A "He shall set my feet for consummation," signifies nothing else but this. And indeed, the edition of the Hebrews has placed "security" instead of "consummation." Therefore, feet placed into security, what else could they signify to us than constancy, as I have said, in piety, and immobility in virtue, and firmness in faith, and love toward Christ? That the life of those justified in Christ is not lowly and cast down to the earth, but is higher than every earthly and carnal business and is heavenly, he shows when he says: "He makes me ascend upon the high places." For in truth, the ornaments of the evangelical conversation are something high before God. But that we shall overcome opponents and prevail over enemies, glorifying Him, he affirms for certain, saying: "That I may be victorious in His song."
THE COMMENTARY OF OUR HOLY FATHER CYRIL, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, ON THE PROPHET SOPHONIAS. CONTAINING TWO TOMES.
PROEM.
I. The prophet Sophonias prophesies in Jerusalem, not being of ignoble birth according to the flesh, nor, further, belonging to the order of those who were accustomed to prophesy falsely and to peddle to their hearers divine words fashioned by themselves, concerning whom Ezechiel also said: "Woe to those who prophesy from their own heart, and who see nothing at all." Moreover, even God over all Himself, through the voice of Jeremias, says: "I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; nor did I speak to them, and they
A themselves prophesied." But he was a true prophet, conveying words from the mouth of the Lord, filled with the Holy Spirit, and welling up good things from the good fountain of his heart as from a spring. For the tongue of the saints knows not how to lie. The aim of the prophecy, however, is to rebuke the two tribes that were in Jerusalem, namely, the tribe of Juda and the tribe of Benjamin. For it is written that they had acted impiously, had wickedly inclined toward the deceits of idols, and were ready to rush into anything whatsoever that was discordant with God. The time of the reign during which he spoke such things to those who had offended is also usefully added, so that, by investigating the state of affairs that existed at that time, we may thereupon perceive the cause and the extent to which God had been moved to wrath against them.
VOLUME ONE. Chapter I.
Vers. 1. *The word of the Lord, which came to Sophonias the son of Chusi, the son of Godolias, the son of Amarias, the son of Ezechias, in the days of Josias, the son of Ammon, king of Juda.*
B II. So then—for I shall narrate in turns what is profitable to those who will read—there once reigned C in Jerusalem Ezechias, a man who, if any other was, was most lover of God, devoted to piety, a guardian of justice, an enemy of deception, and an extirpator of idolatry as a ruinous thing; for the holy Scripture clearly bore testimony to these virtues in him. While he was administering the kingdom in Jerusalem, Sennacherim the tyrant of the Assyrians came up and, having captured Samaria, carried away Israel—that is, the ten tribes—to the mountains of the Persians and Medes, and having burned many of the cities of the kingdom of Juda, he could not take Jerusalem, as God was protecting it. After Ezechias died, his son Manasses succeeded to the kingdom, who was so ungodly that he thought no manner of wickedness should be omitted by himself. Concerning him it is written thus in the fourth book of Kings: "And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out from before the face of the children of Israel. And he returned and built the high places which Ezechias his father had destroyed; and he set up an altar to Baal, and made groves, as Achab king of Israel had done; and he worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them; and he built an altar in the house of the Lord, of which He had said: 'In Jerusalem I will put my name'; and he built an altar to all the host of heaven in the two courts of the D house of the Lord; and he caused his sons to pass through the fire, and he practiced augury, and used omens," and what follows. While Manasses was impiously doing these things, God was angered and was now threatening to bring the punishments of His wrath upon Jerusalem. For it is written again in this manner: "And the Lord spoke by the hand of His servants the prophets, saying: Because Manasses hath done these evil abominations, behold, I bring evils upon Jerusalem, and I will stretch over Jerusalem
A the measure of Samaria, and I will deliver them into the hands of his enemies. And that He would not bring these things upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem long after, God threatened. But upon the death of Manasses, his son Amos took the scepter, in no way inferior to the one who brought him forth in wickedness of character, but so competing with that man's impiety that he perhaps even surpassed it in the end. Upon his death, there succeeded his son Josiah, a follower of the love for God of his great-grandfather Hezekiah and an excellent lover of his ways. For he tore down the altars and shrines, and having rendered the divine temple pure of the abominations of Manasses, he B ordered those who were priests according to the law to perform their customary duties to the glory of God. In addition to this, he burned the chariot of the sun, and drove out of Jerusalem the false prophets, the augurs, the soothsayers, and truly the knowers. And he slaughtered a number, not to be numbered, of those who served the shrines, and slew them upon the altars of the idols, and overturned the altar of the calves which were in Bethel, which Jeroboam had made. Because he was so lover of God, God postponed the wrath and brought forward none of those things which were threatened. But when Josiah also died, Joachaz reigned, whom Pharaoh Necho captured and put in chains, and he raised to the honor of the kingdom Jechonias, the second son of Josiah. During his reign, Nebuchadnezzar marched against Judea, and having laid waste the whole region, he captured Jerusalem, and having burned the divine temple, he carried away captive the tribes of Judah and Benjamin C along with the sacred vessels into his own kingdom. It is necessary to know also that the ferocity of the Babylonian destroyed and harmed the cities of the foreigners which were situated by the sea, I mean Gaza and Ascalon, and others along with them, as well as the Idumeans and Ammonites. For the word of the prophecy makes mention of this too.
VERS. 2, 3. By failing, let it fail from the face of the earth, saith the Lord. Man and cattle shall fail. The birds of the heaven and the fishes of the sea shall fail. And the ungodly shall grow weak. And I will take away the lawless from the face of the earth, saith the Lord.
III. As if their land were to be reduced completely to a desert, and were on the point of being utterly ruined with almost all its inhabitants, he utters this word D of prophecy with a kind of exaggeration and hyperbole. For we do not say, if we are in a state of good sense, that the Lord of all is rightly angry at unreasoning animals, and swimming creatures, and birds. Rather, he persuades his hearers to consider this: that no mercy at all will be shown; but just as when a ship is submerged along with its passengers, no remnant remains, so, he says, when Judea is captured, nothing shall be preserved, not man, nor cattle, nor bird, nor fish. But since it was likely that there were some in it living according to the law, and having practiced a noble and admirable manner of life, lest He should appear to be venting His wrath against all simply and indiscriminately, and destroying [the just with the unjust, and the pious with the wicked and ungodly...
the profane and wicked. For this reason, He makes it clear in what way the things of wrath will come. For He said that the wicked shall also grow weak: "And I will take away the lawless from the face of the earth;" for they grow weak by falling under the hand of enemies, and the lawless are wiped out as if dead, and having become the work of the sword, that is, having been led away as captives, and serving those who have taken them.
But if anyone should choose to transfer these things to lives and habits—man and beasts and the rest—he will understand by "men" those who live according to the flesh, and who have an earthly mindset, and are fastened to temporal things, to whom the divine word has also spoken: "I said: You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High; but you shall die as men." For the life of the holy ones is no longer human, but rather divine and spiritual; if it is true that although they walk in the flesh, they do not live according to the flesh, and they have their citizenship rather in heaven. We shall understand by "beasts" those who live in great ignorance and are dull of mind, concerning whom He says through the voice of David: "Man being in honor, did not understand," and what follows. And He further commands, saying: "Do not be as the horse and the mule, which have no understanding." We shall account as "birds" those who have an elated and, as it were, airy mind, B and who have trained their mind to be carried on high, and who refuse to be led along with the humble. Such is every arrogant person, and one who is wholly caught up in the accusations of pride, which is hateful to God. Then "fish" will signify the most thoughtless multitude. The species of fish are most mute. Such too is the common crowd, who, encompassed as if by a sea by the turmoil of this life, and feeding on the salty and bitter pleasure of the deeds within it, are kept for the nets of death, having destruction as the end of their life. These, therefore, will fail, when God has punished and chastised them, as those who have spent their time profligately and have not shrunk from provoking Him.
"And I will stretch out my hand over Judah, and over all those who dwell in Jerusalem, and I will take away from this place the names of Baal, and the names of the priests, and those who worship upon C the housetops the host of heaven, and those who swear by their king, and those who turn away from the Lord the God, and those who do not seek the Lord, and those who do not cleave to the Lord."
4. He clarifies thereafter what had been spoken obscurely, and declares that the things of wrath will befall the tribe of Judah and Jerusalem. For He says that His hand will be stretched out against her, as if laying hold and striking, and subjecting them to enemies who are soon expected, by whom they shall be devastated and, having been caught in the snares of slavery, be removed from their native soil. D
A He strips bare their crimes, and says that the names of Baal shall be removed from their midst, and that with them the names of the priests shall pass away. And that there was a great multitude of objects of worship among them, and a diverse manner of wandering, he indicates by this. That they shall be consumed by war, and that the nations of the Jews shall be brought to such a state of smallness of numbers, that there shall perhaps be nowhere any who name Baal, or who are able to sit by the shrines of the idols—this he has aptly signified by saying that the names of their idols and of the priests shall be taken away. He says "names" in place of "remembrances," that is, their glories. Thus also Solomon explains it: "A good name is better than much wealth" (Prov. xxii, 1). Along with the priests and the names of Baal, he says that those who worship upon the roofs shall also be destroyed; these would be those who were accustomed to worship the moon and the bear and the rest of the host of heaven. "I will also take away," he says, "those who swear by their king." For it was the custom for those who had been led astray to make the heaven their oath, and to extend their tongue toward it; and most ambitiously, as it were, to exclaim: "By the king and by the lord sun." For those who do this it is necessary to depart violently from the love toward God, although the law has clearly decreed: "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve, and in His name shall you swear" (Deut. vi, 13; Matth. iv, 10). And indeed Jeremiah bears witness to those from Israel touching the keeping of the commandment given through Moses, and was saying to God, averting the wrath from them: "They say, 'The Lord lives'" (Jerem. v, 2). B But those who are not seeking the Lord, nor care to cling unto Him—it is to be understood that they are living a wicked and dishonorable life, and deeming themselves blessed by a way of life contrary to the laws. For God is sought by us, not so much locally, as, I think, practically, through true knowledge, and through a life that is blameless in itself, through faith, and kindness, and through a zeal and readiness for everything that is deeply pleasing to Him. C But it must be known that these things were done also by Josiah, under whom this prophecy was published. For he himself overthrew the altars, and the shrines, and the hand-wrought things; he slaughtered the sacrificers, the false prophets, and the augurers. Yet the prophet does not at all appear to indicate those things that are present, nor to speak of things already done; rather, he is predicting that these things will happen at some time—which indeed happened through Nebuchadnezzar, who did not perform this for the glory of God; for how, or whence, seeing that he even burned the divine temple? D But he rather destroyed, and burned up together with the idols those who worshipped them.
VERS. 7. "Fear from the face of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is near, for the Lord has prepared His sacrifice, He has sanctified His called ones."
V. He usefully inserts exhortation or admonition into the threats, and having terrified them with the horrors, he leads them to better counsels, and commands them to hold God, the Lord of all, in awe: for I think this is what "fear" means; and to hasten to correct the paths of life, and ¶
without procrastination to be converted to that which is pleasing and acceptable to Him. Now, he says that such persons must be seen in the presence of the Lord, according to that which was spoken by the voice of Isaiah: "Wash yourselves, be clean; take away your iniquities from your souls before my eyes. Cease from your evil ways" (Isa. i, 16). For it is not, of course, the same thing to remove wickedness from human eyes as from the presence of God, since there is the greatest possible difference between these actions. For a wicked man sometimes has the reputation of piety and hides under the name of goodness, although he is not good in truth. Whence Christ says: "Beware of those who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves" (Matt. vii, 15). Such a one is pious and religious in the eyes of men, but not at all in the eyes of God. He who is truly guileless before the face of God not only B puts on an outward appearance of goodness and virtue, but has a pure heart, and is indeed seen as such. For Solomon also says somewhere: "The ways of a man are before the eyes of God, and He considers all his paths" (Prov. v, 21). He calls the time of the capture "the day of the Lord," and says that it is even at the doors. He does not permit the more negligent to reason with themselves that what has been predicted is still far off, and that by the time they reach the end of their own lives, they will have escaped the calamity. For it was common among the Jews, in their predictions of the most grievous events, to think and say such things. And indeed God said somewhere to Ezekiel: "Son of man, behold, the house of Israel is provoking, saying, 'The vision that this man sees is for many days, and he prophesies for long times.' Therefore say to them: 'Thus saith Adonai the Lord: None of my words which I shall speak C shall be prolonged any more. For I will speak a word, and I will perform it, saith Adonai the Lord'" (Ezech. xii, 27, 28). And now, I suppose, he affirms for the same reason that the day of the Lord has approached, and that His sacrifice has been prepared, and His invited ones have been sanctified. And by "sacrifice" he refers to the slaughter of the impious, to be carried out according to His will; and by "invited ones" the Chaldeans, whom he also says are "sanctified," not as though they had become holy, but as having been decreed and summoned by God to mingle Judea with fire, and to destroy its inhabitants utterly without any mercy. The Holy Scripture says something of this kind elsewhere (Jerem. xxxi, 28, 30). For the Persians and Medes, and those fighting for Cyrus, were called against Nineveh, and God said about them: "They are sanctified, and I am leading them" (Isa. xiii, 3). "Giants are coming to fulfill my wrath, D rejoicing at the same time and behaving insolently." Therefore, "sanctified" in this place does not signify the putting away of wickedness, nor the participation of the Holy Spirit, but rather signifies that those who have been, as it were, appointed and set apart for the completion of such a task.
VERS. 8, 9. *And it shall be in the day of the sacrifice of the Lord, and*
I will take vengeance upon the princes, and upon the king's house, and upon all who are clothed in foreign garments. And I will take vengeance manifestly upon all who are in the vestibules in that day, who fill the house of the Lord their God with impiety and deceit.* B VI. There are three things in which the happiness of cities and regions consists: the kingdom, the orders of the magistracies therein, and the priesthood, which is lauded by all. If these hold themselves well, each according to its own dignity, then those things subject to each will be well ordered, and the safety and security of the peoples will be provided for. But if they run by a crooked and distorted path, all things will immediately proceed ungracefully, and they will render them, as it were, drunken unto destruction. For just as when the head is in pain, it is necessary that the rest of the members likewise feel pain and suffer in sympathy, so too, when princes are bent toward vice and labor under a propensity for evil, it is fitting that the subjects be corrupted in like manner. C For subjects are accustomed to follow the wills of their masters and to be conformed to their example. In the day, therefore, he says, of the sacrifice D pleasing to God—that is, in the time when the slaughter of those bound by the most terrible sins shall be perpetrated—the wrath of the avenger shall invade those things which excel others in glory and hold the first place. These things are the king’s house, and that which is immediately neighboring to it, being the glory and honor of the illustrious, and thirdly after them, that which is also preferred before others by God, [namely] the company of the divine priests, who are themselves numbered as leaders and princes of the people in the order of the priesthood. These he vigorously agitates, as those who cover themselves with foreign garments—that is, they have by now ceased to love God to such an extent that they dared to despise what was once divinely commanded through Moses, and when the time called them to perform sacred duties, they did not even retain the worship or the habit of the priesthood. Just as, therefore, the sons of Aaron were consumed by fire, and were accused of the crime of having placed foreign fire upon the altar, in the same way, I think, those of whom we are speaking shall be called to account, because they spurned the adornment befitting them, as was worthy of priests, and were not clothed according to the will of the lawgiver, but did not hesitate to perform holy rites while clad in foreign garments. And this is an argument of the highest contempt, and shows that they held the law in the lowest regard. How, therefore, can it be thought that the observance of the law was a care to others, if the princes themselves neglected it? For this reason, he says: *I will take vengeance manifestly upon all who are in the vestibules.* The sentiment is of this kind: Israel, sinning so many times and giving no heed to the words of the prophets, he would call to repentance, correcting him as a father by external afflictions, sometimes even touching their bodies. For example, he struck the fruits in the field with a pestilential wind: or he sent in by turns the locust and the caterpillar, or the canker-worm, or the blight, which is called *erugo*. He also afflicted them with inflammation and jaundice, according to the word
of the prophet. A Bringing these things at various times, He struck them, as it were, secretly. But now, He says, "I will take vengeance openly upon the vestibules," that is to say, I will not punish secretly in anger; the things that will injure you will not be the locust and the blight, nor a sickness of the body, but the drawn and flashing sword of the enemy, threatening destruction to those who are guilty of impiety against Me, and slaying cruelly even to the very vestibules of the temple those who have filled the house of God with their impiety and deceit. What, then, is this impiety? And what this deceit? Another prophet clarifies it for us, saying concerning Jerusalem: "Her rulers judged for gifts, and her prophets divined for silver." And indeed, the wise Isaiah also inveighs somewhere against her, and says: "Thy rulers are disobedient, companions of thieves," and the rest.
We must therefore pay attention, those of us who are ministers of the divine altars, B lest we perhaps be found liable to such charges. For the ancients, in type, assumed the stole appropriate to sacred functions. But since the time of spiritual worship has arrived, let the garment be splendid, and let every man called to the liturgy or to the office of sacrifice have a priestly stole, that is, a right and blameless faith, an evangelical life, a respectable and most lawful way of life, and an upright character, not yielding to shameful gains, a mind looking toward virtue, and regarding nothing as more important than pleasing God.
VERS. 8. *And it shall be in that day, says the Lord, a voice of crying from the gate of those who pierce, and a wailing from the second, and a great crashing from the hills.*
C VII. He clearly describes the disasters of war, and He presents certain ones as falling and perishing, and lamenting for themselves, so that, being compelled by the magnitude of future evils, they might choose to turn to the duty of acting in a better and more becoming manner, and thus finally be removed from the reach of anger. For God is good, "and He does not desire the death of the one who is dying, but that he should turn from his wicked way and live," according to the voice of the prophet Ezekiel. At that time, therefore, He says, from one gate of those who pierce—that is, those who are slaughtering those they encounter—there will be a terrible and pitiless shouting. For always, in the taking of cities, enemies rushing in raise a terrifying cry, D provoking to fear those within them, and urging one another on to exercise cruelty as rapidly as possible. From the other gate, He says, there will be wailing and crying, as the captives crowd against one another, and each one makes haste to flee from the city, just as where a ship is sinking into the deep. He says further that there will be a great crashing from the hills, perhaps denominating as "hills" what was called the upper city in Jerusalem, or Mount Sion: or it signifies some other thing. For always at a hostile incursion the inhabitants betake themselves to the mountain ridges, thinking the difficulty of the location
will be an impediment to their enemies, and will check the impulses of their pursuers. And indeed the Lord has declared to the Jews: “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” Therefore, when God is striking, and exacting penalties for sins from those who have chosen to despise Him, nothing will assist or avail those who suffer—not even a most fortified city, not the firmest circuit of walls, not the height of mountains and the roughness of rocks, nor the difficulty of trackless places. Only repentance saves, which conciliates the Judge, softens His anger, and easily leads the Creator, who is good by nature, to the gentleness appropriate to Him. And it is indeed better to be cautious with all one’s might so as not to offend God. But since human nature is prone to evil, “and we all offend in many things,” being destitute of constancy in virtue, let us at least, by turning our pursuits toward better things, strive to amend, and by repentance call to clemency Him who is by nature good, the Lord of all things, as I said just now. A
VERSE 11. Lament, you who dwell in the cut-down city, for all the people of Canaan have been made like it, and all who were lifted up with silver have perished.
VIII. That the iron of the Babylonians will spare no one, but will utterly destroy everyone throughout all Judea, he signifies by these words; but he commands those who were left behind in Jerusalem, and those who managed to escape by flight, to lament over Judea, which had been destroyed, and over the city famous among them which had been cut down and crushed—because all the people in it were vying with the ways of the Canaanites and were emulating their customs, and to such an extent were they yielding nothing to them, that perhaps they were even surpassing them and leaving them behind. Now the Canaanites were foreigners, B hateful to God, wicked, and idolaters, and infamous for everything most nefarious. Wherefore, in the holy Scriptures, this is cast as a reproach at someone: “Semen Canaan, and not Judah.” And that wealth would be of no use to them, and was a rotten and easily-broken support, he teaches further, asserting that those “lifted up with silver” had perished—that is, those who were accustomed to think highly of themselves because of wealth and money, and who lifted up their brow even higher because of this very thing. For because they were overcome by the greed for base gain, and were gaping after this, they filled the house of their God, as He Himself says, with impiety and deceit; deservedly, therefore, is wealth C reproved as something weak, and fruitless, and knowing not how to grant salvation. “A good name is therefore better than much wealth,” according to what is written. “For treasures will not profit the ungodly; but righteousness will deliver from death,” and truly a small portion with the fear of God is better than many crops with injustice. D
A
VERS. 12. "And it shall be in that day, I will search Jerusalem with a lamp, and I will take vengeance upon the men who despise, upon their guards, saying in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good, nor will he do evil.’"
IX. Whatever enemies are about to perpetrate through unbridled madness against those who have been captured, God attributes to His own person: not that He Himself performs such base acts, but that He justly permits the punishments of His wrath to be expended upon the wicked. For it is true what Solomon said enigmatically in the Proverbs: "For not in vain are nets spread for winged creatures; for they who partake in murder treasure up evils for themselves." For since it is possible to be as far removed as possible from punishment and judgment by embracing virtue instead of vice, they themselves contrariwise sharpen divine wrath against themselves, and are convicted by the judgment of the prudent of hurling their own souls into a self-invited destruction. Jerusalem is therefore searched with a lamp. The Jews suffered something of this kind at the hands of the Romans, which happened to them having been captured at Jerusalem by Vespasian and Titus. For as Josephus records, who B described the calamities of the Jews tragically and quite copiously, after the slaughters in the battle and the innumerable multitude of those who perished throughout the city, those who had leaped down into the caves and the sewers were searched out by lamp and, being brought into the light, were cruelly and mercilessly slaughtered. But He says that He will take vengeance upon them as having "despised," regarding "their guards," that is to say, either the laws ordained for each of the matters to be done, which they transgressed and acted impiously, accounting the observance of them to be nothing; or, specifically, He calls the customs of the priests "guards." For there was a very great deal of observance according to the Law regarding their vestments, and ceremonial forms, and indeed also concerning sacrifices; for they did not bring victims to the altar in one single way, and anyone might learn the difference in these things by meeting with the Mosaic writings. But there was no regard for the guards on their part, because they had reached such a point of nonsense and chilling notions as to perhaps even think and dare to say that the God of all things exercises no care for human affairs, and so despises human actions as to neither praise the good nor reward those whose gifts respond to their own goodness, nor be inflamed with anger against the sinning, nor inflict punishments equivalent to their impious C deeds upon them. This, I think, is: "The Lord will not do good, nor will He do evil." This is, therefore, the much-vaunted "lack of providence," and nothing else. And the dogma is so shameful and detestable that it did not please even the wise men of the Greeks themselves. For they termed the author of such things an atheist; this was Epicurus, one of those renowned among them for wisdom. It is therefore to be said that the ways of man are open to the eyes of God and all his steps are considered by Him: and that He deems the worshippers of virtue worthy of rewards, but that He is hateful toward the wicked and renders to each according to his works. D We must therefore traverse the straight paths and [find] the way pleasing to God, the Lord of all.
while living lawfully in this manner and truly dedicating ourselves to the most excellent life, so that we may have the Lord of all things merciful and favorable, and not suffer Him to be embittered against us, [as we seek] to reject wickedness and strive to amend the sins of lethargy and sloth through repentance.
VERS. 13. *And their strength shall be for a prey, and their houses for desolation. And they shall build houses, and shall not inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards, and shall not drink the wine of them.*
B Opportune, as I think, is that which can now be said by us also: "Treasures shall not profit the wicked." For riches are always fugitive and lack stability. Nay, they rather intoxicate and incline one toward apostasy, and have fragile feet. To applaud oneself greatly for them is pure folly. For they will by no means exempt those subjected to divine wrath, nor will they free anyone from charges, when God determines the penalty and brings upon those who have transgressed the punishment that is fitting. What, then, is wealth? It only serves the flesh; it is a minister of unholy and abominable pleasure; it is a mother of arrogance, and a root and origin of pride; and it brings about a participation in fleeting bits of glory, which pass by like shadows from those who possess them. For it is true that "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass." It teaches, therefore, that the pursuit of wealth is utterly senseless for those who have acted wickedly, saying that C their strength will be for a prey to the Chaldeans. For there are—indeed, there are those concerning whom it might be said, and very fittingly, as it is sung in the Psalms: "Behold the man who did not set God as his helper, but trusted in the multitude of his wealth, and was strengthened in his vanity." But if they have come to possess houses that are sumptuously furnished, they will not be their own; for they shall be consigned to the flames. And if, in addition to these, they have become cultivators of vineyards, they will never drink of them themselves; for they shall depart as captives, having left their possessions behind and having been despoiled of everything that knows how to bring pleasure. And God makes this clear through the voice of Jeremiah, addressing one of the kings in Samaria as follows: "Thou hast built for thyself a fitting house, D upper rooms with airy windows, distinct with windows, and paneled with cedar, and painted with vermilion. Shalt thou reign, because thou art provoked in Ahab thy father? They shall not eat, and they shall not drink. It were better for thee to do judgment and justice." We ought not, therefore, to desire any earthly things, but to cast away as far as possible the taking of pleasure in temporal things, and to refrain from scraping together transitory wealth, which is able to profit those who have it nothing at all; but we must glory in Christ and in a praiseworthy course of life, and deeming nothing more excellent than the friendship of God, exclaiming and saying: "O Lord, God of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in Thee." To which [is added]: "For better is one day in Thy courts than thousands. I have chosen to be an abject one in the house of my God."
A "For the day of the Lord is near, near and very swift." The voice of the day of the Lord is bitter and hard, [and] is set [as] powerful. That day is a day of wrath, a day of tribulation and necessity, a day of deformities and destruction, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and mist, a day of trumpet and shouting against the fortified cities and against the high corners.
XI. Again, he cuts off the hope of those who might think to defer the outcome of their words to the distant future. B For he shows the vengeance to be present, as if at the door, and that the calamities of war are tracking them closely at their heels. He calls the "day of the Lord" the time when these things are about to happen. He calls it "swift" as well, since it will arrive without any delay and will be seen before long. He says that the voice of that day is "bitter and very powerful," signifying, I suppose, the clamor of the soldiers redoubling [their] victory, and he calls that day a day of wrath and tribulation, of destruction and deformity, of darkness and gloom. C For what sort of miseries will not happen to those who have arrived at such a state of wretchedness, so as to be immersed in the very terrors of death and to be struggling in the final evils? When a city has been captured by enemies, what do the captives not suffer? Or what is so wicked that they [the enemies] omit? Are not boys who are still young destroyed, and little girls slaughtered and cast away, and like plants plucked up before their time? Does the sickness of soul of the captives not darken their hearts like night and shadows, so that they are utterly ignorant as to what counsel to take or what to think? Indeed, it almost shrouds each one's mind with darkness and clouds, and does not allow one to think where one might turn.
Then again, can there be any doubt that the hostile attack of the adversaries will be unbearable, even for cities that are populous and trained in military matters? Moreover, he warns that other cities, which might be surrounded by the circuits of walls, will experience the day of the Lord as a day of "trumpet and shouting against the fortified cities, and against the high corners." D For he calls those "fortified" which are populous and abound to a very great degree in a warlike race, [and] "high corners, indeed," those which are walled. For in the circuits of walls, corners always rise up somehow and are elevated into towers, which are higher than the rest of the wall and buildings. It is therefore truly a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God; for absolutely no one will resist Him, for He is Himself the Lord of hosts.
"And I will distress the men, and they shall walk as blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord. And their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as dung of oxen. And their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord."
And in the fire of his zeal A all the earth shall be consumed, for he shall make a full and speedy destruction upon all them that dwell on the earth.
XII. The meaning of these words is very clear, and in
A truth we say that they have departed and become strangers by having served idols and having surrendered their minds to be corrupted by vicious passions; so, conversely, we shall understand that it is like going backwards, and attaining to the divine benevolence, for those who have not refused to worship him alone and to obey his oracles. Furthermore, he calls the Israelite race uninstructed, inasmuch as it despised the ancient commandment itself, and wickedly rejected the law by which it was being instructed as by a tutor, and which was able to lead it to every kind of probity. He threatens, moreover, that unless they are bound to him in the ways we have just mentioned, they will differ in no respect from the flowers of the fields, which are fragile and easily wither, and they will wholly experience the divine judgment. Therefore, "while we have time, let us do good unto all men." As long as the Lord permits, let us perform repentance. Let us unite ourselves to him through sanctification and faith. For thus shall we be protected in the day of wrath, and we shall wash away the stain contracted from our lapses before the day of the Lord comes upon us. B VERS. 3. Seek the Lord, all ye humble of the earth, work judgment, and seek justice, and answer them, that ye may be protected in the day of the Lord's wrath. C XIV. He clearly indicates in what manner they might be bound to the Lord, even though they are a detestable nation. For he commands them to seek the Lord, and to work judgment and justice, and to answer them. God is therefore sought by us if, with all slothfulness cast aside, we ardently desire to perform what is acceptable to him. We shall also work judgment, executing his divine law and serving virtue most diligently. We shall, moreover, gain the glory of justice, being most beautifully adorned with the ornaments of right actions, and running the glorious and truly irreprehensible path of charity towards God and the brethren. "For love is the fulfilling of the law." D I opine that we must add to what I have said, "and answer them," that is, to speak to others as well and to admonish the brethren; for thus, and not otherwise, shall we attain the full measure of virtue. So also the Lord said that the man most approved in word and deed would be called great in the kingdom of heaven: but he is the least who indeed has studied to teach things that suffice for this end, but has not been willing to perform in deed what he has proven, and has ordered others to perform what is lawful. He also laments somewhere the teachers of the Jews with these words: "Woe unto you! for you bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders, but you yourselves, he says, do not touch them with the tips of your fingers." The most perfect proof of religion, therefore, is both to perform the offices of virtue oneself and to explain them to others, by which they might become brilliant. And that the labor expended upon this is not without recompense, the disciple of Christ will make clear, saying that he "who has turned a sinner from the error of his way shall save his soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." But if anyone should consider that the phrase, "answer [them],"
manifests that it is right to make these [divine words] a subject of meditation, let him understand it in this way as well. For the law of Moses also gave instruction concerning the oracles of God, that "thou shalt speak of them when thou sittest in the house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." And David also sings: "And I will meditate on thy statutes always." A
VERS. 4. *For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ascalon shall be for a desolation, and Azotus shall be cast out at noon, and Accaron shall be rooted up.*
XV. The discourse proceeds again in an allegorical manner, and at the proper time it proclaims future things for the consolation of those from Israel. And why this is so, I ask. When Jerusalem had been laid waste, and all of Judea had been subjugated by Nabuchodonosor, the neighboring cities of the aliens rejoiced at the calamity of the miserable people, and mocked those who had suffered such devastation, and sacrificed even to their own gods, as if they had destroyed a race of men hateful to all. They even dared to say that it had been proved by the facts themselves that it was of no profit to them to trust in God, and they opined that the strength of the Babylonians had prevailed, even if [they had] heavenly aid. And if any individual from Judea, having abandoned his home and country and fled at the time of the war, had betaken himself to his neighbors in the expectation of finding safety, he fared even worse, as he encountered those who, while they ought to have shown mercy, surpassed the Babylonians in cruelty. Wherefore those unhappy people waxed insolent against the glory of God, and showed themselves harsh and implacable to the afflicted, not only granting no commiseration, but even inhumanely tormenting the captives in their folly. B What then? After these things, in its own time, when Cyrus finally let them go, the Israelites returned from captivity, and having established themselves in Jerusalem, they rebuilt the city and restored the temple. And with God helping them well, they were in hope of a happier state. When the Gazaeans, and the Ascalonites, and the Azotii, and those from the place called Accaron, and the Moabites, and the Idumaeans, and the Ammonites, and other nations besides these, learned of this, they were consumed by the flame of envy, and they attempted to hinder them as they were encircling the city with a wall. Therefore, having formed an army, they went to war against those who had returned from captivity, and they fought a battle in the valley of Josaphat: where, God strengthening Israel, the adversaries fell and were slain. And [God] so powerfully subdued the cities of the nations that He reduced them to a desert and made them stables for flocks. He now makes mention of this history, which contains a promise, first indeed of the return from captivity, and then of the future glory and victory against all. For He says that Gaza shall be plundered, C that Ascalon shall go to desolation, that Azotus shall be cast out at noon—that is, openly, and not in the manner of thieves, but manifestly and by the law of war—and that Accaron shall be rooted up. Very skillfully, he alludes in his threat to the meaning of the name. For Accaron is rendered "rooting up." He says that it shall suffer this very thing, so that it contains within its own appellation the calamity that is to be brought upon it. D
A 596 VERSE 5. Woe, you who inhabit the sea-coast, settlers of the Cretans! The word of the Lord is upon you, O Chanaan, land of the Philistines.
XVI. Having threatened sufficiently and having prophesied the calamity that was soon to befall the inhabitants of Palestine—I mean the Gazites, the Ascalonites, the Azotians, and those from Accaron—he weaves the same discourse regarding the cities of Phoenicia, especially those situated by the sea. Therefore he says: "Woe, you who inhabit the sea-coast!" Since many of the cities in Palestine were situated by the sea, he distinguishes those he means by calling them "settlers of the Cretans" for the present time, so that we may understand the inhabitants of Phoenicia from this. For the Cretans and the Libyans were separated from one another by the sea, at a very small distance. For, as the popular account goes, when the wind blows, sometimes the scents of the plants from Crete are carried over and kill the wild beasts in Libya—I speak of reptiles and the families of venomous creatures. Thus, the Libyans and the Cretans are set down as one people. Hence, having sent out a colony at times, they inhabited the cities in Phoenicia and built them up, just as, indeed, the Cappadocians also did at times in Palestine. And, surely, God said through the voice of Amos: "Are you not as the sons of the Ethiopians to me, O sons of Israel? says the Lord. Did I not bring Israel up out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines out of Cappadocia, and the Syrians out of the pit?" B He names the Philistines as "alien nations [Philistines]," and the Phoenicians as "Syrians," whom he also asserts he brought up out of the "pit"—calling Libya the "pit," I suppose, because the region is perhaps hollow and low-lying. For the sea spreads out into their bays, with the land almost retreating and withdrawing to the most southern climes. It should be known that other interpreters used the word "Cyrene" instead of "pit," because it is manifest that the Phoenicians were colonists of the Libyans; for Cyrene is a most illustrious city of Libya. Therefore he says, "The word of the Lord is upon you, O settlers of the Cretans," or rather, of the Libyans. He says "settlers" instead of "colonists" and "transplants." He also calls them Chanaan again. For they were all Chanaanites who inhabited the cities of Phoenicia, even if they had originated as colonists of the Cretans. It must also be known that other interpreters have rendered "Woe to you, O nation wasted" instead of "settlers of the Cretans." Since it was necessary to follow the reading of the Seventy C again, we have brought forth the history that we have received by tradition, and the prophet's word has sealed it as true.
"And I will destroy you from your habitation, and Crete shall be a pasture for flocks, and a fold for sheep. And the sea-coast shall be for those who are left of the house of Juda. Over them they shall feed in the houses of Ascalon, in the evening they shall rest before the sons of Juda, because the Lord has visited them..." D
and turned away their captivity.
XVII. Behold, he speaks again as if to sojourners, and discourses as if to those who have migrated, and he has borne witness to the truth in his history. For he says that he will destroy them from their habitation, that is, from the land into which they had migrated. Furthermore, he says that their cities will come to such a state of desolation as to become a pasture and a fold for flocks. He calls the Phoenicia of them, or rather the Phoenician inhabitants, "Crete," inasmuch as they were neighbors to Libya and had set out from Crete. For A in former times they had been one people, and they had intermingled their lineages by blood and by laws. I have said before that all the nations had gathered together, burning with envy, and had warred against Jerusalem after the time of the captivity, and indeed, when battle was joined in the valley of Josaphat, those who had impiously plotted against the liberated were defeated and fell. Therefore, the Israelites, having become the victors, grazed upon the lands of the aliens as if they were deserts, and used the cities of the Philistines—that is, the Palestinians—as stalls, because all who dwelt in them had perished utterly. "There shall be, therefore," he says, "the coast of the sea," that is, the cities of the Palestinians by the sea, which once were populous, terrible, and nearly impregnable, but shall be pastures for the flocks of the remnant of the house of Juda. For they who were saved from the captivity, and were with difficulty left over, these have conquered, and these shall rest in the houses of Ascalon in the evening. For in the evening, shepherds enclose their flocks in pens. What, then, is this great power? Or how shall this come to pass, which surpasses all faith and every argument? "Because," he says, "the Lord their God has visited them, and turned away their captivity." B It is as if he were to say: He has put an end to his anger against them, he has forgiven them their offenses, and he is fighting for the Israelites again, just as he did of old, and he grants them victory over their adversaries without toil. Therefore, if God should turn away from us when we sin, we shall be subjected to the feet of our enemies, and there shall be none to save us. But if he should look upon us again, and we are desirous of virtue and willing to live according to the laws, we shall be superior in any war and shall overcome our adversaries. He himself will make the faith of this matter certain, saying concerning any righteous man: "Because he has hoped in me, I will deliver him."
VERS. 8, 9. I have heard the reproaches of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, with which they reproached my people, and magnified themselves over my borders. Therefore as I live, says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, that Moab shall be as Sodom, and the sons of Ammon as Gomorrah, and Damascus left as a heap of the threshing floor, and destroyed forever. And the remnants of my people shall spoil them, and the remnants of my nation shall possess them.
XVIII. Jerusalem having been sacked, and the children of Israel now C
A miserably suffering, the neighboring nations mocked them, and thought that the fall of Judea was the work of their own counterfeit gods, now that the power which had always from above assisted them—clearly the power of the almighty God—had been utterly overthrown and brought near to nothing. For it is nothing strange that some should have reached such a pitch of folly, being led astray and serving wood and stone, and being ignorant of the God who is such by nature and in truth. "I have heard, therefore," he says, "the reproaches of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon." For I think there is no difference between striking the wretched with a rod or a stone, and striking them with insults, and opening a mouth without restraint against them, and belching forth words by which it is likely that some become embittered to the point of distress and sorrow, and feel the calamity that is invading them to be more burdensome. Since, however, they were found to be speaking brazenly even against the divine and ineffable glory itself, therefore he says that, enduring the punishment of the Sodomites, they shall go to destruction, and while their own affairs are ruined, they shall point to the sufferings of the Gomorrahites as perhaps something light by comparison, and only late and with difficulty, through the things that have befallen them, will they recognize the power of Him who punishes. B Now, Damascus, that illustrious and conspicuous metropolis of the Phoenicians, where the palace is, shall be a heap of stubble without ears of corn, which is of no account, but its end is for burning, that is, for scattering. For the gusts of wind scatter heaps of chaff in every direction. In the same way, the force of the captors scatters in every direction those who are in the captured cities, falling upon them like the most turbulent winds. That this shall be at certain times the achievement of no other than the very people who had been suffering and insulted, he sets forth by saying: "The remnant of my people shall plunder them, and the remnant of my nation shall possess them." For by "remnant of the nation," as I said before, he terms those set free from captivity, who have overcome the nations and have reduced the captured cities of the foreigners to complete desolation.
When, therefore, the God of all, as a wise dispenser, is exercising the Church, either by inflicting tribulations or by allowing persecutions to be stirred up against her by enemies—whether these be pagans or impious heretics—let no one laugh, but let each wait for the end of the whole struggle. For those who sometimes laugh boisterously, and all but reproach Christ as if He were not C protecting His own, or as if He were unable to do so and weak in this regard, shall undergo the sufferings of the Sodomites and shall be food for fire, and moreover, they shall find that those whom they thought to have defeated are actually prevailing over them.
"This shall be for them instead of their insolence, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the Lord Almighty. The Lord will be manifest against them, and will destroy all the gods of the nations of the earth."
XIX. "This," he says, "is their portion, and this is their lot," or D inheritance. For they were insolent against the ineffable glory, as I have said, [those who were] saved from the captivity...
A talking nonsense, and uttering blasphemous cries, and all but rising up against Him who is above all, using a terrible and unbridled audacity in this. But since they attributed the glory of omnipotence to their own gods, B "The Lord shall be manifest upon them," that is, He shall manifest His own power upon them, in that He will utterly destroy all their gods. For their sanctuaries have been abolished and have fallen by the hand of Israel, and things made by hand have become the work of hands, everywhere and in every nation of the captives. Where, then, is the power of these gods? Or how could they save others, when they are not even able to defend themselves? Or rather, what in the world is deaf and senseless matter? "The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men's hands," and if it is not too grievous a thing to say, it must be said: "What does a graven image profit, because they graveneth it, they have moulded it as a molten image, a false fantasy," according to the voice of the prophet. And as the inspired David says: "Let all who make them, and all who trust in them, become like unto them."
"And they shall worship Him, every man from his own place, all the islands of the nations."
XX. We say that the Lord was made manifest upon them when He destroyed all their gods; C of old, indeed, when the Israelites, together with the cities of the foreigners, manfully burned the images in the temples and the altars within them; but after the assumption of human nature by the Only-begotten Son of God, one may see this to have happened more truly, when God the Word also became like us and was manifest. And so the inspired disciples said that they had even handled with their hands and seen with their eyes Him who is from the beginning, whom they had heard. For He who, inasmuch as He is God, escapes the sight of the eyes, was made manifest; and David chants in a certain place: "God shall come manifestly, our God, and He shall not keep silence." But D after He became manifest, and "was seen on earth" according to the writing, and "conversed with men," then the profane and execrable herds of idols perished. The empire of the devil was also utterly destroyed, and from now on, everyone of those who have been brought through faith in Christ to the knowledge of the truth, offers worship to God the Father through Him and with Him from his own place; and God is no longer known in Judea alone, but even the regions and cities of the nations, even if they are separated from Judea by the intervening sea, nonetheless approach Christ, offer Him prayers, glorify Him, and venerate Him with never-ceasing praises. Of old, indeed, "His name was great in Israel," but now He has become most known to all everywhere, and the earth and sea are full of His glory. And this is, of course, what is meant, "As I live, says the Lord," and what follows. "The whole earth shall be filled with His glory," and therefore each will worship from his own place, as the prophet...
A says. For the Law, foreshadowing and sketching out the beauty of the Church, used to build up that ancient tabernacle for the Israelites. The celebrated temple in Jerusalem was also built as a type of the same. The divine Moses, or rather God through him, commanded those of old from all the land of Judaea who wished to worship to repair to Jerusalem, to sacrifice there, and to worship God; and death was the penalty for those who sacrificed outside the temple. But since the time of the shadow has passed, the things in types have ceased, and we have known thenceforth the Divinity apart from a type. Nor does the Most High dwell in temples made with hands, but rather He fills heaven and earth and the things beneath the earth. For this reason, believing Him to be everywhere and in all things, let one worship wherever he happens to be, as having near at hand B the God who says: "I am a God drawing near, says the Lord, and not a God afar off." It should be known, moreover, that the Holy Scripture sometimes calls the Churches islands, as being situated in this world as in a sea, and surrounded by bitter waters, namely the afflictions therein, and lashed by what are almost the most violent waves, that is, by persecutions, yet remaining unfallen, rising high, and not being submerged by tribulations. For the Churches stand unshaken because of Christ, "and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against them." Therefore, if anyone wishes to understand the islands of the nations as the Churches from the nations, he will not deviate from the appropriate purpose.
LATER VOLUME
VERS. 12. And you, O Ethiopians, shall be wounded by my sword.XXI. He makes mention of every race, that is, nation, that has warred against Israel and has spoken foolishly against the divine glory. He passes, therefore, from the Jews and Ammonites to the Ethiopians, C either those situated toward the east and south, and inhabiting the region bordering on the land of the Persians; or those toward the Egyptians, as being adjacent and neighbors to those from Israel. The land of the Egyptians is also a part of Ethiopia. And so, the Holy Scripture is accustomed to name the rivers of Egypt as the rivers of Ethiopia. For they also drink of the river Gihon, of which the Scripture says: "This is it which encompasses the whole land of Ethiopia." "You, therefore, shall be wounded, O Ethiopians, by my sword." He calls the sword of the Jews his own, inasmuch as He Himself brings it upon those who have acted impiously against His own glory, as I said, and indeed against that of Israel.
And because the divinely inspired Scripture also knows of Ethiopians who fall under spiritual understanding, come, let us speak concerning these too, not wandering outside the meaning of what is set before us. The blessed David once sang, as if to our Lord Jesus Christ: "You crushed the heads of the dragons upon the water. You broke the head of the dragon; You gave him as food to the peoples the Ethiopians." And elsewhere again: "Before Him D
A Ethiopians shall fall, and His enemies shall lick the dust." 45 The bride, symbolized in the Song of Songs, also acknowledges that she is dark and beautiful. Therefore, those who have an understanding that is, in a sense, dark and lacking radiance, not yet illuminated and devoid of divine light, are to be understood as Ethiopians. But those who fall as suppliants before Christ, just as the bride does, are illuminated by Him, for they cry out in prayer: "And let the splendor of the Lord our God be upon us." 46 But those who are defiled with filth that cannot be cleansed, and have persisted in being blackened, shall consume the heads of the dragon—for the apostate dragon is their food—and they shall be subject to the sword. By these words, I believe we are primarily to understand the unclean demons, whom Christ wounded, having cast out the tyranny by which they raged against us, and having slaughtered with them the father of darkness, the inventor of every sin, who envelops the minds of the unbelievers in darkness, so that the illumination of the Gospel of the glory of Christ does not shine forth for them. And this, I suppose, is what the wise Isaiah himself also told us: "And it shall be in that day, God shall bring the holy sword, the great and strong, upon the dragon, the crooked serpent; upon the dragon, the fleeing serpent, and He shall kill the dragon." 47 B
VERS. 13, 14. "And I will stretch out My hand over the north, and I will destroy the Assyrian, and I will set Nineveh into desolation, without water, as a desert. And flocks shall graze in the midst of it, and all the beasts of the earth, and chameleons, and hedgehogs shall lie in its mangers, and beasts shall cry in its pits, and ravens in its gates."
XXII. "I will visit," He says, "the regions and cities of those who dwell in the east and the north, and along with the others, I will destroy the Assyrians, and to the desolate cities, I will add even the celebrated Nineveh itself, the metropolis of the Chaldeans. It shall be waterless, and like lands that are inaccessible and uninhabited." It is probable that, once again, the account compares the multitude of the inhabitants to waters; for this is the custom of the Holy Scriptures. And thus, another of the holy prophets, declaring in advance the hostile approach of the Assyrians against Jerusalem, said: "Behold, waters come from the north, and they shall be C as an inundating torrent." 48 When, therefore, He says that Nineveh will be waterless, I would suppose he means that it will be devoid of inhabitants. Moreover, he confirms that flocks will graze in its midst—a sign, I believe, which he puts forward for a perfect solitude, deserted by all its inhabitants. For things that grow in the fields do not grow in cities. But if perchance plants should grow in a city, it is a clear admission that it is completely deserted by men. Furthermore, he adds a not inconsiderable multitude of other signs. For he says that all the beasts of the earth will lodge there, and that chameleons and hedgehogs will lie in its mangers. And indeed also...
A in the pits—that is to say, either in trenches or in caves—the wild beasts will call out, and ravens will nest in its gates. Now, even for those who are of a sound mind, it is not a matter of doubt that hedgehogs would neither reside in houses, nor would wild beasts stable themselves in the middle of a city; nor would night-ravens gladly dwell in the gates, unless there were an abundance of quiet and leisure—a thing most pleasing to their nature—to be found there. For wild beasts, and the other creatures of which the discourse speaks, love never to dwell with men, but [favour] places that are quite lonely, where the way of life is most tranquil, and where a broad solitude provides a security that is almost complete, and removes all fear.
If it is necessary to add something to these points, let us fortify our own hearts, and with all our strength strive to offend God in no way at all, B lest we become a lodging place for evil and savage beasts—I mean the unclean spirits—having stripped ourselves of every virtue. And this, I believe, is what is so well and wisely said to Israel through the voice of Jeremiah: "You shall be instructed by pain and the scourge, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from you, lest I make your land a desert," if the abominable and impious passions should by all means enter into your mind and heart; and just as certain beasts will dwell there, so too will a wild multitude of unclean spirits enter along with them.
VERS. 15. Because her stature is a cedar. This is that C contemptuous city, which dwells in hope, which says in its heart: "I am, and there is no other one after me." How has it become a desolation, a pasture for beasts! Everyone who passes through it will hiss, and move his hands.
XXIII. As one always accustomed to think of herself as great, and haughty, and arrogant, Nineveh is denounced. And in truth she was such, raising her eyebrow most loftily against any nation whatsoever, and any principality, and holding the Roman empire in very little regard at all. The prophet Habacuc D also bears witness to this, speaking of the king of the Assyrians: "And he will sport among kings, and tyrants shall be his jest, and he mocks at every stronghold." That the metropolis of the Chaldaeans is therefore exceedingly haughty, and exalted on high, and striding greatly into insolence, he declares once again, comparing her to the tallness of a cedar, and calling her "contemptuous." That this is said rightly and truly, you may learn from the words of the Rabshakeh. For when he came into Judea, while he was addressing those standing on the wall of Jerusalem, he was railing against the supreme glory of God. For he said: "Thus says the king: Let not Hezekiah deceive you with words, which will not be able to save you. And let not Hezekiah say to you that God will save you." And after a few words: "Have the gods of the nations delivered each one his own country from the hand of the kings of the Assyrians?" This, therefore, is that contemptuous city, looking about at herself magnificently, and saying: "I am, and there will not be another after me," since [she joins] such base and detestable arrogance to her illustrious glory.
she will therefore at length be overtaken by wretchedness to such a degree that it is fitting to say of her also: "How hast thou become a desolation, a pasture for beasts!" Now the "how" here is not that of one asking and wishing to learn, but rather of one wondering at an altogether unexpected change. For great and unforeseen evils provoke wonder, and usually leave those who behold or learn of them struck with amazement. Thus also everyone will hiss at her, and will move their hands, clapping them together, I suppose, applauding in wonder, and emitting a sound from their mouth A that is a whistling, which is an inarticulate sound. In this way he depicts for us, in a very fine manner, someone as if astonished by unexpected calamities. "God therefore resists the proud," and wise and acceptable is the precept: "Do not exalt thyself, lest thou fall," and again: "He who builds his house high, seeks destruction." For just as buildings that rise very high and beyond measure are more easily shaken, and create great concern lest they collapse upon themselves, so also the soul of man, swollen and inflated with the vanity of thoughts toward arrogance, is made weak, and is overturned in a small moment, and falls easily. But if the matter is conducted under the auspices of God, then nothing stands in the way.
CHAPTER III
Vers. 1. Woe, illustrious and redeemed city, O dove!
B XXIV. Wherefore, he says, has she been rendered most despicable, miserable, and captive, who was so illustrious and conspicuous, who commanded all nations, and through sport would conquer those who resisted her, and was always headstrong, yielding nothing to her adversaries who were equipped with the apparatus of war? She who was delivered by many signs and wonders from the servitude of the Egyptians, and withdrew her neck from the intolerable yoke: on whose account rivers were turned into blood, hail and darkness harmed the land of Egypt, and the sea also, becoming armed, destroyed her persecutors, and a thousand other C wonderful things happened besides. "O city, dove," that is, by far the most beautiful. For divine, inspired Scripture always assumes this kind of bird to declare beauty: just as it does, for instance, in the case of the bride who is depicted in the Canticles, whom the bridegroom wished to honor under the name of the dove: "Arise, he said, come, my friend, my beautiful one, my dove." Now Jerusalem was indeed most elegant, because it was illustrious by the divine law, and appeared distinguished by the renowned dignity of the priesthood; it also practiced justice, and worshiped Him who is by nature God, and rendered to Him its acts of worship. But this beauty is spiritual. You may, however, also understand in another sense that Jerusalem was called a dove. For this bird is accustomed, even if it is carried off very far from its most beloved nest, when it finds the opportunity, to fly home
again and return to its own. This we shall find to be the case with Jerusalem itself. For having received piety towards God from its ancestors as an inheritance, it descended into Egypt. Then, as if having departed from the manner of serving God which it had learned from its fathers, it worshipped idols there. But, being called back by Moses, it flew away in a certain manner from the superstition of Egypt, turning back again to God. But what, he says, is the reason why it was almost entirely captured, and became subject to others again, having once obtained freedom?
*Non audivit vocem.* A XXV. For it heard in Mount Sinai God saying: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord thy God is one Lord. Thou shalt not make to thyself an idol, nor any likeness of whatsoever things are in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth." Having disregarded this commandment, it foolishly fell headlong into the error of worshipping many gods. Wherefore it did not hear the voice, either that which was made to it on Mount Sinai, or the admonition which we shall understand by the name of "voice."
*Non suscepit disciplinam.* B XXVI. For the law by which it was instructed, and by which it was led to justice, it most contumeliously spurned; it turned to the doctrines and commandments of men, and following its own inclinations, it deviated from the straight path, and remained unskilled and devoid of divine instructions.
*In Domino non est confisa.* C XXVII. For when war and conflict were encroaching, and dangers were hanging over it, when it ought to have imitated the piety of its ancestors and to have hopefully trusted in God alone who saves, they "called upon Egypt," as it is written, "and went to the Assyrians," and hired the Syrians, or rather the Arabs, almost holding the divine power in contempt.
*Et ad Deum suum non appropinquavit.* D XXVIII. We approach God through every kind of goodness, and if we faithfully fulfill all things that He approves. We approach Him also in another way, if we believe Him to be alone by nature and truly God, and the King and Creator of all things, and if we admit no one else at all besides Him.
*Principes ejus in ea velut leones rugientes.* XXIX. He enumerates the crimes and brings forward the causes for which God was deservedly moved and turned to anger, so that for the rest it might appear that He justly punished the impious, who had progressed to such a degree of wickedness that He Himself could no longer tolerate them. "Therefore," he says, "were her princes as lions." What do lions do? When hunger sharply stimulates them to the desire for food, they scour the mountains and the forests, roaring terribly and discordantly; and wherever they see anything suitable for food, they strike it with fear like a thunderclap, so that it seems frozen and, as it were, bound in snares, awaiting the feaster.
A This is what certain of the leaders in Israel would do: sometimes they would threaten to bring upon those who transgressed the law the death penalty prescribed for them, unless they were willing to provide what they themselves desired. And they would yield to others who brought accusations, or rather, they would dispossess the litigants themselves of their own property. Indeed, through another prophet, he brings charges against them for such wickedness of this kind, namely Micah: "They were devising labors, working evil in their beds, and with the day they finished it, because they did not lift up their hands to God. And they coveted fields, and plundered orphans, and oppressed houses, and plundered a man and his house, a man and his inheritance."
The architects of heresies also roar B against those who have chosen to live in simple faith; and opening a mouth hateful to God, they all but devour the ignorant, making them more unlearned, and injecting into them cold and distorted notions. They compose fables in this way, and they persuade others to think what they themselves have deemed to be good, so that those who have been caught in their snares seem already, as it were, dead, differing but little from inanimate stones. To them one might most fittingly cry out that saying: "Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon you." Nevertheless, as the blessed David says, "God will crush their teeth in their mouth; the Lord has broken the molars of the lions."
*Her judges are like the wolves of Arabia, they did not leave anything for the morning.*
XXX. They say that the wolves in Arabia are more savage than all wild beasts, and that they are afflicted with an insatiable hunger, but are so swift in running that they easily outstrip any pursuer. For he says somewhere, through another prophet, concerning the horses of the Babylonians: "They are swifter than the wolves of Arabia." He therefore takes the insatiability of the wolves at the present time as a depiction of the judges, C just as if they were consuming the litigants with whole mouths and insatiable teeth, because they demand far too much and beyond one's means, in order to deviate from justice and to impiously contort what is agreeable to the divine law to satisfy the lust of certain other people. Yet it would have been more advantageous for them to consider that saying of the Paroemiast: "The ways of him who receives gifts into his bosom shall not prosper. For gifts blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert just words," which exists in the holy Scriptures. For what, pray, is the noble thing that receiving gifts brings? What, I ask, will base profit benefit those who desire it? Nay, rather, what harm will it not bring them? For true is that saying of the blessed Paul: "But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and many foolish and harmful desires, which drown men D into destruction and perdition."
A And it is truly a very wise and accurate statement.
VERS. 4. Her prophets are spirit-bearers, men of contempt.
XXXI. Rightly here concerning her prophets, that they have not come from God, speaking uncertain things from their own hearts, and not from the mouth of the Lord, as it is written. The Word mocks them, calling them "spirit-bearers," not as if they had truly become participants of the Holy Spirit, but as if they dared to feign the gift of prophecy and were not ashamed to claim that they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Wishing, therefore, he says, to be both prophets and spirit-bearers, and thus imprinting such a solemn name upon their own heads, they became such great despisers that they did not even know what goodness is, and by the things they spoke from their own hearts, they wretchedly destroyed others along with themselves, and this for small and most worthless trifles, and as the prophet Ezekiel says, "For a handful of barley and a fragment of bread." And they fell into such madness B in this matter, that they presumed to say that the counsels of the ineffable glory were their own, and that the steps they took according to their own judgment were divine words. And, in fact, God said concerning them through the voice of Jeremiah: "I did not send the prophets, and they ran; and I did not speak to them, and they prophesied." While the prophet himself cries out clearly and says: "O Lord, the Master, behold their prophets prophesy and say: You shall not see the sword, and there shall be no famine among you, because I will give truth and peace on the earth, and in this place." The God of all all but cries out in return against them with these words: "The prophets prophesy falsely in my name. I did not send them, and I did not command them, and I did not speak to them; because they prophesy to you false visions, and divinations, and omens, and the choices of their own hearts. If they are prophets, and if the word of the Lord is in them, let them meet me. What is the chaff to the wheat? Thus are my words, says the Lord. Are not my words like a burning fire, says the Lord, and like an axe cutting a stone?" For the word from God reaches into the depth of the mind, and all but tears asunder the heart of the listeners; but the word that proceeds from human will is cold and powerless, such as was that of the unholy false prophets.
Her priests pollute the holy things, and act impiously against the law.
XXXII. Not even the chosen race itself, that is to say, from the tribe of Levi, is found to be free from fault. He affirms that they, too, profane the holy things and act impiously against the law. For it is written that "the lips of the priests shall guard judgment, and they shall seek the law from their mouth." But as the Master of all himself said somewhere long ago: "The priests did not say, Where is the Lord?" D Furthermore, the refusal to declare
A to those who do not know him, nor the hastening to bring the subject people to the things that please God, this, I think, is to act impiously toward the law. Nor do their crimes stop there: "But," he says, "they also pollute the holy things." For the law given through Moses has much observance concerning sacrifices and offerings, as to when each is to be performed and in what manner. But they, though they offered the sacrifices, did so heedlessly and negligently, not considering that the time or the form were to be observed by them. And perhaps they were not even sanctified, nor attired in the vestments befitting their priestly status, nor adorned in the due manner, but performed the sacred rites as if they were doing some useless thing, rendering of no account such a venerable and admirable ministry.
It must therefore be guarded against by the priests of the Church, B that they do not pollute the holy things. The mode of pollution, however, is not single, but manifold and various. For one must be pure in both soul and body, casting off every kind of abominable pleasure, and shining rather with zeal for good works, mindful of what the divine Paul says: "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh."
VERS. 5. *And the Lord is just in the midst of her, and he will not do iniquity. Morning by morning he will give his judgment to the light. And it is not hidden, and he knows not iniquity in exaction, and not iniquity in contention.*
XXXIII. There is always, in a way, an implacable dissension between the unjust and justice, and purity will never agree with the impure. "For what fellowship has light with darkness?" C For these things fight against one another, and you may see that they are far removed from mutual friendship. Since, therefore, God, the Lord of all, loves justice and knows not iniquity, how could the most wicked crimes of the Jews, if they were not altogether cut off, always prevail or be carried through to the end? For it seems to be a certain kind of wickedness not to subject a sinner to punishment, nor to exact penalties from him who has lived his life nefariously and impiously, and who has counted the law for nothing, and has so cast himself into flagrancy that he does not value probity and innocence a whit, and considers it his greatest glory to do those things for which it would be fitting to be ashamed. Since therefore D "the Lord is just in the midst of her, and will not do iniquity"—for he will not suffer those accustomed to doing injustice to continue—"morning by morning he will make his judgment," that is, early and manifestly, and as in broad daylight, no longer restraining his vengeance, but bringing it into the midst and making it manifest, setting what was foretold as if before the eyes. For he will not allow iniquity to run into contention. "Into contention," that is, into retribution or vengeance, he signifies. For when the impious have been punished, every iniquity will cease. For it will no longer have those by whom it is committed. It behooves, therefore, those who have a truly sound mind, so . . . . . . . . . . that the lover of justice is
one who would not endure those who do wrong unjustly. But if anyone should turn to repentance, and shed tears over his own trespasses, he shall meet with one most mild, and shall obtain the remission of these, and shall escape the snares and the need of being punished. But if one be unyielding, and keep his mind hard to turn towards choosing the more seemly things, he shall settle into his own failings, or rather, he shall perish at last, and shall be under the stirrings of the Lord’s anger, because he does not endure those who sin until the end.
VERSE 6. In corruption I have pulled down the proud; their corners have been dissipated. I will lay waste their ways utterly, so that they may not pass through. Their cities have failed, for there was no one existing, nor dwelling.
XXXIV. For since, as I said, the priests were profaning the holy things, and some were acting impiously even against the Law itself, the Lord in the midst of it, in the morning, morning, performed his judgment. What, then, does this mean: "He has pulled down the proud in corruption"? That is, he has delivered the arrogant and the insolent into corruption. For are they not arrogant, those who are accustomed to fight against God, and who set their own will, as it were, in array against the oracles given through Moses, and having cared but little for the divine laws, but turning toward excessive lawlessness, say to the Lord: "Depart from me, I do not wish to know your ways"? B And who, then, would doubt whether he is "poor in spirit, and humble in heart," as it is written, one who is of good disposition and gentle and looks much toward obedience, whom he also deems worthy of his regard? And thus the God of all said through one of the holy prophets: "And upon whom shall I look, if not upon the humble and the quiet and him who trembles at my words?"
Therefore, the prideful race was pulled down into corruption. "And their corners were dissipated." And I suppose that by corners are meant here the walls and the surrounding parts of the cities. For corners are always somehow high, having very conspicuous towers. It is, therefore, perhaps the same as if he said again: Their cities shall be desolate of walls. Moreover, he threatens in addition to this to make their ways desolate—of Israel, that is—so that none may pass through at all. And it seems to me that he wishes to signify something of this sort. The law given through Moses ordered that if the feast of the Tabernacles were celebrated in its seasons, they were to ascend to Jerusalem from the whole of the Judean land, and fulfill there what was ordained. C When, therefore, the cities were shaken down, and those in them had perished, we then say that the ways were desolate, inasmuch as no one was passing through them anymore, nor, as was formerly the case, hastening to fulfill the festival appointed for them. For the ranks of the Jews had fallen into such misery that there were no longer those who were keeping the feast, nor indeed those who could indulge their spirit, since they had barely escaped and survived the war. Wherefore Jeremiah D
A accounted it a portion of his lamentations when he said: "The ways of Zion mourn because there are none who come to the feast." That the word is accurate, that which is proposed will immediately make clear to us. For it brings in straightway: "The cities have failed, because there is no one to exist or dwell there." It is a fearful thing, therefore, to fall into the hands of the living God. For since we have provoked him by persisting in sin, then, then, and most justly indeed, seized by the crimes of pride, we are dragged down into corruption. Being stripped of the embrace from above, we shall find our heart within us, as it were, a convenient prey and without walls, and moreover, we shall not find the ways of justice. But he would easily turn aside from such evils who has chosen to follow the Lord's will and has subjected to him the tender neck of his soul.
Vers. 7. I said: But fear me, and receive discipline, and you shall not perish from her eyes, all things which I have avenged upon her.
XXXV. He again endeavours to teach that they might be convicted of having brought the penalties from the angry God upon their own heads. For he admonished them that they must live in the fear of God, and he instructed them to receive discipline—through the law and the prophets, evidently—and often he commanded it. Thus, and not otherwise, was it fitting to turn away the divine wrath and to repel the things that have happened. But because Israel was stubborn, hard-hearted, and disobedient, and neglected discipline—that is, did not obtain wisdom—he says: "He has perished as if from her eyes," whereas he ought to have dwelt always in those good precepts, and to have been ready for all things pleasing to God. For it was allowed, he says, to escape "all things which I have avenged upon her." When we cast the divine fear from our minds, when we reject discipline and consider the being wise to be of little importance, then we shall surely suffer those things which belong to those who habitually despise. Then also God will take vengeance, and will require accounts for impiety. It is necessary, therefore, for us to remember him who says: "The fear of the Lord adds days. The fear of the Lord is glory and exultation." It is also pure, that is, making pure, "and enduring for ever and ever," according to the voice of the Psalmist.
Prepare, arise early. All their cluster is corrupted.
XXXVI. For because you did not receive, he says, the discipline from me, but rejected it, and hated to live a life in the fear of the Lord and in upright actions, prepare yourself to receive and to suffer those things which you could have escaped if you had loved virtue and had wisely laid hold of it of your own accord. Furthermore, he commands him to arise early, showing that the time of calamity is at the doors, and is as one about to arrive on the morrow—and in all respects about to be present with the dawn. This is to snatch away the hope of delay, and not to allow one to think that there will be any truce, or procrastination, or that a long time will intervene, which perhaps to descendants...
A transmits the calamity. Therefore, as for a necessary matter, prepare yourself, and at dawn rise for flight. For as a captive you will go away to the enemies, and having abandoned your fatherland, you will live among others. Then the God of all says to the prophet, as it were lamenting the captives: "Their whole cluster is ruined." What he might mean by this, we shall state in one way. The tyrants of the Babylonians have devastated Samaria, and other cities of Judea besides it—Phula first, then after him Salmanasar, and thirdly, Sennacherib. But having finished the vintage as it were, they returned to their own kingdom, leaving for Israel very small remains, and as it were B having left to them only a grape-gleaning. We say that a grape-gleaning is the small clusters of grapes, consisting of few berries, which, hidden under the leaves, very often elude the eye of the gatherers. And something of this sort another of the holy prophets says: "Woe is me, my soul, for I have become as one gathering stubble in the harvest, and as a grape-gleaning in the vintage, when there is no cluster to eat of the first-fruits." Therefore, those men had finished the vintage, but Nebuchadnezzar, having arrived after them, destroyed even that grape-gleaning itself; and having gleaned the small remnant of Israel, he returned home, and continued boasting as if of great things. And indeed the prophet Jeremiah, lamenting Jerusalem after its capture, speaks thus concerning those who devastated it: "Let all their evil come before your face. C Vintage them, as they have vintaged me." And again: "Look, O Lord, and consider whom you have vintaged thus, if women shall eat the fruit of their womb. A cook has made a grape-gleaning."
When, therefore, we have provoked God, then, being deprived of all support and stripped of mercy, we shall be surrendered to the enemies, and no remnant of virtue or goodness will remain in us, with Satan vintaging everything that is good in us, and gathering it like a grape-gleaning, and perhaps even those very desires in the mind which impel us toward performing the tasks of virtue well.
"Therefore, wait for me," says the Lord, "for the day of my resurrection for a testimony."
A 37. Since those who have despised the divine commandments have been given to the enemies, and have fallen into the hands of him who even destroyed the gleaning, he henceforth commands them to wait and endure, and to bear the servitude steadfastly, until He shall rise to their aid, which He all but testified through the holy prophets, and clearly announced that it would happen at some time. He wishes, then, "the day of resurrection for a testimony" to be understood as the time of help, which He testified so long before would certainly be brought. And historically, the matter stands thus.
But we say that the consideration of the words set forth tends toward signifying the mystery of Christ, and wishes to clarify the time of the redemption, the general and most universal one—that is, the one through
the things already read: A “Therefore wait for me, says the Lord, for the day of my resurrection for a testimony, because my judgment is for the congregations of nations, to welcome kings, to pour out upon them all the wrath of my anger. For, once the God of all things had arisen for the aid of those who suffered at the end of the seventy years, in the last times of the age the Only-begotten became man, not only that He might deliver Israel, but that He might lead all nations away from the slavery under the devil, make them free, and release them from corruption and the filth of sin, and before all else, from worshipping the creature instead of the Creator. And since He became man, He endured the cross, despising the shame, that by His own blood He might acquire for God and the Father those who are still living, and those whom death had already overtaken, according to that which is written: “For to this end Christ both died and rose and lived again, that He might have dominion over both the dead and the living.” It was fitting, then, to say to the ancients: “Therefore wait for me, says the Lord, for the day of my resurrection for a testimony.” Now, the resurrection of Christ is a kind of testimony that death has been destroyed—He with whom we ourselves have been raised, having been justified through faith, and at the same time as the death of the same, escaping sin, the mother of death. B
“Because my judgment is for the congregations of nations, to welcome kings, to pour out upon them all the wrath of my anger. Because in the fire of my zeal all the earth shall be consumed.”
XXXVIII. Concerning the desolation brought upon the Chaldean nation by Cyrus and his allies in war.
He threatens the Chaldean nation with the devastation brought about by Cyrus and those who were with him under arms and had joined him, who were overrunning the cities of the Babylonians and making the most horrific onslaught against all. Therefore, He says, “My judgment shall be for the congregation of nations, so as also to welcome kings”—doubtless those who are named—to punish through them the congregations of nations, which were humbled and afflicted in a greater measure by their forces, strength, and every kind of cruelty. “For I will pour out upon them,” He says, “all the wrath of my anger.” For it is true that God does not punish great and enormous sins with common indignation; but as much as He finds that each has sinned, so much does He exact a penalty from him. But that the affairs of the Chaldeans were not to be consumed by a fire [of this kind] He declares when He says: “In the fire of my zeal all the earth shall be devoured.” And what this zeal is, or against whom exactly it is directed, the prophet Zechariah clarifies, saying: C “Thus says the Lord Almighty: I have been zealous for Jerusalem and Sion with great zeal, and with great wrath I am angry at the nations that have joined in the assault; for while I was angry only a little, they have joined in the evil.” D Thus, then, we explain the words set forth according to the historical sense.They may also be understood differently, if we transfer our consideration elsewhere, namely to the mystery of Christ. For He says in those things which have already been read: “Therefore wait for me, says the Lord, for the day of my resurrection for a testimony, because my judgment is for the congregations of nations, to welcome kings, to pour out upon them
A all the wrath of my anger." For Christ came to life again, having despoiled Hades, since it was impossible, as he is life by nature, for him to be held by death, as it is written. Yet he did not abandon under the hand of the devil those who have embraced faith in him; but he makes the judgment holy and worthy of God, taking and enclosing the congregations of the nations—that is, the flocks of the demons, and those who once had conquered and reigned over the wanderers—and casting them into the sheerest abyss, that is, into Hades, and pouring out all his wrath upon them, and all but consuming them with fire, in his ineffable and divine power, and moved by great zeal. For he was angry only a little on account of the transgression in Adam; but they added B to these evils, once for all turning away the whole world under the sun from God, and strangling the mind of those under their hand in the mires of sin. Therefore, the Word of God was zealous for the spiritual Sion, that is, the Church. For he rescued her, and presented her to himself, as the blessed Paul writes, "not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing," but rather holy and blameless.
"For then I will turn to the peoples a pure language, to their generation, that all may call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him under one yoke. From the ends of the rivers of Ethiopia I will receive them, with my dispersed, they shall bring sacrifices to me."
XXXIX. He says, then, that when Babylon has been pillaged and the proud cast down in destruction, the nations will acknowledge the power of God that brings vengeance upon it. And those who once mocked Israel as it was falling C and perishing, when they see it returning home gloriously and coming back again into the holy city, while its devastators are utterly destroyed, they will then change their language and henceforth dedicate it to praises of God, although formerly they shook their heads, thinking and saying that Judea had perished, because the tyrant of the Babylonians had seemed in some way to prevail over the One who helped them, that is, God. When, therefore, they see the reversal of things to the contrary, then they will change their languages according to their generations, that is, according to tribes and clans, for the doxologies to God. They would also, I suppose, wish to serve under one yoke and to offer sacrifices, even if they were far distant in the location of their lands and inhabited the regions of the Ethiopians. And let these things, as they pertain to the letter, be said thus far.
Moreover, we say that the discourse proceeds to the times of Christ's advent, and he proposes a manifest sign of the change of languages. For it is written in the Acts D of the holy apostles that, on the days of holy Pentecost, they were all gathered together in one place. "And suddenly there came from heaven a sound, as of the coming of the spirit..."
a violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them cloven tongues as of fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." A At that time, he says, "I will change the language for the peoples." For everyone heard them speaking in his own dialect, Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and the other nations. But observe the caution here. He said that he would change the language for "its generation," that is, for those who had once spoken in this way, remaining thus until the end of their lives, or generation. For the sign lasted only for those upon whom Sacred Scripture testifies that the tongues had settled. For this reason he says, "I will change the language for its generation." For the event did not happen to those who came after them. By what cause, let the wise Paul teach us. For he says, "So tongues are for a sign not to those who believe, but to those who do not believe." For it is written, "In other tongues and with other lips I will speak to this people, and not even so will they believe." B How then can it be beneficial that the language was changed for its generation? He himself clarifies it for us again, saying: "That all may call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him under one yoke, from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia they shall offer me sacrifices." For because they saw the apostles speaking in other tongues, and were not a little amazed by the wonder of the paradox, many believed in Christ, and many, or rather, innumerable people then called upon the name of the God who is such by nature and in truth; they bowed their necks to the evangelical proclamations; they served Christ; and they offer sacrifices from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. Now the African race extends from the east to the west, and they drink from the Gihon: "For it is he that circles all the land of Ethiopia." The prophetic word therefore concludes in truth. For the Gospel has been preached not only throughout the Roman territory, but it has spread also to the barbarian nations. C And so, Churches are everywhere, pastors and teachers, guides and mystagogues, and holy altars; and the Lamb is sacrificed intellectually by holy ministers even among the Indians and Ethiopians. And this was indeed what was clearly spoken by another prophet: "For I am a great king, says the Lord; and my name is glorified among the nations; and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice."
Vers. 11. In that day you shall not be put to shame for all your doings, with which you have wickedly dealt against me. For then I will take away from you the insults of your arrogance, and you shall no more add to boast upon my holy mountain.
XL. God of all once again speaks in two persons. But, I think, we must carefully consider what is being said, D
A I believe; for in this way we shall find an unconfused understanding of them. Therefore, he promises to those from Jerusalem an amnesty for their sins and a remission of transgressions committed long ago, affirming and saying that they shall no longer be put to shame because of their practices and the impieties against God committed in the past. He also threatens the Babylonian in a certain way, and says that he will no longer boast for having overthrown the holy city which was dedicated to him, which he also calls a "mountain." For after the return—from the captivity, I mean—Jerusalem remained unsacked, and henceforth remained unthreatened by the inhumanity of the Babylonians.
That at the time of the coming [of Christ] amnesty and remission occurred for all who believe, no one could doubt. For we have been justified, "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his great mercy." B We have also been freed from shame. For he who has honored us by faith says somewhere to us: "Fear not, because you were confounded; neither be put to shame, because you were reproached." For he who for our sake rose from the dead and for our sake ascended into heaven, in the sight of the Father, restored us to boldness. For Christ ascended before us as a forerunner, "now to appear in the presence of God." Therefore, he took away the causes of all offenses, and delivered the believers from the shame and disgrace of their transgressions. And it was said by him to Satan, who holds dominion over us: "I will take away from you the insults of your pride, and you shall no longer boast over my holy C mountain." For he will no longer insult those upon the earth as people who are severely sickly in their resolve, nor will he abuse the sanctified, shaking them easily according to his own whim. For the ancient things have passed away, and the nature of things has transitioned into a state of newness, Christ reforming them, and rendering that which was weak into most genuine strength, confirming that which possessed little resistance to sins for the sake of piety, and stabilizing that which was wavering. Therefore, the insults of pride—that is, diabolical pride—have been taken away, and he shall no longer think great things against the holy mountain, that is, against the intelligible Zion, which is the Church of the living God. For it has been founded upon the rock, "And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The prophet Isaiah also called the Church a mountain, saying: "Because it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain D of the Lord shall be manifest, and the house of God on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall come to it, and many nations shall go and say: Come, and let us ascend to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will tell us his way, and we will walk in it."
And I will leave in you a people meek and humble. And the remnant of Israel shall fear from the name of the Lord, and they shall not do injustice, nor shall they speak vain things, and there shall not be found in their mouth a deceitful tongue.
A [XLI.] Again he addresses Sion, that is to say, the holy city, meaning Jerusalem, in which he promises that a most meek and humble people shall remain. For the Jewish Synagogue indeed acted wantonly against Christ, the Saviour of all, and was declared a slayer of the Lord, and sought the punishments for this. Yet not all perished; for a remnant was preserved, and that which remained attained salvation. For no small multitude of them believed. And these were those meek ones, not rendered savage against Christ after the manner of the laurels—or rather, just as those who then presented him to Pilate, crying out and saying: B "Away with him, away with him, crucify him." And they added to these the words: "If you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend." For what could be more cruel than such men as these? Who, even drawing that just blood upon their own heads, heedlessly and rashly shouted: "His blood be on us and on our children." The people, therefore, who were meek, and did not share in the savagery of these men, were again humble, in that they submitted themselves to Christ, and bowed the necks of their minds to the yokes under him, obeying most gladly out of love, at his saying: "Come unto me, all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls." In this they also conformed themselves to Christ, who for our sake became poor, C and as it were neglected his own divine glory and natural excellence, that he might economically undergo the slave's condition. Therefore, those who are instructed by his laws feel modestly about themselves. These also shall fear the name of the Lord. For they have become most loving of God, above all others, the divine disciples, who have also been set as the light of the world. But the lovers of God and the good, he says, will renounce iniquity and deceptive speech; "for they shall not speak vanity," he says, "nor a tongue that is not true," for this is what is deceitful. But this spiritual adornment is, as it were, a crown most excellent in its ornaments of virtues. For where there is meekness, and humility, and a desire for justice, and a tongue that has unlearned foolish talk, and sinners not at all in words, but is rather upright and a worker of truth, there clearly a shining and most absolute virtue is seen. D And such befits those who are in Christ, since the beauty of piety is not seen in the law, but shines forth rather as if in the power of evangelical teaching.
"Because they shall feed, and lie down, and there shall be none to make them afraid."
XLII. For formerly the Scribes and Pharisees shepherded the flocks of the Jews sluggishly. For they had been appointed by the law to lead the people, through having been honoured with the dignities of the priesthood. They were, therefore, not true shepherds, but mercenaries, and as if set over alien flocks [who saw the wolf coming...]
and left the sheep, according to the word of the Savior. That they were exceedingly neglectful of the rational sheep and would let them be torn by wild beasts—having themselves become wolves rather—one may easily perceive from the things said through the voice of the prophets. For one of them said, as if from the person of God: “O shepherds that scatter and destroy the sheep of their pasture!” And another in turn: “Thus says the Lord, ‘Do the shepherds of Israel not feed themselves? Do not the shepherds feed the sheep? Behold, you eat the milk. You have not strengthened the weak, nor have you bound up that which was broken, nor have you brought back that which wandered, nor have you sought that which was lost, and with labor you have treated the strong; and my sheep were scattered, because there were no shepherds, and they became food for all the beasts of the field and for the birds of the sky.’” And somewhere he says also to those same shepherds: “Feed the sheep of the slaughter, which those who possessed them were slaughtering, and did not repent, and those who sold them said, ‘Blessed be the Lord, and we have become rich.’” B
The shepherds of the rational sheep were destroying the flocks, not scaring away wild beasts, but rather themselves mimicking the ferocity of the beasts. But after Christ shone forth, that good shepherd “who lays down his life for the sheep,” we are fed indeed in labors, but we have also been fed by fountains, as it is written, and we have rested in sheepfolds; for we have been housed in churches and holy temples, with no one terrifying or plundering us, no lion treading us down, no thief digging through, with no one attacking us any longer to “steal, and kill, and destroy.” We continue rather in security, and constancy, and the participation of every good thing, having as the master of the fold the Savior of all, I mean Christ. And this was made clear to us through the voice of Ezekiel, the God and Father saying: “Thus says the Lord, ‘I will save my sheep, and I will judge between ram and ram, and I will raise up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall be their shepherd.’” C
“Rejoice, daughter of Zion; preach, daughter of Jerusalem; exult and take delight with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away your iniquities, He has redeemed you from the hand of your enemies. You shall reign, Jerusalem, the Lord is in your midst; you shall see evil no more.”
XLIII. As far as the historical account is concerned, [God] clearly promises them peace after their return from Babylon, when, their ancient offenses having been consigned to oblivion, God declares that He will be with them and will protect them. But as far as the inner meaning of the words is concerned, He commands—of necessity—that they should rejoice vehemently, and exult wonderfully, and take delight with their whole heart, as if, through Christ, their sins had been taken away. For she has been justified...
the intelligible and holy Zion, that is, the Church, or rather the holy multitude of the faithful—in Christ, and in Him alone. And we have been saved by Him and through Him, escaping the harms of the invisible enemies, and having in our midst, appearing in our form, the King of all, and God the Word from God the Father, because of Whom we no longer see evils—that is, we have been exempted from every violent evil. A For He Himself is the weapon of good pleasure, the peace, the rampart, the bestower of immortality, the dispenser of crowns, who wards off the war threatening from the intelligible Assyrians, and repels the snares of the demons; who gives us to tread "upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy"; through Whom "we have walked upon the asp and the basilisk, and have trampled the lion and the dragon"; through Whom we are in the good hope of incorruption and life, and of the adoption and glory of the children of God; through Whom we shall no longer undergo evils.
Vers. 16, 17. *In that time it shall be said to Jerusalem: Fear not, Sion, let not thy hands be slack. The Lord thy God in thee is mighty, he will save thee, he will bring upon thee gladness, and will renew thee in his love, and he will rejoice over thee in delight, as in the day of a festival, and I will gather thy crushed ones.*
B XLIV. It is a manifest declaration that we ought to have confidence, and he who has pledged it is a stranger to falsehood. We have heard Christ Himself saying this, and as it were renewing the ancient oracle, or rather, setting before our eyes what had been foretold. For He said: "In the world you shall have tribulation; but have confidence, I have overcome the world." For when He was in our midst, then we no longer had slack hands, nor weakened knees, but rather we turned to works and to the labors of good actions, of which it is said and is the fruit, glorious. Then also we conceived confidence, because Christ, most powerful as God, is hidden in us, and saves those who believe in Him; for He has dwelt in our hearts through the Spirit, and has brought upon us this, the intelligible D that is, and acceptable gladness. For what else could it be to have attained the Holy Spirit, than delight and joy, and a kind of spiritual gladness? Since, therefore, He brought upon us gladness through the Spirit, then He also renewed us in His love—that is, at the time of His advent in the flesh, when He who died for all truly said: "Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends." But after He laid down His life, and was for our sake numbered among the dead, though He was life by nature, He rose again, reforming the nature of man into the newness of life, and fashioning it again to that which it was from the beginning: "If any be in Christ
A he is a new creature." For it pleased God and the Father "in Him to gather together in one all things," according to what is written. But that which is gathered together is in some way taken up and brought back to that which it was in the beginning. And since He renewed us, then Christ also rejoiced over us, "as in gladness, and as in a day of a feast." For how was the Divine not about to rejoice over our concerns, when we have been delivered from sin, and have become superior to death and corruption, and have shared in the Spirit and sanctification? Then "He also gathered the broken-hearted." For as the wise Paul writes, "Christ came into the world to save sinners." And He himself also says somewhere: "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Therefore, Christ gathered those whom Satan, having crushed them through sin, had rendered languid and unable to walk straight, or even to tread the paths of righteousness. But even if that one crushed them, Christ bound them up. For He has healed those who were ailing, and He himself "bears our infirmities," according to what is written.
Vae, who has received reproach upon her?
B XLV. That the cross of the Savior, erected for the life and incorruption of the world, is for the honor and glory of the Church, we shall affirm if we think rightly. This very thing the most wise Paul also confesses, writing in these words: "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Nevertheless, he says again that the cross is "to the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness." For the wretches will laugh abundantly, being utterly ignorant of the power of the mystery. But they shall not be without judgment at any time, nor will they mock Christ, or the Churches, in return. They shall eventually be food for inextinguishable fire, and shall be tormented by a flame that is never to be lulled to sleep and is eternal. For some of the Greeks proceeded to such a pitch of madness and stupidity as to sharpen a wanton tongue against the divine preaching of the Gospel, and to publish in written books curses against it, so that their sins might not only lead them to judgment while they were living, but might also accompany them when dead, because they had left behind sin as if it were a living thing. He laments, therefore, and indeed C vehemently and deservedly, those who receive reproach against the holy Church, to whom also the Woe would very aptly apply.
"Behold, I will work in thee for thy sake in that time, saith the Lord, and I will save her that is crushed, and I will take up her that was cast out, and I will put them into glory and make them renowned in all the earth, and they shall be ashamed in that time, when I shall do well to you, and in the time when I shall take you up."
Commentarius in Aggaeum prophetam
A XLVI. The discourse is again directed to the person of Sion, and the things marvelously and excellently accomplished through Christ are promised, concerning both the flocks of the nations and the rejected Israel: "For in thee," He says, "for thy sake I will do it." For since some were made drunk by greed, and others knew not that God had become man for the salvation of all, the common Maker of all lavished mercy upon both, and for our sake worked wonders among us. For the oppressed—that is, the multitude of those who wandered, having been at one time afflicted and brought to such a pitch of misery by the oppressing Satan that they lost every vital moisture—has been saved. For the mind that is led astray is weak. The rejected Synagogue of the Jews is also received. For it had behaved wantonly toward Christ; therefore it was justly rejected, and it fell from its hope, and was alienated from the friendship of Christ. Nevertheless, it too found mercy. For it will be called to repentance and to salvation through faith and confidence in the final times of the ages. They will therefore be for glory, and renowned, and most far removed from shame. B And these very ones—nay, these two peoples—will no longer be divided and at variance in their judgment and separated in their opinions regarding God, as formerly, but will be tightly bound to concord of will and faith by unity through the Spirit. For it stands in the sacred Scriptures that "of the multitude of them that believed, the heart and soul were one." And Christ also "made the two peoples into one new man, making peace, and reconciling both in one spirit," as it is written. If, therefore, they are good emulators, He affirms that the enemies will then altogether be put to shame, struck with awe by the magnitude of the glory bestowed upon them, by the immobility of their happiness, and by the firmness of their hope. C It is permitted also to discern the truth of the promise from the facts themselves. For the Church of Christ is glorified, and being full of excellent ornaments, is admired by all. Yet He also defines the time when these things shall be. For He says, "In the time when I shall take you up." For things that follow faith do not precede faith, but are rather understood after it. We have therefore been called in the times of the incarnation of the Only-Begotten. For then, then, I say, the truth brought the promise to its conclusion. "Because I will give you as renowned and for glory among all the nations of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord."
D XLVII. In summary, he gathers in a way the design of the divine liberality, and through these things he clearly shows what those who have believed are to enjoy. For he relates everywhere that they will be proclaimed, and will live in the clearest light, and will be more blessed than any nation. He adds, furthermore, the times in which these events are to occur, mentioning everywhere the economy of the Only-Begotten in the flesh, since, as I said just now,
the proof of every good thing, and whatever is wonderful has flowed out unto us. For then, yes, then He delivered us in a marvelous way, when we were acting under the power of the devil and were subject to the passions of the flesh. Then also He freed us from the error of polytheism and translated us toward the truth. Then He also delivered us from the bonds of death, having given Himself as a ransom for us, and for God and the Father He recovered the human race. For we have been called through Him, and we are enriched with a spiritual access and intimacy, through Him, I say, Christ, through whom and with whom to God and the Father be glory, power, honor, and adoration, with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
OF OUR HOLY FATHER CYRIL, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, COMMENTARY ON THE PROPHET AGGAEUS
PROOEMIUM
1. That the aim of the prophecy of Aggaeus is different from that which was proposed to others, and that he does not speak of the same things as the others, is easy to see. For Oseas and those who follow in order, even up to Sophonias, were announcing to the Jews the things that would happen to them at various times; and they were attempting to strike terror into Israel, as the times of the captivity were all but upon them, speaking up and down of the phalanxes of war, the uprooting of cities, the conflagrations, the acts of plunder, and the total devastation of the entire land, usefully announcing these things beforehand to those who had chosen to be contemptuous. For they thought that, even if they would not choose to fulfill what was pleasing to a good frame of mind, B or give themselves to praiseworthy endeavors, they would nevertheless be somewhat fearful at the magnitude of the calamity. Aggaeus, however, as at the times of the captivity now...