Letters 78.4–78.30

'And the children of Israel set out from Rameses and camped at Succoth.' The second station. Here they bake unleavened bread and pitch tents for the first time, and from this fact the place took its name; for Succoth is interpreted in our language 'tabernacles' or 'tents'. And for this reason the feast of Tabernacles is on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. So when we have gone out of Egypt, we first pitch tents, knowing that we must go on further. Then we do not eat the leaven of Egypt, the leaven of malice and wickedness, but feed on the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, fulfilling in deed the Lord's commands: 'Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.' At this station we are commanded always to remember the going out of Egypt, to celebrate the passing over, that is, the Lord's phase, and to consecrate to the Lord the firstborn of our womb and of all the virtues, in place of the firstborn of Egypt that were struck down.

'And they set out from Succoth and camped at Etham, which is at the edge of the wilderness.' The third station comes after the tents; here the Lord is first seen, by night in a pillar of fire and by day in a pillar of cloud, to go before the people and be the leader of the journey. Etham means for us 'strength' and 'perfection', of which David also sings: 'You burst open the rivers of Etham,' that is, the strong rivers. It is great strength to leave Egypt and to stay at the edge of the wilderness. From this we understand that the place Succoth was still near the regions of Egypt. For in the words 'which is at the farthest edge of the wilderness' it is shown to be on the border between the desert and Egypt. Let us prepare strength for ourselves, let us take up perfect vigour, so that amid the darkness of errors and the confusion of night the light of the knowledge of Christ may appear. Let our day too have a sheltering cloud, so that with these as guides we may be able to reach the holy land.

'And they set out from Etham and turned back to Pihahiroth, which is opposite Baal-zephon, and camped before Migdol.' The fourth station is Pihahiroth, which is interpreted 'the mouth of the nobles', and is written with the letter heth. Some wrongly think hiroth means 'villages', a plain error, because they read the letter ain in place of the letter mentioned above. Baal-zephon is rendered in our language 'lord of the north', or 'ascent of the watchtower', or 'having secrets'; and Migdol 'greatness' or 'tower'. Having taken up strength, then, we are ennobled in the Lord, and we despise the secrets of the idol Baal-zephon and turn away from its magnificence and towering pride. For it is not from the south, whence the Lord comes, and from the noon, at which the bridegroom lies among the flowers, but it is the owner of the north, the coldest wind, from which evils blaze out upon the earth; and though it is the coldest, it is called by the name 'right-hand', falsely taking to itself the name of virtue and of the right hand, when it is wholly on the left.

'And they set out from Pihahiroth and passed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness, and went three days' journey in the wilderness of Etham, and camped at Marah.' The fifth station is Marah, which is interpreted 'bitterness'. They could not reach the depths of the Red Sea and see Pharaoh perishing with his army until they had nobility in their mouth, that is, virtues in the confession of the Lord, when they believed God and his servant Moses and heard from him, 'The Lord will fight for you, and you shall be silent'; and victorious, with Miriam leading on the timbrels of their bodies, they sounded the songs of triumph: 'Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously honoured; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.' After the preaching of the gospel, after the tents of those who migrate, after taking up strength, after the nobility of confession, dangers meet us again. From this we learn that ambushes must always be guarded against and God's mercy called upon, so that we may escape the pursuing Pharaoh and he may be drowned for us in spiritual baptism. When they came out of the Red Sea, the wilderness of Shur met them, which is also called the wilderness of Etham, in which for three days as they went in they had no water, and they came to Marah, which took its name from bitterness. The spring had water, but it had no sweetness. The people murmur, seeing the water and unable to bear drinking it. Understand Marah as the waters of the letter that kills: if the confession of the cross is cast into them and the mysteries of the Lord's passion are joined to them, all that seemed undrinkable, sad, and harsh is turned into sweetness. So it is also written: 'God set for the people a law and judgements, and tested them.' For where the greatness of grace is, there is the greatness of danger. And do not be frightened if after victory you come to bitterness; for those who keep the true Passover eat unleavened bread with bitter herbs, and testing produces proof, proof hope, and hope salvation. Among physicians too a certain antidote that tempers harmful humours is named from bitterness, which proves sweet by restoring health; just as, on the contrary, pleasure and luxury end in bitterness, as Scripture says: 'She who for a time makes your throat fat, at last you will find more bitter than gall.'

'And they set out from Marah and came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they camped there.' The sixth station is translated 'rams' and 'strong ones'. How beautiful the order of the virtues! After victory, testing; after testing, refreshment. From bitterness we come to the rams and the strong leaders of the flock, whom the Lord says in Ezekiel he will judge, because some of them trampled the waters and crowded the sheep, while others were gentle and peaceable. Of these the twenty-eighth Psalm also speaks: 'Bring to the Lord, you sons of God, bring to the Lord the offspring of rams.' We hold the lodging of the sixth station. Never before did the purest springs appear, except where the teaching of masters bursts forth. Nor is there any doubt that the twelve apostles are meant, from whose springs waters are drawn off to water the dryness of the whole world. Beside these waters seventy palms grew up, whom we also understand as teachers of the second rank, as the evangelist Luke testifies that there were twelve apostles and seventy disciples of lower rank, whom the Lord sent ahead of him two by two. Of them Paul too relates that the Lord appeared first to the twelve, and then to all the apostles, wishing some to be understood as the first and others as the second disciples of Christ. Let us drink from such springs, and, eating the sweet fruits of victory, prepare for the remaining stations.

'And they set out from Elim and camped by the Red Sea.' The Red Sea, which in Hebrew is called yam suph, is the seventh station. And the question is how, after crossing the Red Sea and the spring of Marah and Elim, they came to the Red Sea again, unless perhaps, as they went on their way, they came upon some bay of the sea, beside which they camped. For it is one thing to pass through the sea, another to pitch tents near it. From this we are warned that even after the discipline of the gospel, amid the sweetest food of triumphs, the sea sometimes appears to us and past dangers are set before our eyes; although there is much difference between crossing the sea and seeing it from afar. The word yam suph among the Hebrews is compounded of 'sea' and 'red'; but suph means both 'red' and 'rush'. So we may suspect that they came to some marsh or lake full of sedge and reeds. That holy Scripture calls every gathering of waters a sea there is no doubt. This station is not found in Exodus; instead it is written there that from the Red Sea they came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they went out of Egypt, that is, the thirty-first day after they left Rameses.

'And they set out from the Red Sea and camped in the wilderness of Sin.' The eighth station, though according to the order of Exodus it is the seventh. But it should be known that the whole desert up to Mount Sinai is called Sin, and the place of a single station took its name from the whole province, just as Moab is the name both of a city and of a province. In this wilderness there are five stations: yam suph, of which we spoke above, the desert of Sin, Dophkah, Alush, and Rephidim, of which we will speak in what follows. Sin is interpreted 'bush' or 'hatred', both of which serve the mystical sense: when we have come to the place where the Lord is to speak to us, we will earn the great hatred of the enemy. Then we will see the bush burning and not consumed, the church set on fire by persecutions and, since the Lord speaks in her, not perishing. And note that at the eighth station, where our winepresses are (for which the eighth Psalm too is headed by this title), we take the desert of the bush, because 'many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband.'

'And they set out from the wilderness of Sin and camped at Dophkah.' The ninth station. Among the Hebrews this name means krousma, that is, 'knocking', as the Lord also says, 'Knock, and it will be opened to you.' In the Book of Hebrew Names, however, I translated it 'cleaving' and 'release', which ought not to trouble the reader. Let him not think I write inconsistently; for there I gave the meaning according to the common reading, if the middle of the word is written with the letter beth; but here I found it written in the Hebrew volume with phe, a letter that signifies 'knocking' rather than 'glue'. And the sense is plain: after the Lord's answers, after the eighth number of Christ's resurrection, we begin to knock at the mysteries. I would ask the prudent and studious reader to know that I translate the names according to the Hebrew truth; for in the Greek and Latin manuscripts I have found almost all of them corrupt, except a few. And I wonder that some learned men of the church have chosen to translate what is not in the Hebrew and to seek invented explanations of badly interpreted words: as in the present case they read Raphaca for Dophkah, putting one letter for another because resh and daleth are distinguished by a tiny stroke, and interpret it 'healing', and then pursue a similar tropology.

'And they set out from Dophkah and camped at Alush.' The tenth station is not found in Exodus, and is thought to be included in the wilderness of Sin, as that book relates: 'The whole multitude of the children of Israel set out from the wilderness of Sin by their stations according to the mouth of the Lord, and came to Rephidim.' From this it is plain that several stations are indicated by the name of one region. Alush is interpreted 'leaven', which a woman took and mixed in three measures of flour until the whole was leavened. In this wilderness the people murmur because of hunger, and, turning round, see the glory of God far off in the cloud, and receive quails in the evening and manna in the morning of the next day. And note that at the tenth station leaven is set, and after the eating of flesh manna is given, and the Scripture is fulfilled: 'Man ate the bread of angels.'

'And they set out from Alush and camped at Rephidim; and there was no water there for the people.' This is the eleventh station, which I found in the Book of Hebrew Names forcedly interpreted as 'he saw a mouth sufficient for them' or else 'vision of the mouth of the strong'; it is better translated 'loosening of the strong' or 'healing of the strong', or, according to the idiom of the Syrian language, 'slackening of the hands'. This station is also read in Exodus, after the departure from the wilderness of Sin. In it the people complain in the heat of thirst; a spring bursts from the rock of Horeb and flows; and because they tempted God, the place Rephidim also received the name of 'temptation', that is, Massah. Moses goes up the mountain; Joshua fights against Amalek; at the sign of the cross the enemy is overcome; when the hands of the one praying slacken, the enemy pursues victorious. Moses sits on the stone spoken of in Zechariah, which had seven eyes, and which in the book of Samuel is called Ebenezer, that is, 'stone of help'; and Aaron and Hur, that is, 'mountainous' and 'shining', hold up each of his hands. When the adversary is defeated, Jethro arrives, brings Zipporah and both her sons, gives advice about the elders, and, as a type of the church gathered from the Gentiles, the lessening of the law's burden is accomplished at the prompting of the gospel. Rephidim is fittingly called 'loosening' and 'healing of the strong', either because Amalek was scattered or because Israel was healed. But if, according to the Syrians, Rephidim means 'slackening of the hands', we will say that this name was given to the place because of the people's offence in murmuring against the Lord. These things I touch on rather than expound, content to have indicated briefly that after the leaven, Alush, and the lump of the church, many kinds of temptations from demons usually rise up against us.

'And they set out from Rephidim and camped in the wilderness of Sinai.' This is the twelfth station. At once let the number of the apostles come into your mind. It is one of many, but the greater is not separated from all in order, and excels in merit. They reach this place on the forty-seventh day, as Scripture says: 'In the third month of the going out of the children of Israel from Egypt, on this day they came into the wilderness of Sinai; and setting out from Rephidim they came into the desert of Sinai and camped in the wilderness, and Israel sat there opposite the mountain. And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called him from the mountain, saying,' and the rest. And again: 'Go,' he says, 'to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes and be ready for the third day; for on the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai.' And so it was done. They washed their clothes, and, when they had separated themselves from intercourse with their wives, on the third day the Lord came down on the mountain; and while it smoked, and lightning, thunder, darkness, and the sound of the trumpet terrified the hearts of mortals, Moses spoke and the Lord answered him. Let us reckon the number, and we will find that the law was given on the summit of Mount Sinai on the fiftieth day after Israel went out of Egypt. From this the feast of Pentecost is celebrated, and afterwards the mystery of the gospel is fulfilled by the descent of the Holy Spirit; so that, as the law was given to the former people on the fiftieth day, the true jubilee, the true year of release, and the true fifty and five hundred denarii that are forgiven to debtors, so too the Holy Spirit came down on the apostles and those who were with them, a hundred and twenty in number, the number of the years of Moses, and, the tongues of the believers being divided, the whole world was filled with the preaching of the gospel. It would take long if I tried to go over what was commanded in the law, how the tabernacle was built, the variety of sacrifices, the diversity of vessels, the high priest's vestments, the ceremonies of priests and Levites, what they did, how the people were numbered. I will say only this: the middle part of Exodus, the whole book of Leviticus, no small part of the precepts of Numbers, the distribution of the people by tribes, and the offering of the princes are described at this station, and the discussion of many volumes could hardly do justice to this place. Sinai is interpreted 'bushes', not one bush, as above in the wilderness of Sin, but many: there was the beginning, here the completion; there the single number, here the manifold. For it is one thing to possess one grace, another to possess all.

'And they set out from the wilderness of Sinai and camped at the graves of craving.' The thirteenth station, whose name has been given with its interpretation, is called among the Hebrews Kibroth-hattaavah. Its sense is that of the gospel: Jesus, when he had been baptized, was immediately led by the Spirit into the desert and was tempted by the devil. So too Israel, after its familiar converse with God, when it had stayed by Mount Sinai for one year and four days, went out in a wonderful arrangement of the camp into the wilderness of Paran, which is interpreted 'wild ass' or 'wildness'; and there it succumbed to the evil beast, loathing the heavenly bread and longing for the flesh of Egypt, when a sudden fire devoured many, and at Moses' intercession the devouring flame consumed the smoke. Then they receive quails and gorge on them to the point of nausea and vomiting. Seventy elders are chosen and go to the door of the tabernacle; two remain behind, Eldad and Medad, not neglecting the command, but lowered by humility, thinking themselves unworthy of the honour; and so they prophesy while absent. And when the people had had their fill, 'while the food was still in their mouths, the wrath of God came up against them and slew their fat ones and hindered the chosen of Israel,' lest they run swiftly to evil. So the place was called the graves of craving, or, as we read in the Seventy, the memorials of desire. From all this we are taught, who have left secular wisdom and despised the fleshpots of Egypt, that we must not murmur against the heavenly bread of the Scriptures, nor seek the broths of the Egyptians, who are men 'of great flesh', but the simple food of manna. Otherwise, if we wish to hunger after them again, we shall devour to the point of nausea and at once be tormented by the Lord's fire, and our desire will be turned into tombs, so that we become whitewashed sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautiful to men but inwardly are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.

'And they set out from the graves of craving and camped at Hazeroth.' The fourteenth station, in the wilderness of Paran, which is rendered 'courts'. Here Aaron and Miriam murmur against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman; and, as a type of the jealousy against the church gathered from the Gentiles, the Jewish people is covered with the filth of leprosy, and does not return to the tabernacle and recover its former health until it has fulfilled the time appointed for the fullness of the Gentiles. And note this, prudent reader: after virtue had been completed in the number twelve, because Israel grew proud and in the graves of craving longed for the meat of Egypt, it lays another foundation and enters the courts, that is, the forecourts of virtue; showing us that those who stand can fall, and those who had fallen can rise again. Jesus is set for the fall and rising of many, and he himself says through the prophet: 'Shall he who falls not rise again?'

'And they set out from Hazeroth and camped at Rithmah'; for which we read above in this same book: 'After the people set out from Hazeroth, they camped in the wilderness of Paran.' This is the fifteenth station. And it should be noted that the remaining eighteen stations, of which a list is now briefly given, from Rithmah to Ezion-geber, that is, to the thirty-second station, are included under the name of the wilderness of Paran. We perceive that all that is written as having happened in them took place at different times; and since these events are not distributed by individual stations, we too shall speak of them together, so that we may afterwards come to the rest. Rithmah is translated 'sound' or 'juniper', although most contend that arkeuthos among the Greeks signifies another kind of tree. The juniper is also mentioned, according to the Hebrew truth, in the first of the Psalms of Ascents, where it is written, 'What shall be given to you, or what added to you, against a deceitful tongue?' And the prophet answered, 'Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper'; for which our version reads 'desolating coals'. They say that this wood keeps fire for a long time, so that if a live coal is covered with its ashes it lasts for up to a year. From this we learn that after the graves of craving and the forecourts we pass to the wood that keeps its heat a long time, so that we may be fervent in spirit, and preach the Lord's gospel with a clear sound and a voice lifted on high. From this station to the thirty-second the following histories are contained. Twelve spies are sent to the holy land; the cluster of grapes is carried back on a pole, and Christ's passion is briefly shown. The Jewish people murmur, dreading the attack of the giants. They fight against Amalek and the Canaanite against God's will, and when defeated they understand what sacrifices they must offer in the holy land. Dathan and Abiram and the sons of Korah rise up against Moses and Aaron and are swallowed in a chasm of the earth. The high priest, armed with a censer, steps between the dead and the living, and the running wrath of God is stopped by the priest's voice. The rod of Aaron brings forth both flower and leaves, and its dryness, turned green, is preserved as an everlasting memorial. There is not yet a temple and there are already temple-keepers; priests and Levites have not yet offered sacrifices, and the mystical word describes their portions. A red heifer is burned as a whole offering, and its ash is the sprinkling for purification. The figures of all these call for books of their own, and I think it better to be silent than to say little.

'And they set out from Rithmah and camped at Rimmon-perez.' The sixteenth station, which is interpreted in Greek rhoias diakope, in Latin 'division of the Punic apple', which others call the pomegranate. The fruit of this tree is taken in two ways in the Scriptures: either as the bosom of the church, which covers the whole crowd of believers with its rind, or as the variety and harmony of the virtues, according to what is written, 'The multitude of believers had one heart and one soul'; and so the individual ranks are divided in such a way that all are held together in the same structure.

'And they set out from Rimmon-perez and camped at Libnah.' The seventeenth station, which we can render 'bricks', though some, translating it as Lebonah, have wrongly interpreted it 'whiteness'. We read of the Egyptian bricks in Exodus, in making which the people groaned; we read in Malachi of those which, when they were destroyed, Edom strives to replace with polished stones; and of the brick in Ezekiel on which the picture of besieged Jerusalem is drawn. From these we learn that on the journey of this life, in passing from one thing to another, we now grow and now decrease, and after the rank of the church often move off again to the works of bricks.

'And they set out from Libnah and camped at Rissah.' The eighteenth station is rendered 'bridles'. For if after progress we go down again to the works of clay, we must be bridled, and our wandering and headlong courses must be directed by the reins of the Scriptures. As far as my memory serves, I know that I have found this word nowhere else in the holy Scriptures among the Hebrews except in an apocryphal book which the Greeks call the Lepte, that is, the Little Genesis; there, in the building of the tower, it is used for the stadium in which boxers and athletes are trained and the speed of runners is tested. The psalmist too says, 'With bridle and bit bind the jaws of those who do not come near to you'; and the apostle: 'Do you not know that those who run in the stadium all run, but one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.'

'And they set out from Rissah and camped at Kehelathah.' The nineteenth station is interpreted 'church'. The wandering steps of runners are drawn back by bridles to the church, and they hasten to enter again the doors they had left before.

'And they set out from Kehelathah and camped at Mount Shepher.' The twentieth station is interpreted 'beauty', and is set on the mountain of beauty, of which the beginning of the fourteenth Psalm also speaks: 'Lord, who shall dwell in your tabernacle, or who shall rest on your holy mountain?' See what bridles are good for: they draw us back from vices, lead us into the choirs of the virtues, and make us dwell in Christ, the most beautiful mountain. He, according to Daniel, is the stone cut from the mountain without hands, which grew into a great mountain and filled the whole earth; he, according to Ezekiel, wounded the prince of Tyre; to him, in Isaiah and Micah, the peoples flow, saying, '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 ways, and we will walk in his paths.'

'And they set out from Mount Shepher and camped at Haradah.' The twenty-first station is rendered 'wonder'. How beautiful the order of progress, how excellent the weaving together of believers! After the work of bricks we are bridled; after the bridles we are led into the church; after dwelling in the church we go up to Christ the mountain; and set there we are amazed and marvel, so that our speech in his praises is overcome as we find in him things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man.

'And they set out from Haradah and camped at Makheloth.' The twenty-second station is rendered 'assemblies'. For here the multitude of believers stands, the church of the firstborn, the harmony of all the virtues. Then we can truly say: 'Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell in unity!' and, 'The Lord makes those of one way of life dwell in a house.'

'And they set out from Makheloth and camped at Tahath.' The twenty-third station can also be understood as 'beneath', but we will better interpret it as 'fear'. You have come to the church, you have gone up to the most beautiful mountain, with amazement and wonder you confess the greatness of Christ, you see there many companions of your virtue: 'Do not be high-minded, but fear.' For 'the Lord resists the proud but gives grace to the humble', and he who exalts himself, 'let him take heed lest he fall'. 'The mighty will suffer torments mightily.' Fear is the guardian of the virtues; a sense of security is quick to fall. So in a certain psalm, after the prophet had said, 'The Lord rules me and I shall lack nothing; in a place of pasture there he has set me,' he adds fear, which is the guardian of blessedness, and says, 'Your rod and your staff, they have comforted me.' And the sense is: while I dread torments, I have kept the grace I had received.

'And they set out from Tahath and camped at Terah.' The twenty-fourth station, which some render 'malice' or 'pasture'; nor would they be wrong if it were written with the letter ain; but as it is, since there is a double aspiration in the last syllable, the cause of the error is plain. I find Abraham's father written with this same name and the same letters; in the apocryphal book of Genesis mentioned above, he received the name 'driver away' or 'expeller' because he drove off the crows that were laying waste people's corn. So let us too imitate Terah and carefully keep off the birds of the air, which hasten to devour the wheat sown by the wayside. For the patriarch Abraham too, as a type of Israel, divided the limbs of the victims and did not allow the sacrifices to be devoured by birds; and the ravens of the valleys dig out the eye that scorns; and the true Moses and Elijah takes an Ethiopian wife and is fed by ravens. If you have fear, you will be watchful; if you are watchful, the lion will not be able to enter the folds of your sheep. Apply this either to those set over the churches or to the guarding of your own soul, into which the devil tries to enter through the various openings of the vices.

'And they set out from Terah and camped at Mithkah.' The twenty-fifth station is rendered 'sweetness'. You have gone up to the height, you have marvelled at the choirs of the virtues, you have feared a fall, you have driven off those who lay in wait: at once the sweet fruit of labour follows you; as with learning, the sweetness of the fruit will make up for the bitterness of the roots, and you will say, 'How sweet are your words to my throat, sweeter than honey to my mouth!' And you will hear the bridegroom singing to you, 'Your lips drip honey, my sister, my bride.' For what is sweeter than discipline? What is better than learning? What is sweeter than the Lord? 'Taste and see that the Lord is sweet.' So Samson too, who had driven away the birds from his crops, bound the foxes that destroy the vineyards, and killed the roaring lion, found a honeycomb in the mouth of the dead beast.

'And they set out from Mithkah and camped at Hashmonah.' The twenty-sixth station means in our language 'haste', according to what is written in the psalm: 'Envoys will come from Egypt'; for 'envoys' we read in the Hebrew 'those who hasten'. So that, after we have reaped the sweet fruits of our labour, we may not be content with rest and leisure, but, hastening on again to what lies further, we may forget what is behind and stretch forward to what is to come.

'And they set out from Hashmonah and camped at Moseroth.' The twenty-seventh station means 'bonds' or 'disciplines': that we should go with hurried step to our teachers and wear down their thresholds, and consider the precepts of the virtues and the mysteries of the Scriptures as everlasting bonds, according to what is said in Isaiah, 'And the Sabeans, men of stature, will pass over to you and be yours; they will walk behind you bound in fetters,' and, 'Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ.' In the Scriptures there are two kinds of bonds; as long as Samson broke them, he conquered his enemies. And in Ecclesiastes we read of the harlot, 'A bond is in her hands'; and in the person of the Lord, who says, 'Let us break their bonds and cast their yoke from us'; and elsewhere, 'The snare is broken and we are set free.' But the bonds of Christ are voluntary and turn into embraces. Whoever is bound by them will say, 'His left hand is under my head, and his right hand will embrace me.'

'And they set out from Moseroth and camped at Bene-jaakan.' The twenty-eighth station is translated 'sons of necessity' or 'of gnashing'. If you begin from one and, adding little by little, reach seven, the number twenty-eight results. Who are these sons of necessity? Let the psalm itself teach us: 'Bring to the Lord, you sons of God, bring to the Lord the offspring of rams.' What is this great necessity that is laid on the unwilling? When you have been instructed in the divine Scriptures, and know their laws and testimonies to be the bonds of truth, you will contend with adversaries, bind them, lead them captive in chains, and make free sons of God out of those who were once enemies and captives; so that you will suddenly say with Zion: 'I was barren and not bearing, exiled and captive; who has brought up these? I was left alone; where were these?' You marvel at Isaiah; learn the mysteries of the same psalm: 'The voice of the Lord in power, the voice of the Lord in majesty, the voice of the Lord breaking the cedars'; so that, after he has broken the adversaries and shaken the peoples of the Gentiles, once deserted, 'the stags may be prepared on the mountains', and 'the beloved may be like the son of unicorns', and 'in his temple everyone may say, Glory.' Further, what we translate 'sons of gnashing' refer to this sense: that crowds of believers, out of fear of punishment and of that place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, abandon the devil's bonds and bow their necks to Christ the Lord.