their entire land being ravaged and at the same time, along with Jerusalem, the very temple itself, famous as it was, being burned down; and furthermore, by falling away from the hope in God and being driven out from the flock of the saints. And with all these things happening to you, and being, as it were, intoxicated with the most complete wrath, there was none of your children present to you; there was none to take hold of your hand, none to console you. For there were many among them who were Levites and priests,

^A Scribes and Pharisees, reveling in the honors received from all, and raised on high because they excelled and presided over the rest; yet none of them warded off from Judæa the calamity brought upon it by divine wrath. There was no one so great who could offer even a moderate consolation to her who was entangled in unbearable evils. Therefore, they committed an injustice by leading them away from the love of Christ, and by persuading them to reject faith in Him, and, for those who had slipped into the pits of destruction, they brought no assistance at all.

Vers. 19, 20. Duo ista contraria sunt tibi, et quis tecum contristabitur? Ruina et contritio, fames et gladius: quis te consolabitur? Filii tui indigentes, dormientes in compitis omnium viarum, sicut beta semicocta, pleni furore Domini, dissoluti per iram Domini Dei. ^B

One could enumerate very many evils that befell the Jews at the time of the capture, I mean under Vespasian and Titus, when the whole land of the Jews was set ablaze, and no manner of calamity was lacking to them, but they arrived at the peak of almost every evil. Even this, Christ the Saviour of all foretold to them: for He was being led away by the soldiers of Pilate to the place of the cross. And when women were following and wailing for Him, He turned and said to them: "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children." ^C And again: "When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will say to the mountains, 'Cover us,' and to the hills, 'Fall upon us.'" And the weight of this incurable calamity was foretold in many words through the holy prophets. This, then, the force of the verses set before us now travaileth to bring forth. For, "O wretched Jerusalem," He says, "these two things are contrary to you"—by which He means, they battle and make war. And what are these? Ruina et contritio, fames et gladius. By these words, as if briefly and concisely, the calamity of war is signified. But ^D that which is to be considered must not be overlooked. For having enumerated four, He says they are two. For He mentioned ruin, and contrition, and famine, and sword. What, then, do we say? Or in what way can these things that have been named be two? Even if they appear to be more, the prophetic word joins the following to the first ones here. For what do I mean? The fall is always followed by the crushing, and the famine by the sword, that is to say, death. The first two, therefore, are these: ruin and famine; and following these are crushing and the sword. Therefore, these things having happened, he says, who is he who is able to come to the rescue and ward off the onset of this calamity? For this is what consolation signifies here. Will your children, therefore, be sufficient for this? But, in truth, one can see them reduced to poverty, that is, having nothing that they might offer in counsel or in deed for their own solace.

for the benefit of their own souls. For they sleep at the very edge of every exit. ^A For when the war descended, the powerful fled from the land of the Jews and seized the extremities of the land, that they might be ready for flight. For some hastened to seize upon reaching the neighboring Egyptians, while others did so reaching the Moabites, or other regions of the surrounding nations. They were, I say, at the very edge of every exit, that is, in the extremities of the land, as I have said; they were not wakeful, nor able to do anything of all those things which are not without utility for the benefit of the afflicted; but [they were] as if drunken, and heavy-headed, and lying down, so relaxed in their senses, and with their mind so undone, as a half-cooked beet. And what is the cause of these things? For they have been filled with the fury of the Lord, and this has become the cause of their exhaustion for them. For we are always such, by nature, that when we are struck by calamities that end in death and are beyond consolation, we are all but beside ourselves in mind, and can find no path capable of saving us, especially when the evil that is upon us is sent by God.

^B Therefore, hear, you who are humbled and drunken, not with wine. Thus says the Lord God, who judges his own people: "Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of ruin, the chalice of fury, and you shall no longer drink it, and I will give and cast it into the hands of those who unjustly oppressed you and humbled you, who said to your soul: Bow down, that we may pass over; and you have made your middle parts like the ground, for those walking outside."

These are the words of one who shows pity, and who restrains anger, moving them instead toward tranquility of mind. For he calls her humbled and drunken. For, as I said, immense calamities could easily bring those who are caught in them to extreme evils, and they made the afflicted drunken, though not with wine, as he says. For the cup of the Lord is by no means understood as that which is perceived by the senses, nor is there such a mixture in it that it should be understood in a common or general way. It is the custom, rather, of the divinely inspired Scripture to call a "cup" the portion distributed to each one, whether to the unjust, by chance, or to the good. For example, I say this: the divine David chants concerning the wicked and says: "Fire, and sulphur, and the spirit of a storm, is the portion of their cup." ^C This lot is prepared by God for those who do not know him, and a most grievous sentence shall overtake them. For as those who drink fire and sulphur, they endure a perpetual and inevitable punishment. But it would be fitting for any righteous man to say: "I will take the cup of salvation, and I will call upon the name of the Lord." For to know and to call upon the Lord of all is, for those accustomed to doing this, a saving mixture. Therefore, God, who judges justly, does not say that Jerusalem has been made drunken with wine, but with an incurable calamity and intolerable misfortune. He judges justly, indeed, [rewarding] the good with their fitting lot, while those who are…

not such, He reproves, so that, having shown themselves better than they were, they might depart from these kinds of vices and turn their mind toward the desire to think and to see the things which seem consistent with His divine laws. ^A However, He says: "Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of ruin, and you shall not drink it again." For it will be called, as I said, to the recognition of Christ, and it will abound with us in the blessings from above; and it itself will be a partaker of holy gifts, and will possess spiritual riches. And of this the prophet is a witness, saying: "Because the children of Israel shall sit for many days, there being no king, nor prince, nor sacrifice, nor altar, nor priesthood, nor signs; and after this the children of Israel shall return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and they shall be amazed at the Lord and at His blessings, in the last days." ^B For in these words the prophetic discourse calls Christ, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, "David." And a clear proof of this is that the prophecy came to pass many generations after the divine David was already dead. Therefore, so long as it has not yet been called to the grace through faith, the cup of wrath has not yet been removed. But when it worships Christ through faith, then the cup will altogether be taken from it, and it will itself likewise enjoy the other blessings, concerning which it is written that "they shall forget their former affliction, and it shall not come into their heart; but there shall rather be exultation and eternal joy upon their head; for pain, and sorrow, and groaning have fled away." But when the cup is taken from it, it will be given into the hands of those who have unjustly oppressed it. ^C And how did they oppress it? Since they did not allow it to stand with an upright foot, nor to walk in the blameless path, through which it was possible to order a life acceptable to God, and to be clothed with the splendor of the evangelical walk, and at the same time to arrive, with those who have believed in Christ, at the city above. Who, then, are to be understood as those who oppressed it unjustly? As far as concerns the obvious and manifest sense, primarily those who presided over the synagogue; these have most of all drained the cup of fury. For by how much more distinguished a tranquility they enjoyed compared to others, by so much the more grievous did they feel the assault of the war, being cast down from honor, glory, wealth, luxuries, and from life itself. ^D But if something else hidden must be said—and I think it is necessary to say this—we say that the Synagogue of the Jews has been oppressed by injuries, not only by those who held the office of leader, but also by the sinister malice of the devil, which does not allow them to receive into their mind the divine light, so that they might understand Him who calls to salvation, Him who justifies the ungodly and delivers from punishment, and who draws them forth from the bonds of death—I mean, of course, Christ. And of this, Paul is a witness, who wrote thus: "But if our Gospel is hidden, it is hidden in those who are perishing, in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that the illumination of the Gospel of the glory of Christ might not shine upon them."

^A Indeed, the Son himself also said that such a thing had happened to the flocks of the Jews, and he explicitly rebuked them, as those who, because of an unclean spirit, had become hard-hearted and disobedient, and were driven toward every kind of evil. For he said: "When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, it wanders through waterless places, seeking rest; and when it does not find it, it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' Then it takes seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. So will it be with this evil generation." For they had worshipped the gods that were there ^B in Egypt, and the unclean spirit was in them. But since they were redeemed through Moses, and received the Law which defines what must be done (hearing him clearly say, "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve"), the unclean spirit was driven out of their heart. But because they did not have the fear of God in themselves, nor did they receive Jesus within them through faith ("For Christ dwells in our hearts through faith," as it is written), that ancient and unclean spirit, seeing the place vacant, burst in again and dwelt in them, and their last state became worse than the first.

That he also caused the traitor among the disciples to become such a one, at the instigation of the inventor of impiety, is not obscure. For it is written that after the morsel, Satan entered into him. Therefore, the Synagogue of the Jews has been punished, with Satan blinding it ^C and not allowing it to see with the eyes of the mind the light of the world, that is, Christ. But when they were called to conversion, the cup of wrath and the bowl of ruin were given into the hands of those who had oppressed it with injustice. For the evil and opposing powers were punished, with the Savior of all, Christ, casting them down into Hades, and having consigned them in chains of gloom to Tartarus, he delivered them to be kept for the judgment ^D of the great day, to be tormented. For these are the ones that said: "Jerusalem, bow down, that we may pass over." And she set the middle of the earth for those walking through her—that is, she laid herself down and submitted herself to those wishing to trample her. The evil powers do this when they see a soul that is relaxed, and which casts aside its own mind, so that it may easily be willing to submit to their unholy and God-hated counsels.

BOOK FIVE, SIX TOMES. TOME I.

^A Cap. LII. Vers. 1. *Excitare, excitare, Sion; induere fortitudine tua, Sion, et induere gloria tua, Jerusalem, civitas sancta: non ultra perget transire per te incircumcisus et immundus.*

When you hear Sion and Jerusalem in these words, do not think that cities built of stones are simply being indicated. This prophetic discourse signifies rather the assembly of those who have been acquired through faith, and the Church, from the fellowship of the Jews and the Gentiles. For when he says, "Excite yourself," and does so again and again, he imparts to them the most abundant consolation. Just as the most wise Paul says, "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound," so where there is a great bitterness of punishment, there is a consolation equal to the calamities, or rather significantly more abundant than the sad circumstances themselves. He commands her to put on her strength, and in addition to this, her glory. Fortitude may be understood as a certain active efficiency or efficacy, not inappropriately, by which the ^B soul of each person is carried with youthful impetuosity toward those things which must be done. And who else could glory be, except that Lord of glory, who is Christ? to whom the divine singer somewhere addresses himself: "Arise, my glory!" And again elsewhere, concerning everyone who believes in him: "You are the praise of their virtue." But how we are to put on this glory and fortitude, the most wise Paul has declared to us. For he said again: "Put on our Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts." And furthermore: "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ." Nay, even the prophet Isaiah, as if introducing the person of the Church like a woman adorned in various ways, says: "Let my soul be glad in the Lord. For he has clothed me with the garment of salvation, and with the tunic of gladness." Christ, therefore, is the garment most fitting for every saint; and the tunic of gladness, which is perceived by the understanding, is for us the cause of strength and glory. He names the Church the holy city. For it was sanctified—not by the legal worship (for the law has perfected no one)—but by having been made conformed to Christ, and a partaker of his divine nature, namely through the communication of the Holy Spirit, in whom we were also sealed unto the day of redemption, having been washed of all filth and freed from every stain. For we have been justified by faith in him, and we have been enriched by him with a certain security in all things, ^D

and we have been, as it were, walled about by his grace, which wards off from us every diabolic assault and the savage incursions of the opposing powers ^A. And he teaches this, saying as it were to Sion, that is to say to Jerusalem, which is the Church of the living God: "No more shall there pass through you the uncircumcised and the unclean." In a historical sense, one may understand what has been said in this way: the neighboring nations of Jerusalem may be understood as uncircumcised and unclean, for they neither knew God by nature and in truth, nor had they obtained the instruction of the Law; indeed, they also fought very frequently against those who were of the blood of Israel, so that they often appeared superior to the host that was in them, and almost passed through it, just as if they had it beneath their feet. But come, let us derive spiritual meanings from those things which happen historically. The throngs of demons, that is to say, the world-rulers of this darkness, together with the profane Satan, keep under their feet souls not yet subject to God, and they pass through them ^B, as it were, with no one hindering or coming to their defense. But when they have been reconciled to God and possess him as their glory and strength, then, then the tyranny of those others shall cease. For it is written: "The angel of the Lord shall encamp round about them that fear him, and shall deliver them." The uncircumcised and the unclean, therefore, may be understood as the abominable and profane, the producers of every filth, and the wicked and opposing powers. ^C

VERS. 2. Excute pulverem et surge, et sede, Jerusalem, solve vinculum colli tui, captiva filia Sion. (Shake off the dust and arise, and sit, Jerusalem; loosen the bond of your neck, O captive daughter of Sion.)

He henceforth demonstrates what praises are worthy of the saints, and clearly teaches in what manner one shall put on the strength of his arm and, in addition to this, his glory. For first he commands them to shake off the dust, and thus to arise, and to sit, and to loosen the bond of the neck. By "dust" here, as I suppose, it is proper to understand the earthly disposition and the impurity of carnal desires. For just as it is altogether necessary for those lying on the ground to be covered with dust, in the same way, I think, for those who have a mind prone to the ground and an earthly disposition, ^D thoughts of carnal impurity settle and cling. Therefore, it is necessary for us, who have been called to spiritual union with our Lord Jesus Christ, and who wish to put on him as our strength and glory, to first shake off the dusty and earthly disposition, and to cleanse the mind beforehand, and, as the all-wise Paul says, to put off the old man which is corrupted according to the deceitful lusts, and to put on the new man which is being renewed according to the image of him who created him. When we have done this, we arise—that is, we are endowed with an upright and stable mind, and with a firm heart, according to that which is said elsewhere by God through one of the prophets: "Stand

^A firm, O Sion." The divine David also sings somewhere, "He set my feet upon a rock, and directed my steps." It is written also in the Book of Psalms: "God sits upon His holy throne" — which is to say, He possesses the fixed and established state of His kingdom perpetually. For nothing corporeal should be thought of regarding God. But following upon that sitting, that is, upon having attained a certain and established disposition, is the unbinding of the "bond from the neck." For each person is tightened by the chains of his own sins, and we have been brought even under the yokes of sin and of Satan himself. But in Christ we are liberated even from these; and having broken their bonds, as it is written, and having cast off their yoke from ourselves, we accomplish what is good with a free and relaxed mind. Thus the God of all says to us, somewhere, through one of the prophets: "And you shall go forth, and shall leap like calves released from bonds, and you shall trample down the lawless; for they shall be as ashes under your feet."

^B Delivering these things, He first gives us to understand by "The captive daughter of Sion" that God has compassion on those who have fallen under the devilish yoke and who serve sin. Furthermore, He shows that we fall into this even though it is possible for us not to suffer it. For having called Sion captive, He also calls her a daughter. But how was it possible for the daughter of God, who had been deemed worthy of such bright glory, to be caught in the snares of captivity? Who, then, brought her to this? It is not the weakness of the one who preserves her, but the will and purpose of the one who suffers it, which was bereft of the mercy of the Father's bowels, in that she chose evil and, by favoring what is worse, rejected the good.

^C VERS. 3. For thus says the Lord: You were sold for nothing, and you shall not be redeemed with money.

Having called her captive, He necessarily introduces those conditions that always befall those who have lapsed into such misery. For they are carried off into slavery, with no one paying a price for them, but rather as trophies and the fruits of war and barbarian incursion; for by force and necessity they are called to an involuntary servitude. Thus, says the God of all, shall her redemption also come to pass. For Satan seized the earthly race, and having it as a sort of captive, he cruelly oppressed the world under heaven, having bound it to the yokes of his own wickedness. But the Only-Begotten Word of God became man, ^D who conquered on our behalf; and having entered into the house of the strong one, and having bound him, He pillaged his vessels and transferred all those who are upon the earth to Himself. Therefore, as we were seized, so also have we been redeemed. For Christ did not snatch us away from one who was willing, but rather He broke his power, and as God, He put the phalanx of demons to flight. We have not, therefore, been sold for money, nor have we been redeemed in a like manner; but rather by the power of Christ, the Savior of us all. For being a good Shepherd, He laid down His life for His sheep, and saved us with His own blood.

For by His stripe we were healed; and He himself was weakened on account of our sins; but we have been set free, having cast off the yoke of sin and the tyranny of the devil.

^A Ver. 4, 5. *Thus saith the Lord: My people went down beforehand into Egypt to sojourn there, and they were led away to the Assyrians by force. And now what do you here? Thus saith the Lord: Because my people have been taken for nothing, wonder and wail. Thus saith the Lord: Because of you my name is continually blasphemed among the nations.*

Having called Zion a captive, He wishes them to know the cause on account of which this shame and misery has befallen her. For He sometimes leads those who have suffered something unexpected toward better things, provided they are not ignorant of their sins. Therefore, He usefully calls to their memory the things that happened to those before them from time to time. For when famine pressed hard, Jacob ^B went down to Egypt in times past, and he laid upon himself a pilgrimage he did not desire, because he was nowhere able to find the necessities of life. And Israel was also carried away to the Assyrians, when the king of the Chaldeans who ruled at that time had devastated Judea. And what was the cause of this? For having ceased to be legitimate children, and to worship God alone, and having rejected the will of the Law, they foolishly declined toward idols, and worshipped the works of their own hands; this became the cause of their falling into the hands of enemies, and of departing from their fatherland, and serving enemies, and inhabiting the land of the Persians and Medes. Therefore they were led away by force; for they were not willing in these matters. But now, "what do you here?" By "here," He says, instead of: "scattered in the regions of the nations, and dispersed to every wind," according to the voice of the prophet. For the sword of the Romans drove away from all of Judea those who were able to flee at all. Or, "here," in such a state of affairs as you are now in. For they were, as I said, in extreme misery: in part because the Roman army, by the law of war, ^C invaded their territory, and in part because the whole city was sacked, and the temple itself was burned. Why then, He says, have they fallen into these evils? Is it not clearly because they did not accept the justifying faith, but abused in many ways Him who called them to it, and laid unholy hands upon Him, after the righteous ones and prophets who were sent, of whom they murdered some and stoned others?

And the prophetic discourse has indicated these things to us regarding the common multitude. But because it was the custom for the leaders of the Jews, in particular, to lift up a haughty brow against every nation, and to boast that Israel, inasmuch as he was called the portion of God and a holy nation, could never be captured or conquered by enemies—when it happened, as I just said, that Judea was brought down to these evils, they were struck with amazement, and lamented, as if bereft of all hope, when this evil fell upon them. Therefore, God of all says to them: *Because, He says, my people has been taken for nothing, wonder and wail*; thus saith the Lord.

^A For your sake my name is continually blasphemed among the nations. For you, He says, have become the cause for those who are subjugated to suffer, leaving them uninstructed, or rather, not permitting them at all to return to God, and to see with the eyes of the mind Him who has descended from heaven and appeared in human form, the God Word, so that He might proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, and might heal those who have a contrite [or shattered] heart, and might call the acceptable year of the Lord. Therefore, on account of you, my name is blasphemed among the nations. For since Israel, He says, has been scattered throughout every land and city, no one among all those on earth has been ignorant that the holy city has been ravaged, and the temple itself has been a work of fire; then they insult my name and disparage my glory. For they perhaps think my hand is weak—that hand which was always a helper to Israel—but they are still ignorant of the true cause, nor has any one among them known that they have paid the penalty for the Lord’s murder and many other transgressions.

VERS. 6, 7. *Therefore my people shall know my name in that day, for I am He who spoke: Behold, I am here; as beauty on the mountains, as the feet of one bringing good tidings of the hearing of peace, as one bringing good tidings of good things.* ^C For because, He says, on account of your sloth I have been ill-spoken of among the nations, I will not endure this calumny, nor will I allow my glory to be assailed by blasphemous voices. But at that time, when I shall shine forth to those on earth in the flesh, whoever becomes my people by accepting the faith—whether they be from the Jews or from the nations—these shall know my name. He says "name" instead of "glory." For it is usual for the divinely inspired Scripture to speak in this way. For it is written: *A good name is more to be desired than many riches.* We who have been called by Him know His glory; and we do not approach the Saviour of all, Christ, as a man and judge of all, but even if the Word has become flesh, we believe that, being God by nature and having been begotten of God the Father in an ineffable manner, He is above every creature, and shines brightly upon the highest thrones, and rules over all, and has a most powerful right hand, and easily saves whomsoever He chooses of those who are placed under Him, and nothing at all surpasses or, so to speak, exceeds His power. ^D Israel, however, was not so disposed. For they dealt with Him as with someone like ourselves, and not as with God made man. Therefore they said at one time: *Who are you, and whom do you make yourself?* And: *For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.* But those who are called to the knowledge of truth, He says, shall know my glory. For He Himself who was speaking in the prophets [says]: "Behold, I am here." For God and Lord has appeared unto us, according to what is written. This also the all-wise Paul

teaches, saying: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds" ^A (Heb. 1, 1). We must observe here that God and Father brought all things into being through the Son, and has spoken to us in these last days, not as though there were another son according to the flesh, born of a woman, as some perverse men have thought, but that the Son is one, the Word who for our sake became man with the flesh, and who is also the creator of the ages.

"I am come, therefore, as beauty upon the mountains," he says—and by "beauty" he means the spring. Let us, therefore, contemplate spiritual things from what is manifest. What does the spring appearing on the mountains effect? It adorns the plants with fresh bloom, and transforms them from barrenness to the budding that is natural to each. We shall find something of this sort written also in the Song of Songs: "Arise, come," he says, "my neighbor, my beautiful one, my dove; for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers have appeared on the earth, the time of pruning has arrived" ^B (Cant. 2, 10-12). For when winter has passed, a bright spring rises upon the earth, and renders it a nurse of flowers and a mother of ripe fruits. Something similar has been accomplished for us in an intellectual sense. For the apostate dragon caused a winter to envelop the world under heaven, and made it dry and barren. For there was absolutely no one doing good, not even one; "But all have gone aside, they have together become unprofitable" (Ps. 13, 3; Rom. 3, 12). But when the Only-begotten appeared in the flesh, He became for us as beauty upon the mountains. For having withered away, like those who have cast off the elegance of every virtue from their own souls, we blossomed again in Him and were filled with spiritual fruitfulness, so that we might even be able to say what is in the Song of Songs: "My kinsman shall go down into his garden, and shall eat the fruit of his nut-trees" ^C (Cant. 6, 11).

He became, therefore, as beauty on the mountains, and as the feet of one bringing glad tidings of the hearing of peace, and bringing glad tidings of good things. For since sin lay between us and God, we were separated from Him, and removed from the Master, and opposing His divine laws, and resisting the Master's will, we lay in the rank of enemies. But Christ appeared, our peace, who removed the sin that lay between, and prepared us to be reconciled ^D into friendship with the Father, and united us through Himself; for through Him we have had our access. Just as, therefore, if someone, he says, were to come, swift and quick, saying that the enemies were captured, and announcing peace, and bringing glad tidings of good things: so the Savior of all came into the world with flesh, and became for us a mediator of peace toward God and the Father, when Satan had been brought to naught and his whole phalanx had been removed from the way; and because the time is at hand, in which it is permitted to those who wish to become participants of every good thing; for it will follow all those who have believed in Him, and who think and do what is His, so that abundantly in the hea-

- ^A venly goods they may have participation, and be filled with every good hope; for the Savior is rich in gifts.

Vers. 8. *Quia auditam faciam salutem tuam, dicens: Sion, regnabit Deus tuus, quia vox custodientium te intenta est, et voce simul lætabuntur. Quia oculi ad oculos videbunt, quando misertus fuerit Dominus Sion.*

By "Sion" here He again calls not some earthly city, but rather His own holy Church, which He constituted from two peoples. For it is written: "Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with His people" (Rom. xv. 10). And Christ is said to have made both one, and to have broken down the middle wall of partition, and to have abolished the law of commandments in decrees. But when the evangelical preaching was revealed, which is full of true doctrines, the power of the shadow in the law ceased—that is, the worship and approach through blood. Sion, therefore, is to be understood as the Church, as I said, which Christ presented to Himself, not having spot or wrinkle, but rather holy and without blemish. Of this, He made the salvation "heard," which is to say, celebrated abroad. For the power of the evangelical preaching escaped absolutely no one living upon the earth, nor has anyone remained ignorant of the salvation through Christ. For He said also through the lyre of the Psalmist: ^B "Hear this, all ye nations; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world" (Ps. xlviii, 2). And just as the memory of the demons perished with a sound—that is, conspicuously and famously, for no one was ignorant of the destruction of the tyranny of the demons—so also the divine and heavenly preaching has been made heard to those everywhere, bringing salvation to those who have acknowledged the manifestation of Christ.

But what is the power of this preaching? "Sion, thy God shall reign." For of old, that is, before the coming of our Savior, Satan reigned over us through sin, and a yoke of tyrannical cruelty was cast upon the inhabitants of the whole earth. But when the King and Lord of all shone upon us, having broken their bonds, and cast off the yoke of him who formerly oppressed us, we submitted our necks to the scepters of God, and God and Father has reigned over us through the Son, and the matter has become for us a cause of celebration and festivity. David, indeed, chants and says: "The Lord hath reigned, let the earth rejoice" (Ps. xcvi, 1), and again: "Sing ye wisely. God hath reigned over all the nations" (Ps. xlvii, 9). ^C The Savior Himself also called us to this, as I said, saying: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; take my yoke upon you" (Matt. xi, 28, 29). We lived, therefore, miserably, and were involved in the direst evils, subjugated to a savage tyrant, and having submitted to the yoke of sin. But the power of the holy preaching announced the happy and auspicious kingdom of Christ, and we have become subject to Him. For He promised, saying: "Sion, thy God shall reign." But who it is, and how He is to reign, He Himself immediately declared, saying: "The voice of thy watchmen..." ^D

^A lifted up." And watchmen might be the divine disciples, or indeed anyone at all who knows how and is able to provide schooling in the mysteries, and to walk in the right path; persuading those who have been called, if indeed they are able to perform the good exceedingly well, and to hold fast to the love for Christ, and to make their confession of faith regarding Him right and blameless. These are good shepherds, guarding the rational sheep for the Chief Shepherd of all, and warding off the assaults of untamed beasts. He says the voice of these is lifted up, that is, it is to be heard by those everywhere. For it has been said to them by the voice of Isaiah: "Get thee up to a high mountain, thou that bringest good tidings to Sion, lift up thy voice with strength, thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem. Lift up, fear not." For the apostolic ^B proclamation is clear and hidden from no one at all. And that all things will run with prosperity for them, and those to whom their address is directed will be called readily, and they themselves will rejoice greatly upon seeing the fruits of their own instruction in the mysteries, He makes manifest, saying: "With the voice they shall rejoice together." For as soon as they speak, He says, the multitude of those being instructed in the mysteries will follow, and those being schooled will run speedily to the faith. And this is a joy to those who have been appointed to teach. Paul, therefore, writes to those who believed through him, that "my joy and crown." That the obedience of those being instructed in the mysteries followed upon the holy instructions in the mysteries in most places, one might ^C see through many examples, having traversed the holy and divinely inspired Scripture. For the divine disciples were speaking to the ranks of the Jews in Jerusalem; but as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles: "There were added in one day three thousand men." Nay, even the divine Paul together with the blessed Silas, while being prisoners, were singing hymns to God at midnight. But when a holy angel, standing by the prison, had loosed the bonds of all, the jailer, having become greatly afraid, wished to kill himself; but upon Paul crying out: "Do thyself no harm; for we are all here," having marveled at the wonder, he was baptized with all his house. And that the event was a cause of ^D joy for him, how is it possible to doubt? Therefore, He says, immediately after the instruction in the mysteries, those who are called run obediently. "And thine eyes shall see *eye to eye*, when the Lord shall have mercy on Sion." But whom shall they see, if not the Superintendent and Procurator of salvation, that is, Christ? For the Word became flesh, and the Psalmist is a witness of this, saying: "God shall come manifestly, our God, and shall not keep silence." Or, as I said, that "with the voice they shall rejoice together," this too, He says, thou shalt behold with thine eyes, at that time when the Lord shall have mercy on Sion, adding to all the grace through faith, and the most abundant enjoyment of heavenly blessings.

^A VERSES 9, 10. *Let the deserts of Jerusalem break forth into joy, for the Lord hath had mercy upon her, and hath delivered Jerusalem. And the Lord shall reveal his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation which is from God.*

To "break forth into joy" may signify the raising of the voice, the resounding of hymns of thanksgiving, and taking pains to meditate upon doxologies, by which God is gladdened. For it is written in the book of Psalms: *And my tongue shall meditate upon thy righteousness, all the day thy praise* (Ps. xxxiv, 28). To those who desire to do this, the matter will bring joy. But since it says that the "deserts of Jerusalem" must do this, it is necessary to say something to clarify the meaning of these words. Those who inhabit a wide and long city, if they are so many in number as to be able to fill it, leave no part of it empty; but if they are easily numbered because many have died, or because a war has assailed them, or some other cause has led to this, the most part of the places and dwellings within it remain bare. Such is what the Israelites have suffered. For having become slayers of the Lord and having hands full of blood, they were consumed by the war with the Romans, to such a degree that very few survived, and the holy city was left destitute of men. ^B But, he says, her deserts shall be glad. For houses mourn and are, as it were, full of sadness when they do not have inhabitants; but they are cheerful and, as it were, laughing if there are many who inhabit them. Come, let us say something spiritual from this history. The Church of the Gentiles, that is, the nations that have believed, who are also named Sion and Jerusalem, were at first few, and the holy and divine city—that is, the Church—was in truth as a desert. But nothing has remained empty in her; for she has been filled through Christ. It was said, namely: *Lift up thine eyes round about, and see thy children gathered together* (Isa. xlix, 18). *Behold, these come from afar; these from the north and from the sea, and others from the land of the Persians. And thou shalt say, he says, in thy heart: Who hath begotten these for me? I am bereft and a widow, and these, whence were they?* And again: *Enlarge the place of thy tabernacle, and set up thy curtains; spare not, extend yet to the right and to the left* (Isa. liv, 2). For from every nation, city, and region, ^C a concourse of the Gentiles has been made, called through faith unto Christ, so that from the east, and south, and west, and north, those who are converted have been called, being far more numerous than those of the blood of Israel. And the prophet Isaiah has signified this very thing, speaking of the Church and the synagogue of the Jews: *Rejoice, O barren one that dost not bear; break forth and cry, thou that dost not travail, for the children of the desolate are more than her that hath* (Isa. liv, 1). For he calls the Church of the Gentiles "barren," and "not bearing," and furthermore "desolate." For she was void of children, and deserted—that is, widowed—not having the sower of every good word. But the synagogue of the Jews, [having] the husband... ^D

he says, because it was yoked to the law given through Moses, and became pregnant with the sacred oracles, through which it was able to bear fruit to God in that worship which was still, as it were, in shadows and types. But there are more children of the desolate one, that is, of the widow, than of her who has a husband. And how this will come to pass, he has clarified by adding: "The Lord shall reveal his holy arm in the sight of all nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation from God." For when the arm of God and the Father—that is, the Son—had become manifest to those throughout the whole earth, when he was known to all the nations, and the ends of the earth—that is, those from boundary to boundary—beheld his salvation (by faith, clearly), then the desolate Jerusalem, ^B the intelligible one, was filled, and the multitude of the called was beyond counting. It is the custom of divinely inspired Scripture to call the Son the arm of God and the Father. For he is his power and all-powerful right hand, through whom he works all things, and regarding it the inspired David says: "Let thy hand be strengthened, let thy right hand be exalted." And again regarding God the Father: "Sing to the Lord a new song, for the Lord has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have saved him."

"Depart, depart, go out from thence, and touch no unclean thing. Go out from the midst of her; be separated, you who carry the vessels of the Lord; for you shall not go out with tumult, nor with flight. For the Lord shall go before you, and the God of Israel shall gather you."

^C This speech appears to be addressed by God either to those who have been gathered together through faith and have been named children of the Church, or perhaps to the holy mystagogues, namely the apostles and evangelists, who became the light under heaven, bringing the word of evangelical preaching as ambassadors to all the inhabitants of the earth. He commands them, then, to depart and to withdraw from the infidels as from those who are defiled, because they chose not to believe in Christ, and indeed also involved their own heads in the crime of the Lord’s slaughter. "Go out, therefore, and touch no unclean thing"—that is, be separated from communion with them, so that you may not touch even anything of theirs. "For he who touches pitch," he says, "shall be defiled." ^D For it is necessary that those who have believed in Christ, and who have been called through him to the cleansing of sin and to the participation of sanctification, should love to live apart from the Jewish ignorance, and be altogether of a different mind from them, and be separated once for all; for there is no communion of light with darkness, nor any part for the believer with the infidel. And indeed, the all-wise Paul writes to those in Galatia who, after their justification in Christ, dared to revert again to the worship under the Law: "O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been clearly portrayed, crucified among you?"

This alone I desire to learn from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? For they were circumcised imprudently, even though they had received circumcision in the Spirit, or through Christ. ^A Therefore, the God of all things necessarily says here, "Depart, and go out from there, and be separated, you who carry the vessels of the Lord." For those who have honored Emmanuel with a solid faith and have become partakers of his divine nature, in that they are sharers in the Holy Spirit and have been filled with his holy gifts, carry vessels for God. And in what manner, the all-wise Paul will teach, saying: "Put on the armor of God; this is the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." For having this intelligible armor, they oppose Satan and war against his powers, and in a certain manner they leap forward and shield their own souls and the peoples under their hand; for this is the duty and position of leaders. Moreover, when he commands them to go out from the midst of her, he says: "You shall not go out with tumult; neither shall you go by flight." For he does not command them to withdraw from the Jewish ranks as those fleeing or as those afraid, but rather calmly and as if endowed with authority, as though declining to desire to live with those who are so defiled, and to be numbered among the profane and wicked. Therefore, he says, "You shall not go by flight." And that their affairs will proceed with an easy course, and that nothing at all will occur to them that is difficult, or steep, or rough, he provided assurance by saying: "The Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will gather you." If God is with us and goes before us, what is there that might hinder the heralds of sacred preaching; or rather, why should not everything turn out for them according to their wish, and the heralds run as if on a level road? ^{B C}

VERS. 13-15. Behold, my servant shall understand, and he shall be exalted, and shall be glorified exceedingly. As many shall be astonished at you, so shall your form be despised by men, and your glory from the eyes of men. So shall many nations marvel at him, and kings shall shut their mouth; for they shall see that which was not announced to them concerning him, and they shall understand that which they have not heard.

Clearly, in these words, God and Father speaks concerning Christ, the Savior of us all. "Behold, my servant shall understand," he says; and by "servant" you will understand the Son, or rather the servant. For the Word, being God and Lord of all, took the form of a servant and descended to the measure and standard of humanity. "For he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and being found in habit as a man, he humbled himself." Therefore, when he became man, subjecting himself to this humiliation, ^D then he was also called a servant, having taken the form of servitude. But, "He shall understand," he says, instead of, "He shall do all things with understanding and divine wisdom, and shall speak..."

^A of that which is god-befitting." For the work of god-befitting wisdom—and, above all other things, that the only-begotten Word of God should become flesh, that is to say, man, and should become poor with those upon the earth, that we might be enriched by his poverty, that believing in him we might wash away the defilements of sin, since the law given through Moses was not powerful enough to remove sins—was that by the death of his own flesh he might abolish death and overturn corruption, and might refashion unto incorruptibility those held by death, and make the man who was upon the earth a citizen of heaven, and join to God and the Father him who was the long-lost runaway, ^B and might proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, and heal the broken-hearted, and empty out Hades, and deprive Satan of his rule and tyranny over all. "My servant shall understand," he says. For there is nothing at all in what has been done for our sake that is without understanding, or, in other words, without wisdom. For "in wisdom has he made all things," according to the voice of the Psalmist. For this reason, he says, "he shall be exalted and shall be glorified exceedingly." For God is glorified by us as Lord, and we call him Savior and Redeemer. And we have believed this to be true in reality. But in order that the word from God ^C and the Father might be entirely true and beyond reproach, he necessarily added: "As many shall be astonished at thee, so shall thy form be dishonored from among men, and thy glory from among men." For those who recognized his manifestation, and were able to behold with the eyes of the mind the magnitude of the god-befitting power that was in him, are astonished at the plan of salvation; just as the prophet Habakkuk was, saying: "O Lord, I have heard thy report, and was afraid; I considered thy works, and was amazed." But those who did not understand his glory, but remained faithless and without understanding, unholily passed judgment upon him for his dishonor and reproach, calling him a Samaritan, and a glutton, and a drunkard, and one born of fornication, and besides these, even a sinner. Therefore, as many shall be astonished at thee, so also shall thy form be dishonored by men, and thy glory by men. ^D But just as this will come to pass, so also shall "many nations marvel at thee, and kings shall shut their mouths." For the Jews, those most daring men—although they are deemed of no account—dared to revile him, and having often let loose an unbridled tongue against him, lashed out with blasphemous voices. But most kings, fearing him as God, and offering up glory to him as King of all, shall shut their mouths, that is to say, they shall say nothing discordant, nor shall they utter anything of those things which injure the glory of Christ. And that the divine and sacred and saving proclamation, that is to say, the evangelical [message], will not be from those by whom his form was dishonored, but rather from those who did shut their mouth [and] whose glory he magnified, he shows when he says: "Because they to whom it was not announced concerning him shall see; and they who have not heard shall understand." For these things were announced concerning Christ to the Israelites, both by the law and by the prophets, but not to the Gentiles. They, however, he says, shall see his salvation more [clearly]; and they who have not heard these mysteries at all, these shall understand them, that is to say, they shall have believed. For the root and nurse of knowledge is faith, and as it were an entrance to piety, and to

a life bringing those who receive it into it. For indeed the prophet Isaiah says, "Unless you believe, you shall not understand." ^C CAP. LIII. VERS. 1. *Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? We have proclaimed before him as a tender plant, as a root in a thirsty land.*

There has always been a frequent word among the holy prophets concerning our Savior of all, and they have not ceased to admonish, and to announce most clearly, that being God the Word, He would come in due time in human form, and that He would work miracles in a way worthy of God. And this He does, calling those who are wandering into the straight path, and justifying the ungodly by faith. Yet these things profited those who were of the blood of Israel but little at all, who looked much toward disobedience; so that, although they ought to have seized the prediction, and gathered life-giving knowledge, and stored it up in their own hearts, they conversely behaved insolently toward the mystagogues, and assailed them very bitterly, saying: "Speak other things to us, and announce to us another delusion." ^D For indeed the prophet Jeremiah, as if overcome by weariness from the measureless cruelty of the Jews, says: "Woe is me, mother, as what a man have you borne me, a man of litigation and contention in all the earth? Neither have I profited, nor has anyone profited me. My strength has failed because of those who curse me." In summary, the whole choir of the saints, making their words as if concerning Jerusalem, says: "We have cured Babylon, and she was not healed. Let us leave her, and let us go each to his own land; because her judgment has approached unto heaven, and has been lifted up to the stars." For by Babylon he names Jerusalem here, as one that strives to imitate her, and differs in nothing from the land of the Gentiles, in what pertains to a dissolute life, and because she would not have the law in honor and value, nor embrace the benefit of prophetic pedagogy. These verses have this meaning. For he accuses Israel, as one that has turned entirely toward disobedience, and says: "Who has believed our report?" For we, O Lord, he says, have been initiated by Thee in the mysteries, and have been instructed, and have learned the discourse concerning the incarnation, and have received this report; but no one has believed, and to no one has Thy arm been made manifest, the arm, I say, of the Lord and God of all. Now the divinely inspired Scripture is accustomed to call the Son the arm of God and the Father, as has been shown many times. But as if someone should chance to meet them and say: "You, O prophets, have received the report through the Spirit, and have been enriched with the knowledge of the mystery; did you, therefore, preach the mystery to others?" "Indeed," they say, "we have announced it, and we have all but testified, saying: We shall be before him as...

a field, that is to say, as a flourishing and fruit-bearing territory, or even as a root in a thirsty land, for he clearly irrigates us with the divine and ineffable words of the Only-begotten, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. For of old, the whole earth was like something dry and barren, and like a thirsty land, and it had no cultivated fruits. But since it has been enriched by the rain from Christ—that is, the spiritual rain and the supply of the Holy Spirit—we have sprouted again like a root, that is, like a fair and flowering plant. ^A And, in fact, one of the holy prophets said to us: "And all nations shall call you blessed; for you shall be a delightful land, says the Lord Almighty." He calls the fruit-bearing and most fertile land "delightful," for it is pleasing to the cultivators. And that the land which once produced thorns, being dry and waterless, has changed into a most fertile one and into the ability to abound in spiritual fruits, the God of all things will clarify, saying through the voice of Isaiah: "And instead of the broom, the cypress shall come up, and instead of the fleabane, the myrtle shall come up." For the broom and the fleabane are types of thorns, and the uncultivated and thirsty land always nourishes them; but the myrtle and the cypress flourish in gardens. When the thorn is removed, therefore, he says, the most fragrant of plants will finally burst forth, when the thirsty land becomes well-watered, as God says: "I will turn the desert into marshes, and the thirsty land into conduits of water. I will place in the waterless land the cedar, and the box, and the myrtle, and the cypress, and the poplar." We have therefore announced that by believing in him, Christ, we shall be before him—that is to say, we shall be like a plant in a land that was once thirsty, but which has been made well-watered by him. ^B

"He has no form nor glory; and we looked upon him, and he had no form nor beauty. But his form was dishonored, failing beyond all men."

What then does the prophet say in these words, or what meaning might one apply to these stated things? Come, let us consider it again, as best we can. For he has confessed, "And we have announced," that is, we have fully and plainly predicted that he would come at his proper time. But perhaps someone, in response to this, might say: "What then? Did God the Word come down from heaven, adorned with divine glory? And did he appear to the inhabitants of the earth shining with unapproachable light? Was his countenance unable to be looked upon because of the exceeding glory?" For indeed, when he descended upon Mount Sinai in the likeness of fire, there was darkness and gloom and a storm, and fire flashing from on high, and smoke, and many other things besides these, productive of fear and extreme trembling, so that the sight was unbearable to those looking. ^C And indeed, the Israelites asked to act as a mediator, saying to the most excellent Moses: "Speak you to us, and let not God speak to us, lest we die." It is no wonder, then, he says, if you predicted it, and that he appeared to the inhabitants of the earth not ^D fit to be gazed upon...

^A having glory that it was impossible to look upon, and he became unbearable to no one. What, then, do the prophets say? They meet the situation warmly, saying: "Unwarranted is the disbelief! Not without cause is the falling away! He has no form, nor glory." For he was not, he says, in a form and glory befitting God. For he emptied himself, being born in the likeness of men; and having been found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself. And we say this, not having the tradition from hearing alone, but having gazed with our very eyes upon him who is proclaimed. "We saw him, and he had no form, nor beauty"—beauty, I say, that is godlike—but his form was dishonored. For human things are small, and cheap, and altogether dishonored, when compared to the divine and supreme excellence and the super-brilliant beauty of the nature that transcends all things. It has been said, indeed: "Fair in beauty beyond the sons of men." And he says something even greater: "Failing beyond all men." It is clear that this refers to his form, ^B as if they had said: "It is indeed possible to see some among men who are distinguished by the splendor of their honors, lifted up and expanded by the retinue and company of wealth, or in some other way established in earthly dignities; but Emmanuel was not among these, but in a small and lowly order, so that he seemed to be inferior to other men." And truly the saying is correct. For he was not born of a wealthy mother, the holy Virgin, but he passed through every humble state, that he might lift up what is lowly and make what is dishonored desirable. And another point: being God and Lord and King of all, of what human splendor could he have had need?

Verse 3. A man in a plague, and knowing how to bear infirmity, because his face is turned away, he was dishonored and not esteemed.

Having said that "We saw him, and he had no form nor beauty," they explain clearly in what state and habit and face they saw him whom they proclaim. For he is like a man, they say, who is affected by a plague, but who bears infirmity—that is, affliction, or what he was suffering—nobly. For perhaps they gazed upon the Savior’s face, saddened as one who was troubled and dismayed, as he was about to suffer death on the wood, when he even said, at one time: "Now my soul is troubled," ^C and at another time, again: "My soul is very sorrowful, even unto death." And what shall I say? "Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour." And one of the holy evangelists also said that when the time was near in which he was about to suffer, he began to be sorrowful and to be in distress. And although by nature he was God, the only-begotten Word of the Father, into whom neither perturbation, nor sorrow, nor absolutely anything of that kind could fall, yet he accommodated himself to our nature, and showed himself to be not empty of every anguish when temptation pressed in, declaring that in all things he was like us—not, as it pleases some, a shadow and a phantom seen upon the earth, but he truly became ^D a man. And "his face is turned away,"

away," he says, with respect to his face. And "It is turned away" stands for, "It was put to shame, it was despised, and it was not reckoned." For while Pilate sent Jesus to Herod, he, as it is said, treated him with disdain and sent him back. He did not reckon Jesus as being of any account, and his face also was despised, as the spittle was clearly sent upon him, and the soldiers of Pilate were raining blows upon him, and saying: "Prophesy to us, Christ, who is he that struck thee?" ^B He was despised in another way as well, as he bore the afflictions from the scourges, and the blows from the servants. He says, therefore, through the voice of Isaiah: "I have given my back to the scourges, and my cheeks to blows, and I have not turned away my face from the shame of spittle." Therefore, as I said, the divine prophets seem to see the Son, or his face, through a vision—that is to say, through the Holy Spirit—and it is not at all free from human sadness, as the time was indeed pressing in which it was necessary for him to suffer, so that by the death of his own flesh he might abolish death, having taken away the sin of the world.

"This man bears our sins, and suffers pain for us; and we reckoned him to be in labor, and in a blow, and in affliction. But he was wounded for our sins, and has been weakened for our iniquities. The instruction of our peace was upon him; by his stripe we were healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; a man has strayed in his own path, and the Lord delivered him for our sins."

^C He endured the cross, having despised the shame, our Lord Jesus Christ, and became obedient to the Father even unto death, and he endured the impiety of the Jews, so that, as I said just now, he might take away the sin of the world, since the legal letter, or rather the cult according to the law, held no power to succeed in this. For it was impossible for the blood of goats and bulls to take away sins. He suffered outside the gate, so that, as Paul says, he might sanctify the people through his own blood; for he suffered, not indeed for himself—for that is far from the truth—but for the whole earth under the heavens. And the most wise Paul will also testify, writing about God and the Father, that "He did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, that he might also grant us all things with him." And he himself also says somewhere, through the lyre of the Psalmist, to the Father and God in the heavens: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me. Whole burnt offerings and those for sin you did not approve; then I said: Behold, I come. In the scroll of the book it is written concerning me, to do, O God, your will; I desired it." For since the cult according to the law was of no profit to those on earth for the taking away of sins, seeing that the sacrifices and the slaughters of sheep were not desired by God, the true Lamb has offered himself as an odor of fragrance for us, he who takes away the sin of the world; then, having endured ^D the death of the flesh, he freed the whole world under the heavens from both death and sin. For one is worth everyone

he suffered for all, that he might rule and reign over all. Paul will confirm this again, writing: “To this end Christ both died and lived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.” And again: “One died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.” Fittingly, therefore, the prophet says: “This One, being in a plague, known to bear infirmities, having his face turned away, despised and unconsidered, bears our sins and suffers on our account; and we considered him to be in labor, and in a plague, and in affliction.” ^B Observe with me again with what skill the prophetic discourse proceeds in these words. For he feigns the person of those who were ignorant of the mystery of Christ, and who thought that He had suffered because He was about to pay for His own sins. “We considered him to be in labor, and in a plague, and in affliction,” he says, that is, we thought that this passion had come upon Him by divine judgment, as if for certain sins, and that for this cause He was in labor, and in a plague, and in affliction. But the matter does not at all stand thus; rather, “He was wounded for our transgressions, and He became infirm for our iniquities.” ^C Then he gives other reasons, by which it is possible to see that He who knew no sin suffered for the sake of our salvation and life. For formerly we were estranged from God in hatred, resisting His holy laws, and not subject to the yoke of obedience, and refusing to serve Him. But it was necessary, he says, that we who had fallen into such audacity should be disciplined with stripes, so that, departing from vices, we might dissolve the enmity and enter into peace with God, by bowing our necks to Him and striving to accomplish what is pleasing to Him. But this discipline, he says, which ought rather to have been brought upon those who had sinned, so that they might be reconciled—as they were warring against God—came upon Him. And this, I think, is: “The discipline of our peace was upon Him.” ^D He makes the meaning of the matter at hand clearer, immediately adding: “By His wound we were healed.” For He suffered, as I said, for our sake. “For all we like sheep have gone astray; every man has gone astray in his own way, and the Lord delivered Him for our sins.” We therefore strayed and departed from the living God, following our own pleasures. But the Lord of all, that is, God and Father, delivered Him up for our sins, in order to release us from punishment and preserve those who believe. And knowing this, Christ Himself said: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Comments on “We considered”

^A And He, because of His affliction, opens not His mouth. As a sheep He was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is dumb, so He opens not His mouth. In humiliation His judgment was taken away; and who shall declare His generation? Because His life is taken from the earth; for the iniquities of my people He was led to death.

The meaning of these words is very clear; yet we shall speak of each point in order, lest perhaps anything should seem obscure to some. Our Lord Jesus Christ was judged by the leaders of the Jews. Then some came forward to slander Him, asserting that certain things had been said by Him against the divine majesty. But Christ answered nothing to these charges, knowing that a defense would be of no avail whatsoever. For He had been summoned to judgment by His enemies. He was not ignorant that they would use the most violent anger against Him if He were to say that He was the Son of God, and the Savior and Redeemer of the world. Therefore, He kept silent both before them and when He was being judged by Pilate, saying only a few words, and those with difficulty, to ^B make their sin inexcusable. For the cruel and ungodly Caiaphas asked Him, saying: "I adjure Thee by the living God, that Thou tell us if Thou art the Christ, the Son of God." To which He replied immediately: "Henceforth ye shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven." Pilate also asked if He were the King of Israel, and to this Christ said: "Thou hast said it." From this point, Pilate went along with the madness of the Jews; and having scourged Jesus, he ordered his soldiers to lead Him away together with the thieves to suffer the death on the cross. It is true, therefore, as the prophet says, "Because of His affliction He opens not His mouth." For after having suffered countless things at the time of His capture, enduring insults, and spittings, and the blows of unholy servants, and other things besides these by which it is likely ^C that one who has suffered might be distressed, He was brought to Pilate. But, because of *affliction*, he says, *He opens not his mouth*; but was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer, mute. For sheep are led away at their proper time to be shorn, and shepherds apply razors to them. And although they suffer, and sometimes the blade even touches their skin, they grieve and endure, and are softened because of our iniquities. And the prophet makes this clearer in what follows. For he says, "The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed." For being enemies of God, as having offended Him, we owed chastisement and punishment; but we did not experience this, for our Savior endured it for us.

"He was led to death." Scholion: It was fitting for Him, being Himself the likeness, to heal the likeness, and through a sheep to recall the wandering of the sheep. He becomes a sheep, not by being transformed into a sheep, nor by undergoing change, nor by departing from His own substance, but by wisely putting on the nature of the sheep. As a sheep, therefore, and a victim He was made, and was offered as a sacrifice on behalf of every race.

[D ] The prophet mentioned both slaughter and shearing not without reason; but because He was both God and man, and the divine nature remained impassible while the body was being slaughtered, the inspired Isaiah necessarily pointed out to us both the slaughter of the sheep and the shearing of the lamb. For he says He was not only slaughtered, but also shorn. For the human nature endured death; but as God, living and remaining impassible, He gave the wool of the body to those who were shearing Him.

Interpretation. The meaning is manifest. And then, there is added under these words which are read shortly after, the following title: *Subest inscriptio. Deinde, etc.* These scholia are missing in the translation of Hunfredus. But whether they crept into the text from elsewhere, I do not know, since such scholia are nowhere to be seen in these commentaries. Lest anyone demand them as having been wrongly omitted, we present them here in their entirety.

^A For sheep indeed are led away to be cleansed at suitable times, and the shepherds apply to them the shearing blades. Yet they, even though they suffer (for the blade, grazing them, sometimes wounds the skin), endure and are silent, and do not attack those who do this. So too did Christ; when reviled, He did not revile in return; when suffering, He did not threaten, but handed them over to Him who judges justly. It is true, therefore, that "In humiliation his judgment was taken away." For since He appeared to them as someone of no account, and among the most lowly, they brought forth a most ready vote, or judgment, against Him. And some of those who judge act in this way, for whom the concern for accuracy, that is, for the truth, is very slight, but who rather respect persons than the facts of those being judged. For if the person brought to judgment is one of the illustrious of the world, they are found to be exact and keen investigators—perhaps even then fighting against the truth and attempting to find ways of assistance—but when some person of no reputation is brought in, then, indeed, they become hot, and bold, and extremely unhesitating, and they deliver the final sentence against them. His judgment, therefore, was taken away in His humiliation, he says.

But since He appeared as someone altogether lowly to some among the Jews, that is, to the judges, the prophet, contemplating in his mind the greatness of the nobility that was in Him, and that He was God appearing in our likeness to the inhabitants of the earth, as it were shakes his head and laments over those who decreed the judgment against Him, and says: "Who shall declare his generation?" For it is not against an ordinary person, he says, as you thought, that you have become hard and unjust judges; but rather against Him whose generation, or birth, no speech can explain to us. And you will understand this in a twofold way. For the Word, being God, was begotten of God the Father, but the manner of this generation is altogether unspeakable and beyond understanding. For it did not happen corporally, but as would befit a spiritual and incorporeal nature. For Light shone forth from Light, and Life sprang from Life; and that He was truly begotten of the substance of God and the Father, we believe without hesitation; but the "how," it is not within our ability to express or to conceive. Being God by nature, He humbled Himself to choose to suffer the emptying for our sake, and He took the form of a servant, and endured to be born of a woman according to the flesh, not however following the laws of human birth. For the coming forth was not from man and woman; but it was rather mystical and strange, and above us, and nearly ineffable. For it was said to the holy Virgin: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. Therefore also the holy thing which is born shall be called the Son of God." ^D Since, therefore, the mystery of His birth according to the flesh is believed to have been accomplished in a way above our nature, for this reason the prophet says: "Who shall declare his generation? Because his life is taken from the earth." "Is taken," he says, meaning "is lifted up," and His life is more exalted than those upon the earth—that is, His conversation and His life in the flesh. For He alone out of all, even though He appeared as a man of our condition, did not commit sin, nor was guile found in His mouth, since among mortals on earth no one has achieved this. For there is not among us anyone

^A entirely free from reproach. It is also removed in another way, and is above all mortals, that is to say, the essence of the Only-Begotten, when it is understood apart from the flesh and before He became a man like us. Therefore, since His generation according to the flesh surpasses all opinion and nature, so too His life, way of living, and manner of existence exceed and far surpass the measure of mortal men. Yet, as though someone were to say against this: How is it that He who knew no sin has been subjected to the sentence of death, and was reckoned with the lawless? For He was condemned as a sinner. God and the Father almost comes to meet this and says: "For the iniquities of My people He was led to death." For He means either this, that He willingly underwent the sentence of death for the sin of My people, or perhaps that: because, He says, those who were set over My people proved to be most wicked, therefore the snares of their cruelty and slaughter fell upon Him, and thus He was led to death. But in truth, both are absolutely correct. For He died so that He might abolish the sin of those on earth, and together with it destroy the death that sprouted from it. He died also in another way, with the Jews acting unjustly against Him. For even though they recognized that He is the heir, they said among themselves: "Come, let us kill Him, and seize His inheritance for ourselves." ^B

And I will give the wicked for His burial, and the rich for His death. Because He did not commit sin, nor was guile found in His mouth.

It seems that by these words He wishes to make clear, and to show to be true, what we just said: that because those who were set over the people of God were exceedingly impious and most wicked, therefore Christ was snatched away to death. For, He says, since they acted impiously against Him, and killed the Author of life, practicing impiety unreservedly even against Him who saves, for this very reason, He says, most deservedly will I give the wicked and the rich into the hands of enemies, for His burial, and for His death. For the Jews have transgressed in two ways, both by having killed the Lord and by having slandered His burial. And we shall say in what manner. For He was buried after He underwent death according to the flesh, yet He rose again on the third day, a great earthquake having occurred at the tomb, so that even the soldiers who were keeping watch became aware of the event, and went to the leaders of the Jews, and reported this, and the resurrection itself. But they, as the Evangelist relates, gave enough silver to the soldiers, so that they might say that His disciples came by night and stole Him. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this very day. Therefore, because of these two crimes, God and the Father accuses those who have sinned impiously; and He calls them wicked and rich: wicked, as those who slandered ^{C D}

^A and killed Jesus on baseless charges; and rich, because they used money to persuade the soldiers of Pilate to slander the venerable and great mystery of the resurrection. It is also probable that they are called rich in another sense, for the discourse hints and silently suggests that they plotted against Christ for this very reason: that they might possess riches gathered unjustly, by not judging rightly and by avariciously plundering those whom they could. Indeed, He said of them through the voice of Isaiah: "Your princes are disobedient, partners of thieves, loving bribes, pursuing rewards, not judging for the orphans, and paying no heed to the judgment of the widow." They also intended that the message of faith should not be received, thinking that if the worship ^B under the Law were to cease, they would lose the gains and emoluments of the priesthood. For they used to receive first-fruits and tithes, and they exacted even the most trivial things accurately and precisely. Indeed, Christ reproached them for this, saying: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith." They are convicted as avaricious also under another name; for, as I said above, in transferring to themselves the Lord's portion, they plotted against the Lord of the vineyard. But that God, by a just judgment, gave over the wicked and the rich for the death and burial of Christ is clearly demonstrated, as He adds immediately: "Because he did not commit iniquity, neither was guile found in his mouth." What defense, then, will avail the Jews on the day of judgment? For God and the Father has borne clear witness to the sinlessness of the Son. For there was found no guile—that is, falsehood—in His mouth, nor did He commit iniquity. Therefore, ^C He was blameless in both deed and word, and had arrived at the pinnacle of all purity. But they lied and bore witness against Him, saying to Pilate, sometimes: "This man stirs up the people and forbids giving tribute to Caesar," and at other times: "If this man were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him to you." They therefore oppose the testimonies of the Father, bringing accusations against the blameless and just One that are not true; and for this reason, they were delivered to their enemies. "Because the Lord wills to cleanse him from the stroke." For if those who acted insolently toward Him had not suffered penalties, it is likely that some would have suspected and said that Christ had been condemned by a holy judgment and verdict, as though He were guilty of the crime that was laid upon Him. But with the punishment ^D inflicted and the due penalty imposed upon those who were impious toward Him, He is cleansed from the stroke. For God would not have been angered, nor would He have despised His own people, nor would He have brought upon them the ultimate calamities, had they not denied the Holy and Just One, pursuing Him with slanders, nailing Him to the wood, and proceeding beyond all inhumanity.

^A If you give for sin, your soul shall see a long-lived seed. And the Lord wills to take away from the pain of His soul, to show Him light and to form Him in understanding, to justify the just one who serves many well, and He Himself will remit their sins. For this reason He shall possess many, and He shall divide the spoils of the strong, because His soul was delivered unto death, and He was reckoned among the wicked, and He Himself bore the sins of many, and for the sins of many He was delivered.

Having accused those from Israel, as having unjustly killed the Giver and Bestower of life and the steward of the salvation of all, He transfers His discourse to the flocks of the Gentiles, and indeed He speaks to them: "If you give for sin, your soul shall see a long-lived seed." It is as if He were saying clearly: Christ has laid down His own soul for you; He redeemed you with His own blood, He endured the cross, despising the shame, so that He might procure salvation for you. If, therefore, you yourselves also wish to make a return, and if you lay down your obedience as if in place of a debt, and submit your neck to His yokes, then your soul shall see a long-lived seed; that is to say, you shall be partners of those who are reserved for a long life, namely, the saints who have been enriched by the hope of eternal life. For among the Greeks there was no reasoned account of the resurrection of the dead, nor any concern for it; indeed, even to this day, faith in the mystery is not granted to them. On the contrary, they almost say that this breath in our nostrils is smoke, and when it is extinguished, everything falls back into ashes, and this spirit will be scattered like empty air. ^B But for the nurslings of the Church, the resurrection of those who have fallen asleep is an unshakable hope, and God promises it to the Gentiles, if they are willing to offer the recompense of their own souls to Christ, who chose to suffer for their sin. And what kind of debt this is from our side, Paul will clarify, saying: "For one died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and was raised" (2 Cor. v, 15). We have therefore owed Him our own life. For this reason He says: "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matth. xvi, 24). He who denies himself will no longer live a life of pleasure, but rather that which is understood to be Christ's, that is, a holy and blameless one, just, indeed, as the divine Paul, who also has written clearly: "For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God; I have been crucified with Christ. ^C It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God" (Gal. ii, 19-21). See, therefore, how he has given himself for sin, consecrating his own life as if to Him who suffered for his sake. For we have heard Christ saying to His own acquaintances: "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son ^D or daughter more than me is not worthy of me" (Matth. x, 37). For truly man's mother and father, the princip-

principle and cause, have been to him for the progress of corporality; but the God and Father of all, those who were held by death and were withering even as grass, he has regenerated into immortality through Christ in the Spirit, and has rendered them superior to corruption, crowning them with a long and unending life. ^A Therefore, the reverence towards parents is justly surpassed by the love toward Him; but to love Christ with all one’s soul and heart, and to follow his beckonings—that is, his holy decrees—is to give for sin, choosing also to keep the faith in him rightly and blamelessly. "Your soul shall see," he says, "a long-lived seed." For the Lord wishes to take away from the toil of his soul, and to show him light, and to form him in understanding. For he had become sorrowful even unto death before the precious cross; for it is written thus by the holy evangelists. But since, having trampled upon Hades, he rose again on the third day, and then beheld human nature transformed in himself unto immortality, and the good pleasure of God and the Father now already being spread over the entire earth, and the multitude of the nations being about to be illuminated, and to be drawn away from their ancient and innate ^B error, and to be called to the knowledge of himself and of the Father; he cast off the toil of suffering, and has given victory to those who think rightly. For as soon as he was raised from the dead, and because he is good, rejoicing greatly in the salvation and life of the world, he said to the holy disciples: "All power is given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Matth. xxviii, 18, 19). If, therefore, you give for sin, you yourselves shall also be participants in this long-lived seed, that is, the seed of the saints. For God and the Father wishes to take away from the toil of his soul—it is clear that this is Christ’s—that is, to change the sorrow on the cross into joy, by showing him those translated into light who were once darkness, that is, those who once wandered; to whom ^C the all-wise Paul also writes, saying: "You were once darkness, but now are light in the Lord" (Eph. v, 8). "To form in understanding." And what this is exactly, the all-wise Paul will teach, saying: "But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. iii, 18). For those who are in sins, and who worship the creature rather than the Creator, have in some way an ugly heart, and a most foul mind. It was said therefore to a certain person through the voice of Jeremiah: "Behold, your eyes are not, nor is your heart beautiful" (Jer. xxii, 17). But when they embrace faith in Christ, they are transformed intelligibly unto his divine and excellent beauty. For the all-wise Paul writes to certain people: ^D "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you" (Gal. iv, 19). Therefore God and the Father wishes through understanding—that is, through his own wisdom, divine wisdom—to form those who believe in him, and to render them conformed to himself through sanctification in the spirit. "For," he says, "whom he did foreknow, he also..."

predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son," and those he also called. And God is said to have created the two peoples into one new man. Then, I think, God and Father wishes to justify the righteous one who serves many well, and he himself will remit their sins. Now, the righteous one serving many well can be understood as none other, I suppose, than our Lord Jesus Christ. For he came not to be served, as he himself says, but rather to serve, according to the dispensation of the incarnation. Hence it seemed good to the blessed Paul to call him a minister. For he says concerning the law and the New Testament: "For if the ministration of condemnation be glory (for the person of Moses was glorified), much more does the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory." Therefore, Christ is righteous and blameless, serving many well. For the Word, being God, received the form of a servant, not in order to benefit his own nature, but bestowing this upon us, and discharging as it were a certain ministry toward us, by which we also have been saved. He is justified, moreover, while he wards off the suspicion that he was evil, or that he suffered the death on the wood justly; this he does by both the punishment rendered by the Israelites for their impiety toward him, and by his reigning over the nations of the whole world under heaven that have run to him. For that the account of the incarnation has the power of a ministry, he showed when he said: "And he himself will remit their sins." For in order to remove sin from the world, he himself took it upon himself, and the one worth all died for all; on account of this he has served many. ^B By saying "many," he signifies the nations. For Israel was one nation. But since he himself "bore their sins," he says, "therefore he shall have many for his portion, and he shall divide the spoils of the strong." Again, here you will understand by "many" those from the nations: for they are ten thousand times more numerous than those from Israel; and by "the strong," either the holy apostles, or even everyone simply who is powerful in Christ and possesses spiritual valor, to whom, as those having conquered Satan, he distributes the spoils. For he distributes with a rich hand the supplies of spiritual gifts to the holy ones. "For to one," he says, "is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge, and prophecies, and the discerning of spirits, and the gifts of healings." And having brought the power of the discourse to the holy apostles, we say this: all the nations were, as it were, a possession of Satan, but he who inherited many divided them among the holy mystagogues. For some were called to the knowledge of our common Savior Christ through the divine Peter; others were brought to the light of truth through the mystagogy of the divine Paul, or of some other of the holy apostles. Therefore, the Savior distributed to them as it were spoils, that is, the plunder of war—the conversion and calling of those who once erred. And that it behooved him who died for all to be seen as the Lord of all, he asserts, saying: "For that his soul was delivered unto death, and he ^C numbered with the transgressors."

and was reckoned among the wicked. And he himself bore the sins of many, and for their iniquities was delivered up.

TOMUS II

^A CAP. LIV. VERS. 1-3. Rejoice, thou barren that dost not bear; break forth and cry, thou that dost not travail, for many are the children of the desolate more than of her that hath a husband. For the Lord said: Enlarge the place of thy tent and of thy curtains, fix, do not spare; lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes, further still to the right and to the left extend. And thy seed shall possess the nations, and thou shalt make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

Having explained most beautifully how the true Lamb, that is to say Christ, endured the precious cross for us and the slaughter for the world; and having also predicted long before that He would possess many, the prophecy turns its speech now toward those who have been given to Him by God as a lot, that is to say, the nations. For this is what the Son Himself proclaimed in advance through the lyre of the Psalmist, saying: "The Lord said to me: Thou art my Son, today have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thy inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." He says that they are many; for indeed the ^B ones from the nations must be understood to be much more frequent and greater in number by comparison with those who are of the blood of Israel, who are considered as one single nation. Moreover, He deigns to compare the multitude of the nations to a barren and cast-off woman, in other words, a desolate one, and addresses her: "Rejoice, thou barren, that dost not bear." But someone might perhaps say this: Why does He call the multitude of the nations, or the Church gathered from the nations, barren? Even though the discourse has previously indicated that there were far more who were straying and worshipping the creature rather than the Creator, than there were of those who were redeemed by Moses, and for that reason were numbered in the divine lot? "For when," it says, "the Most High divided the nations, when He dispersed the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God; and the portion of the Lord was His people Jacob, the cord of His inheritance Israel." How then is she barren, being so fruitful in ^C children and, as it were, most fertile? For there was no one among them, who were ignorant of the God of the universe, who deserved to be numbered among the sons of God by reason of knowledge and virtue. Furthermore, there was not among them the regeneration through water and spirit; but they were from corrupt seed, corrupt and earthly; and as the Psalmist says: "They have been alienated from the womb, from union with God, and have strayed from the womb itself"; inasmuch as they were sinners from sinners, and idolaters, and having no hope, as the all-wise Paul says. Erat ergo in Deo, therefore, she was barren, ^D bearing no one who should or could be reckoned and counted among the sons of God because

of her faith and her virtue. But behold, she is commanded to break forth and cry out. ^A It is the custom for women who are now upon the birth-stool and are giving birth to do this; they are said to urge the midwives to shout something intense and sharp, so that the infant may be forced out of the womb, the vitals being dilated by the shouting. This, I imagine, is what is meant by, "Break forth and cry out." ^B Begin, therefore, to give birth, he says, and as one laboring with many, give frequently the shout that is always appropriate to those giving birth; and as one who is to be a mother of innumerable peoples, receive spiritual joy. Explaining the meaning of the passage before us, God of all adds, saying: "For more are the sons of the desolate one than of her who has a husband." It is customary for the divinely-inspired Scripture to call the widow "desolate." Now the multitude of the nations was a widow. For it had no commerce with the Word; with the Word, I say, the sower of all true knowledge and of studies pertaining to piety — whom if one were to call the husbandman of every rational creature, one would not stray from the truth. For by him is every spiritual fruitage implanted both in the holy angels and in us ourselves. ^C Therefore, before the advent of the Savior, it was a widow and for this reason barren and childless. But since it received through faith the bridegroom from heaven, it has produced many more children than she who had a husband, that is, the Synagogue of the Jews, which God had brought through the most wise Moses into spiritual intimacy, and had made her, as it were, a wife dwelling with him, and a mother and nurse of many. But she was made childless because of Christ, even though, as the prophet Jeremiah says, she was one with many children. For more, as I said, are the sons of the once barren one, to whom it is also said, "Enlarge the place of thy tent and thy curtains." For since she became a mother of many unexpectedly, having received the Word, or Bridegroom, from heaven, she is necessarily commanded to extend her courts in breadth and in length, and to drive in the pegs, so that you may understand from this the unshakable foundation of the Church of the Gentiles; and the lengthening of the cords indicates the incomparably rich spaciousness of the holy Churches, even though the ancient tent was altogether small and had most narrow courts. ^D Nevertheless, even in that workmanship one might see, as in a figure and type, the abundance in breadth and length of the Church of the Gentiles. For around the ten curtains made of goat-hair skins, there were arranged four courts in a circle, running as it were into each part of the inhabited world, one hundred in length and fifty in breadth. For this reason he says: "Further to the right and left expand," that is, let your cords be spread out everywhere. For the world under heaven is full of holy Churches, and they are also great, wide, and long everywhere, and...

go to the perfection of beauty. For so says the God of all regarding the temple built in Jerusalem, after the first had been burned down by the hand of the Assyrians: "Who among you is there that saw this house in its former glory? And how do you see it now, he says, as if it were not before your eyes? As I live, says the Lord, for the glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord Almighty." For far greater and wealthier temples, that is, Churches, have been raised up throughout the whole world under heaven, having the holy altar to the glory of Christ. "Enlarge therefore," he says, "the place of thy tent and of thy curtains." For thy seed shall inherit ^A nations, and thou shalt inhabit desolate cities. For the Church of the Gentiles has been the mother and nurse of a great many holy and good men, and has brought forth many princes and leaders of peoples, so that she also leads many nations, because she is able to deliver the pure word of mystagogy and is not lacking in the craft of shepherding. To these the Savior himself, inasmuch as they have led an approved and praiseworthy life, promises a lot and rule over peoples for all time to come. For in the distribution of the talents, to those who brought double what had been given, he says, "Be thou over ten cities"; and to another, "Be thou over five cities." Therefore, "thy seed shall inherit nations." This could appropriately be applied, as I have just said, to the leaders of the ^B Churches, if they also say out of exceeding joy, "He has subjected peoples to us, and nations under our feet. He has chosen for us his inheritance." For the lot that belongs to Christ alone and truly, most especially, is to preside over all. Therefore he enjoined that no one be called Rabbi: "For one," he says, "is your instructor, Christ." But just as, being himself the true light, he called the holy apostles light, and just as, being by nature the only and truly Son, he has given us who believe in him the power to call God Father, inasmuch as we are enriched by the dignity of sonship; so also, he himself being the instructor of all and possessing the world under heaven as his lot, has given this dignity to the holy ones, crowning them with his own glory, ^C because they have been his fellow-workers and noble and genuine moderators of the peoples, and have gained many, having led them by faith, those who worshipped the creature above him, and who were not ignorant of the way of the excellent life. But as for the words, "Thou shalt inhabit desolate cities," you will understand it as follows: For so great, he says, will be the multitude of thy seed that cities full of inhabitants will not suffice them, but they will be able to fill even the deserts.

^D Vers. 4, 5. Fear not, because thou wast put to shame: nor be ashamed, because thou wast upbraided: for thou shalt forget thine everlasting confusion, and thou shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood: for the Lord who made thee, the Lord of Sabaoth

^A is his name, and he who delivered thee, the same shall be called the God of Israel, the God of all the earth.

We have been justified in Christ, and not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his abundant mercy. For the all-wise Paul writes thus. For we have been delivered from darkness, and from error, and from the impiety handed down by our fathers, inasmuch as we worshipped the creature rather than the Creator, and the flock of the nations was wallowed in every kind of vice; as the Psalmist also says: "All have turned aside; they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." Now, this thing has become a reproach to the nations—I mean this very state of being in error, and the evils which result from being in error. For what would make the soul of man so unseemly, and so very ugly, and so liable to countless accusations, as to depart from the living God ^B and choose instead to worship unclean spirits, and to cast itself down into the filth of sin as into some mire and slough and pit? But what does the lover of mankind say to those who have been called to the remission of sin through faith—it is clear, that which is in him? "Fear not, because thou hast been shamed." For since He has altogether, as a father pities his sons, had compassion on those who fear him, and as far as the east is distant from the west, has removed from us our iniquities; why should it not be fitting for us, who once fell, to cast away all fear, God justifying us by a grace of oblivion, and not exacting penalties from the wicked? And indeed Christ spoke, showing that the time of his sojourn was for clemency: "For God," he says, "sent not his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world through him might be saved." ^C Therefore, as those exempt from punishment, and not expecting the penalty for our transgressions, we have had a mind free and void of terrors, nor do we remember the reproach of our past. For grace prevails, which justifies the ungodly, and frees those who have obtained mercy from every stain. For as the all-wise Paul says, "It is God that justifieth: who is he that condemneth?" And since the Lord of all forgets, who shall cast in our teeth the filth of the transgressions committed in ignorance? "Thou shalt forget, therefore," he says, "everlasting shame (that is, long-standing), and thou shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood." And the reproach of widowhood is that the nations were unable in any way to bear fruit for God at any time, during the age in which they were wandering. For there was not among them, as I said, the bridegroom from heaven, the giver of spiritual fertility, who implants the ^D occasions of good seeds in each soul. And indeed in the evangelical parables he shows himself to be such, saying, "A sower went forth to sow his seed." And in what manner the reproach of her widowhood shall be done away, he makes clear, saying, "Because the Lord who made thee, the Lord of Sabaoth is his name." And "Making thee," he says, instead of "Creating thee," and transforming thee to a manner of life of another sort, and to a different, virtuous life; trans-

^A for we are schooled in Christ unto a newness of holy and evangelical life, growing up toward the beauty of His form through the Spirit, so that we may henceforth be seen as others sprung from others.

Thus, He spoke concerning the nations through the voice of Ezekiel, that, "And I will take away their heart of stone out of their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh, that they may know Me, that I am the Lord." He very frequently refers to the coming generation and the people being created as the nations who are turning back. And the inspired Paul says, "But we all," says he, "with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit."

Christ, therefore, created us—that is, the two peoples—into one new man, making peace and reconciling both in one body to the Father. We are indeed commanded to put off the old man, who is being destroyed according to the desires of deceit, and to put on the new man who is being renewed unto the image of Him who created him—and it is evident that this is Christ. "I, therefore, am the Lord Sabaoth who makes thee," He says—that is, the one creating and refashioning. ^B And that one might not disbelieve because of the magnificence of the deed, He names Himself "Lord of Hosts" again, both usefully and necessarily.

And what is the time of this transformation, or rather, of this re-creation? He clarified it by saying, "He who delivers thee, He Himself shall be called God of Israel in all the earth." And when once and for all has this also been accomplished? At the time of the coming, clearly. For Christ has reigned over all the nations, and the Prophet teaches this, saying, "And the Lord shall be one, and His name one, encircling all the earth." For of old, God was known only in Judea alone. ^C But since the multitude of the nations has been called through faith to the knowledge of Him, henceforth every knee shall bow to Him, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

God, therefore, shall be called in all the earth He who delivers us, and who has rescued us from the malignity of the devil, and has brought us under His own scepters. And the blessed David teaches this, saying at one time, "Oh all you nations, clap your hands, shout to the God of Jacob, for the Lord is most high, terrible, a great king over all the earth," and at another time, "The Lord has reigned, let the earth exult."

^D VERS. 6-8. "The Lord has not called thee as a woman abandoned and faint-hearted, nor as a woman hated from her youth," said thy God. "For a little time I left thee, and with great mercy I will have mercy on thee. In a little wrath I turned my face from thee, and with eternal mercy I will have mercy on thee," said the Lord who delivers thee.

It is customary for divinely inspired Scripture to call a "derelict woman" one who, for certain reasons, has been cast away—one to whom, according to the Law of Moses, a scroll of divorce was given by her husband—and again, one "hated" who is accused of baseness and lightness of life. To whom also applies the charge of faint-heartedness, as one who could not endure, and

refuses to embrace the nuptial yoke, but turns toward things that are not lawful, and makes light of the performance of those duties which pertain to dignity and honor. Such was this Synagogue of the Jews toward the God who is Lord of all. For indeed, through the all-wise Moses, He brought her into a spiritual union; and although she had played the harlot as a woman in Egypt, in that she shared their sentiments and served their gods there, He nevertheless all but took her into His house. Afterward, when she had leaped back into her former mire and wished to run back again into apostasy—for she had worshiped the works of her own hands—He drove her away and rendered her a stranger to the intimacy she had with Him, and cast her out as a woman who was odious and faint-hearted. Indeed, through one of the holy prophets He said to those who were of the blood of Israel, ^A "Contend with your mother, contend, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. I will remove her whoredom from before my face, and her adultery from between her breasts; and I will slay her with thirst, and I will not have mercy on her children, for they are children of whoredom; for their mother has played the whore, the one who bore them has been put to shame." And what the manner of her whoredom was, He made clear, speaking through the voice of Ezekiel: "Son of man, will you not judge Oola and Ooliba (that is, Jerusalem and Samaria), and declare to them their iniquities? For they have committed adultery, and there is blood on their hands; and they have committed adultery with their thoughts; and their children, whom they bore to me, they themselves led through the fire. ^B And they did these things to me: they defiled my holy things, and profaned my Sabbaths, and when they slaughtered their children to their idols, they would go into my holy places to defile them." For there were ten tribes in Samaria, and half the tribe of Ephraim; while in Jerusalem were the tribe of Judah and half the tribe of Benjamin. But both these and those practiced impiety, not moderately, but rather, having rushed with unbridled impulses to the pinnacle of every folly, they committed "adultery with their thoughts"—that is, they turned the idols which they themselves had devised into an occasion for a certain intelligible adultery and whoredom, failing in their hearts from God, who had taken them as a wife. And indeed, the God of all said to the Synagogue of the Jews through the voice of Jeremiah: ^C "A harlot’s face has become yours; you have lost all shame before everyone. Have you not called me up to this time, ‘My father’ and ‘the leader of your virginity’?" Therefore, he deservedly calls the mother of the Jews, who has played the harlot, a "forsaken woman" and one "faint-hearted," and "hated from her youth." But He disputes with the Gentiles, and says that they were not called to the knowledge of Christ in the same way as this woman—namely, who is called "forsaken," and "possessing a faint spirit," and "hated from her youth." For there is the greatest difference in the calling. For a partial blindness has come upon the Synagogue of the Jews, ^D as the most wise Paul says. And it has been darkened

^A in its eyes so that it could not see, and its back has been bent—that is, it has had its mind always looking downward and contemplating earthly things. But to those from the Gentiles, nothing of the sort happened. For their eyes were not darkened, but were rather illuminated; and the back was not bent, but was set upright intellectually; nor was there only a remnant saved among them, as also in Israel, but rather their whole multitude was caught by Christ and brought to salvation, and it was delivered from the causes of error, and escaped the violence of the snares of sin. It is called therefore not as a cast-off and hated woman; but, “For a small moment,” he says, “I have forsaken thee, but with great mercy will I have mercy on thee.” For in past generations, as the disciple of Christ says, God allowed the ^B nations to walk in their own ways; and this, I think, is the forsaking for a small moment. For even if it seems to have happened for long periods of time, yet it is thus contracted into a brief and small moment. Much longer, therefore, is the time of His mercy, and it runs on into infinite ages. Thus you will understand also what follows, namely, “In a little wrath I hid my face from thee, but with everlasting mercy will I have mercy on thee.” For brief and contracted is the time of wrath, if compared to the length of the endless philanthropy given to us by God, who also “delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love” in light. Great mercy through Christ may rightly be understood, which delivers from every defilement, brings forth from punishment and penalty, leads back to intimacy with Him through sanctification, crowns with the ornaments of the adoption of sons, and makes them heirs of the kingdom of heaven.

“From the water that was under Noe, this is for me: that I swore to him at that time to the earth, that I would not be angry with thee anymore, nor would thy mountains be removed with threats, nor the hills be moved. So neither shall my mercy fail thee, nor shall the covenant of my peace be removed.” ^C

It is written clearly in the books of Moses, that when the whole earth had turned away into apostasy from God, and had fallen unrestrainedly into manifold sin, and had plunged into the pleasures of caring for the flesh, God, who is over all, being rightly offended by these matters, said: “My spirit shall not remain in these men, for they are flesh,” that is, they mind only those things which are carnal. But this is abominable and hateful to Him, and full of all impurity. Hence, as the disciple of the Savior also says: “He did not spare the ancient world, but destroyed them all utterly, and brought / a flood upon the world of the ungodly.” But Noe alone with the whole

^A family was preserved, obtaining a gift of obedience and subjection. But when the flood had ceased and the abundance of waters had subsided, he went out and sacrificed, and, as the sacred Scriptures relate, the Lord smelled an odor of sweetness. Then He promises to this righteous man that He would no longer bring a flood upon the whole earth. Therefore, He says, “This is to me from the water which was in the time of Noe,” that is to say, this has been determined and stands fast with me, that I will no longer be angry with the whole earth, nor be indignant at human transgressions, nor decree one punishment for all. By these words, He signifies that at the time when Christ shone upon the world—while the whole earth was in a manner caught in the snares of deception, and all had turned aside, and not knowing God by nature, were serving the works of their own hands and were subjected to the herds of demons—it was necessary by divine decree that all should undergo that ancient and original punishment. For where transgressions are altogether equal, it is surely fitting that the condemned should be punished with an equal penalty. “But,” He says, “I pass over this, and the promise made by me remains firm,” and He says in a certain way: “I will not in fury remove the mountains, nor will I shake the hills,” that is, I will not change the earth into another form, nor will I bring an untimely renewal upon it. So too, “My mercy shall not fail thee, nor shall the covenant of my peace be removed.” And ^B there can be no other administrator of peace and the covenant than our Lord Jesus Christ. For He himself is our peace, according to the Scriptures, and with Him we possess spiritual union in abundance, and are filled and heaped up with every good thing. And this is what was clearly said by Isaiah to the Father and God in heaven: “O Lord our God, give us peace, for Thou hast rendered all things to us.” Therefore, in Christ we have won the covenant of peace from God and the Father; for we have been joined and united to Him through the medium of Christ, and He has removed from the midst the sin that separated us, so that nothing might lie as an obstacle to those going to God. It is written, therefore, that “The way of the godly has become straight, and the way of the godly is prepared,” of those running, that is, toward this union which is with God, with the peace of all—which is, clearly, Christ—interceding for this. For the Lord said: “I will be propitious to thee. O thou humble and unsettled one, thou hast not received consolation.” ^C Being good by nature and incomparably humane, the God of all always seeks pretexts, as it were, to justify by grace those who have sinned, for one must be unmindful of wrongs. For He does not desire the death of the sinner, but rather that he should turn from his evil way and live. Therefore, the God of all Himself will be propitious to thee, He says. And for what reason? First, because Christ is gentle, and good, and very merciful; then, because thou hast become humble and unsettled. And it is possible to see these things ^D [the minds of those who have wandered, as if a disease had beset them.]

^A For they are very humble, that is, low and trodden down, and, as it were, cast to the ground, and exposed to those who wish to trample upon them, whereas the heart of the saints is not so disposed. For their minds are not open to the incursions of demons, nor are they lifted up by pride, nor subjected to foul desires. ^B But the heart of those who wander is, as I have said, base; and moreover, it is unstable, because they are in a certain way intoxicated and waver, and are carried headlong into desires that are marked out and condemned by the divine law and reproved as vices. For they are swept along as by every wind, and, as the writer of Proverbs says, they endure the agitation of desires. The God of all, accusing Jerusalem of having suffered this because it had yielded to the deceits of demons, said, "In the desires of her soul she was carried away by the wind." A soul carried by the wind is, surely, also unsettled. But those who cling to God flee this disease, as it brings ruin, and they offer up songs of thanksgiving as if they had been delivered from the evil; for they say, "He set my feet upon the rock, and directed my steps." It has also been said by God to the mother of the Jews, "Set thyself up, O Zion." And the all-wise Paul writes to some in his Epistle: "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." ^C Therefore, the soul of those who wander lacks sacred ornaments. For indeed, it is not constant. But, as I have said, since the Creator of all is merciful, he in a certain way defends the one to whom this has happened, and says, "Thou hast been left without consolation." For the Israelites had a great deal of consolation from God, which strengthened them with spiritual vigor and brought them to the knowledge of what is useful and necessary for salvation. For the law was given to them through Moses, and the chorus of holy prophets was revealed, irrigating and flooding them with heavenly streams, with God pouring out upon them a most abundant consolation like rain. But no one of the saints ever addressed the Gentiles at all, nor were they instructed by the pedagogy of the Mosaic law, but remained entirely devoid of prophetic utterances. Therefore, they were left without consolation. And this has been clearly demonstrated by the evangelical parable used by Christ, as he who hires laborers for his vineyard did so at the first, and third, and sixth, and ninth hours. ^D But at the eleventh hour, when he found others standing idle, he said to them, "Why do you stand here all the day idle?" They replied, "No one has hired us." For no one called the multitude of the Gentiles, except the Lord of the vineyard alone in the last times.

VERS. 11-13. Behold, I prepare for thee the carbuncle stone, and thy foundations sapphire, and I will place thy bulwarks of jasper, and thy gates of crystal stones, and thy circuit of elect stones, and all thy sons taught of God, and in great peace shall thy sons be.

^A Behold again the artifice of the discourse and the clever structure of the thoughts. He speaks as if the city, that is, the Church of the Gentiles—which shall appear magnificent and most beautiful—is about to be revealed, and he says that it will be adorned with most distinguished stones. For, he says, "I will place your stone as a carbuncle." By these words, he seems to wish to signify Jesus, whom Holy Scripture says has been laid as a foundation for Sion, and in whom if any one believes, he shall not be put to shame. He calls Him a carbuncle here. There is also mention of Him in another way in the holy prophets. For He said by the voice of Amos: "Behold, I place an adamant in the midst of my people Israel." And by the voice of Zechariah: "Behold, I bring forth my servant the East; for the stone which I have set before the face of Jesus, upon the one stone are seven eyes." For it is possible for Christ, who is the inspector of all, to see everywhere. The carbuncle, therefore, is placed as a stone and an unshakable foundation of the holy city. And upon it are sapphire stones, perhaps denoting the company of the holy apostles. For they are nearer to Christ, and have become, as it were, certain foundations after Him for the whole world. Thus David says in the seventeenth Psalm, that "the fountains of waters appeared, and the foundations of the world were discovered, at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy wrath." ^B For when the Israelites were rebuked and subjected to the spirit of divine wrath, since they had raged against Christ, the fountains of waters appeared, that is, the purification through holy baptism; and the foundations of the world were made visible, that is, again, the divine disciples, the apostles and evangelists.

"And I will place," he says, "your bulwarks of jasper, and your gates of crystal stones, and your circuit of elect stones." By naming bulwarks, and gates, and a circuit, he denotes the God-beloved and most wise assembly of the holy mystagogues, who are also the battlements and gates of the holy city, and the circuit and wall. For they fight against those who wish to war against it, that is, against those in it—namely, the multitude of those saved through faith—wisely opposing the inventors of unholy heresies and resisting the depravities of the devil. And they ^C do not permit any of the saved to fall into malice, but, as it were, introduce those who were in the error of Hellenism into the knowledge of God, hedging them about and surrounding them with counsels and mystagogies, so that they may be unassailable by wicked powers and by the buffoonery of false teachers, who pour the poison of falsely-named knowledge into the souls of the more simple.

It is also the custom of divinely-inspired Scripture to liken at times those who lead a holy life and shine with various virtues to most precious stones. Indeed, it said somewhere concerning the holy apostles that "holy stones are rolled over the earth." For the divine disciples traveled over the whole world, preaching and evangelizing the grace of salvation everywhere to the nations. ^D

And the prophet Isaiah says again, as from the person of God: "And I will destroy the insolence of the wicked, and the insolence of the proud I will humble; and those who are left behind shall be more precious than fine gold, and a man shall be more precious than the stone of sapphire." For the leaders of the Jews, who acted lawlessly against Christ, have perished; but those who have been saved through faith might justly be counted as more precious than any gold or stone. And indeed the all-wise Paul, calling Jesus Christ the foundation, says that those who believe in him are built up like precious stones into a holy temple, into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Therefore, he compares the holy mystagogues, who are resplendent with the variety and intelligible beauty of virtues, to most precious stones; and he says that some are placed as foundations for the holy city, others as ramparts, and others fulfill the need for gates and enclosures. And these things, indeed, refer to the leaders of the city which the discourse now describes for us. But what, then, does it say about those who inhabit it? "And all your sons shall be taught by God." For formerly, through the all-wise Moses and the holy prophets, he had instructed Israel. But in the final times of the age, we have been taught by God. And of this, Paul is a witness, saying: "God, having spoken of old in many portions and in many ways to the fathers in the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us in his Son." For we have obtained an instructor—not some prophet as a mediator and minister of divine words, as of old, but rather the Word himself, begotten of God and the Father, who was made in our likeness and appeared in the flesh. Therefore, there is great peace for the children of the Church, our mother being built up in justice. For those who are entirely taught by God cannot be harmed by any of those who are accustomed to using empty words; but they have peace with God, being bound to him by love, and cultivating the ways of justice. This builds up the Church and preserves it sound and secure, so that it may not totter, with Christ protecting and granting that it be unshaken and immovable. For against it, he says, the gates of hell shall not prevail. For it is written also in the book of Psalms concerning it: "And he built his sanctuary like a unicorn, he founded it on the earth forever." We say that his sanctuary is the Church, which raises a horn that is terrible to its enemies, just as indeed the unicorn does to the other animals. For it has been founded forever by Christ.

VERS. 14. Recede from the wicked, and you shall not fear, and trembling shall not approach you. Behold, proselytes shall come to you through me, and shall take refuge with you.

^A When He says that He places her bulwark as precious stones, and all her sons as taught of God, He shows immediately that what was promised has reached its end. For He initiates and teaches by His mysteries, not as if through some medium, as of old through Moses or another of the holy prophets, but rather by Himself, that is, by His own voice. For this was what it meant: "They shall all be taught of God." ^B And the wisest Paul also wrote that "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds." Therefore, the Creator of the ages weaves the mysteries Himself for those who have been called by Him to this grace through faith. For this reason, the bride who is written of in the Song of Songs says of Him: "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth." For He used to embrace, as it were, through the mouth of His holy prophets, calling them to kinship with Himself through sanctification and righteousness. But since He has come forth as man from a woman, we have been kissed by the kisses of His mouth. For He has spoken to us mouth to mouth. "When, therefore," He says, "you withdraw from every unjust and evil thing, then you shall not fear, and trembling shall not approach you; for you shall be invulnerable to enemies, and beyond all fear, even if some in the world should arm themselves against you, wishing to ravage you, having obtained very great power"—that is, the opposing and wicked powers, ^C or perhaps even the waves of strange and filthy pleasure, which bear those addicted to sin into the depths of Hades and into the very abyss of destruction. Therefore, the rewards of righteousness are worthy to be laid hold of, and the crowns are most illustrious; and the possession of spiritual gifts is to be admired by those of sound mind.

He adds also another thing: "Behold, proselytes shall come to you through me, and shall take refuge with you." By proselytes, He means either those at any given time coming to the faith and called from the Gentiles, or perhaps even the Israelites themselves, who have been placed behind the Gentiles, even though they held the first rank; and those who received proselytes who had turned from Gentile error to God, have themselves become proselytes of the Gentiles; yet even this they have attained through Christ. For this is what the words "through me" signify. For through Him is the return and calling of all, and the access to God and the Father. "For no one," He says, "comes to the Father except through me"; and, "I am the way"; and, "I am the door." ^D

VERS. 16, 17. Behold, I create you, and not as a smith blowing the coals and bringing forth vessels for works. But I have created you, not to destroy you in ruin. Every corrupt vessel in you I will not prosper, and every voice shall rise against you in judgment; you shall overcome them all, and they shall be liable to you in it. There is an inheritance for those who worship

^A the Lord, and you shall be righteous to me, says the Lord.

We say that being "created," in these words, does not signify a transition from non-existence into existence. For he is arguing with those who already exist and subsist; rather, it signifies a renewal, which through the Holy Spirit reforms certain persons into a holy and unblamable manner of life and existence. For so Christ is said to create the two peoples into one new man, making peace and reconciling both in one body to the Father. The all-wise Paul also encourages us, writing thus: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable will of God." We are also commanded to put off the old man and put on the new, which is being renewed after the image of him who created him. I create you, therefore, he says, not as a human metalworker making vessels out of matter by means of tools ^B and fire, but rather by a certain ineffable and intelligible transformation and reformation, and as it were a spiritual regeneration, which the Savior himself once explained to Nicodemus, saying: "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God." For we have been born not of corruptible seed, but through the living and abiding Word of God. Thus Christ creates, refashioning through sanctification those who believe in him, and leading them back to salvation. For he creates us not for destruction—that is, not for corruption and death—but for long-lived and endless life.

That to those who have once been raised to this splendor and have obtained this renewal through Christ there shall be given by him also an invincible grace of spiritual fortitude, and knowledge which the enemies ^C of the truth cannot resist, he shows by saying: "Every corrupt vessel that I shall not prosper against you, and every voice that shall rise against you in judgment, you shall overcome them all." One might call the workers of diabolical wickedness "corruptible vessels," they who are also children of corruption and destruction. These set upon the saints, sometimes shooting ^D in many ways the arrows of their own perversity, inflicting persecutions and afflictions and various ingenious temptations. But they shall not prosper by Christ, so as to be able to corrupt the souls of the saints; and likewise the inventors of impious heresies, casting blasphemous voices against the ineffable majesty, all but summon to trial the saints who fight for the truth and defend the pure rectitude of ecclesiastical dogmas with youthful spirit and courage. Nevertheless, they are defeated, Christ granting this also to the saints. For from him proceeds the power to overcome and refute every assault of the enemies and every opposition of an impious voice; as the Psalter says: "In God we shall do valiantly, and he himself shall bring to nothing those who afflict us." But those liable to you

^A, he says, shall be in it. And while none of the other interpreters mentions the verse set before us, I think that what it perhaps signifies is this: Those who have obtained the innovation through Christ, who have truly been transformed unto holiness in the Spirit and are leaping over the pits of sin, shall indeed be stronger than their enemies and any impious voice. But those liable to you, he says—that is, those who are liable to sins, even after the calling and justification in Christ—they shall be in it. In what, then? Surely in corruption; for this is why he immediately subjoined, "It is an inheritance for those who worship the Lord." For the portion from God will not be given to those who are accustomed to transgress by looking around and gazing at the yoke-strap, but to those who delight in, or rather, who worship—that is, who serve—Him. You shall therefore be righteous before me, he says, so that you may be partakers of the portion which has been promised to those who worship, and which will indeed be given in its own time ^B.

CHAPTER LV. VERS. 1, 2.

The inspired David, illuminated by the torch of the Spirit, composed melodies to God regarding the Savior of us all, Christ, saying: "How you have multiplied your mercy, O God! But the sons of men shall hope in the shelter of your wings. They shall be inebriated from the fatness of your house, and you will give them to drink of the torrent of your delight, for with you is the fountain of life." And elsewhere again: "The streams of the river gladden the city of God." Moreover, the Son himself, who is the fountain of every good thing and the stream flowing from the essence of the Father, and who brings life, says by the voice of the prophets: "Behold, I am inclining toward them as a river of peace, and as a torrent overflowing with the glory of the nations." And the prophet Zechariah also said that "A fountain shall go forth from the house of the Lord, and shall water the torrent of rushes." And in many places of the divinely inspired Scripture we shall find the Word of God named both a fountain and a river. For this reason He also spoke to the Jews and indeed called them to Himself, saying: "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me, and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water shall flow from his belly." And while addressing these words to the woman in Samaria, He says again: "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water which I shall give him, it shall become in him a fountain of water leaping up unto eternal life." Therefore, he says, if anyone thirsts, let him approach Christ and drink, and receive the abundant [grace] through the Holy Spirit

^A He shall receive it, however, not by purchasing it with money, but by being delighted with the most generous and most prompt munificence of the Caller. "Approaching," he says—that is, walking, and having leapt from one place to another, that is, from error back to the recognition of the truth—"buy and drink without silver and without price." How then do they buy, and receive freely, and without silver? For as a reward for faith we receive grace from Christ, but for things momentary and perishing we pay back nothing. "For I have said to my Lord," he says, "You are my Lord, for You have no need of my goods." ^B But in place of gifts and payments we offer to Christ the confession of faith in Him. Therefore, this drink and the most abundant gift of His charisms is without silver and price. And what do we purchase? What kind of drink do we buy? "Of wine," he says, "and food, moreover, of fat and wheat." And indeed, it is acknowledged that the abundant addition of Christ’s charisms exhilarates the soul, and becomes for it an intelligible wine; and indeed also fat, that is, food. For it strengthens it and, most of all, invigorates it. It is also credible that these verses hint at the mystery of Christ. For those who drink the living water—that is, those who have been enriched by grace through the Spirit, and who possess and partake of Him, and buy Him through faith—will also become partakers of wine and fat, that is, of the most holy body and blood of Christ. Then he adds to these: ^C "Why do you expend silver, and your labor not unto fullness?" For the leaders of the Greeks, according to their own judgment, and having received the spirit of the world, and speaking in Beelzebul, have deceived the world, and have written down expositions—not of true dogmas, but of uncertain and reprehensible ones—speaking from their own heart, and not from the mouth of the Lord, as it is written. But since those who are wandering had not the knowledge of the truth, nor the divine and heavenly light, they embraced the discipline and doctrine of pernicious opinions, bringing a great amount of money to those who professed them. But these things, he says, why do you purchase with silver? For what utility is there in wishing to know the eloquence of certain ones, a falsehood as it were anointed with honey, and to learn doctrine adorned with the splendor of language, which is joined with ruin, and to recognize vanity like mud deposited in a golden vessel? For we possess the treasure of Christ in earthen vessels. ^D What then, he says, do you purchase these things with silver? And your labor which is consumed in learning will not be unto fullness, that is, it does not suffice to nourish and vivify the soul. For the collection of pernicious dogmas harms it more than it profits. Rightly, therefore, says the most wise Paul: "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the searcher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" And again: "For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." The common and vulgar mode of speaking in Scripture divinely

^A inspired, he calls the foolishness of preaching. Cease, therefore, from laboring in vain, and gathering fruitless crops, and enduring pains upon unprofitable things; but rather listen to me, and you shall eat good things—those, clearly, which come through the evangelical preaching, in which indeed, he says, your soul shall abundantly rest and delight. There is true knowledge of God according to nature, and the exercise and understanding of all virtue and holiness, which wonderfully discerns aright each of the things to be done, and makes the mind the producer of good works; so that those who adhere to all that is perceived by the intellect, and withdraw from every reproach, are [restored], even those who were previously attached to grievous crimes. Attend, therefore, with your ears—that is, follow my ways rightly and obediently. For Christ also said: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." It behooves, therefore, those who are His to hasten to follow in His footsteps. And what shall be for those who are willing to do this? Your soul, he says, shall live in good things. By these words he appears to me to indicate ^B the unending hope destined for the saints. For as Paul says, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."

^C VERS. 3–5. "And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. Behold, nations that thou knewest not shall call upon thee; and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee."

Having promised that you shall eat good things, and that your soul shall delight in good things, he immediately shows in what manner that which is promised shall be fulfilled for them. For he promises to give an everlasting covenant—most excellent, he says. For the law did not possess the quality of being continuous and unshaken, but was laid down until the time of reformation, as the all-wise Paul ^D says; and, the ancient commandment having been made old as not possessing the quality of blamelessness, a place was sought for a second—manifestly for the new one, which in Christ had much that was distinct from the first. For the former was in shadows, whereas this one shines forth spiritually with the beauty of truth. Therefore, the God of all said through one of the holy prophets: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Jacob, and with the house of Israel, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt."

^A because they did not remain in my covenant, and I neglected them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will strike with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will give my laws into their mind, and on their hearts I will write them."

The wise John also shows us the difference between the Old and New Testaments, saying: "The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." By grace and truth he calls the instruction of true and spiritual worship through evangelical oracles, which is joined with virtue and power. For it was fitting that Moses, being a servant, should be the minister of a shadow that does not remain, but that the announcer of the perpetual and abiding worship should be the Eternal One—I mean Christ.

What, therefore, is this eternal covenant, which he will certainly bring to fulfilment for those who approach him through faith? He makes this clear by adding immediately: "The holy things of David are faithful." For he either speaks of the promise made to the divine David concerning the Saviour of us all, Christ, which was to be provided to the Gentiles as they returned, or he calls the sacred prophecies concerning Christ, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, "divine." He ^B calls them "holy" because they render holy those in whom they reside, just as, for example, he called the fear of God "pure," because it purifies, and he called the evangelical word "life," as it is life-giving. For Christ once said: "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life"—that is, spiritual and life-giving. Holy, then, are those things that sanctify and render those who receive them righteous and blameless; and they are faithful because they produce faith, and generate the stability of faith and a life of piety in those who have apprehended them. For this is the virtue and efficacy of the prophecies of Christ.

Having thus named David, he immediately says of Christ, who is from the seed of David according to the flesh: "Behold, I have given him as a testimony to the nations, a prince and a commander among the nations." Our Lord Jesus Christ calls upon the flocks of the nations, as it were, testifying that they have become acceptable, and that it is permitted to those who wish—with no one hindering them—to be enriched by the light of the true knowledge of God. He says, therefore, through the lyre of the Psalmist: "Hear these things, all you nations; give ear, all you who inhabit the world, both earth-born and sons of men, the rich and the poor together. My mouth shall speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart ^C understanding."

For there was need, great need, of wisdom and understanding for those who were led astray, who through great stupidity worshipped the creature instead of the Creator, and called wood and stones gods. But the Word became incarnate, for which reason he also beckons to them, saying: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; therefore he has anointed me. He has sent me to evangelize the poor, to preach liberation to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to heal those who are broken in heart." For these were the sicknesses of the nations, but they have been redeemed through him. For they have been enriched with wisdom by him, and have become understanding. ^D

^Ausam, no longer having a weak and broken mind, but one that is sound and robust, and suited for the reception and accomplishment of every good and saving thing. But observe the careful disposition of this discourse. For he said: "I have given him as a testimony to the nations," so that no one might suspect him to be one of the holy prophets, but rather that all might understand that he excels in a certain majesty of dominion. For God has appeared to us. And he says that he was not only given as a testimony, but also as a prince and commander to the nations. For the blessed prophets, and before them Moses, holding the measure of servants, were always proclaiming to their hearers: "Thus says the Lord," not as those who give commands, but as those who minister divine voices. But our Lord Jesus Christ spoke words most worthy of God. Indeed, he was a source of wonder even to the Jews themselves, because his speech was joined with authority, and he taught them as one having authority, and not as their Scribes. For his speech was not of the shadow of the law; but as he himself was the Lawgiver, he transferred the letter to the truth, and the types to spiritual manifestation. For he was a Prince, and had the authority to command. That the prophecy’s discourse is woven together concerning the nations, one may learn—and very easily—since ^B God and the Father makes these words as though to his own Son. "For nations," he says, "that did not know you will invoke you, and peoples who did not understand you will flee to you." For those who formerly did not know Christ, because they lived in mist and darkness, invoked—that is, they inscribed as God—Jesus, and fled to him, naming him hope and protector and bringer of salvation, and invoking him as God. And for what cause? "Because of the Lord your God," he says, "the holy One of Israel, because he has glorified you." For they approach the Son, glorifying him as one born of God the Father according to nature, and as having the glory of him who begat him. For he who glorifies the Father glorifies him who is from him; and he who glorifies the Son also necessarily glorifies with him the one from whom he was born according to nature. Or, if you wish, you may apply the things said in another way: "For being in the form of God and the Father, the Son did not deem it robbery to be equal to God, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, having been born in the likeness of men, and being found in shape as a man, he humbled ^C himself, having become obedient even unto death, and the death of the cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him, and granted him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus Christ every knee should bend, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Amen." For since Christ was thought to be some undistinguished person on account of the measure of his humanity, he returns again to the God-befitting and most supreme excellence and glory that is in him, even in the flesh. And this, I think, is the meaning of it being said to the Son by the ^D

^A Father: "The name which is above every name." And indeed he said to him: "Father, glorify me with the glory which I had with thee before the world was."

VERS. 6, 7. "Seek God, and in your finding him, call upon him." When he draws near to you, let the wicked man leave his way, and the lawless man his counsel, and let him turn to the Lord, and he shall find mercy, because he will abundantly pardon your sins.

Having made clear the way of faith in him, our Lord Jesus Christ said to the Jews: "Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me draws him." And the person of the Father himself is also introduced, thus speaking to the Son: "Sit at my right hand, until I make thine ^B enemies the footstool of thy feet." For those who had once wandered and worshipped the elements of the world and were inescapably ensnared in the traps of sin, the Father has subjected to the Son. Nor let anyone say that he has ascribed this to him as though he were weak and lacking in power; for he operates all things, and he is the Father’s almighty and most strong right hand. But because, by a singular dispensation, he has called him to take on the measure of humanity, for this reason the Father is said to subject all things to the Son, as if to his own power and wisdom. For he makes weak things powerful through him, and imparts wisdom to that which is foolish. And let no one endowed with a mind ever think that the Son was unable to subject anyone to himself; but let him consider rather, as ^C I have already said, that God and Father does all things through him. What then does the speech of the prophecy signify here? It introduces the person of the Father, speaking to and calling upon the flock of the Gentiles: Seek God, whom he just said was given as a testimony to the nations, and as their leader and teacher; this one he immediately calls God, and commands that he be sought. Now the search is not localized; for the Godhead is incorporeal, and is not conceived of as being in a place. For he fills all things and is absent from nothing that exists, but is, as it were, established in the eagerness of a soul that thirsts for communion with him through the pursuits of piety and the true knowledge of God. Such searching is appropriate for those who are still far off and separated from him, with sin, naturally, ^D standing in the way, and the ignorance working in them: when these are removed from the midst, they shall be near to God. For so also the most wise Paul writes to those who are from the Gentiles, saying: "But now you who once were far off have been made near." Thus is the God of all sought by you. But, he says, "in your finding him, call upon him." And "call upon him" signifies nothing else than: Worship him as God, and seek from him the strength and eagerness sufficient for you for conversion. Ask from him redemption, and the ability to escape the bonds of sin and the hand of him who has occupied you, that is, of Satan. For it is written: "I will call upon the Lord with praise, and I shall be saved from my enemies." And while you are finding and

are close, let the ungodly forsake his way, and the lawless man his counsel, and let him ^A turn back to the Lord, and he shall find mercy. For those who are deemed worthy of both calling and conversion, and who look forward to partaking of His gifts, ought to depart from their former practices, and from the way that leads to evil, and from the impulse toward sin, and from carnal pleasure. For he who has made his conversion from a true heart shall find mercy, because He will forgive your sins to a great extent. But "to a great extent," he says, means completely and for all time. "For where sin increased, grace abounded all the more," according to that which is written; for no guilt among you is difficult to wash away when God wills to cleanse it. For it is written concerning our Savior of all, Jesus Christ, that "Behold, He Himself comes forth like the fire of a refiner, and like the herb of launderers. And He shall sit, refining and ^B purifying as silver and gold." For He baptizes us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. We call this fire the power of the Holy Spirit, which acts like fire to melt away the filth of our offenses within us.

"For My thoughts are not as your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, but as heaven is distant from the earth, so is My way distant from your ways, and your thoughts from My thought."

Do not, therefore, disbelieve through the grace of Christ those who are called to conversion, and redemption, and cleansing from sin. Those of the blood of Israel have suffered this; for while God was calling them to conversion and repentance, they, being pricked by the reproaches of conscience, and considering the filth of their own ^C vileness to be utterly difficult to wash away, used to say, "Our errors are in us, and we were born in them. And how shall we live?" And what does God say to these things? "By turning back, turn from your way, O house of Israel, and they shall not be for you unto the punishment of unrighteousness." When, therefore, you also disbelieve, He Himself says, while I, who am powerful in all things, am affirming and saying that "I will deliver you from every stain, and I will show you to be free from the things formerly stumbled into," then consider within yourselves who I am and who you are, and that My ways and My thoughts are so far removed from your ways and your thoughts ^D as is the difference of natures. For you are men, but I am God. Thus, the interval is immeasurable, and the things of God are completely incomparable. For He excels in strength, and in glory, and in gentleness; and there is nothing at all among created things that can be seen to be equal to, or even to approach, His excellence. For men are not free from anger; but this is inherent in the supreme nature of all, that it is not held by anger. Man is bitter and prone to wickedness; but God is good by nature, or rather, He is goodness itself. Therefore, He will forgive as God, and He will justify the ungodly, burying the lapses of ignorance in oblivion, and the filth of error

^A wiped away. You may also apply to this consideration of these words another mode. For formerly, the multitude of the nations was senseless, and easily carried away into every filth, and were as if borne along with full sails transversely towards doing things which it is not right to speak of. But after they sought God through faith, and called upon Him, and abandoned their former ways and wicked counsels, they obtained mercy from Him, and were as it were transformed into another life; they became wise, as partakers of wisdom, and ^B cognizant of all good things; they shook off the yoke of ancient error, they conquered sin, possessing minds no longer slippery and unstable, but firm and strong, and ready to perform those things in which God delights. "But when I promise these things," He says, "do not disbelieve, nor suspect that the change of their mind will be unaccomplished. For my counsels are not as your counsels, nor my ways as your ways." To you, indeed, being men by nature, there are very many things which are difficult to acquire and to bring to completion. For not everything that you wish to do will always run toward its end. But to Me, being God, all things are easy and ^C readily accomplished, and there is nothing at all difficult. For my ways are as far from your ways as the distance is understood to be between the earth and the heaven. But this is incomprehensible and immense, nor can the human mind grasp it. Therefore, the divine prophet Isaiah said: "Who has measured the water with his hand, and the heaven with a span, and all the earth with a fist? Who has weighed the mountains with a balance, and the forests with a scale? Or who has known the mind of the Lord?"

VERS. 10, 11.—For even as when rain or snow descends from heaven, and does not return until it has drenched the earth, and it brings forth and buds, and gives seed to the sower, and bread for food: so shall the word be that which shall go forth from my mouth; it shall not return until it has fulfilled all that I have willed.

As if by a clear and to all most well-known example, He seeks to convince them how great is the power of His purposes. ^D For rain or snow falls from heaven, and once it has been let down by God, no one can hinder it; but rather, the purpose of Him who sends it down runs toward its end. For it renders the whole earth fruitful, so that the husbandmen have a great store of both seed and food. For when the time is present in which the ear is rendered full by the earth, the husbandmen seek not only those things which provide for their living, but also whatever things might suffice for them as the time calls them to labor. Thus, He says, no one shall prohibit my word, nor shall it be turned back, that is, it shall not cease until what has seemed good to me attains its end. And this statement is true. For, as the prophet Isaiah says: "What God">

^A God the holy one has decreed, who shall scatter it, and whose hand shall turn back the high arm?" For who will be so great as to withstand divine decrees, and rise up against the will of the Lord? No one at all. Therefore, whatever shall proceed from the mouth of Him who is God in truth, this will in every way and altogether run to its end; for it is within His power to accomplish all things, and besides this, to be truthful. Indeed, God and Father has sent down to us who are upon earth a rain, as it were, a certain divine and intelligible consolation through Christ, or rather the ministration of evangelical preaching, through which the whole earth has become fruitful and most productive. The divine David, therefore, sings and says: "You have visited the earth and intoxicated it; you have multiplied to enrich it. Intoxicate its furrows, multiply its produce; in its drops it shall rejoice as it springs up." Moreover, even through the voice of Moses: "May my utterance descend like rain, and let my words descend like dew." And the all-wise Paul also writes to some: "And may the God of peace increase your seed, and multiply the fruits of your righteousness." We have therefore possessed spiritual fruitfulness, having received the dispensation through Christ into our mind, so that we not only gather sacred nourishment—that is, we have the life-giving bread—but also [provide] seed to the sower. For those who are heads of the people, and learned in sacred doctrines, and able to school others, and who weave the word of the mystery for the people subject to them, sow in their hearts the seed which they have stored away, having previously gathered it in their own souls. As the all-wise Paul says: "We are God’s tillage; for we are laborers together with God," who implants in us an exact knowledge of dogmatic skill, and the understanding of a holy way of life, and the desire for every ^B good thing; and this is Christ, who also says concerning Himself: "The sower went out to sow his seed."

And I will make my ways and my commandments prosperous. For you shall go forth with exultation, and with joy you shall be instructed.

Having promised that those who have washed away the stains of sin will in every way and altogether be shown mercy, and then, having become pure, will be united to Him spiritually, and that those who were far off shall be near, and shall be fattened by the honors that come from Him; and having inserted in the midst those things by which it was possible for them to believe that He is also truthful, being God by nature, and Lord of Hosts, He returns again to what follows—that is, to the enumeration of the spiritual gifts that are to be given to them. "I will make prosperous," He says, "my ways and my commandments." This is a great and highly desirable good, and a gift from heaven; and we shall say in what manner. For to those who wish to move from worldly love of pleasure to a respectable life, the task is not smooth, nor is it easy or accessible at the beginning. For ^C there rises up against them...

^A the sweetness of accustomary indulgence, and it intoxicates with griefs the mind that is within them. For the passions of the flesh are not easily avoided, nor is it an easy matter for those who desire it to run toward virtue. But when God prospers them and, by smoothing and leveling the pathless and craggy places, makes them easy to traverse, one might flee the assaults of the passions quite readily, and leap most strongly toward the summits of virtue. For it is written: “The high mountains are for the hinds.” 63 What, then, has God promised to those who believe in Him? “I will prosper my ways, and my commandments, and you shall not go forth with grief, but with joy shall you be taught.” This, I think, is what the prophetic writing said again elsewhere: “The way of the pious has been made straight, and the way of the pious has been prepared.” 64 For the judgment of the Lord is a way. Another of the holy prophets says: “The ways of the Lord are straight, and the just shall walk in them, but the ungodly shall be enfeebled in them.” 65 For if God does not make the ways smooth for them, they will not be able to be borne along them. For that it is a heavenly gift, as I have said, to be able to walk in the divine ways and to fulfill the commandments by which one is led toward God, He taught when speaking as if concerning the Synagogue of the Jews: “Therefore behold, I will hedge up her ways with thorns, and she shall seek her ways, and shall not find them.” Therefore, He says, when I prosper the commandments, “you shall go forth with joy,” that is, you shall not succumb to pain, nor shall you be pricked in heart; you shall be empty of passions, and you shall cross over to a better and admirable life. For you shall be taught while rejoicing, and you shall delight yourselves in the holy words. The inspired David surely says: “How sweet are thy oracles to my throat! More than honey and the honeycomb to my mouth.” 66 And he most prudently affirmed that one should rejoice in them more than in all riches. But running with joy can be understood in another way as well: for those delivered from their ancient error rejoice as they seize the calling from God. And that this is true, it is possible to see from the facts themselves.

^C VERS. 11. “For the mountains and the hills shall leap, awaiting you with joy, and all the trees of the field shall applaud with their branches. And instead of the briar shall come up the cypress, and instead of the nettle shall come up the myrtle. And the Lord shall be for a name, and for an eternal sign, and shall not fail.”

By “mountains” he here means the higher and heavenly powers, which have been appointed by God for the assistance of mortals. For they are ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for the sake of those who shall inherit salvation, and they rejoice over one sinner who repents. [66*] Indeed, they may deservedly be compared to mountains, inasmuch as they possess a high dignity, in proportion to the magnitude of their own virtue. Or, you may take “mountains” to mean those who have the duty of teaching in the Churches, who savor nothing lowly, but seek the things that are above, and have leapt beyond earthly things. But you shall take “hills” to mean those who are inferior to them in authority, and as it were ^D below their glory, settle and are subjected. For they are

their glory. For there are measures and ranks of honor and ministry in the Churches. ^A These, he says, are the intellectual mountains, and with them the hills will exult, that is, they will leap for joy, manifestly rejoicing because of your conversion and calling, and they will receive you with joy. For we are moved with no small joy when some of those who have wandered, having left behind the fog and darkness, flash forth toward the light of true vision of God. Thus also the all-wise Paul addressed them, saying: “My joy and crown.” ^B But also “all the trees of the field,” he says, “will clap their branches.” By the trees of the field you shall understand those who are reckoned among the people. For the Savior’s garden is flowering. And indeed, the Bride, who is described in the Song of Songs, says that it is lush and fruitful: “Let my kinsman descend into his garden, and let him eat the fruit of his nuts.” Therefore, the intellectual trees will clap their branches, he says. For believers rejoice, just as surely as the mountains and hills, that is, those who have been allotted the duty of leading the people, rejoice over the salvation of those called to life and to the completion of the immaculate mystagogy, through which the divine light is instilled in them. Furthermore, that there will be a very great change in those who have been called toward that which is incomparably better, he shows immediately by saying that instead of the plantain there will be a cypress, and instead of the fleabane a myrtle will spring up. They say that the plantain, the fleabane, and the rejected thorns are bitter, ^C and they grow in places noways suitable for farming, but rather rejoice in uncultivated and salt-marsh soil. Such were those who were wandering, and who worshipped the creature instead of the Creator. But since they have been called to the knowledge of the truth, having abandoned being plantain and fleabane, they have migrated intellectually into the tall and most fragrant of plants. For they are now called cypress and myrtle. Great, therefore, is the miracle of Him who cultivates the Church, that is, of Christ. For He transforms thorns into noble and outstanding plants, and spiritually makes one thing out of another. We shall find this to have happened also among those of the blood of Israel. For Matthew and Paul, who were once plantain and fleabane—the one being a tax collector, the other a persecutor and insolent—have become beacons for the inhabited world, and they emit the fragrance of Christ in every place, both in those who are being saved and in those who are perishing, ^D as the most holy Paul says. And that the provider and governor of all these things will be established in glory and permanence that has no end, he teaches by saying: “The Lord will be for a name and for an eternal sign, and He will not fail.” By “name” in this context he speaks of glory; by “sign,” as I myself suppose, he means the splendor of the cross, through which we have been saved, and in which we shall dwell forever. For His grace will never fail us at any time or in any way.

TOMUS III

CAP. LVI. VERS. 1. Thus saith the Lord: Keep judgment, and do justice. For my salvation is near

and my mercy to be revealed.

Concerning the calling of the Gentiles through faith, that is to say, faith in Christ, he has spoken at some length in what preceded; having finished this, he passes on again to the task of admonishing those who are of the blood of Israel. For God, being by nature good, wills that all men should be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. But since it was their custom, on account of the nobility of their fathers, to lift up their eyebrows and pride themselves ^A on this very thing alone, and to imagine that this was sufficient for them even if no praise of an upright life shone forth, he endeavors to demonstrate that their puffing up in these matters will be entirely vain. Rather, he shows that those who carry out what is commanded and strive for splendor in their deeds obtain excellent glory. "Keep therefore," he says, "judgment," that is, upright judgment, or divine judgments, namely the commandments. "Do justice." For it is not enough merely to desire to adhere to divine laws while withdrawing from the duty of performing and accomplishing them; rather, one must appear as a guardian of the sacred ^B judgments and, in addition to this, excel in every kind of good work.

Lest anyone among us should think that by these words the Israelites are being incited to the observance of the Law, which is surely situated in shadows and in types—for "no one is justified by the law before God," as the most excellent Paul wrote to some—he says that his "salvation is near, and my mercy to be revealed." He calls Christ both "mercy" and "salvation," for through Him we have obtained mercy and have gained remission and salvation through faith. We say that this is similar to that which was said by God to the blessed Habakkuk: "Yet a little while, he that cometh shall come, and will not tarry." He says ^C "to be revealed" instead of "to be manifested." For the blessed prophets announced the coming of the Savior, and He was made manifest to mortals when it seemed good to the powerful Lord. This the divine David will also teach, saying: "The Lord hath made known his salvation: in the sight of the Gentiles he hath revealed his justice." For Christ has been manifested to the Gentiles, who is salvation and justice, since in Him, as I have just said, God the Father has saved and justified us.

VERS. 2. Blessed is the man that doth these things, and the man that holdeth fast to them, and keepeth the Sabbath that he profane it not, and that keepeth his hands from doing any evil.

These things are related to what has just been said, and tend toward the same ^D end, but the discourse contains something worth observing. Consider how he declares him blessed, not simply because he is of the seed of Abraham, nor because he is puffed up with carnal nobility and becomes insolent with empty pride on that account, but rather [he calls him blessed] in whom there is seen to shine forth, as a brilliant and illustrious dignity, a good and unblemished life. Something of this kind the blessed John the Baptist

^A appears to have proclaimed to the crowds of the Jews. For they approached, honoring the baptism that came from him—though it was one of repentance—and he rebuked them, being very sharp, saying: "Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.'" And he says: "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham." Blessed, therefore, he says, is not anyone who is a son of Abraham, but he who keeps these things. And what are these? Judgment and justice; and furthermore, keeping and achieving them, and holding fast to them—that is to say, not approaching them in a secondary or negligent manner, but as if with all diligence and youthful vigor, so as even to cling to them greatly and to keep the Sabbaths so as not to profane them. So that you may again understand it thus: it was not permitted on the Sabbath to take care of any of the labors or tasks pertaining to the flesh. But one ought rather to be idle, the divine law so ordaining; yet even while being idle, they offered the prescribed sacrifices to God, the legal letter enigmatically suggesting that, abstaining from fleshly care, it is appropriate to minister to God with spiritual sacrifices, and those which are for an odor of intelligible fragrance. The power of the Sabbath rest, therefore, fulfilled a type of rest from sins and carnal desires; thus it is appropriate for us also to take care not to profane the Sabbaths. For having ceased, as I said, from every earthly and carnal care, we sabbatize in an intelligible manner, not celebrating sacrifices through blood and smoke, but gladdening Him with holy pursuits and offering ourselves in an odor of sweetness. For God is well-pleased with such sacrifices, as it is written. Therefore, we must not profane the Sabbaths, but in addition to this, we must keep our hands pure. And in what way, He himself taught, saying: "From doing injustice." For it is not possible to keep judgment nor to practice justice if one wishes to inflict injury and defile the hand with the filth of sin. And by "hand," you should understand not simply that which is of the body, but instead ^D of the hand, the active energy, by which we approach the doing of each thing.

"Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, 'The Lord will surely separate me from His people.' And let not the eunuch say, 'I am a dry tree.' Thus says the Lord to the eunuchs: Whoever keeps My Sabbaths, and chooses what I will, and holds fast to My covenant, I will give them in My house and within My walls a notable place, better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name, and it shall not fail."

Another haughty look of the Israelites, and [their] arrogance

God refutes as rotten and stale. They used to think highly of themselves, as I said, saying: "We have Abraham as our father," and also that "We are a holy people, chosen, and enrolled into the lot of God." ^A They also fled from childlessness, inasmuch as their first father, Abraham, had received from God, in the order of a blessing, that his seed would be extended into an immense multitude; for God promised to show it to be equal in number to the stars. And it was said to them through the all-wise Moses: "There shall not be among you one who is childless or barren." That fruitfulness of offspring was considered by them as something great and excellent, one of the holy prophets will affirm, saying: "Their glory is from births, and labors, and conceptions." The prophet Isaiah also says that seven women shall take hold of one man, saying: "We will eat our own bread, and wear our own garments, only let thy name be called upon us; take away our reproach." For they did not want, as I said, to be stigmatized as childless and barren. Since, therefore, the Israelites seemed to be puffed up in their minds because of their carnal nobility and the fruitfulness of their offspring, God necessarily leads them away from this ignorance, saying: "Let not the foreigner who has attached himself to the Lord say: 'The Lord will surely separate me from his people.'" ^B For it is not because he is a foreigner—that is, not of the blood of Israel—that he will therefore not be a participant in His gifts, or in his communion with Him, namely the spiritual one; but if he clings to the Lord, he will be placed entirely among His household and acquaintances, and will be co-opted into the holy nation, into the royal priesthood, and into the lot of God, and will be numbered among the children of Abraham. For not all who are of Israel are Israel, as the all-wise Paul says, nor because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but it is the children of the promise who are reckoned as seed. For the promise was given to Abraham by God, not only for those who are of him according to the flesh, but indeed for all who are begotten through faith; for so was Abraham justified. Therefore, to those who follow in the footsteps of the faith of Abraham, it will certainly be granted to be reckoned as children. God will not, therefore, separate the proselyte from his people, but once he has been added and called through faith, He will receive him and call him a holy people. ^C But if anyone is a eunuch, He says—that is, childless or barren—let him not say within himself: "I am a dry tree," that is, let him not be grieved because of childlessness. For this is nothing before God, nor does He declare it to be something rejectable. For what kind of virtue, or what splendor of glorious deeds, is the fruitfulness of offspring? These are works of the flesh, worthy of neither blame nor praise. For even if to some it is given in the order of a blessing, when the time calls for it, it would not do any harm to those who have not obtained it. For what can be said against those who have died before their time, or have departed from human affairs before marriage and cohabitation, and did not produce children? How, moreover, will it help those addicted to sins in this life that they exist as fathers of many sons and daughters? Nor let him who has no children say: "I am a dry tree."^D

^A There is no harm in this; rather, I say it is necessary to make mention even now of those who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, according to the voice of the Savior, to whom one might, and very aptly, apply the word of God here. "For I will give them," it says, "in my house and within my wall a famous place." By "house and wall," or rather, by perimeter and security, he seems to call the Church, perhaps the one above and in the heavens, or that which dwells upon earth, in which men shine who are nurtured in holiness and gravity, and are crowned with the garland of continence, and who consider the glory of this more excellent than having many children, and who, in so far as it pertains to the gravity of their manner of life, do not differ at all from eunuchs. These receive from God an eternal glory; for this is what that famous name signifies, and the grace from Him will not fail in them. For the rewards of continence are exceptional. But he does not promise the provision of such brilliant honors to eunuchs simply, but to those who keep his Sabbaths—Christ’s, that is to say. For his Sabbaths are other, as I have said, than those of the law; for the former were situated in types, while the latter are brightened with the beauty of truth. He adds, "who have chosen the things that please me, and have held fast to my testament." Now Christ desires not the things that consist in shadows and legal letters, but those which pertain to his own testament, namely, the new and evangelical one.

^B And to the foreigners who have joined themselves to the Lord to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be to him as menservants and maidservants, and all who observe my Sabbaths so as not to profane them, and who hold fast to my covenant, I will bring them into my holy mountain, and I will make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be acceptable upon my altar. For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, saith the Lord, who gathers the dispersed of Israel.

We must connect these things to what came before, so that it may be understood as follows: "Thus says the Lord to the eunuchs, and to the foreigners who have joined themselves to the Lord to serve him." Therefore, he speaks to those from the nations, and not just to those who were of the blood of Israel, who ^C used to lift their brows high and look down upon the foreigners, calling themselves the portion and inheritance of God and a holy people; saying, "Blessed are we, Israel, because the things that are acceptable to the Lord are known to us." It is clear, therefore, that the power of carnal nobility does not unite one to God; for it is not because they were born of Abraham that they remained the inheritance of God. But those who draw near to Him ^D may be reckoned among His people through spiritual union, even if they are foreigners, provided that they are joined to Him through faith, and consider the service under Him to be a glory, and love His name; and to love, that by submission in all things, the yoke of His kingdom is always

^A borne, not departing toward things which are forbidden, nor indeed being easily led away to choose to turn back toward needing to adhere to other gods, but rather having a firm and unshaken mind, and in such a way keeping His Sabbaths as not to profane them, those of Christ, of course. For the Jews keep the Sabbath according to the law, keeping the flesh free from all labor and practicing rest as if in bodily activities. But such a sabbatizing was rejected by God; but he who has entered into the rest of Christ, and spiritually sabbatizes, has ceased from his own works. For so the all-wise Paul writes. He promises to bring in the foreigners now into His ^B holy mountain, and to gladden them in the house of His prayer. See here for me the shadow of the law overturned, and the oldness of the letter already in some way rendered ineffective. For all things have become new in Christ, the old things have passed away. For the law forbade foreigners from needing to go into the house of God; for it said: "An Ammonite and a Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of the Lord." But the Savior and Lord of all, changing our affairs into a spiritual newness, promises to bring foreigners into His holy house. For He says that the holy mountain is nothing other than His Church, into which they having entered are gladdened, flowing with His gifts, and enriched by ^C the hope of the holy ones. And that they will live purely and integrally, and will have the God of all as placable and propitious, He signified, saying: "Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be acceptable upon my altar." And this speech is taken as if from the example and type of the worship according to the law. For of old it was the custom for those from Israel to burn rams and goats, and to offer sacrifices. But since, as I said, the shadow has passed, those called from the nations do not make their approach through blood, but as it were sacrifice themselves to God, dying to the world, but living in justice, as it is written. They shall be acceptable, and for a fragrance of sweetness, both these who render their whole life as if it were ^D sacred, so as to be understood in the order of burnt offerings; and those who offer a partial sacrifice, such as is the life of those who have married in the Lord, divided in a certain way between God and the world. For the animals offered for sacrifice or as a victim were not laid upon the altars entire, but by half, or in part. Therefore the foreigners are acceptable, offering themselves into a spiritual sweet fragrance. And that the divine temple, or house of prayer of God who is above all, is not assigned only to those from Israel, but is opened to all throughout the world who are called by conversion and faith to the knowledge of Him, He makes clear by saying: "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations." Who then is it who promised these things? Perhaps the divine prophet Isaiah as if from his own opinion? By no means. For the Lord said, He says, who gathers the dispersed of Israel. These therefore are these prayers, these voices of Him who has compassion. For being good by nature, He wants all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. But that the greatness of the clemency has not appeared only toward the nations

^A after Christ had shone upon the world, but also to those originating from the blood of Israel, it can be made clear by His saying: "The Lord said, who gathers the dispersed of Israel." Therefore, these were also dispersed, not only in terms of their bodies being led away outside Judea and wandering to other cities or regions, but as those who had departed from a righteous life and had recoiled from love toward God. For they did not keep the commandment given to them; rather, we will find them having frequently lapsed into the worship of idols, and honoring God with their lips, while having a mind alienated from Him, and worshiping Him in vain, teaching doctrines and commandments of men. Let not, therefore, the refractory Israel boast against the aliens. For they also have obtained equal mercy from God; and they were found not sufficiently noble or stable, nor blameless in every kind of obedience, but dissipated and scattered, as I said just now. ^B

"For I will gather a congregation against him. All the wild beasts, come, eat; all the beasts of the forest. See that all have been blinded, and have not known to understand. All are mute dogs, not able to bark, dreaming in their bed, loving slumber, and as dogs shameless in soul, not knowing satiety: and they are evil, not knowing understanding: all have followed their ways, each to the same end."

You may interpret what is written in two ways; for it calls the nations unruly and fierce beasts, inasmuch as they have been raised under such a tyrant, I mean the devil, and are as if brutalized, and living not in a human manner; or it seems to speak of beasts as those who have devastated Israel, ^C and have devoured him with their whole mouth because of their impiety toward Christ. And if He makes mention of the nations as wild beasts, we say that it has been proclaimed to them by God: "Come, eat." And this signifies that the whole abundance of the holy gifts has been given to them by Him, and a life-giving table has been set before them. For they too have eaten the bread of life, for they have become partakers of Christ and fellow-members of the body with the saints, so that they might even joyfully say: "The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall lack nothing; He has made me dwell in a place of pasture, He has nurtured me beside the water of rest, He has restored my soul. You have prepared a table before me." And He said also through one of the holy prophets: "Eat, drink, and be inebriated, neighbors." For those who were far from God have become near through faith, and those who once wandered have been filled with holy food; for it is written that "Bread strengthens a man's heart." But if by beasts we are to understand ^D those who devour Israel, the saying "Come, eat" is as much as to say that He is casting before them those who have acted impiously, and to whom

it is fitting to suffer this—and quite rightly so. For they have killed the Author of life, having not embraced the faith; and they who were near have become far off, no longer the people of God, but rather held in hatred as slayers of the Lord. But lest God appear to be punishing without cause and exacting satisfaction for nothing, He immediately sets forth the crimes by which they were entangled, and for which they ^A were given over to destruction by their enemies, that is, as food for the beasts. "See," He says, "for all have been blinded, they have not known how to be wise." For truly the Israelites were blind, and above all others the Scribes and the Pharisees, and those who obtained the lot of leading the Synagogue. For they neither admitted the true light, nor desired to know Christ, although He shouted clearly, now saying: "I am the light of the world," and at another time, "I have come as a light into this world; he who follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." Since, therefore, it was possible to be enriched with light by embracing the faith, this they did not do; but as the prophet says: "Those who waited for light, it became darkness to them; and waiting for brightness, they walked in gloom." And the Savior Himself also said concerning them and the people committed to their hand: "They are blind, and leaders of the blind." All, therefore, He says, have been blinded, and have not known how to be wise. For it was truly the mark of prudent and intelligent men to grasp quickly the season of salvation that was present. The divine David also exhorted them to this, saying: ^B "Lay hold of discipline, lest the Lord be angry, and you perish from the just way, when His wrath is quickly kindled against you." But because they did not lay hold of the discipline through Christ, the wrath was kindled against them, and they perished from the just way—that is, they became strangers to the evangelical conversation, through which alone the mode of justice pleasing to God shines forth. Beyond the fact, He says, that they are blind, they were also "dumb dogs," not able to bark, dreaming in bed, given over to sleep. He speaks words about them as if from a manifest example. For dogs that follow the flocks, always going about on all sides, are not overcome by sleep or slumber. For if any wild beast is seen, they bark vigorously, and strive with all their strength to keep it away from the sheep; and this is their duty. It is necessary for those who have been ^C entrusted with the direction of the rational flocks—that is, the leaders and teachers—to imitate these, so that they might care for their subjects and drive away by all means those who prepare to do injury, and those who lead them away from the love of God, persuading them to make light of the reverence that should be had toward Him, and drawing them to what pleases themselves. But the leaders of the Jewish Synagogue were unwilling to be such; nay, they were rather "dumb dogs," loving slumber, and dreaming on their beds. For although they ought to have prescribed useful things to their people, and to repel the onslaughts of those who lead them astray, they did not indeed perform this, but rather they themselves precipitated them into the abyss of destruction. This the God of all will teach, saying: "Your priests did not say: Where is the Lord? And they who hold my law did not know me, and the pastors acted impiously against me, and the prophets..." ^D

prophesied to Baal." Therefore, just as they were unwilling to bark like dogs at those who were harassing the flocks, they imitated the shamelessness of dogs, and their ignorance of being satisfied. For being lovers of money, and overcome by shameful gain, and delighted by the receipt of bribes, they transgressed the law; and sometimes, even without shame, they would bring an unjust verdict against those who had done no harm, while justifying the wicked—for they did not know satisfaction, that is, they could not be satisfied, clearly, with shameful gain. And the Savior Himself rebuked them for these things, saying: "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, judgment and mercy and faith." ^B And the divine prophet Isaiah also said concerning them: "How has the faithful city Sion, full of judgment, in which justice lodged, become a harlot? Now, however, they are murderers! Your silver is adulterated, your vintners mix wine with water, your princes are disobedient, partners of thieves, loving gifts, pursuing rewards, not judging for the orphan, and not attending to the judgment of the widow." Moreover, the divine Habakkuk, on this very matter, almost in tears, cried out to God: "How long, O Lord, O Lord, shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? Shall I cry out to Thee wronged, and Thou wilt not save? Why hast Thou shown me troubles and labors, to look upon misery and impiety? Judgment is against me, and the judge takes ^C [bribes]. Therefore the law is destroyed, and judgment does not go forth to the end, because the wicked oppresses the righteous. For this reason, judgment shall come forth perverted."

Therefore, they were unwilling to emulate the watchfulness that is in the dogs of the flock, but they only imitated them in their being contemptuous of all modesty, and in applying themselves insatiably to the gathering of gains. And in addition to this, he says they are evil and do not know understanding. Thus, the wicked man is foolish; for understanding would especially befit those accustomed to doing good, but wickedness of mind should be far removed from a good mind. For it is the same to see scab and an ulcer in the body, as to see wickedness in the mind; for it renders the man himself foolish, leading him to a rustic coarseness and making him ferocious. But because they were evil and foolish, for this reason, he says, "All have gone out of their way, ^D everyone together." For, having ceased to be carried on the straight path toward every good, and to follow the things declared by the oracles, they cast off the reins entirely, so to speak, to their own wills, and acted according to their pleasure—and not just one by one, but "towards one and the same," that is, together and in a throng. For we shall find the teachers of the Jews discussing and doing things foul and at odds with divine laws in their colleges and assemblies. For thus they fell into the crime of deicide, and in various ways each was turned aside to his own path. For they were more lovers of pleasures than of God, and were more delighted by the occupations of this life, while a life of honor and nobility was entirely neglected. We shall find the teachers of the Jews [performing] extraordinary

and discordant acts against the divine laws, and in their assemblies and councils deliberating and carrying them out. For they fell thus into the crimes of Christ-killing, and each turned in his own way into his own path. For they were lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, and they delighted more in the distractions of the present life, having entirely neglected the life that is according to the law and of the highest excellence.

CHAPTER LVII. VERSES 1, 2. See how the righteous man has perished, and no one receives it in his heart, and righteous men are taken away, and no one considers. For because of the face of iniquity the righteous man has been taken away; his burial shall be in peace, he has been taken from the midst.

Having shown them to have been "mute dogs" and possessed of an insatiable avarice, he further demonstrates by these words that they were slothful and contemptuous, to such a degree that they grew hardened in the most extreme outrages and were not even prepared to let the thought of repentance enter their minds. "For the righteous man has perished," he says, "and no one receives it in his heart; and righteous men are taken away, and no one considers." ^B By these words he seems to signify the impious daring of the Jewish herd against Christ, and whatever they did against the holy apostles. For they killed Jesus, all but crying out that prophetic word and saying: "Let us bind the righteous man, because he is troublesome to us." And as far as their mind and intent were concerned, that righteous man perished—that is, he who knew no sin. For it was not for just causes that they killed him; and they showed no mercy in bringing into danger those righteous men who were bestowing upon them the divine and evangelical word, and calling them to a recognition of their own cruelty and to repentance. By them, the divine Stephen was taken away after he had delivered a long discourse to them; and the very things by which it was fitting they should have been snared into repentance, by these same things they were sharpened into hostility. "Righteous men are taken away, therefore," he says, "and no one receives it in his heart"—that is to say, no one deigns to take into his mind the magnitude of their impiety. They have fought down the righteous, and the wicked have prevailed against him who knew not how to do wrong. "His burial shall be in peace; he has been taken from the midst." Observe for me again the figure of the speech. For it does not reveal the outcome and purpose of those who took him away as the reality of the matter ^C as if things stood exactly as mentioned. For Christ has not been "taken from the midst," nor, I dare say, have those who functioned as his envoys, who are themselves righteous, as they have been justified by him; they have merely been, in a certain way, "exterminated from the midst" as far, I say, as the attempt and resolve of those who killed them is concerned. But that this accusation falls upon all the killers, and that no one among the Jews is exempt from the blame, he suggests when he says: "His burial shall be in peace." He calls death "burial." That addition, "in peace," suggests that there was absolutely no one among the Jewish tribes who had resisted their impious designs, or opposed them, or rebuked those who wished to act impiously, but that all with one consent and united hearts ^D had dared to commit this bold crime against Christ, and having made peace among themselves, had killed him.

^A *But draw near here, you lawless children, offspring of adulterers and of a harlot. In what have you taken your pleasure? And against whom have you opened your mouth? And against whom have you loosened your tongue? Are you not children of perdition, a lawless offspring?*

Out of a great and intense love for God, the divine prophet leaps upon the unbridled insolence of the Jews, and is deeply pained by their unholy cries which they uttered against Christ. For they had continued right up to the end, as it were, loosening their tongues against him, and having attacked his long-suffering as if with full sails. For what absurdities did they not utter against him? They called him a Samaritan, a wine-bibber, and one born of fornication; and they said that he who rebuked demons was possessed by a demon, and that he who crushed Beelzebub worked his signs in Beelzebub. Finally, at the last, they brought him to Pilate and accused him, bringing forward nothing true, but rather using lies and false accusations. For they said: “This man stirs up the crowds, and forbids paying taxes to Caesar,” and other things besides these, which would pour out an inextinguishable flame upon their own heads. Regarding these, the Savior himself also reproached them, saying through the voice of Osee: ^B *“Woe to them, for they have departed from me; they are wretched, for they have acted impiously against me. I redeemed them, but they have spoken lies against me.”* And through the voice of Jeremias: *“I have forsaken my house; I have abandoned my inheritance; I have given my beloved soul into the hands of her enemies. My inheritance has become to me as a lion in a forest; it has uttered its voice against me; therefore I have hated it.”* For besides the other false accusations which they contrived against him, often when going to Pilate they dared to say: “Take him away, take him away, crucify him.” The leaders of the Jewish Synagogue did this most of all the others. For though they knew that he himself was the heir, they said among themselves: ^C *“Come, let us kill him and we shall have his inheritance for ourselves.”* But they were disappointed in their hope. For they killed him, but he did not remain held by death; for he rose again, and gave the vineyard to other husbandmen, having miserably destroyed those wicked ones and killers of the Lord.

“Therefore, then,” he says, “you lawless children, offspring of adulterers and of a harlot.” By “adulterers” in these words he designates those who had obtained the leadership, the Scribes and teachers of the law, who all but committed adultery with the Synagogue, and while speaking to it the precepts of the divine law, rather twisted them toward what was not permitted, and taught as doctrines the commandments of men. And the Synagogue of the Jews is deservedly a harlot, as one that accepted the seeds of adulterers and set aside the law of the all-wise Moses. ^D Hence he most deservedly calls them children of iniquity. “Tell me, therefore,” he says, “in what have you taken your pleasure, and against whom have you opened your mouth, and against whom have you loosened your tongue?” Often, he says, you have held in mockery the holy prophets; yet they were the genuine children of the most high God, but were also servants and subjects, and of human condition, and the crimes were committed by them against their fellow-servants. But now, against whom

^A have you loosed your tongue? For you did not wish to receive the Savior; and you are a wicked seed: for you have not endured Him who instructs you in piety through the evangelical oracles.

VERS. 5, 7. *You who call to idols under leafy trees, sacrificing your children in the valleys amid the rocks. This is your portion, this is your lot, and to them you have poured out libations, and to them you have offered sacrifices. Shall I not be angry for these things? On a high and lofty mountain is your bed, and there you have sent up your sacrifices, and behind the doorposts of your door you have placed your memorial.*

Having shown them to be murderers of the Lord, He reveals another malady, namely, that they are haters of God and quick to commit slaughter, and that this was not something new or recent among them, but had been rooted in them long since and from ages past. For you are the ones, He says, who in former times called upon idols under leafy trees. For although the Mosaic Law prescribed things useful to them and explicitly said: "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve," yet they slipped into such folly, or rather into such intolerable and immoderate impiety, that they became ^B architects of idols, and performed sacred rites to them, and exhorted and taught others to worship under leafy trees and to honor them with divine honors. This the God of all makes clear through the voice of Jeremiah, saying: "Have you seen what the habitation of Israel did to me? They went to every high mountain and under every leafy tree, and committed adultery there." For they took possession of the mountain tops and the most flourishing groves, and building altars and shrines there, they brought sacrifices and libations to the unclean demons; and there were even some who spared not their own children. Jechonias, for example, slaughtered his own son, not to gods. This also God Himself said somewhere through one of the holy ^C prophets, demonstrating the cruelty of those who were accustomed to do such things: "Sacrifice men, for calves have failed." You, therefore, He says, are the ones calling to idols under dense trees, sacrificing your children in the valleys amid the rocks. What then follows? "This is your portion, this is your lot." For you have worshipped vanities, He says, and you shall have such a portion, and the lot shall be empty for you. Or perhaps He wishes to say this: "You slaughtered your children," He says, "in the valleys. That, therefore, is your portion, that is your lot": that is, you shall be drawn into the same evils, and your portion and lot shall be slaughter. For what reason? First, because you have become a child-slayer: then, because to ^D unclean demons and inanimate idols you have poured out libations, and to them you have offered sacrifices. Therefore, He says, shall I not be angry for this?

Is my wrath against you without a cause, and does the justification for vengeance lack a reasonable basis? ^A On a high and lofty mountain, there is your bed; thither you have carried up sacrifices, and behind the doorposts of your door you have placed your memorial. That they used to sleep on the mountains for the sake of dreams, the prophetic word has declared to us in many places. They say that Israel slipped into this delusion to such a degree that even upon their doors and doorposts they carved the forms of idols, so that those entering the house and those departing might see them and hold them in everlasting memory. And this matter might justly be counted as a clear proof of complete godlessness toward God, and very rightly so; for they used to call these carved forms of the idols "saviors" and "guardians of the house."

^B "You thought that if you were to depart from me, you would have something more." You loved those who slept with you, and you multiplied your fornication with them, and you made many of those who were far from you, and you sent messengers beyond your borders.

Every base pleasure and every vice, bewitching the human mind, promises almost a show of some good thing, and that one will possess things not hitherto known, and will be in a better situation than one was before. For having thus taken captive a soul, it carries it off wherever it eventually wishes. But the foolish, having learned by experience where the evils reside, scarcely relapse to their former state. But those who with the eyes of the mind scrutinize most diligently the end of each matter, do not allow themselves to be cast down headlong, but keep their mind invulnerable, seeing before the temptation what is about to follow. ^C But the Synagogue of the Jews was not such; for it was subject to the hand of the almighty God, and clothed in the glory from Him, it was terrible and unbearable to its neighbors, and it possessed a most desirable hope, and was full of every prosperity. For, following the law given through Moses, it worshipped God by nature and in truth; and it continued for a long time not bearing to call another god over Him, or to know how to worship one. But after it was invited by certain false teachers and impious shepherds, it fell into apostasy from God, and worshipped the works of its own hands; thinking perhaps that it would be in a better state, having slipped from the love toward God. Concerning these things He accuses it, saying: "You thought that if you were to depart from me, you would have something more." But the things expected from such a cold and vain hope did not issue in an outcome; for they fared worse in every evil. They had, therefore, nothing of exceptional prosperity, having cast away the genuine and established nature, and counting the firmness and constancy in these things as having almost no value at all. ^D And what is even more absurd than this: "You loved," He says, "those sleeping with you, and you multiplied your fornication with them." And He argues with it as with a harlot. Who then were those sleeping with her? They are perhaps the false shepherds, men who have their mind seared and branded, as blessed Paul says, and with diabolical

^A darkness. They became for her both a path and a pretext for ruin, drawing her away from the genuineness which she had with God and introducing, as it were, the seeds of impiety, and persuading her to bear fruits for Satan, the charges of his drunken insolence against God. We say that the fornication—that is, the apostasy from God—of some is multiplied when the force of their accusations is seen to be not single-sided or uniform, but—finished as it were from many and most perverse evils, and bringing forth many charges over which one might very justly blame those who see them—what do I mean? It follows absolutely for those who choose to serve Satan that they refuse to see anything healthy, but are cast about, as it were, into every path of profane and abominable pleasure. And accompanying such accusations would be other such evils: sorceries, necromancy, the useless fables of those who interpret portents, false prophecies, enchantments, and the calumnies of astrologers, and the observation of days and, in addition to these, of hours, seasons, and years. “So,” He says, “multiplying your fornication, you have made many who are far from you.” And who these might be, it is necessary to see again. For He speaks either of the holy prophets who, seeing her advancing beyond all boldness and rushing into the extremity of all godlessness, departed from her as though she were defiled, almost shouting and saying, “We have cured ^B Babylon, and she was not healed; let us leave her, and let us go each to his own land; because her judgment has approached up to heaven, and has been lifted up to the stars.” For since Babylon was named the land of graven images, and Jerusalem had fallen ill with this in a strange way, the divine prophets therefore speak of her as Babylon quite reasonably; or perhaps in some way she has made many who are far from herself. For they were investigating the rituals of neighboring nations and the false-named gods of each one, and were sending for them, and were adhering to them, and they served them, some these, others those. And indeed, God said somewhere through the voice of Jeremiah, “According to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah, and according to the number of the ways of Jerusalem you set up altars to burn incense to Baal.” And I think this also denotes the verse, “You sent messengers beyond your borders.” For they were not content with the gods present among them, but, as I said, they were sending for many others, as each person supposed it to be well for himself. Or perhaps the phrase, “You sent messengers beyond your borders,” might signify that their fornication was practiced by them beyond measure and limit, so that the saying might be as in the manner of a parable, and a common exclamation used for those who are beyond what is reasonable in each of their affairs.

VERS. 10. And you turned and were humbled ^C as far as the depths. In your many ways you became weary, and you did not say, “I will cease gaining strength.” Because you did this, therefore you ^D did not beg for your mercy from Me; for He accepts those who wish to repent, being good by nature, and knowing our frame, as is written. He said, then, one of the holy prophets: “Repent, O children, and I will heal your bruises.” So, a proof of the ultimate and returning apostasy, to have been in such evils and not to endure to seek from God even the confession of sins! For it is written that He says: “Speak of your iniquities first, that you may be justified.” And another chants and says: “I confessed, I declared my iniquity against me to the Lord; and You forgave the ungodliness of my heart.” But there were those among the Jews, a foolish and ignorant mob—for they persisted in turning away from the living God and in inclining toward other gods—since they were reported to be following those who were not gods. But, O madman, He says, whom did you fear and whom did you dread, and lie to Me? You, a human being, a tyrant of the Babylonians, when compared to the divine power, are absolutely nothing, nor is your army. For it is written of God: “He who holds the circle of the earth and the inhabitants in it, as locusts.” The prophet Isaiah said again: “If all the nations are as a drop from a bucket and as a particle of saliva counted, and are reckoned as the moment of a scale, to whom did you liken the Lord, and to what likeness did you liken Him?” Therefore, those who are most senseless, in thinking that humans from the earth are stronger than God, and in lying about their piety toward Him, while thinking that they will be saved by those who are not gods—what benefit could there be from stone and wood? For it is said concerning them: “And in the time of their evils they will say, ‘Rise up and save us.’ And where are your gods whom you made for yourself? If they rise, let them save you in the time of your affliction.” And they lied to God, not only by words in doing this, but also by deeds, such as the statement made concerning them as in the way of a parable: “And I waited for it to make grapes, but it made thorns, and not justice, but judgment.” And the marvelous sweet singer also said concerning them: “Alien children lied to Me, alien children grew old, and they limped from their paths.”

^A What is the end of such apostasy from God, of such immeasurable fornication, and of such impious deeds, or rather, such an aversion from better things to worse? It is, he says, the ultimate humiliation, and the descent into the lowest abyss of destruction. For because you did not wish to remain high and to possess an unshaken prosperity, for that reason you have become lowly. That certain of the Israelites were indeed high, as far as concerns the glory that comes from God, can be made manifest by His saying through the voice of Isaiah concerning them: “I have begotten and exalted sons.” Therefore, the humiliation is self-invited; for they have acted impiously against God who exalts them. And he immediately shows in what manner she has been humbled; for he said: “You have labored in your many ways.” For they, as if entering every path of destruction, have consumed the vigor of the soul—that is, the rational faculties—on nothing useful, and they have labored not moderately, but in ruinous things they have set their efforts.

^B Or perhaps he means by “many ways” in this context the constant turning toward other gods, and disregarding those already obtained, seeking those that are with others, and being intoxicated, as it were, and tossed about everywhere, and the mind that is in them having no firm foundation or stability. It happens that we suffer this even in the strange ways of pleasures. For the mind is sometimes carried away toward every kind of impurity, at one time praising wealth, at another time lusting for the flesh, being conquered by empty glory, and being carried about by every wind, according to that which was spoken by the voice of Jeremiah concerning someone: “By the desires of her soul she was carried away by the wind; she was delivered; who will turn her back?” For the soul that has suffered this will certainly be delivered to the assaults of the passions; and the Preacher teaches this, saying: “For crooked thoughts separate from God, and the restlessness of desire perverts an innocent mind.” We must, therefore, restrain our mind if it should wish to go headlong upon cliffs and to exult in and keep company with the strange ways of pleasures, so that, having grown weary from many paths, it may not become a prey for the devil.

^C Having done these things, then, he says, O Jerusalem, you did not say: “I will cease being strengthened,” that is, you did not interrupt with second thoughts the advancement toward worse things, you did not measure the apostasy, you did not extinguish the pursuit of evil, but rather, you engaged with more intensity in wishing to do those things which ought not to have been done in the first place. For it is the duty of a soul, even if it possesses only moderate understanding, not to be willing to be caught by charges that lead to sin; but if indeed it should happen that it suffers this, then at least to choose to repent, and through a return to what is better, to get rid of the charges. But if it should be carried away uncontrollably toward what is worse, and should even refuse the necessity of repenting, it has added sin to sin, and one may see it suffering disease upon disease. He therefore accuses those who ^D are involved in these crimes, the God of all, and says: “Does he who falls not rise again? Or does he who turns away not return? Why is this people turned away with an impudent turning, and they have been confirmed in their will, and refused to return?” But because you have done these things, he says, for this reason you did not inquire of Me.

^A Yet how was it not much more necessary, since you have dared to do such shameful and detestable things, to lift up your petitions, and to ask for mercy from God? For He receives those who desire to repent, being good by nature, and knowing our frame, according to what is written. He says, therefore, through one of the holy prophets: “Return, sons, returning, and I will heal your bruises.” It is an indication of the utmost madness and total abandonment, therefore, that those who have fallen into such great evils do not endure to seek to be shown mercy by God, together with a confession of their faults. For it is written: “Say you your sins first, that you may be justified.” And someone psalms, saying: “I said, I will declare against myself my iniquity to the Lord; and you forgave the ungodliness of my heart.” ^B But the Jews had a kind of reasoning, fragile and weak, and full of ignorance; for they were bent on turning away from the living God, and inclining toward other gods, because the multitude of the Babylonians was reported to be as good as present, and about to arrive. But, O senseless woman, he says, whom fearing did you stand in awe, and lie to me? The tyrant of the Babylonians is a man, and as compared to the divine power, his army is absolutely nothing. For it is written concerning God: “He who holds the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants are as locusts.” The prophet Isaiah says again: “If all the nations shall be reckoned as a drop from a vessel, and as saliva, and are reckoned as the turn of a balance, to whom have you likened the Lord, and to what likeness have you likened him?” Most senseless, therefore, are they who thought a man from the earth to be stronger than God, and lied regarding their piety towards Him, thinking they would be saved by those who are not gods. For what benefit could there be from stone and wood? It is said, therefore, concerning them: “And in the time of their evils they will say, Arise and save us. And where are your gods, which you made for yourself? If they will rise up, and save you in the time of your affliction.” And they lied to God, not only doing this in word, but in fact itself; of such a nature is that which is said about them by way of example: “And I waited for it to produce a grape, but it produced thorns, and not righteousness, but judgment.” And the divine Melodist says somewhere, as if from the person of Christ concerning them: “Strange children lied to me; strange children grew old, and they limped from their paths.” ^C Vers. 11-13. ^D “And you did not remember me, nor did you take me into your mind, nor into your heart. And I, seeing, overlook, and you did not fear me. And I will declare my righteousness, and your evils, which will not profit you. When you cry out, let them deliver you in your affliction. For the wind shall take all these, and a storm shall carry them away.” God says through the voice of Ezekiel to the mother of the

of the Jewish mother, by which I mean the Synagogue. “As you have done, so shall it be to you; your retribution shall be returned upon your own head.” Yes, and the prophet Isaiah also says: “Woe to the wicked,” he says, “evil shall befall him according to the works of his hands.” Something of this sort is signified even now through the things set before us. For ^B since you have rejected the knowledge of me, he says, you will be despised by me, and you will undergo punishment equal to your transgressions. Someone forgets God, who is God by nature and in truth, and the master of all things, not because he has altogether arrived at a state of forgetting that He is God (for even the demons believe and shudder, according to the voice of the apostle), but because he has thought nothing of wanting to be subject to Him, and has cared little for the things commanded by Him; so that he appears licentious and disobedient, and has turned in every way toward the very opposite of what he ought to fulfill. And God "forgets," or rather, overlooks those who have forgotten Him, not only withdrawing His helping hand, and stripping them of all mercy; which is what happened to Israel. For they did not fear the Lord of heaven and earth, the creator and artisan of all things; but having as it were withdrawn their neck from His scepters, they served gods that were not gods. For this reason He says: “You did not fear me; and I will announce my righteousness, and your wickedness,” speaking of their apostasy from Him, clearly, and their inclination toward the gods they had fashioned for themselves. God, who is the God of all, declares His righteousness against those who are accustomed to doing such things, passing a divine sentence upon them and imposing a balanced punishment. For the daring deeds done by us are not against just any one of our own condition, but against that nature which is on high and above, and which rules over all things. And that the discovery of falsely-named gods is useless to them, He demonstrates by saying: “They shall not profit you,” and that this matter is true, He confirms further saying: “When you cry out, let them deliver you in your affliction.” Therefore, as the prophet says: ^C “What does a graven image profit, because they have graven it? They have molded a molten image, a false imagination, which the sculptor has fashioned, and it is not God.” Then how could an image made of wood and stone, and creations of human craft rather than God, bring aid to those who have been led astray? For this reason He says that “the wind shall take them all, and the storm shall carry them away.” Which ones? Either the gods conceived by them, or perhaps those who worship them, who, like dust and ashes, are scattered by the blasts of the winds. And this, I think, is what is said in the book of Psalms: “Let them become as dust before the face of the wind,” that is, they shall walk toward nothingness. It is customary for divinely inspired Scripture to compare the onset of trials, or rather of punishments, to a squall and a storm. ^D

VERS. 14. *But they who rely on me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain; and they shall say: Clear the ways from before it, and remove the stumbling blocks from the way of my people.*

^A Necessarily these things have been subjoined to the foregoing. For it was necessary, indeed it was necessary, that there should be a manifest punishment for the flagitious and for the apostates, and evident rewards for those who love Him. And in general the promise is true; for whoever clings to God, and deems nothing more precious or excellent than the love for Him, and excels in all good works, he shall be an heir of the land which is destined for the saints, which the Savior Himself also pointed out to us, saying: “Blessed are the meek, for they themselves shall inherit the earth.” ^B By the holy mountain in these passages, I mean perhaps the city above, the heavenly Jerusalem, the beautiful city of the saints. For the divine David psalms and speaks concerning it: “Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place? He that is innocent of hands and pure in heart.” Therefore, for all who cling to God, there shall be the inheritance of the land of the saints, and the venerable and most celebrated mountain. And it seems that He is now speaking of those who, from the Jewish ordinations, have believed in Him, of whom the divine disciples have become the first-fruits and the first, holding fast to the love of Christ, possessing firm faith in Him, and irreprehensible obedience, and inseparable love. They say, therefore: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution?” or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? These have become heirs of the kingdom of heaven; and they shall possess the land above, which is prepared for the meek. ^C The name of meekness would befit those who live the evangelical life, to whom Christ has also commanded that they ought not to be angry, nor indeed to avenge themselves on any of those who have offended them, but rather to hasten to show kindness even to those who have become their enemies. “Do good,” he says, “to your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you; and to him who strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” The proof of ultimate patience and meekness would be to excel in these things. To those who possess the land and the holy mountain, as if in promise and hope, it shall be said: “Clear the ways from before His face;” this is clearly, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight His paths.” And how this preparation is carried out, He has explained, saying: “Remove the stumbling blocks from the way of my people,” that is to say, make the way of salvation through faith smooth and unimpeded for all the inhabitants of the earth; let there be nothing rough or steep. ^D For the Mosaic law knew not mercy, and was difficult; for we all offend in many things, and it was hard to find one who was entirely free, and able to fulfill it blamelessly. And thus the divine disciples said to those who, after the faith, wished to return to the shadows of the law: “And now why do you tempt God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear?” Paul also said that the law was added because of transgressions: for the law convicts of sin; and those who stumbled against it

were liable to blame and writing. ^A It was a hindrance, then, to a life governed by law, because it was difficult to fulfill. “But let it be removed,” he says, “from the midst; and let the path that is easy to travel and accessible without sweat be revealed,” that is, the power of the evangelical way of life, which brings in the true worship. God said something similar elsewhere to the holy mystagogues: “Go through my gates, and cast the stones out of the way,” that is, relieve the road of every difficulty—the road, that is, which leads to God through spiritual and true worship and the brightness that comes from faith.

^B “Thus says the Lord the Most High, who dwells in the heights for eternity, the Holy One resting in the holy, and giving patience to the fainthearted, and giving life to the contrite in heart: I will not take vengeance on you forever, nor will I be angry with you always. For a spirit shall go forth from me, and I have made every breath.”

The blessed prophets, whenever the Lord of all promises something great and worthy of God to anyone, are filled with great admiration for His glory and kindness, and as though exulting with joy, they turn to singing praises. We shall find that the prophet is experiencing something like this now; for he did not say simply, “Thus says the Lord,” but necessarily adds, “the Most High,” which is to say, He who is above all things and by nature more sublime than everything that has been brought into existence. ^C When he says, “who dwells in the heights,” he implies again that the divine and most exalted nature is established in unshakable dignities and ineffable heights. And this, I think, is what it means for it to dwell in the heights for eternity: for it exists unchangeably in what it is in itself, and it could not in any way become better, or be anything other than what it is; rather, it remains perpetually and unchangeably in the state in which it is. He says that the Holy One rests and dwells in the holy, implying that He rejects those born of Israelite blood as having been defiled by many sins, but dwells with kindness among those who have been purified by faith and sanctified in spirit. He also gives patience to the fainthearted. He calls “fainthearted” those who are sometimes accustomed to fail in a small way concerning the goal of life set before them. ^D He gives them patience, that is, endurance and perseverance, almost shouting and saying: “Be of good courage, and let your heart be comforted, all you who hope in the Lord.” He also gives life to the contrite in heart, that is, to the poor in spirit; and such are all those who render obedience to God and possess a submissive mind. These are they who have been called through faith to the acknowledgment of Christ; and they are named poor in spirit, following a path opposite to those of Israel. For the former were arrogant, disobedient, and unyielding;

^A but these are the good, and the pure of heart, who assign to the laws of God the right to rule and to take the superior position, and who submit the neck of their minds to the yoke of Christ. And these are the works of Christians.

But what does the Most High say to those who, through disobedience, have slipped into the crimes of impiety against Him? "I will not take vengeance on you forever, nor will I be angry with you always." He does not cut off the hope of salvation for those from Israel; for the remnant has been saved, ^B and the greatest part of their multitude has been called. They shall be called even in the last times, as God restrains His anger toward them and draws back the punishment, so that it might not be extended against them forever. For being good, He has kept the promise given to their fathers, and He has not failed. He also gives another reason, as a merciful God: "For a spirit will go forth from me." And in what manner will it go forth? He has clarified this by saying: "I have made every breath [or: blast]." For He is the Father of spirits. Yet it is understood not as having begotten them from His own nature, just as He begot His own Son, nor do we say that they have had a progression or procession from His substance equal to the Holy Spirit; rather, we affirm that they came forth into existence from God by way of creation, as we judge rightly; for He Himself made every breath. ^C But where "making" is stated altogether, there surely must be the "going forth" or "exit," not in terms of substance, but as a term denoting creation in a figurative sense.

VERS. 17-21. *For sin I grieved him for a little while, and I struck him, and I turned my face away from him, and he was grieved, and walked sorrowfully in his ways. I have seen his ways, and I healed him, and I consoled him, and I gave him true consolation, peace upon peace to those who are far and to those who are near.* The Lord says: *I will heal them; but the unjust shall be tossed so, and they shall not be able to find rest. There is no joy for the impious, says the Lord God.*

The Jews have truly paid the penalty for their raging against Christ—penalties indeed intolerable to all men, ^D yet moderate if compared with their errors. For they were wicked beyond all measure; they killed the just, and rendered themselves guilty of the blood of the holy prophets. Finally, they even laid hands on Christ Himself, whom, though He was His Son, the Father had sent after the servants. But they—even though they said among themselves, "This is the heir"—still acted insolently against Him. Therefore, on account of this sin, He says, "I grieved him, and I struck him, and I turned my face away from him." For He said: "When you stretch forth your hands to me, I will turn my eyes away from you; and if you multiply prayer, I will not hear you; for your hands are full of blood." But in the last times, as Israel repents (for he shall walk sorrowfully), he will cease from this turning away, and through faith he will be received, and from his former sins, by God’s favor...

he shall be absolved, and shall take hold of true consolation. But what do we say this is? Is it not, clearly, the grace through Christ which justifies by faith, delivers from sins, procures sanctification through the Spirit, the glory of adoption, and the hope of the rewards destined for the saints? This consolation, therefore, is true; for besides all other good things, it brings to those endued with it peace upon peace; that is, the perpetual and constant serenity of peace which the Savior has given both to those far off and to those near, that is, both to those from the nations and to those from the kindred of Israel. For the blessed Paul has addressed the nations, saying: "But now, you who were once far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ." For inasmuch as Israel was brought under the law and served the living and true God, as it is pleasing to sacred preaching (for it has been said to them: "The Lord thy God is one Lord"), they seemed to be, in a certain way, near; but the nations seemed to be far off, in that they were utterly alien to the holy teachings and to the knowledge of the Creator and Lord of all. But peace has been given to both these and those by God and the Father, through Christ, clearly, who has made both one, and has created the two peoples into one new man, and has loosed the partition of the wall, and has abolished the Law of commandments in decrees. Therefore, through Him we have had reconciliation and peace with God, and also [peace] between ourselves, never to be broken. For Christ somewhere said to the Father and God in heaven: "I desire that, just as I and You are one, so they also may be one in us." The prophet subjoins to these words: "And the ^C Lord said: I will heal them," introducing, as it were, a summary and gathering together of the whole discourse, and thereby declaring the promise of the God who is Lord of all to be true. For He promised, he says, declaring that He would heal them; but the unjust shall fluctuate thus, and shall not be able to rest. For since he has run through the rewards of those who are to be called, hereupon, and very fittingly, he also foretells the punishments of the disbelievers, and the surging in them, and the infinite afflictions. For there is no rejoicing for them, he says, the Lord God has said. But when the Lord and God of all deprives them of His joy, what pleasure can there be for them? That, moreover, at the time of the calling of those from Israel, some will remain in unbelief, cleaving to the son of iniquity, the most wise Paul clearly shows, saying: "For this reason, because they did not receive the knowledge of the truth, God will send them an operation of error." And the Savior Himself said: "I have come in the name of My Father, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name," that is, the son of iniquity, as I said, "him you will receive." Therefore, Israel will indeed be called ^D to the knowledge of Christ, and will be enriched by grace through faith in Him; but some impious and unjust ones will remain; then, however, tossed as if by unstable waves, and with all joy lost, they shall not be able to rest. For they shall be crushed, afflicted by a lasting and infinite punishment.

Chapter 58. Verse 1. Cry aloud, do not spare, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and declare to my people their sins, and to the house of Jacob their iniquities.

VERS. 2. Me de die in diem quærunt, et scire vias meas cupiunt, quasi populus qui justitiam fecerit, et judicium Dei sui non dereliquerit.

^A will learn, and towards what end the matter will come. This, I suppose, is what [is meant by], "They desire to know my ways." They desire, as a people that has performed righteousness, and has not forsaken the judgment of its God; that is, as those who have lived according to the law, and have become excellent keepers of the ordinances given to them, and have led a blameless life, and are clothed in the glory of an upright manner of living. For to such as these it would indeed be fitting to seek God, that is, to wish to be near Him, and to enjoy mercy from above, and in addition to this, to know His ways. It has been said, then, by one of the holy prophets: "Seek the Lord, and while you find Him, call upon Him. And when He shall draw near to you, let the wicked man leave his way, and the lawless man his counsel, and let him turn back to the Lord, and he shall find mercy; for He will abundantly forgive their sins."

^B They now ask of me a just judgment, and they desire to draw near to God, saying: "Why have we fasted, and You did not see? We have humbled our souls, and You did not know it?" "For in the days of your fasts you find your own preferences, and you oppress all who are subject to you; for judgments and strifes you fast, and you strike the lowly with your fists." He says that they are lodging a complaint against me as not rendering just things, because I have been unwilling to show compassion to the lowly through fasting and prayer; they then wish also to be near to God, while boasting of none of the good deeds that pertain to piety, nor being clothed in the brightness that comes from virtues, but [relying] on bare and mere abstinence alone. And they say, "We have fasted, and You did not see; we have humbled our ^C souls, and You did not know it." And they do not speak these things as if God had been ignorant of their humiliation through fasting; but since they have not attained to the perception of the causes, they say "You did not see" and "You did not know." For we say that the God of all then "sees" the labors of some—I mean, by prayer and exercise—when He grants their requests. Why then did He not accept those who were fasting, and [why] did He make the prayers of those who had humbled themselves unreceived? He defends Himself, saying: "For in the days of your fasts you find your own preferences." For fasting is indeed an excellent thing, and prayer is profitable; and to humble oneself in the eyes of God possesses the greatest possible utility. For it is written: "I humbled my soul in fasting, and my prayer shall return into my bosom." And the divine ^D David also said: "My knees were weakened from fasting, and my flesh was changed because of oil." Yea, and the God of all Himself says: "Turn to me in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning." For He willingly has mercy on those who make their own humble state through toil. But it is among the most absurd things for those who wish to obtain mercy to urge the Lawgiver in a different way, and to call Him to anger by doing nothing of what is well-pleasing. For it is absolutely necessary that those who draw near to God should be holy, and excel in good works, and be free from all filth.

For this reason He says: ^A *You have fasted, but I did not see*, that is, I did not attend; *you have humbled your souls, and I did not acknowledge it*, that is, I did not deign to reward your humiliation; *for in the days of your fasts you find your own wills.* Therefore, it is necessary for those who wish to fast purely and holily to depart from their own wills, and to embrace what seems good to God, and to bend the neck to His wills. But the Israelites did not perform this at all; rather, they followed their own wills, neglecting what is pleasing to the Lawgiver. They even subjected those under them to judgment and strife, when they ought to have brought those who disagreed with one another to concord and established peace between them. But they transferred their efforts into everything that was contrary to this. They struck the humble, not necessarily with their hands, but with insults, ^B force, or other unjust means. Therefore, to those who possessed such and so great impurity, how could He give praise for fasting? Or how could He accept the prayers of those who were so wicked?

*“Why do you fast for me, so that today your voice may be heard in clamor? Not such is the fast I chose, and the day for a man to humble his soul. And if you bend your neck as a hoop, and spread sackcloth and ashes, not even so shall you call it an acceptable fast.”*

The power of a true fast has extraordinary praise ^C and approval before God, the ruler of all; for He gladly receives the prayers of those who worship Him, and if He sees them humbled through labors and exercises, He grants their requests without any hesitation. That which is done sluggishly and negligently, however, He repudiates and rejects. We call that fast holy which is done from a pure conscience—which he performs who has first cast out from his mind all wicked habits and every stain, has wiped away the filth of carnal pleasure, and has washed his hands among the innocent, according to that which is written, and in sum, has become a zealous cultivator of all uprightness. But a fast that is not in this manner is deceptive and has only the appearance of a fast; and since it has nothing at all that is becoming or fitting, it is ridiculed and held to be shameful. For those ^D who care nothing for being upright and good, and who show no sign of excellent virtue, yet practice abstinence from food and an unfruitful and useless starvation as if it were a distinguished thing and precious before God—these indeed act as empty boxers and beat the air. For their labor is not rewarded, because it is not even acceptable to God. Why therefore do you now fast for me, He says, so that in one day the clamor of your voice may be heard? By "clamor" He refers either to the prayer conjoined with the useless fast, or to the very work itself. For the things that are done by us are said to have a certain voice to God, according to that which was said to Cain by Him: “The voice of your brother’s blood, [cries out]”

to me from the earth.” ^A But I have not chosen this fast, He says. And what is this fast? He previously declared by saying: “In the days of your fasts you find your own wills, and you urge on all those who are subject to you to judgment and fighting. You fast, and you strike with fists the humble.” Therefore, not even if you bow your neck like a ring, and spread out sackcloth and ashes—that is, even if you practice the utmost humiliation and tread the path of unbearable toil—not even so, with such shameful accusations, will you call it an acceptable fast. For if you wish, He says, to tell the truth, not even you yourselves would call this an acceptable fast.

“Is this the fast I have chosen?” says the Lord, “but loose every bond of unrighteousness, dissolve the strangulations of violent contracts; send away the crushed in remission, and tear up every unjust document. Break your bread to the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house. If you see the naked, clothe him, and from your own seed you shall not hide.” ^B

VERS. 6, 7. “Such is not the fast I have chosen,” says the Lord; “but loose every bond of unrighteousness, dissolve the obligations of violent contracts; send away the crushed in remission, and tear up every unjust syngraph. Break your bread for the hungry, and lead the poor who lack shelter into your house. If you see the naked, clothe him, and do not despise the domestics of your own seed.”

Those who do not know the way of the true fast must have it shown to them by God. For from Him all wisdom and understanding and the way to all that is best are revealed. Therefore, the divine David also sings and says: “Lead me, O Lord, in your way, and I will walk in your truth.” ^C Accordingly, He has deemed the most unrefined and in no way beneficial fast of the Jews to be rejectable, but He reveals the power of the true [fast]. For, “Loose,” He says, “every bond of unrighteousness,” that is, refrain from wishing to overreach anyone. For overreaching is the bond of unrighteousness, as is the clinging to some of the weaker ones, and binding them, as it were, with inescapable entanglements of accusations, in order to make them fearful, and thus to seek what one wishes to receive from them. “Dissolve the strangulations of violent contracts.” We say that violent contracts, and those from [the] strangulation or perversity [of usury], are full of commercial dealings. And besides these, the other things called givings and takings, which have certain overreachings, and show those who are accustomed to doing them to be lovers of shameful gain. ^D And “the crushed,” He says, “send away in remission,” that is, those who are enduring crushing or toil, either from the bond of unrighteousness, or from violent contracts. “Release in remission,” that is, free them from the straits that have been imposed; allow those who have been suffering to rest at last. And “tear up every unjust document”; as I think, He speaks of the ledgers of the usurers, often drawn up not even by the advancement of such monies as the scale of the document brings forth. When, however, one abstains from these, He says, then add what is lacking. And this is to bear fruit for the

to let those who lack shelter enter their home, and to clothe the naked, and to show as much mercy to the domestics of one's seed—that is, those related by blood—as is sufficient, and to share with them the abundance of the wealth given by God. Observe, moreover, that it is not the same thing to abstain from evils and to do good. Nor will it suffice for one to boast before God that he has not committed evil, but it follows ^A entirely that one must perform good works and embrace the pursuits of piety. For to dissolve the knots of violent contracts, and every bond of injustice, and to tear up every unjust document, is nothing other than merely to depart from vice. But to fulfill the duties of charity, by breaking bread for the hungry, by bringing the poor who lack shelter into one’s house, by clothing the naked, and by not disregarding the domestics of one’s seed, these have a manifest demonstration of the highest virtues. Therefore, the old law, being a pedagogue unto Christ, did not bring the fulfillment of good to those living at that time, but taught them instead to retreat from vices. For that saying 39, "You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not swear falsely," has the same force. But what is perfect, and the fulfillment of every good, is reserved for the oracles of Christ, from which we have learned to perform the duties of charity toward God and our brothers.

TOMUS IV

Vers. 8. *Then shall thy morning light break forth, and thy healings shall quickly arise; and thy righteousness shall go before thy face, and the glory of God shall encompass thee. Then shalt thou cry, and God shall hear thee. While thou art yet speaking, he shall say, Behold, I am here.*

^C If, he says, you have fasted purely, and shown your hands to God cleansed and purified, and a mind freed from all stains—that is, when you cease from striking the humble with your fists, and from afflicting ^D your subordinates with judgment and blows, and from yielding to your own will and lusts; when you have broken bread for the hungry, covered the naked, and brought the poor who lack shelter into your home—then shall your morning light break forth. This statement has the greatest emphasis. For he did not say simply, "Light shall be given to you by God," but rather, "it shall break forth," like some lightning flash, sent down from God with force and speed, by which is clearly shown the promptness and eager zeal of the Giver. And by saying "morning," he teaches that it shall arrive before the appointed time. For God, the keeper of our affairs and the bestower of spiritual goods, knows well—He understands—how to adapt the opportunity of His munificence to each individual. But if anyone is honest and good, and furthermore merciful and submissive to the rein, to him even morning rewards shall be given by Him, so that his healings, that is, the expulsion of all infirmity, may sprout up in him like ears of corn, and the

^A return of better things. For when anyone is freed from the infirmities of the soul, he will certainly bring forth fruit: his desire and zeal for every good thing. When, therefore, the divine and intelligible light has shone within us, our healings also will rise together with it, in every way and altogether, as God treats us and strengthens our nerves, so to speak, by eliminating our passions and, in return, planting in us the will to do good and to excel in righteousness. For this reason He says: «Your righteousness shall go before you.» It goes before, clearly smoothing the way to piety, rendering the rough level and passable, removing what is precipitous, and as it were opening the course toward all that is best. He adds another thing as well: «For the glory of God,» He says, «shall wrap you around,» ^B that is, it shall encircle you, make you a sight to be admired, and cause you to be a common benefit to many. For the splendor of the holy ones benefits those who gaze upon them in no small measure. Indeed, Christ said to the holy apostles: «Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.» We shall therefore be illustrious, as the glory from God surrounds and, as it were, clothes us, which He will grant to those who are diligent in righteousness. When these things have come to pass for you, He says, you shall then cry out, and God will answer you; still as you are speaking, He will say: «Behold, I am here.» For He «gives ear to the prayers of the righteous,» according to what is written. And as the Psalmist says: «The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open to their supplication.» ^C For being good, He inclines to those who ask, but not to all immediately. Yet to those who have excelled in righteousness, He grants their requests without any delay, and keeps His hearing most ready for them, so that even in every one of their petitions they may joyfully say: «He heard my voice from His holy temple, and my cry will enter before Him into His ears.» Thus, the promptness of His generosity is unsurpassable, and His readiness to hear is extreme, while the righteous man is still speaking and stretching forth his prayers.

«If you take away from you the bond, and the pointing of the finger, and the word of murmuring, and give to the hungry your bread, and satisfy the humbled soul, then shall your light rise in the darkness, and your darkness be as the noonday, and your God shall be with you always.» ^D

Excellent precepts and teachings, even if they are spoken to some people many times, nevertheless possess their own utility. For the all-wise Paul writes to those who believed through him: «To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not tiresome, but for you it is safe.» Therefore, by many ways He comes to us through the same things, saying and making clear the paths of approval, and describing the splendor of the rewards to be given to the holy ones, so that He may render them even more eager to choose to do those things by which they might become venerable, and He clearly sets forth that «Behold, I am here,» given by God from above and from Himself.

^A Therefore, He says: «If you remove from yourself the yoke, and the reaching out of the hand.» By «yoke,» I suppose, He refers to the wickedness of the Gentiles, their perverseness and love of contention, and the way they weave, as it were, bonds of troubles against others, and search out crooked inventions so as to bind some people and cast them into unavoidable snares of difficulties. For a man ought to be simple and accessible, if indeed he has the goal of being looked upon by God and of desiring the gifts that come from Him. By «reaching out of the hand,» He perhaps refers to bribery and the desire for shameful profits. For we say at times of some people that they have their hand extended to receive, and of those who refuse for the sake of integrity, that they have a contracted hand. It was said concerning those who were leaders of the Jewish Synagogue: «Her leaders judged for bribes, and her priests prophesied for silver,» and that they became companions of thieves, loving gifts, and pursuing rewards. The divine Habbacum also said: «Judgment has been made against me, and the judge takes.» Therefore, the name will be of significant import regarding the taking of bribes—that is, the reaching out of the hand, which He indeed orders one to remove, or to put away. Or, in another way, it signifies retaliation, and the repaying of evil for evil. The Psalmist indeed said concerning some, that «He stretched out his hand in repaying.» He adds, moreover, that «They profaned His covenant.» ^B Therefore, the stretching out of the hand would characterize, as I said, the retaliation which one might make, avenging himself upon those who have caused him grief, and bringing down the consequences of his anger upon those who have offended him. We recall also our Savior Himself saying: «If anyone strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.» For the supreme proof of gentleness and freedom from anger would be the ability to endure violence with a calm mind, and not to take revenge upon those by whom we have been harmed, but rather to forget their injuries.

He wishes, in addition to this, that we remove the word of murmuring. For it is our duty with a cheerful and eager spirit to submit to the divine laws, and not to raise any outcry against the excellent way of life, as if shaking off the yoke, when the mind drifts toward a desire for baser things, and praises pleasure more than temperance, and prefers the delights of the world to living a venerable life. This is precisely what the Israelites did as they were crossing that deep desert. ^C For when God sent down the manna to them, they turned their inclination toward baser things, saying: «Would that we had died, struck by the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and ate bread to our fill!» But this murmuring against God created their destruction. For they perished by serpents. Hence the most wise Paul says: «Do not murmur as some of them murmured, and perished by the serpents.» Therefore, it is fitting for one who is studious of every adornment and elegance to be of a cheerful spirit, and to seek after excellent deeds. After you have removed the word of murmuring, if you give bread to the hungry, and satisfy the soul

^A that is famished, that is, if you are merciful, a lover of good, and inclined to brotherly love, ready to be swayed, and sociable, and loving your neighbor as yourself, then shall your light rise in darkness. And how shall this be? As from night follows day, so in us, the intellectual darkness being dispelled, the divine light takes its place, so that we appear to be in the zenith of splendor. When the solar cycle is at its highest, then is the light upon the earth most intense. And so also is God with you, always. And what is there besides this that is greatest? For what good thing is lacking, or of what is a man not in abundance, if God is with him, who is able to do all things and distributes them with a bountiful hand ^B, whose impulse he provides and bestows; and he makes him so strong that he might resist the onsets of temptations, and in general resist even Satan himself and the vexations from his passions?

And you shall be satisfied, just as your soul desires, and your bones shall grow fat, as a garden drunken, and as a fountain that water has not forsaken, and your bones shall spring up as an herb and shall grow fat, and they shall inherit generations of generations.

And of what, then, shall you be satisfied? He says. Of divine gifts, clearly, and of food befitting the holy. For Christ himself said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds forth through the mouth of God,” which even of old was written ^C in a figure for Israel, when God sent down manna from heaven. For in some way the bread of angels was conceived, and it is the bread of heaven. And if there are some for whom the divine light has abundantly illuminated the mind and who have acquired an exact and blameless knowledge of the holy Scriptures, we say that these also have been satisfied and satiated by the divine food. But Israel has fallen away from this; for the nations, through faith, have possessed and kept it, and whoever admits the evangelical and saving word. For truly our Lord Jesus Christ said to his holy apostles that, “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given,” to those who have ^D disbelieved, clearly, to whom the divine word has proclaimed, “My servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry. Behold those who serve me shall drink, but you shall be thirsty.” For they hungered and thirsted, having been denied the good things through Christ’s gifts, that is, the divine and evangelical instruction. For he said through one of the holy prophets, “Behold, the days come, says the Lord, and I will send a famine upon the earth, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord, and they shall run from east to west, seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.” For the life-giving and nutritious word for the Jewish flock has departed, and it has been given, as I said, to those who love ^A the life-giving and most nourishing Word of God. And it is given, as I said, to those who love Christ, whom also he addressed, saying, “Eat and be drunken, O neighbors.” The inspired David also chants, as one who has had a share in such a venerable and lavish generosity: “You have prepared a table before me in the presence of those who afflict me; you have anointed my head with oil, and your cup, which makes me drunk, is excellent.” Therefore, as many as have had knowledge of his divine mysteries, or have been satisfied with them, their bones have been made fat. The account is set forth as if from those who are accustomed to live in luxury after a fleshly manner; the soul of such as these would be as a garden “drunken,” that is, flourishing and very full of trees, and adorned with various types of flowers, and producing all kinds of fruit. For gardens that are without water have a great ^B deformity; for they are dry and destitute of every fruit, or perhaps even lacking of the plants themselves. But those that are drenched by the unrestrained flow of waters are, as I said, crowned with all kinds of fruits. The Church has become the garden of Christ, whose persona the bride written of in the Song of Songs has assumed: “Let my kinsman,” she says, “come down into his garden, and eat the fruit of his orchard.” For what the choice fruit is among plants, or rather, the ripe fruit, this also is in the souls of the saints: a virtue beautiful and most pleasing to God. Therefore, as a garden drunken, he says, shall your soul be, and as a fountain that water has not forsaken. Such have the inspired mystagogues become, sending forth the streams of pious instruction from their own heart as from an everlasting fountain, and ^C richly irrigating the souls of those being taught. And he who distributes such excellent gifts will himself confirm it, saying, “He who believes in me, as the Scripture said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” And again, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him, there shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life.” We say that the holy apostles and evangelists are of such a kind, and all who preach the divine word, having attained it in a good way through dogmatic skill, and at the same time revealing the way of brightness in their works. And your bones, he says, shall spring up as an herb, and shall grow fat, and they shall inherit generations of generations. In these things he seems to declare the mystery of the resurrection; for the body shall then rise again, just ^D as some plant in a field, having withered and closed up during the winter season, but with the spring serenity laughing upon it, it blossoms again, and as it were returns to the beauty that is in it by nature. And the bones, having sprung up as an herb, shall grow fat, clearly by the life-giving grace that is from God. For the inspired David chants somewhere and says, “You shall send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth,” that is, of the inhabitants of the earth. Then we shall inherit generations of generations, that is, into the length of days, with death abolished and corruption taken away entirely. The divinely inspired, the bones of the intellect, are often called in Scripture the active certain

attendant of all seemliness, and one who pursues excellent virtues, even if he should remove the word of murmuring, if you give bread to the hungry, and satisfy the humbled soul—that is, if you become compassionate, and a lover of goodness, and one who loves his brother, and is ready to share, and communitarian, and loves his neighbor as yourself—then your light shall rise in darkness. But how ever is this so? Even as day is made out of night, so in us, when the intelligible darkness is driven out, the divine light enters in its place, so that we seem to be in the noon-day, that is, at the peak of brightness. For when the cycle of the sun is at the meridian, it sends the light most intensely to those upon the earth at that time. Thus your God will be with you throughout. And this too is a very great thing beside the others. For what good is lacking to those who have obtained this? Or of what gifts will a person not be full if God, who is all-powerful and distributes with a rich hand the things of which He is the provider and giver, is with him, and who also beats back the onsets of temptations, and makes him so strong that he might even resist generally against Satan himself and the vexations of the passions? ^B "And you shall be filled, as your soul desires, and your bones shall be made fat, as a drunken garden, and as a fountain that water has not failed, and your bones shall rise like herb and be made fat, and they shall inherit generations of generations." And with what, then, shall you be filled? He says. With divine gifts, clearly, and food worthy of saints. For as Christ Himself once said: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds through the mouth of God." This also was recorded of old for those of the blood of Israel by way of a type, when God sent down the manna from heaven; since in some way it might be understood as bread of angels, and bread of heaven. And if there were some whose minds the divine light illuminated richly, and who produced an accurate and blameless knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, we say that these too are filled and attain to satiation with the food from above and from God. But Israel has fallen from this. Yet the nations have come into possession and keeping [of it] through faith, and all who approach the evangelical and saving word. And certainly our Lord Jesus Christ said to the holy apostles that "to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given," that is, to the unbelievers, to whom also the divine word cried out: "They that serve me shall eat, but you shall hunger. Behold, they that serve me shall drink, but you shall thirst." For they hungered and thirsted, having become destitute of the blessings through the Spirit, and having tasted nothing at all of the gifts through Christ, or of the divine and evangelical instruction. For He said through one of the holy prophets: "Behold, I am bringing a famine upon the earth, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord; and they shall run to and fro from the rising to the setting, seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it." For the vivifying and most nourishing word has been removed from the flock of the Jews, and has been given, as I said, to those who love

^A His faculties and energies, as when it is said: "God hath scattered the bones of those who please men" (Ps. LII, 6). For God does not dissipate the bones of the body, but rather He breaks and crushes the powers and faculties of the soul, so that they can accomplish nothing that relates to virtue. "For no one is crowned, unless he has struggled lawfully" (II Tim. II, 5), according to that which is written. But the aim and end of those who please and flatter men looks toward praises which redound to the men themselves: nor is anything usually done by them for the glory of God or for the benefit of their own souls. Again, the divine Psalmist also said: "Because I kept silence, my bones waxed old, through my crying all the day long" (Ps. XXXI, 3), that is, [while] I was glorifying and praying; thereupon I kept silence, having fallen into human faint-heartedness. "My bones waxed old," that is, the faculties of the soul have become rotten. These, therefore, are sometimes relaxed and torpid from sloth, but again, like grass, they flourish anew, when God makes them fruitful with spiritual consolations and strengthens them, so that He may thereby appoint us heirs into long-living ^B time; for that expression, "unto generations and generations," signifies nothing other than this, that He appoints us heirs into a life of long duration.

Vers. 12. And thy deserts shall be built in eternity, and thy foundations shall be for generations of generations: and thou shalt be called the builder of walls, and thou shalt cause the paths which are in the midst to cease.

By two other examples the prophetic speech is illustrated for us, and the beauty of its recondite thoughts is made manifest. For the form of the speech is framed as though addressed to a city that had once been laid waste and totally destroyed, so that it remained bare, without walls. "For thy deserts," he says, "shall be built in eternity," that is, thou shalt not be naked of the good thoughts that inhabit thy heart, nor shalt thou remain destitute of walls ^C or unguarded, and lacking a firm foundation. For Christ shall become thy foundation and perpetual safety, and thou shalt be as a city furnished with many men, having numberless inhabitants. For the souls of the saints are full of words and thoughts—of those regarding God, of course. For these [thoughts] are very numerous, and come even to the height of precision, running hither and thither about it [the soul], and rendering it full of every good thing. And besides this, "Thou shalt be called the builder of walls, and thou shalt cause the paths which are in the midst to cease." For many are those who pass through the gardens that are desolate; for since there is absolutely no one standing guard, or fencing them in tightly, there would be nothing to hinder those who wish to walk through the midst. But if they happen in some way to be entrusted to a safe tiller, ^D then they also lose the fate of being subjected to the feet of the many, for a fence of course has been raised. For thus the paths that are in the midst shall cease. Thou shalt therefore be, he says, as a diligent tiller, blocking up the fences and the intermediate paths. For as long as the soul is unguarded, snoring in sloth, and consequently exposed to foul pleasures: it is similar to

^A a garden traversed by anyone and everyone. But when it shakes itself awake and leaps out of the snares of vices, and adopts the will to do good, and has, as it were, walled off its mind with a certain safeguard—I mean, with the fear of God—and has driven away from its consciousness the thoughts that once dominated it, which used to walk through the midst of it as if they had it under foot, and regarded it as a thing to be trampled upon because they held sway over it, then it shall be called a builder of fences.

It must be known, however, that wicked and opposing powers do sometimes ^B invade the miserable soul, giving birth to disgusting pleasures and leading it away tyrannically wherever they will, like walking through an uncultivated garden. But they will cease to trample upon it once the fence is raised which the divine fear within us erects. You will apply this teaching also to each of the holy mystagogues; for they have become builders of fences, securing the souls of those being instructed with exhortations to virtue, so that they might render the mind, in a way, inaccessible to the onslaughts of pleasures and to the idle chatter of those accustomed to babbling, who sell off the right word of faith, knowing neither what they say nor of what they confidently affirm.

Vers. 13, 14. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbaths, so as not to do your own pleasures on the holy day, and shall call the Sabbaths delicate, holy to your God, you shall not lift your foot to any work, nor speak a word in anger from your mouth, and you shall be trusting in the Lord; and he will lift you up upon the good things of the earth, and will feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.

The divine Paul, rejecting the shadow of the Law as ineffective, transfers it to its spiritual consideration. For you will not see him having accepted either the circumcision of the flesh or the rest of the Sabbath: but he is seen rather to preach both circumcision and sabbatizing in a spiritual sense. He says, in fact: « For he is not a Jew who is one in the manifest, nor is that which is in the manifest in the flesh circumcision; but he who is a Jew in the hidden, and circumcision of the heart in spirit, not in letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God » [C║D].

So far as the Sabbath is concerned, therefore, a sabbatizing is left for the people of God. For he who has entered into his rest, he himself also has rested from his works, just as God did from his own. If, therefore, anyone ceases from his own works, or rather, if he yields the command of his own will to the holy laws, then he sabbatizes spiritually and truly celebrates a holy day. This is also what the prophecy that lies in our hands shows forth to us. For, “If,” it says, “you turn away your foot from the Sabbaths, so as not to do your own pleasures on the holy day.” And the phrase, “turn away your foot from the Sabbaths,” is nothing else, as I judge, than that one should not do what he himself wants, nor

^A follow the paths of his own desires. For that the aim of human wills looks toward pleasure, the all-wise Paul will confirm, writing: “For the good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” It is necessary, therefore, that those who wish to be well-pleasing to God should struggle very youthfully against their own will, and, following His divine laws everywhere, should run the admirable path of righteousness. He calls Sabbaths "tender" which have nothing of self-will in them. ^B But a hard and stubborn mind is one that is unwilling to be subject to things that God wills; Israel, being such, He reproved, saying: “I know that thou art stubborn, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow is brass.” Therefore, a tractable, compliant, and yielding disposition makes the rest on the Sabbath tender to God—that is, the spiritual Sabbath-keeping, which they who wish to perform blamelessly do not lift their foot to work, that is to say, they do not walk in practical (worldly) activity, but rather celebrate a holy and useful rest, from—I say—most base, detestable, and God-hated deeds. He also wishes such men to be seen overcoming wrath and anger, and to have a door and a bolt upon their tongue. For, He says, you shall not speak a word in wrath from your mouth. He thus circumcises two grave and most troublesome things here, from which if anyone departs, he will be perfect before God. For one of the holy apostles said: “If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.” He who is superior to anger is surely also seemly, if it is true, as the contrary is also written: “A wrathful man is not seemly.” ^C God wishes those who keep the Sabbath intellectually, and holily, and tenderly, to be meek and possessed of every virtue, and commands them to trust not in wealth or worldly power, nor in the strength of bodies, nor in any other such things, which are like the grass of the field—fleeting and withering—but rather to lean upon the Lord, who is the giver and dispenser of all gladness. He shows that He will crown those who are accustomed to live in this way, whoever they may be, saying: “He will lift thee up on the good things of the earth, and will feed thee on the inheritance of Jacob thy father.” For the God of all promised the land of promise to the fathers of the Jews, and they were indeed introduced into it under the leadership of Jesus, the successor of Moses, the high priest of sacred rites. How then, through the verses set before us, does He promise that He will give it to them, as if they had not yet received the lot promised to the patriarch Jacob? Therefore, you should not understand this to refer to the inheritance perceived by the senses, or that which was given to them in times past by God to divine Jacob, Abraham, and Isaac, but rather to that which the Savior Himself designates for us, saying: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” ^D That these things refer to the end of what has been promised, He proves when He says: “For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.” For indeed, since these things are so, the fulfillment of these promises is expected.

^A It is not, then, concerning the sensible earth, or the one that was promised to them by God to be inherited by the blessed Jacob—or, rather, by Abraham and Isaac—but rather concerning that earth which the Savior Himself signified to us, saying: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” And that the things promised will be brought to pass entirely and in every way, He confirms by saying: “For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.” And it is impossible for the divine words to fall short; for God is truth.

Cap. LIX. Vers. 1-4. *Is not my hand strong enough to save? Or has His ear become heavy so that it cannot hear? But your sins create a separation between you and God. Because of your sins He has turned His face from you, so that He might not show mercy. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with sins. Your lips have spoken iniquity, and your tongue meditates upon injustice. No one speaks what is just, neither is there true judgment. They trust in vain things, and speak empty words.*

^B A little earlier, the person of God was introduced, saying to the divine prophet: “Cry out with strength, do not spare, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and announce to my people their iniquities, and to the house of Jacob their sins. They seek me day after day, and desire to know my ways, as a people that has performed righteousness, and has not forsaken the judgment of its God. They ask of me now a just judgment, and desire to approach God, saying: Why have we fasted, and you have not seen? We have humbled our souls, and you have not recognized it? For in the days of your fasts you find your own wills, and you oppress all who are subject to you; for judgments and quarrels you fast, and you strike the lowly with fists. Do you fast for Me? I have not chosen this fast, says the Lord.” ^C We said, interpreting the sense of the prophecy as best we could, that they had resisted those things which were handed down by the oracles of the most wise Moses, and had held uprightness of life in no place or estimation, but had practiced customary things, and had followed a way of life perverse and hateful to God. If at any time a war was announced, they would deliberate about abstinence from food, thinking that by this naked and solitary fasting—or abstinence—they would render the Judge propitious to themselves. Then, frustrated in their hope, they would grumble and say: “Why have we fasted, and you have not seen? We have humbled our souls, and you have not recognized it?” Observe, then, observe the divine prophet, how out of a most intense love for God he censures them and says: “Is not the hand of the Lord strong enough to save? Or has His ear become heavy so that it cannot hear?” For He says, the all-powerful right hand of the Lord has not grown weak, nor does He have an ear that is heavy and turned away, so as not to listen. “But your sins create a separation between you and Him.” Therefore, if anyone should remove the division, and take away that which acts as a wall separating one from the knowledge of God—that is to say, sin—the One who saves is not far off; rather, He will surely receive the supplications.

What sins, then, cause a division between God and those from the blood of Israel? He introduces them, saying: ^A “For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with sins. Your lips have spoken iniquity, and your tongue meditates injustice.” For they killed the holy prophets who were sent by God, and they even spoke against Him. Jeremiah accordingly said: “My strength has failed from those who curse me.” By adding these words, he now seems to cast reproach upon their impiety against Christ, when he says that their hands were polluted with blood. They were, in fact, killers of the Lord, and their lips spoke iniquity, and their tongue meditated injustice; for they did not cease to fight, to utter insults, to speak against Christ, and at one time to mock divine signs and lie about the divine magnificence, and at another time to accuse Him and say: “Take Him away, take Him away, crucify Him.” For this very reason, just as if Christ had suffered an unjust sentence, the prophet cries out with holy boldness: ^B “No one has spoken what is just, nor is there any true judgment. They trust in vain things, and speak empty words.” But what is this vain trust of theirs? For they thought that, having removed the heir from their midst, they would seize his inheritance. And while these wretched men were pouring out these empty words among themselves, they were being impious toward Him. Thus, the prophetic discourse brings an accusation of impiety toward Christ against those from the blood of Israel, or rather, [points out] that in no way could they be found to be upright, since they possess hands defiled with blood, and lips and a tongue that know how to meditate on nothing else but matters that look toward impiety, iniquity, and injustice, and that they have also turned out to be unjust judges, obviously taking bribes and being overcome by sordid gain. For it is said elsewhere: “How has the faithful city, Zion, full of judgment, become a harlot, in which justice lodged, but now murderers? Your silver is reprobate; your tavern-keepers mix wine with water; your princes are disobedient, companions of thieves, loving gifts, pursuing rewards, not judging for the orphans, and not attending to the judgment of the widow.” ^C

VERS. 4, 5. “For they labor, and bring forth iniquity. They have broken the eggs of asps, and weave a spider's web; And he who would eat of their eggs, breaking the putrid one, finds therein a basilisk. Their web shall not become a garment, nor shall they be clothed from the works of their hands.”

It is customary for divinely inspired Scripture to almost always call envy “labor.” This manner of speaking also possesses a degree of probability. For it wears down and consumes their hearts, and causes them to wither, as it were. The Psalmist says something similar about someone, or rather about the people of the Jews: “He has conceived labor, and has brought forth iniquity.” For having previously travailed with envy against Christ, they brought forth impiety toward Him, that is to say, iniquity; ^D for they might have been convicted, if not by anything else, by those very schemes—for they were not judging for the orphans, and they were pursuing the payback, and they were [index: entries preserved]

^A convicted by their own words, that "Let us bind the just one, because he is useless to us." We shall find, moreover, that in their assemblies they took counsel that was most absurd. For they were saying concerning the Savior of us all, Christ: "What are we doing, since this man performs many signs? If we let him alone, the Romans will come and take away our nation and our land." And one of them, Caiaphas—this man was the inventor of the impiety against Christ—said again: "You know nothing at all; it is profitable for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish." It is possible, therefore, to see most clearly from what has been said that having conceived trouble—that is, having suffered labor pangs in laboring for the evil against him—they brought forth iniquity. What then does the prophetic word signal to us in these things? "They broke the eggs of asps, and he who was about to eat of their eggs, upon breaking one, found a basilisk." For the Jews were thinking that these deliberations against Christ would turn out to a favorable end for them, and would be for the benefit of the whole nation. But they deviated from the goal, and something of the sort happened to them as is wont to happen to those who, out of great ^B senselessness, break the eggs of asps. For having broken them, they will find nothing else but a basilisk—and this is a brood of a serpent that is altogether baneful, and, in addition to this, a pestilence. Therefore, the conclusion of the daring deeds against Christ was unavailing to the Jews, or rather, it was the cause of their destruction. For the serpent, as it were, has emerged for them, and it is a manifest poisoning that ushers them toward the pit of Hades; and that the conspiracy against Christ became entirely useless, he shows immediately by another example. "For they weave a spider's web," he says. For ^C the spider—and by this I mean the small and most contemptible animal—weaves webs in the more obscure parts of houses, skillfully woven with thin filaments. But those [webs], though they are completed with the greatest labor, benefit them not at all; for they will not be a garment to the one who made them, but they are easily torn when it comes to being a covering, and they are inferior even to the art itself. Thus, he says, are also the fabrications of the Jews—clearly, those against Christ. For by weaving snares and stitching together false accusations, they were thinking, as I said, that by delivering him to the death of the flesh, they would achieve something of those things that are profitable to them, and would acquire rich protection and shield from their own attempts. But the end of what they hoped for fell to nothing ^D for them. For they have been stripped of the goodwill from above, and have cast away the protector—that is, Christ. For that protection will result from good works for those who wish to perform these things rightly, with God also granting this to them. But for the workers of evil, the things that come from them will not clothe them; but rather, they will be destitute of protection and covering, especially the divine one.

VERS. 6-8. For their works are works of iniquity, and their feet run to wickedness, swift to shed blood; their thoughts are thoughts of murder. Destruction and misery are in their ways.

^A And the way of peace they have not known. There shall be no judgment in their ways. For their paths are perverse, as they traverse them, and they have not known peace. Therefore judgment has departed from them.

He enumerates the individual faults of the Jews in detail, so that since they have been cast out from intimacy with Him, they may be convicted through a just judgment of having suffered this. "For the works of iniquity," he says, are "all their works," and in these words there is a summary and true refutation of their entire life. He runs through each of the charges in this way, stating that their feet run to evil, and are swift to shed blood, and that they have conceived thoughts of murder. Observe again with me, that although their transgressions are very many, he first mentions their readiness for the choice, I mean, the choice to commit murder. For he said that their feet run toward this, and are sharp, that is to say, swift, to receive thoughts concerning blood and murder. He also insists that there is destruction and misery in their ways, and that they do not know peace, that is, the way of peace. For the things they did impiously, and with excessive audacity, became causes of destruction and misery to them, or rather, to others at their hands. They were, moreover, ^B meddlesome in all things, and litigious, and suffered much from a spirit of contention; and the cause of this was their greed for gain and the taking of bribes. Hence, and quite justly, he says, "There is no judgment in their ways." By judgment, he means justice here, or that most lawful and blameless manner of life. For so did the divine David say concerning the precepts given through Moses: "Judgment and justice in Jacob Thou hast wrought" (Ps. CXVII, 121). Therefore, there is no rectitude, or justice, in their ways. For they are perverse, and they flee from peace, either by refusing to be at peace with others—or he calls "peace" here our Lord Jesus Christ, whom they did not want to know, digging for themselves the pit of destruction. For this reason, he says, "judgment has departed from them," that is, for this very cause justice has departed from them, that is, the knowledge of doing those things that procure the crown of justice for those who desire to perform them. But the Jews are devoid of all spiritual knowledge, and in a way it has ^C departed from their mind, [the ability] to know how to perform aright what is pleasing to God.

VERS. 9-11

After he has shown their detestable and most iniquitous life—for he said, "Their works are works of iniquity"—and has enumerated these in minute detail, ^D and what they are, and

^A in and of itself, it brings with it, of necessity, that punishment for them, and the retribution for their intolerable depravity, and the fruits of their inherent impiety. For the Jews were expecting illumination from Christ, hearing the holy prophets crying out manifestly: "Shine, shine, Jerusalem, for your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you." And then the eyes of the blind shall be opened; and as far as the prediction of the holy prophets is concerned, they were not destitute of hope. For they would speak among themselves, the presidents of the Jewish Synagogue: "Does the Christ come from Galilee? Does not the Scripture say that he comes from the seed of David, and from the village of Bethlehem?" And that Samaritan woman also openly confessed, addressing Christ ^B himself, the power of his advent. For she said: "We know that Messiah comes, who is called Christ. When he comes, he will announce everything to us." They were expecting, therefore, as I said, illumination from Christ: instead, all things turned out contrary to their hope. They did not accept the true light, but rather welcomed darkness into the habitations of their souls, becoming blind, and leaders of the blind, according to the voice of the Savior. Since, therefore, they were awaiting light, and expecting it, darkness befell them. For, expecting splendor, they dwelt in gloom. Again, he presents the meaning of the words in yet another way. For he who expects light, and walks in deep darkness—for this the expression "the noon," that is, darkness, signifies. Next, expressing the magnitude of the blindness which was in them: ^C They shall grope, he says, as blind men along a wall. For if we are accustomed to walk at times when the blindness of the eyes causes an affliction. And he says that even at noon, they fall as if at midnight. Commonly, he names the "noon" the midday part, when the circle of the sun occupies the middle of the heavens and sends down rays of most intense heat to the earth, and as if a great abundance of splendor collects everything; and "midnight," that is, the middle of the night, when deep darkness is poured out for all under heaven. At noon, therefore, he says, that is, in the most abundant light, divine—let it be understood—and of the mind, which illuminates the circle of the earth, by the benefit of Christ, the Savior of us all, they fall, being blind; for the Jews do not know where they are going. For they did not wish to ^D obey Christ, saying: "While you have the light, walk in the light, lest darkness seize you." They were seized, therefore, by darkness, since they could not endure to walk in the light. Moreover, they suffer another thing as well. For they go, he says, as if crushed by a heavy and intolerable disease. And they went as if a bear at once and a dove: nor is it possible that two distinct things be understood, of which the one might be called a bear, and the other a dove; but each one of them is in himself, according to

Commentary on Isaiah, Book V

^A "And instead of brass I will bring you gold, and instead of iron I will bring you silver, and instead of wood, I will bring you brass, and instead of stones, iron. And I will give your princes in peace, and your bishops in righteousness." He takes the materials as an example, of the sort that differ greatly among themselves. He ^B signifies, however, obliquely something spiritual and deep. For he wishes to say that all things will be converted to the better, and that the second things will surpass the first. For the instruction in the law will yield entirely to that through Christ—that is, to the evangelical decrees—and the interval between them will be as great as that which is between brass and gold. For brass has the appearance of gold, yet it is not gold; and iron is similar to silver, for it possesses something bright, yet it is not silver, but yields much to that which is superior. Therefore, one might be able to liken the instruction in the law to brass, and that through Christ to gold; and again, one might liken the power of the civic life in the law to iron, which possesses a moderate brightness, but that in Christ and the evangelical a life to silver; for it has the most perfect brightness, intelligibly. Hence, the all-wise Paul, even while he spoke of having possessed ^C a very great boast through the life in the law, and the knowledge of it, considered all things to be refuse, and wished to gain Christ, and the transcendence of his knowledge. Wood and stones indeed contribute to building; yet we will find the all-wise Paul likening the power of the initiation from certain people to these materials. "If any one," he says, "builds upon the foundation, wood, hay, stones, stubble." Since this is the case, we say that the teaching of the Scribes and Pharisees, or rather the instruction of the faithless Jews altogether, who do not understand at all the mystery of Christ, because they have not believed in him, might be likened perhaps to wood and stones, whereas that in Christ, and the evangelical, holds as much advantage as brass has over wood, and iron over stone. For the teachings and thoughts that were with them were easily broken, ^D but those of the people in Christ are solid, and as it were unbroken, together with being bright and precious. For the Jews fall into genealogies, and endless fables, expounding to the people under their hand, interweaving certain trifles and old-womanly chatter. But those who bear Christ in their mind teach those under their hand every way of holy artifice, and make those who approach them lovers of dogmatic accuracy, and workers of every virtue; for what is brought forward shows somehow immediately that the mind of the prophecy has this purpose. "For I will give," he says, "your princes in peace, and your bishops in righteousness." For as those first ones, he says, were cast out, the Savior of all raises up others, princes and bishops of the people, excelling in peace and righteousness. For they are at peace with God, those who maintain the things which please him, and who are crowned with the ornaments of righteousness.

^A For since he had said that they groan, he shows most beautifully what kind and how great their groaning will be. 834 They say that bears, if they are bereaved of their cubs by someone who has snatched them away, grieve heavily and are driven into a state of wild frenzy, roaming the mountains and glens, and leaping with unbridled fury upon those they happen to meet. And indeed, God, the Lord of all, signifies something of this kind through one of the holy prophets, saying concerning those who are of the blood of Israel: "I will meet them as a bear bereaved of her whelps," that is, cruelly and savagely. But doves, settling in their nests, murmur repeatedly and emit a sort of mournful voice. Such have the Jews become. For with their entire region devastated, along with the holy city, I mean Jerusalem, and the temple itself burned down, they are affected with a wild and beast-like mind against those who destroyed it; yet they mourn what has happened to them ^B like doves. For it is written: "And they shall be on the mountains like mourning doves." Or perhaps the prophetic word seems to signify something else here as well. For they will go, he says, like a bear and a dove, that is, they will live in a savagery of mind conjoined with folly. For the bear is an image or example of savagery, but the dove of simplicity and folly. For it was said concerning Israel by one of the holy prophets: "And Ephraim was a foolish dove, having no heart." And we shall find that the Jews are truly cruelly senseless. For the Christian prudence and gentleness is not in them; for they denied him who is the provider of wisdom and prudence, and who renders those who love him mild and gentle. Therefore, the prophet Jeremiah said concerning them, in one place: "Every man is senseless from knowledge," ^C and in another place again: "There is no wisdom in them, because they have rejected the word of the Lord."

"We have waited for judgment, and there is no salvation; it is far removed from us. For our iniquity is great before you, and our sins have stood against us; for our iniquities are in us, and we have known our unrighteousnesses. We have acted impiously, and have lied, and have departed from following our God. We have spoken unrighteous things, and have disobeyed; we have conceived, and have meditated from our heart words of unrighteousness, and we have turned back judgment, and justice has stood far ^D from us."

The speech of the holy prophets is always a lover of truth. For the Spirit of truth, which is Christ, speaks in them. For this reason, when they make mention of the rejection of the Jewish nation, and the wrath brought upon them because of their impiety toward Christ, they usefully call to mind also their future conversion in the last times of the age, and their calling in Christ through faith. Consequently, most appropriately, lest anyone should think that the Truth speaks falsely, he brings them in repenting, and having assumed their persona, he presents them as if...

^A saying to God: "We have waited for judgment, and there is none." By judgment they mean righteousness, namely, that which is through Christ, which they expected to receive; but it is not among them, for they have become hard and disobedient. Therefore he says that salvation has far departed from us. For our iniquity is great before you, and our sins are in us. For since they have fallen away entirely from Him who justifies through faith, they have also become far from the salvation that is from Him, not having cast off the defilements of sin, and not having blotted out the charges of iniquity, but having the stains from these things infused and instilled in them, as it were. For this reason, Christ addressed them, saying, "Amen, I say to you, if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." Thus, because they did not believe, they died in their sins. And because they were in many ways impious against Christ, they also offer a confession of these very things. For they say: "We have known our injustices, we have acted impiously, and we have lied, and we have departed from behind our God." For they acted impiously, not tolerably, by bearing false witness against the glory of the Savior of us all, Christ, and by departing from the desire to follow Him. They confess, moreover, that "we have spoken unjustly, and we have disobeyed; we have conceived and pondered from our heart unjust words." For they have spoken unjustly against Christ; sometimes by disparaging His glory and slandering His divine signs, they said that He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of the demons; ^B at other times, indeed, by giving birth from their own hearts to unjust words; for they accused Him, daring to call Him a Samaritan and possessed by a demon, a glutton and a wine-bibber. They also slandered Him before Pilate, saying, "He stirs up the crowds and forbids giving tribute to Caesar." Therefore they say: "We have departed from behind our God, we have spoken unjustly, and we have disobeyed; we have conceived and pondered from our heart words of injustice, and we have thrust judgment back, and righteousness has stood far off"—that is, we have cast righteousness behind us, and we have turned our backs on it, as it were, having turned away from it. For this reason, it has stood far off from us. ^C These, then, are the voices of those doing penance and seeking mercy from Christ. For it is a salutary thing to repent and to offer confessions of one's misdemeanors openly. For it is written, "Speak you your iniquities first, that you may be justified." And the divine Psalmist also said: "I have said, I will declare my iniquity against myself to the Lord; and You have forgiven the impiety of my heart."

Vers. 15-19. For truth has been consumed, and they could not walk in ways of uprightness. And truth has been taken away, and they have changed their mind, so as not to understand; and the Lord saw, and it did not please Him, because there was no judgment. And He saw, and there was no man, and He considered, and there was none who would support them. And He avenged them with His arm, and... ^D

established them with His mercy; for He did not utterly destroy Israel, but being a lover of humanity, He saved a remnant, and kept the promise made to their holy fathers true. And then the prophet says that He put on a breastplate, and put on a helmet and a garment of vengeance, as one who would render recompense, a reproach to the adversaries. And they who are from the west shall fear the name of the Lord, and they who are from the east, the glorious name. For the wrath of the Lord shall come like a violent river; it shall come with fury.

Having recorded what the Israelites will say at the time of their calling, asking from God the Father the grace of salvation through Christ, ^B the prophet again turns his speech to his own person and indicts the Israelites, or rather, he agrees and confirms and establishes that they have become wicked, and apostates, and enemies of the truth, saying: "Truth has been consumed in their ways," that is, it has all but been spent and utterly perished. For there was no truth whatsoever in their works, that is, the law of truth. For this reason they could not pass through by the straight path; for those who have altogether slipped from knowing how to conduct themselves in accordance with the law, and indeed according to that which seems to be the truth—and truth is called the law of God everywhere—how could they have come to the straight path of what is proper? Or how is it that they have not held paths that are crooked and distorted? By adding and saying: "Truth has been taken away, and they have changed their mind so as not to understand," he demonstrates that the truth has departed from them entirely, and they have altogether changed their mind so as not to understand those things which lead to salvation. These things, he says, the Lord saw, and it did not please Him. For there was no judgment among them, that is, righteous judgment and law. Then, "He looked," he says, "and there was no man; He considered, and there was no one who would support them." For since He is a lover of mercy, as God, He sometimes remits the sins for a whole city on account of one single person who is found to be righteous within it; and so He said through the voice of Jeremiah: "Run to and fro through the ways of Jerusalem, and seek in its squares, and see if you can find a man who practices faithfulness and loves mercy, and I will be propitious to it, says the Lord." ^C He also promised the Sodomites that He would remit the punishment by fire for them if they had five righteous men among them, that is, one righteous man in each city. "He considered, therefore," he says, "and there was no man; there was no one who would support them." For a righteous man, having calmed the divine anger and being alone sufficient to be able to appease God, ^D always supports those on whose behalf he offers his prayers. But since there was no one of such a kind, He avenged them, he says, with His arm, that is, with His power, and established them with His mercy; for He did not utterly destroy Israel, but being a lover of humanity, He saved a remnant, and kept the promise made to their holy fathers true. And then the prophet says that He put on a breastplate, and put on a helmet and a garment of vengeance, as one who would render recompense, a reproach to the adversaries, as if saying that the God of all has become like a commander against them, equipped with armor and skilled in the art of war. By these words he declares the onset of His wrath against them. For the Omnipotent opposed them, to whom it is justly due

^A “You are terrible, and who shall withstand You from Your wrath?” (Ps. LXXV, 8). When the punishments have been brought upon the Jews, those from the West and the East shall fear the glorious name. For He says, “It shall come, it shall come” against the unbelievers—the wrath—like a most violent river, sweeping away all things and having a rush of waters that cannot be withstood.

Vers. 20, 21. *And the deliverer shall come for the sake of Sion, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. And this is the covenant to them from me, says the Lord. My Spirit is upon you, and my words, which I have put in your mouth, shall not fail from your mouth and from the mouth of your seed.* For the Lord said, from now and unto the age. ^B

As in the preceding passages he had clearly made mention of the wrath to be brought upon the Jews—for they have put to death the Author of life and have acted impiously against the Savior and Redeemer of all—and then predicted that mercy and kindness would be given to them in later times (for he said, “And He avenged them with His arm, and established them by his mercy”), so here, too, he says that the fury of the Lord shall descend upon them like an unbearable and most rapid torrent. And he speaks words concerning the blessing to be given to them in the last times of the age: “And the deliverer shall come for the sake of Sion.” For the only-begotten Word of God has descended from the heavens ^C and humbled Himself unto emptiness, having become man, that He might call Israel before all others, and also save the multitude of the nations. The all-wise Paul will be a witness, saying, “For I say that Christ has been a minister of the circumcision, for the truth of God, to confirm the promises of the fathers, and that the nations might glorify God for His mercy” (Rom. XV, 8, 9). We remember also that Christ Himself says, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. XV, 24). The deliverer shall come, therefore, namely from sins, from death and corruption, from diabolical cruelty, from the deception and tyranny of the demons. “And this is the covenant to them from me, says the Lord.” Now that which is once decreed and promised by the will of God shall be absolutely and entirely firm, and shall not be denied. What therefore, he says, shall be the covenant from me? “My Spirit, and my words, which I have put in your mouth, shall not fail from now and unto the age.” ^D For it is the clearest demonstration that the human race has been redeemed, and indeed, before all others, those of Israel who have believed, having become participants of the Holy Spirit, through whom also the honor of adoption has been bestowed, and the tongue for speaking the word of faith, just as the all-wise Paul wrote: “For do not say,” he says, “in your heart, ‘Who shall ascend into heaven?’ that is, to bring Christ down; or, ‘Who shall descend into the abyss?’”

^A to bring Christ back from the dead. But what does Scripture say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, for if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” We have therefore received from God the word of faith, that is, the confession; it is a saving thing, and the cause of righteousness. For Christ justifies the ungodly in this way, He who also cried out long ago: “Behold, I have blotted out your iniquities like a cloud, and your sins like darkness.” Let this word of faith be in us continuously, and it shall not cease from our mouth; rather, we shall transmit it even to generations of generations. For in this way those who come after us will also be justified. For if Christ is always both God and Lord, the confession of faith in Him will never cease among those who have recognized His appearing.

Chapter 60. Verses 1-3. Arise, shine, Jerusalem: for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness and gloom shall cover the earth over the nations. But the Lord shall appear upon you, and his glory shall be seen in you. And kings shall walk in your light, and nations in your splendor.

As if the promise concerning the salvation of Israel at the appointed times had been given, the prophetic word here leaps for joy in a certain manner, as it were, and resounding with a great cry lifted up on high, it exclaims: “Shine, shine,” it says, “for your light has come.” Observe, however, how the prophet says that the divine light—that is, through Christ—is given by God to the Israelites before all others; that is, the light comes to you, as if showing as present Him who was long ago announced through the Law and the holy prophets, and who in the flesh shone upon mortals in the last times of the age. And he calls Him who has appeared the “glory of the Lord,” for Christ has risen like a certain sun, illuminating all things with divine and intelligible light, and casting the splendor of the true knowledge of God upon those who are more ready to embrace the faith. He is also the glory of God and Father, for in Him, and through Him, and with Him, He is glorified. For He depicts, as it were, in His own nature Him who begat Him. And inasmuch as we have known the Son, we contemplate also through Him and in Him the magnificence of the Father, and His incomparable glory, and the preeminence of His godlike dignities. Indeed, Christ said somewhere: “Father, glorify your Son, so that your Son may glorify You.” The glory of God and Father has therefore been seen in us. Then, having set Israel apart from all other nations, as being held in special honor and esteem by God and being His ^D portion and inheritance, he adds and says: “Behold, darkness and gloom shall cover the earth over the nations; but upon you the Lord shall appear.” He says this, as if Chri-

Christ having shone upon the world, the darkness of the nations was to be dispersed; for they were enlightened rather, and cast off the darkness of ancient error. But those who translated the divine Scripture often differ regarding the delivery of the times. Therefore, instead of “covers,” they have placed “shall cover.” For it is true that even when Christ had shone forth, and indeed before others upon those of Israel, the multitude of the nations was still held by darkness, ^A grace not yet having been transferred to them. Behold, therefore, he says, the whole earth of the nations is covered with darkness and gloom, that is, of ignorance and error. “But upon you the Lord shall appear”; for He shone, as I said, upon them, and first His glory was seen by them, through the exceptional magnitude of His works, signs, and wonders. For He performed miracles among them as God, at one time raising the dead from their tombs, at another time infusing light into the eyes of the blind, cleansing lepers with a word, rebuking demons with authority, and leaving out no method at all which was capable of providing assurance that He is truly God, and by nature the Son of God. “And kings,” he says, “shall walk in your light, and nations in your brightness.” The prophet ^B again connects the calling of the nations to the visitation of the Israelites, so that they might see that even if they themselves should dishonor the Redeemer by their disobedience, and spring away from the love for Him, to the destruction of their own head, He would not be destitute of worshippers, but rather would bring nations and kings through faith. For in the brightness given to you, he says, that is, in the enlightenment through Christ, kings and nations shall walk. But where shall they walk? Obviously to salvation through faith, to a glorious and blameless life, to knowing and confessing who is by nature and truly the Creator and Artificer of all. For they worshipped the creature instead of the Creator, and offered reverence to woods and stones. But after they were enlightened by the light ^C given to you, they too, he says, shall walk the straight and royal road, striking against none of the obstacles lying in their path, but as if in clear light and day, even though they were children of night and darkness, passing by all stumbling blocks.

VERS. 4-7. Lift up your eyes round about, and see your children gathered. Lo, your sons have come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried on shoulders. Then you shall see, and fear, and be amazed in your heart, because the wealth of the sea and of the nations and of the peoples shall be transferred to you, and flocks of camels shall come to you, and the camels of Midian and Ephah shall cover you. All who come from Sheba ^D shall come, bringing gold and frankincense, and they shall bring a precious stone, and shall announce the salvation of the Lord. And all the sheep of Kedar shall be gathered to you, and the rams of Nebaioth shall come to you, and they shall be offered as acceptable on my altar, and the house of my prayer shall be glorified. The word has a most bountiful and wise administration

^A It brings the gospel message of the calling of the Gentiles, and the union of the two peoples in Christ, and the transformation of the shadow of the law into spiritual worship. For all things are new in Christ, and the old things have passed away; and He Himself created the two peoples into one new man, making peace and reconciling both in one body to the Father. He makes the prediction of all these things, and he addresses the intelligible Jerusalem, that is to say, the Church, which was established from the beginning out of the Jews, for they were the first to believe: "Lift up your eyes round about, and see thy children gathered together. For behold, all thy sons come from afar, and thy daughters shall be carried on their shoulders." For as if the divine and evangelical proclamation were netting the world beneath the heavens, gathering those who believe from every nation and country, and inviting them as to a certain most fortified city unto the grace of faith, that is to say, unto the food of the saints—I mean the Church—he says such things, just as he also says elsewhere: "For it shall be," he says, "in the last days that the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, prepared on the tops of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills, and many nations shall come to it, and they shall say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will declare to us His way. And we will walk in it."

The children of Jerusalem, therefore, should not be called only those who are of the blood of Israel, but also all those who, from every nation and land, have been called through faith to the light of the truth. For as the all-wise Paul writes: "Not all they that are of Israel are Israel; nor because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children; but ^B the children of the promise are accounted for a seed." And it was said by God to the divinely inspired Abraham: "I have made thee a father of many nations." Therefore, as if a multitude were already gathered from the nations and worshiping Christ, he says, "Lift up thy eyes round about," that is, gaze upon the whole world, and from every part of it you will see your children running toward you; and they shall come, even if they were once far away. "Far" is spoken not in terms of place, but pertains to the soul and the disposition of the mind. Indeed, one of the holy prophets said concerning those who had fled from the knowledge of Him who is by nature and truly God: "Remember, you who are far from the Lord, and let Jerusalem come into your mind." And the all-wise Paul also wrote concerning Christ that "He came and preached peace to them that were far off, and to them that were near." And he writes to the Gentiles: "Be mindful that you, the Gentiles, who were called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision in the flesh, made by hand, that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the hope of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now you who were once far off, are made near in the blood of Christ." For those who do not know God at all, who is by nature and truly God, are said to be far off, and they are so, according ^C to [the] disposition and mind, as I said. But behold, he says, they are coming.

venient ^A, that is, their calling will not be long delayed, nor will it be put off, but they will immediately follow this evangelical preaching, and will approach God through faith, without any labor, and without any difficulty or sweat. For they shall be carried upon the shoulders. The form of the expression is figurative, taken as if from examples in our own life. For little infants are wont to be nurtured, and desire to rest in their mother's bosom and arms. Something of this kind happens to those who are called from the Greek error. For they are soothed by the mystagogues, and are not treated harshly, nor do they immediately walk along a rough path; but they are suckled as if by delicate instruction, and they gradually grow up into a perfect man, into the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ. For indeed he instructed the holy apostles to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and to teach them to observe all things whatsoever he had commanded them. And they, wishing to do this, using a method and the art of teaching, at first imposed nothing burdensome upon the believers. For they wrote to the nations: "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden, except that you should abstain from fornication, and things strangled, and blood." ^B And the most excellent Paul writes to some, that: "I gave you milk to drink, not meat. For you were not yet able, but neither are you able even now." But solid food is for the perfect, for those, I say, who by reason of habit have their senses of the heart trained to the discernment of good and evil. "Therefore, on the shoulders," he says, "shall thy sons and thy daughters be carried. Then shalt thou see and fear, and be amazed," that is, thou shalt marvel. For so, in a way, does the divine Habakkuk also say: "O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and I feared. I considered thy works, and was amazed." We ourselves are also, in a way, accustomed to say "I was amazed" when something happens contrary to expectation through someone. Therefore, he says, you will marvel; and what shall be the reason for this? "For the wealth of the sea, and of the nations and peoples, shall be turned to thee." He makes the prophecy clearer in these words, that the multitude of the nations shall be called in due time to the knowledge of the truth. For the region of the Jews was situated toward the clime that inclines to the southern part. But the areas that look to the north, and the sea, and the cities and regions situated therein, the flock of the nations had occupied. But since those who had departed from their pristine error achieved a turn for the better, having been called to the knowledge of the God who is by nature, through those who minister the Gospel of Christ: hence he says the wealth of the sea is to be transferred to the Church. But the wealth, as I said, of the cities and regions situated by the sea, consists of those who dwell in them. "And there shall come to thee," he says, "also flocks of camels, and the camels of Midian and Ephah shall cover thee." For ^C the Midianites and Ephah are nations bordering on Jerusalem, possessing contiguous regions. For they were abominable, and uncircumcised, and idolaters. But he indicates by these words that they also were to be called, and would bring forth fruit to God. ^D

For they were riders of camels, and procured their sustenance from fighting and from cattle-raising; and they were most especially hostile to those from Israel. But, he says, those who once wandered, profane and having no communion with the sanctified, will come—not indeed one by one, but as it were in flocks, and in great numbers, either riding on camels or bringing whatever they have, and honoring God with what is at hand. ^A *“And all they from Sheba shall come, bringing gold and frankincense, and shall bring a precious stone, and they shall preach the gospel of the salvation of the Lord.”* Sheba, again, is a region beyond the land of the Arabs, and closer to the Red Sea, from which the Queen of the Ethiopians, in the times of Solomon, came to Jerusalem. The region is very fertile in frankincense, gold, and Indian stones. They will come, therefore, he says, bringing forth fruit to the glory of God, and offering frankincense, gold, and stones—that is, the sweet fragrance of good works, intellectual splendor, and spiritual riches. *“And they shall preach the gospel of the salvation of the Lord.”* For very many of those who have been called from the nations, having become wise in heart and having received an understanding of the divine dogmas, have obtained the dignity of the authority to teach, and by preaching to others the salvation and grace from Christ, the Savior of us all, they have been crowned with the crown of nobility. ^B *“And the sheep of Kedar shall come to you, and the rams of Nebaioth, and they shall be brought as acceptable offerings upon my altar.”* Kedar and Nebaioth are once again other regions, fertile and rich in pasture, and having very many inhabitants, yet idolaters and wandering. But he says that even these shall bring rams and sheep, and all shall be acceptable upon my altar; even though, according to the law of Moses, it was not permitted for aliens to offer sacrifices to God; nor, if they had offered them, would He have held them as acceptable. But behold, God commands that these be acceptable upon the holy altars. For in Christ Jesus there is neither bond nor free, barbarian, Scythian, Greek, nor Jew, but all things and in all, Christ. For the two peoples have become one, He having broken down the middle wall of the partition and having abolished the law of commandments in dogmas. ^C Their sacrifices are therefore acceptable, as they approach God through faith in Christ. And the house of the prayer of God has been glorified. Consider again for me the profundity of the expression: for He no longer wants the Church to be called a house of sacrifices and smoke, as indeed the temple in Jerusalem was, but rather of prayer—that is, of spiritual worship. The divine David also chants somewhere and says: *“Let my prayer be directed as incense before you, the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.”* ^D It should also be noted that the Savior Himself made mention of this verse when He rebuked the commerce of the Jews and said: *“It is written: My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves.”* When, therefore, it was made a house of prayer, then it was also glorified.

^A

Verses 8, 9. Who are these who fly as clouds, and as doves with their young? The islands waited for me, and the ships of Tharsis in the beginning, to bring thy children from afar, and their silver and their gold with them, for the name of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee.

One may see here again the figure of the Church, or of the intelligible Jerusalem, introduced, lifting up her eyes round about, as she was commanded by God; then she marvels at the multitude ^B of those running to her, and the people gathered by faith, a multitude beyond all numbering. "Who are these," he says, "who fly as clouds, and as doves with their young?" For they are caught by the net of faith—not only the aged, but young people with them, and fathers with their sons, and mothers with their daughters. Therefore, the net of the evangelical preaching is spread out against every age. And this, I think, is what is written in the book of Psalms: "Young men and maidens, old men with the younger, let them praise the name of the Lord." 3 He says they fly, either because they do not go to her sluggishly or remissly, but as birds and racers; or because, having laid aside the earthly and lowly affection, they strain upward in a certain way, and as clouds from the sea, leaping up and emerging from the tumult and worldly delights, they fly on high and swim upward towards the city that is above, hurrying along.

The Church, therefore, marvelling at the concourse from every region by faith, ^C reveals the cause of the matter, enticing and netting them again, and says: "The islands waited for me, and the ships of Tharsis, to bring thy children from afar, and their silver and gold with them." You will understand "islands" here not simply as the islands alone—for this is silly—nor the ships of Tharsis themselves, but rather those who dwell in them, or those who embark on the islands. Divine Scripture often calls the Indies "Tharsis"; they say also that there is a famous city in Cyprus named Tharsis. Since, therefore, the islands, he says, and those who come from the region of the Indians waited for me—that is, submitted to the yoke I placed upon them—for this reason the multitude of believers flows together from everywhere. For ^D men come even from the barbarian land itself, not a few, bearing the name of Christ, and bringing forth fruit for his glory, which that region is able to produce. And they say that it is fertile in gold and silver. But they do not offer these according to the ancient custom to certain lifeless idols and herds of demons, but because the name of the Lord had become holy among them, and the Holy One of Israel glorious. And the Lord is not one, and the Holy One of Israel another in return, but the Lord is one and the same, and holy, and glorified. It must be known, however, that those cities which are round about, desolate and vast for the most part and uninhabited, are also called islands. And if they be called

to sustain the Lord, that is, to serve Him, you will understand them to be those who inhabit inaccessible and desolate regions and cities in great solitude, who will come through faith and bear fruit for Christ in gold and silver—not simply that material, but as it were those things which in us are precious and illustrious and worthy of being highly esteemed, namely the splendor of all the virtues. For these are gifts for God, these are the bright and admirable votive offerings of spiritual worship. It is also written in the book of Psalms concerning Christ, the Saviour of us all, that "the kings of Tharsis and the islands shall bring presents: the kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring gifts: and all the kings of the earth shall adore him, all nations shall serve him." ^A

Vers. 10. And aliens shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall assist thee.

This too is an extraordinary work of divine power. For the walls and defenses that preserve the children of the Church may be understood as the right and irreprehensible faith, and the splendor of works adorned with the beauty of all the virtues. Moreover, the instructors of dogmatic and moral knowledge, and thus the teachers of the divine proclamations, can be all those ministers who are called to this by divine decree. And the first fruits of this sacred preaching were the divine disciples for us, and many after them, who followed in their footsteps by preaching the word, not only from the Jews, but also from the ranks of the Greeks, who, having been well instructed in secular wisdom and endowed with the faculty of speech, have turned out to be excellent instructors, elegantly building up the firm word of faith in the souls of the initiated, and planting in them an admirable conscience for living well. ^B Therefore, they were aliens, because they were not of the blood of Israel according to the flesh, but wise architects, as the divine Paul speaks, who knew well how to lay the foundation of Christ in us, namely through faith and the instruction of good things. This, I think, is the meaning of: "And aliens shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall assist thee." And whose kings? Without doubt, the kings of the aliens. By "kings" he means either the princes and leaders of the peoples who assist the Church of Christ, guarding her as with a bodyguard, and protecting her children like a shield, and repelling every onslaught of enemies, both visible and invisible; or, certainly, those adorned with supreme honors and holding the royal scepter, who also have assisted the Church. "Assist" in this place signifies obedience. For they yield to the divine and sacrosanct prophecies, and hold the preaching of the Church in the highest esteem. ^{C D}

Vers. 11, 12. For because of my wrath I struck thee, and because of mercy I have loved thee. And thy gates shall be opened continually; day and night they shall not be shut, that

^A they may bring to thee the power of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. For the Gentiles and the kings that will not serve thee shall perish, and the Gentiles shall be laid waste. For since, he says, you were found to be entangled in very many and intolerable vices, you have undergone a proportionate punishment. For it was necessary that, being such as you were, you should endure this wrath and penalty. But since mercy was again to be imparted to you, as by a good and merciful Lord and God, it has been imparted, and I shall drive away all wrath. What then will follow? What shall be given, after these harsh things have ceased? "Thy gates," he says, "shall be opened continually; day and night, and they shall not be shut." ^B By these words he seems to promise them peace and the tranquility that flows from it. For cities that suspect some incursion of enemies do not always have their gates wide open, but only when time and necessity so require, and even during the day this is done with difficulty and not without fear. But those which are delivered from all such fear, and do not expect to suffer anything of the sort, throw them open to those who enter, and some even do this at night. If, therefore, God promises them peace and an abundance of prosperity, there will surely be a continuous throng of those arriving, and, as it were, a perpetual entry of those who are drawn in a manner through faith to the knowledge of Christ, so that the gates appear to be thrown open, and there is no time at which it is appropriate for them to be closed, not only for those of lowly and humble fortune who yield to the yoke of a kingdom, but also for those who hold sway over all.

Moreover, it is possible from the very events to see the power of this prophecy extending even to the present day. For the Church receives at all times those who desire to believe, ^C and she closes the way toward this for no one who hastens to it; but it is free and permitted for those who wish, at any time they may choose, with no one to hinder them, to be led to the light of truth. And God and the Father leads all to the knowledge of the Son, through whom, and in whom, and with whom He is glorified. And this He Himself has made known to us, saying: "No one can come to me, unless my Father who sent me shall draw him." He mentions that the power of the Gentiles is to be brought in, so that you might not understand it, as I said, to mean only those who are in a state of meanness and subjection, but also those who are in power and are conspicuous for the glory of this life. He adds furthermore: "And the Gentiles and the kings who will not serve thee shall perish, and they shall be laid waste." ^D For those who are unbelieving, and strangers to the mysteries, and partakers not of the salvation which is through Christ, whether they be among the illustrious or the more obscure, will fall into the pit of Hades and into the snare of death. For they will die in their own sins and will undergo the most extreme punishment of all.

Vers. 13. And the glory of Libanus shall come to thee; in the cypress, and in the pine, and in the cedar, to glorify my holy place. Libanus is a mountain of Phoenicia, thick with cedars, cypresses, and pines, and even with the trees of frankincense. Admirable...

^A for this reason is the aforementioned mountain, as it possesses the greatest abundance of wood, and abounds in trees that are most tall and most fragrant. This glory, therefore, he says, shall be given to thee, understood clearly and spiritually. For the Church of Christ nurtures very many and illustrious heads of saints, who are both lofty in virtue and most fragrant, for they breathe sweetly of Christ. There is present in them also this, that they are subject to no corruption of carnal affection, just as the pine and the cedar are not corrupted. It is the custom of divinely inspired Scripture to sometimes liken the multitude of the saints to trees of this kind. Since God again said through the voice of Isaiah: “And I will produce water in the wilderness, and rivers in a land without water. I will place in the waterless land the cedar, and the box tree, and the myrtle, and the cypress, and the poplar.” By the dry and waterless land he compares the nations. For there was not among them the divine Word capable of giving life and bringing about growth and increase in piety and in the knowledge of God; but there have come to be among them cedar and box and myrtle and cypress and poplar, that is, trees that are tall and worthy of admiration, of which even the divine Psalmist makes mention, saying: “Bread strengthens the heart of man; the trees of the field shall be satisfied, and the cedars of Libanus which thou hast planted.” For, as the all-wise Paul writes: “We are God's tillage.” This glory of Libanus, therefore, he says, shall be given to thee, that is, thou shalt be seen to be ornamented with many and admirable heads of saints. And this will be, in order that my holy place may be glorified. For the boast of the Churches ^C indeed consists of those who have attained to the heights of the virtues, and have nothing lowly, that is, earthly, nor cast down to the ground in their mind by thinking the things of the flesh, but rather striving on high and minding the things above, and as it were departing from the earth, and walking upon it, yet having their citizenship in the heavens.

VERS. 14. And they shall come to thee trembling, the sons of them that humbled thee, and provoked thee; and thou shalt be called the city of the Lord, Sion of the Holy One of Israel.

The outcome of events itself clearly displays the power of the prophecy, not deviating from the truth. For Jerusalem, having raged furiously against the Savior of all, our Lord Jesus Christ, became humbled, cast out from His fellowship, having fallen from the hope in Him, and abandoned by mercy from above; it fell into the hands of enemies who, having laid waste the whole of Judæa, even burned that divine and celebrated temple. But after the remnant was saved through God having had compassion (for countless Israelites believed in Christ), it was named the Church of Christ, and became as it were a mother of the nations. For the sons of those who once humbled her, that is, those who rule over earthly matters and who come into the successions of sceptres thereby, hold the Church in veneration, and trembling—that is, solicitously and with the fear of God—they approach her. And she has been called

^A the city of the Lord, Zion of the Holy One of Israel. For the Church is the city of God, and the inspired David teaches this when addressing her: "Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God!" And the Lord of all says somewhere through the lyre of the Psalmist: "Here will I dwell, because I have chosen it; I will surely bless her provision, I will satisfy her poor with bread, and I will clothe her priests with salvation." And if someone should wish to say that the sons of the kings who once persecuted the Church now approach her with honor and fear, and receive her as a divine city, he does not wander from the point. For we see the matter brought to this outcome by actual examples.

^B VERSE 15, 16. In that thou hast been forsaken and hated, and there was no one to help thee. And I will make thee an eternal exultation, a joy to generations of generations. And thou shalt suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt eat the wealth of kings. And thou shalt know that I am the Lord who saves thee, and the Redeemer, the God of Israel.

"For thou wast," he says, "forsaken, and hated, and there was no one to help." This was the cause of your humiliation. For you had raged against him who is able to exalt and to preserve your prosperity unshaken; but there was no one to reach out an auxiliary hand, because you were hateful to God. For you did not rage against one placed in a servile condition or performing the task of a minister, but against the King and Lord of all himself. But since, once having endured this humiliation, these vexations will pass away, ^C and he will restore you to your former state by a later benefit. For just as it was right for you as an inobedient one to be punished by the just sentence of God, so it is fitting that you should find mercy upon converting. "I will make you, therefore," he says, "an eternal exultation." For there is nothing sad in the Church of Christ. For where there is altogether hope of incorruption, and eternal life, and everlasting glory, and the kingdom of heaven, how could there be a place for sadness? "And thou shalt suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt eat the wealth of kings." To some, the prophetic meaning seems to teach such a thing: that many from the flock and number of the Greeks, ^D learned in the divinely inspired Scriptures and endowed with understanding of dogmatic expertise, will be teachers of the Jewish Synagogue. But this speech appears to tend elsewhere, and not to go this way and progress of meaning, but rather to wish to signify that they are to be enriched by fruit offerings and royal gifts of the Gentiles. And the experience of events itself shows this to be true. Having finished these things thus, he says, "I, the Lord, am he who saves you." For as the prophet Isaiah says: "Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have been as Sodom, and we would have been likened to Gomorrah." For by the grace and philanthropy of God, the remnant of Israel has been saved, so that the nation born of the holy fathers might not perish entirely.

ON ISAIAH BOOK V. VOLUME IV.

"And for bronze I will bring you gold, and for iron I will bring you silver, and for wood I will bring you bronze, and for stones iron. And I will give your rulers in peace, and your bishops in justice."

^A He takes these materials by way of examples, which differ greatly from one another. He signifies in an oblique way something spiritual and profound. For he wishes to say that all things shall be changed for the better, and that the second things will surpass the first. For the instruction in the law will certainly yield to that which is through Christ, that is, to the evangelical decrees, and the interval will be as great as that which exists between bronze and gold. For bronze has the appearance of gold, but it is not gold; and iron has the appearance of silver, for it possesses a certain brightness, but it is not silver, but rather yields much to that which is superior. Therefore, one could compare the instruction in the law to bronze, but that which is through Christ to gold; and again one could compare the power of the civic life under the law to iron, which possesses a certain moderate splendor, but the life in Christ and the evangelical life to silver rather, for it possesses a most perfect splendor, intellectually. ^B Thus, the all-wise Paul, even though he said that he had much in which to boast on account of the life he had lived under the law and the knowledge thereof, nevertheless counted all things as refuse, and wished to gain Christ and the surpassing knowledge of him. Wood and stones are indeed useful for building; and we shall find the all-wise Paul comparing the power of the mystical initiation of certain people to these materials. "For if anyone," he says, "builds upon the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw" (1 Cor. 3:12).

Since this is the case, we assert that the teaching of the Scribes and Pharisees, or rather the interpretation of the unbelieving Jews as a whole, who do not understand the mystery of Christ at all, as they have not even believed in him, might be compared to wood and stones, whereas that which is in Christ and evangelical is as much better as bronze is to wood, and iron to stone. For the doctrines and inventions of the former were fragile; but those which are in Christ are solid and unbreakable, illustrious also and magnificent. ^C For the Jews fall into genealogies and infinite fables, explaining them to the people under their charge, weaving in certain trifles and old wives' tales. But those who bear Christ in their mind teach those under their charge every path of holy skill, and make them students of dogmatic precision, and workers of every virtue, whoever approaches them. The text which follows immediately demonstrates that this is the goal of the prophecy's intent. "For I will give," he says, "your rulers in peace, and your bishops in justice." For as though the first ones had been cast out, the Savior of all raises up other rulers and bishops of the peoples, distinguished in peace and justice. For they have peace with God, those who study to understand the things that are pleasing to Him, and who have been crowned with the ornaments of justice. The prophet Isaiah said something of this kind elsewhere, or rather God said it through the prophet, to the mother of ^D Judea...

of the nations, I say Jerusalem: “And I will turn my hand upon thee, and I will purge thee to be pure; and I will destroy the unfaithful, and I will remove all the wicked from thee, and I will humble all the proud; and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counselors as from the beginning. And after these things thou shalt be called the city of justice, the faithful metropolis, Sion.” ^A Indeed, even the Savior himself rebukes the leaders of the Jews, saying: “Amen, amen I say to you, the kingdom of heaven will be taken from you, and it will be given to a nation producing its fruits.”

TOMUS V.

VERS. 18. *And injustice shall no longer be heard in thy land, nor bruising, nor misery in thy borders; but thy walls shall be called salvation, and thy gates, sculpture.*

The discourse carries great probability. For if its princes excel in peace, and its bishops in the praises of justice, it will always be of avail also among those who are subject to them, so that they may strive to pass their life in every justice and Christian piety. “There shall not be,” he says, “bruising in thy borders.” He calls “bruising” the violence against the submissive and the infirm. For such men are easily exposed to incursions, and they lie ready most promptly to those who wish to plunder them, as if they were prey. ^B But the leaders of the Jewish Synagogue were of old unjust and violent; and resisting the divine laws, they issued perverse judgments in every matter. Therefore, the sacred Scriptures frequently accuse them, as those who stumbled against this stone with the greatest impiety, so that they were seen to be hindered by intolerable crimes. For somewhere it says: “Its leaders judged for gifts, and its prophets prophesied for money.” The divine David also chants: “Bruising and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes.” ^C The God of all also rebuked those who fasted, saying thus: “For in the days of your fasts, you find your own wills, and you afflict all your subjects with judgment and fightings; you fast and you strike the humble with fists.” Furthermore, by the voice of Isaiah: “They coveted fields, and plundered orphans, and occupied houses, and plundered a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.” But after these ceased to be, and the choir of the holy apostles was raised up in their place; and those who, following after them, are eager to follow in their footsteps, rightly handle the word of truth, and become the best instructors of the subject people: hence, not without cause does it say that injustice shall no longer be heard in their land, nor yet bruising nor misery; but that its walls shall be called salvation, and its gates sculpture. By walls, I think, it means the holy ^D

^A pedagogues, who fortify the Church with the doctrines of dogmatic and moral precepts, so that it might be impregnable to enemies, whether they be visible or invisible. The same could also be the gates, as they employ introductory discourse and, through faith, bring into the knowledge of the truth those who were until then outside it. As for the sculpture, it is because their discourse is exceedingly beautiful and elegant, and as if turned on a lathe for truth; for everything that is sculpted is comely. The Seventy have given this interpretation, but other translators have placed "Jesus" instead of "sculpture." This is also true. For He is indeed "fairer in beauty than the children of men," and is so named and exists, and we possess Him as walls and gates. He fortifies us with ^B ineffable power and with the assistance of the holy angels. "For He shall give charge," He says, "to His angels concerning you, to keep you in all your ways," and, "The angel of the Lord shall encamp round about them that fear Him, and shall deliver them." We come through Him to the knowledge of the Father, and He has become for this purpose both door, and gate, and way. He said, therefore, "I am the door, and the way, and no one comes to the Father except through Me." He is also the sculpture, that is, the form and image of the One who begat Him, and the character of His substance, and the image and radiance of His glory.

VERSES 19, 20.

Some, according to the sense of these words, wish to lead us to understand something of this kind. For in the last times of the age, when those who lie in the earth have been raised, and our Savior Christ has descended from heaven with the holy angels in the glory of the Father, ^C the splendor of the elements shall be rendered void, and we look for new heavens and a new earth and His promises, according to that which is written. Our Savior also said something to this effect, that "In those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light." For the glory of the Savior itself shall suffice for the illumination of the saints. But so that the words set forth may appear to harmonize with the meaning of the preceding verses, while we indeed praise this interpretation, we say that something else is signified by the verses set forth. For the solar light, and furthermore the lunar, is a very useful and necessary thing for the eyes of the body; but by night the light of the sun is withdrawn, and by day that of the moon. For they shine by alternating turns. But the divine and intelligible light, which the Savior of all sends into the hearts of ^D those who believe through the Holy Spirit,

will be inextinguishable, incomprehensible, and ever-shining, so that there is no need for sun or moon for the illumination of each person's mind or restoration of sight. For the mind is not illuminated by sensible light, but is content rather with the illumination and brightness of the Holy Spirit so that it may be able to behold the glory of Christ, and the degree of likeness it possesses to Him who begot it—by nature, obviously—and, quite certainly, that it may know the way of the best life. Therefore, the Savior has become for us an eternal light, and He makes this clear to us, saying: "I am the light of the world," and again: "When I am in the world, I am the light of the world." "He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

^B VERSE 21, 22. *And the days of your mourning will be fulfilled, and your people shall all be righteous, and they shall inherit the land for eternity, guarding the planting, the work of his hands for glory. The little one shall become thousands, and the least one a great nation. I, the Lord, will gather them in time.*

Those who say that the time of the consummation is indicated by the fact that the solar, or rather the lunar, light will no longer perform its function but will be drawn back, so that our Lord may become the eternal light, say that for those who mourn now—whom the Savior says will also be comforted—there will be an end of mourning at that time. For they will cease to labor and to be worn down by cares, and they will obtain eternal rewards. For this, I think, is what it means to be filled with consolation. But because the sequence of this treatise and these contemplations must follow from what has preceded, we say that for those who persist and lie in sins, sadness is appropriate and most fitting. For they expect not honors and crowns and consolation from God, but rather punishment, and fire, and darkness. But those who do good rejoice in hope, as the all-wise Paul says; for their goodness is succeeded by glory and delight for infinite ages. ^C But when someone who has been occupied with very many sins has turned to the Lord, and then has been justified through faith, and has obtained forgiveness for his transgressions, and has expected to receive the honors destined for the saints, then indeed the days of his mourning shall cease, and he shall desist from sweat and sadness. And as if to confirm this meaning, the passage that follows says: "And your people shall all be righteous," that is, all the people who follow you shall be justified; and the discourse is as though directed to the Church. But Christ justifies the ungodly by grace and his love for mankind, and He releases those who are convicted of every transgression. For he has indicated who is the provider of these things when he says: "Guarding the planting, the works of his hands for glory." For we are a planting of the tree of the Savior of us all, Christ, and his work; for we who were wild olives have been grafted into the good olive tree, with the Savior ^D himself, so to speak, working upon us.

^A For not a messenger, nor an angel, but the Lord himself has saved us. He says, therefore: "I who speak, am here." ^B "And it shall be," he says, "that the small one will become thousands, and the puny one a great nation." For now—that is, in this age—the glory of the saints is hidden, and if one looks at the pride of the world, they seem to be the least of all, having no manifest glory. But when Christ shines forth again from the heavens, then even he who was considered least and small will become a great nation. For he will lead peoples, and he will rule over many, inasmuch as he has finished a praiseworthy course in this life. And this can be seen from what Christ said; for, speaking to the apostles, he says, "When the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of his glory, then you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Moreover, in the distribution of the talents, we find him saying: "Be over ten cities," and to others he gives a smaller portion, "Be, indeed," he says, "over five cities," offering them a reward that is in every way equal to their rectitude and distributing to each the honor of the talents that is appropriate. ^C Therefore, the saints, rejoicing in this very thing, say: "He has subjected peoples under us, and nations under our feet." Having been considered the least in this life, they were then amplified into thousands, and into a great nation. "I," he says, "the Lord of all, will gather them in due time," namely, at the coming from the heavens. For then the saints will enjoy every good thing, who, as the all-wise Paul says, will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord, ^D enjoying endless honors.

CHAP. LXI. VERS. 1-3.

He who in what went before said concerning those who are to be called by faith: “I, the Lord, will gather them in due time,” as though the time were already present in which he promised to gather them, and as one who had already become man, and had assumed our likeness, and had lowered himself to emptiness, says: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me." Although, existing by nature as God, the Only-Begotten is the Saint of saints and he himself sanctifies all creation, inasmuch as he is begotten of the holy Father, and [his] Spirit proceeds from him and he infuses it into the powers above as his own, and furthermore into those who have acknowledged his manifestation. How, then, was he sanctified? For since he is the same God and man, on the one hand he gives the Spirit to creation according to his Divinity, but on the other hand he receives it from God and

the Father, according to his humanity. We call this the anointing ^A. He makes the cause of the Incarnation clear. For having said that it was from the Father, he added necessarily: "On account of which he has anointed me, he has sent me to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and moreover to grant the blind recovery of sight, and at the same time to call the day of recompense," many manifest proofs of the Only-Begotten’s humanity appeared at once. For in order that he might win over everything under heaven, and bring those who were in all the world to God and the Father, having transformed all things for the better, and having as it were renewed the face of the earth, he took the form of a servant, even though he was the Lord of all. He brought glad tidings to the poor, and therefore he says he was sent. The poor may be, or may be understood as, those who suffer from the need of every good thing, and have no hope, and are atheists in the world, according to what is written. These would be those from the Gentiles, who, having been enriched by faith in him, have gained the divine and heavenly treasure, namely, the evangelical and saving preaching, through which they have become both participants of the kingdom of heaven, and partakers of the saints, and heirs of those things which neither mind nor speech can grasp. "For the eye," he says, "did not see, and the ear did not hear, and it did not ascend into the heart of man, those things which God has prepared for those who love him." Or perhaps the discourse here also says that ^B to the poor in spirit has been given the abundant supply of gifts through the ministry of Christ. He calls those "broken-hearted" who have a weak and easily shattered mind, and who are unable to withstand the incursions of the passions, but have succumbed to them in such a way that they seem to be captives. To these he promises healing and medicine, and to those who are blind he also gives recovery of sight. For those who worship creation, and say to the wood, "You are my father," and to the stone, "You begat me," and then did not know him who is by nature and truly God, how would they not be blind, and have a heart stripped of divine and intelligible light? Into them the Father sends the light of the true knowledge of God. For they were called through faith, and knew him, or rather were known by him; and being children of night and darkness, they have become children of light; for the day has shone upon them, and the Sun of righteousness has risen, and the bright Morning Star has appeared. It is no detriments at all to apply all these things spoken to those who are sprung from the blood of Israel. For they too were poor, and broken-hearted, and as it were captives, and darkened. "For there was no one on earth who did good, there was not even one, but all turned aside, together they became corrupt." But Christ came, and before others announced to the Israelites the glad and noble deeds of his presence: furthermore, that he might also call the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of recompense.

^A And again: «When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself.» For he rose again on the third day, having trampled down the power of death. Then he addressed his holy disciples, saying: «All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth; go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.» That year is, therefore, beyond any doubt acceptable, in which we were admitted and obtained kinship with him, having washed away sin through holy baptism, and having become partakers of his divine nature through the participation of the Holy Spirit. Or rather, the acceptable year is that in which he manifested his glory by an ineffable miracle; for we gladly grasped the time of salvation from him, which the all-wise Paul also indicated, saying: «Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.» And we say that the time of his sojourn is none the less the day of recompense, in which recompense is given by him to those who believe in him through the promise that hope embraces.

What I mean is this: the conduct of life according to the Mosaic law was, for those willing to practice it correctly and blamelessly, a procurer of happiness in this present life; but it did not have the promise of future goods attached to it, but ^B preached only the prosperity of this life; for it commanded one to abstain from offenses, exclaiming: «Do not die before your time.» And to children it said: «Honor your father and your mother, that it may be well with you, and that you may live long upon the earth.» Sometimes, indeed, it also promised an abundance of fruits, rest from war, the breadth of peace, and the tranquility of soul following therefrom. For it said through the voice of Zechariah: «Jerusalem shall be inhabited fruitfully by the multitude of men and beasts that are in it, and I will be to it, says the Lord, a wall of fire round about, and I will be glory in its midst.» And again: «There shall yet sit old men in the streets of Jerusalem, each man having his staff in his hand for the multitude of days, and the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.» ^C The Mosaic law, therefore, promised to the ancients the enjoyment of temporal rewards, but the divine and saving proclamation promises rewards in the future time. «For blessed,» he says, «are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.» And if anyone should wish to investigate diligently the beatitudes that follow, he will find the promised rewards to be bright and great with God. ^D But if it should seem otherwise to someone to interpret the recompense made by Christ as referring to the time of his advent, he will not wander from the mark. For in times past, the most profane Satan acted insolently against mortals and occupied the world, separated and torn away, I say, from the true knowledge of God—cast as it were into a pit of sin—and made it a worshiper of himself and the powers of evil with him. Therefore he said: «I will take hold of the whole world with my hand like a nest, and I will gather up the abandoned eggs; and there is none who can escape me or speak against me.»

But he was caught having conceived vain hopes concerning this matter. For Christ was raised up against him and wrestled on our behalf, and He exacted from him the punishments for his impiety against us. For He demolished all of his strength, and cast him out from his tyranny over us, and having dragged him down into Tartarus with the chains of darkness, as it is written, ^A He delivered him to be kept in judgment for the great day, both him and the others who became apostates with him. The divine David therefore chants as if in the person of the redeemed, and says: «I will confess to thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will recount all thy wondrous works. I will be glad and exult in thee; I will sing to thy name, O Most High, because thou hast executed my judgment and my cause. Thou hast sat upon the throne, O thou who judgest righteousness; thou hast rebuked the nations, and the ungodly man has perished; thou hast blotted out his name for ever and ever.» ^B Elsewhere, too, he speaks again of him in this way: «His sin shall be sought, and it shall not be found.» The Savior himself also says: «Now is the judgment of this world; now the prince of this world shall be cast out.» The time of retribution, therefore, is also in this way, in that Christ has shone upon the world. He says that He came to comfort all that mourn in Sion, to give them glory for ashes, the oil of gladness, and a garment of glory for a spirit of heaviness. For there were in former times among the Jews men who were holy, learned in the law, and explorers and experts in the prophetic proclamations. ^C When they saw that those of Israelite blood had made light of the Mosaic precepts and had turned to their own desires, and were teaching as doctrines the commandments of men, and were living a life most contrary to the law and shameful, they were affected with that sadness which is fitting for saints, and they were awaiting the redemption through Christ. For they were not ignorant, being inspired by the Spirit, of Him who justifies the ungodly by faith, and who, by a grace that forgets injuries, cleanses those who are defiled. For the just Simeon, when he had taken the infant Christ into his arms, prayed, saying: «Now lettest thou thy servant depart, O Lord, according to thy word, in peace; for my eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all ^D peoples; a light for the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.» We also find the divine Zacharias, John’s father, saying: «Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and wrought redemption for his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us.» Philip also brought the good news to Nathanael, saying: «Him of whom Moses wrote in the law, and the prophets, we have found, Jesus the son of Joseph, of Nazareth.» The most wise Paul also writes: «Great is my sadness, and continuous is the pain of my heart for my brethren, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh.» Therefore, comfort was given to those who mourn in Sion through Christ, and glory in place of ashes. For they ceased to mourn and weep for her, and began to have joy through Christ, preaching and

announcing the Gospel. ^A “Anointing of gladness was given to them in place of mourning, and a garment of glory in place of a spirit of heaviness.” By anointing here he means that which is cheerful, that is, hilarity and joy in place of mourning and weeping; and by a garment, that is, a stole and robe, in place of a spirit of heaviness, that is, in place of that ancient dejection and contraction of soul. For they were glorified who formerly lamented her, and who were affected with sadness on her behalf. But how were they glorified? Because they were appointed her preceptors and teachers. And this is that which was said to her through the lyre of the Psalmist: “In place of thy fathers, sons were born to thee.” For the most wise disciples, though they were children of the Jewish Synagogue, became fathers. The most wise Paul surely writes: “For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel.” They were indeed appointed in the place of fathers, being her children. Now that the divine disciples had a garment of glory from God can be clear, as Christ says to them in one place: “Heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead;” and in another place: “You are the light of the world.”

^B Vers. 4. And they shall be called generations of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for glory. And they shall build up eternal wastes; they shall raise up those formerly laid waste, and shall renew desolate cities, laid waste for generations.

For they who are in Christ are termed “a chosen race, a holy nation, a peculiar people,” because of the beauty of the righteousness that is in them. I do not mean legal righteousness, but rather that which they have obtained from the oracles of the Savior. That which is in Christ is incomparably better than legal righteousness. For He addressed the holy apostles: “Amen I say to you, unless your righteousness shall abound more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” “They shall be called, therefore,” he says, “generations of righteousness, and furthermore, a planting of the Lord.” For we are truly God’s husbandry, and the divine David says concerning us: “Planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of our God.” ^C And indeed the most wise Paul calls those who have been called through faith in Christ the husbandry of God. He said again: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” For the Savior cultivates us as a husbandman, through the holy mystagogues. Whence they also most justly say that they are God’s fellow-workers. The most wise David also sings: “The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree,”

and shall be multiplied like the cedar in Lebanon.” We are therefore truly a planting of the Lord, unto His glory. ^A “And they shall build,” he says, “the ancient desolate cities, and they shall renew the desolate cities.” By this he seems to mean either that the multitude of those to be called will be so great that they will seek out other cities besides those that exist, and renew those that were once laid waste; or perhaps this: being brought into straits, he says, on account of the multitude, they will do with the churches, though they were once bare and desolate, something like what those are accustomed to do who desire to build up devastated cities, and who strive to raise up those that, as it were, lie on the ground. For it has been said to the Church: “Enlarge the place of thy tent, and thy curtains: fasten them, spare not; extend further to the right and left.” ^B And the event of things itself would show, and very easily, that the prediction concerning this matter is true.

VERS. 5-7. *And aliens shall come, feeding thy sheep, and the people of a strange land shall be thy plowmen and vine-dressers. But ye shall be called the priests of the Lord, the ministers of God. Ye shall eat the strength of the nations, and in their riches shall ye be admired. For your shame doubled, and for your reproach, their portion shall rejoice, and thus they shall inherit the land a second time. And eternal joy shall be upon their head.*

Here he speaks clearly of a change of the Law and of the priesthood according to it. For the priestly service will no longer fit those of the blood of Levi, nor will the name and function of the ministry; but these have been cast out, and this glory has been given to those who have been called from the nations through faith. For they are crowned by the vote of God, and they themselves have been appointed ministers and priests. ^C “For they shall come,” he says, “aliens, feeding thy sheep.” The discourse is addressed, as it were, to the Church, by whose sheep may be understood the holy multitude of those saved through faith. These are fed by aliens. For the Scribes and Pharisees of old, who received the task of teaching among the Israelites, were slothful and idle, and became most unskilled shepherds. The multitude subject to them therefore perished, since they possessed rejected silver, and were teaching as doctrines the commandments of men, and were leading those subject to them away from the knowledge of Christ, at one time saying: “We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we know not whence he is”; ^D at another time again: “He has a demon and is mad, why do you listen to him?” The Lord of all bore witness, therefore, through the voice of the prophets, saying thus: “The shepherds have become foolish, and have not sought the Lord. Therefore the whole flock did not understand, and they were scattered.” And indeed through the voice of Ezekiel: “O shepherds of Israel, do the shepherds not feed themselves? Do the shepherds not feed the sheep?”

^A And “by the trampling of your feet they were fed, and they drank water muddied by your feet.” By “water collected” he signifies the doctrine of the Law and the best pasture. But those who corrupted and defiled it, because they did not rightly teach their own people, offered water that was not pure to drink, nor did they provide lush pasture. Therefore, they were cast out from the office of feeding the Lord's people from then on, and rightly so. For foreigners have been called to this; and indeed teachers of the Churches are ordained by Christ, wise and prudent men, having a mind filled with dogmatic skill, men who are from the Greek flock and not from the blood of Israel; these have become both plowmen and vinedressers. For since those who believe are called in many places of the divinely inspired Scripture “choice land,” and “vineyard,” and “garden,” therefore the word says that those who would at times be priests of the Lord and ministers of God, rightly dividing the word of truth ^B and ministering the Gospel of Christ, as it is written, would be plowmen and vinedressers. Therefore, they do not usurp the honor for themselves, but have been called by God, just as the all-wise Paul says. Although he was of the tribe of Benjamin, he everywhere calls himself a minister and an apostle called by Jesus Christ. “You, therefore, all who have obtained the dignity of ministry, you shall eat the strength of the nations, and in their riches you shall be admired.” He calls the “strength of the nations” either the honors of the most powerful men who have been called from the nations, or you may understand it in another way. “For none of you,” he says, “shall escape the mouth,” that is to say, the word; for Scripture everywhere puts “mouth” for word, as for instance: “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” “You shall be distributed, therefore,” he says, “the strength of the nations.” And the word ^C seems in these things to call “strength of the nations” either those among them who are illustrious, that is, most renowned and possessing worldly wisdom. But we shall find that the word of the holy mystagogues themselves has prevailed, and those who were enriched by their vocation were glorified. For the pride of teachers, and their crown and glory, are those who have been saved through their illumination. For this reason he says, “In their riches you shall be admired.” And that the divine preaching will reach the regions and every nation, and that those presiding over the holy Churches who attribute glory to Christ will be, as it were, heirs of the world under heaven at the appointed times, he intimates, saying: “Thus they shall possess the earth a second time.” For in times past, Jesus the son of Nave divided by lot to those from Israel the regions of the nations; for they received the land of the Amorites, and of the Idumaeans, and of the Evaeans, and ^D of others. But when Christ had shone upon the world—of whom that ancient Jesus was a figure—he distributed to his ministers not only Judea, but the entire earth. And this was the second division of the inheritance after the first. For the mystagogues and teachers were divided by his own reckoning and judgment into regions and cities; and even now they rejoice in Christ, and with a certain spiritual joy.

They are as if crowned with a garland upon their heads. And the joy is eternal; for we do not expect the recompense to be in temporal things, but in a long-standing hope and eternal life, and in blessings that surpass mind and speech. ^A

VERS. 8, 9. *For I am the Lord who loves justice, and hates robberies from injustice; and I will give their labor to the just, and I will establish an eternal covenant for them. And their seed shall be known among all nations, and their offspring in the midst of the peoples; every one that sees them shall recognize them, that they are a seed blessed by God, and they shall rejoice with joy in the Lord.*

Having said that “Aliens shall come to be the shepherds of thy sheep, and foreigners shall be the plowmen and vine-dressers,” implying that the former had been cast out, and had been forced out of the lordship which they held over the peoples, he shows the causes on account of which they have suffered this, by the holy reckoning of Him who judges justly. For since I love justice, he says, and hate robberies from injustice, and those who were the leaders of the Jewish Synagogue have become such, I have dismissed and cast them out. ^B For I give the labor of those who seize things through unjust robbery to others. For those who grow rich unjustly, and, as the prophet says, gather and accumulate for themselves impiety and misery, transmit these things to others. Hence Solomon says: “Riches unjustly gathered shall be disgorged, and an angel shall drag them from his house.” And again: “He who gathers his wealth by usury and greed, shall leave it for him who pities the poor,” not indeed for good and merciful men, but rather for wasters. For he wittily said that they pity the poor. For to those who live in dissipation adhere very many, and together with them consume what was accumulated by many labors and through wickedness. Of such men the divine David also sings, and says: “But in vain he is troubled; he gathers, and knows not for whom he shall gather.” ^C Furthermore, in another way, the labor, that is, the concern of the Scribes and Pharisees, was given to others, namely to the teachers of the nations. Therefore Christ says: “I say to you, the kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation producing its fruits.” Therefore, he says, they were cast out. But for you, who have been called from the nations to the sacred ministry, “I will establish an eternal covenant,” understanding by this either the evangelical preaching or the eternal hope. “And in the nations,” he says, “their seed shall be known, and their progeny. Whom whoever shall see shall recognize, that they are a seed blessed by God.” For those who, through instruction and doctrine, have become the sons of the holy mystagogues, are very well known to all on account of their distinguished probity and piety of life, because ^D

^A they have become the offspring of the saints according to instruction, as I said, "And that they are a seed blessed by God," such as the company of holy monks, concerning whom Paul says: "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the passions and desires," who lead a probity-filled and industrious life; and the cohorts of those living in virginity and the choirs abounding in the blessing of God, these are a seed blessed by God, these rejoice and are gladdened in the Lord; for they do not delight in worldly matters, but rather fill their own hearts with love for Christ, and this is a saving thing and the producer of all joy.

VERS. 10, 11. Let my soul rejoice in the Lord; for He has clothed me with a garment of salvation, and with a tunic of joy; as a bridegroom He has put a turban upon me, and as a bride He has adorned me with an ornament, and as the earth brings forth its flower, and as a garden its seeds, so shall the Lord make righteousness and exultation spring forth before all nations.

He extended a bountiful hand toward them, and said that He would crown them with very many and highly desirable gifts: "For everyone," he says, "who sees them will recognize that these are a seed blessed by God," then adding moreover that "And they shall rejoice in the Lord," ^B he immediately grants them joy. Hence, not without cause, the person of the Church is introduced, crying out from excessive joy: "Let my soul rejoice in the Lord; for He has clothed me with a garment of salvation, and with a tunic of joy." He calls our Lord Jesus Christ the tunic of joy. Therefore the most wise Paul also writes to those who believe in Him: "Put on our Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh in its desires." Yet those who have taken Him as a garment, besides salvation, gain prosperity, and thus they enjoy long-lasting joy. The Savior Himself therefore says: "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I came that they might have life, and might have it more abundantly." For He does not save merely, as I said, but He also gladdens with unending joy; and this is that abundance which will be added to the life of the holy ones. Christ, therefore, is that heavenly and supernal garment, that tunic of incorruption, which if anyone receives, he will be crowned with every ^C ornament, that is to say, which falls under the intellect, and will be adorned with the insignia of virtue. For he will be as a bridegroom girded with a turban, and as a bride excelling in every ornament. For there are, there are Christians powerful and very strong, and endowed with intelligible strength, and they are enriched with every kind of beauty and virtue. Moreover, they are like brides also on account of their fruitfulness, in that they are adorned with the varied splendor of virtues. Therefore one of the holy prophets said, when he was hinting that those who institute a holy life are fruitful and productive: "Therefore, O Lord, we have conceived in our womb by the fear of Thee, and we have been in labor, and we have brought forth the spirit ^D

^A of salvation, which Thou hast wrought upon the earth." Therefore, the saints are to be compared to a bridegroom and a bride, on account of their strength, and furthermore, their fruitfulness; but observe this always, that there is present in them a certain grace and beauty that shines forth. And this is preserved by them, both in the performing of noble deeds, and also in the courageous subduing of passions. But that Christ, by shining upon the nations, causes justice and exultation to bloom throughout the world like a flowering plant, He shows, saying: "As the earth brings forth its flower, and as a garden its seeds, so will the Lord cause justice and exultation to sprout before all the nations." Now, by this germinating or rising seed and flower before the nations, He seems to signify our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. For He says in the Song of Songs: "I am the flower of the plain, the lily of the valleys"; or it refers to the evangelical and saving preaching, and its justification, which is superior to that of the Law, and which is always accompanied by joy, that is, exultation. For to those who rightly administer it, it is granted by God to be filled with lasting delight. For they shall hear our Savior Christ, who is the Savior of all, saying: "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." But exultation, or the saving preaching, can also be understood in another way. For the Law was an avenger and very severe. For if anyone violated the Mosaic Law, he died without mercy under two or three witnesses. But the evangelical oracle brings us life, and the promise of rewards, and a true ^B hope of goods which surpass the capacity and understanding of the mind.

CAP. LXII. VERS. 1. For Sion's sake I will not be silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until my justice goes forth as light, and my salvation burns as a lamp. And the nations shall see thy justice, and kings thy glory; and thy name shall be called by the new name which the Lord shall name it; and thou shalt be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.

By Sion, He calls the Church, whose first fruits and first-born children were the divinely inspired disciples, and those who through them were called to the knowledge of Christ, and before others, those who sprang from the blood of Israel. For a remnant has been saved, and very many of them have believed. "Therefore I will not rest," He says—that is, I will not cease from ^C bringing to an end the things which I have promised to Sion. For God and the Father promised salvation through Christ to Jews and Greeks. For if "One is God," as the most wise Paul says, "Who will justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. For He is not the God of the Jews only, but also of the nations." Therefore, "I will not rest," He says, "until my justice goes forth as light." For justice and salvation appeared and was

^A wrought by Christ, for He justifies and saves; being Himself the true light, and as it were a lamp in the darkness. He says, then, concerning Himself, "When I am in the world, I am the light of the world." For all things had been held fast by mist and darkness, as the devil darkened the hearts of all, and there was no one who did good, and knew justice, or the path which leads to salvation. Nor was there anyone possessing the divine light in his mind, and able to see with the eyes of the intellect who He is who is by nature and truly God, and the Creator of all and Lord. But after the Savior arose as light, and shone as a lamp, the world under heaven was enlightened, and we have seen the path of salvation through Him. ^B Then He speaks to the Church from the flock of the Jews, as if the multitude of the nations had not yet been gathered in, saying, "The nations will see your justice, and kings your glory." By "justice" again in these passages, and indeed by "glory" as well, He says there is nothing else than our Lord Jesus Christ. For we have been justified in Him, and we have been enriched with glory from Him. For we have become His, and we are called His portion. We have also been ordered under His yoke and scepters, having washed off the rapacity of him who tyrannized over us. That, departing from the worship according to the Law, and as it were being transformed to the newness of the evangelical life, she will at the same time cast off the old vocation and will thereafter be called by a new name, according to the will of God who is above all, he shows by saying, ^C "And your name will be called new, which the Lord shall name." For she is no longer called a synagogue, but rather the Church of the living God, His city and His house. For the divine David also remembers it, saying thus, "Glorious things have been spoken of you, O city of God." He teaches, moreover, that she will be exceedingly comely and crowned with incomparable beauty, saying, "You will be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God." For every holy soul, and the Church universally, that is, the assemblages of the saints, may be compared to a crown composed of many flowers, or to a kingly diadem shining with Indian stones, and possessing a multi-faceted elegance. For very many are also the splendid virtues of the saints, and the manner of these adornments is not one, but varied and manifold. ^D And indeed the divine David introduces the Church of Christ clothed and adorned in golden raiment. "In the hand of the Lord," he says, that is, under the protection of my hand will I shield you. And Christ Himself also says of His own sheep, or of the flock of those who believe in Him, "No one shall snatch them out of the hand of my Father."

VER. 4. And you shall no more be called forsaken, and your land shall no more be called desert; for my will shall be called in you, and your land inhabited.

^A He teaches again that He will lay aside the old hatred with which He has often pursued the Jewish Synagogue, that He will cease from His anger, and will make it willing and fruitful, and adorn it with a multitude of believers. For Sion, having rejected our Lord Jesus Christ, was given over to desolation, and the multitude of those who disbelieved perished. But after the remnant received the faith, and then the multitude of the Gentiles was called, and those two were built up into one people, and at last one Church was named from both, God grants to it that it should in no way be entangled in its former evils, nor be called forsaken or desert, but rather that it should become willing to Him, and shall no longer be called desert, but shall rather be called inhabited. We see this having come to pass through the events themselves; for we see the Churches everywhere placed in tranquility and serenity, and the believers multiplied to an immense multitude, and God glorified because of them. For persecutions were indeed stirred up long ago, but not for long; they were brief, and exercised the saints rather than oppressed them. For they were proved because of their patience, and because of their tolerance they bear away the crown of genuine faith in Christ, and possess the most abundant glory of martyrdom. ^B

VER. 5. *As a young man dwells with a virgin, so shall your sons dwell with you; and as a bridegroom shall rejoice over a bride, so shall the Lord rejoice over you.*

He then addresses the Church, inasmuch as it was formed at the beginning from the Jewish tribes, whose children according to the flesh were indeed the divine disciples; yet they excelled in it and took precedence over the rest, as being endowed with apostolic authority. But they retained supreme love and affection for it, so much so that the piety toward it appeared to be such as behooves a young man living with a virgin, that is, one who was joined to him from her virginity. They say that those who are all but bound by such a tie reach the highest degree of piety. Indeed, the all-wise Paul also says: *“I have great sorrow,”* he says, *“and unceasing pain in my heart for my brethren, my kinsmen by the flesh, who are Israelites”* (Rom. IX, 3, 4). And he even prayed to become an anathema for them. ^C But a great renewal of things and a wonderful change is signified to us by the prophecy proposed. For the ancient Synagogue, and one might say, grown grey with time, is compared to a maiden. *“Your sons,”* he says, *“shall dwell as with a virgin.”* And this, I think, is what is sung in the Psalms: *“Your youth shall be renewed as the eagle’s”* (Ps. CII, 5). They dwelt with her, guiding her as a nurse, consoling her as a mother, and wisely leading her away from the things in shadows and types, so that she might choose the truth instead of the useless shadow. ^D Of this kind is that which the divine David also said to her: *“Instead of your fathers, sons are born to you”* (Ps. XLIV, 17). For these, although they existed as her children according to the flesh,

have become her fathers, being the beginning of her new children, those who have been called—obviously through faith—to the knowledge of Christ, the Savior of us all. With these things being so, he says: *“So shall the Lord rejoice over you, just as, indeed, a bridegroom rejoices over a bride.”* For the only-begotten Word of God came down from heaven so that he might make fruitful the Church, which he presented to himself as a pure virgin, not having a spot or a wrinkle, but being rather holy and blameless. Having therefore received from him the seeds of the evangelical way of life, she has conceived and brought forth—no longer the worship through blood and smoke, but rather that one by which the beauty of truth is most especially adorned. Hence she rejoices, and indeed deservedly so, when she sees the types of the Law transformed into evangelical truth, and the bride shining forth with spiritual sacrifices and with deeds that are truly holy and becoming.

*“And upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen all the day, and all the night, who shall never be silent, remembering the Lord. For there is none like to you.”* ^B He addresses her as a brilliant and inhabited city. For very many alert watchmen always look over the more prominent cities, so that no enemy might attack unexpectedly; thus, the Savior and Lord of all, having fortified the Church with ineffable power and with the assistance of angels, has appointed for her wise and ever-wakeful guards, and those having sleepless care over her—namely, the holy mystagogues, who in no way cease to commemorate his glory and his wonders, as it is written. For we are accustomed in the churches to proclaim to the peoples under our care always the magnanimities of the Savior, and the evidence of his God-befitting supremacy, so that they may from there have a secure and unshakable faith concerning him. ^C Or, perhaps, he says that the watchmen will remember the Lord, proclaiming and saying: *“For there is none like to you.”* For he is not according to us, but by as much as he surpasses human things in the excellence of glory and in the splendor of his divinity, by that much he conquers also in being kind and philanthropic. For as the Psalmist says: *“He has not dealt with us according to our iniquities, nor has he rewarded us according to our sins”* (Ps. CII, 10). For he has saved us while we were sinners, and he has drawn us in his philanthropy, though we were not worthy of being saved. He said something like this also through another prophet: *“What shall I do for you, Ephraim? What shall I do for you, Judah? I will set you as a diamond, ^D and as Seboim—my heart has been turned within me, I will not act according to the wrath of my fury; I will not abandon you so that you would be blotted out.”* For, he says, because I am not man, but rather holy God in you, therefore I will not abandon Ephraim so that he would be blotted out.

for Ephraim, because I am God and not man, the Holy One in the midst of thee.” Since I am not man, He says, but rather the Holy One, God in the midst of thee, for this reason I shall not abandon Ephraim so that he should be blotted out. ^B

VERS. 7-9. If thou shalt correct, and shalt make, Jerusalem, a glory upon the earth. The Lord swore by his glory, and by the strength of his arm, If I shall give anymore thy corn, and thy food to thy enemies, and if the strangers shall drink anymore thy wine, in which thou hast labored, but they that gather it shall eat it, and they shall praise the Lord, and they that gather it shall drink it in my holy courts.

As if by a comparison of things, or of the calamities which were often inflicted upon those of Israel, He weaves a narrative of considerations most useful to us. For we sinned in many ways, abandoning the God who is such by nature and in truth, and cleaving to the cults of idols; for they worshipped the works of their own hands, and kicking against the life according to the law, they were snatched toward that which seemed good to themselves. For this cause they were smitten by God with barrenness, sometimes with the destruction of bodies, and with the incursions of enemies, who, devastating their whole region, even made plunder in the fields. For it was said to them: “Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt press the olives, but thou shalt not be anointed with oil; and thou shalt not drink wine.” If, therefore, He says, O Jerusalem, thou shalt correct, that is, if thou shalt transfer thyself to spiritual worship, if thou shalt escape from the shadows, and shalt acknowledge that Moses wrote concerning me, if thou shalt receive grace through faith; “and shalt make for thyself a glory upon the earth,” that is, a bright boast, in Christ evidently; “the Lord swore by his glory” — for He has no one greater by whom to swear — “and by his arm,” that none of those things which formerly happened to thee by reason of great disobedience will happen to thee anymore. For thou shalt not endure this sweat of agriculture without reward (understand this, however, spiritually), but as the divine David says: “Thou shalt eat the fruits of thy labors,” and as Paul says: “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap; and he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting.” That, therefore, he will gather to himself abundantly the fruits of spiritual fruitfulness, He indicates by these words. “But those who have attained this,” He says, “will glorify the Lord, and they that gather it shall drink it in my holy courts.” For they shall delight in the highest dwelling-place, who have plucked the ornaments of an excellent life, and are gathering the fruits of a right and blameless faith. ^C

VERS. 10. Go through my gates, and make a way for my people, and cast out the stones from the way, lift up a standard to the nations. For behold, the Lord hath made it to be heard unto the end of the earth.

He now addresses the watchmen themselves, that is to say, the teachers. For He commands that the entrances of the holy city be opened, and that the access be made plain and unobstructed, and indeed ^D

^A by the stones He signifies scandals. For if someone happens to be called from the congregation of the Jews, he frequently stumbles at the legal precepts, for he dwells long upon the types and, as it were, sitting among the shadows, he does not admit the truth. But if anyone be from the multitude of the Greeks, he too stumbles at the strangeness of the teaching, and the unfamiliarity of the worship greatly disturbs him, and perhaps he even remembers the words which their own leaders utter regarding their gods. For they have written down old and aged myths, deceiving and being deceived, and filling the earth with diabolical darkness. But the vigilant and sober watchmen and mystagogues cut away the occasions of stumbling and scandal, skillfully dissolving everything which seems to stand against the tradition of the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. They do this rightly, destroying reasonings and every height that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to His obedience. We shall find the most holy Paul correcting the Jews who had been scandalized, and rebuking the Gentiles who had suffered such a thing. For he said to those of the blood of Israel: “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.” And again: “For I say to you, that if you be circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. You are alienated from Christ, you who are justified by the law; you have fallen from grace.” For we through the faith wait for the hope of righteousness. But as for those from the multitude of the Greeks: “You observe days, and months, and seasons, and years. I am afraid for you, lest I have labored in vain among you.” You see how they are always casting away the stones, and removing from the midst the scandals of both parties. By stones we also speak in another way of those things at which some might sometimes stumble: the profane and detestable trifles of the impious heretics. For the wretched men prattle in vain, preparing traps for those who walk with a straight foot, and leading astray some who can easily be turned aside from the dogmas of the truth. But the watchmen of the walls of the Church also remove these from the midst. And we say that its walls are the stability of the dogmas of the truth, against which ^B the gates of Hades shall not prevail. “For lift up a standard,” He says, “to the nations. For behold, the Lord has made it heard to the end of the earth.” And what then is this standard that is heard, and which He said must be lifted up to the nations and to the end of the earth—that is, must be exalted and become most well-known—namely, the word of the faith which we preach, or perhaps also the symbol of the saving passion? And this also is a confession of faith. For it is necessary to say that Jesus is Lord, and to believe that God raised Him from the dead. This saves both from death and from sin. Therefore not of the Jews only, but also of the gentiles. For the standard is lifted up, not to those believing only from the blood of Israel, but to all everywhere among the nations. For the whole world, under the embrace of the heavens, has been ^C captured by the evangelical preaching, like a net.

^A Ver. 11, 12. *Say to the daughter of Sion: Behold, thy Savior comes, having his reward, and his work before his face. And he shall call it a holy people, redeemed by the Lord. But thou shalt be called a sought-out city, and not forsaken.*

He foretells the advent of the Savior, and whatever things we have gained through it, and the wealth to be given to those who believe in him. He calls Sion "daughter." And if anyone wishes to understand the ancient one, as though she had already attained mercy and been justified by faith; or, if he wishes to understand the new one, that is, the Church, one would not be speaking absurdly that this also is the daughter of Sion. For those who first derived from the blood of Israel believed; and the Church of the nations is called, as it were, a daughter of that which was established by them in the beginning. But to whom does he command to preach the Gospel to Sion? Is it not surely to the holy mystagogues who have been allotted the guidance of the Churches, to whom also he commanded to open the gates and diligently to cast the stones out of the way? What then is that which is proclaimed? "Behold, thy Savior comes, having his reward, and his work before his face." He sets forward two things together, divine and excellent, by which the glory of the Savior might be made manifest. For the holy prophets used to exhort her to uprightness of life, and to a way of living harmonious and honorable to the Law. Then they would make mention of the rewards which they were to receive from God in their own times, those who were concerned with the glory of right actions; but they themselves were not the givers of spiritual gifts, but, as I said, they foretold the promises of God. But the Savior of all, inasmuch as he is God, has the power to give the reward, and furthermore to discern what manner [of reward] and what work is to be assigned to each one; for this is indeed divine. For it is written: "The ways of a man are before the eyes of God, and he considers all his paths." Therefore, he says, "He shall come, having his reward," that is, he himself gives the prizes to those to whom it is fitting to receive them. And indeed, to blessed Peter, who confessed the faith rightly, he says, "I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." He granted also, in general, to all the holy apostles power over unclean spirits, and to be able to cure every disease and every infirmity among the people. Yea, and to the thief hanging together with him, having confessed faith, he declared he would not be without his reward: "Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise." Now, he says, having arrived, "he shall call those who believe in him a holy people, and redeemed by the Lord." For not a messenger, nor an angel, but the Lord himself saved us, as it is written. "But thou, O Sion," that is, the Church, "shalt be called a sought-out city, and not forsaken."

^A For "sought-out," he says, instead of "worthy of remembrance." For that which is sought is remembered; and not "forsaken," as was the former one, that is, the multitude of those who were faithless. It has been spoken indeed by Christ through the voice of Jeremiah: "I have forsaken my house, I have left my heritage," and through Christ himself, the Savior of us all: "Behold your house is left unto you."

CHAPTER LXIII. VERSES 1-7.

Wisely and skillfully the prophetic word ^C almost paints the ascent into the heavens of Christ, the Savior of all of us; for to bring to an end the power of the dispensation in the flesh, he ascended unto the Father and God in the heavens. Yet he was seen by the powers above, not only in our form, that is, as a man, but also showing the marks of his passion. And we do not say that after his resurrection from the dead the piercings of the nails and the other stigmata remained still in his holy flesh, but rather this: just as he showed the impressions of the nails and his side to Thomas, who believed little the holy apostles saying that they had seen the Lord risen from the dead; so we understand that, in order that the manifold wisdom of God, which he wrought in Christ for the sake of the Church, might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, he returned with the signs of his passion, having exhibited a strange and utterly unusual spectacle to the powers above. They were astonished, therefore, when they saw him approaching, and they were saying: "Who is this that cometh from Edom?" ^D Edom is interpreted in the Greek tongue as "fiery" or "earthly," and Bosor as "fleshy" or "fleshly." Who, then, he says, is this one from the earth, or earthly, with "red garments from Bosor," that is, stained the garment as if from flesh, or rather, blood? "This one is beautiful in a robe." For just as the powers are subtle and wise and full of divine glory, they saw Christ, however much he was in the flesh, surely in the strength of

unconquerable power; for this, I think, indicated his divinity. Since, therefore, the angels were asking, or perhaps even saying to one another, "Who is this?", he answers and says: "I declare justice, and the judgment of salvation." By "justice" he means either the evangelical and divine preaching, or that every word of God is just; and he calls it the "judgment of salvation" because the judgment concerns us, for he has judged the world ^B and saved those oppressed by the intolerable tyranny of the Satan who had injured it, having subjected them to his own mastery, and he has cast out the apostate and alien from the rule over them. He said therefore now, "Now is the judgment of this world; now the prince of this world will be cast out, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself." When Christ said these things, they ask again and say: "Why is your garment red, and your clothes as if from a full winepress, having been trodden upon?" Here remember for me what the patriarch Jacob said ^C: "He shall wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape." For the garments appeared stained with blood, and, as it were, colored with the redness of wine. Then again, the Savior immediately says: "And of the nations there is no man with me." These things cohere with the speech and are connected with the preceding. "For I," he says, "declare justice and the judgment of salvation, and of the nations there is no man with me." For no one, he says, was present with me when I was suffering; from no nation was there anyone sympathizing, and as far as it concerned men, he was entirely destitute of all support, with the cohort of soldiers and the savagery of the ministers insulting him ^D; who also, as the evangelist narrates, led him away to Caiaphas. "Then all the disciples," he says, "having left him, fled." But Christ foretold even this; for he said: "Behold, the hour comes and is present, that you shall each be scattered to your own places, and leave me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me." And he said also through the lyre of the Psalmist: "My soul waited for reproach and misery; and I waited for one to grieve together with me, and there was none, and for one to console me, and I found none; and they gave gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." Therefore, "There was no one with me," he says, "from all the nations." Was you therefore, since you were alone and destitute of helpers, overcome by the hostile hand? Have they prevailed, and having conquered your virtues, do they rejoice as if they were victors? By no means, he says. For although I had no one as a partner and helper, yet I trampled them underfoot in wrath, and crushed them as dust, and brought their blood down to the earth; for after the return of Christ to the heavens, every kind of intolerable calamity was inflicted upon the Jewish people from divine

^A wrath. “For the day of retribution,” he says, “has come upon them.” For since they had the opportunity to seize the faith and to be enriched by the grace that comes through it, but then became slothful, or rather arrogant, and insolent, and fighters against God to the very end, how is it then not very reasonably consequent that they have fallen into every kind of evil? Yet the time of His retribution was a time of redemption for those who acknowledged His manifestation. For at the same time, the one who was unbridled was punished, while the one who was obedient and submissive was redeemed by Christ. “For I looked,” He says, “and there was no helper; I considered, and there was no one to reach out,” and “My arm brought them salvation, and My wrath stood by. And ^B I trampled them in My anger.” It seems that by these words He is denouncing the sloth of the Scribes and Pharisees, who had been appointed to rule the people, and to guide them toward righteousness, and to instruct them well according to what is pleasing to God. But they were so slothful and listless that they offered no aid to any of those subject to them, nor did they correct them with exhortations, but on the contrary, they even led them away into infidelity. For they dared to say concerning the Savior of us all, Christ: “We know that God has spoken to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is.” And again: “He has a demon and is mad; why do you listen to Him?” Therefore, since there was no one, He says, who was helping or reaching out, My arm saved them—that is, My power—for many, as I have said, from among the Jews have believed. But upon those who were unwilling to help, My wrath came to rest, and they have become a trampling underfoot of My anger. For the evil have perished evilly, and have paid penalties commensurate with their crimes.

“I have called to mind the mercy of the Lord, the virtues of the Lord in all things for which the Lord renders back to us. The Lord is a good judge to the house of Israel; He deals with us both according to His mercy and according to the multitude of His righteousness.”

Since God says that His wrath had descended upon the disobedient and that His anger had trampled them down, and that their blood had been brought down to the earth, the prophet intervenes and does not allow those against whom these words were spoken to despair; and he undertakes the matter very skillfully. For, he says, ^C “I called to mind within myself that the Judge of all is not unmerciful. For I know His mercy and His virtues”—that is, His powers—“in all things for which He renders back to us. For even if He has turned away,” he says, “from Israel, which had behaved with insults and had chosen to be disobedient, and is, as it were, rendering back to us the things of wrath, not so much in an unmixed way, but rather tempered with gentleness—yet I know well His virtues,” that is, the acts of power that have occurred throughout the times for the redemption of Israel. “Therefore,” he says, “the Lord shall be a good judge to the house of Israel,” not so much a strict one, but kindly, that is, good. For it would be the work of a strict judge to seek penalties for those who have sinned, commensurate with their transgressions; but it is the work of a good one to show mercy as to those who are weak. Therefore, since He is a good judge, He deals with us according to His mercy—that is, He will measure out the things of wrath, and will mingle His indignation with mercy. A multitude

has been saved indeed. ^A

Vers. 8-10. *And the Lord said: Is this not my people? My sons will not disown me.* And He became their salvation from all their affliction; not an ambassador, not an angel, but the Lord Himself saved them, because He loved them and spared them. He redeemed them, took them up, and exalted them all the days of the age. But they disobeyed and provoked His Holy Spirit; and He turned to be their enemy, and the Lord Himself fought against them.

^B See, I pray, the person of God immediately introduced, all but crying out against the disobedience of Israel. For He says, the Lord—that is, the God of all—said: "Did I not reckon the people in the order of sons?" Since this is true—for He said, "Israel is my firstborn son"—no one could doubt that they would be stubborn and disobedient. But they would rather receive the Son who was sent. But this did not come to pass, and He who knows all things was not frustrated in His hope; for He understood the things that were to come. Nothing at all escapes Him. Yet the form of the discourse is fashioned in a human manner. By taking up these words of God, the prophet accuses Israel of both stupidity and ingratitude at once, and shows that they were entirely unmindful of the good things bestowed upon them. "For He became," he says, "for them a salvation from all their affliction." And no one else beside Him saved them, not an ambassador, not an angel, but the Lord Himself through Himself. For He performed wonders in Egypt, with Moses acting as mediator, yet He Himself was the one who performed those things that surpass human thought and understanding. Whence, when Israel had manufactured the calf, ^C and God was offended and had announced that He would send an angel with them, Moses was troubled, saying: "If You do not go with me Yourself, do not lead me up from here." Therefore, He saved them by Himself, having received nothing at all from them, but only because He loved them and cared for them. And this is a manifest proof of His incomparable humanity and divine gentleness. Therefore, He delivered them from the house of bondage, took them up, and exalted them; and this, I think, is what He said in the beginning: "I have begotten and exalted sons," that is, I have reared, or rather, I have rendered them distinguished, "but they have rejected me." And "all the days of the age" can signify, unceasingly and perpetually. So good was the God of all toward them, but they proved disobedient, and ceased not to provoke His Holy Spirit. And the divine David will teach this, saying: "How often did they provoke Him in the wilderness? Did they anger Him in a thirsty land?" Or perhaps they provoked the Spirit of Christ, stubborn and ungentle, unbridled and disobedient. For they did not obey Him calling them to salvation. "He turned, therefore," [the text says], "to be their enemy, and He fought..." ^D

^A against them." For it was necessary—it was necessary that those who were unmindful of such prodigious works, and who had in no way profited from those things by which it was fitting that they be led to all virtue, should fall away from the mercy and love of Him who wishes to save, and that He should henceforth resist them as enemies.

^B 882 VERS. 11-14. *And He remembered the days of old. Where is He who brought up from the earth the shepherd of the sheep? Where is He who put the Holy Spirit among them? Who brought Moses up by His right hand? The arm of His glory prevailed over the water before His face, to make for Himself a name eternal. He led them through the deep, like a horse through the wilderness, and they did not weary; and like cattle through the plain. A spirit came down from the Lord, and it guided them. So Thou didst lead Thy people, to make for Thyself a name of glory.*

Since he said that He had turned into enmity toward those whom He had previously assisted and gladdened with mercy and love, he now fittingly explains the causes of this matter. He remembered, he says—that is, he called to mind—the days of old, that is, the days worthy of eternal remembrance, because in them very many and extraordinary miracles took place. And who is it that remembered? "Who is he that brought up from the earth the shepherd of the sheep?" He seems in these words to make mention of the resurrection of our Savior Christ, who is the Savior of all; for the one who brought [him] up, he says—that is, He who raised up from ^C the earth the chief shepherd of all—and He raised [Him] up, not necessarily from the dead, but as it were pointing Him out, having brought Him forth from among men. For the only-begotten Word of the Father became as one of us, having endured birth according to the flesh from a woman. But because, as I have said, the prophet observed that Israel had utterly forgotten the divine magnificence, he is almost overcome by shock, and he laments that they had fallen into such stupidity, saying: "Where is He who put the Holy Spirit among them?"—that is, who placed His divine and saving Spirit within them? "For the Spirit came down from the Lord, and it guided them," he says. The divine David also said: "He sent His Word and healed them." And the Lord is the Spirit, for He works through the Spirit who is of the same substance. "Where, then, is He?"—that is, [they have] forgotten, and have not sought Him, by ^D remembering, that is, and loving Him. "Where is He who brought up Moses by His right hand?" Great was Moses, both renowned and exalted in excellence; and "He who brought [him] up" signifies this, as the right hand of God was working through him. "The arm of His glory prevailed"—that is, He overcame and vanquished the nature of the waters by constricting them. For he adds, "He set the waters as a wall," he says, that is, He prevailed over the waters themselves, so that they endured solidification, although they possess a fluid nature. He accomplished this, he says, so that he might acquire for himself an eternal name. For whether this was done, or even...

^A performed through the all-wise Moses, this was done for the glory of God. By solidifying the waters, he says, as a horse or as beasts of burden, he led them through the sea as if through a plain. The Psalmist also teaches this, saying: “And he brought out his people like sheep, and led them as a flock in the desert.” And the Spirit of the Lord led them, as I said. Thus you led your people, to gain for yourself a name of glory. For two things were accomplished at the same time. For not only was Israel saved and delivered from the hand of those who oppressed them, but the result of these things, so miraculously brought to pass, yielded the glory befitting Him who rules over all things for God. ^B

VERS. 15-17. *Look down from heaven, and see from your holy house, and of your glory. Where is your zeal, and your strength? Where is the multitude of your mercy, and of your compassions, for you have endured us? For you are our Father, for Abraham has not known us, and Israel has not acknowledged us. From the beginning your name is upon us. Why have you caused us to err, O Lord, from your way; have you hardened our hearts, that we should not fear you?*

Here, then, the prophet pours out prayers on behalf of the entire nation, and under the persona of the Israelites he asks and supplicates. For he prays that God might desist from ^C His anger against them, and cease His hatred, and as it were return to them, having departed from them; as one who is not some earthly being, but the true God, and who has heaven as his glorious house. Yet even though God is said to dwell in heaven, nothing corporeal is to be understood in this. For we do not say that the Divinity is in a place or a circumscription, because He is simple and incorporeal, and fills all things. But because He rests in the supreme spirits as in holy [places], for this reason we say that heaven is His throne and house. Return, therefore, they say: “For where is your zeal, and your strength?” And I do not think anyone would claim that the God of all lacked these things; rather, they speak in this way because they were no longer enjoying them. For He saved Israel, making use of zeal and ^D God-befitting strength. What I mean is: they were in servitude to the Egyptians, who afflicted their lives with clay and brick and vexed them with the cruelty of taskmasters; but the God of all was inflamed with zeal. He said, therefore: “I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Sion with a great zeal, and with a great anger I am indignant against the nations that conspire together.” *Because I was angry a little, but they conspired together against me for evil.* Then again He wrought miracles. For He delivered the region of the Babylonians, although it was unconquered and possessed of insuperable power, to desolation. For He sent against them Cyrus, the son of Cambyses. Desiring to enjoy this mercy, they say: “Where is your zeal, and your anger? Where is the multitude of your mercy, and of your compassions, for you have endured us?” They thirst

again for mercy, and for the gentleness and philanthropy granted to them in their many transgressions. For ^A he endured them, even when at times they provoked him intolerably. They murmured in the wilderness, and tempted him in their hearts, saying: “Will God be able to prepare a table in the wilderness?” for he struck the rock, and waters flowed, and torrents flooded. And “Will he be able to provide bread?” Moreover, while Moses was absent, they had fashioned a calf; nevertheless, at his intercession, they obtained mercy. “Endure us, therefore,” they say, “even though we have stumbled many times. For you are our Father; for Abraham did not know us, and Israel did not recognize us.” They do not deny the fathers. For that is of no benefit to them for repentance. For they have not been cast off because of them, but rather they ascribe to the good-loving God that he surpasses even carnal fathers in piety and indulgence. For he is the Father of fathers. “We have been born of them,” they say, “but they have not looked upon us. You, however, have not ceased to preserve toward us the mercy, compassion, and love befitting a child-loving Father. ^B Deliver us, therefore; for your name has been called upon us, and we are named your portion and your people.”

But since, because of great disobedience and a perversity of ways, they have behaved insolently toward Christ, they have fallen from the intimacy that is with him—that is, the spiritual intimacy—and have become devoid of the gifts from him, and have not known the way of the evangelical life. Hence, weeping most deservedly, they say: “Why did you lead us astray, O Lord, from your way? Why did you harden our hearts so that we would not fear you?” For they hardened their own hearts. Thus it was said to them through the voice of the prophet: “Rend your hearts, and not your garments” (Joel II, 13). But although the God of all was able to soften them, he allowed them to have an obstinate and contumacious mind. For this reason, because he did not render them tender and soft, he is said to harden them. But for those to whom this happens, it is entirely necessary that the other result also follow: I mean, that they be devoid of the fear of God. ^C This also looks toward destruction, and casts souls down into the depths of hell.

VERS. 18, 19. "Return for the sake of your servants, for the sake of the tribes of your inheritance, that we may inherit for a small time your holy mountain. We have become as in the beginning, when you did not rule over us, and your name was not called upon us."

They ask again for his return to them, by means of his—I say—serenity and philanthropy. They call themselves servants and an inheritance; not as if they had done something worthy of a slave, or had submitted their necks to his yokes, nor as if they had rendered obedience by being possessed of that inheritance, but because they have once been called his, and from the beginning ^D have had an intimate connection with him.

for this reason alone they seek to be saved: "Turn back," he says, "that we may possess for a little while your holy mountain." ^A Now, the sacred Scripture very frequently calls the Church the "holy mountain," of which the people from Israel have become a small part. For if they had accepted the faith which is in our Lord Jesus Christ, the body from among them would have been gathered into a very large part of the Church, with the multitude of the nations also being added to them. But since, on account of their signal disobedience, they have become behind the nations—and while the multitude of the latter is greater in number, they themselves are but very few—a remnant has indeed been saved; for this reason, they have come to possess a small part in the holy mountain, that is, in the Church.

But if one should say that the "holy mountain" is spoken of by them as that city above, the Church in the heavens, the mother and nurse of the saints, and that they wish to obtain a portion of the inheritance there, you will rightly understand this in this way as well: they say that they have become as they were from the beginning, when he did not rule over them, nor was his name called upon them. And the reasoning is very plausible; for once having fallen away from his mercy and protection, they have reverted to their original state. And what, finally, was that? They served the Egyptians with mud and brick-making, and they continued to be tormented by the labors pertaining to this. But now they have fallen under devilish feet, and they are polluted by the passions of the flesh and worldly desires; for this brick-making might be understood as that which is hidden. They served evil spirits in Egypt, ^B and now in them is the unclean spirit. And the Savior himself taught us this, speaking about them: "When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, it wanders through waterless places, seeking rest and finding none. Then it says: 'I will return to my house from which I came out.' And when it comes, it finds it empty and swept. Then it takes," he says, "seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last things of that man become worse than the first. So it will be," he says, "also for this evil generation."

Chap. LXIV. Vers. 1-3. If you open the heaven, trembling will seize the mountains from you, and they shall melt, as wax melts from the face of the fire: and the fire shall burn up the adversaries, and your name shall be manifest among the adversaries. From your face the nations shall be troubled. When you do glorious things, trembling will seize the mountains from you.

^C It is customary for the holy prophets to pour out prayers on behalf of Israel when it is sinning, and when it is about to pay the penalties for its crimes; and when wrath is present, they used to entreat that it be sent upon others and turned upon the heads of foreigners. And indeed, the inspired Psalmist, in the seventy-eighth psalm, was lamenting over Jerusalem having been laid waste, and was saying: "O God, the nations have come into your inheritance, they have polluted your holy temple." ^D And with other things interposed, he says: "Pour out your wrath upon the nations that have not known you,"

and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon your name." The prophet says something like this now as well: "Oh that you would rend the heavens,"—by the descent of wrath, clearly, just as, to be sure, in the time of the flood (for the cataracts of heaven were opened)—"then trembling will seize the mountains from you, and they will melt, as wax melts before the face of fire." By mountains in this passage, he means not by any means the objects of sense, but rather the evil powers, which, because of their exceedingly great arrogance, are well likened to the highest mountains. Therefore, trembling will seize these powers, the nurslings of pride. "For they will melt as if by fire." ^B By being opposed to your decrees, clearly, the wrath, falling like fire upon them, would consume them. "And the name of the Lord will be manifest among those who oppose." And what is this? For the God of all works wonders very often, manifesting the greatness of power and superiority that is in him. By this he used to punish even sinners at times, and by the wrath upon them, he manifests himself—of which sort was what happened when fire was sent down upon the Sodomites, or when he subjected the stupefied Pharaoh to many and intolerable plagues. Therefore, "O Master," they say, "do not manifest your own glory or your name through wrath against us; but rather bring it upon those evil powers that, out of their exceedingly great arrogance, have been led into this. For you will be conspicuous even in this way. For when you perform glorious deeds, trembling will seize the mountains from you." Again he refers to those mountains that we just mentioned—that is, to those who openly war against your glory, and from ^C whose [arrogance], as I said, they were brought to this. "For so will you be manifest. For when you perform those glorious deeds, trembling will seize the mountains from you." And again: "From of old we have not heard, nor have our eyes seen a God besides you, and your works, which you will do for those who wait for mercy; for it will meet those who perform righteousness, and they will remember your ways." The divine nature is invisible. "For no one has seen God at any time," according to what is written. Yet he is perceived by the eyes of the mind from those things which he performs marvelously and beyond speech. "For the invisible things of him," he says, "from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and divinity." ^D He is also known not rarely from the things by which he bestows benefits, and he gives a demonstration of the serenity that is in him, saving incomprehensibly those who have slipped away from all hope, and extending a saving hand to those who are lying low, as it were, upon the ground. Such is the thing they say, those who offer up the present supplication. "For from the foundation of the world we have neither heard nor seen such a God, except you alone. For to those who wait for you"—that is, to those who have placed their hope in you—"you will lavish mercy. For it will always follow those who are workers of righteousness, and it is fitting for those to obtain it who will remember your ways," that is, the executors of your wills; for we call the commandments of his the ways of the Lord. And indeed, the divine David chants

^A at one time, "I will live in your way," ^B and at another time, "I ran the way of your commandments, when you enlarged my heart."

TOMUS VI

VERS. 6, 7. Behold, you are angry, and we have sinned. Therefore we have erred, and we have all become as unclean, and all our righteousness as the cloth of a menstruous woman; and we have faded away like leaves because of our iniquities; even so, a wind shall take us away like dust, and there is none who calls upon your name, and who remembers to take hold of you, because you have turned your face away from us, and have delivered us up because of our sins.

It has seemed good to certain interpreters to apply another meaning to these words. They invert, in fact, the order of the diction and the power of the sentiments, so that what is said may be in this manner: "Behold, we have sinned, and you are angry with us." For, they say, the divine anger was not the cause ^C for them of transgressing; but because they themselves have acted riotously, God became angry. For they fear, as it seems, lest the divine wrath might be understood as the author of sin. But I think it must be said that the divine anger should not be condemned on this account, if those who are subject to it do not have sufficient strength to escape the insult of sin. For as long as the Savior takes pleasure in us, we conquer sin, and departing from the filth of vices, we are strenuously crowned with the insignia of spiritual fortitude. But when we embitter the provider of our strength and the governor of our virtue, we fall into weakness, and we shall find our own mind to be somehow listless and relaxed. For God is the Lord of hosts. And indeed Christ said, "Without me you can do nothing." The divine David also says somewhere regarding every saint, "You are the boast of their strength." And surely, elsewhere also, when he is able to accomplish some good thing, he attributes it not to himself, but to the powers of God, and chants, saying: "I will not hope in my bow, and my sword shall not save me. For you have saved us from those who afflict us." ^D Therefore, just as the favor of the celestial clemency renders us most strong and makes us sinewy for resisting evil, so, by a parity of reasoning, when one is subjected to the divine anger, it is altogether necessary to succumb servilely to vicious pleasures. You are angry, therefore, because we have clearly acted cruelly and riotously, and have become sinners and impious, to such an extent that all our righteousness, he says, seems like the cloth of a menstruous woman, that is, it is abominable and unclean. For righteousness is not easily seen among the Israelites, especially now after the impiety against Christ, which would not be reprehended and derided. For how could those who have a heart altogether stripped and void of divine and intelligible light see the path that leads straight to the sacred laws? Or how could [they be] just

^A that such are truly those who lack the evangelical preaching, from which it would be possible to learn the way of an excellent life. They are therefore impure, even if they seem to be good and honest. And they have fallen like leaves from a tree; nor is it any wonder if, this having happened to them, these wretches also clearly despair of being cast aside. For they have had a fickle and slippery mind, which is carried about by every wind. Nor is there anyone among them who knows how to call upon God sincerely and genuinely, or who remembers that the fellowship which is with him must be apprehended and embraced promptly and as it were youthfully. "We have fallen," they say, to such misery, "because you have turned your face away from us, and have delivered us up on account of our sins." For it was not possible for those who have endured the turning away of God to fare well, but there was entirely some necessity that those burdened by so many sins should be pierced by every evil.

Vers. 8, 9. And now, Lord, you are our Father; we are clay, and we are all the work of your hands. Do not be angry with us exceedingly, and do not remember our sins in their time. And now look, for we are all your people, the city of your Holy One.

They entreat exceedingly that they might not fall away from his fellowship altogether. But because they have been brought to this state on account of their many sins, they weave their prayers with excellent craft; since they cannot appease the Savior with works and an blameless life, they betake themselves to something else. For they implore him as Creator to have regard for his own fashioning, and to bestow mercy upon those who have been brought into existence and life by him. "For you are called our Father," he says, "and we are the works of your hands. Therefore do not be angry with us exceedingly." They do not forget that they have offended; rather, they confess that they have declared themselves worthy of punishment, having raged savagely against the Son. For this reason they almost hold back their prayer and do not make their approach entirely free, but rather, by contracting their boldness a little, they do not ask God piteously not to be angry at all toward them, but rather to temper his wrath with gentleness. For we are admittedly worthy of wrath, he says, entangled in such heavy evils; but it would be worthy of your gentleness to curtail the anger which is against us, even if it is just. "In the time," therefore, of affliction, he says, "do not remember our sins, but consider that we are all your people, and the city of your Holy One," that is, in which is your sanctuary. By these words they signify the temple.

Vers. 10-12. Sion has become a desert; Jerusalem has become as a wilderness; our holy house, our curse, the glory which our fathers blessed, has been burned with fire, and all our glorious things have fallen. And over

^A his omnibus tu sustinuisti, Domine, et tacuisti, et humiliasti nos valde. Having beforehand signified the evils of the soul, and having predicted that they had become entangled in sins, unstable, and like leaves tossed hither and thither by every wind, they next commemorate the external calamities that have been brought upon them; and they seem to lament the desolation of Jerusalem and the burning of the temple. For after the Savior’s cross, all these things have been accomplished. "And desolate," he says, "has Sion become, which was once so beautiful, famous, and populous." And, "Our holy house has become an execration." By "execration," they mean a contradiction and a reproach to those who know not God; for the worshippers of demons, when the saints, or those who in any way cleave to God, suffer punishment, laugh profusely and become arrogant, and hold in mockery the majesty of Him who saves them. For they think perhaps that His hand is powerless, and that He cannot save them; and they do not understand that they have fallen under judgment because they have committed acts contrary to Him. "Our holy house," therefore, "has become an execration." For the temple was ^B holy among them; and it has been burned with fire, he says, which had been so heralded, celebrated, and proclaimed by the voice of the holy fathers. They say that all glorious things have fallen. For there was no veneration at all for the sacrosanct vessels that were placed in the divine temple, nor any reverence among those who plundered and burned them. "But you kept silent," he says, "in all these things, and you held your peace, and you brought us down even to the ground." For because He could have repelled the hostile incursion, yet He permitted them to grow strong and to rush into the temple itself: they infer from this that they have been despised on account of wrath and their own sins, and they have conceived wrath for these reasons. For He who is able to prevent an injury, yet ignores it, and permits adverse and harsh things to progress and proceed to the very end, it is manifest that He has, without doubt, distilled and poured upon them bitter wrath; so that He has even held His own glory in neglect, and has endured the mockery of enemies. Since it is well that they should pay the penalty, whom it is right to visit with punishment for their many sins.

CHAP. LXV. VERS. 1, 2. I was made manifest to those who did not seek me, I was found by those who did not inquire of me. I said: Behold, I am coming to a nation that called not upon my name. I spread out my hands all the day to a disobedient and gainsaying people, who walked not in a true way, but after their own sins.

Necessarily, these things are added to what has already been said. For since they said: "Why have you led us astray, O Lord, from your way? You have hardened our hearts, so that we might not fear you"; and added, "Sion has become desolate, as Jerusalem has become a desert, our holy house is an execration": from this point on, the person of Christ Himself is necessarily introduced, as if recounting the causes why these things

^A have been justly suffered. They do not ascribe the causes to themselves, but almost call into accusation Him who brings upon them the penalty they deserve. "I have appeared," He says, "to those who did not seek Me, I have been found by those who did not inquire of Me." For the Savior entered the synagogues of His own accord, teaching them, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every infirmity among the people, as it is written. For what has not been done by Him that surpasses all word and wonder? Lepers were cleansed by the touch of His hand and by divine command; the dead were raised from the tombs; the blind received back the light they so desired; the lame leaped like deer. And, in fact, Christ said to those who witnessed these things: "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, even if you do not believe Me, believe My works." ^B Therefore, He says, "I was present to a nation that did not call upon My name." For He is found saying at one time, "I am the light of the world," and at another, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water will flow from his belly." But they did not wish to call upon His name, even though He explicitly said "I am" in many places. And that they have become uncorrectable and, as it were, like those who have no ears, hard-hearted and disobedient, He shows by saying, "I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and contradicting people." We are indeed accustomed to stretching out our hands with shouting and speaking harshly against those who are refractory and disobedient when we address them. "But they did not walk," He says, "in the true way." For they in no way accepted the saving proclamation, "but followed their own sins," that is, they were carried away with unchecked impulse toward a careless and most lawless life, which brought upon them punishment and ruin. This, again, the Savior is found saying to them: "Amen, I say to you, unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." For they resisted when being admonished, and even issued orders to those under their hand, saying, "He has a demon and is mad; why do you listen to Him?" ^C And, moreover, they further cried out: "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, because You, being a man, make Yourself God."

Verses 3-5. This people that provokes Me to anger before Me always. They sacrifice in the gardens, and burn incense upon bricks to demons, which do not exist. And they sleep in tombs and in caves for the sake of dreams, eating swine's flesh, and broth of sacrifices, all their vessels are polluted; who say, "Depart from Me, for I am pure, do not come near me." This is the smoke of My fury, a fire that burns in it all the days.

He convicts the impious ones from Israel, and not only at the time of His advent, but also before, and as if from their very roots and from the patri-

^Aarchs they have pushed aside His divine law, and having nearly reached the point of being farewell to the commandments given through Moses, they have worshipped idols, and have sacrificed to falsely-named gods, and have become attendants of unclean spirits. "This people," He says, "is always provoking me." For they have sacrificed incessantly—that is, over a long period—"in my sight." Yet how could they hope to remain hidden, when God sees all things? For He says somewhere, through one of the holy prophets: "I am a God drawing near, says the Lord, and not a God from afar. Shall anything be hidden from me?" If, then, nothing is hidden from Him, how could any have escaped His notice while making incense offerings in gardens—that is, in thickets, on mountains, and in glens? What then does "in my sight" signify, if not, in addition to that, their conduct within the very temple that was consecrated to me? For He spoke something similar through the voice of Jeremiah regarding Jerusalem: "What has the beloved one done in my house—an abomination?" ^B The Holy Scriptures are accustomed to call an idol an "abomination." Therefore, He says, "They offer incense before my eyes," and in the gardens—that is, on the mountains, as I said, "under an oak, and a poplar, and a shaded tree," according to what is written. They sacrificed, as it seems, following the custom of the Greeks, to certain demons whom they call nymphs, Hamadryads, and Oreads. But they are not, He says—not that those destructive demons do not exist, but that they are not gods, as those who sacrifice to them imagine. They sacrificed also in tombs and in caves, practicing what is called necromancy, as one might expect. They also slept in the tombs, deceived by certain visions and specters, inquiring after the knowledge of things to come. Such, then, are the inventions of Greek impiety. That they have also trampled underfoot the commandment of the law, He demonstrates by saying: "They eat swine's flesh." For such things were forbidden to those from Israel. ^C They also sipped the broths of the sacrifices, being filled with every impurity and possessing stains that could not be washed away; and then they would imagine that they had attained the highest degree of total purity, to the point of saying to those who wished to draw near to them: "Keep far from me, do not draw near to me, for I am pure." For the evil and unclean demons persuade those who worship them that, even if they do all things contrary to what is right and good—nay, even the most defiled things—they will be pure, as a torch is lit before them and fire is passed around them, or even by the sprinkling of water and the old-wives' tales chanted to them. But all these things, He says, done impiously and flagitiously by them, "are the smoke of my fury, and fire burns in it all the days." We know, however, that when fire is about to be kindled, smoke arises first. And so, before the advent of the Savior, while Israel, whom we have just mentioned, was wallowing in filth, certain smokes—as it were, beginnings of the divine wrath—were appearing. But after ^C they added to their former impieties also the orgy of madness against the Savior and Redeemer of all Himself—for they killed the Prince of life—the fury was then kindled, and those smokes were, in a way, converted into flame.

^A

VERS. 6, 7. *Behold it is written before me: I will not be silent, until I repay and render into their bosom their sins, and the sins of their fathers, saith the Lord: who have burned incense upon the mountains, and upon the hills have reproached me. I will render their works into their bosom.*

It is as if He said: Those things which were impiously done against me by their fathers and by themselves, with offense and pain, I contemplate almost as if depicted on a tablet, and they stand before my eyes. How could I endure such grave and inconsolable evils? I will surely repay into their bosom, keeping in memory even their fathers, who burned incense upon the mountains and upon the hills, by which they reproached me. Observe that although He said they burned incense in gardens, here He says on the mountains and the hills; I suspect He calls the woods on the mountains gardens, as we have said before. Sacrificing to unclean demons, and then regarding the glory due to God as of almost no account at all, they almost insulted Him as if He were not God. For to be willing in any way to cleave to gods that are not, is nothing other than to defile the divine and supreme majesty. “I will repay,” therefore, He says, “their works into their bosom; for they have fallen away from every good thing, and having slipped into grave and unavoidable calamities, the evil have perished evilly.” ^B

VERS. 8, 9. *Thus saith the Lord: As if a cluster be found in a grape, and they shall say: Do not destroy it, because there is a blessing in it: so will I do for the sake of him that serveth me. For the sake of this I will not destroy all. And I will cut off a seed from Jacob, and from Juda: and he shall possess my holy mountain, and my elect and my servants shall inherit it, and shall dwell there.*

Divine wrath was inflicted upon the Jews, and they paid penalties commensurate with their transgressions, yet not all perished utterly and without distinction. For the Judge is just, and would not destroy the good together with the impious. He employs a striking image, taking as an example a cluster of grapes, with one grape—or others, more admirable and notable—preserved within it. Then He introduces the husbandman, or the lord of the estate, saying to someone: “Do not destroy it, because there is a blessing in it: so will I do,” He says, “for the sake of him that serveth me.” That is, I will act with such precision that even if in one city all others incline toward depravity, yet if one alone is found faithful and obedient, this one shall obtain mercy, and will not be endangered along with others against whom judgment is justly aimed. “For I will not destroy all,” He says. For the Lord’s fury fell upon the arrogance of the Jews, all but consuming the disobedient and refractory; but by the providence of God, whoever among them was worthy of salvation through Christ was preserved. Verily, the divine Paul, as one among the elect…

^A by the election of grace, says that a remnant of Israel has been captured for faith, just as if it were drawn from the entire region of the Jews by a dragnet. "Therefore," He says, "I will not destroy all, but I will take up the seed from Jacob and from Judah." You should understand the word "take up" here not as "destroy," but as "I will render it exalted and worthy to be looked upon"; for to take up ^B is at times to exalt. Such indeed became the divine disciples, as far as glory is concerned, I say: sublime and visible to all everywhere, and as a city set on a mountain, and a lamp placed upon a lampstand, shining to all who are in the house according to the voice of the Savior Himself. This, then, is the seed from Jacob and from Judah. "It shall inherit," He says, "My holy mountain"—it is clear, of course, that this means the Church. For so also did the all-wise Isaiah designate it elsewhere, speaking of those who were called through faith in Christ to participation, or rather, communion, in His divine nature: "For they shall drink joy, and they shall drink wine, and they shall be anointed with ointment on this mountain." Hand these things all over to the nations. For this decree pertains to all nations. On this mountain, therefore, He says, there shall be an inheritance for My elect, and among them shall dwell all those who submit to the yoke of My kingdom. There will be nothing absurd if one says that the supreme and heavenly city, Jerusalem, is called a mountain, in which is the lot of the saints, ^C with God distributing to them the goods which neither mind nor speech can grasp. "For the eye," He says, "has not seen, and the ear has not heard, and it has not entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for those who love Him."

VER. 10. *And there shall be in the forest folds of flocks, and the valley of Achor for a resting place of herds for My people, who have sought Me.*

It is customary for divinely inspired Scripture to compare populous cities or regions, at times, to very dense forests and thickets ^D. For one of the holy prophets said, as if to the mother of the Jews, I mean Jerusalem: "Open, O Lebanon, thy gates, and let fire devour thy cedars. Howl, O oaks of Bashan, because the planted forest is cut down." And no one, surely, would say that He commands pine trees and oaks to howl; for that is entirely absurd, but, as I said, He deigns to liken to wood the multitude of those who are in cities and regions, which is beyond counting. The Jews howled while they were falling by the swords of their enemies due to their impiety toward Christ. The divine David also sings somewhere, as Christ was about to appear soon in the world: "Then shall all the trees of the forest exult before the Lord, because He comes to judge the earth." Therefore, "In the forest," He says—that is, in the multitude of the nations, or in their cities and regions—"there shall be folds of flocks," namely, the Churches of Christ; "and the valley of Achor for a resting place of herds for My people, who have sought Me." This Achor arose from the seed of Israel; but when Jericho had been destroyed, then, by God's command, everything that had been in it

^A was consecrated. He stole from the anathema. And because he was exposed by God, he was demanded to pay bitter penalties; for he perished with his whole house, Jesus the son of Nun having determined his punishment. Thus, the ravine of Achor was indeed for a curse. Such, in a way, are the regions of the nations; for they are cursed and hateful to God, as there is no one in them who knows the God who is by nature. But, he says, this region, once cursed in ancient times, shall be a place of rest for herds, that is, folds for rational sheep, subject to the hand of Christ, the Chief-Shepherd of all, who addressed the Jewish people concerning the nations, saying: "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall become one flock, one shepherd." For those who had once wandered sought Him through faith, and having found Him, they became His household, and fellow citizens of the saints, and co-heirs of the good things promised to them.

"But you, who have forsaken Me, and forgot My holy mountain, and prepare a table for the demon, and fill a draught for Fortune; I will deliver you to the sword, and you shall all fall in the slaughter, because I called you, and you did not obey; I spoke, and you disobeyed, and you did the evil in My sight, and chose things I did not desire."

^B Just as it did not go unpunished for those of the blood of Israel to disobey Christ—for they were given over to the slaughter, the remnant being saved by the mercy and philanthropy of God—so also you shall understand concerning the calling of the nations. For those who grasped salvation through Christ have become outside of fire, and judgment, and the things that come from divine wrath; but those who remained in their own ignorance, and have not washed away the pollution of their ancient faults, because they wished to adhere to the worship of idols, shall be given over to the slaughter. For they shall be held in Hades, and shall have the endless punishment through the unquenchable fire.

"You, therefore," He says, "who have forsaken Me," that is, who are apostates to the end, and have as it were brought My holy mountain into complete oblivion. For some of those who have wandered, and who have served the creature, do not even ^C endure, so to speak, to know the name of the Church; those who prepare tables for demons, and fill drafts for Fortune. Such a thing was done by those who had their heart filled with diabolical haze. "You shall be delivered to the slaughter." And if anyone dares to ask the reason, I shall say to him: I called and you did not obey, but you retain a persistent and non-rejectable wickedness, caring only for things that are discordant with My laws, and adulterating every way of goodness, and being eager to practice things to be rejected, those things through which one might become full of every filth.

"Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, they that serve Me shall eat, but you shall starve. Behold, those that ^D serve Me shall drink, but you shall thirst. Behold, they that serve Me shall rejoice...

but you shall be ashamed. Behold, they that serve Me shall exult in gladness, but you shall cry out for the pain of your heart, and shall wail for the contrition of your spirit. For you have left your name for a ^A satiety to My elect; but the Lord shall slay you. Always and necessarily, He sets the hardships alongside the crowns, so that by both He may lead them to choose what is pleasing to Him, and to think and to see. For just as He draws them with the bait of rewards toward the pursuit of virtue, so the bitterness of punishment sometimes start les them away from the manners of wickedness, and turns them toward better things. Most artfully, therefore, He insinuates Himself into the minds of the called, promising rewards to them and threatening punishments: “For they that serve Me shall eat,” He says, “but you shall hunger; and they shall drink, but you shall thirst.” ^B While they rejoice, you shall be covered in ignominy. For those who have known the God who is by nature and in truth, and have recoiled from the falsely named gods, and have admired the beauty of true worship, shall truly take delight in the blessings from above, fattening their hearts and approaching the life-giving table of the Savior of all of us, Christ, eating the bread of life and drinking the divine draught by which they become partakers of the joy from above; for it cleanses away sins, and removes grief, and does not permit the fear of being punished to weigh down our souls. For we rejoice rather in the hope of the good things which the holy Scripture reports are prepared for those who love God. “But you,” He says, “who have remained in error, shall cry out for the pain of your heart, and shall wail for the contrition of ^C your spirit.” For when the Savior of all of us, Christ, descends from the heavens, and then assigns to each according to his works, all shall weep and wail—those who have not known the true God, but have rather died in their own sins. “For you have left,” He says, “your name for a satiety to My elect; but the Lord shall slay you.” Consider, I pray you, the depth of the thought once again. It is the custom of divinely inspired Scripture to sometimes use “satiety” to mean loathing and hatred. For God said somewhere to those who are of the blood of Israel: “I will no longer forgive your sins; you have become to Me a ^D satiety.” You, therefore, He says—you who have not departed from the falsely named gods, but have died in your own sins—you have left your name for a satiety, that is to say, for a hatred, to My elect. For to those who have once been chosen, no one finds the name of the superstitious acceptable. For everyone shuns being called a hater of God, a worshiper of idols, impious, and profane; and one desires rather to be called a holy nation, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, according to the voice of the divine Peter. But if it should seem good to someone to apply what has been said to those of the blood of Israel, in order that it might be said to them, “You have left your name for a satiety to My elect”—we say indeed that Israel was called the children of God, and His people and portion, but after they turned to unbridled insolence

and fell into estrangement, they lost this glory, and those who were called from the nations have inherited it as if by hereditary right. And this, I think, is what God said by the voice of Hosea: “I will call her My people who was not My people, and I will say to the non-people, ‘You are My people.’” ^A

Verses 16–18. *And they who serve Him shall be called by a new name, which shall be blessed upon the earth; for they shall bless the true God. And they who swear upon the earth shall swear by the true God; for they shall forget their former affliction, and it shall not come into their heart. For there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, and they shall not remember the former things, nor shall they come into their heart, but they shall find joy and exultation therein.*

Everything has become new in Christ—worship, life, and the legislation. For we no longer cling to shadows and unprofitable types, but rather we offer ^B to the God who is over all the worship and service in spirit and truth. We are not named as if arising from the blood of Israel, or from their progenitors—that is, the fathers Ephraim or Manasseh, or any other tribe—nor do we walk the path of the Scribes and Pharisees, esteeming the antiquity of the letter as if it were all of the law; rather, we approach Christ in the newness of evangelical life. Bound as if with a crown by His name, we are called Christians. This is that celebrated name, blessed under the whole heaven. ^C And because we have been blessed by Christ, we also strive to delight Him with blessings and unceasing doxologies. For in the past, that is, before our faith in Him, we were rightly mocked for weaving odes to those who were not gods. But since we have known the God who is by nature, we hymn Him and offer Him the fruit of our lips and tongue, remembering His praises; and if there is any need or necessity for the confirmation of an oath in any matter, they swear by the true God. For it is the custom among the worshippers of idols to swear by heaven ^D or by some other of the elements therein. But those who have received the faith resolutely and vigorously turn away from such errors; for they make the God of the universe their only oath, knowing Him to be by nature and in truth their Master, and no other besides Him at all. This is also what the Law given through Moses commanded: “For you shall worship the Lord your God,” it says, “and Him only shall you serve, and by His name you shall swear.” Then it says: “They shall forget their former affliction, and it shall not come into their heart.” By “affliction” he seems to denote the miseries they suffered when, not knowing the true God, they served the perversity of demons. For they were commanded to sacrifice to them, not only sheep and oxen, but even the fruit of their own womb, just as it is written: “They sacrificed, therefore, some their sons and their daughters.” Tribulation was also in another way, because God

in worshipping such countless gods and hastening to serve those who were unknown. And this is likely, that they were also being plotted against by those who were neglected; for it is not at all unlikely to conceive that, since the loathsome and bloodthirsty demons were in control of them, they were even able to do harm, as they had no protection from God. “Of this,” he says, “they will forget their own affliction. For the heaven shall be new, and the earth new.” How, or in what way? For in the past they used to think that the earth and the heaven were gods; but having received the divine light into their minds through Christ, the Savior of us all, they will have, as it were, new thoughts concerning them. For they will know that they are not gods, but the handiwork of the Artist and Creator of all things. “And being so disposed,” he says, “they will no longer remember former things; for they will cast away at once with Hellenism [paganism] both the opinions they held concerning their elements, and those who had formerly led them astray, whether demons or men ^B who lent their own tongues to assist in the deception. Instead of the former affliction,” he says, “they will find joy and exultation in her.” And in her, in whom? He would surely say, “In the Church of Christ.” It is necessary to remark that some of the interpreters refer these things to times not of the coming, but to those that will be after the present age; for he says that the righteous will be in joy and gladness, and in everlasting delights—spiritual, of course—and with this very work of creation changed into renewal. For one of the holy apostles says: “For the day of the Lord will come as a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a rushing noise, and the elements, melting with heat, will be dissolved. And the earth and all that is in it shall be burned up. But we expect new heavens and a new earth, and his promises.” ^C It is therefore free and permissible for those who are sensible to choose whichever of these interpretations they wish, this one or that; for one must in no way discard what is useful.

VERS. 19, 20. For behold, I create Jerusalem an exultation, and my people a joy, and I will exult over Jerusalem, and will rejoice over my people. And there shall no longer be heard in her the voice of crying, nor shall there be an untimely one there, nor an old man who does not fulfill his time. For the young man shall be a hundred years old; but the dying sinner shall be a hundred years old, and shall be accursed. ^D

This consideration is profound, and the mind of the prophecy set before us is very obscure. However, as I am able, I shall attempt to explain it. Jerusalem, therefore, as it seems, he designates here not as that ancient one, but rather the Church from Jews and Gentiles; this he promises to show forth as an exultation and a joy, and the thing is true, as it is testified by experience itself. For there is nothing gloomy in the Church of Christ; she is rich in hopes for everlasting life and perennial glory; she also has much of

^A gratification and joy, I shall place in myself,” he says, “Jerusalem. For I shall rejoice over my people.” And he brings forward the causes of the gladness, saying: “No longer shall there be heard in her the voice of weeping, nor the voice of crying.” By an accusation, as it were, of things that preceded, God weaves the praise of the Church. For in former times, those who were leaders of the Jewish Synagogue judged for the sake of gifts; and they knew not how to judge justly for the orphan or the widow, but because they were lovers of base gain, they condemned the innocent and the just. And as for those who suffered these things, it was entirely necessary that they, as oppressed, should weep and wail with a cry, as being wronged. It has therefore been said somewhere ^B about Jerusalem through the voice of Jeremiah: “O lying city, there is nothing but tyranny in her. As a well cools water, so does she cool her wickedness. Impiety and misery shall be heard in her before her face always.” And another of the holy prophets also said: “And they struck at the heads of the poor, and turned aside the way of the humble.” “I shall rejoice, therefore,” he says, “over my people, beholding that it is a laborer of true righteousness. For no one among them shall weep, clearly meaning one suffering injury; and no one again shall cry out as one oppressed. And there shall not be therein,” he says, “an immature person or an old man who shall not fulfill his time. For the young shall be a hundred years old; but he who dies a sinner, being a hundred years old, shall even be accursed.” I believe that ^C the mind of the prophecy wishes to indicate something of this sort. For it seems to consider as “immature” the people from the Gentiles, still young, concerning whom David says: “The people that is being created shall praise the Lord.” And to these also the disciple of Christ addresses himself in the epistle, saying: “As newborn infants, desire the rational and guileless milk.” Accordingly, the “young” is immature, but the “old man” is he who is from the circumcision, that is, from the blood of Israel, inasmuch as he had been called and had advanced to the intelligible Church. But in the calling, he says, through Christ, and in the times of the Advent, neither the immature nor the old man shall have a difference with respect to this very thing among themselves; for all shall be perfect, and all shall fulfill their time, that is, they shall ascend to ^D a perfect man, and to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. For the young, that is, the people from the Gentiles, shall be a hundred years old, which is to say, perfect, and gray-headed in their minds, and having arrived at the completion of spiritual maturity. For a hundred years is a sign, or rather a symbol, of perfection. Then he says: “But he who dies a sinner, being a hundred years old, shall also be accursed.” He shows in these things that even the perfection according to the Law is useless to those who possess it, if they have not accepted the faith through Christ, and the redemption through holy baptism, by which alone we rub off the conceptions of sin. Therefore, even if someone exists as a hundred years old, he says, that is, having acquired the perfection according to the Law, then should die a sinner, that is, one not having received the righteousness through faith, he shall even be accursed, being found liable even to the transgressions of the Law. For no one among the Jews existed so great and such that he did not in some way stumble against the Law. “For all have sinned,” he says, “and lack the glory

of God, being justified freely by his grace.” ^A That this zeal for the Law is fruitless and vain for those even who have been perfected according to the Law, if the grace which is through Christ has not been added, the all-wise Paul demonstrates very well, writing to some that he considered all things that were in the Law as dung, that he might gain Christ and be found in Him, not having his own righteousness, which is that of the Law, but that which is through faith in Jesus Christ. He also accuses the Jews of a kind of stupidity, saying thus: “For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” He said again: “We, by nature Jews, and not sinners from the Gentiles; but knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, unless through faith in Jesus Christ, we also have believed in Christ.” Therefore, Christ has become a curse ^B for this reason, that He might deliver from the curse of the Law those who were under it; for it is written: “Cursed is every one who does not abide in all things which are written in the book of the Law, to do them.”

VERS. 21-24. *They shall build houses and themselves inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and they themselves shall eat the fruit of them. And they shall not build, and others inhabit; and they shall not plant, and others eat. For as the days of the tree of life shall be the days of my people; the works of their hands shall grow old. But my chosen shall not labor in vain, nor beget children for a curse; because they are a seed blessed by the Lord. And it shall come to pass, before they cry, I will hear them. While they are still speaking, I will say, What is it?*

He promises them peace that shall not be shaken, mercy, propitiation, goodness, and love for man. ^C For of old, those who were from the blood of Israel, due to excessive senselessness and manifold wickedness, and because they would not endure to live uprightly, were continually provoking God, the ruler of all; for this cause they were punished in many ways. For, indeed, what was in the fields would be destroyed, and, enduring the toils of husbandry in vain, they were gripped by famine. For it is written: “And I gave their fruits to the rust, and their labors to the locust.” And it has been said to them somewhere even through one of the holy prophets: “You shall sow, and you shall not reap; you shall press the olive, and you shall not be anointed with oil; and you shall not drink wine.” And again: “You shall build well-wrought houses, and you shall not dwell in them; you shall plant desirable vineyards, and you shall not drink their wine.” ^D For sometimes incursions of enemies would fall upon them, so that some were consumed by their swords, and others, fearing to suffer these things, would flee from their own house and fatherland, and take refuge in other regions. But these things those people of old suffered, and not once, because of their many sins. But those who...

in Christ have seized the grace through faith, and have washed away the stains of sin through holy baptism, will not fall into the misfortunes of those others, nor will they endure an unforeseen loss of those things they have labored for spiritually; rather, they will rejoice in their own righteous deeds, according to that which is sung in the Psalms: "You shall eat the fruits of your labors" (Ps. CXXVII, 2), referring to the fruits of the flesh, which are borne below the palm. For no one shall cast them out, nor shall anyone ever drive them from the dwelling to be given to them by God. For "there are many dwelling places with the Father" (John XIV, 2). Nor indeed will they fall from the lot that is to be given, which befits their spiritual fruitfulness; for their life, He says, shall be as the days of the tree of life, that is, holy. For such it was before the transgression in our first parents, when it was even allowed for them to become partakers of the tree of life, the most execrable and God-hated sin having not yet found a place in them. ^B The discourse of prophecy adds another thing not unlike this. "For the works," He says, "of their hands shall grow old," that is, they will have a certain and immutable course in the things they accomplish. What do I mean by this? The law was indeed given to those from Israel through Moses; but there was in it a shadow and a type, possessing an image of the truth, yet not the truth itself. But when Christ shone forth, the types were transformed into the truth, and the shadows, as it were, declined and grew old, meaning that the power of the way of life under the law did not prevail forever. Therefore, those from the blood of Israel did not make their works grow old (for the legal worship was useless, so far as it related to types), but those who are in Christ will endure. For no other law will be given to them, such as to change the power of the evangelical oracles for the better. For it was said somewhere to Christ, the Savior of all, through the voice of the Psalmist: "Your justice is justice unto eternity, and your law is truth" (Ps. CXVIII, 142). ^C "But my elect," He says, "shall not labor in vain, nor shall they beget children for a curse." He teaches again, as if by comparison or rather a counter-position to the things of old that happened to the leaders of the Jews. These, indeed, were the Scribes and Pharisees, who, having abandoned the law and teaching doctrines of the commandments of men, became fathers of children—through instruction, that is—but in vain, and for a curse. The Savior also taught us this, rebuking the Scribes and Pharisees; for He said: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you traverse sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one, you make him a son of hell twice as much as yourselves" (Matt. XXIII, 15). Therefore, those men begat children for a curse and in vain; but "my elect," He says, that is, the divine disciples, or indeed the ministers of my oracles, will not beget children for a curse, nor

^A in vain, according to them; for their seed shall be a blessed seed, blessed by God." That He will be very close to them, bestowing gifts out of gentleness and philanthropy, and most readily lending an ear to their supplications, He demonstrates by saying, "Before they cry out to them, I will hear them. While they are yet speaking, I will say, What is it?" ^B

VERS. 25. Then wolves and lambs shall feed together, and the lion shall eat chaff like an ox, and the serpent earth as bread. They shall not hurt, nor shall they destroy in my holy mountain, says the Lord. You may take this in two ways: for the power of the prophecy may signify the union of two peoples through faith, or that those who once, like wild beasts, leaped upon the saints and persecuted the Church, differing in nothing from serpents, will join them in one accord and agreement of mind, having been bound together to this end by the bond of peace through Christ, who justifies the ungodly, and gathers what is scattered, and with divine light illumines what is darkened, and transforms all things for the better. For He makes and transforms all things, as it is written. Therefore, kids and lambs were by the law sacred and clean animals, so that they were brought to the divine altar and offered to God for an odor of sweet fragrance; but the wolf and the lion were profane and unclean, and hostile to those we have named; and the serpent, moreover, is most hostile to man, and goaded to this by the laws of nature. But when they coalesce with those who have been purified in Christ and have established a holy and excellent life, through the evangelical preaching into one agreement of minds, which is established in faith, then even these formerly detestable and unclean ones, having a heart stuffed with beastly cruelty, "shall hurt nothing," He says, "nor shall they destroy any one in my holy mountain," that is, the Church. For the wild ones shall eat with the tame. ^C And their delight is Christ (the living bread, having descended from heaven), and He who gives life to the world. He nourishes both with His own flesh, refashioning us unto immortality and life, and with His own preachings, that is, the evangelical ones. "For man shall not live by bread alone," He says, "but by every word proceeding through the mouth of God." But observe that the lambs and kids do not eat the food of the lions and wolves (for He did not say, "They shall eat flesh"), but the wolves and lions shall make use of the food of the tame, which is signified by the name of chaff. Nor shall the pure follow the unclean, nor will they emulate their manner of life and conduct; but rather the profane shall imitate the probity of the gentle and pure.

CAP. LXVI. VERS. 1-3. Thus says the Lord: Heaven is my throne, and earth the footstool of my feet. What house will you build for me? or what is the place of my rest? For all these things my hand has made, and all these things are mine, says the Lord. And upon whom shall I look, but upon the humble and quiet, and [him who is] trembling at my words? But the wicked who sacri-

^Afice to me a calf is as he that kills a dog; and he that offers fine flour, as swine’s blood; and he that gives frankincense for a memorial, as a blasphemer.

Having sufficiently woven the discourse directed toward the nations, he now directs the instruction toward Israel itself. For he wishes to make them, too, depart from the iniquity according to the Law, just as he commanded those others to depart from their ancient error, and from a life of defilement in their straying. Since, therefore, he chooses the worship in spirit above all else and accounts that which is in shadows and types as nothing at all, he clearly instructs them. But he wishes them to know something else besides this: that they also raise their eyebrows and pride themselves on nothing necessary, having built the temple in Jerusalem. For they thought that the Divinity was contained in a place, and that it dwelt in temples made by hands in a circumscribed way, just like those falsely called gods—who are in reality nothing but wood and stones. And for this reason he says: "O you who do not know the eminence of the divine glory! O you who do not understand the greatness of the dignities that belong to me! Heaven is my throne, and ^B the earth is the footstool of my feet. What house will you build me? Or what is the place of my rest?" For the Divinity fills all things; and with it are the earth and heaven. Let it be said, then, in a human manner, that he has heaven as his throne, and makes the earth like a certain footstool for himself. For what place will contain him? Or what house will be sufficiently ample to comprehend him? "For all these things," he says, "my hand has made, and all these things are mine." But what are these things? It is manifest that they are both the things which are seen, and those beyond the things which are seen. For the whole creation is his, and by his nods those things which were not at one time were brought forth to generation. What, therefore, shall we offer him that is not his? Something of this sort he says also through the voice of the Psalmist: "If I hunger, I will not tell you; for mine are all the beasts of the field, cattle in the mountains, and oxen. I have known all the beasts of the field, and all the birds of the heaven, and the beauty of the field is with me."

Upon whom, therefore, does he say he will look? Is it not surely upon the humble and the quiet, that is to say, the gentle and meek, and the genuine servant of my will, so that he may even tremble at the words that proceed from me? By these things he signifies the evangelical and saving proclamation; these he deigns to behold, and to visit as humble. For the bold and arrogant man is he who stands against his divine laws, and through much disobedience raises up against him the ^C neck of his own mind, proud and stiff as it were. That he does not accept the worship through the Law, and that he holds it in hatred, he makes plain when he says: "He that sacrifices to me a calf is as he that kills a dog; he that offers fine flour, as swine's blood; he that gives frankincense for a memorial, as a blasphemer." Consider, therefore, that he not only does not admit those things which are set in shadows and types, but, as I said, he hates them. For he deems the slaughter of a calf to be the death of a dog, and something impure, [like] fine flour sprinkled with oil. For he signifies this, in my opinion, while he...

with the sow. For the sow is unclean according to the law. And he puts the smoke of incense in the same position as a blasphemous word. He transfers these words, therefore, to them, that they might wish to live not according to the shadow of the law, but evangelically. ^A

VERS. 4. *And they have chosen their own ways, and their abominations, which their soul desired. And I will choose their mockeries, and I will recompense them their sins: because I called them, and they did not obey, and they did evil in my sight. And those things which I would not, they have chosen.*

He again provides an apology, and openly renders the cause why Israel has been rejected, although called the firstborn and declared to be the portion of God. “For they have chosen,” he says, “their own ways, and their abominations, which their soul desired.” When he says, “They have chosen,” he declares them to be not upright judges in necessary matters, ^B but rather [to be those who] “call evil good, and put darkness for light, and light for darkness, and bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” For when it was permitted to them through the evangelical oracles to be brought to all the most excellent virtues, and when it was within their power to abandon vices and embrace what is useful, they, he says, desired their own ways, foreign to the law, which lead them into the net of death and into the depth of hell.

But he calls back to their memory their former sins. For they were at one time idolaters and worshippers of abominations. “Because therefore they were called,” he says, “and did not hear, nor attend to those words which I addressed to them; for I said: ‘I am the light of the world, and he that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live;’ and again: ‘Come to me, all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you;’ ^C hence I will bring upon them this holy sentence, and I will choose their mockeries,” that is, those who mock and rage against them. He points out, moreover, those who laid waste Judæa and burned the once holy and famous city, namely, the Roman generals. “For I will recompense them,” he says, “their sins. For those things which I hated and did not desire, they have chosen.”

VERS. 5. *Hear the word of the Lord, you that tremble at his word: Say, brothers of ours, to those who hate you and loathe you, that the name of the Lord may be glorified, and may appear in their joy, and they shall be confounded.*

He transfers his speech to every humble and quiet person, and one who trembles at his words: of whom the first fruits indeed, and the first, and as it were chosen by a certain separation, were the divine disciples. But the force of the precept is extended to all those who hereafter are set over the people, who ^D

^A by divine calculation are chosen as ministers of the holy Churches and of the divine proclamations. To these ^B He gives a command, saying: "Say to those who hate you and abhor you: you are our brothers." For He wills them to be gentle and patient under evils, according to the evangelical traditions, and with the greatest patience to ensnare into spiritual friendship those who refuse and shun their fellowship; or perhaps He commands this, saying, that they should preach to the nations and invite to the true knowledge of God those who have wandered, and even the Jews, who were worshippers of unclean spirits, because they did not accept polytheism as [the nations] did, but confessed one, and by nature, the only God. But even if, He says, "they have hated you" and account you abominable, nevertheless let your discourse to them be set forth in this way, and let them be counted in the rank of brothers, so that the name of the Lord may be glorified. For the multitude of the nations has been ensnared into the glory of Christ and has become manifest in their joy; for as the nations rejoiced in His grace and salvation, the Israelites were confounded, as rejects and hated, and wholly devoid of the hope of the holy ones and of those things which were given ^C by Him to those who believe in Him. It is necessary, however, to know that He has abrogated the legal precept when He commands us to call those from the nations our brothers. For it was forbidden to those from Israel to desire to be joined with those who were in error. "For you shall not speak peace to them," says the law delivered through Moses, "nor shall you make marriage with them; you shall not give your daughter to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son; lest he turn your son away from me, and he go and serve other gods." But in Christ both have become one, and the wall of the fence has been broken down, and the law of the commandments has been abolished in [His] dogmas. "For He Himself is our peace."

VERS. 6. *The voice of a cry from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the Lord rendering retribution to His adversaries.*

Having said, "And I will choose their mockeries, and I will repay them for their sins," He immediately demonstrates the outcome of the things He threatened, and as if the enemies were already ^D devastating the city itself and the temple, He says that a voice is given from the city and a voice from the temple, as the ministers and the peoples were weeping together and lamenting with one another; for it was to be expected, since the calamity of war was prevailing over them, that they would weep and wail; for there was no escape from the evil. But He says that it is the voice of the Lord "rendering retribution to His adversaries," as if He were commanding and ordering those who were to destroy to spare none of those captured, but to leap even more fiercely upon the adversaries—and not at all merely by the impulse of those waging war, but by the will of the Master; for this was the cause for them of being captured and suffering.

VERS. 7-9. *Before she who is in travail brings forth, before...*

the labor of birth pains comes, she has brought forth a male child. Who has heard such things? And who has seen thus? Has the earth travailed in one day, or has a nation been born at once, because Zion has travailed and brought forth her children?* ^A I, however, have given this expectation, and you have not remembered me, says the Lord. Behold, have I not caused the bearing and the barren woman? says the Lord.

Once again, He teaches that Israel will not be utterly destroyed. For after He predicted the captivity of Jerusalem in general, He makes mention again of the remnant according to the election. For a not insignificant multitude has been saved, clearly through faith in Christ. He wishes to indicate something of this sort: For the Jews raged against Him and killed the Prince of life. But since He rose again, having trodden down death, ^B and has returned to the Father and God in heaven, the divine disciples proclaimed Him, addressing all, even those who had raged, and calling them to repentance and salvation through faith, and to the remission of sins through the holy bath. For Peter said: *And now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. Repent therefore, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promises are to you, and to your children.* As the divine Peter was saying these things, many believed. It is written, indeed, in the Acts of the holy apostles that there were added on that day about three thousand souls. The divine disciples therefore persisted, urging the children of Israel and converting them to the faith. Then, after time had passed, the divine wrath was at last brought upon the region of the Jews and Jerusalem itself, ^C when those who had been called to a more moderate way of life had already entered. And these were the remnant. This is what He teaches, saying: *Before she who is in travail brings forth, before the labor of birth pains comes, she has escaped and brought forth a male child.* For before the hard times were imminent, and before the pains of the war-calamity, as it were, fell upon Jerusalem, she escaped—that is, before the danger she brought forth a male child; which birth is excellent and most desirable. For among those giving birth, the birth of a male is preferred to the other; or perhaps a male has been brought forth, for the Christian people is not effeminated by softness, but is endowed with a manly and youthful spirit. The blessed Paul is witness to this, writing: *Those who are of Jesus Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and desires.* ^D Then, as if the divine power had worked this remarkable thing, He extols the miracle, saying: *Who has seen thus? Has the earth travailed in one day, or has a nation been born at once, because Zion has travailed and brought forth her children?* For who, He says, has heard or who has seen the earth, or a whole region, germinating in one day those who are able to fill it? For has a nation ever been born at once, that is, in one moment? But thus, He says, *Zion has brought forth her children.* For that three thousand souls were added in one day, and received spiritual regeneration through faith and the most holy baptism: why should one not

^A manifestly consider this to be the conception and birth of an entire nation? But, "I," He says, "have given this expectation." For this was also foretold by the voice of the holy prophets, and God promised her multiple offspring. "Yet," He says, "it did not remember me, Lord, although I made the barren one begetting." But He who has the power over these things, how would He have permitted her to remain childless, if she had wished to accept the faith in Him, so that she might appear to all those on the earth as one with many children and fair children? But since she became disobedient, hard, and stubborn, she indeed was barren, but the region of the Gentiles bore a people greater in number and beyond counting. And the divine prophet Isaiah teaches precisely this, as if addressing the Church from the Gentiles: ^B "Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry, you who are not in labor, for there are many more children of the desolate than of her who has a husband."

Rejoice, Jerusalem, and hold a festival in her, all you who love her. Rejoice with joy, all you who mourn over her, that you may suck and be filled from the breast of her consolation, that having sucked, you may delight from the incoming of her glory. For thus says the Lord: "Behold, I incline toward them like a river of peace, and like a torrential stream overflowing with the glory of the nations."

He commands the new and intelligible Sion to rejoice, that is to say Jerusalem, which is the Church of the living God, which Christ Himself set before Himself as spotless and unblemished, from the Jewish orders and from the flock of the Gentiles. For He ^C joined the two peoples into one new man, making peace, and reconciling both in one body to the Father. And it would be fitting for her to rejoice, for she has been filled with hopes that are beyond mind and speech. "For the eye has not seen," He says, "nor has the ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him." And He commands those who are in her and who love her to be glad; and these would be, again, those who support her as it were, and who establish her in many ways with blameless teachings, and all those who mourn over her, according to the voice of the Savior Himself: "Blessed," He says, "are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." ^D Yet this mourning in them indicates the perfection of holy deeds. For they possess the profitable sweat, and endure labors stoutly and youthfully, not that they may gain anything of earthly things, but that, being filled with the gifts from God, they may become full of all delight. For this is what He promises them, saying: "That you may suck and be filled from the breast of her consolation." But having once attributed the person of a woman to the new Sion, He remains with the trope of speech, and likens the consolation in her—I mean, that of the Holy Spirit—to breasts and milk. For it has been said somewhere

^A to her, and in the Song of Songs, that "Your breasts are better than wine." Now, it is absolutely the case that for those who are first receiving the faith in our God Jesus Christ, a food suitable for infants is brought forward—that is, the tender and simple word of catechesis. For thus did Paul also address some, saying: "I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able, nor are you even now able." But that it is not fitting for those who have once drunk in the word of catechesis to be and to be seen as infants forever, but rather that they ought to advance and reach manhood and the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that they may finally be able to understand the exact and examined word concerning Him, he taught by adding: "That you, having sucked, may delight in the entry of His glory."

By saying "having sucked," he means ^B having become past the breasts and the nipple, that is, having been weaned—meaning, not remaining infants any longer, but being reckoned as among the adolescents and men, and desiring the solid food—that you might delight in the entry of His glory. And he calls Christ "glory" (for thus does the Psalmist also say concerning Him: "That glory may dwell in our land"). And by "entry," he means the mystery of the dispensation in the flesh; being God by nature, He became man, and has, as it were, entered into this world through the incarnation. Therefore, those who know the exact word concerning Him are delighted, and, learning in what way the glory, that is, Christ, has entered into the inhabited world, they rejoice. For this reason, the divine prophet also at once and immediately makes His manifestation in the flesh clear and evident; for he sets ^C forth His person, saying: "Behold, I decline towards them as a river of peace, and as a torrent overflowing the glory of the nations."

A river, then, of peace, and a torrent of delight, is Christ (for thus the divine David also designates Him, saying: "How You have multiplied Your mercy, O God! But the sons of men will hope under the shelter of Your wings. They will be inebriated with the abundance of Your house, and You will give them drink from the torrent of Your delights." And again: "The currents of the river gladden the city of God"). He has declined, and He has, as it were, overflowed with most abundant streams the glory of the nations, that is, what is precious among the nations—namely, everything that is glorified. For not all have believed, nor have they indeed been glorified, but as Paul says concerning God and the Father: "Whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also glorified." ^D Yet the word "I decline," as he says, gives one to understand this: that His way and journey was, according to the purpose and good pleasure of the Father, toward those of the blood of Israel; he said indeed that "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But since they rejected the faith, He declined from them, as it is written, and He drenched the flocks of the Gentiles from the sacred streams with consolation—that is, with the evangelical and saving preaching, through which they gained peace with Him, and through Whom they were joined in a spiritual relationship with God and the Father.

^A

*Verses 13, 14. Their little ones shall be carried upon shoulders, and upon knees they shall be comforted. As if a mother should comfort her child, so will I comfort you. And you shall be comforted in Jerusalem, and you shall see, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall spring up like herb. And the earth of the Lord shall be made known to those who worship Him.*

He promises us a most ample consolation, and a heap of all mercy, and that for every labor, so that one might be able to accomplish what is pleasing to Him. For those who are still infants among them, he says, and not yet perfect in their minds, shall be carried upon shoulders as if they were tiny babes, and they shall be comforted upon knees; for it is the custom thus for mothers to take care of infants. I shall yield very little, therefore, he says, to a mother, but I shall comfort those who are thus weak and dejected in spirit, so that nothing is lacking for their rest. Thus nourished, thus treated with all mercy and love, you shall in time see the supreme celestial city, Jerusalem, and you shall be filled with pleasure, and like grass, all your bones shall reflower. For the dead shall be awakened, and those who are in the monuments shall rise again, enriched by the dew from Christ, that is, the life-giving Spirit. For thus does he who sings psalms to God say concerning those who lie in the earth: *Thou shalt send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created, and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.* Just as, therefore, things that have blossomed in the fields fall after a little time and wither, but when the spring season has arrived, they rise again and appear: so the remains of the dead in the earth, at the time of regeneration and restoration, shall rise again by the ineffable power of God. For they shall be awakened, as I said. ^B *Then, then shall the hand of the Lord be made known to those who worship Him.* By "hand" here, however, he means either His power, or our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom are all things, and in Whom are all things. For through Him is again the resurrection of the dead. For it would be a result of His power to have been able to bring into existence things that were not once, and to restore things that have suffered corruption, so that they might be as they were from the beginning.

*Verses 15-17. And He shall threaten the contumacious: For behold, the Lord shall come as fire, and His chariots as a tempest, to render His vengeance in fury, and His rebuke in a flame of fire. For by the fire of the Lord shall all the earth be judged, and by His sword all flesh. Many shall be wounded by the Lord. They who purify themselves and are cleansed in the gardens, and upon the thresholds, eating swine's flesh and abominations and the mouse, shall be consumed together, said the Lord. And I know their works and their thought.* ^C

Having sufficiently comforted those in the new Sion, that is, the Church, and promised them the most ample consolation and an abundance of spiritual ^D goods, and beyond—

^A that which is the resurrection from the dead, and the mansions above, and the glory that is there—he says that it will not be without penalty for those who choose to be disobedient to the work assigned regarding these things. For he will come as fire, he says; for he will descend from the heavens in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. For this is his chariot, according to that which is sung in the Psalms: "The chariot of God is ten thousandfold, thousands of exulting ones." And he will come to render vengeance in fury, and rebuke in a flame of fire. And the rebuke signifies rejection; for he will say to those who are dead in sins: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." For all the earth, he says, shall be judged, and as if struck by the sword of divine ^B wrath, many shall be wounded. These then are they who pay the inescapable penalty, and flee into the unquenchable flame, and being bound by the chains of their own transgressions—but especially compared to others they shall be subjected to punishment, he says—are those who are "purified and cleansed in the gardens," that is, those who have thrust away the redemption through Christ, and have dishonored the grace through holy baptism, which justifies the ungodly and cleanses those who are defiled with sins from every error, having loved rather to walk in error and ignorance, and to worship gods which are not, and who also use impure and filthy sprinklings. For they are being purified, as they at least think, deceiving and being deceived among themselves. For they were either sprinkling themselves with waters, or, carrying torches of fire in a circle, they thought to scour their own souls of the stains resulting from wickedness. That they have ^C utterly neglected all purity and probity, and were not even gifted with a human mind, but were rather made like to senseless beasts, he demonstrates by saying that they are purified "in the gardens," that is, in the groves or woods, under an oak and a poplar and a shadowing tree. For altars and shrines to the demons were built there by them, and in the vestibules of the shrines they ate swine's flesh. And this truly is an argument of luxury. And they used to worship abominations and the mouse. For some of the superstitious had fallen into such folly that they even had statues and figures of mice. But all these, he says, shall be consumed at the same time, that is, together with those of Israel who were disobedient. "For I know their works and their thought." And by "thought" he means the reasonings, following which they became the inventors of shameful deeds, through which arose for them the introduction of abominations, ^D although it was necessary to worship the one God who is by nature and truly God. And they shall all be consumed at the same time, that is, together with those of Israel who were disobedient. "For I know their works and their thought." And by "thought" he means the deliberations, after which having followed, they became inventors of shameful schemes, through which also the bringer of abominations occurred to them, although they ought to have worshipped the one God who is by nature and truly God.

VERS. 18, 19. "I come to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come, and see my glory. And I will leave a sign upon them, and I will send forth from them those who have been saved to the nations, and to Tharsis, and to Phud, and Lud, and Mosoch, and Thobel, and to Greece, and to the islands

^A nor have they seen my glory, and they shall declare my glory among the nations.

Christ makes a certain recapitulation ^B of his whole discourse and of the entire prophecy in these words; and briefly, as it were in summary, he declares what has been done from the beginning to the end, and the power of the dispensation in the flesh. For he mentions both the calling of the nations and the manifestation of the holy apostles, and that he shall be worshipped by all the world under heaven. For indeed, the old Law gathered only one nation, clearly that of Israel, and called one language. But our Lord Jesus Christ imparted the power of the dispensation in the flesh not only to those born of the blood of Israel, but to every nation and all languages. He said, therefore, through the lyre of the Psalmist: “Hear these things, all ye nations; give ear, all you who inhabit the world.” Therefore, he says, “I shall gather all; they shall come and see my glory.” For they have been called through faith, and they who were once far off have become near, and have beheld his glory. How, or in what manner? For they have heard through the preaching of the Gospel that he is equal both in works and in power to God the Father, and that he has accomplished things which cannot be explained in words, in such a way that he has raised the dead from the tombs, and has given light to the blind, and has wrought other things besides these, worthy of all admiration and words. ^C Or in another way: they have beheld his glory, having been initiated and taught that the Word was God and became man. For the nations have not said like the Jews: “Why do you, being a man, make yourself God?” But rather, having recognized the mystery concerning him, they cry out those sacred voices: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” and moreover, that which was said by the holy apostles: “Truly you are the Son of God.” And a sign has been set upon them also; for as Paul says: “We have been sealed with the Spirit of promise,” and Christ has been formed in all our hearts through the participation of the Holy Spirit. And from those who have been saved, he says, I shall send to the nations, to this one and to that one. For these nations are some to the west, some to the east, ^D some in the regions verging toward the north, that is, toward the land of the Greeks and into the islands beyond. “There,” he says, “they shall announce my glory.” For the disciples have not been silent, but have preached everywhere the Gospel of the kingdom and the power of the sacred preaching.

VERS. 20, 21. And they shall bring your brethren out of all nations as a gift to the Lord with horses, and chariots, and litters of mules, with canopies into the holy city Jerusalem, says the Lord; as the children of Israel brought their sacrifices with psalms into the house of the Lord, and I shall take from them priests and Levites, says the Lord.

^A That the preaching of the holy apostles will be entirely and thoroughly effective and fruitful among the nations we have mentioned, and in their regions, he demonstrates in these words: "For your brothers," he says, so that the discourse may be to those of the blood of Israel who have believed, "they shall bring as an offering to the Lord from the nations." For the multitude of the nations has become like an offering ^B to the glory of God, freed by faith from every charge, and having cast off all filth through holy baptism, and having been brought to God as a gift of apostolic zeal. They boast, therefore, in this very thing, calling them their joy and their crown. And that the conversion of the nations to God will be very effortless, and without any sweat, struggle, or labor, he makes clear, taking an example from us, when he says that they shall be brought with horses, and chariots, and litters, and umbrellas. For as those who complete their journey by these means make their way with no labor, so those who return from the error of the Greeks ^C to God come by a smooth and, as it were, paved way, and are almost carried, with God deeming them worthy of every kind of rest. But where will they come? Into the holy city, that is to say, Jerusalem, which is the Church of the living God. And they shall be so pleasing and acceptable, as they approach God, that it is as if a sacrifice, he says, were being brought with psalms and the celebration of divine things. And besides, "I shall take from them," he says, "priests and Levites." From whom? It is not yet entirely clear whether from those who were sent ^D to call the nations, or from those who were called. However, we shall find that it is both this and that. For the inspired disciples were indeed ministers of the oracles of Christ; yet many from the Greek flock have been called, and are still being called, to the priesthood, with God transforming them into a newness of life and mind. For faith, as it were, refashions the chosen into what it pleases.

VERS. 22, 23. *For as the new heaven and the new earth, which I make, remain before me, says the Lord: so shall your seed and your name stand, and there shall be month after month, and Sabbath after Sabbath. All flesh shall come to worship before me in Jerusalem, says the Lord God.*

He promises the firmness of hope in all good things to those who love him and who have acknowledged his appearing. For, he says, just as when I have fashioned the new heavens and the new earth, so I shall allow them to remain, and no time shall destroy them: so your seed and your name shall stand before me. For we look forward to new heavens and a new earth, and his promises, according to what is written. And that the hope of the holy ones shall stand forever and shall remain, the all-wise Paul will confirm, writing that the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. Therefore, the blessed seed, that brought to God by the holy apostles, shall be preserved perpetually, and shall in no way perish; and as though with...

heaven and earth it shall continue to exist, our Savior Christ holding all things together for this purpose. ^A That the multitude of those who believe shall always proceed to a greater increase, He teaches, saying: "From month to month, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, shall all flesh come to worship before me in Jerusalem." For those who believe in Christ have not ceased, but from that time when the divine disciples preached, and down to this very day, they come: some thirsting for the light of true knowledge of God from the error of many gods, others from the Jewish ranks, though one by one, and not in crowds. Nevertheless, they too shall come; for they shall be called in the last times of the age, when the fullness of the Gentiles shall have come in, as the all-wise Paul says.

"And they shall go forth, and shall see the limbs of the men who have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be for a sight to all flesh."

^B It seems that by these things He wishes to signify the calamities brought upon the Jews, which we say they suffered at the hand of the Romans, when, needless to say, the temple was devastated and they were all carried off by a most cruel slaughter. They have, therefore, suffered these things, and they shall be as a spectacle to all flesh, and they are afflicted with a punishment that is all but eternal. For this perhaps is hinted at when He says that their worm shall not die, nor shall the fire be quenched or allayed. ^C But there are some who wish to refer these words to the time of the consummation of the age, when those who have transgressed shall be cast forth as it were as limbs, relegated to punishment and to the unceasing flame. For there the worm of those who are punished shall live perpetually, and the fire shall not be quenched. But Christ, by whom and with whom is glory to God and the Father with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages, shall deliver us from all these things. Amen.

FOR THE SECOND VOLUME SUPPLEMENT

FRAGMENTS FROM THE CATENAE ON THE PROPHETS JEREMIAH, BARUCH, EZEKIEL, AND DANIEL

ON JEREMIAH

(From the Catena of Michael Ghisler on Jeremiah. Lyon 1625, vol. 3 fol.)

III, 23. *Truly in falsehood were the hills and the strength of the mountains; etc.* ^A He makes mention of the mountains and the hills, because in those ancient times, building sanctuaries and temples upon them, and erecting altars, they offered up most pleasing sacrifices to the demons. III, 24. *But confusion has devoured the labors of our fathers from their youth.* Confusion they call the truly ignominious and most disreputable worship of idols, and the error involved in it, which also devoured the labors of their fathers; for they spent their substance sacrificing their sheep and their calves to the demons, and together with their goods they suffered the loss of their understanding. V, 1. *Woe is me! for my soul faints over those who have been slain. Run to and fro in the ways of Jerusalem.* Do you see in these words one who is exceedingly grieving for the sake of the slain, and most willingly desiring to have mercy on Jerusalem, but in some way being hindered by himself, and almost restraining the divine benevolence on account of the excess of iniquity, yet even so seeking to have compassion on their iniquities and desiring to avert the wrath by means of one? For he commanded that one man be pointed out to him from among those who were running about in it. V, 4. *And I said: Perhaps they are poor, because, etc.* Those who were greater and held a more ample priesthood among the Jews are deservedly considered more wretched; upon whom also the wrath was more abundantly poured out. And Christ himself makes this clear, saying, *Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you compass sea and dry land to make one proselyte*, etc. VI, 10. *To whom shall I speak and bear witness?* For they were heaping insults upon the word of Christ, saying to those who were listening concerning him: *He has a demon and is mad. Why do you listen to him?* VII, 17. *Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah?*

They have been punished with a just judgment. For by offering worship to created things, and adoring the works of their own hands, they have brought down the divine wrath upon their own heads. For not unjustly ^A are nets spread for the birds, according to what is written.

VIII, 9. *The wise are ashamed.* By this it seems he signifies the most prominent of the Greek poets and writers, who indeed possess a natural and refined command of language, and are skilled in the elegance of words to the point of charm, but their hearts are devoid of true wisdom. For as the most wise Paul writes: *They became vain in their reasoning, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools*, and so forth. Therefore, they are wise as far as voice and tongue are concerned, but unwise in heart. And the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, according to what is written.

XI, 16. *An olive tree, beautiful, of goodly shape.* For it renders the soul of man completely useless to depart from God and to be utterly deprived of his grace and assistance. For *it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.*

XVII, 19. *To you, O nations.* For even if they have been insolent and disobedient, and have minds full of foolishness, yet they are saved and glorified by Christ. The first fruits of these were the victorious martyrs, the radiance of whose glory illuminates the whole world under heaven. ^C

XVII, 8. *And it will be like a tree.* For he does not boast in riches, nor, being free from empty glories, does he lift up his eyebrows—for these things are vanity and nothing else. For it is a safe pledge of salvation to trust in God, who is powerful in all things; but to place one’s hope in other things is vain and useless.

XVIII, 6. *Behold, as the clay of the potter.* For he transforms with ease whatever he chooses of the things he has made.

XXIII, 29. *Are not my words the like? etc.* He calls the evangelical and saving proclamation fire, or even the participation in the Holy Spirit itself, which is also likened to fire. And so the ^D most wise John the Baptist says concerning himself and our common Savior, Jesus Christ: *I baptize you with water unto repentance*, etc. Rightly, therefore, did Christ say: *I came to cast fire upon the earth, and what do I wish but that it be kindled?*

XXXIV, 16. *And you turned back.* Do you see how he does not endure the symbols being despised, or rather, the truth itself still suffering insult as if in shadows? *For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance*, according to what is written. But the Jews, dragging back those who had once been set free and subjecting them again to the yokes of slavery, did not observe the "without repentance."