Commentary on the Prophet Habakkuk

they have not been healed. Let us each ^A leave it and let us depart for each to his own way, because its judgment has reached to heaven, it is lifted up to the stars." But the judgment is into heaven, and the sin is on high. For they have acted lawlessly, as I said, not simply against one of the saints, but against the Lord of the saints. ^B "All who have heard your report will rejoice, and will clap their hands over you; for upon whom has your malice not come at all times?"

XLI. That God has passed a just sentence regarding the overturning of the Babylonian empire will be a clear argument, in that no one will groan because of it, but will rather applaud and rejoice, and will insult the one lying prostrate; for the reason that it has harassed others by inflicting intolerable calamities and exacting tributes, and has brought upon them the things that are accustomed to cause the greatest pain. For it was hateful and intolerable to all, even when it forced those who were far away to feel its perversity.

We might further say that even the inventor of sin, that is, ^C Satan, who has spread the net of his own malice everywhere, and has enclosed the inhabited world in the dragnet of error and deception, and has bound it with the snares of perdition—and consequently has been overthrown by Christ and driven out from his tyranny over us—could deservedly hear: "All who have heard your report will rejoice, and will clap their hands over you; for upon whom has your malice not come at all times?"

OF OUR HOLY FATHER CYRIL, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, EXEGETICAL COMMENTARY ON THE PROPHET HABAKKUK.

PROOEMIUM.

I. The structure of the prophecy ^C which we have in our hands has been arranged very clearly and skillfully.

It is, indeed, full of that economy which befits the saints. For it is becoming for those holy men to cry out and say: "For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you." ^A Yet to perceive this, no small measure of sound judgment is required; since one may observe that the scope of the prophecy contains within itself a twofold contemplation, at once spiritual and historical. I shall, therefore, profitably preface my remarks by briefly gathering together the parts of the prophecy and stating what they concern. In this way, the understanding of those who read it will be facilitated, and they will find nothing difficult or arduous.

Since Israel was indignant—to an extraordinary degree—because of the things that had been predicted by the prophets (for they knew, they truly knew, that at times they would be captives, fall into the hands of enemies, and come under the yoke of an unaccustomed servitude), the blessed Habakkuk attempts to teach them that, by the righteous judgment of the God who rules over all, and for reasonable causes, such things would at times happen to them. ^B Having embraced a life alien to the Law and contrary to reason, and having turned toward everything that is reprobate, they did not cease to incite that stainless Mind against themselves, until their affairs came down to such a depth of misery. He makes this evident by censuring those who chose to live unholily, and by setting this forth as, so to speak, the preface and theme of the entire prophecy, and then introducing God threatening the onslaught of the Babylonians against these despisers.

But since it was necessary for him not only to appear as a herald of gloomy and most painful things, and to come forward to declare that the most shameful of all evils would befall them in due time, but also to recount, as was useful, some things that might lead to a cure, and to prophesy some things through which those in distress might be able to find relief; he cries out against the cruelty of the Babylonians themselves, and calls those men despisers who had burned the very divine temple, laid waste the holy city, and spared not the sacred vessels. "Wherefore," he says, "do you look upon them that despise? Will you hold your peace when the wicked man swallows up the just?" Then he adds the captivity of Babylon itself, and the liberation of those who had endured that unaccustomed servitude, which was to come in time through Cyrus. ^C From this partial deliverance, he shifts his discourse to the universal and most general one: that is, the redemption that has taken place through Christ for all those who are delivered through faith, who put off the yoke of sin, and who escape the bitter and cruel master, Satan. In these words, you have the scope of the entire prophecy collected for us in brief. We shall now, as far as we are able, discuss each part individually.

CAP. I.

VERS. 1. *Assumptio, quam vidit Habacuc propheta.* ^D

II. By this, he means the assumption of the vision—that is, the reception of foreknowledge, which one might acquire, God granting it. For He himself "multiplied visions," as it is written,

and He speaks to the prophets, showing them beforehand the things that are to come through the Holy Spirit, and placing them, as it were, before their eyes as if they were already present. ^A That he knows, moreover, that he does not speak from his own heart, but rather carries to us the words of God, he clearly persuades us beforehand, calling himself a prophet and showing himself full of the grace for this purpose.

Vers. 2. *How long, O Lord, shall I cry, and Thou wilt not hear? I shall cry out to Thee, suffering violence, and Thou wilt not save?*

III. The prophet considers the person of the one oppressed, and of the one enduring the intolerable injury and abusive behavior from those who are accustomed to cause distress. And he testifies very skillfully to the inexplicable kindness of God. For he shows Him to be exceedingly tolerant of evil, although He is accustomed to hate the wicked. ^B That He is not accustomed to inflict punishments on those who sin immediately, he shows clearly, saying that He has reached such a state of silence and long-suffering that there is now need even for an outcry: since certain people are committing injustices that can no longer be borne against others, and are found to be acting as injurers in an unbridled way against the weaker ones. For by that same prayer with which he accuses God of being excessively patient, he offers testimony to the immense kindness of God. "For how long," he says, "shall I cry, and Thou wilt not hear? I shall cry out to Thee, suffering violence, and Thou wilt not save?"—although Thou threatenest very many and bitter punishments to those who desire to violate the law.

VERS. 3. *Why hast Thou showed me labors and sorrows, to look upon misery and impiety?*

IV. You may learn from this also the detestation of wickedness with which the saints are possessed; for they call the sorrows of others their own. ^C This is why the most wise Paul also says: *Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I am not on fire?* He commands us also to weep with those who weep, clearly showing that sympathy and mutual love are befitting the saints. He says that God showed him "labors and sorrows"—it is clear that these are the labors of those who violate the law, and the impiety of those who are accustomed to inflict injuries—not as though God were the author of his suffering these evils, but because He has gently tolerated the evildoers, although He could have removed them from the midst, so that he might not even become a spectator of such most unworthy things. Indeed, it was a custom for the saints, in such bitter states of low-spiritedness, to desire to be dissolved, just as, for example, the blessed Jonah also did: *"And now, O Lord," he says, "take my soul from me, for it is better for me to die than to live."* ^D The most wise Paul also writes that *it is better to be dissolved and to be with Christ.* For the laying aside of labors for those who desire to live a holy life is to be freed at last from the affairs and business of this world, and to be released, as it were, from these grave troubles of anxieties.

VERS. 4. *Judgment has been made against me, and the judge receives. Therefore the law is dissipated, and judgment is not brought to an end. Because the impious prevails*

^A over the just, for this reason judgment shall go forth perverted.

V. That there is nothing that privately casts down his soul, but that he mourns rather, as one holy and a lover of justice, when he sees the divine commandments contemned, not merely by the common people, but by those adorned with the highest honors, the leaders of the people, and those appointed to the order of judges, he makes clear, affirming that the true votes or suffrages have been corrupted, even though the Law has openly forbidden it: “You shall not accept a person in judgment, because the judgment is God’s.” ^B It is, therefore, a most exalted thing to judge, and the sincere and incorrupt judge is a wise imitator of the divine excellence and glory, not enduring to be turned aside from the suffrage of justice. But the one who accepts bribes is to be judged as highly insolent and refractory against the divine authority, inasmuch as he adulterates the elegance of truth and labors to pervert what is right, and “saying evil is good, and good is evil, and darkness is light, and light is darkness,” ^C he wickedly reckons them. The prophet therefore demonstrates that, in this one most excellent and truly most glorious commandment, the whole law is immediately trampled underfoot. For he who offends in the greatest duty, how could he guard himself from blame in a lesser one? Now the prophet has introduced himself as a witness and spectator of the oppression. For, he says, because to judge rightly is held in no account, therefore the law is weakened, and the rectitude of judgments is not brought to your good pleasure, O Lord, and the impious dominates the just. This crime is also brought against the Synagogue of the Jews by God through other prophets. For it said: “Her princes judged for gifts.” And again to it through the voice of Isaiah: “Your silver is reprobate; thy vintners mix wine with water; thy princes are disobedient, partners of thieves, loving gifts, following after retribution, not judging for the orphans, and not attending to the judgment of the widow.” ^D And it seems that even now the prophet Habacuc wishes to fulfill that which is in the book of Proverbs: “What thine eyes have seen, speak.” He points out, moreover, that he who is accusing shows that this gentleness and tranquility of God is at great variance with human reason, as one who does indeed patiently tolerate evils, as it befits Him (for God is good), yet, as far as human understanding reaches, he makes his long-suffering beyond all measure.

The perverted judgment has also gone forth against Christ, and the law has been dissipated. For the leaders of the Jews did not cease to slander Him whom it was fitting to revere as God, and on that account a worker of miracles, and with the incontinence of their own tongues, pulling every rope, they did not blush to besmirch Him with every infamy; as once in Beelzebub

^A they thought Him to be casting out demons, and at other times they called Him a wine-bibber and one possessed by a demon. And then, when it behooved them to name Him Savior and Redeemer of all, the miserable men perversely put Him to death, having passed a crooked judgment against Him, although the law clearly forbids it: "The innocent and righteous man thou shalt not slay."

But Christ also accused them in another way, as those who were unwilling to think what is right and just, but were silent, and as it were, closing the eye of their understanding upon those things which were spoken by Moses. Although He had not kept the law of the Sabbath, and they had attacked Him more fiercely because He had done something divine on the Sabbath, He answered them thus: "I have done one work, and you all marvel. Therefore Moses gave you circumcision, not because it is of Moses, but because it is of the fathers. And on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry at Me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath? Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment." ^B

Ver. 5. Behold, ye despisers, and look, and marvel at marvels, and perish; for I work a work in your days, which you shall not believe, if any one shall tell you.

VI. When the prophet, having complained of the prosperity of the wicked, had almost reproached the long-suffering of God over them—for a soul that is righteous and a lover of probity is hostile to wickedness—God, the Prince of all things, addresses the despisers, and bids them look and gaze, and number among the things to be wondered at, those things which deserve wonder. These were, ^C as it were, hanging over their necks and about to happen at any moment, things abominable in their approach and hateful in their arrival, which He opportunely commands them to weigh beforehand—things which would be sufficient to destroy those upon whom they should come; wonderful indeed, and unforeseen, and unhoped for, and intolerable, and such as, by the magnitude of their atrocity, could strike with astonishment, and perhaps even be incredible. For disbelief is always closely conjoined with great evils, especially if they are seen to happen to those who in no way expected to suffer such things. For who would have ever thought that beloved Israel, the first-born among ^D children, for whose sake destruction was brought upon Egypt, and countless nations—Canaanites, Hivites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites—were destroyed, would fall into such calamities that their whole region would be overturned, and they themselves would endure a shameful and most harsh slavery, wandering in a foreign land after the disasters of war, to describe every one of which no speech is adequate? For there were conflagrations and the slaughter of men, and women were raped, and infants dashed to the ground, and, as Jeremiah says: "The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children." Things were destroyed

^A even holy things, and nothing of the evils that befell the conquered was omitted by the victors. Indeed, these things are unbelievable, and the narrative finds credence with difficulty, because of the extreme cruelty of those who perpetrated them. Wherefore he says that he will do a work in their days, which they will not believe, if perhaps one were to tell it to them. Moreover, by those words, "in your days," ^B he wishes it to be understood that not much time will intervene, but that the war is as it were at the door, and that vengeance is not far off.

VERS. 6. *For behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation, marching upon the breadth of the earth, to possess tabernacles that are not their own.*

VII. What is there incredible, if, while detailing what is about to happen, he immediately confirms it? For he threatens that he will send the Babylonians against them, a race of men warlike and fierce in the extreme, and in no way inferior in cruelty to the most savage wild beasts, and always notorious for their unbridled ^C madness. He calls them "swift," for almost all of them use horses; "bitter," and sharp, and very grievous, and not unskilled in tactics, but trained most excellently in warfare. Strength, moreover, combined with prudence for the needs of war, most easily, I think, brings all things to fulfillment for those engaged in battle, and they overcome with little effort those who dare to fight against them. Since, however, it was a custom for the Babylonians neither to stay at home always, nor to ward off hostile incursions by defending themselves, but in a certain way to spread over the whole world, to expand, and to depopulate the homes of others, and always to strive to make ^D their own what in no way was owed to them, he rightly says: "A nation marching upon the breadth of the earth, to possess tabernacles that are not their own." For they were accustomed, I reiterate, to attack the regions of others continually, and always to extend their own dominion.

Something similar happened to the Jews who killed the Lord. For although it was permitted to them to inhabit their own land without care and freely, with no one pressing them, they were given over to the victors and became subject to tributes and taxes, and were placed under the sceptres of those who were always expanding and had conquered all under heaven. For, rejecting being ruled by Christ, they stated openly: "We have no king but Caesar." It should be known, moreover, that a soul of a man that counts the divine laws as nothing will be subject to cruel tyrants, specifically to unclean demons, and will serve wicked powers, which always thirst to possess tabernacles that are not their own. For man is God’s. He dwells, therefore, in the saints, and fixes His seat in the souls of the just.

*Formidabilis et illustris est; ex ipso judicium eius erit, et assumptio eius ex ipso egredietur.*

VIII. The discourse passes to the prince of the nation, that is,

^A I believe, to the tyrant of the Babylonians, Nebuchadnezzar, who subdued Judea, and having burned the divine temple, led Judah away captive into his own kingdom. Therefore, he says that he is formidable because of his cruelty, his inability to control his anger, his intractable mind, and his savagery in punishments; and again, that he is illustrious, as he is ambitious, boastful, and an insatiable pursuer of glory. For the kings of Babylon were always arrogant and extremely covetous of glory. ^B And because in every undertaking, counsel, and attack, they trusted most in their own judgment—commanding their subjects to approve and execute their decrees without objection—he therefore adds: *Ex ipso judicium eius erit*, that is, he is driven and moved by his own impulse, and because of his immense pride, he does not listen to the opinion of others, even if he has commanded something that cannot be done. For the counsels of the Persians are haughty.

And because it was their custom to divine about battles, and to try to learn beforehand through magic art where what they had in hand would end, he says further that ^C *Assumptio eius ex ipso egredietur.* He calls the oracle an "assumption." For he says that he will not send for experts in divination from other nations or regions; he will have those who ever dwell with him, who are always lying and know nothing of the truth, but who are always provoking him and are accustomed to announce beforehand that he will be victorious. And the empire of the Babylonians prided itself greatly on this. And so Balak, the king of the Moabites, when he planned to curse those from Israel and sought knowledge of future events, sent to fetch Balaam from Mesopotamia. ^D For he believed that the magi of the Babylonians were clever and accurate, and most powerful in being able to bring anything whatsoever to pass through the magic art.

We will admit, if it pleases, another interpretation of the passage before us. For when he had defined the Babylonian tyrant, and had said that he was formidable and illustrious, he added straightway: *Ex ipso judicium eius erit, et assumptio eius ex ipso egredietur.* And it will be possible to understand it in such a way: the God who is the Lord of all determined to punish Israel, who had chosen to live basely and wickedly. This judgment concerning him, he says, will come from the Babylonian himself, as if he were to say: "He will be a vessel of my wrath, and through him I will punish you; and the 'assumption' concerning you, that is, the visitation and will which I have taken up, will again go forth from him,"—that is, it will be committed to work or effect; for he will bring my decrees and meditations to an end.

*Vers. 8. Et exsilient super pardales equi eius, et velociores super lupos Arabiae. Et equitabunt equites eius, et impetu venient de longinquo, et volabunt quasi aquila prompta ad comedendum.*

IX. He strikes them again with the magnitude of the terrors, and strives to teach them that the multitude of the enemy will be fierce and invincible. But he compels them to pen-

- ^A itence, and to learn those things which it would have been better to have observed having already achieved them. For since the Babylonians are most swift for races, most daring and bold, and in no way different from wild beasts, and as if flying down upon those who are able to be captured, he exhorts them again, comparing the horses to leopards. The leopard is an animal extremely prone to leaping, and very agile in its ability to spring down upon those being pursued. Furthermore, he likens them to the Arabian wolves, which they say excel others in ferocity by many degrees, and quickly make their rush upon whomsoever they choose to attack. And he says they are similar not only to wolves, but also to eagles, which, as I said, immediately fly down and pounce upon the bodies of the dead.

The mind of the Jews also became easily assailable, and their heart like a galloping horse, that is, easily swayed and roving, both toward the passions of the flesh, and toward the unclean spirits themselves, and in addition to these, toward the most powerful assaults of the Romans. They have stumbled against Him who says: «And I will be for them, says the Lord, a wall of fire round about, and I will be for a glory in the midst of it. ^B » Every mind, I believe, is easily captured and utterly easily overturned, succumbing to the divine strength from above. For all our strength and safety is from God: «For in Him we will do valiantly, and He Himself will bring to nothing those who afflict us, » as it is written.

*Vers. 9. Consummation shall come upon the impious, resisting their faces from the opposite direction.*

X. This is the end of the predicted things, and the crown of evils. For he says: The Chaldeans will come, and they will be such as these, and they will do this, and they will add that, and the result drawn from these things will be that the impious are to be destroyed utterly and with their households, and together with the very cities and villages, with God in no way showing mercy, but permitting those who have impiously resisted His nods to be rendered, as it were, into desolation and emptiness, and who, as it were, confronted Him face to face, and openly stood against Him, and clearly set their own will against what God willed.

The ^C Synagogue of the Jews is in a way perfected, holding thoughts contrary to Christ and warring against the Lord’s dogmas, and this not clandestinely, but impudently lifting its face against Him, and doing and saying, to sum up, the most absurd of all evils, and even nailing Him to the wood, and slandering the resurrection. For they not only killed the Savior and Redeemer of all, but also gave money to the soldiers of Pilate, when Christ had been raised, so that they might say that He did not come to life at all, but rather that the disciples had stolen Him away while they were unaware.

*And he shall gather captivity as the sand, and he himself shall take his pleasure in kings, and tyrants are his mockery, and he himself shall laugh at every stronghold, and he shall cast up a mound, and take it.* ^D

^C

Furthermore, Satan took captive Israel, failing to believe in Christ; all its princes became his delight, as did those who gloried in the dignity of the priesthood—whom I think it is not improper to call tyrants, because they presided over the people and flourished in great glory and power according to their own estimation. Yet they would never have become the playthings of diabolical perversity if they had obeyed the commandments of the Savior, and had kept the faith and the sanctification through the Spirit. For the Savior of all, who puts every enemy under his feet, would surely have said even to them, "Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy."

VERS. 11. *Then he shall change his spirit, and he shall pass through, and he shall make atonement.*

XII. That the race of Israel will not perish completely, nor be neglected forever, but that happy times will arise and so grave a calamity will cease when, having broken the yoke of slavery, they return home, is what is signified when he says the Lord of all will, as it were, change his spirit and counsel. Not that he will condemn his own decree previously passed upon them—as if what had been done was not rightly done—but rather because, the sufficient penalty having been exacted and punishment inflicted in proportion to their offenses, he will move on to mercy. ^D

and pass over his anger, and will be propitious to those who have suffered. For this, I believe, is what is signified by the word "he shall be propitiated."

^A This is the strength of my God. Art thou not from the beginning, O Lord, my God, my Holy One? And we shall not die.

XIII. When God had announced that he would show mercy to them, and had foretold the transformation of their sad circumstances into better things, the prophet, out of incredible joy, almost leaps for delight, saying that it would be fitting for no other to lead Israel back, to set them free from bonds and slavery, and to have pity on the broken-hearted, save only for God, who is able to govern all things without toil, and who softens the rough, and ^B smooths out, as it were, the high and steep places—which is the same as saying that, through every holy man, He is capable of all things, and nothing is impossible for Him. The prophet then adds: "Art thou not from the beginning, O Lord, my God, my Holy One? And we shall not die." For even if Israel, he says, has been led astray, and has been carried off toward error and onto the worship of foreign gods, yet Thou art still the God of all, who of old had pity on those who fell, as a Holy One, and kept them free from destruction, and did not permit Israel to perish utterly. Therefore, hope is not far off that they will be saved, and that their sad circumstances will pass away, since Thou dost have pity and dost condescend beyond all speech. The saints also rejoiced, learning of the salvation that would come to Israel in the last times, and they offered up prayers, and raised voices and songs full of thanksgiving. And so, the blessed David, foreknowing through the Spirit the mildness that would be upon them, and seeing them as it were unloosed from the bonds of their captivity, sings and says: "Thou hast been favorable, O Lord, to Thy land; Thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob" (Ps. LXXXIV, 2).

^C O Lord, Thou hast set him for judgment, and Thou hast fashioned me to reprove his instruction. Thy eye is pure, so as not to look upon evil, and Thou canst not look upon the labors of pain.

XIV. Again, the word of the prophet is once more concerning—but concerning whom, pray, does he say that he has been set for judgment by God? It is very obscure indeed. Come then, let us necessarily scrutinize the sense of the words spoken, and examine those things. For if it is said concerning the king of the Babylonians that he has been set for judgment by God, we say that he has been set to fulfill the judgment that had gone forth from above against the Israelites—that is to say, the plunder, the captivity, the burning of the cities, and, to speak at once, ^D the desolation of Judaea. But if this is not the case, and we turn the power of the meaning to the person of Israel, we say again that he too has been set for judgment by God. And when we say "for judgment," we mean for condemnation. And so, our Lord Jesus Christ said in one place concerning the Jews: "For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see might see, and those who see might become blind" (John IX, 39). Israel is, therefore, condemned as unrighteous, so that...

as having been slothful regarding the laws, and as having caused no small grief to the Lord of all things. "Me," he says—that is, the prophet—"he formed," meaning, he created and prepared [me] ^A to show the discipline which he decreed against them. For war was brought upon Israel as a discipline and a scourge, and what happened was a mode of punishment, not simply an enterprise of the Babylonians. But if someone should ask and say, "For what reason is the Babylonian set as a punisher, or as a judgment, and Israel as one to suffer?" he who says this will hear in turn, "Because the world is the eye of the Lord, and he will never endure to be a spectator of wicked and impious deeds; nor will he look upon the labors which result for the weaker from the wickedness and oppression of others." For he always turns his eye away from those accustomed to doing such things. When this happens, a harsh fate will follow in every way, and he who is struck by such an aversion will wander in extreme misery. Knowing this, the divine David earnestly prayed: "Turn not thy face away from me, and decline not in thy wrath from thy servant" (Ps. XXVI, 9). For undoubtedly, ^B retribution proceeding from wrath will follow upon the divine aversions.

VERS. 14. Why dost thou look upon the despisers? wilt thou be silent when the impious devoureth the just? And wilt thou make men as the fishes of the sea, and as the creeping things that have no leader?

XV. After the prophet has predicted that the eye of the Divinity is pure, and that he does not look upon those who commit iniquity, nor look with favor upon those who attempt to circumvent and oppress others and who construct pains for the weaker, he is immediately carried away into thoughts of this kind. The cruelest army of the Babylonians punished the Jews with numberless detriments and most bitter evils; they even extended the excess of their own inhumanity so far and pushed it beyond measure, ^C that they did not even spare the sacred places themselves, but together with Jerusalem burned that celebrated temple, and together with the common people snatched away the priests of the divine altars, and profaned the holy things, as it is written (Jerem. LII, seqq.). Having returned home, they lived a dissolute life continuously, with wealth acquired by plunder, suffering no punishment for the wicked things committed, fearing no enemies, dreading no war; rather, they alone rose up against all, and easily subdued whom they pleased without any sweat or dust, using the most successful circumstances, insulting the calamities of the lost, and leading the primary roles in all things, priding themselves on their lack of self-control in anger, their unbridled license to rule, and their superiority over everyone. The prophet therefore stands amazed, seeing them filled with joy outside of any sadder movement of soul, and he touches next upon the divine judgments, and attempts to investigate what is inscrutable to all and not to be probed too curiously by anyone's mind. ^D

^A He seeks to understand what reason there can be for the long-suffering of the omnipotent God—that He should deign to regard even those accustomed to such contempt and those who have chosen a life of impiety with a calm and gentle eye, and that He should keep silent and endure it when the impious man has all but devoured the good and the just. From this, he says that because punishment does not immediately follow in the footsteps of those who sin, but rather wrath is held back, mortals have come to the point where they now attack, and treat the weaker ones as though they were fish, and attempt to devour one another with gaping and insatiable mouths, and to practice a life so harsh and unsociable that they differ little from the reptiles that dwell in mountains and caverns, which, on account of their great ferocity and extreme bitterness, are untamable and do not imitate the natures of other animals, which sometimes feed in herds under a single leader set over the flock, and appear as if they were marshaled by a general. But the Babylonians were unsociable and inaccessible to others, bitter and poisonous, full of destruction, and swallowing up the weaker ones with gaping mouths.

^C It does not seem improbable that the prophet spoke against the devil and the powers of evil that are with him. For they are indeed despisers, utterly casting off the fear of God, most wicked, and even reaching every measure of absurdity, though God is most patient. But once we had been brought under them, we wretched ones devoured one another. For there was not present the arbiter of peace, the leader over us, that is to say, Christ, the Lord of heaven and earth and of all things. On this account we had become as fish, most irrational and altogether mute. For there was no word of piety in us, no voice of thanksgiving to God, but rather, killing one another and leading a life altogether contrary to reason, we lived in the world like fish; and such bitterness was in the mind of each that we seemed already to have become completely bestial, and as far as anger and bitterness were concerned, to have either equaled the poisonous beasts or to be pressing on to surpass them.

^D VERS. 15-17. *He lifted up his completion with a hook, and drew him up in a casting-net, and gathered him into his drag-nets. For this reason he will be glad, and his heart will rejoice. For this reason he will sacrifice to his drag-net, and offer incense to his casting-net, because through them his portion has become fat, and his food is choice. Because of this he will cast his casting-net, and will never spare to kill nations.*

XVI. Having mentioned fish, he persists in the metaphor and speaks as if about one of the sailors or fishermen. For fishermen practice their art in many ways. For they either catch fish with hooks and those that leap [alt-version omitted]

^A from the waves they draw up with lines, or they encircle them with nets and pull them in in great numbers, or they prepare other nets for this purpose. And when they act successfully, having gathered a great multitude, they rejoice in their craft, and they almost sacrifice to the nets, as though they had provided them with a most abundant portion. The prophet says that something of this kind was done by Nebuchadnezzar, who, with an hook and with nets, and even with a casting-net, attacked Israel himself and other nations along with him, carried them off into his own kingdom, and as if a feast had been set before his own bodyguards, ordered them to enjoy themselves, and commanded that the captives should become the portion and the most abundant booty of the victors. Therefore, he says, perhaps: "And he will sacrifice to his ^B net and burn incense to his casting-net," that is, to his own forces, through which he netted the nations and, furthermore, Israel, kindling the thank-offering. And since the matter turned out for him very successfully, he will not cease, he says, from killing nations, and plundering tribes, and bringing lands under his own power, and deeming no one worthy of mercy at all.

Satan has done this same thing against the whole human race, and especially against Israel. For with one net and one seine—the net of sin, I mean—he has enveloped everyone, although because of their impiety toward Christ, Israel is his own in a special sense: "For his food," he says, "is choice." Now the Jews were also approved and commended above all others regarding their manner of life. "For when ^C 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 the Lord’s portion was his people Jacob, the cord of his inheritance was Israel." Israel, therefore, chosen above the others, as the firstborn among sons, as if from a holy root—I mean that of the fathers—and having the Law as a pedagogue, and having been called to the knowledge of Him who is by nature the one and truly existing God. Yet, even though excelling in such glory and grace, he was subdued like the others. And some, indeed, because they went astray and were seduced, became the devil’s portion; but others, because they had known Him who is God by nature, the Son begotten of Him by nature ^D and clothed in human form and the likeness of our nature, impiously slaughtered Him, and were delivered into his nets, for him whose goal is to destroy all mortals utterly from the earth.

CHAP. II

XVII. A prophetic mystery is explained to us in these words. For it was the custom with the saints, if they wished to receive oracles from God and to take in knowledge of future things, with Him sounding within their mind and heart, to remove the distractions, cares, and all anxieties of this life from their mind as far as possible, and, having become thus empty, quiet, and watchful,

^A having preserved [his mind] as if on some hill, or watchtower, or rock, he may then ascend to the contemplation of those things which the Lord of knowledge might choose to clarify for them. For the Lord abhors a mind that is low and cast down, but He seeks hearts that are able to fly on high, and that have been lifted above earthly affairs and temporal desires. For it is written that "The mighty of the earth have been greatly exalted," [note 53] and again, "The young of the vulture fly on high." [note 54] For the mind of the saints is far removed above earthly things and more material concerns. "I will stand, therefore," he says, "upon my watch," [note 55] that is, in practice and habit I will prepare watchfulness for myself, I will again cleanse my mind, I will rid it of worldly care, and I will recover it ^B as if upon a rock, that is, into a certain stability and a security of thoughts placed, as it were, on high. Being there, as if from a mountain peak, I will look on mentally to see what words may be spoken to me by God, and what I myself might have to say if He should wish to reprove me, as one who has spoken rather inconsiderately: "Why do you look upon the despisers? Will you be silent when the wicked swallows up the just?" [note 56]

VERSES 2, 3. And the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision, and clearly on a boxwood tablet, that he who reads it may run. For the vision is for a time, and it shall spring forth to the end, and not in vain.

^C XVIII. Scripture commands that the vision, or revelation of things to come, be written down; for it is a thing worthy of being heard, and one of the most marvelous. Moreover, it is always the custom that what is specially extolled in writing should be honored with long and perennial memory. Write, therefore, O prophet, he says, the vision, so that those who are yet to be born in their own time might know the things foretold, and that those who happen upon your words may "run" after them, that is, may desire to understand the power within them, and so believe entirely that the prediction will indeed be true. "For the vision is for a time," that is, for a delay, and a reprieve, and a short intervening period will pass. Yet it will reach its fulfillment in truth, and not in vain. For truth never falsifies, and nothing of those things which it has spoken can ever be empty or vain.

VERS. 4. If it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come, and will not delay. If he draws back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But the just shall live by his faith.

^D XIX. Without naming anyone explicitly, "Wait for it," he says, that is, even if it is slow, keep looking for it, and do not let your hope in it falter; but rather, remain constant and firm in your faith, however much time may have intervened. It seems, therefore, that God, the ruler of all, is sounding within the mind of the prophet, and revealing in secret that he who was promised will surely come; but, because of the time that intervenes, He commands him to wait for him, as I just said. For if a believer has become slothful and hesitates, he will not be able to please Me, He says, seeing as he is one whom I perceive to be entangled in the vices of the soul; nor could I...

grant pardon to such a one. Rather, I shall reckon him an unbeliever and hateful. Yet it will surely follow for him who bears witness to the truth in my words, that he shall also become a partaker of life; and this is the prize established for those who honor God, and an excellent, eternal reward of divine benevolence. Now, as far as the account of the history goes, it was Cyrus the son of Cambyses of whom He says: "If he tarries, wait for him." For he took, he truly took Babylon, and together with it he sacked the other cities as well.

As regards ^B the mystical interpretation and spiritual narrative, I would say that the power of the things set forth may rightly be understood as referring to our common Savior, Christ. For He is "He who is, and who was, and who is coming"; and that He would arrive ^B at the appointed times has been foretold by the voices of the holy prophets. Moreover, that upon His arrival He was destined to overthrow the empire of the devil and to expel from us the unholy and unclean multitude of demons by His power, the sacred oracles of Scripture have clearly sung, and the very outcome of the events will be its witness. Nevertheless, "there is a time" for the prophecy. For in the last days of the present age the Only-begotten shone forth, and he who withdrew himself and most foolishly rejected faith in Him, offended God, and remained destitute of heavenly goods, and has been cast out from the holy gathering of the saints, according to the prophetic word: "As a wild tamarisk in the desert, which will not see when good things come." But he who is superior to cowardice and shrinking, and has brought love and faith toward Him into his mind and heart, has, in recompense for such a disposition, an excellent reward: life that knows no old age, the putting off of sins, and sanctification through the Spirit. For we have ^C been justified "not by the works of the law," as it is written, but rather "by faith in Christ." For the law indeed works wrath—since it calls transgressors to judgment—but grace dissipates the wrath by dissolving sins.

"But the arrogant, and the scorner, a proud man, shall accomplish nothing."

XX. Having foretold that the one announced would arrive at the appointed time, to dissolve the gloomy things and release those who are crushed from every misery, he now makes mention of the destroyer, and of him who has ranged ^D about in every kind of inhumanity and savagery in the manner of wild beasts. By these words, historically the profane and god-fighting Nebuchadnezzar is indicated, but spiritually, Satan. He calls him arrogant, and a scorner, and proud, and most rightly so. For this is the nature of the case, whether we take it to be Satan or the Babylonian man in these words. He calls him arrogant, meaning one who is conceited about himself, or confident, or one who vaunts himself in vain; furthermore, a scorner and proud, as one who, out of great arrogance and hollow swelling, does not even for a moment ^D consider the incomparable power of God who is almighty.

Such a one, he says, will achieve nothing; for the end and outcome of events will by no means proceed according to his will. He will not always live in pleasure, nor will he always extend his borders and be surrounded by illustrious glory. And it is true, as the blessed David says when singing: “I have seen the impious man highly exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon; and I passed by, and lo, he was not, and I sought him, and his place was not found.” ^A For pride tends entirely toward humiliation; but a modest mind is adorned with the highest honors. The disciple of the Savior provides confirmation of this, while writing and saying: “Let the humble brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich man in his humiliation, because like the flower of the grass he will pass away.”

Ver. 5. *Who has dilated his soul as hell, and like death is not satisfied, and will gather to himself all nations, and will receive to himself all peoples.*

XXI. God agrees with the prophet and demonstrates that he is speaking the truth, authenticating the truth of his words by the crimes of the devil and of Nebuchadnezzar. For the prophet was saying: “He has drawn up a finishing with a hook, and has dragged him in a fishing net,” and the rest. But the God of all things, referring the causes to something still greater and truer, compares him henceforth to hell and death. For death and hell are truly insatiable. And it is true that, according to the will of the Babylonian, all nations would have been gathered under him, and such evils might deservedly be reckoned as the crimes of Assyrian ambition. For the circle of the earth was small for them, nor would they have been content with the servitude of all nations. ^B One can also see the very inventor of sin, that is, Satan, striving to bring the whole earth, so to speak, under himself, and like hell devouring those who perish by his perverse machinations. For he himself says somewhere: “And I shall grasp the whole inhabited world with my hand like a nest, and I will take them as eggs left behind; and there is no one who will escape me, or resist me.” For the beast is insatiable, and untamable, and full of pride, truly detestable and imbued with the hatred of men.

Ver. 6. *Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a proposition for a narration against him? And they will say: Woe to him that multiplieth to himself that which is not his (how long?), and that loadeth a heavy yoke upon himself!*

XXII. That his rule will be neither stable, nor his joys lasting in the multitude of those things which he has gathered, and that he will lose utterly both his principality and his glory, and his fall will be a story for the general public, he makes clear. For he says that a parable, or proposition, will be taken up over him, that is, it will be the subject of talk everywhere. ^C But what is this discourse? “Woe to him that multiplieth to himself that which is not his…”

Commentary on the Prophet Habakkuk

^A "Woe to him who multiplies to himself what is not his, and loads his yoke heavily!" That is to say, always rendering the punishment for the things regarding which he has acted impiously more burdensome upon himself, destroying nations, and gathering together entire lands, and always leaping upon those who in no way belong to him, and by necessity subjecting them to his own scepters, and having countless peoples under his hand. And he has exclaimed in the midst, "Until when?" showing that he is insatiable in greed, unbridled in cruelty, and averse to any limit of iniquity. Therefore, the tyrants of the Babylonians were insatiable, and to be dreaded for their cruelty, and accustomed to dare all the most shameful things.

Satan does the same, always gathering what is not his, and bringing upon himself a more grievous punishment. To whom it is said in a certain place: "As a garment stained in blood will not be clean; so neither shall you be clean, because you have destroyed my land, and killed my people" (Isa. xiv, 19, 20). "You shall not remain for an eternal time." For what peoples has he not destroyed? Or what nations has he spared? And what is there among things most detestable that he has not dared to do? Therefore, "Woe" will justly follow him; and he shall become a parable, his authority having been overthrown and his tyranny over all having been cast out. And this the wise Jeremiah again hints at for us, speaking thus concerning him: "The partridge has cried out, it has gathered what it did not hatch, making its riches not with judgment: in the half of its days they shall abandon it, and in its last days it shall be a fool" (Jerem. xvii, 11).

This, moreover, happened truly according to history. For the Babylonian seized Judea, and indeed Samaria also, and laying waste other places as well along with it, he carried off the plunder to his own seats. But when Cyrus had campaigned against Babylon with the Persians and Medes, those who had been gathered together departed again, and as if they had taken wing, they went back home, those whom the bonds of captivity had held. Furthermore, some from among the nations have turned away from the worship of idols because of their Master, and having abandoned him who once cried out and called them to himself, they have left him deserted and have run to Christ. For the former gathered for himself what was not his; but Christ accepted what was his own. For because He is God, therefore He is Lord of all.

Verse 7. "Because suddenly your biters shall rise, and your ensnarers shall wake up, and you shall be for a spoil to them."

^D XXIII. He says that those who bite him will rise up against him unexpectedly, and by the assaults of war they will waste that which is under his power; these were Cyrus and those around him, the Persians and Medes, and the Elamites; who, as if shaking sleep from their eyes, and recovering their senses as if from drunkenness, barely becoming free from their former terrors, will act valiantly in initiating the war against him. Then, plotting in many ways, they will easily conquer, driving away and carrying off the goods of the Chaldeans, and plundering the Babylonians. We shall find that the wicked one, Satan, has also suffered this [orig: destruction; the text continues...]

^A to himself, as if by a net spread out and by the snares of sin placed close together, he has gathered all the nations. Nevertheless, those who bite him have risen up—that is, the heralds of the evangelical oracles—rending his body as if with teeth, namely, those who have chosen to think thoughts belonging to him. For just as “he who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit,” so he who cleaves to the devil is one body with him. “And his attackers will wake up.” ^B For having understood that he is now set under the feet of the saints—as Christ clearly says: “Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy”—they will seize those who think his thoughts and will easily transfer them to the knowledge of the truth, teaching them who is by nature the true God, and explaining the mystery of Christ, who is indeed seen to be the first to have plundered him. Therefore, we may hear him saying: “Or how can anyone enter the house of the strong man and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his goods.” ^C And as soon as he was born from the holy Virgin, he began to plunder his goods. For Magi arrived from the East, 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.” And indeed they did worship, and honored him with gifts, and became the first-fruits of the inheritance of the nations. Being diabolical vessels, and the most precious among all his other members, they ran to Christ. That he was about to plunder the vessels of the strong man was also proclaimed enigmatically by the prophet Isaiah. For he says thus again about him: “For before the little child knows to call father or mother, he will take the strength of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria ^D before the king of the Assyrians.” The power of the discourse seems indeed to hint at some of the things accomplished historically. For Samaria was plundered by both the king and the leader of the Assyrians. But it reveals a spiritual mystery. For the prophetic discourse indicated to us that the power of the Savior would easily plunder those who had plundered his own people. “Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples will plunder you, for the blood of men, and for the impiety of the land, and of the city, and of all who dwell in it.”

XXIV. The word is true, even if it is understood of both once again. For the Babylonian plundered many nations; Satan has done this same thing. Therefore it has befallen them to be condemned to equal punishments. And the affairs of the Chaldeans were indeed plundered by Cyrus; but Satan by the saints. The crimes of both are equal, and their sins are twin, and their savagery is somewhat kin, and their cruelty against all is the same. For they have murdered both lands and cities, the one bodily, the other mentally, using sin as a sharp dart. But he says very well that he will be plundered by the remnant. For as though he had...

^A destroyed the Babylonian, he says that those who had managed to escape would become his greatest enemies, and that although they were few, they would easily overcome them, as God grants the victory and gives His assent to their being able to accomplish all things. This matter could be truly understood even if it were applied to the enemy of all, that is, Satan. For he has captured and ravaged all those on earth, and has bound them under the yoke of sin. But he himself has also been plundered by the remnant of the peoples, that is, by those justified in the faith by Christ and sanctified in the Spirit. "For the remnant of Israel shall be saved." From among them were the divine disciples, who were the first-fruits of those who plundered the destroyer. Then, after them, even today the leaders and rulers of peoples, who rightly handle the word of truth, plunder him and lead back those who have been subjugated into the path of piety.

VERS. 9, 10. Woe to him who multiplies evil avarice for his house, to set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil. You have devised shame for your house. You have destroyed many peoples, and your soul has sinned.

XXV. ^B The discourse again rebukes the Babylonian, who wishes to establish his own principality or empire from the plunder of all, and who raises up his own house on high, and gilds and fortifies it excessively beyond measure, so that he might perhaps be able to repel injustice from himself without effort, that is, always to avoid occurrences of evil. For it was the established practice of the Babylonians to maintain large garrisons, and to have countless men skilled in the arrangement of battle-lines and devoted to the discipline of war, so as to be able to easily ward off the violence and malice of invaders. But he teaches that he will bring back only disgrace and shame from such apparatus, his hope turning to the contrary, saying: "You have devised shame for your house, you have acted," or rather, "brought to completion against many peoples," having destroyed them with total ruin. "Since therefore your soul has sinned," you will pay dire penalties, while you who were once splendid, and "have set your nest on high," will be miserable and abject, and suddenly ^C found under the feet of your enemies.

These words will apply most especially to Satan himself, and to the inventors of heresies, who are overcome by the love of ruling, and to appear to preside over many, have destroyed many peoples, and have indeed imported evil avarice into their own houses, and have likewise set up their nests on high, pouring forth arrogant words of vanity, and belching against the divine glory, things which would become only their own tongues and minds. Therefore their souls have sinned: for they have behaved atrociously against the common Savior Christ Himself, sinning against their brothers: "And striking their weak conscience, as it is written."

VERS. 11. Therefore the stone from the wall shall cry out, and the beetle from the wood shall answer it.

^A XXVI. Very often Divine Scripture attributes voices even to things lacking life and sensation; not as though they were able to speak, but because the things themselves do, as it were, cry out. Hence the blessed Isaiah says: "Be ashamed, O Sidon; the sea hath spoken." Furthermore, David says: "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaimeth the work of His hands." For the very creation, by the benefits through which it is adorned and rendered wonderful, proclaims by these same things the glory of Him who made it. Therefore, there are voices in things, even if they do not form words. Understand something similar here, too. For he says that a stone from the wall and a beetle from the wood shall cry out against the Babylonian. But in what way, we shall explain: The Babylonian, having invaded the cities of Judea and others, burned all the houses within them. It followed necessarily that the stones cracked, the walls were shaken, and the wood and the roofs collapsed upon them due to profound antiquity, containing small beetles, that is, moths. For this reason, he says that the ruins themselves will cry out against his cruelty—these things, as I said, being cast-off stones, lying in the midst of the streets, and wood that was completely half-burnt, and which, from the very decay, attested to the antiquity of the cities. It was therefore a crime for the Babylonian to have destroyed by fire such ancient and very old cities. He shall also destroy houses, their inhabitants having clearly been removed from their midst. It should be known that instead of the words "beetle from the wood," other interpreters have rendered it "joint of wood." Wherefore one can think that perhaps the beams of the houses and the joining together of the wood within them, that is, the connection, were called "beetles" at that time, because the roof laid upon them sustained it, as it were, with many feet.

"Woe to him who buildeth a city with blood, and prepareth a city with iniquities! Are not these things from the Lord Almighty? And many peoples have failed in the fire, and many nations have fainted."

^C

XXVII.

^A For how is it not absurd and entirely impious that many peoples should have fainted in the fire, and that many nations should have been often oppressed—in other words, that glorious cities should have been burnt up together with their inhabitants, and entire nations and their heads should have perished in these evils?

Someone might aptly direct this same remark also to the leaders of the Jews themselves, who killed all the holy prophets, and thought that they would be greatly advantaged at Jerusalem if they built it up by blood and by exercising violence against all. For some they treated injuriously, others they stoned, and finally, to those crimes they added the slaying of the Son, using their own law as a pretext for their madness. For although the Mosaic commandments were abrogated by Christ, they pretended to be tormented with grief. But that their zeal was hateful to God, and, as the divine Paul says, “not according to knowledge,” the prophet clearly demonstrates with these words: “These things are not from the Lord Almighty.” Therefore, they also fainted in silver, and were oppressed, as war consumed them. For such things happened to the Jewish peoples, because they acted lawlessly against the Son, and, as I said, killed the prophets before Him.

“For the whole earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. Like much water, it shall cover them.”

^B XXVIII. Divine Scripture often blends the times, and relates future events as if they were already past, a fact which also may be perceived here. For when it should have said, “It shall be filled,” it says, “It is filled.” When, therefore, heavenly wrath shall overwhelm Babylon, and all these things foretold have been perpetrated therein by Cyrus and his forces, and that city—once fearsome and invincible, which always displayed its ferocity against others in such a way that no one could confront its might—shall henceforth appear pitiable and powerless and altogether desolate, and an object of contempt to its enemies, then, I say, the whole world under heaven shall understand what and how great the divine glory is, and shall be filled with the knowledge of it. For strong indeed, and illustrious, and terrible, and invincible was the empire of the Chaldeans, while God suffered it, and granted them that they should possess Judea, and overthrow countless cities. ^C But after God determined to involve it in the evils it deserved, it was shaken and fell, and was given over to desolation. The prophet Jeremiah says something of this kind concerning it: “How the hammer of the whole earth was cut and broken? How has Babylon become a devastation among the nations? They shall set an ambush for you, and you shall be caught, O Babylon, and you shall not know it. You were found, and you were caught, because you stood against the Lord. The Lord has opened His treasury, and has brought forth the vessels of His wrath; for there is a work for the Lord God in the land of the Chaldeans, because its times have come.” It must be known that, after Jerusalem was burnt, Christ has passed over to the nations; ^D whence, from then on, the whole world recognized the glory of God and the Father, that is, Himself, as if a torrent [covering] the lands.

^A For like a river, Christ surged over onto her, as He also promised long ago, saying through the voice of the prophet: "Behold, I will incline toward them as a river of peace, and as an overflowing torrent [covering] the glory of the nations." And after Israel had made a calf in the desert and had offended God in this, He promised the manifestation through the Savior, and the abundance of grace through Him, saying: "But as I live, and as My name lives, the glory of the Lord shall fill the whole earth." For all things are with Christ, who is the glory of the Father. Wherefore He also said: "I have glorified You on the earth; I have finished the work which You have given Me that I should do."

"Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor with a muddy overturning, and makes him drunk, so that he may look upon their caves! Drink your fill of dishonor instead of glory."

^B

XXIX.

This would be fitting also, if anyone were to decide to speak the truth concerning the impious Pharisees. For they have given their neighbor drink with a "muddy overturning," and we say that this is their doctrine, the commandments of men, and in addition to these, their madness against Christ, and the accusations of their unbridled speech. For He was calling [them] to life, but they had fallen into such madness that they even said to those listening: "He has a demon, and is mad; why do you listen to Him?" They did this so that, having spurned the saving word, which illuminates the mind, ...

^A they might look into their own caves—that is, into dark, lightless, and dead doctrines. Thus they have fallen into the satiety of disgrace, although they were once brilliant and occupied glory not of a small order. For they had been leaders of shepherds, and were also priests and judges.

This kind of discourse might also apply to the inventors of impious doctrines, who in truth give their neighbor to drink with a turbid subversion, pouring the poison of fallacy and deception into the souls of the simple, so that they too might look upon their caves. For their mind is dark, full of deceit, truly saturated with diabolical gloom, and—as I think—in no way differing from caves, which are full of dead bodies and replete with every stench and impurity.

But for a more accurate declaration of the words proposed, I think this also should be said. The Hebrews relate—as if it were transmitted by tradition—that Nabuchodonosor, after having brought Judea and all the other regions under his yoke and led the princes of the nations into his own kingdom, at one time prepared potions, then brought in the captives, and having curiously inebriated them with that drink, compelled them to dance. And when, exhausted by that agitation of their bodies, they would fall, and at times reveal their naked, secret parts, he would laugh, and from this made for himself sport and a jest. They say these are aptly called caves. And the account possesses a certain probability. For other interpreters have set forth "nakedness" instead of "caves," so that the meaning might be as follows: "Woe to him who gives his neighbor to drink with a turbid subversion, and inebriates him, so that he may look upon his nakedness, or his shame."

VERS. 16, 17. And you, heart, be moved and shaken. The cup of the Lord’s right hand has encircled you, and disgrace has been gathered over your glory. For the impiety of Libanus shall cover you, and the ruin of beasts shall terrify you, because of the blood of men, and the impieties of the land, and of the city, and of all who dwell therein. ^{B C}

XXX. In the souls of the proud, there is always, I know not how, a naturally innate and great stupor. And besides the fact that they think the happiness they have attained will be eternal, they thoroughly banish and cast away any expectation of the changing of things for the worse. Such is that which is brought forward through the mouth of David, as if from the persona of those living a voluptuous and delicious life: "I, however, said in my abundance, I shall not be moved forever." ^D Therefore, it rebukes the Babylonian—who is sick with too much arrogance, and is all but unfeeling and immobile—with these words: "And you, heart, be shaken"; that is, do not think that you are firmly established in unshakable prosperity; rather, receive sad thoughts from now on: understand what is to come, and yield to experience, even if, before you experience it, you did not—even a little—

deign to imagine that you yourself would ever be among the sorrowful, and that your heart would fall into no small sufferings. What, then, is it that moves it and casts it into griefs? ^A “The cup of the Lord’s right hand has gone around to you, and shame has gathered upon your glory.” For just as you gave your neighbor a turbid cup of ruin to drink, in the same way, having drunk that which is brought upon you by God’s anger, you will be an abomination to all and dishonored, pitiable and cast down, and utterly deprived of that ancient glory. ^B By saying that the cup is the right hand of the Lord, the blessed prophet suggests that it must be considered that it is impossible not to drink it when God brings it. For it is absolutely necessary to fulfill that which arises from anger. “For if he closes against a man, who will open?” according to what is written; and as the prophet says, “And his high hand, who shall turn back?”

As to why such things will happen, he clarifies it, saying: “For the impiety of Lebanon will cover you, and the misery of the beasts will terrify you.” Now Lebanon is a mountain of Phoenicia, one of the most conspicuous, well-wooded and fragrant, as it is incense-bearing; ^C and holy Scripture sometimes compares it to Israel, because it prided itself in many holy heads, raised on high, thinking on things in heaven, and clothed on all sides with the beauty of piety. The blessed David also makes mention of these, saying thus to God: “The cedars of Lebanon which you have planted, there the sparrows will nest.” For everyone of the saints is like a cedar, as I just said, rising on high by not deigning to think on lowly things—that is, things on earth—and becomes like a covering for others, receiving as sparrows those who wish to be taught by him. Therefore, since the Chaldean devastated Jerusalem, and acted impiously and offended God, having also burned the divine temple along with the city, and having plundered the very sacred objects that were renowned, for this reason he says that the impiety committed against Lebanon will cover him. Now he calls Lebanon, as I said, either Judea or Jerusalem; or, as one might perhaps think, the temple itself, full of fragrance and adorned with the heads of the priests as if with cedars. ^D As to how the impiety of Lebanon was to cover him, he showed, adding: “For the misery of the beasts will terrify you.” He seems here again to call beasts the Persians and Medes who were armed with Cyrus, as having much untamed [nature] and whetted for cruelty. And that God does not punish in vain, but rather imposes punishments equal to what anyone has done, he shows, adding: “Because of the blood of men, and the impieties of the land, and of the city, and of all who inhabit it.”

Every one of the Pharisees, too, who were the authors and architects of the slaughter of Christ, shall hear: “And you, O heart, be moved and shaken. The cup of the Lord’s right hand has gone around to them, and shame has gathered upon their glory.” They have drunk, he taught, saying: “Because of the blood of men, and...

^A because they have drunk the cup of wrath which has come upon them, they have become dishonored, and removed as far as possible from all glory. For these also acted impiously against Lebanon; and by Lebanon you shall understand the Church, which is truly fragrant, the mountain which is manifest and most known to all people everywhere. And they persecuted the Church after the cross of the Savior. Therefore they have also been struck with terror, just as if by the very beasts that have devastated them, and having become guilty of much blood—that of the holy prophets, let us say—they added to this also the blood of those who believed in our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the blessed Stephen became the first-fruits, having been manifested as a noble and choice first-offering.” ^B

VERS. 18. *What does a graven image profit, for they have graven it? He formed it as a casting, a false imagination, because the framer trusts in his own frame, to make idols that are mute.*

XXXI. The arrangement of the words here will be in this manner: “For what does it profit, he says, the graven image, because they have engraved it? And what does it help the framer regarding his own frame, because he trusts in it?” And what the prophet intends by these things, we shall explain, as much as lies in us. When Cyrus and the Medes had invaded Babylon and the war had been proclaimed all around, the magi were calling upon their falsely-named gods for help for the city, which was in danger, and they were offering sacrifices and libations to those who were devoid of senses, reposing their whole hope of salvation in them. But those were trifles, an absurdity, a deception, counsel that was futile, and nothing else. ^C For it was captured and devastated, which it thought would never happen. Therefore, the God of the universe mocks the fabrication of things done wrongly and the hope placed in inanimate objects. For what does it profit, he says, the graven image, when it is nothing other than a false likeness, having nothing of truth? For how, or from where, could it be believed that divine power resides in those things fashioned by human hands? It is vain, therefore, to trust in them, and it is truly a ridiculous thing among those who have a manly and vigilant judgment. But some might think that these words can be explained in another way. For having captured cities, and, to speak briefly, having deformed regions with devastation, the Babylonian, incontinently, all barriers having been broken, conceived sublime thoughts, putting on pride, and ^D encircling his wretched head with the glory of God, he decrees a golden statue, which the divine prophet Daniel has left in writing, which he commanded to be worshiped by tribes and tongues, with the punishment of death proposed for those refusing. What profit, therefore, follows from this? Tell me, he says. For he who thought himself to be even God has now been brought to the end of all evil and has fallen into calamities beyond speech.

VERS. 19, 20. *Woe to him who says to the wood: Awake, arise; and to the stone: Be lifted up! And it itself is a product of imagination. And this is a production of gold and silver, and every spirit...*

have been deluded by error, who, having abandoned the one true God by nature and having strayed from the path of his worship and fear, cast themselves into perdition, crying out to the wood: “Awake, arise!” and foolishly to the stone: “Be lifted up!” For it is the custom of those who have been led astray, if any fear should strike them, to kindle altars, to open shrines, and to call upon lifeless idols: “Have mercy, save us! Do you also be lifted up, O stone, as a god, and protect those who venerate your power and do not shrink from worshipping you.” Woe, therefore, is rightly pronounced upon such people, who prostrate themselves before things made of gold and silver, which possess no spirit, and who utter such words as would surely be better spoken to the God who dwells in heaven and has the celestial city as his own temple. For the Holy One dwells among the holy, and he inhabits those by whom he is worshipped. ^B Furthermore, the prophet sings to us something useful and necessary: “Let all the earth fear before his face.” For those who are truly of sound mind judge that there is one God who should be worshipped by nature and in truth; to him every wise person will offer worship, to him he will present his supplications, from him he will seek salvation; he will confess him to be the Creator, Lord of all, Savior and Redeemer, all-powerful, most pure, and he will acknowledge him as one who intermittently changes the natures of things as he wills, and who governs this entire universe by his own nods. ^C

CHAPTER III. The same, on the canticle of Habacuc.

XXXIII. Having finished the discourse concerning Babylon very well, and having sufficiently foretold that those who destroyed the holy city and led Israel away captive would pay bitter penalties, he moves opportunely toward the mystery of Christ. Making the transition from the liberation that occurred for a single nation, and in a partial way, he directs his speech to that most common and universal liberation, by which the remnant of Israel has been saved, and the whole world has been saved no less. ^D For Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, once the arrogant and God-hated kingdom of the Chaldeans had been overthrown, released Israel from his hand. That which was then done was therefore a certain shadowing forth and description of those things which have been exceptionally accomplished through Christ. For he, finding the whole human race as though captured by arms and harassed under a tyrannical empire (for Satan had reigned over us through sin), set them free from bonds and hardships, and having exempted them from a servitude unworthy of them, he brought them back as if into the holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem. For we have become, as it is written, fellow citizens of the angels and members of the household of God, and we have professed that heaven is now our fatherland. Struck with wonder, therefore, at the power of the mystery, the prophet

and ^A overawed by the ineffable and divine economy of the Only-begotten’s advent in the flesh, the prophet offers up his prayer, in the manner of a song, quite in accordance with that saying of David: “My tongue shall meditate upon thy righteousness, all the day thy praise.”

Vers. 1. *Lord, I have heard thy report, and was afraid; I have considered thy works, and was astonished.*

XXXIV. The discourse can be understood, if one pleases, as directed to the Father and God of all, as the one who reveals the Son and manifests the report concerning Him through the Spirit; or else, and rightly, to the Word Himself incarnate. If anyone says the words are addressed to the Father, perhaps they would encompass such a meaning as this: “O Lord of all,” he says, “I have been struck with awe at the report, that is to say, the revelation concerning thy offspring; for the narrative is fearful and beyond the power of speech to explain, and the manner of the dispensation would be beyond all law. And if, by casting the eye of my heart ^B delicately, I were to contemplate the power of thy works, it is nothing but sheer stupor and astonishment.” But if the words look to the Son, we shall nevertheless approach them in much the same way: “O Lord, who orderest all things, even though thou hast become flesh, as I have received the report, that is, the hearing and revelation concerning thee, I have fallen into fear; and I am struck with amazement, and very rightly so, at the magnitude of the matter. For I learn that while existing in the form and equality in all respects with Him who begot thee, thou didst lower thyself into voluntary emptying, and didst become a man like us born of a woman, and didst take on the form of a servant, and, Being God with us, didst claim thy Father for thyself. And thou didst become ‘obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.’”

“I have therefore heard thy report, and was afraid; I have considered thy works, and was astonished.” For thou ^C didst preach recovery of sight to the blind, thou didst proclaim release to the captives, thou didst heal the broken-hearted, thou didst turn back that which had wandered, thou didst bind up that which was broken, thou didst become light to those who sat in darkness, a door and a way to life and sanctification; thou didst become peace, joining through faith into one people those from the circumcision and those from the Gentiles; thou didst become a chosen, precious cornerstone. Thou didst recover the world for God the Father, thou didst expiate the sins of those who had been taken captive by infirmity, thou didst rescue them from the diabolical hand, the servant was brightened by the grace of adoption as sons, and the man born of the earth was gifted with citizenship in heaven. But I consider this also, above these, worthy of being heard: ^D that thou, who givest life to all, didst endure the death of the flesh along with us. Yet thou didst become the firstborn from the dead, and the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, and the firstling of humanity, restored to incorruption. For thou didst revive as God, and having trampled down the fierce and impregnable beast, that is to say, death,

^A thou didst dissolve the efficacy of that ancient curse. And in thee and through thee, that which was spoken against us has ceased: "Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou return." VERS. 2. In the midst of two animals shalt thou be known.

XXXV. Some interpret this in different ways. And one said that the two animals are called the Spirit and the Son, and that in their midst the God and Father is known. But this I consider an ignorant and senseless interpretation. For who would dare to say that Life—that is, the Son—or the Holy Spirit is an animal? For that which gives life is rather Life, whereas an animal is that which receives life from another. It is also otherwise absurd to conceive of the Father as being in the middle of both, who is named first according to the order of the confession of the holy and consubstantial Trinity. And we do not by any means say that He has pre-existed them because He is placed first in the sequence of the Son and of the Spirit. For this is mere trifles and falsehood. We rather hold and believe that He has the Word as co-eternal, and exists as He is, not without His own Spirit. But the Father is conceived of as God, and at the same time the subsistence of Him through whom He is Father—and His own divine and holy Spirit—immediately enters the mind. But since He is, as it were, a source of that which He has begotten, He is named first for the sake of an orderly account. How then He should be in the middle of the Son and the Spirit, I cannot conceive. But perhaps they will reply, as is likely, that the middle is to be understood as being in a place. But this is also absurd. For the Divine is not in a place, ^B since it is neither of a certain size, nor is it corporeal. Others again have said that the two lives are the New and the Old Testament, in the midst of which Christ is known. Now, in such theories, let each one walk in whatever path he may choose for himself. But we, having once turned our discourse to the person of Christ, shall explain the meaning according to the Law. Our Lord Jesus Christ has therefore become a propitiation through faith; for it seemed right to the divine Paul to think and speak in this way. For we have been delivered through Him from all accusation, and have obtained a Father who is propitious and easy of access. And the wise John will bear witness, saying: "My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. And if anyone sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just; ^C and He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world." Since, however, those ancient things were in truth types and figures of things to come, expressed in riddles, come, let us say something of the things that took place in the holy tabernacle, showing the Son to be the propitiatory designated by the Father. The God of all things therefore commanded that an ark be made, and a lampstand, and also a table in the holy tabernacle. Then, in addition to these, a propitiatory of gold, and purple, or twisted linen and dyed scarlet, and this, being carried upon four pillars, hung before the holy ark. Then two Che- ^D

- ^A rubim to the right and to the left, made of gold, he placed, with faces turned towards the propitiatory. The matter is involved, and contains the mystery of the thing accomplished in Christ. For the Word became flesh, although He is God and Lord of all, being as He is from God and the Father of all, appearing naturally as from God and the Father. But although He became flesh, and was established by the Father as a propitiatory, He did not cast off what He was, that is, being God; but He exists even so in power and glory befitting God, and again the powers above stand around Him, performing the ministries prescribed to them. For this reason the Cherubim stand around the propitiatory, and look towards it continually. For it is the custom for the powers above, being holy and most pure, to contemplate divine things without intermission, and to behold God, and to be turned always towards the things that are pleasing and acceptable to Him. You shall be known, therefore, He says, O Lord, who You shall be, having become like us: for indeed as a propitiatory, as from the example of that in the holy tabernacle, You shall be known clearly. For You have stood in the midst of two living creatures, that is, of the Cherubim, and Your name is the Propitiatory, and the word is true. For Christ Himself says, "The Father did not send the Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him." ^B When the years draw near, You shall be known. When the time is present, You shall be demonstrated.

XXXVI. The mystery of Christ was prophesied by the Law; nay, also, the chorus of the holy prophets proclaimed it beforehand.

Emmanuel. ^A We shall also find that Emmanuel himself establishes faith in himself through the predictions of the prophets, and requests that he be recognized by the events themselves; and by comparing the outcome of transactions with those things that had been announced, every doubt is removed for the future, that he is indeed the one whom the Law and the prophets had announced. For some of the disciples of John came to him, inquiring more curiously in this manner: "John the Baptist has sent us, saying: Art thou he that art to come, or look we for another?" And he, although it was permitted to him to say, "I am he, and not another," nonetheless exhorts them to listen to the ancient prediction, saying: "Go and relate to John what you have heard and see; the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead rise again, the poor have the gospel preached to them, and blessed is he who shall not be scandalized in me."

It is therefore true, as the prophet says: "When the years shall draw nigh, thou shalt be known," and that according to the times formerly defined by the will and counsel of God and the Father, Christ was manifested. For in the final times of the age he appeared to us, and was known and indicated by the confession of many: just as, indeed, even before others, Nathanael exclaimed in these words: "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art King of Israel." He was known, therefore, when the years drew nigh, that is, in the time of the economy in the flesh. He was known by the saints, and even now by the whole world. We have known the mercy-seat in the midst of two animals, as it was prefigured in the legal enigmas, that is, Christ. ^B

"When my soul is troubled, in wrath thou wilt remember mercy."

XXXVII.

^A David will certify, speaking to the God of all: "When you turn away your face, they will be troubled, and they will return to their dust. You will send forth your Spirit, and they will be created, and you will renew the face of the earth." For having suffered the turning away on account of the transgression in Adam, we returned to the dust from which we were made. But since we have again been enriched with the divine Spirit in Christ and through Christ, having become partakers of His nature, according to the Scriptures, we have been refashioned toward what we were in the beginning, we have been renewed, and we have been saved; for it is true what the divine Paul also wrote to us, that "All things in Christ are a new creation," and, "The old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." Therefore, we were troubled, having endured the judgment of the divine wrath from the beginning. But since Christ was known when the years drew near, and was revealed according to the times ordained of old, He remembered mercy thereafter. For we have been justified, "not by works of law," according to the Scriptures, "nor by the works of righteousness which we did, but according to His great mercy."

VERSION. 3. God will come from Theman, and the Holy One from the shaded and dense mountain of Pharan.

XXXVIII. These words are understood in a twofold way, concerning which we shall speak according to our ability. Theman is translated as "south." Now, the wilderness in which Mount Choreb is said to be—where Moses stood before God while He was prescribing certain laws for the Israelites to do—stretches extremely far toward the south. Therefore, applying a second sense to the words proposed, we say this: "He will come," he says, "God from Theman, from Mount Pharan, or Choreb." That is to say, He who formerly appeared to the fathers in the form of fire in the ^B southernmost wilderness on Mount Choreb, He who once spoke the law, shall come and appear in the flesh among us, in the role of a prophet and as a mediator; just as, indeed, the divine Moses also, to whom it was said by God: "I will raise up for them a prophet from among their brothers, like you, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him."

But if anyone should wish to interpret these written words in another way, the mode is this: Theman, as I said, they called the innermost southern wilderness. They say, therefore, that Bethlehem is situated in the most interior southern regions of Judea. Therefore, "God will come from Theman," that is, from Bethlehem, which looks to the south. For the natural and true God, the only-begotten Word of God the Father, having become like us, was born of a woman in Bethlehem. But because divine Scripture is accustomed at times to compare the Synagogue of the Jews, or ^C the people, to the most distinguished mountains—because it appears dense with many and far-famed men as if they were trees—for this reason, it now compares it also with Mount Pharan, saying it will come from a shaded and dense mountain. And it calls the mountain shaded and dense on account of the fathers, from whom ^D

Christ is said to have been born according to the flesh. It is fitting, therefore, to hear the blessed Luke clearly recounting the genealogy from Joseph to Adam; and Matthew, for his part, leading it down in order, as I have said, from David and Abraham to Joseph. The Synagogue, therefore, is a shaded and dense mountain, having at various times brought forth many from whom Christ sprang. For who can doubt that He is from the Jews? For He was born of the blood of Abraham and David, according to the flesh, I say; and He Himself says somewhere concerning Himself: "For salvation is from the Jews." ^A

*He covered the heavens with His virtue, and the earth is full of His praise.*

XXXIX. On the Propitiatory

The Only-Begotten Word of God truly became a propitiatory through faith for those living on earth, when He was made like unto us, and in the form of a servant, that is, a man. For this reason, He seemed—in a certain way—to be inferior to the holy angels, and to appear behind them in glory. But again, insofar as He is God, He was most exalted. The most wise Paul will confirm this faith: "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor." Since, indeed, "He was made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross," for this reason, as the same one writes again, "God also hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a name which is above all names; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father." The prophet, then, will speak the truth when he says: *He covered the heavens with His virtue, and the earth is full of His praise.* For they who inhabit ^B the holy city, and dwell in the mansions above, "all are ministering spirits, sent to minister for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation." But He is seated on the throne of the Godhead. And to none of them has it been said by God and the Father: "Thou art My Son;" but Him He confesses as Son and calls Beloved, and has Him as a partner on His throne, to be praised and worshipped together with Him. And again the divinely inspired Paul says concerning Him: "And when He bringeth in the first begotten into the world, He saith: And let all the angels of God adore Him." Therefore, even if He became a propitiatory, having descended for us and in our behalf to put on human nature, He is nonetheless God, and He rules over every creature, both visible and invisible, I say, and that which is not seen. "For His virtue covers the heavens; and the earth shall be full of His praise." This is what the holy Seraphim themselves also cry out, standing around His divine throne, and in their praises rightly and justly honor Him as Lord Sabaoth and God of all. For they said that both heaven and earth were full of His praise. But if anyone should wish to say [that], ^{C D}

that it is the virtue of Christ, so as to cover even the heavens themselves, if it be conceived as defined in magnitude, will be plausibly perceived. For the blessed David says somewhere: "O Lord, Thy mercy is in the heaven, and Thy truth unto the clouds," by ^A which words he demonstrated the sublimity of goodness and the excellence of truth, as if in the magnitude of a body and of place.

VERS. 4. *And His splendor shall be as the light.*

XL. The Propitiatory through faith, that is to say Christ, who was to come that He might illuminate those sitting in darkness, may clearly be known even from the holy prophets. For one of them said: "The region of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, and the rest, the inhabitants of the seacoast, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people that sat in darkness saw a great light." Another: "Shine, shine, O Jerusalem, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." And God the Father Himself testified in these words: "For Sion's sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until my righteousness go forth as light, and my salvation be kindled as a lamp." For the righteousness and salvation of God is Christ, "who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption," according to the Scriptures. Wherefore, as to those walking in darkness, Christ has been revealed to us as a lamp, delivering us by evangelical instruction from that ancient gloom, which the enemy of all, by shedding it into our minds, did not permit to behold Him who is by nature and in truth God, nor to contemplate the path of piety and life. The splendor, therefore, which Christ has shown to us, "shall be as light," that is to say, not obscure nor puny, as was surely the case through Moses (for the Law was entirely engaged in riddles and shadows), but as a pure light, and mingled with no gloom, and entering into the mind and heart, and beaming upon us with intellectual radiance, and introducing into us the rays of unerring knowledge.

*Horns in His hands.*

XLI. In the God-inspired Scriptures, horns always have the notion either of kingdom and power, or of pride, which the blessed David himself teaches, saying: "I said to the transgressors, Do not transgress; and to the sinners, Do not lift up the horn. Do not lift up your horn on high, and do not speak iniquity against God." For some, speaking proud vanities, according to the Scripture, speak iniquity against God, adulterating the sincerity of the dogmas concerning Him, or treating Him with grave contumely in any other way whatsoever. But the word "horn" signifies virtue or power when it is said of God and the Father, who has exhibited the Son to us: "He has raised up a horn of salvation for us." And again: "His horn shall be exalted in glory." For all things that have been performed with wonder and distinction in the virtue and power of Christ are glorious. The Only-Begotten therefore has come, wearing our likeness; and as far as concerns the flesh and human nature, He is enduring the weakness that is in us.

yet as God, having in His hands all the horns, that is to say, all the kingdoms, according to every power of the opposing energies. ^A When we say, "in the hands," we speak of being in His power. And so we have been taught to say to God in our prayers: "In Your hands are my lots." That all diabolical power, and what are called the horns—that is to say, the tyrannies of the unclean spirits throughout the cities and regions (for they had divided the entire earth among themselves)—have been brought into subjection to Christ, how could anyone doubt? For some He cast out by His authority, while others approached Him and begged Him not to order them to depart into the abyss. For it is written thus by the holy evangelists. And that He also drove off the leader of the unclean spirits himself, that is to say, Satan, from the tyranny he held over us, we shall clearly perceive from the words of Christ Himself: "Now is the judgment of this world; and 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." Therefore, even if He has become man, yet He has in His hands, that is to say, in His power, the tyrannies of the opposing powers, or kingdoms, or even forces. But if anyone should wish to understand that passage in a more profound manner, thinking that Christ has in His hands the horns—that is, that He is endowed with invincible and unconquerable strength, and that He can easily gore whichever of His enemies He pleases, and easily destroy them, and, like a bull, attack them with unbearable force—he will also understand it correctly.

"And He set the love of His power as a fortress." ^B

XLII. Christ came to accomplish these two illustrious things: to overthrow the adversaries who had led the whole world astray and had stolen the glory owed solely and supremely to God the Creator, attributing it to themselves; and to restore salvation to those who had been deceived and who were indeed enduring an inescapable domination. That their tyranny has ceased and vanished completely, He teaches, saying: "Horns in His hands," by which, clearly, their strength and power would be subverted, and their arrogance, as it were, winnowed away. But that He was about to save us, He demonstrates beforehand, saying: "He set the love of His power as a fortress." We have been saved, "not by works of righteousness which we have done," nor by boastful deeds ("for the law made nothing perfect"), but by the kindness of God the Father, who set a strong—that is, a powerful and great—love of the Son on our behalf. "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." We have been saved, therefore, by the love of God the Father, and indeed also of the Son Himself, who endured death on our behalf, even if He rose again, having destroyed the power of corruption and having removed sin from us. Therefore, He also said: "Greater love has no one than this, ^C

^A that one should lay down his soul for his friends." ^B Strong, therefore, is the love of the Father, through which we have been delivered from both death and sin, and from the avarice of the devil.

*Ante faciem ejus ibit verbum* (Before his face will go the word).

XLIII. It will precede him, he says, as a herald, and a rumor will fly ahead, and there will be much talk about him. For as soon as the Virgin gave birth to Christ, the Magi came immediately from the East, the star seen unexpectedly in the heavens announcing this birth to them, as it were. But after, in the progress of time, He remained alone in the desert and began to perform wondrous works, "his fame went out," as the evangelist says, "into all Syria." Moreover, his name was truly celebrated in the whole world. For who was there who did not know the glory of Christ? What nation, what region, has remained without experience of, or hearing of, the power inherent in Him? For, as He Himself confirms again, the Gospel has been heralded to all nations, and the brightness of the things done by Him has illuminated the whole earth like the sun.

*Egredientur in campos pedes ejus* (His feet will go out into the fields).

XLIV. As if he were to say, nothing is arduous or impossible for Him. He will walk in every single thing as if on a bare and level road. For bare fields are easily traversed; but those which rise into mounds are difficult to walk and unsuited for riding. All things, therefore, are easy for Christ, and whatever path He has chosen to traverse in each of His actions, the same is entirely devoid of every difficulty. For what would He not accomplish according to His will, ^C without any labor, He who is by nature God and Lord of powers? From the likeness of those walking through fields, therefore, he suggests what we ought to think about His deeds. But if anyone wishes to understand by the term "fields" those who are humble in heart, who are also called "willing land" and "God's cultivation," as those who receive the heavenly seed from above and bring forth fruit, some a hundredfold, others sixtyfold, others thirtyfold, he will again understand rightly. For the Son goes out into these fields, in a certain manner, for rustic work, clearly according to that which was said by Him as in a parable: "A sower went out to sow his seed." David also sings somewhere: "And your fields will be filled with abundance." He adds also in the same place, "and the valleys." He supplies us with this understanding when he immediately adds: "They shall shout; for they shall sing a hymn." For it is not the nature of valleys, which lack sense, to sing a hymn or to shout. In these, however, the divine and supernal word will rise like a cedar. ^D

VERS. 6. *Stetit, et commota est terra* (He stood, and the earth was shaken).

XLV. The word "stood," in the divinely inspired Scripture, would be understood very often as being a term for a matter having reached its end.

As if someone were to say, for instance: "This matter has stood," meaning its word, that is, it has been defined and brought to completion. Thus also Sephora, the wife of Moses, when she circumcised her little son with a stone, said to the destroying angel: "The blood of the circumcision of my child has stood." For she did not mean to signify that the flow of blood had ceased, but that the business of the circumcision had been performed, and that which was sought had been brought to its end. For he who is circumcised by the spiritual stone—that is, the Spirit of Christ—bypasses death. Just as, indeed, Jesus after Moses commanded the sons of Israel, having crossed the Jordan, to be circumcised with stone knives, fulfilling the type of the circumcision in the Spirit. For just as Christ has been named the stone, so also the pebble, or stone knife, is His Spirit. Therefore, "stood" often signifies also the fulfillment of a matter. Christ, therefore, "stood," that is to say, the things concerning Him reached their end and were made manifest to those on earth. ^B "And the earth was shaken." By earth, he means those who inhabit the earth, who also were shaken. And in what manner, come, let us say as best we can. For those who were formerly, in their mind, as it were, unshakable in the will to commit evil, those who were steadfast toward impiety, those who were fixed upon carnality, those who were grounded in deception, have been shaken and moved, having been transferred toward the knowledge of God and toward the desire for virtue. In the same way, those of the blood of Israel who were under the law of worship have also been moved, having received faith in Him. For they have crossed over to choose to live according to the Gospel, and to live according to the laws of the Savior. That "shaking" signifies at times a movement from one thing to another, it would be clear to one, as the blessed David sings and says: ^C «You who sit upon the Cherubim, let the earth be shaken.» For we do not say that he is exhorting the earth itself—this earth, I mean, which is exposed to the senses of our eyes and subject to the feet of men—to move; rather, he was seeking for a conversion from worse to better things. And this is the one sense of the words repeated here. Another, however, may be brought forward, in this manner: "It stood, and the earth was shaken." For the earth has undergone these two things: it has both stood and been shaken. And what might be the rationale for both, it is necessary to explain clearly. It has stood, therefore. For having been, as it were, drunken and easily shaken toward anything disordered, and as if carried about by every wind, it henceforth possesses a stable and grounded footing, Christ having established it, according to that word spoken by the mouth of Isaiah to the Synagogue of the Jews: «Stand up for yourself.» ^D And it has been shaken again, as I said before, having departed from its ancient deception, and honoring the movement toward everything that is pleasing to God. It is truly paradoxical, therefore, for the earth to stand and be shaken at the same time. For it is Christ who both makes it established for every good work and persuades it to move the turning from the worse toward the better.

"He looked, and the nations were melted. The mountains were broken by violence."

^A XLVI. For God to look upon [something] signifies at times a visitation in meekness and charity, and at other times in wrath and with threats. He says, therefore, "Upon whom shall I look, but upon the meek and quiet man, and him who trembles at my words?" The divine David also besought [Him], saying, "Look upon me, and have mercy on me." By the voice of Ezekiel, He spoke concerning a certain person, saying, "And I will set my face against that man, and I will place him in a desert and for destruction, and I will take him away from the midst of my people, and you shall know that I am the Lord." This was the utterance of One threatening wrath and destruction and punishment befitting those who provoke Him. Therefore, as soon as Christ looked—that is, fixed His gaze in wrath upon certain [beings]—they immediately melted like wax, and the mountains were broken by violence, as if by a consuming fire.

He calls the nations and the mountains "unclean spirits," and those who are high and lifted up in themselves, and who stand raised up above others like mountains. Malignant preeminence is, in every way, a wicked thing; and where there is greater fortune, there is pride. Or perhaps it also shows how robust is their own ferocity. For demons are very powerful in their strength, and for this reason they strive to oppose God and to draw His own glory to themselves. Nevertheless, "they were broken by violence." For they are shattered by the power of Christ, brought to nothing, and made the footstool of the feet of believers. Satan is also called a mountain in another place, to whom God said somewhere by the voice of the prophet, as in the person of Nebuchadnezzar: "Behold, I am against thee, O corrupt mountain, which corrupteth all the earth."

^C "The eternal hills melted." ^B XLVII. Having made mention, albeit enigmatically, of the opposing and contrary powers which stand against the glory of God and recall mortals to sin, He must necessarily also introduce the leaders of the Synagogue of the Jews, whom He calls "hills," because they seem to be raised on high and to stand above the others, by reason of the order of their priesthood and the honor which they obtain from it. He calls them "eternal" because of the perpetuity of the matter; for it does not cease by any occasion or time. For although the manner of their worship, as being in shadows and types, has perhaps failed, the nature of the matter has nevertheless migrated to a better state. ^D For the leaders of the holy Churches serve God just as much, and perform for Him the bloodless sacrifice. "Eternal hills," therefore, on account of the perpetual and never-ceasing use of the sacrifice. Nevertheless, they were broken together with the mountains that are perceived by the intellect alone, and they melted together with the nations. For since they desired things pleasing to demons and did what was agreeable to the devil, by bringing the Author of Life to the cross and insulting Him in many ways, for this reason, having been punished with the same penalty as them, they have fallen and been brought to naught, and, as the prophet says: "The house of Israel has fallen, and there is no one to raise it up."

^A "I saw everlasting paths instead of labors." ^A 48. It is customary in the Holy Scriptures to call divine commands paths, ways, and byways. Such is the word spoken through Jeremiah: "Stand by the ways, and look, and ask for the everlasting paths of the Lord, and see what the good way is, and walk in it, and you shall find purification for your souls." And likewise through the mouth of the blessed David: "I have run the way of your commandments, when you enlarged my heart." The hills are melted away, he says, that is, those who among the Jews obtained the pre-eminence of leadership and held the honors of the priestly ministry under the law. For they viewed the paths—that is, the commandments of Emmanuel, which are clearly the evangelical oracles—and a teaching incomparably better and more manifest than the ancient prophecies, as being instead of labors, meaning they considered them burdensome and full of sweat, even though the Savior of us all, Christ, clearly says: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am meek and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Others, however, made their own paths burdensome, through which they could have easily passed over into eternal life. ^B For our Lord Jesus Christ, declaring the power of the mystical blessing, said: "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you." But they, hearing such venerable words, senselessly said: "This speech is hard; who can hear it? How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" The evangelist testifies that from this time many of his disciples went back and no longer walked with him, when Christ also asked the rest, wondering if they too wished to depart, saying: "Do you also wish to go away?" The divine Peter, answering and crying out, said: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." For they did not view the paths as being for the sake of labor, but that word was sweet to them and truly worthy of being heard. He calls the paths eternal: for it shall not cease in any way, but will rather extend into the present age, and the evangelical and saving preaching shall stand forever, even though the older and legal command had grown old and did not possess perfection, as Paul says, and for this reason a second was introduced, which is said to have been established on better promises. ^C And so the divine David in the Spirit had cried out beforehand to our Lord Jesus Christ: "Your justice is justice for eternity, and your law is truth." For, as I said, those things in shadows did not remain, but the types have ceased; the things of Christ, however, stand firm, and have stability unto all eternity. ^D

VERS. 7. *The tabernacles of the Ethiopians shall be troubled, and the tabernacles of the land of Madian.*

^A XLIX. Good narratives always contain something worthy of hearing and a proclamation that does not satiate, even if they be repeated in the same words. Since, therefore, he had previously narrated the fall of the opposing powers into helplessness, and had explained that they were melted down in the likeness of the nations, and even crushed like mountains, he again compares them to the foreigners who were invading the land of Judea. Now these were the Ethiopians, who once inhabited the Indian Sea toward the east and south, and likewise the Madianites, who themselves inhabited the neighboring desert. They shall be troubled, therefore, he says, those who wage war against the holy city, so that we may understand the intelligible Sion, which is the Church of Christ, which the saints inhabit, and the chosen race, as formerly, in type, was Israel; even as the name Israel is interpreted as "a mind seeing God." Nathanael also was admired as *an Israelite indeed, in whom there was no guile* [Joan. 1, 48]. ^B Therefore, through the image and types of the Ethiopians and Madianites—because they always strove to afflict the chosen race, that is, Israel—we shall understand the bands of demons who are always adversaries and enemies to the saints. Someone might say, however, that the idolaters are also called Ethiopians in another way, whose life is carnal, earthly, and full of uncleanness. Such are the Ethiopians. For they do not have their soul illuminated by divine light, but are, as it were, black in heart and darkened in their understanding, to whom even the dragon is said to have been given for food. For David sings somewhere and says to the God of all: *Thou didst crush the heads of the dragon, thou didst give him to be meat to the people of the Ethiopians* [Psal. LXXIII, 15]. For just as we make the life-giving word of God our spiritual and holy nourishment, ^C so also those who love sin and do not know the one who is by nature God, almost feed upon Satan, having him in their mind, and thinking and saying the things that are his. Madianites, moreover, would altogether be, as I said, those who are malevolent toward the saints. And if anyone should wish to investigate more curiously the power of the name, Madianite is interpreted as "hidden." Such an appellation fits Satan himself and the wicked powers with him, for whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.

VERS. 8, 9. *Wast thou angry against the rivers, O Lord, or was thy wrath upon the rivers, or was thy fury in the sea? Because thou wilt ride upon thy horses, and thy riding is salvation. Thou shalt surely bend thy bow against the sceptres, saith the Lord.*

L. It is the intention of the prophet to show that the new economy is better, more brilliant, and incomparably ^D greater in its blessings than the old. For formerly, by changing the rivers of the Egyptians into blood and by producing signs and portents, and then by dividing the Red Sea and leading through those who had been redeemed, God delivered Israel from carnal slavery and led them through the midst.

^A But when the only-begotten Word of God became man, He snatched the whole world under heaven, which had been subjugated to the devil’s tyranny—not by turning rivers into blood, not by pouring out His own wrath upon the waters, not by dividing the waves of the sea, nor by bringing destruction upon men; but rather by slaying that bloodthirsty dragon himself, and by eradicating sin, which had grown strong by him and for his sake, and by destroying the invincible power of death. And having called all men to the knowledge of God through the holy apostles, who traveled over the whole world beneath heaven and bore the name of Christ, they were most justly admired.

"O Lord," he says, "the things that Thou Thyself hast wrought are most worthy of being heard, and they are far superior to the things which were likewise well performed by Thee through Moses." For Thou wilt not bring wrath upon the rivers, nor wilt Thou make an assault against the sea. By those things the miracle of Thy divine authority would not shine forth; ^B "But rather Thou wilt mount upon Thy horses, and Thy riding is salvation." Who, then, might these horses be? They are the blessed disciples and apostles and evangelists, who were entirely subject to His divine wills—they who were gentle, and manageable, and ready for whatever seemed good to Him, having Christ as their rider. One of these is the blessed Paul, of whom He Himself says, "He is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the nations." These horses are indeed very swift, traveling all over the world under heaven. Thus also the chariot of God is said to be "ten-thousandfold," having thousands of those who guide it. ^C For there have been, in their own times and after them, very many leaders of nations, who bowed the neck of their minds to the yokes of the Savior, and bore His glory to every part of the earth, and rightly handled the word of truth, and as it were subjugated the whole earth with equestrian virtue. "And the salvation of the horses, or of the riding." For they did not run in vain, but that they might save cities, regions, and nations, while Christ at the same time overthrew the principalities of the demons, who, so to speak, had divided the whole earth among themselves, bringing those who dwell upon it into subjection to their own wills. But since the ancient principalities of the demons were about to fall, he reasonably says for this cause: "Thou shalt surely bend Thy bow against scepters." ^D For Thou wilt make an assault, as I just said, not on the rivers or the sea, but Thou wilt rather overthrow the scepters of the demons.

VERS. 10. *The land of the rivers shall be cleft. They shall see Thee, and the peoples shall be in labor. The scattering of the waters of His journey.*

LI. He makes mention again of the wondrous deeds of the Savior, and he says that the land of the rivers—perhaps intimating the land of the Babylonians (for this was at that time the land between the rivers)—will also be added to the other nations against whom the bow is intended, or shall be intended, so that through this, again, as by an image, the multitude of sensible, intelligible, and invisible enemies toward whom the struggle is for the saints might be signified. It is hidden in some way always [...]

^A in the discourse of the prophets. Therefore, just as the land of the Babylonians is signified out of the midst of the rivers, and through it, enigmatically, the herd of demons; or perhaps the prophetic discourse signifies something else to us. For it seems to call the land of Judea a land of rivers, because of the fact that very many prophets have arisen in it, irrigating the nation like rivers and, as it were, flooding it with divine streams. Regarding whom, I think, the blessed David also says: "Rivers shall clap their hands together" (Ps. xcvii, 8). Moreover, by the voice of Isaiah, God says: "The beasts of the field shall honor me, the sirens and the daughters of the ostrich, because I have given water in the desert, and rivers in a land without water, to give drink to my elect lineage, my people whom I have acquired to tell of my virtues" (Isa. xliii, 20, 21). For our Lord Jesus Christ is called a torrent of delights, and is so in truth; ^B or rather, a river. For he said somewhere concerning himself through the voice of the saints: "Behold, I incline toward them as a river of peace, and as a torrent flooding the glory of the nations" (Isa. lxvi, 12). And it is said also by the voice of David: "The impetuous streams of the river gladden the city of God" (Ps. xlvi, 5). Nor is it in any way absurd, by a certain likeness to him, for the saints themselves to be called rivers, inasmuch as they have been made conformed to him intelligibly. For just as he is the true light, yet he said to the holy apostles: "You are the light of the world" (Matt. v, 14); so, while he himself is the river and living water, he bestows upon the saints the privilege of glorying in the same things. The land therefore of these spiritual rivers, namely Judea, not enduring to drink the living water, and admitting neither the words of the holy prophets nor even those of Moses ("For if they had believed ^C Moses, they would have believed also in Christ; for he wrote concerning him" [Joan. v, 46]), shall be split; that is, it shall thirst; for the thirsty earth is split. The prophet therefore wonders, and as it were chidingly says: That land which once had many rivers and a most abundant supply of divine streams, shall be a thirsty and unwatered land. But when, O Lord, the peoples saw you had arrived in mind and spirit—that is, those from the nations who understood the mystery concerning you—they straightway took up the good in the midst of birth-pangs, and have become fruitful. To whom it was permitted even to say: "For your fear, O Lord, we have conceived in the womb, and have labored, and have brought forth; we have brought forth the spirit of your salvation upon the earth" (Isa. xxvi, 18). For those who began to claim Emmanuel as their Savior and Deliverer ^D bring forth the divine fear; and every fruit of the mind for them shall be fruit of virtue, and their striving shall end in the spirit of salvation. Therefore, peoples shall see you and shall bring forth, when they have drunk of your stream and have been inebriated with the evangelical waters. For they came eagerly to him who says: "If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink" (Joan. vii, 37). For he was so liberal and good in his excellent gifts that even on the journeys themselves he scattered waters, that is, the life-giving word of evangelical instruction. For as Matthew says, "Jesus went about all"

^A cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people. This, I think, is what is meant by, "Scattering the waters of his journey." For who can doubt that the word of divinely inspired teaching is everywhere in the Holy Scriptures called water?

"The abyss gave its voice, the height of its fantasy. The sun was lifted up, and the moon stood in its order for light."

^B LII. He shows that the peoples who have brought forth are also innumerable; for such is the abyss, clearly lacking a bottom; by which name the multitude of the holy angels is also called, as voiced through Ezechiel. And so God says somewhere, as if in the person of the prince of Tyre concerning Satan, when he cast him into hell: "The abyss lamented over him." For since he who was beyond all things and preeminent in glory—who was set even among the Cherubim themselves, according to the prophet's own word—had been cast down and fallen, it is not incredible that the intelligible abyss, that is, the hosts of the upper spirits, should have been not a little grieved, and should have all but groaned for the wretched one who had offended the God of all. Wherefore the abyss, he says—that is, the immense and incomprehensible multitude of those who have believed, and indeed all that is bright and exalted within it, and adorned with the fantasies (or rather, the empty glories) of this world—has given its voice. For Christ is glorified by every nation of men, and one may see that those who do this eagerly include small and great, the bright and the obscure, and those who are more illustrious than others, and who possess superiority, whether in honor, or perhaps in wealth and the splendor of this life. ^C Which he very aptly called fantasies, for they are nothing more than opinion to them: "Because all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass." And that the abyss has given its voice, and that small and great honor the Lord Jesus Christ with praises, the blessed David clarifies, saying: "Praise the Lord from the earth, you dragons and all abysses." And having added to these, "Mountains and hills, fruitful trees and all cedars, beasts and cattle, creeping things and winged birds," he adds again, "Kings and all judges of the earth, young men and virgins, elders with younger, let them praise the name of the Lord." And our great Isaiah also said concerning him: "Kings shall see him and princes shall arise, and shall worship him." And he provides, as it were, the reason why the abyss, and indeed the height of its fantasy, gives its voice, immediately adding: "The sun was lifted up, and the moon stood in its order for light." Just as we have understood the abyss, not according to the sense of perception ^D (for it is too crude), but rather spiritually and according to the intellect, so now we shall not fix the eye of the mind upon the elements, I mean the sun and the moon, but passing over from them by way of similitude to higher things, we shall look into what the meaning may signify. Therefore

^A we receive the sun as the luminous and radiant hidden discipline of the evangelical oracles, and the moon as the lesser and more dim light of the Law, shining as it were in the night and darkness, the time before the advent of Christ. For the day upon which Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, the intellectual morning star rising in the hearts of those who believe, dawned, is called the day. Wherefore the divine David says: “This is the day which the Lord has made; let us exult and rejoice in it.” ^B Just as the sun of the senses, when it is still low and barely lifting itself above the earth, does not yet possess its light widely diffused and clear, but holds it as it were contracted within itself; but when it has ascended higher, it casts most luminous rays on all sides: so also the instruction through Christ, that is to say the evangelical, was indeed contracted in the beginning and was unknown to many. But rising like the sun, and moving little by little into the heights, and diffusing the light of divine knowledge everywhere, it astonished the abyss, that is, all the race of men; and therefore it also gave forth a voice. For, as I said, it celebrates Immanuel with praises, and names Him God, and Lord of all, and Redeemer. The sun, therefore, was exalted, and none the less the moon, that is, the Law, stood in its order into the light. ^C For the Mosaic institution yields to the evangelical, and this is the order for it, since it is a shadow and a type. But after Christ, the fullness of the Law and the prophets, shone forth, the Law also shone. For when we compare the things that have happened with those formerly announced through it, we marvel at the light of the Law itself, which so long before beautifully informed us of the mystery of Christ in many ways. It stood, therefore, into the light. Moreover, Christ Himself blesses those who have embraced in themselves both the legal and the evangelical instruction. For He says thus: “Therefore I say to you that every scribe learned,” that is, one who knows the Law, “in the kingdom of heaven, is like a rich man who brings forth from his treasury things new and old.” ^D Let us accept another explanation of these words, not to be spurned, and one that is not improbable, as it seems to me, but rather one that approaches closer to likelihood. For we call Immanuel the sun, and very rightly so; for He is so named (by Malachi), and He is truly the sun. But we must consider the moon, out of the similitude of the element, to be the Church of God, appearing to those who are in darkness, and shining in the night. When, therefore, according to the voice of the prophet, the sun was exalted—for Christ ascended the precious cross for us—then also the Church from the Gentiles gave forth light, and stood in its order into the light, that is, full of light, like a certain moon, and keeping the order of its own circle, it became a light to those who were walking in darkness, as I was just saying. But when Christ was exalted, and had suffered the cross for the life of all, He Himself teaches that the Church thereafter stood, when He says: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the earth has died, it remains alone; but if...

it has died, it brings forth much fruit.” ^A And again: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to Myself.” Therefore, by the lifting up of the sun, it signifies in some way altogether the passion upon the cross, or the return into the heavens; for we say it is lifted up even in this sense.

Thy shafts shall go forth into the light of the lightning of Thy weapons.

LIII. By shafts here he means those that run through the whole world, and as if sent from a bow—that is, from a benevolent hand—the holy apostles and evangelists, concerning whom the blessed David also says somewhere: “As shafts in the hand of the mighty, so are the sons of those who have been cast out.” For the nation of the Jews was cast out and expelled, on account of their having behaved outrageously against Christ, who was calling them to life. But their sons, also being of the blood of Israel, namely the chosen disciples, have become shafts and arrows, running, as it were, from a most valiant hand, and easily piercing everyone who is smitten unto death. Such shafts shine, indeed, as if from the hand of Christ, but they are fixed into the bowels of the devil and slay the dragon. And therefore the blessed David ^B sings somewhere, addressing our Lord Jesus Christ: “Thy arrows are sharp, and powerful (the peoples shall fall under Thee) in the hearts of the king's enemies.” Therefore, the crowds of demons are consumed by such shafts, and they become fatal to the enemies. Yet, for those who have acknowledged His advent and have honored Him through faith, they fulfill another grace. For they make them wounded with love, according to the word of the bride in the Song of Songs: “For I am wounded with love.” They are also found in another way to be the light of the lightning of His weapons; for His weapons may be understood to be those with which the blessed Paul instructs us ourselves to be fitted, saying: “Put on the armor of God; and this is the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, having shod your feet in the preparation of the gospel of peace, the sword of the spirit.” Thus, such are the weapons of Christ, not surrounding Him, but rather bestowed by Him upon those who are worthy. The weapons are splendid, and as it were full of lightning; ^C for virtue is most manifest. Therefore, the shafts shall be into the light of the lightning of Thy weapons. For because the weapons will shine, they themselves will provide light, teaching those who have remained ignorant. For among the lovers of sin, virtue is unsightly and not yet bright; but to those who know it, it is nothing less than lightning, creating a person who is bright, transparent, and most recognizable to all everywhere. Therefore, primarily the divine disciples, having the lightning of Thy weapons, will also be for the light of it to others. For just as when doctors heal those who suffer from their eyes and flee the light of the sun's rays, they persuade them to bear the approach of light from then on, and they seem to them not unjustly to be a certain light themselves: so also the divine disciples... ^D

marveling at and contemplating the virtues which have been arrayed as weapons of Christ, appear as having shone forth a certain brightness, as if the lightning within them were cast upon others.

Ver. 12. In commination thou shalt diminish the earth, and in fury thou shalt cast down the nations.

LIV. The prophet indicates to us the devastation of Judea and the destruction of the peoples inhabiting it, inflicted by God. For because they rejected the faith in Christ and rose up against Him, and killed the Author of life, they were therefore delivered over to desolation. This is what Isaiah foretold to them: "Woe to the wicked! Evil things shall befall him according to the works of his hands."

Ver. 13. Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, to save thy christs. Thou hast cast upon the heads of the ungodly death, thou hast raised up bonds even unto the neck.

LV. He again recounts to us, in a manner of speaking, the whole economy of the incarnation of the Only-begotten. For He saved those who have been justified by faith, and anointed by the Holy Spirit, and rendered partakers of His own divine nature. But He allowed the unbelievers to waste away in their own sins, to whom He also said openly: "Amen I say unto you, unless you believe that I am, you shall die in your sins." He went forth, therefore, he says, even as if some king might go forth against the bands of the enemy, equipped in military fashion. And the intent of this coming forth is to restore safety to Thy christs—that is, clearly, those who have been anointed with the Holy Spirit, concerning whom He commanded long ago through the prophets, saying: "Touch not my christs, and do no evil among my prophets." But He brought down death upon the ungodly, which they can be convicted of having brought upon their own heads when they rejected the justifying faith. Therefore, they are bound with unbreakable bonds, and are tightened with the chains of their own transgressions, not in any one part, but as it were through the whole body, and even unto the neck. And if these bonds are called Christ's, let no one be troubled. For what things happen to some by the permission of God are always attributed to Him. For instance, the text: "If there is evil in the city, which the Lord hath not done?" For He does not Himself do the evil, but He often permits evil to befall sinful cities. But if, perhaps, those bonds are understood as praiseworthy, we say that again: death has been cast upon the heads of the ungodly, but the God of all binds to Himself, as if with bonds of love, those who approach Him, and who have been justified by faith, and sanctified in the Spirit, according to that which is indeed said through the prophet concerning the Israelites: "And I bound Ephraim, I took him up upon My arm, I extended them in the bonds of My love." The bonds then, even unto the neck, here signify the readiness of obedience for those who have subjected the neck of their mind to Him.

and have truly taken upon themselves the easy yoke of our Savior.

^B Verse 14. *You have divided the heads of the powerful in amazement; they shall be shaken in it.*

LVI. To the word "amazement" ^C different meanings are attributed in Holy Scripture. For sometimes it signifies astonishment, as might be said concerning the sins of the Israelites: "The heaven was astonished at this," and again: "Amazement and horrible things have happened in the land." At other times, it signifies a transformation of life and moral character from an earthly or secular sense to a divine and spiritual one. Thus, the divine Paul writes and says: "For whether we are beside ourselves, it is to God; or whether we are of sober mind, it is for you." And just as we call that turning away from base things to better things a "distraction" or "change" that is pleasing to God, so also we affirm that a change from good things to worse is evil and ignominious. Therefore, in such an "amazement" You have divided the heads of the potentates—clearly the leaders of Israel, that is, the Scribes, Pharises, and those who performed the holy services according to the law. For they truly stood apart from upright judgment, from a good mind, and from the love of God, not receiving the Son, but rather killing Him, even though they knew and said: "This is the heir."

The holy David clearly explains what the manner of this division might be, saying to God, the Savior of all: "Divide them in their life." For Israel was "both the portion of God and the line of His inheritance." But when they acted wickedly against the Son, the beloved one was rejected and divided, and fell from the hope of the believers; he was disinherited and cast out, removed from the presence, and placed in a second lot, behind the nations, who say among themselves: "Blessed are we by the Lord who made heaven and earth. God is the Lord, and He has shined upon us." Israel was therefore divided, and having lost the blessing, became a portion no longer of God, but rather of the devil, and most contemptible and profane. ^D Then concerning this amazement, he says: "They shall be shaken in it," that is, they shall fall. For that which is agitated and shaken is prone to falling. The prophet, as it were, deplores their manifold destruction when he says: "The house of Israel has fallen; there is no one to raise it up."

*They shall open their bridles, like one eating the poor in secret.*

LVII. The difficulty in the context and the wording is very great. Nevertheless, we shall speak with all our might, straining to the utmost the power of our intellect. Having therefore related the state in which the heads of the powerful were necessarily to be, that is, those who had obtained the leadership of the Jewish Synagogue, he turns immediately to the holy apostles, who at the beginning greatly feared the persecutors.

^A For they were being scourged in councils, and it was commanded them to speak in no way in the name of Christ. But gathering secretly, they were offering prayers to God, saying: "For in truth there were gathered together in this city against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the nations and the peoples of Israel. And now, Lord, look upon their threats," that is, clearly, the threats of the Jews, "and grant unto thy servants with all boldness to speak thy word." Consequently, those who were, so to speak, restrained by the bridle of fear, and constrained and oppressed to silence, and speaking secretly and with difficulty to certain people, and looking like a beggar eating, shall open their bridles. ^B It is as if he were saying: They shall be expanded—certainly they shall—into a boldness most pleasant and most fitting for them. For they will not care at all for the Synagogue of the Jews. But despising the threats, and all but snapping the bridle cast upon them, they will, like certain fierce, spirited, and proud horses, neigh from now on, with no one rebuking them, and they will fill the whole world with their voice. ^C Something like this says the divine Isaiah also to those who perform the sacred office of evangelical preaching: "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. Behold your God, behold the Lord cometh with strength, and his arm with dominion." Therefore those who were once, he says, as a beggar eating in secret—that is, those who possessed no boldness, those who were nourished secretly and with difficulty by the faith of those who believed—will with joy open their bridles, according to the manner we have already described. That faith is, as it were, a certain food for those who are being saved, and for God, and for the saints, Christ himself confirms, speaking of the conversion of the Samaritans: "I have meat to eat that ye know not of." And again: "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work."

VERS. 15. And thou didst bring thy horses into the sea, troubling many waters.

LVIII. The discourse again preserves the scheme of substitution, or metaphor. ^D Having spoken of bridles, he calls the holy apostles horses, upon whom Christ himself is borne, as if sitting in their minds and hearts. Since, therefore, they were about to instruct not only the Israelites, but also that very vast and infinite multitude of other nations, he endeavors to teach this. For he compares the world to a sea, according to that which is sung in the Psalms: "This is the sea great and wide," and what follows; and by "many waters" the hosts of the nations that are throughout all the earth; but by "horses," as I have said, the holy apostles, who, traversing the whole world, were, so to speak, neighing and alarming the idolaters who were resting in their error, and have thrown them into confusion, calling them to fear as those who are about to go to punishment and to the judgment by fire.

^A And thus the divine Paul, speaking to the Athenians, and then calling them more superstitious than all others, confounded them not slightly by adding these words: "God, however, overlooking the times of this ignorance, now commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, giving assurance to all by raising him from the dead." Therefore, the troubled water is the multitude that is in the world; for it is sometimes compared to waters, and very aptly so, since human life is not unlike the sea, because there is great confusion and tumult in the affairs within it, and everything is confused and mingled moving up and down and in every direction. Furthermore, the water that is troubled is much, in relation to Israel; for they were one nation, while the other waters were countless.

"I kept watch, and my heart was terrified at the sound of the prayer of my lips, and trembling entered into my bones, and my constitution was shaken beneath me. I shall rest in the day of my tribulation, that I may ascend to the people of my sojourning."

^B

LIX.

I shall depart hence, and I shall be opened ^A toward another person who has likewise become a sojourner in this life, just as I have. For all the saints are sojourners and strangers in this world. Therefore they say: "We have not here a lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come." And David also sings to the God of all: "Spare me, for I am a sojourner in the land and a stranger, like all my fathers." The purpose of the saints is therefore worthy of admiration, for they do not endure even the least things by which God might be provoked to anger; and for that reason, they have deemed the departure from this world to be more pleasant for themselves than life itself, unless the glory of God were kept intact by us. Wherefore the divine Paul said that "it is better to depart and be with Christ," words which declare his conviction that life in the body is a sojourning.

Ver. 17. For the fig tree shall not bear fruit, and there shall be no produce in the vines. The work of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall not yield food. The sheep have failed from food, and there shall be no oxen in the cribs from their healing.

LX. As if someone were asking and desired to learn why he yearns so much to depart this life, or rather to ascend to the people of his sojourning, he reads with much caution a censure against the Synagogue of the Jews ^B and seems almost to lament the future scarcity of its fruits, and to signify the same to us in many ways, speaking of it as if it were a fig tree that has brought forth no fruit. For the Savior himself also used to call it this, when, in the way of a parable, He said: "Someone had a fig tree planted in his vineyard." And since it was sterile, he said that it must henceforth be cut down, lest it occupy the land in vain. Elsewhere, He also cursed the fig tree before Jerusalem, because He had not found fruit upon it: "Never again may fruit grow from you," He said, "forever." He likewise likens it to a vine destitute of grapes. For indeed, as the prophet Isaiah says, "The vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the man of Judah, a newly planted, beloved one; but he fenced it in, and ^C placed a hedge around it, and built a tower in it, and dug a wine vat in it, and waited for it to produce grapes, but it produced thorns." On this account, a boar from the forest ravaged it, as it is in David, "and a wild ass has pastured upon it." He broke down its hedge, and all who pass by the way have gathered its vintage. The work of the olive has also failed, that is to say, the Synagogue of the Jews once again: for with this word the prophet Jeremiah signifies it: "A beautiful, shady olive tree in appearance, the Lord called your name at the voice of its circumcision. Fire was kindled against it (great is the affliction upon you), its branches have become useless. And the Lord of Hosts, who planted you, has spoken evils against you." Since, therefore,

^A as the prophet says, his work has proven false; for being tutored unto Christ through the Law and the prophets, they did not accept the faith; therefore it was also cut down, and its branches have fallen, while those from the wild olive—that is, those from the Gentiles—have been grafted in, and have become partakers of the root and of the richness of the cultivated olive.

Then he says: « The fields shall not yield food. » He compares Israel again, I think, to cornfields that have been destroyed, from which the farmer could not find even a sufficient amount for food; this might be a vivid proof of extreme barrenness. That he was intimating that they were about to fall into the worst of all evils, having endured a famine of divine disciples, he clarifies by adding that the sheep have failed from food—that is, because they did not have food—and that there is no ox at the manger. ^B By this is signified that the holy and elect race among them has failed utterly, that is, those from the tribe of Levi, who, as oxen plowing the spiritual furrow and unfolding the words spoken by the all-wise Moses without the covering of obscurities, proposed them like grains of wheat to others for understanding, and as spiritual food. And they themselves were being fed at the mangers on the tithes and first-fruits, which were thank-offerings from the people. Therefore, the sheep have failed from food, and « the oxen were no longer at the mangers, » that is, the leaders and teachers of the others. Therefore, the inspired Paul also applies the text, « You shall not muzzle an ox that treadeth out the corn, » to the heads of teachers, clearly interpreting the Law for us. But the statement that the oxen have failed from their curing is obscure. ^C Yet it means this, as I think again: Since, because of their folly, they had no desire to be healed by Christ, although He was restoring strength to the weak and justifying the ungodly, for this reason they also have failed—that is, they have fallen ill completely and have gone to nothing. It is, therefore, a terrible thing to offend against God, and it will be the occasion of the utmost barrenness. We shall be lacking, moreover, in spiritual nourishment, and from this point on we shall be involved in every evil, greater than all others.

« But I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God my Savior; the Lord my God is my strength, and He will set my feet for completion. He makes me ascend upon high places, in order that I may be victorious with His canticle. »

^D LXI. In this place, the very person of the prophet is now openly introduced, saying such things. Or one might say that these are the words of those who have been justified by faith, who make Christ their delight, and rejoice in Him, and ascribe the fortitude that is in them to Him as the Giver, and profess to be able to do all things in Him. Just as indeed the inspired Paul says: « I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me. » The blessed David also sings somewhere: « For Thou art the glory of their strength. » They expect also that which pertains to piety to be accumulated especially from Him alone. For,