Commentary on Ezekiel
The whole work on one page. Select a passage number to open that passage with its notes, Scripture references, and citation.
Chapter 44
44.22PL 25:460a–461 b
« Viduam et repudiatam (sive ejectam) non accipient uxores, sed virginem [Vulg. virgines] de semine domus Israel. Sed et viduam quae fuerit vidua a sacerdote, accipient : et populum meum docebunt quid sit inter sanctum et pollutum, et inter mundum et immundum ostendent eis. Et cum fuerit controversia (ut in LXX additum est, sanguinis) stabunt in judiciis meis. et judicabunt leges meas, et praecepta [Vulg. addit mea] in omnibus solemnitatibus meis custodient. » Omnis hic locus praecepta continet sacerdotum, qui post multa quae supra exposuimus, jubentur viduam, et repudiatam, sive ejectam, non accipere uxores. Vidua et repudiata est Synagoga, id est congregatio Judaeorum, quae Dominum non recepit. Unde ejecta, recte dicitur, sive vidua Synagoga. Ejecta vero haereticorum frequentia, qui exierunt a nobis, quia non erant ex nobis. Sed virginem, inquit, de semine domus Israel, quae nutrita est in domo Dei, in lege et prophetis, de qua et Apostolus loquitur : Volo omnes vos virginem sanctam exhibere Christo (II Cor. XI, 2). Ista est virgo de qua et alibi dicit sermo divinus : Ama illam, et servabit te : circumda illam, et exaltabit te : honora eam, ut te amplexetur (Prov. IV, 8). Quae sit autem virgo quae amanda sit, et suum custodiat amatorem, sciet qui illud legerit : Hanc dilexi et quaesivi ab adolescentia mea, et quaesivi sponsam ducere mihi, et amator fui decoris ejus (Sap. VIII, 2). Et iterum : Et omnium Dominus dilexit eam (Ibid. 3). Non solum autem virginem, sed et viduam debent sacerdotes ducere, quae tamen alterius sacerdotis uxor fuerit; scientiam videlicet, quam alius Dei cultor invenerit. Neque enim nova tantum contenti debemus esse doctrina, sed et veterem excolere, et nostro jungere comitatui, si tamen in sacro cultu fuerit erudita. Sacerdotis quoque officium est docere populum quid inter sanctum et pollutum, inter mundum et immundum sit : ut prius referamus ad dogmata, secundum ad opera quae per carnem efficiuntur. Delicta enim quis intelligit (Psal. XVIII, 13)? Et cum fuerit controversia de omni re, sive ut Septuaginta transtulerant, sanguinis, hoc est quod ad mortale pertinet crimen, stabunt sacerdotes in judiciis meis, ut non judicent secundum honorem, nec accipiant personam pauperis, sive divitis in judicio : sed stent in judiciis Dei, et recordentur illius psalmi : Deus stetit in synagoga deorum, in medio autem deos dijudicat (Psal. LXXXI, 1), deos appellans qui habent judicandi de hominibus potestatem : qui in quo judicio judicaverint, judicabitur de eis (Matth. VII). Leges, inquit, meas et praecepta mea in omnibus solemnitatibus meis custodient, ut sciant quomodo nobis Christus Pascha sit immolatus; quomodo septem hebdomadas implere debeamus gaudii atque laetitiae, et humiliare animas nostras in jejunio; clangoremque tubarum intelligere et scenopegias spirituales, in quibus dicimus : Advena sum ego et peregrinus sicut omnes patres mei (Psal. XXXVIII, 13). Haec sunt verae solemnitates Dei, quas consequentius quis Pentateuchum disserens interpretabitur. Prima virtus est sacerdotis, non tantum docere quae noverit, sed omnes Dei festivitates custodire, ut possit aliis custodienda praecipere quae et ipse observaverit. Sacerdotum autem officium esse legis habere notitiam, et in Malachia discimus, qui ait : Labia sacerdotis custodient scientiam, et legem requirent ex ore ejus : quia angelus Domini exercituum est (Malach. II, 7).
“They shall not take as wives a widow and a woman divorced (or put away), but a virgin of the seed of the house of Israel. But they shall also take a widow who has been the widow of a priest; and they shall teach my people what is between holy and polluted, and show them between clean and unclean. And when there is a dispute (to which the Septuagint adds “of blood”), they shall stand in my judgments, and judge my laws, and keep the precepts in all my solemn feasts.” This whole passage contains precepts for the priests, who, after the many things we have expounded above, are commanded not to take as wives a widow and a woman divorced, or put away. The widow and divorced woman is the Synagogue, that is, the congregation of the Jews, which did not receive the Lord; hence the Synagogue is rightly called put away, or widowed. The woman put away is the crowd of heretics, who went out from us because they were not of us. But “a virgin,” he says, “of the seed of the house of Israel,” who has been nourished in the house of God, in the law and the prophets, of whom the Apostle also speaks: “I wish to present all of you as a holy virgin to Christ.” This is the virgin of whom the divine word says elsewhere too: “Love her, and she will keep you; embrace her, and she will exalt you; honour her, that she may embrace you.” Which virgin it is that is to be loved and keeps her lover, he will know who reads this: “Her I loved and sought from my youth, and I sought to take her as my bride, and I was a lover of her beauty.” And again: “And the Lord of all loved her.” Not only a virgin, however, but also a widow the priests ought to marry, provided she was the wife of another priest: that is, the knowledge that another worshipper of God has found. For we ought not to be content with new teaching only, but also to cultivate the old and join it to our company, provided it has been trained in sacred worship. It is also the priest's office to teach the people what is between holy and polluted, between clean and unclean: so that we refer the first to doctrines, the second to the works that are done through the flesh. For “who understands his faults?” And “when there is a dispute” about anything, or, as the Seventy translated, “of blood,” that is, what pertains to a mortal crime, the priests “shall stand in my judgments,” so as not to judge according to rank, nor to respect the person of the poor or of the rich in judgment, but to stand in the judgments of God and remember that psalm: “God has stood in the assembly of gods; in the midst he judges gods,” calling gods those who have power to judge men; who will be judged with the judgment with which they judged. “My laws,” he says, “and my precepts they shall keep in all my solemn feasts,” so that they may know how Christ our Pascha was sacrificed for us; how we ought to fulfil seven weeks of joy and gladness, and humble our souls in fasting; and understand the blast of trumpets and the spiritual feasts of tabernacles, in which we say: “I am a stranger and a sojourner, like all my fathers.” These are the true solemn feasts of God, which anyone discussing the Pentateuch will interpret more fully. The first virtue of a priest is not only to teach what he knows but to keep all the feasts of God, so that he may enjoin on others to keep what he himself has observed. That it is the office of priests to have knowledge of the law, we learn also in Malachi, who says: “The lips of the priest shall guard knowledge, and they shall seek the law from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.”