B Being brought upon that people by these evils, they will not only lament you, those who hear of your calamities, but they will also employ a kind of parable, telling your affairs as stories to others. And you yourselves will say to one another:
"The portion of my people has been measured off with a measuring line, and there was no one to prevent it so as to turn it back; our fields have been divided." (Ver. 5) "Therefore, there will be no one for you to cast a measuring line in the inheritance." For since, when these were led away into captivity, their neighbors divided among themselves the land cultivated by them, this, he says, when you hear it, you will say full of lamentations and tears to one another, that "The portion divinely allotted to Israel has been measured and divided by the most hostile foreigners, with no one hindering it or putting a stop to the greed; I myself have been cast out from there, and I do not have the inheritance given to me; but others are dividing the fields that belong to me." Having thus announced the sorrowful things, he brings in an admonition full of utility.
"In the assembly of the Lord," (Ver. 6, 7) "do not weep with tears, nor let your eyes weep over these things; for he who says, 'The house of Jacob has provoked the Spirit of the Lord,' will not put away insults. If these are his ways, are his words not good with him, and have they not walked upright?" C He says that you ought not to lament, nor confess the iniquity with word, but show the change of things by deed; for God praises words that are adorned by deeds. D
A
VERS. 8. "And formerly my people stood in enmity against his peace." For by acting contrary to my laws, he deprived himself of peace. "They have flayed his skin, so as to take away hope, the contrition of war." For on account of this wickedness, he was in a sense stripped of his own skin, since he became destitute of my providence, and having lost the good hope, was surrendered to the crushing blow of war.
VERS. 9. "And the leaders of my people shall be cast out from the houses of their delights, because of their evil practices they have been thrust out." For together with the others, both the kings and the priests, being deprived of their former delights, were forced to dwell in a foreign land in the manner of slaves, paying the penalty for the things in which they had offended.
"Approach the eternal mountains." (VERS. 10, 11.) "Arise and go, for this is not your rest: because of uncleanness you have been destroyed with destruction. You have fled, with no one pursuing." For having surrendered yourselves to iniquity, you voluntarily chose wickedness, and became easily captured by the enemies. Go therefore to those mountains which God from the beginning created and planted there; for here you have been deprived of the means of living because of sin. "For a spirit has established falsehood, it has distilled for you as wine and drunkenness." For the spirit of delusion, speaking through the B false prophets, instilled into you deceitful predictions, and thereby produced a flowing drunkenness.
"And it shall be, from the drop of this people." (VERS. 12.) "Jacob shall be gathered, being gathered: accepting with all, I will accept the remnant of Israel; I will place his turning together." This deception, he says, which the demons have stirred up among you through the false prophets, will cause you also to reach the ten tribes in captivity. For I will lead everyone away, exacting you all to suffer common punishments; when these have overtaken you: "As sheep in tribulation, as flocks in the midst of their fold, they shall leap from men." For just as sheep sitting quietly, if they see a wolf suddenly coming upon them, rise up with great fear; so you, having seen the enemies coming, will be filled C with tumult and fear. Afterward, he predicts what was done under Zedekiah, which the blessed prophet Ezechiel also foretold, when he was commanded by God to take the vessels of captivity, and to announce that king's flight through the events themselves.
VERS. 13. "Ascend through the breach before their face: they breached, and passed through the gate, and went out through it, and their king went out before their face." For having perceived the Chaldeans leaping upon them, having breached the wall of the city, he fled with a few: having been D caught
he first saw the slaughter of his children; then, being deprived of his eyes, he was led away in chains. "And the Lord will be their leader," A clearly not to bring them aid, but to destroy them.
CAP. III.
VERS. 1-4. "And he shall say: Hear this, O ye princes of Jacob, and ye who are left of the house of Israel: is it not for you to know judgment? You who hate good and seek evil: who pull their skins from off them, and their flesh from their bones. As they have devoured the flesh of my people, and have flayed their skins from off them, and have broken their bones, and have cut them in pieces as meat for the cauldron, and as flesh in the pot: so shall they cry to the Lord, and he will not hear them, and he will turn his face away from them at that time, because they have behaved wickedly in their pursuits." He directs his words to the princes, to whom, though the power of judging had been granted, they trampled upon justice. Wherefore, he addresses them by way of inquiry: "Did you not obtain the authority to judge, so as to punish the offenders, but to let the innocent go without harm? How then, you who had been allotted the governance of the laws, did you turn away from the practice of good works, and apply yourselves most fiercely to the most wicked deeds? Furthermore, you exercised such tyranny against the poor that you deprived them of all their possessions." For he made this plain when he said: "Pulling their skins from off them, and their flesh from their bones." Since, therefore, you have committed such crimes, even if you beg for B aid from me a thousand times, you will obtain no help. Having uttered these threats against the princes, he transfers the discourse to the prophets.
VERS. 5. "Thus saith the Lord upon the prophets who seduce my people, who bite with their teeth, and preach peace over them, and if one puts nothing into their mouth, they sanctify war against him." With lies, he says, the false prophets, prophesying, injured the people with the flattery of their words, as if with certain bites, speaking things contrary to my prophets, but promising peace to them. But while their words indeed hold peace, the facts show otherwise: they show war. Now, those who preached peace and stood in the way of the people’s repentance were the cause of the evils that arose from the war. And as to the words, "And they sanctified against him war," he has used "sanctified" instead of "proclaimed," that is, they provoked it.
VERS. 6, 7. "Therefore night shall be to you for a vision, and darkness shall be to you from divination, and the sun shall set upon the prophets, and the day shall grow dark over them. And they who see dreams shall be confounded, and the soothsayers shall be ridiculed, and all of them shall speak against them, because there is no one who hears them." For affairs
A appear to be in contradiction to their expectations, and instead of the peace which they were noising abroad, a conflict is seen; therefore, they who prophesied falsehoods shall incur ridicule, and they who exhorted them to trust in dreams shall walk in confusion, and will spend their lives in darkness at noonday, and will consider the day to be night, being struck by the fear of what they see; and those who were led astray by their divinations will shower them with many reproaches.
VERS. 8. "Yet I," says the prophet, "am filled with strength by the Spirit of the Lord, and with judgment and power, to announce to Jacob his impiety, and to the house of Israel his sins." For I shall not dare to act in a manner similar to those transgressors; but B led by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and fortified by such power, I shall freely rebuke the impiety of the people. Having thus promised that he would openly rebuke the lawlessness they dared to commit, he exclaims plainly:
VERS. 9, 10. "Hear this, O leaders of the house of Jacob, and you remnant of the house of Israel, you who abhor judgment and pervert everything that is straight. You who build Sion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquities." C You were entrusted with judging, he says, but you were unwilling to hold the scales of justice upright and unbent towards either side; rather, having no regard for what is equitable and just, you strove to make injustice seem like law. By adopting this intent, you filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; for the rulers were corrupted by bribes, and the priests gave responses regarding lawful matters not without payment, and refused to perform the divine ministry for free. Furthermore, the prophets, stirred by opposing spirits, offered false divination for a fee, and presented deceit for the sake of gifts. While doing this, they imagined they had divine assistance, saying, "Is not the Lord among us? No evil shall come upon you." D Since, therefore, you live in total lawlessness while vainly leaning upon the divine name, know that:
VERS. 12. "Therefore, because of you, Sion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall be as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, and the mountain of the house shall be as a grove of the forest." Such a desolation, he says, shall seize this much-talked-of city, that the divine house shall be filled with plants and become like a forest; and the areas within the walls, which were once crowded by their inhabitants, will be plowed as if they were fields outside the enclosures, and sown, so that Jerusalem will differ in no way from a garden lodge, which remains desolate after the gathering of the fruits, when the one who was guarding it returns home. These things indeed received their fulfillment under Nebuchadnezzar, when, the city having been captured, the inhabitants were led away captives along with the king;
A but it is more accurate to discern the end of the prophecy after the madness and fury which the Jews turned against our Savior. For up to this very day that widely-renowned temple has been razed to its foundations and reduced to such a desolation that those who see it are ignorant of what was once the place of the saints. Thus, therefore, divine grace, prophesying through the prophetic tongue concerning that temple, foreshadows the splendor and the celebrity of the Church which has believed in our Lord Jesus Christ. He speaks in this manner:
CAP. IV.
B VERS. 1-3. « And it shall be in the last days that the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, prepared on the summit of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall hasten to it. And many nations shall go, and shall say: Come, let us ascend to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and they shall show us his way, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many peoples, and shall rebuke strong nations even to a far distance. » For the evangelical and divine preaching has run through to the uttermost parts of the earth, according to the prediction of the Lord which is contained in the holy Gospels: « This Gospel shall be preached, » he said, « to all nations for a testimony to them. » C Then he also commanded the holy apostles, saying: « Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. » This evangelical law and apostolic word, having begun from Jerusalem as if from some fountain, has pervaded the entire world, bringing irrigation to those who approach with faith. It is also possible to see divine houses built in the midst of cities, and villages, and fields, and in the most remote places, excelling in magnitude and beauty, so that they are more illustrious and more conspicuous than even the most lofty mountains themselves. But if anyone should wish to understand the hills and mountains as the temples of the most baleful demons, D which were once built in these places, in this way also he will find the prophetic word adorned with truth; for those have been rooted out and utterly destroyed, but the temples of God emulate the stars of heaven in both their multitude and their beauty. But the Jews do not wish to understand these things in this way, but say that this is a prediction of the return from Babylon. And indeed it is nothing to be wondered at that they, stupid as they are, should understand it in this way; for this hallucination concerning this prophecy is in keeping with their other follies. But that certain teachers of piety also have—
A inserted the same interpretation into their own writings—this, indeed, seems to me intolerable and undeserving of pardon. For what nations, whether neighboring or situated far away, ran together to the Jewish temple after the return, to receive their laws and to embrace the word going forth from there? And among what nations or very many peoples did this word judge, convicting them of the things done wrongly by them? Moreover, what follows openly refutes the falsehood of that interpretation; for after the return from Babylon, as even those who have interpreted it in this way believe, both Gog and Magog with very many nations invaded the Jews; and all their neighbors continually waged war against them—[the] Idumeans, Ammonites, and Moabites on one side, and the foreigners and Samaritans on the other. And after a short time had passed, the Macedonian disasters befell them, which the history of the Maccabees contains. But in this passage B the prophetic word promises profound peace.
«For they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into sickles, and nation shall no longer lift up sword against nation, and they shall no longer learn to wage war. (v. 4) And each shall rest under his vine and each under his fig tree, and there shall be no one to frighten them.» And showing the truthfulness of these things, he makes the authority of the speaker clear to the hearers: «For the mouth of the Lord Almighty has spoken these things.» Then indeed, then:
v. 5. «All peoples will walk, each in his own way; but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and beyond.» That nothing of this sort applies to the Jews, the facts themselves bear witness; C for having been cast out of Jerusalem, they became inhabitants of the whole world, dispersed and wandering, and unable to perform the ministry in accordance with the law. But the prophetic word promises that those who have believed in the name of the Lord will walk forever and beyond. That it signifies the time following the coming of the Lord, the facts themselves, as if speaking with a voice, provide testimony. For before the establishment of the Roman empire, frequent uprisings of nations against one another took place, since kingdoms were divided according to each nation. But with all authority having been transferred to the Romans, and the kingdom of each nation having been abolished at the time of the coming of our Savior, a profound peace possessed the world, so that nation no longer takes up arms against nation; D but on account of the peace provided from God, they convert instruments of war into agricultural tools and, applying themselves to farming, they safely enjoy the good things derived from it. They also perform all other duties which are accustomed to be carried out in peace; and some take up various trades, others pursue trade and navigation, while others, desiring perfection, prefer the divine way and the worship of the Master to fleeting gains, and from this attain eternal life. To these he adds:
A VERS. 6, 7. "In those days, and in that time, I will gather her that is crushed, and I will receive her that is cast out, and those whom I had cast away. And I will make her that is crushed to be a remnant, and her that is cast out to be a strong nation." Clearly teaching that he is not saying these things about the Jews, he added: "And the Lord will reign over them in Mount Sion from now and forever." Now if the kingdom of the Jews had remained in Sion, and they continued to enjoy the eternal and unending providence of God for the things of the universe, the Jews would rightly claim this prophecy for themselves, and those who interpret these things as they do would agree with them. But if the kingdom of the Jews perished long ago, and they live in servitude while dwelling far from Jerusalem, and have been clearly stripped of God’s providence, let not the Jews rave, but let the teachers of the Church bear witness to the truth. For by "crushed" and "cast out," he designates the souls that serve piety, for whose sake the only-begotten Word of God became man, appeared on earth, and conversed with men. And the Lord himself is witness of this, saying to the Jews: "They that are in health need not a physician, but they that are ill. I came not to call the just, but sinners to repentance." Therefore, gathering the publican, and the harlot, and the thief, and those like them, and changing their ways for the better, he declared them to be a holy Church, reigning over them from now and forever. Having thus foretold the things concerning the Church from the Gentiles, the prophet returns to his discourse against Jerusalem.
B
VERS. 8
. "And thou, O squalid tower of the flock, O daughter of Sion, unto thee shall come and shall enter the principality, the first kingdom of Babylon." Thus also blessed Isaiah, or rather God of the universe through his mouth, names it figuratively. For when he had said, "I planted a vineyard of Sorech, and I dug a winepress in it," he added, "And I built a tower in the midst of it," calling the temple thus, through which he seemed to guard the vineyard. This tower the blessed Micah calls "squalid" because of the impiety of the inhabitants. For by defiling the brilliance of a life lived according to the law, they introduced their own iniquity like some kind of filth. To them he threatens the army of the Babylonians; for as soon as Nabuchodonosor took the reins of their power, he waged war in the third year of the reign of Joacim. Wherefore he called that kingdom the "first principality," because as soon as he became king, Nabuchodonosor waged war. D Then he asks with irony:VERS. 9. "And now why hast thou known evils? Was there no king in thee, or did thy counsel perish, because D
A pains as of a woman in labor have taken hold of thee?" Whence, he says, did you learn the experience of evils? And yet you had counselors who were able to find what was needful, and for this very cause you asked for a king, so that he might face the dangers of war on your behalf—and you obtained him immediately, for I gave you what you requested. Learn, therefore, that neither your counselors, nor the wisdom of your counselors, nor the protection of the king will be of any benefit to you.
VERS. 10. "And travail and be strong, and draw near, O daughter of Sion, as she who brings forth." B Similarly, he says, take on the pains like a woman near childbirth, and likewise, beholding the evils coming upon you, strike with the goads of your sorrows. "For now thou shalt go forth out of the city, and shalt dwell in the field, and shalt come even to Babylon; there shall he deliver thee, and there the Lord thy God shall redeem thee from the hand of thy enemies." Do not hope, he says, for release now from the evils hanging over you; for it is necessary for you to be driven out from this city, and when led away, to lodge on the roads as it happens, and to dwell for a long time in Babylon, and after a period to obtain freedom, and to return to your homeland. Having thus prophesied to them the captivity and the return, he makes the prediction concerning the Scythian nations which warred against them after their return.
VERS. 11, 12. "And now many nations are gathered together against thee, and peoples saying: Let us rejoice, and let our eyes look upon Sion. But they knew not the thought of the Lord, and understood not his counsel: for he has gathered them as sheaves of the floor." C God gathers them, not by compelling and forcing them, but by permitting their impulses and yielding to their free will. These things we have also explained when interpreting the other prophets.
VERS. 13. "Arise and thresh them, O daughter of Sion; for I will make thy horns iron, and thy hoofs I will make brass; and thou shalt beat in pieces many peoples, and thou shalt consecrate to the Lord their multitude, and their strength to the Lord of all the earth." For enjoying my providence, using as it were iron horns and brazen hoofs, with the strength supplied to you by me, you shall utterly destroy them all and deliver them to total ruin, attributing the victory over them to me, and openly acknowledging that it was I who gave it to you.
CHAP. V.
VERS. 1. "Now shall thy daughter be walled about with a wall: he hath laid siege against us: with a rod shall they strike upon the cheek the tribes of Israel." They, he says, D not foreseeing the end, as if with some wall...
will surround the city, hoping to capture it with all its inhabitants, and expecting to use every kind of wanton violence against those dwelling therein. For this is what he said, "With a rod they shall strike upon the cheek," since such a blow brings with it greater ignominy. But do not be afraid; for you shall obtain protection, not because of your own righteousness, but because of the King who is to be born of you according to the flesh. And clearly teaching this, he added:
Vers. 2. "And thou, Bethlehem, house of Ephratah, art thou the least to be in the thousands of Judah? Out of thee shall he come forth unto me, to be the ruler in Israel; and his goings forth are from the beginning, from the days of eternity." Do not look, he says, O Bethlehem, at the small number of your inhabitants; for you have a cause for renown such as no city of the whole world possesses: for in you shall be born according to the flesh He who was begotten of the Father before the ages, "whose goings forth are from the beginning." This B is indeed similar to the prologue of the Gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: the same was in the beginning with God." It is also similar to those things said by God through the blessed David: "From the womb before the day-star have I begotten thee." He therefore, who is before the ages, who was in the beginning with God, God the Word, and has his goings forth from the beginning, shall, he says, receive in you his birth according to the flesh, making you splendid and illustrious, you who are small among the thousands of Judah. And this, indeed, the Jews of our time have dared to accommodate to Zerubbabel, openly opposing the truth. Nor do they blush when they hear that His goings forth are from the beginning, from the days of eternity; for Zerubbabel was born after the captivity in Babylon, and took his name from the place. But the ancient Jews did not understand this prophecy similarly to them; for many years after Zerubbabel, C when they were asked by Herod where Christ was to be born, they brought him this testimony. Hence, therefore, it is manifest that the Jews of our age are perverse in the interpretation of this prophecy. But leaving their insanity, let us proceed to explain the things that follow.
Vers. 5. "Therefore will he give them up until the time of her that travaileth; she shall bring forth, and the remnant of his brethren shall return to the children of Israel." Until that time, he says, you shall be patient, and you shall bestow your care upon the Jews, until she who brings forth, shall give birth. By this he designates the Church, of whom also Isaiah cries out: D "Rejoice, O barren, that dost not bear; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her that hath a husband." And those who are born of her, he says, shall be joined with those from Israel who believe. For out of Israel the divine chorus of the apostles came forth,
and the seventy disciples chosen by the Lord after them, and those who were found together after the resurrection, numbering one hundred and twenty, and the five hundred to whom the Lord appeared when they were gathered together, and the three thousand, and the five thousand whom the fisherman Peter drew in his net, and the many myriads A regarding whom the inspired James said to the most divine Paul: "You see, brother, how many myriads there are of the Jews who have believed." Therefore, he says, from here and from there one Church shall be formed, and in these the Lord who was born in Bethlehem shall stand.
Ver. 4. "And he shall see, and shall feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, and they shall exist in the glory of the name of the Lord their God: because now he shall be magnified even to the ends of the earth." One may see the most holy Church of God glorying in the name of the Lord, and the divine name being praised and celebrated everywhere by land and sea. But before the Lord’s appearing, and the saving passion, and the calling of the nations, the Jews will show nothing of this to have taken place. But since these things were to happen after a long time, he confirms the prediction by things which were about to come to pass at that time. For in order that you may know, he says, how true my prophecies are, take the present events as a pledge of those future ones. For I will destroy the Assyrian who brings war upon you, and I will grant you profound peace. B
Ver. 5. "And this shall be peace, when the Assyrian shall come into your land, and when he shall tread upon your territory." For I will give you peace, when he has come, beyond all human hope.
"And there shall arise against him seven shepherds, and eight bites of men." (Ver. 6.) "And they shall feed the Assyrian with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in its ditch: and he shall deliver you from the Assyrian, when he comes into your land, and when he treads upon your borders." From this we are clearly taught that the Assyrian reigned also over Babylon. For Nimrod, as the blessed Moses taught, having used tyranny, first subjected Babylon to himself. "For the beginning," he says, "of his kingdom was Babylon, and Orech, and Chalane." C But seven kings, he says, I will raise up against him (for he calls kings "shepherds"), and I will entangle him with eight human plagues. And he speaks of the warlike assaults made against him; for he calls these "bites of men." And he signifies, at the same time, the capture of Babylon also. For now, he says, I will cast him into such evils; but after a little while, I will utterly destroy him who shall succeed him and who shall have established Babylon as a royal city; and the strongest walls shall not avail him, nor the fortifications built outside around the walls
But you shall be delivered from them, not only at that time, when I shall stir up other enemies against them, but also now, while they are attacking your city with many troops; for even now, through angelic ministry, I shall bring upon them invisible destruction. A Having thus given the events of that time as pledges of what was to happen later, he turns his discourse back again, and teaches how the holy apostles, and the ministers designated along with them for divine preaching, who have believed in the Lord born in Bethlehem, shall bring the evangelical doctrine to the foreign nations. He speaks as follows:
Vers. 7. « And the remnant of Jacob in the nations, in the midst of many peoples, shall be as dew from the Lord falling, and as lambs upon the grass, that no one may gather, nor withstand among the sons of men. » He calls those who have been saved the remnant, everywhere. So also elsewhere: « If the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved. » B Therefore, he says, just as dew fallen from heaven, those who have believed and brought the evangelical preaching to the nations shall irrigate the whole world; and just as hungry lambs graze upon the grass, so these shall easily destroy the impiety inborn in uncultivated minds, like grass, so that such congregations of men are no longer found. But since the demons remained incurably sick, the Holy Spirit rightly made the prediction with an exception: « That no one may gather, nor withstand among the sons of men. » So that, he says, no congregation composed of impious men may be found henceforth. And because he compared them to dew and lambs, and did not sufficiently express through these the power given to them by God, he adds another similitude to those mentioned.
VERS. 8. « And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the nations, in the midst of many peoples, as a lion among the beasts C of the forest, and as a lion's whelp among the flocks of sheep, as if he should pass through, and dividing, should seize, and there be none to deliver. » For the beginnings of the holy apostles were like dripping dew, and as lambs they consumed the grass of impiety with teaching and miracles, living as lambs in the midst of wolves, according to the prediction of the Master: « For behold, » he says, « I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. » But after this, when the world had received the preaching, and generals and kings had been added to the register of the Church, fear invaded the enemies of the truth. And these, having become like beasts of burden, are filled with fear and horror, having no helper from any quarter. D
Evangelical teachers of doctrine, bearing lion-like spirits, with the utmost liberty of speech do they assail with the word the defenders of falsehood. Then, he says:
A Vers. 9. "Your hand shall be lifted up above them that afflict you, and all your enemies shall be destroyed." For no longer shall you be expelled by them, but you shall demolish their temples. Those, therefore, of Israel who have believed shall attain this strength of spirit. Those, however, who persist in unbelief shall be deprived of their kingdom, and shall have neither infantry nor cavalry, nor cities fortified with walls. But even these things, he says, will be for your good. "For I will take away," he says, "your sorceries from your hands; and there shall be no more speakers in you." By *speakers* he calls the diviners.
B Vers. 15-18. "And I will scatter your sculptured images and your statues from the midst of you, and you shall no longer worship the works of your hands. And I will cut down your groves from the midst of you, and I will destroy your cities. And I will execute vengeance in wrath and in fury upon the nations, for they did not hearken." These things, however, can be easily understood from the very events. For after the incarnation of our God and Savior, as the Jews saw the piety of the nations and their deliverance from error, they themselves, even against their will, withdrew from the worship of idols. For they are ashamed to practice impiety openly, when they see those who are outside the Law behaving wisely. He predicts, therefore, to them that they shall be expelled from their own cities, and, scattered among the nations, shall be delivered from the error concerning idols. Having passed this judgment upon them, he calls them again to a tribunal, and entrusts the judgment to the inanimate mountains; not as if calling upon animate beings, nor as if he were addressing his words to those endowed with reason; but because the mountains, and the ravines and gorges between them, at one time received the corpses of the Assyrians—slaughtered by angelic agency—and at another time the countless slaughters of the Scythian nations; therefore, through the mountains, and the hills, and the valleys, he reminds them of the things that took place in these.
CHAPTER VI.
D Vers. 1. "Hear now what the Lord has said: Arise, and contend before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice." Cast your eyes upon the mountains, which, by my aid, received the corpses of your enemies: and speak freely, if indeed you are able, nor let the magnitude of the benefit block your mouth. But since you cannot perform this, I will take up the discourse.
Vers. 2. "Hear, O hills, the judgment of the Lord, and you, ye valleys, the foundations of the earth: for there is a judgment to the Lord against his people, and with Israel he will contend." —
A Since they are rational but suffer from the disease of irrationality, I shall employ inanimate objects as judges against the rational ones.
Ver. 3. "My people, what have I done to thee? Or wherein have I grieved thee? Or wherein have I wearied thee? Answer me." State the cause of your enmity; convict me, if you have experienced anything grievous from me. And since it was necessary for him to be silent, having nothing to say, he fittingly added: "Answer me"; if you have anything to say, speak plainly and openly.
Ver. 4. "For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee from the house of bondage; and I sent before thy face Moses, and Aaron, and Miriam." Do you bring this forward as an injury, that I delivered you from the bitter servitude of the Egyptians, and bestowed upon you B perfect freedom, using as ministers wonderful and illustrious men, Moses and Aaron; and that I did not deprive the women of the care they required, but set Miriam over them, and filled her with the prophetic gift? But if you wish to be unmindful of these things, recall to mind the matters concerning Balaam, and consider why Balaam was sent for, and how he, acting under the influence of my power, brought upon you not a curse, but a blessing. And when I did each of these things, I was not offering you a reward for your righteousness, but was making my own righteousness clear; for having made a promise to your forefather, I was fulfilling the covenants made with him. C Having spoken these words as if from the person of God, the prophet, seeing the stupidity of the people, himself in place of the people stirs up thoughts of piety, and says:
Ver. 6. "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord? shall I lay hold of my high God?" How shall I repay him who provides me with so many and such great good things? What recompenses shall I employ? "Shall I lay hold of him with whole burnt offerings, with calves of a D year old? (Ver. 7.) Will the Lord accept thousands of rams, or ten thousands of fat goats? Shall I give my firstborn for my impiety, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" Nothing, he says, of human things—not the multitude of calves, not whole flocks, not ten thousands of kids (for he calls yearling kids 'goats'), not the firstborn infants offered as a sacrifice to God—can absolve the multitude of sins. But if all these things are not sufficient for the remission of sins, with what shall I repay the divine benefits? Having thus proposed human thoughts, he again introduces God responding.
Ver. 8. "It has been told thee, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of thee, but to do judgment, and to love mercy, and to be ready to walk after the Lord thy God?" This
same thing the God of the universe hath said, through the mouth of the blessed David. For having rejected the whole list of sacrifices, and having said: "I will not take from thy house bullocks, nor from thy flocks he-goats; for all the beasts of the forest are mine," A he added: "Offer unto God a sacrifice of praise, and pay thy vows unto the Most High. And call upon me in the day of thy tribulation, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." And again: "For if thou hadst desired sacrifice, I would have given it; in burnt offerings thou wilt not delight. A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit; a contrite and humbled heart God will not despise." One might find these same things also among all the prophets. He says, therefore, here too, that the things legislated for thee by me are manifest. For He wishes thee to be careful about justice, and to be humane towards thy neighbor, and in all things to obey God the Creator. B These things He also legislated through Moses: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Now when these things are done by thee,
Verse 9. "The voice of the Lord shall call unto the city, and shall save them that fear His name." For having been refreshed by the very realities of His providence, you shall seem to hear the voice of the Lord Himself, which provides salvation unto you.
"Hear, O tribe, and who shall adorn the city? (Verse 10.) Is it fire, and the house of the lawless man storing up lawless treasures, and that with the insolence of wickedness?" C For just as fire is not an ornament to a city, but brings upon it conflagration and destruction; so also a propensity toward injustice, arriving with audacity and insolence, harms those who use it.
Verses 11, 12. "Shall the unjust one be justified in the balance, and he in whose pouch are deceitful weights? With which they have filled their riches of wickedness; and they that dwell in it have spoken lies, and their tongue was exalted in their mouth." For besides impiety and lawlessness, they dared to do the things which He lately condemned: possessing unjust weights and scales, and gathering D wealth through greed, and defiling their tongue with lying words. Therefore, He says, I shall make a beginning of the punishment against thee, and I will exact penalties for thy lawlessness, and I will bring upon thee frequent and successive evils. For this is what He said:
Verse 14. "Thou shalt eat, and shalt not be satisfied." But I will wrap thee in the gloom of calamities, and though thou hast recourse to flight, thou shalt not escape those who are warring against thee. "For thou shalt turn aside," He says, "and shalt not be saved, and whosoever shall be saved, shall be delivered to the sword." [15] Even if
A you toil much in the land, you shall by no means enjoy its fruits. "And the statutes of my people shall be scattered." And teaching that he speaks here not of the divine law but of the lawless way of life, he added: "And all the works of the house of Ahab." For having emulated that impiety, you shall be delivered up to these evils, so that those who see the calamities befalling you may signify their magnitude by a hiss. Having said all this, the prophet laments, as one who has used many words but labored in vain.
CHAPTER VII
VERS. 1. "Woe is me! for I have become as one that gathereth stubble in the harvest, and as a grape-gleaning in the vintage, whereas there is no cluster: my soul desired to eat the first-fruits." I am become, he says, like those who gather the falling ears of corn, or who search for the grape-gleanings passed over by the vintagers; for neither did I find a cluster of obedience, though I greatly desired to find something desirable and worthy of the first-fruits. For this is what he said: "My soul desired to eat the first-fruits." Since the first-fruits were offered to God, he reasonably called the desirable thing "first-fruit." And wishing to clarify these things said figuratively, he added: B "Woe is me, soul! (v. 2) for the godly man has perished from the earth, and there is none that does right among men." Then he makes a list of their sins. For those who judge, he says, bring an unrighteous sentence against the innocent, and dare to perpetrate lawless murders; and of the rest, each one, desiring more, seizes his neighbor's property. But he who is entrusted with judging according to the laws does not even wait for those who bring gifts, but he himself asks for them, following a mind given over to the corruption of bribes. "For the prince," he says, "asks and the judge has spoken peaceful words—it is the desire of his soul." For having received bribes from those who do injustice, he promises them the desired victory. For this reason, he says:
VERS. 4. "I will take away their goods as a moth eating, and walking upon the rule, in the day of thy visitation." For just like a moth walking inside wood and destroying everything with its teeth, so the sentence pronounced against you shall consume you in the day of vengeance. For he called this a "visitation," that is, the coming of God on that day. Then, lamenting as a merciful father, C like one who is chastising, he says: "Woe, woe, thy vengeances are come! now shall their wailing be." And when these things happen, he says, neither will a friend stand by a friend, nor will a king care for his subjects, nor will a spouse feel concern for her husband; but each one will take care of his own safety, watching for an escape from the evils, so that neither does a son render the due honor to his father, nor a daughter to her mother, nor a bride to her mother-in-law: but
they A shall all be in a kind of discord, one despising another, and barely providing for their own safety. And they indeed shall be in these straits; but I, says the prophet,
Vers. 7. “In the Lord will I look, I will wait for God my Savior.” And showing what the fruit of such waiting is, “My God,” he says, “will hearken unto me.” Having thus clearly taught the profit of hope placed in God, he assumes the person of Jerusalem and directs his words to Idumea, which was always B inimical and hostile.
Vers. 8. “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy, because I have fallen.” For I shall rise again, being lifted up by divine care; for He himself will provide his light even to me who dwell in darkness. But for now I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him; for I know the justice of the punishment, looking upon the magnitude of the sin. Yet I nevertheless await the just judgment against those who brought war upon me. For even if I paid the penalty for the things in which I transgressed, yet they used an unjust intention against me. The following passage has this same meaning: “Until he shall justify my cause, and execute my judgment, and bring me forth into the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.” For on his part I have been justly condemned; but against those others I have very many claims, and for this reason I shall await the divine verdict; and when I see it pronounced, and am delivered from their servitude,
C Vers. 10. “My enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which saith unto me: Where is thy God?” And not only shall she herself see my prosperity and the power of my God, against whom she stretched out her tongue, but I also shall behold her misfortune. “For mine eyes shall behold her; now shall she be for a trampling, as the mud in the ways.” (Vers. 11.) “The day of the smearing of the brick, that day shall be thy blotting out; and thy statutes shall be driven away.” “In that day also thy cities shall come unto a shutting up, and into a division of the Assyrians.” For just as the mud prepared for the smearing and coating of bricks, when thrown outside, is trampled by all who pass by, so that the clods may be D dissolved as is needed; so shalt thou be exposed to all and easily captured, destroyed and trampled by all thy neighbors. [12] Then thy lawless laws shall receive an end, and cities shall endure a siege; for this is what he called a “shutting up,” and the multitude of inhabitants, being scattered by the enemies, shall be compelled to serve. Since, however, other neighboring cities also rejoiced over the calamities of the Jews, he fittingly remembers Tyre, and Syria, and other cities,
explaining them by describing them according to their borders. "For from sea," he says, "to sea, and from mountain to mountain." A That is, from the Red Sea, which is situated to the East, unto the sea that inclines to the West; and from the mountain of the Idumeans unto Mount Lebanon, all those dwelling between them shall be delivered to the enemies. For this is what he added after saying: "A day of water and tumult." For like water carried along with a rushing sound, the multitude of that army shall make its assault, and it shall overwhelm the land with desolation, and shall deliver the inhabitants to slaughter and servitude. And revealing the cause, he says: "From the fruits of their pursuits." Having thus prophesied what was to happen to the neighboring nations, he foretells the peace that would come to the people after their return.
Ver. 14. "Shepherd thy people with thy rod, the tribe of thine inheritance, the sheep of thy heritage." And because he called men sheep metaphorically, he persisted in the metaphor. "Dwellers in a thicket apart." B Those separated, he says, from all nations, and having their own pasture. Now, what he said, "with the rod of thy tribe," signifies the tribe of Judah. For that tribe led the others after the return, since the division of the tribes no longer existed. Then, teaching that they would possess all the land which they had held before the captivity after their return, he added: "They shall graze in the thicket in the midst of Carmel, in Bashan and Gilead, according to the days of old." (Ver. 15.) "And according to the days of thy departure from the land of Egypt, I will show them marvelous things." For how much land I gave you when you went out of Egypt, he says, so much will I grant you upon your return from Babylon, terrifying with miracles those who would try to make war against you. For the nations, seeing these things, shall be filled with shame, and seeing the weakness of their own strength: C "They shall lay their hands upon their mouth, and their ears shall be deaf." (Ver. 17.) "They shall lick the dust like serpents that crawl upon the earth; they shall be disturbed in their enclosure at the Lord our God; they shall fear and be terrified of thee." For seeing your sudden prosperity, and the help afforded by me, they shall not dare to utter absurd words against thee; but like serpents creeping upon the earth they shall fall down, daring neither to do nor to say anything. Having finished these words, the prophet, struck with wonder at the divine kindness toward men, cried out:
Ver. 18. "Who is a God like unto thee, taking away iniquities, and passing over injustices to the remnant of his inheritance?" D Employing, he says, an unspeakable goodness, O Master, one that surpasses all discourse, thou dost not demand from men retribution for their sins.