Commentary on Isaiah

The word of the holy prophets is always obscure, but it is filled with hidden meanings and is in labour with the foretelling of the divine mysteries to us. For “Christ is the end of the law” and of the prophets, as it is written. I say, then, that those who wish to make plain things so subtle and enigmatic must hasten to survey the breadth of the contemplations with the eye of the mind, and to do so with great good sense: rendering on the one hand the exactness of the history, and on the other the spiritual contemplation, so that the benefit may come to readers from every side, and the explanation of the sense of the text may appear lacking in nothing. I know, indeed, that some have written on these things before me and have composed long discourses about them; and this, I think, is enough to give others no ignoble pretext for hesitating, and to persuade them to choose silence rather than to add nothing new to what others have said, repeating the same things instead and going through the same contemplations. But since, even if this should happen, no harm at all would follow, and since through the agreement of the many the hearers are confirmed in the truth, I persuade myself even now to rise above hesitation, believing that sweat and labour in good studies is better than the idleness of sleep, and not wholly giving up the hope that God will sometimes grant … a path in the contemplations. For it is written, “Your commandment is exceedingly broad.”

The blessed Isaiah, then, prophesies in the times of the reigns of Ozias, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Come, let us recall the times of each … For from this we shall know that the word of the prophecy fits, and is most appropriate to, what was done in each time. Ozias, also called Ochozias, was a pious man, and he advanced in glory and strength so far as to master the nations bordering Judea, to impose tribute on many and bring them under his own sceptre as by necessity, to build cities, and to take others and join them to the borders of the land of the Jews. Then he suffered something human. From too much luxury, and overcome by the eminence of his fame, he grew somewhat high-minded, and, seized by the disease of arrogance, rose up even against the divine law itself. For he thought he ought to crown himself also with the honours of the divine priesthood. He tried to force his way into the divine temple and himself to burn incense to God and perform unlawfully what the law prescribes. For this reason he was at once struck with leprosy and was utterly dishonoured; for under the law one overcome by the disease of leprosy is unclean. Then Jotham, his son, succeeded to the kingdom of Ozias, a God-loving man, except that “he did not remove,” it says, “the high places,” but those of Israel still sacrificed to the works of their own hands, overshadowing mountains and hills, as Hosea says, “because shade is good.”

When Jotham died, Ahaz succeeded to the sceptre, a most abominable and God-hated man, full of a wickedness that had reached its extreme. He even shut the divine temple, and did not allow the God of all to be honoured with the sacrifices of the law; he stopped the customary feasts of the Jews, set up altars in every place in Jerusalem, and commanded that handmade things be worshipped and the host of heaven served; and he even passed his own children through fire, that is, burned them as a sacrifice to the unclean demons; and, to put it in a word, there was no form of impiety he left untried. Then after him Hezekiah reigned, a pious and God-loving man, a champion of righteousness, zealous for every good thing, and a doer of the divine will. He commanded that everything contrary to the transgressions of Ahaz be done and prevail. For he opened the doors of the temple, then ordered sacrifices and libations to be offered to God, and God to be honoured with the rites of the law; and he is seen also to have renewed the law of the Passover after a long time. He pulled down the sacred precincts and the altars and the handmade images, and he ordered the false prophets and the bands of enchanters to be still; and he was a good man in the eyes of God. Since, then, in the times of the reigns of the kings just named, the God of all was at times provoked to anger when Israel worshipped idols, and at times softened toward gentleness when it was reshaped toward piety by the reasonableness of its ruler, the word of the prophecy is mixed accordingly. Sometimes it utters very great threats, since Israel was acting impiously, but it also brings in a word of promise of good things. Everywhere it remembers the redemption through Christ, and says that in due time Israel will be sent away from its close relation with God, while the multitude of the nations will be received, justified through faith in Christ. So it seems to me to crown the blessed prophet Isaiah very well, not with the grace of prophecy alone, but also with the honours of the apostles. For he is at one and the same time a prophet and an apostle, and he will compose the words of his writing as one not without a share in the brightness of the gospel preaching.

“Vision which Isaiah son of Amos saw, which he saw against Judea and against Jerusalem in the reign of Ozias and Jotham and Ahaz and [Hezekiah].”

I do not think anyone would be mistaken in saying of the holy prophets that they not only received knowledge of things to come, as the Holy Spirit made the matter bright within them and sounded it into their minds, but also sometimes became spectators of the events themselves. The blessed prophet Isaiah, then, seems to have beheld with the eyes of the mind the sufferings that would come upon Judea in due time: on the one hand the phalanxes of the enemy ravaging the land, on the other the cities made desolate and houses set on fire, and all that enemies do by the laws of war. Therefore it is written at the head of the prophecy: “Vision which Isaiah son of Amos saw, against Judea and against Jerusalem.” And he usefully notes the times of the kings, so that God may be seen to speak through the prophet what suits the ways of each.

“Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: Sons I have begotten and raised up, but they have rejected me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey the manger of its lord; but Israel has not known me, and my people has not understood me.”

What the matter is, what the reason, and what it may mean, we must look into. The blessed prophet calls heaven and earth to witness, as it were, and in doing this he does not act without God; yet he says the words are not his own but rather God’s, making plain by this to the hearers that they will by all means come to fulfilment. For it is impossible for God to speak falsely. At the same time there is this too, as I think. Since he was about to foretell to Judea and … sufferings beyond everything and incurable calamities, he knew that those to whom the word was addressed would by all means be stirred to anger. So he says that the Lord spoke such things to them, very skilfully deflecting the rage of the impious and as it were shaming their unjust anger. For if he was taken as a mediator and servant and ferried across the words from above and from God, how could anyone justly be angry with him? Or rather, how would the impious deeds done in anger not be against God who had spoken? Very fittingly, then, he calls heaven and earth to witness. For since he was about to bring accusations against Israel, he wants the angels in heaven to know, and the whole earth, the ways of its impiety,

so that no one may think that he was moved in vain, or rashly, over small and quite trivial matters …, to cast off the beloved people, the people set apart as his portion and long ago rescued with very great strength from the greed of the Egyptians. For he had pity on it as wronged beyond what was reasonable and beyond what befitted the fathers … and they were bitterly afflicted, as God hurled every kind of torment upon them. As, then, the taking up of those of Israel became most conspicuous, so he wants the manner of their casting off not to be unknown. And if some should wish the elements themselves to be called by the voice of the prophet, the force of the meaning would not miss the fitting sense, for those who consider the following. Israel was redeemed, as I said, from the impiety of the Egyptians through Moses. But when Pharaoh, impiously opposing the commands of God, said, “I do not know the Lord, and I will not send Israel away,” creation armed itself together with its own Master against those who hated him. From above, out of heaven, came very many conspicuous signs, and very many likewise, and not unmarvellous, on the earth itself. Heaven sent down the hail, and the earth cast up frogs, as it is written; and the dust, scattering and darkening the air, [brought] sores … So, as if the very elements had laboured almost in vain for those who were redeemed, he says: “Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken.”

Let us approach the sense of the text in another way as well. Those of Israel, dishonouring the instruction given through the law and making light of the saving teachings, abandoned the one God, who alone is God by nature, and offered their worship to the unclean demons on mountains and hills; in the well-wooded ravines they burned incense and bowed down to the works of their own hands. The God of all was indignant at this, and very rightly, and he said to one of the holy prophets: “Let the hills hear your voice. Hear, O hills, the judgment of the Lord, and you ravines, foundations of the earth, for the Lord has a judgment with his people, and he will contend with Israel.” We do not say that the Lord’s judgment through the prophet’s voice was against the mountains and hills; rather, he was contending against the very impiety of Israel committed on the mountains and hills and in the glens. For it was being convicted of having been impious beyond measure and of having built altars and precincts there to the unclean demons. Since, then, those of Israel, disregarding reverence for God, worshipped the host of heaven (I mean the sun and the moon), and, taking material from the earth (I mean wood and stones), made idols for themselves as each thought fit, he very skilfully brings heaven and earth into the midst, as it were for the conviction and proof of their impiety in these things, saying: “Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken.”

In yet another way: we say that there are many fathers in heaven, the spiritual ones, of course, and many likewise on earth, some according to the flesh and some spiritual. To all these fathers, above and below, honours are offered by the children under their hand. Those so honoured rejoice greatly, and there is none among them who does not find it altogether hard to bear when his children are ungrateful. The God of all, having suffered just this, calls to witness the fathers in heaven and on earth, saying: “Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: Sons I have begotten and raised up, but they have rejected me.” For Israel, received through grace and counted worthy of the forbearance fitting for sons, is said to have been begotten by God, although the true and spiritual regeneration has been brought to completion for us, clearly through faith in Christ. For we have been born of water and spirit; and to those of old a spirit of slavery was given, even if it was firstborn and was named a people.

But to us God has granted both the name and the Spirit of adoption. “Because you are sons,” he says, “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” “For I have begotten sons,” he says; and not this only, but also “I have raised them up,” that is, I have reared them. For Israel was not without help after this, nor bereft of love from God. It was reared like a son by a truly child-loving and most affectionate father. “For he gave them the bread of heaven,” it says; “man ate the bread of angels.” It was nourished in another way too, to spiritual health, through the wisdom of the law and the teachings of the prophets, which led it skilfully to the knowledge of the truth, that is, of Christ. Paul at any rate writes, “so that the law has become our tutor to Christ.” What, then, would be the manner of the rejection? It turned to wanting to serve those who are not gods by nature; and it was sick in another way too, with much unruliness, and, going still further in absurdity, it did not imitate even the goodwill of the irrational animals, which they have toward their masters. Therefore he says: “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey the manger of its lord; but Israel has not known me, and my people has not understood me.” For if a man buys an ox, he will certainly have it most useful for the work of the farm, now to plough the land if he chooses, now to thresh on the floor and separate the chaff from the wheat. And if someone buys a donkey, it too is called to obedience by natural impulses, and it makes its submission a kind of return for what is laid in its manger. It carries burdens willingly and shares its master’s labour. So much for these. But wise Israel, schooled in the law to know what is profitable, having fully learned the glory of God through many admirable signs, falls behind the donkey and the ox, and, worsted by the good sense of the irrational beasts, has not known its master. Very well does he say “has not known” and “has not understood.” For although it had learned, as I said, the glory of God, by turning aside into an unbridled departure it became like one who had never known. For if this were not truly so, it would not have said to the wood, “You are my God,” and to the stone, “You begot me.” Hence “heaven was astonished at this,” he says, “and shuddered exceedingly, says the Lord. For my people has done two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug for themselves broken cisterns, which will not be able to hold water.” It would also fit Christ himself to say of them, “But Israel has not known, and my people has not understood me.” For the redemption of old also came about through him, and the law was laid down “until the time of correction,” as it is written. But since it was impossible for the shadow to justify us, the only-begotten Word of God appeared to us with flesh, to justify by faith those who come to him and to set them free from death and sin. But Israel did not understand him, though he said plainly: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”

“Woe, sinful nation, people full of sins, evil seed, lawless sons! You have forsaken the Lord and provoked the Holy One of Israel.”

Having described very well the manner of the rejection, and having shown the greatness of the folly within them, he at once changes his speech, partly to lamentation over them and partly to rebuke. It would most of all suit the person of the prophet, I think, almost to wail over them, and out of great love for God to rise up against them and say: “Woe, sinful nation, people full of sins, evil seed, lawless sons.” For it follows by all means that those who choose to reject the God who gives us all good things have a sin that cannot be washed away and are loaded with terrible charges from which there is no escape. For rejection always somehow suffers from apostasy, the change to anything whatever … Therefore he at once added, “You have forsaken the Lord.” He calls them an “evil seed” not as being, or made, such by nature, but because evil sons came from evil fathers, as in the saying of John; for to the scribes and Pharisees themselves, coming to the baptism of repentance, he said, “Brood of vipers.” For the first fathers, those of the beginning, were confessedly holy, but those after them were utterly abominable. To those, then, who were reared in the customs of their fathers and emulated an ancestral impiety, [he says] “evil seed” … the Lord, and they did not cease provoking the Holy One of Israel, that is, Christ. For they did not understand the mystery concerning him. Therefore they have remained in the fullness of their own sins. And Christ said this to them: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.” Israel, then, is full of sins, and has come at last to such wickedness that it is fitting for it to be punished. For they too have filled up the measure of their own fathers, according to the Saviour’s saying. For up to a certain time and measure God bears the contempt of offenders; but when the sin has come to the fullness known to him, he brings on the penalties and punishes the disobedient in proportion to their offences. And so the prophet Zechariah, having seen a measure, asked the blessed angel what this measure was that was going out; and he said to him, “This is their iniquity in all the earth.” Israel, then, has remained with its sin not wiped away, and it did not want to receive the cleansing through Christ, but … having forsaken him besides, by not accepting faith in him, and by saying further, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him,” and, “We have no king but Caesar.”

“Why should you be struck any more, adding lawlessness? Every

head is in pain, and every heart in grief. From the feet to the head there is no soundness in them, neither wound, nor bruise, nor festering blow; there is no plaster to apply, nor oil, nor bandages.”

He speaks of the ranks of the Jews, small and great, I mean, and those understood to be in between, as of one body. He seems to call “head” the one adorned with the honours of kingship; and “heart” the sacred and chosen tribe, that is, the Levitical, as being instructed in the law and having care of the whole body. “For the lips of a priest,” it says, “shall guard knowledge, and they shall seek the law from his mouth.” And he says the “feet” are those in the last place, who have, as it were, been allotted the lowest rank among the people. Since, then, the land of the Jews had already endured intolerable misery, ravaged now by the Babylonians and now by the neighbouring nations, and was about to be burned by Roman hands because of its impiety toward Christ, and their kingdom was to be overturned (for foreigners ruled them), and the works of the priesthood were to cease among them, the sacrifices overturned, the temple pulled down, and there being no altars, “neither priesthood nor manifestations,” as the prophet’s saying has it, therefore he says: “Why should you be struck any more, adding lawlessness?” You have paid harsh and successive penalties from God in blows and torment, and yet you are no less despisers and companions of lawlessness. Why, then, should you be struck any more? What measure of torment will suffice for your correction? What terrible thing at all will be brought upon you that has not already happened? “Every head is in pain, and every heart in grief, from the feet to the head.” For those who had received royal honour suffered not a little, unable to withstand the enemies’ [forces, while the priests could no longer offer], as I said, the sacrifices. And the feet too were struck, that is, those last and lowest: on the one hand consumed by the swords of the enemy, on the other worn down by famines and failures of crops, and brought to the experience of unmixed misery. Therefore he says, “there is no plaster to apply, nor oil, nor bandages.” For when blows that are moderate fall upon the human body, and the injury reaches one limb, then the discoveries of the skill of those who know how to heal are useful, such as a plaster, bandages, and anointing with oil that relaxes what is strained. But when the whole body is sick and is being destroyed in itself, what manner of treatment helps it? For the greatness of the disease altogether overcomes the power of the remedies of art. Incurable, therefore, the multitude of the Jews, having fallen into wounds and suffering unbearably the effects of wrath, perished utterly, no means of help availing them. Therefore the divinely inspired [prophets] also said: “[We treated Babylon,] and she was not healed; let us forsake her.” For [Jerusalem] is likened to the Babylon of the nations, although it was named the holy city, chiefly because of its impiety toward Christ; or else because [it did not fall short of Babylon in] handmade [idols], so as in no way to yield to Babylon, which was even named “a land of carved images.”

“Your land is desolate, your cities burned with fire; your country, strangers devour it before you, and it has been made desolate, overthrown by foreign peoples.”

He makes clear what seemed to have been said more obscurely than it should. For what would “there is no plaster to apply, nor oil, nor bandages” mean … saying that their [land is desolate], and that the cities and [villages] are burned, so that almost all of it has been overturned from its foundations. Judea, then, was captured very many times, by Assyrians and Egyptians, Syrians and Moabites, Idumeans and [others]; but having suffered little, and sometimes having fallen into moderate calamities, it recovered again with God’s help, the one who struck it also healing it. But it perished utterly after the Saviour’s cross, when Vespasian and Titus ravaged it. For then it happened that the cities were burned, the whole country was emptied of its inhabitants and fell under the hand of the conquerors; and most wretched of all was the “before you,” that is, while they looked on and grieved, the land was under others, being devoured and consumed in a way. For to hear of it only, while absent, might perhaps have made their grief bearable; but to see it while present, and to be unable to help at all, being subdued as it were to calamities they could not escape, holds an unbearable and very great pain. We must not, then, provoke the Holy One of Israel, lest we fall among visible and invisible enemies, who bring us down to the passions of dishonour and overthrow every stronghold of the mind that is in us, so as to graze down the wretched soul, as it were, and consume all its fruits, that it may be dry and dishonoured and be found a land that bears thorns, “whose end is burning,” in the words of the blessed Paul.

“The daughter of Zion will be left like a booth in a vineyard, and like a watchman’s hut in a cucumber field, [like a besieged city].”

… the matter is terrible; for how is it not worthy of lament and wailing? She who was of old a daughter and honoured with such a name, living as under a most affectionate father, God, drunk with the forbearance and love that came from him, crowned by him with glories …, and mastering those round about her, the all-blessed and renowned Zion, that is, Jerusalem, “will be left,” he says. That is, she will be desolate. She will remain bare both of the strength of the one who saves her and of those who live in her. She will be left “like a booth in a vineyard, and like a watchman’s hut in a cucumber field, and like a besieged city.” For those who guard the grapes, while they are still [on the vine], take every possible precaution, frighten off the robbers who want to cut them, and drive away the kinds of wild beasts. It is the custom of the watchmen or owners of cucumber fields to do this too. But when the grapes have been gathered and trodden, and the cucumbers taken out of the fields, the watchmen’s care relaxes, and they give free entry to any who wish to glean what is left. The prophetic word teaches us that something of this kind happened to wretched Zion as well. While she still had the fruits of righteousness, God counted her worthy of safety and guarding and all forbearance. For he said, “I will be to her, says the Lord, a wall of fire round about, and I will be for glory in her midst.” And the blessed David sings, “Behold, he who guards Israel will not slumber nor sleep.” But since Israel, though it had become the vineyard of the Lord Sabaoth, [was planted] and counted worthy of a hedge, bore thorns, it was handed over by God to those who are used to doing wrong. “For I will take away its hedge,” he says, “and it shall be for plunder; and I will pull down its wall, and it shall be for trampling; and I will abandon my vineyard, and it shall not be pruned nor dug.” Therefore “the boar from the forest ravaged it, and the wild donkey grazed upon it.” And that God abandoned the vineyard, and that it has been forsaken by him, the Saviour teaches when he says: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I wanted to gather your children together as a bird gathers her young under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left to you desolate.”

He had cried this out beforehand through the voice of a prophet too, saying: “I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance; I have given my beloved soul into the hands of her enemies. My inheritance has become to me like a lion in a forest; she has given her voice against me; therefore I have hated her.” Josephus, who recounted in tragic style the sufferings of the land of the Jews, records somewhere that when Jerusalem was about to be taken, the priests heard a voice in the temple, as of angels crying out in it, “Let us depart from here.” And that when a city is besieged a means of escape is sought by all who are in it, how can anyone doubt? From this one may infer the sufferings of the land of the Jews. For to the besieged it seemed a thing thrice longed for to be able to save one’s life alone; for house and property, or for the city itself, they had no thought at all. One must know, too, that the soul of a man is often abandoned by God if it does not choose to set right what has been ordained, bowing its neck to the Master’s decrees … a son or daughter of God, even if it has become Zion, which means “watchtower,” that is, [living] in lofty understanding and in a most pure mind that knows how to see mysteries, if it is seen doing what is not lawful, provoking the Holy One of Israel, it will be abandoned by him, and like an unguarded vineyard it will be given over to Satan and to the passions of the flesh, and it will be shown desolate of all virtue, bare of the honours that come from a good way of life, and full of every evil.

[“And if the Lord Sabaoth had not left us] seed, we would have become like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah.”

… for its impiety, the remnant of Israel has been saved even so, God having pity and granting this too as a gift, as it were, among others, to the memory of the fathers. For it did not perish utterly, nor was it shaken from its foundations, but it remained in a remnant. For the divinely inspired disciples were of them, and so also were all who have believed in our Lord Jesus Christ. And in the last times of the age those too who have not yet believed will be saved. The prophetic word will assure us of this. It says: “The sons of Israel will remain many days with no king and no ruler, with no sacrifice and no altar, neither priesthood nor manifestations. And after this the sons of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king, and they will be amazed at the Lord and at his good things at the end of the days.” And elsewhere the God of all says: “What shall I do with you, Ephraim? Shall I shield you, Israel? What shall I do with you? Shall I make you like Admah and like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within me; my repentance is stirred up together. I will not act according to the anger of my wrath; I will not abandon Ephraim to be blotted out, for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in you.” You hear how he promised not to act against them according to the greatness of his wrath, but rather promised beforehand … For those of Israel disobeyed in the desert as well, when they had come to the very streams of the Jordan and were about to inherit the land of the promise. Hence God said, “As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest.” For their bodies fell in the desert, and all were consumed except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. These went in together with the new people, crossed the Jordan, and received their inheritance from God. They would be a type of the remnant of Israel, saved through the obedience of faith in Christ, which has crossed the holy Jordan with us and is to inherit the kingdom of heaven.

The prophet therefore gives thanks, saying: “If the Lord Sabaoth had not left us seed, we would have become like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah.” For since Israel had served idols, had killed the prophets, had denied Christ, or rather had killed the Author of life, the God of all ought to have condemned the whole race to utter destruction. But since he is good beyond words, he preserved the remnant, and they did not become equal to Sodom, which [perished] with all its kin and households and … and to have a sin hard to wash away. And very rightly will it be said to us: “Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But by your hardness and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” “For we must all appear before Christ, so that each may receive what was done through the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

“Hear the word of the Lord, rulers of Sodom; give heed to the law of God, people of Gomorrah. What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord. I am full of whole burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of lambs and the blood of bulls and goats I do not want. Not even if you come to appear before me; for who has required these from your hands? You shall not continue to tread my court. If you bring fine flour, it is vain; incense is an abomination to me. Your new moons and sabbaths and the great day I cannot endure; fasting and idleness, and your feasts my soul hates.”

Having frightened them sufficiently with threats of what is to come, and having told them beforehand what would by all means happen in due time unless they chose both to think and to do what is better and [to submit] to the divine laws, he turns his speech, in season, and leads them to what is useful, so that, choosing to think better, they might be freed from the penalty hanging over them. … Israel; and we say that they fell into this because of the impiety of those allotted to lead them. For although they recognized that he was the heir, they killed him; for they wanted to make his vineyard their own portion. And that wretched Israel, following the perversity of its leaders, missed the hope in Christ, the God of all will assure us, speaking through the voice of the prophets: “Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have defiled my inheritance, they have made my desirable portion a trackless desert; it has been made a vanishing of destruction.” And again: “For the shepherds were foolish and did not seek the Lord; therefore the whole flock did not understand and was scattered.” For the shepherds were truly foolish and became for the peoples under their hand a cause of ruin.

Yet ought they not rather, since they had been well taught the mystery of Christ through the law and the prophets, to have become a way for others to believe in him? But, as the Saviour says, they received glory from men and did not seek the glory that comes from the only God. “For if they believed Moses, they would believe him, for he wrote about him.” They became, then, blind guides of the blind. Therefore they slipped and fell into the pits of destruction. What, then, does the prophet do? He tries to reshape them with good admonitions, so that they may choose to think better and obey the words of the Saviour. And he usefully mixes rebuke with his admonitions to this end, healing the wounds of their ill counsel as with a remedy variously compounded. Therefore he says: “Hear the word of the Lord, rulers of Sodom; give heed to the law of God, people of Gomorrah.” You hear how he brings upon peoples and rulers the rod that comes from love and from a God-loving mind, and strikes … he likens Jerusalem [to Sodom], as full of very much sin and as having no [righteous person] at all … [When] the God of all [was about to] burn the cities of the Sodomites, he shared the matter with Abraham; and Abraham said to him, “Will you destroy the righteous with the ungodly, and shall the righteous be as the ungodly?” And God promised, if ten righteous men were found in Sodom, to stop his wrath against them. But they were not found. Therefore they paid penalties equal to their impieties. Such was the Lord-slaying Jerusalem, having a great scarcity of the righteous. And so the prophet Jeremiah pleaded for it, and God said: “Run through the streets of Jerusalem, and see and know, and search in her squares, whether you find a man, whether there is one who does justice and seeks faithfulness, and I will be merciful to her, says the Lord.” Since, then, she is filthy and stained in many ways with the defilements of wickedness, and has a great scarcity of saints, he calls her Sodom and Gomorrah and lays upon people and leaders alike the reproach of the uncleanness of the Sodomites. And what does he say? “Hear the word of the Lord, rulers of Sodom; give heed to the law of God, people of Gomorrah.” Come to your senses a little, he says; and looking with the eye of your understanding into the words of the all-wise Moses, understand the mystery of Christ. For Moses said: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers; you shall listen to him in everything he says to you.” Hear, then, the word of the Lord; give heed to the law of God; that is, understand for yourselves the force of the gospel decrees. Moses enjoined this; for he leads as a tutor to Christ, and the end of the legal decrees is to believe in God, through being willing to fulfil what was in types and shadows. Listen to him who of old spoke the law to you too: “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord. I am full.” For if you offer them as to one in need, you have strayed from what is fitting and missed wise and true reasoning. For the nature that fills all things lacks nothing, since all things are its own and come from it to others. “What do you have that you did not receive?” would fit to be said to created nature. For I have enough now, he says, and am filled, and I would no longer choose the sacrifices that come from you.

… For how, tell me, does a ram offered as a whole burnt offering [please] the God of all? And what is the fat of lambs [to him]? And if the blood of goats and bulls is offered, how would God take pleasure in it? “For who has required these from your hands?” For even if Moses spoke of whole burnt offerings and sacrifices, yet even of old this manner of worship was not what God wished. But since it was necessary to lead toward the truth through type and shadow, the things in the law were laid down until the time of correction. So, as far as pleasing God in truth is concerned, he would not have spoken at all about the sacrifices of the law. But since the mind of those then being schooled was weak, they were led by the hand to the truth through type and through the shadow in the letter. Now that the time has come in which the beauty of the truth must at last shine out, the type is superfluous and the shadow is of no use. Therefore he says: “You shall not continue to tread my court. If you bring fine flour, it is vain; incense is an abomination to me.” For we who have been made radiant by faith in Christ fill his holy courts, that is, the churches, offering spiritual sacrifices to God. But the manner of Jewish worship is wholly unacceptable to Christ in the churches. Those who wish to offer fine flour mixed with oil and incense perceptible to the senses would by no means be received. For we remember God saying of it, “It is an abomination to me.” And we keep the holy feasts in Christ; but the Jews, not departing from what is in types, blow trumpets on the day of the new moon, regard the Sabbath as a day of idleness, and honour the day called great. This is the last day of the feast called Tabernacles; and if they fast …, let them hear him saying, “Your feasts my soul hates.” He says this to transfer them from types to the truth, and to persuade them to bow the neck of their understanding to the decrees given through Christ, so that they may live with us according to the gospel, gladdening God with spiritual fragrances, and offering him, as it were, a spiritual incense: gentleness of character, love, love of one another, endurance, self-control, and before all the rest, faith. With such sacrifices God is well pleased, and the force of the gospel decrees crowns believers with such honours.

“You have become a surfeit to me; I will no longer forgive your sins. When you stretch out your hands to me, I will turn my eyes away from you; and if you multiply your supplication, I will not hear you; for your hands are full of blood.”

Things that have come to surfeit or satiety tend to be despised and are thought worth very little account, or rather even come to be hated. And so the most wise Solomon says, “Set your foot seldom before your friend, lest having had his fill of you he hate you.” The God of all, then, said to the Jews: I am sated with the stale shadow, and I hold your sins [against you]. For of old those of Israel, having impiously turned to provoking the God of all against themselves by serving the creation and bowing down to the very works of [their hands and sacrificing] on the mountains, [were handed over to] the Persians and Medes [and endured] a bitter [captivity; but when] the seventieth year was completed, the God who is compassionate and loves pity had mercy again. And so, as is written in Zechariah, the blessed angel made supplications for them, saying, “Lord Almighty, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah?” … and God [said] these things: “I have been jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great jealousy, and I am angry with great wrath [against the nations].” He forgave their sins then; but [since they would not be] redeemed [through] the Saviour’s cross, no longer

does he promise to forgive them their sins, because they have spent long ages by themselves, as they have remained subject to the movements of wrath. For that in the last times they will be shown mercy, by the grace that is in Christ, … the times of wrath have come upon them. Therefore he says: “I will no longer forgive your sins.”

And in another way, if you like, [one may take] the sense of the text. [Under] the old law those of Israel [offered sacrifices] for their own [sins, as types of] the mystery of Christ. But since Christ has appeared, [these are useless], as the truth is now present. That the shadow of the law will not suffice for their forgiveness if they do not accept the redemption through Christ, he teaches by saying, “I will no longer forgive your sins.” For now that the truth is present, he says, I have not allowed the types to be able to benefit those guilty of sins … and in doing this, … the shadow is of no use. So I will no longer forgive your sins, and when you lift up your hands I will turn away my eyes, even if you make very many [prayers] … that the Creator of all is kind; that is, I am indeed kind and good and compassionate, and only unwillingly do I turn away my eyes. “For your hands are full of blood.” Do you hear how he has brought the charge of murder against them, keeping silent about their other offences? And yet [he had charged them] with many: “Woe, sinful nation, people full of sins, evil seed, lawless sons.” But since they killed the prophets and laid their unholy hands on Christ himself, the Saviour of us all, very fittingly he brings against them the most grievous charge, the one sufficient for every condemnation, saying, “Your hands are full of blood.” And God the Father turns away his face, as not enduring to see the hands of the murderers still crimsoned with the blood of the Son. Having brought them back to the remembrance of their impieties, he does not let them despair. He usefully adds the grace that comes from his gentleness. And he does not shut out … the whole world under heaven. “For all have turned aside; together they have become worthless.” And the world became accountable to God, the nations having served the creation, and those of Israel having transgressed the law given them through Moses. But Christ shone upon the nations, and they were called to his marvellous light; and those who were once not a people became a people. The wretched Jews, however, behaved outrageously toward Christ and impiously killed him who is the Author of life, even though he came to life again as God. But since he is good, and “wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,” he himself widens the road of salvation and bids them throw off their charges, being justified freely and not by works of the law. Therefore he says: “Wash yourselves, become clean.” This the old law too outlined for them as in shadows, proclaiming beforehand the grace given through holy baptism. For God said somewhere to Moses, the revealer of sacred things: “Take the Levites from among the sons of Israel and purify them; and thus you shall do to them for their purification: you shall sprinkle them with water of purification, and a razor shall pass over their whole body, and they shall wash their garments and be clean.” Then what the water of purification is, the most wise Paul will teach, saying: “For if the blood of goats and calves, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ?” So the law made a fleshly cleansing through the water of purification; but Christ, through holy baptism, scours away all the filth of our soul.

For we have been baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire, which as it were melts away every form of wickedness in us and consumes it like so much useless refuse; for this is the work of fire. The blessed Paul too makes this plain, saying: “By faith Noah, being warned, prepared an ark for the saving of his household,” in which a few, that is, eight souls, were brought safely through water. “And baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves us also, not as a removal of dirt from the flesh, but as the appeal of a good conscience to God.” This, then, he counsels the Jewish peoples themselves to choose to do, saying, “Wash yourselves, become clean”; that is, … of the gentleness and love for mankind of the one whom you insulted. And we find the divine Peter too rebuking them as having killed the Author of life and having asked for a murderer to be granted to them, that is, [Barabbas, and yet calling them to repentance]; for he said: “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your rulers also. Repent, then, and let each of you be baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promises are for you and for your children.”

“Take away the wickedness from your souls before my eyes; cease from your wickedness.”

The saving and holy baptism suffices for the washing away of sin, and scours away the stain of offences already committed. But I say that those who have once been sanctified must keep their souls pure and blameless, as far as they are able, and remember him who says, “Keep your heart with all vigilance,” and again, “If the spirit of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place, for healing will put an end to great sins.” Very many pleasures that look toward what is shameful shake the soul of man, and before all the others the law that is implanted and rages in the members of the flesh; and besides these, evil reasonings, which drag the mind within us with no small force toward every form of wickedness. Those who have been baptized must therefore keep away from all such evils and take away the wickedness from their own soul, and not only in the eyes of men but above all in the eyes of God, who knows and oversees all things. For some at times pretend to be good, stealing the appearance of fair dealing, “but inwardly they are ravenous wolves,” as it is written. And of every such person, I think, the God of all says through the voice of the prophet Jeremiah: “With his mouth he speaks peaceably, but within himself he holds enmity.” And through the voice of David too: “Their words were softer than oil, yet they are darts.” But even if they make every effort to escape notice, “he who dwells in the heavens will laugh at them, and the Lord will mock them.” For he knows, he knows the heart and the reins. But the one who is truly good will be so before God and men, as Paul says: “taking thought for what is good not only before the Lord but also before men.” It is a great thing, then, to remove wickedness from before the eyes of God. And perhaps Nathanael was such a man, of whom Christ says, “Behold, truly an Israelite in whom there is no guile.” “Cease,” he says, “from your wickedness”; that is, abandon the wickedness that is familiar and ingrained in you; change your ill [will] for the better

… behaving outrageously toward him, setting snares and digging pits; and, as far as it lay with them and within the power of their schemes, preparing every kind of malice against him. At one time they sent some of their own disciples with those called Herodians, asking and saying, “Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” At another time they came again saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” so that they might accuse him. Let them hear him, then, saying: “Take away the wickedness from your souls before my eyes; cease from your wickedness.”

“Learn to do good; seek judgment; rescue the one who is wronged; judge for the orphan and vindicate the widow. And come, let us reason together, says the Lord. And if your sins are like crimson, I will make them white as snow; and if they are like scarlet, I will make them white as wool.”

Having marked out the weakness of the worship under the law, both by saying, “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord. I am full,” and by adding, “For who has required these from your hands?” he now in due season explains the excellence of the gospel way of life and shows the way of the truly holy life, which wins its approval no longer in types and shadows but in the realities themselves and in the honours understood as belonging to virtue. For what does he mean by “Learn to do good”? Does he then, someone might say, take us wholly away from the commandment of the law? Does he not allow us to look at all to what was decreed through Moses? How, then, did Christ say, “Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfil”? And how did Paul say, “So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good”? To such objections we shall say again that the law is good if it is understood spiritually. Christ does not take us wholly away from the law, but rather leads us up to what is higher and better, having first laid down in us, like a kind of foundation, the schooling given through the law, which held the true worship as it were in shadows and types. Besides, the law teaches us to keep away from wickedness and sin, and it points out what is shameful. Paul at any rate says, “I would not have known sin except through the law.” But the gospel preaching makes us practitioners of every virtue. Therefore it may fittingly be called, properly and truly, the good itself. For “You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery” removed those being instructed from sin, though it did not yet fully show what the good is; but the command not to be angry with one’s brother at all, nor even to desire, initiates us into the honours of virtue. For it is an excellent thing to overcome anger, and admirable besides to be able to rein in the desires for what is evil and not allow

the mind to go even to the beginnings of an outlandish and most abominable desire. So the good would truly be the gospel teaching and the power of the way of life in Christ. We must therefore cry out to the friends of the letter, “Learn to do good, seek judgment,” that is, judging rightly. For besides all their other absurdities, those allotted to lead the synagogue of the Jews suffered from this too: they did not make right judgments in each matter, but rather voted unjustly, were overcome by gifts and the pleasure of money, and sold the cleverness of their unholy counsel to those who wished to do wrong. For, as the prophet says, “Her leaders judged for gifts.” The commandment is therefore necessary, and for those who wish to live according to the gospel, judging rightly contributes not a little to righteousness, not only in outward matters but also in those of the mind and heart. I mean something like this. God condemns wickedness; Satan praises it. The Saviour’s law persuades us to make the good the object of our love; that one draws us the other way. Then, then indeed the mind within us is like a judge and arbiter. If it praises the good and grants it the right to prevail, it has sought judgment. But if it hands the victory to wickedness, it has gone outside right judgment and will justly hear: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil; woe to those who call bitter sweet and sweet bitter; who put darkness for light and light for darkness.” It is, then, a glory of the gospel to judge rightly and to help those who are wronged. For this, I think, is “Rescue the one who is wronged.” And besides this one must practise compassion and impartiality. “Judge for the orphan,” he says, “and vindicate the widow; and come, and let us reason together, says the Lord.” Not as though we were judging the Master! “For he will be justified,” it says, “in his words, and will prevail when he is judged.” For no one will be clean from filth, nor will anyone boast of having a pure heart; but rather [let us reason together], examining as it were among ourselves whether the greatness of the divine generosity is not great and worth receiving. As the wise Paul writes to us: “The sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” He therefore promises forgiveness of offences already committed to those who, through faith, pass over in a way from the conduct of the law to the excellence of the life according to Christ. For this is our entrance into hope, the first fruits of God’s gentleness toward us, like a door and a way. And that the grace given through faith will suffice for the cleansing even of those who have been very greatly defiled, and not only of those whose sickness was less, he persuades us by saying, “If your sins are like crimson, I will make them white as snow; and if they are like scarlet, I will make them white as wool.” For nothing is hard to wash out when God scours it. As Paul says, “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” And again: “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn?”

“And if you are willing and listen to me, you shall eat the good things of the land; but if you are not willing and do not listen to me, the sword shall devour you; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.”

The God of all said somewhere to those of Israel through the all-wise Moses: “Behold, I have set before your face the way of life and the way of death.” For the [choice] between the two has been placed in us …, and the fruit of each one’s inclinations, that is, of each one’s will, would be to live brilliantly and lawfully, or else in a blameworthy way. No one would doubt that those who live the good and chosen life most dear to God will by all means come to harbour in life; while those overcome by pleasures that lead to evil have their end in ruin and destruction. The fruit of obedience, then, will be to eat the good things of the land prepared for the saints, which our Lord Jesus Christ himself mentions, saying, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” But the fruit of perversity and of a sin-loving life is useless regret, and what comes from the divine wrath, the sword and ruin, as I said; and which of such evils is lacking? The prophet shows his word to be trustworthy by adding at once, “For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.” And since it is impossible for God to lie (for he always remains what he is, that is, truth), how must we not understand that it will by all means come to fulfilment? The prophetic word richly benefits both the souls of the simpler and also those of people already genuine and established in faith. For since the God of all has set in the inclinations of those being instructed the choosing of the good and the turning away from evil, he has made it fully plain that he has given to each person on earth the reins of what to do or not to do, and that each will drive with authority toward whatever he chooses. Since this is true, it is idle and frigid, a mere tale, to insist and say that evil is natural in man; or that chance and fate and nativity steer human affairs, and, as each of them pleases, bind whomever they choose and make them workers of wickedness or virtue, people who go to it not by willing inclinations but yoked as it were by inescapable nods, and who find the compulsion of their rulers hard to bear. For if evil exists by nature and has a substance of its own, as those people foolishly say, how is it strengthened and weakened by each one’s will? For if I choose to be good, nothing is seen to prevent it; and if I choose to be wicked, nothing would keep me from slipping into that either. Where, then, is the power of chance and fate? Or what nativity lays the yoke of necessity on anyone, if [the outcome] follows each one’s will: that those who choose to fulfil obedience eat the good things of the land, and that they become the sword’s work if they set themselves against the divine [commands]?

“How has the faithful city Zion become a harlot, she that was full of judgment, in which righteousness lodged …”

He marvels, in a way, at the change of the synagogue of the Jews, so rotten and so without good cause, I mean its change for the worse and its passing from the better to the more shameful. For it was being instructed by the law through Moses in the knowledge of what is profitable, and, having the word of God as its guide to each thing to be done, it was brilliant and most highly esteemed and admirable, distinguished by very many men in whom the fruit of righteousness blossomed richly, and it was acceptable to God. For there were in it prophets and priests, men who cared for the works of righteousness, leaders of the people who kept judgment, who had the law on their tongue and were adorned with every kind and good way of life. Then, deprived of all such men, and rather disregarding that ancient goodness

and counting as nothing its reverence and love toward God, before the coming of our Saviour it bowed down to those who are not gods by nature, [abandoning] the one and true Master through its fornications in this matter … like a woman, it was impious in many ways, attached now to one teacher and now to another, men who knew how to lead to anything at all that God hates. The God of all accuses it through the voice of Jeremiah, saying: “Have you seen what the house of Israel has done to me? She went up on every high mountain and under every leafy tree, and played the harlot there.” And again, as to her: “If a man sends away his wife, and she goes from him and becomes another man’s, will she return to him again? Will not that woman be utterly defiled? And you have played the harlot with many shepherds; and yet you returned to me, says the Lord. Lift up your eyes straight and see where you have not been defiled. You sat for them by the roads like a lonely crow in the desert, and you defiled the land with your harlotries and your wickedness, and you had many shepherds for a stumbling block to yourself. You had the face of a harlot; you were shameless toward all.” For despising, as I said, its service under God, it turned to apostasy and used the unclean spirits and the servants of idols as shepherds and teachers. These, as I said, are the charges against the synagogue of the Jews before the coming of our Saviour. But when Christ shone upon those on earth (for “God is the Lord, and he has appeared to us,” as it is written), it did not rather take him as its teacher, but honoured as teachings the commandments of men, and leaving the good shepherd … it clung to the chief priests and scribes and Pharisees. In this way it played the harlot, even though the law and the prophets had cried out to it beforehand the mystery of Christ and had foretold that he would come in due time. “How, then,” he says, “has the faithful city Zion, full of judgment, become a harlot?” As if he said: taking what occasions for its sickness, or rather how did she slide into apostasy, she who of old was faithful and a doer of righteousness, in whom righteousness lodged, that is, the law rested? For the multitude of those being instructed had become like its house; but now murderers lodge there. You hear that [they called down] upon their own head the precious blood of Christ, saying to Pilate, “His blood be on us and on our children.” And they killed the holy prophets too; and the blessed Stephen reproached them with this, saying: “Stiff-necked and disobedient in heart, you always resist the Holy Spirit. Which of the prophets did your fathers not kill? As your fathers did, so do you.”

“Your silver is counterfeit; your merchants mix the wine with water; your rulers are disobedient, companions of thieves, loving gifts, pursuing rewards, not judging for orphans, and not heeding the widow’s cause.”

He clearly enumerates the causes of the change for the worse. And as one of the most skilful physicians tells the sick the occasions of their illness, so he too, who wishes all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, makes plain to those who are sick through ignorance of what is fitting the causes of the passions and offences within them. “For your silver is counterfeit,” he says. By counterfeit silver he means the word of their teachers, which was not sound, but rather full of every abomination and able to harm the hearers rather than help them. The divinely inspired Scripture is somehow accustomed to call silver the words of instruction that some give to the people under their hand. Thus [the Saviour likens] the kingdom of heaven to a householder who, when he was about to go abroad, called his own servants, and to one he gave five talents and to another one, and went abroad; and [on his return], giving praise to those who had laboured, he says, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” But to the one who hid the talent and gained nothing at all he says, “Wicked and lazy servant, you ought to have put my silver with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was mine with interest.” [And elsewhere: “The words] of the Lord are pure words, silver refined by fire, tested for the earth.” Base and wholly counterfeit, then, is the silver among the Jews, that is, the word of the scribes and Pharisees, who, like merchants, wanted to mix the wine with water: that is, they made the interpretation of the law adulterated and not free of trickery, weaving into it something of their own wishes and slipping in frigid and watery notions, not unmixed with what is worse; nor, as one might say, did they render the lawgiver’s intention undiluted. And so the scribes and the Pharisees once came to the Saviour saying: “Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” And he said to them: “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, Honour your father and mother, and, Whoever speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die. But you say, Whoever says to his father or mother, Whatever you would have gained from me is a gift, he need not honour his father or his mother. And you have made void the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition.” Do you see in this the clear charges against the Jewish trickery? For, wanting to follow their own traditions, they made the laws of God void, pretending to interpret them, but bringing in stale and frigid traditions. And he accuses the rulers as being very sick with unruliness, raising their neck high as it were in pride, and choosing to disobey.

For they would not accept faith, that is, in Christ, although the law cried out to them up and down the mystery concerning him and showed it in countless ways. And so our Lord Jesus Christ said to them: “Do you think that I will accuse you to the Father? There is one who accuses you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.” Disobedient, then: neither willing to interpret for others the intention of the law undiluted and unadulterated, nor honouring the faith proclaimed beforehand through Moses and the prophets and the saints. For they would not obey Christ when he said: “Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, [and I will give you rest; take] my [yoke] upon you.” And besides being hard and disobedient, they became companions of thieves; for [they bought from Judas] our Lord Jesus Christ, [Judas] who was at once a wicked and a most thievish disciple. And the leaders of the Jews were lovers of money in another way too, tithing cumin and dill and every herb, and neglecting the weightier matters of the law, judgment and mercy and faith. For they did not judge for orphans and widows; but rather, seeking a reward from those who came to them, they at times impiously condemned the wronged, bringing against them a most lawless vote. And from judging unjustly and being shamefully overcome by gain, they behaved outrageously even toward Christ himself. For in order to keep the gifts brought by the people, they would not accept the master of the vineyard, making their own the inheritance that befitted and was owed to him alone. For they killed one who was innocent and righteous, although the law says, “The innocent and righteous you shall not kill.”

“Therefore thus says the Master, the Lord Sabaoth: Woe to the mighty of Israel! For my wrath will not cease against my adversaries, and I will execute judgment on my enemies.”

He lays the causes of the destruction of Jerusalem on those allotted to lead, and very rightly. For the subject people follow them in everything, just as the flocks under their hand follow the shepherds. If the shepherds lead them to rich and abundant pasture, they will be strong and well fed; but if to salty land, the mother of thorns, they will certainly destroy them with bad feeding. We shall find something of this kind true of ourselves too. For with teachings that lead to rightness and virtue and the knowledge of God … it slides down to the longing and eagerness for what is more shameful. Suffering something of this kind, the wretched people of Israel perished through the traditions and teachings of the scribes and Pharisees. For these did not let them go by the true and saving path, I mean the one through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And so he healed the man blind from birth, and all throughout Jerusalem marvelled at the greatness of the divine sign; but to the man set free from his affliction, as he proclaimed his healer, those who ought to have led him to the truth said plainly: “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.” And one of the holy evangelists testifies that the scribes and Pharisees had already agreed that if anyone confessed him to be Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. Therefore, most ill-advisedly preferring their regard for one another to their own salvation, they have remained wholly without share in the glory that comes from God. And the Saviour said this to them: “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” And elsewhere too: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut the kingdom of heaven.” They became, then, a stumbling block to the peoples, and they do not cease warring against the glory of Christ. Therefore he says of them: “Woe to the mighty! For my wrath will not cease against the adversaries, and I will execute judgment on my enemies.” Do you see how he calls them adversaries and even enemies?

And upon them above all [fall the effects of wrath; for they will be] punished [for their own wickedness] and give account to the Judge for the destruction of the others, whom they could reasonably have saved too, if they had been willing both to think rightly themselves and to [lead] all the others to this. … the divine John [said] to them as they came to the baptism of repentance: “Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath that remains?” There was, then, vengeance from God against the mighty above all, that is, against the powerful among them, or their leaders, when their country was ravaged and handed over [to the enemy]. And the Saviour foretold this to them: “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will say to the mountains, Cover us, and to the hills, Fall on us.” “It is a fearful thing, then, to fall into the hands of the living God”: not because he is harsh and implacable, for rather he is kind and good, but because he is grieved when he is despised, when we above all deprive ourselves of his gifts, though it is possible to take them richly and to delight in them if we choose to yield to his laws and to shake off the wicked and unholy teachers of this life, who hasten to undo the rightness of the faith with their words, and, pouring the poison of their perversity into the souls of the simpler, turn them aside to choose what is evil.

“And I will bring my hand upon you, and I will refine you to purity; and the disobedient I will destroy, and all the proud I will humble; and I will set up your judges as at first, and your counsellors as at the beginning. And after this you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful mother city, Zion. For with judgment her captivity will be saved, and with mercy. And the lawless and the sinners will be crushed together, and those who forsake the Lord will be brought to an end.”

God brings his hand upon her as one who strikes; for such, somehow, is always the posture of those who strike. That the bringing of his hand, that is, the onset and experience of terrible things, will not be wholly without profit for them, nor will the effects of wrath fall on all indiscriminately, but that he will count those who have believed worthy of care and forbearance and will grant the genuine the grace of being saved, he teaches clearly. For of old the God-fighting Jerusalem played the harlot in many ways by serving other gods, and God brought his hand upon her and handed her over, as to a fire, to the calamities of war. But when the Father sent the Son from heaven as Saviour and Redeemer, she then behaved outrageously toward him and did the deeds of unmixed madness. Yet he did not cease [calling her, the one who justifies] the ungodly and frees from the old offences through faith. He brought his hand upon her again, and like a craftsman he sorted her in the fire; and all that was in her most approved and [genuine he kept] for himself, but what was base and counterfeit he handed over to ruin and destruction. As those [who refine] materials with fire do, so I too, he says, will refine you to purity. And it is written: “The Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will cleanse the blood from their midst by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning.” It was also said through the voice of one of the holy prophets: “Suddenly the Lord whom you seek will come to his temple, and the angel of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, he is coming, says the Lord; and who will endure the day of his coming? Or who will stand at his appearing? For he comes in like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap, [and he will sit refining and purifying as] silver [and as] gold.” And the wise [Baptist] said this to us in another way: “I baptize you in water for repentance; but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and

gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” So the wheat is gathered into the barn, but all that is useless, that is, the chaff, he said would be food for fire. And how this is, if anyone wishes to learn, the force of the text will make clear. For he said at once: “And the disobedient I will destroy, and I will take away all the lawless.” For from those of Israel the former multitude [has been taken away], which was impious toward Christ and denied the Redeemer; and all the proud and those who lived lawlessly have been removed, that is, those allotted to rule the synagogue of the Jews, the chief priests and Pharisees. For how would they not be lawless and boasters, who had not the least regard for reverence toward the law, but lifted up their horn on high and spoke unrighteousness against God? For they said, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him.” And they were removed from leading the peoples when the holy apostles were appointed, of whom he says, “I will set up your judges as at first, and your counsellors as at the beginning.” The divine disciples became in no way inferior to the saints of old, and he calls them judges and names them counsellors. For they did both: [judging some, and] counselling the weak what was useful for their spiritual health. And so the most wise Paul handed over the man in Corinth who had committed sexual immorality to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit might be saved; and he gives good counsels and says: “If anyone who bears the name of brother is sexually immoral or greedy or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or a robber, [not even to eat] with such a one” … of judges or counsellors. And the blessed David, in the Holy Spirit, said to Jerusalem itself: “Instead of your fathers, your sons have been born”; that is, your children have come to stand to you in the rank of fathers. For the divine disciples were Jews and sons of the synagogue of that time. And that they became fathers of those who believed, hear Paul saying: “For in Christ Jesus I begot you through the gospel.” And again: “My little children, for whom I am again in labour until Christ is formed in you.” Another of the holy prophets also speaks to us of Christ, the Saviour of us all, and of the appointment of his holy disciples, and says: “Behold, a righteous king will reign, and rulers will rule with judgment.” For those who led the synagogue of the Jews held to a most lawless life and did not know how to rule with judgment, that is, with righteousness. But when Christ reigned over all under heaven, the divine disciples became righteous and good rulers, ruling with judgment; and when they were appointed, she was again called the city of righteousness and the faithful mother city Zion, that is, the Church.

And that the ratification, or testing, that came from God happened not indiscriminately, as I said, but with care and with reasoning joined to righteousness, the race approved through faith makes plain. He adds, saying: “For with judgment her captivity will be saved, and with mercy; and the lawless and the sinners will be crushed together, and those who forsake the [Lord will be brought to an end]” … of the races; and since the one that believed was approved, as I said, while the other stumbled not a little, the chosen part has been saved, but all in them that was abominable and hateful, the companion of madness, that lived impiously and took no thought for Christ, who knows how to save, forgives charges and justifies by grace, has been destroyed.

“[For they will be ashamed of their idols], which they themselves wanted, and they were ashamed of their gardens, which they desired. [For they will be like a terebinth that has shed its leaves], and like a garden that has no water.”

I said that in these words the prophet’s speech gives a twofold ground for the rejection of the Jews; for their charges are twofold. Of old, having abandoned God, the one who is God by nature, and their Redeemer, they served [the host] of heaven and [gave glory] to the works of their own hands. But when God the Lord appeared to us, according to the Scriptures, they denied him too and behaved outrageously, and not a little, toward the Author of life. So the charges are sisters, and the manner of the madness is not unlike the first, but rather it is in a cause of greater madness. And in the times before the coming they were punished by the attacks of enemies, [their] cities [burned and their land ravaged]. For Persians and Medes, Moabites and Idumeans and the surrounding nations did these things by God’s permission. But since, as I said, they were impious toward Christ himself, they fell into no lesser [calamities] than the ancient ones … [the Roman] armies, who utterly destroyed the whole of Judea, with no one helping, that is, no one able to rescue them, and to rescue them from so bitter a calamity. Therefore he says: “They will be ashamed of their idols, which they themselves wanted, and they were ashamed of their gardens, which they desired.” For setting up groves and idols around the trees and raising altars, they called upon the falsely named gods as saviours, and placed all their hope in the very works of their own hands, that they would be able to prevail over their enemies and easily defeat those who opposed them. But when the enemies came and did what enemies do, and Israel remained without help from its own gods, they were ashamed of their idols. For they saw them burned before the rest, together with the gardens, that is, the groves, and the very shrines and altars. So they were cheated of their hope when they saw their own gods suffering, and then they barely understood what was said by God through the voice of the prophet: “And where are your gods which you made for yourself? Will they rise and save you in the time of your affliction?” Having suffered shame, then, over their own gods, which they themselves desired, and over [the gardens, they will be like a terebinth that has shed] its leaves, and like a garden that has no water; that is, bare and utterly dishonoured, and very sick with [the lack of] good things. For the terebinth, or any other tree, keeps the glory proper to it as long as it is thick with its own blossoms; but when it has shed its leaves it will be dry and unlovely and as it were dishonoured. And a garden, again, if it has springs, will be thick with trees and [rich in the fruits of] its [plants]; but if it is without water, it will be wholly fruitless, or rather it will suffer the loss of the trees themselves. Dishonoured and fruitless, then, Israel has remained. For what fruit of virtue is there among the worshippers of idols?

Or how is he not full of all dishonour who abandoned God, the one who is God by nature, “and said to the wood, You are my father, and to the stone, You begot me”? [And they will be like a terebinth that has shed its] leaves. For before our Saviour’s coming, keeping the shadow of the law, they were like trees that have no fruit, yet are richly adorned with the shoots of their leaves. But since they stumbled against Christ, they have cast off even the keeping of the shadow. For they no longer keep the sacrifices of the law, nor do they pride themselves anywhere on the honours of the law; keeping very few of the ancient customs in their cities, they are fruitless and dishonoured, and very rightly. For they killed the Author of life, “whom God raised from the dead, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.”

“And their strength will be like a stalk of tow, and their works like sparks of fire; and the lawless and the [sinners] will be burned together, and there will be no one to quench them.”

The wise Solomon said that each is bound fast with the cords of his own sins; and the saying is true. For to each of us our own offences bring about ruin and bring on the penalties of divine wrath. Something of this kind happened to those of Israel. They made the falsely named gods for themselves and placed their hope in them, that they would be able to prevail over their enemies. But this very thing became for them almost fire and wood. For because of this … that is, to terrible and unceasing calamities, with no one helping. And he makes this clear to us, saying: “And their strength will be like a stalk of tow, and their works like sparks of fire.” The power they expected to have, he says, will be like a stalk of tow, that is, food and kindling for fire; and the works of their hands will be like sparks of fire hurled against them. So the lawless and the sinners will be burned together. We must, then, beg to be spared from stumbling against God and from doing such things. … For our own works will be both fire to us and food for fire, just as the honours that come from good deeds produce life and glory for those who do what is right.

“The word that came from the Lord to Isaiah son of Amos concerning Judea and concerning Jerusalem.”

One would see that the present text is akin to what went before and moves through similar thoughts, if one fixes the mind’s attention closely on the contemplations. For the words of old from God came to the divine prophet concerning Judea and concerning Jerusalem. And in saying “concerning Judea and concerning Jerusalem” the vision seems somehow to be expressed in a middle way, and not very clearly. But … bringing it to mind briefly, as it were. Since we are making plain the very force of the vision, [he] tries to speak of the ravaging of the Judea and Jerusalem perceived by the senses, but of the manifestation of the spiritual one, the one in Christ, and of its appearing in this world; for this reason he says that he saw the vision not on behalf of Judea, nor against Jerusalem, but concerning Judea and concerning Jerusalem. By the Judea and Jerusalem perceived by the senses we mean the very land in which Israel dwelt, and the body of the synagogue of the Jews itself. But the spiritual Jerusalem, or Judea, we shall consider to be the Church, that is, the circumcision in spirit: those in Christ who have the circumcision not made with hands in mind and heart. And so to the Jews [the prophet says: “Be circumcised] to God, and circumcise your hardness of heart, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem.” And the divine Paul knows another Jew, not the one according to the flesh but rather the one in spirit. For he writes thus: “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in spirit, not in letter; his praise is not from men but from God.” We must, then, watch soberly when the prophet speaks against Jerusalem, or Judea, and when concerning the spiritual one in Christ, which is truly perfect and blameless. What, then, does he say?

“For in the last days the mountain of the Lord will be manifest, and the house of God on the tops of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills, and all the nations will come to it. And many nations will go and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will declare to us his way, and we will walk in it. For out of Zion will go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from [Jerusalem].”

The [first] vision had come to an end for him, and the end of the prophecy already given was: “For they will be ashamed of their idols, which they themselves [wanted, and of the gardens] which they desired.” In what way those of Israel were ashamed of their idols we have said already. But since the prophecy concerning them has been recorded, the prophet, beginning a neighbouring and second vision in sequence, marks the time in which the power of the devil will be [destroyed], not in some part of the earth, nor in one country and city, while the worship of idols and its profane apparatus are wholly pulled down; rather, this sickness and the tyranny of the unclean demons will be taken away from the whole world under heaven. And this was accomplished for those on earth in the last days, that is, in the final times of the present age, in which the only-begotten Word of God shone forth, born of a woman.

when he also presented to himself the spiritual Judea, or Jerusalem, that is, the Church, as a pure virgin, “having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing,” as it is written, but rather holy and blameless. And concerning her he says that in the last days the mountain of the Lord will be manifest, and the house of the God of Jacob on the tops of the mountains. Now the Zion in Judea is said by us to lie and be built on a mountain. But here the Church would be understood not in a sensible way but spiritually, and she too is likened to a mountain. For she is truly high and seen from all around, and best known to people everywhere. And she is high in another way too: for she thinks nothing of earthly things but is above them, and surveys the glory of God, as far as possible, with the eyes of the understanding, and boasts in very lofty doctrines about him. For the chosen men of the Greeks, though they raise their brows high for wisdom, make the creation into gods and attach their reverence to the elements of the world. For they have a mind that lies low and contemplations that crawl on the ground, and a darkened heart; claiming to be wise they became fools, as it is written. But the spiritual Zion, that is, the Church, flies above all creation, visible and invisible, and reaches the very nature that is beyond all things. For she is filled with the divine light, and, recognizing that nature as both maker and craftsman of all things, she assigns to it alone the power over all, and with such glory she crowns the King of all, and … she would justly be called [the house] of God. And she is conspicuous, as raised upon the hills. One might very fittingly say of her what was said through the Saviour’s voice as a vivid example: “A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.” One could gather very many passages, and very easily, from which it can be seen in the divinely inspired Scriptures that the stature of the spiritual Jerusalem, that is, the height of the Church, is likened to both hills and mountains. But we shall go on to what follows, leaving it to lovers of learning to collect such things, if they choose to do so. Let us see, rather, what tends to the benefit of those on earth from the house of God becoming so visible to people everywhere that it now seems in a way to be raised upon hills and set on the tops of the mountains. The prophet will assure us at once, saying: “And all the nations will come to it; and many nations will go and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will declare to us his way, and we will walk in it.” That all the nations were gathered and ran together through faith into the Church will not need long words from us to prove. But [the manner] of the events itself … is worth marvelling at. For the multitude of the nations was called not through the schooling of the law, not through holy prophets; rather a divine and ineffable grace gathers them, shining upon them spiritually and implanting in them the longing for the salvation through Christ. For see how, with no one proclaiming it to them, they call out to one another: “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will declare to us his way, and we will walk in it.” First they go up, and then they ask that the word of God be announced to them. And they undertake to walk in the way of the Lord, clearly the way of the gospel, whose entrance is the cleansing through faith. And in seeking to learn the way of the Lord they seem [to have condemned] that ancient [error] … For the longing for better things will not arise in us in any other way unless we have first condemned the

… “It was necessary that the word of the Lord be spoken [first to you]; since [you thrust it from you and judge yourselves unworthy] of eternal life, behold, we turn to the nations” … how, boasting in the grace of Christ, they say that the law and the word of the Lord have gone out. Who is it that leads them up to the knowledge of the truth and persuades them to think the first things laughable and to run to the second? Is it not clearly God, who shone upon them, as I said, in mind and heart, and persuaded them both to say and to think that “out of Zion will go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem”? This carries a twofold sense within it. For either they say this: We shall receive the word from the house of God, and when we have come there we shall know the word of God; or else that the law has left Zion and as it were gone out of it, and the Word of God has departed from Jerusalem. For since they behaved outrageously toward Christ and denied his kingdom, he left them and let them be orphans. And this was what was said through the prophet: “And I said, I will not shepherd you; what is dying, let it die, and what is failing, let it fail, and let those who are left each eat the flesh of his neighbour.” The law, then, went out from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. For vision and prophecy were sealed after the Saviour’s cross, and the law and the word of God are no longer among them. And so the divine Paul, as one all but giving up and seeing the multitude of the Jews beyond correction, says: “It was necessary [that the word of God be spoken first] to you; but since you thrust it from you and judge yourselves unworthy [of eternal life, behold, we turn to the nations]; for so the Lord has commanded us.” Understand, then, you nations. For from [Zion the law has gone out] and from Jerusalem [the word], to pass over wholly to [the nations]. For the grace passed over from those who chose to disobey to those who were called through faith.

“[And he will judge between the nations], and will convict many peoples; and they will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into sickles; and nation will not take up sword against nation, and they will no longer learn to make war.”

Having said beforehand that the power of the devil will fall and come to nothing, and that the making of idols will cease, as the nations eagerly call out to one another, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will declare to us his way, and we will walk in it,” he makes plain to the hearers the time in which what was foretold will come to fulfilment, and makes it most recognizable from the very state of affairs. For of old, when the earth was not under one yoke, but the nations were divided by countries and cities and each had its own ruler, there was separation and battles and wars, as those on earth everywhere ravaged one another and always seized what belonged to others, each counting as the highest glory greed and savagery against whomever they could.

So they did not have a secure dwelling either, always moving to another and being pushed out of the one they had taken by those who were stronger. But since the God of all brought the world under heaven under the sceptres of the Romans, and one kingdom at last extends over all, the wars have ceased, battle and discord have stopped, and righteousness has prevailed, and the security of good order, with no one seizing or ravaging any longer, or overrunning cities or countries, and with greed not going unpunished. And not this only, but the use of arms is given only to the most warlike, who hold military rank and are under the emperor’s hand. And many of the nations have been shown to be weak, those that shake off the yoke of Roman rule and savagely attack cities and countries. For they cannot overrun them freely as they would wish. For the arms of the Romans rise against them, force them to keep still, terrify them like wild beasts, and by their own strength prove them unmanly. The blessed prophet, then, as I said, defines the time of the calling and conversion of the nations. And what is this time? When, he says, the God of all, the King of all and Lord, will judge between the nations, that is, will bring righteousness and judgment to all the nations. For injustice prevailed, as I said just now, while the nations plundered one another and brought every kind of savagery and greed. But since these things have been removed, righteousness and judgment have been given by God, and many nations, as I said, have been convicted, conquered by the arms of the Romans. So those under the emperor’s hand no longer fear anyone’s attacks, and their affairs have now come to such a state of peace and prosperity that they no longer need experience in war, but rather choose, and very gladly, to busy themselves with the works of peace, to take up the labours of farming and to give their care to the fields. For they reshape the instruments of war, so that the sword is taken for the use of the plough and the spear is made into a sickle; and they wholly unlearn war and beg off from fighting one another. For since Christ, who is peace, began to reign over the nations, all discord and strife, battles and every form of greed have been removed; the harms of war and the fears that come from it have been taken away; and his will has prevailed, as he says to them: “My peace I give you, my peace I leave with you.”

“And now, O house of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of the Lord. For he has abandoned his people, the house of Israel.”

… [though they deserved] terrible things, he does not allow them to perish in despair; he will be God [to those who choose]; and to those willing to unlearn what is shameful and to long for what is better he will widen again the way of salvation, and he will receive them without bearing a grudge, though they have committed very many and unbearable offences. Therefore he says, skilfully weaving the word of exhortation into his reproofs: “And now, O house of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.” It especially suits the prophet, I think, to use this word to urge those of Israel to obey Christ, who says, “While you have the light, walk in the light, lest darkness overtake you.” And he himself is the light. And so he said plainly: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not remain in darkness, but will have the light of life.” And his preaching, that is, the gospel, would very fittingly be called the light of the Lord. It is as if he said: Let us live piously; let us honour the splendour of the gospel way of life; let us cease from what is in types; let us put an end to the shadow; let us transform the writings of Moses into truth; let us receive the saving light. But since those according to

… they used to raise their brows high, as being loved for their own sake, styled the portion and lot of God, a holy and chosen people; and then they foolishly thought that they lay wholly and in every way in God’s care and love, even if they did many things hateful to him, even if they counted [the Lord] as nothing … he shows, saying, “For he has abandoned his people, the house of Israel.” Something of this kind the God of all says through another prophet too, overturning the pride of the Jews and convicting them of being without understanding. “For they coveted fields,” he says, “and plundered orphans, and oppressed households, and they exalted themselves against the Lord, saying, Is not the Lord among us? No evil will come upon us. Therefore, because of you, Zion will be ploughed like a field, and Jerusalem will be like a watchman’s hut, and the mountain of the house like a grove in a forest.” If, then, you do not choose, he says, to walk with us in the light of the Lord, that is, if you make the preaching through Christ unacceptable to you and turn away from the illumination that comes from him, he too will by all means abandon his own people. And this is plainly what our Lord Jesus Christ said to them: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I wanted to gather your children together as a bird gathers her young under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left to you.” And through the voice of Jeremiah he says, “I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance.”

“For their land was filled, as at the beginning, with divinations, like that of the foreigners, and foreign children were born among them.”

Now too the prophet in a way makes a defence for the judgments of God, and gives the reasons why the house of Israel, that is, his people, was very justly abandoned by God. He recalls, as I said, both the old and the new offences of Israel, convicting them of not loving God, of looking much toward harshness, and of going without bridle toward contempt of the law. For before the coming of our Saviour they cared little for reverence toward God and for the [law] given them through Moses …; but [after it they did] the worst of all things, against Christ himself, the Saviour of all. So at times he sets out the charges of their madness against the law and the penalties they justly paid for it, when the Persians and the nations made war on them at that time; and at times he brings charges against the ways of their madness against Christ, and all that they suffered for this cause, when Vespasian and Titus made war on the whole multitude of Judea under their hand. The present passage, then, sets out for us the offences of the synagogue of the Jews before the coming. For this reason, he says, his people was abandoned, that is, given over by God to its enemies, because it chose again to be sick with its first ills and ran back to its former impiety. For in Egypt they served the gods of the country, or rather demons; then they were redeemed through Moses, God having pity on them, and were freed at once from slavery both of soul and of body. For as they shook off the yoke of the greed of the Egyptians, so they were freed from the perversity of the demons, no longer serving the falsely named gods, but rather being schooled by the law through Moses toward the truth, and recognizing one God, who is God by nature and in truth. For they heard him giving the law and saying at Horeb: “You shall not make for yourself an idol, nor a likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them; for I am the Lord your God.” And it is written in Deuteronomy too: “When you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to act according to the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you one who purifies his son or his daughter in fire, one who practises divination, one who reads omens, a ventriloquist, a watcher of portents, or one who inquires of the dead. For it is an abomination to the Lord your God

… everyone who does these things. You shall be perfect before the Lord [your God]. For these nations, whose land you are taking as your inheritance, will listen to omens and divinations; but the Lord your God has not given it so to you.” So much the law. But since they were easily led astray and very ready for apostasy, that is, from God, he gave a further law, saying: “When the Lord God brings you into the land which you are going there to inherit, and you remove great nations, many and strong, before you (he names them one by one), and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands, and you strike them, you shall utterly destroy them; you shall not make a covenant with them … nor shall you intermarry with them. Your daughter you shall not give to his son, and his daughter you shall not take for your son. For he will turn your son away from me, and he will serve other gods; and the Lord will be angry with you in wrath and will destroy you quickly.” For God devised every means of safety for them, and, as the holy Scripture says, he gave the law as a help. But they, disregarding such venerable [commands], turned without reason to every [kind of divination and] omen and false prophecy, and were eager to seek knowledge of the future from those devoted to idols, while they rebuked the holy prophets, saying, “But speak to us and announce to us another deception.” And they lived with the daughters of the neighbouring nations, though the law had forbidden it. Bringing into their homes, against the law, wicked and God-hated women reared in the customs of idolatry, they became [fathers] of foreign children, who were also brought up in their mothers’ [customs], not pretending to know the law of Moses even so much as to speak of it. Therefore he says, “Their land was filled, as at the beginning, with divinations, like that of the foreigners, and foreign children were born among them.” And it was most absurd, and truly utterly shameful, that their sons, born of foreign women and living in the holy city, conducted themselves by Greek customs and lived outside the law. And when God commanded that every male child be circumcised on the eighth day, and that “three times a year every male of yours shall appear before me,” they did not do this, but carried off their offspring to the demons and performed sacrifices over them in the precincts of the idols. Do you see how they trampled on the law everywhere? Then how was it consistent that those who had come to such impiety that they did not even wish to know their Redeemer should be called his people?

So the vote against them is a just one, and the ground for turning away from them is not ignoble. “For the Judge of all shows no partiality.”

“For their land was filled with silver and gold, and there was no number of their treasures; and the land was filled with horses, and there was no number of their chariots.”

Again he says that two things, the most shameful of all evils, are present in them: love of money and arrogance. That love of money is the root of all evils, the wise [Paul] has plainly testified; [and how hateful arrogance is] to God is clear to everyone. For it is written, “The Lord opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” What form of wickedness would one not see present in those who wish to be rich? For such people gather their money from interest and usury, from greed and injustice, from robbery and false accusation. Wealth also brings with it haughtiness and a mind very ready [for pleasure]. For where there is luxury, there are surely revels and drunkenness, debauchery and licentiousness and every form of intemperance. And who among those used to thinking rightly does not [know the rich man, despising] the weaker, raising his brow high, looking down on those in poverty, not enduring to grieve with those in misery, not deigning to pity those in need and toil, and forgetting at last that he is dust and ashes? Our virtue-loving God, then, accuses them, and very rightly, as having a mind insatiable for gain, as riding upon horses, and as caught in [the charges] of vainglory. He says their land was filled with horses, as though not one or two were sick with arrogance, but as though their whole land had been seized by the passion and the evil was going against all. But by this he also convicts them of having offended against the law and of having chosen to disobey God, who had said clearly: “When you enter the land that the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, I will set a ruler over myself, like the other nations around me, you shall surely set over yourself a ruler whom the Lord your God chooses.” Then he says of the one so set: “For he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor turn the people back to Egypt, in order to multiply horses for himself.” And besides this: “Nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.” He accuses them, then, of amassing wealth, and insatiably, and of multiplying horses for themselves. And the blame for this touches, as is likely, above all those allotted to lead, as transgressors of the commandment, who ought to have been seen before all others honouring [the law].

“And the land was filled with abominations, the works of their hands, and they bowed down to what their fingers made. And man bowed down, and a man was humbled, and I will not forgive them.”

He again charges them with spiritual fornication, and with choosing to worship many of the falsely named gods. And he shows that they advanced to such a measure of impiety as to drive on to the limit of every evil, and to practise the most complete apostasy from God, who knows all things, upholds all by his nod, and brought them into existence. He seems in a way also to grieve exceedingly for human nature, which has been insulted. For the God of all honoured man by making him with his own hand. For he was not produced offhand by a word along with the other creatures, as was the case with “Let there be a firmament, and it was so”; but he took dust from the earth and made man, according to the words of the all-wise Moses. And he was made according to the image and likeness of God, and was appointed as a kind of ruler over those on earth. Besides this he was honoured also with the spirit of life; for he breathed into his face the breath of life. So “man, being in honour, did not understand,” as it is written, … for he served carved images; and, as the prophetic word said, “They bowed down to what their fingers made. And man bowed down, and a man was humbled.” This is an insult both to God himself and to human nature. For although it was possible from the beauty of creatures to see by analogy their Craftsman (“for his invisible things are clearly seen from the creation of the world, being understood through the things that are made, both his eternal power and divinity”), this they did not do; but assigning reverence to stones and bowing down to the stone, the wretches offended against the One who is by nature Master and God and Creator of all. And they did not notice, as is likely, that they were also insulting their own nature, if indeed man is better than wood and stones. Therefore the Creator of all, justly indignant, says: “Man bowed down, and a man was humbled, and I will not forgive them.” By this he shows how unswerving his wrath is, since it was stirred against them, as is likely, for both reasons: that they grieved the divine glory, and that they made their own nature utterly dishonoured. And he says that their land was filled with abominations, showing that those caught in the charges of apostasy were not few, nor easily counted; and that their object of reverence was not one, but each worshipped what seemed good to him, and a manifold swarm of idols filled their whole land. And so it was said through the voice of Jeremiah: “According to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you set up altars to burn incense to Baal.” The making of idols, then, is wicked and hateful to God, both of those perceived by the senses and of those in the mind. For Satan plunders the souls of men terribly and in many ways by fantasies in mind and heart, sometimes bringing them down into sins by forming idols there and carrying them off to shameful and outlandish pleasures.

“And now go into the rocks and hide in the earth from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his might, when he rises to shatter the earth. For the eyes of the Lord are lofty, but man is lowly; and the height of men will be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.”

[When] all Judea had gone astray and turned without bridle to anything at all that the virtue-loving God hates, the Babylonian war poured as it were over all Judea; they [ravaged] all [the land, and men,] women and children they carried off to their own country; and in the rank of captives they spent long years. But when the attack had been announced beforehand and was about to come, such fear fell upon the Jews, and they fell into such anguish, that [they hid] in caves and in the clefts of the mountains, as all their hand grew too weak to resist those who were attacking. So, as though the terrible things were all but present, or rather already within the doors and in the country itself, [he says]: hide still from the fear of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he rises to shatter the earth, that is, to crush the earth. And that the divine counsels and considerations are lofty and above all men, and that no one on earth could fight against them, he makes clear by saying, “For the eyes of the Lord are lofty.” For by the eyes of the Lord he here means, as it were, his foresight and his counsels and his judgments on each matter. For men, being small both in nature and in mind, plan small things and reason in a lowly way. But the God of all, being lofty and understood to be in ineffable superiority over all, has a consideration that cannot be fought. For no one could set against it either a counsel or a help able to ward off [what he has decided]. He says this, though the Jews of old did not know it: when the terrible war falls upon them, and every helping hand grows weak, and consideration and the inventions of human counsel, by which they perhaps thought they could escape the calamities of war, are of no use. So experience will show, he says, that man is lowly, and the height of men will be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. As I said just now, when all their strength is shown to be powerless, the superiority of the divine power will become best known to those who trust in it. It is, then, most terrible to offend God, and the thing becomes for us the cause of every calamity. We must not take courage in our own powers, but rather ascribe to God the power to do all things, and be glad to make him our helper whenever something terrible [comes upon us].

“For the day of the Lord Sabaoth is upon everyone insolent and proud, and upon everyone lofty and high, and they will be humbled; and upon every cedar of Lebanon, of the lofty and high, and upon every oak tree of Bashan, and upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, and upon every high tower, and upon every high wall, and upon every ship of the sea, and upon every sight of the beauty of ships; and the height of men will be humbled and will fall, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.”

He calls the time of the war and the fulfilment of the wrath upon them the day of the Lord. This is the custom of the divinely inspired Scripture. And so David marked the very time of our Saviour’s coming by the name of day, saying thus: “This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice [and be glad in it].” [So here he means] the time of wrath against everyone insolent [and proud]. [Insolent he calls] those who dishonour the divine glory by not enduring to worship it, but rather devoting themselves to gods they themselves have fashioned; and proud, those who look down on the divine laws and make a practice of counting what has been decreed as nothing. And so the blessed David said, “The proud transgressed exceedingly.” Since there were very many in Judea and in Jerusalem who abounded in wealth, who clung not a little to an abundance of money, surpassed the others, were fortified by power, had leapt up to no small measure of renown among them, and were raised on high and as it were [lofty in mind], therefore he says that the effects of the divine wrath will run against them above all, hinting enigmatically at the rank, or measure, of each. For he likens them to the cedars of Lebanon: “For I saw the ungodly,” it says, “exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon”; and also to the oak trees of Bashan, that is, to the oaks in Batanea. This is a country by Judea, now called Batanea, an excellent nurse of trees, which has thick and very tall cedars. He likens them likewise to hills and mountains, and besides to towers and high walls. And that they will lose, together with their land, the sources of their wealth, he adds, saying: “And upon every ship of the sea, and upon every sight of the beauty of ships.” This is understood in two ways. When the war had already been announced and the Babylonians were expected to arrive, those of Israel, removing their mind from hope in God, called the Egyptians to their help and hired Tyre and the neighbouring nations … skilled in [seafaring] pursuits, and eagerly [brought their] ships … [the Babylonian, after] the land of the Jews, plundered that of the Tyrians. So either the prophetic word means this here, or perhaps the following. Very many of those who reigned over Israel had merchant ships which brought them [goods] from the country and land of the Indians, and great wealth was gathered; from this they became lofty, like cedars and oaks, mountains and towers. So the source of their wealth, that is, the gains from trade and exchange, will perish together with the proud. And that those of Israel [called] many to their help is not unclear, since God says of them through another prophet: “And Ephraim was like a senseless dove, having no heart; it called upon Egypt and went to the Assyrians. As they go, I will cast my net over them; I will bring them down like the birds of the sky; I will chastise them at the report of their affliction.” The judgment of God, then, is hard to escape for those against whom it comes; and it is ignorant and impious not rather to be glad to hang upon hope in him, thinking with empty and senseless reasonings that, even if he did not wish to save them, someone else would rescue them, and the gathering of human help would somehow prevail over his nod. For “if he shuts against a man,” it says, “who will open?” “It is good, then, to hope in the Lord rather than to hope in man,” according to the voice of the psalmist.

“And they will hide all the things made by hands, bringing them into the caves and into the clefts of the rocks and into the holes of the earth, from the face of the fear of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he rises to shatter the earth.”

He shows the reasoning of the Jews to be worthy of laughter, if they hide their gods and hasten to save the ones they worship. And yet how should they not have expected them to be their saviours, if they really knew them to be gods? But condemning their own counsels and testifying to the gods’ utter powerlessness, they come to the gods’ help. For they hide them in caves and in the clefts of rocks and in the holes of the earth, so that the enemy may not find them and carry them off, gods taken captive along with the conquered. How, then, are they still gods, when they need help from their worshippers? Rather, they are lifeless matter. And, as the blessed David says, “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the works of men’s hands.” And those who serve them will suffer the same insensibility as they. For having become their craftsmen and makers, they lift it on their shoulders and go, and they bow down to it and pray, saying, “Deliver me, for you are my god.” Their heart, then, is ashes, and they go astray. It would befit those accustomed to piety to bid farewell to the follies of those who are deceived, and indeed to cry out this: “Gods that did not make heaven and earth, let them perish from the earth and from under this heaven.” “For to us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him.”

“[For in that day a man will cast away his abominations], his silver and gold ones, which he made to bow down to the vain things and the bats, so as to go into the holes of the solid rock and into the clefts of the rocks, from the face of the fear of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he rises to shatter the earth.”

That they were going to hide the falsely named gods made by them, no longer overcome by reverence for them but rather having condemned them as useless and powerless matter, he makes plain by adding beforehand what he said: “In that day a man will cast away his abominations, which he made to bow down to.” … For in their shrines they impiously worshipped the things made by hands, for they thought they were gods. But when they saw the time of war present, and there was no way of help for them at all, and those they had thought would be their saviours and redeemers were detected to be stones and wood, gilded and silvered matter, they cast them out of the temples and hid them in caves, sparing the material rather than still honouring them as gods. And that their labour over the making of idols was vain and useless, he showed when he said: “A man will cast away his abominations, which he made to bow down to the vain things and the bats.” For they became the makers of their own gods and the craftsmen of the things they worshipped, but they had no benefit from them. And perhaps they built the temples for the bats alone. For such winged things, or creatures, somehow always love dark places, and [make their dwelling] in them. So a man will cast away the abominations he made; and where will he cast them? “So as to go,” he says, “into the holes of the solid rock and into the clefts of the rocks, from the face of the fear of the Lord.” See, then, how the wretches hastened to bury themselves together with their own gods. But they did not see the God of all acting so. For he did not hide himself at all when they ran out of the land of the Egyptians and Pharaoh followed in pursuit. For he split the [sea, and they crossed, walking] as on dry land, while the stricken Pharaoh was drowned with his whole army. And when Rabshakeh, the general of the Babylonians, surrounding Jerusalem, babbled against God and said [he would take the] whole [city] easily, he did not seek the clefts of the rocks nor look for ravines; but Hezekiah prayed, saying, “Hear, O Lord; look, O Lord, and see the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of the Assyrians sent to reproach the living God.” And at once he heard God saying: “I will shield this city

for my own sake and for the sake of David my servant.” And what was the manner of help for those then in danger? Paradoxical and worthy of God: “For the angel of the Lord went out and killed from the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand.” Let them be ashamed, then, who bow down to carved images, who have abandoned the almighty God and serve gods that they hide in front of themselves, lest those gods perish before them, falling into the greed of the warriors. Let us say, then, in the words of the prophet Jeremiah: “An exalted throne of glory is our sanctuary, the hope of Israel, O Lord; let all who forsake you be ashamed. Let those who have turned away be written on the earth, for they have forsaken the fountain of life, the Lord.” And if one must say something spiritual to the spiritual: let those who tolerate idols in the mind and receive thoughts that come from outlandish fantasies know that they will be the lairs of bats, that is, of the unclean spirits. “For each one is tempted,” it says, “when he is drawn away and enticed by his own desires. Then desire, having conceived, gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death.” We must therefore refuse the beginnings of the passions, and reject the idols in the mind that run in through thoughts alone, knowing what is written: “If the spirit of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place, for healing will put an end to great sins.”

“Behold, the Master, the Lord Sabaoth, [will take away] from Judea and from Jerusalem the strong man and the strong woman, the strength of bread and the strength of water, the giant and the strong man, and the ruler, the warrior and the judge.”

Having given us a sufficient account of their older charges, [he now passes to] the calamities they justly endured, [having] impiously [raged] against our Lord Jesus Christ. For the wrath of the Lord came upon them, and very rightly. For having killed the prophets and stoned those sent to them, they did not [spare] even the Author of life himself, but, as far as it lay with them, surrounded him with death, saying, “Let us bind the righteous one, for he is troublesome to us.” Most terrible, then, were the things of war that befell them … sieges, fire and sword, and the enslavement of women and children. And that they also suffered the loss of the gifts from above and from God, and were deprived of the goods of mind and soul, he teaches by saying: “Behold, the Master Sabaoth will take away from Judea and Jerusalem the strong man and the strong woman.” And the prophet’s word here is not about bodily strength (for it is simple-minded to understand it so), but rather about spiritual strength, that of mind and heart, by which we are accustomed to accomplish virtue. For the flesh wages war against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other; and very many worldly and unclean pleasures stir up the human mind and carry it down to sins. There is need, then, of strength from above and from God. For so one will prevail, though barely, and is crowned as the victor. And that this has been taken away from the Jews the facts themselves will cry out. For what account is there still among them of accomplishing virtue? Or who is approved and [able] to stand against the passions of the flesh, that is, the attacks of outlandish pleasures? For the mind of all of them lies before them like a half-boiled beet, as the prophet says. For it cannot say, “I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.” And the strength of bread and the strength of water have been taken from them: again, not of bread perceived by the senses, nor of waters in [cisterns, but of the bread of which] David [says], “He gave them the bread of heaven; man ate the bread of angels.” And of waters the prophet Isaiah [speaks]: “And you will draw water with joy from the springs of the Saviour.” And so does the Saviour himself: “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him, it will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Understand the prophet’s words precisely. For he did not simply say that bread and water would be taken from the Jews, but “the strength of bread and the strength of water.” And we must [understand] something of this kind

For when we come upon the holy words and read the divine Scriptures, and then understand them, we receive the strength of spiritual bread. “For man shall not live by bread alone,” it says, “but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.” You will understand the spiritual waters in the same way. The Jews, indeed, still have the bread and the water. For they busy themselves with the writings of Moses and read the law. But since they understand nothing, they do not have the strength of the bread, nor the strength of the water. For only the bare letter has been given them, which has the appearance of bread and water, but in no way nourishes them to spiritual health. And Paul will testify to this, writing: “For to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart, not being lifted, because it is abolished in Christ.” In another way too we say that the strength of bread and the strength of water have been taken from the synagogue of the Jews; and the saying is a mystical one. For we who have been called through faith to sanctification have the bread from heaven, that is, Christ, or rather his body. And if anyone should ask what its strength is, we say: it gives life. For it gives life to the world. Likewise we approach the grace given through holy baptism, the grace of the water that sanctifies us, saying that the strength of the water is the putting off of sins and the spiritual new birth into conformity with Christ himself, and besides these, entrance with boldness into the kingdom of heaven. “For unless one,” he says, “is born of water and Spirit, [he cannot enter the kingdom of God].” The Jews, then, are deprived of such goods. For the strength of bread is not among them, that is, the giving of life in Christ. They do not have the strength of the water, for their sin has remained unwashed among them. They will not enter the kingdom of heaven, having dishonoured Christ, who brings us in; for they did not believe him when he said, “I am the way,” and “I am the door.” He will likewise take away “the giant and the strong man.” Who, then, is the giant? And who is the other? I think he calls “giant” the one who has come to the height of spiritual strength, and “strong” the one who has fallen a little short and is surpassed by the excellence seen in the first. For to each of us a measure of grace is given by God. The most wise Paul makes this plain to us, saying: “I wish that all people were as I myself am; but each of us has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.” It is also the custom of the divinely inspired Scripture in another way to call the very strong giants. And so God said somewhere of those from Babylon who invaded the land of the Jews: “Giants are coming to fulfil my wrath, rejoicing and insolent together.” And the psalmist too: “He will rejoice like a giant to run his course.” And there will be among the Jews neither warrior nor judge. For we who have honoured the Lord of powers by faith are strengthened by him and made able to resist the wicked and unclean powers. “For our wrestling is not against blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” These we resist spiritually, fitted with the weapons of righteousness and having the spiritual full armour, which the divine Paul also mentions when he says, “Stand, therefore, having girded your loins with truth,” and what follows; and, “For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly but mighty before God; and though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh.” But among the Jews there is no such person anywhere; rather, without a fight, they always yield the victory to every attacker and to their own untamed pleasures.

Nor would one find among them anyone who knows how to judge rightly, either in matters that lie in the mind or in outward matters of daily life. For outlandish and wicked reasonings run into the human mind, and a terrible tumult of unclean desires stirs it up; but the mind of the wise and reasonable person stands like a judge, testing each thing, refusing what is bad and crowning what is useful with an unspoken vote. This too is wholly unpractised among the Jewish peoples. For God, who directs us to this, is not with them; and even if they are somehow exercised in some outward matter, they do not know how to test what is blameless and pleasing to God. For how could they know the exact aim of the law, who have offended against the Lawgiver and for this reason have justly been deprived of all understanding, I mean of the holy Writings?

“[… and the prophet], and the conjecturer and the elder, [and the captain of fifty and the admirable counsellor], and the wise master builder and the intelligent hearer; and I will set young men as their rulers, and mockers [will rule over them].”

That prophecy has been taken away from the synagogue of the Jews no one would doubt, since the fact itself has prevailed. For the blessed prophets, arising in their times, proclaimed Christ beforehand; and the end of the law and the prophets came …; then they behaved outrageously toward him, and the grace of prophecy ceased among them. For it was not fitting that those who fought against God and were insolent, who had become slayers of the Lord and had hands full of blood, should be honoured with the spirit of prophecy. And the blessed Daniel will testify to this, saying that vision and prophet are sealed. So Israel has become without share in so splendid and glorious a grace; and it is so ignorant and so devoid of good sense that there is no conjecturer among them. We say that a conjecturer is one who, as it were, puts things together and rightly infers each matter, and discerns very well where it will come and to what end it will arrive. For those who rush into action thoughtlessly and from light notions miss what is useful, and, as though walking in darkness, they run upon rocks. But those who are exact in understanding see with a sharp eye the outcomes of affairs, and are not without admiration, since for this reason they do all things with good management. This is the fruit of good sense and truly the achievement of the best counsel. And by “elder” we mean not one who is so in years (for there are very many among the Jews even now who have reached the extreme of old age), but one who is so in understanding and has, as it were, come to maturity of mind. To such the blessed John too writes, saying: “I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.” Let us understand as elders, then, those who already have a quiet mind, who are settled and grey-haired in mind, and practised in keeping to what is firm. He says “captain of fifty,” not necessarily of one set over fifty men, but taking from this one office the name for any leader at all.

and to live and conduct itself as in order and rank: this too the synagogue of the Jews [has lost] along with the rest. For while Christ, the Saviour of us all, was still with them and was calling them through faith to eternal life, to the kingdom of heaven, to close relation with God, there were still among them chief priests and leaders, scribes and Pharisees. But since the wretches killed him, they were scattered to every wind, became sojourners and wanderers and strangers everywhere, no longer having leaders and presidents as of old, but like a flock bereft of shepherds, without anyone set over it; and, what is still more grievous, without admirable counsellors such as the prophets of old were, who proposed to them what led to salvation, counselled them when they rebelled, and skilfully led them by the hand to everything necessary for their benefit. And he threatens to remove from them the wise master builder and the intelligent hearer too; these also are spiritual and God-given gifts, worthy of all esteem. For [he calls] wise [master builder the one able to] build the [Church] with right and blameless [teachings], pulling down the deceptions of knowledge falsely so called and walling up the mind of believers with the doctrines of truth. Such was the divine Paul, who writes and says: “According to the grace given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it. But let each one take care how he builds. For no one can lay a foundation other than the one that is laid, which is Christ.” So there is no wise master builder among the Jews, nor an intelligent hearer. We reckon this to be the one who has the discernment of spirits and can understand who speaks in the Spirit of God, and who, on the other hand, in Beelzebul. For many discourses have come from many people, containing exposition of doctrine and bringing to mind gentleness of character. But the unintelligent and ignorant snatch them up without discrimination and accept the words untested, though they bring no benefit and are rather accustomed to do great harm. The intelligent hearer, however, like an approved money-changer, accepts what is of a nature to benefit, and rejects as counterfeit, like a false coin, what is not so. The blessed Paul too says something of this kind: “Become shrewd money-changers; test everything, hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil.” And another of the holy disciples commands in agreement with this, saying: “Brothers, test the spirits, whether they are from God.” When all these have been taken away, “I will set,” he says, “young men as their rulers, and mockers will rule over them.” By young men, again, he does not mean here those young in years, but those who have not yet attained maturity in understanding. Youth is always foolish, is easily shaken toward impulse, and is worsted [in] the best counsel. And the Jews truly continue even to this day to have such leaders, younger in [understanding]. And they are mockers in another way too, buying with money the right to be called Rabbi, and having obtained leadership for love of gain and for the collecting of profits. But those who belong to Christ, the Saviour of us all, thrusting away the sickness of hypocrisy, are true worshippers, and [have] the appearance of virtue not in outward things but within, in mind and heart; they walk on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven, and they have as their teacher our Lord Jesus Christ himself.

“[And the people will fall upon one another, man against man], and a man against his neighbour; the child will strike against the old man, and the dishonoured against the honoured.”

The word has foretold to us that the strength of bread and the strength of water will be taken from Judea, the giant and the strong man, the warrior and the judge, and the captain of fifty and the admirable counsellor, and also the wise master builder and the intelligent hearer. Then it makes plain where the matter will end for them and to what harm it will come: “[And the people will fall upon one another, man against] man”; that is, they will be in disorder and will live a life full of tumult. [No longer] will the one who has received the lower rank think fit to honour the one who surpasses him; but with no one rebuking or directing each to what befits him, everything among them will be in confusion, all good order and knowledge having been removed. For where the divine law, the umpire of what is to be done, does not preside, how or whence could anyone be able to live in order? It is just as if someone wanted [to steer] a ship [without] rudders or helmsman.

“[For a man will take hold of his brother] or of one of his father’s household, saying: You have a cloak; become our leader, and let my food be under you. And he will answer in that day: I will not be your leader; for there is no bread in my house, nor a cloak; I will not be the leader of this people.”

The prophetic word marks for us the greatness of the misery of the Jews and of their extreme wretchedness. In their times those of the tribe of Judah reigned in Jerusalem; they were brilliant and conspicuous, abounding in wealth and well crowned with every renown. And in another way those of the tribe of Levi led, according to the order of Aaron, the high priest presiding and presbyters and Levites ministering; and such men were revered by those throughout the whole land of the Jews. But since they did what was not lawful, and there was no form of impiety toward Christ that they left untried, they slipped from that ancient brilliance and distinction in wealth and [power], and their affairs [came] to such a state that they cannot have over them any leader at all who is brilliant in the pre-eminence of old, nor one who has wealth and power, or knowledge of the law. And he teaches this very thing, saying: “A man will take hold of his brother or of one of his father’s household, saying: You have a cloak; become our leader, and let my food be under you.” For when affairs are confused and suffer great disorder, so that they fall upon one another and there is no honour or respect for old or young, that is, for the dishonoured or the glorious, each by himself, he says, will seek a leader, and will choose him by closeness of kinship, barely shaming him into it and calling him to pity. And he will choose him, he says, not as having wealth but as not being naked, and he will be glad to be fed by him and to serve a poor man.

Yet even such a one will not seize the leadership, though he asks nothing of those who wish to be subject to him [except clothing] and the cheapest food, and they would offer him their service in return. What, then, is his excuse? Poverty, surely. For he will say, it says, “There is no bread in my house, nor a cloak; I will not be the leader of this people.” Do you see that what was of old most highly prized among them, I mean leading many, was sometimes pursued by contrivances by those who wished for it? But since the affairs of all are in terrible and helpless poverty, this too will become something to flee from. We can see, then, from the facts themselves, from what to what the affairs of the Jews have changed. For the wretches offended against Christ, who richly distributes all good things to us, crowns with glory those who love him, and enriches the souls of the genuine with spiritual gifts.

“For Jerusalem has been abandoned, and Judea has fallen, and their tongues are with lawlessness, [disobeying the Lord].”

He says that Judea has fallen together, just like one house. And for what cause does he insist that it suffered this? And what is “has been abandoned”? That is, it was let go, or left, having become without share in the care of Christ. For they heard him saying plainly, “Behold, your house is left to you.” It has fallen, then, having no one to raise it up, no one who knows how and is able to save. For Christ is the foundation, and upon him we are all built up as living and spiritual stones, fitted together and joined spiritually into a holy temple, into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit, and we rest upon him. Those who have obtained him as their base have an unshakable foundation and standing in all good things; but those who do not have him are very rotten and easily carried off to anything outlandish. Judea, then, has fallen, and Jerusalem has been abandoned. Another of the holy prophets also cried this out beforehand, saying, “The house of Israel has fallen; there will be no one to raise it up.” And it befell them to suffer such things because, besides their disobedience, they had an impious and most lawless tongue. For what shameful thing is there that we shall not find they said against Christ, the Saviour of us all? A Samaritan and demon-possessed, a glutton and a drinker of wine, and born of fornication. So with their [impiety] toward Christ … One might say of them too: “For not unjustly are nets spread for birds. For those who have a share in murder store up evils for themselves; and the overthrow of lawless men is evil.”

“Therefore now their glory has been humbled, and the shame of their face has stood against them, and they have proclaimed their sin like that of Sodom [and made it manifest].”

He marks the time of the Jews’ humbling, and says, “Now their glory has been humbled,” assuring us that it was above all at that time, when [they raged against] Christ, that every kind of misery was brought upon them and they fell into ill repute. And how their tongue was impious with disobedience the prophet himself makes plain to us, passing over the other things and recalling only their last impiety. For they were always at odds with Christ, and, wounded by the arrows of envy, they plotted against him in many ways. But when they brought him before Pilate, then above all they proclaimed and made manifest their sin like that of Sodom. For as the inhabitants of Sodom, savagely sick with incontinence in their desires and overcome by pleasures against nature, pressed upon the blessed Lot, demanding the men who had come in to him in order to abuse them, all shame having been trampled and an unbroken shamelessness at last prevailing, in the same way, I think, the Jews proclaimed their lawlessness when they cried out and said to Pilate about Christ, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him.” This cry of theirs he accused through one of the prophets as well, saying: “I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance; I have given my beloved soul into the hands of her enemies. My inheritance has become

to me like a lion in a forest; she has given her voice against me; therefore I have hated her.”

“Woe to their soul, for they have counselled an evil counsel against themselves, saying: Let us bind the righteous one, [for he is troublesome to us. Therefore they will eat the] fruits of their works. Woe to the lawless one! Evils [will befall him] according to the works of his hands.”

Now too the prophet laments the peoples of the Jews and gives the causes of the lamentations over them. For they said, he says, among themselves: “Let us bind the righteous one, for he is troublesome to us.” For they did not receive through faith Christ, the Saviour of all, but continued to dishonour him, and thought [useless] the one who had come for this, that all things concerning us might be made new in him, and that he might transfer those who are Israel by blood from the way of life of the law to the spiritual one. So, supposing that he would be of no use, they bound him to death, as far as it lay with them, even though he came to life again as God, having emptied Hades and destroyed the power of corruption. For he is Life and gives life. But they took counsel against themselves in wanting to bind the righteous one; and they will eat the fruits of their works. “For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” Those who are gentle in character and have a God-loving mind will find good fruits from this; but those who turn away, the disobedient, who fight against the divine glory, will eat the fruits of their works, that is, fire and penalty and punishment and all that comes from wrath. For such evils will surely follow those who choose to fight against God. It is true, then, that “woe to the lawless one; evils will befall him according to the works of his hands.” For as they brought Jesus to Pilate [and handed him over to the hands of the soldiers, so they] will be handed over, he says, to the armies of the Romans. And we shall find this said clearly through the voice of Ezekiel too. For it is said to the unholy, Lord-slaying Jerusalem: “As you have done, so it will be done to you; your recompense will be repaid upon your head.”

“My people, your exactors glean you, and those who demand payment rule over you.”

Having foretold most clearly and very plainly that the land of the Jews will suffer the lack of every good, and [what will happen to those who …] to keep away from their offences, he turns them to what is better and teaches them to refuse those who had become the causes of all their evils. For I do not think one ought to be content to submit to those allotted to lead, if they do not try to teach any of the things that make for our benefit; nor would it rightly be thought to deserve blame [to refuse them]. For it is the virtue of [teachers to bring] those being instructed to the knowledge of what is profitable, to reject as counterfeit what by nature does harm, and to bid them refuse what is wont to do wrong. And those who are counted among the disciples would deserve all praise if they look not simply at the reputations of their teachers but at the nature of things, and admire their teachers if they are right and [blameless, but refuse] those whose aim is not such. For some pasture flocks of sheep on mountains and in glens; but if a pit lies beside the flock, or a cliff of the mountains, the sheep go round it and do not throw themselves down to death; for they are taught, as by an inborn law, to spare their own life. Then how is it not absurd if this is seen to prevail among the irrational animals, while in us, though we are rational, there is no knowledge of what is useful and necessary for life? We must therefore, if any of those appointed as teachers and leaders choose to lead us to what is not fitting, not simply be content to put up with them, nor follow them without examination to whatever seems good to them, but test each thing to be done and go to what is most beneficial. The leaders of the Jews, then, that is, the scribes and the Pharisees, were clever at collecting the gains of money and gathering the contributions from the peoples: first fruits, tithes, and everything the law gave as a portion to those allotted the priesthood. And their aim, pursued with all zeal, was [gain] …; [the rest] counted for very little among them. Therefore the Saviour himself said to them: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe dill and mint and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, judgment and mercy and faith.” They were, then, lovers of gain and of money, and sometimes they imposed bitter penalties on offenders, so that by terrifying those accused of anything they might persuade them to bring them things sometimes even beyond their means. Therefore he says to those wronged by them: “My people, your exactors glean you, and those who demand payment rule over you.” By saying “people” he still lets Israel be understood as his, so that if they chose to pass over to what seemed good to him, they would obtain what comes from his gentleness and love, and an affectionate closeness with him. And by saying that the exactors “glean,” he shows the greatness of their insatiability and greed.

For in the harvest fields some cut off the ears with iron, while others, gathering those that fall from the reaper’s hand, leave nothing in the fields. Those who gather grapes in the vineyards do this too. “Your exactors,” then, he says, “glean you.” It is as if he said: they have stripped your possessions, and their insatiability does not stop there; but now they glean too, that is, they lay hands even on what is still left. And very well and fittingly he says that they are not leaders, not teachers, nor anything else of the kind, but calls them exactors and demanders of payment. He teaches that they lord it over the people, not as teachers who treat their disciples gently, but like harsh and savage masters, forcing them to think what seems good to themselves and carrying them off to anything at all, sometimes even against their judgment. But the aim of those in Christ was not such. The divine Peter, at any rate, writes to those called to the office of oversight and allotted to lead the rational flocks: “not as lording it over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.” And the mystical sense knows other exactors too, whom those [who wish to be saved] must refuse: [the evil] powers [that urge] each person on earth, as it were demanding zeal for what is evil, and collecting from us, like a tax, the inclination of the mind toward the passions. And so the holy word calls blessed those who have not heard the voice of the tax collector. For those who rise up against the desires of the flesh, and with youthful spirit push away and trample on the beginnings of sin, and conquer the spirits of wickedness, have become stronger than the voice of the tax collector. We must, then, refuse such exactors and allow them neither to reap in us their harvest of sin nor to glean. We shall do this when we are strengthened through Christ and send out of our understanding evil reasonings, shameful desires and every form of wickedness.

“My people, those who call you blessed lead you astray, and disturb the path of your feet.”

He again rouses them to sobriety and to be testers of [the words they hear, lest they be led away] to laziness. For the Pharisees, going round the houses of the Jews, tried to speak fair words, and called them a blessed people and the portion of God. And perhaps they cried out to them what was said through the voice of Baruch: “Blessed are we, Israel, for what pleases God is known to us.” So that they might bring the gift offerings appointed for them by the law, and tithes or first fruits, they often wished [to flatter them] and practised an appearance of gentleness; but for the sake of gains and profits they taught the peoples under their hand to undo the law itself. Our Lord Jesus Christ, at any rate, accused them of making void the commandment of God for the sake of their own tradition. For they do not let them walk straight, but, leading them aside from the straight road, they carry them down cliffs and into pits.

The straight and level road is close union with Christ through faith. But since the leaders of the Jews knew that when the commandment given through Moses was abolished they would be shut out from gains and profits, they disturbed, as it were, the path of the people’s feet, rejecting the word of Christ as counterfeit and bidding them cling to the shadows of the law. For the wretches dared to say, “We know that God has spoken to Moses; but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from”; and again, “If this man were from God, he would not break the Sabbath.” And what is still more impious than these, to those who wished to listen to Christ and to cling to his words they impiously said, “He has a demon and is mad; why do you listen to him?” I also take it in another way, that the spiritual person, the worker of virtue, must firmly refuse the thoughts within mind and heart that call him blessed. For Satan, being terrible in mischief, when he cannot bring down those who are approved from the life and conduct dearest to them, tries to undo them in another way, as he pleases. For he praises them as having succeeded, welcomes them as saints already, and calls them blessed as having already become friends of God and as having ascended to the summit of all virtue. Then, implanting in them the passion of arrogance, he prepares them to offend against God, and at last shakes them like a tree from its roots. For he knows well that the God of all gives grace to the humble but opposes the proud. We must refuse, then, as I said, the thoughts within mind and heart that call us blessed. For they do not let us travel the straight road, by which one would very easily come to God.

“But now the Lord will stand up for judgment, and will set his people for judgment. The Lord himself will come to judgment with the elders of the people and with its rulers. But you, why have you set my vineyard on fire? And the plunder of the poor is in your houses. Why do you wrong my people, and [shame] the faces [of the poor]?”

The prophet says that the multitude of the wronged will not be without help, nor bereft of all care, but he strongly insists that the God of all will contend for them. For he will go to law on their behalf, he says, against those who glean them and call them blessed. He will go to law against the elders of the people, and besides against the rulers, or leaders. For he redeemed his people from the house of slavery and rescued them from the perversity of their masters, raising the whole creation against them: changing waters into blood, striking with hail and with deep darkness for three days, and all the rest. It would take long to tell each … [he fed them] in the desert. He brought them into the land of promise, removing great and most warlike nations like thorns. And the divine David made this plain to us, saying to the Saviour and Redeemer of all: “You brought a vine out of Egypt, [you drove out nations and planted it; you prepared the way] before it; you stretched out its branches to the sea and its shoots to the rivers.” For Israel became, as the prophet Jeremiah says, a vine with fine branches, and its fruit abundant. But those allotted to lead were appointed as its farmers; and they so wronged the Master’s vineyard that it seemed already wholly burned.

He himself, then, will make this the charge, saying, “But you, why have you set my vineyard on fire?” For those who ought to have made that spiritual vine with its fine branches, that is, Israel, more fruitful, brought it to utter desolation … It was set on fire by those through whom it might reasonably have been rich in grapes and weighed down with fruit and beyond all harm. And in what way are they said to have set the spiritual vineyard on fire? How is it not worth seeing? Those who had the calling of teachers and knew the law, which leads to everything that pleases God, ought before all others to have lived most lawfully themselves and to have been richly adorned with the honours of righteousness, so that their life might become a kind of type and image of excellent living for the peoples under their hand. Then besides this, they ought to have wished to lead those under their yoke by the schooling of the law to every good thing, to convict those who offended and correct those who stumbled, to show them the way of piety, to lead them toward better things, and to persuade them to look to the end of the law, I mean Christ: “For Christ is the end of the law and the prophets.” And Moses spoke of him through shadow and types, proclaiming beforehand to those of old the venerable and great mystery. But disregarding all these things, they themselves were wicked in character, unbridled toward greed, without self-control in their love of gain, thinking right judgment worth very little account; and in the very things over which they should rather have blushed, they boasted. The vineyard, then, was set on fire, neither benefited by the life of those allotted to lead it, nor schooled by the teachings of the law toward an upright and blameless life, that is, toward the knowledge of Christ; and this even when he had already shone upon those on earth and was saying plainly, “I am the light of the world; I am the way, and I am the truth.” Let them hear, then: “But you, why have you set my vineyard on fire? And the plunder of the poor is in your houses. Why do you wrong my people and shame the faces of the poor?” For [they did not lead] those poor in understanding to what seemed good to [God], and they prepared their faces to be ashamed. For as those who care for righteousness stand in the eyes of God with, as it were, a bright face, full of much boldness, so we say that the lovers of wickedness have the face of the heart gloomy and unsmiling, full of shame and confusion. But as he who schools others to understanding and introduces them to the finest things benefits them, so, I think, anyone appointed as a teacher does wrong if he does not make the one he teaches a lover of better things. For he shames, as it were, his face, and him who is poor in understanding he all but forces and snatches away to what is more shameful. And the leaders of the Jews were unjust and rapacious in another way too, shaming the faces of the poor and favouring the rich, although the law says, “Judge with just judgment,” and everywhere enjoins, “You shall not show partiality in judgment.”

“[Thus says the Lord: Because] the daughters of Zion were exalted and walked with lofty neck and with winks of the eyes and in the gait of their feet, at once trailing their tunics and at once playing with their feet, God will also humble the ruling daughters of Zion, and the Lord will uncover their form in that day.”

The word has shown us before that to the [leaders] of the Jews [it seemed good] to be rich and to have a glory conspicuous in this. And they were full of injustice and greed, so as to make brilliant processions in the city and in the fields, riding on horses and not a little puffed up by the outward show of those wont to escort them. For he accused them above, saying: “And the land was filled with horses, and there was no number of their chariots; and the land was filled with silver and gold, and there was no number of their treasures.” Then it happened that the wives of the wealthy, living in luxury, sought to [be adorned], and to take delight in ornaments of gold and stones, and to rejoice greatly in embroidered robes and costly clothing. For the female sex is always somehow fond of glory and display in great prosperity. She is most pleased to be well dressed, wears gold, and, raising her brow high, boasts of the beauty of her body. And on this very account the pride of their husbands is very often puffed up, and some make the extravagance of their wives their own glory. This perhaps the notables of the Jews suffered, disregarding piety toward God. For so that they might always have the supplies of wealth remaining, as the peoples brought what was due by the law, they did not accept faith in Christ, nor did they want others to believe, shutting the kingdom of God, as it is written, neither entering themselves nor allowing those who wished to enter. Therefore they were given over to the Roman armies for desolation and plunder, and perished, together with their wives and dearest ones, their houses and their wealth. For what they had gathered with so much zeal became the property of others; and they themselves are seen pitiable and wanderers, in extreme misery. The word, then, runs down the women among them, or daughters, especially those of the ruling and more conspicuous families, who belonged to the powerful, and says: “Because the daughters of Zion were exalted and walked with lofty neck and with winks of the eyes,” and what follows. They were exalted not in virtue, but in a fleshly and most earthy mind. For it seemed a great thing to them, as I said, to be proud of wealth and glory and outward ornaments, which they gather from stones and gold and embroidered robes. And here the prophetic word describes for us the mind and the bearing of a pleasure-loving and immodest woman, conspicuous in her finery, showing from one woman, as it were, the haughtiness of every woman among them.

“For they walked,” he says, “with lofty neck and with winks of the eyes”; and yet to the most modest woman, who honours a life of dignity and gentleness, modesty is most dear, and it would befit her not even to be seen by the eyes of men. But these ran aground on such harm and shamelessness as to make a display in their processions, sometimes raising [their neck] high and almost with laughter … the company of those who look on. For the harlot’s mind is always watery, much relaxed toward readiness for pleasures; and he presses the charges of laxity against them, and says that they played the harlot, at once trailing their tunics and playing with their feet. They probably thought that this too added to their adornment; but the practice is a harlot’s and a proof of the utmost abomination. For where the stamping of feet resounds with rhythmic songs, there surely the clapping of hands rings out too, and every form of shameful practice, and … a provocation to uncleanness for those who look on. At that time, then, he says, God will humble the ruling daughters of Zion and will uncover their form; that is, he will either strip away their adornment or make their shame manifest. This will be when, bereft and stripped of every ornament and covering, they fall into the hands of the enemy, slaves and captives and full of all misery.

“And the Lord will take away the glory of their clothing and their adornment: the tassels and the braids and the crescents and the necklace and the ornament of their face, and the arrangement of the glory of their adornment, and the anklets and the bracelets and the [hair nets], and the earrings, and the purple-bordered and the purple-centred garments, and the shawls, and the [things for the house], and the transparent Laconian garments, and the linen ones and the violet and the scarlet, and the fine linen with gold and violet.”

Saying that their form will be uncovered in that day, he goes through precisely in what way this will happen to them. For that they will be in want and in the loss of all their extravagant things and of that ancient prosperity and luxury, he further persuades by adding that they will be stripped of every ornament, throwing off the tassels, the crescents, the necklace, and the things joined to them. From these one may see them insatiably given to ornaments and to a love of finery, or rather now to a love of harlotry. For to women good in mind and friends of modesty such practices are surely hateful, and the things by which they would appear in an immodest bearing are to be fled and detested; rather they set themselves to be praised through good deeds. But for courtesans, to whom it is dear to play the courtesan and to be lewd, the mind has moved wholly the opposite way, and their eagerness runs in reverse. With all zeal they adorn themselves and gather from everywhere what is useful for this. And it would befit each such woman to hear: “She is flighty and profligate.” Solomon too mentions such an immodest and mincing woman, saying: “[… I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, and her heart nets], a bond in her hands; he who is good before God will be delivered from her, but the sinner will be caught by her.” Let this be said by us for the present about immodest and wicked women. One must know that through the voice of Ezekiel God speaks to the synagogue of the Jews as to one woman, whom he says he adorned with varied ornament. It is written of her thus: “And I spread my wings over you and covered your nakedness, and I swore to you and entered into a covenant with you, says Adonai the Lord, and you became mine; and I washed you in water, [and anointed you], and clothed you in embroidered cloth, and shod you with violet leather, and girded you with fine linen, and covered you with fine silk, and adorned you with ornaments, and put bracelets on your [hands and a necklace on your neck], and I gave you a ring for your nose, and earrings for your ears, and a crown of boasting on

your head. And I adorned you with ornaments of gold and silver, and your coverings were of fine linen and fine silk and embroidered cloth.” So he [adorns the soul] with varied ornament and crowns it in many ways with the honours that come from the virtues. But for those who keep their way of life blameless and continue in sanctification, the [beauty] of their spiritual adornment will keep increasing; [while those who … run] readily to what is not fitting and turn lightly to the works of wickedness will surely come to the loss of every good and suffer the lack of what was given them of old. For they will fall among wicked and unclean lovers, the rulers of this age and the world rulers of this darkness, the spiritual forces of wickedness, who above all hunt virtuous souls. For it is a delight to them to overthrow them; just as to bird-catchers the more beautiful sparrows seem a prize worth taking. And it is written somewhere of Satan that his foods are choice. So it follows that we should keep watch and act manfully with God, and remember the blessed Paul when he says, “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” And besides this we must, coming to God who can do all things, say in our prayers, “Lord, by your will you gave strength to my beauty.”

“[And instead of a sweet smell there will be dust], and instead of a girdle you will gird yourself with a rope, and instead of the golden ornament of the head you will have baldness because of your works; and instead of the purple-centred tunic you will gird on sackcloth. And your most beautiful son, whom you love, will fall by the sword, and your strong men will fall by the sword and be humbled, and the cases of your ornaments will mourn, and you will be left alone and levelled to the ground.”

Let no one think that here the prophetic word goes into great detail for nothing. It goes through precisely each of the things that pleased the luxurious women, the kinds of ornament and their former luxuries; then it says that it will by all means befall them to suffer the [loss] of these, wasting away in griefs, and it wittily brings them to the remembrance of their prosperity as though they were already suffering, so that, frightening them sharply by the expectation of what will come and the fears that arise from it, or rather by unbearable calamities, it may change them to good order and persuade them to run back to what pleases God. It will happen, he says, that such luxurious women will not only be deprived of their ornaments, but “instead of a sweet smell there will be dust”; that is, instead of [perfumes they will walk in dust] with feet still delicate. And not only this, but they will also be in a most dishonoured bearing and appearance, so as to be bound with a mere rope instead of a golden girdle, and with bare, that is, [shaven,] heads. And he gives them clothing that befits captive women, thick and cheap, which he calls sackcloth, and this instead of the purple-centred [tunic] and delicate garments. He adds to these: “And your most beautiful son, whom you love, will fall by the sword.” For it is the custom of those who capture a city or a country to snatch the little ones, the infants at the breast, from the breast and bosom of their mother and kill them cruelly, so that their mothers may walk on unburdened and not weighed down by the care of infants. So either in this way he says that their beloved son will fall by the sword, or otherwise, fighting …, dead by the hand of the enemy. And he said that the cases of their ornaments will mourn, not as though cases perceived by the senses could mourn, but as one might say that a house mourns when no one lives in it.

To these he adds, “And you will be left alone and levelled to the ground”; that is, you will be pitiable and cast down, and as it were lying on the ground. For such somehow is the life of those in captivity and misery and in harsh and unbearable slavery. It is most terrible, then, to offend God and to despise the beauty that is in souls. For those who have turned far toward laxity God removes from every ornament (the spiritual one, clearly), and, having made them bare of all virtue, hands them over to their enemies. Thus we say that some have been given over to a debased mind and to passions of dishonour. For while the God who is over all holds us together in spiritual strength, we keep within ourselves the brilliant beauty of our own nature. But when he withdraws his help, we shall surely be bare of every good and … we shall be subject to the passions of dishonour and shall serve our enemies.

“And seven women will take hold of one man, saying: We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes; only let your name be called upon us; take away our reproach.”

Having brought to a fine conclusion his discourse about the Jewish women who would go from luxury and wealth into captivity, he tries to show that the cities of Judea will remain empty of men and that there will be a great scarcity of those who were once most warlike. For he said, “All your strong men will fall by the sword.” What, then, is the proof of what I said? It is very cleverly and wittily arranged. Since the law given through Moses said to the sons of Israel, “There shall not be among you one who is childless or barren,” it was reckoned among the Jews one of the worst reproaches for a woman not to bear …; for the reproach of the childless and the barren was attached to them. And the law was spiritual. For the God of all promised that the spiritual Israel, that is, the mind that sees God, will not be fruitless or barren, but rather fruitful and like a good and excellent land. But the Jews understood it in a fleshly way; for they were natural people, not having the Spirit. There will be, then, he says, such a scarcity of men in the country, the war having consumed the race, that seven, that is, many women will take hold of one man and say: “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes; only let your name be called upon us; take away our reproach.” Do you see how they fear the reproach of childlessness and how strongly they refuse the name of childless and barren? For they come not seeking the usual things, which women are accustomed to receive from their husbands; for they say that they will provide for themselves in this, and they ask only, as I said, for the removal of their reproach. See, then, the depth of the saying. For if the man they appealed to

had been rich, the women would not have said, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes.” But since they know that those who were saved from the war and had barely escaped had fallen into extreme poverty and great misery, they seek nothing at all from them, but ask only to become mothers of children. And this is the sense of the history. Some, I know not how, carry the passage over to a spiritual contemplation, in doing which they do not act very rightly; or else they would have deserved all praise. For they say that the seven women are the seven spirits, and the one man is Christ. Then, caring little for what is fitting, they say that the seven spirits speak thus: “Take away our reproach, for we will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes.” And yet how would it not be better to say that the seven women are many souls who took hold [of Christ] and [put him on] as a garment of salvation, and who seek from him … fruit? For the blessed David says something of this kind about Christ, the Saviour of all: “He who settles the barren woman in a house as a joyful mother of children.” And it is said, too, that the barren has borne seven, that is, many. For the virtues are various; they are not one but many, and the God-loving souls are their mothers.

“And in that day God will shine forth in counsel with glory upon the earth, to exalt and glorify the remnant of Israel. And what is left in Zion and what remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, all who have been written for life in Jerusalem.”

Since some are in doubt at what time the things foretold through the prophet’s voice concerning the women of the Jews, or rather their whole country, will take place, whether before the Saviour’s coming [or after it, the force] of the passage [shows] that the prophet marks for us no other time than that in which [they paid the penalty] for their impiety toward Christ. For the wretches behaved outrageously toward him and paid the penalty that most befitted them when Jerusalem was surrounded by armies. Then, we say, the mind of the Jews was brought to such terror that they said to the mountains, “Cover us,” and to the hills, “Fall on us.” “In that day,” then, he says, that is, at that time when the things foretold will run their course to the end, “God will shine forth in counsel with glory upon the earth, to exalt and glorify the remnant of Israel.” For the Word who is from God the Father did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but counselled something deep and ineffable concerning us. Being in the form and equality of God the Father, he became as we are, and appeared to those on earth, yet not without glory, even though he became flesh. For he worked deeds worthy of God and performed signs worthy of all account and wonder. Shining forth, he had mercy on Israel; for it did not perish utterly. The remnant was preserved; it was exalted and glorified, and was written in the book of life, distinguished in sanctification. One would see that the word of the prophecy is true, as in the first fruits of the saved, in the holy apostles, who were truly exalted and enriched with the divine [gifts]. For they received authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out; they healed many who were in sickness; but they were also written in the book of life. And so they rejoiced that the demons were subject to them, and Christ met them as they said this, teaching them to delight in still greater things: “Do not rejoice,” he says, “that the demons are subject to you; but rejoice rather that your names are written in heaven.” Those of Israel, then, were exalted in the portion of the remnant; for they were counted worthy of the generosity and grace of Christ. They were called sons of God, his brothers and friends; they were made partners of his glory; they were counted worthy of the enrolment above in heaven, and were called citizens of the spiritual Jerusalem, [the one above, which is free],

the mother of the saints, which the prophet Isaiah himself mentions, saying: “Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a rich city, tents that will not be shaken.”

“For the Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will cleanse the blood from their midst by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning.”

The word of the prophet again grows sober, shows to be superfluous the pretexts some might sometimes invent, and usefully [explains], in no way allowing anyone to rise up against the judgments of God. For it is as if someone were crying this: [They killed the prophets], they stoned those who were sent, and [Christ] himself; [and] their hands are full of blood. What, then, does the prophet [say]? “The Lord,” he says, “will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will cleanse the blood from their midst by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning.” For they confessedly sinned; but the grace that comes through Christ justified all, and granted amnesty even to the murderers themselves. And so the divine Peter addressed the peoples of the Jews, saying at one time, “But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked [for a murderer to be granted to you],” and at another: “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your rulers also. Repent, then, and let each of you be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promises are for you and for your children.” So, he says, the Creator and Lord of all, who is great in mercy, who overcomes human pettiness by his gentleness, who does not want the death of the one who is dying so much as that he should turn from his wicked way and live, will wash away the filth of those who have sinned, and will cleanse the blood from their midst by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning. The spirit of judgment, we say, is the vote passed for us by God with right judgment, that is, with righteousness. For so the Saviour says somewhere: “Now is the judgment of this world.” For he gave judgment against this world and against Satan, and [for] those in the world through faith, as people who had been wronged. And the spirit of burning, we say, is the grace given in holy baptism, which comes to be in us not without the Spirit. For we have been baptized not in bare water; nor have we been sprinkled with the ashes of a heifer for the purity of the flesh alone, as the blessed Paul says; but in the Holy Spirit and in the divine and spiritual fire, which consumes the filth of the wickedness within us and melts away the defilement that comes from sin.

Another of the holy prophets also foretold such a coming of the Saviour, saying: “For behold, he comes in like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap, and he will sit refining as silver and as gold.” For of the [Jews], who have remained liable to the charges of disobedience, he says: “The bellows has failed from the fire, the lead has failed; in vain the silversmith smelts silver; their wickedness has not melted away. Call them rejected silver, for the Lord has rejected them.” But in us who have believed the silversmith has not laboured in vain, nor has the bellows failed from the fire, nor the lead; for we have been cleansed by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning. And if someone wishes to say that the cleansing by a spirit of burning happened to the peoples of the Jews through the calamity of the war and what they endured (for punishments cleanse, and paying the penalty to the Judge of all sometimes frees from many offences), the saying will be true in this way also.

“And he will come, and every place of Mount Zion and all that is around it a cloud will overshadow by day, and as smoke and as the light of fire [by night]. And it will be for a shade from heat, and in a covering and a hiding place from harshness and rain.”

About whom, then, does he say, “He will come”? Is it about the time when these things will be, or about him who lowered himself to the emptying and came down from heaven to save the human race? The saying will fit whether one says it was spoken of the time of the coming or prefers to take it of Christ himself. For when he came, he made blessed the sons of the spiritual Zion and of the free Jerusalem, crowning them with his own grace, and became for them a kind of protector, all but hanging up over them that ancient cloud which of old overshadowed Israel in the desert. Therefore he says: “And he will come, and every place of Mount Zion and all that is around it a cloud will overshadow by day.” For so that [those who dwell in the spiritual Zion may not be scorched by] the burning heat of the present life and by the [onsets] of temptations, Christ, he says, will be a protector to those who dwell in the spiritual Zion, that is, the Church, hanging over them almost like a cloud; and the same again drives away the darkness that comes from ignorance and the perversity of the devil, shining into the mind as light in darkness and as the brightness of fire. For it is written of the sons of Israel that he led them with a cloud by day and all the night with the light of fire. But those things were types and images of spiritual things; the truth is what comes through Christ. For he himself is the truth. Those counted worthy of his help [will be] by all means, he says, as in a shade from heat and in a covering and a hiding place from harshness and rain. He likens the [assaults] of temptations again to harshness and rains. For so Christ says somewhere: “Everyone, then, who hears these words and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the rivers came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock.” And by adding that it will be covered with all glory, he gives us to understand that the grace from Christ to those who have believed in him will not be partial, but he will spare them with whole-hearted readiness.

They will be within the enclosure and tent of the one who is able to save and who puts every evil far away.

“Let me sing to the beloved a song of the beloved concerning my vineyard.”

The first line of the passage would be like a definition and preface of what is about to be said. For he indicates what the prophet wishes to do, saying, “Let me sing to the beloved,” that is, to Christ. For so God the Father too named him to us, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Shall we, then, O prophet, hear your voice? And do the words rise up from your thoughts alone? Tell us where the aim of the song looks. Well then, he says, even if it comes through me, the word is not mine, but is the beloved’s; and it is made concerning my beloved vineyard, or, as some of the other translators say, “concerning his vineyard.” And if he does say “my vineyard,” perhaps he says such things not as though the vineyard were his, but as being one of those who belong to the vineyard. For we shall find [the saints] sometimes using such expressions, as the prophet Jeremiah: “Who will give me in the desert a last lodging place, and I will leave my people and go away from them?” For being one of the people, he calls those related to him by blood and race his people. The prophet, then, sings to the beloved, and the song is his, spoken concerning the beloved vineyard, that is, Israel. For it is written: “The vineyard of the Lord Sabaoth is the man of Judah, a beloved new planting.”

“The beloved had a vineyard on a horn, in a fat place. And I put a hedge around it and fenced it, and planted a choice vine, and built a tower in its midst, and dug a winepress in it; and I waited for it to produce grapes, but it produced thorns.”

Having likened Israel to a vineyard, he keeps to the metaphor throughout: “The beloved,” he says, “had a vineyard on a horn, in a fat place.” They say that the other translators were content to say “in a fat place,” as though “horn” meant nothing else to us than this. But some think that “on a horn” is to be understood as “in the power of God.” For Israel inherited the land of the promise, having conquered through God those who lived in it before. Therefore it says to him in the forty-third psalm: “In you we will push down our enemies with the horn, and in your name we will set at nought those who rise up against us.” And in the divine Scripture “horn” is taken for strength and power and royal glory. One can hear the blessed David saying at one time, as in the person of every righteous man, “My horn will be exalted like that of the unicorn,” and at another, of Christ, “His horn will be exalted in glory.” For the kingdom of Christ is most conspicuous. And that the land of the promise is fat, the holy Scripture has testified; for everywhere it calls it a land flowing with milk and honey. And the divine Psalmist confirms the saying, singing of Israel: “You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out nations and planted it.” Do you see that “on a horn” signifies here “in the power of God”?

To others “on a horn” seems to mean on a high and lofty place; for such is Zion, lying on a mountain. “Having planted the vineyard,” he says, “I also put a hedge around it and fenced it, and planted a choice vine.” Israel was surrounded, as with a hedge, by angelic powers and by help from above. And besides this it was fenced. And what is this? Those skilled in the cultivation of vineyards skilfully set reeds beside each vine, raise the vines up high and tie them up off the ground; for so their fruit will be sound and unharmed. Something of this kind the God of all did too, as it were fencing the spiritual vineyard with the law given through Moses, so that it might not be cast upon the ground and, minding only the things of the flesh, be ruined in many ways, but might be able to mind the things above. For the law of God carries away from earthly things, holding up on high, as it were, the mind of those it instructs. And that the vineyard was also of noble stock he makes plain when he says that it was not just any vine that was planted in the fat place, but Sorek, that is, a choice one. The Hebrews think that Sorek signifies a kind of vine, or the name of a fine and most fruitful one. “And I built a tower in its midst,” he says, “and dug a winepress in it.” For that famous temple was raised in Jerusalem like a tower and a dwelling of God, and a winepress was dug. And an altar was set in it, and the korban, that is, the treasury, in which every gift of those who came was collected. Since, he says, I had made the vineyard good in every respect, [I expected that] it would produce nothing else than the noble fruit of the vine; but it produced thorns. So Israel failed the hope and deceived it, and bore thorns instead of grapes. For it did not become a keeper of the law, nor was it adorned with the fruits of gentleness; but it ran aground in another direction and produced thorns, that is, works of fire, or things that prick those who touch and approach them. Whatever sin comes from us grieves God; and what the thorn is among us, that the manner of wickedness is before him. But, as the blessed Paul writes: “For the land that drinks the rain that often falls upon it, and bears vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.”

“And now, man of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, judge between me and my vineyard. What shall I do for my vineyard that I have not done for it? For I waited for it to produce grapes, but it produced thorns.”

He tries to show that the laziness of the Jews, and besides this their shamelessness toward the law, is wholly without excuse. For although it was open to them, and very easily, to walk the glorious and approved path of the life in the law, or rather of the way of life in Christ, they honoured the crooked one. And abandoning the ability to bear fruit as stale, they became as it were a land that nourishes not cultivated fruits but rather wild [thorns. Therefore,] he says, let the wise among you judge between me, the master of the vineyard, and the vines themselves. What good thing was lacking to them, that they have become useless? For if something necessary for their benefit was perhaps overlooked by me who planted them, [rightly] I will not demand a penalty. “For what shall I do,” he says, “that I have not done for it?” But since I made it full of useful things and lacking in nothing, and then it became a bearer of thorns, though I expected to see it abounding in ripe fruits, what will [the penalty] be henceforth from [me] for those who have shared in my care, but have so neglected their own fruitfulness as to bring forth worthless stuff and a crowd of thorns instead of grapes? And that his word is not about thorns perceived by the senses, nor about clusters or grapes, is clear to everyone, if indeed the vineyard is spiritual; and such, surely, are its fruits.

“But now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be for plunder; and I will pull down its wall, and it shall be for trampling. And I will abandon my vineyard, and it shall not be pruned nor dug; and thorns will come up on it as on waste land. And I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it.”

The form of the saying is not without wonder, as it seems to me. For as though those called to judge between him and his vineyard had kept silent, he himself at last fixes the penalty for them, and foretells clearly what will befall them. For since nothing at all useful for its well-being was lacking to it, it made itself waste land by its own choice. Those who had come to such wickedness had therefore at last to be outside the Master’s hand and care, and indeed his help. “So I will take away its hedge,” he says, “and it shall be for plunder; and I will pull down its wall, and it shall be for trampling.” A vineyard bereft of hedge and wall will surely lie open to all. For while God hedges us about and as it were walls us up with ineffable helps, we shall not be trodden down and become a path for the unclean spirits; nor shall we be ready to be plundered by the beasts of the field and a delicacy for foxes, of which it is written in the Song of Songs too: “Catch us the little foxes that ruin the vines.” And some are said to become portions for foxes.

And when God lets us go to those who wish to wrong us and strips from us his care from above, we shall come to experience every evil; and everyone will take his pleasure in what is against us, whether it be a spiritual robber or the law that rages in the members of the flesh; and every movement of our mind will bear fruit for Satan. So the vineyard without hedge and without wall will be let go for plunder to those who wish. “And it shall not be pruned nor dug”; that is, it will receive no care able to set it right, to bring it back to what is better and to free it from so terrible a wasteness. “For I will command” the spiritual “clouds,” that is, the holy prophets, or the angelic powers, “not to rain rain upon it”: the spiritual rain, clearly, given as exhortation to mind and heart and by the divine word. But from this especially one can see that the prophetic word says these things will befall the sons of Israel not before the times of the coming, but when they had behaved outrageously toward Christ. For it is not possible, it is not possible, to name or point out a time in which Israel lived without holy prophets. They became captives at times and went away to the land of the Persians and Medes with their wives and dearest ones. But not without holy prophets did they go down into Egypt, when the Babylonians in their time took the famous Jerusalem; the prophet Jeremiah was with them, ministering the words from above and from God. But since they behaved outrageously toward Christ, they have continued bereft of a hedge, and all their security has fallen. This, I think, is what is meant by saying that its wall is pulled down. And every word of the holy prophets to them has ceased, held back in a way like rain, and the voices of the saints have stopped. And this, I think, is what was said to them by God through one of them: “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, and I will send a famine upon the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord. And from the east to the west they will run about seeking the word of the Lord, and they shall not find it.” These things, as I said, befell those of Israel, and very rightly. For they thrust away the Lord of powers, who waters souls and hearts spiritually and enriches them with spiritual dews, which the blessed David mentioned, saying, “Like the dew of Hermon coming down upon the mountains of Zion.” And a new vineyard has risen instead of that one, the vineyard of those called through faith to sanctification. Of them the Bridegroom from heaven, that is, Christ, says: “The vines are in blossom; they have given forth their fragrance.” And he himself is the first, all-holy and true vine; and we hang from him like branches, filled with the life-giving richness that comes from him.

And so he said plainly: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every one that bears [fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit].” Through [his care], the spiritual care, clearly, we have been made fruitful; and he himself confirms us in this, saying: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is who bears much fruit; for apart from me you can do nothing.” I say, then, that we must cleave by faith and love and obedience in everything to the true vine, that is, to Christ. For he will make us fruitful; he will put a hedge around us, raise up the wall, and keep away those who pass through. And a holy oracle says somewhere to him: “And your deserts of old will be built, and a memorial for generations of generations, and you will be called [the repairer of breaches].”

“For the vineyard of the Lord Sabaoth is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah a beloved new planting. I waited for it to do judgment, but it did lawlessness; and not righteousness, but a cry.”

Here he has shown plainly that his word was not about a vineyard perceived by the senses but about a spiritual one. For the divinely inspired Scripture somehow always takes visible examples to show more hidden and spiritual things. For the vineyard of the Lord Sabaoth, he says, and the beloved new planting, is the house of Israel and the man of Judah. But although it was counted worthy of my forbearance and love and enjoyed every care, it did not become rich in grapes, nor a [fruitful] vine …, but deceived, as it were, the hope of the farmer. For I expected judgment, that is, the right and blameless choice, or judgment, from a sincere mind in all practical matters; but it, he says, did lawlessness. Yet how could a vine bear thorns? It deceived, then, as I said just now. For where it was reasonable that … a life was given over [to them] that was outside the sacred laws and under the condemnation of the divine commandment. So it did lawlessness, and not righteousness, but a cry. And by “a cry” he shows, I think, that their life became agitated to anger and full of tumult. Therefore the divine Paul commands the sanctified, saying: “Let all clamour and anger and wrath and blasphemy be put away from you, with all malice.” For unsteady cries would befit not those whose mind is settled, but rather those whose life is not secure, who are easily moved to any evil at all, and are governed by temper rather than by understanding. And he seems also to hint at the most grievous cry of the Jews which they raised against Christ himself. For when Pilate reproached them, [asking] whether they wished [him to release their king, they cried]: “Away with him, away with him, crucify him; we have no king but Caesar.” A wicked cry, then … For [he said], “I will abandon my vineyard, and it shall not be pruned nor dug.” And it was made wholly waste, having borne thorns, which are fuel for the flame.

“Woe to those who join house to house and draw field near to field, so that they may take away something of their neighbour’s.”

… to slander the vine idly, as having borne not grapes but thorns, that is, instead of judgment, or righteous judgments, lawlessness, and instead of [righteousness, a cry] … For it is generally open to those who wish to be rich, and who have also obtained the power for this, always to make their possessions appear [ever greater]. And so they cling to [their neighbours’ property],

joining them to their own. For a rich man is something insatiable, if somehow the power is given him to accomplish easily whatever he wishes. For he never stops leaping upon his neighbour’s goods; he always thirsts for what is not yet his, and craves what is not yet in his hands; [they join] their own houses to those of others, and fields to fields, “so that they may take away something of their neighbour’s.” For they are eager always to make a pretext for their greed … [crying out against them]. What, then, does the prophetic word say to them? “Will you dwell alone upon the earth?” … And yet the God of all is very near … what comes from you has been heard. And in what way? … Something of this kind the disciple of the Saviour too has written to us: “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you”; and besides this he says, “Behold, the wages of the workers … have entered the ears of the Lord Sabaoth.” For the all-holy nature that hates evil receives very readily the voices of those who are defrauded. And that he is not far from those on earth he himself will assure us, saying, “I am a God who is near, says the Lord, and not a God far off.” Let those, then, who wish to defraud, to use force, and to plunder their brothers hear: “Will you dwell alone upon the earth?” For the God of all is present. And one must know what the prophet hints to us here, as is likely, in a very witty way. O you rich, he says, why do you seize what belongs to your neighbour and hate the one who is near? It will surely befall you to dwell in the land even alone, all the others having been thrust out. [He threatens, then, a land] empty of its inhabitants. … It is not wise [to grasp at more]; [it is wise] to claim only what suffices for a measured self-sufficiency. “For better is a small portion with the fear of the Lord than great produce with injustice.” And if one must speak taking an example from the sacred writings: one of those of Israel reigned in Samaria in his time, who built for himself a most costly house; and he fell from it and perished at once. And God, convicting him as having acted foolishly, says: “You built for yourself a spacious house, upper rooms painted with vermilion. Shall you reign because you were provoked to anger with Ahaz your father?” Better … for “treasures will not profit the lawless,” as it is written.

“For if there are many houses, they will become a desolation, great and beautiful, and there will be no inhabitants in them. For where ten yoke of oxen work, they will make one jar; and he who sows six artabas will make three measures.”

It was heard, admittedly, he says, in the ears of the Lord Sabaoth: the charges of greed brought against the stronger by others. Did he, then, keep silent, let it pass quietly, and put a bridle on his anger? Not at all, he says. And a clear proof of this is that he showed the zeal of the lovers of others’ goods for this end to be idle. For what benefit is there in joining house to house and building homes splendidly and lavishly, if there will be no one, he says, to live in them, the war having consumed [them]? [And what] is the profit of fields, if God does not let them bear fruit because of the greed of those who acquired, or rather seized, them? For there will be, there will be, such barrenness in the fields that while twenty calves, that is, ten yoke of oxen, labour in the vineyards, one jar will barely come of it; and when six measures are sown, the return of the fruits will be seen to be half of the seed sown. Ten yoke of oxen will suffice, I think, to work a great deal of land planted with vines and a great many arable lots. Possession, then, is useless, and the labour of greed idle, if no one will live in [the houses and the fields will not bear], God ruining them and convicting the injustice of the insatiable. But since each of us has in his own soul a spiritual field and works the seed of righteousness, let us guard against offending God. For then, then indeed, we shall dwell in manifold and many-coloured virtue as in a secure and firmly founded house, and we shall abound in grain like the valleys; and the God of all will bless our seed and increase the produce of our righteousness, as the divine Paul says.

“Woe to those who rise early and pursue strong drink, who wait for the evening; for the wine will burn them up. For with lyre and harp and drums and pipes they drink their wine, but they do not regard the works of the Lord, and they do not consider the works of his hands.”

He joins to the first charges against the rich other most grievous ones. For besides their wish to be greedy and to force the weaker insatiably, they will also be fond of being at drinking parties and of delighting in luxuries, in revels and drunkenness without restraint, and they will think they must do this continually and at every time. For wealth is able to whet the appetite for luxuries and to do away with satiety in them. But “he who sows to the flesh,” as Paul says, “will from the flesh reap corruption.” For the end of temporary luxury will be long and unending weeping, and the fruit of fleshly pleasure is ruin. The prophet, then, describes for us the haughtiness of the Jews, their extravagance in luxuries and their abandonment to dissipation. For giving all their time to gluttony, he says, at dawn they seek strong drink, and [they drink until] the sun’s course [ends], waiting for the evening. “For the wine will burn them up.” For admittedly wine drunk to excess produces a certain burning in the entrails. And it will burn up the lovers of drunkenness in another way too; for it will be for them an occasion for the one who punishes them for this. They will surely be burned up altogether, sent into the unending flames prepared for the devil and his angels. Therefore the drunkard too, along with the other profane, will be without portion before God and will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

For see how great at times was the extravagance of the Jews in their love of luxury. For where there is the strumming of the lyre and the sound of drums and [pipes], there surely is every form of uncleanness too, and the things done by them in secret, which it is shameful even to speak of. And this does them harm: it makes them unable to perceive the glory of God or to fix their gaze on his works. For as the eye of the body, when [it is clouded] or troubled by a wound, cannot see clearly, so too the human mind, if it is thickened by the luxuries of the flesh, cannot open its eyes toward God, nor fix its gaze precisely on the things he has made, through which it is possible to understand very clearly who and how great the Creator is. For he is known from the beauty of his creatures; and whoever gives his wonder to the things he has made would wonder at him most richly. For as the blessed Paul writes: “His invisible things are clearly seen from the creation of the world, being understood through the things that are made, both his eternal power and divinity.” But the prophet probably accuses the Jews as being given over to luxuries and no longer having it in their mind to consider what is to come, that is, the things that will befall them from the divine wrath, which he also calls the works of the hands of God. For he makes peace for those who love him, and creates evils for those who provoke him. For [if] they had seen the works of the Lord that were to come upon them, they would not have endured drinking parties; rather tears would have been their study and lament their delight, toils and prayers and the works of repentance, [instead of] those of dissipation.

“Therefore my people have become captive, because they do not know the Lord; and a multitude of dead has come about, through hunger and thirst for water. And Hades has enlarged its soul and opened its mouth without ceasing; and the glorious and the great and the rich and the pestilent of it will go down. And man will be humbled, and a man will be dishonoured, and the lofty eyes will be humbled; and the Lord Sabaoth will be exalted in judgment, and the holy God will be glorified in righteousness.”

That for those who wish to live in luxury the matter ends in ruin and in the very last of evils, the divine word teaches us here. For since those of the land of the Jews made a practice of counting as nothing the duty of examining the works of God and of looking at the works of his hands, and spent their days in continual revels, they will go away as captives and serve their enemies; and there will be such a multitude of dead throughout the whole land, perishing by hunger and thirst, that Hades will almost revel in those who go down and shut them up in its own treasuries. For when you hear of Hades’ soul being enlarged, you must think that he means nothing other than what I said just now. For the divinely inspired Scripture sometimes uses words figuratively, as by a metaphor, even of things that have no soul and are not counted in the rank of living creatures, or that do not truly exist. For what soul has Hades?

Rather, Hades is a place, a joyless prison of wretched souls. So [Hades will receive] those who lived in luxury in this life, and they will fill up, as it were, its soul. And the divine Psalmist hints something of this kind to us when he says, of every soul, I think, that loves pleasure and loves sin: “He will go to the generation of his fathers; he will never again see light.” For as the holy Scripture says that the saints, when they depart from our affairs, are added to their fathers (for it is said somewhere to the blessed Abraham, “And you will be added to your fathers, nourished in a good old age”), so we say that those who die in their sins run off to the generation of their fathers, calling their fathers those who lived a life of the same kind, equal and alike in every respect. And if it is said that there was a multitude of dead through hunger and thirst for water, we mention what Josephus wrote, who told in tragic style the greatness of the calamity of the Jews in his history: that when Jerusalem was besieged, [men … ] and were overcome by hunger and need of anything that could be held in the teeth. And that this happened not in Jerusalem alone but also in the other cities of Judea, how or whence could anyone doubt? Very many, then, were consumed by the war and fell by the sword; but more than those who perished in this way were destroyed by the famine. And if someone should say that a scarcity of spiritual waters and of divine food also came upon the Jews, who had acted impiously, and that they perished in this way and as it were went down to Hades because they were not given life through Christ, like those who believed in him, he would not miss the truth; for it befell them to suffer this too. But who should be understood to be those who go down, for whom Hades itself enlarges its soul and opens its insatiable mouth, he adds, saying: “The glorious and the great and the rich and the pestilent of it.” For since they were the leaders throughout the whole land and [more prominent], it was reasonable that the subject people would be well schooled through them; but they did not do this. Rather they became types and patterns of an accursed life for the others; and a holy oracle says somewhere to them: “For you have become a snare to the watchtower, and like a net spread [on Tabor] … they fixed the trap for the hunt.” Do you see how they became a snare and a trap for the rest, because the subject people somehow always like to follow both the goodness and the laxity of their leaders? So, as having become the cause of destruction both to themselves and to all the others, they will be the first to go down and will run ahead into Hades, the divine wrath springing upon them, as it were, before the rest. And they will be punished not because they were rich and glorious, but because they were pestilent, that is, corrupters and destroyers, both of themselves, as I said, and of the common multitude. … and dishonoured. For whom does the fear of death not humble? Or what eye that is lifted up and looks on high does not a terrible and unbearable calamity lay to sleep?

When all these things have happened, he says, the Lord Sabaoth will be exalted in that day, that is, at that time when what was foretold concerning them runs its course to the end. And the Lord Sabaoth alone is exalted in judgment and in righteousness, as having punished with an upright and holy verdict the boastful people, disobedient and pleasure-loving. We must, then, refuse luxuries, and let us be eager to put as far from us as possible the useless, or rather the most abominable, indulgences of the flesh, so that insatiable Hades may not revel over us too. For we remember the Saviour saying, “Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” And again: “Blessed are you who mourn now, for you will laugh.” For the toil will end in refreshment, and the end of good sweat will procure for us a delight that lasts for ever. “For he who sows to the flesh will from the flesh reap corruption,” as it is written, “and he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”

“And those who were plundered will be fed like bulls, and lambs will eat the waste places of those who were taken away.”

While the land of the Jews still stood and was at the height of its prosperity, the neighbouring nations made war on those who were Israel by blood. But since it was the God of all who fought alongside Israel, it so prevailed over its opponents that it conquered without a battle, terrified all, plundered their countries, ravaged their cities, and carried off the property of others with full authority. But since they acted impiously toward Christ, and were given over to the Roman armies for destruction and plunder, their cities were burned and all they had was plundered by the conquerors. Then, when the Roman army [had withdrawn, the neighbouring nations,] searching the cities and houses, gathered up what was left and carried it off to their own countries. And the God of all hints at something of this kind to us when he says through the voice of a prophet: “Glean the remnant of Israel thoroughly, as a vine; turn back, like the grape-gatherer to his basket.” So, that it will not suffice for them to suffer only what came from the Roman army, but there will be added also what comes from the cruelty of the neighbouring enemies, he foretells, saying: “And those who were plundered will be fed like bulls.” For those who of old were readily plundered by them, he says, because God helped Israel, will graze over their land like bulls, that is, fierce and haughty, and with a resistance that cannot be fought. “And the waste places of those” [who were taken away], he says, that is, of those who were besieged; the waste places, then, he says, [lambs will eat], that is, again, those of the nations. And since he has again spoken to us as of bulls, let us understand the very strong as calves, and those who are not so, but fall short in lesser strength, we call lambs. So too the wicked and unclean powers will graze upon the heart of each of the careless, like calves and lambs. And their food is the love of pleasure and the inclination of a mind that looks toward wrongdoing.

“Woe to those who draw sins to themselves as with a long rope, and lawless deeds as with the strap of a heifer’s yoke; who say: ‘Let what he will do draw near quickly, that we may see; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, [that we may know].’”

The Creator and Lord of all, overcoming the weakness of human nature by gentleness, spoke to those of old through the holy prophets the things by which they might reasonably turn to what is better: let go of what is worse, cease from wickedness and sin, live on rather in virtue, and choose to do the good. For this reason he at one time set before them the rewards prepared for the saints, at another described the kinds of punishment fitting for lovers of sin, so as to drive them from every side toward what is profitable. But there was no way that could turn back the Jews. For having bent toward love of gain and luxury, and being already sick with the utmost madness against God, they assailed the holy prophets terribly. Some, utterly disbelieving what was spoken through them, said: “Speak to us other things, and announce to us another deception”; others, all but accusing the forbearance of the divine nature, laughing at one another, as is likely, said: “The days are far off; every vision has perished.” And indeed God said somewhere to the blessed Ezekiel: “Son of man, behold, the house of Israel, the embittering house, say: ‘The vision that this man sees is for many days, and he prophesies for distant times.’ Therefore say to them: Thus says Adonai the Lord: None of my words that I speak shall be prolonged any more; for I will speak a word and do it, says Adonai the Lord.” Others again, all but despairing of their own salvation and life, grew bold against the wrath and said: “Let the time of war come quickly; those who wish to ravage us will not find us unmanly or timid. We too are experienced in war and know tactics well.” Those who thought this he rightly calls wretched, and says: “Woe to those who draw sins as with a long rope, and lawless deeds as with the strap of a heifer’s yoke.” By sins and lawless deeds he here means the penalties for sins, that is, the punishments, which were still far off and not yet near, because God still wished to be forbearing, but which were in a way being drawn on by them, because they wished to fall even into the motions of divine … wrath. For my part I think that … it would be most fitting and true for us to say to each of such people: “Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance? But by your hardness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous judgement of God.” For, as I said, they themselves draw the time of punishment upon themselves, perhaps growing impatient because he delays to punish them and does not lay penalties without restraint on those who do wrong. They draw, then, sins as with a long rope, and lawless deeds as with the strap of a heifer’s yoke. For just as those who put heifers, that is, oxen, under yokes draw them … sometimes with much force, and bind them to labours, … in the same way, I think, those men too … said: “Let what he will do draw near quickly, that we may see; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we may know.” Those who say this and think so another of the holy prophets also calls wretched, saying: “Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord; and it is darkness and not light, and gloom that has no brightness.” We must, then, when we learn that God has been grieved, repent at once and rather appease him with unceasing prayers, not provoke him further once he is moved, nor despise him when he threatens; for he is long-suffering and rich in mercy, taking away lawless deeds and

passing over injustices; and sometimes at small tears of those who have sinned [he turns] to his own most beloved gentleness. …

“[Woe to those who call evil good and good] evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in themselves and knowledgeable in their own sight.”

By these words too he convicts as utterly senseless those who draw sins as with a long rope. For when they ought to have counted the duty of repenting worthy of all praise, and by every kind of reasonableness to free themselves from the wrath that hung over them, and with fasts to plead their cause before the God who rules all, who had been grieved, they have become disreputable money-changers, honouring what is more shameful and treating as counterfeit what is incomparably better and most profitable for their salvation. The “woe,” then, fits those who think so. For, unholy and senseless, they have become judges against themselves. Saying that evil is good, they reckon darkness light, and the bitter sweet: they chose to suffer the calamities of war, although they could easily have got clear of the evil; and having thrust away the very enlightenment that comes through Christ, they have remained in darkness. And what does the prophet say? “While they waited for light, darkness came to them; waiting for brightness, they walked in gloom.” They came to such ill counsel and savagery of mind that, though the gentleness of God and the sweet hope that comes from it lay before them to enjoy, they chose instead the bitterness of being punished and to be worn down by such terrible evils. He says they suffered this because they became wise in themselves and knowledgeable in their own sight. True it is, in the words of the writer of Proverbs, that “unexamined wisdom goes astray.” Burdensome and harmful is the love of self-display in those accustomed to it, and assigning to one's own judgement alone the claim to know what is profitable. So too sacred Scripture says: “The conceited and contemptuous man, a braggart, will accomplish nothing at all.” Having this sickness in mind and heart, the leaders of the Jews did not receive the counsels of the Saviour. For they were, they were knowledgeable, not before the Lord, but in their own sight, raising their brows and thinking great things of their knowledge of the divine laws, yet knowing nothing at all. For they were blind guides of the blind, in the Saviour’s own words.

“Woe to the strong among you who drink wine, and the mighty who mix strong drink; who justify the ungodly for bribes, and take away the right of the righteous.”

Those of the synagogue of the Jews who were more prominent and of better repute, who had pre-eminence over the rest in knowledge of the divine laws and gave judgements among them, were gravely accused of stretching out an insatiable hand to bribery and readily selling their vote to those who wished to wrong their brothers, although the law says plainly: “Judge righteous judgement.” That what I say is true the prophet Habakkuk will confirm, saying: “How long, Lord, shall I cry out, and you will not hear? Shall I shout to you when I am wronged, and you will not save? Why did you show me toils and troubles, to look on misery and ungodliness? Judgement has come against me, and the judge takes [bribes]. Therefore the law is scattered, and judgement is not carried through to the end, because the ungodly overpowers the righteous. For this reason judgement will go forth perverted.” And the divine Isaiah himself also says somewhere to Jerusalem, that is, Zion: “Your rulers are disobedient, companions of thieves, loving bribes, pursuing rewards, not judging for orphans, and not attending to the widow’s case.” They did these things overcome by shameful gains, and perhaps collecting contributions unholily for drinking-bouts and luxuries, and gathering them from injustices.

… them through the voice of a prophet, saying: “And [binding] garments [to] the altar, and wine from extortions they drank in the house of their God.” Woe then, he says, to the prominent and powerful, who mix strong drink elaborately, who love drinking and are fond of drunkenness, who take away the right of the righteous, that is, who condemn the one who has been wronged and award a just verdict to those used to grasping. And this, I think, is what it is to say openly that evil is good and good evil, and darkness light and light darkness. … “The mighty will be mightily examined,” and from him to whom they entrusted much they will demand much more, in the Saviour’s words. For punishment will not be the same for those who lead and for those under their hand. The latter may sometimes plead that they did not know the will of their lord; the former, though they knew it well and exactly, did not do it. For this reason they rightly undergo a heavier judgement from the one who punishes.

“Therefore, as stubble will be burned by a coal of fire and consumed by a flame let loose, their root will be like dust, and their blossom will go up like powder.”

Since they themselves, he says, drew it upon themselves … were not right judges of affairs, finding fault with the good and praising the evil, and were wise in themselves and knowledgeable in their own sight, and looking to things still more shameful than these, justified the ungodly for bribes and took away the right of the righteous: for all these reasons they will be food for fire like easily kindled material and like stubble, and flames let loose will consume them, so that the fruits that come from them are destroyed together with the roots, that is, the offspring perish with those who bore them, and [go up] like dust or powder. By a flame let loose he means a most violent flame, one quenched by no one. For fire sometimes falls on crops or vineyards, but it is not let loose when many come to help and do not allow it to advance or to spread over the fields unhindered. But when no one takes trouble, that is, checks the further course of the flame, then indeed it is let loose and free, unbridled toward anything that lies near. Since, then, when the all-powerful God brought them under the calamities of war and punished them by a holy verdict, there was no one at all to help, he quite fittingly calls the wrath a flame let loose. For as the blessed Moses says: “Our God is a consuming fire”; and “if he shuts against a man, who will open?” Knowing this, the divine David sings: “You are fearsome, and who will stand against you because of your wrath?” We must, then, with all our strength beg off the wrath; for it is a fearsome thing and hard to escape. Indeed we have been taught to say in our prayers: “Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.” For it is not, it is not, being disciplined that is hard; what is burdensome and unbearable is that this be done to us in anger and wrath. So the prophet too said: “Discipline us, Lord, but with judgement and not in wrath, that you may not make us few.”

… for they did not want the law of the Lord Sabaoth, but provoked the oracle of the Holy One of Israel. And the Lord Sabaoth was enraged with anger against his people, and laid his hand on them [and struck them] …, and their carcasses became like dung in the road.”

The most wise Jeremiah rebukes the ignorance and arrogance of the Jews, saying: “How will you say, ‘We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us’? In vain was the measuring line made, false is the scribe; the wise are put to shame, they are terrified and taken. What wisdom is in them? For they have rejected the word of the Lord.” For they by no means accepted the gospel preaching; but neither did they honour the very law given through Moses. For as Christ himself said: “If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me.” They have offended, then, on both counts, and the wretches rejected … the word of God, neither receiving as true the predictions made through the law, nor yet … God said concerning them through the voice of Jeremiah: “To whom shall I speak and bear witness, and he will hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot hear. Behold, the word of the Lord has become a reproach to them; they will not wish to hear it.” For they reproached the word of Christ, saying to those who listened to him: “He has a demon and is mad; why do you listen to him?” Since, then, they did not want the law of the Lord Sabaoth, but also provoked the oracle of the Holy One of Israel, that is, of Christ, he was enraged, he says, with anger, and struck them, and the mountains were provoked. And what mountains does he mean here? Plainly the governments of the Romans, because of their conspicuous glory and their being raised high in dignities. And from the provoking of the mountains their carcasses became like dung, that is, those killed in the war, scattered everywhere and perhaps lying in heaps and filling their whole country. And in another way [this is said] against those who by their disobedience provoke God, the Saviour of all. For the spiritual mountains are provoked, that is, rulers and authorities and the world-rulers of this darkness. When this happens it is wholly necessary somehow to undergo the death of the soul … for [while we have the help] of the all-powerful God, even if the mountains are provoked against us, they count for nothing. For it is written: “The angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear him, and will deliver them.” But when he withdraws his hand and no longer consents to save, then we shall lie down and be like dung under the feet of our enemies.

“For all these things his wrath has not turned away, but his hand is still raised. Therefore he will raise a signal among the nations that are far off, and will whistle for them from the end of the earth; and behold, they come swiftly, lightly. They will not hunger nor grow weary, [nor slumber nor sleep,] nor will they loose their belts from their loins, nor will the straps of their [sandals] be broken;

… their arrows are sharp, and their bows bent. The hooves of their horses were reckoned as solid rock; the wheels of their chariots like a storm. They rush on like lions, and have stood by like a lion's whelp. He will seize, and there will be none to deliver. And he will roar over them in that day like the sound of a surging sea; and they will look to the land, and behold, harsh darkness in their perplexity.”

That the measure of the wrath against them will not stop at this, from the one who judges justly, but will go even further, the present passage will make clear. … and, caught in the calamities of war, the wretches remained turned away from God and were not out of the wrath. This, I think, is what he means by saying, “His hand is still raised,” that is, striking those who have sinned. For the hand of one who strikes is always somehow raised on high. Then he shows what or how great the provocation of the mountains will be, and who will serve their anger, and with what courage and daring, and with what cruelty toward men beyond the usual they will come, saying: “Therefore he will raise a signal among the nations that are far off.” For those who laid the country of the Jews waste and burned Jerusalem and all the cities of the Jews were not neighbours and borderers of their land, but came from countries far off … and rather perhaps beyond number. And a signal will be given, he says, as in a time of war and battle. For it is the custom of generals, when they are about to arm the multitude under their command for battle, [to raise a standard] on high. The prophet Isaiah also mentions these, saying: “It will be left like a mast on a mountain, and like one carrying a standard on a hill.” For setting up masts on … they hang things from them to which the fighting men look, and so see what the general has decided. He raises, then, the signal, he says, and will whistle for them. This too he takes, again, from the practice with bees. For beekeepers are in the habit of whistling to them, and so of bringing them out from the hives to flowers and grasses, and of bringing them back from the fields and making them settle at home. He will whistle, then, he says. And they will arrive winged and light, caring little about hunger, not afraid of labours, sleepless and most lightly girded, equipped for battle, riding on tireless horses, rushing like a storm, and at the same time destroying and devouring like wild beasts. They will be so hard to face and so terrible that they can win without a battle, since no one comes out against them or is able to give help. At that time there will be lamentation and a mingled cry, so that some will think that nothing else than the roar of the sea is spread over the country of the Jews. There will also be harsh darkness, not at all what is understood as in a mist or at night, but rather that which comes from terrors and perplexity. For the very grievous … of evils darkens the mind. The God of all, then, benefits us in every way. For he does not make his predictions of what will come in vain, and he describes exactly the greatness of the evils, so that, since we are often unteachable and have made nothing of the word that calls us to change of mind, at least, shrinking in fear from falling under such terrible penalties, we may … the divine … wicked things, and carry our heart over to choosing the good for the rest of our life.

“And it came to pass in the year in which King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord Sabaoth sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and the house was full of his glory. And seraphim stood around him; six wings to the one and six wings to the one. And with two they covered the face, and with two they covered the feet, and with two they flew. And they cried one to the other and said: Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth; all the earth is full of his glory.”

The blessed prophets did not perhaps receive the revelations of visions from God one after another, nor without intervals, but rather in turn, as seemed good to the Master, and at times when he who reveals deep and hidden things and knows what is concealed wished to do this. For after this there is light, as it is written. While Uzziah, also called Azariah, was still living and administering the throne of the kingdom in Jerusalem, the blessed prophet Isaiah made the discourses on the things already past. For Uzziah, also called Azariah, was among those most devoted to God; for he is said to have done what was right in the eyes of God. Yet he did not keep the glory of his piety fair and blameless to the end. For having prevailed through God over the neighbouring nations, and having done very many admirable things against them, he became drunk with his good fortune and slid into arrogance. For he reached such a state of mind as to seize the sacred ministry and to come, self-appointed, to serve as priest to God. For entering the divine temple, he wished to offer the sacrifices to God not through the mediation of the Levites, that is, of the priests; but leaping up to the divine altar itself, he sought to burn incense contrary to custom and the law. And he was rebuked by the priestly tribe as one doing unholy things and attempting to annul the law. But since [he thought] it fitting for those of royal rank to act as priests, and made nothing of the counsels of the priests, he was immediately rebuked by God … of the disease. I think that for an exact knowledge of what has been said, the divine oracles written about him should be set out. They are as follows: “In the twentieth … year … Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah [began to reign] … and two years he reigned in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Chalia of Jerusalem. And he did what was pious in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Amaziah his father had done. Only he did not remove the high places; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. And the Lord touched the king, and he was a leper until the day of his death.” This is in the Kingdoms. And in the Chronicles, as I said: “And when he became strong,” it says, “his heart was lifted up to his destruction. And he sinned against the Lord his God, and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. And Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him eighty priests of the Lord, sons of [power; and they stood against King Uzziah and said] to him: It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for us the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated, to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have departed from the Lord; and this will not be to your glory from the Lord God. And Uzziah was enraged; and in his hand was the censer to burn incense in the temple; and when he was enraged with the priests, the leprosy rose on his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord, above the altar of incense. And the chief priest and the priests turned to him, and behold, he was leprous on his forehead. And they hurried him out from there, for he himself also hastened to go out, because the Lord had rebuked him.” And since the law given through Moses commands … [that] the leper [be] unclean, and defiles and declares sharer in the leper's uncleanness anyone who is with him, and Uzziah lived in Jerusalem, all but defiling the whole of Jerusalem by this, the Master kept silence, not dishonouring the holy prophets but rather showing those who lived with the unclean, contrary to what the lawgiver had decided, to be unworthy of his admonition. For so he says somewhere also …

… to the blessed Ezekiel: “And I will bind your tongue, and you will be dumb, and you will not be to them a man who reproves, for it is an embittering house.” He kept silent, then, though he showed his indignation. For Jerusalem was shaken, and the whole country of the Jews was set quaking. We shall learn this too from what the prophet Amos wrote. It runs thus: “The words of Amos, which came to him in Akkarim from Tekoa, which he saw concerning Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.” But when Uzziah died, the time of silence ended with him, and the God of all again gave divine visions to the holy prophets. This is why the prophet Isaiah says: “And it came to pass in the year in which King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord Sabaoth sitting on a throne, high and lifted up.”

That the prophet saw the Son in the glory of God the Father no one would doubt, since John writes plainly about him: “Isaiah said these things when he saw his glory and spoke about him.” And consider, I pray, the dignity of his God-befitting pre-eminence and his power over all creation. For he is on a high and lifted-up throne, crowned very fittingly with the most splendid glories of kingship. And the highest powers, beyond which nothing among created things is said to exist, stand around him in a circle, keeping the rank of servants and honouring him with praises. And he says that all the earth is full of his glory. I suppose we must not think that the divine throne is set on heights of place; that is a silly and wholly senseless notion. The divine throne is set on high inasmuch as … the glory of God's kingdom is understood to be beyond every intelligible nature. And the sitting upon it seems to indicate, as it were, stability, and an establishment and continuance in the sameness of his goods. For so the divine David sings: “God sits on his holy throne.” And the prophet Jeremiah too says to him somewhere: “For you sit for ever, and we perish for ever.” For created nature is always and at every time perishable, and this is the measure of things that come to be; but the Wisdom that is the craftsman and creator of all sits, as I said, that is, has an unshaken continuance in sameness. And he says that the house was full of his glory. For since Israel had not yet committed impiety against our Lord Jesus Christ, the glory of God filled the house in Jerusalem.

But since they denied his kingdom and fell into unholy ways, for this reason they heard the voice of the one who said: “Behold, your house is left to you.” He says that six wings grew on each of the seraphim, so that with two they covered the face, with two the feet, and with two they flew … warming. For there is nothing cold among the powers above, which are, above all, near to God. So we ourselves too, clinging [to him] through faith and a good and most lawful way of life, are made fervent in spirit and warm in love toward God. The seraphim's covering of the face and the feet with their wings, and flying with two, is a symbol that no one can see either the beginning or the end of thoughts or words about God. For the head and the face signify the beginning, and the feet the end. For the Divine is without beginning and knows no ending. We reach, with difficulty, only the things in between, I mean in relation to the times in which the things that once were not were brought into being. They fly, since they have nothing cast down, but their mind is always rather raised on high toward God. For they do not think of things below as we do; the highest powers keep their mind on certain unspeakable heights of thought. Their mouth too is full of praise … and they will serve him, as it is written … not growing weary, as I think, but rather yielding the honours to one another and giving back doxologies in turn. For all things above are in order. And saying “Holy” three times, they close the doxology in “Lord Sabaoth,” setting the holy Trinity in one nature of Godhead. For we confess that the Father has his own existence; and so too the Son and the Holy Spirit. And no account divides each of those named into a difference of nature, but one Godhead is understood in three hypostases. This is attested to us through the holy seraphim themselves, who also say that all the earth is full of his glory, proclaiming beforehand what would be and announcing in advance the mystery of the dispensation accomplished through Christ. For before the Word became flesh, the destroying demon, the dragon, the apostate, held sway over the world under heaven, and the creation was worshipped instead of its Creator and Maker; but when the only-begotten Word of God became man, all the earth was filled with his glory. For every knee will bow to him, and every tribe, and tongues will confess. The blessed David also cried this out beforehand in the Spirit; for he said: “All the nations that you have made will come and worship before you, Lord.” This has been fulfilled now that the multitude from the nations has been called, and all worship him who for our sake became as we are, while remaining in himself above all.

“And the lintel was lifted up at the voice with which they cried, and the house was filled with smoke.”

The prophet saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, with the holy seraphim standing around him in a circle, and he was assured that the house was full of his glory. But now he says that the lintel was lifted up, and [that smoke filled] the house, at the voice with which the holy seraphim cried. Shall we say, then, that the voice became the cause of what befell the house? Yet how is it not most unseemly to choose to think this? In what way, then, shall we approach the meaning of what lies before us? Excellently and wisely. Before the incarnation and coming of our Saviour, while Israel still conducted the life under the law without hindrance and without rebuke, that famous temple in Jerusalem which Solomon built was full of the glory of God; for they performed the sacrifices according to the law in it. But since they did not accept the one who came from heaven in human form and had been proclaimed through the law and the prophets, but rather killed the Author of life, he forsook his house, he abandoned his inheritance. For he turned to the nations, and all the earth was filled with his glory; but the country of the Jews was handed over to desolation, and the temple itself was burned. When, then, according to the prophecy, that is, the prediction or voice of the holy seraphim, all the earth was filled with his glory, then the lintel of the temple was lifted up, and it was filled with smoke. So “at the voice with which they cried” signifies rather a time, and not at all the work and effect of the doxology. And “the lintel was lifted up” signifies, I think, that the temple was abandoned; and his saying that it was filled with smoke, that it was burned. And if anyone should wish to understand these things in another way also, and to say that they were done spiritually concerning the whole nation of the Jews, he would not miss the fitting reasoning. For when all the earth was filled with the glory of our Saviour, the nations having been called through faith, then all spiritual security of the Jews' mind was undone, and the wretches, having taken in, like smoke, the fog of ignorance, became spiritually blind in mind. This is why the Saviour called out to them, saying: “While you have the light, walk in the light, so that darkness may not overtake you.” And that the mind of the Jews is insecure and easily captured by any passion whatever, since it is bereft of help from above, how could anyone used to sound thinking doubt?

“And I said: O wretched am I, for I am pierced to the heart; for being a man and having unclean lips, I dwell in the midst of a people having unclean lips; and I have seen with my eyes the King, the Lord Sabaoth.”

The law given through the all-wise Moses commanded that the profane should not mingle with holy things, and those under it kept very great watch over this. So when the holy apostles were still fishing, the Lord called to them, saying: “Let down your nets for a catch.” When this was done, a great multitude of fish was taken; and the divine Peter, amazed at the power of the word, “fell,” it says, “at Jesus’ knees, saying: Go away from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord.” Yet Peter would not have wished Christ to go away from him; but since he knew the aim of the law, he confessed that he was a sinner and was afraid to be with the Holy One, according to the custom that always prevailed among the Jews. Again, when Christ once came into the country of the Gergesenes and then healed … they marvelled at the divine sign. And Matthew said: “The whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their borders.” Yet how ought they not rather to have laid claim to the one who had healed, and begged him to stay with them and to become the worker of many other miracles? But at that time it was a proof of reverence, and a way of paying the honour owed to holy men, for people to decline to come near them. When Matthew had been called and had followed Christ, and then had invited him to his house, “behold,” it says, “many sinners and tax collectors came and reclined with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples: Why does he eat with sinners and tax collectors?” [On the ground] of the law they accused Christ for being willing to live with wicked men. And God too somewhere accuses those appointed to preside over the synagogue of the Jews, saying through a prophet: “[They did not distinguish] between holy and [profane].” … as I said, and a tradition of the commandments of the law, that those under suspicion of wickedness, whose conscience is not free of sins, should not wish to be with the holy. The blessed prophet is seen to have felt something of this kind; this is why he says: “O wretched am I, for I am pierced to the heart.” And he is not wretched because he is pierced to the heart; how is it not silly to understand it so? But [he says] that he is pierced by his conscience, and it is clear that for this reason he said: “O wretched am I, for being a man … I dwell in the midst of a people having unclean lips; and I have seen with my eyes the King, the Lord Sabaoth.” For since the holy seraphim were offering their doxologies with pure and all-holy mouths, he himself feared the thing, being taught by God and not unaware that praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner, as it is written. The lips of Israel were admittedly unclean; for they have blasphemed against our Lord Jesus Christ. And if the prophet also says that he himself has such lips, although he had no share at all in Israel’s impiety, we say that he speaks modestly, as a saint; and it is likely too that, being of Israel’s blood, he does not put himself outside the charge, but submits himself to the common offence of the people, saving the sinners by this; or else he confesses the sickness of human nature, like what is said by the blessed David about every man: “I said in my ecstasy: Every man is a liar.” For the human mind is sick with falsehood, even if … So the prophet is afraid that, not being as pure as the holy seraphim,

he has seen the Lord Sabaoth, but [keeps silent], although he ought rather to give glory, because his mouth is not so pure. That we must sing hymns with pure mouths would be clear from one of the holy disciples, who says of the tongue: “With it we curse men, who have come into being in the likeness of God. These things, my brothers, ought not to be so. Does the spring pour out sweet and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brothers, make olives, or a vine figs? Neither can salt water make sweet.”

“And one of the seraphim was sent to me, and in his hand he had a coal, which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: Behold, this has touched your lips, and it will take away your lawless deeds, and [cleanse] your sins.”

The divine Paul writes about the holy angels that they are all ministering spirits sent out for service for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation. And the matter is not obscure. For all things among the powers above are in order, and there are measures of honour or of ministry among them, and limits have been set to the glory of each by God, who distributes all things as seems good to him. Yet there is one yoke over all, and they serve the Master’s [wishes], not disdaining the service, but counting genuineness in it somehow as a share of honour and glory. The mystery of Christ, then, is prefigured before the prophet’s eyes, very fittingly ministered by the powers above. One of the seraphim is sent, having a coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And this is a symbol of Christ, who for our sake and on our behalf offered himself to God the Father as a spiritual sacrifice, pure and undefiled, and for a fragrant odour. This is why, quite fittingly, from the altar … and for what reason, it is necessary to say. It is the custom of the God-breathed Scripture to liken the divine nature to fire. For so he appeared to blessed Israel on Mount Horeb, that is Sinai, on the day of the assembly. So too to the blessed Moses himself, as he was shepherding in the wilderness, he appeared and spoke in the form of fire in the bush at that time. Just as the coal is wood by nature, yet is wholly filled through and through with fire and has its power and activity, in this way, I think, our Lord Jesus Christ himself too may fittingly be understood. For “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” But though he was seen as a man like us, by the dispensation, yet the whole fullness of the Godhead dwelt in him, I mean by way of union.

This is why he is also seen to have most God-befitting activities through his own flesh. He touched the bier and raised the widow’s dead son. And he spat and gave sight to the blind, anointing their eyes with clay. Emmanuel, then, is very fittingly likened to a coal: if he should somehow be on our lips, he takes away sins wholly and entirely and will cleanse lawless deeds. Then how will he be on our lips? When we confess the faith in him. So too the divine Paul writes: “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith that we proclaim. For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation.” Let the divine coal, then, be on our lips, burning up the rubbish of sin and melting away the filth of lawlessness, and making us fervent in spirit. And if it is said [that he took it] with the tongs … you will understand neatly that we receive the faith in him, and indeed the knowledge, as with a kind of tongs, through the teachings, or predictions, of the law and the prophets together. Hence the word of the holy apostles too is everywhere sealed as truth. For using the testimonies of the law and the prophets, they persuade their hearers, and themselves all but bring the coal to their lips, [urging them] to confess the faith in Christ …

“And I heard the voice of the Lord: Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people? And I said: Behold, here am I; send me.”

When the coal touched the prophet’s lips and took away his lawless deeds, then he also hears the voice of the Lord; and he no longer fears, and is silent about “wretched am I,” but very readily presents himself for the mission, and going to it as it were of his own accord, says: “Behold, here am I; send me.” And if God says: “Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people?” we say that the voice is not that of one at a loss, nor as though there were a shortage of someone to be sent, but rather of one accusing Israel as very disobedient, yielding to none of those sent before, but rather killing them. For some they insulted, some they stoned, and some they killed, as Christ says, [in the parable] in the Gospels … Whom then, he says, shall I send? And who will go to this people, who, having disobeyed those already sent before, are hard and difficult to face, and have shown by the facts themselves that it is not for just anyone to approach them, but perhaps only for one who has despaired even of his own life? That Israel had become unbending and very unteachable one might learn also from what God said to the blessed Ezekiel. It runs thus: “Son of man, go, enter the house of Israel and speak my words to them. For [you are] not [sent] to a people of deep speech … Israel, nor to many peoples of foreign speech or foreign tongue, nor of heavy tongue, whose words you will not understand. And if I had sent you to such, they would have listened to you; but the house of Israel will not want to listen to you, because they do not want to listen to me; for the whole house of Israel is contentious and hard-hearted.” Fittingly, then, as though at a loss, or rather, as I said just now, accusing those of Israel of very great cruelty, [he says]: Whom then shall I send? The prophet, then, not hesitating in any way, says: “Behold, here am I; send me.” When, then, the divine coal touches us too, we shall be pure of our offences and eager and vigorous for the mission, as indeed the divine disciples did.

For though they were of the Jews, and before their love for Christ had, I suppose, unclean lips like the rest, yet when they accepted the faith, they made the good confession, and the coal touched them too; then they were called to the mission and followed without delay, although the all-wise Moses said: “I beg you, Lord, appoint another who is able, whom you will send,” and Jeremiah again: “O you who are, Master, Lord, behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am too young.” Those in Christ, then, are warmer toward mission and service than the saints of old. And the blessed prophet Isaiah would be a clear type of the thing, saying: “Behold, here am I; send me.”

“And he said: Go, and say to this people: You will hear with hearing and will not understand, and seeing you will see and will not perceive. For the heart of this people has grown fat, and with their ears they have heard heavily, and they have shut their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I heal them.”

The divine Paul writes that a hardening has come upon Israel in part, and explains, as it were, in what way it befell them to suffer the hardening: “For to this day,” he says, “whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart.” And indeed it followed for those who had slipped so far into savagery of ways, being so sick with unruliness that they were willing to yield neither to the writings of Moses nor to the holy prophets, and, I would add, not even to Christ himself, that they should be overtaken by the darkness of a spiritual fog and differ little from senseless stones. This, then, is the prediction the God of all makes, and he charges the prophet to announce to them beforehand: “You will hear with hearing and will not understand, and seeing you will see and will not perceive.” For they heard the Saviour’s voice with their own ears: he taught in synagogues, he spoke out in Jerusalem very many times, but they were like those who had not heard at all. They were spectators of things done beyond nature. For they saw lepers freed from their disease, the lame leaping up, the blind seeing again, the dead rising from their tombs; but they were helped in no way, and the wretches went on as though deprived of their very eyes. This is why they are reproached by the voice of the saints as having always been stiff-necked and disobedient in heart, and as having killed the saints. He says indeed that the hardening was given them so that they should not see with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn, and he heal them. And this was very clearly what Christ said to those who had chosen to disobey: “Do not grumble among yourselves; no one can come to me unless my Father who sent me draws him.” And again: “Everyone who has heard from the Father comes to me.” So they were not called to the knowledge of the Son through the revelation of God the Father, because they were not worthy of the salvation and life that come through him. But if anyone should wish

to approach the meaning of what has been said in another way, he will understand it thus. The God of all, as one who knows hidden things and things to come, foretells and says that they will indeed wholly and entirely see and hear, yet will remain as though they had neither heard nor understood, and will suffer this from their own wicked will. And he adds that in doing these things they plot against their own heads. For they were sick with hardness of hearing and inability to see, “lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and turn, and I heal them.” They themselves, then, have become the causes of their own destruction, … not lending a sharp ear to what Christ said nor opening wide the eye of their own mind. For if they had done this, they would have turned back and, having obtained fitting healing, would have kept their mind safe and sound.

“And I said: How long, Lord? And he said: Until cities are made desolate for lack of inhabitants, and houses for lack of men, and the land will be left desolate. And after this God will remove men far away, and those who are left will be multiplied on the earth.”

The prophet fears that [the hardening] may be continual and unceasing … This is why he asks to learn the time in which this will befall them and how long the sickness will stretch out. And in answer God foretells the ravaging of Jerusalem itself and of the whole country of the Jews, and says: “Until cities are made desolate for lack of inhabitants, and houses for lack of men.” This was fulfilled to the end when [the Romans] … Judea after the Saviour’s cross and his ascension into heaven. And that the punishment of the disobedient will not be measured out only to the point of suffering this, nor will Israel go to ruin wholly, root and all, he shows by saying: “And after this God will remove men far away, and those who are left will be multiplied on the earth.” For they were removed far from God, having killed the saints and having added the Author of life. But those who are left, that is, those who have been saved and have believed in Christ, who are the remnant of Israel, will be, he says, a great multitude. For no small part of Israel has believed; and the blessed prophet Isaiah himself showed this at the beginning of the book, saying: “And if the Lord Sabaoth had not left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah.” Some, however, think the force of these words should be understood in another way.

When the prophet asked and [wished] to learn to what and how long a time the hardening would extend, God answers: “Until the cities are made desolate for lack of inhabitants, and houses for lack of men; and after this God will remove men far away,” so that by this we may understand the time of the consummation. For we must first hear of wars and rumours of wars, and nation must rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and cities and houses be made desolate, and then the end; after which men are at last removed far, that is, after the time of the resurrection, living the holy and age-long life, corruption having been wholly done away, death abolished, and all sin taken away. That Israel has been hardened, yet will be called in the last times of the age, since the God-breathed Scripture says it clearly and plainly, it is idle, I think, to labour the point and to seek what would serve to convince.

“And still the tenth is upon it, and again it will be for plunder, like a terebinth and like an acorn when it falls from its husk.”

The prophetic word now recalls for us a history which, it seems, must be told; for so what is meant will be clear. When, then, as I said before, Vespasian and Titus campaigned against the country of the Jews, the country of the Jews was consumed, burned, cities and houses together. It was a terrible sight, full of all pity for those who saw it, that the nation came to such a dearth of men that one who said that scarcely a tenth of the whole people was left in it would not miss the truth. Then for some time they went on living in peace, yet not free of fears of suffering ravage once again; which indeed happened. For Hadrian, who in his time held the throne of the Roman kingdom, and also Antiochus surnamed Epiphanes overran the country of the Jews, and things were in no way less than the evils of old, the remnants being made desolate in their turn and those who were caught sent into captivity; this was when the sufferings of the Maccabees also took place. The God of all again records such narratives for us in prediction and says: “And still the tenth is upon it, and again it will be for plunder.” For the people of the Jews will not lie outside his care, he says, even if it comes down to a remnant, and a small one; but it will again be for plunder. And then the country will again become to them like a terebinth, and they themselves like an acorn when it falls from its husk. For the terebinth is a plant, but if its leaves are shed it is very unlovely … having its branches [bare]. In this way, I think, the country too, having suffered desolation of those who dwell in it, will surely be like dry plants that have no flower on them, but have also suffered the shedding of their very foliage. Likewise the acorn is the fruit of the oak; but when [it falls] from its husk, [it becomes food] for the animals. So the country of the Jews has imitated the terebinth that has shed its leaves; and those who have fallen away from it by being dragged into captivity will lie like acorns, as though fallen from their own husk that bore them. Solomon too says something of this kind: “As a bird when it [flies down] … removed from his own places.” For what could be more pitiable than those in captivity? What is so wretched and trampled on as for men to fall under the hand of their conquerors?

… the things that befell, in the days of the kingdom, those of Judah and Benjamin, and the ten tribes in Samaria, which [are also called] Ephraim … the prophet sets out, and of necessity he notes them … When, then, Azariah, also called Uzziah, died, Jotham succeeded to the kingdom, who followed the aim and the practices of … thus. And when he too died, Ahaz succeeded to the kingdom, while [Pekah] reigned over Israel … twenty thousand. For the God of all was provoked … burning [his son] through fire to the unclean demons. In … against Jerusalem and Judah, and Ahaz himself … makes a collection of money … And when Pekah son of Remaliah, who reigned in Samaria over Israel, had died, Hoshea son of Elah succeeded to the sceptre; and in his reign Shalmaneser the Assyrian came against Samaria, took it all, carried Israel away captive and settled them in the mountains of the Persians and Medes; then he ordered some of those under him to dwell in Samaria, both the man from Cuthah and the one from Sepharvaim. For so it is written in the Kingdoms; and the account of each of these things in the God-breathed Scripture is long, but I have made the narrative as brief as possible. We shall speak of each point in turn, following the sense of the passage before us.

“In the days, then,” he says, “of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, king [of Judah, Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah,] king of Israel, [went up] against Jerusalem,” and they came to ravage it, “but they could not besiege it.” This is said meanwhile by way of a preface, as in a narrative of what happened. For he shows the plan and the attempt itself, and immediately adds the outcome of the matter: “For they could not,” he says, “besiege it.”

“And it was told to the house of David: Aram has agreed with Ephraim; and his soul was amazed, and the soul of his people, as when a tree in a thicket is shaken by the wind.”

Having defined, as I said, the occasion of the narratives, and having stated briefly, as in a short summary, the attempt of the two kings and that their aim did not come to its end, he now begins to work out each point in detail. For it was told, he says, to the house of David, that is, to the one who reigned, and they reported that Aram had agreed with Ephraim. By Aram he means the Syrian, and likewise by Ephraim the ten tribes in Samaria. Since this was so, the house of David, that is, Ahaz, learned it and believed it. His soul was amazed, and the soul of his people, as when a tree in a thicket is shaken by the wind. He uses “was amazed” in the common sense, instead of “was struck with terror,” and all but lost his very wits. For the dreadful kinds of fear are somehow able to shake the mind and set the soul quaking, and to make one seem to undergo something like what a tree in the thickets suffers, tossed this way and that by the onsets of wild winds. The chief occasion of his cowardice, that is, of his amazement, was what had happened to him. For I have already said that in his reign Pekah made war on Judah and destroyed out of the people in one day a hundred and twenty thousand. When, then, Pekah alone had been so strong as easily to overpower those in Jerusalem, how would Ahaz himself and the people under him not show the utmost fear when the Syrian had agreed and was arming together

with Ephraim against Jerusalem?

“And the Lord said to Isaiah: Go out to meet Ahaz, you and the one who is left, Jashub your son, at the pool of the upper road of the fuller's field. And you will say to him: Take care to be quiet, and do not fear, nor let your soul be faint because of these two smoking firebrands. For when the anger of my wrath has come, I will heal again.”

The Lord is truly compassionate and merciful, and wishes all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth; and he manifestly orders all things, smoothing for each the way of salvation. And we can see from the facts themselves that this is so. For Ahaz was an idolater, an abominable and profane man. But when the lover of compassion saw him already in inescapable evils, and all but drunk with calamities, he at once offers him the opportunity to share in his salvation, and promises help, so as to stop his idol-madness, to prepare him to abstain from his former offences, and to receive the light of the true knowledge of God. He orders the prophet, then, to meet him, with Jashub, which is interpreted “remnant” and “one who is left”; the type as it were signifying to Ahaz in a symbol that the remnant of Judah which remains with God will be saved. For the prophet is taken as a type of God, and very fittingly he makes the promise of help at the pool of the upper road of the fuller's field. The pool, again, is a type of the saving spring of holy baptism, which also carries us to the upper road, and of the spiritual … the promise; and as a type of the universal [salvation] through Christ by means of the partial one, the wise riddle is given to the prophet. He says: “Take care to be quiet, and do not fear, nor let your soul be faint because of these two smoking firebrands.” And to command him to be at rest and to continue free of cares, and moreover to be rid of grievous fears, was the act of one calling him very wisely to obedience, and bringing him back, as it were, to the first principle that one must honour the words about God and readily assent to whatever truth they speak. He calls those who had agreed against him firebrands and smoking logs, as people who are on the very point of ceasing …

… a firebrand, when it is taken out of the fire, smokes, but is about to cease from still having the fire in itself; in the same way, I think, a man too who is about to come to the end either of life or of an undertaking might fittingly be called a firebrand or a log still smoking. And since he knew that they had become very fearful and deeply dejected, because they had been defeated when they fought against Pekah, when, as I said, a hundred and twenty thousand of Judah fell in one day, he frees them from these fears too and says: “For when the anger of my wrath has come, I will heal again”; that is, not even those would have fallen, had not my wrath given them into the hands of their enemies. But if, he says, the effects of anger come against some, I will heal again those who have suffered. For the one who handed them over in anger will easily deliver them because of his innate gentleness and love for mankind.

“And the son of Aram and the son of Remaliah, because they have planned an evil plan concerning you, saying: Let us go up into Judea and, having conferred with them, turn them to us, and we will make the son of Tabeel king over them; thus says the Lord Sabaoth: This plan will not stand, nor will it be.”

He neither allows the report of the schemes against him to be disbelieved, nor lets him be crushed overmuch by fear. Rather, having confirmed and shown to be true the agreements, that is, the compacts, of the two kings against him, he promises help, ordering him rather to rest on it and not to cling to the worship of idols and the words of false diviners, who say countless things to suit the wishes of those who bring them their questions, but speak nothing true. That they planned, he says, to go up into Judea, confer with those under your hand, and persuade them to follow their designs, is true and admitted. For they wish to set up the son of Tabeel. But this will not be, he says. And who is the one who promises? The Lord Sabaoth, that is, the Lord of powers, or of hosts; when he nods his assent that whoever he chooses must conquer, who will overturn what he has decreed? And who can set himself against his divine judgements? He confirms in faith, then, those who are still unbelieving. For those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, as the Saviour himself said. It should be known that by the son of Aram he means the Syrian, that is, Rezin, and by the son of Remaliah Pekah, who reigned over Israel, that is, over the ten tribes in Samaria.

“But the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus Rezin; but yet within sixty-five years the kingdom of Ephraim will fail from being a people; and the head of Ephraim is Somoron, and the head of Somoron the son of Remaliah. And if you do not believe, neither will you understand.”

For those who wish to make plain what is in the God-breathed Scripture there is surely need also of narrating histories, so that truth may follow the divine words on every side. The prophet, then, explains what is in the sacred Writings, through which one can best approach the meaning of what lies before us. In the times of Ahaz's reign, then, Rezin king of Syria and Damascus and Pekah son of Remaliah, who reigned over Israel in Samaria, made an agreement together against Judah and Jerusalem. Ahaz, fearing the attack, persuades Tiglath-pileser king of the Assyrians with money to help him and to overturn the attack of the allies. He came and destroyed Damascus, the metropolis of the Syrians, and killed Rezin himself. And when Pekah too, who was the son of Remaliah, had died in Samaria, Hoshea son of Elah succeeded to the kingdom, a wicked man, given over to the deceits of the demons. While he administered the kingdom, Shalmaneser the Assyrian came up against all Samaria, at once took Hoshea and made him a servant; and having ravaged the whole country and emptied it of the sons of Israel, he settled in their place some of his own people, that is, of those under his hand, the man from Cuthah and the one from Sepharvaim; these, I think, are Persian nations. For so it is written in the books of the Kingdoms. The prophet [gives] us the narrative of this history, saying: “Thus says the Lord: This plan will not stand, nor will it be; but the head of Ephraim is Damascus, and the head of Damascus Rezin; but yet within sixty-five years the kingdom of Ephraim will fail from being a people.” The arrangement of the words is obscure, but one should approach it thus. The head of Aram, he says, that is, of Syria, is Damascus, and the head of Da[mascus is Rezin; for the head] of both the country and the city is the one who reigns over them. And the kingdom of Ephraim will fail from being a people: within sixty-five years the kingdom of Ephraim, that is, of Israel, will fail; the head of Aram, that is, Damascus, will also fail, and the head of Damascus, that is, Rezin. For, as I said, Tiglath-pileser took Damascus and Rezin, and Shalmaneser Hoshea king of Ephraim, that is, of Israel, and Somoron, that is, Samaria, “will fail” being understood in common with all of them; and again the head of Ephraim, Somoron, will fail. He calls Somora the head of Ephraim, that is, Samaria; for Somora is the metropolis of Samaria.

When he says Ephraim, he means Israel; “and the head of Somoron is the son of Remaliah,” that is, Pekah; and again “will fail” runs over all of them. To these he adds: “And if you do not believe, neither will you understand.” The saying is very reasonable. For those who outrage the word of God by unbelief, the understanding that comes from him would not arise. We must, then, receive without delay what comes from God, and readily assent to whatever he promises and speaks. For so good understanding will be in us, and the illumination of his wisdom will shine around our mind.

“And the Lord spoke further to Ahaz, saying: Ask for yourself a sign from the Lord your God, in the depth or in the height. And Ahaz said: I will not ask, nor will I tempt the Lord.”

Ahaz, who held the throne of the kingdom in Jerusalem and had turned very far toward unruliness and toward a love of devoting himself to the false worship of demons, he tries in every way to bring over to what is better, and to reach the doctrines of truth and choose to think rightly about God. Since, then, he set great store by the servants of idols, and was eager to inquire curiously into the outcome of affairs, to ask oracles from shrines, and to be deceived by the words of false diviners, who … Ahaz being about to do this, and [he urges him] to ask for a sign, no longer from their customary shrines or from false diviners, but from the Lord God. And he left the manner of asking to his own choice, saying: “In the depth or in the height,” that is, either toward heaven or toward earth and what is still lower. And by this he assured him and gave him to understand that, being God and Lord of all, he does what seems good to him with authority, whether he wishes to see something in heaven or something on earth. But Ahaz declines, not out of reverence for God; rather the wretch is insulting him, even if he puts on a solemn air with words of piety. For “I will not ask,” he says, “nor will I tempt the Lord.” For since, when God commands him to ask, being unwilling to ask is plainly impious, he pretends that he is unwilling to tempt him, and puts forward, as it were, a word of the law: “For you shall not tempt the Lord your God.” Yet how will not every word cry out against the perversity of Ahaz? For when God himself allowed him to ask, how was it not better to choose to do what he commanded rather than to quibble perversely and make “I will not tempt the Lord” a rotten pretext of obedience? But his aim was not to accept the words from above and from God, but rather, crowning the oracle-monger with his better vote, [to give himself to] lying speech, and perhaps to busy himself with the flights of birds, and to ask help from the demons.

“… is it a small thing for you to provide a contest for men? And how do you provide a contest for the Lord? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.”

Since Ahaz refused to ask for the sign, and would not honour or know the one who is by nature and truly God and Lord of all, [God] tries to teach that he will not be wholly unknown to Israel, nor … But he no longer deems Ahaz worth a word, insolent and hateful to God as he was, but addresses rather the house of David, that is, those of the tribe of Judah, from which Christ too came according to the flesh. And he makes the prediction with great forbearance, as God. For having first charged that they made nothing of offending even the all-powerful God, and, as far as it lay with them, attempted to cause him contests, as it were, and toils, by being unwilling to walk straight, then indeed [he foretells the salvation] of all … O house of David, then, he says, if offending men is not without penalty, why do you provide a contest for the Lord, who does not wish to punish but is very easily able to do so? But since you decline to ask for the sign, I come to it of my own accord, he says; even if you wish to be sick, I bring the healing, since I am kind and a lover of mankind. The Lord himself [will give] you [a sign; in the last] times erring Israel [will know him], and will not be ignorant of the Master, but will be a worshipper of the God who saved him. This was accomplished through Christ, who called Israel to knowledge, freed it from all sin and from wishing to worship wood and stones.

“Behold, the virgin will conceive and bear a son, and you will call his name [Emmanuel]. Butter and honey he will eat; before he knows or prefers evil things, he will choose the good. For before the child knows good or evil, he refuses wickedness, so as to choose the good. And the land which you fear will be left desolate from the face of the two kings.”

Some of those who have translated the divine Scriptures have rendered: “Behold, the young woman will conceive.” The Jews indeed hold that by the word “young woman” the Lord’s Mother ought to be indicated, and not rather that she is called a virgin. For they think that the force of the mystery becomes of no effect if she is called a young woman and not rather a virgin. But one could see that they are ignorant in many ways. First, even if the virgin is called a young woman, she will not on that account fall outside being a virgin. Then they say that the prophet said of the wife of Ahaz, “Behold, the young woman will conceive and bear a son,” so that we should understand … not testing the words of the prophecy, they snatch at what seems so without consideration, and then think they establish their own aim by this alone. But, my good sirs, one might say to them, who called Hezekiah Emmanuel? Or how could they show that before he knew good or evil he refused wickedness, so as to choose the good? So, bidding farewell to their trickeries, we shall accept what is right and true, believing that the holy Virgin is indicated by God through the prophecy before us. For so the sign will be truly beyond expectation and surpassingly great, having come about in depth and height together, according to the divine promise. For the only-begotten Son, begotten from above and from God the Father by nature, emptied himself and was brought forth from virginal loins according to the flesh, not taking his birth from human seed, but from the power and operation of the Holy Spirit. For so it was said to the holy Virgin through the voice of the blessed Gabriel: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power [of the Most High] will overshadow you.” She will bear, then, he says, a son. And you, O house of David, who now, he says, decline to trust in God and to ask a sign from him to confirm what he has promised, because you are devoted rather to idols, will call his name Emmanuel, that is, you will confess God who has appeared in human form. For when the only-begotten Word of God appeared as we are, then he also became [God] with us. For he who is above all creation became as we are. And see how, to show that the same one is truly God and man together, he attributes to him the

divine things and the human. That he truly came to be in flesh he tries to assure us by saying that food fit for infants was his, butter and honey. And that, although he had become flesh, he will be no less superior to sin as God, he teaches again by adding at once: “For before the child knows good or evil, he refuses wickedness, so as to choose the good.” For men who have not yet reached youth, nor come to the measure of age honoured with the understanding that comes with time, would not be at all fit to be able to discern what is bad and what is good; but when the time calls them to it, then they make a free choice of what is to be done. But the divine and highest nature, not among things such as ours but in its own … and shakes off the ways of wickedness, refusing wickedness rather [naturally] and essentially. And not in any other way, I think, than if one should say of light that it refuses to be darkness. For it cannot suffer not to be light. He indicates, then, the divine nature's being always fixed in the good when he says: “He refuses wickedness, so as to choose the good.” And this is true of Christ himself. For even though the Word, being God by nature and having appeared from God, was born according to the flesh through the holy Virgin, yet from the womb and before it, or rather before every age, he was holy as God, not slipping from his own prerogatives because of the human; but neither neglecting the things of man because of the dispensation, so that he might be believed to have truly become as we are and might sanctify our very birth. He says that the land about which [the house of David] was anxious and afraid will be left desolate from the face of the two kings. It is as if he were saying plainly: When the Virgin has conceived and borne, you, O house of David, will call his name Emmanuel; then all who trouble the holy land will leave it. For it will no longer be passable for those who wish … [When Em]manuel [was born], the truly holy land and city, that is, the Church, came into good hope and trampled every enemy, who, knowing it invincible, withdrew and left it, as saved by God. “For I will be to it,” says the Lord, “a wall of fire round about, and I will be for glory in the midst”

“[But God] will bring on you, and on your people, and on your father's house days that have not yet come, from the day when Ephraim took away from Judah the king of the Assyrians.”

To Ahaz, who was greatly troubled at the agreement of the two kings, Rezin and Pekah, … God; and since he wished to establish him further in faith, he told him to ask for a sign “in the depth or in the height.” But when Ahaz declined and said perversely, “I will not ask, nor will I tempt the Lord” (for he sought rather the [oracles] of the false diviners …), he himself gave a sign to the house of David also. For he said: “Behold, the virgin will conceive and bear a son, and you will call his name Emmanuel.” And since the discourse on these things had been very well completed, he moves the prediction of what will be back again to the person of Ahaz himself. For it was necessary, it was necessary, that the foretelling of the salvation through Christ be made to those of the house of David, that is, to those of the tribe of Judah, from which Christ himself rose according to the flesh; but he makes the foretelling of the terrible and dreaded things that would befall in their times to those who had chosen to disobey, so that they might know that it is truly bitter, and not without penalty, for those who dishonour the divine glory to provide a contest for the Lord and to choose to worship, instead of him, others who are not gods. That in time both Jerusalem itself and the whole country of the Jews would fall into the utmost miseries and come under the hand of their enemies, he foretells subtly. The arrangement of the words is rather obscure, and I shall try, as far as I can, to make it plain before all else. “God will bring,” he says, “on you, and on your people, and on your father's house days that have not yet come, from the day when Ephraim took away from Judah.” The sense of the lines is as follows. In the times of the reign of Rehoboam son of Solomon, Ephraim, that is, again, the ten tribes, took away, that is, tore itself away, from the tribe of Judah. For they were separated: the ten tribes, apart from the tribe of Judah, settled in Samaria, while the tribe of Judah and the half-tribe of Manasseh remained in Jerusalem. But as time went on, many dreaded things befell them. For Samaria was sacked, and the surrounding nations overran Judea too. They [suffered], then, many terrible things and experienced days … The king, he says, of the Assyrians, that is, Nebuchadnezzar, who sacked Jerusalem, God will bring: days the like of which had not yet been, or had come upon you, from that time when Ephraim took away, that is, tore itself away, from Judah. And what is this time for us, or what are the days? … [He] took all Judea by force, and burned the divine temple too, and [omitted] nothing at all of cruelty …

“And it will be in that day that the Lord will whistle for the flies, which rule over a part of the river of Egypt, and for the bee, which is in the country of the Assyrians;

and they will all come and rest in the ravines of the country, and in the holes of the rocks, and into the caves, and into every cleft, and in every tree.”

… the onset of war, and that those who come against them in time will overrun all their land, villages and cities. I think it necessary to recount again what is written in the fourth book of the Kingdoms, for an exact explanation of what was to come. Ahaz, then, to whom the word now refers, had a son Hezekiah; Hezekiah had Manasseh; Manasseh Amon. His son was Josiah, a pious man, but he died in this way. Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt left his own land, marched out with his whole army and hastened against the land of the Assyrians. Josiah, fearing that he might come against Judea too and bring it secretly under his hand and rule it, wished to go out against him, although Pharaoh asked to be excused from fighting with him; and resisting, he died in the war. And the Egyptian gained control of the land of the Jews, and came to such strength that he removed from the kingdom Jehoahaz, son of Josiah, who had become king, brought him in bonds to his own country, appointed Eliakim king, laid tributes on the nation, and demanded a large collection of money. Then, after Eliakim had reigned over Judea for eleven whole years, Jeconiah his son succeeded to the throne; then after him Zedekiah, in whose reign Nebuchadnezzar campaigned against Judea, burned all [its cities], and besides the other cities Jerusalem itself, took Israel captive together with the sacred vessels, and did all the things that are recorded in the sacred Writings. The force of the passage before us gives us the narrative of these histories. “It will be, then,” he says, “in that day” (that is, at that time) “that the Lord will whistle for the flies, which rule over a part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee,” which is in the country of the Assyrians. The saying is made as a metaphor from the skill of beekeepers, who by whistling carry the bees from the hives to the fields and bring them back again. He likens the Egyptians to flies, as I think, because of their number and the unpleasant sound of their voice; and the nation of the Assyrians to a bee: a many-coloured bee. Such, somehow, as far as clothing and dress go, are the Assyrians and the Persians; for they love finery, always prize being dressed in many colours, and are sharp-stinging besides. These, he says, will all come and rest in the ravines of the country, and in the holes of the rocks, and in the caves, and on every cleft, and in every tree. For since he has spoken as of flies, he keeps to the figure. He shows, however, that they will search out their whole country, so that none of those in hiding can escape notice, whether they hide themselves in rocks or ravines, or in thickets and glens.

And in another way, among those who provoke the God of all and do not refuse to offend him … the wicked and hostile powers [settle], and the strange passions within us, with no one driving them away, or helping and able to save. For when God wishes to afflict, who is able to help us?

“In that day the Lord will shave with the great and drunken razor, which is beyond the river, of the king of the Assyrians, the head and the hair of the feet, and he will remove the beard.”

Here too we must first put the wording together, and then go on to state what is indicated by the thoughts. In that day, then, he says, that is, at that time, with the great and drunken razor, which is the king of the Assyrians’, who is beyond the river, it is clear that … the hair of the feet, and he will remove the beard. He calls the great and drunken razor of the king of the Assyrians [his sword] … which cuts as it were unsparingly and rejoices in being drunk with the blood of the fallen. This is the sense of the words. We say that it was a mark of the utmost dishonour for people to be seen at one time with head and beard shaven. Indeed, the God of all once threatened the daughters of Zion, who were haughty and walked with outstretched necks and winking eyes, with the removal of their prosperity. For he said: “And it will be that instead of a sweet smell there will be dust, and instead of a belt you will gird yourself with a rope, and instead of the golden ornament of the head, baldness.” … who is beyond the river, he calls the sword … dishonouring themselves for the dead. Hence also the law given through Moses charges those who have received the divine priesthood not to be shaved for the dead like the others, nor to mar the appearance of the beard. For it is written thus … And when Jerusalem had been sacked in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, men from Shechem and from Salem and Samaria, as Jeremiah says, “eighty men with shaven beards and cut, with manna and frankincense in their hands, to bring into the house of the Lord.” Cutting off head and beard with a razor was, then, a mark both of mourning and of dishonour. The prophetic word said that the country of the Jews would suffer this in time. For it will remain, he says, its children lost, mourning and most dishonoured. And if anyone should wish to approach the meaning in another way also, he will think something of this kind. Perhaps by the hairs of the head he means those most honoured, raised above the rest by wealth and rank; for nothing is higher than the head; and by the beard those of intelligence and good sense, for so the beard is always taken in the God-breathed Scripture. And when he also names the hairs of the feet, he probably means those in the last and lowest rank. The drunken razor spared no one at all, but cut off from the country of the Jews, together with those above, the middle and the last, and the intelligent, so as to leave it bare and stripped. For Nebuchadnezzar carried almost all Israel away to the mountains of the Persians and Medes.

“And it will be in that day that a man will rear a heifer of the cattle and two sheep; and it will be that, from their making a great deal of milk, butter and honey will be eaten by everyone who is left on the land.”

His aim is to make plain the working of the razor, drunken and great, that is, of the sword of the Babylonians. For he says that the whole country of the Jews will be stripped bare, and will come to such poverty and dearth of men that the one who is left and saved from the hand of the enemy and remains in the land will be master of one heifer and two sheep, although of old those throughout all Judea used to own and pasture very many flocks of sheep and herds of cattle. This, then, is a clear proof of the utmost poverty. And that they will be very few in number from place to place he shows further, saying: “And it will be that, from their making a great deal of milk, butter and honey will be eaten by everyone who is left on the land.” He says that from two sheep and one heifer there will be so much milk as to suffice to satisfy all who are left, if they wish to take their food from milk. Is it not plain, then, that those who escaped the razor and remained in each place of Judea were utterly few to count? For how many could there be for whom the milk of two sheep and one heifer will suffice for food and satisfaction? What benefit, then, will come from this for us who are spiritual, can be seen from the facts themselves. All who practise hardness of hearing and raise a proud neck against God will waste away in want of spiritual goods, will become utterly few, and will be found destitute of everything that knows how to nourish to spiritual health and can bring them, and very quickly, to the mature man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Such people will hear God saying through the voice of a saint: “Behold, those who serve me will eat, but you will be hungry. Behold, those who serve me …” [Abundant] indeed is the sharing in every good from God for those who have resolved to think his thoughts, to whom he himself has said: “Eat, and drink, and be drunk, my neighbours.”

“And it will be in that day that every place where there are a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels will be for barren land and for thorns; with arrow and bow they will come there, because all the land will be barren land and thorns.”

This would be the work of the great and drunken razor, and a plain proof of the nation's dearth of men. For the war so consumed those who lived in Judea that scarcely a few in number were left in it. This is why he says it will be neglected and become barren land and thorns …, since there are, of course, none who know how to till the soil. For even if there were in one place, he says, a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels, so that each vine is worth one shekel (this is a measure of value), they will become barren land and thorns, so that even if someone should wish to [enter] the place, [he could not] do it without arrow and bow. For the thorns, in no way less than arrows and darts, would at once wound the feet of anyone who wished to walk there. To wish to do what is not lawful will therefore bring us every evil. For we are in a way turned into barren land when we do not refuse to offend God.

For if we do and are willing to think what pleases him and is dear to him, we shall bear virtue as fruit, being counted worthy of his care. For we shall hear Christ saying: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away; and every branch that bears fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” But if we have turned without restraint toward unholy ways, we are filled with the spiritual thorn, every kind of wickedness springing up in us. And the end of the thorn is fire, and useless material is food for fire. The blessed Paul will make this plain to us, saying: “For the land that drinks the rain that often comes upon it, and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to a curse, and its end is to be burned.”

“And every mountain will be ploughed, and no fear will come there. For from the barren land and the thorns it will be for the pasture of sheep and for the trampling of cattle.”

He says that those left in Judea will be few, and will come to such fear and indeed cowardice that, as though under some terrible … they will leave the cities and their old dwellings, and hasten to hide in woods and thickets. For this is the custom of those throughout every country and city, if an incursion of enemies happens. For they run up onto high places … and a remedy for fear is to be in the clefts of the rocks. This the Saviour himself also said to the people of the Jews: “Then,” he says, “let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” So the finest of the lands, he says, will be barren land and thorns …, [their owners] not being allowed even to drive into them because of the thorn; but having fled rather to the mountains, they will there, groaning, take up the labours of farming. For every mountain and every hill will be ploughed, since those who fled to them desire to gather, not what serves wealth and luxury, but whatever meets the necessary need of the body, and it provides a meagre and hard-won food. What reason, then, is there for living in mountains and wishing to till them, though the choice lands are neglected? “No fear,” he says, “will come there.” They will reckon this among themselves, that no fear would come upon them if they chose to live there. Then he shows the greatness of the utmost desolation. For he says that the whole country, from the barren land and the thorn, will be for the pasture of sheep and for the trampling of cattle, that is, for the grazing of flocks: the rich land, rich in vines, bearing olives, most full of trees, always teeming with fruits, flowing with milk and honey, as it is written.

So if we gladden God by obedience in everything, we shall dwell securely in virtue as in a country or city, and shall be greater than our enemies. Nothing at all will terrify us. Rather we shall be careful of all goodness and good works [before] God, freed from the spiritual thorn, “a land of delight,” in the prophet's words, and truly God's field.

“And the Lord said to me: Take for yourself a volume of a new, large book, and write in it with a man's pen, to make spoil of the spoils swiftly; for it is at hand. And make for me witnesses, faithful men, Uriah, and Zechariah son of Barachiah.”

Having made a very sufficient prediction of the things that would befall the country of the Jews in their times, and having shown the greatness of the calamity, God usefully adds what concerns Emmanuel, and, having pointed out the mystery concerning him, shows it more plainly to the prophet. For he had said: “Behold, the virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel.” That he will be the mediator of a new covenant, the first being of course abolished, since it has much weakness, has grown old, and perfects no one as to the conscience, he indicates by saying: “Take for yourself a volume of a new, large book.” And what would “for yourself” indicate but surely that … For he says that the things in the new volume will be given not to those who have chosen to disobey, but to those who have honoured in faith the word about him; that is, the mystery of Christ will be revealed. The volume, then, is new and large. For the new and fresh covenant, which speaks the mystery of Christ, is not composed like the first, nor will it be seen to have the lowliness of the history of the law, but [will be] as in pre-eminence and height of knowledge and doctrines. Hence the divine Paul too says that he most gladly counted all things in the law as loss because of the surpassing worth of the knowledge of Christ. It is evident, then, that, the first having grown old, as I said, the new and large volume is taken … as the most holy Paul says. The volume is written with a man's pen. For what reason? When with the eyes of the mind we search into the mystery of the holy and consubstantial Trinity, and then try to tell others, or sometimes the ineffable begetting of the only-begotten Son of God, then indeed we need a pen that is not human and of our kind. For what word will suffice to make plain what is beyond mind and word? For such mighty narratives, beyond all mind, only that pen suffices of which God the Father says through the voice of David: “My tongue is the pen of a swift-writing scribe.” For no one knows the Son except the Father, [nor the Father] except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him. But when we speak of his becoming man, then indeed we need a human pen; which is what the wise John did, saying: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” And it is not at all hard [to tell] his death according to the flesh and his resurrection from the dead with [words] such as ours.

… to announce in [human] words, and that, as a first-fruit and beginning of human nature renewed to incorruption, he went up to the Father and has sat down in the heavens; and that he will come in due time and sit as judge. So the writers inspired by the Spirit write with a man’s pen the things concerning the becoming-man of the Only-begotten. And he adds the command: “Make for me witnesses, faithful men, Uriah, and Zechariah son of Barachiah.” It should be known that at the time when the word about these things came from God to the blessed Isaiah, Uriah was a prophet and Zechariah a priest … the testimony to Christ, that is, the initiation into the mystery and the understanding, or prediction, through the law and the holy prophets. For Christ is the end of the law and the prophets. We say that something of this kind was shown to the holy apostles at the time of Christ’s transfiguration on the mountain. For it is written: “After six days Jesus took Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up [and was transfigured] before them. And his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him.” Consider, then, how Moses and Elijah, that is, priesthood and law (for Moses is both), and Elijah taken to represent the holy prophets, spoke with one another about his departure, it says, which he was about to fulfil in Jerusalem. And what departure? Plainly the end of the dispensation: the cross, the death, the return to life from the dead, the taking up into heaven. For the law prefigured all these things through shadow, and the bright and great choir of the holy prophets foretold them.

“And I went in to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a male child.”

That the birth of Christ according to the flesh was not from blood and flesh, nor from the will of a man, but was something new and unaccustomed and beyond the laws of human nature, God revealed to the prophet. For he who says, “Take for yourself a volume of a new, large book,” himself says: “He went in to the prophetess.” Consider, then, how the mystery of Christ is written with a man’s pen and in words such as ours. For “went in” is the divine Scripture’s customary way of saying “came together,” that is, had marital union. The prophet sees, then, the form of a union taking place with the holy Virgin, whom he says is also a prophetess, teaching a true thing; then he says that a conception took place and a son was born. The rendering of the vision is very swift, setting everything before the prophet for knowledge. For that that all-holy body which was united to the Word was formed from the Holy Spirit, how could anyone doubt? So the working of the Spirit, by which the body in the holy Virgin was fashioned, was indicated obliquely by the form of a union.

For in this respect too Christ became the beginning of those sanctified in the Spirit, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God. He himself, then, was born of the Spirit according to the flesh before the rest, so that we too, through him, [might be] in these things. It must be noted that he commanded Uriah and Zechariah to become witnesses for him to make spoil of the spoils swiftly; and he added: “For it is at hand.” For the law has testified, and also the foretelling of the holy prophets, that Christ, when born, would despoil Satan and plunder his goods, as he himself says, that is, would make his own those who were once that one's worshippers. Christ himself also said this, speaking by way of example: “Or how can anyone enter the strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his goods.” And by saying, “For it is at hand,” he announced that the showing forth of Emmanuel would not be long. He is found saying this also to the blessed Habakkuk: “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay.”

“And the Lord said to me: Call his name, Quickly despoil, Swiftly plunder. For before the child knows how to call father or mother, he will take the power of Damascus and the spoils [of Samaria, before the king of the Assy]rians.”

Having said above, “Behold, a virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call his name [Emmanuel], [he now says: Call his name] … Quickly despoil, Swiftly plunder.” Was the first name for him, then, that is, Emmanuel, idle, and would “Quickly despoil, Swiftly plunder” be the most fitting? We do not say this, but rather the following. It is the custom of the God-breathed Scripture to call the God of all things by different names, and sometimes to devise the names from what is done at particular times. This has been kept in the case of Christ himself too. For he is true God; and that the Word, being God by nature, came to be with us when he appeared as we are, “Emmanuel” would indicate very clearly. But since, having become man, he despoiled Satan and rescued from his perversity those who had long been plundered … “Quickly despoil, Swiftly plunder” would show it. And that as God he was to accomplish the redemption of those on earth by unspeakable power he shows beforehand by saying: “For before the child knows how to call father or mother, he will take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria, before the king of the Assyrians.” The sense of the passage is very deep, and the narrative spiritual. For the divine word is always somehow hidden in obscurities: we shall not find, as in history and in things of sense, that Christ as soon as he was born either despoiled Damascus or the country of the king of the Assyrians, redeeming those carried off from Samaria into his country. But when we take it spiritually, then indeed we shall see the truth. Damascus, then, that is, all Syria, and the country of the Assyrians, that is, of the Persians and Medes, were filled with idols; and for this reason it is called a land of carved images. For there were altars and shrines everywhere, and those who used to frequent the shrines, I mean the tribes of false diviners and those whose art is sorcery. And the whole power of these was the demons worshipped among each people, and Satan their leader. When, then, Christ was about to [take] the power of Damascus, and that of the king of the Assyrians, that is, Satan and the wicked … and to free from slavery under him those who had been deceived, even before he came to the bodily age at which it would be fitting to be able to call father or mother, he made it clear by saying: “For before the child knows how to call father or mother, he will take the power of Damascus.” “He will take” means “he will subdue.” And he will likewise take the spoils of Samaria, that is, he will free the captives, having fought for them, before the king of the Assyrians, plainly the spiritual one, I mean Satan. For he was both the Damascus and the

power of Syria. That the worshippers of idols too have all their hope of salvation in him … and that Christ despoiled Satan as soon as he was born is easy to see. For Matthew writes: “When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, magi from the east came to Jerusalem, saying: Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” And indeed they worshipped him and brought gold and frankincense and myrrh. Do you see how he despoiled Satan and plundered swiftly? And that the aim of his coming looks to the redemption of those who had fallen into spiritual captivity, Christ himself would indicate, saying through the voice of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because of which he anointed me; he has sent me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind.” And the blessed David too [sings] somewhere about him: “Having gone up on high he led captivity captive.” And he himself taught this, saying: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all to myself.”

“And the Lord spoke to me further: Because this people does not want the water of Siloam that goes softly, but wants to have Rezin and the son of Remaliah as king over you, therefore behold, the Lord brings up upon you the water of the river, strong and abundant, the king of the Assyrians and his glory; and he will go up over every ravine of yours and walk over every wall of yours, and will take away from Judea any man who can raise his head or is able to accomplish anything; and his camp will be such as to fill the breadth of your country.”

Having said very well that the birth of Emmanuel through the holy Virgin would be strange and admirable, beyond what is usual among men, and that very many … in due time, he now reveals to the prophet the madness of the Jews that would be directed against him at the time of his becoming man. The only-begotten Word of God came into this world in the likeness of sinful flesh, not having the glory of his God-befitting pre-eminence manifest and visible, nor dwelling, as was his wont, in light unapproachable, nor openly escorted by the angelic powers, nor even perhaps in the glory of an earthly king, but very modestly and humbly and very quietly. God the Father showed us this through the voice of the saints, saying: “Behold, my beloved servant will understand, in whom I am well pleased; he will bring forth judgement to the nations; he will not quarrel or cry out, nor will his voice be heard in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoking wick he will not quench.” Such was the manner of the Only-begotten's dispensation with the flesh. But the wretched Jews, not understanding at all the mystery concerning him, … and sought to kill him, saying: “We do not stone you for a good work, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” And they continued hard and unruly to the end. For they led him to Pilate, saying: “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” And when he, all but smiling at this, said, “[Shall I crucify] your king?” [they answered: “We have no] king but Caesar.” See how they refused to be ruled by him and enrolled Caesar and men as their kings. God, then, makes this very thing plain to the prophet in a riddle. And since I suppose it fitting to give the account befitting the events of that time … [he likens the water of Sil]oam to the kingdom under God, which the Jews dishonoured, and came under another and were given over to their enemies. This is why he says: “Because this people does not want the water of Siloam that goes softly, but wants to have Rezin and the son of Remaliah as king over you, therefore behold, the Lord brings up upon you the water of the river, strong and abundant, the king of the Assyrians.” That the water of Siloam flows thus

gently, they say, so as to go along without any noise at all. Siloam is interpreted “sent.” He takes it, then, as an image and type of the coming of our Saviour, which happened quietly, as I said just now. And Christ is truly the one sent; indeed the wise Paul too names him the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. He likewise takes Siloam, quite simply, as a type of the kingdom under God. Since, then, this unbending and unruly people does not want to have the water of Siloam that goes gently (for it shakes off the yoke under God and desires rather to be under the kingdom of men, and that those who wish to take advantage, I mean Rezin and Pekah, should prevail over it), for this reason I will let loose upon them the water of the river, that is, of the Euphrates. And since the saying was somewhat obscure, he adds immediately and says: the king of the Assyrians and his glory, that is, all who are under him and every nation that has bowed its neck to him. He likens the multitudes to water; and this is the custom of the God-breathed Scripture. Indeed, concerning Nineveh and the countless multitude in it, he says: “[Like a pool] of waters are her waters.” He keeps to the figure, and says, as of water and a river: “And he will go up over every ravine of yours, and walk over every wall of yours, and will take away from Judea any man who can raise his head or is able to accomplish anything; and his camp will be such as to fill the breadth of your country.” All these things were brought to fulfilment while Jeremiah was prophesying, when Nebuchadnezzar campaigned against the country of the Jews, overthrew the renowned Jerusalem, burned the temple, killed the notables of the Jews, and carried off to his own land, together with the sacred vessels, all the rest of the multitude left from the war. It is evident, then, that upon those who do not wish to have the water of Siloam that goes gently, that is, Christ, or the kingdom under God, the king of the spiritual Assyrians, that is, Satan, will surely leap, and having taken them captive will put them under his own yokes and make them slaves, binding them tight with the cords of manifold sins.

“God is with us. Know, nations, and be defeated; listen, to the end of the earth. Having become strong, … the Lord will scatter; and whatever word you speak will not stand, for the Lord God is with us.”

The prophet's mind leaps up for joy, having clearly recognized the mystery of Christ. Then, taking on the person of the holy evangelists and apostles of that time together with their word, he all but solemnly testifies to Greeks and Jews that … a weapon for those who have made him [their own], and nothing will withstand them.

To the nations, then, he commands that they accomplish these two things: to recognize the mystery of Christ, and to yield to those who teach it. “Know,” he says, and receive the word about him, “and be defeated,” that is, give way and do not resist the holy initiators into the mystery; rather listen to them, “to the end of the earth,” that is, those in every city and country, as far as the very bounds of the world under heaven. And those who are defeated and are willing to yield the victory to the teachers of the truth will readily receive the word about him, and, having believed in Christ, will walk straight toward every good, and, [pursuing] the virtue most dear to him, will inherit a bright and enviable glory. This the prophet says to the multitudes, as from the person of the holy apostles and evangelists. But you, O Jews, having become strong, be defeated. For as far as the purpose of the Jews went, the wretches prevailed over Christ, handing him over to the cross. But they planned a plan which they cannot establish, as it is written. For it was not possible to put the Author of life into the power of death. So even if you thought, he says, that you prevailed by killing the Lord, yet be defeated now, and yield in obedience by accepting the faith; or else know this, that even if you again prevail by not tolerating the teaching, but rebuking savagely those who proclaim the Gospel, you will again be defeated when the Judge at last punishes and exacts the penalty for such long madness. This was indeed done. For after Christ returned to life and went up into heaven, they plotted against the holy apostles themselves, and bringing them into the councils they beat them, accusing them and saying: “We strictly charged you not to speak to anyone in this name, and behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching.” So they seemed to prevail in this too, but all was useless to them, plan, design, and word; for the divine disciples conquered, saying: “For the Lord God is with us.” And they paid a bitter penalty, being defeated, against their will, by the armies of the Romans.

“… the course of the way of this people, saying: Lest they say, Hard; for whatever this people says is hard.”

I said that the blessed prophet, putting on the person of the holy apostles and evangelists, counselled nations and Jews to yield to Christ, and those to the ends of the earth to obey him. Then God, all but marvelling to him at the perversity and great ignorance of Israel, says: “With the strong hand they disobey.” For the all-powerful, unbreakable and all-mighty right hand of God the Father is the Son, through whom are all things and in whom are all things; who abolished death, crushed Satan, despoiled Hades, and [restored] all things to incorruption as in the beginning. So too, through the voice of the psalmist, those saved in Christ say: “The right hand of the Lord has exalted me; the right hand of the Lord has done mightily.” And it is said also in the Odes: “Your right hand, Lord, has been glorified in strength; your right hand, Lord, [has shattered the enemies].” … and they reached such a degree of mental damage that they chose lightly to disobey the strong hand that saves, and to count the matter as nothing. They disobey … likewise the course of this people, he says; whose …

… taking up the person [of the apostles], he said at once: “God is with us.” And what is the course of the people? The faith in him of those who have Emmanuel, the Gospel way of life, the one under the law, as in shadows, being set aside. And they disobey the course of this people, saying: “Lest you say, Hard; for whatever this people says is hard.” For the word of the holy apostles seemed somehow hard to the Jews, because, putting away the shadow as at the due time, they did not allow them to live according to the law of Moses, but rather in the Gospel way and spiritually.

“But do not fear their fear, nor be troubled; sanctify the Lord himself, and he will be your fear. And if you trust in him, he will be to you for a sanctuary, and you will not meet him as a stumbling of a stone, nor as a fall of a rock.”

Having first charged those of Israel with choosing to disobey the course of the people, plainly the people in Christ, and the initiations of the holy apostles, he turns the word of exhortation to them [the apostles], and works an unbreakable mind in them, saying that they must not fear those who disobey them, nor at all admit the [fear] that comes from their perversity …, [but be strong] against their enemies, knowing well that he will be a weapon for them and a tower of strength, and that they will easily overcome those who resist them. This is why he says: “But do not fear their fear, nor be troubled.” If anyone should wish to bring a keen mind to the sense of the passage, he will understand it in another way also. It is as follows. The Jews were afraid … not a little, lest they should somehow offend God, [abandoning] the road of the way of life under the law and accepting the word of the Saviour, who removed them from the types and commanded them to count the shadow as nothing. Indeed they said of him: “If this man were from God, he would not break the Sabbath.” That, then, although the divine disciples were of the Jews, they ought to reject the [fear] of those … in the law, by choosing rather to live in the Gospel way, he charges, saying: “But do not fear their fear, nor be troubled”; rather let the Lord of glory, he says, that is, Christ, be sanctified by you, honoured by faith and feared among you. For so he will be a sanctuary for you, and you will not meet him as a stumbling of a stone, nor as a fall of a rock. He sets two great and choice things in him. First, he will sanctify, he says, you who believe, and will make you partakers of his divine nature through the Holy Spirit; and besides this you will gain not falling upon him as a stone or as a rock of offence. This the wretched Jews suffered through very great ignorance, saying: “We know that God has spoken to Moses; but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” Since, then, they neither sanctified him nor were willing to trust in him, they remained wholly without share in sanctification, and, stumbling as on a stone, they fell and came into every evil.

“… who sit in Jerusalem [in a hollow]. Therefore many among them will be powerless, and will fall and be crushed, and will draw near, and men who are in safety will be taken. Then those who are sealed, so as not to learn the law, will be manifest.”

The wise writer of Proverbs said: “Son, let not your heart envy sinners, but be in the fear of the Lord all the day.” For it would befit those who are truly sound of mind to become imitators, not of the perversity of the wicked, but of the goodness of the good. Since, then, he counselled the holy disciples to make Christ their sanctuary, to trust rather in him, and to count as nothing the madness of their persecutors, he necessarily added how many and what sort of things … the house, he says, of Jacob, that is, the Jews, sick with very great and unceasing madness against Christ, will be like those caught in a snare and hunted to destruction; or like those in hollows, that is, those who have slipped into a pit. For this reason many among them will be powerless, and will fall and be crushed, and will draw near, that is, will be near and not far from being destroyed. For they will be without strength and crushed, and easy for their enemies to take. And this was what was said about them by God through the voice of a prophet: “Behold, I bring weakness upon this people, and they will be weak among them, … his [neighbour] will perish”; although for those called in Christ the Lord is [strength and] song, as it is written. And the divine Paul will confirm it, saying: “I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.” Those who disbelieve, he says, men who are in safety, will be taken. For as far as the help from above, which always belonged to those of Israel, was concerned, they were in a way impregnable and hard to fight for their enemies, visible and invisible. For God said somewhere about Jerusalem: “And I will be to it, says the Lord, a wall of fire round about, and I will be for glory in its midst.” [But now] they continue in the world bereft of all safety, spiritual and of the senses. For the grace of the Saviour has passed over to others, that is, to those from the nations. And then, he says, those who are sealed, so as not to learn the law, will be manifest. And who would these be in turn? Plainly those justified in Christ and sanctified through the Spirit, to whom it would fit to say: “The light of your face has been signed upon us, Lord.” For the image and likeness and, as it were, the face of God the Father is the Son; and the light sent from him to us is the Holy Spirit, through whom we have been sealed, being re-formed to the first image through sanctification. For we were made according to the image and likeness of God who created us. They will be manifest, then, he says, that is, distinguished and very well known to God and eminent in the world, those who [are sealed] by the Holy [Spirit] … Shall we, then, abstain from the readings of the law?

Yet how is it not ignorant to think so, when Christ says plainly: “Therefore I tell you that every scribe who has been made a disciple for the kingdom of heaven is like a rich man who brings out of his treasure new things and old”? So we do not refuse to know the law; but to know it in such a way as to choose to live by the law, that is, in the Jewish way, is to be shunned. For we shall not sacrifice oxen, nor honour the God of all with sacrifices of blood; rather we shall offer him spiritual worship for a fragrant odour. For as the Saviour says: “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” And that for those sealed by the Holy Spirit for newness of life it is great loss still to wish to conduct themselves and live in the Jewish way, that is, according to the shadow of the law, the blessed Paul will confirm, saying to those who after faith were going back, as it were, to the worship in shadows: “Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” And again: “I say to you that if you are circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. You have been severed from Christ, you who live by the law; you have fallen from grace. For we by faith await the hope of righteousness.”

“And he will say: I will wait for God, who has turned away his face from the house of Jacob, and I will trust in him.”

By these words the prophet tries to assure us. For the God of all had called to them concerning Emmanuel: “Sanctify the Lord himself, and he will be your fear. And if you trust in him, he will be to you for a sanctuary.” And they, accepting very gladly the word of initiation into this, promise obedience without any delay, and, setting all their hope on him, say: “I will wait for God, who has turned away his face from the house of Jacob, and I will trust in him.” And what would “I will wait” mean? Surely that which the divine David also said: “I waited patiently for the Lord, and he attended to me.” He waits for the Lord who has chosen to think what seems good to him, follows his nods, and very gladly endures the contests for the sake of piety toward him. For to this the Spirit urges them through the psalmist's voice, saying: “Be manly, and let your heart be strong, and wait for the Lord.” I will wait, then, he says, for God, who has turned away his face from the house of Jacob. See, see then, how much good sense they have besides their obedience. For from the things by which others offended and indeed suffered the turning away of the divine face, by these very things they make their own hearts more secure in their inclination toward what is better. For they fear the turning away of the divine eyes. For the judge does not respect persons, and fittingly and reasonably, according to the ways of each, he will either bestow [praise] … No one would doubt that he will wholly and entirely … bestow praise or bring on punishment. And those who have outraged him by disobedience he will put out of his presence and count hateful. As for those who have honoured him by faith, he will count them dear while they keep the faith, but will turn away from them if they let go their sincerity, and will count them equal to those who have not believed at all, or perhaps even worse. For it is written about some: “For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of truth than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.”

“Behold, I and the children whom God has given me; and they will be for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord Sabaoth, who dwells on Mount

Zion.”

When they had very well made the good confession (for they said: “I will wait for God, who has turned away his face from the house of Jacob, and I will trust in him”), he immediately brings in the person of Emmanuel himself, granting to those who have set their hope on him a kinship, plainly the one through the Spirit. For the Son has put his own Spirit into us, and we have become his kin; and in him we cry, “Abba, Father.” He names us, then, children of the Father, as having rebirth through the Spirit, so that we may also be called brothers of the one who is truly [Son] by nature … “I will announce your name to my brothers.” Yet even if he became a brother and was called our firstborn because of the human, although he is God and only-begotten Son, we have not been ignorant of his glory and his pre-eminence over all creation. We know that we have been given to him by God the Father. And he himself is found saying this to the Father and God in the heavens: “Those whom you have given me out of the world were yours, and you gave them to me.” For the Son is by nature Lord of all, and rules together with God the Father over everything that has come into being. Since he also became man, to whom all things are said to be God-given and allotted, he is said to receive what he possessed as Lord, as God. “For ask of me,” he says, “and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession.” He rejoices, then, in those who trust in him, that is, those called through faith to the knowledge of the truth; and, all but stretching out his hand, he points them out, saying: “Behold, I and the children whom God has given me.” Who, then, says this? Plainly Emmanuel. Who will be, he says, for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord Sabaoth, who dwells on Mount Zion. For so that those throughout all the earth might believe that, being God by nature, he became man, and, being Lord of all, bore the form of the servant by the dispensation for our sake, he worked very many signs throughout Judea and made a most effective proof of his divine pre-eminence by the things done beyond expectation and beyond reason: now raising the dead, now rebuking unclean spirits, and giving sight to the blind with authority. The prophetic word will be an indictment of the perversity and impiety of the Jews. For he says that the signs and the wonders came from the Lord Sabaoth who dwells on Mount Zion; but they, leaving no outrageous deed or word untried, dared to blaspheme, saying: “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.”

“And if they say to you: Seek those who speak from the earth, and the ventriloquists who speak empty words, who speak from the belly, … will not a nation [seek] its God? Why do they seek the dead concerning the living? For he gave the law as a help, so that they may not speak like this word, concerning which there are no gifts to give for it.”

Emmanuel himself weaves an instructive word for those who have set their hope on him, who have been reckoned among the children and have been given to him by God the Father, as to a Saviour and Redeemer and Life-giver, able to enlighten and to free from every evil; and he wholly removes them from their ancient customs and their former madness. For the worshippers of idols are accustomed to love attaching themselves to … diviners from the demons, who say nothing true, but belch out, as it were, whatever simply comes into their mind. But you, he says, even if someone should come to you and say, “Seek those who speak from the earth,” that is, those who pretend to bring up the dead and to make their divinations as from Hades, or the ventriloquists, who pretend to have certain gods in their belly and so to tell those who come to them what those gods say, do not accept the counsel. For they speak from their own belly alone, and they are not an understanding nation, so as to seek God and learn something from him. And say to those who counsel those things: “Why do they seek the dead concerning the living?” Do you see how he makes them most sensible? Not [only free] of … and madness, but he also commands them to become good counsellors for those who have gone astray. For say, he says: “Why do they seek the dead concerning the living?” For the reasoning is common and human. What sense would it make to wish to ask about those still living those who lie in the earth, or souls that have perhaps come to Hades? And in another way too, it is utterly ignorant to attend to necromancies and the lying speech of sorcerers, who have a dead mind and, as it were, a heart grown cold. For they do not know the Creator of all; they do not have in themselves the life-giving word of God. Besides this, they also busy themselves with dead works. How, then, should the living, that is, those who have in themselves the giving of life from above and are enriched with the living Word of God, ask the dead about themselves? Say these things, then, he says, adding that he gave the law as a help, that is, the Gospel law, so that those who attend to it may say: “Not like this word, concerning which there are no gifts to give for it.” For those who speak only from their own heart sell falsehood; but the saving and true law of God, that is, the Gospel ordinance, which has been given for the help of those on earth, is not like this word, that is, the word of the false diviners. Nor are there gifts to give for it. For, as I said just now, some buy with silver the lying speech of sorcerers. But the heavenly ordinance lies open to those who wish it, through which we have learned about all that is to come. For to whom is it not plain that if we do good things and keep our love for Christ sincere, everything will be as we would wish? For it makes us blessed both in this world and for the age to come. The knowledge of the law given by Christ for our help, then, lies open, without silver and without any gift, to those who wish it. And this was what was wisely said through the voice of Isaiah: “You who thirst, go to the water, and you who have no silver, go and buy without silver and [without price].”

“And a harsh famine will come upon you, and it will be that when you are hungry you will be grieved, and you will speak evil of the ruler and of the ancestral things. And they will look up to heaven above, and they will look down to the earth; and behold, affliction and distress and darkness, narrow perplexity, and darkness so as not to see; and the one who is in distress will not be at a loss until a time.”

He turns his word to the disobedient nation, that is, to Israel, who, though they had broad and abundant exhortation from God and luxuriated richly in the teachings of the law for knowing what makes for profit, did not accept Christ. This is why they slipped from their kinship with him, the spiritual one of course, and perished as from famine. For the God of all said through the voice of the prophets: “Behold, I bring a famine on the land, says the Lord: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord; and from east to west they will run about seeking the word of the Lord, and they will not find it.” When, then, he says, having killed the Author of life, you endure a harsh and unbearable famine, not having the word of God, the bread from heaven that gives life to the world, then you will be hungry. And indeed, coming to a sense of what has happened, you will speak evil of the ruler and of the ancestral things. And what is this? The leaders of the Jews, I mean the scribes and Pharisees, did not cease inciting the multitude under their hand against Christ, the Saviour of us all, and took as the pretext for their madness against him their reverence for Moses and the law. For they persecuted him, saying: “If this man were from God, he would not break the Sabbath.” So they persuaded them to persecute him as a transgressor of the law. When, then, he says, you who were deceived by them are hungry, then you will speak evil of every ruler of yours and of the ancestral things, that is, the customary usages. For you will remember that your leaders incited you, and the pretext of the rulers for their madness against Christ was the ancestral things, that is, the customs and the traditions, and not at all only those given through the law, but also the [command]ments of men. A harsh famine, then, will come upon you; looking around above and below and gazing everywhere, that is, turning about the eye of the mind, you will see nothing else, he says, but narrow perplexity and darkness, so as to be unable to see anything useful. “And the one who is in distress will not be at a loss until a time.” He again foretells the calling of the nations. For those who are now, he says, in distress, pressed by a famine of divine teachings, will not be at a loss. For Emmanuel will grant them the blessing, will set before them spiritual food, and will spread the divine table for them, saying: “Eat and drink, and be drunk, you neighbours.” And this will be, he says, “until a time,” that is, it will not come to fulfilment now, when the word of prophecy about them was spoken, but at the due time when Emmanuel shines on those on earth. For then the multitude of the nations was called.

“Drink this first, act quickly, land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, way of the sea, and the rest who inhabit the coast and beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people walking in darkness, see a great light; you who dwell in the land and in the shadow of death, light will shine on you. The greater part of the people, which you brought down in your gladness; and they will rejoice before you like those who rejoice in harvest, and as those who divide [spoils].”

Having said that those who chose to disobey Emmanuel would be pressed by harsh famine and perplexity, and having foretold that those in distress would not be at a loss until a time, according to the sense already given, he begins to show who were the first to believe and became the first-fruits of those called to the knowledge of Emmanuel, who says: “Behold, I and the children whom God has given me”; who also became for signs and wonders in the house of Israel from the Lord Sabaoth who dwells on Mount Zion. For they say that the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali lie beside the lake of Tiberias and are at the extremities of the country of the Jews, so as to border on Galilee of the nations, which is distinct from the Galilee by the country of the Phoenicians. They say that the holy apostles came for the most part from these tribes. And indeed Matthew [relates] what concerns their calling …

… the blessed evangelist, in his explanation, first brings Jesus into the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali. Then he adds clearly in what way he made the holy apostles his chosen ones. He writes thus about Christ: “And leaving Nazareth he came and dwelt in Capernaum by the sea, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken through Isaiah might be fulfilled, saying: Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations, the people sitting in darkness [saw] a great light, and for those sitting in the land and shadow of death, light has dawned on them.” And he adds to these: “Walking by the sea of Galilee he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them: Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they immediately left the nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. And they immediately left the boat and their father and followed him.” It should be known that the sacred Scripture calls the lake of Tiberias the sea of Galilee; there the divine disciples were found plying the craft of fishermen. The God of all, then, speaks the words through the prophet's voice for the present as to the districts or the cities of the tribe of Zebulun and Naphtali, which lay beside the lake of Tiberias; and, as it were, giving them the cup of salvation and offering the wine that gladdens the heart of man, plainly the preaching about Christ, he says: “Drink this first, act quickly,” that is: O land of Zebulun and Naphtali, receive the saving preaching. But do it quickly, that is, without any delay. And the disciples, as I said, were swift and went very readily to believe in Christ; for they followed at once, leaving the nets and their father, and they needed no long initiation. For they heard, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men,” and they followed him. In the same way [we find] others of the holy apostles also called and having made the word of initiation into Christ [their own]. For John writes about Christ, the Saviour of us all: “The next day he wished to go out into Galilee; and he finds Philip, and Jesus says to him: Follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the country of Andrew and Peter. Philip finds Nathanael and says to him: We have found him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” And when he came to Jesus and then heard him say, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you,” he believed at once … “[You are] the Son of God, you are the King of Israel.” And Bethsaida again, from which Philip was, … The blessed David too recalls the declaration of the disciples, and says: “There is Benjamin the youngest in ecstasy, rulers of Judah their leaders, rulers of Zebulun, rulers of Naphtali.” And that not the divine disciples alone would be called in their time, but also the flocks of the nations, he shows by saying: “And the rest who inhabit the coast and beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations, the people walking in darkness, see a great light; you who dwell in the land and shadow of death, light will shine on you.” For they walked like those from the nations and spent their time in this world like those in night and darkness, because they did not have the light in their mind …

of the true knowledge of God, but fall as into a pit [in the dark], and stumble, as it were, on every evil as on a stone. He says that they dwell in the land and shadow of death because there was nothing among them, that is, in their countries, but only fog and darkness, plainly the spiritual kind, and they were as in the likeness of the dead, though still living. For the shadow of bodies wholly imitates their shapes and differs from them in no way, as far as likeness in shape, I mean, goes; and not to know the God who is God by nature and truly is in a way an imitation and shadow of death. But light shone on those sick with those things, plainly after [the coming] of Christ and the Gospel ordinance. From there came the greater part of the people which you brought down in your gladness. For those called from the nations are far more numerous than those who believed from Israel. So, he says, the greater part of the people saw a great light, “which you brought down in your gladness.” He put “you brought down” for “you called back” and “you redeemed,” as people who had become captives through the devil’s greed. “These will rejoice before you as those who rejoice in harvest, and as those who divide the spoils.” We shall understand what is meant here in two ways. If those who rejoice in harvest and divide the spoils are the divine disciples, we say that, gathering those from the nations like grain into the Master's storehouse and cutting them off from the ancient error, they rejoice in the same way as those who reap in the fields; and, snatching as from a tyrant's greed those deceived by Satan and moving them through faith to piety, they rejoice like those who divide the spoils. For some persuaded these, others those; and to each the saved were gain, as the spoils of war to the victors. But if one should say that this is said of those who have believed, let us consider that in the time of their wandering they had no fruit of righteousness, but became rich in it when they believed in Christ. And though of old they were sacked and plundered by the demons and Satan, through Christ they conquered those who of old despoiled them and became superior to their perversity. So they too rejoice, as the prophet says, as those who rejoice in harvest, and as those who divide spoils.

“Because the yoke lying on them will be taken away, and the rod on their neck; for the Lord has scattered the rod of the exactors as in the day of Midian.”

Those on earth were free, and very well made according to the divine image, created, as the blessed Paul says, for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them; but the inventor of lawlessness took no small advantage of them, and having turned them from love toward God, made them his own worshippers, hanging on them the yoke of sin, hard to escape. When they were faring wretchedly and were in these evils, Christ rescued above all those from the nations and made them free again. This is why he says: “The yoke lying on them will be taken away, and the rod on their neck.” By the rod I think he means either the sceptre, that is, the kingdom, plainly that of Satan, or perhaps the compulsion, and as it were the blow and the whip. For the foul and profane throng of demons, and Satan their leader, hold us fast to their own will, all but striking us with a rod through the tyranny of the passions which they bring upon the mind, and they force the heart to wish to do what is unlawful. They will shake off, then, he says, the yoke of greed, and also the rod which they always had on their neck, like servants subject to their master's blows. And again he recalls a history recorded in the book of Judges. It is this. Those of Israel in the days of the Judges abandoned the God of all and turned to unholy ways, and grieved not a little the God who helped them, devoting themselves to idols and to the works of

their own hands. This is why [the Midianites] … the land, plundering cities and villages, and … in the fields. And they put such fear into the wretches that they chose to live in rocks and the impassable parts of the mountains, to busy themselves with hiding in caves, and to be worn down by a savage and long famine. But God pitied them, worn out not a little, and then saved them by the hand of Gideon, who conquered the Midianites and freed Israel from the compulsion and the rod that hung over them. So, then, the Lord scattered the rod of the exactors as in the day of Midian. For as he rescued then those [pressed] by unbearable greed, so he saved those from the nations, driving away the rod of the exactors. By exactors he means Satan himself and the demons, whose aim and whole zeal is to exact from men, like a tribute or tax, their customary sins. For they surely seek sexual immorality from one used to fornicating, theft, or simply robbery, from the thief, and from each of those in passions what is customary and dear to him. Hence, I think, the sacred Scripture calls some blessed as not having heard the voice of the tax collector.

“For every garment gathered by deceit, and clothing with exchange, they will repay, and they will wish that they had been burned with fire. For a child was born to us, a son, and was given to us, whose rule was upon his shoulder; and his name is called Angel of great counsel; for I will bring peace upon the rulers, peace and health to him. Great is his rule, and of his peace there will be no bound, upon the throne of David and his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it in righteousness and in judgement, from now and for ever. The zeal of the Lord Sabaoth will do these things.”

The remnant of Israel has been called through the holy apostles to the knowledge of Emmanuel; and the nations too have been called. Indeed he said: “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,” and then added to these: “Galilee of the nations, the people sitting in darkness saw a great light,” plainly the light of Christ who enlightens spiritually, no longer the one nation of Israel only but rather the whole world under heaven. That they would [shake off] the yoke and escape the rod, he assured them by setting down beforehand: “Because the yoke lying on them will be taken away, and the rod on their neck.” But we see that for those who worshipped the creation and [bowed down] to the works of their own hands … and for those of Israel the burden of the law was hard to carry and truly an unbearable load. Indeed the blessed disciples rebuked those who after faith were persuading some to keep what is in the law, saying: “Now, then, why do you put God to the test by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear?” The yoke of the law, then, was very hard to bear for those of Israel; and besides this, still more burdensome, was the perversity of the Pharisees … crushing them not a little by their greed. For the leaders of the synagogue of the Jews were lovers of money, having one aim, to collect from every side and to oppress the peoples under their hand. So it would very rightly fit those of Israel too: “Because the yoke lying on them will be taken away, and the rod on their neck.” By the rod he probably names the greed of their leaders, because they had turned terribly to love of gain. For this reason the wretches killed even the Son himself. For when they saw that he was the heir, they said among themselves, it says: “Come, let us kill him, and let us have his inheritance.” That, then, having such an impious and unholy aim in this, they would most gladly have endured the loss of all they had rather than see Emmanuel shine upon the world, he indicates by saying: “For every garment gathered by deceit, and clothing with exchange, they will repay, and they will wish that they had been burned

with fire. For a child was born to us, a son, and was given to us.” For they amassed their money, he says, from deceit and fraud and from judging not rightly; but it was sweet and dear to them to send away and throw off even their very clothing and garments “with exchange,” that is, with an addition, or rather, he says, they wished to be burned up even with fire, being greatly vexed that “a child was born to us, a son.” For having been entrusted with the Master's vineyard, they wished to have the fruits themselves alone, bringing nothing at all to the Master. And by saying that a child was born, he clearly refutes the weakness of the opinion of the Manichaeans, who refuse to say that the Word became flesh, that is, bore our flesh for our sake by the dispensation. But if they wish to think rightly and to condemn their own ill counsel, let them not dishonour the words of the prophet, who says that a child was born to us. For where there is truly a birth from a woman, what place could there be for saying that the coming took place in seeming and shadow, and as in mere appearances? He says, moreover, that the son was given to us. For the only-begotten Word of God became man not for himself, but rather to renew our state to what it was at the beginning, and to offer his own body as a ransom for the life of all, for a fragrant odour to God the Father. He says that his rule came to be upon his shoulder. Some think something like this: since, they say, our Lord Jesus Christ, carrying the cross on his shoulders, [went] to the saving passion, and was lifted up and through it gained mastery over the world under heaven, for this reason his rule is said to have come to be upon his shoulder. The saying is persuasive, and a sense that is right should not be dishonoured, should anyone choose to praise it. But the prophetic word here seems to wish to indicate strength by the shoulder. For all our strength is in arms and shoulders. And indeed the Son is called the right hand and arm of God the Father.

“Lord,” it says, “who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” Christ, then, ruled over the world under heaven by his own power; for he is the strength of God the Father. And he is called the Angel of great counsel, plainly of God the Father's counsel. The wise John will testify, saying about him: “Whoever receives his testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God.” And he himself says somewhere to the holy apostles: “You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” For this reason too, then, he names Emmanuel the Angel of great counsel. And since he became man, he himself referred to God the Father the activity and power in all that he did; and God the Father himself indicates this very thing to us through these words, saying: “For I will bring peace upon the rulers, peace and health to him.” Christ gave the holy apostles the peace that exists as his own. For all that is the Father's is his; and indeed he said: “My peace I give you; my peace I leave with you.” And if it is said that Emmanuel himself receives peace and health, consider again the skilful wisdom of the dispensation with the flesh. For he received peace, plainly from the world, the Father bringing all to him and persuading them to make peace with him by worshipping him and receiving the yoke of his kingdom. “For no one can,” he says, “come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” And the wise Isaiah too cried out somewhere beforehand: “Let us make peace with him, let us make peace, you who come.” He receives peace from the Father, then, in this way, as I said. For we have heard him say to the Father in heaven: “Those whom you have given me out of the world were yours, and you gave them to me.” And he receives health also, that is, the return to life from the dead. For since he is said to have been weak for a little, because he allowed his own flesh by the grace of God to taste death for all, he receives health, that is, the return to life, and this again he worked himself. For he raised his own temple, being himself the power of the Father. For if he is the resurrection and the life, what would life have needed for being made alive? And if he is seen raising the bodies of others by his own power, how would he not raise his own before the others? Indeed he says to the Jews himself: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it.” That the kingdom of Christ is unshakable and firmly established for ever he teaches, saying: “Great is his rule, and of his peace there is no bound.” For he ruled no longer over Judea alone, but rather over the whole world under heaven. And there will be no end of the peace offered to him by us. For we make peace with him, we worship him, as I said, and through him and in him God the Father, striving to put away the sin that brings about war. That he came to free the nation of the Jews he teaches by setting down: “Upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it in righteousness and in judgement, from now and for ever.” And since the blessed prophet has made his discourse about Emmanuel sufficient for us, he gives the time of the becoming man, saying: “The zeal of the Lord Sabaoth will do these things.” What zeal, and over what, it is necessary to say. The apostate Dragon seized the world under heaven and put under his own sceptres man, made according to the image of God. What was done against us was truly worthy of all zeal and full of every greed; the zeal of the Lord Sabaoth, then, freed those throughout the whole earth. And in another way: those of Israel provoked him to jealousy with what are not gods, as it is written, and with their vanities, and at the last they crucified Emmanuel. They were provoked to jealousy by the nations, as he himself says: “They provoked me to jealousy with what is no god; they angered me with their idols; and I will provoke them to jealousy with what is no nation; with a senseless nation I will anger them.”

[Heading:] “The Lord sent death upon Jacob, and Ephraim, and those who dwell in Samaria, in insolence … sycamores and cedars, and let us build ourselves a tower.”

… Emmanuel; having brought this to a fine conclusion, he goes back again to what he said at the beginning. That was this: he was charging Israel severely with being disobedient and provoking the God who had always saved them, and with casting themselves for this reason into the worst evils. For he said that “they did not want the law of the Lord Sabaoth, but provoked the word of the Holy One of Israel. And the Lord was angered with wrath against his people, and he laid his hand on them and struck them. And the mountains were provoked, and their carcasses became like dung in the middle of the road.” By the provoked mountains he means the kings of the Assyrians, who … had become … in mind. They shook all Samaria from its foundations, took Israel captive, and carried them off to the mountains of the Persians and the Medes. Having completed, then, as I said, the announcement of Emmanuel, he follows again the aim set out at the beginning and narrates the ravaging of Samaria, saying: “The Lord sent death upon Jacob, and it came upon Israel.” One should know that … in place of “death” have put “word.” “For the Lord,” it says, “sent a word upon Jacob, and it came upon Israel.” And what kind of word? One that condemns … Whether God sent a curse or a word, the force of the ideas will not be inconsistent; it will rather go to one and the same aim.

He recalls a piece of history here, which I will tell briefly; for in this way what is meant will become clear, though with difficulty. At various times, then, men both good and wicked reigned in Jerusalem over Judah, that is, Jacob; and no less over Israel those of the tribe of Ephraim reigned in Samaria. For the first of them to reign, Jeroboam son of Nebat, was of the tribe of Ephraim, and he also persuaded them to worship his golden heifers. Of those who reigned from time to time both in Jerusalem and in Samaria, very many, as I said, offended God without fear: they were profane and idolaters, worshipping the host of heaven and impiously serving wood and stones. Such was this Ahaz too, who even passed his own children through fire, did a great many evils in Jerusalem, and acted lawlessly even against the divine temple itself. When he had been taken from the midst, seized by death, Hezekiah succeeded to the sceptre. Hoshea son of Elah was reigning in Samaria over Israel, that is, over the ten tribes; while he held the kingdom, the king of the Assyrians marched against Samaria, and together with it he also took many other cities of Judea. Then after this … God … Jerusalem marvellously, since Hezekiah was pious. It is written thus in the fourth book of Kingdoms: “And it came to pass in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, that is, the seventh year of Hoshea … king of the Assyrians … against Samaria, and besieged it.”

“And he took it at the end of three years, in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is, the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel. And Samaria was taken, and the king of the Assyrians deported Samaria to the Assyrians, and settled them in Halah and in Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the mountains of the Medes, because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord their God, and transgressed his covenant, all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded; and they did not listen, and did not do it. And in the fourteenth year … of the Assyrians … against the fortified cities of Judea, and took them.” These things, then, are from the sacred Scriptures. That Sennacherib laid waste Samaria when he was going up against Jerusalem is shown by what the blessed prophet Isaiah himself wrote: Rabshakeh said to those sitting on the wall, “Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, saying, ‘Your God will deliver you.’ Did the gods of the nations each deliver his own land from the hand of the king of the Assyrians? Where is the god of Hamath and Arpad? And where is the god of the city of Sepharvaim? Were they able to save Samaria out of my hand?” Sennacherib, then, first destroyed Samaria together with other cities and lands, and then besieged Jerusalem. And since he babbled against the divine glory, an angel went out from the Lord and slew from the camp of the Assyrians in one night a hundred and eighty-five thousand. Since, then, Sennacherib came against Jerusalem but first destroyed Samaria, God having handed it over because it chose to do worse than those in Jerusalem, he necessarily says: “The Lord sent death upon Jacob, and it came upon Israel.”

Samaria, in which Israel dwelt (that is, the ten tribes), was burned and perished completely. It would have been wise, I think, for those who were caught in it to consider that offending God is truly very grievous; then, having recognized this, to see that they ought surely to appease the one they had grieved and to be stirred to changes for the better. But they did not do this, nor did it ever enter their minds. Instead, losing their senses still further, they said: “The bricks have fallen, but let us hew stones, and cut down sycamores and cedars, and build ourselves a tower.” What great ignorance! For how should they not rather have said: “We have offended in our folly the God who is mighty over all, and for this reason our cities and villages have perished. Come, by repentance …” But rather, insulting the help that comes from God, they said that their safety lay in this: the walls of the cities around Samaria had been made of rotten brick; “but if we hew stones and take the woods that do not rot (sycamores, I mean, and cedars), we shall be … to our enemies and shall remain unsacked.” Those, then, he says, who say these things “in insolence and with a high heart” will know, that is, will learn again where their plan will lead them, and that their counsel will end in destruction.

One should know that after the sack by Sennacherib, in the times of Jeremiah, Nebuchadnezzar made war on Judea and took all of it by force, and laid waste Samaria, both it and Jerusalem. So the prophet Jeremiah says: “Cursed is he who has his hope in man, and supports on him the flesh of his arm.” For no one will save the one who has come under the divine wrath. “For the high hand, who will turn it back?” as it is written.

“… Mount Zion against them, and he will scatter their enemies: Syria from the rising of the sun, and the Greeks from the setting of the sun, who devour Israel with the whole mouth.”

When God strikes because of many sins, he brings healing on those who have suffered, so that he may be seen calling them in every way to repentance, through pain, I mean, and through comfort. Something of this kind he now promises to those who suffered the ravaging. The passage before us has its explanation in history, which, as I said, must be told briefly. The last war against all Judea together, and against Samaria too, was the one waged by Nebuchadnezzar, and they were carried off … seventy years. When the time of wrath had been completed for them, the God of all had pity on them again and arranged for them to be released, Cyrus … And when those who had suffered arrived at the holy city, they wanted to rebuild its walls. And indeed they did so, and erected their divine temple. But no less, though they had suffered so much, … the ancient … the neighbouring nations, out of envy; for they did not want Jerusalem to grow strong. Most bitter of all in pressing on them were those from neighbouring Syria and from Damascus. But they were defeated, God saving and defending those who … In the course of time Antiochus surnamed Epiphanes, king of Asia, was angered against Ptolemy, who was then ruling the land of the Egyptians, … and barely got away safe. So as not to run home with nothing at all done and no memorial of victory, he marched against Judea, took Jerusalem, seized all the holy vessels, and … ordered … to keep the government for him. When the said Antiochus had gone off to his own kingdom, the Jews made war on Lysias the general and won. When Antiochus learned this, he died of grief.

He promises, then, … by Nebuchadnezzar, and who had barely escaped the captivity, saying: “And God will strike those who rise up against Mount Zion against them.” Do you hear how the one who struck also heals? Who, then, are those who rise up? Syria from the rising of the sun, and the Greeks from the setting of the sun. For Antiochus was a Greek by race, setting out from Macedonia, which lies to the west; for the land of the Macedonians is part of the West, especially when it is considered by position in comparison with the lands of the sunrise. Those, on the other hand, are the Syrians and the Damascenes. And since he says of the Greeks “who devour Israel with the whole mouth,” one should know that Antiochus behaved savagely and inhumanly toward the Jews and killed countless people pitiably and lamentably, when the Maccabees too contended and those men's noble victories were won. Josephus tells this in his book about them.

The children of the Greeks devour Israel in another way too, and it is necessary to say how. Their poets and men of letters, who reached the height of eloquence and of skill in speaking, being clever and wise, sometimes carry off the spiritual Israel, that is, the mind that sees God, and deceive those who have already believed in Christ, so that they choose with them to worship the creature instead of the Creator. These devour Israel with the whole mouth; we must pay no attention to them.

For brilliance of speech, if it is seen joined with good works, will be acceptable and pleasing to God. But bare and alone, what else would it be than, as the most wise Paul says, “a sounding brass, or …”?

“In all these things his wrath was not turned away, but his hand is still high. And the people did not turn back until they were struck, and they did not seek the Lord.”

The God of all saved Israel even when it sinned, and granted it help, so that they became stronger than those from neighbouring Syria and those from the setting of the sun, who devoured it with the whole mouth. But the wrath of the Lord against them, he says, was not turned away, that is, it did not cease; rather, the hand of the one striking remained high, ready, of course, to bring other blows on them too. For what reason? Because the people, he says, did not turn back, nor did it abstain from its own offences. It did not seek out the Lord, because it wanted to think and to do what seemed good and pleasing to itself. And they remained of that mind until the high and all-powerful hand was brought against them. And what, again, was the later blow? Is it not worth telling? Last of all, as I said, Nebuchadnezzar took all Judea, and he also moved Ephraim to the mountains of the Persians and the Medes. But when, as I said, the times of the captivity were finished, they were brought back to Judea and settled in Jerusalem, the tribes no longer divided in two but all now come under one king. For this was what had been said through one of the holy prophets: “And they will go up from the land, and appoint for themselves one rule.” After all had returned from captivity to Judea, then, those from Syria and those from the rising of the sun made war on them; but these too were defeated. And they spent the time between until the coming of our Saviour neither living prosperously nor yet altogether … but God, through the means he knew, benefited them even though they were not good; for they lived outlandishly and lawlessly and with great carelessness. But when Christ shone on all who are under heaven (for “God appeared to us,” according to the psalmist's voice), they kept to their unruliness and did what is not lawful, neither receiving his word nor honouring him by faith. And why do I say this? Insulting him impiously, they were carried to such impiety and unholiness of conduct as even to hand him over to the cross, to deny the holy and righteous one, and to try to encompass with death the author of life, who justifies the ungodly and who for this reason shone on all who are over the whole earth, to abolish death and render the sting of sin powerless. Because of all these things the hand of the one striking remained high, and the wrath was not turned away. For they were given over to desolation when Vespasian and Titus and the whole Roman force made war on them, when the wretched people were utterly … and the temple itself was shaken down and fell completely, so that no stone was seen lying upon a stone, according to the Saviour's word.

Since, then, the God who is full of compassion bears with our offences, to act in senseless despair is very grievous; rather, I say, we must appease him by every means when he is grieved. He does good even to those who sin; he saves even those who have chosen to disobey, because of the gentleness that befits him. Let no one among us, then, be hard, nor slow to perceive his gifts. But coming through these very things to the knowledge of the love for humankind that is in him, let us repent of what is past, reshape our own will so as to serve him, and choose instead the ways of gentleness.

“And the Lord will take away from Israel head and tail, great and small, in one day: the elder and those who admire persons, this is the head; and the prophet who teaches lawless things, this is the tail. And those who call … blessed …”

… that the hand of the one striking remained high, he declares plainly that the divine wrath against them will never cease, and what the manner of the torment to be brought on them will be in its time. For there will be taken away from Israel, he says, in one day (that is, at one time, and clearly, I think, the time of the war waged by the Romans) head and tail. And he interprets the riddle, saying “great and small,” that is, the prominent and the obscure. And who these would be, he showed further by adding: “the elder, and those who admire persons.” By these, I think, he means the tribe that was allotted the priesthood, that is, those of the blood of Levi, whom the peoples under their hand called elders. So those who said: “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a sick man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you and to all the people that it is in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene.” For these elders, who had the authority to judge, did not cast right votes in each of the cases judged among them, but took bribes insatiably and admired the persons of the rich, although the law proclaimed through Moses: “Judge righteous judgment,” and laid down everywhere: “You shall not show partiality in judgment.” This, then, he says, is the head: it is reckoned as the head. For the priest is the head of the peoples, when they are thought of as one body.

Together with the elder, he says, will also be taken away the prophet who teaches lawless things, and this, he says, is the tail, that is, what follows. For there were some among the Jews who interpreted the law given through the all-wise Moses; but they did this perversely, adding wrongly to the words of Moses unwritten traditions, “commandments and teachings of men.” These led the people of the Jews astray and made them lift a proud neck against Christ. Since these too followed the opinions of the priests, who had been placed in the rank of the head, he called them the tail. For, as I said, when we think of it as one body, the tail always follows the head. And since he called them prophets, we will not reckon them holy and true; for he added that they teach lawless things. But that … at the times, that is, when the true prophets lived. After the times of the captivity no one could say with certainty that others arose in those days, unless perhaps one means those whom Gamaliel recalls, who was a teacher of the law and held in honour by all the people, as it is written in the Acts of the holy apostles. For he addressed those in the council thus about the holy apostles: “Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. For before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody great, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him; he was slain, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away people after him. He too perished, and all who obeyed him were scattered.”

He says, then, that head and tail will be taken away, according to what we have just … he says they will be leading this people astray, “and they lead them astray in order to swallow them up.” For the leaders of the Jews, who had been entrusted with the holy and divine tabernacle and charged with performing the sacrifices according to the laws, urged those under their hand to bring gifts, so that they might offer abundantly. They did this harshly, not out of reverence for God or out of forethought, but looking to their own love of gain. In this way, he says, “they lead them astray in order to swallow them up.” For being insatiable, as I said, in their wish to grow rich, not as is fitting, through the

law, to choose to fulfil it and to gladden the God of all, did they teach the peoples; rather, they urged them to honour him even with offerings beyond their means. … For this reason they did not themselves accept faith in Christ, and, as it were shutting the kingdom of heaven, did not allow others to enter it either. For they knew that once the shadow of the law became idle, and the gospel … the worship by blood …, and the sacrifices would become idle, once worship in the spirit had been brought in. And this would be the complete removal of their insatiable …

“… and he will not have mercy on their widows …, because all are lawless and wicked, and every mouth speaks unjust things.”

Here too the word carries us from plain examples to what is beyond the senses and is grasped by the mind. For by “young men” here he does not of course mean those in bodily vigour, or those in the prime of fleshly age; rather, he means those who have spiritual strength in mind and heart, so as to be able to accomplish, and very vigorously, the things by which they will be brilliant and well known to God and renowned for every goodness. To those of this condition he says: “I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and …” … the coming of our Saviour some arose, even among …, who had practised …, by choosing to fulfil blamelessly the commandment handed down and being able to excel very richly in the boasts of the law. And they were not rejected by God. For it was still the time of the shadow in the law, and since the way of life of the gospel and in Christ had not yet been revealed, those things were praised by many. So it is written of Zechariah and Elizabeth: “In the days of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before … the ordinances of the Lord, blameless.” In this way, I think, the holy prophets themselves also lived. And indeed the divine Paul, though saying openly that he had been blameless as to the righteousness that is in the law, says: “But what gain was it to me? These things I have counted loss because of Christ.” Before the coming of Christ, the Saviour of us all, then, some who were well esteemed for the boasts of the law were manly and young in strength. But after his appearing and the preaching of the gospel, … truth, and the true worship in spirit was brought in. So God does not rejoice over the young men of the Jews, that is, over those who still play the man by choosing to live according to the law. The sacrifices by blood are unacceptable, and circumcision of the flesh … But we have been taught, as I said, the way of the life that pleases God. Rightly, then, after the shadow came to an end, the young men who belong to it are rejected; and orphans and widows are far from being pitied. By orphans he means those who need, as it were, spiritual upbringing and instruction from teachers; and widows likewise we say are souls that have come to lack the power to bear fruit, because they do not have the sower and provider of all good things and teachings. That we shall find those of Israel without a share in true instruction because of their drunken outrage against Christ, no one would deny. For “their eyes were darkened so that they do not see,” according to the voice of the psalmist, “and their backs were bent.” And this “always,” so that they cannot see the things above but, as though bent down, are fixed on earthly things. They will suffer this, he says, not in vain, but because all have become lawless and wicked, and every mouth speaks lawless things.

For how are they not lawless and full of every wickedness, who were eager to encompass with death the one who calls to life, who knew no sin, though the law says clearly, “The innocent and the righteous you shall not kill”? How has not every tongue of the Jews spoken unjust things? For they cried out against Christ to Pilate, saying, “Away, away, crucify him!” And, “If you do not kill this man, you are not Caesar's friend.”

“In all these things the wrath was not turned away, but the hand is still high. And lawlessness will burn like fire, and like dry grass it will be devoured by fire; and it will burn in the thickets of the forest, and will devour together everything around the hills. Because of the fury of the Lord's anger the whole land has been burned up together, and the people will be like those burned by fire; a man will not have mercy on his brother, but he will turn aside to the right, because he will be hungry, and will eat from the left, and a man will not be satisfied eating the flesh of his own arm. For Manasseh will eat of Ephraim, and Ephraim of Manasseh, because together …”

While the divine wrath is still at its height, and the very hand that brings the scourge and the torments on them is still poised, he … each of the things that will happen clearly, … the hearers with fears. For this was the reason why God announced the terrors in advance: so that, fearing to offend him, they might not be brought under the evils that come from wrath but might rather be carried clear of the terrors. Lawlessness, then, will burn like fire. By lawlessness he means not … but those who have been weighed down by acts of lawlessness and have now come to such perversity of conduct that they must no longer be called lawless but rather lawlessness itself. These, then, will burn like fire, he says; that is, they themselves will become fire against themselves. For no one else will bring the flame to them; they will be enough for one another for this. And they will burn like dry grass and like forest thickets. For flames always rage when they fall on material that kindles easily: dry grass, I mean, and the wood in forests. I myself think that the prophetic word means to show us here the following. When Vespasian and Titus, as I said before, were ravaging Judea and besieging its cities, there was very great turmoil in each of them: on the one side famine wasted them; on the other, the rebels in each city plundered houses and fastened on those who seemed more distinguished, so that the outrages of the inhabitants became more grievous than the war from outside. Josephus tells this plainly.

So he says that it will burn in the thickets of the forest, calling, I think, the herd-like multitude dry grass and forest thickets. For the common people were divided against one another into dissensions and factions. And that the evil will also touch those who seem to be something, he shows further, saying: “And it will devour together everything around the hills,” calling hills, I think, those who stand above the others and are prominent, whether in reputation or in wealth or in some other way. I said just now that the factiousness usual in each city fastened terribly on those who seemed distinguished, as men in despair do what at times not even the hand of the enemy would have done. And these things, he says, are “because of the fury of the Lord's anger.” For in this way the whole land of the Jews was burned up together. And making plain to the hearers what he had said in riddles, he adds at once: “And the people will be like those burned up by fire. A man will not have mercy on his brother.” For just as those who put fire to bullocks goad them to rage, and … so, he says, each of the people will be like those … by fire, without pity and not knowing their brothers; all will be fierce and savage against one another, like beasts sharpened by hunger to savagery against someone. “They will turn aside to the right, and will eat from the left”: that is, they will turn this way and that, biting those on the right and those on the left, sparing no one at all, and having an insatiable longing to attack one another. “For a man will not be satisfied,” he says, “eating the flesh of his own arm.” What a strange thing! They will not spare even themselves, he says, as if from unmixed madness. For once they have despaired, they will go boldly to any of the most outlandish deeds whatever. Then he says: “For Manasseh will eat of Ephraim”; and they were two brothers, sons of Joseph. But not even … to those joined by blood in affection, he says, will nature then award peace; the laws of kinship will be idle. For brothers of the same seed will rise up against one another, one against one, and two against another. For Manasseh, he says, will eat of Ephraim, and Ephraim of Manasseh, “because together they will besiege Judah.” Everything, then, was filled with confusion, and the effects of the wrath fell on all without distinction, both on those on whom it was not right and by the hands of those by whom it was not right.

These things, as I said, the herds of the Jews suffered historically. But we too must be on guard ourselves. For disobedience is punished, and if anyone falls into it, he will be burned as by fire, when fleshly pleasure and hot desire set him ablaze. He will have in mind and heart an unbearable … battle; for the flesh will rise up against the spirit, and he will be in great turmoil. Therefore, as the

divine Paul says: “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not fulfil the desire of the flesh.” For if we are subject to God we shall walk by the Spirit, we shall be stronger than fleshly desires, we shall conquer the flames within the mind, and we shall keep our heart free of strife. For “the peace of God,” as it is written, “which surpasses every mind, will guard our hearts and our thoughts.”

“In all these things the wrath was not turned away, but the hand is still high. Woe to those who write wickedness; for when they write, they write wickedness, turning aside the judgment of the poor and seizing the rights of the needy of my people, so that a widow becomes their prey and an orphan their plunder. And what will they do in the day of visitation? For affliction will come to you from afar; and to whom will you flee to be helped? And where will you leave your glory, so as not to fall into …”

When the prophetic word has set out for us at greater length the calamities of the Jews and the harms that will come through the hand of the enemy, then, very wisely and fittingly, it adds the causes for which the God of all was grieved, and tries to teach that a holy verdict was passed on them, summoning them to justice. For “not unjustly are nets spread for birds,” as it is written. Woe, then, he says, to those who write …, “turning aside the judgment of the poor and seizing the rights of the needy of my people.” There were among the Jews those called scribes. Their work was to make clear to those who wished to learn the intent of the law on each matter, and … It is written: “The lips of a priest will guard judgment, and they will seek the law from his mouth.” Overcome, then, by shameful gains, they made unjust writings, impiously peddling what seemed right to the divine law, as if mixing the wine with water and making the pure silver base … of the needy, and in the evils of greed they treat the orphan as plunder, thrown down ready for those who want to grow rich. But these, he says, “what will they do in the day of visitation?” He calls the day of visitation the time of the war, in which God visited those who write wickedness and pervert the right judgments of the law. For what wealth will help you, he says? In what way will what you have gathered through greed, contrary to the lawgiver's intent, profit you? Then where will you go? What will you do or say to escape the day of visitation? “For affliction will come to you from afar.” The Jews very often fought against the surrounding nations, Idumeans, I mean, and Elamites, Moabites and Syrians, and those called Philistines; and it happened that they were superior.

to be seen prevailing over many in battle. “But now,” he says, “affliction will come to you from afar”; that is: your battle is not against Idumeans, the war not against Moabites, nor against any of your neighbours, whom you have at times even conquered, when you won the better verdict in battle and bound on the crown of glory; but now affliction will come to you from afar. By these words he seems to hint at the invasion of the Assyrians, or rather at that of the Romans. For these … from afar … “and where will you leave your glory, so as not to fall into the leading away?” For you have often shown your courage, he says, against those who … your cities and lands. But now where will you leave the glory you had for this? For you will all fall, and your bravery against others will profit you in no way. For what will you do so as not to fall into the leading away? By “leading away” he means what was brought on them as from the divine wrath, the calamity of the war. For when God brings punishments on those who sin, who will turn him back? Or what means will help those who are under penalty and punishment? There is none. Therefore the divine David too sings and says: “Lord, do not rebuke me in your wrath, nor discipline me in your anger.” And again: “You are fearful, and who will stand against you? From then is your anger.” No one, then, will turn back the divine wrath; but repentance, as it were, softens it. Or rather, it would not be stirred at all to begin with, if one were willing to live rightly and lawfully and according to what his oracles approve.

“In all these things the wrath was not turned away, but the hand is still high. Woe to the Assyrians! The rod of my wrath and anger is in their hands. I will send my anger against a lawless nation, and I will command my people to take spoil and plunder, and to trample the cities and make them like dust. But he did not think so, and in his soul he did not reckon so; but his mind will remove …, and if they say to him, ‘You alone are ruler,’ he will say, ‘Did I not … and I took them,’ and I will take all the lands.”

Everywhere we shall find God caring for his own glory. For he is angry if he sees some who have chosen to despise him, who are eager to count what he approves as nothing and who, as it were, let out every sail in their haste to turn aside to the most outlandish things. Yet he turns such people, one might almost say, even to their own benefit. For so blessed David too says somewhere: “With bit and bridle you will constrain the jaws of those who do not come near to you. Many are the scourges of the sinner.” And he brings punishment on those who offend, putting his own anger as a kind of rod into the hands of men who are not good, so that they may become the punishers of the impious.

But those who are taken up for this purpose think something great against those who are punished, or rather against God, who let them loose on them and passed the verdict that they must suffer; and they suppose that they have prevailed even though he wished to save. He therefore turns his anger on them, and very fittingly. And since, to the proud … to assure them that it was not the work of their strength but of his nod that they prevailed over those who were punished. The king of the Assyrians experienced something of this kind. For when he had taken Judea and laid waste its cities, he thought great things of himself, and indeed supposed that he had conquered the holy land even against the will of God, who presided over it and promised to save it. For this reason, he says, the wrath has not yet turned away, and the “woe” will be brought upon the Assyrians too. And what is the reason for it? The rod of my anger, he says, has been given into their hands, by me, plainly, so that with it they may strike those who have acted impiously toward me. I commanded them to make my people spoil and plunder, to trample the cities and make them dust. For had they not been deprived of the saving help that was always theirs and customary for them, given by me, they would never have been captured, since through me they were always stronger than their enemies. But the Assyrian himself did not think so, nor did he reckon so in his soul; rather, as far as his mind went, he “will remove,” that is, will destroy, “nations not a few.” For he supposes that no one will rise up against his forces, that he will conquer everything without toil, and will be master of every nation with no one opposing. And so insatiable is his soul, always wanting to rule over all, that if anyone came to him and said, “You alone are ruler,” that is, “Will you alone be able to rule all that is under heaven?” …, to this, he says, he will utter a haughty word, saying: “Did I not take the country above Babylon, and Calno, where the tower …, and Samaria? As I took these, I will take all the lands too.” Calno, where the tower was built by the ancients, lies in a way in the furthest parts of the East, beyond the country and land of the Babylonians. Just as, then, he says, I have set the boundaries of my kingdom from the very ends of the eastern land, and have taken Damascus and Samaria, which were helped not at all by the gods in them, so I will seize the lands beyond as well.

We must remember that Rabshakeh too, announcing the words of the king of the Assyrians, called out to those sitting on the wall: “Thus says the king of the Assyrians: Do not let King Hezekiah deceive you with words, which will not be able to deliver you; and do not let Hezekiah say to you, ‘God will deliver us.’” And after other things, again: “Did the gods of the nations each deliver his own land from the hand of the king of the Assyrians? Where is the god of Hamath and Arpad? And where is the god of the city of Sepharvaim? Were they able to deliver Samaria from my hand? Which of all the gods of these nations delivered his land from my hand, that God should deliver Israel from my hand?” The Assyrian, then, thought great things and laughed at the divine wrath … But when he grows insolent even against the divine glory itself, then, then indeed, the “woe” will be brought, and very justly, on those who choose to do this.

… Samaria. For as I did to Samaria and to her handmade things, so I will do also in Jerusalem and to her idols.”

He has just brought in the Assyrian thinking lofty and overweening thoughts. For since he had taken the cities of Samaria … of the falsely named gods, whose precincts and altars were burned again along with them; and since he was determined to bring Jerusalem itself, that is, Judea, under his hand, even if Christ, who always defends and saves it, perhaps did not will it, the prophetic word at once sets before us the reasons why Samaria itself was captured, and very many of the cities of Judea. So, very fittingly, he brings to mind the ways of impiety, and, as if aghast at the apostasy, out of his great love for God he cries out: “Howl, carved images in Jerusalem and in Samaria.” For where the God of all ought to have been honoured with fitting honours, there he is overlooked and robbed of the honour that befits him and is owed to him. For the wretched people, devoting their reverence to carved images, dared to say to the wood, “You are my God,” and to the stone, “You begot me.” So it was as if in amazement that the prophet said: “… Jerusalem and in Samaria.” He says something similar about Jerusalem through the voice of Jeremiah: “Why has the beloved done abomination in my house?” And he said somewhere through one of the prophets: “Ephraim is a watchman with God; the prophet is a crooked snare on all his ways.” For in Jerusalem they built altars and handmade things and sacrificed to Baal and to the host of heaven; and those in Samaria did these things too. “As, then,” he says, “I did to Samaria and to her handmade things, so I will do also to Jerusalem and to her idols.” For those whose daring deeds are akin may fittingly be followed by an equal punishment. So the Assyrian took Damascus and Samaria; and the way to the deed, the occasion of his prevailing, was the making of idols both in Samaria and in Jerusalem. Therefore also those who do such things … The making of idols, then, is grievous everywhere and brings us anger from God, even if one should perhaps do this in mind and heart. For those things too carry one away from love for God, bewitching the heart and leading it out to what is not fitting.

“And it will be, when the Lord has finished doing everything on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will bring it upon the great mind, the ruler of the Assyrians, and upon the height of the glory of his eyes.”

“For he said: By strength I will do it, and by the wisdom of understanding I will remove the boundaries of nations and plunder their strength; and I will shake inhabited cities, and I will seize the whole world in my hand like a nest, and like abandoned eggs I will take it up; and there is no one who will escape me or speak against me.”

He says that the Assyrian, who thought such overweening things, will not go unpunished. For “the Lord opposes the proud,” as it is written, and he always exacts an account from those sick with boastfulness for the charges it brings, and renders them pitiable and cast down, so that they may know not to “lift up their horn on high,” as it is written, but may rather recognize their own nature and weakness. “For when he has finished,” he says, “doing everything on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,” that is, when the wrath against them comes to its end, he will then bring his hand and the striking rod “upon the great mind, the ruler of the Assyrians.” He called him a great mind not to praise him for it but rather to blame him, as being nothing else than God-hated arrogance. For he thought nothing human, but things that perhaps float above the whole created nature. He will bring it, then, “upon the height of the glory of his eyes”; by “eyes” here he means his thoughts or designs. For these were, as I said, lofty and overweening. But since he is God, and sees into heart and kidneys, and knows what is hidden, he makes these things plain to us too, and says: “For he said: By strength I will do it, and by the wisdom of understanding I will remove the boundaries of nations, and plunder their strength, and shake inhabited cities.” See how, as though he needed no help from above, he ascribes to his own forces alone the power to do everything he might wish. He supposes that he is so wise and so skilled a general that he can very easily move the boundaries of the nations to himself, break their strength, make it plunder, and shake their cities, even if they had a great many, countless inhabitants. And his boasting does not stop there. For he brags that he will grasp all that is under heaven, … very easily, … readily and without battle he has disposed of, and spread beneath the feet of the saints. For he said to them: “… and scorpions, and over all the power of the …” … he thinks, according to what came into his mind. “For I will seize,” he says, “the whole world like a nest, and like abandoned eggs I will take it up, and there is no one who will escape me or speak against me.” What terrible arrogance, what senseless reasonings! As if of a single sparrow … the

whole world, he likens all those throughout the earth to eggs abandoned by the bird that warms them, so that he may come on them like a dragon and swallow them. He hates those who speak against him, and does not expect the besieged so much as to come to words with him. These things might fittingly be applied to the person of Satan himself, for he is the father of arrogance. He imagined that he would seize the world with no one acting against him. But it did not turn out so at all; rather, the end of things turned out for him the very opposite. For Christ spoke against him on our behalf; and not only did he speak against him, but he also contended on behalf of the life of all, conquered the destroyer, and to … “Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents … of the enemy.”

“Shall the axe be glorified without the one who cuts with it? Or shall the saw be exalted without the one who draws it? Likewise if one were to lift a rod or a piece of wood. Not so; but the Lord Sabaoth will send dishonour upon your honour, and upon your glory a burning fire will be kindled.”

He plainly convicts the Assyrian of puffing himself up for nothing and of being wholly ignorant that it was not at all by his own … that he took Samaria and the other cities with it, but rather because the verdict from above brought him against those who had committed unbearable impieties, like an axe, or a rod, or a piece of wood. “Tell me,” he says, “you most senseless of all: shall the axe be glorified without the one who cuts with it?” An axe that is well sharpened and keen may be well suited to cutting down the trees in the fields. Would anyone, then, praise the axe as able to do this without the one who cuts with it? And what will the saw accomplish by itself, unless someone draws it and pushes it back again? And if someone takes up a rod or a piece of wood, will it not be the same again? The rod will lie on the ground, and the wood is thrown down; but if someone takes them and strikes some people, then indeed what is done through them will take effect. Why, then, he says, have you thought lofty things? Why do you raise your eyebrows? Do you think that you yourself, by your own power, accomplished the taking of the cities, when you were taken up as an instrument by the hand that did those things, plainly the divine hand? The glory, therefore, is not yours, but rather God's, who brought your cruelty, like an axe, or a rod, or a piece of wood, on those who had offended him. You will not be, then, he says, as you thought. You will neither remain in the same glory, nor will you flourish with such splendid honours. You will not do it by strength, nor by the wisdom of understanding will you remove the boundaries of nations. You will not seize the world like abandoned eggs. “But the Lord Sabaoth will send dishonour upon your honour, and upon your glory a burning fire will be kindled.” By his honour he means the army that acts under him and is subject to him, for he took pride in it. Fire, then, will come upon it, he says, and will burn up your honour. And in what way this happened, you will learn again before long.

“And the light of Israel will be for a fire, and he will sanctify him with a burning fire, and it will devour the wood like grass. On that day … the mountains, and the hills, and the forests. And it will devour from soul to flesh. And the one who flees will be like one fleeing from a burning flame; and those of them who are left will be a number, and a child will write them down.”

What is said is very hard to grasp, and the composition of the wording has a most difficult explanation. But we will make plain again the sense hidden in the passage, after first saying the following. Shalmaneser king of the Assyrians took Samaria, and sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem. He came, besieged it, and spoke to those on the wall the words of the one who had sent him, adding to them blasphemies against God, saying that God would not deliver Jerusalem from the hand of the king of the Assyrians. Distressed at such words, King Hezekiah made supplication to God, saying: “Hear, Lord; look, Lord, and see the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of the Assyrians sent to reproach the living God.” And God promised them salvation. And indeed an angel of the Lord went out and slew in one night from the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand. When this had happened, the Assyrian was struck with unbearable fear; and when he heard the news that Tirhakah king of the Ethiopians had come out against his land, he went off in flight with the very few who were left.

This is what the prophetic word now interprets for us in riddles. For the God of all became light to Israel, appointing the law that has power to enlighten. But this light, he says, that belonged to Israel will not be light to the Assyrians … the … of what was kindled among the Assyrians will teach people everywhere that God regards Israel as his own and dedicated people. And this is “he will sanctify him with a burning fire.” For what is said to be sanctified is not always something sharing in every holiness; rather it also means what has been dedicated to God for his glory. So he says to Moses: “Sanctify to me every firstborn that opens the womb, the males, to the Lord”; and “sanctify” there means “dedicate.” The God of all, then, he says, will sanctify Israel, that is, will show it to be dedicated to himself, through the fire kindled against the Assyrians. By fire here he means the unexpected destruction. For if he did not regard them as his own people, he would not have kindled the fire against their opponents, which also consumed the multitude of the Assyrians like grass or wood.

On that day, then, he says, that is, at that point of time, “the mountains will be quenched, and the hills and the forests, and it will devour from soul to flesh.” He fitly likens to hills and forests and mountains both the multitude of the Assyrians itself and its leaders, who stand above the others like hills or mountains. But these will be quenched; that is, those who were once hot and fierce will be cooled, even against their will. That is what “will be quenched” means. For death will devour them, consuming, one might almost say, both souls and bodies. That the souls were not destroyed together with the bodies is clear to everyone; but by these words he hints at the might of the wrath. “But the one who flees will be,” he says, “like one … of them will be a number, and a child will write them down.” For very few, as I said, fled with the king as from a flame. He says they were so few in number that counting them would not be beyond the mind even of a young child, so that he could write them down or reckon them. For the tradition of the Hebrews holds that only ten in number were left, who with Rabshakeh reported to the king of the Assyrians what had happened. These were the wages of his arrogance. And the type is useful for us too. For if anyone wishes to be outside the divine wrath and not to be consumed by the evils God sends, let him firmly refuse to fall sick with what is akin and equal to their perversity.

“And it will be in that day that … of Jacob will no longer … trust in …, but will be trusting in God, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. And the remnant of Jacob will be toward the mighty God.”

When the fire has been kindled against the army of the Assyrians, he says, two things will be accomplished and come about. The boaster and destroyer will cease, even against his will, from his so terrible and hateful pride; for he will go off in fear and unexpectedly put to shame. He will know by the event itself, even if perhaps he does not wish it, that he had become an instrument of the divine wrath against those who had sinned, and that it was not at all by his own strength that he prevailed over them. This will happen to the barbarian. But for those of Israel the miracle will be of benefit: the remnant of those in Samaria, that is, of Israel, and also of Jacob, that is, again of the two tribes that were in Jerusalem, will cease from their ancient error and from cold and useless thoughts. For they will not be trusting in those who wronged them. Since the enemy fell, consumed by the hand of an angel, they came to know exactly the all-powerful right hand of the one who saves; they will make him their saviour and redeemer and place all their hope in him, spurning those who wronged them.

Who these are, and in what way they wronged them, must be said. The God of all saved those of the blood of Israel, presiding over them, defending them, and making them stronger than their opponents. But when they turned to opposing him, and some fashioned golden heifers while others worshipped Chemosh and Baal-Peor and the host of heaven, the God of all handed over those who opposed him from time to time, sometimes to the nations that lived round about Judea (Idumeans, I mean, and Moabites, and those from Elam), sometimes to those far off (the Assyrians, I mean, and the Egyptians). When war broke out, then, and was announced to those throughout the whole land, how would it not have been better for those of Israel to make their defence to the all-powerful God whom they had grieved, and to put away his anger by returning to better ways? For they ought to have removed from their midst the profane multitude of idols and inscribed him as their saviour and redeemer.

But they had very little regard for these things. They sent embassies sometimes to the Egyptians, sometimes to the Assyrians, and called for help from them. For this reason, I think, God was provoked against them still more. Those who wronged Israel and Jacob, then, were on the one hand the falsely named gods, who called down the divine wrath on them and induced them to trust in them; on the other hand those who sold them useless help for money and gifts. When the multitude of the enemy had been consumed in one night, then, he says, they will from then on be trusting in God; and having learned by experience the all-powerful right hand of the one who saved them, they will place their hope not in those who wronged them, but in the Holy One of Israel himself, in truth. “And the remnant of Jacob will be toward the mighty God.” For they will no longer take courage in wood and stones, but will rather make their strength him who has always been their helper and defender, a weapon and an unbreakable wall.

“And if the people of Israel become like the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved. For he is completing and cutting short a word in righteousness, because God will make a word cut short in the whole world.”

Through these words he shows us very well that none of those who have chosen to disobey and are deeply sick with harshness and intractability would be counted worthy of the same as the obedient and docile. For the Assyrian came against the whole nation of the Jews, and his aim was to spare no one, but to shear the whole land bare, empty it of men, and leave it deserted of inhabitants. And he destroyed Samaria and took with it not a few cities of Judea; but God marvellously saved those in Jerusalem. What, then, is the reason for this? Yes, he says: since not all Israel had acted impiously, but there were perhaps some who were greatly distressed at …, and a most just verdict …, bringing the penalty on the sinners alone. That the statement is true … in the prophet Ezekiel. For he said that he saw some of Israel worshipping the sun, and heard God saying about them: “Have you seen, son of man? Is it a small thing for the house of Israel to do the lawless deeds they have done here? For they filled the land with lawlessness, and turned back to provoke me.” Then he says that he saw a man wearing a long robe and girded, and that the God of all said to him: “Go through the midst of Jerusalem, and put the mark on the foreheads of the men who groan and are grieved over all the lawless deeds done in its midst. And to these he said in my hearing: Go into the city after him, and strike, and let your eyes not spare; and do not pity elder and young man, and virgin and infants; and kill women to destruction. But do not come near any on whom the mark is.” See, then, how God seals with his own grace the pious and genuine, who are angry and lament at whatever others dare to offend him by. So even if

the multitude of those from Israel be, and be compared to the sands lying on the shores, the remnant will be saved. This happened in the times of Hezekiah; for Samaria perished, as I said, and very many cities of Judea were destroyed with it. And it was done also in the last times of the age, when the Only-begotten shone on us with flesh. For then, then indeed, God made a word cut short in righteousness in the whole world. The law given through Moses goes by long circuits and makes its declaration of what is useful roundabout, hinting with difficulty, through riddle and shadow, at what leads to benefit. But the saving word of the gospel is short for us and, as it were, cut short, that is, concise: it has the truth bare and sets forth the way of life plainly, with no difficulty in it and no obscurity brought into its proclamations. For the matter of the truth, as I said, is simple. And then too the remnant of Israel was saved, that is, those who honoured his appearing by faith, while the rest of the multitude suffered rejection. For they behaved outrageously toward the Saviour and Lord of all, having earlier killed prophets and stoned those who were sent; and what outlandish thing did they not practise?

“Therefore thus says the Lord Sabaoth: Do not fear the Assyrians, my people who dwell in Zion, because he will strike you with a rod. For I am bringing a blow upon you, to see the way of Egypt. For yet a little while, and the anger will cease, but my wrath will be upon their counsel.”

Since the God of all, using a holy verdict and the gentleness that befits him, saves the genuine and hands over those who have grieved him, he says: “Do not fear the Assyrians, my people who dwell in Zion.” For Rabshakeh came to Jerusalem and besieged it, and threatened to burn it and destroy everyone; but he did no harm at all. He went off in flight, after his army had fallen beyond all expectation and perished in one night. So he did not destroy those in Zion with the sword. But since he had once terrified them with his assaults and made them fear what they might suffer, he is seen, one might almost say, raising only a rod against them. Do not be afraid of the Assyrians, then, he says: he will strike you with a rod and bring, as it were, a slight blow, the one that comes from fear, for I permit this too to be done against you, “to see the way of Egypt,” that is, so that you may learn how much you wronged yourself by going off to Egypt and seeking help from there, when God who saves you was overlooked. Hezekiah, in whose reign the Assyrian besieged Jerusalem, did not seek the help of the Egyptians; rather, Hoshea son of Elah, who reigned over Israel, is found to have done this. It is written thus in the fourth book of Kingdoms: “And Ahaz slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David, and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place. In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah reigned in Samaria over Israel nine years. And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, yet not like the kings of Israel who were before him. Against him came up Shalmaneser king of the Assyrians, and Hoshea became his servant and paid him tribute. And the king of the Assyrians found wrongdoing in Hoshea, because he sent messengers to Sego king of Egypt, and did not bring tribute to the king of the Assyrians in that year. And the king of the Assyrians besieged him and bound him in prison, and went up to Samaria and besieged it three years.” One should know that Ahaz too, the father of Hezekiah, bought help from the Assyrians when the king of the Damascenes made war on him, and God was greatly grieved at this. I bring upon you, then, he says, a blow, “to see the way of Egypt; for yet a little while, and the anger will cease, but my wrath will be upon their counsel.” For they perished, as I said, by the divine wrath. They had planned to subdue Jerusalem itself, but they missed their aim and their design came to nothing, for God turned the outcome to the very opposite of what they expected.

“And God will rouse up against them, according to

… the blow of Midian in the place of affliction, and his wrath by the way along the sea, into the way toward Egypt.”

They will fall, he says, when anger has been brought on them from above and from God, and those of Israel will need no toil at all. For they will prevail not by shots of bows, not by strength of hands, not by …, but by the hand of God, striking and consuming the boastful people, just as indeed happened to the Midianites. For they, gathered in a multitude and by clans, were plundering almost the whole land of the Jews and causing them unbearable fear, … from cities and villages … and barely, and in great fear, on the peaks of the mountains. But God helped then too, and saved those who were in danger by the hand of Gideon, who had very few fellow soldiers. They threw the ranks of the enemy into confusion, breaking their jars at night and in darkness, showing their torches, and blowing their horns, so that something of this kind happened to those of Midian: when their ranks were thrown into confusion, God terrifying them, they could not tell, as in darkness and at night, who was friend or kinsman and who was enemy; they grappled with one another, did the work of enemies, and … by one another's … So, he says, it will be “according to the blow of Midian in the place of affliction.” By the place of affliction he means the place, or rather the time, in which these things happened.

And that God will, one might almost say, lead the barbarian's wrath astray and turn it aside onto others, he shows by saying: “And his wrath by the way along the sea, into the way toward Egypt.” The king of the Assyrians, Tiglath-pileser (it was he who took Samaria by force), imposed tribute on its inhabitants and demanded taxes and payments from those who reigned over Israel from time to time. When it came to this, and Hoshea son of Elah ruled Samaria, he did not send tribute to the king of the Assyrians, as it is written. And since he knew that the king would be angry in every way, he sought the help of the Egyptians, … in case the one who had imposed the tribute and taxes should wish to arm himself against them by the law of war. And those who then ruled the Egyptians promised this very readily. Grieved at this, the Assyrian overran the land of the Egyptians with his whole army, charging its rulers with this: that Hoshea had rebelled and in his madness shaken off his yoke, taking the promise of their help as his pretext. That God, as I just said, will transfer the barbarian's wrath onto others he has shown by saying, “And his wrath by the way along the sea, into the way toward Egypt.” For Jerusalem lies inland from the sea, and they say that the road leading to the land of the Egyptians, which is very easy to travel, is the one near the sea, even to this day.

“And it will be in that day, his fear will be taken away from you, and his yoke from your shoulder, and the yoke will be destroyed from your shoulders.”

I said that the Assyrian, having conquered, imposed tribute on those of Israel and wished to bring under his own sceptre the people allotted to the all-holy God; and for this reason he armed himself against the Egyptians. What, then, does he say? Having conquered the Egyptians, will he again put his yoke on those who always kept their neck free and knew only the kingship under God? By no means, he says. For at that time “his fear will be taken away from you, and his yoke from your shoulder.” For when that people beyond number fell and perished, what fear remained? Or how was the yoke on every shoulder not, so to speak, shaken off, and destroyed besides, that is, gone completely, when they were seeking only this: to be saved and to run home, no longer raising their former haughty brow against Judea? For he was planning, as I said, to bring it under his yoke. But his hopes were frustrated, and what he expected turned out entirely the opposite. He was glad to escape with his life, conquered not by arms but rather by the divine nod and the hand of an angel; and here is the marvel. So that he may be seen to know all things and, as God, to have the end of events before his eyes even if it has not yet happened, he announces most clearly and vividly the manner of that man's flight, the places and the lodgings, and that he will terrify very many cities of Judea, although the wretch was running away in flight. “For he will come,” he says, “to the city of Aiath, and will pass into Migron.” These are names of cities and villages or places. “And at Michmash he will deposit his baggage.” For the Hebrews say that the Assyrian, having come to Michmash, left all his baggage there, fearing an attack from those of Israel; for he thought they would run in pursuit. Then he says: “And he will pass through the ravine and come to Aiath. Fear will seize Ramah, the city of Saul. The daughter of Gallim will flee; it will be heard in Anathoth. Madmenah was beside itself, and the inhabitants of Gebim.” The tradition of the Hebrews has something of this kind. For they say that [ten] alone were saved and returned to him from Jerusalem and reported what had happened. Then with very few he went through the villages and cities, and made even his passing, in flight and cowardice, unbearable to them. But where God helps and wishes to save, there nothing grieves; rather, the whole hand of those who make war will be weak, and strength, experience of war, and the art of tactics will achieve nothing.

“Exhort today on the way to remain; with the hand exhort the mountain, the daughter of Zion, and you hills that are in …”

By putting the wording together we shall necessarily give the explanation of its sense. “O hills,” then, he says, that is, you who are prominent and placed above, and who rise above the others in Jerusalem. By these he means either the holy prophets or the very choir of the priests. “Exhort the mountain,” that is, my daughter Zion. And exhort it firmly, so that it remains on this way. And what way is this? Plainly, trust in God. For he has promised that he will rescue them and save them easily, cast down the Assyrian, remove his fear, destroy the yoke, and free them from all greed. But these things will be, he says, when they remain on this way, plainly the trust in God. Therefore exhort “today,” that is, at the time fitting the matter … For it is not possible to falsify the truth; God will not speak falsely. If he nods assent to something, it will surely come to its end, when we honour him by faith and gladden with a genuine mind the one who has promised to save. In the same way the saints exhort us too, saying, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you,” and that “The angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear him, and will deliver them.” And he himself said through the voice of David about every man who trusts in him and has placed his hope in him: “Because he hoped in me, I will also deliver him. He will cry to me, and I will hear him; I am with him in affliction, and I will rescue him and glorify him.” For the Saviour and Lord of us all, Jesus Christ, will glorify those who glorify him; through whom and with whom be glory to the Father together with the Holy Spirit for ever. Amen.

“Behold, the Master, the Lord Sabaoth, will throw the glorious into confusion with strength, and the lofty … and the lofty will fall by the sword, and Lebanon will fall with the lofty.”

In the book now completed, the discourse was about the … of the Assyrians and the one who … the powers of the Persians, who marched against Judea and Jerusalem but unexpectedly suffered what comes from the divine wrath. For Israel was marvellously saved, not by stretching a bow, nor by snatching up a shield, nor by horsemen, nor by overcoming the enemy's hand with skill, but by the power and grace of God. “For an angel of the Lord went out,” it says, “and slew in one night from the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand.” When this had plainly happened, those who had thought they would perish … to God songs of thanksgiving, saying: “In the evening weeping will lodge, and in the morning exultation.” And besides: “You turned my mourning into joy for me; you tore off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness.” But the bold and arrogant one, who shouted that great and empty boast, “I will seize the whole world in my hand like a nest, and like abandoned eggs I will take it up, and there is no one who will escape me or speak against me,” was shown to have thought great things of himself in vain. For he barely escaped, and went home in flight, leaving Judea. Therefore the God of all said: “Do not fear the Assyrians, my people who dwell in Zion.” And the manner of his flight was described, as he all but shook cities and villages by his passing; and again: “Fear will seize Ramah, the city of Saul.” In interpreting such things we made the account rather plain, but not outside the truth. For it is altogether necessary to fit the explanation to the character and force of the passage in hand.

But since it is the custom of the divinely inspired Scripture sometimes to reveal mysteries through things done … and historically, and to form images of hidden ideas, we say that the inventor of sin tyrannized over us. He leapt terribly and bitterly on the Saviour's peoples, sanctified, plainly, through the Spirit and cleansed through faith; he marched against the Church of God, shaking at it the most unholy phalanx of the spirits under his hand, and perhaps he thought that he could overturn it very easily, the truly venerable and holy city of God, the spiritual Jerusalem. But he was caught out, having planned nothing that could be done. For he could not besiege the holy city and overpower so mighty a right hand. For who will stand against the all-powerful God? He perished, then, together with … he has been driven off, leaping like a savage beast, and he has been cast out of his tyranny over us. And the Saviour taught us this when he said: “Now is the judgment of this age; now the ruler of this age will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all to myself.” For the passion of Christ was the overthrow of death, the destruction of the devil, and the removal of sin, as he was lifted up on the cross and brought down and cast to the ground the devil's boast. In due time, then, after … he introduces the account of the birth of the Only-begotten according to the flesh, and announces the mystery beforehand through the voice of prophets, so that when the events came to their end, faith in it might be received from all as reasonable. What, then, does he say? “Behold, the Master, the Lord Sabaoth, will throw the glorious into confusion with strength.” The mystery of Christ reshapes those on earth into the newness of the gospel life; the older customs, plainly, are overturned, and what was in shadows and types no longer has the power to prevail. This was the aim of his coming into this world: he came to proclaim, to those of Israel before the others, that what was laid upon them until the time of reformation, that is, the law in letters, now comes to its end, as the mind of believers is reshaped, as I said, to better things and to a spiritual way of life. For all things in Christ are new. But although they ought to be persuaded

by him, the leaders of the synagogue of the Jews above all, who boasted not a little of the honours of the priesthood, set themselves in opposition, and, always talking of the law given through the all-wise Moses, wished to make the mystery of the Only-begotten's economy in the flesh ineffective, as far as it lay with them. But it was impossible for them to do this; and setting their own will against the Saviour and God of all, the wicked perished wickedly, partly by attacking one another and plotting according to the law of war, partly by falling into the hands of the Romans, who burned the very temple. “Behold, then, the Master, the Lord Sabaoth, will throw the glorious into confusion with strength.” He calls the one who throws them into confusion Lord Sabaoth, terrifying the hearers with fear, so that no one might think that perhaps he will be weak, or that he uses threats that come to nothing and will by no means reach their end. For what that the Lord Sabaoth undertakes will come to nothing? He says that the lofty will be broken by insolence. For they truly became lofty in insolence: not only did they kill holy prophets and say openly to those who gave them the best counsel, “Speak other things to us, and announce to us another deception,” but they also lifted their horn on high and spoke injustice against God, as it is written. But these will be humbled, he says, and will fall by the sword. For they perished, as I said: on the one hand God brought the sharpest anger on them and consumed them as with a sharp sword, cutting them off from the boasts of righteousness and dismissing them from leading the peoples; or, in another sense, he says they will fall by the sword, plainly that of the enemy, as I said just now. “But Lebanon too,” he says, “will fall with the lofty.” By Lebanon here he probably means the temple, which falls with those of lofty brow. For the swarm of priests was truly arrogant, and Israel itself with them, having dishonoured the Saviour and redeemer of all. And we shall find that Jerusalem itself is called Lebanon. So the prophet Zechariah said somewhere to it: “Open your doors, O Lebanon, and let fire devour your cedars. Let the pine howl, for the cedar has fallen; howl, oaks of Bashan, for your dense forest has been torn down.” For since he likened Jerusalem to Mount Lebanon and so named it, he necessarily kept to the figure, plausibly and usefully calling the peoples in it and their leaders cedars and dense forest, and he bids them howl because those who destroyed them leap upon them as fire upon forests.

But if anyone chooses to touch a hidden contemplation and to apply the force of the passage to Satan himself and to the accursed powers under him, he too will not go outside a fitting aim. For the evil-loving band of demons was crushed and perished, and with them the apostate dragon himself, the lofty, the haughty, likened as it were to Mount Lebanon. For before the coming of our Saviour he was conspicuous to all and worshipped everywhere, wrongly, having seized for himself the glory of the Godhead.

“And a rod will come out from the root of Jesse, and a flower will come up from the root, and the Spirit of God will rest upon him, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and strength, a spirit of knowledge and godliness; … will fill him.”

… he makes his prediction of what is to come plain. For it was said, concerning later times, to the blessed David by the God who rules all: “Of the fruit of your loins I will set upon your throne.” But since the one who knows all things put the foreknowledge of what was to come into the holy prophets, this too was announced beforehand by them, so that the mystery might be attested from every side and believed when it had happened. He says, then, that a rod will come out from the root of Jesse and that a flower too will come up; and not before, but after the glorious have been thrown into confusion with strength and the lofty humbled, and Lebanon has fallen with them, then he says that the rod will spring up from the root of Jesse. In the first verses the force of the whole matter was shown in summary; for what was going to happen to those of Israel who had acted outrageously and impiously toward our Lord Jesus Christ we have learned in brief. But now the account goes back, as it were, to the very highest beginning of the matter, I mean the incarnation of the Only-begotten and his birth from a woman according to the flesh, which was to take place by the economy.

He called Christ, then, who is from the root of Jesse according to the flesh, a rod, and besides this a flower. By the rod he probably hints obliquely that he has the royal dignity; for the rod is a token of kingship. Indeed the divine David says somewhere to the Son himself: “Your throne, O God, is for ever; a rod of uprightness is the rod of your kingdom.” And he is a rod in another way too, since he holds all things and holds them together in well-being, and makes stand what has grown weak, that is, human nature, which was all but tottering and drunk with passions. Blessed David at least sings, taking on himself the common person of all: “Your rod and your staff, these have comforted me.” For the Lord upholds the righteous, as it is written; and he has been called through the voice of the prophets “a glorious staff, a rod of majesty.” And he is a rod in another way too, since he is the good shepherd, who lays down his life for the sheep. It was said to him through one of the holy prophets: “Shepherd your people with a rod, the tribe, the sheep of your inheritance.” And if anyone thinks that, since he is judge and renders to each according to his works, he is for this reason very fittingly called a rod, he will understand rightly. For it was said to him, when Israel had acted outrageously toward him and turned without restraint to disobedience: “You will shepherd them with a rod of iron, and like a potter's vessels you will shatter them.” So too the law of the all-wise Moses signifies him to us; for the rod of Aaron that budded is taken as a type of Christ, and in the Holy of … what the meaning of the ideas in the shadows is, must be said. Some touch on natural lore and say that the almond rod, if placed at the head … So, since Christ was, by the grace of God, as blessed Paul says, to taste death for everyone, and as it were to doze for a short time, he is likened to an almond rod. And through this divine and spiritual rod Moses worked wonders, freeing Israel from slavery in Egypt.

He called it, at any rate, the rod of God; for it became for him a rod of power, as it is written. When, then, the prophet, hinting at the mystery of Christ in riddles, says that the rod has appeared to us from the root of Jesse, then indeed, then, beholding with the eyes of the mind the only-begotten Word of God himself, through whom are all things and in whom are all things, made flesh and become man, and submitting to a voluntary birth (I mean the birth according to the flesh and from a woman), he says with the prophet: “Lord, I have heard your report and was afraid; I considered your works and was amazed.” He is called a rod, then, for the reasons we have just given. And again a flower: for human nature blossomed again in him to incorruption, to life, and to the newness of the gospel way of life. And a flower in another sense too, because of his spiritual fragrance. “For I,” he says, “am a flower of the plain, a lily of the valleys.” And he became for us a kind of fragrance of the knowledge of God the Father. Indeed the divine Paul writes and says: “Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us manifests the fragrance of the knowledge of him in every place; for we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing: to the one a fragrance of death to death, to the other a fragrance of life to life.”

On this rod, he says, that is, on the flower to be born from the root of Jesse, the Spirit of God, which has many operations, will rest in due time. For he calls it a spirit of counsel and understanding, of knowledge and wisdom, of godliness and of the fear of God. We say that the proclamation of the prophetic art does not introduce Jesus to us as a mere man who then became a bearer of the Spirit and, in our own rank, a partaker of the gifts from God; rather, it shows the Word of God become man, who is full of every good as far as his own nature is concerned, but who made his own, together with the humanity, also what belongs to it. For it is proper to humanity to have of itself, as from its own nature, none of the gifts from above (“What do you have that you did not receive?” was said to it), but rather to be enriched from outside and as something added, from God plainly, with what is beyond its own nature. It was fitting, then, that the only-begotten Word of God, having lowered himself to the emptying, should not refuse the lowliness that comes with the emptying, and that, though full by nature, he should receive because of the humanity, not for himself but rather for us, who are in want of every good. So even if he is said at some time to receive the Spirit, although he is himself the giver of the Holy Spirit and gives not by measure but distributes it as from his own fullness to those who are worthy, let the receiving be understood within the measures of the emptying; for in this way we shall come straight to the truth.

But observe this: “The Spirit of God will rest upon him,” he says. For it was given at the beginning to the first-fruits of our race, that is, to Adam; but he grew careless about keeping … given to him, … to sin, and the Spirit found no rest among men. “For all turned aside, together they became worthless; there was none who did good, not even one.” Then the only-begotten Word of God became man, without letting go of being God. And since, though he became as we are, he could not be taken by sins, the Holy Spirit rested again on human nature, as in him first and as in the second first-fruits of the race, so that it might rest on us too and remain from then on, delighting to dwell in the minds of believers.

For so the divine John says somewhere that he saw the Spirit coming down from heaven upon Christ. Just as we became joint heirs of the evils that befell the first-formed man, so we shall be partakers of what was given by the economy to … the second first-fruits of our race, that is, to Christ. That the Spirit did not work in him a partial grace, as with the Spirit that is said to rest on the saints, but that it was the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in his own flesh as in his own temple (and not, of course, a soulless flesh, but one animated by a rational soul), the prophet will make plain by saying: “The spirit of the fear of God will fill him.” And he has given to the one Spirit a manifold operation. For there is not one Spirit of wisdom and another of understanding, or of counsel and strength and the rest; but just as the Word from God the Father is one, yet is named in many ways according to his operation (for he is life and light and power), so you will understand it of the Holy Spirit too: being one, it is conceived in many forms and operates so. Indeed the most wise Paul, enumerating for us the kinds of various gifts, says: “All these the one and the same Spirit works, distributing to each individually as it wills.”

“He will not judge according to reputation, nor convict according to speech; but he will judge the lowly with judgment and convict the lowly of the earth, and he will strike the earth with the word of his mouth, and with breath through his lips he will destroy the impious. And he will be girded with righteousness about his loins, and wrapped in truth about his sides.”

Having said very well beforehand that Emmanuel will be born in due time, he usefully adds also the marks by which he would be known, from the God-befitting virtue that is in him and the brilliance of his works. For it was necessary, truly necessary, to persuade beforehand, through prophetic prediction, those who were to receive faith in him, who he is, of what kind, and with what deeds he will come. Suppose someone wishes to point out one of us to people who do not know him: he paints him in words from what he knows him to be, and says of him that his hair is not thick but moderately thin, that his eye is bright and has a smiling glance, that his nose is slender, and goes through the other parts of the body. In the same way, I think, the blessed prophet too, since his discourse is about the Word who became man for us, enumerates the signs of his God-befitting pre-eminence and authority, and says of him: “He will not judge according to reputation, nor convict according to speech.” This is God-befitting and suited to the highest nature. For not to look to human reputation, and to make the judgment in each case right, undistorted, and wholly blameless, how would that not befit the nature that is queen of all?

For he does not know how to look to the face, nor does he count worthy of honour or regard one adorned with the trappings of wealth or with dignities when he wishes to take advantage of others; rather he condemns altogether and holds accursed the worker of lawlessness. And he will not convict according to speech; and in what way this must be understood, it is necessary to explain too. Very many of us count worthy of honour those who are willing to praise us, even if they are not good in their ways, and as a kind of reward for their flattery we sometimes even court them and hold back the rebukes due to them. But one would not see our Lord and God Jesus Christ doing this. On the contrary, he often brought those who chose to speak fair words, though they were not truly good, by sharp rebukes to choose to live more soberly. For once some of those called Herodians came to him (these were agents of the tax-gatherers), and then, preparing a bitter deceit against him, they said: “Teacher, we know that you teach the way of God in truth, and you do not care about anyone; for you do not look at the face of men. Is it lawful to give taxes to Caesar, or not?” And he answered: “Why do you test me, hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” See, then, how he rebukes; and he rebuked, and not according to their speech. For they expected to be praised, perhaps having practised elegant speech; but he unexpectedly called them testers and hypocrites. So “he will not judge according to reputation,” that is, he will not be a judge who shows partiality, “nor will he convict according to speech.” For he will not bear, he says, those who have chosen to think unholy things but put on elegant speech like a mask of deceit and guile. This he says plainly: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” And again: “Many will say to me on that day” (the day of judgment, plainly), “‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and do many mighty works?’ But then,” he says, “I will say to them: ‘Truly, I say to you, I never knew you.’”

What else besides does the impartial judge do? “He will judge the lowly with judgment”; that is, he will not overlook any of the lowly, but will bring forth a right and blameless judgment for him. “And he will likewise convict the lowly of the earth.” For just as he will not blush before the face of the rich man who wishes to take advantage, but will give a just judgment for the lowly, so too, he says, if anyone of those in humble and mean circumstances of life is carried outside the divine laws and is caught giving himself up to charges of injustice, he too will be convicted. For it is written: “You shall not pity a poor man in judgment.” For just as conspicuousness will not free from the charges the one who is in wealth, pre-eminence, and power, … the meanness of humble and lowly circumstances, nor will it free from the need to be punished the one weighed down by poverty, and the

… he adds to these also some others of the most God-befitting dignities, which he says belong to Christ the Saviour of all, since he was not a mere man like us but, as I said, the only-begotten Word of God made flesh and become man. What, then, will he do? “He will strike the earth,” he says, “with the word of his mouth.” And what earth? Above all, the earth he would curse. But what is said would also be true of the whole earth. For he cursed the whole earth, that is, human nature, when he said in Adam: “You are earth, and to earth you will depart.” And no less, besides this, he cursed Judea, when its inhabitants acted outrageously toward him. For he said: “Jerusalem, who kill the prophets and stone those sent to her, how often I wished to gather your children as a bird gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing! Behold, your house is left to you.” In “your house is left to you” the suffering of the abandonment that befell it is shown. Abandoned by him, it was consumed by war and fire and by the hands of those who destroyed it.

Another sign besides, and an effect of the highest power, is “to destroy the impious with breath through his lips.” For he rebuked the unclean spirits; and as far as the human side was concerned, the voice was formed through mouth and lips, but by the ineffable power of the Spirit the multitude of demons was shattered. “And he will be,” he says, “girded with righteousness about his loins, and wrapped in truth about his sides.” It is as if he said: his power and dignity are nothing at all of the things in the world, but rather the God-befitting glory, as though he were girded with righteousness and truth. A girdle is a sign of rule; and to say that he is wrapped about his sides would mean nothing else than this very thing, that he will wear righteousness like a belt, and truth with it. It is likely, too, that he called the new gospel proclamation righteousness and truth, according to what was said to him through the voice of the psalmist: “Your righteousness is righteousness for ever, and your law is truth.” For the law too was a teacher of righteousness; but it did not remain for ever, since the better and more perfect righteousness was brought in, plainly that through Christ. And the ancient law was not so much truth as type and shadow; but Christ and what is his are purely the truth. Therefore he said: “I am the truth.”

“… leopard will rest with the kid, and the calf and the bull and the lion will graze together, and a little child will lead them. And the ox and the bear will graze together, and their young will be together; and the lion and the ox will eat straw together, and an infant child will put his hand on the hole of asps and on the bed of the offspring of asps; and they will not do harm, nor will they be able to destroy anyone on my holy mountain, because the whole earth has been filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as much water covers the seas.”

Besides what has already been said, one might very fittingly grant that this too is a great and exceptional sign and a not unmarvellous effect of our Saviour's coming. For before the only-begotten Word of God became man as we are, before he was made like his brothers in all things, as it is written, the whole race on earth, I mean the human race, was divided into two peoples: that of the Jews, and that of those who served the creature instead of the Creator. God was known in Judea; but a great and immense swarm of idols was worshipped by the others, and whatever seemed good to each was honoured with the glory of God. “For all turned aside, together they became worthless; there was none who did good, not even one.” But the Jews, through the tutelage of the law, were somehow tamed and trained in the ways of righteousness; while the others, that is, those who served soulless idols, not having the law to guide them, were fierce in their dispositions, savage and rapacious, ready for greed, eager for pleasures, even very outlandish ones, and most prone to anything whatever of the most shameful. One of them was like a wolf; another resembled leopards, because his mind was all but spotted with the many and manifold kinds of passions; another, unrestrained in his purpose, accomplishing his greed against whomever he chose without toil, went through life likened to lions. But when those of such savage characters and ways … the purest and holy life, they ceased from the cruelty that was in them, and they too honoured the life that befits human beings, plainly the life in gentleness. For they believed Christ when he said: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Together with faith, then, they gained the putting away of their ancient cruelty, being kind and gentle, and living side by side with the saints. For they too have been called fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household. This, I think, the prophetic word indicates to us in many ways. “For the wolf,” he says, “with the lamb, and the leopard will rest with the kid”; that is, through Christ the wild will be brought together with the tame, those in no way holy with the sacred and holy. For as far as Israel's being instructed by the law and knowing the ways of gentleness went, he was tame and gentle, and also holy, and like a sheep and a goat …; and both these animals are sacred and clean, and besides they have their tameness from nature itself. But the wolf and the leopard, and indeed the lion, are … by nature and incompatible with the others; but in Christ this too has been accomplished. For Jews and Greeks have been brought together with one another, making as it were a common

… proclamation, and having come under the one chief shepherd of all, who knows how to pasture them, as the prophet says, “in good pasture and in a rich place.” “But the calf too,” he says, “and the bull and the lion will graze together.” He seems to call the calf the newly grown and young people of believers, that is, the one that is still an infant in Christ; and the bull perhaps Israel, as older in time. Or by the calf he indicates … the one who is above in knowledge and virtue. Of the same kind is the saying that the small will be blessed by the Lord with the great, and the elders with the younger, according to the voice of the psalmist. And the most wise John too knows such an age of mind and soul: he writes to fathers and to little children, and besides to young men, likening, I think, the measure of each one's mind, that is, of his understanding and knowledge of God, to the ages of bodies. They will graze, then, he says, together and in the same place, calf and bull and lion. And he usefully weaves the lion in again with the calf and the bull, so that you may again understand in a riddle that those who have been justified in faith and have come under the sceptre of Christ the Saviour of us all are not from the clean and sacred alone, that is, from the tame and gentle (those tamed through the law), but also from the wild, plainly the nations, since Christ the Saviour of us all joins them into one soul and passes on the good that comes of it to children's children, that is, to those born of them. For the peace of Christ extends to this day among us too, and the good of being of one soul and one faith. This, I think, he shows by adding that “their young will be together.” “And the lion and the ox will eat straw together,” he says. Notice that he did not say that the tame will change over to the food habitual to the wild, but the wild to that of the tame. For the bear and the lion are admittedly flesh-eaters, but the ox and the calf, or the kid, are not; such animals are rather grass-eaters. But the wild, he says, will depart from its habits and will rather change over to the food of the tame; for they too will eat straw. And the food may be a type of teachings. One may understand, then, that before faith in Christ the nations had wicked teachings, persuading them to honour the works of corruption and destruction. But when they were called to the knowledge of the God who truly is, together with their ancient error they also got rid of the teachings they had been brought up with, and honoured, together with those of Israel, the fresh and easily broken food of the gospel instruction.

“But also a little child,” he says, “will lead them”; that is, they will be under teachers and tutors who do not have a bitter and evil-loving mind, but are simple, “infants in malice but wise in mind.” Such are all who in Christ … having a heart free of perversity and wickedness, and falling in no way short of newborn children. For the Saviour himself says that such are worthy of the kingdom of heaven: “Let the children come,” he says, “and do not hinder them from coming to me; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” And that, having very great guilelessness of mind, they will be unconquerable and not to be caught, and superior to all terrors, he hints by saying: “And an infant child will put his hand on the hole of asps, and on the bed of the offspring of asps, and they will not do harm, nor will they be able to destroy anyone on my holy mountain.” By the holes and beds of asps I think he means either the wicked bands of demons, or the … of the unholy heretics, their houses, as it were, and lairs, so that we may not call them churches. Laying their hand on these again and again, those who are infants in Christ easily prevail, wronged in no way; for Christ is the one who defends them, makes the bites of those perverse men vanish, and renders their venom ineffective. “For they will not be able,” he says, “to destroy anyone on my holy mountain.” He calls the Church the holy mountain, because it is set on high as regards glory, and because of the loftiness of the doctrines in it. For nothing among us is low. We do not make the Maker equal to the creature, nor shall we bring God the Word, the creator of all, down from the glory that befits him by counting him among creatures. And he says that the whole earth has been filled with the knowledge of the Lord, and is as full of piety toward him as the broad and spacious sea is full of its own waters. One may see that this too is true. For where at all, or among whom, is Christ not named? Or what race of men has not submitted to him? For “every knee will bow to him, and every tongue will confess to him,” as it is written, “that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

“And there will be in that day the root of Jesse, and the one who rises to rule nations; in him nations will hope, and his rest will be honour.”

Little by little the meaning of what was said obscurely shines out, and what he said through riddles he makes very clear to those who love to listen. In what way the wolf will graze with the lamb, the leopard rest with the kid, and calf and ox and lion eat straw together; when at all these things will be; who those are who were once savage and harsh but afterward will be tame and gentle; and how they will be mixed with the tame and sacred under one shepherd: this he shows by saying, “And there will be the root of Jesse.” And to what end, and over whom? So as to rule over the nations, he says, and to become a hope for those who have no hope, plainly the nations themselves, to whom the most wise Paul writes, saying: “Therefore remember that you, the nations, called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that you were at that time without Christ, alienated from the … having no hope and without God in the world. But now you who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ.” But even if they were without hope and did not have God in the world (for they worshipped the works of their own hands), yet, called

through faith to the knowledge of Christ, they have been placed under him, have come to have as God him who is God by nature and in truth, and have become partners in the hope of the saints. “And his rest,” he says, “will be honour.” You will understand what is said in two ways. If one chooses to take “rest” here as hinting at Christ's death in the flesh, which he endured willingly for us (not enduring it as death, for he was life by nature, but as it were letting the flesh rest for a short time), the thing is honour and nothing else. For the Saviour of all, our Lord Jesus Christ, was glorified, having endured slaughter for the world and willingly undergone death for the life of all. Indeed he said to the Father in heaven, when he was about to go to the precious cross: “Father, glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you.” And again: “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him.” As far as the madness of those who crucified him and their unholy and hateful attempt went, the passion was a reproach and a dishonour to him; for they perhaps supposed that he suffered against his will. But since he came back to life, having despoiled Hades, and showed by the event itself that he is stronger than death, we shall find that the outcome ended in honour and glory for him. In this way, then, he says, “his rest will be honour.” But if anyone wishes to approach the passage's meaning in another way, he will take the force of what is said as follows: Christ will be not only a hope for the nations, but will be manifested in due time, or will rise, not only to rule them, but also to grant them his rest in them for honour and glory. For the mind of the saints is a dwelling dear to him; he lodges in the worthy and rests in the holy souls of those who worship him, and the thing is honour and glory to those who have received it. For what could equal, in renown, having God lodging and dwelling in one's heart? In this way too, then, his rest in us will be honour to those who once choose it. “For if anyone hears my words,” he says, “my Father will love him, and we will come to him and …”

“And it will be in that day, the Lord will further show his hand, to be zealous for the remnant … from the Assyrians, and from Egypt, and Babylonia, and Ethiopia, and from the Elamites, and from the rising of the sun, and from Arabia.”

By “day” here the prophet means the time in which the coming of Christ took place and the mystery of the Only-begotten's economy in the flesh was manifested. Then, then indeed, he says, the Lord will show his hand, that is, there will be a great display of power; and this not in vain, but “to be zealous for the remnant of the people that is left, whatever is left from the Assyrians,” he says, and from the other nations. I think the force of what is said must be explained. In earlier times the nation of the Jews suffered not a little, being ravaged on the one side by Assyrians and Elamites, on the other by those from Egypt and Babylonia, and from the rising of the sun, and from Arabia. But afterward Christ, the all-powerful hand and all-working right hand of God the Father, shone forth and made himself manifest through miracles, and hastened to assure those of Israel

that he was truly God and Son of him who is truly God. For which of the most marvellous things was not accomplished among them? All were God-befitting and extraordinary, giving a clear and most vivid display of the highest power. At that time, then, he says, “the Lord will further show his hand,” to make Israel zealous, so that they would not, as it were, yield Christ to the nations alone, but would themselves choose to have hope in him, and seek to come under him, and make him who became man for this reason their ruler, guide, and teacher. Indeed he said through the voice of David: “But I was established king by him on Zion, his holy mountain, proclaiming the decree of the Lord.” For Christ came saying that he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And he preached to them first, and commanded the holy apostles: “Do not go off on the way of the nations, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But since the wretched people, from very great madness, kept … with their disobedience the one who had come for this, he passed over from then on to the nations, and the last became first and the first last. Therefore now too the prophet, since he is a Spirit-bearing man and has been enriched with knowledge of the future through the light from above, first mentions the nations and then, after them, Israel, as cast behind those sanctified through faith, put at the back and among those left over, as it is written.

“And he will raise a sign to the nations and will gather the … of Judah he will gather from the four wings of the earth. And the zeal of Ephraim will be taken away, and the enemies of Judah will perish. Ephraim will not envy Judah, and Judah will not afflict Ephraim.”

Here especially the prophet works out his discourse to us in an extraordinary way. He takes what happened historically as an image of a spiritual matter; and I think this too must be said as clearly as possible. Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, succeeded to Solomon's rule; … the nation of the Jews; and the ten tribes and half the tribe of Ephraim moved to Samaria, while the tribe of Judah and half the tribe of Manasseh remained in Jerusalem. From time to time some of the one and some of the other reigned: in Jerusalem those of the tribe of Judah, and in Samaria those of the tribe of Ephraim; and much rivalry was kindled between the two parts, with frequent wars and risings against one another, as is plainly told in the books of Kingdoms. But when the Chaldeans and those who reigned over Persian Babylon had ravaged, so to speak, all Judea and carried off captive to their own land both Israel and Judah, that is, those in … freed from the captivity, they returned again to their own land and settled no longer divided, but all in Jerusalem; and they ceased anointing kings and rulers for themselves each part separately, afflicting one another, and still envying one another, as before. For at that time they came under one, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, who was of the tribe of Judah, and also Jeshua son of Jozadak, who was pre-eminent in the priesthood. Such is the account of the history here. But the prophet's aim was, from clearer matters and from what befell the people of old, to show the achievements of our Saviour's coming. For when the sign was raised, that is, the precious cross, and became manifest to the nations and peoples throughout the whole world, there came release for those in captivity (plainly the spiritual captivity), a concourse to unity of soul, and an eagerness for concord and common faith among those formerly divided. Yoked to many unholy tyrants (for they served the unclean spirits), they shook off their yoke and ran together very eagerly to the spiritual Zion, or Jerusalem, that is, the Church, and having come under one

king, that is, Christ, of whom Zerubbabel too was a type, when he brought Israel back from captivity, with Jeshua the great priest also with him, so that in him Christ may be understood as king and high priest, “holy, innocent, undefiled, separated,” as the divine Paul says. That the sign of Christ, that is, the precious cross, brought it about that those throughout the earth were gathered together into one faith and so brought near through him to the all-holy Father, will be clear from what the divine John the evangelist wrote. For he brings in the accursed Caiaphas saying to those in the council: “You know nothing, nor do you reckon that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish.” And he added to these very words: “He did not say this of himself, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered.” For Christ became our peace, according to the Scriptures: he broke down the dividing wall of the fence, abolished the law of commandments in ordinances, and created the two peoples into one new man, reconciling both through himself to God the Father and putting an end to the enmity between them, so that all of us, in one Spirit and in one body, having become of one soul and one body with one another, in Christ himself plainly, may bear for him the fruit of a righteousness beyond the law and the purity of the gospel way of life. So, passing from what was done historically to the spiritual contemplation, you will understand the mystery of Christ very well.

“And they will fly in ships of foreigners; they will plunder the sea together, and those from the rising of the sun, and Idumea; and on Moab they will first lay their hands; and the sons of Ammon will be the first to obey.”

He makes plain again here how those from the four wings of the earth, that is, all the nations, will be brought together into the unity that is in Christ through faith, and into a bond of love such as befits saints. Before the precious cross Christ said to the holy apostles: “Do not go off on the way of the nations, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” For as he himself said again: “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But when they had reached the height of every impiety, acted outrageously toward Christ, killed the author of life, and denied the holy and righteous one, then indeed, having trampled on death and risen from the dead, he commanded the holy disciples: “Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you.” And when he had ascended into heaven and the power from on high had come down upon them, they no longer remained in Judea alone proclaiming Jesus: some went off to the East and preached in the cities there, others reached the West, and others gave the words of instruction to the neighbouring nations. And those who wished to travel around all that is under the sun had, in some way, to use sea voyages too. Indeed the divine Paul declares that he spent a night and a day in the deep. And the writer of the Acts of the holy apostles says that he and those with him boarded … For it was a custom, especially on the ships of the Alexandrians, to have such images painted on the prow to right and left. And since it was likely, as idolatry prevailed at that time, that the ship had painted on it …

the Dioscuri, it follows that the master of the ship was a foreigner, that is, an idolater. So “they will fly in ships of foreigners,” he says; that is, running, eager, and as it were winged … It is the custom of divine Scripture to call the western parts “sea,” because the sea there is very great and broad. So blessed David, showing that the God of all is the creator of the whole world, says: “The north and the sea you created.” And that the divine Peter, and indeed the all-wise Paul himself, reached the western parts and proclaimed Jesus, no one would doubt. “They will plunder,” he says, “also those from the rising of the sun, and Idumea, … Ammon will be the first to obey.” For after the land of the Jews, all the bordering and neighbouring lands, and even those further off, were from then on full of those who knew the one God, who is God by nature and in truth. The Idumeans and the Moabites, and indeed the sons of Ammon, bordered on those of Israel and occupied neighbouring land, but were fiercely at odds with them and among the most hostile of all. They worshipped the stars, and held the Morning Star in all reverence, calling it a god as pre-eminent over the others. But on them too, and first, the true Morning Star shone into mind and heart and made the light of the spiritual day dawn. Casting off that ancient mist and … to Christ, they made their former bitterest enemies, I mean those of Israel, their initiators and guides on the way that leads to salvation.

“And the Lord will make desolate the sea of Egypt, and will lay his hand on the river with a violent wind, and will strike seven ravines, so that one may go through in sandals. And there will be a passage for my people that is left in Egypt; and it will be for Israel as the day when he came out of the land of Egypt.”

The inventor and father of sin, out of greed, ruled over those throughout all that is under heaven. Leading man away from the truth, he made him a worshipper of the herd of demons; and … beyond the others they became terrible at this. For there were precincts everywhere and altars in swarms, and the objects in their shrines were of many forms; for birds and fish, goat and sheep and calf received their reverence. But even when they were in this state God visited them and called them, with the others, to the light and to the knowledge of the truth. For Mark, the blessed evangelist, preached the Gospel of Christ there, and others after him in their times, some setting out from the land of the Hebrews, others appointed in their times as initiators and teachers from among those who had believed.

How this was accomplished must be told, widening the account of history. Before the power of the Romans prevailed over all, when each land had its own leader or king, there was great division among the nations, partly because difference of religion kindled enmity between them, partly because anyone who wished was allowed to plunder a man from another land, with no one to rebuke him. So the nations had very little intercourse with one another, and to be caught inside another people's land was not without penalty. But when the rule of the Romans prevailed over all and they came under one leader, they were taught to live by the Romans' laws; intercourse among the nations became free from fear, and great gentleness prevailed. Then indeed, then, a passage, that is, a way, was made for those who proclaimed Jesus, so that they could go into Egypt too. In what way Augustus Caesar took the land of the Egyptians, the prophetic word interprets for us. The river of Egypt is broad and great, and floods at its seasons; it comes through seven mouths, giving its stream to the neighbouring sea; and when it reaches the lower parts it floods all their land, so that the wheat-bearing land becomes navigable. When, then, Augustus

Caesar, having conquered Judea, came to the land of the Egyptians, its inhabitants thought that, even without arms, its being surrounded by lakes and rivers would make the land impregnable to him. But since God, who rules over all, had decided to bring the land of the Egyptians too, with the others, under the sceptre of the Romans, he drove the water of the river out to the sea with a most violent south wind and made the whole land passable, so that those who wished to cross the lakes, and even the ravines themselves, that is, the seven mouths of the river, did not, so to speak, have to loose the sandal from their feet. With God smoothing the way for the Roman army, the Egyptians were conquered. The prophet teaches us this again when he says: “Thus says the Lord Sabaoth: And the Egyptians will drink the water by the sea, but the river will fail and be dried up; and the rivers and the canals of the river will fail; and every gathering of water will be dried up, and in every marsh of reed and papyrus, and all the green sedge round the river, and all that is sown by the river …” The Lord, then, he says, will make desolate the sea of Egypt; and it is the custom of divine Scripture to call even lakes seas. “And he will lay his hand on the river with a violent wind.” For we say that the driving of the most violent wind against the waters was the work of the hand, that is, of the divine power. For he struck the seven ravines, that is, the mouths, and … in sandals. Then indeed, then, he says, there will be a passage in Egypt for my people that is left. And what people was this? Those of Israel who believed, about whom the prophet Isaiah says: “If the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved.” The first-fruits, as it were, of the remnant were the blessed disciples and those with them, one of whom was the divine Mark. “And it will be,” he says, “as the day when they came out of the land of Egypt”; that is, those of the blood of Israel who proclaimed the divine and heavenly word to those in Egypt will rejoice greatly, just as they rejoiced on that day when they came out of the land of Egypt. For formerly they themselves were carried out of the slavery in Egypt; but having become ministers of the divine … and genuine stewards of the gospel oracles, they freed the Egyptians not from fleshly slavery but from that of the … Then, through the mediation of the all-wise Moses, the river was changed into blood; but now the water has become saving for them in Christ, for we have been saved through holy baptism. Then those pursuing Israel were drowned when they plunged into the Red Sea; but they were taught through the holy apostles to swim through the surge of the present life and to be seen above the waves of the world. Then a terrible and most violent hail fell on them; but when they were initiated into the word of the economy in the flesh, a rain … A deep, three-day darkness was brought on them; but they came to be in the light. They mourned their firstborn; but the Firstborn from the dead, that is, Christ, saved them from death and corruption. At all these things, then, it was fitting that those of Israel should rejoice, as when they came out of the land of Egypt.

“And you will say in that day: I will bless you, Lord, because you were angry with me, and you turned away your wrath from me and had mercy on me. Behold my God, my Saviour the Lord; I will trust in him and be saved in him, and I will not be afraid; because the Lord is my glory and my praise, and he has become my salvation.”

Having said that those from the nations were saved through faith in Christ, and that those who were most superstitious of all came to the knowledge of the truth, he fittingly brings them in giving glory. For the proof that they have been wholly freed from the ignorance that was in them from the first, and have passed over to choosing to think what pleases the God who alone saved them, would be their eagerness to give glory and to offer him their thanksgivings like a spiritual sacrifice. At that time, then, he says, when there is a passage in Egypt, that is, for those who carry as ambassadors the saving word of the gospel, you who were long in deep darkness, a bitter idolater buried under the deceits of demons, when you see the glory of the one who called you and come to perceive from what sort of things to what sort you have passed, and that, having been yoked to a bitter tyrant, you have come out from under his greed and run to the help of the all-powerful God who saves the lost, then indeed, then, you will say to yourself, and very gladly: “I will bless you, Lord, because you were angry with me, and turned away your wrath from me, and had mercy on me.” They bring their thank-offerings and kindle their doxologies not when they came under the divine wrath, but when, having come under it, they received mercy. We say that the God of all was angry with those who say such things, plainly the idolaters. For what reason? The divine Paul tells us: “… and they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man and of birds and reptiles and four-footed beasts. Therefore,” he says, “God gave them over to an unapproved mind and to passions of dishonour, to do what is not fitting.” For those who counterfeited the divine glory and ascribed the exceptional beauty of the highest nature to such pitiable creatures, how would they not very fittingly come under the effects of the divine wrath? “But since,” he says, “you turned away your wrath, you had mercy on me” (for I have been called to knowledge through faith, “not according to the works which we did,” as it is written, “but according to his great mercy”); “therefore,” he says, “I will offer you a doxology in gratitude and say: Behold my God, my Saviour the Lord; I will trust in him and be saved in him.” For formerly, falling down before wood and stones and bringing sacrifices to senseless images, they begged to be saved through them. But since they have known the true God, having thrust aside the falsely named ones, they point to him alone, saying: “Behold my God, my Saviour the Lord.” I will no longer trust in wood and stones, he says, but in him alone, and through him I shall be saved. And even if the one who formerly got the better of me and carried me off into error comes again, tempting and fighting, I will conquer, he says, “because the Lord is my glory and my praise.” Do you see how they knew that giving glory is a saving thing? “Offer to God a sacrifice of praise,” it says, “and pay your vows to the Most High.” And: “Call on me in the day of your affliction, and I will rescue you, and you will glorify me.”

“And draw water with gladness from the springs …”

The one who called is generous; God who saved is ready to repay; he does good to those who have come to know him, and richly gladdens with divine and spiritual gifts those who glorify him. See how they confessed, saying, “Behold my God, my Saviour the Lord, I will trust in him”; and at once he promises them springs and saving water. It was necessary …

… that those called from Greek ignorance to the knowledge of the God who truly is should not lack instruction and a word that gladdens them and has power to hold them together in piety. “For man shall not live by bread alone,” it says, “but by every word that proceeds through the mouth of God.” He calls water the life-giving word of God; springs, the holy apostles and evangelists (and I would add the prophets themselves too); and salvation, Christ. You, then, he says, who gladden me, God by nature and God of all, with your confessions of faith, will receive in return a divine and spiritual gladness, drawing the word that has power to hold you together for this from the springs, that is, the holy apostles. Of them blessed David sings: “The springs of the waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were uncovered.” For the springs of waters are the divine disciples, who gush forth to all who are under heaven the words that come from above and through the Spirit. And likewise they are the foundations of the world. For Christ is the chosen stone, who is also said to have been laid by God the Father in the foundations of Zion, that is, of the Church. For we are founded on him, and through faith we are built up as a spiritual house into a holy temple, into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. And the stones after him, that is, the foundations of the world, would be (and would very fittingly be called) those who proclaim him to all throughout the earth. For their writings hold us up for steadfastness and firmness in faith and truth.

“And you will say in that day: Sing hymns to the Lord, cry out his name, announce among the nations his glorious deeds; remember that his name has been exalted. Sing hymns to the name of the Lord, for he has done lofty things; announce these things in all the earth. Exult and be glad, you who dwell in Zion, because the Holy One of Israel has been exalted in your midst.”

What a marvellous thing! The one who was only just being initiated, and then came upon the springs of salvation and drew the life-giving stream, is seen to have made such progress (in being faithful and genuine, I mean) that he at once shows an apostolic ministry. And not only does he hasten to give glory himself, but he also now commands all the others to do this, saying: “Sing hymns to the Lord, cry out his name.” And to whom he commands that it be cried out he makes plain by adding at once: “Announce among the nations his glorious deeds.” Do not let the Saviour's glory be hidden, he says; let his God-befitting power and authority be plain to all. He saved without remembering wrongs; he destroyed the irresistible tyranny of the devil and the demons; he redeemed those who had been deceived; he freed those in captivity; he proclaimed recovery of sight to the blind. He justified through faith, sanctified through the Spirit, … made sons of God those who were formerly runaways, and showed by deeds that he is God by nature and in truth. He raised the dead, made clean those with leprosy, healed by his nod those in sicknesses … that was wild. So “announce among the nations his glorious deeds,” and keep in constant memory “that his name has been exalted.” “For he has done lofty things”; truly what he accomplished is beyond human hand, or rather beyond every marvel. “Exult, then, and be glad, you who dwell in Zion,” that is, you who have firm faith in the churches, “because the Holy One of Israel has been exalted in your midst.” For even if the Holy One of Israel became man and came down in the form of a slave for us by the economy, yet from the effects and the brilliance of his works he was exalted in a manner befitting God; and who he is by nature we have known,

“The vision which Isaiah son of Amoz saw against …”

The vision against Babylon, and indeed those that follow it in order (against the Idumaeans and Moabites, and also against the Egyptians, and against the others besides), were made for the comfort of Israel, and they give the meaning of what they signify in a rather historical way; yet the more intelligent are permitted to carry what happened to the ancients over into a very clear spiritual contemplation. This the discourse will explain to its readers as it goes on, interpreting each of the things written as far as it can. But I think it necessary now, too, to go back to the beginning of the matter and to set out first the causes of the vision. For Israel, called through the all-wise Moses to the knowledge and worship of the God who truly is, and having the law that directed him toward everything worthy of admiration, neglected the commandment given to him and turned to “teachings, commandments of men”, or rather gave himself up to things still worse … The God of all, then, accused those who chose to do such things through every prophet, and raised a great outcry at his impiety. He said, for example: “This people draws near to me, with their lips they honour me, but their heart is far from me. In vain they worship me, teaching as teachings the commandments of men.” And again: “Why has the beloved done an abomination in my house?” He calls the idol an abomination. Since, then, they had turned terribly aside to outlandish degeneracy, and were drawing their neck away from service under God, and were raising up their own proud mind as it were against him, he handed them over at various times: sometimes to those who held the neighbouring land, I mean the Idumaeans and also the Moab… but to those harsher and wilder than the others, the Egyptians and those from Philistia; and sometimes, bringing a heavier blow on them, he sent against them the cruellest of all on earth, I mean the Babylonians, who laid waste the whole land of the Jews without effort and carried off into captivity, to their own land, a multitude beyond number. That these things would happen to them, the God of all admonishing them …, the blessed prophets foretold at various times. Yet even though what had been foretold had already come to fulfilment for them, they were no less hard and disobedient, … abominable … So the God of all, after the blow and the scourges and what befell them from their enemies at various times, makes a prophecy of the sweetest things, things that know how to gladden: he promises that he will see to it that those who had already become captives return home, that he will release them from the bonds of their misery, and that he will hand over to their enemies those very people who had once conquered them. For it was surely very likely that, even if they had remained uncorrected by the former things, they would at least choose to take delight in the second, and, lifted on wings to the hope of what they longed for, to honour the worship dearest to God and to keep their mind unshaken toward him.

Since, then, although there were many who at various times ravaged the land of the Jews (the Chaldeans most of all, and those of Babylon …) at various times, against them, as it were first of all, the word of prophecy leaps and says: … “On a mountain of the plain raise a sign.” I think it necessary, before the interpretation of what lies before us, to relate first something most necessary. Cyrus, then, whose father was Cambyses and whose mother was Mandane, and who reigned over the Persians and the Medes, made an expedition against Babylon and against the whole land of the Chaldeans, which was broad and very great; and indeed he conquered it. He took it not by his own forces, nor because he was able to use a stronger hand (for the Chaldean nation was unconquerable and without rival, because of its numbers and because it was thoroughly trained in tactics), but rather because God subjected his opponents to him, and the impieties of the Babylo… how great the sorcery among them was, and the swarm of idols beyond number. Indeed it has been named “land of carved images”, either because of the multitude of idols, or because each of those who lived there was found in no way different from an idol, I mean in turning to error without check or restraint. Then, besides this, because, having laid waste the holy land that had been allotted to God, that is, Judaea, and having burned Jerusalem and the divine temple itself, they carried off the sacred vessels to their own land, and, giving rein to unmixed wrath, they killed Israel, which was named a holy people and the portion and lot of God. For that God handed Israel over into the hands of enemies when it worshipped idols is not unclear to those who know the sacred writings; but those who were called to this punished them beyond measure. Indeed the God of all is found saying somewhere through the voice of Zechariah: “I have been jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great jealousy, and with great anger I am angry with the nations that join in the attack; because I was angry a little, but they joined in the attack for evil.” And to Babylon he says: “I gave them into your hands, but you gave them no mercy.” So God handed over to Cyrus the boastful and insolent city, the mother and nurse of all wickedness, I mean Babylon. This too may become clear when he says through Isaiah: “Thus says the Lord to my anointed, Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, that nations may obey before him, and cities … and I will level mountains; I will shatter doors of bronze and break bars of iron.” Having conquered, Cyrus released Israel from captivity and ordered them to go home rejoicing, and moreover to rebuild the divine temple. Indeed the prophet Jeremiah says: “The word which the Lord spoke against Babylon: Announce among the nations, and make it heard, and do not hide it. Say: Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, the fearless one, the luxurious one.”

“Merodach is handed over, because a nation has come up against her from the north; it will make her land a desolation, and there will be none dwelling in her, from man to beast. In those days and at that time the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah will come together; going and weeping they will go, seeking their God; they will ask the way to Zion, for here they will set their face, and they will come and flee for refuge to the Lord; for an everlasting covenant will not be forgotten.” And again: “Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I take vengeance on the king of Babylon and on his land, as … I will set Israel back in his pasture, and he will graze on Carmel and on mount Ephraim and in Gilead, and his soul will be filled.”

“On a mountain of the plain raise a sign; lift up the voice for yourselves, do not fear; exhort with the hand; open, you rulers. I give the order and I lead them. They are sanctified, and I lead them. Giants are coming to fulfil my wrath, rejoicing and insulting together.”

The blessed prophet, his mind filled with the Holy Spirit and seeing the events in visions as if they were being painted, all but leaps up, calling out to the Persians and Medes as though they had already conquered the land of the Babylonians, to lift on high the symbol of victory (for this, I think, is the “sign”), and to raise the war-cry over the army of the Chaldeans as already fallen and having handed over to them the boastful and far-famed city, which the prophet Jeremiah also called the hammer of the earth, saying of the city of the Babylonians: “How has the hammer of the whole earth been taken and broken?” For every city and land was broken, being beaten down in the manner of … He calls “a mountain of the plain”, I think, one that is as it were low, a hillock as it were. For they do not climb up the high mountains to set up their signals, or the trophies, that is, the sign, but on hills not raised very high, so that it may at once avoid being placed too high and yet be very well known to the whole army. Raise then, he says, a sign; as already … “the voice”, that is, raise the war-cry against the phalanx of the enemy; “do not fear”. For admittedly the hand of the Babylonians was terrible and unrivalled for people everywhere, and no one could blame those who feared it. But now do not fear, he says, since God is bringing out his own wrath against their arrogance. “Exhort with the hand.” And what is this? It is perhaps the custom of those who lead troops to … with the hand, and to rouse them to attacks …, since the voice is too weak to do this, as in a great uproar. He orders, then, those in charge of affairs to make their exhortations by hands and nods to the armies under their hand, and to whet them to an irresistible eagerness. He adds again the cry: “Open, you rulers.” For either … to open the gates and to hand over the once boastful and insolent city; or perhaps … to holy powers, by the command of God, … passable by horses, though very difficult. And to show that the hand of the fighters is invincible, he adds and says: “I give the order and I lead them.” He says almost something like this: it is not that a multitude of the Median army has come over to you of its own accord, nor did the people of the Persians rush on by their own judgement alone; rather I myself have even sanctified them for this. “I have sanctified” here means “I have set apart”, and as it were “I have chosen”, for carrying out what I have resolved against you. They come, then, he says, the ones I lead, like giants, to fulfil my wrath, rejoicing and insulting together: rejoicing, because they are confident that they will conquer; and insulting, that is, spitting on them as very feeble and worth nothing. For the barbarian mind is always somehow of this kind, quick to hope that it can conquer, and always belittling its opponents. For anger above all leads them on to this and breeds in them the desire to show courage, … every danger and … “A voice of many nations on the mountains, like that …

… of many nations, a voice of kings and of nations … to come from a far land, from the uttermost foundation of heaven, the Lord and his armed warriors, to destroy the whole world.”

As though the Medes were already raising the war-cry and lifting up the shout that suits wars, as of a horse …, while others were already turning to flight, a great and confused noise being scattered abroad: “A voice,” he says, “of many nations on the mountains, like that of many nations.” Not such a voice, he says, that one could guess that those shouting were few and easily counted; rather one would think that the multitude of those crying out was beyond number. The word shows at the same time those … by the terrors. For he insists that it is the voice of nations and of kings. So those crying out would be the vast people of the Babylonians, and with them those [taking] the city, namely the Persians and Medes, raising the war-cry over the captured. These, I think, he also calls armed warriors, and a nation coming from a far land, “from the uttermost foundation of heaven”, that is, from the very limits of Media and the innermost parts of the most northern land. And since they were planning the attack according to God's will, he calls them armed warriors of the Lord, and says that they have been brought to destroy the whole world, and certainly not the whole of ours. For we will not find that this was done by Cyrus and those with him. He calls “world” the land of the Chaldeans, because it was very large and immeasurably broad, and as it were rivalled the inhabited world because of the multitude of its inhabitants.

“Howl, for the day of the Lord is near, and destruction from God will come. Therefore every hand … And the envoys will be troubled, and pangs will seize them, as of a woman giving birth; and they will lament one to another, and be amazed, and their face like …”

As though all hope had been taken away, as though nothing were left to the Babylonians except only the need to lament, he says: “Howl.” He has commanded them as it were to despair of safety, and not to set their hand to useless things by planning resistance, since divine wrath has been armed against them and destruction has been brought on them by a decree from above. And the thing is wholly irresistible: “For who will turn back the high hand?” as it is written. And again: “If he shuts against a man, who will open?” What strength, or whose at all, will fight against God? Therefore he says that every hand will be weakened and every soul of man will be cowardly; for when the all-powerful God shakes the souls of men into cowardice, who will put courage into them, or make them stout-hearted and fit to resist? He says that the envoys will be troubled and will fall into pangs as of a woman giving birth, that they will lament one to another, and also that they will be amazed, and their face … “I think,” he says, the priests of the idols, those who … …

… to the Babylonians, the servants of the demons, who, as was likely when the attack was being planned and the Medes were expected to arrive together with Cyrus and the Persians, prophesied favourable things, and … from the demons, bringing on the customary things, rites, plainly, and profane sacrifices, and promising to intercede for the whole land. These, then, he says, the servants and suppliants of the demons, who perform the sacrifices on behalf of all, when they see matters turned against their hope, will be troubled and will be in bitter pangs, and will lament one to another, that is, they will cry out to one another the words of unmixed calamity, “woe”, plainly, and the like. And as by a flame they will change their face. For the face of the despondent tends somehow to darken, so as to seem nothing else than ash, the remains of burnt-out ashes.

“For behold, the incurable day of the Lord is coming, of anger and wrath, to make the whole world desolate and to destroy the sinners out of it. For the stars of heaven and Orion and all the ornament of heaven will not give their light, and it will be darkened when the sun rises, and the moon will not give its light. And I will command evils for the whole world, and for the ungodly their sins; and I will destroy the insolence of the lawless, and …”

In these words he tries to teach openly what the reason is why the rulers lament to one another and change their face as from a flame. For since they had prophesied, as I said, what they wished for themselves and for all the Babylonians, but have been disappointed of their hope, for this reason, he says, they will be full of dejection. For an incurable day has come upon them, the Lord of all bringing it. Again he calls “day” the time at which the divine and unrelenting wrath came, so that the land of the Chaldeans was made desolate and the sinners destroyed out of it. And he does not say that the sinners will be destroyed as though there were some there who are set outside the wrath because they are good; rather the name would fittingly suit all who inhabited the land of the Chaldeans, because all were wicked and idolaters. And since the greatness of calamities sometimes all but fills the human mind with darkness and mist, so that even in daytime the light of the sun seems absent, and the ornament of heaven idle, and even the very disk of the moon, for this reason he says: “For the stars of heaven and Orion and all the ornament of heaven will not give their light”; and that the Babylonians will be darkened, that is, the mind of the Babylonians, even while the sun rises and the moon shines, although the heavenly bodies had not withdrawn their light, but because they, as in great terror and [struck] by the divine wraths, had night and darkness in their mind. “I will command,” he says, “evils for the whole world.” “I will command” … “I will bring”, so as to bring down the insolence of the lawless and to humble the arrogant, the boasters themselves, plainly. For the Assyrian nation was always contemptuous and most degenerate, and besides this hateful to God. For nothing of what is best was honoured among them, but rather everything that is apt to grieve the God of all. It should be known that those who translated the divine Scripture made mention of Orion, signifying by it the most notable of the stars; and they say such things not at all because they followed the trifling tales of the Greeks, but rather they used the customary name, just as it is written in Job too: “Who makes the Pleiad and Hesperus and Arcturus and the chambers of the south.”

“And those who are left will be more honoured …

… than unrefined gold, and man will be more honoured than the stone from Sophir.”

Here “honoured” is what needs to be investigated. He says, then, that the land of the Babylonians, and the whole land of the Assyrians, will be so emptied of men that the living in it will be hard to find, and the scarcity of the survivors will be as great as that of Indian stones and the most approved gold. For such things seem to some to be precious because they are very hard to obtain, and indeed because they are few and found with difficulty. As hard to obtain, then, he says, as the things admired by men, precious stones and unrefined gold, that is, the most approved, so few and so rare will be those who escape …

“For the heaven will be angry, and the earth will be shaken from its foundations, because of the fury of the wrath of the Lord Sabaoth, in the day when his fury comes upon it.”

The blessed prophets speak hyperbolically: receiving in their mind the divine and unspeakable power and glory, they raise their voices on high and devise extraordinary magnitudes for their accounts. And somehow the servant creation is always whetted to anger together with God when he is angry, the one who gives commands to all surely rousing it to this. Indeed he was angry with the Egyptians, and creation could not bear to be idle: the water was changed into blood, the earth brought up frogs, as it is written, and the heaven sent down hail; and moreover a deep, three-day darkness spread over their whole land. So, he says, even the heaven itself will be angry, and the earth will be shaken as from its base, because of the fury of the wrath of the Lord. For creation joins in the war against the foolish, and when its Master is grieved it all but takes the same stand itself. For all things concur with the supreme will, and there is nothing among the things that exist that does not [yield] to the divine nods, and unwillingly …

“And those who are left will be like a fleeing gazelle … who gathers, so that a man turns back to his people and a man flees to his own land. For whoever is caught will be defeated, and those who have been gathered will fall by the sword, and they will dash their children before them, and will plunder their houses, and will have their wives.”

He says that those who are left will be very few, and those too unmanly and most unwarlike, and so broken down by cowardice that they choose to do nothing else but only to flee, like a gazelle, and to save themselves without honour, and to give up entirely even rising up against the assaults of the enemy. And that they are without a leader … few, he indicates by saying that they will be like a wandering sheep, deprived of the shepherd's kindly care and going somewhere outside the pasture, so as to choose to be far from its accustomed folds. For there will be, he says, no one who gathers, so that a man turns back to his people and a man flees to his own land. He says “flee” in the sense of “hasten”; and yet everyone loves his country, and nothing is better than the dwellings of one's fathers. But even the loss of things so very dear to them is sweet, he says, because everyone who is caught is destroyed at once. The prophetic word affirms that something else too will happen, of the things most apt to grieve. “For their children,” he says, “they will dash before them, and will plunder their houses, and will have their wives.” What could be heavier for parents than the slaughter of their children?

Or how is it not more unbearable than any torment to see houses plundered, and the dignity of women wronged and subjected to the licentiousness of the conquerors? The blessed psalmist too mentions something of this kind. For in his words about the city of the Babylonians he says: “Blessed is he who will seize your infants and dash them against the rock.” These things, then, befell historically the land of the Assyrians and the cities and districts in it, because they were all idolaters and boastful beyond bearing, terribly fighting against God, and skilled in the magic art. And they also sacked the holy city, … Israel, having made them part of their spoil of war, they put on them the yoke of slavery to which they were unaccustomed. And the account of these things will not stop at what concerns the history alone and what happened visibly; rather, those who wish may understand it also spiritually, if they skilfully transfer the force of what happened to the very inventor of all wickedness, the God-hated and most cruel one, I mean Satan; especially since the word of prophecy, having set forth the mystery of Christ and having made the proclamation about him very well, has brought in the vision against Babylon next to it, all but whetting the minds of its hearers to the need to understand spiritually too what happened historically, both against Babylon itself and against the whole land of the Assyrians. … the apostate dragon … he presses on very vigorously, always overturning toward what seems good to him, and very often he carries off, as one who has taken captives, and … with the din of the passions, laying on them as it were a terrible and inescapable yoke of slavery, … just as the kings of the Assyrians at various times exulted over those of Israel, because, having been put outside their own land and the holy city, they were slaves to foreigners. But not for ever … For the sign of the Saviour has been raised: that is, we have offered songs of victory to him who conquered for our sake and on our behalf, and we have made the confession of the right faith. For this, I think, is “Lift up the voice for yourselves.” And the Lord has given command to an armed nation to come, plainly the nation of the saints, whose fight and war is not against blood and flesh, but rather against rulers and authorities and the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. They have stood in battle and conquered, and they prevail even to this day, and they besiege the throng of the opposing powers, and, as some idolatrous city, … They overpower their opponents, with Christ as it were in command and the holy angels sharing the shield-wall, so that those who still worship the powers of those [demons] are very few indeed, and are pitiable, unmanly and fearful, and have wholly given up resistance, I mean resistance to those who serve Christ. Running through the vision and what follows in the text, let everyone who is … gather the knowledge of some such spiritual contemplation.

“Behold, I raise up against you the Medes, who do not reckon silver, nor have they need of gold.

… of you they will not pity, nor will their eyes spare your children. And Babylon, which is called glorious by the king of the Chaldeans, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah; it will not be inhabited for all time, nor will they enter into it through … it.

In these words he now makes a very clear prediction of the war, and, having taken away the obscurity like a shadow cast over the words, he sets the calamity that will soon be present bare and open and as it were before the eyes. For the Medes will come, will come, he says, not overcome by money, nor … bribes from you … a dark saying, words of the wise and riddles. “… Arabs, nor shepherds, will rest in it …” … better rather, as having come at the right time, … and of the things they had set most eagerly before themselves, so that they will shatter the arrows of young men. For if one considers the attacks of barbarians, whenever they are made against lands or cities, he will find them done for no other reason than only for plunder, to make a collection of whatever money comes their way. But the Medes, he says, will be above gains and will disregard profits in order to pull down the brow of the Babylonians. For they always had great pride in their archery and set great store by success in it. But they will be weaker than their enemies. And the conquerors will be so hard and pitiless that they will spare not even the pitiable age, nor shed a tear of gentleness over infants perishing piteously. And Babylon, which is called glorious by the king of the Chaldeans, will, he says, be so inhabited by desolation that it will differ in no way from burned Sodom and Gomorrah; it will be uninhabited, and so shunned even by its neighbours, even by those of a far-ranging nation who roam about it, that not even shepherds of the Arabs will [rest] any of their flocks in it, because it has been wholly laid waste. It should be known that he [calls Arabs] the Saracen nations, which reach even to the [land] of the Assyrians; for they have the land of the Arabs as neighbour. And it is likely that the Saracens from Arabia themselves roam the deserts of the Assyrians, mingled together.

“And wild beasts will rest there, and the houses will be filled with echo. And sirens will rest there, and demons will dance there. And … hedgehogs in their houses. It comes quickly and will not delay.”

Wild animals always somehow like to make their dwelling in deserted places and in a ruined city, very many dens for themselves, makeshift indeed, and found as it were by chance of themselves; and in deserts and in silent places a thin echo, as it were from the very great silence, rises I know not how, and steals into the ears of those who are at rest. Wild beasts, then, he says, will rest there, and the houses will be filled with echo: that is, having no inhabitant at all, they will come to possess the echo that suits deserts.

“And demons,” he says, “will dance there.” For they say that these too somehow have a peculiar … in quiet places … By sirens, I think, he means the birds that know how to sing sweetly, or, according to the Hebrew edition, the owl. The wild asses he named onocentaurs, and hedgehogs those of the mice that bristle as it were with sharp spines. All these would fittingly suit cities or houses that have been wholly laid waste. He adds to these that it comes quickly and will not delay, either putting a more bitter anxiety into the Assyrians, or making the matter no small comfort to those of the blood of Israel. For since they were in captivity, [and it was foretold] that they would be released [through] Cyrus with the Persians and Medes, quickly … and he promises release from their sorrows, and that what they prayed for will not be put off for long, but will run as it were on the heels of the word.

“And the Lord will have mercy on Jacob and will yet choose Israel, and they will rest on their land, and the sojourner will be added to them, and will be added to the house of Jacob. And nations will take them and bring them into their place; and they will inherit and be multiplied on the land of God as male and female slaves; and those who took them captive will be captives, and those who ruled over them [will be ruled]; and it will be in that day … God will give you rest from your pain and from your wrath and from the hard slavery …”

He lifts up to good hope those of the blood of Israel who had suffered, and refreshes them with good promises … the greed of those who had taken them. For he foretold clearly that they would come up out of captivity and throw off the yoke of their unaccustomed slavery, when Babylon and the whole land of the Assyrians had been sacked. For Israel, he says, will not be wholly cast off, nor will he pay endless penalties for his offences; but the chosen one will be pitied and will breathe again in due time; and since he was set as firstborn among children, he will obtain the oversight and kindness that come from God. He says that they will return to the land that bore them, and that the sojourner will go up with them. By “sojourner” he means the native-born, sprung from the soil, that is, the Babylonian. For very many of the Babylonians followed those from Israel, some because they had become kin to them, others because they had inclined to the worship according to the law. For since they spent long periods in captivity, it is surely likely that no small multitude of the native-born had been joined to them. The sojourner, then, he says, will be added to them: that is, the native too will follow and accompany them. “And nations will take them and bring them into their place.” For when Cyrus released Israel, he ordered the rulers of the lands to escort them unharmed and free from plots. And the one who received the sceptre of the Assyrians after him did this too: this was Xerxes. Those who wish to examine such things precisely may consult the books of Ezra and gain the most unerring knowledge of all that has been said. For they went up from the land of the Assyrians to Judaea while Zerubbabel son of Salathiel, who was of the tribe of Judah, administered the kingdom, and Jesus son of Josedek, the great priest, led the priestly order. Nations, then, he says, will escort them and bring them into their land, and they will hold the lot assigned to them from above. And what is still more paradoxical, those who were once servants of idols … plainly the faith. For they also rested from … they will be multiplied on the land of God as male and female slaves, and those who took them captive will be captives. For those who had taken Israel captive, having been brought back together with him and having arrived, he says, in Judaea, will put their neck under the yokes of the law, and, as if enduring a good and saving captivity, will inscribe as Lord

and God the Creator of all. For either this, he says, or perhaps he wishes to show that those who had once conquered Israel and carried him off from Judaea, and subjected [them] to …, … by Cyrus, plainly when the Persians and Medes had driven them out. For in that day, that is, at that time, you will be released from your pain and your wrath, that is, from the wrath that hung over you, the divine wrath plainly; for you will escape the bitter slavery and be released from your labours. But come, again remoulding as far as we can the thickness of the history, let us look at such an event in a spiritual contemplation. They were captives, given over to the worship of idols and revering the powers of the very one who had defrauded them. But the Creator of all had pity on them as wronged, and sent us from heaven as redeemer his own Son, “in the name of the Lord”, that is, not as one of the holy prophets but in the glory of lordship; and he sacked, as some boastful and insolent city, … with his armed warriors, that is, the holy apostles, who, having laid waste as it were the whole land of the devil, brought back with them, as into a holy city, the spiritual Jerusalem (I mean the Church), those who had been deceived and were held under the yoke of slavery; and these were multiplied on the land of God and became male and female slaves. And those who formerly had them under their hand as captives, that is, the servants of the demons, who taught their customs and netted people into destruction, have become captives, that is, they have been conquered by the preaching of the holy apostles and [have come] under Christ … from the hard slavery which they had already served before coming under the Lord and his armed warriors.

“And you will take up this lament against the king of Babylon, and you will say in that day: How the exactor has ceased, and the taskmaster has ceased! God has broken the yoke of sinners, the yoke of rulers, striking a nation in wrath with an incurable blow, smiting a nation with a blow of wrath, which did not spare; he has ceased, though confident.”

He says that the calamities of war came upon the Babylonians to such a pitch of harshness that even those who, it was likely, having suffered things beyond bearing, would all but dance over him as he lay, these in turn would now grieve, and come to pity at the multitude of what had befallen them; or else that they would lament them in another sense, once fallen, not at all pitying them, but rather rejoicing and mocking those caught beyond their hope. He also weaves the lament for them, and a song fitting what has happened. For you will say, he says: “How the exactor has ceased!” He says “has ceased” euphemistically, meaning “has perished and come to an end”. He calls the Babylonian exactor and taskmaster, who out of very great arrogance laid the yoke of his greed not only on his neighbours, but sent his tax-collectors even into very distant cities and lands and exacted tributes and dues. They wonder, then, how such a one has ceased, and the hand that grasped at everything has come to an end. And since they were not ignorant of the causes of his fall, they point them out and say: “God has broken the yoke of sinners, the yoke of rulers.” You hear how he calls them rulers, [for they had a] mind … subjecting to their own yokes practically everyone throughout the whole earth. For to rule was at times their only aim. But God, he says, struck the haughty race, that is, striking a nation with an incurable blow. And he who greatly trusted in himself and was proud, and did not willingly cease, has ceased, that is, goes off to the end most fitting for him, having suffered an incurable blow of wrath, all sparing

being removed. But it would be fitting for us too to say these things, and as it were to raise the shout of victory over Satan, an exactor and taskmaster, and a very bitter one. For he presses on the mind of each one, turning it aside from the best and good pursuits (I mean those in piety and righteousness), carrying it off as it were by force to what seems good to him, and, like some bitter tax-gatherer, demanding from each diligence in sin. But the Saviour broke the yoke of sinners, casting that one off and rather putting us under his own yokes, and striking a nation with an incurable blow. What nation? Surely that of the demons, whom he also commanded to go off into the abyss; and indeed he brought the most grievous torments upon them; at any rate they cried out, saying: “Ah, what have we to do with you … us.” “The whole earth cries out with gladness, and the trees … You have come here before the time to destroy.” This too is part of the lament. And as far as the account of the history goes, there was gladness in all … of the taskmaster, who demanded from all that they must be subject to him; whom the prophetic word also calls trees of Lebanon, surely those in office and in power among the nations, being compared to cedars. [So, then,] he says, rejoicing over you they say: “Since you have fallen asleep, the one who cuts us down has not come up.” And if anyone should wish to apply such a word only to … … great in the land of the Phoenicians, with cedars and … So the divinely inspired Scripture very often compares it to the land of the Jews, because there are very many in it most distinguished in power and glory, and others too raised on high in the [honours] of the priesthood and as it were most fragrant. Indeed the prophet Zechariah compared Judaea to Lebanon, and those in it to cedars and oaks and pines, and the army of the Romans, which after the cross of the Saviour burned up their whole land, to all-devouring fire. He speaks thus: “Open your doors, O Lebanon, and let fire devour your cedars. Let the pine wail, because the cedar has fallen. Wail, oaks of Bashan, because the dense forest has been torn down.” Let the word, then, be that of the Jews, as from the trees of Lebanon, rejoicing and saying to the Babylonian and those around him: “Since you have fallen asleep, the one who cuts us down has not come up.” And the figure of speech has stayed very elegant.

For since the voice came as from trees of Lebanon, for this reason they say: “The one who cuts us down has not come up.” For after the return of those of Israel from Babylon, war from the Assyrians was no longer stirred up against them. And we too will fittingly say to Satan, we who were once sacked by him but now have a mind settled in Christ, and a mind secure in piety and rooted: [“The one who cuts us down has not] come up.”

“Hades below was embittered on meeting you; all the giants who ruled the earth rose up together with you, those who raised up from their thrones all the kings of nations. All will answer and say to you: You too have been taken, as we were, and you have been reckoned among us. Your glory has gone down to Hades, your great gladness; beneath you …”

It is the custom of the divinely inspired Scripture sometimes to personify, and as it were to fit voices to the things themselves, as in: “Be ashamed, Sidon, said the sea; and the strength of the sea said: I have not been in labour … virgins.” For it attaches the word on this matter to the city of the Tyrians, sacked at a certain time by the Babylonians; and we say that the word suits the nature of the events. So too the prophet Micah somewhere brought in Jerusalem speaking to Babylon: “Do not rejoice over me, my enemy, because I have fallen; and I will rise. For if I sit in darkness, the Lord will give me light. I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I sinned against him, until he justifies my cause; and he will execute my judgement and bring me out into the light. I will see his righteousness, and my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who says to me: Where is the Lord your God? My eyes … will look upon her; now she will be for trampling, like mud in the streets. A day of the smearing of brick; that day is yours.” That is, the day on which Cyrus and the Medes together with the Persians took the land of the Babylonians. So now too, no less, the blessed prophet personifies; and he says that [Hades] was embittered, that is, … consider the arrangement of the word. For he shows by this that he was bloodthirsty and full of blood, so that almost all of Hades, that is, those in Hades, had become the work of the cruelty that was in him. For the boaster did not cease cutting down nations and kings utterly and filling Hades with wretched souls. All the giants, then, he says, that is, those who had become notable for strength and ruled many nations, but had been destroyed by you, will answer and say: “You too have been taken, as we were.”

For you were a man, they say, but you did not deign to know this and to think it; you would not even have supposed that anyone would be stronger than your brow and your irresistible hand, and that there is something stronger even than death, perhaps you did not put outside your hope; and hardly, and against your will, the Median sword persuaded you to learn by experience that you too were like us. So you have been taken, as we were. “Your glory has gone down to Hades”, meaning: it has been put out by death, and the grim power of corruption has been brought upon it. It will see your gladness, having barely been put out of the way. “And beneath you will be spread … and the worm will be your covering.” And this is common. For when human bodies have once suffered death, rotting and the worm will come upon them in every case. But it is well said of him, as by way of bitter reproaches. For those who have fallen into forgetfulness of their own weakness, and out of very great arrogance [do not think] that they will suffer the things [of mortals] …, as having learned these things barely by suffering them, when they ought to have known them and chosen to think more modestly. He, then, he says, who lived wantonly in degenerate and royal luxuries, will lie together with the others without a shroud, and deemed worthy of none of the customary rites for the dead.

“How has the Morning Star, who rises in the morning, fallen from heaven! He who sends to all the nations has been crushed to the earth!”

The Morning Star is the most brilliant of the stars; it rises a little before dawn, and is as it were a herald of the radiance of the sun. That it shines with rich light this very fact would show, that it appears a little before dawn. For while it is still night and the darkness is at its height, the stars in heaven have a more conspicuous brilliance; but when day is near, and the sun's disk has come as it were to its first edges, the light of each is somehow drawn in, yielding to what excels and overcome by the greater brightness. But the light of the Morning Star is so abundant … that it appears … even at dawn and makes its appearance close to the rays of the sun. He compares the Babylonian, then, to the Morning Star, because he excelled the others, and none of those in office or kingship was seen to be like him, and he was as conspicuous and as visible from afar as the Morning Star would be considered among all the other stars. But he who was surrounded by such glory, he says, and raised on high, has fallen as from heaven, and has been crushed to the earth, as one who sends to all the nations. “Sends” means “commands”, or it may be meant in another way. For it always seemed good to the tyrants of the Babylonians to bring every nation of men under their own hand, and that all lands should come under the yokes of slavery.

Sending, at any rate, to all the nations, they asked for a clod of earth and for water in a vessel, as though seeking the whole from the part (I mean earth and sea), as being masters of all.

“But you said in your mind: I will go up into heaven, above the stars of heaven I will set my throne; I will sit on a lofty mountain, on the lofty mountains toward the north; I will go up above the clouds, I will be like the Most High. But now you will go down to Hades, and to the foundations of the earth. Those who see you will wonder at you and say: Is this the man who provoked the whole earth, who shook kings, who made the whole world desolate and pulled down its cities? He did not release those in affliction.”

He says that he was caught by unexpected calamities, and that, having met with strange things beyond his hope, through them he barely learned from events that he was a man and like those who had died before him. For as far as words of arrogance went, and a God-hated mind, filled with boastfulness to the utmost, it seemed a small thing to you, he says, to give way to the heights of the divine supremacy; you supposed that perhaps even heaven itself would be within your reach; in your ignorance you rashly thought yourself someone equal to God and above creation; you thought you were above the clouds and would sit on the very stars. But you have been caught, having had such thoughts in vain. The end of events has refuted your rash counsel; for you will go down to Hades, and to the foundations of the earth. And he says this perhaps to signify the lowest place, that is, the outer darkness. You will be a marvel to those who see you, he says, and very fittingly. For sudden [reversals] most of all … But what is the marvel, and what would they say about him? For they will say: “Is this the man?” Now that he has suffered they barely call him a man, perhaps having long been afraid to say it. “But is this the man who provoked the whole earth, who shook kings, who made the whole world desolate and pulled down the cities?” They fittingly wondered that one man had provoked the whole [world] under heaven, shaken kings, made the world empty of its inhabitants, and shaken down the cities. And what else besides these? “He did not release those in affliction.” Since some of the copies have “those in deportation”, if anyone wishes to understand it so, we will say that the word “deportation” would signify the captivity and removal of those of Israel; for they were carried off from Judaea to the land of the Assyrians. But if the sacred text says “those in affliction”, you will no less understand those who were under the affliction of the Lord's wrath. For wrath had been brought upon them because of much sin. These Nebuchadnezzar did not release, that is, he did not let them go from their misery.

For the wicked wretch had to be seen not only as boastful but also as fighting against God, as having ravaged the earth, hard and pitiless, and in no way knowing how to pity those who were in the extremest calamities and were faring wretchedly. And one might very fittingly apply what was said historically to the head of him who crushed all things, I mean the dragon, the author of evil. For he was an exactor and taskmaster in the ways we have already described; but he has ceased and been removed, God striking him in wrath with an incurable blow, and he has stopped cutting down, like some strong woodcutter, the spiritual cedars, which blessed David also mentions when he says to the God of all: “The cedars of Lebanon, which you planted.” And since the wretch has gone down into Hades, surely condemned, there, as is likely, the wicked powers under him [seeing him] having suffered, perhaps even lamented, saying: “You too have been taken, as we were, and you have been reckoned among us,” and what follows. For as far as glory went, he was notable among the angels and conspicuous among the powers above, just like the Morning Star among the stars. But he fell and was crushed, having had overweening thoughts and having dared to seize the honour and glory that befit the supreme nature alone, as far as the power of his attempts and the mind in him went. But, as the prophet says, he has gone down into Hades and to the foundations of the earth, he who once shook the whole earth, who made the world as a desert; for he made the [world] under heaven a desert empty of the true knowledge of God, having no worker of virtue at all. And he did not release those in affliction. But the Lord has granted this to those who have believed in him, saying to those in bonds: “Come out”, and to those in darkness: “Be uncovered.” And indeed to those who had come under divine wrath because they had behaved like drunkards toward the divine laws, he forgave their charges without remembering wrongs, and freed from punishment those who through human weakness had been brought under many …

“All the kings of the nations have fallen asleep in honour, each man in his own house. But you …”

… shows his calamity; and what I said is true, [that it would be strange] if the one so conspicuous and so proud, and raised by incomparable eminence so as to seem set on high, did not happen to meet the same lot as the others. For they, he says, have fallen asleep not without honour, nor anywhere outside the dwellings most dear to them. But you have no share even in these: that is, you are stinking and unpleasant to look at. For what could be more loathsome than a dead body with no shroud? You will lie, then, together with the others who became the work of the Median sword, with no one lamenting over you, not [receiving] what [is due] to the dead, but so pitiable and cast out that you differ in nothing from the

others, who came under your hand and were utterly obscure. It is necessary to know that the lament will stop at this point.

“As a garment soaked in blood is no longer clean, so neither will you be clean; because you destroyed my land and killed my people, you will not remain for all time.”

… is, and one would see them dyed into those who did them, like a dye. He shows that they had done things deserving the indignation that came to its end, and deserving a punishment equal in weight to the charges. You will not, then, be freed from your offences, he says, nor would you become clean and fit to be pitied. You will be so defiled, and will have the charge of bloodshed so indelible, just like a garment soaked in blood. For you destroyed the holy land, and you killed the people allotted to me: “For when the Most High divided the nations,” he says, “when he scattered the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God; and his people Jacob became the Lord's portion, Israel the measured lot of his inheritance.” It is utterly dreadful, then, to rise up against the land of the Lord, that is, the Church, and to carry out deeds of bloodshed against the people allotted to Christ. For he who is caught in such monstrous charges will in no way be clean. But someone, I think, might say, having considered the calamities that came on Judaea and on Jerusalem itself: Did he then ravage the land of the Jews and take the holy city without God permitting him to do it, or rather without God giving it to him? And yet the prophet Isaiah himself tells us: “The Lord will whistle for the flies which rule part of the river of Egypt, and for the bee which is in the land of the Assyrians, and they will all come and rest in the ravines of the land, and in the holes of the rocks, and in the caves, and in every cleft, and on every tree.” How, then, does the Babylonian, who served the divine nods, bear a charge that cannot be escaped, and is punished so terribly that nothing is seen beyond the wrath brought upon him? Yes, and very fittingly. For the God of all wished to rebuke Israel when it had turned aside to apostasy, and by measured afflictions to persuade it to run back to the worship it was used to, I mean the worship of the law. But he, although brought for this, was implacable like a wild beast and gave unbridled rein to his anger; and indeed he is accused, God saying clearly: “I have been jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great jealousy, and with great anger I am angry with the nations that join in the attack; because I was angry a little, but they joined in the attack for evil.” And just as God raised up Pharaoh, who was a vessel of wrath and anger and already liable to punishment for his own faults, as he himself says, so as to show in him both his own power and the exactness of his just judgement, so you will understand in the case of the Babylonians too. For being vessels of wrath and deserving to be punished justly, they were brought against Jerusalem, so that, having disciplined Israel, they might after this themselves be required to pay the [penalty] that most befitted them and …

“Evil seed, prepare your children to be slaughtered for the sins of your father, that they may not rise and fill my land … And I will rise up against them, says the Lord Sabaoth, and I will destroy their name and remnant and seed.

Nebuchadnezzar did dreadful things against every nation, and those who came after him and from him, down to Belshazzar, following their father's perversity, went beyond what he did; they were cruel and harsh against every nation, and they pressed hard upon Israel, even though they were in captivity and held under the yoke of slavery. And they had such high thoughts, even against the very glory of God, that the wicked Belshazzar, making a drinking party for his nobles, brought the holy vessels out into the midst and drank from them together with his concubines and consorts; at which time also the knuckle of a hand came out, as Daniel says, and made writing on the wall: Mane, Thekel, Phares; which the divine Daniel interpreted, saying that his kingdom had been divided and given to the Medes and Persians. They say, then, that the race of Nebuchadnezzar perished root and all at that time, and that of Belshazzar too, so that no one at all of their blood after them mounted the royal thrones among them. This, I think, the prophetic word shows us through the words before us. See how the divine wrath went against all the evil seed. “Prepare,” he says, “your children to be slaughtered for the sins of your father.” For since the fathers were ungodly, the whole race that would have come from them has been brought to an end. For what reason? “That they may not rise,” he says, “and inherit the land and fill the land with wars”; that is, that they may not become zealous followers of their fathers' [ways], and fill the land with war just as those did, and become its masters. “And I will rise up against them, says the Lord Sabaoth, and I will destroy their name and remnant and seed.” For just as God promised those kings of Israel who pleased him that sons to the fourth generation would sit on their thrones, extending the blessing also to the race that would come from them, so he cuts off the increase of the race of those who had been exceedingly ungodly. “For the ungodly,” it says, “will perish root and all from the earth.” Let, then, the enemy of all hear too, the inventor of sin, who has become for us the cause of all evils: “As a garment soaked in blood will not be clean, so neither will you be clean, because you destroyed my land and killed my people.” For he was not content with turning the beginning of our race aside to transgression, but he also led the whole [world] under heaven astray from God, and, having carried man on earth away from love of him, he made him his own worshipper and sent him down into the pits of destruction. He will not, then, be clean, nor has he remained for all time; for [God did] not [endure] his greed for ever, and cut short the impulses of his perversity against us. For he has perished together with his

own children, that is, the unclean demons, cast down into Tartarus, as the disciple of the Saviour says, so that they may not rise and inherit the land and fill the land with wars. For they have been thrown out of their tyranny over us, and Christ has become our peace. For as blessed Paul writes: “The peace of Christ, which surpasses all understanding, will guard our hearts and our thoughts.” In what way it came about that they suffered this, the God of all himself will make clear to us, saying: “And I will rise up against them, says the Lord Sabaoth, and I will destroy their name and remnant and seed.”

“Thus says the Lord: And I will make Babylonia a desert, so that hedgehogs dwell there, and it will be as nothing; and I will make it a pit of mud for destruction.”

This seems to be a kind of summing-up of what was said at length. For it shows nothing else than surely this, that the land of the Babylonians will be wholly deserted by men but full of animals, for whom the desert is a dear dwelling. And since, as is likely, it has a very great flow of waters (and they say that a river cuts it in two), it came about, since no one channelled the stream of the waters to the places where it ought to go, that the water spread over all of it and produced a multitude of marshes, so that the city once brilliant and famous, named queen of the others and most glorious, became a pit of mud, and to destruction for those who fall into it.

“… so it will be, and as I have planned, so it will remain: to destroy the Assyrians on my land and on my mountains; and they will be for trampling, and their yoke will be taken away from them, and their glory from …”

The blessed Isaiah prophesies in the reign of Uzziah and Jotham and Ahaz and Hezekiah; and he seems to have made these words, I mean those against Babylon or the whole land of the Assyrians, while Uzziah, who is also Azariah, was still alive and held the royal honour. But since, in the reign of Hezekiah, Sennacherib the Assyrian made an expedition against Judaea and took very many … cities of Samaria, and was refuted by the hand of God when he leapt even upon Jerusalem itself (for in one night a hundred and eighty-five thousand of the foreigners died, consumed by the hand of an angel), for this reason, so that nothing of what God had said for the comfort of Israel might seem to fail, he proclaims this too beforehand and says: As I have said, so it will be. For the land of the Babylonians, he says, will settle into a pit of mud; it will be laid waste, and that will remain; and in every way and altogether, he says, what I have planned and ratified by my own decrees will come to its fitting end: to destroy the Assyrians on my land and on my mountains; and they will be for trampling; and their yoke will be taken away, and their glory from their shoulders. For Rabshakeh had been sent by Sennacherib from Lachish to Jerusalem. Then, having surrounded the whole [city] round about with the [forces] of the Babylonians, he talked nonsense against the glory of God beyond all measure, and uttered words that befitted a barbarian mind: “Do not let Hezekiah deceive you,” he says, “saying that God will rescue you from the hand of the Assyrians”; and, seeking to throw the yoke of slavery on those who had been free from of old, [he expected] great glory, that is, renown, for himself and for his own master. [But] “rising in the morning,” it says, “they found all the bodies … dead.” And he learned by experience that the one who protects the saints is all-powerful, and that nothing withstands his divine nods.

“This is the counsel which the Lord has counselled against the whole world, and this is the high hand against all the nations of the whole world. For what the holy God has counselled, who will scatter? And the high hand who will turn back?”

It should be known again that the force of the prophecy in these words does not come against the whole world, that is, against everything under heaven; rather the word of the prediction was spoken against the whole land of the Assyrians, which he also calls “world”, because it is great and broad and richly filled with countless nations beyond number. So what has been said, he says, will come against the whole land of the Assyrians … that in every way and altogether what has been announced will come to fulfilment, … and that no one will undo the affliction, or be able to help those who are under divine wrath, he further declares, saying: “For what the holy God has counselled, who will scatter? And the high hand who will turn back?” For he entirely … those of Israel, so that they are firmly disposed and think that in every way and altogether the divine and supreme hand, being all-powerful and ruling over all things, will carry out what has been promised. For since they thought the strength of the Assyrians terrible and irresistible, yielding to no one and refusing defeat, and it was likely that for this reason they would disbelieve the words of the prophecy, for this reason, and very fittingly, he does not let them suffer this; he all but entreats them, and cuts off beforehand the disease of unbelief, saying: “The high hand who will turn back?”

“In the year in which Ahaz died this word came: Do not rejoice, all you …, for the yoke of him who struck you has been broken. For from the seed of serpents will come forth offspring of asps, and their offspring will come forth …”

Different revelations came at different times to the holy prophets, suited to the nature of events, for the benefit of the people of that time. For although Israel had become hardened and had disregarded the divine laws, the God of all wished to reshape them so that they would think better things, benefiting them in many ways, rousing his wrath against those who opposed him, and lifting up to good hopes those who dwelt in the holy city, I mean Jerusalem, so that they might know that the Lord of all is one and alone, and that there is no other besides him. But they, giving reverence to the creature rather than the Creator, and [calling it] gods, gave offence beyond measure. Some such dispensation the [prophecy] before us now [shows] too. But I think it necessary to relate first the events that happened historically, and to set out each one clearly; for in this way what is shown will be most evident to readers. Uzziah, then, who is also Azariah, reigned in Jerusalem over Israel. He was careful of piety; for he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as is written about him.

He was very powerful and quite irresistible to his opponents, that is, to the foreigners, [in strength] in wars; he also sacked cities of the Phylistieim, that is, of the foreigners, that is, of the Palestinians, and some of what is called Coele-Syria. It is written about him thus in the second book of Chronicles: “And he went out and fought against the foreigners, and broke down the walls of Gath, and the walls … among the foreigners. And the Lord strengthened him against the foreigners and against the Arabs who lived on the Rock, and against the Minaeans. And the Minaeans gave gifts to Uzziah, and his name reached as far as the entrance of Egypt, for he became exceedingly strong.” When he departed this life, Jotham, who was born of him, succeeded to his kingdom. Then after him Ahaz, a wicked and apostate man, [given] to … and stones, and to all the host of heaven; he also made his son pass through the fire, for he sacrificed him to the demons. It is written thus about him too in the fourth book of Kingdoms: “And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God faithfully, as David his father did; and he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and he even made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the sons of Israel. And he burned incense on the high places and on the hills and under every leafy tree. Then … and the king of Israel went up against Jerusalem to war, and they besieged Ahaz, and were not able to fight.” And after other things: “And Ahaz sent messengers to Theglaphalasar, king of the Assyrians, saying: I am your servant and your son. Come up, save me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me. And Ahaz took the silver and the gold that was found in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king's house, and sent gifts to the king. And the king of the Assyrians listened to him, and came to Damascus, and took it and deported its people, and put Raasson to death.” First, then, Uzziah, who is also Azariah, sacked the foreigners, and, having laid waste all their land, collected tributes and dues. Second, after him, Ahaz … and having uprooted the whole land of the Palestinians (for he says that they are the foreigners), carried off to his own land as captives those who were left from the war. When Ahaz died, the [cities] of the foreigners leapt for joy at this … as though he had laid on them an unbearable yoke of greed. For having once been weakened and sacked by the hand of the Assyrians, they were embittered against Ahaz, but were not able to retaliate. O foreigners, then, he says, since, as you say and think, now that Ahaz is dead, the yoke of him who struck you, that is, crushed you, has been broken, do not rejoice at this.

And yet someone might say that Ahaz was an idolater, profane and hateful to God; how then does God check the laughter of the opponents over him? The laughter, then, was surely not against him; but if anywhere … of the things that usually grieve Judaea happened, … [they mocked] not those who suffered so much as the hand of God that shielded Israel, [deriding] the all-powerful right hand; and they thought that the gods they had were better than the God who guards Israel. So, even if Ahaz was profane, yet since the foreigners, as I said just now, mocked those of Israel, he restrains their gladness and as it were reins in their acclamations, saying that they have not been freed from the oppressing yoke, but rather will suffer things at which, as was likely, they would be greatly distressed against their will. For what does he say? “Do not rejoice … yoke [of him who struck] you.” Know rather that from the seed of a serpent will come forth offspring of asps. You will understand this in two ways. For Uzziah, who is also Azariah, was, as I said, harsh and most warlike, and he subdued them so that [he took] their cities and villages as had not happened before. Then after him Ahaz, if perhaps not by his own hand and with native forces, yet by that of the Assyrians, did the like to them. For Theglaphalasar took Damascus and the cities of the foreigners, and he killed Raasson himself. [When] Ahaz [died], the righteous and pious Hezekiah succeeded to the kingdom. It is written about him too in the fourth book of Kingdoms: “And he rebelled against the king of the Assyrians and did not serve him. He struck the foreigners as far as Gaza and its border, from watchmen's tower to fortified city.” So, as from the seed of a serpent, Uzziah, Ahaz came forth as offspring of an asp; then after him a flying serpent, that is, a swift one, Hezekiah. For in a certain way they bit the foreigners and consumed their cities. And if Uzziah and Hezekiah were called serpents, although they were pious, one should consider very sensibly that the aim of the word is turned and looks above all to depicting the Phylistieim, that is, the foreigners. It had, then, to say that they would be not gentle and mild, but terrible and sharp, accustomed to leap like serpents on their opponents. So you will understand “From the seed of a serpent will come forth offspring of asps” in this way, or in another way too, if you wish. Ahaz hired Theglaphalasar the Assyrian and let him loose on the land of the foreigners; and he laid it all waste and killed, as I said, King Raasson himself.

But in the times of King Hezekiah, Salamanasar the king, who was himself also of the Assyrians, made an expedition against Samaria. Having come first upon the land of the Palestinians, that is, of the foreigners, he worked the deeds of barbarian cruelty against all. So, as from the seed of a serpent, Theglaphalasar, Salamanasar came forth as offspring of an asp, himself too like a serpent, not sluggish in attacks, not slow to move to besiege, but rather swift, and like a bird … the cities.

“And the poor will be fed through him, and poor men will rest in peace; but he will destroy your seed with famine, and your remnant …”

… I said before, that when Ahaz died, [the foreigners] mocked not him so much as the all-powerful right hand of him who saves Israel, I mean God. But that those who fight would not fail even after Uzziah he made very clear, saying that from the seed of a serpent will come forth offspring of asps. And since they had danced in insult over the divine glory, the prophet necessarily shows us in these words both that he who shields Israel will save it, and that he will in every way and altogether bring destruction on its opponents. For Salamanasar besieged Jerusalem after taking the whole land of the Samaritans, as is written, but the God of all saved those of Israel unexpectedly. For the Assyrians fell, the angel of the Lord consuming them; and the seed of the foreigners, and all the remnant from the first siege, which took place in the times of Theglaphalasar, was utterly destroyed and perished entirely, perhaps pressed by famine. For other evils too always somehow follow on the besieging of cities. The poor, then, and modest men will be fed through God, that is, they will possess their own, and will rest in peace; but your seed and remnant he will destroy with famine. It is a fearful thing, then, to mock those who are under the hand of God, and to rise up against those who have come under his care. For he will by no means overlook it, but will surely defend his own, so that the opponents may not laugh broadly and reproach God as unable to save sufficiently.

“… smoke comes from the north, and there is no being.”

“From the seed of a serpent will come forth offspring of asps” it would be fitting to understand as we said in explaining it: that Theglaphalasar sacked the cities of the foreigners and took Damascus; then after him Salamanasar, in the times of Hezekiah's reign, plunged them into still heavier calamities, having besieged and taken the cities of the Samaritans. So, as though the attack had already been organized and the Assyrian army were present, as though the siege-engines had already been brought up to the gates in each city and [the walls] were about to be shaken down, he orders the gates to [howl] and the cities to cry out, no longer exulting over those of the blood of Israel, no longer [mocking the power] of the all-powerful God, but rather practising wailing and laments, and sorrowing not a little at the calamities that will soon be upon them. For why, he says, have I commanded the cities to wail? Because smoke comes from the north, and there is no being. Smoke from the north he here calls what sets out from the land of the Assyrians, either Salamanasar himself or the army with him. For very southern … be able those who might trust in him.

… of the Assyrians. He compares the warlike army to smoke, as causing tears in those who are captured; for smoke always somehow draws tears from the eyes. And it is not unlikely that wars are compared to smoke in another way too. For as smoke, falling on the eyes of the body, takes away entirely the sharpness of their sight, so too the fear of death all but makes the mind drunk and muddies the heart with terrible … Smoke, then, will come from the north. Then what is the end of the attack? No longer being, he says; that is, utter destruction will destroy cities and houses and those in them. … for care those who love him, and to those who …

“And what will the kings of the nations answer? That the Lord has founded Zion, and through him the humble of the people will be saved.”

When the attack of the Assyrians had taken place, the cities of the foreigners were taken, and those of the Samaritans were sacked no less; but Jerusalem alone of them all was saved, beyond all expectation, he who is able to set all things right with ease laying his hand on the armies of the Assyrians. For in one night a hundred and eighty-five thousand of the foreigners died. When, then, those from the north have burned the cities of the foreigners and laid waste the land of the Samaritans, neighbour to Judaea, and then, having surrounded Jerusalem itself, fall in one night with no one fighting against them, then indeed, then, he says, the kings of the nations will confess even against their will that the Lord has founded Zion, and that through him the humble of the people will be saved. By the humble of the people he means those who have set their hope of being saved on him alone, as did Hezekiah himself, the king, and those around him, falling down before God and saying: “Hear, Lord; look, Lord, and see the words of Rabshakeh, which the king of the Assyrians sent to reproach the living God.” And he in turn heard God saying clearly: “Thus says the Lord: I will shield this city for my own sake and for the sake of David my servant.” Good, then, it is to trust in God. And knowing this the blessed prophets say it: Jeremiah, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and the Lord will be his hope”; and the most wise David, “Lord God of powers, blessed is the man who hopes in you.” For no one will destroy one who is helped by his divine nods and well walled about by the favours from above. … to think and to do what seems good to him, to those who are most zealous, he readily grants that their good things be secure.

Having brought the word about the Babylonians and the foreigners to a good conclusion, he turns the prediction again to Moabitis, that is, against the metropolis of the Moabites and their whole land and their kingdom itself. They too are a barbarian nation, hated by God, because they were wholly given to the worship of idols, and especially [practised] the magic art, and rose up against the glory of God, and were among the most hostile of all to those of Israel. Indeed when, freed from the greed of the Egyptians, they were going to the land of promise, they very nearly all perished, as far as the attempt of Balak went, who was then king of the Moabites. It is written thus in Numbers: “And all the sons of Israel encamped on the west of Moab, by the Jordan opposite Jericho. And Balak son of Sepphor, seeing all that Israel had done to the Amorite, — and Moab feared the people greatly, because they were many; and Moab was vexed before the sons of Israel.” Then [he summons] Balaam from Mesopotamia (this man was a false seer and an augur); then he urges him, saying: “Curse Israel for me. For I know,” he says, “that those whom you bless are blessed, and those whom you curse are cursed.” And the methods of sorcery were practised by him, and altars raised up …; [but] Balak [was cheated] of his hope and failed of his purpose, since the one who had been called in to curse unexpectedly blessed Israel. And since his attempt turned out contrary to his hopes, he pursues the business of his perversity against them again in another way. For he netted those of Israel, who were carried away by the beauty of the women into departing from the love of God and choosing to worship Beelphegor; this was an idol of the Moabites. It is written thus again in Numbers: “And Israel stayed in Sattim, and the people were profaned by committing fornication with the daughters of Moab; and they called them to the sacrifices of their idols, and the people ate of their sacrifices and worshipped their idols; and Israel was initiated into Beelphegor, and the Lord was angry with wrath against Israel.” For since Israel was terrible and irresistible while [God] defended him, for this reason, very bitterly and maliciously, wishing to remove his help, they persuaded him to offend … the God over all. And they continued in such a mind for ever after, and if it happened that Israel, having given offence, shared in calamities, they accused God of being able to do nothing at all, God who promises to save those who worship him. Of this the blessed Jeremiah is a witness, saying in the vision against them: “The horn of Moab is broken, … and he magnified himself against the Lord.” And again: “[For] thus said the Lord: Arioth is taken, and the strongholds have been seized. And Moab will perish from being a people, because he magnified himself against the Lord.” For at a certain time … came … Judaea. And he took the cities of Samaria.

… the glory of God. For this reason they too were given over to desolation, and perished utterly together with their cities and people and every house, so that they now seem somehow not even to have existed. The vision before us, then, recalls what befell them, plainly from the wrath from above, and says: “By night the Moabite will perish; for by night the wall of Moabitis will perish.” Some of those who have looked into these things closely have handed down that, when the Babylonians were about to make war on them, … the metropolis of the Moabites, so that its whole wall was shaken down of itself in the night and darkness; and when this had happened, before the attack of the enemy, their hope of safety all but perished. For this reason he says that Moabitis will perish by night. “But grieve,” he says, “over yourselves.” As if he were saying: You who very often raised your brow … now the war is running against you yourselves, and … Grieve, then, not over others but over yourselves. “For Lebedon will perish, where your altar is.” Having trusted in the deceits of demons and thinking through the magic art to prevail over … God would defend; so in the place called Lebedon there was their altar, and a sanctuary not without wonder as far as its construction went. There they performed their divinations, and were very proud, and made the place more revered than the others. But the workshop of your divination too, he says, will perish. “There you will go up to weep over Nabau of Moabitis.” This is a city of the most valiant. “Howl,” he says, “for on every head is baldness.” That is, one dishonour will run over all. “And all arms will be cut” — from beating themselves and lamenting; or because it is the custom of idolaters to make the so-called incisions on their cheeks and arms. You will do this too in vain, then, he says; for the thing is entirely useless. “So in her streets gird yourselves with sackcloth, and beat your breasts on her housetops and in her streets and in her lanes; all of you howl with weeping, because Esebon has cried out, and spoke until her voice was heard.”

The power of the prophecy depicts for us the shape of cities in no small terror. For when war has surrounded them, and the last calamity has been brought on cities and houses, some in the streets … and what is weak and unwarlike, such as the race of women and that of infants, has leapt up on the housetops; it raises wailing and howling, seeing the phalanxes of the enemy and thinking of the slaughter that will soon be upon them. Howl, then; for Esebon has cried out, and spoke until her voice was heard. He says that these are the most warlike cities of Moabitis. But even if they are such, he says, they will make so great a howling as not to weep secretly or in a corner; rather their voice will be heard and they will lament openly, those in them having let go their accustomed courage, and being so broken as to be wholly without strength and boldness, and without thoughts and attempts at valour.

“The loins of Moabitis cry out; her soul will know, and the heart of Moabitis cries out within her as far as Segor; for she is a heifer three years old. And on the ascent toward you, weeping they will go up by the way of Aroniim; there cries out destruction and shaking.”

The attack of [enemies] always brings incurable calamities, and is not unable to break even the boldest heart. Hence, I think, some have gloomy faces, and groans leap up as from the depths, interpreting the heat of the flame within. The loins of Moabitis, then, cry out; that is, she is in pangs, plainly at the rumours, and as she thinks of the war that will soon be upon her. For her soul knew this. And for this reason she laments and has cried out within her as far as Segor, that is, the whole land of Moabitis, as far as its very limits. For they say that Segor lay at the very borders of the Moabites. For what reason, then, will it happen to her to suffer these things? She is a heifer three years old. The third year brings brute animals to their prime, and … that is the time for them to be broken in. As long as the heifer is untried by the yoke, lusty and young, and putting out a newly grown horn, she frisks about the folds and steadings and very often dances over them; such was the [land] of the Moabites … those weaker. They say that it is high, and that those who come from other cities or lands go up to it. On the very ascent of Aroniim, then, he says, they will go up weeping. And the cry of those weeping is destruction and shaking. For they have cried out beforehand the sufferings that will come from the war, which all but shakes everything, cities and houses, and crushes those in them.

“… and will she even so be saved?”

They say that Nebrim is a city that lies at the far edge of the country, near the Red Sea, and is so well watered and has such good pasture that those in it could keep many horses; for this reason they were most warlike, and had a cavalry experienced in war. From divine wrath, then, he says, from the attack of the enemy, it will be bereft of waters and green grass. When this has happened, the skill of its tacticians will surely be powerless, the horses having been destroyed beforehand and perished of hunger. But if this should happen, he says, will she then still think highly of herself? when this has happened, is she going to be saved and escape the hands of the enemy? For when their strength has been taken away beforehand, what hope of safety will there be any longer?

“For I will bring Arabs upon the ravine, and they will take it. The cry has reached the border of … as far as the well of Eleim. And the water of Remmor will be filled with blood; for I will bring Arabs upon Remmor. And I will take away the seed of Moab, and … and the remnant of Adama I will send away like creeping things on the earth.

They say that the countless tribes of the so-called Saracens occupy the most southern parts of the land of the Damascenes, and stretch as far as the land of the Persians. These took up arms with the Babylonians and ravaged the land of the Moabites; for they too followed them, though perhaps they were even of the same race as Moab, and its neighbours. He says, then, that Nebrim will be taken: “For I will bring Arabs upon the ravine, and they will take it.” He calls Nebrim a “ravine”, as is likely, because it lies in a hollow place, whereas the other cities are raised on high and are on mountains. And since it was not a part of Moabitis that was crushed by the war, but the whole of it altogether was shaken and tossed about like a drunkard, for this reason he says that the cry will be joined from end to end, the cry plainly of those who howl and are used to practising the lament for those about to perish. “For the cry has reached the border of Moabitis,” he says, “of Agalleim, and her howling …” He names the outer cities, those that lie at the very limits, I mean Agalleim and the well of Eleim. Having affirmed, as I said, that the lament has been spread over their whole country, he then says: “The water of Remmon will be filled with blood.” Remmon is said to be very well watered. But it will be filled with blood, he says, meaning that in the time of war the blood of the fallen will rival the abundance of the waters: rivers will be seen dyed red, and the water of the land will be spilt, no longer pure, nor having the look of water, but of another colour and like blood. He says that it too will be taken by the Arabs, so that all the seed of Moab and Ariel, that is, … will perish and be consumed. … “But what is left,” he says, “I will send away like creeping things on the earth.” For, though they were always bitter, they will go into captivity like serpents bewitched by someone's charms and as it were drowsing off into a tameness unusual for them. For to say “I will send away” means to send off into exile. For it is the custom of those who take a country or city sometimes not to destroy all utterly, but, when the most warlike part of the multitude has been consumed, to put those who are left in the rank of captives of war. And if one must also apply some necessary word to the histories, it should be known that a soul walled about by the fear of God is strong and hard to capture, and prevails over the hand of those who fight against it. For it conquers rulers and authorities and the world-rulers of this darkness, the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. But if it should turn aside to what is not fitting, and be carried off the straight path, and, passing by what seems good to God, be borne down to the passions of this world, and shake off the yoke of obedience, he strips it of all help, makes it as it were unwalled, leaves it unprotected against its attackers, and smooths the way for the passions' assaults upon it, so that it can in no way escape.

… are handed over to an unapproved mind, and become easy prey to monstrous desires; and nothing saves them, but they are under the feet of their enemies, cast down without courage. For if the God of all shuts against men, he says, who will open? And the … Let us remain, then, in the divine fear. For thus we shall gain the grace of the favour from above; and we shall act with spiritual vigour, caring very little for sin and the passions and the greed of the devil, and we shall come to the prize of the upward calling, carrying through a glorious and most approved life.

“Is the mountain of Zion a desert rock? For you will be …”

Salmanasar the Assyrian at one time made an expedition against Samaria and took its cities; and besides this he did great harm to many of the [cities] of Judaea, and carried off a multitude of captives to his own land. And for this reason the nations of the Moabites mocked Zion, that is, Jerusalem, and called it a desert rock, the wretches perhaps laughing not at it but at the God over all; and indeed they said that the hand that saves them had grown weak, and that for this reason they had come under the feet of their enemies. O daughter of Moab, then, he says (the word surely implies this), is the mountain of Zion a desert rock? Has Zion alone, he says, grown weary? Has she alone fallen under the feet of her enemies, and suffered the desolation of her inhabitants? Or have you fallen into things still worse than hers? For you will be taken by enemies, and as a fledgling from a nest … you will dwell in another land, and you will serve … enemies, and you will be a pitiable captive among them, cast down and under the yokes of slavery. Useful, then, and necessary is the precept: “If your enemy falls, do not rejoice over him, because the Lord will see, and it will not please him, and he will turn his wrath away from him.” For it is not fitting to exult in the calamities of others, nor to make what has befallen one's neighbour a pretext for delight, even if he should happen to be one of those who usually grieve us; rather we should sorrow with him, and, turning our eye to our own faults, fear greatly lest perhaps the wrath of him who strikes come upon us too.

“Then, Arnon, take further counsel, and make for her a shelter of mourning for ever; at midday … from the face of the pursuer, when your alliance was taken away, and the ruler who trampled on the earth perished.”

The sense of the words before us is very hard to interpret, because of the shifts from one person to another and the roughness of the construction, which is not easy going for every mind. But I will try to explain it as best I can.

When, then, the whole land of the Moabites had been sacked, its cities thrown down and its houses burned, and …, those who were able to escape moved to Arnon. This is one of the most strongly fortified cities, perhaps bordering on Moabitis. The word, then, is addressed to it. And you, he says, after this, O Arnon, take further counsel: consider, he says, in what way you will be able to save those who are left and were able to escape the savagery of those who sacked them. And make for her a shelter of mourning for ever. Yes, he says, think of something humane; become a shelter for those gripped by unbearable mourning. For they flee in a midday darkness: that is, while it is day and the sun is at midday, they have darkness in their mind. For the fear of death is very able to muddy the soul, and the onset of extreme despondency to pour something like night over the mind. For this reason he says: “And they were beside themselves.” For they have all but gone out of their minds with fear, terrified by the terrors of the war. But even if you receive, he says, those from Moabitis, yet know very clearly that you have saved not all, but a small remnant, easily counted, of those who perished. This, I think, he wishes to show by saying … Did you not receive the fugitives when the war was only beginning? Were not those who were able to escape very easily counted and altogether few? So what God said against the Moabites has been brought to fulfilment. For [Moab] has perished, though a small remnant has barely been saved. But, O Arnon, he says, you received those from … at some time they will be a shelter to you from the face of the pursuer. But this will not be. Why? “For your alliance has been taken away, and the ruler who trampled on the earth has perished.” For he who always shielded you, he says, the leader of the Moabites, the terrible and haughty one, accustomed to trample his opponents like dust, is gone and has perished. For he has been taken away and removed from the midst. He teaches by this that the Moabites' hope of ever being able to prevail again has also been taken away. For the ungodly, he says, will perish root and all from the earth. And when divine wrath leaps upon them altogether, what remnant of those who have suffered will there be? Or who is able to raise up [those whom] God has cast down …

“And a throne will be set right with mercy, and one will sit on it with truth in the tent of David, judging and seeking judgement and hastening righteousness.”

In these words he clearly promises that Israel will in due time be freed from its unbearable misery and from the evils of captivity. For when Cyrus took the land of the Babylonians, Israel was set free, and was brought back, through God's pity, into the holy city, led by Zerubbabel son of Salathiel, who was of the tribe of Judah and of David, and also by Jesus son of Josedek, the great priest. The throne, then, he says, that is, the kingdom among the Jews, will be set right with mercy, that is, it will return to its proper order through God's pity. And again one will sit on it with truth in the tent of David, judging and seeking judgement. And he seems to call the palace a “tent”, in which those who lawfully held the seats of the kingdom spent their time and gave judgement. And as far as what seemed good to God was concerned, they were careful of righteousness, even if some failed of virtue and turned aside to worse things.

It should be known that after the return from Babylon those of Israel no longer lived divided, with the ten tribes and the half-tribe of Ephraim in Samaria and someone reigning over them, and the tribe of Judah and the half-tribe of Manasseh in Jerusalem, with again another reigning separately over them; but having been brought together into one, they anointed [one] king from then on. And this, then, was what had been said about them through the voice of the prophet: “And they will go up from the land, and will cease for a little from anointing a king and rulers.” However, God promises the restoration of the throne among the Jews, … only that the mountain of Zion is a desert rock. But to you, he says, this and that will happen, you who laughed broadly at the [misfortunes] of those of Israel. Them, however, God will in every way and altogether have pity on, and will release from what has befallen them, and will restore their … to what it was at the beginning. Having proclaimed beforehand very well the … from captivity … to the ancient state of their rule, that is, their kingdom, he returns again to Moab and turns the word against them.

“We have heard …”

“We have heard” is said as from the person of the holy prophets … of these, as of God punishing justly and bringing on them the penalty that was due and fitting. They say that they have heard of the insolence of Moab, not being ignorant, first, of that most ancient history which the divine Moses relates. For, as we said before, Balak hired Balaam, saying: “Come, curse Israel for me.” And very many things were done for this purpose at various times by the arrogance of the Moabites, fighting against the glory of God. When the holy prophets had said most clearly that they had heard of the insolence of Moab and knew that he was exceedingly insolent, God answers and says: “I have removed the arrogance”; that is, I have arranged that Moab, not merely arrogant but become as it were arrogance itself, should be removed from the midst. For I make war on the arrogant, and fight against those who have chosen to think immoderately, but rather swell up vainly and raise their brow on high, and do not know the weakness of their own nature. And it is written: “The Lord opposes the arrogant.” Teaching that he punishes justly and not … Moab, as suffering unbearably from the disease of arrogance. “Not so your divination, not so.” Did I not remove your arrogance, he says, that is, cut down Moab? But your … did not foretell these things to you. For the diviners promised falsely that you would be stronger than the onset of war, and would conquer your opponents, and would be uncapturable by your enemies, and would mock them when they were defeated. But it is not so; far from it. Rather the end of events turned out the opposite, and not as you hoped. It is very hard, then, and truly harmful to heed the words of those who mock, and to be carried away by the voices of sorcerers into hopes that will not come to pass. That the divination did not turn out as they had expected, but otherwise and wholly contrary to the divination, that is, to their having used the art of the magi …, but [they expected] to raise the war-cry over enemies who had perished and to dance over them as they lay. Therefore all, he says, who dwell in Deseth (this too is a city of Moab), … perhaps having practised against themselves a wailing and a lament well measured and tuneful, are signified by this.

“And they will not be ashamed before the plains of Esebon; the vine of Sebama will mourn. You who swallow the nations, trample her vines as far as …”

The word is perhaps addressed to those who took Moab, I mean the Assyrians and Babylonians, whom he commanded no longer to respect the plains of Esebon, and to burn Esebon itself, and to deal so with Sanama that even the vines in it would mourn. And to them he also says: “You who swallow the nations.” For I command you, he says, O destroyers of the nations, insatiable and most savage beasts, you who swallow nations: trample her vines as far as Iazer. This too is a city of the Moabites. Here again he calls the inhabitants of the Moabites vines. For it is the custom of the divinely inspired Scripture to compare those in each city and country to thickets and trees and also to vines. Indeed about Israel it says: “For the vineyard of the Lord Sabaoth is the man of Judah, a beloved new planting.” By saying “Trample her vines”, he shows again that conquering Moab was not the work of the hand of the Assyrians, but it was the all-powerful God who put the opponents under their feet and gave them the power to prevail over their hand.

“Do not join them; wander through the desert, you who are sent; they were left behind, they crossed the desert.”

They say that when the Assyrians invaded, very many of the Moabites fled into the desert that bordered on them and lay near, and tried hard to escape notice, and barely [escaped], very few in number. And perhaps it would not have been hard for the Babylonians to find them too, had God let them loose and stretched his wrath even to them. But since he punishes in measure, being the lover of humankind, he all but commands those who sacked Moab not to add the fugitives to those who had perished, but rather to let the desert go its way, as it were, that is, to give over to forgetfulness and to pass by the search for those who had fled together into it. For this reason he says: “Wander through the desert.” You who are sent, he says, you who have been sent by my wrath to take Moab by force, wander through the desert, give it over to forgetfulness, and pass the desert by; for they have crossed it. Then “they were left behind” is thrown in between, teaching again that the land of the Moabites would not have come to this pass if it had not offended greatly against the all-powerful God.

“Therefore I will weep as with the weeping of …, and spoke: Upon your harvest and upon your vintage I will trample, and all will fall. … of your vines; and in your vineyards they will not rejoice; and they will not tread wine into the vats, for it has ceased.”

The prophetic word shapes for us a person shedding tears over the calamities of the Moabites; and since perhaps Iazer had been sacked more than the others, he says that he laments the others too as would befit Iazer. He calls the inhabitants of the cities vines and trees. He also lists the sacked [places] of the city, Sabama and Esebon. And the people of the enemy spoke upon your harvest and upon your vintage, he says. And what did it speak? “I will trample,” plainly, “and all will fall.” And besides this: “Gladness and exultation will be taken away from your vines.” For the festival-loving Moabite, who dedicated very many rites to the demons, who spent his nights at altars and always had sacrifice as a pretext for gladness, will wail and weep, and will be far from all delight. “For they will not rejoice, nor will they tread wine into the vats, for it has ceased.” There will be no fruit on the vines, he says; for what is born of them will be gone together with them. And if one should take it of the vines in the full sense, this word is true. But if we should take it as by way of examples, the word teaches again, with respect to human things, that offspring will be gone together with their parents, so that not even those who are pregnant will be given any mercy by the enemy. We say that this was suffered

by Jerusalem, in the war against the Romans … by armies; and the woe will befall especially those who are giving birth and those who are with child in those days.

“Therefore my belly will sound like a lyre over Moab, and my inward parts like a wall which you renewed.”

Since gladness and exultation have been taken away from your vines, he says, and nothing in them …, my inward parts [will sound], a lyre and a song and a melody over you. For I proclaim your sufferings, and make the calamity brought upon you widely known. And like some well-tuned lyre I will cry out, and I will strike the strings so, and make the song heard, like the wall which you renewed. For the blessed prophet said at the beginning of the vision: “By night Moabitis will perish; for by night the wall of Moabitis will perish.” And we, remembering the force of what was said, said that … the wall broke, and before the attack of the enemy, all but levered up from its foundations, … of the Moabites, which they had indeed renewed, having spent entirely useless labour on it. For the Assyrians and Babylonians took the whole land without effort. My inward parts, then, he says, will sound over your calamities like a lyre, and I will make your suffering widely known, just as your wall was brought down, which you renewed, but to no useful end. For when the wall fell of itself, none of those in all the land of the Moabites, even those in other cities and districts, failed to notice the …

“And it will be, when you are put to shame, that Moab has wearied himself at the altars, and he will go into his handmade things to pray, and he will not be able to deliver himself.”

And what besides this, he says, will happen again, which will be to your shame and disgrace? You will endure vain labours, filling your altars with blood, making sacrifices without ceasing, and bringing prayers to handmade things; and you will obtain nothing for your benefit and salvation. For they will not be able to free you from the evils that hang over you. … For what strength is there in soulless idols, which are the inventions of human art, and have as their makers those who worship them? So, as the blessed David says: “May those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them.” It should be known that they were superstitious, false seers and tellers of marvels, and trusted very much in the evils of sorcery. For they thought they could somehow prevail over the hand of the enemy, not so much, as I think, by the experience of tacticians as by the help of their own gods. But they failed of their hope, having called soulless matter to their help by sacrifices and prayer.

“This is the word which the Lord spoke against Moab, when also he spoke.”

This, he says, is the vision against the land of the Moabites, spoken by God; “when also he spoke”, that is, even before my words came, he spoke very many things about it and accused it of countless evils. For, as I said before, the divine Moses too records the … of the nation, and commanded that it be held among the most abhorred. He said, at any rate: “An Ammonite and a Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation.” It once carried Israel away from the love of God, and persuaded him to worship Beelphegor, whetted by pleasures to shamefulness and netted into destruction by the beauty of women. So the God of all spoke about it; and now too this has come about against it through me.

“And now I say: in three years, years of a hireling, the glory of Moab will be dishonoured, with all his great wealth, and he will be left few and without honour.”

Now too the prophetic word brings us to the remembrance of a history. The ten tribes of Israel and the half-tribe of Ephraim, [having departed] from Jerusalem, dwelt in Samaria and worshipped the golden [heifers], [Jeroboam son] of Nabat leading them into this. Then they devised there other falsely named … The Lord of all, then, was indignant at this, since his glory had been insulted and the ancestral ordinances trampled underfoot, and he all but hired the Assyrian Salmanasar and let him loose on them; and he subdued the whole land of the Samaritans, having sat down against it for three whole years; and at this same time the land of the Moabites was taken by force. So, even if God spoke long ago, he says, yet now too I say that in the three years of the years of the hireling, that is, of the king of the Assyrians, the glory of Moab will be dishonoured. And by this he means either their kingdom, or the size of their cities and the multitude of their inhabitants, or perhaps their [army] experienced in war … “And he will be left few and without honour”: that is, all that is honourable among them will be consumed by the war, and those left will be altogether few, most dishonoured, unmanly, and worthy of no account. It is a fearful thing, then, to fall into the hands of the living God; and to dare to offend against the all-powerful, how will it not bring on every calamity? But it is saving to love being subject to him, to know him alone, to depart from the snares of error, and to say to him with a good disposition: “Lord, apart from you we know no other; we name your name.”

… of the Damascenes, ungodly and fighting against God, and among the most abhorred by the all-holy God; it was idolatrous, and in no way gave place to the Assyrians in abominations and arrogance. And it offended against the all-powerful God in another way too. For those of the blood of Israel, that is, the ten tribes and the half-tribe of Ephraim, having departed from Jerusalem, and [worshipping] in … the golden heifers (Jeroboam son of Nabat having led them down to this and impiously pushed them into it), having wholly broken away and leapt altogether away from the love of God, and having brought into forgetfulness the law given them through the all-wise Moses, when the time sometimes called for it and war was about to come upon them, did not set their hope rather on God who saves, but rather begged those who at the time reigned over Damascus and the whole land of the Syrians to help them and to deliver them from the hand of their enemies. The God of all, then, was indignant especially for this reason, and was embittered against them. For forgetting wholly that they had been redeemed from Egypt and had shaken off the unbearable yoke of slavery, and had been led through the midst of the sea, then had eaten the manna and [drunk] water …, [had been delivered] from every enemy, and had become heirs of the good things promised to the fathers, the wretches called on help from men, all but condemning God as unable to save them. For this reason they were handed over to the king of the Assyrians, who, having taken all Samaria, also sacked Damascus itself and laid waste the whole land of the Syrians. That our words about these things are true, the prophet Isaiah himself will confirm, saying: “And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, king … son of Romelias, king of Israel, [went up] against Jerusalem to make war on it, and they were not able to besiege it. And it was told to the house of David, saying: Aram has conspired with Ephraim,” that is, the Syrian with those in Samaria. For Aram is interpreted “Syrian”; and Ephraim, as from the tribe of Ephraim, signifies all of Israel that dwelt in Samaria. For since Jeroboam, the first who reigned over them, was of the tribe of Ephraim, and after him those who followed, the whole of Israel in Samaria is signified as from the reigning tribe, I mean that of Ephraim. And we will find in the fourth book of Kingdoms that, while Phakee reigned in Samaria, the Syrians, with Raasson who reigned over Damascus, pressed hard on those of Israel. Then Ahaz persuaded the tyrant of the Assyrians with money, and begged him to come at a run and help him and lay waste Damascus; which indeed came to pass. In what way, then, the most warlike, all-powerful and insolent city perished, the prophet proclaims to us beforehand in these words, and says:

“… it will be for a fall, left for ever, for a lair of flocks and a resting place, and there will be no one to pursue.”

He says that it will come not simply into the experience of wars and of the evils that come from them, but rather that it will be taken away, that is, will perish utterly and fall away entirely from being even a city. For it will be, he says, for a fall, left for ever. Left by whom? Surely by its inhabitants, not as having moved elsewhere, but as having been consumed by the swords of the enemy. By saying that it will be a lair of flocks, he has shown its total desolation; for shepherds would not have rested there, and herds of cattle would not have lain down in it, if there were any people in its houses. For this reason he very fittingly adds: “And there will be no one to pursue.” For no one, he says, will rebuke the shepherds for having made so brilliant and famous a city their lodging.

“And it will no longer be a stronghold for Ephraim to flee to, and there will no longer be a kingdom in Damascus, nor the rest of the Syrians. For you are not better than the sons of Israel and their glory.”

For the exact clarity of what lies before us, I think it necessary to recall again a history that lies in the books of Kingdoms. For while Ahaz reigned over … [Phakee son of Romelias], reigning in Samaria over ten tribes, made an expedition against Jerusalem. And since he feared that he might perhaps be too weak to take it, he made Raasson, the king of the Syrians and of Damascus, his ally in arms. The blessed prophet Isaiah himself spoke thus: “And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Raasson king of Aram (this is interpreted “of the Syrians”, or “of Syria”) and Phakee son of Romelias king of Israel went up to Jerusalem to make war on it. And it was told to the house of David, saying: Aram has conspired with Ephraim,” that is, the Syrian with the one from the tribe of Ephraim who reigned over those in Samaria. “And his soul was amazed, and the soul of his people, as when trees in a wood are shaken by the wind.” So Ephraim, having forsaken God, the Saviour of all, and having thought his hand and help worth very little account, made the leader of Damascus and of the Syrians his shield-bearer. And for this reason, very fittingly, he gave offence to God. Damascus, then, he says, having been laid waste and made desolate, and having endured the calamities of war, will no longer be a stronghold for Ephraim to flee to. Nor will there be a kingdom in it. And yet someone might say: Even after the sack some were found reigning over Damascus; Paul at any rate mentions it, saying: “In Damascus the ethnarch of King Aretas sought to seize him.” The prophetic word, then, carries much emphasis. For he says there will no longer be a strong and notable kingdom in Damascus, even if afterwards there were some toparchs, or rather phylarchs, not clothed in the splendour of true kingship. There will not, then, be a kingdom in Damascus, he says; and with it the rest of the Syrians will grow weak too, that is, the whole nation under it. For Damascus is the metropolis of Syria. Then he says to it: “For you are not better than the sons of Israel and their glory.” For if I did not spare the lot allotted to me, he says, that is, those of Israel who sinned against me, how will you not in every way and altogether endure the harms of war yourself, being in no way better than Israel?

“… the eclipse of the glory of Jacob, and the fat things of his glory will be shaken.”

Here he calls Jacob those born of Jacob, that is, the ten tribes in Samaria and the half-tribe of Ephraim, who leapt so far away from the love of God, and from placing their hope of being saved rather in him, that they trusted in themselves and raised their brow high on account of their numbers alone and their glory. This was their way. And the prophet tells us this again most clearly. For he said about them: “Their glories [come] from births and pangs and conceptions.” Then he adds to these: “Give them, Lord — what will you give them? Give them a childless womb and dry breasts.” There will be, then, he says, at that time an eclipse of the glory of Jacob; that is, the great and countless multitude of those of Jacob, in which he gloried and on account of which he set about thinking highly of himself, will be consumed by the swords of the enemy. But the fat things of his glory too will be shaken; that is, the kingdom among them will also be brought down. For it is written in the fourth book of Kingdoms that, while Hoshea son of Elah reigned in Samaria, Salmanasar came and besieged Samaria for three whole years, and took it, and moved Hoshea to Babylon. The fat things of the glory of Jacob, then, would be understood as the one who reigned in Samaria at that time, or perhaps those throughout the whole country who were brilliant and more notable than the others, exceeding the measure of the rest in wealth and power, and fattened by luxuries and by the honours paid them by all.

“And it will be as when someone gathers the standing harvest and reaps the seed of the ears; and it will be as when someone gathers an ear in a solid ravine, and stubble is left in it, or like two or three olive berries at the top of the highest bough, or four or five on its branches.”

That the Assyrians who war against those in Samaria will prevail readily and without sweat, and besides this, that [the people] will not go wholly and altogether to destruction, but there will be some small remnant, the prophetic word clearly makes known to us in these words. For those who have experience of reaping the ears cut skilfully and collect the grain, but always leave the stalk behind them as useless, and run over the whole breadth of the crops. And those who are accustomed to gather the fruit of the olives partly beat them with a rod and partly touch them with their hands and [strip] the shoots; …three or four or five perhaps at the tips of the branches, and they escape the eyes of the harvesters. Something like this, he says, will happen to those in Samaria. For he affirms that they will suffer as the ear does when it falls into the hands of the reapers, and that as it were stubble will be left in it, that is, a few of the more obscure, or like two or three olive berries that escaped the eye of the harvesters because they were hidden at the very top.

“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: In that day man will trust in his Maker, and his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel; and they will not trust in the altars, nor in the works of their hands, which their … made, but they will trust in the Holy One of … their abominations.”

The most wise Paul, knowing that being disciplined by those through whom [God disciplines] is neither a useless nor a vain thing, … Israel. And they will not see their trees, nor … says: “If you endure discipline, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not discipline?” And he cites also what comes from the divinely inspired Scripture; for he adds at once: “My son, do not make light of the discipline of the Lord, nor lose heart when you are reproved by him. For whom the Lord loves he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives.” For since the Creator of all is good, “he wishes all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” For this reason he admonished very often through holy prophets those of the blood of Israel, and especially those who had moved away from Jerusalem to Samaria. But they had turned without restraint to what seemed good to them, and, having left the God who is God by nature and in truth, they became servants … worship. And since, being very ignorant, they would not even consider that they ought to repent, God at last punished them. For those whom word does not help, toil changes, turning them as by necessity and force to what pleases God. The blessed David too is found saying something like this: “With bit and bridle you will constrain their jaws, of those who do not draw near to you.” For just as those who are accustomed to break colts, and are skilled at it, turn the wilder horses with bridles into a trained gait, so too the God of all very often brings the disobedient and unbridled man round, by the constraints of toil, to choose to live rightly. Having suffered something of this kind, those who dwelt in Samaria, after suffering the calamities of the war, barely recognized … the worship of idols, and turned the eye of their mind to the Holy One of Israel, expecting from him plainly help and release from the evils brought on them. “For they will not trust,” he says, “in the altars, nor in the works of their hands, which their fingers made; and they will not see their trees, nor their abominations.” For it was their custom to occupy the tops of the mountains and, under oak and poplar, as is written, to worship the works of their own hands. But they will no longer look to these, he says, having learned by experience that the thing is vain and wholly useless for them, or rather the cause of every calamity. For it was for this reason that they perished and were given over to their enemies. It is best, then, to be on our guard and with all our strength to avert the divine wrath, and not to wait to learn evils by experience, but rather to strip off beforehand, and very promptly, the causes for which God might be angry, and, before the blow and the scourge, to make our defence to him when he is grieved, by refusing what is shameful, honouring what is best, and practising virtue in every way.

“In that day your cities will be forsaken, as the Amorites and the Hivites forsook them before the face of … God your Saviour, and you did not remember the Lord your helper.”

From the events themselves he persuades them to consider that matters had turned the other way round for them. For formerly they conquered with God's help, and were something fearful to the cities and lands of the nations, … God for them everything that was steep and hard to accomplish. But since they became imitators of the unholiness of those nations, they became cowardly and easy to capture like them. For their cities were laid waste and abandoned by their inhabitants, in the same way as the Hivites and Amorites once fell, consumed by their swords. And he at once set forth clearly the cause of their slipping into such weakness and enduring so harsh and unbearable a calamity: “For you have forsaken God your Saviour,” he says, “and did not remember the Lord your God.” For they ought to have given thanks for the benefits they had received: for being redeemed from slavery in Egypt, for prevailing over their enemies and laying waste the cities of their opponents, and for being brought into the land of promise itself; … fearlessly, and grieving him in more ways than one, caring very little for the law laid down through the all-wise Moses, kicking away entirely their piety toward God, giving their reverence to soulless materials, and saying to the golden heifers: “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” When, then, we are with God, plainly striving to think his thoughts and having chosen to accomplish what is dear to him, then indeed we will surely be stronger than our enemies, and we will trample on rulers and authorities and the world-rulers of this darkness, the spiritual forces of wickedness; then … the movements of the flesh; then we will conquer evil thoughts, and the spirits of the one who holds power will find no place in us. But if we neglect to cleave to God, we will be weak and unmanly and under the feet of our enemies, and … prevailing …

“Therefore you will plant an unfaithful planting and an unfaithful seed. But on the day you plant, you will be deceived. But if you sow in the morning, it will flower into harvest, on whatever day you take your inheritance, and as the father of a man you will give your sons their inheritance.”

I will try as far as possible to make clear the sense of what lies before us, which is wrapped in much obscurity. What he says is something like this. I said before that those of Israel, deceiving and being deceived and thinking what is not lawful (that is, Ephraim, so that you understand the ten tribes that had been moved to Samaria), carried their brow high, and thought that none at all of their enemies could prevail over their hand, because they were countless and very many.

… some were consumed by the war, and others were carried off into the lands of the conquerors, captives and terrified and in every evil. But when time had passed, they were brought back from the land of the Persians to the holy city, and then they ceased having kings in separate parts, and all dwelt in Jerusalem and honoured the law of God; then their children too were in safety, and the generations ran on to children's children. Something of this kind the word teaches now too, setting a riddle about grain and ears. For since, he says, you did not remember the Lord your God, for this reason … your seed and race will be unfaithful and not secure … out of the way. And when you plant … and see it become much, then you will be deceived. For … he says, trusting in your numbers, but you do not reason truly. For they will fall like ears, and you will find the hope set on these wholly useless. “But if you sow in the morning”: that is, when you have come into the light and have at last recognized the Master who is so by nature and in truth, who saves easily and is able to help, then what has been planted, that is, sown, will flower into harvest, that is, it will come to maturity. For the ear's being consumed early brings loss of labour and of hope to those who till the soil; but its coming to harvest gives the fullest hope of good things. It will flower into harvest, then, that is, your planting will come to maturity, when it becomes morning for you, that is, when you are found as in light and day and come into the knowledge of God. Then too as the father of a man you will give your sons their inheritance. For you will pass on to your sons, as a kind of inheritance, good cheer and a share in the help from above.

“Woe, the multitude of many nations! Like a surging sea, like water it will sound; many nations like much water, like much water rushing down by force. And he will drive him away, and pursue him far off, like the dust of chaff of winnowers before the wind, and like the dust of a wheel that a whirlwind carries.”

The God of all, being the lover of humankind, does not leave those of Israel without comfort, but very often makes the hope of good things break in together with fear, and this by way of dispensation, so that he may benefit the hearers by both. That their cities will be laid waste has been said clearly; and what the reason for their suffering was he taught by saying: “You have forsaken the Lord your God, and you did not remember the Lord your helper.” But he who struck at once promises also to heal. And he relates something that happened, which it is necessary to tell in words as far as possible because of its usefulness. When Hezekiah at one time held the thrones of the kingdom in Jerusalem, the king of the Assyrians went up against the fortified cities of Judaea and took them. For it is written thus. Then he sends Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to besiege it; and he, having arrived, [spoke against] the glory of God, the Saviour of us all, [saying] that he was not able to save them, even if he wished, using his tongue and mind [without restraint]; [but] he learned by experience that it is a hard thing for any man to rise up against the supreme glory. For an angel of the Lord went out and killed in one night from the camp of the foreigners a hundred and eighty-five thousand; and rising in the morning they found all the bodies dead. And since he who had sent him, I mean Sennacherib, [failed] of what he had expected, he returned a fugitive, and barely saved himself by reaching home, though he too perished not long after at the hands of his own sons. For it came to pass, it says, while he was worshipping in the house … and Sarasar, his sons, struck him with swords. The prophetic word recalls this history to us in these words, and relates beforehand the attack of the Assyrians, and says: “Woe, the multitude of many nations!” and what follows. For he calls them wretched as about to die very soon at Jerusalem, an angel destroying them. That it was not one nation but rather very many he shows clearly by calling them a multitude of nations. And they came upon the districts, that is, the cities of Judaea, like much water rushing down by force and causing uproar, all but flooding over their opponents like a sea. He here calls them the back of many nations, because many nations were put to flight by them; and the pursuers always run at the backs of those who flee. Then what after this? “He will drive him away,” he says, that is, he will send him back, “and pursue him far off, like the dust of chaff of winnowers before the wind, and like the dust of a wheel that a whirlwind carries.” For what is so easily scattered as dust from a wheel and a threshing floor, when a violent wind is squalling? That Sennacherib went off a fugitive the God of all will confirm, saying to him: “… your …, and a bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back.”

“Toward evening there will be mourning; before morning, and it will be no more. This is the portion of those who plundered you, and the inheritance of those who inherited you.”

I said before that Rabshakeh, having set his fighting force round Jerusalem and threatened to take it before long, perished with his whole army before dawn and day. There will be mourning, then, he says, toward evening, since in Jerusalem they surely expected that the attack of the war would come in the morning; but it ceased before dawn. For this reason he says: There will be mourning toward evening; but it will be no more before morning, that is, the tears will cease and come to an end, and will be gone together with the terrors of suffering, God helping and destroying, beyond all expectation, the phalanxes of the enemy, and besides that their leader … through the voice of Isaiah: “And I will put a muzzle in your nose, [and turn you back] by the way by which you came.” … the land of the Jews. The blessed David too explains this, saying: “In the evening weeping will lodge, and in the morning exultation.” But this, he says, is the lot; and this the portion of those who plundered you and seized you as their own lot. By this he reproaches those of Israel, that they themselves did things for which it was likely the nation would perish root and all; yet he himself again has pity, and punishes with death those who plunder the people allotted to him. “For when the Most High divided the nations,” it says, “when he scattered the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God; and his people Jacob became the Lord's portion, Israel the measured lot of his inheritance.” But besides this, look closely with me at this too, and from the things that happened historically come to the inmost thoughts. When the wicked and opposing powers, pouring down on the soul like violent water, or assailing us with temptations from outside or with the innate movements of the flesh, press hard to besiege the pious mind, let none of those who know how to excel with God fall into feeble cowardice; but rather, having set his hope on him, let him be stronger than every terror. For how can one doubt that he will obtain help from him? For the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation; and the blessed Paul writes: “God is able, who will not let you be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way out, so that you may be able to bear it.” And as the Psalmist says: “The angel of the Lord will encamp round those who fear him, and will deliver them.” And when the heretics, [hostile to] those skilled in the sacred doctrines, … the worshippers of the truth, and come on terrible and bold, either stirring up wars and persecutions, or heaping afflictions on them and the fear of death, these too will grow weak no less. For with a hidden hand the Lord wars against Amalek from generation to …

“Woe, wings of ships of the land beyond the rivers of Ethiopia! who sends hostages by sea, and paper letters upon the water. For swift messengers will go to a lofty nation, and a strange and harsh people. Who is beyond it? … trodden down.”

One might wonder, and perhaps reason with himself and say: Why does the prophetic word here, which was spoken against Damascus, also bring in mention of the land beyond the rivers of Ethiopia? We say, then, that at various times those of Israel, having carelessly made a practice of forsaking God, the Saviour of all, went off into the error of many gods, and, having entirely neglected the commandment given through Moses, were disciplined by God, who raised up wars against them at various times and wore them down with the calamities that came of them. But they, … and departing from their own wickedness, and being brought back to what seemed good to the Lawgiver, and seeking the help that comes from him, hired alliances with the neighbouring nations; and sometimes they went over to the kings of Damascus, sometimes to those of the Egyptians; and not only so, but, learning the worship of the nations that helped them, they hastened to emulate it too. Indeed Ahaz son of Jotham, king of Judah, having been in Damascus, … made one like it and set it up in the house of God. So the vision was against Damascus. “For behold,” he says, “Damascus will be taken away from among cities, and will no longer be a stronghold for Ephraim to flee to.” Do you see the cause brought in at once, why he says that Damascus will be taken away from among cities? For it will no longer be, he says, so strong that Ephraim, who reigned in Samaria, could flee to it for refuge. He therefore moves the word on to the land of the Egyptians. For those of Israel went over to them too, especially those who dwelt in Jerusalem, and eagerly sought their support and help, especially when the Babylonians were attacking. Indeed he says through the voice of the prophet: “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who trust in horses and chariots!” And something of this kind happened. Nebuchadnezzar at one time made an expedition against the land of the Jews. And as he passed through, he plundered practically all the cities of the east. And when he wished to take the city of the Tyrians, which was then an island, then, … of ships to carry them across, … by the multitude of his army, he ordered the sea to be made passable, a mound being raised that made a broad highway from the mainland to the very city of the Tyrians. The Tyrians, then, fearing that the city might somehow be taken, gathered ships from every side and … from the island, leaving the city deserted for him. When Nebuchadnezzar learned this, he moved his army to take the land of the Egyptians by surprise, and took it without a struggle, God raising him up against the Egyptians, because they too, always raising their brow high, boasted over those of Israel as having no God able to save them. For when they were called on for help and to defend them, they said that their own gods were more valiant than the God of Judaea.

That the Babylonian took the land of the Egyptians after his toil at Tyre would be clear from God's saying to the prophet Ezekiel: “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon made his army serve a great service against Tyre; every head was bald and every shoulder peeled; and there was no wage for him and his army for the hard service which they served against Tyre. For this I have given him the land of Egypt.” The prophet, then, brings the “Woe” on it too, and says: “Woe, wings of ships of the land beyond the rivers of Ethiopia!” By the rivers of Ethiopia he means the seven mouths through which the broad and great river of Egypt mingles with the sea. And the land beyond the rivers he calls what is now Alexandria, which was then called On. It was very populous and had most valiant inhabitants, and stood a little away from the rivers of Egypt. For from the last mouth (its name is the Heracleotic) it lies off to the west some eighty stades. And since … to sail up and down the river, which is always navigable, and to carry their own goods to others and others' goods to themselves, and … gain, the prophetic word in these words … the ships, and it brings the “Woe” not on the ships but rather on those who always used them, rejoicing and luxuriating, as I said, in the gains of trade that came from them. For when the whole … had been seized, all … and the broad freedom of it was cut off, those who owned them perhaps having perished. Woe, then, he says, wings of the ships of that land which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia! By the wings of ships he means the sails, on which the gusts of the winds fall and carry them like a bird through the midst of the waves.

“Who sends hostages by sea, and paper letters upon the water.”

The sense of what has been said is very hard to reach; yet it is in labour with the narrative of a Greek story, which we will tell of necessity, not going beyond what is fitting, that is, what befits Christian discourse, but in order to make the meaning of the thoughts clear to the hearers. The story goes thus. Some of the poets among the Greeks tell the myth that Myrrha was the daughter of a certain Cinyras, who, overcome by unbridled impulses toward pleasure, lay licentiously with his own daughter and made her the mother of a child, whom he named Adonis.

… at what had happened and at the laws of nature, because he was being shown to have acted impiously, he exposed the child, as they say, on a mountain. Some of the nymphs there, whom they also call mountain demons, took it, reared it and kept it alive; and he, having grown up and being now among the young men, appeared in most comely beauty; and he took up hunting, and set great store by his pursuit of it through the woods. Then, it says, their Aphrodite (she was a harlot of a woman) saw him, fell in love with him, lay with him, and continued to cherish him. And besides … the thing became [a cause of grief] to Aphrodite, it says; and she came to such despondency and grief that she went down to Hades itself, wishing to bring her lover back. But since the wife of Pluto laid great claim to the youth and would not let him go, since he had wonderful beauty, they agreed with each other to divide the circle of the year and to have him half each. And when Aphrodite came up and announced this to her intimates, that is, her friends or worshippers, the thing became a feast and a festival. So the Greeks invented such a feast on this account. For they pretended to lament and mourn with Aphrodite in her grief because Adonis had died; and when she came up from Hades and said that the one sought had been found, to rejoice with her and leap for joy. And down to our own times this play was performed in the temples at Alexandria. Those of the blood of Israel learned it too, and indeed performed it, having left the God who is God by nature and in truth, turning aside to what is unlawful, and senselessly carried away by the deceits of demons to ruin and destruction. The blessed prophet Ezekiel also records this; for he said thus: “And I looked, and behold, women sitting there, lamenting …” And something of this kind was done by those who were in the land beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, about which … then, writing a letter to the women in Byblos, as though Adonis had been found, and putting it in an earthen vessel and sealing it, they let it down into the sea, having performed certain rites over it; and, as they said, it [was carried] of itself to Byblos on fixed days of the year. Certain women, friends of Aphrodite, received it, and then, having read the letter, ceased their lamenting, as though Adonis had been found by Aphrodite. The prophetic word, then, laughs at those who dwell in the land beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, as being once idolaters, unholy, deceivers and hateful to God, and says: “Who sends hostages by sea, and paper letters upon the water.” And to this too the “Woe” surely applies, just as to the wings of the ships. For “Woe, wings of ships of the land,” he says. So the woe applies to both in common. “Hostages”, that is, pledges of like-mindedness. For, as performing a mystery of Aphrodite for those who worship her in Byblos and are sick with the same madness, they sent off the letters, not putting couriers in ships, but as it were upon the water, because these had been placed, as I said, in an earthen vessel. We have been compelled [to tell] stinking and aged myths … only to make clear the sense of what lies before us.

“For swift messengers will go to a lofty nation, and a strange and harsh people. Who is beyond it? A nation without hope and trodden down.”

I said before that those who dwell in the land beyond the rivers of Ethiopia offended the kings of the Assyrians, since, when those of Israel asked for help, they not only promised it but even sent it, though they helped them not at all.

And they, aggrieved at this, after laying waste practically all of Judaea, went against the land of the Egyptians and took the whole of it without effort, God giving them the power to prevail over the hand of their opponents, because he was aggrieved against the Egyptians. When, then, [the Assyrian] was about to march against …, they set out from Judaea to announce to them the attack that would come before long. And about them the prophet says: “Swift messengers will go”, that is, quick, and as it were winged and light, announcing the calamity of the war, which is near and already at the doors. “A lofty nation, and a strange and harsh people” he calls the Egyptians: “lofty” meaning arrogant, or else frivolous and light and most senseless; “strange and harsh”, as being strange in its harshness, and having no one beyond it in this. “For who is beyond it?” he says, meaning: Who is so frivolous, ignorant, senseless, and given to a wickedness unusual among others, as the people in Egypt? For they were exceedingly idolatrous. Therefore also “a nation without hope” … Without hope, because it does not know the God who is God by nature and in truth; trodden down, because, having laid their mind very low beneath the deceits of demons, they all but lay under their feet. Or you may take what is said another way. For, falling into the hands of the Assyrians, they cast away every hope of good cheer, and were so trodden down that they could never, so to speak, recover, having fallen and been spread under the feet of the conquerors.

“… inhabited, their land will be inhabited.”

He usefully announces beforehand the manner of the capture too. For those who held the land of the Egyptians thought that their whole land was girded by very many and great rivers, and had broad and long lakes. For such lands are somehow hard to enter and not very easy to overrun for those who wish to lay them waste. But since God was angry with them, he made this too ready for the Babylonians, … made the wet land passable for them. This, I think, the prophet shows when he says in these words: “Now all the rivers of the land, like an inhabited land, their land will be inhabited.” For the navigable and always wet places, he says, will be such at the time of war that they seem already to be land inhabited continually, and simply dry ground without water. For what could the divine, all-powerful and supreme nature not accomplish?

“Like a sign lifted from a mountain, like the sound of a trumpet, it will be heard.”

The leaders of troops, at the time of war, station men on hillocks and very often have them raise a sign; and this becomes a signal to the army of a clear [command]. They also use the sounds of trumpets as signals, either rousing them to fight by some customary rhythm, or withdrawing them from the battle as seems good to them. The sign raised on high, then, is most conspicuous.

For those accustomed to do this stand on a mountain, and indeed the sound of the trumpets is audible and clear to all in the battle. The suffering of the Egyptians, then, he says, will be so well known to people everywhere that it may be compared to a sign raised on one of the mountains, and so widely heard, just like the sound of the trumpets. From such things we will learn this, and it will be of much benefit to us: in no way to whet the pure nature to anger; or else that those who in every way do what is unlawful, and … the worship that is under him, and who mould their own ways on those under divine wrath, share in their calamity and pay the same penalty to God. One may see the inhabitants of Egypt suffering this. For since those of Israel had given offence, and then they promised to save them, even if [God] did not wish …

“For thus the Lord said to me: There will be safety in my city, like the light of midday heat, and like a cloud of dew in the day of harvest it will be, before the reaping.”

The account of the history is clear; but we will tell it in passing. For God saved Jerusalem when Rabshakeh was besieging it and had set the countless multitude of the Assyrians round it. How did he save it? “For an angel of the Lord went out,” it says, “and killed from the camp of the Assyrians in one night a hundred and eighty-five thousand.” There will be, then, he says, safety in my city. And that I became the helper of those in danger will be as clear to people everywhere as the light at midday is bright and at its height. For when the sun is at midday and sends down its ray at its height on those on earth, all things are made bright with the richest light. There will be, then, he says, for those in danger, the grace and safety that I will give at that time, as though it were a cloud of dew in the days of harvest before the reaping. And what does he wish to show? I will say again. It is the custom of reapers not to put the iron to the ears before [the dew] has worked on the stalk. So for them the thing is a matter of prayer, I mean that dew be sent down by God. Thrice-longed-for, then, to those in Jerusalem was the safety that came from God, just like the dew falling in the days of harvest before the reaping.

“When the ear is completed, and the unripe grape … small, … with the pruning hooks, and he will take away the shoots, … God, they are given to their enemies for destruction … of heaven and to the beasts of the earth. And the birds of heaven will be gathered upon them, and all the beasts of the earth will come upon him.”

The sense of what lies before us is very difficult and hard to make out, and the very arrangement of the wording contributes to this. But I will try to explain it as far as possible. He frames the word, then, as from the knowledge of farmers. For it is their custom, when they see that the clusters of the vine have flowered and already have something of the form of unripe grapes, to cut away the superfluous shoots, and the small clusters that hang superfluously beside the larger, so that the larger clusters, receiving [more nourishment], may be able to come to ripeness. The God of all, he says, did something like this, either in the case of the Assyrians or in that of the Egyptians; for the word is not very clear as to against whom it would more fittingly go and be directed. We say, then, that if one chooses to understand the multitude of the Assyrians that besieged the holy city as one vine, we will find that the great cluster understood in it, that is, the one [seated] on the thrones of the kingdom, did not perish with the others, but was himself saved, while the rest of the multitude was consumed as in the rank of the small clusters; and like superfluous shoots the most cutting sword of the Lord pruned them away as with a pruning hook. For they fell, as I said, consumed by the hand of an angel, and their corpses became a feast for the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven. But if anyone should wish to say that these things were said of the Egyptians too, you will understand that the Assyrians, laying the land waste, did not destroy it all utterly or entirely, but, as though putting the sword to small clusters, the [towns] here and there or the villages, they kept within the measure of the anger of God, who loves to pity, who disciplines those who offend but very often cuts short the punishments, and does not allow those who are being disciplined to perish altogether.

“At that time gifts of an afflicted [people] will be brought, and from a great people, from now and for all time; a nation hoping and trodden down, which is in part of a river of its land, to the place where the name of the Lord …”

Having explained very well what would befall the peoples of the Egyptians at various times in war, [he speaks] also of their turning to God after this: that, sending away the ancient mist of deceit from the eyes of the mind, and bidding farewell to the worship of idols, they will go on to better things; they will recognize the God who is God by nature and in truth, the Creator and Lord of all; and, being transformed as it were into a new and choice life, they bear fruit for God in those things for which they would be approved and full of all praise, and they will bring as gifts, as it were, for an odour of fragrance to God, faith, hope, love. He calls it an afflicted people because, having endured the effects of the divine wrath, it endured very great misery. And besides this, “plucked”, perhaps showing by this their transfer to better things. For the plant is transplanted, and [set in] another [ground]; and this is the best way of farming for those who are used to tilling the soil. So too the mind of those in error is transplanted in a way, being as it were plucked out of the ancient deceit, and planted into other thoughts, and besides into excellent pursuits and knowledge, or rather incomparably better than the old. That they will bear fruit for all time means continually, with no interruption coming between, but rather always and for ever. Therefore he also calls it a great people, either signifying its numbers by this, or because it became approved, having been called through faith in Christ.

For those who once surpassed all others in the crimes of idolatry are now better and more intelligent than many, having a most ardent love for Christ and a boldness for every good thing whatever. “For where sin abounded,” it says, “grace abounded all the more.” Where, then, will they bear fruit? “To the place,” he says, “where the name of the Lord Sabaoth has been called, Mount Zion”: that is, to Mount Zion, where the name of the Lord Sabaoth would be called upon. By this he signifies the Church, the great and spiritual mountain; for there is nothing low in it, nor any doctrine that is trodden down, but whatever is great and lofty: the knowledge, plainly, of the God who truly is, and the very clear revealing of the mysteries of our Saviour. The divinely inspired Scripture very often calls the Church of Christ Mount Zion, naming spiritually, from the first Zion, the truer Zion, which means a height and a watchtower. In the middle there has been thrown in: “The nation hoping and trodden down, which is in part of a river of its land.” For the turning of the Egyptians to God began from some part of the land that lies beyond the river, so that you are to understand [the land] of the Rhinocorurans, that is, one of the cities there. For he says in what follows, in the vision on Egypt: “In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the land of the Egyptians, and a pillar to the Lord at its border. And it will be a sign to the Lord for ever in the land of Egypt.” And “trodden down”, as crushed by the calamities of war; … and “hoping”, because it too has at last set its hope on Christ, and has put its neck under his yokes, and has served

“Behold, the Lord is seated on a light cloud, and he will come to Egypt, and the things made by hand in Egypt will be shaken at his presence, and their heart will be defeated within them.”

In what way the country of the Egyptians was saved and drawn as in a net to piety, plainly through faith in Christ, though it was polytheist and terribly sick with error, the prophet tries to teach in these words. For they were as in deep darkness, wholly ignorant of the one who is God by nature and truly the Creator and Lord of all, and attaching their reverence to the creation; and going still further than this, and having a multiform swarm of idols in their shrines, so as even to fashion images of irrational animals, set up altars and sacrifice to them. Where sin abounded among them, then, grace had to abound all the more, and the physician had to shine on those so grievously sick, and the divine and heavenly light to flash upon those darkened in heart. Behold, then, he says, the Lord is seated on a light cloud, and he will come to Egypt. But what would the Lord's being seen on a light cloud mean to indicate? Come, let us say as we can. Some of the interpreters have said that the light cloud is the Lord's holy flesh, that is, the temple taken from the Virgin; and they liken it to a cloud because it is freed, perhaps, from the more earthly motions and desires, and is above, as it were on high. For the holy body of Christ, the Saviour of us all, is truly all-pure and freed from all earthly uncleanness. Others again have supposed that the holy Virgin is named the light cloud. For my part I think that by saying he is seated on a light cloud it perhaps also indicates to us a breadth of other meanings. For the blessed prophets, beholding the glory of God, wrote their visions in many ways. Isaiah says that he saw the Lord Sabaoth on a throne high and lifted up, with the highest rational powers standing around him in a circle, singing hymns to him and saying that heaven and earth are full of his glory. And the all-wise Daniel sets the Ancient of Days on a throne, and declares that thousands of thousands minister to him and says that ten thousand times ten thousand stand around; and he says he saw one like a son of man coming with the clouds, and he sets out what follows these.

Ezekiel likewise says he saw a firmament, with the seraphim beneath, and on a throne he saw a man, or the form of a man, whose upper parts he says were like amber, and from the loins to the feet like the appearance of fire. In each of such visions he neatly hints to us some showing of the God-befitting glory and of the mystery of Christ. Nothing, then, prevents us from understanding in this case too that the Lord was seen on a light cloud, most usefully and necessarily. For the cloud fills out for us a type of the spiritual rain and dew, and of saving baptism itself. Indeed the blessed Paul says that those of the blood of Israel were baptized in the cloud and in the sea; the cloud hung over them by day as they crossed that deep wilderness, and a pillar of fire went before them by night. Christ was figured through both, that is, the mystery concerning him, or as in faith and holy baptism, justification and sanctification. It was fitting, then, that the Lord, going to the cleansing and change of the Egyptians, plainly in a God-befitting and spiritual way, should be seen on a light cloud. For it was not possible otherwise to wipe away the stain that had sunk into the soul of those in error, except through holy baptism, of which we define the cloud to be a type. And the cloud is very fittingly called light. For we are baptized for the putting away of sin, and [laying aside] as it were a heavy …, we become in a way winged through it, and learn to think of the things above and to have our hearts on high. And the Lord's sitting upon the cloud, I think, shows this: sitting hints to us either rest or authority. So Christ rests, not on the worship according to the law, but rather on the perfecting through holy baptism; and so he has reigned over those on earth. And he says that the things made by hand in Egypt will be shaken at his presence. For when holy baptism had already been shown forth and Christ had at last shone forth, it was wholly necessary that the toys of the ancient deceit should vanish and the snares of the devil be seen shattered. He had netted to ruin and destruction every nation and race, so to speak, but the Egyptians above all others. For they became the most superstitious of all, and perhaps surpassed in error even the Persians and Assyrians; although the God-breathed Scripture says of the country of those that it is a land of carved images. He says that the heart of the Egyptians will be defeated, yielding, I think, the victory to the Gospel preaching, though it had of old been God-opposing and had set itself against the words of truth. We shall find that Pharaoh was clearly such. For Moses, the initiator into sacred things, said plainly: “The God of the Hebrews has sent us to you, saying: Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.” And he said to them: “Who is he, that I should listen to his voice? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.” For their heart will be defeated within them, that is, it will not remain unbroken, nor hard and unteachable, but will rather receive the saving preaching.

“And Egyptians will be stirred up against Egyptians, [a brother against his brother], and a man against his neighbour; and city will rise against city, and nome against nome. And the spirit of the Egyptians will be troubled within them, and I will scatter their counsel; and they will inquire of their gods and of their images, and of those who speak from the earth, and of the ventriloquists, and of the knowers. And I will hand over Egypt into the hands of men, [hard lords, and harsh kings] will rule over them.”

This, I think, is plainly nothing other than what Christ said: “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man at variance … [a daughter against] her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's enemies will be all those of his own household.” For when the divine and Gospel preaching had already been proclaimed, men, neglecting even reverence for their parents, thought hostile and hateful thoughts, and, all but equipped with the law of war, rose up against their brothers. For some, pleading for the ancient error and the deceits of the idols, [fought] the word of faith; while others, thinking it a laughable and wholly unholy thing to choose to worship gods made by their own hands, ran to the words of truth, and, being once far off, came near and became kin through … the hope of the saints, and were made heirs of eternal life. When, then, he says, the things made by hand in Egypt have been shaken, because the Lord came into it on a light cloud, there will be a great rising up of kin and relatives, and wars both one by one and in multitudes, so that city attacks [city] and nome nome. Among those who live in the country of the Egyptians each city with its surrounding territory and the villages under it is called a nome, and this word is in common use among them. Then he says: “The spirit of the Egyptians will be troubled within them, and I will scatter their counsel.” We say that, having opposite views of one another, they were troubled not a little; and those in error, planning risings and fights against those who had believed, will find the God of all fighting against them and resisting them. For I will scatter their counsels, he says, that is, I will show all their plans idle and wholly useless … against those who are mine. In what way, or at what time at all, the Egyptians became rich in the saving preaching, the prophet is eager to make plain. And the account of the history is not useless for those who once love to learn. Vespasian, then, having ravaged the country of the Jews and burned Jerusalem, came down with his whole army into the country of the Egyptians, to subdue it too. He did this by the will of God, who was bringing all countries and cities alike under the sceptres of the Romans. The Egyptians thought they could easily escape the yoke of slavery and be wholly impregnable, because their country was girded with very many waters. But they were disappointed in their hope. For when God accomplishes something, who will turn back his high hand? as it is written. It happened, then, that all their waters, in lakes and also in rivers, disappeared entirely, so that they could be crossed on foot. And so Vespasian, finding the country of the Egyptians stripped of every difficulty, took control of it.

At that very time, then, it happened that those who carried out the sacred ministry of the divine and saving preaching came into the country of the Egyptians, netting the nations through faith in Christ for the knowledge of the truth. The Egyptians, then, he says, having learned of the all-powerful and hard-to-resist onset of the Roman army, greatly troubled and wishing to learn where the outcome of the matter would lead them, will inquire of their gods and their images, of those who speak from the earth, of the ventriloquists, and also of the knowers. For among them there were various kinds of false divination and fabricated prophets: some pretending to inquire of the dead, others belching out words from their own heart; and others again knowers, that is, those who unholily pry into the smoke of sacrifices and the quiverings in the livers of slaughtered animals. But no benefit will come to them, he says, from divination; nor will they say that those who were thought to be gods are well able to help them. “For I will hand over Egypt into the hands of men, hard lords, and hard kings will rule over them.” When you hear “hard,” do not understand most cruel, but rather unbreakable and knowing how to yield victory to no one. For such were the most glorious kings of the Romans, the divine and ineffable counsel, as I said, subjecting all things to them.

“And the Egyptians will drink the water by the sea; but the river will fail [and be dried up; and the rivers will fail] and the canals of the river, and every gathering of water will be dried up, in every marsh of reed and papyrus; and all the green sedge round the river, and everything sown [by the river, will be dried up]. … All who cast a hook into the river will mourn. And shame will seize those who work the split flax and those who work the linen; and those who work them will be in pain, and all who make beer will be grieved and will be sick in their souls.”

You will fit these words too to what we have just said. For the God who can do all things made the well-watered country of the Egyptians so dry that it could be crossed without sweat by those who wished to go through lakes and rivers. The country of the Egyptians is somehow divided: some hold the arable and most fertile land and are above all tenders of vineyards; others live by the lakes themselves, gathering what comes from them. For they are fishermen, and cutting papyrus they are makers of paper, and they work the split flax. They are called marshmen or herdsmen, for among them the herds of cattle are beyond number, and there is a very great scarcity of bread and wine and the rest. When the waters have failed, then, he says, they will drink water [by the sea].

For some sometimes dig on the shores and draw drinkable water. The rivers and all the canals will fail and be dried up. And there will be a scarcity of waters in every marsh of reed and papyrus. And everything that grows in the waters will be dried up, he says, so that the hunters of fish will groan, and those who work the split flax, and those who work them will be in great pain; and besides these, those who prepare their beer. For when the waters have failed, they will be in want of everything that knows how to gladden and richly supplies what is needed for life. This has been said clearly as far as what is shown by the history goes. But if anyone should choose to take the scarcity of waters in another way also, and go into the depth of subtler meanings, he will not go wide of the mark if he likens the waters to the old-wives' and senseless teaching among the wise men of the Greeks; the fish to the multitude of men, and also the papyrus and reed and the rest, of which the nature of water is the nurse; and the fishermen, whose work is in the waters, to those who know how to net the multitude of the herd, and prepare them to be entangled, as in nets, in words that carry them away to deceit. These will groan and be grieved and be sick in their souls, the teaching among them already somehow [failing], which we, likening it to waters, clearly affirmed, because it has failed entirely and all that was nourished by it will be dried up. These make beer; for they do not offer the wine that gladdens the heart of man, but a spurious and useless teaching, which they dignify, as they think, with subtle words. For this, I think, is what he hints by saying that they work linen, the very finest. And the split flax too. For … their things are like hair-splitting talk, but wholly useless, and [full] of cold speculations …

“And the rulers of Tanis will be foolish; the wise counsellors of the king, their counsel [will be made foolish].”

For when an inescapable calamity hung over the Egyptians, and the country was about to be taken and at any moment to put its neck under others' yokes, even if they did not wish it, the one who had been allotted to lead, being troubled, gathered those surnamed wise, that is, the magi, and asked very earnestly where the outcome of affairs would go for them, and in what way they might beat back the onset of the war. But they were so far, he says, from being able to say anything necessary, or true, that they were condemned for unmixed folly. For when God wishes to afflict, he would defeat the counsel and power of every man. “For if he shuts against a man, who will open?”

as it is written. By the wise men of Tanis, then, he means the false prophets in it and the keepers of the [things in the] shrines, who, priding themselves greatly on the magic art, were shown by the facts themselves to be wholly nothing.

“How will you say to the king: We are sons of wise men, sons of kings from the beginning? Where now are your wise men? Let them announce to you and say what the Lord Sabaoth has planned against Egypt.”

On what achievements, he says, will you raise your eyebrows? What benefit have you given the country of the Egyptians, that you should be admired by them? Or what words did you use to beguile the one who reigns, saying, “We are sons of wise men,” that is, of prophets? Magi, and sons of magi; who … the glory of the whole country among the servants of the idols, always being and living with those in power, since [they offered] counsels on all that was to be done, [and] the hunt for advantage. When, then, he says, you are exposed as speaking falsely and knowing nothing true, how will you say to the king, “We are sons of wise men, sons of kings from the beginning?” So far the prophetic word has been addressed to those who seemed to be wise; then it turns to the person of the one allotted to lead, and says: “Where now are your wise men? Let them announce to you and say what the Lord Sabaoth has planned against Egypt.” For if they are not cheats, he says, or deceivers and buffoons, used to lying and speaking only what comes from their own heart and not from the mouth of the Lord, learn from them what hangs over the Egyptians and will very soon happen by the counsel of the Lord Sabaoth. The word, as it were, mocks those who do not know God but lie as in deep darkness, because they love to cling to the [idols] … it is wholly idle to put confidence in the deceits of false diviners. For knowing nothing at all, either of what will be or of what God might bring, they make false divination an occasion of collecting money, and, pretending to be inspired, belch out what comes from their own will alone, and bewitch the mind of those devoted to them. For they say whatever one might wish, and say only what they judge will please their hearers. But the divine [law] to us … thus: “When you enter the land that the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to do according to the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who purifies his son or his daughter in fire, who practises divination, who observes omens, … and prodigies, or who inquires of the dead. For everyone who does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.” And he adds to these: “You shall be perfect before the Lord your God. For these nations, whom you are dispossessing, will listen to omens and divinations; but the Lord your God has not so given to you. A prophet from among your brothers the Lord your God will raise up for you; him you shall hear … in all that he speaks to you.” For he who attends to divinations and omens, augury and the cheats of sorcerers, is wholly without love of God and will be bare of the glories of piety. But truly full of good hope is he who applies his mind to the Gospel ordinances and puts the vote of truth to whatever Christ says. For he is the Master of the prophets and the giver of all knowledge, even if he has been named a prophet because of the measure of his humanity.

“The rulers of Tanis have failed, and the rulers of Memphis have been lifted up, and they will lead Egypt astray tribe by tribe. For the Lord has mixed for them a spirit of error, and they led Egypt astray in all their works, as a drunkard and one who vomits at the same time goes astray. And there will be for the Egyptians no work that will make head and tail, beginning and end.”

The prophetic word here in a way smiles at the toys and empty talk of the liars. The leader of the Egyptians asked those who were always with him, sorcerers and false diviners, who were also called wise, to what end his expectations would come for him. But since they missed the right counsel and were shown to speak falsely, and none of them brought in a way of beneficial counsel and profitable plans, they were counted as nothing, and other wise men were then sought; and indeed some admired the rulers of Memphis, that is, the priests and magi, I mean those at Memphis. For they seemed to be, as it were, the chosen ones at that time, and having reached the height of magical skill they appeared to the idolaters worthy of every regard. They failed, then, he says, the rulers of Memphis, that is, they were counted as nothing, though those who presided over Memphis seemed to be lofty and admired by the king and all around him. But they too led Egypt astray tribe by tribe, that is, city by city and village by village, and not one by one only, but in multitudes. For they were confident, although they had nothing necessary to say; and in what way were they confident? “For the Lord,” he says, “has mixed for them a spirit of error” … of their tongue, so that they could neither understand nor say anything at all of the truth. For it was not fitting that the [prophets of] idolaters … They led Egypt astray, then, as a drunkard and one who vomits at the same time goes astray. For it is the way of drunkards to fall into the uncleanness of vomit. This is why, he says, there will be for the Egyptians no work that will make head and tail, beginning and end. For they will not lay hold of vigorous undertakings; for this is beginning and head. Nor will what they do come to a most desirable end; for this is the tail and the end. For every plan of men is useless, and every help rotten and in no way able to profit, when God, as I said, afflicts, brings his all-powerful hand upon those who rebel, and turns the nature of affairs to what seems good to him.

“In that day the Egyptians will be like women, in fear and in trembling before the hand of the Lord Sabaoth, which he will lay upon them. And the land of the Jews will be [a terror] to the Egyptians; [whoever names] it to them, they will be afraid, because of the counsel that the Lord has planned against it.”

For those who were once bold and savage, despisers of every danger, will be very fearful, he says, and will find their heart broken within them, so as to fall short in nothing of the weakest women … The occasion of their fear and of the terror at it will be the hand of the Lord Sabaoth, which he will lay upon them. By the hand of the Lord Sabaoth here the all-powerful will of God is meant, which subjected the nation of the Egyptians to the kingdom of the Romans. The divine counsel is wholly invincible, and what seems good to the plans of the highest nature must in every way be carried through. Besides this, the land of the Jews will be a terror to the Egyptians; and what he means by this let us see exactly, for the sense is very obscure. Of old, then, the land of the Jews was preserved, God shielding it, against, so to speak, the kingdoms of the nations round about.

But though it had so great a helper, it was taken and came under the Romans, and every city was burned, and houses and villages remained empty of men. And what was the occasion of their being taken? Plainly the counsel of the Lord, which he planned against it. For it too, together with the others, was handed over to the all-powerful hand of the Romans. The land of the Jews, then, will be a terror to the Egyptians. For the words of the false diviners wished to embolden them, saying that they would be stronger than the hand of the invaders and would prevail when they went out against them. But the fact that the land of the Jews itself was handed over to them, though it once had God as its champion, [showed that they too would] wholly and entirely be subject to those wishing to ravage them, since the land of the Jews had suffered this, [God] subjecting it too to his nods and bringing it under the sceptres of the Romans. Some, however, think the passage should be understood in another way. For since the God of all visited the Egyptians and brought them over from darkness to light, removed them from the customs of idolatry, and granted them at last to know who is God by nature and truly, the Creator of all (for they believed in Christ, and came to know the Father through him and in him), for this reason, he says, out of very great goodness and reverence, the land of the Jews will be for them an object of awe. When he says “for a terror,” you will understand the fear that comes from reverence. For all honour Jerusalem, because Christ was there, endured the cross for the salvation of the world, was laid in a tomb, returned to life, and went up to the Father. Of old the land of the Jews was hated by the Egyptians, for their manner of worship was opposed to theirs. For the one worshipped the creation and the works of their own hands; the others served the all-holy God and, governed by his laws, were careful of a holy way of life. The land once hated, then, will be for them an object of awe and an occasion of reverence, because [they honour] Christ, as I said, who called them out of darkness into his marvellous light, because … came to be in it …

“In that day there will be five cities in Egypt speaking the Canaanite tongue and swearing by the name of the Lord; one city will be called Asedek.”

One might very reasonably admire the blessed prophet for the precision of his words here, being ignorant of nothing at all of what would be in the country of the Egyptians at the times of the Lord's coming, but foretelling each point and declaring clearly in what way the Gospel preaching was shown forth. There will be, then, he says, five cities in Egypt speaking the Canaanite tongue, that is, the Syrian, or that of Palestine. For Phoenicians and Palestinians speak one tongue. And again Palestinians and Egyptians border on one another, with nothing between, but at the borders of Egypt toward … the cities near the borders of Egypt first receive the saving preaching. And these are five, of which we say the first is the present city of the Rhinocorurans. They speak the Canaanite tongue; for those in these cities have been eager to adopt not so much the speech of the Egyptians as that of the Syrians. Some say that Josephus clearly records in his own writings that a man named Onias, being of the choice ones of Levi and honoured with the priesthood according to the law, left the land of the Jews and occupied these five cities as bordering on the Canaanites, having quarrelled with some of his own people, or perhaps having suffered persecution.

… he says, gathered a not easily counted multitude of Jews … of the cities, which has also been named the city of Asedek, that is, of righteousness. Hence, they say, those near the Egyptian [borders] speak the tongue of the Canaanites. And they will learn, he says, to swear by the name of the Lord. This too is beyond expectation. For it is the custom of the worshippers of vain things to make an oath of whichever of the elements of the world seems good to each. Some name the heaven, others the sun, others the handmade things in the shrines; but in no way do they mention the true God, for they have not known him. But it belongs to those who have already come to know him and have believed also to swear by his name. So too the all-wise Moses brought Israel, which had left the worship in Egypt, to the knowledge of the true God, saying: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” And he added to these: “And you shall swear by his name.” A plain proof, then, that these five cities received the faith is their swearing by none of the vain things, but rather taking the name of the Lord for the use of an oath.

“In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border; and it will be for a sign for ever to the Lord in the land of Egypt.”

The whole land of the Egyptians [was full of] shrines and sacrifices everywhere, offered by them now to the elements of the world, now, as I said, to the images set up in temples, and plainly also to the pillars of demons. And why do I say this, when they even set up the shapes of irrational animals and bestowed on them the glory fitting for God? See, then, from what to what the affairs of the Egyptians have changed. Those who of old were more superstitious than all others and had turned without restraint to unruliness, in that day, he says, that is, at that time when the saving preaching shines among them, will accept the worship of the one who is God by nature and truly. For there will be an altar to the Lord in the land of the Egyptians. The saying has great emphasis; for it is spoken with wonder. For how is it not beyond expectation that an altar of the Lord should be seen in the very land of the Egyptians? And besides this, a pillar to the Lord at its border. By a pillar here, as it seems to me, he means either a holy temple of God, that is, the Church, which perhaps was raised first of all at its border, or else the sign of the holy cross, with which believers are accustomed to fortify themselves. For we always use it, overturning every assault of the devil and beating back the attacks of the demons. For the cross is an unbreakable wall for us, and boasting in it is truly saving: “But may it never be that I should boast except in the cross of Christ.” Beyond expectation, then, are the things foretold by the prophecy … For there are very many altars to the Lord, beyond number, throughout the [land] of the Egyptians, and the sign of the cross is venerated by those who live there. For they have believed in our Lord Jesus Christ. Some of the interpreters thought fit to name a title instead of the pillar, and say that this is the holy Gospel. Let the sensible reader in turn approve what seems best and right.

“For they will cry to the Lord because of those who afflict them, and the Lord will send them a man who will save them. And the Lord will be known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day; and they will make sacrifices, and will vow vows to the Lord, and will pay them.”

See, I pray, again the sobriety of the prophetic [word]. As if someone were asking and saying, “What is the matter? What was the occasion of the Lord's coming to Egypt on a light cloud and granting them this and that?”, the prophet takes it up, answers and says: “For they will cry to the Lord because of those who afflict them, and the Lord will send them a man who will save them.” For the father of sin, that is, Satan, leapt upon those throughout the whole earth, and, laying the yoke of his own perversity on all, lured them away from love toward God. Having them all but bound under himself, he oppressed them bitterly and unholily; but the very nature of the thing, having a terrible and unbearable greed, cried out against his tyranny. So you will understand the Egyptians as crying out. Yet how is it not true to say that, not knowing the Master of all by nature, they would not have cried to him at all? But as the blood of Abel is said to have cried out to God, not itself having a voice of its own, but God, as it were, abhorring the very outrage of the deed, in the same way, I think, one may understand it also of those who used to worship the unclean demons. For even if they did not know the God of all, yet because they had been taken advantage of by Satan, they cried out in a way through the deed itself, surely asking for help for themselves. So we say the Egyptians too cried out … [because of those who afflict them], that is, those who had brought them under their own hand and oppressed them as with a most bitter slavery, plainly the unclean demons. But the Lord will send them a man who will save them. And who is the man, but plainly Christ, that is, the only-begotten Word of God, who appeared in human form? He saved not the Egyptians only, but the whole earth. And he saved by judging; and what is “judging”? It is instead of “pronouncing a just judgement on them.” For Satan, who had taken advantage, and with him the unclean demons, he put under holy verdicts and, consigning them to Tartarus in chains of gloom, handed them over to be kept for the judgement of the great day, to be punished. But those who had endured such unbearable greed he saved and rescued, and showed them to be his own worshippers, flashing the light of truth upon them and [adorning them] with the glories of freedom. So the Saviour himself also says somewhere: “Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up, will draw all to myself.” You see that he gave judgement for the world, cast out Satan who of old had tyrannized over it, and drew all to himself. For the Egyptians too came to know him. And indeed, having come to know him, they make sacrifices, and vow vows, and bring what they have promised to fulfilment. This is what is sung through the voice of David: “Vow, and pay to the Lord our God.” See, then, the newness of things. Those who of old were accustomed to sacrifice to the demons, who brought their worship to Satan, dedicated thank-offerings and also eagerly fulfilled vows or promises, now enlightened in mind through Christ and made bright with the doctrines of truth, will run away from the ancient error, and, having once come to know the Creator and Lord of all, will bring him worship in spirit, … fulfilling vows and offering sacrifices, no longer those through blood and the slaughter of irrational animals, but rather spiritual ones, as I said, acceptable because blameless.

“And the Lord will strike the Egyptians with a great blow, and heal them with healing; and they will return to the Lord, and he will hear them and heal them.”

… those who have acted unholily, and he exacts the penalty for the outrages they have committed against him, but he benefits them greatly in this way. For he does not bring the whip as one overcome [by anger], but rather to change them for the better. For either he moves them from error to truth, or [compels] those who turn without restraint to offending to hasten to what pleases him. Accordingly, knowing that being disciplined is a beneficial thing, the blessed prophets cried to him: “Discipline us, Lord, but with judgement and not in wrath.” And again: “Lord, in affliction we remembered you; in small affliction was your discipline to us.” And he said somewhere to the synagogue of the Jews: “With toil and the whip you will be disciplined, Jerusalem.” He disciplines, then, those whom he chooses and loves. The prophet says he will grant this to the Egyptians too. For the Lord will strike them with a great blow and heal them with healing. For even if they were perhaps given over to the Roman generals and to the guards under them, armed with the law of war, yet, having given room among them to the divine preaching, they unloaded the penalty of their error, [turned] to the divine and heavenly light, and, having beaten off that ancient opinion, have had a healthy heart thereafter. For they will return to the Lord, and he will hear them, that is, … God [will be] gracious and kind. To know the one who is God by nature and truly, then, brings … Those who through great impiety had come to be turned away from God will learn at last no longer to bring their supplications to the abominations, for whatever they may perhaps choose to ask, but will rather cry to him who heals the broken in heart. And he will not be slow to them, but rather ready to [grant] … from which every good would come to every man: [to know] the Creator and Lord of all.

“In that day there will be a road for the Egyptians to the Assyrians, and Assyrians will enter Egypt, and Egyptians will go to the Assyrians, and the Egyptians will serve the Assyrians.”

The blessed Paul writes about Christ, the Saviour of all, that he is our peace. For not only did he join those on earth to the ministering and holy spirits above, but he also prepared nations to agree with nations. For before his coming, country and city were cut off from mixing with one another; risings were frequent and attacks of war everywhere, the goods of the defeated were the prizes of the strong, greed was unchecked, and to wrong whomever one could was thought a thing of renown and among the most admirable. But Christ became our peace in this respect too.

For since, flashing with the Gospel ordinances over the world under heaven, he taught all the way of piety and to hold fast to love toward God and one another, those things of old have ceased, as it is written. For peace has prevailed everywhere. And this, I think, is what the prophet Isaiah says elsewhere about all the nations: “And they will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into sickles, and nation will not lift up sword against nation, and they will no longer learn to make war.” For having all come under one yoke, spiritually the one under God, bodily the one under the Romans, they live a quiet, untroubled life without war, so that every fear has been removed and those who were once most hostile to one another agree in unity of soul. For the Egyptians, he says, will have a road to the Assyrians, and the Assyrians to the Egyptians. And the Egyptians will go to the Assyrians, and the Egyptians will serve the Assyrians, not as though those cast a yoke of slavery on them, but holding them bound in the bonds of love and making their mingling most pleasant. By Assyrians he means those who inhabit the eastern country.

“In that day Israel will be third among the Assyrians and among the Egyptians, [blessed] in the land which the Lord Sabaoth has blessed, saying: Blessed be my people that is in Egypt and among the Assyrians, and my inheritance Israel.”

Israel was named firstborn …; but since it raged against Christ, it has been placed behind the nations and has as it were received the second time as its lot. Indeed it is written: “When the fullness of the nations has come in, then all Israel will be saved.” See, then, see that it is named third here, after the Assyrians and Egyptians. By Assyrians here, as I said, he means those throughout the whole eastern land, but above all Mesopotamia, in which, they say, there are genuine worshippers, practising an asceticism sister and neighbour to that of the Egyptians, so as to have an equal eagerness and zeal for every good thing, and also virtue. Therefore the God of all says: “Blessed be my people that is in Egypt and among the Assyrians”; and Israel is counted third. For he adds: “And my inheritance Israel.” The word has shown us beforehand the reason for this too: for it has slain the Lord and has been turned to flight, as David says, and the firstborn has come to be among those left over.

“[In the year when Tanathan came to Azotus,] when he was sent by Arna king of the Assyrians, and fought against Azotus and took it, then the Lord spoke to Isaiah: Go and take off the sackcloth from your loins, and loose your sandals from your feet; and he did so, going naked and barefoot. And the Lord said: As my servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot, three years there will be signs and wonders for the Egyptians and the Ethiopians; for so the king of the Assyrians will lead the captivity of Egypt and of the Ethiopians,

the shame of Egypt.”

Having very well completed his discourse about the Egyptians, and foretold in what way they will be called through faith to the knowledge of the truth, he again arranges something of what was useful and necessary for the benefit of those of Israel; and what these things are I will say briefly. For having cast off even reverence for the law given through Moses, and also [fear] of … they were [carried away] to falling into the error of many gods and worshipping the works of their own hands. And for those who had once slipped into this state of mind, no wickedness was left untried. For this reason the God of all very often let wars and battles loose on them, sometimes from the neighbouring nations, sometimes from the Persians and Medes; and those who rose up against Judea, sometimes first ravaging the other nations, [inflicted] terrible [things on those] of Israel. But they, although they ought to have appeased the God of all, left their unholy pursuits, gone over rather to what pleases him, and pleaded their cause before him whom they had grieved by running from more shameful things to the better, and so sought salvation from him alone, … the wretches did not do this; but, begging for help from men, they called on some of their neighbours for this, sometimes on their neighbours the Egyptians, adding lawlessness to their lawlessness, as it is written, and in this very thing provoking the all-powerful God to anger, as it were. Indeed he said through one of the holy prophets: “And Ephraim was like a senseless dove, without a heart; they called on Egypt, and they went to the Assyrians.” And also through the prophet Isaiah himself: “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who trust in horses and chariots; for there are many, and the multitude on horses very great; and they did not trust in the Holy One of Israel, and did not seek God; and he in his wisdom brought evils upon them, and his word will not be set aside.” When, then, Tanathan, who was the general of the king of the Assyrians, fought against Azotus and took it by force (and it is a neighbour of the country of the Jews), those of Israel expected very soon, and with very little trouble, to suffer the same themselves. For this reason … hiring the hand of the Egyptians, they wished it to defend them against the phalanxes of the Assyrians. God, then, shows their hope to be vain, and foretells clearly that they too will become the prey of the Assyrian power, will be taken in time, and will be in the rank of captives of the spear. For they say that [Egypt] came under the hand of the king of the Assyrians in time … [he] fell upon it, took it all by force, and, having a very great body of captives, returned to his own land.

God, then, commands the prophet to take on the dress that is fitting and customary for captives, that is, nakedness and bare feet. For the victors make little account at all of those who are taken; and those who have fallen into this misery, whether they are nobly born according to the flesh or of the common multitude, are held together in one single [garment] of wretchedness, having no clothing or anything else that makes for their adornment or rest, but going uncared for to whatever pleases their captors, as men who go under compulsion. The divine prophet, then, as I said, is commanded to take the sackcloth from his loins … to go out of Jerusalem naked and barefoot. And he did this, not caring much about seeming to be decent, and putting nothing before what pleases God, even if it seemed something grievous and full of reproach. But perhaps someone will say to this: “Why did he not rather simply foretell to those of Israel what would befall the Egyptians in time? Yet the renowned … went about naked and barefoot.” To this we say that they did not obey the words of the prophets, and rather rebuked those who wished to foretell what was to come, saying: “[Speak to us] other things …” This is why, quite clearly, the self-controlled, orderly man, full of every virtue, crowned with prophetic grace and renowned in asceticism, takes off even his sackcloth, not a soft garment but rather a thick and cheap one, looses the sandals from his feet, and walks in such a guise, so that those who see him, marvelling at this very thing, may ask the reasons, and, eager to know why he had done this, may be fully assured that their hope in men is vain, and that they ought rather to long for prosperity from above and to love to make God, who always saved them, their helper. While the blessed prophet, then, went about Judea naked and barefoot, and no small terror came upon those who saw him, the Lord said, it says: “As my servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot, three years there will be signs and wonders for the Egyptians and the Ethiopians.” For, as I said before, the king of the Assyrians, having ravaged the country of the Egyptians in a few years, three, and also the Ethiopians who live near it and are neighbours to the Thebaid, having a very great body of captives and having revelled in the calamities of the Egyptians, then indeed returned home again in splendour.

“And the Egyptians will be defeated, put to shame over the Ethiopians in whom the Egyptians had trusted; for they were their glory. And those who dwell in this island will say: Behold, we were trusting to flee to them for help, and they could not be saved from the king of the Assyrians; and how shall we be saved?”

… and these, who are Ethiopians, have practised shooting arrows most skilfully … fighting with poison; and if they so much as graze someone, the one struck will surely die, and will fall at once as if bitten by a snake. It was, then, the custom and practice of the Egyptians, when war and battle threatened, to hire the phalanxes of the Ethiopians and to think highly of them; but they were taken together with them, overcome by the courage of the Assyrians. The Egyptians, then, he says, will be put to shame over the Ethiopians in whom they trusted. For when these too had been taken and conquered, those who dwell in this island will say: “Behold, we once trusted to flee to them for help, who could not be saved from the king of the Assyrians; and how shall we be saved?” He names Egypt an island because it is [surrounded by water] everywhere; and he brings in its inhabitants condemning their hope in the Ethiopians. For if they themselves were taken, he says, how could they save those who trusted in them? It is good, then, to hope in the Lord rather than to trust in man; and, as the prophet Jeremiah says: “Cursed is the man who has his hope in man and makes flesh the strength of his arm; but blessed is he who trusts in the Lord, and the Lord will be his hope.” The prophetic word somehow always benefits us; even if … the history, yet the benefit from it is not small. For Paul says that things happened to those of old as types, but were written for our admonition.

Having very well completed the discourse about the Egyptians, I mean, and having told when and how they will be called through faith to the knowledge of the one who truly is God, the prophet passes on to another vision, the one concerning the wilderness. And here he does not simply mention to us an uninhabited and desert land; he names as wilderness the land of the Babylonians, which once had inhabitants beyond number, terrible and most warlike, but was so desolated, the wrath from above having been brought upon it, that it was left empty of men … of Cambyses. The prophet also mentions him elsewhere, saying: “Thus says the Lord to my anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, that nations may obey before him; cities will not be shut.” He took by force the city that was once boastful and exalted itself over every nation and was hard to face in battles, I mean Babylon. The prophet now too mentions it, and names it wilderness. And he narrates clearly in what way it slipped into such misery, for two reasons, as I think. Either to turn the Jews from their hope: for “Ephraim was a senseless dove,” as one of the holy prophets says; “it called on Egypt and went to the Assyrians”; or to comfort them in their grief, because their country had been sacked, the temple itself burned, and they had been carried off as captives of the spear, with their wives and children, to Babylon. This was the act of one teaching plainly that God will rise up even against those who sacked them, if they choose to live according to the law and to become genuine keepers of his divine commandments. The prophet, then, narrates.

The height of the vision has changes of persons. At one time, as an eyewitness of what is to come and already a spectator, he explains what was shown him by God; at another he announces beforehand by the prophetic Spirit what will happen in time; and sometimes he brings in the person of the Babylonians, lamenting [their] calamities. As one who has seen, then, the expedition of the Persians and Medes, and also of the Elamites, against Babylon, he says thus: They will ride and pass through the wilderness, as if a storm of winds should pass through the wilderness, raising the dust and all but throwing everything into confusion. And he adds: “For fearful and harsh is the vision that was announced to me.” For the mere sight of the enemy alone, and the most valiant multitude of the fighters, is quite enough [to strike terror] into those who see them. But he says not only that he saw, but also, “it was announced to me”; for together with the sight he was taught the outcome of the affairs, plainly by God. “The one who sets aside sets aside, and the one who acts lawlessly [acts lawlessly].” The boldness of the invaders, he says, is unrebukable. For they are not kindled to gentleness by human reasonings; nor does any of them consider anything of what has come upon them; but he acts lawlessly without restraint and sets aside as seems good to him, with no sparing at all. For they do not look to mercy, but their zealous work will be, he says, to act lawlessly and to set aside. He said something of this kind also through his own voice to the inhabitants of Assyria: “Behold, I bring upon you the Medes, who do not regard silver, nor have need of gold. They will shatter the bows of the young men.” For when God brings wrath upon those who offend, nothing will be able to help. Rather, a beastlike mind … in those who wish to ravage those against whom they run.

“Upon me the Elamites, and the envoys of the Persians come upon me. Now I will groan and comfort myself. Therefore my loins are filled with faintness, and pangs have seized me like a woman in labour. I did wrong so as not to hear; I was eager so as not to see. My heart wanders, and lawlessness drowns me; my soul stands in fear.”

The word here has the force of personification. For the Assyrian is brought in, both fearing the attack and not ignorant of the phalanxes of the enemy and against whom their aim in war is directed. For not against any others, but upon me, he says, the Elamites … and I will comfort myself. For to those who have fallen into the utmost calamity, weeping and lamenting seems to be a kind of consolation; for tears come from pain. And it is a strange thing if the Assyrians lament, who had always been hard and haughty, raising their brows very high against all the nations and thinking that resistance could not easily face them. But those who are so bold and have thoughts beyond man … prepare a lament for themselves, and before the trial of war they are broken down into weakness. For “my loins are filled with faintness, and pangs have seized me like a woman in labour.” But for what reason, he says, will such things happen to you, O Assyrian? You might tell the one who asks. Yes, he says; for I know that I have offended through much sin the God who rules all. “I did wrong so as not to hear; I was eager so as not to see.” In this, he says, I wronged myself, that I practised much hardness of hearing, and made it the work of my zeal not to see, that is, who is God by nature and truly. For I heard of the worship of the Jews, I took the holy city by force, I sacked the temple. From hearsay I had a modest knowledge of what was commanded to those of Israel. More than that, the prophet Jonah too

was sent by God, preaching and saying: “Yet three days, and Nineveh will be overthrown”; and, at once terrified by the threat, I repented, but I did wrong again by not listening, and I made it my zeal not to see what it was necessary to see. For my heart has wandered, and sin has sunk me under water, burying me in a way. This is why my soul stands in fear; for I have come into the terrors of the last things. These, then, would be the words of the Assyrians. For it is the custom of the holy prophets to put words into the mouths of persons, for the benefit of their hearers.

“Prepare the table, drink, eat; rise up, you rulers, prepare shields.”

I said that the word of prophecy sometimes varies very well among many differences of persons; and those who wish to understand and report rightly must surely watch such things exactly. For so the [interpretation] would be clear, having nothing steep that would make what is said difficult. He has brought in, then, the person of the Assyrians weeping over themselves, broken down into cowardice and in labour with unbearable fear at the evils to come. Then he mentions the time at which it will happen that they are taken and fall into incurable calamities, and also makes plain the very cause of the [wrath] that came upon them. For the blessed Daniel wrote: “Belshazzar the king made a banquet for his great men, a thousand, and the wine was before the thousand.” Then he says that he unholily brought out the holy vessels that had been taken from Jerusalem in time, and he and his concubines and his wives drank from them. This was nothing other than boasting against the glory of God and exalting himself against the one who presides over those of Israel, as [though he were] in no way able to help his own people. While Belshazzar, then, was drinking and all but laughing at the holy vessels, “the knuckles of a hand,” it says, “appeared and wrote on the wall, Mene, Tekel, Peres”; and the divine Daniel, interpreting the writing, said to the Assyrian: “God has broken up your kingdom and divided it, and it has been given to the Medes and Persians.” This history, as I think, he now recalls, and the prophet says, as to the rulers themselves, or great men, and to Belshazzar: “Prepare the table, drink, eat; rise up, you rulers, prepare shields”: revel, he says, at prodigal tables (the saying is somehow in the manner of custom); gorge yourselves drinking insatiably. And what after this? Wars will follow the festival, and the suffering is not far off; but from the very drinking you will run to arms and seek shields. For it is truly most grievous to exalt oneself against God and to grow bold against a glory beyond which there is nothing among things that are. Israel was given over to the Assyrians, God having brought this necessity upon them. But it was not [right] that those who had taken them should fall into such ignorance and senseless thoughts as to think that they too suffered captivity … through much sin, [and not by the will] of him who is above all and presides over creation as God.

“For thus the Lord said to me: Go, set yourself a watchman, and whatever you see, announce. And I saw two mounted horsemen, a rider [on a donkey and a rider on a camel] …”

It is the custom of the holy prophets, at the time of divine sight or visions, to gather their mind as it were within themselves and to observe with undistracted thought what is shown by God, and, as if they had come to be on high and in some unspeakable lookout, to listen to the divine words. Indeed one of the holy prophets said: “I will stand at my watch, and mount upon a rock, and look out to see what he will say in me, and what I shall answer to my reproof.” The prophet now teaches something of this kind, and says that he heard from God: “Go, set yourself a watchman, and whatever you see, announce”; not to set someone else to the divine sight, but, as it were a watchman standing on high in his mind, to observe what will be and to receive with his sight the spectacle of events. I saw, then, he says, [a rider on a] camel. And what this is the lament of the Assyrians will clearly teach. For he said: “Upon me the Elamites, and the envoys of the Persians come upon me.” The Elamites are a barbarian nation, practised in riding camels. And who else would the rider of the donkey be but the chosen men of the Persians? They say these go into battle mounted on mules and in litters, so that no toil may unnerve them. And when they see the battlefield, then [they get down] from the litters … By the rider of a donkey, then, he means the one mounted on mules. Or, in another way, it is likely that the prophet saw the throng of the enemy mounted on horses, and a multitude of camels and mules following, made ready perhaps for carrying off the spoils. For he says this somewhere else: “In affliction and distress, a lion and a lion's whelp; from there also asps and offspring of flying asps, who carried their wealth on donkeys and camels.” For he called Cyrus a lion and a lion's whelp, and the Persians and Medes under him; and asps and offspring of flying asps, that is, those practised in darting swiftly and moving like winged creatures, [he called] those from the other …

“Listen with much listening, and call Uriah to the watchtower of the Lord.”

The prophet has acknowledged that he saw certain nations for whom it is customary to ride on camels … two mounted horsemen, of camel and of donkey; and who these would be we have said already before. And since he has once seen, he is at last commanded to hasten to learn the outcome of the attack and the dreadful narratives of the calamity of the Chaldeans. For such listening is in truth “much.” Accordingly, the things that befell Babylon were dreadful, beyond all words, and reached the height of evils. For Cyrus took it in such a way as to leave it desolate

entirely, killing those in it, and netting even out of the caves themselves those who expected to be able to escape notice altogether. Indeed the God of all said to him: “I will give you dark treasures; hidden, invisible ones I will open to you.” And somewhere the person of Jerusalem is brought in, speaking as to Babylon: “Do not rejoice over me, my enemy, because I have fallen; I shall also rise. For if I sit in darkness, the Lord will give me light. I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I sinned against him, until he justifies my cause and executes judgement for me, and brings me out into the light, and I shall see his righteousness. And my enemy will see, and will be clothed with shame, she who says to me, Where is the Lord your God? My eyes will look upon her. Now she will be trampled like mud in the [streets]. A day of the smearing of brick: your wiping out” is that day, plainly the day on which it was sacked by the Persians and Medes and Elamites and made desolate, as I said. Listen, then, he says, with much listening, that is, to the long and dreadful [tales] of its capture … They say that Uriah was one of the most distinguished of those who served in holy things according to the law. Take, then, he says, as witness of the watch, or vision, shown to you, Uriah, and let him learn from you what will be. For since, disobeying the narratives of the prophets, they said, “Speak to us other things, and announce to us another deception,” for this reason the God of all, very providently, made the most honoured among the Jews witnesses of what was shown in time, as in prophetic vision, to those who had the spirit of prophecy, so that, if they would not be persuaded by their words, they might at least trust those who were honoured among them with the priesthood according to the law.

“… and upon the camp I stood all night; and behold, he comes …”

The prophet, having been commanded to set himself a watchman and to announce clearly whatever was shown him by God, [says]: I stood all through the day and through the whole night … Who, then, is “he”? The Persian and Elamite, or the leader of the army, that is, Cyrus.

“And he answered and said: Babylon has fallen, and all its images and its handmade things have been shattered to the ground.”

When the prophet says, “Behold, he comes, a rider of a pair,” having seen very well in what way the attack will be carried out, and that not long hence, God at last answers and says: Babylon has fallen, that is, the boastful one, the insolent one, the hammer of the whole earth, as Jeremiah says; she who trampled on all the nations like a beast, who raised her neck proudly, who levelled countries and cities. She has fallen, he says, that is, she lies utterly [prostrate], and is seen lying at last under the feet of her captors. And all her images and handmade things have been shattered. For it is a land of carved images, as another of the holy prophets says; and she trusted greatly in the falsely named gods, and, expecting to be saved by their help, she was trampled with them, and together with her own …

“[Hear, you who are left and you who are in pain,] hear what I heard from the Lord Sabaoth; [the God of Israel has announced to us].”

Israel was carried off captive, and much sin [caused] it to fall into such long calamities. Many indeed remained in Jerusalem and in Judea, but they went on groaning and in pain, their country sacked, the temple itself burned, and Jerusalem made desolate by force. The prophet, then, usefully weaves the vision as a remedy of help for their comfort, and says to them: Hear, you who are left and in pain, hear what I heard from the Lord Sabaoth. The God of Israel has announced to us. For he knew, he knew, that the calamity of the Babylonians would bring them joy, and that the narratives of what befell those who had grieved them would be a kind of comfort to those so sacked.

I think it necessary to narrate beforehand the subject of the vision before us; for so, and not otherwise, will readers understand. Isaac, then, had two sons, Esau and Jacob. Esau was surnamed Edom, that is, “earthy”; for such was his life, and he sold his birthright for a single meal, as it is written. But Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in a house; for so the sacred Scripture said of him. From Jacob, who was also renamed Israel, came the Jews; and from Esau, that is, Edom, the Idumeans, or the Hagarenes; and these are the Saracens. So the Idumeans were brothers and near kin to those of Israel; and the country of the Jews and that of the Idumeans bordered on and adjoined one another. But neither kinship nor living as neighbours secured unity of mind for the two races. For they were divided also by the customs of the Greeks … they [overran] the country of the Jews frequently and dared to do the most shameful things of all to them. Indeed, when those of Israel, having thrown off the yoke of the Egyptians' greed, were going up into the land promised to their fathers, “Moses,” it says, “sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, saying: Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the hardship that has found us; and our fathers went down into Egypt, and we sojourned in Egypt many days, and the Egyptians ill-treated us and our fathers; and we cried to the Lord, and the Lord heard our voice, and sending an angel he brought us out of Egypt; and now we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your borders. We will pass through your land; we will not go through fields or through vineyards, nor will we drink water from your cistern; we will go by the king's highway; we will not turn aside to the right or to the left until we have passed your borders. And Edom said to him: You shall not pass through me; otherwise I will come out against you in war.” Do you see how hard and pitiless the Idumeans were, and that toward brothers? But their charges do not stop here; they did another thing too, unholy and cruel. The Babylonian took the country of the Jews, burned the temple, ravaged Israel, and did things beyond all words against its inhabitants. Then some of those who had escaped the Persian sword hastened to flee, as to a country bordering on the Jews and as to brothers and kinsmen; but they, though they ought to have helped them as brothers, pitied them in their misery and welcomed them kindly, leapt on them like beasts and made the fugitives the work of their cruelty.

And for this very thing the God of all accused them severely through the voice of the prophet Obadiah. For it is written thus: “In that day, says the Lord, I will destroy wise men out of Idumea and understanding out of the mount of Esau; and your warriors from Teman will be terrified, so that man may be cut off from the mount of Esau, because of the slaughter and the impiety against your brother Jacob; and shame will cover you, … from the day when you stood opposite, on the day when foreigners took captive his strength, and strangers entered his gates and cast lots over Jerusalem, and you were like one of them.” See, then, how they became imitators of the Persian cruelty, and, those who expected to be saved, and for this reason came to them as to brothers and neighbours, they killed without pity. So the Babylonians, having taken the country of the Jews and then returning to their own land, made [the capture of Idumea] a side-work of the road, without effort, God letting his wrath loose upon them. [For it is written:] “And the day of the Lord is upon all the nations; as you have done, so it will be done to you; your recompense will be returned upon your head.” … the subject of the vision before us … to say what is written.

“To me he calls from Seir.”

This is the voice of the God who rules all, speaking to the prophet as though at any moment … of war, [and turning to] flight all who dwell in it. Seir is a very great mountain of Idumea, below which there is said to be a splendid city of theirs. Since, then, those of Mount Seir, that is, the Idumeans, were about to turn to flight at any moment, To me, he says, call, that is, let those fleeing from there come to Judea. For just as they mocked those of Israel who fled to them, so, he says, they will be laughed at when they do the same, [fleeing] the hand of the Babylonians.

“Guard the battlements. I guard in the morning and the night.”

The word is addressed to the Idumeans, God all but reproaching them for the idleness of their labours on defending themselves against their enemies, while they in no way longed for salvation and help from him. For when the attack of the Assyrians was about to come, they blocked the entrances of their cities and kept guard on the battlements. But the thing was useless to them; for their cities were taken, and no one at all was saved. The word from God to them, then, is spoken in an ironic manner: Yes, he says, you plan right and reasonable things; guard the battlements. Then, as from them: “I guard in the morning and the night.” “But unless the Lord guards a city, the watchman stays awake in vain.” For they ought rather to have sought help from above and from God, and not to have trusted in stones. For they say that the walls of their cities were so shaken that no stone was seen lying upon a stone.

“If you seek, seek, and dwell with me; in the thicket at evening you will sleep.”

For if you wish, he says, to seek help, seek it from me, who am able to save, and dwell with me, that is, be mine and think my thoughts, removing yourself from the worship of the falsely named gods. The Saviour says something of this kind: “Whoever loves me, let him follow me, and where I am, there let my servant be also.” When, then, he says, the phalanx of the enemy overruns the whole land of the Jews, [you will be] outside houses and cities, and in the thicket at evening you will sleep, that is, you will lodge with the wild beasts, and you will camp in the marshes, and so at last you will pay the penalty for your cruelty to your brothers.

“On the road of Dedan, bring water to meet the thirsty, you who dwell in the land of Teman; meet those who flee with bread, because of the multitude of the slain, [because of the multitude of the sword, and because of the multitude of the bent bows, and because of the multitude of those fallen in war].”

… he said again through the voice of Obadiah: “For [the day of the Lord] is near … [your recompense will be returned upon your] head.” This, then, briefly, is the subject [of the vision]. And indeed we must go to each point, as far as possible … and because of the multitude of the sword, and because of the multitude of the bent bows, and because of the multitude of those fallen in war … as I said before, also through the voice of the prophet Obadiah. For although they ought to have helped those of Israel who had fallen into incurable calamities, and to have grieved with them, they did not do this; but, without natural affection and hard-hearted, they showed themselves more savage than the cruelty of the Assyrians, cruelly slaughtering those who had managed to escape their hands at all. What, then, they ought to have done to win good repute, they did not do … saying: “On the road of Dedan, bring water to meet the thirsty, you who dwell in the land of Teman; meet those who flee with bread.” For you ought, you ought, he says, you who have the southern country (for Teman is interpreted “south”), to have brought bread and water to those fleeing and wandering on the road of Dedan, and to have hastened rather to do the works of love fitting toward brothers, and not … in a way, and to load further the yoke of those already pressed by such bitter and savage calamities. They ought, then, to have met the fugitives kindly. For they turned to flight, disregarding houses and cities, because of the multitude of the sword and of the terrible arrows; and when they fell in great numbers, and the dead among them became beyond count.

“For thus the Lord said to me: Yet a year, like the year of a hired worker, the glory of [the sons of] Kedar will fail, and the remnant of the strong bows of the sons of Kedar will be few; for the Lord, the God [of Israel], has spoken.”

That the destruction of Idumea has come near, and has as it were stepped inside the doors, and that they will go wholly and entirely to ruin, the Babylonians burning their cities and ravaging the whole country, he foretells clearly. For there will be one year between, he says, and the archers of Kedar, though they had no small reputation for this very thing, will fail and perish; and the prediction is true: the Lord is the truth. By the year of a hired worker he means one exactly measured. For one who has entered into the sweat of hired service and hired himself out to another always somehow reckons the measure of his time of hire finely and exactly. Let this be said now as far as the letter and the history go. But turning the force of the word to the holy Church and her nurslings, and also to the flocks of the heterodox, we say this: that the throngs of the Greeks have very often attacked those who are accustomed to think rightly and have chosen to worship the one who is by nature and truly the Creator and Lord of all; then … with persecutions and toils. And likewise those who have the venom of unholy heresies in mind and heart, though they steal the name of Christians and pretend to brotherhood with us, sometimes surpass the savagery of enemies, without natural affection and cruel. And what of such things are they not shown by the facts themselves to be? But God will not endure them for ever, nor at all tolerate those who are utterly without affection, but will rather bring upon them the effects of wrath and justice.

Having foretold the capture of the Egyptians, the Assyrians and the Idumaeans, the prophet comes to the holy city itself, that is, Jerusalem, and usefully relates beforehand what would befall it in due time from the divine wrath, so that they might know that the God of all, being the ruler of righteousness, or rather righteousness itself, does not simply honour and welcome and count worthy of his care the one who has become his own, merely because he was trained under the law; rather he examines the life each has led, and to the good he apportions good things according to their habit, while he counts the lover of wickedness a stranger, in no way joined to himself, even if perhaps he is beloved for the fathers' sake. The peoples of the Jews, then, out of very great ignorance, thought that they would be altogether impossible for their enemies to capture, and, … paying no regard at all to anything, … had fallen into very great impiety. For they worshipped idols, and setting up shrines and altars under oak and poplar they offered sacrifices to vain things and poured libations, wholly neglecting the glory owed to the all-holy God. Indeed through the voice of Jeremiah he says to them about Jerusalem: “And do not say, ‘It is the temple of the Lord’; for unless you mend your ways and your practices, I will make this house like Shiloh.” And again he accused them through Micah the prophet, saying: “Her rulers judged for gifts, and her priests answered for hire, and her prophets divined for silver, and they leaned on the Lord, saying, ‘Is not the Lord among us? No evil shall come upon us.’ Therefore because of you Zion shall be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall be as a garden-watchman's hut, and the mountain of the house as a grove of the forest.” And the inspired John too made it plain to them that the judgment of God comes swiftly against everyone accustomed to offend, saying: “Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits, then, worthy of repentance, and do not presume to say within yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Already the axe is laid at the root of the trees; … that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Since Israel, then, had an unbridled inclination to offend, and was devoted, as I said just now, to the false worship of idols, God through the prophet reveals beforehand the capture of Jerusalem that would come in time, and says:

“What has happened to you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops, in vain? The city is filled with people shouting; your wounded are not wounded by the sword, nor are your …”

He seems here to point to the ravaging in the times of Jeconiah, and to blame those of Israel severely, because not even in the very midst of their troubles and such extreme calamities did they know how to do what leads to profit and would win them the favour from above. For they ought to have gone up to the house of God weeping and lamenting, to have promised a change of mind, to have asked that what they had done in their drunken folly be forgotten, and to have sought the helping hand from him and him alone. And this

he himself taught, saying through one of the holy prophets: “Gird yourselves and beat your breasts, you priests; lament, you who minister at the altar; go in, sleep in sackcloth, you who minister to God, for sacrifice and libation are withheld from the house of your God. Sanctify a fast, proclaim a service, gather the elders, all who dwell in the land, into the house of your God, and cry out earnestly to the Lord: Alas, alas, alas for the day!” By doing these things they ought to have appeased the one who had been provoked, who was able to save. But that it was fitting to do these things perhaps never even entered their minds; instead they went up to the highest parts of their houses, and there was beating of breasts everywhere, and wailing of children, wasting away, as is likely, from hunger and thirst, as must happen in cities under siege. This is why he says: “What has happened to you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops, in vain?” Why, he says, even amid terrors so unbearable, when the matter concerns your very last extremity and the whole struggle is for that, have you not cried out to God, but rather leapt up onto the housetops, though the thing profits you nothing? That is why he calls them vain housetops. And why “is the city filled with people shouting”? Not, rather, shouting to God, but crying out to no purpose, and all but grieving immoderately at the evils that have come upon those within the gates. The lament ought to have been for a change of mind; the tears ought to have been poured out before God. See, he says: before joining battle, before taking up the sword, before planning resistance, the city has become full of dead. It is useful, then, and necessary for salvation, to know how to do what may make God one's saviour, even if one should fall into bitter calamities. The blessed David at any rate sings and says: “O Lord God of hosts, blessed is the man who hopes in you.” It should be known that he calls Jerusalem the valley of Zion. For Zion is a mountain, or rather on a mountain; … that is why he also calls it the valley of Zion.

“All your rulers have fled, and … those in you have fled far away.”

The peoples of the Jews, as I said, having abandoned the God who saves all, and trusting in help from men, expected to be saved. But when the enemies came, and the fear of being captured was at its height, and they saw the Assyrian … already surrounding the land, that is, the holy city, those in authority and holding the highest offices leapt away to safety, all but bidding farewell to those who had placed their hopes in them. All, then, he says, have fled who once promised to save you and were thought to have a hand hard to overcome; and those who were captured are harshly bound. For Zedekiah was taken together with his sons; and the Babylonians slaughtered them, and carried him off to their own land with his eyes put out. “Vain, then, is the salvation of men,” as it is written. One must devote oneself to God alone, holding fast to that wise saying: “I will not hope in my bow, and my sword will not save me.” For the Lord of hosts alone saves those who love him and rescues them from every evil, so that they say rejoicing: “For you saved us from those who afflict us, and those who hate us …”

“Therefore I said: Let me alone, I will weep bitterly; do not labour to comfort me over the ruin of the daughter of my people; for it is a day of tumult and destruction and trampling from the Lord of hosts in the valley of Zion.”

This is the voice of the prophet, all but weeping and lamenting over the calamities of his race. By refusing those able to comfort him, he shows the greatness of the blow, as one that has no cure, but has been brought upon them unbearably, bitter and relentless in its onset. For a day of tumult and destruction and trampling has been brought on from the Lord of hosts. “For the uplifted hand, who will turn it back?” If the attack of the Assyrians had been carried out without wrath from above, there would have been great hope for the sufferers that they might sometimes prevail over those who came against them, since the God who rules all would be stretching out his ever-saving hand to them. But since he himself is the one who strikes, and the trampling comes from the Lord, who will overturn it? “For if he shuts against a man, who will open?” he says.

“They wander from small to great; they wander upon the mountains.”

Admire the soberness of the Spirit-bearer. Since he had said that the tumult and the destruction and the day of trampling would be brought on from the Lord of hosts, so that no one might think that the divine … in vain upon them, … of those who are expected out of levity sometimes to descend to such folly, he adds the defence, that the Creator of all may appear a just judge. “For they wander,” he says, “from small to great; they wander upon the mountains.” And what this means you will learn from God's own words. For he said somewhere to the blessed prophet Jeremiah: “Have you seen what the dwelling of Israel has done to me? She went up on every high mountain and under every leafy tree, and they played the harlot there.” For occupying the heights of the mountains, they built hill-shrines and sacred precincts. Then, fashioning whatever idol they pleased, they brought sacrifices to it, and, wholly neglecting reverence toward God, “they said to the wood, ‘You are my father,’ and to the stone, ‘You gave me birth.’” Was it, then, a few who suffered this? Not at all, he says; for small and great have gone astray, with every family and every household. Indeed he said again to the blessed prophet Jeremiah: “And you, do not pray for this people, and do not entreat for them in petition and prayer, for I will not listen. Or do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? Their sons gather wood, and their fathers kindle fire, and their wives knead dough to make cakes for the host of heaven; and they poured libations to foreign gods, to provoke me.” By a just verdict, then, they were punished. For having given their reverence to the creation and served the works of their own hands, they themselves drew down upon their own heads what comes from the divine wrath. “For not unjustly are nets spread for birds,” as it is written; and God … with punishments the one who dishonours his glory and with a mind gone astray has fallen into every kind of absurdity.

“… men on horses, and a gathering of battle array. … shall be filled with chariots, and the horsemen shall block up your gates, and they shall uncover the gates of Judah; and on that day they shall look into the choice houses of the city, and they shall uncover the hidden things of the houses of the citadel of David.”

He raises the narrative to a lofty pitch, all but paints the onset of the war, and terrifies his hearers with fears, skilfully driving them toward the necessity of choosing to repent. So, as though already beholding the troops present and inside the gates, he says these things. The Elamites are named as from a Persian city from which they take their name. Some say that they are horsemen, Saracens; these are mounted archers and most accurate in aim, harsh and unbending, and not knowing how to pity. That they are more than can be numbered …, with chariots, and that the horsemen will block up your gates, so that those who wish to drive in are greatly hemmed in; and that, bursting in, they will search every house … of the houses of the citadel of David, that is, the wealth of the kings. For those of the tribe of Judah reigned, from which the blessed David also came. Let this much be said again with regard to the history. But if, like enemies, … should drive into the human mind, or … of thoughts, … as of a captured city, … sending out all of it, and stripping it of the splendid deeds of virtue. This is why the inspired Scripture says: “If the spirit of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place, for healing will put an end to great sins.” For such passions, when they are checked, diminish, and soberness benefits those who practise it; but when they always creep on toward the worse with slackened and unrebuked impulses, they shake from their foundations those who spiritually …

“And they saw that they are many, and that they turned the water of the old pool into the city, and that they pulled down the houses for a fortification of the wall for the city. And you made for yourselves water between the two walls, inside the old pool; and you did not look to him who made it from the beginning, and you did not see him who formed it.”

Again he accuses the peoples of the Jews, or rather those who presided over them and were adorned with the highest honours, as having missed sound reasoning and having acted foolishly, doing not what was fitting to be able to save Jerusalem in its danger, but what made the wrath that had fallen on them fiercer, the God who rules all being in a way whetted still more to indignation against them, since he was disregarded, and no one trusted in him any longer, but those of Israel thought rather that by their own efforts and human undertakings they could prevail over the hand of the enemies. For they say that, having counted the houses of the city and then estimated the stored water by guesswork, they realized that they were many, and they channelled the water of the old pool into the city, so that they might have, as they thought, what would suffice for themselves even if the time of the siege should somehow grow longer. And besides this they made fortifications of the walls, he says, by pulling down the houses of the city. “And you did not look to him who made it from the beginning, and you did not see him who formed it.” For you ought, you ought, he says, not to [trust] in your own …, but to lift the eye of the mind to him who always walled the holy city. For “mountains are round about her, and the Lord is round about his people,” which he also promised her through the voice of the prophet, saying: “And I will be to her, says the Lord, a wall of fire round about.” … they will [search] … splendid, and will uncover the hidden things of the … You counted the thing worthy of no consideration, he says; you disregarded what comes from God, and, as though in no way needing help from above, … in stones …, rather than calling on the invincible hand and seeking to obtain the gifts of God's gentleness and love for humankind, and naming him Saviour and Redeemer, and, being so disposed, shedding the tear that belongs to a change of mind.

“And the Lord of hosts called on that day for weeping and beating of breasts, and shaving, and girding with sackcloth; but they made merriment and rejoicing, slaughtering calves and sacrificing sheep, so as to eat meat and drink wine, saying: ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’ … in the ears of the Lord of hosts, that this sin shall not be forgiven you until you die.”

True it is, as it is written, that “when the ungodly comes into the depth of evils, he despises”; one might see that those of Israel suffered this. For when they were in fear of every evil, and saw the danger from the cruelty of the Assyrians hanging over them, then, when they ought to have [mourned] their own slackness and made shaving and girding with sackcloth, the occasion calling them to it, they turned to the very opposite. For as though they had given up, and had become altogether past feeling, they pursued luxuries and busied themselves with the works of merriment, sacrificing calves and sheep, getting drunk and wallowing in pleasures beyond surfeit, and moreover saying to one another the words of despair and of a savage and careless mind: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” For they supposed, as is likely, that God would not even hear such things. But these things are uncovered, he says, in his ears; and this sin will not be forgiven you until you die, that is, you will certainly go down to death and corruption, and because of this sin. We, then, in days of wrath, that is, … ought not to [turn] to slackness, but rather to mourn and approach the God who loves the good in tears, and, afflicting ourselves with the labours of fasting, to seek to obtain mercy, crying out in the words of the Psalmist: “See my humiliation and my toil, and forgive all my sins.” And since the prophet says here, “The Lord of hosts called on that day for weeping and beating of breasts, and shaving, and girding with sackcloth,” I thought it right to weave into my discourse the words of [Joel], or rather the words that came from God through the prophet. It is written thus: “And now says the Lord our God: Turn to me with your whole heart, with fasting and weeping and beating of breasts, and rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, long-suffering and abounding in mercy, and relenting over evils. Who knows whether he will turn and relent, and leave behind him a blessing, a sacrifice and a libation to the Lord our God? Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, proclaim a service, gather the people, sanctify … [the bridegroom out] of his chamber, and the bride out of her bridal room.”

“Between the steps and the altar the priests who minister to the Lord shall weep, and shall say: Spare your people, O Lord, and do not give your inheritance to reproach, for the nations to rule over them, lest they say among the nations, ‘Where is their God?’” So when God at that time was calling for weeping and beating of breasts, and shaving and girding with sackcloth, they held merrymaking, whetting against themselves still more, to uncontrollable wrath, the one who is able both to destroy and to save.

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Go into the chamber, to Somnas the steward, and say to him: What are you doing here, and what have you here, that you have hewn for yourself a tomb here, and made yourself a tomb on high, and inscribed for yourself a dwelling in the rock? Behold, the Lord of hosts … your [robe] and your glorious crown, and will cast you into a great and measureless land, and there you shall die; and he will bring your fine chariot to dishonour, and the house of your ruler to trampling, and you shall be removed from your stewardship and from your post.”

Somnas was steward of the funds, and of what kind … in the temple, or of the royal ones; but he seems rather to have been in charge of the collection of the sacred funds and of what was necessarily and usefully spent from time to time for the repair of the sacred vessels. They say also that he was of the blood of Levi and was seen to be distinguished by the dignities of the high priesthood. He was a haughty man and very supercilious, leaping upon gains and greed, a slave to shameful profits, a lover of ostentation, always hunting after honours from men. For this reason he was, very reasonably, hateful to God. So when Judaea was all but about to be ravaged, and Jerusalem itself to be captured, when the Babylonians, having conquered, carried Israel off captive to their own land, Somnas was building a conspicuous tomb for himself and putting most costly workmanship into it. The word from God to him, then, came with a reproach to his character. For what does he say to the prophet? “Go into the chamber” (this is a place in the temple) “to Somnas the steward, and say to him: What are you doing here, and what have you here?” That is: what portion do you have here? Or how do you remain here? “Why have you hewn for yourself a tomb and inscribed a dwelling in the rock?” … he says, will you keep company with evils? “Behold, the Lord of hosts will cast out and crush a man.” For, as I said, the most powerful men, who had a distinguished pre-eminence over the rest, went off captive along with the common crowd.

Since he too was carried off into captivity, the crown of his high priesthood was taken away, and he was cast like a useless vessel into a measureless land, there to die without any pity, no longer … but rather thrust out wholly from the stewardship entrusted to him and from his post, that is, from standing before God and ministering to him.

“And it shall be on that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your robe, and I will give him your crown, and I will give the power and the stewardship into his hands; and he shall be as a father to those who dwell in Jerusalem and to those who dwell in Judah. And I will give him the glory of David, and he shall rule, and there shall be none to speak against him; and I will set him as ruler in a sure place, and he shall be for a throne of glory to his father's house; and every glorious one in his father's house shall trust in him, from small to great; and they shall hang upon him on that day.”

The narrative does not yet depart from the history, for it is still directed against Somnas the steward, who had obtained the glory of the priesthood but had so misused it, and gone against everything bound up with it, as to be unbearably greedy, and, in a word, to keep nothing of it; that is, he was carried away into a far and measureless land. “I will call,” he says, “at that time my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah.” By calling him his own servant he has borne witness to his docility; and that he will grant him the glory of the priesthood he makes plain by promising to crown him and saying that he will give him the robe as well, and the stewardship and the power, that is, the ability to rule the peoples under his hand. He has testified besides that he will be kind, not supercilious like Somnas, but like a father, faithful and good. For this reason he will also be firmly established in a sure place, that is, kept safe and abiding securely, so that every glorious and distinguished person will choose, as it were, to place his hope in him, not as in God (far from it), but as in a kind father. For he will stand at the head of small and great and shield them, he says; and he will be so loved that the peoples under his hand will seem to hang upon him. These things, as I said, the account of the history brings before us. But again, by a more inward contemplation, it seems to hint to us at the mystery of Christ. For the scribes and Pharisees, crowned with the priesthood according to the law, were not docile, but harsh, lovers of luxuries, practising everything that is hateful to God. Indeed the prophet Isaiah himself says at the beginning of the book: “How has the faithful city Zion become a harlot! She was full of judgment, in which righteousness lodged, but now murderers. Your silver is base; your merchants mix the wine with water; your rulers are disobedient, partners of thieves, loving bribes, pursuing rewards, not judging for orphans, and not attending to the judgment of widows.” And the Saviour himself accuses them, speaking thus: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe the dill and mint and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: judgment, mercy, and faith.” And for this cause they were thrust out of the privileges of the priesthood, removed from ruling the peoples, and cast out of the stewardship entrusted to them under the law; they have come to be without the sacred crowns and the robe fitting the priesthood. And after them our Lord Jesus Christ, our great high priest, has been called. For as the blessed Paul writes: “No one seizes the honour for himself, but is called by God; so also Christ did not glorify himself to become high priest, but he who spoke to him: You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” For, being God by nature and Lord of all, and receiving worship from all, when he became

man, he has also been called our high priest. He is said also to receive the glory of David, that is, rule and kingship over Israel; and by Israel we mean not at all the one according to the flesh, but the one in the Spirit and spiritual. For “not all who are from Israel,” he says, “are Israel, nor because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children”; but as many as have been justified through faith, following in the footsteps of father Abraham, these are his children, and are called sons of the promise and Israel. So when Christ, the high priest of us all, has been revealed, “there shall be none,” he says, “to speak against him.” For “the enemy shall gain nothing against him, and the son of lawlessness shall not again afflict him.” And in another way too: Israel spoke against him, but the nations were glad to be ruled by him. Indeed he is found saying through the voice of David, about Israel: “Deliver me from the gainsaying of the people”; and about the nations: “You will set me as head of the nations; a people whom I did not know served me; at the hearing of the ear they obeyed me. Foreign sons lied to me; foreign sons grew old, and limped away from their paths.” For they have grown old and come near to vanishing, and have, as it were, a crippled mind, having become foreign sons, that is, those of Israel. For of old Israel was the firstborn; but since they lied against Christ, they have become foreign. From then on they are called children of perdition, sons of Gehenna. But when, he says, I reveal Eliakim (which is interpreted “resurrection of God”; for he has been raised up for the help … “Because of the misery of the poor and because of the groaning of the needy, now I will arise, says the Lord”), then, he says, every glorious one in his father's house will trust in him. And what else could the house of Christ's Father be but the church? But if anyone is glorious in it, he will trust in Christ; and not only the glorious one, but even one who is small, I mean in the world's eyes. For the God of all is just and shows no partiality, but rather [judges] according to the measure of spiritual stature, for some are fathers, others still children, young men and youths in the spiritual sense.

“… for the Lord has spoken. Thus says the Lord of hosts: The man who is fixed in a sure place shall be moved, and shall fall, and the glory that is upon him shall be taken away, for the Lord has spoken.”

After so long an account, a short and brief word is brought in, showing the severity of the divine judgments, as of a king decreeing with fitting authority what is to happen. And the force of the sentence looks again, if one wishes, to Somnas the steward; but if more broadly to those who served as priests under the law, one will so understand it, as we explained just now. For those who seemed to be set in the security of prosperity (for this is what it means to seem fixed in a sure place) have fallen and been deprived of the glory they had, with no one to defend them or able to raise up those already thrown down, “for the Lord has spoken.” “For if he shuts against a man, who will open?” he says.

“… and they no longer come from the land of the Kitians; she has been led captive.”

Come, then, eager again to make things as clear as we can, let us first relate the history concerning what God has declared in oracles about Tyre, and make plain in what way it was captured and destroyed and led captive, as it is written. When the Babylonians, having ravaged Judaea and burned the holy city itself, were carrying Israel off captive, the surrounding and neighbouring nations of the foreigners, opening a bold and unguarded mouth, set about mocking the glory of God. … and even the God who had helped them against the hand of the Assyrians; and they thought that their own gods were mightier than the God of the Hebrews, and that they protected them and walled them about, kept them beyond every attack, and made them superior to the Babylonians. And in another way too: they themselves joined in plundering the nation of the Jews, on the one hand falling upon them in their distress and seizing those who were left, and on the other dedicating to their falsely named gods the sacred vessels and those of the worship under the law, and, as though under compulsion, sending off into slavery to themselves those who had come under the yoke. Indeed God said through one of the holy prophets: “And what are you to me, Tyre and Sidon, and all Galilee of the foreigners? Are you paying me back a recompense, or do you bear a grudge against me? Swiftly and speedily I will return your recompense on your heads, because you took my silver and my gold, and carried my choice and fine things into your temples, and sold the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel to the sons of the Greeks, so as to drive them from their own borders.” Tyre too, then, was captured by the wrath of God, in some such way as this. It was an island, a strait lying between, separating it from the mainland by no great distance. When the Babylonian came and sought to take it together with the other cities, he ordered the armies under his hand to fill up the sea between, to join it to the mainland, and not to let it remain an island any longer. When this had been done, or was expected to be done before long, most of those in Tyre, since their occupation was trade, [embarked in] ships, together with their children and wives, and went off to other cities and villages. The Babylonians then drove in and did what is customary for conquerors, but they were not a little grieved to learn that a great many, and those the most prominent in the city, had put their possessions on ships and fled. The word of the prophecy of Ezekiel also records this history. For the God of all said to him: “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army serve a great service against Tyre; every head was bald and every shoulder bare, and there was no wage for him or for his army for the hard service he served against Tyre.

Therefore I have given him the land of Egypt.” For after the capture of the Tyrians the Babylonian shifted the war to the nation of the Egyptians. This history the blessed prophet now recalls: “[Wail,] ships …” And plainly it is Tyre that wails, because it perished, and they no longer come from the land of the Kitians. Some say that the Kitians are the Greek islands, others Cyprus, named so after one of the cities in it. Wail, he says, and for what cause? For she has been led captive. But perhaps someone will say: why does he bid Carthage, or the ships from there, lament for Tyre? For what cause? Because the Carthaginians were colonists of the Tyrians. And they were very proud to have Tyre as their mother, the most famous and at the same time the mightiest among the islands, I mean those of the east. They say also that those from the land of the Kitians took pride in her and revelled in the profits of trade. Wail, then, he says, you merchants of Carthage, or you ships; for she has perished. And let Tyre also wail, for they no longer come from the land of the Kitians; for she has been led captive.

“To whom have those who dwell in the island become like, the traders of Phoenicia, crossing the sea in many waters, a seed of traders, …”

To which of the nations, he says, shall we liken those who inhabit this island? Who have suffered such things, or been so sacked, as the traders of Phoenicia? For trade was the occupation of the Tyrians, and crossing the sea eagerly for the sake of profits and gains. By adding “a seed of traders,” he showed that their low character was inherited, that they sprang from an evil root, and that their forefathers too were slaves to love of gain from of old. And those who practise among them so shameful a life are past numbering, he teaches, saying: “As when a harvest is brought in, so are the traders of the nations.” For when the grain, that is, the ears in the field, has been reaped, the sheaves are brought in in great quantity from every side and gathered to the threshing floor.

“Be ashamed, Sidon, said the sea; and the strength of the sea said: I have not been in labour nor given birth, nor [reared young men, nor raised up virgins].”

The Carthaginians were colonists of the Tyrians; but the Tyrians had Sidon as their mother, for Tyre was from Sidon. Sidon, then, was very proud of Tyre, as of a splendid and renowned daughter. But when she was captured and led captive, then, he says, the sea, that is, all the islands in the sea, will at last say: “Be ashamed, Sidon,” for the finest of your boasts has perished, and she who was most conspicuous for her great wealth is gone. So the sea will say this; and the strength of the sea itself, that is, the one that prevails over the islands, namely Tyre, lamenting her own calamities, when she sees herself already stripped of her inhabitants and bereft of children, will then surely say, “I have not been in labour nor given birth, nor reared young men, nor raised up virgins.” For I have become, she says, like women who have never borne at all, nor reared either young men or virgins, because all were utterly brought to destruction first, and none at all was left.

“And when it becomes heard in Egypt, … them pain over Tyre.”

For, as I said before, after the capture of the Tyrians the Assyrian was to pass on to the land of the Egyptians. When, then, he says, these things become heard among the Egyptians, then they too will be pained in every way and altogether, not because Tyre perhaps has been sacked, but because the evils of war have passed on to them.

“Go away to Carthage; wail, you who dwell in this island.”

The word of the prophecy is spoken with much irony. For he does not properly and truly bid them depart from the land of the Tyrians and move rather to Carthage, nor simply to wail, but as it were to reproach them. He says that they must lament for themselves and for the calamities brought upon them. Both these things are womanish, and more fitting for boys and for those already past their prime. For when war has been announced and is expected to come against a land or a city, all that is in its prime makes ready for battle, practises its drills, and rages with eagerness against the enemies' ranks, even if they are not yet present; but women and boys plan flight and wail and weep. For a boy and a woman are always somehow ready for fear and lamentation. The God of all, then, smiles at the unmanliness of the Tyrians; for those who once prevailed, formidable in battle, flee and wail.

“Was not this your insolence from the beginning, before she was handed over? Who planned these things against Tyre? Is he weaker, and has he no strength?”

I said before that when Jerusalem had been sacked and the temple itself burned by the army of the Assyrians, the surrounding and bordering nations exulted over Israel as ruined, [shaking] their heads, and thought that they had fallen into the hands of their enemies, not because of their sins, but rather because he who saved them had grown weak, and the conquerors had proved stronger than the hand of God. What then, O Tyrians, he says? Did you not, before she was handed over, commit this insolence against me? Did you not say that my strength was weaker and less than that of your gods? Who then, he says, planned these things against Tyre? Plainly I, whom you dared to call weaker and powerless. Judge, then, from the events themselves whether he is weaker than your gods, or has no strength. I handed over to the enemies Israel, which was unruly and offended against me. But since you are rich in gods, and many are those honoured among you, which of them devised such a plan against Tyre? Who handed it over to the enemies? It is hard, then, to learn by experience itself what one deserves to suffer. The most sensible, I think, should see from afar, with the keen eyes of the mind, what leads to profit, and not exult over the saints when they are scourged, nor think that the ever-saving … sometimes, God permitting them to be tried even by temptations.

“Her merchants are glorious, rulers of the earth. … the insolence of the glorious, and to dishonour everything glorious on the earth.”

The word passes again to stripping them of the excess of their arrogance, and besides this of their insatiable love of gain. For though they were merchants, he says, with so shameful and base an occupation, they advanced so far in glory and pre-eminence that even the … But the Lord of hosts, he says, planned … [that the hand had failed] them, but rather to consider that …. When God decrees such a sentence against them and brings a severe judgment, who is able to help, or who could turn aside the divine wrath? Who will be stronger than the almighty authority? Or “the uplifted hand, who will turn it back?” as it is written. Let them not suppose, then, he says, that … from glory into dishonour, but let them rather know that it was the judgment of the Lord of hosts, against whom they dared to say that he is weaker and has no strength. Let us too, then, say to the lawless, “Do not act lawlessly,” and to sinners, “Do not lift up your horn,” nor lift it up impiously and speak injustice against God who rules all.

“… come from Carthage. And your hand will no longer be strong at sea, the hand that provokes kings.”

He transfers, he says, their efforts from the occupations of trade to farming. For … those who gathered your measureless wealth will [no longer come] from Carthage, running under your hand, that is, your power. For you will be able to do nothing at all any more, though you were very powerful at sea, that is, you became mightiest against every island and city lying by the sea, and even provoked very many kings. For Tyre, as I said, was formidable of old both to those far away and to her neighbours and to the rulers of nations.

“But the Lord of hosts gave command concerning Canaan” (that is, concerning the land of the foreigners) “to destroy its strength.”

For the evils of war were brought by the cruelty of the Assyrians not on Tyre alone, but also on others of the nations, Moabites and Idumaeans and some others. And all worshippers of idols, and those not of the blood of Israel, are together named Canaanites; indeed one who is reproached hears, “seed of Canaan and not of Judah.” When, then, he says, the harms of war come upon all the Canaanites alike, then some, understanding the causes of what befell them, will say:

“You shall no longer insult and wrong the daughter of Zion.”

For I said that they reproached Judaea and laughed at those of Israel as captured, and pronounced Jerusalem, that is, Zion, wretched, not as rather disregarded by God who saves, but as having fallen into capture and suffering because the God honoured among them, to whom they performed the worship of the law, had been conquered and grown weak.

“And if you go away to the Kitians, even there you will have no rest; and to the land of the Chaldeans, and it has been laid waste by the Assyrians; its wall has fallen.”

When God drives one into sweat and toil, who is able to help? When the almighty right hand makes war, who is so great as to rescue the sufferers from irremediable calamity? No one at all. For the nature of things follows his divine nods, and whatever he wishes to happen is accomplished in every way and altogether. Even if, then, he says, you go off on a long journey abroad, so as to reach the Kitians (for they say it is one of the cities in Cyprus; but others insist that the Kitians are Carthage itself), even there you will have no rest; that is, wars and the fear of death and the dangers of death will find you. But even if, having become a captive, you reach the land of the Chaldeans, not even so will you cease to be grieved. For you will have no rest. How, or in what way? For it too has been laid waste, the Persians and Assyrians ravaging it, plainly when Cyrus made war on it, when its wall also fell. By the wall of the land of the Chaldeans I think he means either the one who presided and reigned, or the wall itself, by which they expected to suffer nothing grievous, and the attack to be ineffective for those making war on them. For it was so built that a broad road was seen on it, with wagons passing one another. Indeed through the voice of Jeremiah the God of all says, shaking the Babylonians' hope in this very thing: “The wall of Babylon was broad; your stronghold is being dug down.” Therefore also the lament set at the beginning of the vision is placed again in the middle, the word of the prophecy in a way confirming that such cries were most fitting to be uttered by all over Tyre: the ships of Carthage are to wail, because their stronghold, that is, Tyre, has perished. And the occasion of the matter has been stated clearly in what has gone before.

“And it shall be on that day that Tyre shall be left seventy years, as the time of a king, as the time of a man.”

Tyre mocked Jerusalem itself as sacked, and attributed the causes of its suffering not rather to the slackness of the Jews, as having offended God by their drunken insolence toward the law and his will, but supposed that the one who presided over them, that is, the God of all, had not been able to save them. For this cause, then, she too was captured, and endured a desolation equal in time to the captivity of those of Israel. For they spent seventy years among the Chaldeans, bearing the heavy yoke of slavery. At that time, then, Tyre too will remain empty of men, and this will stretch to such a length of time that it seems to be the time of a man's life, or of a reign, that is, seventy years.

“… years; and if in strength, eighty years, and the most of them labour and toil.”

“And it shall be after seventy years that Tyre shall be as a harlot's song. Take a lyre, wander about, city, forgotten harlot; play well, sing many songs, that there may be some remembrance of you.”

The promiscuous and lewd woman who sells the bloom of her body to her lovers, so long as she is pleasing and young, nets many, and the flower of her body is a snare and, as it were, a charm to those who see it. But when she is past her prime, then at last, her bloom having withered, she has no more success in the hunt, and pursues in another way the means of contriving again her wretched gains. … For many delight in her when she plays the lyre. From this there will sometimes be some brief remembrance of her former life, and some will praise her beauty in its prime. Some such thing will befall the city of the Tyrians, he says. For it will be like the song of a forgotten harlot, who no longer has her original adornment. Hence she will also be a tune for many; for they will remember what once belonged to her. But you, Tyre, are as one grown old, become like a forgotten harlot. For when the bloom of such women has withered, as I said, even those once captivated, who became her lovers, forget her. Play well, then, and sing many songs, that there may at least be some remembrance of you.

“And it shall be after seventy years that God will make a visitation of Tyre, and she shall be restored to her former state, and shall be a market for all the kingdoms of the world; and her trade and her wage shall be holy to the Lord, and it shall not be gathered for them, but for those who dwell before the Lord; all her trade, to eat and drink and be filled, for a memorial before the Lord.”

By a just verdict God made the desolation of the Tyrians equal in time, as I said, to the captivity of those of Israel. And when Cyrus, with the Persians and Medes, had taken the land of the Babylonians by force and ravaged the whole land of the Chaldeans, Israel was released from captivity and returned again to its own land, and dwelt in the holy city. And the God of all, bearing no grudge, removed his wrath from the Tyrians too; and she was rebuilt and returned to her former state, and became a market and lodging, as of old, for all the kingdoms of the earth. But observe the difference. Of old the wage from trade was gathered only by those who practised it, … of the nations into the grace that comes through faith, she too came to know the Saviour and Redeemer of all, and a holy church was raised among them, and a divine altar was set up; and the wage from trade is no longer gathered for them alone, but will also be holy to the Lord, that is, for an offering and the bringing of fruits, so that they may eat and drink before the Lord. For of old, frequenting the shrines of idols and the precincts of demons, they brought sacrifices and held festivals in them, to the honour and glory of their own fabrications; for they were still in error. But since, as I said, they have come to know the true God, the wage of their trade has become holy to the Lord, and they eat and drink for a memorial before the Lord, offering to God, plainly, thank-offerings for whatever they prosper in.

“Behold, the Lord is destroying the world, and will lay it waste, and will uncover its face, and will scatter those who dwell in it.”

I said before that Jerusalem was sacked, and the other cities of Judaea were ravaged along with it. And the surrounding and neighbouring nations smiled at her lying fallen, and, all but shaking their heads at her and laughing broadly, said that God had been defeated by the hand of the Assyrians; just as Rabshakeh too, full of Persian arrogance, said to those sitting on the wall: “Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, saying, God will deliver Jerusalem out of my hand.” Since, then, together with those from Babylon the other nations also mocked the glory of God, saying that the one who had presided over them of old had not been able to save them, for this reason, very reasonably, … for their offences and their … they too were handed over to the Babylonians for desolation. And the word of the prophecy has related to us the vision against each of the nations. For the foreigners and Moabites, the Damascenes and Egyptians, and also those from the desert, the Azotians and Idumaeans, and besides these Tyre, and last Babylon too, fell under the blows of the divine wrath; and the whole land of the Chaldeans was laid waste like the others, when Cyrus, son of Cambyses and Mandane, raised up Assyrians and Medes against it. The blessed prophet, then, having related in what precedes what was brought from the divine wrath upon each of the nations named, here all but makes a summing-up of the whole discourse, and calls the ruin that came upon many nations a ruin of the world. For this reason he says: “Behold, the Lord is destroying the world, and will lay it waste, and will uncover its face.” For not one or two cities but lands and nations were destroyed, in the ways already described. He will destroy, then, he says, and lay waste the world, and will uncover its face. For so long as the God of all is forbearing and puts off the penalties, the life of the ungodly somehow escapes notice, and the face, that is, the appearance, of each one's life is as it were hidden. But when he brings on the wrath and the [penalty] fitting for each, … the face of those being punished. For the manner of their folly shows what sort of people they are and have been, if indeed it is true that God will render to each according to his works. I think it necessary to say this too. Since the prophet named the world, and said that it would be destroyed and also come to desolation, some hold that the prophet's word passes from a partial indignation to one universal and against all; and indeed they say that he clearly foretells what will befall the world at the time of the consummation. We must, then, following their thoughts as well, choose to give a twofold explanation of each of the things said.

He says, then, that the world will be destroyed and [laid waste], plainly when the deeds of each, whether good or bad, are made manifest; and he will scatter those who dwell in it. And if the force of the thought is carried to the nations, you will understand that when the lands named were brought to desolation, those who dwelt in them were partly scattered, and partly [were led] captive, … leaving, moved away to other lands. But if it refers to the universal judgment, the scattering of those who dwell on the earth would signify their being divided; and the Saviour will teach this clearly, saying: “When the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory, he will set the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.” So instead of “he will divide,” or “separate,” those who dwell on the earth, he has put “he will scatter.”

“[And the people shall be as the priest, and the servant as his] master, and the maidservant as her mistress; the buyer shall be as the seller, and the lender as the borrower, and the debtor as the one to whom he owes. With destruction shall the earth be destroyed, and with plundering the earth; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.”

While peace prevails, it is altogether necessary that cities and lands be governed by fitting laws, both divine and human, that the ranks of dignity and pre-eminence be preserved, and that wealth stay secure for the rich and freedom for the free. But if the ranks of the enemy burst in, and a city, or perhaps a land, becomes the work of barbarian cruelty, there will be confusion of affairs, and nothing in order any longer. For the honour of priests is gone, and servant and master, maidservant and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, debtor and the one to whom he owes, are in equal rank; and by these are signified the rich and the poor. For destruction and plundering, that is, pillage and spoil, come upon all in equal measure. The prophet seals what was said as true by adding, “for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.” And who would not dare to say that at the divine judgment seat too the judgment shows no partiality? For pre-eminence of rank will save no one unless he has the good fruits of a lawful life; and wealth will in no way profit those who have had it, but in such an order as this too we shall all stand before the Judge alike, whether small or great, rich or poor. For there is no partiality with God. Something of this sort is written in Job too: “Small and great are there, and the servant does not fear his master.”

“The earth mourned, and the world was destroyed; the lofty ones of the earth mourned; and the earth acted lawlessly because of those who dwell in it.”

Those who mourn always somehow have a gloomy look; their eyes and cheeks are full of dejection, and their brow grows pale; for grief over the dead burns a man's heart like fire. One may see a city suffering something of this sort, or a land and country seized by barbarians; for everything becomes gloomy when those in it have been consumed by swords, houses burned, and the harms of war suffered. So you will understand that the earth mourned; and when it suffers such things, the lofty in it, that is, the more prominent, must suffer too. For these especially, deprived of honour and wealth and the other things that usually attend the glorious, bear a heavier grief among those who have suffered. And he says that the earth acted lawlessly because of those who dwell in it. For a city is often called lawless, and so too a land, though the senseless earth does not know how to act lawlessly; it receives this verdict from the wickedness of its inhabitants. You will take the word again in a general sense too. For if, as one of the holy disciples says, the earth and the works in it will all be burned up at the time of the consummation, the face of the earth will be gloomy, like those in mourning. And as a lawless earth, that is, as having served the lawless, it is burned. “For we wait for new heavens and a new earth and his promises,” as it is written; and Paul too writes that the creation itself will be set free from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

“Because they transgressed the law, and changed the ordinances, an everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse will devour the earth, because those who dwell in it have sinned.”

The word of the prophecy returns again to precision. For so that no one may think that the God of all brings penalties on some without cause, he joins the causes to the blows of his wrath, and … of those being punished. [The earth mourns], then, for what cause? Because they transgressed the law and broke an everlasting covenant. For this reason, he says, the earth will also be accursed; for those who dwell in it have offended. The prophet seems again, since the land of the Jews too paid the penalty together with the other cities or lands (for, as I said, the land of those under the law was sacked), … [they transgressed] the law, he says, those of Israel counting it of no account, and turning as it were to another … of men. But since we are giving the explanation of the thoughts in a general sense, we say that the God of all created man in the beginning and engraved on him a natural law, training him toward the knowledge of evil and good. And this, I think, is what was said through the voice of John about the

only-begotten Son of God: “He was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into the world.” And we understand this to have happened in the last times too, I mean those of his coming; for it is written: “In those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws into their mind, and write them on their hearts.” This [law, given for] the knowledge of good and evil, those on the earth transgressed, and changed the ordinances. For though created for good works, they turned to love of the flesh and an earthly mind. For this reason the earth also became accursed; for those who dwell in it offended the Creator through very many sins.

“Therefore those who dwell on the earth shall be poor, and few men shall be left.”

Since, he says, the earth has become accursed, because very great lawlessness came to be in it, for this reason those burdened with unexpected poverty will barely be saved; for they will be left few and easily counted. This much, then, as regards the letter and what is evident in the history. But with regard to the more inward sense we say again that those who come before the divine judgment seat will in every way be [poor] in many things, in want of the good things from above, and stripped of the hope prepared for the saints; for they will go down to Hades to be punished. And few will be left, that is, those who pleased God by righteousness and have the wealth that comes from good and noble deeds; and these are easily counted, according to the Saviour's saying: “Many are called, but few are chosen.”

“The wine shall mourn, the vine shall mourn, all who are glad of soul; the gladness of drums has ceased, arrogance has ceased …; they were ashamed, they did not drink wine; the strong drink became bitter to those who drink it. Every city was made desolate …; [wail] for the wine everywhere; all the gladness of the earth has ceased; and cities shall be left desolate, and houses forsaken shall perish.”

The God of all often accused those of the blood of Israel of having offended unbearably, and of having known beforehand that they would be punished, yet not choosing to ward off the wrath by the labours of repentance. For he said: “And the Lord of hosts called on that day for weeping and beating of breasts, and shaving, and girding with sackcloth; but they made [merriment], sacrificing sheep, so as to eat meat and drink wine, saying, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’” And through another prophet he says: “Those who sleep on beds of ivory and wanton on their couches, who eat kids from the flocks and suckling calves from the midst of the herds, who drink strained wine and anoint themselves with the finest ointments, and suffered nothing over the ruin of Joseph.” Since, then, they lived in luxury at such a time, when they ought to have wet their cheeks with unrestrained tears and asked forgiveness for their sins, the harms of war were justly brought upon them; and those who once lived in luxury fell unexpectedly into calamities. The vine has mourned: not the plant itself, but those who drink its fruit; those who were once glad of soul, he says, will lament, and wailing will rather be their occupation. For the gladness of drums has ceased, the arrogance and wealth of the ungodly have ceased. By arrogance he means excessive haughtiness, that is, boastfulness. And the things that come from wealth also come to an end, he says, and the sound of the lyre; the strong drink is bitter to those who once lived in luxury, and cities and houses have become desolate.

For all the gladness of the earth has ceased. And if one should reason about it with reference to the consummation of the age, when the time of judgment will be, he will say again that all the luxury of those in the world will pass away, and there will rather be groaning and gnashing of teeth for those who go down to Hades; wealth will profit nothing those who have had it, all luxury will be idle, and bodily things will cease, or rather … to the Judge of all. For, as the most wise Paul writes, we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive what was done through the body, according to what he has done, whether good …

“As when one gleans an olive tree, so they shall glean them; and if the vintage ceases, [these shall cry aloud with their voice].”

He shows again, as from examples before one's eyes and most evident, the harshness of the enemies, how they let no one escape a share in the cruelty they possess. For those who seek the fruit of olive trees look over the plant with a sharp eye; and if anything falls anywhere, they snatch it up eagerly, and down to a single one …; the enemies, destroying with utter ruin, even if the vintage ceases, “these will cry aloud with their voice.” He takes this too from the custom regularly practised at the completion of the vintage. For the grape-gatherers, when they come to the end of their labours, shout for joy, and composing some rustic song, depart from the fields. When, then, he says, … none at all is left, then, as though the [vintage] had ceased, … exulting over those who lie fallen and have perished. Looking again to the more inward sense we say that at the time of judgment none of those who have lived impiously will be able to escape notice. But those who have lived and conducted their lives rightly and lawfully will go to the dwellings above, while the profane and wicked will be food for the all-devouring fire. Precise, then, he says, will be the gathering of such people; and the Saviour himself will teach this, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea and gathering of every kind; when it was full, they drew it up, and sitting down on the shore they gathered …” Precise, then, he says, will be the search for the impious, and none at all of those who have lived so will be left; for he who knows hearts and reins will hand them all over to the angels appointed for this.

“But those left on the earth shall be glad together with the glory of the Lord.”

Having said that the inspection of those caught in sins will be precise, so that no one can escape notice, he does not let the godly and God-loving man be crushed by the fears this brings. For even if it is said that the effects of wrath go against all, the God of all nevertheless does not destroy the righteous with the ungodly. And he teaches this, saying through the voice of Ezekiel: “Son of man, the land on which I bring a judgment of blood, even if Noah and Daniel and Job are in its midst, they shall be saved by their righteousness, but the land shall be for destruction.” And elsewhere the same prophet tells us that he saw a man clothed in a long robe and having a girdle, and six men coming after him, and each, he says, had his axe in his hand; and he said: “Go into the city after him, and strike, and do not spare, and do not pity the old man, the young man; and slay infants and women to blot them out; but do not come near any on whom is the sign; and begin from my holy places.” And since I think the prophet's words should not be left unexamined, come, let us say why, when Noah and Job had already died, and perhaps Daniel himself too, he says that they will be saved by their own righteousness, though all the rest of the land, against which the sentence of death is pronounced, is destroyed. He seems, then, to liken to Noah those who please God through faith in him; to Daniel the wise and discerning; and to Job again those who please him through endurance, that is, plainly, endurance in everything praiseworthy. When the wrath, then, he says, consumes those on the earth, not that of the Jews only but also that of the nations, those left, who by the just judgment of God, who weighs all our affairs, escaped destruction, will be glad together with the ineffable glory of him who presides over the saints and walls about the godly man with his sparing and grace. To what has been said we will add this too. At the time of the consummation of the present age, … will be sent down to Hades … who have become lovers of …. But those left, that is, the righteous, will be glad together with the glory of the Lord; for they will be with Christ, who is the glory of God the Father. For he himself said: “I glorified you on the earth, having finished the work which you gave me to do.” And indeed God the Father himself says somewhere to the blessed Moses: “As I live, and as my name lives, the whole earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.” For all things have been filled …

“But the water of the sea shall be troubled. Therefore the glory of the Lord shall be in the islands of the sea; the name of the Lord shall be glorious.”

By “water” and “sea” he names enigmatically the multitude of the nations; for the holy prophets are accustomed to do this. Indeed the blessed David says about the earth and those in it: “This is the sea, great and wide; there are creeping things without number, small creatures with great; there the ships go to and fro; this dragon, which you formed to sport with it.” And we surely do not say that his discourse was about the creatures that swim in the sea, nor did he wish to indicate the different kinds of fishes; nor do we say that some bodily and perceptible dragon lives in the waters of the sea. Rather, as I said, by these words he shows us the turmoil of this life and the storm-tossed life of those in it; and moreover the dragon, that is, Satan, who goes about all men and roams our world, plotting against the souls of the saints. By the water of the sea, then, he names the multitude of the nations, and by islands perhaps the cities. And indeed he says that all who are in them will be troubled, when the divine wrath leaps upon them. But he says that the glory of Christ will be in all of them in a certain way. For they will recognize that it was by the divine nods that they were sacked and perished, and by him who can do all things … to desolation. And they will altogether condemn their own gods, who in no way came to their help. And this was nothing else than the glory of the Lord being raised to a great height. He seems from here on to make mention of the mystery of Christ and of the salvation that would come through him. For those left on the earth, he says, will be glad together with the glory of the Lord. “For we have been saved, not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to his great mercy,” and not as justified through the shadow in the law. For the law does not justify us at all, but rather the grace given through holy baptism will set us free from offences, and the … of what is to come. For we expect to be with Christ himself, who is the glory of the Father, as I said just now. And since the word of the holy apostles has passed from one end of the earth under heaven to the other, removing the nations from the error of many gods and bringing them to the grace that comes through Christ, he says that the water of the sea has been troubled, that is, the peoples throughout the whole earth under the sun. And they are troubled as they hear strange teaching, setting out from their ancient [error] and moving into harbour toward the knowledge of the truth. This is why he says, “The glory of the Lord will be in the islands of the sea.” By islands, I think, he means the holy churches of God, which, set as in a sea in this world, rise above its turmoil and stand out, Christ preserving them and not letting them be broken by the waves of persecutions. For since he enigmatically calls the nations “sea”, following consistently this figure of speech, he calls the churches “islands”, in which the glory of God is admired.

“O Lord, the God of Israel. From the wings of the earth we have heard wonders: hope for the [godly] …”

In these words the prophet brings before us the person of those left on the earth and glad together with the glory of the Lord, and of those who dwell in the islands, I mean the churches, glorifying the God of all and saying, “From the wings of the earth we have heard wonders,” and besides believing that the godly will have a good hope of being justified by him, and also of sharing richly in his gentleness. By the wings of the earth he seems to mean the holy teachers of the mysteries, by whose words we are all but given wings and set our minds on things above, leaping away from earthly affairs, and, leaving behind the earthy and fleshly mind, have our citizenship in heaven. From the wings of the earth, so understood, we have heard the wonders done through Christ; this is plainly what he says. For we have been initiated by the writings of the holy apostles and evangelists, and … the faith in them, we have taken courage, are firmly disposed, and believe that the hope of the godly is very good; for we look for the kingdom of heaven and the honours and glories prepared for those who love God.

“And they shall say: Woe to those who reject, those who reject the law. Fear and pit and snare are upon you who dwell on the earth. And it shall be that he who flees the fear shall fall into the pit, and he who comes up out of the pit [shall be caught] by the snare.”

Who will say this? Surely those left on the earth and glad together with the glory of the Lord, and those who inhabit the islands, that is, the churches. And to whom will they say it? To those who reject the law, that is, those who have not believed. “For if they believed Moses, they would believe Christ; for he wrote about him.” See how, having received the faith, they at once admonish those who reject the law, foretelling what will come from the punishment that will be upon them. For fear, he says, and pit and snare, that is, every kind of evil, is upon you, and there will be no escape from the calamity. But even if someone should perhaps escape one of the evils, he will be taken by another, and in every way and altogether will be caught by one of the evils brought upon them. This befell the Jews after the Saviour's cross, when their land was sacked and their cities and houses overthrown; and it would be long to tell each thing, especially to the nurslings of the church, who know it.

“For windows were opened from heaven, and the foundations of the earth shall be shaken. With trouble shall the earth be troubled, and with perplexity shall the earth be perplexed. It leaned, and the whole earth shall be shaken like a garden-watchman's hut, like one drunk and reeling, and shall fall, and shall not be able to rise; for lawlessness has prevailed upon it.”

He gives the cause of what he foretold would happen, and that … with bitter and inescapable calamities. For he said, “Fear and pit and snare are upon you,” and that if anyone escapes the pit he will be caught by the snare. What, then, is the reason for this? “Windows were opened from heaven,” he says, that is, God looked upon those on the earth. For so long as he bears with those accustomed to offend, he seems as it were not even to look, and heaven seems rather to be shut. But when he inspects the ways of those on the earth, then at last, as though windows had been opened, he sets those on the earth before his eyes; and bringing the penalties proportionate to the offences of each, he fills everything with tumult and fear, and all on the earth, as from drunkenness, … so that it is said that the earth has been shaken like one of the watchman's huts in the fields, because lawlessness prevailed upon it. For so long as those on it offend in a bearable way, the God of all puts off the penalties and curbs his movement. But when the impiety of all has become unrestrained, it is altogether necessary that the earth be watched over by God, and, since lawlessness prevails upon it, that it be drunk and reeling in a way, and shaken by every kind of calamity.

“And God will bring his hand upon the ornament of heaven, and upon the kings of the earth. And they shall gather and shut them up in a fortress and in a prison; after many generations [there shall be a visitation of them. And the brick shall melt, and] the wall [shall fall].”

This too is a splendid achievement of the incarnation of the Only-begotten. For it was necessary, it was necessary at last, when the sun of righteousness had shone forth, that the spiritual darkness which Satan had poured into the hearts of all should be scattered. For he darkened the minds of the unbelievers, as it is written, and persuaded them to worship the creation rather than the Creator. For those in error divided among themselves the elements of the world; and some [worshipped] the sun, … of the stars, as they pleased. And the peoples of the Jews themselves were sick with this impiety. Indeed God said somewhere to the prophet Jeremiah when he once offered supplications for them: “And you, do not pray for this people, and do not entreat, and do not come to me for them in petition and prayer, for I will not listen. Or do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? Their sons gather wood, and their fathers kindle fire, and their wives knead dough to make cakes for the host of heaven, and they poured libations to foreign gods, to provoke me.” And through another prophet too he says to them: “Did you offer me slaughtered beasts and sacrifices in … says the Lord? And you took up the tent of Moloch and the star of the god Rephan, the figures which you made to worship them.” God will bring his hand, then, he says, upon the ornament of heaven, that is, he will scatter those who worship the ornament of heaven, I mean sun and moon and stars. And it is likely that all idolatry is named here by a part. For the worship of the elements of the world ceased when Christ was revealed. And if we understand the ornament of heaven to be the inventor and father of sin himself, that is, Satan, we shall perhaps come straight to the truth. For it has been said of him: “How

has the Morning Star fallen from heaven, who rose in the morning!” And since he was once [called] Morning Star because of his ancient glory, the glory he had before his fall, the prophetic word here too names him the ornament of heaven. And he says that the hand will be brought not only on the ornament of heaven but also on the kings of the earth, that is, on those who by greed have ruled the earth under heaven, plainly the world-rulers of this age, the wicked and hostile powers. For they reigned over the earth, making those in it their own worshippers, and persuading them to neglect utterly the love of God. These, then, who ruled by deceit and lies and greed, the kings, … in a fortress and in a prison. For the power of the Saviour sent them down into the prison of punishment, into the fortress from which there is no escape. Indeed the demons, coming to him, besought him not to command them to depart into the abyss. And the prophet adds and says that after many generations there will be a visitation of them; for they have played the tyrant from the foundation of the world, and have not ceased making war on the divine and ineffable glory. Their madness stretched on until the time of the coming of Christ, the Saviour of us all. But when the visitation finally came upon them, they were shut up in prison. Yet they suffered this after many generations. And he says that the brick will melt and the wall will fall, likening Satan, perhaps, to a wall. For he was formidable in resistance, like a city well furnished with towers; but he was taken and fell when Christ overthrew him. For it was not possible [to withstand] his invincible [power] …; [when the might] of Satan [was broken], the playthings of idolatry were laid waste, and those who were of old in error were called through faith to the knowledge of the truth, the almighty right hand all but snatching them away; and the Saviour himself will teach this, saying: “Or how can one enter the house of the strong man and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his goods?” It is the custom of the inspired Scripture [to liken] the very mightiest to walls, and [it likened] even the blessed prophet Jeremiah to a wall. For God said somewhere: “Behold, I have made you this day as a fortified city and as a strong bronze wall to all the kings of the earth; and they shall fight against you and shall not prevail against you, because I am with you to deliver …” It is necessary [to recall] that Jesus the son of Nun, having overpowered the five kings of the nations and conquered them in a cave, also rolled stones against it, blocking their way out. This was an image of a true blocking. For the wicked and hostile powers that once held sway over the earth under heaven were shut up in a fortress and in a prison through the might of Christ. And together with them the great and once unspeakable wall, that is, Satan, was brought to nothing.

In this way those in error have been called through faith to know at last the one who truly and by nature is Creator and God and Lord of all. It should be known that some refer these words in another sense to the ornament of heaven, and say that at the time of the consummation the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. But I think it necessary to bring the meanings of the passages before us each time to completion consistently with the lines of contemplation and in close harmony with them.

“For the Lord will reign in Zion and in [Jeru]salem, and he will be glorified before the elders.”

Zion is interpreted “high” and “watchtower”, and Jerusalem “vision of peace”. The true watchtower, then, and also the vision of peace, would truly be the church of Christ. For in it … is wont to be practised, and also the vision of peace. And we say that peace is Christ, whom we come to know from the inspired Scripture, since the all-wise Moses wrote about him, and besides him the holy prophets. When, then, the profane and abominable idolatry has been removed, and the worship of the creation has been put out of the way, and those who by greed ruled the earth under heaven have been shut up in a fortress and in a prison, and the wall has melted and been overthrown from its foundations, according to the meanings already given, the Lord will reign in Zion and [will be glorified] before …; by these, I think, he means those perfect in mind, who have, as it were, a grey-haired understanding, so that they can behold with the eyes of the heart the depth of the mysteries concerning him. To these the wise John also writes, saying: “I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.” But those who have known him marvel, and ascribe to him the glory fitting to God,

“O Lord my God, I will glorify you, and I will sing praise to your name, for you have done wonderful things.”

In the book just completed the prophet's discourse was long, proceeding through hidden meanings, about the devil's perversity and the punishment and penalty that will come upon him, and besides about the overthrow of the wicked and hostile powers. To these he added the proclamation of Christ's kingdom. For he said that “the Lord will reign in Zion and in Jerusalem, and he will be glorified before the elders.” Because of all these things, then, the prophet is filled with great joy and rejoices in praises. This is why he says: “O Lord my God, I will glorify you, and I will sing praise to your name”; you have accomplished an ancient and true counsel, and wonderful things. And since at that time he says “you have done” about things that had not yet happened, he indicates that they had not yet happened but would certainly come to pass, by adding “So be it, O Lord.” For with the eyes of the mind they beheld the time of his coming as though present, though they were by no means ignorant that it was not yet present; and he calls the mystery of the incarnation of the Only-begotten an ancient counsel and wonderful things, together with what was accomplished through it for those throughout the whole earth. For we have been saved in Christ, who was foreknown before the foundation of the world but manifested in the last times of the age, as the most wise Paul says: “For the mystery of Christ is not new or lately appeared, but was foreordained before the foundation of the world, and has been manifested in its own times.”

“… so that their foundations fall; the city of the ungodly shall never be built, for ever.”

This too belongs to the true counsel and the blameless designs of God who can do all things: that strong cities be shaken and become a heap, be heaved up as it were from their foundations, and be put beyond hope, from which they will never be able to recover. For “it shall never be built, for ever,” he says. By the cities that are shaken we do not mean, I think, the perceptible ones at all, or the men in them; rather we think that each of the wicked and hostile powers, and before the others Satan, has been called a city, and a strong one. For it is the custom of the inspired Scripture sometimes to liken the very mightiest to towers and walls or even cities, as indeed we said earlier, that even the blessed prophet Jeremiah was made by God as a strong city and as a [bronze] wall. … to the world of Emmanuel, the unholy throng of the hostile powers has been destroyed, and Satan has been shaken from his very foundations, and has fallen so as to sink into a weakness without end, and can at no time expect to recover and rise again.

“Therefore the poor people shall bless you, and cities of wronged men shall bless you. For you became a helper to every humble city, and a shelter to those who lost heart through want; from [wicked] men … and the breath of wronged men … as fainthearted men thirsting in Zion, from ungodly men to whom you handed us over.”

Israel was called to the knowledge of God through the tutelage of the law, and was enriched with the things of God; for it was saved and inherited the land of the promise. But the immeasurable multitude of the other nations, I mean those throughout the whole earth under heaven, stood utterly estranged from the spiritual good things from above, without taste of God's gifts, naked in a way and unclothed, not having the divine shelter, nor the covering from on high, nor the wealth of virtue in the mind, nor anything else of all that is full of praise and worthy of every admiration. But when Christ himself appeared, and, rescuing them from the greed of the devil, brought them to God the Father, and they were enriched with the light of the truth, the participation in his glory, the greatness of the gospel way of life …, they send up hymns of thanksgiving for these things to God the Father. So since, he says, O Master, you have accomplished an ancient and true counsel, summing up all things in Christ, enlightening those in darkness and putting down the world-rulers of this age, though they were like cities so strong, the poor people will bless you, and whole cities will glorify you. For you became a helper to all, and a shelter to those unbearably [afflicted] through poverty of the ancestral good things; and you rescued them from wicked men. For there were also in Zion some so fainthearted, like men who were thirsting. And perhaps by these words the prophet shows us this: there were, there were also in Israel those who thirsted for the Saviour's coming and longed to see the Saviour and Redeemer of all; such was Simeon the righteous, when, taking the newborn Jesus in his arms, he said: “Now you let your servant depart, Master, according to your word, in peace; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.” And the blessed Zechariah too, the father of John, filled with the Holy Spirit, glorified God, crying out: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and made redemption for his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David his servant, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show mercy with our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to Abraham our father, to grant us that, rescued from the hand of our enemies, we might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.” You see how it was an ancient and true counsel of God the Father, promised to the holy fathers: I mean that Emmanuel should be revealed as salvation to the world, who became the breath of wronged men. For they breathed again, free of their enemies, and were rescued from ungodly men to whom they had been handed over. And if one takes such words of the nations, we say that the unholy demons who of old ruled over those on the earth are called men, their weakness being well indicated by their being named even men. And it is likely that their false teachers too, and the so-called initiating priests, or poets and orators and the inventors of the eloquence honoured among the Greeks, are called wicked men, as by the fluency in them casting those they deceived into the swamps of perdition.

But if these things are said of those of Israel, we say that the wicked men are those who were allotted to lead them, I mean the scribes and Pharisees, who, having the glory of the priesthood and the renown and power that came from it, took away the key of knowledge. And neither did they themselves believe, nor did they allow others to do so; and the peoples under their hand were handed over to the teachers of the law, while those in error were handed over to the unclean demons, God permitting them to suffer being handed over, just as some are handed over to a base mind, having shown themselves unworthy of his sparing and help.

“And the Lord of hosts shall make for all the nations; on this mountain they shall drink gladness, they shall drink wine; they shall anoint themselves with ointment on this mountain. Hand on all these things to the nations; for this counsel is upon all the nations.”

Having said before that the Lord will reign in Zion and in Jerusalem, he weaves a mystical sense from the likeness of perceptible and visible things. For Zion is “high” and “watchtower”, and Jerusalem is interpreted “vision of peace”. And in truth both of these are the church of Christ. For it is high and seen from all around, as though lying on a mountain. And in another way too it is understood by us as high: for nothing in it is low, and it has moved far away from earthly affairs. For it is written: “The mighty ones of the earth belong to God; they were greatly exalted.” And likewise the divine and true doctrines in it are high. For its teaching is about God, or rather about the holy … turned to the truth alone. And again Christ, who is peace, is seen in it. The Lord of hosts, then, he says, will make, and not for those of Israel alone, as beloved for the fathers' sake and chosen, but for all the nations, that is, for those throughout the whole earth under heaven. And what will he make? They will drink gladness, he says, they will drink wine; they will anoint themselves with ointment on this mountain. By gladness he seems to indicate cheerfulness in hope, plainly the hope in Christ; for we reign with him, and gaining what is beyond mind and speech we shall be within every delight. By the wine he seems to indicate the mystical blessing and the manner of the bloodless sacrifice which we are accustomed to perform in the holy churches. And the ointment would well signify to us the anointing of the Holy Spirit. For the wise John writes: “And you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you have no need that anyone teach you; but as his anointing teaches you about all things.” For we are anointed with ointment especially at the time of holy baptism, making the chrism a symbol of receiving the Holy Spirit. But all these things, he says, hand on to the nations; for this counsel is upon all the nations. For the law of old, and the worship under it, ministered through angels, was not given simply to all the nations, but to one alone, that of the blood of Israel. But the grace in Christ, and the calling through faith, and besides the sanctification through the Spirit, and the mystery itself, through the counsel of God the Father, came to be upon all the nations. For Christ is the expectation of the nations, according to the voice of the holy one.

“… God [took away] every tear from every face. He took away the reproach of the people from all the earth; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.”

Very opportunely and necessarily, together with the handing on of the mystery, the word about the resurrection of the dead is brought in too. This is why at the time of holy baptism, when we make the confession of faith, we also expect that the resurrection of the flesh will come, and so we believe. Death, then, prevailed over our forefather Adam because of the transgression, and like some savage and [untamed] beast …, and lamentations and tears and mourning over the dead held sway over those on the earth. … have ceased in Christ. For he came to life on the third day, having trampled on death, and became a way for human nature to shake off corruption. For he became the firstborn from the dead and the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. And what comes after the firstfruits and first will certainly follow, that is, we. The suffering, then, was turned to joy, and the sackcloth was torn, and we have been girded with the gladness given by God, so that we say rejoicing: “Where is your victory, O death? Where is your sting, O Hades? The sting of death is sin,” he says. So every tear has been taken away. For believing that Christ will in every way and certainly raise the dead, we do not shed tears over them, nor do we sink into immoderate griefs, like the rest who have no hope. And by the reproach of the people he names … the transgression …, or perhaps sin, through which corruption entered and the might of death came to rule over those on the earth. And since the mystery of the resurrection is not easily accepted by most, and it was likely to be disbelieved because of the greatness of the work in it, the blessed prophet added, “for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Who then would dare to say that God will speak falsely, and will not in every way and certainly bring what was promised to its fulfilment in truth? “For heaven and earth,” he says, “will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

“And they shall say on that day: Behold our God, in whom we hoped, and we rejoiced, and he will save us. This is the Lord; we waited for him, for our salvation; for God will give rest on this mountain.”

You will recognize, he says, the one who gives gladness to drink, and besides that wine, and who anoints with ointment those in the spiritual Zion; and you will recognize that he is God in truth, and the Son by nature from God, and that, even if he appeared in the form of a servant, he became man for the salvation and life of all, and was made like those on the earth in all things, except sin alone. For all but stretching out their hand, he says, they will say: “Behold our God, in whom we hoped, and we rejoiced in our salvation.” For my part I think that this saying is most fitting to be uttered by those of Israel who were [brought up] on the words of Moses and … the predictions of the holy prophets … the Saviour and Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, as I said before, Zechariah the father of John, prophesying in the Spirit, said of Christ that “a horn of salvation has been raised for the people.” And Simeon likewise, taking the holy Child into his arms, says: “My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all the peoples.” Recognizing, then, the one foretold of old, the hope of all, the Saviour and Redeemer, they will say, he says, “Behold our God.” And they will confess besides that God will give rest on this mountain. And again understand, I pray, that the church is called a mountain, for rest has been given in it. For we have heard Christ saying: “Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” For through faith in him we have put off the burden of …; and in another way too, freed from the fears, I mean, of having to be punished and to pay the penalties for our offences. And the grace of Christ, the Saviour of us all, toward us has not stopped at these things; there have been added also the good things in hope,

the possession of the kingdom of heaven, long and undefiled life, and the removal of everything that is wont to grieve. For it is written of the saints that “everlasting gladness is upon their head.”

“And Moabitis shall be trampled, as they tread a threshing floor with wagons, and in harvest. And he will let go his hands, just as he himself humbled to destroy. And he will humble the insolence on which he laid his hands. And the height of the refuge of your wall he will humble, and it shall come down to the ground.”

The word of the holy prophets is always somehow deep, and winds along an inward and hidden path. We must not, then, think that what is evident in the letter is in every way and entirely the truth, but rather look into the sense as it were buried in the letter. The Moabites, then, were neighbours of the Jews, and were most absurdly disposed toward deceit, and toward devotion to the worship of idols. That, then, when Christ shone forth, and the nations had been called to his venerable and divine mystery and sanctified through faith, the loathsome and unclean idolatry was in every way and certainly to be removed, Satan being put under the feet of believers (for he gave us power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy), he teaches by saying that Moabitis will be trampled as they tread a threshing floor with wagons. We say that by this he indicates the worship of Moab, or rather that the example is taken from one idolatrous land and applies to the whole, the word, as I said, extending to all idolatry. So, lying beneath …. “And he will let go his hands, just as he himself humbled to destroy.” Who will let go his hands? The inventor of idolatry, who holds the deceit together and led man away from God, that is, Satan. For he will let go his hands, that is, all his power and active energy will be undone; for the hands are taken as a figure of energy. For just as he humbled those on the earth so as to destroy them all, in this same way … [he will humble his insolence and] the greed which he exercised against all, all but laying his hands on them, and by greed bringing under his own sceptre those created by God for good works. Then the prophet's word passes again, as if to Moabitis herself, that is, to profane idolatry, and he says: “The height of the refuge of your wall [he will humble].” The wall that is humbled we say is the very one who presides over idolatry and deceit, who as it were walls it about and holds it together so that it stands. But it will fall, he says. For Christ will cast it down and bring it down to the ground, that is, utterly; and we see by the facts that what was foretold has come to fulfilment. For the sacred precincts have fallen, and everything in the shrines has been put out of the way. There are no longer altars and sacrifices and sorceries and those who practise the playthings of deceit. All has ceased because of Christ, and the light of the truth has dawned on those on the earth, and the sun of righteousness, rising, brightens the hearts of those who believe in him.

“On that day they shall sing this song in the land of Judaea, saying: Behold, a strong city, and he will make our salvation a wall and an outer wall.”

For when Moabitis has been trampled, that is, when the worship of idols has been wholly destroyed, according to the sense already given, those set free from deceit, having passed through to the light of the truth and opened wide the eye of the mind, [will recognize] … the Saviour and Redeemer, through whom are all things and in whom are all things, who for our sake came down into our condition. And [they will sing] a song and melody as from …: “a strong city, and our salvation.” For truly our Lord Jesus Christ, or rather hope in him, is like a city well furnished with towers and wholly impregnable. For he receives those who flee …; this is why he also said: “My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand.” The Saviour of all, then, is a strong and saving city, a city having a wall and having an outer wall, that is, every security. For cities that are well walled do not have a single enclosure, but are fortified, besides the great wall, with another outwork as well. And it is likely again that those who sing the song say of the church of our Saviour, “Behold, a strong city, and our salvation.” For the gates of Hades will not prevail against it, according to the Saviour's word; for it is girded as with a double wall, by the help of the holy angels and also by that from above and from God, who is the outer wall. For he is the strength even of the holy spirits, since he himself alone is the Lord of all powers. It should be known that in the sacred writings Christ is sometimes named Judah, as having come from the tribe of Judah, according to the word of Jacob, who says: “Judah, your brothers shall praise you.” The song, then, is sung in the land of Judah. For of Christ …

“[Open the gates; let a people enter that keeps righteous]ness and keeps truth, laying hold of truth and keeping peace; for in you we hoped, O Lord, for ever.”

Since those throughout the whole earth have already come to know our Lord Jesus Christ and have confessed that he will be a strong and saving city, having a wall and an outer wall, at last the Holy Spirit, speaking through the voice of the prophet, necessarily gives the command to the holy teachers of the mysteries, I mean the apostles and evangelists: “Open the gates”; that is, open wide to those who wish the entrance through faith, the way through the blameless initiation, and let a people enter that keeps righteousness and keeps truth. For the divine and evangelical and saving preaching teaches believers the righteousness that is above the law, and to be steadfast in keeping the truth. For it no longer brings in the worship in types and shadows, as the old law did, but that in spirit and truth; and this is the truth. And he lays hold of the truth.

For he aims, as I said, not at the things in shadows but at those through Christ, who is the truth. And they keep peace too. How, or in what way? For one who has been wholly received by Christ, and has had that ancient enmity undone (for he stood apart from him in his error), will be an unshaken worshipper. And the blessed Paul urges us to fulfil this, writing: “Having been justified by faith, then, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” For we were at war with God, serving the creation and held fast by the passions of the flesh; but we are friends and at peace with him alone, saying, “O Lord, apart from you we know no other; we name your name”; and besides, having bound on as a crown the exceptional life and the gospel way of life, the boasts about such things might fittingly be spoken through the voice of the saints to God: “In you we hoped, O Lord, for ever.” For they will not cease from their hope in God, but rather will boast in him continually.

“… the great, the everlasting God, who humbled and brought down those who dwell on high; strong cities … And the feet of the meek and the steps of the humble shall trample them.”

Over things exceedingly wonderful it is the custom of the holy prophets to bring thank-offerings to God who rules all, and as it were to leap for great joy. And for them this would be a clear proof of the utmost sincerity. For they rejoice greatly to see the glory of God being widely extended, and those who envied it removed: I mean the unclean demons, and besides them Satan, whom he likens to strong cities and affirmed to dwell on high. For there is always somehow a lofty and swollen mind in them, so that they exalt themselves even against the hand of God, … nothing, but always to reign over those on the earth. But you, he says, alone are the great everlasting God; and you have shown this from the facts themselves; for you humbled and brought down those who dwell on high. That is, you shook the strength of the proud, who were lofty, and brought the boasters down to earth, and threw them down from their foundations as being strong cities; for this is what “to the ground” means. And to whom did you give them again to be trampled? Is it not to the true guardians of the Saviour's decrees, who are eager to imitate their own Master as he cries out and says: “Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am meek and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls”? And we remember again that he said: “Behold, I have given you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy.” For the apostate dragon has been trampled; and those who wish to dwell in the help of the Most High, and have come under the shelter of the God of heaven, have trodden on the asp and the basilisk; plainly the shelter of Christ, for he is worshipped in heaven: “For when,” he says, “he brings the firstborn into the world, he says: And let all the angels of God worship him.”

“The way of the godly has become straight, and the way of the godly is prepared. For the way of the Lord is judgment. We have hoped in your name, and in the remembrance which our soul desired.”

The blessed prophet Jeremiah recalls the gospel way of life and the righteousness in Christ, saying to the lovers of truth: “Stand at the ways, and ask for the everlasting paths of the Lord, and see which is the good way, and walk in it, and you will find purification for your souls.” For the paths and ways of the Lord are the words of the holy prophets, and of the commandment through Moses, the foretelling as in a shadow and types of the mystery of Christ. [Searching], then, these paths, we learn the good way, that is, the way of life in Christ; and walking in it we shall find for our souls the true purification through the Spirit. He says, then, that the way of the godly has become straight; for how is it not straight and smooth, with nothing at all uphill, when by speaking the word of faith we are justified, and are enriched with the cleansing through holy baptism? And the way of the godly is straight in another sense too. For when the enemies have been destroyed, and the devil's greed brought down, and every difficulty removed, what still stands in the way and is able to loosen the lovers of godliness from it? And see how, the way of the godly having been made smooth, he says that there will in a way be an overthrow of the things in types and shadows. For he adds, not without purpose, “the way of the Lord is judgment”; that is, not offerings of calves, not slaughters of sheep, not cakes and frankincense, but rather judgment, that is, righteousness. For it is the custom of the inspired Scripture to indicate righteousness by the name of judgment; as indeed the blessed David says: “The honour of the king loves judgment,” that is, righteousness; for every kingdom that loves righteousness is in honour with God and men. So the way of the Lord is judgment. And again he brings in those who walk this straight way rejoicing greatly; for they say: “We have hoped in your name, and in the remembrance which our soul desired.” For all our hope is in Christ, whom we always remember, having this desire, because through it we have been saved.

“From the night my spirit rises early to you, O God, for your ordinances are a light on the earth.”

[He calls … the night the time before the Lord's incarnation; the dawn the prophetic foreknowledge; and the true light the gospel of Christ, the sun of righteousness, which he bids all the earth to learn. For he does not say that learning comes by nature, like seeing or walking, but by zeal and diligence. And he who does not learn will be taken away from among the living, and will not see the glory of Christ.]

Those who say, “We have hoped in your name, and in the remembrance which our soul desired,” necessarily add this too. For having brought the divine enlightenment to dwell in the mind, and having sent away the darkness of the ancient deceit, and made the mist of sin vanish, … they say that they rise early as from night and darkness, as though the spiritual day were dawning in their souls, and the morning star at last rising in their hearts, as it is written. To such the inspired Paul writes, and says: “Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” And elsewhere: “For we are not of the night or of darkness, but sons of light and sons of day.” For the mind of believers is made bright by the gospel decrees. This is why the inspired David says, as to our Lord Jesus Christ: “Your law is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths.” For the law through the all-wise Moses was thickened, as it were, by a mist and by the shadows that come, I mean, from the letter; but in the gospel preaching the beauty of the truth shines forth bare and clear, and brightens the mind, pouring like light into the thoughts of the godly.

“Learn righteousness, you who dwell on the earth. For the ungodly has ceased. Everyone who does not learn righteousness on the earth will not do truth. Let the ungodly be taken away, that he may not see the glory of the Lord.”

God said somewhere through the voice of a prophet: “And they shall all be taught by God.” See, then, how in these words the discourse brings Christ before us as having become, as it were, the teacher of the mysteries for those of the nations who believed. For it was necessary, it was necessary, that those who had once recognized that his ordinances are a light on the earth should have the knowledge of what is profitable instilled by him. “Learn righteousness, then,” he says, “you who dwell on the earth.” This is like the saying through the voice of David: “Hear these things, all you nations; give ear, all you who dwell in the world.” For the law in letters trained only Israel according to the flesh; but our Lord Jesus Christ … the [whole earth] under heaven. Reasonably, then, he counsels those throughout the whole earth, saying that they must learn the righteousness spoken through him, that is, that of the gospel. And that disobeying his words is not without penalty, he adds and says: “For the ungodly has ceased. Everyone who does not learn righteousness on the earth will not do truth.” For he will go off, he says, to destruction and perdition, and will as it were be extinguished; for this, I think, is what “has ceased” means. Everyone, if anyone does not receive the knowledge of the gospel righteousness, and whoever does not do the truth. And here again he calls the power of the way of life in Christ “truth”, and the worship and service in spirit and truth. For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come and not the very image of the realities, was not truth; but Christ and his decrees may reasonably be understood as righteousness and truth. I think it necessary to say this too: Christ has become for us righteousness from the Father, and besides he is also truth. Learn, then, righteousness and truth, he says; that is, recognize the true Son, the Creator and Lord of all. For every ungodly man will be taken away and removed, that he may not see the glory of the Lord. Such is what was said by Christ himself to the peoples of the Jews: “Truly, truly, I say to you, that unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.” And again: “He who believes in the Son is not judged; but he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.” And he who has once been condemned and has died in his own sins, how could he see the glory of the Lord? For he will not be with Christ, and will not see the lot of the saints.

“O Lord, your arm is high, and they did not know; … [jealousy shall seize] an untaught people, and now fire shall devour the adversaries.”

God having threatened those who do not learn righteousness and do not do the truth, according to the words we explained just now, the prophet comes to recall the ignorance and disobedience of Israel. For God the Word, the Creator of all, the all-powerful arm of the Father, through whom all things were brought into being, being in the form of the Father and in equality with him, let himself down into a voluntary emptying, and humbled himself, as it is written, becoming man, that he might justify those on the earth, plainly through faith in himself. And he worked things beyond reason, and by the magnificence of his deeds asked to be recognized as being both God and from God by nature, saying: “If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me; but if I do them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works.” But even though they were spectators of such wonders and heard his words with their own ears, they kept a hard mouth. For they dared impiously to call him a Samaritan, and a drunkard, and a carpenter's son, and things still more grating than these. The prophet, then, knowing these things beforehand by the torch of the Spirit, addresses his words to the Father and God in heaven, and says: “O Lord, your arm is high, and they did not know.” For by the dignity of his own pre-eminence, and as in the glory that befits God, he is great and high; and indeed the arm of the Father is all-powerful, that is, God the Word, through whom all things came to be. But since he was seen with flesh, they did not know his glory. Yet they will be ashamed, he says, if they learn that he is, plainly, the life-giving Word of God. … having in no way shared in his glory, they killed the … of salvation, and denied the Holy One of Israel, as the inspired Peter says. But when Christ broke the bonds of death and came to life [on the third day], and the teachers of the Jews especially came to know this, then at last they were put to shame; and indeed, fearing that the mystery of the resurrection might somehow become known to all, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, as it is written, so that they might say, “His disciples came by night and stole him.” And they will be ashamed in another way too. For when they see him coming at the consummation of the age in the glory of the Father with the angels, then they will also feel shame … Israel: “They provoked me to jealousy with what is no god; I will provoke them to jealousy with what is no nation; with a foolish nation I will anger them.”

… fathers, for theirs are the promises and the giving of the law and the covenant, but are sent into the outer darkness. Fittingly, then, he calls them an untaught people, and says that jealousy will seize them and that fire will devour the adversaries. For since they themselves have been sent away and cast out of the hope in Christ, and have been shown to be strangers to the promises, while the nations have been taken in, for this reason they are worn down by jealousy, and the wretches go on being consumed as by fire, plainly the fire of envy. Something of this sort is written in the Song too about those of the blood [of Israel: “They provoked me to jealousy with what is no god]; they angered me with their idols. And I will [provoke them to jealousy] …”

“O Lord our God, give us peace, for you have rendered us all things. O Lord our God, take possession of us. O Lord, apart from you we know no other; we name your name.”

It is the custom of the holy prophets to make supplications for Israel; for they loved God, and were well crowned with the glories of godliness. And since they had once sprung from the root of Abraham and from the blood of the holy fathers, they are necessarily saddened, as over their kinsmen, when they see those of Israel perishing because of their impiety toward Christ. This is why the blessed prophet Isaiah now approaches, saying: “O Lord our God, give us peace; for you have rendered us all things.” For if you grant us peace, he says, we shall be full of every good, and shall have received the most perfect share in your gifts. And it is necessary to see what peace they ask for. Either they ask for Christ himself, for he is our peace, according to the Scriptures, and through him we have been joined to the Father, plainly through spiritual kinship. Or else they mean this: those who have not yet believed, and have the stain of sin not yet put off, stand apart from God and are rightly reckoned in the rank of enemies; they hold their neck proudly and fight against the Master's laws. But the obedient and docile, ready for everything that pleases him, are his dearest friends and have peace with him. But the thing is truly given by God and comes through the bounty from above. Grant us, then, O Master, to be at peace with you, and, profane and loathsome sin being removed, to be united to you spiritually through Christ the mediator. Such is what was rightly said through the voice of Paul: “Having been justified by faith, then, we have peace with God through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” And when this has come about, we shall be the possession and the portion of God. This is why “O Lord, take possession of us; apart from you we know no other; we name your name” has been wisely added. For those who are at peace with him must be single-minded and joined to God alone, so as to know him alone, and not even to carry on the tongue the name of any other falsely named god. For one must name him alone, since he alone is God over us by nature and in truth. Something of this sort the law of the all-wise Moses also proclaimed to us: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone you shall serve, and by his name you shall swear.”

“But the dead shall not see life, nor shall physicians raise them up. Therefore you brought it on, and destroyed, and took away every male of theirs. Add evils to them, O Lord, add evils to all the glorious of the earth.”

Those who know only him who is God by nature and in truth, and name his name, and number absolutely no one with him, and therefore say, “O Lord, apart from you we know no other,” necessarily join to it that “the dead shall not see life”, again “apart from you”. For the Creator and Lord of all, being Life by nature, gives life to all things, and in him we move and are. Nor will physicians raise them up, he says, “apart from you” plainly following here too. For all things come to us from God, and he made medicines from the earth for them, as it is written. So far as concerns the letter, I mean, and the ready and obvious sense, the explanation of the thoughts would rightly stand thus and not otherwise. But since we must proceed according to the sense and lay bare the aim of the prophetic precision, we necessarily say this: some are dead, and not at all according to the flesh, but rather deadened by worldly love of pleasure, not having the holy life in Christ, the angelic life. But apart from you, he says, such people could not share in life, that is, in life-giving grace. And again, apart from you, those able to free from diseases of the soul those caught by them, who may reasonably be understood as spiritual physicians, could not raise up any of the sick. And we say that the spiritual physicians are the holy prophets, apostles and evangelists, who, rich through grace from above and the supply of the Spirit in the word that is able to heal, cure those wounded by sin and the perversity of the devil. And it is likely that the prophetic word hints at something else besides. For our Lord Jesus Christ raised the dead from the tombs and healed those in extreme sicknesses. But though he was the doer of such wonders, he was not honoured by those who saw them; and the leaders and teachers of the Jews especially persecuted him all the same. Since, then, he says, apart from you the dead could not see life, for you alone are able to give life, nor could a physician raise from the tombs those whom you yourself raised; and they disbelieved even after this, and raged uncontrollably, who might have been expected to be faithful before all others: therefore you brought it on, and destroyed, and took away every male of theirs. For you brought the wrath on them, though it necessarily did not cut off all Israel utterly, for the remnant has been saved …. For the male is the most commanding, compared with the female. Perhaps he calls “males” those of the Jews who were, as it were, more vigorous, not in bodily strength, but rather in knowledge of the commandments of the law. Such is what was said by God to one of the prophets: “I will go to the great men and speak to them”; “and behold, with one accord they broke the yoke, they burst the bonds.” And that what was pre-eminent and more sacred among the Jews is fittingly pronounced wretched, and drew down on itself a more violent wrath, Christ himself will make clear, saying: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel about sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one, you make him a son of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves.” And again: “And woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not …” Fittingly, then, the male is punished, that is, what was pre-eminent and honoured, and as it were in spiritual manliness

had then come to knowledge of what is in the law, those to whom he wishes evils to be added. For not only did they fall away from kinship with God by their drunken insolence toward Christ, but they were also consumed by famine and fell into the calamities that followed, when their land was ravaged and wholly overturned. And those he called males he also calls glorious, as plainly distinguished, also by the glories of the priesthood. … By evils he means what does harm, that is, the God-sent wraths: famines, plagues, wars, and the like. And by the glorious he means those who are prominent … and renowned in positions of power.

“O Lord, in affliction we remembered you; in small affliction your chastening was upon us. And as a woman in labour draws near to giving birth and cries out in her pain, so have we become to your beloved.”

The blessed prophet, moved by very great love of God against the deeds the Jews dared, and having said, “Add evils to all the glorious of the earth,” so that no one might think him harsh and cruel …, but to come into affliction and evils, necessarily added what naturally happens to all: I mean that in affliction and distress one tends to remember God who can do all things. For abundance of good cheer sometimes slackens people into contempt, so that they do not even perceive their offences, having slipped into this frame of mind through very great slackness; but affliction, as it were, drives them toward God and brings them to the recognition of their faults. For this reason, then, he says, I said, “Add evils to the glorious of the earth,” since it is common to all to remember you most of all, and to consider and think of your will, when they share in calamities. For we are chastened in small affliction, God bringing the punishment not unmixed nor harsh to the point of ruin, but rather tempering his wrath with gentleness. So it was not as one who hates those who had sinned that he exhorts that affliction be brought on them, but rather as one who loves them and asks that they be chastened, so that, since of their own choice they did not bear godliness as their fruit, they might at least be turned to it as by necessity, called by the divine wrath to perception. Such, I think, is what was rightly said through the voice of David: “With bit and bridle bind the jaws of those who do not come near to you.” But they, having offended unbearably and behaved with drunken insolence toward Christ, will fall into affliction; while we, who are yours and think and speak your thoughts, have been disposed toward your beloved, that is, the Son, in no other way than as a woman in labour …, being greatly pained on this account, and making very much accusation against those who disobey him. And what they say is true; indeed the blessed Isaiah himself, rebuking the unbridled tongues of the Jews which they used against Christ, says: “But you, draw near here, lawless sons, seed of adulterers and of a harlot; in whom have you delighted? Against whom have you opened your mouth, and against whom have you let loose your tongue? Are you not children of perdition, a lawless seed?” And the blessed David too says somewhere about them: “Let their eyes be darkened so that they do not see, and bow down their back always.” And very many words were spoken by the holy prophets to this effect against the synagogue of the Jews, because of their impiety toward Christ.

“… which we conceived on the earth.”

Those who say that out of love for God they have become toward the beloved of the Father, plainly the Son, like a woman in labour, keeping sensibly to the figure of speech, say that they were in labour and also conceived in the womb and bore the spirit of salvation on the earth. Such a saying, as I said, would befit the prophets and the holy apostles and evangelists, who, rich in the supply of the initiation from above, [bore] as it were for those on the earth the spirit of salvation, that is, the teaching in the Spirit, which is also the bringer of life for ever. For the divine Scripture is accustomed very often to call people's writings “spirit”. Indeed, he says, “test the spirits, whether they are of God.” For the saving preaching is always spoken in the Holy Spirit, but everything that fights against the truth in a worldly spirit. The inspired Paul at any rate writes about himself and the other saints: “But we have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God.” They call the gospel preaching, then, the spirit of salvation; for it leads to boundless life and age-long existence. …

“… on the earth. The dead shall rise, and those in the tombs shall be raised, and those in the earth shall be glad. For the dew from you is healing to them. But the land of the ungodly …”

Truly admirable is the soberness of the saints. For they always [answer in advance] whatever seems to stand against the words they speak to us. So since they said that they bore a saving spirit for those on the earth, and yet they see death still prevailing over those on the earth even after this, as if someone were saying, “What is the benefit to us of the divine preaching? Where is the spirit of salvation? For those on the earth fall,” they necessarily bring in the defence in reply and say, “The dead shall rise …” [as the blessed] Paul [says]: our Lord Jesus Christ tasted death for everyone, yet came to life [on the third day], and became the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep and the root of those refashioned through him to life, and as it were the beginning of human nature putting off corruption; and we have been enriched with eternal life in unshaken hopes. It is fixed that the dead will in every way and certainly come to life again, and the might of death will be wholly abolished; but since the time of the resurrection is not yet present, human nature is meanwhile still subject to having to die. And meanwhile it undergoes at times the death that was made weak in Christ and will be weak in us too. Will that, then, he says, stand against our words, that is, our saving preaching, that those on the earth still fall? And what is that? Nothing at all. For the dead will come to life again, and the bodies in the earth and in the tombs will run back to life. And what would be the manner of this in turn? “The dew from you is healing to them.” And they have come to call “dew” here the life-giving energy and power of the Spirit, through which the blessed David said the dead will be raised. For he sings somewhere to God and says: “When you turn away your face, they will be troubled, and they will return to their dust. You will send forth your Spirit, and they will be created, and you will renew the face of the earth.” The life-giving dew, then, is the Spirit from the Father through [the Son] … the soul of man, the Word of God, and … [Of Cyril:] We have come to call “dew” here … of fleshly desires checks the motion. For the human mind is like a womb, which, if it receives from God the seeds of godliness, certainly bears good fruits. So those in Christ are fruitful; for they bear good fruits, as I said, as from a spiritual belly and womb. For the dew from you is healing to them.

the life-giving energy and power of the Spirit, through which the blessed David said the dead will be raised. For he sings somewhere to God and says: “When you turn away your face, they will be troubled, and they will return to their dust; and you will send forth your Spirit, and they will be created, and you will renew the face of the earth.” The life-giving dew, then, is the Spirit from … and putting incorruption into the very bodies made of earth. And again: I think he calls “dew” the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit and its energy that undoes death, as of God and Life. And again: by “dew” here he means nothing other than the Spirit, or the life-giving energy of the Spirit, which, poured through Christ even on bodies already corrupted, … the destructive … of the Son, and puts incorruption into the very bodies made of earth. But those fallen in the earth will come to life again, while the land of those who have been impious will fall; and this befell the land of the Jews, for they behaved with drunken insolence toward Christ and toward the holy teachers of the mysteries, though these had borne the spirit of salvation for those on the earth.

“Go, my people, enter into your chambers, shut your door, hide yourself for a very little while, until the wrath of the Lord passes. For behold, the Lord brings wrath from the holy place upon those who dwell on the earth. And the earth shall uncover its blood, and shall not …”

Here the person of God is brought before us, anointing the minds of the saints for the endurance of suffering. For since those who made the spirit of salvation both for those of the blood of Israel and for those throughout the whole earth under heaven, that is, who ministered the gospel preaching, were to fall into terrible and unbearable temptations, and even to undergo danger to soul and blood, for this reason he very fittingly persuades them to be wont to show youthful courage against such things, saying: “Go, my people, enter into your chambers.” And very aptly and with a very fair word he calls the tombs in the earth, perhaps, “chambers”; and indeed, like those truly hiding themselves, he shuts the doors, and escapes notice, enduring a little while until the wrath of the Lord passes. For it was said to the beginning of the race, that is, to Adam: “Earth you are, and to earth you shall depart”; and he was accursed with corruption because of the transgression. But what was brought by the divine wrath will be undone, and this wholly at the time of the consummation, when death is abolished, and the tyranny of the devil …. So hide yourself, he says, O my people, and endure a little, a very little while, until the death that comes from the Lord's wrath passes, and the [time] of the resurrection of all …; [the dew] drives out corruption and as it were prepares life in its stead. For as the dew, coming down quietly and gently on the earth, makes the seeds lying in it grow and increase, in the same way the dew from you will provide healing for your dead, whose bodies were sown in the earth in their time. And you would not be wrong in saying that the dew is the only-begotten Word of God himself, who will provide for the dead both healing of sins, if they had offended in anything as men, and resurrection and salvation together, and will bestow eternal life on them. But such is not the lot of the ungodly.

and life and salvation. … perhaps, through the perversity of those who hate them, and this to the holy teachers of the mysteries, yet the Master of all will bring punishment on those who killed saints. For the Lord brings wrath from the holy place upon those who dwell on the earth. This is like that saying: “For the Lord rained on Sodom fire and brimstone from the Lord.” So the Son will bring the wrath from the holy … Father … upon those who dwell on the earth. For as he himself says somewhere: “The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father.” And when the time has come in which the wrath [falls] on those who [have done] unholy things, the earth will uncover its blood and will not cover the slain; that is, all the blood that has fallen to the earth will be manifest, and no one [of those who did wrong] will be hidden, or rather go off …; and there will be no one at all of those unjustly slain who will not be known and in God's remembrance.

“On that day God will bring the holy sword, the great and strong, upon the dragon, the fleeing serpent, upon the dragon, the crooked serpent, and he will slay the dragon.”

He said that the wrath will be brought upon those who have acted impiously, and … upon his own children, and upon the … himself …, those who resisted the preaching of the saints. For at that time, he says, when the earth uncovers its blood, the holy, keenest and great sword, the all-powerful and invincible, that is, the only-begotten Word, the Father will bring upon the dragon, the fleeing serpent, upon the dragon, the crooked serpent, and he will slay the dragon. He names Satan dragon and serpent. For he is bitter and venomous, and besides this cowardly; for it is always his custom to flee. And he is terrible and fond of evil-doing; for like the beast he runs crookedly; but he will be slain. For he will be idle from then on, or rather he will pay the account of his unholiness, suffering the final penalty, held fast by the gates of Hades, the prey of the eternal flame, enduring a long and unending punishment.

“On that day there shall be a fair vineyard, a desire to begin against it. I am a strong city, a city besieged; in vain shall I water it. For it shall be taken by night, and by day the wall shall fall.”

Having well completed the discourse about those netted through faith, and having said very clearly that they will anoint themselves with ointment and drink wine on the holy mountain of Christ, the Saviour of us all (and we say that the mountain is the church), and having added that there will also be vengeance for those slain for godliness, and that with the holy and great sword the apostate dragon will in every way and certainly be destroyed, he brings the discourse back to what befell those of the blood of Israel through ignorance. For at that time, he says, when they make faith in Christ unacceptable to themselves: I am the fair vineyard, whose very beginning one might call a thing desired; I am the strong city (for the word is spoken as from Jerusalem); I shall be a city besieged. Then the prophet brings before us the person of God, saying, “In vain shall I water it.” For even if Israel became a luxuriant vine, according to the word of Jeremiah, yet it produced thorns, and made the exhortation through the law profitless to itself.

So he watered it in vain through the old law; and even if he should water it still through the gospel preaching, it will remain unprofitable even so. What, then, did it come to suffer as a result? “It shall be taken by night, and by day the wall shall fall.” For since he named it a strong city, and indeed a besieged one, in keeping with the sequence of thoughts he says that it will be taken, and affirms that the wall too will fall. And being taken by night and the wall falling by day seems to indicate something like this. It was taken, or sacked, as one that had come into mist and darkness, because it would not bear Christ saying: “While you have the light, walk in the light, so that darkness may not overtake you.” But since they [paid] little [heed] to his words, … as in darkness. For sin overpowered them. And this, then, was what was said to them through the voice of Christ: “Truly I say to you, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.” It was taken, then, and remained in sins; and the wall fell as in daytime, that is, it was clearly and manifestly deprived of the enclosure from God. The blessed prophet Isaiah says something of this sort at the beginning too: “For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is … the man of Judah, a beloved young plant. I waited for it to make grapes, but it made thorns.” Then he adds: “Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be for plunder; and I will pull down its wall, and it shall be for trampling; and I will abandon my vineyard, and it shall not be pruned nor dug, and thorns shall come up on it as on waste ground; and I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it.” You see how what I said is true, that is, “in vain shall I water it.” For he no longer gave the spiritual rain to those of Israel; and he pulled down its hedge, and besides that its wall. By the hedge perhaps he means the help from the angels, and by the wall the impregnable and firmly fixed enclosure of his own power. For “mountains,” he says, “are round about it, and the Lord is round about his people.” And when he says “has fallen”, he does not at all indicate that it was brought down, but rather that it was taken away. For Israel remained without help and wholly without share in the sparing and love from above.

“… There is none that has not laid hold of it. Who will set me to guard stubble in a field? Because of this hostile one I have rejected it.”

The land of the Jews was besieged after the Saviour's cross. And those gathered from every nation, that is, the all-powerful army of the Romans, rose up manfully against the nation of the Jews. And it was sacked in another way too, plainly spiritually and hiddenly; for it was given to be trampled by the unclean spirits. For if it was deprived of its hedge, and the wall that saved it was taken away, how could anyone doubt that it became a pasture for the spiritual beasts? And this, then, was what was said about it through the voice of David to Christ, the Saviour of all: “Why have you pulled down its hedge, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit? The boar out of the wood has ravaged it, and the wild ass has fed on it.” For by these he signifies the manifold passions by which the mind of the Jews has been mastered, the ass signifying extreme irrationality, and the boar pleasure. That it became easy prey for everyone who wished to ravage it, he teaches, saying: “There is none that has not laid hold of it”; for there is no hand, that is, power, either of men or of evil spirits, that has not laid hold of it. But, O Master, someone might perhaps say, did you not save it as being your people? Did you not guard it, and were you not its all-powerful wall? Yes, he says, I guarded it and surrounded it with my own grace and might …, when it had the [fruit] that comes from the law. But since it has at last come down to this, he says, to such wretchedness and spiritual idleness as to have no fruit of virtue, and is like bare and fruitless stubble, who will set me to guard it? For what is the benefit of the security if it has become empty of good fruits? Who then will persuade me? For this is what “will set” indicates: to guard stubble in a field. But how it came to this misery he explains in his defence, saying: “Because of this hostile one I have rejected it.” Here he all but points with his finger to Jerusalem. And since, he says, it has become most hostile to me, for this reason I have very reasonably rejected it. So he does not say that some other became hostile to him and that he rejected yet another, but rather Jerusalem itself, as hostile and … plainly from its spiritual kinship with him. For he said to it: “How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not. Behold, your house is left to you desolate.”

“Therefore, because of this, the Lord God has done all things … those who dwell in it.”

Since it has become hostile, he says, and resisted the one who saves it, and made war on the one who calls it to life as on an enemy, for this reason all that he ordained … to its end. And what are these things? Being rejected altogether, no longer having the spiritual rain, enduring the siege, being in want of the favour and protection from above,

for it was brought down to utter uselessness. “And I am burned up. They shall cry out,” he says, “all who dwell in it.” And if one wishes, more historically, … Jerusalem. But in another sense too, the burning here indicates utter uselessness, and the destruction cast in every way upon the Jews, the divine wrath all but burning them up and reducing them to dust and ashes. The inspired prophet Jeremiah says something of this sort as to Jerusalem: “A beautiful olive tree, well shaded in appearance, the Lord called your name; at the sound of its circumcision fire was kindled upon it; great is the affliction upon it; its branches became useless.” For departing from God and being wholly without share in his grace and help makes the soul of man useless in every way. “For it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”; and, as Moses says, “Our God is a consuming fire.”

“Let us make peace with him, let us make peace, we who are coming, children of Jacob. Israel shall bud and blossom, and the world shall be filled with its fruit.”

Since the Jews had renounced love and faith toward Christ, the Saviour of all, and since Christ was netting the calling toward the nations and those from the ends of the earth under heaven through the holy apostles, the blessed prophet … to those from every side … to them: Israel has departed, the firstborn has kicked away, it denies the faith, it has acted impiously toward the Redeemer; but we who are coming, that is, who are to come in due time, and come certainly as from darkness to light, from Greek ignorance to the knowledge of him who is God in truth, from sins to justification, let us make peace with him; that is, having undone the ancient enmity, sin [having been removed] and Satan abolished, and there being no longer anything that hinders us, or that divides and separates us from Christ, let us assent to his decrees, let us follow whatever he wishes and says, let us bring our neck under the gospel preaching; for so we shall make peace with him. Something of this sort the all-wise Paul also says to those called from the nations: “Having been justified by faith, then, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Having exhorted those who are coming, about whom the blessed David also said, “The coming generation shall be told of the Lord,” he transfers the discourse to the holy apostles themselves …, that is, those of the blood of Israel. For the inspired Paul named them fruits and a crown; for those saved through them are truly the boast and glory of the saints' labours.

… having understood, or rather learned through the Holy Spirit, he leaps in a way, and says, out of very great …: “Israel shall blossom, and the world shall be filled with its fruit.” For the inspired disciples came from the blood of Jacob, who was renamed Israel. And since from east to west “their voice went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world,” the multitude of the nations has been called to knowledge; and, as the word of the prophecy says, the world was filled with its fruit. And whose fruit? Plainly that of Israel; for those who believed are [the fruit] of the apostles' sweat, and [their] joy ….

“Shall he be struck as he himself struck, and shall he be slain as he himself slew? Fighting and reproaching them.”

The sense of the passage follows very closely on what has been said; and in what way, we will say as far as we can. We said that the children of Jacob will bud and blossom, and the world will be filled with its fruit. But as though someone were rising up against this and saying: “Yet Israel acted with no small impiety; for it became harsh and hard to lead, and [killed] the saints, and leapt upon every righteous man and prophet, and has its hand filled with blood; how then will it blossom again, and how, as though nothing outrageous had happened, will the world be filled with its fruit?” … “Shall he be struck as he himself struck? Or shall he be slain as he himself slew?” For he used, he says, unmixed fury against the saints, and slew them with unbridled impulses, as one who knew not how to pity in any way. Will the fountain of gentleness, then, with equal measure, slay them as they themselves slew the saints? Or will he rather prevail as God, and not utterly cut off the one who was beloved and once chosen for the fathers' sake? Such is what was said by God through one of the holy prophets: “What shall I do to you, Ephraim? What shall I do to you, Judah? Shall I make you as Admah, and as Zeboiim? My heart was turned within me …; [I will not act according to] the wrath of my anger. I will not abandon Ephraim to be blotted out, because I am God and not man, the holy one among you.” For it was necessary, it was necessary, that he, being God and not a man like us, should excel in gentleness, and, just as he is by nature beyond everything created, so should surpass and excel those on the earth also, I mean, in love for humankind. So Israel will blossom, and the world will be filled with its fruit, according to the account already given. For he will not be slain, he says, as he himself slew, nor will he be struck in equal measure, even if he himself struck the saints, whetted with savage fury. What, then, is the measure of his action against them? “Fighting and reproaching, he will send them away,” understanding “he will send away” as “he will send away from kinship with himself.” This the Saviour did; for he made Israel cast off, fighting and reproaching; and let us take “fighting” as meaning “rebuking”; for he [rebuked] the Jews, and indeed reproaching them the Saviour said: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kill [the prophets and stone those sent] to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!”

“Behold, your house is left to you desolate.” For this was nothing else than his declaring that his departure from them would come before long. When this had happened, Israel perished, even though the remnant was saved; as Isaiah himself says: “Even if the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved.”

“Was it not you who planned with a harsh spirit to slay them with a spirit of fury?”

See the prophet here using a boldness fitting a saint, and convicting Israel of having made war on the saints, and of having made it its practice to slay them, as it were using a harsh and savage spirit, and letting loose on them an untamed mind. If, then, I should say, he says, that it slew and struck, the thing will not appear a false tale at all, but rather what was said will prove true. For, O Israel, was it not you who planned, or rather were accustomed, with a spirit, as I said, [harsh, to slay those] sent by God? And if you deny it, he says, I will bring forward as witness against you the Judge of all. For Christ said to them somewhere: “Which of the prophets [did your fathers not persecute?]” and “[it cannot be that] a prophet should perish outside Jerusalem.”

“Therefore the lawlessness of Jacob shall be taken away, and this is his blessing, when I take away his sin, when they make all the [stones of the altars broken in pieces like] fine [dust], and their trees shall not remain, and their idols shall be cut down like a forest far away.”

Having by the way delivered his rebuke against those who acted impiously toward the holy prophets, the blessed prophet again keeps to the sequence of thoughts, and says as from the person of God: “Therefore the lawlessness of Jacob shall be taken away.” Therefore: why? Since he will not be slain as he slew, nor struck as he struck, because the calm in God always overcomes human pettiness, and he does not in every way and altogether bring penalties equal to the offences on earth, but rather tempers his wrath with gentleness. This is why he says, “The lawlessness of Jacob shall be taken away,” that is, he will obtain love for humankind, and his charges will in time be remitted to him. … And this is his blessing. For he promised Abraham, saying: “Surely I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your seed.” But the inspired Abraham would not truly have been blessed, nor would his seed have been multiplied, if penalties proportionate to their sins were exacted from those of his blood. But since, though they had done nothing good, but had rather been carried down to the utmost unholiness, they too have been enriched with forgiveness, the ground of the blessing has been kept and has passed on to them. When, then, he says, I take away his sin, this will be the manner of his blessing. And he makes plain the time at which he too will be free of his offences. For when, he says, those called through faith to the knowledge of him who is God in truth march against the ancient error, when altars and sacred precincts and the swarm of idols are removed, when they consume with fire the temples built for lifeless idols, when they cut down their trees, and besides these the things made by hands, like a forest, then at last God will remit their faults to those of Israel themselves. And this, I think, is what the inspired Paul said: “But when the fullness of the nations has come in, then all Israel will be saved.” For burning the temples entirely, cutting down the groves planted beside them, and adding the overthrow of the statues themselves, would signify nothing else than certainly this: that there will be a passing of those once in error, who worshipped the works of their own hands, to the knowledge of the truth, so that they come to such love of God as to lay their hands even on what they once worshipped, and [to cut down] the gods of wood like a forest …

“[The inhabited flock shall be let go] as a flock left behind, and it shall be for a long time for pasture, and there they shall rest. And after a time there shall be nothing green in it …”

He names Israel an inhabited flock because it had very many good shepherds, and all but had living with it those who knew how to guide it to everything praiseworthy. So it abounded in good shepherds; but it will be let go, he says. And what “let go” means he himself made clear at once, saying, “as a flock left behind,” that is, bereft of every overseer and guardian. When this has happened, it will lie open for long periods as pasture. For spiritual and most mighty beasts will feed on them, that is, Satan and the evil powers with him and under him. For when no one drives off the attacks of the evil demons from the heart of man, it will be easy to capture, and will readily come to dwell in everything they please. And if something must be said also in keeping with what happened historically, they became pasture after the Saviour's cross … and of the army of the Romans. For it lodged and rested among them …; [and when] the time [had passed], he says, there will be nothing green in it, because it has dried up; that is, they will graze the land so far as to make it appear dry and having no pasture any more. This is a clear proof that those who ravaged their land would not depart from it until they had made their own portion of everything useful in it, down all but to the very cheapest things, and had eaten it up. The same account would hold if one chose to say that the unclean demons grazed the hearts of the Jews like calves; for they devoured them so far that perhaps they were at a loss for pasture any longer, because nothing was left ….

“Women coming from the sight, come! For it is not a people that has understanding. Therefore he who made them will not pity them, nor will he who formed them have mercy.”

Having said that the inhabited flock will be let go, and will become pasture and lie open for grazing, according to the words already explained, as Israel had now come to be outside its kinship with God through its impiety toward Christ, and the first covenant and the customs of the law had ceased, he commanded the holy women to proclaim the good news of our Saviour's resurrection; Matthew too records them, speaking thus: “After the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake.” And since they became greatly afraid, the blessed angel said to them: “Do not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay, and go quickly and tell his disciples that he has been raised from the dead, and behold, he is going before you into Galilee; there you will see him.” And after the angel's words, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice.” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus says to them: “Do not be afraid; go, tell my brothers to go away into Galilee, and there they will see me.” So, Israel being let go, come, you wise women, he says, and very swiftly proclaim the good news of the resurrection of him who killed death and destroyed corruption, who justifies sinners by faith, who refashions into newness of life those who come to him, who showed those on earth the new

life, that is, the life of the gospel, who brought to an end the feebleness of the worship in the law, made the truth shine, and made plain the way of worship in spirit and truth to those who revere him. Come, then. For Israel has fallen from its hope. For it is not a people … like a strong calf; but … to be saved from the good things, … to be consumed … having understanding. For it has been hardened in heart, has remained in darkness, and is mastered by the mist of sin. For it would not heed Christ saying: “While you have the light, walk in the light, so that darkness may not overtake you.” And I say that we must admire the Saviour's dispensation regarding these most wise women too. For someone might say, I think: “Were there not holy disciples, for whom it would perhaps have been better, as ministers of the divine doctrines, to announce the resurrection before the others? Why did not they rather first see Jesus, who had undone the might of death? But he appeared to women, and, investing them with the dignity of apostleship, commands them to go and tell the disciples that Christ has been raised from the dead, and they were the first to see his glory.” To such things we say that the only-begotten Word of God became man to heal what was sick and to free man from the ancient charges. It was necessary, then, it was necessary, to grant women to be the first to announce the resurrection. For since the first and more ancient woman led Adam into transgression, serving the serpent's words, and she became the bringer of death, how was it not necessary to beat off the causes of such terrible charges through the apostleship? “For where sin abounded,” he says, “grace overflowed.” The gospel of salvation was given to the woman who had ministered death. For “Rejoice” was said to them, necessarily, by him who laid the curse in the beginning; for he said to her: “In pain you shall bear children.” So the first things have been undone by the second, and what was sick has been healed. To them, then, he gives the command to proclaim the good news, Christ having departed from his love for the Jews. For since they have remained without understanding and ignorant, he says, he who made them would not have mercy on them, nor would they be worthy to be pitied. …

“[And it shall be on that day that the Lord will fence in] from the channel of the river as far as Rhinocorura; but you, gather the sons [of Israel one by one].”

After Christ was raised and had commanded the holy apostles, “Go, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” and indeed had ascended into heaven itself, the effects of wrath, plainly the wrath from above, were brought on those who had behaved with unholy drunken insolence toward him. For they were consumed by iron and fire, when the hand of the Romans raised war against them and burned all their cities, Jerusalem itself, and pulled down that famous temple. The land of the Jews, then, is bounded by the streams of the Euphrates toward the east and south, and by the place called Rhinocorura, a city which marks the border between the land of the Egyptians and that of the Palestinians.

So having named for us the borders of Judaea, [he says that he will fence in] all that is contained within them, that is, the whole of Judaea. And “he will fence in” … will afflict, and bring it to the utmost distress; this would indicate ill-treatment or calamity. And you will understand “he will fence in” in another way too. For the mind of the Jews has been as it were shut in, so that it can in no way receive the light of the true vision of God, nor understand the mystery of Christ, as the blessed Paul writes: “A hardening has come upon Israel in part,” and “to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart.” And this, I think, is the fencing in. And that this did not happen throughout the whole earth under heaven, or against all the nations, but against Judaea alone and those in it, he showed clearly, not saying simply that the fencing in would happen, but “from the channel of the river as far as Rhinocorura.” And he says that these things will befall the peoples of the Jews, who killed those [sent] by God and added even the Son himself. Then he transfers the discourse to the person of Christ himself, the Saviour of us all, conversing and saying to the holy apostles, or rather to all who in their time [minister] his gospel and initiate into it: “But you, gather the sons of Israel one by one.” That is, let those entrusted with teaching not take much account of it even if Israel is not seen running in in a multitude; but if there is anyone of understanding among them, let him be called through faith, and let him come …, one by one, as one chosen out. For the remnant of Israel has been saved. Indeed the inspired disciples very often addressed them, as for example the inspired Peter: “And now, brothers,” he says, “I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. Repent, then, and let each of you be baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promises are for you and for your children.” And no small multitude was netted; yet, as regards the whole nation of the Jews, those saved were very few indeed, and were received as it were one by one, plainly through faith in Christ.

“And it shall be on that day that they shall blow the great trumpet, and those lost in the land of the Assyrians shall come, and those lost in Egypt, and they shall worship the Lord on the holy mountain in [Jerusalem].”

It is the custom of the holy prophets to hide their meaning in a certain obscurity; and since those of Israel became unbridled in anger, … a middle … what is indicated. He says that at that time those who blow the trumpet are, I think again, no others than the holy teachers of the mysteries; and that they blow not simply, but with the great trumpet, that is, they cry aloud something great and extraordinary to those on the earth in the gospel preaching. “For in truth into all the earth …

… their words to the ends of the world.” For the great Moses too used a trumpet at times, but not the great one; for he was weak of voice and slow of tongue, and the power of the law's preaching was confined to the land of the Jews alone. But the divine and saving preaching goes through every city and land, and has as it were thundered over the whole earth under heaven. Something of this sort is written in the books of Moses too: “The God of all came down in the form of fire on Mount Sinai.” And there were smoke and hail, and the body of the air was blackened with deep darkness; and the sound of the trumpet, he says, was loud. Then he adds to these things, saying: “And the sounds of the trumpet [going on] …”; for the law of weak voice was proclaimed …, but as time went on the sounds of the trumpet became very, very strong. At that time, then, he says, they will proclaim with the great trumpet, that is, the gospel preaching, gathering those who had gone astray and had come into the rank of captives, and those [caught] in idolatry. For those lost in the land of the Assyrians will come, he says, and those lost in Egypt, and they will worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem. He has set down the two lands more given to superstition than the others, that of the Assyrians, I mean, and that of the Egyptians. But those who perished in them, he says, will come, called through faith to the knowledge of him who is Lord and God in truth, and they will worship him, no longer in the defiled precincts but on the holy mountain, that is, the church, which he also names Jerusalem: a mountain, because nothing at all in the churches is low or cast to the ground, but they are distinguished by lofty and exalted doctrines; and Jerusalem, because it is truly the vision of peace.

“Woe to the crown of insolence, the hirelings of Ephraim, the flower fallen from glory on the top of the fat mountain, those drunk …”

Having declared beforehand that all who had perished, held fast in the nooses of idolatry, will be called through faith to the knowledge of the truth and will worship the Lord, he transfers the discourse to the teachers of the Jews, who became for the peoples under their hand the beginning and pretext of impiety toward Christ. For they did not lead them to the knowledge of what had been foretold of old through the law and the [prophets], but … put out of the synagogue those who confessed that he is the Christ. For so the inspired John says somewhere. And shaking, as it were, faith in him, and turning the mind of the common people away from the straight way, they called Jesus a Samaritan and a drunkard and born of sexual immorality. And besides this they brought him to Pilate, and indeed urged that he be crucified, and they killed the author of life, as far as it lay with them; yet he came to life again, having trampled on death; for he was Life by nature, as God, even though he was in flesh. Woe, then, he says, to the crown of insolence.

He calls them a crown. For they were as it were the crown and glory of all Israel, distinguished by the glories of the priesthood and having been allotted the dignity of leadership. But they did not remain in …. For they were clothed with dishonour and blame, and having become liable to the charges of impiety they withered like a flower. For they too became hirelings of Ephraim. And by Ephraim he means Judas, because he was of the tribe of Ephraim. Him, then, the leaders of the synagogue of the Jews hired, to serve their bloodthirsty designs and to hand over the Teacher; which indeed was done. Woe, then, to the crown of insolence, he says, that is, to the leaders, who also hired Ephraim, that is, the man of the tribe of Ephraim. And for this cause they became like a flower fallen from glory. For just as it is the glory of flowers to be seen free of withering and in the beauty of their own nature, in the same way, I think, it may be understood of ourselves too. For so long as we are in the state in which we ought to be, we keep the beauty of our own soul quite unspoiled; but when the mind within us is turned aside to what is not fitting, we shall be a flower fallen from the glory that befits it. This the scribes and Pharisees suffered, whetting their purpose and words and undertakings and every outrage against Christ. And where was the flower that fell from glory, and in what way did it lose its portion? “On the top of the fat mountain.” He names Israel a fat mountain: fat, because it was fattened with prosperity; a mountain, because it was set on high by God, in glory, I mean. For he says somewhere himself about those of Israel: “I begot sons and exalted them.” And it is the custom of the divine Scripture sometimes to liken the mother of the Jews, I mean Jerusalem, to a mountain. They lay, then, as a flower on the top of the mountain, that is, above all and over all as leaders, having been allotted by the votes of the law to rule the others. And these were the ones drunk without wine. For “their vine was of the vine of Sodom, and their tendril of Gomorrah; their grape is a grape of gall, a cluster of bitterness for them, and the incurable fury of dragons.” For they got drunk not by drinking this perceptible wine, but by bringing into their minds that of unmixed fury and madness.

“Behold, the wrath of the Lord is strong and harsh, like hail coming down, having no shelter, coming down with violence; like a great quantity of water sweeping a land, it shall make rest for the land, for the hands and for the feet; and the crown of [insolence] shall be trampled …”

In what way the terrible things will befall them, and that they will pay the penalty for their impiety toward Christ, having fallen into the harsh and untamed wrath of him who judges justly, the prophetic word indicates to us by these words. For there will come, there will come, he says, against you the harsh and dreadful wrath of the Lord; and it will come as if hail were falling on some who have no shelter, falling with violence, that is, unbearably, or rather vehemently, all but as if someone were slinging it and hurling it savagely upon some.

It will come, then, like hail, he says, or like a great quantity of water sweeping a land. And this too is irresistible. For when a river, let us say, or a torrent comes down most violently, what will there be to oppose it and to be able to withstand it as it floods the land with the rush of its waters, plainly the land of the Jews? And the onset will be so harsh as even to make rest for the land. And what kind of rest, and for what? For the hands and for the feet. And it will be such …: [those who swim], if the standing of the waters is perhaps quiet and, as it were, gentle to the touch, drawing in and stretching out their feet and hands, and labouring in measure, escape the danger of being drowned; but when the rush of the waters has an attack altogether impossible to approach, the one caught in it ceases swimming in every way and altogether, and seems to be released from toil, but is then drowned, as of necessity and by force, having gone wholly under the water. So the word in a way laughs and speaks ironically, saying that the water makes rest for the land, and rest for the hands and for the feet. For it is as if he were perhaps saying: let no one toil in vain at resisting the calamity about to come upon all. For it will come so violently as to be altogether unapproachable, and the thing will be utterly useless to those who wish to toil. For no one will swim through; but he will be carried off, even against his will, wherever the water that drags him down bears him, that is, the most violent and unbreakable hand of the army of the Romans. Then at last the crown of insolence, the hirelings of Ephraim, will be trampled, that is, will lie under the feet of those who spoke. And who these are we have learned from what was said before.

“[And the flower that fell from the hope] of glory on the top of the high mountain shall be like an early fig; he who sees it, before he takes it into his hand, will want to swallow it.”

What the flower is that fell from the hope of glory, and what its lying and being seen on the top of the high mountain would signify, has been made known from what was said just now. For by the flower, conspicuous as on a mountain, you will well understand Israel, or rather those allotted to lead it. But it will be, he says, like an early fig. For when the fruits on a fig tree are about to ripen, if one perhaps gets ahead of the others and becomes edible somehow, the one who sees it leaps at it eagerly and longs to swallow it, and perhaps, with ardent impulses for it, blames his hand as slow to stretch out, as far as his desire goes, and opening wide his mouth springs at the branches. So, he says, will Israel be to those who seize it. For it was swallowed up, as I said, by the Romans, and became sweet food to those who took it.

“On that day the Lord of hosts shall be the crown of hope, woven of glory, [for my people that is left. They shall be left] by a spirit of judgment for judgment, and strength, preventing to slay.”

The word has made clear to us in these verses what will befall the Lord-slayers and how; and from here on it adds the explanation concerning those who have believed. For Israel did not perish utterly; but the remnant has been saved, according to the prophet's voice. For no small multitude believed in Christ, of which the choir of the holy apostles was a sort of beginning and first-fruits. At that time, then, he says, the Lord of hosts will be the crown of hope, woven of glory, for my people that is left. For the Lord of hosts himself will crown those who have believed with hope and glory: with hope, plainly, of the good things to come, and with glory, because they will reign with him, and, having come within the highest privileges, will be envied and looked up to. For what will be equal, in point of renown, for those who hope to receive the crown of the kingdom in Christ? To these the prophet Isaiah himself says elsewhere: “And you shall be a crown of beauty and a diadem of kingship in the hand of your God.” For Christ will crown those who believe in him with unending glory, and fatten them with a most rich hope. And my people that is left, he says, will share in such things, that is, the remnant from the Jews, the other people too, plainly, being received with them, that is, those of the nations, who, taking great pride in Christ, pray and cry out to the Father and God in heaven: “O Lord, as with a shield of good pleasure you have crowned us.” For by the good pleasure of God the Father, Christ was shown to be and became for us an unbreakable shield, setting himself against the arrows of the evil one on our behalf, and he kept his own people unwounded and unconquered by his wiles. Something of this sort, I think, he indicates when he says of the people that is left, that is, of those … by a spirit of judgment for judgment, and strength, preventing to slay. For of old Satan, so to speak, slew the whole human race at once, letting it down into the pits of sin. “For there was none who did good, not even one; but all turned aside together, they became useless,” according to the Psalmist's word. But when the only-begotten Word of God became man, he judged our cause, he gave judgment as it were between us and Satan who had overreached us, and he decreed his destruction, and removed him from those on the earth as a destroyer and murderer, and saved …, teaching, he says: “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all to myself.” And yet he says plainly: “God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” How then does he say, “Now is the judgment of this world”?

For we are those who of old cried out through the voice of the prophets: “Awake, O Lord, and attend to my judgment, my God and my Lord, to my cause.” And because a just judgment has been made for us, we say in thanksgiving: “I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell all your wonders; I will sing to your name, O Most High.” And …: “[you have maintained my judgment] and my cause; you sat on the throne, judging righteousness; you rebuked the nations, and the ungodly perished.” For the troops of demons were rebuked, and with them perished the ungodly one, that is, Satan. They will be left, then, that is, will be saved, by a spirit of judgment; for he judged and justified, as I said, for judgment and strength, that is, by right judgment and power, plainly that befitting God, preventing the slaying of those who believe in him.

“For these have gone astray through wine; they went astray through strong drink; priest and prophet were beside themselves through wine; they were shaken from the drunkenness of strong drink; they went astray. This is a vision.”

He points out in a way those who have slipped and, through so long a disobedience, have offended God. For such people have gone astray, he says, having taken into their minds wine, or rather darkness, which the most cruel dragon instils into those accustomed to be slack. For the inspired Paul writes that the god of this age has darkened the minds of the unbelievers, so that the light of the gospel of the glory of God should not dawn on them. He very rightly calls wine and strong drink, then, the darkness instilled into the souls of men by the devil's wiles. And he is as it were astounded, not because the most ignorant multitude of the common people is seen to have suffered this alone, but because besides them, priest and prophet were beside themselves through wine. And again he calls “wine” the drunkenness that comes from ignorance; and it is astonishing that one may see priest and prophet suffering this together with the others. For those who were expected to be able to direct all the others to the pursuit of what is profitable and to show the path of salvation, these perhaps received the darkness even before the others, so as to be shaken and carried about by every wind, and this from spiritual drunkenness. One might say that the thing became a sort of vision, that is, amazement or astonishment. By prophet here he does not mean at all the true one, from God, but rather the one who as it were invents prophetic repute for himself, about whom he says through the voice of Ezekiel: “Woe to those who prophesy from their own heart and not from the mouth of the Lord.” And they were rebuked through the voice of Isaiah too; for he says somewhere about Jerusalem: “Her leaders judged for gifts; her prophets [divined] for silver.”

“… A curse shall devour this counsel; for this [counsel is for the sake of greed].”

Having said that priest and prophet alike went astray, and indeed were beside themselves, out of their right mind, through the wine of the vine of Sodom and the spiritual drunkenness, and having added that this is a vision, that is, astonishment and as it were amazement, he at once points out the reason for the astonishment and the charges of the priests' frenzy and drunkenness.

This is why he says, “A curse shall devour this counsel.” For the design of the Jews became truly accursed, I mean the one against Jesus Christ, the Saviour of us all. For God the Father first sent the holy prophets, and they killed them. Then after them he sent the beloved one to receive the fruits of his vineyard, according to the parable in the Gospels. But those who were set over the vineyard, most unfeeling husbandmen, though they understood that he was the son and the master of the estate, said, he says, among themselves: “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and take his inheritance for ourselves.” Accursed, then, he says, is such a counsel. The blessed David also recalls it, saying at one time: “Why did the nations rage, and the peoples plan vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ”; and at another time again about those who committed such offences: “You will pull them down and not build them up, for they intended evils against you; they devised a counsel which they could not establish.” For as far as lay in the power of their undertakings, they killed the son, thinking that they would hold the master's inheritance themselves; but he came to life again as God, and destroyed miserably those wicked men, the accursed and unfeeling husbandmen, and gave out the estate to others, plainly to the holy apostles and evangelists and to the teachers of the holy churches. Accursed, then, is the counsel of the Jews; for it came about for the sake of greed. For it is truly greed for servants to wish to fasten on their master's property and make their own the inheritance of which they had been appointed husbandmen, though they had sufficient wage in the privileges of the priesthood and the honours of being set over the rest.

“To whom have we announced evils? And to whom have we announced a message?”

It is the custom of the holy prophets, and of all the inspired Scripture, to urge and drive man by two things to choose to live rightly. For either by the fears of punishment they break down, as it were, the hardened mind and drive it toward the better, or by promises of rewards they make people bolder in enduring suffering for the sake of the noble deeds of godliness; as in the saying through the voice of Isaiah to the Jews: “And if you are willing and [hear me] …; but if you are not willing and do not hear me, a sword shall devour you; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.” So he all but points out unruly Israel as having dishonoured the words of the holy prophets, saying: “To whom have we announced a message?” Behold, behold to whom, he says; as if to say, to a harsh and disobedient and senseless people we have ministered, and, ferrying across the words from God above, we announced to it evils, that is, the punishments and threats, which will certainly fall on the heads of those accustomed to disobey. We announced a message, that is, we proclaimed the good things [prepared for those who love God]; but intractable Israel … gained nothing at all, …. When, then, he says “to whom”, he indicates one in no way worthy; for even after so clear a foretelling by the holy prophets, they were no less implacable and wicked, having a heart full of every perversity. And they became swift servants of the devil's bitterness; for they handed over to the cross the Saviour and Redeemer of all, I mean Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father, with the Holy Spirit, for ever. Amen.

“You who are weaned from milk, you who are drawn away from the breast, expect affliction upon affliction, hope upon hope, yet a little, yet a little, because of contempt of lips, through another tongue.”

Our first discourse ended at “To whom have we announced evils? And to whom have we announced a message?” Interpreting the force of what was said before, we say that the person of the holy prophets was brought in, rebuking in a way those of the blood of Israel, as having met their words in vain and gained nothing at all, though both evils and a message had been foretold to them. And we take the evils to be the [punishments laid up for those] accustomed [to sin], and the message the honours [promised] in good hopes. Since, then, those of the blood of Israel gained nothing at all, even though the prophets announced to them [the threats and] the promises of the good things to come, “To whom,” he says, “have we announced evils? And to whom have we announced a message?” And when the holy prophets had as it were fallen silent, and had stopped their own discourse at this point, the God of all himself calls out to the saints, saying: “You who are weaned from milk, you who are drawn away from the breast, expect affliction upon affliction, hope upon hope.” For those who would not be admonished, he says, and were very sick with unruliness, were fittingly thrust out, and having become without share in the salvation in Christ, they will go to destruction. But you at last, who have been called through faith to the knowledge of the truth, who have been drawn away, as from a breast and milk, from the tutelage in the law, who once received food fit for infants and had a rather untaught mind, but have now advanced to the perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, and have passed on to the food fitting for the perfect, and have not remained unskilled in the word of righteousness: direct your hearts to receive the new preaching of the gospel way of life, of the decrees through Christ. Be manly in endurance, and if the affliction of temptations and the cruelty of persecutors springs up against you, hold out a little, and for a little while expect afflictions, so that you may also be rich in hope, I mean the hope that is beyond human understanding. “For eye has not seen,” he says, “and ear has not heard, and it has not entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him.” Then he shows what the first affliction against them will be. For he says, “because of contempt of lips, and through another tongue.” The sense of the prophecy is this. In the Acts of the holy apostles it is written that “on the day of Pentecost they were all gathered together in one place, and behold, there came from heaven a sound as of a violent wind rushing.” Then it says: “There appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed, and it sat on each one of them, and they began to speak in other tongues, as [the Spirit gave them utterance].” For Christ [had commanded] them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, until they were clothed with power from on high. Then, going down, they spoke to those of Israel, and to all those from other lands, in the tongues given them by God; and the hearers were amazed, and indeed said: “Behold, are not all these who are speaking Jews? And how do we all hear, each in his own language, as they speak?” “But others said,” it says, “They are filled with new wine,” that is, they are drunk. This, I think, is the “contempt of lips, through another tongue.” For they spoke in other tongues, God who can do all things having foretold this too: “For in other tongues,” he says, “and in the lips of others I will speak to this people, and not even so will they believe.” But when they ought to have received the sign for full assurance, bearing in mind the prediction made by God about it, they did not do this, but reproaching them with drunkenness they remained in

disobedience.

“For they shall speak to this people, saying to it: This is the rest for the one who drinks, and this is the ruin; and they would not hear.”

God said somewhere, indignant at the madness of the Jews: “Behold, I bring a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. And from the east to the west they will run to and fro seeking the word of the Lord, and they shall not find it.” So a spiritual famine was brought on those of Israel; and since they did not receive through faith the bread of life that came down from heaven, very reasonably they came into want of the food given by God. “For man shall not live by bread alone,” he says, “but by every word that proceeds through the mouth of God.” And they behaved with drunken insolence toward the Saviour and Redeemer of all; but since he is good, though they had acted with unbearable impiety, he called them to repentance through the holy apostles. The blessed Peter at any rate addressed them, saying that they had denied the Holy and Righteous One, had killed the author of life, and had asked that a murderer be granted to them. Yet he added this too: “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. Repent, then, and let each of you be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promises are for you and for your children.” So those drawn away from breast and milk, he says, those called to apostleship, having become ministers of the new preaching, [will speak] to this people, showing it clearly what rest there will be for the one who drinks, and what the ruin is, that is, what is profitable and what is the opposite. And it would not hear. Hence, I think, one of the saints, moved, said to them: “Stiff-necked and disobedient in heart, you always resist the Holy Spirit” …. [For though] they had the holy apostles as teachers, leading them to repentance and instilling in them the knowledge of what is profitable, they were arrogant and very hardened, and had turned unrestrainedly to disobedience and an intractable manner.

“And the word of the Lord God shall be to them affliction upon affliction, hope upon hope.”

To whom will it be? Plainly to the holy apostles and evangelists, who, ministering the divine preaching, [enlightened those darkened in error], bringing through faith to Christ those who of old said to the wood, “You are my father,” and to the stone, “You gave me birth.” Yet they did not complete the course of their apostleship without sweat, but [being afflicted] and enduring plots. So the word of the Lord became to them affliction upon affliction, and not only this, but also hope upon hope. For having endured the struggles for godliness toward Christ, they will be in long hopes, or rather unending ones, and will put on the crown of incorruption, [reigning with him].

“Yet a little, yet a little, that they may go and fall backward, and be in danger, and [be broken and be taken].”

He whets the holy teachers of the mysteries to courage and anoints them for endurance. For they preached to those of Israel and proclaimed to them the word of salvation. But these leapt on them like untamed beasts, brought them into councils, and, charging them with the sincerity of their love for Christ as one of the most outrageous things, used bitter abuse against them, and, having maltreated them and torn them with blows of scourges, said: “Did we not strictly charge you to speak to no one in this name? And behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching.” And in other ways too they brought about ruin and sweat for them.

The God of all, then, weaves for them a lasting encouragement, and foretells the destruction of the persecutors that is all but at hand, saying: “Yet a little, yet a little.” For the time will not be long, he says, until they fall backward, are broken and in danger, and indeed are taken and go to destruction. We say that these things befell the peoples of the Jews both spiritually and bodily, that is, perceptibly. For they were in danger and perished in two ways: on the one hand consumed by war and sieges, on the other becoming sweet prey to Satan himself, and [drawing down] on their own heads the [wrath] from ….

“Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you afflicted men and rulers of this people in Jerusalem. Because you said: We have made a covenant with Hades, and agreements with death; if a rushing storm passes, it shall not come upon us; we have made falsehood our hope, and by [falsehood we shall be sheltered].”

For since, he says, what will come upon you is unbearable, and a bitter and hard-to-escape penalty awaits those who are said to be impious to the end, therefore hear the word of the Lord. For it was possible to turn away from evil, by [giving] the mind to the apostolic preaching and readily assenting to whatever Christ says. Hear, then, the word of the Lord, you afflicted men and rulers of this people in Jerusalem. He calls those of Israel afflicted, as burdened by the condemning law. For the law brings about wrath, and anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Accordingly the most wise Paul too, to those who after faith, plainly faith in Christ, wish to return to the shadows of the law, writes and says: “Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians, our heart is opened wide; you are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections; in return, I speak as to children, open wide yourselves also.” [The afflicted], then, would be those still lying under the commandment of Moses, and pressed in a way, having the heaviness of the law in mind and heart. He addressed, then, rulers and peoples. Then in between he inserts a saying of the Jews, unholily invented by them out of madness and as it were out of despair. And what this is I must necessarily say. The God of all, being long-suffering and forbearing, did not at once let loose punishment on those who stumbled, … and by the foretelling of the evils to come he sometimes drove them toward repentance. This is why we shall find him very often saying through the holy prophets, “Behold, it comes,” and “yet a little, yet a little,” and “a very little while.” But the bold and arrogant, when they ought to have corrected their faults by their later conduct, made the Master's gentleness an occasion for laughter.

For as soon as they heard the prophet saying, “Yet a little, yet a little, a very little while,” they at once said to one another: “Long times will lie between the prophet's words and the showing of what was foretold. We shall die, and the divine fury will leap upon those after us.” Indeed God said to the prophet Ezekiel: “Son of man, the sons of [the house of Israel say: The vision that he sees is for] many days, and he prophesies for distant times. Therefore I said: As I live, says Adonai the Lord, none of my words that I speak shall be prolonged any more; for I will speak a word and do it, says Adonai the Lord.” He reproaches those of Israel, then, as accustomed to despise him, and all but saying, “We have made a covenant with Hades, and agreements with death.” And what are these? “If a rushing storm passes, it shall not come upon us.” For all but, he says, even if they do not say it with the voice, they have cried out by their very deeds: “We have made agreements with Hades, for it will take us; even if the storm should come, that is, the danger threatened against us, it shall not come upon us.” For we have made falsehood [our hope]. For those who imagined for themselves what they pleased, and said, “We shall die before the storm,” that is, before the calamities, how did they not make falsehood their hope? For it was not in their power to be able to escape and to forestall by death the onset of what was threatened; rather it lay in the authority of the divine and ineffable power and pre-eminence.

“Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I lay in the foundations of Zion a costly stone, chosen, a cornerstone, precious, in its foundations; and he who believes in him shall not be put to shame. And I will make judgment a hope, and my mercy a balance.”

This must be joined to the words above those in between: “[Hear the] word of the Lord, you afflicted men and rulers of this people in Jerusalem.” And what has he commanded them to hear? “Behold, I lay in the foundations of Zion a costly stone, chosen, a cornerstone, precious, in its foundations; and he who believes in him shall not be put to shame.” He calls our Lord Jesus Christ a chosen stone, costly and precious, distinguished by the glory and pre-eminence of the Godhead. And that he has become the base and support and unshaken foundation of the spiritual Zion, that is, the church, he makes clear by saying that he was laid in the foundations by the Father. And he says that he is a cornerstone, as [reconciling] through one faith [the two] peoples, that from Israel, I mean, and that from the nations; for in the corners of buildings two walls always come together and are [fitted] to one another. “He who believes in him,” he says, “shall not be put to shame.”

See how he in a way relieves those who are pressed, and widens for the afflicted the freedom of the gospel way of life. For, O afflicted ones, he says, behold, I set the chosen stone in the foundations of Zion. And what is the benefit from this? He who believes in him shall not be put to shame. By this he persuades them to free their neck from the heaviness of the law, and to depart from the senseless and feeble shadow, and rather to choose instead the grace through faith, and to seize the justification in Christ, which involves no toil. “And I will make judgment a hope,” he says, “and my mercy a balance.” For as the Saviour himself says: “The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father.” Understanding this the blessed Paul writes and says: “We must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive what was done through the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” We hope, then, that the judgment will come, and that mercy will be shown as befits each, plainly in proportion to what he has accomplished. For this, I think, is what is meant by mercy from him who judges us being “for a balance”, that is, according to the measure of what is just, as it were weighed equally against good deeds.

“And those who trust in vain, false, that the storm shall not pass you; [lest] it take away from you the covenant of death, and your hope toward Hades shall not remain. If a rushing storm comes, you shall be trampled by it. When it passes, it shall take you. Morning by morning it shall pass by day, and in the night there shall be an evil hope.”

I said that, when the holy prophets foretold to those of the blood of Israel what would come and all but showed them the divine wrath already present, they, swollen with pride to outrageous madness, reasoned and said: “Even if these things should perhaps happen, they will be put off to later times, and the end of what was foretold will not be present at once; the time of our life will be spent, and the terrible things will come after us.” And saying and thinking these things, they seemed all but to make agreements with death, and as it were a hope toward Hades. This is why he says to them: “Those who trust in vain, false, that the storm shall not pass you. [Fear] lest it take away from you the covenant of death, and the hope toward Hades shall not remain.” For the Creator of all knows, he knows hearts and reins, and the force of the movements of the mind. When, then, … [having] such a hope, he says: “Lest perhaps, knowing what is in you, he remove from you this agreement with death.” And in what way will he remove it? For if the effects of wrath come, that is, the storm, not some others after you, but you yourselves will be trampled. And it will take you “morning by morning,” that is, not after long, but as it were at dawn and tomorrow. There will be no rest at all from evils; but by day and by night there will be an evil hope; that is, at every time you will be consumed by the expectation of terrible things. For when God wishes to afflict, who will turn aside the onset of the calamity?

… or who fights against the divine fury?

“Learn to hear, you who are hard pressed: We cannot fight, and we ourselves are too weak to be gathered. Like a mountain of the ungodly it shall rise up, and it shall be in the valley of Gibeon. With fury he shall do his works, a work of bitterness; and his fury shall act strangely, and his bitterness …”

The God of all, being very good, wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. This is why, admonishing those who are weak and bringing back to the straight and unerring path those who have neglected their own soul, he goes by every way and word. For at one time he frightens them beforehand toward the better by threats of punishments and the fears of wrath, at another he nets them toward what is profitable by promises of good things. Having threatened, then, and foretold that they would certainly be caught by the storm, that is, by the calamity that was all but upon them, and that at every time they would be in evil hopes, he grants the word of encouragement and does not let them despair; like one of the wisest and most skilful physicians, who treat the sick members of the body at one time with a sharp medicine and the strongest aids against the advance of the passions toward the worse, and at another, as it were charming them with …, soften them well. Having threatened, then, he admonishes, and bids them submit the mind to the gospel preaching, saying: “Learn to hear, you who are hard pressed.” Then he says: “We cannot fight.” And he recalls what happened once in the valley of Gibeon. The rendering of the words, and the very texture of the composition, is very unclear. I think it necessary to tell what comes from the history; for so what is indicated will become plain, though with difficulty, to those who love learning. When Joshua the son of Nun was general and leader of those of Israel, and was falling unbearably on the lands of the nations, and very many had perished, the people of Gibeon, a city of the foreigners, fearing to suffer the same, ran to him, and by lying escaped notice at first, and indeed were received. But when after this it was learned who they were and where they came from, they became water-carriers and wood-cutters for the congregation. Learning this, the kings of the nations, five in number, marched against Gibeon, charging them with having fled for refuge to those of Israel. And since the people of Gibeon were in extremity and reckoned resistance impossible for themselves, they begged to be saved by the hand of Joshua. And he, helping those who had once come under him, set himself against the generals of the foreigners. Then what happened at that time by the hand of God the sacred writing will teach. For it reads thus: “And Joshua came upon them suddenly, having gone the whole night from Gilgal, and the Lord confounded them before the sons of Israel, and they crushed them with a great crushing at Gibeon, and pursued them by the way of the ascent of Horonim, and cut them down as far as Azekah and as far as Makkedah.

And as they fled before the sons of Israel at the descent of Horonim, the Lord also hurled on them hailstones from heaven as far as Azekah; and those who died because of the hailstones were more than those whom the sons of Israel killed with the sword in the battle.” He takes, then, from what befell the ancients an image and type of the help that would come to those of Israel from God, who knows how to save, if they should choose to be persuaded by the words of our Saviour. For you who are hard pressed, he says, that is, who have gone through very great pain, who are as it were crushed by destructions and the fears of what is coming, learn to hear; call on Jesus too for help, and say, as the people of Gibeon did: “We cannot fight, and we are too weak to be gathered,” plainly to resist the enemies who come against us. And what, they say, will come of this? You will know, he says, that even if an attack of ungodly men is carried against you like a mountain, what happened in the valley of Gibeon will happen against them. For against those who make war on you he will do his works with fury, works of bitterness, that is, of wrath. And who is this, but plainly God who helps? “And his fury shall act strangely, and his bitterness is strange.” For a wrath, he says, strange and unaccustomed, will march against those who persecute you; and heaven will make war on them from on high and from above, pouring down the effects of unmixed fury like hail. He says something of this sort through the voice of the Psalmist too: “If my people had heard me, Israel, if it had walked in my ways, I would soon have humbled their enemies, and laid my hand on those who afflict them.”

“And as for you, may you not rejoice, and let not your bonds be strong; for I have heard from the Lord of hosts of things completed and cut short, which he will do upon all the earth.”

The person of the blessed prophet is brought in again, charging the teachers of the Jews and saying that it will in every way be necessary for them not to rejoice, that is, not [to exult in their daring acts] against Christ, [but rather] to shed tears over their own impieties, nor to tighten the bonds of the law upon the peoples under their hand, but rather to allow those who believe in Christ to be outside the old commandment, and, leaving the things in shadows and types, to receive the worship in spirit and truth. For God is spirit, and he must be worshipped in spirit and truth. And that the law was as it were a bond, justifying no one (for it made nothing perfect) …

… no one would doubt that it [bound] those convicted of being liable for transgressions. Hence, I think, the blessed prophet David very rightly counsels those of Israel to go swiftly to the grace through faith, saying: “Let us burst their bonds, and cast away their yoke from us.” For there were, there were those who [ruled over] them as subjects, laying on them the heavy yoke, plainly that of the commandments of the law, and binding them tight as with unbreakable cords. This is why the prophet says to them: “Let not your bonds be strong; for I have heard from the Lord of hosts of things completed and cut short, which he will do upon all the earth.” And what things? The gospel preaching, the grace through faith, the justification in Christ, the sanctification through the Spirit. For the law was neither cut short nor completed; for, as I said, it made nothing perfect. Its teachings were as it were in circles and long circuits of the letter. But the saving preaching has a most perfect and short way; for it leads through faith to righteousness and sanctification. And the law was given to those of Israel alone, Moses ministering it; but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, and no longer to those of Israel alone, but to those throughout the whole earth under heaven. For the inspired Moses addressed those of Israel, speaking thus: “Hear, O Israel”; but our Lord Jesus Christ, through the lyre of the Psalmist: “Hear these things,” he says, “all you nations; give ear, all you who dwell in the …”

“Give ear, and hear my voice; attend, and hear my words.”

Here again the person of the Saviour himself is brought in, all but charming those of Israel, and persuading them very clearly to accept the word of the gospel preaching, and not to cast his words behind the commandment through Moses. And that one must not approach the divine and gospel words carelessly or negligently he makes plain by saying, “Attend, and hear my words.” For attention is needed, and obedience too, for those who have come to this point of good reasoning, so as to seek to fill the breadth of their own mind with the teaching that is above the law, plainly that through Christ. For that, once he was revealed, [turning back to the law is useless] and harmful, Paul will confirm, saying to those who, after faith in him and the cleansing through holy baptism, out of very great foolishness went back to the things of Moses, that is, those in the law: “You have been severed from Christ, you who are justified by the law; you have fallen from grace. For we through faith eagerly await the hope of righteousness.” And it is likely that something else too is hinted at when Christ says, “Attend, and hear my words.” For if …

… [you are willing to apply] your mind and to give the types the attention they deserve, you will certainly hear my words. For I am written of in types, and the force of my decrees has brought in nothing foreign, if indeed the law is understood spiritually. “For if you believed,” he says, “Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me.”

“Will the ploughman plough the whole day? Or will he prepare seed before he works the ground? When he has levelled its face, does he not then sow a little black cummin and cummin, and again sow wheat and barley and spelt in your borders?”

The riddle is very deep, and the sense of the passage is quite hard to see into; but I will speak as far as I can, and as far as possible. The wretched Jews rejected the Saviour's word, and their pretext was their habit of clinging obstinately to the commandment through Moses. For they thought that they were perhaps being godly, claiming the things in types while as it were spitting on the beauty of the truth. This is why they persecuted Jesus too, as diverting the force of the commandment of the law elsewhere and leading them to another worship, I mean that of the gospel. He takes, then, an example from the farming they had in hand, and says, “Will the ploughman plough the whole day?” And what he wishes to indicate is this. The hearts of idolaters are hard and unsoftened, and like some wild ground [they need the] plough, the word that opens them up, plainly that of catechesis, so that they may receive the seed from above and from heaven, and so at last bear fruit to God, the desire and eagerness for every good thing. Something of this sort happened to those of Israel. They were in Egypt among those who worshipped the gods there; but they were called through the all-wise Moses, and the law was given to them, able like a plough to cut open their tightly closed hearts and their mind gone to waste. But it was necessary that they should not only be called to the beginnings of spiritual farming, but, when Christ the Saviour of us all had now shone forth, bear to God the fruit of the power of worship in the Spirit. Since, then, as I said, they rejected the word through Christ, he moves them from such a mind, saying: “Will the ploughman plough the whole day?” Does one who opens up the unploughed, wild, thorn-bearing ground, he says, so that it may be ready to receive the seeds, plough continually? And does one who wishes to work the ground, he says, prepare seed before taking this in mind? “When he has levelled its face, does he not then sow a little black cummin and cummin, and again sow wheat and barley and spelt in your borders?” For it was necessary, it was necessary, he says, that the heart of those being trained should first be levelled by the commandment in types, and as it were …, so that, by the more solid food of spiritual interpretation, it might have what is profitable, that

is, for the face of the land to be made ready, so as to be seen most ready to be fit at last for bearing fruit. But the farmer, he says, even when he has levelled the face of the land, does not at once nor first of all … but whatever are meanwhile small and weak, that is, …; [when] the land [is ready] for bearing fruit, then at last he sows, he says, both wheat and barley and spelt. For this is the manner of skilful farming in your borders. So the law became of old all but the leveller beforehand; and, like a most skilful farmer, sowing in those being trained … small things and as in shadows, and such seeds as are by themselves and alone in no way edible, but certainly need combining with others in order to be seen to be useful too. For if they are added to wheat and barley, that is, to bread made from wheat or barley, then they seem somehow very useful. And such somehow is the force of the worship according to the law too. For unless it can be seen to agree … with the gospel worship, alone and by itself it would [profit] nothing.

“And you shall be instructed by the judgment of [your] God, and shall rejoice. For black cummin is not cleaned with harshness, nor does a wagon wheel go round over the [cummin, but black cummin is beaten out with a rod], and cummin shall be eaten with bread. [For I will not be angry with you for ever], nor shall the voice of my bitterness trample you. And these wonders came forth from the God of hosts.”

Since the law was powerless, he says, for the cleansing of sins, the shadow has been removed, the things in types have been shown useless, and the life-giving and truly most profitable judgment has been brought in. And what is this? Since it was not possible for man to be justified in the law, the only-begotten Word of God appeared to us, … setting before us, that is, justification in faith. You, then, O Israel, he says, having submitted your neck docilely to Christ, the Saviour of all, will be instructed by the judgment that comes from him, that is, to learn [what comes] from [him, and you will rejoice in] gladness. And since he has once made mention of black cummin and cummin, he takes something useful from them, and says, “For black cummin is not cleaned with harshness,” and what follows. For Israel was liable for transgressions, and was found to have been slack even in keeping the law itself. The God of all at any rate said: “This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” Would it not, then, very reasonably have paid the penalty for its slackness toward the law? Yes, he says. But the lawgiver's purpose is loving to humankind. For just as black cummin, he says, is not cleaned harshly, nor does a wagon wheel go round over cummin, plainly threshing it and grinding it fine, as is done with grain, but it is rather cleaned with a rod, that is, beaten out, so will the lawgiver deal with those who have sinned against the law, not exacting harsh penalties, but rather cleansing them with a rod and measured blows.

By adding that cummin will be eaten with bread, he showed that the outward part of the worship of the law, by itself and alone, is useless for profit; but it will be useful and necessary if it is joined to the solid food, that is, to the gospel decrees. And interpreting the riddle, I mean that about the cummin and the black cummin, and showing what it means, he says: “For I will not be angry with you for ever, nor shall the voice of my bitterness trample you.” For I will not be one who holds a grudge, he says, nor will I decree the final penalty against you, nor bring a bitter judgment on you, so that you become trampled by what comes from wrath. And that here again the God of all is seen to have gone to the height of forbearance, he shows besides, saying: “And these wonders came forth from the Lord of hosts.” For it is truly a wonder and a sign not to be wondered at lightly that Israel, being in so many trespasses, should be shown mercy and gain forgiveness of countless charges, God …. Having promised them forgetfulness of their drunken outrages, and having said very well that he will not be too bitter against them, he bids them lay hold of good counsel; but he blames them because, thinking a vain comfort something great and lofty, they are carried beyond what is reasonable. And what was the comfort they thought great but which was profitless? Surely that one. For they said: “We will make a covenant with Hades, and agreements with death; if a rushing storm comes, it shall not come upon us; we have made falsehood our hope, and by falsehood we shall be sheltered.” But those who thought these things and had an empty hope, supposing that they would die before the terrible things came, heard clearly: “If a rushing storm comes, you shall be trampled by it. When it passes, it shall take you.”

“Woe, city of Ariel, which David warred against. Gather produce year upon year; for you shall eat with Moab. For I will afflict Ariel, and its strength and its wealth shall be [mine]. And I will encircle you like David, and I will cast a rampart about you, and set towers about you; and your [words] shall be humbled to the ground, and your words shall sink into the ground. And your voice shall be like those who speak from the ground, and your voice shall grow weak toward the earth.”

He takes something of what happened historically in the time of the reign of the blessed David, and makes it … by the synagogue of the Jews. For the things that [happened] as in shadows to the ancients are types of the true things. So the present Jerusalem was once Jebus. This the blessed David besieged. And for what cause we shall learn from the sacred writings themselves. For it reads thus in the Second of Kingdoms: “And David and all his men went to Jerusalem, to the Jebusite who inhabited the land; and it was said to David, David shall not enter here; for the blind and the lame stood up, saying that he shall not enter here. And David took the stronghold of Zion; this is the city of David. And David said on that day: Everyone [who strikes] … the blind and the lame who fight against …” [Those] of Jerusalem, or Jebus, the blind and lame resisted, and having done this they perished miserably.

For he took it. And at the time of his coming the inhabitants of Jerusalem, lame and blind, resisted Christ the Saviour of all; for they did not [know how] to walk straight. Nor did they receive the divine light into their minds, those who did not admit the faith, especially the scribes and Pharisees. Indeed he said through the voice of David: “Foreign sons lied to me; foreign sons grew old, and limped away from their paths.” And Paul too writes to them, saying: “Therefore lift up the drooping hands and the weakened knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.” And that they were blind as well the Saviour himself will confirm, saying: “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” For the nations recovered their sight, though they had never seen; but the peoples of the Jews were blinded, though they saw the mystery of Christ as far as the initiation through the law goes. He pronounces Jerusalem wretched, then, and says, “Woe, city of Ariel,” using the name customary among the many. For Ariel is interpreted “lion of God.” And since Jerusalem made unbearable attacks against all the other lands and nations, conquering through God, and like a lion seizing and tearing those who rose against her, she obtained such a name. Woe, then, he says, O wretched city, who once roared like a lioness against the nations, but afterwards fell into such bitter and incurable calamities. For David warred against her of old, and after him he who came of his seed, that is, Christ. Then he says to them: “Gather produce year upon year; for you shall eat with Moab.” For during two whole years our Lord Jesus Christ went about all Judaea, using most wise teachings, and set before them the divine and gospel preaching. Since the time, then, he says, is present, and allows you to gather spiritual food and heap it up as in a storehouse, in mind and heart, do not be sluggish about this, but rather [shake off] all hesitation; [for you shall eat] with Moab. The land of the Moabites was once most superstitious, and there was no one at all in it who would consent to worship him who is God by nature and truly. So, as from one idolatrous land, he takes the whole person of those in error, and says, “For you shall eat with Moab.” For the nations too [have been called], and the gospel and saving preaching became common food both for those of the blood of Israel and for those once in error. Then … to this first saying. For he said, “Woe, city of Ariel.” Then, having inserted in between the counsel, he keeps again to his purpose, and says: I said, Woe, city of Ariel; for I will afflict it, and its strength and its wealth shall be mine; that is, I will take all its wealth and all its strength. And you will understand this both perceptibly and spiritually. For their earthly [wealth] has been emptied out; the strength that was once great and famous has been shattered, for they were conquered by the hand of the Romans. And besides this they have become bare of the glories of virtue, and, sick with poverty of every good, they have lost together with the rest the wealth of wisdom in the law too. And saying, “I will encircle you with a rampart, I will set towers against you,” he indicates the siege that took place against Jerusalem after the Saviour's cross. And since the Pharisees became boasters, and belched out terrible and exalted words against Christ (for they said, “We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from”), this is why he says, “Your words shall be humbled to the ground.” And it is not at all the words themselves that will truly suffer this, but those who dared to speak them will be cast down, those who once were wont to speak burdensome and swollen things, brought down by the evils of war. They will have a small and very weak voice, and will utter it like those who speak from the ground, that is, the necromancers, who, when

they pretend to bring up a soul, utter barely a thin squeaking sound, as though the soul itself were speaking quietly and from the ground.

“And the wealth of the ungodly shall be like dust from a wheel, and like chaff carried along, and it shall be like a moment, suddenly, from the Lord of hosts.”

He calls ungodly those who behaved with drunken insolence toward Christ, handed the Redeemer over to the cross, and put the Giver of salvation to death, though he came to life again as God in the flesh. Their wealth, he says, will vanish like dust, and fly off like chaff from a wheel; and not over a length of time, but in a short while, and as it were in a moment. And that it comes from the Lord of hosts he has necessarily made known, so that no empty hope may mock them as they expect that they will even escape.

“For there shall be a visitation with thunder and earthquake and a great voice, a rushing storm, [and a flame of devouring fire].”

What “from the Lord of hosts” is meant to show he makes clear by saying that there will be a visitation upon them. For God the Father will by no means overlook the charges of impiety toward the Son. But he will bring, he says, like a thunder and earthquake, a storm and a devouring flame of fire, the onset of war.

“And the wealth of all the nations, as many as marched against Jerusalem, and all who gathered against it and afflicted it, shall be like one who dreams in his sleep; and they shall be like those in sleep who hunger and eat, and when they rise their dream is vain. And as the thirsty man dreams that he is drinking, and when he rises is still thirsty, and his soul hoped in vain, so shall the wealth of all the nations be, as many as marched against Mount Zion.”

Having said that the wealth of the ungodly, plainly of those who behaved with drunken insolence toward Christ, will be like dust and like chaff from a wheel, [he shows that] it will not be a safe and secure possession even for those who ravaged them …, he says, just as if some … in a night vision …, nothing at all. For when they wake they will recognize the deceit of the dreams, and what they thought true they will certainly find to be a shadow and a seeming. Something of this sort may be seen also in those held by hunger or thirst. For the nature of the body necessarily craves what belongs to it, even when sleep has sometimes charmed the mind; nonetheless nature [imagines that it] is in possession of whatever it may wish. From this, I think, some vapours and thin images of the thing run about the mind; but the seeming will be vain and altogether profitless when sleep at last departs from the eyes. So, he says, let the wealth of all the nations be, as many as marched against Mount Zion. And when or how these things came about …

“[Be faint, and be amazed, and reel], not from strong drink, nor from wine; for the Lord has made you drink a spirit of stupor, and he will close their eyes, and those of their prophets and their rulers, who see the [hidden] things.”

He converses again with those who despised the divine decrees and made it their practice to count as nothing the divine and heavenly preaching, I mean that of the gospel. For though it was present to them, and very readily …, to gain the grace of the salvation through Christ by bringing the docile [neck] of the mind …, [but] resisting and thinking great things of themselves they said unrestrainedly: “We are disciples of Moses; we know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” But they heard Christ saying clearly: “I am the light of the world.” And again: “While you have the light, walk in the light, so that darkness may not overtake you.” But since, though [hearing] such venerable words, they became in no way better or wiser than themselves, but were found at last to be hard and unbending, then at last they were very reasonably overtaken by the darkness; they were undone in a way, and were beside themselves, out of their right mind, and as though reeling from wine [fell into] every kind of outrage. [This is why] he says to them: “Be faint, and be amazed, and reel, not from strong drink, nor from wine.”

For it knows, it knows how to make the mind drunk, not at all only perceptible wine, or the intoxicating mixture, that is, strong drink. Rather calamities do this more violently, and a kind of hardening that comes upon the understanding from the divine wrath; for this, I think, he teaches when he says: “And he will close their eyes, and those of their prophets and their rulers, who see the hidden things.” For those who of old were made wise through the tutelage of the law, and still beheld the beauty of the truth as in faint shadows, and understood in part the words of the holy prophets, will be deprived even of this. For he will close the eyes of their understanding, though they once saw the hidden things, he says, ruler and prophet, that is, leader and priest. For they called prophets those who busied themselves with the writings of the holy prophets. And there were among the Jews some teachers and instructors with a reputation for learning in the law, as for example Gamaliel, of whom there was much talk among them.

“And all these words shall be to you like the words of this sealed book, which, if they give it to a man who knows letters, saying, Read this, he will say, I cannot read it, for it is sealed. And this book shall be given into the hands of a man who does not know letters, and he will say to him, Read this, and he will say, I do not know letters.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ said somewhere to the Jews: “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, and you do not want to come to me that you may have life.” So those of Israel toiled in vain, always reciting the commandment through Moses up and down, and pretending to have gained no ignoble understanding of the writings of the law in mind and heart, yet not seeking Christ, though the law speaks of his mystery. They heard … in vain. This the wretches did not do … “[For if you believed Moses, you would believe] me; for he wrote about me.” So since the word of the law did not count for much with them, but rather they killed the one foretold through it, and disregarded the honour due to Moses, the inspired Scripture was in a way sealed by God like one book. For it is all one, and has been spoken through the one Holy Spirit. And in what way was it sealed? Neither can those able to read and who know letters understand anything of what is in it, nor, if anyone does not know letters, will he come to know what is hidden in it; but the law will be sealed for all in equal measure, so that the force of its meaning is altogether beyond the grasp even of those who know the wording. And this … “Let their eyes be darkened so that they do not see, and bow down their back always.”

“And the Lord said: This people draws near to me with their mouth, and with their lips they honour me, but their heart is far from me. In vain

they worship me, teaching the commandments and teachings of men.”

For the Jews, pretending to see the depth of the commandments of the law, and having on their tongue the commandment given long ago to the fathers, measured the force of the worship of God by this alone. For they did nothing at all of what was decreed, but, as it were dishonouring the lawgiver's will, turned to teachings and the commandments of men. For, devising some idle traditions for themselves, they thought that they loved God and were good, but were convicted by the facts themselves of having senselessly leapt away from love toward God. So, as regards having the law on the tongue, they thought themselves near to God; but by not consenting to fulfil it they went off departing, and came to be somewhere outside him. For that … would become plain: “For the scribes and Pharisees once came to the Saviour, saying: Why do your disciples transgress the commandment of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. And to this the Lord said: Why do you too transgress the commandment of God? For God said: Honour your father and your mother; and, He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death. But you say: Whoever says to his father or his mother, Whatever you would have gained from me is a gift, shall not honour his father or his mother; and you have made void the commandment of God because of your tradition.” And he added to these the saying before us; for he said: “Hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: This people honours me with their lips.” So since, dishonouring the tutor and counting the law from God of no account, they turned [to the commandments of men], the book of the inspired Scripture was for this reason very reasonably sealed. For it was not fitting that those who [despised it] should be enriched with the understanding that comes through the inspired Scripture.

“Therefore, behold, I will proceed to remove this people, and I will remove them, and I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will hide the understanding of the prudent.”

The people of the Jews was as it were removed, I think, in many ways. For it was called the portion of God, his share and measured lot; but it was removed, as it were. For it is no longer called his portion, but has become a portion for foxes, and has been given to Satan and the unclean spirits for food; and it was removed also from right thinking to a base mind, from glory to dishonour, from strength to weakness, from being wise to the utmost foolishness. For I will destroy, he says, the wisdom of the wise, and I will hide the understanding of the prudent. For the scribes and the Pharisees seemed to be wise and of much judgment, having a reputation for learning in the law; but the understanding of the wise was hidden by God and all but shrunk, that is, the law, or rather the inspired [Scripture].

“Woe to those who take counsel deeply, and not through the Lord; [woe to] those who take counsel in secret, and their works shall be in darkness, and they shall say: Who has seen us? And who shall know us, or what we do?”

When the God of all decrees a penalty and punishment on any, he at once adds the causes of the matter and sets out clearly the charges against those who suffered, so that he may be seen to be just, punishing everything with justice. He said, then, that the peoples of the Jews would be wholly without understanding, the law being sealed, and that, all the understanding in them having been taken away, they would remain blind, plainly spiritually. What, then, are the charges, and on what account …? For all the designs they made against Christ … were also at odds with God. For this, I think, is what “not through the Lord” means. And indeed they thought that among themselves they were taking counsel secretly, and … of bitter undertakings, so that perhaps they even said, “Who has seen us? Or who will know what we do?” But they did not know that no counsel or bitter design of man, and no force of undertakings, could escape the divine and pure mind, even if one should do whatever it may be in darkness and in secret. For they hired the traitor Judas, all but saying, “Let us bind the righteous man, for he is troublesome to us.” And indeed they handed him over to the cross, and, as far as lay with them, killed the author of life; and when he had risen again from the dead they fastened on him fiercely, and secretly did what came from an unholy and envious mind. For knowing that he had been raised, they gave the soldiers who guarded the tomb a large sum of money, so that they should say that his disciples, escaping notice by night, had stolen him. … they were accustomed, not rather through the Lord, but as in ….

“[Shall you not be reckoned] as the potter's clay? Shall the thing formed say to him who formed it, Did you not form me? Or the thing made to him who made it, You did not make me with understanding?”

Having said, “I will remove this people,” he shows in these words that he will certainly accomplish the thing, and very easily, saying that they will be refashioned into whatever their Creator may wish, just like things fashioned by the hands of a potter. The prophet Jeremiah too was taught something of this sort: “Arise,” he says, “and go down to the potter's house, and there you shall hear my words. And I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he was making a work on the stones; and the vessel which he was making fell from his hands; and again he made it into another vessel, as it pleased him to make it. And the Lord said to me: Shall I not be able to make you as this potter does, O house of Israel? Behold, as the potter's clay, so are you in my hands.” For the craftsman and Creator of all easily refashions what he has made into whatever he may choose.

“Is it not yet a little while, and Lebanon shall be changed like Mount Carmel, and Mount Carmel shall be reckoned a forest?”

Having said that they will be like the potter's clay, and will be refashioned toward what is more shameful because of the very great sin in them, he shows clearly in what way the thing will come about, and in a way makes bright what seems to have been said obscurely. Lebanon is a mountain of Phoenicia, and all the people who lived on it and around it were among the most superstitious; and likewise Mount Carmel was in the land of the Jews, very great, on which Elijah the Tishbite is said to have lived. So from the mountains, or rather from the lands in which the mountains are, he wishes to signify those who live in them, and he says that Lebanon will be changed and will be like Mount Carmel. And those who once served idols will come to know the God worshipped in Judaea, and will be counted in the rank of Israel the firstborn; while those of the seed of Israel will become like those who live on Lebanon and were once in error. For Israel has been cast out of kinship with God because of its impiety toward Christ; but the nations have been taken in, and, sanctified through the Spirit, have become partakers of the divine nature. Lebanon, then, he says, will be changed like Mount Carmel, and Mount Carmel will be reckoned a forest, that is, as a wood of wild trees, whose end is burning. Or in another way too: for those who ravaged Israel became as it were woodcutters to them; and this, I think, the prophet Zechariah indicates when he says: “Open your doors, O Lebanon, and let fire devour your cedars. Let the pine wail, for the cedar has fallen. Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been torn down.” See, then, that he too likens Judaea to Lebanon, as in no way differing from those once in it, that is, those in error. And he calls those who fell in it pine and cedar and oak. For being lofty and raised up on high, they were consumed as by fire by the divine wrath.

“And on that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and those in darkness and those in the [mist, the eyes of the blind shall see; and] the poor shall [rejoice] through the Lord in gladness, and those of the nations who had despaired shall be filled with [gladness].”

In these verses he shows us most clearly the calling of the nations. And one may see the nature of things turning out as by a reversal. For he said that the book of the law, or rather of all the inspired Scripture, would be sealed, and that the knowledge of the divine oracles would be hidden from the mind of the Jews, so that the one who knows letters would say, “I cannot read it, for it is sealed,” and the one who does not would say, “I do not know letters”; but that the nations would be called to the knowledge of God and the

light of the gospel preaching would enter their mind and heart, and that they would understand the very law given through Moses, though they were once deaf and unhearing, and spent their time as in mist and darkness, that is, in ignorance and error; this he makes clear. And he says that they will rejoice, not in any other things of this life, but in the Lord, that is, Christ. For being poor, and having nothing good in their mind, but being in want of every virtue and having no hope (for they were without God in the world, as it is written), they will be filled with gladness. For they will be both free from sin and full of sanctification, stronger than death and full of the hopes that come from God, sharing in unending gladness.

“The lawless one has failed, and the arrogant one has perished, and those who act lawlessly in wickedness have been utterly destroyed, and those who make men sin by a word; and all who reprove in the gates [they will make a stumbling block, and they turned aside the] righteous [in unjust things].”

As those of Israel have been removed and cast out of kinship with God, though not altogether (for the remnant has been saved, according to the prophet's voice), he says that the lawless and arrogant one has failed: lawless, as not having kept even the law itself, but having turned rather to the teachings and commandments of men; and very arrogant and terribly puffed up, as having dishonoured Christ. For at one time they said: “Is not this the carpenter's son, whose father and mother we know? How then does he say that he has come down from heaven?” And at another time again: “Abraham died, and the prophets died, and you say, If anyone hears my word he will never see death. Whom do you make yourself?” And indeed elsewhere one might see the scribes and Pharisees saying most unholy things: “He has a demon and is mad; why do you listen to him?” So those who always acted lawlessly were utterly destroyed, because of their great wickedness and the greatness of their perversity. And these were the ones who made men sin by a word; for, leading the peoples under their hand away, as I said, from reverence for the law, they made them sin by their own word, persuading them to keep their own commandments, and contriving that these be counted as law. And what was still more unholy than these things, they made a stumbling block of those who reproved in the gates. For the holy prophets, ferrying across the words from above and from God, sometimes reproved those of Israel, and this openly and not in secret, but as it were in the gates. But those who were allotted to lead the flocks under their hand, and who ought to have trained them toward everything useful, made a stumbling block of the profitable reproofs of those who run outside the straight and blameless way, perhaps calling them deceivers and liars. For their aim was always to twist the force of the just in unjust matters. For this, I think, is what “they turned aside the righteous in unjust things” means: as when the law says, “Honour your father and your mother,” and, “He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death,” they taught those born of parents to say to them, “Whatever you would have gained from me is a gift.” And if they said this, he shall not honour his father or his mother. Let it be allowed, he says, not to honour father or mother. For this Christ reproached them with, saying: “You have made void the commandment of God because of your tradition.”

“Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the house of Jacob, which he set apart from Abraham: Jacob shall not now be ashamed, nor shall Israel now change his face; but when their children see my works, for my sake they shall sanctify my name, and they shall sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and [shall fear] the God [of Israel].”

The word of the prophecy everywhere returns to soberness, and …. For he said, “The lawless one has failed, the arrogant one has perished; those who act lawlessly in wickedness have been utterly destroyed.” But since it was likely that some, out of very great ignorance, would think that God had spoken falsely, Israel not having perished altogether, but the remnant, as I said, having been saved, for this reason he very usefully makes mention of the hope kept for Israel in the last times of the age. They too will be called

through faith in Christ, and will run after the nations. For when, he says, the fullness of the nations has come in, then all Israel will be saved. What then does he say? “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the house of Jacob, which he set apart from Abraham.” For Israel had been chosen out of all the nations, and was as it were an exceptional portion for God, from Abraham and [Isaac]. They will [not now be ashamed], he says, nor will they now change their face; that is, not immediately, when they have acted impiously toward Christ, will they come to recognize their own sin and be ashamed, and as it were withdraw, so as not to be seen to be such. For this, I think, is what changing the face means. But as time goes on, when those who come from them see my works, that is, when they behold the earth under heaven called, and those throughout the whole earth believing in me; when they see the [overthrow], plainly, of that ancient and profane error, and the precincts of idols burned together, then they will sanctify my name, as if to say, they too will count me holy; and they will sanctify me as being in truth the Holy One of Jacob and the God of Israel. For so they will fear me; and the fear of God is always somehow a way to salvation. For it is written that “the fear of the Lord makes life.”

“And those who err in spirit shall know understanding, and those who murmur shall learn to obey, [and the stammering tongues shall learn to speak peace].”

For having sanctified the name of Christ, the Saviour of us all, and having firmly believed that he is the Holy One of Jacob and the God of Israel, they will know understanding, though they were once held by a spirit of error and had the law sealed …. [And those who murmur will learn] to obey. For the peoples of the Jews murmured against Christ, at one time saying: “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” and at another, besides these things, not refusing even to persecute him, and recording the truth against him as the substance of a charge. For the Saviour of all named himself Son of God the Father, and, showing that the shadow of the law was nothing, set forth the beauty of worship in the Spirit. But they persecuted him, “not only,” it says, “because he was breaking the Sabbath, but also because he called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” … he says, and the stammering tongues will learn to speak peace. For the tongues of those accustomed not to speak rightly about Christ stammered; but they will learn, he says, to speak his things, and rather to utter what makes for peace, no longer departing to their former madness, but rather submitting the neck of their mind to him. And one speaks peace toward Jesus if he says: “O Lord our God, take possession of us; apart from you we know no other; we name your name.”

“Woe, apostate children, thus says the Lord: [you made a counsel not through me, and agreements not] through my Spirit, to add sin upon sins; who go to go down into Egypt, but did not ask me, to be helped by Pharaoh and sheltered by the Egyptians. For the shelter of Pharaoh shall be to you for shame, and a reproach to those who trust in Egypt; for there are in Tanis princes, evil messengers; in vain shall they labour for a people that will not profit them, neither for help nor for profit, but for shame and reproach.”

He again pronounces wretched those of Israel, as lovers of sin who have become apostates, very wicked and taking bitter counsels, not through God. For it is not right [for those taking counsel against God to take counsel] with God; but everyone who is godly and good and a lover of righteousness will go with God to what must be done. For it is written that “the thoughts of the righteous are judgments.” He accuses, then, rejected Israel of having brought a mind at odds with God against Christ. For they deliberated in council, and indeed said: “What are we doing? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on thus, the Romans will come and take away both our city and our land.” And another of those set among the leaders said: “You know nothing at all, that it is expedient that one man should die and the whole nation not perish.” The Lord teaches this same thing more clearly in the gospel parables, that “the householder who planted the vineyard sent his servants to receive the fruits, and the husbandmen killed them.” And the charges of their impiety did not stop at this; but when they saw the son also sent by the father after the servants, they said, it says, among themselves: “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and take his inheritance for ourselves.” Apostates, then, are those who introduced such bitter and unholy designs, who added sin upon sins; for they killed, as I said, holy prophets, and then after them the heir himself, that is, the son. And that from long ago their mind looked toward apostasy from God, he tries to convince them, saying: “Who go to go down into Egypt, but did not ask me, to be helped by Pharaoh and sheltered by the Egyptians.” He has thrown in between the words, “but did not ask me.” The sequence of thoughts runs thus: Woe, he says, to those who go down into Egypt to be helped by Pharaoh and to find shelter from the Egyptians. For when war and battle were announced to them, and the king of Assyria had moved arms against the land of the Jews, they ran ahead to the Egyptians and called for help from them, though they ought to have appeased God and, by running toward better things, to have wiped away the things in which they had offended him ….

… they would not have been brought under the feet of those who made war on them; the experience of those who had gone before will confirm it. For whom did they not conquer? Whom did they not master through God? But counting it nothing to be saved by him, or rather deciding that the almighty right hand was unable to save anyone, they sought help from men. But the thing will be to them, he says, for shame and reproach. For there are in Tanis, he says, princes, evil messengers. For those of Israel went down into Egypt, and thought, as I said just now, that the help of the leaders, or rather kings, in Tanis would suffice them. But some came there too, announcing to the rulers of the land evil and grievous things; for [the king of Babylon] had moved war against the Egyptians. In vain, then, he says, will those of Israel toil, running to a people that will in no way be able to profit them. For it will be to them neither sufficient for help nor able to free them from the evils hanging over them, but for shame and reproach. For it always follows for those who have turned their heart away from hope in God that they fall in every way and altogether into every evil. And the blessed David speaks truly when he says: “It is good to hope in the Lord rather than to trust in man.” For he rescues and frees from every evil those who love him and are eager to devote themselves to him. As one who has beheld something of what would come in time upon the land of the Jews, the prophet now gives us the account. And I say that we must recall again the history to which his word refers; for so the force of the passage will be easy to see for those who read it. When Jeconiah son of Eliakim was reigning over the land of the Jews, and then Israel had turned far toward apostasy from God and was devoted to the worship of idols, and was greatly provoking the God of all against itself, very many words came to them through the voice of Jeremiah, calling them to [repentance], to wipe off the blame of their error, or rather to [shake off] the charges of their utmost impiety, moving to the better and running back to the truth. But they were hard and would not be admonished, shaking off the words of the holy prophets; and … them by events, God who can do all things raised up Nebuchadnezzar, who took Judaea, burned its cities and villages, and set Zedekiah over it. And when he too revolted, the Assyrian, vexed, marched again against Jerusalem; and having taken it, and burned the divine temple itself, he returned to his own land. … and those able to escape the sword of the Babylonians went down with their whole households into Egypt, though God did not permit them to do this, but said most clearly through the voice of Jeremiah: “Do not go down into Egypt.” And since they remained no less disobedient, they perished in Egypt. For Nebuchadnezzar took that too, and slew the Egyptians together with those of Israel. This, then, is the cause and occasion of the vision, and as it were its whole setting. And I think we must explain each part, as far as we can.

“[The vision of the four-footed beasts in the desert.] In affliction and distress, the lion and the lion's whelp from there, and asps and the offspring of flying asps, who carried their wealth on asses and camels to a nation that will not [profit them …; the Egyptians] will profit you [in vain and emptily]. Tell them: This comfort of yours is vain.”

The inspired Joshua, plainly the son of Nun, allotted the land of the promise to those of the blood of Israel. And they say that the tribe of Judah especially received the parts of the land of the Jews toward the east and south, … [on the road] leading those who wished into the land of the Egyptians. In the time, then, of affliction and distress, that is, when Nebuchadnezzar was besieging and pressing hard and crushing the cities of Judaea, “the lion and the lion's whelp from there.” By lions perhaps he means those allotted to lead, the most powerful, who were in [positions of power] over the others; … and by asp and the offspring of asps again others, bitter and venomous, brought up in unmixed wickedness. And when he says “flying”, you will understand those who readily and swiftly go to every outrage. And all are wicked and very bitter, admittedly, who have departed from love toward God, and say to the wood, “You are my father,” and to the stone, “You gave me birth,” and give reverence to the works of their own hands. These, then, carried off on asses and camels the wealth that was left to them to a nation that will not profit them for help, but for shame and reproach. For the thing was altogether useless to them, and the comfort became vain, that is, what they thought to be a consolation for them. For they perished, as I said, together with those who inhabited the land of the Egyptians, when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed that too by force. It is a most terrible thing, then, to offend God, if he brings wrath upon any. For every design of theirs is idle, and nothing at all will save those against whom it comes. “For the uplifted hand, who will turn it back?” as it is written.

“Now therefore sit and write these things on a tablet and in a book, for these things shall be for days of seasons, and even for ever. For it is a disobedient people, lying sons, who would not hear the law of God; who say to the prophets, Do not announce to us; and to those who see the visions, [Do not speak to us …; turn] us from this way; take away from us this path, and take away from us the …”

As the things would happen in due time, he commanded that they be written down, and bids them be recorded. For it will come about, he says, that in days of seasons they will be counted worthy even of everlasting remembrance. And the word is true; for the prophets' records will always be known, even to the consummation of the present age. They must be recorded, then, he says, for they are a disobedient people. And the thing will be for their profit; for if they disobey the holy prophets who will come at that time, they will be put to shame [by what was written] by you. He calls them lying, I think again, because they did not keep sincerity in godliness toward God, but belied the promise they made when God, who rules us all, was laying down for them through Moses the laws on Mount Sinai. For we shall find that they plainly said: “All that the Lord God has said we will do and we will hear.” So when the law enjoined and said, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone you shall serve,” and “You shall not make for yourself an idol,” they counted the commandment as nothing; for they served idols. For this reason he very fittingly calls them lying sons. And David too sings somewhere and says: “The enemies of the Lord lied to him”; and indeed, as from the person of Christ, “foreign sons,” he says, “lied to me.” And the occasion of such a sickness was that they counted the law worthy of no respect, and dishonoured even the words of the holy prophets. And he teaches this, saying: “Who would not hear the law of God; who say to the prophets, Do not announce to us; and

to those who see the visions: Do not speak to us, but speak to us other things, and announce to us another deceit, and turn us from this way, and take away from us the oracle of the Holy One of Israel.”

For those of Israel often fell fiercely upon many holy prophets, shouting and saying these things. One may see it very clearly when Jeremiah urged them, “Do not go down into Egypt,” and they said to this: “It is false; the Lord did not send you; but the son of Neriah sets you against us,” and what follows.

“[Therefore thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel:] Because you disobeyed these words, and hoped in falsehood, and because you murmured and trusted in this word, therefore this sin shall be to you like a wall suddenly falling of a strong city that has been taken, whose fall came suddenly; and its fall shall be like the breaking of an earthen vessel, [small pieces] of pottery, so that no potsherd shall be found among them in which you may carry fire, or in which you may draw a little water.”

He tries to teach that choosing to disobey the [words] of the holy [prophets], and trying heedlessly to enforce whatever came into one's mind, will in every way and certainly come to a most grievous end for them. For since you rebuked the words of the prophets, calling them deceit, and saying unholily, “Take away from us the oracle of the Lord,” for this reason this sin will fall upon you like the wall of a captured city, and this suddenly, that is, not after long; a city, I mean, so shattered, as when an earthen vessel is broken into small pieces, so that each of the fragments is altogether useless, and no one can either carry fire anywhere in it or draw a small amount of water. By these words he hints that so great a penalty will fall on the disobedient, and so great a calamity leap upon them, as to bring them to the utmost misery, and that none at all will be found among them who has remained outside, not having come to the end of evils.

“Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel: When you turn back and groan, then you shall be saved, and you shall know where you were, when you trusted in vain things.”

Having hung over them the most extreme of all penalties, and usefully frightened them with the fears of what is to come, he at once shows both the cause of the wrath against them and the way of salvation. For the Creator is kind and loves humankind, and, as he himself says somewhere through the voice of Ezekiel, “he does not will the death of the one who dies, so much as that he should turn from his evil way and live.” Israel, then, is punished as having run wholly away from love toward God, and [being devoted] to the worship of idols …, being carried outside …. For when, he says, you turn as from a base and foul way, I mean from worshipping the creation and offering reverence to wood and stone, then you will be saved, and besides this you will learn at last where you were in your mind, or rather in your ignorance, when you trusted in vain things. For if they are not able to suffice for themselves, how could they grant help to others? For what is more powerless than an idol? For the gods of those in error are lifeless matter and nothing else.

“Your strength has become vain, and you would not [hear; but you said: We will flee on horses]; therefore you shall flee; [and you said:] We will be on swift riders; therefore those who pursue you shall be swift. At the voice of one a thousand shall flee, and at the voice of many shall they flee, until you are left like a mast on a mountain, and like one carrying a standard on a hill.”

For though you found by experience that hope in those thought to be gods was profitless, and saw their strength to be vain, you nonetheless remained disobedient, he says. For hearing that you should not go down into Egypt, but honour by faith the one who promised to save you, you would not hear, but said, “We will flee on horses, and we will be on swift riders.” For you thought that this sufficed for [salvation; therefore] those who pursue you will be swift, he says, that is, winged and keen; and so terrible and fearful to you, and the mind of those who would not hear will go down to such cowardice, that when one only of the enemies shouts, a thousand will turn to flight. And if five should come upon the ranks of the Jews, many will flee. And they will endure a misery so notable as to be seen from all around, and unknown to no one at all, but seen just as if someone should set up a mast on a mountain, or a standard on a hill. By standard and mast he means the pole raised on hills or knolls bearing some signs, by which those allotted to command signal to the armies, either that they have won and the battle goes well for them, or that they must gather to them, so that they may hear something of the …

“And again God will wait to have pity on you; and therefore he will be exalted to have mercy on you, for the Lord your God is a judge. And where will you leave your glory?”

Again he has kept a hope for those of Israel; for the remnant has been saved. For the beloved, he says, will not go to destruction root and all, nor will God forget to have pity, as the blessed David says; but his name will be glorified and exalted when he has mercy on you. But you will say: “Yet how would it not have been the part of a good one not to bring the penalty at all?” But consider what follows, that besides being kind he is also a judge. And it is the work of one who judges rightly and impartially to measure out penalties in proportion to the faults of each; but again it is the part of a good one to refashion toward the better, by a gentle nod, those who have been punished. But you, he says, where will you leave your glory? Instead of “you will leave” he says “will be left”; for the inspired Scripture is sometimes indifferent about words. He reproaches them, then, because they counted their own glory, namely being and being called God's (for they were his portion), of no account. For they abandoned it, falling into what was more shameful, serving the works of their own hands, disobeying the holy prophets, disregarding the very salvation from God, and honouring a false and senseless hope in men. For they went down, as I said, into the land of the Egyptians.

“Blessed are all who abide in him. For a holy people shall dwell in Zion, and Jerusalem wept with weeping: Have mercy on me. He will have mercy on you; [at] the voice of your cry, when he saw, he [heard you]. And the Lord will give you bread of affliction and scant water, and those who lead you astray shall no longer come near you; for your eyes shall see those who lead you astray, and your ears shall hear the [words of those who led you astray behind you, who say:] This is the way, let us walk in it, whether to the right or to the left.”

Having named the God and Saviour of all the glory of Israel, he shows that not wishing to depart from him, but rather clinging to him through obedience and submission in everything, makes people in every way and altogether blessed. And that at the time of our Saviour's coming many of the blood of Abraham will repent, and, being justified through faith and [freed] from all sin, will [be enriched with] sanctification, he teaches, saying, “A holy people shall dwell in Zion.” For Jerusalem, he says, wept with weeping, “Have mercy on me.” And since [God, who is] eager for love of humankind, knowing …, “He will have mercy on you,” he says, and he will also hear your cry; for as soon as he saw her repenting, he readily granted the grace of forgiveness. So, as far as concerns the will of the Master of all, all would have been saved through faith in Christ. But since they did not accept the Redeemer, for this reason they were given over to destruction; for they themselves chose this rather.

Our Lord Jesus Christ became for us the power of the bread of life. For he said clearly: “I am the bread that came down from heaven and gives life to the world.” But let him be water too, not perceptible and material, but rather divine and spiritual. Indeed he has been called a river of peace and a torrent of delight; and we say this from the blessed David, who sings and says to God the Father about those justified in faith: “With you is the fountain of life, and you will give them to drink from the torrent of your delight.” Christ, then, is bread and life-giving water; but he is found with sweat and toil. For the great and exceptional good things are not to be caught by those who lie back and live in luxury, but by those accustomed to count as nothing the sweat and toils for this very thing; so the inspired David too sought to learn the mystery of Christ, singing and saying: “If I go up on the bed of my couch, if I give sleep to my eyes and slumber to my eyelids and rest to my temples, until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling for the God of Jacob.”

“Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah, we found it in the fields of the forest.” For he was born in Bethle[hem]. … God, then, [promises] to give those of Israel who turn to him the bread of affliction and scant water, that is, to grant the life in Christ and the knowledge of him, which one may gather and shut up in the treasuries of his own mind, not lying back in luxuries, not having a dissolute conduct of life, nor walking the broad and spacious way, but rather entering through the narrow gate that leads to life. If, then, he says, you take this bread, then you will be secure, not easily carried astray, nor [easily led] by the [words of those who lead you astray; for you will see] them, and you will hear their words. For of old, from not being able to distinguish what comes from …, the one placed on a level with those who neither see at all nor hear the words of those accustomed to lead astray; but having taken the bread, you will certainly see them, and you will understand well what their habit is, … and saying: “This is the way, let us walk in it, whether to the right or to the left.” For there was no distinguishing between what by nature does wrong and what does not, but the words of all carried them off heedlessly to anything whatever.

“And you shall take away the silvered idols, [and the gilded ones; you shall make them fine and winnow them] like the water of a menstruous woman, and you shall thrust them out like dung.”

It would befit, I think, both those called from the nations through faith to the knowledge of the truth and those of the blood of Israel to choose to accomplish this too. And nothing prevents us from fitting the words to those coming from Greek error too: “The Lord will give you bread of affliction and scant water, and those who lead you astray shall no longer come near you.” For the wretched Jews had wicked teachers, I mean the scribes and Pharisees, who wished to carry them off to whatever they pleased, removing them from the commandment of Moses and persuading them to heed …; and besides this Israel, having come to such a degree of madness as even to choose to worship lifeless idols. And the children of the Greeks had unholy teachers, who, having a wisdom that was unspiritual and demonic, proclaimed to life a countless crowd of demons, and to worship the creation rather than the Creator. Having received, then, the bread of life and the life-giving water, both the one and the other were freed from their ancient teachers, or rather from those who led them astray, and, having condemned the deceit, they put away the idols. For they have been justified through faith, all but bidding farewell to Satan and the unclean spirits, and loathing and fleeing those once thought lofty among them, I mean the falsely named gods, as something most abhorred and ending in the utmost uncleanness. For what could be [more loathsome] than dung and the water of a menstruous woman?

“Then there shall be rain for the seed of your land, … and the bread of the produce of your land [shall be plenty and rich; and your] cattle [shall graze] on that day a fat and spacious place. Your bulls and your oxen that work the land shall eat chaff mixed with barley.”

The word is shaped from those who farm the land, who, when they … a bountiful supply of the waters poured down from above and from heaven, then certainly have great fruitfulness, enough for life in abundance, and for the cattle the grass of the field as well; but again the sense of the passage is refashioned from the perceptible to spiritual contemplation. [For when, he says, the bread of] affliction and the scant water is given to you by God, when you see those who lead you astray and turn your mind away from them, when you take away the idols and receive the enlightenment of the true knowledge of God, then you will also be in spiritual fruitfulness. For there will be rain for the seed of your land. By rain he means the spiritual comfort through the Spirit, which fattens the hearts of those who revere God and makes them fruitful. For David sings about those justified in faith in Christ: “A willing rain

you will set apart, O God, for your inheritance,” plainly the gospel and saving preaching, and, as I said, the comfort through the Holy Spirit. And the prophet Isaiah too said somewhere, as from the person [of God]: “… I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it.” There will be rain, then, he says, for the seed of your land. And besides, the bread of the produce of your land will be plenty and rich; that is, the fruit of your works will be for your profit. For it will be brought to maturity, and will be rich and abundant. For the prophet Malachi addressed those of Israel who had turned away, saying: “For your calf, O Samaria, was leading astray; for they sowed what was blasted by the wind, and their overthrow will await them”; “a sheaf having no strength to make flour.” And another of the saints rebukes some and says: “And you did not remember the Lord your helper; therefore you shall plant a faithless planting.” For the fruit of the unholy is not brought to maturity; their labours are profitless, and the outcome of their undertakings has nothing profitable. But the God-loving are fruitful; for them the inspired Paul very rightly prays, saying: “And may the God of righteousness increase your seed and multiply the produce of your righteousness.” And to these the prophet adds that the cattle too will graze a fat and spacious place. By cattle I think he means perhaps those of small understanding and simpler, who are slow of mind, but, once called to the knowledge of God through faith, will find spiritual food and will graze a fat place, that is, the inspired Scripture, truly a spacious place; for it is broad and great and runs toward godliness. And he says that the bulls, or the oxen that work the land, will eat chaff mixed with winnowed barley, that is, they will be in spiritual good feeding; and filled with the solid teachings they will work the land. By bulls here, I think, he means those who minister the divine preaching and proclaim the gospel with great power. And the all-wise Paul will again confirm us in this, understanding the commandment of the law spiritually. For he said: “It is written, You shall not muzzle an ox while it is threshing.” And he adds: “Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Or does he say it entirely for our sake?” So from the best food of calves he shapes spiritual things, and permits us to understand that for the chosen, who make those who serve Christ like a fruitful land, all-beautiful and solid food will be set before them. For it was necessary, it was necessary, that the leaders of peoples should first be filled with the good things through the Spirit, so that they might be able to profit those under the yoke.

“[And there shall be on every high mountain and on every lofty hill water running] on that day, when many perish, and [when towers fall].”

And this too you will understand spiritually. For by hills and mountains he means the holy evangelists and apostles, and all the others too who after them have become overseers of the holy churches and ministers of the divine mysteries, who think nothing of earthly things, but are as it were raised on high. For it is written that “the mighty ones of the earth belong to God; they were greatly exalted.” And [they pour out] the divine and heavenly [word] from their own mind, [having received] the grace as from above. And this water is abundant; for many are the mountains, and as many the hills, and the stream from them is sweet and plentiful everywhere. … But on that day, he says, this too will be.

He again calls the time of our Saviour's coming a day, in which those of whom he spoke were revealed, and many perished, and towers were pulled down, that is, the teachers of the Jews, the scribes and Pharisees. For though they were raised above all others through the glory of the priesthood and the dignity of leadership, they acted impiously toward Christ and killed the one who had made them lofty, and besides this led astray the peoples under their hand. And other towers have fallen too, the haughty [designs] of the unholy spirits.

“And the light of the moon shall be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold on the day when the Lord heals the ruin of his people, and he will heal the pain of your wound.”

[Some think that] the sense of the passage must be referred to the time of the consummation of the age. For then, they say, even the elements whose nature is to give light will be given an increase of light. But we shall find the sacred writing saying that “the sun will be darkened at that time, and the moon will not give its light,” and the stars will fall as leaves fall from a fig tree. Leaving aside, then, the view that it should be understood so, we say rather this. He does not say that there will be an increase of light for the elements. Rather he calls “moon” those who live in the light of the moon, and are as it were lit spuriously and moderately. These would be those accustomed to live after the manner of men by the innate understanding in us alone, not yet enriched with the enlightenment from above; such as are those who have not yet known him who is God by nature and truly, but remain as in night, yet have a moderate brightness, which God laid down in human nature from its very constitution. These, receiving the light of the true knowledge of God, no longer remain as in night having a little moonlight, but as in daytime at last see the sun's ray. And those who are as in daytime and as it were lit by the sun, through knowing him who is God by nature, will receive a manifold enlightenment besides. Such were the experts in the law, having as it were in their mind a reflection of the sun's ray, as regards knowing the Creator and Lord of all: “The Lord your God, the Lord is one.” Yet they did not yet understand the law exactly. But when Christ shone forth, and their knowledge advanced toward the better, and the law was at last contemplated spiritually, the sun's light in them became all but sevenfold. For the God of all is the sun of righteousness, both being so and understood so …, [enlightening] greatly, for everything that pleases him, those justified also by faith in Christ, he through whom [he gave] the law to those of Israel. For he brought them out as from the ancient mist of the error in Egypt, and prepared them to understand and confess that he alone is the God and Lord of all. But these things will be, he says, when the Lord heals the ruin of his people, and he will heal the pain of your wound. For Christ will heal us who were crushed and in the pain of a wound, [and] the Jews …. For we were in a way slackened in mind, having a feeble and loosened understanding for the works of righteousness.

But we did not remain in these things. For the God of all granted the cure, and showed us freed from the ancient sickness and very strong …, and with whom be glory to God the Father, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.

“Behold, the name of the Lord comes after a long time, burning fury with glory; the oracle of his lips, an oracle full of wrath, and the wrath of his fury shall devour like fire. And his breath, like water sweeping in a ravine, shall come as far as the neck … in vain, and a vain deceit shall pursue them, and shall take them before their face.”

Having said very well that the light of the sun will be sevenfold for those who believe in Christ, at the time when he heals the ruin of his people, he usefully adds that the divine fury will also be against Satan, who caused the ruin, and the demons with him. For they were not going to keep their tyranny over us and their unshaken strength, especially when Christ the Saviour of all had shone forth on the human race. But the word of the prophecy is not as it were bare and …; for it is [shaped] as about the Assyrians, who sacked Jerusalem, took all Judaea, and, holding beloved Israel captive by the spear, returned to their own land, all but dancing in insult over the divine glory, and thinking that they had prevailed over his worshippers even against God's will. Indeed Rabshakeh called out to those on the wall, saying: “Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, saying, God will deliver Israel from my hand. [Have the gods of the nations each delivered their own land from my hand?]” … against the ineffable glory those of whom he speaks would be taken. And when Israel had spent seventy years in captivity and in slavery among them, the God of all again rescued and saved them. For he brought them back to Judaea, under the leadership at that time of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, who was of the tribe of Judah, and also of Jeshua the great priest. So the force of the prophecy seems somehow [to refer to these things], as regards what is evident in the events. … But the true meanings of what was said are about the spiritual Assyrian, that is, Satan, to whom it was said by God: “As a garment soaked in blood will not be clean, so neither will you be clean, because you destroyed my land and killed my people; you shall not remain for ever,

evil seed. Prepare your children to be slaughtered for the sins of your father, so that they may not rise and inherit the land and fill the land with war; and I will rise up against them, says the Lord of hosts, and I will destroy their name and remnant and seed.” The name of the Lord, then, he says, will come after a long time. And if one chooses to understand it historically, after seventy years God had mercy on Israel. But if one [seeks the] inward [sense], … according to the mind, that the inventor of sin continued a very long time laying the yoke of his perversity on all on the earth, so as to make them his own worshippers and bind them fast in the nooses of sin. But the only-begotten Word of God appeared to us after a long time, and became burning fury with glory, and the oracle of his lips an oracle full of wrath. Cyrus, [rising] for battle, marched against the land of the Chaldeans and took the land of the Babylonians by force; and he became to them like wrath and fire, for he devoured all of them as it were, and, having an unbearable onset, he appeared to those there like water sweeping in a ravine, and filled all the nations of the Chaldeans with tumult and confusion, justly condemned for vain deceit. For they thought, as I said, that they had prevailed over Judaea even against God's will. Vain deceit, then, overtook them. For the effects of unmixed fury were brought upon them by God, and they perished in their own impieties. One may see the dragon who began evil suffering this very thing. For it befell him … to depart into the abyss, himself and the evil powers with him. And they were consumed as by fire, and as by much water swept down, by the power of the Spirit, into the lowest recesses. For these too were thrown into confusion for vain deceit. For he said: “I will seize the whole world with my hand like a nest, and I will take it up like eggs that have been left, and there is none who will escape me or speak against me.” And he thought that he was God in truth, and, transferring continually to himself the glory fitting only to the Creator of all, he supposed that he could rule over those on the earth. [They were troubled,] then, condemned for vain deceit, and were overtaken by it. For penalty and fury and punishment were brought upon them, and for this cause.

“Must you always rejoice and enter into my holy places continually, as though keeping a feast, and enter as those who rejoice

with a flute into the mountain of the Lord, to the God of Israel?”

I said that, having overpowered the land of the Jews and … the divine temple, they continued most unholily. But they too were taken, and in what way is not unclear. O Assyrian, then, he says, must you at every time rejoice over my worshippers, and make an occasion of festival, no one preventing you from entering my holy places, and that with flute and lyre? And these things historically. But if it is said to Satan and those who think his thoughts, you will understand something like this: for long times he exalted himself against the ineffable glory, crushing saints, and … to the workers of righteousness … the holy things of God, making the thing a feast and delight, and [trampling on] those he overreached. But the wretch has fallen from such things, Christ having thrust him down beyond his expectation and driven off his tyranny over us. All his delight and gladness, then, has ceased; he has stopped his dance over us, and the nature of things has passed over to the very opposite. For we have made the salvation through Christ, the justification in faith and the sanctification through the Spirit our joy and delight; but he who has failed to rule is in unceasing dejection, and laments the overthrow of his own dominion.

“… by the blow with which he strikes them. And it shall be for him all around, whence was their hope of help, on which he himself trusted; they with flutes and lyre shall war against him by a change.”

“By the voice of the Lord,” he says, instead of “at the Lord's command.” For the Assyrians were defeated and came under the blow brought upon them, when Cyrus and the Persians and Medes ravaged them, as I said, and took them by force and by the will of God. But before this they had [placed] in themselves the hope of being able easily to master whatever lands and peoples they chose. Those very ones, then, he says, in whom … the things turning out wholly the opposite for them, with lyre and flutes, that is, rejoicing and keeping festival, will war against him. This may be seen to have happened in the case of Satan and the herd of unclean spirits. For they had in this world countless, or rather innumerable, worshippers; but by the voice of the Lord, that is, by the preaching of Christ, they came under the blow and were defeated; and those whom they expected to have as helpers for themselves, these, undergoing unexpectedly a change to the very opposite, were called through faith and made war on them. For sacred precincts were pulled down, hill-shrines were shaken, a multitude of unclean demons was consumed by fire; and, having condemned the one who once ruled, they enrolled God, who is by nature and truly King and Lord. And they set great store on practising the truly approved and exceptional life through every virtue, throwing as far away as possible the life of wickedness.

“Will you not be required before your days? Was it prepared for you too to reign? A deep ravine, like a ravine burning with brimstone.”

Having said that the Assyrian will be warred upon by those from whom he might rather have expected help, and that he will suffer what is beyond every evil, he necessarily adds these things too. For since God is seen to have borne with them for long times, and scarcely to have brought the penalties on those who had offended unbearably, he in a way defends himself and says, “Will you not be required before your days?” For the God of all is forbearing, and lavishes his kindness on those who stumble, in case perhaps their minds may be changed to the better, and, choosing to repent, they may escape the punishment owed them. But when none of this happens, he at last brings the effects of wrath, not doing this before the days, but as in due season at last, and as when [the sin] has come to its measure, as is most fitting to the calm and love for humankind of God who rules all. So, O Assyrian, he says, I have been kind and long-suffering toward you; for you will not be required before your days, plainly the penalties for your drunken insolence against my people. Such is what was said to the blessed [Abraham]: “… [for the sins of the Amorites are not yet] complete until now.” And the blessed prophet Zechariah too [saw] women carrying the measure, and sin sitting in the midst in the form of a woman. For the lawgiver measures out the penalties in proportion to the offences of each. But did you suppose, O Assyrian, he says, that it was prepared for you too to reign continually, that is, to be able to rule and to hold unshaken your overreaching against all? But you have missed the truth; for you will rather inherit a deep ravine, and wood laid, and fire. For so it will be upon you and upon …. And these things would be most fitting to be said to Satan himself. For he overreached the whole earth [before] Christ shone forth. But when God and Lord appeared to us, he was driven off, like some most cruel beast, from the flock of those who believed, and went down to Hades to inherit fire and flames there. For the wrath of the Lord will be to him like a ravine burning with brimstone. So he was not required before his days, but when the time at last called him to it; for it was not prepared for him too to reign continually, as it was for Christ the Saviour of all, to whom rather would be fitting what is said through the voice of David: “Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of uprightness is the sceptre of your kingdom.”

“Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who trust in horses and in chariots; for they are many, and in horses, which are a very great multitude. And they did not trust in the Holy One of Israel, and they did not seek God. And he in his wisdom has brought evils upon them, and his [word] will not be set aside; and he will rise up against the houses of wicked men and against their vain hope: an Egyptian man and not God, flesh of horses, and there is no help.”

The prophet had learned what would befall the Assyrians in due season, and that when the Persians and Medes ravaged their land with utter destruction … Cyrus against them; and he comes to recall the disobedience of those from Israel. For the Babylonian took Judea, and the holy city itself, I mean Jerusalem, and carried Israel off captive; then God gave his mercy to those left in Judea. But when they wished to move over to the Egyptians, fearing that war from the Assyrians might perhaps come upon them again, he who is able to save commanded them, through the voice of Jeremiah, not to go down into the land of the Egyptians. But since even after this they were disobedient, and supposed that the help of men would save them better, they fell in Egypt and perished utterly, all of them. So the prophet pronounces them wretched: “Woe,” he says, “to those who go down to Egypt for help.” For they took courage not in God, who is strong in all things, but in horses and chariots, for there were very many in Egypt. But the God of all, being wise, brought evils upon them, and his word will not be set aside. For through the voice of Jeremiah he told them what follows. So they will rise up against the houses of wicked men, plainly of those who fled to Egypt, and against their vain hope. For they chose as helper, he says, an Egyptian man and not God, flesh of horses. The prophet speaks most vividly, exposing the ignorance of those from Israel. For what is a horse but mere flesh? And what power has flesh, so weak and subject to corruption? The prophet Jeremiah too says something like this: “Cursed is he who has his hope in a man, and will fix the flesh of his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord.” “For it is truly good to hope in the Lord rather than to hope in a man.”

“But the Lord will bring his hand upon them, and those who help will grow weary, and together …”

For since the Egyptians, raising a boastful and arrogant

brow, received those from Israel, and supposed that the power of the falsely named gods among them was superior to that of the God of the Hebrews, … of the land; and those from Israel who had been caught there perished together with its inhabitants. This is why he says that the Lord will bring his hand on them, and that those who promised them invincible help will in every way grow weary, that is, lose their strength, and all will perish together.

“For thus the Lord said to me: As a lion would roar, or a lion's whelp over its prey, and cry out over it until the mountains are filled with its voice, and they were overcome and terrified at the greatness of its wrath, so the Lord will come down to make war on Mount Zion, on its mountains. Like birds flying, so the Lord will shield Jerusalem, and will rescue, and …”

The prophet threw in a rebuke in between, I mean the one against those who go down to Egypt and choose to have as helper an Egyptian man and not God; and he said that they will perish together with those who promised to defend them. Then he turns the discourse back again to its beginning. For having said that the Assyrians will inherit a deep ravine, he foretells clearly that God will also help those who revere him and will fight for those in Judea, and will leap upon those who wish to wrong it just as a lion leaps on its prey, roaring something great and extraordinary at those who oppose it. For they say that this beast, when hunger drives it to leap on herds of cattle or on other flocks, first terrifies them with a dreadful … attack on the shepherds. So, he says, the Lord will come down to make war on Mount Zion, that is, Jerusalem, on its mountains. Like birds flying, so the Lord will shield Jerusalem. For birds raise their young in the mountains and fix their nests in dense thickets. And if another bird or a snake wishes to rob them of the nestlings, the mother fights for them fiercely and makes plain the strength of the affection within her, flying round, twittering, and all but launching the greatest possible assault on the one who wishes to harm them. So, he says, the Lord of all will shield Jerusalem, and will rescue, and preserve, and save. These things happened … [when he brought] Israel back from captivity. For they returned when Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, who was of the tribe of Judah, was governing their kingdom, and Jesus son of Josedek, the great priest, was serving as priest. And when they wished to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, some of their neighbours set upon them, wanting to stop them; but none prevailed, since God gave Israel strength. Such too was the power of our Saviour's help toward us. For he who was thought to be the god of this age had taken all captive; but Christ leapt upon him like a lion or a lion's whelp and abolished him by the word of his power. He is the Lord of hosts. And he made war on Mount Zion, that is, he fought on behalf … of the spiritual Zion, which is the church of the living God, … and he saved it mightily, as his own nest. For the father of sin, out of very great arrogance, said: “I will seize the whole world in my hand like a nest, and like eggs that are left I will take it up, and there is none who will escape me or speak against me.” But the Saviour and Lord of all gathered those who believed in him, as a bird gathers her young under her wings, and placed them beyond every plot.

For he rescued and gained the whole earth for himself, and saved all that is under heaven.

“Turn back, you who [devise] deep counsel …”

God has said that he will make war on Mount Zion and will leap, like a most valiant lion, on those who wrong Israel, that is, those who believe in him; and he has added that he will also shield, preserve, and save. So the prophet again cries out against those who will not bring themselves to believe, that the right hand of God is all-powerful and will easily save from enemies whomever it chooses. So, he says, you who have [fallen into] such shameful and most loathsome unbelief, who have abandoned the God of all and foolishly go begging for help from men, and who, I know not how, have prized a lawless and ridiculous plan in this, turn back to God, take better counsel, and say, you too: “O Lord, God of hosts, blessed is the man who hopes in you.”

“For in that day men will renounce their handmade things of silver and of gold, which their hands made; and Assur will fall. Not a sword of a man nor a sword of a human will devour him, and he will flee, not from the face of a sword. And the young men will be for … and will be defeated; and he who flees will be caught.”

The word now returns to the aim set before it. For the Lord, he says, will shield Jerusalem, that is, will fight for his own church, which is his city. And he will rescue those who believe in him, and [gain] them for himself and count them his own lot, and besides this he will also save. In what way? [They will be freed from] idolatry, and will no longer serve the works of their own hands, whether these be of gold and silver or made at great cost in some other way. For before the Saviour's coming the human race was wildly excited about these things; some worshipped the creation and assigned to the elements of the world the glory fitting for God, as the prophet says: “Their silver and their gold they made into idols for themselves.” But when Christ shone forth, the whole earth became free of such shameful and abominable charges. For sacred precincts and altars and the handmade things have been pulled down, and the error of Satan that once defiled the whole earth has been put out of the way. With the handmade things destroyed, he says, the inventor of the error will perish together with it, that is, Satan, the spiritual Assur, or Assyrian. For he will fall, struck not by a man's sword, and he will be wretched; for he will go down to Hades together with the other evil powers. This is what he hints to us when he says, “And the young men will be for defeat”; that is, those who are strong and who rule by overreaching over those on earth will be defeated and will fall. How, or in what way? “For they will be enclosed by a rock as by a palisade.” By “rock” here he names the unbreakable and indestructible power of the Saviour. So, held fast by the divine power as by a rock and as by a palisade, … none of them could escape. For he will be caught in every way, even if he should choose to [flee]. This, I think, is what “he who flees will be caught” means. Who of them, then, is left to be saved, if they will be enclosed by the rock as by a palisade, and no place of flight at all will be given them? The power of the Saviour accomplished these things: it abolished Assur, that is, Satan, brought down with him the evil powers that are with him, and, as it were, surrounded them with a palisade, made them powerless, and shut them up in the recesses of Hades to be punished.

“Thus says the Lord: Blessed is he who has seed in Zion and kinsmen in Jerusalem. For behold, a righteous king will reign, and rulers will rule with judgment. And the man will be hiding his words, and will be hidden as from rushing water, and will appear in Zion like a glorious river rushing in a thirsty land.”

In these words the blessed prophet openly proclaims the mystery of the dispensation in the flesh of the Only-begotten. For he says that those who at that time inhabit Zion will be blessed, plainly the spiritual Zion, which is the church of the living God. For they are truly blessed, and the Saviour himself will assure us of this, saying to those who believed in him: “Amen, amen, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” “But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear.” So, he says, those who have … Jesus Christ, and have borne fruit in the spiritual Zion, and have kinsmen in Jerusalem (and this is no other than Zion), have become thrice-blessed and [rich] in every good. And we too have kinsmen, those according to the Spirit, that is, the holy initiators into the mysteries. “For behold, a righteous king will reign, and rulers will rule with judgment.” For Christ has reigned over us, the righteous and blameless one, the arbiter of all [righteous]ness and the one who brings in what is beyond the law. And rulers too ruled with judgment. “With judgment” he says in place of “with discernment.” The righteous king will be a man, and a brother in all respects to those on earth, though God in truth; for the Word became flesh, according to the Scriptures. And he will be hiding his words. For our Lord Jesus Christ spoke very many things in parables, and through the voice of David he had cried out this very thing in advance, saying: “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation.” And not only this, he says, but he will also be hidden as from rushing water. It is the custom of the holy writings to compare the onset of temptations to waters pouring down with a rush. When, then, [temptations come on him] like rushing water, he himself will be hidden, that is, he will not be caught by the [snares] of those who tempt him. David too said somewhere about him: “The enemy will gain no advantage over him, and the son of lawlessness will not again harm him.” For very often those who had then come to be leaders, I mean the scribes and Pharisees, [set themselves] to this; but it was not [possible]. For they took up stones, but he, as the blessed evangelist says, went through their midst and so passed by, that is, paying them no heed. And for those in Zion he will be like a glorious river rushing in a thirsty land. For to those from the nations called to the knowledge of him, who were thirsty and had no word that knew how to save, he became like a river pouring down a rich stream, and glorious besides, that is, distinguished. For very many others too have been called rivers. Blessed David, at any rate, comparing to rivers the holy initiators into the mysteries, who from above, out of heaven, water with the word those who accept the faith, said: “The rivers lifted up, O Lord, the rivers lifted up their voices.” For the voices of the holy apostles are heard far and wide. But none of them is as glorious as the torrent of delight, that is, Christ. For it is from him, we say, that all the others too have been given fitness to initiate into the mysteries and to put the life-giving word of God into the souls of believers.

“And they will no longer trust in men, but will give their ears to hear; and the heart of the weak will attend to hear, and the … peace. … and your servants will no longer say, ‘Be silent.’ For the fool will speak foolish things, and his heart will think vain things, to accomplish lawless things … and hungry souls, and to make the thirsty souls empty. For the counsel of the wicked … lawless things … unjust …, and to scatter … and this counsel will remain.”

The force of these words would fit very well both those from the nations called through faith … and those of the blood of Israel. For the former … the false[ly named gods] …, those who among them seemed to have a reputation for wisdom and the name of supreme eloquence. For they went astray and said to the wood, “You are my father,” and to the stone, “You gave birth to me,” and they enrolled as gods those that are not. And the Jews, attending to those who had come to be their leaders, did not accept faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. For those who were learned in the holy writings thought that what they themselves had decided was better, and that they were not ignorant of what pleases God and what most of all serves the benefit of the peoples under their hand. So, he says, they will no longer trust in men, but will offer their ears to hear the word of the Saviour; and the heart of the weak, strengthened at last toward understanding, will attend to hear; and the stammering tongues, that is, those that once did not know how to speak rightly (for stammering is, as it were, being able to say nothing to the glory of God while spending words on hymns to the falsely named gods), will learn, he says, to speak peace. To speak peace is nothing other than to have Christ and what is his on the tongue; for he is our peace, according to the Scriptures. And for those of Israel, stammering is refusing to speak the mystery of Christ, and always talking of the law and its shadows, and … teachers. But these too will cease, he says, and all their talk will be about Christ. That they will no longer bear with their ancient teachers he has made known by saying, “And they will no longer tell the fool to rule.” For the wise among the Greeks are admittedly fools, since the wisdom of the world has been made foolish. Fools too are the guides and teachers of the Jews, who did not recognize what is written through the shadow in the law and do not understand the words of the holy prophets. So they will no longer tell the fool to rule; nor indeed will the servants of the fools say to those taught by them, “Be silent.” For the wise in the world spoke in Beelzebul, and became inventors of crooked, cold, and, besides this, unholy doctrines. But if anyone chose to oppose their nonsense, and … some of those used to serving them leap up and cry out, “Be silent,” wanting their utterances to be beyond contradiction. They say, for instance, that when Pythagoras's disciples said things that were at times cold and ridiculous and disbelieved by many, it was their custom to say this: “He himself said it,” that is, “Be silent, and give your faith to the inventor of the doctrine without examining it.” So, he says, your servants will no longer say, “Be silent.”

For the fool will surely speak foolish things, and his heart too will think vain things, having one aim: to accomplish lawless things and to speak error against the Lord. For the nonsense the Greeks composed against the glory of God is error and nothing else, [aimed] at destroying hungry souls; and the thirsty souls … nothing at all; rather they are shown, though they hungered and thirsted, [deprived of] what it was surely necessary for them to learn and useful for the salvation of the soul. But the counsel of the wicked, he says, will devise lawless things, and looks to this: to destroy souls with unjust words, and to scatter the words of the lowly in judgment. For the lovers of worldly wisdom and the shield-bearers of perverse doctrines campaign against the teaching of the holy initiators into the mysteries, whom he also calls lowly, and they put all their zeal into scattering their words, although these were spoken in judgment, that is, not carelessly but rather with discernment, in the wisdom that is from above and from God. This, I think, is what he teaches when he adds: “But the godly have devised wise things, and this counsel will remain.” For the boastful loquacity of the wise in the world has come to nothing, and the counsel of the godly has prevailed, that is, their teaching, or the preaching. And by the godly we mean those who minister as priests the divine and evangelical word to those throughout the whole earth.

“… my voice; daughters, hear my words in hope. Make remembrance of the days of a year in pain with hope.”

It is the custom of the divine and inspired Scripture very often to give cities, or even villages, the character of women, and, where there is one mother city, to call the others her daughters. So, for instance, the divine David says of Zion, that is, of Jerusalem, and of the towns around it: “Zion heard and was glad, and the daughters of Judea rejoiced.” For the small cities under the leading one are always, in a way, around their mother. Here, then, the person of the Saviour himself is brought in, advising the cities of Judea and saying: “Rich women, rise up and hear my voice.” … them, then, to choose to honour obedience and to accept the words that come from him, plainly the saving and evangelical preaching. And he now calls them rich very aptly, since they were still populous and had a countless multitude of inhabitants, but were before long to be desolate and utterly poor, to the point of having none of their inhabitants left, unless they [bowed their] neck to his oracles. So, women, he says, daughters, hear my words in hope, that is, not without reward but rather in a bright hope. What, then, is commanded? Make remembrance, he says, of the days of the year in which Christ appeared and clearly preached to the cities and villages throughout all Judea. For he himself said through the voice of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because of which he anointed me; he has sent me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to captives and sight to the blind, to send away the broken in release, to heal the broken in heart, to call the acceptable year of the Lord.” Rise up, then, he says, that is, keep awake, and, taking a good hope into your mind, remember the days of the year in which, as I said, the preaching from Christ the Saviour of us all took place. And he commands that this be done not slackly nor carelessly but with zeal and with care; for so good things are accomplished.

“The vintage is consumed, the sowing has ceased, … your loins, and beat your breasts … The land of my people: thorn and grass will come up on it, and gladness will be taken from every house … of the city, and desirable houses they will abandon. And the villages will be caves for ever, [the glad]ness of wild asses, and pastures of shepherds.”

[That] refusing to accept the word from Christ would not be without loss for those of Israel, but would rather bring about every outrage and calamity, he shows in these words. For the [cities] throughout all … all of them … the hand of the Romans, so that they would be seen empty of men, the choicest of the lands would be laid waste, those who scarcely managed to escape would go off in flight and lose house and wealth, and the once-populous city or village would become a haunt of wild beasts. But if anyone wishes to take a spiritual sense of these words too, he will understand this. By “vintage” and “sowing,” I think, he means the power of spiritual fruitfulness, by which we are well pleasing to God, not bearing manifold sin like a thorn, but honoured by God as rich and fruitful land. The wretched Jews, then, have fallen away from spiritual fruitfulness, and the spiritual vineyard has become thorn-bearing land. For “he waited,” he says, “for it to produce grapes, but it produced thorns.” And it has been said through the voice of the prophet too concerning Israel: “… blighted by the wind, and their overthrow will await them.” “A sheaf … ” … So, he says, the vintage [is consumed], that is, you will no longer be called a vineyard, for you have nothing ripe. The sowing has ceased: you will not be a land that bears good crops and nourishes cultivated fruit. Therefore, very fittingly, be beside yourselves, that is, be astounded and amazed. “Be grieved, you who are confident.” For you who long ago thought highly of yourselves, he says, on account of God, when you see your own heart bare of every good, then, then indeed, be grieved. … “and beat your breasts, for the desired field and the fruit of the vine.” The reason for lamentation, he says, is that a desired field and an admired vineyard have perished and vanished altogether. By this he means Israel. … “[the land of] my people: thorn and grass will come up on it.” For Israel was … , as I said. For he gave up his vineyard and commanded the clouds not to rain on it. And it became the gladness of wild asses and the pasture of wicked shepherds, that is, of the unclean spirits. So too blessed David, addressing his words to God the Saviour of all as concerning the vineyard of Israel, says: “You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out nations and planted it.” Then he adds: “Why did you pull down its hedge, so that all who pass by the way pluck it? The boar out of the wood has ravaged it, and …” For just as owners throw away the neglected parts of their land and take no account of them, even if every harm befalls them, so too our God, who loves virtue, gives up a soul and shows it bare of all protection if it becomes empty of the fruits that make for good works.

“Until the Spirit comes upon you from on high.”

“And Chermel will be a desert, and Chermel will be counted as a forest. And judgment will rest in the desert, and righteousness will dwell in Carmel. And the works of righteousness will be peace, and righteousness will take hold of rest, and they will be confident for ever. And his people will dwell in a city of peace, and will dwell in it confidently, and will rest with …”

He makes plain also the time at which the race from Israel that disobeyed will be desolate of spiritual fruitfulness. For he shifts the discourse to those, I mean, who honoured our Lord Jesus Christ with obedience, who were cleansed through faith in him and came to share in the Holy Spirit. For what was foretold will happen, he says, and Israel will be laid waste for its unruliness, until the Spirit comes upon you from on high. As we have read in the Acts of the holy apostles: “They were all gathered together in one place about the days of holy Pentecost. And behold, suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of a rushing, violent wind, and it filled the house where they were gathered; and there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and it sat on each one of them, and they began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” So when, he says, the Spirit of God from above and from on high comes upon you who believe, then Chermel too will be a desert. Chermel, or Carmel, is a very great mountain in Judea, thickly covered with dense woodland. So he compares Jerusalem itself and the whole surrounding country to Chermel, since it had a countless multitude of inhabitants. But it will be desolate, he says, and counted as a forest. By “forest” he means wild woodland, which is used for burning; for the uncultivated trees are cut down and are fuel for flame. When Chermel has been cut down and counted as wild woodland, judgment will rest in the desert. By “desert” he means, in a riddle, the land of the nations, which the prophet Isaiah himself mentions elsewhere too, saying: “Be glad, thirsty desert; let the desert rejoice and blossom like a lily.” It is compared to a desert because of its barrenness and its being, as it were, parched, and having nothing at all standing upright in it. But … this too, because Christ came to dwell in it. Indeed, he said again through the voice of the prophet Isaiah: “And I will make water in the desert, I will set rivers; into the waterless land … and poplar.” For by these are meant the souls that are approved through faith in him, and … lifted to the height of varied and manifold virtue. So, he says, judgment will rest in the desert, and righteousness will dwell in Carmel, in place of “good will make its home both in the desert and in Carmel.” Chermel and Carmel are not two different things; it is one mountain that both names signify. How then will it both be a desert and be counted as a forest, and righteousness dwell in it?

[righteous]ness? We say that Israel has not wholly fallen from its close relation to God, but the remnant has been saved, and those of them who believed are gathered into one flock with those from the nations. And Christ, who is righteousness and judgment, has come to dwell in both these and those. For we have been justified in him, sin having been abolished by a just and right judgment and Satan having been destroyed. What, then, will Christ, who is righteousness, do when he has come to dwell in the desert? He declares it plainly, saying: “And the works of righteousness will be peace.” For “our Lord Jesus Christ came,” as Paul says, “and preached peace to those far off and peace to those near,” that is, to Greeks and to Jews. And among us righteousness took firm hold of rest. For having made peace with God and put an end to the enmity, we are in cities of rest and of delight for ever. And we have come to be in the city of peace, that is, in the church of God, and we have rested with wealth. For we who of old were in want of every good thing and of all virtue, godless in the world and having no hope, are now rich through Christ, and shall be still more so, having received the most abundant bestowal of the gifts from above and from God.

“And if the hail comes down, it will not come upon you; and those who dwell in the forests will be confident like those in the plain.”

Since the Jews committed impiety against our Lord Jesus Christ, and went to the very limit of unholiness, … all but a most violent hail, that is, the effects of … ; for … to desolation; they were captured and sacked, and scattered to every wind, according to the voice of the prophet. So when the hail is brought down, he says, that is, the effects of divine wrath, it will not come upon you who have believed and who dwell in the city of peace; it will not destroy the produce of our righteousness, nor ravage our good labours; and those who dwell in the forests will be confident in the same rank as those in the plain. And what is this? Land thickly covered with dense trees is in a way rough and not easily ploughed, while flat and level land is suitable for those who till it to grow food crops. So, by God's assent, everything will be fruitful, and the land that was once rough will be shown a nurse of cultivated crops. For through Christ everything bears fruit, plainly in an intellectual and spiritual sense.

And no one sows on thorns. But breaking up new ground, according to the prophet's voice, let us sow for righteousness, no longer living according to the flesh and …

“Blessed are those who sow beside every water, where ox and ass tread.”

The discourse having been carried over to the works of farming and to the fruitfulness of the fields, he keeps to the metaphor and calls blessed those who sow beside water, where ox and ass tread. For the inspired Scripture calls the divine and heavenly word “water,” and so too the word of the holy initiators into the mysteries; for they too speak in the Spirit. And the Saviour himself will confirm it, saying: “It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” For since the word of God gives life, it is for this reason very fittingly compared to water; for water gives life and brings about all fruitfulness. Having, then, the spiritual supply of such waters, we are accustomed to cultivate what makes for virtue, and we are eager to labour hard in the toils of godliness. In these waters ox and ass tread, that is, the people from the Jews and also the people from the nations. For God has justified circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through faith. And as Paul says: “Having broken down the middle wall of the partition, and having abolished the law of commandments in decrees, he created the two into one new man, making peace. And he reconciled them to God, putting one yoke on both and joining them into one mind through faith and love and sanctification.” He compares the nation from the Jews to an ox, for the ox is a clean animal according to the law, and it was offered to God for an odour of sweetness; but the ass is unclean. Indeed, when he commanded that the firstborn of the cattle be brought to God (“for you shall sanctify to me,” he says, “every firstborn that opens the womb”), … Even if the people from the nations was perhaps unclean because it had gone astray, yet it was sanctified through faith. For it has been justified in Christ, has washed away the filth of its old charges through holy baptism, and, mingled, as I said, with those from Israel, …

“Woe to those who make you wretched; but no one makes you wretched, and he who sets you at nought does not set you at nought. Those who set you at nought will be caught and handed over, and like a moth on a garment, so they will be defeated.”

He calls blessed those who sow beside every water, where ox and ass tread; and we said that by these are meant those from the Jews and also those from the nations called through faith to the knowledge of Christ. But it was likely that some would reason, and indeed say: How then are such people blessed, when those who think otherwise persecute them and often bring them even to death? So the discourse rouses itself to comfort the believers and says: “Woe to those who make you wretched; but no one makes you wretched.” For to suffer for Christ is glorious for the saints, but for those who bring the persecutions the thing brings destruction. It is themselves, then, that they show to be wretched, and not those who suffered, since those who suffer with Christ will reign with him. But even if someone sets you at nought, he says, he too sets himself at nought.

For those who are used to doing this will be caught, that is, they will not escape the effects of the divine wrath; and they will be, so to speak, devoured by the penalties brought on them, just as a garment is by a moth. So for the saints, as I said, toil brings about good things for ever; but choosing to harm those dedicated to God is not without loss for those who do it; rather, it will be the occasion of the last penalty of all.

“O Lord, have mercy on us, for we have trusted in you. The seed of the disobedient has come to destruction, but our salvation is in a time of affliction.”

When God has said to the saints, “Woe to those who make you wretched, but no one makes you wretched,” they themselves, all but leaping for very great joy, say that every toil of those who chose to disobey will be without profit, and that, sick with great barrenness, they will go on to destruction; but of the salvation to be given to them there will surely be, at the right time, … the manifestation. For all their power is in Christ. Even if they should seem at times to be wholly weak, I mean through being persecuted by enemies, yet it is then most of all that he who knows how to save shows the greatness of his gentleness toward them and of his help from above. So the salvation in a time of affliction belongs most of all to the holy initiators into the mysteries. And the all-wise Paul will show this when he writes: “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” And indeed the Saviour of all said to him: “My grace is sufficient for you; for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

“At the sound of the fear of you, peoples were beside themselves; from the fear of you and from your exaltation they were scattered among the nations. But now your spoils will be gathered, of small and great; as one gathers locusts, so they will mock you.”

That those of Israel, who chose wholly and altogether to disobey and did not accept faith in Christ, would come to suffer the most shameful things of all — so the law through Moses cried out, and no less do the words through the holy prophets make it plain. And indeed Christ himself said: “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies,” then “you will say to the mountains, Cover us, and to the hills, Fall on us.” So at the sound, he says, of the fear of you, that is, the sound that terrifies into fear, peoples were beside themselves. “Were beside themselves” he says in place of “were struck with amazement.” And they suffered this amazement. In what way? From the greatness of the calamity, I think.

For unbearable evils put one out of one's mind and make the sufferer, as it were, senseless. But if someone should choose to understand “were beside themselves” in another way too, the word would signify “they have come to be outside their native land.” And so they were scattered among all the nations. Up to this point is the voice of the holy prophets; but the person of God is brought in immediately, saying to them, plainly to those … “your spoils will be gathered, of small and great.” For not long hence, he says, you will be handed over to your enemies, nor will what is threatened go off into delays; rather, you will be sacked at once, small and great. And those who ravage you will collect you as if someone in the fields should gather a multitude of locusts, accomplishing the thing without toil, rather without effort and as in play. One might say that Israel has suffered this very thing spiritually too, handed over to Satan and the unclean spirits, as to enemies, for plunder, and to be mocked like locusts …

“Holy is God, who dwells on high; Zion has been filled with judgment and righteousness. They will be handed over in the law; in treasures is our salvation; there are wisdom and knowledge and godliness toward the Lord; these are treasures of righteousness.”

The saints cry out again, and … the Saviour God who dwells on high, either plainly in the heavens, or also in rational creatures, whose height would be, as it were, in the spiritual greatness of manifold virtue. So they glorify God, astounded at Zion, that is, the church of Christ, seeing it filled with judgment and righteousness. For the earthly Jerusalem falls short of so bright a glory; for it in no way accepted the righteousness from God the Father, that is, Christ. But the church from the nations, the spiritual and truer Zion, has become full of judgment and righteousness. “Judgment” here means just discernment in every matter. For it is the custom of the saints to live rationally and lawfully and to rejoice in the evangelical oracles. Then they marvel at those from Israel, that they have a law, though it was given by God for their help, yet have perished through it. For as the blessed Paul writes: “Being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” For the law lay in shadows until the time of reformation. But when the new preaching and the truth shone forth, the types had surely to cease and the shadow to become idle. Yet contentious Israel, though wishing to plead for the law, insisting on the commandments of Moses and thinking to be godly by this, has been handed over to its enemies. For it ought not to have dishonoured the truth by such long disobedience. So they will be handed over in the law. But for us from the nations who have believed, even the law spoken of old through angels, with Moses as mediator, has been found a treasure of salvation.

For there, that is, in it, are wisdom and knowledge and godliness toward the Lord. For the law of Moses cries out the mystery of Christ, and we shall find the power of the evangelical way of life in it as in shadows, if we bring a subtle mind to what is written. Indeed, the Saviour said to the crowds of the Jews: “If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me.” So the law is a treasure of righteousness to those who do not attend to the shadow but rather peer through it and are eager to search out the beauty of the truth.

“… those whom you feared will be afraid of you … weeping [bitterly], begging for peace. For their ways will be made desolate; the fear of the nations has ceased, and the covenant with them … men.”

Here again the Lord of hosts is seen encouraging the holy initiators into the mysteries, freeing them from all fear, and showing in advance the breadth of the good things that will be theirs. For the wretched Jews persecuted the holy apostles, beating them with rods, and making their godliness toward Christ, and their zeal and eagerness for the divine preaching, an indictment against them and counting it as the force of a charge. For they said: “We strictly charged you not to speak in this name. And behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching.” And we shall find the holy apostles themselves fearing the attack of the Jews, falling down before the all-holy God and saying: “And now, Lord, look upon their threats, and grant your servants to speak your word with boldness.” Behold, then, he says, they will rather fear you, and not you them: those whom you feared will be afraid of you. And in time they will send messengers asking for peace and weeping bitterly. For their ways will be made desolate, that is, they will not prosper, having chosen to fight against God and to oppose the Master's will. For of old, while, I mean, the divine preaching was in its beginnings, Israel was unbearable to the holy initiators into the mysteries. But when the multitude of believers had grown beyond number, the madness of those men was from then on overcome in every city and country, and they are under the feet of the believers, defeated and weeping, and thinking it enough for their contentment if they might at least be granted peace with them. This, I think, is the sense of the prophecy. For the fear of the nations has ceased, he says, plainly of the Jewish ones, and the covenant with them is taken away. For they have become estranged from close relation with God, and strangers to the promises; for “not all who are of Israel, nor because they are the seed of Abraham, are all children; but the children of the promise are counted as seed,” that is, those who are of faith in Christ. For the forefather Abraham was justified through faith. So, he says, when the covenant with them has been taken away, you will not count them men, that is, you will consider them worthy of no account.

“The land has mourned, Lebanon has been put to shame, Sharon has become marshes; Galilee and … will be manifest.”

Lebanon is a mountain in Phoenicia, among the most conspicuous of all, thickly covered with cedars and other trees. The inspired Scripture is accustomed to compare the synagogue of the Jews to this mountain, since it had a multitude of inhabitants beyond number, as indeed through the voice of another prophet he says to it: “Open your doors, O Lebanon.” So the land mourned — not simply all of it, but only the land that suffered the ravaging by the Romans, the land of the Jews — perhaps also as abandoned by God and by the … from him … that is, Jerusalem. For she who was of old renowned and celebrated, and … by the favours from above, and had invincible strength against all, has fallen under the feet of enemies, has been burned and made desolate, and has been deprived of the sparing that comes from God. Sharon has become marshes. There is a district in Judea whose name is Saronas, with fields easy to plough and very well suited to farming. But the land so fruitful and most productive, he says, has become marshes, that is, overgrown, with a great deal of thorn grown up in it. Again it admits a spiritual sense, by likeness from the more evident things. For Israel was, as it were, laid waste, and she who was once a nurse of cultivated fruits and like a good and rich land, that is, the synagogue of the Jews, has become thorn-bearing. “For I waited,” he says, “for it to produce grapes, but it produced thorns.” But these things will befall the Jews, for they committed impiety against Christ. But Galilee and Carmel will be manifest, that is, visible and seen from all sides. By Galilee he means the land of the nations, which he also sees fit to compare to Carmel. Carmel is a thick-wooded and high mountain. And such, in a way, is the church of Christ. For very many have flourished in it, having a mind dear to God; and it is full of every good, lifted on high, and … that is, the nations. And perhaps the church from the nations … settled above earthly affairs. For it is written that “the mighty ones of the earth belong to God; they were greatly exalted.” And the inspired Scripture is accustomed to liken the church to mountains.

“Now I will arise, says the Lord, now I will be glorified, now I will be exalted. Now you will see, now you will perceive; the strength of your spirit will be vain; fire will devour you. And nations will be burned up, like a thorn thrown away in a field.”

The only-begotten Word of God, being in the form and equality of God the Father, as begotten from him by nature and ineffably, emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, and, being made in the likeness of men, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.

But when, having endured the cross for the life of all, he came to life again as God, then, then indeed, on those who had dared … to him, who was calling them to life, but rather with insults and outrages, and even to encompass him with death itself, he hung the penalty that fitted them. For there they perished miserably, … their cities. And when the land had been ravaged altogether, then, then indeed, they learned the glory of him who suffered; and, having slipped into such terrible and inescapable calamities, they barely recognized that their unholy deeds of ungodliness had been done not against one of the prophets but against the very Saviour and Redeemer of all. As though the divine wrath was about to fall on them at once, he says: “Now I will arise, says the Lord.” For having been patient with evil, as God, before the precious cross, now, having already suffered what was done to him, he all but rises up against his enemies. And he was glorified and exalted, handing over to destruction those who had fought him to the end, and calling the nations through faith, and with the spiritual … and illuminating with the divine light those who were of old in darkness and had the mist of ignorance over mind and heart. Now, then, I will be glorified, now you will see, now you will perceive; for the strength of your spirit will be vain, that is, it will end in nothing. For I will prevail, even against your will, and you will be food for fire, like a thorn in a field, burned and thrown away. For they have been consumed, as I said, having fallen, as it were, into an all-devouring flame, the movements of the divine wrath. For as the blessed Moses says: “Our God is a consuming fire.”

“… Those far off will hear what I have done; those who draw near will know my strength. The lawless in Zion have departed; trembling will seize the ungodly.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ was sent by God the Father to the lost sheep … the giving of the law and the covenant, and of whom are the fathers; and he continued showing himself openly to those throughout all Judea, now using teachings beyond the law, now … beyond reason … altogether to the Jews through great dullness of mind. For the Lord taught, but the scribes and Pharisees rebuked his hearers and said: “He has a demon and is mad; why do you listen to him?” He rebuked evil and unclean spirits, and this with authority, as God; but they, slandering so truly supernatural and ineffable a power, dared to say: “This man does not cast out demons except by Beelzebul, the ruler of the …” … rightly without share in hope in him. But the nations have been initiated into the mysteries and have received the saving and evangelical preaching. This, I think, is what he teaches in saying: “Those far off will hear what I have done.” As far …

For Israel, having come to be instructed by the law, became near; but the nations had stood far off from close relation to God, plainly the spiritual relation, … having worshipped the creation rather than the Creator. But these, he says, will hear what I have done, though Israel would not hear. Those who draw near will know my strength. For Israel has not perished altogether; very many of them too have believed, and, being as it were near to God because they had already received the instruction in the law, they knew the strength of Christ. For they believed when he worked miracles as God. But these, he says, will know. But the lawless in Zion have departed and have gone wholly outside the hope of the saints. And trembling will seize them, though they are exceedingly ungodly. For the experience of the calamities brought upon them will suffice to make even their insolence finally abate.

“Who will tell you that a fire is burning? Who will tell you of the eternal place?”

[That they will be] food for fire at the time of judgment, those who were impious toward Christ, he shows in these words. For he himself said somewhere: “Amen I say to you, he who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” So to those who are hard-hearted, he says, and have chosen to disobey, he will announce the eternal place, and that a fire … and is kindled, and that continually. For as the prophet himself says again somewhere concerning those who have died in their offences: “Their worm will not die, and their fire will not be quenched, and they will be a spectacle to all flesh.”

“… way, hating lawlessness and injustice, and shaking his hands free from gifts, stopping his ears so as not to hear judgment of blood, closing his eyes so as not to see injustice: he will dwell in a high cave of strong rock; bread will be given him, and his water will be sure. … a land from afar; your soul will meditate …”

That, then, they will go down to dwell in Hades, those who ought to have partaken of life, … and will delight in due time in the gifts from him, plainly divine and spiritual ones. For he, he says, who walks in righteousness, that is, who … of righteousness … excellent, and who speaks a straight way, that is, … having on his tongue everything that leads to what is straight; and he who hates injustice, and everyone who is a lover … turning away from his own hearing the judgment concerning blood, and turning away his eyes too, so as not to see … any of the unjust things: he will dwell in a high cave of strong rock. For he will be in safety, he says, and, having as it were his dwelling unshaken on a rock, he will find permanence in all that is to be prayed for. It is likely … that something is named “rock” for us in these words, I think, … and the cave, or fold of sheep, is understood as the church, which has a safe and unshaken permanence in well-being. “For you are Peter,” says the Saviour, “and on this rock I will found my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” To him, then, he says, who has come to dwell in such a rock …

… sure. For to those who dwell in the church the bread of life is given, Christ, from God the Father; and indeed also sure water, that of holy baptism, which plainly makes those counted worthy of it sure and steadfast. For the grace of holy baptism has been given to those cleansed through holy baptism. And those who have received … will see a king with glory … from afar; for we have not yet beheld the land of which the Saviour says: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.” With the eyes of the mind we still behold it, as being far off. Therefore we are accustomed to meditate on the fear of God, so that we may come to be in it and, together with the other saints, filled with the gifts that come through Christ, may glorify him.

“Where are the scribes? Where are the counsellors? Where is he who counts those who gather together, small and great people? … a despised people; and there is no understanding in him who hears.”

Having made plain the rewards of those who have chosen to live godly, he passes again to what must grieve, reproaching, fittingly, the guides of the Jews as having sinned through ill counsel … the power to prosper through the grace from above, and … accepting faith as their zeal for virtue. This the wretches did not do, but rather, slipping down, they were caught in many ways in more shameful things. For though they were used to reciting the law and busied themselves with the words of the holy prophets, and so should have known God the Word who appeared to them in human form and shone upon those on earth, they did not know him; or perhaps, understanding the mystery, they set upon him bitterly. For, recognizing the Son sent from God the Father after the servants, they said: “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance for ourselves.” And indeed they killed him, so far as the force of their attempts went, even though he was not held fast by the gates of Hades, inciting against him the peoples under their hand, who cried out against him to Pilate himself, saying: “Away, away, crucify him.” And for this reason, as guilty of the highest impieties and weighed down by Lord-slaying, they have become strangers to the hope in Christ and have lost their close relation to God. And so … to them: “Where are the scribes?” in place of “Into what evils have they fallen?” By “scribes” (γραμματικοί) he means the scribes (γραμματεῖς). “Where are the counsellors?” And who would these be? Again, those appointed to the sacred ministry, concerning whom the law of Moses says: “The lips of a priest will guard judgment, and they will seek the law from his mouth.” For by the admonitions of the

priests the people under their hand are instructed. Where, then, are the counsellors? Where is he who counts those who gather together, small and great people? Here again, please, see scribes and priests, or Pharisees, signified, who heaped up the peoples under their hand against Christ and made a gathering of crowds small and great; who … for themselves the murderer Barabbas, but that he who was condemned for nothing at all that was out of place, I mean Christ, be crucified. For he did no sin. Matthew and Mark, the blessed evangelists, record this. For when Pilate said that Jesus, who had done no wrong, should rather be released to them for the feast, Matthew says that the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. And Mark too, as I said, says this very thing most clearly. Where, then, is he who counts those who gather together, small and great people, whom they did not counsel; nor did it know the one with the deep voice, so that a despised people did not hear; and there is no understanding in him who hears. The arrangement of the words is very difficult, and the sense in them hard to discern; but I shall speak as best I can. For where, he says, is he who counts those who gather together, small and great people, the people whom they did not counsel? For the great crowd, it seems, did not know that the one shouted down was Christ, the Son of God; and they did this because those who knew, that is, the leaders, did not rather counsel it to accept faith in him. For the people, he says, did not know the one with the deep voice, that is, Christ. He calls him “deep-voiced” because his words were hidden, as in riddles and parables. Indeed he is brought in through the lyre of the psalmist, saying: “I will open … in parables … [from the foundation] of the world.” And he also spoke to the Jews in parables. So they did not counsel the people, he says, nor did it know the one with the deep voice. And they did not counsel it, so that a despised people did not hear. For if they had counselled it, a despised people would not have heard; rather, they would have been blessed as having recognized the Redeemer. But there was, he says, no understanding in him who hears. For the Jews, being without understanding, did not test the words of their leaders, nor discern whether they were counselling good things or doing the opposite.

“Behold Zion, the city, our salvation! Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a rich city, tents that will not be shaken; the pegs of its tent … for ever, nor will its cords be broken; for the name of the Lord is great for you. A place will be for you, rivers …”

… is made to the Jews without understanding … again the person of the lovers of the truth, who have recognized the appearing of Christ and say … the church on earth, or the beautiful city above in the heavens, the nurse of the saints.

So whether one names the church on earth, or takes that other into one's mind, the one thing will be signified by both. For those who have come to be in the one below will in due time be also in that one above and in the heavens. So, since in great joy … with the words of God placed in between … in which is our salvation, that is, Christ, pointing it out to one another, at once the divine word takes up their words and says: “Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a rich city.” And he speaks by likeness to the ancient tent in the wilderness. He calls Zion rich, having cords that cannot be broken and pegs fixed for ever. For the church has been firmly founded and has unshaken permanence in well-being: “For the gates of Hades,” he says, “will not prevail against it.” And he gives the reason why it will be such, and says to those who have believed in Christ: “For the name of the Lord is great for you.” For to those who did not accept faith the name of Christ is not great and glorified; but among us who have believed it is great and lofty. For we worship him as God, as truly Son of the Father, as the Word made man for the salvation of all. This tent, then, he says, which remains for ever, will be a place for you. For we have, as it were, as a city the church of Christ, the type of the one above. And there will be in it rivers and canals, broad and spacious. By these he means the holy evangelists, the apostles, and those who in each age lead the churches, who like a river's stream water the minds of believers, flooding them with the words from God and pouring into them abundant comfort, plainly that through the Holy Spirit. But all these rivers and canals receive one of the highest, plainly Christ, of whom it is written: “The rushings of the river gladden the city of God.” And he himself somewhere says through the voice of a prophet concerning his own worshippers: “Behold, I turn toward them like a river of peace, and like a torrent flooding the glory of the nations.”

“You will not go this way, nor will a ship go rowing. For my God is great; the Lord will not pass me by. The Lord is our judge, the Lord our ruler; he will save us.”

The discourse has passed over again to the person of the believers. For since he had made mention of rivers and canals, he therefore very fittingly speaks as of a ship. And what it signifies I shall try to make clear. Before the coming of our Saviour, Satan plundered the world, with no one to rebuke him. But since we have been redeemed through Christ and dwell in the holy tent, I mean the church, … by the evangelical … able to overreach as of old, and since Christ will guard our hearts, not allowing the inventor of lawlessness to step in upon them, therefore, having believed, we say to him: “You will not go this way, nor will a ship go rowing,” that is, we shall not be

… you will be found in the rivers, like a ship rowing. But perhaps someone would say: From where have you taken the courage to say this? Yes, he says, we have reason for courage. For my God is great, and will not pass me by, that is, he will not pass through me as Satan did before. I will not lie under that one's feet; for the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our ruler, the Lord our king, the Lord himself will save us. For of old that most perverse and harsh one was himself our ruler. But since we have come under the evangelical and saving yoke, we have as judge, ruler, king, and Lord the Son, and he himself will save us. The prophet Isaiah himself teaches this in another way, speaking concerning the church of God and concerning those justified in faith in Christ: “There will be a pure way there, and it will be called a holy way; and there will be no unclean way there, nor will a lion be there, nor will any of the evil beasts go up there; but the redeemed will walk in it for the Lord's sake.”

“Your cords have been broken, because they were not strong; your mast has leaned, it will not let out the sails, it will not raise a signal, until it is handed over for plunder.”

Having made mention of a ship, and having named a tent, he again keeps to the course of God's discourse; and he says, as to the synagogue of the Jews, or the tent: “Your cords have been broken, because they were not strong” … for your overreachings any longer; but not even in these … was it strong. For of Zion, the rich city, he says that the cords will not be broken for ever; for our Lord Jesus Christ, as I said, has founded his own church on the rock. But the cords, as it were, of the tent of the Jews were broken, for they were not strong. And just as [a ship], when a violent wind does not at all let up, … suffers shipwreck, so, he says, your mast too has leaned, and it will not let out the sails. So he makes plain what has befallen the synagogue of the Jews, as by an image taken from those who sail. But it will not raise a signal, he says; it will remain so until it is handed over for plunder. See, he uses this example too, signifying to us in many ways what has befallen them. … to raise a signal, or a trophy. But the defeated do not raise a signal. So it will not raise a signal, he says, that is, it will not prevail over its enemies, but will rather grow weak, until it is handed over for plunder. By all these he means that it will lie under the feet of Satan, will suffer shipwreck, and will never prevail over him, as those do who dwell in the unshaken tent; rather, it will be for plunder to him.

“… many lame will take plunder; and the people dwelling among them will not say, ‘I am weary’; for their sin has been forgiven them.”

For the Jews, though they had received the ability to walk straight from the tutelage in the law, … having a lame mind — for they had gone astray and did not know how to make straight paths — will take plunder. For they will gain what is God's, conquering Satan. And that, having also sent away the heavy burden of sin, they will have spiritual rest, he declares, saying: “And the people dwelling among them will not say, ‘I am weary’; for their sin has been forgiven them.” For those of the blood of Israel, since their sin has been lifted up against them — for they in no way accepted the … — are as it were captives to the inventor of sin. But those who have come to be above accusation for sin, since it has been taken away, Christ wiping it clean, will be in the midst of all gladness, and will be freed also from weariness … “… whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin.” Yet one used to offending says: “My lawless deeds have gone over my head; like a heavy burden they have weighed on me.” And the law too was hard to bear. Indeed, Christ said: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

“Draw near, nations, and hear, rulers. Let the earth hear, and those in it, the world and the people in it. For the anger of the Lord is upon all the nations, and wrath upon their number, to destroy them and hand them over to … the dead, and their stench will go up, and the mountains will be drenched with their blood. And the heaven will be rolled up like a scroll, and all the stars will fall like leaves from a vine, and as figs fall from a fig tree. My sword has become drunk in heaven.”

Having said very well that the synagogue of the Jews would suffer shipwreck and be handed over to those who ravage it, for plunder and capture, and having added to this the calling of the nations — “for many lame,” he says, “will take plunder” — he gives the instruction needed by those who once had a lame mind but have learned to walk straight through faith in Christ. He makes mention also of great … Therefore he says to the nations, as still standing far off: “Draw near, nations, and hear, rulers.” He put “draw near” in place of “come near.” For as long as they are perhaps in error and worship the creation rather than the Creator, they stand somewhere far from God. But when the cause for which they are said to be far off is … , they are brought into close relation with God and are understood to have come near, having become partakers of him through receiving the Holy Spirit. So, he says, come near, nations and rulers. And let the earth hear, and those in it, the world and the people in it. And what is it that is made known? For wrath hangs, he says, over all who are in it — and not simply or indiscriminately; rather, it will come on those who … sin that cannot be cast off, and the filth of their offences melted into their own souls. And that they will perish, and be handed over as it were to destruction and slaughter, and will defile the whole place, he shapes the figure of the discourse as of bodies that have perished.

For the mountains, he says, will be drenched with their blood. Then, making plain the time of this, he brings the consummation of the world into view and says: The heaven will be rolled up like a scroll, and the stars will fall like leaves. For as the Saviour's disciple said about the last day: “For in it the heavens will pass away with a rushing noise, and the elements will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works in it will all be burned up. But we look for new heavens and a new earth according to his promises.” So the rolling up of heaven and the falling of the stars would hint at the renewal of this universe. And the divine Paul too said that the creation will be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. And by adding, “My sword has become drunk in heaven,” he gives us to understand that the onset of the divine wrath will come not only against those on earth, but will also run against the unclean spirits themselves, whom the holy writings are accustomed to call world-rulers of darkness and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. For they will be punished and, as it were, will glut the sword of God through the penalty they undergo, having tyrannized for long times and destroyed, so far as it lay with them, the whole world under heaven, and being required to pay the penalties for such terrible impieties.

“Behold, it will come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of destruction, with judgment. The sword of the Lord has been filled with blood; it has been fattened with the fat of lambs, and with the fat of bulls and rams.”

From the universal judgment he brings the discourse down to the punishment brought on the Idumeans because of their impiety toward Christ. By Idumea he means Judea, altering the name slightly so that he may appear also to mock it. For Esau, born of Isaac, having sold his birthright for one meal, was justly called Edom, that is, earthy; for such was his mind. And from him those descended from him were thereafter called Idumeans. For they too, being earthy, might be thought to have an earthly mind, judging, I mean, from the interpretation of the name. So he calls Judea Idumea, as not knowing how to set its mind on things above, but rather sunk in earthly affairs and having a fleshly mind. Behold, then, he says, the sword made drunk in heaven will now come down on Judea, or Idumea, and on the people of destruction, but with judgment. And who else would the people of destruction be but Israel? For it did not wish to honour …

… that is, with just judgment; for Israel has not perished simply or indiscriminately, and as it were utterly, but the remnant has been saved through faith, plainly faith in Christ. For not a few from Judea too have been called and have believed in Christ. But on those who disobeyed, the sword of the Lord was filled with blood, that is, the wrath, all but slaughtering them and laying them low like rams and bulls, stout and fat, to whom we might fittingly say: “Come now, you rich, weep over the miseries that are coming upon you. … on the earth; you fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.” For such were the guides of the Jews, grazing, in a way, on the fruits from the peoples as on a fat and spacious pasture, and fattened, as it were, by the honours paid them by all. But like rams and bulls, the wretches have fallen, encountering the sword of the Lord.

“For there is a sacrifice to the Lord in Bosor, and a great slaughter in Idumea; and the stout will fall with them, and the rams and the bulls; and the land will be drunk with blood, and from the fat …”

Bosor is interpreted “constraint,” and “fortification,” and “good tidings,” and indeed also “flesh.” So he names Idumea also Bosor, that you may understand it as fleshly, or constrained, that is, besieged; or as good tidings, for Christ preached the good news in it. I would add that it is also a fortification; for the Lord was round about it and round about his people, as it is written. But in it, he says, there is a sacrifice to the Lord. For they have been sacrificed by the swords of the besiegers, going up not for a sweet savour to God but to glut the sword that strikes them down. And that not only will the multitude in Idumea be consumed, but there will also be a very great and pitiable fall of the notable among them, he hints in a riddle, saying that the stout and the rams and the bulls will fall with them, and that the land will be drunk with their blood and filled with their fat. For he says such things as of bulls and rams thrown to the ground, pouring out a great flow of blood …, all but watering it.

“For it is a day of the Lord's judgment, and a year of the recompense of the judgment of Zion. And its ravines will be turned into pitch, and its land into brimstone; and its land will be burning like pitch night and day, and it will not be quenched for ever, and its smoke will go up on high. For generations it will be made desolate, and birds and hedgehogs and ibises and ravens will dwell in it. And … will be laid upon it …”

… he left us to understand. For he names Zion, for which he says a day of judgment and a year of recompense has come, in which, as if pitch and brimstone had been sprinkled over all their land, … with a savage flame; and the smoke going up it is perhaps fitting to understand as the report, as it were, of its suffering and the greatness of its calamity. He says that it will be made desolate for generations, and describes what happens to desolate cities. For he says that birds and hedgehogs, ibises and ravens will lodge in it, and that it will be measured out into a desert; and … he means the wild asses, to whom it is dear to make their haunt in the wholly desolate places.

… of mice. But if anyone should choose to take a more inward sense of these words too, we say that minds made desolate and, as it were, bereft of men, because the God of all does not dwell in them through the Spirit, will be grazed over by the evil beasts, and the unclean will lodge in it — hedgehogs, I mean, and ravens and wild asses.

“Its rulers will not be; for its kings and its rulers and its great men will be for destruction.”

Having spoken above of the stout and the rams and the bulls, meaning the guides of the Jews, or those who obtained a conspicuous glory, either by way of the priesthood or through being in wealth and great distinction, here he names them rulers, making his meaning about them clearer. So those who once reigned over them, he says, and the rulers and the great men will not be. For they will no longer revel in power over all, nor … of those in office; and, having slipped as it were from kingship, … destruction, together with the others who perished through them. For they became an occasion of destruction to those under their hand. And the God of all will teach this, saying: “Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard; they have defiled my portion. They have made my desirable portion a trackless desert. It has become a desolation …”

“And thorny trees will spring up in their cities and in its strongholds; and … one to another; there onocentaurs will rest, for they have found rest for themselves.”

Again he tries to make plain to us in another way what happens to desolate places. For as long as the cities are populous, none of the wild … of the spirits, as in the form of the beasts named … But when they become empty of men and deprived of their inhabitants, then the land will be found like waste ground, full of thorns, a lodging of sparrows, and especially of sirens. By sirens he means the birds that utter a mournful cry at night and all but wail, which are quiet by day and lodge in the desolate parts of the land, and make their flights rather in the dark, such as the owl and the like. By saying that demons and onocentaurs meet each other and indeed cry out one to another, he hints at the, as it were, utter desolation of the cities. For evil spirits too are said … the quiet places. And all those beasts that set great store by the absence of men, and are trained by natural laws to wildness, lodge there most gladly.

“And the land saved its children with safety; there deer met and saw one another's faces. They passed by in number, and not one of them perished; one did not seek the other, for the Lord commanded them, and his Spirit gathered them. And he will cast lots for them, and his hand has divided for them to graze … for ever … on it.”

Having said that the land of the Jews will be given over to utter desolation and will have no share at all in the sparing and love from above and from God, he again makes mention of those in it who have been saved. These would be the remnant, that is, those who are through faith. And concerning them he says here: “The land has saved its children with safety.” For those from Israel who believe have become sons of the land of the Jews, having found our Lord Jesus Christ as safety and as an unshakable tower for their help. And from among the children who were saved, the divine disciples have in a way become deer. They are very fittingly compared to deer. For the animal is a snake-killer and is used to frequenting springs of water. And such are all who have been raised to the portion of godliness toward God, being fit for the destruction of the spiritual dragon, by overturning his glory and showing the purpose of the perversity within him powerless and ineffective. And they also revel in the spiritual springs of water, that is, in the supplies of spiritual goods, which all but water the mind and make it fruitful for God. There, then, he says, that is, among those who have been saved, the deer met one another. They admired one another; for this, I think, is what “they saw one another's faces” means. And none was endangered; for this again is “they passed by in number, and not one of them perished; one did not seek the other.” Who, then, was it that saved them? The Lord commanded them, and his Spirit gathered them; and he commanded them to make disciples of all the nations and to baptize into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And he will cast lots for them, and his hand divided [for them] to graze for ever. For to the holy apostles were assigned, as it were, lots, among whom each was to preach. Indeed the divine Peter was appointed to the circumcision, and the Spirit gave the oracle, saying: “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them”; and they became apostles of the nations. So his hand divided lots for them, so that they might graze for ever. For since he had made mention of deer, he necessarily put “to graze.” For they all but grazed over the countries … of truth, and this is their lot. Indeed the divine Paul addressed those saved through him, saying: “My joy and crown.” And that the boast in these things will be kept for them with God without end, he makes plain by saying, “They will rest on it.” On what? Plainly on the inheritance assigned them by God. And we must also recall what the blessed psalmist David says about them: “The voice of the Lord preparing deer, and it will uncover forests.” For forests were shown by God to the spiritual deer, as it were: the multitude of the nations, beyond number.

“Be glad, thirsty desert; let the desert rejoice and blossom like a lily. And it will blossom, and the desert places of the Jordan will rejoice; and the glory of Lebanon was given to it, and the honour of Carmel; and my people will see the glory of the Lord and the majesty of our God.”

The inspired Scripture is accustomed to call the church from the nations desert and barren, since it was once in this state, having neither the spiritual bridegroom from heaven, I mean Christ, but being also in want of every good, and as it were a nurse of thorns, thirsty and waterless. But when Christ came to be in it (for he was received through faith, and it was enriched with the divine stream from him; for he is the spring of life and the torrent of delight; and he it was who said through one of the holy prophets: “Behold, I turn toward them like a river of peace, and like a torrent flooding the glory of the nations”), it is no longer barren and desert, but rather rich in children, under a bridegroom, and blooming spiritually. So, he says, let her who once thirsted be glad, and let her blossom like a lily, having both bloom and fragrance. For she has become the fragrance of Christ, and Paul will confirm it, writing: “We are the fragrance of Christ to God.” By “the desert places of the Jordan” he means the desert around it. For not to those from Israel who disobeyed, but to us from the nations, or to those of them who believed, the stream of the Jordan has been given, and it is with us; for we are baptized in it, and ours, as I said, the holy spring has become. In this desert, then, he says, which was once … but we have seen the height of his glory. For we know [him as] God … and so God. The glory of Lebanon has been given, and the honour of Carmel. Lebanon and Carmel very often denote Jerusalem and the divine temple itself. But the glory that once befitted the holy city and the divine temple has been given to the church from the nations, and in it we have seen the glory of the Lord and the majesty of God. The Jews treated the Lord as a mere man, having nothing more than the others; …

“… be strong, do not fear. Behold, our God renders judgment and will render it; he himself will come and save us. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will hear. Then [the lame] will leap like …”

A fitting initiation and spiritual comfort for those from the nations called to the knowledge of Christ is “Be strong, slack hands and paralysed knees.” For in those still astray the hands are idle, and the knees paralysed. And he does not say such things altogether of the parts of the body; rather, we shall find those in deceits and errors spiritually sick. For neither is a work of godliness to be found among them, nor strength of knees, that is, of mind, for travelling the holy way of righteousness. But be strong, he says, so that they may be able to run to God. And you, as appointed to the sacred ministry of the divine preaching, comfort those who have grown weak; say clearly to the faint-hearted, “Be strong, do not fear.” For the mind of those who do not know God is not robust; for they fear, as it were, the assaults of the passions, and Satan, who of old tyrannized over them, and besides this, death.

But behold, he says, God, that is, the Saviour is not far off, who will render judgment. For he will condemn the ruler of this age and free from slavery under him those who had been oppressed. For he will come, he will come and save us. What then? When he comes to those on earth, then the eyes of the blind will be opened. For those who of old worshipped the creation rather than the Creator [will have] the very creation that once led them astray as a guide, as it were, to the Maker. For from the beauty of created things their Creator is seen by analogy; and, as Paul says: “His invisible things, from the creation of the world, being understood by the things that are made, are clearly seen, his eternal power and divinity.” So the eyes of those formerly blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will hear. For those who of old … the words about God … the initiation given by the saints, will gladly accept it. And the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of stammerers will be clear. For those who of old, he says, did not know how to walk straight, but had, as it were, a paralysed mind, will leap up like deer, that is, they will be swift and glorious — spiritually, plainly — and besides this, snake-killers, and knowing how to speak well. For they will speak rather the things of God, no longer saying to the wood, “You are my father,” and to the stone, “You gave birth to me.” But one should know that Christ fulfilled these things bodily too, astounding Judea with his ineffable divine signs.

“For water has broken out in the desert, and a ravine in the thirsty land. And the waterless land will become marshes, and in the thirsty land there will be a spring of water; there will be the gladness of birds, a dwelling of reeds and marshes.”

He commanded the thirsty desert to be glad; then he adds at once the cause of the gladness. For water has broken out in it, he says. And “broken out” is well put, so that the abundance of the supply may be signified by it. By “ravine” he means a river; and when this has come about, the land once waterless will thereafter be turned into marshes. And it will have a spring of water, either the holy Jordan or the Saviour of all, Christ himself; for he is the spring of life and the well of living water. Around them has come the flocking together and gladness of birds. By birds here he means those who have flown up from earthly affairs and have come to be on high through virtue, and have chosen to set their minds on things above. These rejoice in Christ as at a spring, who made the desert a dwelling of reeds and marshes. For well-wooded places are always, somehow, wont to be crowned with marshes. And the church from the nations, enriched with the stream from heaven and luxuriating in the divine [waters], is a nurse of marshes and of reed, that is, of those who flourish in Christ unto ineffable life through sanctification.

“There will be a pure way, and it will be called a holy way, and the unclean will not pass by there, nor will there be an unclean way there; but the scattered will walk on it, and they will not go astray. And there will be no lion there, nor will any of the evil beasts go up on it, nor will it be found there; but … will walk in it … for the Lord's sake, and, gathered, they will return and will come from Zion with gladness, and everlasting gladness will be over their head. For upon their head will be praise and exultation, and gladness will take hold of them; pain and groaning and grief have fled away.”

He names the power of the evangelical way of life a pure way, or, in another sense, the cleansing through the Spirit. For it wipes away the stain melted into human souls, frees them from offences, and shows them above all filth. So it is rightly named a holy and pure way, but it cannot be trodden by those not yet cleansed. For no one lives the evangelical life unless he has first been enriched with the cleansing through holy baptism; so none of the unbelievers does. For these are the unclean who will [not] walk on it, he says. Rather the scattered will walk, that is, … [they will not] go astray. For of old they went astray, worshipping wood and stones and going in crooked ways; but now they will learn the straight and pure path that leads to holy life. And that, having become free also from the devil's overreaching, … Neither a lion nor any other of the evil beasts will be there, that is, on the pure way. For of old the inventor of sin, like some wild beast, leapt upon those on earth together with the unholy spirits; but he was made weak in Christ, has been driven from the flock of those who believed, and has been scared off by Christ from his overreaching against them. So on this pure way those redeemed through Christ and gathered through faith into one mind will [walk], and, leaving their old path, they will return and come to Zion, that is, the church, the one on earth and in the heavens, having God as their gladness. And exultation and gladness and every kind of delight in Christ will take hold of them, and they will be wholly without taste of grief and groaning. For those called to such bright hopes, who will be heirs of eternal life, and are to be enriched with the boasts of the glory from above, and expect to reign with Christ himself — what grief will they share, or what groaning will they admit? … For they will rather delight, as in every good, wholly and altogether.

“And it came to pass in the fourteenth year … king of the Assyrians against the fortified cities of Judea, and took them. And … sent … to King Hezekiah with a great force, and he stood at the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road of the field of the …”

The account is clear to all who are rather fond of learning history; yet I shall speak of it, being as brief as I can. When Ahaz was reigning in Jerusalem, and then Pekah son of Remaliah and Rezin the king of Syria were besieging Judea and had resolved to lay hands on Jerusalem itself, [Ahaz], lacking the strength to resist, … Tiglath-pileser king of the Assyrians to his aid, and persuaded him with many gifts to defend him and to check the overreaching of the kings who had conspired against him, I mean the king of Samaria and the king of Syria. When this happened, those who were warring against him perished. For the Assyrian took Damascus and Syria; and Ahaz came under his hand, and thereafter under tribute and taxes. He was among the very worst; for he was an idolater and hateful to God, and perhaps outdid all the others in perversity toward God. When Ahaz ended his human life, Hezekiah reigned in his place, his son indeed, but a man dear to God, who had won the boasts of the highest righteousness and godliness. He, it says, rebelled against the king of the Assyrians. For he would not allow his kingdom to come under tribute, as Ahaz had. For this reason Sennacherib the king of the Assyrians, as one who ought to hold all Judea and its very kingdom under tribute, was inflamed with anger; and having ravaged Samaria, he loosed his army on the cities of Judea, and, having taken many, he finally sent the Rabshakeh against Jerusalem itself, not, for the moment, to move arms by the law of war, but rather to entice them with threats and with promises of gentleness.

“And there went out to him Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the steward, and Somnas the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder. And the Rabshakeh said to them: Say to Hezekiah, Thus says the king, the great king of the Assyrians: Is battle joined by counsel or by words of the lips? And now in whom do you trust, that you disobey me? Behold, you trust in this broken staff of reed, in Egypt; whoever leans on it, it will go into his hand. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt, and all who trust in him.”

The gates were plainly shut, and on the walls stood surely the most warlike part of the people, while … carrying out the business of the embassy went out. But he, being full of Persian cruelty, and having a mouth speaking great things, as it is written, was insolent against the glory of God. He names Hezekiah by his bare name, without adding “king” or any other of the titles most fitting for such eminence; but the king of the Assyrians he does not simply call that, but calls him great too. And he says: “Is battle joined by counsel or by words of the lips?” For since the Jews, having the law through Moses, were thought wiser than the other nations — indeed they said, “Blessed are we, Israel, for what pleases the Lord is known to us” — the Rabshakeh reduces their boast in this to nothing, saying that when war and battle are at hand, their knowledge of laws, their prudence in mere counsels, and their very skill, as it were, in words will be wholly useless to help them. And since some of those who had reigned over Judea had called the hand of the Egyptians to their aid, though doing so improperly, the Assyrian supposed that now too Hezekiah trusted not in God but in others, namely in those who hold the land of the Egyptians. Therefore … a reed … “the men sitting on the wall, that …?”

… always the hope in them, which rather harms than is able to help those who use it, just like a staff of reed: if anyone leans on it, he will surely break it, and it …

“But if you say, We have trusted in the Lord our God, now mingle with my lord the king of the Assyrians, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to provide riders for them. And how can you turn back the face of a toparch …?”

He again speaks with an unbridled mouth, lifts his horn on high, and speaks injustice against God. For if, he says, you have trusted in him, mingle with my lord, that is, arm yourselves and stand for battle. And I will add two thousand horses for you, and this, he says, will suffice as proof that you will prevail over the hand of the Assyrians — if you find men to mount them, or men who know at all how to ride in battle. Then how, being unable even to accomplish this, will you prevail over one toparch? For the empire of the Assyrians was divided, and had kings subordinate to the greatest of all, who were also called toparchs.

“… They are slaves who trust in the Egyptians, for horse and rider. And now, have we come up against this land to war against it without the Lord? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.”

He utterly cuts off the hope in the Egyptians, saying that those who trust in it are all but already ranked among slaves. For those who trusted in horse and rider will be easily captured, he says. Then he utters something bitter, as from the perversity within him, affirming that he is undertaking the war against Judea not without the Lord. For if, he says, as you yourselves say, the God among you is great and most valiant and fights for the land, how have we come up against it? For if we have overcome the strength of its defender, he is not great, but rather small and feeble. But if he is great and powerful, we have not been prevented when we wished to ravage Judea: we have not come up against it without the Lord.

“And Eliakim and Somnas the scribe and Joah said to him: Speak to your servants in Syrian, for we understand; and do not speak to us in the Jewish language. And why do you speak into the ears of the men on the wall? And the Rabshakeh said to them: Has my lord sent me to your lord or to you to speak these words? Is it not to … that they may eat dung and drink urine with you?”

The common people are always easily terrified and very ready to lose heart, especially when war is at hand and slaughter is expected, and burnings throughout the city. Therefore very prudently those with the Rabshakeh [said] that he ought not to speak in the Jewish language but rather use the Syrian tongue. For they did not wish words full of barbarian madness to be put by him into the ears of the common people, while King Hezekiah was urging them to courage and saying clearly that the Lord was with them, and that for those who trust in God hope is unshakeable, while human things are easily shaken and nothing at all, I mean compared with his power. But the Rabshakeh understands, and is not ignorant of the reason why he was stopped from speaking in the Jewish language. Therefore he says that the aim of his journey was not to them nor to the king, but rather to converse with those on the wall. And he insults again and belches out the words of an unclean heart, saying that for this reason they sit on the wall guarding the city: so that, starving and come into want … of bread and water, they may be brought to such necessity that they make their food and drink of things utterly loathsome, perhaps even to dogs.

… in the Jewish language, and said: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of the Assyrians. Thus says the king: Let not Hezekiah deceive you with words, which will not be able to deliver you; and let not Hezekiah say to you, God will deliver you, and this city will not be handed over into the hands of the king of the Assyrians. Do not listen to Hezekiah. Thus says the king of the Assyrians: … and you will eat each one his vine and his figs, and you will drink the water of your cistern, until I come and take you to a land like your land, a land of grain and wine, and of bread and vineyards.”

He turns his words now to those … eager to resist. Up and down he calls the Assyrian a great king, belittles the hope in God, and calls Hezekiah a liar and a deceiver for saying that they ought rather to rely on God, and on no account fear the assaults of men while he defends them. Then he promises those who desert to him that they will be on their own land for a time — for this is “until I come and take you” — and will enjoy their own fields; and he smooths over, as it were, the dread of captivity and hides the harshness of the matter with deceitful words, adding, “until I come and take you to a land like your land,” … the land of the Jews, all but saying: Even if you leave Judea and come to us, you will find your own land no less; for the land of the Persians and … is a land of grain and wine, of bread and vineyards.

“Let not Hezekiah deceive you, saying, God will deliver you. Did the gods of the nations deliver each his own land from the hand of the king of the Assyrians? Where is the god of Hamath and Arphad? And where is the god of the city of Sepharvaim? Were they able to deliver Samaria from my hand? … [“I set a guard to my mouth when … and I was humbled and kept silent from good things.”] … delivered his land from my hand, that God will deliver Jerusalem from my hand? And they were silent, and no one answered him, because the king had commanded that no answer be given.”

The Rabshakeh again acts the barbarian in his thinking, grows heavy with words against God, and is greatly puffed up because the king of the Assyrians had taken very many cities of the nations, and not one had been saved by the falsely named gods in it; but he did not know that those were wood and stones and the handiwork of human hands, and nothing else. But the God of Judea, or rather of the whole world, is a living and true God, not one recently made, but rather the maker of the ages themselves, creator of all, and Lord of hosts. The … thinks, then, that it will be … that they will be captured in every way, even if the great God helps them, that none of the gods of the Greeks could save a city or a land in which it had been honoured. Therefore he says: “Where is the god of Hamath and Arphad?” And he adds: “Were they able to deliver Samaria from my hand?”

But, O thrice-wretched man, I would say, they too worshipped golden heifers, and the land was taken when God withdrew his help. And, as I said before, if none of the gods of the Greeks saved his own land, this is nothing against God, who is truly, by nature, and great. For they had received from human art no more than, at most, to be seen; but he rules over all and has an invincible hand, being the Lord of hosts. No one answers the Rabshakeh, since the king commanded silence, and very prudently. For to uneducated words, a barbarian mind, and tongues [wagging] against God … And this, I think, is what the blessed David teaches when he says: … “when the sinner stood against me, I was struck dumb …”

“And Eliakim son of Hilkiah the steward, and Somnas the scribe of the force … with their tunics torn, and they reported to him the words of the Rabshakeh. And when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his garments and put on sackcloth and went up to the house of the Lord.”

At the boastings of the Rabshakeh and his … those sent to him [tear] their tunics, and report to the king the [words] of Persian madness; … clothing, and changed into sackcloth, that is, a garment of mourning, and went up, it says, into the house of the Lord. And what is the reason for tearing one's clothes? It was the custom of the Jews to do this at blasphemies against God. Indeed, the Saviour was handed over to the guides of the Jews, and the Judge of the world was judged by them. But he was silent, not answering the voices of those who spoke falsely. Then the high priest said to him: “I adjure you by the living God, that you tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus says to him: You have said so. But I say to you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming on the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest tore his garments, saying, He has blasphemed.” And the God of all said through one of the prophets to those of the blood of Israel: “Rend your hearts and not your garments.” For they perhaps thought they were being godly and gladdening God with the highest honours by tearing their tunics at blasphemies against him, even if they took no account of what had been ordained through Moses. Hezekiah puts on sackcloth, or a garment of mourning, and goes up into the house of God, and very fittingly. For it is fitting that those at the height of misfortunes should mourn, weep, and be worn down, make God their hope of salvation, sit before him, and frequent the holy places, where one would most fittingly make supplications to him.

“And he sent Eliakim the steward, and Somnas the scribe, and the elders of the priests, clothed in sackcloth, to Isaiah son of Amoz the prophet, and they said … of reproach and of rebuke and of wrath is this day, for the birth pang has come to her who is in labour, but she has no strength to give birth. If perhaps the Lord your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom the king of the Assyrians sent to reproach the living God, and to reproach with words which the Lord your God heard; and you will pray to the Lord your God for …”

The foremost in the priesthood, crowned by the law with the highest honours, together with the others — not in sacred vestments, those more fitting for the liturgy, but rather in sackcloth — … he commanded to [go] to the blessed prophet Isaiah, and to report that a day of affliction and of reproach had fallen upon them. For God, he says, all but reproaches those who inhabit the holy city as having neglected the equity of the law; he rebukes them as having offended, and so brings on the effects of wrath. And they plainly affirmed that matters had come to such a point for them that Israel resembled a woman in labour who has come to extremity because she cannot give birth. He wishes also that, through the prophet's mediation, the God of all should give ear to the words of the Rabshakeh, which he had heard by himself. For it escapes him … of the saints. For he consents for their sake … destroyed, and houses burned. Pray, he says, for these who are left. Hezekiah is very godly, calling on the one honoured with God, plainly the prophet, to become his helper. So it is useful to fall down before God, often together with those who preside, even for those used to being slack …

“And Isaiah said to them: Thus you shall say to your lord: Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid of the words you have heard, with which the envoys of the king of the Assyrians reproached me. Behold, I am putting a spirit into him, and having heard a report he will turn back to his own country, and he will fall by the sword in his own land.”

God encourages the one who has trusted in him, not after long but at once and immediately, and has shown him that his hope is profitable, and that to run to the house of the Lord, and to shed tears from toil together with prayers, is not without reward. So is the Master of all won over, being the lover of humankind. And since the Rabshakeh, cutting off the hope of those of Israel for being saved, even if the all-powerful God should choose to save them, said unholily: “Let not Hezekiah deceive you, that God will deliver Jerusalem from my hand. Did the gods of these nations deliver each his own land from my hand?” — therefore, very fittingly, he frees him from terrors, and does not let him … and be gloomy, but rather strengthens him to a much-prayed-for hope, saying that the boastful tyrant will be carried back, not willingly, to his own [land], an evil spirit terrifying him and driving him unbearably into fears for his own kingdom; and that he will fall by the sword, having been endangered

not in a foreign land, nor having boasted of slaughters of enemies and being enriched with bright prizes for valour against foes; but where he [thought] to spend his time, there he fell, in his own land — this happened against hope and unexpectedly. For where he thought to spend his time … of fears, there he fell, and, endangered by those by whom it was likely he would be saved. Who these are we shall learn from what follows.

“… besieging Lamna; and the king heard … of the Ethiopians to besiege him; and having heard, he turned back, and sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying: Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of Judea: Let not your God deceive you, in whom you trust, saying, Jerusalem will not be handed over into the hands of the king of the Assyrians. Have you not heard what the kings of the Assyrians did, how they destroyed the whole earth? Did the gods of the nations deliver them, whom my fathers destroyed, Gaza and Charran and Rapheis, which are in the land of Thaiman? Where are the kings of Hamath and Arphad, and of the city of Emphareim, Ata and Aua?”

… having come under the barbarian hand, and after it Lamna; there the Rabshakeh is said to have found the Assyrian. But he was greatly disturbed; for Tharaca, king of the Ethiopians, had marched against him. Then, fearing that, with his country seized, he might lose his most splendid thrones, he leaves Judea and hurries rather to his own land; yet he did not abate the cruelty within him. But, inflamed as it were to unmixed anger, perhaps because those of Israel, that is, those who inhabit the holy city, would not … to the Rabshakeh's words, the wretch again … mouth against the glory of God, and commands some of his household to go quickly to Hezekiah and report his message to him. These were blasphemies against God, as he says plainly: since the gods of the other countries or nations perished together with those who worshipped them, not even the God of the Hebrews could deliver them and snatch them from the hand of the Assyrians. Then he enumerates sacked cities, which, one would think, could do much, from which others suffered. By these very things he terrifies, as men about to die, even those who trust in him, in the God who rules all.

“… and opened it before the Lord; and Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying: Lord of hosts, God of Israel, who sit upon the cherubim, you alone are God of every kingdom of the world. You made heaven and earth. Hear, Lord; look, Lord, and see the words which Sennacherib sent to reproach the living God.”

From very great godliness toward God he unfolds the book, not as though God did not know the magnitude of Sennacherib's arrogance, but rather crying out against the barbarian madness and making God himself, who has authority over all, as it were a witness of that man's insolence. And see how he answers Sennacherib's words as he stretches out his supplication. For the one, so far as lay in him, mocking the glory of God, says: “Let not your God deceive you, in whom you trust, saying, Jerusalem will not be handed over into the hands of the king of the Assyrians.” But the other confesses the greatness of his authority, naming him Lord of hosts and God of Israel, and over all creation, the creation above and rational: “For you are,” he says, “the one who sits upon the cherubim.” And he confesses besides that

even if some on earth are called kings, yet the one who is by nature and truly King, and has all things under his feet, would be he alone, the Creator of earth and heaven, who by a nod brought into being what once was not. And he begs him to hear and to look, that is, not to overlook and pass by such bitter blasphemies, but to punish the wicked one with justice. For he reproached the living God, he says, that is, one in no way like the gods of the nations, to whom that man compared [him].

“… laid waste the whole world and their land, and threw their idols into the fire. For they were not gods, but works of men's hands, wood and stone, and they destroyed them. But you, O Lord our God, save us from their hands, that every kingdom of the earth may know that you alone are God.”

I have heard, he says, the barbarian saying: “Did the gods of the nations deliver each his own land from my hand?” Even if someone says this, I approve it and am persuaded. For they have conquered the whole earth and burned the cities, which could get no benefit from the falsely named gods; for they saved no one. For how, or whence, could things made of wood and stone? Therefore they perished together with their own worshippers. But you, save us, O Master. For this too is a proof, and persuades all under heaven to hold, and firmly, that you alone are God. For just as the capture of the countries of the nations bore witness against the falsely named gods that they are nothing at all, so too Jerusalem's escaping and getting out of his hand, the city that is under you and yours, will all but bear witness, and will make clear to all everywhere the proclamation of your might and of your undefiled glory, and that you alone are God, in heaven and on earth.

“And Isaiah son of Amoz was sent to Hezekiah and said to him: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I have heard what you prayed to me concerning Sennacherib …”

The one who saves is not far off, but near, and the fulfilment of what was asked follows, as it were, on the heels of the prayer. For the prophet is sent; having till then kept silent about the barbarian and not having announced God's sentence on him, he says: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel.” He strengthens the believer and does not show the sender to be one of the falsely named gods, but rather, making him confident, names him Lord and God of Israel. And he praises him, as it were, and accepts him, saying: “I have heard what you prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of the Assyrians.” For all but, he says, I accept your zeal, I know your love of God; you found the blasphemy against me unbearable; you came in tears, grieving as it were on my behalf, and made the reproaches against me your own grief. Most praiseworthy, then, is the zeal of the saints; and when the glory of God is blasphemed and they grieve, God is gladdened.

“This is the word which God spoke about him: The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and mocked you; the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you. Whom have you reproached and provoked? Or against whom have you raised your voice? And you did not lift your eyes on high to the … of Israel; for through messengers you have reproached the Lord.”

He makes plain thereafter his sentence on the barbarian, and says that the virgin daughter of Zion, that is, Jerusalem, will mock him and shake her head. We say that he names Zion, or Jerusalem, virgin and daughter: virgin, as undefiled and not having the blemish of loathsome idolatry; daughter, because he has given it the affection a father owes to the children born of him. And she despised the Assyrian, or shook her head at him; in a way she smiled at him in his defeat and made his calamities, as it were, a song and a harmonious melody. Then she says to him: “Whom have you reproached and provoked? Or against whom have you raised your voice?” For did you think you were vexing one of the falsely named gods with such hot words? And yet how ought you not, he says, to have lifted the eye of the mind on high and considered who, and how great, the God of Israel is? You ought, even from the very sight of created things, to have seen by analogy the greatness of the Creator's power. You ought to have contemplated the height of his glory and to have reckoned nothing lowly of him. But, not remembering any such thing, he says, you said:

“With the multitude of chariots I went up to the height of mountains and to the farthest parts of Lebanon, and I cut down the height of its cedar and its beauty, and I entered the height of the part of the forest; and I made a bridge, and I dried up waters and every gathering of water.”

He sets forth the swelling of Persian arrogance, its senseless puffing up, and the magnitude of its boasting. For he compares to Lebanon, as we said before, the land of the Jews, and perhaps also that of the Samaritans, which the ten tribes inhabited. For Lebanon is a mountain in Phoenicia, flourishing and thickly covered with cedar trees lifted very high. And the land of the Jews is understood to be somehow like this: high, because God was its defender; dense, because those in it were seen to be beyond number. But the Assyrian tyrants took Samaria, and with it laid waste not a few cities of Judea. You, then, he says, O Assyrian, having an arrogant mind and ascribing the outcome of events to your own powers, said: “With the multitude of chariots I went up to the height of mountains and to the farthest parts of Lebanon,” that is, against the very kingdom of those of Israel. “I cut down the height of its cedar.” Of what? Of Lebanon, plainly Judea. By “the height of the cedar” he means their kingdom; and he entered “the height of the part of the forest.” For, as I said, many cities of Judea perished together with that of the Samaritans. And you said: “I made a bridge, and dried up waters and every gathering of water.” For the Persians and Assyrians, ascribing to their own powers the ability to accomplish everything, in overrunning countries bridged some of the rivers, and often boasted of being so many in number as to be able to exhaust springs and gatherings of water … extravagant … ; but rather the sentence from him against … made in them.

… for the thirsty, men and horses together. And the select writers among the Greeks, those who recorded Persian affairs in their own histories, say that they even bridged the Hellespont itself; and if a river, they say, was found in the midst as they passed through a country or a city, the tyrant gave orders, saying: Let it be drunk dry. So the God of all recalls the arrogance of the Persians and refutes those used to boasting. Then after this he shows that it was not rather they who were able to accomplish the things on which they prided themselves … the glory of power …

“Have you not heard long ago what I did? From ancient days I arranged it, and now I have commanded … and they became like dry flowers on rooftops, and like couch-grass.”

All these things, he says, which you yourself think you have accomplished, ascribing them to your own powers, you do not blush. But, O you who raise your brow vainly over nothing, have you not heard long ago what I did? For if you wished, he says, to busy yourself with the words of my prophets, I said beforehand that these things would happen. For I from ancient days arranged … now, when the time calls the things foretold to their end, … that is, not weak and easily taken. I let go my hands, and they were dried up. For he who of old, in his forbearance, still held them together in being, and … they withered like grass and faded like hay, and like dry couch-grass were given as food to fire. This, indeed, he says to him elsewhere too: since … the things determined by God to happen … he heard God saying again: “Will the axe be glorified without the one who cuts with it? Or will the saw be exalted without the one who draws it?” For just as such tools do not move themselves to work, but rather wait for the hand of the one who moves them, so you too, he says, have become an instrument of the divine wrath; you did not work by your own powers, but were rather like an axe and a saw in the hands of …

“But now I know your rest, and your going out; and your anger, with which you were angered, and your bitterness have come up to me.”

You boast, then, he says, having become a servant of the divine judgments, and you think perhaps that by yourself and alone you prevailed over so many nations and countries, so as to burn them and take them. But I know your rest, your going out, and your coming in. By “rest,” I think, he names death; by “going out and coming in,” the way to anything at all that is to be done. For nothing at all escapes the all-knowing Mind. And by adding, “Your anger, with which you were angered, and your bitterness have come up to me,” … For I will by no means overlook the malice and bitterness of your unholy designs, but, as if provoked to grief, I will bring on your rage the penalty that fits it.

“And I will put a muzzle in your nose and a bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.”

Since the Assyrian, having the irrationality most befitting a beast, mocked God, and, as it were, leaping into unbridled savagery, uttered words contrary to the glory of God, therefore very … in your nose and a bridle in your lips, all but … and by the greatness of the calamities as by a bridle. He says that the Assyrian will also return to his own land. For he turned back on hearing that Tharaca king of the Ethiopians had come out against him. And yet, someone might say, why, when his whole army had fallen, was he not only saved himself but even returned to his own land? For it was necessary, necessary, that, stripped of the multitude under his hand, he should by God's dispensation escape the hand of the destroying angel, so that he might bewail his own calamity, know whom he had blasphemed, and announce the marvel to all the others.

“And this shall be the sign to you: Eat this year what you have sown, and in the second year what is left, and in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards and eat their fruit. And those left in Judea … will bear seed upward. For out of Jerusalem will be those who are left, and those who are saved from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do …”

Saying that the Assyrian will be turned back to his own land and will depart from the land of the Jews, he defines the time at which this will happen, and says: “Eat this year what you have sown,” and what follows. It is not clear to all whether the sign was given to Sennacherib or to Hezekiah and those with him. But we shall state the sense of what is written; then it must be fitted to the one or the other. If we say that the sign was given to Hezekiah, we understand it thus. Jerusalem was besieged, and the very great army of the Assyrians was trying to burn and take it; a very great quantity of the food … so that those saved in Jerusalem might be able to live. You, then, Hezekiah, he says, and all the people with you, eat this year what you have sown, and in the second what is left; and in the third sow and reap, and plant vineyards. For having settled in Samaria for two whole years, … when [the third year] came on he went off in flight, especially when those with the Rabshakeh who were besieging Jerusalem round about had perished. So in the third year, he says, let the land at last be let go, and let there be enough for farmers and for those who tend vines … peace, plainly, presiding over it, and safety. And that those saved and left over from the war will be secure in their contentment, he indicates by saying, as of plants, that they will stretch their root downward and put forth seed upward. That they will dwell safely, firmly, and beyond all fear, the having of root in depth gives us to understand; and that their prosperity will be extended to the end, … lets us understand. … of hosts will do these things. For since the Assyrian blasphemed, and, comparing him to the falsely named gods, dared to say, Will God not deliver Jerusalem from my hand? — all these things will happen, he says, when the all-powerful is moved to zeal. But if “Eat this year what you have sown, and in the second year what is left” bears against Sennacherib, we say that those used to campaigning against countries or cities, when the siege is sometimes slow and the battle is drawn out for them over time, take to farming too, so that they may have food. And in this way it will fit that what was said should be understood of him too.

“Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of the Assyrians: … nor will he shoot an arrow against it, nor will he set a shield against it, nor will he surround it with a palisade; but by the way by which he came, by it …”

He sums up, in a way, the sense of what has been said, and, as it were cutting it short in few words, makes plain the course of the matter to its end. For he will not engage in war, he says; but before battle, before moving arms, before stretching the bow and letting fly an arrow, before setting up a shield, before surrounding it, he will return by the same way and run home, he says. One should know that by “palisade” here he means the mass of stakes fixed in the ditches, sharpened to a point, so that none of those who fall may be saved.

“Thus says the Lord: I will shield this city to save it for my own sake and for the sake of …”

He cuts off the pride of those saved by God's mercy, and does not allow those who inhabit the holy city to think extravagant things. For it was very likely that they would think and say that they had been honoured by God because of the equity of their manners and the spiritual good order of the righteousness within them. So he saves, as God, but benefits those who have been saved … ; for he said he would shield the city, plainly the holy one, not on account of its inhabitants in any way, nor granting the thing to any one of those then living, but for his own sake, and for David's, whom he also calls his own servant: for his own sake, because he is good and compassionate, and because it was surely necessary to bring the most fitting penalty on those who mocked his divine glory; for David's sake again, because he often grants, in memory of the saints, forgetfulness of wrongs in what their descendants sometimes offend.

“And an angel of the Lord went out and slew out of the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and rising in the morning they found all the bodies dead. And … and dwelt in Nineveh. And while he was worshipping in the house of Asarach his patriarch, Adramelech and Sarasar his sons struck him with swords; and they escaped to Armenia, and Achordan his son reigned in his place.”

The fulfilment of what was expected is usefully added to what was promised, so that the God of all might not appear to speak falsely. For the multitude of the Assyrians was consumed, not taken by the hands of the Jews, with no one stretching a bow against them, nor taking up a spear for battle, nor baring a sword, nor beginning the battle with mighty horses; but an angel [destroyed] by ineffable power the host beyond number. So the general, Sennacherib, though very bold, is struck with amazement at the wonder, is carried back home with difficulty, and dwelt, it says, stripped, in Nineveh. Then at last the promises made by God were brought to fulfilment. For he fell in his own house, worshipping a certain patriarch, plainly one of his fathers or grandfathers according to the flesh. For it is the custom of those once gone astray to assign the thing not only to the unclean spirits but also to whatever dead they choose. For having once fallen from the straight way, to anything that seems good to them … those who killed him; for when a divine sentence is brought on some, those who suffer it are endangered in every way, and as by bitter enemies …

they will meet with … from their own, … as a pledge of safety, not the affection and zeal owed to fathers by children, but thrust into the pits of destruction through the very ones by whom it was likely that, when endangered, they would be saved. And these things, so far as the surface of the history goes, have, I think, been said not inelegantly. But I think we must also say something of the more inward contemplations, for the comfort of the spiritual. For the holy city, that is, Zion, or Jerusalem, would be a type of the church of Christ, the truer Zion. This the enemies of the truth sometimes, or rather generally, besiege, that is, the inventors of unholy heresies; and they besiege it not alone, but in a way hiring the powers in the world as well, inspired by … of Satan, who as it were lets loose those under his hand and those used to serving his perversity; and when they come to those who preside over the truth … talking nonsense about the glory of God, they will gain much — but nothing at all worth any account. For the besieged will keep silent; and for what reason the blessed Paul will teach, saying: “Not to dispute about words to no profit”; and again: “Avoid a heretical man after one and a second admonition, knowing that such a one is perverted.” For to those who have once turned wholly to deceit and imposture and are held fast by falsehood, even the word that usually benefits is perhaps superfluous. For it is written: “Speak into the ears of those who hear.” So when the enemies of the truth promise honours and rest, as well as battles, one must go to God and lay claim to the help from above alone. For the right hand above, almighty, will suffice also to save those … For he will scare them off, using some ineffable might, and will free from war the Zion that is so holy and blameless, that is, the church. For the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

“And it came to pass at that time that Hezekiah was sick unto death. And Isaiah son of Amoz the prophet came to him and said to him: Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you are dying and will not live. And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying: Remember, O Lord, how I walked before you in truth, with a true heart, and did what was pleasing before you. And Hezekiah wept with great weeping.”

Hezekiah was among the most distinguished in love for God, and had a far-famed glory for it. For he pulled down altars, destroyed sacred precincts, burned what was in the shrines, cut down groves, and never ceased serving God with the sacrifices according to the law. He conquered the barbarians neighbouring Judea, so as to bring many under tribute and taxes. He built cities too, and …

… was rightly admired. But, as the children of the Hebrews say, he was carried a little beyond what was fitting, thought great things of himself, and fell into the snares of arrogance. For this reason God raised over him the rod of love: “For whom the Lord loves,” it says, “he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives.” For he strikes as a father who loves his children, moving to better things even those caught in more shameful ones. For just as physicians, when they burn bodies with fire or cut them with iron, are used to doing this not from hatred of the patient but rather overcome by sparing care for him, in the same way, I think, the God of all … in his indignations, so that we may not be condemned with the world, as it is written. So King Hezekiah fell into sickness, and indeed one that reached the limit of every evil; for he was put in extreme danger through the prophet's voice: he says that he will die and that he must set his house in order. This was the word of one who was not ignorant that he would live and would escape the terror of the sickness by the mercy that comes from him, but who was calling and spurring him to prayer, so that, having asked, he might receive mercy from him. For he pities those he loves, grants to his true ones the finding of what they long for, and accepts the words of supplicants. Which indeed happened. For Hezekiah prayed, saying: “Remember, O Lord, how I walked before you in truth, with a true heart, and did what was pleasing before you.” Fine is the boldness of the righteous; for they all but ask a repayment for what they have done and the fruits of their sincerity. And the God of all rejoices in those who have lived lawfully, and in those who … the excellent … and weave toil into their prayer.

“And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying: Go and say to Hezekiah: Thus says the God of David your father: I have heard the voice of your prayer and seen your tears; behold, I add to your time fifteen years, and I will save you from the hand of the king of the Assyrians, and I will shield this city. And this shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that God will do this word which he has spoken: Behold, I turn back the shadow of the steps which the sun went down, the ten steps. And the sun went up the ten steps which the shadow had gone down.”

No long time intervened, but God at once consents and receives the prayers of the righteous man. For, as is written in the Kingdoms, before the blessed prophet had gone out of the king's court the word of God came to him. Returning, then, at once, he makes plain the words from him. For he said that he had heard his voice …

that is, to accept the prayer and look upon the tear; and he grants him at once to be able to leap over the dread of death, and marks the measure of the added life, so that, looking to the end and knowing that he will in any case die, he might make the disease of pride inadmissible to his mind. And he promises, as he had announced before, that he shows him stronger than the hand of the Assyrians and will shield Jerusalem. He did these things, putting every kind of despondency out of the way and restoring, with the goods of his gentleness, one who had grieved very much. For he who struck will bind you up. For the God of all is good and compassionate. … the things promised, with the sign in the sun, according to the turning back of the shadow on the ten steps that then took place. They say that Ahaz, Hezekiah's father, had some steps made in his own house by a certain contrivance and art, telling the hours, as it were, and measuring the course of the sun by the descent of the shadow cast on them. So God made it plain that Hezekiah would return to life, when the sun's shadow went backward and the day was stretched out to an unusual measure of hours. Nothing at all is hard to accomplish for the Master of all; whatever he chooses he accomplishes by a mere nod.

“… when he was sick and rose from his sickness: I said in the height of my days, I will go into the gates of Hades; I will leave the remaining years. I said, I will no longer see the salvation of God on the earth; I will no longer see a man of my kindred. I have left the rest of my life; it has gone out and departed from me, like one who takes down a tent he had pitched; my spirit was with me like the web of a weaver drawing near to cut it off. On that day I was handed over until morning as to a lion; so he crushed my bones; for from day until night I was handed over to him.”

This must be said before the rest: the Seventy have put here “in the height of my days,” whereas other translators have rendered it “in the half of my days.” I myself think, and very prudently, … For the holy city …, the Rabshakeh and those with him having stationed round it the multitude of the Assyrians beyond number. But God promised through Isaiah's voice that he would do wonders, save those in danger, remove the tyrant from Judea, and that he would die when he reached home. When all these things had come to fulfilment, at the time the God of all had said, the boasts of Hezekiah's kingdom were to be lifted on high. I, then, said in myself, he says, that in the time of glory, or in the very exaltation of my days, I will be in the gates of Hades and leave the remaining years. Then he adds to these the things by which … those seized … and seeing death not far off.

This is: “I will no longer see the salvation that comes from God, nor will I see a man of my kindred; I have let go the rest of my life, it has departed from me; I have become like a tent being taken down, and like the web of a woman weaver,” that is, one working, or weaving, and now drawing near to cut it off. Then he says that through the whole night and day my bones were handed over as to a lion that crushes them. And who is the lion? Either the weight of the sickness, or death, all but roaring like a beast and threatening its onset, that is, the dread let loose by the expectation of dying. For fear and despondency together crush the soul, and all its …

“Like a swallow, so I will cry, and like a dove, so I will meditate. For my eyes failed from looking to the height of heaven toward the Lord, who rescued me and took away the pain of my soul. Lord, concerning it too it was told you, and you raised up my breath, and, comforted, I lived. For you chose my soul, that it should not perish, and you cast behind me all my sins.”

He promises to imitate the birds used to singing sweetly, and to make his hymns unceasing. He says that, having lifted the eyes of the mind to God, he was saved and escaped both the pain of his soul and death itself. For you raised up life, he says, and I lived, and you preserved my soul so that it should not perish, and you cast behind me all my sins. This is not the word of one sick with arrogance, but of one who now recognizes his own nature and knows precisely that we are all liable to many sins, and that, if God did not will to save by mercy, no one would boast of having a pure heart, nor speak boldly of being clean from sin. So, in the good things that may come to us from God, let him be glorified by us as having forgotten the things for which we might justly be punished. For wise, it says, are those who know themselves.

“For those in Hades will not praise you, nor will the dead bless you, nor will those in Hades hope for your mercy. The living will bless you, as I also do. For from this day I will make children who will declare your righteousness, Lord of my salvation; and I will not cease blessing you with the psaltery all the days of my life.”

What was said through the psalmist's voice would have the same sense as these words: “What profit is there in my blood when I go down to corruption? Will dust confess to you, or declare your wonders?” For those who have once died and are held fast by the gates of Hades … perhaps also of glorifying. They would add nothing at all to what they did, but rather remain in the state in which they were left, and … the time of the universal judgment. So the living, he says, having power to do even this good, will bless you when they fare well, as I also do. And he promises to make children who will declare the righteousness of God. Some say that he means a choir and the psalm-singers in the divine temple; others, bringing a more hidden sense, say that Hezekiah, having high thoughts, supposed perhaps that he would have an endless kingdom and life itself without end, persuaded that what was written of Christ, as of the son of David, was said of himself and looked to him. Hence, they say, though in the fourteenth year of his reign, he is not seen to have taken care to beget children; so, having learned the end of his own life, he takes thought for those who would succeed him, and says “children,” and adds, “who will declare the righteousness of the Lord.” And in this his word missed the truth; for Manasseh became ungodly and a wicked wretch; but, so far as his father's intention went, he too was godly and a herald of God's glory.

“And Isaiah said to Hezekiah: Take a cake of figs, and crush it, and apply it as a plaster, and you will be well. And Hezekiah said: This is the sign that I will go up to the house of God.”

In the fourth book of Kingdoms it is written that the cause of Hezekiah's sickness was an evil and intractable sore, so that even the skills of physicians gave up. But since God had once granted life to the righteous man and commanded that the disease be thrown off, … that he be freed through the very things through which it was likely, or rather beyond doubt, that the wound would incline to an increase of pain. For the hand of the all-powerful always works wonders, and the manner of help comes through the unexpected, plainly the help that comes from him. Crush, then, he says, a cake of figs, …, and you will be well. And from these, as I said, … to expect that harm would be done, or that the wound would profit nothing. But since it was God who commanded, Hezekiah, being all-wise, takes the thing as having the force of a sign, and says: If I am healed even by a cake of figs, this will be to me a sure and true sign that I will go up to the house of God, plainly to sacrifice to him and to pray, when the sickness has ceased and every pain within me has been, as it were, put to sleep.

“At that time Meodach son of … sent …, for … that he had been sick unto death and had risen. And Hezekiah rejoiced over them with great joy, and showed them the house of Nechotha, and of the stacte and the incense and the myrrh, and of the silver and the gold, and all the houses of the vessels of the treasure, and all that was in his treasuries; and there was nothing that Hezekiah did not show in his house.”

When Sennacherib had died at the hands of his own children, the sacred writing says that Nechordan his son reigned in his place. But, as it seems, when he had been removed from the scene, … of the kingdom is said to have sent to Hezekiah gifts together with letters and envoys; and what the reason for this was it is necessary to say. For he heard, it says, that he had been sick unto death and had risen. But it was not this alone — I mean that Hezekiah had been sick and then turned back again to health — that astounded the Babylonian, but surely that great and truly extraordinary sign: by an ineffable nod befitting God the sun was commanded to run back and go backward, so that the shadow went up ten steps. And the so-called wise men of the Babylonians and Chaldeans, being very subtle and claiming to be versed in the course of the sun and the risings and settings of the stars, naturally did not fail to notice the backward turning and the unusual length of that day. And it was very likely that the force of the sign had been noised abroad to those throughout the whole earth, and that it was given to confirm God's promise, I mean the one made to Hezekiah. And in another way too we say that Meodach marvelled at what had happened beyond expectation … Jerusalem, whom the hand of an angel, striking them down, consumed in one night, so that in the morning all the bodies were found dead. So the envoys came, … at these very divine signs beyond words. But he, though he ought to have given those from Babylon a splendid account of the help of the all-powerful God at various times and of the grandeur of his wonders — so that, marvelling still more at the divine pre-eminence and the invincible authority of the Master of all, through the words of initiation from him, they might return to their own land enriched with the knowledge of God; for so they would have been able to benefit others too, reporting what they had learned — this he did not do, but was carried away rather into human boastfulness; he managed his own glory not from what he had been honoured with by God but from the wealth of his kingdom, and to these things he limited the power of the renown that was his. For he showed them, it says, the house of Nechotha. Nechotha is interpreted … of spices, and of the stacte, and of the myrrh, and of the vessels of the treasure, that is, of the wealth.

… the wealth, or the substance.

“And Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him: What do these men say, and from where have they come to you? And Hezekiah said: They have come to me from a land far off, from Babylon. And Isaiah said: What did they see in your house? And Hezekiah said: They saw everything in my house, and there is nothing in my house that they did not see; they also saw what is in my treasuries. And … said to him: … of the silver and of the gold, and all the houses …”

“Gaza” is said to be a Persian word, and it signifies …

“… in your house, and all that your fathers gathered … And from your children whom you begot they will take, and they will make eunuchs in the house of the king of the Babylonians.”

… eager [to learn] about the backward turning of the sun, … which creation yields to, he showed the house of incense … for what they had come, and what their business was. But he … says that days will come in which all that is in the treasuries … Nebuchadnezzar, having burned Jerusalem, … God … this; or that for those who came from Babylon it would surely have been better and wise to give the needful account of the things done wondrously through the divine pre-eminence and grandeur, rather than all but provoking the eye of the Babylonians by showing them the things hidden in the treasuries.

“… and righteousness in my days.”

… he says that the word of God …, though it had foretold … tear. Then he seeks peace in his own days, all but bidding farewell to those who would come after him, and wholly without concern for his country, his city, and his race together. But it would have been better for him to lament over what had been foretold, to beg mercy from God, and to ask for those after him a prosperity that was not temporary and narrow. But the human mind is very weak, and we stumble in many things, as it is written; and none of us would be wholly sharp and wise, but even a heart dear to God, and a mind, often falls into what is not right.

“… God. Priests, speak to the heart of Jerusalem, comfort her, for her humiliation has been fulfilled; her sin has been loosed, for she has received from the hand of the Lord double for her sins.”

The discourse has passed over to the things in Christ, and from now on makes plain proclamation of the grace through him; yet it is not seen to have gone beyond what is fitting, nor to have been brought in at an unsuitable time. For perhaps some of those not very precise in the things of divine Scripture might say: In what way does the prophet here make the prophecy about Christ neighbour to Hezekiah's words? We shall answer this by saying that, having made mention of the final capture of the land of the Jews and of Jerusalem itself, the discourse necessarily brought in, as at the right time and need, the comfort from God that came after it. I shall state briefly the precise explanation of what we have just said. There were very many attacks on Jerusalem, and the land of the Jews was often sacked, now by the hand of the Assyrians, now by neighbouring barbarians, and indeed by certain others ravaging it. Then came the final capture, through Nebuchadnezzar, in the times of Jeconiah's reign, when Israel too was carried away captive to the land of its captors. And in the times of the reign … Judea, and rebuilt the temple, and dwelt there undivided until the coming of our Saviour. Since, then, he has made mention of the final captivity, when the Babylonians, having taken all that was in the treasuries of the kings of Judea, returned to their own land, he necessarily makes the prophecy also of the comfort that came after this, plainly that through Christ, to those who minister as priests the divine gospel, commanding and saying: “Comfort, comfort my people, says God.” For the comfort unto salvation came first of all to those of Israel, … “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” So, O priests, he says, O ministers of the new oracles through Christ, speak to the heart of Jerusalem, that is, make the word of comfort acceptable to the hearers. For the law was burdensome to all, teaching shadows and types, not putting instruction about necessary things into the mind and heart of its hearers, but scarcely setting in them, as it were, a surface knowledge, as in letters only. But the saving and evangelical preaching is spoken while the Holy Spirit shows the depth of each one's mind, sends in spiritual contemplations, fixes the words of the saints, and, as it were, burns them into the innermost recesses of the mind. Such was blessed David, singing and saying: “In my heart I have hidden your sayings, that I might not sin against you.” And the Saviour said to the holy apostles: “Put the word into your hearts,” plainly his own saving word. And that the evangelical preaching is spoken to mind and heart by the holy initiators into the mysteries, the Holy Spirit working with them for this, or rather accomplishing the whole, the proof would follow from the holy writings. For God said somewhere through one of the holy prophets: “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will accomplish for the house of Israel and for the house of Judah a covenant … their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not remain in my covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant which I will make with them in those days, says the Lord: putting my laws into their mind, and I will write them on their hearts.” And blessed Paul too writes to some: “You are your letter, known and read by all men, being manifested that you are a letter of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on fleshly tablets of the heart.” And some think that instead of the ministers of the divine preaching

… the saints, to whom it would be most fitting to be able to speak in hearts. Comfort her, then. Saying what? That the God of all has ceased from the wrath that came upon them. “Her humiliation has been fulfilled.” For she has been humbled sufficiently, he says, and her sin has been loosed, “for she has received from the hand of the Lord double for her sins.” Did God, then, punish beyond what was due, and not impose penalties equal to the charges, but far beyond them, and as it were double? Then how is the thing not implausible? And how will he speak truly who says, “The Lord will not avenge twice for the same thing in affliction”? How, then, must what is said be understood? As if someone … A father who loves his children and has very great compassion, having grieved a son who offends even a little, perhaps thinks that his anger against him went beyond measure; the cause of this is fondness and the affection owed by a father to his children. So he says that Jerusalem, which is being comforted, has received from the hand of the Lord double for her sins: though condemned for a very long time to terrible and unbearable things, she has yet been punished moderately and not in proportion to what she did. “For the Lord is truly compassionate and merciful, long-suffering and abounding in mercy and true, and he has not dealt with us according to our lawless deeds, nor dealt with us according to our sins.”

“A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the … Every ravine will be filled, and every mountain and hill made low; and all the crooked will become straight, and the rough into a plain; and the glory of the Lord will be seen, and all flesh will see the salvation of God, for the Lord has spoken.”

Having said that Israel has been redeemed and that Jerusalem has been freed from her own offences, and having commanded that she be comforted, he shows the time of comfort coming and running, as it were, on the heels of what was said. This is the time of our Saviour's coming, of which the divine Baptist entered as forerunner in the wilderness of Judea, crying out and saying: “Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight the paths of our God.” Foreknowing this in the Spirit, blessed Zechariah too, who was the father of John, prophesied, saying: “And you, … for … before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways.” And concerning him the Saviour said to them: “He was the lamp that burns and shines, and you were willing to rejoice for an hour in his light.” For Christ is the sun of righteousness and the true light; and the sacred Writing compares the blessed Baptist to a lamp.

For just as, in comparison with the divine and ineffable light, with its unspeakable and surpassing brightness, the measure of the human mind might fittingly be likened to a small lamp, even if it should become full of light and … What, then, is “Prepare the way of the Lord,” and the need to make his paths straight? He makes it clear by adding: “Every ravine will be filled, and every mountain and hill made low, and all the crooked will become straight, and the rough into a plain.” For there are some highways, or paths, that are not at all easy to tread, but rough and hard going, so that in places they rise to mountains and hills, and in places descend and hang down into deep precipices. But if somehow the high and steep parts should sink and the hollow and deep parts be filled, then, then indeed the crooked will in every way become straight, and … and ravine-like. When is this? This happened spiritually through the strength of our Saviour. For of old the excellent life was hard going for, so to speak, all people, and the path of the evangelical way of life was not practised, because the minds of all were held fast by worldly and earthly desires and were carried off by the improper movements of the flesh. But since, having become man, or flesh, according to the Scriptures, he abolished sin in the flesh, and brought down principalities and authorities and the world-rulers of this world, he made the way to godliness smooth and very easy to run for us, having nothing steep or lifted on high, nothing hollow below, but rather laid bare into plains … [having no share in salvation,] would be without falsehood; and so … of him who willed to save, and not of those called. And not this only, but “the glory of the Lord will be seen,” he says, “and all flesh will see the salvation of God, for the Lord has spoken.” He says that glory will be seen — how, or in what way? The only-begotten Word of God was and is, since he is God and was ineffably begotten of God the Father, in the eminences of the Godhead, above every principality and authority, thrones and dominions, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come; and he is the Lord of glory. And we too have known his glory, though of old we did not know it, when, having become man like us, he showed himself by the dispensation equal in strength, equal in working, and equal in glory with God the Father, bearing all things by the word of his power, easily accomplishing divine signs, rebuking creation, raising the dead, and accomplishing the other wonders without toil. So the glory of the Lord was seen, and all flesh has seen the salvation of God, plainly of the Father. For he sent us the Son from heaven as Saviour and Redeemer. For since the law perfected nothing, and the sacrifices in types had no power to wipe away sins, we are perfected in Christ, and, freed from every stain, we have been honoured with the Spirit of adoption. And the grace in this, so far as the aim of the one who saves goes, would come upon all flesh, that is, upon all men; for by “flesh” here man is to be understood. And if some appear to have no share in salvation, … the word of the prophet. For the aim of the one who honoured … and what is slack is examined. He necessarily adds, “for the Lord has spoken,” so that no one may think that he speaks falsely, or perhaps belches out from his own heart what seems good to him; but that he has announced beforehand what is God's pleasure and what will in every way come to be.

“All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man is as the flower of grass. The grass has withered and the flower has fallen; but the word of God remains for ever.”

That those who truly love it and long to obtain it cannot see the salvation of God otherwise than by choosing to set their minds … is plain. For I think that those who wish to live as befits saints, to choose the holy and excellent life, and to bind on, like a crown, the boasts of the way of life in Christ, must make nothing of the distractions of this life, cast as far as possible from them the temporary glory among men, truly consider that human things are like grass and herbage, and have in mind and heart the word of God, that is, the Word from God the Father. For he dwells in our hearts through faith, and, having been enriched with his divine Spirit, we have him in ourselves. For the thing is worth acquiring and brings about eternal life. For the Word of God, remaining for ever and living, preserves and gives life. And if someone wishes to understand the word of God as his commandment, we say that this too is of no small benefit. For it too preserves those who keep it unto a life of long ages, according to what was said by the Saviour himself: “Amen, amen, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”

“Go up on a high mountain, you who bring good news to Zion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good news …; say to the cities of Judah: Behold your God. Behold, the Lord comes with strength, and his arm with lordship. Behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. Like a shepherd he will tend his flock, and with his arm he will gather lambs, and comfort those that are with young.”

He shows here, to those who minister as priests the divine and saving preaching — I mean the holy apostles and evangelists, or simply those who in each age take up the practice of the word — in what way they may be lovers of God, far-famed, and full of the highest glory. For it is not fitting, he says, that one who brings good news to all everywhere … and to do this while eager to escape notice; but rather as having come to be on high, seen by all, and with much boldness, as on a mountain, leaping … free. This the divine disciples themselves, praying earnestly that it might be theirs, said to God who rules all: “And now, Lord, look upon their threats” — plainly those of the Jews — “and grant your servants to speak your word with boldness.” Lift up your voice, then, do not fear, he says. Announce to the cities of Judah: Your God; behold, the Lord comes with strength, and his arm with lordship. By adding “Behold,” he does not let the hope of his arrival be stretched out to length, but shows the Redeemer as about to be present all but now, after a short while, or rather as already at the doors. For as it were stretching out a hand … And that he will come not like one of the holy prophets, nor in the measures of suppliants, but in the Master's authority, and in power and in lordship most befitting God, he made clear by saying: “He comes with strength, and his arm with lordship.” For the divine prophets begged that certain things might come about from God and be granted to the peoples under their hand.

But the Saviour and Lord of all, not stretching out prayer, nor receiving anything by request and so giving it, but as truly Son, distributed the goods of the Father to those who believed in him with the dignity befitting one who is free, and worked all things using his own power and authority. And that the mystery of the dispensation will not be fruitless for him who became like us and endured the cross and the death on it, he shows by saying: “Behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him”; and he calls the fruit of his dying according to the flesh a reward. For he said: “Amen I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” And again: “If I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all to myself.” For as Paul says: “He endured the cross, despising the shame. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of things in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ … to the glory of God the Father.” … sings this and says to him: “All the nations whom you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord.” So the dispensation is not without reward or fruit. And it followed, and came about as before his eyes, as he tends his own flocks and gathers lambs with his arm, that is, with his strength. For those who believed in him as newborn … , having plainly received the rebirth from above and through the Spirit. Therefore they long for the rational milk, being nourished at first as befits infants, but going up to the measure of the stature of the fullness … lambs; and some who are pregnant, or with young, have been comforted. By lambs, as newly appeared and newly born, those from the nations would fittingly be understood; and one might say that those with young are those already in labour with the word about him, as from the teachings of the law and the proclamations of the prophets. For Christ saved not only those from the nations but also those of the blood of Israel, to whom indeed he says he was sent especially, who were also comforted, confirming by faith the precise knowledge of the mystery that had come to them beforehand.

“Who measured the water with his hand, and heaven with a span, and all the earth with a handful? Who set the mountains in a balance and the valleys in scales? Who has known the mind of the Lord, and who has been his counsellor, to instruct him? Or with whom did he take counsel, and who instructed him? Or who showed him judgment? Or who showed him the way of understanding?”

Through things unattainable and impossible for all men, or rather perhaps even for the powers above and in heaven, he tries to show the surpassing and incomprehensible character of the wisdom in God. For the mystery of Christ is marvelled at, and the rationale of the dispensation is seen to lie in ineffable reasons. And it seems to me that Paul used these words timely when he said: “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord?” Would one not say, and very fittingly, that these are akin to the present words? For deep is the depth, and incomprehensible, in the divine counsels. And just as it is wholly impracticable and impossible for a human hand to measure all the water, and heaven with a span, and all the earth with a handful, and for the weight of the mountains, however great it is, to be made plain by balance and scales, in the same way no one could comprehend the mind of the Lord.

And he himself will confirm it, saying through one of the holy prophets: “For my ways are not like your ways, but as heaven is distant from the earth, so my ways are distant from your ways, and your thoughts from my mind.” For of what counsellor, he says, or instructor have I ever had need, or of one showing him judgment, that is, righteousness or just judgment, or the way of understanding? For if he is wisdom itself, and himself makes every mind wise, and is the supplier to rational creation of the light that is in understanding, how could he need another, or in what way could anyone … what he would decide? And the prophet works great benefit from this for his hearers. For already some of the unbelievers still dare to say: Why was it necessary for the Word of God to become like us, and to endure flesh and the filth that comes from it, wishing to save those on earth, though, they say, it was not hard for him, as God, to nod and accomplish what he pleased? Then how did he not become man in vain? And, unholily surrounding the dispensation with improper notions as something unseemly, they fight against the glory of the mystery. So the prophet here checks their senseless and vain counsels; and he says that the wisdom in God, and the mind in him, are incomprehensible, since he is wisdom itself and the supreme and most pure mind; so that the word of the unbelievers is from now on unacceptable, or rather would justly be laughed at, since they dared, I know not how, to censure the dispensation of the Only-begotten in the flesh as not well done. And some think that “Who measured the water with his hand, and heaven with a span” … as of one able to measure water, heaven and earth, mountains and valleys, and who has knowledge, simply, of all things, even of the unattainable … of everything that has come to be, and holds as nothing things among creatures of such size and bulk and those understood to be countless in number. If someone chose to understand it so, he would perhaps do no wrong.

“If all the nations are reckoned as a drop from a bucket and as the turn of a scale, and they will be reckoned as spittle; and Lebanon is not enough for burning, and all the four-footed beasts are not enough for a whole burnt offering, and all the nations are as nothing and have been reckoned as nothing. To whom have you likened the Lord, and with what likeness have you likened him? Did a craftsman make an image, or did a goldsmith, melting gold, gild it over? For the craftsman chooses wood that does not rot, and wisely seeks how he will set up his image so that it may not be shaken. Will you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not known the foundations of the earth?”

The prophetic discourse has made mention of the dispensation of the Only-begotten with flesh, and has sufficiently marvelled at the ineffable wisdom through which we have been saved and, having recognized the one who is Master by nature and truly, have been counted worthy of the grace from him — lifted up like lambs by his arm and come under him as under a very good shepherd; for he laid down his life for his own sheep. And having shown his mind to be beyond the reach of being beheld, or perhaps measured, and having confessed him to be the highest wisdom, beyond all, it necessarily brought in the words addressed to those from the nations, that is, to those still worshipping the creation rather than the Creator, carrying them away from their ancient, ancestral error handed down from their fathers, and moving them to better things and to … He shows, then, the immeasurable pre-eminence of God who rules all, the surpassing dignity of the majesty within him, and that all things … to him, I mean compared with the surpassing greatness of the power and glory within him. Therefore he says: “If all the nations are reckoned as a drop from a bucket and as the turn of a scale” … these things, worth nothing at all. For what is one drop falling from a bucket? And what would the turn of a scale be, which brings to equality what seems to be outweighed? And what is spittle, that is, human spitting? But Lebanon would not suffice him for burning, he says, nor all the four-footed beasts for a whole burnt offering. Such things are wholly contemptible; even if all were brought to him for a whole burnt offering, let them be thrown behind the glory of God. And if all the nations, he says, are as nothing and have been reckoned as nothing, with what likeness have you likened him? For what will be like him and of equal weight, either in nature, or in weight, or in the measure of glory? Is it by the arts of a craftsman and the skills of a woodworker? Or of goldsmiths? Or has he been formed, as in an image, after any one of the creatures? Was a statue in the form of a man made, he says? By no means. For nothing could be equal to him. For being God by nature, there being no other like him, he will surely surpass all things. Having shown him, then, to be beyond everything that has been made and called into being, he afterwards laughs at the making of idols and says: “The craftsman chooses wood that does not rot, and wisely seeks how he will set up his image so that it may not be shaken.” So it would be the craftsman's skill, according to the measure of the understanding in him, to prepare for those astray a god as they please, supported with the greatest security so that it may not be shaken, fall, and be shattered. So the worshippers of idols would have been short of gods if there were no craftsmanship on earth; nor would the handmade things have survived if the craftsman had not wisely sought the means by which they could stand and have an unshaken seat. One might say, I think, and very fittingly, what was said through David's voice: “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the works of men's hands.” And he adds to these: “May all who make them become like them, and all who trust in them.” Having laughed at the making of idols, then, he turns the discourse to the shaming and correction of those astray, and shows their offence in this to be without excuse, saying: “Will you not know? Will you not hear?” in place of “Did you not know? Did you not hear? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not known the foundations of the earth?” By the foundations of the earth he means its last

and farthest parts. You have known, then, he says, you who are from the ends to the ends. You have heard, and it has been declared to you from the beginning. And what was declared? That God, by nature and truly, is one and alone; but that what … through men are wood and stones, and nothing else. … Scripture; rather the knowledge of the truth was proclaimed from above, through patriarchs, through the law and the prophets. For it was not when the only-begotten Word of God, having become man like us, shone upon those on earth, that the error first came under accusation, in the last times; but, as I said, the charge against idolatry was ancient. For the choir of the saints never ceased reviling it, showing it to be loathsome, and making plain the Creator and Lord of all.

“He who holds the circle of the earth, and those who dwell in it are as locusts; he who set up heaven as a vault and stretched it out like a tent to dwell in.”

From the beauty of created things their Creator is seen by analogy, at least by those who are in their right mind. For the wise can see, and very easily, who and how great is the maker and artificer of this universe, from the pre-eminence and the ineffable and God-befitting ordering by which creation came to be when it was not, and, having come to be, is preserved, held together by the strength of its maker for well-being and coherence. For to whom would he be likened? says the Lord. And how is he not beyond all understanding, who alone grasps the whole earth in his hand, holds it together so that it is firmly fixed, set up heaven over it like a vault, and stretched it out in the manner of a tent, so that those for whose sake, plainly, it came to be might dwell in it? For, as the prophet himself says somewhere: “He did not make it in vain, but to be inhabited.” Is it then much in God's sight, he says, the multitude of those dwelling on earth, countless though it is? Not at all. For compared with God's majesty and pre-eminence they would be as locusts. Or in another way: he holds the circle of the earth, that is, its whole round, and those who dwell in it are nothing to him, though they graze on it in herds like locusts and go beyond all number. And this too is marvellous, and a great thing for the praise of the all-powerful God.

“He who appoints rulers to rule as nothing, and made the earth as nothing. For they will not sow, nor will they plant, nor will their root take root in the earth. A wind blew upon them, and they withered, and a whirlwind [will carry them off] like chaff.”

It is the custom of those astray, and of those who do not know God who is God by nature and truly, not only to worship the herds of demons and to say to the wood, “You are my God,” and to the stone, “You gave birth to me,” but also most foolishly to make gods of men who had become notable on earth. Indeed Sennacherib, when he returned from Judea to his own land, was said to worship his patriarch. For they brought sacrifices to the dead too, and, calling them heroes, enrolled them as gods. So, since the multitude of idols had been plainly exposed, the discourse had to go on to this point as well, and to persuade those astray to consider human things nothing at all; but that, even if some on earth have at times been brilliant and admirable, either adorning the highest and royal thrones or counted worthy of some other eminence, they should in no way suppose them to be gods, but rather consider that both power and rule over others come from nowhere else than as a gift from God. And that the thing is free of all difficulty for the all-powerful God he shows plainly, saying that rulers are given by him to rule as nothing. And he rises to something still greater and says: “He made the earth as nothing.” And that it lies in the authority of God whether any memory of those who were brilliant and notable on earth is preserved or not, he shows by saying: “For they will not sow, nor will they plant.” For unless God wills, he says, they will have no fruit on earth, nor root or memory, but, as when a wind comes down upon them, they will go off to nothing, like chaff. For all human things are small, easily scattered, and wholly easily overturned, and they wither like grass. So God alone, who is God by nature and truly, is to be worshipped, and let no account be taken of the things devised by the skill of craftsmen, nor of men to whom some have given the name of gods. For this is worship of the dead, and nothing else.

“Now, then, to whom have you likened me? And the Holy One said: I will be exalted. Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has displayed all these things; he who brings out his array by number will call them all by name; from glory and in the might of strength nothing has escaped you.”

The all-wise Paul rightly cried out against the ignorance of those astray, and makes a most just charge against the multitude of idolaters. For it was possible for them to know, even from creation itself, the Creator and artificer of all, … to those that are not gods. And he said thus about God who rules all: “For his invisible things, from the creation of the world, being understood by the things that are made, are clearly seen, his eternal power and divinity, so that they are without excuse. For, knowing God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks, but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened; and, claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of creeping things.” So since, he says, I hold the circle of the earth, and have stretched out heaven like a tent, and appoint rulers to rule as nothing, and liken those on earth as it were to locusts, to whom have you likened me? — in place of: By likening me to what would you not go beyond what is fitting, nor miss the truth? Do you think you exalt me by calling me heaven, or by wishing to liken me to one of the elements?

But nothing among the creatures is like me, nor in any respect at all without difference. For none could be of equal weight, in the account of being, with him who calls into existence what once was not. That I am not like the gods among you, who received their origin from human art, behold from the creatures themselves. Lift up your eyes on high, see the firmament, the choir of the stars; consider who displayed all these things, who brings out by number his array, plainly that of heaven. He calls the stars the array of heaven, which he says he knows … not only all together but one by one and, as it were, by name. This is befitting God and extraordinary; and indeed the prophet makes the thing a great marvel, and says to him: “From much glory and in the might of strength nothing has escaped you.” For as the sacred Writing says: “The drops of rain are numbered by him.” For nothing at all would escape the ineffable wisdom, the Mind that knows all things.

“For do not say, Jacob, and why have you spoken …: My way has been hidden from God, and my God has taken away my judgment and has departed.”

Having said very well that in due time those astray would be called and, enriched in mind and heart with the light of the truth, would recognize the Creator and artificer of all, … that they [will be] wise and sharp, and from the beauty of created things will behold by analogy him who by ineffable power brought this universe into existence, and having woven for them sufficient initiation through what has already been said, he turns the discourse to those of the blood of Jacob, that is, Israel. For since they stumbled on the stone of stumbling, and, not accepting the supplier of salvation, became somehow far from close relation with him — the shadow according to the law being no longer accepted, but rather the worship and service in spirit and truth, that is, the evangelical, having been brought in — they murmured, saying: “My way has been hidden from God,” that is, he does not regard the way of life under the law. For those who live so, as the commandment through the all-wise Moses ordered, he no longer counts worthy of his oversight. “And he has taken away my judgment and departed,” that is, he has abolished the law. They call the law “judgment”; and blessed David will teach this, saying to the God of all: “You have made judgment and righteousness in Jacob,” that is, You laid down the law through angels, or through the mediation of Moses. And Moses too said of Israel: “There he gave him ordinances and judgments.” So he has taken away my judgment, that is, having all but cast out the worship according to the law, he has taken it away from us and departed.

For he no longer cares for the chosen, and Israel the firstborn goes off to nothing.

“And now, did you not know, if you did not hear? God is eternal, God who prepared the ends of the earth; he will not hunger nor grow weary, nor is there finding out …”

For of old, O Israel, you were instructed through the law; you knew through the prophets the manner of the dispensation that would come after the law. For the law gave oracles, having shadows and types of the good things to come, and holding in its letter the power of the mystery of Christ, as in birth-pangs; for in many ways Christ was prefigured through the commandment of the law, and the mystery concerning him was written in riddles … to those of Israel who chose …: “If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me.” But since, he says, he complains, saying, He does not regard my ways according to the law — for this is “My way has been hidden from God,” and that he took away our judgment, that is, the law, and departed — as though wholly ignorant of the one who shelters in God, he says such things: Let it be, he says; even if now you did not know, if you did not hear — that is, if you would not hear; as if he said: I accept the pretence, by way of dispensation; you did not know, unless you learned, that is, without hearing. Hear, then: God is eternal, God who prepared the ends of the earth; he will not hunger nor grow weary. You brought, he says, the … through blood … doves; but know, and do not be ignorant, that the eternal God prepared the ends. By the ends of the earth he means its limits, so that by this the whole may be understood. He will not hunger nor grow weary. This, I say, is like what was said to them through the psalmist's voice: “Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?” For how, he says, do you bring me sacrifices? As to one who is hungry and used to growing weary from hunger? Away with such ill counsel! For the eternal God, who knows no corruption, will neither hunger nor grow weary; for nothing human will touch him. Nor is there finding out of his understanding. For there is a charge, he says, when you say: If now you have made the commandment through Moses, that is, the shadow in the law, unacceptable, why did you legislate at all in the beginning? If the new things, that is, the evangelical oracles, are better than the old, why were they not laid down before the law itself? But do not say this, he says; for you cannot find out the incomprehensible understanding, or wisdom, of God. The commandment through Moses was given; and for what end and for what reason Paul will teach, saying: “The law came in, that the trespass might abound.” And again: “For Scripture shut up all things under disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.” So it was appointed as the indicator of sin and, as it were, the proof of the weakness of all, so that, since it does not know how to justify those who have sinned but rather condemns them, the grace of Christ's generosity is thereafter necessarily brought in … finding out of the understanding of God who orders all things wisely, who first showed the law to convict of sin, and sent … from heaven, that he might justify by faith those who are in sins.

“He gives strength to the hungry, and grief to those who are not in pain. For the young will hunger, and … will be. But those who wait for God will exchange …”

… the Son … God who prepared the ends of the earth, he it is who gives strength to the hungry. For, being God and eternal, he was never in want of food. Rather he himself gives to those who hunger righteousness, a spiritual manliness; and likewise he gives grief to those who are not in pain. And you will understand this in two ways. For to those who, out of very great insensibility and from not knowing what pleases God, do not know that by offending him they will fall into terrible and inescapable penalties, he gives as a help the ability thereafter to grieve over their stumblings. For grief according to God produces a repentance unto salvation not to be regretted. Or else to those who crucified Jesus and perhaps rejoice over it (for so the guides of the Jews were disposed, and all who … to say, “His blood be on us and on our children”), giving grief by bringing them to meet calamities and the evils of war; and because they slipped from close relation with him, they have become destitute of all strength and of spiritual food. Therefore, as if interpreting what was said, he adds: “For the young will hunger, and the youths will grow weary, and the chosen will be without strength.” For, so far as the nations' being exhausted goes, so weakened as to be cast under the devil's feet and carelessly doing what pleased the unclean spirits, they were brave and young; but spiritually, plainly, they were held fast by hunger and weariness. But those who through the tutelage of the law knew how to do good and fulfilled the commandment once given — these too, he says, will hunger for every good thing. For if a famine of the divine words befalls any, it surely shows them weak and slack and knowing how to accomplish nothing good. And that the nation from Israel was destroyed by famine, those who believed in our Lord Jesus Christ being taken out of the evil, God foretold long ago, saying through one of the prophets: “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, and I will bring a famine on the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord; and from east to west they will run about seeking the word of the Lord, and they will not find it.” For how were they not going to be without strength and weary and wasted by a spiritual famine, plainly having not accepted Christ, though he said clearly: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven and gives life to the world; if anyone eats this bread, he will live for ever”? And since, through much … the bread of life, they waste away with famine while the nations feast. For it is true, as Solomon says: “The Lord will not kill a righteous soul with famine, but he will overturn the life of the ungodly.” But these things the Jews came to suffer; for they committed impiety against the Author of life.

But those who wait for God, that is, those who serve Christ, think his thoughts, and are eager to accomplish them, will exchange strength. For they have not remained in those weaknesses in which they once were when astray and yoked to Satan and to worldly pleasures; but they will have another strength, Christ plainly supplying them with the power to prevail over every loathsome pleasure and to get outside the snares of sin. For it is written: “The Lord is my strength and my song.” And they will be renewed, he says, like eagles. Blessed David too will teach this, saying: “Your youth will be renewed like an eagle's.” And they will run and not grow weary. For they are eager and youthful in the toils of godliness toward God, Christ not letting them grow weary. For he fills the hearts of those who love him with strength from above, so that, even if they should fall into temptations and toils while accomplishing virtue, they prove stronger than weariness, knowing well that endurance is much to be prayed for, and that, if it is found in any, it shows them most approved. “For endurance produces approvedness, and approvedness hope, and hope does not put to shame” those used to living so. Blessed David spurs to manliness — plainly in all good things — saying: “Be manly, and let your heart be strong, all you who hope in the Lord.”

“Be renewed toward me, islands. For the rulers …”

Islands are understood in various ways. There are many in the seas; and sometimes cities and villages that have a wide, uncultivated, and barren land around them are also so called. Such, they say, are those of the Idumeans and Moabites, as lying in a desert. These were ungodly and idolaters, and not far from the land of the Jews. We say, then, that, wishing to signify the reception of the nations, and as it were carrying the force of the matter from a part to the whole, he addresses the cities of those astray, saying: “Be renewed toward me, islands,” that is, … the oldness that comes from error and offence, and … grace, plainly that through Christ. It is likely also that in another way the churches are here named islands, which are set, as it were, in the midst of worldly troubles and are washed round by the waves of those who rise against them, yet have a safe foundation and remain unshaken. For they have been founded on the rock, and Christ is in it. These, then, are named as islands, that is, the churches. And by them is signified the multitude called through faith, which, once fond of sin, loathsome and unclean, rotten and wrinkled, has passed over through Christ to newness of life, has become a virgin, pure, not having spot or wrinkle, but rather holy and blameless. So, be renewed toward me, he says. And he affirms very strongly that the rulers will exchange strength. Here he names as rulers the heralds of the truth, others in place of others, come into being after the calling. Peter and Paul show it, and the rest of the list of the apostles, to whom … and will not hunger. For such are the wonders that their Acts display. For the Saviour's disciples were not like the first, that is, the guides of the Jews, but, as in another power, plainly a spiritual one, they were much better and incomparably above them in the boasts of virtue. Let these rulers, then, draw near and speak together. “Let them draw near” you will understand of time. For when the time shows them forth, they will speak together. As if he said: all will say the same thing to those being initiated. For, speaking as from one Spirit, they do not fight with one another's words, but rather will make the proclamation about the divine doctrines in harmony, and … For this, I think, is “Then let them declare judgment.” For since those of Israel named the law through Moses “judgment,” therefore, very fittingly, setting against it the evangelical and saving preaching, he calls that “judgment” in these words. For the truly just judgment, and what is pleasing to God, appears … but in the preaching of the holy initiators into the mysteries, the new rulers. And they, having learned from Christ the judgment, that is, the will of God the Father, saying the same thing … this to us too …

“Who raised up righteousness from the east, called it to his feet, and it will go?”

It is fitting that the God who has authority over all be marvelled at not merely and only from the grandeur of his works; he also shows the gentleness within him through his benefits. For he saved those on earth, and … the human race, wholly perished, from death and corruption; for … him, together with the powers with him, and justified through faith, scaring off the sin that tyrannized over us. But all these things were accomplished through Christ: “For he became for us, from God the Father, righteousness and redemption and sanctification.” And we have been enlightened through him, and have shared in sparing and love, and simply in everything of him who knows how to save. And he foretold this to us through one of the holy prophets, saying: “And for you who fear my name the sun of righteousness will rise, and healing in his wings.” Who, then, he says, caused righteousness, that is, Christ, to rise like the sun from the east? Who called it, that is, caused it to come and appear so as to go at the feet of the one who called it, in place of all but going in the footsteps of God the Father? For so the Lord lived on earth, fulfilling the works of the Father and showing him to us in his own nature. For he was and is equal to him in strength, and through the deeds themselves he fully assured those on earth that he is in every respect of equal measure with the one who begot him. Indeed he said plainly: “If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me; but if I do, even if you do not believe me, believe my works.” Following everywhere the will of the Father, or rather being himself the will of the Father, he said to the crowds of the Jews: “You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. And if I do judge, my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.” You see, then, how he goes, as it were, at the feet of the Father. Therefore he also said: “I am in the Father and the Father is in me,” and: “He who has seen me has seen my Father.”

“He will give … before nations and will astonish kings; and he will give their swords to the ground, and their bows like driven chaff. And he will pursue them, and the way of his feet will pass through in peace. Who has worked and done these things? He called it, he who calls it from ancient generations.”

Before our Saviour's coming, those on earth differed in no way from irrational beasts; they appeared to live in much ignorance, were held fast by ignorance and darkness, and served the world-rulers of this age; and, putting the neck of their own minds under the devil's wills, they were carried down the tracks of wickedness to destruction. But Christ shone upon them. For he is the expectation of the nations. And having freed them from those who of old overreached them, he showed them free and sons of God, having wiped away all the filth in them; for he justified them through faith, and by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit showed them bright and enlightened.

So the righteousness, raised as it were in the order of the sun from the east, he gave to the nations, Israel plainly being thrust out for its impiety toward him. When this happened, and so great a multitude had been saved, the kings were struck with amazement. For amazement, as it were, fell upon the world-rulers of this age, and they feared the divine and unbearable judgment, I mean the one that came about on behalf of the nations. And those who of old were terrible and strong, fighting against the divine glory and used, as it were, to move arms against it, to bare their swords, and to stretch the bow of madness, have fallen to the ground, and the … of war … And the word about these things again … by likeness from things among us. For the evil powers have been defeated, and every manner of their villainy has grown weak, Christ plundering their goods. “For the enemy will gain no advantage over him,” he says, “and the son of lawlessness will not again harm him.” For it was necessary, necessary, that the evil and wicked powers should first be destroyed, and the enemy of all brought down to the ground, and then, then indeed, most timely, that the redemption of the nations should take place. For Christ pursued them, that is, turned them to flight. For it was not possible to rise up against God and carry their ancient tyranny to the end without suffering in every way what it was fitting that he should bring on those who had destroyed the earth. The enemies, then, having been pursued — “the way of his feet,” he says, “will pass through in peace”; for nothing stood in the way of Christ, the Saviour of us all, as he ordered our affairs. But, as though walking along a bare and level road, he accomplished the salvation of us all, no enemy hindering or resisting; for they had fallen. Who, then, worked all these things, or who called the righteousness? Was it not I, he says, who now, in the last time, displayed it, but called it from ancient generations? For the mystery of Christ is not recent, but was rather foreordained before the foundation of the world, God foreknowing what would be. For as soon as Adam fell, or rather before he slipped into it, the Creator foresaw also the healing that would in time come to him, plainly that through Christ. He foreordained the manner; and do not be surprised, for … us ourselves too through faith … of the image of his Son; these he also called. Since, then, we have been foreordained according to foreknowledge, how much more he himself, through whom we have been saved and called?

“I am God, the first, and for what is coming I am. Nations saw and feared; the ends of the earth drew near and came together, each one judging to help his neighbour and his brother.”

He says that he himself is the first God, not as though a second came into being after him. For how, or from where? For the God of all is one, having no beginning of being, but rather calling all things into being. He, then, is first and alone and without beginning, God, the Creator of all; and for the endless ages to come he will not be otherwise; for he is himself, and alone. And since the nations have beheld Christ and the righteousness that came to us from him, and all have beheld his glory with the eyes of the mind, those from the ends of the earth to the ends, he says, that is, those throughout the whole world, have feared. And they were gathered and drew near, no longer remaining far off and as estranged through sin, but having come near, as it were, through spiritual close relation, and gathered into one faith and one mind. For this, I think, is what “they drew near and came together” signifies. And having tasted the Lord and understood that he is good, and having marvelled at the beauty of the truth, they did not keep the gift for themselves alone, but, doing good, each kindly decided … to help his brother and friend, he says.

“And he will say: The craftsman has prevailed, and he who strikes with the hammer, driving at the same time. At one time he will say … with nails; they will set them up, and they will not be moved.”

He makes plain the manner of the help. For each of those who decided to help his neighbour and brother, having been initiated, he says, and having known the truth, will also admonish others, saying: The craftsman has prevailed, and the smith who strikes with the hammer, driving at the same time. And in what way did he prevail? For the one with the craftsman's skill, having put together idols and carved them into a god, and indeed the smith who strikes, having made a hammered statue, brought it to those deceived into a reprobate mind, and made those who were made in the image of God worshippers of his own labours, or inventions. Then he laughs at the making of idols and, as it were, mimics the words of those who work at them as they call to one another: “It is a good joining.” For the makers of idols [fit] a hand perhaps, or a foot, or some other of the body's parts, and fit limbs to limbs, and make them strong with nails; then they set them up and secure them so that they stand and are not shaken. These things are a laughingstock and nothing else, and they demonstrate the vanity and extreme simplicity of those who worship them. For to know that the idol was finished from thin parts and piecemeal joints, and that it has its coming into being, its standing, permanence, and stability in [nails], and then to worship them and call them gods — how is this not truly full of all folly?

“But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I chose, seed of Abraham, whom I loved, whom I took hold of from the ends of the earth, and from its lookouts I called you, and said to you: You are my servant; I chose you, and I did not forsake you. Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not go astray, for I am your God, who strengthened you; and I helped you and made you secure with my righteous right hand.”

Having very well initiated those from the nations, and prepared them to know … that he is God and Creator of all, and that all things yield to him and to his divine nods, and came into being in the beginning, and, brought into being, are firmly fixed and have unshaken permanence, he then necessarily encourages the ministers of the evangelical oracles, through whom the word of catechesis was to be given to those from the nations. He shows them wise and most daring, brings to their remembrance the virtue of the holy fathers, and wishes them to know the love shown toward them. Therefore he says: “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I chose, seed of Abraham, whom I loved.” Jacob and Israel and the seed of Abraham the beloved would be none other than those from Israel who believed in Christ, of whom, as it were, a firstfruits … , and says that the fathers were loved, all but saying: You who are of a noble root, so honoured and loved by me, you of the blood of Abraham, emulate the good repute of your ancestral virtue. And he says that he took hold of Abraham and called him from the ends of the earth, or from its lookouts, because he was called over from afar, from the land of the Chaldeans, to Judea. For he heard God saying: “Go out from your land and from your kindred and from your father's house, and come into the land that I will show you.” Then he says, as about all Israel: “I said to you: You are my servant.” For he was named firstborn. And he was chosen, as I said, and was not forsaken by God. He heard, “Do not fear,” and in addition, “Do not go astray; for I am your God, who strengthened you.” For he was taught through the law that God is one and Lord one, and that he alone must be served; and that he was helped by him and by his right hand, which is his creative power, that is, the Son. And he became secure and stronger than every plot. For he conquered nations and inherited the land of those very nations.

“Behold, all who oppose you will be put to shame and disgraced; for they will be as though they were not, and all your adversaries will perish.”

“You will seek them and will not find the men who will act insolently against you. For those who war against you will be as though they were not, and will not be. For I am your God, who holds your right hand, who says to you: Do not fear, worm Jacob, … Israel. I helped you, says God, who redeems you, the Holy One of Israel, and praised for ever.”

These too are the completion of what was said above. For you, Israel, my servant, he says, and Jacob, whom I chose, … all who oppose you will be [put to shame] and disgraced. For very many have arisen at various times who … the saving proclamations … as nothing, and the adversaries of godliness have perished. For to act against the ministers of the divine preaching would be nothing other than … So, he says, … but you will seek them and will not find those who acted insolently against you, for they will be as though they were not. And this is what is sung through the voice of blessed David: “I saw the ungodly exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon; and I passed by, and behold, he was not; and I sought him, and his place was not found.” For many of those used to high thoughts rise up against the company of the holy initiators into the mysteries; but they will be destroyed root and all from the earth, as the sacred Writing says. And those who think high things … terrible … “he who makes his own house high seeks destruction.” So those who war against you will not be, he says. And he certainly does not say that no one will stand against the holy apostles and that they will in every way go in bright calm; for that is not true. For countless have warred against them, but they would not be found as existing, plainly being humbled and … He brings them back to manliness, saying: “I am your God, who holds your right hand,” that is, who helps you and shows you stronger than every temptation: “I who say to you, Do not fear, small Israel.” For compared with the multitude of those who war against them, or with the powers, Israel was very small — and I do not mean the whole nation, but those taken by him for the apostolate. But the one who saved them was great, strong, and mighty to help, having an invincible hand. For when God redeems, who is able to harm?

“Behold, I have made you like the wheels of a wagon threshing … mountains, and you will grind hills, and make them like dust, and winnow them, and the wind will take them …”

The children of the Egyptians, having brought sheaves from the fields to the threshing floor, then set oxen on them and drive them round in a circle, [crushing] the ears with their hooves; and they separate and divide the grain from the chaff. And those in other cities and countries, using wagons and saw-toothed wheels, have practised accomplishing this very thing.

Behold, then, he says, O Israel, I have made you like … And what is threshed? Ears and grain, and what is heaped together from the fields on the threshing floor? Not at all, but mountains and hills. And who, again, would these be? First, the evil and opposing powers. For the Saviour of all has given us to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. Then he seems to compare to mountains and hills those used to thinking high things and having a swollen mind, raised on high and set in worldly powers, who rise up against the holy initiators into the mysteries and, like mountains, … to make impassable the way, I mean, for completing in time the course of the apostolate. But those who are such, he says, you will grind, and make them fly up like chaff, scattered by the breezes of the winds, giving as it were a whirlwind to scatter them. For so they will go to nothing.

“But you will rejoice in the holy ones. And the poor and the needy will exult. For they will seek water, and there will be none; and their tongue was dried up from thirst. I am the Lord God; I will hear, the God of Israel, and I will not …”

The enemies, then, of the divine preaching and the … to destruction. But you will rejoice in the holy ones, Israel, that is, you will delight when you see many become holy and ranked among the sons of Israel. “For not all who are of Israel are Israel, nor because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children; but the children of the promise are counted as seed.” And that it was the custom of the holy apostles to rejoice and be glad over those who were approved, plainly through faith in Christ, Paul too will make clear, writing to them and saying: “My joy and crown.” And I would say, very fittingly, that each of the holy disciples was disposed in the same way. For the conversion of those astray, and the bringing of those who did not know the truth to what is better, was the occasion of the highest delight to them. So you will rejoice in the holy ones, Israel. And who these are he shows, saying: “The poor and needy will exult,” that is, the nations. For they were in want of every good and wholly without share in the gifts from God; for those who do not know him at all must lack the boasts of virtue. So the poor and the needy will exult. How, or in what way? For they will seek water, he says, and there will be none, and their tongue was dried up from thirst. “They will seek” here stands for “they sought.” And since they did not find, their tongue was dried up by thirst. For among the Greeks too there were many lovers of learning, lovers of inquiry, and searchers for the truth; but there was among them no one who knew how to teach these things. There was not the life-giving water.

There was no one able to satisfy with the doctrines of truth those who loved it. So their tongue was dried up by thirst. But I will hear them, says the God of Israel, and I will not forsake them. For he took pity on the multitude of those astray, and did not leave it in want of the gifts from above, but rather filled it; and in what manner, he declares very well in what follows.

“But I will open rivers on the mountains, and springs in the midst of the plains; I will make the desert into marshes, and the thirsty land into watercourses. I will set in the waterless land cedar and box … that they may see and know and consider and understand together that the hand of the Lord has done all these things, and the Holy One of Israel has displayed it.”

He says that the land of the nations is desert and waterless: desert, because it was, in a way, laid bare and empty of the most flourishing plants, plainly spiritual ones, and was seen as a nurse of thorns only, mother of wild trees and of such things as are useful to be consumed by fire. These the nations once bore as fruit; but to those who thirsted of old he says: I will open rivers on the mountains — plainly holy men, enriched with the divine word from above, who pour it out like river streams for the thirsty and, as it were, gush it forth; so that even the desert, once changing its appearance, appears as marshes and thickets, and the thirsty land in watercourses. Watercourses again would be those who at various times, in each country and city, were initiators into the mysteries and teachers of the churches, who, having drawn the word into mind and heart as from springs and rivers of the inspired Scripture, also pass it on to others, as … And in what way the desert will be changed into marshes, and of what trees it will be the nurse, he teaches, saying: “I will set in the waterless land cedar and box and myrtle and cypress and poplar.” These are all fragrant and incorruptible woods. And to the saints belong fragrance, spiritually, through a holy way of life, and not being corrupted by being let loose into worldly desires, but standing by [God's] help. For the Lord upholds the righteous, as it is written. And there will be, he says, rivers and springs and watercourses, both on mountains and on plains, and, as it were, everywhere. And the desert will become marshes, so that those called through faith may see with their very eyes, recognize through good thoughts, and indeed … learn from the grandeur of what happened and from the unexpected change that such great and famous things are not wont to be accomplished simply or of themselves. For the hand of the Lord displayed them, that is, the power and authority befitting God, or the Son, through whom all things and in whom all things have come to be and have been wrought wonderfully by the Father. For not the falsely named gods, nor the worldly elements, nor even he who was thought to be the god of this age was the worker of this; but the Holy One of Israel displayed it.

“Your judgment draws near, says God; your counsels have drawn near, says the king …”

Having said very well how the calling of the nations will come about in due time, having promised to make the desert into marshes and the thirsty land into watercourses, and to show it covered with … and box and the other plants, and saying that his own hand will be marvelled at as the maker of such great things, he again addresses the makers of idols and the craftsmen of such things, and says that their judgment has come near. By judgment he means either the punishment due to them, or shame and disgrace. For by a holy sentence of God and a just judgment they would be punished, as having deceived all under heaven and brought in counsels that are not true. For they taught those on earth to say to the wood, “You are my father,” and to the stone, “You gave birth to me.” Therefore he says that their counsels have drawn near, that is, have come to their end, God shaking down the error and scattering the mist of ignorance — not, we say, one of those among them, plainly the falsely named, but the Lord, God in truth, and the King of Jacob, that is, of those of the blood of Israel. Through this he brings to remembrance the signs that occurred at the redemption of those from Israel, through which the power of the God-befitting authority within him, or of his incomparable pre-eminence, is very well known.

“… what will happen, or say what the former things were, and we will apply our mind and know what the last things are and the things to come. Tell us, declare to us the things coming at the last, and we will know that you are gods. Do good and do harm, and we will marvel and see together where you are from and where your work is from: from the earth they have chosen you, an abomination.”

It is proper and peculiar to the divine and ineffable glory to know all things and to be wholly ignorant of nothing, whether of what came before, or what is present, or what will be. Indeed, through the all-wise Moses he makes plain to those on earth what was before the framing of this world and what was in the beginning, saying: “In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth. And the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the abyss”; and he goes through the making of the whole world most precisely. And our Lord Jesus Christ, who of old spoke those things through Moses, announced to us the last things; for, as his disciple says: “We look for new heavens and a new earth, and his promises.” And one can hear him saying plainly: “Will anything be hidden from me?” — “For the word of God is truly living and active, and sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow; and there is no creature hidden before him, but all are naked and laid bare to his eyes.” And since he is God, he saves and does good and fills with all delight, plainly spiritual, … with penalties those used to despising and refusing to do good. But none of these could one see in things made of stones. For what does lifeless matter know? Or how could they do good to anyone, or be able to harm, things unable to defend even themselves, which have received from others only to stand and to be seen? Let them come, then, he says, those thought among you to be gods; let them announce what will happen; let them say the former things, the last things, and the things to come. For then we shall know, he says, that you are gods. But you cannot announce them, he says.

So at least do good and do harm. But if you can do none of these, we shall then see, that is, it is easy to see, where you are from and where your work is from; for you are an abomination made from the earth. For the idol would come, say, from wood, or from bright and choice stone, or from some other matter; and all these are from the earth. One must, I think, marvel at the worshippers of idols, if they did not even learn from them how their affairs would end. For they did not know, nor foretell, that they would be burned together with their very precincts, and would in time lie as a laughingstock even to those who once were deceived.

“But I have raised up the one from the north, and the one from …”

For the swarm of unclean idols, since they were nothing else but wood and stones, led astray those who were deceived. But they announced to them nothing at all, either of the first things or of the last, nor did good to any, or were able to harm. But I, he says, since I am a good God, have willed all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. I have saved all under heaven; I have raised many who lay like the dead. And who these would be he teaches, saying: “The one from the north and the one from the rising of the sun,” that is, the people from the nations. For compared with the land of the Jews, which is the most southern, that of the nations lies rather to the north, and has received the place toward the sun's ray. So the one from the north and from the rising of the sun would be the people from the nations, who have been called by the name of Christ. For we have been named Christians, and we are. For he acquired us with his own blood, and we were bought with a price, and are not our own. For one died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who died and rose for them. Therefore we say, as to our own Saviour and Redeemer: “Lord, besides you we know no other; we name your name.” So we have been called by his name, and this, then, was what was said through the prophet's voice: “But to those who serve me a new name will be called, which will be blessed on the earth.” And it seems, he says, that by “the one from the rising of the sun” he means Christ, because it is written of him: “Behold a man, Rising is his name.” And again, as God the Father says of him: “Who raised up righteousness from the east?” “For Christ became for us righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption besides.”

“… and like a potter treading clay, you will be trodden down. For who will declare the things from the beginning, that we may know, and the things before? And we will say that he is true. There is none who foretells, nor any who hears your words.”

For, God consenting, the multitude of idols was to be burned, and by the … of those who believed … like dust, or like potter's clay, being nothing other than this. For their origin was from the earth. And that all these things were to be brought to completion in due time, the saints leading the campaign and vigorously serving God's nods, he shows by saying “Let rulers come,” that is, let the leaders of the peoples be shown forth, who whet those who believe in me against error and arm them against the lifeless gods. For who among them, he says, will announce the things from the beginning, that we may know, and also the things before, so that, when what was said has come to pass, we may agree that they spoke true things? But there was not, he says, among the falsely named gods, or among the unclean spirits, anyone who foretells; nor among men anyone who hears your words. Of old, throughout countries and cities, in the precincts of the idols, … of those used to deceiving; and many went to receive oracles from them. But when the Word of God shone upon us, the idols in the shrines fell, and the deceiving demons fell silent; rather, they were sent down to Hades and cast into Tartarus. And those who of old honoured the words from them have been called to the knowledge of the truth; and this he teaches by saying, “Nor any who hears your words.”

“I will give rule to Zion, and I will comfort Jerusalem on the way. For from the nations, behold, there is none, and from their idols there was none who declared; and if I ask them, Where are you from? they will not answer me. For they are those who make you, and in vain those who lead you astray.”

He again promises the showing forth of the Saviour, through whom all under heaven has been saved and the multitude of those astray has been called to the knowledge of the truth. For, that we might have the guide who knows how and is able to bring us into the way of salvation, the only-begotten Word of God became man; and though he is King by nature, inasmuch as he is understood as God and from God the Father, who rules all and has creation lying under his feet, he is said to have been appointed king over us. For it is written of him: “Behold, a righteous king will reign, and rulers will rule with judgment.” For Christ has reigned over all under heaven, and he makes this plain to us, saying: “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.” For though he has authority over all as God, because of the dispensation with flesh he says that what he had as God was given to him. Having become king, then, he appointed the holy apostles rulers over us, who also ruled us with judgment, that is, with righteousness. I will give, then, he says, to Zion, that is, to the church, or to the multitude of believers, the saving rule, that is, Christ. And I will comfort Jerusalem, which again is … of the church. For we have been comforted, strengthened through Christ, and have been taught the ineffable path that leads to life. For from the nations, he says, behold, there is none, and from their idols there was none who declared. For very many were the wise and select among the Greeks; but there was none among them who could teach the way to godliness. Their temples were full of idols; but not even among the idols, or the falsely named gods, was there any who could announce the pursuit of what is profitable, or direct into the way of righteousness. Or rather I say this: not even if they were asked, he says, “Where are you from?”

could they answer. And those who do not know themselves — for they are deaf and senseless matter — how could they become guides to others? Or how could they show anyone at all what serves for benefit? For there are, there are those who make you, fashioning the falsely named gods, and again those who lead you astray, you who worship them.

“Jacob my servant, I will help him; Israel my chosen one, my soul has accepted him. I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth judgment to the nations. He will not cry out, nor let up, nor will his voice be heard outside. … smouldering he will not quench, but he will bring forth judgment unto truth. He will shine forth and will not be broken until he has set judgment on the earth; and in his name …”

He promised beforehand, saying, “I will give rule to Zion,” and now he shows clearly what this rule is. For a ruler and guide has been appointed over the spiritual Zion, that is, the church — not then rising to the beginning of the thing when he is said to have been brought into it. For the Word who is from the Virgin was and is always King and Lord of all. But since he became man, he makes the measure of humanity his own. For so it was to be truly and undoubtingly believed by us that he became like us. So even if he is said to have received power over all, the receiving will belong to the dispensation with flesh, not to his pre-eminence, according to which he is understood as Master of all. And he calls him Jacob and Israel, as having come, according to the flesh, of the blood of Jacob, who was renamed Israel. And he says that … for the Father … with the Son, and as through his own power accomplished the mighty works. And he is truly chosen, because he is beautiful in comeliness beyond the sons of men, and accepted as beloved; for God the Father was well pleased in him. Indeed he said: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And that he was anointed as man, and is said to have shared in the Holy Spirit, though he himself gives the Spirit and sanctifies creation, he makes clear by saying: “I have put my Spirit upon him.” For when he was baptized, the Spirit, it says, came upon him from heaven in the form of a dove, and … And his receiving the Spirit in the measure of humanity would be, with the other things, this too. For it was not as God that he was sanctified by receiving the Spirit — for he himself, as I said, is the one who sanctifies — but inasmuch as he appeared as man by the dispensation. He was anointed, then, so as to bring forth judgment to the nations. By judgment here he means just judgment. For he justified them, having condemned Satan, who had overreached. And he himself taught us this, saying: “Now is the judgment of this world.

Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all to myself.” For he decreed the destruction of the one who, as I said, had overreached all under heaven, and by a holy judgment saved those deceived. But he will not cry out, he says, nor let up, nor will his voice be heard outside. For the Saviour and Lord of all came to dwell among us in great lowliness and without ostentation, as it were without noise, and wronging no one; but in silence and quiet, so as not to crush a bruised reed nor quench a smouldering flax, that is, … not to bring harm on the very lowliest and on those used to enduring … What, then, will he work, and what will he accomplish for the nations? He will bring forth judgment unto truth. Here he seems to call the law “judgment.” For it is written of Israel and of God who rules all that “there he gave him ordinances and judgment”; and again: “You have made judgment and righteousness in Jacob.” So the judgment, that is, the law that was in shadows and types, he will bring forth into the truth of the evangelical oracles, through which he showed the way of life pleasing to him, and changed the worship in the letter according to the law into truth. And the wretched Jews acted insolently against him, daring to grieve him with the death of the flesh. Yet he shone forth as light and was not broken, that is, he was not overcome by corruption; the madness of the plotters did not prevail. For death has been undone; he came to life again, trampled his enemies, and his suffering has become the occasion of salvation for those throughout all under heaven. So he will not be broken until he sets judgment on the earth. And do not suppose that he fixes a time at which he will be broken, that is, after setting … He will prevail over those who resisted, and will be so strong as to set judgment in all the earth. For the gospel has been preached in all the earth, and its oracles are, as it were, firmly fixed. For it is written: “Your righteousness is for ever, and your law is truth.” And the nations hoped, he says, in his name. For, having recognized that he is God in truth, even if he appeared in flesh, they will make him their hope; and, as the psalmist says: “In his name they will exult all the day.” For we have been called Christians, and in him we have all our hope.

“Thus says the Lord, who made heaven and fixed it, who made firm the earth and what is in it, and gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk on it: I, the Lord God, have called you in righteousness, and I will hold your hand and strengthen you; and I have given you for a covenant of a race, for a light of nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out … those sitting in deep darkness.”

False prophets and false diviners arose in great numbers at various times in Israel. And for this reason it came about that even those truly sent by God, prophets in truth and used to speaking in the Holy Spirit, were disbelieved. And what is surprising, Christ himself too was reviled as neither sent by God nor truly holy and accomplishing wonders in the pre-eminence of the Godhead. Indeed, the … of the Jews at one time said that he cast out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons; at another they said to one another: If this man were from God, he would not break the Sabbath. And to these things Christ very often tried to answer and to assure them that he was not like those who existed in a mere and bare appearance of having been sent by God. He said, for instance: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life.” And again: “I have come in the name of my Father.” So, that he might have the Father in heaven himself bearing witness, he said usefully and necessarily through holy prophets too: I am the Lord God, who fixed heaven, who made the earth most firm and unshaken, the living and life-giving one, who gives breath to all; I, the God and Lord of all, have called you in righteousness. For he did not come of his own accord, he says, like those false prophets who speak from their own heart and not from the mouth of the Lord; but I have called you, that is, by my good pleasure I brought you forth in righteousness. “I will hold your hand and strengthen you,” in place of: I will work with you and show you all-powerful. And we do not at all say that the Father knows the Son as weak and feeble, or in need of help. For he himself is the Lord of hosts and the invincible right hand of the Father, through which all things were brought into existence. But again he speaks the words as to one of us, inasmuch as he appeared as man and seems in a way, because of his humanity, to be strengthened by the Father. For so he is said both to raise him and to give him glory and to show him stronger than the plot of his murderers. For if he humbled himself and willingly came down into self-emptying, the measure of the self-emptying must surely be seen, and his lowliness understood through the deeds themselves. And see how, after speaking as of a man — “I will hold your hand and strengthen you” — he at once shows him to be God by nature and truly Son, and light from light. For I have given you, he says, for a covenant of a race, for a light of nations, to open the eyes of the blind. For the only-begotten … came …

… of both penalty and punishment, he showed beforehand, saying, … to those of the race, that is, of the blood of Israel — for he appeared from them according to the flesh, born of a woman — he gave the new covenant, foretold of old through the voice of the prophets. And he became a light to the nations too. And this too befits God. For to be a lawgiver, to render idle the shadow of the all-wise Moses, and to add the new to the old belongs to an authority most befitting God; and to be able to enlighten those in darkness and to open the eyes of the blind — for the divine and heavenly light flashed upon the nations — how would this not hold a clear proof that he is God, and from God by nature? And that Christ went and preached to the spirits in Hades, and appeared to those shut up in the prison house, and released all from bonds and constraint, … “to bring out from bonds those who are bound, and from the prison house those sitting …”

“I am the Lord God; this is my name. My glory I will not give to another, nor my excellences to carved images. The things from the beginning, behold, have come; and new things which I will declare, and before I declare them they were made known to you.”

For the Creator of all would properly, truly, and alone be God and be called God by us. And, as the all-wise Paul says: “Even if there are many so-called gods and lords, in heaven and on earth, yet for us there is one God and Father, from whom are all things, and we from him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him.” And since he has presented himself to us as the accomplisher of great and marvellous deeds, he says that he will grant his own glory, or his God-befitting excellences, not to lifeless idols nor to any other of the creatures, but will keep them for himself alone. For it was fitting that the glory of the Godhead should befit no one else, nor one essentially other than himself, but only the ineffable nature that is above all. And though saying that he will grant his own glory to no one, he has given it to the Son; for he has been glorified just as the Father too, being worshipped in heaven and on earth. How, then, has he given it? As to one who is not other than himself according to the principle of consubstantiality, even if each is distinguished into his own hypostasis. For the nature of the supreme Godhead is one, in three distinct hypostases, so understood and worshipped by those used to thinking rightly. By saying, “The things from the beginning, behold, have come; and new things which I will declare, and before I declare them they were made known to us,” he does not allow the Saviour's word to be disbelieved by us in any respect at all. For just as, he says, the things said from the beginning about his coming were brought to fulfilment, so will the new things come out true; and whatever new things he says are made known before they become manifest. And what are these? Our Lord Jesus Christ promised us life in the age to come, plainly the life in incorruption and sanctification, and the glorious participation in the good things of the righteous, the fruits of gentleness, the prizes of godliness, the crown of love for him. May we too obtain these by his grace and love for humankind; through whom and with whom be glory to God the Father, with the Holy Spirit, for ever. Amen.

Discourse 1. God, being Lord, has appeared to us, according to the Scriptures, and through him the flock of those who were wandering has been gathered as in a net into the grace that comes through faith. For he was the expectation of the nations, and through him the God and Father called those in mist and darkness to the light of the truth. This too he made plain to us in the preceding words, where he says briefly: “I, the Lord God, have called you in righteousness, and I will take hold of your hand and strengthen you, and I have given you as a covenant of the race, as a light of the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out from bonds those who are bound, and from the house of prison those who sit in deep darkness.” For our Lord Jesus Christ has been appointed by the God and Father as a covenant for the race according to the flesh, I mean those from Israel, to whom God of old also made a promise through one of the prophets, saying: “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, and I will accomplish for the house of Israel and for the house of Judah a new covenant, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers.” For the divine Moses was a minister of shadow and type, remaining within the measures of a servant, but Christ, as Son and Lord, has become the arbiter of a new covenant. New, I say, because it reshapes man into newness of holy life and, through the gospel way of life, shows him to be approved and a true worshipper: “For God is spirit,” it says, “and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” He has been appointed, then, as a covenant of the race and as a light of the nations, to open the eyes of the blind and to bring out from bonds those who are bound. For Satan, the author of evil, darkened the hearts of the nations: “For they became futile in their reasonings, and claiming to be wise they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things.” But the true light, that is, Christ, rose upon us as a spiritual morning star and as the sun of righteousness, … of the true …; he freed from bonds those held inescapably in the cords of their own offences. That those, then, who of old served the creation rather than the Creator, who had darkness in their mind, who had been persuaded to worship the works of their own hands, who were far from God, will be called through faith in Christ and will come to know the King and Lord of all, the word of the prophecy shows very well. For it commands those who have received mercy from God to glorify him, and speaks thus:

“Sing to the Lord a new hymn, his dominion; glorify his name from the end of the earth, you who go down into the sea and sail it, the islands and those who inhabit them.”

The hymn is new, and fitting for the newness of the events. “For if anyone is in Christ,” as it is written, “he is a new creation; the old things have passed away, and all things have become new.” Those of Israel's blood were redeemed from the greed of the Egyptians, with the all-wise Moses as mediator at that time, and were rescued from brick-making and from fruitless sweat … and from the inhumanity of the ruler; they were led through the middle of the sea, ate the manna in the desert, drank water from a rock, crossed the Jordan with dry feet, and were brought into the land of promise. All these things are new in our case, and incomparably better than the old. For not from fleshly … earthly pursuits that come from love of the flesh … Egyptians, nor a tyrant, impious indeed and savage, yet a man like us, but rather the wicked and unclean demons that drive us into sin, and the one set over their herds, that is, Satan. We have crossed the surge of the present life as if it were a sea, and … We have eaten the spiritual manna, the bread from heaven that gives life to the world; we have drunk water from the rock, from the streams of Christ, spiritual ones, clearly. We have crossed the Jordan, counted worthy of holy baptism; we have entered into the … which the Saviour himself also mentions, saying: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” For new achievements, then, the hymn had to be new, from “his dominion,” that is, from those who have come to be under him and are ruled by him; and the hymn, that is, the glorification fitting him, was to arise not only in the land of the Jews, but from the end of the earth, clearly to the other end, that is, over all the earth under heaven. For of old God was known in Judea, and his name was great in Israel alone. But since we have been called through Christ to the knowledge of truth, … heaven and earth have become full of his glory. For so somewhere the psalmist too says: “The whole earth shall be filled with his glory.” Who, then, are those who command his name to be glorified from the end of the earth, who set up songs to him and … spiritual, who go down into the sea and sail it, the islands and those who inhabit them? He has in mind, I think, the holy apostles. For they did not preach Jesus and the grace through him in Judea alone; rather, crossing even the sea, they proclaimed the gospel in the lands of the nations. They reached even as far as Illyricum and beyond, so that … the islands in the sea … proclamations, nor indeed those who inhabit them. Historically, then, you will apply the words in this way. But you will understand the words of the prophecy, if you like, in another way too. For the inspired Scripture often likens this world, that is, human life, to a sea, as is sung in the Psalms: “This is the sea, great and wide; there are creeping things without number, small living things with great.” It maintains that our life resembles a sea, perhaps because of the instability of its affairs, its ups and downs and great confusion. Those sail across such a sea who are not submerged by it but, as it were, swim to the surface and free themselves from worldly distractions. These, having obtained help from God and always remembering the gifts given through Christ, glorify him; and the islands, that is, the churches, kept safe as it were in the spiritual sea and receiving those tossed by the storm of the evil spirit, these glorify Christ, or rather those who inhabit them. For when we say, or name, “churches,” we mean the holy worshippers in them. It should also be known that “islands” is the name given to all villages or cities that lie in the midst of a great and wide desert.

“Rejoice, O desert, and its villages, its encampments, and those who inhabit Kedar. Those who inhabit Petra will rejoice; from the tops of the mountains they will shout. They will give glory to God; they will proclaim his virtues in the islands.”

The blessed prophets, weaving their discourses about the coming of our Saviour, very often make mention of the calling of the nations. For Christ was, as I said, the expectation of the nations. Yet they do not address their words about such matters simply to all the nations and peoples throughout the inhabited world. For it was not reasonable, with a countless multitude filling the earth under heaven, to choose to be so minute as to mention all of them by name and by race; rather, they often took the lands bordering on Judea, which were given heavily to idolatry, and then said that these would be called in due time, and so declared the whole by a part. Of those bordering … the desert lying to the south, which the nations of the Saracens and Arabs inhabited, they say that its inhabitants would in due time obtain the grace and salvation that come through Christ. The names of the villages, that is, the small towns in the desert, are Epauleis, Kedar, and Petra, which lies in the land of the Arabs to this day and is so named. Those of whom the passage speaks, that is, their inhabitants, were, as I said, very superstitious, and wholly given over to the unclean spirits. But since they were to come to share, as I said, in the calling and salvation that come through the gospel proclamation and faith in Christ, the prophet, as one with beautiful feet, for here he proclaims good things, very fittingly lifts his cry on high, as it were, and says: “Rejoice, O desert, and its villages, encampments, and those who inhabit Kedar; those who inhabit Petra will rejoice.” The thing is a great and admirable proof of our Saviour's power and supremacy, that he easily softened hearts so hard and unteachable and persuaded them to leave their ancient deceit, to choose the better, and to be brought over to the truth. This too he foretold to us through the voice of Ezekiel, saying: “I will draw out the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,” that is, a tender one, “so that they may know me, that I am the Lord.” He signified, then, that they too will be called, by saying, “Rejoice, O desert,” and what follows. But those who shout from the tops of the mountains, giving glory to God and proclaiming his virtues in the islands: who they might be is worth seeing. Nothing prevents us from understanding them too as those who were called, the inhabitants of Petra, a country and city so lofty and elevated, who no longer weave hymns and songs to the falsely named gods but rather glorify the God who enlightened them and drew them in the net to the truth. Or those who shout from the tops of the mountains might be said, and very rightly, to be the divine disciples. To them the prophet also says elsewhere: “Go up on a high mountain, you who bring good news to Zion; lift up … Lift it up, do not fear.” For they preached with great boldness and wished to escape the notice of no one, but were conspicuous to all everywhere, like a city set on a mountain; and their word was not spoken in a corner or in secret, but with great boldness, as I said just now. For the Saviour himself also commanded them this, saying: “What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light, and what you hear in the ear, proclaim on the housetops.” They gave glory to God, then, and proclaimed his virtues in the islands. For the word of the holy apostles and evangelists … of the Saviour …: they speak of his ineffable divinity and hymn his virtue that is above the world, not placing him among things that have come into being, but beyond everything called into existence, and in natural identity with the God and Father; at other times again they narrate his divine signs that surpass wonder and speech. For raising the dead from tombs, using the sea as dry land and making it walkable for his own feet, rebuking winds, and with a word crushing

Satan, achieves for him a glory befitting God.

“The Lord God of hosts will go forth and crush war; he will stir up zeal, and will shout against his enemies with strength. I have kept silent; shall I always keep silent and endure? I have been patient like a woman in labour.”

Here too the passage proceeds in good order, and its arrangement is not unworthy of wonder. For the sacred ministers of our Saviour's oracles were to proclaim his virtues to all everywhere and to speak of these very things with great boldness. But it was necessary to realise that the enemies of the truth would by all means and in every way rise up against their so venerable zeal and eagerness, and would plot in many ways against the Saviour's glory: men, clearly, corrupt and superstitious, instruments of diabolical perversity and shield-bearers of his wickedness, or perhaps with them the very bands of the demons too, when their glory and the gain from their greed … under heaven was being shaken. That they will be impossible for the enemies to capture, and that no one will overcome them while God fights beside them, the prophet shows in these words, saying that the Lord of hosts will go forth and crush war. He says “will go forth” as of one of the kings on earth falling irresistibly on the enemy's battle-lines together with the armies under his sceptre. That the Lord of hosts will certainly prevail he made clear by saying that he will crush war. For the power that comes from God is not easy for anyone to face, or rather nothing that exists can bear it, whether wicked powers, even Satan himself, the apostate and vagabond, or certain earthly men who care for what those powers want; but they will be taken, and that without toil and without dust: “For who will turn back the high hand?” as it is written. That for those who oppose the choir of the holy apostles the war was, and is to this day, not against the holy angels only but against the Lord of hosts himself, the prophet has assured us by saying that he will go forth to crush war. “He will stir up zeal,” he says, that is, provocation: either his own against the enemies, as is written in the words of Zechariah, “I have been jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great zeal”; or that of those who contend for his glory, clearly those who revere him, of whom the most holy … was one, a chosen … having … for this, and if he endured: “[Who will separate us] from the love of Christ? Affliction, or distress, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” And again: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” So, we say, the holy martyrs too became zealots, who proved stronger than Satan and fought against his power for the sake of godliness toward Christ. For they kept the faith and the genuineness of their love for him. “He will stir up zeal,” then, he says, “and will shout against his enemies with strength,” putting “will shout” for “will raise the battle cry.” This voice is most fitting for victors …

“I have kept silent; shall I always keep silent and endure?”

“I have been patient like a woman in labour.”

From this one could very well see that at that time, when the multitude of the nations was in error, with Satan seizing them as plunder and blackening them with the darkness of sin, and carrying them off even to not knowing who is by nature and truly the God of all, the God who is beyond all wished to come to their aid; yet he held the matter back and plainly waited patiently, awaiting the time fitting for his help; and this was the time when his only-begotten Word became flesh and was made man. For then, then indeed, he took the field against those who had conquered us, rescued us from their perversity, took hold of us and saved us, and brought us under his own yoke. In the time that is past, then, when those on earth were being seized as plunder and Satan was devouring all like a lion, he says: “I have kept silent; shall I always keep silent and endure? I have been patient like a woman in labour.” See, then, how great a care the God of all took for those on earth, although, as the Psalmist says, no one was doing kindness, but all had turned aside, to the last one, and had become entirely worthless. And, if it were possible for him to be capable of the pangs of grief, he would have suffered them, and that for our sake; yet he kept his help, as I said, for the fitting time.

“I will make astonished, and dry up together; and I will make rivers into islands, and dry up marshes.”

What “I will make astonished” may signify here must be looked into. For either he says this: those who now hold power over those on earth I will cast out, and make them be outside the rule they have acquired over all, as it is said: “… will be cast out”; or you will understand “I will make astonished” in the sense of: I will make those who see what has been accomplished marvel at the ways of my dispensation and the surpassing greatness of my unspeakable power, just as the prophet Habakkuk too was astounded at these very things, saying: “Lord, I have heard the report of you and was afraid; I considered your works and was astonished.” Or, if anyone pleases, you will understand “I will make astonished” in yet another way: those who now wander, who are in darkness and diabolical mist, I will transfer to the knowledge of truth and to the divine and spiritual and heavenly light; those who are now defiled and have a loathsome and unclean mind I will change to an incomparably [better] disposition …, to choose rather to do good. “I will dry up together” again signifies something of the kind that the force of what follows will make clear. For, he says, “I will make rivers into islands and dry up marshes.” Who might be the rivers made into islands, and the marshes dried up? We say, then, that the poets and men of letters among the Greeks were heralds of the polytheistic error. For they made gods of the creation and brought countless gods into human life. They were like rivers, giving the deceived a drink of “muddy overthrow,” as it is written, flooding the mind of their admirers with the streams of elaborate words, by this holding them fast in error and setting before them, as a kind of food, the sweetness and charm of their own fine style. They might fittingly be likened, then, to rivers and marshes, that is, thickets or groves that have a great abundance of flowering grass. Such rivers, then, God promises to change into islands, that is, to show them dry and waterless, and to make the marshes as it were dry; which has indeed happened.

For the fine style of their eloquence is now idle. No one at all adheres to them; those who once wandered have, as it were, kicked away what is rotten and profane, and seize upon wisdom. Paul, at any rate, writes: “Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” We say, then, that the rivers made into islands are the discourses of the wise among the Greeks that held men fast in Greek deceit. Or else, in what went before, we granted that the churches of Christ are other islands, receiving those who sail, spiritually and figuratively, clearly, and putting in, as at safe harbours, with the teachers in them, and escaping the evil spirit that always raises storms against those who go down to the sea in ships and do business on many waters. The surge of our life and the turmoil of earthly affairs must be likened, as I said, to a sea. The marshes too are dried up, that is, the pastures of the things that were once under Satan's hand, so that they may now come to be under the chief shepherd of all, I mean Christ. He does not, like those false shepherds, carry off his own flock into thorns and thistles, but rather pastures them among lilies; for divine and sacred things are, spiritually, most fragrant …

“And I will lead the blind in a way they did not know, and I will make the darkness into light for them, and the crooked things into straight. These words I will do, and I will not forsake them, says the Lord God.”

For when the Lord of hosts has come to crush war, and the enemies have been overthrown, and the marshes have withered, in the sense of the interpretation we gave just now, those who had been reduced to the rank of captives taken by the spear, and were subjected to the devil's perversities, are surely redeemed; and being blind, for the apostate blinded their hearts, they are now led by Christ into ways, clearly, that they did not know before. These are the gospel oracles, the life of understanding and virtue, and the beauty of the good life that befits the saints. The divine Paul, at any rate, addressed those from the nations: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” The darkness has become light for them, then; that is, their situation has changed into its complete opposite. For the ignorant have become wise; those who once wandered have come to know the straight ways of all righteousness; those who knew nothing of good things have been shown to be skilled in all virtue and diligent in the pursuits that lead to godliness. The crooked things have become straight for them, that is, what was difficult, hard to accomplish, and rough has become level and smooth. Something of this kind is also hinted at in the preaching of John the Baptist: “For every ravine shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough into smooth ways.”

For hills and hollows make a road uneven. But where there is no mound and no hollow, the road is surely straight and easy to travel, and free of every difficulty. This too the blessed prophet Isaiah himself says somewhere else: “For the way of the godly,” he says, “has become straight, and the way of the godly is prepared.” For truly the way of the gospel life is not rough and hard to walk, but rather smooth and, as it were, level for those who love the excellent life. God promises, then, to bring these words, that is, the promises, to their fulfilment, and not to forsake them, that is, to be with them always, as in the saying: “Behold, I am with you all the days, until the end of the age.”

“But they have turned back. Be ashamed with shame, you who trust in carved images, who say to molten images, ‘You are our gods.’”

Very opportunely he shifts his words to … leading by the hand to the knowledge of God, and to the need to carry out … they were, and having embarked on the ways of polytheism they went down into the pit of destruction; and for this reason, and very fittingly, they offended God, who had shown them every forbearance and goodness. Having foretold, then, that the nations will be called in due time and will tread ways they did not know, and that the darkness will become light and the crooked things straight, the word uncovers the ignorance of those of Israel's blood, saying: “But they have turned back.” The word “they” must be taken emphatically, that is: those who were schooled by the divine law, who had come under my hand and had obtained Moses as mediator, who heard expressly: “The Lord your God is one Lord, and you shall have no other gods besides me.” These, while the multitude of the nations was in good hopes, turned back to …, taking up again the blemish of their ancient deceit. And the true proverb befell them: “A dog returning to its own vomit, and a sow that has washed to wallowing in the mire.” Our Lord Jesus Christ too said something of this kind, showing Israel running back to its ancient impiety: “For when the unclean spirit has gone out of a man,” he says, “it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it returns to the place from which it came out. And when it comes it finds it unoccupied and swept. Then it takes along seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.” For they had served the gods of the Egyptians, but the demon was cast out when they were called to the knowledge of God, through the law, I mean. Yet they fell sick again with the slander of having gone astray, and still worse, when, knowing the God who is God by nature, they became apostates, honouring as gods those who are not gods. “Be ashamed with shame,” then, he says, “you who trust in carved images,” and attach the venerable name, that is, the glory, of the Godhead that is above all to things cut and made by hand.

“You deaf, hear, and you blind, look up to see. And who is blind but my servants? And deaf but those who rule them? … and you did not keep watch; your ears are opened, and you did not …”

He calls those who worshipped idols deaf and blind, very well. For as the all-wise Paul writes: “The god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that the illumination of the gospel of Christ should not shine on them.” The force of the passage would fit those of Israel above all: although they could grow rich in mind with the divine light, since the law poured into them the radiance of the knowledge of God, they foolishly loved to walk in darkness and to settle into the snares of deceit. But they are blind in another way too. For although nothing prevented them from seeing the Creator of created things by analogy from their beauty, for, as the all-wise Paul writes, “his invisible attributes, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made, his eternal power and divinity,” they slid into such ignorance as to say to molten images, “You are our gods.” That the prophet's word is not now about the multitude of the nations but about those of Israel's blood, he showed by saying: “And who is blind but my servants? And deaf but those who rule them?” For the multitude under their hand was blinded, having fallen into this through the negligence of its guides. For it was they who had become the cause of the people's ignorance and the leaders of their straying. And those who ruled them were deaf, that is, those who had received the office of leading; for although they saw the glory of God, and had gained long experience, they turned to apostasy. For they would not obey God, who says plainly: “You shall have no other gods besides me.” But since, though they knew my oracles, they went over to apostasy together with those yoked under them, he is all but astounded, saying: “The servants of God have been blinded.” And what was the occasion of their blindness? “You were carried into this willingly,” he says. “For although you had seen very many times and could have kept watch, and although you knew how to hear, that is, to understand what is written, you did not keep watch against suffering the sentence, nor did you make it your study to do well, opening wide, as it were, your hearing to the sacred laws.” The charges against the Jews, then, admit no excuse. For though they could know the truth and had obtained the law as their guide to it, they became like those who have no eyes and whose ears are set on their heads in vain, because they would not listen to the sacred laws.

“I rescued them,” he says, “from the greed of the Egyptians; I set them free when, against all right, they were serving foreigners; I trained them through the law for the knowledge of God; I gave them Moses as overseer of good order. For my aim, the aim of the Lord of all, was to show Israel to be a worker of righteousness and diligent in the best works, so that, brought to a sense of what I had given him, he might magnify praise,” that is, praise of the one who had become the author of their prosperity and the provider of all their riches. But brought to a sense of none of these things, they have paid back evil for good to the Master, and, [shaking off] his yoke from their neck, they have served Satan and … they became …, and hateful to the God who loves virtue. This is plainly what he said about them somewhere else, as about a vine: “I waited for it to produce grapes, but it produced thorns.”

“And I saw, and the people became plundered and despoiled; for the snare is in the chambers everywhere, and in houses together, where they hid them; they became a prey, and there was no one to rescue the spoil, and no one to say, ‘Give it back.’”

He brings them to remember what happened to their fathers because they were caught in the snares of accursed polytheism. He did this not in vain, but to make them more prudent, fearing to suffer as those of old did. “Since,” he says, “they became blind and deaf, rejecting the service of God and offering their reverence to wood and stones, I saw this, and the people was plundered and despoiled.” For when God visits the charges of those who are unbearably impious, he then also brings punishments proportioned to the offences. The people, then, was despoiled and became a prey to its enemies. And for what cause? “For the snare is in the chambers everywhere, and in houses together they hid them.” Hid whom? The molten gods, clearly. For the leaders of the Jews, pretending to be godly, and bowing their neck to the legal ordinances as far as appearances went, hid the disease of apostasy in mind and heart, worshipping those who are not gods; and shutting them up in the chambers of their own houses they offered sacrifices to them secretly. It is written, at any rate, in Ezekiel: “Son of man, dig. And I dug in the wall. And I looked,” he says, “and behold, every likeness of creeping thing and beast, and all the idols of the house of Israel portrayed upon it round about. And he said to me: Have you seen, son of man? Are the things that the house of Israel do, each in his secret chamber, small?” See, then, how each of them, keeping in his secret chamber the snare that befell him, that is, idolatry, made a pretence of reverence for the laws. Therefore he says: “They became a prey, and there was no one to rescue the spoil, and no one to say, ‘Give it back.’” For when God did not come to their aid, who rescued them from so heavy and incurable a calamity? And when he did not rebuke the plunderers, who would have said to them, “Give it back”? For God no longer sought them as his own portion, but rather let them go as having become foreign to him through playing the harlot with those who are not gods. He seems by these words to point to the time of the captivity, which those of Israel spent, fallen into the hands of enemies. For up to the seventieth year there was no one to rescue them, nor anyone to say to the plunderers, “Give it back.” And very fittingly, after speaking of the calling of the nations, the reasons why those of Israel were cast out of their kinship with God are stated plainly, so that God may be seen to have used a just verdict everywhere. For it was necessary, necessary indeed, that those who had honoured impiety toward God should be outside his forbearance and love, while those who from ignorance had fallen into the pits of sin and under the devil's hand should be called by the Creator of all to the knowledge of him and to the light of the truth. This, somewhere, he is found saying through the all-wise Moses too: “They provoked me to jealousy with what is no god, they angered me with their carved images; and I will provoke them to jealousy with what is no nation, with a senseless nation I will anger them.” And somewhere the divine Melodist too said: “They embittered him with their carved images, and with their practices they provoked him to jealousy

… and he utterly despised Israel.” If we ought also to bring some spiritual interpretation to what has been said: let us guard against having the devil's snare in our mind and heart, and the wicked idols that arise in the imaginations of our thoughts and call us to licentiousness and to monstrous pleasures, so that we may not become Satan's [prey] and the spoil of demons. For it is written: “If the spirit of the ruler rises up against you, do not leave your place, for healing will put an end to great sins.”

“Who among you will give ear to these things? Listen to what is coming.”

It is the custom of the inspired Scripture to speak of “giving ear” where the word about necessary matters is received not carelessly or negligently but so as to keep what is announced soberly in mind. Such is what was said by the voice of the Psalmist: “In my heart I have hidden your sayings, that I might not sin against you.” For it is written also in the forty-eighth psalm: “Hear this, all you nations; give ear, all who inhabit the world.” For to hear is common to all who have once received a voice, or some other sound, into their ear; but to give ear is, as I said, to lodge in the mind something of what has been decreed. The prophetic word here, then, seems to seek those who listen more fairly, that is, more wisely, so that what was spoken to those of old may serve also for the safety of those to come. For as Paul says: “These things happened to them as types, and were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come.” For we ought not to read the narratives about them in vain, but to receive them for the benefit of the soul, earnestly refusing to be caught in the same faults, so that we may not fall into their calamities.

“Who gave Jacob for plunder, and Israel to those who despoiled him? Was it not God, against whom they sinned, and they would not walk in his ways, nor listen to his law? And he brought upon them the anger of his wrath, and war prevailed against them, and those who burn them up round about; and none of them knew, nor did they take it to heart.”

He seems to name Jacob and Israel here with very great emphasis. And what the force of that emphasis might be we will say briefly. Those of Israel served the Egyptians at one time, but they were redeemed by God, with Moses as mediator, and that “with a strong hand and a high arm,” as it is written. For he tormented their oppressors with countless unbearable plagues. When they ran out of the land of the Egyptians, they crossed the sea on foot, ate the bread of angels, drank water from a rock, were brought into the land of promise, overthrew kingdoms, prevailed over enemies, had a hand that was terrible and hard to face, and on this account a glory that was spoken of everywhere. Their weapon was the God of all, who stopped the course of the sun and moon against Gibeon, who sent down hail from heaven on the foreigners, and who raised his own people to the summit of all renown. “Who, then,” he says, “gave for plunder and to those who despoil him one who could not be captured by enemies, who was strong and most warlike and always used to conquer? How did he who did not know defeat grow weak? How was he brought down and laid under the feet of his opponents, he who raised his horn on high, unbroken, over all?” But since it was necessary that we who come after them should not be ignorant of the causes for which so glorious and chosen a people was handed over, he added of necessity: “Was it not God, against whom they sinned, and they would not walk in his ways, nor listen to his law?” A question about doubtful matters carries a plain acknowledgment of the fact. For it was surely God who gave him up, and … war then prevailed against them. This was unusual for those of Israel, for they had always prevailed … while God … But since against his divine … of old. They fell into weakness; they were brought down into powerlessness; those who burn them up came to be round about them, consuming them as with fire … their cities, as is plainly said somewhere else

…: “Your cities are burnt with fire.” “But none of them knew,” he says, “nor did they take it to heart”: here they incur the charge of insensibility. For those would be sound of understanding who refuse to offend God and keep their foot away from suffering anything that comes from his wrath, by bending their neck gently to him. But those who, even when they have come to suffer for human slips, do not perceive what has been brought upon them, such people would be far from all good hope. That those of Israel became liable to such charges too, one may see from Jeremiah saying to the God of all: “Lord, your eyes are upon faithfulness; you scourged them, and they would not receive instruction.” We remember that after Jerusalem was taken and Israel carried off captive, [the prophet], speaking the things of God, told them not to go down into Egypt. Then their women shamelessly said, or rather, not even brought to a sense of the wrath: “The Lord did not send you.” And to this they added words of unmixed derangement: “Since we left off sacrificing to the queen of heaven, all these evils have come upon us.” True, then, is the saying: “None of them knew, nor did they take it to heart,” when war prevailed against them and those round about were burning them up …

“And now thus says the Lord God, who made you, Jacob, who formed you, Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine. And if you pass through water, I am with you, and rivers shall not overwhelm you; and if you go through fire, you shall not be burned, flame shall not burn you; for I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, who saves you.”

Here too one must admire God, who loves compassion. For being good by nature and the Creator of all, even if some necessity arises for some to fall under the motions of just wrath in requital for their offences, he passes over to mercy, and that soon; he who struck binds up the wound, takes away the scourge, wins back those who repent, and … holds out a saving hand to those who are caught, drawing them out of every calamity and transferring them to prosperity. See how he comes, as it were, to forgetfulness of their failings, and promises to blot out their offences with an amnesty worthy of God, setting before them, as it were, another beginning of a time that brings them back to good cheer. We say that what is said in the book of Psalms is of this kind: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation.” For as there “today” marks the beginning of other times, so here too “now” contains the ground of an amnesty for what was said before.

He leads them up to the beginning of a road, and of other things that are to come from God. He does not, then, let them wither away, deprived of all good cheer, nor does he make his turning away endless; rather he frees them from all fear and gives them confidence that [Israel] will obtain every good, since God changes the nature of their affairs to what is incomparably better. “For I have redeemed you,” he says; and in what way, the all-wise Paul will make clear, saying of Christ, the Saviour of us all, that the God and Father was pleased to sum up all things in him, things in the heavens and things on earth. For in him is the redemption of all, the forgiveness and amnesty of former sins, and the way of spiritual kinship, kinship with him, I mean, accomplished through sanctification, which brings us up into fellowship with God the Father. Therefore he says, “I have called you by your name.” And what name? That is: “You are mine.” For we are said to be Christ's, and this is the good name that has been called upon us. It should be known that in another text of the Scripture it reads: “I have called you by my name.” But by putting and saying “You are mine,” he dissolved the estrangement that those held fast in sins are accustomed to undergo. For they are not God's, even though he holds authority over all; the disposition toward base things removes them from kinship with him. That is why we say that those who are in defilements are not God's. “You are mine,” then, would express spiritual kinship. He also promises him invincible help, so that he becomes impregnable to every temptation. For rivers and water and flames signify the manifold assaults of temptations. It is written: “All who wish to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” And Christ himself said somewhere to those who believed in him: “You have tribulation in the world.” “But if you pass through water,” he says, “I am with you.” For when Christ is present, nothing could harm those who are his. Rather they will advance to such spiritual strength as to take no account of the storm. Even if persecution comes like the stream of a river, even if it has the heat of fire and flame, so too they will conquer, knowing that God is the one who saves. For it is the custom of the divine Scripture to liken the assaults of temptations to rivers and waters. The Saviour himself will show it, speaking in the form of a parable, or example: “Everyone, then, who hears these words of mine and does them will be likened to a wise man who [built] his house on the rock; and the rain came down, and the rivers came, and the winds blew and fell upon that house, and it did not fall. For it had been founded on the rock”; and the rock is Christ.

“I have made Egypt and Ethiopia your exchange, and Syene in your place. Since you became precious before me, you were glorified, and I loved you; and I will give many men for you, and rulers for your head. Do not fear,

for I am with you.”

The meaning of what lies before us is very hard to reach, but I will make the exposition as far as possible, with God directing it; for he gives wisdom and knowledge. Before Christ, who is the true light, shone on the world, the whole earth had gone astray, and deep … and there were very many forms of worship everywhere, by countries and nations. More superstitious than the rest were the Chaldeans, the Phoenicians, and all who hold the land of the Egyptians as far as Syene and Ethiopia; for these inhabit the land bordering on that of the Egyptians. Israel alone was God's chosen portion and the Lord's share, as it is written. But since they acted impiously against our Lord Jesus Christ and became Lord-slayers, they no longer remained God's portion in any way; they slipped out of kinship with him, and the nations were taken in and became an exchange for Israel; and those who of old … in this the filth. I said that the Egyptians were terrible and bitter, especially in inventing idols, deep in false worship, and proud of their excessive cleverness in the services and invocations of idols. “For you, then, the beloved,” he says, “who were allotted to me as a portion, I made Egypt and Ethiopia an exchange”: that is, Egypt again; the Ethiopians … He said, at any rate, through one of the holy prophets: “You too, Ethiopians, are slain by my sword.” “In your place, then,” he says, “I received those who are in terrible defilements and whose uncleanness is all but indelible. Yet since you became precious before me, you were glorified.” For Israel did not remain in rejection and dishonour forever. For he too will be called through faith in Christ, and will be a sharer and partaker in the glory of the saints. “For you were glorified,” he says, “and I loved you.” The words “I will give many men for you, and rulers for your head” seem to show that, when those of Israel are called in due time to the knowledge of Christ, there will be very many men, wise and most eloquent, who know how to initiate them into the mysteries. “Acting on your behalf,” he says, “I will give many men; and I will also give rulers for your head.” The head of believers is Christ, to whom all the teaching of the mysteries looks that is given by those who are brought in due time to lead the peoples, by his decision, clearly. “For you,” then, would signify: for what is useful and serves the benefit of you who learn the venerable and great mystery of your head, that is, of Christ. Or you will understand “I will give many men for you, and rulers for your head” in another way: “You became rejected,” he says, “and banished, and wholly alien to friendship and kinship with me. Therefore I received in exchange for you those of the nations who had come to the extremes of slander against me. But since you became precious before me, having believed, clearly, and found the glory that comes from this, I loved you. And I loved you so much that, if there were ever a time or need for many men and rulers to be given for your head, I would give them.” For the statement is hypothetical, and carries a very great emphasis on Israel's having been honoured by God; and it gives firm confidence that God is present in every good thing, in every way and wholly: “For I am with you.”

This suffices them for all prosperity; for when God is present, evils will be out of the way, and every kind of good cheer and delight will be ours …

“From the east I will bring your seed, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, ‘Bring,’ and to the south-west, ‘Do not hinder’; bring my sons from a land far off, and my daughters from the ends of the earth, all who have been called by my name.”

The only-begotten Word of God appeared to those on earth in our form, that is, by becoming man, so that Greeks and Jews, who had been carried down through many and various slips into apostasy, apostasy from the Creator of all, I mean, he might drive together to the true and blameless knowledge of God, and gather into spiritual unity through faith and sanctification, kinship with himself also being very well accomplished, and might show them worthy …, and so join them through himself to God the Father. That Christ became man for this cause too, it is not hard to see from the holy writings of the Gospels. Lazarus came back to life from the dead beyond all expectation; but the multitude of the unholy Jews, that is, the God-hated workshop of the Pharisees, sat in council and said: “What are we doing? For this man does many signs. If we let him go on thus, the Romans will come and take away our nation and our country. But one of them, Caiaphas, said to them: You know nothing at all, that it is expedient for us that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish.” Then the divine evangelist at once added: “He did not say this of himself, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but that he might also gather into one the children of God who were scattered.” For when it came to the making of man in the beginning, and the aim of the one who led him astray into …, Satan, as I said, [drew] all into manifold sin and stole them away from kinship with him; … Christ [gathered] all. For he came to seek what was lost. This too is signified by the words before us. For he promises to the gathering from nations and Jews … all those from east to west, and from north and south-west, that is, the south, so that you may understand from this: from every region of the earth under heaven. For east and west, north and south would surely indicate this to us. By saying “Bring” to the north, and “Do not hinder” to the south-west, he gives us in some way to understand that he does not allow the resistance of the savage and wicked spirits to oppose, spiritually, those who come to him. For of old, like some cruel and boastful tyrant, Satan the vagabond, together with his own shield-bearers, lorded it over those on earth, not allowing them to look up to the truth, or to go to God by conversion. This too has been stopped through Christ, who smooths the way to salvation for those who have been called, and every [obstacle] at their feet … By naming sons and daughters running from the four regions, he makes plain the time of Christ's coming, in which the grace of adoption was given to those on earth through sanctification in the Spirit.

That the calling did not come from one nation, but became common and one for all, he indicated by saying: “all who have been called by my name.” For we have been named Christians, that is, the people of God. So Peter too writes to those called through faith, and says: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the virtues of him who calls you out of darkness into his marvellous light; you who once were not a people, but now are a people in the Lord.”

“For in my glory I prepared him, and formed and made him. And I brought out a people … and deaf, having ears. All the nations were gathered together, and rulers will be gathered from among them.”

All things have become new in Christ, and the most holy Paul will confirm it, writing: “So if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away.” And he writes to those called into newness, spiritual newness, clearly: “And do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may test what is the will of God, good and perfect and pleasing.” For in Christ … through sanctification, … the ancient … from sin and all wickedness; [we have put off] the old man that is being corrupted according to the desires of deceit, and have put on the new man that is being renewed according to the image of the one who created him. But in Christ came the re-forming and what is called the new creation, which we have obtained not from perishable seed but through the word of God, living and abiding. “The people, then, gathered from the four regions under heaven and called by my name, no other but I myself prepared in my glory, and formed and made.” One might say that the Son is the glory of the God and Father, for through him and in him the Father is glorified, as in the words “I glorified you on earth,” said plainly by him. For we firmly hold, as I said, that those who believe in him have been formed through him, having the beauty of the divine nature shining in their souls through conformity to him. The divine Psalmist said something of the kind: “The generation to come shall be told of the Lord, and a people that is being created shall praise the Lord.” By adding, “And I brought out a blind people,” he makes evident the truly admirable supremacy of his own power, beyond all speech. Those who had … and deceit in mind and heart he showed to be bright and illumined, rising on them like a morning star and a sun of righteousness, and showing them to be sons … beauty, the [likeness] according to the image …

… and of the day too, as the most wise Paul puts it. That he brought out a blind people is unclear to no one. But as if someone rose up against such words and said, “Yet even to this day one could see their eyes likewise blind, and that they have deaf ears,” he makes a defence, saying: “All the nations were gathered together, and rulers will be gathered from among them.” “For you, sirs,” [he says,] “are only receiving the words of a prophecy; the time of the events has not yet come; but all the nations will by every means and certainly be gathered in due time.” For he says “were gathered” for “will be gathered,” this being the custom of the inspired Scripture. For things that will certainly happen it sometimes sets down as having already happened. At any rate it is said, as from the person of Christ, through the voice of Isaiah: “I have given my back to scourges,” for “I will give.” And through the Psalmist: “They divided my garments among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots,” which indeed happened at the time of his coming. “All the nations, then,” he says, “will be gathered together,” and not only this, but there will also be rulers from among them, that is, leaders of peoples and initiators into the mysteries; and those who once wandered and lay in deep darkness will become the bringers of the divine light to those they initiate. The Melodist said something of the kind about the church from the nations: “As its darkness, so also its light.” For as in the time of error it fell sick of a measureless and deep darkness, so again … For it is true, as the divine Paul says: “Where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more.”

“Who will declare these things? Or who will declare to you the things from the beginning? Let them bring their witnesses and be justified, and let them speak truth, and let them hear.”

Having once made mention of the nations, or of those who through … some kind of initiation for them, he denounces in no small way the deceit of the demons and shows the making of idols to be good for nothing at all. For to know all things from beginning to end would befit only the one who is God by nature. For all understanding is from him, and he is the source of all knowledge, and in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, as it is written. And if anyone is found to have knowledge of things to come as well, he is seen to have received the gift by revelation from him. He addresses, then, as I said, those from the nations, and says: “All the things that will befall you, and that you will be called in due time to the knowledge of the truth, I have announced and told you. But who else [has told] you these things? [Let them bring] their witnesses and be justified, and speak truth, and hear. For I in due times [spoke] through holy men, and I have as witnesses of my foreknowledge of things to come those who ministered my words. But who could bear witness for the demons, or for the lifeless idols, that they said anything of the kind through them? For very many are the men of letters and poets among the Greeks, yet [none] of them said at all, as from their own gods, that these things would happen to them in due time; nor could one observe any of the wise among the Greeks foretelling that Satan would in due time be thrust out of the glory he had gained by greed, or that the [earth] under him would be made bright through faith in Christ, or that the darkness of idolatry would depart and the truth would prevail over the earth under heaven.”

“Let them bring their witnesses, then, and show that they spoke truth. And if this should happen, let them hear them,” that is, let them follow and agree that the herd of demons too is rich in the knowledge of things to come. But there is no one who has borne witness for them, nor anyone who announced things to come. Those, then, who thought them to be gods have admittedly gone astray; for they are profane and …

“Be my witnesses, and I am a witness, says the Lord God, and the servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe and understand that I am. Before me there was no other god, and after me there will be none.”

Having said that nothing would bear witness for the unclean demons, or for the works of human hands, that they know things to come, he addresses his own prophets and says: “Be my witnesses. For I have spoken through you, and my Spirit has made the knowledge of things to come flash upon you. I will therefore bring forward witnesses of my own glory and of my supremacy befitting God. And I will bear witness to myself, and so will the Servant whom I have chosen.” Like this is what was said by our Saviour's voice to the Jews: “Even if I bear witness about myself, my witness is true, for I know where I come from and where I am going.” And again: “I bear witness about [myself] …” For God's voice is worthy of belief in whatever he may wish to say about his own glory and supremacy. And, as is reasonable, there follows in the second place the verdict and understanding of the saints, which assigns to him all that befits the nature that is beyond all. Therefore, having taken the holy prophets as witnesses, he goes up to the greater witness, the one admittedly free of falsehood, himself, I mean, and his own Son. For, as I said, for those of sound mind God's voice suffices for all belief. “These things I have spoken to you,” he says, “not in vain, but that you may know and believe and understand that I am.” For faith comes through knowledge, and understanding through faith. For “If you do not believe,” it says, “neither will you understand.” “And believe that before me there was no [other god]”: … before him there was no other God, but he himself is the beginning of all and beyond every mind, and after him there will be none. For he remains the same, and has an unchangeable nature, an unshaken supremacy over all, and a perpetual kingdom. For he who has no beginning of being, toward what kind of end will he run?

“I am God, and besides me there is none who saves. … [and there was no] stranger among you. You are my witnesses, and I am a witness, says the Lord God, that I am still from the beginning, and there is none who rescues out of my hands. I will act, and who will turn it back?”

“Bear witness,” he says, “that I alone am the God of all, none having come into being before me, nor … after me. For I alone am the one who saves, and I announced this to you long ago and brought what was spoken to fulfilment. For I saved in Christ. I reproached you, and there was no stranger among you.” For those of Israel at times forgot the sacred oracles, those given through the all-wise Moses, I mean, and were lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Then, paying the price of their slackness, they were sometimes in danger when enemies were let loose upon them. But in the time of affliction they would try to call the one who always saves to their help.

“And I reproached them for this, saying through the voice of Jeremiah: ‘And in the time of their evils they will say: Arise and save us. And where are your gods that you made for yourself? Will they arise and save you in the time of your affliction?’ I reproached you, then, very often, you of Israel's blood, and you learned by experience that there was no god among you,” a strange one, clearly. “For none of them saved you. I alone, then, am the one who saves. Therefore bear witness, and I too will be a witness for myself, says the Lord God.” Or according to that saying: “Everyone, then, who confesses me before men, I too will confess him.” “Bear witness, then, that I am still from the beginning,” that is, the one who from the beginning until now foretells what will be, and is able to save without toil those who thirst for kinship with me; and who saves in such a way that no one at all can snatch out of my hands the one I have once taken. “For there is none,” he says, “who rescues out of my hands. I will act, and who will turn it back?” “For I have accomplished the calling of the nations,” he says, “that is, I have saved those who wandered. And who will change this, or alter it so that it is not so?” That no one will snatch out of God's hand those saved by him, the Saviour himself will confirm, saying: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.” This is plainly what is written: “There is none who rescues out of my hands.”

“Thus says the Lord God who redeems you, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I will send to Babylon, and I will rouse up all who flee,

Having woven through what was just said no mean exhortation for those of the nations called to the knowledge of him, and having shown that he alone has knowledge of things at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end, and that besides him there is no one at all who can save, and having by these words established a firm faith in them, he shifts his words to those of Israel's blood, and tries to assure them … that the natures of things yield to his nods; the very elements of the world serve him, and whatever he wills is certainly accomplished, with nothing lying in the way. For it was necessary, necessary indeed, for those of Israel to have very much enlightenment, and exhortations and reminders to establish them in steadfastness of mind, since they slipped into what is unlawful, and, inclining to other gods, sacrificed to idols and to the host of heaven, as it is written. He makes them, then, a prediction of things to come, and of the … of the …, showing beforehand that they themselves would be taken captive by those; but they will be persuaded that … Since the word to them concerned the greatest matters, he necessarily shows the incomparable glory of his power and the surpassing greatness of his strength, saying: “Thus says the Lord God who redeems you, the Holy One of Israel.” For in order to bring them to remember the events of old, those, I mean, of the redemption from Egypt, when a great multitude of wonders bore witness to his glory, he therefore named himself the Lord God and affirmed that he is the Redeemer. So much for this. But what is it that will happen? “For your sake,” he says, “I will send to Babylon.” For the Babylonian took Israel captive, and … the whole land of the Jews together with the famous temple, and removed them to the mountains of the Persians and Medes.

But since … those who had fallen into this misery, he roused up Cyrus son of Cambyses against the Chaldeans, with the Persians and Medes fighting alongside him; these took by force the land of the Chaldeans, that is, of the Babylonians, although of old they had feared them and shrunk from their overbearing hand. Tradition has it that Cyrus, having captured some of the great men in it, bound them with iron and sent them across the Caspian Sea into impassable and uninhabited lands. Cyrus was roused up against the Babylonians, with God whetting him and [giving] him the power to prevail … [as he says through] the voice of Isaiah: “Thus says the Lord to my anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, that nations should obey before him.” And again: “I will go before you and level mountains; I will break bronze doors and shatter iron bars; and I will give you dark treasures, hidden, unseen; I will open them to you.” For since the Babylonians used terrible and unmixed wrath against those of Israel and so offended God, they too were therefore given over to the Persians and Medes, who treated them with unbearable [harshness]. At any rate it was said to Babylon through one of the holy prophets: “As you have done, so it shall be done to you; your recompense will be returned on your head.” “For your sake, then,” he says, “O Israel, I will send to Babylon.” And send whom? Surely the celebrated Cyrus and the army under him. “I will send” means “I will dispatch against them.” “And I will rouse up against them all those who of old fled” and gave way to them; “and the Chaldeans will be bound in ships.” For, as I said before, … lands, the so-called Caspian Sea. It should be known that another reading too is found: for the Chaldeans, it says, will be bound not in ships but rather in collars. The Saviour and Lord of all has also saved all those on earth spiritually …, having abolished the bands of the demons and roused against them his own invincible and supernatural power, that is, Christ. For thus he redeemed us who were captives, showed us to be free who were as it were slaves to that one's will, and, removing us as from a barbarian land, led us back up to the spiritual Judea, which is the church that he acquired for himself, freeing it from every stain and defilement and showing it holy and blameless.

“I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One, who showed forth [Israel as your king].”

Great and extraordinary things are often disbelieved when they are announced as about to happen. Therefore, very fittingly, the God of all, when he promises something of the kind, makes his own glory evident for the hearer's belief, and names himself Lord of all and God. What could resist one of such a nature and glory? “When, then, I foretell to you,” he says, “I am not one of the falsely named gods, who, being nothing at all, could not do anything small or great; but I am rather the Lord God, the Holy One among you, that is, venerable and set apart from all others, and accomplishing what I will by irresistible nods. And I am the one who showed forth Israel as your king.” This must be understood in two ways. Either he says this: “As I am the one who showed myself to be your king through many signs, and through strength and authority beyond reason”; or one must suppose that he indicates something else by this. Our Lord Jesus Christ has been named Israel and also Jacob in the divine Scriptures, just as he has also been named David, because according to the flesh he is from the seed of those so named.

“I, then,” he says, “am the one who showed forth as your king the one of the blood of Jacob and Israel.” The passage has a very great arrangement. For since he had made mention of a partial redemption, for Israel was brought back, as I said, from Babylon to Judea, he necessarily raises the promise to what is incomparably greater, and recalls the redemption that will come through Christ: no longer partial, and as for one nation, as of old, but more general, extending over all the earth under heaven. That the mystery of Christ is not unworthy of wonder, because of the surpassing greatness of the dispensation and the magnitude of his gentleness toward us, no one who has once known it would doubt. For being God by nature, and having shone forth from God the Father, the Only-begotten came down to self-emptying and took the form of a servant, so that, freeing those under the devil's tyranny … The passage here, then, [speaks] of a redemption to come in due time: a partial one, given only to those of Israel's blood, and a universal and most general one, through Christ, clearly, through which the God and Father saved those throughout the whole world.

“Thus says the Lord, who gives a way in the sea, and a path in mighty water, who brought out chariots and horse and a mighty throng; but they lay down and will not rise; they were quenched like [quenched flax].”

Good and profitable things, even if they are said very often by God and by men, would in no way be tiresome to those of sound mind, but rather necessary for salvation. Therefore the all-wise Paul too writes to some: “To say the same things to you is not irksome to me, and for you it is safe.” For since the human mind, from very great negligence, is sometimes corrupted to forgetfulness of what has been given to each by God, the divine word very often brings us up to remembrance of them, not allowing us to [sink] entirely into negligence, but rather rekindling us to love of God and to the desire for every good. Since, then, Israel was redeemed, very many things being accomplished wondrously for him, and then, forgetting these, they turned to apostasy and inclined to the gods that are not, God necessarily brings them back to remember his power, saying that he gave a way in the sea and a path in mighty water. For they were led through the middle of the sea when departing from the land of the Egyptians, and they crossed the Jordan on foot. And this we say is the path in mighty water. At which the divine David marvelled and sings: “What ails you, O sea, that you fled? And you, Jordan, that you turned back?” And again, speaking of God: “Who turns the sea into dry land; they will pass through the river on foot.” He gave, then, a way in the sea and a path in mighty water. “And he brought out chariots and horse and a mighty throng.” For Pharaoh pursued those of Israel's blood with chariots and horses, using the formidable hand of his fellow fighters, yet in no way did he conquer or harm the redeemed. “For they lay down and will not rise,” he says, “but were quenched like quenched flax.” For they were drowned in the waters together with their horses and perished, and were consumed by the divine wrath like easily kindled flax, and were quenched without toil, that is, they went into nothing and were as it were reduced to ashes. For flax is ready to be destroyed by fire, and is quenched even by the touch of a hand, and gives birth only to a very feeble flame. But if anyone should say, “Since the ruler of the land of the Egyptians ran against Israel by his own will, how is the God of all himself said to have brought out the horses and chariots and the army under them?” we say that it was said to Pharaoh by God who rules all: “For this very purpose I raised you up, that I may show my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” Let this, again, be said historically. But we say that those who have chosen to live well and refuse slavery under the devil, departing from earthly pursuits and as it were

wishing to depart from all uncleanness, the wicked one pursues, but God saves them beyond expectation, making the surge of the present life walkable for them, leading them through it by unspeakable power, and … them, but preparing them to come to be beyond the waves of the flesh, and calming for them, as if it were a sea, the temptations that befall them in many ways; so that, having come into a desert land, that is, into a pure and quiet state of mind, they may be able to eat the bread from heaven and drink water from the rock, that is, come to share in Christ, and to cross the Jordan, and so to enter the land of [promise], I say.

“Do not remember the first things, and do not consider the ancient things. Behold, I do new things, which will now spring up, and you will know them. And I will make a way in the desert, and rivers in the waterless land. The beasts of the field will bless me, sirens and daughters of ostriches, because I have given water in the desert and rivers in the waterless land, to give drink to my chosen race, my [people] whom I acquired to recount my virtues.”

Just as a little above, having set before them for their knowledge the redemption that was to come to those of Israel, which was partial, and then raising the account of events to what is better, he made mention of the incomparably [greater] salvation through Christ, saying that he showed forth Israel as our king; so here too, having usefully recalled the Red Sea, the streams of the Jordan, and the crossing of those of Israel, he goes back again to the mystery of Christ. Therefore he says: “Do not remember the first things, and do not consider the ancient things.” For the bringing in of incomparably superior things sometimes consigns the lesser to forgetfulness, and the splendid among things somehow dim those that are not so by nature, even if these come first in time. Something of this kind the all-wise Paul too [says]: “Now we know in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.” For great and beyond all speech were the things accomplished by God through the all-wise Moses, but surpassing and lofty are those done through our Saviour's strength and supremacy. For through him and by him the multitude of the nations throughout the world has been saved. Therefore he all but commands them even to forget the first things. … rather to fix the mind on the things that are incomparably superior and have a splendid glory.

“I will make, then,” he says, “a way in the desert.” Here the desert is understood as the multitude of the nations, of old dry and fruitless and as it were bearing thorns, because there was no one at all in it who was godly and approved and wise in knowing how to do good. For as the Psalmist says: “All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is no one who does kindness, not even one.” In this desert, then, a way appeared that carries those who go by it to the true knowledge of God, to a holy and unprofaned life, and to all knowledge of every good thing. We say that this way is either the divine, gospel, saving proclamation, or perhaps Christ himself. For we have heard him say plainly: “I am the way.” But not only a way came to be in the desert; rivers too were shown in it, spiritual ones. We say that these are [the holy] evangelists …: “The rivers lifted up their voices.” For as he himself says again somewhere: “Their sound went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” Besides the rivers named, those too might be understood who lead peoples and know how to initiate them rightly and blamelessly into the mysteries, and are able to water with words of godliness those who come to Christ through faith. He calls the multitude of the nations waterless. For there was among them no teacher of truth possessing a saving stream. “For claiming to be wise they became fools,” as the blessed and divine Paul says, “and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things.” “When a way has been shown in the desert,” he says, “and the waterless land has received rivers, the beasts of the field will bless me, sirens and daughters of ostriches, because I have given water in the desert and rivers in a waterless land, to give drink to my chosen race, a people whom I have acquired to recount my virtues.” By “beasts of the field” he seems to signify those who from very great ignorance had in a way become savage and lived wildly. The nations lived so. By “sirens and daughters of ostriches” he means those among them who knew how to speak well and were trained in fine style. It is the custom of the inspired Scripture to call “sirens” the most talkative of birds, those accustomed to sing something melodious and rhythmic. Such in a way were the teachers of the Greeks' superstition, poets and prose writers. For they have sweetness and grandiloquence, as far as words go; yet they teach nothing necessary. “But all these will glorify me,” he says, “as the one who gave spiritual water and showed rivers in the waterless land, so that they may give drink to my chosen race.” And what is this, if not surely those to whom it is said: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the virtues of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light; who once were not a people, but now are a people in the Lord”?

“Not now have I called you, Jacob, nor have I made you weary, Israel. You have not brought me the sheep of your whole burnt offering, nor have you glorified me with your sacrifices, nor have you served in your sacrifices; nor have I made you weary with frankincense, nor have you bought me incense with silver, nor have I desired the fat of your sacrifices. But in your sins, and in your offences and iniquities …”

Through what has already been examined, or rather read, he gave a prediction of the covenant in Christ and of the gifts that come from him. For he said he would make a way in the desert and rivers in the waterless land, and for this reason would be blessed by all the beasts of the field; and glorification might be understood as a kind of spiritual sacrifice, and the fruit of the new covenant in Christ. In the words before us he tries to assure Israel that he was redeemed from … and freed from such grievous toils, not so that he might bring him calves and make his approach through blood and smoke. For such things are rejected by God, and are a shadow rather than the truth.

… “Not now, then, have I called you, Jacob.” The “now” must be taken in the sense of “not when you were sacrificing”; that is: I did not call you while you were sacrificing oxen and slaughtering sheep, lest perhaps you should think you had received the redemption as a kind of repayment for your offering; but rather, when you were in sins and liable to defilements, for you had served the gods of the Egyptians, I counted you worthy of forbearance and love. The gift, then, is one of gentleness, the grace a fruit of love for humankind, and the redemption came as from love. “For the sheep of your whole burnt offering are nothing to me,” he says, “nor have you glorified me with your sacrifices.” For what is wholly unacceptable and offered at random, how could it be for my glory? “Nor have you served in your sacrifices.” For the one who practises something good, he says, and has accomplished praiseworthy deeds of virtue, who has bowed his neck to my nods and is a doer of the sacred oracles, would be said to serve the God who is over all. But the one who fills the holy tent with the smoke of frankincense and brings oxen or sheep, without having accomplished any of the best things, will not carry off the glory of genuineness. For such a one has done nothing at all of what pleases me. Service, then, is not in sacrificing, but in resolving to bend the neck gently and, as it were, softly to his wishes. “For as far as my own pleasure goes,” he says, “I would not have made you weary with frankincense, nor would you have bought me incense with silver, nor have I desired the fat of your sacrifices.” Like this is what was said to them through another prophet: “Gather your whole burnt offerings with your sacrifices, and eat flesh; for I did not speak to your fathers concerning whole burnt offerings and sacrifices in the day when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt.” The same prophet Jeremiah said somewhere else again: “Why do you bring me frankincense from Sheba, and cinnamon from a land far off? Your whole burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices have not pleased me.” And also through the voice of the Psalmist: “I will not accept calves from your house, nor goats from your flocks.” Everywhere he rejects worship in shadows, removing them from the types and driving them, as it were, toward the justification that is in Christ, and teaching them to lay claim to the gospel way of life, through which alone it becomes possible to please God and to offer a worship that is truly blameless and pure, spiritual worship, clearly. “For God is spirit,” it says, “and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

“I am, I am he who blots out your iniquities, and I will not remember them. But you remember, and let us go to judgment; tell your iniquities first, that you may be justified.”

See again, I pray, how God did not assign to the power of the worship according to the law the ability to free anyone from the uncleanness within them. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins, and the shadow of the law is useless in these matters … according to the voice of [the most wise] Paul. He writes, at any rate, and says about himself and the other apostles, or rather those who believed from the circumcision: “We, Jews by nature and not sinners from the nations, knowing that a man is not justified by works of law except through faith in Jesus Christ, we too believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified in him.” “Do not think, then,” he says, “that you will ever be able to show yourself free of the charges arising from wickedness through sacrifice and smoke. Know rather that I am he who blots out your iniquities, and I will not remember them.” For we have been justified not by works of righteousness that we did, but according to his great mercy. For this alone saves those on earth, who have a mind that is feeble and easily led astray to anything at all of what the law has censured. For “the mind of man,” it says, “is intently set on evil things from youth.” Therefore, very fittingly, the divine David recalls human slips, saying: “If you mark iniquities, Lord, who will stand? For with you is propitiation.” The God of all, then, has compassion, and, using favourable nods and amnesties befitting God, sets them free of blame, and [wishes] those who have received mercy to know the grace of the one who justifies them. We shall find that this is profitable and that the saints practised it earnestly. The blessed David sings, at any rate, and says at one time: “I know my iniquity, and my sin is before me always”; and again: “I will declare my iniquity, and I will be anxious over my sin.” “I, then,” he says, “will not remember your offences. But do you remember them, and let us go to judgment. Confess, and hold the amnesty firm.” For it is written: “The righteous man is his own accuser at the beginning of his speech.” And again: “Do not be ashamed to confess your sins.” The proud Pharisee did not keep such a commandment, whom … those caught in slips … yet he does not allow … the Saviour in the gospel parables sets praying in the synagogue, sick with great ignorance and, from vain puffing-up, saying: “God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men, robbers, unjust, or even like this tax collector; I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of all that I possess.” This man would not tell his own sins.

He is condemned, then, as a boaster and a liar; for no one is pure from filth, and we all stumble in many ways. But the tax collector knew and confessed his own sins. For he stood beating his breast and saying: “God, be merciful to me, the sinner.” He was justified, then, having confessed his failings, and … the filth of the loathsomeness within him …

“Your fathers first, and your rulers, acted lawlessly against me. And the rulers defiled my holy things; and I gave Jacob to destruction, and Israel to reproach.”

Having said, “I am he who blots out your iniquities, and I will not remember them,” he saw that perhaps some would rise up against what was said and would say: “If you have honoured Israel with amnesty, if very great calm has come upon him, if he has been cleansed of his filth and has washed off the defilements of his ancient offences, how, or for what, has he paid the penalty, being consumed by the swords of enemies, then becoming a captive taken by the spear, leaving the land that bore him, and coming under the hand and yoke of his captors? For he was given over to the fighters who came from Babylon.” He makes his defence, then, saying “Let us go to judgment,” and he says that they themselves have become the cause and procurers of this upon their own heads. “For your fathers,” he says, “and your rulers acted lawlessly against me.” He does not simply blame our forefathers in saying this. He seems rather to want to hint at something like this: those chosen for sacred ministry, wise men and experts in the law, and [appointed] to train the peoples under their hand, might be called fathers of those yoked under them, rulers and leaders. When, then, some outrageous thing is done not by the common multitude but rather by those who could reasonably have corrected even the faults of others, the matter is grievous, the penalty hard to escape, and owed thereafter to those who have acted impiously. “Those, then, who are placed in the rank of fathers,” he says, “and who obtained the rule over you, acted lawlessly against me.” By saying “against me,” he shows that what they so outrageously and unholily offended was done not against one of us, but against the very glory of the God who is beyond all.

I mean something like this. When someone wrongs one of his neighbours, encompassing him with greed and outrage, or in some other way, he offends, but against a man of the same nature, and not against God. But the one who thrusts away the worship due to him, and subjects himself to the deceits of demons and worships them, rises up against God, and as far as in him lies removes him from the thrones of the Godhead, and tries to shake loose the supremacy and glory that befit him alone. Those of Israel did this at various times. For they worshipped idols, and, bidding farewell to the sacred oracles, they wished to raise a stiff and arrogant neck against God. He blames them, at any rate, and says: “The priests did not say, Where is the Lord? And those who handle the law did not know me, and the prophets acted impiously against me.” And again: “Why do you speak to me? You have all acted lawlessly, and you have all acted impiously against me, says the Lord Almighty.” “The rulers, then,” he says, “defiled my holy things.” For they dared to set up the pillars of demons not only in Jerusalem; they would also be convicted of having done this unholily in the divine temple itself. The God of all said, at any rate, about the synagogue of the Jews: “Why has the beloved done an abomination in my house?”, calling “abomination” the statue and image fashioned in the form of a god. The holy things are also defiled in another way, if what has been commanded to be performed reverently and holily for God's glory is despised by some, and some count the transgression of his divine laws as nothing. “Since, then, your fathers,” he says, “acted lawlessly against me, and the rulers too defiled my holy things, I have given [the people] to the enemies, so as to destroy Jacob, and [Israel] to the reproaches upon these things.”

“But now hear, Jacob my servant, and [Israel] whom I have chosen.”

Having recalled the former things and stated very well the causes for which apostate Israel was given to destruction and reproach, he again … them to complete and blameless obedience. Passing over, as it were, the time of ignorance, in which the one who had become a lover of God, the one who had the law, was caught in wrongdoing, he again sets them another time, saying “Now.” I say this resembles: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation.” “For in the time already past,” he says, “a very great and surely just outcry arose against you; for you gave yourself over to apostasy and offended me, turning to what is unlawful and entangling yourself in the charges of disobedience. But let those things be passed over,” he says. “Now hear,” that is: “Lay aside your proud mind. Know your own Master; come under the yoke of obedience, realizing that you have been named my servant. And I made you chosen, out of all,” the nations that are on the earth, clearly. “For when the Most High divided the nations, when he scattered the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. And his people Jacob became the Lord's portion, Israel the measured lot of his inheritance.” He shames, then, and as it were rebukes those who transgressed and offended in no small measure, who had come to be in the rank of children to him and lay in the portion of the chosen.

Discourse 2.

“Thus says the Lord God who made you, and who formed you from the womb: You will still be helped.”

Having charged those of Israel with apostasy, with departing from love toward him and giving themselves over to the gods that are not, for he said, “Your fathers and your rulers acted lawlessly against me, and the rulers defiled my holy things,” he very providently adds these words too. For he does not allow them to be carried off into apostasy, or rather into despair, nor to slip entirely out of hope in him. He promises them gentleness again, wins them back with his usual love for humankind, and brings them back to repentance. He gives them to understand that he has not wholly turned away from those who sinned, and that Israel will not perish root and branch, since he has compassion on them and very well smooths the way of salvation for those who believe in him. By calling himself Lord and God, who made and formed him from the womb, he seems to hint that Israel went astray in putting the name of the Godhead on others and thoughtlessly attaching the glory of lordship to the gods that are not. And that he did not know his Maker, the one who brought into existence man on earth when he once did not exist, he hints again by saying that he himself is the former and maker … not those who leapt away from love toward him. For it is surely absurd that we should offer the highest honours to our parents according to the flesh, the divine law also prescribing this, but should not honour the Creator of all still more than them, by complete submission to him. He says something of this kind through one of the holy prophets too: “A son honours his father, and a servant his master. And if I am a father, where is my glory? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord Almighty.” For he is at once Lord, as having the whole creation under the yoke and in servitude, for the divine Melodist said to him somewhere, “All things are yours”; and again Father, as former and maker and the one who brought it into being. As a debt owed, then, we must render to God both the submission fitting sons and the fear fitting servants. When, then, God says that he is former and maker, he brings them to the thought that they must honour him as the provider of being itself and the cause of existence to those who once were not. By saying to those who had sinned, “You will still be helped,” he gives them confidence that, although they are caught in many inescapable charges, a remnant of gentleness and love for humankind has been kept for them. And nothing would prevent them too from being saved, if they should choose to move over to what is better and more fitting, and in accord with his laws.

“… Israel, whom I have chosen. For I will give water in thirst to those who walk in a waterless land. I will put my Spirit on your seed, and my blessings on your children. And they will spring up like grass among water, and like willow by flowing water. This one will say, ‘I am God's,’ and this one will cry out in the name of Jacob; and another will write, ‘I am God's,’ in the name of [Israel].”

Here he seems to name the choir of the holy apostles Israel and Jacob, understood as one person. For all are one in Christ. See how he says that he is beloved and chosen; and indeed how is it not plain to all that he would never call those who had rejected faith in him beloved and chosen? But since, being of the blood of Jacob, who is also Israel, they became precious and chosen vessels and were called to the sacred ministry of the gospel proclamation, he thought it right to crown them with such splendid words, since they would be like luminaries in the world, holding forth the word of life, and initiators into the mysteries of [the earth] under the sun. “Do not fear, then,” he says, that is: be manly and be strong, have an enduring and youthful mind, and, laughing at the uprisings of persecutors, keep your faith in God firm. For very many fight against the sacred proclamations, and an unholy multitude will rise up to oppose your words. “But be superior to cowardice,” he says, “to hesitation and unmanliness. For I will give water to those who walk in a waterless land.” For it is sweet and saving for those walking in a thirsty land to come upon springs of water. And we say that it is thrice desired, and still more, for those who labour for godliness to be watered with divine and spiritual streams, … with the consolations that come through the Spirit, by which the human mind, when it has somewhat flagged, may be strengthened again to courage. The water here, which God promises to supply to those walking in a waterless land, we say is the Holy Spirit. The Saviour himself said, at any rate: “As the Scripture said, rivers of living water will flow from his belly.” [And the] evangelist at once added: “This he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive.” For water is life-giving and brings plants and grass up to growth, and in a way imitates the working of the Holy Spirit, through whom all things hold together, kept in well-being, and the spiritual creation is enriched with progress in every good thing and, as it were, leaps up as it advances to spiritual growth. That the promise of water to those walking through a waterless land hints at the life-giving power and working of the Holy Spirit, and at the spiritual consolation through him, what follows will make clear. “For I will put my Spirit,” he says, “on your seed, and my blessings on your children.” We say that the seed and children of the holy apostles are those called through them to the knowledge of truth and to spiritual regeneration, by which they regenerate them not from perishable seed but through the living and abiding word of God, and through the working of the Holy Spirit himself. The divine Paul writes, at any rate, to those called through him and says: “For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I begot you through the gospel.” We shall find them everywhere calling “children” those who believed in him through them. “I will put, then,” he says, “my Spirit on your seed, and my blessings on your children.” By blessings we mean the many kinds of spiritual gifts supplied by God to the saints. For to one is given a word of wisdom, to another a word of knowledge, and what follows. And the all-wise Paul writes somewhere: “Each of you has his own gift from God.” Then what the benefit of the blessings would be, he made clear by adding: “They will spring up like grass among water, and like willow by flowing water.”

Grasses and plants that are in waterless places spring up only briefly, and when they spring up … at once; [but by water] a pouring of streams and a flow of waters keeps them alive; and the willow is an evergreen plant, always growing beside springs and rivers. [Watered], then, he says, by the spiritual streams, those enriched with them will confess that they know me alone, and will inscribe as God the one who called them. By saying, “This one will say, ‘I am God's,’ and this one will cry out, and another will write,” he signifies the multitude of those who run to them through faith in Christ. For not one people will be called, but rather the whole multitude of the nations, those under the sun; and all will confess that they have become God's, will inscribe him as Saviour and Redeemer, and will thereafter be designated by the name of Jacob, that is, as being the measured lot and portion of God. For “his people Jacob became the Lord's portion,” it says, “Israel the measured lot of his inheritance.” We who have believed boast … of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

“Thus says the Lord God, the King of [Israel, who delivered him, God Sabaoth: I am the] first, and I am after these things; besides me there is no God. Who is like me? Let him stand and call, and let him prepare for me, since I made man forever; and let them announce the things that are coming before they come.”

Having made mention of the knowledge in Christ through the readings just now, he moves the word on to another necessary matter. For since at that time, when the divine prophet Isaiah composed these words for us, a God-hated [king] was reigning among them, and they had fallen into unbearable slips, for to each one whatever he pleased was god and object of reverence, the [exhortation] that God [gives] was necessary for them: moving them away from polytheism and the sicknesses it brings, calling them through repentance to the knowledge of the truth, and bringing them to remember his glory and incomparable power. Therefore he says: “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, God Sabaoth, who delivered him.” For he wants them to know that he is God and Lord of hosts, and, as if they had recovered from drunkenness, to see that he [freed] them from the greed of the Egyptians …, showing the greatness of the power and supremacy that is in him. For what wonder was not done?

What plague was not brought upon their oppressors? Or how would there not be a clear proof of his unspeakable power in the parting of the sea, the waters standing firm like a wall, and the fugitives going through the midst? And what of the wonders in the desert after this? Did he not give them the bread from heaven? Did he not split a rock in the desert and give them drink as from a great deep, and bring down waters like rivers? Did he not, as if putting a bridle on the streams of the Jordan, make it possible for them to cross on foot? Necessarily, then, he does not simply call himself Lord and God here; he added, “and who delivered him,” bringing to their memory, as I said, the things wondrously accomplished for him. “Know, then,” he says, “that I am God the first, and I am after these things, and besides me there was no God.” For God is the beginning of all things, being himself without beginning, and by him all things were brought into being; he himself came into being by no one, but is the one who is and who will be. For this is his name and his eternal memorial to generations of generations. Neither, then, was there another God before him, nor will there be any after him. For God by nature is one, and there is no other besides him. The exhortation is very useful for those who denied him and through very great folly slipped into thinking that there are many gods. That there is none like him, or other … “like me? Which, then, of the gods suspected by you, or foolishly so named, will be equal to my glory and power? From what great work have you believed them to be gods? Let anyone stand, if he is like me. Let someone prepare one who has a nature of equal weight, in strength or glory. Let them call whichever of the falsely named gods they choose, since I made man forever. For I created,” he says, “the heavens and what is in them, having herds of countless holy spirits worshipping and serving me; but since I made man on earth, and in the time that follows, that is, forever, let someone show me one like me.” By saying again, “since I made man,” he shows himself to be the Creator, and the falsely named gods to be nothing at all. “For which of their worshippers did they bring into being? But I am known to be the Creator and the maker of all, and to have knowledge of all things. Search this out among those you call gods: let them announce to you the things that are coming before they come.” For to God by nature would belong having all knowledge both of things already past and of things to come. If none of the falsely named gods is found to have obtained this, it is unclear to no one that those who do not have God's knowledge would not be gods.

“Do not hide yourselves,” that is, “Do not be silent …” to you?”

For as one who is God by nature and knows all things, … to you through holy prophets, [and] through the all-wise Moses. For I revealed the mystery of Christ, and there is nothing whose knowledge it was fitting should become plain to us ourselves which was not announced beforehand by me. Those, then, are not gods, since they have obtained nothing of what befits God. But I am by nature what I am believed to be, God, of all things clearly, and having knowledge befitting God. The word thus instructs those who had been carried away from the true vision of God and had inclined to lifeless idols, saying to wood, “You are my father,” and to stone, “You begot me.”

“You are witnesses whether there is a God besides me.”

He brings them again to remember the power and authority displayed to them, such as would befit the one who is God by nature and Lord of all, when they were redeemed from the land of the Egyptians. For then, then indeed, the creation itself took up arms alongside its Master and rose up against the perversity of their oppressors. For the water was changed into blood, and a deep darkness of three days stretched out; the heaven came down on them with hail, with gnats and frogs and dog-flies, and the death of the firstborn … they conquered many nations stronger than the strength in them, and became terrible and hard to face for the neighbouring nations, and admired and famous to those still far off. “No others, then, would know better than you yourselves about your own affairs: who accomplished these things, who had the creation as ally in your affairs, who shattered the forces of your enemies and crowned you with victories in courage over all. You are the witnesses of my supremacy, if you choose to think rightly, and you will need no other teachers. For very many were the gods among the Egyptians, and their shrines were full of statues. Very many likewise were those among the Amorites; none of them is seen to have availed for the salvation of their own people; rather you crushed those who were worshipped together with their worshippers. For it was [commanded] through Moses that you should pull down their altars, break their pillars, and burn the carved images of their gods with fire. If, then, you choose to tell the truth, bear witness to me whether there is a God besides me. For if anyone has risen up against my powers and conquered, let him be reckoned a god among you. But if they have been caught being nothing, and have become the work of fire through you, [you know] by experience itself [who is] truly God.”

“… you have known,” he says, “that there is no God besides me.”

“And those who formed and carved did not hear at that time; all who make what they please are vain, which will not profit them; but they [were dried up], and deaf from among men.”

By these words he shows the charges against the apostates to be terrible and very grievous: having such full assurance that there is no other God by nature and truly besides him, and having been, as it were, persuaded by his very achievements that he alone is God, they slipped into such folly that, though the law itself expressly called out to them and said, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve; and you shall not make for yourself an idol, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or on the earth below, or in the waters beneath the earth,” “you counted obedience to him as nothing, and turned rather, with no love for God, to forming and shaping gods of wood and stone.” Such men, then, are vain, and very fittingly so, going to this for nothing necessary but rather doing what pleases themselves; for they have become lovers of vanity. For what benefit comes from stone or wood? The making of an idol, then, would plainly be understood as the fruit of a foolish counsel and the work of frigid thoughts. But that the thing is not without penalty, he declared beforehand, saying: “All who form a god and carve useless things will be ashamed, and all whence they came were dried up, and deaf from among men.” If what is said is taken of the hand-cut things themselves, we say that “were dried up” must be understood as “perished.” But if it is taken of those accustomed to do such things, it may well be understood in this way too; for it is said as of plants that are accustomed to bear no fruit, if they somehow wither and are then cut down for the flame and the burning. And “deaf from among men” means: no longer counted among men, but rather deaf and wholly insensible, so as in no way to differ from the things made by them. For the blessed Psalmist sings somewhere and says: “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the works of men's hands. They have a mouth and will not speak; eyes, and will not see; ears, and do not hear.” And he adds to this: “May those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them.” For such evils would be understood as fruits of the utmost insensibility. For though they knew by experience itself the one who is God by nature and truly, yet send up to stones and wood the glory most fitting him alone, how would they not be understood as fools and senseless, having a heart filled to the very limit with stupefaction, and differing little from the things made by themselves?

“Let them all be gathered and stand together, and let them be put to shame and ashamed together; for … with a borer he bored it. He worked it with the arm of his strength, and he will hunger and be weak, and will not drink water.”

Not one by one, but rather all together, if they choose, the servants of idols, with their own ill counsels, [let them try] to resolve what is proposed. And what this is he at once adds, saying: “The smith,” he says, “sharpened iron.” He also mentions the tools by which the making is done, so as to show that they worship the craft of the stoneworker, and not the wood itself. For if it were a god, it would have needed no craft or anyone's skill; it would have been God even so. But if you do not worship wood that has not been worked, nor say that it is a god, the craft has become a god to you, and that the craft of a weak man subject to corruption. For needing food and drink is a proof of corruption. We say that “and will not drink water” is not said as a statement; rather it is to be read as a question, with a slight pause. For the sense will follow that he will certainly drink. How then

will the corruptible be the maker of incorruptible gods, or how will the mortal make the immortal? For incorruptibility and indestructibility must certainly belong to the one who is truly God, or rather being alive and being able to give life to whatever he wishes to impart life. The worship of those who go astray is, then, a display of axe and borer and of a carpenter's strength and skill; if indeed it is true, as I said, that they would not choose to worship wood or stone unshaped, but once a form has been carved in it, everything that is seen among them is gods.

“The carpenter, having chosen wood, set it up by measure, and shaped it with glue, and made it as the form of a man and as the beauty of a man, to set it in a house. He cut wood from the forest, which the Lord planted, a pine, and the rain made it grow, so that it might be for men for burning; they baked bread on it, and the rest they made into gods, and they worship them. Half of it they burned in fire, and having burned it they baked bread on it; and on it he roasted meat and ate and was filled, and being warmed he said: ‘Pleasant to me, for I am warmed and have seen fire.’ The rest he made into a carved god, and he worships it and prays, saying: ‘Deliver me, for you are my god.’ They did not know how to understand, for they were blinded so as not to see with their eyes and not to perceive with their heart. And he did not reckon in his heart, nor consider in his soul, nor know in his understanding, that he burned half of it in fire, and baked bread on its coals, and roasted meat and ate, and made the rest of it into an abomination; and they worship it. Know that their heart is ashes, and they go astray, and no one can deliver his soul. See, will you not say that there is a lie in my right hand?”

The meaning of what lies before us is very plain, and there is nothing steep in it. For it describes the worshipper of idols as senseless, … wholly deprived of what is fitting, and the craftsman as well. It dwells at length on the account of him: at once shaming them as men gone astray, opening the eye of those caught in the evil, and persuading them to look at the truth itself; if they take it into their mind, they will be out of the snare and will free their own heads from the wounds of folly. But we say this: the word seems here to build for us something pointed and wise, and not insufficient to be able to persuade many to depart from polytheistic error and to choose rather to come under the one who is God by nature and truly.

“For the carpenter,” he says, “having chosen wood, set it up by measure, and shaped it with glue; he made it as the form of a man and as the beauty of a man, to set it in a house.” The craft of those accustomed to make gods, he says, would be thought worthy of all wonder above all when it works into the wood the form and beauty of a man. But what is fashioned by someone in imitation of something surely falls short of the real, or comes after it. Those, then, who worship wood or stones fashioned into the form of a man would be caught worshipping their own form; and though they are far better than the imitations, they insult their own nature by assigning the better glory to those. The indictment, then, is one of the utmost insensibility, and the charges are of extreme folly. For he sets up in a house, that is, in a temple, the wood that he cut from the forest. He shows here that those accustomed to make gods are not ignorant of the material from which these came, so that none may say, according to the custom of the Greeks, that the things dedicated in shrines fell from Zeus and were self-born, or self-delivered. That they misread the aim of God's creation he proves by saying that the wood grew in the forest and was nourished by supplies of rain so as to be for men for burning; but making gods of what came into being for burning, they themselves will be food for fire together with them. He is all but astounded, saying that he burned half of it in fire and spent it on his own needs; on this he cooks, using the parts of his gods for baking bread. Then he has fallen into such folly as to worship the remnant of his use, and to pray and say: “Deliver me, for you are my god.” Their heart, then, is ashes and nothing else, and they have gone astray, and no one could deliver the souls of those who have fallen into this, except God alone, if he chose, who does all things and changes what has gone astray. But uselessness and vanity belong to the hand-cut gods, for they are deaf and insensible matter. “See,” that is, consider, “and you will not say that there is a lie in my right hand.” “For everything about them,” he says, “is false, both names and glory. But in my right hand,” that is, in the Son, for the Son is everywhere named the right hand of the Father in the inspired Scripture, “nothing false would be found.” Rather, if he is named God, he is true God; if Lord, he does not hold the title as something counterfeit, but is rather by nature Master of all; whether he is called king, or light, or life and power, or Creator, he is all these things not falsely. For he is not originated, but would be understood as by nature beyond everything brought into being, being God from God and true light from true light.

“… my servant; I formed you as my servant; and you, do not forget me. For behold, I have blotted out your iniquities like a cloud, and your sins like darkness. Return to me, and I will redeem you.”

Christ said somewhere: “The one who knew his master's will and did not do it will be beaten with many blows; but the one who did not know, and did not do it, will be beaten with few.” The verdict in each case is surely just. For those who did not know the master's will and then failed, one might pardon for not having known, … as a pretext for mercy. But those who chose to be negligent while they had knowledge would justly incur the necessity of punishment. For the charges are of plain carelessness. So that Israel, then, might become better than himself, caught as he was in very many charges yet honoured with amnesty from God, he has been commanded to remember … gentleness. “For remember these things,” he says, “Jacob.” And what things? Both what was said before, and that “you are my servant. And I formed you as my servant.” He shows here very clearly that Israel had not remained untrained, but was under law and yokes and had very many who knew how to admonish him; he was a servant, then, in this respect, and formed for this. In what way, we will say as far as we can. A man is formed simply, as indeed was the forefather Adam, from earth. “For God,” it says, “took dust from the earth and formed man.” And our own state proceeds to this day according to the manner of that creation. For each one is formed in his mother's womb, and this is the road that brings those on earth into being. One is also formed into a servant of God, shaped spiritually by the knowledge of the divine laws into an excellent form, which arises in men's souls from the good order of the virtues. This would be understood as spiritual beauty. And they are formed also, as it were, in Christ, through participation in the Holy Spirit, into conformity with him. The divine Paul writes, at any rate, to the Galatians: “My little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you.” Christ is formed in us when the Holy Spirit implants in us a kind of divine form through sanctification and righteousness. For thus, thus the stamp of the hypostasis of God the Father shines in our souls, the Holy Spirit, as I said, re-forming us through sanctification to him. The most holy Paul too said again: “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may test what is the will of God, the good,” and pleasing and perfect. And he says that a veil has been placed on the hearts of the Jews, but that we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord, the Spirit. We are formed, then, into a pais of God. But since the word pais is in a way common, for it is used both of servants and of sons, we say that to be formed into servants would rather fit those formed under the law. For there was a spirit of slavery upon Israel, and negligence was not without penalty for them; for the law punished them as servants. But if anyone is formed in Christ, he is formed into a son of God, in the ways just described. We must, then, remember the love for humankind of the one who justifies, and that we have been formed for sonship and glory, and must, as it were, repay to God the Father the return for what has come to us from him. And how this might happen he teaches well, saying: “And you, Israel, do not forget me.” One would forget God by neglecting godliness toward him, or by worshipping the gods that are not; and some do this to this day, going backward after the faith, whose condemnation is just, as it is written. …

… [how they] ran away from godliness toward him we shall know when he says to those of Israel's blood: “You who forget me, and prepare a table for the demon, and fill a mixed cup for Fortune, and forsake my holy mountain: I will deliver you to the sword; you shall all fall by slaughter.” And at this very thing he cried out against those of Israel through the voice of Jeremiah, saying: “Will a bride forget her ornament, or a virgin her breast-band? But my people has forgotten me days without number.” Forgetfulness, then, would often hint at apostasy, but remembrance at steadfastness in faith, and … strong in its seeming. “Do not, then, forget me,” he says, “but rather remember. For behold, I have blotted out your iniquities like a cloud.” He says “I have blotted out” here for “I will blot out,” and “I will dissolve them and make them vanish like a darkness and a cloud.” That he says “I have blotted out” for “I will blot out,” what follows will show very well. “For return to me,” he says, “and I will redeem you.” For how has the one who calls them to return already blotted them out? As to those who have not yet returned, but who will come to this in due time, when Christ shines on the world, through whom comes all forgiveness of offences, and return and calling to God, through faith in him, the gospel way of life, and the best deeds of virtue.

“… Israel. Sound the trumpet, foundations of the earth; shout gladness, mountains, the hills and all the trees in them, for God has redeemed Jacob,”

One could see without toil from this too that the forgiveness of sins, and indeed the return and redemption of all, is proclaimed beforehand in due times through holy prophets as something that would come through Christ. For when the Lord, being God, appeared to us and lived among those on earth as a man, the true Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, the all-pure sacrifice, then indeed the thing became an occasion of festival for the rational powers above and in heaven, that is, for the ranks of the holy angels. For they sang, they sang at his birth, his birth according to the flesh, I mean: “… on earth peace, good will among men.” And if it is true, as it surely is true, that, according to the Saviour's voice, there is joy in heaven before the holy angels over one sinner who repents, how could anyone doubt that, when Christ was bringing the whole earth under the sun to the knowledge of the truth, calling it to return, justifying it in faith, and making it resplendent through sanctification, there was joy and festival among the spirits above?

While the heavens, then, rejoice because God has had mercy on Israel, and not only on Israel according to the flesh, … the foundations of the earth, that is, those [who ministered] the gospel [proclamations], [whose voice] was carried everywhere, and who sounded forth like sacred trumpets, announcing the Saviour's glory to all everywhere and calling to the knowledge of Christ both those of the circumcision and those who of old served the creation rather than the Creator. For what cause do we say they were named foundations of the earth? Christ is the foundation of all and the unshakable base, who upholds all things and keeps what is founded on him in well-being; for on him we are all built, a spiritual house joined together through the Spirit into a holy temple, into his dwelling-place. For he dwells in our hearts through faith. But nearer foundations, closer to us, would be understood as the apostles and evangelists, who became eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, and became a support of faith. For knowing that we must follow their traditions, we shall keep our faith in Christ straight and undistorted. For he said somewhere to the divine Peter, when Peter wisely and blamelessly confessed his faith in him, saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will found my church,” calling “rock,” I think, the disciple's unshaken faith. It is also said through the voice of the Psalmist: “His foundations are on the holy mountains.” Very well are the holy apostles and evangelists to be likened to holy mountains, whose knowledge is set firm like a foundation for those after them, not allowing those [taught] through them to fall away into what is unapproved in faith. … [“Sound the trumpet, foundations] of the earth.” But see the careful observance. Moses was weak of voice and slow of tongue; for the law was not heard far off, except by those in Judea alone. “But sound the trumpet,” you who are ambassadors for Christ. “For their sound went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” He commanded the mountains to shout gladness, calling the foundations of the earth mountains again here; for the divine disciples are conspicuous and illustrious, distinguished in deed and word and very well known to all everywhere, and to them the prophetic word also called out: “Go up on a high mountain, you who bring good news to Zion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good news to Jerusalem.” These spiritual mountains, then, he commanded to shout gladness. Here too one can see the power of the law and the superiority of the gospel proclamations. For the law, which entangled those it caught in inescapable penalties, shouted not gladness but rather dejection; but the ministers of the gospel gifts proclaim gladness to the world. For where there is forgiveness of sins, and justification in faith, and participation in the Holy Spirit, and the splendour of adoption, and the kingdom of heaven, and a hope not deceived of good things beyond the mind, there surely are gladness and joy. The hills and the trees in them, again, we say are those inferior to the mountains and set a little below them in the measure of their good life, the holy apostles and evangelists clearly standing above. The hills, then, would be those who fall a little short of their renown and are inferior in greatness of virtue, yet who themselves rise high, are beyond earthly things, mind the things above, and have been allotted to be thought lofty in virtue. The trees in them, those nourished by them, would be understood as those who believed through them, who have as it were grown up to a perfect man and advanced to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. These would be teachers of peoples and leaders of flocks, [watering them] with their spiritual [streams]. So the hills and the trees

and the trees in them have shouted together with the foundations of the earth the gladness that is understood in Christ, and they rejoice because God has redeemed Jacob, and Israel will be glorified. For he was not only redeemed, having rubbed off the stains of sin and been rescued from fire and penalty, but he was also glorified, having become God's own, designated his son, and having obtained brotherhood with the one who is by nature and truly Son, that is, Christ.

“Thus says the Lord who redeems you, and who formed you from the womb: I am the Lord who accomplishes all things. I alone stretched out the heaven and made the earth firm. Who else will scatter the signs of ventriloquists, and divinations from the heart? Turning the wise backward and making their counsel foolish, and establishing the words of his servant, and the counsel of his messengers.”

Very providently the God of all speaks to us here too, and tries to assure those who behaved drunkenly against his glory, transferring it to others, clearly to the gods that are not, that he himself is the originator and steward of all things, Creator and maker of the very people being instructed. Since he was making promises about very many and marvellous things, which some were likely to disbelieve, he usefully, as I said, shows them beforehand his own power and supremacy, so that they might know that whatever he chooses to accomplish will by every means and certainly come to its end. For to what would he be insufficient, or how would he not be able to redeem some, he who formed from the womb, that is, who called them into being itself and brought into existence those who once were not, who accomplishes all things, that is, the steward of all, administering and directing each thing as he pleases? And this is entirely good. For God would not fall short of what is most fitting to his own glory. Or how would he not be all-powerful and beyond everything, mind and speech, he who stretched out this vast heaven and made the earth firm, as the [Psalmist says …] of it? He who has risen to such power, or rather is all power, will surely bring to its end whatever he wishes to do, with nothing to prevent him. He says that he alone stretched out the heaven, not excluding the only-begotten God the Word, who is from his essence, through whom are all things and in whom are all things, but because none at all of the falsely named gods worked anything together with the God who is over all. For those who do not exist at all, how could they be admitted as workers, or rather as co-workers of God as he creates? We say, then, that the distinction here is not made with respect to the Son born by nature from him, but [means] that the stretching out of the heaven was not the accomplishment of another god … the incomparable supremacy and the greatness of his power: what he will accomplish in due times he shows and clearly narrates in what follows. “For who else,” he says, “will scatter the signs of ventriloquists, and divinations from the heart?” For before Christ, the Saviour of us all, had shone on us from heaven, the greed of the devil's tyranny stretched over all, and a deep darkness fed upon all those on earth. For there were, there were in every country and city, altars and precincts, swarms of statues, and an uncounted multitude of falsely named gods, sorceries and false divinations everywhere, and deceptions of demons, who pretended to know and to be able to foretell things to come, yet said or knew nothing at all. But when the true light, that is, the only-begotten Word of God, shone over the whole earth under heaven with the gospel oracles, the mist of sin was driven away and that deep darkness ceased, and those who had gone astray were called to the knowledge of the truth; then indeed the signs of the ventriloquists were scattered.

By ventriloquists he means the false prophets, that is, those with a Pythian spirit, who belch out from their own heart whatever they please and know nothing of what is true. About such men the prophet Ezekiel too says: “Woe to those who prophesy from their own heart, and see nothing at all.” The [signs] of the false divination of such men were scattered, then, …: for the Greek oracles everywhere [fell silent], and those of the gods among the Greeks who used to speak falsely became silent. “And the wise were turned backward, and their counsels made foolish.” Here he seems to call “wise” either the magi among the Greeks, for they were named wise among them, or perhaps those who had the reputation of wise men among them, sharp in understanding, possessed of forceful speech, excellent in eloquence, and yet not able by their fine words to beautify falsehood. Such men, we say, have been turned backward … of the wisdom in them, which is unspiritual and earthly …, of the world, by God, clearly, as the all-wise Paul too [says]. When the wise were turned back, he says, and all their counsel was shown to be wholly foolish and senseless, the God and Father established the words of his own Servant, that is, the gospel and saving oracle that Christ himself spoke to us. And he also showed true the counsel of his messengers. For the messengers would be understood as those who are ambassadors for Christ and proclaim him to the world. Their counsel was good, an exhortation to all everywhere to be roused to good works, to hold to the better things, to know the one who is God by nature and truly, to bow the neck to his laws, and so to run to salvation and life. Their words, then, are full of all truth; but the things of the Greeks have been made foolish, not having the beauty of truth; for everything among them is false, prophecy and understanding alike, and the multitude of the reputed gods, unknown even to those who go astray.

“Who says to Jerusalem: You will be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah: You will be built, and its desert places will spring up.”

The words “I am” will follow here too, that is: “Jerusalem, I am the one who redeems you, who accomplishes all things and stretched out the heaven. I am, then,” he says, “the one who says to Jerusalem: You will be inhabited.” For the Babylonians took it by force, [and laid waste] the whole [land] of the Jews … God, and they put off the yoke of captivity, since the one who [took] Babylon allowed them to do this, Cyrus son of Cambyses, I mean; and having returned to Judea they rebuilt the cities and the temple and dwelt in peace. Very aptly, then, the prophetic word, by saying that Jerusalem will be built, gives the hearers to understand that it will be captured in due time and overthrown. And it does not make the prediction of what will befall them from the grievous things, but rather from those at which they would likely greatly rejoice, while also, as I said, bringing them to think of the gloomier things. Since, then, God commands that Jerusalem be built, the word of the prophecy surely signifies that it was first captured.

If anyone should wish to go into still deeper contemplations, we say that [he signifies] the truer Judea, clearly the church, whose inhabitants and citizens would be understood to be those who bear the circumcision in the spirit. Once a desert, it was shown populous by the one who commanded this to happen, clearly God in Christ, and its desert places sprang up. For it was found covered with spiritual trees and, as it were, richly wooded, having lofty heads of saints. For it is the custom of the inspired Scripture sometimes to liken the choir of the saints to plants and trees. The God of all, at any rate, said through the voice of the saints: “I will set in the waterless land … and poplar.” It is also said through the voice of the Psalmist about the saints to God, at one time: “The trees of the plain will be satisfied, the cedars of Lebanon which you planted”; at another again: “Then all the trees of the forest will rejoice before the face of the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his truth.” We do not say that rejoicing belongs to insensible trees; the thing would rather fit the saints, who, he says, rejoiced when Christ shone on the world. For thus he judged the world in righteousness, justifying in faith those who had once gone astray, and condemning to destruction the [devil] and his angels.

“… I will dry up your rivers. Who says to Cyrus to be wise, and he will do all my wishes. Who says to Jerusalem: You will be built, and [I will found] my holy house.”

Israel was carried off captive, as I said, at one time; for the [Babylonians] took the land of the Jews. … the [seventieth] year was already completed, and the time had come for gentleness toward them, from God clearly, he roused against the Chaldeans Cyrus son of Cambyses, who ruled over the Persians and Medes; he took them and released the Jews, having learned that the God whom they worshipped had foretold about him that, strengthened by his help, he would be superior to his enemies and very formidable to those who wished to oppose him, and that he would raise up the divine temple. That Babylon, though very populous, was going to be wholly desolate, he signifies by saying: “I am the one who says to the abyss: You will be desolate.” For here he called “abyss” the multitude of the Babylonians, too great to number, and “its rivers” the nations flowing into it, those around it and holding the neighbouring lands, which were called on by them for help. It is again the custom of the divine Scripture always somehow to liken the many nations to rivers and seas and waters. The divine Melodist said, at any rate, about Christ the Saviour of us all and about the multitude of the nations, which has been gathered in the net of his words: “The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory thundered, the Lord.” For the voice of the Lord, that is, the gospel and saving proclamation, was carried over all the nations, when it all but thundered upon them. For the sacred and saving proclamation resounded as through all the earth under heaven. It is written again: “The rivers lifted up their voices.” For here we say that the holy apostles are named rivers, whose voices, that is, whose teachings, became known to all everywhere. It is also said somewhere about Babylon itself, and Nineveh: “Like a pool of water are its waters.” It was, then, God who says to the abyss, “You will be desolate, and I will dry up your rivers.” And likewise he was the one who says to Cyrus to be wise, instead of: to do all things with understanding and to fulfil all that pleases him.

These things were: that the Babylonians should pay the penalty for what they had cruelly done in ravaging Judea and burning the sacred and divine temple, and moreover that Israel should be released and should build the house, or rather lay its foundations; for this is the truer way to say it. For Cyrus commanded it, and, supplying means of money for the temple to be raised, he did lay the foundations. But since he ended his human life in the meantime, the progress of the works was hindered by his successor through the envy of some. It was nevertheless brought to completion after this, God again assenting. We have the exact account of the history in the inspired Scripture, and to choose to spend long words on it here is, I think, superfluous. And let no one say that the divine word has been proved false, because Cyrus, being an idolater, did not do everything that pleases God. For “he will do all my wishes” is set down surely with reference to those things that God was likely to want to signify: I mean the capture of Babylon, Israel's release from bonds and slavery, the raising of the temple, and the building of the cities of Judea.

“Thus says the Lord God to my anointed, Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, that nations should obey before him, and I will break the strength of kings; I will open doors before him, and cities will not be shut. I will go before him and level mountains; I will break bronze doors and shatter iron bars. And I will give you dark treasures, hidden, unseen; I will open them to you, so that you may know that I am the Lord God who calls your name, the God of Israel. For the sake of Jacob my servant and Israel my chosen, I will call you by my name and receive you. But you did not know me, that I am the Lord God, and there is no God besides me, and you did not know me; so that those from the rising of the sun and those from the west may know that there is none besides me. I am the Lord God, and there is no other; I who prepared light and made darkness, who make peace and create evils; I am the Lord God who does all these things.”

We say that the most valiant Cyrus came upon this prophecy, was greatly pleased at what had been foretold by God about him, and came to such a resolve as to proclaim publicly the glory of God in the cities and lands under his hand, confessing plainly that he alone is God and Lord of all, the one worshipped by the Jews. The force of the prophecy, or of the prophetic predictions, is very plain, I think. But running through each of the things said, we will make clear, as far as we can, what seems obscure and sometimes steep. He calls Cyrus Christ, that is, anointed, not as one of the saints to whom the name might apply, but loosely, as taken from being anointed; but because it was the custom to anoint with oil those called to kingship. For we shall find the holy prophets saying to some of those brought to this: “The Lord anointed you king over Israel.” Cyrus, then, is an anointed one as a king; but by naming him anointed, that is, called to kingship by anointing and decree from God, he gives to understand that he prevailed through God and was raised to extraordinary glory. Therefore he says that he has grasped his right hand. This would be a clear sign of support, as in what is said by the saints in the book: “You held my hand, my right hand; in your counsel you guided me.” He says that he has grasped his right hand so that nations should obey before him, that is, be subjected and yield to him, and the strength of kings be broken.

For they say that there were seven kings among the Babylonians under the one who was chief. That the cities were to open of themselves, and that nothing at all would hinder Cyrus as he overran the strength of the enemy, he shows by saying: “Cities will not be shut. I will go before you and level mountains,” that is, I will make everything bare and easy to ride over for you, so that there is nothing to resist. And even if anyone should attack and meet your forces like a mountain, this too I will level, that is, make powerless. “I will break bronze doors and shatter iron bars, and I will give you hidden treasures, unseen; I will open them to you.” They say that the Babylonians, after the city was taken, buried themselves in dark caves, especially the more prominent among them, who, fearing death, sank down like snakes into every cave and cleft of rock and hid, yet could not escape notice. For some pointed them out to Cyrus; and he commanded torches to be lit, drew them out, and so subjected them to bitter punishments. Others say that he emptied the treasures of the Babylonians that were underground and hidden. “You will be illustrious, then, and celebrated, so that you may know that I am the Lord God who calls your name, the God of Israel, for the sake of Jacob my servant and Israel my chosen.” “For I have called you to this,” he says, “I who alone am God, and have honoured you with such splendid renown, so that Israel, being my servant, might be well treated by you.” “I have called you,” he says, “and crowned you with renown. But you did not know me, that I am the Lord, and there is no God besides me, and you did not know me”; as if he were saying plainly: “You did not receive such glory from me as repayment for splendid deeds of valour directed toward godliness; I honoured you though you did not know my divinity and supremacy, and were not even counted among my worshippers, but so that those from the rising of the sun and those from the west may know that there is none besides me. For if I choose,” he says, “to rescue my own, I will bring the thing to completion for my glory even through those who are not mine, so that those throughout all the earth may know clearly that there is no God besides me. For I am the Lord of hosts and Master of every nation and race, and I turn the hearts of those on earth wherever I will, so that even those who are not mine are shown to be ministers of my wishes. I, then, am the Lord God, who prepared light and made darkness,” that is, day and night; or rather light for the redeemed and darkness for the ravaged. For the one rejoiced, being freed from bonds; the others were in inescapable calamities. “I am he who makes peace and creates evils.”

You will take this too in the same sense, as I said just now: peace for the redeemed, and evils, that is, things that inflict harm, productive of every affliction, for the cruel and savage men who had attacked Israel. That the thing grieved God would become clear when he says through the voice of an angel to the prophet Zechariah: “I have been jealous for Jerusalem and Zion with great jealousy, and I am angry with great wrath against the nations that joined in attacking; because I was angry a little, but they joined in for evil.” And also as to the Babylonians themselves: “I gave them into your hands, but you showed them no mercy.” That it was by God's will that [Cyrus came upon] the Babylonians … and all-powerful, and using the cruelty fitting for those who were suffering, we shall know when he says through the voice of Jeremiah, as if to Cyrus: “Go up bitterly against her and against those who dwell in her, and avenge with the sword and destroy, says the Lord, and do according to all that I command you.” And besides this: “The Lord has opened his treasury and brought out the vessels of his wrath, for it is a work for the Lord in the land of the Chaldeans, for her times have come. Open her storehouses, search her like a cave, and destroy her utterly. Let there be no remnant of her; dry up all … her fruits; let them go down to slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come, and the time of their punishment.” And the prophet Isaiah himself said somewhere, as from the person of God to the sons of Babylon: “Behold, I will stir up against you the Medes, who do not reckon silver nor have need of gold. They will shatter the bows of young men, and they will not pity your children, nor will their eyes spare your children,” the eyes of the Medes, clearly.

“[Let the heaven rejoice from above, and let the clouds] rain righteousness; let the earth spring up and … together.”

It is the custom and practice of the inspired Scripture in very many places to carry the discourse over from particular things that happened in part to certain people to the universal and to all, and, as from a vivid image of historical events, to raise the mind of those being taught gracefully to more mystical contemplations. This can be seen in the verses at hand too. For a long discourse has been spent in what precedes on Cyrus, as having ravaged the land of the Babylonians and taken it by force, released Israel from servitude there and from the bonds of captivity, and founded the temple in Jerusalem; and that [he was roused] against the Chaldeans … Emmanuel, who was shown forth by God the Father … to proclaim release to captives, [recovery of sight] to the blind …, and, making them free of the devil's tyranny, to prepare those on earth to run back to him, and so to bring them through himself to God the Father. For he became mediator between God and men, and through him [we have] reconciliation in one Spirit to the Father, and he is our peace, according to the Scriptures; he built the divine temple, that is, his own temple, the church. For he presented it to himself as a pure virgin, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but rather holy and blameless. As in an image, then, one could see in Cyrus and in what was done by him

very well the achievements befitting God that were given by God to those throughout all the earth. The heaven, then, is … those who dwell in the city above, both the splendid archangels and those beyond them, thrones and authorities and rational powers, and those who stand beside the highest seats. We say that the return to God of those who had gone astray on earth, through Christ the Saviour of us all, I mean, the recovery of sight of the blind, and in a word the salvation of the lost, became an occasion of delight for the fathers in heaven too. For if they rejoice over one sinner who repents, how can it be right to doubt that they are pleased and greatly gladdened when they see the earth under heaven saved? “Let the heaven rejoice from above, then,” he says, “and let the clouds rain righteousness.” By clouds we mean, spiritually, the powers above, through which the consolations of the Spirit are sent down like rain and drop into the hearts of believers, according to what is plainly said somewhere else about those of Israel, as of a vine: “And I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it”; or else the holy initiators into the mysteries themselves, those on earth, of whom the divine disciples were the first and the firstfruits. They went around the whole earth and scattered the divine and sacred word, and, as on a thirsty and fruitless land, gladdening all everywhere and, as it were, watering them spiritually, they became for them the occasion of spiritual fruitfulness. To the Jews, then, both as being such and as having become Lord-slayers and behaved drunkenly against Christ himself, the giver of the spiritual streams, God commanded the clouds not to give rains; but for those who believe in him they are commanded to send them down and to water abundantly the hearts of those who come to him. “When the rains are sent down, let the earth spring up,” he says, “and let it sprout mercy, and let it make righteousness spring up together.” For it was necessary, when the spiritual clouds, as I said, watered the earth under heaven with lessons in righteousness, that good fruits should come, as from seeds. For as when the inventor of sin ruled on earth and through the wise men of the world scattered loathsome and profane seeds everywhere, there was no one who did kindness, not even one, but all had turned aside, together they had become worthless, and the whole earth was barren of the fruits of goodness, since the lessons of righteousness had not yet been sent down like rains on all everywhere; so thereafter it followed that there would be the fruits of godliness toward God. By mercy we mean love, which is the fulfilment of the law, with righteousness accompanying it, and surely the righteousness of the gospel, of which Christ himself has become for us arbiter and teacher. But one might say that the mercy and righteousness springing up from the earth is also Christ himself. For he has become for us from God the Father mercy and righteousness, if indeed it is true that we received mercy in him and were justified, receiving forgiveness of our ancient offences; or that we received from him the righteousness that can bring us to the possession of every good, through which also we have been saved. If the earth has been commanded to make righteousness spring up, let no one be vexed, considering that the Psalmist too says somewhere about God the Father, and about Emmanuel himself: “He worked righteousness in the midst of the earth.” For Christ did not bring down to us his own flesh from above and from heaven, but rather was born according to the flesh from a woman, who was also one of those on earth. When, then, it is said that he became the fruit and sprout of the earth, you will understand, as I said, that he was born according to the flesh from a woman taken for this service, although she was one of those from the earth.

“I am the Lord God who created you. What [better have I prepared, as clay of the potter? …”]

He gives here, as it were, the reason why the Son, being God by nature, emptied himself and chose to suffer for us, and counted those on earth worthy of such great forbearance as to give up his own life as a ransom, or rather to endure taking the form of a servant and to exchange the highest glory for the lowliness of human nature. Therefore he says: “I am.” “I am” must now be taken in the sense of “I exist and live,” … and who brought all things into being, and did not make death, but rather created all things for incorruption. Then, honouring the nature of man, and [showing] that nothing at all among all the living things on earth could equal it, he says: “What better have I prepared, as clay of the potter?” For we were formed by him when he took dust from the earth and shaped us very well, like a potter. But the dignity of human nature does not stop there; there is something greater in us, a gift and present of God's skilful art. For we were made according to his image and likeness, and we have been enriched with the stamp of his glory shining spiritually in our souls, even if according to the flesh we are earth and from earth. Man, then, is not contemptible, but rather an admirable living being on earth, and so God takes pride in him. He said, at any rate, to the most long-suffering Job, making his great works evident: “Or did you take clay of earth and form a living being, and set it speaking upon the earth?” And the divine David sings somewhere: “Lord, what is man, that you remember him, or the son of man, that you visit him?” Then he explains the distinction of human nature, saying: “You made him a little lower than the angels; with glory and honour you crowned him, and set him over the works of your hands. You put all things under his feet.” The all-wise Paul applied some of these verses to Christ. But they might be said, not unfittingly, of every man among us too; for nothing in them is false.

“… day? Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing, that you do not work, nor have hands?’ Who says to his father, ‘What will you beget?’ and to his mother, ‘What will you bring forth?’”

The passage is deep and shadowed with much obscurity, yet you will go straight to what is useful and true; but I think it necessary first to unfold briefly the aim of its thoughts. For so it will be easy to grasp and welcome to the hearers. The God of all redeemed Israel from Egypt and rescued him from polytheistic error and the deceit of demons, bringing him by the law through Moses to the light of the true knowledge of God. For he taught him to serve one God and to worship one Lord; then, through types and shadow, to raise him to things still greater and more perfect, that is, the things in Christ. For the law was a tutor, and it was laid down until the time of correction; and this was the time of the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ, when, removing the shadow of the legal commands and the types in letters, he brought in to those on earth the beauty of the worship in spirit and truth, bare and unveiled. But at this very thing the Jews were displeased, and, still pleading for the types, they acted against Christ and charged him with dissolving the Mosaic ordinances, at one time saying, “If this man were from God, he would not break the Sabbath,” at another hurling still worse words. Since, then, they rejected the benefit of the gospel proclamations, which were raising them from the useless shadow to spiritual fruitfulness, therefore he says: “Will the ploughman plough the earth all the day?” “O fools,” he says. “The farmer cuts the field with ploughs,

but he does not do this forever, nor [spend] all [his time] on the field with ploughs, not so that it may only be seen to have suffered this, but so that it may be receptive to the seeds cast into it and be seen to bear fruit. “The hearts of all of you, then, once overgrown and as it were turned to waste, … I prepared beforehand, using as a plough the law through Moses, and like a farmer [made them ready] for good seeds. But the sower of every good thing is my Son. Receive, then, what comes from him, and do not wish perpetually to cherish and love the law that ploughs. For it ploughed, as I said, not so that you might keep having this, for what benefit is there in that? but so that you might bring forth the fruits of truth.” Since we have been spiritually re-formed in Christ, or rather transformed: we from Greek error to the knowledge of the truth and to the holy life through Christ, the Saviour of us all; those of the circumcision to the reception of the gospel teachings and to a newness of worship that no longer has the unpleasantness of the types, but rather shines with the most fitting beauty of spiritual worship; and it belonged both to us and to them to be enriched with regeneration in Christ through water and Spirit; but likewise this very grace was rejected and unacceptable to the peoples of the Jews, for they opposed, as I said, the things of Christ; therefore he says: “Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing, that you do not work, nor have hands?’ Who says to his father, ‘What will you beget?’ and to his mother, ‘What will you bring forth?’” “For I,” he says, “wish to re-form you to what is better, and as it were to re-shape you for the better through a spiritual birth, surely the one through water and Spirit. But to my plans … [would the clay ever say] to the potter, as if he did not have a craftsman's hand, or did not know how he must shape what is in his hands? Or,” he says, “the one who is to be born does not put the question to his own father, ‘Will you beget?’ How then do you, who are as clay in the hands of a potter and do not know at all in what way your spiritual regeneration will take place, not fear to quarrel? And have you not rather resolved to leave to the craftsman and father how these things will come about?” For that the Jews quarrelled with the Saviour's words, those he spoke to them about these things, is not hard to see. For he said to Nicodemus: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless …

“… see the kingdom of God.” But he, foolishly springing upon things beyond the mind, objected, saying: “Can a man who is old enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” And to this he added another question about the mystery: “How can these things be?” What, then, did Christ say to this? “If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” It is necessary, then, to yield to whatever God says. He himself knows the way of his own works; what he fashions must not be pried into, and things beyond the mind are fitting for us to honour with undoubting faith. It should be known that the prophet Jeremiah too [went down] into the potter's house; and when the clay fell apart and was re-formed into another vessel, God said to him: “Can I not, like this potter, [do with] you, house of Israel? Behold, like the clay of the potter you are in my hands.” That we are also spiritually re-formed into a holy and all-beautiful life, Paul will make clear, saying: “But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord, the Spirit,” through whom we are also regenerated, having a seed no longer perishable, but the one that comes through the word of God, living and abiding.

“For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, who made the things to come: Ask me concerning my daughters and my sons, and concerning the works of my hands command me. I made the earth and man upon it. I with my hand made firm the heaven. I [commanded] all the [stars].”

The answer to the thought expressed above is seen given here. The sense of the verses is this: “If the clay ever rebuked the potter,” he says, “and indicted the hand of the one who shaped it as unskilled or rather sluggish; if anyone among those not yet existing or born, but expected to be born, pried into what kind of children his father would beget; then you too ask me, you who will in due time be my sons and daughters, how it would happen, and in what way you will become sons and daughters to me. Command me also concerning the works of my hands.” “Command,” he says, for “give orders,” as to one who did not know the [way] of what must be done. [Very fittingly], then, and with good reason, the all-wise Paul wrote thus: “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor?” For the wisdom that is the craftsman of all needs nothing at all in what concerns itself. Nor would anything of ours be beyond its means or impossible for it. For it can do all things, having all-mightiness; or rather it is itself all power. For the God of all is the Lord of hosts, and he alone knows the way of his own works.

Unsearchable, then, are his works, and those beyond mind and speech are unattainable to human thoughts, yet known to him. And indeed we believe that the spiritual regeneration through water and Spirit has been given to those who have recognized the appearing of Christ. When Christ wished to make the grace plain to Nicodemus, he explained the way of the thing; but he, understanding nothing of what was said, accused the Saviour's words of impossibility. Christ, even to one so minded, urged him to receive the wonder by faith, saying: “We speak what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen.” If, then, we do not understand the way of the divine works, let us free our own mind from all doubt and say to God: “I know that you can do all things, and nothing is impossible for you.” Let us not ask him about his daughters and sons, nor command, that is, give orders to him concerning the works of his hands; but as clay to the potter, let us leave him to work what he pleases. For he changes our condition without toil to whatever he wishes, and re-forms the mind from the more shameful to the better, and puts a new heart in us, uprooting the first. He said something of this kind, at any rate, through the voice of Ezekiel: “I will draw out the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,” that is, tender and pliant, “so that they may know me, that I am the Lord.” For departing from all wickedness and defilements, then reshaping our own mind to wish to fulfil the good, and receiving in addition the spiritual regeneration from water and Spirit, we shall become sons and daughters of God. That all-mightiness belongs to him he shows by saying: “I made the earth and man upon it.” And the inventor of the generation of man, who brought into being him who once was not, how will he lack strength for spiritual re-formation? And is it not clear that, at his nods, the nature of the things he made would move over to whatever he purposes? What is wonderful if the one who with his own hand made firm the heaven reforges the mind of man to what he pleases? By the Father's all-working hand we mean the Son, through whom are all things and in whom are all things. “For by the word of the Lord,” it says, “the heavens were made firm.” He commanded all the stars, that is, arranged how each of them must be. For the sun was set to rule the day, and the moon the night. But as the Psalmist says: “The sun knew its setting. The God of all set darkness, and it became night.” The divine David sings again and says: “Yours is the day, and yours is the night. You prepared the sun and the moon.” Each of these, then, completes the course appointed for it in orderly motion and in measured intervals of hours. Likewise the rest of the stars too, according to the law given them by God … being God by nature and Creator of all.

“I raised him up with righteousness as king; all his ways are straight. He will build my city and turn back the captivity of my people, not with ransoms nor with gifts, said the Lord Sabaoth.”

Some might perhaps say that this was said about Cyrus son of Cambyses, because he released Israel and freed it from the bonds of captivity, and founded the temple in Jerusalem. But the contemplation of what follows will rather turn the force of the thoughts not to him, but to Christ the Saviour of us all, who was raised up with righteousness. For being God, the Lord shone upon us, the God and Father being pleased to sum up all things in him, things in the heavens and things on earth. He was raised up, then, with a righteousness not adopted or taught, but being himself righteousness in very person. It is also written somewhere else about him: “Behold, a righteous king will reign, and rulers will rule with judgment.” For the only-begotten Word of God was always King of all together with God the Father, and has all creation, visible and invisible, under his feet; but when man leapt away from his kingdom, because he came under the devil's hand and was entangled in the snares of sin, the arbiter and giver of all righteousness brought him again under his own yoke. For all his ways are straight. We say that the ways of Christ are the divine and gospel oracles, through which, advancing to all virtue and adorning our heads with the glories of godliness, we come to the prize of the upward call. Straight indeed are the ways; for there is nothing crooked or perverse in them, but they are as it were upright and easy to travel. For it is written: “The way of the godly has become straight, and the way of the godly is prepared.” For the path of the law was somehow rough, passing through many types, and of unbearable difficulty; but the one that runs through the gospel oracles is smooth and has nothing at all steep or rough. Straight, then, are the ways of Christ; and he built the holy city, that is, the church, in which he himself dwells; for he dwells in the saints, and we have become temples of the living God, having Christ in ourselves through participation in the Holy Spirit. He founded the church, then, being himself its foundation, on which we too are built, as precious and costly stones, into a holy temple, into a dwelling-place of God in the Spirit. The church is wholly unshakable, having Christ as its foundation and unshakable base: “For behold,” he says, “I lay the foundations of Zion, a chosen stone, a cornerstone, precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” He, then, who founded the church also turned back the captivity of his people. For when we on earth were tyrannized by Satan and by sin, he saved and rescued us and brought us under his own yokes; yet not with ransoms nor with gifts. For as his disciple says: “We were ransomed from our vain way of life handed down from our fathers not with perishable things, silver or gold, but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, Christ.” For he gave his own blood for us, and we are not our own, but belong to the one who bought and saved us. Therefore, and very fittingly, those who transgress the noble rule of the right faith are accused by the voice of the saints as denying the Master who bought them.

“… tall men will come over to you and will be your slaves, and will follow behind you bound in fetters, and will worship you and pray in you, for God is in you, and there is no God besides you. For you are God, and we did not know it, the God of Israel, Saviour. All who oppose him will be ashamed and put to shame, and will walk in shame.”

Having brought forward the word about Christ the Saviour of us all, and announced beforehand that he will turn back his people not with ransoms nor with gifts, he at once points out those who will be called to redemption, clearly those from the nations, upon whom Christ is seen to have shone above all, although he says plainly: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Indeed it was to them first that the divine and gospel light shone. But since, as it is written, beloved Israel grew fat and thick and kicked (for they killed the Author of life), therefore, very fittingly, Christ shone on the flocks of the nations, and we shall find this very thing present in the contemplation of the words before us. He names the most superstitious of all the nations, so that the power of the one who calls them to repentance may be admired. For just as the skill of those who know how to heal is praised above all when they are able to free from their sufferings some who are desperately ill, using their experience at the right moment, so too God, [choosing] emphatically some of those who had turned very far aside and had [sunk] to the very lowest depth of wickedness and impiety, [brings them] to the desire for virtue, to the rubbing off of evil, and, as it were, to being clothed with praiseworthy qualities. The Egyptians, then, and the merchandise of the Ethiopians, that is, the cities of the Thebans, to which those called the Sabaeans are neighbours and borderers, that is, the nations of the …, or of the Indians (perhaps having the name from Sheba, who once reigned over their country and land), “laboured,” he says. “Laboured” must be understood in two ways. Either it means that they toiled unbearably during the time of error, yoked to Satan the cruel tyrant and serving the demons, who demanded sacrifices, even their own offspring, I mean sons and daughters; or that of old they were formidable and unbreakable, as it were shield-bearers of the ancient deceit, using all their strength to cling vigorously to the Greek impiety set before them. But when Christ shone, and sent up the true light into the hearts of all, and rose like a spiritual morning star, they “laboured,” that is, they did not remain resistant as before, but relaxed, as it were, their former tension, yielding the victory to the proclamations about him. And the word about these things has in no way proved false. For as the all-wise Paul writes: “Where sin abounded, grace superabounded.” For the land of the Egyptians is seen full of venerable and holy churches: altars everywhere, flocks of monks, swarms of virgins, the labours of asceticism with great joy, a race toward virtue, and great eagerness, vigorous and not enduring to be cut short; and it extends the reverence for Christ even to the Sabaeans themselves, that is, the Indian nations. For one may see, one may see among them too all that is in Egypt and in the trading places of Ethiopia, that is, in the land of the Thebans. These Egyptians, then, he says, and the Sabaeans, being tall men, that is, conspicuous and very well known to all everywhere, and unknown to no one as shield-bearers of [their own] inventions, “will come over to you”; that is, leaving their first deceit and leaping away from the pits of destruction, they will come to you, and will be

your slaves, clearly, servants of your wishes. For the name of slavery, when used with reference to God, signifies this. “They will follow behind you bound in fetters.” For they will walk in your footsteps, he says, guided by the gospel laws in each thing to be done, and will travel the path of the excellent life bound in the fetters of love for God, so as to be able to say: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Affliction, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” “These will worship you,” he says, “and pray in you, for God is in you, and there is no God besides you. For you are God, and we did not know it, the God of Israel, Saviour.” For to Christ the Saviour of all every knee bends and every tongue confesses, and every end of prayer comes to him. For in Christ we ask our requests from God the Father, and in him we pray, confessing that God is in him too, and that there is no God besides … [as he said to the] divine disciple (this was Philip): “Have I been with you so long, and you have not known me, Philip? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? He who has seen me has seen the Father.” “I and the Father are one.” The words “God is in you” and “there is no God besides you,” then, have the same force as: “And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” But if anyone should wish skilfully to refer the force of what is said to the person of Christ alone, we say that, according to the voice of the divine Paul, all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Christ bodily. And he himself was God, not divided into two sons, but as the Word having the flesh as his own, in which he is also said to have dwelt. God, then, is understood to be in this too, as a soul is in a human body; but there is still one Son, who is God. It should be known, however, that we say the Lord's flesh was animated with a rational soul. They confess, then: “And God is in you, and there is no God besides you. For you are God, and we did not know it, the God of Israel, Saviour.” This is the voice of those who repent and are already passing over from deceit and darkness to the light, who have advanced to the knowledge of the truth and have recognized the one who is God by nature and truly, the Creator and Lord of all. And they name as Saviour of Israel the very one who became man and was incarnate, believing that he is the same who of old was the helper of those of Israel. Or else you will understand Israel not only as the one according to the flesh, but also anyone else who can see God. For Israel is interpreted “a mind seeing God.” And he sees God with the eyes of the understanding who looks at the stamp of God the Father, that is, the Son; and before him, he says, those who opposed him will be put to shame and will walk in shame.

… For those who did not accept faith in him but fought against God, as indeed the Jews did, will all be put to shame, defeated by the invincible hand, doing no harm at all to his glory, but drawing destruction on their own heads; they will be for shame and reproach. For [they will be] a spectacle to all flesh, according to the prophet's voice.

“… by the Lord with an eternal salvation. They will not be ashamed, nor be put to shame forever.”

He again broadens the prediction of the calling and return of the nations; and he does not stop it at the Egyptians and the trading places of Ethiopia, and the Sabaeans themselves, but makes known here that those throughout all the earth will be called too, and that holy churches will be shown forth everywhere. For the all-powerful word of God called out, as it were, to the churches to be renewed to him, and he deems them worthy to be named islands. For just as the islands in this sea are always struck by the onrush of the waves, yet remain unshaken, and sometimes receive ships in danger and save them from the waves, holding out to them a calm bay, so the churches of Christ lie, as it were, in the very midst of the turmoil and confusion of life, and endure countless temptations, yet have in Christ their steadfastness, and give a home to those who flee the useless and empty disturbance of the affairs of this world, those tossed by the storm, as it were, of Satan and sin. They are to be likened, then, to islands. For this is what the divine word means here. “Be renewed to me, then,” he says, “O islands.” The name “church” weaves together the multitude of those who have believed in Christ, priests and peoples, shepherds and teachers, and those under their hand in Christ, in the times, clearly, when the Lord, being God, shone upon us. For then, then indeed, we too … were renewed into newness of life, of manners and ways, and moreover of worship. For we have cast off the oldness that comes from sin, and have become a new creation in Christ, trained by his laws for a glorious and lovely way of life. The all-wise Paul, at any rate, writes to those called through faith and says, at one time: “Put off the old man with its passions and desires, and put on the new, which is being renewed according to the image of the one who created him”; at another again: “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may test what is the will of God, good and pleasing and perfect.” And he says that our old man was crucified together with him, so that we may put on the new through the way of life and the life that is in Christ.

We are renewed also in the manner of worship: those of us who come from the Jewish ranks, by leaving shadows and types. For they will no longer use sacrifices of oxen and frankincense, but a worship spiritual and immaterial, ranked, as it were, with the most fragrant incense. And those drawn in the net from the multitude of the nations will move over to what is better and incomparably superior. For they will no longer have the ancient darkness in their mind, but, having made the divine and spiritual light dwell in them, they will be holy and true worshippers. For they will cease from worshipping the creation, deaf and insensible matter; they will abstain from divinations and sorceries, and will cleanse away the harsh din of Greek ribaldry and the deceit of demons …, [skilled] in all that is good, and versed in the doctrines of the truth. Our state, then, is a renewal. For what is in Christ is a new creation. The God of all promises to save with an eternal salvation the whole [Israel], the one according to the flesh, I mean, and the one ranked by promise among the children of Abraham (“For not all who are from Israel are Israel, but the children of the promise are counted as children”), and that they will be far from shame and disgrace, and that perpetually. … [Freed from] sin, and having loosed the yoke of the devil's greed, and casting off corruption with these and putting on incorruption, we shall remain in this state forever. For sin will no longer dance over us; nor will Satan subject us again to his former greed; and the power of death will depart entirely in the age to come, trampled down in Christ, through whom and with whom be glory and might to the Father with the Holy Spirit to the ages of ages. Amen.

“Thus says the Lord who made the heaven, this is he who displayed the earth and made it; he marked it out. He did not make it for nothing, but to be inhabited. I am the Lord, and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret, nor in a dark place of the earth. I did not say to the seed of Jacob, Seek what is vain. I am the Lord, speaking righteousness and declaring truth.”

Having proclaimed beforehand the coming of Christ, the Saviour of us all, and having marked out the time of salvation, in which all will leave the darkness of their ancient ignorance and pass over to the light of the true knowledge of God, he makes in these words a necessary exhortation to Jews and Greeks alike, adding clear proofs by which they will know very plainly both that he himself is God and Maker of all things and that there is no other besides him. That is why he says: “Thus says the Lord”; and not simply “Lord,” for there are very many in heaven and on earth who, by a misuse … have received the name; but that very one who by nature and … truly is what he is also said to be, and who has, from what he has accomplished, a glory that is not falsely claimed. “For this,” he says, “is the Lord who made the heaven.” It is a very great proof of supreme renown and all-powerful pre-eminence to have made the heaven and displayed the earth and established it. For he himself “marked it out,” that is, though it was formerly hidden in the deeps, invisible and unformed, he showed it visible and finished. For he marked it out; for he said, according to the trustworthy record of the books of Moses: “Let the water be gathered into one gathering, and let the dry land appear.” So it appeared out of the waters, and as a part of the world, when he set bars and gates on the deeps and separated it well from the waters. That he brought it forth usefully and necessarily for this purpose, not only that it might be seen but that it might have inhabitants (plainly those formed from it, just as the heaven has the holy angels), he made clear beforehand by saying: “He did not make it for nothing, but to be inhabited.” It was shown, then, as a carriage and a kind of house for those who walk on it, that is, for us. And if we were brought into existence by him, how is it not true to say that we came to be surely for this too, that we might worship him and him alone, and, acknowledging him as the Maker of all things, offer him songs of thanksgiving? “I, then, am, and there is no other.” For if … who displayed it, and did not make it for nothing but to be inhabited, what other could be thought to be God besides him? Or who could equal him in strength and glory? Or who comes near him at all, even a little? And how is not the whole nature of created things surpassed by a glory, might, and wisdom so great and transcending all things? There is no one. He alone, then, and no other whatever beside him, could be thought to be God by nature and in truth.

“But yes,” someone might say at times, “who knew his purpose? Or who can tell whether he wishes others too to be crowned with the glory and title of God, or himself alone?” He answers, then, and says: “I have not spoken in secret, nor in a dark place of the earth; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, Seek vain things.” “I laid down laws for them about these things,” he says, “not speaking in a corner nor trying to escape notice, but clearly and openly.” For the Lord came down on Mount Sinai in the form of fire; there were darkness and storm and smoke, and the piercing sound of trumpets. All the people stood by, with Moses as mediator, and laws were proclaimed by God: not laws urging Israel to seek anything vain, that is, an idol or a falsely named object of reverence, but commandments that kept them from the very opposite. For it was said to him:

“You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve; and you shall have no other gods besides me. And you shall not make for yourself an idol, nor a likeness of anything, whatever is in the heaven above, and whatever is on the earth below, and whatever is in the waters under the earth.” So it was said to him. And “I am the Lord” is as if he were saying, not once but many times: “I alone am God and Lord of all, speaking righteousness and declaring truth.” By righteousness, I think, he means the law, for the law is the arbiter of righteousness; and by truth, the teachings of Christ. In the law is the outline of the truth, and the mystery of Christ is hidden in its shadows; for Moses wrote about him. So in speaking righteousness, the power of the truth is also declared along with it, if indeed it is true that the law was a shadow, yet in it now is the outline of the truth.

“… you who are being saved from the nations. They did not know, those who … pray as to gods that do not save.”

The apostate dragon drove those on the earth away from close fellowship with God, and, stripping them of the true knowledge of God, scattered them into deceit and the error of many gods; and, sinking them in the ways of wickedness, he made the net of his perversity inescapable and impossible for them to get out of. But Emmanuel appeared, who “leads out those who are bound in strength,” and endured death in the flesh for us, so that, as the evangelist says, he might “gather into one the children of God who were scattered.” For what Satan scattered, leaping on them like a cruel and savage wolf, Christ gathered together, the good shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep. So he signifies this very thing by saying “Gather,” that is, be bound together in one faith and one mind. Gather to God who rules all through sanctification and righteousness; come near, you who are still far off and cut off because of sin and because of the disposition of your mind. We say that those who have gone astray stand away from God, and that they will be near through faith in Christ. At any rate the all-wise Paul addressed those who ran to this: “But now you who once were far off have become near by the blood of Christ.” And again about him: “Coming, he preached peace to us who were far off and to those who were near.” That is why it was said through holy prophets to those still far off: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” “Come, then,” he says, “and take counsel together, you who are being saved from the nations.” “Take counsel” he says instead of: “Let what concerns your turning to God be done by you, not without counsel or consideration, but with admirable prudence.” For through faith we must advance to understanding, since there is no doubt that, having condemned the misery of our wandering and turned away from the damage of the ancient deceit, we go to God at a run, receiving the light of the true knowledge of God and casting the vote of a right mind for what is incomparably better. “Take counsel,” then, that is, be wise, you who are being saved from the nations. For he commands them, as full of folly, to depart to a sensible mind and to an admirable and blameless understanding, through which it would be possible to behold the power and glory of God who rules all.

“But they did not know this,” he says, that is, … full of the utmost [folly]. “Those who lift up the wood, their carved image.” “Lift up” here you will understand as “exalt,” so that they attach to it the glory fitting to God, and that to wood carved by themselves. Then, “praying as to gods that do not save.” Ignorant, then, and in insensibility not far from the things they worship, are those who worship their own handiwork, seek help from senseless matter, and give the title of God to things made by themselves … while the lyre of the Psalmist mocks them and cries: “Let those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them.”

“… together, who made these things heard from the beginning?”

“Then it was declared to you: I am God, and there is no other besides me; a righteous one and a saviour there is none apart from me. Turn to me, and you will be saved, you who are at the end of the earth.”

Setting terrible snares of many kinds for men, the accursed demons, impiously plundering the glory of the Godhead and fastening it on their own heads, the all-daring ones strove to put together the workshops of their own deceit. Pretending to know the future and to be able to announce it to those who wished to learn, they went on for a time snatching people away. There were oracles in countries and cities, false divinations everywhere, and omens, and a crowd of cheats “speaking from their own hearts,” as it is written; oracle-chanters and necromancers and …; in short, the world under the sun was filled with liars and cheats. Among them, then, there was no true knowledge of things to come, but false speech, ribaldry, deceit, guile, and nothing else. That is why the God of all says: “If they will declare, let them draw near, that they may know together.” “If they are able,” he says, “to declare, let them come, that they may know together,” so that, face to face, all gathered into one (for they were, as I said, scattered piecemeal), if they can truly declare, he says, all coming together in the same place, let them know something of what is to come: “who made these things heard from the beginning.” For which of the superstitious, or of the prophets among them, or of those who sat at the oracles, ever knew and announced that in due time Christ would shine on the world, that the cloud of deceit would depart, and the darkness of knowledge falsely so called would be scattered, and that Christ would shine out on those on the earth like a spiritual morning star, like dawn and day, like the sun of righteousness? But neither, he says, did the demons who pretend to have knowledge of the future announce these things from the beginning, nor did the servants of their false speech. For none of the poets or prose writers among the Greeks made mention of such splendid events. Who, then, made these things heard from the beginning? “Then it was also declared to you,” that is, from the beginning. And it was declared not by anyone else, but rather by me, who know all things and foretold them before they happened. For I have spoken to you … carried across to you words from me. “So I am God,” he says, “and there is no other besides me. And I am righteous and a saviour.” For the accursed demons are unrighteous, as destroyers and lovers of blood who thrust those on the earth down to ruin. Righteous and a saviour is the God of all, defending those … and bound tight with cords of sins, enlightening those in darkness, strengthening what is weak, raising up what has fallen, and turning back what wanders. That is why he says: “Turn to me, and you will be saved, you who are at the end of the earth.” In these words one may well see the greatness of the grace through Christ reaching to all who are on the earth. … the salvation that went to one nation, Israel; but long, as it were, and running to the ends of the earth is the salvation through Christ. For the whole earth has been caught in the net, through faith in him, for salvation and life.

“I am God, and there is no other. By myself I swear: righteousness shall surely go out of my mouth; my words shall not be turned back; for to me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear by God, saying: Righteousness and glory shall come to him.”

Once the falsely named worship had been destroyed, the truth had to come forward into the open, and, the darkness as it were driven off, the light had to shine all around. That is why, quite fittingly, after this beneficial and profitable exhortation, he makes his own glory manifest. “For I am God,” he says, “and there is no other.” Then he foretells the power of what was expected to come through Christ, confirming it with an oath: that in every way and without fail the righteousness spoken through him (that is, the righteousness in Christ through faith, freely given to those throughout the whole earth under heaven) and his words (plainly the saving proclamation of the gospel) will in every way and without fail shine out in due time. For this, I think, is what “shall not be turned back” makes clear. For when God promises, and says that something will be in every way and without fail, who can hinder it? He swears, then, by himself. For men swear by the greater, and for them the oath is an end of every dispute, for confirmation; but God, who is above all, swears by himself. For he could not swear by another, since he is himself, as I said, the highest of all and what stands at the very summit, both in nature and in glory. What, then, was promised? The salvation and turning of every nation on the earth. “For to me,” he says, “every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear by God.” That every knee should bow to God, and that his name should be sworn by among all: what else could this be understood to mean than the turning of all, their knowledge of him, and the declaration of their close fellowship with him? For those who come to God at all by turning give up entirely both bowing the knee to unclean spirits and holding them as gods with their tongue (for they will not swear by anyone as by God); but, knowing the one who is God by nature and in truth, they put their neck under his yoke and bend the knee as they make their supplications; and if they choose to swear rightly, they will name him and him alone, saying that “all righteousness and all glory shall come to him,” that is, belong to him alone. For the best of all works, and everything in words that tends to the glory of God, must be ascribed by us to him alone.

“… From the Lord they shall be justified, and in God all the seed of the sons of Israel shall be glorified.”

What is said is true on both counts, and the divine word will not lie. For it will surely follow for those who … spiritual …, that they must be put to shame; but to those who love him from a pure heart it will be added that they are glorified in him and are distinguished in righteousness. These would by no means be Israel according to the flesh, but rather the seed of the sons of Israel.

To make the sense of what lies before us clearer, we say this. The only-begotten Word of God shone on those on the earth in a form like ours, that is, having become flesh, according to the Scriptures; and he came preaching release to captives and sight to the blind, sending away the crushed in release, healing the broken-hearted, and proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord. But although the Jews above all ought to have received faith in him, since they had been given the law as a tutor and the holy prophets as guides into the mysteries, they did not do this; they leapt away from him, as it were, and came to have a sin that cannot be cast off. True, then, is the saying: “All who separate themselves from the Lord shall be ashamed.” For they heard him saying: “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.” But those who recognized his appearing have been justified through faith and have gained a long and unending glory, shown to be partakers of the Holy Spirit and enriched with the splendid dignity of adoption. For he gave them power to become children of God; and besides this they have a hope worth grasping and beyond reproach, for they will inherit the kingdom of heaven. These may be understood as “the seed of the sons of Israel.” By “sons of Israel” here we say the holy apostles and evangelists are named, for according to the flesh they were of the Jews; and by their “sons,” those who were called through them to the knowledge of Christ. At any rate the divine Paul addressed those who believed through him: “For though you have ten thousand tutors in the Lord, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I begot you through the gospel.” And we very often find other holy apostles too calling “little children” those whom they had caught in the net for the salvation that is in Christ.

“Bel has fallen, Dagon has been crushed; their carved images have become like wild beasts and cattle.”

Always, somehow, the predictions made through the holy prophets about Christ, the Saviour of us all, are followed by necessary foretellings of what came to pass through him, that is, of what was accomplished for the world. And the most excellent accomplishment of all was that Satan was removed from the midst, and with him the profane and man-slaying multitude. When, then, Christ shone on the world, the old, thick, and accursed mist of sin was dispersed, which Satan had poured into the minds of all so that they might not see the light of the truth; and the tyranny of the demons and the farces of idolatry came to an end. Necessarily, then, as I said, he says that Bel has fallen. This was above all an idol of the Babylonians, though it was honoured in other cities too. And they say that Bel is the Kronos of whom the godless Greeks tell fables, whom they also say is cruel and bloodthirsty and a lover of the slaughter of men. At any rate it is recorded in Greek histories that on a single day some slaughtered three hundred strangers to him, performing a festival abominable and hateful to God and men. And indeed the God of all, indignant at such terrible impieties, says somewhere through one of the holy prophets to those accustomed to do such things: “Sacrifice men, for calves have run out.” For he says that the unclean demons had come to such a pitch of hatred for mankind and of savagery that they thirsted insatiably for human blood and gloated over the destruction of those they caught. For to them the calf sizzling on the altar, frankincense, and sheep do not seem equal; they crave rather the slaughter of men.

Bel, then, “has fallen,” he says, that is, the strength of the demon was brought down and fell, so that from then on, having cast off the yoke of their perversity, those who were once … might run to God with a free and unforced will. … Dagon. This too was an object of worship of those who live on the coast, which also borders Judaea, I mean the people of Ascalon and Gaza, whom the divine Scripture very often calls Philistines, that is, foreigners. Very aptly he says “has been crushed,” the prophet framing his account of it now from what happened to it at one time. For we have read in the books of Kingdoms that the foreigners once took the divine ark and brought it into the house of Dagon; then the servants of the demon came in and saw the idol fallen before the ark, and so crushed that it had lost its hands and feet and head. Very gracefully, then, he says “has been crushed,” from what happened at that time. And we say that the prophetic word indicates to us the destruction of idolatry, naming Bel and Dagon as a part of the whole. For it was not possible to mention all the idols on the earth; instead he again proceeds from the part to the whole.

“… to one weary and hungry, faint, not strong together, who will not be able to be saved from war; but they themselves were put to shame as captives.”

Here again the word shows us the uselessness and vanity of things carved by hand, and from the farces performed over them it shows the worship of those who have gone astray to be full of shame. For they would at times hold cold and ridiculous festivals for the demons; then some of the priests of these things would go about in the streets carrying them …, and wherever …, pretending to bear the burden with difficulty. And the senseless and vulgar populace, and silly women, applauded with acclamations, seeing the lifeless matter shaped perhaps into a man or a woman; and they thought that the one carried really laid an unbearable weight on those who had put him on their shoulders. Therefore the divine word here laughs to scorn the magnitude of Greek senselessness, and says of the statues carried in procession, which they were senselessly accustomed to worship: “… and to one hungry, faint, not strong together.” For, as I said, some of the priests used to pretend these things as they carried the handmade objects about. How, then, will the powerlessness of the things worshipped be known? One could see it from many other things; for wood or stone or some other material is the origin of such things. But since it was necessary to show it from what would be most useful, he brings them to the remembrance of the captivity that was to come upon them, I mean the one under the Babylonians, which they did in fact suffer, since, letting go of the duty to fulfil the law and to serve the one who is God by nature, they went off into everything most repulsive and worshipped the works of their own hands; and besides this they sacrificed to the host of heaven, as it is written. From where, then, will the powerlessness of the supposed gods be seen? “They will not be able,” he says, “to be saved from war; but they themselves were led captive.”

For when a city or a country is taken, if they have any gods overlaid with gold and silver, these are the first of all to be … by the captors, though it would be natural, if they were gods at all, for them to defend their own worshippers and make them stronger than the hand of the enemy. What, then, does a carved image profit, that they carved it, in the prophet's words? “He fashioned it, a molten image, a false phantasy”: gods who are able to help neither themselves nor others. For how could any such thing come from wood and stone?

“Hear me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of Israel, you who are carried from the womb and taught from childhood to old age. I am; until you grow old, I am. I bear with you. I made, and I will release; I will take you up and save you.”

… with due order and with wise design. For since he had mentioned war, in which it came about that a countless multitude of men and women died and the land of the Jews was left very empty of men, for that reason he speaks as to a single house, as to a remnant and what was left over from barbarian cruelty: “Hear me, house of Jacob, and even the remnant of Israel.” The word would have benefited the hearers not a little, if any of them had been quick-witted and … what has been foretold one might easily …, but when it leaps on one, as it were, how could one beat it off? He calls them, then, “the remnant,” all but crying aloud that they will be consumed by the war; and that … is hard to teach in the souls of the Jews, and that the study of the law has become a profitless thing for them, he shows by saying: “You who are carried from the womb and taught from childhood to old age.” For from infancy to old age they studied the sacred and divine Writings and gained nothing from them; but, as though they had never been granted any admonition at all, they went off into apostasy from God. “But even if a long time,” he says, “was spent by you in profitless studies, and, seeing you most ignorant, I … make myself manifest to you thus, saying: I am,” that is, I live and exist, not as having a beginning of coming to be or knowing that I shall come to an end, but always the same and in the same state; and “until you grow old” I will again be the same. For old age does not come upon me as it does on you; I am living and all-powerful. “And I made” the misfortunes of war that were brought upon you, calling to justice by a just verdict those who insulted my glory. “But I will release,” that is, I will let go …. “I will take you up and save you.” For I who gave you into the hands of enemies will make you my own again and set you free from the bonds of captivity. So, as with a remedy of many kinds, he heals the hearts of those who behaved outrageously toward him and, out of very great ignorance, slipped into what is unlawful, now by threats, now by good promises. For his aim is to save what was lost and … from the hands of the devil.

“To whom have you likened me? Contrive, you who go astray, who contribute gold from a purse and silver by weight; they will set it in the balance, and … and bowing down they worshipped them. They carry it on their shoulders and go; and if they set it in its place, it will stay there; it will not move. And whoever cries to it, it will not hear; it will not save him from evils.”

He convicts the worshippers of idols of being insolent and thoughtless, and of offending against the divine and supreme nature itself. For, as far as lies in them, they bring down the transcendent height of the glory that is in it to things that do not befit it, assigning it to lifeless matter; and then they show their own heads to be justly bound under the utmost penalties. “To whom, then, have you likened me,” he says, “me who by nature stand apart from all things, raised on high by incomparable pre-eminence and beyond everything created, the Maker of all, at once King and Lord?” It is likely too that God wishes to show something else when he says to those who have gone astray: “To whom have you likened me? See, contrive, you who have gone astray.” “For contributing gold and silver,” he says, “and then hiring a goldsmith, they fashion the form of a man or a woman, or of a wild beast, say, or of a beast of burden, and a name …” “Consider, then,” he says, “to whom you have likened me”: to a man or a woman, or even to wild beasts or irrational animals. How, then, is the thing not beyond all impiety? Contrive something in your defence; clear yourselves of the sins. But you would not find an argument to help you in this. For when you bring the nature that is above all down to wild beasts and cattle, what arguments will you use that could suffice to escape the charges?

And since the making of idols tries to teach nothing else than vulgarity of thought, for that reason he speaks very plainly. “For they collect silver and gold from a purse,” he says, “and they will set it in the balance,” in an equal measure, each one perhaps contributing, so that presumably the god being crafted would be more attached to the one who contributes more. One might say, I think, that if they had been short of money they would have had no god at all, and if the world under heaven had not abounded in craftsmen, there would be none at all for them to worship. They have come to such ignorance and senseless thinking that, though they themselves existed before their own gods, they honour gods who were born later; those whom they ought surely to regard as makers they themselves make; and, though masters of the matter, which they took for necessary use, they ask it to save them. They carry their gods like porters, lifting them on their shoulders; they see them immovable and carried off wherever anyone pleases, and they bring their supplications to them. So when you see … sick with the same things, you do not perceive it; for you have fallen into the utmost senselessness.

“… you who have gone astray. Turn in your heart, and remember the former things from of old, that I am God, and there is none besides me, declaring beforehand the last things before they come to pass, and at once they were accomplished. And I said: All my counsel shall stand, and all that I have planned I will do, calling a bird from the east, and from a land far off, for the things I have planned. I have spoken and I have brought him; I have created and I have made; I have brought him, and I have prospered his way.”

Seeing them held fast by deceit and darkness and terrible ignorance, God again takes pity on them and bids them go back, as it were, bringing the eye of the mind to bear closely on things, so that, learning what evil they are in, they may change course to better things, and, keeping an unending remembrance of the words spoken to those before them, may choose to repent, doing this not simply with the tongue but from the heart itself. For such a way of changing one's mind would be most praiseworthy and true. That the making of idols is a ridiculous thing, he bids them recognize from what he has already said; that he himself is God of all, he persuades them to understand from the most God-befitting prerogatives that belong to him by nature. “For I am,” he says, “the one who has knowledge of all things, and … revealing a thing before it comes to be, and bringing what was promised to its end. And I affirm besides that nothing at all of what I resolve could ever be shaken.” This too is a very great proof of invincible and God-befitting strength. For men, even when they have obtained the highest honours and hold power to the utmost, set some aim before themselves and plan to accomplish something, yet what they have devised does not in every way and without fail go smoothly for them; for very many things fall in between and bring a hindrance hard to overcome. But as for the God of all, if he should wish to do anything, what could resist and oppose it? “For what the holy God wills, who will scatter it? And his high hand, who will turn it back?” So, as a proof that he is God by nature and in truth, he might fittingly say: “All my counsel shall stand, and all that I have planned I will do.” Then he adds to this: “calling a bird from the east, and from a land far off, for the things I have planned”; and with this “I am” will follow. The bird called from the east and from a land far off we say is the Babylonian, who burned the whole land of the Jews, took Jerusalem, and shook down the temple in it; then, removing very many of both the common people and the notables, he took them from the land that bore them and deposited them in the country and land of the Persians, throwing the yoke of captivity on them harshly and unbearably. … the blessed prophet Ezekiel. It runs thus: “And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, tell a tale and speak a parable to the house of Israel, and you shall say: Thus says Adonai the Lord: The great eagle, long in the stretch of its wings, full of talons, which has the design to enter into Lebanon, took the choice parts of the cedar; it broke off the tips of its tender growth and carried them into the land of Canaan; it set them in a walled city. And it took of the seed of the land and gave it into the plain as a plant by much water; it set it to be looked upon, and it became a vine, weak and small in size, so that its branches appeared toward it and its roots were under it. And it became a vine, and made shoots, and stretched out its tendrils.” These things God said to the blessed prophet Ezekiel. But since the saying was hard to grasp, and the force of its meaning not very clear to the hearers, he himself explains it again, saying: “Say to the embittering house of Israel: Do you not know what these things are that I said? When the king of Babylon comes against Jerusalem, he will take its king and its rulers and bring them to himself to Babylon. And he will take of the seed of the

kingdom, and make a covenant with him, and bring him in under a curse; and he will take the leaders of the land, so that it may become a weak kingdom and not lift itself up at all, so as to keep his covenant and establish it.” For, as we read in the book of Kingdoms, after the holy city was taken, the Babylonian carried Zedekiah away captive into the land of the Chaldeans, and some of the notables bound with him; and these are “the choice parts of the cedar.” “I, then, am,” he says, “the one who calls a bird from the east. For the things I have planned, I have spoken and I have brought him,” in due time; but what was foretold was brought to its end. “I have created,” that is, I have prepared evils, plainly the hardships and the calamities of war, for those who had turned aside. “And I have made, I have brought him, and I have prospered his way.” For it was not the work of his own hand to overpower Israel, if God was its helper. But I myself, who save and protect, prospered his way, so that he might bring under punishment those who cared little for piety toward me, or rather had broken away altogether, so as to give to wood and stones the honour and glory most fitting to me alone. …

“Hear me, you who have lost your heart, who are far from righteousness. I have brought my righteousness near, and the salvation that is from me I will not delay. I have given salvation in Zion to Israel for glory.”

See, again he promises them salvation and does not let them despair, lest perhaps … beyond the hope that they will be saved, although they have chosen to repent. Heartless, then, are those who go astray, and the word is true of them. For with what sort of mind do they themselves fashion the objects of their worship, assigning reverence to wood and stones, and ask to be saved by them? Yet even so God bears with them; rather, he pities them as deceived, has mercy on them as fallen, brings them back to understanding with good promises, bids them become sober again, and bids those who are far off and cut off from righteousness, that is, from God, to come to him. He seems to weave the declaration of the universal and most general salvation together with the promises of a partial one. For he saved from the land of the Chaldeans those who were held as captives of the spear …; this, I think, one might call partial; but the most general is the salvation through Christ, which he will show not long after to those of old. “… my righteousness, and the salvation that is from me I will not delay.” We say that this resembles: “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay.” And salvation is given in Zion to Israel for glory. Here he names the spiritual Zion, that is, the Church of Christ, in which all of us who belong to the spiritual Israel receive his salvation in glory. For just as a Jew is not only the one according to the flesh, but also anyone who has been granted the circumcision in the Spirit, so also Israel is not only those born of the blood of Israel, but also all who have had a mind that sees God, who have also been placed among the children, according to the promise to Abraham; and these too

we say are the truer Israel.

“Come down, sit on the ground, virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground; there is no throne. Enter into the darkness, daughter of … uncover your covering, … rivers. Your shame shall be uncovered; your reproaches shall appear. What is just I will take from you …”

Having said, “I have given salvation to Israel for glory,” and having promised them redemption from captivity, he next recalls and narrates clearly how Babylon was taken and sacked, and depicts as on a tablet the plight of the captured. For just as, in the case of the land of the Jews, he described the removal brought by the war of the Babylonians, going through each detail and saying: “Because the daughters of Zion were exalted and walked with outstretched neck and with winkings of the eyes, and with the gait of their feet, trailing their tunics and playing with their feet, God will humble the ruling daughters of Zion, and the Lord will uncover their form in that day, and the Lord will take away the glory of their clothing, and their ornaments, and the braids, and the tassels,” and what follows; and then adding to these: “And instead of a sweet smell there will be dust, and instead of a sash you will gird yourself with a rope, and instead of the ornament of gold on your head you will have baldness because of your works, and instead of the tunic with a purple border you will gird on sackcloth”; so now too he shows what the daughters of the Babylonians, that is, the women who live there, will suffer when the Persians and Medes drag them off, saying … “be humbled,” though she had long been terribly sick with arrogance. “Come down,” then, from the mountain and from lofty thoughts to humiliation, from glory to dishonour, from luxury to misery, from immeasurable wealth to the utmost poverty, from freedom to slavery, and, in a word, from all that is sweetest to what is worse and most wretched. “Sit in the darkness,” plainly the darkness that comes from incurable calamity. For bitter grief poured over the soul enslaves the mind, as does the onset of unexpected pains and fear falling on one like a burden. That the time of her ancient prosperity has passed he shows by saying: “You shall no longer be called tender and delicate.” For the women of the Chaldeans, not unnaturally, made no small account of … striving to excel in … adornment, even in the very battles. “You will no longer be called delicate,” then, he says, “but you will undergo instead, and unwillingly, the misery of servitude: you will grind meal; you will be seen bare of the coverings of your head,” plainly with your hair hanging loose and uncared for everywhere, though formerly it was bound up in elaborate fashion. “Uncover your grey hairs”: and this would be a clear sign that the captors came to such cruelty as not even … “your reproaches shall appear.” For women who have once fallen into deportation and are carried away from the land that bore them into that of the conquerors, and on the way … with bare foot, plainly with their garments pulled up, and no longer bearing in their eyes the modesty fitting for women, but under compulsion baring even the secret parts of the body to many…. One might also say that her shame was seen in another way, and her reproaches appeared, since she was once taken and came into what one prays to be spared, though formerly she lived in luxury and prided herself on prosperity to the utmost. Then he says: “What is just I will take from you,” that is, what you must suffer, that I will exact from you. And what this is he foretold through another of the holy prophets, saying: “As she has done, I will do to her.” And again: “As you have done, so shall it be to you; your recompense shall be returned on your head.” And it is said somewhere elsewhere about everyone accustomed to offend: “Woe to the lawless one; evils according to the works of his …

“… who redeemed you, the Lord of hosts; the Holy One is his name.”

He has inserted another word in between, addressed to Israel, and God promises that it will at no time fall under the hand of enemies, for he will have mercy on them as on those who have paid the penalty, or rather have been punished even beyond it. For he says somewhere about it: “Priests, speak to the heart of Jerusalem, comfort her, for her humiliation is fulfilled, her sin is loosed, for she has received from the hand of the Lord her sins.” So “He who redeemed you,” he says, “the Lord of hosts, whose name is also Holy One of Israel, has spoken.” … God was angry and left Israel bereft of sparing and love, seeing them turned to apostasy and going without restraint to do what the divine [laws forbid] ….

“Sit pierced with grief, enter into the darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans; you shall no longer be called Strength of … my inheritance. I gave them into your hands, but you did not give them mercy; … of the elder you made the yoke very heavy, and you said: For ever I shall be ruler. You did not consider these things in your heart, nor did you remember your last things.”

He shows himself everywhere using a just verdict and bringing on those who offend penalties of equal weight. For very many were the charges against the Babylonians: he indicts them for very great cruelty and inhumanity, and he shows Babylon boastful and senselessly confident in her own powers, so that she thought she would never in any way undergo a change for the worse. “So when,” he says, “you undergo the affliction, then sit pierced with grief.” “Pierced with grief” he says instead of “having understood,” even if late, and above all in yourself; and receive the dizziness of darkness. For he said that incurable evils pour a kind of darkness over the mind and fall like dust upon souls. “No longer, then,” he says, “will you be called Strength of a kingdom.” For Babylon was so named, since it had a multitude beyond number and a most warlike hand, sufficient for resistance, if any should resist and oppose those who held power among them. Then, what was the occasion for bringing on the Babylonians the effects of divine wrath? “[I was angry with my peo]ple; you defiled my inheritance. I gave them into your hands, but you did not give them mercy.” He appears to say something of the kind through the voice of Zechariah too: “I have been jealous for Jerusalem and Zion with great jealousy, and with great anger I am angry with the nations that join in the attack, because I was angry a little, but they joined in the attack for evil.” For God sometimes disciplines out of love, and those who have become unteachable and have raised a proud neck against him he brings through hardships to docility, either bringing the hands of enemies upon them or sending other griefs upon them. For just as fire or iron often heals wounds that are hard to cure, since they do not respond to the moderate measure of medicines, in the same way, I think, our virtue-loving God, when he sees a soul rushing with unrestrained impulses over cliffs and clinging tightly to the ways of wickedness, heals it with bitter hardships. But those who have been taken into the rank of punishers indulge terrible and unmixed fury and are carried beyond what is reasonable, burdening unbearably those who have come under them.

A very grievous thing it is, then, and God is provoked at those who are accustomed to do it. We must keep away from this evil; and if some are perhaps made to pay a penalty while God disciplines them, let us look to gentleness, knowing well that the one who disciplines is greatly provoked if the punishment is brought on them by us beyond measure. “You did not have mercy, then,” he says, “on the old man; and you took them, not by your own strength, but rather because I gave them. But you became harsh and savage-tempered, and, what is still more grievous, you went so far in boasting as to think and say …; you thought fit to keep … unshaken in your mind, nor did you take into your memory the last things.” And what were these? Plainly the things of the captivity and of the misery brought on her by God.

“But now hear these things, you delicate one, who sit, who are confident, who say in your heart: I am, and there is no other; I shall not sit as a widow, nor shall I know bereavement. But now these two things shall come upon you suddenly in one day: widowhood and childlessness shall come upon you suddenly, in your sorcery, in the great strength of your enchanters, in the hope of your wickedness. For you said: I am, and there is no other. Know that the understanding … and the harlotry of these shall be shame and disgrace to you.”

He speaks to her as to a profane and lewd woman. … We say this: there were very many magi among the Chaldeans, whom they also called wise men; and by their counsels and lying divinations they claimed to have knowledge of all future things. To those who ruled the land they prophesied nothing gloomy, but rather things in which the hearers would naturally take delight. We must suppose, then, that when Cyrus was threatening them with his attack and was already bringing on the incursions of the enemy, these men surely came forward, speaking lies and saying that very soon they would get the better of him and prevail over them utterly …. But that is what they said. “But now hear, you delicate one.” By these words he mocks the luxury of the Babylonians. For they were luxurious, anointing themselves with the most fragrant perfumes, wearing embroidered robes, and prizing the splendour that comes from adornment, so that the art of cosmetics was held in esteem among them, and there was a rivalry in beauty. That is why she was called “delicate.” And he calls her “sitting” instead of “reigning,” plainly over her neighbours, or rather even over nations still far off. And she was “confident,” that is, emboldened by the immeasurable multitude of her fighters, so as even to say: “I am, and there is no other.” For she thought that there would be no other at all like her. But she was mistaken; for Cyrus came, bringing Persians and Medes against them; and only when she suffered capture did she learn that there was another, stronger than she, plainly the country and land of the Persians and Medes, by which she became widowed and childless, though she never expected to suffer it. For she was widowed when the king who reigned in her was brought down to death, and she was made childless when the multitude of her fighters was consumed by the swords of the captors. So widowhood and childlessness came upon her. “And these things will befall you,” he says, “in your sorcery, and in the great strength of your enchanters, in the hope of your wickedness.” “For since,” he says, “you had a wicked hope in your sorceries … childless and widowed; for raising your brow … and having your mind full of boasting, you thought yourself better and mightier than all other countries; for you said that there is no other.” “Know, then, that the understanding of these things and your harlotry will be shame to you.” I said before that they called the magi wise men, or men of understanding. “Know, then, O Babylon,” he says, “that the wisdom of the magi, that is, of the false diviners and enchanters, and your harlotry besides, will be shame to you. For you have fallen under the hand of your enemies, as one who trusted in these things, from which nothing can be gained except to be put to shame, as having placed a vain hope in them.” By harlotry here he means that of the Babylonians, not at all bodily harlotry, but rather the unrestrained and unbridled apostasy from

“And you said in your heart: I am, and there is no

other. And destruction shall come upon you, and you shall not know it: a pit, and you shall fall into it. And misery shall come upon you, and you shall not be able to become clean; and destruction shall come upon you suddenly, and you shall not know it.”

He again indicts her for boasting, and for having turned her heart wholly away from knowing what she ought to love to know: that among men nothing is firm, and that whether one prospers on the earth or not depends on the divine assent. But those who cannot bear to know this ascribe to their own heads the power to accomplish all things and whatever can bring them to prosperity; such people would be caught …; for they fall unexpectedly and lament a ruin beyond their hope. So, since you said in your heart, “I am, and there is no other,” the bitter end of such terrible boasting will overtake you. For “destruction will come upon you, and you will not know it,” that is, even your divination will be useless to you for this. For you will suffer what you did not know, and a bitter and unexpected calamity will befall you. “A pit will come, and you will fall into it”: as if he said, a terrible evil, hard to escape. For when people have once been brought down into a pit, if it is deep, escape is sometimes impossible. “And misery will come, and you will not be able to become clean; and destruction will come, and you will not know it.” For the magi could not simply know what was to be; but divining to please and speaking out of their own hearts, …

“Stand now in your enchantments and your many sorceries, which you learned from your youth, …. Let them stand and save you, the astrologers of heaven; let those who look at the stars declare to you what is about to come upon you. Behold, all of them shall be burned up like brushwood on a fire, and they shall not deliver their soul from the flame; because you have coals of fire, sit on them; these shall be a help to you. … and you have laboured in your trading from your youth; a man has gone astray by himself, but for you there will be no salvation.”

… God. For the land was full of carved images, and to the … of the demons … they saw the end of what they had hoped come to pass. … of superstition, the empty plaything, and indeed he shows the practice to be wholly useless. “For when the fighters are gathered,” he says, “and Cyrus is against you, and the phalanx of the enemy … shields, the power of archery too will help nothing, when … hoplites and foot-soldiers alike ….” “Stand in your enchantments and your many sorceries, which you learned from your youth, if you will be able to be helped.” “Raise up,” he says, “against the besiegers, against men who know tactics well, the magi, the frigid talk of the enchanters. But you will not be able,” he says. “You have laboured in your counsels.”

For the seemingly wise counsels of the magi profited you nothing at all. But if you think that my word has missed the truth, “let them stand and save you, the astrologers of heaven, … upon you.” This is another set of charlatans, I mean after the magi and the enchanters. For some among them pretended to know the risings and settings of the stars and to measure the motion of each, where they go and whence they come; and they insisted that by their false precision in this they received knowledge of things to come. So if they are not liars, and if the stars that have their place in the firmament fill the rank of prophets for them, let them say what will happen. “But they would not be able to tell,” he says; “for they will be, together with the others, like brushwood, the work and food of fire, and none of them will escape.” Then he speaks in a kind of irony and says: “You have coals of fire,” that is, the men under discussion are hot and seething, when you sit on them. Sitting would signify rest. “These will be a help to you”: “for if you choose,” he says, “to rest on the lies of the magi and the ribaldries of the others, …” to her: “You have laboured in your trading from youth.” For, having departed from God and passed over to ruin by inclining to the deceits of the demons, and that from your youth, you became weak and easy to capture. For you were not rich in the help that comes only from him who knows how to save, who is indeed the Lord of powers. And he adds to this: “A man has gone astray by himself, but for you there will be no salvation”; as if he were saying: many men stumble in a human way, either by coming down to the things of the flesh, or perhaps by being sick with some other passion; but you advanced to such unholiness that no way of salvation is left to you; for unrestrained turnings aside will surely be followed by a penalty of equal force and weight.

“Hear these things, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and who came out of Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord God of Israel, making mention of it, not with truth nor with righteousness, and who hold to the name of the holy city and … upon the God of …. The former things I declared long ago, and they went out of my mouth, and it was heard; suddenly I did them, and …”

Having finished his word about the Babylonians, he again turns the force of his admonition to those of the blood of Israel, seeing them wholly turned aside and carried off, as it were with loose reins, into apostasy. For after the death of Hezekiah, Manasseh, his son, who held the thrones of the kingdom, became a most impious man and gave himself up wholly to the deceits of the demons …; he advanced to such a pitch of wickedness, baseness, and unholy undertakings that he filled the holy city with altars and statues, and in the divine temple itself set up an abomination, that is, a statue made to stand in the place of God. At any rate the God of all reproached Jerusalem for these things, saying thus: “Why has the beloved done abomination in my house?

Will prayers and holy meat take away your wickedness from you, or will you escape by these?” And at another time: “According to the number of your cities were your gods, Judah, and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you set up altars to burn incense to Baal. Why do you speak to me? … to me, says the Lord.” And when Jeremiah fell down and offered supplications for Israel, God said: “And you, do not pray for this people, and do not ask that they be shown mercy, and do not come to me for them with petition and prayer, for I will not listen. Do you not see what these are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? Their sons gather wood, and their fathers kindle fire, and their women knead dough to make cakes for the host of heaven; and they poured libations to foreign gods to provoke me to anger.” For, as I said before, Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, worshipped the host of heaven, and he chose to regard sorcerers and … as worthy of all esteem, and … to the idols even one of his own children. So when Israel had come to this pitch of wickedness and impiety, the God of all wished to bring them back to the light of truth by frequent admonitions. That is why he gave them the word of exhortation very frequently, so that, opening wide the eye of their mind and freeing it from the demonic mist, they might be able, even late and with difficulty, to see who is the Maker and Master of all. That is why he says: “Hear these things, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and who came out of Judah.” Very wisely he mentions the nobility of the fathers (I mean in character and ways) to shame those who had turned aside. For they were, they truly were, from them according to the flesh, but … and of another mind, having the bare name from them, but not agreeing in disposition with those whose nobility they boast of. That this is of no use to them for their benefit our Lord Jesus Christ clearly showed. For the Jews, priding themselves greatly on the splendour of their fathers and boasting of their virtues, said senselessly: “We have Abraham as father.” But he said to them: “If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham.” So the name is not enough to give renown to those who are descended from such fathers.

splendid, unless they become imitators of the brightness that was in them. He shames them, then, saying that they are called by the name of Israel and came out of Judah, that is, sprang from the seed of Judah, and yet do not resemble them at all in anything. And besides this he charges them with swearing by the name of the Lord God of Israel, and fulfilling the commandment of the law (“by his name,” it says, “you shall swear,” when they accepted the use of oaths), not for what was true and just, but for what was falsely claimed against the law; and then also with holding to the holy city and being supported by the God of Israel. For they wished to raise their brows high as living in a holy city, called God's. For they heard those who served in the divine temple singing about Jerusalem: “Glorious things were spoken of you, city of God.” The Lord himself also recalls this when he says that one must not swear by one's own head, because one cannot make one hair white or black; nor by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King. For they swore by Jerusalem, calling it, as I said, the city of God. And they were supported upon him, saying that the Lord of powers was their strength. But those who had then taken up such a view needed not to profane the city of God with altars and sacrifices, entangled as they were in the deceits of the demons, nor to provoke against themselves the one in whom …, but … in good things, and to bring him, as a kind of sacrifice, steadfastness in piety. “But hear these things,” he says. And what are these? “The former things I declared long ago; they went out of my mouth, and it was heard. Suddenly I did them, and they came.” For since, as I said, Manasseh, hateful to God, at the beginning gathered from everywhere the so-called diviners and augurs, and was always prying into the future, and, carried away by their charlatanry, perhaps supposed that he knew it clearly, for that reason the God of all says: “I declared to you the first things too, and these things were not spoken to you by any other of the falsely named gods, but went out of my mouth; and it became heard by you; and suddenly I did them, and they came”; that is, even if you did not expect them to come to their end, yet you knew from the events themselves and from experience itself that I both did them and they came. He seems to call “former” the misery brought on them by the war, when, carried away from the land that bore them and taking the yoke of bitter slavery, they were carried off into the land of the Persians and Medes. For second, after that, there befell the Babylonians what was brought on them from the divine wrath, which has already been told us at very great length.

“I know that you are hard, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your forehead bronze. And I declared to you the things of old before they came upon you; I made them heard by you.”

In these words he shows the incomparable gentleness of the supreme nature and how much mercy it shows to men, even to those who are accustomed to grieve it. For his calm is equal to his own glory; and just as by measureless pre-eminence he surpasses the measure of created things, so he is also incomparably loving toward mankind. For see how, though he knew Israel to be hard, with a proud and unbreakable neck, so as even to seem an iron sinew, plainly hard and unbending, and a forehead of bronze, that is, again devoid of shame, he declared to it beforehand the things to come and made them heard before they came. He did this not in vain; but since they had an unteachable heart, he made predictions of the gloomy things, so that perhaps, broken a little by the terrors, they might depart from their outlandish and most abominable way of life, adapt themselves to seeking better things, and, leaving the accursed and most abominable [worship], choose to serve the one who is God by nature and in truth. For those whom reason does not move from outlandish undertakings fear sometimes drives out even against their will. Indeed the divine David seems to suggest something of the kind to us, singing and saying to God, the Saviour of all: “With bit and bridle you will constrain the jaws of those who do not come near you.”

“Do not say: The idols did it for me; and do not say: The carved and molten images …. You have heard these things, and you did not know; and I have made new things heard by you from now on, which are about to happen. And you did not say …. Now they come about, and not long ago, and in former days you did not hear them. Do not say: I know them. You neither knew nor understood, nor from the beginning did I open your ears. For I knew that you would surely deal faithlessly, and you will still be called lawless from the womb. For my name's sake I will show you my wrath, and I will bring my glorious things upon you, so that I may not destroy you utterly. Behold, I have sold you, not for silver; and I have delivered you from the furnace of poverty. For my own sake I will do it for you, because my name is profaned, and my glory I will not give to another.”

In the words of the prophet Jeremiah we find that when those from Babylon had once taken the holy city, laid waste the whole of Judaea, and carried Israel away captive, the … but when the prophet urged them to stay at home and made the cause plain, the women cried out against him in return, saying: “Since we stopped sacrificing to the queen of heaven, all these evils have come upon us.” For they thought, although they had suffered capture, that it was because they had offended the falsely named gods and been deprived of their help that they had fallen under the feet of their enemies. That is why the prophet Jeremiah said to God: “Lord, your eyes are upon faithfulness; you scourged them, and they did not grieve; you consumed them, and they would not receive discipline.” “Since, then, I made what has happened heard by you before it came,” he says, “do not again say: The idols did it for me.” Did what? Plainly the capture through the calamities of war. You were not led away captive by their anger; nor did they, because you withdrew from them, bring an inescapable penalty upon you by withdrawing their own help; for they are carved and molten things. “Nor say this to yourself,” he says, “that the idols commanded me,” instead of “threatened,” that is, announced beforehand that I would suffer such evils. “You heard these things from me, and

you did not know,” that is, you did not understand, nor did you become wise. For this, we say, is the truth. For it would have been the work of understanding and prudence, when things were foretold, not to wait for the gloomy things to reach their end, but to get clear of all wrath and penalty. “So I have made new things heard by you from now on, which are about to happen.” For the predictions came from God when the things had not yet happened or occurred. “Do not say, then, that … and not long ago, and not in former days … do not say: I know them,” plainly through the false diviners and liars. “For you neither knew them nor understood, nor indeed did I open your ears from the beginning”; that is, before my words came, I did not make this known to you through anyone else; but I brought on the end of what was foretold. “For I knew that you would surely deal faithlessly, and you will still be called lawless from the womb.” And those who were accustomed to deal faithlessly and act lawlessly, and that from the womb (for they were taught from infancy to serve foreign gods), had to have the penalties that befitted them hung over them. “I showed you my wrath for my name's sake; and I will bring my glorious things upon you, so that I may not destroy you utterly.” … to Israel, which had come to the end of all wickedness and thought the honour due to God worth no account at all, the wrath had to be shown; but, so that the greatness of his love for mankind might again be seen, wonderful things too were brought upon them after the gloomy ones, so that they might not be destroyed utterly. For he saved them from the hand of their enemies, and when they had fallen into the net of punishment he rescued them again and freed them from the nooses of captivity, so as not to destroy Israel utterly. “Behold, then, I have sold you,” he says, “not for silver,” that is, not for the sake of money. For I sought nothing of the kind from you, nor have I been in need of anything earthly, or of the slaughter of calves or lambs or goats; but I did it since you sinned and were careless about the honour and glory you owed me. “Yet even so I rescued you,” he says, “from the furnace of poverty”; for they were slaves to the Babylonians, and the evils of slavery are surely followed by being in want of every good thing. “For my own sake I will do it for you, because my name is profaned.” For the captors thought that, although God wished to save them and protected them, they had still won, and had got the better of the one he helped against his will. “So my name is profaned,” he says, “since they hold such opinions about me. But I will give my glory to no other.” And the glory of God is to save, to have mercy, and to fulfil whatever he chooses to accomplish.

“Hear me, Jacob, and Israel whom I call. I am the first, and I am for ever; and my hand founded the earth, and my right hand made firm the heaven.”

He brings them again to remember the honour and glory given to them, and besides this his sparing and his love. For they were granted the highest privileges, since they alone of all the nations were called to close fellowship with him and became his portion and lot. At any rate the divine Moses once addressed those of Israel thus: “Behold, the heaven of heaven belongs to the Lord your God, and the Lord chose you out of all the nations to be his people”; and again: “When the Most High divided the nations, as he scattered the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God, and Israel became the Lord's portion.” Those so honoured, then, ought indeed, they ought, having received a glorious and chosen name, being assigned to God's lot and rich in being among the chosen, not to turn aside at all to what is unlawful, away from their benefactor, the giver of all their honour and the provider of such choice and longed-for goods. But the wretches, taking none of these things to mind, were stuck fast in the bogs of idolatry, and, leaving the true God, they served the elements of the world. Yet even so he pities them again; for he calls them to a good disposition by crying, “Hear me,” and bids them accomplish at least late what it would have been better to choose to fulfil at the beginning, so that they might have unshaken prosperity, so that they might set their foot outside punishment and loose the bonds of the servitude brought on them. But since they worshipped the host of heaven and, leaving the Creator, … the things brought into being by him. For as the blessed Paul said: “Though you ought … to be teachers by reason of the time, you have need again of someone to teach you the elements of the beginning of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.” (Displaced in the OCR between these words are a few words of Cyril's own: “… being able to rule over all things, and being able without effort ….”)

That he himself is “the one who is,” is before all things, and has a being without end, being God by nature, he shows by saying: “I am the first, and I am for ever.” And who could be conceived as prior to the first? For just as no beginning could be conceived prior to the real and first beginning, so no other first could be conceived before the first. So the God of all is always, and before all things, and into endless ages. For what has no beginning, into what end will it ever cease? So much for the divine glory in these words. But the swarm of the falsely named gods, that is, the elements of the world, could neither be thought of as first nor can they remain for ever in the same way and the same state. For the stars, sun and moon, and besides them the heaven itself, were brought into being, having received a beginning and origin, and will one day run to the end of their being; and one could see nothing in them that is not in every way and entirely beneath the glory of the divine and pure nature. That his word on this point would not miss the truth he showed at once by saying: “My hand founded the earth, and my right hand made firm the heaven.” How then will what was made compete on equal terms with its maker, and vie with the glory of the one who fashioned it? He shows, then, that it is most outlandish, or rather liable to the charge of every impiety, to choose to worship the creation rather than the Creator, and, leaving the one who is always and first, to assign the name and reality of the true Godhead to things made in time, and to bestow this on their own handiwork. For they worshipped what their fingers made, as it is written. And the God and Father calls the Son his own hand and right hand. For so we shall find him called very often by the divinely inspired Scripture. At any rate the divine Moses said:

“Your right hand, O Lord, has been glorified in strength; your right hand, O Lord, shattered enemies.” And the blessed David: “Let your hand be strengthened, let your right hand be exalted.”

“I will call them, and they shall stand together, and they shall all be gathered and shall hear. Who …”

He bids us put a question to them, and indeed to ask clearly whom they think was in truth the one who knew beforehand, that is, who foretold, what came upon them unexpectedly, plainly the calamity of the war. For of … they claimed to be inspired by a god, and that some were in labour with it and possessed by demons. But there is no foreknowledge of the future in unclean spirits, nor in lifeless materials shaped into gods. So none at all of the reputed gods is the one who announced it. “But I revealed each thing in detail through holy prophets; then, though it was possible to slip away from …, … waiting for the experience of the evils to confirm the truth of my words. What need, then, do you have of sorcerers? What benefit from false prophets? And what could the workshops of those accustomed to take auguries know? They take over the precincts of the idols and … sell the lie from their own heart as though from God, and belch out to those who come to them whatever seems good, for a handful of barley and a crumb of bread,” as was said through the voice of Ezekiel.

“Loving you, I have done your will upon Babylon, to take away the seed of the Chaldeans. I have spoken, I have called; I have brought him and prospered his way. Draw near to me and hear these things: not from the beginning have I spoken in secret; when it came about, I was there; and now the Lord has sent me, and his Spirit.”

He again does not allow them to be carried away to untrue suppositions. For it was very likely that, having an untrained mind, very easily led away to apostasy and easily caught in the nooses of deceit, they would think and say that they had suffered the evils of the war perhaps from the anger of the falsely named gods, because the worship fitting and owed to them had been neglected and their sacrifices were no longer offered, and that these gods had again taken pity and measured out to those who suffered the effects of their anger; and the argument is not at all unlikely. For we showed before that, when Jerusalem was sacked and the whole of Judaea burned together with the temple, the women who were left said that they would sacrifice to the queen of heaven. So that they may know the Redeemer, and attribute the grace of their salvation not to other gods but rather to him, he says most clearly that, moved by sparing and love for them, he also brought to its end what they longed for and prayed for so much, namely that the seed of the Chaldeans be taken away, since the Chaldeans had captured them, had displayed every kind of inhumanity, and had surrounded them with evils to the utmost. “Moved, then, by love for you, I accomplished what seemed good to you regarding the Babylonians, so as to take away the seed of the Chaldeans.” Then he speaks of Cyrus, that by his nods he was brought and called to lay waste the land and take it by force. “I brought him and prospered his way. And I have spoken these things from the beginning,” he says, “and not in secret; I announced them clearly beforehand through holy prophets: Thus says the Lord to my anointed, Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, that nations may obey before him; and I will break the strength of kings.” “So not secretly, nor in a corner, have I made my word about him; but I brought him and called him and prospered his way. And I have not only spoken, but also, as he acted, … the things dear to you, and in accordance with your prayer I was present with him …

… turning back the strength of the Chaldeans, and making the one who laid them waste all-powerful and hard to withstand, so that what was done was not rather the work of the hand of Cyrus but of my all-powerful right hand, as I brought penalties on them for their outrage against you, or rather …. For he said: “I gave them into your hands, but you did not give them mercy.” Then, in the midst of such words, he sets the words of Cyrus himself, confessing that it was God who sharpened him, made him most invincible, and stronger than the might of the Babylonians. “And now,” he says, “the Lord has sent me, and his Spirit.” He puts “and now” in the sense: even if you did not recognize any of the things that happened as coming from God, see, now Cyrus has confessed that it was God who raised him up and crowned him with renown to the utmost, by making him great …. For Cyrus learned from the Jews living in Babylon that God had spoken about him in the holy prophets, that he would come in due time and take the land of the Chaldeans by force, and that he himself would release Israel; then, as the writer says, they even showed him the books themselves, and so brought him to such a mind that in his own proclamations he named the God of Israel Lord and Most High. It is written thus in the first book of Ezra: “In the first year of the reign of Cyrus over the Persians, for the fulfilment of the word of the Lord in the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of the Persians, and he made a proclamation in all his kingdom, and also in writing, saying: Thus says the king of the Persians, Cyrus: The Lord of Israel, the Most High, has made me king of the world, and has signified to me that I should build him a house in Jerusalem in Judaea. If, then, there is anyone of you of his nation, let his Lord be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judaea and build the house of the Lord God of Israel. This is the Lord who dwelt in Jerusalem.” “So when you understand,” he says, “that what has happened became known among you before it happened, not through the falsely named gods but rather through me, hear Cyrus saying: The Lord has sent me, and his Spirit.”

“Thus says the Lord who redeemed you, the Holy One of Israel: I am your God; I have shown you how to find the way in which you shall walk. And if you had heard my commandments, your peace would have become like a river, and your righteousness like a wave of the sea; and your seed would have become like the sand, and the offspring of your womb like the dust of the earth; nor now will you be utterly destroyed … my …. Go out from Babylon, fleeing from the Chaldeans.”

He again works in them a firm mind and a well-grounded understanding, so that they may know the one who is God by nature and in truth; and he reveals his own glory to them, so that they may not be carried off by the voices of the deceivers to ruin, that is, to thinking and supposing that the falsely named gods, who do not exist at all, helped them. For that reason, as I suppose, he says, “I am your God,” “I am” signifying “I exist.” He declared this also to the all-wise Moses, saying: “I am the one who is.” For the God of all is the one who is, properly and truly; the things brought into being by him might also be called existing, but only in that they came to be and were allotted a beginning of being. “Thus,” then, “says the Lord who redeemed you, the Holy One of Israel: I am your God.” “But, O Master,” one of the blood of Israel might say, I think, “you redeemed us and saved us; you rescued us from fire and punishment, from the yoke and slavery, from the barbarian hand, since you are plainly all-powerful and accomplish by mere nods whatever you choose. How, then, were we, who are under your sparing and love and always boast of you as our helper, brought down to such misery as to fall under the feet of our enemies, and, though free men born of free men, to serve as slaves against all reason?” What, then, does God say to this? “I have shown you how to find the way in which you shall walk.” “I laid down the law for you,” he says, “to define what is to be done, a law that knows how to direct you to everything most pleasing to me, a guide to righteousness, a teacher of piety, leading on to a straight road; by it, if you had been willing to act, … you would have been established as a genuine and true worshipper, well crowned with the boasts that come from virtue. But you went off the straight path, and, leaving the highway, you turned aside, as it were, to what is unlawful: you served the host of heaven, sacrificed to idols, worshipped those that are not gods, forgot your Creator, thought nothing of the law that was given. For if you had been obedient to my commandments, your peace would have become like a river, and righteousness like a wave of the sea.” What he wishes to show is this. Torrents, they say, swollen by rain …, rush on unbearably, so that nothing at all can withstand their onrush. And this too is plain, I think: the onsets of the waves of the sea are terrible and hard to withstand, not only for sailors, that is, for merchant ships, but sometimes even for the … of the waters breaking. “So if you had listened to my words,” he says, “if you had brought an obedient mind, your peace would have become like a river and waters, invincible to your enemies, that is, to those who wish to oppose you.” Or perhaps in another way: to show that the gift of peace would be abundant and continuous for them, he compares it to a river and to waves: to a river always flowing abundantly and rushing on, and to waves that are always arching and, as it were, running continually to the shore. “And your seed would have become like sand, and the offspring of your womb like the dust of the earth.” As if he said: with no one raising a sword, with no hand of enemies destroying any of you, you would have been numerous … and countless, so that your children would be compared to sand and dust. “But since you behaved outrageously toward God and offended not a little in every way, you do not have the increase of your race into a broadening multitude; yet not even now will you be utterly destroyed.” For the remnant of Israel has been preserved everywhere; and God said that it would nowhere fall uprooted, because of the promise given to the fathers. Then he says: “Go out from Babylon, fleeing from the Chaldeans.”

This is a royal decree releasing Israel from captivity. For just as those who rule over affairs on earth and hold the thrones of kingdoms sometimes grant release from exile to those under them, signifying the matter by a kindly nod and word, so too the God of all bestowed a kindly decree on those who had suffered, and says clearly, “Go out,” so that they might know the Redeemer and the provider of all their good cheer.

“… let this be made heard; announce it to the end of the earth. Say: The Lord has delivered his servant Jacob. And if they thirst, he will lead them through the desert; he will bring water …, and my people will drink. There is no rejoicing for the ungodly, says the Lord.”

… what God does. But those works of his that surpass the others and have received the highest glory, when they are unknown, wrong those who are perhaps deprived of knowing them; but when they are known, they benefit not a little. For from them one may see his unspeakable glory, his pre-eminence over all, his mighty hand and all-powerful glory. For he redeemed Israel from Egypt; but so that he might be seen as a doer of great works, and his glory might become manifest to those throughout the whole earth, Pharaoh was taken in between as a kind of vessel, so that by resisting the words spoken through Moses he might call on God to manifest his own glory to all thereafter and to show the greatness of his measureless power. For it was said to him: “For this very purpose I raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” And those things happened to those of old, but they took place for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. The redemption from Babylon of those of Israel, then, ought indeed, it ought not to be passed over in silence, but rather to be proclaimed, as it were, to people everywhere. That is why he says: “Announce a voice of gladness.” By a voice of gladness we mean the doxology that one might offer in hymning him for such great and splendid achievements. This is gladness properly and truly, a voice fitting for the righteous, to whom it also belongs to give glory. The divine David at any rate sings and says: “A voice of rejoicing and salvation in the tents of the righteous.” He wishes the voice to contain an account of the redemption of those of Israel, such as is in the book of Psalms. It runs thus: “You have been favourable, Lord, to your land; you have turned back the captivity of Jacob; you have forgiven the iniquities of your people; you have covered all their sins.” For these words, even if they contain the declaration of spiritual things, are nonetheless also useful for the history. And he promises that, if they thirst as they walk through the desert, he will bring them water out of a rock: “A rock will be split and water will flow, and my people will drink.” And we say that he shows in these words that it was no other God who freed Israel from the perversity of the Egyptians, led them through the midst of the sea, gave them food in the desert, and brought water out of a rock, but the same, always in the same state and the same way, and able to work wonders equal to those of old. “For if they come through the desert,” he says, “and then are in want of drink and water, that ancient sign will be shown to them; for water will be brought out of the rock.” And one would not find that this happened when those of Israel went up from Babylon to Judaea. But it was said, as I said, with wise design, so that they might know that the God of old is also God now, able to use equal power and rival wonders, and having unchangeable strength; and he cries out, as it were, and brings forth a general law: “For there is no rejoicing for the ungodly, says the Lord.” This too is true. For the face of the impious is always downcast in some way, since the heart is naturally stricken and the mind is weighed down by the reproofs of conscience. For it expects not crowns nor the honour of praise, but rather fire and punishment, which are prepared for those who offend. Or perhaps the saying might also fit the Babylonians. For they rejoiced at having captured the people of God, and thought that they had conquered Judaea by prevailing even over his right hand. But they missed the truth. For the one people, because they were caught offending, came outside his sparing; the other, because they were harsh and pitiless and did not know how to show mercy, paid the penalties fitting them and were deprived even of rejoicing, their brow punished and their pride already chastised. For once they had conquered those of Israel, they no longer had a share in rejoicing; but because, wicked as they were, they perished wickedly and their land was destroyed, they received the bitterness of grief.

“Listen to me, islands, and pay attention, nations; after a long time it will stand, says the Lord. From my mother’s womb he called my name; he made my mouth like a sharp sword, and under the shelter of his hand he hid me. He made me like a choice arrow, and in his quiver he sheltered me; and he said to me: You are my servant, Israel, and …”

Having benefited Israel with very many exhortations and counsels, he transfers the initiation into the mysteries to the flocks of the nations, and indeed the mystery of … that, having let go of their beastlike and accursed life, they should be brought back to the way of life most dear to him and receive the true light into their minds, so as to know clearly who is God by nature and in truth, the nature that holds sway over all things. He addresses the islands, which we say are the churches of Christ, lying as it were in a sea, plainly the surge of the present life, and surrounded by the unbearable onsets of the waves, that is, by persecutions and the troubles which the enemies of the truth, those who fight against the calling of God, bring upon them. About islands of this kind much is said in very many places of the divinely inspired Scripture. The blessed David too sings somewhere and says: “The Lord has reigned; let the earth rejoice; let many islands be glad.” For when Christ reigned over all that is under heaven, taking it all under his hand and tearing it away from the tyranny of the demons, then the churches throughout the whole earth rejoiced, that is, they became full of gladness. That the prophet in these words names as islands the churches from the nations will become clear from what follows. For he immediately added “Listen to me, islands,” and “Pay attention, nations.” Then he says: “After a long time it will stand, says the Lord.” He promises, as I said, the manifestation of the Saviour of us all, Jesus Christ, and that the Word, being God, lives among those on the earth in a form like ours. But that the time then was the time of prophecy, and not yet of the manifestation of the events themselves, he shows by saying: “After a long time it will stand,” plainly the thing promised, that is, what is prophesied. What is this? The very person of the Saviour is brought in, saying: “From my mother’s womb he called my name.” Here he has at once put together the deep and great mystery, one that needs initiation from above; for it was revealed in this way to the divine Peter. The Word was and is God, equal in glory and sharing the throne with God the Father, coexisting and coeternal with him. The names that belonged to him before the incarnation are in some way proper to his nature: God, Wisdom, Light, Life, and Power, and others besides these which are found in the sacred writings.

But when he lowered himself into self-emptying, coming to be in the likeness of man and found in form as a man, he receives the common name, that is, Christ and Jesus, or “God with us,” the “with us” signifying “in our condition.” For it is written: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive in the womb and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel.” And the blessed Gabriel, telling the mystery to the holy virgin, the Theotokos, says: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God; and behold, you will conceive in the womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus; for he will save his people from their sins.” Have the blessed angel and the prophet, then, spoken words that do not agree with each other? Not at all. The divine prophet, speaking mysteries in the Spirit, announced beforehand God who has come to be with us, naming him so from his nature and from the economy with the flesh; but the blessed angel gave him the name from his working, for he saved his own people. That is why he is called Saviour. And indeed, when he underwent birth according to the flesh for our sake, the armies of angels announced the birth to the shepherds as good news, saying: “Do not be afraid; for behold, we bring you good news today of great joy, which shall be for all the people: for today a Saviour has been born, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David.” He is Emmanuel, then, because, being God by nature, he came to be with us, that is, a man; and Jesus, because it was necessary that the whole earth under heaven be saved, he being God and having become man. When, therefore, he came forth from his own mother’s womb (for he was born of her according to the flesh), then his name too was called. The name Christ, I say, is not fitting for God the Word before the birth according to the flesh. For since he was not yet anointed, how could he be called Christ? When he came forth as man from his mother’s womb, then he receives the title, concurrent with the birth according to the flesh.

He says that his mouth was made like a sharp sword. This too is true. For it is written somewhere about him, or rather the prophet Isaiah himself says: “And he shall be girded with righteousness about the waist and clothed with truth about the sides, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the ungodly.” For the divine and heavenly preaching, that is, the gospel preaching spoken through the mouth of Christ, became a sword sharp and most cutting against the tyranny of the devil, slaying the world-rulers of this darkness and the spiritual forces of wickedness. For it scattered the mist of deceit and … made everyone lovers of [his] divine teachings; it cut down the sin of the world, justifying the ungodly by faith, filling with the Holy Spirit those who come to it and making them sons of God, putting into them a strong and most warlike mind, and giving them the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, so that, rising up against those who once held power over them, … That the instruction and initiation through Christ became destructive of the devil’s tyranny for those on the earth, the prophet Isaiah will make clear when he says: “In that day God will bring the holy sword, the great one, upon the dragon, the crooked serpent, and he will slay the dragon.”

He adds: “And under the shelter of his hand he hid me.” He speaks in a way suited to a man; yet for those of sound mind it is not hard to see even through these words that the Son is inseparable from God the Father … he says, of his right hand, so as to suggest that the unassailable and invincible character of his own nature is preserved to him even though he came to be in our condition. For no one will prevail over the all-mighty right hand; and the Word, as I said, has been set apart within the measures of humanity. For the Word from God the Father is still all-powerful, and he himself is the Lord of hosts. Since he became man, the Father, not dishonouring the power of the mystery, takes his place alongside the economy and says to him through the lyre of the psalmist: “The enemy shall get no advantage over him, and the son of lawlessness shall not again harm him; and I will cut down his enemies before his face, and I will put to flight those who hate him. And my truth and my mercy shall be with him.” Look, then, look: through the prophet’s voice too, the one who became like us for our sake speaks in a manner suited to a man: “Under the shelter of his hand he hid me.”

“He made me,” he says, “like a choice arrow, and in his quiver he sheltered me.” God’s arrows have been very many, hidden at their times as in a quiver, in his foreknowledge, and brought forth at the time suited to each; but the choice arrow, above them all, is Christ, hidden, as I said, as in a quiver, in the Father’s foreknowledge. For he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, and was brought forward into the midst when it was necessary to visit the whole earth, which had fallen into ruin and destruction through worshipping the creature rather than the Creator, being subject to unclean spirits and bound with the cords of sin. This choice arrow slays, as I said, Satan himself and the evil powers with him. It likewise slays the enemies of the truth, who have impiously set themselves against his sacred preaching. But it also wounds in another way, for benefit and salvation. For so the bride, struck, says in the Song of Songs: “I am wounded by love.”

“And he said to me,” he says (plainly the Father), “You are my servant, Israel, and in you I will be glorified.” O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, as it is written! For the Son was and is free, since he sprang ineffably from the essence that reigns over all. Yet he heard the Father say: “You are my servant.” So the free one … of the economy in the flesh, that is, the one understood as according to the flesh, so that you may again think of his birth in time from a woman according to the flesh. And he names him Israel because according to the flesh he was born of Israel’s blood; but he says: “And in you I will be glorified.”

For the God of all was glorified through the holy prophets too, but not in them; in Christ, however, in a strange and unaccustomed way. For he was glorified in him; and when Christ is glorified, the Father is glorified in him. We see him shining out in him through the dignities befitting God and through … power and working, holiness and righteousness, … and gentleness in everything. For in this way the Divine is given form to the mind. And indeed Christ said: “He who has seen me has seen my Father.” And the all-wise Paul too said that the one who begot him is glorified in the face of Christ. So he says: “In you I will be glorified.” For to the Son, even when he has appeared in the flesh, every knee shall bow, as it is written, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

“And I said: I have laboured in vain, and for nothing, and to no purpose I have given my strength. Therefore my judgment is with the Lord, and my toil before my God.”

The Saviour of all appeared in order to set free the whole earth under heaven from the … of the devil, and from death and sin, and to make those who come to him through faith resplendent with sacred gifts. To this those of the blood of Israel were called even before the others; and they were so far preferred to the nations that Jesus said: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But they who had been allotted so glorious and exceptional an honour became unbelieving and bold apostates, terrible and arrogant breakers from the flock. And though they ought to have come most gladly to grace and to have gained faith and the good things that come from it, this they did not do (how could they?); instead they rose up against him who called them to salvation, reviling him without restraint, abusing him unchecked (for what dreadful thing did they not utter shamelessly?), and at last they crucified him. So as far as the harshness of the disobedient and the outlandish contradiction they practised against him were concerned, the Saviour laboured in vain and to no purpose, and gave his strength for nothing. For the stricken Israel, as I said just now, did not bear with his sacred preaching; it did not honour his toil. For it was toil for the Word to become like us and to endure the meanness of human life. “But my judgment,” he says, is the Father, [who knows] the toils I have spent for their salvation. Therefore the judgment too was pronounced by him. And what was the judgment? They were cast out of their close relation to him; they were thrust out from being the people of God; they had no share in the salvation that comes from him; they remained without a taste of the hope of the saints; and in their place the multitude of the nations has been called in. And in place of their shepherds others have been appointed, righteous and dear to God, able … lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, as the all-wise Paul says. If you wish to see the Father’s judgment, that is, the verdict on them, hear the Saviour saying to the leaders of the Jews: “There was a man, a householder, who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower, and let it out to tenants and went abroad.” Then he says: “He sent servants to receive the fruits, and they all were put in danger. Since … last he sent his son; and when they saw him,” he says, “they said among themselves: This is the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance for ourselves. And indeed they killed him.” When this parable had been spoken to them, the Lord again speaks, saying: “When, then, the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? They said to him: He will miserably destroy those wretches, and let out the vineyard to others who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” And to this Christ says: “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of heaven will be taken from you and given to another nation producing its fruits.” This has indeed come to fulfilment. For others have been appointed … that is, the divine disciples. Upon these the clouds …

… the clouds sent down rains upon us; and from these, unlike the Jewish vineyard, Christ has gathered in not thorns but grapes. For we have been taught to say: “The Lord will give goodness, and our land will yield its fruit.” But one might also say in another way that the Son’s toil came to be before the Father’s eyes, and that the judgment came out right. And look again, please, at the force of the passage, considering the economy which the all-wise Paul himself makes plain to us when he says that the Son, being in the form and equality of the Father, did not count being equal to God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself and became obedient to the Father unto death, even death on a cross; and for this cause he is highly exalted and has been granted the name above every name, so that at his name every knee should bow. For he was and is God the Word. But since he came to be called man, and this truly came about, he went up into his own glory with the flesh. For it became known that he is God, and that he did not toil in vain. For the manner of the economy turned out to his glory, not assigning him to anything foolish or strange, but showing him to be the Saviour and Redeemer of the whole earth under heaven; and once this was known, it led heaven and earth, and what is lower still, to fall down before him.

“And now thus says the Lord, who formed me from the womb as his own servant, to gather … I shall be gathered and glorified before the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And he said to me: It is a great thing for you to be called my servant, to establish the tribes of Jacob and to turn back the dispersion …”

None the less we say that here too it is the Lord Jesus Christ himself who uses such words suited to a man, though he makes the manner of the self-emptying especially plain. For see how he says that the one who is by nature and truly his own [Son] formed him as his own servant, but “from the womb.” For he does not say that he was brought into the formation of servitude while he was still the naked and fleshless Word …, by the good pleasure of God the Father, but rather “from the womb,” that is, when he was born according to the flesh from a woman. For it was then that he who is God by nature, and free, as being from a God and Father who is free, receives the form of a servant, that is, a formation. No one with any sense would say that what is a servant by nature is rather formed into servitude; it is he who is beyond servitude and the yoke, and who is adorned with the glories of natural freedom, who would fittingly receive the formation of a servant, that is, his form. That the Son, being free, lowered himself to this willingly, how could anyone doubt, when Paul says that he was in the form of God and did not count being equal to God a thing to be grasped, but from his equality and likeness in every respect came down, not unwillingly, into the form of a servant and came to be in the likeness of men? For he was God together with this. And he showed us no less his being free by nature and in truth, and his being a servant not against his will, in the matter of the didrachma. For the tax collectors asked the divine Peter whether Christ paid the didrachma along with the others, or treated the payment as something to be refused. Then the Lord said to him: “From whom do the kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their own sons, or from strangers?” And when the disciple stated the truth, that kings collect what is assessed from strangers, he says: “Then the sons are free. But so that we may not cause them to stumble, go to the sea, cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth you will find a stater; take that and give it to them for me and for you.” The one who is free by nature, then, is formed into a servant in the way of the economy, when he was also born from the womb of his mother according to the flesh.

For this is the time that suits the [measures] of the self-emptying … saying, “to gather Jacob and Israel.” For the Word, being God, came down into our condition for no other reason than to save Israel and gather Jacob. The inventor of all wickedness had scattered all who are on the earth into manifold, polytheistic … and many-formed sin. Some he turned away entirely from the Creator, making them subject to himself and to the unclean demons, throwing on them the yoke of sin, hard to escape, and turning them away completely even from knowing who is by nature the God and Lord of all. Those who had the law of Moses as the arbiter of what they should do he made careless and slack, carrying them off to every kind of outlandish thing, so that they took very little account of the law and acted rather as each saw fit, and taught as doctrines the commandments of men. But when Christ appeared to the world, [they] were gathered through faith into one right and unshaken … those who had long ago strayed from love toward God ran to him, and, throwing behind them the sin that makes enmity, [made] the good their pursuit, [and] peace … Isaiah at any rate says: “Let us make peace with him, let us make peace, we who are coming.” And the divine disciples too cried out: “So we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were appealing through us; we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” We make our reconciliation with God when we come to Christ through faith. For, as the most sacred Paul himself again says somewhere: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.” For in Christ the world is reconciled to God. So he makes the ministry of the incarnation plain by saying that he was formed by the Father from the womb as a servant, so as to gather Israel and Jacob. If someone were to say that the nation of the Jews is meant by these words, he would not miss the mark; for Christ said somewhere: “I was sent only to the lost [sheep] of the house of Israel.” But if he should wish to name all who have been saved through faith Israel and Jacob, that too would be well. If it is true that the Jew is not only the one who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is in the flesh, as it might be called circumcision, but rather the Jew is the one who is one inwardly and has circumcision of the heart in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men but from God; if, then, the Jew is the one who has circumcision in the spirit, nothing at all would prevent any such persons from being named Israel and Jacob. In the middle of the passage a saying is inserted from those called through faith, who declare in their own voice: “I shall be gathered to him and glorified before the Lord, and my God shall be my strength.” For God commands a thing to come about, and at once what is commanded reaches its fulfilment, almost on the heels of the words spoken. For Israel was not saved all at once; some disbelieved because of their own wickedness, the … of the gospel … the multitude of the nations [was added] to the remnant; and they have also been made children of Abraham, so that in every respect, as far as the economy was concerned, it should not fail of the …

… purpose of his sojourn. For whoever is Israel, and indeed Jacob too, was gathered, according to the words we explained just now. So the people called in Christ promises that it will be gathered to God, plainly through faith, and that it will be glorified before God, having become a sharer in the splendour of adoption, made glorious by the Holy Spirit, shown to be a practiser of the best pursuits, and when it counts God its own strength. For so those who long for the salvation and glory that come from him ought to be disposed.

He adds to this: “And he said to me: It is a great thing for you to be called my servant, to establish the tribes of Jacob and to turn back the dispersion of Israel.” If one may speak in a human way, the Father does not let the Son shrink from the economy, nor does he let the lowliness of the form of a servant go unrewarded; rather he shows the matter to be fruitful, as it were, and the humiliation not without reward, and the burden of the economy not to be without wonder, and for this reason even the seeming loss of glory glorious. Admittedly it was a small thing for the Word who sprang from God to be called “servant” (pais), that is, a household slave. For the name sometimes means the Son, and sometimes, as I said, the household slave; and the needs of the sense lead us to bring in the one or the other at the time that suits each. Since the passage is about the economy with the flesh, it would fittingly suit … that “pais” be understood as servant. So, even if the dishonour of servitude, as I said, was a small thing for the Son, yet it was otherwise; and indeed it turned out to be no small thing for him. For he is glorified by all, as one who did not count being equal to God a thing to be grasped, who entered into the ways of servitude and came down into self-emptying, who endured the cross and what went with it, and laid down his own life in exchange for the life of all, so as to destroy the devil’s tyranny and drive the hordes of demons from their unbearable greed against us, so as to remove destructive sin from the midst, abolish death, refashion the nature of man to what it was from the beginning, and hand over to God the kingdom that is both the Father’s and his own, no longer tyrannized by anyone but rather casting off the yoke of others’ greed.

“Behold, I have set you for a light of nations, that you may be for salvation to the end of the earth.”

The Father was not ignorant of the hard-necked and unteachable mind of the Jews, turned wholly to unbridled ways. For they did not at all accept the instruction given through Christ, though they ought to have admired the Redeemer for his gentleness and incomparable love for mankind, and to have received his generosity, as it were, with open hands. So that the economy of our Saviour might not seem to have missed its aim, since the people that was preferred kicked against it and did not, as I said, accept his redemption, the Father added that he will show the path of salvation and send the light of the true knowledge of God to those in mist and darkness. For Israel was being called to this, Christ saying plainly: “I am the light of the world”; and: “While you have the light, walk in the light, so that darkness may not overtake you.” But since they loved the darkness rather than the light, they were left behind by him, although the holy prophets had foretold to them the grace that is in Christ. For one said: “Shine, shine, Jerusalem, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

Behold, darkness and gloom shall cover the earth over the nations; but upon you the Lord shall appear, and his glory shall be seen upon you.” And another: “And to you who fear my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.” But since, as the sacred writing says, they made their ears heavy so as not to hear, and closed their eyes, Christ shone upon the nations, and … of the divine light, from the east to the west and to the ends of the earth, to enjoy his generosity and with the pure eyes of the mind to behold the divine and supreme nature, and those of the spiritual worship, both to it and …

“Thus says the Lord, the God who rescued you, Israel: Sanctify him who holds his life cheap, who is abhorred by the nations, the servants of the rulers. Kings shall see him, and rulers shall arise, and they shall worship him for the Lord’s sake, because the Holy One of Israel is faithful, and I chose you. Thus says the Lord: In an acceptable time I heard you, and in a day of salvation …”

How great a care God the Father thought fit to take of those called through Christ you may learn from this too. For he initiates them into the mysteries and uncovers the deep and great mystery of the incarnation, not letting any be shattered on the stone of stumbling and, through ill counsel, strike against the rock of offence. For that is how the stricken Israel was crushed. What then does he say? “I, the God who rescued you, say this to you: Sanctify him who holds his life cheap,” that is, regard as venerable and holy, and be eager to treat so, him who made his own life cheap, that is, set it at nothing. For God, the only-begotten Word of God, having become man, laid down his own life for us and chose to suffer for our sake death according to the flesh, while undergoing nothing in his own nature. For he himself, being beyond suffering as God, nevertheless, so to speak, threw it away, and that for sinners. This the all-wise Paul marvelled at; for he said: “God shows his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, at the right time he died for the ungodly.” And Christ himself says somewhere: “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” So he laid it down for us; for by his bruise we were healed, and he was weakened because of our lawless deeds, and was handed over because of our sins. “Let him be sanctified,” then, he says, that is, let him be counted holy, or confessed as holy. This would befit God, and him alone, properly and in a special way. For even if there are many holy ones and rational powers …

… are called holy by [participation in] the one who is holy by nature and who alone truly is so. For just as he himself is the true light, yet has given the dignity to others too (for “you are,” he says, “the light of the world”), so also, being alone holy together with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, he gives sanctification, as from his own fullness, to those who share in him. So too we say in our prayers: “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” And we do not at all mean that we ask for an addition of holiness to be made to the Father’s name (the thing would be quite foolish); rather we pray that it may be among all what it truly is, that is, holy and to be feared. So here too “Sanctify” is to be understood, even if, he says, he has held his life cheap, that is, even if he is said to suffer something human, and allowed his own flesh to taste death, and laid down his own life for many.

The passage runs on and recalls other things too, which might at times be a hindrance to believing in him for those who do not see the depth of the economy, but would do no harm to those of sound mind. For when Jesus had been handed over to Pilate, some of the soldiers treated him with loathing, now beating him impiously, now dishonouring him with spitting, insulting him with the crown of thorns and mocking him, saying: “Hail, King of the Jews.” That is why he says: “him who is abhorred by the nations, the servants of the rulers.” “Sanctify” will certainly follow on this too. But that, while he suffered in the way of the economy the mockeries of the nations, he will shine out after this and be glorified by all, both those in the highest eminences and those in the lower ranks of honour, he foretells by saying: “Kings shall see him, and rulers shall arise,” plainly from the thrones of their kingdoms, “and they shall worship him.” They will see him not with the eyes of the body but as by the contemplation of mind and heart; for that is how we see the glory of Christ. “They shall worship him for the Lord’s sake,” that is, for my sake; for he is glorified as Son of God the Father, and “because the Holy One of Israel is faithful.” “Faithful” here means the one who always remains; for the kingdom of God the Father cannot be shaken, and likewise that of the Son; whereas the falsely named gods are not faithful, for they are new-born and perishing and do not remain. But the Saviour and Lord of all, who is truly faithful, that is, sure, has himself chosen those called through Christ. “For those whom he foreknew,” it says, “he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son; these he also called,” and besides this he sanctified and glorified them. It was necessary, then, it was necessary that the chosen sanctify him who held his life cheap, and not, by looking at the things of his humanity, fall away from what is fitting and be carried away from accurate knowledge of him, but rather, understanding the wisdom of the economy, worship him and be firmly persuaded that he is by nature and in truth the Son of the faithful Lord, even if he appeared in the way of the economy in a form like ours, and the … of the self-emptying …, and he says: “In an acceptable time I heard you, and in a day of salvation I helped you.” Christ and his mystery were foreknown before the foundation of the world; but he shone out at the times the Sovereign willed, at which he helped us; and he says that the time of the incarnation is the day of salvation.

For so too, I think, the divine Paul says: “Behold, now … salvation.” And the prophet David also sings and says: “This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

“And I gave you for a covenant of nations, to establish the earth and to inherit a desert inheritance, saying to those in bonds: Come out; and to those in darkness: Be uncovered. And in all their ways they shall be fed, and in all the paths their pasture. They shall not hunger nor thirst, nor shall the burning heat strike them, nor the sun; but he who has mercy on them will comfort them, and through springs of waters he will lead them. And I will make every mountain a way, and every path a pasture for them. Behold, these come from afar, these from the north, and these from the sea, and others from the land of the Persians.”

Some of the earlier interpreters thought fit to make the beginning of the present chapter at: “Thus says the Lord: In an acceptable time I heard you, and in a day of salvation I helped you.” And they say these words were spoken by God the Father to Christ, the Saviour of us all. They weave in besides a sense of this kind: he prayed, they say, before the precious cross, saying, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me,” and he was not heard, for he drank it; but since he trampled on death with the Father’s help, the words were necessarily spoken to him: “In an acceptable time I heard you, and in a day of salvation I helped you.” But this account seems to me to be very implausible. For he knew that he must drink the cup, and that the world under heaven could not otherwise be saved than through the death of his flesh and the resurrection from the dead; yet the form of the prayer was carried out with the greatest wisdom of the economy, so that his asking to be spared the passion might accuse the blood-guilt of the Jews. For in what way would Israel have become liable to the charges of impiety toward him, if suffering had not been unwelcome to him because of its shame? Yet even so it became willed, both to remove the sin of the world and to refashion our condition into newness of holy life. For so you will understand what he said: “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me,” that is, the will of the Father who sent me, “that of all that he has given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.” For Christ appeared to the world, and the sacred preaching was directed to those of Israel. But since they were disobedient and hardened, unbridled and bold, they did not accept the faith but sinned against it in many ways, and at last they crucified him. Here, please, see the power of the ineffable wisdom. For what was brought on him by the perversity of the Jews, I mean death, plainly that of the flesh, he made an occasion of salvation for those throughout the whole earth; death was abolished through his resurrection, corruption has been trampled underfoot, and we who through the transgression in Adam had been brought down to the opposite have flourished again into life. So we do not say that the prayer of Christ our Saviour failed (far from it), but rather that it was an act of the economy, on which wonder ought to follow. And we say that the petition made, I mean, before the precious cross was wise in another way too. For it became for us a pattern and example of a necessary thing: in [the time] of temptation we must not be [careless] and slack, but rather watchful, and then intent on prayer, and must ask God who saves, so that, if it is pleasing to him, we may carry our foot out of the noose and the snare; but if he knows that suffering will be more beneficial for us, that this too may come to completion, he himself granting endurance. Since, then, the opinion of some has been shown to be implausible, come, let us take hold again of the matter in hand.

He says that he gave him “for a covenant of nations, to establish the earth and to inherit a desert inheritance, saying to those in bonds: Come out; and to those in darkness: Be uncovered.” For when Israel kicked against him and [turned away from] love for him through …, Christ [turned to the nations] and appointed for them the New Covenant, that is, the saving preaching of the gospel, and established the earth, which plainly was in turmoil and not in a good state of understanding. For it had gone astray worshipping the creation and was in subjection to the hordes of unclean spirits; it did only what seemed good to them, and they carried it off into every kind of uncleanness and ordered it to live a beastlike life. So the earth was in no small turmoil and confusion; but it was established through Christ, and passed, as it were, from storm and tempest into calm weather. For it became his portion and lot. And this, then, was what was said to him in the second psalm, as from God the Father: “Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession.” He calls the multitude of the nations a desert, likening it to a land without fruit and without water. But, as I said, it became the lot of Christ. How, and in what way? To those who were in bonds, tied fast with the cords of their own sins, he called out: “Come out.” And to those in darkness and in the mist of the mind, and as it were in deep night, … to come to the light, to open wide the eyes of the understanding, and to take the divine light that comes from him to dwell within them. And those found worthy of this, he says, “shall be fed in all their ways, and in all the paths their pasture.” The ways of goodness are very many, but for the nations none was passable; it was rough and steep, and they were held fast by … of their own, which made the good impassable for them. But when the grace of the Saviour shone forth, it loosed their bonds and enlightened their heart; then they were able to run along every way and gather spiritual nourishment, for this is what “they shall be fed” means … one may say this too, that the paths and ways which carry our minds to God, that is, to a pure and exceptional way of life, are the divinely inspired Scriptures. These were least known to those who had gone astray; but since they have been called to the light of the truth, the Scriptures have become pastures for them, and feeding grounds that nourish them to spiritual vigour and to the desire for every good. And God promises them the abundance of his grace, help, and spiritual comfort. For “they shall not hunger …” … for lack of spiritual comfort; for they had no divine law, no prophet, no tutor, no guide, no teacher, no spring of spiritual waters.

But since they have received mercy from God, the supply of spiritual goods from heaven has now become most abundant for them. They drank living water, of which Christ himself spoke when he talked with the woman in Samaria: “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him, it will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” And the prophet Isaiah too said somewhere of those justified in faith and bringing the … of their understanding under the gospel oracles: “… strong; bread shall be given him, and his water shall be sure.”

But “neither shall the burning heat strike them, nor the sun.” For Christ has become their shelter, he who of old also spread a cloud over the sons of Israel by day and led them in a pillar of fire by night. They will be out of the reach of the sun and the burning heat, he says, that is, they will gain the shelter that comes from God, so as to [suffer] nothing … The divine Paul too said something of this kind: “God is able, who will not let us be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also provide the way out, so that you may be able to endure it.” This, I think, is what is meant by “he who has mercy on them will comfort them.” For “he will lead them through springs of waters, and he will make every mountain a” [way] … By [springs] we mean here the holy prophets, apostles, and evangelists; consorting with them wisely and skilfully, we draw from them the life-giving and divine word, sufficient to brace our souls for godliness and to provide spiritual delight for us. For so it is written: “And you will draw water with gladness from the springs of salvation.” That none of the exceptional achievements of virtue is steep or hard to reach for those saved through Christ, [he signifies by] saying that every mountain will be made a way. For it seems somehow to be lifted up on high and inaccessible to many to become conspicuous in something, such as self-control, temperance, long-suffering, forbearance, gentleness, love, and the rest; but the Saviour has made every way smooth and easy to travel for us, so that [nothing] is hard to approach for those who wish to walk by him. And this, I think, is what was clearly said through one of the holy prophets: “Every ravine shall be filled, and all the crooked things shall become straight, and the rough into smooth ways.” And again: “The way of the godly has become straight, and the way of the godly is prepared.” That those called have become more than can be numbered, gathered from every part of the earth under heaven, he made known by saying: “Behold, these come from afar, and these from the north and the sea, and others from the land of the Persians.” “From afar” seems to suggest the southern parts, the north the northern, and the sea the lands toward the west; for so the Psalmist too mentions them, saying: “The north and the sea you created.” And those from the land of the Persians would be those caught in the net from the east, for the land of the Persians lies toward the sunrise. Or perhaps it is fitting to understand also the magi who worshipped him.

For they came to Judaea inquiring and saying: “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star in the East and have come to worship him.” And having worshipped, they also honoured him with gifts, I mean frankincense, gold, and myrrh. The Psalmist mentions this when he says of Christ, the Saviour of us all: “And he shall live, and there shall be given to him of the gold of Arabia.” For here he calls the country of the Persians Arabia.

“… let the mountains break forth gladness, because God has had mercy on his people and has comforted the humble of his people.”

He calls heaven and earth together into one company and bids them very well to keep a festival for those saved by him. By the heavens we may understand not the element itself but those who live in the mansions above and have heaven as their dwelling, the holy Powers, Principalities, Thrones, Authorities, and the Seraphim beyond these. And by the earth, likewise, those on it who were expecting his appearing and knew that he would come for the redemption of those of Israel and of all the nations throughout the whole earth, as, for example, Simeon the righteous, holding Jesus, still a little infant, in his arms, glorified God, saying: “Now, Master, you let your servant depart in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all the nations,” and the rest. Or perhaps we should understand the saved themselves, keeping the festival over their own salvation. And the mountains that break forth gladness should be taken to be, as I said just now, the rational powers raised on high in virtue, that is, the ministers of the gospel preaching, who [proclaim] Christ … the earth. For they announce that God has had mercy on his people and has comforted the humble of his people. For Christ had mercy on all by shining on them, if indeed it is true that they have been rescued from the hand of the devil and of sin that formerly tyrannized over them, and besides this from the bonds of death; and they have been granted grace and a gift beyond this world, having become partakers of the Holy Spirit, made glorious with the glory of adoption, and enriched with a hope beyond understanding. But observe the precision of the prophet’s words. “The humble of his people,” he says, “he comforted.” We say that the humble are those who have yielded their neck to Christ with ready obedience and have not dishonoured the yoke of his kingdom, because they accepted …

… the faith, and were ready to offer him worship and service in spirit and in truth; whereas those who did not accept the faith are not humble, but lift up their horn on high and speak unrighteousness against him and his sacred oracles, stretching up the neck of their mind, as it were, in arrogance. These were not granted the spiritual comfort, for they were not worthy. For what portion has a believer with an unbeliever, as it is written?

“But Zion said: The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me. Will a mother forget her child, so as not to have mercy on the offspring of her womb? But even if a woman should forget these, I will not forget you.”

The Lord, the Saviour of all, set the grace that comes through faith before the children of Zion, that is, those of the blood of Israel, before the others, and urged them in countless ways, saying, as it were: “Seize the moment in which, by believing in him, you can gain the riches of the generous gifts promised to the fathers.” But they were unyielding and disobedient; and indeed, despising the laws given through the all-wise Moses and caring little for the preaching of the prophets, they slipped away from believing, and … and for this reason they were set far from close relation to him; yet the remnant has been saved, and Israel did not perish root and all. But they are very few compared with the multitude of the disobedient. So, very aptly, Zion, standing for the mother of the Jews, [speaks] as one neglected by the God who sustained her, and therefore as one left with very few children. For she said, he says: “The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.” And what does God say to this? He shows his love for men to be beyond comparison, and promises the spiritual Zion the good things of his compassion, and tries to assure her that he would never forget his own creatures. For just as a woman who has borne children would not forget her own children, since she has the law of nature as arbiter of the highest kindness, or tender affection, so neither would I forget my own, he says; or perhaps God’s affection even surpasses the tender affection found in mothers. For it is not at all unlikely that she might fall into forgetfulness; but it is not right that I should suffer this. So the words are spoken as from the earthly Zion, that is, the mother of the Jews, who suffered childlessness, or the loss of most of her children; but the promise is made to the spiritual Zion, to which the all-wise Paul says the believers have come; [I mean] the one from the nations, which corresponds to the one above, which the all-wise Paul mentions when he says: “But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.” For she is the city of the living God, the nurse of the firstborn, and the mother of the saints enrolled in heaven, and Christ would never forget her. For he loves the church, which he presented to himself, having created the two peoples into one new man and reconciled both in one body to the Father. How then could he forget his own body, that is, the church, of which he is the head?

“Behold, I have painted your walls on my hands, and you are before me continually; and you shall soon be built by those by whom you were pulled down, and those who laid you waste shall go out from you.”

The sense of these words is very hard to find. For what could one suppose the hands of God to be, on which it is right to think that the walls of Zion have been painted? The sacred writing very often calls God’s hands his active powers, through which he brought all things into being, whenever he also works any of the things he wills; for example, the Singer makes plain the coming into being of every man when he says: “Your hands have formed me and made me”; and: “For the sea is his, and he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.” And again: “And you, Lord, in the beginning founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands.” How, then, could anyone suppose that the walls of the Zion meant here are painted, as on a tablet, on God’s active powers? Or what walls at all does the passage mention? What, then, do we say? Nothing, I think, would prevent the disciple of Christ from fitting a sense of this kind to the words before us. Zion was accusing the Lord of having forgotten her. But that this is not true our Lord Jesus Christ tries to show from what belongs to the incarnation and from what he endured for our sake when he became like us. For although he could have remained in the form and equality of the Father, he did not count this a thing to be grasped, but rather came down into self-emptying. He took the form of a servant and became obedient to the Father unto death, even death on a cross. For he was hung on a tree, his hands nailed to it. But the saving passion overthrew the principalities, triumphed over the world-rulers of this age, freed all from the tyranny of the devil, and brought us to God. For by his bruise we were healed; he bore our sins in his body on the tree; he was weakened, and we have been saved; and his passion has become our safety and wall. For he bought us out of the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; and in that he himself suffered when tempted, he has helped those who are tempted; and he suffered outside the city, so as to sanctify the people with his own blood. So (I will say it again) the passion of Christ, the precious cross, and the nailing of his hands have become safety and a wall, unapproachable and unbreakable, for those who believe in him. Fittingly, then, he might say: “Behold, I have painted your walls on my hands.” You will understand the piercing of the hands, that is, the passion, as signified by this one thing. “I have painted” means “I have engraved.” “And you are before me continually.” For if he suffered for us, how could he forget us? Or how could those for whose sake he was nailed to the tree not be before his eyes? But if anyone should wish to apply himself to the sense of these words in another way too, it is not at all unlikely, I think, to understand something like this: all who have believed in Christ are in the hands of God the Father. One might say this, I think, and not miss the truth. For he himself said: “My sheep hear my voice and follow me, and I give them eternal life”; and besides this, that “no one will snatch them out of my Father’s hand,” since they are under shelter … fortified. Since, then, nothing prevents us from understanding that all are in the hands of God the Father, who as it were holds us up, keeps us safe by himself, and does not let us be carried off anywhere we should not go, nor become the prey of … of those who plot against us, [nothing prevents us from understanding] also that the walls of Zion are as it were painted on his own hands …

… that is, decked out for spiritual elegance, and having as their beauty that they are very well known for every virtue. And we say that the walls of the spiritual Zion are the holy apostles and evangelists, appointed to this by God and keeping their mind on him without ceasing. For their names were written in heaven, and they have been set in the book of the living. And do not be surprised that he says the saints are the ramparts and walls of the church. He himself is its wall and outer wall; but just as … being, and the whole safety of those who believe in him, he has given the holy initiators into the mysteries, as a rank of splendid dignity, to be called walls of his church.

“And you shall soon be built,” he says, “by those by whom you were pulled down.” The Jews, or rather the leaders of the Jews, pulled down the earthly Zion, that is, their own mother, carrying her away from Christ and teaching her to treat the faith as unacceptable. For they said: “We know that God has spoken to Moses; but as for this man, we do not know where he is from.” And having driven on to the limit of every evil and killed the heir, they became the cause of her fall. But just as Jews pulled her down, so again the divine disciples, who were Jews, raised her up, plainly when she had changed, not remaining what she was, that is, disobedient and Lord-slaying, but distinguished in faith, plainly faith in Christ. “And those who laid her waste went out from her.” For the first leaders were cast out, and others were set up in their place, whom we mentioned just now. For she could not otherwise change and love Christ and choose [the truth] in place of the shadow of the law, unless the first were thrust out from leading her lawlessly, and the choir of the holy initiators into the mysteries were raised up instead, of whom the divine David makes most excellent mention when he sings somewhere and says to Christ, the Saviour of all: “You will make them rulers over all the earth, and they will remember your name in every generation and generation.”

“Lift up your eyes round about and see them all. Behold, they have gathered and come to you. As I live, says the Lord, you shall put them all on, and put them around you like a bride’s ornament.”

Throughout the whole holy and divinely inspired Scripture it is clearly declared that those of the blood of Israel, or the children of the earthly Zion, are the portion and lot of Christ in the last times of the age. “For they will return,” it says, “to the Lord their God and to David their king,” and they will be amazed at the Lord and at his good things in the last days. For while they disobeyed, the church from the nations, which we also say is the spiritual Zion, came in alongside; but those too will be called, and they will be one flock, one shepherd, so that there are no longer two Zions named, but both belong to one church, having come under the hand of the one chief shepherd of all. And that this will certainly come about in every way he assures by saying to the mother of the Jews: “Lift up your eyes round about and see them all. Behold, they have gathered and come to you. As I live, says the Lord, you shall put them all on and put them around you like a bride’s ornament.”

For they were scattered, since a shepherd no longer stood over them. For it was said somewhere through one of the holy prophets, as from the person of Christ: “And I said, I will not shepherd you; what is dying, let it die, and what is failing, let it fail, and let the rest eat each the flesh of his neighbour.” For what harm would that not suffer which has fallen altogether from God’s care and love? For they will be exposed to those who wish to tear them apart and carry them off wherever each of the wrongdoers sees fit. And it is the wicked and roaming demons that carry them away from God; for it is written: “They shall be portions for foxes.” And the manifold passions within us also do this; for the all-wise Paul says that some were given up to dishonourable passions and to a base mind. What then … the gathering in of the scattered, the spiritual return of those who had perished, the coming back of the runaways, their conversion and watchfulness, and the rewards of love for Christ. “Look around,” he says, “and see them all. Behold, they have gathered to you.” And to make the promise trustworthy, he confirms what was said with an oath, and says: “As I live, says the Lord, I will clothe them all as a bride’s ornament.” For the gathering of the churches is an ornament. For this reason [the psalm shows] the church in a robe of gold and [many colours] … For just as the many-hued and most costly stones, I mean the Indian ones, set in gold bands, make a wonderful ornament worth seeing, so too the souls of the saints, with the … beauty to the eyes of the Godhead, so that each, giving thanks to Christ, says: “Let my soul rejoice in the Lord; for he has clothed me with a garment of salvation and a tunic of gladness; as on a bridegroom he has put an ornament on me, and as a bride he has adorned me …”

“For your desert places, and those that were ruined and fallen, will now be too narrow because of the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far from you. For your sons, whom you lost, will say in your ears: The place is too narrow for me; make room for me, so that I may dwell. And you will say in your heart: Who has begotten these for me? I was childless and a widow. And who has brought these up for me? I was left alone. And where were these for me?”

Here too he weaves the form of the passage from things in view and more evident. When Israel disbelieved and laid hands on Christ himself, the whole country of the Jews was laid waste, and the temple itself was burned together with Jerusalem; and such a dearth of men took hold of Judaea that the blessed prophet Isaiah … For he said: “And seven women shall take hold of one man, saying: We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes; only let your name be called upon us; take away our reproach.” For it was said through the law: “There shall be no one barren or sterile among the sons of Israel”; and they counted the reproach of childlessness unbearable.

So, as if the war had consumed every male, he said that seven women would be received by one man so that he might take away their reproach, that is, their childlessness. But since it was burdensome for one man to please seven women, … [they promise] to eat their own bread and wear their own clothes, as needing nothing at all from him; for they declared that they feared only the reproach of childlessness, as I said. As though their country, then, had been brought into total desolation, he promises release from what had happened, and says that the desert and fallen places will be too narrow because of the inhabitants, those who swallowed her up having plainly been removed far off, that is, those who had obtained the leadership, who like wild beasts destroyed and swallowed her up. And he shows the multitude of those who will be called to be great and countless. “For your sons,” he says, “whom you lost, will say in your ears: Make room for me.” And it was said somewhere to the spiritual Zion too: “Enlarge the place of your tent, and fix the curtains of your courts; do not spare; spread out still further to the right and to the left.” And we have read in the books of Moses that around the tent in the desert, I mean through the … courts were … looking partly toward the dawn and the sunrise, partly toward the west behind the tent, and indeed toward the north and the south, the type suggesting the breadth and length that the sacred courts, that is, the churches, would have in their time. But since the grace that comes from Christ always abounds in this way, places everywhere are narrow for the believers, so that the church, which is the spiritual Zion, rejoicing, reckons it up and cries out to herself: “Who has begotten these for me?” And I would say: faith in Christ. For through it, though childless and a widow, you have become rich in children; it has brought up your peoples for you; and you who were formerly left alone have been enriched …, and have been seen to have many children, you who were formerly bare and alone.

“Thus says the Lord: Behold, I lift up my hand to the nations, and to the islands I will lift up my signal; and they will bring your sons in their bosom, and carry your daughters on their shoulders. And kings will be your foster fathers, and their princesses your nurses, on the face of the earth. And they will bow down to you and lick the dust of your feet. And you will know that I am the Lord, and you will not be put to shame.”

Having promised Zion that she will have many children and fine ones, and that her children will reach such a multitude that she will need wider places than before and be urged to enlarge her tent, he shows at once that the multitude of the children promised to her appears not so much from Israel as from the flock of the nations. The thing is true, and one can see it from the events themselves. For the remnant of those of Israel has been saved, but it is small and easily counted; whereas the whole earth under heaven has been caught in the net through faith in Christ, and the power of the apostolic and gospel preaching has brought to him those throughout the whole earth. That this will come about he shows by saying: “Behold, I lift up to … and I raise.” The hand would suggest strength or power. For when Christ was made known to the nations through the gospel preaching, he became exalted and renowned through the miracles he worked and through the resurrection from the dead; when the signal of the precious cross was displayed even among those who once did not know him who is God by nature and in truth, then Zion was enriched with many children, then … calling to one another and saying: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob, and they will declare to us his way, and we will walk in it.” And that for those going to the divine house nothing at all will be steep or rough, or a hindrance, he shows by saying: “They will bring your sons in their bosom, and carry your daughters on their shoulders.” For the blessed disciples have become like child-bearers for those from the nations, and those who after them still put forward the word of sacred initiation,

… and the leaders of churches. For they all but take those who come to the faith into their bosom and carry them lifted on their shoulders, laying no hardship on them, but nourishing them as with milk, as befits infants, and setting before them the simple and very easily grasped word of catechesis. This again the prophet Isaiah himself taught us when he said elsewhere: “The way of the godly has become straight, and the way of the godly is prepared; for the way of the Lord is judgment.” And he has brought in the divine Baptist too, crying out and saying: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God. Every ravine shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked things shall become straight, and the rough into smooth ways.” So the taking into the bosom and the lifting on the shoulders of her sons and daughters would suggest that, for those eager to go to Zion as to a mother, the arrival through faith will be without any sweat. And that they will be full of the highest honour, glory, and comfort he further shows by saying that “kings will be your foster fathers, and their princesses your nurses.” For one can, one can see those who have believed in Christ cared for with honour through the piety of the rulers and granted every consideration, so that the rulers seem to be their foster parents rather than anything else. And if they fall on their faces and bow down to Zion, that is, the church, and, flung to the ground as it were with hands outstretched, all but lick the dust of her feet, how could it be doubtful that they have made up their minds to this, and count it among their own duties to honour the elect, and will reckon in the rank of their children whoever believe in Christ? When this has come about, Zion, made childless as far as the Jews are concerned, will no longer be put to shame as childless and a widow, but will be crowned with glory.

“Will anyone take spoils from a giant? And if one takes captive unjustly, will he be saved?”

The form of the words is framed as a question, but it calls for understanding. The sense of the passage is something like this. The whole earth under heaven had been seized by the devil and the herd of demons; there was no one on the earth who escaped the tyranny of their malice. For there was none who did good, not even one; the net of sin had been spread over all, and darkness and mist, falling upon the hearts of all, carried them away from knowing him who is by nature and truly God, and assigned them to those who had seized power. At any rate some worshipped the creation rather than the Creator, and the elements of the world, while others served those very beings who imposed their unbearable greed. So they became like spear-won captives under a harsh tyrant, and … But there was no one at all able to defend the wronged … that “I will seize the whole world with my hand like a nest, and like abandoned eggs I will take it up, and there is none who will escape me or speak against me.” Since the devil had such haughtiness toward those on the earth, the Saviour inquires and says: “Will anyone take spoils from a giant?” He says that it is difficult and hard to accomplish to defeat the strong one (for here he calls the strong one a giant) and to take spoils from him. Then how is this doubtful? For such beings are very hard to face and not easily overcome by those who would, but can be caught only by those able to raise against them a hand that is overwhelming and invincible. “But I,” he says, “will take, and I will set free those who have been wronged, and, breaking off the yoke of their slavery, I will make them splendid with the grace of freedom.” But that God’s just verdict will despoil Satan and exact from the wicked one the penalty for the wrongs done against us he will confirm by adding: “And if one takes captive unjustly, will he be saved?” We will take this line too as a question, with a pause.

For he who unjustly leaps upon those who have done him no wrong, then takes them captive and [afflicts them] with miseries, [will pay] rather the penalty for what he dared. So he will let go those who had become, in the rank of spoils, his spear-won prizes, and besides will owe an account for those who came under him unjustly. Something of this kind he says elsewhere too: “As a garment soaked in blood will not be clean, so neither will you be clean, because you destroyed my land and killed my people; you will not remain for ever.” One may also remind the readers of this work that the Saviour himself is found saying something like this in the gospel oracles: “Or how can anyone enter the house of the strong man and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his goods.” He called the region of the earth the house of the strong man, that is, of Satan; and … it had been seized by him. But when the Word entered it, made flesh, binding the strong man with inexpressible power, he transferred his goods to himself, that is, those who once thought as he did … For just as we say the saints are vessels of election, so we say that those who have come under the devil and chosen, or rather been compelled, to think as he does are the devil’s vessels.

“Thus says the Lord: If anyone takes a giant captive, he will take spoils; and taking from one who is strong, he will be saved.”

I said just now that our Lord Jesus Christ, using ineffable powers befitting God, entered the house of the strong man, that is, came into this world with the flesh; and the one who of old had been greedy and had done violence to those throughout the whole earth, holding them under [the bonds] of sin, he despoiled; and casting him, as it were, into unbreakable bonds and consigning him to Tartarus in chains of gloom, he handed him over to be kept for the judgment of the great day, to be punished. And after this he despoiled him, persuading those who had come under him to run back to the will to be subject to the true God, and to the things of his that lead them to the finding of salvation. And since Christ has prevailed, he has passed on victory to us too, yet not apart from himself; for he is the boast of the strength of the saints, as the psalmist’s words say. And indeed the all-wise Paul says: “I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.” … to be able to despoil the strong one, that is, the giant, I mean Satan. “If anyone takes a giant captive,” he says, “he will take spoils.” For when we overcome the devil’s strength and escape the attacks of our enemies, having Christ himself as the weapon of good pleasure, then we despoil the evil one, carrying off the victorious verdict and shown to be superior to his malice and wickedness. But that the power to conquer would come to those who play the man from Christ, and that no one could otherwise attain to this glory, he shows very well by adding: “And taking from one who is strong, he will be saved.” For when he gives us the ability … and besides this he sends us on from victory into endless life, into glory, into boasting, and into the kingdom of heaven. And Christ himself, having despoiled Satan and shown the way to be easy and smooth for those who believe in him to prevail, said somewhere: “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you.” It is true, then, that taking from one who is strong, that is, from him, for he himself is the Lord of hosts, … One might despoil Satan in another way too, those …

… who had come under him and gone astray, skilfully carrying them over to the light of the true knowledge of God and transferring them from wickedness to a good life befitting saints.

“But I will judge your cause, and I will rescue your sons; and those who afflicted you will eat their own flesh, and drink their own blood like new wine, and be drunk; and all flesh will perceive that I am the Lord who rescued you and …”

He speaks these words as to Zion, I mean; and here he seems to name as her sons the holy apostles and evangelists, and those still called after them to the sacred ministry, who have become lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, proclaiming everywhere the glory of Christ and making the power of the salvation that comes from him evident to those throughout the whole earth. Against them the dragon, the author of evil, like some cruel and savage beast, was at work, heaping afflictions and persecutions on them and goading on unbearably the shield-bearers of his own wickedness. At any rate persecutions were very often set on foot against the holy churches, and … many into the contests of martyrdom. “But I,” he says, “O Zion” (and we say this is the church, which he also calls Zion), “will judge your cause, and I will rescue your sons.” For those devoted to God, having [done] nothing [wrong] and condemned for nothing at all out of place, then, having carried through the contests even to life and blood with splendid deeds of valour, run to the mansions above; yet as far as the aim of those who plotted against them was concerned, they died and perished. So the judgment on these matters, or rather the just judgment, will certainly come from God in every way. Those who for godliness swam through the most glorious contests and reached the prize of the upward call will wreathe themselves with the crown of incorruption. But those who brought persecution on them and unjustly killed those whom they would better have hastened to emulate will eat their own flesh, and will gulp down, as it were, not so much the blood of those who suffered as their own. For what they brought on others they will suffer, not unjustly, by the just verdict of God, who crowns those who suffered and subjects the wrongdoers to long and unending punishment. And such just judgment will be most clearly known to all flesh, that is, to man … that the help that comes from me will certainly in every way take hold, the help of him who also strengthens you, Jacob, that is, the one of the seed of Jacob. I said that the prophetic word here is written as it were to the person of the holy apostles and evangelists, who were of Jacob, I mean, according to the flesh. But it is not unlikely that everyone is called Jacob, that is, a supplanter, who trips up Satan by the heel and drives back the … of sin skilfully and vigorously at once. For Jacob is interpreted “supplanter.”

“Thus says the Lord: What is the certificate of divorce of your mother, by which … for your sins I sent away your mother.”

The Divine is incorporeal, immaterial, invisible, and simple; and no one acting fittingly would form any bodily image of it. But the sacred writing speaks to us about him in a human way. For those who are in simple and gross bodies could not understand otherwise, unless our own circumstances were brought forward as examples, so that from things perceptible and visible we might be able to understand, at least in part, what concerns the divine and supreme essence, which is beyond every bodily image. See, then, how here the prophet’s words are framed in a manner suited to men. For like a man living with a wife and joined to her, he speaks to the Jewish people and says about their mother, I mean the earthly and perceptible Jerusalem, so that again through her, and as in the person of one woman, their whole community may be understood. For just as when we say “church” we are not accustomed to apply the force of the word to the circuit of the walls, but rather we signify those in it, so if someone says “the mother of the Jews,” he none the less signifies them. “So it is not I,” he says, “who have cast off your mother, though I became to her as it were in the rank of bridegroom and sowed the seeds of goodness through the law and the prophets; rather she herself went away, neglecting what was due to me and counting being with God of very little account. For what certificate of divorce has been given to her by me?” For God sends no one out of close relation to himself, nor does he shake off any of those accustomed to walk uprightly; but those who are genuine in faith and skilled in every good work he allows always to enjoy close relation to him in abundance. He goes outside such glory who has a mind out of tune and at odds with his divine oracles, and is a lover of pleasure rather than a lover of God. So, as in the rank of a husband who had lived with the mother of the Jews, he says: “What is the certificate of divorce of your mother, by which I sent her away?” … [she will not be able to show me as one who] drove her out and hated her, but will rather condemn herself as having chosen the separation of her own accord.

“Or to which debtor have I sold you?” Here the form of the speech is different: he speaks as a master to household slaves. “Did I,” he says, “like a man who has fallen into debt, sell to other masters those who were my household slaves?” Yet how is this not utterly foolish either to think or to say? For the Divine is beyond necessity, and nothing at all is beyond it. “So I have not sold you,” he says, “nor would I have handed over to other masters those who love me and are [mindful] of my oracles. How then did you come to bear the yoke of slavery to others? Sin became the occasion of the evil for you … the father of sin and inventor of all wickedness [acquired] you,” seizing for himself those who fall away from close relation to God and … them in the … of evils. For it will certainly follow for those who have slipped from close relation to God that they are caught in inescapable nooses. For Satan is terrible in greed, and those on the earth whom he sees choosing to neglect being with God he [subjects] to his own … sin; for on its account he acquired all …

… subjects to yokes, and brings down into the worst evils, making them slaves instead of free, and dishonoured instead of glorious. For such always [are the wages of his malice].

“Why did I come, and there was no man? I called, and there was none who obeyed? Is my hand not strong to rescue? Behold, by my rebuke I will make the sea desolate and make rivers deserts, and their fish will be dried up for lack of water and die of thirst. And I will clothe the heaven with darkness, and as sackcloth …”

Having stated very well that the children of Zion, that is, those of the blood of Israel, and Zion herself, plainly the earthly Jerusalem, had been sold by their own sins and cast out of close relation to him, he brings them under blame and indicts them for folly and ignorance carried to the limit. For when the Only-begotten shone with the flesh on those on the earth and appeared in a form like ours, they, impiously [forgetting] both the law and the prophets, … unbridled. For they would not know the Redeemer, the master of salvation, who justifies the ungodly and is able to free from every charge those held by human weaknesses. “I came,” then, he says, that is, “I became man and appeared to those of Israel, and there was no man among them,” plainly no man of sense, able to know the time of redemption. “I called, and there was none who obeyed.” For, as the prophet Isaiah himself again says somewhere from the person of Christ, the Saviour of us all: “I was found by those who sought me; I became manifest to those who did not ask for me. I said, Here I am, to a nation that did not know me. All day long I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contradicting people.” And in the gospel writings we shall find the Lord very often calling his own, the Jews, to faith: “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you.” And again at another time: “He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” And indeed, [showing] that believing would be fruitful and profitable for them, he says: “Truly I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.” One could heap up very many other sayings of equal force, if one chose to speak at length. “So I called,” he says, “and there was none who obeyed.” But perhaps those who … will say this, having a stubborn and unbroken mind, that my hand would not be strong enough to rescue the world under heaven. Yet in this too they thought nothing true. For [he appeared], as I said, in a form like ours, though the Word was God; and he became man, undergoing birth according to the flesh from a woman. But those who knew this and were not ignorant of the depth of his divine mysteries knew that he can do all things, being God by nature, and that he was sufficient for the redemption of the world under heaven. But the unbelieving and ignorant approached him as a common man, so that they even leapt upon him and said: “We are not stoning you for a good work, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” To such it would be fitting also to think and say that his hand could not defend those on the earth and rescue those held fast by the devil and by sin. “But when you reason in this way,” he says, “consider something better as well. For I am not simply a man like you, but rather God who has come to be in a form like yours in the way of the economy, so as to rescue you from both death and sin. For I who speak am present, the one who of old worked wonders through Moses and with inexpressible power divided the sea,” plainly the Red Sea. For the waters were fixed like a wall, and the redeemed went across and [escaped] the … in [Egypt]. “I will make the sea desolate,” he says here, instead of “I made it dry.” “And I will make rivers deserts.” Here again “I will make” is to be understood instead of “I have made.” He stopped it [the Jordan] when Joshua was taking Israel across and bringing them into the land of promise. And if he says that the fish in the waters will be dried up, understand

that this too was included to show that the Jordan was dried up completely. The divine David too recalls so splendid and great a wonder, saying at one time: “What ails you, O sea, that you fled, and you, Jordan, that you turned back?” and again at another: “The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you and were afraid; the depths were troubled, a multitude of the sound of waters.” And of the Jordan again he speaks thus: “You dried up the rivers of Etham,” that is, those in the south. He recalls another wonder too, and says: “I will clothe the heaven with darkness, and make its covering like sackcloth”; and here again “I will clothe” is to be understood instead of “I clothed.” For we remember that the all-wise Moses wrote that a deep darkness of three days was spread over the land of the Egyptians, but did no harm at all to those of Israel; for they had day and light. This too is marvellous and beyond all words. “Since, then, I am that very one,” he says, “even having appeared in the flesh, who of old made the sea desolate, that is, made it dry, and did the same to rivers, and cast darkness about this immense heaven, and made it evident by experience itself that I am Master of all and that nothing at all is beyond my powers, how would he not deserve laughter, or rather undergo an indictment for impiety, who should choose to think and say: My hand is not strong to rescue?”

“The Lord gives me a tongue of instruction, to know when I must speak a word. He set me in the morning; he added to me an ear to hear, and the instruction of the Lord opens my ears.”

It would not be implausible, or rather not out of keeping with right reasoning, to apply these words to the choir of the holy apostles, or to all who have believed in our Lord Jesus Christ, been made wise through the Spirit, and received abundantly into mind and understanding the enlightenment that comes from him; who have also come to share in divine gifts, and have been able to see with the pure eyes of the mind the depth of the divinely inspired Scripture, and have come within the skill of gospel living and holy understanding. These, then, [have received] as a gift a tongue of instruction, that is, the ability to speak in a well-instructed way, to make plain the divine mysteries beyond reproach, and to know when and how one ought to use words of exhortation. This the divine disciples did: they stored up in mind and heart a sound and blameless knowledge of faith in Christ, and to each of those who came to the divine preaching they offered the word that was fitting and suited to him. To those still infants they very fittingly brought, as it were in the rank of milk, the word of simple catechesis; but to those who had attained to the mature man and come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, the solid and most nourishing word. This, then, is the tongue of instruction, and the gift of knowing when one must speak a word. And they say that they were set “in the morning,” that is, there dawned in mind and heart the brightness of day, the shining of divine and spiritual light, the rising of the morning star. And this again we shall know from what the blessed Paul wrote: “Giving thanks to God the Father, who rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love in the light.” For the god of this age blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that the enlightenment of the gospel of Christ should not dawn on them. But for us the sun of righteousness has risen, flashing round our mind with divine light, so that we both are and are called sons of light and of the day. Then he says: “He added to me an ear to hear, and the instruction of the Lord opens my ears.” For having accepted faith in Christ and been enriched with the enlightenment that comes from him, we have received an addition of ear, that is, a power of hearing not usual before. For the Jews, reading the law, do not run past the shadow but settle in the types, bare and alone; for the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, as it is written. But we, believing the law to be a tutor, whenever we receive into our ears what was given through Moses, understand it otherwise …, making the shadow an occasion for spiritual contemplation. So we have received an addition of ears. For the instruction given through Christ, that is, the gospel preaching and the initiation into the mysteries through him, persuades us to understand the law spiritually. It widens, as it were, the ears of those who have believed in him, while those of Israel do not have this. At any rate our Lord Jesus Christ said to them: “Search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, and you do not want to come to me that you may have life.” And the all-wise and divine Paul writes about them that “whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart, not being lifted, because it is abolished in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Redeemer.”

“But I do not disobey, nor do I speak against. I gave my back to scourges and my cheeks to blows, and I did not turn away my face from the shame of spittings; and the Lord became my helper. Therefore I was not put to shame, but I set my face like a solid rock, and I knew that I shall not be put to shame, for he who justified me draws near.”

Through the passages already read, or rather already examined, he has made a very great outcry against the disobedience of the Jews. For he said: “I came, and there was no man; I called, and there was none who obeyed.” And having inserted in between the person of the … “[The Lord gives] me a tongue of instruction, to know when I must speak a word,” and what followed it, … the person of Christ, [setting] his own obedience [against the disobedience of the] Jews, so as to convict them as wholly God-hating, lifting a proud and harsh neck against him who calls them to salvation. “For I called,” he says, “and there was none who obeyed.” They were sluggish toward ready obedience, slow and wholly without understanding as to what they ought to grasp of what would serve their benefit, and of the means by which they could probably have escaped, and very easily, both the tyranny of sin and the plots of the devil’s malice. “But they disobeyed, while I did not …, so as to sum up all things in myself, both those in heaven and those on earth; I lowered myself to self-emptying and came down into the measures of human poverty, appearing as man so as to become obedient even unto death, even death on a cross. So I gave my back to scourges and my cheeks to blows, and I did not turn away my face from the shame of spittings.” For it befell him to suffer these things when the boorishness of the Jews behaved outrageously toward him, and Pilate tore him with scourges, and one of the unholy attendants struck him; and the one aim of him who suffered was to carry the good will of the Father through to its completion. And indeed Christ said somewhere: “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that of all that he has given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.” So, for the sake of achieving life for those who believe in him, he did not refuse insults, scourges, or the experience of being spat upon, though he was God by nature and true Lord. Then he says as a man: “And the Lord became my helper; therefore I was not put to shame, but I set my face like a solid rock, and I knew that I shall not be put to shame, for he who justified me draws near.” He speaks, then, in a human way,

as I said, and in no way out of keeping with the measures of the self-emptying. But by these words he seems to hint at the punishment that fell on them for their impiety toward him. “For the Lord,” he says, “became my helper.” It is as if he were saying: “When I had given my back to scourges and my cheeks to blows, and had suffered also the sufferings on the cross, the Father became my helper.” For he defended him, and did not allow his own Son to be put to shame altogether, nor indeed to be disgraced. “For they have been punished … [who] offended against me.” And by adding “He who justified me draws near,” he again neatly suggested that the punishment of those who behaved outrageously toward him will not run far off nor be put off, but will come near, as it were, and on their heels … [the Father justified the] Son in a manner of this kind. Since they dared to kill him though he was righteous and in no way liable for faults, they have been punished, as I said; and the chastisement of those who suffered it has borne witness to the complete innocence of him whom they unholily outraged. God the Father said something of this kind: “And I will give the wicked for his burial, and the rich for his death.” He names as rich and wicked the leaders of the Jews; for, sick with an extreme love of money, they were carried away by it into their wickedness against him. For although they recognized him, they said: “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance for ourselves.”

“Who is it that contends with me? Let him stand against me at once. Who is it that contends with me? Let him draw near to me.”

That he was righteous and wholly innocent (for he committed no sin) when he underwent the outrages of the Jews the divine prophet himself will confirm, saying about him: “See how the righteous one has perished, and no one takes it to heart.” And again, as from the person of the Jews about him: “Let us bind the righteous one, for he is troublesome to us.” And the thing itself would proclaim it aloud. For how could the divine and pure nature of the Word come under sin or the blame of any fault? At any rate it was said of Christ, the Saviour of us all: “He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth.” Since, then, he says that he underwent the plots of the synagogue of the Jews though he was innocent and righteous, he necessarily addresses those who did not know his entire purity, or perhaps even supposed that he had done something out of place and suffered justly what he suffered on the cross, and says: “Who is it that contends with me? Let him stand against me at once.”

Like this is what Christ himself said plainly to the scribes and Pharisees: “Which of you convicts me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me?” For although the only-begotten Word of God became like us and took on likeness in every respect, it is believed that in this one respect alone he was beyond our nature. For every man is subject to faults and offences, and no one [is clean of stain even if his] life [be but one day]; he alone, even when he became man, kept for himself the dignity befitting God. For the nature of God may fittingly be understood to be beyond offending. Therefore he also said: “The ruler of this world is coming, and he will find nothing in me.” For how could he who became like us in order to rescue us from the nooses of sin be caught along with us himself? Or how did he come under blame and indictment who frees from indictment and blame all who believe in him? “For it is God who justifies; who is to condemn?”

“Behold, the Lord helps me; who will harm me? Behold, all of you will grow old like a garment, and as a moth will devour you.”

He wishes to teach at once two useful and necessary things to those who were sick with impious and unjust envy against him: first, that their scheme against him and their murderous attempt would come to nothing in every way; then, that bitter and unbearable penalties will be exacted from those who have offended against him. For they thought they could surround with death the Lord, who is the author of life. But, as the psalmist says: “They devised a counsel which they will not be able to establish.” For it was impossible that he, being life, should be held by death. So he was raised by the power of God the Father, as it is written; not because he himself, insofar as he is understood as Word and God, lacked strength to drive away corruption from his own flesh, but because he became man, and seems to receive this too from the Father; for to a man all things are given by God. That God the Father abolished the power of death through him, by his resurrection from the dead, would be clear from his saying to the crowds of the Jews: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” But since it is his custom to attribute rather to the person of the Father what is beyond human hand and nature, so here too he says in a human way: “Behold, the Lord helps me; who will harm me?” “For when God the Father defends me,” he says, “and does away with all your abuse and establishes my glory, who among you will be great enough to set himself against his invincible counsel and to be able to harm him who is helped by him?”

So if the scribes and Pharisees had been at all sensible, they would have kept away from their schemes and attempts against him, having learned beforehand through the holy prophets that they could not wrong Christ, who is God and Lord and true Son of the Father; rather, they draw upon themselves a terrible and most cutting punishment. And he teaches this by adding: “Behold, all of you will grow old like a garment, and as a moth will devour you,” that is, you will go off into ageing and rotting and disappearance, melted down in many inescapable evils, an incurable calamity consuming you like a moth. The prophet Isaiah says this again elsewhere too: “Why will you still be struck, adding sins? Every head is in pain and every heart in grief; from the feet to the head [there is no soundness in it]; neither wound nor bruise nor festering blow — it is not possible to apply a plaster, nor oil, nor bandages. Your land is desolate, your cities burned with fire; your country, strangers devour it in your presence, and it has been made desolate, overthrown by foreign peoples.” The foretelling of things so much to be prayed against was quite enough to persuade the Jews to keep quiet and to choose in no way to strike against God, since, as I said, their plot was going to come to nothing, while they themselves would pay the penalty for their vain attempts and fall into utter ruin and destruction.

“Who among you fears the Lord? Let him hear the voice of his Servant.”

Having said that those will grow old like a garment who choose to labour in vain and revel in their outrages against him (for he said: “Behold, all of you will grow old like a garment, and as a moth will devour you”), he now holds out his love for mankind to the more reasonable, and [the hope] of salvation to the [remnant] of those of Israel, as also in the Acts of the [Apostles] … remnant, of which the divine disciples became, as it were, the first-fruits and offering. So to those readier for faith he speaks words of gentleness, saying: “Who among you fears the Lord? Let him hear the voice of his Servant.” By calling himself the Servant (pais) of God he lets us understand that, even having become man, he is the true Son of God the Father. And to hear his voice was not a transgression of the law but a confirmation of the law, which through type and shadow described beforehand the truth, which is Christ and his oracles. That is why the all-wise [Paul says]: “[Do we then] abolish [the law] through faith? By no means; rather we establish the law. For it is written: My righteous one shall live by faith.” And the end of the law and the prophets was the mystery of Christ, to justify in faith those held fast in their own offences. So to hear his voice, plainly Christ’s, that is, to accept the saving preaching of the gospel, was a confirmation of the law. And that it is the will of God the Father [that we obey] the [words] of the Son, the force of the gospel writings would show to the more sensible. For Christ was transfigured on the mountain; his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as the light; and Moses and Elijah were seen talking with one another; then there came a voice from God the Father, charging the holy apostles and saying: “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” “If, then, there is anyone,” he says, “who has the fear of God in his mind and has hidden it within himself like a treasure, let him hear the voice of his Servant.” And this, as I said, is the divine preaching of the gospel, calling to the redemption that comes through faith in Christ, and to a pure way of life far more excellent than that in the law. For that, as I said, was in shadows, but this has the truth splendid and manifest.

“Those who walk in darkness, there is no light for them: trust in the name of the Lord, and lean upon the Lord.”

[Physicians] mix [sweet things] with their remedies; sometimes they also [soothe] the harsh and fiercer pain [that comes] from … We find that our Lord Jesus Christ has done something of this kind here too. For he convicts them as walking in darkness, held as it were by mist and wholly deprived of light, plainly the divine and spiritual light, and making their tracks toward nothing that leads to salvation or benefit for them, but rather toward those things that would easily thrust them into the pit of destruction. For it is not, it is not possible for those in darkness ever to walk straight; they are carried down, whether there should be a pit somewhere or … “To you, then,” he says, “I hold out admonitions, you who walk in darkness and foolishly do not accept the light that comes from me: trust in the name of the Lord, and lean upon God.” For the Jewish people, out of very great folly, seeing the only-begotten Word of God in a form like ours, that is, become man, did not understand the mystery concerning him; in their lack of understanding they called him a Samaritan and a drunkard, and at times, goaded on by misguided zeal, they were stirred to anger (for they said: “We are not stoning you for a good work, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God”). Necessarily, then, as I said, as one who had only lately become man, he makes plain to them his surpassing glory and power, most befitting God, and draws some away from wishing to think meanly of him, saying: “Trust in the name of the Lord, and lean upon God.” Most clearly, then, he says that he himself is Lord and God, drawing them away, as I said, from wishing to think and speak about him in low and abject terms. And it is the boast of those who have received the faith to trust in him and to make him their staff and support; for he upholds all things so that they may be well. And this, I think, the divine Singer teaches when he says to God the Father of all: “Your rod and your staff, they have comforted me.” For the human mind easily slips toward the things in this world and has inclined much toward outlandish pleasures and love of the flesh; it always needs him who saves and holds out a saving hand, so that those who have come to share in his help say: “He set my feet upon a rock and directed my steps.” That the mind of the Jews had been cast into darkness and mist one can see from the sacred writings. For the all-wise Paul says: “The god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that the enlightenment of the gospel of the glory of Christ should not dawn.” And the divine prophet Isaiah says somewhere of those of the blood of Israel: “While they waited for light, darkness came upon them; waiting for brightness, they walked in untimely gloom.” But Christ himself was calling them to the light, saying: “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” It is settled, then, and it is true, that for those who did not choose to follow him it will follow in every way that, as in …

“Behold, all of you kindle fire and strengthen a flame. Walk by the light of your fire and by the flame which you kindled. Because of me these things came upon you; you will lie down in sorrow.”

He shows them something else too, which might well have brought them over without trouble to choosing to think rightly. For the remembrance of punishments [softens] even the disobedient and hardened mind … He says, then, that those who strengthen a flame kindle fire against themselves. For by striking against him through long disobedience, and wishing to have a heart so unteachable, they rouse against themselves the unquenchable flame, plainly that of punishment. What Christ himself, the Saviour of us all, said plainly has the same sense as these words: “He who believes in the Son is not judged; but he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the Son of God.” For what else is being judged than falling into the flame, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and … flame, he lets us understand something both sharp and true. For those who put on a fire materials able to be burned up strengthen it; the flame rages among much material, but somehow weakens when it has not much to feed on. So the Jews kindled a fire against themselves by killing the prophets and stoning … they added to their earlier crimes their outrages against Christ, [and so fed] their own flame. For they added the Son to the household slaves, and as far as it lay in them they killed the author of life, though he came to life again, being God and life. And since they did not accept the instruction given through Christ but remained in the shadows of the law, he very fittingly sends them away from close relation to himself, as people who think they have the light that comes from the law but do not truly have it, saying: “Walk by the light of your fire and by the flame which you kindled.” For it was not light they had; rather, their seeming to know the law, while no longer willing to accept what came through Christ, became for them the cause of fire and flame. That they paid the penalty for their outrage against Christ, besides passing their lives held fast in their sins, he makes plain by adding: “Because of me these things came upon you; you will lie down in sorrow.” What things? Their country was laid waste, the wicked wretches perished wretchedly, the holy city was taken and fell into the hands of enemies, the temple itself was burned, and they lay down in sorrow. For those who die unpurified, not found worthy to gain the redemption that comes through Christ, will lie down not in hope of rewards and in spiritual gladness, but in fear of punishments and in sorrow because of them.

“Hear me, you who pursue what is righteous and seek the Lord: look to the solid rock which you hewed, and to the pit … Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you in travail; for he was one, and I called him, and blessed him, and loved him, and …”

… true, and having made plain the punishment that would befall them unless they chose [to obey] the gospel …, [those who] harshly stretched up the neck of their mind, he turns, at the right time, the words of exhortation to those of the blood of Israel who believed. For the nation of the Jews did not perish entirely; the remnant has been saved, according to the prophet’s words. And indeed, as is written in the Acts of the holy apostles, very many accepted the word about Christ and recognized the appearing of his glory. To these, then, he speaks and says: “Hear me, you who pursue what is righteous and seek the Lord.” “What is righteous” he says instead of “righteousness,” plainly the righteousness through Christ, I mean that which comes through faith in him, which justifies the ungodly, frees the defiled from every stain, and procures the boast of [adoption]. They pursue what is righteous not as driving it away and putting it out of their mind, but as running toward it so as to overtake it. The divine David too said something of this kind: “Seek peace and pursue it.” Or you will also understand it according to what one of the holy prophets said: “With what shall I overtake the Lord, lay hold of my God most high?” So they pursue what is righteous, as I said, so that, having found it, they may seize it. And these would be those who seek the Lord himself, that is, Christ. For they find him through faith, God the Father calling them to this. And indeed Christ said somewhere to the Jewish crowds: “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” But observe this: God speaks not simply to all, but rather to those who pursue what is righteous and seek him, in the ways we have just described. So all who are called through faith in Christ to the knowledge of the truth are taught by God. What the force of the ideas means we shall say as far as we can. The multitude of the Jews was very great, but those of them who believed were very few indeed. But that in time the believers will advance to a multitude beyond number, those from the circumcision being joined by those from the so-called uncircumcision, that is, the nations, as God gathers them, he tries to assure them, taking as an example of the thing, or a confirmation of hope in it, the divine Abraham and with him Sarah. For they became the root of the whole nation, though they were of an old age past its season and no longer had hope of being able to have children. For he was a hundred years old, and she was barren and unable to bear.

But since nothing is hard for God to accomplish, and all things are smooth and easy, they became the beginning and root of a multitude of men that vies with the stars. For it was said somewhere to the divine Abraham to look up at the stars and to believe that his seed would be equal in number to those seen. That Sarah bore a child not according to the law of human nature, and the divine Abraham became father of a son when he was already very old and past his prime, [the passage] takes two examples: a solid rock that is quarried, and a deep pit that is dug. For just as it is among the very hardest things to be able to cut stone out of solid and stubborn rock, and to dig a deep well, so in the same way, I think, it would not be easy, or rather impossible, for a child to spring from an old man and a barren woman. Yet this too was accomplished, contrary to expectation, by God’s consent. So when you who have believed think yourselves very few, since the divine and sacred preaching is still at its beginning, be firmly persuaded, he says, that it will grow into a multitude beyond number … [For he was one, and I called] him, and blessed him; and having blessed him I loved him; and having loved him I multiplied him, that is, I made him father of the whole race, or nation, of the Jews, and besides this of those of the promise. For it was said to Abraham: “I have made you the father of many nations.” So he who is called is blessed, and whoever is blessed will certainly be loved, and he who obtains this will be multiplied, plainly spiritually. For he will have the manifold fruits that come from virtues and from the glories of the gospel. Yet according to the account of the history too one can see the promise true in the events. For the whole earth under heaven worships Christ, the Saviour of all, and all things have become full of him, and the whole earth has been filled with his glory.

“And now I will comfort you, Zion, and I comforted all her desert places, and I will make her desert places … gladness they will find in her, they will confess, and a voice of praise.”

The words of the holy prophets are always somehow shaped toward things seen and objects of sense, but they have their reference to things beyond sense and spiritual. So even if he names Zion, do not think of the earthly one, but take rather the spiritual one, which is the church of the living God. For otherwise how could one see the prophet’s words truly fulfilled? God promised to comfort her, but we shall find that this nowhere happened; on the contrary, one can see her made desolate and laid waste. So the prophet’s word is now addressed to the multitude of believers, which is the church of the living God. And what does he say? “Just as I called Abraham,” he says, “and, though he was one, made him father of many nations, so I will also comfort you, Zion.” The comfort here is a gladdening promise, planting firm hope in the hearers that, as God certainly gathers those who will be called in faith, she will not be desert and barren, but like a paradise, full of flowers and fine trees, thick with noble plants, and bearing spiritual fruit, that is, gladness and rejoicing, confession and the voice of praise. Understand from this that he promises to carry away from the worship of the law those who will be in the rank of plants, and [to set them in the paradise] which he calls God’s. For of old the law of Moses [commanded] to offer to God … and fine flour mixed with oil. But the God of all is no longer approached through these things, but, as Christ himself said: “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” And worship in spirit and in truth, and the power of spiritual service, has as its fragrance spiritual gladness and rejoicing in the hope in Christ. For we are persuaded that he will also transform the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory; we shall be with him and reign with him, ranked among the sons of God and enriched with his divine and … life-giving Spirit. And we too offer him spiritual fruit, confession and songs …

“Hear me, my people, and you kings, give ear to me; for a law will go out from me, and my judgment for a light of nations.”

Having promised to display a very great multitude, beyond number, of those who believe in him, he speaks to it as though it were already gathered. And he now initiates them into the mysteries as his own worshippers, so that what is written about them may be seen to be true: “And they shall all be taught of God.” … [the psalmist] says to Christ, the Saviour of all: “Blessed is the man whom you instruct, O Lord, and teach out of your law.” And he promised the bounty of this to those who recognized his appearing. Indeed he says through one of the holy prophets about his own coming, which took place in this world with the flesh: “At that time, says the Lord, I will put my laws into their mind and write them on their hearts.” Understanding this rightly, the all-wise Paul writes and says to those who had obtained it: “You are our letter, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God.” “So hear me,” he says, that is, receive my words, “and do not, like Israel, become unbridled, clinging to the oldness of the letter of the law and seeing nothing beyond the types. The commandment given through Moses,” he says, “was laid down until the time of reformation. But since the time of the incarnation is no longer awaited but is already present, let the shadow give way to the truth. So hear me, my people.” In saying “my people” he holds out the spiritual close relation given to them at the right time, both shaming them, I think, by this too, and making them more eager to accept, I mean, the word that comes from him. And he calls not only those counted among the peoples, but kings with them, so that you may understand the rulers, or leaders of the peoples. For from the multitude of believers many were brought forward to this, of whom the divine disciples became the first-fruits; then, after them, those who followed in their footsteps were invested with the name of kingship, since they had been enriched with the name of kingship and appointed to lead peoples. And indeed, as from very great joy, they raise songs of thanksgiving to God, saying: “He subjected peoples to us, and nations under our feet.” And the divine [David] also sings about them: “[The rulers of the peoples were gathered with] the God of Abraham.” O peoples and kings, then, …

… the future, he promises: “A law will go out from me, and my judgment for a light of nations.” Here he calls the divine preaching of the gospel a law. For the new and saving oracle is, as it were, of another kind, yet it is a change of the old law, as it were, for the better, and a transfer of the types, which have run their course, to the truth. At any rate Christ said: “Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets; I came not to abolish but to fulfil. For I say to you, not one iota or one stroke will pass from the law until all things come to pass.” But the law in letters was given through Moses, while the saving preaching, that is, the gospel, went out through Christ. For it was fitting that Moses should be the minister of shadow and type, … but that Christ should be the enlightener of [the knowledge of God] and of the true worship in the Spirit. For he himself is the true light. And he adds to this: “My judgment for a light of nations.” By “judgment” here he means either his holy and kindly verdict, which brought forth his grace into the light of the nations, or judgment as uprightness and just judgment, that is, righteousness, plainly the righteousness of the gospel. For so the divine David mentions the sacred preaching, saying: “You have prepared uprightness; judgment and righteousness in Jacob you have done.” If he says here that the divine and saving preaching has been done in Jacob, and not rather among the other nations too, we must remember God saying clearly: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” And indeed also through the voice of the divine David himself: “But I was set as king by him (plainly by God the Father) on Zion, his holy mountain, proclaiming the decree of the Lord.” For to Israel belonged the fathers and the promise, the giving of the law and the covenant. But since they became stubborn apostates and Lord-slayers, the grace for this reason passed over and became a light for all the nations.

“My righteousness draws near quickly, and my salvation will go forth, and nations will hope in my arm. The islands will wait for me, and in my arm they will hope.”

He does not let the eagerness of those called wither away through the injustices done to them, nor does he say that the fulfilment of their hope will be put off for long times; rather he shows the promise running, as it were, on the heels of the words. It is like what was said through the voice of Habakkuk, or to him, by God: “Yet a little while, a little while, and he who is coming will come and will not delay.” For the hopes of good things, thirsted for by those who await them … [he says that] his righteousness draws near. If we wish to attach these words to the person of God the Father, we say that he calls the Son his righteousness. For we have been justified in him, “not by works of righteousness which we did, but according to his great mercy.” For he came into this world not to judge it, but that it might be saved through him; and it was saved in no other way than through great gentleness. For he said: “I am he who blots out your lawless deeds, and I will not remember them.” And again: “And you, Israel, do not forget me. For behold, I have blotted out your lawless deeds like a cloud, and your sins like darkness.” And David too sings and says to him: “You have been favourable, Lord, to your land; you turned back the captivity of Jacob; you forgave the lawless deeds of your people; you covered all their sins.” So in the righteousness of God the Father, that is, in Christ, we have been saved and sanctified, having washed off the stains of wickedness. But if it is Christ himself who says “My righteousness draws near quickly,” you will understand righteousness here no less as either his justifying grace or the gospel and heavenly preaching, through which we have come to know the way of the righteousness pleasing to him

and have been guided to every kind of the best deeds of virtue, according to what is said in the Psalms: “Your law is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths.” And he calls righteousness salvation too, and very fittingly. For it draws us out of every evil, frees us from the bonds of death, and brings us up to endless life. And he promises something else too. “For nations,” he says, “will hope in my arm.” And he declares that the islands too will wait for him. For of old the multitude of the nations, [held fast] in unbreakable bonds, I mean those of sin and of the all-wicked …, was captive and in the utmost miseries, wholly without help. For there was no one able to free it from so bitter and inescapable a [misfortune]; there was no one to break the yoke of greed; but they were, as I said, in the lot of spear-won captives, stripped of every hope that leads up to life and bereft of every good thing. For those who had not known at all him who is by nature and truly Master were surely living in the world without God and without hope, according to the words of the blessed Paul. “But those who of old were weak,” he says, “and as it were thrown to the ground, taking my arm for their salvation, will gain an unexpected hope.” The sacred writing everywhere calls the Son the arm of the Father, for he is his power. But if one should wish to understand the arm of the Son himself, on which the hope of the nations called to salvation will rest, you will understand his power, befitting God and extraordinary, by which he will crush Satan and the world-rulers of this world, and has saved those from the nations. For he himself said: “Or how can anyone enter the house of the strong man and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his goods.” And David too said: “You humbled the proud like one wounded, and with the strength of your arm you scattered your enemies.” So Christ is the hope and the way of salvation not [only for those of Israel] but also for the nations, he for whom the islands too will wait. And by islands, I think, he means the churches from the nations, which, lying as it were in the middle of the sea and struck by the assaults of circumstances as by waves, carry off the crown of approval through endurance. For endurance produces approvedness, and approvedness hope, and hope does not put to shame. So to wait for God would mean nothing else than to please him through perseverance and endurance, and for this reason to be granted his care and oversight. For it is written: “I waited patiently for the Lord, and he attended to me.”

“Lift up your eyes to heaven and look at the earth below; for the heaven was made firm like smoke, and the earth will grow old like a garment, and those who dwell on the earth will die like these. But my salvation will be for ever, and my righteousness will not …”

In saying that he will be the hope of the nations, he weaves for them a necessary initiation into the mysteries. For those who did not know him could not otherwise be joined to God in spiritual close relation than by being freed from the ancient error, getting outside the nooses and malice of the devil, and [gaining] the true and blameless knowledge of God. For the entrance, as it were, into close relation with God is to know clearly and confess that there is no other God besides him. Since, then, they thought that heaven was a god, and were persuaded to worship the more conspicuous of the stars, and even revered the earth itself, which lies under the feet of all, … and who is by nature God of all, and who brought into

being things that once were not, for this reason he speaks, showing that creation is of another nature compared with himself, and demonstrating very well that the difference between maker and thing made is beyond comparison. He bids them lift their eyes to heaven, that is, to consider the firmament itself and what is in it, and again to bring their mind down to the earth, or to the contemplation of what is on it, I mean the living creatures and simply everything on it; and, even if they choose to marvel at it, not to stop their mind there, but from the greatness of the works to measure the power of the craftsman, and the supreme and ineffable … of the maker of all things, gathering it from the divinely inspired Scripture and from the magnificence and order of created things. At any rate Paul laughs at the wise men among the Greeks, because, though they wrap themselves in a reputation for wisdom, they have a heart full of every folly. “For they worshipped and served the creation,” he says, “rather than the Creator.” He rebukes others too, for turning back again to the weak and beggarly elements of the world and wishing to be slaves to them against all reason. That for the more sensible the beauty of creation would provide no occasion for going astray, but rather starting points for true knowledge of God, he made clear by saying: “For his invisible things are clearly seen from the creation of the world, being understood through the things that are made, both his eternal power and divinity.” “So when you marvel at the heaven,” he says, “made firm and seen as it were in the form of smoke, know,” he says, “that things brought into being will be dissolved again.” For what had beginnings of coming to be will end again in not being. “The earth, then,” he says, “will grow old,” that is, it will vanish, “and those who dwell on it will die like these.” He aptly calls the change of the elements to something better their death. For, as Paul says: “The creation itself will be set free from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” In what way will it be set free? The disciple of Christ will make it plain, saying: “For the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a rushing noise, and the elements will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be burned up; but we look for new heavens and a new earth according to his promises.” So he says that the renewal of creation will be like a resurrection from the dead, as with human bodies. And when the elements are dissolved, “my salvation will be for ever,” he says, “and my righteousness will not fail.” As we have said very often, he calls the Son salvation and righteousness; and by calling him his own he shows the proper relation which the Son has to him by nature, being from him and in him. But “he will be for ever,” he says, “and will not fail.” How great is the difference between creator and creation, between maker and thing made, he shows by these words. For creation will grow old, and, having been brought from non-being into being, will not be without a share in corruption. But God the Word, the maker and craftsman of all things, through whom are all things and in whom are all things, will be for ever and will not fail. This the divine Singer too teaches when he says: “In the beginning you, Lord, founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; and they will all grow old like a garment, and like a cloak you will roll them up, and they will be changed; but you are the same, and your years will not fail.”

“Hear me, you who know judgment, my people, in whose heart is my law: do not fear … of them, do not be overcome. For like a garment it will grow old with time, and like wool it will be eaten by moth; but my righteousness will be for ever, and my salvation for generations of generations.”

Having initiated those from the nations into the mysteries and woven for them the simpler word suited to their understanding (for milk [suits] those still infants in their condition), he speaks again to those who are already manly, who have a stronger heart and a well-grounded mind … and counts nothing [above] godliness … Who these might be he made clear by saying: “You who know judgment,” that is, those who, like approved money-changers, test each of the things to be done, distinguish them precisely, hold fast what is good, and keep away from every evil thing. These are those who have the law of God in mind and heart and have made it their practice to receive it as a tutor and wise guide. At any rate David sings and says of every righteous and wise man: “The law of his God is in his heart, and his steps will not be tripped up.” It is a saving thing, then, to make the divine law a treasure stored, as it were, in our mind and heart. For just as a vessel made of bronze or some such material, having fire heaped within it, remains [hot, so the soul that] has the law [within it] is surely fervent in spirit. But one of the holy disciples says that because lawlessness is multiplied the love of many will grow cold. “Hear, then,” he says, “you who know judgment and carry my law in your heart: do not fear the reproach of men, and do not be overcome by their contempt.” For all who wish to live godly in Christ will be persecuted; and suffering for their reverence, they endure the jeers of those who do not know it. But one must count such things as nothing, and rather consider that the Saviour and Lord of all himself endured the cross, despising the shame. And for this reason he said: “A disciple is not above his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too; if they called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household?” And besides this: “Blessed are you when they persecute you and reproach you and say every evil word against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven; for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” “You must, then, have an unbroken mind in these matters, spit at the laughter of the persecutors as stale, look down on all abuse, and count it rather an occasion of all renown to be persecuted for godliness and reviled for Christ.” For what can insult and a word spat out from a foolish heart do to one who is approved through endurance? That the renown of those who suffered will shine out in its time, while those who held them cheap and reproached them will go off into nothing, he has assured them by saying: “Like a garment they will grow old with time, and like wool they will be eaten by moth.” Wool and a garment are most ready to suffer ageing and rotting. “But my righteousness,” that is, the justification that comes from me, and the salvation that will be given, will be long and endless and will run on into many generations, that is, will stand for ever. So, having suffered a little for godliness, … And the all-wise Paul will bear witness, saying that “the momentary lightness of our affliction [works for us an eternal] weight of glory, [since we look not to the things that are seen] but to the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal.”

“… put on the strength of your arm. Awake as at the beginning of the day, as a generation of an age.”

Here he seems to mention the calling and conversion of Israel. For Israel too will be called to the knowledge of the glory of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of us all, after the entry of the nations. At any rate it is written in the prophets: “For the sons of Israel shall sit many days without king, without ruler, without priesthood, without manifestations; and after this the sons of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king; and they shall be amazed at the Lord and at his good things in the last days.” That here the prophet names as David the Christ who is of the seed of David according to the flesh, I think no one at all will doubt; for the words of the prophecy came many years after the divine David was already dead. The all-wise Paul too knows that the calling of those of the blood of Israel through faith will come in its time. For he said, at one time: “But when the fullness of the nations has come in, then all Israel will be saved”; at another, he speaks to those from the nations who have believed and says, as of a plant and an olive tree: “But if some of the branches were broken off … branches. For it is not you who support the root, but the root supports you. For just as you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive, so these too, the natural branches, will be grafted into their own olive tree.” “O Jerusalem, then,” he says, “awake.” This, I think, is clearly what the most sacred Paul wrote to some: “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” “Be watchful, then,” he says, “or rise as from the dead; put on the strength of your arm,” and not a perceptible arm but a spiritual one, that of the soul, by which one is plainly [strong] for the achievement of virtue. For Israel admittedly became weak by its outrages against Christ; but when it has turned and come to its senses, it will again put on the power that comes from Christ. And this, then, was what was said to it through one of the holy prophets: “Return, Israel, … in your injustices.” And it was said about them through the voice of Jeremiah by Christ, the Saviour of us all: “Behold, I am giving weakness upon this people, and fathers and sons together shall be weak in it; neighbour and his fellow shall perish.” For Israel, because of its impiety toward Christ, fell entirely away from being able to fulfil anything at all of what usually makes up an excellent life. “But awake,” he says, “as at the beginning of the day, as in a generation of an age,” so that you may run to this and go back again to what you were …

… the nature, that is, the first man, before being caught in the nooses of the devil’s malice and making nothing of the commandment given. For Christ refashions us to that, and repaints in us the ancient beauty of our nature, putting in his own features; for we came to be in his image and likeness. At any rate the most excellent Paul writes to those who had been carried away … [from] the faith to the shadow of the law out of ignorance: “My little children, for whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you.”

“Are you not she who made the sea desolate, the water of the abyss, its multitude? who made the depths of the sea a way …”

He brings Israel back to the remembrance of what happened in Egypt … the middle of the sea. For the waters were fixed like a wall, and the surge became passable for the redeemed; they ran as on dry land. And these were not their works, but rather a display of wonder-working by the all-powerful right hand; for it was God, as I said, who made the water passable for them. But he speaks of what was done for her sake as Jerusalem’s own works, at the same time persuading her to take courage, because those who have believed in Christ will get the better of every temptation and prevail over all the strength of the enemy. For he who of old led them through the midst of the sea, and [made] a way of crossing … it, will again drive away with all his power the things that will at times come upon them from some who will persecute them. For it is written: “All who wish to live godly in Christ will be persecuted.” So it is God who says to Jerusalem: “Are you not she who made the sea desolate?” and the rest. Or you will understand the force of the words in another way too. Since she has been called to the knowledge of Christ, God the Father saying, “Awake, Jerusalem, and put on the strength of your arm,” and she has in a manner become watchful and been brought back to remembrance of her strength, he speaks to her and says: “Are you not she who made the sea desolate, and the multitude of the abyss? who made the depths of the sea a way of crossing for those [passing] through the waves?” And it is surely fitting that they should take the experience of what has already happened as unshaken faith in what will come after. For he who led them through the midst of the sea will certainly also abolish the surge of the present life, and will show the aimless and confused turmoil of the affairs of the world to be stale, so that the souls of those called are in no way drowned in worldly cares; rather he will drive them beyond every temptation, and, saved and redeemed, they will glorify him, saying: “Sing to the Lord a new song, for the Lord has done marvellous things; his right hand and his holy arm have saved him.” And the right hand and arm of God the Father would be none other than our Lord Jesus [Christ].

“For by the Lord they will be turned back, and they will come to Zion with gladness and … everlasting. For on their head will be rejoicing and praise, and gladness will overtake them; pain, grief, and groaning have fled away.”

He again shapes the form of the passage according to the sense of what had already happened to them. For, striking against God in many ways, they were defiled beyond measure by the [abominations] of idols; and, thrusting aside the commandment of the all-wise Moses, they turned to the teaching and commandments of men. For all these things they were handed over in time to the Babylonians, and were captives, living in the country of the Persians and Medes. But they received mercy again. For when Cyrus, by the will of God, released them and [allowed] them to run back, [they returned] shouting aloud, and having their hymns to God like a crown on their head. So, as from what happened historically, [he foretells] also the … “For they will be turned back by the Lord,” he says, “and will come to Zion,” plainly the spiritual one, that is, the church, rejoicing and glad. “For on their head will be praise and gladness, and rejoicing will overtake them.” For the Saviour of all crowns, as it were, the souls of believers and fills them with all joy, rejoicing, and gladness, being glorified by them and becoming to them a harp-string and lyre. Where there is a call at all, calling to repentance and conversion and to the washing away of sin, plainly through faith in Christ, where there is the supply and grace of the Holy Spirit, the honour of adoption, the enjoyment of unending good things, and the hope of the kingdom of heaven, there surely must be gladness; and pain, grief, and groaning have fled away. For what place will pain have, and over what would groaning arise, where there is no occasion at all to groan and be pained, but rather hope prevails, and rejoicing and gladness, delight that cannot be cast off, and joy?

“I am, I am he who comforts you. Know who you are, that you were afraid of a mortal man and of a son of man, who withered like grass; and you forgot God who made you, who made the heaven and founded the earth; and you were always afraid, all the days, of the face of him who afflicts you. For as he planned to take you away — and now where is the fury of him who afflicts you? For in your being saved he will not stand, nor delay.”

“I am” he says here instead of “I live and exist”; for he is He Who Is. It is a dignity beyond all others for a nature to be and to live, not having obtained these by participation from another, nor having the thing as a gift, but being itself life. “So I am,” he says, “he who comforts you,” that is, he who gives every spiritual comfort and upholds by his help so that one is well established for going with good courage straight toward every virtue. Or perhaps you will understand comfort here in another way too. For through the gospel preaching the Saviour called to the washing away of sin, that is, through faith in him, to participation in the Holy Spirit, and to the boast and glory of adoption. “But you, O Israel,” he says, “did not fear me who am, despising and looking down on him who calls you to life, but you were afraid of a corruptible man and of a son of man, who withered like grass. Then you forgot God who made you, who fashioned the heaven and established the earth, and you were afraid of the face of him who afflicts you.” Here God blames the leaders of the Jews, who to the end persisted in setting themselves against the Saviour’s glory and, as far as lay in them, showed it to be nothing at all. He worked wonders in many ways; but they poured bitter words of blasphemy on the miracles beyond wonder, for they said that he cast out the demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons. He often charmed his hearers by teachings beyond the law; but they slid into such impiety that they rebuked those who praised him and said: “He has a demon and is mad; why do you listen to him?” So [the people] feared the plots of the Pharisees; and the blessed evangelist will bear witness, saying: “The rulers knew, then, that he is the Christ, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess it.” For the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed him to be the Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. And the Saviour himself rebukes the teachers of the law,

saying: “Woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.” He blames, then, the Jewish people for despising, out of very great lack of understanding, the God who is and lives, who set up the heaven by a word, … and for receiving reverence toward men and the voice of corruptible men, who wither like grass. That those who imposed on them the outlandish doctrine [that they must not] honour him who calls them to salvation would undergo the worst punishment of all, he has assured by adding: “For as he planned to take you away — and now where is the fury of him who afflicts you? For in your being saved he will not stand, nor delay.” For the fury of the scribes and Pharisees against the peoples under their hand was for a season; but they went off to destruction and were given over to … land. And those who believed in Christ rejoiced, saved and placed outside the divine wrath; but the others did not delay, that is, not long after [they perished, when the temple had been burned and] Jerusalem destroyed together with those who lived in it.

“For I am your God, who troubles the sea and makes its waves roar; Lord Sabaoth is my name. I will put my words into your mouth, and under the shadow of my hand I will shelter you, by which I set up the heaven and founded the earth; and Zion will say: You are my God.”

Having blamed those of Israel for fearing men, that is, those who had obtained the leadership of the synagogue, and [being drawn] by reverence for them into … of disobedience, [and falling away] wholly from love for him, he shows here that he [quells] afflictions and persecutions without effort, and makes the perversities of those who abuse them ineffectual and powerless, changing distress into ease and turning the onset of troubles into good cheer. He takes as an example this broad sea that we see. “For I am,” he says, “he who troubles the sea and makes its waves roar; Lord Sabaoth is my name.” Just as the wave is sometimes arched and dashes violently on the land by the [blasts] of the winds, [but is changed at once into] calm and stillness when God wills, “so in the same way,” he says, “I change terrible things, hard to bear and carrying one off to the utmost of every evil, as if into fair weather, by a mere nod; for, lulling every tumult, I release into the breadth of good cheer those who choose to contend to the end for godliness.” And this, I think, is what is sung in a riddle through the psalmist’s lyre: “He commanded the storm, and it stood still into a breeze, and its waves were stilled.” And so that they may receive courage without any doubt, that what has been promised will certainly in every way run to fulfilment, and the promise of the help given by him could never prove false, he necessarily says: “Lord Sabaoth is my name.” For if he is the Lord of hosts, how will he lack strength to save anyone? Or what is so difficult or steep among things, or impossible, for the all-powerful right hand? And he adds something else sufficient for help, which at the same time shows that the wrath against them has been dissolved, that the harm of his turning away has ceased, and that from now on they are of account with him and have been granted care and love, as would befit those who have recognized his appearing. “For I will put my words into your mouth,” he says. And what is this? The divine David, singing somewhere, said: “But to the sinner God said: Why do you recount my ordinances and take up my covenant through your mouth?”

… as it is written. The [law] of God, then, drives the profane and wicked away from so much as mentioning his words at all. For it is said: “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” How is it not plain to all that those who have an evil heart would not belch forth good words? It is most fitting for saints, then, to have the law of God in their mind and to take hold of it, as it were, through tongue and word. So the God of all promises them, as those already righteous, sanctified in faith, and having received the boast of being genuine, to put his own words into their mouths, so that, recalling the divine law often, they may know the path of what is useful for their salvation. For it is written of every righteous man: “The law of his God is in his heart, and his steps will not be tripped up.” And again: “In my heart I have hidden your sayings, so that I might not sin against you.” For the law of God upholds us so that we are well established and have a mind firmly set toward every kind of the best pursuits; it does not let us fall into worse things, and vigorously carries us away from what is inclined to do wrong. And since, as I said, he speaks to them as already genuine, he promises something else too: “I will shelter you,” he says, “under the shelter of my hand.” This too is a good worth gaining and exceptional, and sufficient for salvation to those who have once been found worthy to obtain it. For we understand the hand of God the Father to be none other than the [Son who is] from him, Christ. And nothing of all that is inclined to do harm could harm those who have come under him. For they will be superior to temptations, not to be caught by Satan, beyond all fleshly loathsomeness, and above passions both of soul and of body. That the right hand of the Father is all-powerful he brings us to be persuaded by adding: “by which I set up the heaven and founded the earth.” For if by the word of the Lord the heavens were made firm, as it is written, and the earth too has been established so as to be unshaken, how would it not suffice to save those who choose to set great store by his shelter? “Then, then,” he says, “Zion will say: You are my God.” Here, please, see the confession of faith in Christ clearly and plainly brought in. For of old, though Christ worked wonders in many ways and had a glory beyond reason and wonder in the splendour of his divine signs, they said out of very great unholiness that they did not know him, not truly ignorant of him, but insulting him. For out of very great folly, or madness, and a mind without love for God, they dared to say: “We know that God has spoken to Moses; but as for this man, we do not know where he is from.” “But those who of old denied,” he says, “and slid into impiety to this degree, having received my words on their tongue and come under the shelter of my hand or right hand, will recognize the Redeemer and will confess, saying to him: You are my God.” A saving thing, then, is faith, and a way that leads to endless life, … of faith in … power.

“Awake, awake, arise, Jerusalem, you who drank the cup of wrath from the hand of the Lord; for the cup of falling, the bowl of wrath, you drank out and emptied; and there was none to comfort you of all your children whom you bore, and none to take your hand, not even of all your sons whom you raised up.”

He speaks to the synagogue of the Jews as to one fallen and still lying down, and bids it rise … [the] confession [of] Christ. We do not, of course, say that the rising is bodily, since the fall too should not be understood as such, but rather as spiritual, as having come about in unbelief. So the good of rising here lies in faith. For admittedly they fell into ruin, not accepting the saving preaching of the gospel, [but following the teachings and command]ments of men, although God said plainly through the voice of Isaiah: “My people, those who call you blessed lead you astray and confuse the path of your feet.” For those who had obtained the leadership, always talking among them about the law given through Moses and often crying out, “We are blessed, Israel, for what is pleasing to the Lord is known to us,” carried the minds of those under their hand away from love for Christ, and persuading them to make no account of his grace, they led them astray and confused the path of their feet, not letting them walk straight, or come by a straight path to justification in faith, though the law perfected nothing. So he says: “Awake.” This is clearly what was said through the voice of Paul: “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” And besides this, that other saying: “Therefore lift up the drooping hands and the paralysed knees, and make straight paths for your feet.” That they paid a penalty fitting and equal to their impieties for their outrages against Christ, having [delivered] the author of life, as far as lay in them, to death, [he shows by saying: “you who] drank the cup of wrath from the hand of the Lord; for the cup of falling, the bowl of wrath, you poured out and emptied.” By “bowl” he means the judgment; and “you emptied” here would signify not “you poured out” but rather “you have drunk it all,” that is, you received the full wrath from the Lord and have undergone anger equal in weight to your transgressions. For the wicked wretches perished wretchedly: their whole country was laid waste, the famous temple itself was burned together with Jerusalem, and besides they slipped away from hope in God and were thrust out of the flock of the saints. When all these things had befallen you, he says, and you were as it were drunk with the [utmost] wrath, none of your children stood by you; there was none to take your hand, none to comfort you. For there were very many among them, Levites and priests, scribes and Pharisees, revelling in the honours paid by all and raised on high because they were pre-eminent and stood over the others; but none of them all drove off from Judaea the calamity brought on it by the divine wrath. There was no one able to bring even moderate comfort.

So they did wrong in leading them away from love for God and persuading them to treat faith in him as unacceptable; but they profited nothing at all, [falling into] the pits of destruction …

“These two things are set against you — and who will [grieve with] you? — … famine and sword; who will comfort you? Your sons, the perplexed, who sleep at the head of every way out like a half-boiled beet, who are full of the wrath of the Lord, weakened by the Lord God.”

One could count up very many evils that befell the Jews at the time of the capture, I mean that under Vespasian and Titus, when the whole country of the Jews was set on fire and no kind of calamity was lacking to them, but they went to the extreme of every evil; and Christ, the Saviour of all, had foretold this too to them. For he was being led away by Pilate’s soldiers to the place of the cross; and since women followed him weeping, he turned to them and said: “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.” And again: “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will say to the mountains, Cover us, and to the hills, Fall on us.” And through very many sayings the weight of the incurable calamity was foretold through holy prophets. This is what the force of the lines before us is now in labour with. “O wretched Jerusalem,” he says, “these two things are set against you,” instead of “fight and make war against you.” And what are these? Fall and ruin, famine and sword. In these words, briefly and concisely, the calamity of war is signified. But this must be observed attentively: having counted four, he calls them two. For he said fall and ruin, famine and sword. What, then, do we say? Or how would the things named be two? Even if they seem more, the prophetic word here joins what follows to what comes first. For example: ruin certainly follows falling, and the sword, that is, death, follows famine. So the first two are fall and famine; and following on them, ruin and sword. “When these things have happened, then,” he says, “who is able to defend you and drive off the onset of the calamity?” For this is what “comfort” means here. “Will your sons,” he says, “suffice for this? Yet one can see them too at a loss,” that is, having nothing they can plan and do for their own consolation, for the benefit of their own souls. “For they sleep at the head of every way out.” For when the war broke out, the powerful ran out of the country of the Jews and occupied the outer edges of the land, so as to be ready for flight: some toward the Egyptians, as neighbours, others toward the Moabites as near by, or other countries. And they were “at the head of every way out,” that is, at the outer edges of the land, not awake, as I said, or able to do anything of what might be of some benefit to those who suffered, but as it were drunk

… and heavy-headed and lying down, so slack in their wits and loosened in mind as … a half-boiled beet. And what was the cause of this? “They are full of the wrath of the Lord,” and this became the cause of their weakness. For somehow we always, when [we fall into] extreme and comfortless calamities, all but have our mind beside itself and find no way that could save us, especially when the evil against us is sent by God.

“… not from wine. Thus says the Lord God who judges his people: Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of falling, the bowl of wrath, and you shall no longer drink it again; and I will give it into the hands of those who wronged you and humbled you, who said to your soul: Bow down, that we may pass over; and you made your middle equal to the ground, outside for those …”

The words are those of one who pities, who reins in his wrath and rather releases them into good cheer. For he calls her humbled and drunk. For, as I said, calamities beyond measure are enough to bring those who are caught to the extreme of evil and to make the sufferers drunk, yet “not from wine,” as he says. For the cup of the Lord is not understood as a perceptible one, nor is the mixture in it such as to be understood as common. Rather it is the custom of the divinely inspired Scripture to call “cup” the portion allotted to each, whether perhaps to the unjust or to the good. For example, the divine David sings and says about the wicked: “Fire and brimstone and a stormy wind are the portion of their cup.” This lot is prepared by God for those who do not know him, and the most grievous verdict will overtake them. For drinking, as it were, fire and brimstone, they endure a punishment that is unceasing and cannot be overcome. But it would befit every righteous man to say: “I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.” For to know at all and to call upon the Lord of all would be a saving mixture for those accustomed to do this. So God, who judges justly, says that Jerusalem is drunk not from wine but from incurable calamity and unbearable misfortune. … [he judges] justly, rebuking those who are not such, so that they may depart from … ways, and change their mind to wish to think and do what seems good to his divine laws. “But behold,” he says, “I have taken the cup of falling as from your hand, and you shall no longer drink it again.” For she will be called, as I said, to the knowledge of Christ, and will delight with us in the good things from above. She too will share in sacred gifts and will have spiritual wealth. And the prophet is witness of this, saying: “For the sons of Israel shall sit many days without king, without ruler, without sacrifice, without altar, without priesthood, without manifestations; and after this the sons of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king, and they shall be amazed at the Lord and at his good things in the last of the days.” For here the prophetic word names as David the Christ who is of the seed of David according to the flesh. And a clear proof of this is that the prophecy came very many generations after the divine David was already dead. So while she has not yet been called to the grace that comes through faith, she has not yet put down the cup of wrath. But when she honours Christ by faith, then the cup will certainly be taken from her, and she too will delight together with the others in the good things of which it is written: “They will forget their former affliction, and it will not come up into their heart”; but rather there will be rejoicing and everlasting gladness over their head; for pain, grief, and groaning have fled away.

But when the cup has been taken from her, it will be given to the swarm of those who wronged her. And in what way did they wrong her? By not allowing her to walk straight, nor, achieving a life well pleasing to God and clothed with the brightness of the gospel way of life, to reach together with those who believed in Christ the city above. Who, then, might be understood as those who wronged her? So far as it is ready to hand and evident to say, first those who obtained the leadership of the synagogue, who above all had … a greater cheerfulness than the others, … being thrust out from honour and glory, wealth and luxury, and life itself. But if one must say something of what is hidden too (and I think this also necessary), we say that the synagogue of the Jews was wronged not only by those who obtained the leadership, but also by the devil’s malice, which did not let them receive the divine light into their mind so as to understand him who calls them to salvation, who justifies the ungodly, frees from punishment, and draws out of the bonds of death, I mean Christ. And witness of this is [Paul, who says: “But if] our gospel is veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing, in whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that the enlightenment of the gospel of the glory of Christ should not dawn.” Indeed the Son himself said to the Jewish crowds that something of this kind had befallen them, and convicted them plainly of having become hard and disobedient from an unclean spirit, and carried away to every kind of evil. For he said: “When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest; and when it does not find it, it returns,” he says, “saying: I will return to my house from which I came out. Then it takes along seven other evil spirits more wicked than itself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. So it will be with this evil generation.” For in Egypt they worshipped the gods there, and the unclean spirit was in them. But when they were redeemed through Moses and received the law that defines what is to be done (they heard it say plainly: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve”), the unclean spirit too was driven out of their heart. But since they did not have the fear of God within themselves, nor receive Jesus to dwell in them through faith (“for he dwells in our hearts through faith,” as it is written), that ancient and unclean spirit [found] the place empty in them, and their last state became worse than the first. That the inventor of impiety also made the traitor among the disciples to be such is not unclear; for it is written that after the morsel Satan entered into him. So the synagogue of the Jews has been punished, Satan darkening it and not letting it see with the eyes of the mind the light of the world, that is, Christ. But since they have been called to conversion, and the cup of wrath and the bowl of falling have been given into the hands of those who wronged her, the evil and opposing powers have been punished, Christ the Saviour of all sending them down into Hades; and, consigning them to Tartarus in chains of gloom, he handed them over to judgment … who said: “Jerusalem, bow down, that we may pass over.” And she put her middle to the ground for those passing over her, that is, she spread herself beneath and submitted herself to those who wished to trample on her. This the evil powers do when they see a soul slack and throwing away its own mind, so as to be willing to submit easily to their unholy and God-hated counsels.

Tome 1.

“Awake, awake, Zion; put on your strength, Zion, and put on your glory, Jerusalem, the holy city: no longer shall the uncircumcised and unclean pass through you again.”

When you hear Zion and Jerusalem in these words, do not suppose that it means simply the cities raised up out of stones. Rather, the word of the prophecy signifies the assembly of those called through faith, that is, the church, from the Jewish ranks and from the nations. As for his saying “Awake,” … For just as, according to the all-wise Paul, “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,” so, where the bitterness of the penalty is great, there the consolation is equal to the misfortunes, or rather far more abundant than the gloom. He has commanded her to [put on] her strength, and besides this her glory. Strength may reasonably be understood as the practical power that works in action, by which each one's soul sets out with youthful spirit toward whatever is to be done. And what else could glory be but the Lord of glory, who is Christ? To him the divine psalmist says at one time, “Awake, my glory,” and at another time, concerning everyone who believes in him, “You are the boast of their power.” And in what manner we shall put on both the glory and the strength itself, the all-wise Paul has made clear to us. For he said again: “Put on our Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, for its desires.” And in addition to this: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Indeed the prophet Isaiah too, as in the role of a woman adorned in many ways, … “… my … in the Lord. For he has clothed me with a garment of salvation and a tunic of gladness.” Christ, then, is a garment most fitting for every holy one, and a tunic of spiritual gladness, the provider to us of strength and glory.

He calls the church a holy city. For it was sanctified not through the worship according to the law (for the law perfected no one), but by being conformed to Christ and becoming a partaker of his divine nature, that is, by participation in the Holy Spirit, in whom we have also washed off … and been freed from every stain. For we have been justified through faith in him, and have been enriched with the security he gives against anything whatever, and are as it were walled about by his grace, since he drives off every diabolical attack and the savage uprisings of the opposing powers. And this he teaches, saying to Zion, that is, Jerusalem, which is the church of the living God: “No longer shall [the uncircumcised and unclean] pass through you again.” … you will understand what is said. The nations around Jerusalem might be understood as uncircumcised and unclean, since they neither knew the God who is God by nature and truly, nor had received the tutelage of the law. And they fought very often against those of Israel's blood, so that in most places they were seen to be stronger than the force that was in Israel; indeed they all but passed through it, as though they had it thrown under their feet. But from the things that happened historically, come, let us at times shape the spiritual. The troops of demons, that is, the world rulers of this darkness, and with them the profane Satan, hold under their feet the souls not yet brought under God, and as it were pass through them, with no one hindering, that is, no one coming to their aid; but when, made God's own, they have him as their glory and strength, then indeed, then the greed of those powers will cease. For it is written: “The angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear him, and will deliver them.” The uncircumcised and unclean, then, may be understood as the abominable and profane powers, productive of every filth, wicked and hostile.

“Shake off the dust, and arise, and sit, Jerusalem; put off the bond of your neck, captive daughter Zion.”

… and in what manner she will put on the strength of her arm, and besides this the glory, he teaches clearly. First he commands her to shake off the dust, and so to arise and sit, and to put off the bond of the neck. By dust here, I think, we should understand the earthy mind and the uncleanness of fleshly desires. For just as those who lie on the ground must by all necessity be filled with dust and dirt, in the same way, I think, in those who have a mind thrown on the ground and an earthy disposition, the thoughts of fleshly uncleanness settle in. We, then, who have been called into spiritual kinship with our Lord Jesus Christ, and are about to put him on as strength and glory, must first shake off the dusty and earthy mind, and cleanse the mind beforehand, and, as the all-wise Paul says, put off the old man, which is corrupted according to the desires of deceit, and put on the new, which is renewed after the image of the one who created him. Having done this we arise, that is, we have an upright and steady mind, and … what was said by God through one of the prophets: “Set yourself up, Zion.” And the divine David sings somewhere: “He set my feet upon a rock and directed my steps.” It is written also in the book of Psalms: “God sits on his holy throne,” that is, he has the fixed and settled state of his kingdom perpetually; for nothing bodily should be understood of God. To sitting, that is, to having a firm and settled mind, follows putting off the bond of the neck. For each one is bound tight by the cords of his own sins, and we were brought under the yokes of sin and of Satan himself. But in Christ we are freed from these too; and, having thrown their yoke off ourselves, we accomplish the good with a free and unbound mind. So somewhere the God of all says to us through one of the prophets: “And you shall go out and leap like calves loosed from bonds, and you shall trample the lawless; for they shall be as ashes under your feet.”

By adding “captive daughter Zion,” he first lets us understand that God pities those who have fallen under the devil's yokes and have served sin. Then, besides this, he shows that we fall into this although it was possible not to suffer it. For having called Zion captive, he also calls her daughter. How, then, was it possible for the daughter of God, who had been deemed worthy of such brilliant glory, to be caught in the nooses of captivity? Who, then, brought her down to this? Not some weakness of the one who saves, but the will and choice of her who suffered it, who ran outside the Father's compassion by choosing evil instead, and by a vote for the worse undid the good.

“For thus says the Lord: You were sold for nothing, and you will be redeemed not with silver.”

Having called her captive, he necessarily adds what always befalls those who fall into this misery. For they are carried off into slavery with no one paying a price for them, but as prizes, the fruits of war and barbarian attack: they are led by force and compulsion into unwilling servitude. So, says the God of all, her redemption also will be. For Satan seized the race on earth, and holding captive, as it were, the world under heaven, he oppressed it unbearably, binding it fast in the yokes of his own perversity. But the only-begotten Word of God became man, and he conquered on our behalf; and entering the house of the strong man and binding him, … those on earth. As we were seized, then, so also have we been redeemed. For Christ did not take us from a willing seller, but rather crushed his strength and, as God, drove off the phalanx of demons. So we were neither sold for silver, nor have we been redeemed in that way, but rather by the strength of Christ, the Savior of us all. For being the good shepherd, he has saved us by his own blood: for by his stripe we were healed; and he was made weak because of our sins, and we were freed, having shaken off the yoke of sin and the greed of the devil.

“Thus says the Lord: My people went down into Egypt formerly to sojourn there, and they were led to the Assyrians by force. And now why are you here? Thus says the Lord: Because my people were taken for nothing, marvel and wail. Thus says the Lord: Because of you my name is continually blasphemed among the nations.”

Having called Zion captive, he wants her to know the cause on account of which it befell her to fall into such disgrace and wretchedness. For sometimes those who have suffered something unexpected are brought back to better things by not remaining in ignorance of their sins. Therefore he usefully brings them to remember what happened at various times to those before them. Famine made the journey to Egypt unwilling for Israel, since he could get the necessities from nowhere. Israel was also carried off to the Assyrians, when the man who reigned at that time over the land of the Chaldeans laid Judea waste. And what was the occasion of this? Having fallen away from being genuine, and from the duty to worship God alone, … they inclined to idols and worshipped the works of their own hands. This became for them the occasion of being caught in the hands of enemies, of fleeing the land that bore them, and of serving enemies, living in the land of the Persians and Medes. By force, then, they were led; for they were not in these circumstances willingly. “But now why are you here?” He says “here” instead of “scattered in the lands of the nations and dispersed to every wind,” according to the prophet's word. For the sword of the Romans drove out of all Judea those who were able to flee at all.

Or “here” means “in such a state of affairs as you are now in.” And they came, as I said, into extreme misery: on the one hand their land was overrun by the army of the Romans by the law of war, on the other the whole city was sacked, and the temple itself was burned. Why then have you come into these things? he says. Is it not plainly because … the one who called them to this in many ways, and laid unholy hands on him, after those who were sent, righteous men and prophets, some of whom they killed and others they stoned?

These things the prophetic word has disclosed to us here about the common multitude. But since it was the custom especially of the teachers of the Jews to raise their brows high against every nation, and to hold that Israel would always remain unassailable and unconquered by enemies, since it was called God's portion and a holy people; and since it then happened that Judea was brought down in the ways I have just described, they were astounded … among the nations. For since Israel was scattered in every land and city, he says, no one anywhere on earth was unaware that the holy city had been sacked and the temple itself had become the work of fire; and then they slander my name and disparage my glory. For they perhaps think that my hand, which was always Israel's helper, has grown weak; but they still do not know the true cause, and no one among them understands that they have been made to pay the penalty for the Lord-slaying and for many other offenses.

“Therefore my people shall know my name in that day, that I am he who speaks: I am here, like springtime upon the mountains, like the feet of one bringing good news, a report of peace, like one bringing good news of good things.”

For since, he says, I was ill spoken of among the nations because of your negligence, I will not tolerate the slander, nor will I let my glory be pelted with words of ill omen. But at that time, when I shall shine upon those on earth with flesh, those who become my people by receiving the faith, whether they are from the Jews or from the nations, these will know my name. By “name” he means glory; for this is the custom of the inspired Scripture. For it is written: “A good name is more to be chosen than great wealth.” We who have been called by him have known his glory, and we do not come to Christ, the Savior of all, as to a man; but even though the Word became flesh, we believe that, being God by nature and begotten ineffably of God the Father, he is above all creation

and befits the highest thrones, and rules over all things, and has a right hand mighty above all, and easily saves whomever he chooses of those who have come to be under him, and nothing at all exceeds his power. Israel, however, was not so disposed. For they gave heed to him as to one of us, and not as to God made man. Therefore at one time they said, “Who are you? And whom do you make yourself?” and, “We are not stoning you for a good work, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” But those who are called to the knowledge of the truth, he says, will know my glory. For I myself who speak in the prophets: I am here. For “God is the Lord, and he has appeared to us,” as it is written. This the all-wise Paul also teaches, saying: “In many parts and in many ways God spoke of old to the fathers in the prophets; in these last days he has spoken to us in a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the ages.” Observe, then, in these words, that God the Father brought all things into being through the Son, and has spoken to us in the last times, not as through another son, the one according to the flesh, from a woman, as some of the perverse have seen fit to think, but as through one Son, the Word who became man for us, with the flesh, who is also the maker of the ages.

“I am here, then, like springtime upon the mountains,” he says; by ὥρα he means spring. Come, then, let us look at spiritual things as from a visible fact. What does spring do when it appears upon the mountains? It crowns the plants with new blossom, and moves them from barrenness to bearing what each has by nature. Something like this we shall find written in the Song of Songs also: “Arise, come,” he says, “my neighbor, my fair one, my dove; for behold, the winter is past, the rain is past and gone, the flowers have appeared on the earth, the time of pruning has come.” For when the winter has gone by, the bright spring rises on the earth, makes it a nurse of flowers, and makes it a mother of ripe fruits. Something like this has been done in us spiritually. For the apostate dragon brought winter upon the world under heaven, and rendered it dry and barren. For there was no one at all who did good, not even one, “but all turned aside together, they became worthless.” But when the Only-begotten appeared with flesh, he became for us like springtime upon the mountains. For although we had, as it were, lost our bloom and cast off from our own souls the beauty of every virtue, we blossomed again in him and were filled with spiritual fruitfulness, so that we can say what is in the Song of Songs: “Let my beloved come down into his garden, and eat the fruit of his fruit trees.” He has become, then, like springtime upon the mountains, and like the feet of one bringing good news, a report of peace, and bringing good news of good things. For since sin lay between us and God, we had stood apart from him and been estranged from the Master, rising up against his divine laws, acting against the Master's will, and standing in the ranks of enemies. But Christ appeared, our peace, who took away the sin that lay between, brought us to be reconciled in friendship with the Father, and joined us to him through himself; for through him we have had access. As, then, someone might come running swiftly, saying that the enemies are taken, announcing peace and bringing good news of good things, so too the Savior of all visited the world with flesh and became for us the arbiter of peace with God the Father, since Satan has been brought to nothing and his whole phalanx removed out of the way; and [he announced] that a time is at hand in which those who wish may come to share in every good. For it will follow for those who choose to think and do … to have a most abundant share in the heavenly goods and to be filled with every good hope; for the Savior is rich in gifts.

“For I will make your salvation heard, saying: Zion, your God shall reign; for the voice of those who guard you has been lifted up, and with the voice together they shall … see, when the Lord has mercy on Zion.”

By Zion, then, he again means here not some earthly city but rather his holy church, which he formed out of the two peoples. For it is written: “Rejoice, you nations, with the people.” And Christ is said to have made both one, to have broken down the dividing wall of the partition, and to have abolished the law of commandments in ordinances. When the gospel preaching, which is full of true doctrines, was displayed, the power of the shadow in the law ceased, that is, the worship and approach by means of blood. Zion, then, is to be understood, as I said, as the church, which Christ presented to himself having no spot or wrinkle, but holy and blameless. He made her salvation heard, that is, heard far and wide. For the power of the gospel preaching escaped no one at all on earth, nor has anyone remained without hearing of the salvation through Christ. For he said through the psalmist's lyre also: “Hear this, all you nations; give ear, all who inhabit the world.” And just as the memory of the demons … and no one was unaware of the destruction of the demons' tyranny, so too the divine and heavenly preaching has been made heard by people everywhere, bringing salvation to those who have recognized the appearing of Christ.

And what is the power of the preaching? “Zion, your God shall reign.” For of old, that is, before the coming of our Savior, Satan reigned over us through sin, and the yoke of tyrannical perversity was thrown on those throughout the earth. But when the King and Lord of all shone upon us, we burst their bonds and threw off the yoke of the one who had long held the upper hand, … the God and Father of our God through the Son, and the matter has become for us an occasion of festival. David at any rate sings and says: “The Lord has become king; let the earth rejoice.” And again: “Sing praises, then, with understanding; God has become king over all the nations.” And the Savior himself, as I said, called us to this, saying: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavily laden, and I will give you rest; take my yoke upon you.” Things went wretchedly with us, then, and we were in the worst of evils, yoked to a savage tyrant and come under the [yoke] of sin. But the power of the sacred preaching proclaimed the good news of Christ's kingdom, and we are all under him. For he has promised, saying: “Zion, your God shall reign.” How he will reign, or in what manner, he himself made clear at once, saying: “The voice of those who guard you has been lifted up.” Those who guard would be the divine disciples, or, simply, all who know how and are able to initiate into the mysteries, and who persuade those who are called to walk uprightly, so as to be able to accomplish the good very well, to hold fast to love for Christ, and to make a right and blameless confession of faith in him. These are good shepherds, who guard the rational flock for the chief shepherd of all and drive off the attacks of untamed beasts. Their voice, he says, is lifted up, that is, heard by all people, … everywhere. For it was said to them through the voice of Isaiah: “Go up on a high mountain, you who bring good news to Zion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good news to Jerusalem.” Lift it up, do not fear.

for the apostolic preaching is unknown to no one at all. And that everything will go prosperously for them, that those to whom their word comes will readily be called, and that they themselves will greatly rejoice when they see the fruits of their initiating, he makes plain by saying: “With the voice together they shall rejoice.” For as soon as they speak, he says, the multitude of those initiated will follow, and those under instruction will run to faith without delay. And this is a joy to those charged with teaching. Paul at any rate writes to those who believed through him: “My joy and crown.” And that, when the saints initiated people into the mysteries, the ready obedience of the initiated followed in very many cases, one may see from many instances by going through the holy and inspired Scripture. For the divine disciples spoke to the ranks of the Jews …; but, as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles: “There were added in one day three thousand men.” Indeed the divine Paul too, together with the blessed Silas, while they were prisoners, sang hymns to God at midnight. And when a holy angel stood over the prison and loosed everyone's bonds, the jailer, terrified, wanted to kill himself; but when Paul called out, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here,” he marveled at the wonder and was baptized with all his household. How can anyone doubt that this event became an occasion of delight to Paul? So, he says, the ready obedience of those who are called will run right on the heels of the initiation.

“And your eyes shall see to eyes, when the Lord has mercy on Zion.” And whom will they see, if not the prince of salvation, that is, Christ? For the Word had become flesh, and the psalmist is witness to this, saying: “God will come visibly, our God, and he will not keep silence.” That is, what I said, that “with the voice together they shall rejoice,” this too, he says, you shall behold with your own eyes at that time when the Lord has mercy on Zion, granting to all the grace that comes through faith and an abundant enjoyment of the heavenly goods.

“… because the Lord has had mercy on her and has delivered Jerusalem. And the Lord will reveal his holy arm before all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation from God.”

To break forth into joy would signify using the voice, offering songs of thanksgiving, and being eager to practise the doxologies by which God would be gladdened. It is written at any rate in the book of Psalms: “And my tongue shall meditate on your righteousness, on your praise all the day long”; and to those who are willing to do this the thing will be a joy. But since he says that the waste places of Jerusalem must do this, we must necessarily say the following, in order to make clear the sense of the passage before us. Those who live in a broad and long city, if they are so many in number as to be able to fill it, leave no part of it deserted; but when they are few, because many have died, whether war has fallen upon them or some other cause has brought this about, most of the districts in it, that is, the dwellings, remain bare. Something like this happened to those of Israel. For since they became Lord-slayers and had their hands full of blood, they were consumed in the war with the Romans, so that very few were left who were saved, and the holy city was empty of men. But, he says, her waste places shall rejoice. For houses are gloomy and as it were full of dejection when they have no inhabitants, but cheerful and as it were laughing if they have very many dwelling in them. From the history, come, let us say something of the spiritual sense. The church from the nations, that is, those from the nations who believed, who are also named Zion and indeed Jerusalem, were few at the beginning, and the truly holy city of God, that is, the church, was as it were deserted. But nothing has remained

idle in it, for it has been filled through Christ. And at any rate it was said to her: “Lift up your eyes round about and see your children gathered.” “Behold, these come from afar, these from the north and the sea, and others from the land of the Persians. And you will say,” he says, “in your heart: Who has begotten these for me?” And again: “Enlarge the place of your tent and of your curtains; fix them, do not spare; spread out still further to the right and to the left.” For from every nation, city, and land there has been a gathering to Christ of the nations called through faith, so that those who turn are called from east and south, from west and north, being far more than those of Israel's blood. And this very thing the prophet Isaiah has disclosed, speaking of the church and of the synagogue of the Jews: “Rejoice, barren one who does not bear; break forth and shout, you who are not in labor, for more are the children of the desolate than of her who has a husband.” He calls the church from the nations barren, the one who does not bear, and besides this desolate. For she was childless and desolate, that is, a widow, since she did not have the Word, the sower of every good. But the synagogue of the Jews he says has a husband, because she was yoked to the law given through Moses and became pregnant with the sacred oracles, through which she could bear to God the fruit of a worship still in shadows and types. But more are the children of the desolate, that is, of the widow, than of her who has a husband.

And in what way this too will come about, he made clear by adding: “The Lord will reveal his holy arm before all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation from God.” For when the arm of God the Father, that is, the Son, became manifest among those in all the earth, when he was known to all the nations, and the ends of the earth, that is, people from end to end of it, beheld the salvation from him, which is, of course, through faith, then the waste places of Jerusalem, the spiritual one, of course, were filled, and the multitude of those called is beyond number. It is the custom of the inspired Scripture to call the Son the arm of God the Father. For he is his power and all-mighty right hand, through which he works all things; and of it the divine David says: “Let your hand be strengthened, let your right hand be exalted.” And again, concerning God the Father: “Sing to the Lord a new song, for the Lord has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have saved for him.”

“Depart, depart, go out from there, and touch nothing unclean; go out from the midst of her, be separated, you who carry the vessels of the Lord; for you shall not go out with tumult, nor in flight.”

“For the Lord will go before you, and the one who gathers you is the Lord God.”

The word seems to be addressed by God either to those who have been gathered through faith and have become children of the church, or perhaps to the holy initiators, that is, the apostles and evangelists, who became the light of the world under heaven by carrying the word of the gospel preaching to those in all the earth. These, then, he has commanded to depart and to go away from the unbelievers as from the defiled, because they not only did not choose to believe in Christ, but even made their own heads liable to the charges of the Lord-slaying. “Go out,” then, “and touch nothing unclean,” that is, be cut off from fellowship with them, so as not to wish to touch them even slightly. For “He who touches pitch,” it says, “will be defiled.” For it is necessary that those who have believed in Christ, and have been called through him to cleansing from sin and to participation in sanctification, should love to keep themselves outside the Jewish ignorance, be entirely of another mind than they, and be wholly separated; for there is no fellowship of light with darkness, nor a portion for a believer with an unbeliever. The all-wise Paul at any rate writes to those of Galatia who, after their justification in Christ, dared to run back to the worship in the law: “O foolish Galatians, … before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” For they were foolishly having themselves circumcised, although they had received the circumcision in the Spirit, that is, through Christ. Necessarily, then, the God of all says here “Depart,” and “Go out from there,” and “Be separated, you who carry the vessels of the Lord.” For those who have honored Emmanuel wholly by faith, and have become partakers of his divine nature by sharing in the Holy Spirit and being filled with his sacred gifts, carry vessels for God. And in what manner, the all-wise Paul will teach, saying: “Put on the whole armor of God”; and this is the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. For having this spiritual panoply, they march out against Satan and the powers with him, … shielding their own souls and the peoples under their hand; for this is the office of those who lead.

However, having commanded them to go out from her midst, he says: “You shall not go out with tumult, nor go in flight.” For he does not command them to depart from the Jewish ranks as fugitives, that is, as men afraid, but rather freely and as it were with authority, as men who refuse to share life with people so defiled and to be numbered with the profane and wicked. “You shall not go in flight,” then, he says; and that things will go easily for them, and that nothing at all hard or steep or rough will meet them, he assured them by saying: “The Lord will go before you, and the one who gathers you is God.” With God present and walking ahead, what will there be to harm the bearers of the sacred preaching?

or rather, how will everything not turn out for them as they pray, and they run preaching as on a bare road?

“Behold, my servant shall understand, and shall be exalted and glorified exceedingly. As many shall be astonished at you, so shall your appearance be without glory from men, and your glory from men. And so many nations shall marvel at him, and kings shall shut their mouth; for those to whom it was not announced concerning him shall see, and those who have not heard …”

Here God the Father openly speaks of Christ, the Savior of us all. “Behold,” he says, “my servant shall understand”; and by the servant you will understand the Son, that is, the slave. For the Word, being God, took the form of a slave, and being Lord of all, he entered the measures of humanity. “For he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in form as a man, he humbled himself.” So when he became man, having brought himself down into humiliation, then he was also called slave without reproach, having taken the form of slavery. But “He shall understand,” he says, instead of “He will do and speak everything with understanding and with wisdom befitting God.” And a work of wisdom befitting God, before all else, is that the only-begotten Word of God became flesh, that is, man, and shared poverty with those on earth, so that we might become rich by his poverty; that by believing in him we might wash off the stains of sin, since the law given through Moses was powerless to take away sins; that by the death of his own flesh he might abolish death, overturn corruption, and reforge for incorruption those held fast by death; that he might make the man on earth a citizen of heaven, and through himself join to God the Father the one who had long been a runaway; that he might proclaim release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, heal the brokenhearted, empty Hades, and remove Satan from his rule and his greed over all. “My servant, then, shall understand,” he says. For nothing at all in what was done for us is without understanding, that is, unwise; for he made all things in wisdom, according to the psalmist's word. For this reason, he says, he shall be exalted and glorified exceedingly. For God is glorified by us as Lord, and we call him Savior and Redeemer, and we have believed that he truly is this.

But so that the word from God the Father might be true and wholly beyond reproach, he necessarily added: “As many shall be astonished at you, so shall your appearance be without glory from men, and your glory from men.” For those who have recognized his appearing and have been able to see with the eyes of the mind the greatness of the God-befitting authority that is in him are struck with amazement at the economy, as was the prophet Habakkuk, who says: “Lord, I have heard the report of you and was afraid; I considered your works and was amazed.” But those who did not understand his glory, and remained unbelieving and without understanding, impiously voted him dishonor and disgrace, calling him a Samaritan, a glutton and a drunkard, born of sexual immorality, and besides this a sinner. So as many will be astonished at you, so too your appearance will be without glory among men, and your glory from men. But just as this will happen, so too “many nations shall marvel at you, and kings shall shut their mouth.” For the all-daring Jews, though they are worthy of no account, … Very many kings, however, fearing him as God and offering him glory as King of all, will shut their mouth, that is, will say nothing harsh, nor utter anything that outrages the glory of Christ. And that the divine, sacred, and saving preaching, that is, the gospel, will not come from those among whom his appearance was without glory

but rather from those who shut their mouth, he made clear by saying: “Those to whom it was not announced concerning him shall see, and those who have not heard shall understand.” For the things concerning Christ were announced to those of Israel through the law and the prophets, but to the nations not at all. But these, he says, will rather see the salvation that comes from him; and those who had never heard at all of his mysteries, these will understand them, by believing, of course. For faith is the root and nurse of understanding, and as it were an entrance that brings those who receive it into piety and life. At any rate the prophet Isaiah says: “If you do not believe, neither will you understand.”

“Lord, who has believed our report? And … before him as a plain, as a root in thirsty ground.”

Much has always been said by the holy prophets about the Savior of us all, and they never ceased admonishing, announcing very clearly that the Word, being God, would come in due time in human form, and that he would work wonders in a manner befitting God. And he does both the one and the other, calling the erring to the straight road and justifying the ungodly in faith. But the prophets profited very little those of Israel's blood, who looked hard toward disobedience; so that, although they ought to have seized the prediction, gathered life-giving knowledge, and stored it up in their own hearts, on the contrary they assailed those who initiated them, saying very bitterly: “You speak other things to us and announce to us another deception.” At any rate the prophet Jeremiah, as from an immeasurable … speaks somewhere thus: “Woe is me, mother! As what kind of man did you bear me, a man judged and disputed with in all the earth? I neither profited, nor did anyone profit me; my strength failed among those who curse me.” And in short, the whole choir of the saints, speaking of Jerusalem, say: “We treated Babylon, and she was not healed. Let us forsake her and go each to his own land; for her judgment has drawn near to heaven, it has lifted itself up to the stars.” For in these words they name Jerusalem Babylon, as one eager to imitate Babylon's ways and falling in nothing short of the land of the nations, as regards decay and refusing to honor the law, that is, the benefit of the prophetic training.

This is the sense and force of the verses before us also. For he accuses Israel and says: “Who has believed our report?” For we, O Master, he says, have been initiated by you into the word concerning the incarnation, and we have had this report; but no one has believed, and to no one has your arm, the arm of the Lord and God of all, become manifest. It is the custom of the inspired Scripture to name the Son the arm of God the Father, as has been shown in very many places. But as if someone objected and said: You, O prophets, have received the report through the Spirit and been enriched with the knowledge of the mystery; did you then proclaim the mystery to others? Yes, they say, we announced … that “We shall be before him as a plain,” that is, as a field rich in flowers and fruitful, or also “as a root in thirsty ground,” the Only-begotten, of course, watering us with divine and ineffable words, he in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.

For of old the whole earth was as it were dry and barren, like thirsty ground, bearing no cultivated fruits. But when it was enriched with the rain from Christ, spiritual rain of course, and the supply given through the Holy Spirit, we blossomed again like a root, that is, like a fine and flowering plant. At any rate one of the holy prophets said to us: “And all the nations shall call you blessed, because you shall be a desirable land, says the Lord Almighty”; for such land is welcome to farmers. And that the once thorn-bearing, dry, and waterless ground has changed into a most fertile one, able to grow rich in spiritual fruitfulness, the God of all will make clear, saying through the voice of Isaiah: “And there shall be, instead of the brushwood …” … and fleabane, and dry and waterless ground always nourishes them in some way; but myrtle and cypress grow in gardens. With the thorn removed, then, he says, the most fragrant of plants will sprout thereafter, when the thirsty ground becomes well watered, as God says: “I will make the desert into marshes, and the thirsty land into water channels. I will put in the waterless land cedar and box and myrtle and cypress and white poplar.” So we announced that by believing in Christ himself we shall be before him, that is, watched over by him, as a plain, as a root, that is, as a plant in ground once thirsty, but made well watered by him.

“He has no form or glory; and we saw him, and he had no form or beauty; his form was without honor, failing beyond all men.”

What, then, does the prophet say in these words, or what sense might one fit to what is said? Come, let us again examine it as well as we can. He has confessed that “We announced,” that is, we made the prediction without omission, that he will come in due time. But perhaps someone might say to this: What, then, if the Word, being God, had come down from heaven crowned with God-befitting glory, and had appeared to those on earth resplendent in unapproachable light, and could not be looked upon because of the excess of his glory? At any rate, when he came down in the form of fire upon Mount Sinai, there was darkness and gloom and storm, fire darting on high, and smoke, and very many other things besides that produce terror and extreme dread, so that the sight became unbearable to those who beheld it. At any rate those of Israel asked for a mediator, saying to the most excellent Moses: “You speak to us, and let not God speak to us, lest we die.” It would be no wonder, then, he says, if you foretold … glory, and he became bearable to no one. What, then, did the prophets …? “He has no form or glory.” For he was not, he says, in a form and glory befitting God. For he emptied himself, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in form as a man he humbled himself. And we say these things, having the tradition not from hearing alone, but having also seen with our very eyes the one who is preached. “We saw him, and he had no form or beauty” (beauty, that is, befitting God), “but his form was without honor.” For human things are small and cheap and wholly without honor compared with the divine and supreme preeminence and the surpassingly brilliant beauty of the nature that is above all. At any rate it is said: “Fair in beauty beyond the sons of men.” And

the still greater point he states: “failing beyond all men,” meaning plainly his form, as if they had said: Among men one may see some distinguished by the brilliance of rank, by the eminence of wealth, and in other ways among earthly honors. But Emmanuel was not among these, but in a small and despised station, so as to seem inferior to other men. And the word is true. For he was not born of a rich mother, the holy Virgin, but came through all that is lowly, that he might exalt what is humble and make what is without honor enviable. And by another reasoning: being God, Lord, and King of all, what brilliance among men would he have needed?

“A man in affliction and knowing how to bear weakness; for his face is turned away; he was dishonored and not esteemed.”

Having said, “We saw him, and he had no form or beauty,” they clearly report in what state of countenance they beheld the one who is preached. He was like a man, they say, who is in affliction but nobly bears weakness, that is, ill-treatment, or suffering evil. For perhaps they beheld the Savior's face downcast, as of one in turmoil and alarm, since he was already about to suffer death on the tree; when he also said at one time, “Now my soul is troubled,” and at another again, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death,” and “What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour; but for this purpose I came to this hour.” And one of the holy evangelists also said that when the time at which he was to suffer drew near, he began to be grieved and distressed. For although the only-begotten Word of the Father is God by nature, and incapable of sufferings, grief, and all such things whatever, he allowed the nature that is ours not to be without pain when temptation fell upon it, showing in all things that he had become like us, and was not, as some saw fit to think, a shadow and phantom seen on earth, but truly became man.

“His face is turned away,” he says. “Turned away” stands for “He was put to shame, dishonored, and not esteemed.” For Pilate sent Jesus to Herod; and Herod, it says, treated him with contempt and sent him back. For he did not esteem Jesus to be anything. His face too was dishonored, when the soldiers, of course, … and said: “Prophesy to us, Christ, who is it that struck you?” He was dishonored in another way too, enduring the torments of the scourges and the slaps of the attendants. At any rate he said through the voice of Isaiah: “I gave my back to scourges and my cheeks to slaps, and I did not turn away my face from shame” … As I said, the divine prophets seem to have seen the Son by a vision, that is, through the Holy Spirit, and his face not free of a dejection befitting a man, since the time had come at which he had to suffer, so that by the death of his own flesh he might abolish death, removing sin from the world.

“This one bears our sins and suffers pain for us; and we reckoned him to be in toil, and in affliction, and in ill-treatment. But he was wounded because of our sins, and made weak because of our lawless deeds. The chastisement of our peace was upon him; by his bruise we were healed. All we like sheep went astray; a man went astray in his way; and the Lord gave him up for our sins.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ endured the cross, despising the shame, and became obedient to the Father unto death, and bore with the impiety of the Jews, so that, as I said just now, he might take away the sin of the world, since the letter of the law, that is, the worship according to the law, could accomplish nothing toward this. For it was impossible for the blood of goats and bulls to take away sins. He suffered outside the gate, so that, as Paul says, he might sanctify the people through his own blood; for he suffered not for himself (far from it) but for the whole world under heaven. And the all-wise Paul will bear witness, writing about God the Father: “He did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, that with him he might also freely give us all things.” And he himself says somewhere, through the psalmist's lyre, to the Father and God in heaven: “Sacrifice and offering you did not want, but a body you prepared for me; in whole burnt offerings and offerings for sin you took no pleasure. Then I said: Behold, I come; in the roll of the book it is written of me, to do your will, O God; I have desired it.” For since the worship according to the law was of no use to those on earth for taking away sin, since sacrifices of oxen and slaughters of sheep were not God's will, the true Lamb, who takes away the sin of the world, offered himself for us as a fragrant odor; then, having endured the … of the flesh, … of death and of sin. For one who was worth as much as all suffered for all, that he might hold sway and reign over all. And Paul again will confirm it, writing: “For this Christ died and lived, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.” And again: “One died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised.” Rightly, then, the prophet says that “This one,” the one in affliction, who knows how to bear weakness, who has his face turned away, who was dishonored and not esteemed, “bears our sins and suffers pain for us; and we reckoned him to be in toil and in affliction and in ill-treatment.” See again, I pray, with what skill the prophetic … sin, gave him up, that he might free us … Christ himself said: “For God so loved … that everyone who believes in him should not perish.”

of those who did not know the mystery of Christ, but thought that he came into suffering as one who would pay for his own sins. “For we reckoned him to be in toil, and in affliction, and in ill-treatment,” he says; that is, we supposed that the suffering befell him as sent by God, on account of some sins, and that because of this sin he came into toil and affliction and ill-treatment. But that is not so at all; rather, he was wounded because of our sins and made weak because of our lawless deeds. Then he gives other reasons too, through which one may see that it was for our salvation and life that he who knew no sin came into suffering. For of old we had stood apart in enmity to God, fighting against his sacred laws, not bearing the yoke of obedience and refusing to serve him. But it was necessary, he says, that those who had slipped into such audacity be disciplined with the scourge, so that, departing from wicked things, we might put an end to the enmity and make peace with God, by bowing our neck to him and trying to accomplish what pleases him. But this discipline, he says, which ought rather to have been brought on those who had sinned, so that they might be reconciled when they were at war with God, came upon him. And this, I think, is “The chastisement of our peace was upon him.” He makes the sense of the passage clearer by adding at once: “By his bruise we were healed.” For he suffered, as I said, for us. “For all we like sheep went astray; a man went astray in his way, and the Lord gave him up for our sins.” We, then, went astray; we departed from the living God, following our own pleasures. But the Lord of all, that is, the God and Father, because of our … the penalty, and might save those who believe. And knowing this … the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son … but have eternal life. … to pay the penalty for his own offenses. That is why the Jews also nailed him between two criminals, wishing to fashion an evil reputation for him. But the Holy Spirit teaches through the prophet that he was wounded because of [our] sins …

“… his mouth. He was led like a sheep to slaughter, and like a lamb before the one who shears it is dumb, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away; who will describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth; because of the lawless deeds of my people he was led to death.”

The sense of the passage is very plain, but it will be explained by us part by part as follows, lest anything should perhaps seem unclear to some. Our Lord Jesus Christ was being judged before the leaders of the Jews. Then some came forward slandering him and affirming that something had been said by him against the glory of God. But Christ answered nothing to this … the defense, for he was being judged before enemies. And that … since God says that he is Savior and Redeemer of the world under heaven, he again did not ignore. He kept silent, then, when judged before them and before Pilate, except that he said a few words, and those barely, to leave their sin without excuse. For the harsh and unholy Caiaphas asked, saying: “I adjure you by the living God, tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God.” And he at once answered: “Hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Pilate also asked whether he was king of Israel, and to this Christ said: “You have said it.” From then on Pilate went along with the madness of the Jews; and having scourged Jesus, he ordered the soldiers under him to lead him away, mixed in with robbers, to suffer death on the cross. It is true, then, as the prophet says, that because he was ill-treated he does not open his mouth.

For having suffered countless things at the time of his arrest, having endured insults and spittings and the slaps of the unholy attendants, and other things besides that might well put the sufferer in a bad state, he was brought to Pilate. From being ill-treated, he says, he does not open his mouth; but he was led like a sheep to slaughter, and like a lamb … And he, because he was ill-treated, does not open … our [sins], and made weak because of [our] lawless deeds. … he makes this clearer by what follows: “The chastisement,” he says, “of our peace was upon him; by his bruise we were healed.” For being enemies of God, since we had offended, we owed chastisement and punishment; but we did not experience it: our Savior himself endured it. It was fitting for him to heal like by like, and through a sheep to call back the straying of the sheep. He becomes a sheep, not changed into a sheep, nor undergoing alteration, nor departing from his own essence, but wisely putting on the nature of the sheep. As a sheep, then, and a sacrificial victim he became, and was offered as a sacrifice for the whole race. Not idly did the prophet mention slaughter and shearing together; but since he was God and man, and when the body was slaughtered the divine nature remained impassible, the divine Isaiah of necessity showed us both the slaughter of the sheep and the shearing of the lamb. For not only, he says, was he slaughtered, but he was also shorn. For the human element underwent death; but as God, living and remaining impassible, he gave the fleece of the body to the wicked. “… before the one who shears it, dumb.” For sheep are taken at certain times to be cleaned, and the shepherds bring shearing knives upon them. And they, although suffering (for the knife sometimes grazes the skin and hurts), bear it and are silent, and do not leap at those who do it. So too Christ, when reviled, did not revile in return; when suffering, he did not threaten, but entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

It is true, then, that “In his humiliation his judgment was taken away.” For since he seemed to them to be someone cheap and among the very lowly, they brought the vote, that is, the judgment, against him. Some judges do this, who have very little regard for accuracy, that is, for the truth, and judge persons rather than deeds. … they are found to be precise examiners of the facts, perhaps even then fighting against the truth and trying to find ways to help; but when someone obscure is brought before them, then indeed, then they are hot and bold and most unhesitating, and bring down on him the vote for the extreme penalty. “His judgment, then, was taken away in his humiliation,” he says. And since he seemed to some among the Jews, that is, to the judges, to be lowly, the prophet, considering the splendor of the glory that was in him, and that he was God, though seen by those on earth in a form like ours, all but shakes his head and laments those who decreed the judgment against him, and says: “Who will describe his generation?” For it was not against some ordinary person, he says, as you thought, that you became harsh and unjust judges, but rather against this one, whose generation, that is, birth, no word could interpret to us. You will understand this in two ways. For the Word, being God, has been begotten of God the Father, and the manner of the begetting is wholly ineffable and incomprehensible.

For it did not take place bodily, but as befits the intellectual and incorporeal nature. For light shone forth from light, and life sprang from life; and that he was truly begotten of the essence of God the Father we believe without doubting, but how, it is not possible to say or to conceive. Being God by nature, he brought himself down to choose to undergo the self-emptying for our sake. He took the form of a slave and underwent the birth according to … following … laws. For his coming forth was not from a man and a woman, but rather mystical and strange and beyond us, and nearly indescribable. For it was said to the holy Virgin: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore also the holy one who is born will be called Son of God.” And since the mystery of his birth according to the flesh is believed to have been accomplished beyond our nature, the prophet therefore says: “Who will describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” “Is taken away” (αἴρεται), he says, stands for “is lifted up”: his life, that is, his conduct and his life in the flesh, is higher than those on earth. For he alone of all, though seen as a man like us, did no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth, although no one on earth had achieved this; for no one among us is wholly blameless. It is lifted up in another way also: the life, that is, the existence, of the Only-begotten is above all those on earth, when he is understood apart from the flesh and not yet become man like us. He, then, whose birth according to the flesh is wonderful and beyond nature, his life and conduct also surpass the measure of those on earth.

But as though someone said to this: How has he who knew no sin been subjected to the votes of death and been reckoned with the lawless? For he was condemned as a sinner. God the Father all but rises up against this, saying: “Because of the lawless deeds of my people he was led to death.” For either he means this: For the sin of my people he willingly endured the sentence of death; or perhaps that: Since those who belong to my people, he says, have become most lawless, therefore, through their cruelty and bloodguilt, the nooses came upon him as well, and he was led to death. Both the one and the other are wholly true. For he died to abolish the sin of those on earth, and with it to destroy the death that sprang from it. He died in another way also, when the Jews acted lawlessly against him. For although they recognized that he is the heir, they said among themselves: “Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance for ourselves.”

“And I will give the wicked in return for his burial, and the rich in return for his death.”

“Because he did no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth.”

He seems in these words to wish to show, and to prove true, what we said just now: that because those who belonged to the people of God were exceedingly impious and most lawless, Christ was led to death. For since, he says, they behaved outrageously and unholily toward him, and killed him who is the author of life, acting impiously without restraint even against the Savior himself, for this reason, and most justly, I will give the wicked and the rich, he says, into the hands of enemies, in return for his burial and in return for his death. For the Jews offended in two ways: by killing the Lord and by slandering his burial. And in what way, we shall say. He was buried after undergoing death according to the flesh; but he came back to life on the third day, an earthquake having taken place at the tomb, so that even the soldiers guarding it perceived the event, went to the leaders of the Jews, and reported this and the resurrection itself. But they, as the evangelist says, gave sufficient money to the soldiers, that they should say: “His disciples came by night and stole him.” And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day. So … God the Father; he calls them wicked as having killed Jesus on stale charges, and rich because with money they persuaded Pilate's guards to slander the august and great mystery of the resurrection. It is likely that they were also called rich in another way, the word hinting at and striking them, because they plotted against Christ for this reason: to keep for themselves wealth unjustly heaped up from not judging rightly and from defrauding whomever they could. At any rate he said of them through the voice of Isaiah: “Your rulers are disobedient, companions of thieves, loving gifts, pursuing reward, not judging for orphans, and not attending to the widow's cause.” And they made the word of faith unacceptable, considering that when the worship in the law ceased they would lose the profits of the priesthood; for they received firstfruits and tithes, even down to the cheapest … Christ saying: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, judgment and mercy and faith.” They are convicted as lovers of wealth for another reason too: for, as I said before, transferring the Master's inheritance to themselves, they plotted against the master of the vineyard. And that by divine sentence God has given the wicked and the rich in return for the death and burial of Christ, he shows plainly by adding at once: “Because he did no lawlessness, nor was deceit found in his mouth.” What word, then, will help the Jews on the day of judgment? For God the Father has clearly testified to the Son's sinlessness: neither was deceit, that is, falsehood, found in his mouth, nor did he do lawlessness. So in deed and word he was wholly blameless and reached the limit of all purity. But they lied against him and bore false witness against him, saying to Pilate at one time, “This man stirs up the people and forbids giving tribute to Caesar,” and again, “If this man were not an evildoer, we would not have handed him over to you.” They act, then, against the Father's testimonies, subjecting the blameless and righteous one to untrue accusations, and for this reason they were handed over to enemies.

“Because the Lord wills to cleanse him from the blow.”

For if those who had raged against him had not paid the penalty, perhaps some might naturally have suspected and said that Christ was condemned by a just vote, as one found liable to the charge brought against him. But when the wrath was brought forth and a punishment proportionate to their impiety toward him was brought on them, he is cleansed of the blow. For God would not have been angry, nor would he have disregarded his own people, nor handed them over to the worst evils, if they had not denied the holy and righteous one, slandering him, nailing him to the tree, and going beyond all inhumanity.

“If you give an offering for sin, your soul shall see a long-lived seed. And the Lord wills to take away from the toil of his soul, to show him light and to form him with understanding, to justify a righteous one who serves many well; and he himself shall bear their sins. Therefore he shall inherit many and shall divide the spoils of the strong, because his soul was handed over to death, and he was reckoned among the lawless, and he himself bore the sins of many, and was handed over because of their sins.”

Having accused those of Israel of having … killed the giver of life and the prince of the salvation of all, he transfers his words to the flocks of the nations, and says as if to them: “If you give an offering for sin, your soul shall see a long-lived seed.” It is as if he said plainly: Christ has laid down his own life for you; he bought you with his own blood; he endured the cross, despising the shame, that he might accomplish your salvation. If, then, you too make him a return, and pay as a debt a ready obedience, and bring your neck under his yokes, then your soul will see a long-lived seed; that is, you will be partners with those kept for a life of long ages, the saints, of course, who have been enriched with the hope of eternal life. For among the Greeks there was no account of the resurrection of the dead, and the mystery is disbelieved to this day. They all but say: “The breath in our nostrils is smoke … will be dispersed like thin air.” But among the nurslings of the church the resurrection of those who have fallen asleep was an unshaken hope, and God promises it to the nations, if they choose to bring the repayment of their own soul to Christ, who chose to suffer because of their sin. And what kind of debt is owed by us, Paul will make clear, saying: “For one died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised.” So we owe him our own life. Therefore he says: “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” And he who denies himself will no longer live the life that pleases himself, but rather that which would be understood as Christ's, that is, holy and blameless, as indeed did the divine Paul, who wrote plainly: “For through the law I died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God.” See, then, how he has given for sin, dedicating as it were his own life to the one who suffered for him. For we have heard Christ saying to his own disciples: “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” … For mother and father have become to a man the beginning and occasion of his bodily coming into being; but the God and Father of all, when we were held fast by death and withering like grass, regenerated us to incorruption through Christ in the Spirit, made us stronger than corruption, and crowned us with a long and endless life. Rightly, then, reverence for parents would yield to love for him. And to love Christ with the whole soul and heart, and to

follow his commands, that is, his sacred oracles, is to give for sin, together with choosing to keep faith in him right and blameless. “Your soul, then,” he says, “shall see a long-lived seed. For the Lord wills to take away from the toil of his soul, and to show him light, and to form him with understanding.” For he became very sorrowful, even to death, before the precious cross; for so it is written by the holy evangelists. But when, having trodden down Hades, he came back to life on the third day, and then beheld human nature set in himself in incorruption, and the good pleasure of God the Father already spreading over all the earth, and the multitude of the nations about to be enlightened, to depart from its ancient and familiar error, and to be called to the knowledge of himself and of the Father, he put off the toil of the suffering and gave victory to those of right mind. For as soon as he was raised from the dead, since he is good, rejoicing greatly at the salvation and life of the world, he said to the holy disciples: “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth; go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” So if you give for sin, you too will be partakers of a long-lived seed, that of the saints, of course. For God the Father wills to take away from the toil of his soul, plainly Christ's, that is, to change the grief on the cross into joy, by showing him those who were once darkness, that is, those who once went astray, transformed into light; to whom also the all-wise Paul writes, saying: “You who were once darkness, but now are light in the Lord.” He wills to form him with understanding. And what this is, the all-wise Paul will teach, saying: “For we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord, the Spirit.” For those who are in sins and worship the creation rather than the Creator have, in a way, an ugly heart and a most unlovely mind. At any rate it was said to someone through the voice of Jeremiah: “Behold, your eyes are not, nor is your heart, good.” But when they receive faith in Christ, they are spiritually reshaped to his divine and surpassing beauty. Paul at any rate writes to some: “My little children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you.” God the Father wills, then, with understanding, that is, by his own wisdom (befitting God, of course), to form believers toward him and to make them conformed to him through sanctification in the Spirit. “For those whom he foreknew,” it says, “he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son; these he also called.” And God is said also to create the two peoples into one new man.

And God the Father wills, I think, to justify a righteous one who serves many well, and “he himself shall bear their sins.” The righteous one who serves many well would be understood, I think, as no other than our Lord Jesus Christ. For he came not to be served, as he himself says, but rather to serve, according to the economy of the incarnation. For this reason the blessed Paul saw fit to call him a minister. For he said about the law and the New Covenant: “For if the ministry of condemnation was glory (Moses' face had been glorified), much more does the ministry of righteousness excel in glory.” Christ, then, righteous and blameless, serves many well. For the Word, being God, took the form of a slave, not to benefit his own nature, but bestowing this too on us, and as it were fulfilling a ministry toward us, through which we have been saved. He is justified, moreover, in that he repels the suspicion of seeming to be wicked and to have justly suffered death on the tree, both because those of Israel paid the penalty for their impiety toward him, and because he reigns over all the nations under heaven, which have run to him. For that the word of the incarnation has the force of ministry

the word of the incarnation has, he showed by saying: “And he himself shall bear their sins.” For in order to remove sin from the world, by taking it upon himself and dying, one for all, he who is worth as much as all, for this reason he served many. By saying “many” he means the nations; for Israel was one nation. Since he himself bore their sins, he says, therefore he shall inherit many and divide the spoils of the strong. Here again you will understand by “many” those from the nations, for they are ten thousand times more than those of Israel; and by “the strong” either the holy apostles, or simply all who are mighty in Christ and have spiritual courage, to whom, as having conquered Satan, he distributes spoils. For he distributes to the saints with a rich hand the supplies of the spiritual gifts. “For to one is given,” it says, “through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge,” and prophecies and discernings of spirits, and the gifts of healings. Applying the force of the word to the holy apostles, we say this: all the nations were as it were Satan's possession, but he who inherited many divided them among the holy initiators. For some were called through the divine Peter to the knowledge of Christ, the Savior of us all, and others, through the instruction of the divine Paul or of some other of the holy apostles, were caught in the net into the light of the truth. … as spoils of war, the turning and calling of those who once went astray. And that Christ, who died for all, had to be seen as … of all, he persuades us by saying: “Because his soul was handed over to death, and he was reckoned among the lawless, and he himself bore the sins of many, and because of …”

Tome 2.

“Rejoice, barren one who does not bear; break forth and shout, you who are not in labor, for more are the children of the desolate than of her who has a husband. For the Lord said: Enlarge the place of your tent and of your curtains; fix them, do not spare; … strengthen …; spread out still to the right and to the left. And your seed shall inherit nations, and cities …”

Having explained very well in what manner the true Lamb, that is, Christ, endured the precious cross for us and the slaughter for the world, and besides this having foretold that he will inherit many, he transfers the words of the prophecy to those who have now been given to him by God as an inheritance, that is, the nations. For this the Son himself also proclaimed beforehand through the psalmist's lyre, saying: “The Lord said to me: You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession.” He says that they are many; for those from the nations would be understood as many times more and beyond number compared with those of Israel's blood, who belong to one single nation. He sees fit to liken the multitude of the nations to a woman barren and rejected, that is, desolate; and he says to her: “Rejoice, barren one who does not bear.” But perhaps someone will say this: For what reason does he call barren the multitude of the nations, that is, the church gathered from the nations? Yet the word has previously indicated that those who went astray and worshipped the creation rather than the Creator were far more numerous than those redeemed through Moses, and therefore numbered and taken into God's portion. For “when,” it says, “the Most High divided the nations, when he scattered the sons of Adam, … his people Jacob became the Lord's portion, Israel the measured line of his inheritance.” In what sense, then, is she barren who has so many children and is as it were most fertile? Because among those who did not know the God of all there was no one fit to be counted among the children of God for knowledge and virtue. And in another way also: there was not among them the regeneration through water and the Spirit, but they were still from corruption, corruptible and earthly, and, as the psalmist says, “alienated from the womb” from kinship with God, “and going astray from the belly itself,” being sinners from sinners, idolaters, and “having no hope,” as the all-wise Paul says. The barren one, then, bore to the God over all no one of those who ought, or were able, to be counted among his children and to belong to them through faith and virtue. But behold, she has been commanded to break forth and shout.

This is the custom of women who are now on the birthing stool and giving birth; the midwives, they say, urge them to cry out … the infant, since the womb is widened by the shout. This, I think, is “Break forth and shout.” Begin, then, to bear, he says, and as one in labor raise a great shout; and as one who will be the mother of countless peoples, receive the spiritual gladness. Making clear the sense of the passage before us, the God of all adds: “For more are the children of the desolate than of her who has a husband.” It is the custom of the inspired Scripture to call the widow desolate. And the multitude of the nations was widowed. For it did not possess fellowship with the Word, I mean, the sower of all true knowledge and of all zeal for piety, whom one would not miss the truth in calling the farmer of all rational creation; for through him all spiritual fruitfulness grows, both in the holy angels and in ourselves. So she was a widow before the Savior's coming, and for that reason barren and childless. But when she received through faith the bridegroom from heaven, her children became more than those of her who has a husband, that is, of the synagogue of the Jews, which God brought through the all-wise Moses into spiritual kinship, and made as it were his consort, and showed to be the mother and nurse of many. But she was made childless because of Christ, although, as the prophet Jeremiah says, she had been rich in children. For more numerous, as I said, are the sons of the once barren one, to whom he also says: “Enlarge the place of your tent and of your curtains.” For since, having received the Word from heaven, that is, the bridegroom, she unexpectedly became blessed with children and with many children, she has of necessity been commanded to extend her courts in breadth and length; by this you will understand the growth of the church from the nations. And the lengthening of the cords suggests the incomparable richness of the holy churches in spaciousness, although the ancient tabernacle was wholly small and had very narrow courts. Yet even in that piece of workmanship one might see, written as in a type, the breadth and length of the church from the nations. For about the ten … were arranged in a circle on four sides, as if reaching to each part of the world, a hundred in length and fifty in breadth. Therefore he says: “Spread out still to the right and to the left,” that is, let your cords be stretched out everywhere. For the world under heaven is full of holy churches, and they are large, broad, and long everywhere, and … the God of all, when the temple in Jerusalem was raised up after the first had been burned by the hand of the Assyrians: “Who among you saw this house in its former glory? And how do you see it now, as though it did not exist before you?” “As I live, says the Lord, great shall be the glory of this house, the latter beyond the former, says the Lord Almighty.” For much greater than the temple in Jerusalem, and rich, are the temples raised up throughout the world under heaven, that is, the churches, which have the august altar for the glory of Christ.

“Enlarge, then,” he says, “the place of your tent and of your curtains. For your seed shall inherit nations, and desolate cities …” … the church from the nations has become the mother and nurse of saints and of good men, and has brought forth many rulers and leaders of peoples, so that they lead many nations, since they are able to give the blameless teaching of the mysteries and are not lacking in pastoral skill. To them the Savior himself, as to those who have achieved a glorious and approved life, promises an inheritance, and to lead peoples in the age to come. For in the distribution of the talents, to those who bring what was given doubled, he says: “Be over ten cities,” and to another: “Be over five cities.” So “your seed shall inherit nations.”

And this would befit, as I said just now, the leaders of the churches, who also say out of very great joy: “He subjected peoples to us and nations under our feet; he chose for us his inheritance.” For the inheritance most fitting to Christ alone and truly is to lead the others. Therefore he also commanded that no one be called Rabbi: “For one,” he says, “is your leader, the Christ.” But just as, being himself the true light, he called the holy apostles light; and just as, being by nature and alone truly Son, he has given us who believe in him authority to call God Father, since we are enriched with the dignity of sonship; so also, being himself leader of all and having the world under heaven as his inheritance, he has given the thing to the saints, crowning them with his own glory, because they have become his fellow workers, and, as genuine guardians of peoples, have gained many, bringing to him through faith those who worshipped the creation instead of him and did not know the way of the excellent life. “You will make desolate cities to be inhabited” you will understand as follows: So great, he says, will be the multitude of your seed that the cities full of inhabitants will not suffice for them, but they will be able to fill even the deserted ones.

“… because you were reproached; for you will forget the eternal shame, and the reproach of your widowhood you will not remember; for the Lord who makes you, the Lord … is his name; and he who delivered you, he the God of Israel, shall be called in all the earth.”

We have been justified in Christ, “not by works of righteousness which we ourselves did, but according to his great mercy”; so the all-wise Paul writes. For we have been freed from darkness, error, and the unholiness handed down from our fathers, in that we worshipped the creation rather than the Creator, and no form of wickedness was left unpractised by the flocks of the nations; for, as the psalmist says, “All turned aside, together they became worthless; there was none who did good, not even one.” This, then, became a reproach to the nations: I mean the very going astray, and the harms that result from going astray. For what makes the soul so unseemly and most unlovely and … countless … as to depart from the living God and to choose to worship the unclean spirits instead of him, and to sink into the swamps of sin as into mud and mire? But what does the lover of humankind say to those who are called to the forgiveness of sin through faith, plainly faith in him? “Do not fear because you were put to shame.” For since, altogether, as a father has compassion on his sons, the Lord has had compassion on those who fear him, and as far as the east is from the west he has removed our iniquities from us, how was it not fitting that for the stumbles of old … God, not exacting the penalty from the guilty? And

Christ at any rate said, showing that the time of his coming was one of gentleness: “For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” So, as freed from penalty and not expecting punishment for our offenses, we have had a mind free from fears, nor do we remember the former … For grace prevails, justifying the … For as the all-wise Paul says: “It is God who justifies; who is the one who condemns?” And since the Master of all bears no grudge, who will reproach us with the filth of the stumbles made in ignorance? “You will forget, then,” he says, “the eternal shame” (meaning long-lasting), “and the reproach of your widowhood you will not remember.” The reproach of widowhood is that those from the nations were never able in any way to bear fruit to God during the time when they went astray. For there was not among them, as I said, the bridegroom from heaven, the giver of spiritual fruitfulness, who places in each soul the beginnings of good seeds. At any rate in the gospel parables he shows himself to us as such, saying: “The sower went out to sow his seed.” And in what way the reproach of her widowhood will be removed, he declares, saying: “For the Lord who makes you, the Lord of Hosts is his name.” “Who makes you,” he says, instead of “who creates you and transforms you into a different way of conduct and into a seemly life”; for we are re-formed in Christ into newness of holy and evangelical life, rising to his beauty through the Spirit, so that from then on we are seen as other people than we were. At any rate he said concerning the nations through the voice of Ezekiel: “And I will take out their heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may know me, that I am the Lord.” And in very many places he names those who turn from the nations “a generation to come” and “a people being created.” And the divine Paul says: “And we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord, the Spirit.” Christ, then, has created us, that is, the two peoples into one new man, making peace and reconciling both in one body to the Father. At any rate we have been commanded to put off the old man, which is corrupted according to the desires of deceit, and to put on the new, which is renewed according to the image of the one who created him, plainly Christ. “I, then, am the Lord of Hosts who makes you,” he says, that is, who creates and reshapes you. And so that the thing may not be disbelieved by some because of its magnificence, he names himself again Lord of the powers, usefully and necessarily. And what the time of the transformation, that is, of the re-creation, is, he made clear by saying: “He who delivered you, he the God of Israel, shall be called in all the earth.” And when was this accomplished at all? At the time of the coming, plainly. For Christ has reigned over all the nations, and this the prophet teaches, saying: “And the Lord shall be one, and his name one, encircling all the earth.”

For of old God was known in Judea alone. But since the multitude of the nations has been called through faith to the knowledge of him, henceforth every knee shall bow to him, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. God, then, shall be called in all the earth, he who delivered us, took us out of the devil's perversity, and brought us under his own sceptres. And this the blessed David teaches, saying at one time, “Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to the God of Jacob; for the Lord Most High is fearsome, a great King over all the earth,” and at another again, “The Lord has become king; let the earth rejoice.”

“Not as a woman forsaken and faint-hearted has the Lord called you, nor as a wife hated from youth, said God. For a short … I will have mercy on you. In a little wrath I turned my face away from you, and with eternal mercy I will have mercy on you, said the Lord who delivered you.”

It is the custom of the inspired Scripture to call “forsaken” a woman who has been cast out for some reasons, one to whom, according to the law of Moses, a bill of divorce was thrown by the man who lived with her; and again to call “hated” one who has been slandered for disorderliness and an unseemly life. To her faint-heartedness too would fit … to bear the yokes of marriage, or turning to what is not lawful, and being negligent about fulfilling whatever makes for good order. Such was the synagogue of the Jews toward the God who rules over all. For he brought her into spiritual kinship through the all-wise Moses and, though she was like a woman who had played the harlot in Egypt by choosing to think as the Egyptians did and worshipping gods there, he all but took her into his house. Then, when she wished … to apostasy (for she worshipped the works of her own hands), he thrust her away and made her a stranger to kinship with him, and as a hated and faint-hearted woman he put her out of the house. At any rate he said through one of the holy prophets to those of Israel's blood: “Plead with your mother, plead, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. And I will remove her harlotry from before my face, and her adultery from between her breasts, and I will kill her with thirst; and on her children I will have no mercy, for they are children of harlotry; for their mother played the harlot; she who bore them acted shamefully.” And what was the manner of her harlotry he made clear, saying through the voice of Ezekiel: “Son of man, will you not judge Oholah and Oholibah (that is, Jerusalem and Samaria), and declare to them their lawless deeds? For they committed adultery, and blood is on their hands; [with their imaginings] they committed adultery; and their children whom they bore to me they led through the fire. Even these things they did to me: they defiled my holy places and profaned my Sabbaths; and when they slaughtered their children to their idols, they went into my holy places to profane them.” For in Samaria were ten tribes and the half-tribe of Ephraim, and in Jerusalem the tribe of Judah and the half-tribe of Benjamin; but both these and those acted impiously beyond measure, or rather to the limit of all … “With their imaginings they committed adultery”; that is, the idols which they themselves invented they made the occasion of a kind of spiritual adultery and harlotry, turning their hearts away from the one who had taken them in the position of a wife …

God. At any rate the God of all said to the synagogue of the Jews through the voice of Jeremiah: “You had the look of a harlot; you became shameless toward all; you did not call me as house and father and guide of your virginity.” He fittingly calls the mother of the Jews, who played the harlot, a forsaken woman, faint-hearted, hated from youth. But he speaks to the nations, and says that they too have not been called to the knowledge of Christ in the same way as she who was forsaken, faint-hearted, and hated from youth. For in the synagogue of the Jews a hardening came in part, as the all-wise Paul says; and their eyes were darkened so as not to see, and their back was bent, that is, they have had a mind always looking downward and gazing at earthly things. But to those from the nations none of this happened; rather they were enlightened, and their back was not bent but spiritually straightened. Nor was only the remnant of the whole saved among them, as in Israel; rather their whole multitude was caught in the net through Christ, brought to salvation, freed from the charges of error, and escaped the abuse of the nooses of sin. She has been called, then, not as the rejected and hated woman. But “For a short time,” he says, “I forsook you, and with great mercy I will have mercy on you.” For in the generations gone by, as a disciple of Christ says, God allowed the nations to walk in their own ways; and this, I think, is the forsaking for a short time. For even if it seems to have lasted long ages, yet even so it shrinks to shortness. Many times greater, then, is the time of mercy, and it runs on to endless ages. So you will understand also what follows, that is: “In a little wrath I turned my face away from you, and with eternal mercy I will have mercy on you.” For short and contracted is the time of wrath compared with the length of the unceasing love for humankind given us by God, who also delivered us from the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in light. And the great mercy would reasonably be understood as that given through Christ, which frees from all filth, delivers from punishment and penalty, brings back into kinship with him through sanctification, crowns with the glories of adoption, and makes heirs of the kingdom of heaven.

“From the water in Noah's time this is mine: as I swore to him at that time concerning the earth, not to be angry with you any more, nor at your threat to remove the mountains, nor shall the hills be moved; so neither shall my mercy toward you fail, nor the covenant of my peace …”

It is clearly written in the books of Moses that, when the whole earth had turned away into apostasy from God and had been carried down without restraint into many kinds of … (“nor your hills” …), the God over all, rightly grieved at these very things, says: “My Spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh,” that is, in a merely fleshly mind; and this is abominable and hateful to him and full of all uncleanness. For this reason, as the Savior's disciple says, “he did not spare the ancient world,” but destroyed all, … Noah alone, gaining this as a reward of his obedience and submission. But when the flood abated and the mass of the waters subsided, he came out of the ark and sacrificed, and the sacred writing says that God smelled a fragrant odor; then

he promised the righteous man that he would never again bring a flood on the whole earth. So “From the water in Noah's time,” he says, “this is mine,” that is, this was determined and has prevailed with me: never again to be angry with the whole earth, nor to contend with human failings and decree one penalty against all. He hints through these words that at the time when Christ shone in the world also, when the whole earth was as it were caught in the nooses of deceit, and all had turned aside, and did not know the God who is God by nature, but had worshipped the works of their own hands and were yoked to the herds of demons, all would have had to undergo by divine sentence that ancient punishment. For where the charges are wholly equal, there surely the same penalty would not be unfitting. But I pass this by, he says, and what was promised remains firm with me. And just as, he says, I would not in wrath remove the mountains nor shake the hills, that is, change them into another form …, so neither will my mercy toward you fail, nor will the covenant of my peace be removed. And the arbiter of peace and of the covenant would be no other than our Lord Jesus Christ; for he is our peace, according to the Scriptures, and, rich in spiritual kinship with him, we have all been filled with good. And this, then, was what was clearly said through Isaiah to the Father and God in heaven: “O Lord our God, give us peace; for you have given us all things.” So in Christ we have gained the covenant of peace from God the Father; for we were joined to him through Christ as mediator, and he removed from the midst the sin that tore us apart, so that nothing might lie in the way of those who go to God. At any rate it is written: “The way of the pious has become straight, and the way of the pious is prepared,” those, that is, who run in kinship with God, the peace of all, plainly Christ, mediating this.

“For the Lord said: I will be gracious to you. Humble and unstable …”

Being good by nature and incomparably loving toward humankind, the God of all always gathers occasions somehow for justifying sinners by grace without remembering their wrongs. For he does not desire the death of the sinner so much as that he turn from his evil way and live. So the God of all himself will be gracious to you, he says. And for what reason? First, because Christ is gentle, good, and very merciful; then, because you have become humble and unstable. One may see these things in the minds of those who go astray, having fallen on them like a disease. For they are very [humble], that is, low-lying and trodden, as it were thrown on the ground, and lying there for any who wish to trample them; whereas the heart of the saints is not so at all. For they cannot be trodden by the attacks of the demons, but are set on high, as it were, and will not lie under monstrous desires.

Humble, as I said, is the heart of those who go astray, and besides this unstable, because it is in a way drunk and shaken toward desires condemned by the divine law, and toward … wickedness, as by every wind; and, as the writer of Proverbs says, they suffer the wandering of desire. Jerusalem suffered this through inclining to the deceits of the demons, and the God of all accused her, saying: “In the desires of her soul she was carried about by the wind.” And a soul carried about by the wind is surely unstable too. At any rate those devoted to God flee the disease as a cause of ruin, and indeed offer songs of thanksgiving as freed from the evil; for they say: “He set my feet upon the rock and directed my steps.” And it was said by God also to the mother of the Jews: “Set yourself up, Zion.” Indeed the all-wise Paul writes to some: “So let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” The soul of those who go astray, then, is outside the glories befitting the saints, for it is unstable. But since the Creator of all is merciful, as I said, he in a way pleads in defense of her who suffered this, and says: “You were not comforted.” For to those of Israel very great comfort was given by God, bringing them to spiritual vigor and bringing in the knowledge of what is useful and necessary for salvation. For the law through Moses was given to them, and a choir of holy prophets was raised up, flooding them with streams from heaven, as God sent down upon them like rain the most abundant comfort. But to the nations none of the saints spoke beforehand at all; for they were not tutored by the law through Moses, and they remained wholly without experience of prophetic words. So she was not comforted. And this is shown clearly through the gospel parable; for Christ said somewhere … his …; he did this about the first, third, sixth, and ninth hour. And about the eleventh hour, finding others standing idle, he said to them: “Why do you stand here idle all day?” And they answered: “No one hired us.” For no one called the multitude of the nations, except that alone in the last times the … of the vineyard …

“Behold, I prepare for you carbuncle as your stone, and your foundations sapphire, and I will make your battlements jasper, and your gates crystal, and your enclosure choice stones, and all your sons taught of God, and your children in great peace.”

See, I pray, again the artistry of the word and the ingenuity of the thoughts. For he speaks of the church from the nations as of a city soon to be seen, magnificent and most beautiful, … with stones of the most … For I will make, he says, carbuncle your stone.

He seems through these words to signify … Jesus, whom the sacred writing says was laid in the foundations of Zion, in whom, if anyone believes, he will not be put to shame. Here he names him carbuncle, but he is mentioned in other ways too through holy prophets. At any rate he said through the voice of Amos: “Behold, I set adamant in the midst of my people Israel.” And through the voice of Zechariah: “Behold, I bring my servant, the Dawn; for the stone which I have set before the face of Jesus: on the one stone are seven eyes.” For Christ, who oversees all, is able to see everything everywhere. The carbuncle, then, has been set as the stone and unshakable base of the holy city. On it are stones of sapphire, perhaps signifying the band of the holy apostles. For these are nearer to Christ, and after him became as it were foundations of the world under heaven. So David says somewhere in the seventeenth psalm: “The springs of the waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were uncovered, at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of your wrath.” For when those of Israel were rebuked and brought under the breath of the divine wrath, because they had raged against Christ, the springs of the waters were seen, that is, the cleansing through holy baptism, and the foundations of the world became manifest, that is again, the divine disciples, apostles and evangelists.

“And I will make,” he says, “your battlements jasper, and your gates stones of crystal, and your enclosure choice stones.” By battlements, gates, and enclosure he names the God-loving and most wise company of the holy initiators, who are bulwarks and gates of the holy city, its enclosure and wall. They fight those who wish to war against the city, that is, against those in it, the multitude of those saved through faith: they march out with good sense against the inventors of the unholy heresies and against the devil's perversities, … continually allowing no one to fall into his perversity; they bring in good order into the knowledge of God those who come from Greek deceit, and fence them about … so that they cannot be taken, and … wicked powers … pour the poison of knowledge falsely so called into the souls of the more simple. It is the custom of the inspired Scripture sometimes to liken to most costly stones those who have the holy life and are resplendent with manifold virtues. At any rate it said somewhere of the holy apostles that “holy stones roll upon the earth.” For the divine disciples went about the world under heaven, proclaiming and preaching to people everywhere the grace of salvation through Christ. And again the prophet Isaiah also said, as from the person of God: “And I will destroy the insolence of the lawless, and the insolence of the arrogant … more precious than unrefined gold, and man more precious than the stone from Sophir.”

For the leaders of the Jews perished, having transgressed against Christ; but those saved through faith would reasonably be reckoned more precious than all gold and stone. Indeed the all-wise Paul, calling Jesus Christ the foundation, says that those who have believed in him are built upon it as choice stones into a holy temple, into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. So he likens the holy initiators to the variety and spiritual beauty of the finest things, to the most precious stones; and some, he says, have been laid as foundations of the holy city, others as battlements, and others fill the need of gates and enclosure. These things concern those who preside over the city that the word paints for us. And what does he say about those who live in it? “And all your sons taught of God.” For of old he trained Israel through the all-wise Moses and the holy prophets; but in the last times of the age we have been taught by God. And of this Paul is witness, saying: “In many parts and in many ways God spoke of old to the fathers in the prophets; in these last days he has spoken to us in a Son.” For we have received as our teacher not some prophet acting as mediator and serving the words of God, as of old, but rather the Word himself, begotten of God the Father, who came to be in a form like ours and appeared in flesh. Therefore also the children of the church are in great peace, as our mother is built up in righteousness. For those who have become wholly taught of God none of those accustomed to empty talk could harm; they are at peace with God, bound together by love for him, and practise the ways of righteousness. And this builds up the church and secures its unshaken stability, as Christ defends it and grants it to stand unmoved. For “the gates of Hades,” he says, “shall not prevail against it.” For it is written also in the book of Psalms concerning it: “And he built his sanctuary like that of a unicorn; he founded it upon the earth forever.” We say that his sanctuary is the church, which also raises its horn, not to be cast down, against its enemies, as indeed the unicorn does against the other animals. For it has been founded forever by Christ.

“Keep away from the unjust, and you will not fear, and trembling will not come near you. Behold, proselytes will come to you through me, and will flee to you for refuge …”

… choice, and all her sons taught of God, he shows at once that what was promised has come to fulfilment. For he initiates, as it were, not through some mediator, as of old through Moses or the other holy prophets, but rather through himself, that is, by his own voice. For this was the saying: “They shall all be taught of God.” And the most wise Paul also wrote: “In many parts and in many ways God spoke of old to the fathers in the prophets; in these last days he has spoken to us in a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the ages.” So the maker of the ages himself weaves the initiation into the mysteries for those called by him to the grace that comes through faith. Therefore also the bride described in the Song of Songs says somewhere of him: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” For of old he greeted her, as it were, through the mouth of the holy prophets, calling her to union with himself through sanctification and righteousness. But when he came forth as man from a woman, … For he has spoken to us mouth to mouth. When, then, you keep away, he says, from every unjust and wicked deed, then you will not fear, and trembling will not come near you; for you will be impregnable to the enemies, and beyond … some of those in the world, having obtained a very great

dominion, that is, the opposing and wicked powers, or perhaps the very waves of monstrous and loathsome pleasure, which carry those who love sin to the bottom of Hades and into the very pit of destruction below. Worth seizing, then, are the prizes of righteousness, and very brilliant the crowns …, the possession of the spiritual gifts. And he adds something else: “Behold, proselytes will come to you through me, and will flee to you for refuge.” By proselytes he means either those who at each time come to the faith and are called from the nations, or perhaps those of Israel themselves, who have been placed behind the nations although they held the first rank; and they who used to receive as proselytes those turning to God from Greek error have themselves become proselytes … For this is what “through me” signifies. For through him comes the turning and calling of all, and the access to God … of the nations; but this too is through Christ … the access to the Father. “For no one comes,” he says, “to the Father except through me.” And again: “I am the way,” and “I am the door.”

“Behold, I create you, not as a smith blowing on coals and bringing out a vessel for work; but I have created you not for destruction, to corrupt. Every corruptible vessel against you I will not prosper, and every voice that rises against you for judgment, you will defeat them all; but those liable to you shall … the Lord, and you shall be righteous to me, says the Lord.”

We say that “to create” indicates here not, surely, the passage from non-being into being; for he speaks as to those already existing and subsisting. Rather it indicates the renewal through the Holy Spirit, which re-forms some into a holy and blameless conduct and life. For in this way Christ is said to have created the two peoples into one new man, making peace and reconciling both in one body to the Father. And the all-wise Paul exhorts us, writing thus: “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God, good and well-pleasing.” We have also been commanded to put off the old man and to put on the new, which is renewed according to the image of the one who created him. I create you, then, he says, not as a human coppersmith making vessels from matter

with tools and fire, but rather by an ineffable and spiritual re-formation and remolding and as it were a spiritual regeneration, which the Savior himself once explained to Nicodemus, saying: “Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” For we have been born not of corruptible seed, but through the living and abiding Word of God. So Christ creates, reshaping to himself through sanctification those who believe and bringing them back to salvation. For he creates us not for destruction, that is, no longer for corruption and death, but for a life of long ages and a life without end. And that those who have once been raised to such brilliance and have received the renewal through Christ will be given by him an unrivalled grace of spiritual courage, and an understanding not easily withstood by the enemies of the truth, he shows by saying: “Every corruptible vessel against you I will not prosper, and every voice that rises against you for judgment, you will defeat them all.” One might say that the corruptible vessels are the servants of the devil's perversity, who are children of corruption and destruction. These attack the saints, and sometimes shoot at them, launching in many ways the arrows of their own perversity, bringing persecutions and afflictions, and … by Christ, so as to be able to corrupt the souls of the saints. And the inventors of the unholy heresies, uttering words of ill omen against the ineffable glory, all but go to law with the saints, who … of the pure orthodoxy of the church's doctrines. But they are defeated, Christ granting this too to the saints. For from him comes the power to overcome every uprising of enemies and every resistance of an unholy voice; for, as the psalmist says: “In God we shall do mightily, and he will bring to nothing those who afflict us.”

“But those liable to you,” he says, “shall be in it.” None of the other interpreters mentions the present verse, but I think it perhaps shows this: Those who have received the renewal through Christ will be stronger than enemies and than every voice; these are those reshaped to sanctification in the Spirit and leaping over the pits of sin. “But those liable to you,” he says, that is, whoever may be liable to sins even after the calling and the justification in Christ, “shall be in it.” In what? Surely in corruption. For this reason he added at once: “There is an inheritance for those who serve the Lord.” For the inheritance from God will be given not to those who are accustomed to grieve him by turning aside and looking toward unruliness, but to those who gladden him, that is, who serve, that is, who are his slaves. “You shall be righteous to me,” then, he says, that you may become partakers of the inheritance promised to those who serve, which will indeed be given in due time.

“You who thirst, go to the water; and you who have no money, go and buy, and drink without money and price wine and fat. Why do you pay out silver, and your labor not for satisfaction? Hear, and you will eat good things, and your soul will delight in good things. Give heed with your ears and follow my ways; hear me, and your soul will live in good things.”

… illumined, he made melodies to God, saying of Christ, the Savior of us all: “How you have multiplied your mercy, O God! And the sons of men will hope in the shelter of your wings. They will be drunk with the fatness of your house, and you will give them drink from the torrent of your delight; for with you is the fountain of life”; and again elsewhere: “The rushings of the river gladden the city of God.” Indeed through the voice of prophets the Son himself, the fountain of every good, the life-giving stream poured forth from the essence of the Father, says somewhere: “Behold, I turn toward them like a river of peace, and like a torrent flooding the glory of the nations.” And the prophet Zechariah said: “A fountain will go out from the house of the Lord and will water the torrent of the reeds.” In very many places of the inspired Scripture we shall find the Word of God named fountain and river. Therefore he himself also … to the Jews, and called them to himself, saying: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from his belly.” And speaking to the woman in Samaria, he says again thus: “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him, it will become in him a spring of water leaping up to …” … to Christ, and let him drink, receiving the abundant comfort through the Holy Spirit, and grace, and the purest initiation into the mysteries. And he will receive it not by buying with money, but rather by enjoying the most generous munificence of the one who calls. “Going,” he says, that is, “walking,” and leaping as it were from one place to another, that is, from deceit back to the knowledge of the truth, “buy and drink without money and price.” How, then, do they buy, and yet receive freely and without money? For we receive the grace from Christ in return for faith, paying nothing of temporary and perishing things (“For I said to the Lord,” it says, “You are my Lord,

for you have no need of my goods”), but offering in the place of payment the confession of faith in him. So the drink, and the most abundant gift of his gifts, is without money and price. And what do we buy, and what drink do we purchase? That of wine, he says, and besides this the food of fat and wheat. And admittedly, of the gifts from Christ … also becomes spiritual wine to the soul; and indeed fat, that is, food, for it strengthens the soul and makes it most vigorous. It is not unlikely, too, to say that the force of the verses before us hints at the mystery of Christ. For those who drink the living water, that is, who have been enriched with the grace through the Spirit by partaking of him, also buy both wine and fat, that is, the holy body and the blood of Christ.

Then he adds to these: “Why do you pay out silver, and your labor not for satisfaction?” For the picked men of the Greeks, following rather their own opinion, having received the spirit of the world and having their portion in Beelzebul, … composed expositions not of true things but rather of incoherent and false ones, speaking from their own heart and not from the mouth of the Lord, as it is written. But those in error, not having the knowledge of the truth, nor the divine and heavenly light, went to learn the ruinous doctrines, bringing very much money to those who promised to teach them. But these things, he says, why do you buy with silver? For what benefit is there in wanting to know falsehood, a destructive teaching in brilliant words, falsehood heaped up like mud in a golden vessel? For we have Christ, the treasure, in earthen vessels. Why, then, he says, do you buy these with silver, and your labor, the labor of those who toil to learn, will not be for satisfaction, that is, it does not suffice to nourish and give life to the soul. For the collecting of ruinous doctrines harms it rather than helps. Rightly, then, does the all-wise Paul also say: “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” And again: “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe.” By the foolishness of the preaching he means the plainness of the diction of the inspired Scripture. So, giving up toiling in vain, gathering barrenness, and bearing to spend toil on useless things, rather “hear me, and you will eat good things,” those, clearly, of the gospel teachings, in which, he says, your soul will delight abundantly. There is the true knowledge of the God who is God by nature, the learning of every virtue and of the good order befitting saints, and understanding, which wonderfully discerns rightly each thing that is to be done and makes the mind a craftsman of good works; so that people love to devote themselves to everything good that is understood, and to depart from whatever is condemned and is a cause of wickedness, … held fast not a little. “Give heed, then, with your ears,” that is, with straightforwardness and ready obedience, “follow my ways.” For Christ also said: “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Those who are his, therefore, must hasten to follow in his footsteps. And what will there be for those who wish to do this? “Your soul,” he says, “will live in good things.” Through this he seems to suggest to us the endless hope prepared for the saints.

For, as Paul says, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him.”

“… of David, the faithful. Behold, a witness among the nations … Behold, nations who did not know you will call upon you, and peoples who did not know you will flee to you for refuge, for the sake of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.”

Having promised, “You will eat good things, and your soul will delight in good things,” he shows at once in what way what was promised will come to fulfilment for them. For he promises to give an eternal covenant, and he says it very well. “For the law did not have permanence and immovability, but was in force until the time of reformation,” as the all-wise Paul says; and when the ancient commandment had grown old, as not being faultless, a place was sought for a second, plainly the new one in Christ, which differs much from the first. For the one was in shadows, while the other flashes forth the beauty of the truth spiritually. At any rate the God of all said through one of the holy prophets: “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will accomplish for the house of Jacob and for the house of Israel a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; … I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: putting my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their hearts.” And the wise John also showed us the difference between the old and the new covenant, saying: “The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” By grace and truth he means the instruction given through the gospel oracles, which has the power of the true worship in spirit. For it was fitting that Moses, being a servant, should be the minister of the shadow that does not remain, and that the herald of the perpetual and enduring worship should be the eternal one, I mean Christ. What, then, the eternal covenant is, which he will accomplish for those who come to him through faith, he makes plain by adding at once: “The holy things of David, the faithful.” For either he says that the covenant of Christ, the Savior of us all, will be given to those who turn from the nations; or he calls holy the sacred oracles of Christ, who is from the seed of David according to the flesh. And he calls them holy as making holy those in whom they come to be, just as he named the fear of God pure, as being purifying, and the gospel word life, as life-giving.

For Christ said somewhere: “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life,” that is, spiritual and life-giving. Holy, then, are those words that work holiness and render those who receive them righteous and blameless; and faithful, because again they make faithful, and work in those who have received them steadfastness in faith and in the life of piety. For this is the power of the oracles given through Christ. So, having named David, meaning Christ, who is from the seed of David according to the flesh, he says at once concerning him: “Behold, I have given him as a witness to the nations, a ruler and commander to the nations.” Our Lord Jesus Christ as it were testifies to the flocks from the nations that they too have become acceptable, and that those who wish may, with no one hindering, be enriched with the light of the true knowledge of God. At any rate he said through the psalmist's lyre: “Hear this, all you nations; give ear, all who inhabit the world, both earthborn and sons of men, rich and poor together. My mouth shall speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart understanding.” For there was need, there was need of wisdom and understanding for those who had gone astray, who in their great stupidity worshipped the creation instead of the Creator and inscribed wood and stones as gods. But the Word became man, and for that reason he also beckoned to them, saying: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me; he has sent me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to heal the brokenhearted.” For these were the sicknesses of the nations, but they have been redeemed through him; for they have been enriched with the wisdom that comes from him, and have become understanding, and no longer have a weak and broken mind, but one healthy and strong and well fitted for receiving and achieving everything good and saving.

But see the precision of the word. For having said, “I have given him as a witness to the nations,” so that no one might … one of the holy prophets, … that he is distinguished by the glory of lordship (for being God he appeared to us), he says that he was given not only as a witness but also as ruler and commander to the nations. For the blessed prophets, and Moses still before them, having the measure of servants, always proclaimed to their hearers, “Thus says the Lord,” not as commanding, but rather as ministers of divine words; but our Lord Jesus Christ made his speeches in a manner most befitting God. At any rate he was marveled at even by the Jews themselves, because his word was with authority, and he taught them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. For his word was not of the shadow of the law; but, being himself the lawgiver, he transferred the letter to truth and the types to spiritual manifestation; for he was ruler and had the authority to command. And that the word of the prophecy is woven concerning the nations one could learn very easily, since God the Father addresses his words as to his own Son: “For nations,” he says, “which did not know you will call upon you, and peoples who did not know you will flee to you.” For those who of old did not know Christ, because they lived in mist and darkness, called upon him, that is, inscribed Jesus as God, and fled to him, naming him hope, shelter, and the cause of salvation, and calling on him as God. And for what reason? “For the sake of the Lord your God,” he says, “the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.” For they come to the Son glorifying him as begotten by nature of God the Father and as having the glory of his begetter himself. For he who glorifies the Father glorifies the one who is from him, and he who glorifies the Son surely glorifies together with him the one from whom he has been begotten by nature. Or, if you wish, you may take what is said in another way: “For the Son, being in the form of God the Father, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in form as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and bestowed

on him the name above every name, that in the name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.” For since, because of the measure of humanity, Christ was thought to be someone without glory, he goes back up again to the God-befitting and supreme preeminence and glory that is his, even with the flesh. And this, I think, is what is meant by saying that the name was given to the Son by the … to him: “Father, glorify me with the glory which I had with you before the world existed.”

“Seek God, and when you find him, call upon him. When he draws near to you, let the ungodly forsake his way, and the lawless man his counsel, and let him turn to the Lord, and he will be shown mercy, for he will forgive your sins abundantly.”

Making plain the way of faith in him, our Lord Jesus Christ said somewhere to the Jews: “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” And the person of the Father himself is introduced, saying thus to the Son: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” For those who once went astray, who were enemies, worshipping the elements of the world and held inescapably in the nooses of sin, the Father subjected to the Son. And surely no one would say that he assigns this to him as to one who is unable; for he works all things, and he himself is the all-powerful and most valiant right hand of the one who begot him. But since the measure of humanity also called him, by way of the economy, to the need of receiving, for this reason the Father is said to subject all things to the Son, as to his own power and wisdom; for through him he empowers what was weak and makes wise what was without understanding. And no one with sense would ever think that the Son was unable to subject anyone to himself; he will rather reason that God the Father works all things through him, as I said just now. What, then, does the word of the prophecy intend now also? It introduces the person of the Father, calling out and saying to the flocks of the nations: “Seek God,” the one of whom he said just now that he was given as a witness to the nations, and their ruler and commander. This one he at once calls God, and has commanded that he be sought. And the seeking is not local; for the divine is incorporeal and is not conceived as in a place. For it fills all things and is absent from nothing that exists; but it is sought as by the eagerness of a soul thirsting for kinship with him through zeal for piety and through the true knowledge of God. For it would befit … from him, since sin, plainly, and the ignorance working in them had come between; when these are out of the way, they will be near God. For so the all-wise Paul writes to those from the nations, saying: “But now you who once were far off have become near.” So the God of all is sought by you. “But when you find him, call upon him,” he says. And “call upon” would signify nothing else than “praise him as God, and seek from him power and eagerness sufficient for your conversion.” Ask from him the redemption and the ability to escape the bonds of sin and the hand of him who had the upper hand, that is, of Satan. For it is written: “Praising, I will call upon the Lord, and I shall be saved from my enemies.” And when you find him, and he comes near, “let the ungodly forsake his way, and the lawless man his counsel, and let him turn to the Lord, and he will be shown mercy.” For those who have been deemed worthy at all of calling and conversion, and of the … from him, ought … their ancient practices, the way toward wickedness, the inclination to sin, and fleshly love of pleasure. For he who makes his conversion so, from a true heart, will be shown mercy, “for he will forgive your sins abundantly.” “Abundantly,” he says, instead of “completely and altogether”; “For where

… written. For none of the charges against you is hard to wash off when God wishes to scour them away. For it is written of Jesus Christ, the Savior of us all: “Behold, he comes in like a refiner's fire and like the fullers' herb; and he will sit refining and cleansing as silver and gold.” For he baptizes us with the Holy Spirit and fire. We say that the fire is the scouring power, as it were, of the Holy Spirit, which melts away like fire the filth of the offenses in us.

“For my counsels are not like yours, nor are your ways like my ways; but as the heaven is far from the earth, so is my way far from your ways, and your thoughts from my mind.”

He does not allow those who are called by the grace of Christ to conversion, redemption, and cleansing from sin to disbelieve. Those of Israel's blood experienced this: for when God called them to conversion and repentance, being stung by the reproofs of conscience, and reckoning the filth of their own wickedness very hard to wash off, they said: “Our errors are in us, and in them we waste away; and how shall we live?” And what does God say to this? “Turn by turning from your way, O house of Israel, and they will not be to you for the punishment of unrighteousness.” When, then, he says, you too disbelieve, while I, who am able to do all things, affirm and say, “I will free you from every stain and make you free of your former stumbles,” then consider by yourselves who I am and who you are, and that my ways stand apart from your ways, and your thoughts from my mind, as far as the natures differ. For you are men, and I am God. So the interval is immeasurable, and the things of God wholly incomparable. For he excels in strength, glory, and gentleness, and there is nothing at all among things begotten that reaches to the excellences that are in him, or is seen near them even a little. For men are not free from anger, but freedom from anger belongs to the nature that is above all, for it is not overcome by wrath. Man is bitter and great in wickedness, but God is good by nature, or rather … the stumbles of ignorance, and wiping away the filth that comes from going astray.

You may apply yourself to the contemplation of the passage before us in another way too. For of old the multitude of the nations was without understanding, easily carried off to anything monstrous whatever, and swept away as with full sails into wanting to do things not lawful to mention. But since through faith they sought God, called upon him, and forsook their former ways and lawless counsels, they have been shown mercy by him, and have been re-formed as it were into another life. They have become wise, as partakers of wisdom and knowers of every good thing; they have shaken off the yoke of the ancient deceit and conquered sin, no longer having a mind easily led astray, but rather one firm and strong, looking intently to fulfilling whatever would please God. But when I promise these things, he says, do not disbelieve, nor suppose that the change of their mind will remain unaccomplished; for my counsels are not like your counsels, nor are your ways like my ways. For to you, who are men by nature, very many things are hard to reach and impossible to accomplish; for not everything that you choose to do will run altogether and in every way to its end. But for me, who am God, all is smooth and easy going, and nothing at all is uphill. For my ways stand as far from your ways as the distance between earth and heaven could be conceived; and this is wholly incomprehensible, beyond measure, and not to be grasped by human minds. At any rate the divine prophet Isaiah also said: “Who measured the water in his hand, and heaven with a span, and all the earth with a handful? Who set the mountains in a balance and the valleys on a scale? Or who knew the mind …

“For as rain or snow comes down from heaven, and will not return until it has drenched the earth, and it brings forth and sprouts, and gives seed to the sower and bread for food, so shall the word be that goes out of my mouth: it shall not return until it accomplishes whatever I willed.”

As from a clear example, well known to all, he tries to assure us how great is the power of his nods. For rain or snow falls from heaven, and when it is sent down by God no one could hinder it; it rather runs on to its end of watering the whole earth, so that the farmers come into great abundance both of seed and of food. For when the season comes in which the well-nourished ear rises from the earth, farmers seek not only what can suffice for food, but also what will again be enough for them when the season calls them to labor. So, he says, no one could hinder my word, nor would it turn back, that is, it will not cease until what seems good to me comes to its end. And the word is true; for, as the prophet Isaiah says: “What the holy God has counseled, who will scatter? And his high hand, who will turn it back?” For who will be so great as to resist divine decrees and …? So whatever goes out of the mouth of the one who is truly God will run altogether and in every way to its end; for he has the power to accomplish all things, and besides this, freedom from falsehood. And indeed God the Father has sent down on us who are on the earth, as a kind of divine and spiritual rain, the comfort given through Christ, that is, the supply of the gospel preaching, through which the whole earth has become fruitful and most fertile. The divine David at any rate sings and says: “You visited the earth and drenched it; you multiplied it to enrich it; … its …; it will rejoice in its drops as it springs up.” And indeed through the voice of Moses: “Let my utterance come down like rain,” he says, “and let my words descend like dew.” And the all-wise Paul writes to some: “May the God of peace increase your seed and multiply the fruits of your righteousness.” So we have had spiritual fruitfulness, having received into our mind the supply that comes through Christ, so that not only have we gathered the sacred food, that is, we have the life-giving bread, but also seed for the sower. For those who preside over peoples, who are knowledgeable in sacred doctrines, able to train others, and weave the word of the mysteries for the peoples under their hand, sow in their hearts the seed which they have treasured up for themselves, having first stored it up in their own souls. For, as the all-wise Paul says, “We are God's field”; for they are fellow workers of God, who sows in us exact knowledge of doctrinal skill, understanding of pure conduct, and desire for every good thing; and this is Christ, who also says of himself: “The sower went out to sow his seed.”

“And I will prosper my ways and my commandments. For you shall go out in gladness and be taught in joy.”

Having promised that those who wash off the filth of sin will be shown mercy altogether and in every way; that then, having become pure, they will be joined to him spiritually; that those far off will be near and … with the … from him, through which they could believe that he is truthful, being God by nature and Lord of the powers; he goes on again to what follows, that is, to enumerating the spiritual gifts that will be given them. “For I will prosper,” he says, “my ways and my commandments.” This is a great and desirable good, a gift of heaven; and in what way, we shall say. For those who wish to move from worldly love of pleasure to a seemly life, the thing is not without roughness, nor even passable at the beginning. For … rise up against them … and drench the mind within them with griefs. For the passions of the flesh are not easy to escape, nor for those who wish is the race toward virtue a well-trodden path. But when God prospers the way and makes the hard and uphill ways bare and easy going, one could very easily escape the assaults of the passions, and leap most nimbly up to the heights of the virtues. For it is written: “The high mountains for the deer.” What, then, does God promise those who have believed in him? “I will prosper my ways and my commandments, and you will not go out in grief, but will be taught in joy.” This, I think, is what the prophetic writing again said elsewhere: “The way of the pious has become straight, and the way of the pious is prepared”; for the way of the Lord is judgment. And another of the holy prophets: “Straight are the ways of the Lord,” he says, “and the righteous will walk in them, but the ungodly will grow weak in them.” For if God does not smooth the ways for them, they could not travel along them. For that it is a gift of heaven, as I said, to be able to walk the divine ways and to fulfil the commandments, by which one may drive toward God, he taught by saying, as of the synagogue of the Jews: “Therefore behold,” he says, “I fence her ways with thorns, and she shall seek her ways and not find them.” So, when I prosper the commandments, he says, you will go out in gladness; that is, you will be above grief, you will not be bitten in your heart, since you will be outside the passions and passing over to the better and wondrous life. For you will be taught rejoicing and delighting in the sacred words. At any rate the divine David says: “How sweet are your words to my throat, more than honey and the comb to my mouth.” And he affirmed that he rejoiced in them more, and very wisely, as over all riches. And those who go out in joy might be understood in another way too: for, being freed from the ancient deceit, they seize the call from God rejoicing, and one can see that this is true from the facts themselves.

“For the mountains and the hills will leap, welcoming you with joy, and all the trees of the field will clap with their branches; and instead of the … a name, and for an eternal sign, and not …”

By mountains he perhaps means here the powers above and in heaven, which have been appointed by God to help those on earth. For they are ministering spirits sent for service for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation, and they rejoice even over one sinner who repents. Indeed they might reasonably be likened to mountains as having their station very high, and for the greatness of the virtue that is in them. Or you will take the mountains to be those who exercise the office of teaching in the churches, who think nothing low but rather seek the things above and have leapt up from earthly things; and the hills to be those inferior to their eminence, and as it were seated below their glory. For in the churches there are measures both of honor and of ministries. These, he says, the spiritual mountains, and with them the hills, will leap because of your conversion and calling, and will welcome you with joy; for we rejoice not a little when some of those who went astray give up remaining in mist and darkness and dart toward the light of the true vision of God. So the all-wise Paul also addressed them, saying: “My joy and crown.” “But also all the trees of the field,” he says, “will clap with their branches.” And by the trees of the field you will understand those who belong to the peoples. For the Savior's garden is in flower. At any rate, since the bride described in the Song of Songs is flourishing and fruitful, she says: “Let my beloved come down into his garden and eat the fruit of his fruit trees.” So the spiritual trees will clap with their branches, he says. For those who have believed rejoice, just as do the mountains and hills, that is, those who have been allotted the leadership of peoples, at the salvation of those called to life and at the completion of the spotless initiation, through which the divine light is let into them.

Then, that there will be a very great change of those called to what is incomparably better, he shows at once by saying that instead of the brushwood there will be cypress, and instead of the fleabane … they say are worthless thorns, and they do not flourish at all in places under cultivation, but delight in barren and salty ground. Such were those who went astray and worshipped the creation instead of the Creator. But since they have been called to the knowledge of the truth, they have ceased to be brushwood and fleabane, … of plants; for they are called cypress and myrtle. Great, then, is the marvel of the one who cultivates the church, that is, of Christ. For he changes thorns into the noble and choice among plants, and makes them other than they were, in a fatherly way. We shall find this has happened among those of Israel's blood too. For Matthew and Paul were once brushwood and fleabane, the one a tax collector, the other a persecutor and insolent man; they have become lights of the world, and they are a fragrance of Christ in every place, among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, as the most holy Paul says. And that the provider and prince of all these will remain in endless glory and permanence, he teaches by saying: “The Lord will be for a name, and for an eternal sign, and will not fail.” By “name” here he means glory, and by “sign,” as I think, the splendor that comes through the cross, through which we have also been saved, and in which we shall be without end. For the grace that comes from him will fail us at no time and in no way.

Tome 3.

“Thus says the Lord: Keep judgment, do righteousness; for my salvation has drawn near … and my mercy to be revealed.”

Having spoken at length a little above about the calling of the nations through faith, that is, in Christ, and having completed this, he passes again to the need to admonish those of Israel's blood. For being good by nature, he wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. But since it was their custom to raise their brows over the noble birth of their fathers, and to think highly of themselves on this very thing alone, and to suppose that it would suffice them even if the boast of a good life was not seen to belong to them, he tries to convince them that their puffing up over this will be wholly vain, and declares rather that those obtain God-befitting glory who choose to fulfil what has been commanded … and love to claim the brilliance that lies in works. “Keep, then,” he says, “judgment,” that is, right judgment, or the divine judgments, plainly the commandments. “Do righteousness”; for it will not suffice merely to wish to adhere to the divine laws while failing to carry them out; they must be seen to be guardians of the sacred judgments, and besides this to be distinguished by every good work. And lest any of us should think that by these words those of Israel are being urged to keep the law, that, I mean, which lies in shadows and types (for no one is justified by the law before God, as the most excellent Paul wrote to some), he says that the salvation is near, and his mercy to be revealed. He names Christ mercy and salvation; for we have been shown mercy through him, gaining forgiveness and salvation through faith. We say that like this is what was said by God to the blessed Habakkuk: “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay.” “To be revealed” he says instead of “to be made manifest”; for the blessed prophets foretold the Savior's arrival, but he became evident to those on earth at the times the Sovereign willed. And this the divine David will teach, saying: “The Lord has made known his salvation; before the nations he has revealed his righteousness.” For Christ, who is salvation and righteousness, has been made manifest to the nations; for, as I said just now, God the Father has saved and justified us in him.

“Blessed is the man who does these things, and the man … not to profane, and keeps his hands from doing wrong.”

These words too are akin to what we said just now and come by the same path, yet the word deserves much attention. For see how he calls blessed not, surely, the one who is from the seed of Abraham, nor the one who boasts of flesh and noble birth and has a vain mind about it, but rather the one in whom distinction in good things is seen to be present, and the brilliant and conspicuous dignity of an unprofaned life. Something like this the blessed Baptist John is seen to have called out to the flocks of the Jews. For they came honoring his baptism, but it was a baptism of repentance, and he rebuked them, very sharp as they were, saying: “Offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Bear, then, fruits worthy of repentance, and do not presume to say among yourselves: We have Abraham as our father.” And Christ says: “If you had Abraham as your father, you would do the works of Abraham.” Blessed, then, he says, is not anyone who is a son of Abraham, but the one who keeps these things. And what are these? Judgment and righteousness; and besides this, keeping and accomplishing them, and holding fast to them, that is, not approaching them incidentally or carelessly, but as with all zeal, … “keeping the Sabbaths not to profane them.” Understand this again as follows: it was not permitted on the Sabbath to take thought for any of the labors or pursuits concerning the flesh. Rather one had to rest … they brought sacrifices to God, the letter of the law hinting enigmatically that from fleshly concern

to God spiritual sacrifices, and those that make a spiritual fragrant odor. The force of the rest on the Sabbath, then, was full of the rest from sins and fleshly desires. So it befits us too to keep ourselves from profaning the Sabbaths; for when we have ceased, as I said, from all earthly and fleshly concern, we keep sabbath spiritually, offering not sacrifices of blood and smoke, but gladdening him with sacred pursuits and offering ourselves up for a fragrant odor. For with such sacrifices God is well pleased, as it is written. So we must not profane the Sabbaths, and besides this we must keep our hands clean; and in what manner, he himself taught by saying, “from doing wrong.” For it is not possible to keep judgment and do righteousness while wanting to do wrong and defiling one's hand with the filth of sin. By the hand you will understand not at all the hand of the body, but in place of the hand the practical activity by which we approach each of our affairs.

“Let not the foreigner who adheres to the Lord say: The Lord will separate me then from his people. And let not the eunuch say: I am a dry tree. Thus says the Lord to the eunuchs: Whoever keep my Sabbaths and choose the things I will, and hold fast to my covenant, I will give them in my house and within my wall a named place, better than sons and daughters; an eternal name I will give them, and it will not …”

… another brow of those of Israel's blood, that is, … a pretext for boasting, rotten and stale, God sweeps away. For they thought highly of themselves, as I said, saying, “We have Abraham as our father,” and indeed, “We are a holy, chosen people, and have been appointed as God's portion.” And they shunned childlessness, since the forefather Abraham had received from God, by way of blessing, that his seed would extend to an immeasurable multitude; for God promised to make it equal in number to the stars. It had also been said to them through the all-wise Moses: “There shall not be among you one without offspring, or barren.” And that having many children was held among them a great and special thing one of the holy prophets will confirm, saying: “Their glories are from births and labor pains and conceptions.” And the prophet Isaiah says that seven women will lay hold of one man and say: “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes; only let your name be called upon us; take away our reproach.” For they did not want, as I said, to be reproached as childless and barren. Since, then, those of Israel saw fit to think highly of themselves on account of fleshly nobility and, in addition, of having many children, he of necessity removes them from this ignorance too, saying: “Let not the foreigner who adheres to the Lord say: The Lord will separate me then from his people.”

For not because he is a foreigner, that is, not of Israel's blood, is he therefore without share in the gifts from him, that is, in kinship with him, the spiritual kinship, of course. But if he adheres to the Lord, he will surely be ranked among his own and his known ones, in the holy nation and royal priesthood and God's portion, and will be counted among the children of Abraham. For not all who are from Israel are Israel, as the all-wise Paul says, nor because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children; but the children of the promise are reckoned as seed. And the promise was given by God to Abraham not for those from him according to the flesh alone, but for all who are of faith; for so was Abraham justified. So to those who walk in the footsteps of the faith of Abraham it will surely be given to be counted among his children. He will not, then, separate the proselyte from his people; rather, he will receive the one once added and called in faith, and will name him a holy people.

But if anyone is a eunuch, he says, that is, … or without offspring, let him not say to himself, “I am a dry tree,” that is, let him not grieve because of childlessness. For this is nothing before God, nor does it make anyone rejected. For what kind of virtue, or what brilliance of achievement, is having many children? These are works of the flesh, far from both blame and praise. For even if the thing was given to some by way of blessing, when the time called for it, yet it would do no wrong to those who did not obtain it. Otherwise, what kind of reproach would there be for those who died before their time, or who departed from our affairs before marriage and intercourse, and had no offspring of children? And will it benefit in any way those who love sin in this life to be fathers of many sons and daughters? Let not the one who has no children, he says, say: “I am a dry tree.” But nothing prevents us (rather, I say it is necessary) from mentioning now also those who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven, according to the Savior's word, to whom one might apply, very reasonably, the word of God here. “For I will give them,” he says, “in my house and within my wall a named place.” By house and wall, that is, enclosure and safety, he seems to mean the church, perhaps that above and in heaven, or that on earth, in which men are distinguished who are nurslings of chastity and gravity, crowned with the boast of continence, considering the glory that comes from it better than having many children, and in no way differing from eunuchs as regards the gravity of their conduct. These receive from God eternal glory (this is what the name shows), and the grace from him will not fail among them; for the rewards of continence are exceptional. Yet he promises the supply of such brilliant dignities not to eunuchs simply, but to those who keep his Sabbaths, plainly Christ's; and his Sabbaths, as I said, are other than those of the law. For the latter were in types, while the former shine with the beauty of the truth; and to those who choose what he wills and hold fast to his covenant. And Christ wills not what lies in shadows and in the letter of the law, but what lies in the covenant that comes from him, plainly the new and evangelical one.

“… to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants and handmaids, and all … and hold fast to my covenant, I will bring them to my holy mountain and gladden them in my house of prayer. Their whole burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar. For my house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations, said the Lord who gathers the dispersed of Israel.”

These words too are to be joined to those above, so that what is said is this: Thus says the Lord to the eunuchs, and to the foreigners who adhere to the Lord to serve him. So he speaks to those from the nations, and not at all to those of Israel's blood only, who, raising their brows high, attacked the foreigners, calling themselves God's portion and inheritance and a holy people, and saying, “Blessed are we, Israel, for the things pleasing to the Lord are known to us.” It is clear, then, that the power of fleshly nobility does not join anyone to God. For not because they came from Abraham have they remained God's portion; rather, those who adhere to him would be reckoned among his people through spiritual union, even if some are foreigners, adhering to him through faith, considering servitude under him a boast, and loving his name; and to love … to run always under the yoke, not turning aside to what is unlawful, nor easily carried away so as to choose to run back to adhering to other gods, but rather having a mind firm and unshaken, and so keeping his Sabbaths, plainly Christ's, as not to profane them. For the Jews keep sabbath according to the law, keeping the flesh free of all labor and practising idleness as regards bodily works. But such sabbath-keeping was rejected by God; whereas he who has entered into Christ's rest and keeps sabbath spiritually has rested from his own works; so at any rate the all-wise Paul writes.

He promises to bring those who are now foreigners to his holy mountain and to gladden them in his house of prayer. Here, I pray, see the shadow of the law overturned and the oldness of the letter now as it were made ineffective. For all things have become new in Christ; the old things have passed away. The law forbade foreigners to enter the house of God; for it said: “An Ammonite and a Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the Lord.” But the Savior and Lord of all, transferring our affairs into spiritual newness, promises to bring the foreigners into his holy house. For the holy mountain he says is nothing else than his own church, into which they have entered, delighting, of course, in the gifts from him and rich in the hope of the saints … And that they will live purely and have the God of all kind and gracious, he has disclosed by saying: “Their whole burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar.” The word comes as from the example and type of the worship according to the law. For of old it was the custom of those of Israel to offer rams and bulls as whole burnt offerings, and to bring sacrifices. But since, as I said, the shadow has passed, those called from the nations do not make their approach through blood, but as it were offer themselves in sacred service to God, dying to the world and living to righteousness, as it is written. And they will be acceptable, and for a fragrant odor: some making their whole life as it were sacred, so as to be understood in the rank of whole burnt offerings; others as a partial sacrifice, such as is the life of those who have married in the Lord, divided in a way between God and the world. For of the animals brought for sacrifices not the whole was given to the altars, but half, that is, a part. Acceptable, then, are the foreigners, who dedicate themselves for a spiritual fragrance. And that not only to those from

Israel was the divine temple, that is, the house of prayer of the God over all, assigned, but rather that it is praised by those throughout the earth who are called through conversion and faith to the knowledge of him, he makes plain by saying: “My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations.” Who, then, is it who says these things? Is it as of his own opinion? Not at all. “For the Lord said,” he says, “who gathers the dispersed of Israel.” These, then, are the words and voices of the one who has compassion; for being good by nature he wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. But that the greatness of his gentleness was seen, when Christ shone upon the world, not only toward those from the nations but also toward those of Israel's blood, becomes clear from his saying: “Said the Lord who gathers the dispersed of Israel.” So they too had been scattered, and not so much bodily, carried off somewhere outside Judea and living in other cities or lands, as having departed from the lawful way of life and from obedience to the commandment given them. And we shall find in very many places that they inclined to the worship of idols, honored God with their lips while having their mind separated far away, and worshipped him in vain, teaching as teachings the commandments of men. So let not obstinate Israel boast over the foreigners; for they too have been shown mercy by God in the same way. For they were found not holding their genuineness unshaken, nor their obedience wholly blameless, but rather scattered and dispersed, as I said just now.

“For I will gather a gathering to him. All you wild beasts, come, eat, all you beasts of the forest. See that all have been blinded and have not known how to understand. All … dogs … bed, loving slumber; and they are dogs shameless in soul, not knowing satisfaction; and they are wicked, not knowing understanding; all have followed in their own ways, each in the same way.”

You may apply yourself to what is written in two ways. For either he means by beasts, untamed and savage, those from the nations, since they had been reared under such a tyrant, I mean the devil, and had become as it were wild and lived not as humans; or he seems to call beasts those who laid Israel waste and devoured him with all their mouth because of his impiety toward Christ. If he refers to the nations as beasts, we say that the words “Come, eat” were addressed to them by God. This signifies that every abundance of the sacred gifts has been given to them by him, and the life-giving table set before them. For they too have eaten the bread of life, since they have become partakers of Christ and fellow members of the body with the saints, so that they say rejoicing: “The Lord shepherds me, and I shall lack nothing; in a place of green grass, there he made me dwell; by the water of rest he nourished me; he restored my soul. You prepared a table before me.” And he said also through one of the holy prophets: “Eat, drink, and be drunk, you neighbors.” For being far from God, those who once went astray have become near through faith, and … the sacred … the heart of man.” But if the beasts are understood as … he is all but throwing to them those who have acted lawlessly, to whom it is fitting to suffer, and very reasonably. For they killed the author of life, not receiving the faith; and those who were near became far, and no longer God's people, but rather hated as Lord-slayers. And lest God should seem to punish without cause and to demand penalties for nothing, he at once sets out the causes, liable to which they have been given to destruction by their enemies, that is, to the beasts as food. “For see,” he says, “that all have been blinded; they have not known how to understand.” For those of Israel are truly blind, and most of all the scribes and the Pharisees and those who were allotted the leadership of the synagogue. For they did not receive the true light, nor did they wish to know Christ, although he cried out clearly at one time, “I am the light of the world,”

and at another again, “I have come as light into this world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Though it was possible for them, then, to be enriched with the light by receiving the faith, this they did not do; but, as the prophet says, “When they waited for light, darkness came to them; waiting for brightness, they walked in untimely darkness.” And the Savior himself said of them and of the peoples under their hand: “They are blind, and guides of the blind.” All, then, have been blinded, he says, and have not known how to understand. For it truly belonged to sensible and understanding men to seize quickly the present time of salvation. The divine David at any rate urged them to this, saying: “Seize instruction, lest the Lord be angry and you perish from the righteous way, when his wrath is quickly kindled against you.” But since they did not seize the instruction given through Christ, the wrath was kindled against them, and they perished from the righteous way, that is, they came to be outside the evangelical way of life, through which alone those of …

Besides being blind, he says, they were also dumb dogs, not able to bark, dreaming of a bed, loving slumber. He speaks of them as from a clear example. For the dogs that follow the flocks, always going round about, are stronger than sleep and slumber. For if any of the untamed beasts is seen anywhere, they bark at it vigorously, and using all their strength hasten to drive it away from the flocks; and this is their work. The teachers of rational flocks must be like these, so as to care for those yoked under them and drive away those who in any way whatever wish to do them wrong, who carry them away from the love of God, persuade them to neglect reverence for him, and snatch them away to whatever seems good to themselves. But those who presided over the synagogue of the Jews did not wish to be such; rather they were dumb dogs, loving slumber and dreaming of a bed. For though they ought to have introduced useful things to the peoples under their hand and to have driven off the attacks of those accustomed to teach otherwise, this they did not do; rather they themselves sent them into the … of destruction. And this the God of all will teach, saying: “Your priests did not say, Where is the Lord? And those who hold the law did not know me; and the shepherds acted impiously toward me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal.” So, like dogs, they did not wish to bark at those who harm the flocks, but they imitated the dogs' shamelessness and their not knowing satisfaction. For being lovers of wealth and overcome by shameful gains, they transgressed the law by taking bribes, being not even ashamed at times to bring an unjust sentence against those who did no wrong, while justifying the ungodly. For they did not know satisfaction, that is, satiety of shameful gains, plainly. And for these things the Savior himself also accused them, saying: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, judgment and mercy and faith.” And the divine prophet Isaiah also said of them: “How has the faithful city Zion become a harlot, she that was full of judgment, in whom righteousness lodged, but now murderers?

Your silver is spurious; your tavern-keepers mix the wine with water; your rulers are disobedient, companions of thieves, loving gifts, pursuing reward, not judging for orphans, and not attending to the widow's cause.” Indeed the divine Habakkuk too, over this very thing, all but in tears, called out to God: “How long, O Lord, Lord, shall I cry out, and you will not hear? Shall I shout to you when I am wronged, and you will not save? Why did you show me toils and labors, to look upon misery and impiety? Against me has judgment come, and the judge takes. Therefore the law is scattered, and judgment does not go forth to the end, because the ungodly oppresses the righteous. Because of this judgment will go forth perverted.” So they did not wish to emulate the watchfulness of the dogs that guard the flocks, but imitated them only in being despisers of all reverence and insatiably bent on collecting gains. And besides this he says that they are wicked and do not know understanding. So the wicked man is without understanding; for understanding would befit most those accustomed to … and let wickedness be far from a good mind. For itch and ulcer in a body are like wickedness in a mind; for it renders the mind without understanding … And since they have become wicked and without understanding, for this reason, he says, all have followed in their own ways, each in the same way. For, as it were abandoning going straight toward every good and the duty to follow what has been decreed, and letting go, as it were, all the reins to their own wills, they did what was pleasant, and not each one singly, but also “in the same way,” that is, together and in a crowd. We shall find the leaders of the Jews … both deliberating and doing things discordant with the divine laws in their assemblies and councils. For so they fell also into the charges of the Lord-slaying; and in another way too each turned to his own way. For they were lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, and delighted rather in the distractions of the present life, … altogether the lawful and best life.

“See how the righteous one has perished, and no one takes it to heart; and righteous men are taken away, and no one considers. For the righteous one has been taken away from the face of unrighteousness; his burial will be in peace; he has been taken from the midst.”

Having shown that they had become dumb dogs, being negligent and contemptuous, so as to be unmoved even at the worst of offenses and to have no eagerness even to put into their mind the need to repent, he says: “For the righteous one has perished, and no one takes it to heart; and righteous men are taken away, and no one considers.” He seems through these words to hint at the outrages of the Jewish herd against Christ, and all that they did against the holy apostles. For they killed Jesus, all but crying out that prophetic word and saying: “Let us bind the righteous one, for he is troublesome to us”; and as far as their intent went, he perished though righteous, that is, not knowing sin; for they did not kill him for any reasonable cause. And righteous men, who were ambassadors to them of the divine and evangelical word and who called them to repentance from the cruelty that was in them, they caused to come to the trial pitilessly. At any rate the divine Stephen was killed by them after addressing a long speech to them, and the very things by which they might have been netted for repentance whetted them to hostility. “Righteous men,” then, he says, “are taken away, and …, no one takes it to heart,” that is, deigns to put into his mind the greatness of the impiety. The wicked contended against the righteous and prevailed over the one who did not know how to offend. “His burial, then, will be in peace; he has been taken from the midst.” See again, I pray, the form of the word: it shows the intent of those who killed, and not at all the outcome of the matter as being as stated. For Christ has not been taken away from the midst, nor those who were ambassadors of his message, who are righteous themselves as justified by him; yet they became as it were out of the midst, according, I mean, to the intent of those who killed them. And that the accusation runs against all the killers, and there was no one among the Jews who will lie outside the charge, he hinted by saying: “His burial will be in …” … death, and by adding “in peace” he hinted that there was no one at all in the ranks of the Jews who had stood against their unholy counsels, or resisted them, or rebuked those who wished to do unholy deeds; for all dared against Christ from one counsel and mind, being at peace with one another.

“… seed of adulterers and of a harlot. In what have you delighted? And against whom have you opened your mouth? And against whom have you let loose your tongue? Are you not children of destruction, a lawless seed?”

Out of very great love for God the divine prophet leaps upon the unbridled mouths of the Jews, and is greatly distressed at the unholy words they spoke against Christ. For they continued to the end, as it were, letting loose their tongue against him, and running down with full sails, as it were, upon the forbearance that was in him. For of what monstrous things would they not be convicted of having said against him? They called him a Samaritan, a wine-drinker, and born of sexual immorality; they said that he who rebuked demons had a demon, and that he worked the divine signs by Beelzebul, he who crushes Beelzebul. Then at last they brought him to Pilate and accused him, saying nothing true, but using rather lies and slanders. For they said, “This man stirs up the crowds and forbids giving tribute to Caesar,” and other things besides, which will pour the unquenchable flame on their head.

For these things the Savior himself also accused them, saying through the voice of Hosea: “Woe to them, for they have sprung away from me; wretched are they, for they have acted impiously toward me. I redeemed them, but they spoke lies against me.” And through the voice of Jeremiah: “I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance, I have given my beloved soul into the hands of her enemies. My inheritance became to me like a lion in the forest; she gave her voice against me; therefore I have hated her.” For besides the other slanders which they made against him, … crying, “Away, away, crucify him.” This the leaders of the synagogue of the Jews did most of all. For although they knew that he is the heir, they said among themselves: “Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance for ourselves.” But they missed their hope. For they killed him, yet he did not remain held fast by death; for he came back to life and gave the vineyard to other farmers, having miserably destroyed the wicked ones, the ungrateful and Lord-slaying. “O you lawless sons,” then, he says, “O seed of adulterers and of a harlot.” By adulterers he means here the scribes and lawyers who were allotted the leadership …, and speaking to her the things of the divine law; but they turned aside rather to what is unlawful, also teaching as teachings the commandments of men. And the harlot is fittingly the synagogue of the Jews, which received the seeds of the adulterers and … of the all-wise … calls them lawless sons. “Tell, then,” he says, “in what you delighted, and against whom you opened your mouth, and against whom you let loose your tongue.” … against the holy prophets; but they were genuine servants of the God over all, yet servants, under the yoke, having the human measure, and your offenses were against fellow servants. But now against whom did you let loose your tongue? For you did not wish to receive the one who saves; “and a lawless seed.”

“You who call upon idols under leafy trees, slaughtering their children in the ravines between the rocks. That is your portion, this your lot; and to them you poured out drink offerings, and to them you brought up sacrifices. Shall I not then be angry at these things? On a high and lofty mountain, there is your bed, and there you brought up sacrifices; and behind the posts of your door you set your memorial.”

Having shown them to be Lord-slayers, he shows that their God-hating sickness and readiness for bloodshed was not new in them, but had been present in them from long ago and from the beginning. “For you are,” he says, “the ones who in former times called upon

idols under leafy trees.” For although the law given through Moses held out to them what is useful, saying expressly, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve,” they slipped into such … of mind, or rather into an unrestrained impiety beyond all measure, as to become makers of idols, to perform sacred rites for them, and to call upon them, that is, to teach others to worship under leafy trees and to crown the idols with honors befitting God. This the God of all makes plain through the voice of Jeremiah, saying: “Have you seen what the house of Israel did to me? They went up on every high mountain and under every leafy tree, and played the harlot there.” For seizing the tops of mountains and the … of groves, they built altars and precincts and brought sacrifices and libations there to the unclean demons; and there are some who did not even spare their own children. Jechoniah at any rate slaughtered his own son to gods that do not exist. This God himself also said somewhere through one of the holy prophets, showing the cruelty of those who … have forsaken.” “You, then, are,” he says, “those who call upon idols under leafy trees, slaughtering their children in the ravines between the rocks.” What, then, follows on these things? “That is your portion, this your lot.” For you have worshipped vain things, he says, and you will have such a portion, and your lot will be vain. Or perhaps he wishes to show this: You slaughtered their children in the ravines, he says; so “that is your portion, this your lot,” that is, you will be caught in the same evils, and slaughter will become your portion and lot. For what reason? First, because you became a child-slayer; then because to unclean demons and soulless idols you poured out … “Shall I not, then, be angry at these things?” he says. Is not the wrath against you well founded, and does not the penalty have a reasonable occasion? “On a high and lofty mountain, there is your bed; there you brought up sacrifices, and behind the posts of your door you set your memorial.” That they slept on the mountains for the sake of dreams the prophetic word has disclosed to us in very many places. And they say that Israel slipped so far into error as to carve the forms of idols on the doors and on the doorposts, so that both when entering their houses and when walking out they might see them and keep them in unceasing memory. The thing would reasonably be reckoned to them as a clear proof of their utter lack of love for God; and they called the idols carved there saviors and house-guardians.

“… you will have. You loved those who lay with you, and you made many those who are far from you, and you sent envoys beyond your borders.”

Every monstrous pleasure and every vice, bewitching the human mind, all but promises some experience of a good thing, as though one will share in things not known before and will be in a better state than one was previously. For having thus taken captive whomever it seizes, it then carries them away. The foolish, learning by experience what kind of evil it is, return with difficulty to their first state; but those who look well around with the eyes of the mind at the end of each thing do not let themselves be carried away; rather they keep their mind unharmed, seeing before experience what comes after it. But the synagogue of the Jews was not like this. For it was under the hand of the God who can do all things, and, clothed with the glory that comes from him, it was terrible and unbearable to its neighbors, having a hope much longed for and full of all prosperity. For following the law given through Moses, it worshipped the God who is God by nature and truly, and continued for long times without bearing to call any other god besides him, or to know how to worship one. But when it was enticed by certain teachers and unholy shepherds, it fell into apostasy from God and worshipped the works of its own hands, thinking perhaps, and … For these things he accuses her, saying: “You thought that if you depart from me, you will have something more.” But the expectations of so cold and vain a hope did not come to fulfilment for her; rather they came into every evil. They gained nothing further toward prosperity, having cast away their genuineness and thinking the steadfastness in these things worth very little account.

And what is still more irrational than this: “You loved,” he says, “those who lay with you, and multiplied your harlotry with them.” And he speaks as to a harlot woman. And who were those who lay with her, if not perhaps “lying shepherds,” men … full of diabolical mist? These became to her both the way and the occasion of destruction, carrying her away from genuineness toward God, implanting as it were the seeds of impiety, and persuading her to bear for Satan the fruit of the charges of outrage against God. And we say that someone's harlotry, that is, apostasy from God, is multiplied when the force of the charges is seen to be not of one kind and one form, but carried out with very great perversity, and bringing forth against them many things for which one would very justly blame those who do them. Such as, I mean: there surely follows on choosing to serve Satan the refusal to do nothing …, and being tossed about as it were in every direction; among such charges would be the other evils of this kind too: sorceries and necromancies, the useless tales of portent-watchers, divinations and incantations, the slanders of astrologers, and the observance of days and hours, and besides

this, of seasons and years. So, he says, multiplying your own harlotry, you made many those who are far from you. And who these would be, we must see again. For either he means the holy prophets, who, seeing her going beyond every bound and … from her as one defiled, all but cried out and said: “… his own land; for her judgment has drawn near to heaven and has lifted itself up to the stars” (for since … the divine prophets call her Babylon); or perhaps she made many those far from herself. For meddling with the objects of worship of the neighboring nations and with the falsely named gods of each, … some to these, others to those. At any rate God said somewhere through the voice of Jeremiah: “According to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah, and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you set up altars to burn incense to Baal.” And I think this indicates … for, not content with the gods they had among them, they sent for many others too, as I said, each according to what they supposed was good for them. Or perhaps “You sent envoys beyond your borders” would signify that their harlotry was practised beyond measure, so that what is said is a kind of proverb, a common exclamation said of those who in each matter go beyond what is reasonable.

“And you turned away and were humbled to Hades. You wearied yourself with your many ways, and did not say: I will cease strengthening myself. Because you did these things, therefore … did you fear, and lie to me?”

What is the end of the apostasy from God, of the measureless harlotry and the unholy undertakings, that is, of the turning away from what is better to what is worse? The utmost humiliation, and coming down, he says, to the lowest pit of destruction. For since you did not wish to remain high and to keep your prosperity unshaken, for that reason you became low. For that those of Israel were high, as regards the glory from God, becomes clear from what he says of them through the voice of Isaiah: “I begot and exalted sons.” So her humiliation was self-invited; for she acted impiously against the God who exalts her. And in what way she has been humbled he shows at once; for he said: “You wearied yourself with your many ways.” For going as it were on every road of destruction, they spent the vigor of the soul, the spiritual vigor, plainly, on nothing useful, and toiled not a little, setting their zeal on ruinous things. Or perhaps by “many ways” here he means always changing to other gods, neglecting those already acquired and seeking those belonging to others, being as it were drunk, tossed about everywhere, and having no support or stability for the mind within them. This happens to us too in monstrous pleasures. For the mind is at times carried away to every kind of uncleanness: at one time it praises being rich, at another it lusts after the flesh and is overcome by empty glory, and as it were … is carried about by every wind, according to what was said, I think, through the voice of Jeremiah about someone: “In the desires of her soul she was carried about by the wind; she was handed over; who will turn her back?” For a soul that suffers this will surely be handed over to the assaults of the passions; and this the writer of Proverbs teaches, saying: “For crooked reasonings separate from God, and the wandering of desire undermines an innocent mind.” We must therefore rein in the mind, if it should wish to rush unrestrainedly down the cliffs and to delight and consort with monstrous pleasures, lest, wearied from many … O Jerusalem, he says, you did not say: I will cease … your progress toward more shameful things; you did not measure your zeal, but press on rather more intensely in wishing to do things that ought surely never to have happened at all.

For it is the work of a soul with even moderate understanding not to wish to be caught in the charges that lead to sin; and if it should happen to suffer this, at least to choose to repent and, by returning to what is better, to cast off the charges. But if, besides this, it refuses the need to repent, it has added sin upon sin, and one may see it suffering sickness upon sickness. At any rate he accuses those in … “… falls, does he not rise? Or he who turns away, does he not return? Why has this people turned away with a shameless turning, and held fast to their choice, and would not return?” “But because you did these things,” he says, “therefore you did not entreat me.” And yet how was it not rather necessary, since such shameful things had been done, to use supplication and ask mercy from God? For he receives those who wish to repent, being good by nature and knowing our frame, as it is written. At any rate he said through one of the holy prophets: “Return, sons, returning, and I will heal your fractures.” So it is proof of the utmost folly and … to seek it with confession of one's stumbles. For it is written: “Declare your lawless deeds first, that you may be justified.” And someone sings and says: “I said, I will confess my lawlessness against myself to the Lord; and you forgave the impiety of my heart.”

The Jews had a certain argument, rotten and feeble and full of ignorance. For they insisted on departing from the living God and inclining to other gods, since the host of the Babylonians was about to … “Of whom were you wary, that you feared, and lied to me?” The Babylonian tyrant was a man, and his army was nothing at all compared with divine strength. For it is written of God: “He who holds the circle of the earth, and those who dwell in it are like grasshoppers.” And again the prophet Isaiah said: “If all the nations are counted as a drop from a bucket and as spittle, and were reckoned as the turn of a scale, to whom have you likened the Lord, and with what likeness have you likened him?” Most senseless, then, were those who thought a man from the earth stronger than God, and who lied in their piety toward him, thinking that they would be saved by gods that do not exist. For what benefit could come from stone and wood? At any rate it was said of them: “And in the time of their evils they will say: Arise and save us. And where are your gods, which you made for yourself? Will they arise and save you in the time …?” They lied to God, doing this not by word only but by their very deeds, as in what was said of them by way of example: “And I waited for it to make grapes, but it made thorns; and not righteousness, but judgment.” And the divine singer also said somewhere of them, as from the person of Christ: “Alien sons lied to me; alien sons

have grown old and limped away from their paths.”

“… your mind, nor into your heart. And I, seeing you, disregard you, and you did not fear me. And I will declare my righteousness and your evils, which will not profit you. When you cry out, let them deliver you in your affliction. For the wind will take all these, and a storm will carry them away.”

God said somewhere through the voice of Ezekiel to the mother of the Jews, I mean the synagogue: “As … you have done, so shall it be to you; your recompense will be repaid on your head.” Indeed the prophet Isaiah too says: “Woe to the lawless; evil things will befall him according to the works of his hands.” Something like this is signified now also by the passage before us. For since you have thrust away the knowledge of me, he says, you will be disregarded by me and will undergo a penalty equal to your offenses. One forgets the God who is God by nature and truly, who rules over all, not, surely, by coming to forget that he is God (for even the demons believe and shudder, according to the Apostle's word), but rather by failing to wish to be subject to him and thinking little of what he has commanded, so as to be seen unbridled and disobedient and wholly inclined to everything contrary to what one ought to fulfil. And God forgets, that is, disregards, those who do not remember him, all but drawing back his helping hand and stripping them of all his sparing; which is what Israel suffered. For they did not fear the Lord of heaven and earth, the Creator and craftsman of all; but, freeing their neck as it were from his sceptres, they served gods that do not exist. For this reason he says: “You did not fear me, and I will declare my righteousness and your evils,” meaning by evils, plainly, the apostasy from him and inclining to … gods whom he himself had made. And the God of all declares his righteousness over those accustomed to do such things, bringing a divine sentence upon them and imposing a punishment of equal weight. For the outrages are committed not against one like us, but against the very nature that is high and above and rules over all. And that their invention of falsely named gods accomplishes nothing for them, he shows by saying, “They will not profit you,” and that the thing is … “let them deliver you in your affliction.” So, as the prophet says, “What does a carved image profit, that they carved it? They fashioned it as a molten image, a false appearance; a craftsman made it, and it is not God.” Then how could an image made of wood and stone, a discovery of human skill, help those who went astray? … rather than God? Therefore he says: “For the wind will take all these, and a storm will carry them away.” These: whom? Either the gods devised by them, or perhaps those who worship them, who, like dust and earth, are tossed up by the blasts of the winds. And this, I think, is what is said in the book of Psalms: “Let them be like dust before the wind,” that is, they will come to nothing. It is the custom of the inspired Scripture to liken the attacks of temptations, or of punishments, to whirlwind and …

“But those who cling to me will possess the land and inherit my holy mountain; and they will say: Clear ways from before his face, and remove stumbling blocks from the way of my people.”

For it was necessary, necessary, that both the punishment of the sin-lovers and apostates and the works of those who love him should become evident. And the promise is true in general: for everyone who clings to God, thinks nothing better than wholehearted love for him, and is distinguished by every good work, will be heir of the land prepared for the saints, which the Savior himself also indicated to us, saying: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” By the holy mountain here I say he perhaps means the city above, the heavenly Jerusalem, the fair city of the saints. For the divine David sings somewhere and says of it: “Who shall go up to the mountain of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He who is innocent in hands and pure in heart.” So to all who cling to God the land of the saints will be an inheritance, and the august and celebrated mountain. And he seems now to be speaking of those from the Jewish ranks who believed in him, of whom the divine … became the firstfruits and the first, holding fast to love for Christ, having an unshaken faith in him, an unfeigned submission, and an inseparable love. At any rate they say: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Affliction, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” These have become heirs of the kingdom of heaven and have acquired the land above, promised to the meek. The name of meekness would befit those who live the evangelical life, whom Christ commanded not to be angry, nor to retaliate against any who grieve them, but rather to hasten to do good even to those who stand as enemies. “For do good,” he says, “to your enemies, and pray for those who mistreat you; and to him who strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.” To excel in these things would be proof of forbearance and meekness to the utmost. And to those who have acquired the land and the holy mountain, as in promise and in hope, it will be said, he says: “Clear ways from before his face”; this is plainly, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” And in what manner … “stumbling blocks from the way of my people,” that is, show to those throughout the earth that the way of salvation through faith is smooth and easy to travel; let nothing be rough or uphill. For the law through Moses did not know how to show mercy, and was hard to accomplish; for we all stumble in many things, and hard to find was one wholly free of fault and able to carry it out blamelessly. At any rate the divine disciples said to those who wished after believing to return to the shadows of the law: “Now therefore why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear?” He said

… was added for the sake of …; for the law is a reproof of sin, and those who stumbled against it were under blame and indictment. So the difficulty of accomplishing the life under the law was a hindrance. But let it be taken out of the way, he says, and let the well-trodden way, passable without sweat, be shown, that is, the power of the evangelical way of life, which brings in the true worship. God said something like this elsewhere too to the holy initiators: “Go through my gates, and scatter the stones from the way,” that is, free from every difficulty the way by which one might be carried to God through worship in spirit and truth and through the brightness of faith.

“Thus says the Lord, the Most High, who dwells in the heights forever, Holy among holy ones, resting, and giving patience to the faint-hearted and life to those broken in heart: I will not avenge myself on you forever, nor will I be angry with you continually. For a spirit will go forth from me, and I have made every breath.”

The blessed prophets, when the Lord of all promises some great and God-befitting thing to anyone, are filled with wonder at his glory and gentleness, and, as it were leaping up for joy, turn to praise. We shall find the prophet now affected in some such way. For he did not simply say, “Thus says the Lord,” but of necessity added, “the Most High,” that is, the one beyond all and by nature highest above everything brought into existence; and by saying … the divine and supreme nature is in … preeminences and ineffable heights. And this, I think, is its dwelling in the heights forever; for it holds unchangeably to what belongs to it, and could not in any way come to be in a better state than it is, but it belongs to it rather to be unalterably and perpetually in what it is. And he says that he, holy, rests and dwells among holy ones, hinting that he rejects as defiled through much sin those of Israel's blood, but lovingly makes his abode in those cleansed through faith and sanctified in the Spirit. And he gives also to the faint-hearted …; by faint-hearted he means those who are sometimes accustomed to weaken a little concerning the aim of life set before them. To these he gives patience, that is, endurance and steadfastness, all but crying out and saying: “Be courageous, and let your heart be strong, all who hope in the Lord.” And he gives life also to those broken in heart, … to the poor in spirit; and such are all who are in obedience to God and have a yielding mind. These would be those who have been called through faith to the knowledge of Christ; and they are named poor in spirit, as going the opposite path to those of Israel. For those were boasters, disobedient and unbroken; … broken in heart, assigning to the laws of God the right to rule, and putting the neck of the mind under the yoke of Christ. And these are the works of those in Christ. But what does the Most High say to those who have slipped from disobedience into the charges of impiety toward him? “I will not avenge myself on you forever, nor will I be angry with you continually.”

He does not cut off from those of Israel the hope of being saved. For the remnant has been saved; a very great part of their multitude has been called; and they will be called also in the last times, as God checks his wrath against them and reins in the penalty, so that it may not extend against them altogether. For being good, he has kept unfailing his promise to their fathers. And as a compassionate God he gives another reason too: “For a spirit,” he says, “will go forth from me.” And in what way it will go forth he made clear by saying: “I have made every breath.” For he is the Father of spirits. He is understood, however, not as having begotten them from his own nature, as he did his own Son; nor do we say that they have the coming forth, that is, the procession, from his essence in the same way as the Holy Spirit; rather, thinking rightly, we affirm that they came forth from God into being by way of creation; for he made every breath. And where making at all is named, there surely the “going forth,” that is, the coming out, would be meant not according to essence, but, by a loose use of the word, as signifying being brought into being.

“Because of sin I grieved him a little, and struck him, and turned my face away from him; and he was grieved, and went gloomy in his ways. I have seen his ways, and I healed him, and comforted him, and gave him true comfort, peace upon peace, to those far off and to those near. And the Lord said: I will heal them. But the unrighteous will thus be tossed like waves and will not be able to rest. There is no rejoicing for the ungodly, said the Lord God.”

The Jews paid the penalty for their outrage against Christ, a penalty unbearable to any man, yet measured, as regards its equality with their sins. For they acted impiously beyond all measure, killing righteous men and making themselves liable for the blood of holy prophets. And at last they laid hands on Christ himself, whom, being the Son, the Father sent after the servants. And even so they boasted against him, saying to one another: “This is the heir.” So for this sin, he says, I grieved him and struck him and turned my face away from him. For he said: “When you stretch out your hands to me, I will turn my eyes away from you; and if you multiply your prayer, I will not hear you; for your hands are full of blood.” But in later times, with a repentant mind, he will be freed from his ancient sins, as God has compassion on him, and he will receive true comfort. And what do we say this is, if not plainly the grace that comes through Christ, justifying in faith and … sin, … the sanctification of the Spirit, the glory of adoption, and the hope of the rewards prepared for the saints? True, then, is the comfort, which besides all the other goods brings to those deemed worthy of it peace upon peace, that is, the perpetual and unfailing calm of peace, which the Savior gave both to those far off and to those near, that is, both to those from the nations and to those of Israel's blood.

For the blessed Paul addressed the nations: “But now you who once were far off have become near by the blood of Christ.” For in so far as Israel was yoked to the law and worshipped the living and true God, according to what seemed good in the sacred proclamations (for it was said to them, “The Lord your God is one Lord”), they seemed in some way to be near; but the nations were far off, because they were wholly estranged from holy teachings and from knowing the Creator and Lord of all. But peace has been given to both these and those by God the Father, the peace, plainly, that comes through Christ, who made both one, created the two peoples into one new man, broke down the dividing wall of the partition, and abolished the law of commandments in ordinances. So through him we have had reconciliation and undivided peace, with God and with one another. For Christ said somewhere to the Father and God in heaven: “I will that, as I and you are one, so they too may be one in us.” And the prophet adds to these: “And the Lord said: I will heal them,” making through this as it were a summary of the whole discourse, and making evident the unfailing promise of the God who rules over all; for he promised, he says, saying that he will heal them. “But the unrighteous will thus be tossed like waves and will not be able to rest.” For since … fittingly, he also usefully announces the punishments of the disobedient, the surge among them, and their endless torments … “For there is no rejoicing for them,” he says, “said the Lord God.” And when the Lord and God of all has taken away their rejoicing, what way of gladness will there be for them? And that even at the time of the calling of those from Israel some will remain in disobedience, adhering to the son of lawlessness, the all-wise Paul shows, saying: “Because they did not receive the knowledge of the truth, therefore God will send them a working of error.” And the Savior himself said: “I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name” (that is, the son of lawlessness, as I said), “him you will receive.” So Israel will be called in due time to the knowledge of Christ and will be enriched with the grace that comes through faith in him; but some ungodly and unrighteous will remain, and then, as having fallen into an unstable surge, …

“Cry out with strength, and do not spare; lift up your voice like a trumpet, and declare to my people their sins, and to the house of Jacob their lawless deeds.”

Having finished the discourse about the calling of those of Israel, he comes to another kind of admonition, fine and beneficial, productive of all good order and of brilliant crowns. And I say it is necessary to lay bare beforehand for readers the aim of the prophecy, so that they may know to what end the sense of what is said henceforth tends. In the words above, then, which God spoke about those of Israel, there were evident … of war, and of one that was about to come at any moment: “… you did not remember me, nor take me into your mind, nor into your heart; and I, seeing you, disregard you, and you did not fear me; and I will declare my righteousness and your evils, which will not profit you. When you cry out, let them deliver you in your affliction.” And we said that by the evils of those of Israel he means here their inventions concerning idols. Therefore he also said: “When you cry out, let them deliver you in your affliction.” There was, then, to some a forewarning of war, and it was noised abroad among the peoples of the Jews; but there were some among them wrapped in a show of piety, who did without restraint things not lawful even to mention, yet beautified themselves with outward adornments and snatched, as I said, a reputation for decency. These also feigned fasts, and … from which they ought to have abstained, if they wished to be acceptable to

him, thinking through this to escape the effects of the divine wrath. Since, then, having come into forgetfulness of their own offenses, they thought that for those accustomed to do the most shameful things, abstaining from food and prayer alone suffice for justification and sanctification, God commands the prophet, saying: “Cry out with strength, and do not spare; lift up your voice like a trumpet, and declare to my people their sins.” Do not speak to some secretly, he says, nor in a corner, but use rather a high and lifted voice, and convict the offenders with all boldness, and let them learn their own offenses, … precious to God and worthy of sparing …

“They seek me day by day and desire to know my ways, as a people that has done righteousness and has not forsaken the judgment of its God.”

They join day to days, he says, seeking help from me and wanting to know my ways, that is, my dispensations in each matter. For when war had been announced and fear had thrown everything into confusion, they fasted, and thought that they would learn where at last the matter would end. This, I think, is “They desire to know my ways.” And they desire it as a people that has done righteousness and has not forsaken the judgment of its God, that is, as if they had lived according to the law, had been the best guardians of the oracles given them, had a blameless life, and were clothed with the glory of a pure way of life. For to such it would be fitting both to seek God, that is, to wish to be near him, to enjoy the sparing that comes from above, and besides this to know his ways. At any rate it was said through one of the holy prophets: “Seek the Lord, and when you find him, call upon him. When he draws near to you, let the ungodly forsake his way, and the lawless man his counsel, and let him turn to the Lord, and he will be shown mercy; for he will abundantly forgive their sins.”

“They ask me now for righteous judgment and desire to draw near to God, saying: Why have we fasted, and you did not see? We humbled our souls, and you did not know? For in the days of your fasts you find your own wills, and you goad all those under your hand. For judgments and …”

They accuse me, he says, of not dealing justly, because I do not wish to have mercy on those humbled through fasting and prayer. Then they wish also to be near God, boasting of none of the brave deeds that lead to piety, and not clothed with the brightness that comes from virtues, but on account of bare and mere abstinence from food; and they say: “We fasted, and you did not see; we humbled our souls, and you did not know.” And they say such things not as though God were ignorant of their humbling through fasting; but since they had not come to perceive their own charges, they say, “You did not see,” and “You did not know.” For we say that the God of all knows the labors of people, those, I mean, through prayer and discipline, when he nods assent to their requests. How, then, does he not accept those who fast and have humbled themselves? He defends himself, saying: “For in the days of your fasts you find your own wills.” For fasting is an exceptional thing, and prayer is profitable, and to humble oneself in the eyes of God brings very great benefit. For it is written: “I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer will return to my bosom.” And the divine David said: “My knees grew weak from fasting, and my flesh was changed for lack of oil.” Indeed the God of all himself says: “Return to me with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.” For he readily has mercy on those who humble themselves of their own accord through toil. But it is most absurd for those who wish to receive mercy to provoke the lawgiver in other ways and to call him to anger by loving to do nothing … “know,” that is, I did not deem your humbling worthy of any reward, since in the days of your fasts you find your own wills. Those, then, who wish to fast purely and holily must depart from their own wills, choose instead what seems good to God, and submit a docile

neck to his wills. But those of Israel did not do this at all; they followed rather their own wills, dishonoring what seemed good to the lawgiver, … quarrels; although they ought to have gathered into unanimity those who had been carried into disputes. But they turned their zeal to the complete opposite. … and the lowly too, and not with hands at all, but with insults and greed, or in some other kind of injustice. Then how was it possible to praise them when they fasted, when such uncleanness was in them? Or how would the prayers of people so wicked have been received?

“Why do you fast to me, so that your voice is heard today in a cry? Not this fast have I chosen, and a day for a man to humble his soul. Not even if you bend your neck like a ring and spread under you sackcloth and ashes, not even so will you call it an acceptable fast.”

The force of true fasting has an extraordinary cry before the God who rules over all. For he gladly receives, I think, the supplications of those who worship him; and if he sees them humbled through toils and disciplines, he grants their requests without any delay. But the fast that is kept carelessly and negligently, he rejects in its manner. And we say that the fast befitting saints is the one carried out from a pure conscience, which a person keeps having first departed vigorously from the ways of wickedness, sent away every stain of his own mind, wiped off the filth of love of the flesh, and washed his hands in innocence, as it is written; and, in short, … every good work … but a fast that has gone astray, as it were, having the form of a fast but nothing at all that befits it, is laughable and unseemly. For those who have wholly neglected to be kind and good, and have achieved beforehand none of the best noble deeds, and then practise their profitless and useless abstinence from food as a great thing and precious to God, box in vain and beat the air; for their toil is unrewarded, because it is also unacceptable to God. “Why, then, do you fast to me,” he says, “so that the cry of your voice is heard in one day?” By cry he means either the prayer that accompanies, I mean, the useless fast, or the cry that comes from the deed itself. For the things done by us are said to have a voice toward God, according to what was said … to Cain by him: “The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the earth.” “But not this fast have I chosen,” he says; and what this fast is he showed beforehand by saying: “In the days of your fasts you find your own wills, and you goad all those under your hand into judgments and quarrels.”

“Not even if you bend your neck like a ring and spread under you sackcloth and ashes”: that is, even if you practise the utmost humbling and travel an unbearable road of toil, with such shameful charges upon you, “not even so will you call it an acceptable fast.” For if you are willing, he says, to speak the truth, not even you yourselves would name it an acceptable fast.

“… says the Lord; but loose every bond of injustice, undo the knots of violent contracts, send away the broken in release, and tear up every … your bread …, and bring the homeless poor into your house; if you see one naked, clothe him, and from those of your own seed …”

… for those who did not know the manner of true fasting that it be shown them by God. For from him comes all wisdom and understanding, and the way to every excellent thing whatever is shown by him. The divine David at any rate sings and says: “Guide me, O Lord, in your way, and I will walk in your truth.” So he rejected the most unskilful and in no way profitable fast of the Jews, and shows the force of the true one. “For loose,” he says, “every bond of injustice,” that is, rid yourself of wanting to take advantage of anyone. For greed is a bond of injustice, and so is attacking some who are weaker and binding them as it were in inescapable entanglements of charges, so as to make them terrified and so to seek to take from them whatever one wishes. “Undo the knots of violent contracts.” Violent contracts are … the commercial ones; and besides these the other so-called givings and takings, which involve certain excesses and make those accustomed to practise them lovers of shameful gain. “And send away the broken in release,” he says, that is, those who suffer crushing or weariness from the bond of injustice or from the violent contracts. Release them in freedom, that is, … to give rest henceforth to those who toil. “And tear up every unjust document”: I think he means the bonds of moneylenders, often drawn up without even the payment of as much money as the document has swollen to. And when you have kept away from these, he says, then add what is lacking. And this is to bear fruit to … the good things of love to one's neighbors. For love is the fulfilment of the law, as it is written. And the fulfilment of love toward brothers, and the proof of the compassion honored by God, is to break bread for the hungry, to take the homeless poor into one's house, to clothe the naked, and to give those of one's own seed, that is, one's kin, sufficient care, I think, and to share with them the breadth of the plenty given by God. Observe that keeping away from evils is not the same as doing good. Nor would it suffice anyone as a boast before God not to have done what is bad; it must surely and in every way be followed by fulfilling good works and holding fast to the pursuits that lead to piety. For to undo the knots of violent contracts and every bond of injustice, and to tear up every unjust document, is nothing else than merely departing from wickedness. But to choose to fulfil the works of love, by breaking bread for the hungry, taking the homeless poor into one's house, clothing the naked, and bearing with those of one's own seed, gives clear proof of the best noble deeds. Therefore the old law, being a tutor to lead to Christ, did not bring the fulfilment of the good to those of that time, but taught them rather to depart from wickedness first. For “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not swear falsely” has this force. But perfection and the fulfilment of every good were reserved for the oracles given through Christ, from which we have learned to fulfil the works of love toward God and our brothers,

“… your healings shall spring up quickly, and your righteousness shall go before you, and the glory of God shall clothe you. Then you shall cry out, and God will hear you; while you are still speaking he will say, ‘Here I am.’”

If, he says, you fast purely, and show God your hands washed clean and your mind freed from all filth, that is, when you wash away [the fault] of [driving] those under your hand into lawsuits and fights and [making them] follow your wishes and pleasures, when you break your bread to the hungry, clothe the naked, and bring the homeless poor into your house, then your light shall break forth early. The saying carries very great emphasis. For he did not simply say, “Light will be given you by God”, but rather “it shall break forth”, like a flash of lightning sent down from God with a rush and at speed; by which the eagerness of the giver is clearly shown. And by saying “early” he teaches that it will come down even before its time. For God, the steward of our affairs, the giver of spiritual gifts, knows, he knows the time that befits his bounty toward each. But if someone becomes noble and good, the rewards from him will be given too, so that his healings also spring up in him like ears of grain, that is, the casting off of every sickness; and when one is freed from … he will surely bear the fruit of desire and eagerness for every good thing. So when the divine and spiritual light has shone in us, the healings too spring up with it everywhere and wholly, as God dresses our wounds and unnerves the passions, and puts in their place within us the will to do good and to excel in righteousness. That is why he says, “Your righteousness shall go before you.” It will go before, plainly by making the road to godliness easy beforehand, changing the rough into the smooth and passable, levelling the uphill, and as it were directing our course toward all that is best. And he adds something else: “For the glory of God”, he says, “shall clothe you”, that is, shall surround you and make you admired, and … a common benefit to many. For the radiance of the saints benefits those who look on them not a little. So Christ said to the holy apostles: “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” We shall therefore be radiant, as the glory from God surrounds and as it were clothes us, which he would grant to those who take care for righteousness. When these things are yours, he says, then you shall cry out, and God will hear you; while you are still speaking he will say, “Here I am.” For “he hears the prayers of the righteous”, as it is written. And as the Psalmist says: “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears toward their prayer.” For he will nod assent to those who ask, since he is good, but not to all at once. But to those who have excelled in righteousness he holds out their requests without any delay, and lends them his ear, so that at each of their requests they rejoice and say: “He heard my voice from his holy temple, and my cry before him will come into his ears.” So the cry “Here I am” while the righteous man is still speaking and stretching out his supplications plainly presents the unhesitating bounty and great readiness of God who gives.

“If you take away from yourself the bond, and the stretching out of the hand, and the word of murmuring, and give your bread to the hungry, and satisfy the humbled soul, then your light shall rise in the darkness, and your darkness [shall be] as midday, and your God shall be with you continually.”

The choicest lessons, even if they are often repeated to some, still have their profit. So the all-wise Paul writes to those who believed through him: “To say the same things to you is not irksome to me, and for you it is safe.” So he comes to us telling us in many ways by the same things, both making plain the roads to good repute and describing the splendour of the rewards to be given to the saints, so that he may make them still more eager to choose to do the things by which they would become venerable, and find the bounty that is from above and from him. So: “If you take away from yourself”, he says, “the bond and the stretching out of the hand.” And by “bond”, I think, he means the depravity of the gentiles, their perversity and contentiousness, and the making as it were of bonds of business against some people, and the search for crooked devices, so as at times to bind some people fast, and [to entangle] a person in inescapable circumstances …, if indeed one has the aim of being looked upon by God and longs for his gifts. And by “stretching out of the hand” he perhaps means the taking of bribes and the desire for shameful gains. For we sometimes say of some people that they keep their hand stretched out to receive, and of those who shake off bribes, that they keep their hand drawn in. And it is said of the leaders of the synagogue of the Jews: “Its leaders judged for gifts, and its priests divined for silver”, and that they have become partners of thieves, loving gifts, pursuing reward. And the inspired Habakkuk said somewhere: “Before me judgement has come about, and the judge takes.” So the name, that is, “the stretching out of the hand”, will signify the taking of gifts, which he commanded to take away, that is, to put away. Or in another way it signifies retaliation, repaying evil for evil. So the Psalmist said of some: “He stretched out his hand in repaying.” And he adds: “They profaned his covenant.” So the stretching out of the hand would also signify, as I said, the repayment someone might make by bringing the effects of anger back on others. And we remember the Saviour himself saying: “If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to him also.” For to know how to endure wrongs, and not to love retaliating against those who have hurt us, but rather to be disposed toward them without remembering the wrong, would be proof of gentleness and of complete freedom from anger.

He also wants us to take away words of murmuring. For we must submit to the divine laws with a cheerful mind, and make no accusation against the excellent way of life, as though all but shaking off the yoke, while the mind sinks down to desire for the worse, and praises love of pleasure rather than self-control, and the things in the world … This is what those of Israel did as they crossed that deep desert. For when God sent the manna down to them, they let in the inclination to baser things, saying: “Would that we had died, struck by the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and ate bread to the full.” But murmuring against God turned out to their destruction: they perished by the serpents. That is why the most wise Paul too says: “Do not murmur, as some of them murmured and perished by the serpents.” So it befits one who desires noble deeds [to be] of cheerful mind. And having taken away the word of murmuring, if you give your bread to the hungry and satisfy the humbled soul, that is, if you become a lover [of the poor] and generous, and love your neighbour as yourself, then your light shall rise in the darkness. And how is this? As day comes out of night, so in us, when the spiritual darkness is driven out, the divine light enters in its place, so that it seems to be at midday, that is, at the height of brightness. For the sun's disc at midday then most of all sends its keenest light upon those on earth. So your God shall be with you continually. And this too is very great, besides the rest. For what good thing does not belong to those who have obtained this? Or of what gifts will a person not be full, when God, who is able to do all things, is with him, distributing with a rich hand the things of which he is supplier and giver, warding off the attacks of temptations, and making him so strong as to stand up even to Satan himself and to the assaults of the passions?

“And you shall be filled as your soul desires, and your bones shall be made fat, like a well-watered garden and like a spring whose water has not failed, and your bones shall spring up like grass and shall be made fat …”

And with what will you be filled? he says. Plainly with divine gifts and food fit for saints. For as Christ himself said somewhere: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds through the mouth of God.” This was written long ago, as in a type, for those of the blood of Israel too, when God sent the manna down from heaven; for in a way it might be understood as bread of angels and bread of heaven. And if there are some on whose mind the divine light has flashed richly, and who have gained an exact and blameless knowledge of the sacred Scriptures, these too we say have been filled, and have come to satiety of the delight that is from above and from God. But Israel has fallen away from this, while the gentiles have come into its possession and holding through faith, as have all who approach the saving word of the gospel. So our Lord Jesus Christ said to the holy apostles: “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given”, plainly to those who disbelieved, to whom the divine word also proclaimed: “Those who serve me shall eat, but you shall hunger; behold, those who serve me …” and they thirsted, having had no share in the good things through the Spirit, and being wholly without taste of the gifts through Christ, that is, of the divine instruction of the gospel. For he said somewhere through one of the holy prophets: “Behold, I bring a famine on the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord; and from the east to the west they will run about seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.” For the heavenly … has been taken away from the herd of the Jews … But it has been given, as I said, to those who love Christ, to whom he also proclaimed, saying: “Eat, and be drunk, O neighbours.” So the inspired David too sings, as one who

had a share in such venerable and abundant bounty: “You prepared a table before me in the face of those who afflict me; you anointed my head with oil, and your cup that makes me drunk is as the best.” So all who have gained knowledge of his divine mysteries, that is, have been filled with them, have had their bones made fat. The saying is shaped from those who are used to living in fleshly luxury. The soul of such people would become like a well-watered garden, that is, in bloom, full of fine trees, adorned with varied kinds of flowers, and bearing every sort of fruit. For gardens without water are very unsightly: they are dry and empty of all fruit, or perhaps even short of plants themselves. But those [rich] in water, as I said, are crowned with fruits. And the church has become Christ's garden; taking up her part, the bride in the Song of Songs [says: “Let my beloved come down] into his garden and eat the fruit of his fruit-trees.” For what the tree-fruit, that is, beautiful fruit, is among plants, that, in the souls of the saints, is virtue, beautiful and most sweet to God. So your soul, he says, will be like a well-watered garden, and also like a spring whose water has not failed. Such were the inspired initiators into the mysteries, sending out the streams of godly teaching as from an ever-flowing spring, their own heart, and watering richly the souls of those taught. And the distributor of such excellent gifts will confirm it himself, saying: “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from his belly.” And again: “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him, it will become in him a spring of water leaping up to eternal life.” Such we say were the holy apostles and evangelists, and all who are ambassadors of the divine word, being excellent partly in skill in doctrine, partly in the splendour … of works.

“… and they shall spring up like grass, and shall be made fat, and they shall inherit generations of generations”, he says. In these words he seems to point to the mystery of the resurrection. For the body will rise then, like grass in a field which withered and closed up in the winter season, but when the fair weather of spring smiles grows up again and as it were returns to the beauty that is natural to it. And the bones, when they have sprung up like grass, will be made fat, he says, plainly by the life-giving grace from God. For the inspired David sings somewhere and says: “You will send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created, and you will renew the face of the earth”, that is, of those on earth. Then we shall inherit generations of generations, plainly living long when death has been abolished and corruption wholly done away. And in very many places of divinely inspired Scripture the spiritual bones of the soul are said to be certain of its active powers and energies, as in the saying: “God scattered the bones of men-pleasers.” For God does not scatter the bones of the body, but rather shatters the powers of their soul, so that they can accomplish nothing of what they look to, and nothing done among them tends either to the glory of God or to the benefit of their soul. And again the inspired Psalmist said: “Because I kept silent, my bones grew old from my crying out all the day”, that is, falling into human faintheartedness, I fell silent from glorifying and praying; “my bones grew old”, that is, the powers of my understanding, or of my soul, were weakened. These, then, though sometimes slackened through sloth, spring up again like grass in a short time, as God makes them fat with the consolations through the Holy Spirit and strengthens [the soul] again, so that through this we are made heirs of the life of long ages; for that, and nothing else, is what “to generations of generations” means.

“And your eternal deserts shall be built, and your foundations shall be for generations of generations, and …”

The saying comes to us through two further examples, and the beauty of the hidden meanings shines out. For the saying is shaped as of a city once laid waste and wholly shaken down, so that it was even left without walls. For your deserts, he says, shall be built as eternal ones; that is, you will not be bare of the good thoughts that dwell in your heart, nor without walls … For Christ will become for you a foundation and continual safety, and you will be like a populous city with countless inhabitants. For the souls of the saints are full of words and thoughts, plainly those about God. And these are very many, and come with complete exactness, running about through it up and down, and showing it full of every good. And besides this you will be called a builder of fences, and you will make the paths between cease. For very many are those who cut paths across deserted gardens; for if no one at all stands over them or fences them in closely, they would not stop those who wish to walk through the middle. But if they come under a careful gardener, then they cease lying under the feet of the many, plainly because a fence has been raised; for so the paths through the middle [cease]. You will be, then, he says, like a careful gardener raising fences and stopping … soul, inclining to sloth and to the outlandish … of pleasures, for this reason has no defence, but is like a garden walked through by anyone at all. But when, coming to its senses, it leaps out of the snares of wickedness and takes hold rather of the will to do good, and raises for the mind, as a kind of fence, the safety that comes, I mean, from the fear of God, and drives out of the understanding the thoughts that once mastered it, which went as it were through the middle of it, keeping it under their feet and making it a thing trampled by their mastery, then it will be called a builder of fences. And one must know that the wicked and hostile powers too sometimes overrun the wretched soul, breeding foul pleasures and carrying it off tyrannically wherever they wish, as through a garden laid waste [for want of the] fence which the divine fear raises in us. And you will apply such a saying also to each of the holy initiators into the mysteries. For they became builders of fences, securing the souls of those taught by admonitions to virtue, so that they keep their understanding [safe] in some way against the attacks of pleasures and against buffoonery, and against those used to empty talk, who peddle the correct word of the faith, knowing neither what they say nor what they make assertions about.

“If you turn your foot away from the Sabbaths, so as not to do your wishes on the holy day, and call the Sabbaths delightful, holy to your God, you shall not lift your foot … your mouth, and you shall trust in the Lord, and he will bring you up onto the good things of the land, and feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.”

The inspired Paul, pushing aside the shadow of the law as ineffective, transfers what is in it into spiritual contemplation. For one would not see him accepting either circumcision according to the flesh or idleness according to the Sabbath; rather he is seen [to honour another] circumcision. For he said: “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward, in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; his praise is not from men but from God.” And about the Sabbath: “So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his own.” So if anyone ceases from his own works, that is, from his own wishes, and gives the sacred decrees the right to rule, he thus keeps Sabbath spiritually and truly celebrates a holy day. The saying of the prophecy in hand shows us this too. For if you turn away, he says, your foot from the Sabbaths, so as not to do your wishes on the holy day. And “you shall turn your foot away from the Sabbaths” would be nothing else, I think, than not to do whatever one may wish and not to walk the paths of one's own desires. For that the aim of human wishes looks toward love of pleasure the all-wise Paul will confirm, writing: “For I do not do the good that I want, but the evil that I hate, that I do. For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man, but I see another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members.” So those who wish to be well pleasing to God must fight down their own will very vigorously, and, following his divine laws everywhere, run the admirable road of righteousness. And he calls “delightful Sabbaths” those that have nothing of self-will. And a hard and harsh will is to refuse to submit to whatever God wills. Since Israel was such, he convicted it, saying: “I know that you are hard, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your forehead bronze.” So compliance, docility and a yielding manner make the Sabbath rest delightful to God, that is, the spiritual Sabbath-keeping; and those who wish to accomplish it blamelessly will not lift their foot to work, that is, they do not walk in active deeds, but rather keep the pure and profitable rest, rest, I mean, from things most shameful, foul and hateful to God. And he wants such people to be seen to be superior to anger and wrath, and to have a door and a bar on the tongue.

“For you shall not speak a word … of your mouth”, he says. So here he cuts away two terrible and most grievous things; whoever departs from them will be perfect before God. For one of the holy apostles said: “If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also.” And he who is superior to anger is surely also seemly, if the converse is true too; for it is written: “A wrathful man is not seemly.” So God wants those who keep Sabbath spiritually, holily and delightfully to be gentle and to have virtue in the highest degree, and he commands them to trust, not in wealth or worldly powers, not in bodily strength, nor in anything else of that kind, things which, like the grasses in the fields, are short-lived and quick to wither, but rather in the Lord, the supplier and ruler of all good cheer. And he shows with what sort of things he crowns people who are used to living so, by saying: “He will bring you up onto the good things of the land, and feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father.” For the God of all promised the land of promise to the fathers of the Jews, and indeed they were brought into it under the command of Joshua after Moses, the revealer of sacred things. How then, in the verses before us, [does he promise it] as to people who had not yet received the lot promised to the patriarch? … [not about the] promise made by God to the inspired Jacob, that is, to Abraham and Isaac, but rather about that [land] which the Saviour himself indicated to us, saying: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” And that the promises will reach their fulfilment wholly and surely he confirms by saying: “For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.” And it is impossible for the divine words to fail, for God is truth.

“Is my hand not strong to save? Or has he made his ear heavy so as not to hear? Your sins stand between you and God; because of your sins he has turned his face away from you so as not to have mercy. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with sins. And your lips … meditates; no one speaks just things, nor is there true judgement. They trust in vain things, and speak …”

In the verses a little above, … in strength, and do not spare; lift up your voice like a trumpet, and declare to my people their lawless deeds, and to the house of Israel their sins.

“They seek me day after day, and desire to know my ways, as a people that has done righteousness and has not forsaken the judgement of its God. They ask me now for just judgement, and desire to draw near to God, saying: ‘Why is it that we fasted, and you did not see? We humbled our souls, and you did not know?’ For in the days of your fasts you find your wishes, and you goad all those under your hand; you fast for lawsuits and fights … this is not the fast that I have chosen, says the Lord.”

We said, interpreting the force of the prophecy as far as possible, that, setting themselves against what was decreed through the all-wise Moses and counting right living of very little account, they did … practising a manner of …; then sometimes, when war was announced, they considered abstaining from food, thinking that by bare and mere fasting, that is, going without food, they would set the judge on their side. Then they murmured when they missed their hope, and indeed [said: “Why did we fast, and you did not see? We] humbled our souls, and you did not know?” See, then, see the inspired prophet rebuking them out of great love for God, and saying: “Is the hand of the Lord not strong to save? Or has he made his ear heavy so as not to hear?” For the all-powerful right hand of the Lord has not grown weak, he says, nor [has his] ear … “But your sins stand between you and him.” So if anyone takes away the division and removes what walls off the knowledge of God, that is, sin, the Saviour is not far off, but will surely receive the supplications. For in him there is both all power and the readiness to accept … kindly the prayers of those in distress. What sins, then, stand between God and those of the blood of Israel he adds, saying: “For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with sins. And your lips have spoken lawlessness, and your tongue meditates injustice.” For they killed holy prophets sent by God, and they also spoke against him. So Jeremiah said: “My strength has failed because of those who curse me.” But passing over such things, he seems now to charge them with the impiety against Christ: their hands [are defiled] with blood, … and their lips [have spoken] lawlessness, and their tongue has meditated injustice. For they did not stop fighting, reviling and slandering Christ, at one time disparaging his divine signs and telling lies against his mighty works befitting God, at another accusing him and saying: “Away, away, crucify him!” At another … For this reason, because Christ endured an unjust sentence, the prophet cries out with a boldness befitting a saint: “No one spoke just things, nor is there true judgement. They trust in vain things and speak empty things.” And what was their vain trust? For they supposed that by putting the heir out of the way they would hold his inheritance; and saying such empty things to one another, the wretches acted impiously against him. So either the prophetic word charges those of the blood of Israel with the impiety against Christ, or [it says] that they would be found in no way fair-minded, since they have hands defiled with blood, and lips and a tongue that know how to meditate nothing else than what looks toward impiety, lawlessness and injustice, and that besides this they have become unjust judges, plainly taking gifts and being overcome by shameful gains. For it is said somewhere else: “How has the faithful city Zion, full of judgement, become a harlot, in which righteousness lodged, but now murderers? Your silver is counterfeit; your innkeepers mix the wine with water; your rulers … disobey, partners of thieves, loving gifts, pursuing reward, not judging for orphans and not attending to the cause of widows.”

“For they conceive trouble and bring forth lawlessness. They have broken asps' eggs, and they weave a spider's web, and he who was about to eat of their eggs, having crushed one, found it addled, and found in it a basilisk. Their web shall not become a garment, nor shall they be clothed from the works of their hands.”

It is the custom of divinely inspired Scripture, in a way, always to call envy “trouble”. And the expression is very apt, for envy melts and withers the hearts of those who admit it. Something of the kind the Psalmist too says of someone, that is, of the people of the Jews: “He conceived trouble and bore lawlessness.” For having first been in labour with envy against Christ, they brought forth the impiety against him, that is, the lawlessness. For by their attempts they would be caught all but saying that prophetic word: “… is.” And we shall find [this] in their councils too, against the Saviour of us all, Christ: “What are we doing? For this man does many signs. If we let him go on like this, the Romans will come and take away both our nation and our place.” And one of them, Caiaphas, became the inventor of the impiety against Christ; for he said in turn: “You know nothing at all; it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish.” From what has been said, then, one can see most clearly that, having conceived trouble, that is, having first been in labour with trouble against him, they brought forth lawlessness. What, then, does the prophetic word indicate to us in these words? “They have broken asps' eggs, and he who was about to eat of their eggs, having crushed one, found it addled.” For the Jews thought their plans against Christ would come to a favourable end for them and would benefit the whole nation. But they missed their aim, and it befell them to suffer something like what those suffer who, out of great folly, break asps' eggs. For when they have crushed them they will find nothing else but a basilisk in it, that most grievous offspring of a snake, and an addled egg besides. So the end of their daring deeds against Christ was unprofitable for the Jews, or rather it brought them destruction. For it turned out for them like a snake, an acknowledged failure, the one that carries them off to the trap of Hades. And that the plotting against Christ was entirely useless he shows at once by another example: “For they weave”, he says, “a spider's web.” For the spider, I mean that small and most worthless creature, … in the idler corners of rooms …; and these, though made with very great labour, profit them nothing at all; for they will not be a covering for their maker, but are easily torn as a covering, and finer than art itself. So, he says, are the inventions of the Jews too, plainly those against Christ. For weaving deceits and plaiting lies, they thought, as I said, that by encompassing him with death in the flesh they would achieve something profitable for themselves, and the … from their own attempts …; but the end turned out [contrary] to what they hoped. For they have been stripped of the favour from above, and have cast off their protector, that is, Christ. For those who wish to accomplish good works will have a covering from them, as God grants them this too; but for the workers of evil what comes from their deeds will not be a covering; rather they will be bereft of the covering that comes from God.

“For their works are works of lawlessness, and their feet run to evil, swift to shed blood, and their thoughts are thoughts from murders; destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no judgement in their ways. … and they do not know peace. Therefore judgement has departed from them.”

Each of the Jewish offences is enumerated in detail, so that, since they have been cast out of fellowship with him, they may be shown to have suffered this by a just sentence. For he says that all their works are works of lawlessness, and in these words the denunciation of their whole life together has proved true. And he runs over each of the charges as follows, saying that their feet run to evil and are swift to shed blood, and that they have had thoughts set on murders. See again, I pray, that, although the offences are very many, he mentioned first their readiness, I mean, to kill so as to destroy. For he said that their feet run to it, and that they are sharp, that is, swift, to admit thoughts of blood and murders. And he insists that destruction and misery are in their ways, and that they do not know peace, or the way of peace. For what they did unholily … of misery for them, or rather brought [it] on others through them. They were surely busybodies, and stitchers of lawsuits, and very sick with contentiousness; and the occasion of this was the desire for gains and the taking of gifts. So very fittingly he says: “There is no judgement in their ways.” And here he calls righteousness “judgement”, that is, the most lawful and irreproachable way of life. For so the inspired David says somewhere of the commandment given through Moses: “You have done judgement and righteousness in Jacob.” So there is no uprightness, that is, righteousness, in their ways. For they are perverse, and they flee peace, that is, they refuse to be peaceable toward others; or here he calls our Lord Jesus Christ “peace”, whom they would not know, digging the pit of destruction for themselves. “For that reason”, he says, “judgement has departed from them”, that is, for this cause righteousness departed from them, or the knowing how to do the things that win the crown of righteousness for those who have chosen to accomplish them. And the Jews are outside all spiritual skill, and even the ability to know how rightly to carry out anything pleasing to God has as it were flown away from their understanding.

“While they waited, light became darkness for them; waiting for brightness, they walked in untimely darkness. They will grope like a blind man for a wall, and as if they had no eyes they will grope, and … dying, they will groan; like a bear and …”

… their [life] accursed, and having shown it to be most lawless. For he said that their works are works of lawlessness, and, having listed them in detail and what they are, he also sets out the loss worn into them as a result, and the requital of their unbridled wickedness, that is, the fruits of the impiety within them. For the Jews were expecting the enlightenment from Christ. They heard holy prophets crying out openly: “Be enlightened, be enlightened, Jerusalem, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you”, and: “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened”; and as far as the [prophecies] of the holy prophets went, the wretches were not without good hope. So the leaders of the synagogue of the Jews once said to one another: “Does the Christ come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from Bethlehem, the village?” And that Samaritan woman, speaking to Christ himself, clearly confessed the force of his coming. For she said: “We know that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ; when he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” So they were expecting, as I said, the enlightenment from Christ, but their hope turned out wholly the opposite. For they did not receive the true light, but, settling as it were a self-invited darkness in their own minds, they became blind, and guides of the blind, according to the Saviour's word.

So while they waited for light, that is, while they hoped for or expected it, darkness came upon them, and waiting for brightness they walked in untimely darkness. The prophet puts the same thing again in another way, or about the same subject, making the sense of what was said plain. For those who expected brightness walked in deep darkness; that is what the word “untimely” shows. Then, displaying the greatness of the blindness that had come upon them, he said that they will grope like a blind man for a wall. For that is how those whose eyes are sick with blindness sometimes walk. And though it is noon, he says, they will fall as at midnight. By “noon” he usually means the very middle of the day, when the sun's disc, at the height of the sky, sends its keenest ray upon those on earth and as it were flashes round everything with richer beams; and by “midnight” the very middle of the night, when deep darkness is poured over everything under heaven. At noon, then, he says, that is, when the most abundant light, plainly the divine and spiritual light, was shining over the earth under heaven through the Saviour of us all, Christ, the Jews will fall like blind men who do not even know where they are going. For they would not obey Christ when he said: “While you have the light, walk in the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you.” So they were overtaken by the darkness, since they would not consent to walk in the light. And they will suffer something else too. For they will groan as those who are dying, he says, that is, as those held fast by a heavy and unrelenting disease. And they will go like a bear and a dove together; not as two creatures walking with each other, of which one might be taken as the bear and the other as the dove, but each of them at once, in his habit and in the mind within him, being a bear and also a dove. For since he said that they groan, he shows very well what kind of groaning theirs will be, and how great. For they say that bears, if they are robbed [of their cubs] by …, are filled with unmixed fury, roam the mountains and glens, and leap uncontrollably on whoever meets them; and somewhere through one of the holy prophets the God of all indicates something of this kind, saying of those of the blood of Israel: “I will meet them like a bear at a loss”, that is, cruelly and savagely. And doves send out a voice over their nests. Such the Jews became. For when their whole country had been sacked together with the holy city, I mean Jerusalem, and the temple itself had been burned, they had a savage mind against those who had taken it, yet they lamented it in its suffering like doves. For it is written: “And they shall be on the mountains like moaning doves.” Or perhaps we shall think that the prophetic word indicates something else in these words. For they will go, he says, like a bear and a dove, that is, they will live in savagery of mind yoked with folly; the bear is the image or example of savagery, and the dove of simplicity and folly. So it is said of Israel through one of the holy prophets: “And Ephraim was like a silly dove, having no heart.” And we shall find that the Jews are in truth, as it were, savage fools. For the understanding and gentleness that come from Christ are not in them; for they denied him, who is the supplier of wisdom and understanding and makes tame and gentle those who love him. So the prophet Jeremiah said of them at one time: “Every man has been made foolish, without knowledge”, and at another: “What wisdom is there in them, since they have rejected the word of the Lord?”

“We waited for judgement, and there is none; salvation has stood far off from us. For our lawlessness is great before you, and our sins have stood against us; for our lawless deeds are in us, and we have known our injustices. We acted impiously and lied, and departed from behind our God. We spoke unjust things and disobeyed; we conceived and meditated judgement from the heart, and righteousness has stood far off.”

The word of the holy prophets always loves the truth. For the Spirit of truth, that is, of Christ, speaks in them. For this reason, whenever they mention the rejection of the Jewish nation and the wrath brought upon them for their impiety toward Christ, they usefully recall also their return that will come in the last times of the age, and their calling in Christ through faith. Most providentially, then, so that no one may suppose … to make confession clearly. For it is written: “Tell …”; he all but presents them saying to God: “We waited for judgement, and there is none.” And by judgement they mean righteousness, plainly that through Christ, which they expected to receive; but it is not among them, and they became hard and disobedient. That is why he says: “Salvation has stood far off from us. For our lawlessness is great before you, and our sins are in us.” For since they have wholly fallen away from him who justifies by faith, they have also become far from the salvation that comes from him, not having cast off the defilements of sin nor rubbed off the charges of lawlessness, but having the filth from these as it were melted into them. That is why Christ addressed them, saying: “Truly I tell you that unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.” So, since they did not believe, they died in their sins. And since they acted impiously against Christ in many ways, they also make confession of these very things. For they say: “We have known our injustices; we acted impiously and lied, and departed from behind our God.” For they acted impiously, telling intolerable lies against the glory of the Saviour of us all, Christ, and departing from the will to follow him. And they confess further: “We spoke unjust things and disobeyed; … unjust words from our heart.” For they spoke unjust things against Christ: at one time, disparaging his glory and slandering his divine signs, they said that he casts out demons by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons; at another, bringing forth unjust words from their own heart; for they accused him, daring to call him …, and they slandered him before Pilate too, saying: “He stirs up the crowds and forbids giving tribute to Caesar.” That is why they say: “We departed from behind our God; we spoke … we meditated from our heart words of injustice, and we turned judgement back, and righteousness has stood far off”; that is, we threw righteousness behind us, and as it were turned our backs on it, turning away. Therefore it has stood far off from us. These, then, are the voices of people who repent and seek to find mercy from Christ. For repentance is a saving thing, and … of offences: “… your lawless deeds first, that you may be justified.” And the inspired Psalmist said: “I said, I will declare my lawlessness against myself to the Lord, and you forgave the impiety of my heart.”

“For truth has been consumed in their ways, and they could not go by a straight path. And truth has been taken away, and they turned their mind away from understanding; and the Lord saw, and it did not please him, that there was no judgement. And he saw, and there was no man; and he observed, and there was none to help. And he defended them with his arm, and established them with mercy. And he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and set the helmet of salvation on his head, and clothed himself with a garment … recompense, reproach to the adversaries. And those from the west shall fear the name of the Lord, and those from the rising of the sun the glorious name. For the wrath of the Lord shall come like a violent river; it shall come with fury.”

Having recalled what those of Israel will say at the time of their calling, when they ask the God and Father for the grace of salvation through Christ, the prophet again transfers the words to his own person and accuses those of Israel, or rather agrees that they have become wicked, apostates and enemies of the truth. And he insists, saying that truth has been consumed in their ways; it was gone. For there was no truth at all in their deeds, that is, the law of truth. Therefore they could not pass through by a straight road. For those who had wholly slipped away from knowing how to live lawfully and by what seems good to the truth (and the law of God is everywhere called truth), how could they have gone straight to what is fitting? Or how could they not have had crooked and perverse ways? And by adding, “Truth has been taken away, and they turned their mind from understanding”, he shows that truth had wholly departed from them, and they had turned away altogether from being able to understand the things that lead to salvation. These things, he says, the Lord saw, and it did not please him. For there was no judgement among them, that is, just judgement and law. Then: He looked, he says, and there was no man; he observed, and there was none to help. For since he is compassionate, as God he sometimes remits the charges even of a whole city for the sake of one man found righteous in it. So he said through the voice of Jeremiah: “Run about in the ways of Jerusalem, and search in its squares, and see if you can find a man, if there is one who keeps faith and loves mercy, and I will be merciful to it, says the Lord.” And to Sodom too he promised to remit the punishment by fire if they had five righteous men among them, that is, one righteous man in each city. So he observed, he says, and there was no man, there was none to help. For the righteous man, who has lulled the divine wrath and is enough by himself to appease God, surely helps those for whom he offers his prayers. But since there was no one of that kind, he defended them, he says, with his arm, that is, with his power, and he also established them with mercy. For he did not destroy Israel root and all, but, being a lover of humankind, he saved a remnant, and kept his promise to their holy fathers unfailing. Then the prophet says that he put on a breastplate and set on a helmet and a garment of vengeance, as one about to repay recompense, reproach to the adversaries. For he all but said that the God of all became a war-leader against them, in full armour and well versed in tactics. And by this he shows the onset of the wrath upon them. For the all-mighty drew up against them, to whom it is justly said: “You are fearful, and who will stand against you because of your wrath?” And when the punishments have been brought on the Jews, those from the west and from the east will fear the glorious name. For the wrath will come, will come, he says, upon the disobedient, like a most violent river sweeping everything down, its streams rushing on irresistibly.

“And the deliverer shall come for the sake of Zion, and shall turn away impieties from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them, says the Lord: my Spirit, which is upon you, and the words which I have put in your mouth, shall not fail from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your seed; for the Lord has said it, from now and for ever.”

Just as a little above he clearly recalled the wrath that would be brought on the Jews (for they killed the Author of life and raged unholily against the Saviour and Redeemer of all), and then foretold the mercy and love for humankind that will be given them in later times (for he said: “And he defended them with his arm, and established them with mercy”), so here too, [having said] that the wrath of the Lord would come down on them like an unbearable and most violent torrent, and having said … he speaks of the blessing that will be given them in the last times of the age. For “the deliverer shall come for the sake of Zion”. For the only-begotten Word of God came down from heaven and lowered himself into emptying, becoming man, in order to call Israel before the others, and to save the multitude of the gentiles too. And the all-wise Paul will bear witness, writing: “For I say that Christ became a servant of the circumcision for the sake of the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and that the gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.” And we remember Christ himself saying: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” So the deliverer will come, plainly delivering from sins, from death and corruption, from the devil's cruelty, from the deceit and overreaching of the demons. “And this is my covenant with them” … what is [spoken] and promised by God will wholly and surely be firm, and will not be denied. What, then, will the covenant from me be? he says. “My Spirit, and the words which I have put in your mouth, shall not fail from now and for all time.” For the clearest proof that the human race has been redeemed, and before the others those of Israel who believed, is the sharing in the Holy Spirit, through whom the boast of adoption is brought in, and the speaking with the tongue of the word of faith, as the all-wise Paul wrote: “For do not say in your heart”, he says, “‘Who will go up into heaven?’, that is, to bring Christ down; or ‘Who will go down into the abyss?’, that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does the Scripture say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart; because if you say ‘Lord Jesus’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses to salvation.” So we have received from God the word of faith, that is, the confession; and it is a saving thing, and brings righteousness. For so Christ justifies the ungodly, he who cried long ago: “Behold, I have wiped out your lawless deeds like a cloud, and your sins like darkness.” Let this word of faith be in us continually, and it will not cease from our mouth. And we shall hand it on to generations of generations; for so those after us too will be justified.

For if Christ is always, and is God and Lord, the confession of faith in him will never cease among those who have recognized his appearing.

“… light, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness and gloom shall cover the earth upon the gentiles; but upon you the Lord shall appear, and his glory shall be seen upon you. And kings shall walk by your light, and gentiles by your brightness.”

As though the promise had been given that Israel will be saved in due time, the prophetic word here in a way leaps up for joy; for all but lifting a great cry on high it exclaims, saying: “Be enlightened, be enlightened, for your light has come.” See how, since the divine light, plainly the light through Christ, was distributed by God to those of Israel before the others, the prophet says, “Your light has come”, all but showing them as present the one who was announced long before through the law and the holy prophets, and who shone with flesh on those on earth in the last times of the age. And he calls him who appeared “the glory of the Lord”; for Christ rose like a sun, flashing round everything with the divine and spiritual light, and sending down the radiance of the true knowledge of God on those more ready for faith. And he is also the glory of God the Father; for in him and through him and with him the Father is glorified. And he depicts, as in his own nature, the one who begot him. And since we have known the Son, we have beheld through him and in him the greatness of the Father, his incomparable glory, and the preeminence of the dignities befitting God. So Christ said somewhere: “Father, glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you.” The glory of God the Father, then, was seen among us. Then, separating Israel from all the other nations as specially honoured by God and as his own lot, he goes on and says: “Behold, darkness and gloom shall cover the earth upon the gentiles; but upon you the Lord shall appear.” He does not say such things as though darkness were going to be spread over the gentiles when Christ shone on the world; rather they were enlightened, and cast off the darkness of the ancient deceit. But those who have translated divine Scripture very often make no distinction in rendering the tenses; so they have put “will cover” instead of “covers”. For it is true that even when Christ had shone forth, and to those of Israel before the others, the multitude of the gentiles was still held by darkness, since grace had not yet been transferred to them. Behold, then, he says, the whole land of the gentiles has been covered with darkness and gloom, plainly that of ignorance and that of error; but upon you the Lord will appear. For he shone upon them, as I said, and his glory was first seen by them, through the extraordinary … For as God he worked among them, now raising the dead from tombs, now putting light into the eyes of the blind, cleansing lepers with a nod, rebuking demons with authority, and, in short, leaving out no way that was enough to give full assurance that he is God in truth and Son of God by nature.

“And kings shall walk”, he says, “by your light, and gentiles by your brightness.” The prophet again joins the calling of the gentiles to the visitation of those of Israel, so that they may know that, even if by their disobedience they dishonour the Redeemer and leap away from love for him, to the destruction of their own head, he will not be left without worshippers, but will rather net both gentiles and kings through faith; for kings and gentiles will walk by the brightness of Christ. And where will they walk? Plainly to salvation through faith, to a glorious and blameless life, to knowing and confessing who is by nature and truly the Creator and craftsman of all. For they worshipped the creation rather than the Creator, and paid their reverence to wood and stones. But since they have been made bright by the light given to you, they too, he says, will walk the straight and royal road, stumbling against nothing that lies in the way, but, as in brightness and day, though they were sons of night and darkness, running past every stumbling block.

“Lift up your eyes round about, and see your children gathered. Behold, all your sons have come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried on shoulders. Then you shall see, and be afraid, and be amazed in your mind, because the wealth of the sea and of nations and peoples shall change over to you. And herds of camels shall come to you, and the camels of Midian and Gerar shall cover you. All from Sheba shall come, bringing gold and frankincense; they shall bring precious [stone] too, and shall proclaim the good news of the salvation of the Lord. And all the sheep of Kedar shall be gathered to you, and the rams of Nebaioth shall come to you, and acceptable [offerings] shall be brought up on my altar, and the house of my prayer shall be glorified.”

The saying has a very great and wise design. For it announces the good news of the calling of the gentiles, and … the union of the two peoples in Christ, and the change of the shadow of the law into spiritual worship. For in Christ all things are new, and the old things have passed away; and he created the two peoples into one new man, making peace, and reconciling both in one body to the Father. He foretells all these things, and he says to the spiritual Jerusalem, that is, the church, which from the beginning was made up of Jews (for they believed first): “Lift up your eyes round about, and see your children gathered. For behold, all your sons have come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried on shoulders.” For he says such things as though the divine preaching of the gospel were gathering believers from every nation and country, netting the earth under heaven, and as into one city for the sake of faith, that is, into the nurse of the saints, I mean the church; just as he says somewhere else too: “For in the last days the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, ready on the tops of the mountains, and it shall be raised above the hills, and many nations shall come to it and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will declare to us his way, and we will walk in it.” And not only those of the blood of Israel would be called children of Jerusalem, but also all those from every nation and country who have been called through faith into the light of truth. For as the all-wise Paul writes: “Not all who are from Israel are Israel, nor are all children because they are Abraham's seed; but the children

of the promise are reckoned as seed.” And it was said by God to the inspired Abraham: “I have made you a father of many nations.” So, as though a multitude had already been gathered from the gentiles and were worshipping Christ: “Lift up your eyes round about”, he says, that is, look round the whole inhabited world, and from every part of it you will see your children running to you; and they will come, though once they were far off, far off not in place but in will and in the disposition of the mind. So one of the holy prophets said to those who had run away from knowing him who is by nature and truly God: “Remember … to your heart.” And the all-wise Paul wrote of Christ: “He came and preached peace to those far off and to those near.” And he writes to those from the gentiles too: “Remember, you gentiles, who are called uncircumcision by what is called circumcision in the flesh, made by hands, that you were at that time without Christ, alienated from the hope of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world; but now you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” For those who do not know at all him who is God by nature and truly are said to be far off, and are so, according to … he says, that is, their calling will not be far off or deferred; for they will run as it were at the heels of the preaching of the gospel. And they will make their approach to God through faith without any toil, all difficulty and sweat being taken away. For they will be carried on shoulders. The shape of the saying is moulded from an example among us: newborn babies love to be nursed, and seek to rest on their mothers' bosoms and arms. Something of this kind happens with those called out of Greek error. For they are tended by those who initiate them into the mysteries rather than harshly trained, not going at once on the rough path, but by a gentle upbringing, as it were, little by little [growing] to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So he commanded the holy apostles to baptize all the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and to teach them to keep all that he had commanded them. And they, wishing to do this, laid nothing burdensome on the believers at the beginning, using their skill as teachers. For they wrote to those from the gentiles: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden, except that you abstain from sexual immorality, and from what is strangled, and from blood.” And the most excellent Paul writes to some: “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able, and even now you are not able.” And … belongs to the mature,

who have the [faculties] of the heart trained to discern good and evil. So your sons and your daughters, he says, will be carried on shoulders, and then you will see and be afraid and be amazed, in the sense of “you will wonder”. For so the inspired Habakkuk says somewhere: “Lord, I have heard your report and was afraid; I considered your works and was amazed.” And we ourselves too are used to saying sometimes “I was amazed” when something extraordinary happens to be done by someone. You will wonder, then, he says; and what will be the occasion of it? “For the wealth of the sea and of nations and peoples shall change over to you.” In these words he makes a clearer prediction that the multitude of the gentiles will be called in due time to the knowledge of the truth. For the country of the Jews lay in the more southern regions, while the parts toward the north, and the sea, and the cities and countries lying on it, were divided among the herds of the gentiles. But since, returning from the ancient deceit, [they came] to the knowledge of him who is God by nature through those who perform the sacred service of the gospel of Christ … That is why he says that the wealth of the sea will change over to the church; and the wealth, as I said, of the cities and countries lying by the sea is those who dwell in them. “And herds of camels”, he says, “shall come to you, and the camels of Midian and [Gerar] shall cover you.” … having their neighbours, the Midianites and those from … idolaters, but he shows in these words that they too will be called and will bear fruit to God. For they rode camels, and provided their means of living from fighting and from keeping livestock; and they were [hostile] especially to those of Israel. But those who once wandered, profane and having no dealings with the sanctified, will come, he says, not one by one but in herds, as it were, and in a multitude, riding on camels, or rather bringing what they have and honouring God with what is at hand. “And all from Sheba shall come bringing gold and frankincense; they shall bring precious stone too, and shall proclaim the good news of the salvation of the Lord.” Sheba again is a country beyond the Arabs, rather near the Red Sea, from which Sheba, the queen of the Ethiopians, came to Jerusalem in the times of Solomon. And the country is most productive of frankincense, gold and Indian stones. They will come, then, he says, bearing fruit to the glory of God and offering frankincense and gold and stones, that is, the fragrance of good works, spiritual radiance and spiritual wealth. “And they shall proclaim the good news of the salvation of God.” For very many who were called from the gentiles, made wise in heart and given an understanding mind for the sacred doctrines, have held the rank of teachers, and, proclaiming to others the salvation and grace from the Saviour of us all, Christ, have bound on the crown of genuineness.

“And the sheep of Kedar”, he says, “and the rams of Nebaioth shall come to you, and acceptable [offerings] shall be brought up on my altar.” Kedar and Nebaioth are again other countries, rich and good for pasture, with very many inhabitants, but idolaters and astray. But these too, he says, will bring rams and sheep, and all will be acceptable on my altar; although according to the law of Moses foreigners were not permitted to bring sacrifices to God, nor, if they brought them, would anyone have accepted them. But behold, God commands that these too be acceptable at the holy altars. For in Christ Jesus there is neither slave nor free, barbarian, Scythian, Greek or Jew, but Christ is all and in all. For the two peoples have become one, since he broke down the dividing wall of the fence and abolished the law of commandments in ordinances. So the sacrifices of all are acceptable, as they approach God through faith in Christ. And the house of God's prayer has been glorified. And see again, I pray, the depth of the saying. He no longer wants the church to be called a house of sacrifices and smoke, as indeed the temple in Jerusalem was, but of prayer, that is, of spiritual worship. And the inspired David sings somewhere and says: “Let my prayer be directed as incense before you, the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.” And it should be noted that the Saviour himself recalled this verse somewhere when rebuking the trading of the Jews, and saying: “It is written: My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.” So when it became a house of prayer, then it was also glorified.

“Who are these that fly like clouds, and like doves with their young? The islands have waited for me, and the ships of Tarshish among the first, to bring your children from afar, and their silver and gold with them, because of the holy name of the Lord, and because the Holy One of Israel is glorious.”

Here again one can see the person of the church brought in, that is, of the spiritual Jerusalem, having as it were lifted its eyes round about, as God commanded, and then amazed at the multitude of those running to it, and at the people, beyond all number, of those gathered through faith. “For who are these”, he says, “that fly like clouds, and like doves with their young?” For not only old men are netted through faith, but young men with them, fathers together with children and mothers with daughters. So the net of the gospel preaching is spread over every age; and this, I think, is what is written in the book of Psalms: “Young men and virgins, old men with younger, let them praise the name of the Lord.” And he says that they fly, either because they will go to it not carelessly and slackly but like winged creatures and runners, or because, leaving the earthly and lowly mind, they in a way walk on high, and like clouds out of the sea, out of the tumult and luxury of the world, they dart up on high and rise to the surface, hastening to the city above.

So, as the church wonders at the concourse from every country through faith, he who nets them again lays bare the cause of the matter, and says: “The islands have waited for me, and the ships of Tarshish, to bring your children from afar, and the gold and the silver with them.” And by “islands” here you will understand, not at all the soil of the islands themselves (that would be simple-minded), nor the ships of Tarshish themselves, but rather those who dwell in them, that is, the inhabitants of the islands. And divine Scripture very often calls the lands of India Tarshish; and they say that there is also a city in Cyprus named Tarshish. So since the islands, he says, and those who come from the land of the Indians have waited for me, that is, have submitted to the yoke laid on them by me, for this reason the multitude of believers flows together from everywhere. For not a few men have come even from the barbarian land itself, bearing the name of Christ and bringing as fruit to his glory whatever their country is able to bear. And they say it is rich in gold and silver. And they will bring them, not by their former custom to lifeless idols and herds of demons, but because the name of the Lord has become holy among them, and the Holy One of Israel glorious. And the Lord is not one and the Holy One of Israel another, but one and the same is both Lord and holy and glorified. And one should know that cities round about that have much uninhabited desert are also called islands. And if they too are said to have waited for the Lord, that is, to have served him, you will understand that those who live in trackless countries or cities, shut off by great desert, will also come through faith and bring gold and silver as fruit to Christ; and not at all the material, but, as it were, what is precious and bright in us and worthy of all account, plainly faith and the radiance of every virtue. For these are guest-gifts to God, and bright and admired offerings of spiritual worship. And it is written in the book of Psalms of the Saviour of us all, Christ: “Kings of Tarshish and the islands shall bring gifts”, kings of the Arabs and of Sheba shall offer gifts; and all the kings of the earth shall worship him, all the nations shall serve him.

“And foreigners shall build your walls, and their kings shall stand by you.”

This too is extraordinary, and the work of a power befitting God. For the walls and enclosures that keep the children of the church safe would be understood as right and blameless faith, and the brightness of works gathering beauty from every virtue; and the introducers of doctrinal knowledge, and indeed of moral knowledge, and the teachers of the divine preaching, would be all the sacred ministers who are called to this by divine vote. And the first fruits of these sacred preachings were for us the inspired disciples, and after them very many who followed in the track of their word, not only from the Jews but also from the ranks of the Greeks, who, being excellent also in worldly wisdom and knowing how to speak well, became the best educators, building the unswerving word of faith elegantly in the souls of those being initiated, and implanting in them an admirable conscience of conduct. So they are foreigners, since they are not of the blood of Israel according to the flesh, but wise master-builders, according to the inspired Paul, well knowing how to lay Christ as a foundation in us, plainly through faith and the teaching of good things.

This, I think, is the meaning of “Foreigners shall build your walls, and their kings shall stand by you.” Whose kings? Plainly those of the foreigners. And by kings he means here either the rulers and leaders of peoples, who stand by the church of Christ, guarding it as it were like spearmen, fighting shoulder to shoulder with its children, and warding off every attack of enemies, visible and invisible; or, in the true sense, those crowned with the highest honours and holding the sceptre of kingship, who also have stood by the church. And “standing by” here signifies obedience. For they yield to the divine and sacred decrees, and count the preaching of the church worthy of all account.

“For in my wrath I struck you, and in mercy I loved you. And your gates shall be opened … to bring in to you the power of nations, and kings led along. For the nations and the kings who will not serve you shall perish, and the …”

For since, he says, you were found guilty of very many and unbearable offences, you have undergone a penalty of equal weight; for being such, you had to undergo the effects of wrath. But since again mercy had to be given you, as from a good and compassionate Lord and God, it has been given, and I will drive away the effects of wrath. What, then, will be yours, and what will be given when the gloomy things have ceased? “Your courts”, he says, “shall be opened continually, day and night, and shall not be shut.” In these words he seems to promise them peace and the calm that comes of it. For some cities keep their gates open, but as occasion and need require, and scarcely by day, and not without fears; but those wholly freed from expecting to suffer any such thing throw them wide to those who enter, even if some do so by night. If, then, God promises them peace and breadth of prosperity, or rather that the concourse of those coming to it will be unceasing and their entry as it were continual, as they are in a way drawn through faith to the knowledge of Christ, so that the gates seem to stand open and there is no time at which it is fitting to shut them, and not only for those in humble life and under the yoke of kings, but also for those who hold power over all … One can see through events the force of the prophecy prevailing to this day. For the church receives at every time those who wish to believe, and shuts out no one's zeal for this; and those who wish may, with no one preventing them, be led at whatever time they wish to the light of the true knowledge of God. And God the Father leads all to the knowledge of the Son, through whom and in whom and with whom he is glorified. And the Son himself has made this known to us, saying: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” And he says that the power of nations will be brought in, so that you may not think, as I said, only of those in lowliness and humble estate, but also of those in power and glory in this life. And he adds: “And the nations and the kings who will not serve you shall perish and be made desolate.” For the unbelieving and uninitiated, who have no share in the salvation through Christ, even if they should be some of those … will fall into the snare of death; for they will die in their own sins and undergo the last penalty of all.

“And the glory of Lebanon shall come to you, with cypress and pine and cedar together, to glorify my holy place.”

Lebanon is a mountain of Phoenicia, [rich] in cedars and in the [trees] of Lebanon … For this reason the mountain mentioned is admired, as having the most abundant timber and being rich in the tallest and most fragrant trees. This glory, then, will be given you, he says, plainly in a spiritual sense. For the church of Christ nurtures very many approved heads of saints, raised on high by their virtues, and also most fragrant, for they give off the fragrance of Christ; and they also have the quality of lying beyond the corruption that comes from a fleshly mind, just as pine and cedar do not decay. And it is the custom of divinely inspired Scripture sometimes to liken the multitude of the saints to such plants. So God said again somewhere through the voice of Isaiah: “And I will make water in the desert, and rivers in the waterless land. I will set cedar in the waterless land, and …” For he likens the gentiles to dry and waterless land; for there was not among them the divine word that can give life and bring growth in godliness and the knowledge of God. But there have come to be among them cedar and box and myrtle and cypress and white poplar, that is, tall and admirable plants, which the inspired Psalmist also mentions, saying: “Bread strengthens the heart of man; the trees of the plain shall be satisfied, and the cedars of Lebanon which you planted.” For as the all-wise Paul writes: “We are God's field.” This glory of Lebanon, then, he says, will be given you, that is, you will be seen planted with many admired heads of saints. And this will be so that my holy place may be glorified. For the boast of the churches are those who … of virtues … not having what is earthly and grovelling in their mind by minding the things of the flesh, but rather darting on high and minding the things above, and as it were departing from the earth: walking on it, but having their citizenship above and in heaven.

“And the sons of those who humbled you and provoked you shall come to you in fear, and you shall be called the city of the Lord, Zion of the Holy One [of Israel].”

The very outcome of events shows exactly the force of the prophecy, which does not depart from the truth. For having raged drunkenly against the Saviour of us all, Jesus Christ, Jerusalem was humbled, cast out of fellowship with God, slipping away from hope in him, left bereft of the sparing from above, and falling into the hands of enemies, who laid waste all Judea and burned even the divine and famous temple. But since the remnant has been saved, as God had compassion (for not a few of those of Israel believed in Christ), it has been named the church of Christ, and has become as it were the mother of the gentiles.

For the sons of those who once humbled it, that is, those who hold power over earthly affairs, and who come as it were from them in the successions of sceptres … one may name those who come after, who now hold the church venerable with honour and awe, and approach it in fear, that is, with reverence and with the divine fear in mind. “For it has been called the city of the Lord, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.” For the church is the city of God; and the inspired David teaches this, saying as to it: “Glorious things have been spoken of you, O city of God.” And the Lord of all himself says somewhere through the lyre of the Psalmist: “Here I will dwell, for I have chosen it; I will bless its door, I will satisfy its poor with bread, I will clothe its priests with salvation.” And if anyone should wish [to take] the sons of the kings who once persecuted the church [as those who] now come to it and honour it as a divine city, he would not be carried wide of the mark. For we see that the outcome of events has turned out so.

“Because you became forsaken and hated, and there was no one to help, I will make you an everlasting exultation, a joy for generations of generations. And you shall suck the milk of nations, and eat the wealth of kings. And you shall know that I am the Lord who saves you, and God who delivers you …”

“For you became”, he says, “forsaken and hated, and there was no one to help.” This was the occasion of your humbling: you raged drunkenly against him who was able to exalt you and to keep your prosperity unshaken, and there was no one to hold out a helping hand, since you were hated by God. For you raged drunkenly, not against one of those placed in the rank of household servants and having a servant's ministry, but against the King and Lord of all himself. But since you have once suffered humbling, the troubles will pass, and he will win you back by what comes after. For as when you disobeyed you had to be punished by God's just sentence, so when you have turned back it is fitting that you receive mercy. “I will make you, then”, he says, “a joy for generations of generations.” For there is nothing gloomy in the church of Christ; and where there is the hope of incorruption, of endless life, of boundless glory and of the kingdom of heaven, what dejection could there be? “And you shall suck the milk of nations, and eat the wealth of kings.” To some the sense of the prophecy seems to teach something like this: that many from the Greek herd, having made their mind wise in the divinely inspired Scriptures, … will become teachers of the synagogue of the Jews. But for the present the saying does not seem to me to go this way of thought; rather it perhaps wishes to indicate that it will be filled with the fruits offered by the gentiles and with royal gifts.

For the experience of events shows this too to be true. And when these things have been accomplished in this way, he says: “I am the Lord who saves you.” For as the prophet Isaiah says: “Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us seed, we would have become like Sodom, and been made like Gomorrah.” For by the grace and love for humankind of God the remnant of Israel has been saved, so that the nation sprung from holy fathers did not perish entirely.

“And instead of bronze I will bring you gold, and instead of iron I will bring you silver, and instead of wood I will bring you bronze, and instead of stones iron. And I will make your rulers in peace, and your bishops in righteousness.”

He takes these materials as examples, since they differ very greatly from one another, but obliquely he signifies something spiritual and deep. For he means that all things will be changed for the better, and the later will surpass the first. For the instruction in the law will wholly give way to that through Christ, that is, to the decrees of the gospel, and the difference will be as great as that between bronze and gold. For bronze looks like gold, but is not gold; and iron looks like silver, for it has some brightness, but it is not silver; rather it falls far short of what excels it. So one might liken the instruction in the law to bronze, and that through Christ to gold; and again one might liken the force of the way of life in the law to iron, whose brightness is limited, but that in Christ and in the gospel rather to silver; for it has the most perfect brightness, in a spiritual sense. That is why the all-wise Paul too, though he says he had very great ground for boasting through his life in the law and the knowledge it gives, counted all things refuse, and wanted to gain Christ and the surpassing worth of the knowledge of him. And wood and stones are useful for building; and we shall find the all-wise Paul likening the force of some people's teaching to these materials: “For if anyone”, he says, “builds on the foundation wood, hay, stones, stubble.” This being so, we say that the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees, or in short the guidance of the unbelieving Jews, who do not understand the mystery of Christ at all, since they did not even believe in him, might perhaps be likened to wood and stones; but that in Christ and in the gospel is as much better as bronze is than wood, and iron than stone. For their teachings and reasonings were easily broken, but those of the people in Christ are solid and as it were unbreakable, as well as bright and precious. For the Jews fall into genealogies and endless myths when they expound to the peoples under their hand, weaving in nonsense and old wives' chatter; but those who bear Christ in mind teach those under their hand every way of good skill, and make those who come to them lovers of doctrinal exactness and workers of every virtue. And what follows at once shows in a way that the sense of the prophecy has this aim. “For I will make”, he says, “your rulers in peace and your bishops in righteousness.” For as though the first had been expelled, he says, the Saviour of all raises up other rulers and bishops of the peoples, who excel in peace and righteousness. For those who … are at peace with God … you shall be called a city of righteousness, crowned with the boast of righteousness. The prophet Isaiah said something like this again elsewhere, or rather God through the prophet said it to the mother of the Jews, I mean Jerusalem: “And I will bring my hand upon you, and refine you by fire to purity, and destroy the disobedient, and take away all the lawless from you, and humble all the proud; and I will establish your judges as at the first and your counsellors as at the beginning; and after this … a faithful mother-city, Zion.” And indeed the Saviour himself rebuked the leaders of the Jews, saying: “Truly, truly, I say to you, the kingdom of heaven will be taken from you and given to another nation, producing its fruits.”

“And injustice shall not be heard in your land, nor destruction and misery within your borders; but your walls shall be called Salvation …”

And the saying is very reasonable. For if its rulers are in peace, and its bishops excel in the boasts of righteousness, then surely among those under their yoke too the eagerness to live in all righteousness and in godliness according to Christ will prevail. “And there is not”, he says, “even destruction within your borders.” By “destruction” he means overreaching, that is, against those in humble estate and weakness. For such people are easily run down and lie ready as prey for those who wish to plunder. And at times the leaders of the synagogue of the Jews became unjust and overreaching, and, setting themselves against the divine laws, made their judgements in each matter … The sacred writing accuses them in very many places of having gone to such a measure of unholiness that they are seen to be guilty of unbearable charges. At one time it says that its leaders judged for gifts, and its prophets divined for silver. And the inspired [Psalmist] sings: “Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes.” And the God of all rebuked them when they fasted, saying: “For in the days of your fasts you find your wishes, and you goad all those under your hand; you fast for lawsuits and fights, and strike the humble with fists”; and besides these, through the voice of Isaiah: “And they coveted fields and plundered orphans, and oppressed houses, and plundered a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.” But since their [rule] has ceased, and the choir of the holy apostles has been raised up in their place, and those after them who still strive to follow in their footsteps rightly divide the word of truth and have become the best tutors of those under their hand, for this reason he says, very fittingly, that injustice will no longer be heard in their land, nor destruction and misery, but rather that its walls will be called Salvation and its gates Carving. And by walls, I think, he means the holy tutors, [who guard] the church, so that it cannot be taken by enemies, whether visible or invisible. The same would also be gates, since they use the word that brings in, and through faith bring into the knowledge of truth those hitherto outside it. And “Carving”, because their word was exceedingly beautiful, and as it were turned on the lathe to the truth; for everything carved is comely. The Seventy gave this rendering, but the other translators have put “Jesus” instead of “Carving”. And this too is true. For he has been named, and is, “fair in beauty beyond the sons of men”, and we have gained him as walls and gates. For he secures us by unspeakable power and by the help of the holy angels: “For he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways”, and: “The angel of the Lord will encamp round about those who fear him, and will deliver them.” And through him we come to the knowledge of the Father, and for this he has become door and gate and way. So he said: “I am the door, and the way, and no one comes to the Father except through me.” And he is also the Carving, that is, the form and likeness of him who begot him, and the stamp of his substance, and image, and radiance of his glory.

“And the sun shall not be for you as light by day, nor shall the rising of the moon light your night; but the Lord shall be your everlasting light, and God your glory. For your sun shall not set, and the moon shall not fail. For the Lord shall be your everlasting light.”

Some wish, through the sense of the words before us, to lead us to think something like this: in the last times of the age, when those who lie in the earth have been raised, and the Saviour of us all, Christ, has come down from heaven with the holy angels in the glory of the Father, the brightness of the elements will cease to work, and we look for new heavens and a new earth, and his promises, according to what is written. And the Saviour himself said something like this: “In those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.” For the glory of the Saviour himself will be enough to give light to the saints. But so that the words before us may seem in some way to follow the sense of those above, while we approve this interpretation, we say that something else too is shown through the verses before us. The light of the sun, and that of the moon as well, is useful and necessary to the eyes of the body; but at night the sun's light is withdrawn, and by day the moon's, for they yield the shining to one another in turn. But the divine and spiritual light, which the Saviour of all, he says, puts into the hearts of believers through the Holy Spirit, … is unceasing and ever-shining, so that no one's mind needs sun or moon for its enlightenment or recovery of sight. For the mind is not lit by sensible light, but is content rather with the guiding light and brightness of the Holy Spirit, so as to be able to behold the glory of Christ and how great is his likeness to him who begot him, a likeness plainly in essence, and indeed to know without straying the road of the best life. So the Saviour has become everlasting light for us, and he makes this clear to us, saying: “I am the light of the world”, and again: “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

“And the days of your mourning shall be fulfilled, and your people shall all be righteous, and they shall inherit the land for ever, guarding the plant, the works of his hands for glory. The fewest shall become thousands, and the least a great nation. I the Lord will gather them in due time.”

Those who say that the time of the consummation is indicated by the light of the sun or moon no longer working, but rather being withdrawn so that our Lord may become everlasting light, say that for those who mourn now, whom the Saviour says will be comforted, there will be an end of mourning at that time; for they will cease from toiling and being worn down, and will obtain the everlasting rewards. For this, I think, … But [holding that the sense of the words] must follow those above, we say this: dejection is proper and most fitting to those who remain in their offences. For they expect not honours and crowns, not comfort from God, but rather punishment and fire and darkness; whereas those who are given to good works rejoice in hope, as the all-wise Paul says, for their goodness is followed by glory and delight for endless ages. But when even someone held fast by very many sins turns to the Lord, and is then justified through faith and receives the forgiveness of his charges, he will expect to receive the honours made ready for the saints as well. Then indeed the days of his mourning will cease, and he will be done with sweat and dejection. And what comes next as it were confirms this sense: “For all your people”, he says, “shall be righteous”, that is, all the people who follow you will be justified; and the saying is addressed as to the church. And Christ justifies the ungodly by grace and love for humankind, and releases from every charge those who have been caught. And who will supply such things he has made known, saying: “Guarding the plant, the works of his hands, for glory.” For we are a plant among the plants of the Saviour of us all, Christ, and his work. For, being wild olives, we were grafted into the good olive, Christ as it were working on us with his own hands; for not an elder, not an angel, but the Lord himself saved us. So he himself said: “I who speak am here.” “And the fewest”, he says, “shall become thousands, and the least a great nation.” For now, that is, in this age, the glory of the saints is hidden, and as far as worldly pretensions go they seem to be among the least, having no glory to show. But when Christ shines forth again from heaven, then he who was thought to be the least and fewest will become a great nation. For he will lead peoples and govern many, as one who has finished the approved course in this life. And one can see this from what Christ said; for, addressing the apostles, he says: “When the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory, then you too will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” And in the distribution of the talents too he is found saying: “Be over ten tribes”; and to others he gives the smaller portion: “Be”, he says, “over five cities”, surely holding out a reward equal in weight to their virtues, and weighing out the honour fitting to each. And rejoicing at this very thing the saints say: “He subjected peoples to us, and nations under our feet.” And those who were thought to be least in this life, and then have become thousands and a great nation, “I”, he says, “the Lord of all, will gather in due time”, plainly the time of his coming from heaven. For then the saints will enjoy every good; and they will be caught up, as the all-wise Paul says, in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord in endless honours.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me; he has sent me to preach good news to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim release to captives and [recovery of sight] to the blind, to call the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of recompense, to comfort all who mourn, that there be given to those who mourn in Zion glory instead of ashes, the oil of gladness to those who mourn, a garment of glory instead of a spirit of weariness.”

He who said above about those called in faith, “[I will gather] them”, as though the time had already come at which he promised to gather them, and as one already become man, having undergone likeness to us and lowered himself into emptying, says: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me”; although the Only-begotten, being God by nature, is Holy of holies and himself sanctifies the whole creation, since he is born of a holy Father, and puts the Spirit that is poured forth from him into the powers above as his own, and besides into those who have recognized his appearing. How, then, was he sanctified? Being at once God and man, the same one, he gives the Spirit to creation as God, and receives … This, we say, is the anointing. And he makes the cause of the incarnation plain. For having said that [he was anointed] by the Father, he necessarily added: “Because he anointed me, he has sent me to preach good news to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim release to those in captivity, and to grant recovery of sight to the blind, and besides this to call [the acceptable year of the Lord] and the day of recompense”: many glorious achievements of the incarnation of the Only-begotten together. For in order to win the earth under heaven, and to bring to God the Father those in all the inhabited world, changing all things for the better and as it were renewing the face of the earth, he took the form of a servant, though he is Lord of all. So he preached good news to the poor; he says he was sent for this. And the poor would be, or would be understood as, those who once were sick with the want of every good, having no hope and without God in the world, according to what is written. These would be those from the gentiles who have become rich in faith in him, having gained the divine and heavenly treasure, plainly the saving preaching of the gospel, through which they have become sharers in the kingdom of heaven, partners of the saints, and heirs of things beyond mind and word. “For eye has not seen”, he says, “nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him.” Or perhaps the saying here says that the abundant supply of the gifts through Christ has been given to the poor in spirit. And by the broken-hearted he means those who have a weak and easily shattered mind, and [are subdued] by the passions, … by them so that they seem to be captives. To these he promises healing and release, and to them, being blind, he also gives recovery of sight. For those who serve the creation, and say to the wood, “You are my father”, and to the stone, “You begot me”, and so have not recognized him who is God by nature and truly, how would they not be blind, with a heart bare of the divine and spiritual light? Into these the Father puts the light of the true knowledge of God. For they have been called through faith and have known him, or rather have been known by him; and though they were sons of night and darkness, the Sun of righteousness has risen [on them], and the bright Morning Star has dawned. And nothing prevents applying all that has been said to those of the blood [of Israel] too. For they were poor, and broken-hearted, and as it were captives, and darkened. “For there was no one on the earth who did good, not even one; but all turned aside, together they became worthless.” And Christ has come, preaching good news to those of Israel before the others of the achievements of his coming; and besides this, to call the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of recompense. And the acceptable year is that in which Christ was crucified for us. For then we became acceptable to God the Father, and were borne as fruit through him; and he himself taught us this, saying: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears

much fruit.” And again: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all to myself.” And so he came back to life on the third day, having trampled on the power of death. Then he addressed the holy disciples, saying: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me; go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” That year, then, was surely the acceptable one, in which we were received and obtained fellowship with him, having washed off sin through holy baptism, and having become partakers of his divine nature through participation in the Holy Spirit. Or the acceptable year is the one in which he manifested his glory through divine signs beyond reason; for we [received] gladly the time of the salvation that comes from him, which the all-wise Paul too made known, saying: “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” And the day of recompense, we say, is no less the very time of his coming, in which the recompense was given by him to those who believed in him, through the promise held in hope. I mean something like this. The way of life according to the law of Moses, when it was praised, brought prosperity here to those who wished to accomplish it blamelessly, but it had no promise of rewards for the future; perhaps it mentioned only prosperity in this life. For it commanded abstaining from offences, exclaiming, “that you may not die before your time”; and it exclaimed to children: “Honour your father and mother, that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth.” And at times it promised abundance of fruits, an end of war, breadth of peace and the good cheer that goes with it. So he said through the voice of Zechariah: “… of men and cattle in it; and I will be to it, says the Lord, a wall of fire round about, and I will be for glory in the midst of it.” And again: “… each holding his staff in his hand because of the multitude of days; and the squares of the city shall be filled with boys and girls playing in its squares.” So the law through Moses promised the ancients the enjoyment of temporary rewards, but the divine and saving preaching [promises] recompenses for the future. “For blessed”, it says, “are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”; and [whoever reads] the beatitudes that follow will find the [rewards] promised, bright and great, [given] by … the recompense made by Christ at the time of his coming, he would not be throwing wide of the mark. For long ago the utterly profane Satan boasted over those on earth. For he overreached the earth under heaven, driving it astray like cattle from the true knowledge, I mean that of him who is God by nature, and, casting it as it were into the pits of sin, made it a worshipper of himself and of the wicked powers with him. So he said: “I will seize the whole world in my hand like a nest, and like abandoned eggs I will take it up, and there is no one who will escape me or speak against me.” But he was caught with his hopes on this very point empty. For Christ rose up against him and spoke against him on our behalf, and exacted from him the penalty for his impiety against us. For he pulled down all his strength; he has been cast out of his tyranny over us; “and committing them to Tartarus with chains of gloom”, according to what is written, “he handed them over to be kept for punishment at the judgement of the great day”, both him and the others who became fellow-apostates with him.

So the inspired David sings, as in the person of the redeemed, and says: “I will confess to you, Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell all your wonders. I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing to your name, Most High … because you have maintained my judgement and my cause; you sat on the throne, judging righteousness; you rebuked the nations, and the ungodly perished; you blotted out his name for ever, and for ever and ever.” And indeed elsewhere he says of him again: “His sin will be sought, and will not be found because of it.” And the Saviour himself said: “Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.” So the time of recompense is in this way too the time in which Christ shone on the world. And he says he has come to comfort all who mourn in Zion, to give them glory instead of ashes, and the oil of gladness, and a garment of glory instead of a spirit of weariness. For at various times there were among the Jews holy men, learned in the law, searchers and experts in the prophetic preachings. These, seeing that those of the blood of Israel cared little for the commandment given through Moses, and turned rather to what seemed good to themselves, and taught as doctrines [the commandments of men, and did not] live the life befitting saints, felt grief over them. And they awaited the redemption through Christ; for, being Spirit-bearers, they were not ignorant of him who cleanses the defiled. So the righteous Simeon, taking Christ as a baby in his arms, prayed, saying: “Now you let your servant depart, Master, according to your word, in peace; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light for revelation to the gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.” And we shall find the inspired Zechariah, the father of John, saying: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and wrought redemption for his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us.” And Philip too brought the good news to Nathanael, saying thus: “We have found him of whom Moses wrote in the law, and the prophets: Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” And the all-wise Paul writes somewhere: “I have grief and unceasing pain in my heart for my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” So “comfort has been given to those who mourn in Zion”, the comfort through Christ, “and glory instead of ashes”. For they ceased to mourn and weep for her, and received the grace through Christ, preaching the gospel and proclaiming it. “And there was given to them the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and the garment of glory instead of a spirit of weariness.” And by “oil” he means here cheerfulness, or gaiety and gladness, instead of mourning and weeping; and by the “garment of glory”, a covering, that is, a robe and clothing, instead of the spirit of weariness, that is, instead of their former faintheartedness. For those who once lamented her and were weary on her account were glorified. And how were they glorified? They were appointed her leaders and teachers. And this, then, was what was said to her through the lyre of the Psalmist: “Instead of your fathers, sons have been born to you.” For the all-wise disciples, being children of the synagogue of the Jews, became fathers. So the all-wise Paul writes to some: “For in Christ Jesus through the gospel I begot you.” Those who became her sons, then, have been set in the rank of fathers; and that the inspired disciples had the clothing of glory from God would be clear when Christ says to them at one time: “Heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead”, and at another: “You are the light of the world.”

“And they shall be called generations of righteousness, the plant of the Lord for glory. And they shall build eternal desert cities; they shall raise up those desolated before, and renew desert cities …”

For those in Christ are named “a chosen race, a holy nation, a people for his possession”, because of the beauty of the righteousness in them; and I do not mean the righteousness according to the law, but rather that which through the … of Christ … the [righteousness] through Christ [surpasses] that in the law. So he said to the

holy apostles: “Truly I say to you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” “They shall be called, then”, he says, “generations of righteousness, and also the plant of the Lord.” For we are truly God's field, and the inspired David says of us: “Planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of our God.” So the all-wise Paul calls God's field those called through faith in Christ. And he said again: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” For the Saviour cultivates us through the holy initiators into the mysteries; that is why they say, very fittingly, that they have become God's fellow-workers. And the all-wise David sings: “The righteous shall flourish like a palm; like the cedar in Lebanon he shall be multiplied.” We are, then, the plant of the Lord, and for his glory. “And they shall build”, he says, “eternal desert cities, and renew desert cities.” He seems to want to show by this either that the multitude of those who will be called will be so great as to seek other cities besides those that exist, and to renew those once laid waste; or perhaps this: “Being cramped”, he says, “in the churches by the multitude”, though once they were bare and deserted, “they will do something like what those usually do who wish to build desolated cities and are eager to raise them up as they lie on the ground.” So it is said to the church: “Enlarge the place of your tent, and of your curtains; fix them, do not spare; … to the right and to the …” … the very outcome of events would show the prediction very easily.

“And foreigners shall come, feeding your sheep … vinedressers; but you shall be called priests of the Lord, … in their wealth you shall be admired. [Instead of your double shame, and instead of disgrace, their portion shall exult, and thus] they shall inherit the land a second time. And everlasting gladness shall be upon their head.”

Here he says clearly that there will be a change of the law and of the priesthood that goes with it. For it will no longer befit those of the blood of Levi to perform sacred service, nor will the name and office of the ministry; they were expelled, and the glory of it has been given to those called from the gentiles through faith. For they are crowned by God's vote, and they too have been appointed ministers and priests. “For foreigners shall come”, he says, “feeding your sheep.” The saying is addressed to the church, whose sheep would be understood as the holy multitude of those saved through faith; this is shepherded by foreigners. For the scribes and Pharisees of old, who obtained the leadership of those of the blood of Israel, became slothful, careless and most unskilful shepherds. So the multitude placed under them perished, since they [taught] … of men, and led those under their yoke away from knowing Christ, saying at one time: “We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he is from”, and at another: “He has a demon and is mad; why do you listen to him?” So the God of all testified through the voice of the prophets, saying thus: “The shepherds have acted foolishly and have not sought out the Lord; therefore the whole pasture did not understand, and they were scattered”; and indeed through the voice of Ezekiel: “O shepherds of Israel, do the shepherds feed themselves? Do not the shepherds feed the sheep? Behold, you devour the milk, and you do not feed my sheep”; and besides this: “… your good pasture, and you drank the settled water, and the rest you troubled with your feet, and my sheep fed on what your feet had trampled, and drank the water troubled by your feet.” For by “settled water” he names the instruction through the law, and the best pasture; but they, confusing everything and muddying it by not teaching the peoples under their hand rightly, provided as it were water

not pure to drink, nor a flowering pasture to feed on. So, very fittingly, they were expelled from shepherding the people of the Lord any longer; for foreigners have been called to this. For teachers of the churches are appointed by Christ, wise and sharp-witted, with minds full of doctrinal skill, men from the Greek herd and not of the blood of Israel; these have become ploughmen and vinedressers. For since believers are called in very many places of divinely inspired Scripture a chosen land, and a vineyard, and a garden, for this reason the saying says that those who will become in due time priests of the Lord and ministers of God will be as ploughmen and vinedressers, rightly dividing the word of truth and performing the sacred service of the gospel of Christ, as it is written. So they do not seize the honour for themselves, but are rather called by God, as the all-wise Paul too says. For though he was of the tribe of Benjamin, he everywhere calls himself a minister of sacred things and a called apostle of Jesus Christ. “You, then, all who have obtained the dignity of sacred ministry, shall eat the strength of nations, and in their wealth you shall be admired.” And by the strength of nations he means either the honours from the most powerful, who would be those called from the gentiles; or you will understand it another way. “For none of you”, he says, “will escape the mouth”, that is, the word; for the sacred writing everywhere puts “mouth” for “word”, as in “whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”. “So you shall eat up”, he says, “the strength of the nations.” And by the power of nations the saying seems here to name those among them who are illustrious, that is, most eloquent and having worldly wisdom. And we shall find the word of the holy initiators prevailing over them too; and having gained their calling, they were glorified. For the boast of teachers, their crown and glory, are those saved through their enlightenment. That is why he says: “In their wealth you shall be admired.” And that the inspired preaching will lay hold of the countries and of every nation, and that the leaders of the holy churches will in due time all but become heirs of the earth under heaven, ascribing the glory to Christ, he indicates by saying: “Thus they shall inherit the land a second time.” For long ago Joshua the son of Nun allotted to those of Israel the lands of the gentiles; for they took the land of the Amorites, Idumaeans, Hivites and … of whom the Joshua of old was a type, allotted to his own sacred ministers not only Judea but the whole earth. And this has been a second allotment after the first. For the initiators and teachers divided the countries and cities among them by his vote, and to this day they rejoice in Christ, having spiritual gladness like a crown on their head. And the gladness is everlasting; for we do not expect our reward to lie in temporary things, but in a long hope and endless

life, and in good things beyond mind and word.

“For I am the Lord who loves righteousness and hates robberies from injustice; and I will give their labour to the righteous, and will make an everlasting covenant with them. And their seed shall be known among the nations, and their offspring in the midst of the peoples. Everyone who sees them will recognize them, that they are a seed blessed by God; with gladness they shall rejoice in the Lord.”

Having said, “Foreigners shall come feeding [your sheep, and … ploughmen and vinedressers]”, implying plainly that the first had been expelled and driven out of the leadership of the peoples, he shows the causes for which they suffered this by the holy sentence of him who judges justly. For since I love righteousness, he says, and hate robberies from injustice, and the presidents of the synagogue of the Jews became such, I set them aside, he says, and expelled them. For I give to others the labour of those who seize robberies from injustice. For those who grow rich unjustly, and, as the prophet says, treasure up for themselves, hand it on [to others]. So Solomon said: “Wealth gathered unjustly will be vomited up; an angel will drag him out of his house.” And again: “He who gathers his wealth with interest and increase will leave it to him who pities the poor”, and surely not to good and compassionate men, but rather to the profligate; for he spoke of such people euphemistically as those who “pity the poor”. For very many cling to those who live in profligacy, and spend with them what was heaped up unjustly with much sweat. And the inspired David sings of such people and says: “Surely in vain he is troubled; he treasures up, and does not know for whom he will gather it.” And in another way the labour, that is, the care of the scribes and Pharisees, was given to others, as is plain: “The kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation producing its fruits.” So those were expelled, he says, but for us who have been called from the gentiles to sacred ministry I will make an everlasting covenant; signifying by this either the preaching of the gospel or the endless hope. “And among the nations”, he says, “their seed will be known, and their offspring; everyone who sees them will recognize them, that they are a seed blessed by God.” For the sons by discipleship of the holy initiators are most well known to all, … that they have become offspring of saints by discipleship, as I said, “and that they are a seed blessed by God”; such as the communities of holy monks, of whom Paul says: “And those who are Christ Jesus' have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires”; the companies of those in virginity, who live the gentle and laborious life, and choirs full of God's blessing. These are a seed blessed by God; these rejoice and are glad in the Lord. For they take no pleasure in worldly things, but rather fill their hearts with love for Christ; and this is a saving thing, and produces every delight.

“Let my soul exult in the Lord; for he has clothed me with a garment of salvation and a tunic of gladness; he has put a turban on me as on a bridegroom, and adorned me with ornament as a bride; and as the earth that makes its flower grow, and as a garden its seeds, so the Lord will make righteousness and exultation spring up before all the nations.”

Having stretched out a bountiful hand over them and said that he will crown them with very many gifts worth gaining (“for everyone who sees them”, he says, “will recognize that they are a seed blessed by God”), and then having added, “and they shall rejoice in the Lord”, he gives them gladness at once. For this reason, very fittingly, [he brings in] the person of the church [saying]: “Let my soul exult in the Lord; for he has clothed me with a garment of salvation and a tunic of gladness.” By the tunic of gladness he means our Lord Jesus Christ. So the all-wise Paul writes to those who believed in him: “Put on our Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” And those who have him as a robe gain, besides salvation, prosperity and a long life of gladness. So the Saviour himself said: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” For he does not only save, as I said, but also gladdens with endless joy; and this is the abundance that will be added, the life for the saints. Christ, then, is the robe from heaven and from above, the tunic of incorruption; whoever receives it will be crowned with every adornment, plainly spiritual adornment, and with the boasts that come from doing good. For he will be like a bridegroom who has bound on a turban, and like a bride excelling in every adornment. For there are, there are those in Christ who are formidable and most valiant in spiritual manliness, and very rich besides in comeliness of every form of virtue. And they are like brides too, because they are fruitful and have a varied beauty, as in the brightness of the virtues. So one of the holy prophets said, showing those who lead the pure life to be fruitful: “Because of your fear, Lord, we conceived in the womb and were in labour and brought forth a spirit of salvation, which we wrought upon the earth.” So the saints are to be likened to bridegroom and bride because of their strength and, besides that, their fruitfulness; but see this: in every way it belongs to them to excel as in beauty. And this is kept in them both in bearing the choice fruits of noble deeds and in manfully mastering the passions. And that when Christ shone on the nations righteousness and exultation crowned the earth under heaven like some flowering grass, he showed by saying: “As the earth that makes its flower grow, and as a garden its seeds, so the Lord will make righteousness and exultation spring up before all the nations.” By this he seems to name our Lord Jesus Christ himself as what has sprung up or risen, the seed and the flower before the nations; for he said in the Song of Songs: “I am the flower of the plain, the lily of the valleys”; or [he means] the gospel and saving preaching, and its justification, which surpasses that according to the law, and which rejoicing, that is, exultation, follows wholly and surely. For those who have wholly accomplished it will be allotted by God a long life of delights.

For they will hear Christ, the Saviour of us all, saying: “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will set you over many. Enter into the joy of your Lord.” And the exultation could also be understood in another way, as the saving proclamation. [For the law …] having …: for anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses; but the gospel brings us life and the promise of rewards, and a true hope of the good things that are beyond the mind.

“For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until my righteousness goes forth as light, and my salvation burns like a torch. And the nations shall see your righteousness, and kings your glory; and he shall call you by your new name, which the Lord will name. And you shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a diadem of kingship in the hand of your God.”

In these words he calls the church Zion; … the divine disciples, and those who were called through them to the knowledge of Christ, and before the others those of the blood of Israel. For the remnant has been saved, and very many of them have believed. So “I will not rest”, he says, that is, I will not cease from the duty of bringing to completion what I have promised to Zion. And the God and Father promised salvation through Christ to Jews and Greeks, since “God is one”, as the all-wise Paul says, “who will justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith. For he is not the God of the Jews only, but of the gentiles too.” So “I will not rest”, he says, “until my righteousness goes forth as light, and my salvation burns like a torch.” Christ appeared to those on earth and became righteousness and salvation; for he justifies and saves, being himself the true light, and like a torch in darkness. So he himself said: “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” For all things had been seized by mist and darkness, since the devil blackened the hearts of all; and there was no one who did good and knew righteousness, that is, the road that leads to being saved. Nor was there anyone who had the divine light in his mind and could behold with the eyes of the understanding who is God by nature and in truth, the maker and Lord of all. But when the Saviour rose like light and shone out like a torch, the world under heaven was at last enlightened; and he says to the church, the one from the flock of the Jews, while the multitude of the nations had not yet been gathered in the net: “The nations shall see your righteousness, and kings your glory.” Here again he says that the righteousness, and the glory too, are nothing other than our Lord Jesus Christ.

For we have been justified in him, and have been enriched with the glory that comes from him. For we have become his, and are called his lot. We have been placed under his yokes and sceptres, having washed off the greed of the one who tyrannized over us. And that, departing from the worship according to the law and, as it were, changing to the newness of the gospel life, she will put off her old name too, and will thenceforth be renamed with a new name, as seems good to the God who is over all, he shows by saying: “He shall call you by your new name, which the Lord will name.” For she is no longer called synagogue, but rather the church of the living God, his city and house. The divine David too remembers her, speaking thus: “Glorious things have been spoken of you, city of God.” That she will be very comely and crowned with incomparable beauty he teaches by saying: “You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a diadem of kingship in the hand of your God.” For each holy soul, and all together the church, that is, the assemblies of the saints, must be likened to a crown woven of many flowers, or to a royal diadem [set with] Indian stones …; for very many are the noble deeds of the saints, and the kind of their boasts is not one but many and various. And so the divine David presents the church of Christ clothed in raiment of gold and adorned with many colours. And “in the hand of the Lord”, he says, that is: I will cover you under the shelter of my hand. And Christ himself somewhere says of his own nurslings, that is, of the flock of those who have believed in him: “No one will snatch them out of my Father's hand.”

“And you shall no longer be called forsaken, and your land shall not be called desolate; for you shall be called My Will, and your land Inhabited.”

… [the wrath] which he has often shown against the synagogue of the Jews will at last cease and come to an end; he will make her desired, and besides this fruitful too, and will show her crowned with the multitude of believers. For Zion, having rejected our Lord Jesus Christ, was given over to desolation, and the multitude of those who disbelieved perished. But since the remnant accepted the faith, and then the multitude of the nations was called to it, and the two were created into one people, and one church was thenceforth formed from both, God grants her never in any way to be caught by the old evils: she will not be called forsaken or desolate, but rather will become desired by him, and will be called no longer desolate but rather inhabited. And we see this brought to fulfilment in the events themselves. For we see the churches that lie everywhere in fair weather and calm, the believers always spreading into a multitude beyond measure, and God well pleased with them. Persecutions have indeed been stirred up from time to time, but not for long; they were cut short, and trained the saints rather than wronged them; for these became approved through endurance and patience, having won the crown of true loyalty to Christ and been enriched with the glory of martyrdom.

“And as a young man lives with a virgin, so your sons shall dwell with you; and as a bridegroom will rejoice over a bride, so the Lord will rejoice over you.”

Then he addresses the church as having been formed in the beginning from the Jewish ranks. Its sons according to the flesh were the divine disciples; they were in it as excelling the others and leading them, holding apostolic dignity, yet keeping toward it the utmost love and affection, so that the tender love they showed it seemed such as is shown to one joined to a man from her virginity; and they say that those who are all but bound fast by such a bond come to the height of all tender love. So the all-wise Paul says: “I have sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart for my brothers …” And he prayed even to become accursed for them. But a great renewal of things is signified by the prophecy before us, and a change worth wondering at; for the old synagogue is likened, in its age too, to a young woman: “For your sons”, he says, “shall dwell as with a virgin.” And this, I think, is what is sung in the Psalms: “Your youth will be renewed like the eagle's.” They have dwelt in her, leading her by the hand as a nurse, exhorting her as a mother, [drawing her away from] the shadows and types …, that she must choose the truth instead of the useless shadow. The divine David too said something like this to her: “In place of your fathers sons have been born to you.” For those who were her sons according to the flesh became her fathers, being the first of her new children, plainly of those called through faith to the knowledge of Christ, the Saviour of us all. This being so, he says: “So the Lord will rejoice over you, just as a bridegroom over a bride.” For the only-begotten Word of God came down from heaven to make fruitful the church, which he presented to himself as a pure virgin, having no spot or wrinkle, but rather holy and blameless. So, having received from him the seeds of the gospel way of life, she has conceived and given birth, no longer to the worship through blood and smoke, but rather to that in which above all the beauty of the truth is carved. For this reason, very fittingly, he rejoices, seeing the types of the law transferred into the truth of the gospel, and the bride shining with spiritual sacrifices and with good deeds truly worthy of saints.

“And upon your walls, Jerusalem, I have set watchmen all day and all night, who will never keep silent, remembering the Lord. For there is none like you.”

He speaks as to a splendid and well-peopled city. And the more distinguished cities are always guarded by a great many sober watchmen, lest any of the enemy should attack unexpectedly. So too the Saviour and Lord of all, having fortified the church with ineffable power and with the help of the angels, has appointed for her wise and wakeful watchmen, whose care for her never sleeps, plainly the holy initiators, who in no way cease to call to mind his glory and his wonders, as it is written. For we are accustomed in the church … the mighty works of the Saviour and the display of his divine pre-eminence, so that from this they may have a secure and unshakeable faith about him. Or perhaps he says that the watchmen will remember the Lord by crying out and saying: “There is none like you.” For he is not like us; but as far as he rises above human things in the pre-eminence of his renown and in the glory of the Godhead, so far does he surpass them in being kind and loving toward humankind. For as the psalmist says: “He has not dealt with us according to our iniquities, nor repaid us according to our sins.” For he saved us though we were sinners, and in his love for humankind brought to himself those who were not worthy to be saved. He said something like this through another prophet too: “What shall I do with you, Ephraim? What shall I do with you, Judah? I will make you like adamant, and like Zeboiim; my heart is turned within me; I will not act according to the wrath of my anger; I will not abandon Ephraim to be blotted out; for I am God, and not man, the Holy One among you.” For since I am not a man, he says, but rather God, holy among you, for this reason I will not abandon Ephraim to be blotted out.

“… a boast on the earth. The Lord has sworn by his glory and by the strength of his arm: I will no longer give your grain and your food to your enemies, and foreigners shall no longer drink your wine, for which you laboured; but those who gather them shall eat them and praise the Lord, and those who gather shall drink it in my holy courts.”

As from the likeness of the events, that is, of the calamities that very often came upon those of Israel … For they sinned in many ways, forsaking the God who is God by nature and in truth, and devoting themselves to the worship of idols; for they worshipped the works of … the law … of life, and were carried off to what seemed good to them. For this reason they were struck by God, sometimes with failures of crops, with diseases of the body, with invasions of wars, whose armies laid waste their whole country and plundered even what was in the fields. For it was said to them: “You shall sow, but not reap; you shall press olives, but not anoint yourself with oil; and you shall not drink wine.” So “if you set it right, O Jerusalem”, he says, that is, if you change to the spiritual worship, if you run away from the types and recognize that Moses wrote about me, if you accept the grace that comes through faith, “and make for yourself a boast on the earth”, that is, a splendid boast, plainly the one that is in Christ, “the Lord has sworn by his glory” (for he has no one greater by whom to swear) “and by … his arm”, that none of the things brought on you of old for your great disobedience will happen to you any more. For you will not have the sweat of your farming without reward (you will understand this spiritually), but, as the divine David says: “You shall eat the fruits of your labours.” And as Paul says: “Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap; and the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.” And that she will heap up for herself richly the fruits of

spiritual fruitfulness, he indicates by the words before us: “And those who obtain these”, he says, “will glorify the Lord, and those who gather shall drink them in the holy courts.” For those who have gathered in the boasts of the exceptional life will delight in the mansions above, and … of the right and …

“Go through my gates, and make a way for my people, and the stones that are out of the … For behold, the Lord has made it heard to the end of the earth.”

He now calls out to the watchmen themselves, that is, the teachers; for he has commanded that the entrances of the holy city be opened, and that the approach be made clear and easy to travel; for by the stones he indicates the stumbling blocks. For if someone happens to have been called from the flock of the Jews, he often stumbles over the commandments of the law; for he lingers fondly over the types and, as it were, settling down among the shadows, makes the truth unacceptable. And if someone is from the multitude of the Greeks, he too stumbles at the strangeness of the teaching, and the customary worship troubles him greatly, or perhaps he remembers the words that their learned men compose about their own gods. For they have written old and worn-out myths, deceiving and being deceived, and filling the earth with the devil's mist. But the sober watchmen and initiators … the stumbling blocks …, what seems to oppose the tradition of the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And they do this rightly, “destroying arguments and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and taking every thought captive to obedience” to him. And we will find the most holy Paul rebuking those from the gentiles who suffered something of this kind. For to those of the blood of Israel he said: “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God.” And again: “For I tell you that if you are circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. You are severed from Christ, you who are justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” And to those from the multitude of the Greeks: “You observe days and months and seasons and years; I fear for you, that I may have laboured over you in vain.” You see them everywhere throwing away the stones and removing the stumbling blocks of both. And we say that the stones are also, in another way, the things at which some may stumble at times: the profane and loathsome twitterings of the unholy heretics. They talk emptiness, and carry off some of the easily led from the doctrines of the truth; but the watchmen throw these too out from within the walls of the church. And we say that her walls are the firmness of the doctrines of the truth, against which the gates of Hades will not prevail. “For lift up a signal”, he says, “to the nations. For behold, the Lord has made it heard to the end of the earth.” And what is this signal that is heard, which he said must be raised to the nations and to the end of the earth? That is, the word of faith which we proclaim must be lifted up and become very well known; or perhaps it is the symbol of the saving passion. And this too is the confession of faith: for one must say that Jesus is Lord, and believe that God raised him from the dead. And this saves both from death and from sin. So it is not of the Jews only, but of the gentiles too. For the signal is raised not only for those who have believed from the blood of Israel, but for those in every part of the earth; for the world under heaven has been gathered in the net by the proclamations of the gospel.

“Say to the daughter of Zion: Behold, your Saviour has come, having his own reward, and his work before his face. And he shall call them a holy people, redeemed by the Lord; and you …”

He foretells the coming of the Saviour, and all that we have gained through it, and the wealth that will be given to those who believe in him. He names Zion a daughter. If one wishes, let him understand the old Zion, as having now received mercy and been justified in faith. But if the new, that is, the church, it too might not unreasonably be called the daughter of Zion. For those of the blood of Israel believed first, and the church from the gentiles is named as a kind of daughter of the church that was formed from them in the beginning. And whom does he command to bring the good news to Zion? Surely the holy initiators who have been allotted the leadership of churches, whom he also very rightly commanded to open the gates and to throw the stones out of the way. And what is the thing proclaimed? “Behold, your Saviour has come, having his own reward, and his work before his face.” He sets down together two things that are exceptional and befit God, through which the glory of the Saviour might become plain. For the divine prophets exhorted her to piety, and to a lawful and seemly way of life; then they called to mind the rewards which those who distinguish themselves in word will receive from God in due time; but they themselves were not givers of spiritual gifts. They proclaimed beforehand, as I said, promises … of God. But the Saviour of all, since he is God, has the power to give rewards, and besides this to look upon the way of life, that is, the work, of each person; for this too befits God. For it is written: “The ways of a man are before the eyes of God, and he watches all his paths.” So “he will come”, he says, “having his own reward”, that is, himself giving the rewards to those to whom it is fitting to receive them. And so to the divine Peter, who had confessed the faith rightly, he says: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” And to all the holy apostles together he granted authority over unclean spirits, and the power to heal every disease and every infirmity among the people. Yes, and to the thief hanged with him he showed that faith is not without reward, saying: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” So, having come, he says, he “will call” those who believe in him “a holy people, and redeemed by the Lord”. For no envoy, no angel, but the Lord himself saved us, as it is written. “And you, Zion”, that is, church, “shall be called sought after”; for what is sought is remembered; “and not forsaken”, as the first was, that is, the multitude of those who disbelieved. For Christ said through the voice of Jeremiah: “I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my inheritance”, and through the voice of Christ himself, the Saviour of us all: “Behold, your house is left to you.”

“Who is this who comes from Edom, with crimson garments from Bosor? This one so beautiful in his robe, with force and strength? I speak righteousness and the judgment of salvation. Why are your garments red, and your clothes as from a trodden winepress, full of what is trampled? And of the nations there is no man with me. And I trampled them in wrath, and crushed them like earth, and brought down their blood to the earth, and stained all my clothes. For a day of recompense has come upon them, and a year of redemption is at hand. And I looked, and there was no helper; and I considered, and no one supported; and my arm delivered them, and my wrath stood by.”

“And I trampled them in my anger, and made them drunk in my wrath, and brought down their blood to the earth.”

Wisely and skilfully the word of the prophecy … of Christ, the Saviour of us all. For having brought to completion the power of his dispensation in the flesh, he went up to the Father and God in heaven. And he was seen by the powers above not only in our form, that is, as man, but also showing the marks of the passion. And we certainly do not say that after the return to life from the dead the piercings of the nails and the other marks were still in the holy flesh, but rather this: just as, when Thomas disbelieved the holy apostles, who said they had seen the Lord raised from the dead, he showed him the prints of the nails and his side, so we understand that, in order that the manifold wisdom of God, which he made in Christ, might now be made known through the church to the principalities and authorities in the heavenly places, he went up with the marks of the passion, and made a sight entirely strange and unaccustomed to the powers above. So they were astonished when they saw him going up, and said: “Who is this who comes from Edom?” In the Greek tongue Edom is interpreted “fiery” or “earthy”, and Bosor “of flesh” or “fleshly”. Who then, they say, is this one from the earth, that is, earthy, “with crimson garments from Bosor”, that is, with his robe reddened as from flesh, that is, from blood? “This one beautiful in his robe.” For as … flesh, yes, and full of invincible strength; for this, I think, hinted at the divine [nature]. Then, when the angels, or perhaps when they had said “Who is this?” to one another, he answers and says: “I speak righteousness and the judgment of salvation.” By righteousness he means either the gospel, the divine proclamation, or that every word of God is righteous; and by the judgment of salvation he perhaps names the judgment made on our behalf; for he has given judgment for the world under heaven, and … Satan, who had wronged it, … the apostate … of his rule over them. So he said: “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out; and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all to myself.” When Christ had said this, they ask again and say: “Why are your garments red, and your clothes as from a …” … remember the patriarch Jacob saying: “He will wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape.” For his clothes appeared reddened with blood, and as if drenched in wine to redness. Then again at once the Saviour holds to his word, “And of the nations there is no man with me”, and adds this after it: “For I”, he said, “speak righteousness and the judgment of salvation, and of the nations there is no man with me.” For no one stood by me in my suffering, he says; from no nation was there anyone who grieved with me; and … the cohort of soldiers and the savagery of the attendants, “who led him away to Caiaphas”, as the evangelist says; “then all the disciples deserted him and fled.” But Christ had foretold this too; for he said: “Behold, the hour is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered each to his own, and will leave me alone; and I am not alone, because the Father is with me.” And he said through the lyre of the psalmist too: “My soul expected reproach and misery, and I waited for one to grieve with me, and there was none, and for comforters, and I found none; and they gave gall for my food, and for …” … with me, he says, from all the nations. Were you then, since you were alone and had no one to share the contest,

overcome by the hand of those who fought against you? Have they prevailed, and, having boasted over your strength, do they now rejoice as victors? Not at all, he says. For although I had no one standing by me, I trampled them in wrath, and crushed them like earth, and brought down their blood to the earth. For after Christ's going up into heaven every kind of unbearable calamity was brought upon the peoples of the Jews by the divine wrath; “for a day of recompense”, he says, “has come upon them”. For they could have seized the faith and been enriched with the grace that comes through it; then, having become careless, or rather arrogant and insolent and fighters against God to the end, how could they not very rightly have come to be within every evil? Yet the time of that recompense was a time of redemption for those who had recognized his appearing. For at the same time the unruly was punished, and the obedient and humble was redeemed by Christ. “For I looked”, he says, “and there was no helper; I considered, and no one supported; and my arm delivered them, and my wrath stood by.” “And I trampled them in my anger.” In these words he seems to accuse the carelessness of the scribes and Pharisees, who had been appointed to lead the peoples, to direct them to righteousness, and to train them well in what pleases God. But they were so careless and slack as to help none of those under the yoke, and not to set them right by admonitions, … For they dared to say about Christ, the Saviour of us all: “We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” And again: “He has a demon and is mad; why do you listen to him?” So since there was no one, he says, to help or support, my arm, that is, my power, saved them; for very many of the Jews, as I said, have believed. But on those who were unwilling to help, my wrath stood by, and they became a thing trampled …

“… in all that the Lord repays us. The Lord is a good judge to the house of Israel; he brings upon us according to his mercy and according to the abundance of his righteousness.”

When God had said that wrath stood by the disobedient, that anger trampled them, and that their blood was brought down to the earth, the prophet stepped in between, and does not let those against whom the words were spoken despair, but takes the matter up, and very skilfully. For I remembered within myself, he says, that the judge of all is not harsh. For I know his mercy and his excellences, that is, his mighty acts, in all that he repays us. For even if he has turned away from Israel, which had behaved like a drunkard and chosen to disobey, and as it were repays us the things of wrath, yet not of unmixed wrath but of wrath tempered with gentleness, still I know well his excellences, that is, the mighty acts done from time to time for the redemption of Israel. “So the Lord will be”, he says, “a good judge to the house of Israel”, not strict but kind, that is, good. For it would be the work of a strict judge to demand from sinners penalties proportionate to their offences; but of a good one, to pity them as weak.

So since he is a good judge, he brings upon us according to his mercy, that is, he will measure out the things of wrath, and mix his indignation with mercy. For an abundance of righteousness is in him, that is, he has reached the limit of all righteousness. For this reason, very fittingly, he will not leave Israel entirely unpunished, but rather, as I said, will temper the things of wrath with gentleness. For the remnant has been saved.

“And the Lord said: Are they not my people? My children will surely not deal faithlessly. And he became to them salvation out of all their affliction; no envoy, no angel, but the Lord himself saved them, because he loved them and spared them; he himself redeemed them, and took them up, and lifted them up all the days of old. But they disobeyed, and provoked his Holy Spirit; and he turned to them in …”

See again, I pray, the person of God brought in at once, all but crying out against the disobedience of Israel. For the Lord said, he says, that is, the God of all himself: Did I not count the people in the rank of children? And since this is true (for he said, “Israel is my firstborn son”), no one would have doubted that it would not be hard and disobedient, but would rather receive the Son when he was sent. But this did not come to pass, and yet he who knows all things was not disappointed in his hope; for he knew what would be, and nothing at all escapes him. The form of the speech is shaped in human fashion. While God says this, the prophet takes it up and charges Israel with both insensibility and ingratitude, and shows them to have received good things. “For he became to them”, he says, “salvation out of all their affliction”; and no one else besides him saved them, no envoy, no angel, but the Lord himself, by himself. For he worked wonders in Egypt, with Moses as mediator, yet he himself worked the marvels. And so, when Israel had made the calf and God was grieved at this, and promised to send an angel with them, Moses was distressed and said: “If you yourself do not go with me, do not bring me up from here.” So he himself saved them by himself, having received nothing at all from them, but only because he loved them and cared for them. And this is a clear proof of his incomparable love for humankind and of a calm befitting God. So he redeemed them from the house of slavery, took them up, lifted them up; and this, I think, is what he said at the beginning: “I have begotten sons and lifted them up”, that is, I have reared them, or made them distinguished, “but they have rejected me.” And “all the days of old” would signify “unceasingly and continually”. But though the God of all was so good to them, they became disobedient and did not stop provoking his Holy Spirit. And the [psalmist] will teach this, saying: “… in the wilderness, they provoked him to anger in a waterless land.” Or perhaps they provoked the Spirit of Christ; for they were hard, and did not obey him when he called them to salvation. “He turned”, then, “to them in enmity, and fought against them”; for it was necessary, it was necessary, that those who forgot the wonders, and were in no way profited by the things through which they might well have advanced to every kind of noble deed, should slip away from the sparing and love of the …

“… he remembered the days of old. Where is he who brought up from the earth the shepherd of the sheep? Where is he who put the Holy Spirit in them? Who led Moses by the right hand? The arm of his glory prevailed over the water before his face …”

“… to make for himself an everlasting name. He led them through the deep, like a horse through the wilderness, and they did not grow weary; and like cattle through a plain. The Spirit came down from the Lord and guided them. So you led your people, to make for yourself a glorious name.”

Saying that he who before had gladdened them with sparing and love was changed into enmity toward them, he usefully explains the causes of the matter. For he remembered, he says, that is, called to mind the days of old, that is, the ever-memorable days, because very many exceptional wonders took place in them. And who is it that is remembered? “He who brought up from the earth the shepherd of the sheep.” In these words he seems to make mention of the resurrection of Christ, the Saviour of us all; for “he who brought up”, he says, stands for “he who raised up from the earth the chief shepherd of all”; raised up, not necessarily from the dead, but as it were showing him forth from among men; for the only-begotten Word of the Father became as one of us, undergoing birth according to the flesh from a woman. But since, as I said, he beheld Israel, the prophet is all but astonished, and laments them for having fallen into such insensibility, saying: “Where is he who put the Holy Spirit in them?”, that is, who set his divine and saving Spirit over them. For “the Spirit came down from the Lord and guided them”, he says. And the divine David too said: “He sent out his Word and healed them.” And “the Lord is the Spirit”; for he works through the consubstantial Spirit. “Where then is he?” stands for: they forgot, and did not seek him, plainly by remembering and loving him. “Where is he who led Moses by the right hand?” Great was Moses, renowned and lofty, since the right hand of God was at work through him. “The arm of his glory prevailed”, that is, contended against and conquered the nature of the waters by congealing them. For he brings on the waters like a wall, he says, that is, he overpowered the waters themselves, so that they even became solid, although they have a liquid nature. And he fulfilled this too, he says, … of the sea, wishing to save, so that even in the rank of an enemy at last … “that he might make for himself an everlasting name”; for whatever happened, that is, was worked through the all-wise Moses, was done for the glory of God. And having congealed the waters, he says, he guided them through the sea as a horse, or as cattle, through a plain. The psalmist too teaches this, saying: “And he led up his people like sheep, and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.” And, as I said, the Spirit of the Lord guided them. “So you led your people, to make for him a glorious name.”

For two things were done at the same time. Not only was Israel saved and redeemed from the hand of its oppressors, but the outcome of the marvellous deeds also won for God, who rules all things, the glory that befits him.

“Turn back from heaven, and look from your holy and glorious house. Where is your zeal and your strength? Where is the abundance of your mercy and of your compassions, that you bore with us? For you are our Father; for Abraham did not know us, and Israel did not acknowledge us. From the beginning your name has been upon us. Why have you made us stray, Lord, from your way, and hardened our hearts so as not to fear you?”

Here at last the prophet makes supplications for the whole nation, and raises the plea in the person of those of Israel; for he begs God to cease from his wrath against them, to stop his turning away, and as it were to return to them, he who had departed from them, since he is not one of those on earth, but rather the true God, who has heaven as his house of glory. And if God is said somewhere to dwell in heaven, let nothing bodily be understood of him. For we do not say that the divine is in a place and circumscribed, since it is simple and bodiless, and fills all things. But since he rests upon the spirits above as holy, for this reason we say that heaven is his throne and house. So “turn back”, they say; “for where is your zeal and your strength?” And no one, I think, would say that the God of all was in want of such things; they say this as no longer having a share in them. For it was always by using zeal and the strength befitting God that he saved Israel. To give an example: they were enslaved to the Egyptians, who made their life bitter with clay and brickmaking and wore them down by the cruelty of the taskmasters; but the God of all was zealous. So he said: “I have been zealous for Jerusalem and Zion with great zeal, and with great wrath I am angry with all the nations that join in attacking her; because I was angry a little, but they joined in to do harm.” Then again he worked marvels. For although the power of the Babylonians was unbreakable and used an irresistible might, he gave it over to desolation; for he let loose on them Cyrus son of Cambyses. Longing to enjoy such sparing they say: “Where is your zeal and your wrath? Where is the abundance of your mercy and of your compassions, that you bore with us?” They thirst again for the mercy, and for the gentleness and love for humankind given them in many trespasses. For he bore with them even when they provoked him at times beyond bearing: they spoke against him in the wilderness, and tested him in their hearts, saying: “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? Because he struck a rock, and waters gushed out and torrents overflowed; can he also give bread?” And besides this they made the calf while Moses was away; yet they received mercy when he interceded. So you bore with us, they say, although we often offended.

“For you are our Father; for Abraham did not know us, and Israel did not acknowledge us.” They do not deny their fathers; for that would be of no use to them for … but rather [they grant] to God, who loves the good, the pre-eminence in tender love even over their fathers according to the flesh; for he is the Father of fathers. For we came from them, they say, but they have not seen us. You, however, have not ceased to keep for us the sparing and love that befit a Father who loves his children. So deliver us; for your name has been called upon us, for we are called your lot and people. But since through great disobedience and perversity of manners they behaved like drunkards toward Christ, they have fallen from their kinship with him (plainly the spiritual kinship), have no share in his gifts, and have not known the road of the gospel way of life; for this reason, very fittingly, they lament and say: “Why have you made us stray from your way, and hardened our heart so as not to fear you?” For they hardened their own hearts. So it was said to them through the voice of the prophet: “Rend your hearts and not your garments.” Yet the God of all, though he could have softened them, allowed them to keep a harsh and unbreakable mind. And for this reason, because he did not make them tender, he himself is said to harden them; and those who have suffered this must, in a way, also meet the other thing, I mean, coming to be outside the fear of God. And this looks toward destruction, and … into the pit of Hades.

“Turn back for the sake of your servants, for the sake of the tribes of your inheritance, that we may inherit a little of your holy mountain. We have become as at the beginning, when you did not rule over us, nor was your name called upon us.”

They ask again for his turning to them, through his gentleness and love for humankind. And they say that they are servants and a lot, not as having done anything to [bow] the neck, nor as belonging to the lot allotted to him because they had practised docility; but since they were once called his and were enriched with kinship with him in the beginning, for this reason they ask only to be saved. “For turn back”, he says, “that we may inherit a little of the holy mountain.” Now the sacred Writing very often calls the church the holy mountain, of which those of Israel have become a small part. For if they had accepted the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the body of the church would have been gathered from them in great part, with the multitude of the nations added to them. But since through great disobedience they have come after the nations, and the multitude of the latter is past numbering, while they are very few (for the remnant has been saved), for this reason they have inherited a small part in the holy mountain, that is, the church. And if someone should say that they name the city above, the church in heaven, the mother and nurse of the saints, the holy mountain, and that they wish to obtain a portion of the lot in it, you will understand rightly in this way too. And he says that they have become as at the beginning, when he did not rule them, nor was his name called upon them; and the saying is very fitting; for having once fallen from his sparing and shelter, they have gone back to what was in the beginning. And what are these things? They were enslaved to the Egyptians in clay and brickmaking, and continued to be tormented with the labours of it; and now too they have fallen under the devil's feet, and are defiled by the passions of the flesh and worldly desires; for this might fittingly be understood as the hidden brickmaking. In Egypt they served evil spirits, and now too the unclean spirit is in them. And the Saviour himself taught us this, saying about them: “When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says

‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds it unoccupied and swept. Then”, he says, “it takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there; and … than the first. So it will be”, he says, “with this generation.”

“If you open the heaven, trembling from you will seize the mountains, and they will melt, as wax melts before the fire; and fire will burn up the adversaries, and the name of the Lord will be manifest among the adversaries. Before your face nations will be troubled, when you do glorious things. Trembling from you will seize the mountains.”

It is the custom of the holy prophets to make supplications for Israel when at times it offended and was about to pay the penalties for its offences; and, as it were, warding off the things of wrath, they begged that it be sent against others and turned upon the heads of the foreigners. So the divine singer, in the seventy-eighth psalm, lamented Jerusalem laid waste, and said: “O God, the nations have come into your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple.” And adding other things besides these, he says in the middle: “Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you, and on the kingdoms that have not called on your name.” The prophet now says something like this: “For if you open the heaven”, plainly by the descent of wrath, just as at the time of the flood (for the floodgates of heaven were opened), then trembling from you will seize the mountains, and they will melt, “as wax melts before the fire”. Here he calls mountains not, surely, the visible ones, but rather the evil powers, very well likened to the highest mountains because of their exceeding arrogance. So trembling will seize these powers, the nurslings of boastfulness. “For they will melt as by fire.” And wrath, falling on them like fire, would burn them up, since they are adversaries, plainly of your decrees. “And the name of the Lord will be manifest among the adversaries.” And what is this? The God of all very often works wonders, making plain the greatness of the power and pre-eminence that is in him. Through this he also punished, sometimes sinners too, making himself plain through his wrath against them, as happened when fire was rained on the Sodomites, or when … with plagues. So, O Master, they say, do not make your glory, that is, your name, manifest through wrath against us, but bring it rather upon the evil powers …

“… our eyes have seen a God besides you, and your works which you will do for those who wait for mercy; for it will meet those who do what is right, and they will remember your ways.”

The divine is invisible by nature; for “no one has ever seen God”, as it is written; yet he is beheld with the eyes of the understanding from what he works wonderfully and beyond reason. “For his invisible things”, it says, “from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made, both his eternal power and divinity.” And he is very often recognized also through his benefits, and displays the calm that is in him, saving unexpectedly those who have slipped from all hope, and extending a saving hand to those who lie, as it were, on the ground. Those who offer the present supplication say something of this kind. For since the foundation of the world we have neither heard of nor seen any such God, except you alone; for to those who wait for you, that is, who have placed their hope in you, he lavishes mercy; for it will surely follow the workers of righteousness, and it is fitting that those receive it who are mindful of your ways; for we say that the ways of the Lord are his commandments. And so … that is, among those who openly fight against your glory and have been carried into this by exceeding arrogance. For in this way too you will be manifest. For when you do glorious things, trembling from you will seize the mountains; and again he means those mountains which we mentioned just now. “From of old we have not heard, nor have …” … the divine David sings, at one time: “In your way I will live”, and at another: “I ran the way of your commandments, when you enlarged my heart.”

“Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; therefore we went astray, and we all became as unclean, and all our righteousness as the rag of a menstruous woman; and we fell away like leaves because of our iniquities; so the wind will carry us off like dust. And there is no one who calls upon your name, or who remembers to take hold of you; for you have turned your face away from us, and handed us over because of our sins.”

It seemed good to some of the interpreters to take the rendering of the words, that is, the force of the thoughts, in another sense, so that what is said is this: “Behold, we sinned, and you were angry.” For the divine wrath, they say, did not become the cause of their offending; but since they behaved like drunkards, God was angry; for they feared, probably, lest the divine anger be thought to be what brings about sin. But I think one must say this: it is no charge against the divine wrath that those who have come under it are unable to escape the onset of sin. For as long as the Saviour rejoices over us, we prevail over sin and … the filth that comes from wickedness; but when … the giver of strength and the master of manliness, we fall into weakness, and we will find our own mind feeble and slack. For God is the Lord of the powers. So Christ said: “Apart from me you can do nothing.” And the divine David too somewhere said to him about every saint: “You are the boast of their strength.” And elsewhere, ascribing the ability to accomplish good things not to himself but to the powers of God, he sings and says: “I will not hope in my bow, and my sword will not save me; for you saved us from those who afflict us.” So just as the gentleness from above … braces us to resist evil, in the same way, when we fall under divine wrath, it is then in every way necessary that we be carried off slavishly by pleasures toward what is base. You were angry, then, at the things in which we behaved like drunkards, and we became sinners and profane, so that all our …, he says, …, that is, loathsome and unclean. For righteousness is not to be seen among those of the blood of Israel, especially now, after … against Christ; for since they have a heart bare and empty of the divine and spiritual light, how could they know the road that leads straight to the sacred laws? Or how could they be truly righteous, having no share in the gospel proclamations, through which one can learn the road of the admirable way of life? They are unclean, then, even if some of them seem to be good and reasonable. And they have fallen like leaves from a tree; and it is no wonder that, having suffered this, the wretches expect to be scattered everywhere; for they have a heart easily carried off and, as it were, borne about by every wind; and there is no one among them who knows how to call upon God genuinely, that is, who keeps in memory that he must … of this misery, he says, “that you turned your face away from us, and handed us over because of our sins”. For those who had suffered God's turning away could not fare well; but it was in every way necessary that those who [were held] by so many sins should be pierced through by every evil.

“And now, Lord, you are our Father; and we are clay, all of us the works of your hands.”

“Do not be very angry with us, and do not remember our sins in due time. And now look, for we are all your people, the city of your Holy One.”

They earnestly beg not to slip away altogether from their kinship with him. But since, because of much sin, … the supplications; for not having … from their works and from …, they proceed …. For they beg him, as the Creator of his own works, to take some account of them, and to grant sparing to those whom he brought into being and life. “For you have been called our Father”, he says, “and we are the works of your hands. So do not be very angry with us.” They are not unaware that they have offended; rather they confess that they have shown themselves worthy of punishment too, having behaved like drunkards toward the Son. For this reason they all but cut short their supplication, and do not make their approach with full freedom; but, drawing in their boldness a little, they do not ask that he not be angry with them at all, but … the anger. For those who have been caught in such terrible evils are admittedly worthy of wrath, he says; but it would be worthy of your gentleness to cut short, in our case, even the effects of just wrath. “In the time”, then, of affliction, he says, “do not remember our sins, considering that we are all your people, and the city of your Holy One”, that is, in which your sanctuary is. By this they mean the temple.

“Zion has become a wilderness; as a wilderness Jerusalem has become; our house, the holy place, has become a curse; the glory which our fathers blessed has been burned with fire, and all our glorious things have fallen. And at all these things you held back, Lord, and kept silent, and humbled us very greatly.”

Having declared beforehand the losses in the soul, and having said that they became easy prey to sins, easily carried off and scattered here and there like leaves by every wind, they now turn also to the calamities brought on them from outside. They seem to lament the sack of Jerusalem and the burning of the temple; for after the Saviour's cross all these things were accomplished. “Zion then has become a wilderness”, he says, she that was once so distinguished, renowned and populous. “And our holy place has become a curse”; they say “a curse” in place of “an object of reviling and abuse” to those who do not know God; for the worshippers of demons, when holy things suffer, that is, things dedicated to God in any way, laugh broadly and exult, and mock the glory of the one who saves them. For perhaps they suppose that his hand has suffered from being unable to save them, and do not consider that they have fallen under punishment for having done things displeasing to him. “Our house, the holy place”, then, “has become a curse.” For the temple was holy among them, and it has been burned with fire, he says, the temple … through the voice of the holy fathers, so famous and renowned in its glorious things; for those who plundered and burned the sacred vessels lying in the divine temple had no reverence at all for any of them. “And you held back”, he says, “at all these things, and kept silent, and brought us down to the ground.” For since, though he could have scared away the attack of the enemies, he allowed them to prevail and to overrun even his temple itself, they conclude at last that they have been disregarded because of wrath, and that they have received his silence in these things as the wages of their sins. For he who could easily have put an end to the outrage, and then let it go and allowed the terrors to run their course, would plainly have let bitter wrath fall on them, so as even to overlook his own glory and endure the laughter of enemies, when it is right that those who deserve to be punished for much sin should pay the penalty.

“I became manifest to those who did not seek me; I was found by those who did not ask for me. I said: Here I am, to the nation that did not call on my name. I stretched out my hands all day to a disobedient and contradicting people, who did not walk in the way of truth, but after …”

These words are brought in necessarily after what was said before. For since they said: “Why have you made us stray, Lord, from your way? You hardened our hearts so as not to fear you”, and added: “Zion has become a wilderness; as a wilderness Jerusalem has become; our holy house has become a curse”, he now necessarily brings in the person of Christ himself, declaring, as it were, the causes for which they deservedly suffered these things; for they do not ascribe the causes to themselves, but bring charges, as it were, against him who brings on them a penalty of equal weight. “For I became manifest”, he says, “even to those who did not seek me; I was found by those who did not ask for me”; for the Saviour came of his own accord into the synagogues and taught them, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people, as it is written. For what was not done by him of the things beyond word and wonder? Lepers were set free by the touch of his hand and by a nod befitting God; the dead were raised from the tombs; the blind received the thrice-longed-for light; those lame in their feet leaped like deer. And so to those who had seen these things Christ said: “If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me; but if I do them, even if you do not believe me, believe my works.” “I said”, then, he says, “Here I am, to the nation that did not call on my name”; for he is found saying at one time, “I am the light of the world”, and again at another, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.” But they would not call on his name, although he said “I am” plainly in very many places. And that they became incorrigible, and perhaps like those who have no ears, hard and disobedient, he shows by saying: “I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contradicting people”; for we are accustomed to spread out our hands when we make a very great rebuke against people. “But they did not walk”, he says, “in a true way.” For they in no way accepted the saving proclamation, “but rather followed their own sins”, that is, they were carried down by an unchecked impulse to a careless and most lawless life, which brought them punishment and destruction. Again the Saviour is found saying this to them: “Truly I tell you, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.” For when admonished they resisted, and they gave orders to those under their hand, saying: “He has a demon and is mad; why do you listen to him?” Yes, and besides this they shouted that other thing too: “We are not stoning you for a good work, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”

“This is the people that provokes me, before me … and they burn incense on the bricks to the demons, which do not exist. And in the tombs and in the caves they sleep for the sake of dreams, those who eat … their vessels; those who say: Keep far from me, for I am pure; do not come near me. This is the smoke of my wrath; fire burns in it all the days.”

He convicts those of Israel of being unholy, and not only at the time of the sojourn, but … having thrust aside his divine law, and having all but bidden farewell to the commandments given through Moses, they became worshippers of … and of unclean spirits. “This people has always been”, he says, “provoking me. For they have sacrificed unceasingly”, that is, over long periods, “before me.” Then how could they escape notice, since God oversees all things? For he said somewhere, through one of the holy prophets too: “I am a God near at hand, says the Lord, and not a God far off; will anything be hidden from me?” So if nothing is hidden from him, how could any have escaped notice while burning incense in gardens, that is, in groves, on mountains and in glens? … What then does “before me” mean? It stands for: even … into the very temple dedicated to me. For he said something like this through the voice of Jeremiah too, about Jerusalem: “Why has the beloved done an abomination in my house?” And it is the custom of the sacred Writings to call an idol an abomination. So before my eyes “they burn incense”, he says, “and in the gardens”, that is, on mountains, as I said, “under oak and poplar and shady tree”, as it is written. They sacrificed, probably, following the rites of the Greeks, to certain demons whom those call nymphs, hamadryads and oreads. But “they do not exist”, he says; not that the accursed demons do not exist, but rather that they are not gods, as those who sacrifice to them suppose. And they sacrificed in tombs too, deceived by certain dream-sending oracles and apparitions, and prying into the knowledge of the future. For such, in some way, are the inventions of the unholiness of the Greeks. And that they trampled on the commandment of the law too, he shows by saying: “Eating swine's flesh”; for such things were forbidden to those of Israel. And they gulped down the broths of sacrifices, filling themselves with every uncleanness and having a defilement hard to wipe off; and then they thought that they had reached the height of all purity, so as even to say to those who wished to be near them: “Keep far from me, do not come near me, for I am pure.” For the wicked and unclean demons persuade those who worship them to think that, though they do everything, even what is beyond the law and all decency, they are … pure, when a torch is lit over them and they run round in a circle of fire, or perhaps by a sprinkling of water and by an old wives' tale … to them. But all these things, he says, which were done by them impiously and unholily, “are the smoke of my wrath, and fire burns in it all the days.” And we know that … is about to be kindled by fire … of the Saviour's sojourn, while Israel was in the defilements we have just mentioned, certain smokes, as it were, and beginnings of the divine wrath appeared. But since

they added to their former impieties their drunken outrage against the Saviour and Redeemer of all; for they killed the Author of life; then at last the wrath was kindled, and the smokes changed, in a way, into flame.

“… I repay, and I will repay into their bosom their sins and those of their fathers, says the Lord, who burned incense on the mountains and reproached me on their hills; I will repay their works into their bosom.”

It is as if he said: the things done unholily to grieve me, by their fathers and by them, I behold as though written on a tablet, and they are before my eyes; or how could I bear such terrible and incomparable evils? I will surely repay into their bosom, taking into remembrance their fathers too, who burned incense on the mountains and on the hills, on which they reproached me. Observe that, having said that they burned incense in gardens, he here speaks of the mountains and hills, meaning, I think, the groves on the mountains, as we said before. And sacrificing to the unclean demons, and then deeming the glory owed to God worth very little account, they all but reproached him as not being God. For to wish to devote oneself at all to gods that do not exist would be nothing other than to outrage the divine and supreme glory. “I will repay”, then, he says, “their works into their bosom”; for they have fallen away from every good thing, … terrible and inescapable …

“Thus says the Lord: As a grape will be found in the cluster, and they will say: Do not destroy it, for a blessing is in it; so I will do for the sake of … all. And I will bring forth the seed from Jacob, and that from Judah, and it shall inherit my holy mountain; and my elect and my servants shall inherit it and dwell there.”

The effects of divine wrath and penalty were brought upon the Jews; yet they did not all perish utterly and without distinction. For the judge is just, and would not destroy the good together with the ungodly. He makes, as it were, a vivid image, and takes as an example a cluster in which one grape is kept safe, though the others have withered; then he brings in the farmer, that is, the master of the land, saying to someone: “Do not destroy it, for a blessing is in it. So I will do”, he says, “for the sake of him who serves me”, that is, I will use such exactness that, even if in one city all the others have turned to ruin and one alone is found faithful and docile, he will obtain sparing, and will not share the danger with the others against whom the judgment may justly go. “For I will not destroy all”, he says. For the wrath of the Lord leapt, as it were, upon the arrogance of the Jews, all but burning up the disobedient and intractable; but by God's providence everyone among them who was worthy of the salvation through Christ was kept safe. And so the divine Paul …

… says that the remnant came to be according to the election of grace, and picked out one by one, as though the remnant of Israel were netted for the faith out of the whole country of the Jews. “So I will not destroy all”, he says, “but I will bring forth the seed from Jacob, and that from Judah.” And “I will bring forth” you will understand here not as “I will destroy”, but rather as “I will make it lofty and conspicuous”; for the verb (ἐξαίρειν) sometimes means to exalt. And such, I mean in glory, were the divine disciples, lofty and seen by people everywhere, like a city set on a mountain, and a lamp set on a lampstand and shining to all in the house, according to the word of the Saviour himself. So this seed from Jacob and from Judah “will inherit”, he says, “my holy mountain”, plainly the church. For so the all-wise Isaiah himself signifies it elsewhere too, speaking of those called through faith in Christ to participation, that is, communion, in his divine nature: “That they shall drink, they shall drink wine, they shall be anointed with ointment on this mountain. Hand all these things over to the nations. For this counsel is upon all the nations.” In this mountain, then, he says, there will be a lot for my elect, and in it all those will dwell who go under the yoke of my kingdom. And there is nothing unreasonable in saying also that the city above, the heavenly Jerusalem, is named the mountain, in which the lot of the saints is, God distributing to them the good things beyond mind and word. “For eye has not seen”, it says, “nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him.”

“And in the thicket there shall be folds for flocks, … for my people who have sought me.”

… flourishing cities, or sometimes countries; and so one of the holy prophets said, as to the mother of the Jews, I mean Jerusalem: “Open your doors, O Lebanon, and let fire devour your cedars. Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the dense thicket has been torn down.” And surely no one would say that he commands pines and oaks to …; for the matter is quite plain; but, as I said, he sees fit to liken to trees the multitude, past numbering, of those in the cities and countries. And the Jews wailed as they fell under the swords of the enemies because of their impiety toward Christ. And the divine David too sings somewhere about the time when Christ was about to appear to the world: “Then all the trees of the forest will exult before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth.” So “in the thicket”, he says, that is, in the multitude of the nations, or in their cities and countries, “there shall be folds for flocks”, plainly churches of Christ, “and the valley of Achor for a resting place of herds, for my people who have sought me.” This Achor was one of those [at] Jericho; then, when God had commanded that everything in it be devoted to destruction, he stole from what was devoted. And when he was exposed by God, he paid a bitter penalty; for he perished with his whole household, Joshua son of Nun determining the penalty. So the valley of Achor was under a curse. And the countries of the nations are in a way like this; for they were accursed and hated by God, since there was no one in them who knew the God who is God by nature. But the land accursed in the old times, he says, will be a resting place for herds, that is, folds of spiritual sheep, under the hand of Christ, the chief shepherd of all, who proclaimed beforehand to the peoples of the Jews, saying about the nations: “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them too, and they will become one flock, one shepherd.” For those who once went astray sought him through faith, and having found him became members of his household, fellow citizens of the saints, and fellow heirs of the good things promised to them.

“But you who have forsaken me, and forget my holy mountain, and prepare a table for the demon, and fill a mixed cup for Fortune: I will hand you over to the sword, and you shall all fall in slaughter; for I called you, and you did not obey; I spoke, and you did not listen; and you did evil before me, and …”

Just as disobeying Christ did not go unpunished for those of the blood of Israel (for they were given over to slaughter, while the remnant was saved by God's mercy and love for humankind), so you will understand it also of the calling of the nations. For those who seized the salvation that comes through Christ have come to be outside the fire and the punishment and the effects of divine wrath; but those who, through their own ignorance, [keep] the defilement of their ancient offences by wishing to cling to the worship of idols will be given over to slaughter. For they will dwell in Hades, and will have endless punishment through sleepless fire. You, then, he says, who have forsaken me, that is, who are apostates to the end, and have been brought, as it were, into complete forgetfulness of my holy mountain. For some of those who have gone astray and worshipped the creation cannot bear even to say that they know the name of the church; “who set tables for the demons, and fill mixed cups for Fortune”. Those whose heart was filled with the devil's mist did something of this kind. You will be handed over to slaughter; and if anyone dares to ask for what reason, I will say to him: I called, and you did not obey, but you have a persistent wickedness that you will not cast off, doing only what is out of tune with my laws, disparaging every kind of good deed, and eagerly treating as choice the things through which one would become full of every …

“Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, those who serve me shall eat, but you shall hunger. Behold, … Behold, those who serve me shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame. Behold, those who serve me … because of the pain of your heart, and from … your name for a surfeit to my elect; and the Lord will destroy you.”

He always and of necessity sets the bad things beside the crowns, leading by both to the duty of choosing what pleases him, in thought and in deed; for just as the rewards draw people as in a net toward the pursuit of virtue, so the bitterness of punishment sometimes removes them from the ways of wickedness and makes them change eagerly to better things. So he very skilfully steals into the minds of those who are called, both promising them rewards and threatening punishments. “For those who serve me shall eat”, he says, “but you shall hunger; and they shall drink, but you shall thirst.” And while they rejoice, you will be put to shame; for those who have recognized the God who is God by nature and in truth, have leapt away from the falsely named gods, and have admired the beauty of the true worship, will truly delight, fattening their hearts with the blessings from above, approaching the life-giving table of Christ, the Saviour of us all, eating the bread of life and the divine drink, through which they come to share in the gladness from above; for it cleanses away sins, removes what grieves, and does not let the fear of punishment overpower our minds. For we rather rejoice … as the sacred Writing says. “But you”, he says, who have remained in error, “will cry out because of the pain of your heart, and wail from the breaking of your spirit.” For when Christ, the Saviour of us all, comes down from heaven and renders to each according to his works, all will lament and wail who neither recognized the true God, but rather died in their own sins. “For you have left”, he says, “your name for a surfeit to my elect; the Lord will destroy you.” See again, I pray, the depth of the thought. It is the custom of the divinely inspired Scripture sometimes to say “for a surfeit” in place of “for loathing and hatred”. For God said somewhere to those of the blood of Israel: “I will no longer forgive your sins …” You who have not departed from the falsely named gods, but are dead in your own sins, have left your name for a surfeit, that is, for hatred, to my elect; for among those who have once been chosen, no one finds the name of the superstitious acceptable.

For everyone flees from being called hated by God, an idolater, unholy and profane, and desires rather to be called a holy people, a chosen nation, a royal priesthood, according to the voice of the divine Peter. And if anyone wishes to apply what was said to those of the blood of Israel, so that “You have left your name for a surfeit to my elect” is said to them, we say that Israel was called God's children, his people and his lot; but since they slid without check into unruliness, they fell from such glory, and those called from the nations, as it were, inherited it; and this, I think, is what God said through the voice of Hosea: “I will call not-my-people my people, and I will say to not-my-people: You are my people.”

“But for those who serve him a new name shall be called, which shall be blessed on the earth; for they shall … the true God. And those who swear on the earth shall swear by the true God; for they shall forget their first affliction, and it shall not come up into their heart. For the heaven shall be new, and the earth new, and they shall not remember the former things, nor shall they come into their heart; but they shall find gladness and exultation in her.”

All things have become new in Christ: worship, life and lawgiving. For no longer with shadows and types … to the God of all the worship and service in spirit and truth. And we are not called, as those of the blood of Israel are, after founders of families, that is, fathers, Ephraim or Manasseh, or as from another tribe; nor do we count the … of the scribes and Pharisees worth any account; but we approach Christ in newness of gospel life, and, binding on the name that comes from him as a kind of crown, we are called Christians. This name is renowned and blessed throughout the whole world under heaven. And since we have been blessed by Christ, we too are eager to gladden him with blessings and unceasing praises. For long ago, that is, before faith in him, we were rightly laughed at, weaving our songs for gods that do not exist. But since we have come to know the God who is God by nature, we hymn him and bring him the fruit of lips and tongue, remembering his praises; and if there should somehow be need and use for assurance through oaths in any matter, they will swear by the true God. For it is the custom of the worshippers of idols sometimes to make heaven their oath, or some other of the elements in it. But those who have accepted the faith vigorously depart from the offences in this matter too; for they swear by the God of all alone, knowing him as Master by nature and in truth, and no other at all besides him.

The law given through Moses commanded this too: “You shall worship the Lord your God”, it says, “and serve him alone, and swear by his name.” Then he says: “They shall forget their first affliction, and it shall not come up into their heart.” And here he seems to call affliction the hardship they underwent when, not knowing the true God, … for they were ordered to sacrifice to them not only sheep and oxen, but also the offspring of their womb, as it is written: “Some sacrificed sons and daughters.” And the hardship was of another kind too: to serve such countless gods, and to be hurried into worshipping those who were not known; and it is likely too that some were plotted against by the gods they had neglected; for there is nothing unreasonable in thinking that, when the loathsome and murderous demons ruled them, they could also wrong them, since they did not have the shelter that comes from God. “This affliction of theirs”, he says, “they shall forget. For the heaven shall be new, and the earth new.” How, or in what way? Long ago they thought that earth and heaven were gods; but having received the divine light into their minds through Christ, the Saviour of us all, they will have, as it were, new thoughts about them. For they will know that these are not gods, but works of the craftsman and creator of all. And being so disposed, he says, they will no longer remember the former things; for together with paganism they will cast away the opinions they had about the elements themselves, and about those who went astray long ago, whether demons or men, who lent their tongues as advocates of the error. “Instead of the affliction of old”, he says, “they shall find gladness and exultation in her.” And in whom? Surely he would say: in the church of Christ. But it is necessary to note that some of the interpreters attach these things not to the times of the sojourn, but rather to those that will come after the present age; for he says that the righteous will be in gladness and joy and in endless delights, plainly spiritual ones, when creation itself too changes into renewal. For one of the holy apostles said: “For the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be burned and dissolved; and the earth and all that is in it will be burned up; but we look for new heavens and a new earth, and his promises.” So let the sensible be free to choose whichever of the interpretations seems good to them, or rather both, to benefit; for what is by nature … is in no way to be rejected.

“For behold, I make Jerusalem an exultation, and my people a gladness; and I will exult over Jerusalem and be glad over my … And no longer shall there be heard in her the sound of weeping or the sound of crying; and there shall no longer be there one untimely, or an old man who does not fill out his time.”

“For the young man shall be a hundred years old, and the sinner who dies a hundred years old shall also be accursed.”

Deep is the insight, and very obscure the meaning of the prophecy before us. Yet I will try to explain it as far as I can. He seems here to name Jerusalem not that old city, but rather the church from Jews and gentiles; this he says he will show to be an exultation and gladness, and the matter is true, as experience itself bears witness; for there is nothing gloomy in the church of Christ; it is rich in hopes of endless life and of glory beyond counting, and has great renown in this world. Or perhaps in another way too: I will make Jerusalem, he says, an exultation and gladness for myself. For I will take pleasure in my people; and he adds the grounds of his delight, saying: “No longer shall there be heard in her the sound of weeping, nor the sound of crying.” God weaves the praise of the church as from a contrast with earlier things. For long ago the leaders of the synagogue of the Jews judged for bribes, and did not know how to do justice to the orphan or the widow. And since they were lovers of shameful gains, they condemned the innocent and righteous, and those who suffered this were in every way … crying, as wronged. So it was said somewhere of Jerusalem through the voice of Jeremiah: “O city … as a cistern keeps its water cool, so her wickedness keeps cool. Impiety and misery will be heard in her before her face continually.” And another of the holy prophets said: “And they struck the heads of the poor with their fists, and turned aside the way of the humble.” I will take pleasure, then, he says, in my people, seeing them to be workers of true righteousness. For no one among them will weep, plainly through being defrauded; nor again will anyone cry out as wronged. “And there shall not be there”, he says, “one untimely, or an old man who does not fill out his time. For the young man shall be a hundred years old, and the sinner who dies a hundred years old shall also be accursed.” I think that the meaning of the prophecy wishes to suggest something like this. He seems to consider the people from the gentiles, still young, as “untimely”, of which David says: “The people being created will praise the Lord”; and the disciple of Christ writes to these, saying: “Like newborn babes, long for the spiritual and pure milk.” So the young one is untimely, and the old man is the one from the circumcision, that is, of the blood of Israel, since he was called before and had come first into the spiritual church. But in the calling through Christ, he says, and in the times of the sojourn, neither the untimely nor the old man will differ from each other in this respect; for all will be … and will go up to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. For the young one, that is, the people from the gentiles, will be a hundred years old, that is, perfect, grey-headed in mind, and having reached the end of spiritual maturity; for the number of a hundred years is a sign or symbol of perfection. Then he says: “And the sinner who dies a hundred years old shall also be accursed.” He shows in these words that even perfection according to the law is useless to those who have it, if they have not accepted the faith through Christ and the redemption through holy baptism, through which alone we rub off the reckonings of sin. So even if someone is a hundred years old, he says, that is, has the perfection according to the law, and then dies a sinner, that is, … in faith …, he will also be found liable for transgressions of the law. For no one among the Jews was so great as never to fall in any way: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace.” And that zeal for this is useless even for those made perfect according to the law, if the grace through Christ has not been received, the all-wise Paul shows very well when he writes to some that he counted all things in the law as refuse, that he might gain Christ and be found in him, not having his own righteousness, that is, the one in the law, but the one through

faith in Jesus Christ. And he charges the Jews, as it were, with folly, saying: “For not knowing the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” And again he said: “We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners from the gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, we too have believed in Christ.” And for this reason Christ was called a curse, that he might rescue from the curse of the law those who had come under it; for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law, to do them.”

“And they shall build houses, and they themselves shall dwell in them; and they shall plant vineyards, and they themselves shall eat their fruit. And they shall not build and others dwell; and they shall not plant and others eat. For according to the days of the tree of life shall be the days of my people; they shall make the works of their labours old. My elect shall not labour in vain, nor bear children for a curse; for they are a seed blessed by God. And it shall be that before they cry out I will hear them; while they are still speaking, I will say: What is it?”

He promises them unshakeable peace, sparing and kindness, goodness and love for humankind. For long ago those of the blood of Israel, through exceedingly great folly and manifold wickedness, and because they would not consent to live rightly, kept provoking the God who rules all; for this reason they were tormented in many ways. For sometimes what was in the fields was destroyed, and, having undergone the sweat of farming in vain, they were worn down by famine; for it is written: “And he gave their fruits to the blight, and their labours to the locust.” And it was said to them somewhere through one of the holy prophets too: “You shall sow but not reap; you shall press the olive but not anoint yourself with oil, and you shall not drink wine.” And again: “You shall build houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you shall plant desirable vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.” For at times invasions of wars too came upon them, so that some were consumed by the enemies' swords, while others, fearing to suffer, fled from their houses and their native land and moved to other countries. But these things the ancients suffered, and not once, because of much sin; whereas those in Christ who have seized the grace that comes through faith, and have washed off the stains of sin through holy baptism, will not fall into their evils, nor will they suffer unexpected loss of what they have laboured at spiritually; but rather they will delight in their own good deeds, according to what is sung in the Psalms: “You shall eat the labours of your fruits”, the “fruits” meaning the flesh below the palm of the hand. For no one will cast them out, nor ever scare them away from the dwelling that will be given them by God; for there are many dwellings with the Father; nor will they fall from the lot that will be given and that befits their spiritual fruitfulness; for their life, he says, will be according to the days of the tree of life, that is, holy. For such it was in the first-formed before the transgression, when they were allowed to share in the tree of life, since the most loathsome and God-hated sin had not yet found a place in them. The word of the prophecy adds another such thing: “For they shall make the works of their hands old”, that is, they will have an unchangeable road of conduct. To give an example: the law was given through Moses to those of Israel; but in it there was shadow and type, having the form of the truth, but not yet the truth itself. But when Christ shone forth, the types changed into truth, and the shadows were, as it were, transformed and made old, that is, the power of the way of life under the law did not prevail to the end.

So those of the blood of Israel did not make their works old (for the worship of the law is useless as far as the types are concerned), but those in Christ will make them old. For no other law will be given them, so as to change the force of the gospel decrees for something better. For it was said somewhere to Christ, the Saviour of all, through the voice of the psalmist: “Your righteousness is righteousness for ever, and your law is truth.” “And my elect”, he says, “shall not labour in vain, nor bear children for a curse.” He teaches again as by comparison, that is, by contrast with what happened long ago to the teachers of the Jews. These were scribes and Pharisees … commandments of men; they became fathers of children, plainly by discipleship, but in vain and for a curse; and the Saviour taught us this too, rebuking the scribes and Pharisees; for he said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around sea and dry land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him a son of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves.” So those bore children for a curse and in vain; but my elect, he says, that is, the divine disciples, or in short the ministers of my sacred decrees, will not bear children for a curse, nor … their seed will be …, but blessed by God. And that he will be very well disposed toward them, granting the gifts of gentleness and love for humankind, and lending a most ready ear to their supplications, he shows by saying: “Before they cry out, I will hear them; while they are still speaking, I will say: What is it?”

“Then wolves and lambs shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and the serpent earth as bread. They shall not do wrong, nor destroy on my holy mountain, says the Lord.”

You will take these things too in two ways. Either the force of the prophecy would signify the union of the two peoples through faith, that is, that those who once leapt upon the saints like wild beasts and persecuted the church, differing in nothing from snakes, will come to agree with them, bound fast in disposition and unanimity by the bond of peace, through Christ, who justifies the ungodly, gathers what was scattered, brightens with divine light what was darkened, and changes all things for the better. For he makes and refashions all things, as it is written. Kids, then, and lambs are sacred and clean animals according to the law, so as to be offered on the divine altar and to be brought up for a fragrant

odour to God; but the wolf and the lion are unholy and unclean, and hostile to the animals named; and the serpent, besides, is most hostile to man, sharpened for this by the laws of nature. But … with those cleansed in Christ, who have a holy and exceptional life, those who were once loathsome and unclean, with a heart full of beastlike savagery, will come together through the gospel proclamations into the unanimity that comes through faith. “These”, he says, “will do no wrong, nor harm any of those on my holy mountain”, that is, in the church. For the wild will eat with the tame; and their food is Christ, the living bread who came down from heaven and gives life to the world; and he nourishes us with his own flesh, reshaping us for incorruption and life, and with his own proclamations, that is, those of the gospel; for “man shall not live on bread alone”, he says, “but on every word that proceeds through the mouth …” … will eat the food of the lions and wolves (for he did not say, “They shall eat meat”), but the wolves and lions will use the food of the tame, which is signified by the straw; and the clean will not rather follow the unclean, nor emulate their way of life and conduct; but rather the profane [will follow] the ways of the meek and …

“Thus says the Lord: Heaven is my throne, and the earth the footstool of my feet. What kind of house will you build for me? Or what is the place of my rest? For my hand made all these things, and all these things are mine, says the Lord. And upon whom will I look, but upon the humble and quiet, and him who trembles at my words? But the lawless one who sacrifices a calf to me is like one who kills a dog; and he who offers fine flour, like swine's blood; and he who gives frankincense for a memorial, like a …”

Having woven his word to the nations sufficiently, he now moves the sacred teaching to Israel itself. For he wishes to remove them too from the wickedness under the law, just as he commanded those to depart from the ancient deceit and from the profane life of wandering. So he teaches clearly that he lays claim rather to the worship in spirit, and counts as nothing at all the worship as in shadows and types. And besides this he wishes them to know something else, since they raised their brows high and were very proud, about nothing necessary, of having set up the temple in Jerusalem; for they thought that the divine is contained in a place, and dwells, as if enclosed, in temples made with hands, like the falsely named gods of the nations, which are nothing at all but wood and stones. And for this reason he says: O you who do not know the pre-eminence of the divine glory! O you who do not consider the greatness of the dignities that are mine! “Heaven is my throne, and the earth the footstool of my feet. What kind of house will you build for me? Or what is the place of my rest?” For the divine fills all things; and what are earth and heaven beside him? Let it be said in human fashion that he has heaven as a throne and makes the earth something like a footstool. What place, then, will receive him? Or what house will suffice to contain him? “For my hand”, he says, “made all these things, and all these things are mine.” And what are these? Plainly the things that are seen, and those beyond the things seen; for all creation is his, and by his nods the things that once were not were brought into being. What then shall we offer him as though it were not his? He says something of this kind through the voice of the psalmist too: “If I am hungry, I will not tell you; for all the beasts of the field are mine, cattle on the mountains and oxen. I know all the beasts of the field and all the birds of heaven, and the beauty of the field is with me.” Upon whom, then, he says, will I look? Surely upon the

humble and quiet, that is, the yielding and meek, the genuine servant of my wishes, so as even to tremble at the words that come from me. By these he means the gospel, the saving proclamation; these he deigns to look upon and to visit as humble. For bold and arrogant is he who rises up against his divine laws and, through great disobedience, lifts up against him the neck of his own understanding, proud, as it were, and hard. And that he finds the worship through the law unacceptable and holds it in hatred he makes clear by saying: “He who sacrifices a calf to me is like one who kills a dog; and he who offers fine flour, like swine's blood; and he who gives frankincense for a memorial …” The things in shadows and types he not only rejects but even hates, as I said; for he considers the slaughter of a calf as the death of a dog, and the fine flour unclean and …; for this, I think, he shows by likening it to the blood of a swine, and the pig is unclean according to the law; and the smoke from frankincense he counts equal to a blasphemous voice. So by these words he moves them toward wishing to live in the way of the gospel, and not at all any longer according to the shadow in the law.

“And these have chosen their ways and their abominations, which their soul desired. And I will choose their mockeries, and repay them their sins; for I called them, and they did not obey, and they did evil before me, and what I did not want …”

Again he makes his defence and makes plain the cause for which Israel was cast off, though it had been named firstborn and called God's lot. “For they themselves chose”, he says, “their ways and their abominations, which their soul desired.” In saying “they chose”, he showed them to be judges who do not judge rightly in necessary matters, “but rather call the good evil, and put darkness for light and light for darkness, bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” For while it was possible for them through the gospel decrees to be carried to every one of the best noble deeds, and the power lay before them to depart from the ways of wickedness and to choose instead what by nature is beneficial, they, he says, chose their own ways, which are outside the sacred laws, the snares of death, and … and it also leads to the remembrance of their more ancient sin; for at times they became idolaters and worshippers of abominations. “Since then they were called”, he says, “and did not obey”, nor gave heed to the words I spoke to them.

For I said: “I am the light of the world, and he who believes in me, even if he dies, will live”; and again: “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” So I will use this holy verdict against them: … those who mock, that is, who behave like drunkards toward them. He surely means those who sacked Judaea and burned the once holy and renowned city, that is, plainly, the Roman generals. “For I will repay them”, he says, “their sins.” For what I hated and did not want, they chose.

“Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word. Say, our brothers, to those who hate you and abhor you, that the name of the Lord may be glorified and be seen in your gladness; and they shall be put to shame.”

He turns his words to everyone who is humble and quiet and trembles at his words; of these the divine disciples became the firstfruits, the first, picked out one by one. And the force of the command extends also to all in succession who lead the peoples, who have been appointed by divine vote [leaders] of the holy churches and ministers of the sacred proclamations. He commands them, saying: “Say to those who hate you and abhor you: Our brothers.” For either he wishes them to be meek and patient under wrongs, according to the gospel traditions, and by long-suffering to the utmost to draw into spiritual kinship, as in a net, those who turn away and refuse communion with them; or perhaps he gives this command, I mean, to preach to the nations and to call to the true knowledge of God those who had gone astray and worshipped unclean spirits, [who hated] the Jews because these did not accept polytheism as they did, but confessed one God, by nature and alone. But even if “they have hated you”, he says, reckoning you loathsome, let your word be held out to them even so, and let them be counted in the rank of brothers, “that the name of the Lord may be glorified”. For the multitude of the nations has been gathered in the net to the glory of Christ, and he has become manifest in their gladness; for while the nations rejoiced in the grace and salvation that come from him, those of Israel were put to shame as rejected and hated, wholly without share in the hope of the saints and in what he has given to those who believe in him. And one must know that he has abolished a commandment of the law by commanding them to call those from the nations brothers. For it was forbidden to those of Israel to mingle in friendship with those who had gone astray: “For you shall not speak peaceable words to them”, says the law through Moses, “nor intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughter to his son, nor take his daughter for your son, lest he turn your son away from me, and he go and serve other gods.” But in Christ the two have become one, and the dividing wall of the fence has been broken down, and the law of commandments in decrees has been abolished; “for he himself is our peace.”

“A voice of crying from the city, a voice from the temple, … adversaries.”

Having said, “And I will choose their mockeries, and repay them their sins”, he shows at once the outcome of what was threatened; and, as though the enemies had already taken their city and the temple, he says there was a voice from the city and a voice from the temple, as of priests weeping together and peoples lamenting with one another; and it was natural, when the calamity of war overpowered them, to lament and wail; for there was no escape from the evil. And he says there was a voice of the Lord “rendering recompense to the adversaries”, as though commanding and ordering the destroyers to spare none of those captured, but rather to leap savagely upon the adversaries, and this not at all by the impulses of the warriors, but by the Master's will; for this was what brought about their capture and their suffering.

“Before she who was in labour gave birth, before the … came … Who has heard such a thing? And who has seen it so? Has a land been in labour in one day, or has a nation been born at once, that Zion was in labour and bore her children? But I have given this expectation, and you did not remember me, said the Lord. Have I not made her who bears and her who is barren? said the Lord.”

He teaches again that Israel will not perish root and branch. For since he had foretold the capture of Jerusalem in full, he again calls to mind the remnant according to election; for no small multitude has been saved, plainly through faith in Christ. He wishes to suggest something like this. … the Jews … toward him, and killed the Author of life. But when he came back to life, having trampled on death, and went up to the Father in heaven, … speaking to all, even to those who had behaved like drunkards, and calling them to repentance, to the salvation that comes through faith, and to the forgiveness of sins through holy baptism. For Peter said: “And now I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your rulers also.” “Repent, then, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children.” When the divine Peter said this, many believed. So it is written in the Acts of the holy apostles that about three thousand souls were added that day. So the divine disciples went on admonishing those of Israel and drawing them into faith as in a net; then, after time had passed, the effects of divine wrath were at last brought upon the country of the Jews and on Jerusalem itself, since the more reasonable had already gone in and been called; and these were the remnant. He teaches this by saying: “Before she who was in labour gave birth, before the pain of her labour came, she escaped and bore a male.” For before the terrors came upon her, and the calamities of war fell on Jerusalem like bitter pangs, she escaped, that is, before the danger she bore a male, that is, a fine and thrice-longed-for offspring; for to women giving birth a male child is preferred to the other; or perhaps also because what was born is male; for the people in Christ is not made womanish toward softness; for there is in it a manly and youthful spirit, and the blessed Paul is witness of this, writing: “And those who are of Jesus Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Then he makes a great wonder of the surpassing divine power, since it worked this too, saying: “Who has seen it so? Has a land been in labour in one day, or has a nation been born at once, that Zion was in labour and bore her children?” For who has heard, he says, or who has seen a land, that is, a whole country, sprout in one day those who can fill it? For at once, that is, at one …

has a whole nation ever been born? But so, he says, “Zion bore her children.” For that three thousand souls were added in one day, and underwent spiritual rebirth through faith and holy baptism, how would this not plainly be the conception and birth of a whole nation? “But I”, he says, “have given this expectation.” For this too was foretold through the voice of the holy prophets, and God promised her beforehand an abundance of children. “But she did not remember me”, says the Lord, “although I made the barren and the one who bears.” And he who has power over these things, how would he have allowed her to become childless, if she had been willing to accept faith in him, and to be seen by those all over the earth as rich in children, and in fine ones? But since she became disobedient, hard, … the country of the nations [bore] the people past numbering and beyond; and the divine prophet Isaiah teaches this very thing, saying, as to the church from the nations: “Rejoice, barren one who does not bear; break forth and shout, you who are not in labour; for many more are the children of the desolate than of her who has a husband.”

“… in her, all you who love her. Rejoice with joy, all you who mourn over her, that you may … and be filled from the breast of her consolation, that having drawn the milk you may delight from the entrance of her glory. For thus says the Lord: Behold, I turn toward them like a river of peace, and like a torrent flooding with the glory of the nations.”

He commands the new and spiritual Zion, that is, Jerusalem, which is the church of the living God, to rejoice; Christ presented her to himself spotless and blameless, from the Jewish ranks and from the flock of the nations. For he joined the two peoples into one new man, making peace, and reconciled both in one body to the Father. And to rejoice would befit her; for she is filled with hopes beyond mind and word. “For eye has not seen”, it says, “nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him.” And he has commanded those who are in her and love her to be glad; and these would again be those who, as it were, uphold her and …, and all who mourn over her, according to the word of the Saviour himself: “Blessed”, he says, “are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” The mourning here hints at the accomplishment of pure noble deeds; for they have the sweat that brings profit, and endure hardship vigorously, not to gain anything earthly, but that [they may become] full of the graces from God; for this he promises them, saying: “That … her.” Having once given the new Zion the person of a woman, he keeps to the figure of speech, and likens the consolation in her, I mean that which comes through the Holy Spirit, to breasts and milk. For it was said somewhere

… to her in the Song of Songs too: “Your breasts are better than wine.” First of all, to those who accept faith in our God Jesus Christ food fit for infants is offered, that is, the tender and simple word of catechesis; for so Paul too addressed some, saying: “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able, and even now you are not yet able.” And that those who drink in the word of catechesis should not always be, and be seen to be, infants, but must rather go up to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that they may at last be able to understand the exact and searching word about him, he taught by adding: “That …” And by “having drawn the milk” he means: having come away from breast and nipple, that is, weaned, that is, no longer remaining infants, but ranking already as youths and men, and desiring solid food, “you may delight from the entrance of her glory”. And he calls Christ glory (for so the psalmist too says of him: “That glory may dwell in our land”), and the entrance the mystery of the dispensation in the flesh: being God by nature he became man, and as it were entered into this world through the incarnation. So those delight who know the exact word of faith about him, and learn in what way the glory, that is, Christ, entered the inhabited world. For this reason the divine prophet too, at once and in close connection, makes plain his appearing in the flesh; for he brings him in speaking in person: “Behold, I turn toward them like a river of peace, and like a torrent flooding with the glory of the nations.” A river of peace, then, and a torrent of delight is Christ (for so the divine David too names him, saying: “How you have multiplied your mercy, O God! The sons of men will hope in the shelter of your wings; they will be drunk with the fatness of your house, and you will make them drink from the torrent of your delight.” And again: “The rushings of the river gladden the city of God”). … the glory of the nations, that is, what is precious among the nations … gives us to understand something of this kind. For his way and journey, according to the purpose and good pleasure of the Father, was to those of the blood of Israel; so he said: “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But since they thrust away the faith, he turned away from them, as it is written, and … believed, nor were they glorified; but, as Paul says about the God and Father: “Those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son; these he also called; and those whom he called, these …” … to the flocks of the nations he granted the consolation from the sacred streams, that is, the gospel and saving proclamation, through which they have gained peace with him, and through him have been joined in spiritual kinship to God and …

“Their children shall be carried on shoulders, and comforted on knees. As if a mother … and in Jerusalem you shall be comforted. And you shall see, and your heart shall rejoice, and … known to those who worship him.”

… and the bestowal of all sparing, so that they can accomplish what pleases him even without any toil. For those among them, he says, who are still infants and not yet perfect in mind will be carried on shoulders like little babes, and comforted on knees; for this is how mothers are accustomed to care for infants. I will yield little, then, he says, to a mother, but I will comfort those who for the time have a weak mind in such a way that nothing that makes for their rest will be lacking to them. And being nursed in this way, he says, and passing through every sparing and love, you will in due time see the city above, the heavenly Jerusalem; you will be filled with delight, and the bones of you all will flourish again like grass. For the dead will be raised, and those in the tombs will rise, having been enriched with the dew from Christ, that is, the life-giving Spirit; for so the psalmist says somewhere to God about those who lie in the earth: “You will send forth your Spirit, and they will be created, and you will renew the face of the earth.” So just as what blossoms in the fields falls after a little and withers, yet when spring comes rises again and appears, so the remains of the dead in the earth will spring up again at the time of the regeneration by the ineffable power of God. For they will be raised, as I said. “Then, then the hand of the Lord will be known to those who worship him.” By hand he means here either his power, or our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and in whom are all things. For through him again comes the return of the dead to life. For it would be the work of his power both to be able to bring into existence the things that once were not, and to renew again to their first state the things that have suffered corruption.

“And he will threaten the disobedient. For behold, the Lord will come like fire, and his chariots like a whirlwind, to render vengeance in wrath, and rejection in a flame of fire. For by the fire of the Lord all the earth shall be judged, and all flesh by his sword; many shall be wounded by the Lord. Those who sanctify and purify themselves for the gardens, and eat swine's flesh in the porches, and the abominations and the mouse, shall be consumed together, said the Lord. And I know their works and their reasoning.”

Having sufficiently comforted those in the new Zion, that is, the church, and promised them the most ample consolation, and … the spiritual … return to life, and the mansions above, and the glory there, he says that their undertaking in these matters will not go unpunished for those who have chosen to disobey him. For he will come like fire, he says; for he will come down from heaven in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. For this is his chariot, according to what is sung in the Psalms: “The chariot of God is ten-thousandfold, thousands of those who rejoice.” And he will come to render vengeance in wrath, and rejection in a flame of fire. The rejection signifies casting away; for he will say to those who have died in sins: “Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” For so, he says, the whole earth will be judged, and many will be wounded, struck as by the sword of the divine wrath. These would be those who receive the inescapable penalty, run into the unquenchable flame, and are bound fast with the cords of their own offences; and above the others, he says, those will be brought under the penalty who sanctify and purify themselves for the gardens, that is, those who have thrust away the redemption through Christ and that through holy baptism

having dishonoured the grace that justifies the ungodly and frees from every charge those who are defiled with sins, and having loved rather to walk in error and ignorance and to worship gods that do not exist; who also use unclean and filthy sprinklings. For they purify themselves, as they think at least, deceiving themselves and … carrying fire around in a circle, they thought to scour their souls clean of the thoughts that come from wickedness. And that among such people there is no account at all of decency and reasonableness, but rather [they are like] the senseless beasts, he shows by saying that they purify themselves in gardens, that is, in groves or thickets, under the oak; for they had altars and precincts there for the demons; and in the porches of the precincts they ate swine's flesh, and this too is a proof of luxury. And they worshipped the abominations and the mouse. For some of the superstitious perhaps came to such derangement as even to keep … and figures of mice in their shrines. But all these, he says, will be consumed together, that is, together with those from Israel who disobeyed. “For I know their works and their reasoning.” By reasoning he means the thoughts, following which they became inventors of shameful undertakings, through which they also brought in … to worship God by nature and in truth … the bringing in of abominations, although they ought to worship the one God.

“I come to gather all the nations and the tongues. And they shall come and see my glory, and I will leave signs upon them, and I will send forth from them those who are saved to the nations, to Tarshish and Put and Lud and Meshech and Tubal, and to Greece, and to the islands far off, which have not heard my name nor seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the nations.”

Through these words Christ makes a kind of recapitulation of the whole discourse and of all prophecy, and in brief and concise words he … the things from beginning to end, and the power of the dispensation in the flesh. For he calls to mind both the calling of the nations and the appointing of the holy apostles, and that he will be worshipped by the whole world under heaven. For the old law gathered one nation only, plainly that from Israel, and called one tongue; but our Lord Jesus Christ granted the power of the dispensation in the flesh not only to those of the blood of Israel, but to every nation and all tongues. So he said through the lyre of the psalmist: “Hear these things, all you nations; give ear, all who inhabit the world.” So I will gather all, he says; “they shall come and see my glory.” For they have been called through faith, and those once far off have become near and have beheld his glory. How, or in what way? For they have heard through the gospel … is … to God the Father, and became the worker of things beyond reason, so as to raise the dead from the tombs and to give light to the blind, and besides these to do other things worthy of all word and wonder. Or in another way: they have beheld his glory, having been taught the mystery that the Word was God and became man; for those from the nations did not say, as the Jews did: “Why do you, being a man, [make] yourself God?” But rather, having recognized the mystery concerning him, they cry out those sacred words: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”, and besides this that word spoken through the holy apostles: “Truly you are the Son of God.” And a sign has been set on them too; for, as Paul says, we have been sealed with the Spirit of redemption, and Christ has been formed in the hearts of all of us through participation in the Holy Spirit. And from those who have been saved, he says, I will send to the nations, to these in the east, and others in the more northern parts, that is, toward the country of the Greeks, and to the islands beyond. “There”, he says, “they shall declare my glory.” For the disciples did not keep silent, but proclaimed everywhere the gospel of the kingdom and the power of the sacred

proclamations.

“And they shall bring your brothers from all the nations as a gift to the Lord, with horses and chariots, in litters drawn by mules, with sunshades, to the holy city Jerusalem, said the Lord, as the sons of Israel would bring me their sacrifices with psalms into the house of the Lord. And from them I will take priests and Levites, said the Lord.”

… they are called to priesthood, and are called to this day, … setting them in newness of life and mind. That the proclamation through the holy apostles will be effective and fruitful in every way and altogether among the nations named and in their countries, he shows in these words: “For your brothers”, he says (so that the word is addressed to those of the blood of Israel who believed), “they will bring from the nations as a gift to the Lord.” For the multitude of the nations has become, as it were, an offering for the glory of God, freed from every charge through faith, and having cast off all filth through holy baptism, a gift to God. So they boast in this very thing, calling them their joy and crown. And that the turning of the nations to God is very easy, without any sweat or contest or labour, he makes plain, as from an example from our own life, saying that they will be brought with horses and chariots, in litters and with sunshades; for just as those who use these accomplish their journey, so those who turn to God from the error of the Greeks will be brought along a smooth and, as it were, paved road, all but escorted by guards, God counting them worthy of every rest. And where will they come? To the holy city, that is, Jerusalem, which is the church of the living God; and they will be as pleasant and acceptable in approaching God as a sacrifice offered, he says, with song and doxology. But also “from them”, he says, “I will take priests and Levites”. From whom? It is not quite clear whether from those sent to call those from the nations, or from those called themselves; but we will find that both are true. For the divine disciples became ministers of the decrees given through Christ; and many of those who were of the Greek flock … of God … For faith, as it were, reforges them to what pleases him …

“For as the new heaven and the new earth, which I make, remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your seed and your name stand; and it shall be from month to month, and from Sabbath … to worship in Jerusalem, said the Lord God.”

Christ promises the unshakeable hope of all good things to those who love him and have recognized his appearing. For just as, he says, having made heaven and earth new, I will let them remain so, and no time will destroy them, so your seed and your name will stand before me. For we look for new heavens and a new earth, and his promises, as it is written. And that the hope of the saints too will always stand and remain, the all-wise Paul assures us, writing that the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. So the blessed seed that was brought to God through the holy apostles … in no way, but will remain, as it were, together with heaven and earth, Christ, the Saviour of us all, holding it together for this. And that the multitude of believers will always advance to ever greater increase he teaches by saying: “Month from month, and Sabbath from Sabbath, all flesh shall come before me to worship in Jerusalem.” For those who believe in Christ have not ceased; but from the time when the divine disciples proclaimed the message until now they keep coming, some from the error of many gods, thirsting for the light of the true knowledge of God, and others from the Jewish ranks too, though one by one and not many. Yet they too will come; for they will be called in the last times of the age, when the fullness of the nations has come in, as the all-wise Paul says.

“And the saints shall go out and see the corpses of the men who have transgressed against me. For their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be a spectacle to all flesh.”

By these words he seems to wish to indicate the calamities brought upon the Jews, which we say they endured at the hand of the Romans, when … of them all was laid waste. So, having suffered these things, they have become a spectacle to all flesh, and they have, as it were, an endless punishment. For this perhaps is what he suggests in saying that their worm will not die nor their fire be put to sleep. But some wish to refer what is said about these things to the time of the consummation of the age, when the corpses, as it were, of the transgressors will be thrown out, sent to punishment and to the endless flame. For there the worm of the punished will live continually, and the fire will not be quenched. But from all these things Christ will deliver us, through whom and with whom be glory to God the Father with the Holy Spirit, to the ages of ages. Amen.