Commentary on Ezekiel
Latin source: Jerome's commentary on Ezekiel, in fourteen books, with a prologue and a preface to each later book, all addressed to Eustochium (written at Bethlehem about 410–414), from the critical text of F. Glorie, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 75 (Turnhout, 1964), pp. 3–743, verified against the page images and collated with Vallarsi's edition (Venice, 1768), with the edition's evident misprints corrected. Each lemma gives Ezekiel in Jerome's own version from the Hebrew and then, after "LXX:", in his Latin of the Septuagint, in quotation marks; all Scripture is translated as Jerome quotes it, from his own Latin. Italics mark the lemmata and the other Scripture and authors he quotes. Psalms keep the Latin (LXX) numbering, with the Hebrew number in parentheses where it differs. Greek is kept as printed, and Hebrew in Jerome's Latin transliterations, with an English gloss in square brackets; the Origenian signs of the Septuagint lemmata are kept. Glorie's supplements are read into the text, the words he brackets as spurious are omitted, and his critical apparatus is not translated. This English translation is released into the public domain.
Prologue
Having finished the eighteen volumes of explanations on Isaiah, I was eager to pass on to Ezekiel, which I had often promised to you and to your mother Paula of holy memory, O Eustochium, virgin of Christ, and to put the final hand, as the saying goes, to the prophetic work; and behold, suddenly the death of Pammachius and Marcella, the siege of the city of Rome, and the falling asleep of many brothers and sisters were announced to me. And I was so dismayed and stunned that day and night I thought of nothing else but the safety of all, and considered myself a captive in the captivity of the saints, nor could I open my mouth until I learned something more certain, while I hang anxious between hope and despair and torment myself with the misfortunes of others. But after the brightest light of all the earth was extinguished, nay rather, after the head of the Roman empire was cut off and, to speak more truly, the whole world perished in one city, I became mute and was humbled and kept silent from good things, and my sorrow was renewed; my heart grew hot within me, and in my meditation a fire will blaze up; nor did I think that saying should be neglected: Music in mourning is an untimely tale. But since you too demand this unceasingly, and a scar is gradually drawn over the great wound, and the Scorpion is pressed down beneath the soil of Trinacria between Enceladus and Porphyrion, and the Hydra of many heads has at last ceased to hiss against us, and a time has been given in which we ought to devote ourselves not to answering the snares of heretics but to the exposition of the Scriptures, I shall take up the prophet Ezekiel, whose difficulty the tradition of the Hebrews proves. For among them, unless someone has completed the age of priestly ministry, that is, the thirtieth year, he is permitted to read neither the beginnings of Genesis, nor the Song of Songs, nor the beginning and end of this volume, so that the full time of human nature may come to perfect knowledge and to mystical understandings. If by the mercy of the Lord I bring this work through to the finish, I shall pass on to Jeremiah, who in his Lamentations, under the type of Jerusalem, laments the four quarters of the world with a fourfold alphabet.
Book One
1:1a
And it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth, on the fifth of the month. The thirtieth year is spoken of not, as most suppose, with reference to the age of the prophet, nor to the jubilee, which is the year of remission, but counting from the eighteenth year of Josiah king of Judah, when the book of Deuteronomy was found in the temple of God, up to the fifth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin, surnamed Jeconiah, who was led into Babylon with his mother and with Daniel and the three youths and Ezekiel — this is the first captivity of the tribe of Judah, when the wrath of God dripped down upon Jerusalem —. According to the ἀναγωγὴν [anagogy, the higher sense], however, the Lord and Savior is prefigured, who at thirty years of age came to baptism, which is the perfect age in a man. Hence also in the book of Numbers, according to the Hebrews, the priests begin to minister in the tabernacle not from the twenty-fifth year of age, as is contained in the Seventy, but from the thirtieth. As a sign of this Joseph too went before, when in Egypt he bestowed grain on the hungry people, and John the Baptist came to the streams of the Jordan and preached the baptism of repentance. In what is written, 'in the fourth', with the sentence left hanging, 'month' is understood; for at once there follows 'on the fifth of the month'. To make this plainer, the Seventy added it above.
1:1b-2
When I was in the midst of the captives beside the river Chebar, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. On the fifth of the month, that is the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin. That the captive people sat by the river of Babylon, David prophesies in the spirit: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept; Chebar, moreover, is either the name of a river or certainly, according to its interpretation, by which it is rendered 'heavy', it signifies the Tigris and the Euphrates and all the great and very heavy rivers which are said to be in the land of the Chaldeans; and understand the opened heavens not by a division of the firmament but by the faith of the believer, because the heavenly mysteries were unlocked to him. Hence also at the baptism of the Savior, when the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove, we read 'the heavens opened'; and when these are unlocked, visions are laid open, not one vision but many, as the Lord says through the prophet: I will multiply visions, and in the hands of the prophets I have been likened. These are the visions which the whole prophecy of Ezekiel has woven together. And more meaningfully, according to the Hebrews and the other translators, Jehoiachin's is called an 'exile', and not a 'captivity', as the Seventy translated; for he was not captured when the city was overcome, but, surrendering himself of his own will, was led to Babylon: therefore let that of Jehoiachin, that is, of Jeconiah, be called the first 'exile', and that of Zedekiah the second or final 'captivity'.
1:3a
The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the son of Buzi, the priest, in the land of the Chaldeans beside the river Chebar. Both to Daniel and to Ezekiel, who were in Babylon beside the rivers, the mysteries of things to come are laid open above the waters, nay rather in the purest waters, so that the power of baptism might be shown. Besides, the apostle Paul too, when he was washed in the Lord by Ananias, scales having first covered his eyes, was freed of blindness. And in Genesis the first things that lived came forth from the waters. This too is to be understood: that the Lord came to baptism in the thirtieth year of his age; in the fourth month, which among us is called January and stands first at the beginning of the year, apart from Nisan, the month of new things, in which the Passover is celebrated — for among the eastern peoples, after the gathering of the crops and the winepresses, when the tithes were brought into the temple, October was the first month and January the fourth —; and he adds the fifth day of the month, and it signifies the baptism in which the heavens were opened to Christ, and the day of the Epiphany is venerable to this day — not, as some think, his birth in the flesh, for then he was hidden and did not appear. This fits that time when it was said: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Further, 'Buzi' is rendered in our language 'spurned' and 'despised', 'Hiezechiel' [Ezekiel] 'strengthened by God'. This will be fitted to the Lord thus, that we may say that the Creator of the world, because he is the Father of the Savior, is spurned and despised by all the heretics who do not receive the Old Testament. Nor is it surprising that the Lord is the strong one of God, since he himself is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1:3b
And the hand of the Lord came upon him there. (LXX: "And the hand of the Lord came upon me.") In order that we may be able to discern and understand the visions of God, we need the hand and strength of God upon us. By this hand and arm the people of Israel was led out of Egypt; its mighty works even the magicians partly understood, saying: This is the finger of God; and the Savior in the Gospel: If I cast out demons by the finger of God, in place of which it is written in another Gospel: If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God.
1:4a
And I saw, and behold, a wind of whirlwind was coming from the north, and a great cloud, and a fire enfolding, and brightness round about it. (LXX: "And I saw, and behold, a spirit carrying away — or lifting up — was coming from the north, and a great cloud in it, and fire flashing, and brightness round about it.") For the consolation of the exiled people and the revelation of the sentence of God, the prophet saw a very great vision. In its interpretation all the synagogues of the Jews are mute, saying that it is beyond man to wish to attempt anything either concerning this or concerning the building of the temple, which is written at the end of this prophecy. We, however, entrust to kindly and faithful readers what we have received from our elders and what, according to the small measure of our poor talent, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, we can surmise rather than explain, begging pardon, that they may look with favor on our rashness — nay rather, on a faith that does not know its own measure — rather than be angry. And first it must be known that the 'spirit lifting up or carrying away', which we, following Aquila, have translated 'wind of whirlwind', and, following Symmachus and Theodotion, 'blast and spirit of tempest', is taken by some in a good sense, by others in the contrary sense. For the Hebrew word 'ruha', according to the character of the passages, is taken either as 'spirit' or as 'soul' or as 'wind'. Spirit, as there: You will send forth your spirit and they will be created; soul: His spirit will go forth, and he will return to his earth; wind: With a violent spirit you will shatter the ships of Tarshish, and elsewhere: Fire, sulphur and the spirit of storms, the portion of their cup. Those who read 'wind' and 'blast of tempest' understand this: that the wrath and fury of God comes from the north, that is, Nebuchadnezzar, and that Jerusalem was to be taken six years after this vision. For the vision is seen in the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin, which was also the fifth of Zedekiah, reigning in Jerusalem, who, we read, likewise after six years, that is, in the eleventh year of his rule, when the city was taken, was led into Babylon. To those, therefore, who dwelt beside the river Chebar and had surrendered themselves to the king of their own accord, it is revealed that they did well to obey the sentence of God: for in a short time both the province of Judea and the city of Jerusalem would be taken. And as for a great cloud being described, we understand that it carries showers and rains over Judea; and the enfolded fire shows the punishments to come and the evils of captivity; and the brightness round about it signifies the open judgments of God. But those who take it in the contrary sense, that is, the good one, understand the spirit carrying away or lifting up as the Holy Spirit, who carries away vices and sins from men, or lifts up those who lie low to the heights, and makes them withdraw from the north, that most frigid wind, from which: Evils blaze up upon all the earth; and in Jeremiah that terrible pot is kindled from the face of the north. The great cloud too they refer to the person of Christ, who came into the Egypt of this world upon a light cloud, and they say that it is properly called great by comparison with lesser ones, namely the prophets and the apostles and all the saints, of whom it is written: And your truth even to the clouds, and: I will command the clouds not to rain a shower upon Israel, and elsewhere: The clouds, the dust of his feet, and again: Clouds and darkness round about him. The flashing fire also, and the brightness round about it, they take according to what is written: God is a consuming fire. To send this upon the earth the Savior says that he came, and he desires it to burn in us and in all believers; and though it brings terror and punishments upon sinners, yet it glows red with brightness and is full of light and radiance. Therefore it refines us, so that it may bestow more joyful things on us when we are pure and cleansed.
1:4b
And from the midst of it as it were the appearance of electrum, that is, from the midst of the fire. (LXX: "And in the midst of it as it were a vision of electrum in the midst of the fire." And what follows: ÷ And brightness in it ⁚, is to be marked beforehand with an obelus.) Had Scripture not added, saying: That is, from the midst of the fire, we could have erred because of the ambiguity of the word, so as to think that the appearance or vision of electrum was in the midst of the wind or spirit. This, therefore, is to be understood: that in the midst of the fire, or of the torments of God, there is the likeness of electrum, which is more precious than gold and silver; and that after judgment and torments, which seem rough and hard to those who suffer them, the gleam of electrum appears more precious, since all things are governed by the providence of God, and what is thought a punishment is a medicine.
1:5
And in the midst of it the likeness of four living creatures, and this their appearance: the likeness of a man in them. In the midst 'of it': 'of the electrum' is indeed understood, but it is better that we understand 'of the fire', which is light to believers, punishment to unbelievers. In the midst of this fire, therefore, was the likeness of four living creatures — a likeness, not a nature —, and of the four living creatures, which are afterwards called fourfold in form, there is one likeness, that of a man, so that all the rational beings in the world may be pointed out: Let us make, he says, man after our image and likeness — now the image and likeness of God is not a form of the body but of the mind, drawn after the likeness of the true image, Christ, which is the image of the invisible God —. These rational creatures dwell in four places, either because of the four hinges of the world by which the globe is enclosed, or because of the four places of the heavenly, the earthly, the infernal and the supercelestial beings, of which the apostle Paul also speaks: That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things heavenly, earthly and infernal. For three there is the testimony of Paul; let us see the fourth too: Praise God, heavens of heavens, and let the water that is above the heavens praise the name of the Lord; and again the Apostle speaks of heavenly things and of others that are supercelestial.
1:6-8a
Four faces to one and four wings to one; and their feet, straight feet, and the sole of their foot as the sole of a calf's foot, and sparks as the appearance of glowing bronze. And the hand of a man under their wings on the four sides. (LXX: "And four faces to one and four wings to one, and their legs straight, and their feet winged. And sparks as flashing bronze, and their wings light. And the hand of a man under their wings on their four sides.") Concerning the four living creatures whose appearance was the likeness of a man, but in such a way that each had four faces and four wings, and straight feet, and the sole of the foot 'as the footprint of a calf's foot' or, as Aquila translated, 'round' — which the Seventy omitted entirely —; concerning the sparks also, glowing red with the brightness of bronze, and their light wings, which is not found in the Hebrew; concerning the hand of a man too under their wings on the four sides, and the rest that the prophetic discourse describes, we shall try to say what seems right to us, once we have briefly summed up the opinions of individuals. Some, whom we too followed in the preface of the Commentaries on Matthew, think that the four Gospels are designated by the names of these living creatures: Matthew's, because he described as it were a man: The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham; that of the lion they refer to Mark: The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight; that of the calf to the Gospel of Luke, which begins with the priesthood of Zechariah; that of the eagle to the opening of John, who, flying up to the height, began: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word: on which we said in the above-mentioned work what seemed right to us; and more fully in the Revelation of John the forms and names of these living creatures are referred to the four Gospels: how the description of all the living creatures can be fitted to them, we shall try to say in its place. Others, however, who follow the foolish wisdom of the philosophers, surmise the two hemispheres in the two cherubim of the temple, and ourselves and the antipodes as men lying, as it were, on their backs and falling. Most, following Plato, refer the rational, the irascible and the concupiscible part of the soul, which he calls λογικὸν and θυμικὸν and ἐπιθυμητικὸν, to the man and the lion and the calf: placing reason and thought and mind and counsel, the same being virtue and wisdom, in the citadel of the brain; ferocity, however, and wrath and violence in the lion, which resides in the gall; further, lust, luxury and the desire of all pleasures in the liver, that is, in the calf, which clings to the works of the earth; and they posit a fourth, which is above these and beyond these three, which the Greeks call συνείδησιν — the spark of conscience which is not extinguished even in the breast of Cain, after he was cast out of paradise, and by which, when we are overcome by pleasures or by fury, and at times deceived by the very likeness of reason, we perceive that we sin —; this they assign properly to the eagle, not mingling itself with the three but correcting the three when they stray; and we read that in the Scriptures it is sometimes called spirit, which intercedes for us with unspeakable groanings. For no one knows the things that are of a man, except the spirit that is in him; and Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, prays that it be kept whole together with soul and body. And yet we see this very conscience too, according to what is written in Proverbs: The wicked man, when he has come into the depth of sins, despises, cast down in some and losing its place, who have not even shame and modesty in their offenses and deserve to hear: The face of a harlot has become yours, you do not know how to blush. This four-horse chariot, then, God guides after the manner of a charioteer; and when it runs with disordered steps he reins it in, makes it docile and compels it to obey his command. This discussion of the parts of the soul, that is, of man, who is called the lesser world by the same philosophers, we too shall touch upon. There are those who think, simply, that in the four living creatures, according to the opinion of Hippocrates, the four elements are shown of which all things consist: fire, air, water, earth; how these are mixed with one another and, though each is single, are seen joined to one another and touch one another, and have in the one person of the living creatures four forms and figures, is not the business of the present work. The four wheels too, rising from earthly things to the heights, joined to the single and fourfold living creatures, they reckon to be either the mingling of these same elements, or the cycle of the four seasons, each completed in three months, and the turning year, which has taken its name from the fact that it is always turning and returns into itself; of which it was beautifully said in a single little verse: Spring, summer, autumn, winter, and month, and year. And what is said, 'There was a wheel in a wheel', they think signifies 'a year in a year', of which another poet says: And the year rolls back into itself along its own footsteps. The likeness of the firmament too, which is compared to crystal, they would have understood as this heaven which we look up at, under which the four living creatures roll and pass. And the throne of the color of sapphire, and the man seated upon it in human likeness, they assert describe the dominion of him who rules all things and has all things under his feet, of the Omnipotence; and that at the end it is said: This, the vision of the likeness of the glory of the Lord, through which, as through a kind of painting and image, providence is shown. And as to the feet of the living creatures being called straight, and the sole of the foot a calf's, or round, they hold that every earthly thing flies up to heavenly things and, all angles being cut away, follows roundness, which is the most beautiful of all figures; that the glowing sparks indicate that all things are full of light; and that the hand of a man under the wings, of the man himself as well as of the lion and the calf and the eagle, means that reason should sustain all things and lift them up from earthly lowliness to heavenly things. These things we can refer both to the Gospels and to all that we have set out above. I remember having heard that the four passions, which Cicero discusses most fully in the Tusculans — of joy, of distress, of desire and of fear, of which two concern things present, two things to come —, are signified by the four living creatures — of which Vergil too says briefly: Hence they fear and desire, grieve and rejoice —; that these ought to be ruled by reason and the power of God; and that against them are set — nay rather, set over them — four virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, so that they may be governed by their judgment; but how these are fitted to the faces of the man, the lion, the calf and the eagle, they have said nothing at all; on these the same philosopher and orator discourses in his three books of Duties addressed to his son. I have read too a short little discussion of a certain Catina, whom the Syrians call λεπτὸν, that is, 'sharp' and 'ingenious', who thinks that the order of the camp of the twelve tribes in the wilderness is described, to the east, west, north and south, which are joined to one another both by love and by kinship, and that this is the wheel in a wheel; which are led by the spirit and protected by the cloud in the desert and lit by the pillar of fire at night, so that they may not return to Egypt but may always hasten to go to the land of promise. The likeness of electrum in the midst he interprets as the Holy of Holies, and he refers the face of the man to all Israel, that of the lion to the royal scepter of Judah, that of the calf to the priestly and Levitical tribe; outside these is the eagle, the vengeance and retribution of God, looking out over all things from heaven and ready to tear the sinner, of which it is said also in Hosea: As an eagle over the house of God, that is, the temple; and he holds that in this same prophet the great eagle with great wings and talons, which has the course for entering into Lebanon, is understood as Nebuchadnezzar, whom it signifies even now to be about to come; and that God sits upon a chariot of this kind like a charioteer and commands what is to be done and what is not to be done. This, moreover, he says, is said to the people who live in Babylon: that if it submits its neck to God and obeys his reins, it will again merit his help and recover the land which it had lost.
1:8b-9
And they had faces and wings on the four sides; and its wings were joined, one to the other. They did not turn back when they advanced, but each one proceeded before its face. The Gospels are joined to one another and cling together, and, flying through the whole world, they run hither and thither; they have no end to their flight, nor are they ever overcome and retreat, but they always advance to higher things; hence Paul also says: Forgetting what is past and stretching myself out toward what is to come. This same thing we can say both of the virtues of the mind and of the flight of the seasons and the mingling of the elements: that, leaving the past behind, they always hasten toward what lies ahead. That the seasons glide and flee is shown in a short little verse: But meanwhile it flees, irretrievable time flees, and in a lyric poem: Alas, Postumus, Postumus, the fleeting years glide by ...
1:10
Now the likeness of their countenance: the face of a man, and the face of a lion on the right of the four of them, and the face of an ox on the left of the four of them, and the face of an eagle above the four of them. By the faces he means the beginnings of the Gospels, of which the man and the lion, that is, the birth of Christ and the voice of the prophet thundering in the desert, hold the right side; but that of the calf, that is, of the victims and the priesthood of the Jews, is on the left, because, abolished, it has passed over to the spiritual priesthood of which it was said: You are a priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek; yet only in such a way that all cling to one another and are reckoned as one body; the eagle, however, which is above the birth, is also above the prophecy which is fulfilled by the coming of the Lord, and above the priesthood which has passed away, and is outside all these, telling of the spiritual birth, how the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father, of which it is most rightly said: His generation who shall declare?. These are, according to the Revelation, as we have already said before: Four living creatures full of eyes before and behind, of which one living creature like a lion, and the second like a calf, and the third having a face as of a man, and the fourth like a flying eagle; and there they are said, after the manner of the seraphim, to have six wings each, covering their face with two and their feet with two, and flying with two, and ceasing neither by day nor by night, and saying: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.
1:11
And their faces and their wings stretched out above; two wings of each were joined, and two covered their bodies. We said above too that the Gospels and the seasons and all rational creatures and the four virtues are joined to one another, so that whoever lacks one lacks all. That two are stretched out and lift themselves on high signifies the heavenly preaching, and that all things tend toward the majesty of God. By the two, however, by which the bodies are covered, human knowledge is shut out, and no perfect view is granted, as the Apostle says: We know in part and we prophesy in part. But when what is perfect has come, the things that are in part will be destroyed.
1:12
And each one walked before its face. Wherever the impulse of the spirit was, there they went, and they did not turn back when they walked. He who holds the handle of the plough ought not to look back behind him, nor imitate Lot's wife, lest he fall into the plague of Deuteronomy and perish by an incurable ὀπισθοτόνῳ [opisthotonos, a spasm that bends the body backward], by which Eli too fell, because he had offended God through the fault of his sons; how much more the four living creatures, which were full of light and winged, which follow the Holy Spirit going before them, which so fly through the world and raise themselves to the heights that they cover their bodies with the wings of history and do not grant us a fuller view? That it is said a second time: They did not turn back when they advanced, points to the mystery of both Testaments: that in these four living creatures both the Law and the Gospel hasten toward things to come and never take a backward motion.
1:13-14
And the likeness of the living creatures: their appearance as of burning coals of fire, and as the appearance of lamps. This was the vision running about in the midst of the living creatures: the brightness of fire, and lightning going forth from the fire. And the living creatures went and returned in the likeness of flashing lightning. (LXX: "And in the midst of the living creatures a vision, as of burning coals of fire, as the face of lamps running about in the midst of the living creatures; and the brightness of fire, and from the fire there went forth as it were lightning." And what follows: And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of 'bezec', was added in the Seventy from the edition of Theodotion; for they, lest the prophet should seem to utter two statements rather contrary to each other, thought that what they supposed to be contrary, that is: And the living creatures ran and returned, should be passed over in silence, lest it cause the reader to stumble; but it is better in the divine books to translate what has been said, even if you do not understand why it was said, than to take away what you do not know; otherwise many other things too, which are ineffable and which the human mind cannot grasp, will be deleted by this license.) We, however, say this: that, just as in Proverbs it is written in the same place: Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you become like him, and again there is set down what seems to us to be contrary: Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he seem wise to himself, and both agree according to the difference of times and persons, since the fool is both despised because he does not receive wisdom, and foolish pride is knocked down by another folly, according to what the Apostle also says: I have become foolish; you compelled me, so in this place too we ought to ask why above it was said twice: The living creatures did not turn back when they advanced, and now once: The living creatures ran and returned; and there would be a problem were it not followed by: In the likeness of flashing lightning, which in the Hebrew tongue is called 'bezec', and which Symmachus translated: As the appearance of a ray of lightning. As the sky flashes with frequent fires, and in the twinkling of an eye and in a moment the lightnings dart about and return, not losing their womb and, so to speak, the source and matter of the fire, so these living creatures too, when they proceed with unstumbling foot, hasten toward what lies ahead. But if they see something set against their effort, they do not so much turn back as draw themselves in, to stretch out again and to offer the light which they had hidden for a little while, so that they may give the servants their rations in their season, and not give what is holy to dogs, nor cast pearls before swine; hence Paul too says: I gave you milk to drink, not food, for you were not yet able to take it; and the choosing of Judas and the anointing of Saul do not convict God of ignorance of things to come, but show that he is the judge of things present; hence also the apostles are commanded that, if they perceive a house to be unworthy of their greeting, they should first shake off their running feet, and the peace which they had given to the house should return to them. The coals of burning fire, however, and the lamps running about in the midst of the living creatures are to be interpreted from that passage in Isaiah: And the fire devoured the matter like hay, and he will sanctify them in burning fire; of which it is also written elsewhere: Coals of fire will fall upon them; and against deceitful lips it is said in another psalm: What shall be given to you, or what shall be added to you, against the deceitful tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty, with desolating coals; and in another place: You have coals of fire, you will sit upon them; these will be a help to you. Whatever creature we look at flashes forth the knowledge of God, since from the creatures the Creator is recognized; and from the midst of the living creatures the brightness of fire and lightning goes forth: for if the Gospels have struck against one another, in the midst of the letter and of the lowly history you will find the mysteries of the Holy Spirit.
1:15-18
And when I looked at the living creatures, there appeared one wheel upon the earth beside the living creatures that had four faces. And the appearance of the wheels and their work as the vision of the sea, and one likeness of the four of them; and their appearance and works as if it were a wheel in the midst of a wheel. Going by their four sides they went, and they did not turn back when they walked. The wheels had also stature and height and a dreadful appearance, and the whole body full of eyes round about the four of them. (LXX: "And I saw, and behold, one wheel upon the earth following the four living creatures. And the appearance of the wheels and their making as the appearance of tharsis. And a likeness in the four, and their work as a wheel is wont to be in a wheel. On their four sides they walked, and did not turn back when they walked. And their backs, and they had height. And I saw them, and their backs full of eyes round about the four of them.") Thus far the picture of the four living creatures that had four faces each is described, following the spirit and the cloud which was in the midst of the spirit; now for each living creature a single wheel is set, which were not joined to the living creatures but followed them; or one wheel appeared upon the earth, which, divided into four, had as many faces as the living creatures it followed. And so great was the likeness of the four wheels following the four living creatures that they were most truly believed to be one wheel. And their work and making was as the vision of 'tharsis', which we have rendered 'sea'; Aquila put 'hyacinth', a stone which has the likeness of the sky. And their appearance was as a wheel in a wheel, not so that you would believe it one wheel, but one coupled to another. They went on the four sides and were not dragged, nor did they turn backward; for how could it happen that they turned back, when they were following the living creatures, which always stretched themselves toward what lay ahead? The stature too and height of the wheels was so great that it caused wonder in those who saw them. And the whole body and the backs were full of light round about, so that you would see no member that did not have eyes of light — of whatever kind the fables of the poets describe Argus to have been, hundred-eyed or of many eyes, whom Juno turned into a peacock for his negligent guarding —, so that what is a marvel of God the Creator was the condemnation of an unavenged adultery. All things heavenly and earthly, and whatever falls under human understanding, roll on their own wheels; the moon runs through the yearly circuit of the sun in each month; the Morning Star, which is itself the Evening Star, while it gleams ruddy in the east and in the west and tempers the darkness of night with a small light, completes the same course in two years; and the four other stars which are called wandering, and whatever shines in the sky, and the varieties too of crops and trees and herbs, run on their own wheels through the four seasons; and we see nothing that was not before: Circling in circles the spirit goes, and returns into its circuits. All torrents go into the sea, and the sea is not filled. Why? Because they return to their springs from the womb of the abyss. But if anyone considers the wheel and course of the Gospels, that is, of the four living creatures, which breathe, live and understand, he will see that in a short time the world was filled with the apostolic word. The wheel in a wheel, too, is either the joining of the two Testaments, which Jacob's ladder and Isaiah's tongs and the twice-sharpened sword point to, or the Gospels cohering with one another, whose course and stature reach toward heaven, and touch anything on the earth only a little, as, ever hurrying, it hastens to the heights; of which it is also said elsewhere: Holy stones roll upon the earth, from which the heavenly Jerusalem is built; I think that this same thing is signified also by what is sung in the psalm: The voice of your thunder in the wheel, and elsewhere: Which sets on fire the wheel of birth; what sense these testimonies have in their own places is not a matter for this time. That the whole body and the backs are full of eyes will be confirmed by anyone who sees that there is nothing in the Gospels that does not shine and illumine the world with its splendor, so that even the things thought small and lowly gleam with the majesty of the Holy Spirit.
1:19-21
And when the living creatures walked, the wheels too walked together beside them. And when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels too were lifted up at the same time. Wherever the spirit went, there, as the spirit went, the wheels too were lifted up together, following it; for the spirit of life was in the wheels. With those going they went, and with those standing they stood; and with those lifted up from the earth the wheels too were lifted up together, following them, because the spirit of life was in the wheels. The four living creatures followed the spirit and the cloud which was in the spirit. And again the wheels, though they followed the living creatures as they lifted themselves from the earth, were by no means following the living creatures but the spirit, so as to show their own will: Because the spirit of life was in the wheels. Three things, moreover, are indicated equally both in the living creatures and in the wheels: when they stood, when they walked, when they were lifted up — things which both the living creatures and the wheels did in common; for neither could the wheels walk while the living creatures stood, nor could the wheels lift themselves up while the living creatures walked upon the earth; but those whose preaching was one had also one rest and course and elevation. And a second time it is said: Because the spirit of life was in the wheels, so that we should by no means think of some contrivance of wheels, such as we see on carriages, wagons, coaches and chariots, but of living beings, nay rather of what is above living beings; for the animal man does not perceive the things that are of the spirit. These wheels, then, in which was the spirit of life, do all things with order and measure, and are in concord with the living creatures, following them and through them the Holy Spirit; nay rather, passing over the intermediaries, rejoicing in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. All these things, according to the earlier understanding, the prudent reader will be able to fit to the varied interpretation.
1:22-26
And over the head of the living creatures the likeness of a firmament, as the appearance of dreadful crystal, and stretched out over their heads above. Under the firmament, moreover, their wings straight, one toward the other. Each one veiled its body with two wings, and the other was likewise veiled. And I heard the sound of the wings, as the sound of many waters, as the sound of the sublime God. When they walked, there was as it were the sound of a multitude, like the sound of a camp, and when they stood, their wings were let down. For when a voice came from above the firmament that was over their head, they stood and lowered their wings. And above the firmament that was overhanging their head, as the appearance of a sapphire stone, the likeness of a throne, and above the likeness of the throne a likeness as the appearance of a man above. (Where we put: Their wings straight, and: As the sound — or voice — of the sublime God, the Seventy translated: Their wings stretched out and flying, and: As the voice of the strong one, which in the Hebrew is called 'saddai'. And many things, both in this and in other chapters, were passed over by them, which I have refrained from setting down because of their length. As for what we have translated more plainly: One toward the other; each one veiled its body with two wings, and the other was likewise veiled, in place of which in the Hebrew is written: 'Of a woman toward her sister; a man veiled his body with two wings, and a man was likewise veiled', he put man after woman in the same person for this reason, lest we should suppose sex among heavenly beings, since in one and the same, according to the Hebrew idiom, the same is called both man and woman.) Now above the four living creatures and as many wheels is seen the likeness of the firmament, which we call heaven, having the appearance of crystal, which is most pure and is said to congeal from clean and shining waters through excessive cold, so much so that water bound by frost is also called in the Greek tongue 'crystallus' [ice]; and it was fitting that in the higher regions there should be an exceptional purity which protects all things, that is, the rational and wise powers, and the course of the four seasons, and the regions of the world, and the order of all things, and the preaching of the Gospel, which is understood in part and veiled in part. And the voice of the flying wings is heard, as the voice of many waters, which according to the Revelation of John signify peoples; and, advancing little by little, it is said to be as the voice of a camp and as the voice of the sublime God, which in Hebrew is called 'saddai', and according to the Seventy 'voice of the word', so that we may believe that all that is preached in the world is the voice of the Son of God. When the living creatures stood, their wings were let down: for they could not bear the voice of almighty God resounding in the heavens, but stood and marveled, and by their silence showed forth the power of God, who sat above the firmament; and this firmament had, for those who were below, the likeness of crystal, but to those who were above it seemed like a sapphire stone; and this likeness of sapphire was the throne of him who sat in the likeness of a man. From this we understand that the firmament and the crystal and the sapphire and the man are shown in likeness, not in reality. That the man ought to be understood as God the Father many testimonies teach, among which is this in the Gospel: A man, a certain one, planted a vineyard and let it out to husbandmen, and a little after: He sent his servants and, above all, his son, and again: A man made a marriage feast for his son — not that the Son is excluded from the kingdom, of whom Isaiah wrote: I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and John: These things, moreover, he says, Isaiah said when he saw the glory of the Son of God, but that the Son too reigns in the Father —; and all things of the Son are the Father's, who is the image of the invisible God the Father: for in Daniel too God the Father is introduced sitting, and the Son of man is brought before him to receive the kingdom; and in the Revelation of John the same things are described of the Son; and at the contest of the first martyr Stephen he is seen standing at the right hand of the Father, he of whom it is sung in the Psalms: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet. And just as in the crystal all the purest and shining things in the heavens are shown, which illumine our eyed body, so in the sapphire, that is, in the throne of God, and above the firmament, which we take as heaven, the hidden and secret and incomprehensible mysteries of God are shown, who made darkness his hiding place and is seen in the cloud and in the thick darkness: hence also it is written in Exodus: And under the feet of God there was as it were a work of sapphire brick, and like the appearance of the firmament of the clearest heaven; hence also the bride describes the beauty of the bridegroom in the Song: His belly as it were an ivory tablet upon a sapphire stone; and in the Revelation of John the first foundation is written to be of jasper, the second of sapphire; and on the breastplate of the high priest, in the row and order of the individual stones, the second row has the carbuncle and the sapphire and the jasper; of which stones we have spoken in part in the Explanations of Isaiah.
1:27-2:1a
And I saw as it were the appearance of electrum, like the look of fire, within it round about, from his loins and upward; and from his loins downward I saw as it were the appearance of fire shining round about, like the look of the bow when it is in the cloud on the day of rain: this was the look of the brightness round about. This is the vision of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. The likeness of the man who sat upon the likeness of the throne (the throne which had the likeness of sapphire stone) is compared from the loins and upward to electrum, and this electrum had both within and without as it were the look of fire. But from the loins and downward there was fire shining round about, to show that the things which are above the loins, where perception and reason dwell, have no need of fire or of flames but of the most precious and purest metal; whereas the things that are from the loins downward, where intercourse is, where generation is, where the incitements of the vices are, need the purgation of flames, so that, once they have been purged, they may have the likeness of the bow, which is commonly called iris, when it is in the cloud on the day of rain — for the ἴρις [rainbow], which in Holy Scripture is called the bow, and in the Revelation of John is called by the same name ἴρις, cannot appear except in rain and in a watery cloud, being of diverse and most beautiful colors that pass gradually into one another; whence the poet too says: It snatches a thousand varied colors from the light opposite; and the same poet also, following the usage of the common people: When the bow, he says, drinks, by which he signifies that the bow never appears except in a cloud and in waters —. This bow is the sign of the clemency of God and of the covenant which he made with men, so that, whenever it appears in the cloud, we may know, according to the example of antiquity, that we shall by no means perish by a flood. From this it is shown that after penalties and torments and the purgation of sins there will be mercy, at least for those who have deserved to see God reigning. Hence it is said: This was the look of the brightness round about, round about God, or the throne, or all things that are perfect; and this is the vision of the glory of the likeness of God: not that he saw the glory of the Lord, but the likeness of his glory. Now the whole vision is this: the spirit lifting up, and the great cloud, and the four living creatures, and as many wheels following the living creatures and the spirit, which were deemed worthy to be under the firmament of God; and these, after they had been lifted up and had heard a voice as of many waters and as of the word of the sublime God, and the sound of a camp and of an army, let down their wings and showed their amazement by silence; and there appeared, seated upon the likeness of sapphire, as it were the likeness of a man, who from the loins upward had the appearance of electrum and from the loins downward the appearance of fire round about; after which a surer sign of mercy is given, like the look of the bow when it is in the cloud on the day of rain. We have spoken at greater length about this vision because it is both obscure and expounded in various ways by many. In what remains, so far as can be done without loss to the sense, we shall strive for brevity because of the size of the volume.
2:1b
And I saw, and I fell upon my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking. He is not lifted up by the greatness of the visions, but from awareness of human frailty he falls down upon his face. Whence also the apostle Paul, after his ascent to heaven and to paradise and his hearing of unspeakable words, says that an angel of Satan was given to him to buffet him, lest he be exalted; and Abraham fell upon his face after he had heard the words of God. And yet, because he had fallen down not through sin but through humility, he is raised up by the Lord and is commanded to hear his words. We should know also that it is one thing to fall upon the face, another to fall backward: Abraham, after he had heard of the birth of Isaac, fell upon his face and laughed; but Eli, who had sinned, fell backward; and of Dan it is written in Genesis: Let Dan be a serpent in the path, biting the hoof of the horse, and his rider shall fall backward, awaiting the salvation of God: for since he had fallen from the horse at the bite of the serpent, he therefore awaits the coming of the Savior; and in the Gospel according to John, those who had come to seize the Lord, after he answered, 'I am', fell backward to the ground, not at all enduring the word of him who had said to Moses: Go, say to the sons of Israel: He who is has sent me to you.
2:1c
And he said to me: Son of man, stand upon your feet, and I will speak to you. Lying down, he could not hear the word of God; but he hears, with Moses: But you, stand here with me, and Daniel too records that this happened to him.
2:2-3a
And the spirit entered into me after he had spoken to me, and set me upon my feet, and I heard him speaking to me and saying. (LXX: "And the spirit came to me, and took me up, and lifted me, and set me upon my feet, and I heard him speaking to me, and he said to me.") The divine word had instructed the prophet and commanded: Stand upon your feet, but without the help of God and the coming of the Holy Spirit he could not stand; therefore the Spirit enters into him, or takes him up, and raises him, so that he may be of firm step and may be able to say: He set my feet upon a rock. And we read of no sinner standing, but to the saints it is said: Stand therefore, girded about your loins; whereas the sinner deserves to hear that word of Deuteronomy: The footstep of your foot shall not be stable. Frequently it is said to Ezekiel:
2:3b
Son of man, and to Daniel rarely; each of them, in the person of him who had said: But the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head, consoles the captive people and draws them back to repentance.
2:3c
I send you to the sons of Israel, to apostate nations which have withdrawn from me; they and their fathers have transgressed my covenant up to this day. He by no means calls them the people of God, Israel, but apostate nations, those who have withdrawn from the Lord, not only the fathers but the sons as well: lest the sons should seem liable for the sin of the fathers, but rather so that the impiety of fathers and sons alike might be equal. Moreover, as for the Seventy's translation 'irritating me' or 'turning into bitterness', it signifies that God, who is by nature kind and sweet, is changed into bitterness by our vices: for just as it is said to the saints: Taste and see that the Lord is sweet, so sinners find him bitter; whence the Apostle too refers the goodness and severity of God to the saints and to the sinners, and of the sinners who lay fallen it is written: The Lord raises up those who are dashed down, the Lord loves the righteous, the Lord looses those in fetters, while to the saints who stand he promises rewards.
2:4a
And they are sons of hard face and of untamable heart to whom I send you. (This is not found in the Seventy.) And it is a mark of great clemency for God to send to such men and not to despair of their salvation, and a mark of prophetic confidence that he is not afraid to go even to such men. Now the untamable heart and the hard face we ought to understand in accordance with what is said to the sinner: Your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow is bronze; and these men in what follows are also charged with a heart of stone, which God says he will tear out and in its place give back one of flesh, so that by its softness it may receive the precepts of God.
2:4b-5
And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God; if perhaps even they will hear, and if perhaps they will be quiet. Something similar is written in Jeremiah too: If perhaps they will hear and repent, and in the Gospel: Perhaps they will respect my son. Now God speaks these words with the disposition of one who is in doubt, so that they may show the free choice of man, lest the foreknowledge of future things make immutable, whether for evil or for good, what God knew would come to be: for it is not because he knows what is to come that we must necessarily do what he foreknew; rather, what we are going to do by our own will, he, as God, knows will come to be.
2:6a
You therefore, son of man, do not fear them, nor be afraid of their words, for they are unbelieving and subverters with you. (LXX: "And you, son of man, do not fear them, nor dread before their face, for they will rage and will gather against you round about.") Although they are hard of neck and of untamable heart, yet my precepts are stronger. And do not think yourself deceived if you are sent to those who will not hear you when you speak. Behold, I foretell to you that they will rage and gather against you and surround you, leaving you no escape; and they will do this because they are unbelieving and despise the commands of God.
2:6b
And you dwell with scorpions. Such as can strike, such as can wound both with an arched blow and with a hollow sting, so that the same stroke both opens the skin and pours in the venom. Each one receives his name according to his character: to the scribes and Pharisees it is said: Brood of vipers, and of Herod, who was a shifty turncoat: Go and tell this fox; and the false prophets in this same prophet are compared to foxes, and now, for their untamable heart, they are said to be scorpions; whence in the Gospel too we read: All who came before me were thieves and robbers, and the sheep did not hear them — and how did the lost sheep of the house of Israel hear the adversaries? —, from which it is shown that those who heard the thieves and robbers lost the name of sheep and took on other names, so that they did not perish as sheep but as vipers, foxes and scorpions.
2:7-8a
And you shall speak my words to them; perhaps they will hear and fear (or be quiet). We must therefore not cease, although those to whom we speak are wicked, from preaching the word of God in season and out of season, according to the Apostle, because it can happen both that the hard man is corrected to softness and that he who is obedient, his will changed, does not hear.
2:8b
Do not be provoking, as the house is provoking. We have said once already that for 'provocation' or 'irritation' the Seventy put 'bitterness'. What he says, then, is this: You must not imitate those whom you are sent to correct, lest like sin should also earn like punishment.
2:8c
Open your mouth and eat what I give you. 'Show yourself worthy', he says, 'of my words, and take up spiritual food', so that, just as it is said in the Gospel: He who has ears to hear, let him hear, so here too it may be said: 'He who has a mouth open to eat, let him eat'. Whence also through the psalmist the Lord speaks: Open your mouth and I will fill it, and he answered: I opened my mouth and drew in the spirit; and the apostle Paul, who had in himself the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and in whom Christ the Lord spoke, writes to the Corinthians: My mouth is open to you, O Corinthians; and of the Savior Matthew records: Opening his mouth he taught the disciples.
2:9a
And I saw, and behold, a hand sent to me. For the hand 'sent' the Seventy translated 'stretched out'; it is sent and stretched out to those who obtain the benefits of the Lord, but is drawn back from those to whom he speaks through the prophet: Is the hand of the Lord shortened and drawn back? and in the psalm: Why have you turned away your hand, and your right hand from the midst of your bosom, to the end? Finally, in the passion he stretched out his wings, and took up the disciples and carried them on his shoulders, and said: All the day long I have spread out my hands to an unbelieving people, that he might gather the children of Jerusalem as a hen gathers her chicks under wings of her own, and that by the stretching out of his hands Israel might overcome Amalek.
2:9b-3:1a
In which was a rolled-up book, and he spread it out before me, and it was written within and without; there were written in it lamentations and song and woe. For 'rolled-up book' the Seventy translated 'the heading of the book', in the hand of the Lord who sits upon the throne, the hand which was sent forth and stretched out; of this book it is also said in the Psalms: In the heading of the book it is written of me — let us understand 'heading' as the beginning —. This book, rolled up and sealed, and written within and without, or before and behind, was of such difficulty that no one could, either in heaven or on earth or under the earth, open it or read it, except only the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David and of Jesse; the book which John in the Revelation said he had devoured, not whole but in its heading, that is, in its beginning. For it cannot be that human nature should devour all the treasures of this book. And he spread it out before the prophet and offered it to be read and known, the book which in Isaiah is said to be sealed to a people that does not believe — for to this day a veil has been laid upon the Old Testament for the Jews —. And it was written before and behind, concerning things to come and things past; or certainly without, in the letter of the history, and within, in the spiritual understanding, of which the psalmist also says: All the glory, he says, of the king's daughter is from within. And there were written in it, both within and without, lamentations and song and woe: lamentations over those who are called to repentance, as Samuel and the apostle Paul bewailed and mourned Saul and the Corinthians, whom they longed to save; song over those who are worthy of God's testimony and to whom the psalmist gives the command: Sing to the Lord a new song; and woe over those who are utterly despaired of and who, when they have come into the depth of sins, despise.
3:1b
Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the sons of Israel. Unless we first eat the opened scroll, we cannot teach the sons of Israel; and so David too, after he himself had obtained mercy: I will teach, he says, the unjust your ways, and the wicked shall be converted to you.
3:2-3a
And I opened my mouth, and he fed me with that scroll. 'I', he says, 'opened my mouth, because it was said to me: Open your mouth and eat'. And when the mouth was opened, the Lord bestowed food, so that the beginnings of the will may be in us and we may obtain the perfection of blessedness from the Lord: For it is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy; and yet both to will and to run belong to our own free choice. For 'I opened' the Seventy translated 'he opened', so that God is understood, who himself opened the prophet's mouth and fed him.
3:3b
Your belly shall eat, and your bowels shall be filled. (LXX: "Your mouth shall eat, and your belly shall be filled".) The beginnings of reading and of the simple history are the eating of the scroll; but when by constant meditation we have stored up the book of the Lord in the treasury of memory, our belly is spiritually filled and our bowels are satisfied, so that we have, with the apostle Paul, bowels of mercy, and that belly is filled of which Jeremiah speaks: My belly, my belly, I am in pain; and the thoughts of my heart trouble me.
3:3c
And I ate it, and it became in my mouth like sweet honey. David also says: How sweet to my throat are your words, beyond honey to my mouth, and elsewhere: The judgments of the Lord are true, more to be desired than gold and very precious stone, and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb; and Samson found a honeycomb in the mouth of the lion, and the Lord after the resurrection ate part of a broiled fish and a honeycomb, and in Proverbs it is said of the bee, although the Hebrew copies do not have this: Go to the bee and learn how she is a worker, and makes her work chaste: whose labors kings and the unlearned use for their health; this Moses and the prophets and the evangelists and the apostles have wrought, so that whoever is a king, whose heart is in the hand of God, may enjoy sweet food, while he who is simple and, without the cunning of the serpent, has the innocence of doves, may believe with simple faith and be saved; for snares are everywhere, and often the devil transforms himself into an angel of light, and honey drips from the lips of a harlot woman, who promises sweet things so as to slip in poisons.
3:4
And he said to me: Son of man, go and enter to the house of Israel, and you shall speak my words to them. He to whom it is said: Go and enter to the house of Israel is shown not to have been with the sinful people, although he seemed to dwell within the same borders by the river Chebar — for it is written: 'And I was in the midst of the exile by the river Chebar' —: for the prophet's way of life was separate, and he was offended by the sight of the wicked. Moses also did this same thing, pitching his tabernacle far from the camp of the multitude: and when he had entered it, the pillar of fire came down and stood before the door of the tabernacle.
3:5-6
For you are not sent to a people of deep speech and of a difficult tongue, to the house of Israel; nor to many peoples of unknown speech, whose speech you cannot hear: and if I were to send you to them, they would hear you. 'Since they will not come to you, go on to them: for not indeed do the healthy have need of a physician, but those who are ill; nor can you say: I cannot speak to them because they are of another tongue, and we are barbarians to one another, nor can we hear each other's speech. Why should I speak of one people? If I were to send you to diverse nations, still my authority and power would overcome every difficulty. And would that the time were at hand when I am to send to all the nations, when I am also to give the graces of tongues, so that my apostles may preach and may bring the whole world, out of its diversity of tongues, under my yoke by one faith; more easily would those hear who are of deep and lofty speech, who have nothing of Jewish levity but walk with a grave and solid foot, and who, though their tongues are unknown, are of known faith'; whence it follows: And if I were to send you to them, they would hear you. And in fact he afterward sent, and all alike believed; whence Paul and Barnabas say to the Jews: To you indeed the word had to be preached, but because you would not receive the word, behold, we turn to the Gentiles; and of the centurion it is said: Not even in Israel have I found such faith.
3:7
But the house of Israel will not hear you, because they will not hear me. For all the house of Israel is of a brazen forehead and a hard heart. 'Do not be saddened', he says, 'if they will not hear you. For this reason they will not hear you: because they will scorn to hear me', according to what the Savior said: He who does not receive you does not receive me; in which free will is openly shown. And two causes are given why they do not hear: 'Because they are', he says, 'of perverse will, and of a brazen forehead' — or, as the Seventy rendered, 'they are contentious' —, and it is understood that, though often called to salvation, they would not hear.
3:8-10a
Behold, I have made your face stronger than their faces, and your forehead harder than their foreheads; like adamant and like flint I have made your face. 'The house of Israel is of a brazen forehead and of impudent audacity, and so hard of heart that it is compared to scorpions. Therefore I have given you a very hard countenance and a forehead that is overcome by no shame'. From this we learn that it is at times of the grace of God to resist impudence and, when the occasion demands, to crush forehead with forehead. And this is granted lest our modesty and human shame should be terrified at the snares of rivals.
3:10b
Son of man, all my words which I speak to you, take into your heart and hear with your ears. This is the food of the scroll, and these are the words in which, according to the diversity of the hearers, we speak to men either laments or song or woe. And yet it must be noted that the words of God must first be stored in our heart, and heard and understood with great care, and so brought forth to the people.
3:11
Go, enter to the exile (or captivity), to the sons of your people. And our Lord came to the people of the Jews, the Father sending him, to preach release to the captives, and that there might be fulfilled in him what is written: Ascending on high he led captivity captive, he gave gifts among men.
3:12
And the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of great commotion: Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place. God, of whom it is written: The Lord taking up the meek, himself took up the prophet too, who was not in the flesh but in the spirit and, walking in the spirit, did not fulfill the works of the flesh, for the Spirit of God was in him; for which reason, despising earthly things, he is also caught up by the spirit and hears behind him a voice of great commotion, forgetting the things that are past and stretching himself toward what is to come, so that he might leave the snares of his enemies behind his back — something of this kind we also read in Exodus, when Pharaoh and all his army were pursuing Israel, and the angel in the pillar of cloud left the front of the camp and came behind their backs and stood all night between Israel and the Egyptians, so that, the adversaries being terrified, Israel might hear: Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place; and the place of the Lord is every one in whom he finds lodging, or certainly the Son is the place of the Father, just as the Father too is the place of the Son, as the Lord Savior says: I in the Father, and the Father in me; Micah too signifies this same thing: Behold, the Lord will go forth from his place, and will come down upon the high places of the earth; and the mountains will be shaken beneath him, and the valleys will melt like wax before the fire, and like water that is carried down a steep place: for when the Lord Savior came down and set out from the Father, the high places of the earth and the mountains were shaken, and the lower parts of the valleys were melted; the place of the glory of the Lord can also be the inaccessible light of which the Apostle speaks: Who alone has immortality, and dwells in light inaccessible —. When we turn over in our mind the past judgments of the Lord, we hear behind our back the voice of great commotion; when we meditate in our heart on the things to come, a voice is heard from what lies before us and from those things that are ahead.
3:13
And the voice of the wings of the living creatures striking one against another, and the voice of the wheels following the living creatures, and the voice of great commotion. (Whereas according to the Hebrew there is understood ἀπὸ κοινοῦ [in common, supplied from the preceding clause]: I heard behind me a voice of great commotion, and 'I heard' the voice of the wings of the living beings, and the voice of the wheels, the Seventy added: And 'I saw' the voice of the wings of the living beings, the voice of them striking one against another, and the rest, in keeping with what is read in Exodus: And all the people saw the voice of God, so that the prophet heard the voice that came behind his back, but saw the one that was before him.) But it is better and truer to have understood the voice as heard rather than seen, both that of the wings striking one another and that of the wheels, of which we spoke above, and that of the great commotion, which showed that the wrath of God was to come upon the people of Israel.
3:14a
The spirit also lifted me and took me up, and I went away bitter in the indignation of my spirit. (LXX: "And the spirit raised and received me, and I went away aloft in the rush of my spirit.") After he was raised by the spirit and taken up by it, then in indignation and in the bitterness of his own spirit he went away whither he was being borne, understanding the indignation of God and turning over in his mind what the vision signified; or else, aloft, he was borne by the very rush of his own spirit, desiring to go where the Lord commanded — but let us understand his spirit not as the Holy Spirit but as the spirit of a man, of which it is spoken in many places, and in Isaiah: By night my spirit rises to you, O God —. And the prophet is carried over, not, as some think, in spirit, but in the body itself, as we also read of Habakkuk according to Theodotion.
3:14b-15
For the hand of the Lord was with me, strengthening me. And I came to the exile, to the heap of new grain, to those who dwell by the river Chebar; and I sat where they were sitting, and I remained seven days mourning in the midst of them. (LXX: "And the hand of the Lord came upon me strong. And I entered to the captivity aloft; and I went around those dwelling by the river Chebar who were there, and I sat there seven days dwelling in the midst of them.") Where we translated 'heap of new grain', Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion set down the Hebrew words themselves, 'thel abib', which the Seventy translated 'aloft, and I went around', believing it better to say something than to set down what would raise a question for the reader. But we have learned from the Hebrews that 'thel abib' signifies this: when new wheat or barley is gathered, and after famine and want, before it is threshed on the floor, it promises some hope of food; so too Israel, small and slender, dwelling on the banks of the river Chebar, as if reviving and sprung up from the earth, promised a seed-sowing of the Jewish people. And the hand of the Lord comes upon the prophet, strengthening him, so that he may receive the name of watchman and teach what he has learned. And first for seven days he moves among them, seeing all that they did, so that afterward he might know what to rebuke. And he mourns, or dwells, in the midst of them, seeing their crimes and the righteous sentence of God for the iniquity of their sins — where we said 'mourning' and in the Hebrew it is written 'masmim', Theodotion translated 'marveling', to express the stupor of the prophet as he beheld their iniquities; but the second edition of Aquila, which the Hebrews call κατὰ ἀκρίβειαν [according to exactness], translated ἠρεμάζων, that is 'resting' and 'set apart', to show that he was indeed in the midst of the captives, but separated from them in mind —.
3:16-17
And when the seven days had passed, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, I have given you as a watchman to the house of Israel, and you shall hear the word from my mouth, and you shall announce it to them from me. He who is to be a watchman and is to tell the words of God to the people ought to be still for a long time, and to grieve at the things he sees, and to have in his conscience nothing of those things which he is going to rebuke in others.
3:18-19
If, when I say to the wicked: You shall die the death, you do not announce it to him nor speak so that he may turn from his wicked way and live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand. But if you announce it to the wicked, and he is not converted from his iniquity and from his wicked way, he indeed shall die in his iniquity, but you shall deliver your soul. There are two 'wicked', or 'unjust' as the Seventy translated: one who hears nothing from the watchman and dies in his wickedness, whose blood is sought from the watchman's hands; the other, to whom the watchman announces it, and who, scorning to hear, dies by his own fault, in such a way only that the watchman is free from blame. From this we understand that the Lord threatens the wicked and says: You shall die the death for this reason, that he may turn from his wicked way and live; for the threat is not against men but against sins, nor against those who turn from their vices but against those who remain in sin. And it is a great peril to keep silent the words of God, for a threefold cause: either from fear or from sloth or from flattery; whence Isaiah too: Woe, he says, is me, wretched, because I was silent. And what follows: But you have delivered your soul, echoes that saying of the Apostle: If anyone's work burns, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire, so that it may test whether the watchman is outside the cause of the death of him who perished, or guilty of it; for the work of the teacher is the salvation of the disciple.
3:20-21
But also if the righteous, turning from his righteousness, does iniquity, I will set a stumbling block before him. He shall die because you did not announce it to him: in his sin he shall die, and his righteous deeds which he did shall not be in remembrance; but his blood I will require from your hand. But if you announce it to the righteous man that the righteous man should not sin, and he does not sin, living he shall live because you announced it to him, and you have delivered your soul. Just as we read of two wicked or unjust men: one who did not hear and perished, and the other who heard and persevered in evil, so there are two righteous: one who did not hear and perished, the other who heard and was converted to repentance and saved his soul. And it is to be noted that the righteous can fall and, if he has a teacher toward better things, may draw back his foot; and the wicked or unjust man indeed, if he is not converted, will die in his wickedness and iniquity. But the righteous, if he commits wickedness and sin, does not die at once, but a 'stumbling block' is set in his sight, or 'torment', and as Theodotion said 'infirmity', so that he may be tormented and not find a level way, and may understand that he is sick; of such the Apostle also says: Therefore many among you are infirm and many sleep; for it profits the righteous to understand his offense through the experience of torments, and to say with the psalmist: I was turned in my misery while the thorn is fastened in me. And as his iniquities do not stand in the way of the wicked if he turns from his wicked way and lives, so his old righteous deeds do not profit the righteous if he is overwhelmed by new crimes. And as for what he added: He shall die, because you did not announce it to him, it is understood that he could have lived if the watchman and teacher had taught him.
3:22
And the hand of the Lord was there upon me, and he said to me: Arise, go out into the plain, and there I will speak with you. What we translated from the Hebrew as 'there', which is not found in the Seventy, is set down with significance, and there is no doubt that it signifies the place; for above we read: And I came to the exile, to the heap of new grain, to those who dwell by the river Chebar. And rightly he who had said: I sat, is commanded to rise; and he who had entered to the exile hears: Go out, not into rugged valleys, not onto sheer crags, but into the breadth of the plain, which can contain the glory of the Lord — whence it is also said to the Corinthians: Be enlarged —. When he goes in to the captives, of whom it was said that they rage and persecute him, he needs a strong hand so that he can resist and endure the fury of his persecutors; but when he goes out into the plain, the 'hand' of the Lord does come upon him, because without his help he could not go out, but 'strong' is not added: for he goes out to see the glory of God, not to fight. And this must be observed, that the prophet, while sitting himself in the midst of the captives who were sitting, did not see the glory of the Lord.
3:23a
And I arose and went out into the plain, and behold, there the glory of the Lord was standing, like the glory which I had seen by the river Chebar. At the Lord's command he goes in and at his command he goes out, and he sat with those who were sitting, because the number of the captives could not hear him while he stood. And having gone out into the breadth of the plain, he saw the glory of the Lord standing, which before he had seen walking, and lifting itself up, and at times standing — for it was by the river of the world, 'Chobar' [Chebar], which means 'most heavy', that the glory was seen, which signifies that all the glory of this world flows past and has no stable footing; but the glory of the Lord, standing and abiding, is seen in the plain with the prophet standing, the glory which in the midst of the captives could neither stand nor be seen —.
3:23b-24
And I fell on my face. And the spirit entered into me and set me upon my feet, and spoke, and said to me: Go in and be shut up in the midst of your house. Not able to bear the standing glory of the Lord, he fell on his face, so that he might be raised up by the spirit entering into him. This spirit set him upon his feet and spoke, saying: Enter and be shut up in the midst of your house; and the sense is: 'Because you have been strengthened by the sight of the Lord's majesty, fear no one and dread no one, but return into your house — either for the needs of the body, as some think, or as a sign of the siege to come — and, just as Isaiah, barefoot and naked, announced the three years' captivity and nakedness of the people, so you too, shut up in your house, prophesy by the very deed the impending siege of the city of Jerusalem'.
3:25-26
And you, son of man, behold, bonds have been put upon you, and they shall bind you with them, and you shall not go out from their midst; and I will make your tongue cleave to your palate (or throat), and you shall be dumb and not as a man who rebukes, because it is a provoking house. That he is shut up in his house, that he is tied in bonds, that he does not go out to those among whom he dwells, but amid a multitude of captives suffers the solitude of a prison, is, as I said above, a sign of the siege, which, when Jerusalem is shut up and surrounded by the army of the Chaldeans, permits none of the inhabitants to go out; this is the pot of which Jeremiah speaks, and this prophet himself in what follows, in which the flesh of the people is consumed. But as for the prophet's tongue cleaving to his palate or throat, and his being made dumb and not having the authority of one who rebukes, the cause is plain: Because it is, he says, a provoking house; and the sense is: So great are their bitternesses and so great their contentions against God that they do not deserve to hear one who rebukes them. From this it is plain that, where there is a multitude of sins, the sinners are unworthy to be corrected by the Lord.
3:27
But when I have spoken to you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God: He who hears, let him hear, and he who refrains, let him refrain, because it is a provoking house. What we read in Ecclesiastes: A time to keep silent and a time to speak, is borne out in the prophetic word as well: that it belongs to the same wisdom both to keep silent and to speak according to the time, and to give fellow servants their rations in due season; whence Isaiah too says to the unbelieving people: 'I have kept silent; shall I keep silent forever? says the Lord'. He, therefore, who on account of the multitude of sins long kept his mouth shut, because he saw that some could be converted, of whom it is said: He who hears, let him hear, and he who from evil refrains, let him refrain and cease, for this reason, with his mouth opened, and not by his own will but by the Lord's command, speaks to the people. Now that which we have set down: He who hears, let him hear, and he who refrains, let him refrain, for which the Seventy translated: He who hears, let him hear, and he who is unbelieving, let him be unbelieving, the second edition of Aquila translated thus: He who hears shall be heard, and he who leaves shall be left; and the sense is: He who has, to him it shall be given; but he who has not, even what he seems to have shall be taken away from him.
4:1-2
And you, son of man, take for yourself a brick, and you shall set it before you, and you shall portray on it the city of Jerusalem. And you shall set in order a siege against it, and you shall build siege-works and heap up a mound, and you shall set camps against it and place battering rams round about. Just as we said before — Go in and be shut up in the midst of your house, and: Behold, bonds have been put upon you, and they will bind you, and you will not go out — that the prophet is a type of the coming siege of the city of Jerusalem, so now he is commanded to portray it on a brick by the geometric art, and the brick itself is to be placed in the prophet's sight, so that, after he has portrayed Jerusalem in the dust, he may draw the whole siege against it, sketching the siege-works and the heaped-up mounds and the ring of the besieging army and the battering rams round about, all the things by which cities are usually taken. Siege-works is the name for the works by which a city is shut in, so that none of the besieged can escape; heaped-up mounds, those by which the rampart and the ditches are filled; camps, the guard-posts of soldiers all around; battering rams, those by which the foundations of walls are shaken and the joining of the stones is loosened. This is said so that the approaching captivity of the city of Jerusalem under King Zedekiah may be signified, in whose eleventh year both the king and the city were taken. For 'brick', which in Greek is called πλίνθος, in the feminine gender, Symmachus translated more clearly πλινθίον, which we can call a 'little brick' and an 'abacus'; in its dust geometers are accustomed to draw γραμμάς, that is, 'lines' and 'radii'. From this some hold that it is not absurd to have knowledge of this discipline as well, recalling those examples: that Joshua son of Nun sent spies to describe the land, which is properly called geometry; and that the angel in Zechariah had a geometer's measuring line for measuring Jerusalem. And as for the prophet now being commanded to portray Jerusalem in the dust — which among them is properly called σκηνογραφία [scenography, drawing in perspective] —, we can also take the brick as a reproach to Israel, because it served Pharaoh in clay and brick; or as meaning that the city which they thought firm and impregnable is compared to a most fragile brick, which at the touch of water dissolves at once, so that she of whom it was said before: Is the hardest rock (or of the desert) the mountain of the daughter of Zion?, may be turned into a brick to be ruined by the Babylonian flood, according to what is written: Therefore the Lord will bring upon you waters many and strong, the king of the Assyrians.
4:3
And you, take for yourself an iron pan, and you shall set it as an iron wall between you and the city, and you shall set your face firmly toward it, and it shall be in siege, and you shall surround it: it is a sign to the house of Israel. What we said above, that both the prophet himself and the portrayal on the brick — surrounded by siege-works, mound and battering rams — go before as a sign of Jerusalem's coming siege, is now said more clearly, after many things in between: It is a sign to the house of Israel. The iron pan, which is set like a wall between the prophet and the city, shows the great wrath of God, which is worn down by no prayers and is not bent to mercy: for just as iron subdues all metals and nothing is harder than it, so the incredible crimes of Jerusalem by their own fault made God, who is gentle by nature, most hard. The pan is also said to be a wall set in the middle between the people and God, to show that the whole multitude is shortly to be fried and reduced to nothing. And the setting firm of the face against the city is a sign of severity, according to what we read written elsewhere: The face of the Lord is upon those who do evil, to destroy their memory from the earth.
4:4-6
And you shall sleep on your left side, and you shall place the iniquities of the house of Israel upon it by the number of the days in which you sleep upon it, and you shall take up their iniquity. But I have given you the years of their iniquity by the number of days, three hundred and ninety days, and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when you have completed these, you shall sleep on your right side a second time, and you shall take up the iniquity of the house of Judah for forty days; a day for a year, a day, I say, for a year I have given you. We ask what the three hundred and ninety years are, which are reckoned in place of as many days, during which the prophet slept on his left side, bound and constrained so that he would not move onto his other side, showing the captivity and miseries of the ten tribes, that is, of Israel; and what the other forty years are, during which he lay on his right side for Judah and its iniquities, or, as Holy Scripture relates, slept. — Concerning Israel this must be said: that under King Pekah son of Remaliah, who reigned in Israel twenty years, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came, and took Ijon, and Abel house of Maacah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, Hazor, and Gilead, the whole land of Naphtali; and he carried them over to the Assyrians. After him Hoshea son of Elah reigned in Israel nine years, and he was taken with all Samaria by Shalmaneser king of the Assyrians, and carried over to Halah and Habor, the rivers of Gozan, in the cities of the Medes. Now Hoshea was taken in the sixth year of King Hezekiah, as the holy history of Kings relates; and from him, if we reckon in order, we shall be able to find in this way for how many years Israel was in distress and pressed by the yoke of captivity. From the sixth year to the twenty-ninth year — for that many years Hezekiah reigned — twenty-four years are reckoned. Manasseh succeeded him and reigned fifty-five years. After him Amon reigned two years. After him Josiah, thirty-two years. Jehoiakim, who was also surnamed Eliakim, succeeded him, and reigned eleven years. After him Jehoiachin, surnamed Jeconiah, who was at once led into captivity; and in his place Zedekiah reigned eleven years, under whom Jerusalem was taken and the temple destroyed. So from the first captivity of Israel, which took place under King Pekah, to the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in which the temple was laid waste, there are one hundred and sixty-four years. From the second, when Hoshea was taken and all Samaria overthrown, one hundred and thirty-five years. And there were seventy years of the temple's desolation, which, added to the first captivity, make two hundred and thirty-four years. For in the second year of Darius king of the Persians the temple was built by Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak, while Haggai and Zechariah prophesied; Darius reigned thirty-six years, and, one being taken away, his thirty-five years are added. After him Xerxes son of Darius reigned twenty years. After him Artabanus, seven months. And Xerxes, who was surnamed Μακρόχειρ [Long-hand], forty years. After him Xerxes, two months, and Sogdianus, seven months. Darius, surnamed Nothus, succeeded him, and reigned nineteen years. After him Artaxerxes, surnamed Memor, son of Darius and Parysatis, reigned forty years; he is called Ahasuerus by the Hebrews, and under him is related the history of Mordecai and Esther, when the whole people of the Jews, freed from the danger of death, recovered its former liberty. And from the second year of Darius to the last year of Ahasuerus there are one hundred and fifty-five years and four months, which, added to the two hundred and thirty-four years above, make three hundred and eighty-nine years and four months. — The sleeping on the right side, that is, of the forty years, is easily reckoned. For after Eliakim, who was surnamed Jehoiakim, his son Jehoiachin, surnamed Jeconiah, reigned three months. While he was reigning, the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon went up to Jerusalem, and the city was surrounded with siege-works. And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city, while his servants were attacking it. And Jehoiachin king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he and his mother and his servants and his prince and his eunuchs, and the king of Babylon received him in the eighth year of his reign. And he carried out from there all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the royal house. And shortly after: And he carried over all Jerusalem and all the princes and all the mighty men of the army, ten thousand, into captivity, and every craftsman and smith; and nothing was left, except the poor of the people of the land. When he had been taken, with a countless multitude of the people and all the wealth of Jerusalem, Zedekiah reigned eleven years, under whom the city was taken and the temple destroyed; and its desolation lasted until the second year of Darius, for seventy years. Now in the thirtieth year of the temple's desolation, Cyrus reigned among the Persians, having overthrown Astyages king of the Medes; and he, according to the prophecy of Isaiah, sent back to Jerusalem about fifty thousand men of the tribe of Judah, and the vessels of the temple which Nebuchadnezzar had carried off, and the rest that the history of Ezra relates. — Just as, therefore, in Israel, that is, in the ten tribes, from Pekah king of Israel, under whom Shalmaneser laid waste much of the Israelite people, to the fortieth year of Ahasuerus, when the persecution of the whole Jewish people was eased, we reckon three hundred and ninety years, so from the first year of Jeconiah, when a great part of Jerusalem was carried over to Babylon, to the first year of Cyrus king of the Persians, which was the thirtieth year of the temple's desolation, forty years are reckoned; under him the captivity of the Jews was relaxed and liberty given back to the people. — Some, joining the three hundred and ninety years of Israel and the forty of Judah, make four hundred and thirty years, and hold that they are fulfilled from the baptism of the Savior to the consummation of the world. Others, however, and above all the Jews, want the four hundred and thirty years, during which the people is set in tribulation and distress and under the yoke of captivity, to be reckoned from the second year of Vespasian, when Jerusalem was taken by the Romans and the temple overthrown; and that then the people will return to its former state, so that, as the sons of Israel were in Egypt four hundred and thirty years, so the last captivity too may be ended in the same number; and that it is written in Exodus: Now the dwelling of the sons of Israel, in which they dwelt in the land of Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years, and again: It came to pass after four hundred and thirty years, all the army of the Lord went out by night. — And I greatly wonder why the common copies have 'one hundred and ninety years', and in some it is written 'one hundred and fifty', when plainly both the Hebrews and Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion hold 'three hundred and ninety years', and among the Seventy themselves — and yet they have not been corrupted by the fault of copyists — the same number is found. A most difficult question, and, not to speak proudly, one explained by no one, we believe we have expounded not so much by our own knowledge as by the grace of the Lord, that being fulfilled which he himself promised: Seek and you will find, ask and you will receive, knock and it will be opened to you. — But whoever wishes to reckon from the first captivity, which took place under Menahem son of Gadi king of Israel, who reigned in Samaria ten years, when Pul king of the Assyrians came into the land of Israel and received a thousand talents of silver, and after him the other two years of Pekah that he reigned in Israel, will find the three hundred and ninety years completed in the twenty-eighth year of King Ahasuerus, when the history of Esther is said to have taken place; and this is also more credible, for it was not when the reign of Ahasuerus was ended, but while he was still reigning, that Israel cast off the yoke of the heaviest servitude.
4:7
And toward the siege of Jerusalem you shall turn your face, and your arm shall be bared, and you shall prophesy against it. (LXX: "And in the shutting-in of Jerusalem you shall prepare your face, and you shall strengthen your arm, and you shall prophesy upon it.") There is need of a preparing of the face, and of the strength and firmness of an arm bared and stripped, so that the siege of the city may be shown not only by the voice but also by the gesture and bearing of the one prophesying.
4:8
Behold, I have surrounded you with bonds, and you shall not turn from your side to the other side, until you complete the days of your siege (or shutting-in). The left parts, because they had been without the temple and the knowledge of God in Samaria, are assigned to Israel; the right, to Judah, in which were the worship and religion of God; and it must be noted that on the one is the punishment of sinners, on the other the exercise of virtue. Nor does he turn from one side to the other, so that no respite from torments is indicated, until the complete conclusion of the aforesaid days is fulfilled. What a day is for the prophet, a year is for those who suffer; and the years Laban counted were to Jacob as a few days. Not only is there variety in punishments according to the difference of merits, but in the recompense of the good as well the lambs stand on the right and the goats on the left; hence also in another place it is written: The heart of the wise is in his right hand, but the heart of the fool in his left. The bonds of the Lord, by which we are bound unto salvation, are one thing; those of the devil, by which he had bound the woman in the Gospel for eighteen years, are another; hence also: Each one is bound fast by the cords of his own sins, cords which the Lord loosed through the type of Lazarus raised up, who had lain in the tomb bound with bands and wrappings.
4:9-12
And you, take for yourself wheat and barley and beans and lentils and millet and vetch, and you shall put them in one vessel, and you shall make yourself loaves by the number of the days in which you sleep on your side: for three hundred and ninety days you shall eat it. And your food, which you eat, shall be by weight twenty staters a day; from time to time you shall eat it. And you shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a 'hin'; from time to time you shall drink it. And you shall eat it like a cake baked under the ashes, and you shall cover it with human dung before their eyes. For what we have translated 'vetch', for which in the Hebrew is said 'chasamim', the Seventy and Theodotion put ὄλυραν, which some think is 'oats' and others 'rye'; but the first edition of Aquila and Symmachus translated 'zeas' or 'zeias', which we call either 'far' [emmer] or, in the native speech of Italy and Pannonia, 'spica' [ear of grain] and 'spelta' [spelt]; to 'in a vessel' the Seventy also added 'of earthenware'. Now the prophet is commanded to show by deed the coming famine and want of the people of Israel: for just as in a scarcity of all things no one looks for varieties and delicacies of food, but for how the belly may be filled, so now the prophet puts wheat and barley, beans, lentils and millet and oats into one vessel, and makes three hundred and ninety loaves to eat one each day; and these loaves weigh twenty shekels each — that is, staters; and a shekel, that is, a stater, has four drachmas; and eight drachmas make a Latin ounce —, so that one loaf is said to weigh ten ounces, by which life is dragged out rather than sustained. The scantiness of the food is increased by the scantiness of the water: for he is commanded to drink each day the sixth part of the Hebrew measure called 'hin' — now a 'hin' makes two Attic 'chois' [choes, an Attic liquid measure], which we can call two Italian 'sextarii', so that the 'hin' is the measure of the Jewish sextarius and of our military one, whose sixth part makes a third of an Italian sextarius —; and this food and drink, in the words of the renowned orator, gives no strength, but keeps off death. As for his saying: From time to time you shall eat (or drink) it, it means from evening to evening, although some wrongly think it is to be understood from year to year. And the loaves themselves are made like a barley loaf baked under the ashes; and he is told to cover them with human dung, not with those who are to eat them unaware — for in such a situation ignorance usually tempers miseries — but with them seeing, and before their eyes, so that one may endure the horror of the sight before the nausea of the taste. It must also be noted that, according to the number of the days of the left side, three hundred and ninety loaves baked under the ashes are ordered to be made and eaten one each day, while about loaves for the forty days of the right side there is complete silence, so that Holy Scripture may signify in a hidden way that the punishment is not the same for a sinning people, provided it still has the knowledge of God, and for one that has wholly departed from the religion of the true God. We can also say this, according to the spiritual understanding: that the Jewish people, since its offense against God, eats to this day loaves baked under the ashes, mixed of wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and oats, of which the one is the food of men, the other of beasts of burden: for in that they seem to believe in one God, they have something of wheat too; but in that they deny the Son, they feed on the barley of beasts of burden and on beans, by which the belly of those who eat them is puffed up and the mind is said to be weighed down, so much so that it is a food abhorred even by the Pythagoreans. For lentils Esau lost his birthright; millet is the food of rustics and countrymen and of fattened fowl; on oats, or vetch and olyra, brute animals are fed. And that it is written, according to the Seventy, that Elijah, fleeing Jezebel, found a ὀλυρίτην [made of olyra] loaf, 'baked under the ashes', is a sign of persecution and want; hence he is also fed by ravens, and, because he had found no food in Israel, he was fed with the nourishment of the nations, which were unclean. The Law itself too, which they read and do not understand, is a loaf baked under the ashes, and it is covered with human dung; for which reason Paul the Apostle too says that he counted the gains of the Law and the observance of the former ceremonies as dung, that he might gain Christ.
4:13-15
And the Lord said: Thus shall the sons of Israel eat their bread polluted among the nations to which I will cast them out. And I said: Ah, ah, ah, Lord God, behold, my soul is not polluted, and what died of itself and what was torn by beasts I have not eaten from my infancy until now, and no unclean flesh has entered my mouth. And he said to me: Behold, I have given you the dung of oxen instead of human excrement, and you shall make your bread in it. That the prophets, according to Zechariah, are men of portent, who portend things to come by their deeds, and of whom God says: In the hands of the prophets I have been likened, we read very often in many places. Just as, therefore, Ezekiel eats bread in dung, so the sons of Israel too, or the whole people of the Jews, or, as others think, the ten tribes, will eat polluted bread among the nations; although the threat is not addressed to those who have already been cast out, but to those who were still to be cast out of the land of promise. When the prophet had learned this, according to Aquila he expressed his abhorrence three times: 'Ah, ah, ah', but according to Symmachus and the Seventy he answered: Μηδαμῶς, which in Latin is said 'By no means', for which Theodotion translated: 'O Lord God'; lest we should think that he is contradicting the Lord's command, rather than giving reasons, or rather pleading, why he cannot do this; and in the end he obtains what he asked, and the severity of the sentence was tempered by a milder command. It is asked why Ezekiel refused easier things, while Hosea was at once joined to a harlot and did not object, or rather reply, that he had a chaste body and ought not to be stained by union with a prostitute, as the Apostle says: He who cleaves to a prostitute becomes one body with her; from this it is shown that it was a figure of the Synagogue or of the Church, not truly carried out according to the letter, as we discussed more fully when expounding that prophet himself. 'What died of itself' is the name for that which loses its life without the shedding of blood, and in which the soul dies; 'torn by beasts', for what in Greek is called θηριάλωτον. And that the dung of oxen is granted in place of human dung signifies lighter evils, since he is indeed commanded to eat bread baked in ox dung, but to be far from the uncleanness of human dung; and to this day this sentence is kept among the people of the Jews: they do not eat their bread in human dung — for they neither serve idols nor worship the various monstrous forms of demons — but in ox dung, since they do everything for the sake of the flesh and the belly and the good things of this earth, according to what is said: He who does them shall live in them. But we who despise earthly things not only trample on the foods of human dung and count earthly delights as nothing, but eat the bread which came down from heaven and enjoy that food of which the psalmist sings: Man ate the bread of angels, living not at all on Egyptian meats but on the fineness of manna.
4:16-17
And he said to me: Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they shall eat bread by weight and in anxiety, and they shall drink water by measure and in distress, so that, bread and water failing, each one may collapse upon his brother, and they may waste away in their iniquities. The Hebrew word 'mate' the first edition of Aquila translated 'staff', while the second, and Symmachus and Theodotion, translated στήριγμα, that is, 'support'. What he had shown by deed was to come, he also declares by word; and the whole sleeping on the left and the right side, and the bread baked under the ashes and mixed from a variety of six kinds, signifying the evils of the world, tends to this: to proclaim the want of food in Jerusalem and an incredible scarcity of water, so that each one collapses upon his brother, hoping from another for the help that he does not see to be in himself — for it is the nature of men that, when evils press and the weight of distress, they put their confidence in their neighbor rather than in themselves —, and they waste away in their iniquities, while they suffer all things for their iniquities. And I fear that this breaking of bread may be found in our Jerusalem too, in which the vision of peace is discerned: bread which the Lord breaks when he is angry and judges us unworthy of his bread; and would that we might at least deserve to receive it by weight and in anxiety, and that the tip of Lazarus's finger might moisten our tongue, parched with excessive dryness. But when the bread and water of the Church fail, a man will collapse against his brother, and everywhere there is discord, as we tear the tunic of Christ which not even the soldiers dared to tear at the passion of the Savior, and waste away in our iniquities, while we do not have the righteousness of God. It is written in Jeremiah that the little ones, that is, the common people of the Church, asked for bread, and there was none to break it for them; but Paul, who was a man and knew that Christ had broken the loaves of the Law and given them to the disciples to be distributed, speaks confidently. And those who need the milk of infancy and are not able to take solid food cannot eat the staff or strength of bread; and nothing so strengthens the mind of the one who eats as the bread of life, of which it is written: And bread strengthens the heart of man.
Book Two
This, O virgin of Christ Eustochium, is the opening of the second volume of the explanations on Ezekiel.
5:1-4
And you, son of man, take for yourself a sharp sword like a barbers' razor (or shaving the hairs), and draw it across your head and your beard, and you shall take for yourself a balance of weight and divide them. A third part you shall burn with fire in the midst of the city, according to the completion of the days of the enclosure; and a third part you shall cut down with the sword round about it; but the other third you shall scatter into the wind, and I will bare the sword after them. And you shall take from there a small number, and you shall bind them in the top of the cloak; and from them again you shall take, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them; from it a fire shall go forth into all the house of Israel. Instead of the 'three' parts of the hair of the head and of the beard, of which one is burned in the midst of the city, another is cut down with the sword round about it, and the third is scattered, to be snatched hither and thither by the wind, from which a little is taken and bound in the edge of the cloak, and again some small amount of the third part is cast into the fire, from which a flame goes forth into all the house of Israel, the Seventy translated 'four' parts; and when they had said: A fourth part you shall burn with fire in the midst of the city, and a fourth you shall slay with the sword round about it, and a fourth you shall scatter into the wind, because another fourth part remained to them, they added of their own: And a fourth part you shall take and burn it in the midst of the city, as if it were not the same as the first, and he had said one thing in the first and another in this one which has been added. Finally, in what follows too, the Lord himself explains through the prophet the αἴνιγμα [riddle] of the hairs divided into three parts, saying: A third part of you shall die by pestilence and be consumed by famine in the midst of you, signifying that famine and pestilence are the fire; and a third part of you shall fall by the sword round about you, describing the slaughters and wars outside; but the third part of you, he says, I will scatter into every wind, showing that these are the ones who are to be led into captivity. After these he says that he bares or pours out his sword, so that not even captivity should be the last of evils, and that he takes from those very ones who were scattered and made captive, and binds at the top of his cloak those who are to return from captivity to Jerusalem, and from them too takes some part and consumes it with fire and flame, signifying the Macedonians, under whom the inhabitants of Judea, and especially of Jerusalem, suffered harsh things. But as to his saying: From it (that is, from the people of the Jews, or according to the Seventy: From her, so that the city of Jerusalem is understood) a fire shall go forth into all the house of Israel, the history of the Maccabees relates it: that a certain part of the Jews gave themselves over to Antiochus Epiphanes and stirred him up to the persecution of the people, and many other things which are written in the same history and in the volumes of Josephus, and especially the dissension of Hyrcanus and Alexander, through the occasion of which Gnaeus Pompey took Jerusalem and subjected it to Roman dominion; and afterwards, under Titus and Vespasian, the city was taken and the temple overthrown, and, after fifty years, under Aelius Hadrian the city was burned down to the ground and destroyed, so that it lost even its former name. Moreover, just as in the hair of the head and the beard there is a token of beauty and manhood, and if they are shaved off a shameful nakedness appears, and the outermost and, so to speak, dead part of the whole body is in the hair of the head and the hairs of the beard, so Jerusalem and its people, dead and separated from the living body of God, is handed over to famine and pestilence, to slaughter and the sword, to captivity and dispersion. From this dispersion, under the figure of the hairs, some part is bound in the height of the cloak, so that a small amount is again handed over to burning, from which an infinite flame and the whole devastation of punishment goes forth into all the house of Israel.
5:5-6
Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem; in the midst of the nations I have set her, and round about her lands; and she despised my judgments, so as to be more impious than the nations, and my precepts more than the lands which are round about her: for they have cast away my judgments, and in my precepts they have not walked. That Jerusalem is situated in the middle of the world this same prophet testifies, showing that she is the navel of the earth; and the psalmist, expressing the nativity of the Lord: Truth, he says, has sprung from the earth; and then, the passion: He has wrought, he says, salvation in the midst of the earth. For on the side of the east she is girded by the region which is called Asia; on the side of the west, by that which is called Europe; on the south and the south wind, by Libya and Africa; on the north, by the Scythians, Armenia and Persia and all the nations of Pontus. She was set, therefore, in the midst of the nations so that, since God was known in Judea, and in Israel his name was great, all the nations round about might follow her examples; but she, following the impiety of the nations placed around her, surpassed even them in her wickedness. Symmachus translated this beautifully: This Jerusalem, which I set in the midst of the nations, and the regions around her, has exchanged my judgments for impieties which she learned from the nations, and my justifications from the regions which are round about her, because they have rejected my ordinances, and in my judgments they have not walked. But that what the Seventy said: My justifications unjustly from the nations, and my ordinances from the regions which are round about her, has no coherence is clear even if I keep silent.
5:7-9
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have surpassed the nations that are round about you, you have not walked in my precepts, and have not done my judgments, and have not acted according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you, therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, and I myself will execute judgments in the midst of you in the eyes of the nations. And I will do in you what I have not done, and the like of which I will not do again, because of all your abominations. (In place of what we translated: Because you have surpassed the nations that are round about you, Symmachus translated: Because your multitude was from the nations that are round about you. Aquila's second edition: Because you have been numbered among the nations that are round about you; and further, LXX: "Because your occasion is from the nations that are round about you".) And the sense is: either that Jerusalem by her crimes surpassed all the nations round about, or that her multitude is to be called not the people of Israel but a crowd of the other nations, or certainly that they were turned into the number of the other nations which are round about, or that they took every occasion from the nations whom they ought rather to have taught toward the good. 'Why,' he says, 'should I complain that you have not walked in my precepts and have not done my judgments, when you have even surpassed all the nations round about in your wickedness, and have not done what they often did by the natural law written in their hearts? Therefore not through angels nor through any ministers, but I myself will execute judgments in you, with all looking on, such as I have not done in you before and will not do again'. And by saying 'judgments' he shows the truth of the sentence, lest his wrath should seem to exceed the measure of the punishments. Nor did he do in any nation such things as he did in Jerusalem; and the mighty shall suffer torments mightily; and: The like, he says, I will not do again. He said well: I will not do the like, for after the killing of Christ he was going to do much harsher things: for it is one thing to have worshiped idols at times, for which they had been punished before, and another to have slaughtered the Son of God.
5:10
Therefore fathers shall eat sons in the midst of you, and sons shall eat their fathers, and I will execute judgments in you, and I will winnow all your remnants into every wind. To what he had said above: Because you have surpassed the nations that are round about you (or Because your occasion is from the nations that are round about you), you have not walked in my precepts, and have not done my judgments, he has referred 'therefore' three times. First thus: Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, and I myself will execute judgments in the midst of you; secondly: Therefore fathers shall eat sons in the midst of you; thirdly: Therefore, as I live, says the Lord God, unless because you have violated my holy place with all your offenses, and the rest. Yet it must be noted that where things are seemly and honorable, and in accordance with the merit of those who undergo them, God professes that he does them himself; but where they are sad and not worthy of God, he says indeed that they happen, but not by him, as in the present passage: Therefore fathers shall eat sons in the midst of you, and sons shall eat their fathers; for he did not say: 'I will make fathers eat their sons in the midst of you, and sons eat their fathers'; but what was seemly and did not seem unworthy of the majesty of God, he says he does himself, for there follows: And I will execute judgments in you, and I will winnow all your remnants into every wind. Something of the sort we shall be able to find also in the curses of Deuteronomy, and especially in that passage: Those who glorify me I will glorify; but those who despise me shall be brought to nothing; for those who glorify him he himself glorifies, but those who despise him will not be despised or brought to nothing by the Lord — for this is what would have followed for him to say —, but they will be brought to nothing absolutely, not by God but for their own deserts and sins. We read in the volume of Kings that, under the compulsion of famine, a son was devoured by his mother; Josephus too records many things of this kind done in the siege of Jerusalem; but when fathers ate their sons or sons their fathers, no history relates, unless perhaps it is to be believed that in many evil necessities these things too were done. This very thing can also be referred to our Jerusalem, when masters against disciples, that is, fathers against sons, and disciples against masters, that is, sons against fathers, are stirred up in mutual strife, and that is fulfilled which is said through the Apostle: But if you bite and accuse one another, see that you are not consumed by one another. Hence the prophet too sang in mystical speech: When those who afflict me drew near against me to eat my flesh, and Job says something similar: If indeed my maidservants have said: Who will give us of his flesh, that we may eat?, and concerning masters who pursue gain from their disciples and have no care for their salvation it is said: Who devour my people like a meal of bread, of whom the Apostle too says: And they eat, he says, the houses of widows. We can understand the fathers who ate sons and the sons who ate fathers not only in the Babylonian but also in the Roman siege; what is said: And I will winnow all your remnants into every wind, pertains rather to the Roman captivity, when they were scattered throughout the whole world, and this is the dispersion of the hair of head and beard into every wind.
5:11
Therefore, as I live, says the Lord God, unless because you have violated my holy place with all your offenses and with all your abominations, I too will break (or according to the Seventy I will cast you off), and my eye shall not spare, and I will not have pity. This is said properly to Jerusalem: 'Because you have violated my holy things by deserting me, and have worshiped idols in my temple, I too will break all your idols and crush and cut them down, or I will cast you off because you first cast me off, and my eye will not spare when I see you submitting your neck to famine, the sword and slavery, nor will I have pity, because you do not deserve mercy', for it is written: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. This same thing must be understood in the Church too, that God could daily say to masters and priests who have acted negligently: 'Because you have violated my holy things with all your offenses and with all your abominations which you have committed, I too will crush and break you, and I will repay through myself what you perpetrated against my people. Concerning this the same prophet speaks more fully against the shepherds: that they clothe themselves with the wool of the sheep and feed on the milk and the cheese, and do not seek out the broken and sick flock.
5:12-13
A third part of you shall die by pestilence and be consumed by famine in the midst of you, and a third part of you shall fall by the sword round about you, but the third part of you I will scatter into every wind, and I will unsheathe the sword after them. And I will fulfill my fury and make my indignation rest upon them, and I will be consoled; and they shall know that I the Lord have spoken in my zeal, when I have fulfilled my indignation upon them. (The Seventy, because above they had set down four parts, whereas the prophetic word proved that there are only three, in the ravaging by burning and by sword and by dispersion, so that superfluously the one part of burning was divided into two parts, in this place too divided that same first part into two, so as to say: A fourth part of you shall be worn away by death, and a fourth part of you shall be consumed by famine in the midst of you, and a fourth part of you shall fall round about you, and a fourth part of you I will scatter into every wind; although what we have set down: And a fourth part of you shall fall by the sword has been added from the edition of Theodotion under asterisks.) But it is clear, as the Hebrew truth contains, that there are three parts, of the first of which it is said: And a third part of you shall die by pestilence and be consumed by famine in the midst of you. And it would have been much better to translate what is written than to seek a defense for a thing badly translated; nor do we say that this was done by those to whom antiquity has given authority, but that it was corrupted over many centuries by the fault of copyists and readers, although both Aristeas and Josephus and the whole school of the Jews assert that only the five books of Moses were translated by the Seventy; and since we have spoken of this point above, it seems that it should now be passed over. This only I will add, which is necessary, regarding what he says: And I will fulfill my fury and make my indignation rest upon them, and I will be consoled; and they shall know that I the Lord have spoken in my zeal, when I have fulfilled my indignation upon them: how the fury and indignation and zeal of God are to be understood, we have often explained, namely that God speaks with human affections, not that he himself is angry, but that we, through punishments and torments, may feel God to be angry. Zeal, moreover, is to be taken under the μετάφορᾳ [metaphor] of a husband and wife: a husband, as long as he loves his wife, is jealous; if he has neglected her, he says what we shall say in what follows: My zeal shall depart from you; and I will no longer be angry with you. And as to what is joined: And they shall know that I the Lord have spoken in my zeal: not those who have been consumed by famine and pestilence, nor those who have fallen by the sword round about the city, but those who will be scattered into every wind will, by the deaths of others and by their own miseries, feel God angry, whom they were unwilling to feel merciful.
5:14
And I will give you into a desert, (and what follows:) and into a reproach to the nations which are round about you (is not found in the Seventy, in place of which they added of their own: and your daughters round about you; and again according to both editions:) in the sight of everyone passing by. Now it profits Jerusalem that all the vices in her should be made desolate and reduced to a desert, and that she should recognize her own sins, so that she who ought to have been an example of virtues to the other nations may be an example of miseries. Her daughters, moreover, we can understand as cities or villages, or as the churches scattered throughout the whole world, so that whoever is a pilgrim of this age, and says with the psalmist: I am a sojourner and a pilgrim, as all my fathers, and of whom it is said: Those who passed by did not say: The blessing of the Lord be upon you, may see her reproach and grieve.
5:15-16a
And you shall be a reproach and a blasphemy, an example and an astonishment among the nations which are round about you (in place of which in the Seventy is read: And she shall be στενακτὴ — that is, 'worthy of groaning'; and from Theodotion there has been added: — καὶ δηλαϊστὴ, a word of which we have no knowledge; in place of which the three other translators rendered 'blasphemy', which in the Hebrew is called 'geddupha'. And there follows:), when I have executed judgments in you in fury and indignation and in rebukes of wrath, which I the Lord have spoken. That Jerusalem is worthy of groaning when she has offended God, and he has executed judgments in her in fury and indignation, Paul too testifies, who says: We were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest, and again: We who are in this tabernacle groan, being burdened; and we speak with Jerusalem: I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him. Δηλαϊστὴν or δηλαίαν some wish to be understood as 'unhappy' and 'wretched', others as 'conspicuous' and 'exposed to miseries'.
5:16b
When I send the most evil arrows of famine, which will be deadly, and which I will send to destroy you, and I will gather famine upon you, and I will crush the support (or staff) of bread. That famine and pestilence and most evil beasts and whatever other evils we endure in this world come because of our sins is manifest. Hence also that famine which is recorded to have happened in Ruth, and in the volume of Kings under Elijah, when the heaven was shut for three years and six months, and under Elisha, whose incredible want a sudden abundance made good, was sent by the judgment of God. And this was not only done then in Jerusalem, but is done also in our Jerusalem, in which, because of the greatness of our sins, first a famine of hearing the word of God is sent; then death follows the famine, so that we who did not hear: Taste and see that the Lord is sweet, may afterwards experience: The death of sinners is most evil. Of the support and staff of bread we have spoken above.
5:17
And I will send upon you famine and most evil beasts, even to utter destruction, and pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you; I the Lord have spoken. That most evil beasts are brought upon a land of desolation which has been laid waste by famine, sword and pestilence, the present times also show, when dogs, domestic animals, are roused to madness against the flesh of their masters, and the land is filled with bears and wolves and all other kinds of beasts; and by pestilence and blood passing through it he signifies disease and the sword. But into our Jerusalem too most evil beasts are sent, when we are given over to passions of ignominy and to a reprobate mind and to the consciousness of sins, which torment and tear apart our soul. Dissensions, heresies, schisms, rivalries, envies, sorrows, detractions, many desires, avarice — which is the root of all evils —, these are most evil beasts; and when they are in us, we deserve to hear: 'Your transgression shall chastise you', and we pray and say: Do not deliver to the beasts a soul that confesses to you.
6:1-3a
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and you shall prophesy to them, and you shall say: Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, to the crags and the valleys. Since 'Adonai' the Lord is often said in this prophet, it seems that it should be briefly explained for the sake of the Greeks and Latins who have no knowledge of the Hebrew language: 'Adonai' is one name among the ten names of God, and it means 'lord', which we often use of men as well — indeed Sarah too, calling Abraham her 'lord', called him by this name; and where it is said: My lord king, 'Adonai' is written — ; when therefore two names, 'lord' and 'Lord', are joined, the first name is common, the second is properly God's, the one which is called ἄρρητον, that is, 'ineffable', and which was written on the golden plate that was on the forehead of the high priest. Now the mountains of Israel, which had been occupied by the images of demons, hear and understand their Creator not with ears but by the command and power of their Maker — just as the sea saw and fled, the Jordan was turned back, surely not with eyes of flesh, which it lacked; and to the sea it is said: Be still, be silent, and the blasts of the winds are commanded, and the worm that struck Jonah's shelter is given its order; and of this same earth it is written: Who looks upon the earth and makes it tremble — ; to them the prophet speaks, indicating that the idols are to be destroyed, and that the altars and all the ceremonies with which they had previously served the idols are to be crushed. We can take the mountains of Israel as both the princes and those who excelled in power and wisdom and knowledge and riches. And this must be noted: that the face is indeed set firm and placed against the mountains, but he speaks by no means to the mountains alone, but also to the hills and to the crags and to the valleys, in which a lower rank and degree of prudence and knowledge is recognized. Tropologically, it seems to me, the mountains are those who have arrived at perfect knowledge; the hills, those who are a little lower; the crags, those who, having no knowledge and trusting only in their manner of life, presume something for themselves concerning the interpretation of the Scriptures, having, according to the Apostle, a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge; and that those are called valleys who are the last in the Church, who, though lower both in life and in knowledge, nevertheless do not withdraw from the gathering of the Lord's household; all of whom are commanded to hear the word of God, so that each one may understand, according to his own small measure and sense, what the Lord commands.
6:3b-6a
Behold, I will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places; and I will demolish your altars, and your images shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain before your idols. And I will lay the corpses of the sons of Israel before the face of your images, and I will scatter your bones around your altars, in all your dwellings. It is said to the mountains of Israel that God will destroy their high places, on which men worshiped fashioned gods, and will break the altars and images, and will cause their worshipers to be slain in the sight of the shrines, so that the corpses of the dead may lie where the victims formerly lay, and the bones may be scattered — not of the mountains, but of those who lay on the mountains — round about the altars and in all the cities and villages of Israel. This according to the letter. But otherwise, upon those also who are lifted up into pride, and of whom the Apostle speaks: Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up, a sword is brought, so that all their images, which they have fashioned from their own mind, may be crushed, and they may lie slain and perceive that they are dead, seeing that their images and fictions profit them nothing. And as for his saying that he scatters the bones of the mountains around the altars, he indicates that all the strongest of them are to be separated from one another — for it profits perverse knowledge that the wicked be divided from the wicked — ; and as those who, with a most wicked consensus, were building a tower were, for their own benefit, scattered and their tongues divided, lest the most wicked consensus make them worse, so the bones of the mountains are scattered, that they may understand their vain endeavors. (This which we have put: And I will lay the corpses of the sons of Israel before the face of your images, is not found in the Seventy.)
6:6b-7
The cities shall be deserted, and the high places shall be demolished, and your altars shall be scattered and shall perish, and your idols shall be broken and shall cease, and your shrines shall be crushed, and your works shall be blotted out; and the slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the Lord. The reason is plain why the cities of the mountains are to be deserted: namely, that the high places and altars may be demolished, and the idols destroyed, and the shrines perish, and all worship of images cease; that the slain may fall in the midst of the mountains, and they may know that he himself is the Lord. Through these words an occasion is given us rather to follow the spiritual understanding, so that the cities of the heretics, which are interpreted as churches, and the high places of their pride and the altars of their perverse doctrines may be broken, and the idols may perish which they had feigned for themselves out of their own heart, and the shrines may be crushed — for these are the temples which had risen up against the temple of the Lord, and which in the Greek tongue are called τεμένη, that is, 'fanes' and 'shrines' — , and all the works of the mountains may be crushed which are not works of God but of the masters of false knowledge. And when the slain have fallen in the midst of the mountains — either those whom the mountains themselves had slain, or the men of the Church who had slain them, living wickedly as they were, unto their salvation — then there will be an end of the proud mountains, so that they may know that he himself is the Lord. It may also happen that, out of the one people of the mountains of Israel, when some have been slain, the others come to know: for when the pestilent man is scourged, the fool will be wiser.
6:8-9a
And I will leave among you those who escape the sword among the nations, when I have scattered you into the lands; and your freed ones shall remember me among the nations to which they have been led captive. That which the Lord says to Elijah: I have left for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal, and which the apostle Paul writes: And now in this time a remnant according to the election of grace has been saved, can fit this passage. For the apostles too, who were of the seed of Israel and had escaped the sword, were preserved for this reason: that they might be scattered among the nations, and preach the Gospel in the lands, and remember God among the nations in which they were dwelling in the time of captivity. This can also be said: that some from the Jewish captivity were preserved for this reason, that among the nations they might remember his name and proclaim his power. Of the peoples of the heretics also, those who have been able to escape the sword of their perdition and the most wicked faction which had been stirred up against God, scattered hither and thither, will remember the name of God, doing penance, and will exult that they have been taken captive by men of the Church.
6:9b-10
Because I have crushed their heart, fornicating and departing from me, and their eyes fornicating after their idols; and they shall be displeased with themselves over the evils which they had done in all their abominations, and they shall know that I the Lord have not spoken in vain, that I would do this evil to them. (Much of this passage has been passed over by the Seventy, and this has been changed: I swore to their fornicating heart, in place of which we have put: I have crushed their heart, fornicating.) Now he swore and decreed that he would do what he showed in deed; or else, he crushed the heart fornicating and departing from God — the heart of those to whom he speaks through Hosea: They have been led astray by a spirit of fornication — , and the eyes fornicating after idols — through whose windows death is said to have entered: for which reason in Daniel too the two elders ordered Susanna to be unveiled, that they might enjoy the beauty of her bared body — . Nor has the Lord spoken in vain, that he would do evil or evils, when at his threat those who lay under the sentence do penance; but if the heart is hard and untamable, not perceiving, even through punishments, the benefits of the one who corrects, it is said to them: In vain have I struck your sons; you have not received discipline. It profits the heretics too that their heart be crushed, that most evil treasury of perverse doctrines, because it has departed from the Lord, and their eyes, fornicating after their own inventions; and they, when they have remembered the Lord, will be displeased with themselves in all their abominations, and, understanding the truth of the true faith, will know that he himself is the Lord. And for this reason he often brings on tribulation, which seems ruinous and most grievous to those who suffer it: that they may be turned to penance.
6:11a
Thus says the Lord God: Strike with your hand and stamp your foot, and say: Alas, for all the abominations of the evils of the house of Israel. The prophet is commanded to show the magnitude of the sins with hands and feet and speech, so that, by the gesture of his body and the lowering of his voice, he may display the bearing of one stunned and amazed and weeping. For just as, whenever we behold something new and astonishing, we shudder in body as much as in mind, so that we clap our hands and strike our feet on the ground and lower our voice to weeping, so now the prophet, discerning with the eyes of the mind the punishments to come, speaks concerning all the abominations of the evils of the house of Israel which follow. Spiritually, we strike with the hand when we separate ourselves from evil works; we stamp the foot when we do not walk in the way of sinners; we lament and weep when the things that are done displease us, which is shown by the word 'alas' — for which Aquila translated ἀᾶ [ah!], Symmachus σχετλίασον, which means 'lament' or 'mourn', the Seventy or Theodotion εὖγε [well done!], which belongs rather to one who mocks than to one who mourns — .
6:11b
Who are to fall by sword, famine, pestilence. This is the cause of mourning: that the inhabitants of the mountains and the worshipers of the altars of the idols are to fall by sword, famine, pestilence. Those who are led about by various errors and change their faith daily and are carried about by every wind of doctrine, these are cut down by the sword and divided into parts, abandoning the unity of the Church's faith. But he who does not have spiritual food dies of famine, not knowing him who said: I am the life. Further, he who, given over either to single vices or to several, cannot be separated from them, falls by pestilence, as if by a kind of lethargy.
6:12
He who is far off shall die by pestilence, but he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who is left and besieged shall die by famine, and I will fulfill my indignation upon them. He who escapes the siege of the city and moves away to the deserts will die by pestilence; he who is near will fall by the sword of the enemy; but he whom the hostile army surrounds will perish by famine and want; and in all these the indignation of God will be fulfilled, so that those who remain may know that he himself is the Lord. Whoever also withdraws from the Church will at once die by pestilence; he who seems to himself a man of some learning and diligent will, unless he takes care, be struck by the sword of the enemy; he who is content with simple faith — like the brute animals he does indeed spend his time in the Church, yet he brings nothing to completion in any good work, nor is he an imitator of the ant, which in harvest prepares food for itself and carries it in — , he will die of famine; and in all these the wrath of the Lord will be fulfilled.
6:13
And you shall know that I am the Lord, when your slain are in the midst of your idols, round about your altars, on every lofty hill and on all the summits of the mountains, and under every shady tree, and under every leafy oak, the place where they burned sweet-smelling incense to all their idols. It is plain according to the letter and needs no interpretation, that on the mountains of Israel and on the lofty hills, among the very altars of the idols and the groves, which are called shady trees, the army of Israel was cut down, so that where they had sinned, there they would be punished. According to ἀναγωγὴν [anagogy, the higher sense] let us follow the order set forth. When the masters of the heretics have been crushed and overcome by men of the Church who are instructed in the knowledge of the Scriptures, we see the slain of the perverse doctrines lying among the images which they had fashioned, and those who lifted themselves up against the knowledge of God laid low on the mountains and hills under every shady tree: they had pompous words and the shade of leaves, and did not have the fruits of good works; they were under every leafy oak, which bears fruit not for men but for swine, where they burned sweet-smelling incense, not to God but to their idols; nor could they say what is written of Noah: The Lord smelled the odor of good fragrance, and that which Paul says: We are the good odor of Christ to God in every place — but just as the saint delights God with his odor, so the sinner, in whose person that psalm is sung: My scars have rotted and become corrupt before the face of my folly, burns stinking incense to his idols — . (That which we have translated: On all the summits of the mountains, and a little after: And under every leafy oak, the Seventy left out.)
6:14
I will stretch out my hand over them, and I will make the land desolate and forsaken from the desert of Deblatha in all their dwellings; and they shall know that I am the Lord. O mountains of Israel, when your slain have fallen in the midst of the altars of your idols, on every lofty hill, on all the summits of the mountains, and I have filled with the corpses of the dead your groves, in which they once burned sweet-smelling incense to their idols, then I will stretch out my hand for vengeance, which until now had been held back, and I will reduce the whole land of Israel to a wilderness, from the desert of Deblatha — which is in the land of Hamath, which today is called Ἐπιφάνεια [Epiphania] of Syria — in all their dwellings, so that it may be plain to all that there is nothing between the wilderness and the Great Sea which the enemy's blade has not consumed — many think that it is the same place of which it is written in Jeremiah: And they seized Zedekiah in the desert which is near Jericho, and all his retinue fled from him. And when they had taken the king, they brought him to the king of Babylon at Reblatha, which is in the land of Hamath, and that, on account of the nearness, or rather the likeness, of the Hebrew letters 'daleth' and 'res', which are distinguished by a small stroke, it is called either Deblatha or Reblatha — . But according to the mystical senses, the Lord stretches out his hand over all who had been deceived by heretical error, to make their land, which is interpreted as the Church, desolate from the desert of Deblatha — which in our language means παλάθη, that is, 'a mass of figs' 'and of dried figs pressed together' — , so that, after they have found bitterness in a feigned sweetness, which belonged not to cultivated land but to the wilderness, they may then know that he himself is the Lord: For honey drips from the lips of a harlot woman, which for a time fattens the throats of those who eat, and afterward is found more bitter than gall. This is also signified by the two baskets of figs which were set in Jeremiah before the face of the temple, one of very good figs and one of very bad, of which the one refers to the Church of Christ, the other to the congregation of the wicked.
7:1-2
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: And you, son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel: The end has come, the end upon the four 'wings of the earth'. These we have translated 'regions of the world': namely the east and the west, the south and the north; of which wings Isaiah also speaks: Lord, from the wings (or ends) of the earth we have heard wonders, which were being wrought throughout the whole world by the apostles; and of the saints it is written: If you sleep in the midst of the lots, wings of a dove silvered over, and its hinder parts in the greenness of gold; whence the Lord too, when he had drawn near and seen Jerusalem, wept and said: How often I would have gathered your children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not?; he it is who, in the song of Deuteronomy, spread out his wings, took them up and bore them on his shoulders. A certain writer sets down as the spiritual wings of the earth, by which we fly up to heavenly things, four kinds of believers: the house of Aaron and the house of Levi and the house of Israel and those who fear the Lord — of whom the psalmist sings: House of Israel, bless the Lord; house of Aaron, bless the Lord; house of Levi, bless the Lord; you who fear the Lord, bless the Lord —, understanding by Aaron the priesthood, by Levi the temple-keepers and ministers, by Israel the whole people, by those who fear the proselytes. We, however, think it should be explained simply: that after the threat against the mountains of Israel the prophetic word is directed to the whole land of Israel, whether of the ten or of the twelve tribes, and that the prophet by no means announces a captivity to come but sees one already bearing down. For in the fifth year of Zedekiah Ezekiel began to prophesy to the captives in Babylon, and in the ninth year Nebuchadnezzar came and besieged Jerusalem, and he took it in the eleventh year of Zedekiah. From this it is clear that the end had come and drawn near, not upon mountains and hills and crags and valleys, but upon the four regions of the land on every side of Israel; not of the whole earth — for had he said that, it could have been believed to concern the whole world —, but simply of the land, which signifies Israel; for thus he had begun: Thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel: The end has come, the end upon the four regions of the land.
7:3-4
Now the end is upon you, and I will send my fury against you, and I will judge you according to your ways, and I will set against you all your abominations. And my eye will not spare you, and I will not have mercy, but I will set your ways upon you, and your abominations will be in your midst, and you shall know that I am the Lord. (In this chapter, in the Seventy translators, the order has been changed and confused, so that the first things are last and the last either first or in the middle, and the middle things themselves are moved now to the end, now to the beginning; wherefore we, following both the Hebrew itself and the other translators, have set down the order of the truth.) To the land of Israel, then, the word is directed: that the end and consummation has come upon it, and that the Lord sends forth his fury against it, a fury not unjust nor coming merely from indignation, but full of equity and reason, so that he may judge it according to its ways and show it all its abominations, that it may remember its works and understand what wrong it has done. And as for his saying: My eye will not spare you, and I will not have mercy, like a most merciful physician who wishes to cut away rotten flesh and to burn out decayed wounds with the cautery, he does not spare so that he may spare, he does not have mercy so that he may have mercy the more, lest anything rotten remain in the body that would corrupt the living flesh by its nearness. But the Lord strikes the one whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives; to this understanding belongs that saying: I will strike and I will heal, for every medicine has bitterness for a time, but afterwards the fruit of the pain is shown in health; something of this kind God speaks through Amos: Since I have known you out of all the tribes of the earth, therefore I will avenge upon you all your sins; for the Lord knows those who are his. 'And her ways', he says, 'and the course of her whole life, and her abominations and stains I will set in her midst', so that the former sins may be set before the eyes of the sinful woman, who is punished for her healing; and when the Lord has done this, those who have been tormented will know that he himself is the Lord. That testimony too sounds this very thing: I will avenge Jacob according to his ways, and according to his devices I will repay him.
7:5-7a
Thus says the Lord God: One affliction, an affliction, behold, comes. The end comes, the end comes; it has awakened against you, behold, it comes. Crushing comes upon you who dwell in the land. (These words are not found in the Seventy, but in their edition they were added under asterisks from the translation of Theodotion; let us, however, follow the Hebrew.) In place of 'affliction', which we have put for the sake of clarity following Symmachus, who translated κάκωσιν [ill-treatment], both in the Hebrew and in the Greek κακία or πονηρία is written, that is, 'malice'. And it is said that the time of the final sin of the land of Israel has arrived, so that it no longer escapes the sentence of God which it had long been deserving. And because it had not yet filled up its sins, the punishment was for that reason being deferred, according to that which is written: For the sins of the Amorites are not yet complete; whence the Lord too says to the Jews: You also, he says, fill up the measure of your fathers. Misery, then, has come upon you, affliction has come, and captivity has come. And lest you think that I am again threatening things to come, I point with my finger and show it: Behold, it comes, the end comes, the end comes; he who until now seemed to you to be dozing and at rest has suddenly awakened against you and risen up. 'Crushing' has come — which in the Hebrew is called 'sephphira', and which Aquila translated προσκόπησιν, that is, 'contemplation' and 'looking forward' — which you, ever fearful, dreaded would come upon you — and which Theodotion translated πλοκὴν, that is, the 'order and connected web' of all evils —. Further, what is said: Upon you who dwell in the land, we ought to take according to that saying of the Ἀποκαλύψεως [Revelation] of John: Woe upon all who dwell on the earth — for the saint is not a dweller on the earth but a stranger and sojourner, and he says: I am a stranger and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. For this reason Abraham too is called 'a Hebrew', that is, περάτης, and 'sojourner' and 'passer-through' and 'wayfarer', hastening to pass from the present age to the things to come —. We can also interpret this place spiritually against the people of the Jews, upon whom came the end and consummation from the blood of Abel the righteous to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom they slew between the temple and the altar. For as long as they did not lay hands on the Son of God, the Lord's sentence dozed for them and was put off; but when they killed the heir so that the inheritance might perish, then it awoke against them, and the whole order and tangle of miseries rose up, because they did not seek heavenly things but desired to cling to the earth.
7:7b
The time has come, the day of slaughter is near, and not of the glory of the mountains. The Hebrew word 'adarim', which we, dividing it into two words, the first 'ad', the second 'arim', have translated following Theodotion as 'glory of the mountains', Symmachus turned into 'postponement' and said: And the time is near, a day of haste and not of postponement. (But the Seventy translated thus: The time has come, the day has drawn near, not with disturbance nor with pains.) Theodotion: The time has come, the day of famine is near, and not of the glory of the mountains. And the time of slaughter and of famine is proven even now in the Jewish people, which has neither prophets nor the word of God by which the soul of believers is fed. By the mountains understand the teachers and those who have knowledge of the Scriptures, of whom it is said in another place too: You give light wonderfully from the everlasting mountains. But the Seventy, who said: Not with disturbance and not with pains, signify this: that they have such ignorance of God and blindness of soul that they are neither disturbed in their crimes nor tormented by the pain of repentance.
7:8
Now from near at hand I will pour out my wrath upon you, and I will unfold my fury upon you, and I will judge you according to your ways, and I will lay (or give) upon you all your abominations. If we wish to reckon from the fifth year of the exile of King Jeconiah to the ninth year of the reign of Zedekiah, when Nebuchadnezzar came and besieged Jerusalem, there will be three years in between. Hence it is rightly said: 'Now from near at hand I will pour out my wrath upon you; I will by no means foretell things to come to you nor threaten things that will happen long afterwards; now I will fulfil my fury upon you: and this fury and wrath is not without judgment, but is so that it may repay your ways upon your head and make you feel all your abominations'. We can also speak of the final captivity: that after the killing of Christ, when the end came upon them and sin awoke against them, there was fulfilled that which the apostle Paul writes: Now the wrath of God has come upon them to the end; when Jerusalem was encircled by Titus and Vespasian and its desolation came and there was fulfilled: Behold, your house will be left to you deserted, then they were judged according to their ways and the blasphemies by which they denied the Lord, and they felt the fury of God, and all his indignation was poured out upon them and they received back their crimes, so that the destruction of the temple remains until the consummation.
7:9
And my eye will not spare, nor will I have mercy, but your ways I will lay (or give) upon you, and your abominations will be in your midst, and you shall know that I am the Lord who strikes. The causes of the severity and harshness, or, as the heretics think, of the cruelty of God, in that 'my eye will not spare, nor have mercy', he adds, saying: 'I will give you your ways, and your abominations will be in your midst, so that you may feel what you have done and, seeing your abominations set either before your eyes or in the midst of all, may correct your error by repentance, and, withdrawing from your former works, when you hate what you have done, then you will know that he himself is the Lord who strikes for this reason: to correct, and: He chastises every son whom he receives'.
7:10-11
Behold the day, behold, it comes, contraction has gone forth; the rod has blossomed, pride has budded; iniquity has risen up in the rod of impiety: not from them, and not from the people, nor from their noise; and there will be no rest for them. (LXX: "Behold, the day gives birth, behold, the end comes, the encompassing has gone forth, and the rod has blossomed, pride has budded, injury has been roused, and it will crush the strength of the wicked, and not with disturbance nor with haste, and they are not of them, nor is there beauty in them.") 'The day', he says, 'has been contracted and shortened, and the captivity presses close at hand; the rod which for a long time threatened you has blossomed, and from the blossom it is bringing forth the fruit of blows; your pride has budded what you deserved, so that over the rod of your impiety, with which you impiously beat those subject to you, there rises up iniquity which is not from the wretched people, nor from those who are led like brute animals by their teachers, nor from their clamor and noise with which they shout in vain, led astray by the priests and Pharisees, so that they cried out with one voice and said: Crucify, crucify such a one; hence there will be no rest for them, but everlasting captivity'. But the Seventy, according to that sense in which it is written: For you do not know what the coming day may bring forth, said: 'Behold, the day gives birth to what it had conceived long before, and the end comes, and the encompassing has gone forth, which is to encompass and hold all your evils (or, as Symmachus translated, inspection, so that the Lord may see all that you have done and consider your works and render to each what he deserves)'. And on what they likewise translated: The rod has blossomed, we can use that testimony: Do not take the rod away from your son, and that of the apostle: What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?; and God too resounds through the mouth of the psalmist: I will visit their iniquities with a rod, and their sins with scourges; but my mercy I will not take away from them. For this reason, then, the Lord visits and strikes: that all the pride which long lay hidden, shut in, may spring up and lie open, and injury may be roused against the pride that has sprung up and is budding, and the strength of the wicked may be crushed, not with disturbance nor with haste; for the end of the blossoming rod is health and correction, which comes not by the merit of those who are corrected, nor by a beauty which they do not have in themselves, but by the mercy of the Lord. A difficult place, and one in which the Hebrew and the Seventy differ greatly; many things have been added to the Seventy from the edition of Theodotion, so that they might seem to have some coherence.
7:12a
The time has come, the day has drawn near. It is not only to Jerusalem that it is said that the time of its captivity has come and the day has drawn near on which it is to be walled in by the Babylonian army; but to him too who exulted over his barns built and enlarged, the Lord speaks: Fool, this night your soul will be taken from you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?; whence the apostle too: The time, he says, has been shortened; and in another place: For the figure of this world is passing away; and it must be noted that he did not defer it to the future but spoke of the present, 'is passing away', and that daily 'the figure of the world' slips by: for it never remains in the same state, but the figure of things growing and diminishing ever flies past and is changed; whence the Lord too: Heaven, he says, and earth will pass away. But if these things, by which all that is in the world is contained, pass away and go by, what in human affairs can be everlasting?
7:12b
Let him who buys not rejoice, and let him who sells not mourn. It is natural to rejoice in the purchase of possessions and to mourn in their sale. But when slavery and captivity are pressing, both joy and sorrow are vain in either case. Hence the apostle too: The time has been shortened; for the rest, let those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who weep as though they did not weep, and those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, and those who buy as though they did not possess, and those who use this world as though they did not make full use of it; for the flood too overwhelmed those buying and selling, as the Lord says in the Gospel.
7:12c
For wrath is upon all its people. (This is not found in the Seventy.) For 'people' one may also take 'multitude' and 'crowd' according to the Hebrew: for this is what 'amona' signifies. And the reason is clear why he who buys ought not to rejoice and he who sells should cease to weep: because the wrath of God is shortly to come upon the whole multitude of the land of Judea, or of Jerusalem; for this is understood from the preceding words, in which it is written: Thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel, and the rest.
7:13a
For he who sells will not return to what he has sold. He speaks according to the Hebrew custom: for every purchase used to return to the seller in the fiftieth year, the year of release, which among them was called the jubilee; before the year of release comes, then, when possessions return to their former owners, captivity will burst in, which will take away the whole accustomed life of the city. But what the Seventy translated: For he who buys will not return to the seller, though according to the history it does not hang together at all, according to anagogy can have this sense, so that we may say that he who had been deceived by heretical error, when he has understood the fraudulence of his teacher, by no means returns to the seller, that is, to the teacher, but despises and scorns him.
7:13b
And still their life is among the living: for the vision to all its multitude will not go back. Just as the possession will not return to its former owner, since the overthrow of the city is impending, so the vision and prophetic threat, which is directed to the whole multitude of the city, will by no means go back and become void, but will be fulfilled in fact, while those to whom the prophetic word is directed are still living. And he says this to show the captivity is imminent, lest according to their custom they should say: 'This vision is for many days hence and will be fulfilled after long times'. We can also say this: that after the prophetic vision withdrew from the Jews — The law, indeed, and the prophets until John the Baptist —, after the killing of the Savior it by no means goes back to them, nor do they any longer deserve to have prophets. And significantly: 'To all', he says, 'the multitude the vision will not go back'; therefore it will go back to those of the Jews who believed in the Lord, namely the apostles, and the remnant of the Jewish people which has been saved out of Israel. (But neither are these two verses found in the edition of the Seventy.)
7:13c
And a man in the iniquity of his life will not be strengthened. (LXX: "And a man in the eyes of his life will not obtain.") And the sense according to the Hebrew is: his iniquity will not profit a man, nor will it furnish him any strength; according to the Seventy: even the man who desired what he thought precious in the world will not obtain it, but, as liberty perishes, all that is beautiful will be lost. Now the ambiguity of the Hebrew letters 'iod' and 'uau', which are distinguished only by size, caused some to translate 'iniquity' and others 'eyes'.
7:14a
Sound the trumpet, let all be made ready. (LXX: "Blow the trumpet and judge all things.") Of the blast and sound of trumpets we read in many places, as there: Lift up your voice like a trumpet, and elsewhere: Blow the trumpet at the new moon, on the notable day of our solemnity, and in the apostle: For the Lord himself, at the command and at the voice of the archangel and at the trumpet of God, will descend from heaven, and in the Gospel: Do not blow a trumpet before you; and the history of Numbers tells of beaten and silver trumpets, which are compared to the prophetic word and to the apostolic teaching. And now it is commanded that all be made ready for wars at the signal of the blast of the horn. But as for what the Seventy said: And judge all things, no one doubts that it befits the power of the apostles, who, after the trumpet of the angels has sounded, are to judge the twelve tribes of Israel on twelve thrones; one of whom, Paul, said: We shall judge angels, and elsewhere: In you the world will be judged. But according to the present sense, those who are bound to this office are bidden, by irony, to blow the trumpet, so that all may be made ready against the Babylonian army.
7:14b
And there is no one who goes to battle; for my wrath is upon all its multitude. (These words too are not found in the Seventy.) God had commanded that they sound the trumpet to make ready an army which could resist the strength of the Babylonians, but it did no good to have commanded it, since there is no one among the people who dares to go forth to wars. And the people has been unnerved and lacks the strength to fight for this reason: because the whole wrath of God is upon all its multitude, that is, understood, of the city of Jerusalem or of the land of Judea; but also of the Jerusalem of our land: when either public persecution or the incitements of various vices strive to overcome us, in vain do the teachers sound the trumpet and hasten to make us ready for wars, since there is no strength in the people, which has been withdrawn for this reason, that present sins have deserved the wrath of the Lord.
7:15-16
The sword without, pestilence and famine within; he who is in the field will die by the sword, and those who are in the city will be devoured by pestilence and famine. And those of them who flee will be saved, and they will be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all trembling, each in his iniquity. (The Seventy were entirely silent about 'doves of the valleys', or, as Theodotion translated, 'meditating'.) And what we have translated: All trembling, each in his iniquity, Theodotion translated thus: All murmuring, each one in her iniquity, so that under the metaphor of meditating doves he signifies that each one of the people weeps for his own sin and understands and perceives why he suffers these things. Now the three parts — of some who are to die in the city by pestilence and famine, and of others whom the sword will kill outside, and of those who have escaped captivity by flight — we read of above; of these, he who is saved will pass over to the mountains and, like murmuring doves, will trembling bewail his sins. Tropologically, however, it is to be understood thus: that he who is in the field and the plain, outside the bounds of the Lord's city, which means the Church, is struck by the adversary's blade; but he who in the city has acted negligently and has not prepared for himself the foods of which it is written in Proverbs: He who works his land will be filled with bread, he will die by famine and pestilence; while the few who have escaped either the sword of the heretics or the famine and death of their own sloth will not be saved except on the mountains, and if they have taken the wings of a dove and flown away and found rest — doves which, as long as they are in the valleys, tremble and dread every single thing, whose innocence we are commanded to imitate, and of which it is written in the psalm: If you sleep in the midst of the lots, wings of a dove silvered over, and its hinder parts in the paleness of gold, in whose form the Holy Spirit descended and remained upon the Lord Savior; and beautifully, following Theodotion, we shall call a meditating dove him who meditates on the law of the Lord day and night, and of whom it is written: The mouth of the righteous will meditate wisdom.
7:17-18a
All hands will be weakened and all knees will flow with waters. And they will gird themselves with sackcloth, and dread will cover them. (For 'knees flowing with waters' the Seventy translated: Thighs will be defiled with moisture.) When all have trembled and fled to the mountains, the hands of all will be weakened, and no one will be able to resist the enemy, and through the greatness of their fear urine will defile their knees, nor will the bladder be able to hold back the waters flowing forth; they will gird themselves with sackcloth, and trembling will possess all things; granted that this was done in that people not only under the Babylonians but also under the Romans, when the wrath of God came upon them to the end. But also in our Judea, in which is the confession of the Lord, when iniquities have multiplied and the love of many has grown cold, all hands of good works will be weakened, and all knees, or thighs, will flow with waters, those of the men who seek unlawful couplings and whom Scripture in the law calls γονορρυεῖς, that is, 'suffering a flow of seed' and 'unclean'; hence those who are such ought to gird themselves with the sackcloth of repentance and to dread the judgment to come, and he who does this will deserve to hear Isaiah saying: Be strengthened, weakened hands and feeble knees, be made strong.
7:18b
On every face shame, and on all heads baldness. The blush of the face is a sign of shame, and the consciousness of sins shines out in the face, and there is hope of salvation when shamefacedness follows wrongdoing; hence to her who with hard heart gloried in her sins it was said: The face of a harlot has become yours, you do not know how to blush. Baldness of the head too signifies mourning, when the hair loses its comeliness and we lose the beauty of our locks; accordingly it is said to Jerusalem: For the ornament of your head you have baldness, because of your works, and another prophet: All heads, he says, in every place will be shorn, and every beard will be shaved; Micah also to the same Jerusalem: Make yourself bald, he says, and be shorn for the children of your delights; enlarge your baldness like the eagle; and over the dead baldness is commanded to be made, but only the holy, that is, the Nazirites, and those who have been found worthy to attain the high priesthood of the Lord, do not shave their heads, for they neither have works of death nor are unclean, because they are Nazirites, that is, holy ones of the Lord; and if anyone dies beside them, all the former days of their sanctification will not be reckoned; Samuel was a holy one of God, and therefore possessed everlasting ornaments of the head, and he heard that saying from the Song of Songs: Your locks are black as a raven; but Samson, because he lost his hair, lost his strength, and as his hair gradually grew back his former strength returned, so that in dying he killed many more than while alive; Elisha, though he had baldness of body, nevertheless, because he was a Nazirite of the Lord, enjoyed the locks of the head; hence the little boys, because they were little and had not yet reached a man's age, mocking his baldness and saying: Go up, baldhead, go up, baldhead, were torn by the bites of wild beasts, whose dwelling is the glades and forests.
7:19a
Their silver will be cast outside, and their gold will be in the dunghill. (LXX: "Their silver will be cast into the streets, and their gold will be for contempt.") As flight and captivity compel them, they will cast their riches, the weights of gold and silver, into the streets, desiring only to save their lives, so that what were formerly their luxuries may not be a burden. Otherwise, according to anagogy, all the silver of the captives and of those fleeing from Jerusalem will be cast into the streets, onto the broad and spacious way that leads to death, because they have abandoned the narrow path of salvation; but all the gold will be for contempt and will be reckoned as a dunghill and uncleanness: for what is outside the Church of the Lord cannot have cleanness.
7:19b
Their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them on the day of the fury of the Lord. (And this is not found in the Seventy.) No one doubts that in the time of siege and famine gold and silver do not deliver the hungry, and that teeth dashed against the most precious metal are blunted as on the hardest stone. Accordingly there follows:
7:19c
They will not satisfy their soul, and their bellies will not be filled. By present evils we have learned that many rich men, amid silk, gems and weights of gold and silver, worn out by want, have had the end of beggars. But that the silver and gold of those who are outside the Church do not deliver the souls of their possessors on the day of the fury of the Lord, but that they have everlasting hunger and are tormented with an empty belly, is shown by that testimony in which it is said: The ransom of a man's soul is his own riches. His own riches are those which the truth of Christ has taught us, who commanded us to make for ourselves friends of the mammon of iniquity, who may receive us into the eternal tabernacles.
19 d. For it has become the stumbling block of their iniquity. 'Therefore', he says, 'neither will the soul of those who possess gold and silver be satisfied nor their belly be filled: because this very gold and silver has become the stumbling block of their crimes'. And he signifies the idols which, fashioned of gold and silver, condemn their own makers. (But the Seventy translated: For torment was their iniquity, so that the wicked may be tormented in their own error and understand that they have wickedly turned the gifts of God into blasphemy).
7:20a
And the ornament of their necklaces they set for pride, and they made of it the images of their abominations and idols. (LXX: "The choice things of the world they set for pride, and the images of their abominations and their stumbling blocks they made of them.") 'What I', he says, 'had given as an ornament and as riches to those who possessed them, they turned to pride, so that from the very things by which they could have freed their soul through almsgiving and good works they took material for arrogance; then from the gold and silver they made idols and turned my gifts into images of demons'. But as for what the Seventy said: The choice things of the world they set for pride, it is to be referred to gold and silver, than which nothing in the world is thought more precious; and as for what follows: Their stumbling blocks, let us know that it was added from the edition of Theodotion. And the tropology is easy: that the gold and silver, the senses and words of the Scriptures, which are the choice things of the world and have been given to us for an ornament, the heretics have set as tinder and material of pride, and have made of them images of their various doctrines and of their abominations and stumbling blocks, so that through the very things by which they could have worshiped and adored God, by these they offended God.
7:20b-21
For this reason I have given it to them for uncleanness. And I will give it into the hands of strangers to be plundered, and to the impious of the earth for a prey, and they will defile it. (LXX: "For this reason I have given them to them for uncleanness. And I will hand them over into the hands of strangers that they may plunder them; and to the pestilent of the earth for a prey, and they will pollute them.") 'Because from the gold and silver, that is, from the ornaments of the necklaces which I had given them, they made for themselves images of their abominations and idols, for this reason I have given those things to them for uncleanness and for dung', for which Symmachus translated nausea, wishing to express the filth of idols. 'And I will hand them over', he says, 'into the hands of enemies that they may plunder everything, and so that I may not so much defile them as show to have been defiled the things which earlier seemed most holy'. We too are handed over into the hands of enemies and of those estranged from God, when we make our ornaments into images of demons, and all our glory is possessed by the impious or the pestilent of the earth, so that they may subject us to their power.
7:22
And I will turn away my face from them, and they will violate my secret place; and there will enter into it emissaries (or, as the Seventy translated, rashly, or, as Symmachus and Theodotion, 'those bursting in' and 'the pestilent') and they will defile it. 'When', he says, 'for the causes given above, the abominations of the people, I turn my face away from them and by no means judge them worthy of my eyes, then they will violate my secret place (which signifies 'the Holy of Holies', for which the Seventy translated vision, to show that the presence of God had been in the holy places), and the impious and pestilent of the earth will burst into those places which, apart from the priests and the high priest alone, no one else dared to enter'. This we know was done both by the Babylonians, and by King Antiochus and Gnaeus Pompey, and, finally, under Vespasian and Titus, when the temple was taken and overthrown, and all things were perpetrated which the prophet's following discourse embraces. At our evil works too God turns away his face, and because his face is turned away, therefore the secret place of God is violated, so that in place of the priests and saints of God the pestilent enter and defile all things, so that what ought to have been a place of holiness becomes a place of uncleanness, according to that Gospel saying: My Father's house will be called a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of robbers.
7:23
Make a conclusion, for the land is full of the judgment of bloods, and the city is full of iniquity. (LXX: "And I will bring disturbance, for the land full of the judgment of bloods, and the city full of iniquities.") The Hebrew word 'arethic' Aquila translated 'conclusion', Symmachus and Theodotion καθήλωσιν, that is, 'nailing fast', for which the Seventy put φυρμόν, which we have rendered as 'disturbance'. 'Therefore, O prophet, conclude my wrath upon the land of Judea and upon the city of Jerusalem in a brief word: so that, as the land is full of the judgment of bloods — for all are judged in blood, shedding innocent blood, as Scripture records the Jews also did in the person of Naboth —, so their own gore too may be shed and the city shown to be full of iniquity — for under Manasseh too the city of Jerusalem was filled from gate to gate with the blood of the prophets —. And conclusion and disturbance and nailing fast will come upon them, so that no one can escape the impending miseries'.
7:24a
And I will bring the worst of the nations, and they will possess their houses. (And this is not found in the Seventy.) 'In place of priests and prophets I will bring the Babylonians, the worst of all the nations, that they may possess your houses and subject you to slavery'. But our houses too, that is, our souls — for we are the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit dwells in us —, the worst demons will possess, if our land is full of bloods and our dwelling full of iniquity.
7:24b
And I will make the pride of the mighty cease, and they will possess their sanctuaries. (LXX: "And I will turn away the roaring of their strength, and their holy things will be polluted.") All pride offends God. Therefore the worst of the nations will possess the houses of the mighty and the proud and will take hold of their sanctuaries, because the unclean man enters the place of holiness and defiles it with his uncleanness. And significantly, because the holy things of God had been polluted and the secret place violated, he did not say: 'They will possess my sanctuaries', but: 'their' sanctuaries, which after their defilement ceased to be 'mine'.
7:25
Anguish is at hand. (LXX: "Propitiation will come.") — According to the preceding order Aquila and Theodotion rightly translated that 'anguish' is at hand, and Symmachus 'grief'; but the Seventy, in the midst of all the sorrowful things, put a word of gladness, so that the mind of the mourner may be sustained and may hope for better things amid adversities, and for the Lord propitious, of whom it is written: The Lord raises up those who are dashed down. — We, however, following Symmachus, have joined the former sentence to the latter, so as to say: As anguish comes upon them, they will seek peace and there will be none, which according to the Seventy cannot stand at all: for if 'propitiation will come', how 'will they seek peace and not find it'? And he will seek peace and not find it who heard from the apostles: Peace to this house, and did not keep it nor make it rest in his mind; but, put to flight by evil works, it cannot be found. And it is that peace which surpasses all understanding, which the Savior, ascending victorious to the Father, left to the apostles.
7:26a
Trouble upon trouble will come, and report upon report. (LXX: "Woe upon woe will be, and messenger upon messenger.") Just as it is said to the saints: Rejoice, again I say: rejoice, and of them it is written: They will go from strength to strength, so that they may heap future goods upon present goods, so also to these, upon whom anguish has come and who have sought peace and not found it, there will come trouble upon trouble, or woe upon woe — according to what is written in Revelation too: One woe has passed, and another woe will come —, and report will come upon report, and messenger upon messenger — according to that saying of blessed Job: While one was still speaking, another messenger came, adding evils to evils, and describing the roaring and the throng of the approaching Babylonian —.
7:26b
And they will seek a vision from the prophet, and the law will perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders. Properly, each thing is sought from each: the prophecy of things to come is sought from the prophet; the interpretation of the law is the priest's office; prudent counsel is what mature age searches out, according to that which is written: In the counsel of the saints and in the congregation, great are the works of the Lord. And these things were sought from the prophets and elders and priests not only at that time, when the Babylonian army was coming against Jerusalem, but they are required daily in the churches, which, if they have lost vision, law and counsel, boast in vain that they have prophets and priests and elders.
7:27a
The king will mourn and the prince will be clothed with grief (or, according to the Seventy, with destruction; who, intending I know not what, were entirely silent about what we have expressed from the Hebrew speech: The king will mourn.) That Zedekiah mourned, and that all the princes of the people of the Jews were covered with grief, Holy Scripture records. But we can — although at first sight this may seem blasphemous — say that the king who mourns our vices and sins is Christ, who speaks in the Psalms: What profit is there in my blood, while I go down into corruption? and who, drawing near to Jerusalem, wept over it and said: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I would have gathered your children as a hen gathers her chicks under wings, and you would not? The princes too will be either, in a good sense, the apostles who mourn sinners, or, in the contrary sense, those to whom it is said: Hear the word of the Lord, princes of Sodom. And he will be clothed, according to the Seventy, with destruction, who does not have the armor of God, nor has put on Christ: For as many as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ.
7:27b
And the hands of the people of the land will be troubled. (Or, according to the Seventy, will be weakened.) When there is no vision in the prophet and no knowledge of the law in the priest and no counsel in the elders, and the king has mourned and the prince is in grief or in destruction, consequently the hands of the people too will be troubled, losing their order, or will be weakened, no longer having their ancient strength. And beautifully the people whose hands will be troubled, and whose citizenship is not in heaven, is called not the people of God but the people of the land, of whom it is written: Let those who depart be written upon the earth.
7:27c
According to their way I will do to them, and according to their judgments I will judge them. (Or, as the Seventy translated, I will avenge myself on them.) To sinners God renders according to their ways, so as to keep the truth of judgment; but toward the saints he exceeds the measure of mercy: The sufferings of this time, indeed, are not worthy of the future glory which will be revealed in us. For the wages of sin is death, which the sinner receives according to his ways and his works; but the virtue of the righteous enjoys the Lord's bounty, of which Paul speaks: The gift of God is eternal life. And what he added: And according to their judgments I will judge them, sounds that Gospel saying: With what judgment you judge, it will be judged of you, and that apostolic one: In that in which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you do the same things that you judge.
27 d. And they shall know that I am the Lord. This little verse is often set down in this prophet, because the knowledge of God follows punishments and torments, so that him whom they do not understand through benefits they may come to know through torments.
Book Three
Nothing is long that has an end, and the whole series of times past, once it is spent, profits nothing, unless perhaps it should have prepared for itself the provision for the journey of good works, which always look to the things to come, nay rather to the eternal, and are confined by no limits. True is the saying: All things that have arisen set, and things that have grown grow old; and elsewhere: For there is nothing made by work and hand which age does not wear out and consume. Who would have believed that Rome, built up by victories over the whole world, would fall in ruin; that she herself would become both mother and tomb to her own peoples; that all the shores of the East, of Egypt and of Africa would be filled with the multitude of the slaves, men and women, of the once-ruling city; that holy Bethlehem would every day receive as beggars those who were once nobles of either sex and abounding in every kind of wealth? Since we cannot bring them help, we grieve with them and join tears to tears; and, taken up with the burden of this holy work, since we cannot bear to see them flocking in without groaning, we have set aside the explanations on Ezekiel and almost all study of the Scriptures, and we desire to turn words into works, and not to speak holy things but to do them. Hence, admonished by you once more, O virgin of Christ Eustochium, we take up again the labor we had interrupted, and, having embarked on the third volume, we desire to satisfy your desire, begging this of you and of the others who are going to read it: that they consider not our strength but our wish, of which the one belongs to human frailty, the other to a holy willingness toward the Lord.
8:1a
And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth of the month: I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me. We read that the preceding vision came to the prophet in the fifth year of the exile of Jeconiah, in the fourth month, on the fifth of the month. But this one, which we now wish to expound, is recorded to have taken place in the sixth year of the same king, in the sixth month, on the fifth of the month. From this it is clear that these things which are written took place a year and two months later, and that either the prophecy was interrupted for a year and two months, or the things which the preceding discourse wove together were carried out over the whole fourteen months. Now, that the prophecy was made in the sixth year and the sixth month and on the fifth day of the month (numbers which refer to the making of the world and to the fleshly senses, which look upon earthly things and do not yet contemplate heavenly ones) will not surprise anyone who has understood that the discourse is directed to the presbyters of Judah, and to those among whom seventy were holding censers and twenty-five were worshiping the sun in the temple. And the prophet was sitting in his house, fleeing the throng of the multitude, and the elders of Judah were sitting before him, either eager to hear the prophet's words or lying in wait for his sayings. And it is significant that they are called the elders of Judah, so that we may understand that nothing is said to Israel, that is, to the ten tribes which had been taken captive earlier, but to those of the tribe of Judah who had been led into captivity with Jeconiah.
8:1b-2
And the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there, and I saw: and behold, a likeness as the appearance of fire; from the appearance of his loins and downward, fire, and from his loins and upward as the appearance of brightness, as the vision of electrum. (LXX: "And the hand of Adonai the Lord came upon me there, and I saw, and behold, a likeness as the form of a man; from his loins and downward, fire; from his loins and upward ※ as the vision of a breeze: as the vision of electrum.") The Hebrew text does not contain 'man'; and the 'vision' 'of a breeze', which is not found in the Seventy, we have added from Theodotion; and where we said: The hand of the Lord fell upon me, Symmachus translated: The hand of the Lord befell me, which in the Hebrew is said 'thephphol' [it fell]; and the hand signifies ἐνέργειαν, that is, 'working', so that he might be able to know the mysteries of the vision. And this must be considered: that he does not see the truth itself but the likeness of fire, since from the loins downward fire appeared, and from the loins upward as the appearance of brightness, as the vision of electrum. For 'brightness', which in the Hebrew is called 'zor', Theodotion translated 'breeze', so as to show the refreshments of God in the upper parts. Indeed, in the volume of Kings too, blessed Elijah beholds the coming of the Lord not in the storm and the whirlwind, not in the blazing of fire, but in the appearance of a breeze, thin and most gentle, so as to prove the mildness of almighty God. Now the works of intercourse, which are signified by the loins, downward, are purged by fire, and the works of the virtues, which rise from the loins to the higher parts, have brightness and splendor; and yet neither is the fire said to reach to the feet, nor the brightness of electrum to the head, but only 'downward' and 'upward', so that, in sinners as well as in saints, according to the diversity of merits, one may reach as far as this or that member, another as far as these or those. And just as those who hold the perfection of holiness reach all the way to the crown of the head, so those who are in the depth of sins must be believed to hold the soles of the fiery feet.
8:3a
And the likeness of a hand, sent forth, took hold of me by a lock of my head (LXX: "And he stretched out the likeness of a hand and took me up by the fringe of my crown.") Here too it is the likeness of a hand, not the hand itself, that is stretched out: for there is nothing bodily in God; and a hand is seen, as a member of the human body, so that by its familiarity it may in no way terrify him who is taken up and seized: for if it had touched the prophet in the likeness of a snake or of any other of the beasts, the very unlikeness of the members would have terrified the one taken up. And a part of the hair is seized, because human nature cannot bear the grasping of the whole head. For 'lock' the Seventy translated κράσπεδον, that is, 'fringe', of which the one is usually taken of hair, the other of garments.
8:3b
And the spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven. First he is seized by the likeness of a hand; afterwards he is lifted up by the spirit, and the spirit does not raise him at once to heaven, but between earth and heaven, so that, leaving earthly things behind for the time being, he may hasten toward heaven. We can also say this: that the prophet was seized by the likeness of God's hand on account of good works, and is lifted up by the spirit on account of the knowledge of spiritual things.
8:3c-4
And he brought me to Jerusalem, in the vision of God, near the inner door that looked toward the north, where the idol of jealousy had been set up to provoke rivalry. And behold, there was the glory of the God of Israel, according to the vision that I had seen in the plain. (LXX: "And he brought me into Jerusalem, in the vision of God, to the vestibule of the gate that looks toward the north, where was the statue of the possessor." But this, which is found in certain codices, ※ And in the statue the image of jealousy: has been added from Theodotion. The rest likewise.) When he says: He brought me to Jerusalem in the vision of God, he shows that he was carried over not in the body, but in the spirit. According to this kind of vision we too can behold both the heavens and the depths of the sea and the lower regions, while we embrace in thought the principles of each. First, however, he comes to the vestibule that looks toward the north, so as to see there the statue of the idol of jealousy, to provoke rivalry, so that from that place he may penetrate to the inner parts and discern the rest, which are described afterward; and history relates that a statue of the idol Baal was placed in the temple of God; and it is aptly called 'the idol of jealousy', because it provokes the Lord to rivalry and jealousy, according to what is said in Deuteronomy: They provoked me to jealousy with that which was not God; and I will provoke them to jealousy with a nation which is not; further, because 'jealousy' and 'possession' are called by the same name, which in Hebrew is said 'cena', for 'the statue of jealousy' the Seventy translated 'the statue of the possessor'; indeed, when Cain was born, his parent said: I have possessed, a man through God, alluding by the possession of a man to the name Cain. And the glory of the God of Israel was there, not because it took delight in such a neighbor, but so that by its presence it might destroy the idol of jealousy and the temple; hence the overthrow of the city and of the temple also follows after a short time; and it is written in Isaiah that a narrow bed can by no means hold two, and a short cloak cannot cover both, Scripture signifying that saying of the Apostle: What agreement has Christ with Belial? The temple of God with an idol?
8:5
And he said to me: Son of man, lift up your eyes toward the way of the north. And I lifted up my eyes toward the way of the north, and behold, to the north of the gate of the altar, the idol of jealousy in the very entrance. (Where we have put: To the north of the gate of the altar, the idol of jealousy in the very entrance, the Seventy translated: From the north toward the eastern gate, which is not found in the Hebrew, leaving out the other things which are written there.) 'He said to me,' he says, '(either the glory of God which I had seen in the plain, or the spirit which lifted me up between heaven and earth), and he spoke to me after he had carried me over into Jerusalem and made me see either the city or the temple, and he commanded me to lift up my eyes toward the way of the north; for there the statue of Baal had been set, which he calls the idol of jealousy, in the very entrance of the gate'. But those who refer the idol of jealousy, or of the possessor, to the glory of God or to the spirit act impiously, interchanging the person of the idol with the majesty of God.
8:6
And he said to me: Son of man, do you think you see what these are doing, the great abominations which the house of Israel is doing here, so that I should withdraw far from my sanctuary? And turning again you will see greater abominations. 'Lest you think,' he says, 'that I abandon the temple unjustly and leave the city to be overthrown, look at what they do in the temple; and when you have beheld those things, do not think that this is the end of their crimes: you will behold still greater things'. This can indeed also be understood of our Jerusalem and our temple, when, after the example of Hophni and Phinehas, we work the crimes of idols in the tabernacle of God, and commit fornication with those women who have vowed themselves to the warfare and ministry of God, and pluck off the first portions of his sacrifices, giving them for the use of clients and servants, and do everything for the sake of gain. But if these things which we see are so great, how much greater must those be reckoned which escape human awareness?
8:7-9
And he brought me in to the door of the court, and I saw, and behold, one hole in the wall; and he said to me: Son of man, dig through the wall; and when I had dug through the wall, one door appeared. And he said to me: Go in, and see the most wicked abominations which these are doing here. (This which I translated: And I saw, and behold, one hole in the wall, is not found in the Seventy.) And because everything is shown as if in an image and a painting, he says that he saw one hole in the wall, and that he was ordered to dig it through and make it larger, so that, the hole having been opened, he might enter more widely and see what he could not see while placed outside. By this it is shown that, in the churches as well as in each of us individually, greater vices are revealed through small ones, and that through certain holes, as it were, one arrives at the greatest abominations: for by the fruits the tree is known, and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Words that burst out are a sign of the inner man, just as a foul word sometimes exposes the lustful man who cunningly hides his vices, and desire for a trifling thing betrays the avarice lurking within: for greater things are revealed by lesser ones, and the conscience cannot be disguised by face and eyes, since a wanton and lascivious mind shines out in the face, and the secrets of the heart are disclosed by the movement of the body and by gestures.
8:10
And I went in and saw, and behold, every likeness of creeping things and of animals, an abomination, and all the idols of the house of Israel were painted on the wall round about, throughout. Not only did the idol of jealousy stand at the entrance of the north gate, but all the walls of the temple too were painted with various images of idols, so that there was no beast which the painting on the wall did not show. This we see to this day in the shrines of idols and the temples of the Gentiles: that a foolish religion worships every kind of beast; whence Vergil too: And of every sort, he says, of gods the monsters and barking Anubis — as if those which he praises were not monsters too —, against Neptune and Venus and against Minerva. We too can point out idols painted on the walls of our temple, when we are subject to all vices and paint in our heart the consciousness of sins and various images, of which it is said in the psalm too: O Lord, in your city you will scatter their image, and in another place: Yet man walks about in an image. That is, there is no one among men who does not have some image, whether of holiness or of sin; for which reason it is said of the furious and the wrathful: Their fury is after the likeness of a serpent, like a deaf asp that stops its ears, which will not hear the voices of the charmers; and of wicked men: Generation of vipers, who showed you to flee from the wrath to come?; and of the shifty and deceitful: Go, tell this fox; and of lovers of women: They have become to me horses mad for females; each one neighed after his neighbor's wife; and also of the brutish and senseless: Do not become like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding; and again: With bit and bridle bind fast their jaws, who do not draw near to you; and many things of this kind. (But this which we have put: Behold, every likeness of creeping things and of animals, is not found in the Seventy.)
8:11
And seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and Jaazaniah son of Shaphan was standing in the midst of them, who were standing before the paintings, and each one had a censer in his hand, and a vapor of cloud was rising up from the incense. When he says that there were seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel who held censers in their hands, he shows that there were many other presbyters too who were not doing this, but were perhaps held fast by other sins, and that one, Jaazaniah son of Shaphan by name, stood in their midst, as the prince of the crime and sacrilege of those who, having abandoned the worship of God, were worshiping idols, and in the temple were adoring not God, whose temple it was, but the paintings on the walls. And it is aptly said: Jaazaniah son of Shaphan was standing, that is, of his own 'judgment' and 'condemnation', in the midst of the standing presbyters, because both the prince and those whose prince he was stood with a firm step in their crimes, and did not waver in evil, but persisted most stoutly; and the vapor of cloud, of confusion and of whirlwind, which rose from the incense, displayed the sacrileges of those who offered it. Let this have happened at that time according to the letter. But we too must pray that the elders of the house of Israel, multiplying the number seven, which is holy, into seven decades, may not stand in their errors and adore the paintings of idols, and that the vapor of sacrilege may not ascend, or rise up, resisting God. When we see a most wicked people gathered together, of which it is written: I have hated the church of evildoers, and overseers worse than the people, and a still more wicked prince, who has been set over the people and the presbyters, let us say that Jaazaniah is standing before the paintings, and that each one has a censer in his hands, adoring not the majesty of God but their own opinions, and that it is by no means an odor of good fragrance that reaches God, but a stench that reaches the idols.
8:12
And he said to me: Surely you see, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each one in the secret of his bedchamber; for they say: The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the earth. 'From what they do in the temple when gathered together,' he says, 'it is shown what each one does in his own chamber'. But according to the ἀναγωγὴν [anagogy, the higher sense] it can better be understood that some princes of the churches do in darkness things which are shameful even to speak of. This is the hidden man of the heart, of whom it is said: Enter into your chamber, and again: He who sees in secret will repay you. Let each one call his conscience to mind and recall the works of darkness in darkness, and let him know that it is written: Everyone who does evil hates the light, lest he be reproved by the light, and he will understand that this has been fulfilled in himself: He who is drunken is drunken by night, which cannot stand according to the letter: for how many are drunken at luncheons and banquets by day?; but because the drunkenness of the heart, which offends God, belongs to darkness and not to light, therefore: Whoever is drunken is drunken in the night. And when the elders of the house of Israel have done evil in darkness and in the secret of their chambers, and have thought that they could hide from God, then they will consequently say: The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the earth. And many are sinners, walking according to their own thoughts, who do not reckon that God cares for mortal things, or that our vices concern him. Certainly, when we sin, if we thought that God sees and is present, we would never do what displeases him. Further, what follows, The Lord has forsaken the earth, is also the opinion of certain philosophers, who, from the course and substance of the stars, suppose that there is providence in heavenly things, but that it despises earthly things, since nothing right or according to order is done on earth.
8:13-14
And he said to me: Turning again you will see greater abominations which these are doing. And he brought me in through the door of the gate of the house of the Lord which looked toward the north, and behold, women were sitting lamenting Adonis. What we have translated 'Adonis', both the Hebrew and the Syriac language call 'thamuz'; hence, because according to the pagan fable the lover of Venus, a most beautiful youth, is said to have been slain in the month of July and afterwards to have come back to life, they call that same month of July by the same name and celebrate an annual festival for him, in which he is lamented by women as though dead, and afterwards, coming back to life, he is sung of and praised. And consistently, after it has been shown what the princes and elders of the house of Israel did in the temple and in darkness and in their chambers, the vices of the women too are described, who lament when deprived of the company of their lovers, and exult if they have been able to obtain them. And since that same paganism interprets subtly fables of the poets of this kind, which contain shamefulness, accompanying the slaying and the resurrection of Adonis with lamentation and with joy (of which it thinks the one is shown in the seeds that die in the earth, the other in the crops in which the dead seeds are born again), let us too call women those who are either saddened or exultant at the evils and goods of the world, being of a soft and effeminate mind, and let us say that they lament 'thamuz', that is to say, those things which are reckoned most beautiful in the affairs of the world.
8:15-16
And he said to me: Surely you have seen, son of man; turning again you will see abominations greater than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord, and behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the vestibule and the altar, about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping toward the rising of the sun. What we have translated 'vestibule' following Symmachus, who put πρόπυλον [gateway], where the Seventy and Theodotion translated the Hebrew word itself, 'aelam', Aquila's first edition translated προστάδα [porch] and the second the 'aelam' of the temple; this we can express as the 'portico' of the temple, or the unroofed 'court' which was between the temple and the altar. And since we read above, after the idol of jealousy which appeared at the north gate: Turning again you will see greater abominations, and, after the paintings of all the beasts had been shown along the wall, which the seventy presbyters and Jaazaniah son of Shaphan were adoring, holding censers in their hands, it is said a second time: Turning again you will see greater abominations which these are doing, because women were sitting lamenting Adonis, so after the third sin too it is said: Turning again you will see abominations greater than these. But what abomination is greater than the three preceding crimes? Clearly the fourth, which follows: And behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the vestibule and the altar, about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the rising of the sun, because, despising the Lord, that is, the Creator, they were adoring the sun, that is, the Lord's creature, although the Lord himself had commanded through Moses that they should by no means adore God facing the east after the custom of the Gentiles, but, in whatever part of the world they might be, whether to the east, or to the west, or to the south, or to the north, they should adore facing the temple, where the Lord was believed to inhabit the Holy of Holies; which indeed we know Daniel too did in Babylon, who, with the windows of his upper room open, adored the Lord facing the temple which stands in Jerusalem. No one doubts that this, according to the letter, was a matter of sacrilege. According to the ἀναγωγὴν, that all heretics are worse than the earlier things, that is, than the idol of jealousy and the figures of living creatures painted on the wall and the lamentation for Adonis, through which idolatry and pleasure are shown, he will be able to know who has understood the prophet saying: But you have hated discipline, and have cast my words behind you, and in another place: They turned their shoulders against me, departing; or are we ignorant that Marcion and the other heretics who tear the Old Testament to pieces, despising the Creator, that is, the righteous God, worship and adore some other, good God whom they have fashioned out of their own heart, and that all the heretics of our time, who preach the Son of God as a creature and yet adore him, having left the temple of the divinity and holding it behind their back, say by their own confession that they adore a creature? But we so adore the sun of righteousness that we adore God in the temple of the Old Testament, where the Law and the prophets are, where the cherubim and the mercy seat are. Where we translated 'twenty-five' men, the Seventy put 'twenty', and in certain copies the 'five' have been added from Theodotion.
8:17
And he said to me: Surely you have seen, son of man; is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they should do these abominations which they have done here, because, filling the earth with iniquity, they have turned to provoke me? And behold, they put the branch to their nostrils. (Where we said: And behold, they put the branch to their nostrils, the Seventy translated: And behold, they themselves like men sneering, to which there was added from Theodotion: They stretch out the branch, so that the whole together reads: And behold, they themselves stretch out the branch as if sneering, for which Symmachus translated: As if sending out a sound in the likeness of a song through his nostrils.) It signifies that the twenty-five men, who are set firm in a square in a solid station and, from the five senses, by five times five form the figure of a square, not only have the temple behind their back in figure, but, after the manner of idols, put the branch to their nostrils — no doubt a branch of the palms which in the Greek language they call βαΐα —, so that by this it may signify that they adore idols. Indeed Job too says that among his other virtues he had this as well: that never, looking upon the sky and the sun and the moon and the shining stars, had he kissed his hand, that is, adored creatures. But Symmachus' translation signifies a foul and hoarse sound proceeding from the nostrils in contempt of God. And all heretics, who have filled the earth with iniquity and have turned to the knowledge falsely so called, so as to provoke the Lord to anger, must be reckoned, when they have wished to praise God, rather to blaspheme with a foul sound, or to hold the God of the Old Testament in low esteem, to deride, to despise.
8:18
Therefore I too will act in fury: my eye will not spare, nor will I have mercy, (and what follows:) and when they cry to my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them (is not found in the Seventy). 'For all these things,' he says, 'which they have done, I too will act in fury and my eye will not spare, nor will I have mercy'. Hearing this, the heretics of old slander the Creator as cruel and bloodthirsty, and do not consider that the apostle Paul, who is surely the apostle of the good God — as they themselves would have it —, writes to the Corinthians: If I come again I will not spare, so as to chastise offenders with the rod and draw back the erring to salvation; for those who do not understand what is profitable for them, and often pray for contrary things, it is expedient that they not be heard by the Lord. Hence in the prayer too we say: Your will be done; not our will, which is accustomed to err, but your will, which knows the things to come; and it is sometimes a great happiness not to merit mercy for the present. These, therefore, who are of the house of Judah and have withdrawn from the confession of the Church, the Lord will not spare; and when they cry out with a loud voice, of which the Lord said: Their cry has come to me, the Lord will nevertheless not hear them, so that, compelled by evils, they may understand what they have done.
9:1a
And he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying: The visitations of the city have drawn near. For 'visitations' the Seventy translated 'vengeance': for Mine indeed is vengeance, and I will repay, says the Lord, and every vengeance is a visitation, as of one who is sick, as of one who has wounds, as of one who awaits the hands of physicians, according to what is written elsewhere: I will visit their iniquities with the rod, and their sins with scourges; but my mercy I will not take away from them. And rightly, as we said above, visitation or vengeance is said to draw near, with the captivity close at hand.
9:1b
And each one has a vessel of slaughter in his hand. He did not say 'had', as the Seventy translated, for he is not narrating things past, but shows things present and future. Whoever, therefore, strikes the wicked in that they are wicked, and has vessels of slaughter to kill the worst, is a minister of the Lord.
9:2-3
And behold, six men were coming from the way of the upper gate which looks toward the north, and each one a vessel of destruction in his hand; and one man in their midst clothed in linen, and a writer's inkhorn at his reins; and they went in and stood beside the bronze altar. And the glory of the Lord of Israel was taken up from the Cherub over whom it was, to the threshold of the house; and he called the man who was clothed in linen and had a writer's inkhorn at his loins. For 'linen', which we translated following Symmachus, the Seventy translated ποδήρη [a robe reaching to the feet], Theodotion the Hebrew word itself, 'baddim', Aquila 'choice things'; again, where we said: And a writer's inkhorn at his reins, the Seventy put: And a sapphire girdle upon his reins, Theodotion: Κάστυ [inkhorn] of the scribe in his hand, Aquila: Μελανοδοχεῖον (that is, Inkhorn) of the scribe at his loins, Symmachus: He had a writer's tablets at his reins; and where we translated 'threshold of the house', the Seventy and Theodotion put τὸ αἴθριον, that is, a 'vestibule' under the open sky; for 'vessel' also, which each of the men had in his hands, the Seventy alone translated 'axe'. To blot out, therefore, the sins of men, who were made on the sixth day of the fashioning of the world, six men come and descend from the upper gate (or, as the Seventy translated, 'the high one') toward the north; and each one had an axe in his hands, of which John speaks: For already the axe has been laid to the roots of the trees; every tree that does not bear fruit will be cut down and sent into the fire. And in the midst of the six men was one, that is, a seventh, in the attire of a high priest, clothed in linen garments, and he had a writer's inkhorn at his reins, with which to write down the sins of all and to separate the number of the saints from the sinners; or a sapphire girdle, of the color of the sapphire stone which is among the ornaments of the chief of the priests. And the six men went out and stood beside the bronze altar — for there were two altars: one of incense, of gold, within, and the other before the temple, the bronze altar of holocausts. They are said to stand beside the altar ready for the command of the one giving orders, so that whoever they saw had not had his sins forgiven there, they might know him to be subject to the sentence of the Lord and to slaughter —. The glory of the Lord of Israel also went up, or was taken up, from the one Cherub, and went to the threshold, or to the open-air part of the court of the house and of the vestibule, which is in no way pressed down by a roof but enjoys the freedom of the air. This very glory of the Lord called the man who was in the attire of a high priest and had the inkhorn at his loins, and said what Scripture attests. Some interpret the six men as six angels who obey the will of God, and understand that one, who had the high priest's garments, as the Savior, according to the fact that the angel of great counsel is a priest, and to what is said: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Now ποδήρη, which the Seventy translated, is one of the eight garments of the high priest, which in Latin is called 'talaris' [ankle-length]; and from the fact that it comes down to the feet, it was allotted this name — I know that many years ago I published a book on the vesture of the high priest, to whose explanation I send the reader, for I cannot say everything in every place —. And as to what Aquila's first edition and Theodotion called κάστυ, for which in the Hebrew one reads 'cesath': when I asked a Hebrew what it meant, he answered me 'that in the Greek tongue it is called καλαμάριον [pen-case], from the fact that pens are stored in it'; we say 'atramentarium' [inkhorn], from the fact that it holds atramentum [ink]; many, more expressively, call them 'thecae' [cases], from the fact that they are cases for writers' pens. Of the four Cherubim, one Cherub is sent from the glory of the Lord's majesty, to speak to him who was clothed in the vestments of the high priest — and although most think that τά χερουβεὶμ [the cherubim] is said in the neuter gender and the plural number, we ought to know that 'Cherub' is in the singular number, of the masculine gender, and in the plural, of the same gender, 'Cherubim'; not that there is sex among the ministers of God, but that each thing is called by different genders according to the property of its own language: angels are called in the plural number 'Malachim', and 'Cherubim' and 'Seraphim', of the same gender and number; whereas 'sabaoth', which means 'of warfares' or 'of hosts' and 'of powers', are said in the feminine gender and the plural number, and end in the final syllable 'oth'. — Those, however, who wish the Savior to be understood under the figure of the high priest use an example from the Revelation of John, in which it is written: And I turned and saw the voice that was speaking with me; and having turned I beheld seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man.
9:4-6a
And the Lord said to him: Pass through the midst of the city, in the midst of Jerusalem, and mark a tau upon the foreheads of the men who groan and grieve over all the abominations that are done in its midst. And to those he said, in my hearing: Pass through the city following him, strike; let your eye not spare, nor have pity: old man, youth and virgin, little child and women, kill to utter destruction; anyone upon whom you see the tau, do not kill, and begin from my sanctuary. He who was clothed in an ankle-length garment, or a linen one, and displayed priestly attire, is commanded to put a sign upon the foreheads of the men who groan and grieve over all the abominations that are done in the midst of Jerusalem. For 'sign', which the Seventy, Aquila and Symmachus translated, Theodotion put the Hebrew itself, 'tau', which among the Hebrews is the last of the twenty-two letters, so as to show perfect knowledge in the men who groan and grieve; or, as the Hebrews assert, because 'law' is called 'thora' among them, which is written with this letter at the beginning of its name, those received this seal who had fulfilled the precepts of the law. And to come to our own: in the ancient letters of the Hebrews, which the Samaritans use to this day, the last letter, 'tau', has the likeness of a cross, which is painted on the foreheads of Christians and is signed by the frequent tracing of the hand; there are those who think that, from the fact that this is the last letter according to the Hebrew alphabet, it is shown that in the multitude of sinners a remnant of the saints survives. Those who groan and grieve, therefore, are saved, who not only did not consent to evil works but also lamented the sins of others, as Samuel too lamented over Saul, and the apostle Paul over those who after sinning did not do penance; whence he himself also said: We who are in the tabernacle groan, and elsewhere: I have great sorrow, and unceasing pain of my heart. And the six men are commanded, apart from those who can say: The light of your countenance has been signed upon us, O Lord, to kill all: to spare not the old man, not the young man, not the virgin, not the little child, not the woman — according to the mystical senses, the old men are those in the Church of whom it is said: A man's gray hairs are his prudence; the young men, those who are most ready for the battles of faith; the virgins, those who keep chastity with their whole mind; the little children, those who are given the milk of infancy to drink and do not yet take solid food; the women, those who attest the frailty of their sex by the weakness of their soul — ; none of whom is spared if they believe themselves to be anything apart from the seal of Christ. And what follows: And begin from my sanctuary (or, as the Seventy translated: And begin from my holy ones) signifies either the priests who busied themselves in the temple and worshiped idols, or those who, by the merit of their priesthood, were called holy among the people and who had been the cause of sin among the peoples, and these were the first to deserve punishment: for it is time for judgment to begin from the house of God.
9:6b-7a
They began, therefore, with the elder men who were before the face of the house. And he said to them: Defile the house and fill the courts with the slain. For 'courts', which in Hebrew are called 'aseroth', the Seventy put 'ways'. Now the elder men are slain, of whom we read above that they had censers and burned incense to idols. Nor is there any sanctity of the temple left, because, the God of religion having been offended, all things have been defiled, so that whence came the sin, thence may come the judgment. And the courts in the temple are filled with corpses, and not the ways, which surely were outside, unless perhaps we can understand the ways as the streets of the city. Nor could the angels have dared to defile with the blood of the dead the temple in which the glory of God had formerly dwelt, had not the Lord of the departing glory commanded this. Everyone who is dead through sin defiles the courts of the temple and the ways of the city of the Lord in which he lives; he who rises with Christ ceases to be dead.
9:7b
And they went out, and struck those who were in the city. (Or, as others translated: They struck the city, naming the city itself in place of those who were in the city.)
9:8
And when the slaughter was complete, I remained, and I fell upon my face and, crying out, I say: Alas, Lord God; will you then destroy all the remnant of Israel, pouring out your fury upon Jerusalem? When all who did not have the seal had been laid low in the slaughter, the prophet fell on his face, thinking, because of the multitude of the slain, that no one but himself had remained. Because this seemed to be contrary to the sentence by which the Lord had ordered that the men with signed foreheads were not to be slain, it was for that reason removed in the common edition; but we, following the Hebrew truth, have put: I remained; and it must be noted that he had not said 'alone', for had he said that, it would have seemed contrary, but: I remained, so that 'with the others' who had sealed foreheads may be understood — and that we may know that this was said pointedly: I remained: in the volume of Kings, when Elijah speaks to God: They have torn down your altars, and I have been left alone, and they seek to take away my life, he put 'alone' because he did not know that others had remained —. Some think that this can also be understood from the person of the Lord, in whose type Ezekiel went before, concerning the people of the Jews: When all turned aside, together they became useless; and the prophet testifies: Save me, O Lord, for the holy one has failed; for the Lord was found 'alone' who did no sin, nor was guile found in his mouth. And as to what he added: Pouring out your fury upon Jerusalem, the word of pouring out shows the greatness of the punishments, as we read elsewhere: Contempt has been poured out upon princes, and again: My steps had almost been poured out, and in a good sense: The love of God has been poured out in our hearts, and: Grace has been poured out on your lips, and in the contrary sense: Pour out your fury upon the nations that have not understood you, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon your name, and: Pour out the spear and close in from the opposite side against those who persecute me.
9:9-10
And he said to me: The iniquity of the house of Israel and of Judah is great, exceedingly, very much; and the land is filled with bloods, and the city is filled with turning away. For they said: The Lord has forsaken the land, and: The Lord does not see; therefore my eye too will not spare, nor will I have pity: I will repay their ways upon their head. The Lord, seeing his prophet weep for the people and marvel at the greatness of the indignation, gives the reasons, not, as he thought, of a punishment unjust or exceeding measure, but of a deserved and just sentence: 'The iniquity,' he says, 'of the ten tribes of Israel and of the two tribes of Judah is great, and not only great but exceedingly great'; nor was it enough to have said this, but he added 'very much', so that the greatness of the punishment might match the greatness of the iniquity. From this we learn that sins are not equal, as many think and especially the Stoics, but either great or small, and that according to the quality and measure of those who sin there is diversity in the punishing judgment. The land, he says, is filled with bloods (or, as the Seventy translated, with peoples), and the city is filled with turning away (or, as the common edition has, with iniquity and uncleanness); no moderate amount of blood was shed, but from gate to gate, and the whole city turned aside from the worship of God, and in its place it is full of uncleanness, namely the filth of idolatry. The cause of such great crimes is this: that they thought there was no providence over the earth, and that God did not care for mortal things, according to what we read elsewhere: Of course this is a labor for those above, this is a care that troubles them in their quiet! ... Since, therefore, they thought either that there was no providence, or that the providence which had formerly been among the peoples had at this time abandoned its own people, for that reason God's eye too will not spare, nor will he have pity: so that, raging against vices, he may be placable to virtues, and may repay their ways and sins upon their heads, either upon the ruling part of the heart or upon the princes of the people, according to the book of Numbers, in which the heads of the peoples are said to be princes.
9:11
And behold, the man who was clothed in linen, who had the inkhorn at his loins, answered, saying: I have done as you commanded me. (LXX: "And behold, the man who was clothed in a podere — that is, an ankle-length garment —, and girded as to his loins with a girdle, and he answered a word, saying: I have done as you charged me.") He is the man who was ordered to pass through the midst of Jerusalem and to put a sign on the foreheads of the men groaning and grieving over all their iniquities. He says, therefore, that he has fulfilled the Lord's commands and has armed the foreheads of those who mourn with the seal of the letter 'tau'. But the six men, whom the Lord had commanded, saying: Pass through the midst of the city following him, and strike; and have pity on no one, to utter destruction, report nothing of the kind; for to carry out a sentence that is proved not by word but by deed is a matter not of gladness but of grief. And in this place, for 'podere', that is, 'ankle-length garment', which the Seventy translated, Theodotion put the Hebrew word itself, 'baddim', Symmachus 'linen', Aquila 'choice' or 'robe'; for 'girdle' also Symmachus put 'tablets', Aquila 'inkhorn', Theodotion κάστυ.
10:1-2a
And I looked, and behold, in the firmament that was above the head of the Cherubim, as it were a sapphire stone, as it were the appearance of the likeness of a throne appeared above it. And he spoke to the man who was clothed in linen, and said: Go in into the midst of the wheels that are beneath the Cherub, and fill your hands with coals of fire that are between the Cherubim, and pour them out upon the city. Concerning the firmament that was above the Cherub, and the sapphire stone that had the likeness of a throne, and the wheels that followed the living creatures, let it suffice to have spoken above, and let the reader be content with the explanation of those things. But now, as for the command given to the man who was clothed in linen — for which the Seventy in this place translated 'robe' — that he should take coals of fire from the midst of the Cherubim and pour them out, or scatter them, upon the city, it seems to me to show this: that after the slaying and slaughter of many, and the corpses of the dead in the streets, coals of fire are taken up to purge, or cleanse, Jerusalem, according to what is written in Isaiah: He will sanctify him in burning fire, and will devour the material like hay. These are the coals which, as a remedy for the tongue and for lying, laying waste vices and sins, the prophet, when questioned, longs for: What shall be given to you, and what shall be added to you against a deceitful tongue? The sharp arrows of the mighty, with desolating coals; and we shall be able to find many things of this kind in the holy Scriptures, of which we have often spoken. This only is to be noted: that in Isaiah, who had sinned only in speech and had said that he had unclean lips, a single coal is taken up with tongs to purge him; here, however, since the city was full of iniquity and, after the punishments, of the corpses of the dead, many coals of fire are taken up, and not with one hand but with both, so that all Jerusalem may be purged — although this too may be understood: that the coals of fire are to be taken up not for purging but for punishments and torments, to be poured out upon Jerusalem —.
10:2b-8
And he went in in my sight. Now the Cherubim were standing on the right side of the house when the man went in, and a cloud filled the inner court. And the glory of the Lord was lifted up from above the Cherub to the threshold of the house, and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the Lord. And the sound of the wings of the Cherubim was heard as far as the outer court, like the voice of God almighty speaking. And when he had commanded the man who was clothed in linen, saying: Take fire from the midst of the wheels that are between the Cherubim, he went in and stood beside the wheel; and a Cherub stretched out his hand from the midst of the Cherubim to the fire that was between the Cherubim, and took it, and gave it into the hand of him who was clothed in linen; who, receiving it, went out. And there appeared in the Cherubim the likeness of a man's hand beneath their wings. While the prophet looks on, the man goes in who was clothed in a garment reaching to the feet, or in linen — and, as the Seventy now change their rendering, in a 'holy robe', although among the Hebrews there is one and the same word, 'baddim' [linen garments], and the other translators persist in the rendering they began with —. And he goes in, as is said a second time, into the midst of the wheels that are beneath the Cherubim, to fill his hands with coals of fire. When he had gone in, he only stood beside the wheel and, stunned either by sorrow for Jerusalem that was to be punished or by the greatness of the glory, did not himself put his hand to the fire; but one of the Cherubim, that is, a Cherub, put out his hand and took the fire that was in the midst of the Cherubim and gave it into the hand of him who was clothed in linen garments; who, receiving it, went out; and yet Scripture does not say what he did when he had gone out, so as to leave the narration of a sad event to our understanding rather than set it before our eyes. Now as the man who was clothed in linen garments went in, the Cherubim were standing on the right side of the house, so that the holy powers on high might be seen to hold the right-hand part of the house of God, and those that are sent for punishments — of whom it is written: A sending through most evil angels — may be believed to occupy the left-hand parts. And when the glory of the Lord had been lifted up from the Cherub who was about to hand the coals of fire to the man, and had passed over to the threshold of the house, at once the inner court is filled with cloud, darkness and gloom; for punishments are not carried out while the majesty of the Lord is present, and the glory of the Lord is seen in the court, of which it is written: The sound of the wings of the Cherubim was heard as far as the outer court. For 'sound' the Hebrew has 'voice', and this voice had the likeness of the voice of God almighty speaking — for which the Seventy translated 'like the voice of God saddai', which Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion translated as ἱκανόν, which signifies 'strong and mighty' —. Note, reader, in what points the former vision and this one agree or disagree, so that from the comparison of the two, without any prompting from us, you may understand the divine mysteries; note also what I pointed out before: how in the firmament, and in the throne, and in the hand of a man, not the reality but the likeness is spoken of; for we do not contemplate the glory of the Lord face to face with unveiled countenance, but we see all things in likeness and image, as long as we are encompassed by a frail and corruptible body.
10:9-15a
And I looked, and behold, four wheels beside the Cherubim; one wheel beside one Cherub, and another wheel beside one Cherub, and the appearance of the wheels was like the sight of a chrysolite stone, and their aspect was one likeness for the four, as if a wheel were in the midst of a wheel. And when they went in four directions, they went and did not turn back as they went, but to the place to which the first one turned to go, the others also followed and did not turn about. And their whole body and necks and hands and wings and rims were full of eyes round about the four wheels; and these wheels he called whirling, in my hearing. Now one had four faces: the one face the face of a Cherub, and the second face the face of a man, and in the third the face of a lion, and in the fourth the face of an eagle. And the Cherubim were lifted up. Observe that earlier, according to the Seventy, the appearance of the wheels was Like the sight of 'tharsis', but now, according to the same: Like the sight of 'carbuncle', so that by the fire that is handed over by the Cherub a likeness of the punishments may be shown — although in the Hebrew, both above and here, 'tharsis' is written, which Aquila translated 'chrysolite' and Symmachus 'hyacinth' —. And again, where we rendered: And their whole 'body', with 'of the wheels' understood, in the Hebrew it is written: And all their 'fleshes', and necks and hands and wings and rims; note that flesh is spoken of in the heavenly powers, so that, when we read: Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God, nor corruption incorruption, we may know that not the substance of the flesh but its works are condemned: for 'basar', which is written in this place, signifies not 'body' but 'flesh'. Now by the rims of the wheels he meant the iron tires by which the roundness of the wood is bound and held tight. These wheels, moreover, have not only fleshes, or a body, or members, but also necks, hands and wings, so that in each of these we may perceive the workings of things, not images of members. The 'wheels' themselves, too, are called in the Hebrew tongue 'gelgel', which Symmachus translated 'whirling' and Aquila 'wheel'. Further, what follows: In my hearing, up to the place where it is written: The Cherubim were lifted up, is not found in the Seventy but has been added from the Hebrew. In this it must be observed that it is by no means as is said above: The face of a man, and the face of a lion four, and the face of a calf on the left four, and the face of an eagle four on the right, so that, of course, some might be believed to be on the left and others on the right; rather, an equal order of them all is described, as Scripture says: Now one had four faces: the one face the face of a Cherub, and the second face the face of a man, and in the third the face of a lion, and in the fourth the face of an eagle, so that the first and second and third and fourth face is described not by a difference of place, right and left, but in a single order, by degrees. Now the one face, that is, the first, he called Cherub, where above he had said the face of a calf; from which it is understood that the face of a Cherub is the face of a calf. The sense of all these things is contained in the explanation of the former vision.
10:15b-17
This is the living creature that I had seen beside the river Chebar. And when the Cherubim went, the wheels also went alongside them; and when the Cherubim lifted their wings to be raised up from the earth, the wheels did not hold back, but they too were beside them. When those stood, these stood, and when those were lifted up, these were lifted up, for the spirit of life was in them. All things live to God and perceive their own Creator: He is not, you see, the God of the dead, but of the living. Hence also all the bodies of the wheels are full of eyes. And in the psalm it is said: The heavens tell the works of God, and the firmament proclaims the works of his hands. Day to day pours forth a word, and night to night shows knowledge; the sun too and the moon, the sea and the rivers, the mountains and the hills praise God, and the elements revolve in their own circuit year by year, and we discern on earth the order of the heavens, so that, keeping the order of the ancient law, they revolve and run, and we see nothing new upon the earth. But as for what is said: This is the living creature that I had seen beside the river Chebar, Scripture shows that in the exposition of the living creature we ought to understand the same things that we understood above.
10:18-22
And the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the temple, and stood above the Cherubim; and the Cherubim, lifting their wings, were raised up from the earth before me, and as they went out the wheels also followed; and it stood at the entrance of the eastern gate of the house of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. This is the living creature that I saw beneath the God of Israel beside the river Chebar, and I understood that they were Cherubim. Four by four faces to one, and four wings to one, and the likeness of a man's hand under their wings; and the likeness of their faces, the very faces that I had seen beside the river Chebar, and their gaze, and the onrush of each to go forward before its face. The glory of the Lord, or the majesty that had stood at the threshold of the temple, stood above the Cherubim, which, lifting their wings, were raised up while the prophet watched, the wheels following alike, and it stood at the entrance of the eastern gate of the house of the Lord, and little by little the protection of God left Israel. First it was in the temple; then it stood in the court of the temple, or at the threshold, and as it withdrew from the temple, cloud and gloom filled the inner recesses of the temple; and again the glory itself sat upon the Cherubim and, as they at once flew off and went away to the outer parts, the wheels followed; and the glory stood at the eastern gate of the house of the Lord, not at the door of the temple, but beyond the court and the threshold, at the entrance of the eastern gate of the house of the Lord. When the prophet had seen this: This is, he says, the living creature that I saw beneath the God of Israel beside the river Chebar, and I understood that they were Cherubim. For what new thing did he see, that he should understand that they were Cherubim, which he had not understood before? 'Cherubim' in our language is 'multitude of knowledge', the knowledge of the mysteries of God, and his throne and resting place; hence also in the psalm it is said: You who sit upon the Cherubim, be made manifest; for the glory of the Lord always sits in the multitude of knowledge, and it is made manifest then: when all things are shown to be ruled by providence, and nothing to happen by chance, and no one to say: The Lord has forsaken the earth, and the Lord does not see; hence also the gaze of the Cherubim and their desire is to forget the things that are past and to stretch themselves forward to the things to come.
11:1a
And the spirit lifted me up, and brought me in to the eastern gate of the house of the Lord, which looks toward the rising of the sun. Since the glory of the Lord had gone forth from the threshold of the temple and stood above the Cherubim, and afterward, as the Cherubim flew away, the glory itself stood at the entrance of the eastern gate of the house of the Lord, the prophet too — he could not go to it by himself — was lifted up by the spirit and led to the same eastern gate of the house of the Lord, which looks toward the sun of righteousness, of whom it is written: Behold a man, the Orient is his name, so that he should by no means remain in the temple, which was confounded by the cloud of ignorance, but, standing in the gate of the house of the Lord on the east, might come to know the mysteries that follow.
11:2b-12
And behold, at the entrance of the gate twenty-five men, and I saw in their midst Jaazaniah the son of Azur and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people. And he said to me: Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity, and handle a most wicked counsel in this city, saying: Were not the houses built long ago? This is the cauldron, and we are the flesh. Therefore prophesy concerning them; prophesy, son of man. And the spirit of the Lord rushed upon me and said to me: Speak. Thus says the Lord: So have you spoken, house of Israel, and the thoughts of your heart I know. You have killed very many in this city, and you have filled its streets with the slain. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Your slain, whom you have laid in its midst, they are the flesh, and this is the cauldron; and I will bring you out of its midst. You have feared the sword, and the sword I will bring upon you, says the Lord God. And I will cast you out of its midst, and I will give you into the hand of enemies, and I will execute judgments upon you. By the sword you shall fall; in the borders of Israel I will judge you, and you shall know that I am the Lord. This shall not be to you for a cauldron, and you shall not be in its midst for flesh: in the borders of Israel I will judge you; and you shall know that I am the Lord. (What follows is not found in the Seventy but has been added from the Hebrew:) Because you have not walked in my precepts, and you have not done my judgments, but you have acted according to the judgments of the nations which are round about you. The prophet is taken up, according to what is written: The Lord taking up the meek, or he is lifted up from the earth and brought in to the eastern gate of the house of the Lord, so that he may come to know the mysteries of the twenty-five men who were at the entrance of the gate, and of Jaazaniah the son of Azur and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people. These, then, who were at the entrance of the eastern gate of the house of the Lord, despairing of salvation and, from the consciousness of their crimes, ready for destruction, and unwilling to correct their sins through repentance, say: 'Although the houses which had earlier collapsed have lately, after the first captivity, been built, yet we know that this city is like a cauldron and we are for flesh, so that in it we may be consumed and burned up together, according to what is written in Isaiah: The tempest, if it passes through, will not take us'. As they say these things, the spirit of the Lord rushed upon the prophet, and commanded him a second time to prophesy and to say: 'Since you have said these things, and the secrets of your hearts do not escape me, I will interpret to you how the city is to be reckoned a cauldron and you flesh, not according to the sense in which you spoke, but according to another which you do not fear: the city is indeed in the likeness of a cauldron, but it will not be filled with your flesh, but with that of those whom you have killed; you, however, who think that you will die in this city, I will bring out of the midst of the city and hand over into the hands of enemies, and I will execute judgments upon you, so that, when you have fallen by the sword, by no means in the city nor outside the bounds of Israel but in the borders of your own province, then too you may know that I am the Lord'. And a second time it is said: 'In the borders of Israel I will judge you, and you shall know that I am the Lord; and all these things you will suffer, because you have not walked in my precepts and have not done my judgments, but have wrought the crimes of the other nations round about'. And since what is said is plain according to the letter, setting aside for a little while the names of Jaazaniah and Azur, Pelatiah and Benaiah, which we reserve for another time, this must be said: that to this day in the Church, which is the house of God, both before the eastern gate and at the entrance, or in the way, of the gate, which signifies the Savior, through whom we enter to the Father, there are twenty-five men, referring all things to the senses — and, so far as it does not escape my memory, I have never been able to find this number in a good sense, although in Leviticus men are chosen for the priestly ministry from twenty-five years of age; for in the Hebrew it does not have this number which is given in the Seventy, but the number thirty, which is contained in the opening of this prophet and in the age of the Lord when he came to the streams of the Jordan and was baptized by John; but if in the Gospel five wise virgins and five foolish are found, let us know that this number is placed in the middle and, according to the quality of those who use it, can be applied either to the good or to the bad side —. These men, then, who refer all things to the senses, and have two princes, of whom we spoke above, are contained in the dual number, which splits unity and, in the number of the second day, is not seen by the Lord, according to the Hebrew truth — whence also into the ark of Noah the unclean are brought in two and two; but the Lord, drawing the division together into one, made both one and loosed the middle wall, condemning the enmities in his flesh; whence also he says something more august and more sublime: I and the Father are one, so that he may call us back from the Jewish duality into the union of the Christian faith; finally, when the high priesthood of the Jews had been lost, the Lord suffers by no means under one prince, but under two, Annas and Caiaphas, so that he might show the divided error of their religion —. There are many at the entrance of this gate, before the eastern house of the Lord, who by their vices are compared to the nations, and from the consciousness of their sins despair of salvation, and say: 'The city in which we dwell is a cauldron, and we are all flesh, and we shall be consumed by the Babylonian burning, whose darts are fiery', unwilling to do penance and despairing of salvation; therefore they hear that they themselves are not the flesh of the past and lost city, but those whom they have scandalized, whom they have killed; and for that reason the sword is brought upon them: so that, after they have been judged in the borders of Israel, by no means among the nations but among Christians, then they may know that he himself is the Lord, according to what is read in the Psalms: When he slew them, they sought him, so that him whom they had not perceived through benefits, they may come to know through torments.
11:13
And it came to pass, while I was prophesying, Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died; and I fell on my face, crying out with a loud voice, and I said: Alas, alas, alas, Lord God, you are making a consummation of the remnant of Israel. As the prophet prophesies, one of the two princes, Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, dies, whose name means 'a fall turning aside', and he is the son of a 'builder' or 'mason' — for οἰκοδόμος cannot be rendered into our language otherwise —; the other of the princes, Jaazaniah, is kept safe — Jaazaniah signifies 'his ear', by which 'of the soul' is understood; Azur, however, 'support' or 'help' —. He, then, who by falling had turned aside from the Lord and was of a most wicked building, rightly falls while he whom God strengthened is prophesying; but he who obeyed the precepts of God and was sustained and supported by his help rightly remains in command of the people — we read in Exodus that, when Pharaoh king of Egypt had died, the sons of Israel groaned from the works of clay, of straw and of brick, and cried out to the Lord, upon whom, while he lived, they could not call; Isaiah also, when Uzziah the leprous king had died, saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and the Seraphim standing around him, and, understanding that he had unclean lips and dwelt among a people having unclean lips, he merits that a coal be sent from the altar and purge his unclean lips; here, however, as the strength of God prophesies, the prince who had turned aside from the service of the Lord falls, so that he may be raised up by Christ: for if the Lord is the resurrection, the devil is the fall; in which it is asked how it is said of the Savior: Behold, this one is set for the fall and the resurrection of many in Israel: for the fall of those who stood most wickedly, and the resurrection of such as had fallen —. When the prophet had seen this, he fell on his face, not by the desert of one who sins but with the feeling of one who mourns, and with a loud voice, which came from the great ardor of faith, he cried out three times and said: Alas, alas, alas, Lord God, you are making a consummation of the remnant of Israel; and the sense is: 'Even the very remnant which seemed to be among the people is being destroyed in your indignation'.
11:14-16
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, your brothers, your brothers, the men your kinsmen and the whole house of Israel, all to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem said: Go far away from the Lord; to us the land has been given for a possession. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because I have made them far off among the nations, and because I have scattered them into the land, I will be to them for a small sanctification in the lands to which they have come. (LXX: "And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, your brothers, your brothers and the men of your captivity and the whole house of Israel is consummated, to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem said: You have gone far away from the Lord; to us the land has been given for an inheritance. Therefore say: Adonai the Lord says: Because I will drive them away into the nations, and I will sow them abroad into every land, and I will be to them for a little sanctification in the regions into which they shall have entered there.") First we must speak of the variety in translation. Where the Hebrew has 'men your kinsmen' — for this is what 'goolathach' means —, the Seventy translated 'men of your captivity'; then, where there follows: All to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem said, in place of 'all' they put 'is consummated', because of the ambiguity of the letters and of the word: for 'chollo', which Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion translated 'all', they rendered 'is consummated', which does not accord with the sense at all. The word of the Lord, therefore, came to Ezekiel, who had said: Alas, alas, alas, Lord God, you are making a consummation of the remnant of Israel, namely in the death of Pelatiah and of those who were killed with him: that by no means were those the remnant which the prophet supposed in Jerusalem, but those who were seen to be captives in Babylon; and the sense is: 'O son of man, your brothers, begotten of the same stock with you, your brothers, I say, to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem said: You have gone away from the Lord, because you are captives and have handed yourselves over with Jeconiah, but to us the land of Israel has been given for an everlasting possession — say, therefore, to them that I have indeed made them far off from the land of Israel and dispersed them into the nations and ordered them to be in foreign lands, but, because they have obeyed my command, I shall be among them, even in strange and hostile places, for a little sanctification, while very many are found among them who by no means submit their necks to idolatry but are mindful of the commandments of God', as Daniel and the three youths were, and it must be believed that others were, after the likeness of such great princes as Scripture now shows. From all of which we learn that we must not insult those who by the judgment of God have been handed over to punishments, nor reproach a man converted from his sins, nor ever say to those who do penance and have gone out of the Church: You have gone far away from the Lord; to us the land has been given for a possession, because thus says the Lord: 'Although I have separated them for a little while from my Church and dispersed them among the nations, yet I will be to them for a small sanctification while they remember their sins, and those who had departed from the land of God because of their vices, may hasten, because of repentance, to return to their former seats'.
11:17-21
Therefore speak: Thus says the Lord God: I will gather you from the peoples, and I will assemble you from the lands in which you have been scattered, and I will give you the soil of Israel. And they shall enter there, and shall take away all the offenses, and all the abominations from it; and I will give them one heart (or another), and a new spirit I will bestow, in their inward parts; and I will take away the stony heart from their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my precepts, and keep my judgments and do them, and be to me for a people and I be to them for God. But those whose heart walks after their stumbling blocks and their abominations, their way I will set upon their own head, says the Lord God. The divine word speaks to those who were captives in the land of Babylon, and to the brothers of Ezekiel the prophet and to his kinsmen, to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem said: You have gone far away from the Lord; to us the land has been given for a possession; and it speaks these things which follow: 'I will gather you from the peoples, and I will restore to you the land of Israel; and when you have entered, you will take away all the idols on account of which you had offended God, and I will give you one heart, of the fear and the service of God, so that you may by no means serve diverse idols, or another than the one you had before; and I will bestow a new spirit in your inward parts, according to what is written: Create a clean heart in me, and renew a holy spirit in my inward parts; and I will take away from you the stony heart — that is, a hard heart, according to what Stephen, the first martyr in Christ, says: Hard of neck and uncircumcised in heart —; and the heart of Pharaoh is hardened, so that he may not let the people of Israel go; and I will give you', he says, 'a heart of flesh, soft and tender, and one which can receive the commandments of God, so that they may be written on the fleshly tablets of the heart' — for this reason a soft heart is given and the hard heart is taken away: so that they may walk in his precepts and keep his judgments and be in the people of God, and the Lord, who before had been an adversary, may be to them for God —; 'but those who have by no means corrected their former sins by repentance, but have walked after their abominations, I will repay', he says, 'with what they deserve: let their ways be set upon their heads'. Most think that these things happened under Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and under Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the great priest, and under Ezra and Nehemiah, to the tribe of Judah and to those who returned with them, and that the inhabitants of Jerusalem who were captured under Zedekiah king of Judah, or who fled with Jeremiah into Egypt, were dispersed into all lands, so that they by no means returned to the city of Jerusalem. But the full conversion, of those who were captives and of the remnant of Israel, is understood in Christ, when the remnant was saved, and in one day three thousand believed, and again five thousand, and others, of whom James speaks to the apostle Paul: You see, brother, so many thousands of believing Jews. These are all zealous for the law. But also daily the proud inhabitants of the city of Jerusalem, whose heart walks after their stumbling blocks and their abominations, earn the displeasure of God, and those who were outside, the stony heart having been taken away and a most soft heart received, return through repentance to the Church, and walk in the precepts of the Lord, and keep his judgments, and become the people of the Lord, and the Lord, whom they had previously offended, becomes God to them.
11:22-23
And the Cherubim lifted up their wings, and the wheels with them, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them; the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is to the east of the city. Little by little the glory of the Lord withdraws from Jerusalem: first, deserting the temple, it stands in the court or at the threshold of the house, and afterward at the entrance of the eastern gate; lastly, its wings lifted and the wheels following, it stands upon the mountain which is to the east of the city — no doubt it signifies the Mount of Olives, from which the Savior ascended to the Father; and the glory of the Lord, which had departed from the city of Jerusalem, stood upon the Mount of Olives as a sign of resurrection and of light, so that from there it might behold Jerusalem about to perish and about to burn —. And as for his saying: The glory went up from the midst of the city, in other words the Lord speaks to the disciples: Arise, let us go hence, and to the Jews: Your house will be left to you desolate; Josephus also relates that there was heard in the temple a voice of the angels and of the heavenly strength, which had previously been the city's defense: Let us go away from these seats. And, in a wondrous manner, to the present day the glory of the Lord, which deserted the temple, stands upon the Mount of Olives and, gleaming in the sign of the cross, looks upon the once Jewish temple, dissolved into embers and ashes.
11:24-25
And the spirit lifted me up, and brought me into Chaldea, to the exile, in a vision, in the spirit of God; and the vision which I had seen was taken away from me. And I spoke to the exile all the words of the Lord which he had shown me. Where we translated from the Hebrew truth: And the vision which I had seen was taken away from me, the Seventy translated: And I went up from the vision which I had seen; and both signify that the prophet was carried over to Jerusalem from Babylon not in the body but in the spirit, and, when the vision had been taken away which had led him in the spirit to Jerusalem and had shown him all the things which the preceding discourse narrated, he returned from himself, and spoke to the exile all the things which had been shown to him, namely to those of whom it is written above: I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting beside me, and the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there, and I saw. And, in a wondrous manner, while those who had come to visit him were sitting there, the prophet was beholding mystical visions, and he was absent from those who sat before him: absent in spirit, present in body. And all things happen so that those who were captives might receive consolation, in that they are to be led back into the land of Israel, and are to walk in the precepts of the Lord, and to be to him for a people, and he is to be to them for God; but those who have not been converted to repentance, but have walked after their abominations, are to receive what they have done. That in the holy Scriptures words are spoken in place of things, we have often pointed out.
12:1-2
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a provoking house, who have eyes to see and do not see, and ears to hear and do not hear, for it is a provoking house. (Where we have rendered: You dwell in the midst of a provoking house, the Seventy put: You dwell in the midst of their iniquities; but from what follows: For it is a provoking house, we understand that the former clause too fits this little verse.) We have often shown, too, that 'bitterness' is said in place of 'provocation', so that the sense is: 'You dwell in the midst of a house that turns God to bitterness, which, by the bitterness of its vices, makes God, who is by nature sweet and merciful, bitter and cruel'; otherwise we read of God: Taste and see that gracious (or sweet) is the Lord. The prophet, then, dwells in the midst of a people provoking God to bitterness, which has eyes and does not see, ears and does not hear, not through a defect of the senses but through the obstinacy of depravity; whence the Lord also says to the Jews: If you were blind, he says, you would not have sin, censuring and condemning in them a voluntary blindness. 'Since, therefore, they have eyes to see and do not see, ears to hear and do not hear, and they despise your words, teach them through an image and a picture, and show them by bodily figures, so that they may recognize the coming captivity not only by hearing but also with their eyes'.
12:3
You therefore, son of man, make yourself vessels of exile, and you shall migrate by day before them; and you shall migrate from your place to another place in their sight, if perhaps they may look, for it is a provoking house. (LXX: "And you, son of man, make yourself vessels of captivity, and be taken captive by day before them; and be taken captive from your place to another place in their sight, that they may see, for it is a provoking house.") No one doubts that the whole content of this passage points to the future captivity of King Zedekiah of the tribe of Judah, who was taken together with Jerusalem. But since some would have the captivity of Zedekiah, which means 'righteous Lord', go before as a type of the Savior, who, descending from heavenly things to earthly, took on a human body, and would have these be the vessels of captivity, I therefore think the prudent and cautious reader must be forewarned: that we set these things down, lest we seem to pass over anything, but do not approve them; for a wicked king cannot go before as a figure of him who is the example of all piety. That Zedekiah was taken by the Babylonians and Chaldeans both Jeremiah the prophet and the history of Kings relate, and that he was led from place to place, that is, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and the rest of what Ezekiel says in what follows. But those who refer it to the Lord Jesus Christ think that his captivity and exile from place to place signify the descent from heavenly things to earthly.
12:4-6
And you shall carry out your vessels like the vessels of one going into exile by day in their sight, and you shall go out in the evening before them, as one migrating goes out. Before their eyes dig through the wall for yourself, and you shall go out through it; in their sight you shall carry on your shoulders, in the darkness you shall flee: you shall veil your face, and you shall not see the land, for I have given you as a portent to the house of Israel. (LXX: "And you shall bring forth your vessels, vessels of captivity, by day in their eyes, and you shall go out in the evening in their sight, as a captive goes out. Dig for yourself in the wall, and you shall pass through it; in their sight you shall be carried on shoulders, and you shall go out hidden: you shall cover your face, and you shall not see the land, for I have given you as a portent to the house of Israel.") The prophet is commanded to do in figure what Zedekiah is going to do in truth: 'Gather,' he says, 'your baggage — for these are the vessels of one going into exile — while they watch, and after they have seen what you are going to do, you shall go out in the evening in the likeness of one going into exile'; we read that Zedekiah fled by night, the wall having been dug under, to the deserts of the Jordan, and was there seized by the Babylonians, and that this is what the wall dug through signifies; and as for his saying: You shall carry on your shoulders, there is understood: your baggage and whatever those who flee are accustomed to carry for the comfort of the road; in the darkness you shall carry out: so that you may not be seen by anyone; you shall veil your face: either by the blindness that befell him, when his eyes were put out by Nebuchadnezzar, or so that it might not be recognized that he himself was the king and the vigilance of his guards become greater; and what follows: And you shall not see the land, signifies this: that he was led blind into Babylon and did not see it; for I have given you, he says, as a portent to the house of Israel: for both the words and the deeds of the prophets are for a sign and a figure — whence in Zechariah too they are called 'men of portent', because they portend figures; and in Hosea God says: By the hands of the prophets I have been likened —. Those, however, who want Christ to be understood in the person of Ezekiel take the vessels of captivity as the human body; and the wall dug through as that by which he broke through the bars of the underworld and, rising again, was seen by believers alone; and his being carried on shoulders as when he ascended as victor to heaven with the angelic powers; and that he goes out hidden and veils his face, so that the divine majesty may not be seen in mortal flesh; and that he does not see the land, lest that land be illumined by his eyes which does not deserve his gaze: for the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and he turns his face away from the wicked. 'And all these things,' they say, 'he is related to have done so that, through the likeness of a man, he might turn the hard hearts of the Israelite people to faith; and he is given as a portent to the house of Israel, according to what is written: Behold, this one is set for the resurrection and for the ruin of many, and for a sign that will be spoken against'.
12:7
So I did as he had commanded me: I brought out my vessels like the vessels of one migrating by day, and in the evening I dug through the wall for myself with my hand; in the darkness I went out, and I carried on my shoulders in their sight. (LXX: "And I did so according to all that he had commanded me: and I brought out vessels like vessels of captivity by day, and toward evening I dug through the wall for myself with my hand, and I went out hidden, I was taken up upon shoulders in their sight.") What he was commanded above to do, he testifies that he accomplished in deed, and it needs no interpretation, according to either sense, since it was expounded above. But this must be noted: that at one and the same time Jeremiah was prophesying in Jerusalem and Ezekiel in Babylon, and the prophecy of the former was sent to the captives, and that of the latter to those who dwelt in Jerusalem, so that the providence of the one God in different regions might be proven, and the hearers might understand that whatever befell the people came about by no means through the power of idols but by the command of the Lord.
12:8-10a
And the word of the Lord came to me in the morning, saying: Son of man, have not the house of Israel, the provoking house, said to you: What are you doing? Say to them: Thus says the Lord God. 'If the provoking house asks you: Why are you doing these things? — or, according to the Seventy, even if they do not ask, you thrust it upon them, so that they may know why you have done these things —, say to them: Thus says the Lord God.'
12:10b-16
This burden is upon the prince who is in Jerusalem, and upon all the house of Israel which is in their midst. Say: I am your portent; as I have done, so shall it be done to them: into exile and into captivity they shall go; and the prince who is in their midst shall be carried on shoulders, he shall go out in the darkness; they shall dig through the wall to lead him out: his face shall be covered, so that he may not see the land with his eyes. And I will spread my net over him, and he shall be taken in my dragnet; and I will bring him to Babylon, into the land of the Chaldeans, and he shall not see it; there he shall die. And all who are around him, his guard and his troops, I will scatter to every wind; and I will draw the sword after them. And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have scattered them among the nations and sown them in the lands. And I will leave of them a few men from the sword and famine and pestilence, that they may tell all their crimes among the nations to which they shall enter; and they shall know that I am the Lord. First let us expound the history: 'Say,' he says, 'O son of man, to those who either ask or do not ask what you are doing, this: that this burden and vision is upon the leader who is in Jerusalem — by the leader signifying Zedekiah —. And say: I am your portent (or, as the Seventy translated: I who make portents, so that future things may be known from present ones), as I have done, so shall it be done to them, to the leader and to all who are in the leader's retinue: they shall be led captive into the Babylonian exile, and the leader who is in their midst shall be carried on the shoulders either of beasts of burden or of those who had fled with him, and he shall go out in the darkness and in the shadows of night; and his companions shall dig under the wall to lead him out: his face shall be veiled, either by the fear of one fleeing or by the injury of blindness, so that, blind, he may not see the land of Babylon. And I will spread my net over him, and he shall be taken in my dragnet — for it was with the Lord's permission that he was taken by the Babylonians, and what he suffered to be done by the enemy, he testifies that he himself did — ; and, led into Babylon, he shall not see the land of the Chaldeans, and there he shall die a captive. And all his companions and helpers and the comrades of his flight, once he has been seized, I will scatter hither and thither, nor will I allow them to get away safe, but I will draw my sword in the hands of the enemy. And when they have been scattered among the nations, let them understand that I am the Lord and that all things were done by my will. And I will leave,' he says, 'of his companions who fled with him and were able to escape, a few who escaped the sword and the famine and the pestilence, so that, when by flight or by captivity they have come to diverse regions, they may tell all their crimes, either by word or by example, on account of which they deserved such great evils; and let them understand that I myself am the Lord'. But he who tries to expound the tropology and the explanation begun concerning the Savior interprets the leader who is in the midst of Jerusalem as him who went before as a portent and a sign, in that both he himself and his companions are captives of this world, and, ascending as victor from the underworld, he was carried on the shoulders of angels, went out in the darkness, unknown to unbelievers, and, the middle wall having been destroyed, made both one; his face is covered, so that he may not look upon the land of the Jews — nor is it a wonder if the Lord has hidden his face, since to this day a veil is placed before the face of Moses for the people that does not believe —. And the Lord spread his net over him — that which the bride says of him in the Song of Songs: Behold, he is behind our wall, looking out through the windows, appearing through the nets; of whom Jeremiah too says: The Spirit of our face, Christ the Lord, was taken in our sins; and: Though he had not done sin, he was made sin for us — ; and he will be brought, he says, into Babylon, the confusion of this world, into the land of the Chaldeans, which means 'as it were demons' — or else, that he might draw back to salvation those who had been enslaved to demons and lead captive the former captivity —, and that very land of the Chaldeans, he says, he will not see, and there he will die, so that by his death he may give life to us all. And all his helpers and companions, the apostles and apostolic men, he scattered into the whole world; and he drew his sword after them, so that they might be crowned with various martyrdoms. And then they might understand, either they themselves or those who had believed through them, that he himself is the Lord, and that he had scattered them among the nations and sown them in the lands for this reason, that they might bear much fruit. And he left of them a few men, such as John the apostle and the others, delivered from sword and famine and pestilence and escaping the onslaught of persecutions, so that they might tell the crimes of the Jews and the iniquities of all the nations to which they had entered, so that, having done penance, they might know that he himself was the Lord. We have said these things leaving the judgment to the reader's discretion; for the rest, there is no doubt that it is dangerous to compare the captivity and death of a wicked king with the mystery of the Lord.
12:17-20
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Eat your bread in disturbance, and drink your water in haste and grief. And say to the people of the land: Thus says the Lord God to those who dwell in Jerusalem in the land of Israel: They shall eat their bread in anxiety, and drink their water in desolation, so that the land may be made desolate of its multitude because of the iniquity of all who dwell in it; and the cities that are now inhabited shall be desolate, and the land deserted, and you shall know that I am the Lord. (LXX: "And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, you shall eat your bread with pain, and you shall drink your water with torment and distress. And you shall say to the people of the land: Thus says Adonai the Lord to the inhabitants of Jerusalem upon the land of Israel: They shall eat their loaves with want, and drink their water with devastation, so that the land and its fullness may be devastated; for in impiety are all who dwell in it, and their cities which are inhabited shall be in desolation, and the land shall be devastated, and you shall know that I am the Lord.") After the prophecy about the prince and his companions, which was shown under a bodily image, he comes to the people, and whatever is said to the prophet is referred through the prophet to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: that in the evil of the siege they will eat their bread in want and distress, and drink their water by no means in abundance, but with torment and tribulation. 'These things,' he says, 'O prophet, are said to you, so that you may speak to the people of your land and say: Thus says the Lord to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, which is in the land of Israel: Besieged by Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans, you shall endure the evil of hunger and thirst, so that the whole land with its fullness may be destroyed', signifying the inhabitants by that which is inhabited. And lest they think this comes upon them without cause: 'Tell them,' he says, 'that because of their crimes and impieties all the cities of Judea are to be reduced to solitude, and the cultivation of the whole land is to perish, so that they may come to know as raging the God whom they would not know as merciful'. According to the ἀναγωγὴν [anagogy, the higher sense], we can call the inhabitants of Jerusalem those believing in Christ who dwell in the church; and if through sins they have deserved his displeasure, let them eat bread with want and drink water with grief and distress, enduring not a lack of the food of bread or of the drink of water, but a famine of the word and teaching of God. For when, either through the fault of the princes who are to be captured and handed over to the Babylonians or through our own hardness, we have lost the word of God and have not deserved to have useful waters, then we shall take our food in pain and penury, and the land will lose the multitude of believers, and the cities, which are understood as the churches throughout the whole world, will be made desolate, and the land will be deserted, so that all may know that this is the Lord's displeasure. This indeed we can also understand of the time of persecution.
12:21-28
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, what is this proverb of yours in the land of Israel, of those saying: The days shall be put off far, and every vision shall perish? Therefore say to them: Thus says the Lord God: I will make this proverb cease, nor shall it be commonly said any longer in Israel; and speak to them that the days have drawn near, and the word of every vision. For no longer shall any vision be empty, nor divination ambiguous, in the midst of the sons of Israel; for I the Lord will speak, whatever word I speak, and it shall be done; it shall not be prolonged any more: but in your days, provoking house, I will speak the word and do it, says the Lord God. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, behold the house of Israel, of those saying: The vision that this man sees is for many days, and for distant times he prophesies; therefore say to them: Thus says the Lord God: None of my words shall be prolonged any longer; the word that I speak shall be fulfilled, says the Lord God. What we, following Symmachus, have called 'proverb', all the other translators translated 'parable', which in Hebrew is called 'masal'. (Again, where we have published: Nor will there be ambiguous divination, the Seventy rendered: Nor one divining according to favor, for which all translated 'slippery', what we have called 'ambiguous', so that we may recognize the words of the prophets that deceive their hearers.) And this is the sense of the whole chapter: above he had prophesied against the prince who was in Jerusalem, then he had announced to the people that famine and the burning of thirst were to come; and as the multitude did not believe it, an old and well-worn proverb is taken up: The threat of the prophets is put off for a long time, and every vision will perish, for in vain is it 'seen' — or, according to Symmachus, διαπνεύσει, that is, 'it will be dissolved into wind and a thin breeze' —. 'Tell them, therefore,' he says, 'that my threat is by no means put off, nor is a false and ambiguous divination put forth among the peoples, one with an uncertain end, so that it is spoken at one time and fulfilled at another; but now, while you who speak and those who hear are alive, the word that I have spoken will be fulfilled'. He signifies the impending captivity of the city of Jerusalem, and Zedekiah, with the people of Judah, about to be taken at any moment. Not only at that time, however, but to this day the unbelieving crowd and the hard hearts of mortals do not receive the prophecy of God, but all that the prophets threaten, that the Gospel proclaims, they reckon is to be put off to another time. Let us note that here 'parable', which is used by the Seventy, is taken for 'proverb', according to what we read in the psalm: And I became a parable to them, and in this same prophet: What is this parable to you among the people of Israel, of those saying: The fathers have eaten the sour grape, and the teeth of the sons have been set on edge. We have touched briefly on the obvious things, so that we may linger over the more obscure.
Book Four
I would wish, Eustochium, if it could be done, to weave my explanations on Ezekiel book by book according to the prophecies proper to each, and in no way to divide in the exposition what is joined together in the prophesying, so that the course might be easier for the one dictating and for the one reading alike; and I would separate the long and immense road of the interpretation into fixed stages, so as to show, as it were by titles and indexes and, to speak more properly, by summaries, what the individual books contain. But what am I to do, since some prophecies are short and others long, so that we are often compelled by necessity both to compress several into one book and to divide one into many? Hence now too what is against the prophets and prophetesses, to the elders of the people of Israel as well, and to the land upon which the four most grievous plagues are brought, and concerning the wood of the vine, which, when it has been cut off, is useless among all the trees of the forests, and also the catalogue of the vices of Jerusalem, we wish to comprise in the fourth book; and since the narrowness of a single volume does not admit that catalogue, we reserve the other part of it for the fifth volume, forewarning the care of the most prudent reader, so that he may know what we have to explain in this book and what he has to read.
13:1-3a
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, prophesy to the prophets of Israel who prophesy; and you shall say to those who prophesy from their own heart: Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God. (This which we have set down: Who prophesy; and you shall say to those who prophesy from their own heart, the Seventy omitted, and in its place they added what is not found in the Hebrew: And you shall prophesy, and you shall say to them.) Now this speech is against the false prophets, who were deceiving the people and prophesying something else, contrary to the commandments of God. Nor should it trouble anyone that they are called prophets, for holy Scripture has this custom, that it names each one the prophet of his own prophesying and speech, just as there are called prophets of Baal and prophets of idols and prophets of confusion; whence also the apostle Paul calls a Greek poet a prophet: A certain one of them, their own prophet, said: Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies, and in Hosea we read: As a raving prophet, a man bearing the spirit. But whatever was said at that time to the Israelite people is now referred to the Church, so that the holy prophets are the apostles and apostolic men, while the lying and frenzied prophets are all the heretics, whose leaders invent things from their own heart, while those who have been seduced by them acquiesce in the lies of others.
13:3b
Woe to the senseless prophets, who follow their own spirit and see nothing. (LXX: "Woe to those who prophesy from their own heart and do not see at all", leaving out that which has been set down by us: Who follow their own spirit). Since the name of prophets, according to the rule of the Scriptures, is common to the good and the bad, they differ in this, that the good prophets are said to be wise, but the bad stupid and senseless; of these the one is referred to the men of the Church, the other to all the heretics, who, abandoning the Spirit of God, follow their own spirit, because they prophesy not at all by divine inspiration but from their own heart: whence also they see nothing. But he who is wise follows not the thoughts of his own heart but the Spirit of God, according to that passage in which, earlier on, the living creatures and the wheels followed the Spirit of God; and the prophet says: After the Lord your God you shall walk, and in another place: Lead me in the right path, and again: Your Spirit, he who is good, will lead me into the land; and for the people of God the pillar of fire and the cloud was the leader in the wilderness; and Jeremiah says: I have not labored following you. But which of the heretics, who follows his own spirit, does not stumble into darkness and, blind, lead the blind into a pit? Hence, although in their mysteries, or rather their orgies, they seem to themselves to see more than the teachers of the Church, still they see nothing at all, because they have lost the sun of righteousness, and in vain they imitate those who were formerly called 'seers' and to whom it is said: You who see, go; withdraw into the land of Judah, and in Bethel you shall not prophesy; for which reason the 'vision' of Isaiah and of Obadiah is placed in the titles, and the Lord commanded the apostles: Lift up your eyes and see, and the prophet humbly entreats: Unveil my eyes, and I will consider the wonders of your law.
13:4-7
Like foxes in the deserts were your prophets, Israel. You do not go up from the opposite side, nor did you set up a wall for the house of Israel, that you might stand in battle on the day of the Lord. They see vain things and divine a lie, saying: Says the Lord, when the Lord has not sent them; and they persisted in confirming the word. Have you not seen an empty vision, and spoken a lying divination, and do you say: Says the Lord, when I have not spoken? (LXX: "As foxes in the deserts are your prophets, Israel. They did not stand on the firmament, and they gathered flocks upon the house of Israel; they did not rise up, those who speak on the day of the Lord, seeing lies, divining vain things, who say: The Lord says, and the Lord did not send them; and they began to raise up the word. Have you not seen a false vision, and spoken vain divinations, ※ and you were saying: The Lord says, and I have not spoken?⁚") Let us speak first according to the Hebrew: the prophets of Israel are like foxes, daily committing thefts of domestic fowl, who dwell, according to Aquila and the Seventy, 'in the deserts', according to Symmachus and Theodotion 'in broken walls' and 'ruins'; who cannot go up from the opposite side, nor set up a wall for the house of Israel — we read that Aaron ran to meet the fire that was devouring the people of Israel, and stood in the midst, and set up a wall for the safety of the people; to Jeremiah also it is said that he should not run to meet the Lord, nor stand against his wrath by perseverance in prayer: for just as a wall is set against an enemy, and one is accustomed to meet an adversary from the opposite side and to confront one who is coming on, so the sentence of God is broken by the prayers of the saints; whence also it is said to Moses: Let me go, and I will blot out this people: for in the one to whom it is said: Let me go, it is shown that he has the power of holding back —. These cannot stand in battle on the day of the Lord, so as to fight for the people with prayers and to resist the sentence of God with supplications. Since, therefore, they behold vain things and divine a lie and say that they have been sent by the Lord, when they have not been sent by him, and persist in their errors and desire to make their own word firm, they are convicted that all the things they preach are empty, since they say that their own lie is the word of the Lord. Moreover, according to the Seventy the sense here is this: all the heretics, because of their deceitfulness and wickedness, are like foxes, of whom the Savior speaks: Foxes have holes, and the birds of the sky nests; and of Herod it is written: Tell this fox; and of these same foxes, which deceive the little and simple ones and lay waste the vineyard of Christ, Solomon speaks: Catch us the little foxes that destroy the vineyards; and in the psalm it is sung concerning those who are tripped up by their deceitfulness: They will go into the lower parts of the earth, they will be handed over into the hands of the sword, they will be the portions of foxes. These prophets, who are like foxes, did not stand on the firmament; nor did they deserve to hear with Peter: You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church; nor are they like Moses, to whom it was said: But you, stand here with me, nor like him who says: He set my feet upon a rock, but they are tossed about by every wind of doctrine; nor did they stand on the firmament of which we read in Psalm 18 (19): The heavens tell the glory of God, and the firmament announces the works of his hands. These gathered all sorts of irrational people, who on account of their excessive innocence are like cattle, against the house of God; hence it is now said: And they gathered flocks upon the house of Israel; nor did they themselves rise up, nor could they raise up others, but whatever they have done and are doing is full of lies. And what follows: And they began to raise up the word, signifies this: that they wish indeed to rise up and to lift themselves to the heights, but cannot fulfill what they desire; and it is said to them: Have you not seen a false vision, and spoken vain divinations? — and what follows: And you were saying: The Lord says, and I have not spoken, is not found in the Seventy —.
13:8-9
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have spoken vain things and seen a lie, therefore behold, I am against you, says the Lord God; and my hand shall be upon the prophets who see vain things and divine a lie: in the council of my people they shall not be, and in the writing of the house of Israel they shall not be written, nor shall they enter into the land of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord God. (LXX: "Therefore say: Thus says Adonai the Lord: Since your words are lies and your divinations vain, therefore behold, I am over you, says the Lord God; and I will stretch out my hand upon the prophets who see a lie and who speak vain things: in the discipline of my people they shall not be, nor shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, and into the land of Israel they shall not enter, and they shall know that I am Adonai the Lord.") Under the person of the prophets, the speech is against the heretics who speak vain things and see a lie, and persist in making their own doctrine firm: that the Lord himself comes against them and rises up and stretches out his hand over them to strike, and does not draw it back to spare; and he threatens that they will not be in the council of the people of the Lord, nor in his Church but in the synagogue of the devil, nor will they be written in the house of Israel — of whom it is said in another place: Let them be written upon the earth: not into the land of Israel, which is the land of the living, of which it is now said: Nor shall they enter into the land of Israel, but into the land of the dead and the shadow of death — so that, after they have suffered these things, separated from the assembly of the people of God, they may understand that he himself is the Lord. Where we have rendered: In the council of my people they shall not be, the Seventy translated: In the discipline (or in the correction) of my people they shall not be: for the correction of adversaries is one thing, that of sons another; whence also Jeremiah: Correct, he says, us, O Lord, but in judgment, and not in fury, so that you may by no means make us few. Pour out your fury upon the nations which have not known you, and upon the kingdoms which have not called upon your name.
13:10-16
Because they have deceived my people, saying: Peace, peace, and there is no peace; and he himself was building a wall, but they were daubing it with mud without straw. Say to those who daub without tempering that it will fall; for there will be a flooding shower, and I will give very great stones rushing down from above, and a wind of tempest scattering it. For behold, the wall has fallen; will it not be said to you: Where is the daubing with which you daubed? Therefore thus says the Lord God: And I will make the spirit of tempests burst forth in my indignation, and there will be a flooding shower in my fury, and great stones of wrath in consummation; and I will destroy the wall which you daubed without due mixture, and I will level it with the earth, and its foundation will be uncovered, and it will fall and be consumed in its midst, and you shall know that I am the Lord. And I will fulfill my indignation on the wall and on those who daub it without due mixture, and I will say to you: There is no wall, and there are none who daub it; the prophets of Israel who prophesy to Jerusalem, and see for her a vision of peace, and there is no peace, says the Lord God. (LXX: "Because they deceived my people, saying: Peace, peace, and there was no peace; and this one builds a wall, and these daub it with folly. Say to those who daub with folly: It will fall; there will be a flooding rain, and I will give great stones into their joints and they will fall, and a spirit carrying away, and it will be broken apart. And behold, the wall has fallen; and will they not say to you: Where is your daubing with which you daubed? Therefore thus says Adonai the Lord: And I will make a spirit carrying away break forth in my fury, and there will be a flooding rain in my wrath, and I will bring great stones in fury unto consummation; and I will dig under the wall which you daubed, and it will fall, and I will set it upon the earth, and its foundations will be uncovered, and it will fall, and you will be consumed with rebukes, and you will know that I am the Lord. And I will fulfill my fury upon the wall and upon those who daub it it will fall, and I said to you: There is no wall, nor those who daub it; the prophets of Israel who prophesy over Jerusalem, and who see peace for her, and there is no peace for them, says the Lord God.") The prophets of Israel, who will not be in the council of the people of God, nor be written in the writing of the house of Israel, nor enter the land of promise, will suffer these things because they deceived my people, wrongfully announcing to them peace and prosperity instead of the rigor of penitence and conversion, according to that which is said elsewhere: Peace, peace: and where is peace? God, then, was building for them μεταφορικῶς [metaphorically], through the commandments of the law and the utterances and threats of the holy prophets, an enclosure — for this is what the Hebrew word 'his' signifies — so as to keep from them every incursion of beasts and every hostile assault, as long as, converted to God, they were girded by this as by a bulwark and a most solid wall —; but the false prophets promised them peace not once but often: for this is what the repeated word of peace signifies. And that very wall, which in what follows is called 'cir', the false prophets were daubing 'without due mixture' — as Symmachus translated, that is, 'with pure mud', which had no straw and could not supply any strength; but as the Seventy and Theodotion have it, they daub it 'with folly'; while Aquila translated the Hebrew word 'thaphel' by ἀνάλῳ, which means 'without salt', passing from one metaphor to another metaphor, so that, just as food without salt has no flavor, so also mud without the straw by which it is made firm and bound together can provide no strength to the wall —. 'Say,' he says, 'to those who promise them vain things and pledge empty help, that this wall, this enclosure, will fall, and I will send a most violent shower, that is, most savage enemies — and he means the Babylonians and Chaldeans —, and these same enemies as stones of hail rushing down from above', all by μεταφορὰν [metaphor], so that a sudden whirlwind may overturn and undermine the unstable enclosure; and that afterward it may be said to them — that is, to the false prophets —: 'Where is the daubing with which you daubed? and where is the help you promised?'. But whatever we have said of the false prophets can be referred also to the heretics: that all their fabrications are dissolved by the wrath of God, and the building of the worst dogmas, which does not have the seasoning of the Holy Spirit, collapses and slides down to its foundations and to dust, and the enclosure itself is leveled with the earth and falls, and both the prophets who were promising and the people to whom it was promised are consumed in its midst, so that, after he has fulfilled his indignation and has said to them: There is no such wall — that is, 'you have no defense' — and there are none who daub it, but all things are vain and come to nothing, then you will know by deed that I am the Lord. And so that we may know who those are who daub the wall, there follows: The prophets of Israel — that is, the false prophets — who prophesy to Jerusalem, and see for her a vision of peace; these are the cause of sin and ruin and foolish security: For there will be no peace, says the Lord, because the Lord did not send them nor did he speak to them. That which the Seventy translated: And upon their joints, is not found in the Hebrew; and it signifies the joints of the stones in a wall, or the supports of timber by which walls are strengthened. Also that which we read above: He himself was building (or builds) a wall, many refer to the people of Israel, which was promising itself vain help, either from the Egyptians or from peace.
13:17-23
And you, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people who prophesy from their own heart, and prophesy over them, and say: Thus says the Lord God: Woe to those who sew cushions under every elbow of the hand, and make pillows under the head of every age to catch souls; and when they caught the souls of my people, they made their souls alive. And they profaned me before my people for a handful of barley and a fragment of bread, to kill souls which do not die, and to make alive souls which do not live, lying to my people who believe lies. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against your cushions, with which you catch flying souls, and I will tear them from your arms, and I will let go the souls which you catch, souls to fly, and I will tear your pillows, and I will free my people from your hand, and they shall no longer be in your hands for plunder; and you shall know that I am the Lord. Because you made the heart of the righteous grieve falsely, whom I did not sadden, and strengthened the hands of the wicked, so that he should not turn back from his evil way and live, therefore you shall not see vain things, and you shall divine divinations no more, and I will rescue my people from your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord. (LXX: "And you, son of man, make your face firm upon the daughters of your people who prophesy from their own heart, and prophesy over them, and you shall say: Thus says the Lord God: Woe to those who sew pillows under every elbow of the hand, and make veils over every head of every age to pervert souls; the souls of my people have been overturned, and they were saving souls. And they defiled me before my people for a handful of barley and a fragment of bread, to slay souls which ought not to die, and to save souls which ought not to live, while they speak vain words to a people that listens. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am over your pillows, upon which you have gathered souls, and I will tear them from your arms, and I will let go the souls which you pervert, their souls into dispersion, and I will tear your veils, and I will free my people from your hands, and they shall no longer be in your hands for gathering; and you shall know that I am the Lord. Because you were perverting the soul of the righteous unjustly, and I was not perverting him, and you were strengthening the hands of the unjust, so that he should not be converted at all from his most evil way and live, therefore you shall see lies no more, and you shall by no means divine divinations any longer, and I will free my people from your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord.") Above, the divine word was directed to the prophets, who were daubing the wall with mud, because it had no straw and could give no strength to the wall or enclosure; now he is ordered to set his face, or to direct it, or, as the Seventy translated, to make it firm, against the daughters of the people, the prophetesses. And just as other, false prophets were inspired against the prophets by a diabolical spirit, to overturn the commandments of God, so against the prophetesses — such as were Deborah and Huldah and, in the Acts of the Apostles, the four prophesying daughters of Philip the evangelist — other women of the same sex were inspired by a demonic spirit, such as were Prisca and Maximilla, to overturn the faith of the truth by the prophesying of a lie. These, the Hebrews say, were trained in magic arts through necromancies and a pythonic spirit, such as was she who seemed to have raised up the soul of Samuel, and, in the Acts of the Apostles, she whose divination brought much income to her masters, out of whom the unclean spirit was cast at the command of the apostle Paul. But we say this: that some heretics, by the falsity of their dogmas, preach virtue — of whom were Pythagoras, and Zeno, from whom come the Stoics, the Brahmans of the Indians and the Gymnosophists of the Ethiopians, who because of the continence of their diet win the admiration of the nations — and rightly are they said to daub a wall and to promise some strength —, but because they lack the seasoning of Christ, their labor is vain and their building will perish: Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it have labored in vain; others, however, teachers of pleasures and of lust, are said to sew cushions and to place them under every elbow of the hand: the Epicureans and the Pyrrhonists, and among us Jovinian and Eunomius, who say: Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die. The prophet, then, is ordered to set, or to make firm, his face against the daughters of his people. And first we must say what the face 'set' or 'directed' and 'made firm' means: namely that which is written of the Lord: The face of the Lord is upon those who do evil, to destroy their memory from the earth. As indeed wax melts before the face of the fire, so let sinners perish before the face of God; according to which sense it is said in this same prophet: Son of man, make your face firm upon Theman and Darom and Nageb, and again: The word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, make your face firm upon Jerusalem, and a little after: The word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, make your face firm upon the Ammonites, and again: Make your countenance firm upon Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and again: Son of man, make your face firm upon Gog and Magog, and in another place: I will make my face firm upon that man, and I will put him into the desert and into dissipation, and I will take him away from the midst of the people, and you shall know that I am the Lord. Woe, then, to these heresies and to these doctrines, which, promising rest, deceive every age and sex, to catch the souls of the wretched and to defile me before my people, while I am believed to love pleasure; and this not for a corus and a hemicorus of barley, as we read in Hosea, but for a handful of barley, on which brute animals feed, and a fragment of bread: not a whole loaf, nor the solid testimonies of the Scriptures, but those which have been broken and cut short and diminished by heretical depravity, so as to deceive all the holy and drag them to death, while they strive to make sinners alive with vain promises. Therefore the clement and merciful God does not slay the prophetesses themselves, but will tear their cushions, which like nets catch flying souls, so that, after these have been torn, the souls may have free power of flying; and he will rend the veils, or pillows, on which the ruling part of the soul was reclining and with which the heads of the deceived were covered; since the apostle teaches that the heads of men are not to be veiled, but that the glory of the Lord is to be contemplated with unveiled face: 'For you,' he says, 'were breaking the spirits of those who serve God with false terrors, and were keeping the wicked shut in with fraudulent promises, lest by doing penance they should recover the life which they had lost; therefore you shall by no means see vain visions, nor will I call your lies prophecies, but divinations, of which it is written: There is no augury in Jacob, nor divination in Israel, so that I may rescue my people from your hands, and you may know by deed that I am the Lord, who have freed the lost'.
14:1-11
And men, elders of Israel, came to me and sat before me. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, these men have set uncleannesses in their hearts, and have set up the stumbling block of their iniquity against their face; shall I, being asked, answer them? Therefore speak to them, and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: A man, a man of the house of Israel who sets his uncleannesses in his heart, and sets up the stumbling block of his iniquity against his face, and comes to the prophet inquiring of me through him, I the Lord will answer him according to the multitude of his uncleannesses, that the house of Israel may be caught in their heart, in which they have withdrawn from me in all their idols. Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: Turn and withdraw from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your defilements. For a man, a man of the house of Israel and of the proselytes, whoever is a stranger in Israel, if he is estranged from me and sets his idols in his heart, and sets up the stumbling block of his iniquity against his face, and comes to the prophet to inquire of me through him, I the Lord will answer him by myself; and I will set my face upon that man, and I will make him an example and a proverb, and I will destroy him from the midst of my people, and you shall know that I am the Lord. And the prophet, when he errs and speaks a word, I the Lord have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and I will blot him out from the midst of my people Israel. And they shall bear their iniquity: as the iniquity of the one inquiring, so shall the iniquity of the prophet be, that the house of Israel may no longer stray from me, nor be polluted in all their transgressions, but may be to me for a people, and I may be to them for God, says the Lord of hosts. (LXX: "And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, these men have set their thoughts in their hearts, and have set the torment of their iniquities before their face; shall I, answering, answer them? Therefore speak to them and say to them: Thus says Adonai the Lord: A man, a man of the house of Israel who sets his thoughts in his heart, and sets the torment of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet to inquire of him in me, I the Lord will answer him in those things by which his mind is held, so as to turn away the house of Israel according to their hearts, which have been estranged from me in their thoughts. Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: Turn and withdraw from your inventions and from all your impieties, and turn your faces. For a man, a man of the house of Israel and of the strangers who sojourn in Israel, who is estranged from me and sets his thoughts in his heart, and sets the torment of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet to inquire of him in me, I the Lord will answer him in that by which he is held; and I will make my face firm upon that man, and I will make him a desert and an extermination, and I will take him away from the midst of my people, and you shall know that I am the Lord. And the prophet, if he errs and speaks a word, I the Lord have made that prophet err, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and I will exterminate him from the midst of my people Israel. And they shall receive their iniquity: according to the iniquity of the one inquiring, the iniquity of the prophet also shall likewise be, that the house of Israel may by no means stray from me, and that they may not be polluted any more in all their offenses, and they shall be to me for a people, and I will be to them for God, says Adonai the Lord.") After he had spoken to the prophets who prophesied out of their own heart and daubed the wall without tempering, and to the prophetesses who sewed cushions and put them under every elbow of the hand, and made veils, and covered the heads of every age — by which the teaching of perverse doctrines is shown —, there came to the prophet not all the old men, lest all should seem to err, but certain of the elders of Israel, and they sat before the prophet, meanwhile deferring in silence the reason for which they had come; and at once the word of God came to the prophet, indicating why they were present — for it is not in the nature of man, however holy, to know the secrets of the heart; hence it is said of the Savior alone: But Jesus, seeing their thoughts and why do you think evil things in your hearts —. And the sense is: 'Son of man, these men who sit before you have set their uncleannesses in their hearts — or thoughts, and, according to Symmachus and Theodotion, idols —, and they have set the stumbling block — that is, the ruin and torment — of their iniquity against their face, and so they have come to inquire after the word of the Lord. Ought I to answer men of this sort, who come to me with their former thoughts, not abandoning the crimes of their impiety even at this time, but believing in idols and deceitful divinations, and having the ruin and torment of iniquity against their face, while they despair of better things and are ready for punishment, and so desire to learn my words through you? Since, therefore, they have come to you with a perverse heart, you answer not in your own person — lest the authority of the one answering be slight —, but by my command, and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God'. Now the meaning of the whole passage, to comprehend a broad explanation in a brief discourse, is this: 'A man, a man not of the other nations — whose error can have pardon —, but of the house of Israel, who comes to the prophet to inquire with his former vices — of which we have spoken above —, I will answer him according to his heart and his uncleannesses, so that he may hear according to what he wishes and believes: for he who asks not in a spirit of learning but of testing does not deserve correction. For they have withdrawn from me and have followed idols; and this is a brief threat, so that they may withdraw from idols and perverse thoughts and turn to me, abandoning their former crimes'; for he who asks deceitfully does not deserve to hear the truth, but is to be caught by his own heart, just as the scribes and Pharisees, questioning the Lord, or rather testing him, hear: Why do you test me?, and again: Neither will I tell you by what power I do these things; but whoever is such a man and asks in this way, God sets his face upon him, or makes it firm, so that by the severity of his countenance the hardness of the brow may be softened and he may be for an example and a proverb, or for a solitude and a destruction, so that, when he has been destroyed out of the people of God, the rest may know that he himself is the Lord, who knows the secrets of the heart and understands the perversity of the mind, and considers not the words of those who speak but their hearts. And what follows also seems to raise a question: The prophet, when he errs and speaks a word, I the Lord have deceived that prophet; let us not think that this is said of a true prophet, but of a false prophet, who is called a prophet συνωνυμῶς [by a shared name]. And it can be resolved from that passage of the Scriptures where Ahab king of Israel, going to battle, will not listen to Micaiah the prophet, but acquiesces in the counsels of the false prophets, and Micaiah says that he saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and that a spirit of error offered itself of its own accord to deceive the king; the devil too, in the book of Job, going around the earth, is said to stand in the sight of God and to receive power from the Lord, first over Job's substance, then over his body; and Balaam the soothsayer also is sent by the Lord to deceive Balak the son of Beor. All this, however, is said so that it may not be reckoned to the strength of the false prophets that the people is deceived and would rather hear a lie than lend its ear to the truth, but that it is of the wrath of God that a perverse and unbelieving people listens to false prophets rather than to prophets. Then he stretches out his hand upon him — the prophet is understood — and he is blotted out from the midst of his people, so that he may bear his iniquity, because for like error the punishment too is alike, so that both he who asks and he who is asked may bear their iniquity, and the house of Israel, that of those who wish to hear the words of God, may by no means be mocked by perverse prophesyings, but may be the people of God, and may itself deserve to have the Lord as God. With what he said: I the Lord have deceived him, the words of Solomon agree, who, discoursing of God, says: And he will mock the mockers, and that testimony: If they walk perversely toward me, I too will walk against them in perverse fury. And what is said a second time: A man, a man of the sons of Israel and of the strangers who are joined to them, shows, according to the Apostle, a twofold man in us: the outer and the inner — for many, having the bodily face of a man, take on the images of various beasts, whose destruction the prophet desires when he prays: Lord, in your city you will destroy their image; those of whom it is written: Man, when he was in honor, did not understand; he was compared to senseless beasts of burden, and became like them, are not men who are men, but men who are beasts of burden; again, those who hear in the Gospel: Serpents, brood of vipers, who showed you to flee from the wrath to come?, are not men who are men, but men who are serpents as well; and those of whom it is written: Foxes have holes, and the birds of heaven nests, and of Herod: Tell this fox, are not men who are men, but men who are foxes —; but those who possess both words 'man', if they err, are corrected by punishments for this reason, that they may understand that he himself is the Lord. Moreover, what we have set down according to the Seventy: A man who is estranged from me and sets his thoughts in his heart, and the torment (or punishment) of his iniquity before his face, agrees with that testimony which is written in Isaiah: Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame which you have kindled; for each one kindles for himself the blazing of flames and prepares punishments for himself, while he is unwilling to correct his errors by repentance, but remains in errors that deserve the burning of flames.
14:12-23
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, when a land sins against me so as to transgress, transgressing, I will stretch out my hand upon it, and I will break the staff of its bread, and I will send famine into it and kill from it man and beasts; and if these three men are in its midst, Noah and Daniel and Job, they by their righteousness shall deliver their own souls, says the Lord of hosts. But if I also bring most evil beasts upon the land to lay it waste, and it becomes impassable because there is no one passing through on account of the beasts, if these three men are in it, as I live, says the Lord, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they alone shall be delivered, and the land shall be made desolate. Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and say to the sword: Pass through the land, and I kill from it man and beast, and these three men are in its midst, as I live, says the Lord God, they shall not deliver sons or daughters, but they alone shall be delivered. But if I also send pestilence upon that land, and pour out my indignation upon it in blood, to take away from it man and beast, and Noah and Daniel and Job are in its midst, as I live, says the Lord God, they shall not deliver son and daughter, but they by their righteousness shall deliver their own souls. For thus says the Lord God: But if I also send my four most evil judgments, sword and famine and evil beasts and pestilence, against Jerusalem, to kill from it man and cattle, yet there shall be left in it a deliverance of those who bring out sons and daughters: behold, they shall come out to you, and you shall see their way and their inventions, and you shall be consoled over the evil which I brought upon Jerusalem, in all that I have brought in upon it. And they shall console you, when you see their way and their inventions, and you shall know that not in vain have I done all that I did in it, says the Lord God. Four plagues are brought upon the 'transgressing' land — or, as the Seventy translated, the 'sinning' land —: famine, beasts, sword, pestilence; and if these are brought one at a time, piece by piece, upon individual regions, and these three men, Noah and Daniel and Job, whose righteousness is proclaimed by the voices of the Scriptures, pray for the sinning land, not only will they be unable to preserve it, but not even their own sons and daughters, if these have committed the works of the sinning land; they will be able to deliver themselves alone. — It is asked, since Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, Moses too and the other patriarchs and prophets, were righteous, why mention is made of these alone; which is easily resolved: for Noah could not put off the flood impending over the world, because all the earth had polluted the ways of the Lord, but he had his sons preserved, who perhaps were of the same virtue, and also for the sake of a seedbed of the human race; Daniel too softened by no weeping the captivity impending over the people of the Jews; and Job as well, not on account of sins but for the sake of testing, delivered neither his house nor his sons. Others, however, say that because these three men alone beheld both prosperity and adversity and prosperity again, they are for that reason named together, and that this is secretly signified: that, just as they saw both good things and evil and again joyful things, so also the people of Israel, which had first enjoyed good things and afterward bore the yoke of captivity, if it does penance, returns to its former happiness. — But if Noah and Daniel and Job, gathered together and placed in one place, cannot withdraw the sinning land, that is, those who dwell in the land, from the wrath of God, what is to be said of those who think that sinful sons can be delivered from the fires of Gehenna by the merit and virtues of their parents? Hence neither will a martyr father be able to deliver a transgressing son, nor will a mother of holy life give the rewards of chastity to an unchaste daughter; and on the contrary the vices of parents will not harm their children, but: The soul that sins, it shall die. Lot, dwelling in Sodom but a stranger both in spirit and in flesh, did not deliver his wife, who had looked back behind her, but only his daughters, who perhaps had not sinned; and Josiah, a holy man, not only did not save a sinful people by his virtues, but he himself also died in its sins. But if at times the Lord promises his mercy to their posterity on account of Abraham and David, it must be noted that he does not spare those who persevere in crimes, but those who do penance, so that the conduct of the sons assists the merits of the fathers. 'Since,' he says, 'these things are so, and the prayer of such great men does not save a sinning land from single plagues, thus says the Lord: Because Jerusalem has sinned abominably, I will bring four plagues upon it at once: the sword by which it is slaughtered by its enemies, and famine which it endures under siege, and beasts by which those who flee are devoured in deserts and forests, and pestilence, which always follows famine and want — for which the common edition translated 'death' —. And these things,' he says, 'I will bring upon it, so that neither men remain in it nor beasts; and yet, in my clemency, while the four plagues impend at once and lay everything waste, I will leave in it some who bring out their sons and daughters, and let them come here as captives — that is, to Babylon and to Chaldea —; and when you see them and have looked closely at their works, then you will understand that they were justly taken captive and that my sentence was just, and your captivity will have consolation, while you understand that I delivered them from sword and famine and beasts and pestilence for this reason: that from their perversity you may learn that Jerusalem was deservedly overthrown and the temple burned and the people led captive, except those whom sword, famine, beasts and pestilence consumed'. These things were said of that Jerusalem upon which, while Ezekiel was prophesying among the Chaldeans, captivity was drawing near. But upon our land too, to which it is said: You are earth, and into earth you shall go, and upon our Jerusalem, each and every one of the believers, if they despise the commandments of God and deserve to be called transgressors, famine will be brought: Not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of God; the sword too will be brought, of which we read: They shall be delivered into the hands of the sword, they shall be the portions of foxes, and to Mary: A sword shall pierce through your own soul also; beasts too will be brought, to which the righteous man asks not to be handed over: Do not hand over to beasts the soul that confesses to you; and pestilence will be brought — for which the Seventy translated 'death' —, of which it is written: The death of sinners is very evil, and: The soul that sins, it shall die, and: So bitter is death. From all of which neither the teaching of spiritual parents — whom we understand to be teachers — nor princes will be able to deliver us, unless the sons give their assent and assist the parents' entreaties by their own efforts; for the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the iniquity of the wicked shall abide in him: Each shall die for his own sin, and shall be saved by his own righteousness; and in vain do the Jews say: Abraham is our father, since they do not have the works of Abraham; but if there is confidence in anyone, let us trust in the Lord alone: Cursed, for, is every man who puts his hope in man, however holy they may be, however much they may be prophets; we read: Do not trust in men, and again: It is good to trust in the Lord rather than to trust in princes, not in the princes of the world only but in the princes of the churches, who will deliver only their own souls, if they are righteous, but the sons and daughters whom they have begotten in the Church they will not be able to save, if these are negligent; and yet the Apostle says: If anyone's work is burned up, he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. And the hand is stretched out over the transgressing land so that the staff, or strength, of bread may be broken; and that hand, stretched out, threatens plagues, since he who stretches it out and lifts it up does not wish to strike sinners, but by its stretching out to terrify them and to preserve them once terrified.
15:1-8
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, what will become of the wood of the vine, out of all the woods of the groves that are among the trees of the forests? Is wood taken from it to make a work, or will a peg be fashioned from it, so that any vessel may hang from it? Behold, it has been given to the fire for food; the fire has consumed both its parts, and its middle has been reduced to ashes; will it be useful for a work? Even when it was whole it was not fit for a work; how much more, when the fire has devoured it and burnt it up, will no work be made of it! Therefore thus says the Lord God: As the wood of the vine among the trees of the forests, which I have given to the fire to devour, so will I give up the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will set my face against them: they will go out from the fire, and the fire will consume them, and you will know that I am the Lord, when I have set my face against them and have made the land pathless and desolate, because they have proved transgressors, says the Lord God. (Where we translated: The fire has consumed both its parts, and its middle has been reduced to ashes, the Seventy translated: The fire consumes its yearly cleansing, and lets it go to the end. Again, where we said: When I have set my face against them, they rendered: When I have set firm. 'Transgression', too, they translated as 'offense'.) By various similitudes, then, which the Greeks call parables, the overthrow of the city of Jerusalem is foretold; and just as above, in the frying pan in which the flesh of the people was fried, and in the brick on which the siegeworks and mounds and the engines of rams and of mantlets were drawn, the siege and famine of that same city were described, and as we shall read later in this same prophet — in Jeremiah too it is written that the 'pot' which is kindled from the face of the north signifies the city of Jerusalem; and the forest of Nageb and Theman and Darom [three Hebrew words for the south], cut down, foretells this very thing —, so in the present passage the same Jerusalem is compared to a vineyard and a fruitful vine — of which it is written in another place: I planted you a fruitful vine, wholly true; how have you been turned into bitterness, O alien vine?, and in Isaiah: I planted, he says, a vine 'sorec', which means 'chosen' and 'beautiful'; and in the Psalms we read: You brought a vine out of Egypt, you cast out the nations and planted it; you were the guide of its way before it; and we learn it more plainly when Scripture says: But the vineyard of the Lord Sabaoth is the house of Israel —. As long as this vine bears fruit, among all the trees of the woodlands nothing is more precious than it; but if it ceases to have grapes, it is useful for nothing except to be given to the fire with its root and its layered shoots. The other trees of the forests — to say nothing of the fruit-bearing trees, of which Scripture here makes no mention —, though they have no fruit, once cut down provide a great deal of usefulness and serve both all of agriculture and the making of arms, while they are thinned into shields and shaved into spear-shafts; they close doorways, they hold things as cupboards, as chests and coffers, and they furnish all the equipment of a house. But the vine, once it has ceased to bear grapes, is so useless that not even a peg can be made from it on which something might hang; and when you have cut off its shoots, the fire first seizes both their parts, then the flame consumes them; and it is of no use whatever once it has been reduced to ashes, seeing that even when it is whole it offers no usefulness without its fruit. Now the ambiguity of the Hebrew word 'sene', which is written with three letters, 'sin' and 'nun' and 'iod', is this: if it is read 'sene' it means 'two', if 'sane', 'years'; hence it came about that for its two extremities, which we translated 'both its parts', the Seventy translated 'its yearly cleansing', whereas Aquila said 'its two last parts', Symmachus and Theodotion 'its two extremities'; and the sequence is this: 'As a fruitless vine is given to the fire to no use, so Jerusalem too, or rather its inhabitants, will be given up to the flames, so that they go out from the fire and the fire consumes them, that is: even if they escape from the city, outside they will be consumed by the enemy's sword, and those who remain, crushed by the very weight of their miseries, will recognize that I am the Lord, when I have set, or set firm, my face against them and have given them up to everlasting desolation: for they proved not sinners like the other nations, but transgressors' — for it is one thing to neglect what you do not know, and another to despise what you have worshiped —. According to the spiritual understanding, we can understand the vineyard and Jerusalem as the multitude of believers, which, if it has been negligent and has lost the cultivation of its former religion, and has not borne the fruits of the virtues nor made wine that gladdens the heart of man, will be given up to everlasting flames and reckoned as nothing: for the servant who knows the will of his master, and does not do it, will be beaten with many blows. The Lord too says something of the kind in the Gospel according to John: I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch that abides in me and does not bear fruit, the Father will take it away; and every one that bears fruit he will cleanse, that it may bear more fruit; but if the Savior is the vine and we the branches and God the Father the husbandman, as long as we keep God's commandments we are continually cultivated, and our cultivation is a cleansing: for it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy; and if, bearing fruit, we are cleansed by the Father so that we may bear more abundant fruit, it is shown that all our effort, by God's help, reaches its end and yields the fruit of fullness; but the branch that has not borne fruit will be taken away by the Father, and once it has been taken away, what the Father does with it Scripture does not say, unless perhaps separation from the body of Christ is everlasting punishment and destruction. What we have understood of the vineyard and the vine, the Savior teaches under another figure in the Gospel: Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its savor, it is useful for nothing except to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men; and the eye, which gives light to the whole body, if it has been blinded, hears from the Lord: If the light that is in you is darkness, how great will the darkness itself be? For in comparison with the transgressor, and with him who has denied the God he first confessed, lighter is the punishment of those who never had knowledge of God. The trees of the woodlands or forests, however, according to the variety of believers, have some usefulness in a great house, in which there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and earthenware, some for honor, and some for dishonor.
16:1-3a
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations, and you shall say: Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem. (LXX: "And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, bear witness to Jerusalem of her iniquities, and you shall say to her: Thus says Adonai the Lord.") Where the compass of the individual prophecies was brief, we set down whole passages, adding at once beneath them what seemed right to us; here, however, because a long discourse is directed to Jerusalem by one who bears witness to her and teaches her the sins she has committed, and the prophecy extends to nearly two hundred lines, namely up to that place in which it is written: When I have been appeased toward you in all that you have done, says the Lord God, we must set out the whole prophecy in parts, and fit the due explanations to the parts we have set out. Under the person of a harlot woman, who was first joined in union with a husband, there is woven together the birth and upbringing and youth and marriage and adultery and divorce and recall again of Jerusalem, so that both the clemency and the judgment of the husband and the crimes of the adulteress and harlot may be recognized, when after all the punishments he raises up for her an everlasting covenant, that she may remember her iniquity and be confounded, and it may no longer be hers to open her mouth because of her confusion, when he has been appeased toward her in all that she had done; and it greatly profits sinners to know what they have done: whence the penitent too says: For I know my iniquity, and my sin is ever against me. Now Jerusalem can be understood in four ways: either this one which was set on fire by the Babylonian and the Roman flame, or the heavenly one of the firstborn, or the Church, which means 'vision of peace', or the souls of individuals who by faith behold God. And what many think should be interpreted of the heavenly Jerusalem the Church does not accept, lest we be compelled to take all that is woven together in the present prophecy as referring to the fall and torments of the heavenly powers, and to their restoration to their former state.
16:3b
Your root and your generation from the land of Canaan, your father an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. Great is the faith, great the boldness of the prophets, that one man should charge a whole city with ignoble birth; admirable is Daniel who, to an elder who was sinning and joining murder to adultery, dared as a boy to say: Seed of Canaan and not of Judah, beauty has deceived you; great too is Isaiah, who cries out to the princes and to the people of the Jews: Hear the word of the Lord, princes of Sodom; give ear to the words of the Lord, people of Gomorrah; but no less is Ezekiel, who speaks confidently to the whole city: Your root and your generation from the land of Canaan, your father an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. Although Stephen too, the first martyr of the Gospel, spoke thus to the raging people: Stiff of neck, and uncircumcised in heart, you have always resisted the Holy Spirit, and although we can take the root of Jerusalem and her generation, the land of Canaan, in the sense that the people was called in Egypt and dwelt there a long time — for Ham, the father of Canaan, was the founder of the Egyptian nation —, yet, according to the likeness of their crimes, let us say that the root of Jerusalem is the land of Egypt; whence also her father is called 'amorrhaeus' [Amorite], which means διαδούμενος, that is, 'celebrated by much talk', and her mother 'chethaea' [Hittite], that is, ἐξιστῶσα, 'she who' either 'is herself mad' or 'drives others into madness': Everyone, indeed, who commits sin is born of the devil, whence also in the whole world the name of this ancient father is notorious, and it turns many into madness. And Jerusalem is commanded, whether according to the letter or according to the spirit, to leave her ancient father, and it is said to her: Hear, daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father's house; and the king will desire your beauty, and it is promised her, if after sin she is willing to return to her true father: I will restore you as you were when you were born. Such is the nobility of the city of Jerusalem, which, descending from the stock of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, had God as her father, and yet, because she sinned and left her true parent, deserves to hear: Your root and your generation from the land of Canaan, your father an Amorite and your mother a Hittite! If she heard this, what will become of us, who, called out of the filth of the nations, lost every stain in the washing of the Savior, if we defile the garment of Christ and do not have the wedding garment at the banquet? Surely this: that, with hands and feet bound, we be handed over to everlasting fires, in which there is weeping of eyes and gnashing of teeth.
16:4-5
And when you were born, on the day of your birth, your navel was not cut, and you were not washed in water for salvation, nor salted with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye spared you, to do for you one of these things, having pity on you, but you were cast out upon the face of the earth in the abjection of your soul on the day on which you were born. (LXX: "And your generation: on the day on which you were born, they did not bind your breasts, and you were not washed in water for salvation, nor salted with salt, and you were not wrapped in swaddling cloths. Nor did your eye spare you, that I should do for you one of all these things, and that it should suffer anything over you, and you were cast out upon the face of the field for the depravity of your soul on the day on which you were born.") Let us discuss each point in the order of the reading. When Jerusalem was born of an Amorite father and a Hittite mother and poured forth from the womb, her navel was not cut, the navel by which fetuses are nourished in the belly, like trees and shrubs which are nourished through their roots by the hidden moisture of the earth — and just as the seed-bed of men is signified in the loins, so the genitals of women, by a decent expression, according to the custom of the Scriptures, are called the navel, on the testimony of Job who, under the figure of the dragon, speaks of the devil: His strength is in his loins, and his might in the navel of his belly; for this dragon, the ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan and deceived the whole world, has his strength against men in the loins, against women in the navel —, and this signifies of Jerusalem that she did not at once receive the Law, nor were the beginnings of her shameful birth cut away from her, but she first lived a Gentile life; for which the Seventy translated: On the day on which you were born, they did not bind your breasts, since Holy Scripture has this custom, that for the heart it names the little breast, or the breast, and the breasts, as it sees fit for each place — the priests, in whom there ought to be doctrine, and from whose mouth they seek the Law, receive the little breast; John reclines upon the breast of the Lord, to draw the streams of wisdom from the richest fountain; the virgin's two breasts in the Song of Songs are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, which feed among the lilies, until the day breathes and the shadows are removed; a careful mother, as soon as her baby girl is born, binds her breasts, so that they may refrain from tender swelling and keep their virginal beauty, but when she has come to the age of puberty, it is said of her: Will a bride forget her adornment, or a virgin her breast-band? —. There follows: And you were not washed in water for salvation; the bloody bodies of infants are usually washed as soon as they are sent forth from the womb; so too the spiritual birth needs the saving washing: For no one is clean from filth, not even if his life has been of one day, and in the Psalms we read: In iniquities I was conceived, and in sins my mother conceived me; the second birth undoes the first birth, for it is written: Unless one is reborn of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God; and there are many washings which the pagans, in their mysteries, and the heretics promise, who all wash but do not wash for salvation; therefore it is added: And you were not washed in water for salvation, which indeed can be understood not only of heretics but also of churchmen who do not receive saving baptism with full faith, of whom it must be said that they received the water but did not receive the Spirit — just as that Simon the magician, who wished to buy the grace of God with money, was indeed baptized in water but was by no means baptized for salvation —. Thirdly it is said: Nor salted with salt; the tender bodies of infants, while they still keep the warmth of the womb and with their first wail bear witness to the beginnings of a toilsome life, are usually touched with salt by the midwives, so that they may be drier and be firmed; but Jerusalem, born of evil parents, obtained no savor, no care; to those, however, who are reborn in Christ it is said: You are the salt of the earth, and they are commanded by the Apostle: Let your speech always be seasoned with salt in grace — whence also in common speech the wise are called 'salty' and the foolish 'unsalted', and in Leviticus it is enacted by law: Every sacrifice of yours shall be salted with salt, the salt of the covenant of the Lord shall not cease from your sacrifices: in all your gifts you shall offer salt; he who has been seasoned with this salt and by its admixture has dried up all stench and harmful moisture will no longer say: My scars have putrefied and become corrupt before the face of my foolishness. I know that I have read in a certain volume about the Lord Savior that he himself is the heavenly salt, and has seasoned with his savor not only earthly and infernal things but heavenly ones too, and that what is written is fulfilled: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will —. Fourth is: Nor wrapped in swaddling cloths; the Savior too was wrapped in the swaddling cloths of infancy, and everyone who is born needs the protection of God through the wrappings of swaddling cloths. It is natural, where at least the care of the parents is not lacking, for newborn infants first to have the navel cut, then to be washed with water to wash off the blood, thirdly for the moisture of the little bodies to be dried by the application of salt, fourthly for the tender bodies of infants to be wrapped in swaddling cloths, for a twofold reason: both so that the body may be dried by the salt, the body being kept and held tight by the cloths so that it does not run off, and so that the most tender limbs may not easily become misshapen — whence also the bodies of the barbarians are straighter than Roman bodies: for up to the second and third year they are always wrapped in swaddling cloths —; but not so Jerusalem, whose navel was not cut off, nor were her breasts bound, nor was she washed with water for salvation, nor salted with salt, nor wrapped and bound in the swaddling cloths of infancy. But why she deserved none of these things, the following Scripture testifies: No eye spared you, to do for you one of these things, having pity on you, for which the Seventy put: Your eye did not spare you, that I should do for you one of all these things, and the twofold edition must have a twofold understanding; the former signifies this: No eye spared you, to do for you one of these things, having pity on you, and the sense is: 'No one had pity on you, since God was offended; no one's heart was moved over you, so as to do for you at least one of the four things above, since you did not deserve to receive them all together'; in the other it is said: Your eye did not spare you, that I should do for you one of all these things, and it has this sense: 'You acted so, and were so born in sins, and in sins your mother conceived you, that not even you yourself had pity on yourself. And since you behaved so as to be cruel against yourself through evil works, what could I do for you, who did not deserve to receive even one of the things above? Since, then, none of these things which are usually done for infants was done in you, and this not without cause nor without judgment but through your own fault and sin, since not even you yourself had pity on yourself, therefore: You were cast out on the face of the earth (or of the field), and cast out because of the depravity of your soul on the day on which you were born' — let us pray that we be not cast out through depravity of soul onto the face of the field, in which wide and spacious is the way that leads to death, in which the cavalry of the Chaldeans runs riot —. And at the same time it must be considered that no one, on the day on which he is born, can commit anything depraved, except at the time of the washing, when a wise generation is taken up by the faith of the believer.
16:6-7
But passing by you I saw you trampled in your blood, and I said to you, when you were in your blood: Live. I said, I say, to you: In your blood live. I made you multiplied like the sprout of the field, and you went in and came to womanly finery, your breasts swelled and your hair sprouted; and you were naked and full of confusion. (LXX: "And I passed by you and saw you mixed in your blood, and I said to you: From your blood, life; be multiplied. Like the growth of the field I made you, and you were multiplied and were magnified; and you entered into the cities of cities, your breasts were raised and your hair sprang up; but you were naked, full of disgrace.") 'After you were cast out on the face of the field, or upon the face of the earth, because of the depravity of your soul, you no longer deserved my help. Nevertheless: Passing by you I saw you trampled (or mixed) in your blood, that is, guilty of deadly crimes, and I summoned you, granting repentance, and I said to you: Although you are in blood, yet live, converted. And so great was the abundance of all things in you, that you had the likeness of a most fertile field — and the blessing of Jacob with which his father blessed him, saying: Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a full field which the Lord has blessed —, and that you entered the inner chambers of the Lord — and said with the bride: The king has brought me into his chamber —, and came to womanly finery'; for which the Seventy translated: And you entered into the cities of cities, so that, just as one speaks of the Song of 'Songs' and of an age of 'ages', so cities are called cities of 'cities', of which it is said in the Gospel: 'Have authority over ten (or over five) cities, so that you are called not only a city but a metropolis city', according to what is written in Isaiah: Faithful Zion, mother of cities; moreover, what Symmachus translated: And you came to the adornment of women, or Theodotion: And you entered to the adornment of adornments, for which we, following the Hebrew sense, said: And you came to womanly finery, shows the time of puberty, when girls are called 'marriageable' and can be joined in the embraces of husbands. Then there follows: Your breasts swelled and your hair sprouted: the maturity of young girls is decently indicated, when the breasts swell, or are raised, and the hair sprouts. And although she was ready for marriage and had beauty of body, she did not have the covering of garments nor was she protected by the help of God; if anyone does not have the garment of Christ, he is naked; if anyone is not clothed with the bowels of mercy, of goodness, of humility, of modesty, of meekness, of patience, he lies upon the face of the earth, and his beauty is disfigured by confusion and nakedness.
16:8a
And I passed by you and saw you; and behold, your time, the time of lovers. And I spread my cloak over you, and covered your disgrace. (LXX: "And I passed by you and saw you; and behold, your time, the time of those turning aside. And I spread my wings over you, and covered your disgrace.") What great clemency! It had not been enough to have seen her once trampled in blood and to have called her to repentance, but when she sins again he visits her and, because she was naked and full of confusion, he comes again and visits; and behold, her time, the time 'of lovers' — or according to the Seventy 'of those turning aside', and according to the second translation of Aquila, συναλλαγῆς, namely 'of betrothal' and 'of the time of the nuptials', but according to the first edition of the same and Theodotion μαστῶν, which means 'of breasts', for which Symmachus rendered ἀγαπῆς, which signifies 'love' —; that, then, was the time when women can be joined and sustain marital intercourse. Nevertheless the merciful God spread his wings, took them up, and carried them on his shoulders — according to what is written in the Gospel: How often I wished to gather your children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not —, or he spread a 'cloak' in place of 'wings' — for this is what πτερυγίῳ [wing; also the skirt of a garment] means, with which Ruth too was covered as she slept at the feet of Boaz; and on the border, that is, the πτερυγίῳ, of our garment we are commanded to fasten ὑακίνθινας [hyacinth-blue] fringes —; and he did these things to cover the disgrace of Jerusalem — indicating by this name the genital body of women; for indeed, according to the Apostle, we surround the uncomely parts of our body with greater honor, whence also the psalmist sings: Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; and because Ham did not cover these in his father, he is marked with an everlasting curse —. What we have said of Jerusalem, let us refer to our soul, which, as long as it is set in infancy, is without sin; but when the time of its age has come, there are many lovers — of demons and of heretics and of perverse dogmas — who desire to turn aside to it; they are repelled by the protection of the Lord, so that it may receive not the satellites of the devil but the ministers of the Savior. For 'of those turning aside', 'love' and 'of breasts', the Hebrew has 'dodim', which, according to the peculiar character of their language, signifies all the things translated above. The time 'of love' and 'of breasts', or 'of the lovers of God', can be understood as Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, when the Lord promised them that his people would be freed after the Egyptian servitude.
16:8b
And I swore to you, and entered into a pact with you, says the Lord God. (LXX: "And I swore to you, and entered into a covenant with you, says Adonai the Lord.") 'Because I spread my cloak, or my wings, over you and covered your confusion, therefore I swore to you and entered into a pact, or covenant, with you, so that you might be joined to me rather than to the others who wished to turn aside to you' — according to that: The Lord has sworn and will not repent: You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek; for an oath is the end of every dispute, and: As I live, says the Lord, 'I would rather have the repentance of the sinner than his death' —. At the time of the nuptials, then, Israel received the oath of God in place of every dowry gift — and because David had said of himself: Remember, O Lord, David and all his meekness, who swore to the Lord, vowed a vow to the God of Jacob, the Lord himself also swears to him, as Scripture says: The Lord has sworn truth to David, and will not frustrate him.
16:8c-9
And you became mine. And I washed you with water, and cleansed your blood from you, and anointed you with oil. 'Because I spread my wings and covered your disgrace and swore to you and entered into a pact with you, therefore you have become my possession, so that you, who were another's when you were seen unclean, began to be mine when I confirmed my pact with you by an oath', or, according to the custom of the prophets: 'You became mine', he says, 'stands for: you were joined to me in marriage; and I washed you', he says, 'with the water of saving baptism': Unless, indeed, one is reborn of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God; and elsewhere we read: He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire, of which baptism Isaiah too speaks, saying: 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. And when he has washed, and cleansed her of the blood — the blood from which, by the touch of his fringe, he also healed the αἱμορροοῦσαν [woman with a flow of blood] who for twelve years had been running with gore —, it is not enough to wash with water and cleanse from blood, unless he also anoints with oil, according to which the Samaritan, which means 'guardian', first soothed the wounds of the half-dead man by pouring in oil, then checked them with the sharpness of wine; but our Lord was anointed with another oil, which would not soothe the pain of wounds but grant gladness, as the Holy Spirit says to him: Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of exultation above your fellows. The opposing powers too have the smoothness of a counterfeit oil, promising sweet things through the heretics: things which are turned into bitterness, and which the prophet detests, recalling: But let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head. But if from anointing the anointed one, that is, Christ, is so named, see how far Jerusalem had advanced, that she too, anointed with spiritual oil, received the name of Christ, according to what we read in the Psalms of Abraham: Do not touch my christs, and do no evil among my prophets.
16:10a
And I clothed you in parti-colored garments. (LXX: "And I dressed you in varied garments.") In the ceremonies of the Law, so that, occupied in the study of them, you would forsake idols. These are the varied garments with which Joseph was clothed, and his brothers could not sell him until they had first stripped him of the variety of his tunic; and of the bride it is said in Psalm 44 (45): The queen stood at your right hand in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety; this is the garment of which the Apostle too speaks: Having put on the new man, who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of the Creator. Do we want to know what the varied garments are? Let the same Apostle teach us, writing to believers: Put on therefore the bowels of mercy, of goodness, of humility, of meekness, of patience — what is more beautiful than this variety? —, of which Job too spoke: Who gave women the wisdom of weaving or the skill of variety?, and the high priest, once a year, when he burned incense for the people and entered the Holy of Holies, used varied vestments. Certainly, if riches, and not holiness and diversity of virtues, made the variety of garments, Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar would be written to have had these garments, and not Joseph, who under a sojourning and shepherd father could not have parti-colored and royal garments.
16:10b
And I shod you with violet. (LXX: "And I shod you with hyacinth.") Aquila and Symmachus translated 'violet', the Seventy and Theodotion 'hyacinthine', for which in the Hebrew is written 'thas'. And beautifully, because the discourse is directed to Jerusalem and, under the person of a woman, all her adornment is set out, ὑακίνθινα [hyacinth-colored] or ἰάνθινα [violet] shoes are spoken of, which do not suit the person of men — indeed, those who are to keep the Passover are commanded, without any variety of color, to have their loins girded and their feet shod; these are the shoes of which the Apostle writes: Feet shod in the preparation of the Gospel of peace; Philo, the most eloquent man among the Jews, compares the ὑάκινθον [hyacinth] in the vestments of the high priest to the air, by which he thinks the higher and heavenly things are signified —. Nor is Jerusalem shod with hyacinthine shoes until she has been washed with water — whence also the apostles, whom the Lord had earlier commanded to shake off the dust of their feet, have their feet washed by the Savior; and the bride says in the Song of Songs: I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?; and the divine word testifies to Moses and Joshua that they should loose the latchet of their shoe, because the place in which they stand is holy —; but when the feet have been washed and purged of all filth, they are shod with ὑακίνθινις or ἰάνθινις — both of which are of an ἀέριον [air-like] and κυανέου [dark blue] color — so that they may be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and hasten to the heavenly kingdoms.
16:10c
And I girded you with fine linen. Jerusalem is not only clothed in parti-colored garments and shod with ὑακίνθινις, but is also girded with fine linen, from which the finest threads are woven in the vestment of the high priest; and the wife in Proverbs, who wove two cloaks for her husband, of the present age and of the future, is said to have made garments for herself of fine linen and purple. With this fine linen the reins are girded whenever the rich incitements of lust are to be thinned, and nothing of gross moisture is left in them, and we fulfill the precept of the Apostle, who says: Stand therefore with your loins girded in truth — as though he said in other words 'with fine linen' —. And the Lord says to the apostles: Let your loins be girded, and lamps in your hands: for unless we bind up the flowing humors of the loins, we cannot have lamps in our hands; whence God also says to Job: Gird up your loins like a man. And those who are to eat the lamb, with feet shod, holding a staff, standing in the truth of the Gospel and prepared for the blood of Christ, are said to have their loins girded; with this belt, which mortifies the loins, Elijah too and John the Baptist are girded; of these the penitent too groans tearfully, saying: For my loins are filled with illusions.
10 d. And I clothed you with fine stuffs. (LXX: "And I surrounded you with trichaptum.") For which Aquila put 'flowery' or 'palpable', Symmachus 'garment', Theodotion the Hebrew word itself, 'messe'; and when I was diligently inquiring what the word 'trichaptum', which the Seventy translated, meant, and could find from none of the Greeks either the usage or the ἐτυμολογίαν [etymology] of the word, at last I learned that it was coined by the Seventy — for new names must be fixed to new things —, because the garment was of such fineness that it was believed to have the thinness of hairs and of the hair of the head; whence I too, wishing to express the thinness of the garment, translated 'subtilibus' [fine stuffs] for 'trichapto', because it was woven with fine warp and weft. And fittingly, to those whom he had rebuked, saying: The heart of this people has grown fat, and Jacob ate and drank and was filled and grew fat, and the beloved kicked and forsook God his maker, fineness of garments is now granted; for in the book of Wisdom too, which by some is ascribed to Solomon, the spirit of wisdom is called only-begotten and manifold, fine and mobile; and the manna, of which it is written: Man ate the bread of angels, is said to have been very fine, in the likeness of hoarfrost and of coriander seed. We can, according to the interpretation of the second edition of Aquila, who translated 'flowery', understand the 'garment' through a μεταφορὰν [metaphor] as the fertility of the land of Judea, or as the beauty of divine worship.
16:11a
And I adorned you with adornment. Here he sets down the adornments in general, which in what follows he enumerates one by one: bracelets and torque, earrings and crown, and the rest, which adornments he bestowed on Jerusalem, and in Isaiah it is said that by her own fault she lost them all: for it is written: Because the daughters of Jerusalem were lifted up (that is, were proud) and walked with lofty neck, and the rest: instead of a girdle they were girded with ropes, and instead of the adornment of the head disfigured with baldness, and instead of beautiful and soft clothes surrounded with the roughness of sackcloth.
16:11b
And I put bracelets on your hands. (LXX: "And I surrounded your hands with bracelets.") When God gives us good works, he puts bracelets around our hands. Whence also he says that he was likened in the hands of the prophets, and we frequently read that the word came in the hand of Haggai or Jeremiah and the others; in Job too the lip of the dragon is pierced with a bracelet, and all his venomous hissings, which are understood in perverse dogmas, are pierced by the ring of good works.
16:11c
And a torque around your neck. For 'torque', which we translated following the second edition of Aquila and Symmachus, the Seventy and Theodotion translated κάθεμα [pendant] — which is written not only here but also in Isaiah: The Lord will take away the glory of their garment, and the little lamprey-chains and the clusters and the rings, and the κάθεμα —; and I think that by κάθεμα they meant a necklace of various gems descending onto the breast of women, which itself too is a most beautiful adornment of women.
16:12a
And I gave an earring over the mouth (or your nostrils). The Hebrew word 'nezem', except for Symmachus, who translated ἐπιρρίνιον [nose-ring], all translated 'earring', not that earrings are put in the nostrils — they are called 'inaures' [earrings] from the fact that they hang from the ears [aures] —, but that a ring, made in the likeness of earrings, is called by the same word; and to this day, among the other adornments of women, golden rings are wont to hang from the forehead over the mouth and to overhang the nostrils. These we receive according to mystical understanding when with the Apostle we can say: We are the good odor of Christ in those who are being saved, and in those who perish: to some an odor of death unto death, to others an odor of life unto life; when we live and it can be said of us: The dead shall not praise you, O Lord, but we the living, then God smells the odor of our sacrifice of good fragrance, and we have the golden ring of divine senses and dogmas in our nostrils; but when we are dead and wallow in the mire and in the filth of lusts, we have in our nostrils that earring of which Solomon wrote: As golden earrings in the nostrils of a swine, so is beauty to an ill-mannered woman.
16:12b
And rings for your ears. (LXX: "And little wheels upon your ears.") He who stops his ears so as not to hear the judgment of blood, and hedges them with thorns so as not to become a partaker with the envious and the detractors — of whom it is written: Do not mingle with detractors; for their destruction will come suddenly, and who knows the ruin of both? —, namely both of him who detracts and of him who gladly listens, this man has rings and little wheels in his ears — not the wheels which follow the Cherubim: for that belongs to the evangelical powers, but little wheels, in the diminutive —, which befit human frailty. Therefore it is also said to God: The voice of your thunder in the wheel: for in those who pass over earthly things and touch the earth with scarcely the slightest footprints — of whom it is written: Holy stones are rolled upon the earth —, the voice of the Lord's thunder and of lofty dogmas resounds; but those who are led by human errors and have no solid footing but are carried about by every wind of doctrine and, cast out of the paradise of firmness, dwell in the region of Naid [Nod], which means 'fluctuation', deserve to bear the sentence of a lying tongue, which sets on fire the wheel of our birth.
16:12c
And a crown of beauty on your head. (LXX: "And a crown of boasting upon your head.") We translated 'beauty' following Symmachus, for the elegance of the sense; otherwise both in the Hebrew, 'thopherth', and in the other translators, καύχησις, it is called 'boasting'. The other adornments belong to individual members; the adornment of the head is the dignity of the whole body; and he calls crown the diadem of women, by which the abundance of the hair is bound and adorned. Do we want to know what the crown of beauty on the head of Jerusalem is? Let us unroll Exodus, in which it is written: And he made a plate of gold, and wrote on it letters formed with the seal of the sanctification of the Lord, and put it upon the head of Aaron; 'the sign of the Lord's holiness' is the name of almighty God, which is written with four Hebrew letters and among them is called 'ineffable', since his name cannot be spoken — whose majesty even paganism is not ignorant of, and the altar of the Athenians bears witness, 'To the Unknown God', whence also the Apostle: What you, he says, worship as unknown, this we proclaim to you —. This I think is the crown of which he also speaks thus in the Psalms: The light of your countenance is sealed upon us, O Lord, and the Apostle says: I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; for the rest there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the righteous judge will render to me, and in another place to believers: My joy and my crown: for the glory of fathers is their sons; and in Solomon it is written: Old age is a crown of glory, namely of those who have destroyed the things that belong to little ones and, after the age of the perfect man, have come to old age and to the name of fathers, to whom John writes after the children and the young men, who can say: When I was a little one, I spoke as a little one, I understood as a little one, I thought as a little one; when I became a man, I destroyed the things that belong to a little one.
16:13a
And you were adorned with gold and silver. We have often said that gold pertains to the mind, silver to speech. And may the Lord grant us that we may deserve to receive the divine sense and wisdom, and to bring forth with grace of eloquence what we conceive in the mind, and by no means to make idols of these, as the heretics do, of whom it is written: I gave them silver and gold; but they made Baal of the silver and gold. And this, according to the spiritual understanding, is the more fitting for the adornment of women; otherwise silver, the cheaper material, is the adornment of country women and of poor women and maidservants, which does not befit Jerusalem, who is said to have advanced to be queen.
16:13b
And you were clothed with fine linen and many-threaded stuff and many colors. (LXX: "And your cloaks of fine linen and trichapta and variegated things.") The Hebrew word 'mesi' Theodotion here too set down as it stands, as above, Aquila ἄνθινον [flowered], Symmachus 'polymitum' [many-threaded], and we, what above we called 'subtile' [fine], here, following Symmachus, called 'polymitum'; the Seventy translated 'trichapta', keeping their former interpretation, so as to show garments fine like hairs. Now the whole adornment of women is described: that she is washed, that she is cleansed, that she is anointed with oil, and is clothed in parti-colored garments, is shod with ὑακίνθινις, is girded with fine linen, is clothed with trichapta or fine stuffs, receives bracelets, and the golden torque, rings hanging over the mouth, and little wheels in the ears, a diadem on the head, is decorated with gold and silver — although silver is the cheaper material —, and after all this there is added: You were clothed with fine linen and many-threaded stuff and variegated colors — or, as the Seventy translated, 'with cloak and mantles', for this is what περιβόλαια signifies —, so that she was not only adorned in the care of her body and had all the necklaces of women, but the husband's diligence was also solicitous for her bedding and her couch, so that, when he had completed these things, he might come to the delights of foods, and would not allow anything to be lacking to her even in these. All of which, following the explanation above, we have fitted to the spiritual understanding: that she is covered with fine linen and fine stuffs, so that the delicate limbs of the wife may not be weighed down by the heavy burden of mantles, but may display usefulness and beauty alike.
16:13c
Fine flour and honey and oil you ate, and you became beautiful greatly, exceedingly. After the clothing he takes care of food, that Jerusalem may eat fine flour and honey and oil, either separately, as many reckon, or, by a mixture of the three, a sweeter bread, the bread which came down from heaven; and under three names, as some think, it indicates the mystery of the Trinity, not that there is one substance and another, but that by the diverse names of fine flour and honey and oil the one sweetness of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is shown. And this is to be noted, that in many sacrifices fine flour is offered, the marrow of the wheat and the purest, of which it is written: And he satisfied them with the fat of wheat, not of barley nor of meal, which is offered only when a husband is moved by a spirit of jealousy. In the volume of Judges we read of 'Debboram' [Deborah], which means 'bee', whose prophecy is the sweetest honey, and this is referred to the Holy Spirit, who among the Hebrews is called by a feminine name: in the Gospel of the Hebrews too, which the Nazarenes read, the Savior is introduced speaking: Just now my mother, the Holy Spirit, took hold of me; moreover the fine flour, which is made from wheat, is referred to the Lord, who says of himself: Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit; and the oil, which sustains and refreshes the limbs of the weary, and is the nourishment of light, and with which the light of the lamp is kindled continually in the tabernacle of God, is said to befit the Father; and all these grant one grace to believers, as the Apostle says: There are divisions of graces, but one Spirit; and divisions of ministries, but one Lord; and divisions of operations, but one and the same God. He who has eaten such food, and has been fed and nourished with this sweetest and most delightful bread and the splendor of shining oil, will be turned into beauty and become most beautiful: not once, but repeated: 'exceedingly, exceedingly'; for the doubled adverb gives the speech this weight, that nothing further could be added to the greatness of the beauty.
13 d. And you advanced to a kingdom. — This is not found in the Seventy, who perhaps, translating the Scriptures at Alexandria from the Hebrew truth into the Greek language, feared to publish it, lest they seem to offend the king of Egypt by recording that a kingdom was owed to Jerusalem by God; although the learned prove that only the five books of Moses were translated by them. — After manifold adornment, then, after the crown, after the abundance of gold and silver, after the most beautiful garments and mantles, after incredible beauty, she advances to be queen, because she is the city of the great king, of whom it is written: O God, give your judgment to the king, and your righteousness to the king's son; and in the Revelation of John Jerusalem is described as a bride adorned and arrayed for her husband; in the Psalms also it is said of her: The queen stood at your right hand in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety. But all that we say of Jerusalem, lest we dwell on each detail and the size of the books bring weariness to the readers, let us refer to the Church; for if Jerusalem, according to the Apostle, is our mother, and our mother is the Church, consequently Jerusalem is the Church, the mother of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven.
16:14
And your name went forth among the nations because of your fairness; for you were perfect in my beauty, which I set upon you, says the Lord God. (LXX: "And your name went out among the nations in your fairness; which was made complete in loveliness, which I set upon you, says the Lord God.") Symmachus translated this passage more clearly: And your name went forth among the nations; which was perfect because of my dignity, which I had set upon you, says the Lord God. And the sense is: 'By my benefits and my incredible bounty you came to the title of queen, so that the talk of all the nations spoke of you, and you were perfect, not by your own merits and virtues but by my liberality': Unless, indeed, the Lord builds the house, they have labored in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guards the city, he has watched in vain who guards it; for he who plants and he who waters is nothing, unless the Lord gives the increase, because: It is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy, so that, when we have done all things, we may say: We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we ought to do; not that the free choice of man is taken away by the beneficence of God, but that this very freedom ought to have the Lord as its helper.
16:15
And having confidence in your loveliness you fornicated in your name, and you laid out your fornication to everyone passing by, to become his. Great is the peril of trusting not in the clemency of God but in one's own beauty; and the more exalted anyone has been, the more he ought to fear lest he fall and fornicate in his own name. For the adverse powers despise ordinary foods and desire foreign nourishment; whence it is said of the devil: His foods are choice; he does not want to deceive just anyone: it is King Saul, who was chosen by the Lord, and Judas the apostle that he hastens to trip up. Let us not, therefore, trust in our own loveliness, nor think the liberality of God to be our own virtue, but rather let us hear: Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what the coming day may bring forth, and in another place: Brothers, if a man is overtaken in any sin, you who are spiritual, perfect such a one in a spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest you too be tempted; and let us not lay out, or pour out, our fornication to everyone passing by, so as to become not God's, in whom we believe, but his by whom we are defiled: he who receives all vices, and takes into his bosom the passing spirit of diverse sins, and spreads his feet for everyone passing by, he pours out his fornication, and begins to endure the dominion of him whose host he has become.
16:16
And taking some of your garments you made for yourself high places sewn together here and there; and you fornicated upon them, as has not been done nor will be. (LXX: "And you took some of your garments and made yourself idols sewn together; and you fornicated upon them, and you will not enter nor shall it be.") Symmachus translated this passage thus: And when you had taken some of your clothes, you made yourself many-colored high places; and you fornicated in them, things not done nor to be. For 'sewn together' and 'variegated' and 'high places' or 'idols', Aquila and Theodotion translated ἐμβολίσματα, which signifies 'diverse rags sewn together here and there' and 'an idol made like a plaster', as it were 'a πολύρραφον [much-stitched] garment'. 'I clothed you', he says, 'in variegated garments, and you were dressed in fine linen and many-threaded stuff and the variety of many forms; but you took your garments, with which you were gifted by my bounty, and made for yourself idols, or high places, which in Hebrew are called 'bamoth', a thing which never was done before nor will be done, that what you had received for adornment you should turn to the injury of the giver'. This can be understood of Jerusalem according to the letter thus: that she assigned all the precepts of the Law and her riches and the abundance of all things to idols, which no other nation has done or will do; for all the nations which from the beginning served idols are not guilty of so great a crime. But our Jerusalem, which means 'vision of peace', is torn by the heretics, when, plucking one testimony of the Scriptures or another from their proper places, they try to sew them onto places to which they cannot be fitted; to whom, as we read, it was also said above in this same prophet: Woe to those who sew pillows under every elbow of the hand, and make a covering over the head of every age, and the Lord, forbidding this to be done, says in the Gospel: No one puts a patch of rough cloth on an old garment; otherwise it takes away from its fullness, and a worse tear is made. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins; such are the Nazarenes, who try to fit the observance of the old Law to the grace of the Gospel, and all the heretics who strive to sew a testimony that fits one sense in its own place onto another, whereas the Lord's tunic, woven from the top throughout, cannot be torn, but, woven by the Holy Spirit, admits no tearing. But what is said according to the Seventy: And you will not enter nor will it be, signifies this: 'When you have made for yourself idols of perverse dogmas which you take for high places, and have fornicated upon them, believing in the things which you yourself have fashioned, you will not be able to enter the temple of God, and your images will have no substance nor will they exist forever', as the Apostle says: We know, indeed, that an idol is nothing in the world.
16:17
And you took the vessels of your beauty, from my gold and from my silver which I gave you, and you made yourself male images, and you fornicated with them. According to the letter, the Lord commanded in the Law that there be made censers, bowls, a lampstand, the ark of the Covenant: all either of gold or gilded, and others of silver, all of which Jerusalem melted down and turned into idols of Bel or Baal, Chemosh, Ashtaroth and Milcom. According to the spiritual understanding, we make idols of the gold and silver of the holy Scriptures when we corrupt the grace of sense and eloquence by heretical depravity, and set our mouth in heaven, and our tongue passes through the earth; and male images is the name given to those in which every heresy fornicates, from the fact that each one thinks that what he worships and holds, which he has fashioned, is most robust and cannot be overthrown by any assault; these are the images which we have fashioned from our own heart and which are to be destroyed in the heavenly Jerusalem, of which the prophet foretells: O Lord, in your city you will scatter their image; for whoever is a man and has lost the name of God, it is said of him: Nevertheless man walks in an image; nevertheless he is disquieted in vain; but let us have one husband and venerate one image, which is the image of the invisible and almighty God.
16:18a
And you took your many-colored garments, and covered them. 'The male images' is understood, so that she turned all the finery she had received for use into blasphemy. And we do this whenever we surround heretical depravity with prudence, temperance, fortitude, righteousness and all the virtues and, under their pretext, deceive all the simple, so that, seeing the honey of the virtues, they do not beware of the poisons of the vices.
16:18b-19a
And my oil and my perfume you set before them. And my bread (or, as the Seventy translated, my loaves which I gave you), fine flour, honey and oil with which I nourished you, you set in their sight for an odor of sweetness. The oil of which we spoke above, and the perfume or incense of which the psalmist cries out: Let my prayer be directed as incense in your sight, and the loaves of proposition which we are commanded to offer to God, the fine flour too, the purest sense of the Scriptures, and the honey which Jonathan tasted, and his eyes were opened and he was strengthened, wretched Jerusalem set in the sight of the idols — or before the male images —, that they might be for an odor of sweetness to them, things which by their nature are sweet and most delightful but, when they are offered to idols and false doctrines, are turned into bitterness.
Book Five
So that the number of the books may not be confused, and the order of the volumes, separated from one another by long stretches of time, may not be corrupted, I have set little prefaces before the individual books, so that from the front of the title the reader may at once recognize which book he has to read and what prophecy is to be explained by us. In like manner, then, in the preceding volume, that is, the fourth, I discussed, as well as I could and in brief discourse, the part of the prophecy against Jerusalem whose beginning is this: Your root and your generation from the land of Canaan, up to the place where it is written: The fine flour and oil and honey with which I nourished you, you set in their sight for an odor of sweetness. Now the remaining part of the same prophecy, together with the rest that follows, is dedicated to the fifth volume and to your name, Eustochium; in it you will find nothing from the art of rhetoric, nothing from the arrangement and elegance of words, but the care of a simple and skillful diligence, so that this, and this alone, may be my praise: if through me you understand the sayings of the prophet.
16:19b-22
And it came to pass, says the Lord God. And you took your sons and your daughters whom you bore to me, and you sacrificed them to them to be devoured — is your fornication a small thing, that you sacrificed my sons? —, you gave them up, consecrating them to them. And after all your abominations and fornications, you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and full of shame, trampled in your blood. (LXX: "And it came to pass, says Adonai the Lord. And you took your sons and your daughters whom you bore, and you sacrificed them to them for consumption, as though you had committed little fornication, and you killed your sons and gave them up when you offered them to them. This over and above all your fornication and your abominations; and you did not remember the day of your infancy, when you were naked and disgraced, you lived mingled in your blood.") That Jerusalem sacrificed her sons and daughters to idols — the sons and daughters of whom it is written: Sons I have begotten and exalted, but they have despised me — holy Scripture records: They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons, and again: They poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the carved images of Canaan. Now according to the Hebrew he calls them 'his own' — for he himself had said of them: Israel is my firstborn son — or, according to the Seventy, 'yours', those whom you begot of fornication. And in that place where we have put: And you gave them up, consecrating them to them, for which the Seventy translated: And you gave them up for appeasing (or for expiating), Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion put: You carried them across and led them through, by which the heathens, through fire, either carry their sons across while they are little or compel them, when grown, to pass through. 'Although you have done these things so, you did not remember your infancy, when I took you up, spattered with blood, and washed you, and — after the many things which the prophetic discourse has related — joined you to myself'. Our Jerusalem too, if she has been tripped up by heretical deceit, takes her sons who are stronger in faith and her daughters who do not have such great strength of faith — or certainly the sons who know every mystical thing, the daughters who follow the simple history — and hands them over to demons to be devoured, and while she kills them she believes that she is giving life and appeasing the images, which are glutted with their slaughter. And what is said according to the Seventy: This is over and above all your fornication and your abominations, signifies that the teaching of the heretics is worse than all sins and fornications, for it makes the sons of God sons of demons, nay rather it kills those whom she had either begotten for God with much labor or had made her own sons, those whom she begot in fornication.
16:23-26
And it happened after all your wickedness, woe, woe to you, says the Lord God, and you built yourself a brothel, and you made yourself a place of prostitution in all the streets; at every head of the way you built the sign of your prostitution, and you made your beauty abominable, and you parted your feet to every passer-by, and you multiplied your fornications. And you committed fornication with the sons of Egypt, your neighbors, of great flesh, and you multiplied your fornication to provoke me. (LXX: "And it came to pass after all your wickednesses, ※ woe, woe to you, ⁚ says Adonai the Lord, and you built yourself a dwelling of fornication, and you made yourself prostitution in every street, and at the beginning of every way you built your fornications, and you corrupted your beauty, and you spread your legs to every passer-by, and you multiplied your fornication. And you committed fornication with the sons of Egypt, your neighbors, who are of great flesh, and you committed fornication manifoldly to provoke me to anger.") This, which is said a second time: Woe, woe to you, the common edition does not have, but it was added from the translation of Theodotion; and again, where we said: And you built yourself a brothel, for which the Seventy translated: And you built yourself a dwelling of fornication, Symmachus and Theodotion translated πορνεῖον [brothel], while Aquila, wishing to express the ἐτυμολογίαν [etymology] of the Hebrew word 'gob', put βόθυνον, which we could call 'a pit', to signify a den of vice and a dug-out, dark cave in which the lust of prostitutes has its haunt; and what follows: And you made yourself a place of prostitution in all the streets, for which the Seventy said ἔκθεμα [a thing set out for show], has in the Hebrew 'rama', and Aquila as well as Symmachus and Theodotion translated it 'high place' or 'lofty'; and then in what follows it is also written: At every head of the way you built the sign of your prostitution — for 'sign' and 'fornication' the Hebrew again has 'rama', which we have translated either 'place of prostitution' or 'sign', since among the Hebrews it is a single word —, and this is set up, or is made rather high, so that the place of fornication may be seen from afar by those who wish to fornicate and there may be no need to search for it. What we have said once, and again and again, let it suffice to have said for good: that under the person of a woman who commits fornication after her husband's many benefits, the fornication of Jerusalem is described: how she withdrew from God and was joined to idols and was not content with hidden fornication, but built herself a brothel and in every way set up a sign for passers-by — that they might come to the harlot and sate their lust, not so much their own as hers who spread her legs to every passer-by —, and disfigured the greatness of her beauty by the greatness of her fornication; and among other things she prostrated herself to the Egyptians too, her neighbors, out of love for great flesh, and, to display every kind of foulness, was disfigured by a manifold kind of filth. Now no one doubts that Palestine is a neighbor of Egypt, since the Lord says to Abraham: I will give you all the land, from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates, so that on one side it has the Egyptians, on the other the Assyrians, with whom too she is said further on to have committed fornication; and the fornication of Jerusalem with the Egyptians is the imitation of their idolatry. To our Jerusalem too, whether the Church or the souls of believers, if they have been negligent and have lain open to all vices, a twofold word of cursing is addressed, so that they hear: Woe, woe to you, says the Lord God, according to what is written in the Revelation of John: Woe upon all the inhabitants of the earth. For if a holy man says: I am a stranger and a sojourner, as all my fathers were, why should not the sinner be said to be an inhabitant of the earth? Now he builds himself a brothel who sins with complete brazenness of brow, according to what is written: The sinner, when he has come into the depth of impiety, despises. And he raises a very high place in all the streets: For wide and spacious is the way that leads to death. And he builds at every head of the way, so as to leave no kind of sin untried, but, imitating the harlot of Proverbs, openly in the streets and at the corners of the streets he invites the foolish young men passing by to his embraces, and defiles the beauty of the soul which he received as a gift from God the creator. And all his ways are full of foulness, and to all the thoughts that supply the incitements of vices he opens his heart and spreads his legs, and he commits fornication with the Egyptians his neighbors, whose examples he follows, namely the heathens, who glory in their foulnesses, and he is so wicked as to surpass even them in foulness. And all this he does to provoke God to anger. Now the Egyptians are said to be of great flesh, either because of the greatness of their foulness or because of the deformity of their sins: hence the holy man is said to be of little flesh, which in him decreases daily and is thinned away by the virtues, so that it is no longer called flesh but spirit; and he says in the psalm: My soul has thirsted for you, O God, how manifoldly my flesh for you (or, as some copies have, how my flesh has been consumed), in a desert land, pathless and waterless, so in the holy place I have appeared to you; for this reason the Corinthian fornicator too is handed over: For the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved; of this flesh it is written: All flesh is grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass; the grass has withered and the flower has fallen; but the word of the Lord abides forever, of which the Apostle also spoke: Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God, and in Genesis God says: My spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh, and to believers it is said: Those who are in the flesh cannot appease God. But you are not in the flesh but in the spirit; but the flesh of the saints is another, of which it is written: All flesh shall see the salvation of God.
16:27
Behold, I will stretch out my hand over you, and I will take away your justification, and I will give you up in the souls of those who hate you, of the Palestinian daughters, who blush at your wicked way. (LXX: "But if I stretch out my hand over you, and I will take away your ordinances, and I will give you into the souls of those who hate you, of the daughters of the foreigners, who made you turn aside from your way." And what follows: Ἠσέβησας, that is: You acted impiously, is fitted according to the Seventy to the following section, according to the others it is the end of the preceding one.) Now the Lord stretches out his hand over Jerusalem, to correct her in her sinning and to take away her ordinances, which, as long as she kept the precepts of God, were called the ordinances of the Lord, but when she worshiped idols and exchanged religion for impiety, are called her ordinances — which is to be understood not only of the law and the ceremonies, but also of the sabbaths and the feast days and the new moons: for when he gives the law he says: My sabbaths and: My feast days, but when they withdrew from God, it is said to them: Your new moons and sabbaths and the great day I will not receive; your fasting and rest and your solemnities my soul has hated; which is written of the people as well: for those who were formerly called the people of God, after they withdrew from the Lord, it is said of them to Moses: Your people have sinned, whom you led out of the land of Egypt —. What is here called the stretching out of the hand is elsewhere called lifting up or visitation: for when God does not rebuke the sinner, he draws back his hand, but if he sins and begins to sicken in the law of God, a visitation is sent to him, according to what is sung in the Psalms: If his sons forsake my law and do not walk in my judgments, I will visit their iniquities with the rod, and in this prophet it is written: The land, if it sins against me so as to commit an offense, I will stretch out my hand over it, and I will break the staff of its bread, and the rest; in which we ask what difference there is between the stretching out of the hand and the sending of it: for the devil says to the Lord: Send your hand, and touch all that he has; unless he blesses you to your face, and it seems to me that the hand is sent for the testing of those to whom it is sent, but stretched out for the punishment of those who deserve torments; and not only the stretching out and the sending, but also the spreading out of the hand of God is spoken of, as Isaiah proclaims in the person of the Lord: All day long I have spread out my hands to a people unbelieving and contradicting; the saints too are related to lift up their hands, as Scripture says: The lifting up of my hands an evening sacrifice. Now since the ordinances of God have been taken away from the people of the Jews, let us ask them what observance of the law they have: victims they cannot offer, since the temple has been taken away and overthrown, nor can the stoning of adulteresses and of the other crimes, granted by the law, be carried out, nor the rest of the land in the year of remission, and the other things of this kind; and she is given into the souls of those who hate her, of the Palestinian daughters, when she is handed over to the Palestinians, whom the Seventy indiscriminately call 'foreigners', by which we may understand the cities or towns of Palestine. Our Jerusalem too, if we pass over the ceremonies of God, and his hand has been stretched out over us, and, the observance of the whole law having been taken away, she will be handed over to the daughters of Palestine and not to the sons; for we are not handed over first to the heavier punishments but, according to the quality of our sins, to the lesser ones, so that, chastised in the smaller, we may escape the greater torments of tortures. 'Philistim', that is 'Palaestini' [Palestinians], with the first part of the letters changed, means 'falling by the cup — or by the making —', by which it is signified that we are to be handed over to the adverse powers, which have drunk from the cup of Babylon and have fallen, and whose works are perverse; and so great will be the chastisement and disgrace of wretched Jerusalem that even the adverse powers themselves blush at the greatness of our sins. What we have translated, following Symmachus, 'wicked', Theodotion put as the Hebrew word itself, 'zemma'. And since the ceremonies of God have been taken away from the people of the Jews, the giving of the law passes over to us together with the priesthood, as Scripture says: Appoint, O Lord, a lawgiver over them, and in another place: Set me a law, O Lord, in your way.
16:28-29
And you committed fornication with the sons of the Assyrians, because you had not yet been filled; and after you committed fornication, not even so were you satisfied. And you multiplied your fornication in the land of Canaan with the Chaldeans, and not even so were you satisfied. (LXX: "And you acted impiously, and you committed fornication with the sons of Assyria, and not even so were you satisfied; and you committed fornication, and you were not filled. And you multiplied your covenants toward the land of Canaan of the Chaldeans, and not even in these were you filled.") Above it was written that Jerusalem committed fornication with the sons of Egypt her neighbors, who are of great flesh; here the other neighborhood, that of the Assyrians, is indicated; and therefore they are handed over to both nations: because they venerated the images of both, and, entering Chaldea, which is the land of Canaan, they took on in exchange the errors of those to whose rule they were subject. According to tropology we often pass from some sins to others; and when we have not done penance for our former crimes, we add offense to offenses and are sated by no error, but as with a long rope and the strap of a heifer's yoke we drag along our sins and our covenant, or we multiply fornication in the land of 'Chanaan' [Canaan], which means 'as it were a tossing', with the Chaldeans, who themselves also sound to us 'as it were demons'; and we always have our footprints in the sand and can never say: He has set my feet upon a rock; and we are subjected to the depravities of the heretics, who have the likeness of demons, or to the demons themselves, of whom Paul writes: Our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers of these darknesses, against the spiritual things of wickedness in the heavenly places.
16:30-31
In what shall I cleanse your heart, says the Lord God, when you do all these works of a harlot and wanton woman? For you have built your brothel at the head of every way, and you have made your high place in every street; nor have you become like a harlot who increases her price by disdain. (LXX: "What shall I do to your heart, says Adonai the Lord, when you have done all these works of a fornicating and shameless woman? ÷ and you committed fornication threefold in your daughters ⁚ when you built your brothel at the beginning of every way, and made your base in every street; and you were not like a harlot gathering wages.") And what the Seventy said: And you committed fornication threefold in your daughters, is not found in the Hebrew, nor did any of the other translators put it. Now God says all these things to Jerusalem Ἐπαπορητικῶς [as one at a loss], because he cannot find the remedy by which he might heal her, sick and half dead, according to what Isaiah writes: What is there that I ought to have done further for my vineyard, and have not done for it?, and Hosea: What shall I do to you, Ephraim? What shall I do to you, Judah? Your mercy is like a morning cloud, and like the dew passing away early. 'For your idolatry was committed not in secret but with full license, so that at all the beginnings of the ways and at the crossroads you set up altars, and made your base, or your high place, of which we spoke above, in every street; nor did you imitate the cunning harlots, who are accustomed to increase the price of lust by difficulty and thereby provoke their lovers the more to madness — according to the Seventy: You were not like a harlot gathering wages —, but you gave what you ought to have received, so that not even in this, that you committed fornication and followed demons, were you protected by their help, but, oppressed by various captivities, you felt your calamities'. Which indeed can also be referred to every Christian soul that, having deserted the worship of God, has given itself up to vices and luxury and, having followed the worldly life, has not fared happily even in it, but has both lost the riches of religion and not received the riches of the world, nor was there any difficulty in debauching her, but she thrust herself upon your lovers. There is also another, spiritual fornication, when, deserting the Church, we are joined to heretics and build our brothel at the head of every way, the ways of which the divine word commands: Stand in the ways and seek the everlasting paths of the Lord, and see which is the good way, and walk in it, namely the books of Moses, of Joshua, of Judges and of Kings, and Isaiah and Jeremiah and the other prophets. He builds his brothel at all the beginnings of the ways who, for the perversity of his doctrine, wickedly abuses the testimonies of the Scriptures and says: 'Thus says Isaiah': 'Thus said Hosea': 'Thus spoke Moses' and: 'Thus Daniel'; and fittingly he places his brothel not in the middle of the ways nor at the ends of the ways, but at the beginning: for if he had come to the knowledge and the depths of the divine books, he could not go astray. His high place too, or base, he makes in every street, giving himself up to the wantonness and vices of heathens and impious men, even among the heretics themselves, when she has been defiled by them, having no favor but lying open to contempt, because she easily lost her former chastity of faith. And this which, as we said above, is not found in the Hebrew: You committed fornication threefold in your daughters, is said either to Jerusalem according to the letter: that she committed fornication in every way in her towns and villages, and no corner or street remained where she did not set up the signs of idolatry; or to the Church and to the believers who were deceived: who did not heed that word of the Apostle: May the God of peace himself sanctify you in all things, and may your spirit and soul and body be kept whole without complaint at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but committed fornication in every way, both in body and in spirit and in soul. We read in Proverbs: But you, describe them threefold, that you may answer words of truth which are proposed to you, and we are commanded to understand the utterances of truth, that is, the holy Scriptures, threefold: first, according to the letter; second, in a middle way, through tropology; third, more loftily, so that we may know all mystical things. According to the letter is this: Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day, and: Do not murmur, as some of them murmured, and perished by the destroyer; in the middle way and according to tropology, when we withdraw from the letter and climb a little to higher things, as the Apostle says: It is written: You shall not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treads out the grain, and immediately there follows: Is it for oxen that God cares? Or did he speak surely for our sake?; but the last, that is, the third, sublime and sacred understanding, according to that word of the same Apostle: For this reason a man shall leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife. This mystery is great; but I speak in Christ and in the Church. Now the daughters of the fornicating Church are the souls of those who first believed and afterwards were deceived into heresy, whose guilt is referred back to the mother.
16:32-34
But as an adulterous woman who brings in strangers over her husband. To all harlots wages are given, but you have given wages to all your lovers, and you made gifts to them that they might come in to you from every side to commit fornication with you. And it has happened in you contrary to the custom of women in your fornications, and after you there will be no fornication; for in that you gave wages and did not receive wages, the contrary has happened in you. (LXX: "An adulterous woman ÷ like you ⁚ receiving wages from her husband. To all who committed fornication with her she gave wages, and you gave wages to all your lovers, and you loaded them that they might come to you round about in your fornication. And there happened in you a perverse thing against women in your fornication, and after you they have not committed fornication; in that you gave wages and wages were not given to you, there also happened in you a perverse thing.") This which is written in the Seventy: Like you, is not found in the Hebrew; and it disturbs the order of the reading, and raises no small question: what woman, and like whom she is, since Jerusalem herself is said to be the adulterous woman. Jerusalem, then, took the abundance of all things with which she had been endowed by her husband's liberality, and gave it to strangers, namely to demons and idols, according to what is written in Hosea: And this I did not know, that I gave her wheat and wine and oil, and multiplied silver for her; but she made silver and golden Baalim, whence, angered, he at once adds: Therefore I will turn back, and take away my wheat in its season and my wine in its season; and I will take away my garments and my linens, so that I may no longer cover her disgrace; and now I will uncover her disgrace in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her from my hand. And whereas all fornicating women are accustomed to receive wages from their lovers, Jerusalem did the contrary, giving rather than receiving; and to show the lavishness of her wages: She loaded them, he says, that they might come to her round about, lest there be any neighbor who was not mingled in her disgrace. And indeed Jerusalem surpassed the other harlots in this too, that she not only gave her own things, which she had acquired by labor in the practice of foulness, but also bestowed her marriage gifts on her lovers and debauchers. And so great was the adulteress's exposure to every magnitude of foulness that she is ranked above not only present but also future harlots; hence we too translated according to Symmachus: 'And after you there will be no fornication; for in comparison with you every fornication from now on will be reckoned lighter'. Whatever we have said of Jerusalem, refer also to the Church and to the souls of believers, who give their marriage gifts — namely gold in understanding and silver in speech and the garments by which our foulness and disgrace are veiled — to their lovers, either to the contrary powers or to the teachers of perverse doctrines, when they assert that luxury does no harm, and that indiscriminate lust, according to the genitals of the body, demands intercourse by natural law, that all foods are to be used without distinction, since they were made for this, to be eaten, that prudence is necessary only in so far as it profits oneself, and that righteousness has no place, for if it prevailed one would have to beg, and other things of this kind; receiving which, wretched Jerusalem, in whom there ought to have been a vision of peace, turned the sharpness of her intellect and the charm of her eloquence to foulness; and for her lovers she went forth against her husband adorned with those ornaments with which she had been adorned by her husband, to the abuse of the good. And what follows: And you made gifts to them that they might come in to you from every side to commit fornication with you, signifies every kind of sin, so that she is not content with one offense, but endures a hunger for sinning and, against the laws of nature, defiled in all her members, is polluted even to the crown of her head.
16:35-43
Therefore, harlot, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God: Because your bronze has been poured out, and your disgrace has been uncovered in your fornication over your lovers, and over the idols of your abominations in the blood of your sons whom you gave to them, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you mingled, and all whom you loved, together with all whom you hated; and I will gather them against you from every side, and I will lay bare your disgrace before them, and they will see all your foulness. And I will judge you with the judgments of adulteresses and of those who shed blood, and I will give you into the blood of fury and jealousy. And I will give you into their hands, and they will destroy your brothel, and they will demolish your place of prostitution, and they will strip you of your garments, and they will take away the vessels of your beauty; and they will leave you naked, and full of disgrace. And they will bring a multitude upon you, and they will stone you with stones, and they will cut you down with their swords. And they will burn your houses with fire, and they will execute judgments upon you in the eyes of very many women; and you will cease to commit fornication, and you will no longer give wages. And my indignation will rest in you, and my jealousy will be taken away from you; and I will be quiet, and will be angry no more. Because you did not remember the days of your youth, and provoked me in all these things, therefore I too have given your ways upon your head, says the Lord God, and I have not done according to your crimes in all your abominations. (LXX: "Therefore, harlot, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God: Because you poured out your bronze, and your disgrace will be uncovered in your fornication to all your lovers, and into all the thoughts of your iniquities and in the blood of your sons whom you gave to them, therefore behold, I will gather against you all your lovers with whom you mingled, and all whom you loved together with all whom you hated; and I will gather them against you round about, and I will uncover your wickednesses to them, and all will see your disgrace. And I will take vengeance on you with the vengeance of adulteresses and of those who shed blood, and I will set you in the blood of fury and jealousy. And I will deliver you into their hands, and they will dig under your brothel, and they will destroy your base, and they will strip you of your garments, and they will take away the vessels of your glorying; and they will leave you naked, and full of disgrace. And they will bring a multitude upon you, and they will stone you with stones and cut you down with their swords. And they will set fire to your houses, and they will execute vengeances upon you before very many women; and I will turn you away from fornication, and you will no longer give wages. And I will send my fury upon you, and my jealousy will be taken away from you; and I will rest, and I will no longer be anxious. Because you did not remember the day of your infancy, and you grieved me in all these things, I too, behold, will give your ways upon your head, says Adonai the Lord, and thus you have done iniquity above all your iniquities.") Let us first lay the foundations of the history. 'Because you have done these things and those which the preceding discourse has set out, therefore hear, harlot, what you have done and what you are going to suffer: You poured out your bronze, which you had received from me, and gave to your lovers the wages which you ought to have received, and you killed your sons, so that, in offering them to idols, you have proved to be not only an adulteress but also a parricide. Therefore I will gather against you all your lovers with whom you committed fornication, both those whom you loved and those whom you hated, and I will strip you by the law of adulteresses, so that all may see your foulness and the genitals for whose sake they were formerly carried away by the madness of love'. Now all these things, through the μεταφορὰν [metaphor] of an adulterous and murderous woman who not only committed fornication against her husband but also killed her sons, are said to Jerusalem: both that all the nations are to be gathered against her, whose idols she worshiped and into whose worship she turned all the gifts of God, and that the temple of Baal is to be destroyed, and the altars of the whole city overthrown by fire, and nothing is to remain in her; and that, just as all are accustomed to throw stones at an adulteress and to slaughter a harlot, so that she is killed by the wounds of each one, in such a way that all women see the punishment of the fornicatress, so Jerusalem is to be abandoned in the sight of the other cities round about and of all the nations; and that this is done so that she may cease to commit fornication and may no longer give wages to her lovers, and so that the indignation of God may rest and he may not be angry with her whom he has ceased to love; from which we perceive that it is a great mark of displeasure to be in no way an object of God's care, but for a man to be left to his crimes and sins. My jealousy, he says, will be taken away from you; and I will be quiet, and will be angry no more, as with one estranged, who has withdrawn from me and whom I have handed over to everlasting nakedness — but if Jerusalem suffered this because she committed fornication with idols, what do we think she will suffer when she has slaughtered the Son of God? —. 'And all these things', he says, 'you have done, forgetful of former benefits, and you have provoked me to anger, or grieved me, whom you ought to have provoked to joy by good works. Therefore I too have rendered your works upon your head. And although I overthrew you, O adulteress, yet I will exercise less of my anger on you than you deserved'; so that in this too the divine clemency may be shown, that the sins are greater than the punishments. According to tropology, every soul has received spiritual money from God, according to that passage of the Gospel which is told in the parables of the five, the two and the one talents, and of the ten servants receiving a mina each, who, when they have acted negligently, will become debtors of fifty denarii and of five hundred; and for this reason, in the presence of the lovers, whom we understand to be the demons and the contrary powers, the disgrace of Jerusalem is uncovered, either on the day of judgment or in the time of penance, when they are rebuked; and at first, indeed, God almighty alone discerns hidden things, as the word of the Gospel says: And the Father who sees in secret, and in another place: God searching hearts and reins, and in the volume of Kings: You alone know the hearts of all men; but when there has been fulfilled: There is nothing hidden that will not be made manifest and covered that will not be revealed, and in another place: Do not judge before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of hearts, and then each one will have praise from God, and when the time of rebuke has come, then that word of Hosea is fulfilled: Now their thoughts have surrounded them, and in another place: Their thoughts among themselves accusing or else defending, on the day when God judges the secrets of men, and again: Behold the man, and his works before his face. And those who formerly committed fornication with her will see all her foulness, and God will give her into the blood of fury and jealousy; for the fury of a husband against an adulterous wife is full, and can be redeemed by no price. The blood of the sons, moreover, can be understood thus, that we call the sons of Jerusalem λογισμούς καλούς, that is, 'good thoughts', which have been implanted in men by God, and which the adulteress killed when she turned aside to evil works. It also profits Jerusalem that her brothel should be dug under and every seedbed of fornication destroyed: for when this has been done, she will no longer give wages, and the indignation of God will rest, and he will in no way be jealous over her, being secure about her chastity; that is, according to those who take what is said in a good sense. Others, however, as we said above, refer it to the contrary sense, so that it belongs to God's great anger not to be angry with them, once he has despised the fornicatress and despaired of her salvation; but if the heretics who do not receive the Old Testament should, according to the edition of the Seventy, find fault in this place with what is said: And you grieved me in all these things, on the ground that God not only admits anger but is also subject to grief and sadness, let us ask them how they accept this, which is certainly a command of the good God: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed in the day of redemption; for whatever they say in defense of that testimony, we shall apply in satisfaction of the present passage.
16:44-45a
Behold, everyone who speaks a common proverb will take it up against you, saying: As the mother, so also her daughter. You are the daughter of your mother, who cast off her husband and her sons; and you are the sister of your sisters, who cast off their husbands and their sons. (LXX: "These are all the things which they said against you in a parable, saying: As the mother, also the daughter. You are the daughter of your mother, who leaves her husband and her sons, and sisters of your sisters, who left their husbands and their sons.") After the κατάλογον [catalogue] of the vices and of the chastisement of Jerusalem, by which she is drawn back to salvation, there is also applied a proverb worn by the common speech of the people, or, as the Seventy translated, a 'parable': Such as the mother, such also the daughter. Now the mother of Jerusalem, as is written both above and in what follows, is called 'chethaea' [Hittite], and it means 'raving' or 'turning into madness', by which are shown the incitements of this world, which lead the captive soul to destruction and separate her from her husband — there is no doubt that by him the word of God and doctrine are meant —; and she is the sister of her sisters, who, as we shall read a little later, are called Sodom and Samaria, of whom the one signifies the life and luxury of the Gentiles, the other the snares of the heretics. Furthermore, what is read in the Seventy: Sisters of your sisters, who repulsed their husbands and their sons, makes no sense — for what other sisters did Sodom and Samaria have, who are the sisters of Jerusalem? And this too must be asked, what husbands Sodom and Samaria sent away and what sons they cast off —, unless perhaps we can say this: that the feet of those who go astray always waver, and theirs are not the solid footsteps that properly belong to the truth, but they run hither and thither and are carried about by every wind of doctrine, while they pass from falsehood to another falsehood and, when they have realized that they toiled in vain over the first, cross over to the second and the third.
16:45b-47
Your mother a Hittite, and your father an Amorite. And your greater sister is Samaria, she — and her daughters — who dwells at your left hand; but your sister lesser than you, who dwells at your right hand, is Sodom and her daughters. But you have not walked in their ways, nor done a little less according to their crimes; you have done things almost more wicked than they in all your ways. (LXX: "Your mother a Hittite, and your father an Amorite. Your elder sister is Samaria, she — and her daughters — who dwells on your left; and your sister younger than you, who dwells on your right, is Sodom and her daughters. And not even so did you walk in their ways, nor did you act a little less according to her iniquities; and you surpassed them in all your ways.") Above he had said: Your father an Amorite and your mother a Hittite; here, with the order and the number changed: Your mother a Hittite and your father an Amorite. For when crimes have advanced, they are split into parts, and, unity forsaken, they advance into a crowd and a multitude, which cannot climb to the mountains with Jesus. Now that Samaria and Sodom are the sisters of Jerusalem, of whom one is on the left and the other on the right, you will confirm even according to the bodily understanding, if you look toward the east from the temple of Jerusalem; and Samaria is called greater because she sinned first and was led into captivity by the Assyrians, and Sodom lesser and younger, which is referred to the crowd of the Gentiles; otherwise, at that time Sodom did not exist, for before we read of Jerusalem in the Scriptures, it had been destroyed by divine fire together with Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim. And Jerusalem, in the middle between the two sisters, which by another name is called Judah, was led by the Chaldeans into Babylon, and Jerusalem sinned far more wickedly than Samaria and Sodom, worshiping in the temple the idol of Jealousy and afterwards killing the Son of God. Furthermore, according to tropology, Samaria and Sodom, that is, the heretics and the heathens, often commit lighter things than those who are reckoned to be Jerusalem, that is, the churchmen; hence it is said to the Corinthians, who believed indeed in Christ but were weighed down by evil works: Fornication is actually heard of among you; and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles, so that someone has his father's wife, and the rest. The heretics who nevertheless accept the Old Testament are accustomed to understand three natures from this passage: spiritual, animal and earthly, and they refer the spiritual to Jerusalem, the animal to Samaria, the earthly to Sodom; let us briefly ask them how three natures, spiritual, animal and earthly, which are certainly different from one another, are said to have one mother and one father — which does not agree with their fiction —, and how the animal and the earthly nature, according to this same prophet, are restored to their ancient state, that is, to the spiritual — which is itself also contrary to their reasonings —. Now that Samaria is to be understood of the heresies is proved both in the prophet Hosea and in many other places, and especially by that testimony: Woe to those who despise Zion and who trust in the mountain of Samaria; they have gathered as a vintage the chiefs of the nations; for all heretics despise 'Sion' [Zion], which means 'watchtower' and is referred to the Church, and they trust in the mountain of Samaria, namely in the pride of perverse doctrines which they think sublime, and through these frauds of preaching they gather as a vintage and lay waste the chiefs of the nations, so that, by the marvel of their doctrines, they draw all the powerful among the Gentiles into heretical error.
16:48-51
As I live, says the Lord God, Sodom your sister, she and her daughters, has not done as you and your daughters have done. Behold, this was the iniquity of Sodom your sister: pride, fullness of bread and abundance, and the idleness of her and of her daughters, and they did not stretch out a hand to the needy and the poor; and they were lifted up and committed abominations before me, and I took them away as you saw. And Samaria did not commit half of your sins; but you have surpassed her by your crimes, and you have justified your sisters in all your abominations which you have wrought. (LXX: "As I live, says Adonai the Lord, if Sodom your sister has done, she and her daughters, as you and your daughters have done. Nevertheless the iniquity of Sodom your sister was pride in fullness of breads and in abundance. She abounded in delights, she and her daughters ÷ this she had, she and her daughters ⁚ and she did not take hold of the hand of the poor and needy; and they gloried magnificently and committed iniquities in my sight, and I took them away as you saw. And Samaria did not commit half of your sins; and you multiplied your iniquities beyond them, and you justified your sisters in all your iniquities which you have wrought.") What the Seventy put: This she had, she and her daughters, is not found in the Hebrew. In the Old Testament the oath of God is: As I live, says the Lord God, but in the New: Amen, amen I say to you; but if this is common with others: The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob; he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, and in another place: I will please the Lord in the land of the living, we ask by what reason God claims a common word as properly his own; but just as a good tree is spoken of, and a good man, and a good shepherd, and a good servant — yet no one is absolutely good but the one God —, so, although the angels and the other powers, and also the patriarchs and prophets and apostles, are living, in comparison with God almighty they are called dead: Who is the man who shall live and not see death?; hence the apostle Paul too says of God: Who alone, he says, has immortality, and dwells in light inaccessible, and of the fountain of the living: Our life, he says, is hidden with Christ in God. He therefore who swears and says: As I live, says the Lord, in describing the crimes of Sodom and her daughters, set first pride, which is properly the devil's, and the first sin; hence the same Apostle: Lest, puffed up, he says, with pride, he fall into the judgment of the devil, on account of which he fell from heaven: For he had said: I will make strength and wisdom of understanding, I will take away the boundaries of the nations and lay waste their strength and shake the inhabited cities, and I will seize the whole world with my hand like a nest, and like broken eggs I will carry it off, and: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble; we read also in another place: Why is earth and ashes proud?; and the Gospel relates the pride of the Pharisee overcome by the humility of the publican; whose seedbed is fullness of bread and abundance of all things and idleness, or, as the Seventy translated, an opulence of delights and luxury; that rich man in the Gospel, clothed in purple, is related to have had no other crime except that, abounding in wealth and riches, he had broken out into such pride that he did not stretch out his hand to the needy and poor Lazarus, and so forgot his own condition that he did not give to the wretched man even what was to be thrown away; for which reason it is also written in another place: Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Pride, fullness, abundance of all things, idleness and delights: this is the sin of Sodom, and on account of it there follows forgetfulness of God, which thinks present goods everlasting and that it will never lack necessities; for which reason it is also commanded in the law: Take heed lest, eating and drinking and being filled, having built very fine houses, and having sheep and oxen, silver and gold, you forget the Lord your God, and in another place it is written of Israel: He ate and drank, and was filled and grew fat, and the beloved kicked; knowing which, Solomon too, the wisest of all, prays in Proverbs: Grant me what is necessary and what suffices, lest, being filled, I become a liar and say: Who will see me? or, being made poor, I steal and forswear the name of God. And what follows: And you have justified your sisters in all your abominations which you have wrought, does not declare Sodom and Samaria simply righteous, but by comparison with those who are worse, just as the publican too, of whom we spoke above, is called righteous not absolutely but by comparison with one worse. And yet, though Sodom and Samaria are such, they have not sinned even half, in comparison with Jerusalem: The servant, for, who knows the will of his master and does not do it will be beaten with many stripes, and: The mighty will mightily suffer torments. Furthermore, as to the fact that for 'delights' the Hebrew contains 'idleness', it should be known that it belongs to this sense: every soul of the idle man is in desires; that is, something must always be being done, lest the field of our breast, when the hand ceases, be overrun by the brambles of evil thoughts.
16:52a
Therefore you too, bear your shame, you who have surpassed your sisters by your sins, acting more wickedly than they; for they have been justified by you. (LXX: "And you, endure your torment, in that you corrupted your sisters in your sins, by which you acted iniquitously beyond them, and you justified them beyond yourself.") The second plank after shipwreck is, when you have sinned, to blush, and not to fall under that reproach which is spoken against Jerusalem: The face of a harlot has become yours; you do not know how to blush. Now he bears his torment who is tortured by his own conscience, and in this world endures torture of his own will, so that he may not endure eternal torments; and we corrupt our brothers or sisters by our sins when through our sins they are provoked to greater crimes — let what I say be made clearer thus: imagine someone set on the summit of the priesthood not living well and disfiguring his dignity by his works: is not the lay brother corrupted by the imitation of his vices? —; for he too who has scandalized one of the least is cast headlong into the deep with a millstone tied to his neck. The sisters of Jerusalem too, Sodom and Samaria, are justified, not because they are righteous in themselves, but, as we said, in comparison with one who is worse.
16:52b
Therefore you too, be ashamed and bear your disgrace, you who have justified your sisters. (LXX: "And you, be ashamed and take up your disgrace, because you have justified your sisters.") Shame is followed by disgrace, disgrace by chastisement, chastisement by consolation, consolation by salvation, according to that word of the Apostle: Tribulation works patience, patience proof, proof hope. And hope does not put to shame — no doubt with respect to the future, since in the present it has blotted out its sins through shame —; something of the same kind is sounded by that word of the Gospel too: There is a shame that leads to death, and there is a shame that leads to life; the Holy Spirit too exhorts sinners in the Psalms: Let all my enemies be put to shame and be afraid; let them be turned back, and be put to shame very swiftly; it is written also in another place: Tell your sins first, that you may be justified, and again: The righteous man is his own accuser at the beginning of his speech. It is no wonder, then, if Jerusalem is called to shame and disgrace, she who sinned to such a degree that she justified her sisters, and to whom it is said thereafter: Both you and your daughters, return to your ancient state.
16:53-54
And I will turn them, restoring them, with the turning of Sodom with her daughters, and with the turning of Samaria and of her daughters; and I will turn your return in the midst of them, that you may bear your disgrace, and you will be ashamed in all that you have done, consoling them. (LXX: "And I will turn their turnings with the turning of Sodom and of her daughters, and I will turn the turning of Samaria and of her daughters; and I will turn your turning in the midst of them, that you may bear your torment, and have disgrace from all that you have done to provoke me to anger.") Great is the progress of Jerusalem, that, after the shame and disgrace brought upon her by the judgment of God, which she willingly accepted and bore, saying: I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, restoration to her ancient state should be promised her. But yet, since by comparison with her crimes Sodom and Samaria were justified, of whom one is on the right and the other on the left, first the 'turning', or 'captivity', of Sodom is restored, as Aquila translated, second the 'captivity' of Samaria, as the same Aquila and Symmachus translated, and last of all Jerusalem is restored, which had been weighed down by greater iniquity and had shown her sinful sisters to be righteous in comparison with herself. For who doubts that among three sinners, nay rather impious men — the Gentile, the heretic, the churchman — he is worthy of much greater punishments who has been of greater dignity? : For the mighty, as we said, will mightily suffer torments; but he who has been least is worthy of mercy, and: The servant who knows the will of his master and does not do it will be beaten with many stripes. Hence Peter too: It is time, he says, for judgment to begin from the house of the Lord; and in this same prophet it is commanded to those who hold axes: Begin from my holy ones, so that Jerusalem last of all, after her sisters have first been turned back and restored to their former state, may bear her disgrace and be ashamed and blush over the things in which she had sinned and in all things console her sisters, while she endures heavier things; or certainly she is ashamed and blushes for this reason, that she provoked God to anger. From which it is plain that anger is not natural to God, but that God, most clement and most gentle, is provoked to anger by our vices, as the Apostle says: Or do you despise the riches of his goodness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God calls you to penance? But according to your hardness and impenitent heart you treasure up wrath for yourself, which the Lord does not have by nature; whence it is also written in another place: You sent forth your wrath, and it devoured them like stubble — for what is joined and united in one body cannot be sent, but only what is outside the body, for example a lance, a javelin, an arrow, a sword —; we read in the Gospel that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for the land that has not received the apostles.
16:55
And your sister Sodom and her daughters will return to their antiquity, and Samaria and her daughters will return to their antiquity, and you and your daughters, return to your antiquity. (LXX: "And your sister Sodom and her daughters will be restored as they had been from the beginning, and Samaria and her daughters will be restored as they were from the beginning, and you and your daughters will be restored as you were from the start.") The Jews, among the other fables and endless genealogies and ravings which they invent, dream this too: that at the coming of their Christ, whom we know to be Antichrist, and in the kingdom of a thousand years, Sodom is to be restored to its ancient state, so that it will be like the paradise of God and like the land of Egypt, and that Samaria will receive its former happiness, so that they will return from the Assyrians to the land of Judea — for we read that the ten tribes were taken captive by Pul and Shalmaneser and Tiglath-pileser, kings of the Assyrians, and are captives there to this day —; that Jerusalem too is then to be built, and all her daughters, namely the cities and villages and fortresses that are to be under her power, will flourish as they flourished before, and Jerusalem herself is to be built of gold and silver and precious stones, of which Isaiah too is said to prophesy: I will establish your judges as before and your counselors as from the beginning, and after this you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful mother of cities, Zion, and our Revelation to speak, and David to sing: Deal kindly, O Lord, in your good will with Zion, and let the walls of Jerusalem be built, and in another place: The cities of Judea shall be built, and they shall dwell and abide there, and their seed shall be directed forever. But we, leaving the perfect knowledge of these things to the judgment of God, nay rather clearly confessing that after the second coming of the Lord Savior there will be nothing lowly, nothing earthly, but the heavenly kingdoms which are first promised in the Gospel, say this: that in the state of the Church all things have been fulfilled and are fulfilled daily. Sodom returns to its ancient state when the soul, formerly Gentile and impious, restored to its own nature, understands the Creator. Samaria receives her ancient blessedness, the error of the heretics despised, and joined to Christian doctrine and faith. And when they have returned, Jerusalem too, 'vision of peace', which is interpreted as the Church, will return to her former state — of which it is written: His place has been made in peace, and: Jerusalem, which is built as a city whose sharing thereof is in the selfsame, and in the Apostle: But the Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother, and in the same: You have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and thousands of angels in throngs —, and she will return with her daughters, who are scattered over the whole world; of which we have treated more fully in the explanations of Isaiah.
16:56-58
But Sodom your sister was not heard in your mouth in the day of your pride, before your wickedness was uncovered, as at this time, to the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all the Palestinian daughters round about you, who surround you on every side. Your crime and your disgrace you have borne, says the Lord God. (LXX: "If Sodom your sister had not been for hearing in your mouth in the days of your pride, before your wickednesses were uncovered, as now is the case with the daughters of Syria, and if this had not been, what would have been done to you, and to all round about you, the daughters of the foreigners who surround you on every side? Your impieties and your iniquities, you, bear them.") Symmachus translated this passage thus: Because Sodom your sister was not in hearing through your mouth in the day of your pride, before your disgrace was uncovered, as in the time of the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all the Palestinian daughters who are round about you, who surround you on every side. Your crime and your wickedness you will bear; Theodotion in this way: And Sodom your sister was not in the hearing of your mouth in the day of your pride, before your wickedness was uncovered, as the time of the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all the daughters of the foreigners round about her, who abhor you on every side. Your fornication and your abominations you have borne, says Adonai the Lord; our translation agrees with the edition of Aquila. All these I have set down so that from the comparison of them all we may be able to find a trace of some sense; and meanwhile, without prejudice to others, the order of the reading seems to us to be rendered thus: 'In the days of your pride, when you were sinning, you did not remember the overthrow of Sodom your sister, before your wickedness lay open, which at this time has been uncovered to such a degree that you became a reproach to all the cities of Syria and Palestine which are round about you; since, therefore, you surpassed your sister in crime, and were not frightened by her example so as not to suffer like things and to hold back your foot, but now your disgrace has been uncovered, hear the sentence of God: either 'bear' — according to the Seventy —, or 'you have borne' — according to Aquila and Theodotion, or 'you are going to bear' — according to Symmachus — your crime and disgrace, so that, after you have endured the punishment for sacrilege, you may obtain pardon, not from your covenant but from my clemency'. 'Syria' in the Hebrew tongue is called 'aram', which means 'loftiness'; and according to the explanation of that passage of the prophet Isaiah in which Aram and Ephraim conspire against Judah and Jerusalem, the subtle wisdom of the heathens, which promises itself the loftiness of knowledge, in all the wickedness of the heretics, attacks Judah, in which is the true confession, and cannot prevail; here too the same arrogance of Syria, that is, of the philosophers, together with the daughters of the foreigners, in whom is shown the manifold error of the diverse doctrines among the nations, mocks Jerusalem and holds in reproach her by whose vices it has been surpassed.
16:59-63
For thus says the Lord God: And I will do to you as you despised the oath, so as to make void the covenant. And I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will raise up for you an everlasting covenant. And you will remember your ways, and you will be ashamed when you receive your sisters with you, the greater with your lesser ones; and I will give them to you as daughters, but not by your covenant. And I will raise up for you my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be ashamed, and that it may no longer be yours to open your mouth because of your shame, when I have been appeased toward you in all that you have done, says the Lord God. (LXX: "Thus says Adonai the Lord: And I will do in you as you have done, as you despised these things, so as to transgress my testament. And I will remember my testament which I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will raise up for you an everlasting testament. And you will remember your way, and you will be despised when you receive your sisters greater than you together with your younger ones; and I will give them to you for proving, and not by your testament. And I will raise up my testament with you, and you will know that I am the Lord, and you may remember and be ashamed, and it may no longer be yours to open your mouth before the face of your disgrace, when I have been propitiated toward you according to all that you have done, says the Lord God.") 'For this reason I said to you: Your crime and your disgrace, you, bear them (or you have borne or you are going to bear), : that you may receive what you deserve, because you despised my oath and made void my covenant. But when there has been fulfilled: I will kill and I will make alive, I will strike and I will heal, then I will remember my covenant which I once had with you. And I will raise up for you a covenant, by no means that of the law, which has passed away, but the everlasting covenant of the Gospel, so that, when you have remembered your ways and received your sisters, greater or lesser, Samaria and Sodom and their companions, I may grant them to you as daughters — or for proving: For there must also be heresies, so that those who are approved may be made manifest to each —, not from your merit, but from my mercy; and then you may know that I am the Lord, and remember my benefits and be ashamed, and say with the Apostle: I who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God'. And that it may no longer be yours to open your mouth because of your shame: for it belongs to the saints to open the mouth — according to the Apostle, who says: My mouth is open to you, O Corinthians —, and to the Lord Savior — who, opening his mouth, taught them, and who says in the psalm too: I will open my mouth in parables —; but to the sinner it is said: You have sinned, be still, and: Why do you take up my testament through your mouth?, and: Praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner; and the holy man deserves to hear: Open your mouth and I will fill it. From this we understand that even when, through the mercy of the Lord, we have received back our former glory, nay rather have received the everlasting covenant of the Gospel, after the Lord has been appeased toward us in all that we have done, we keep the memory of past sin and always close our mouth, because we have been saved not by our works but by the grace of God.
17:1-6
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, propound a riddle and tell a parable to the house of Israel, and you shall say: Thus says the Lord God: A great eagle with great wings, long in the extent of its limbs, full of feathers and of variety, came to Lebanon and took the marrow of the cedar; it plucked off the top of its foliage and carried it over into the land of Canaan; in a city of merchants it set it. And it took of the seed of the land and set it in the ground for seed, that it might make firm its root upon many waters; on the surface it set it. And when it had sprouted, it grew into a broader vine of low stature, its branches looking toward it, and its roots were under it; so it became a vine, and bore fruit in vine-shoots and sent out offshoots. (LXX: "And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, narrate a narration and speak a parable to the house of Israel, and you shall say: Thus says Adonai the Lord: A great eagle with great wings, of long extent, full of talons, which has the leading to enter into Lebanon, and it took the choice parts of the cedar; it plucked off the tops of the tenderness and brought them into the land of Canaan; in a walled city it set it. And it took of the seed of the land and gave it in a plain as a planting upon many waters, that it might be looked upon, and it set it, and it sprang up and became a weak vine and small in size, so that only its branches appeared under it, and its roots were beneath it; and it became a vine, and made offshoots and stretched out its branches.") When it is said to the prophet: Propound a riddle, tell a parable (or, as the Seventy translated: Narrate a narration and speak a parable), it is shown that what is said is obscure; for no one doubts that both a riddle and a parable put forward one thing in the words and hold another in the sense: for the Savior too spoke to the people in parables, which he explained privately to the apostles; therefore we must understand the riddle and the parable in just this way, as a riddle and a parable. Now in the present prophecy of Ezekiel two eagles are set forth; of the first we must speak now, of the other we shall treat in what follows. And meanwhile let us gather the simple history. A great eagle with great wings, long in the extent of its limbs, full of feathers and of variety (or, as the Seventy rendered, full of talons) is Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Chaldeans, of whom Hosea also speaks: As an eagle over the house of the Lord. He, ruling over many nations and hedged about by a countless army, came upon the house of God — no doubt it means the temple — or, as Scripture now says, to Lebanon, of which Zechariah speaks: Open your gates, O Lebanon; and let fire devour your cedars. Howl, fir tree, for the cedar has fallen, since the magnificent have been laid waste; and often the temple, which was renowned and lofty, is called Lebanon in the holy Scriptures. And it took the marrow of the cedar, and plucked off the top of its foliage and carried it over into the land of Canaan; in a city of merchants it set it (for 'merchants', or 'commerce', the Seventy translated 'walled'); and it indicates Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar captured together with his mother and the princes of the people and all the wealth of Jerusalem and the vessels of the temple, and carried over to Babylon, which is in the land of Canaan, and there he grew old; of whose line afterward, as the writing of Matthew the evangelist testifies, our Lord and Savior was born, through Shealtiel and Zerubbabel. In his place he took of the seed of the same land, that is, of the royal stock, Mattaniah, the paternal uncle of Jeconiah, whose name he changed, and he called him Zedekiah and set him as king in Jerusalem, and put him over many peoples. And yet he set him on the surface, and did not make his power firm with a deep root of rule, but set him so that he might be looked upon and be under Babylonian power, or: Of low stature, its branches looking toward it, so that he would indeed rule over the peoples of the Jews, but would look to the authority of the Babylonian who gave the orders: for this is what Scripture says: Of low stature, its branches looking toward it — understand: toward the eagle — which the Seventy rendered more plainly: And it sprang up — what had been planted — and became a weak and small vine, so that only its branches appeared, and he would seem indeed to have a kingdom, but his kingdom itself, low and weak, would be ruled by the will of the Babylonian prince. So much for the present passage for now; let us join the rest to it as well.
17:7-10
And there was another great eagle with great wings and many feathers; and behold, this vine, as if sending its roots to it, stretched out its vine-shoots to it, that it might water it from the beds of its growth. In good land upon many waters he planted it, that it may make foliage and bear fruit, and become a great vine. Say: Thus says the Lord God: Shall it then prosper? Will he not pull up its roots and strip off its fruit, and dry up all the vine-shoots of its growth, and it will wither? And not with a great arm nor with many peoples, so as to pull it up by the roots. Behold, it is planted; shall it then prosper? Will it not, when the burning wind touches it, be dried up, and wither in the beds of its growth? (LXX: "And there was another great eagle with great wings, with very many talons; and behold, this vine was entwined toward it, and its roots toward it, and it stretched out its branches toward it, that it might water it with the clod of its planting. In a good plain upon much water it was fattened, that it might make sprouts and bring forth fruit, and become a great vine. Therefore thus says Adonai the Lord: Shall it be guided aright? Will not the roots of its tenderness and its fruit rot, and all that has sprung from it wither? And not with a great arm nor with a numerous people, so as to pull it up from its roots. And behold, it is fattened; shall it be guided aright? Will it not, as soon as the burning wind touches it, wither, and be dried up with dryness? With the clod of its growth it will wither.") The second eagle, that is, the other one, itself also great, full of feathers and of many talons, because of its rapacity and its devastation of very many nations, is Pharaoh king of Egypt. And behold, this vine — understand: King Zedekiah, who had been set up in Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar — began, it says, to send its offshoots to it, that is, to direct envoys to the king of the Egyptians and to ask him for help against the king to whom he was subject — for this is what Scripture now says: That it might water it from the beds of its growth —. It had been planted in good land by Nebuchadnezzar, that it might make foliage and bring forth fruit and grow into a broader vine; therefore the prophet is commanded to speak to the vine which had been planted by Nebuchadnezzar and had sent its branches to the Egyptian eagle: 'Shall it prosper because it has attempted to do this, and will not all its offshoots and vine-shoots at once be dried up? And not,' it says, 'with a great arm nor with a numerous people'; for Zedekiah, fleeing and left destitute of the help of the Egyptian king, was caught by the leaders of Nebuchadnezzar in the deserts of Jericho, and all his companions were scattered here and there, as is written in the volume of Kings and in Παραλιπομήνῳ [Chronicles] and in Jeremiah.
17:11-18
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Say to the provoking house: Do you not know what these things signify? Say: Behold, the king of Babylon comes to Jerusalem, and he will take its king and its princes, and lead them to himself into Babylon; and he will take of the seed of the kingdom, and strike a covenant with him, and receive an oath from him; but he will also take away the mighty of the land, that the kingdom may be lowly and not lift itself up, but keep his compact and observe it. But he, withdrawing from him, sent messengers to Egypt, that it might give him horses and a numerous people; shall he prosper or obtain safety who has done these things? And shall he who has broken the compact escape? As I live, says the Lord God, surely in the place of the king who made him king, whose oath he made void and whose compact, which he had with him, he broke, in the midst of Babylon he shall die. And not with a great army nor with a numerous people will Pharaoh make war against him, in the casting up of a mound and the building of ramparts, to kill many souls. For he had despised the oath so as to break the covenant, and behold, he gave his hand; and when he has done all these things, he shall not escape. This is the riddle and this is the parable: that under two eagles and a vine Scripture was showing two kings, of Babylon and of Egypt, and King Zedekiah, who, against his oath, abandoning his friendship with Nebuchadnezzar, transferred himself to the Egyptian king: And he will strike, it says, a covenant with him, and receive an oath from him, that he may keep his compact and observe it. He who has dissolved, it says, the compact, shall he escape? From this we learn that faith must be kept even among enemies, and that one must consider not to whom but by whom you have sworn; for far more faithful is he found who, on account of the name of God, trusted you and was deceived, than you who, under pretext of the divine majesty, plotted snares against your enemy, nay rather, by now your friend. Surely, it says, in the place of the king who made him king, whose oath he made void and whose compact, which he had with him, he broke, in the midst of Babylon he shall die; for we read that Zedekiah was captured, led to Riblah, and there, after his sons had been killed, blinded, and, shut in a cage like a wild beast, carried over to Babylon — whence also Scripture, though it seems to be contrary to itself, is nevertheless most true in both: it had been said to Zedekiah: And you shall enter Babylon and: You shall not see it: for he entered, because he was led to Babylon, and he did not see it, because he had been blinded —. But what follows: And not with a great army nor with a numerous people will Pharaoh make war against him, in the casting up of a mound and the building of ramparts, to kill many souls, is understood in two ways: either the Egyptian king, coming against Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, will not be able to give battle nor with a small army resist so great a multitude; or Zedekiah himself will be conquered by Pharaoh, from whom he hoped for help, not that Pharaoh conquered him — or that Scripture anywhere attests this —, but that Nebuchadnezzar's conquest was brought about on the occasion given by the king of Egypt; and that not he who was besieging seemed to conquer Jerusalem, but he in whom Zedekiah had hoped in vain. Behold, it says, he gave his hand to the king of Egypt, and handed himself over, and committed the sacrilege of perjury against God: 'Will it,' it says, 'profit him?'. And when he has done all these things, he shall not escape.
17:19-21
Therefore thus says the Lord God: As I live, surely the oath that he despised and the covenant that he transgressed I will lay upon his head, and I will spread my net over him and he shall be caught in my dragnet, and I will bring him into Babylon, and I will judge him there in the transgression by which he despised me. And all his fugitives with the whole column shall fall by the sword; and the rest shall be scattered to every wind, and you shall know that I the Lord have spoken. It is a worldly maxim: Deceit or valor, who would ask, in an enemy?, which those who say that enemies are to be deceived by fraud are wont to set against us; yet even if we were to assent to it, Zedekiah did much worse: for he did not deceive an enemy, but a friend to whom he had been bound by a covenant of the Lord. Therefore, so long as you do not swear and do not enter into a compact under the name of God, it belongs to prudence and courage either to deceive or to overcome the adversary in whatever way you can; but when you have bound yourself by an oath, he who trusted you is by no means an adversary but a friend, and he was deceived under pretext of an oath, that is, of the invocation of God. That is why Scripture now says: The oath that he despised and the covenant that he transgressed I will lay upon his head; and lest we should think that the oath and the covenant and the compact belonged to the king of Babylon or to Zedekiah who had made it, there follows: In the transgression by which he despised me. So he who scorns an oath despises him by whom he swore, and does wrong to him in whose name the adversary trusted; for which reason: I will spread, it says, my net over him and he shall be caught in my dragnet, and I will bring him into Babylon, and I will judge him there. Whatever, then, Nebuchadnezzar did against Zedekiah, he did not do by his own strength, but by the wrath of God, in whose name perjury had been committed. According to anagogy — although the interpretation may seem forced — this must be known: that, just as the other living creatures are customarily referred both to a good and to a bad sense, so also is the eagle. Of the lion it is said in a good sense: A lion's whelp is Judah; in the contrary sense: Our adversary the devil goes about like a roaring lion, and that in the psalm: He lies in wait in secret, like a lion in his den. He lies in wait to seize the poor. In a good sense it is said of the eagle that the righteous man, having become rich, may make himself wings like an eagle, that he may be able to return to the house of his superior, and in Isaiah it is written that the righteous may put forth feathers like eagles, may run and not grow weary, may walk and not hunger; but rightly he who had said: I will do strength and wisdom of understanding, I will remove the boundaries of the nations and plunder their strength, and I will shake the cities that are inhabited, and I will grasp the whole world in my hand like a nest and like broken eggs, is now described in the person of an eagle: in that he by no means wishes to strip from Lebanon — which means 'whiteness' and is referred to incense — the small and low shrubs, but the tops of the cedars, and of the princes and the royal stock, according to that saying of Habakkuk: His food is choice. And he makes a covenant with those whom he has captured, that they may bow their necks to the Babylonian king and fulfill what the Apostle says: Whom I have delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme, and in another place: Whom I have delivered, he says, to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved. We ought not, then, if perhaps on account of some sin we are cast out of the congregation of the brethren and out of the house of God, to struggle against it, but to bear with an even mind the sentence brought against us and to say with the prophet: I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he justifies my cause, and so on. And it often happens that, being subject to one, we go over to another who promises us his help and does not make us abide in the former sentence; which must be avoided by every means, lest our vine-shoots be dried up and our sprouts wither, and we be believed to act against the compact of God.
17:22-24
Thus says the Lord: And I myself will take of the marrow of the lofty cedar, and will set it; from the top of its branches I will strip off a tender shoot, and I will plant it upon a high and eminent mountain. On the lofty mountain of Israel I will plant it, and it will break forth into a sprout and bear fruit, and it will become a great cedar, and all birds will dwell under it, every winged creature nesting under the shade of its foliage. And all the trees of the region shall know that I the Lord have brought low the lofty tree and raised up the low tree, and dried up the green tree and made the dry tree flourish: I the Lord have spoken and have done it. (LXX: "For thus says Adonai the Lord: And I will take away of the choice parts of the cedar from the top ※ and I will give from the head of its branches ⁚, from their heart I will take away, and I will plant upon a high mountain; and I will hang it on the lofty mountain of Israel, and I will plant, and it will bring forth a sprout and bear fruit and will become a great cedar, and every bird will rest under it, and every winged creature will rest under its shade ÷ and its branches will be restored ⁚. And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord who bring low the lofty tree and exalt the low tree, and make the green tree dry and make the dry tree sprout: I the Lord have spoken and I do it.") What is read in the Seventy: And I will give from the head of its branches, has been added from the edition of Theodotion; and again what follows: And its branches will be restored, must be marked with an obelus, because it is not found in the Hebrew. The real Nebuchadnezzar takes of the marrow of the lofty cedar, from the top of its branches, for this purpose: That the kingdom may be lowly and not lift itself up; but the Lord God, the Father almighty, who spoke to Ezekiel, takes from the royal stock and from the line of David: And plants it upon a high and eminent mountain; he it is who speaks in the psalm: But I have been set up as king by him upon Zion, his holy mountain. For the prince had failed from Judah and the leader from Israel, until he should come for whom it is reserved: And he shall be the expectation of the nations. He broke forth into a sprout and bore fruit, and surpassed all the cedars by his loftiness, so that all the birds of heaven dwell under him, and all winged creatures are protected by his shade — he of whom Habakkuk says: Horns in his hands: there his strength is hidden, and who desires to gather, like a hen, the chicks under his wings —, so that all the trees of the region may know that he himself is the Lord; τροπικῶς [figuratively] speaking of believers: he who brought low Israel, once a lofty tree, and exalted the lowly people of the Gentiles; who dried up the green tree of the Jews, flowering and sprouting in the Law and the Prophets, and made the dry tree of the nations flourish, so that what he had always spoken he might fulfill in deed; the same thing is signified also by the words of Simeon in the Gospel, saying: Behold, this one is set for the ruin and for the resurrection of many, and by the grain of mustard seed which, though it is the smallest of all seeds, once it has grown is a dwelling place for birds. Some interpret it otherwise, referring the lofty tree brought low and the low tree exalted to the passion of the Lord Savior: Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant; and after the resurrection the very tree was afterward raised on high which, at first green, was dried up in death and afterward, reviving, recovered its former greenness. Others, in Jewish fashion, refer both to Israel: that at the first coming it was brought low and dried up, and at the second it will be restored to its former state, when that is fulfilled which the apostle Paul says: When the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then all Israel will be saved.
Book Six
I used to think that, once the serpent had been run through the middle, the seedlings of the young hydra would not come back to life, and that, as in the fables of the poets, once Scylla was dead, the Scyllaean dogs, which never cease barking, would by no means rage against me; and that, the heretics having been struck by the hand of God so that if it can be, even the elect of God should not be tempted— yet heresy itself does not die, for it has left behind against us whelps that are heirs of its hatreds, who, feigning what is ours, do not abandon the poisons of their ancient mother and of beguiling Ulysses, and smear only their lips round with honey, and, in the words of the Scriptures, have softened their words beyond oil, while they themselves are darts, and fiery darts, which must be both repelled and extinguished with the shield of faith. I have said these things, daughter Eustochium, so that you may help me with your prayers as I labor at the prophetic work and resist the heretics, and so that the Lord may unfold the sixth volume of explanations on Ezekiel by my mouth but with his own sense, and that by the grace of the same Spirit, by which the things we read written were revealed to the prophets, they may be revealed to us also as we discuss them, so that we may be able to say: I opened my mouth and drew in the spirit.
18:1-2
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: What is it that you turn a parable into this proverb among you in the land of Israel, saying: The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the teeth of the sons have been set on edge? (LXX: "And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ÷ Son of man, ⁚ what is the parable among the sons of Israel, of those who say: The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the teeth of the sons have been set on edge?") What the Seventy said, Son of man, is not found in the Hebrew. Now divine Scripture warns that what was said in Exodus, I am the Lord your God; a jealous God, who render the sins of the fathers upon the sons to the third and fourth generation for those who hate me, and show mercy to thousands for those who love me and keep my precepts, and again, The Lord descended in a cloud and stood beside Moses, and Moses called on the name of the Lord, and the Lord passed before his face, and he called on him, saying: Lord God, compassionate and merciful, patient and of much mercy and true, and keeping righteousness and mercy to thousands, taking away iniquities and injustices and sins, and he will not cleanse the guilty, rendering the iniquities of the fathers upon the sons and upon the sons of the sons to the third and fourth generation, ought to be taken thus, as a parable and a proverb, so that it sounds one thing in the words and holds another in the sense; which we also said above on the parable of the two eagles. Hence the Lord in Psalm 77 (78): I will open, he says, my mouth in parables, I will utter propositions from the beginning; and in the Gospel he sets forth the parable of the sowing, and of the darnel, and of the mustard seed, which, though it is the least of all seeds, rises up into a great tree, in such a way that he presents one thing in the words and holds another in the sense; and we, up to the present day, think that the two testimonies of Exodus which we set down above are not a parable, but set out a simple statement. And although we would not dare to say anything, nor would the earthen vessel speak against the potter, 'why have you made me thus or thus', yet we suffered a hidden stumbling block, because it seemed an injustice on God's part that one should sin and another pay for the sins. For if he renders the sins of the fathers upon the sons to the third and fourth generation, it seems unjust that one should sin and another be punished; but from what follows, for those who hate me, the stumbling block of the threat, or of the precept, is resolved: for they are not punished to the third and fourth generation because their fathers transgressed, since it is rather the fathers, who were the sinners, who ought to have been punished, but because they proved to be imitators of their fathers and hated God, by an inherited evil, the impiety growing from the root into the branches as well. At this place the heretics who do not receive the Old Testament are accustomed to say against the Creator: How good and righteous is the God of the Law and the Prophets, who, resting and silent at the sins of the fathers, repays those who have not sinned; nay rather, how great is the cruelty in him, that he should extend his wrath even to the third and fourth generation! To them we shall reply that even in this the clemency of God the Creator is shown: for it is not a mark of ferocity and severity to hold back wrath until the third and fourth generation, but a sign of mercy to defer the punishment of sin; for when he says, The Lord God, compassionate and merciful, patient and of much compassion, and adds, rendering the iniquities of the fathers upon the sons and the sons of the sons, he indicates this: that he is of such great mercy that he does not punish at once but defers the sentence of punishment. But if the vengeance on sinners is deferred to the third and fourth generation, what more will he do with the righteous and the holy? There follows: And keeping righteousness and mercy to many thousands for those who keep his commandments and do his precepts. It is written in Proverbs: As a sour grape is harmful to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is iniquity to those who practice it; from which it is clear that it is not the teeth of others that ache and are set on edge, but the teeth of those who have eaten the sour grape. And this is the sense of this passage: just as, if anyone should wish to say, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the teeth of the sons have been set on edge, it is ridiculous and has no logical consequence, so it is unjust and perverse that the fathers should sin and the sons and grandsons be tormented. There are those who expound what is written in Exodus, rendering the iniquities of the fathers upon the sons to the third and fourth generation, in such a way as to refer the statement to the human soul, saying that the father in us is the light prick of the senses and the incitements of the vices; the son, if the thought has conceived the sin; the grandson, if you carry out in deed what you have thought and conceived; and the great-grandson, that is, the fourth generation, if you not only do what is evil and wicked but glory in your crimes, according to what is written: The impious man, when he has come into the depth of evils, despises. God therefore by no means punishes the first and second goads of thoughts, which the Greeks call προπαθείας [pre-passions, the first movements of the mind], without which no human being can exist, but only if someone has resolved to do what he has thought, or has been unwilling to correct by repentance the very things he has done; whence it is written: No human being is without sin, not even if his life be of a single day. But the years of his life are numbered; and in another place: Who will boast that he has a chaste heart?; and again: The stars too are not clean in his sight, and against his angels he has devised something perverse. But if that sublime nature is not free of sin, what is to be said of human beings who, surrounded by fragile flesh, must say with the Apostle: Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?, and that word, that when we have done all things we must say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we ought to have done, and: Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord guards the city, he who guards it has kept watch in vain? Now in proof of this point, that the first impulse of thoughts, or rather the slight prompting of the mind, is by no means punished by God, but only if you complete in deed what you have conceived in the mind, that passage of Genesis must be brought forward: Ham sinned in mocking his father's nakedness, and the sentence was received not by him who laughed but by his son Canaan: Cursed, he says, be Canaan; a servant he shall be to his brothers. For what righteousness is there in this, that the father should have sinned and the sentence be pronounced against the son? Likewise what the Apostle sets down in the opposite direction, that the woman is saved if her son remains in faith and holiness and chastity, would seem not to have the righteousness of a sentence, namely that if the sons and grandsons are good, the parents are saved; for how many parents are holy and have wicked sons, and, on the contrary, how many are sinners and beget holy sons? Therefore all that we said above is to be taken according to this sense: that the sins of parents and begetters are punished in the branches, not in the root. Let it suffice for the present to have said this about the proverb, or the parable: that the Law and the Prophets, that is, Exodus and Ezekiel, or rather God himself, who spoke both here and there, should by no means seem to disagree in their statements, or to correct here what he had said badly there. But if anyone can find either a better sense or another one, which removes the stumbling block of testimonies contrary to one another, it is rather his opinion that is to be accepted.
18:3-4
As I live, says the Lord, if this parable shall be any longer to you as a proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sins, it shall die. (LXX: "As I live, says the Lord Adonai, if it shall be any longer that this parable is spoken in Israel; for all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sins, it shall die.") What As I live, says the Lord means, and parable or proverb, we have said more fully above; it will by no means be spoken in Israel, but among those who do not have the knowledge of God and cannot discern the truth. All, he says, souls are mine, according to creation, not according to merit, as Moses was called a man of God, of whom it is written, A prayer of Moses, the man of God, and Elijah, who said to the captain of fifty soldiers, And if I am a man of God, let fire come down upon you and upon the fifty men; but the man of sin and son of iniquity is not called a man of God, just as those are called servants and attendants of God of whom it cannot be said, Everyone who commits sin is the servant of sin, and again, For by whom anyone is overcome, to him he is also a servant. Just as the sins of the sons do not harm the fathers, so the sins of the fathers do not overflow onto the sons, but the soul that sins, it shall die: not by the abolition of its substance, but out of the fellowship of him who says, I am the life, and who says elsewhere, Everyone who lives and believes in me shall not die for ever, and, Amen, amen I say to you, whoever keeps my word shall not see death for ever; for our life indeed is hidden with Christ in God, the life by which we shall live when Christ, our life, appears in glory, and that which is written will be fulfilled: Amen, amen I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but passes from death to life. But what is said by Balaam, Let my soul die the death of the righteous, has this sense: that he desires to die to the world and to sin, and to live with the souls of the righteous, whose life is Christ, and who can sing, I will please the Lord in the land of the living; he is not indeed the God of the dead, but of the living; and if Balaam, translated into our language, means 'a vain people', which is most true, it is clear that the formerly vain people of the nations desired to have fellowship with the souls of the righteous Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who are called εὐθεῖς, that is, 'upright' and 'righteous'; whence also the book of Genesis received its name from their designation.
18:5-9
And a man, if he is righteous and does judgment and righteousness, does not eat on the mountains and does not lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, and does not violate his neighbor's wife, and does not approach a menstruous woman, and does not grieve a man, returns the pledge to the debtor, seizes nothing by force, gives his bread to the hungry, and covers the naked with a garment, and does not lend at usury, and does not take more, turns his hand away from iniquity, does true judgment between man and man, walks in my precepts, and keeps my judgments so as to do truth: this man is righteous and shall live with life, says the Lord God. (LXX: "But a man who is righteous, who does judgment and righteousness, does not eat upon the mountains and does not lift up his eyes to the thoughts of the house of Israel, and does not defile his neighbor's wife, and does not approach a woman flowing with blood, and does not oppress a man, returns the pledge owed, and does not seize plunder, gives his bread to the hungry, and covers the naked with a garment, and does not give his money at usury, and does not take more, turns his hand away from iniquity, will do righteous judgment between a man and his neighbor, and walks in my precepts, keeps my justifications so as to do them: this man is righteous, he shall live with life, says Adonai the Lord.") 'Do you wish', he says, 'to know that what was said, I will render the sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generation, does not mean what most people suppose, and is not like this saying, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the teeth of the sons have been set on edge? Hear what I am about to add: if a father is righteous, who has done these things and has not done those, and has a very wicked son who, abandoning his father's virtues, gives himself over to crimes, will not the one live with life because he is righteous, and the other die by death because he has committed all the things by avoiding which his father was made righteous?' Let us look at the catalogue of the father's virtues, which seem to me to be divided into seventeen parts; of which the first is: to have done judgment; the second, similar to this: to have joined righteousness to judgment; the third: not to have eaten on the mountains; the fourth: not to have lifted the eyes to the idols — or, as the Seventy translated, the thoughts — of the house of Israel; the fifth: not to have violated his neighbor's wife; the sixth: to have avoided the embraces of a menstruous wife; the seventh: not to have grieved a man — or, as the Seventy rendered it, oppressed through power —; the eighth: to have returned the pledge to the debtor; the ninth: to have seized nothing by force — or, according to the Seventy, not to have seized plunder —; the tenth: to have given his bread to the hungry; the eleventh: to have covered the naked with a garment; the twelfth: not to have given money at usury; the thirteenth: to have taken nothing more from what you have given; the fourteenth: to have turned his hand away from iniquity; the fifteenth, which seems similar to the first but is different in part: to have done true judgment between man and man — or, his neighbor —; the sixteenth: to have walked in the precepts of the Lord; the seventeenth: to have kept his judgments and justifications. What each of these means we shall say in what follows. ·i· If, he says, a man is righteous and does judgment. It is written in Proverbs: The thoughts of the righteous are judgments. He who possesses this virtue, so as to do nothing without reason and judgment, can say that prophetic word, The judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves; and when he has judged all things rightly, so as not to accept the person of the poor in judgment, he will fulfill the precept of the Lord, As the lesser, so also shall you judge the greater, saying boldly, My soul has longed to desire your judgments at all times, and again, I have chosen the way of truth, I have not forgotten your judgments, and in the same psalm, I have known that your judgments are righteousness; and he will advance to such great blessedness that he understands the judgments of the Lord, which are a great deep, and says with the Apostle, O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments, and his ways unsearchable!, and recalls in prayer, For your judgments are delightful. ·ii· After judgment follows 'righteousness', and he who has it will clearly possess Christ, who, according to the Apostle, was made for us righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that he does true righteousness and does not regard persons in judgment, but knows that, in his judgment of others, he must be judged on his own righteousness. ·iii· The third is: He does not eat on the mountains, which the Jews think pertains to the sin of idolatry; for we read frequently in the books of Kings and of Chronicles: Nevertheless he did not depart from the high places; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the heights, Scripture signifying this: that on mountains and in groves they sacrificed victims to idols and kindled incense. We, however, say that he eats on the mountains who says with the Pharisee: I give you thanks, God, that I am not like this tax collector. I fast twice in the sabbath, I give tithes of all my substance, and so on; but on the contrary the tax collector, hearing him who had said, Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, struck his breast with his hand, that is, the treasury of the worst thoughts, and did not dare to raise his eyes to heaven. But that too which is said elsewhere, Do not seek things greater than you, and do not search out things stronger than you, convicts all heretics of eating on the mountains of pride, and of despising the simplicity of the Church, and of not knowing that it is written of them: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. ·iiii· In the fourth place is set: And does not lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, for which the Seventy translated 'thoughts'. Now idols, that is, images which they have fashioned from their own heart, all heretics make, and to them they lift up the eyes of the heart, since they have supposed their falsehood and lie to be the truth. And those are called images of the house of Israel which are found in the Church and, by occasion of knowledge falsely so called, seduce all the simple, as they bring the dogmas of the philosophers into the house of Israel, that is, of those who behold God with the mind. ·v· In the fifth place is set: And does not violate his neighbor's wife (or defile), which plainly forbids adultery; but from the fact that it says 'his neighbor's', unless every human being is understood as a neighbor, the precept would seem to be that we abstain from the wives of friends, but freely pollute the spouses of enemies and strangers. Every human being, therefore, is to be taken as the neighbor of every human being, according to the Gospel parable set forth by the Savior about a certain man who, going down to Jericho, was wounded by robbers, when the Pharisee asks, 'who was his neighbor?', teaching that he is the neighbor who has done good. According to the mystical understanding, the wife of the holy man can be understood as wisdom, as Solomon says: Love her and she will embrace you, cherish her and she will guard you; and he desires to defile her who finds fault with the good words of others and, kindled by the torches of envy, violates holy things, corrupts chaste things, defiles pure things. ·vi· The sixth is: And does not approach a menstruous woman. Each month the heavy and sluggish bodies of women are relieved by the outflow of unclean blood, and if at that time a man has intercourse with a woman, the fetuses conceived are said to contract a defect of the seed, so that lepers and elephantiacs are born from this conception, and corrupted gore makes bodies, foul in either sex, degenerate through the smallness or the enormity of their limbs. Men are therefore commanded, not only with respect to other men's women but also with their own, to whom they are seen to be joined by law, Scripture saying, Increase and multiply and fill the earth, to know fixed times for intercourse, when they must come together and when they must abstain from their wives; which indeed both the Apostle and Ecclesiastes express: A time to embrace and a time to be far from embraces. Let the wife therefore beware lest, overcome by the desire for intercourse, she conceal it from her husband, and the husband lest he do violence to his wife, thinking that the pleasure of marriage ought to be subject to him at every time; whence Paul too: That each one, he says, may know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and chastity. It is finely said in the little maxims of Sextus the Pythagorean: An adulterer is the too ardent lover of his own wife; a book which a certain man, translating it into the Latin language, wished to adorn with the name of the martyr Sixtus, not considering that in the whole volume, which he pointlessly divided into two parts, the name of Christ and of the apostles is entirely passed over in silence; nor is it surprising if he turned a pagan philosopher into a martyr and bishop of the city of Rome, since he also changed the first book of Eusebius of Caesarea in defense of Origen to the name of the martyr Pamphilus, so that with such a eulogist he might more easily commend the most impious books Περὶ Ἀρχῶν [On First Principles] to Roman ears. ·vii· There follows in the seventh place: And does not grieve a man (or, as the Seventy translated, does not oppress through power). I do not know who is free of this vice and sin; for the Egyptians too oppressed the Hebrews through power, whence Habakkuk also complains that the impious oppresses the righteous. And would that this were said only of those who are outside, and not of those who are within! For the princes of the churches too are accustomed to oppress the people through pride, of whom it is written: They have made you prince: do not be lifted up; be among them as one of them, and the Savior commanded: Whoever wishes to be first among you, let him be the least of all. But what is said according to the Hebrew, And does not grieve a man, agrees with the apostolic testimony, Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, who dwells in you; and in the Gospel according to the Hebrews, which the Nazarenes are accustomed to read, it is placed among the greatest crimes: he who has grieved his brother's spirit. But if the sadness of another kills the one who causes the grief, what must be said of iniquity and a tyrannical mind, when that saying fits, Why do earth and ashes glory?, so that a man, forgetful of his condition, how he is full of phlegm, bile and dung, and shortly to be ploughed through by worms, sets his mouth in heaven, and his tongue passes through even to the earth, and he says with the true Nebuchadnezzar, I will ascend into heaven, above the stars of heaven I will set my throne and I will be like the Most High? ·viii· The eighth is: If he returns the pledge to the debtor; not to every debtor, otherwise for many the occasion of receiving back their pledges would become a means to riches, but to that debtor of whom it is written in the Law that he is poor and has put up his own garment, and ought to receive back his covering before sunset, lest, tormented by cold, he cry out to the Lord, who is the avenger of his injury. But if, according to what follows, we ought to give bread to the hungry and cover the naked with a garment, how much more to return what is his own, provided the debtor's poverty is beyond doubt? We can also return the pledge to the debtor when, to one to whom we are joined in love and who owes us mutual charity, we return his pledge, retaining with us nothing further of his debt. ·viiii· The ninth place is held by: Seizes nothing by force (or, according to the Seventy, does not seize plunder). The Apostle too speaks of plunderers, that among the other sinners one must not even eat with such men; and every plunder is mixed with violence, for unless force has been applied, plunder does not succeed. But there is also a holy violence and a desirable plunder, of which the Gospel writes: From the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent tear it away; of which Jude the brother of James also speaks: And some indeed seize from the fire; but have mercy on others who are judged. On the contrary, the adverse powers hasten to seize their prey to the destruction of those whom they seize, which Jacob too signifies when he says: An evil beast has devoured him, an evil beast has seized Joseph. Hence also the sheep of the Lord which follow him are not seized from his hands, and he himself says: What the Father has given me is greater than all, and no one can seize it from the hand of the Father; from which is seen the one power, might and substance of the Father and the Son: for if no one can seize from the Son's hand what the Father has given, and these same things are in the Father's hand and are not seized from him, it is clearly proved that all things are common to the Father and the Son, and that the Father holds in the Son's hand, just as the things that are the Son's are held in the Father's hand. ·x· The tenth is: Gives his bread to the hungry; by which we are taught that alms are to be given not to the sated but to the hungry, and that bread is to be given not to those who belch with fullness but to those who are tormented by emptiness. In bread, moreover, every food is contained, and 'his' is said significantly, lest we turn into an act of mercy bread acquired from plunder and usury and the misfortune of others: for the redemption indeed of a man's soul is his own riches; which we see many doing who oppress their clients and the poor and the farmers through power, or commit thefts against them, to say nothing of the violence of soldiers and judges, so that out of much they bestow a little on the poor and glory in their crimes; and the deacon reads out publicly in the churches the names of the offerers, 'She offers so much, he has promised so much'; and they are pleased with themselves at the applause of the people, while their conscience torments them; and we give the wretches occasion to rejoice over what they bestow and not to mourn over what they have seized. But it is better for us to understand that the bread of righteousness is he who said, I am the bread who came down from heaven, and whom we pray in prayer to be granted to us: Our substantial bread (or that is to come) give us, so that him whom we shall afterwards receive always, we may deserve to receive daily in the present age. This bread the righteous man gives to the hungry, of whom it is written, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled, because he who is righteous makes the common bread of all his own, the bread which had failed in Judea, as the prophet says: I will take away from them the strength (or the staff) of bread. What we are saying, provided that we are Christ's, or rather what the prophet records, is the bread of believers and of the hungry, which is by no means to be given to those who have eaten and drunk and been sated and, grown fat, have kicked, of whom it is said, Woe to you who are sated now, for you will hunger, lest they vomit it up, as Solomon says: For he will vomit it up and will defile your good words; which the Savior says in other words: Do not give what is holy to dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine. ·xi· The eleventh place is held by: And has covered the naked with a garment, a saying which, according to the explanation of the preceding little verse, must be expounded in two ways: that we both give covering to the naked, as the Savior says, I was naked, and you covered me, and give to those who are naked of faith and virtues the garment of Christ, of whom it is written, For as many of you as were baptized in Christ have put on Christ. Naked of this garment was he who, not having a wedding garment, was thrown out of the banquet. Of this nakedness the Lord also speaks to Jerusalem: You moreover were naked and full of confusion. ·xii· The twelfth number is held by: And does not lend at usury (or, as the Seventy translated, does not give his money at usury). In the Hebrew usury on all kinds of goods is forbidden, in the Seventy only on money, according to what is also written in Psalm 14 (15), Who has not given his money at usury, and as it is said, To your brother you shall not lend at interest, but to a foreigner you shall lend at interest. But see the progress: at the beginning of the Law interest is removed only from brothers; in the prophet usury is forbidden from all, as Ezekiel says, He has not given his money at usury; and further, in the Gospel there is an increase of virtue, as the Lord commands, 'Lend to those from whom you do not hope to receive back'. ·xiii· There follows in the thirteenth place: And does not take more. Some think that usury applies only to money; foreseeing this, divine Scripture removes the surplus on everything, so that you may not receive back more than you gave. In the country it is customary for 'usury', or, as the divine word calls it, 'abundance', to be exacted on grain and millet, wine and oil, and other kinds of goods; for example, that in winter we give ten modii and at harvest receive back fifteen, that is, more by half. He who thinks himself most just will take a fourth part more; and they are accustomed to argue and say: 'I gave one modius, which, when sown, made ten modii. Is it not just that I should receive half a modius more of what is mine, when he, by my generosity, has nine and a half from what is mine?' Do not err, says the Apostle: God is not mocked. For let the merciful moneylender answer us briefly whether he gave to one who had or to one who did not have. If to one who had, he certainly ought not to have given; but he gave as if to one who did not have: why then does he exact more as if from one who has? Others, in return for money lent at interest, are accustomed to accept little gifts of various kinds, and do not understand that whatever it is is called 'usury' and 'surplus' if they have received more than what they gave. ·xiiii· The fourteenth step: From iniquity, he says, he turns away his hand, so that he flees iniquity in every work. For iniquity is committed not only with the hand but with the other members too, as Solomon says, Remove iniquitous lips far from you, and in the Psalms, They have spoken iniquity on high; the foot too runs to iniquity, and the eye, if it covets another man's wife; nor would he be an imitator of him of whom it is said, He did no iniquity and no deceit was found in his mouth. Hence also we are commanded to make friends for ourselves from the unrighteous mammon, who may receive us into the eternal tabernacles. ·xv· The fifteenth is: Does true judgment between man and man (or his neighbor), which seems to mean the same as the first, where it is written, If he is righteous and does judgment; but it adds the 'truth' of the judgment which he does between man and man, or his neighbor: it is seen to have an ἐπίτασιν [intensification] of the virtues. Hence also at the opening of Proverbs, after many precepts, the 'correction' of judgment is added: To know, it says, wisdom and discipline, and to understand the words of prudence, to receive the subtleties of words, and to know true righteousness, and after all things to correct judgment. For this reason the Apostle too rebukes those who are established in the Church, because they have lawsuits among themselves, and the least and despised one is chosen, who according to the Gospel is first, to judge between man and man, he who has put away the things of a child and has attained to the perfect man; and yet he needs a greater discernment to be able to attain to the 'truth' of judgment. ·xvi· There follows in the sixteenth place: Walks in my precepts, ·xvii· and in the seventeenth: Judgments (or my justifications) he keeps, so as to do them, and keeps them once done; each of which has a manifold understanding, if we wish to go over all the commandments of the Law, in which there are said to be precepts of the Lord and in which justifications. Psalm 118 (119) is full of precepts and justifications, and in part Psalm 18 (19), in which it is written, The righteousnesses of the Lord are right, gladdening hearts and the precept of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes; in this the question is raised how God said in this same prophet, I gave them justifications not good, in which they should not live in them; and the answer is easy, and fuller in what follows: that the Jews, following the killing letter, do not live, and the Christians, understanding the life-giving spirit, do live. It would be long, if we wished to prove by testimonies where there are said to be precepts of the Lord and where justifications, and in what differences or obscurities they are each wrapped. Hence too in the present place it is added: This man is righteous, he shall live with life, says the Lord God; he who has done these things and has not done those will by no means be punished for the offenses of his father, but will live by his own virtues.
18:10-13
But if he begets a son who is a robber, shedding blood, and does one of these things (or, as the Seventy translated, and does sins, does not walk in the way of his righteous father), and who does not do all these things, but eats on the mountains, and pollutes his neighbor's wife, grieves the needy and the poor (or oppresses), seizes plunder, does not return the pledge, and lifts up his eyes to idols, commits abomination, gives at usury and takes more: shall he live? He shall not live; since he has done all these detestable things, he shall die by death, his blood shall be upon him. For 'robber' in the Hebrew is written 'pharis', which the second edition of Aquila translated 'sinner', Symmachus 'transgressor', the Seventy and Theodotion 'pestilent'. Just as a pestilence creates diseases and is wont to lay waste far and wide the regions on which it has settled, so the pestilent man ravages everything. And let us speak first according to the history, so that you may know that the iniquities of the fathers do not overflow onto the sons. If the righteous man does what the preceding discourse wove together in order, he shall live with life; but if he begets a son who departs from the service of the Lord and exchanges his father's virtues for vices, so that he does what the father did not do and does not do what the father wrought, will he be able to live? Certainly he will not live, but will be guilty of his own blood. Further, according to the spiritual understanding, if a righteous man of the Church has preached the evangelical faith, and his son and disciple has been deceived by heretical error, the son will be called pestilent, of whom it is written also in Psalm 1, And has not sat in the chair of pestilence, and in Proverbs, The bold and insolent and proud man is called pestilent. He has shed the blood of the deceived and doubles all sins upon himself, eating on the mountains of pride and polluting his neighbor's church, grieving the needy and the poor in the knowledge of the Scriptures, oppressing and supplanting them, seizing as plunder those whom he has seduced from the Church, not returning the pledge which he had received from his teacher so as to fulfill what is written, Freely you have received, freely give, and lifting up his eyes to the idols and images which he has fashioned from his own heart, and committing all abominations, and giving money at usury, so as to increase the teacher's error by the diligence of the disciples, and demanding back from those to whom he gave more than he had given: certainly he will not be able to live, but will die in his own blood.
18:14-18
But if he begets a son who, seeing all the sins of his father which he did, fears and does not do likewise, does not eat upon the mountains and does not lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, and does not violate his neighbor's wife, and does not grieve a man, does not retain the pledge, and does not seize plunder, gives his bread to the hungry, and covers the naked with a garment, turns his hand away from injury to the poor, does not take usury and surplus, does my judgments, walks in my precepts: this man shall not die in the iniquity of his father, but shall live with life. His father, because he practiced calumny and did violence to his brother, and wrought evil in the midst of his people, has died in his iniquity. 'And do not wonder', he says, 'if the son of a righteous man, turning aside to vices and sins, dies by death, since, on the contrary, the son of a sinner and impious man, if he sees the perversity of his father's ways and turns himself so as not to do evil things and to do good things, is not held guilty of his father's crimes'. This can be taken also of us, to whom it is said in the Psalms, Hear, daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and the father's house; and the king will desire your beauty, and who have been born of the stock of the nations: that we should leave behind the crimes of our parents and do judgment and righteousness and live in it. He therefore repeats what we have treated more broadly above, and so we run through everything briefly, wishing to pass on to the things that are more obscure and new.
18:19-20
And you say: Why has the son not borne the iniquity of the father? Clearly because the son has wrought judgment and righteousness, has kept all my precepts, and has done them: he shall live with life. The soul that sins, it shall die: the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, and the father the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the impiety of the impious shall be upon him. He solves the question which the hearer could raise as an objection: 'You are accustomed', he says, 'to say: Why has the righteous son not borne the iniquity of the father?'; to which he himself replied: 'Clearly because the son has done well and has not committed his father's offenses'. And it is just that, as the sinner dies in his crime, so the righteous man should live in his virtues; and that the soul that sins should die, and he who keeps the precepts of God should live.
18:21-22a
But if the impious man repents of all his sins which he has wrought, and keeps all my precepts, and does judgment and righteousness, he shall live with life and shall not die. Of all his iniquities which he has wrought I will not be mindful. 'To such a degree', he says, 'do the sins of the fathers not overflow onto the sons, nor does a criminal father weigh down a righteous son, nor are some punished for the crimes of others, that one and the same man who was formerly impious and a sinner, if afterwards he repents and, turned to better things, blots out his former sins, is not judged by the oldness of his sin, but is received into my flock by the renewal of virtue'. And at the same time it must be considered what kind of impious man and sinner he receives as a penitent: 'If from all his sins', he says, 'which he has wrought he turns himself away, and keeps all the precepts of the Lord, so, namely, that he abandons all crimes and follows all virtues; if he does all good things and forsakes all evil things, I too will forget all his iniquities which he has wrought'.
18:22b
In his righteousness which he has wrought he shall live. 'He shall live not so much by my righteousness as by his own, although it belongs to my righteousness to render good things to the good and evil things to the evil'.
18:23
Is the death of the impious man of my will, says the Lord God, and not that he should turn from his ways and live? Therefore it is of the Lord's will that all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth; and wherever the sentence of God seems severe and ferocious, he condemns not men but sins.
18:24
But if the righteous man turns himself away from his righteousness, and does iniquity according to all the abominations which the impious man is accustomed to work, shall he live? All his righteousnesses which he had done shall not be remembered; in the transgression by which he transgressed and in his sin which he sinned, in it he shall die. Just as old offenses do not weigh down the righteous man who was formerly a sinner, so former righteousnesses do not help the sinner who was formerly righteous; each one is judged in that in which he is found.
18:25
And you have said: The way of the Lord is not equitable. Hear, house of Israel: Is my way not equitable, and are not rather your ways crooked? He gives the reasons why the sentence of the Lord is just: 'Do you think me unjust', he says, 'in rendering the sins of the fathers to the sons, so that while some eat the sour grape, the teeth of others are set on edge? Behold, each one dies in his own sin and is given life in his own righteousness; in both cases, not the things past but the things present. Rather it is your sentence that is unjust, you who think that the parable is not a parable, but take it as though it were the truth of history, that the crimes of some are punished in others'.
18:26
For when the righteous man turns himself away from his righteousness and does iniquity, he shall die in them: in the iniquity which he has wrought he shall die. This can be understood thus: the people of Israel, formerly righteous, turned itself away from its righteousness, because it abandoned the author of righteousness, and did iniquity by denying the Son of God; in the sin and crime which it wrought it will die, not in many but in one, killing the heir so that it lost the inheritance.
18:27-28
And when the impious man turns himself away from his impiety which he has wrought, and does judgment and righteousness, he has given life to his own soul; for, considering, he has turned himself away from all his iniquities which he has wrought; he shall live with life, and shall not die. 'On the contrary', he says, 'the people of the nations, not having the knowledge of God, and impious, if it turns itself away from its impiety which it formerly wrought in idolatry, and does the things which were commanded to Israel in the Law, has itself, formerly dead, given life to its own soul; and seeing that it had perished in the iniquities which it wrought, it will believe in him who says, 'I am the way and the life and the truth'; it shall live with life, and shall not die'.
18:29
And the sons of Israel say: The way of the Lord is not equitable. Are my ways not equitable, house of Israel, and are not rather your ways crooked? To this day Israel blasphemes God: why has he abandoned his people and taken up the multitude of the nations? The Lord rebukes them because their ways are crooked, while the sentence of the Lord is just: having despised or destroyed the former tenants, he sends other farmers into his vineyard; understanding which, in the parable of the Gospel, the Jews said: This shall not be.
18:30a
Therefore I will judge each one of you according to his ways, house of Israel, says the Lord God. Whether those who are judged are from the multitude of the Gentiles or from the people of Israel, there is no respect of persons with God, but each one will be crowned by his own faith, and condemned by impiety and unbelief.
18:30b-31a
Turn, and repent of all your iniquities, and iniquity shall not be a ruin to you. Cast away from you all your transgressions by which you have transgressed. This word is properly directed to Israel, that they should repent and abandon their iniquities, or transgressions, by which they transgressed against God. But it can also be understood of both peoples, so that both Israel and the crowd of the nations, abandoning their vices, may turn to him who is able to heal their bruises.
18:31b
'And make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit, so that, abandoning the oldness of the letter, you may live in the newness of the spirit'. The new heart of Israel is to believe in him whom it had formerly denied; the new heart of the nations is to abandon idols and, having despised the cult of the dead, to believe in him who is the God of the living.
18:31c
And why will you die, house of Israel? It is better, as we said above, to take this exhortation, in which it is written, Turn, and repent, as addressed to the person of the Jews, whom he does not wish to die and to whom he is now speaking: 'Why will you die, house of Israel, you who have as fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — of whom it is written, The God of the living and not of the dead —? Why will you die by your own fault, you who ought to live by the merit of your fathers and by my mercy?'
18:32
For I do not want the death of the dying sinner, says the Lord God; return and live. 'I do not want you to die', he says, 'whom I begot in salvation: for sons indeed I have begotten and exalted, but they have despised me; return therefore and live'. Return is not said except to those who were formerly with God and afterwards deserted his company. And live through repentance, you who are dead through sin. Therefore Israel, because it does not return to its former state, must be believed to be dead.
19:1-9
And you, take up a lament over the princes of Israel, and you shall say: Why did your mother, a lioness, lie down among lions, in the midst of young lions rear her whelps? And she brought out one of her young lions, he became a lion, and he learned to catch prey and to devour man. And the nations heard of him, and not without wounds of their own they caught him, and they brought him in chains into the land of Egypt. And when she had seen that she was weakened and her expectation had perished, she took one of her young lions, she made him a lion. He went about among the lions and became a lion, he learned to catch prey and to devour men; he learned to make widows, and to bring their cities into a desert, and the land and its fullness was made desolate by the sound of his roaring. And the nations gathered against him from every side, from the provinces, and they spread their net over him; in their wounds he was caught. And they put him into a cage, in chains, and they brought him to the king of Babylon; and they put him into prison, so that his voice should no longer be heard upon the mountains of Israel. (LXX: "And you, take a lamentation over the prince of Israel, and you shall say: Why has your mother become a whelp in the midst of lions, in the midst of lions she multiplied her whelps? And one of her whelps sprang forth, he became a lion, and he learned to seize spoils, he devoured men. And the nations heard against him, in their corruption he was caught, and they brought him in a muzzle into the land of Egypt. And she saw that he had been taken away from her and that her substance had perished, and she took another of her whelps, she made him a lion. And he went about in the midst of the lions, he became a lion, and he learned to seize spoils, he devoured men; and he fed in his boldness, and he brought their cities to a desert, and he laid waste the land and its fullness by the sound of his roaring. And he set nations against him round about from the regions, and they spread their nets over him, in their corruption he was caught. And they put him in a muzzle and in a cage, he came to the king of Babylon; and they brought him into prison, so that his voice should not be heard any longer upon the mountains of Israel.") I know that I have read in this place a manifold explanation, and one entangled in such great obscurities that it did not so much open up the reading as wrap it up, since it refers everything that is written to the opposing powers and describes lions and wars in the heavenly Jerusalem, how one of them was captured and another was in turn set up in his place; and it sets out many testimonies that the devil and his companions are customarily called lions, such as that saying of the apostle Peter: Our adversary the devil goes about like a roaring lion and seeks how he may enter, and that of the Psalms: Do not hand over to the beasts the souls that confess to you; certainly, when it comes to the history, it says that Johanan the son of Kareah was led into Egypt (how he, fleeing with a few men, is to be called a lion, I am unable to know), and that the other lion is Zedekiah, who was himself also led into Babylon. But we, leaving explanations of this kind to the judgment of the reader, say that, with the captivity close at hand, the prophet is not so much foretelling things to come as narrating things past. For after the sixth year of King Zedekiah — since immediately in what follows we read: And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month — a lament is taken up over the princes — or the prince — of Israel, and it is said: Why did your mother, a lioness, lie down among lions? The lament, then, is over the princes, namely all who were begotten of the stock of Josiah. Jerusalem, the mother of the princes, is called a lioness, who bore and reared young lions, and brought out one of her young lions and made him a lion, signifying Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, whom Pharaoh Neco led into Egypt, and in his place he set up Jehoiakim; and when he had died, Jeconiah his son, having been made king, was led to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar together with his mother and the nobles of the city; of him is born Shealtiel, the father of Zerubbabel, who received his name from the fact that he was born in Babylon. And it is plain that under the μεταφορᾷ [metaphor] of the lioness, of the young lions and of the lion, and again of another lion, those things are described which had already been done at the time when the prophet was saying these things. For after Jerusalem had brought out Jehoahaz the son of Josiah from the royal stock and made him king, he proved so cruel in a short time that he is related, tropologically, to have caught prey and devoured men. When the Egyptian had come against him, he caught him not without wounds — or in a pit, as is properly contained in the Hebrew, so as to preserve the tropological capture of lions, which are always caught in pits — and he brought him in a muzzle, or in chains, into the land of Egypt, and there he died. When his mother Jerusalem, who had borne him, who had reared him, who had set him in the kingship, had seen that her expectation had perished, she took from among the other kings Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, and set him up as king. He too, having imitated the cruelty of his predecessor, is described under the ferocity of a lion, in that he devoured men, made many widows, brought cities to a desert, and at the sound of his roaring the whole province was terrified, so that the nations gathered against him and spread their net and caught him in a pit and put him in a cage and in chains — not that this was done to Jeconiah: for he gave himself up to the king of Babylonia and was carried off into Chaldea; but so that the metaphor of the lion may be preserved, which is caught in pits and bound with chains and kept in cages —. Otherwise, according to the history, we read this of Zedekiah, who was set up as king of Jerusalem after Jeconiah — and this is what gave occasion for most people to understand Zedekiah rather than Jeconiah, because chains are read of, and cages, and a prison is named —; he was, then, kept in prison and not put to death, and was only removed from the kingship. But the history relates that Zedekiah was led blind into Babylon and there immediately killed.
19:10-14
Your mother is like a vine in your blood, planted upon the water; its fruits and its leaves grew from many waters; and it had solid rods for the scepters of rulers, and its stature was exalted into leaves, and it saw its height in the multitude of its shoots. And it was plucked up in wrath, and cast down to the ground, and the burning wind dried up its fruits; the rods of its strength withered and were dried up, fire devoured it. And now it is transplanted into the desert, in a land impassable and thirsty. And fire went out from the rod of its branches, which devoured its fruit; and there was not in it a strong rod, a scepter of rulers. It is a lament, and it shall be for a lament. (LXX: "Your mother is like a vine, like a flower on pomegranates, planted in water; its fruit and its sprout came from much water; and it had a rod of strength for a tribe of leaders, and it was exalted in its greatness in the midst of its offshoots, and it saw its greatness in the multitude of its shoots. And broken in fury, it was cast to the ground, and the burning wind dried up its choice parts; they were avenged, and the rod of its strength was dried up, fire consumed it. And now they have planted it in the desert, in a land without water. And fire went out from the rod of its choice ones, and devoured it, and there was not in it a rod of strength. A tribe is in a parable of lamentation, and it shall be for a lament.") One thing is said in different words; and just as in the earlier passages we read that Jerusalem was compared to a beautiful woman, and again to a lioness who reared lions in her lair, so now she is compared to a vine-stock or a most beautiful vine planted upon many waters; and that therefore its shoots, nourished by the moisture, grew so much that one shoot, which Scripture calls a most solid or most strong rod, advanced 'into the scepters of rulers' — for which the Seventy rendered 'into a tribe of leaders' — so, namely, that kings should be made from it. And the vine itself was of such beauty that the splendor of its greenness was made equal to the flowers of the pomegranate, which is what is said in the Hebrew, like a vine in your blood, the redness of its flowers being compared to blood. The vine, then, was exalted and raised up; because God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble, it was plucked up in the fury of the Lord and cast down to the ground, so that the elegant metaphor of the vine-stock might preserve the ruins of Jerusalem; for however beautiful a vine may be and however far it stretches out with long runners, unless you raise up stakes and reeds, joined to the earth it dries up from the heat, especially if the burning wind, which the Greeks call καύσωνα [the scorching wind], has dried up its fruits, so that it withers and is burned as though by the blazing heat of fire. But as for what has been added in the Seventy, And they were avenged, in place of what is written in the Hebrew, They withered, what coherence it can have I am unable to know. That vine, then, of such abundance and of such fruits and of such beauty, how is it now carried over into the desert, in a land impassable and thirsty? And it signifies the land of Babylon, to which they were carried over, or Egypt, where they fled for refuge, or the land of Judea itself, in which a few poor people remained, over whom Gedaliah was set to gather and rule the remnant of the people; against him there rose up, from the royal stock and from the rod of the branches of the vine, Ishmael, who killed him at Mizpah and devoured all the fruit of the vine; and from then on there was not in that vine a strong rod and a scepter of rulers: for none of the kings remained to govern the people, but with Johanan, the son of Kareah, they fled to Egypt. Therefore it is a lament and a parable of lamentation, so that the royal line may be lamented, which will thenceforth cease in Judea until he should come for whom it is reserved: And he was the expectation of the nations. From this it is plain that both the earlier reading, in which it is said: Why did your mother, a lioness, lie down among lions?, and this one, in which it is written: Your mother is like a vine in your blood, planted upon water, pertain to Jerusalem, which lost her lions and her shoots, and there did not remain in her a rod that might rise up into a tribe or into the scepters of rulers. For it begins from a lament and ends in a lament: Take up a lament over the princes of Israel, that is, at the beginning, and now at the end: It is a lament; and the royal stock is to be attended by the lamentation and lament of the parable. Moreover, according to the ἀναγωγὴν [anagogy, the higher sense], what others refer to the heavenly Jerusalem — so as to say that from it very many fell down into this valley of tears, and that kings ceased to be, and that the once most beautiful vine was dried up by the burning wind, so that none of its green shoots remained in it, the vine which Jeremiah afterwards laments under the figure of the city — we understand of the Church — because in the last time, iniquity having been multiplied, the love of many grows cold, so that if it can be, even the elect of God are tested, and her princes are caught in the nets of the devil, who is not content with the capture of one king but hastens daily to capture kings and princes, according to what is written: His foods are choice —. The shoots of the Church too, which formerly were equaled to flowers and to the redness of blood, are afterwards dried up by the burning wind; and this exposition the parable of the Gospel also sounds forth, in which, when the sun had risen, the things that had sprouted were scorched and suddenly dried up, so that scarcely one of the shoots remains to rise up into a rod and become a worthy prince of the people, which Isaiah says in other words: I will bring famine and thirst upon the land, and not a famine of bread and a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of God. Hence we must lament and wail over the princes of Israel, through whose vice and pride Judea was deserted, and Jerusalem was captured.
20:1
And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth, on the tenth of the month, there came men of the elders of Israel to inquire of the Lord, and they sat before me. Eleven months and five days after the previous vision, the word again comes to the prophet, after some of the elders of the house of Israel had come to inquire of the Lord and had sat before him. That it was the custom of the people of Israel to seek from the Lord through the prophets whatever they desired to know, many examples testify: Saul, looking for the asses, goes to Samuel and received advice from the servant boy to offer the prophet the fourth part of a shekel; when the son of Jeroboam fell ill, his wife is sent to Shiloh to the prophet Ahijah, bringing little gifts, loaves and cakes, grapes and a small jar of honey, to learn about her son's sickness; David too, a prophet, inquires of another prophet, Nathan, whether he ought to build a temple to the Lord; and Ahab asks whether he should go up to Ramoth-gilead or not; in Isaiah also and in the volume of Kings the things that were to come upon Sennacherib are announced. Nor is it surprising if in the Old Testament the prophets announce to individuals the things that are to come, since we read that Agabus prophesied the things that were to come upon Paul; for it is written in Deuteronomy: The nations which the Lord is about to destroy in your sight, these will listen to dreams and divinations; but to you the Lord your God has not granted it so: for it belongs to the nations to resort to Chaldeans, soothsayers, haruspices, diviners, lot-casters, the oracles of demons, by which their error is mocked. Hence now too the elders of Israel approach the prophet in order to inquire of the Lord through him, and yet they are silent about their question, while he who was to be questioned knew what they were asking, so that in this too there might be a miracle: to know why they had come and to answer the things that a silent speech held within their mind.
20:2-3
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Have you come to inquire of me? As I live, I will not answer you, says the Lord God. To the saints and to those who ask fitting things a promise is given: 'While you are still speaking I will say: Behold, I am here'; but to sinners, such as the elders of Israel were, whose crimes the prophet describes in what follows, no answer is given, but a rebuke for their sins, and he adds an oath: As I live, so that the sentence of the one who refuses may be the firmer. What the Seventy said: If I answer you, Symmachus translated more plainly: I will not answer you.
20:4a
If you judge them, if you judge, son of man. (LXX: "If I avenge them with vengeance, son of man.") 'They indeed came to inquire, wishing to learn the future concerning the things about which they are in doubt. But you, son of man, judge them, so that there may be no prophet's answer, but the sentence of one who judges, for the iniquities which they have committed, and they have followed the crimes of their fathers'; or certainly: If I avenge them with vengeance, so that the sense is: 'They are covered with such great iniquity that they are not worthy even of correction and reproof', according to what is said in the prophet: I will no longer visit your daughters and your daughters-in-law, when they have committed adultery. Hence sinners too, who have come into the depth of sin, are let go to do the desires of their heart.
20:4b-5a
Show them the abominations of their fathers. And you shall say to them. (LXX: "Testify to them the iniquities of their fathers, and you shall say to them.") If the sins of the fathers do not overflow onto the sons, how is it that the abominations and iniquities of the fathers are now set before the elders? For this reason, evidently: that they may be shown to act like their parents and, by a hereditary evil, to drag a very long rope of sins, so that they may dread the punishments of those whose vices they imitate.
20:5b-6
Thus says the Lord God: On the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up my hand for the stock of the house of Jacob, and appeared to them in the land of Egypt, and lifted up my hand for them, saying: I am the Lord your God. On that day I lifted up my hand for them, to lead them out of the land of Egypt into the land which I had provided for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is excellent among all lands. (LXX: "Thus says the Lord God: From the day on which I chose the house of Israel, and became known to the seed of the house of Jacob, and was known to them in the land of Egypt, and took them up, saying: I am the Lord your God. On that day I took hold of them with my hand, saying, to lead them out of the land of Egypt into the land which I prepared for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, it is a honeycomb beyond all lands.") For what the Seventy said: It is a honeycomb beyond all lands, for which we translated: It is excellent among all lands, the first edition of Aquila put 'firm support', the second 'renowned', Symmachus 'region', Theodotion 'strength', namely because this land is the foundation of all lands, because in it are the religion of God and the temple and the ceremonies and the knowledge of God; and so far was the people of Israel, settled in Egypt, from knowing God, that Moses, sent to them: If they ask, he says, me: Who sent you?, what shall I say to them? Say, he says, to them: He who is, sent me. In Egypt, then, he became known to the people and to the seed of the house of Jacob, when he lifted up his hand for them against the Egyptians, and said: I am the Lord your God, and he chose them to lead them out of the land of Egypt to a land flowing with milk and honey; for they were not yet able to take solid food, but like little children and sucklings they needed the honey and milk of infancy. According to the letter, however, that the land of Judea is renowned and more fertile than all lands, no one will be able to doubt who has considered the whole land from Rhinocorura as far as Mount Taurus and the river Euphrates, and the power of its cities and the pleasantness of its regions, namely Palestine and Phoenicia, Arabia, Coele-Syria, Cilicia, and the other regions which the Lord promised to Israel if he had kept the precepts of God; and that he did not receive them was the fault of his unbelief. For even in Palestine itself and the province of Judea very many nations remained which were not driven out; for the guarantor is not to blame if the one to whom the promise is made has made himself unworthy of the pledge, especially since the one who promises sets out a choice: If you are willing and listen to me, you shall eat the good things of the land. But if you are unwilling, the sword shall devour you. They are chosen, then, according to the present, and it does not follow that one who is chosen cannot be tempted or perish, since both Saul, chosen as king, and Judas, chosen as apostle, afterward fell by their own fault. The lifting up of the hand, or its stretching out, shows the posture of one who strikes: that he might strike the Egyptians for them and free the people of Israel from Egypt.
20:7
And he said to them: Let each one cast away the offenses of his eyes, and do not be defiled with the idols of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. (LXX: "And he said to them: Let each one cast away the abominations of his eyes, and let him not be defiled with the inventions of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.") For 'offenses', which in Hebrew are called 'seccuse', Symmachus translated 'nauseating things', the second edition of Aquila 'cuttings-off', so as to signify that bleariness must be cast away from the eyes, and a kind of nausea which not only hinders the sight but also produces vomiting in those who look at it; 'gelule' too is a Hebrew word, which the Seventy translated 'inventions', the first edition of Aquila 'defilements', the second, and Symmachus and Theodotion, 'idols', whom we too have followed for the present. He commanded them, as they were first going out of Egypt, to forget the idols which they had served for a long time; to cast them away from their eyes, so as not to hold them worthy even of a glance, and no longer to give consent to the things by which they had long been defiled. I, he says, am the Lord your God, not the portents of Egypt, not the fabrications of various monsters. But we too, when we go out of Egypt, are commanded to cast away the offenses of our eyes, namely so that we may not take delight in the things in which we formerly took delight in the world, lest we be defiled with the images of Egypt, that is, with the inventions of the philosophers and of the heretics, which are rightly called idols. Let us also turn our eyes away from the spectacles, or rather the offenses, of Egypt: of the arena, the circus, the theaters, and all the things that defile the purity of the soul and enter the mind through the senses; and what is written is fulfilled: Death will come in through your windows.
20:8a
And they provoked me. (LXX: "And they withdrew from me.") Or, as Symmachus translated: They did not consent to me; and as soon as they are called, they withdraw from God, so that there is no interval between the calling and the withdrawal. And this is to be noted, that no one withdraws from God except one who was formerly with him; hence the dragon too in the book of Job is called ἀποστάτης, a transgressor and one who withdraws.
20:8b
And they would not listen; each one did not cast away the abominations of his eyes, nor did they abandon the idols of Egypt. (LXX: "And they would not listen to me; they did not cast away the abominations of their eyes, and did not abandon the inventions of Egypt.") 'For this reason', he says, 'they provoked me and withdrew from me: because they would not listen, while man's free will is preserved, and they did all the things which I commanded in the law that they should not do, at once despairing of salvation and muttering against Moses, and distrusting the promises of God'. There follows:
20:8c
And I said that I would pour out my indignation upon them, and fulfill my wrath on them in the midst of the land of Egypt. 'As soon as I commanded them to leave or cast away the offenses of their eyes and by no means to be defiled with the idols of Egypt, they provoked me and would not listen to what I said, but on the contrary did what I had commanded should not be done. Therefore I had decreed to pour out on them my fury and my indignation and to fulfill my wrath, which I had conceived in my mind, in the midst of Egypt, upon those who had not yet gone out of Egypt'. For there follows: I therefore cast them out of the land of Egypt and led them down into the desert, from which it is shown that they had not yet gone out of the land of Egypt when he wished to pour out his indignation and fulfill his wrath upon them and to strike them in the midst of the land of Egypt.
20:9
And I acted for my name's sake, that it might not be profaned before the nations in whose midst they were, and among whom I appeared to them, to lead them out of the land of Egypt. 'What I was thinking of doing on account of justice I did not do on account of the greatness of my clemency, lest my name be defiled and I should seem not to have been able to fulfill what I had promised to Israel. I spared my name, then, lest the nations among whom I became known to them in the land of Egypt should have occasion to blaspheme'. Up to this point the prophet describes what he promised them while they were settled in the land of Egypt, and how they at once gave offense, and what the Lord thought of doing against them and yet did not do; what follows he spoke to them after they had gone out of Egypt.
20:10-14
I therefore cast them out of the land of Egypt, and led them out into the desert. And I gave them my precepts, and showed them my judgments, which a man should do and live in them. Moreover I also gave them my sabbaths, that it might be a sign between me and them, and that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. And the house of Israel provoked me in the desert: they did not walk in my precepts, and they cast away my judgments, which, if a man does them, he shall live in them, and they violated my sabbaths exceedingly. I said therefore that I would pour out my fury upon them in the desert and consume them. And I acted for my name's sake, that it might not be profaned before the nations from which I cast them out in their sight. These things are said to those who were led out of Egypt into the desert, so that, freed from the vices of the Egyptians, they might more easily fulfill the precepts of God in the wilderness and do his judgments and keep the sabbaths, which were given as a sign between the one who gave them and those to whom they were given, as Scripture says: The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Command the children of Israel and you shall say to them: See that you keep my sabbaths, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you; and keep the sabbath, for it is holy to you: whoever violates it shall surely die; everyone who does work on it, that soul shall be put to death from the midst of its people. So the sabbath and circumcision were given as a sign of the true sabbath and the true circumcision: that we may know that we must rest from earthly works in the perfect and true sabbath, and that we should circumcise not the foreskin but the heart. Hence, working for six days, we rest on the seventh day, so that day and night we may do nothing else than recognize that all that we live is owed to the Lord, and, as the week comes round again, consecrate ourselves wholly to his name, so that through the sanctification of the day we may remember the Lord who sanctifies us. These precepts and ordinances and the observance of the sabbath the Lord gave in the desert, so that doing them they might live in them, not that they should pass from them to greater things, as is promised in the Gospel; and these they violated, not once nor a little but exceedingly, so that the ἐπίτασις [intensification] of the violation might be shown. He said, therefore, and decreed in his mind, that he would pour out his fury upon them in the desert and consume them, when he spoke to Moses: Let me alone, and, angered with fury against them, I will destroy them; but he would not do it, sparing the Egyptians and the other nations, lest they be scandalized, and them as well, on whom he had mercy, awaiting the repentance of those who would turn back. And it is to be noted that, when he was speaking to them while they were settled in Egypt, after the offense: I acted, he says, for my name's sake, that it might not be profaned before the nations, but now he says: I acted for my name's sake, that it might not be profaned before the nations from which I cast them out in their sight; for then they were still in their midst, not yet having gone out, but now, after they have gone out, it is said: From which I cast them out in their sight.
20:15-17
I therefore lifted up my hand over them into the desert, not to bring them into the land which I gave them, flowing with milk and honey, the foremost of all lands; because they cast away my judgments, and did not walk in my precepts, and violated my sabbaths, for their heart went after idols. And my eye spared them, so that I did not kill them; nor did I consume them in the desert. (LXX: "And I lifted up my hand over them in the desert, so as not at all to bring them into the land which I gave them, a land flowing with milk and honey, it is a honeycomb beyond every land; because they rejected my ordinances, and did not walk in my precepts, and violated my sabbaths, and they walk after the thoughts of their hearts. And my eye spared them, so that I did not wipe them out; and I did not kill them to consumption in the desert.") 'I had indeed decreed to pour out all my fury upon them and to wipe them out and consume them, but I acted for my name's sake, that it might not be profaned among the nations — namely the Amalekites and the rest, which fought against them in the wilderness —, so that I would by no means bring them into the land which I promised them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the foremost of all lands — or a honeycomb —'. The cause of the punishment and of this sentence is: Because they cast away my judgments, and did not walk in my precepts, and violated the sabbaths; and the cause of that cause is this: that they did not do these things because their heart followed the idols of Egypt. 'But my eye', he says, 'spared them, so that I did not kill them and wipe them out: so that I did not consume them altogether'; in which it is asked how he spared those whose corpses lay in the wilderness and, except for Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, no one entered the land of promise. From this we understand that they live, and are not reserved for eternal punishments, nor blotted out of the book of the living, nor consumed before the face of the Lord; for if, because they were not brought into the land of promise, they must be believed to have perished, then Moses too perished, who only saw the land of promise and did not enter it, of whom the Lord speaks in the book of Joshua: Moses my servant is dead, and in Malachi: Remember the law of Moses my servant, and in Jeremiah God speaks of him as of his friend and most intimate: If Moses and Samuel should stand in my sight? Otherwise we must also believe that the prayers of Moses were heard, when, interceding for the people, he says: If you forgive them their sin, forgive; but if you will not, blot me too out of your book. And that the sentence of the Lord against sons and servants is not perdition but correction, let us hear the testimonies of the Scriptures: Son, do not be saddened at the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked by him: for whom the Lord loves he corrects, and he scourges every son whom he receives, and in another place: When he slew them, then they sought him, and in the song of Deuteronomy: I will kill and I will make alive. We can also say this according to the letter: that he did not wipe them out nor consume them along with their stock and offspring, but, when the fathers had been killed, he spared the sons, whom he brought into the land of promise.
20:18-20
But he said to their sons in the wilderness: In the precepts (or statutes) of your fathers do not walk, and neither with their idols nor keep their judgments (or be defiled by thoughts). I am the Lord your God: walk in my precepts, and keep my judgments and do them, and sanctify my sabbaths, that it may be a sign between me and you, and that it may be known (or that you may know) that I am the Lord your God. After the slaying of the fathers who fell in the wilderness, he gives precepts to the sons, in whose salvation he had mercy on the fathers: 'And the eye of the Lord', he says, 'spared them, so as not to kill them altogether and wipe them out, but to preserve the fathers in the sons'; and he testifies to them the same things that he also spoke to the fathers: that, after they have walked in his precepts and kept his judgments and observed the sanctification of the sabbath, which was given as a sign, they may then know that he is the Lord their God. By the precepts and statutes of the fathers and their judgments he signifies ingrained error, so that they may not imitate the sins of those whose torments they behold.
20:21-22
And the sons exasperated me; they did not walk in my precepts, and did not keep my judgments to do them, which, when a man has done them, he shall live in them, and they violated my sabbaths; and I threatened to pour out my fury upon them, and to fulfill my wrath on them in the desert. But I turned back my hand and acted for my name's sake, that it might not be profaned before the nations from which I cast them out in their eyes. 'But the sons too', he says, 'followed the crimes of their parents and did all that those had done; hence they too deserved a like sentence; but they were preserved by the same greatness of my mercy as their fathers too, and for the same reasons for which I also had mercy on the fathers, so that I, the one and the same Creator of both, might soften my wrath with a like patience'. We run through the plain things so as to pass on to the more obscure.
20:23-26
Again I lifted up my hand against them in the wilderness, to scatter them among the nations and winnow them into the lands, because they had not done my judgments, and had rejected my precepts, and had violated my sabbaths, and their eyes had been after the idols (or thoughts) of their fathers. Therefore I too gave them precepts not good, and judgments in which they shall not live; and I defiled them in their gifts, when they offered (or made pass over) everything that opens the womb, for their transgressions (for which the Seventy translated that I might destroy them. And what they passed over:), and they shall know that I am the Lord. Where in the Old Testament the Lord lifted up his hand against the sons of those who fell in the wilderness, wishing to scatter them among the nations, Scripture does not say, but from what he relates here we must believe that it happened; or else this signifies that, after they had entered the land of promise, at various times on account of many sins they were handed over to diverse nations and kings, and at that time the precepts of the Lord and the judgments, which were good by their nature and in which believers could live, were made not good for them, since in captivity they were by no means able to keep the precepts of the law and do what the divine word commanded; nor did he say: I gave them 'evil' precepts, but 'not good' — for it does not at once follow that what is not good is evil, as the Apostle too teaches: that it is good for a man not to touch a wife or a woman, but, because of incontinence, for each one to possess his own vessel in sanctification and chastity; and if he does this, it is neither good nor evil —; so God gave them, scattered among the nations, precepts not good — that is, he gave them up to their own thoughts and desires —, so that they did what is not fitting; and he defiled them in their gifts, like a priest separating the lepers from the people and declaring them to be defiled, while they offer to idols what they ought to offer to God; and they make everything that opens the womb, that is, the firstborn, pass through the fire to Baal, so that, after they have been abandoned by God and handed over to the worship of idols, they may then understand that he is the Lord whom by their own fault they roused to anger. Symmachus translated this passage more plainly, putting the future for the past: Therefore I too will give them precepts not good, and judgments on account of which they shall not live, and I will defile them on account of their gifts; because they consecrate and make pass over what opens the womb, that I may destroy them, and they may know that I am the Lord; and the sense is: 'Because I saw that the sons were equaling the crimes of their fathers and doing the same things for which those had offended God, I wished to divide them among the nations, and scatter them through the whole world, and give them precepts not good, and judgments in which they would not live, so as to defile them in their gifts, because they were consecrating all the firstborn to idols, and to destroy them forever, and that they might know that I am the Lord'. He shows that he did not give the precepts not good to those who were staying in the desert, but that to those whom he wished to scatter among the nations and make strangers throughout the whole world he had thought of giving what he did not give, so that there, by their own fault, they would make the good precepts of God not good, while they present to idols what God had commanded to be presented to himself. This too can be said: that before the offense they received only the Decalogue, but after the idolatry and blasphemy the manifold ceremonies of the law, so that they would rather offer to God the victims which they were offering to demons, and, by comparison with sacrilege, what was not good in itself would become lighter: by no means evil, because they were offered to God, and yet not good, because they had offended the author of good.
20:27-29
Wherefore speak to the house of Israel, son of man, and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Still in this too your fathers blasphemed me, when they had spurned me with contempt, and I had brought them into the land over which I lifted up my hand to give it to them; they saw every high hill and every leafy tree, and they sacrificed their victims there, and there they gave the provocation of their offering, and there they set their odor of sweetness and poured out their libations. And I said to them: What is the high place to which you go in? And its name was called 'high place' to this day. (LXX: "Therefore speak to the house of Israel, son of man, and you shall say to them: Thus says Adonai the Lord: Even to this your fathers provoked me to anger in their transgressions by which they fell away against me, and I brought them into the land over which I lifted up my hand to hand it over to them; and they saw every high hill and every leafy tree, and they sacrificed there to their gods and set the fury of their gifts, and set there the odor of their fragrance, and poured out there their libations. And I said to them: What is ἀβανὰ [abana, a transliteration], that you go in there? And they called its name ἀβανὰ to this present day.") 'I wished', he says, 'to scatter them among all the nations when they sinned in the wilderness and to give them precepts not good, so that they would sacrifice to idols what they ought to have offered to me, and consecrate to them all their firstborn through fire, so that I might kill them and wipe them out'. — When he says 'I wished', he shows that he did not do what he wished. And what follows: They shall know that I am the Lord, is not found in the Seventy; for it did not seem to them consistent that after the slaying they should know that he is the Lord —. 'But you, son of man, speak again to them, that is, to the elders of the house of Israel who came to inquire of you: Your fathers, from whose stock you are descended, blasphemed me in this too and held me for nothing: after I had brought them into the land, which they possessed by my strength, which I had given them to possess, they turned it to provoking me; for when they had seen every high hill and leafy tree, they sacrificed on the mountains and in the groves and in the woodlands, and sacrificed victims to idols, and poured out offerings; and when I saw this, I said to them: What is 'bama' — for this means 'high place' —, or why do you go into such a place, which you have chosen for yourselves on all the hills, so that to this day places of this kind are called 'bamoth' and the ancient error keeps its former name?'. For 'bama', which we rendered as 'high place', an error has prevailed in the edition of the Seventy, so that ἀβανὰ is written, which means nothing in the Hebrew language; 'bama', if you divide its two syllables into two words, can mean 'in what', but that sense does not fit the present passage; but wherever it is written in the books of Kings and Chronicles: Still the people burned incense and sacrificed on the high place, 'bama' in the singular and 'bamoth' in the plural mean 'high places'.
20:30-31
Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: You are defiled in the way of your fathers, and you commit fornication after their stumbling-blocks, and in the offering of your gifts, when you make your sons pass through the fire, you are defiled with all your idols to this day; and shall I answer you, house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord God, I will not answer you. 'You imitate the vices of your fathers and walk by the same ways, so that like offenses deserve a like punishment too; and you have advanced so far in crimes that you consecrate your sons to demons through fire, nor is it enough to have done this once, but even at present you do the same things; not that the elders in captivity do these things, but that those who were staying in Jerusalem and over whom captivity was hanging do not cease to do all these things. And when you are bound by such great outrages, do you seek', he says, 'my answer? As I live, says the Lord, and I swear by my own self, I will not answer you'. And what follows:
20:32-33
Nor shall the thought of your mind come to pass, of you who say: We will be like the nations and like the families of the earth, to worship wood and stones. As I live, says the Lord God, with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with fury poured out I will reign over you, has this sense: 'Do not think that your thoughts, by which you blaspheme against me, can be fulfilled; for you say: We do not wish to be under the Lord nor to be called his people, but, as all the nations in the whole world are, and each people lives by its own will, so as to worship wood and stones and serve idols, we too will be one nation out of many'. To which God replies, and swears by himself, and says: 'I will not leave you nor despise you, as negligent masters are accustomed to despise runaway slaves, but I will drag you back to my rule, and with arm outstretched and striking I will reduce you to your former servitude and reign over you, so that, whether you will or not, you may have me as king, and may feel as an angry king him whose clemency you neglected'.
20:34
And I will lead you out from the peoples, and gather you from the lands in which you are scattered; with a mighty hand, and an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out I will reign over you. 'I will not suffer you', he says, 'to be among the nations nor to be held in eternal captivity, but I will lead you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands into which hostile necessity has scattered you here and there to be slaves; and I will do these things not to destroy you and wipe you out, but to be your king'. From this we understand that even what the heretics call the cruelty of the Creator sounds of clemency, since he is angry and rages and pours out all his fury for this purpose: to draw back to his kingdom those who had chosen the tyranny of demons, and that to be its slaves.
20:35-38
And I will bring you into the desert of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. As I contended in judgment against your fathers in the desert of the land of Egypt, so will I judge you, says the Lord, and I will subject you to my scepter, and bring you into the bonds of the covenant. And I will pick out from you the transgressors and the ungodly, and I will lead them out of the land of their sojourning, and they shall not enter the land of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord. 'I will do', he says, 'to you who are in Babylon and now serve idols what I did to your fathers in Egypt: I will lead you out into the desert of the peoples and there enter into judgment with you face to face, as I contended in judgment against them when they went out of Egypt; and after I have judged you, I will subject you to my scepter and rule, and enter into a covenant with you, and bring you into your land in the bonds of love, so that, bound by my love, you may by no means be able to depart from me. But the transgressors and the ungodly, who in hardness of heart persevere in evil works, I will pick out from you, not to possess them but to cast them away; and I will indeed lead them out of the land of their sojourning, so that, once led out, they may not enter the land of Israel but perish in diverse regions, and that, by the distinction of the good and the evil, you may know that I am the Lord who do all things with judgment'. The discourse hastens on to what remains, and we run briefly through each point, so as to offer readers only the sense.
20:39
And you, house of Israel, thus says the Lord God: Walk each of you after your idols, and serve them. But if in this too you do not listen to me, and pollute my holy name any more with your gifts and with your idols. (LXX: "And you, house of Israel, thus says Adonai the Lord: Let each one take away his inventions; and after this, if you listen to me, and do not pollute my holy name any more with your gifts and with your pursuits.") Symmachus translated this passage more plainly: Each of you, go and serve your idols, since you would not listen to me. But my holy name do not pollute any more through your gifts and images. But on my holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel, says the Lord God, there all the house of Israel shall serve me. Symmachus' translation has this meaning: 'Since you do not wish to serve me, go, serve idols and tread in the footsteps of your images; for you do not wish to listen to me: by no means sacrifice victims to me, nor burn incense, nor be called my people — for my worshipers will by no means serve me in groves and shrines and the places of idols, as you do, but on my holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel —'. The Seventy, for their part, unfold a sense of their own: 'Abandon your former thoughts, and take away the evil sins of your inventions; and if after this you listen to me and do not pollute my name with your gifts and images, then on my holy mountain you shall offer me victims and serve me, all the house of Israel'. Aquila, however, agreeing in part with Symmachus, disagrees in part: Go, he says, after your idols and serve them, since you are unworthy of my rule, nor does your worship delight me; but if in this too you by no means listen to me, but pollute my holy name, while you pretend to offer to me what you offer to idols, and do such blasphemy to my name that, being worshipers of idols, you say that you are mine, know this: that on my holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel, there all the house of Israel shall serve me, not you who serve idols, but all the house of Israel which is afterward to believe.
20:40-42a
On my holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel, says the Lord God, there all the house of Israel shall serve me: all, I say, in the land in which they shall please me; and there I will require your firstfruits and the beginning of your tithes in all your sanctifications. In an odor of sweetness I will receive you, when I have led you out from the peoples and gathered you from the lands into which you were scattered, and I shall be sanctified in you in the eyes of the nations. And you shall know that I am the Lord. Of this mountain, on which all the house of Israel is to serve God, Isaiah and Micah sang with one voice: In the last days the mountain of the house shall be manifest on the summit of the mountains and shall be raised above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall 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 teach us his ways and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; and again Isaiah: Go up onto a high mountain, he says, you who proclaim to Zion; lift up and exalt your voice, you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem. This mountain, Zion, we understand either as the Church, which means 'watchtower' and is set on the height of holy doctrines, or as the Lord Savior himself, in whom the firstfruits and the tithes and all worship are turned into an odor of sweetness, so that all the nations round about, seeing that the people of the Lord has been saved, may glorify God, and those who have been saved may know that he is the Lord.
20:42b
When I bring you into the land of Israel, into the land for which I lifted up my hand to give it to your fathers. 'Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I bring you', he says, 'into the land of Israel, for which I lifted up my hand to bring your fathers into it, which they lost by their own fault and which you have received back not so much by your own merit as by my clemency'.
20:43-44
And you shall remember your ways and all your crimes, with which you were defiled in them; and you shall be displeasing to yourselves in your own sight in all your wickednesses which you have done. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have done good to you for my name's sake, not according to your evil ways nor according to your most wicked crimes, house of Israel, says the Lord God. We cannot remember our crimes and vices unless we have been brought into the land of Israel and, set there, say with the Apostle: I who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. And you shall be displeasing, he says, to yourselves in your own sight in all your wickednesses which you have done (or, as Symmachus translated: And you shall seem little to yourselves because of all your wickednesses which you have wrought), so that, after they have been exalted, they may believe themselves to be lowly, because: The Lord gives grace to the humble, and in another place it is written: Before crushing the heart of a man is exalted, and before height it is humbled: for crushing follows pride, and exaltation follows humility. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have done good to you: and we came to know the Lord Savior the more at that time when he did good to us and suffered for our sins and bore our iniquities and grieved for us, not for any merit of those who are saved but for his name's sake; otherwise our ways and most wicked crimes deserved not mercy but punishment. But whatever we have said of the people of Israel, which, freed from Egypt, committed many things in the wilderness and offended God, and afterward, brought into the land of promise, venerated idols and worshiped wood and stones, and afterward was preserved by the clemency of God, let us refer to those who have been freed from the Egypt of this world by the high hand of the Lord and, brought into the wilderness of vices, sighed again for Egypt and did the things for which they ought to have been punished, but nonetheless, through repentance, not by their own merit but by the clemency of the Lord, have been preserved.
Book Seven
Long ago, as boys, we read: Nothing is so easy that it does not become difficult when you do it unwillingly. I confess that I promised an explanation of Ezekiel a long time ago, and that I have not been able to fulfill it because of my being occupied with those who come here from the whole world, since there is no hour and no moment in which we do not meet crowds of brothers, and we exchange the solitude of the monastery for a throng of guests, so much so that either we must shut the door, or abandon the study of the Scriptures, through which the doors are to be opened. And so it is that, by the gainful, or rather stolen, labors of the nights, which with winter approaching have begun to be longer, we try to dictate these things, such as they are, by a little lamp, and to work off the weariness of a seething mind by interpretation. Nor do we boast, as some perhaps suspect, of our receiving the brothers, but we simply confess the causes of our delays, especially since the flight of the westerners and the crowding of the holy places display, in the nakedness and wounds of the needy, the fury of the barbarians; and we cannot see them without tears and groaning: that that once-great power and ignorance of riches should have come to such want that it lacks roof and food and clothing! And yet the hard and cruel hearts of some are by no means softened, while they shake out their rags and little bundles, seeking gold in captivity. To this difficulty of dictating is added the fact that, since our eyes are dimmed with old age and suffer something of what blessed Isaac suffered, we are by no means able by the light of night to reread the volumes of the Hebrews, which even in the brightness of the sun and of the day are blinded to us by the smallness of the letters. Moreover, the commentaries of the Greeks too we know only through the voice of the brothers; and no one doubts that food ground by another's teeth causes nausea in those who eat it. Therefore I beseech you, daughter Eustochium, to receive after intervals these things which we hammer out with the stylus of secretaries and for the correcting of which we scarcely have time, that is, the seventh book on Ezekiel; and, as I have already said before, if the brevity or the length of the books should be unequal among themselves, to impute it to the brevity and length of the visions, or rather of the ὑποθέσεων [subjects, themes], since we neither wish to separate what is joined nor to compress what is discordant into one heap.
20:45-49
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set your face against the way of the south, and drip toward the southwest, and prophesy to the forest of the southern field. And you shall say to the southern forest: Hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and I will burn up in you all green wood and all dry wood; the flame of the kindling shall not be extinguished, and every face shall be burned in it from the south to the north: and all flesh shall see that I the Lord have kindled it, and it shall not be extinguished. And I said: Ah, ah, ah, Lord God; they say of me: Does not this man speak in parables? (LXX: "And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, make firm your face upon Theman, and look toward Darom, prophesy upon the forest, the leader Nageb. And you shall say to the forest Nageb: Hear the speech of the Lord: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour in you all green wood and all dry wood; the kindled flame shall not be extinguished, and every face shall burn in it from the midday to the north: and all flesh shall know that I the Lord have kindled it; it shall not be extinguished. And I said: By no means, Lord, Lord; they say to me: Is not this which is spoken a parable?") What Set (or make firm) your face means, we have said more fully above; for there is need of firmness of countenance and hardness of brow, so that the prophet may speak fearlessly the things he is commanded, above all when sad things must be announced to the whole multitude of the people. Now what 'Theman' and 'Darom' and 'Nageb', and again 'Nageb', for which the Seventy translated ἀπηλιὼτην [Apeliotes, the east wind], signify in the Hebrew, our translation has expressed. And as for their saying 'leader Nageb', the Hebrew has it better, 'of the field' or 'of the southern region'; for what is written is not 'sare', as the Seventy supposed, a word that means 'leader' and 'prince', but 'sade', which properly signifies 'field' and 'region'; and the error grew up because of the likeness of the letters 'daleth' [d] and 'res' [r]. The divine word, then, speaks through the μεταφορὰν [metaphor] of a forest against Jerusalem, which is a dwelling of beasts and of fierce men, saying that he will set it on fire and that all its wood will be burned up together; by no means does he call trees those that were lacking in fruit, but wood, as if made ready for burning. And first he burns in it the green wood, according to what we read in this same prophet: And begin from my holy ones, and afterward the dry, which could have nothing living in itself; that is, the saints and the sinners together, so that some by captivity may escape an evil death, while others are handed over to eternal punishments. And what he adds, From the south to the north, indicates this: from Jerusalem to Babylon, so that the whole road of those going into captivity may be filled with those falling by sword, famine and pestilence; for to those who are in Babylon, Jerusalem lies to the south, just as, conversely, the pot of Jeremiah, which signifies Jerusalem, is kindled from the face of the north, that is, of Babylon. And beautifully, at the beginning: Drip, he says, toward the southwest, so that not the whole wrath of God may seem to be poured out, but a kind of drip and a part. But if there is such savagery in a drip, what must be reckoned of whole downpours, so that all flesh, which is to see the salvation of God, may know through the burning of the woods and through the flame that is extinguished by no one's help that he himself is the Lord? Understanding this, the prophet answered: Ah, ah, ah, Lord God (or, as the Seventy translated: By no means, Lord), and he adds: They say to me: Does not this man speak in parables? (or: Is this a parable which is spoken?), and the sense is: 'Speak more plainly; we do not understand what you are saying in a parable; open to us the meaning of God in plain speech'. Tropologically, however, Theman and Nageb and Darom can be understood as Egypt; for we read in Daniel that the south is frequently taken for Egypt; and Egypt refers to the straits of this world. Ezekiel therefore prophesies the evils that are to come upon the world, which he calls a forest, one that has no fruit-bearing trees but is a dwelling-place of beasts, of which it is also said in Psalm 28 (29): The voice of the Lord perfecting the stags, and he will uncover the thickets of the woods. These are the woods and forests that devoured more of Absalom's army in the battle than the sword killed. And in the forests the green wood is kindled first, and then the dry: those who live in evil, and those who are dead to righteousness. And what is said, And every face shall be burned in it from the south to the north, says this: from those who seemed to be fervent in spirit to those who, as iniquity increased and the love of many grew cold, have lost their former warmth, so that all flesh may perceive that the flame of the Lord is not extinguished. And the prophet prays that what the Lord has threatened may not come to pass, that is, that the forest may not be set on fire and all the wood burned up together, so that either they may still receive room for repentance, or the necessity of announcing sad things may not be laid upon him, especially since the people do not understand them and are provoked rather to madness by the obscurity of the sayings.
21:1-5
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and distil toward the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the ground of Israel. And you shall say to the land of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, and I will cast out my sword from its sheath, and I will kill in you the righteous and the wicked. But because I have killed in you the righteous and the wicked, my sword shall go forth from its sheath against all flesh, from the south to the north, and all flesh shall know that I the Lord have drawn my sword from its sheath, irrevocable. (LXX: "And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Therefore prophesy, son of man, and set firm your face against Jerusalem, and look toward their holy places, and prophesy over the land of Israel. And you shall say to the land of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, and I will draw out my sword from its sheath, and I will slay out of you the lawless and the unrighteous. Because I will destroy out of you the lawless and the unrighteous, so shall my sword go forth from its sheath upon all flesh, from the south as far as the north, and all flesh shall know that I the Lord have drawn my sword from its sheath; it shall not return any more.") Because he had said above: They say of me: Does not this man speak in parables?, and the people were demanding a plain statement, therefore the Lord now says more plainly what he had spoken through a metaphor, or 'parable', and, as others rendered it, 'proverb': that the forests of Nageb and Darom and Theman [Hebrew words for the south] are Jerusalem and its temple and the Holy of Holies and the whole land of Judea, and that the flame which was to burn up the forest is to be understood as the devouring sword, which has been drawn from its sheath to kill the righteous and the wicked — for this is the green wood and the dry; whence the Lord also says: If they do such things, he says, in the green wood, what will they do in the dry? —; in place of which the Seventy, intending I know not what, translated 'the lawless and the unrighteous', as though both did not signify the same thing. And what he had said there: And all flesh shall see that I the Lord have kindled it, that is, the forest or the flame, and it shall not be quenched, here he says in other words: That all flesh may know that I the Lord have drawn my sword from its sheath, irrevocable. For truly, for Jerusalem the flame has not been lulled to sleep, nor the fire quenched, nor the sword recalled, because there was a short time in between, and Jerusalem, with its temple, was set ablaze by Babylonian fire.
21:6-7
And you, son of man, groan in the breaking of the loins, and in bitternesses groan before them. And when they say to you: Why do you groan?, you shall say: For the report, because it comes, and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be loosened, and every spirit shall grow weak, and waters shall flow down all knees; behold, it comes, and it shall be done, says the Lord. (LXX: "And you, son of man, groan in the breaking of your loins, and in griefs groan in their sight. And it shall be, if they say to you: Why do you groan?, then you shall say: Because of the tidings, because it comes, and every heart shall be seized, and all hands shall be loosened, and all flesh and every spirit shall be tested, and all thighs shall be defiled with moisture; behold, it comes, and it shall be, says the Lord God.") First he had said: 'Prophesy, or distil, toward the south, the southwest and the noonday, and toward the southern forest'. Because this seemed obscure, and the people did not understand the prophet's words, in the second place it is set down more plainly that the southern forest is Jerusalem, and that all the unfruitful trees, at whose roots the axe has been laid, are to be understood as its inhabitants, and that the sword is to be interpreted in place of the fire. In the third place the prophet is commanded that, since they are silent and do not ask why he has prophesied these things, he should do something by which he may be questioned, and should answer what the Lord has spoken. 'Groan', he says, 'and wail, not with a light voice nor with moderate grief, but in the breaking of the loins, so that your groaning may be brought forth from your inmost bowels and from bitterness of soul; and you shall do this before them so that, when they have asked you why you are crushed with such great groaning and what evil has befallen you that you groan so, you may answer them with my word: This is why I lament and cannot hide the grief of my heart, because the report which had always sounded in my ears is being fulfilled in deed, and it comes — the menace, that is, of the raging Babylonian army; and when it has come and has hemmed Jerusalem in with a rampart, then every heart shall melt and all hands shall be loosened, so that, with panic seizing men's minds, no one dares to resist; for the spirit of all the warriors shall grow weak, and such trembling and dread shall seize them all that, under the compulsion of fear, their limbs and bowels are loosened and the bladder cannot hold its moisture, so that their knees are defiled with urine' — for it is natural that, under the compulsion of fear, the bladder is relaxed and, against a man's will, the moisture flows down; which indeed also tends to happen in the severity of illnesses, that, after the strength of the sick has failed, not only the knees but even the beds are defiled —. 'Behold', he says, 'it comes, what I have often foretold and what is being fulfilled in deed, and it shall be done, which not I but the Lord has spoken'. I know that a certain man unrolled many testimonies on the breaking of the loins and the flowing waters, so that the prophet's chastity might be made out, and the bitterness of soul and the inward pain of mind, namely that the waters of seed defile the knees; but this exposition does not belong to the present passage.
21:8-17
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, prophesy, and you shall say: Thus says the Lord God: Speak. The sword, the sword is sharpened and filed; it is sharpened to slaughter victims, and it is filed that it may gleam: you who move the scepter of my son, you have cut down every tree. And I have given it to be polished, that it may be held in the hand; this sword is sharpened, and this one is filed, that it may be in the hand of the slayer. Cry out and howl, son of man, because this one has come among my people, this one among all the leaders of Israel who had fled; they have been handed over to the sword with my people, therefore clap upon your thigh, because it has been proved, and this when it has overturned the scepter and it shall be no more, says the Lord God. You therefore, son of man, prophesy, and strike hand against hand, and let the sword be doubled, and let the sword of the slain be tripled. This is the sword of great slaughter, which makes them stand aghast, and melt in heart, and multiplies the ruins. In all their gates I have set the confusion of the sword, sharpened and filed to flash, clad for slaughter. Be sharpened, go to the right or to the left, wherever the desire of your face is. Moreover I too will clap hand against hand, and I will fulfill my indignation; I the Lord have spoken. (It is too much if I set down both editions, and the length of the books is drawn out, especially where there is either no difference or a small one; I will therefore set down some of the things that disagree. Where we said: You who move the scepter of my son, you have cut down every tree, they translated: Kill, despise, reject every tree; again, where we said: Who had fled, have been handed over to the sword, both they and others translated: My guests, or inhabitants; and where we said: Clap upon the thigh, they put: Strike the hand; and where we translated: And this when it has overturned the scepter, their edition has: The tribe has been rejected.) He speaks, moreover, to the sword of Nebuchadnezzar, that it should come against Jerusalem and be sharpened and filed, for many must be slaughtered; and he makes an apostrophe to it: 'You are the one who moves and overturns the scepter of my son, namely the rule of the people of Israel, and you cut down every tree, the whole multitude of the people. I have given', he says, 'this sword to be held in the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, and to be in the hand of a most powerful man. Therefore, O prophet, cry out and howl, and bear witness to the impending evils with the lamentation of your voice. This sword has spared no one, nor left anyone without a share in the impending evils. It has come among the people, it has come among the leaders of Israel, it has come among my guests and the priests who dwelt in my temple. Therefore strike your thigh, or your hand, and take on the bearing of a mourner. For this sword has been proved by me, and this when it has overturned my scepter and kingdom, which shall be no more and shall come to its end in King Zedekiah. Again I command you, prophet, that you, who had struck your thigh in astonishment and wonder, should strike your hands also, so that not only once but a second and a third time the sword may come to slay'. For Nebuchadnezzar had come the first time when he carried off Jeconiah, and the second time when Jehoiakim reigned, the third time when Zedekiah did. 'And this is the tripled sword, when a great slaughter took place, and it multiplied the ruins to such a degree that they were stunned in mind and melted in heart, and it caused confusion in all their gates'. It is commanded therefore to it, that is, to the sword sharpened and filed to flash, clad and ready and prepared for slaughter, that it go to the right if it so wishes, or to the left. 'Wherever', he says, 'it pleases your face, enter boldly, having me as your leader and helper. I will clap hand against hand, so that, as your patron and exhorter, I may spur you on as you rage against my adversaries. Do not hesitate, do not dread and fear to suffer what Sennacherib suffered; I the Lord have spoken; you are the minister of my will, carry out my sentence'. According to the ἀναγωγὴν [anagogy, the higher sense] we can take the sharpened sword, prepared for slaughter, as the devil, of whom the Apostle says: To hand over such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved; and in another place: Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme; and in the Psalms it is written: He sent fury and wrath and distress, a sending by most evil angels. Some think that this sword was also in the hand of the angel when Jerusalem was struck under David. Others, however, suspect that it is also said of that sword of which it is written in the Gospel: 'I came not to send peace upon the earth, but a sword, and to divide among themselves every bond of kinship, so that the wicked may fall and the saints rise again'. But it is impious to believe this of the Savior's sword, and not rather of the devil, who overturns the scepters of the Lord in the Church, who slays all among the people, both the leaders and the guests of God, and is then approved by the Lord, when he has overturned Judas the traitor and those like him; into whom, after he had eaten the morsel, Satan entered. And the sword of the slain is doubled and tripled, so that the sin of Jerusalem may be loosed, because she has received from the hand of the Lord her sins twofold. The Lord, moreover, rejoices and exults, and is the exhorter of the raging sword, that it may go either to the right or to the left, and wherever the desire of its face carries it, so that, the wicked being slain, the good may remain, and that which is written may be fulfilled: What has chaff to do with wheat?, says the Lord.
21:18-24
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: And you, son of man, set for yourself two ways, and let the sword of the king of Babylon come: both shall go forth from one land; and with his hand he shall take a conjecture, at the head of the way of the city he shall cast it. You shall set a way for the sword to come to Rabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah, into Jerusalem the most fortified. For the king of Babylon stood at the fork, at the head of the two ways, seeking divination, mixing arrows; he questioned idols, he consulted entrails. At his right hand the divination came out against Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to open the mouth in slaughter, to lift up the voice in howling, to set battering rams against the gates, to heap up a mound, to build siege works. And in their eyes he shall be as one consulting an oracle in vain, and imitating the idleness of the sabbaths; but he himself will remember the iniquity, so as to capture. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have called your iniquities to remembrance, and have uncovered your transgressions, and your sins have appeared in all your thoughts; because, I say, you have called them to remembrance, you shall be taken by the hand. I know that in this place, following the Seventy translators, I have read a manifold exposition, which refers Rabbath of the Ammonites to the people of the nations, but Judah and Jerusalem to those who are gathered under the name of Christ and are given by their deeds the dignity of the name; and holds that the king of confusion, the devil, stands at every head of the ways and lies in ambush in secret, and that that little verse is fulfilled: Beside the path they have set a stumbling block for me; and that he stands at the fork, desiring either to hold those who are his own or to acquire new servitude for himself, and always goes to the right, namely to those who are placed on the right side, to storm them, to exult in slaughter, to capture wretched Jerusalem with battering rams and the heaping up of earthly works; and that at first indeed he seems to her to do nothing and to strive in vain, but, as he recalls the iniquities of those who dwell in the Church — or rather, by their evil works they bring the adverse powers back to the remembrance of their former crimes —, all the sins of the people and their thoughts are laid bare, and therefore they are captured, because they have heaped new offenses upon old ones. Another may have said these things; we must pursue the truth of the history we have begun. 'When', he says, 'the divine word had said to me: Prophesy, son of man, and speak to the sword, and say: The sword, the sword, and the rest that the prophecy of the sword contains, a second time the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Do you wish, son of man, to know who this sword is, and to learn more openly the person of the raging sword? Listen to what I say: Set two ways, so that by them the sword of the king of Babylon may come, who will indeed go forth by the one road of the Chaldeans but, when he has come through the desert and the wilderness to the fork of the land of Arabia which is called that of the Ammonites, of which one way leads to Jerusalem on the right-hand side, but the left to Rabbath of the Ammonites' — which is a metropolis and today is named Philadelphia. 'Mindful', he says, 'of the slaughter that befell the Assyrian king when a hundred and eighty-five thousand were cut down in one night, he will be afraid to turn aside to the right-hand side and go against most fortified Jerusalem, but he will stand at the very crossroads and, according to the rite of his nation, will consult the oracle, putting arrows into the quiver and mixing them, inscribed or marked with the names of each, to see whose arrow comes out and which city he ought to attack first' — this the Greeks call βελομαντίαν [belomancy, divination by arrows] or ῥαβδομαντίαν [rhabdomancy, divination by rods] —. 'He questioned the idols, therefore, he consulted the entrails. To the right came his divination, that he should go against Jerusalem and attack it, heap up mounds, set battering rams, build siege works and shut in the city, and in slaughter open his mouth and rouse the roar of an exulting and howling army. Doing this', he says, 'he will seem to the inhabitants of Jerusalem to consult the oracle in vain, and as it were to wear away the idleness of the sabbaths, namely to play and accomplish no work. But the king of Babylon will trust not in his own strength but in the iniquity of the people, by which he knows that they have offended God and have heaped up the sins of their fathers with new offenses, and that their transgressions have been laid open to all; and therefore he will not doubt of victory, because he will trust in the iniquity of Jerusalem'. This is according to the Hebrew, from which the Seventy disagree in most places, not so much in sense as in words.
21:25-27
But you, profane, wicked leader of Israel, whose day has come, foreordained in the time of iniquity, thus says the Lord God: Take off the miter, take away the crown; is not this that which raised up the lowly and brought low the lofty? Iniquity, iniquity, iniquity I will set it; and this shall not be until he comes whose is the judgment, and I will deliver it to him. (LXX: "And you, profane, lawless leader of Israel, whose day has come in the time of iniquity, the end, thus says the Lord God: You have taken off the miter and put on the crown; this shall not be alike; you have humbled the lofty and raised up the lowly. Iniquity, iniquity I will set it; nor shall this be such, until he comes to whom it is due, and I will give it to him.") Symmachus translated this passage thus: But you, profane, lawless leader of Israel, whose day has come, appointed in the time of iniquity, thus says the Lord God: He has taken off the miter and taken away the crown; neither this nor that; he has raised up the lowly and brought low the lofty. Iniquity, iniquity, iniquity I will make it; and this was not he whose is the judgment, whom I am going to give. After the overthrow of the city of Jerusalem and the captivity of the people, the word is directed to the leader of Israel, whom no one doubts to signify Zedekiah, in whom the rule of the kings of Israel from the stock of David came to an end. 'There has come to you', he says, 'the day which was foreordained against you long ago, and because of you the priesthood and the kingdom of the Jewish people perished'. For the miter is the insignia of the high priest; the crown, that is, the diadem, is the mark of a king. 'Is not this the miter and this the crown, which did nothing by judgment but, in imitation of the Babylonian king: Whom he wished he exalted, and whom he wished he humbled? Therefore, not once nor — according to the Seventy — twice, but a third time I will set iniquity upon you forever, which was not reckoned to you at once, but until Christ comes, whose is the judgment, and the Father delivers to him the kingdom and the priesthood, or the Church gathered from the nations'. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son; and in another place: O God, he says, give your judgment to the king, and your righteousness to the king's son; this is he for whom the everlasting rule and priesthood are laid up, of whom Jacob also spoke: A prince shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until he comes for whom it is laid up; and he shall be the expectation of the nations. In the place where we translated: Is not this, Symmachus rendered beautifully: Neither this nor that; for because he had said: Take off the miter, take away the crown, he added: 'Neither this nor that is', that is: 'Both the kingdom and the priesthood shall cease'. Hence, of those who afterwards, until the coming of Christ, were kings and priests alike, one, Hyrcanus the high priest, placed a diadem on his own head and wished in vain to claim both this and that for himself, since the kingdom was not owed to him after Zedekiah, but to him for whom it was laid up and who was the expectation of the nations; of whom Malachi also speaks: You priests, who defile my name, and a little after: My will is not in you, and I will not accept victims from your hands. For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place sacrifice is made and a pure offering is offered to my name; which pure offering, without the blood of goats, rams and bulls, is fulfilled at the coming of Christ, when he who is desired by the nations has come, and the sun of righteousness has risen, in whose wings is healing.
21:28-32
And you, son of man, prophesy and say: Thus says the Lord God, to the Ammonites and to their reproach; and you shall say: Blade, blade, unsheathe yourself to slay, file yourself that you may kill and flash, while vain things were seen for you and lies were divined, that you might be set upon the necks of the wounded wicked, whose day has come, foreordained in the time of iniquity; return to your sheath, to the place in which you were created; in the land of your birth I will judge you, and I will pour out my indignation upon you, in the fire of my fury I will blow upon you, and I will give you into the hands of foolish men and of those who fashion destruction. You shall be food for the fire, your blood shall be in the midst of the land; you shall be given over to oblivion, because I the Lord have spoken. That the sword of the king of Babylon stood at the head of two ways, at the crossroads of the right and the left, of which one led to Jerusalem, the other to Rabbath of the Ammonites, and that the lot came out that he should go first against Jerusalem, we have read above; and, now that it has been stormed and taken, he foretells that its kingdom also and its priesthood have perished forever. What remained concerned the Ammonites, and the very order of the division called for it: what had become of the left-hand way. Hence the prophet is commanded to speak to the Ammonites and to their reproach, that they themselves are to be captured, and he directs his speech to the same sword: 'O blade, blade, you who are prepared for slaughter, who are filed so that you may flash and kill, although the idols have given you answers, and all that is answered by demons is vain, so that you might, namely, hang over the necks of the wounded and that through you might be fulfilled what the Lord had long threatened, nevertheless, once your work is completed which you did against the Ammonites, return to your sheath, that is, into Babylon, to the place in which you were made and created, so that in the land of your birth I may judge you and pour out my indignation upon you, and you may be captured by the might of the Medes and Persians'; which is said more fully in the volume of Isaiah, in the vision against Babylon: Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them; and a little after: And that Babylon, glorious among kingdoms, renowned in the pride of the Chaldeans, shall be as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall not be inhabited to the end. And because he was once speaking under the person of the sword about the king, or rather the kingdom, of Babylon, he keeps the μεταφορὰν [metaphor]. 'In the fire', he says, 'of my fury I will blow upon you, so as to have you consumed by fire; and I will hand you over to the hands of foolish and unskilled men, who have not the art of forging and sharpening swords, so that you may by no means be sharpened any more, be filed and flash to kill, but may be food for the fire, and your blood, which you shed with all looking on, may rather flow back upon you; and you shall be handed over to eternal oblivion; and may you perish forever, because I the Lord have spoken these things, for whom to have said is to have done'.
22:1-16
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: And you, son of man, will you not judge the city of bloods? And you shall show her all her abominations, and you shall say: Thus says the Lord God: A city shedding blood in her midst, so that her time may come; and which made idols against herself, so as to be polluted. By your blood, which has been shed by you, you have sinned; and in your idols which you made you are polluted; and you have made your days draw near, and you have brought on the time of your years. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations and a mockery to all lands. Those that are near and those that are far from you will triumph over you (or will mock you), filthy one, noble one, great in ruin. Behold, the princes of Israel, each in his own arm, have been in you to shed blood. Father and mother they have treated with insults in you (or they have cursed father and mother), the stranger they have falsely accused in your midst, the orphan and the widow they have grieved (or have oppressed) in you. My sanctuaries you have despised and my sabbaths you have polluted. Men who are detractors (or robbers) have been in you to shed blood, and upon the mountains they have eaten in you; wickedness (or, as the Hebrew has it more expressively, 'zemma', that is, incest) they have wrought in your midst. The more shameful parts of the father they have uncovered in you, and the uncleanness of the menstruous woman they have humbled in you; and each one has wrought abomination with his neighbor's wife, and the father-in-law has wickedly defiled his daughter-in-law; the brother has oppressed (or humbled) his sister, his father's daughter, in you. They have taken gifts in you to shed blood; usury and excess you have taken, and greedily you have falsely accused your neighbors (or and I will fill up the consummation of your malice in your oppression), and you have forgotten me, says the Lord God. Behold, I have clapped my hands over your avarice which you have practiced, and over the blood which has been shed in your midst. Will your heart endure, or will your hands prevail, in the days which I shall make for you? I the Lord have spoken and I will do it; and I will scatter you among the nations, and I will winnow you into the lands, and I will make your uncleanness fail from you; and I will possess you in the sight of the nations (or, according to the first edition of Aquila and Theodotion, and I will defile you; or, according to Symmachus, and I will wound you in the sight of the nations), and you shall know that I am the Lord. 'And you', he says, 'son of man — for I will use the word I am accustomed to use with you —, judge the city of bloods and show her all her abominations, so that she may know that she deservedly endures the imminent captivity and that by many bloods she has brought on the time of her ruin. First of all crimes, in place of God you have worshiped idols, and you have adored the works of your hands, and you have made the time of your years draw near, which for a long time was being announced and postponed, so that you might do penance. But according to your impenitent heart you treasure up wrath for yourself against the day of wrath. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations and a mockery to all lands that are round about you, both near and far, which will triumph over you, or mock you, filthy, noble, great in ruin: filthy, because you have ceased to be clean; noble in evil, you who once surpassed all cities in nobility in good; great in ruin, so that the more lofty you were, the more heavily you should fall. And meanwhile, to pass over the rest, I will enumerate a few things that took place in you: your princes, judging not by righteousness but by the strength of their might and of their arm, shed innocent blood in you; others treated father and mother with insults, or cursed their parents, though Scripture says: Whoever curses father and mother shall die the death; the stranger and the sojourner they oppressed in your midst, as though sojourning and exile from their homeland were not enough for them in place of every distress; the orphan and the widow they grieved, or oppressed, in you, so that those whose whole protection lies in the justice of the laws were not only grieved but oppressed by you; my sanctuaries, or holy things, you despised, and my sabbaths you polluted, so that you did not distinguish between holy and polluted, between the day decreed for religion and the rest of the sabbath for the worship of God, and the other days on which it is permitted by the law to work and to serve the needs of the flesh; men who were 'detractors' — or, according to Symmachus and Theodotion, 'deceitful', which in the Hebrew is called 'rachil' — and murderers were in you, so as to blaspheme God or to do everything by deceit or violence; and they ate on the mountains, minding high things and lifted up against God in pride; wickedness, or incest, they wrought in your midst, so that what is rarely done even in corners and in secret, when the awareness of men is shunned by the wicked, this you did in the open — and what the incest is, the following passage indicates: They have laid bare the more shameful parts of the father in you, coupling with a stepmother against what is right and lawful, and they have humbled the uncleanness of the menstruous woman in you, not sparing nature nor granting a truce to their foulness, and neighing after their neighbor's wife; and, what is more wicked than this, the father-in-law burned for his daughter-in-law, and the brother knew nothing of a sister's rights, so as to violate a sister born not of the same womb but of the same father —; they took gifts so as to shed innocent blood; they turned the need of the poor into gain, so as to take usury and excess; and out of avarice they falsely accused their friends. This you have done', he says, 'O Jerusalem, because you have forgotten me; for the remembrance of God shuts out all shameful deeds. Hence I have taken on the bearing of the Lord in anger and have clapped my hands against your avarice and against the blood that has been shed in your midst, so that you may understand and recognize in your mind whether you can endure my wrath either in spirit or with your hands; for I the Lord have spoken and I will do it, so that, after you have been captured, Jerusalem, I will scatter you among the nations and winnow you into the air like useless chaff to be swept this way and that. And I am of such great clemency that my severity is turned into mercy; for I will do everything so that your uncleanness may fail from you and you may recover your former purity; and when you have recovered it, I will possess you in the sight of all the nations, so that, when you have been possessed by me, you may then understand that I myself am the Lord'. If, however, we follow the interpretation of Symmachus and Theodotion, of whom the one says: And I will wound you (or I will pierce you through), the other: I will defile you in the sight of the nations, everything must be referred to the bad sense, although what is said above is contrary to this sense: And I will make your uncleanness fail from you; for the failing of uncleanness is the restoration of purity. I have discussed both editions together, so as to avoid enlarging the books.
22:17-22
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, the house of Israel has been turned into dross for me; all these are bronze and tin and iron and lead in the midst of the furnace; they have become the dross of silver. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have all been turned into dross, therefore behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem, with a gathering of silver and bronze and iron and tin and lead into the midst of the furnace, so that I may kindle a fire in it for smelting: so will I gather in my fury and in my anger, and I will rest, and I will smelt you, and I will kindle you in the fire of my fury, and you shall be smelted in the midst of it. As silver is smelted in the midst of the furnace, so shall you be in the midst of it; and you shall know that I am the Lord; that I have poured out my indignation upon you. The Hebrew word 'sig' Symmachus translated 'dross', the first edition of Aquila and Theodotion στέμφυλον and γίγαρτον, both of which signify the 'pip' of the pressed grape; but the second translation of the same Aquila and the Seventy rendered it 'mixture'. Now dross denotes the filth and refuse of metals; and accordingly, with captivity near, nay, with the destruction of the city already impending, fire is applied so that, under the metaphor of smelting, pure silver may remain, which had been mixed with and corrupted by bronze, tin, iron and lead; of these, three — bronze, tin and lead — are of a fusible substance and are melted by fire, while iron is softened and thinned between anvil and hammer and takes various forms, according as the will of the craftsman may be. Just as, then, silver, which the metals mentioned above have corrupted, is put into the furnace so that, once the filth and the counterfeit substances have been removed, it may remain pure: 'so', he says, 'I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem and surround you with the Babylonian siege, so that I may kindle a fire in you for smelting; and what the immense heat of the flames does there, famine and pestilence do here, so that, after I have gathered you and kindled you in the fire of my fury, I may then rest and quell the pain of being despised by the vengeance of your punishments; and all this I will do so that, after I have poured out my indignation upon you, the end of your torment may be the knowledge of me, and you shall know that I am the Lord, the judge and requiter of all'. That he is said to be a smelter we read in many other places too, but above all in Malachi and Isaiah, of whom the one says: Behold, he says, the Lord enters like the fire of a smelter and like the herb of the washers, and he will sit smelting as gold and silver, and he will smelt the sons of Levi, the other: And the Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and he will cleanse the blood from their midst by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning; and I think that this is also the sense of what is said in the Psalms: Prove me, O Lord, and try me, after which is added: Burn my reins and my heart, so that all the phlegm of the harmful humor in my loins may be dried up. What we have understood of Jerusalem, let us understand of the state of souls, which were created pure by God and received gold in understanding and wisdom, and silver in speech and eloquence, so that what they have conceived in the mind they may unfold in words. Of silver we read: The utterances of the Lord are chaste utterances, silver tried by fire, proved for the earth, purged sevenfold. Of gold and silver alike Psalm 67 (68) speaks, in which it is written: If you sleep in the midst of the lots, the wings of a dove covered with silver, and the hinder parts (or the inner parts) of her back in the greenness (or paleness) of gold. All indeed the glory of the king's daughter is within, she who speaks in the Song of Songs: The king has brought me into his chamber. Whoever has slept and rested between the two testaments at once takes up the silvered wings of the dove, and will shine with the brightness of gold in the treasury of the heart. To this sense, I think, those passages too are to be referred: that for sinners and for those who have deserved God's displeasure the heaven is bronze and the earth iron, and above all the land of Egypt, out of which the Lord leads Israel as out of an iron furnace; in Zechariah, too, iniquity sits upon a talent of lead, and in the song of Exodus it is said: They sank like lead in the most violent water; for they were pressed down by the heavy weight of their sins and could say: Like a heavy burden they have weighed heavily upon me. And just as the counterfeit likeness of bronze feigns the appearance of gold, so tin imitates the whiteness of silver, which the simple and rustic man does not easily tell apart. And it often happens that gold and silver, mixed with heretical depravity, are separated by the fire of the Holy Spirit in the judgment of the Lord, and the gold remains pure, and the silver of which the prophet says: I gave them gold and silver, but they made Baal out of them, to which this is similar: I brought them out with silver and gold, and there was not a feeble one among their tribes. And let the end of all punishments be to know that he himself is the Lord. A tin stone, or a mass of tin, we read in Zechariah too; what it signifies we have explained in its place.
22:23-31
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, say to her: You are a land unclean, and not rained upon in the day of fury. A conspiracy of prophets in her midst, like a lion roaring and seizing prey; they have devoured souls, they have taken wealth and price, they have multiplied her widows in her midst. Her priests have despised my law and have polluted my sanctuaries; between holy and profane they made no distinction, and between polluted and clean they did not discern, and from my sabbaths they turned away their eyes, and I was defiled in their midst. Her princes in her midst like wolves seizing prey, to shed blood and to destroy souls and greedily to pursue gains. And her prophets daubed them without tempering, seeing vain things and divining her falsehood, saying: Thus says the Lord God, when the Lord has not spoken. The people of the land they wronged with false accusation and plundered violently; the needy and the poor they afflicted, and the stranger they oppressed with false accusation without judgment. And I sought among them a man who would set up a wall and stand opposed against me for the land, so that I should not destroy it, and I did not find one. And I poured out my indignation upon them, in the fire of my anger I consumed them, I rendered their way upon their head, says the Lord God. A careful hearer might have asked what the dross was that violated the purity of the silver and mixed it with bronze, lead, tin and iron. What was expressed there, then, in the person of a city and a furnace is proclaimed here under the image of a land that has not been watered nor received rains — those rains of which it is written: I will command the clouds not to rain a shower upon it, the shower we await when the early and the late rain is given us, of which it is written: A voluntary rain you will set apart, O God, for your inheritance. And the day of fury is the one which each person procures for himself by the multitude of his sins. We wish to know what the dross of the city is, what the squalor of a land most hard and full of brambles and thorns. A conspiracy, he says, of prophets (or, according to the Seventy, of leaders) in her midst, who bear the likeness of a lion, of which Peter too writes: Our adversary the devil goes about like a roaring lion; and this lion and all his companions seek to devour not bodies but souls, and they take rewards and decide everything by money. That this happened to the people of the Jews at that time indeed, no one doubts; for because of the priests and the princes and the prophets the Lord brought evil upon them. But in our Jerusalem too we often see this: those who, according to the Seventy, devour souls in power and take a price, so as to make many widows who have lost the Lord, their bridegroom; and these prophets form a faction and a conspiracy, so as to be one another's supporters and to do everything for the sake of shameful gain; the priests, who ought to be the guardians of the temple and from whose mouth the knowledge of the law is sought, violate the sanctuaries and make no distinction between holy and profane except that of money; they turn their eyes away from the sabbaths and do not ponder the rest of God, which lies in the knowledge of the Scriptures, nor do they say with the prophet: Unveil my eyes, and I will consider the wonders of your law, nor that word of the Apostle: But we all with unveiled face behold the glory of the Lord. Among such prophets and priests the Lord, standing in their midst, is defiled, of whom it is written: In the midst of you stands one whom you do not know. The prophets, then, or leaders, are compared to lions; but the princes, whom we understand as men of a lower rank, imitate the rapine of wolves, so as to shed the blood not of bodies but of souls, and greedily pursue gains, by no means content with this: Those who serve the altar live by the altar, but, once they have come to the ministry of God, they amass the riches of Croesus. Her prophets also, who foretell things to come, daubed them without tempering — which we also discussed above, that of the soothsaying prophets who, without an admixture of chaff, plastered a wall that is broken down by the rains; men of this kind see vain things, and do not so much prophesy as divine falsehood, saying to the wretched land: 'Thus says the Lord, this he promises', when the Lord has not spoken to them; and the people of the land, being an imitator not of God at all but of the earthly works of the princes and priests, did everything through false accusation and power, oppressing not the rich but the poor, of whom it is written: But the poor man does not bear threatening, and: The ransom of a man's soul is his own riches; the stranger, too, and the sojourner, who had not yet become a citizen of the Church but was only a hearer, possessing the beginnings of faith, they oppressed with false accusation, so that, after one had gone around sea and dry land to make one proselyte, they made him a son of Gehenna. 'Amid such great', he says, 'vices and a multitude of crimes, I sought among them a man who could resist my anger and, after the pattern of Moses and Aaron and Samuel, set himself against my fire and my burning, and I could not find one — whence he said to Moses: Let me alone, and I will destroy this people —; and because I could not find one to resist me and hold me back, therefore I poured out all my indignation upon them and consumed them, not without measure and judgment, but so as to render their ways upon their own heads', either assigning to their authors the very sins they had committed, or surely upon the heads of the leader of the people, the prince and the prophets, of whom there was none who dared to resist the Lord in his anger, and on whose account the land, squalid and deserted, did not deserve to receive the rain of the Lord.
23:1-10
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, there were two women, daughters of one mother, and they committed fornication in Egypt; in their youth they committed fornication: there their breasts were subdued, and the teats of their puberty were broken (or, as is contained in the Seventy, there their breasts fell, and there they were deflowered). Their names were Oholah the greater (or the elder) and Oholibah her sister; and I had them (or they became mine) and they bore sons and daughters: and their names were Samaria Oholah and Jerusalem Oholibah. Oholah therefore committed fornication over me; and she went mad (or went off) after her lovers, after the Assyrians, who drew near to her, clothed in hyacinth, princes and magistrates, young men of desire (or chosen), all horsemen, riders of horses. And she bestowed her fornications upon them, the chosen sons of the Assyrians, all of them; and in the uncleannesses (or inventions) of all those over whom she went mad she was polluted. Moreover she did not abandon her fornications either, which she had had in Egypt; for they too had slept with her in her youth, and had broken the breasts of her puberty (or and they themselves had deflowered her), and had poured out their fornication upon her. Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the sons of Asshur, over whose lust she went mad; they uncovered her shame, they took her sons and daughters, and they killed her herself with the sword; and they became notorious women (or she became a byword among women), and they executed judgments (or vengeances) upon her. That the twelve tribes of Israel, which were joined together in Egypt, were afterwards divided into two and ten tribes and called Judah and Israel, the scripture of Kings and of Παραλιπόμενον [Chronicles] testifies. Over Judah there reigned, from the stock of David, Rehoboam son of Solomon, in Jerusalem, where the temple was, and the priests, and a great part of the tribe of Levi; but over the ten tribes, in Samaria, Jeroboam son of Nebat, of the tribe of Ephraim and of Joseph; of which Samaria is now called 'Oolla' [Oholah], which in our language sounds 'tabernacle', but Jerusalem 'Ooliba' [Oholibah], that is, 'my tabernacle in her'; for indeed among the ten tribes too there was a tabernacle, not of God but of idols: for Jeroboam, in order to turn the people away from the worship of God, had set up golden calves in Dan and Bethel. Let us speak, then, of each. These two women, Samaria and Jerusalem, were daughters of one mother, begotten of the stock of Israel, and they committed fornication in Egypt in their youth; for they would not, when led out of Egypt, have received on Mount Sinai the law forbidding them to venerate idols, had they not venerated the Egyptian monstrosities in Egypt —but the mother of both can be the Hittite, of whom we read above: Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite; and also when it is said: 'Let each one cast away the abominations of Egypt from his eyes', this signifies that Israel served idols in Egypt and that there the breasts of its virginity fell, or were broken — ; and Samaria is called the greater and the elder, either because of the multitude of the ten tribes, or because, after the death of Moses, Joshua son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, presided over the people, from which tribe too, we read, Jeroboam came, who split them off from the house of David. And God had them, or they became his, when they groaned under the works of Egypt, slaving before that at clay and brick; and afterwards they bore him sons and daughters, whether in the wilderness or in the land of promise. And first Oholah, that is, Samaria, committed fornication over God, when she went mad after the Assyrians, who were clothed in hyacinth, and not just anyone of the people but leaders and magistrates, not men worn out with age but all young men, chosen horsemen, whose idols she followed and from whom, against the command of God, she requested help; and they came and polluted her, so that she did not abandon whatever she had done in her youth in Egypt —for the Egyptians too had lain with her in her youth, whose images she venerated, and there she was deflowered and her breasts were broken; and so great was the abundance of fornication that they are said not to have committed fornication with her but to have poured out their fornication —. Therefore she was handed over to her lovers themselves, Pul and Tiglath-pileser and Shalmaneser, after whose lust she went mad; and they themselves uncovered her shame — τροπολογικῶς [tropologically], as of a harlot woman; but the uncovering of a city is captivity — ; and they led their sons and daughters captive and slaughtered her herself with the sword, so that she was butchered as an example to all women —and is celebrated, in the bad sense, in the talk of all of them — ; and they executed judgments and vengeances upon her —so as to leave nothing of safety in her, but the ten tribes are held in captivity to this day in the mountains and cities of the Medes to which they were transported —. According to the ἀναγωγὴν [anagogy, the higher sense], we have discussed more fully in the prophet Hosea what Joseph, Ephraim, Samaria, Jezreel and Israel signify, and how they are opposed to the house of David and to Jerusalem, which signifies the Church — of whom Psalm 77 (78) also sounds: The sons of Ephraim, bending and shooting the bow, turned back in the day of battle, and again: He rejected the tabernacle of Joseph and chose the tribe of Judah; for the Lord chose the house of confession, the Church, and rejected the tabernacle of 'Joseph', which means 'increase'; and they, setting aside the law of God, added golden calves of their own worship —; and she is called 'Oolla', that is, 'tabernacle', not of God but of error and of demons; and the sister, greater and elder because of her multitude and her captivity by the Assyrians, committed fornication against God, because she abandoned the truth of the faith and went mad after the princes of the heretics, her lovers, who were clothed in hyacinth, promising themselves lofty and heavenly things, and riders, of whom it is said: Some in chariots and some on horses, chosen sons of the Assyrians, and leaders and magistrates, who promise themselves knowledge and eloquence; and she did this because the same fornications that she had had in Egypt, that is, before she believed and while she was still living in the world, she practiced in heresy too; and she was deflowered by Assyrian men, who persevere in malice, or by avengers — for our adversary the devil is himself the enemy and the avenger — ; they broke the breasts of Samaria, and destroyed the virginity which she had had in the Church; therefore she was handed over to her lovers, according to the Apostle, who writes: I delivered them to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme, and he delivered them for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved; they uncovered the shame of wretched Samaria, and displayed all her foulness; and her sons and daughters, who were begotten of her, both those endowed with knowledge and the simple and unskilled, they led captive; and they killed her herself with the spiritual sword; and they are celebrated, in the bad sense, in the talk of the whole world; and they become notorious among all the doctrines of the world, so that her foulness is punished as an example to all women.
23:11-21
And when her sister Oholibah had seen this, she went mad with lust more than she, and shamelessly offered her fornication, beyond the fornication of her sister, to the sons of the Assyrians: to leaders and magistrates coming to her, clothed in varied garments (or costly), to horsemen who rode upon horses, and to youths all of outstanding form. And I saw that she was polluted: one way for both; and she increased her fornications. And when she had seen men painted on the wall, images of the Chaldeans expressed in colors, with their loins girded with belts, and dyed tiaras on their heads, with the appearance of all leaders (or of all the tristatae), in the likeness of the sons of Babylon and of the land of the Chaldeans in which they were born, she went mad over them with the lust of her eyes, and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. And when the sons of Babylon had come to her, to the bed of breasts (or of those turning aside), they polluted her with their debaucheries; and she was polluted by them, and her soul was sated (or withdrew) from them. And she laid bare her fornications, and uncovered her shame; and my soul withdrew from her, as my soul had withdrawn from her sister. For she multiplied her fornications, remembering the days of her youth in which she committed fornication in the land of Egypt; and she went mad with lust over the bedding of those whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses (or whose private parts are like the private parts of horses). And you revisited the wickedness of your youth, when your breasts were subdued in Egypt, and the teats of your puberty were broken. According to the letter the interpretation is easy: that Oholibah —that is, Jerusalem, in which was the tabernacle of God —, seeing the blows dealt to her sister, was not warned by the example to draw back her foot from error, but increased her sister's fornication —for that one fabricated idols once, and outside, in Dan and Bethel; but this one often, on the high places and in the temple of God, worshiped the statue of Baal and committed fornication with the Assyrians; for the idol Baal, or Bel, and, to speak more plainly, Belis, the religion of the Assyrians, was consecrated by Ninus son of Belus in honor of his father — ; and she shamelessly offered her fornication to the Assyrians, to leaders and magistrates who were clothed in varied and many-colored garments, to horsemen and youths all of outstanding form, so that the fornication of both sisters became one. But Jerusalem increased her fornications in this, that, seeing on the walls images of the Chaldeans, she went mad with lust and, deceived by their form and dress, sent messengers to them requesting help, and they came and polluted her. And because pleasure is not perpetual but quickly brings satiety, polluted and sated with them, she withdrew from their covenant. 'Therefore I too, seeing her foul deeds and fornications made public to all, withdrew from her, so that she who had outdone her sister's crimes might also surpass her sister in the magnitude of her punishments'. She was of such wantonness that she committed all the errors of her youth at an age already more mature, and pursued the Egyptian vices in her lust for the Chaldeans too; for she once went mad in her bedding with the Egyptians, whose flesh is in the likeness of asses, with so copious an issue of seed, or private parts so huge, that they surpass the deformity of horses. 'Nor did the wickedness of her youth cease; rather, she went back to it after she became mine, so that both in the wilderness and in the land of promise she sighed for the old lust in which she was deflowered and her breasts were broken and all her virginal beauty perished'. Moreover, according to tropology the understanding is difficult: how the Church can surpass heretical lust; unless perhaps we can say this, that the servant who knows the will of his master and does not do it will be beaten with many blows, and that heretics commit abominations outside and perish by shipwreck outside the ark of Noah, while churchmen, if, though following the true faith, they imitate Assyrian and Chaldean vices and follow the many-colored images of sins, deserve greater torments — or do we not send messengers to the 'Chaldeans', which means 'as it were demons', when we lay open and offer them the breasts to be broken in the bosom, where the lodging of the mind is, and, sated with pleasures, pass from some women to others; and desire not so much fornication as a number of harlots; and come to such madness that, after long years of the Lord's service, we return to Egypt and do the things we did in the world before we received the name of the faith? —.
23:22-27
Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will stir up all your lovers against you, with whom your soul was sated; and I will gather them against you round about, the sons of Babylon and all the Chaldeans, nobles and tyrants and princes, all the sons of the Assyrians, youths of outstanding form, all the leaders and magistrates, princes of princes, and renowned riders of horses; and they will come upon you equipped with chariot and wheel, a multitude of peoples: with breastplate and shield and helmet they will be armed against you on every side, and I will set judgment before them, and they will judge you with their judgments. And I will set my jealousy in you, which they exercise with you in fury: they will cut off your nose and your ears, and what remains they will cut down with the sword; they themselves will take your sons and your daughters, and your last will be devoured by fire. And they will strip you of your garments, and take away the vessels of your glory; and they will make your wickedness rest from you, and your fornication from the land of Egypt, and you will not lift up your eyes to them, and you will not remember Egypt any more. (LXX: "Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will stir up your lovers against you, from whom your soul withdrew; and I will bring them against you round about, the sons of Babylon and all the Chaldeans, Facud and Sue and Cue, and all the sons of the Assyrians with them, chosen youths, all leaders and magistrates, τριστάτας [tristatae, high officers], and renowned men riding on horses; all will come upon you from the north, chariots and wheels with a multitude of peoples: shields and targes, and they will set a guard upon you round about, and I will set judgment before their face, and they will judge you with their judgments. And I will set my jealousy in you, and they will deal with you in the wrath of fury: they will take away your nose and your ears, and your remnant they will cast down with the sword; they themselves will take your sons and your daughters, and fire will devour your residue. And they will strip you of your garment, and take up the vessels of your boasting; and they will turn away your impieties from you, and your fornication from the land of Egypt, and you will not raise your eyes to them, and you will not remember Egypt any more.") 'Because you remembered the flesh of the Egyptians and imitated the foulness of an unclean nation which venerates images of all the beasts, therefore I will bring against you your lovers, sated with whose embrace you withdrew from their covenant, so that, as great as your love had been before, into so great a hatred you might be turned. The sons, I say, of Babylon and all the Chaldeans, nobles, tyrants and princes — in place of which the Hebrew has 'facud' and 'sue' and 'cue', which many understand as nations of the east, since we find names of this kind neither in the volume of Kings nor in Chronicles, nor even in Jeremiah, which describe the captivity of Jerusalem, nor in any other place of holy scripture; nor is it surprising if the Seventy set down the Hebrew names themselves, since Symmachus too and Theodotion agree in the same words — ; all', he says, 'the Assyrians, horsemen and youths of outstanding form, leaders and magistrates — or τριστάτας, which we have translated 'princes of princes', of whom we also read in Exodus: Chosen riders, τριστάτας, in place of which Latin simplicity translated 'ternos stratores' [grooms by threes]; and 'tristatae' is the name among the Hebrews for the second rank after the royal dignity, of whom it is written: Yet he did not attain to the first three; they were princes of the cavalry and the infantry and of the tributes, whom we call magistrates of both services and prefects of the grain office — ; all', he says, 'in chariots and on horses, armed with breastplate, helmet and shield, will besiege you, and that round about; and I will give them judgment, so that you may be judged by those whom you had left and whose pact you had made void; and they will judge you with their judgments as an adulteress; and I will set', he says, 'my jealousy in you, which they exercise with you in fury — for my jealousy over faith not kept is present even among enemies — : your nose', he says, 'and your ears they will cut off — as of an adulteress caught in debauchery — so that, disfigured, you may cease to please — for just as in the face all the beauty of the countenance consists in the comeliness of the nostrils and in the ears, from which in women pearls and gems hang down, so the dignity of the king and of the judges, which is signified in the face and the ears, will be cut off by their sword — ; they themselves will take your sons and your daughters — yours, he says, and yours, not mine and mine, because they were begotten of adultery —, and the rest will be devoured by fire; and they will strip', he says, 'you of your garments, with which I had adorned you, and of the vessels of your glory, of gold and silver, which I had granted you for the ceremonies of the temple — of which it is written: I gave them gold and silver, and they made them for Baal — ; and I will do all these things so that, your beauty lost and your bewitching face disfigured, your wickedness may at last rest, and the fornication which you learned and practiced in Egypt, so that, after you have lost your nose and ears, you may by no means dare to lift your eyes to the Chaldeans and show your hideousness to your former lovers; nor may you any longer remember the lust of the Egyptians, in the size of whose flesh you delighted'. All of this is said under the metaphor of an adulteress, disfigured because of her adultery, so that she may no longer glory in her comeliness but blush in the hideousness which she has merited by the magnitude of her pleasures. Whatever is said τροπικῶς [figuratively] of Jerusalem can also be referred to the soul, which, joined by its virtues to the embrace of God, afterwards turned adulteress to vices and withdrew from him, and, all her crimes being laid open, was stripped and disfigured and shown to all, so that she may at some time desist from her wickedness; and may not glory in the dignity of her name, but, from her consciousness of evil and her remembrance of Egypt, may not dare any longer to lift her eyes to heaven; whence too her nose is cut off and her ears are amputated, because she had turned the odor of good fragrance into stench and had heard the judgment of blood; and this we understand not only of smell and hearing but of sight too, of which Samson and Zedekiah are deprived because they had abused it; God also makes deaf and mute, so that their tongue may not pass through to the earth; and all touch is taken away in those who have utterly lost life. And these things will happen so that all things may be purged by fire, and the fornication of Egypt may perish, and she may no longer be able to raise her eyes to evils.
23:28-35
For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will deliver you into the hands of those whom you hated, into the hands with which your soul was sated, and they will deal with you in hatred, and take away all your labors, and leave you naked and full of disgrace. Your wickedness and your fornications have done these things to you, because you committed fornication after the nations, among whom you were polluted in their idols. You walked in the way of your sister, and I will give her cup into your hand. Thus says the Lord God: You will drink the cup of your sister, deep and wide — you will be for derision and for scorn: you who are most capacious, you will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow! —, and the cup of grief and sadness, the cup of your sister Samaria; and you will drink it and drain it to the dregs; and you will devour its fragments, and you will tear your breasts (or, as the Seventy translated, I will take away her feasts and new moons), for I have spoken, says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have forgotten me, and cast me behind your body, you too bear your wickedness and your fornications. It is profitable for Jerusalem too to have enmity against the Assyrians and Chaldeans and by no means to remember Egypt, but to be delivered into the hands of those who hated her, to be punished; and she is not delivered to them before her soul has been sated with them, so that, after she has repented of her old sins, she may then be purged by punishments, and lose all the labors which she acquired by the harlot's art, and see her nakedness and disgrace, and know that it was not the Lord who did all these things to her but her own fornications, by which she committed fornication among the nations, which he enumerated above, so as to worship their images. 'In the ways', he says, 'of your sister Samaria you walked; therefore you must drink the cup of her whose sins you followed — and that a cup is often taken for punishments and torments, there are many examples, among which is this: A cup in the hand of the Lord, full of pure wine, mixed. And he has tilted it from this; yet its dregs are not emptied: all the sinners of the earth shall drink; and in Isaiah it is called 'the cup of ruin' and 'the draught of fury'; and God speaks to Jeremiah, saying: Take the cup of pure wine from my hand, and you shall give drink to all the nations to which I shall send you; and they shall drink and vomit, and go mad; for just as certain cathartics are given so that the noxious humor that is in bodies may be purged out, so the Lord too gives a most undiluted cup of torments, to take away from sinners whatever there is of gall and bitterness and restore them to their former health — ; and the cup itself will be deep and wide: deep in the magnitude of the punishments, wide in the length of the captivity; but when', he says, 'you have been made drunk and seized by sorrow, and have drunk the cup to the dregs and drained it to such a degree that you devour even the fragments of the cup itself, then you will be weary of your former fornication and will tear the breasts which had been broken in Egypt and which were subdued and crushed by your lovers — or I will take away all your feasts and new moons, so that in place of solemnity and gladness you may have eternal lamentation and grief —. Since, therefore, you have done these things and forgotten me and cast me behind your body —or backward, because of the vices of the body, or behind the genitals, by which the foulness of turpitude is indicated —, therefore bear your wickedness and your impiety — that is, the punishments which you have merited by your impiety and crimes —'. This that is said: And you will drink to the dregs; and you will devour its fragments, can be understood meaningfully of Jerusalem, which drank the cup of her sister Samaria last, and drained, as it were, the dregs of her torments to the bottom.
23:36-49
And the Lord spoke to me, saying: Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah, and declare to them their crimes (or iniquities)? For they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands, and they have committed fornication with their idols (or inventions); moreover their sons too, whom they had borne to me, they offered to them to be devoured (or they led through the fire). But this too they did to me: they polluted my sanctuary on that day, and profaned my sabbaths. And when they sacrificed their sons to their idols, and entered my sanctuary on that day to pollute it, these things too they did in the midst of my house. They sent to men coming from afar, to whom they had sent a messenger; and so, behold, they came. For them you washed yourself (or when they had come, at once you bathed), and painted round your eyes with stibium, and adorned yourself with womanly finery; you sat on a beautiful couch, and a table was adorned before you; my incense and my ointment (or oil) you set upon it. And the voice of an exulting multitude was in her (or and with a composed voice she leapt about), and among the men, indeed, multitudes of people were brought and came from the desert (or drunk from the desert); they put bracelets on their hands and most beautiful crowns on their heads. And I said to her who is worn down in adultery: Now she too will commit fornication in her fornication. And they went in to her as to a harlot woman; so they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, wicked women (or to work iniquity). Righteous men, then, are they; these will judge them with the judgment of adulteresses and the judgment of those who shed blood, because they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. For thus says the Lord God: Bring a multitude against them, and deliver them to tumult and to plunder; and let them be stoned with the stones of the peoples, and pierced with their swords; they will kill their sons and daughters, and burn their houses with fire. And I will remove wickedness (or impiety) from the land, and all women will learn not to act according to their wickedness (or impiety); and they will lay your wickedness (or impiety) upon you, and you will bear the sins of your idols, and you will know that I am the Lord God. As I have often pointed out, the small points in which the edition of the Seventy differs from the Hebrew I have joined on at the side, providing against the reader's distaste. Now it followed that he who had described the adulteries of Samaria and Jerusalem separately should announce their punishments together. And everything is said as to adulteresses, and, after a ἀνακεφαλαιῶσι [recapitulation] has been made, their crimes are briefly set forth, so that, rightly, according to the command of the law, the stoning of the people may follow upon the adulteresses. 'Since, therefore, they are adulteresses, pronounce a just sentence; for they have committed adultery with idols, and blood is on their hands, the blood, namely, of those whom they sacrificed to idols, so as to consecrate to demons the sons whom they had borne to me; nor did they do this outside, and on the mountains and in the groves, as they had often been accustomed to do, but at the last they polluted my temple, so as to set the statue of Baal in it; and they profaned my sabbaths, so that the religion neither of place nor of time was kept among them. But neither were they content only with present adulteries, nor did it suffice them that, after sacrificing my sons, they made them their idols' or the demons', but, wanton also in foreign pleasures, they venerated the images of the Assyrians and Chaldeans. And when these had come, Oholibah, Jerusalem, you fulfilled for them the whole bearing of an adulteress: you washed your body, smeared your eyes with stibium, put on womanly adornment, sat on a couch prepared for lust, set out feasts with which to restore the strength of your lovers, broken by lust; my incense and ointment — which I had ordered to be made specially for me, and that soul to be exterminated from the people which wished to make it for private uses — you offered to idols, so as to gather a throng of peoples, or sang with every kind of musician, so as to please your lovers not only by sight but by hearing and smell and all the senses; and they came to you drunk, not with any urbane elegance, but from the desert and the wilderness, displaying the bearing of rustics and brigands. And into such madness of pleasures did you burn, O most wicked sisters, that you placed your bracelets and hair-ornaments upon the hands and heads of your lovers, or upon yourselves, so that, full of adornment, you might be disgraced. Wherefore I said to her, whether to Jerusalem or to Samaria or to both: So have you worn down your brow that you are by no means polluted in secret, nor do you heed the gaze either of a husband or of men, but like harlots you are prostituted publicly; they went in to you as to harlots, vying with one another in their desire to pollute you. I will therefore deliver you for punishment to those to whom you delivered yourselves of your own accord for defilement; for they are righteous men in this, that at my command they torment the adulteress and parricide. For thus says the Lord God: By the warning of your voice, O prophet, gather against them a multitude of peoples, and first let all their substance be plundered; then let them be stoned and pierced with swords; and let their sons and daughters be slaughtered, and their houses burn. And all these things will be done so that impiety may be removed from the land, and all women and all provinces may learn from their punishments to avoid the like, so that, after you have received what you deserve and have borne the crimes of your idols, you may then know that I am the Lord'. All these things were said τροπικῶς [figuratively] and under the type of adulteresses against Samaria and Jerusalem: that, delivered to the Assyrians and Chaldeans, they were led into captivity and their cities were burned up in fire, and the peoples were killed who had venerated the images of demons in place of God. These things can also be understood of the time after the coming of Christ: that righteous men from the peoples of the Gentiles, they themselves, judge the Samaritans and the Jews by comparison with themselves and deliver them to be devoured, those to whom the Lord had said: Your house will be left to you desolate, and: When you see Jerusalem surrounded by an army, know that its desolation draws near; for to this day they are adulteresses and are crushed by the stones of the whole world, because they sent messengers to those who were far off and could not say: I am the Lord who draws near, and not from afar, says the Lord; and they prepared themselves for their lovers, the demons, and all the adornment and finery which they had received from God as a natural good they turned into the worship of demons, and their works and comeliness, which we understand in the bracelets and the diadem, they offered to their adulterous lovers; and their punishment is a fear to the Gentiles, or rather to those of the Gentiles who have believed, lest they suffer the like if they do what Samaria and Jerusalem did. From them impieties will be taken away then, when they have received their crimes and have taken away from their eyes the veil that is placed before the face of Moses, so that they may know that he himself is the Lord Jesus Christ, whom they denied to be the Son of God.
24:1-14
And the word of the Lord came to me in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, saying: Son of man, write down for yourself the name of this day, on which the king of Babylon has been made strong against Jerusalem today. And you shall speak by a proverb a parable to the provoking house, and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Set on the pot; set it on, I say, and put water into it. Heap its pieces into it, every good part, the thigh and the shoulder, choice pieces and full of bones; take the fattest of the flock, and arrange also piles of bones under it. Its cooking has boiled up, and its bones have been boiled through in the midst of it. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Woe to the city of bloods, to the pot whose rust is in it, and its rust has not gone out of it. Piece by piece, and by its pieces, cast it out; the lot has not fallen upon it, for its blood is in the midst of it; upon a most clear rock she poured it out; she did not pour it out upon the ground, so that it could be covered with dust: that I might bring my indignation upon her and avenge with vengeance, I have set her blood upon the most clear rock, so that it should not be covered. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Woe to the city of bloods, whose pyre I will make great. Heap up the bones, which I will set alight with fire; the flesh shall be consumed, and the whole composition shall be boiled down, and the bones shall waste away. Set it also empty upon the live coals, that it may grow hot, and its bronze may melt, and its defilement may be melted down in its midst, and its rust may be consumed. With much labor there has been sweating, and its excessive rust has not gone out of it, not even through fire. Your uncleanness is execrable, because I wished to cleanse you, and you were not cleansed of your filth; but neither will you be cleansed before I make my indignation rest upon you. I the Lord have spoken; it comes, and I will do it: I will not pass over, nor spare, nor be appeased. According to your ways and according to your devices I have judged you, says the Lord. (LXX: "And the word of the Lord came to me in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, saying: Son of man, write down for yourself the day from this day on which the king of Babylon set himself firmly over Jerusalem from this present day. And speak a parable to the exasperating house, and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Set on the cauldron, and pour water upon it. And put into it the divisions, every good cut, the leg and the shoulder, taken from choice cattle, with the flesh separated from the bones; and burn the bones beneath them. It has boiled, it has boiled, and its bones have been boiled out in the midst of it. Therefore thus says Adonai the Lord: O city of bloods, cauldron in which there is rust in it, and the rust has not gone out of it. By its parts it has brought it out; the lot has not fallen upon it, because its blood is in the midst of it; upon a most smooth rock I have set it; I did not pour it out upon the ground, so that it should be covered with earth: that fury might go up to the avenging of vengeance, I have set her blood upon the most clear rock, so that it should not be covered. Therefore thus says Adonai the Lord: Woe to the city of bloods, and I will make the firebrand great and I will multiply the wood and I will kindle the fire, that the flesh may waste away and the broth be diminished, and the bones be burned up and it stand upon its coals. It has been kindled that it may be burned out, and its bronze be roasted, and its uncleanness be burned up in its midst, and its rust fail. The rust shall be humbled, and its abundant rust shall not go out of it; its rust shall be put to confusion. Your uncleanness is 'zemma', because you were defiled, and you have not been cleansed of your uncleanness. And what will it be if you are not cleansed any more, until I fulfil my fury upon you? I the Lord have spoken; and it will come, and I will do it: I will not delay, nor have mercy, nor be entreated. According to your ways and according to your devices I will judge you, says Adonai the Lord." — Most of these were added from Theodotion, and so was the Hebrew word 'zemma', for which we translated 'execrable uncleanness'; and this too was added by them, which is not found in the Hebrew and must be marked beforehand with an obelus: ÷ Therefore I judge you according to your blood, and according to your thoughts I will judge you, unclean and notorious and excessive in provoking. ⁚) Let us speak, then, about each point. In the ninth year of the captivity of King Jehoiakim — for he began to prophesy in the fifth —, and in the tenth month of the same ninth year, on the tenth day of the tenth month, the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the prophet, who was placed in the regions of Babylon, and said to him: 'Son of man, write down for yourself this same day, and know that today the king of Babylon has begun, in the region of Judea, to besiege Jerusalem and to wall it in with an army; and describe the siege itself by a parable and a proverb — which in the present place signifies a metaphor and transference — : Set on,' he says, 'a bronze pot, that is, a cauldron, and put water into it, and cut into pieces the whole body of the fattest animals, the thigh as well as the leg and the shoulder, and carefully separate the flesh from the bones and, once the flesh has been put into the cauldron, set, or arrange, the bones beneath the cauldron, and make piles and heaps of bones, so that the cooking of the cauldron may boil up not once but again and again, and the flesh may be boiled through within, and the bones beneath may be burned up by the fire. But do you wish, prophet, to know what this cauldron is, or what the flesh or the bones are? Speak these things, says the Lord: Woe to the city of bloods, that is, Jerusalem, to the cauldron whose rust, that is, malice, is excessive, and although fire has been put beneath it, yet its rust has not gone out of it; for even when captured and tortured they persevered in their former crime. Consume it part by part and one by one, so that no one remains to be saved. The lot has not fallen upon it, so that some should perish and others be saved, but a common destruction has come upon all; for its blood, that is, its murders and the slaughter of sons, is in the midst of it. This blood she poured out upon the most clear rock, so that it would be visible to all and not be covered with earth or with dust, so, namely, that my indignation might not pass by, but vengeance might hasten upon blood lying wholly in the open — for it is the way of nature that, if blood is poured out on the earth, the soil drinks up the moisture of the blood, or it is gradually covered with earth and dust; but when blood has been poured out upon a most clear rock which has no hollow, it slides and spreads over a wide space. And this indicates that she committed murders not hidden but public, according to what is said to Cain: The blood of your brother cries to me —. Therefore say to the city of blood — of bloods not of one but of many —: Behold, I will make a great pyre in you, or I will bring a firebrand, which the common people call a titio [the everyday word for a firebrand], and I will set alight in you not only the soft and tender flesh but the hardest bones as well, and nothing shall remain in you that is not burned up by the fire. And when both the flesh and the bones have been consumed and burned, set the empty cauldron itself upon the live coals, so that its bronze too may melt and be consumed and, the bronze being consumed, its rust too may perish; that is, when the city has been burned up by the fire, its malice may perish utterly with the city. But what does it profit to have done what was commanded? Not even by fire could the rust and malice of the cauldron and of the city be taken away, and there remains in it a wicked and execrable uncleanness — for this is what 'zemma' signifies. And he makes an apostrophe to the cauldron itself, that is, to the city itself — : I wished to cleanse you, and you were not cleansed of your filth, nor will you be able to be cleansed any more until I fulfil my indignation upon you. I the Lord have spoken, and my sentence cannot pass away. The siege of the city has already come; I will do what I have threatened, and I will not pass over — as I have often done — your crimes, and I will spare no longer, nor will I be appeased toward you even if you multiply your prayers, but I will repay you your ways and your devices; indeed, I will judge you according to your works and your thoughts, so that in this too I may show my clemency' — like a physician who does not spare rotten flesh, so that the healthy limbs may be saved: he does not spare in order to spare, he is cruel in order to have mercy, and he considers not the pain of the patient but the healing of the wound, according to that saying of the Gospel, preferring that one member should perish rather than that the whole body be killed —. It must also be noted how, from the beginning of the prophecy up to the present day when Jerusalem began to be besieged, the captivity comes in order. First the sword is called forth; then two ways are set out, Ammon and Jerusalem, and of these the lot falls for Nebuchadnezzar on the right-hand one; silver, bronze, tin, lead and iron are melted together in the city; the land too is not rained upon, but is overgrown with briers; afterwards, under the name of the two sisters Oholah and Oholibah, the sins of Samaria and Jerusalem are narrated, how the one has been captured and the other is to be captured; finally, in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, it is shown to Ezekiel, placed in captivity, and to those who were with him and had surrendered themselves with King Jeconiah, on what day the city began to be besieged, and the likeness of the cauldron is set forth so that, just as the flesh and the bones, heaped into the cauldron, are burned up by the fire, so the whole city is to perish together with its citizens, and none of those who were besieged is to remain without being consumed by famine, sword, pestilence, and the remaining part is to be led captive into Babylon. This same prophecy, however, can also pertain to the time of the Lord's passion, on account of which Jerusalem was surrounded by an army and her sons were slain and, when Titus the son of Vespasian besieged it, no one escaped to safety, and the temple suddenly, and, after fifty years, under Hadrian, the city was consumed by an everlasting fire. As for the present captivity, when Ezekiel was beholding these things in Babylon, and which Jeremiah sets at the beginning of his volume: What do you see, Jeremiah? And answering he said: A pot set alight, and its face from the face of the north, there are those who, according to tropology, transfer this whole passage to the consummation of the world, and who temper the ninth number, which in the holy Scriptures is the number of punishments and sorrows and always follows righteousness, by the clemency of the tenth month and the tenth day. For punishments are applied to the sick for this reason: that health may follow pain. The world, therefore, which is set in the evil one, is set alight by divine fire on the day of judgment; and the city of bloods is set upon coals of fire, so that what is written in Isaiah may be fulfilled: You have coals of fire, sit upon them: these will be a help to you. And this is difficult: how, when the coals and the bones are consumed — the bones of which even the Pharisees are full, to whom the Lord speaks in the Gospel: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, who are like whitewashed tombs, which within are full of filth and of the bones of the dead —, it is now said that the rust and filth of the world have not been consumed, but that even after the severity of judgment malice remains; this is easily resolved if we understand that saying of the Apostle: God has shut up all things under sin, that he may have mercy on all; for the creation was subjected to vanity. And the blood that has been poured out is set in the open sight of the whole creation, so that the crimes of all may be laid bare. But we can also take the most clear rock to be the Lord Savior, the rock which followed the people of Israel into the wilderness, of which it is written: They drank, moreover, from the rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ, because in him all things are revealed and what is written is fulfilled: Nothing is hidden that will not be revealed. And the Lord says that he will not have mercy, nor pass over the sins of the world, nor spare the impious nor be appeased, so that the ways of the impious may perish, according to what is set at the end of the first psalm: And the way of the impious will perish.
24:15-27
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, behold, I am taking from you the desirable thing of your eyes with a stroke, and you shall not mourn nor weep, nor shall your tears flow. Groan in silence; you shall not make the mourning for the dead; let your crown be bound about you, and your shoes shall be on your feet, and you shall not veil your face with a mantle, nor eat the food of mourners. So I spoke to the people in the morning, and my wife died in the evening; and in the morning I did as he had commanded me. And the people said to me: Why do you not show us what these things mean that you are doing? And I said to them: The word of the Lord came to me, saying: Speak to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your dominion and the desirable thing of your eyes, and that over which your soul trembles. And your sons and daughters, whom you have left behind, shall fall by the sword. And you shall do as I have done: you shall not veil your faces with a mantle, and you shall not eat the food of mourners; you shall have crowns on your heads and shoes on your feet; you shall not mourn nor weep, but you shall waste away in your iniquities, and each shall groan to his brother. And Ezekiel shall be a portent to you: according to all that he has done you shall do, when this comes, and you shall know that I am the Lord God. And you, son of man, behold, on the day when I take from them their strength, and the joy of their dignity, and the desire of their eyes, on which their souls rest, their sons and their daughters; on that day, when one fleeing comes to you to announce it to you, on that day, I say, your mouth shall be opened with him who fled; and you shall speak and be silent no longer, and you shall be a portent to them, and you shall know that I am the Lord. (LXX: "And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, behold, I will take away from you the desirable things of your eyes in battle array (or in preparation); you shall not mourn nor weep, nor shall tears come to you. The groaning of the blood of the reins is mourning; your hair shall be bound up upon you and your shoes on your feet, nor shall you be comforted by their lips, and you shall not eat the bread of men. And I spoke to the people in the morning as he had commanded me, and my wife died in the evening; and in the morning I did as it was commanded me. And the people said to me: Will you not announce to us what these things are that you are doing? And I said to them: The word of the Lord came to me, saying: Say to the house of Israel: Thus says Adonai the Lord: Behold, I will defile my holy things, the pride of your strength, the desirable thing of your eyes, and the things which your souls spare. Your sons and your daughters, whom you have left behind, shall fall by the sword. And you shall do as I have done: you shall not be comforted by their mouth, and you shall not eat the bread of men, and your locks shall be upon your heads and your shoes on your feet; you shall not mourn nor weep, and you shall be consumed in your iniquities, and each shall comfort his brother. And Ezekiel shall be a portent to you: according to all that I have done you shall do, and when these things come, you shall know that I am Adonai the Lord. And you, son of man, will it not be on the day when I take away from them their strength, the exaltation of their glorying, the desirable things of their eyes, and the elation of their soul, their sons and their daughters; on that day he who has been saved will come to you, to announce it in your ears? On that day your mouth shall be opened to him who has fled; and you shall speak, and by no means be silent any longer, and you shall be a portent to them, and they shall know that I am the Lord.") Above, by the kindling of the pot and the cauldron, he had shown the siege of the city; now the prophetic word testifies that it has been captured and destroyed, and that the whole people has been either slain by the sword or led into captivity. And first, according to our custom, let us lay the foundations of the history. 'Son of man,' he says, 'behold, I will take away from the sight of your eyes whatever is desirable to you, and I will take it away 'with a stroke' — or, as the Seventy rendered, 'in preparation' —, so that, namely, you may prepare yourself not to do the things that are customarily done in mourning. You shall not mourn nor weep, nor shall flowing tears show the grief of your heart, but if perhaps you are overcome by excessive sorrow, keep your groaning silent, such as does not burst out into words'. You shall not make the mourning for the dead (or, as the Seventy rendered: The groaning of the blood of the reins is mourning): by this he shows that his wife is going to die; for there follows immediately: And my wife died in the evening, which properly pertains to the union of the reins: nothing is more lovable to a man than a good wife, who is provided for a man by God, and to whom he is joined by the law of the Lord, and with whom he becomes one body. And what follows: Let your crown be bound about you, and your shoes shall be on your feet, signifies this: 'You shall have the hair which is shorn in mourning, and on your feet the shoes which mourners are accustomed to cast off' — whence David too, fleeing from his son Absalom and repenting over the murder of Uriah, walks with bare feet —. The Hebrews say: up to this day the Babylonian teachers, keeping the precepts of the law, bind the Decalogue, written on little parchments, around their heads, and these are the things that are commanded to hang before the eyes and on the forehead, so that they may always see what has been commanded; and because Ezekiel was a priest, he ought by no means to lay aside the crown of glorying, but to have it bound on his head. This is what they said. But let us, following the Seventy, understand by 'crown' the head of hair, although their translation too has by no means expressed the force of the Hebrew word. Nor shall you veil your face, he says, with a mantle, nor take the food of mourners: things which are customarily done in mourning, that people cover the face and receive from those who console them what the Greeks call περίδειπνα [funeral meals]. 'I spoke,' he says, 'to the people the things the Lord had commanded me, and in the evening my wife died, the desirable thing of my eyes and the mourning of the loins and of the blood. And immediately, on the next day, in the morning, I did all the things that had been commanded me; and the people asked me why I had acted against the custom of all; and to those seeking the reasons for such great endurance I replied: The word of the Lord which came to me, that I should speak to the people of Israel, commanded these things: Behold, I (that is: now already) will profane my sanctuary, so that the temple may be burned and lie open to all foreigners and profane persons, the temple in which you had your pride, that is, your confidence and hope and the desire of your salvation, and at whose siege your souls were in dread; your sons too and your daughters, whom famine and pestilence had left remaining to you, I will consume with the sword, so that whatever I have done, you too may do'. When custom is observed in mourning, the grief is moderate; but when so great a necessity of evils presses upon men that it is greater than all lamentation, each one, anxious about his own death, does not groan over the miseries of others, even though they are his nearest. 'You shall do nothing,' he says, 'of what is customarily done in mourning, but, when the city and the temple have been set on fire, you will be stunned at the magnitude of the evils; you will not cut your hair nor walk with bare feet, you will not mourn nor veil your faces with a mantle nor receive food from those who console you, but you will waste away, and you will be consumed in your iniquities, and you will scarcely have free groaning, lest you offend the pride of the victors if you are seen to weep publicly; so that Ezekiel the prophet may be a portent to you, and all that he did not do at the death of his wife, you may not do at the overthrow of the city and the temple'. And yet more plainly: 'O son of man,' he says, 'at the time when I take away from them their strength — the confidence of the temple, as we have said —, and the joy of dignity and that in which they had their only hope, and the desire in which their souls rested, and besides their sons and their daughters — understood from the above: — I take away, at that time,' he says, 'when one fleeing from Jerusalem, or one who has escaped, comes to you, saying that the city has been overthrown, then you, who before had been silent and had no free groaning, and were of such great endurance that at the death of your wife and in the pain of your loins you did not shed a tear, will open your mouth and speak, not to him who has come but with him, so that whatever you had foretold was to come, he may announce as now accomplished; and you will no longer be silent, but you will rebuke them and say that all these things have befallen them deservedly, so that you may be a portent to them', according to what is written in Zechariah, that the prophets are men who portend, and the Lord says elsewhere: In the hands of the prophets I have been likened. Let this be said according to the history. Let us come to the ἀναγωγὴν [anagogy, the higher sense], if only it does not seem forced to the prudence of a cautious reader. No one doubts that the son of man is said to be the Lord Savior, who at the last hour, that is, at the evening of this world, lost his former wife, and did not weep for her nor veil his face with a mantle nor receive any consolation from men, and who foretold in the morning the things to come which were fulfilled in the evening, and again in the morning, at his second coming, proved accomplished what he had foretold was to come: that the sanctuary of the Jews, and what they had held desirable in their eyes and that over which their souls trembled, had been profaned, and that their sons too and their daughters had fallen by the Roman sword. But what is said: You shall have a crown on your heads, and shoes shall be on your feet, we shall refer to this part: that they ought by no means to mourn nor to take up the signs of mourning, after they have received the truth in place of the shadow and certain of them have become Nazirites, and each one will be comforted over his brother, so that Ezekiel, whom God the Father strengthened, may be a portent to them, foretelling things to come; and that, after Jerusalem has been overthrown and the temple burned, and the whole world has heard this, and the dispersion of Israel, which inhabits the ends of the earth, then the words of the Lord, fulfilled in deed, may have freedom, and, his sanctuary having been profaned and the law fulfilled or destroyed according to the letter that kills, the glory of the Gospel may be laid open, and Israel may know that he himself is Lord and God, who foretold in the morning that these things would come, and proved by his coming that they were fulfilled in the evening and at the consummation of the world.
Book Eight
What profit our dictation on the prophets may bring to others is a matter for the judgment of God, and for the conscience of those who, setting aside declamations and applause and the arrangement of words, desire to know what the prophets' speech either narrates as past, or rebukes as present, or foretells as yet to come. For ourselves, meanwhile, it is first of all a profit; for while we do this and think of nothing else, we take up our explanations as if by stealth, and make up for the miseries of the days by study through the nights; the mind is fed and forgets the calamities of the world, which, set now at its very end, groans and travails, until he who restrains is taken out of the way, and the feet of the statue, once of iron, are broken through the fragility of the toes of clay. The world is falling, and the stiff neck does not bend; riches perish, and avarice by no means ceases; men hasten to gather what will in turn be seized by others; tears have dried up, all compassion has been taken away; many are those who ask, few those who give. Nor do we blush, while we display our poverty in a cheap little cloak, to brood over the wealth of Croesus, and to guard in our treasuries the hunger and death of very many, after the manner of that rich man clothed in purple, who, granting that he did nothing else (for Scripture does not attest his robberies and iniquities), yet his cruelty and pride have no measure: to Lazarus, lying before his doors and half-dead, he did not order even those things to be given which are thrown to the dogs. How many Lazaruses lie now, and how many men's purple robes are kept covered under garments of various colors, men who do not turn even to their own use the things they keep only to perish! Let these words, Eustochium, virgin of Christ, be what the mouth has spoken out of the abundance of the heart, and let us have said them a little more freely than befits our lowliness. But the eighth book on Ezekiel, which contains the rebuke of the Ammonites and of the other nations and the prophecy of things to come, will have this beginning.
25:1-7
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set (or make firm) your face against the Ammonites and you shall prophesy concerning them, and you shall say to the Ammonites: Hear the word of the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God: Because you said: Well done, well done, over my sanctuary (or because you rejoiced over my sanctuary) because it was profaned, and over the land of Israel because it was made desolate, and over the house of Judah because they were led into captivity, therefore I will hand you over to the sons of the east (or Cedem) as an inheritance; they shall set up their sheepfolds in you, and they shall pitch their tents in you; they themselves shall eat your fruits, and they themselves shall drink milk (or your richness). And I will make Rabbath a dwelling for camels (or the city of Ammon pastures for camels), and the Ammonites a lair for cattle, and you shall know that I am the Lord. For thus says the Lord God: Because you clapped with the hand, and struck (or stamped) with the foot, and rejoiced with all your feeling (or mocked from your soul) over the land of Israel, therefore behold, I will stretch out my hand over you, and I will hand you over for plunder to the nations, and I will slay you from among the peoples, and destroy from the lands, and crush, and you shall know that I am the Lord. When Jerusalem had been taken or besieged, after the one who had been able to escape came to Babylon and announced that the city was at any moment to be taken, or had been overthrown together with the temple, the prophetic discourse, according to the custom of all the prophets, turns against the other nations round about, which had mocked at the ruin of Jerusalem and the burning of the temple; and first against the Ammonites, who had a capital named Rabbath, which today is called Philadelphia after the king of Egypt Ptolemy, surnamed Philadelphus, who held Arabia together with Judea: 'Son' he says 'of man, set (or make firm) your face against the Ammonites, who were begotten of the stock of Lot, and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God — for these are not the words of the prophet but of the Lord. Concerning the making firm of the face we have discussed more fully in this same prophet —: Because you said: Well done, well done, or, you mocked and rejoiced, because my temple and sanctuary was profaned by the entry of enemies, and over the land of Israel, because it was made desolate, and especially over the house of Judah, of the two tribes, which have now been led into captivity, therefore I too will hand you over to the sons of Cedem', whom we have translated 'eastern' — and no one doubts that the Midianites and the whole vast expanse of the desert lie next to the land of Arabia, who have herds of camels and multitudes of sheep and goats and live on this wealth —; which, as history relates in the book of Judges, also befell the land of Israel, when the Midianites came and grazed bare all their regions as far as Gaza. Μεταφορικῶς [metaphorically], then, Scripture signifies by way of the Midianites, the Ishmaelites and the Agarenes — who are now called Saracens, falsely taking to themselves the name of Sarah, so that, of course, they may seem to have been born of the free woman and mistress —; and it is said of King Nebuchadnezzar and all his army that he will come and take the city of Rabbath, which is called by this name either properly or because of its size — for 'Rabbath' means 'greatest' —; and so that we may not doubt that Nebuchadnezzar overthrew Arabia after Jerusalem was taken, Scripture testifies above: And you, son of man, set for yourself two ways, Ammon and Jerusalem, and the sword of the king of Babylon shall come, and again: At the head of the way of the city he shall cast. You shall set a way so that the sword may come to Rabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah in most fortified Jerusalem, and again: Thus says the Lord God to the Ammonites and to their reproach. 'So the sons of Cedem will come and set up their sheepfolds like shepherds, and pitch tents; they themselves will lay waste your fruits and drink the milk and the richness of the land, once the flocks of camels and of all peoples have been let in, so that the Ammonites may be a lair for cattle', and by the compulsion of their misfortunes they may understand that he himself is the Lord, who both foretold the things to come and commanded that they should happen. Nor was it enough for the Ammonites to mock and say 'Well done, well done' over the temple and sanctuary of the Lord, which had been profaned by the entry of various nations; but so great was the wantonness of their mocking that the whole people together clattered with hands and feet and shouted with all the passion of the heart, because the land of Israel was desolate. Therefore not through angels nor through other ministries, but the Lord himself, stretching out his hand to strike, will hand it over for plunder — not at all to camels and flocks of sheep but, more plainly, to the nations — so that it may be utterly uprooted from the number of the peoples, and perish, and be brought to nothing; and after it has been crushed, then it may understand that he himself is the Lord, who judges all things and has power over all lands. According to tropology we can understand the Ammonites — who were begotten of the seed of Lot in a cave, and begotten in drunkenness and incest — as all the heretics, of whom the apostle John also says: They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would surely have remained with us; these have sprung from 'inclination' — for this is what 'Lot' is rendered in our language —, because: All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one. Against these the prophet's face is set, or made firm, so that it may crush them by its severity, and it says to them: 'Because you mocked my Church in the time of persecution, and because my sanctuary had been profaned through various vices, whether by the vice of those who served me or by the cruelty of the enemies who persecuted my own, and because the land of Israel too, the senses that see God, was desolate of the choir of virtues, and because the sons of the house of Judah — the house that confesses the Lord, in which is the true faith and right confession — were led into captivity and ceased to serve the Lord, therefore you, who are all mockery, will be handed over to the sons of the east, who have set out from the true light, and you will be handed over as an inheritance, so that you too may learn to confess the Lord'. And by metaphor it is said that the sons of the east set their sheepfolds over them and pitch tents and drink milk and eat fruits, and that the city once of pride becomes a dwelling for camels, which, having laid down the burden of sins, can enter through the eye of a needle, and a lair for cattle, which are ruled by the good shepherd, so that, when they have done this, mingled with and handed over to the shepherds of the east, they may understand that he himself is the Lord. And again he reproaches them for having mocked with excessive passion of heart at the ruins of the people of God, and for having thought the land of Israel utterly deserted, for which they deserve the hand of the avenging God, so that those who had exceeded the measure of exultation and joy over the ruin of the house of Judah are not handed over to the sons of the east at all, but become a plunder for all the nations, and are slain from among the peoples, and perish, and are crushed, and are to be believed to belong not at all to the stock of Abraham but to all the nations; and then, by the greatness of their misfortunes and by their own crushing and the slaughter of their people, they may know that he himself is the Lord. What we have understood generally of the Church can be understood of each one of the saints, at whose ruin the men of the world rejoice, and the adverse powers too, if they have lost a chastity of long standing, since the wicked think it a consolation for their own crimes if they have many partners in crimes and in punishment; and no one does this unless he is a son of Ammon, that is, a son of the people, who was begotten in declination.
25:8-11
Thus says the Lord God: Because Moab and Seir said: Behold, the house of Judah is like all the nations, therefore behold, I will open the shoulder of Moab, from its cities, I say, and from its borders, the glorious places of the land, Bethiesimoth and Beelmeon and Cariathaim, to the sons of the east together with the Ammonites; and I will give it as an inheritance, so that there may be no more remembrance of the Ammonites among the nations. And upon Moab I will execute judgments, and they shall know that I am the Lord. (LXX: "Thus says Adonai the Lord: Because Moab ※ and Seir ⁚ said: Behold, the house of Judah is like all the nations, therefore behold, I will loosen the shoulder of Moab from the cities of its promontories, the chosen land, the house of Bethiesimuth above the spring of the maritime city, the sons of the east over the Ammonites; I have given it to him as an inheritance, so that there may be no remembrance of the Ammonites among the nations. And upon Moab I will execute vengeances, and they shall know that I am the Lord." What we have translated 'and Seir' is not found in the Seventy but has been added from Theodotion.) In this place, however, the Hebrews tell a ridiculous tale: after the city was opened and the temple unbarred, and the sons of Ammon and Moab and Seir had entered the temple and seen the Cherubim protecting the mercy seat, they said: 'As all the nations worship images, so Judah too has idols of its religion'; and for this reason, they say, the Lord was angered and handed them over to captivity. We, however, say this: that these too mocked the house of Judah when it was taken by the Chaldeans, thinking that, as there had been no help from God among the other nations, so too the kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem, bereft of God's protection, had lain open to the power of Babylon. Therefore, not a long time afterward but at the present moment, the Lord threatens that he will loosen, or open, the shoulder of Moab — that is, its strength and might — from its cities, so that the Babylonian conqueror may enter in to them too, and the cities in Moab may cease to be, and in its borders and boundaries the glorious cities may be destroyed whose names he sets down: 'Bethiesimoth and Beelmeon and Cariathaim', for which the Seventy, intending I know not what, translated 'the house of Bethiesimuth', although this word signifies 'a deserted village', while 'Beelmeon' too is to this day a very large village in Moab, which they rendered 'above the spring', and 'Cariathaim' 'a maritime city'; and it too is handed over, together with the Ammonites, to the sons of the east, namely the Babylonians, according to the sense which we have expounded against the Ammonites. 'And I will give,' he says, 'Moab as an inheritance, so that, as there is no more remembrance of the Ammonites among the nations, so also upon Moab I will execute vengeances and judgments, and they may know that I am the Lord, who handed Judah over for sin and stand forth as avenger against the Ammonites and against Moab'. But to this day 'Moab', which means 'from the father', and 'Seir', which is rendered 'hairy' and 'shaggy', looks down on and despises the house of Judah, in which is the true confession, and thinks that it can be overthrown as easily as the fortifications of the other cities are overthrown. Hence the Lord threatens that he will open, or loosen, all the strength of the Moabites, so that they may cease to have cities and may no longer trust in the dialectical art, but that all its boundaries, which he calls promontories because of the dashing of the waves, may be destroyed, and that the glorious and chosen lands — 'Bethiesimoth', which means 'house of solitude' and 'deserted', and 'Beelmeon', which is likewise rendered 'having a spring' or 'above the spring', and 'Cariathaim', which the Seventy translated 'a maritime city' — may perish; for although they have the strength of fighters, and the glorious go forth to battle with the art of fighting, and advance hedged about and fortified on every side, yet their glorious land is not a house of habitation but a house of solitude; and though they think that they have a spring of knowledge and a maritime city that can withstand all the storms of the world, promising themselves endurance and strength, yet they will be turned to this end, that they too may be handed over to the sons of the east of the true light in Christ, just as the Ammonites were handed over, who trusted in their heretical multitude. And let us consider the benefit, and the clemency of God in the very threat: that they are handed over together with the Ammonites to the sons of the east as an inheritance, and that no heresy at all may be named among the nations, but that, judgments and vengeances having been executed upon Moab for its arrogance, they may know by the outcome of things that it is the Lord who orders all things. Now to prove that in the present place Moab is to be understood of the pride of the philosophers, of whom it is said: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the understanding of the understanding I will reject, a few examples from the prophet must be unfolded: Amos says: Thus says the Lord: For three impieties of Moab and for four I will not turn away from him, because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to ashes — for truly, whatever there is in the world of perverse doctrines, whatever pertains to earthly knowledge and is thought to be robust, this is overthrown by the dialectical art and, like a fire, dissolved into ashes and embers, so that what was thought to be strongest is proved to be worth nothing —; Isaiah too rebukes the pride of Moab, saying: We have heard the insolence of Moab, he is exceedingly insolent; I have taken away his pride; Jeremiah also, prophesying against all the nations, speaks specifically to Moab: Because you trusted in your fortifications, and a little after: You had confidence in your glory, and again: How do you say: We are strong?, and then: Near is the day of Moab, that it should come, and its malice is exceedingly swift, and more plainly: Say: How has the glorious staff been broken, the rod of magnificence?, and again: The horn of Moab is broken; and these things are said so that, under the name of Moab, the foolish pride of the world that lifts itself up to heaven may be crushed.
25:12-14
Thus says the Lord God: Because Idumaea took vengeance, to avenge itself on the sons of Judah, and sinned in transgressing and sought vengeance on them, therefore thus says the Lord God: I will stretch out my hand over the Idumaeans, and I will take away from it man and beast, and I will make it desert from the south, and those who are in Dedan shall fall by the sword. And I will lay my vengeance on Idumaea by the hand of my people Israel, and they shall do in Edom according to my anger and my fury, and they shall know my indignation, says the Lord God. (LXX: "Thus says the Lord Adonai: Because Idumaea acted so that they avenged a vengeance on the house of Judah, and they kept the memory of evil and avenged themselves with vengeance, therefore thus says Adonai the Lord: I will stretch out my hand over Idumaea, and I will slay from it man and beast, and I will make it desert, and those fleeing from Theman shall fall by the sword. And I will lay my vengeance on Idumaea in the hand of my people Israel, and they shall do in Idumaea according to my anger and my fury, and they shall know my vengeance, says Adonai the Lord.") Above he had set out two: Because Moab and Seir said, and afterwards, keeping silent about Seir, he spoke against Moab only; now he returns to the πρόβλημα [problem, the question set] he had begun: what Seir, that is, Idumaea, did — that Esau and Seir and Edom and Idumaea and Duma are called one nation, no one who has knowledge of the Scriptures will doubt; and, to say nothing of the other prophets — Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, who prophesied against Idumaea and Duma and Edom — the prophet Obadiah directs his whole prophecy against this nation; we expounded him long ago as best we could —. So Seir is rebuked, who, because he was shaggy, received the name of hairy, and bloody Edom, who for the cooking of red lentils lost his birthright and took his name from the dish; Esau too they interpret as 'made'; and this must be known, that in the Hebrew Idumaea is never written, but always Edom, which the Greek translation expressed as Idumaea. So Idumaea did not speak, as Moab did, but took vengeance on the sons of Judah, and sinned, or kept the memory of the former pain, so as to take vengeance on those by whom he had been supplanted in the womb. Therefore not through angels nor through anyone else, but the Lord himself, stretching out his hand over Idumaea, took away from it man and beast, and reduced its cities to desert, that is, 'Theman', which we rendered 'south', from which, and from the other city, Dedan, the slain will fall by the sword; 'and when they have avenged themselves on Judah, I will lay vengeance on the Idumaeans by the hand, or in the hand, of my people Israel, so that they may be crushed by those on whom they exercised vengeance, who will do in Edom, or Idumaea, according to my anger and fury, so as to fulfil my indignation, and so that, through the hands of my people Israel, my anger may rage against the hostile nation, and they may understand that, against the unjust vengeance of Idumaea, my vengeance was just,' says Adonai the Lord. According to tropology, this seems to me the sense: Idumaea is called 'earthly' and 'fleshly', which rises up against the spirit so that we do not do the things that are of the spirit, and hastens to draw to itself the soul placed in the middle, and wishes to repay vengeance on the sons of Judah, to whom it had formerly been subject, and remembers the old pain, that it was not in its own power, and therefore seeks vengeance on those who, withdrawing from the flesh, followed the spirit; therefore this Lord, being the avenger of the sons of Judah, stretches out his hand over Idumaea and takes away from it man and beast — whatever it seems to have either of reason or of simple faith — so as to reduce it to solitude, and of 'Theman', which means 'failing', and 'Dedan', which itself signifies 'kinship', he slew all with the sword which he placed in the hand of his people Israel, so that Edom may be overthrown, and feel the anger and fury of the Lord, and understand that his vengeance has served to this end: that it should serve the house of Judah. This is what the Apostle too argues about, writing: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated; and he loves Jacob because he supplants and overcomes what is fleshly and earthly, and deserves to receive its blessings; for first we live according to the flesh and afterwards according to the spirit. First the vices, then the virtues by which the vices are undermined, because the heart of man is set on malice from boyhood, and mature age condemns the errors of youth; hence David too: The offenses, he says, of my youth and my ignorances do not remember. And yet it must be known that Jacob receives the first blessing, Esau the second, and at the last it is said of him: You shall be the servant of your brother, so that, after the flesh has been made subject to the spirit and joined to it, it may cease to be flesh, and Idumaea may pass over into Judea.
25:15-17
Thus says the Lord God: Because the Philistines acted in vengeance, and avenged themselves with their whole soul, slaying, and fulfilling old enmities, therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will stretch out my hand over the Philistines, and I will slay the slayers, and destroy the remnants of the maritime region; and I will execute great vengeances on them, rebuking in fury, and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have laid my vengeance on them. (LXX: "Therefore thus says Adonai the Lord: Because the foreigners acted in vengeance, and stirred up retribution, mocking from the soul, so as to destroy for ever, therefore thus says Adonai the Lord: Behold, I will stretch out my hand over the foreigners, and I will destroy (or slay) the Cretans, and destroy the remnants of the shore; and I will execute great vengeances on them in the retribution of fury, and they shall know that I am Adonai the Lord, when I have laid my vengeance on them.") After the Ammonites, Moab and Seir — who are the Edomites, and who through Lot and Esau are joined by kinship to the people of Israel and the house of Judah — he comes to the Philisthiim — whom the Seventy translated 'allophylos', that is, 'foreigners', not by the general name of all the nations that are not of the race of the Jews, but by the special name of their own nation, which is now called Palaestina, the letter 'phe' having been changed into 'pi' according to the custom of the Greeks, just as among us, in place of the Hebrew 'phascha', the Greek and Latin 'pascha' is celebrated —. 'Philisthiim' they interpret as 'falling by the cup'; they too were made drunk from the golden cup of Babylon, and they rage, and mock with their whole soul, remembering their old enmities against Israel, by which they were divided from the people of God; and whereas the Lord says: Vengeance to me, I will repay, the Lord says: They themselves avenge themselves, slaying and fulfilling ancient hatreds; on account of which they will feel the hand of the Lord stretched out over them, who will slay the 'slayers' — for which the Seventy, intending I know not what, translated 'Cretans', whereas Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion rendered either the Hebrew word itself, 'chorethim', or 'slayers' and 'slaying', not only in the present place but also in Zephaniah, where these things are said against the Philistines: Gaza shall be plundered, and Ashkelon given to destruction, and Ashdod and Ekron shall be uprooted. Woe to the inhabitants of the cord of the sea, neighbors of the Cretans! The word of the Lord is upon you, Canaan, land of the foreigners; and I will destroy you from habitation. And Crete shall be pasture for shepherds and a fold for sheep. For there too, whereas the Seventy rendered 'Crete', the other translators translated ὄλεθρον, that is, 'slaying' or 'destruction', about which we said what seemed right to us in the above-mentioned prophet, God granting it; hence too, of David's two legions, one of which was called 'Phelethi' and the other 'Cerethim', the latter, because they slew and cut throats, received the name 'Chorethim', that is, 'of the slayers' —; and the Lord destroys all the remnants of the maritime region, which is beaten by salt waves, and will execute vengeances, not small but great, in fury, so that his fury may have mercy as its end and, after he has executed vengeances, rebuking with fury, then the Philistines may know that he himself is the Lord.
26:1-6
And it came to pass in the eleventh year, on the first (or one) of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, because Tyre (or Sor) has said of Jerusalem: Aha, the gates of the peoples (or nations) are broken, she is turned to me, I shall be filled, she is laid waste (or she who was full is laid waste); therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and I will make many nations come up to you, as the surging sea comes up; and they shall break down the walls of Tyre and destroy her towers, and I will scrape (or winnow) her dust from her, and I will make her a most clear (or most gleaming) rock. There shall be a drying of dragnets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken, says the Lord God; and she shall be for plunder to the nations. Her daughters also who are in the field (or in the plain) shall be slain by the sword, and they shall know that I am the Lord. The order of the prophecy is woven together in sequence. He had spoken against the Ammonites and Moab and Seir, who are themselves the Edomites, and the Philistines who are on the coast; and he keeps the same boundary along the cord of the sea: for after the Palestinians comes the region of Phoenicia, whose metropolis is the city 'Tyre', which in the Hebrew and Syrian tongue is called 'Sor': 'And because, when Jerusalem was taken, she too rejoiced and insulted her and said: The gates of the peoples are broken; I have a most secure harbor, and now that she is overthrown, the whole multitude that was ruled by her will has turned to me; and because she is laid waste, therefore I shall be filled; or, she who was full before will be reduced to a wilderness: you have said these things, then, and have insulted the ruins of Jerusalem, which was overthrown by the judgment of God because of her sins; therefore, not through messengers nor through any others, but I myself will be against you, O Tyre, and like the waves of the sea I will make the Babylonians come up against you with very many nations, by whose assault your walls and towers will be destroyed, so far that they fall right down to the ground and its dust is scraped away or winnowed into various parts; and she will be so humbled that she is compared to a most gleaming rock, and so great will be the desolation in the city, once most thronged, that the dragnets of fishermen will be spread out and dried in its midst; for I the Lord have spoken, whose words cannot be void, and I will hand her over for plunder to the nations; her daughters also who are in the field, or in the plain, that is, on the coast of Phoenicia, cities and towns, villages and forts, will be slain by the sword — μεταφορικῶς [metaphorically]: because he called them daughters, he speaks of a slaying by the sword —, so that by the outcome of events they may know that I am the Lord, who commanded these things to happen'. According to tropology, since the Hebrew name 'Sor' is rendered 'distress', every soul that is seized by passions can be called 'Sor'; when it sees Jerusalem, in which were the temple and the vision of peace, overthrown by the judgment of God for her vices and sins, it exults and thinks that the dominion of the once famous city is to be transferred to itself. This is understood both of contrary doctrines and of the men of the world: for when they see that a holy man has slipped through negligence, they rejoice and exult, as if the ruin of others were their own resurrection. Therefore the Lord threatens that he himself will fight against men of this kind, and will make very many nations come up against them like the waves of the sea, which destroy in them whatever seems most fortified and firm, and that he will so overthrow all their arguments that they are reduced to dust; that he will also make the dragnets and nets with which they formerly fished for the deceived multitude cease, and have them spread out and dried on the ground of the deserted city, so that in their place other fishermen may come in, whom the Lord sent to fish; and also that her daughters, who were formerly kept as if in a chamber and, being mystic and more secret doctrines, were not readily entrusted to anyone, will come forth and be dragged out into public and cut down by the Church's blade, so that then they may understand that he is the Lord, who both abandoned Jerusalem for a little while on account of her sins and destroyed the fortifications of Tyre on account of her insulting and her rejoicing.
26:7-14
For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will bring to Tyre (or to you, Sor) Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the north, king of kings, with horses and chariots and horsemen and a company and a great people. Your daughters who are in the field he shall slay with the sword, and he shall surround you with siegeworks, and heap up a mound round about, and raise the shield against you, and he shall direct mantlets and rams (or lances) against your walls, and destroy your towers with his weaponry. By the flood of his horses their dust shall cover you; at the sound of horsemen and wheels and chariots your walls shall be shaken, when he has entered your gates as through the entry of a city laid waste (or as one entering a city from the plain). With the hoofs of his horses he shall trample all your streets, your people he shall cut down with the sword, and your noble statues shall fall to the ground (or he shall bring down the substance of your strength to the ground). They shall lay waste (or he shall lay waste) your riches, they shall plunder your merchandise (or he shall despoil your substance), and they shall destroy (or he shall destroy) your walls, and your splendid (or desirable) houses they shall overthrow (or he shall overthrow), and your stones and your timber or your dust they shall put in the midst of the waters (or he shall cast into the midst of the sea). And I will make the multitude of your singers cease (or he shall destroy the multitude of your musicians), and the sound of your lyres (or the voice of your instruments) shall be heard no more, and I will make you a most clear (or a most gleaming) rock; you shall be a drying of dragnets, nor shall you be built any more, for I have spoken, says the Lord God. As is my custom, I have joined both editions, and where they differ I have coupled them side by side, looking to the brevity of the volumes. So what he had said: I will make many nations come up to you as the surging sea comes up, and Tyre shall be for plunder to the nations, he now sets out more plainly: that the Lord will bring Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the north, the king of kings, with horses and chariots and with a boundless multitude of troops, who will first overthrow the cities and forts on the coast that are subject to Tyre, and afterwards cause Tyre to be besieged, and wall her in with his army and mound and siegeworks, and assail her walls with mantlets and rams, and destroy them; and so great will be the multitude of his horsemen that, by the dust of the cavalry and the noise of the howling army and the rattle of wheels and the neighing of horses, the foundations of the city will be shaken; and so he will enter the city, its walls torn down, like one entering securely from the plain; and so great will be the security of the conquering army that the hoofs of horses will trample the streets of Tyre, and all the people will fall in the midst of the city, and the once noble statues, or all her substance, will fall to the ground, and nothing of her former riches will be preserved in the captured city; but along with the walls the noble houses too will be destroyed, and so great will be the savagery of the victors that the timber and stones left over from the fire will be thrown into the midst of the sea; and either Nebuchadnezzar or the Lord himself will make cease all the gladness of the city with which it once resounded in songs and psalteries, and, overthrown right down to the ground, it will be a drying of dragnets. But what follows: Nor shall you be built any more, seems to raise a question: how has she not been built, when today we see her as the most noble and most beautiful city of Phoenicia? — whence some will have it that Tyre is to suffer these things in the last time, and is not to be built afterwards —; but how will they be able to keep to the person of Nebuchadnezzar — especially since we read in what follows that Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre and did not receive the wages of his labor, and that Egypt was therefore handed over to him, because he had served the sentence of God in the siege of Tyre —? Those who contradict this history say that they have read the Greek histories and those of the Phoenicians, and especially of Nicolaus of Damascus, and others of the barbarians, and have found nothing about a siege of the city of Tyre by the Chaldeans; whereas we can prove that many things are said in the Scriptures to have been done which are not found in Greek volumes, and that we ought not to acquiesce in the authority of those whose faithlessness and lies we detest. So what is said: Nor shall you be built any more, can be taken thus: that she will by no means any longer be queen of the peoples, nor have her own dominion as she had under Hiram and the other kings, but will be in servitude either under the Chaldeans or the Macedonians or the Ptolemies and, last of all, the Roman kings. But it is doubtful to no one that, according to the ἀναγωγὴν [anagogy, the higher sense], Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who comes from the north, is understood as the devil, who, though he is a most harsh wind and a left-hand one, is called by the name 'right-hand', claiming for himself the dignity of the name; and he is the king of kings and of all the kingdoms which he showed to the Lord, when he said to him: All these have been handed over to me, and I will give them to you if you fall down and worship me. He has horses and chariots, of which it is written: A horse is deceitful for safety, and: All who mount horses have fallen asleep, and in another place: Horse and rider he has thrown into the sea. He slays the daughters of Tyre, souls placed in distress and in a kind of prison of sins, in the field and the widest plain, and surrounds Tyre with his siegeworks, so as to hold her shut in, so that no one from her can escape the dominion of the Babylonian king; he destroys her walls and overthrows her towers, and whatever she may have had in the way of doctrines trembles violently at the flood of his horses and the sound of his horsemen and the clatter of wheels and chariots; and he will enter her gates with no one preventing him, and the hoofs of his horses will trample the streets of the city — for wide and spacious is the way that leads to death —, and he will cast down to the ground all her substance — or the noble statues, by which they had fashioned for themselves images of falsehood, of which it is written: Lord, in your city you will scatter their image —; and, the walls destroyed, the noble houses too will be overthrown which she had prepared for herself and in which she exulted; and she will come to such desolation that they throw into the deep her stones and timber, with which she had built her walls and constructed her masonry, and her songs and music, by which she trusted in herself in the wisdom of this world, and all the sound of lyres will be heard no more; and her fishing will cease, and she will be brought so low that she is a drying of dragnets and is not built any more, because, handed over to Nebuchadnezzar at the sentence of the Lord, she has been utterly overthrown, in accord with what the Apostle also says: Whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. The passages are difficult, and the prudent and diligent reader ought to pardon my labor; or if he can find something better, I too shall pass over to his opinion, provided he knows that he will receive from others the pardon he grants to me.
26:15-18
Thus says the Lord God to Tyre: Shall not the isles be shaken at the sound of your fall and the groaning of your slain, when they have been killed in your midst? And all the princes of the sea shall come down from their seats, and shall take off their spoils, and cast away their varied garments; and they shall be clothed with astonishment, they shall sit on the ground, and, dumbfounded at your sudden fall, they shall marvel. And taking up a lamentation over you, they shall say to you: How you have perished, you who dwell in the sea, renowned city, who were strong in the sea with your inhabitants, whom all shall dread! Now the ships shall be astonished in the day of your terror, and the isles in the sea shall be troubled, because no one goes out from you. (LXX: "For thus says the Lord God to Sor: Shall not the isles be shaken at the voice of your fall, when your wounded groan, when the sword has been drawn in your midst? And all the princes of the sea shall come down from their seats, and shall take off their crowns, and shall be stripped of their varied garments; they shall go mad with frenzy, they shall sit on the ground, and they shall dread their own destruction, and shall groan over you. And they shall take up a lamentation over you, and shall say to you: How you have perished and been scattered in the sea, praised city, who were strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who gave her fear to all her inhabitants! And the isles shall dread in the day of your fall, and the isles in the sea shall be troubled at your going out.") First let us lay open the very words of the history, disclosing the sense of what is said by a very brief μεταφράσει [paraphrase]. 'Thus says Adonai the Lord to Tyre, which is called 'Sor': In the day of your fall, when you have collapsed under Nebuchadnezzar's assault, and at the groaning of the wounded or slain who have been killed in your midst, shall not the isles be shaken? And all the kings will come down from their seats or thrones, and the princes of the sea who rule over various isles, and they will take the diadems off their heads, laying aside all the glory of reigning, and will cast from them their most precious garments, gleaming with incredible variety; and by the greatness of their astonishment they will be turned to madness and, cast down in humility, will sit on the ground; and when they see that you have collapsed, they will dread like things for themselves, and will think that no good thing on earth is lasting; rather, on the contrary, they will take up a lamentation over you and recite a tearful song, saying: How you have perished, you who dwell in the sea, renowned city (or praised)' — for we read in Greek and Latin and barbarian histories that Tyre was an island and had no approach from the land, but that afterwards mounds were thrown up by Nebuchadnezzar king of the Chaldeans or, as some affirm, by Alexander king of the Macedonians, and the place was prepared by siege and with mantlets and rams, and from an island a peninsula was made —; 'you, then, O Sor, O Tyre, who were once the strongest among all the isles, or praised by the voice of all among the cities, together with your inhabitants whom all feared, how suddenly you have collapsed! Now the isles will be astonished or terrified over you, and — as it stands better in the Hebrew — the ships, in the day of your terror and fall, and the isles in the sea will be troubled — hence it is more consistent to read 'ships' above, so that 'isles' is not set down a second time —, because no one goes out from you — or, as the Seventy translated, in the day of your going in —, when you have been led away captive'. Let these meanwhile be laid as a kind of foundation of the history; now we shall strive to set the spiritual roof upon it. Imagine someone who, having long kept his chastity, flourished in many virtues, and afterwards collapsed into some grave and mortal sin: will not all the isles be moved at the sound of his fall and of his slain virtues, those, namely, who are beaten by the salt and bitter waves of this world? And all who seemed to be princes in the brine of this world will come down from the throne of their pride and, cast down in humility, will take off from their heads the diadems they seemed to possess through good works, and will cast away the garments varied with a diversity of virtues, and will be clothed with astonishment, or through the greatness of their fear will seem in some way insane, and will sit on the ground, and, stunned at his sudden fall, will marvel, so much so that all take up wailing and lamentation over him who has collapsed, and say: How you have perished, you who were formerly safe; how you have collapsed, you who had stood so long, who in the sea of this world were thought renowned among all, who were strong in the opinion of all; and your inhabitants, that is, your most strong thoughts that resisted all the fiery darts of the devil, which formerly were a terror to all adversaries, have been turned to astonishment! And the ships too, namely all the saints, who cross the waves of this world, are stunned when they see that you have fallen, in the day of your terror and fall; and the isles will be troubled, lest they too suffer like things — for the falls of others are examples for the righteous, since we all dwell in this world in a weak and feeble state and with wavering step, and our victory is never certain and secure, when those who had stood before go out from you, or at your going out, in your end and consummation —. For we are judged not by things past but by things present; and we must beware and always fear lest the storm of a single hour overthrow old glory and solid firmness.
26:19-21
For thus says the Lord God: When I make you a desolate city like the cities that are not inhabited, and bring up the deep upon you, and many waters cover you, and I drag you down with those who go down into the pit (or to those who go down into the ditch) to the everlasting people, and set you in the uttermost land (or in the depth of the lands) like the ancient wastes, with those who are led down into the pit (or go down into the ditch), so that you are not inhabited, and I give glory in the land of the living (or so that you do not rise again in the land of the living), I will reduce you to nothing (or I will give you to destruction), and you shall not be, and when sought you shall not be found any more forever, says the Lord God. Join what has been said with what preceded. 'When I make you, O Tyre, a city desolate forever, as are other cities that are not inhabited at all, and bring up the deep upon you, and many waters, or boundless multitudes of enemies, cover you — or certainly, because he is speaking to an island and to a city set on an island, he τροπικῶς [figuratively] compares the throng of adversaries to the waves of the deep —, and drag you down, with those who go down into the pit or into the ditch, to those who are in hell — of whom we also read in the Psalms: They shall go into the lower parts of the earth and shall be delivered into the hands of the sword, they shall be portions for foxes —, to the everlasting people, where there is weeping of eyes and gnashing of teeth, and set you in the uttermost land, in which the ancient dragon has been placed, and like the ancient wastes and deserts, where there is no remembrance of good things but punishments are everlasting, and do not cause you to be raised up in the land of the living — of which it is written: Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land, and in another place: I will please the Lord in the region of the living —, then you will be reduced to nothing, or you will perish forever, and you shall be no more', according to what is written in another psalm: Spare me, that I may be refreshed before I depart and shall be no more: not that he who is in everlasting punishments ceases to be, but that he who does not live to God is said in the holy Scriptures not to subsist. Hence Esther too, speaking against idols: Do not hand over, she says, your scepter to those who are not: surely those to whom she begs that it not be handed over existed, but they were not, to God, since they had ceased to be to the virtues and to the living God. And this is to be noted: that Tyre is sought by him who came to seek and to save what had perished, and who, leaving the ninety-nine sheep on the mountains, seeks the one straying sheep — the woman too who had lost one drachma seeks and finds it, and calls together her neighbors to share her joy —; but if Tyre, when sought, is not found, the fault is not the seeker's but his who has fled the hand of the good shepherd. 'And no more', he says, 'shall you be forever' — or, as is written in the Hebrew 'lolam' and in the Greek αἰών [age], it signifies 'one age', according to that passage of Isaiah, who says that after seventy years Tyre is to be restored to her whole state; and they say that 'one age', that is, the span of a human lifetime, is reckoned at the number of seventy years, as the psalmist says: The days of our years in them are seventy years; but if in the strong, eighty years; whatever is beyond is toil and pain —. This we have said briefly about Tyre μεταφραστικῶς [by way of paraphrase]; it can also be referred to those who, set in the distress of this world, are led down to the underworld and are covered by the deeps and waves of punishments, and are dragged to the lower parts of the earth, and are joined to those who are in the ancient wilderness, and are led down into the pit or the everlasting ditch, so that they are no longer inhabited by the Holy Spirit; of whom it is written: The ungodly, when he has fallen into the depth of evils, despises; and henceforth they will not be in the land of the living, but will perish, and be reduced to nothing, and cease to be to God. These testimonies are made use of by those who say that the punishments of the ungodly, and not of sinners, are perpetual: of the ungodly who, sought by God, were not found, and have ceased to be forever, because by their own fault they lost him who says: I am the life.
27:1-3a
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: You therefore, son of man, take up a lamentation over Tyre, and you shall say to Tyre, which dwells at the entrance of the sea, the trade of the peoples to many islands (or from many islands): Thus says the Lord God. If I should wish to comprehend the whole prophecy against Tyre, or over the lamentation of Tyre, in a single discourse, I shall both make it long and obscure the reader's understanding, since he cannot hold everything in mind at once, especially the places in which the edition of the Seventy differs from the Hebrew in this passage, that is, what they have added or what they have taken away. Therefore we shall be content with our own translation, and wherever they disagree we shall attach theirs alongside, leaving the perfect knowledge of all things to God, and we shall briefly point out what seems right to us in each point. He who is lamented is still a concern to the one by whom he is lamented; hence Samuel too wept and lamented over Saul, and the Apostle Paul laments and mourns over those who have committed fornication and have not done penance, and Jeremiah writes lamentations over the overthrow of Jerusalem in four alphabets. Tyre, then, or Sor, according to the letter, dwells at the entrance of the sea, either because it was formerly an island or because it receives ships coming from the deep into a most safe harbor, and it is the trade of the peoples to many islands, or from many islands, which indeed continues to this day, so that the commerce of almost all nations is carried on in it. But following the interpretation we have begun, let us refer whatever is said of Tyre to the συνοχὴν, that is, the 'straits', of this world, which is set in the evil one and is hemmed in and battered by various disturbances as if by waves — of traders of this sort it is told also in the Psalms in mystical language: Those who go down to the sea in ships, doing business in many waters, these have seen the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep —.
27:3b-4a
O Tyre, you have said: I am of perfect beauty (or you have said: I have surrounded myself with beauty), and set in the heart of the sea. The first charge against Tyre is that, if she seems to have anything good, she thinks it not God's but her own, and reckons all the beauty that came to her from various regions to be the work of her own diligence and strength; for she said: I am of perfect beauty, or: I have surrounded myself with beauty, although she is set in the heart, that is, in the middle, of the sea, and is tossed about like an island, and is shattered by the surge and the dashing of the waves. That the heart of the sea signifies its middle, that prophetic saying also shows: Therefore we will not fear when the earth is troubled, and the mountains are carried into the heart of the sea. Their waters roared and were troubled; and our Lord too is said to have descended into the heart of the earth, that is, into its middle, and to the underworld. But true and perfect beauty is in no human being except in the body of Christ, which is interpreted as the Church, and which is gathered together from the virtues of many saints; hence he himself also speaks to the bride: You are all beautiful, my nearest, and there is no blemish in you.
27:4b-5
Your neighbors, who built you, have filled up your beauty; with firs from Sanir they constructed you, with all the planking of the sea; they took a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for you. (In place of which, intending I know not what, the Seventy translated thus: Beelim your sons surrounded you with beauty; cedar from Sanir was built for you; they took thin boards of cypress from Lebanon to make masts of fir for you; for the word 'Beelim' is not found at all in this place among the Hebrews, but in place of 'Beelim' is written 'gebulaich', which means 'your borders'; in what they said, 'your sons', too, they were deceived by the ambiguity of the word and the similarity of the writing, since the same letters, with a different pronunciation, are read as 'of masons' and 'of sons', 'bonaich' and 'benaich'.) 'O Tyre, then, you who said in pride: I am of perfect beauty (or: I have surrounded myself with beauty), although you are set in the middle of the sea, hear how much has been bestowed on you by the bounty of God: your neighbors and those who border on you, who are not from distant but from nearby regions, they themselves have filled up your beauty; and you think yours what is another's!' And he speaks as if to a ship, τροπικῶς [figuratively] signifying the beauty of the city and its abundance of all things, so that, after he has described all its equipment — mast, yards, oars, sails, prow, keel, ropes, coverings, hides, and the other things which the use of the best-fitted ships requires — he may then announce that a storm and the south wind, by which the greatest waves will be stirred up, will come upon it, and that it will be subjected to shipwreck — by which he signifies the overthrow of the Tyrian city by king Nebuchadnezzar, or, as many think, by Alexander king of the Macedonians, who is related to have besieged and taken that very city in six months, after he had defeated Darius in Lycia —. According to the mystical understandings, the planking of the Tyrian ship, with which it is fitted and joined together, is cut from firs or cedars from Sanir, and its mast is raised from a cedar or cypress from Lebanon: from firs because of their lightness and the joints of the boards, which hold and bite into one another more gently, or from cedars because it is a wood that does not rot; and they are said to be 'from Sanir', which means 'way of the lamp' or, as we judge more truly, 'tooth of the watches', because all the prosperity and illumination of the ship came from the true light; Sanir, moreover, according to the letter, is the very mountain that is also Hermon, which others call Sarion — read the history —; it means 'whiteness' or 'whitening', which itself also pertains to grace coming from elsewhere.
27:6
Oaks from Bashan they hewed into your oars, your benches they made for you of Indian ivory, and cabins from the islands of Italy. (LXX: "From Bashan they made your oars, your temples they made for you of ivory, forest houses from the islands of Chetthiim.") How great the beauty of the ship and of its equipment, that it should have oars of cedar — not from just anywhere but from Bashan —, and benches of ivory, and cabins — or storerooms in which the most precious merchandise is laid up — from the islands of 'Chetthiim' — which we have rendered as 'Italy' —, from that region which is nearer to Greece, understanding by it all the parts of the western islands! Let us say, then, according to the ἀναγωγὴν [anagogy, the higher sense], that the oars of the Tyrian ship are made from Bashan — of which it is also written in the Psalms: The Lord said: From Bashan I will turn back, I will turn back from the depth of the sea; Basan in our language means 'ignominy' —; those, then, who were in the depth of the sea and in the ignominy of sins, the Lord turns back, and turns them into oars, so that, sailing with the apostles, they may reach the land and the shores; and benches are made of ivory when they have mortified their bodies, or have devoted the use of their teeth to the praises of God; and cabins or storerooms from the islands of 'Chetthiim', which, according to the ἐτυμολογιὰν [etymology] of the Hebrew language, is rendered 'struck', so that it has been not so much killed as tested by the blows of the devil. We can speak of the 'of ivory, and forest houses' 'from the islands of Chetthiim' as those which the heretics try to construct not in the house of God but in the Tyrian ship, they themselves having their own ivory of speech, and building temples of the tongue contrary to the temple of God, and forest houses, the dwellings of beasts, whereas Scripture says that groves and woods and sacred groves are not to be planted in the house of God.
27:7
Embroidered byssus from Egypt was woven for you into a sail, to be set on the mast; hyacinth and purple from the islands of Elishah became your covering. (LXX: "Byssus with embroidery from Egypt was made for you into a spread to surround you with glory, and to cover you with hyacinth and purple from the islands of Elisee, and they became your coverings.") Because Tyre had said: I am of perfect beauty (or: I myself have surrounded myself with beauty), she is convicted as to what she has received from each region, according to that word of Scripture: What do you have that you have not received? But if you have received it, why do you glory as if you had not received it? So it is described what each province sends, according to that line of Vergil: India sends ivory, the soft Sabaeans their incense, But the hardy Chalybes iron, and Pontus the rank castoreum, and the rest. Byssus grows most of all in Egypt, and from it was woven the sail of the Tyrian ship, which is hung on the mast; and its covering, which in the heat of the sun and in calm weather affords shade to sailors and passengers, is made of hyacinth and purple, which come from the islands of Elishah, so he calls the islands of the Ionian Sea. Further, according to the Seventy, coverings of byssus are woven for the spread and for the repose of the Tyrian ship, so that, covered with these, it may be more glorious, and, surrounded with them, may have a more beautiful garment. Now we have often pointed out that byssus is referred to the earth because it springs from the earth, and hyacinth to the air, purple to the sea, from which it is made, with the twice-dyed scarlet added, of which the vestments of the high priest are woven, because it signifies the four elements: earth, fire, air and waters, of which all things consist; and these Tyre takes to herself, so as not to use God's creatures with thanks, but to say: I am of perfect beauty (or: I myself have surrounded myself with beauty).
27:8-9
The inhabitants of Sidon and the Aradians were your rowers; your wise men, O Tyre, became your pilots. The elders of Byblus and its prudent men provided sailors for the service of your varied equipment. All the ships of the sea and their sailors were among the people of your trade. (LXX: "Your princes who dwelt in Sidon and the Aradians were your rowers; your wise men, Sor, who were in you, these were your pilots. The elders of Byblus and its wise men were in you: these strengthened your counsel. And all the ships of the sea and their rowers became yours toward the west of the west.") He had said above: Your neighbors, who built you, have filled up your beauty; before he comes to those who dwell far off, he describes the help of the nearest provinces: 'Your inhabitants,' he says, 'or the princes of Sidon and of Aradus, which is a neighboring island, are your rowers; your wise men, O Tyre, have become your pilots' — for piloting belongs properly to the wise, as Scripture says: Those who have no piloting fall like leaves —. 'The old men or elders of Byblus and its prudent men provided sailors for the service, or strengthened the counsel of Tyre, and provided varied equipment; and all the ships of the sea and their sailors were among the people of the Tyrian trade, or toward the west of the west'. So much meanwhile according to the letter; but according to the mystical understandings, since 'Sidonians' means 'hunters', and 'Aradians' 'those who put down', we say that Tyre, the glorious and most proud city, which is afterwards to be shattered when the wind blows, has citizens or princes who are hunters — of whom it is written: Our soul has been snatched like a sparrow from the snare of the hunters; for where we read 'of the hunters', in the Hebrew is written 'of the Sidonians' —; these hunt: they draw unwary souls, set on high, down to earthly things, and they become rowers to lead them to shipwreck; but the wise men of Tyre, who are taken in the bad sense, in which the sons of darkness are wiser than the sons of light, they themselves steer what has been made ready for Tyre for shipwreck; the elders of Byblus and its prudent men provided sailors to Tyre for the service, or strengthened its counsel — sacred history relates that very many elders were rejected by the Lord, and younger ones chosen, as a type of the Synagogue and the Church: the elder Cain is cast off, and the younger Abel is chosen; Ishmael, the son of Abraham, is estranged from his father, and Isaac the younger received the inheritance; of the sons of Isaac too, the elder Esau is a hunter and roams in the woodlands, the younger Jacob dwells simply at home, whence it is written also in Malachi: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated; and certainly, according to the Apostle, while set in their mother's womb they had done nothing good or bad, nor had they merit or offense, that the one should be chosen and the other cast off, except that, in a type, as we have said, of the Synagogue and the Church, the elder is rejected and the younger taken up —. All, he says, the ships of the sea and their sailors were among the people of the Tyrian trade (or toward the west of the west — just as 'Song of Songs' and 'age of ages' and 'work of works' are said, so that a song is greater than the other songs, and an age longer than the other ages, and a work more useful than the other works, so 'west of the west' is said in order to signify the greatness of the western regions —), and fittingly the ships of the sea and their sailors and rowers, who are in aid of the Tyrian ship, do not go to the east, nor to the rising of the light, where the sun of righteousness rises, but to the 'west of the west', where the light sets and whence is the beginning of darkness.
27:10
Persians and Lydians and Libyans were in your army; your men of war hung up shield and helmet in you for your adornment (or hung up targes and helmets in you, they gave you your glory). That the Persians were most brave, whose king Cyrus, as is foretold by the prophecy of Isaiah, having overthrown Astyages king of the Medes, captured Babylon, both sacred and secular history relate; that the Lydians too were reckoned at that time among the most robust nations, whose king Croesus was captured by the same Cyrus, Xenophon writes most fully; and that Libyans came against Jerusalem with the Troglodytes and Ethiopians, we read in the volume of Chronicles; because in those times they were most flourishing and fighters famous in battle, they are recorded to have been defenders of the Tyrian city, and to have hung up shields and helmets on the battlements of the walls to terrify enemies. But the spiritual understanding sounds thus: that the 'Persians', who mean 'tempting' or 'tempted', and the 'Lydians', whom we understand as 'begotten', and the 'Libyans', who in the Hebrew language are called 'phut' and are rendered 'os' [mouth] — from 'ore' [mouth], not from 'osse' [bone] —, strive in vain to defend Tyre, since they are overcome by temptation and serve generation and lust, and only multiply empty words, not having the helmet of salvation nor the shield of faith, but only put forward glory and the din of words for its adornment.
27:11
The sons of the Aradians with your army were upon your walls round about; but the Pygmies too, who were in your towers, hung their quivers on your walls all around; they completed your beauty. (LXX: "The sons of the Aradians and your strength were upon your walls round about; guards were in your towers; they hung their quivers upon your battlements all around; they perfected your beauty.") The word 'gamadim' the first edition of Aquila translated 'Pygmies', Symmachus 'Medes', the Seventy 'guards', Theodotion 'gomadim', the Hebrew word itself; we see to this day the island of Aradus, which is entirely a city, and has opposite it the town of Antaradus, and is near to Tyre, and lies out off the Phoenician shore of the mainland. These are in the army of the Tyrian city and are the guards of its towers, and they hang their quivers all around and complete its beauty, so as to show that they are archers; or they are pygmies, that is, warriors and most ready for wars, ἀπὸ τῆς πυγμῆς, which in the Greek language is rendered 'into combat'. But if the Aradians mean 'those who put down', everyone who puts forward the knowledge falsely so called, and has in the quiver of his breast the fiery darts of the devil, with which he wounds and sets on fire the hearts of the deceived, is to be called an Aradian: for he desires to put down those who strive to climb to the heights, and he completes the beauty of Tyre, of which it is also written in Proverbs: Let not the desire of beauty deceive you, nor be captured by your eyes, and again: Like earrings in the nostrils of a pig, so is beauty to a woman of bad character.
27:12
The Carthaginians were your traders, by reason of the multitude of all riches; with silver, iron, tin and lead they filled your fairs. Not only in the present place, but also in Isaiah, where it is written: Howl, ships of Carthage, the other translators rendered the Hebrew word as 'Tharsis'; and that these are a colony of the Tyrians no one doubts; they themselves, from the regions of the west, filled the fairs of Tyre with silver, iron, tin and lead. 'Tharsis' in our language sounds 'exploration of joy'; but we ought not to understand the explorers here in a good sense, such as Moses had sent to explore the land of promise, but in the contrary sense, such as the Apostle too says that he avoids: Because of the false brothers secretly brought in, who came in to explore our liberty which we have in Christ, and of whom Joseph speaks: You are explorers; you have come to examine the tracks of the land, and his brothers, understanding that it is no small crime to explore other people's things through ambush, answered: Your servants are not explorers. These, then, multiply the fairs of Tyre not with gold nor with precious stone, but with silver, iron, tin and lead, having the charm of eloquence and weapons for assault, and in the tin the likeness of eloquence, which counterfeits silver, and in the lead the heaviest impiety, according to Zechariah, in whom a woman sits upon a talent of lead, and the Egyptians were sunk into the deep like lead. The discussion of the individual metals would be long, but we must strive for brevity.
27:13-14
Greece, Tubal and Meshech, they were your dealers; they brought slaves and vessels of bronze to your people. From the house of Togarmah they brought horses and horsemen and mules to your market. (LXX: "All Greece and the parts adjacent to it, they were your traders in the souls of men, and they gave vessels of bronze as your merchandise. From the house of Togarmah they gave horses and horsemen and mules as your fairs.") 'The Ionians,' he says, '— who in Hebrew are called Iauan —, and Tubal — that is, the eastern Iberians, or the Spaniards from the regions of the west, who are called by this name from the river Iberus —, and Meshech — whom we understand as the Cappadocians, whose metropolis, which was later called Caesarea by Augustus Caesar, is to this day called Mazaca in their own language —, these made the precious commerce of Tyre, bringing slaves and bronze vessels from Corinth to Tyre, and from the house of Togarmah, that is, from Phrygia, horses and horsemen and mules, of which that province once had the greatest abundance'. The Hebrews say that 'Greece', that is, 'Iauan', means 'is and is not', which refers properly to secular 'wisdom', in which, if they find something rightly, it is called 'is', if in the contrary sense, 'is not'. For they too, by the good of nature, discourse much on duties, on continence, on despising riches — which the Stoics properly claim for themselves —, and they seem to gain the souls of the men whom they have deceived; and they have bronze vessels, with which they counterfeit the likeness of gold, which they press upon the peoples of Tyre so as to trip them up with the opinion of false doctrine; from the house too of 'Thogorma', which means 'pilgrim' and 'stranger', horses will be brought to its market and fairs, and horsemen and mules, of which it is written: A horse is a deceitful thing for safety, and in another place: All who mounted horses have slumbered, and in the Psalms: Do not become like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding; for which reason Doeg too, the accuser and slayer of the priests, was also the overseer of many; and that these are from the house of the stranger and pilgrim, who do not eat the flesh of the lamb, of whom it is written: The stranger and the hireling shall not eat of it, so that all the fairs of Tyre are filled with these wares.
27:15a
The sons of Dadan were your traders. In place of which, intending I know not what, the Seventy translated 'the sons of the Rhodians', unless perhaps by the deceptive similarity of the first letter, so that instead of 'Dadan' they read 'Radan', which itself is also the largest of the Cyclades, and was once a most powerful city in the Ionian Sea and glorious in naval combat, and, because of its very safe harbor, the resort of all merchants. And since 'Rhodians' is rendered in our language 'seeing judgment', it is now said tropologically of those who discern the truth of judgment and do not themselves do it, as the Apostle says: Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, every one who judges; for in that in which you judge another, you condemn yourself, for you do the same things which you judge. But it is better to take 'Dadan' as the name of another place, as it is found in the Hebrew and among the other translators.
27:15b-16
Many islands were the trade of your hand: they exchanged teeth of ivory and of ebony at your price. The Syrian was your trader because of the multitude of your works: drop, purple and checkered cloths and byssus and silk and chodchod they set out in your market. (LXX: "From the islands they multiplied your trade: elephants' teeth, and to those who were brought in you paid your wages. Men were your trade from the multitude of your market: in aphec, stacte, and many-threaded cloths from Tharsis, and ramoth and chodchod they gave as your fairs.") The edition of the Seventy differs much from the Hebrew in the present place; therefore a few things must be said according to each, lest, occupied with the wares of Tyre, we pass too slowly to the remaining prophecies. The sons of Dadan, the traders of Tyre, multiplied its trade from many islands, so that they gave elephants' teeth to those who came to its commerce, and had men in the fairs because of the multitude of the trade. They had, moreover, 'in aphec' — which was added in the Seventy from the edition of Theodotion, for which Symmachus rendered 'polymita' [many-threaded cloths] —, 'stacte' too — for which all the others translated 'purple', which in Hebrew is called 'argaman' —, and 'varieties from Tharsis' — for which in the Hebrew 'bus' is said, which has been translated by all as 'byssus'. But Tharsis is not found at all in the present place —. And 'ramoth', they say, and 'chodchod' they gave as your fairs — which is found so in the Hebrew, except that for 'ramoth' Aquila translated 'silks' or 'fine stuffs'; but 'chodchod' all the translators rendered just as it is set down in the Hebrew —'. Therefore, according to the Seventy, the sons of the Rhodians, traders of Tyre, multiplied its trade from very many islands; according to the Hebrew, after the sons of Dadan, its traders, islands too of various nations increased its merchandise, bringing teeth of ivory from India and ebony wood — which, being of a black color, are most precious —, and exchanged them for other wares of Tyre. 'The Syrian' too was a trader of Tyre, for which in the Hebrew is set down 'aram', in whose place the Seventy translated 'men', reading 'adam' for 'aram', deceived, as above, by the similarity of the letters 'res' and 'daleth' [r and d]. And to this day there remains in the Syrians an inborn ardor for trade: they run about through the whole world out of desire for gain, and they have such a madness for trading that, now that the Roman world has been seized, they seek riches amid swords and the slaughter of the wretched, and flee poverty through dangers; men of this kind are the traders of Tyre who deal in many-threaded cloths, purple and checkered cloths, and who set out byssus too, and silk and chodchod, in the market for her. For 'purple', which all translated, the Seventy rendered 'stacte', that is, 'drop'; but what 'chodchod' signifies I have not been able to find up to the present — the Hebrews say that all the most precious wares are signified by this name, or that it is a certain kind of precious wares which the Roman tongue does not express, or that it is the common term of those who sell trinkets —. But from many islands, to pass to the ἀναγωγὴν, which are beaten by the salty and bitter waves of this age, the traders of Dadan bring teeth of ivory, promising the whiteness of eloquence, of which it is written: From the ivory houses, from which the daughters of kings delighted you in your honor; but they are not white, nor do they imitate the bride of whom it is said: Who is this who comes up made white, leaning upon her kinsman?, but are of ebony, of a black color, who cannot change their blackness, as Jeremiah says: If the Ethiopian will change his skin and the leopard his mottling. 'The Syrian' too, that is, 'aram', who means 'lofty' and swells with pride, is a trader of Tyre, and in the multitude of the Tyrian works he brings in the knowledge falsely so called, promising many varieties and 'stacte' of the best odor, and purple of royal dignity, and checkered cloths from the dialectical art, and byssus, for which the Seventy translated 'Tharsis', given over to the works of the earth, and silk, for which in the Hebrew is written 'ramoth', which means 'vision of death' — for all earthly works hasten to destruction —, and 'chodchod', whatever it is that is understood by it, setting them out in the fairs of Tyre. 'Dadan', moreover, judging from those wares which are said to be brought by its traders and islands, is to be understood either as the region of India, or, as some suppose, as that of the Edomites and of the vast desert, and it sounds 'kinship', so that we may recognize in the heretics a likeness of the divine doctrines.
27:17
Judah and the land of Israel, they were your dealers in first wheat; balsam and honey and oil and resin they set out in your fairs. (LXX: "Judah and the sons of Israel, these were your traders in the commerce of grain and in ointments; first honey and oil and resin they gave in your fairs.") The Hebrew word 'phanag' Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion translated just as it is set down among the Hebrews; for it the Seventy rendered 'ointments', we 'balsam'. It is told, moreover, with what supplies the land of Judea, which is now called Palestine, abounds: grain, balsam, honey and oil and resin, which are brought by Judah and Israel to the fairs of Tyre. And since the letter is plain, according to the spiritual sense we say: the land of confession and the understanding of one who sees God, which refers to the Church, ought not to bring to Tyre the first wheat, which, falling into the earth, is multiplied and is taken for the word of God: for not by bread alone does man live, but by every word of God; then balsam, which grows in the vineyards of En-gedi, or ointment, of which it is written: Like the ointment on the head, which runs down onto the beard, the beard of Aaron; and honey, of which Solomon also speaks: Finding honey, eat as much as is enough; for if you eat more, you will vomit it up, since through excessive surfeit honey turns into wormwood; oil too, from which the lamp is lit in the tabernacle of God, lest that prophetic word be applied to us: You were selling oil in Egypt; for if it is in Egypt and in Tyre, it will be turned into its contrary, and it will be said of it: But let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head; and resin too is gentle, suited to bodies, and is taken for medicine, whence it is written in Jeremiah also: Is there no resin in Gilead; or is there no physician there? Why has the healing of the daughter of my people not gone up?; this resin Jacob too had, and he sent it to his son Joseph with honey and terebinth, nuts, incense and stacte; the Ishmaelites too, who bought Joseph from the land of Israel, were carrying these things to Egypt: incense and resin from Gilead and stacte. And that we may know more clearly what it is to bring grain, balsam, honey and oil and resin to the market of Tyre, let us hear the words of the Lord, who says: Do not give what is holy to dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine; to the Canaanite woman also, who was praying for her daughter, saying: My daughter is badly troubled by a demon, the Lord answered: It is not right to take the children's bread and give it to dogs. But because she had gone out from the borders of Tyre and Sidon and was drawing near to the land of Israel, she therefore obtained what she had asked.
27:18
The Damascene was your trader in the multitude of your works, in the abundance of various riches, in rich wine, in wool of the best color. (LXX: "Damascus was your trader in the multitude of your works, out of the multitude of all your strength: wine from Chelbon and wool from Miletus.") For 'rich wine', which Symmachus translated, both in Aquila and Theodotion and in the Hebrew itself it has 'wine from Chelbon'; and again, where we have put 'wool of the best color' or 'shining', Aquila and Theodotion translated 'in wool of Soor'. It signifies, moreover, that among the other trades of Tyre, very rich wine and choice wool were brought to its fairs from Damascus, which we see to this day. But if 'Damascus' means 'drinking blood', and it is a true tradition of the Hebrews that the field in which Abel was killed by the fratricide Cain was in Damascus, whence the place too is marked with this name — rightly, too, Paul, after the killing of Stephen, the first martyr in Christ, went to Damascus to lead believers in Christ bound to Jerusalem, and, by the mercy of God, who makes the seeing and the blind, he lost the eyes of the flesh so as to receive those of the mind, and the scales of the dragon fell from his eyes, through which he had lost the light of truth, so that he went to the street which is called 'Straight', and found 'Ananias', who in our language means 'obedient' —, from this land, then, to which it was said: Cursed is the earth which opened its mouth and drank the blood of your brother, the fairs of Tyre are gathered, and rich wine or shining wool, for which 'Chelbon' means 'milky', and for 'wool of the best color', 'wool from Miletus' — or 'Soor': 'Miletus' is not found in the Hebrew, but because choice wool is brought from there, those who translated understood 'Miletus' for 'Soor' —; from which it is to be perceived that Tyre feeds on the milk of infancy, and has no garments of its own, but from elsewhere: gathered from various provinces. That 'Damascus' means 'blood of sackcloth' and 'blood of a kiss' does not suit the present place; for Hebrew names are frequently interpreted variously, according to the diversity of accents and the change of letters and vowels, especially those which have their own properties among them.
27:19
Dan and Greece and Mozel set out wrought iron in your fairs; stacte and calamus were in your trade. (LXX: "※ Dan and Iauan and Mozel in your fairs ⁚" — which in their edition were added from Theodotion —; "iron made by workmanship and a wheel is in your mixture.") From the name of the patriarch Dan both the tribe and the place in which the tribe dwelt received their name, where today is Paneas, which was formerly called Caesarea Philippi, whence the river Jordan too obtained its name: 'Ior', that is, stream, 'Dan', which flows from Lebanon; 'Iauan', moreover, sounds 'Greece', which means, as we have said, 'is and is not'; for 'Mozel' too Symmachus translated 'bringing', so that the sense is: 'Dan and Greece brought wrought iron into your fairs, and the rest'; but Aquila for 'Mozel' put 'from Uzal', from which regions we must believe that iron and stacte and calamus were carried to the fairs of Tyre. And let us say that Greece, that is, Iauan, has wrought iron, most ready for wars and constructed by the dialectical art, boasting that it brings forth all things by judgment and reason, and that it promises a vocal sound, which is interpreted in the calamus, and stacte of the best odor; or wrought iron, and a wheel which revolves in the composition of words and has the course of speech.
27:20
Dadan were your dealers in carpets for sitting. (LXX: "Dedan were your traders with choice beasts for chariots.") The Hebrew and the Seventy differ much in the present place, except for the name of the region, which is close: 'Dedan' and 'Dadan'. For there is an infinite distance between 'carpets for sitting' and 'choice beasts for chariots'; nor is there any doubt that four-horse teams, chariots and horses are taken in the bad sense if they are earthly; otherwise, of heavenly ones, Elijah too is carried off in a chariot, and is called by Elisha: Father, father, charioteer and chariot of Israel, and the eyes of Gehazi are opened, so that he sees chariots on the mountain and horses without riders, prepared for the Lord's seat; but in the carpets the beauty of words is shown, on which the dealers of Dedan ride and rest, in a composed sitting, coming to the fairs of Tyre.
27:21
Arabia and all the princes of Kedar, they were the traders of your hand; with lambs and rams and kids they came to you. For 'lambs, rams and kids' the Seventy translated 'camels and rams and lambs'. Arabia and the princes of Kedar — which today is the region of the Saracens —, as has been shown most fully in the discourse of Jeremiah which is written against Kedar, abound in these animals, namely lambs and rams and kids — and it multiplies the fairs of Tyre by this importation —, and it is also a region most fertile in camels, because of the breadth of the desert's pastures and the mildness of the air, in which this animal delights. 'Arabia', moreover, means 'evening', and 'Cedar' 'darkness', of which it is also said in the Psalms: I have dwelt with the inhabitants of Kedar; these regions bring to Tyre camels weighed down with the heaviest burdens of sins, or lambs and rams and kids, which they sacrifice on their altars, which they have feigned out of an iniquitous, rebellious heart. But in this same prophet too, in the vision of the shepherds, we read of rams troubling the purest waters and thrusting at the sheep with their flanks and fighting with their horns; of kids too, which are accustomed to stand at the left; and of lambs, which counterfeit the lamb of whom it is written: Behold the lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. But in the good sense: Isaiah writes that camels from 'Madian' — which means 'judgment of the Lord' — come to Jerusalem, and Ephah, and the rams of Nebaioth, and Sheba, bringing gold and frankincense — the last two of which are also offered to the Lord by the Magi —; and these camels, having laid down the burden of sins, can enter the strait and narrow way which leads to life.
27:22
The sellers of Sheba and Rema, they were your traders, with all the first spices and with most precious stone and gold, which they set out in your market. In the Psalms, where it is written: The kings of the Arabians and of Saba will offer gifts to you, in the Hebrew it has: The kings of Saba and Saba will offer gifts to you, of which one 'Saba' is written with the letter 'sen', the other with 'samech', which is like our letter. Since, then, 'Saba' means 'conversion', this must be said: that in the present place it signifies not 'conversion' but 'aversion', from which gifts are brought to Tyre, with all spices and the best odors and precious stone and gold, all of which are set out in the fairs of Tyre; for they too counterfeit the best odor, and the precious stone with which they strive to build the churches of their perversity, and the gold which they promise in meaning, and all things are perverse — for they receive nothing freely nor give freely, but trade in everything, whereas the kings of the Arabians and of Sheba offer gifts to Christ freely —; these are they who do all things for the sake of shameful gain, and they have received these gifts from him who says in the Gospel: All these have been delivered to me, and these, if you fall down, I will give you. 'Rema', or, according to the Seventy, 'Regma', I have not been able to find in any other place of the Scriptures, nor what region it is, or what it signifies, except, what is clear, also from the fact that it is joined to Saba, that it is a region neighboring this province.
27:23-24a
Aran and Chenne and Eden were traders, Saba, Assur, Chelmad your sellers. They were your traders in many ways, in wrappings of hyacinth and of many-threaded cloths and of precious treasures, which were wrapped and bound with ropes. (LXX: "Charran and Channa and Edne, these were traders, Saba, Assur and Chalmad your dealers, bringing trade ※ in Machalim and in Galima ⁚ hyacinth, and ※ polymita ⁚ choice treasures bound with ropes.") These too are nations containing the names of various places. What was added in the Seventy from Theodotion: In Machalim and in Galima, Symmachus translated: In precious wrappings; 'polymita' too, for which Theodotion translated 'varied', we added from Aquila and Symmachus — the garments of the traders were so precious that they were carried in wrappings and bound with ropes of hyacinth —; 'Aran', or, as the Seventy said, 'Charran', sounds in our language 'holes'; 'Chenne', 'preparation'; 'Eden', 'delights', for which among the Seventy is 'Edne', which is not found in the Hebrew; what it sounds we do not know, and we ought not to seek the ἐτυμολογιὰν of a fictitious name. In the trade of Tyre, then, through the fleshly senses, which are indicated in the holes, is the whole preparation of the men of the world, who think it the only delights if they increase the commerce of the Tyrian city. Of 'Saba' we have spoken above; 'Assur' means 'directing'; 'Chelmad', or, as is contained in some copies, 'Cherma', is rendered 'vineyards'; no doubt those of the Sodomites, who come into the market of Tyre so that they may direct crooked things, or rather may rebuke with punishments and correct what had been perverted, according to that which is said in the Psalms: That you may destroy the enemy and the avenger. And they have manifold equipment, distinguished with incredible variety, which is bound in wrappings of hyacinth; or their treasures, which they have treasured up for themselves on earth, are bound with ropes, according to what is written: Each one is bound with the ropes of his own sins, and they did not have a free trade, but bound everything with the chains of sins. The wrappings of hyacinth, because of the similarity of the color, I shall refer to the powers of the air, which lavish their treasures on the fairs of the world.
27:24b-25a
They also had cedars in your trades. The ships of the sea (or, as is contained in the Hebrew: Tharsis) were your princes in your trade. For 'cedars' the Seventy translated 'cypresses'. And since we have spoken of both above, it is superfluous to increase the reader's weariness.
27:25b
And she was filled and glorified (or weighed down) exceedingly in the heart of the sea. 'Nothing,' he says, 'was lacking to you that pertains to the riches of the islands; yet that glorification was a weighing down of the possessor, since you cannot bear riches with moderation, although poverty too is often a temptation' — whence Solomon too asks only for necessities, and detests riches and poverty alike, lest pride creep in in the one, and in the other impatience and lying.
27:26a
Your rowers brought you into many waters. Above we read that the rowers of the Tyrian city were the 'Sidonians' and the 'Aradians', of whom the one mean 'hunters', the others 'those who put down': for they hunt the souls of those whom they lead by their own will amid the waves of this age, and they do not lift them up to the heights but sink them into the depths; nor do they imitate those who, sailing until the morning watch, broke the raging waves of the sea and were found worthy to receive the Lord Savior, and at once, with such a passenger and companion, reached the harbor of rest. Of which it is written more fully in the Gospel.
27:26b
The south wind has shattered you in the heart of the sea. All the riches of Tyre perish when the 'south wind' blows, which more expressively is called in Hebrew 'cadim', and is rendered in Greek καύσων, which we can translate as 'burning wind'; of which the holy man also said: By day the sun will not burn you, nor the moon by night. By this wind Jacob had been burned, and yet not shattered, when he says: I was burned by day by the heat and by the frost of night; those too who were hired from the first hour bore the heat and burning of the whole day, and yet they receive the denarius, because they were burned and not shattered; whence the bride too says in the Song: I am black and beautiful, because there has looked down on me (or, as is better contained in the Hebrew, there has discolored me) the sun.
27:27a
Your riches and your treasures and your manifold equipment. Many read thus: In the heart of the sea are your riches and your treasures and your manifold equipment, so that all the riches of Tyre and all its substance are set in the heart of the sea and are overwhelmed by the waves of the world, and its inhabitants have nothing stable and lasting, that Gospel word being fulfilled: Fool, this night they will take your soul from you; and what you have prepared, whose will it be?, and that apostolic one: Those who wish to become rich fall into temptation and many snares, and are dragged down into the depth. The history is plain; and therefore we fit short little comments to almost each little verse. For our discourse is already hastening to the end of the book.
27:27b
Your sailors (or rowers) and your pilots, who held your equipment and were over your people; and your men of war who were in you, with all your multitude which is in your midst, will fall in the heart of the sea on the day of your ruin. The rowers, or sailors, of the Tyrian city — we read that they are the Sidonians and the Aradians, of whom we have already spoken, and, according to the edition of the Seventy, the counselors of 'Byblus', which in Hebrew is called 'gebal' —, its men of war too — Persians, Lydians and Libyans —, will all fall and be shown to be of no account, when Tyre has fallen and all its glory has had the end of ruin; but the multitude — which the Seventy translated 'mixture' —, apart from the princes, signifies the common people, who, without titles of dignity, will be crushed by a like judgment. And the prophecy is mixed between the city and the ship, so that from the one you may understand the other; and yet both pertain to the consummation of the age and to shipwreck.
27:28-32a
At the sound of the cry of your pilots the fleets will be troubled, and they will come down from their ships, all who held the oar (or the sailors and all the pilots of the sea), and the passengers and the prow-men will stand on the land, and they will wail over you with a loud voice and cry out bitterly, and they will cast dust upon their heads and be sprinkled with ash (or will strew ash for themselves). But what follows, ※ And they will shave baldness over you, and gird themselves with sackcloth, and weep for you in bitterness of soul with most bitter weeping, and take up over you a mournful song, and lament you ⁚, is not found in the Seventy, but was added from the edition of Theodotion. When Tyre has fallen, its pilots will be troubled and will come down from the fleets, and the rowers and passengers and prow-men — or the sailors and all the pilots of the sea —, tossed by the waves, will at last stand with a firm step; they will wail with a loud voice over her whom they formerly enriched with their wares, and will mark the bitterness of their mind with a cry; dust too — or earth — they will cast upon their heads, doing penance for earthly works, and they are sprinkled with ash, either of the heifer according to the law, so that they may be purified, or at least they will strew ash under themselves — according to what is said to Jerusalem: Sprinkle earth upon your head, and strew ash under you, and make lament, and in the Gospel it is written: If these signs had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have done penance in sackcloth and ash, and the psalmist says: I have eaten ash like bread —; and they will shave the head over Tyre and make baldness, which is customarily done in mourning, at the time when the greatness of grief has shut out all gladness — but the hairs of the apostles were numbered, because they had consecrated their hair to the Lord after the manner of the Nazirites; and Samson, as long as he had his locks, possessed strength; when his hair was taken away, he was captured by the foreigners —; and when it is said: And they will gird themselves with sackcloth, the old lust of the loins is condemned, so that those who had lived in delights may afterwards, doing penance, live in austerity and hardness — the Ninevites had sackcloth; and again it is said to Jerusalem: Lament to me like a bride girded with sackcloth over the husband of her virginity —. And they will weep for you, he says, in bitterness of soul with most bitter weeping — for it is better to go into the house of mourning than into the house of feasting —, so that they may lament Tyre and redouble the mournful song; which the following Scripture adds. But that we may know that there is profit for those who lament her as she falls, and who formerly dwelt in the heart of the sea and in its midst, let the example of the prophet teach us, who himself too is commanded to lament Tyre, so that, when the time of penance has been completed, she may be restored to her ancient state, and, having taken up the harp, may sound forth to the Lord: read Isaiah. Some, ridiculously — but still, what we have read must be told — interpret the 'pilots' as the bishops of the heretics, the 'counselors' as the presbyters, the 'prow-men' as the archdeacons, the 'rowers' and 'sailors' as the deacons, and they refer the 'passengers' to the whole people — if they had added the 'shipmaster' as the devil, they would have completed the tragedy —, who will all wail together and weep most bitterly and do penance after they have perceived the shipwreck of their ship and have stood on land, and have lost all the beauty of the knowledge falsely so called, and in place of joy and gladness have marked their penance with grief in bitterness of heart.
27:32b-36
Who is like Tyre, which has become dumb (or has fallen silent) in the midst of the sea? — which is not found in the Seventy —. You who, in the going out of your trades (or what reward you found), from the sea filled many peoples, in the multitude of your riches and of peoples enriched many kings; now you have been crushed by the sea (or in the sea), your wealth is in the depths of the waters (or your trade); and all your multitude which was in your midst have fallen. All the inhabitants of the islands were astonished (or were crushed) over you, and all their kings, struck by the storm (or turned to madness), changed their countenances (or wept); the traders of the nations (or of the peoples) hissed over you: you have been brought to nothing (or you have become perdition), and you will be no more for ever (or in perpetuity). The pilots, rowers, prow-men and passengers will recall these things in the lament of Tyre: what other of the cities has so fallen silent that it had no confidence to speak, and heard that Gospel word: Be silent and be dumb, and that from the Psalms: But to the sinner God said: Why do you declare my righteousnesses, and take my covenant in your mouth?. 'With how great wares, O Tyre, have you been enriched? And what have you sought with so much labor, that by day and by night you should gather what was to perish by shipwreck? You did indeed fill many peoples and enriched kings with your wealth — of whom it is written: The kings of the earth stood by, and the princes gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ —; but now you have been crushed in the sea and in the depths of the waters' — according to what is written of Pharaoh: The chariots of Pharaoh and his strength he cast into the sea, who sank into the depth like a stone and could say: I came into the depth of the sea, and the storm sank me —. 'All the islands, or the inhabitants of the islands, which are beaten by the waves of this age, will be astonished over you, and their kings, struck by the storm, will perceive their own destruction, and, imitating the voice of the serpent, will hiss and say: You have been brought to nothing (or you have become perdition) — so that you had not the nature of perdition, but the will —, and you will not be' — if he had spoken up to this point, a great question would arise: how it should not be, when we now see it built up; but from what follows: 'for ever', he shows the time of one age, which, according to the age of man, is reckoned in a cycle of seventy years —, or 'you will not be to God' — as the Apostle says: Who called the things that were not, and Isaiah the prophet: Behold, all your adversaries will be confounded and will blush; for they will be as though they were not, and Esther, according to the Seventy translators: Do not hand over your scepter to those who are not, and in the Psalms: Spare me, that I may be refreshed before I depart and be no more; in what sense these testimonies are to be taken we have said above —. All these things, moreover, we can refer to the person of the heretics, who, in the crushing and shipwreck of Tyre, will perceive their error, and, set in the midst of the sea, will long to free their souls, and will lament the riches wrongly gathered, with which they had enriched many kings, namely their patriarchs, and the ignoble common people, whose wealth will collapse in the midst of the sea; the inhabitants too of all the islands — if, however, we wish to refer what has been said to the good sense — will be astonished over the crushing of Tyre, and the kings of all the islands either will themselves, as if struck by a storm, change their countenances, or at least will show the grief of their heart with weeping and tears, and will testify to the greatness of their stupor with wonder and hissing, at how she has been brought to nothing and has perished who promised salvation to many nations; and she will be no more, not at all for a fixed time — so that we should interpret αἰῶνα as 'in the age' —, but in perpetuity, because the same word signifies both.
Book Nine
It would have been fitting, daughter Eustochium, for me to take in the prophecy of Tyre and of the prince of Tyre in a single volume, and by no means to separate by the order of the books those that are joined as much by their places as by the prophecy. But because the things that are said are many and exceed the measure of length, the explanation has therefore been deferred to the ninth book; and we believe that through your prayers and those of all the saints it will reach its end, so that we may also discuss what is written in Ezekiel against Pharaoh and all Egypt. These too, by their own length, must be divided by us into a tenth book, so that the measure of the volumes in relation to one another may be kept, and the labor of the one dictating, of the one writing and of the one reading, being divided, may draw breath in its parts.
28:1-10
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre: Thus says the Lord God: Because your heart has been lifted up, and you have said: I am God, and I have sat in the chair of God in the heart of the sea; though you are a man and not God, and you have set your heart as the heart of God. Behold, you are wiser than Daniel, no secret is hidden from you; in your wisdom and your understanding you have made strength for yourself, and you have acquired gold and silver in your treasuries; in the multitude of your wisdom, in your trading you have multiplied strength for yourself, and your heart has been lifted up in your might. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because your heart has been lifted up as the heart of God, therefore behold, I will bring upon you strangers, the mightiest of the nations; and they will bare their swords against the beauty of your wisdom, and they will defile your comeliness. They will slay you and drag you down, and you will die in the destruction of the slain in the heart of the sea. Will you indeed speak, saying: I am God, before those who slay you, though you are a man and not God in the hand of those who kill you? By the death of the uncircumcised you will die in the hand of strangers, for I have spoken, says the Lord God. (LXX: "And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: And you, son of man, say to the prince of Tyre: Thus says the Lord God: Because your heart has been exalted, and you have said: I am God, I have dwelt in the dwelling of God in the heart of the sea; but you are a man and not God, and you have set your heart as the heart of God. Are you wiser than Daniel? The wise have not instructed you with their discipline: did you by your erudition or your understanding make strength for yourself, and make gold and silver in your treasuries, or by your great erudition and your trading did you multiply your strength? Your heart has been raised up in your strength. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have set your heart as the heart of God, on account of this behold, I will bring upon you strangers, pestilent ones from the nations; and they will unsheathe their swords against you, upon the beauty of your learning, and they will humble your beauty in perdition. And they will bring you down and lay you low, and you will die the death of the wounded in the heart of the sea. Will you indeed, speaking, say: I am God, in the sight of those who slay you? But you are a man and not God in the multitude of those who wound you. By the deaths of the uncircumcised you will die in the hands of strangers, for I have spoken, says Adonai the Lord.") Wherever, according to the Seventy, 'Lord, Lord' is set down twice, the first name is the tetragrammaton, which belongs properly to God and is called 'ineffable', the second is the common one, which is often found among men as well. Now just as, under the figure of a ship, first the riches of the city of Tyre and then its ruin and lament were described, so the prophetic word is addressed first to the prince of Tyre, that he was raised up through pride and did not use well the wealth that he had, then comes mourning and lamentation over the great goods from which he came to such great evils. First things, then, must be said first. It is written in Isaiah of the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, that he made himself equal to the power of God and was lifted up into such arrogance that he dared to say: I will ascend above the stars of heaven, and I will be like the Most High — and, cast headlong from his throne, he deserved to hear: How has Lucifer fallen, who rose in the morning? —, and of Pharaoh in this same prophet: The rivers are mine, and I made them, and of the prince of Tyre, that with lifted-up heart he said arrogantly: I am God and I sit in the chair of God (or I have dwelt in the dwelling-place of God), though he is a man and not God; and these words, although they seem to exceed the strength of human frailty and to be the words not so much of men as of raving demons, we must nevertheless take as ὑπερβολὴν [hyperbole, exaggeration]: that they swelled up to such a degree and did not know their own measure that, lifted up by the prosperity of the world and the power of their kingdom, while they think present goods to be everlasting, they did not know that they were men and claimed eternal rule for themselves; although under the type of princes and kings and of individual cities or provinces the adverse powers are shown — of whom the apostle Paul also writes: Our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against the princes and powers and rulers of this darkness and the spiritual things of wickedness in the heavenly places, and in another place: We speak wisdom among the perfect, yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the princes of this age, who are being destroyed, and, again discussing wisdom, he says: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory; in the prophecy of Daniel too one reads plainly: The prince of the Israelite people Michael, and the prince of Greece, and the prince of the Persians; and Moses writes more openly in the song of Deuteronomy: When the Most High was dividing the nations, was scattering the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God (or, as it stands better in the Hebrew, according to the number of the sons of Israel); and the Lord's portion became his people, Jacob, the cord of his inheritance Israel; nor shall we wonder that on the contrary side the worst kings go before as a type of the transgressing princes, since we teach that the best kings, David and Solomon and Josiah, and the patriarchs and prophets went before in figure of the Lord Savior —. Therefore let us discuss what is written according to both understandings, that of proud kings and equally that of apostate princes: 'Though you are', he says, 'in the midst of the sea, and are held in the narrow confines of an island, and, I will say more, though you are a man and surrounded by the frailty of human flesh, lifted up by the swelling of your heart you have supposed that you dwell on the throne of God, in the heavens; and at the same time, because you boast of wisdom, so much so that the men of your kingdom challenged Solomon with riddles: are you then wiser than Daniel, who by the grace of God overcame all the magi and soothsayers and is now the wisest in Babylon?' Or it is to be understood thus: 'Even if you are wiser than Daniel, who by the confession of all is the wisest, and by the greatness of your riches and power desire to make yourself equal to the power of God, nevertheless you will be taken by your adversaries and, your city lost, you will be pierced with many wounds, and you will no longer say: I am God; taught by your destruction that you are a man, not God'. But if we wish to say that the prince of Tyre is that same power to whom the city itself, or province, was entrusted by God, let us take up that testimony: I said: You are gods, and all sons of the Most High. But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes; for provinces were handed over to them to rule, as to judges, by the Emperor; and they, forgetting that their honor depended on the command of another, such as Heraclianus lately was in Africa, rose up with a tyrant's mind against their king and Lord, so that, scattered through the whole world, under the names of idolatry, they took to themselves the names of gods and, puffed up with pride, fell into the judgment and the snare of the devil, of which the Savior also spoke in the Gospel: I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven.
28:11-19
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, raise a lament over the king of Tyre, and you shall say to him: Thus says the Lord God: You, the seal of likeness, full of wisdom and perfect in comeliness; you were in the delights of the paradise of God, every precious stone was your covering: sardius, topaz and jasper, chrysolite and onyx and beryl, sapphire and carbuncle and emerald; gold, the work of your comeliness, and your openings were prepared on the day on which you were formed. You, a Cherub stretched out and protecting; and I set you on the holy mountain of God; you walked in the midst of the fiery stones, perfect in your ways from the day of your formation, until iniquity was found in you. In the multitude of your trading your inner parts were filled with iniquity, and you sinned. And I cast you out from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O protecting Cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones. Your heart was lifted up in your comeliness; you lost wisdom in your beauty: I cast you down to the earth, I set you before the face of kings that they might behold you. In the multitude of your iniquities and the iniquity of your trading you have polluted your sanctification; I will therefore bring forth a fire from your midst which shall devour you, and I will make you ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who see you. All who see you among the nations will be astonished over you; you have been made nothing, and you shall not be for ever. (LXX: "And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, take up a lament over the prince of Tyre, and say to him: Thus says the Lord God: You are the seal of likeness full of wisdom, and a crown of comeliness; you were in the delights of the paradise of God, you were surrounded with every good stone: with sardius and topaz and emerald and carbuncle and sapphire and jasper and silver and gold and ligure and agate and amethyst and chrysolite and beryl and onyx, and with gold you filled your treasuries, and your granaries in you they prepared from the day on which you were formed, with the Cherub anointed by God and dwelling in the tabernacle, and I set you on the holy mountain of God: you were in the midst of the fiery stones, you were unblemished in your days from the day on which you were created, until iniquities were found in you. From the multitude of your trading you filled your storerooms with iniquity, and you sinned. And you were wounded from the mountain of God, and the overshadowing Cherub led you out from the midst of the fiery stones. Your heart was raised up in your comeliness; your discipline was corrupted with your comeliness: because of the multitude of your sins and iniquities I cast you down to the earth, in the sight of kings I set you, that you might be put to shame. Because of the multitude of your sins and the iniquities of your trading I have defiled your holy things; and I will bring out fire from your midst, it will devour you, and I will make you ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who see you. And all who knew you among the nations will be saddened over you; you have become perdition, and you will be no more for ever.") Since we have learned who the prince of Tyre is and how he fell through pride, let us come to know the lamentation over him for his former glory. First he is reminded of what he was, so that he may grieve that he has lost what he had: You, he says, the seal of likeness, according to what John the evangelist says properly of the Savior: For him God the Father has sealed, and of men: He has sealed that God is true, and in the Psalms: The light of your countenance has been sealed upon us, O Lord, and in another place: Beloved, now we are sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be; we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, whence also it is said to God: Who will be like you?; for likeness is one thing, equality another. Hence that is a most savage heresy which confesses in Christ only the likeness of the Father and takes away his nature; but we say in the Son not only likeness but also equality — for this reason the Jews persecuted him: because not only did he break the sabbath, but he also made himself equal to God —; and where there is equality, there is the same nature and one substance. This is what the Apostle too says about likeness: 'My little children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ be formed in you, that is, that you may recover his likeness, which you lost by your own fault'. And because in the Latin codices 'resignaculum' [unsealing] is read instead of 'signaculo' [seal] — since the one who translated, rendering word for word κακοζήλως [with misplaced zeal], set down 'resignaculum' for ἀποσφράγισμα [seal, seal-impression] according to the translation of the Seventy —, they accordingly understand it thus: that the king of Tyre unsealed and lost the seal of God and the figure that had been impressed as if in the softest wax, so that instead of a seal he made an unsealing, by no means having the image and likeness of God, according to which the first man too was formed, when God said: Let us make man according to our image and likeness; and it is to be noted that then only the image was made, while the likeness is completed in the baptism of Christ. And consequently to him to whom it was said: You, the seal of likeness, is joined: Full of wisdom and perfect in comeliness (or a crown of comeliness); for where the likeness of God is, there also is fullness of wisdom and perfect comeliness, or a crown of virtues, adorned and composed as if of various flowers, which the diligent man increases by his own effort while by industry he nourishes the good of nature, and the negligent man diminishes, according to what is said in Proverbs under the figure of a beautiful woman of bad character: As earrings in the nostrils of a pig, so is beauty to a woman of bad character. There follows: You were in the delights of the paradise of God — for which in the Hebrew there stands 'in eden' — which the history of Genesis also narrates — and 'eden' is rendered as 'delights' —, and fittingly, for distinction, he names the paradise 'of God', to show that there is also a contrary paradise, 'not of God', among those who change the truth into a lie and boast that they have paradise; by which word he shows that the one of whom it is written is by no means a man, but a contrary force that once dwelt in the paradise of God; although the Jews think that this is prophesied of Hiram king of Tyre through the τρόπον [figure of speech] which is called ὑπερβολὴ; and to him to whom it is said: You were in the delights of the paradise of God, or 'you were made', it shows what he had, and what he lost. Further, as to what is joined to the dwelling in paradise: Every precious stone was your covering (or 'your binding and encircling'): sardius, topaz and jasper, chrysolite and onyx and beryl, sapphire and carbuncle and emerald, or, as in the Seventy, twelve stones are contained in a different order and with other names, this is to be observed: not that the king of Tyre was surrounded with every precious stone — or 'covered' and, as Symmachus translated, 'bound' and 'built in' —, but that every stone which the prince of Tyre had was precious. Otherwise there are many precious stones which Scripture does not name in the present passage: chalcedony, sardonyx, chrysoprase, jacinth, crystal too, and the most precious pearl; but Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion also differ greatly in the present passage, both among themselves and from the Seventy translators, not only in order but also in number and in names; in the Revelation of John too, where Jerusalem is recorded as built of living stones, the same stones, with the order changed a little in the last parts, are set in its foundations, so that its gates are written to have been built of the light of crystal; but on the breast of the high priest also the same stones are described, in four rows on the breastpiece, and on his shoulders two onyx stones, on which the names of the twelve patriarchs are written, which the true high priest, of whom it is written: You are a priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek, bears on his breast, bears on his shoulders, so as to show in the twelve stones the number of the apostles, and in the two the mysteries of both testaments; of whom one, John the evangelist, reclined on his breast to drink in the streams of wisdom, and to be able to say: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God; these are the living stones of which the Church is built, and the apostle Peter writes: If you have believed that the Lord is sweet. Coming to him, a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God, honorable, you also yourselves, as living stones, are built up as spiritual houses, into a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual victims, pleasing to God through Jesus Christ. For the scripture says: Behold, I will lay in Zion a corner stone, chosen, precious; and he who believes in it will not be confounded, on which the vessel of election also agrees with like voice, saying: Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus our Lord himself being the corner stone; in whom the whole building, being constructed, grows into a holy temple of God; these are the stones of which we also read in another place: 'Holy stones roll upon the earth, like wheels, barely touching the ground and by their rolling hastening to heavenly things', of which Scripture also makes mention: Behold, I prepare your stone, the carbuncle, and your foundations, sapphire; and I will set your ramparts, jasper, and your gates with crystal stone, and your wall with choice stones, and all your sons taught by God, and your sons in much peace; and in righteousness you shall be built, on which we have said what seemed right to us in our explanations of that same prophet; of stones of this kind Psalm 20 (21) also sings: Lord, in your strength the king will rejoice, and over your salvation he will exult exceedingly. You have granted him the desire of his soul, and you have not cheated him of the will of his lips. For you have gone before him with the blessing of sweetness; you have set on his head a crown of precious stone; these are the pearls of the prophets and apostles which, in comparison with Christ, are all sold in the Gospel so that the most precious pearl may be bought, and the stone of which Zechariah writes that it has seven eyes, that is, the seven graces of the Holy Spirit, read Isaiah, and it is laid by the apostle Paul in the foundation of the Church, upon which gold, silver, precious stones are to be built; whose colors and natures and the powers of each it is not for this occasion to discuss, but they require a volume of their own, so that in Ezekiel and in Exodus and in Revelation and in Isaiah all the stones and the orders of the stones, compared with one another, raise a great question both for the reader and for the expositor; on which the holy man Bishop Epiphanius also handed me in person a volume of his own, and the thirty-seventh book of the Natural History of Pliny Secundus, after a manifold knowledge of all things, discusses gems and stones; to the knowledge of these the diligent reader must be sent by us; further, the translation of Symmachus writes that this prince of Tyre was studded with stones like a most precious necklace. Indeed it calls it a tympanum of gold, in which the stones were set; whence also according to the Hebrew there follows: Gold, the work of your comeliness, and your openings were prepared on the day on which you were formed; for which the Seventy set down: With gold you filled your treasuries, and your storehouses, referring it to the sense and mind, that his thought lay open to the divine mysteries and gathered for itself spiritual riches, of which the Lord commanded: Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor worm destroys, nor thieves dig through and steal. For where your treasure is, there is your heart also; this is the hidden treasure of which he also speaks in the Gospel: The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field; which he who finds hides, and for his joy goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field; and the storehouses, or granaries, are those of which it is written in another place: Blessed are your storehouses and your remnants. After this it is said, according to the Hebrew: You, a Cherub stretched out and protecting — it is understood: the ark of God and the mercy seat; or, according to the Seventy, 'that he himself was anointed and created with the Cherub'; from which it is shown that this cannot apply to a man, the prince of the city of Tyre, but to a force once holy and preeminent, which was set as prince of the city of Tyre —; and I set you, he says, on the holy mountain of God — no doubt it signifies paradise, to which the apostle Paul says he was caught up after the third heaven —; now 'Cherub' is said in the masculine gender, singular number, and in the plural they are called 'Cherubim', which means 'multitude of knowledge', upon whom God rests and sits, and he uses this chariot, as the prophet says to him: You who sit upon the Cherubim, show yourself, and in another place: He ascended upon the Cherubim and flew upon the wings of the winds; this Cherub, then, or the one created with the Cherub, stretched out and protecting the mysteries, was set on the holy mountain of God, of which we have often spoken and of which the apostle Paul speaks — if anyone, that is, accepts the epistle to the Hebrews —: You have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and thousands of angels; or certainly the holy mountain of God is to be understood, as we said, as paradise. He walked too in the midst of the fiery stones, of which it is written: Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a burning fire; and not only does God, who is called 'a consuming fire', consume hay, wood and stubble, but so do the angels, who are called 'fiery stones' and are fervent in spirit; whence the Lord too: Fire, he says, I came to send upon the earth, and how I wish that it may burn. And what follows: Perfect in your ways from the day of your formation (for which the Seventy set down: You were unblemished in your days, from the day on which you were formed), until iniquity was found in you, shows that every creature was formed good by God and had perfect virtue, and through this that the prince of Tyre too was unblemished, so that the blemish thereafter is not of nature but of will. 'Until', he says, 'iniquity was found in you — found by God —, which was held shut up in the treasury of your breast, through pride and the abuse of the power you had received'; in the multitude of his trading, too, his inner parts, or storerooms, were filled with iniquity — for while he seeks out many things, and is not content with the knowledge he had received nor with the power over which he had been set, he filled the storerooms and inner parts of his breast —; so that, sated and grown fat, he kicked against his Creator: for Jacob ate indeed and was sated, and the beloved kicked back; he grew fat and was fattened and was enlarged, and forsook God who had made him, and: Out of the heart proceed the worst thoughts, on account of which God says: You sinned. And I cast you out from the mountain of God (or you were wounded from the mountain of God); reading this, we are compelled to fear: for if a Cherub stretched out and protecting, set on the holy mountain of God and in the midst of the fiery stones, perfect and unblemished, on account of the multitude of his trading filled his inner parts with iniquity, and sinned, and was cast out from the mountain of God — that is, from the dwelling of paradise — or was wounded from the mountain of God — which is plainly understood as Christ —, or certainly, while placed and dwelling on the mountain of God, was wounded by himself, and pricked by the evil of his conscience when he understands himself to be unworthy of dwelling on the mountain, what must be thought of us? For this reason it is said to him: 'And I destroyed you, O protecting Cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones, so that you should by no means stand among the fiery stones, but perish; O Cherub yourself, or the Cherubim who protected you, I led you out from the midst of the fiery stones', according to what is also written of Adam: He cast out Adam, and set him over against the paradise of delights. And he gives the reasons why he was led out, or cast out, from the midst of the fiery stones: 'For lifted up indeed was your heart in your comeliness, while you think yours what is God's'; whence the Apostle too says he received a goad of the flesh and an angel of Satan to buffet him, lest he be proud through the multitude of revelations and fall into the judgment of the devil. And therefore: 'Your learning has been corrupted', he says, 'with your comeliness (or you have lost your wisdom in your comeliness), so that, while you wish to be more than you were formed and to be wiser than you had received from God, you lost even what you had, and instead of beauty and learning, deformity and folly possessed you; whence you were cast down to the earth, you who formerly dwelt on the mountain of God — of whom Isaiah also writes: How has Lucifer fallen, who rose in the morning?, and the Savior in the Gospel: I was watching, he says, Satan like lightning falling from heaven, which Jeremiah also says to Jerusalem: How the Lord in his anger has darkened the daughter of Zion, has cast down from heaven to earth the glory of Israel —, and cast down in the sight of all kings so that they might be terrified by your example, whether the good kings, whose heart is in the hand of God, or the evil ones, whose kingdoms the devil showed to the Savior, who went to meet the Babylonian king, saying: You too have been taken as we were, and are counted among us'. Wherefore he also polluted his sanctification, which he had had when he dwelt on the mountain and lived in the midst of the fiery stones. There follows: I will bring forth fire in your midst which may devour you; this fire would be kindled in the heart of the king of Tyre by him whose darts are fiery, and of whom it is written: All adulterers, their hearts are like an oven, of which fire Isaiah also speaks: Walk in the light of your fire and in the flame which you have kindled, so that, going forth outward, it may devour its possessor, according to what is written in the same Isaiah: It will devour the matter like hay; on that day the mountains and hills and forests will be quenched, and it will devour from the soul even to the flesh; this fire, which is called strange, Nadab and Abihu had offered at the altar of the Lord, and therefore they were consumed by divine fire; whence Moses too says: This is the word which the Lord spoke: In those who draw near to me I will be sanctified; and the sanctification of God is the punishment of sinners. After this it is said: And I will make you ashes, so that the fire may consume all that you have built upon your evil conscience; you who, though you ought in the rest and the sabbath by no means to do servile work, gathered wood on the sabbath, so that the blaze might have something to devour in your breast. It is profitable too that all evil works be turned into ashes, so that the harmful fire may be utterly extinguished, and all may see and be astonished that the Tyrian king has perished and been made nothing, not for many ages, but for one, or certainly for ever, so that what is written may be fulfilled: I will not spare you, and I will not have mercy. The Hebrews, among their other fables and γενεαλογίας [genealogies] and endless questions, are accustomed to understand these things as spoken against Hiram king of Tyre, although from Solomon to Ezekiel there are a great many years, which it is evident men did not live at that time; and to pronounce it thus, as if the prophet were speaking to him in irony: 'Are you the seal of the likeness of God, full of wisdom and perfect in comeliness, you adorned with all stones, you a Cherub, or created with a Cherub, when on the contrary you have sinned and are to be dissolved into ashes?'; and they add to their fable a marvel, so that, against the authority of Scripture, or rather without the authority of Scripture, they say: Hiram lived a thousand years. But how forced this interpretation is, the prudent reader understands without our judgment.
28:20-26
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set (or make firm) your face against Sidon, and you shall prophesy concerning it, and you shall say: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, Sidon, and I will be glorified in you (or in your midst), and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have executed judgments in it (or in you) and have been sanctified in you (or in it). And I will send upon it (or into you) pestilence and blood in its streets (or your), and the slain (or the wounded) shall fall in its midst by the sword (or by swords) round about, and they shall know that I am the Lord. And there shall no longer be for the house of Israel a stumbling block of bitterness and a thorn bringing pain on every side round about, from those who oppose them (or who were doing them insult), and they shall know that I am the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God: When I have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples (or from the nations) among whom they have been scattered, I will be sanctified in them before the nations, and they shall dwell in their land which I gave to my servant Jacob; and they shall dwell in it secure (or in hope), and they shall build houses, and plant vineyards, and dwell confidently (or in hope), when I have executed judgments upon all who oppose them round about (or have done them insult), and they shall know that I am the Lord their God. (And what follows according to the Seventy: And the God of their fathers, is not found in the Hebrew.) Consequently, after Tyre, the word is addressed to Sidon; for both cities belong to one province, and in the Gospel Tyre and Sidon are named together: If in Tyre and Sidon had been done the mighty works which have been done in you, whence also the Canaanite woman, whose daughter was troubled by a demon, because she went out from the borders of Tyre and Sidon, obtained what she had asked. Now the divine word foretells that it too is to be taken by the Babylonians, and that by the weight of its evils it is to know that he is the Lord, when he has judged it and been sanctified in it and consumed it by famine and pestilence and the sword, so that it falls in its streets and is no longer a stumbling block to the people of God, nor assails them frequently; and when this has been done, the people of Israel, whom he had scattered among various nations, are to return to their own land, and he is to be sanctified in them, not, as in Sidon, in the bad sense but in the good, when he has had mercy on them, and they have dwelt in the land which he gave to their father Jacob; and they have dwelt secure and trusting in the Lord, and have built houses and planted vineyards, when he has fulfilled his promises; and then they are to know that he is the Lord, whose promises are most firm. Many refer this to the time of Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah, when the people of Israel returned and dwelt in the land of Judea; but others hope that it is to be fulfilled in the last time and in the thousand years. Further, according to the spiritual understanding, this seems to us the sense. 'Sidonians' means 'hunters', of whom it is also written in the Psalms: Our soul has been snatched like a sparrow from the snare of the hunters, and again: For he will rescue me from the snare of the hunters and from the harsh word, and in Proverbs the eye of a harlot is the snare of a sinner; but there are also hunters in the good sense, contrary to these, of whom Jeremiah writes: Behold, I will send fishers and hunters who will hunt you from every hill and mountain, whom the Lord also sends to fish, and makes them from fishers of fish into fishers of men; whence the little village of Peter and Andrew too is called by this name — for 'Bethsaida' means in our tongue 'house of hunters' —. Against these, then, the worst hunters, the word of God is directed, and the prophet is commanded to set, or make firm, his face against Sidon, and by no means to waver with every wind of doctrine, but, standing firm in the truth, he will slay the hunters. What, then, are the things with which the Lord threatens Sidon?: 'Behold, I myself will come to you, and I will be glorified in you when I have slain you; and all who live will know that I am the Lord, when I have repaid you what you deserve. And I will send pestilence and blood into your streets' — and rightly are the streets said to be Sidon's: for broad indeed and spacious is the way that leads to death —; and those who stood badly will fall slain by the sword round about, that sword which the Lord came to send upon the earth to separate what was badly joined; and those who remain will know that he is the Lord. And when they have ceased, there will no longer be a stumbling block of bitterness and a thorn of pain pricking and wounding the people of God. All these things, moreover, are said against the adverse powers: that in the last time they are to be destroyed, and there will be eternal security, when the Lord has gathered the house of Israel, those who discern God with the mind, and has been sanctified in them, and that will be fulfilled which is written: Be holy, for I am holy, and they have dwelt in their own land, of which we also read elsewhere: I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living, which he had given to Jacob, who had supplanted his elder brother and had deserved to receive his birthright; and they will dwell in it secure, or in hope, and they will build houses and plant vineyards, and they will dwell a second time in hope, according to what is read in Isaiah: You who have been weaned from milk, who have been drawn from the breast, expect tribulation upon tribulation, hope upon hope; and they will build houses, such as he builds in the Gospel who laid his foundations not upon the sand but upon the rock, of which it is written: Unless the Lord builds the house, they have labored in vain who build it, and in Exodus, according to the Seventy: Because the midwives feared the Lord, they made houses for themselves, and many things of this kind; and when the Lord has executed judgment against those who oppose Israel round about, or treat it with insults, then every creature will know that he is the Lord, whose judgments are true and justified in themselves.
29:1-3a
In the tenth year (or, according to the Seventy, the twelfth), in the eleventh month (or, according to the Hebrew, the twelfth), on the first (or one) day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set (or make firm) your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and you shall prophesy concerning him, and concerning all Egypt you shall speak, and you shall say: Thus says the Lord God. After Sidon, which itself too is situated on the coast of Phoenicia, the word comes to the prophet in the tenth year of the captivity of King Jehoiachin, and in the twelfth month, and on one day of the month, that he should set his face, or make it firm, against Pharaoh king of Egypt and speak concerning all, or to all, Egypt; and that the province of Egypt, situated on the same coast on the other side of Judea, should be described, and the things that are to come upon it be prophesied. But if something must be said about the numbers: the place that one holds among ten days — whence also at the beginning of Genesis it is not said: There was evening and morning, day 'first', but 'one', so as to teach that the same day always comes round again — that same rank the tenth number will hold among ten decades, that is, the number one hundred, the tenth on which the lamb is taken up for the victim, to be sacrificed on the fourteenth day; and in this way, up to a thousand and ten thousand and a hundred thousand and beyond, the order of numbers proceeds by its decades; and after the tenth year the 'twelfth' month is set down, so that the perfect number of the twelve apostles and of the prophets — who are contained in one volume — may be shown; further, according to the Seventy, the 'tenth' month, which in Hebrew is called 'tebeth' and among the Egyptians 'tybi', and among the Romans is called 'Ianuarius' [January] because among them it is the door [ianua] of the year, holds the first place of winter's cold, all heat having been taken away; let it suffice to have said this about the numbers. But this above all must be inquired: whether it is the same Pharaoh who is named in Exodus and in Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and in many other places, and in the Song: To my cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh I have likened you, my near one, or one and then another; and it seems to me that he is not one, but that among the Egyptians the royal dignity is indicated by this word, just as among the Romans their kings are called 'Caesars' and 'Augusti' — from the first, Gaius 'Caesar', and the second, his adopted son Octavian, who was afterwards named 'Augustus' —, and among the Syrians 'Antiochuses', among the Persians 'Arsacids', among the Philistines 'Abimelech', and, after Alexander, in Egypt 'Ptolemies' down to Cleopatra, at whose defeat at Actium Egypt was made a Roman province; therefore at present the word of the Lord is spoken against any one whatever of the kings of Egypt, who is interpreted as διασκεδάστης, namely 'slayer' and 'mangler' and 'one who cuts down and divides all things with the sword'. This, according to the mystical senses, is to be referred to that power to which Egypt is subject; for a man would never dare to say: The rivers are mine and I made them, nor would he be called a 'dragon', 'great and sitting in the midst of his rivers'; now Egypt is called 'mesraim' in Hebrew, and into our language it is rendered ἐκθλίβουσα, that is, 'straitening' and 'afflicting' those who are subject to it, and not allowing them to lift their eyes to heaven but — according to the Gospel and the example of that woman whom the devil had bent over for eighteen years — always plunging them down toward earthly things. Let us see, then, what the threat is against Pharaoh and all Egypt.
29:3b-7
Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, great dragon who lie (or sit) in the midst of your rivers and say: The river is mine, and I made myself (or them). And I will put a bridle (or a snare) in your jaws, and I will make the fish of your rivers stick to your scales (or wings), and I will draw you out of the midst of your rivers, and all your fish shall cling to your scales. And I will cast (or set down) you swiftly (or into the desert), and all the fish of your river upon the face of the earth (or of your field); falling, you shall not be gathered up nor brought together; to the beasts of the earth and the birds of heaven I have given you to be devoured. And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord, because you have become (or have been) a staff (or a reed rod) to the house of Israel, when they took hold (or it took hold) of you with their hand and you were broken, and you tore all their shoulder, and when they leaned upon you, you were shattered, and you loosened (or broke) all their reins. For the sake of brevity we mix both editions where they do not differ much from each other; otherwise, where there is great diversity, we set out both. Now he speaks against Pharaoh, the prince of Egypt, and, under his figure, addresses a great power to which Egypt was handed over to be ruled and which nonetheless grew proud against its Creator, claiming for itself dominion over the land and offering itself to the Egyptian peoples to be worshiped; and he speaks, in keeping with the situation of the province, as to a king: that he trusts in the flooding of the Nile and does not greatly desire rains from heaven, and thinks himself his own author, or boasts that the rivers, that is, the διωρυγάς [canals], and the streams of the Nile were made by himself: 'I will not,' he says, 'send an angel, but, O great dragon who lie and settle in the midst of your rivers, I myself will come to you to punish you; for you dared to say: The river Nile is mine and I am my own founder, or: I myself made the river by which all Egypt is watered. And when I come, I will put a bridle in your jaws, or bind with snares your mouth with which you spoke so grandly, and all your allies and leaders, whom they call fish, I will make cling to your wings or scales, so that, drawn out of the river, you may be cast out or set down: for you had lifted yourself up too high, in the desert; and you will fall upon the face of the field, or of your land, because Egypt is a province of plains, and your carcass will not be gathered up nor will you be brought together, that is: you will by no means be buried, but I will give you to the beasts and the birds of heaven to be devoured, so that, when they have seen these things accomplished in you by my judgment, the inhabitants of Egypt may know that I myself am the Lord; and these things will befall you because you deceived my people Israel with your help, so that they trusted not at all in God their creator but in you: you were to them a reed staff — according to Isaiah —, or a hollow rod and a most fragile reed, leaning on which they found their protection worthless, so that, as they rested their weight on you, you were broken and tore the shoulder and the hand by which you were held, and, while they felt secure in you, all their loins were shattered as they fell to the ground and received wounds instead of help'. These things are said by μεταφορὰν [metaphor] as to the king of Egypt, because the province itself too was by no means hostile to Israel, but, while it promised great things, it separated them from the help of God; but according to ἀναγωγὴν [anagogy, the higher sense] we often read the 'dragon' as the opposing power — whence also Pharaoh is called διασκεδάστης, because he separates and disjoins from God, and 'Egypt', that is, μεσραὶμ, is rendered 'those who afflict' and 'those who distress', namely those whom it has been able to subjugate to itself. This dragon is the transgressor of whom Job speaks most fully, and in the Psalms it is written: You broke the heads of the dragon, you gave him as food to the Ethiopian peoples —, and the dragon is called 'great' in comparison with lesser dragons — of which it is sung: You broke the heads of the dragons in the waters, and in another place: This sea, great and spacious, there are creeping things of which there is no number, small animals with great. There the ships will pass through, this dragon which you formed to mock it, of whom it is also said in another place: He is king of all that are in the waters, and the beginning of the Lord's fashioning, who was made to be mocked by his angels —; and he sits, or lies, in the midst of his rivers, not of one river but of many, which we take to be the various heresies, through which he flowed into the Egypt of this world and watered the souls of the seduced, not with rains coming from heaven but with muddy waters from the earth — which Jeremiah does not forbid to drink, saying: What have you to do with the way of Egypt, that you should drink the water 'Geon' — for which in the Hebrew 'Sior' is written, a word which is rendered 'muddy' and 'miry' waters — ?; but that we may understand what the rivers of the dragon of Egypt are, we shall be able to know from their opposites: the Lord speaks of his own rivers: He who believes in me, rivers of living water shall flow from his belly, and to the Samaritan woman: Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will not thirst forever, but there will become in him a spring of water leaping up to eternal life; these are the rivers coming from heaven, of which David sings: The rush of the river gladdens 'the city of God', which no doubt signifies 'the Church' —. Let us consider, then, what the dragon's penalty is, or what his punishment. There follows: And I will put a bridle (or a snare) in your jaws — like which is that passage of Job: But you will bring the dragon with a hook and you will put a halter around his nostrils. He will trust that the Jordan may enter into his mouth; with his eye he will take it in. But he will pierce his nostrils, with a ring his lip —. Now the Lord puts a bridle in the jaws of this dragon and pierces his lips and binds them with the circle of a ring when, through churchmen who are learned in the holy Scriptures, he imposes silence on him and all the doctrines of perversity are dissolved; and he glues the fish of his rivers to his wings or scales — by which the heretics through pride hasten to the heights —, so that they too, joined with the dragon, may make one body with him; and they are coupled to him either in fellowship of error or in likeness of punishment, just as: He who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit. Nor indeed does the Egyptian dragon have one river, but many rivers, with which he waters Egypt, low and cast down and having no mountains in it, nor the waters of Siloam, which go with silence, but 'muddy' and 'miry' ones; whence also the Lord draws him out of the midst of his rivers, so that he may by no means lie upon them nor sit in them, and all the fish cling to his scales — clinging over the whole body of the dragon, according to the quality of their vices, either to the head or to the belly or to the tail and the extremities — so that, when the dragon is drawn out, the fish too which cling to him may be drawn out together. 'And I will cast you,' he says, 'into the desert, so that you will by no means find any to deceive, or certainly I will set you down from the summit of your pride, and I will set you down swiftly' — according to that saying of the Apostle: But may the God of peace crush Satan under your feet swiftly —, so that, when the dragon is crushed and set down, the fish of his river too may be set down, and the author of crimes may fall, who formerly thought that he stood and ran about through the whole world; and let him fall upon the face of his own earth, to which he was cast headlong from heaven, so that he may by no means any longer be gathered in the churches of the heretics, nor be brought together or buried in those who believed him, once they have been freed from him, but may be given to be devoured by the beasts of the earth and the birds of heaven: the beasts, of which it is written: Do not hand over the soul that confesses to you, and the birds of heaven, which eat the seed beside the way and are interpreted by the Savior to be devils — for not only the prince of wickedness but also his disciples are named devils, according to what is said of Judas: Did I not choose you twelve? and one of you is a devil —; and they are called birds of heaven because they promise themselves lofty things; so that, after the dragon with his fish has been set down and cast out, and handed over to be devoured by the beasts of the earth, which have nothing of gentleness in them, and by those who are carried about by every wind of doctrine, then the inhabitants of this world may understand that he himself is the Lord; and the whole cause of the punishments is that he promised help to the house of Israel in vain and was to it a rod or reed staff, hollow and empty, having nothing of fullness in it, because he could not say: But we have all received of his fullness, since Scripture has commanded: You shall not appear in the sight of the Lord your God empty (or hollow); and that we ought not to ask help from Egypt, Scripture testifies elsewhere too: Woe to those who go down into Egypt for help. Of a reed staff of this kind Rabshakeh too vainly reproaches Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: Behold, trusting in this reed rod, and a broken one, upon Egypt; whoever leans on it, it goes into his hand: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt and all who trust in him; and he indeed was lying about a righteous king in recalling these things — he who is interpreted as 'much with a kiss': for he was drunk from the golden cup of Babylon, and therefore he was thrusting his own things upon the people, while it was confessing the Lord —; here, however, Pharaoh is reproached for having been to the house of Israel a rod or reed staff, promising them help that was vain and fragile and soon to be shattered. But that we may be able to know which is the reed staff on which the house of Israel ought not to trust, we shall be able to understand it from the contrary staff and rod of the Lord, of which it is said to the Lord: Your rod and your staff, they have comforted me; this rod Aaron also had, which devoured the Egyptian dragons, and when he struck the banks of the Nile and gnats were produced in all Egypt; Moses too, according to the Seventy: Stretched out this rod and lifted it to heaven, and the Lord brought the south wind upon the land all that day and all night, and in the morning the wind lifted and brought locusts upon all the land of Egypt; of this rod, I think, it is also written in the book of Numbers that it blossomed and budded into a nut or almond; this the Apostle had, saying: What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod?; and those who celebrated the Passover held staffs in their hands, without which, as they support the weakness of the human body, they could not eat the flesh of the lamb; this is the rod from the root of Jesse, upon which the seven spirits rested. But not such is Pharaoh, nor the staff of Egypt and the reed rod, which deceives those who take hold of it and tears their shoulders, that is, their strength; and whoever leans upon it, his loins are loosened, and he cannot stand nor, girded in the reins, celebrate the Passover; which befits those whose hearts and reins God searches.
29:8-16
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will bring a sword upon you, and I will kill from you man and beast; and the land of Egypt shall be a desert (or destruction and solitude), and they shall know that I am the Lord. Because he said (or you said): the river is mine, and I made it (or the rivers are mine, and I made them); therefore behold, I am against you and against your rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt into solitudes, laid waste by the sword (or destroyed) from the tower of Syene (or from Migdol and Syene) to the borders of Ethiopia. The foot of man shall not pass through it, nor shall the foot of beast walk in it, and it shall not be inhabited for forty years; and I will make the land of Egypt deserted in the midst of deserted lands, and its cities in the midst of overthrown cities: they shall be desolate for forty years, and I will scatter (or sow) the Egyptians among the nations, and I will winnow them into the lands. For thus says the Lord God: After the end of forty years I will gather Egypt (or the Egyptians) from the peoples (or from the nations) among whom they had been scattered, and I will bring back the captivity of Egypt, and I will settle them in the land of Pathros, in the land of their birth (or in the land from which they were taken); and they shall be to you for a kingdom (or a lowly principality). Among the other kingdoms it shall be the lowliest, and it shall no longer be lifted up over the nations, and I will diminish them so that they do not rule over the nations (or so that they are not many among the nations). Nor shall they any longer be to the house of Israel for confidence (or for hope), teaching iniquity, so that they flee and follow them (or they recall them to the memory of iniquity, so that they follow them), and they shall know that I am the Lord God. Join what follows to what precedes: 'Because you were a reed staff to the house of Israel, and were not only broken in its hand but — according to Isaiah — pierced its hand, and now you have torn its shoulder and were yourself shattered, and loosened the loins of those leaning on you, therefore I will bring upon you the sword of enemies, and I will lay waste beasts together with men, and the land of Egypt will be reduced to solitudes, and a second time the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord. Nor will I be content with this end, but because he burst out into such great blasphemy as to say that the rivers and all the abundance of Egypt were his, therefore I will take away both him who had called himself creator and the rivers which he had boasted were created by himself, and I will reduce the land of Egypt to a very long solitude, laid waste by the sword from the tower of Syene to the borders of Ethiopia'. For 'tower', which in Hebrew is called 'magdal', the Seventy put the name of a place, so as to write 'magdolum' [Migdol]; and the tower of Syene remains to this day, a fortress subject to Roman rule, where the cataracts of the Nile are, and up to which place the Nile is navigable from our sea. He says, therefore, that all Egypt is to be ravaged up to the borders of Ethiopia, to which the farthest region of Egypt is joined, so that the foot of man does not pass through Egypt nor are beasts found in it, and it is not inhabited for forty years — for the Egyptians are spared, and, because they were once hosts to Israel, their sentence is shorter in time: Tyre kept its sabbaths for seventy years and so was restored to its former state; the captivity of Judea too and the overthrow of the temple completed seventy years, until Cyrus king of the Persians: For the mighty shall mightily suffer torments. And when he says: I will make the land of Egypt deserted in the midst of deserted lands, he means the Philistines, the Edomites and the Moabites and all the other regions against which the prophet's oracle stands above —; then he will scatter or sow the Egyptians among the nations and winnow them into the lands, and, because The Lord is merciful and compassionate, patient and of many mercies, after forty years there is the restoration of Egypt, and the whole captivity will be brought back to its ancient soil and settled in the metropolis, which is called Pathros, where it arose and from which it set out, only on condition that, for its own good, it loses its ancient pride and is a lowly kingdom, indeed the lowliest of all nations, and is no longer lifted up against the nations nor has rule over them, but, reduced to fewness, by no means deceives the house of Israel by confidence in itself, nor teaches them iniquity, or recalls them to the memory of iniquity, in that, having forsaken the help of God, they sought the support of Egypt; and all these things will happen so that a third time the Egyptians may know that he himself is the Lord. These things we have touched on in brief discourse, laying the foundations of the history. Now the cloud of allegory must be discussed, and with the same brevity we shall try to avoid the length of this explanation too. The word is to the dragon, who had said: The rivers are mine and I made them, that the Lord himself is bringing upon him the sword of which it is written in Isaiah: My sword has become drunk in heaven: now it will descend upon the earth, to destroy from him man and beast, whatever seems to have either reason or simplicity; and to destroy not absolutely, but as to the dragon, so that they may perish to the dragon and live to God; and that the land of Egypt may become destruction, according to the sense given above, in which it perishes to the dragon, and after destruction be reduced to solitude, ceasing to have the worst of guests; and then men and beasts and the destroyed land will know that he himself is the Lord — in that sense which is written in Psalm 77 (78): When he slew them, then they sought him: For everyone who seeks will find, and it is God's mercy that the abundance of this world should perish —, and that the streams of Egypt may be dried up, nay rather that their land may be in solitudes and be laid waste by the sentence of the Lord from the tower of 'Soene' [Syene], which means 'circle', so that it has nothing straight in it, up to the land of the Ethiopians, who are called lowly, so that, namely, all pride which had raised itself against the knowledge of God may be destroyed, and be humbled unto its own salvation. Nor may the foot of man, that is, anything rational, pass through Egypt, nor the foot of beast walk in it — so that it may not hold any of the simple, whom Pharaoh, letting the men go, wished to keep in Egypt, while Moses opposed him and wished to free the beasts too from the captivity of Egypt —. And it shall not, he says, be inhabited for forty years — which number is always one of affliction and punishment: whence Moses and Elijah and the Savior himself fasted forty days and nights, and for forty years the people was in the wilderness, so that afterwards, circumcised at Gilgal, it might be freed from the reproach and disgrace of Egypt; in the mystery of this number this same prophet too slept forty days on his right side for the tribe of Judah, and the people is announced as about to serve in Egypt four hundred years, which make forty decades or four ἑκατοντάδας [hundreds]; the rains of the flood too bring shipwreck on the world for forty days: for it was just that he who, through the four elements of the world, of which all things are said to consist, had offended God while he loved and cherished them, should be punished in that very number; and that Israel, which had sinned against the sabbath, should endure a punishment of seven decades, that is, of seventy years —; and the land of Egypt is made deserted, and its cities in the midst of the overthrown lands and cities, which were not built of stones but of brick and straw, so that Egypt, which had been badly joined together, may be scattered and winnowed into the lands, namely so that the grain may be separated from the straw; and, when the end of forty years is completed, there may be a restoration of Egypt, and its captivity be brought back and settled in the land of 'Phatures' [Pathros], which means 'trampled bread', where that bread which had said: I am the bread that came down from heaven, was trampled by heretical perversity; so that, when they have come to the Church, they may dwell in the trampled bread, and by no means be lifted up into pride, but be a lowly kingdom. And so that, even when they have been restored to their former state, they may cast themselves down through humility because they lived in Egypt and built cities of brick, and among the many kingdoms of the Church may be lowly, and may know against whom they have sinned; and that Egypt may no longer be lifted up over the churches spread through the whole world, but be reduced to fewness, and few may remain in it among the nations, according to what is written: Give them, O Lord. What will you give them? Give them a barren womb and dry breasts, so that they may by no means rejoice and exalt themselves in the multitude of the deceived, but be reduced to a few: For many are called, few chosen. And may they no longer deceive the house of Israel, that is, the Church, nor promise them a vain hope and confidence, teaching iniquity, so that they flee the discipline of the Church and follow Egyptian pleasures. And these things will happen so that a third time the Egyptians may know that he himself is the Lord; which seems to me to be said for this reason: that the first knowledge of the Egyptians may be in the flesh, the second in the soul, the third in the spirit: first upon the earth, second when the life of this world is ended, third after the resurrection.
29:17-21
And it came to pass in the twenty-seventh year, in the first and on one day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army serve a great service against Tyre; every head made bald and every shoulder rubbed bare, and wages were not paid to him, nor to his army, over Tyre for the service with which he served me against it. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will give Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon in the land of Egypt, and he will carry off its multitude, and plunder its booty, and seize its spoils, and it will be wages for his army, and for the work for which he served against it. I have given him the land of Egypt because they labored for me, says the Lord God. In that day a horn shall sprout for the house of Israel; and to you I will give an open mouth in their midst, and they shall know that I am the Lord. The question is asked how, after the tenth year of the preceding discourse, the twenty-seventh year is immediately set down, and in what follows the tenth and the twelfth, and in the final description of the temple the twenty-fifth; but the solution is easy: for since both the preceding prophecy and this one which is now spoken are woven together concerning Egypt, although it was made at different times, nevertheless, because it is prophesied concerning one province, they are joined to each other; which we also frequently read in Jeremiah, that the times are described in reversed order: for in certain places the deeds of Zedekiah are related first, and afterwards those of Jehoiakim, who was before him; in the Psalms, however, because it is lyric song, the order of history is not sought. Let us speak first, then, according to the letter. When Nebuchadnezzar was besieging Tyre and could not bring rams, engines and mantlets up to the walls — because it was surrounded by the sea —, he ordered the countless multitude of his army to carry stones and earth for a mound and, having filled up the sea in between, or rather the very narrow strait, he made the neighboring shore continuous with the island; when the Tyrians saw this now all but completed, and the foundations of the walls were being shaken by the battering of the rams, whatever precious things the nobility had in gold, silver, clothing and various furnishings, it put on ships and carried off to the islands, so that, when the city was taken, Nebuchadnezzar found nothing worthy of his labor; and because in this respect he had obeyed the will of God, some years after the captivity of Tyre Egypt is given to him; and Tyre was much more savage than Egypt: for the former attacked Jerusalem, the latter promised vain help — and it is one thing to deceive hope through weakness, another to fight against the people of God —. This, then, is what he says: 'Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, in the siege of Tyre, made his army serve me, to fulfill my will: Every head made bald and every shoulder rubbed bare of those carrying baskets of earth and stones, by which shoulders are rubbed and the head is made bald; and yet neither he nor his army found anything worthy in Tyre. And since he served me in this and fulfilled my will against Tyre, therefore I will give him the land of Egypt'; which some say was fulfilled under Nebuchadnezzar, others under Cambyses son of Cyrus, who laid waste Egypt as far as Ethiopia, so that he killed Apis and destroyed all their images, for which reason they think he was turned to madness and was pierced through with his own dagger in a fall from his horse — Herodotus narrates this history most fully, where all Egypt too is described by districts and villages and forts, and the source of the Nile and the peoples of that nation and the measurement of the land in circuit up to the desert of Ethiopia, and the shores of the Great Sea, and the borders of Libya and Arabia are shown —. The cause of the Lord's anger against Egypt is this: that it deceived the people of God by its help, so that it would not hope in the Lord and would provoke him to wrath: 'In that day,' he says, 'on which Egypt has been taken, the horn of the house of Israel will sprout' — no doubt signifying the royal line; which some refer to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, who was born of the stock of David through Jeconiah, others to the last time, when they think that Elijah too will come; but we, understanding the horn of the Lord as concerning Christ, touch lightly on the present history —. 'And when,' he says, 'O prophet, this has first been fulfilled, then your mouth will be opened, and your prophecy will by no means hang on a doubtful promise but will be seen accomplished in deed, so that those who have heard may know that I am the Lord, for whom to have said is to have done'. Let these things have been said of the prophecy according to the letter, or rather according to the truth; but from the fact that Nebuchadnezzar received the wage of a good work, we understand that even in the case of the heathen, if they have done anything good, it is not passed over without reward by the judgment of God; whence also through Jeremiah Nebuchadnezzar is called the dove of God, because he served God's will against a sinful people. And I will bring, he says, my servant Nebuchadnezzar; from which it is clear that we are condemned by comparison with the Gentiles, if they do by natural law the things which we neglect even when written; of which the apostle Paul argues most fully to the Romans. And lest we seem to pass anything over, according to the spiritual understanding we inquire where we have read this number, that is, the twenty-seventh: in the book of Genesis Scripture testifies that in the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the waters of the flood were brought upon the face of the earth, and afterwards in the seventh month of the same year, which is near to the sabbath, and on the twenty-seventh day of the same seventh month, the waters of the flood ceased, and the ark of Noah rested upon the mountains of 'Ararat', which means 'of Armenia'; from which we understand that the number is a middle one and can be applied to either side: since in it both the wrath of God begins with the flood, and his clemency is shown in the seventh month on the same number of days; and because among the Hebrews the month, which among us is divided by the Kalends and Nones and Ides, is reckoned according to the course of the moon — whence also by the Greek word μήνη, that is, 'moon', it took its name from the month —, this has been said: that on the twenty-seventh day of the moon a little light remains, lest his wrath be entirely without mercy; but when the whole orb of the moon is filled, then both the Passover is celebrated and all the greatest solemnities. This we have set down briefly, so that we may know that in this number good and evil things are contained alike: good things for Nebuchadnezzar, whose labor is repaid with wages, evil things for the Egyptians, whose devastation is announced.
30:1-19
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, prophesy and say: Thus says the Lord God: Howl, woe, woe for the day, for the day is near, and the day of the Lord draws near, a day of cloud; it will be the time of the nations. And a sword will come upon Egypt, and there will be terror in Ethiopia, when the wounded have fallen in Egypt and its multitude has been carried off and its foundations destroyed. Ethiopia and Libya and the Lydians, and all the rest of the common throng, and Chub, and the sons of the land of the covenant with them will fall by the sword. Thus says the Lord God: And those who prop up Egypt will collapse, and the pride of its dominion will be destroyed; from the tower of Syene they will fall in it by the sword, says the Lord of hosts. And they will be laid waste in the midst of desolate lands, and its cities will be in the midst of deserted cities; and they will know that I am the Lord, when I have set fire in Egypt, and all its helpers have been crushed. On that day messengers will go out from my face in triremes to crush the confidence of Ethiopia, and there will be terror among them on the day of Egypt, for without doubt it will come. Thus says the Lord God: And I will make the multitude of Egypt cease by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He and his people with him, the mightiest of the nations, will be brought to destroy the land; and they will unsheathe their swords against Egypt, and will fill the land with the slain. And I will make the channels of the rivers dry, and I will deliver the land into the hand of the most wicked, and I will lay waste the land and its fullness by the hand of foreigners. I the Lord have spoken. Thus says the Lord God: And I will destroy the images, and I will make the idols cease from Memphis, and there will no longer be a leader in the land of Egypt, and I will put terror in the land of Egypt. And I will destroy the land of Pathros, and I will set fire in Tahpanhes, and I will execute judgments in Alexandria; and I will pour out my indignation upon Pelusium, the strength of Egypt, and I will slay the multitude of Alexandria. And I will set fire in Egypt; Pelusium will be in pain like a woman in labor, and Alexandria will be laid waste, and in Memphis there will be daily distresses. The young men of Heliopolis and of Bubastus will fall by the sword, and they themselves will be led captive. And in Tahpanhes the day will grow black, when I have broken there the scepters of Egypt and the pride of its power has failed in it; a cloud will cover her, and her daughters will be led into captivity. And I will execute judgments in Egypt, and they will know that I am the Lord. (LXX: "And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, prophesy and say: Thus says Adonai the Lord: O day, for the day is near, and the way of the Lord is near, a day of cloud; it will be the end of the nations. And a sword will come upon the Egyptians, and there will be confusion in Ethiopia, and the wounded will fall in Egypt, and they will carry off its multitude, and its foundations will be cut down. Persians and Cretans and Lydians and Libyans, and all the mixed peoples, and some of the sons of my testament will fall by the sword. Thus says Adonai the Lord: And the supports of Egypt will fall, and the insolence of its strength will come down; from Migdol to Syene they will fall in it by the sword, says Adonai the Lord. And it will be made desolate in the midst of desolate regions, and its cities will be in the midst of deserted cities; and they will know that I am the Lord, when I have set fire upon Egypt, and all who help it have been crushed. On that day messengers will go out from my face, 'siim', hastening to destroy the hope of Ethiopia, and there will be confusion among them on the day of Egypt, for behold, it will come. Thus says the Lord God: And I will destroy the multitude of the Egyptians by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, of him and of his people with him: pestilent men who have been sent from the nations to destroy the land; and they will all unsheathe their swords against Egypt, and the land will be filled with the wounded. And I will make their rivers deserted, and I will deliver the land into the hand of the most wicked, and I will destroy the land and its fullness by the hands of aliens. I the Lord have spoken. For thus says the Lord Lord: and I will make the nobles fail from Memphis and the princes from the land of Egypt, and they will be no more, and I will put terror in the land of Egypt. And I will destroy the land of Pathros, and I will set fire upon Tanis, and I will execute vengeance in Diospolis; and I will pour out my fury upon Sain, the strength of Egypt, and I will destroy the multitude of Memphis. And I will set fire upon Egypt; and Sais will be thrown into confusion with confusion, and in Diospolis there will be a breach, and waters will be poured out. The young men of Heliopolis and of Bubastus will fall by the sword, and the women will be led captive. And in Tahpanhes the day will grow dark, when I have broken there the scepters of Egypt, and the insolence of its strength will perish there; and a cloud will cover her, and her daughters will be led captive. And I will execute judgments in Egypt, and they will know that I am the Lord.") After the twenty-seventh year of the captivity of King Jehoiachin, he will return to the present time when he had begun to prophesy against Egypt — that is, to the tenth year and the tenth month, on the eleventh day of the month —, and he will say that he was commanded by the Lord to speak to all the nations and, together with them all, specially to Egypt. What then are the things he speaks?: 'Howl, woe, woe for the day, for the day is near, and the day of the Lord draws near, not glowing with a bright sun, but covered with clouds, and bringing a Babylonian storm; and when the sword has begun to lay Egypt waste, there will be terror in Ethiopia, which is neighbor to Egypt, lest the Babylonian blade reach even to itself: for the wounded will fall in Egypt, and its multitude will be carried off, and everything will be destroyed down to the foundations, so that, if anyone is found in Egypt from Ethiopia and Libya and Lydia and, in general, from the various peoples and 'Chub' — which Symmachus renders as 'Arabia' — and from the sons of the land of the covenant, that is, from the people of the Jews, he will fall by the sword with them — for which nations the Seventy put: Persians and Cretans and Lydians and Libyans, and all the mixed peoples, and the sons of my testament will fall by the sword with it —'. And so that we might know that all these nations had been in aid of Egypt, the following passage shows it: 'And those who prop up Egypt will collapse — or the supports of Egypt, that is, its allies —, and all the pride of its dominion — or the insolence of its strength — will be destroyed and brought down from the tower of Syene — which we have said is situated at the farthest borders of Egypt; or 'from Migdol to Syene', as the Seventy translated —. All the cities of Egypt will be deserted, so that they may acknowledge the Lord when the fire of the Chaldeans has laid everything waste and its helpers have been crushed. And messengers will have come — according to Aquila and Theodotion 'siim', which Symmachus translated 'hastening', and we rendered as 'triremes': for so we received it from the Hebrews — so that all the confidence of Ethiopia may be crushed, and, when the neighboring province has been made desolate, terror may seize those nearest'. But so that we might know what this sword was that would lay Egypt waste and terrify Ethiopia, there follows more plainly: And I will make the multitude of Egypt cease by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who will not only come, but will come accompanied by many nations, so that all Egypt will be filled with the blood of the slain. And so great will be the wrath of the Lord that the channels of the rivers — that is, the διωρύγες [canals] of the Nile — will be dried down to the ground, and the fullness of Egypt will be made desolate by the hand of pestilent men — or of the most wicked men —. 'For my words cannot be void; and my indignation will advance to this point: that the images of Egypt are destroyed and the idols cease from Memphis', which to this day is the metropolis of Egyptian superstition — or the nobles and princes from Memphis and from the land of Egypt —. And so great a terror will possess all Egypt that the whole land of Pathros will perish, and fire will lay waste Tahpanhes — or, as the Seventy translated, Tanis —. And I will execute, he says, judgments in 'Alexandria', which is so called today; but it has the ancient name 'No', which Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion translated as it stands in the Hebrew; in its place the Seventy, intending I know not what, said 'Diospolis', which is a small city of Egypt; but we have put 'Alexandria' for 'No' — by 'anticipation', which in Greek is called πρόληψις, according to that line of Vergil: and he came to the Lavinian shores: not that at that time, when Aeneas came into Latium, they were called Lavinian, but because they were later named Lavinian, so that the passage might become clearer to the reader's understanding —. And I will pour out, he says, my indignation upon 'Sain', which we rendered as 'Pelusium'; and it is called the strength of Egypt because it has a very safe harbor and the trade of the sea is carried on there most of all — whence the poet too calls the lentil Pelusian, not because this kind of legume is grown there, or chiefly there, but because the greatest quantity of it is brought there from the Thebaid and all Egypt along the stream of the Nile —. And I will slay, he says, the multitude of 'Alexandria', which again is set down in the Hebrew as 'No', for which the Seventy translated not 'Diospolis', as above, but 'Memphis'. And, to show that the city was already populous at that time: I will destroy, he says, the multitude of 'No'. And I will set fire, that is, the king of Babylon, in Egypt, who, like fire, is to ravage everything. Like a woman in labor 'Sain' will be in pain, that is, 'Pelusium' (or will be thrown into confusion with confusion), and in 'Alexandria' (that is, in 'No') there will be a breach, and waters will be poured out (for which again the Seventy translated 'Diospolis'). Now it is the custom of the Egyptians, because of the flooding of the Nile, to build high embankments along the banks of the Nile; and if these have been broken through the negligence of the guards or by the excessive volume of the waters, the waters do not irrigate the fields lying below but overwhelm and ravage them; by these it is signified that Egypt was to be occupied by the army of the Chaldeans just as it is usually covered and ruined when the waters of the Nile flood and rise beyond measure. In place of the flooding of the waters and the bursting and breaching of the embankments, the Hebrew has: And there will be daily distresses in Memphis, so that where the Nile divides, and where the temple of Apis is and the oracles give answers to those who consult them, there daily distresses come about. 'The young men also of Heliopolis — which in Hebrew is called 'On' — and of Bubastus, another city, will fall by the sword, so that the cities themselves, that is, their inhabitants, or their women, are led into captivity — the sex that lies exposed to outrage —. But in Tahpanhes, which is a royal city, the scepters of Egypt will be broken, that is, the whole royal line; and when its power has failed, its princes slain, then the day will grow black and everything will be filled with gloom and darkness, so that the city itself is covered with a cloud of sorrow and mourning, and its daughters, that is, the remaining towns, are led into captivity; so that, after I have executed judgments in Egypt and shown myself judge to all, then the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord'. We have set down these things like elementary lessons for little children, so that through letters, syllables and nouns and the joining of words they may arrive at the reading of prose or verse. Now let us approach the tropology, and let us display the vast sea of discussion on a small panel, as it were, of a painting. The Word of the Lord, which was always in the Father, came to the prophet and calls him not by his own name but 'son of man', which in the holy Scriptures is always taken in a good sense, at least in the singular number — as in this same prophet and in Daniel and in the Gospel —; otherwise, in the plural number, it is read in the opposite sense — as in that verse: Sons of men, their teeth are weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword, and again: Sons of men, how long heavy of heart? The lion indeed will roar, and who will not fear? The Lord has spoken, and who will not prophesy? —. Howl, he says, woe, woe for the day, for the day is near, and the day of the Lord draws near, a day of cloud; it will be the time (or the end) of the nations; the consummation is twofold: either the general one of all, when the end of the world has come, or the particular one of each individual, when the time of death has pressed upon him; and it is called 'near' because, compared with eternity, all time is short — whence Jacob too, of the hundred and thirty years he had lived: Few, he says, and very evil are my days, and the psalmist, discussing the frailty of the whole human race, says: Our days pass away like a shadow; reflecting on this, we shall neither be lifted up by power nor brood over riches nor rejoice in good fortune, knowing that all things are soon to be taken away —; and fittingly it is called the 'day' 'of the Lord', when the whole way of life of this world will be destroyed and, error removed, the one truth will appear; 'and a day of cloud and mist' — for no one, fearless and uncertain of the sentence, awaits the judge without dread —, and 'it will be the time, or the end, of the nations' — not of the one Egyptian nation, but of all, so that it may become clear that the prophecy concerns all the nations —. There follows: A sword will come upon Egypt — the 'sword' turning and flaming: the divine word, which divides the good from the evil and consumes the most wicked with its fire; and 'upon Egypt': of this world —, so that there is terror in Ethiopia: those who dwell beyond Egypt in the night of error and in darkness, and whose blackness is turned to whiteness either with difficulty or not at all. And the wounded will fall in Egypt, those who had stood badly in wickedness. 'And the multitude of Egypt will be carried off' — For wide and spacious is the way that leads to death —. And its foundations will be destroyed, so that nothing of its former firmness may remain in Egypt, but, the most wicked foundations abandoned, the foundation of Christ may be laid, on which the Church may be built — every indeed planting which the heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up; whence Jeremiah too is commanded to destroy what had been built, so that he may build better things —. 'There will perish in Egypt also the Ethiopians, Libyans, and Lydians — or, according to the Seventy, Persians, Cretans and Lydians and Libyans — and Chub, that is, the Arabs, and all the rest of the common throng — whom the Seventy translated as hybrids and mixed peoples —'; all of whom, according to the diversity of vices and the interpretation of the names which we set out in the vision of Tyre, we can understand as different nations — whence the Apostle too: You, he says, Gentiles in the flesh, who are called the foreskin: for he would never have said Gentiles in the flesh unless there were others in the spirit; and in another place: Behold Israel according to the flesh —; whence we must take great care not to return in heart to Egypt, from which we once went out, and be found among the other nations, and perish by the sword — of which it is said in what follows: The young men of Heliopolis and of Bubastus will fall by the sword —, especially since it is added: And the sons of the land of the covenant (or of my testament) will be struck down together by the blade — of whom it is written: Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, trusting in horses and chariots —; but if men of the other nations are slaughtered in Egypt, how much more the sons of the covenant and testament of God, who, despising the bread of angels, remembered the melons and onion and garlic and cucumbers of Egypt! Then 'the supports and props of Egypt will collapse', which held it up in wickedness: the subtleties of the dialecticians and the argumentation, the tricks, of the philosophers; 'the insolent and proud dominion will also be destroyed', of those who speak all things through arrogance and count the simplicity of the Church as nothing; for 'from the tower of Syene they will fall in it' — which lies at the farthest limits of Egypt, bordering on Ethiopia and the Blemmyes, where the Nile is unnavigable, and there is the roar of the cataracts, and everything is pathless and full of serpents and venomous creatures —; but if, as we said above, 'Magdolus' means 'magnificence' and 'Soene' 'circle', it is clear that the wealth of Egypt and its insolent strength and magnificence, that is, boasting and exaltations, perish by force as far as the circle of Egypt, where nothing is stable but rolls in an uncertain fall, and comes to ruin. 'Then the Egyptian cities will be laid waste and the land will be deserted and no congregation will remain that has any firmness, so that, at the end of things, they may know that he himself is the Lord, when he has sent fire into Egypt', which the Lord desires to burn, so that the hay, wood, stubble that have been built upon the foundation of Christ may be burned up, 'and all the helpers of perverse doctrines may be crushed' — from which it is to be understood that the knowledge falsely so called, and those of whom it is written: Scatter, O Lord, the nations that want wars, are called the allies and helpers of Egypt —. 'On that day', he says, 'messengers will go out from the face of God' — of whom it is written in the Gospel: Their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven; and in the parable of the sowing 'the reapers, the angels', that is, 'they are messengers', are sent: To gather all stumbling blocks and cast them into the furnace of fire: where there is weeping of eyes and gnashing of teeth —, and they will hasten to fulfill the command, 'to frighten off, or crush, the confidence of Ethiopia', those who have reached the highest peak of malice; 'and, in the overthrow of Egypt, Ethiopia may be crushed and tremble, because the day of the Lord is one of vengeance and retribution', by which the darkness of sins is put to flight and the light of virtues remains. And I will make, he says, the multitude of Egypt cease by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, to whom they were handed over for him to punish — for he is the enemy and avenger who also received a wage because he had served in the siege of Tyre — the multitude of Egypt: so that the many may cease to be in Egypt, who are always in it — but if anyone should object, asking how that is said in Deuteronomy: In seventy souls your fathers went down into Egypt, but now you have become like the stars of heaven in multitude, it is easily resolved: for he did not set down an example of an earthly multitude but of a heavenly one, which shines with virtues and is full of lights —; against which multitude of Egypt 'the mightiest' of the nations are brought, to destroy the land — for whom the Seventy translated 'pestilent men', which I do not know how it suits those who are brought by the Lord, unless perhaps according to that example: A sending by most wicked angels —; and they will unsheathe their swords against Egypt and fill the land with the slain, or the wounded, so that they may feel themselves slain and wounded, and that Egypt has been destroyed to such a degree and has come to nothing that all the rivers of eloquence by which the Egyptian rush and reed of errors were watered dry up, and they are delivered into the hand of the most wicked, who torment them, and the fullness of the land of Egypt, which had grown evilly, is wiped out by the hand of those alien to God — for not good but evil angels are set over the torments —. These things must be, 'so that they may know that the Lord has spoken' — which is frequently added so that those who hear may know that the words are not the prophet's but the Lord's, whose commands cannot be void —. There follows: And I will destroy the images (which the Seventy translated abominations), and I will make the idols (or the nobles) cease from Memphis, and a leader (or princes) in the land of Egypt; they will be no more: for it belongs to the most merciful Lord to overthrow evil works, so that no likeness that falsely counterfeits the image of truth may remain in Egypt; and that the nobles too may perish from 'Memphis', which means 'from the mouth', from which they fashioned all the idols, so that, with the heads and masters of the idols cut off, there may be no prince in Egypt, and 'all Egypt may be filled with terror and destruction'; of whose cities it is said: And I will destroy the land of Pathros, and I will set fire in Tahpanhes (or in Tanis), and I will execute judgments in 'No' (which the Seventy translated 'Diospolis'); and I will pour out my indignation upon Sain, the strength of Egypt; 'Phatures' means 'trampling of bread', 'Tanis' 'a lowly command', 'Diospolis' — in place of which the Hebrew has 'No' — 'rest', 'Sain' 'temptation'; by these names are shown the various conventicles of heretics and of all lies, who trample on and despise the bread of the Church, and follow a lowly command that does not lead to heavenly things, and give themselves over to pleasures, and are at rest — such as the rich man clothed in purple of whom we read in the Gospel —, and are slaves to temptations — one of whom sought from the Lord to have power to tempt Job —. All these the Lord destroys and sets on fire; and he will pour out his indignation upon it, and he scatters the strength of Egypt, so that, reduced to nothing, they may no longer entice the people of God and make them hope in their help, so that, truth forsaken, they seek a lie and are wounded by their protection as by a staff of reed. After this it is said: And I will slay (or destroy) the multitude of 'Memphis' — in place of which the Hebrew has 'No', which above the same Seventy translated 'Diospolis', which means 'rest' —: for there are many who seek rest and want to lie on ivory beds and eat suckling lambs; or — according to the Seventy, who translated 'Memphis' —: there are many who say to others: Allow me to remove the speck from your eye, when they themselves have beams. 'And fire is set in Egypt', to consume wordiness and pleasures with its burning. 'All temptation will be in pain, and in Diospolis — which again in the Hebrew is set down as 'No' — there will be a breach', so that the waters are poured out, and every most wicked congregation is scattered and perishes here and there; or, according to the Hebrew: 'In Memphis there will be daily distresses', so that they may render account for every idle word and understand that nothing of their sayings escapes the judgment of the Lord. The young men also of Heliopolis and of Bubastus will fall by the sword — 'Heliopoleos' is called 'On' in Hebrew, which means 'pain'; and 'Bubastus', in the Egyptian language, means 'trial of the mouth' —; all these, who could not bear the pain of the world but pursued the pleasures of Diospolis and trusted in their fluency of speech and, disputing against the other doctrines, had had experiences of victory, will fall by the sword of the word of God; and those who are called not young men at all but, from weakness of mind, women, will be led captive; or the cities themselves, through pain and the boasting of the mouth, will be brought into captivity. And in Tahpanhes, he says, the day will grow black; 'Taphnae' means 'yielding to the mouth', 'of the devil' being understood; those who have yielded to him will lose the light of truth and exchange day for night, and will perceive that the scepters of Egypt and all its dominion have been broken in Tahpanhes, so that the insolent strength, or the pride of its power, fails in it, and the rays of the sun of righteousness are blinded by a cloud, and not women at all, but daughters, are led into captivity. 'And let the Lord execute not one judgment but many judgments in Egypt' — for just as there are various mansions of the good with the Father, so also there are various judgments of the punishments of Egypt — so that, when all these things have been done, the Egyptians may know that he himself is the Lord, whose judgments are true, justified in themselves.
30:20-26
And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first, on the seventh of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and behold, it has not been bound up so that health might be restored to it, that it might be tied with cloths and packed with linen bandages (or that it might receive a poultice) and, its strength recovered, might be able to hold a sword. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt; and I will shatter his arm, strong but broken (or arms strong and set in order), and I will cast the sword down from his hand, and I will scatter (or I will sow) Egypt among the nations, and I will winnow them into the lands. And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and I will give my sword into his hands; and I will break the arms of Pharaoh and the slain will groan with groanings before his face (or, as is contained in the Seventy: And he will bring a sword upon Egypt and will plunder its booty and despoil its spoils. There follows:) And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh will fall; and they will know that I am the Lord, when I have put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and he has stretched it out over the land of Egypt. And I will scatter Egypt among the nations, and I will winnow them into the lands, and they will know that I am the Lord. He returns to the order of the prophecy: for after the twenty-seventh year he now sets down the eleventh; and this question is contained in the earlier passages too: for although the word of the Lord against Tyre came in the eleventh year, which was set down first, in what follows he speaks to Pharaoh in the tenth year, and again sets down the twenty-seventh, as we said, and now the eleventh — to pass over the other things contained in the order of the psalms: how the third psalm — the psalms in which David changed his face before Abimelech, and on Doeg the Edomite, and when he was found in the cave, and Psalm 50 (51), of penitence, in whose title it is shown that he went in to Bathsheba the wife of Uriah, are earlier psalms than the third, in which he is noted as fleeing from the face of his son Absalom; but in the Psalms the answer is easy: that it is lyric poetry, and in a work of this kind one does not look for the order of history but for songs on the individual deeds —. In history, however, this must be said: that the things said about one matter at different times ought not to be divided in the telling but enclosed in the narrative of one passage; for example, so that the things said about Egypt at one time and another may be learned in one sequence of reading. Though we have said this, the question nevertheless remains why in this same place the word of the Lord came to Pharaoh first in the eleventh year, and afterward in the twenty-seventh, and then in the tenth year, when surely according to order the tenth year should have been noted first, the eleventh second, the twenty-seventh third, at the head of the individual prophecies; to which we can answer this: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable his judgments and untraceable his ways!, and in another place: The abyss and wisdom, who will search out?. We can, however, say this: that in the prophets too the order of history is not kept, at least not in all but in certain places, for they do not narrate past things but foretell future ones, as the will of the Holy Spirit has been; but in history, such as the five books of Moses and the volumes of Joshua and of Judges, Ruth also and Esther, Samuel and Malachim [Kings], the book of Chronicles and Ezra, with Nehemiah likewise joined to it, an inverted narrative is nowhere found. Let it suffice to have said this about the order of the years. Now let us see what the prophecy against Pharaoh, or about Pharaoh, is. He says that he has broken his arm, and that it has not been bound up nor tied nor packed with linen bandages nor received a poultice — according to what is written: Not to apply a poultice, nor oil, nor bandages —; had this been done, surely, its strength recovered, he could hold a sword and go forth to wars. Therefore the merciful and compassionate God shatters his arm again, or his arms, so that the sword may fall utterly from his hand and Egypt be scattered among the nations and winnowed into the lands — but in the arm understand strength and might, as Scripture says: Crush the arm of the sinner and the evil one —; and this is crushed in our adversaries when they persecute us indeed but cannot overwhelm us; and for the salvation of the servants of God the Babylonian king often rises up against Pharaoh, so that a more powerful one overwhelms the powerful and the evil are handed over to the worse; and the arms of the most wicked are strengthened by God, so that he who has been set free may know that he himself is the Lord; and it is an advance in virtue to know that he himself is the Lord — on the contrary we can say: The sons of Eli, sons of pestilence, not knowing God, and in the good sense it is written of the kings who did what was right in the sight of God that they knew the Lord —. But what is said in the Seventy: And I will crush his arms, strong and 'set in order', which in Greek is said 'tetagmena', has been corrupted by the fault of the copyists; for they translated not 'tetagmena' but 'tetamena', that is, not 'laid down' but 'stretched out'; in place of which the other translators, according to their custom, put 'lofty'.
Book Ten
I would have wished, as I have already said before, to explain the prophecies against a single province or a single king in the same books, and by no means to divide the reader's attention; but what am I to do about the length, which, unless it is divided into parts, goes beyond the measure of a volume, and an endless heap is as burdensome to the one who dictates as to the one who reads? And so, after the discourse against Egypt and its lament, and the king of Egypt, and about whose arm, by no means bound up nor restored to its former health, we spoke in the last part of the ninth book, we pass to the beginning of the tenth book, against the same Pharaoh king of Egypt, who is compared to the king of Assyria; and after a very long prophecy a lamentation over the same is taken up, and then against all Egypt. In expounding these things, O virgin of Christ Eustochium, lift up your hands with Moses, so that our victory may be the fruit of your prayers: it is not, after all, of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy, who speaks to the prophet: Open your mouth and I will fill it, the prophet answering the Lord: I opened my mouth and drew in the spirit, which breathes where it wills. But where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, the liberty with which God has endowed us; which the Jews boasted in vain that they had, saying: We are the seed of Abraham, we have never been slaves to anyone, while they were subject to many vices and sins and ignorant of that saying: By whom one is overcome, of him he is also the slave.
31:1-18
And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third, on the first of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his people: Whom have you become like in your greatness? Behold, Assyria like a cedar (or cypress) in Lebanon, beautiful in branches and thick with leaves, and lofty in height, and among the dense leaves (or in the midst of the clouds) its top was raised up; the waters nourished him, the deep raised him up, its rivers flowed round about its roots, and it sent out its streams to all the trees of the region. Therefore its height was raised above all the trees of the region (or of the field), and its shrubs (or branches) were multiplied ※ and its branches (or shrubs) were raised up ⁚ because of many waters. And when it had stretched out its shade, all the birds of heaven made nests in its branches, and under its leaves all the beasts of the forests brought forth young, and under its shade dwelt the assembly of all the nations; and it was most beautiful in its greatness and in the spreading (or multitude) of its shrubs (or branches), for its roots were beside many waters. The cedars (or cypresses) were not loftier than it in the paradise of God, and the firs (or pines) did not equal its top, and the plane trees (or firs) were not equal (or like) to its leaves (or branches); no tree of the paradise of God (or in the paradise of God) was likened to it and to its beauty, since I made it beautiful, and with many and dense leaves: and all the trees of pleasure (or of delights) that were in paradise emulated it. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because it was lifted up in height, and set its top green and dense (or in the midst of the clouds) — its heart was lifted up in its height —, I delivered it (or him) into the hand of the mightiest (or the prince) of the nations; doing he will do to it (or and he will bring about its destruction): according to its impiety I cast it out. And strangers will cut it down, and the most cruel of the nations (or the pestilent of the nations); and they will throw it down upon the mountains, and in all the valleys its branches will fall, and its shrubs will be broken on all the crags (or plains) of the earth, and all the peoples of the earth will withdraw from its shade, and will leave it. On its ruin all the birds of heaven dwelt (or rested), and in its branches were all the beasts of the region. Therefore all the trees of the waters will not be lifted up in their height, nor will they set their loftiness among the wooded and leafy places (or in the clouds), nor will all that are watered by waters stand in their loftiness, for all have been delivered to death, to the lowest land, in the midst of the sons of men, to those who go down into the pit. Thus says the Lord God: On the day when he went down to the underworld I proclaimed mourning (or it mourned), I covered him with the deep and held back its rivers and restrained many waters; Lebanon was crushed (or darkened) over him, and all the trees of the field were shaken (or failed). At the sound of its fall I shook (or were shaken) the nations, when I led him (or it) down to hell with those who were going down (or go down) into the pit; and all the trees of pleasure (or of delights), choice and splendid in Lebanon, all that were watered by waters, were consoled in the lowest land. For they too with it (or him) will go down (or went down) to hell to those slain (or wounded) by the sword, and the arm (or seed) of each of those dwelling under its shade in the midst of the nations (or perished of their life). To whom have you been likened, O renowned and lofty one among the trees of pleasure? Behold, you have been brought down with the trees of pleasure to the lowest land; in the midst of the uncircumcised you will sleep with those who were slain by the sword; so Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord God. As is my custom, I have blended both editions, where, however, they differed very greatly, so that a double setting-out of the text would not increase the size of the books. And first it must be known that whatever is said about the king of the Assyrians in future time is recorded in the Seventy as already past, and he speaks thus either to the tree or to the prince of the Assyrians, so that it is understood of one person in the masculine as well as in the feminine gender, while the tree is referred to the Assyrian and the Assyrian is named in the tree; nor is any mention made of the Babylonian king in the present discourse, lest he, placed in Chaldea, should seem to provoke the wrath of the masters and rulers against the captive people; but it is said of the king of the Assyrians, who had already at that time been captured by the Chaldeans, and all the strength of the Assyrians lay subject to the Babylonian empire; whence also the Assyrians take captive the ten tribes, that is, Israel, while the Chaldeans overcome the two, that is, Judah and Benjamin, and overthrow the city of Jerusalem. The divine word, then, being about to speak against Pharaoh king of Egypt and his people, used such an opening against him: Whom have you become like in your greatness? Behold, Assyria like a cedar in Lebanon and the rest; and the sense is: 'Do not wonder if you are to be conquered by the Babylonians and to perish, and to lose your empire, and all the wealth of Egypt is to be destroyed, since Assyria, much stronger than you, has been destroyed when the same Chaldean prevailed'; and he describes the power of the Assyrian king under the figure of a tree, a 'cedar' according to the Hebrew, a 'cypress' according to the Seventy, set on Mount Lebanon, which is beautiful in branches and dense with leaves and raised up right to the clouds, which grew so great for this reason, that it is watered not by waters but by deeps, that is, by most abundant waters — for the deep is a multitude of the sound of waters —, so that all the birds made nests in its branches, and under its leaves all the beasts of the forests brought forth young; and lest we should doubt what the birds of heaven were, and what the beasts of the woods, he put it more openly: And under its shade dwelt the assembly of very many nations. The cedars, he says (and cypresses), the firs (or pines) and the plane trees (or cypresses) were not equal to its branches; and, so as not to speak of all the trees one by one: All, he says, the trees of the paradise of God were not likened to it and to its beauty, by which some understand that it is said not of the Assyrian king, but of the adverse power which in the discourse on Tyre is said to have been made among the cherubim and adorned with precious stones, and afterwards by its own fault to have fallen down to earthly things, which in Isaiah too is called 'Lucifer falling', and is marked out by the Lord in the Gospel: I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven; but let us, in order to follow the history for the present, understand all these things as said ὑπερβολικῶς [hyperbolically], because the Assyrian was of such great power and so oppressed all the nations that he compared himself to the might of the angels; and all things are said μεταφορικῶς [metaphorically] to the Assyrian under the very lofty 'cedar' or 'cypress', and his slaying is called 'cutting down'. And what follows: I delivered it into the hand of the mightiest of the nations, he calls the Babylonian king, so that he may understand that his conquering the Assyrian was not of his own might but of divine power. According to its impiety, he says, I cast it out, so as secretly to warn the Babylonian that he ought not to be cruel nor oppress the people of God which had been delivered to him, lest he suffer things like those of the Assyrian, who was cruel and impious. And strangers and the most cruel of the nations will cut it down (or, according to the Seventy, the pestilent), which he would never say while placed in Chaldea, lest he stir up their madness against his own nation; it is also thrown down upon the mountains, and in all the valleys its branches fall and are broken on the crags, and it is abandoned by all the peoples, that is, by the birds of heaven and the beasts of the field, and it will come to such great destruction that all the trees which were thought lofty in comparison with the Assyrian tree cease, by its example, to be lifted up any longer and raised on high, nor do they stand in their height, but, once it has been cut down, all are cut down together by fear; and what had been said by metaphor becomes clearer: All, he says, have been delivered — kings is understood — to death, to the lowest land, that is, to hell, in the midst of the sons of men, by no means among trees, to those who go down into the pit, by which there is no doubt that he means the infernal regions. After the cutting down of the Assyrian tree, or on the day when the Assyrian went down to the underworld, the Lord proclaimed mourning, and again by metaphor speaks of him, that he was covered with the deep — according to that which is written: I came into the depth of the sea, and the tempest overwhelmed me —, and that all the rivers, namely all the nations, ceased to water him any longer; and that Lebanon was saddened, or darkened, over her, that is, the tree, or over him, that is, the Assyrian. And lest we should think the discourse is about a tree, there follows: At the sound of its fall I shook the nations — for what fall of a single tree can be so great that all the nations are shaken at its sound? —, when I led it, he says, down to hell — according to the letter, a tree cannot be led down to the underworld — with the others who were going down into the pit, that is, to the underworld; and were consoled in the lowest land, namely in the heart of the earth, all the trees of pleasure (or of delights, which in Hebrew is called 'eden', so as to signify wooded glades and forests), choice and splendid, which were in Lebanon and were watered by waters. For those trees too with it, that is, with the Assyrian, will go down to hell to those slain (or wounded) by the sword — trees are not wounded by swords but felled, nor do they go down to hell —, and the arm, he says (or seed, since among the Hebrews the word 'zara' signifies both), rests in its shade in the midst of the nations, not of the forests at all, but of the nations. At the end an apostrophe is made to the Assyrian himself or to Pharaoh: To whom have you been likened, O renowned and lofty one among the trees of pleasure? 'No one', he says, 'was your equal, but you surpassed all kings in power, and yet with the other kings who were in your retinue you have been brought down to the lowest lands, that is, to the underworld' — as Scripture says: They will go into the uttermost parts of the earth, they will be delivered into the hands of the sword, they will be portions for foxes —. In the midst, he says, of the uncircumcised you will sleep with those who were slain by the sword: he shows what the trees were, what the cedar or cypress, wounded by swords and lying with the uncircumcised; and, to join the last things to the earlier, since he had said above: Whom have you become like in your greatness? Behold, Assyria like a cedar in Lebanon, beautiful in branches and leaves and the rest, he now adds: So is Pharaoh, and all his multitude, says the Lord: 'As', he says, 'the Assyrian, the cedar and cypress, was cast down when the Babylonian cut it down, so also Pharaoh and his people, that is, the tree itself and its branches, will be cut down by the Babylonian'. Let these things be said for the present according to the history; most understand them as things that will happen at the consummation of the world, and that King Pharaoh, that is, the power to which Egypt is subject, is compared to the most mighty king of the Assyrians, that is, the Antichrist; and if he falls, surely the other rulers too of this darkness and the princes of the world will fall the more easily. Let us speak, therefore, of the particulars, touching on everything briefly, so that we may seem not so much to discuss and explain obscure things as to have given material to those who wish to explain them. And first it must be discussed why in the eleventh year, the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, saying: Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude. To one who is about to speak to Pharaoh, the word of the Lord comes in the eleventh year; for he had not yet come to the twelfth, which is the number of full and consummate virtue — whence also there are twelve sons of Jacob, from whom the twelve tribes are afterwards named; and the names of twelve prophets are contained in one volume; and the apostles are twelve, in whose number, because one, Judas, was a traitor, Matthias is chosen in his place; and the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, twelve years old, is raised up by the Lord; the αἱμορροοῦσα [the woman with the flow of blood] too received health in the twelfth year —, but because Pharaoh is rebuked and afterwards lamented, therefore the third month and one day are joined to the number of eleven years — whence in what follows, in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first of the month, the word of the Lord comes to Ezekiel, saying: Son of man, take up a lament over Pharaoh king of Egypt and you shall say to him; for he who is lamented is lamented for this reason, that he may understand how great goods he has lost; and yet, because he was Pharaoh, and his arm had not yet been bound up nor had he recovered his former strength, therefore, in the twelfth year and month, twenty-nine days still remain before the number of twelve years is completed — ; on the first day of the month, then, the word of the Lord comes, and he is commanded to speak to the king of Egypt and to his 'multitude' — in which it is remarkable that the four translators did not say 'people' but 'multitude': For many are called but few chosen, and in the Law it is written: You shall not be with the multitude in evil —. And it is said to the king of Egypt: Whom have you become like in greatness (or height) of yours? — because he too exalted himself and is subject to that sentence: Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled —, but yet he is not like the height of the one who was like a cedar, or cypress, in Lebanon: Beautiful in branches and thick with leaves, and lofty in height, and raised his head right up to the clouds — to which, according to David, the truth of God reaches, and which are commanded not to rain a shower upon Israel —. His beauty too is proclaimed, which was changed into ugliness by a depraved will — so that it is said of him: The Lord will break the cedars of Lebanon —, and he, lofty and set on Lebanon, the highest of mountains, would fall the more heavily the more sublime he had been; and holy Scripture, wishing to show his height, calls him a great top which the waters nourished — not the waters of Siloam: Which go with silence, but the waters of Rezin and the waters of Egypt, of which it is written: What is it to you, that you should drink the water of Geon (or Sior, which means 'turbid' waters)? —. The deep also exalted him — the deep over which darkness was borne at the beginning of the world, and into which in the Gospel the demons beg not to be sent —; the rivers of that same deep were round about his roots — of which it is said: What have you to do with the way of the Assyrians, that you should drink the waters of the rivers?, and in another place: Behold, the Lord will bring upon you the water of the river, strong and abundant, the king of the Assyrians and all his glory —; the deep also sent out its streams to all the trees of the region, so as to water not only the prince of this world but also his allies. Therefore he was lifted up and grew up above all the tallest trees, and his shrubs were multiplied, and he possessed the empire of the whole world, saying: All these things have been delivered to me; and his branches were lifted up, which had been watered by the waters of the deep. He stretched out, or spread, his shade, so as to subject all to his sway. In its branches all the birds of heaven made nests — For everyone who commits sin is born of the devil and is counted among the number of his branches; and those birds made nests in his branches which ate the seed beside the way in the Gospel, or, since All have sinned and are in need of the mercy of God, of whom it is said: All have turned aside, together they have become useless, for this reason they made nests in his branches —; there follows: And under its leaves all the beasts of the forests brought forth young, those which have lost the gentleness of Christ, and under its shade dwelt the assembly of very many nations, so that there was no one who was not touched by his shade — except the one who said: Behold, the prince of this world comes, and will find nothing in me. Through one indeed man sin entered into the world, and through sin death, and so death passed through to all men, in which we all sinned; and in Adam we all die; and we have all sinned and are in need of the glory of God —; and yet in that very dwelling the condition is different: some dwell in his branches like birds, promising themselves knowledge in philosophy and in the doctrines of heretics, others like beasts, wild, savage and cruel, others like a multitude of very many nations, so that he signifies those mixed up in various vices and sins. Now Assyria was most beautiful in its greatness and in the spreading of its shrubs, because its root had been watered by many waters, so much so that in the paradise of God none of the cedars and cypresses was higher, nor did firs and pines equal its loftiness, or plane trees were not equal to its leaves; and for this reason none of the trees planted in paradise had been made equal to it, because: No tree of the paradise of God was likened to it and to its beauty — for they were by no means lifted up through pride, but knew their humility, nor did they try with a sacrilegious mind to claim likeness to God for themselves —, and what follows: And all the trees of delights that were in paradise emulated it, we expound thus: 'The trees of paradise emulated the multitude of its branches' — For many are called but few chosen, and: Wide and spacious is the way that leads to death —; for it longs to have as many for salvation as Assyria had for perdition. Whence, because Assyria was lifted up in height, and set its loftiness green and dense (or raised its top right up to the clouds), and its heart was lifted up, so that he said: I will be like the Most High, therefore he was delivered into the hand of the mightiest of the nations — which let us understand as another detestable power, to which he is delivered for punishment: for he is the enemy and the avenger; so that Assyria is understood as the Antichrist, and the mightiest of the nations, to whom he was delivered, as Satan, according to that saying of the Apostle: Whom I have delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme —, who: Doing will do to him whatever has been commanded him by the Lord: and this cypress was cast out of the paradise of God on account of its impiety. And strangers and cruel men will cut it down (or the pestilent among the nations) — so that that which is written may be fulfilled: When the pestilent man is scourged, the fool will become wiser, and again: Already the axe is laid to the roots of the tree —, and they will cut it down upon the mountains, so that it falls in its pride. In all moreover the valleys its branches will fall, so that all who were in his retinue are led down to Tartarus and withdraw from its shade and leave it, so that the birds of heaven and the beasts of the earth, which before had been under it and were covered by its shade, afterwards become partakers of its punishment. And when the other trees of the forests, or of paradise, see that Assyria the cypress has fallen by the sentence of the Lord, they will not be lifted up in pride, nor will they think themselves anything, nor will they consider the watering of their waters their own riches: because all the branches and the birds of heaven and the beasts of the earth which were under the rule of Assyria are led down to death, to the lowest land — of whom it is written: In his sight all who go down into the earth will fall, and in another place: They will go into the uttermost parts of the earth —, and they will be by no means with the angels, but with the sons of men: Who go down into the pit (or into the ditch) everlasting. But when he has gone down into the uttermost part of the earth and has become the portion of foxes, by which he is to be torn, then there will be mourning, either of all his allies or of the holy powers, who will grieve that he has gone down to the underworld; whence the Lord says: I covered him with the deep, by whose waters he had before been nourished, and I held back its rivers, that is, the deep's, and restrained many waters, so that they would not water him but rather overwhelm him; Lebanon was saddened over him, in which he had been exalted, and all the trees of the field were shaken, dreading a like cutting down. At the sound of its fall I shook the nations, so that no one would be ignorant of his destruction and of his being led down to the underworld with his other allies; and all the trees of pleasure, that is, of paradise, received consolation, while they see evil things repaid to the evil and good things to the good — and these are the trees of Lebanon, watered by the waters of the rivers of the Lord, with which that tree too which fell had been watered; or all the trees which once were good and were watered by waters and dwelt on the height of Lebanon will receive consolation when they see their prince suffer like torments —; for they too will go down to hell to those slain by the sword of the Lord, and all the strength of the trees will dwell under its shade, that is, in punishment, in the midst of all the nations which will be held by the bars of hell. After this the discourse is turned to Pharaoh himself, to whom it had been said at the beginning: Whom have you become like in your height?, and it is said to him: To whom have you been likened, O renowned and lofty one among the trees of pleasure? — to the Assyrian, of course, who fell —: 'You too were renowned and lofty among the trees of Eden — that is, of delights and of paradise —, and behold, you have been led down like the Assyrian, with all the trees that were once in delights, to the lowest land and to the underworld; and you will sleep not in rest but in punishments, in the midst of the uncircumcised — that is, the unclean — and with those who fell by the sword of the Lord'; and so that we may know who it is to whom he said: O renowned and lofty one among the trees of pleasure, he puts it more openly: He is Pharaoh and all his multitude (or, according to the Seventy: So is Pharaoh and all his multitude), so that, as the Assyrian above was cut down and fell, so also the Egyptian may be overthrown.
32:1-16
And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month (or the tenth), on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, take up a lament over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and you shall say to him: You have been likened to the lion of the nations, and to the dragon that is in the sea; and you tossed with your horn in your rivers, and you troubled the waters with your feet, and you trampled their rivers (or your rivers). Therefore thus says the Lord God: I will spread my net over you in a multitude of many peoples, and I will draw you out in my dragnet (or I will draw you out on a hook); and I will cast (or I will draw) you onto the land, upon the face of the field I will throw you (or the plains will be filled with you), and I will make dwell (or sit) upon you all the birds of the sky, and I will glut the beasts of the whole earth with you; and I will put your flesh upon the mountains, and I will fill the hills (or the valleys) with your gore (or with your blood). And I will water (or the land will be watered) with the stench of your blood (or with your dung) upon the mountains, and the valleys will be filled with you; and when you have been extinguished I will cover the sky, and I will make its stars grow black: I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light; all the lights of the sky I will make mourn (or they will grow dark) over you, and I will put darkness upon your land, says the Lord God. And I will provoke the heart of many peoples, when I bring your destruction (or your captivity) among the nations upon a land (or in a land) which you do not know. And I will make stand astonished (or there will be saddened) over you peoples (or many nations), and their kings will tremble over you with exceeding horror, when my sword begins to fly over their faces, and each one will be suddenly dumbfounded for his own life on the day of his ruin (or awaiting their own ruin from the day of your ruin). For thus says the Lord God: The sword of the king of Babylon will come to you; by the swords of the mighty (or of giants) I will cast down your multitude (or your strength) — all of them invincible nations (or pestilent ones from all the nations) —, and they will lay waste (or destroy) the pride (or the insolence) of Egypt, and its multitude will be scattered (or all its strength). And I will destroy all its beasts that were beside many waters (or from many waters), and the foot of man will trouble them no more, nor will the hoof of beasts trouble (or trample) them; then I will make their waters most pure (or so that their waters may at length be at rest), and I will lead their rivers like oil (or so that they flow like oil), says the Lord God, when I have made the land of Egypt desolate (or ruined): and the land will be deserted of its fullness (or with its fullness) when I strike (or scatter) all its inhabitants, and they will know that I am the Lord. It is a lament, or they shall lament him; the daughters of the nations shall lament him; over Egypt and over its multitude (or all its strength) they shall lament him, says the Lord God. We mingle both editions, only in those places in which they disagree; otherwise, where there is one sense, we follow the Hebrew. In many copies, moreover, according to the Seventy 'the twelfth year' and 'the tenth month' is set down, but according to the other translators 'the tenth year' and 'the twelfth month', so that either Jerusalem has already been taken, and Pharaoh's joy, with evils hanging over him, is taken away, or at any rate it is about to be taken, and he should grieve more over his own miseries than rejoice at the captivity of others; and meanwhile, briefly laying down certain foundations of the history, let us run through what the Hebrews understand concerning this passage. Pharaoh is compared to a lion — not of one nation but of many nations — or to a dragon in the sea, so that he possesses land and waters; he was lifted up into 'pride' by the watering of the rivers — which he calls 'horn' — and, by the multitude of his army, passing through all the waters, he was able to trouble them. Therefore he says that he will spread his net over his multitude and draw him out with his dragnet — or hook —, and cast — or stretch — him out upon the land, him who like a serpent had been wound in many coils, so that he may be devoured by all the birds of the sky. And when not only the birds but all the beasts of the earth have torn him, the rest of his flesh will fill the mountains and valleys and plains, so that all things swarm with worms — and he says this by way of metaphor, so that, after the birds of the sky and the beasts have been glutted with his flesh, that is, his army and the whole multitude, the remaining part may be turned into worms and gore —: 'Then,' he says, 'the heavens will be wrapped in darkness: the sun and the moon and the other lights will not give their light, but over you all things will grow black, and nothing will be joyful for you. And at your destruction all peoples and all their kings will tremble with exceeding horror, seeing my sword flying this way and that and sparing no one, and in your ruin they dread a like ruin. But so that you may know what this sword is, hear it more plainly: The sword of the king of Babylon will come to you; by the swords of the mighty (or of giants) I will cast down all your multitude — which giants are the invincible nations that were held in the army of the Babylonian king —; these will lay waste (or will destroy) the pride of Egypt and all its multitude, and nothing will remain in Egypt, but together with the men the beasts and brute animals too will be carried off alike. And so great will be the desolation in Egypt that its waters will be troubled neither by the foot of man nor by the hoof of beast, but all things will be quiet; and the waters of its rivers will flow like oil, most pure and shining, with no one passing through them nor troubling their streams' — and this will come about because of the desolation of Egypt, which will be reduced to a desert, stripped of all its multitude, when the Lord has struck its inhabitants, so that those who remain may understand that he himself is the Lord —. Therefore it is a lament for Pharaoh, and the daughters of the nations round about will lament him, and not only over him, but also over his multitude which, as the Lord laid it waste, was blotted out. Let it suffice to have said these things in passing on the simple letter, so that we may come to the spiritual understanding. Nor do I think one must labor greatly to know who Pharaoh king of Egypt is, since we have spoken of it more fully above: namely that power to which Egypt was entrusted, whether one province or the Egypt of the whole world, which was not created a lion but by its own vice was likened to the lion of the nations — for Man, indeed, when he was in honor, did not understand; he was compared to the senseless beasts, and was made like them; of this lion Peter also speaks: Our adversary the devil goes about like a roaring lion, and in Psalm 9 (10) it is written: He lies in wait in secret like a lion in his den; he lies in wait to seize the poor, and Jeremiah says by the Holy Spirit: A lion from the forest has struck them —; but that the devil is called a dragon — for which Aquila translates Leviathan, setting out the name of the dragon — I have shown in the earlier explanation with many testimonies, he who had said: The rivers are mine and I made them. This dragon, then, tossed very many nations with his rivers as with horns; which we can understand of Marcion, Valentinus, Arius and Eunomius, and the other leaders of heresies, who imitate churchmen saying to the Lord Savior: In you we will toss our enemies with the horn, and they do not toss them unto salvation, to lift them from earth to heaven, but to cast them into the deep. Then follows: And you troubled the waters with your feet — according to that saying of the Apostle: But he who troubles you will bear the judgment —; for he does not wish to drink the waters of Siloam, which go in silence, but the 'turbid' and 'muddy' waters of Egypt, which, before they were trampled by the dragon's feet, were pure and flowed in their own order, but after they were troubled by his feet, lost the order of their course — for the heretics do not use testimonies of the Scriptures that cohere with one another, but they trouble everything —; and, because he himself is the enemy and the avenger, the Egyptian dragon not only troubles other people's waters with his feet, but tramples his own rivers, so as not to spare those whom he has once brought under his power — which the righteous man, desiring to avoid it, prays: Let not the foot of pride come against me; and in another place, having been trampled, he asks not to be trampled again: Have mercy on me, O Lord, for man has trampled me; and the enemy man is the devil, of whom another psalm also speaks: That man may no more be magnified upon the earth —. Therefore thus says the Lord God: I will spread my net over you, in a multitude of many peoples; the Lord's net, woven by the plan of the Old and New Testament, is cast over the dragon — who dwells in the multitude of peoples, and delights in crowds and multitude —, so as to draw him out in his dragnet, or on his hook — this is the dragnet that is cast into the sea of this world and draws out many fish, some to be chosen and others to be thrown away; or this is the hook of which it is written in Job: But you will draw out the dragon with a hook and put a halter around his nostrils, for which Aquila translates: Drawing out Leviathan with a hook, and with cords you will bind his tongue —; and the dragon — or Leviathan — is drawn out of the sea with the hook — or the Lord's dragnet —, so as to be cast — or stretched out — upon the land, and all his coils, in which he used to hide his snares, may be opened and brought out into public and thrown down upon the land, and he may lie prostrate who had set his mouth in heaven and boasted that he was like the Most High; hence there follows: And I will make dwell (or sit) upon you all the birds of the sky, and I will glut the beasts of the whole earth with you — according to what is written: You gave him as food to the peoples of the Ethiopians —, who are called either birds or beasts of the earth: birds, which, as we have said, snatch the seed beside the way; beasts of the whole earth, made savage by vices; which can be referred to heretics and Gentiles; and what follows: And I will put your flesh upon the mountains, and I will fill your hills with your gore (or I will fill the valleys with your blood), has this sense, that we should understand the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth as the peoples of the deceived and the cruelty of the Gentiles, and refer the mountains to the leaders of heresies — such as Valentinus and Marcion were —, and the hills to their successors who are glutted with the dragon's gore, or the valleys which are filled with the dragon's blood to all the lower sort of believers; or certainly the mountains are the hostile powers that roam about in the air, and the valleys those which penetrate the underworld and have been consigned to eternal punishments. Further, what is said: And I will water the land with the stench of your blood upon the mountains (or the land will be watered with your dung upon the mountains), and the valleys will be filled with you, signifies this, that all the pride and arrogant swelling of the heretics is filled not so much with living and pure blood as with putrid and stinking blood — according to what is written: Make them like the dung of the earth, from which the holy man is delivered by the Lord: Who raises the needy from the earth, and lifts the poor from the dung, to set him with princes, with the princes of his people —; and the valleys, sunk into the depths, as we said above, signify either the underworld or the lowly mind of the heretics, who do everything for the sake of pleasure and earthly wealth; and what is joined: And when you have been extinguished I will cover the sky, and I will make its stars grow black: I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light; all the lights of the sky I will make mourn (or grow dark) over you, and I will put darkness upon your land, says the Lord God, if we follow the letter, cannot be understood at all: for when, after Pharaoh — or the dragon — was slain, did the sun and moon and stars not give their light, and the sky was covered with darkness — according to that poetic line: And the impious ages feared eternal night —? This, then, must be said: that when Pharaoh has been extinguished — who transformed himself into an angel of light, of whom it is written in another place: The light of the impious will be extinguished —, the sky, or the heavens, will be covered with darkness — of which Paul also speaks: And the spiritual things of wickedness in the heavenly places —; and the Lord made its stars grow black, whether the dragon's or the sky's — concerning whom Jude the apostle also writes: Wandering stars, for whom the gloom of darkness is reserved forever —; the sun too is covered in a cloud: the sun of iniquity — which is the opposite of the sun of righteousness —, and with a cloud: either by the Lord Savior himself — who descends into Egypt upon a light cloud, weighed down by no burden of sins —, or by the prophets and apostles — of whom we read: I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it, and in the Psalms: Your truth reaches to the clouds —; and when the sun of iniquity has been darkened, the moon — which we take to be the church of the heretics, and which was thought to receive its light from the sun of iniquity — will not give its light, nor will it deceive believers with the knowledge falsely so called; all the lights also, and whatever of doctrine seems to be among the heretics, will be blinded when the dragon has been extinguished, or they will mourn the loss of their prince, so that the Lord himself covers the land of the heretics with darkness, namely ignorance of the truth, so that the blind lead the blind into a ditch and the inhabitants of the land are sent into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. After this it is said: And I will provoke the heart of many peoples, when I bring your destruction (or your captivity) among the nations upon a land which you do not know, so that those who formerly served Pharaoh are angered against him, seeing that his captivity has been led away to another land, which the dragon did not know. Nor ought we to doubt that the lands which Pharaoh does not know are good, namely when the captivity of Pharaoh is exchanged for another captivity — of which it is said to the Savior: Ascending on high, he led captivity captive; he received (or, according to the Apostle, gave) gifts among men —. And I will make, he says, many peoples stand astonished over you, so that those who formerly admired Pharaoh's power may afterwards marvel at him for having fallen from his summit; the kings of the peoples, too, will tremble over him with exceeding horror — whose kingdoms the devil showed to the Lord, and of whom it says in the psalm: The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes gathered together —; and this will come about when the sword of the Lord begins to fly over their faces, understood as those of the kings, or of the peoples — and the sword of the Lord is to be understood as the word of God, living and effective, and sharper than any two-edged sword, which flies and darts about and dazzles the eyes of those who behold it and frightens their faces —, so that, astounded at the ruin of Pharaoh, they may see themselves cast down in him; and indeed the sword of the Lord — of which it is written: Behold, this one is set for the fall and rising of many — raises those who lie fallen and by humility changes those wrongly lifted up. But the sword of the king of Babylon will come upon the Egyptian dragon, so that by the swords of the mighty — or of giants — the Lord may cast down his multitude, which followed the king of Egypt: Invincible, he says, (or pestilent ones from the nations) are all these, so that the evil are handed over to worse ones to be punished — of whom it is written: A sending by most evil angels, and the Apostle: Whom I have handed over, he says, to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme, or for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved —. And when by ministers of this kind the pride of Egypt has been cast down and its multitude scattered, all its beasts that were beside many waters will perish, and the foot of man will trouble them no more — for if Blessed is he who sows upon the waters, where ox and ass tread, conversely unhappy is he who will be able any longer to hold the simple by his terror, so that the foot of man does not tread in them, whereby the Egyptian waters seem not to have in them even a sign of wisdom and reason —; nor will the hoof of beasts trouble them, so as to make them 'turbid and muddy' instead of most limpid and shining. Then the waters that had been troubled by the dragon's dominion will be rendered most pure, not by another but by the Lord himself, so that their rivers are rendered like oil and are the nourishment of the true light; and these things will come about when the Lord has made the land of Egypt desolate and has destroyed its fullness and all its inhabitants have been struck, so that by this progress they may be able to know that he himself is the Lord. And what is joined: It is a lament, and they shall lament him; the daughters of the nations shall lament him; over Egypt and over its multitude they shall lament him, says the Lord God, makes it plain that the souls of all the nations which had formerly been oppressed by him, or of those nations which by no means dwelt in Egypt but in the region of the living, lament the slain dragon and all his multitude: not in hope of salvation, but because from so great a power, by his own vice and pride, he has been cast down into eternal punishments.
32:17-32
And it came to pass in the twelfth year, on the fifteenth of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, sing a dirge over the multitude of Egypt, and drag it down, it and the daughters of the mighty nations, to the lowest land with those who go down into the pit. Than whom are you more beautiful? Go down, and sleep with the uncircumcised. In the midst of those slain by the sword they shall fall; the sword has been given; they have dragged her away and all her peoples. The mightiest of the strong will speak to him from the midst of hell, they who went down with his helpers; and they have slept uncircumcised and slain by the sword. There is Assyria and all her multitude, round about her are their graves, all of them slain, and they who fell by the sword; whose graves have been set in the uttermost parts of the pit, and her multitude is round about her grave; all of them slain and falling by the sword, who once had spread dread in the land of the living. There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave; all these slain and falling by the sword, who went down uncircumcised to the lowest land, who set their terror in the land of the living, and they have borne their shame with those who went down into the pit. In the midst of the slain they have set his bed, among all his peoples; round about him is his grave, all these uncircumcised and slain by the sword; for they had spread terror in the land of the living, and they have borne their shame with those who go down into the pit; they have been set in the midst of the slain. There is Meshech and Tubal and all her multitude, round about her are her graves, all these uncircumcised and slain, falling by the sword, who set their dread in the land of the living; and they will not sleep with the mighty who fell, and the uncircumcised, who went down into hell with their weapons and set their swords under their heads, and their iniquities were in their bones, because they became the terror of the mighty in the land of the living. And you therefore will be crushed in the midst of the uncircumcised, and you will sleep with those slain by the sword. There is Edom and all her kings and her leaders, who were given up with their army with those slain by the sword, and who have slept with the uncircumcised, and with those who went down into the pit. There are all the princes of the north and all the Sidonians (or 'hunters'), who were led down with the slain, trembling, and confounded in their strength, for they have slept uncircumcised with those slain by the sword, and they have borne their confusion with those who go down into the pit. Pharaoh saw them and was comforted over all his multitude which was slain by the sword, Pharaoh and all his army, says the Lord God, for I have set his terror in the land of the living; and he has slept in the midst of the uncircumcised with those slain by the sword, Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord God. (In this place the edition of the Seventy translators disagrees greatly both in order and in translation, and some things in it have been added from Theodotion; hence we have found it necessary to set it down too, by no means sparing length, and serving the diligence of the studious reader. LXX: "And it came to pass in the twelfth year, on the fifteenth of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, lament over the multitude of Egypt, and the nations will lead her daughters down dead into the depth of the earth, to those who go down into the ditch." — Moreover, under asterisks there has been added: ※ From the most beautiful water go down, and sleep with the uncircumcised ⁚. Again the sequence follows: — In the midst of those wounded by the sword they shall fall with him, and all their strength will sleep. And the giants will say to you: Go down into the depth of the ditch. Than whom are you better? Go down, and sleep with the uncircumcised in the midst of those wounded by the sword. There is Assyria and all her congregation. — And what is joined: ÷ All the wounded have been set there, and his grave is in the depth of the ditch, and his congregation came to be ⁚, is not found in the Hebrew, but was added by the Seventy. Again it is said: — Round about his grave, all the wounded who had fallen by the sword. — And again from the edition of Theodotion there has been added under asterisks: ※ Who had set graves for them in the sides of the pit, and the congregation came to be round about his grave; all these wounded and falling by the sword ⁚. After which the Seventy set down: — Who set their fear in the land of life. There is Elam and all her strength round about her grave; all wounded and falling by the sword, and who go down uncircumcised into the depth of the earth, who set their terror in the land of life, and they received their torment with those who go down into the ditch, in the midst of the wounded. There have been set Meshech and Tubal and all their strength, round about his grave, all his wounded, all uncircumcised and wounded by the sword, who set their terror upon the land of life; and they did not sleep with the giants, who had fallen from of old, who went down into hell with the weapons they used for wars and set their swords under their heads, and their iniquities came to be in their bones, because they had terrified giants in their life. And you in the midst of the uncircumcised ※ will be crushed, and ⁚ will sleep with those wounded by the sword. There is Edom, ※ her kings and all ⁚ the princes of Assyria, who gave his strength to the wound of the sword; these have slept with the wounded, with those who went down into the ditch. There are all the princes of the north, all the magistrates of Assyria, who go down wounded with their terror, and confounded in their strength; they have slept, uncircumcised too, with those wounded by the sword, and they have carried off their torment with those going down into the ditch. Pharaoh will see them and will receive comfort over all their strength ※ wounded by the sword, Pharaoh and all his strength ⁚, says the Lord God, for I have set his dread upon the land of life, and he will sleep in the midst of the uncircumcised with those wounded by the sword, Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord God.) I am not unaware that so great a discrepancy between the two editions will be tiresome to the fastidious reader; but what am I to do with my slanderers, who, if I take away anything from the translation of the Seventy translators, cry out that I am sacrilegious and without the fear of the Lord — especially those who, though they disagree with me in the truth of the faith and follow the errors of the Manichaeans, stir up the minds of the unlearned on this very point, if they can show that anything of the old has been changed against established custom, preferring to err rather than to learn anything true from a rival. Meanwhile, according to the history the sense is plain. For in the same twelfth year, and in the same month, as we think, but not on the first of the month, as above, but on the fifteenth day, a lament is taken up not over Pharaoh, but over the strength — or multitude — of Egypt, which is dragged down from its pride with all its daughters — or those of the mighty nations — to the lowest land, that is, into the depth of hell. And it is said to the king of Egypt: 'Than whom are you better, that you should deserve to escape death? — for since Assyria and Elam — that is, the Persians —, and Meshech — who are interpreted as the Cappadocians —, and Tubal — whom some take to be the Iberians, others the Italians —, the Edomites also and the princes of the north and the Sidonians, with all their armies by whose help they struck horror into all the nations, have died and been slain by the sword, and have set their swords under their heads — which saying is to be taken ἐμφατικώτερον [more emphatically, as an expressive figure] —, will you alone be able not to endure the same things? Rather, when you see so great a multitude of sleepers with you among the dead below, and your grave surrounded by the memorials of princes once most mighty, you will have consolation, reckoning your torments lighter through the fellowship of very many —'. Let it suffice for the present to have said these things briefly according to the simple sense. Now, with the same brevity, so far as the difficulty of the explanation permits, let us gather the chief points of the spiritual understanding. Above, the word of the Lord came to the prophet on the first day of the month; here, on the fifteenth — now on the first day, that is, on the calends, is the beginning of the month; on the fifteenth, when the whole orb of the moon is filled; and if it was the first month, it is the first day of Unleavened Bread, but if the seventh, of Tabernacles, when the tents are pitched, which feasts are among the very greatest among the Hebrews —; and the lament is made over the strength of Egypt, so that he who is strong in evil may cease to be so and take on weakness, and when he is weaker, then he may be stronger. For the 'strength' of Egypt, the Hebrew has 'multitude' — For wide and spacious is the way that leads to death, and many enter by it, just as, on the contrary, it is said to Israel: But you are few among all the nations; for virtue is always rare, and: Narrow and strait is the way that leads to life, and few are those who enter by it —. And that Egypt is lamented, and its dead daughters — 'her' daughters according to the Seventy, or those 'of the mighty nations' — are led down to the lowest land into the deepest pit — or ditch —, signifies the souls dwelling in the Egypt of this world — which have lost him who says: I am the life, and, dead in sins, are dragged down to the underworld by their weight, as the sinner says: For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden they weigh upon me; these are the ones of whom it is also written in another place: They go into the lower parts of the earth; they will be given over into the hands of the sword; they will be portions for foxes. He who, indeed, digs a ditch, falls into it; whence we also read: He opened a pit and dug it out, and he will fall into the ditch which he made —. And what follows: Than whom are you more beautiful? Go down, and sleep with the uncircumcised, the word is properly addressed to Pharaoh king of Egypt — or, as was added in the Seventy from Theodotion, to Egypt itself: From the most beautiful water go down, and sleep with the uncircumcised; which pertains especially to him who, reborn in the baptism of Christ, hearing with the Church: Who is she that comes up made white, leaning upon her kinsman?, afterwards, defiled either by fornication or by other vices, is cast out of the Church, and it is said to him: From the most beautiful water go down, and sleep 'with the uncircumcised', that is, 'with the unclean', according to that sense which the Apostle sets down: We are the circumcision, who serve God in the spirit, and glory in the Lord, and put no confidence in the flesh —. All these will fall with Pharaoh in the midst of the wounded — or the slain —, by that sword which is the opposite of the sword which the Lord came to send upon the earth: for just as the sword of Christ separates the good from the evil — as he says: I came not to send peace upon the earth, but a sword —, so the sword of the heretics cuts down all peoples and leads the wounded down to the underworld; these are the giants, most mighty and rebellious and setting their mouth on high, and the more they raise themselves up to the heights through pride, the more they are dragged down to the depth of the ditch and the uttermost parts of hell, all of whom have been slain by the sword. And so that either Pharaoh or the whole strength of Egypt, which has been dragged down to the underworld, might know whom he had as companions in punishment, the following word shows: There is Assyria and all the multitude (or synagogue) of her; for the prince of the heretics is the devil — whose congregation is truly a synagogue, of which it is said in the Revelation: Who are the synagogue of Satan —. But the following short verses, which are marked in front with an obelus, I think should be passed over, and what is found in the Hebrew should be stated: Round about her are their graves, namely of those deceived by him, who are all wounded (or slain) by the sword, and therefore have fallen; whose graves have been set in the uttermost parts of the pit — and that hell is called a pit is plainly shown by that psalm in which the penitent says: I have been likened to those who go down into the pit; which we ought by no means, according to the proper sense of the Latin word, to understand as that which in Greek is called λίμνη [lake] — such as the lake of Tiberias, and lakes Larius and Benacus, and many others —, but as what we are accustomed to call cisterns; which pits, because they chill the waters and take from them all the warmth of the spirit, sinners and all heretics dig; and, so far as my memory goes, Scripture testifies that none of the saints dug a pit — that is, a cistern — but all sinners — among whom was Uzziah, the leprous king, who also fell through his pride, of whom it is written that he was a man brooding over the works of the soil, and that he built many towers of pride in the corners, and that he dug pits —; on the contrary it is said to the righteous man: Drink waters from your own vessels and from the springs of your wells, and again: Let the fountain of your water be your own, whence the Lord also says: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have dug for themselves pits (that is, cisterns) which cannot hold water —. There follows: And her multitude is round about her grave; all these surround the Assyrian, and their multitude is very great, all of whom have been wounded and slain and are falling by the sword — for none of them can stand with Moses, or hear: You who stand in the house of the Lord; but all have been wounded and slain and are falling —: who once had spread dread in the land of the living; and dread to those who were set over the churches, lest in the land of the living they should make peoples of the dead and deceive all the simple — whence Paul also said: But I fear lest, as the serpent deceived Eve in his malice, your minds be corrupted through the simplicity that is in Christ; but this fear is softened by hope in the Lord, as the man of the Church says: The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? —. After this it is said: There is Elam, and all her multitude round about her grave, no doubt the Assyrian's. 'Elam' is rendered into our tongue as 'their ascent'; for all who, despising the humility of Christ, have ascended to the pride of the devil and have thought themselves to be something in the knowledge falsely so called, are to be named Elamites, who go round the grave of the Assyrian king and have been slain and wounded by the sword; and although they set their mouth on high, yet they went down unclean and uncircumcised to the lowest land, so that the more loftily they had been raised up, the more heavily they might fall; these set their terror not once but a second time in the land of the living — for who among the churchmen is safe from the terror of Elamites of this kind and has not lost someone of his flock? —; and beautifully the Church of Christ is called the land of the living, so that, on the contrary, the conventicles of the heretics may be believed to be the land of the dead. And they have borne, he says, their shame (or their torment) with those whom they dragged down with them into the pit and the depth of hell, whose bed is in the midst of the slain; namely of those whose throats they cut with their blade, and they are surrounded by peoples of this kind; these peoples are the peoples of the Assyrian king, and although they boast that they are circumcised, yet they are uncircumcised and slain by the sword, and a third time they have spread terror and dread in the land of the living; hence they have borne their torment and punishment in the midst of those whom they deceived by their frauds. There also is — that is, beside the Assyrian — Meshech and Tubal and all her multitude, round about her grave, all uncircumcised and slain and falling by the sword, who had set their dread in the land of the living. For 'Mosoch and Thubal', Symmachus and Theodotion translated 'their bed', to show that the beds of the heretics, or rather their everlasting ditches, are the punishments of the Assyrian king; 'Mosoch' means 'madness', 'Thubal' 'conversion' — not to good from evil but from good to evil — or 'all things', to show that all heretics are mad and with equal zeal are turned to worse things; nor is it surprising if those who are mad and heaped together for evil have a multitude, since they are companions of the Egyptian king, who rejoices in multitude; all these have been slain by the sword, who set their dread, not once nor a second time, but a third time, in the land of the living, of which we have spoken more fully above. There follows: And they will not sleep with the mighty (or the giants) who fell, and the uncircumcised, who went down to hell with their weapons and set their swords under their heads, and their iniquities were in their bones, because they became the terror of the mighty in the land of the living. 'These,' he says, 'who stood out as leaders of the heretics, have come to such a summit of malice and of torment, that they do not deserve to bear like punishments even with the mighty and the giants who fell from the beginning; who, having by no means done penance for their error, went down to the underworld with their weapons, rebels against God and his Church, carrying their spirit with them' — of whom it is written: Sons of men, their teeth are weapons and arrows —, 'and they set,' he says, 'their swords under their heads, resting in a hostile spirit, and, as their supreme victory, embracing the darts of their opinions, to such a degree that their iniquities were in their bones — that is, their strongest fabrications —, and holding fast the doctrines of their error: Because they became the terror of the mighty in their life (or in the land of the living)', which is said for the fourth time, that by their perversity they terrified even the mightiest, and those who had knowledge of the Scriptures and who were of the region of the living, while they go down to hell with their weapons and set their swords under their heads and their iniquity reaches to their bones. After this it is written: 'And you therefore will be crushed in the midst of the uncircumcised' — which is said either to Pharaoh or to the strength, or multitude, of Egypt, that it too is crushed, according to what is written: But may God crush Satan under your feet swiftly — 'and you will sleep,' he says, 'with those slain by the sword, in perpetual sleep'. There, with the Assyrian and with the Egyptian multitude, will be Edom and her kings, all who have served earthly works or delighted in blood — for 'Idumaea' [Edom] sounds both 'earthy' and 'bloody' —; all the kings and all the princes — of whom the Apostle also frequently speaks: 'brooding over earthly works and daily shedding the blood of those whom they have deceived by their fraud' — have slept with the uncircumcised and unclean and with those who went down into the pit, of whom we have spoken above. In the same company will also be the princes of the north, from which evils blaze up upon the earth — and from which, whether in Jeremiah or in this same prophet, that pot full of flesh and bones is set alight —, and not only the princes of the north, but every magistrate of 'Assur' — for which in the Hebrew is more truly set down all the 'Sidonians', whom we have rendered as 'hunters', according to what is written: Our soul has been snatched like a sparrow from the snare of the hunters (for which in the Hebrew is set down of the Sidonians); which Sidonians — or hunters — will be led down to the underworld trembling, who once trusted in their own strength; and they will sleep unclean, and they will bear their confusion — or torment —, having the everlasting remorse of an evil conscience, so that their fire is not quenched and their worm does not die. When Pharaoh has seen all these, he will be comforted, either still having his former malice and seeing that he has many companions of his punishment, or at any rate he was comforted seeing that they too are confounded in their punishments and their terrors, over all his multitude which was slain by the sword: that is, Pharaoh's, or that of all his companions, and especially of the Assyrian king and Meshech and Tubal and the Edomites, and of the princes of the north and of the Sidonians; for these had set their terror in the land of the living — which is said for the fifth time, so that we ought to beware of and flee all nations of this kind, which have deceived us in all our senses, and know that they are dreadful and cannot easily be avoided unless we keep our heart with all vigilance —. 'He has slept,' he says, 'Pharaoh himself too, with his companions slain by the sword', which companions are his multitude, going by the wide and spacious way to everlasting punishments.
33:1-9
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, speak to the sons of your people, and you shall say to them: A land, when I bring the sword upon it, and the people of the land take one man from the last of them (or one man from among them), and set him over themselves as a watchman, and he sees the sword coming upon the land, and sounds the trumpet and announces it to the people; but whoever he is who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take heed for himself, and the sword comes and takes (or seizes) him: his blood shall be upon his own head; he heard the sound (or voice) of the trumpet and did not take heed for himself, his blood shall be upon him. But if he guards himself, he has saved his soul. But if the watchman sees the sword coming, and does not sound the trumpet, and the people do not guard themselves; and the sword comes and takes a soul from among them: that one indeed has been taken in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from the hand of the watchman. And you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Hearing therefore the word from my mouth, you shall announce it to them from me. If, when I say to the wicked: Wicked one, you shall die by death; you have not spoken so that the wicked may guard himself from his way, that wicked one shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand. But if, when you announce to the wicked that he should turn from his ways, he has not turned from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you will deliver your soul. Again the word of the Lord comes to the prophet — the word which had for a time been silent, because the prophet cannot, nor can human frailty, sustain within itself an unceasing and continuous prophesying —, and it speaks the same things that are contained in the earlier passages: 'Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel, and hearing the word from my mouth, you shall also threaten them from me; in that I shall say to the unrighteous: You shall die by death, and you did not announce it to him, nor did you speak so as to announce it to the unrighteous, that he might turn from his ways and live, that unrighteous man shall die in his iniquity and his blood I will require from your hand. And you, if you announce it to the unrighteous, and he has not turned from his iniquity and from his way, that unrighteous man shall die in his iniquity, and you will deliver your soul'; if you examine these words carefully, you will understand that they are indeed similar, but not the same, since they disagree in a great many points — and this we ought to observe in all the holy Scriptures: where there seems to be some similarity of meaning, not everything is said identically, but a great many things are either taken away or added, and the difference between the individual words has its reason —. And meanwhile, before we come to higher things, the sense must be briefly explained: 'If a watchman has been appointed among the people to announce the sword of the Lord and the wrath that is coming, and, when he announces it, the people are unwilling to hear, the watchman will be free, and he who has been overwhelmed by the sword will himself bear the guilt of his own blood; but if he has heard, he has saved his soul; if, however, the watchman has not sounded the trumpet and the people, not knowing that the sword is coming, have by no means taken heed for themselves, the people indeed will die in their iniquity; yet I will require the blood of the dying from the watchman's hand'; and so that the prophet Ezekiel might know that this general discussion pertained above all to himself: 'And you,' he says, son of man, not by the land and by the people of the land, as I said above, but by me you have been appointed watchman for the house of Israel: If therefore, when I say to the wicked: Wicked one, you shall die by death, you have not spoken to him so that he may guard himself and be delivered from destruction, he indeed will die in his iniquity, which he had committed before and from which, had you announced it, he could have been delivered: but his blood I will require from your hand. But if you declare it to the wicked, and command him to turn from his most evil ways, and he is unwilling to do this, he indeed will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul from the destruction of negligence'. From these words we learn: that a man, though unrighteous and wicked, can be saved from his wickedness if he hears the words of the teacher and repents; and no less, that the teacher incurs peril if he is unwilling to teach, whether from fear of peril or from despair of the sinner, since he is guilty of the blood of one who could have been delivered and rescued from death, had he not fallen through the teacher's silence; and that in both free will is preserved, since it lies both in the teacher's will either to keep silent or to speak, and in the hearer's choice either to hear and do and be saved, or to despise and perish by his own contempt. Nor does it immediately follow that, because a prophet foretells something, what he foretold comes — for he does not foretell it so that it may come, but so that it may not come —; nor, because God speaks, must what he threatens necessarily happen; rather he threatens for this reason: that the one whom he threatens may turn to repentance, and that what is to come if the words of the Lord are despised may not happen. We can, however, discuss this passage in a threefold way: so that the land which appoints a watchman for itself is either, according to the letter, the land of Judea, or, according to the spiritual understanding, the Church, which often chooses a watchman from the last of its people — namely that one whom the Apostle too, writing to the Corinthians, takes as judge —, or certainly the soul of the believer, which sets the mind and reason over the people and crowd of its thoughts — so that it may not admit every incitement of the thoughts, but may judge and discern which things it should pursue and which it should flee —. The watchman of the land of Judea can be understood as either the king or the prophet; but the watchman of the Church as either the bishop or the presbyter, who has been chosen by the people and, knowing and foreseeing through the reading of the Scriptures what is to come, is to announce it to the people and correct the one who goes astray. Hence we must greatly fear lest we approach this office unworthy, and, having been taken up by the people, give ourselves over to negligence and sloth, and, what is worse than these, serving delicacies and the belly and leisure, think that we have received an honor, not a ministry: For the Son of man did not come to be ministered to, but to minister, and he washed the feet of the disciples, to show that all the filth and vices in the disciples ought to be washed away and cleansed by the teacher; nor let us at once reply: 'What use is it to speak, if the hearer is unwilling to do what you have taught?', for each one is judged by his own intention and office: you, if you have not spoken; he, if he has been unwilling to hear; of negligent teachers Solomon speaks: Wisdom hidden and treasure hidden, what profit is there in either?; something of the kind is signified also in the Gospel: that for one who has caused one of the least of the Church to stumble, it would be better that a donkey's millstone be tied to his neck and he be cast into the deep, than that, set in the watchtower, he should harm very many.
33:10-20
You therefore, son of man, say to the house of Israel: Thus you have spoken, saying: Our iniquities and our sins are upon us, and we are wasting away in them; how then shall we be able to live? Say to them: As I live, says the Lord God; I do not want the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn back from his way, and live; and turn from your most evil ways; and why will you die, house of Israel? You therefore, son of man, say to the sons of your people: The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him on whatever day he sins, and the wickedness of the wicked shall not harm him on whatever day he turns from his wickedness; and the righteous shall not be able to live in his righteousness on whatever day he sins. Even if I say to the righteous that he shall live by life, and, trusting in his righteousness, he commits iniquity; all his righteous deeds shall be consigned to oblivion, and in his iniquity which he has wrought, in it he shall die. But if I say to the wicked: You shall die by death, and he repents of his sin, and does judgment and righteousness, restores the pledge, and gives back what he has robbed, walks in the commandments of life, and does nothing unjust, he shall live by life, and shall not die: all the sins which he has sinned shall not be imputed to him; he has done judgment and righteousness, he shall live by life. And the sons of your people have said: The way of the Lord is not of equal weight; and it is their own way that is unjust. For when the righteous withdraws from his righteousness and commits iniquities, he shall die in them; and when the wicked withdraws from his wickedness and does judgment and righteousness, he shall live in them. And you say: The way of the Lord is not right. I will judge each one of you according to his ways, house of Israel. If we read carelessly, it seems to us to be the same prophecy as the one above, in which it is said: Do I willingly desire the death of the unrighteous, says the Lord, and not rather that he turn from his evil way and live?, and at the end of the same prophecy: Turn and return from all your wickednesses, and they will not be to you a torment of iniquity; for there the word is addressed to those who wish to repent and would blot out their sins with righteousness, so that they may turn with confidence and repent with a full heart; here, however, he speaks to those who, because of the greatness of their sins, or rather of their wickednesses, despair of salvation and say: Our iniquities and our sins are upon us, and we are wasting away in them; how then shall we be able to live?; and the sense is: 'Since death has once been set before us, and no medicine can restore health to our wounds, what need is there to toil and be worn out in vain, and not to pass the present life in desperation, so that at least we may enjoy this one, since we have lost the future one?'; to them God answered that he does not want the death of the wicked, but that he turn back and live, and he makes an apostrophe to the despairing wicked: Turn from your most evil ways; and so that we may know who the wicked are to whom he speaks, the following word shows it: Why will you die, house of Israel? — but the life and death signified in this place is not this one by which all of us, by the law of nature common with the beasts, either live or are dissolved by death, but that of which it is written: I will please the Lord in the land of the living, and: The soul that sins, it shall die —. And from the particular admonition with which he was speaking to the house of Israel, he passes to a general discussion: that past acts of righteousness do not save the righteous man if he has become taken up with new crimes, and old sins do not destroy the sinner or the wicked if he has amended his old errors by works of righteousness, and that God in both cases judges not past things but present ones: 'If I say,' he says, 'to the righteous: You shall live by life, and promise him the rewards of righteousness, and he, trusting in this, sins, all his former righteous deeds will be consigned to oblivion and he will die in his present iniquity; nor has my sentence changed, since I cannot render to the same man, now a sinner, what I had promised to the righteous man; on the contrary, if I threaten the sinner and the wicked — and say: Yet three days and Nineveh shall be overthrown —, and he repents and amends his old error by good works, so that he does judgment and righteousness, restores the pledge, and gives back what he has robbed, walks in the commandments of life, and does nothing unjust: ought he not to live by life, which is Christ, and by no means die, since the threat made to the sinner ought not to punish the righteous man?' — something of the kind the divine word says to Jeremiah when he goes down into the potter's house and hears that God's promises or threat aim at this: either to call men forth to salvation or to deter them from sin — 'hence those who say: The way of the Lord is not fair, are convicted of this, that it is their own judgment that is unfair, since they have a most evil eye and judge by no means the new things but the old'. By all these things it is shown that neither ought the sinner to despair of salvation if he repents, nor the righteous to trust in his righteousness if he has carelessly lost what he had acquired with great labor. We pass quickly over what is plain, in order to linger over what is more obscure; but in what points the present prophecy differs from the earlier one, and in what it says similar things, a comparison of the two will be able to show. Moreover, what it is to do judgment and righteousness, to restore the pledge, to give back what was robbed, to walk in the commandments of life, and the rest, we have said above in this same prophet.
33:21-22
And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the tenth month, on the fifth of the month of our exile (or captivity), there came to me one who had fled (or who had been saved) from Jerusalem, saying: The city has been laid waste (or taken). Now the hand of the Lord had come upon me in the evening, before he who had fled came; and he opened my mouth until he came to me in the morning, and, my mouth being opened, I was silent no longer. In the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah, in the fifth month, the city of Jerusalem was taken. But this prophecy is dated the twelfth year, the tenth month, the fifth of the month, of the captivity or exile, when he was taken captive with Jeconiah. From this it is shown that one year, four months and twenty-five days after Jerusalem was taken, one of the citizens of Jerusalem came to Babylon to report that the city had been taken and laid waste. One day before the one who was to tell these things came, in the evening the hand of the Lord came upon the prophet Ezekiel, and it opened his mouth, which had long been closed; and whatever that man was going to say, this one recounted beforehand as already done, and he was silent no longer, seeing his prophecy fulfilled in deed, and that the people who were in Babylon, or those who were captives, by no means doubted the prophetic oracle; for the mouth of the prophet is opened at the moment when he has shown accomplished in deed what he had announced before; and he proclaims with all freedom who points out not future things at all, but things either present or past. This is according to the letter; but according to the ἀναγωγὴν [anagogy, the higher sense]: if 'Hiezechiel' [Ezekiel] means 'strength of God' — and Christ, moreover, is the power of God and the wisdom of God! —, this is to be understood: that, Jerusalem having been taken and overthrown, whoever has been able to escape the faithlessness of the Jews — such as were the apostles and the remnant that was saved —, he himself announces to Christ that all the ceremonies of the Jews have been overthrown — which certain people think must be observed even to this day, not hearing that saying of the Apostle: You have fallen from grace, you who are justified in the law. And I marvel at the obstinacy of men in wishing to defend in word what they do not dare to fulfill in deed, unless perhaps Jewish wolves are hiding under the skin of sheep, that is, of Christians. Why does a defender of the Synagogue make his voice resound in the churches of Christ? —. Jerusalem, therefore, having been taken and overthrown, the mouth of the Lord is opened through the apostles and apostolic men — who can say: My mouth is opened to you, O Corinthians, and: A great and effective door has been opened to me, and that saying: I opened my mouth and drew in the spirit —, a mouth which will never be able to keep silent, nor to hear — along with Israel: Hear, Israel, and be silent —, but will resound in the whole world and will lay open the Gospel of Christ to the nations. Hence, according to this sense, the 'twelfth year' refers to the twelve tribes, and the 'tenth month' to the time of the Jewish propitiation, which in Greek is called ἱλασμὸς, and the 'fifth day of the month' to the fleshly senses — all of which, Jerusalem having been taken and the Gospel succeeding, we have shown to have been abolished and to have passed away —, and 'in the evening', that is, at the consummation of the world, to the hand of the Lord having come upon the true Ezekiel, who had sung of the future ruins of the city through the prophets and in the morning showed that they had been fulfilled.
33:23-33
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, those who dwell in these ruins upon the soil of Israel speak, saying: Abraham was one, and he possessed the land; but we are many, to us the land has been given as a possession. Therefore you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God: You who eat in blood, and lift up your eyes to your uncleannesses, and shed blood, shall you possess the land by inheritance? You have stood upon your swords, you have done abominations, and each of you has defiled his neighbor's wife, and shall you possess the land by inheritance? These things you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God: As I live, those who dwell in the ruins shall fall by the sword, and he who is in the field shall be given to the beasts to be devoured, but those who are in strongholds and in caves shall die of pestilence. And I will give the land into solitude and into desert, and its proud strength shall fail, and the mountains of Israel shall be made desolate, because there is no one who passes through them; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have made their land desolate and deserted, because of all their abominations which they have wrought. And you, son of man, the sons of your people talk about you beside the walls and in the doorways of the houses, and they say one to another, a man to his neighbor, speaking: Come, and let us hear what is the word that comes forth from the Lord. And they come to you as if a people were entering (or as a people is accustomed to gather), and my people sit before you; and they hear your words and do not do them, for they turn them into a song of their mouth, and their heart follows its avarice. (or, as is contained in the Seventy, for they make a lie in their mouth, and their heart walks after their abominations. It follows:) And you are to them like a musical song which is sung with a sweet and pleasing sound, and they will hear your words and will not do them. And when what has been foretold comes — for behold, it is coming —, then they will know that you prophesied in their midst. First it must be known that some eight lines, more or less, from the place we have set down: You who eat in blood, and lift up your eyes to your uncleannesses, up to the place where it is written: These things you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God, are not found in the Seventy, who omitted these too along with many others; or else, having been translated by them, they were gradually removed through the fault of copyists. And our Latins, or rather envious Christians, and, to speak more openly, heirs of the Grunnian faction, bark against us: why do we expound according to the Hebrew — as though food were to be forced upon the unwilling, and the banquet were not being prepared for those who receive it with thanksgiving; surely, if they do not trust us, let them read the other editions: of Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion; let them question Hebrews — not of one place, lest they keep boasting that they were bought by me, but of different provinces; and when they see that all agree with my error or inexperience, then let them understand that they are excessively wise, and desire to sleep rather than to learn —, and let them dwell in the seventy little cells of the Alexandrian Pharos, lest they lose the sails from their ships and sigh over the loss of their ropes. So much against the envious; now let us discuss what we have set before us. Jerusalem having been taken, as we have said, and the temple overthrown, the poor of the land, of whom Jeremiah writes, had alone been left in Jerusalem, to tend the vineyards and the fields and to dwell in the ruins of the burned city; and though they ought to have repented over the things on account of which the captivity had come, deceiving themselves with an empty hope, they said: 'Our father Abraham was one, and yet he possessed this land by inheritance — not that he himself possessed it, but that his seed received the land of promise; if therefore that one man was multiplied into such great peoples, we, who are many more, who have been left in the land of Judea and dwell in deserted and ruined cities, shall surely be multiplied much more, so that we, being many, may possess what that one man possessed'. To them the Lord answered that Abraham, one man, had possessed the land of promise by faith — For Abraham believed, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness —, but that these, taken up with unbelief and crimes, even if they are more, cannot possess it; and at the same time he enumerates by what deeds they offend God, namely six kinds of sins: 'You who eat in blood, and lift up your eyes to uncleannesses, that is, to your idols, and shed blood, that is, commit homicide; doing these things, will you be able to keep the land by inheritance? Nor are you content with this limit of crimes, but you stand upon your swords daily, ready to kill and imitating Esau, who stood, and lived by his sword; you do incredible abominations, namely the foulnesses of lusts; and each one defiles his neighbor's wife, so that he is the more wicked in this, that he had defiled the wife of a friend and neighbor. Would you do these things,' he says, 'and suppose that you will hold the land by inheritance? Answer them therefore, O prophet, and bring forth this sentence upon them from my word: I swear by myself that those who dwell in the ruins and the crumbling walls shall fall by the sword, and those who are in the fields — or in the open country — shall be devoured by beasts, and those who are in walled places — or in strongholds — and in caves shall not be able to escape the wrath of God, but shall die by famine and pestilence. And I will give,' he says, 'the land of Judea into solitude, and its proud strength shall fail — which had once been strength: The proud, however, God resists, and gives grace to the humble —; the mountains too and everything shall be deserted, and they shall come into such solitude that no one passes through them; and then the few who had remained shall by no means trust in their multitude, but shall know, by the greatness of the solitude, that I am the Lord, who gave the land into desert because of all the abominations which they have wrought'. Let these things be said against those who, Jerusalem having been taken and the whole region of the Jews laid waste, dwelt, a few of them, in the ruined and deserted cities and little villages. Now let us come to the tropology and, according to our custom, draw the broad discussion together rather than spread it out. Every heretic dwells among crumbling walls and in deserts, and thinks that he possesses the land of Israel: 'If Abraham, one man, by his faith came to such great blessedness that his seed was multiplied like the sand of the sea and like the stars of heaven, how much more shall we, being many, possess the land of 'Israel', that is, 'of those who see God', and 'Iudaea' [Judea], 'of the Lord's confession'?'; to them the Lord answered: 'He possessed the land by the merit of faith; but your unbelief, or rather blasphemy, will not be able to possess the land of Israel, that is, the Church. For first, you eat in blood, pouring out the blood of those whom you cause to stumble; next, you lift up your eyes to uncleannesses or to your abominations which you have fabricated out of your own mind — when you ought to have imitated the man of the Church and said: To you I have lifted up my eyes, you who dwell in the heavens —; third, you shed blood, not giving life to those whom you have led astray, but killing them; nor is it enough for you to have done these three things, but you stand upon your swords, that is, you persevere in the depravity of your opinion, and are ready for slaughter; and you have done abominations, doing in bedchambers things that are shameful to speak of; and you have defiled the wife of your neighbor, hastening, namely, to snatch away daily from the embrace of Christ, by deceiving them, those of the Church's way of life. And when you have done these things, do you think that you will hold the land of Israel by inheritance?' To them God says that whoever has dwelt in the ruined conventicles of the heretics shall fall by the sword of the Church — of which it is written: And two-edged swords in their hands, and in the Gospel: I did not come to send peace, but a sword, and: 'The servant who gives himself over to luxury and leisure shall be divided, that is, shall be struck with the blade, and his portion shall be placed with the unbelievers' —, and he who is in the field, or in the open country, shall be given to the beasts to be devoured — the beasts which the prophet, desiring to avoid them, prays against: Do not give to the beasts the soul that confesses to you —, but he who is in strongholds and in walled places — of which it is written: The righteous man went up against the strongest cities and destroyed their fortifications, in which the wicked trusted — and lingers in caves — of which it is said: It is written: The house of my Father shall be called a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of robbers —, that one shall die by famine of the word of the Lord and by pestilence; and the whole land of the heretics shall be given into solitude, so that their pride may be broken and the mountains which promised themselves the loftiness of knowledge may be reduced to solitude — mountains that are called of Israel because under the name of Christ they trip up all whom they deceive —, and no one shall pass through them — nor will anyone be able to say what Moses said: Passing over, I will see this great vision; for they are inhabitants of the perverse mountains, not pilgrims and sojourners —, so that, when they have suffered these things, they may then know that he himself is the Lord, who has given their land into solitude because of the abominations which they have wrought. There follows — on the same day indeed and at the same time, that is, in the twelfth year, the tenth month, on the fifth of the month, when the one who had fled from Jerusalem came, and when the prophet spoke to those who were in the land of Judea and promised themselves the hope of an everlasting possession — and he commands the prophet to speak to the people that lives in Babylon and dwells with him, and to rebuke them for their flattering snares, those who desire to hear the words of the prophet not for the salvation of the soul but for the pleasure of the ears; these walk beside the walls and in the doorways of the houses, by no means desiring to enter into the prophet's meaning, but they urge one another on and say: Come, and let us hear what is the word that comes forth from the Lord. 'And so they come like a people entering the Church of God, and they sit before you, my people, which says that it is mine, and they are unwilling to do what they have heard; people of this sort seem to me like those who are beguiled by theatrical songs and listen either to tragedians or to comedians and are there caressed with pleasure, so that, when they have gone out from you, they repeat these things and sing them over and deceive themselves with the sweet sound: And they will hear,' he says, 'your words and will not do them'. Such, even to this day, are many in the churches, who say: 'Come, let us hear this man and that man', as he rolls out the words of his preaching with marvelous eloquence; and they stir up applause and shout and wave their hands; and the things they had neglected in deeds, once they learn that these have come — for what the prophet pronounces by the word of God must come —, then they will begin to acknowledge, and to know that all that they had heard were not the words of a man, but of the Lord, who spoke through the prophet and the man of the Church.
Book Eleven
The eleventh book of the explanations on Ezekiel will contain, in its last part, the prophecy against Gog and Magog, and it will come as far as the beginning of the city set on the mountain, Jerusalem, and of the temple situated in it. If, with the Lord helping and expounding his own mysteries, I am able to bring it all the way to the end, I shall have to hesitate long and much whether I ought to set my hands to the spiritual temple or openly confess my ignorance, especially since, both among the Jews and among us, there is a great silence over its interpretation: some judge that it is to be built in time to come; others, with a good intention indeed but an unskilled one, know that the things said are spiritual, and yet do not know how those spiritual things themselves ought to be expounded. And in the meantime, so that the care of the present work may hold us, know also, O virgin of Christ Eustochium, that you must pray for us. In a most difficult prophecy I will briefly point out this: that a man of our own age, by no means undistinguished, writing to the emperor, said concerning this nation: This Gog is the Goth; by what reasoning everything that is written in it can be fitted to him is not mine to expound, but theirs who think so.
34:1-31
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, prophesy concerning the shepherds (or to the shepherds) of Israel, prophesy and say to the shepherds: Thus says the Lord God: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who were feeding themselves (or O shepherds of Israel, do shepherds feed themselves); are not the flocks fed by the shepherds (or do not the shepherds feed the sheep)? You ate the milk and covered yourselves with the wool, and what was fat you slaughtered, but my flock you did not feed; what was weak you did not make firm (or strengthen), and what was sick you did not heal, what was broken you did not bind up, and what was cast off (or was straying) you did not bring back, what had perished you did not seek, but you ruled over them with harshness and with power (or and what was strong, you afflicted with toil). And my sheep were scattered, because there was no shepherd (or shepherds); and they were made to be devoured by all the beasts of the field, and they were scattered. My flocks (or sheep) had wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill, and over the whole face of the earth my flocks (or sheep) were scattered; and there was none who would seek, there was none, I say, who would seek (or who would bring back). Therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: As I live, says the Lord God, because my flocks (or sheep) have become a prey, and my sheep have been made to be devoured by all the beasts of the field, because there was no shepherd (or shepherds); for the shepherds did not seek my flock, but the shepherds were feeding themselves, and were not feeding my flocks. Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I myself, against the shepherds, will require my flock at their hand, and I will make them cease, so that they no longer feed my flock, nor shall the shepherds feed themselves any more (or the sheep); and I will deliver my flock (or sheep) from their mouth, and it shall no longer be food for them. For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I myself will seek out my sheep, and I will visit them. As a shepherd visits his flock on the day when he is in the midst of his scattered sheep (or when there is gloom and cloud in the midst of his separated sheep), so will I visit my sheep, and I will deliver them from all the places into which they had been scattered in the day of cloud and gloom. And I will lead them (or them) out from the peoples (or from the nations), and I will gather them (or them) from the lands (or regions), and I will bring them (or them) into their own land, and I will feed them (or them) on the mountains, Israel, by the streams and in all the dwelling places of the land. In the richest pastures I will feed them (or them), and on the high mountains of Israel shall be their pastures (or their folds); there they shall rest in green grass, and in fat pastures they shall feed upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed my sheep, and I will make them lie down (or rest), says the Lord God. What had perished I will seek, and what had been cast off (or had strayed) I will bring back, and what had been broken I will bind up, and what was weak I will make firm (or strengthen), and what is fat and strong I will guard, and I will feed them in judgment (or with judgment). But you, my flocks (or my sheep), thus says the Lord God: Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, of rams and of he-goats. Was it not enough for you to graze down the good pasture? Moreover you will also trample the remnants of your pastures with your feet, and when you drank the purest water, you fouled the rest with your feet; and my sheep fed on what had been trampled by your feet, and drank what your feet had fouled. Therefore thus says the Lord God to them: Behold, I myself judge between fat cattle and lean (or between strong cattle and weak): because you thrust with your sides and shoulders and tossed all the weak cattle with your horns, until they were scattered abroad, I will save my flock and it shall no longer be a prey, and I will judge between cattle and cattle (or between ram and ram). And I will raise up over them (or them) one shepherd to feed them (or them), my servant David, he shall feed them (or them), and he shall be to them for a shepherd. But I the Lord will be to them for God, and my servant David prince in the midst of them: I the Lord have spoken. And I will make with them a covenant (or testament) of peace, and I will make the most evil beasts cease from the land, and those who dwelt in the desert shall sleep secure in the woods; and I will make them, round about my hill, a blessing, and I will bring down (or give) the rain in its season: there shall be rains of blessing. And the tree of the field shall give (or the trees of the plains shall give) its fruit, and the earth shall give its shoot (or strength), and they shall be (or dwell) in their own land without fear (or in hope of peace), and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the chains (or the collar) of their yoke, and rescued them from the hand of those who ruled over them (or who made them serve). And they shall no longer be a prey to the nations, nor shall the beasts of the earth devour them, but they shall dwell confidently (or in hope) without any terror. And I will raise up for them a renowned shoot (or a planting of peace), and they shall no longer be diminished (or perishing) by famine in the land, nor shall they bear any longer the reproaches of the nations; and they shall know that I am the Lord their God with them, and they my people, the house of Israel, says the Lord God. But you, my flocks, the flocks of my pasture (or sheep), are men, and I the Lord your God, says the Lord God. I have often pointed out that I mix the two editions so as to avoid making the books too large, at least in those places that do not differ much from each other in translation. After Jerusalem was taken, after the one who had escaped brought the news to Babylon, he spoke concerning those who dwelt in the ruins of Jerusalem, and then to those who, though placed in captivity, nonetheless persevered in wickedness, unwilling to hear the prophet's words; now he directs his discourse to the shepherds, that is, to the princes, by whose fault the sheep, that is, the peoples, were scattered. And this must be noted, that from the twelfth year, the tenth month, the fifth of the month of the exile — or of the captivity of Jeconiah and of those who had been taken captive with him —, up to the twenty-fifth year, when the temple is built upon the mountain of the built city and the incredible mysteries of the Church are laid open, no year and no time is set in between, but it is simply said: 'The word of the Lord came to me, saying: Speak to these and to those', so that we should understand that all the things read over thirteen years, though spoken at different times, nevertheless do not have fixed intervals of time between them. But the discourse is directed to the shepherds of Israel — whom we ought to take either as the kings and princes, the scribes and Pharisees and the teachers of the Jewish people, or certainly, in the people of the Gospel, as the bishops, presbyters and deacons, or, according to the mystical senses, as the angels of the individual churches, to whom John writes in his Revelation, and whose angels daily see the face of God —, and first it is said: Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who, when they ought to feed the Lord's flock and provide for its welfare, hasten after their own luxury — whence great care must be taken, and those precepts observed: Do not seek to become a judge, lest perhaps you be unable to take away iniquities, and again: The greater you are, the more humble yourself, and you will find grace in the sight of the Lord, and once more: Have they made you leader? Do not be lifted up: be among them as one of them; whence the Apostle too says that he was among the disciples as a little one and a suckling —. As for what follows: You ate the milk and covered yourselves with the wool, it is by a μεταφορὰν [metaphor] of shepherds that he speaks to the princes — of whom it is also written in another place: Who devour my people like a meal of bread —; in the milk understand all wealth, in the wool the manifold variety of garments. And what is said: And what was fat you slaughtered, speaks of the rich of the people, whom the wicked princes in the churches are said to slaughter, in that they praise them and dare not rebuke their vices — of whom the prophet also says: My people, those who call you blessed lead you astray, and trip up the path of your feet; of whom James too speaks, saying that when they have come in to them, clothed in costly garments and with a gold ring, they are honored by them, and to the holy poor it is said: But you, sit on the footstool, or on the ground, or stand there — what is weak they do not strengthen or make firm — whence Paul says: Receive the weak, and: Take up the one weak in faith, and: Many weak among you and sick, to whom is sent the divine word of which it is written in the Psalms: He sent his word and healed them, and rescued them from their corruptions —; 'and what is broken', he says, 'they do not bind up', by no means taking account of the mortal wounds among the peoples, such as the adulterer, the murderer, the sacrilegious man; 'and what is cast off, or what they see straying, they do not bring back', allowing them to be deceived by heretics; 'and what has perished they do not seek', desiring not so much to save the lost as to devour those who are in the churches, but ruling over them with harshness and with power — which properly pertains to the haughtiness of bishops, namely of those who disgrace the dignity of their name by their works and take up pride in place of humility, so that they think they have attained an honor, not a burden, and whomever they see in the church taking the lead and possessing the word of God, they strive to oppress; whence according to the Seventy it is written: And what was strong you afflicted with toil —. And the people of God was scattered, either by vices or by heretical error, because there was no good shepherd who would lay down his life for the sheep, but all were hirelings, who consider only the profits from the flocks and flee when they see the wolf; through whose negligence the Lord's flock is devoured by the beasts of the field — of which it is written: You set darkness, and night came: in it all the beasts of the field will pass through, the lions' whelps roaring, to seize and to seek their food from God —. And they are scattered, and they wander on all the mountains, who are lifted up against the knowledge of God, and on every high hill, who through heretical pride despise the simplicity of the Church, and they are scattered over the whole face of the earth, seeking earthly things, not heavenly: And there was none who would seek, nor who would bring back, because, occupied with their pleasures, they do not care about the losses of the Lord's flock. Hence the word of the Lord comes to the wicked shepherds, 'because you have done this and that', the things which I expounded above and which he enumerates a second time. 'Behold, I myself will come to the shepherds and will require my flock at their hand, for whom it is better that a donkey's millstone be tied to their neck than that they scandalize the least of my people; and this will be their punishment, even the greatest: That they no longer feed my flock, lest, under the pretext of the sheep, they feed themselves and amass wealth; and I will deliver my people from their mouth'. 'I will require', he says, 'from the hand', and 'I will deliver from the mouth', by which they are devoured with greedy jaws; and when he has sought out the sheep, he visits them as sick and lean and scattered through the negligence of the shepherds; and he will deliver them from all places in the day of cloud and gloom — of which Joel too speaks: The day of the Lord is at hand, and it is near; a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and mist —. Then they are led out from the lands, so as to be brought into their own land, which is the land of the living, and so that he himself may feed them on the mountains of Israel — of which David speaks: I lifted up my eyes to the mountains, whence help will come to me —, and not only on the mountains, but by the streams and in all the dwelling places of the land, in the richest pastures and on the high mountain — of which Isaiah and Micah prophesy more fully —, or on the high mountains, Israel; there they will rest in green grass — and they will say: The Lord feeds me, and nothing will be lacking to me: in a place of pasture, there he has set me; beside the water of refreshment he has brought me up —, and they will feed in the fattest pastures upon the mountains of Israel. And it is an infinite promise and a hope of blessedness, when the Lord himself promises, saying: 'I will feed my sheep, and I will by no means entrust them to wicked shepherds, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God, so that they may rest in the bosom of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob'. Then what had perished among the peoples of the nations will be sought, and what had strayed through the persuasion of heretics will be brought back, and what had been broken will be bound up, and what is crushed and weak will be made firm — that what is written may be fulfilled: Who heals their infirmities, and binds up their bruises. A heart, indeed, crushed and humbled, God does not spurn; whence the holy man too says: Heal me, for my bones are troubled, and in Psalm 37 (38), repenting: There is no peace, he says, for my bones before the face of my sins —. And what will be fat, he says, and strong I will guard, lest it be devoured by beasts; and he will feed his sheep in judgment, knowing what pastures are owed to which sheep — for Diverse indeed are the dwellings with the Father. And the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son —. These things, then, he spoke against the shepherds. Now he speaks to the sheep, that is, to the people, and to the flock of both kinds of cattle, that is, of sheep and of goats, and not only to the sheep and goats, but to the rams and he-goats, who are the princes in the flocks; to whom he says: 'Was it not enough for you that you fed on the good pastures of the Scriptures? But on top of that you will trample the remnants of your pastures with your feet, and when you drank the purest water of God's utterances, you fouled the rest of the waters with your feet, so that my people ate the pastures trampled by you and drank the fouled waters, and, through your fault, received corrupted and violated what was good in itself'. This indeed all heretics do, picking at the utterances of the Scriptures and, as far as in them lies, staining them; but churchmen who do not guard the truth of doctrines, but fabricate them from their own heart and have their own presumption for their teacher, are held fast in a like error; who, when they have persuaded the people that what they fabricate is true, and have stirred up applause and shouts in the manner of the theater, become forgetful of their own lack of skill, and, with brow drawn up and with words weighed and balanced, assume for themselves the authority of teachers. Let us see, then, what the judgment between cattle and cattle is, and with what judgment the good and true shepherd judges them, he who received all judgment from the Father: Behold, he says, I myself judge between fat cattle and lean (or between strong and weak): for the strong thrust with their sides and shoulders and dash against the weak cattle and toss them with their horns, not knowing that in the law the goring bull must be punished; and they thrust with their sides and tossed with their horns until they scattered the sheep and drove them out: for through the pride of the greater and the iniquity of those set over them, they are frequently driven from the church, so that those whom the Lord himself saved are scattered away from him; but the Lord will no longer abandon them to be a prey, and he will judge between cattle and cattle: not between the names of dignities with which those set over others swell, but between man and man, according as each is a servant of the Lord. Then he will raise up one shepherd — who says in the Gospel: I am the good shepherd —, his servant David — inasmuch as he deigned to take on the form of a servant; and 'David' means 'strong of hand' —; he himself will feed them. And the Lord will be to them for God — either the Son and the Father, or certainly the shepherd according to the flesh he assumed. But 'Lord' and 'God' according to: The 'Word' that was in the beginning with 'God' —. This David, when the cattle have advanced to being a rational animal, will no longer be called shepherd but prince in the midst of them — of whom it is written: In the midst of you stands he whom you do not know —. Then he will make with them a covenant of peace — by no means of wars and discord, for: His place was made in peace, but of the peace of Christ: Which surpasses all understanding —, who says: My peace I give to you, my peace I leave to you; and he will make the most evil beasts cease from the land — more mildly: either the passions by which human souls are troubled, or the adverse powers by which they are assailed —, and those who dwell in the desert will sleep secure in the woods — for the Lord will lay bare the thickets of the forests, and in his temple all will speak glory. And when the beasts have been driven out and the land reduced to a solitude, they will sleep secure from animals of this sort and will say: The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? —; and he will set them, those who will sleep secure, round about his mountain or hill, and they will be a blessing; then he will give rain in its season, and there will be rains of blessing — which he promises in the blessings of Deuteronomy —. And the tree of life, he says, will give — of which it is written in Genesis —, and the tree of wisdom — of which it is said: It is a tree of life to all who take it up —: it will give its fruit when the earth too has given its fruit, or the trees of the regions, the very great multitude of the saints; and the earth will give its shoot: for Truth indeed has sprung from the earth; and they will be in their own land without fear, or in hope of peace, in the land of the living — the land of the meek, of which it is written: Blessed are the gentle, for they shall possess the land —, so that through the felicity of all things they may know that he himself is the Lord, when he has broken the chains or the iron ring of their yoke, by which they were pressed down as by a most heavy rule, and has rescued them from the hand of those ruling over them, or of those afflicting them with servitude: For each one is the slave of him by whom he is overcome. And they will by no means be a prey any longer to the demonic nations, nor will the beasts of the earth, of which we have spoken, devour them, but they will dwell confidently without any terror, according to the exposition above. And I will raise up for them, he says, a renowned shoot (or a planting of peace) — which speaks in the Gospel: I am the true vine —, and they will no longer be diminished by famine in the land — so the famine is in earthly things; but the famine of hearing the word of God, which, under the good shepherd, and the renowned shoot, celebrated in the speech of all, and the planting of peace, will by no means be in the land —, nor will they be subject any longer to the reproaches of the nations — so that they say: Where is the Lord their God? —; and after all these things they will know, not only that he himself is the Lord — which he had also said above —, but, with an addition, that the Lord of all is properly their God, with them — who says in the Gospel to the apostles: Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the age —; and when he himself is the Lord their God, then they too will be his people: not just anyone, but those who have deserved to be called the house of Israel. And lest we should think that all that has been said pertains to shepherds and sheep and he-goats and rams, he solves the riddle, or rather the μεταφορὰν, and sets it down more plainly: But you, my sheep, and the sheep of my pasture, are men; the whole discourse, therefore, is about men, to whom he says: I the Lord your God, says the Lord God.
35:1-15
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set (or turn) your face against Mount Seir, and you shall prophesy concerning it (or to it), and you shall say to it: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir; and I will stretch out my hand over you, and I will make you desolate and deserted. I will demolish your cities (or in your cities I will make a waste), and you shall be deserted, and you shall know that I am the Lord. Because you have been a perpetual enemy, and have shut up the sons of Israel into the hands of the sword (or and have laid siege to the house of Israel deceitfully in the hand of the sword) in the time of their affliction, in the time of the final iniquity; therefore, as I live, says the Lord God, I will hand you over to blood (or since you have sinned in blood), and blood pursues you, and since you have hated blood, blood pursues you. And I will make Mount Seir desolate and deserted, and I will take away from it him who goes and him who returns (or men and beasts), and I will fill its mountains with its slain (or wounded) in your hills, and in your valleys and torrents those slain by the sword shall fall. I will hand you over to everlasting wastes, and your cities shall not be inhabited, and you all shall know (or you shall know) that I am the Lord. Because you have said: Two nations and two lands (or regions) shall be mine, and I will possess them as an inheritance, though the Lord was there; therefore, as I live, says the Lord God, I will act according to your anger (or enmity), and according to your zeal which you showed, holding them in hatred, and I will be made known to you when I have judged you; and you shall know that I am the Lord. I have heard all your reproaches (or the voice of your blasphemies) which you have spoken (or that you have spoken) concerning the mountains of Israel: Deserted, they have been given to us to devour. And you rose up against me with your mouth (or you spoke boastfully against me with your mouth), and you have prayed against me (or you have shouted against me) your words; I have heard. Thus says the Lord God: While the whole earth rejoices, I will reduce you to a waste; as you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was laid waste, so will I do to you: you shall be laid waste (or deserted), Mount Seir, and all Edom, and they shall know that I am the Lord. (But what is added in the Seventy, And they shall be consumed, is not found in the Hebrew.) If the word of God were always in the prophets and had a constant lodging in their breast, Ezekiel would never so often set down: 'And the word of the Lord came to me, saying'; but it was because, on account of human frailty and the necessities of this life, it at times withdrew from them; therefore John the Baptist says: He who sent me to baptize, he said to me: He on whom you see the Holy Spirit descending in the form of a dove and remaining in him, he it is — for what is added, And remaining in him, would never be something proper to Christ, unless it sometimes withdrew from others —; besides, God also says to Moses: I will take away from the spirit that is in you — which he certainly would not have had unless it had descended to him from the Lord —. Now the whole prophecy of this chapter is against Mount Seir — namely of the sons of Esau and Edom, who in Greek and in our language are called Idumaeans [Edomites], because, in the time of need and distress, when Judah was being captured by the Babylonians, they insulted them, and, the people of the Jews having been cast out, they thought the land had been handed over to them to possess, and not only did they not take in his own sons, namely those of Jacob his brother, but they persecuted them and shut them up into the hands of the sword; whence Symmachus translated it more plainly: You have hated your blood, and blood pursues you —. It is prophesied, moreover, that he too is to be captured and reduced to everlasting wastes, and is to learn by the outcome of events that God is judge, because he said: Two nations and two regions are mine — either of the Edomites and the Jews, or surely of Judah and Israel, that is, of the two and the ten tribes —. And you spoke concerning the mountains of Israel, saying: Deserted, they have been given to us to devour, not considering that this blasphemy recoiled against God; hence there follows: While the whole earth rejoices, I will reduce you to a waste; and the sense is: 'When the whole land of Judea has recovered its former state, you will remain in an everlasting waste' — and what is added next: As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was laid waste, so will I do to you, is not found in the Seventy, but has been added under asterisks from the edition of Theodotion —. But the whole wrath of God against Mount Seir tends to this end: that when it has been laid waste, both it and all Edom may know that he is the Lord. These things I would say according to the history, and hastily, the sense rather than the words; I shall pass to the ἀναγωγὴν [anagogy, the higher sense], and, for the sake of brevity, touch briefly on a few points. Set, he says, (or turn) your face against Mount Seir; and he says 'turn' significantly: from one prophecy to another prophecy; and 'face': not of the body but of the mind — of which the Apostle also speaks: But we all, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord —; and Mount 'Seir', which means 'shaggy' and 'hairy', is to be taken as the opposing power that presided over the nation of the sons of Esau and had raised itself up against the people of 'Iuda' [Judah], that is, of 'confession' and of the true faith — but if a prudent reader objects, how in this place 'Seir', that is, 'shaggy' and 'hairy', is understood in a bad sense when Elijah too was called a hairy man, I shall answer briefly: it is written of Esau that he was red and shaggy like a hide, but of Elijah only that he was a hairy man; in Esau, who, bloodthirsty and bloodstained, is compared to a shaggy hide, it is a sign of mortal works and of death itself; in Elijah, an increase of manliness, for which reason both his dwelling in the wilderness and the austerity of his way of life showed him to be not only a man but a most valiant man; moreover Jacob, who had supplanted Esau and received his birthright, because he dwelt simply at home and was not a hunter like the giant Nimrod, is for that reason called smooth and sleek —. Let us see, then, what God commands to be said to the mountain, or against Mount Seir: 'Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir: I will not send angels, nor will I use other ministers, but I myself will come to you; and I will stretch out my hand over you, so as to take on the bearing of one who strikes, and I will make you desolate and deserted, so that you, who were wickedly inhabited and had very many companions in your impiety, to such a degree that you even built cities and claimed for yourself a dominion of your own, now, made desolate with your cities — which Jeremiah too is commanded to destroy and to dig up, so that he may build good cities in their place —, may profit in this, that you may know that I am the Lord, whom before you were laid waste you could not know'. Now the whole cause of the sin is this: that he was a perpetual enemy; hence the psalm also says: Be angry and do not sin, so that we may quickly be reconciled with our enemies and exchange hatreds for love; but Mount Seir is not such, which, on top of its perpetual enmities, shut up, or besieged, the sons of Israel by guile in the hand of the sword; from which we understand that whoever has seized the sword against the sons of God and has done anything deceitfully and has besieged them has Mount Seir in the hand of the sword in the time of the final iniquity: when the days are most evil, and: The world is set in the evil one, and: Because iniquity is multiplied, the love of many grows cold. There is, moreover, another sin of Mount Seir, so that, since it hated the blood of the righteous, which it longed to see poured out one by one in persecution after persecution, it suffers persecution from that very blood — whence also under the altar the souls of the saints keep crying out and beg the Lord for vengeance for their blood —. And those who go and those who return are taken away from Mount Seir, that is, every inhabitant, or the men and beasts that are saved in the Church — of whom it is written: Men and beasts you will save, O Lord —; both of which are destroyed in Mount Seir, so that both those who seem to have some reason and those who are content with simple faith perish at God's command. And its mountains are filled with the wounded and the slain; and not only the mountains, which have reached the summit of impiety, but the hills too, that is, the lesser disciples of Mount Seir, and the valleys, which are sunk into the depths, or the torrents, which have muddy waters, gathered from here and there and coming from pride, or, according to the Seventy, the plains, which lie midway between hills and valleys: all these, slain, shall fall by the sword of the Lord and of his outstretched and striking hand, so that they may be reduced to everlasting wastes; and if there were any cities, that is, gatherings of an evil habitation, they too are to perish and cease to hold agreement in the bad sense, and their tongues are to be divided, so that they cannot build a tower of blasphemy against God; and, reduced to a waste and a desert, let them know that he is the Lord. Nor was it enough for Mount Seir to have said so much and done so much, as the preceding discourse has related, but this too it spoke in its pride: 'Two nations and two lands (or regions) are mine: namely, both Edom and Judea, both heretics and churchmen, I shall possess alike'. 'And this', he says, 'you said while the Lord was there, who presided over his people'. Therefore the Lord swears and says: 'As I live, says the Lord God, according to your anger with which you raged against the people of God, and your zeal with which you persecuted the household of Christ, holding in hatred those whom you longed to possess, when I have struck you and judged you, then I will be made known to you. And you shall know that I learned of your reproaches and blasphemies not through another's report, but that I myself heard what you spoke against the mountains of Israel, saying: Deserted, they have been given to us to devour, the mountains of Israel' — we ought to understand Moses, the prophets, the apostles, whom the heretics and the prince of heretics, the devil, think have been handed over to them to devour, when either rarely anyone or no one is found in the Church who can fight for the mountains of the Lord and ward off their mangling with his voice —. 'And you rose up', he says, 'against me with your mouth, or you spoke boastfully, not, as you think, against the mountains, but through them against me; and you prayed, or cried out, against me; for all your prayers, O Mount Seir and companions of Mount Seir — of whom it was said above: I will fill its mountains and hills and valleys and plains (or torrents) —, were against me: not at all prayers and petitions, as you think, to God, but a clamor of shouting and blasphemy'. Hence the Lord also threatens and says: 'As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel when by your persecutions it was laid waste and torn and scattered through the whole world, so will I do to you: for while the whole land of the living and the land of the saints rejoices, and all are turned to the service of God, you shall be laid waste, shaggy mountain, hairy mountain, and all Edom — namely, earthly works given over to gore and blood —, so that then you may know that I am the Lord, who have said elsewhere: I am the Lord your God'.
36:1-15
But you, son of man, prophesy over the mountains of Israel, and you shall say: Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God: Because the enemy has said of you: Aha, the everlasting heights (or solitudes) have been given to us as a possession; therefore prophesy and say: Thus says the Lord God: Because you have been made desolate and trampled down round about (or Because you have been scattered by those who are round about you), and made an inheritance (or a possession) for the rest of the nations, and you have come up upon the lip of the tongue and become a reproach to the peoples (or nations); therefore, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God: Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, to the torrents and the valleys and the deserts, to the ruined walls (or the things scattered) and the forsaken cities, which have been depopulated and derided (or trampled down) by the rest of the nations round about. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Since in the fire of my zeal I have spoken concerning the rest of the nations, and concerning all Edom, who have given my land to themselves as an inheritance with joy and with the whole heart and from the soul, and have cast it out in order to lay it waste (or with joy, despising souls, in order to overthrow them in devastation), therefore prophesy over the land of Israel, and you shall say to the mountains and the hills, to the ridges and the valleys: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I have spoken in my zeal and in my fury, because you have borne the confusion (or the reproaches) of the nations; therefore thus says the Lord God (or Adonai the Lord): I have lifted up (or I will lift up) my hand, so that the nations which are round about you shall themselves bear their confusion (or ignominy); but you, mountains of Israel, shall put forth your branches (or your grapes), and bear your fruit for my people Israel, for it is near that it should come. For behold, I am toward you, and I will turn to you (or I will look upon you), and you shall be plowed and shall receive seed; and I will multiply men upon you, and the whole house of Israel, and the cities shall be inhabited and the ruined places shall be restored (or what is deserted shall be built). And I will fill you with men and with beasts, and they shall be multiplied and shall increase; and I will make you to be inhabited as from the beginning, and I will endow you with greater goods than you had from the beginning, and you shall know that I am the Lord. And I will bring (or I will beget) upon you men, my people Israel, and they shall possess thee by inheritance (or you), and thou shalt be (or you shall be) a possession for them, and thou shalt not add any more to be without them (or and you shall not add any more that they should make you without children). Thus says the Lord God: Because they have said of you (or to thee): Thou art a devourer of men, and one who strangles thy nation; therefore thou shalt no more eat men, and thou shalt no longer kill thy nation, says the Lord God. Nor will I any more cause the confusion (or ignominy) of the nations to be heard in thee (or in you), and the reproaches of the peoples thou shalt by no means bear (or you shall bear), and thou shalt no more lose thy nation (or thy nation shall no longer be without children), says the Lord God. Above, the prophet's face is set, or turned, against Mount Seir; here the son of man speaks to the mountains, or over the mountains, of Israel, which are commanded to hear the word of God; and, to put off the tropology for a little, this in brief is the sense of the whole prophecy to the mountains of Israel: 'Because the enemy, that is, Mount Seir, insulted you, and thought that he himself would possess you forever, and that the heights, once the Lord's and now deserted, had passed to him as an inheritance, and not only said so but also possessed you for some time, to such a degree that he spoke proudly against you and you were a reproach to all the nations, therefore thus says the Lord God, not only to Mount Seir, but also to its mountains and hills, torrents, valleys and deserts and wasted places and forsaken cities: that in the fire of his zeal he has spoken, against all the nations indeed, but especially against Edom, which with the other' he says 'nations held my land as a possession, and possessed it with joy, and possessed it with the whole heart, so as to cast the inhabitants out of it and lay the land waste. Therefore speak,' he says, 'O prophet, over the land of Israel, and you shall say to the mountains and hills and ridges — for which the Seventy translated νάπας [glens], which we understand as 'places' that are 'wooded' —, and to the valleys: Thus says the Lord God: In my zeal and in my fury I will stand forth as the avenger of your reproach; and I will lift up my hand, so that the nations which are round about you may bear their ignominy and confusion; but you, O mountains of Israel, shall sprout according to your former state, and put forth shoots and branches — or, according to the Seventy, bear grapes —, with which my people Israel may be filled; and do not think that this will come after a long time: it is near, the time is at hand and will come. And lest this seem difficult to you, I myself will come to you, and I who had withdrawn from you will turn to you, so that you may recover your former cultivation and all things may be filled with seed, so that there may be many men in you, and the cities which had formerly been destroyed may be inhabited. And not only will I multiply men, but the beasts too shall likewise be multiplied and shall increase; and I will make you to be inhabited as from the beginning, when, under the leadership of Moses, two and a half tribes received their possession beyond the Jordan, and, under Joshua the son of Nun, the other nine and a half tribes possessed the land of Judea; and I will endow you with goods much greater than you were from the beginning, before you experienced the various captivities; and when I have done this for you, then you will know that I am the Lord. And you shall be filled,' he says, 'O land of Israel, with my people, who will hold you as an inheritance, and you shall be a possession for them, and you shall not add any more to be without sons. But when your inhabitant has been multiplied, O mountains of Israel, then your enemies will by no means say against you that you devour men and that your possession is without children; but on the contrary you will multiply men, and your posterity will bring forth a most abundant offspring. Nor will you hear,' he says, 'any more, nor will you bear, the confusion of the nations; nor yet will you lose your nation so as ever to undergo captivity, since the Lord has spoken'. These things we have said παραφραστικῶς [by way of paraphrase], in the Jewish manner: things which they expect in the reign of a thousand years, when they assert that the city of Jerusalem is to be built, and the temple which is described at the end of this volume, and the happiness of all things; and some of them think that these things were fulfilled under Zerubbabel — but how can what is said stand: And I will make you to be inhabited as from the beginning, and I will endow you with greater goods than you had from the beginning? For under Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah few of the people were brought back, and they themselves, obeying the Medes and Persians and thereafter the Macedonians and Egyptians and Romans, served the kings of various nations up to Titus and Vespasian, and serve them to this day, so that what is said at the end of the prophecy cannot stand at all: And the reproach of the peoples thou shalt by no means bear, and thou shalt no more lose thy nation —; and since it would be a long matter to speak now, in a brief explanation, against the Jewish dogma and against a blessedness that serves the belly and gullet of the Jews, who desire all earthly things and say: Let us eat and drink — of whom the Apostle also speaks: Food is for the belly and the belly for foods; but God will destroy both it and them —, let us now pass to the spiritual understanding, according to which we also interpreted the last parts of Isaiah. For we do not, according to the Jewish fables which they call δευτερώσεις [deuteroses, secondary traditions], expect a jeweled and golden Jerusalem from heaven, nor are we going to suffer again the injury of circumcision, nor to offer victims of bulls and rams, nor shall we sleep in the idleness of the sabbath — which many of our own also promise, and especially the book of Tertullian entitled 'On the Hope of the Faithful' and the seventh volume of Lactantius' 'Institutes', and the frequent 'Expositions' of Victorinus, bishop of Poetovio, and recently our Severus in the dialogue to which he gave the name 'Gallus', and, to name the Greeks and join the first and the last, Irenaeus and Apollinaris —. We, therefore, say that the mountains of Israel are the prophets and apostles, who hear the word of God and whom the devil, the enemy, insulted, saying: 'Aha, the mountains once lofty — of which it is written: Mountains are round about it, and the Lord is round about his people — have been given to me as a possession, when through the straits of persecution they were made desolate and trampled down round about, and made an inheritance for the rest of the nations, and blasphemed by all'. Therefore the Lord speaks to the mountains trampled down and made desolate, and not only to the mountains but also to those lower down, set at their several degrees in the land of Judea, that is, on the mountain of the Church — of which it is written: A city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden —, and to the hills and torrents, whose faith is increased by the winter of persecutions and the storm of affliction, to the valleys also, those who have been brought low in humility, and to the deserted churches, and to the ruined walls, and to the meeting places of the churches forsaken throughout the whole world — such was the persecution throughout the whole world under Diocletian and Maximian, through which the churches were proscribed and laid waste, when all the nations of the Gentiles and of the heretics round about derided the Church —: that he has spoken in the fire of the zeal of his fury; and particularly against Edom, which by earthly works wanted everyone to lay aside the image of the heavenly and bear the image of the earthly: for they gave the land of God to themselves as an inheritance, and with the whole heart and from the soul they persecuted the Church of the Lord, and cast it out of its seats, and laid it waste. But what did it profit the nations, what did it help the nations of heretics to have insulted the land of the Lord, when the Lord speaks to it, and has spoken in his zeal and in his fury to its mountains and hills and ridges, or wooded places, which were green with the loveliness of paradise, and to the hills, of which we spoke above, and lifts up his hand, on account of the reproach of the nations, against the adversaries who persecuted the Church, so that they bear their confusion and ignominy?: then, when the persecutors have been slain and peace has been restored to the Church, the mountains of Israel, namely the apostles and apostolic men, will make their trees sprout and stretch out their branches, and will bring grapes to be trodden in the winepress of the Lord, from which the new wine flows that inebriates the peoples of believers, and the wine is pressed out that gladdens the heart of man, so that all the fruit of the mountains, from which is made the bread descending from heaven, may be eaten by the people of God, Israel. And lest perhaps we despair in persecutions, it is added: It is near — the time — that it should come — for coming indeed he will come and will not delay —; hence he promises his coming to the mountains and to those who have endured in tribulations, and promises that, after the heat of persecution, the land formerly stripped may be worked by the plowshare of Christ, and receive every seed of the virtues, from which men may be born and multiplied, and the whole house of Israel. And when the cities, that is, the churches of believers, have been inhabited by the returning crowds, then not only the men who will be strong in the knowledge of the Scriptures, but also the beasts, all the simple among the believers, will be multiplied and grow up; and the churches will be inhabited as from the beginning, that is, before there was persecution, and will flourish with greater goods than they had from the beginning, crowned with the victories of the martyrs. And then they will know that he is the Lord who restores his people to its former state, so that it may possess the churches and itself be the inheritance of the churches, and no longer be without the children whom it had lost in persecution. Hence the prophet is commanded to speak to the land of the meek and the land of the living, or to the mountains of Israel, and to say: 'You shall no longer suffer the reproach of the persecutors, nor will they insult your slaughtered people as sheep for the slaughter; for when peace has been restored, all reproaches will cease, nor will you bear confusion and ignominy among the various nations round about, but you will have your nation and your people, because the truth of the promise has been confirmed, since the Lord has spoken'.
36:16-38
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, the house of Israel have dwelt (or has dwelt) in their land, and they defiled it in their ways and in their pursuits (or idols); like the uncleanness of a menstruous woman their way has become before me. And I poured out my indignation (or my fury) upon them, for the blood which they shed upon the land; with their idols they defiled it. And I scattered them among the nations, and they were winnowed (or I winnowed them) into the lands (or into the regions); according to their ways and their devices (or sins) I judged them. And they went in to the nations to which they entered, and they defiled my holy name, when it was said of them: This is the people of the Lord, and they have gone out of his land. And I spared my holy name (or I spared them for the sake of my holy name), which the house of Israel had defiled among the nations to which they went in. Therefore you shall say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: Not for your sake will I act, house of Israel, but for the sake of my holy name, which you defiled among the nations to which you entered; and I will sanctify my great name, which has been defiled among the nations, which you defiled in the midst of them, so that they may know that I am the Lord, says the Lord of hosts, when I shall have been sanctified in you before them. For I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land; and I will pour out (or sprinkle) clean water upon you, and you shall be cleansed from all your defilements, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put in your midst (or I will give you), and I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh; and my spirit I will put in your midst (or I will give you), and I will cause you to walk in my precepts (or in my justifications), and to keep my judgments and to work (or do) them. And you shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers, and you shall be to me for a people and I will be to you for a God. And I will save you from all your defilements (or uncleannesses), and I will call the fruit and multiply it, and I will not lay (or give) famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field, so that you may no longer bear the reproach of famine among the nations. And you shall remember your most evil ways, and your pursuits that were not good, and your iniquities and your crimes shall displease you. Not for your sake will I act, says the Lord God; let it be known to you: be confounded and blush for your ways, house of Israel. Thus says the Lord God: On the day when I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities, and caused the cities to be inhabited and restored the ruined places, and the deserted land shall have been tilled which once was desolate in the eyes of every traveler, they will say: That untilled land (or deserted) has become like a garden of pleasure, and the cities deserted and forsaken and undermined have sat fortified. And the nations which shall have been left round about you will know that I the Lord have built what was scattered and planted what was untilled; that I the Lord have spoken and have done it. Thus says the Lord God: Yet in this will the house of Israel find me (or I will be sought by the house of Israel), that I may do it for them: I will multiply them like a flock of men (or like sheep, men), like a holy flock (or like holy sheep), like the flock (or sheep) of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts: so shall the deserted cities also be full of flocks (or sheep) of men, and they shall know that I am the Lord. What is said is clear, and the whole sense concerning the mountains of Israel, which had formerly been deserted and were afterwards restored, is now set out more plainly; and God gives the reasons why he handed the people of Israel over to captivity, and on account of his clemency promises that he will lead them back into the land of Judea, and bestow far more than he had taken away — which some of the Jews refer to the times of Zerubbabel, when, as Cyrus king of the Persians relaxed their captivity, very many from the tribe of Judah and Benjamin were brought back into Judea; but others refer it to the reign of a thousand years, when under the Christ, who they think is yet to come, both the city of Jerusalem is to be built up and the temple to be built, of which we shall speak in the last part of this prophecy —. And meanwhile, to leave behind Jewish fables and endless genealogies, let us, according to our custom, briefly run through the περικοπὴν [section] of this chapter, and set out what seems right to us according to the ecclesiastical understanding. The house of Israel, that is, the people of the Jews, once dwelt in its own land, that is, in the land of Judea, when it was led out of Egypt; but they defiled it in their ways and in their pursuits, or idols; and they became so polluted that they were compared to the uncleanness of a menstruous woman. On which account God pours out his indignation upon them for the blood of the prophets and the righteous which they shed upon the land — as the Savior says in the Gospel: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who have been sent to you, and again: Amen, amen I say to you: the blood which has been shed shall be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel the righteous up to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, which they shed between the altar and the temple —; and not only did they shed blood, but they also defiled the land with their crimes; for which reason he scattered them, whether under the Babylonian captivity or under the Roman, when they truly shed the blood of Christ; and they were winnowed into the lands as chaff is winnowed, and judged according to their ways and their most evil inventions, so that among the nations too, to which they had been led captive, they defiled the holy name of God, because all the nations said in mockery: 'Behold, this is the people of God, which boasted that it properly knew the worship of God'. 'When I had seen this,' he says, 'not for their sake but for the sake of my holy name — for I am the Creator of all — I spared them; and I sanctified them and restored them to their former glory, so that upon those who believed and were converted from error I poured out the clean water of saving baptism, and cleansed them from their abominations and from all the errors with which they had been taken up; and I gave them a new heart, that they might believe in the Son of God, and a new spirit' — of which David speaks: Create a clean heart in me, O God, and renew a right spirit in my inward parts —. And it must be considered that the new heart and the new spirit are given after the pouring out and sprinkling of the water; and when the new heart and the new spirit have been given, then all the hardness which is compared to stone will be taken away from the Jewish heart, and in place of the heart of stone there comes to be a heart of flesh, soft and tender, which can receive the spirit of God into itself and be inscribed with saving letters; then they will walk in the precepts of the Lord and keep his judgments. And they will dwell in the land of confession, which he had given to their fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and to all the saints and prophets, and they will be for a people of God and the Lord will be to them for a God, which is borne out at the present time. And when they have been saved, the Lord will call the grain and multiply it — for unless indeed a grain of wheat falling into the earth has died, it remains alone —, and they will by no means suffer famine — not a famine of bread and a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of God — the famine which he suffered who, setting out from his father, squandered all the substance he had received, when, compelled by the necessity of hunger, he fed on the pods of the swine. Then the fruit of the tree will be multiplied — that is, of wisdom, of which it is written: She is a tree of life to all who seek her — and the produce of the field — in the likeness of Jacob, whose smell was: Like the smell of a full field which the Lord has blessed —, and they will no longer bear the reproach of famine among the nations, which the unbelief of the Jews suffers even today; but, after they have attained blessedness, they will imitate the Apostle, who says: I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. And they will remember their most evil ways and their pursuits that were not good, by which they had offended God, and their iniquities and their crimes, by which they had formerly gone astray, will displease them. Now the Lord will bestow all these things, not for the sake of those who perished by their own error, but for the sake of his holy name; hence he challenges the house of Israel to be confounded and to blush for its former vices, and to understand its Creator. But after he has cleansed the people of believers from among the Jews from their iniquities, and caused the cities of the Church to be inhabited, and restored the ruined places which had fallen in the synagogues, and the land of confession has been tilled with the ceremonies of God, which once seemed desolate to all the saints who pass by the works of earthly conduct, then all will say: 'How is it that the land of Judea, which had once been untilled, now has the likeness of the paradise of God, and the cities of Judea, which had been deserted and forsaken and undermined by their own unbelief, are now raised up and fortified in the confession and the name of the Lord Savior?'; so that every creature, and the multitudes of angels that encircle the land of Israel, may know that the Lord has built the scattered cities and planted the untilled regions, and has fulfilled in deed what he promised through the prophets. Nor will he be content with this gift of his liberality toward the people he has saved, but he will bestow far greater things: for he will be found by the house of Israel, he who had been sought for a long time and not found; and, after it has found him, he will multiply them like sheep, not sheep of brute animals but sheep of men — who are full of reason and confession —, like holy sheep and the flock of Jerusalem — in which properly is the worship of God and the vision of peace —, in her solemn feasts — when we eat the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, and feed on the flesh of the Lamb and are given his blood to drink, and in the seven weeks and in the tabernacles of this age, of the Lord, of the Lord, celebrate the feasts —, so that the cities, once deserted, may become full of flocks of men, and by this means they may know that he is the Lord who has bestowed all things. Let it suffice to have said these things briefly according to the truth of the history, or rather according to the faith of the prophecy: how the people of Israel is restored to its unimpaired state, and the remnant of the people of the Jews, as the Apostle Paul teaches, is saved in the apostles and in all who from the Jews believed in the beginning and to this day return to the Church; now the sense of the tropology must be opened with the same brevity. Whoever is of the house of Israel and sees the peace of Christ, which surpasses all understanding, dwells in his own land, the Church, or in the lodging of the flesh which has been handed over to him by God; but if he defiles either land in his most evil ways and is compared to the uncleanness of a menstruous woman, God pours out his indignation upon him, for the blood, whether his own or that of those whom he has scandalized and has shed upon the land, and for the perverse thoughts with which he defiled it. Then he will be scattered among the nations so as to be made equal to the unbelieving nations, and he will be winnowed on the earth like chaff so as to be separated from the grain of the Church, and he will be judged according to his ways; and if not even so does he perceive his sin, but defiles his holy name, all among whom he dwells will say: 'Behold the people of God, behold one who went out of his land, or rather was cast out'. 'But if they repent and I am sanctified in their midst, then the whole crowd of the nations will know that I will take them from the lands into which they had been scattered, and lead them back into the land of the Church; and I will pour out upon them not the waters of saving baptism but the waters of the teaching and the word of God, and I will cleanse them from all their defilements and from all the idols and errors which they have feigned in their heart. And I will give them,' he says, 'a new heart, which they had lost through sin, and I will renew a right spirit in their hearts, and I will take away the heart of stone, namely the unbelieving heart, and give a heart of flesh, soft and tender, which may receive the precepts of God, so that they walk in my precepts and do the judgments which they had formerly neglected. And let them dwell in the land which I had given to their fathers, namely the masters and teachers, and let them again be the people of God, and let the Lord, whom they had formerly offended, become God to them. Then they will be saved from all their defilements, and the grain from which the heavenly bread is made will be multiplied for them, and they will no longer suffer the famine of the word of God. And the tree of wisdom will be multiplied in them, and the produce will be brought to fullness in their breast, nor will they any longer be a reproach among the nations. But, after God has had mercy on them, they will remember their most evil ways, and they will know where they have been, and they will be displeasing to themselves in their iniquities'; which the Lord says he does, not for their sake, but for the sake of his own clemency. Hence he also exhorts those who stray to be confounded and to blush for their ways, and to be restored to the cities of the Church, so that these may again be inhabited by them, and everything that had collapsed in them may be built up, and they may return to their former ceremonies, and the land once deserted, which had seemed desolate to the neighbors and strangers and to those passing through the conduct of this world, may return to its former state, and all may marvel and say: 'That untilled land, that deserted land in which all the virtues once perished, has now become like a garden of pleasure and the paradise of God'; and the cities once deserted, which did not have God as their guest and were forsaken by the Holy Spirit and undermined by unbelief, will be fortified by the faith of Christ, so that all round about may know that the Lord has built up the scattered souls, and planted in them and sown together the trees of all the virtues, and that he who promised by word has himself made it good in deed. And again the prophetic word exhorts the penitent that, even when they have returned into the churches, they should always seek the Lord and find him, so that the flocks of the Lord may be multiplied by the crowds of those returning, not flocks of beasts and brute animals, but flocks of men who are full of faith and reason, holy flocks, flocks of the city of Jerusalem, in all the solemn feasts which they have received by the clemency of God, so that, after a multitude of such flocks has filled the cities of the Lord, then all may know that he is the Lord.
37:1-14
The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he led me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of a plain which was full of bones; and he led me around through them in a circle: and they were very many upon the face of the plain, and exceedingly dry. And he said to me: Son of man, do you think these bones will live? And I said: Lord God, you know. And he said to me: Prophesy concerning these bones, and you shall say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord; thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will send spirit into you and you shall live, and I will put sinews upon you and make flesh grow up upon you, and I will stretch skin over you, and I will give you spirit, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord. And I prophesied as he had commanded me. And there was a sound, as I prophesied, and behold, a commotion; and the bones drew near, bones to bones, each one to its joint. And I looked, and behold, sinews and flesh came up upon them, and skin was stretched over them from above, and they did not have spirit. And he said to me: Prophesy to the spirit; prophesy, son of man, and you shall say to the spirit: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O spirit, and breathe upon these slain, and let them come to life again. And I prophesied as he had commanded me, and the spirit entered into them; and they lived, and they stood upon their feet, an army great beyond measure, exceedingly. And he said to me: Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; they say: Our bones have dried up and our hope has perished, and we are cut off. Therefore prophesy and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your tombs, and I will lead you out of your graves, my people, and I will bring you into the land of Israel; and you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves and have led you out of your tombs, my people, and have put my spirit in you and you have lived, and I will make you rest upon your own soil, and you shall know that I am the Lord: I have spoken and I have done it, says the Lord God. (LXX: "And the hand of the Lord came upon me, and he led me out in the spirit of the Lord, and placed me in the midst of a plain, and this was full of the bones of men; and he led me around over them by a circuit round about: and behold, very many upon the face of the plain, and dry exceedingly. And he said to me: Son of man, will these bones live? And I said: Lord, Lord, you know these things. And he said to me: Son of man, prophesy over these bones, and you shall say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord; thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will bring upon you the spirit of life, and I will put sinews upon you and bring flesh upon you, and I will stretch hide over you, and I will give you my spirit, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord. And I prophesied as he commanded me. And there was a voice, when I was prophesying, and behold, a commotion; and the bones were drawing near, bones to bones, to its joint. And I looked, and behold, sinews and flesh were springing up upon them, and hides were coming up over them from above, and there was no spirit in them. And he said to me: Prophesy over the spirit, prophesy, son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus says the Lord, the Lord: Come from the four spirits, O spirit, and breathe upon these dead, and let them live. And I prophesied as he had commanded me, and the spirit entered into them; and they lived, and stood on their feet, a congregation large, exceedingly, beyond measure. And the Lord spoke to me, saying: Son of man, these bones are all the house of Israel; they say: Our bones have become dry, our hope has perished, we have despaired. Therefore prophesy, and say to them: Thus says the Lord, the Lord: Behold, I will open your memorials, and I will bring you back from your graves, my people, and I will bring you into the land of Israel; and you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves so as to lead you out of your graves, my people, and I will give my spirit in you and you shall live, and I will place you upon your own land, and you shall know that I am the Lord: I have spoken and I will do it, says the Lord, the Lord.") The vision is a famous one, and celebrated in the reading of all the churches of Christ; and for this reason above all I have set down both editions in full, so that no calumny might be raised against us by the Hebrews if they differed even in some words — for they are accustomed to laugh at us and to raise their eyebrows, and with puffed-out cheeks to belch forth their knowledge of the Scriptures, if they have been able to point out in our codices, I will not say a discrepancy of sense — which, if there were one, is rightly censured — but a dissonance of words —. Those, then, who think that the word of God is about the resurrection — which is believed by all, both Jews and Christians — are accustomed to say this: The hand of the Lord came upon the prophet, that is, the Lord and Savior, through whom the Father wrought all things — All things indeed were made by him, and without him nothing was made that was made —. And he led me out, he says, in the spirit of the Lord: the hand of the Lord is understood; and he led him out in the spirit: not in the body but outside the body, and placed him, or set him down, in the midst of a plain which was full of human bones; nor did it allow him to rest, but made him go around all the bones, which were not covered with earth but lying upon the plain: and not only many, but very many and, because of the length of time, dry and exceedingly parched and having no moisture in them. And when the divine word had asked him whether he thought these bones could live, he replied: 'Lord God, you know, you who have full knowledge of things to come'. And the Lord said to him: Prophesy concerning the bones (or over these bones), and you shall say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. In this it is to be wondered at how he spoke to dry bones, which, before the sinews, flesh and skin and the life-giving spirit, could hear the word of God; and first bones are bound to other bones by the bonds of sinews, then they are filled with flesh, and over them, for beauty, skin is stretched to cover the unsightliness of the bare flesh, and then they receive the spirit which makes them live, so that, after they have lived, they may then know that he is the Lord. So when the prophet spoke what he had been commanded, at once a commotion arose; and the bones were fitted into their framework, bound with sinews, full of flesh, covered with hide; and there lay human bodies that did not have spirit. Therefore the prophet prophesies to the spirit, and says: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O spirit — namely from the four quarters of the world, so that, just as in the first creation of man: God breathed into his face and he was made into a living soul, so also the second creation, that is, the resurrection of the dead, may be given life by the breathing of the spirit —, and the spirit entered the human bodies, and at once they lived and stood upon their feet — whence also the resurrection of the dead is called a 'congregation', or church, 'large' and, as it is in the Hebrew, 'a great army'; and at that time is fulfilled: Send forth your spirit and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth —. But what follows: And he said to me: Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel, seems to raise a question, in that it is said not of the general resurrection but properly of the resurrection of the house of Israel, which says: 'Our bones have dried up and our hope has perished, and we are cut off from our land' or 'we have utterly despaired'; and as they say these things, Ezekiel is compelled to prophesy a third time and to say to the dry bones: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your tombs, and here it is asked, if he opens tombs, how he said above: And they were very many upon the face of the plain, and exceedingly dry. And I will lead, he says, you out of your graves, my people — according to what is written in the Gospel: The hour comes when those who are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who have done good shall come forth to the resurrection of life, and again: Those who hear shall live —. And if, as some think, the divine word speaks of the general resurrection, what need was there to say specifically: And I will bring you into the land of Israel, when throughout the whole world the dead must rise from those places in which they were buried? And when, he says, I have led you out of your tombs and have put my spirit in you and you have lived, then: 'I will make you rest upon your own soil, so that, after you have rested in the land of Israel, you may then know that I am the Lord, who have fulfilled my promises in deed'. Those, then, who understand these words of the general resurrection refer what seems to raise a question: These bones are the whole house of Israel, to the resurrection of the saints — of which the apostle John also speaks in the Revelation: Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection; over him the second death has no power —, namely that the resurrection of the saints is one thing, that of sinners another — whence also it is said in the first psalm: The ungodly shall not rise again in judgment, nor sinners in the council of the righteous —; and the land of Israel, which the Lord promises to those who rise again, they affirm to be that of which it is written: Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land, and: I will please the Lord in the region of the living. These things are said by those who hold that Ezekiel wrote, as we have said, of the general resurrection. But those who interpret otherwise will put forward the following: it ought not to bring odium upon us that, by expounding this passage otherwise, we seem to deny the resurrection: for we know that we find in the holy Scriptures much stronger testimonies, and ones in which there is no doubt — such as that of Job: You will raise up my skin, which endures these things, and in Daniel: Many who sleep in the dust of the earth shall rise again, these to life eternal, and these to reproach and to eternal confusion, and in the Gospel: Do not fear those who kill the body and cannot kill the soul; but rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in gehenna, and in the apostle Paul: Who will give life to your mortal bodies because of his spirit dwelling in you, and many others —; from which it is clear that we do not deny the resurrection, but contend that these things were not written of the resurrection and that, through the parable of the resurrection, it is the restoration of Israel that is prophesied, which at that time was captive in Babylon. Nor shall we at once give an occasion to heretics if we deny that these things are to be understood of the common resurrection: for the likeness of the resurrection would never be set forth to signify the restoration of the Israelite people, unless the resurrection itself stood firm and were believed to be in the future — since no one confirms uncertain things from things that do not exist —; and our whole assertion tends to this: that, just as it seems unbelievable that a future resurrection should be promised to dry bones worn away by great age, and yet what is promised will be, so also the restoration of the people of Israel, which was led into captivity and scattered over the whole world, seems indeed incredible to those who do not know the power of God, but yet it will be: 'For I' he says 'the Lord have spoken and will do it, as I have promised'. Finally, the earlier prophecies too, in which their ancient state is promised again to the mountains of Israel, and the Lord says to them: And I will turn to you, and you shall be plowed and shall receive seed; and I will multiply men upon you, and all the house of Israel, and again that the house of Israel will dwell in its own land, which, once uncultivated, will afterwards be like a garden of delight, and that the deserted and abandoned cities are fortified, and the house of Israel is multiplied in them like a flock of sheep, and the rest that follows — these pertain to the same sense which is now spoken under the tropology and parable of the dry bones that have no moisture of life at all — that being fulfilled which is written in the Gospel: What seems impossible with men is possible with God —; and they were cast forth from their graves, from the graves of captivity and from the chains by which they were held bound in Babylonian servitude. But the Jews affirm that all these things were fulfilled either under Zerubbabel, as I said before, when a great commotion took place and the kingdom of the Chaldeans was transferred to the Medes and Persians, or at the presence of their Christ, who they think is yet to come. We, however, declare that they were fulfilled spiritually after the cross of the Lord Savior and are fulfilled daily, above all in those who, like Lazarus bound in the grave-bands of their sins, are raised at the voice of the Lord, and are truly the house of Israel, once dry and having no hope of salvation, but who, as the spirit of grace enters into them and the Lord stretches out his hand, are set free from the depth of the underworld; and those who had earlier said: Lord God, you know, may afterwards, once set free, hear this: O you of little faith, why did you doubt?
37:15-28
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: And you, son of man, take for yourself one stick and write upon it: Of Judah and of the sons of Israel his companions. And take another stick and write upon it: Of Joseph — the stick of Ephraim — and of the house of Israel and of his companions. And join them one to the other for yourself into one stick; and they shall be in union in your hand. And when the sons of your people say to you, speaking: Will you not show us what you mean by these things? you shall speak to them: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph — which is in the hand of Ephraim — and the tribes of Israel which are joined to him, and I will put them together with the stick of Judah and make them one stick, and they shall be one in his hand. And the sticks on which you have written shall be in your hand before their eyes, and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from the midst of the nations to which they have gone, and I will gather them from every side, and I will bring them to their own soil, and I will make them one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be ruling over all, and they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they be divided any more into two kingdoms. Nor shall they be defiled any more with their idols and abominations and with all their iniquities, and I will save them out of all their dwelling places in which they sinned, and I will cleanse them, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. And my servant David shall be king over them, and there shall be one shepherd of them all; they shall walk in my judgments, and they shall keep my commandments and do them. And they shall dwell upon the land which I gave to my servant Jacob, in which your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell upon it, they and their sons and their sons' sons for ever, and David my servant shall be their prince for ever. And I will strike with them a covenant of peace, it shall be an everlasting pact for them, and I will establish them and multiply them; and I will put my sanctification in the midst of them for ever, and my tabernacle shall be among them; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the sanctifier of Israel, when my sanctification shall be in the midst of them for ever. (LXX: "And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: And you, son of man, take to yourself one rod and write upon it: Judah and the sons of Israel who are added to him. And you shall take to yourself a second rod and you shall inscribe it: Joseph — the rod of Ephraim — and all the sons of Israel who are added to him. And you shall join them to each other for yourself into one rod, so as to couple them; and they shall be in your hand. And it shall be, when the sons of Israel say to you, speaking: Will you not show us what these things are to you? you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord, the Lord: Behold, I will take into the tribe of Joseph — through the hand of Ephraim — the tribes of Israel which are joined to him, and I will put them all upon the tribe of Judah and they shall be into one rod, and they shall be one in the hand of Judah. And the rods which you inscribed shall be thus, in your hand in their presence, and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord, the Lord: Behold, I will take the whole house of Israel from the midst of the nations into which they have entered, and I will gather them from all who are round about it, and I will bring them into the land of Israel, and I will make them into one nation in my land on the mountains of Israel; and one prince shall be over all these as king, and they shall no longer be into two nations, nor shall they be divided any more into two kingdoms. And let them no longer be defiled with their idols and with their stumbling blocks and with all their impieties, and I will rescue them from all their iniquities in which they sinned, and I will cleanse them, and they shall be to me for a people: I will be to them for God. And my servant David shall be prince in their midst, and there shall be one shepherd of all these, for they shall walk in my precepts and keep my judgments and do them. And they shall dwell in their own land which I gave to my servant Jacob, where their fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell in it, they and their sons and their sons' sons for ever, and David my servant shall be their prince for ever. And I will appoint for them a testament of peace, it shall be an everlasting testament with them, and I will give them and multiply them; and I will set my holy things in their midst for ever, and my tabernacle shall be among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them, when my holy things shall be in their midst for ever.") The history of the Kings relates that under Rehoboam the son of Solomon the twelve tribes were divided, and that two, that is, Judah and Benjamin, with the Levites and priests, followed Rehoboam, who reigned in Jerusalem: and his kingdom was called Judah; but that the other ten tribes — who said: We have no part in David, nor inheritance in the son of Jesse — submitted their necks to Jeroboam the son of Nebat, of the tribe of Ephraim, who was the son of Joseph, and served him: and that they were called, from the greater part of the people, by the ancient name Israel; and that for a long time the kingdom of Judah and Israel waged conflicts against each other and obeyed their own kings, and that first the ten tribes were taken captive by the Assyrians, and, after some time, those which were called Judah were led captive by the Chaldeans into Babylon; and that the tribe of Judah was restored to its ancient land after seventy years, but the ten tribes, which were called Israel, serve as captives to this day in the mountains and cities of the Medes. The present prophecy, therefore, promises these things from the mouth of the Lord: that both realms are to be joined together, that is, the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel, and that the rod of Ephraim, who was begotten of the stock of Joseph, is to be taken up with the remaining tribes which are associated with him, and joined to the rod of Judah, so that they are no longer called Judah and Israel but are called by one name, Judah, and, under the figure of the prophet, who goes before as a type of the Lord Savior, are held not by two hands but by the one hand of Christ. For he says that he takes the sons of Israel from the midst of the nations to which they were led captive, and will lead them back into the land and into the mountains of Israel — of which we read above —, and that they are to be called one nation and ruled by the authority of one king, so that they are no longer defiled with their idols and abominations; but that, when they have been freed from the dwelling places of captivity in which they had sinned, they are to be cleansed of all vices and will be the people of God, so that the Lord is their God. And my servant, he says, David shall be king over them — of whom the angel also speaks in the Gospel, saying that he will reign over the house of Jacob and of his kingdom there will be no end —; and he will be of such clemency that he is called not only king but also shepherd, so that the name of shepherd may soften the proud name of power; and they, after they have become one nation and have dwelt in the land and on the mountains of Israel, will walk in all the judgments of the Lord and keep his precepts; and they will dwell not in another land but in that which he gave to his servant Jacob, in which their fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the other saints dwelt; and not only will they themselves dwell there, but also their sons and grandsons — according to that line of Vergil: And the sons of sons and those who will be born of them —; and they will dwell there not for a short time, but for ever. 'But do you wish' he says 'to know who this king and shepherd is? He is the one of whom I spoke above: My servant David: Who, though he was in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and became obedient to the Father unto death, even the death of the cross. And when they are under such a king, I will strike with them a covenant of peace': not, as in the old testament, a covenant of contests and wars, but a pact of peace: Which surpasses all understanding — of which the Savior speaks to the apostles: My peace I give to you, my peace I leave to you, and the prophet says: His place was made in peace —. And when he has founded and established them in the Church — so that they can say: He set my feet upon a rock —, then they will be multiplied, either in the number of believers or in the multiplication of virtues. And I will put, he says, my sanctification (or sanctuary) in the midst of them for ever, which the Jews interpret of the temple that was built under Zerubbabel — but how will what is said, 'for ever', be able to stand, when that temple, which was built by Zerubbabel and afterwards restored by many, was burned by Roman fire? —. All these things are to be referred to the Church and to the times of the Savior, when his tabernacle was set in the Church, where he has become our God and we his people. And it is the advancement of all, that they may know that he is the Lord; and that he himself sanctifies Israel, not according to the flesh but according to the spirit, when his sanctification has been set in the midst of believers for ever. And that the Lord rejected the tribe of Ephraim and chose the tribe of Judah, we read also in the Psalms, where it is written: And he rejected the tabernacle of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim; but he chose the tribe of Judah, of which it is written: A prince shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until he comes for whom it is laid up; and he shall be the expectation of the nations: for truly at the coming of the Lord Savior the 'two rods' and, as it is set down in the Hebrew, the 'two sticks', were joined into one scepter, and in the baptism of Christ those long separated are united, so that they become one new man and one nation, and are no longer defiled with idols and abominations but, made clean by the washing, are the people of God, and Christ rules over them, and they dwell upon the land of the meek and the land of the living which he had given to his servant Jacob, who supplanted the people of Israel in his mother's womb. But if we wish, following the prophecy of Hosea, which is almost wholly directed to the ten tribes, that is, to Joseph and Ephraim and Samaria and Israel, to understand the knowledge falsely so called and the various crowds of heretics, we shall say this: that in the last time, when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and all Israel has been saved, then the hostile peoples also, who fought against the house of Judah and the confession of the Church, will give themselves up to the faith of the Church, and, having abandoned all their errors and the princes of this world who are being destroyed and their own patriarchs who led them down into the abyss of blasphemies, they will rise up, and leave their idols and their abominations which they had fashioned out of their own heart, and from all their dwelling places in which they sinned will pass over to the faith of the Church, and be cleansed, and be the people of Christ, and he will be their God; which I know I have dictated more fully on the prophet Hosea. But if the Jews and judaizing Christians wish to refer these things to the reign of a thousand years, they will be compelled by necessity to accept that all who have been saved will dwell in the land of Israel, that Jerusalem is to be built, the temple to be erected, all the ceremonies of the law to be practiced, the sabbath to be observed, the injury of circumcision to be received, that there is to be eating and drinking, and that an abundance of riches is to be esteemed as the highest blessedness and all wealth, when the Apostle says: Food for the belly and the belly for foods: but God will destroy both it and them; but just as, in the type of the resurrection, the preceding prophetic word showed the restoration of the Jewish people, not carnal but spiritual, so also this prophecy pertains not at all to the happiness of the flesh but to that of the soul, and to the faith of Christ, by which we are cleansed in baptism, whose kingdom is for ever, so that we may not await as things to come what has already been accomplished and what we know is accomplished daily.
38:1-23
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set your face against Gog and the land of Magog, the prince of the head (or Ros) of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy concerning him, and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, Gog, the prince of the head (or Ros) of Meshech and Tubal, and I will turn you about, and I will put a bridle in your jaws, and I will lead out (or I will gather) both you and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with breastplates, a great multitude seizing spear and shield and sword (or bucklers and helmets and swords). Persians and Ethiopians and Libyans with them, all with shields and helmets; Gomer and all its troops, the house of Togarmah, the sides of the north (or from the farthest parts of the north) and all its strength, and many peoples (or nations) with you. Prepare and equip yourself and all your multitude that is heaped together to you, and be for them a command (or and you shall be to me for a guard). After many days you will be visited; in the last of the years you will come to the land which has turned back (or been perverted) from the sword and has been gathered out of many peoples to the mountain (or land) of Israel, which had been continually deserted: this one has been led out from the peoples, and all of them will dwell confidently. And going up you will come like a storm and like a cloud, to cover the land, you and all your troops and many peoples (or nations) with you. Thus says the Lord God: On that day words will go up according to your heart, and you will think a most wicked thought, and you will say: I will go up to the land (or upon the land) without a wall (or cast off), I will come to those who are at rest and dwell securely (or in peace); all of them dwell without a wall, they have no bars and gates; to seize spoils and fall upon plunder, and to lay your hand upon those who had been deserted and were afterwards restored, and upon the people which has been gathered out of the nations, which has begun to possess and to be the inhabitant of the navel of the earth. Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish (or the Carthaginians) and all its lions (or villages) will say to you: Is it to take spoils that you come? Behold, to seize plunder you have gathered your multitude, to carry off silver and gold, to take away household goods and property, and to seize boundless booty. Therefore prophesy, son of man, and you shall say to Gog: Thus says the Lord God: Will you not, on that day when the people Israel dwells confidently (or in peace), know (or rise up)? And you will come from your place from the sides (or from the farthest parts) of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riders of horses, a great company and a mighty army. And you will go up against my people Israel like a cloud to cover the land. In the last days you will be (or it will be), and I will bring you upon my land, so that all the nations may know me, when I am sanctified in you before their eyes, O Gog. Thus says the Lord God: You then are he of whom I spoke in ancient days, by the hand of my servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days and times (or years), that I would bring you upon them. And it shall be on that day, on the day of the coming of Gog upon the land of Israel, says the Lord God, that my indignation will go up in my fury. And in my zeal, in the fire of my wrath I have spoken, that on that day there shall be a great commotion upon the land of Israel, and the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field (or of the plain), and every creeping thing that moves upon the ground, and all the men who are upon the face of the earth shall be moved before my face; and the mountains shall be overturned (or split) and the enclosure walls shall fall (or the valleys), and every wall shall collapse to the ground. And I will call together against him on all my mountains a sword (or every terror of the sword), says the Lord God; the sword of each one (or of each man) shall be directed against his brother. And I will judge him with pestilence (or death) and blood and violent rain and immense stones (or of hail); fire and sulphur I will rain upon him, and upon his army (or upon all who are with him), and upon the many peoples who are with him, and I will be magnified and sanctified and I will be known in the sight of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord. First the foundations of the history must be laid, and it must be known that this is the last word of the Lord to the prophet Ezekiel; for after it we cannot in any way find anything similar, except what is written in the twenty-fifth year of the exile of Jeconiah: The hand of the Lord came upon me, and brought me there, that is, into the land of Israel, when the building of the temple is described and the order of its ceremonies is related. Next it must be observed that the face of the prophet is set, or made firm, against Gog the land, or of the land, of Magog; for there is need of firmness and of much consideration of the countenance, so that we may be able to know the things that are said, according to that apostolic saying: But we all, contemplating the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are re-formed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. Accordingly the Jews and our own Judaizers think that Gog is the Scythian nations, savage and innumerable, which stretch beyond the Caucasus mountain and the Maeotic marsh and near the Caspian Sea as far as India — and that these are to be stirred up by the devil after the reign of a thousand years —, and that they are to come into the land of Israel to fight against the saints, with many nations gathered together with them: first Meshech, whom Josephus interprets as the Cappadocians; then Tubal, whom the same man supposes to be the Iberians or Spaniards, and the Hebrews the Italians, having with them in their army Persians, Ethiopians and Libyans; also Gomer and Togarmah, whom they interpret as the Galatians and Phrygians; also the Sabaeans and Dedan and the Carthaginians, or Tarshish; and that this is what John too sets down in his Revelation: And when the thousand years are finished, Satan will be loosed from his prison, and he will go out to seduce the nations in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for war: whose number is as the sand of the sea. And they went up over the breadth of the earth, and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them; and the devil who seduced them was cast into the lake of fire and sulphur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night for ages of ages; not understanding that the whole volume of John, which is headed with the title of Revelation, is mystical, and that we need revelation so that we may be able to say with the prophet: Unveil my eyes, and I will consider the wonders of your law. Others, however, abandoning the earthly sense and the Jewish and old-wives' fables, which are harmful and drag down into the depths those who acquiesce in them, climb up too far to the heights and invent much worse trifles, so that they describe the wars of the devil and of all his army in the heavenly Jerusalem, and under the ἐτυμολογίαις [etymologies] of the individual nations interpret the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Leaving all these things to the reader's judgment, we shall try not so much to condemn the views of others as to affirm the Church's explanation. 'Gog' is called in the Greek tongue δῶμα, in the Latin 'roof'; 'Magog', moreover, means 'from the roof' — so all pride, and the knowledge falsely so called which raises itself against the knowledge of the truth, is shown by these names —; these are the roofs of which Isaiah too speaks in the vision against the valley of Zion: What has happened to you now, that you all go up onto the empty roofs?; and by 'roof' we shall interpret the princes of the heretics, and by 'from the roof' those who have taken up their doctrines; and fittingly, after the many mystical prophecies in this volume, the last prophecy is against Gog and Magog — for if It is the time of judgment, according to Peter, that it should begin from the house of God, and according to this same Ezekiel, who says: And begin from my saints, and: The last enemy, death, is destroyed, in Isaiah too the first word is directed against Judea, in which is the confession of the Lord, and the last against the four-footed beasts which are in the desert; rightly here too the last word is directed against Gog and Magog, who assail the city of God, which the rush of the river makes glad, and which says in Isaiah: I am a strong city which is besieged, and of which it is written in the Gospel: A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden, and more fully in the psalm: Jerusalem, which is built as a city whose sharing of it is in the selfsame. Mountains are round about it, and the Lord is round about his people —. Moreover, as to the fact that in the army of Gog or Magog, who according to the Seventy, Symmachus and Theodotion is prince of Ros, Meshech and Tubal, Aquila translates the first nation, 'Ros', as 'head', and we too have followed him — so that the sense is: The prince of the head of Meshech and Tubal; and in truth neither in Genesis, nor in any other place of Scripture, nor even in Josephus, who in the first book of the Antiquities sets out the names of all the Hebrew nations, have we been able to find this nation, from which it is clear that 'Ros' signifies not 'a nation' but 'head'; this too must be briefly noted, that in Ezekiel Gog is said to be the prince of the land of Magog, whereas Revelation records that both Gog and Magog are nations which go out from the four corners of the earth; and that just as from Jacob, who was afterwards called Israel, the whole people of the Hebrews received the name Israel, and from Aram Syria, from Mesraim Egypt, whose names are written in Genesis, so too from the prince Gog all who are subject to him are called Magog —; 'Mosoch', however, means 'madness', and 'Thubal' 'whole' or 'all things': so the 'prince' and 'head of proud madness and of all evils' — according to what is written: The world is set in the evil one — are called 'Gog' and 'Magog' — nations which, hostile and adverse to the saints, go out from the corners of the earth, abandoning the straight line and the arrangement of the camps of God which is related in Numbers, and not knowing that testimony: Many will come from the east and the west and the north and the south, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God, and in another place: I will say to the north: Bring; and to the south-west wind: Do not hinder, bring my sons from a distant land and my daughters from the end of the earth, all who are called by my name; but not such are the corners of the earth from which Gog and Magog go out: beside such corners the harlot stands in Proverbs, who hastens to deceive the foolish young men passing by through the streets, that is, through the broad and spacious way which leads to death: the scribes and Pharisees too pray at the corners of the streets so as to be seen by men, who have received their reward —. What, then, is the threat against Gog? 'I will turn you about (or I will convert), and I will put a bridle in your jaws: first I will make you waver from your opinion and be converted, and I will put a bridle in your jaws — of which it is written: With bridle and bit bind fast the jaws of those who do not draw near to you —, so that the untamed horse, wanton and rushing headlong over precipices, may be subjected to the bridle of the Lord' — to whom the prophet says: You will mount upon your horses, and your riding is salvation, and to Job it is said through clouds and whirlwind: Did you surround the horse with strength? Such were the horses and horsemen whose multitude John saw in heaven —. So he says to Gog: I will lead out (or I will gather) you and all the army (or strength) of yours; he who is led out and gathered from dispersion is drawn back to salvation — according to what is promised in the law: If your dispersion be from the height of heaven to its height, from there I will gather you —. Of his horses too, and horsemen clothed with breastplates — who imitate the armor of the Apostle and boast that they have the breastplates of righteousness — there is an excessive multitude, and all of them seize shield and sword against the Church, and they are most savage nations, hostile to Israel: Persians, Ethiopians and Libyans — whose wars against the people of God are related in the holy Scriptures —; Gomer too and the house of Togarmah, who come from the sides of the 'north' — which is a most cold wind and is called by the name 'dexter' [right-hand] —, and all the strength of Magog and all the peoples that are subject to him, will come with him to battle. To him it is said by way of εἰρωνείαν [irony]: 'Prepare and equip yourself, and heap together to yourself all your multitude, which obeys your commands; but know that after many days you will be visited' — according to what is written: I will visit their iniquities with the rod and their sins with stripes —. 'In the last', he says, 'of the years you will come'; whence John too says: My little children, it is the last hour, and the people of the Gentiles is hired at the eleventh hour to work in the vineyard; to whose land — that is, the land of the meek and the land of the saints, which brings forth fruit a hundredfold and sixtyfold and thirtyfold — Gog comes to storm it, the land which has turned back, or turned away, from the sword — for it knows that it is written: Scatter, O Lord, the nations that desire wars —, and abides in peace, and has been gathered from many peoples and nations so that, having despised the error of the nations, it might come to the mountains of Israel, that is, the patriarchs and prophets, who were once continually deserted, without the law and the precepts of God, to which it is afterwards said: More are the children of the deserted one than of her who has a husband; these are the deserted and waterless places in which the devil could find no place, because they had been called to salvation, and afterwards, taking with him seven other demons more wicked than himself, he returned to his house, that is, to the nation of Israel. This, he says, has been led out from the peoples, land being understood, or: This one has been led out from the nations, so that the people of believers may be understood, which has dwelt in peace; and it trusts in the Lord. And Gog, going up with all his army, will come like a storm and like a cloud, to cover the land of the believers — for which of the heretics, whose prince is the devil, does not come like a storm against the Church, and hasten to overwhelm and cover with the cloud of his words all the simple among the believers? —; whence it is said to him: 'As far as lies in you, you will cover all things, you and all your troops and many peoples with you'; and fittingly Gog, going up, has no willing rain, no early and late shower to gladden the parched fields, but storm and darkness, so as to confound all things with gloom and error. Therefore the Lord God speaks these things to him: At that time, that is, in the last days, words will go up upon your heart, and you will think a most wicked thought — as Scripture says: If the spirit of one who has power should wish to go up upon you, do not abandon your place; but on the contrary God goes up into the heart of the holy man, of whom it is written: He has set ascents in his heart —; and Gog says: I will go up to the land without a wall (or cast forth) — that is, the land which is destitute of the help of God and not fortified by the argumentation of the dialecticians, I will come to those who are at rest, dwelling securely (or in peace) — for our king is peaceable, and his place is in peace —; all of them, he says, dwell without a wall, they have no bars and gates. This the devil, the prince of the heretics, says: that the Church has no fortifications, nor the worldly wisdom which is foolishness with God, so that he may seize the spoils and fall upon the plunder of the Church, and lay his hand upon those who had been deserted when they did not have the knowledge of God and afterwards, restored through Christ, come to the Father — he says in the Gospel: Father, I have revealed your name to men —; and so that we may know that the people which had been deserted and afterwards restored signifies the Christian people, there follows: And upon the people which has been gathered out of the nations, which people has begun to possess the inheritance of Christ and to be the inhabitant of the navel of the earth — of which it is written: He has worked salvation in the midst of the earth. Truth, indeed, has sprung from the earth; which says in the Gospel: I am the way and the truth and the life —. While he thinks and says these things and hastens to snatch the possession of the Church, the nations which had been converted from their former error to salvation: Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish — of Carthage or of the sea — who amid the waves of this world seek merchandise by good works, and all their villages or lions — or lions' whelps, as is contained in the Hebrew —, will say to him what follows — that the Seventy and Theodotion, however, put 'villages' in place of 'lions' whelps', which in Hebrew are called 'chaphir', is an evident error: for if you write it with the letter 'chi', it is called 'lion's whelp', but if with 'ce', which in Hebrew is called 'coph', it is called 'field' and 'village'; whence Capharnaum too is called 'most beautiful field' —. So Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish will say, and all the saints who are called lions' whelps, or at any rate the villages and dwellings of the believers: 'O Gog, is it for this that you come: to snatch the spoils of the Church? and is it for this that you have gathered a multitude: that the possession of Christ may become your inheritance? or do you think that you will possess the silver and gold of the Church — which is understood of eloquence and meaning —, so as to take away its household goods and all its property, and seize the boundless booty gathered by Christ the victor?' 'Therefore, O prophet Ezekiel, who in the type of Christ are called son of man, speak to Gog and say to him: Thus says the Lord God: When, the error of the whole world having been taken away, my people Israel, which discerns God with the mind, dwells in the Church confidently or in peace, then you will know, or rise up and come from your place' — and what the place of heretical depravity is, the following word shows: From the sides of the north, which tries to chill all the warmth of the believers —. And many peoples will come with him, all riders of horses — of whom it is written: The horse and the rider he has cast into the sea —, a great company and a mighty army; with whom: 'You will go up', he says, 'against my people Israel like a cloud and darkness, to cover my land — of which it was spoken above —. In the last days you will be, in the time of the preaching of the Gospel, and I will bring you upon my land — For there must also be heresies, so that those who are approved may be made manifest, and by the will of God the devil, the ἀνταγωνιστής [adversary], and all the dogmas of perversity have been left —, so that all the nations may know (and understand) me, when I am sanctified in you before their eyes, O Gog, that is, when through your punishments they have understood me as judge'. And he makes an apostrophe to Gog himself: 'Are you not he of whom I spoke in ancient days, by the hands of my servants the prophets of Israel?': that is, of Moses — who says in the book of Numbers, at least according to the Seventy: A man shall come forth from his seed and shall rule over very many nations, and Gog his kingdom shall be lifted up, and his kingdom shall increase, but according to the Hebrew I found it written thus: His king shall be taken away because of Agag, and his kingdom shall be removed, because the kingdom of Israel was destroyed in Saul on account of Agag king of Amalek; and in another place: He will cleanse the land of his people —; Joel too describes the peoples to be gathered in the valley of 'Iosaphat', that is, 'of the judgment of God'; and Isaiah, and all the prophets, in whose hands and good works the word of the Lord comes about. 'When therefore you come upon the land of Israel, my indignation will go up in my fury against you. And in my zeal for my people, in the fire of my wrath I have spoken, which is to consume all the timbers of your vices: At that', he says, 'time there will be a great commotion upon the land of Israel': for at the instigation of the devil frequent persecution will arise against the Church, and when it has been lulled to rest and overcome by the protection of God, then the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field, and every creeping thing that moves upon the earth, and all the men who are upon the face of the earth, will be moved before his face; which is clearly shown of the inhabitants of the Church, of whom some like the fish of the sea, some like the birds of the sky, some like the beasts of the field and all the creeping things that move upon the earth, others as retaining the dignity of man, dwell upon the face of the earth — and that diversity of conduct is signified by various names the Apostle also writes to the Corinthians, since he says that after the resurrection some bodies are heavenly, others earthly, one the body of a fish, another of a bird, another of beasts, another of creeping things, and another of men, who have kept their original name; in the Acts of the Apostles too, that sheet which is shown three times to the apostle Peter by its four corners signifies the variety of believers which was also contained in the ark of the flood —. Then, from the face of the Lord and from the sight of his majesty, the mountains which raised themselves against the knowledge of God will be overturned, and the hedges or valleys will fall, which either have sunk to the depths through lowness of understanding or at any rate promise some fortification so as to imitate the Church of God — of whose hedges it is said: Whoever breaks down a hedge, a serpent will bite him —, and every wall will collapse to the ground: for when the strength of the Church's word appears, all the fortifications of the heretics will collapse. 'And I will call together against him, that is, against Gog, the prince of the heretics, a sword on all my mountains, so that the princes of his army may be destroyed by the sword for the Lord'; then heresy will fight against heresy, and their fighting among themselves is our victory. And I will judge, he says, him with death (or pestilence) and blood and violent rain and immense stones (or of hail): and Gog is judged by his own death, and by the blood which he shed, and by violent rain, the words of a learned and perfect man, and by immense stones which overwhelm him with the testimonies of the Scriptures, or of hail, which make his heat grow cold — All, indeed, who commit adultery, their hearts are like an oven —. Fire, he says, and sulphur I will rain upon him, by which the punishment of eternal judgment is shown; and not only upon him who was the author of perversity, but also upon all his army and multitude and upon the many peoples who are with him — for the heretics have many companions, or rather the devil, their prince, is surrounded by an infinite multitude —. And when all error has been taken away and the princes of the heretics have been punished and destroyed, the Lord is magnified, and sanctified in the believers, and becomes known in the eyes of the many nations which have believed in his faith, and both from their own blessedness and from the punishments of the adversaries they will know and recognize that he himself is the Lord. These things we have interpreted as we were able, obeying that precept: You shall turn aside neither to the right nor to the left, but: You shall walk on the royal road; but if anyone finds fault with what is ours, let him either bring forward better things for us to follow, or, if he wishes to say nothing, let him leave perfect knowledge to God, provided only that he knows that it is by no means our powers, but our intention, that is to be judged.
39:1-16
But you, son of man, prophesy against Gog and say: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, Gog, prince of the head (or Ros) of Meshech and Tubal; and I will turn you about (or gather you) and lead you astray (or lead you down), and make you go up from the sides (or from the uttermost parts) of the north, and bring you upon the mountains of Israel. And I will strike (or destroy) your bow in your left hand (or from your left hand), and your arrows from your right hand, and I will cast you down upon the mountains of Israel. And you will fall, you and all your troops, and the peoples (or nations) that are with you; to the wild beasts, to the birds and to every winged thing and to the beasts of the earth I have given you to be devoured: on the face of the field (or plain) you will fall, for I have spoken, says the Lord God. And I will send fire on Magog, and on those who dwell in the islands confidently (or and the islands will be inhabited in peace), and they will know that I am the Lord. And I will make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not pollute (or it will not be polluted) my holy name any more, and the nations will know that I am the Lord God, the holy one of Israel. Behold, it comes, and it has been done (or you will know that it will be), says the Lord; this is the day of which I have spoken. And the inhabitants of the cities of Israel will go forth, and will kindle and burn the weapons, the shield and the spears (or the targes and the pikes), the bow and the arrows, the hand staves and the pikes (or lances), and they will kindle them with fire seven years. And they will not carry (or will not take up) wood from the regions (or from the fields), nor cut it down from the forests, since they will kindle the weapons with fire; and they will plunder those whose prey they had been, and despoil their despoilers, says the Lord God. And it shall be, on that day, I will give Gog a renowned place, a sepulcher in Israel, the valley of the travelers east of the sea, which makes those who pass by stand aghast (or the πολυάνδριον [common burial ground, literally "place of many men"] of those who will come to the sea, and they will build round about the mouth of the valley); and there they will bury Gog and all his multitude, and it will be called the valley (or 'ge') of the multitude of Gog. And the house of Israel will bury them, to cleanse the land (or that the land may be cleansed) for seven months; and all the people of the land will bury them, and it will be for them a renowned day on which I was glorified, says the Lord God. And they will appoint men continually going through (or going round) the land, to bury and to search out those who remain upon the face of the land, that they may cleanse it; and after seven months they will begin to search, and they will go round traversing the land; and when they see a man's bone, they will set up a marker beside it, until the undertakers bury it in the valley (or 'ge') of the multitude of Gog. And the name of the city is Amona (or Πολυάνδριον), and they will cleanse the land (or the land will be cleansed). These things the heirs of the Jewish tradition and the disciples of endless fables contend will come to pass after the reign of a thousand years: that Gog, prince of Ros, Meshech and Tubal, is to be slain in the borders of Israel and to be devoured by all the winged creatures and the beasts; and that the inhabitants of the cities of Israel will for seven years by no means have the use of wood from the cutting of forests, but from the weapons of Gog, namely shields and spears and arrows and staves or pikes; and that Gog himself is to be buried in the valley which in Hebrew is called 'ge', and the name of his sepulcher is to be called πολυάνδριον, namely where a multitude of men has been buried; and that he is to be buried by the house of Israel for seven months so that the land may be cleansed, and that the day when Gog was slain will be renowned, and that men are to be appointed to search diligently for the bones and bury them, so that, namely, nothing remains unburied in the land; and that after the seven months, or within the seven months, the land is to be traversed, and wherever they observe a man's bone lying, it is to be pointed out by a marker set beside it, so that afterward those who have been put in charge of this work may bury it; and that the name of the city is to be called 'Amona', which in Greek is called Πολυάνδριον, that is, 'a multitude of buried men', and that in this way the land is to be cleansed. This is what they have said; but let us, holding to the sense of the explanation we have begun, discuss one by one the things we have set forth. Gog too has his own trinity, 'Ros' and 'Mosoch' and 'Thubal', that is, 'head' and 'madness' and 'all things', so that there is no vice that does not stand in Gog's possession. He will be led out, or turned about, and he will be stroked and coaxed so that, hoping for victory, he may be led to battle to be slain; and he will go up from the sides, or from the uttermost parts, of the north, from which evils blaze up over all the earth, and by that very one he will be brought upon the mountains of Israel, which we ought to understand as the apostles and apostolic men and men of the Church, so that, after he has been brought to the mountains of Israel, then the bow that is in his left hand may be struck, and the arrows that are held in the right hand: for he too imitates, in order to kill those whom he has deceived, the having of weapons on the left and on the right, through good report and bad — these are the arrows and these the darts of which the psalmist too speaks: For behold, sinners have bent the bow, they have made ready arrows in the quiver, to shoot in the dark at the upright of heart, which fiery darts of the devil are to be quenched with the shield of faith —. And Gog, who had gone up upon the mountains of Israel, is cast down, or will fall, on those very mountains with all his army and all his troops; and he will be food for the wild beasts, the birds and every winged thing and the beasts of the earth, namely the adverse powers that ate the seed by the wayside, and the bloodthirsty beasts — for as it is written of the dragon: You gave him as food to the Ethiopian peoples, so all who are deceived by the heretics are the food of demons —: and Gog will fall either in the breadth of the plain or in that of the field which has been tilled by God's husbandmen; for it cannot be that the Lord's words should be void. Then fire will be sent on Magog, namely on those who received Gog's teaching, and on those who, like islands, are beaten by the waves of the world and think that they ought to be secure — that fire of which the Lord speaks: I came to send fire upon the earth, and how I will that it burn —: 'that all may know and understand that I am the Lord'. 'And let my holy name be made known in the midst of my people, which was by no means led astray by the authority of Gog, and let my name no longer be polluted among the heretics on the pretext of the knowledge falsely so called, and let the nations that are round about know that I am the Lord'. But what follows, Behold, it comes, and it has been done, is said of the judgment of Christ, who coming will come and will not delay; and this is the day of punishments and vengeance of which the Lord has spoken through all the prophets. And the inhabitants of the cities of Israel will go forth: the peoples of believers; and by the cities of Israel we understand the Church of right faith. And they will kindle and burn the weapons — of which it is written in another place too: He will crush the bow, he will shatter the weapons, and he will burn the shields with fire —, shields and spears, bow and arrows, hand staves — with which they celebrated a perverse Passover —, lances or pikes — with which they inflicted the broad and incurable wounds of their doctrines —, and shields, bows and arrows, of which it was said above. And what follows, And they will kindle them with fire seven years, is to be taken from Exodus and Leviticus, in which it is commanded by the law that in the seventh year, of release, when liberty is restored to Hebrew slaves and all debts are cancelled and the ancient possession returns to its owners, rest too is granted to the land and all the crops are given over to the poor; so that, namely, in seven years, a sacred and perfect number, the armor of the heretics may perish utterly, and the men of the Church may by no means cut wood from the fields and regions and woods and forests of the nations, whom they desire rather to save than to destroy, but from those of the heretics whom they have conquered, from shields, spears, arrows, staves and pikes and lances: for they too have various weapons for attacking the Church of Christ, which are to be set on fire by learned men with the fire of the Holy Spirit — namely by the Church's word, and whoever has it will be able to say: Was not our heart burning on the way, when Jesus opened the Scriptures to us? —; nor can we have full peace and confidence in our dwelling unless we plunder all the gear of our adversaries, so that everything may perish and be burned to ashes, and we plunder those who had earlier plundered us, and lay waste those who had first laid waste the Church. On that day — in the clear light of preaching — I will give, he says, Gog a renowned place, a sepulcher in Israel, according to the Hebrew: the valley of the travelers east of the sea, which makes those who pass by stand aghast; the sense of this saying is this: The sepulcher of Gog will not be on the mountains but in low valleys and rugged places — which in Hebrew are called 'ge'; and the heretics, though they are situated in the west, pretend that these are places of the east —, in order to deceive the travelers, namely those who pass through this world and are not inhabitants but sojourners — saying that prophetic word: I am a stranger and a sojourner, as all my fathers were —. For which of those passing by — of whom it is written: And those who passed by did not say: The blessing of the Lord be upon you! — does not marvel and stand aghast when he sees the valley of the travelers, which to the travelers seems a valley, to the inhabitants a mountain? This is according to the Hebrew. But the Seventy translated: the πολυάνδριον of those who will come to the sea, and they will build round about the entrance of the valley: for it is the labor of those who go out from the cities of Israel to shut and build round every entrance and exit of the heretical depravity, of those who had come to the sea and delighted in its bitterness, in the masses of its waves and in the cruelty of shipwreck, and to bury them in the chasms of the earth, so that they may no longer be able to go out and deceive anyone by their fraud. There, therefore, they will bury Gog and all his multitude, in which the heretics always delight; and the name of that valley in which Gog was buried will be called 'ge of the multitude', or πολυάνδριον, that is, 'the sepulcher of a very great multitude'. And as we said above that the weapons of the adversaries are kindled through seven years, so through seven months the land will be cleansed of the filth of the heretics; for from the first month — when we celebrate the Lord's Passover and escape the destroyer of Egypt by the blood of the lamb on our doorposts —, up to the end of the year — that is, up to the seventh month, when we pitch tabernacles and, among the other foliage, are sheltered also by branches of palms, so that a perfect victory over the enemies may be shown —, we fulfil all the festivals among the peoples; and not only the teachers but the whole people too will do this eagerly, to bury Gog, and cover him with earth, and by no means allow him to take in the free air. After the peace, however, and the slaying, or the burial, of Gog, men of the Church will be chosen who have this as their concern: that nothing of the former filth remain in the land of Israel, nothing of carrion; men to go through the land and search out the dead and bury them, so that, namely, the land of the Church may be cleansed. But if after seven months, when all things ought to have been purged, those who traverse and go round the land see that in anyone a man's bone — that is, the hardness of heretical depravity — or something of the carrion of the former doctrine has remained, they will set up, or build, a marker beside it, so that, after those who are of this kind have been marked, they may then either be corrected or be buried with Gog and thrust away into the throng of his burial. And the name of the city where the victory of the servants of the Lord is, and where the adversaries lie and the whole multitude of his enemies has been laid low, will be called 'Amona' or Πολυάνδριον, so that the end of all things may be the restoration of purity. Finally there follows: And they will cleanse the land, doubtless those of whom it is written above: They will begin to search, and will go round traversing the land.
39:17-29
Therefore you, son of man, thus says the Lord God: Say to every bird and to all the fowl and to all the beasts of the field (or plain): Assemble and hasten, run together from every side (or round about) to my victim, which I have sacrificed for you, a great victim upon the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood. You will eat the flesh of the mighty (or of giants), and you will drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs and of he-goats, and of fatted bulls and of all fat things; and you will eat fat to the full, and drink blood to drunkenness from the victim which I have sacrificed for you. And you will be filled at my table with horse and with mighty horseman (or giant), and with all men of war, says the Lord God. And I will set (or give) my glory among the nations (or among you), and all the nations will see my judgment which I have done, and my hand which I have laid (or brought) upon them; and the house of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God from that day and thereafter, and all the nations will know that the house of Israel was taken captive for their iniquities, because they forsook me, and I hid (or turned away) my face from them, and delivered them into the hand of the foes (or of their enemies), and they all fell by the sword. According to their uncleannesses and their crimes (or iniquities) I dealt with them, and I hid (or turned away) my face from them. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Now I will bring back the captivity of Jacob, and I will have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will take up zeal for my holy name. And they will bear their confusion (or ignominy), and all the transgression by which they transgressed against me, when they dwell in their own land confidently (or in peace), fearing no one. And when I have brought them back from the peoples (or nations), and have gathered them from the lands of their enemies (or from the regions of the nations), and have been sanctified in them in the eyes (or in the sight) of very many nations, they will also know that I am the Lord their God, since I have carried them over into the nations (or since I have appeared to them among the nations), and have gathered them upon their own land, and have not left any of them there. And I will no longer hide (or turn away) my face from them, because I have poured out my spirit (or fury) upon the whole house of Israel, says the Lord God. (What we have translated according to the Hebrews: I will gather them upon their own land, and I will not leave any of them there, is not found in the Seventy; and again, where according to the Hebrews a blessing is set at the end: Because I have poured out my 'spirit', the Seventy translated 'fury', which pertains to anger, especially since in the Hebrew 'ruhi' is written, which properly means 'my spirit' and by no means 'my fury'.) But everything up to the place where the building of the temple follows, those we spoke of above, the Jews and our own Judaizers, refer to the last time: that the birds and the beasts are to be sated with the flesh of Gog and of all his army as with the fattest offerings, and that Israel is to be restored to its former state and by no means be assailed any longer by the nations, but that God will pour out his spirit upon them so that they may dwell in their own land: not all the nations, but properly the house of Israel. But we, following the tropology we have begun, say this: that the Lord calls together all the birds and all the beasts, to hand over to them the princes of the heretics to be devoured as the fattest offerings — and those to whom the adversaries are handed over are called birds and beasts either for their swiftness in running about into all things or for their savagery and cruelty: For the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved, and that they may learn not to blaspheme —; and they will eat a great and very fat victim: not elsewhere, but upon the mountains of Israel, which we ought to understand as the prophets and apostles and holy men — for upon them the teachers of contrary dogmas fall in ruin, and by them they perish wounded —, upon whom the Church is built, and, to speak more truly, upon the mountain of mountains — of which Isaiah speaks, and Micah: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will announce to us his way —. And these birds and these swift and cruel beasts will eat flesh and drink blood — which cannot possess the kingdom of God —. The flesh of the mighty, or of giants, who rebelled against the knowledge of God, and the blood of the princes, not of heaven but of the earth, who savored all earthly things, they will drink: the blood of rams, of lambs and of he-goats, or, according to the Seventy, of rams, of calves and of he-goats, so that it signifies three living creatures that are sacrificed among the victims of God: for the heretics too imitate the gentleness of the Church, but their oblation serves not for the worship of God but for the food of demons, and this is their fattest offering; and they are sated as if with fat, and they drink the blood of the deceived to drunkenness; but God sacrifices this victim through the men of the Church, so that the most wicked guests may be sated with the multitude of the deceived, and drink to vomiting and drunkenness. When you see holy men, learned in the divine Scriptures, cutting down the horses of the heretics and their riders — of which it is written: The horse and the rider he has cast into the sea —, and hewing down all the rebels and giants with their own blade, and shedding the blood of all the warriors of the knowledge falsely so called, then know that the table of the Lord has been prepared, that he may set his glory among all the nations that believe in his name. And the churches of the saints will understand his judgment which he has executed upon the adversaries, and the strong hand with which he struck them; and let the house of Israel know and recognize that he is the Lord their God — who said: I am the Lord your God — from the day of the Lord's victory for ever, and let them reflect that the house of Israel was once taken captive by the heretics and scattered through the whole world of perverse dogmas for this reason: that they forsook him who for a little while hid, or turned away, his face from them and delivered them into the hand of the heretics, and they fell, pierced through by their blade, because of their uncleannesses and iniquities; and this was the cause of his hiding and turning away his face from them. And having set forth the reasons — according to that which is written: There must also be heresies, so that those who are approved may be made manifest — for the captivity of Israel, that is, of the Church, in which those dwell who see God, he now promises that he will bring back into the Church the captivity of Jacob, who had supplanted the Jewish people and afterward was himself supplanted by the frauds of the heretics; and that he will have mercy on the whole house of Israel, not according to the flesh but according to the spirit. And I will take up, he says, my zeal for my holy name, which was blasphemed among the nations because of the heretics, so that, after he has set them free, they may blush and be confounded because, having abandoned the faith of the Church, they transgressed against me. Let them be confounded, then, and blush very swiftly, when they dwell in their own land, the land of the meek and the land of the saints, and dwell confidently, or in peace, by no means fearing the snares of the heretics. Then they will be brought back from the peoples, and gathered from the lands of their enemies into their own land, and the Lord will be sanctified in them in the sight of very many nations, which themselves too are going to believe in the Lord; and let this be the end of blessedness: to know and recognize that he is the Lord their God, because he appeared to them among the nations, or carried them over from the nations, and gathered them upon their own land, the land of Judea, the land of confession, the land of the meek and the land of the living, and left not even one to heretical depravity. And let him no longer hide his face from them nor turn away from them, because he has poured out the spirit of his grace — of which the prophet Joel too speaks: In the last days I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh —; and he has poured it out upon the whole house of Israel. But if instead of 'spirit' we read 'fury' according to the Seventy, which is not found in the Hebrew, it is to be understood thus: that he no longer hides his face from those upon whom he had earlier poured out his fury. Thus far we have spoken on Ezekiel the prophet, with God, as we hope and believe, helping us and opening our mouth, not destroying the opinion of others, if any have written or will hereafter write, but offering our own, such as they are. But in the building of the temple, and the order of the priests, and the division of the holy land, and the river going out from the temple, and the trees on either bank, ever green and bearing fruit every month, and the rest that is contained in the prophetic volume up to its end, we openly confess our lack of skill, judging it better for the present to say nothing than to say too little.
Book Twelve
My trepidation in the explanation of the temple of Ezekiel, or rather my persistence in silence, is overcome by your prayers, daughter Eustochium, and by the promises of the Lord, who says: Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you; and since we had made use of an excuse, so as to say at the end of the previous volume: 'It is better to say nothing than to say little', you turned it to the contrary, so that you think it preferable to say at least a little than nothing, because in the one there is a ready will, in the other despair of the whole work; and you remind me that the nature of men is of this kind, that they do not feel so much gratitude for what you have granted as resentment over what you have refused: for we praise virtues with less zeal than we censure vices, and, however beautiful bodies may be, they become the more conspicuous through the crookedness and deformity of a single member. I shall therefore comply with your wish, and I will spread my sails to the blowing Holy Spirit, not knowing to what shores I am to come, and crying out with this same prophet: From the four winds of heaven come, O spirit. And to the fastidious reader, or rather to a hostile mind that will read what is ours, I declare this with all frankness concerning the explanation of the temple: if he desires the truth, let him seek it from others; we, for our part, simply confess and dictate what we are able to conjecture in a most difficult work, ready to give thanks to the Lord if, not in all things — which is impossible — but in most, he has opened to us the doors of knowledge: For to one who pursues the first places, as the sublime orator says, it is honorable even to stop at the second or third.
40:1-4
In the twenty-fifth year of the exile (or of the captivity) of Jeconiah, at the beginning of the year (or in the first month), on the tenth of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was struck (or taken), on this very day (or on that day), the hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me there, in visions (or in a vision) of God, and he brought me into the land of Israel, and set (or placed) me upon an exceedingly high mountain, upon which there was as it were the building of a city facing toward the south (or opposite). And he brought me in there, and behold, a man whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze (or of shining bronze), and a cord of linen (or of the masons) in his hand, and a measuring reed in his hand; and he was standing in the gate. And the same man spoke to me: Son of man, see with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your heart upon all that I shall show you (or set in your heart all that I shall have shown you), for you have been brought (or have entered) here that they may be shown to you; and declare (or you shall show) all that you see to the house of Israel. If in the fifth year of the captivity or exile of King Jehoiachin, in the fourth month, on the fifth of the month, the heavens were opened to the prophet Ezekiel beside the river Chebar and he saw visions of God, but now it is said that in the twenty-fifth year of the exile of the same Jeconiah, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, the hand of the Lord came upon him, and he was brought into the land of Israel and placed upon an exceedingly high mountain, so that he might see the building of a city facing toward the south, no one doubts that his whole prophecy was woven together when nineteen years, and nine months and five days of the twentieth year, had been completed. But if, according to Theodotion, who in the place where we have put 'at the beginning of the year' translated 'in the new year', on the tenth day of the month — now among the Hebrews the new year is the name of the seventh month, which among them bears the name 'thesri' [Tishri], so that on the first day of the seventh month there is the blast of trumpets, and on the tenth day of the same month the day of fasting and propitiation, and on the fifteenth, when the whole orb of the moon is filled, the day of Tabernacles — it is given to be understood that the building of the city had been shown to Ezekiel on the tenth day, the day of the Lord's propitiation. And just as he showed the restoration of the people, or rather their bringing back to life, in the bones of the plain under the image of the resurrection, so now the Lord promises, under its description, the renewal of the city which fourteen years before had been destroyed by fire by the Babylonian, so that, as the type of the pot kindled from the face of the north had shown the captivity and the overthrow, and the truth of the prophecy had been proved by the event, so, from trust in things past, the truth of the building to come might be proved by the prophecy. Nor is this said of that time, as some unlearned among the Jews would have it, when under Zerubbabel and under Joshua son of Jehozadak, the great priest, the temple was built, while Haggai and Zechariah prophesied: for this temple which is now described, and the order of the priesthood, and the division and fertility of the land, is far more majestic than the one which Solomon had built; but the one which was built under Zerubbabel was so small and, in comparison with the former, of so little worth, that those who had seen the first temple and afterward looked upon this one wailed and bore witness to their grief with tears, and the cry of those lamenting was far greater than the blast of the trumpets; read the book of Ezra. Further, what is added: In the fourteenth year after the city was struck (or taken), according to the mystical senses signifies the fourteen generations from David to the nativity of Christ; when they were completed, the restoration of the city is promised by him of whom it is written: He himself will build my city and will bring back the captivity of my people, and again, he came: To proclaim release to the captives and sight to the blind, saying to those who were in chains: Come out, and to those who were in darkness: Be uncovered. Now the hand of the Lord comes upon him so that, though placed in Babylon according to the flesh, he might come in the spirit to the land of Israel, and might be set, not at all in a vision, but in the visions of God, upon an exceedingly high mountain — of which Isaiah and Micah prophesy: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob —, which mountain is exceedingly high in comparison with the other mountains — of which the prophet testifies, saying: I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from where my help shall come, and in another place: Mountains are round about it, and the Lord is round about his people, of which it is also said in Isaiah: Go up onto a high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Zion —; upon this mountain is shown the building of a city, according to the Seventy and Aquila 'opposite' and 'over against the north', from where the prophet had come to the land of Israel, but according to Theodotion and Symmachus 'facing toward the south', where the light is full and the sun of righteousness is set at the highest summit of heaven — whence it is also said in the Song of Songs: Arise, north wind, and come, south wind; blow through my garden, and let its spices flow; for the north wind, the harshest of winds, is driven away from the Lord's garden, so that the warmth of love may not grow cold and the flowers may not wither —; and when it is said: As it were the building of a city, not truly a city but the likeness of a city is shown — of which it is written: Glorious things are spoken of you, city of God, which is: Jerusalem, built as a city, whose sharing of it is in the selfsame, and in which: Great is the Lord and exceedingly to be praised, in the city of our God, on his holy mountain, and: In the towers of the city God is known to the righteous, when he upholds it, of which it is said elsewhere too: The rush of the river makes glad the city of God, and: A city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden, which speaks in Isaiah: I am a strong city, a city which is besieged — he did not say: which 'is stormed', but 'is besieged' —, which 'is built upon the rock and is shaken by no storm' —. There follows: 'And he brought me in there — the hand of the Lord is understood; and 'there', that is, 'as it were the building of a city' —, so that he might show me all the things that were within'. Behold, he says, a man whose appearance (or vision) was like the appearance of gleaming bronze — he, namely, of whom it is written: Behold a man, the Orient is his name —; now he had an appearance by no means of electrum, as is said at the beginning of this volume, nor was he girded with a golden belt, as is contained in the Revelation of John, but he had an appearance, according to the Hebrew, as of bronze — for this material is more resonant than all the metals and rings out far with its clang; hence also in Daniel, in the image which was put together from gold, silver, bronze and iron, the kingdom of Alexander and of the Greeks is shown in the likeness of bronze, so that the eloquence of the Greek language might be signified; by which it is plain that those who do not yet know the full mysteries of the temple that is to be built spiritually are still in need of teaching —; there was also a cord of linen, or of the masons, in his hand — of which it is also written in Zechariah that he had a surveyor's cord, to measure the breadth and the length of the city. And of the masons: either of the angels who ministered at God's command, or of Moses and of all the prophets and apostles who build the city of God and are helpers or ministers of the Lord's will; hence the apostle Paul also said: We are God's husbandry, God's building —. And what follows: And a measuring reed in his hand, designates the prophetic grace — of which it is written in Psalm 44 (45): My tongue is the reed of a scribe writing swiftly, and of John, prophet and baptist: What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed shaken by the wind?, which reed those desire to imitate who writing, write iniquity, and upon whom the prophet calls down a curse, saying: Rebuke the beasts of the reed —. And he was standing in the gate, because through him we go in to the Father, and without him we cannot enter the city of God, so that he may receive the worthy and cast out the unworthy; in the gate too there is judgment — whence the prophet also says: They hated those who reprove in the gate, and in another place: They shall not be put to shame when they speak with their enemies in the gate —. This man spoke to the prophet, he in whose hand was the cord, and whose appearance was as of bronze, and who held the reed in his hand: the true architect spoke to Ezekiel — he whom the apostle Paul imitated, saying: As a wise architect I have laid the foundation; and he calls the architect wise to distinguish him from the one who is foolish and in Zechariah is called the foolish shepherd —; and he spoke the words that follow: Son of man, see with your eyes, and hear with your ears, not with the eyes of the flesh but of the spirit, nor with the ears of the body but of the soul —. Lift up, he says, your eyes and see, for the harvests are already white for reaping, and: He who has ears to hear, let him hear —; and the building of the city is seen, and the order of the ceremonies and of the priests and the description of the land are heard; nor was it enough to have commanded him to see with his eyes and hear with his ears, but he added: And set your heart upon all (or and set in your heart all) that I shall show you; for it profits nothing to have seen and to have heard, unless you have laid up in the treasury of memory the things you have seen and heard; and when he says: All that I shall show you, he makes him an attentive hearer, makes him ready too with the eyes of the heart, so that he may hold in memory the things that are to be shown to him: For you have been brought here that all things may be shown to you — by which saying he shows in a special way that nothing is sweeter than contemplation and knowledge, which the prophet desires, saying: One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may see the will of the Lord and visit his temple; whence he adds and says: Lord, I have loved the beauty of your house, and the place of the dwelling of your glory —. 'Declare', he says, 'all that you see to the house of Israel, so that those who cannot see by themselves may learn through you the things that are shown to you by the Lord'; and to the house of Israel: to those who behold God with the mind — among whom was Nathanael too, who sought Christ most zealously and was found worthy to hear: Behold a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile —.
40:5-13
And behold, a wall outside, round about the house on every side, and in the man's hand a measuring reed of six cubits and a handbreadth; and he measured the breadth of the building, one reed, the height also, one reed. And he came to the gate which looked toward the eastern way, and he went up by its steps, and he measured the threshold of the gate, one reed in breadth, that is, one threshold one reed in breadth, and the cell one reed in length and one reed in breadth, and between the cells five cubits, and the threshold of the gate beside the vestibule of the gate within, one reed. And he measured the vestibule of the gate, of eight cubits, and its front, two cubits; and the vestibule of the gate was within. Further, the cells of the gate toward the eastern way, three on this side and three on that, one measure of the three, and one measure of the fronts on either side. And he measured the breadth of the threshold of the gate, ten cubits, and the length of the gate, thirteen cubits, and the margin before the cells, of one cubit, and one cubit the boundary on both sides; and the cells were of six cubits on this side and on that. And he measured the gate from the roof of a cell to its roof, a breadth of twenty-five cubits, door opposite door. (LXX: "And behold, a wall outside the house round about, and in the man's hand a measuring reed of six cubits and a palaestes; he measured the wall, the breadth equal to the reed, and the height of the same measure. And he went into the gate which looked toward the east, by seven steps, and he measured ÷ the 'thee', six on this side and six on that: the aelam of the gate equal to the reed in length and equal to the reed in breadth, and the 'aelam' in the middle of the 'theelatha', of five cubits, and the second 'thee' equal to the reed in breadth and equal to the reed in length, and the 'aelam' of five cubits, and the third 'thee' equal to the reed in breadth and equal to the reed in length, of the three, and the 'aelam' of the gate which is beside the 'aelam' of the gate, of eight cubits, and the 'aeleu' of two cubits, and the 'aelam' of the gate within. And the 'thee' of the gate opposite, three on this side and three on that, and one measure of the three, one measure of the 'aelam' on this side and on that. And he measured the breadth of the entrance of the gate, ten cubits, and the breadth of the gate, thirteen cubits, and one cubit was drawn in before the 'theeri', of one cubit, and a boundary of one cubit on this side and on that; and the 'thee' of six cubits on this side and of six cubits on that. And he measured the gate from the wall of the 'thee' to the wall of the 'thee', a breadth of twenty-five cubits; this gate opposite gate.") When I was a boy at Rome and was being educated in liberal studies, I used, with others of the same age and purpose, to go round the tombs of the apostles and martyrs on the Lord's days, and often to enter the crypts which, dug out in the depths of the earth, have along the walls, on either side of those who enter, the bodies of the buried; and everything is so dark that that prophetic word is almost fulfilled: Let them go down alive into hell, and light let in rarely from above tempers the horror of the darkness, so that you would think it not so much a window as a hole for the light let down; and again one moves forward step by step and, to those surrounded by blind night, that line of Vergil presents itself: Horror everywhere for the mind, and at the same time the very silences terrify. Let this have been said by me so that the prudent reader may understand what view I hold about the explanation of the temple of the Lord in Ezekiel, of which it is written: Cloud and darkness under his feet, and again: Darkness is his hiding place; whence Moses too entered into the cloud and the darkness, so that he could contemplate the mysteries of the Lord, which the people, placed far off and remaining below, could not see; and then, after forty days, the ignoble crowd with darkened eyes could not look upon the face of Moses, because the face of Moses 'had been glorified', or, as is contained in the Hebrew, 'was horned'; so it happens to me too as I read the description of the mystical temple — which the Jews think is to be built according to the letter at the coming of their Christ, whom we prove to be Antichrist, and which we refer to the Church of Christ, and which I see being built daily in the saints —: for wherever the eye of the heart is opened, and I have thought that I see something and hold the bridegroom — and rejoicing have said: I have found him whom my soul sought; I will hold him and will not let him go —, again the divine word deserts me, and the bridegroom flees from my hands, and my eyes are closed in blindness — so that I am compelled to say: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!, and what is written elsewhere: The judgments of the Lord are a great deep, and: Out of the depths I have cried to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice, and that word of Elisha, who followed with the eyes of the heart the master snatched away from him, saying: Father, father, the chariot of Israel and its charioteer —. It must therefore be simply confessed that I do not wish to discuss the temple of blessed Ezekiel, about which all the ages have been silent, out of rashness, but desire, in faith and the fear of God, to show readers the conjecture of my mind, so that, if I offer to the tabernacle of God goats' skins and hair, by which the thorns and stings of sins may be covered and the rains of storms kept off, another, who is rich, may offer, according to the quality of his merits, either iron or bronze or silver and gold and most precious stones, and may not despise our gifts because they are lesser, but rejoice in his own wealth: for unless there are lowest things, there cannot be highest ones, and so that the greater may be praised, they grow by comparison with the lesser. Let us see, then, what Ezekiel, having entered the building of the city facing toward the south, first saw, then heard: And behold, he says, a wall outside, round about the house on every side. In place of the 'wall' which Aquila and Theodotion translated, Symmachus and the Seventy put περίβολος [enclosure]: on every side it surrounded the house, that is, the temple of the Lord; and the man whose appearance was as of bronze had not only the surveyor's cord, the cord of the masons, but he also held in his hand the reed, whose measure was passed over in silence above and is now given: of six cubits and a handbreadth — which in Greek is more correctly called palaestes, and is the sixth part of a cubit; otherwise 'palmus' means σπιθαμὴν [a span], which some have been accustomed to call 'palma' [palm] for the sake of distinction, and further to call the 'palaesten' 'palmum' [handbreadth] —; with this reed, then, he measured the breadth and the height of the wall, and both, that is, height and breadth, were of one reed, that is, of six cubits and one handbreadth. Though there were very many gates, he would not enter by the other gates, but by the one which looked toward the eastern quarter; and because the place was not level — for the wall round about, and the house of God itself, had been built on higher ground —, he therefore goes in, or rather climbs up, by steps — which the Seventy alone name as 'seven', whereas both in the Hebrew and in the other translators we read only 'steps', without a number —; and having entered the gate, he at once measured the threshold of the gate — which the Seventy name 'thee', in place of which in the Hebrew is written 'seph' [threshold]; and I think the diligent and studious reader should be reminded of this, if indeed he is led by knowledge of the Scriptures and not by the empty declamations of orators: that he should know that almost all the Hebrew words and names which have been set down in the Greek and Latin translation have been corrupted by excessive age and depraved by the fault of the scribes, and that, as ever more uncorrected copies are written from uncorrected ones, out of Hebrew words Sarmatian words have been made, or rather words of no nation, since they have ceased to be Hebrew and have not begun to be foreign —. The threshold of the gate, then — or 'thee', or rather 'seph', which Symmachus translated οὐδὸν [threshold], Aquila and Theodotion πρόθυρον [front doorway] —, had one reed, that is, six cubits and a handbreadth, in breadth; further, meaning I know not what, the Seventy added of their own 'six on this side and six on that'; and after the threshold of the gate, according to the Hebrew, he measured the cell — or room, and, as Symmachus translated, παραστάδας, that is, 'posts' — on either side, at one reed, as much in length as in breadth — which the Seventy also translated 'aelam', and which in what follows Symmachus translated 'fore-threshold' —; and between the two cells — or rooms and παραστάδας — there were five cubits, and another near-threshold of the gate beside the vestibule within, of one reed; a third, the vestibule of the gate, also had eight cubits, and in its front, or in its margins, two cubits; and lest anyone think this vestibule to be the same as the one above, he added: the vestibule of the inner gate; in place of which the Seventy translated a first and a second and a third vestibule. And the cells, that is, the rooms which had been built in the vestibules after the eastern gate, looked toward the eastern way; and so that we may know how many cells there were, it is added: three on this side and three on that, looking, namely, toward the north and toward the south and toward the eastern way; and there was one measure of the fronts on either side. He also measured the measure of the threshold of the gate in breadth and found ten cubits, and in length thirteen cubits, and the ends of the cells — or, as Symmachus translated, παραστάδες — were narrowed into one cubit, and each front had one cubit; and the cells, or παραστάδες and, as the Seventy put of their own, 'theelatha' —, had six cubits each on either side. And he measured the gate from the roof of a cell — or παραστάδος — to its roof or wall, and found, between roof and roof, twenty-five cubits of breadth, for so much was the space between door and door, or between gate and gate. Let us have said these things briefly, in the spirit of one divining rather than explaining, wishing to sketch, according to the letter, a picture that is obscure and almost invisible; for the rest, we shall set down, briefly and with hesitation, the few things we can conjecture. The apostle Paul, wishing the Ephesians to know the more sacred things, prays for them 'that they may be filled with the wisdom and love of the Lord, and, being rooted, may be able to know and comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth of his riches'; and to the same he says: So then you are by no means strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone; in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple for the Lord, in whom you too are built up into a dwelling place of God in the Holy Spirit. Peter too, in almost the same words, because with the same spirit, says in his epistle: If indeed you have believed that the Lord is good. Coming to him, a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen and honored by God, you yourselves too, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, into a holy priesthood, offering spiritual victims acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. From this it is clear that the Lord Savior, who is the true architect, tests the stones: which can be called together into the foundation of the temple, which into the middle, which into the higher places, and which, being of lesser measure or of not so solid firmness, into the wall and outside the temple, into the περιβολῇ round about — for it is a thing of no small strength nor of the least firmness to bear the stones laid on from above; whence the apostle writes to believers: Bearing one another's burdens, and in another place it is written that we ought not to take up a weight which we cannot carry —. And the measuring reed, which had six cubits and one handbreadth, signifies this: that our way of life is known to God, which is contained in the six days in which the world was made, and that the reason of each of our works is known too, so that one thing pertains to works, another to the mind; whence also the breadth is equal to the height, and of these the breadth refers, as we have said, to works, the height to the mind, which hastens toward high things. Let it suffice to have given this warning once: that I know that cubitum and cubita [cubit, cubits] are used in the neuter gender, but that, for simplicity of understanding and by the custom of the common people, I also put them in the masculine gender — for it is not our concern to avoid faults of speech, but to explain the obscurity of holy Scripture in whatever words we can —. The man, then, whose name is Orient, goes in by the eastern gate, to enlighten those whom he found at the first front of the vestibule, or at the very entrance of the gate: not by one step but by several, whose number is passed over in silence so that the difficulty of the ascent may appear, and so that, however many steps you propose to yourself, you may know that it is less than what is left in doubt — I think this is the gate of which it is also sung in the Psalms: This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter by it —; and he measured the threshold of the gate, so that we may be able to know that all things lie open to the knowledge of God; this threshold is said to be of one reed in breadth, and nothing is said of its height and length: for it is a way and an entrance, and through it one must proceed to the inner parts — although in this place the Seventy superfluously said 'length' or, as is contained in most manuscripts, 'height' —; and the rooms, that is, the cells and παραστάδες, have one reed each, as much in length as in breadth, but between cell and cell there are only six cubits, so that the inner parts of the rooms may have the full measure of the reed, that is, of six cubits and a handbreadth, while works and reason agree alike, but those things which are outside, that is, between cell and cell, five cubits; for they have not yet penetrated the secrets of Christ, nor can they say: The king has brought me into his room, and elsewhere: All the glory of the king's daughter is within, but, while the disciples stay at home with Christ, they cannot hear his mysteries, and they desire the word of God to come out to them outside; and therefore the measure of five cubits is set in them, so that they may be taught to refer all things to the five senses; the threshold of the other gate too, or, as is contained in the Seventy, of the second and the third vestibule, is of the same measure of one reed. After this, for its vestibule, that is, for the threshold of the gate, the entrance, eight cubits are set, so that the inner parts of the vestibule may hold not the number seven, and six cubits and one handbreadth, but the number eight, which pertain to the mystery of the resurrection and of the Lord's day. 'And on the front', he says, 'of the same vestibule there were two cubits', which pertain either to both Testaments, or to the letter and the spirit, or to the mystery of the tongs with which, in Isaiah, the coal is taken from the altar and carried to cleanse the prophet's lips; and so that we may know what this vestibule is which is bounded by eight and two cubits, he puts it more plainly: And the vestibule of the gate was within, through which we come to the temple of God. The cells too, and rooms, which were toward the way of the eastern gate, in place of which the Seventy write 'aeleu', were three on this side and three on that, of one measure, that is, of one reed which had six cubits and one handbreadth, of which it was spoken above, and the 'aelam' one reed in length and one reed in breadth, and between the cells five cubits; so, lest we should think that there were only two cells, he set three on either side, to show the number six, which is shown also in the water jars of the Gospel, in which the waters were changed into wines; and daily the Jewish waters are turned into wine, which makes glad the heart of man, and becomes sweeter with the blood of Christ. He also measured the breadth of the threshold of the gate, of ten cubits, which is a perfect number and is contained either in the Decalogue or in the mystery of the four Gospels, which, beginning from one, so proceeds to I.II.III.IIII that it fills up the number ten; its length had thirteen cubits; in place of which, in the Seventy, breadth is put again — which seems to me to have been corrupted by the negligence of the scribes: for Scripture would not have said in one place breadth and again breadth, of ten or of thirteen cubits —; and the gate of the threshold, in which the number of the old and the new Testament is consecrated, can be understood either as the Lord himself, who says: I am the door, or certainly as all the saints through whom we enter into the knowledge of God, of whom the apostle Paul spoke: My mouth is open to you, O Corinthians; be enlarged, you too; the thirteen cubits, after the number eight, contain the mystery of the books of Moses, which are shown both in the five loaves and in the Samaritan woman of the Gospel, who is reproved because she had had five husbands, and the sixth, whom she thought she had, she did not have; and yet the number eight and the number five are completed by one cubit, that is, the fourteenth, because in Christ all things are summed up; whence it is said: And one cubit the boundary on both sides, since one measure of Christ embraces both the old and the new testament, and one cubit encloses the height of thirty cubits of Noah's ark. And the cells, he says (or, as the Seventy put it, 'thau' or 'thee' — turning and changing the Hebrew names in each place as they pleased —), were of six cubits 'on either side', which is said as on this side and on that, and they by no means had the handbreadth, nor the reason added above, which might call our present way of life to the future blessedness, but only six cubits. Whence there follows: And he measured the gate from the roof of a cell to the roof (or wall) of it, and he found twenty-five cubits of breadth; and the number itself, though it is square, is nevertheless referred to the senses: for if you set five cubits against each other five times, you will produce the number twenty-five, which is between the roof of the cells and the roof; and yet both, set opposite each other, have from their highest parts door opposite door. Let these things not seem trivial to the reader — although they displease even me myself who say them, feeling that I am knocking at a closed door —, but they are to be read with indulgence; otherwise I could simply have confessed my ignorance and cut off every desire of the studious: for as we are far from perfect knowledge, so we judge it a lighter fault to say at least a little than nothing at all.
40:14-16
And he made fronts of sixty cubits, and at the front a court of the gate on every side round about; and before the face of the gate, which reached as far as the face of the vestibule of the inner gate, fifty cubits; and slanting windows in the cells and in their fronts, which were within the gate on every side round about; and likewise there were also windows in the vestibules round about within, and before the fronts a painting of palm trees. (LXX: "And under the open sky the 'aelam' of the gate, sixty cubits, and the 'theïm' of the court of the gate round about; and under the open sky of the court outside, the 'aelam' of the inner gate, fifty cubits; and hidden windows over the 'theïm' and over the 'aelam', within the gate of the court round about; and likewise the 'aelamoth' and windows round about within, and on the 'aelam' palms on this side and on that.") Symmachus translated this place thus: And he made περιστάσεις, which we can call 'circumstantias' [things standing round], in place of which the Hebrew also has 'ulium', which Aquila translated κρίωμα [ram-work, a pilaster] and we have turned into 'front'; again, where the Seventy put 'theïm of the court', the Hebrew has 'ulim' in the singular number, which Symmachus translated 'beside the court', Aquila κρίωμα, that is, 'the front of the court'; 'under the open sky' too, 'the aelam of the gate', Aquila translated 'before the face of the posts of the gate', Symmachus 'before the face of the vestibule of the gate'; and the 'hidden' windows, which in Hebrew are called 'aetemoth', Symmachus translated τοξικὰς [arrow-like]; and where the Seventy said 'over the theïm' and 'over the aelam', the same Symmachus put 'posts' and 'circumstantias', Aquila 'cells' and 'their fronts', in place of which in the Hebrew is written 'tham' and 'aele'; further, 'aelamoth', which the Seventy and Theodotion translated alike, Symmachus translated 'circumstantias', Aquila 'fronts'; and 'aelam', in place of which in the Hebrew is written 'ul', is called either 'door' or 'portico'; 'palm' too is written in the Hebrew 'thamarim', in the plural number, because the singular number calls a 'palm' 'thamar'. I do not doubt that these things will be tiresome to a fastidious reader, but I wished to show briefly how far, through length of time, or rather through the fault of the scribes and, to speak more openly, through their fault and unskillfulness, the old translation differs from the Hebrew truth, and especially in the Hebrew words which we have rendered into the Latin tongue from the editions of others, simply indicating not so much an explanation of the words as our conjecture. And I think that between the wall of the temple, outside round about, and the house itself, in the court, that is, in the middle, certain things were set for ornament, which Symmachus translates 'circumstantias', that is, 'certain standing things', raised up on high from the ground of the earth, and that these occupied a space of sixty cubits; and again, for those going out from the inner gate to the face of the vestibule which looked toward the outer gate, that the place occupied fifty cubits, in which there were slanting windows, which the Seventy call 'hidden', Symmachus τοξικὰς; and these windows were in the cells, that is, in each of the rooms, and in the porticoes which extended before the rooms, occupying fifty cubits — these slanting windows, or τοξικαὶ, received their name from arrows for this reason, that, like arrows, a narrow light is let into the building; and within they widen —; and everything round about was full of windows of this kind. 'And before the fronts', he says, 'of the porticoes, a painting or carving of palm trees'; by which it is shown that, for those at the entrance of the gate and as soon as they enter the wall, sixty cubits meet them with various ornaments, which are referred to the creation of the world, so that the Creator may be understood from the creatures, and so that the variety of the world may show all things running in order and reason — the world which among the Greeks receives the name κόσμος from 'adornment', and was made in six days, so that for each day one decade may be reckoned, which we said above is a perfect number —; after this, as we enter the inner court, there meet us, before the very vestibule of the inner gate, cells with slanting windows, which occupy a space of fifty cubits, which itself too is a consecrated number: and after seven full weeks of festivity and joy, the first day of the ogdoad begins, which is the day of the resurrection, and brings us into the neighborhood of the temple — for when we have done all things, doing penance for our former error, then we are made neighbors and nearest to God, so that, in the outer court, the order and constancy of the creatures may teach us the knowledge of the Creator, and, in the inner, the true jubilee, in which all debts are forgiven us, may instruct us in θεολογίαν [theology, the knowledge of God]. It must also be noted that the inner court has many windows, not straight and even but slanting, narrow on the outside and widening within, so that through certain small openings we may be able to penetrate to the inner things and to come to the fullness of the brightest light which dwells in the temple —; finally, after the sixty and the fifty cubits, and the cells and the porticoes, the fronts of the porticoes and the very many windows round about, the carving or painting of palm trees is shown to us, so that, possessing the victory over the world, we may be made worthy to see the palms of the virtues.
40:17-19
And he brought me out to the outer court, and behold, chambers, and a pavement laid with stone in the court round about, thirty chambers round about the pavement; and the pavement at the front of the gates, according to the length of the gates, was lower. And he measured the breadth from the face of the lower gate to the front of the inner court outside, a hundred cubits toward the east and toward the north. (LXX: "And he brought me into the inner court, and behold, cells and intercolumniations of the court round about, thirty cells between the columns; and porticoes behind the doors, along the length of the doors, before the columns, lower. And he measured the breadth of the court from that place which was under the open sky of the outer gate to the inner place under the open sky of the inner gate, which looked toward the outer parts, a hundred cubits, and it faced toward the east.") In place of the thirty 'cells' which the Seventy rendered, or 'chambers', and 'storerooms', as Aquila translated, Symmachus put 'exedrae'; and in place of the hundred cubits of the outer part which extended as far as the eastern gate, in the Hebrew the same number of cubits is said to extend toward the north too, but in the Seventy the name of the north has been removed. That man, then, who had the masons' cord in his hand and the measuring reed, and stood in the gate, among the other things which he showed to his sight, after the court of sixty cubits and the other vestibule of the inner gate which occupied fifty cubits, brought the prophet out to the outer court or, as is contained in the Seventy, brought him into the inner court — and I wonder greatly, according to the letter and the Seventy, how, after the outer courts occupying sixty and fifty cubits, there is an inner court which extends over spaces of a hundred cubits in breadth, unless perhaps, according to the mystical senses and the progress of those who enter, the things which were more inward in teachings are broader —; and having been brought into the inner court, or led to the outer court, as is contained in the Hebrew, he at once beheld thirty 'cells' or 'chambers' and, as Symmachus translated, 'exedrae', which had been prepared for the dwelling of the Levites and priests, and the pavement laid with stones, or intercolumniations, so that it may be shown that the inner or outer court has before the doors a row of columns and a pavement at the front of the gates, or porticoes behind the back of the gates, in which porticoes I think the columns were arranged in order, so that before the chambers there were porticoes, and at the fronts of the porticoes columns sustaining the porticoes; and the pavement which was laid with stones and extended before the porticoes of the court was lower at the ascent of the porticoes, and had the same length which the building of the cells possessed. And the same man, in whose hand were the cord and the reed, measured from the face of the lower gate or, as the Seventy would have it, of the outer gate, to the front of the inner court or gate, a hundred cubits toward the east and, as is said in the Hebrew, toward the north too. From which we understand that the saying of the Gospel which the Savior relates, of the seed sent into the field onto good ground, which multiplies its fruits according to the variety of the virtues into the number thirty and sixty and a hundred, agrees with the prophecy of this place: here too the number thirty and sixty and a hundred is set, so that by these, as by steps, we may be able to come to perfect knowledge, yet only in such a way that the number fifty leads us to the inner house, which, when the sabbath of the seven weeks is finished, breaks forth into the day of the resurrection. And those are called 'gazophylacia' [chambers, literally treasuries] which are full of spiritual riches — of which it is written: The redemption of a man's soul is his own riches, and over which the apostle Paul too congratulates his disciples, that they are full in every word and in all knowledge; and in the language of the Persians 'riches' are called 'gaza' —, or certainly cells, which in Greek are called παστοφόρια [bridal chambers]: they show rooms prepared for the coming of the bridegroom; and they were thirty in number, to show the perfect age of those who dwell in them. And the 'pavement' was laid with stone, so that the footsteps of the inhabitants might not be defiled by the mud and earth and dust of sins, but that they might walk upon the living stones with which the temple of God is built; or there were 'intercolumniations' before the doors of the cells, which sustained the building laid upon them from above — these are the columns of which the apostle Paul also writes: They gave the right hand to me and Barnabas, Peter and John, who seemed to be columns, and in another place: The column and foundation of the truth; and in the Revelation of John we read: He who conquers, I will make him a column in the temple of my God, and he shall go outside no more —; so the 'pavement' which was at the front of the gates, of which we have already spoken, or the 'porticoes' behind the back of the gates, which protected the inhabitants of the cells from the rains, was lower: for the things which are lower are always placed in the higher ones, so that we may be able to come by ascent and by steps to the things that are mystical and secret and full of spiritual riches. And the full and perfect number is in the number of ten decades, which also multiplies the sowing of Isaac with a hundredfold crop; but because he was on earth and could still say: I am a sojourner and a stranger, as all my fathers were, he is related to have sown barley and reaped a hundredfold crop: for the grain of wheat had not yet died in the earth, to bear many fruits and to satisfy the Jewish people's hunger for hearing the word of God with that bread which came down from heaven; but how the hundred cubits were not only toward the eastern gate but also toward the gate of the north, the following testimony will show.
40:20-23
He also measured the gate which looked toward the way of the north of the outer court, as much in length as in breadth; and its cells, three on this side and three on that, and its front and its vestibule according to the measure of the former gate, its length fifty cubits, and the breadth twenty-five cubits. And its windows and its vestibule and carvings according to the measures of the gate which looked toward the east; and its ascent was of seven steps, and a vestibule before it. And the gate of the inner court opposite the gate of the north and the eastern one; and he measured from gate to gate a hundred cubits. (LXX: "And he brought me toward the north, and behold, a gate looking toward the outer court, and he measured it in length and in breadth; and its 'thee', three on this side and three on that, and the 'aeleu' and the 'aelamoth' — and what is not found in the Hebrew: — and its palms, and it was made according to the measure of the gate which looked toward the east, fifty cubits the length and the breadth twenty-five cubits. And its windows and the 'aelamoth' and its palms as in the gate which looked toward the east; and by steps they went up to it, and the 'aelamoth' within. And the gate of the inner court looking toward the gate of the north — and what is not found in the Hebrew: — as the gate which looks toward the east; and he measured the court from gate to gate, of a hundred cubits.") What the Hebrew words 'thee' and 'aeleu' and 'aelamoth' signify we have said more fully above, but in the present passage too our translation will teach it by their placing. And the man in whose hand was the cord measured the gate of the north too, of the outer court, or brought the prophet in through the gate of the north to the outer court — in which it must be considered that he is brought in first through the gate of the north, second through the gate of the south, third through the eastern gate — From the north, for, evils blaze up upon the inhabitants of the earth, and fittingly he who is an inhabitant of the earth, and not a sojourner and a stranger, lies open to the darts of him who comes from the north, whose darts are fiery, which, according to the Apostle, are quenched by the shield of faith —; and toward the north the court is called outer, but toward the midday, that is, toward the south, not outer but inner — for Scripture says: And he brought me into the inner court, to the southern gate, which is found written likewise of the eastern court too —: for the first entrance to virtue is to tread the north underfoot and, through the number fifty and twenty-five, to come to the summit of the hundred; then to be brought into the southern quarter and to drive out the cold of the north; then to come to perfect virtue, that is, to the eastern gate, in which the sun of righteousness rises and through which the high priest alone enters — and this is to be observed, that, though there are four quarters, the western gate is passed over in silence, of which it is written at the beginning of that psalm: Make a way for him who ascends over the setting: the Lord is his name, so that, after we have prepared the way for the Lord and have fulfilled what John the Baptist cries in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight, we may be able to hear what is said in the last part of the same psalm: who ascends above the heaven of heaven toward the east —. And that the cells are said to be three on this side and three on that teaches this, that both the letter and the spirit, and each understanding, that of history and that of tropology, pertain to the mysteries of the Trinity. And what is said: And its front and vestibule according to the measure of the former gate, signifies the eastern gate, which is called former not in order but in merit. 'And they had', he says, 'fifty cubits in length and twenty-five in breadth', so that in the fifty, after seven weeks, the eternal rest may be shown, extending through the day of the resurrection to the kingdoms of heaven, in which there is true rest, and in the twenty-five, of which number we have spoken before, the five senses may be kept, through five rows, in the measure of a square, one of which is fitted to the length, the other to the breadth, so that in the length may be shown the rest and delight of a more sacred knowledge, in the breadth the reason of present things which pertains to the senses. And what is added: And the windows and the vestibules and the carvings (or, as the Seventy have handed down, the palms) were according to the measure of the gate which looked toward the east, indicates this spiritually: that whoever, placed at the entrance of the virtues, has entered the three and three cells and has recognized the front and the vestibule of the measure of the former gate, may also come to those things, and behold those, which he is going to receive most fully in the eastern gate. Further, what follows: And its ascent was of seven steps, and a vestibule before it (or within), has this sense: that through the seven steps of the week, and of the pot which is kindled from the face of the north, and of the ceremonies of the Jews, to whom God gave precepts that were not good and ordinances in which they should not live in them, we climb to higher things and to its vestibule, that is, the vestibule of the gate, in place of which the Seventy translated 'aelamoth', which vestibule is before the gate, or within. Nor is there only one gate of the north, which above is called the outer gate, but another which has the likeness of the eastern gate, as the Seventy said more plainly: And the inner gate of the court looking toward the gate of the north, as was the gate which looked toward the east; and he measured from the outer gate of the north to the inner gate of the same north a hundred cubits, so that by these as by steps, withdrawing from the outer gate, we may be able to come to the inner one, concerning the mystery of which number it has been spoken.
40:24-31
And he led me to the southern way, and behold, a gate which looked toward the south; and he measured its front and its vestibule according to the measures above, and its windows, and the vestibules round about it, like the other windows, in which there was a length of fifty cubits and a breadth of twenty-five. And by seven steps one went up to it, and a vestibule before its front, and there were carved palms, one on this side and another on that, on its front. And the gate of the inner court on the southern way; and he measured from gate to gate on the southern way a hundred cubits. And he brought me into the inner court at the southern gate, and he measured the gate according to the measures above, its cell and its front, and its vestibule with the same measures, and the windows of the vestibules round about: fifty cubits of length, and of breadth twenty-five cubits, and the vestibule round about, in length twenty-five cubits and in breadth five cubits, and its vestibule toward the outer court, and palms on the front, and there were eight steps by which one went up through it. (The Seventy agree in the same words, except for 'thee' and 'aeleu' and 'aelamoth' and 'aelam', in place of which in the Hebrew is put 'ulam'; and 'thee' means 'threshold' or 'front', 'aeleu' 'around it' or 'supports', 'aelamoth' 'propyla' [gateways] or 'vestibules', 'ulam tritilon' 'round about', that is, 'before the doors'. But what we have put according to the Hebrew: And the vestibule (or πρόπυλον [gateway]) round about, of a length of twenty-five cubits and of a breadth of five cubits, is not found in the Seventy. But this too is to be noted, that at the southern gate, according to the Seventy, 'way' is not said, but simply: And he led me toward the south, and behold, a gate which looked toward the south.) Through each of the entrances, then, Ezekiel, whom God strengthened — for this is what his name means —, is led, and he passes from the gate of the north to the southern gate, whose fronts and thresholds, πρόπυλα or vestibules, and windows round about had similar measures: a length of fifty cubits and a breadth of twenty-five cubits. And by seven steps one went up to it, that is, to the southern gate, and its vestibule, that is, the 'aelamoth', was before its doors; there were also two carved palms, of which we spoke at the northern quarter of the gate. And let it suffice to have advised only this, that what is set there according to a lowlier understanding, that is, according to the letter, we understand at the southern gate according to the spiritual sense: for history and tropology run along the same lines, but the former is humbler, the latter more sublime; the former clings to the earth, the latter flies up to heavenly things. And round about, through the windows, all things were full of light — for the several προβλήματα [questions] have their own limits —, and through them its own light enters the soul of the one who sees, especially if the length of his life has been prolonged by the mystery of the fiftieth year, that is, of the jubilee, and he has been able to come to the breadth of the more divine sense; in which breadth and streets wisdom acts confidently and cries aloud with a lofty voice. He enters by seven steps so as to come to the vestibule, and through the palms of his purpose and effort to hold the everlasting victory. And lest we should think there is one court toward the southern part, it is said of a second court: And the gate of the inner court on the southern way; and he measured from gate to gate on the southern way a hundred cubits, so that after the mysteries of the week and of the old Testament he might come to the good land and to the grace of the Gospel. Nor is there only a second court at the southern gate, but a third, of which it is now said: And he brought me into the inner court at the southern gate, and he measured the gate according to the measures above, and the rest: for each court has its own measures and orders, and in the same measures there is a different grace, since we know the same things in one way at the beginning, in another in our progress, in another at the end. But this, which is not found in the Seventy: And the vestibule (or πρόπυλον) round about, in length twenty-five cubits and in breadth five cubits, seems to raise a question, on account of which it was also not set down in the translation: how, after the progress of the third step, twenty-five cubits and five are set; but what follows removes the ambiguity: And its vestibule toward the outer court, and the palms on its front, namely, that this court, which has twenty-five cubits in length and five in breadth, belongs not to the inner but to the outer court, so that the length of the outer court possesses the breadth of the former court, that is, twenty-five cubits, and holds five cubits in breadth; which measures, that is, twenty-five and five, we refer to those senses, namely sight, hearing, taste and smell and touch, which, if we climb to higher things, we double five times, and out of carnal senses we shall make spiritual ones — as in that saying: Lift up your eyes and see, for the harvests are white for reaping, and: He who has ears to hear, let him hear, and: Taste and see that the Lord is sweet, and: We are the good odor of Christ among those who believe; and in the epistle of John it is said: What we have heard and seen, and our hands have handled, concerning the word of life —. And at the last they make not, as at the northern quarter, only seven steps, but after the seven the number eight is set, so that we may pass from the Synagogue to the Church, from the old testament to the new, from earthly things to heavenly ones.
40:32-34
And he brought me into the inner court by the eastern way, and he measured the gate according to the measures above; the cell and its front and the vestibules as above, and its windows and its vestibules round about, the length fifty cubits and the breadth twenty-five cubits; and its vestibule, that is, of the outer court (in place of which the Seventy and Symmachus put inner), and carved palms on its front, on this side and on that, and its ascent by eight steps. From the northern quarter, into whose court one went up by only seven steps, he passes to the southern gate and to the court of the same quarter, to which one ascends not only by seven steps, as we said above, but by eight: namely, so that through the old things we may pass to the new and, to speak more plainly, through the patriarchs and prophets we may come to the apostles: so that in the one there is the hebdomad, in the other the ogdoad. But now he comes to the last, or rather to the highest, and brings the prophet in by the way of the inner gate, or through the court to which one goes by the eastern way — 'way', according to the Seventy, is found in this place only: at the northern and the southern quarter it is wholly passed over in silence, so that we may understand that at the eastern gate alone is that way to be understood which says: I am the way and the truth and the life; for through him we come to the Father, and of him it is written: Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who think nothing sinister about Christ, but whose faith is pure and in no way polluted with the filth of heretics —; and there is the same number of cells, of fronts and vestibules and windows and of their light, and the same measure of length and breadth, preserving, namely, the mysteries of fifty and of twenty-five cubits; and the vestibule of its gate, or of the inner court, which according to the Hebrew is set down as outer, so that all things may be held enclosed by the eastern light — according to that which is written: Nor is there anyone who hides himself from its heat —; but if we take the court as both outer and inner, it is to be understood thus: that God is both poured around and poured in, saying through the prophet: Who holds the heaven in his palm and the earth in his fist, so that all things may be seen to be enclosed by him, and again: Heaven is my throne, and the earth the footstool of my feet, so that he is to be believed to be within all things — according to that passage of Vergil: In the beginning the heaven and the lands and the liquid plains, the shining globe of the moon and the Titanian stars, a spirit within nourishes, and mind, poured through the limbs, moves the whole mass and mingles itself with the great body —; and when, through the weapons on the right and on the left, through glory and dishonor, through good report and bad, through praises and reproaches, we have won the victory over this world, then palms are given to us on both sides, whom neither joys have changed nor grief, neither prosperity nor adversity has overcome; and by no means through seven steps, as in the quarter of the north, nor through seven and eight, as is contained also at the midday, but through eight steps only we climb to the summit, because the number eight, that is, the mystery of the Gospel, suffices for us, and we may say, according to the Apostle: Even if we had known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him no longer, understood: according to the flesh.
40:35-43
And he brought me to the gate which looked toward the north, and he measured according to the measures above its cell, its front and its vestibule and its windows round about, in length fifty cubits, in breadth twenty-five cubits. Its vestibule looked into the outer court, and a carving of palms on its front on this side and on that; its ascent was by eight steps. And by each chamber a door at the entrances of the gates; there they washed the holocaust. And in the vestibule of the gate two tables on this side and two tables on that, that the holocaust may be sacrificed upon them, and for sin and for trespass. And at the outer side which goes up to the door of the gate that leads toward the north, two tables; and at the other side, before the vestibule of the gate, two tables. Four tables on this side and four tables on that: along the sides of the gate there were eight tables, upon which they sacrificed. And four tables for the holocaust, built of squared stones, of a length of one cubit and a half, and a breadth of one cubit and a half, and a height of one cubit, upon which they are to put the vessels in which the holocaust and the victims are sacrificed; and their lips of one handbreadth, bent back inward round about, and upon the tables the flesh of the oblation. In this testimony the Hebrew truth disagrees greatly with the edition of the Seventy translators: for what we have said: There they washed the holocaust. And in the vestibule of the gate two tables on this side, and again: That the holocaust may be sacrificed upon them, and for sin, is not found in the Seventy, but in most manuscripts it has been added from Theodotion; again, where we said: And their lips of one handbreadth, bent back inward round about, the Seventy translated: And having a 'gisum' of a handbreadth, hewn inward round about — which word, whether it is Hebrew or Greek, we cannot know, except only this, that in place of 'gisum' Symmachus and Theodotion translated 'lips', the first edition of Aquila ἐπιστάσεις [ledges] in the plural number, the second 'lips', in place of which in the Hebrew there is 'asaphanaim' —; and where we said: And upon the tables the flesh of the oblation, the Seventy put of their own: And on the tables, coverings above, that they might be covered from rain and from drought; and as for what they rendered with Hebrew names, 'thee' and 'aeleu' and 'aelamoth' and 'aelam', what it signifies we have both advised above, and our translation, set over against it, can show, nor is there any need to advise the reader often about this and to distrust his prudence and diligence. He is brought, then, again to the gate which looked toward the north, but by no means, as above, to the outer court, but to the inner — for in what is said in what follows: Its vestibule looked toward the outer court, it is shown that this court was within —; by which the progress of the one entering is shown, since in each place the names and measures are its own, and the windows round about show all things full of the light of knowledge; and through the fifty and the twenty-five cubits the mysteries of remission and of the divine senses are set, so that, placed in the vestibule of the inner court, we may see the outer things, and, contemplating the knowledge of things past and present, through which we may come to the double palms and victories, may know the mysteries of the eight steps, having gone into the chambers, in which the riches of the temple are contained and our prayers are washed from every stain of sin. And two tables were set on each side, so that first the holocaust may be sacrificed, which the sacred fire consumes wholly, then the offering for sin, and lastly that for ignorance: for what we have committed either knowingly or in ignorance. At the outer side too, according to the Seventy, there was a skillfully made channel which carried outside the ashes of the holocausts and the putrid matter of the flesh, or: there were two tables; and at the other side of the vestibule of the same gate two tables, that is, four on each side. Four on this side and four on that, and behind them or at their side another eight tables, so that together they make sixteen tables; by which number the mysteries of the prophets are shown, so that whatever we offer through the condescension of the Gospel we may prove to have been foretold by their prophecies. And as for the four tables that are brought in, built of squared stones, and these too for the sacrifice of the holocaust: these are the living stones which roll upon the earth and have with them the cornerstone by which the walls of the old and the new Testament are held together; and the number four shows the mysteries of the Gospel; having in length and breadth one cubit and a half, that is, in a square, which joined together make three cubits, and these three cubits have one cubit in height, so that the measure of one cubit, that is, of the divine majesty, may preserve the mysteries of the Trinity, as the Lord says to his disciples: Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: and the name of God is, as it were, the one cubit of height, which embraces three properties and always takes up the holocausts of our offerings; and upon these four tables of the holocausts, built of living stones, whose length and breadth and height have been described, are put the vessels in which is sacrificed the holocaust of the martyrs, of whom it is said: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints, and the victims of those who by continence and holiness of body sacrifice their souls to the Lord; and I think the names of these tables are contained in the apostles Matthew and Luke and Mark and John; their rim, bent back inward from above, went round the edges round about, so as to hold the holocausts within and not allow them to flow everywhere, and to hold the flesh of the oblation; or, as the Seventy translated: And the tables themselves were covered above, because of the violence of the rains and the excessive drought of the summer sun, so that the flesh placed upon them may say with the prophet: By day the sun shall not burn us, nor the moon by night, of which the one dissolves the offerings with excessive rains and storms of tribulations, the other makes whatever has been offered dry up in the fierce heat of persecutions. Pardon, reader, the difficulty of the passages, or, if you can find something better, teach me: we gladly learn what we do not know.
40:44-49
And outside the inner gate the chambers of the singers in the inner court, which was at the side of the gate looking toward the north, and their faces toward the southern way, one at the side of the gate which looked toward the way of the north. And he said to me: This is the chamber which looks toward the way of midday, for the priests who keep watch in the charges of the temple. Further, the chamber which looks toward the way of the north shall be for the priests who keep watch for the ministry of the altar: these are the sons of Zadok, who from the sons of Levi come near to the Lord to minister to him. And he measured the court, in length a hundred cubits and in breadth a hundred cubits, in a square, and the altar before the face of the temple. And he brought me into the vestibule of the temple; and he measured the vestibule, five cubits on this side and five cubits on that, and the breadth of the gate, three cubits on this side and three cubits on that; and the length of the vestibule twenty cubits and the breadth eleven cubits, and by eight steps one went up to it, and their columns on the fronts, one on this side and another on that. In place of 'chambers' the Seventy translated 'exedrae'; and what we said, exedrae or chambers 'of the singers', was passed over by them; and again, after the measure of the vestibule of five cubits on this side and five cubits on that, they added of their own: And the breadth of the gate of fourteen cubits, whereas in the Hebrew there is set only: And the breadth of the gate of three cubits on this side and three cubits on that. I have advised the reader of these things so that he may not be disturbed by the diversity of the translations, but that, in the present place and especially in the measures of the temple, he may be content with the Hebrew truth. So, after the wall, which the Seventy translated περίβολον, which went round the whole temple in a square round about, we read that the prophet was brought into the inner court, and then to the north and to the south and to the eastern gate and again to the north, of which we have spoken as best we could, and in whose diversities, whether of names or of measures, our past discourse has shown what seemed right to us — whose sense the testimony of the Savior briefly shows, saying: In my Father's house are many mansions —. These things completed, he enters the temple, that is, the Holy of Holies, of which it is now spoken, and within the inner gate are the chambers or exedrae of the singers — to whom that command is given: Sing to the Lord a new song, who cry aloud with the angels: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men of good will —, which inner court was situated at the side of the gate which looked toward the north, and toward the south and toward the east, so that the singers of the Lord, and those who are held in the office of the angels, may always remember by what steps they have come to the summit, and may diligently recognize the mysteries of each place. Then that man, in whose hand were the cord and the reed, brings the prophet into the inner court which looked toward the way of midday, and spoke these words: This is the chamber (or exedra, and, as Theodotion put it, cell) which has been set apart for the dwelling of the priests who keep watch in the vigils of the temple. Further, the chamber which looks toward the way of the north shall be for the priests who keep watch for the ministry of the altar. In which it is to be noted that the priests to whom the guarding of the temple has been delegated dwell in the chamber which looked toward the way of midday, in which the light is fullest, but those who keep watch for the ministry of the altar, on which the victims for sin are offered, are in the chamber which looks toward the way of the north, desiring to receive and save those who come from the north and offer victims for sin: and both of these, serving the Lord according to their offices, are called sons of 'Sadoc' [Zadok], which means 'righteous' or 'justifying', namely the almighty God — of whom it is written: The Lord is righteous and has loved righteous deeds; his countenance has beheld equity —; and these sons of Zadok are from the sons of 'Leui' [Levi], which means 'taken up', and they too are taken up by the Lord, so that they may come near to him — and it is by no means said of Moses alone: Moses came near to the Lord, while the others did not come near, but all who serve him and minister to him are said to draw near to the Lord —. And this man, who brought Ezekiel into the outer court and, so to speak, to the Holy of Holies, measured the court itself, in which were the two exedrae or chambers assigned as dwellings for the guardians of the temple or of the altar, and found a hundred cubits each of length and of breadth, in a square, so that the priests serving in the ministry of the Lord, who had entered by the strait and narrow way, may have very broad walks and may abide in the perfect and complete number of the virtues; and in the court itself was the altar before the face of the temple, so that the prayer of the saints to the Lord may never cease. The aforesaid man also brought Ezekiel into the vestibule, or πρόπυλον, of the temple, which he measured at five cubits on this side and five on that, since he who was brought in had been instructed in the divine senses, and knew neither the right hand nor the left, but walked by the royal road; and the breadth of the gate itself, through which was the entrance to the vestibule of the temple, had three cubits 'on this side and on that' — in which the elegance of holy Scripture is to be observed, that it did not say 'on the right and on the left', lest it should seem to name anything sinister in the Holy of Holies, but 'on this side and on that', that is, on either side —, and at once the prudent reader understands that the number three pertains to the mystery of the Trinity, which is the gate of those who enter to God, since the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father, and the Holy Spirit in both; and this threefold number is the one gate of those who, after the baptism of the Trinity, come to salvation. But what follows: The length of the vestibule twenty cubits and the breadth eleven cubits, seems to raise a question: how the dual number, which is referred to two decades, and the eleventh, which lacks one to fill up the sacred number twelve, can be said to be in the vestibule of the temple; which most people solve thus: although the priests are holy and placed in the ministries of the temple and daily offer victims to Christ, yet, because they dwell in this mortal and frail little body — and one which is subject to sicknesses and vices —, they have the number twenty and the eleventh — whence the apostle too said: Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?, not that we should believe, according to a most savage heresy, that bodies are to be abolished, but that it is for us to be clothed over, not stripped, and for this mortal to receive immortality and for the corruptible to put on incorruption —. But what follows: And by eight steps one went up to it, that is, to the inner gate, is a great difficulty for those who know the Hebrew language: in fact Symmachus, whom we have followed in this place, put 'by eight steps', the Seventy 'ten', Theodotion and the second edition of Aquila 'eleven', but the first put no number, but says absolutely: And by steps by which one went up to it, so that we should understand either, according to the custom of the earlier gates, 'eight' 'steps', as Symmachus also understood, or certainly those steps which the inner gate had, whose number Scripture did not state: because in the Hebrew there is set 'urob' — that is, 'and the breadth' — 'ast-hesre' — which, if it is read so, signifies 'eleven', but if instead of 'hesre', that is, 'ten', we read 'heser', it does not signify 'ten' but a pronoun —; which may seem ravings to those who have no experience of the Hebrew language. But now we are not writing disputations or orations, in which one is accustomed to play with the arrangement of words, but explanations and commentaries on the Hebrew volumes; but let us return to our undertaking. By eight or ten steps, which is a perfect number, or eleven, of which we have already spoken, one went up to the gate of the holy places, on whose fronts were columns, one on this side and another on that: he did not say 'two', lest he should run into the dual number, but 'one and one', which is a perfect number and is taken from the oneness of God — and these were its columns, of which it is also said in the Revelation: He who conquers, I will make him a column in the temple of my God, and he shall not go outside; and Peter and John are called columns of the Church, through whom we enter into the Holy of Holies, and by whose teaching is our entrance to Christ —.
41:1-2
And he brought me into the temple, and measured the fronts: six cubits of breadth on this side and six cubits of breadth on that side, the breadth of the tabernacle. And the breadth of the gate was of ten cubits, and the sides (or shoulders) of the gate of five cubits on this side and five cubits on that side; and he measured a length of forty cubits and a breadth of twenty cubits. After many mysteries and various entrances and the particular features of each place, at long last the man in whose hand were the masons' line and the measuring reed brings the prophet Ezekiel into the temple, and he measured the front of the temple — for which the Seventy translated 'aelam', and Theodotion 'aelim', and Symmachus 'round about' —, and each breadth of the tabernacle was of six cubits, containing the mystery of all creatures — for in six days the world was founded —, through the knowledge of which, and of the causes and the principle of their founding, we enter into the temple of God, and from the order and constancy of creatures we know the Creator. The breadth of the gate of the temple, moreover, was of ten cubits — which is a sacred and perfect number, and the one on which, in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, there is the fast and the propitiation; and on the tenth day of the first month, which is called Nisan, the lamb is taken for the sacrifice and preparation of the Passover. In the seventh month, therefore, tithes are offered into the granaries of God, or, as Scripture is accustomed to call them, the winepresses; whence the Apostle also says: Be enlarged, you also —, so that, after someone has entered the temple through the ten cubits of the gate, its sides on either part, or, as it is properly said in the Hebrew, its shoulders, are measured, which always refer to works — whence also: Issachar desired the good, resting among the middle lots; and he saw rest, that it is good, and the land, that it is fat: he put his shoulder to labor and became a husbandman; and in the garment of the high priest the shoulder-piece is bound together with the rational, so that works may be completed by reason, and the churchman may say: From your commandments I have understood —, which shoulders of the gate had five cubits each on either side, so that through the earthly senses and the divine, about whose difference we often write, we may enter the innermost recesses of the temple; of which that man, who was the prophet's guide, measured the length of forty cubits and the breadth of twenty cubits, or, as is better, the length and breadth of the gate, because above he had spoken only of its breadth and its shoulders. Now that twenty times forty makes the number eight hundred, which is akin to the number eight, is doubtful to no one — whence also in Ecclesiastes it is commanded: Give a portion to seven, give also to eight —, and I know that I have often discussed the mystery of that number; or else, because it is through the tribulations and straits of this world that we enter into the sanctuary of the Lord, therefore the length of the gate had forty cubits, a number that is always set in labor — whence both Moses and Elijah for forty days do not eat bread and do not drink water, and for forty years the people of Israel is harassed and tested in the wilderness and after many labors enters the land of promise, and the Lord and Savior, according to the frailty of the body he assumed, is tempted for forty days in the wilderness, so that after the victory angels might come and minister to him —. But when, after tribulations and straits, we are able to say that apostolic word: In all things troubled, but not straitened, and the prophetic one: In tribulation you have enlarged me, then a most wide entrance is opened to us, which has a breadth of twenty cubits, so that, having overcome the contests of the world and of earthly things, which itself also is a dual number, we may enter the inner places of the temple, and hear the Lord commanding the disciples: Take courage, I have conquered the world.
41:3-4
And having entered within (or into the inner court) he measured in the front (or 'aelam') of the gate two cubits, and the gate of six cubits, and the breadth of the gate of seven cubits (or and the shoulders of the gate seven cubits on this side and seven cubits on that side). And he measured its length (or of the doors) of twenty cubits and the breadth of twenty cubits before the face of the temple, and he said to me: This is the Holy of Holies. However much we advance, a greater advance always opens before us. Hence, after the entrance of the temple, we again enter within, or, as the Seventy translated, the inner court, in whose 'front' or 'ael' — for which Symmachus translated 'around the gate', Theodotion 'aelam', the Hebrew 'ul', Aquila 'on this side of the door', we 'front' —, there were two cubits, so that, according to the sense given above, through the dual number we may enter that place where the Holy of Holies is; whence also the gate itself was of six cubits, through which, having entered, we possess eternal rest, which is shown in the number seven: for which the Seventy translated: And the breadth of the gate of seven cubits on this side and of seven cubits on that side, whereas in the Hebrew and the other editions the cubits in the breadth of the gate are set down only once. What follows, however: And he measured its length of twenty cubits (or, as is contained in the Seventy, forty), the breadth also of twenty cubits before the face of the temple, signifies this: that before the face of the temple and at its entrance the measure of past labor and contest always meets us; for the same meaning that the double number holds among the single numbers, the two decades have. And this must be considered: that, having entered within through the gate of two cubits in front, which has six cubits and seven in breadth on either side and twenty cubits in length and as many in the very doors of the temple, the prophet is taught what that place is, or by what name it is called: for he said, he says, to me: This is the Holy of Holies. But if before the temple, or, as Scripture names it, before the face of the temple, there is the Holy of Holies, how great a blessedness ought we to reckon there is in the innermost recesses of the temple and in its interior — of which the prophet speaks: This is labor in my sight, until I enter into the sanctuary of God; I shall understand in their last things —! But this too must be noted, that in the description of the tabernacle Sancta sanctorum [holies of holies] is said in the plural number, but here Sanctum sanctorum [holy of holies] in the singular number, so that after the holy things we may come to the Holy — just as after many songs we arrive at the Song of Songs, which is the song of all songs and singing which we are joined in the embraces of the Bridegroom —.
41:5-12
And he measured the wall of the house, six cubits, and the breadth of the side, four cubits, round about the house on every side; and the sides, side to side, twice thirty-three. And there were projections which entered through the wall of the house in the sides round about, to hold and not to touch the wall of the temple. And there was a broad way going upward in a round by a spiral, and it led into the upper room of the temple by a circuit. Therefore the temple was wider in the upper parts, and so from the lower parts one went up to the upper into the middle. (But what is set down in the Seventy, and from the middle parts to the tristega — that is, 'to the third upper rooms' and 'thrael', is not found in the Hebrew; and for 'thrael' too, which I do not know what it signifies, for it is not found in the Hebrew, there is read among them 'uraithi', which both we and the others translated 'and I saw', so that the order of the testimony may follow:) And I saw in the house a height round about, the sides founded to the measure of a reed with a space of six cubits; and the breadth through the wall of the side outside of five cubits, and the inner house in the sides of the house, and between the chambers a breadth of twenty cubits round the house on every side. And the door of the side for prayer (which is not found in the Seventy), one door toward the way of the north, and one door toward the southern way; and the breadth of the place for prayer (which the Seventy likewise did not translate) of five cubits round about. And the building which was separate and turned toward the way looking to the sea, of a breadth of seventy cubits, but the wall of the building five cubits of breadth round about, and its length ninety cubits. After he came to the Holy of Holies, of which we spoke above, that venerable man measured the wall of the Holy of Holies, which, on account of the fabric of the world and all the visible creation that was founded in six days, had six cubits, and the breadth of one side, four cubits: not on one side only, but round about the house was the breadth; and the breadth held four cubits round about the house, so as to show the four elements from which all things are compacted, and especially human bodies, against which the saints, fighting and subjecting them to the power of the soul, merit to enter the inner places and to know the secrets of the Lord. The sides themselves, which were round about the house and were separated from the wall of the temple by a space of four cubits, were joined to one another, so that one side touched another side and had in length not thirty-three cubits but twice thirty-three, that is, sixty-six. The Old Testament speaks in Leviticus about the birth of a male, that after one week both she who bore and he who was born fulfill thirty-three days so that they may come to purification; but if she bears a female, she is to observe a double number, that is, sixty-six; and because, in order to come to the Holy of Holies, we need not only the first birth but also the second, so that, born in the flesh, we may be reborn in the spirit, therefore not the number sixty-six but twice thirty-three is set down, so that each birth may be owed to God as author and to his clemency, and that the sides of the house which support the building of the temple may go round it with a double wall. And what follows according to the Hebrew: And there were certain projections which entered through the walls of the house through the sides round about, to hold and not to touch the wall of the temple, signifies this: that holy men in the multitude of believers break forth through the wall of the temple, that is, through all the sides round about, and hold the foundations of the Church, and yet do not touch the wall of the temple, content only to have seen and from afar to have adored the unspeakable mysteries: for now we see through a mirror in an enigma, and we cannot touch and comprehend the fullest truth. But as for: There was a broad way going upward in a round by a spiral, and it led into the upper room of the temple by a circuit, and: Therefore the temple was wider in the upper parts, and so from the lower parts one went up to the upper and the middle, I think it is clear to the reader that the things below are always narrower, in fasts, in sleeping on the ground, in restraint of diet, and that little by little, as we climb to the heights, a wider way is opened to us and that is fulfilled which is written: In tribulation you have enlarged me; and by the round and the spiral we climb to the upper room of the temple, a figure which among all σχήματα [shapes, figures] is approved as the more beautiful even by the philosophers of this world, since the sky and the sun and the moon and the other stars and the point of the earth, and in human bodies too the eyes, like other stars, and the shape of the head, which is the receptacle of all the senses, and the rounded fingers and thighs and arms display this roundness; moreover, the upper room of the temple, to which one climbs from narrower things to higher, I think is that which Elijah and Elisha had in the volume of Kings, and which our Tabitha — that is, δορκάς and doe — possessed in the Acts of the Apostles, she who by good works had climbed to the heights; but the apostle Peter, upon whom the Lord made firm the foundations of the Church, went beyond the upper room and came to the roof — which is more expressively called δῶμα in Greek — that is, the sun-terrace of the roof —, and came to know the mysteries of the Church previously unknown to the world; the Savior of the human race also made the Passover in an upper room, and in a large and broad upper room, purged of all filth and spread and prepared for the spiritual banquet, where he handed on to his disciples the mystery of his body and blood and left us the eternal festival of the spotless lamb. And what he adds: And from the middle parts to the tristega (that is, third upper rooms) and 'thrael', seems to me fit to be marked beforehand with an obelus: for what need is there to discuss doubtful things that are not written, when we ought to apply ourselves to the things contained in the books of the Hebrews? There follows: And I saw in the house a height round about, the sides founded to the measure of a reed with a space of six cubits; and the breadth through the wall of the side outside of five cubits; and between the chambers (which Symmachus calls ἐξέδρας [exedras]) a breadth of twenty cubits round the house, by which numbers it is shown that from this world and from the earthly senses and from the dual number of two decades, which is referred to twenty, we may merit to ascend not only into the Holy of Holies but also into its upper rooms, and may always keep in memory that through the six days of our creation and through the five senses and through the twenty cubits of breadth we have ascended to the upper room of the temple and, leaving behind earthly lowliness and the sense of the letter, have crossed over to the summit of the Church, and rejoice in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. And the door, he says, of the side for prayer facing the way of the north: From which evils blaze forth upon all the earth, and which the Lord promises he will drive away from us, saying: And him who is from the north I will drive away from you; and beautifully at the door facing the north is the place of prayer, so that according to the Apostle we may pray without ceasing, and say with Jeremiah: Let not the pupil of my eye be silent, either desiring to avoid present evils or giving thanks for past ones — for as long as we are in the tabernacle of this body, we groan and say: Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death? —; but toward the southern way too there was a door, and it also, according to the Hebrew, had a place of prayer and extended five cubits round about — for after the cold of the north let us cross over to the warmth of the south —, and yet once more we seek a place of prayer: at the door of the north, that we may escape dangers; at the southern one, that we may give thanks for past things and that the possession of victory may be secure for us; and the five cubits in this place too indicate the divine senses, through which we climb from earthly things to higher. And the building, he says, which was separate and turned toward the way looking to the sea, of a breadth of seventy cubits, so that, after labors and dangers and the waves and shipwrecks of this world, and the seventy years of which Jeremiah writes, and Daniel and Zechariah, we may attain the true and lawful sabbath of seven decades, and there may be eternal rest for us; and that through the breadth of five cubits we may come to the length of ninety cubits, the age at which Sarah bore a son by the promise, she who at ninety years, that is, of nine decades, gave birth to Isaac, joined to Abraham the hundred-year-old, who held the mystery of ten decades — what this number signifies, the Scripture that follows will show.
41:13-22a
And he measured the length of the house, a hundred cubits, and the building that was separate and its walls, of a length of a hundred cubits; but the breadth before the face of the house and of that which was separate toward the east, a hundred cubits. And he measured the length of the building facing that which was separate at the back, ἔκθετας (that is, 'projections') on either side, a hundred cubits; and the inner temple and the vestibules of the court, the thresholds and slanting windows, and ἔκθετας round about on three sides facing each threshold, and it was laid with wood in a ring round about; and earth up to the windows, and the windows closed above the doors. And up to the inner house and outside, over the whole wall round about, within and without, by measure. And Cherubim and palms were wrought, and a palm between Cherub and Cherub; and a Cherub had two faces: the face of a man next to a palm on this side, and the face of a lion next to a palm on the other side, fashioned through all the house round about. From the ground up to the upper parts of the gate Cherubim and palms were carved on the wall of the temple. A four-cornered threshold, and the face of the sanctuary, aspect facing aspect. Of the wooden altar the height three cubits, and its length two cubits, and its corners and its length and its walls of wood. (LXX: "And he measured ÷ facing ⁚ the house, a length of a hundred cubits, and the remaining parts and the separating parts and its walls in length a hundred cubits; and the breadth facing the face of the temple and the remaining parts opposite, a hundred cubits. And he measured the length of the separating part facing the face of the remaining parts which were behind the back of that house, and the remaining parts on this side and on that, a length of a hundred cubits; and the temple and the corners and the 'aelam' outside laid with wood, and windows made in the manner of a net, three, for giving light, so that one might see through them; and the house and the things that were next to it laid with wood round about, and the pavement, and from the pavement up to the windows, and the windows opened in threefold manner so that one might look out through them. And up to the inner and the outer house and over every wall round about, within and without, measure; and carved Cherubim and palms between Cherub and Cherub: the face of a man toward the palm on this side, and the face of a lion toward the palm on that side, every wall carved round about: from the pavement up to the ceiling Cherubim and palms carved. And the sanctuary and the temple opened by four corners. Facing the face of the holy things a vision like the appearance of a wooden altar, its height three cubits and its length two cubits and its breadth two cubits, and it had horns, its base also and its walls of wood.") The word 'facing', which the Seventy translated at the beginning of the testimony, where it is written: And he measured 'facing' the house, is not found in the Hebrew, and therefore it must be marked beforehand with an obelus, so that it may read more rightly and more truly: And he measured the house, a length of a hundred cubits, and the rest. There are described, moreover, the Holy of Holies and the inner temple, which after ninety cubits is said to have a hundred cubits on three sides: the perfect number, namely, of ten decades, so that we may serve God with mind and speech and works, remembering that apostolic example in which he says: That we may be able to know what is the breadth, and length and height and depth. But what the Hebrew calls 'the separate building and its walls', the Seventy render 'the remaining parts' 'and the separating parts', which do not cling to the walls of the temple but have walls near at hand and their own. The temple itself also and its corners and the 'aelam' (that is, πρόπυλον or 'vestibule') were laid with wood outside, namely with wisdom, which Scripture records as the tree of life set in paradise. The windows also were made in the manner of a net, like lattices, so that they were closed not with transparent stone nor with glass, but with wood cut in openwork and worked in wavy patterns — for which the Hebrew has 'slanting windows' —; and they were on three sides of the temple only, namely to the right and the left and behind the back, that is, toward the south and the north and toward the west; but the eastern side had no windows, because the entrance itself let clear light in within, and all the interior of the temple was filled with the light of the doors, so that through the individual windows and the openings of the lattices one could look inside. And not only were the outer parts laid with wood, but so great was the abundance of wood round about that both the pavement and, from the pavement up to the windows, everything was joined with wood; and these windows, according to the Seventy, opened in threefold manner, so that, when they were opened, a threefold understanding might be shown in the temple of God — according to what is said elsewhere: But you, write them threefold —; and one might look out through them not only inward but outward, so that we may recognize the inner things as invisible and the outer things as visible; so that one shows the mind, another the flesh, one the spiritual understanding, another the simple history. And over all the walls round about, both within and without, there were measures of their own: for nothing was made by God without reason and measure in the temple of God, and especially in the Holy of Holies. Carved also were Cherubim, no doubt on the wood reaching from the pavement up to the windows, and the carvings were so skillfully wrought that they seemed not carved but applied. 'Cherubim' means 'multitude of knowledge'; therefore within, in the interior of the temple, after the multitude of knowledge, palms also are carved — in which is the sign of victory, as the Apostle says: But I press on toward the appointed goal, toward the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus —, which palms: Palms were between Cherub and Cherub, so that each Cherub was fenced in by the flanks of two palms; and this Cherub by no means had four faces, as we read at the beginning of this prophet, namely of a man and of a lion and of a calf and of an eagle, but only two, that is, of a man and of a lion, of which the first pertains to reason, the next to fury — which is more expressively called θυμός in Greek —: but by fury we mean not that which is next to perturbation and vice, but that which firms up the softness of the mind and makes the spirit of the one fighting stronger; for at the beginning we are subject also to desire, which is referred to the calf because of the works of the earth, and some things are carnal and others spiritual, the last of which is assigned to the eagle; but when we have entered the Holy of Holies and come into possession of the interior of the temple, we need nothing else but reason and fortitude, of which the one is referred to sense and prudence, the other to perseverance of spirit. Every wall, therefore, round about the temple, from the pavement up to the ceiling, had Cherubim and palms carved with wonderful art; after these the sanctuary was opened by four corners facing the face of the holy things: for first we have the multitude of knowledge, through which we gain the victory over the enemy, and afterward the sanctuary is opened to us, and the temple, which has four corners, a most firm station, and one that leans toward no side; for this is the nature of the measure of a quadrangle, that it stands on a stable base and, in a mystical number which is clear to the prudent reader, possesses the four elements, of which all things consist, solid and perpetual. And all things looked toward the face of the sanctuary; before which sanctuary, or in which sanctuary, there was: The appearance of a wooden altar three cubits in height and two cubits in length and two cubits in breadth, which joined together make seven cubits. This altar had horns, and both its base and its walls, that is, its sides, were wooden: in which the human tongue cannot unfold the mysteries of Holy Scripture: how an altar on which fire was to be kindled, namely the table of incense, suffers nothing from the fire but, so to speak, becomes purer than fire; for just as the works of the saints — of which the Apostle writes: The fire will test what sort each one's work is — do not perish but are shown purer through fire, so too the wood of the altar, which is of the trees of paradise, is not burned by the neighboring fire but is rendered purer — nor is it a wonder to believe this of the sanctuary and the interior of the temple and the altar of incense, since even ἀμίαντον [amiantus, asbestos] — it is a kind of wood, or one having the likeness of flax — is found the cleaner the more it has burned —. Forgive, reader, the difficulty, and grant pardon to a poor understanding: for through windows that are slanting and made in the manner of a net and always closed, we can scarcely send the eye of our heart in as far as the inner house, so that all that we discern we see in shadow and image — and let us cry out with the Apostle: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments, and unsearchable his ways! And who has known the mind of the Lord? except him who is the angel of great counsel and can open his mysteries to the worthy —. Now at Rome they call Ἔκθετας 'solaria' [sun-balconies], jutting out from the walls of upper rooms, or 'maeniana' [balconies], after him who first invented them; some of the Greeks call them ἐξώστρας [projecting galleries].
41:22b-26
And he spoke to me: This is the table before the Lord. And there were two doors in the temple and in the sanctuary; and in the two doors on either side there were two little doors each, which folded into one another; for there were two doors each on either side of the doors. And there were carved on the very doors of the temple Cherubim and sculptures of palms, just as they were also fashioned on the walls; wherefore the timbers also were thicker on the front of the vestibule outside. Above which were slanting windows, and the likeness of palms on this side and on that in the little shoulders of the vestibule, along the sides of the house and the breadth of the walls. (In this place the edition of the Seventy disagrees much with the Hebrew truth. Hence I will point out only this: that for 'thicker timbers' they translated σπουδαῖα, that is, 'necessary' or 'worthy of care', and for 'slanting' windows, 'hidden', and what is placed at the end of the testimony: And he measured on this side and on that the ceilings of the lintel — or of the vestibule — along the sides of the house, compacted — or joined, which they called ἐζυγωμένα, for which we can render 'of equal weight' —.) That man, therefore, who had brought the prophet into the innermost recesses of the temple, and among other things had shown him the wooden altar, which had corners, and horns according to the Seventy, and wooden walls, said to him: 'This altar which you behold: This very one is the table before the Lord', which in the likeness of the bush burns and is not consumed — of which the holy man speaks to the Lord: You have prepared a table in my sight against those who afflict me —. Two also doors were in the temple and in the sanctuary itself, through which the mysteries of both Testaments are shown. And in the two doors on either side there were two little doors each, which folded into one another, so that we may have both the spiritual understanding in the history and the truth of the history in the tropology; each of these needs the other, and if one is lacking, perfect knowledge is wanting. What follows, however: There were two doors each on either side of the doors, is clear according to the letter: for in larger dining halls two doors are wont to adjoin each other and be joined together, so that the greater entrance is closed or opened not by two huge leaves but by four smaller ones. On which doors of the temple (or of the Holy of Holies) were carved Cherubim — of which we spoke above — and sculptures of palms, so that after the multitude of knowledge victory might be granted to those who enter; and this sculpture of palms was also on all the walls of the temple. And he gives the reasons why Cherubim were carved on the doors themselves and likenesses of palms fashioned: Whence also the timbers were thicker in the vestibule of the gate outside, so that they might have firmness and also be able to receive carving; and beautifully, according to the spiritual understanding, the doors are firmer and carved, so that they may have both firmness and beauty, lest anyone like Uzziah should be able to burst into the Holy of Holies and claim the priesthood for himself. Above which doors there were slanting windows (or hidden), so that the very light that was given within might not have perfect knowledge, nor a clear light open to all, but for most might be hidden in part — for now we see in an enigma, and we do not yet know as we ought to know; but when that which is perfect has come, then what had been in part will be destroyed —. And there was a likeness of palms on this side and on that: elegantly, in the interior of the temple and in the Holy of Holies, he did not put 'right and left', lest he seem to say anything sinister in things that are great and secret, but 'on this side and on that' — according to what is written in the Gospel: Whoever strikes you on the right cheek, offer him the other also. Could he not have said 'and the left'? But when the right is struck, another right is offered, because in a holy man both are right, both are perfect —. And: In the little shoulders of the vestibule, along the sides of the house and the breadth of the walls (for which the Seventy translated: In the ceilings of the 'aelam' — that is, πρόπυλον [gateway] — and the sides of the house of equal weight — or measure —), by which it is shown in a hidden way that the posts of the lintel or of the vestibule — for this is what the little shoulders seem to signify —, and the sides of the house, and the breadth of the walls are all full of reason and measure, and that nothing is found in the temple of the Lord which has been established without measure and wisdom.
Book Thirteen
The thirteenth book of the explanations on Ezekiel is the second book of the explanation of the temple; and this book, together with the fourteenth, I desire, with the help of our Savior, to dictate right through to the end, singing with David that verse of the same number in Psalm 14 (15): Lord, who shall dwell in your tabernacle? or who shall rest on your holy mountain? This we ought to take as something both difficult and impossible; hence in another place too, as a man of desires, he prays more earnestly and says: One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may see the delightfulness of the Lord and visit his holy temple, and again: How beloved, he says, are your tabernacles, Lord of powers. My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord. I forestall the curses of my rivals, who consider not what they themselves can do but what I cannot do, and who, while they pass judgment on our works, do not offer their own to be judged, never fighting in the contest themselves but judging those who fight with an idle, nay rather a proud, mind: it is easy to hand out instructions from among the crowd, and to find fault with every single blow, and to laugh at another man's blood, and, where a wound ought to have been dealt, to hold forth in the manner of an unskilled trainer of gladiators. For my part, in the explanation of Ezekiel's temple and of the other matters that belong to the end of the volume itself, I confess that I write nothing worthy of the greatness of the subject, and that in the few things, if indeed I shall have deserved to receive any, I give thanks to the Savior; for it is written: Unless you believe, you will not understand, and in another place: If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, and say to this mountain: Move away and be transplanted into the sea, it will be done; and just as the Apostle recalls that the grain of mustard seed is not a small portion of faith but the whole of faith, saying: And if I have all faith, so that I move mountains, so then this grain of mustard seed, even if it be small: grows up into a great tree, and the birds of heaven dwell in its branches. Wherefore I wish this to stand solemnly attested to you, my daughter Eustochium, who gladly receive our works, whatever they may be; and I briefly remind you of that saying of the rhetorician Victorinus, so that you may know that the obscurity of books arises from three things: either from the greatness of the subject, or from the inexperience of the teacher, or from the dullness of the hearer. Of these, the first and the second I shall plainly confess in this work; the third the keenness of your mind and your desire for the Scriptures easily reject, you who, by the privilege of virginity and the continence of your way of life, possess God as a guest, I will not say frequent, but constant. Let us therefore take up the thirteenth book on Ezekiel, whose beginning is this:
42:1-12
And he brought me out into the outer court by the way leading to the north; and he brought me into the chamber that was opposite the separate building, and opposite the house facing toward the north. In front of the length, a hundred cubits, of the door of the north, and of the breadth fifty cubits, opposite the twenty cubits of the inner court, and opposite the pavement laid with stone of the outer court, where there was a portico joined to the threefold portico. And before the chambers a walk of ten cubits in breadth, and looking toward the inner parts of the way of one cubit; and their doors toward the north, where the chambers were lower in the upper parts, because they supported the porticoes which projected from them, from the lower and from the middle seats of the building. For they were three-storied, and they did not have columns as were the columns of the courts; therefore they projected from the lower and from the middle, from the ground, by fifty cubits. And the outer peribolus alongside the chambers which were in the way of the outer court before the chambers; its length of fifty cubits, because the length of the chambers of the outer court was fifty cubits, and the length before the face of the temple a hundred cubits. And beneath these chambers there was an entrance from the east for those entering into them from the outer court. In the breadth of the peribolus of the court which was opposite the eastern way, in front of the separate building, and there were chambers before the building. And a way before their face according to the likeness of the chambers which were in the way of the north; according to their length so also their breadth, and all their entrance and likenesses and their doors according to the doors of the chambers which were in the way looking toward the south; a door at the head of the way which was before the separate vestibule, for those entering by the eastern way. (LXX: "And he brought me out into the outer court ÷ toward the east ⁚ opposite the gate of the north; and he brought me in, and behold, five exedrae next to the wall of the building and beside the separate building toward the north, and opposite, a hundred cubits of length toward the north and of breadth fifty cubits, laid out like the gates of the inner court and like the columns of the outer court, in order opposite the face of the threefold portico. And opposite the exedrae a walk of ten cubits of breadth, for a hundred cubits of length — into the inner way of one cubit —; and their doors toward the north. And the walks of the upper rooms likewise, since columns projected from the lower columns, and the space was similar. And the porticoes were threefold, and they did not have columns like the columns in the outer parts; therefore they projected from those which were below and in the middle, from the ground — of fifty cubits —. And the light outside, like that of the exedrae of the outer court which looked opposite the exedrae of the north, in length fifty cubits; for the length of the exedrae looking onto the outer court was fifty cubits, and these are opposite their own face: all of a hundred cubits. And the doors of these exedrae toward the eastern entrance, so that one may go in by them from the outer court according to the light which was at the beginning of the walk — toward the south, opposite the midday and the face of the remaining and separate building. And the exedrae and the walk opposite their own face according to the measures of the exedrae and the way toward the north, and their length and their breadth and all their exits and entrances and lights and the doors of the exedrae opposite the midday, and the entrance from the beginning of the walkway to the light at the space of a reed, and so that one might go to the east by them —.") This which the Seventy translated, 'toward the east', is not found in the Hebrew, and it is plain that it is superfluous — for how is he led out to the outer gate 'toward the east', when there follows 'opposite the gate of the north'? —; and that which we set down both above and in this place, And he brought me into the chamber that was opposite the separate building, and opposite the house facing toward the north, for which there stands in the Seventy, And he brought me out, and behold, five exedrae joined to the remaining building and beside the separate one toward the north: for 'separate', which Aquila and Symmachus translated, the second edition of Aquila and Theodotion set down the very word 'gazera', rendering it in the same way in all places; and many other things which are set forth in the present place disagree between the Hebrew and the Seventy not only in order but also in number and in the rendering of the words, so that, if we wished to linger over each one and to seek out and explain the reason for their difference, we would stray far from our purpose; and I had wished, out of despair and because of the magnitude of the matter, to pass over the present passage in silence, but I judged it better to say something, whatever it might be, than to say nothing at all, taking up that Socratic saying: 'I know what I do not know'; for it is a part of knowledge to know what you do not know. After the prophet, then, had contemplated more carefully the things that were within, the man in whose hand were the cord and the reed led him out into the outer court by the way leading to the north, which he had already seen above as well, before he penetrated the inner parts — but we see in one way when we have perfect knowledge, in another at the beginning of instruction; and it is necessary that one who has beheld the inner parts according to the same form and measures and hidden mysteries should also see the things that are outer —; and he was led out into the chamber — or, as Symmachus says and the Seventy translated, 'exedra', and Theodotion παστοφόριον, which is rendered 'cell' — that was opposite the separate building; but what the Seventy added in place of the chamber, 'five exedrae', is not found in the Hebrew —, which chamber was opposite the separate building — concerning which we said above, 'gazera' —: and it was separate, receiving those who came from the north, and it was opposite the house facing toward the north, that is, looking indeed toward the parts of the north but not situated in the north, so that the passage might be easier for those who were leaving behind the cold of the north, from which evils blaze up over the earth — we read in the book of Numbers that the tribes of Dan and Naphtali and Asher, the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, the handmaids of Rachel and Leah, held their camp on the northern quarter —. Now too, in front of the length of the north door there were a hundred cubits, and of breadth fifty, so that, by the square and perfect number made of ten decades, and by the number made of seven hebdomads, which is the number of remission and breaks out into the beginning of unity, that is, of the ogdoad, the priestly spaces in the temple of God might be shown; and that which is joined according to the Hebrew, Opposite the twenty cubits of the inner court, for which the Seventy translated, They were laid out like the gates of the inner court, has this sense: that the number one hundred and the number fifty of the outer court have the same force as the number twenty of the inner court: for if you reckon four times five in the number twenty, you will find both testaments, so that the law is held within the Gospel and the Gospel is born from the root of the law; in place of this number the Seventy translated 'the likeness of the inner court', perhaps fearing to place in the inner court the number twenty — in which gifts are offered to Esau. There follows: And opposite the pavement laid with stone of the outer court, where there was a portico joined to the threefold portico, for which the Seventy translated: And like the columns of the outer court, set in order opposite the face of the threefold porticoes: and it signifies that the pavement of the outer court was laid with living stone, so that the footsteps of the priests might be defiled neither by the dust of summer nor by the mud of winter — whence also the Lord, about to ascend to the Father, washes the feet of the apostles, so that with clean and purified footsteps they may climb to the kingdoms of heaven, and he commands the apostles that, whatever city they have entered and they have not received them, they should shake off the dust of their feet, so that, namely, they may suffer nothing of earthly gifts from them to remain with them —; and not only was the pavement laid with stone, but there was also a portico joined to the threefold portico: one portico protecting the priests from rain and heat and joined to the threefold portico, and it shows the mystery of the Trinity, which, though it is divided into the names of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, is nevertheless joined to itself in one divinity. There was also before the chambers — or exedrae, or cells — a walk ten cubits in breadth, looking toward the inner parts of the way of one cubit — and what was added by the Seventy, For a hundred cubits of length, is superfluous, because it is not found in the Hebrew; and in setting it down they removed what is found in the Hebrew, Looking toward the inner parts of the way of one cubit, which we translated from the Hebrew truth —: and it signifies that before the doors of all the chambers, or exedrae and cells, there was a walk having a breadth of ten cubits, which is itself also a perfect number, either because of the Decalogue of the law or because of the mysteries of the Gospel: for if you go from one through two and three to the fourth number, the number ten is produced, and the number of the Gospels —, in whose breadth the priests walk about, stepping before each of the chambers, only in such a way that they always look toward the inner parts of that way which leads to one cubit, namely to the worship of one divinity — as the Son says to the Father: I have revealed your name to men. For this is the way looking toward the inner parts which will be in the Gospel: I am the way and the life and the truth, for no one comes to the knowledge of the Father except through the Son —. There follows: And their doors toward the north, where the chambers were lower in the upper parts, because they supported the porticoes which projected from them, from the lower and from the middle of the building. For they were three-storied, and they did not have columns as were the columns of the courts; therefore they projected from the lower, and from the middle, from the ground, by fifty cubits. In what is joined, 'their doors', there is understood 'of the exedrae' or 'of the chambers', of which there was talk above; which chambers were lower in the upper parts, that is, in the upper rooms — the upper rooms which Elijah and Elisha climbed, and the Lord with his disciples when he was about to keep the Passover, and Tabitha, who was raised up both by the faith of the apostle and by the merit of her own virtues; these are the upper rooms of which it is also written in the psalm: He who waters the mountains from his upper rooms: for unless someone has been made a mountain and has risen to higher things, he will not be watered by the rains of the Lord, he who according to the diversity of merits is watered from the first and the second and the third upper room; these very chambers too, that is, the treasuries of the riches of the Lord, are lower in the upper parts: for the more exalted someone has been, the more is he cast down in humility with the apostle, who says: I who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God —; and these chambers were lower in the upper rooms because they supported the porticoes which projected from them, from the lower and from the middle of the building: he gives the reasons why the chambers placed in the upper rooms were lower: 'Because they supported' he says 'the porticoes which enjoyed the freedom of the air, and projected from the lower and from the middle of the building', so that the second upper room stood out above the pavement of the inner house and the third upper room was higher than the second, and the higher someone climbed, the loftier the upper room he would use, which grew by humility — as the Lord says: Whoever wishes to be greater among you, let him become the least of all —. For they were not carried by other columns, as we read of the columns of the courts, but they projected from the lower, and from the middle, from the ground, by fifty cubits, the number of the remission of all debts — and these are the three-storied things of which it is commanded: Describe it threefold with counsel and knowledge, so that you may answer words of truth to those who are set before you —. The lower and outer things, then, need columns, but those which are higher and inner have no use for the help of columns, that is, of another. After this it is said: And the outer peribolus alongside the chambers which were in the way of the outer court before the chambers; its length of fifty cubits, because the length of the chambers of the outer court was fifty cubits, and the length before the face of the temple a hundred cubits. 'Peribolus' signifies 'a wall', which was outer and surrounded the chambers in the way of the outer court, having in length fifty cubits, a number of whose mystery we have often spoken; moreover, the length before the face of the temple was by no means of fifty cubits, as before the chambers, but of a hundred cubits, so that after the remission of all sins we may await perfect rewards in the number one hundred; for 'peribolus' or 'wall', which in Hebrew is called 'gader', the Seventy translated 'light', which comes from outside and is to illumine the eyes of our heart, since our nature is not sufficient for the light that dwells in the understanding to have the perfect brightness of knowledge, unless it enters from outside through the grace of God: which first illumines the eyes of our heart and makes the whole outer court, which extends with a breadth of fifty cubits, grow bright; but afterwards, when we have come before the face of the temple, we are to receive the perfect rewards in the number one hundred. And there was beneath the chambers an entrance from the east for those entering into them from the outer court. For we must possess the riches of God, and from the outer court find the entrance of the east beneath the chambers, and through the height of the peribolus which looks toward the way of the east come to the building which is set apart for the saints; before which are the chambers. And in that very way there is the likeness of the chambers which were in the way of the north: for although we arrive at the entrance of the east, yet the likeness of the greater things is in the lesser, and we cannot arrive at the light of the east except by the way of the north, that is, unless through lesser and humbler things we strive toward greater and higher ones. And in the entrance itself the length was like the breadth, that is, the same measure in a square, and every entrance and the likenesses and the doors had the same measure and likeness as the chambers which were in the way looking toward the south: for, leaving behind the cold of the north, we arrive through the east at the south, in which the bridegroom reclines at midday and dwells in full light; and at the head of that same way, that is, the eastern one, which lies open to those who enter, there is a door — which is not opened unless it has been opened by him who says, I am the door, and who has the key of David —, to the vestibule set apart for the virtues of the saints; and that which receives those coming from the north we cannot reach. It is superfluous to discuss each word of this passage according to the Seventy, since both the things that have been said are not free of obscurity, and those about which we keep silent are nearly similar to those that we have said.
42:13-14
And he said to me: The chambers of the north and the chambers of the south which are before the separate building, these are the holy chambers in which the priests eat who draw near to the Lord in the Holy of Holies: there they shall place the Holy of Holies and the offering for sin and for trespass, for the place is holy. And when the priests have entered, they shall not go out from the holy places into the outer court, and there they shall lay up their garments in which they minister, because they are holy; and they shall be clothed with other garments, and so they shall go forth to the people. That man who was the prophet's guide, after he had led him into the outer court and shown him all the things which the preceding discourse has narrated, the chambers too, or exedrae, in which he lingered a very long time, said to him: 'These are the chambers, or exedrae and cells, toward the north and toward the south which are before the separate building, and they are called the holy chambers in which the priests eat who draw near to the Lord in the Holy of Holies' — from which we learn that there are many differences of foods which the priests are or are not permitted to eat, and that of those very ones which it is permitted to take as food, they are not taken in all places, nor by all, nor at every time —; I think the chambers of the north and of the south are those which contain either the simplicity of the history or the mysteries of spiritual understanding, so that through the north we may come to the midday: for neither is the letter to be read and the foundations of the history to be laid in such a way that we do not come to the summits, nor are roofs to be set on top of a most beautiful building in such a way that the foundations are by no means solid; and the priests who eat in the storerooms in which many riches are contained are those who draw near to the Lord — of whom Scripture testifies that Moses drew near to the Lord and the rest could not approach —: in the building of the mystical temple and in the mystery of the Church there are many priests and apostolic men who approach the Lord, and not in just any place, but in the Holy of Holies — and what is said according to the Seventy, The sons of 'Sadoc' [Zadok], which means 'righteous', is not found in the Hebrew —. 'There' he says 'the priests shall place the Holy of Holies and the offering, that is, the victim of the holocaust, and for sin and for ignorance', so that they may not only offer the perpetual sacrifice, but may know how to appease the Lord according to the diversity of times and the quality of the sin and of the ignorance: 'Because the place itself is holy', and the priestly dignity dwells in it, which is able to make petition for the rest: 'But when one must go forth to those who cannot penetrate the inner sanctuaries of the temple nor know the secrets of divine knowledge, let the priests go out' he says 'outside to them into the outer court, by no means with those garments with which they had been clothed within' — namely, the bowels of mercy and the Lord Savior, of whom it is written: Put on Christ Jesus; nor do they use those words of which God speaks: My mystery is for me and for mine; nor should they incur what the Savior forbids, saying: Do not give what is holy to dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine —, 'but they shall lay down their garments within, with which they are clothed when they minister in the inner sanctuaries of the temple: for they are holy, and they ought not to be brought out to those who do not have perfect holiness; and they shall receive other garments, and so they go forth to the people': 'So' he says 'they shall speak to the people, as the people is able to hear' — whence also the apostle spoke to the Corinthians — among whom fornication was heard of, and such fornication as is not even among the nations —: I gave you milk to drink, not food — that is, solid food —: you were not yet able to take it; to whom again he says: My little children, with whom I am in travail again until Christ be formed in you: for to little ones and sucklings solid food, which befits men of mature age, not only does no good but kills them —. But that which was added by the Seventy, Therefore the priests shall not go out into the outer court, so that those who offer may always be holy, let us mark beforehand with an obelus, because it is not found in the Hebrew.
42:15-20
And when he had completed the measures of the inner house, he brought me out by the way of the gate which looked toward the eastern way, and he measured it on every side round about (or the likeness of the house round about in order). And he measured toward the east wind (or and he stood behind the back of the gate looking toward the east) with the reed of measure round about five hundred reeds, by the reed of measure all around. And he measured toward the north wind five hundred reeds by the reed of measure all around. And toward the south wind he measured five hundred reeds by the reed of measure round about. And toward the west wind he measured five hundred reeds by the reed of measure. By the four winds he measured its wall on every side round about, the length of five hundred cubits, and the breadth of five hundred cubits, dividing between the sanctuary and the place of the common people. It should be known that, after the east wind and the north, in the south wind and the west the order in the Seventy is reversed: for they put first the west — that is, the sea — and afterwards the south, whereas among the Hebrews the south wind is put first and afterwards the west. And what Scripture now says, And when he had completed the measures of the inner house, he brought me out by the way of the gate which looks toward the eastern way, shows that all the things which were said above, both outside and inside and in the inner parts of the temple — that is, the Holy of Holies —, belong properly to the building of the temple, and of the inner temple. Hence there now follows: He brought me out by the way of the gate which looked toward the eastern way, and he measured it on every side round about (or the likeness of the house), by which it is shown that it is not the house itself but the likeness of the house that is seen — because: Now we see through a mirror in an enigma; but when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be destroyed; whence also Moses in the tabernacle, and Solomon in the building, made not the truth of the tent and of the temple but a likeness and figure —, so that through these things which are lesser and earthly we might be able to understand those which are in the heavenly places and in the spiritual building. Now the man who had led the prophet out, by no means into the outer court but by the way of the gate which looked toward the eastern way, measured first toward the east wind — that is, toward the eastern quarter — five hundred reeds all around, second toward the north, third toward the south, fourth toward the sea — that is, toward the west —: by the four winds, namely, the wall round about, as much in length as in breadth, that is, in a square: which wall had in all two thousand reeds: but if the reed was of six cubits and one παλαιστῇ [handbreadth] — which παλαιστής is the sixth part of a cubit —, it is clear that the outer wall had round about two thousand reeds: which make twelve thousand three hundred and thirty-three cubits and a third, out of the two thousand — let the prudent and diligent reader read the book of Joshua son of Nun, and he will find how this measure is kept in the suburbs; whence also the Legion of demons chose this number in the choking of the swine, so that what by the Lord's command was set apart for those who serve God might be turned, in the opposite direction, to the perdition of those who pursue a life worthy of mud and filth. And the whole wall, which is outer and has a most spacious length and breadth in a square, contains the number of the apostles, that is, of twelve thousand — so that a thousand may be assigned to each apostle —, and yet it would not come to the measure of the fullness of Christ and of the perfect man unless the παλαιστής too is joined to it: which makes three hundred and thirty-three cubits and a third part of a cubit: by which things the mystery of the holy and venerable Trinity is shown, which girds and walls in all things and renders the inhabitants of its temple most secure; whence also Noah's ark has a length of three hundred cubits and a height of thirty cubits, which is finished off in one cubit — and that fifty cubits in breadth are added there signifies, as we have often said, the mystery of remission —; whence also the Lord came to baptism at thirty years of age; and this very prophet at the beginning of his volume sets down the thirtieth year; and this thirtieth and three-hundredth number is completed by the addition of three and a third part —. But what, through simplicity of rendering, while we paid too little attention in the speed of dictation, both the Seventy have and our translation, Its wall on every side round about, the length of five hundred cubits, and the breadth of five hundred cubits, the Hebrew language does not contain, but simply 'the length of five hundred and the breadth of five hundred', so that 'of reeds' is understood — just as was said four times above: toward the east wind and toward the north and toward the south and toward the sea, five hundred 'reeds' each —, and that the wall of the individual sides was measured by him who held the reed — and that the number five hundred, because it is close to fifty, pertains to the remission of all sins, not only the old Scripture but also the words of the Savior in the Gospel show, when he says: There were two debtors to a certain moneylender; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty —; and the wall divides between the sanctuary and the place of the common people, from which we understand that the whole description of the temple above was assigned to the ministries of the priests — who are the sons of Zadok —, but that this wall — which is extended over so great a space and goes around everything — separates the sanctuary and the place of the common people.
43:1-9
And he brought me to the gate that looked toward the eastern way, and behold, the glory of the God of Israel was entering by the eastern way, and its voice was like the voice of many waters, and the earth shone from his majesty. And I saw a vision according to the appearance that I had seen when he came to destroy the city, and the appearance according to the aspect that I had seen beside the river Chebar, and I fell upon my face. And the majesty of the Lord entered the temple by the way of the gate that looked toward the east. And the spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the house was filled with the glory of the Lord. And I heard one speaking to me from the house, and the man who was standing beside me said to me: Son of man, the place of my throne and the place of the footprints of my feet, where I dwell in the midst of the sons of Israel forever; and the house of Israel shall no more pollute my holy name, they and their kings, by their fornications and by the ruins of their kings and in the high places: who built their threshold beside my threshold, and their posts beside my posts, and there was a wall between me and them, and they polluted my holy name by the abominations that they committed; for which reason I consumed them in my wrath. Now therefore let them put far away their fornication and the ruins of their kings from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them always. (LXX: "And he brought me to the gate that looked toward the east ÷ and he led me out ⁚, and behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming by the way of the east, and the voice of the camp like the voice of many redoubling, and the earth shone out like lightning from the glory round about. And the vision which I saw, according to the vision that I had seen when I was entering to anoint the city, ÷ and the vision of the chariot that I saw ⁚ according to the vision that I had seen over the river Chebar; and I fell on my face. And the glory of the Lord entered the house by the way of the gate that looked toward the east. And the spirit took me up and brought me into the inner court, and behold, the house full of the glory of the Lord. And I stood, and behold, a voice from the house of one speaking to me, and the man was standing beside me and said to me: Son of man, you have seen the place of my throne and the place of the footprint of my feet, in which my name shall dwell in the midst of the house of Israel forever; and the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, they and their leaders, in their fornication and in the murders of the leaders in their midst, when they set my threshold in their thresholds, and my posts beside their posts, and they made my wall as if joined between me and themselves, and they defiled my holy name by their iniquities which they were doing; and I crushed them in my fury and in slaughter. And now let them cast away their fornication and the murders of their leaders from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them forever.") First we must speak about the variety of the translation. What the Seventy put, And he led me out, is not found in the Hebrew — for if he had been brought to the gate that looked toward the east, what need was there for him to be led out, since he had been brought in for this very purpose, to see what was happening at the eastern gate? —; next, where it is said, There was a voice (doubtless God's) like the voice of many waters — which John too confirms in his Revelation —, the Seventy put: And the voice of the camp like many redoubling; third, in the Hebrew we have: A vision according to the appearance that I had seen when he came to 'destroy' the city: and there came that one who at the beginning of this prophet was clothed in linen and had an inkhorn at his loins, together with six others, to 'destroy' the city, not to 'anoint' it, as the Seventy translated; and they, fourth, said: And the vision of the chariot that I had seen, which is not found in the Hebrew. Let us speak briefly on each point, as far as the difficulty of the explanation allows, lest, while we strive for brevity, the veil not only of Moses but also of the prophet Ezekiel remain upon us who desire to contemplate the truth of the Lord with unveiled face. The glory, therefore, of the God of Israel enters by the eastern way, by which it had also gone out when the city of the Lord was struck by fury; and it enters, or rather returns, to it because he had shown the temple of the Lord built upon the mountain. And yet what is said in what follows is much more: The spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the house was filled with the glory of the Lord: for here only the glory of the God of Israel enters, but there it is said that the fullness of the glory of the Lord was in the temple — of which Isaiah too writes: I saw the Lord upon a throne high and lifted up, and the house full of his glory — by which, when with unveiled face we contemplate the glory of the Lord, we are re-formed into the image of the Creator. The voice of God also was like the voice of 'many' waters: that is, of all the peoples in the whole world, as John the evangelist interprets; or: Like the voice of a 'camp' and as the voice of many redoubling: so that he might know the mysteries of the army of God — understanding which, Jacob too called the name of that place Camps; of which it is also written elsewhere: The chariot of God is ten thousandfold, thousands of those rejoicing —; and one 'voice' is spoken of, of the camp and of the multitude, because of the one accord in the praise of God; and the voice 'is redoubled' of those singing to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Sabaoth; the earth is full of his glory. There follows: And the earth shone from his majesty, which was properly fulfilled at the coming of Christ, when the sound of the apostles went out into all the earth and their words to the ends of the world; and it is fulfilled daily in believers and will be completed to perfection when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has been clothed with immortality. But what is added, And I saw a vision according to the appearance that I had seen when he came to destroy the city, for which the Seventy translated, When I entered to anoint the city, though it is clear according to the Hebrew, according to the Seventy it holds very great obscurity: how Ezekiel entered to 'anoint the city' for his prophecy — unless perhaps we say this, that the rebuke of the prophet is the anointing of the city, and the anointing with the oil of gladness, priestly and royal, and those who have willingly received it and been willing to hear become anointed ones of the Lord — of whom it is written: Do not touch my anointed ones, and do no evil to my prophets —; but that one can, according to the ἀναγωγὴν [anagogy, the higher sense], anoint the city — of which it is written: Glorious things are spoken of you, city of God — who has seen the vision of the chariot and of the mysteries of God which Ezekiel beheld over the river Chebar — which signifies 'burden and weight': for what is 'heavier' than the Babylonian rivers, by which David sat and wept when he remembered Zion — of which it is written: For the form of this world is passing away —? and I think that nothing in the confusion of this age is lasting, but that all things pass away and flow —; and whoever has considered these things will fall upon his face, understanding how far he is from the majesty of God, and will bend his knees to the Father in the name of Jesus Christ. 'And when', he says, 'I had fallen down, the majesty of the Lord entered the temple by the way of the gate that looked toward the east; and at once the spirit lifted me up — for lying down I was not able to go on — and brought me into the inner court — for I had fallen outside —; and behold, I who had earlier beheld the glory of the God of Israel coming by the eastern way saw his house filled with the glory of the Lord, and I heard the voice of one speaking to me from the inner house' — what it said, Scripture does not relate, unless perhaps that saying of the apostle: And I heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for men to speak —. But that man, he says, who was standing beside the prophet spoke to him; and we plainly understand him to be the Lord: for to whom could what follows apply, Son of man, the place of my throne and the place of the footprints of my feet, where I dwell in the midst of the sons of Israel forever, except to him who dwells in the Church in the midst of the sons of Israel who see God? — and 'he dwells forever', not as in the temple of Solomon, for a time; and 'his place' is that of which it is written: And his place was made in peace, which surpasses all understanding; and 'the place of the footprints of his feet', as the apostles say: Let us worship in the place where his feet stood, and he said 'stood' beautifully: for in the Church the feet of the Lord stand, in the Synagogue they walk and pass by —; and so that we may know that this is said of the Church, there is joined: And the house of Israel shall no more pollute my holy name, which properly pertains to those who, being of holy life, abide in the Church; but who those are who earlier polluted the holy name of God, he sets out more plainly: They and their kings, the people as much as the priests, by their fornications, by which they committed fornication away from God, and by the ruins of their kings, who vainly take to themselves the royal name through pride; finally there follows: And in the high places — for an arrogant mind offends God, a humble one calls forth mercy —: who, after pride, or rather through pride, built their threshold beside the threshold of God, and their posts beside his posts. Let the silly women laden with sins, who are carried about by every wind of doctrine, always learning and never arriving at the knowledge of the truth, hear these things according to the letter: that it is a mind joined to God, not nearness to the churches and a dwelling close to God, that calls forth clemency upon itself, and that rather the indignation of the Lord is stirred up when there is an unworthy inhabitant in consecrated places. They built, he says, their threshold beside my threshold, so that there was no difference between sacred and profane, and their posts beside my posts, so that there was one entrance for laity and priests — whence the apostle too says: But let a man prove himself, and so approach the body and blood of the Lord —; and to make what he was saying weightier, he joins in the following verse: And there was a wall between me and them, so that a very short wall divided the priestly sacrifices and the places of the sacraments of the body and blood of Christ. And they polluted, he says, my holy name by the abominations that they committed. What does nearness of dwelling profit, and a wall standing between our cell and the altar of the Lord, when in the things we do in secret, which it is shameful even to speak of, the name of the Lord is defiled and polluted? I think this: that no one pollutes the name of the Lord except him who has seemed to believe in his name and to be reckoned by his title; and as he who earlier believed in Christ takes the members of Christ and makes them members of a harlot, so he pollutes the name of the Lord who earlier received faith in his name — otherwise the heathen and the Jew, since they are polluted and defiled, or rather defilement itself and pollution, cannot pollute and defile the name of the Lord; but those pollute it to whom it is said: Through you my name is blasphemed among the nations —; for these causes, therefore, I consumed them in my wrath, because they did these things that we have described. And yet the merciful Lord again commands the prophet to bid them remove their former fornications far from themselves, and to abandon the ruins of their kings and princes and drive them away, not so much from themselves as from God; and he at once promises the rewards of good work, saying: And I will dwell in the midst of them — of whom it is said in the Gospel: There stands in the midst of you one whom you do not know —; and he will dwell not for a short time, as in the Synagogue, but forever, which is borne out in the Church of Christ.
43:10-12
But you, son of man, show the house of Israel the temple, and let them be confounded by their iniquities, and let them measure the structure, and let them blush for all that they have done. The figure of the house and of its structure, its exits and entrances, and its whole design, and all its precepts, and its whole order and all its laws, show them; and you shall write it in their sight, that they may keep all its distributions and its precepts and do them. This is the law of the house on the summit of the mountain: all its bounds round about are the Holy of Holies; this therefore is the law of the house. (LXX: "And you, son of man, show the house of Israel the house, and they shall cease from their sins, and its vision and its arrangement, and they themselves shall bear their torment for all that they have done. And you shall describe the house and its preparation, and its exits and its entrances, and its substance, and all its precepts, and all its ordinances and all its laws you shall show them; and you shall describe it before them, and they shall keep all my justifications and all my precepts and do them. And the description of the house on the top of the mountain: all its boundaries round about the Holy of Holies; this is the law of the house.") It is no small task to demonstrate to hearers what you have beheld with the eyes of the flesh or with the mind, so that they too may seem to have seen it with you — for which reason Josephus writes that those who were sent by Joshua son of Nun to describe the land were γεωμέτρας [geometers, land-surveyors], and possessed in the proper sense the art of geometry, which belongs to philosophers —. To the house of Israel, therefore — of those who behold God with the mind — the house is shown, that is, the temple which Ezekiel beheld situated on a mountain, and not only on a mountain but, as is now said, on the summit of the mountain; and let us by no means think it to be that one which is related in the books of Kings and Chronicles to have been built by Solomon: for that one is of another order and measure, and has great diversity in every detail, and is so far inferior to the temple which is now shown to Ezekiel that not only its worshipers and sacristans, but even its builder Solomon himself sinned and offended the Lord — although afterward he did penance, writing the Proverbs, in which he says: At last I did penance, and I looked back so as to choose discipline —; but this one, which is shown to Ezekiel and through Ezekiel to the house of Israel, is such that whoever has beheld it with the mind ceases from his iniquities, not from some but from all — or, as is contained in the Hebrew: is confounded —, and bears his torment for all that he has done — and he bears the torment of his iniquities who has ceased to commit his past sins —. And it greatly profits him who has sinned before to see the house of God and to know the principles of its whole structure — let him both desist from sinning and, having a longing for it, say to the Lord: 'Lord, I have loved the beauty of your house, and the place of the dwelling of your glory', and again: 'One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, when I have begun to live and to be with Christ, who is the life of believers' —. There follows: Its exits and entrances, 'of the house' being understood — the exits, that is, of those who go out to those who are outside, and the entrances of those who through the discipline of teachers penetrate to the inner parts —. 'And all', he says, 'its design (or substance, as the Seventy translated: which pertains not so much to the nature of the house as to its furnishings and riches), and all the precepts, and the whole order and all the laws of the temple you shall show them, who have borne the torment of their iniquities and have ceased, or been confounded, over the things they had done before; and for this reason you shall show them, that they may keep all that has been commanded: for it profits nothing to know the design of the house and all its distributions — of which it is written: Many mansions with the Father, and again: He set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the sons of Israel (or of the angels of God) — unless you do what has been commanded'. But the house, and the law of all the precepts of God, and the city which is established on the summit of the mountain, must be believed to be that one of which it is written: A city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden, and: The rush of the river gladdens the city of God: which plainly refers to the Church of God, and it is situated on that mountain which is at the peak of all mountains and by which the prince of Tyre was wounded; and all the bounds and boundaries of this house are the Holy of Holies — in that house, that is, in the tabernacle that was made by Moses and in the temple that was built by Solomon, only the inner parts, where the Cherubim were and the mercy seat and the ark of the covenant and the table of incense, were called the Holy of Holies; but in this house, which is shown to Ezekiel and which is established on the summit of the mountain, all its boundaries are reckoned among the Holy of Holies —; and what is added, This is the law of the house, pertains either to past matters, of which we have already spoken, or to those which are to be spoken of afterward.
43:13-17
And these are the measures of the altar in the truest cubit, which had a cubit and a handbreadth (or palaesten [handbreadth]): in its bosom was a cubit, and a cubit in breadth, and the delimitation up to its lip, and round about one handbreadth: this also was the trench of the altar. And from the bosom of the earth to the lowest ledge two cubits, and the breadth of one cubit; and from the lesser ledge to the greater ledge four cubits, and the breadth of one cubit. And the 'ariel' itself of four cubits, and from the 'ariel' upward four horns. And the 'ariel' twelve cubits in length by twelve cubits of breadth, squared with equal sides. And the ledge fourteen cubits of length by fourteen of breadth in its four corners; and the crown round about it of half a cubit, and its bosom of one cubit round about; and its steps turned toward the east. (LXX: "And this is the measure of the altar in the perfect cubit — a cubit and a παλαιστῆς [handbreadth] —: its bosom in height by a cubit, and a cubit of breadth, and a 'gisus' along its lip round about of one handbreadth. And this is the height of the altar: from the depth of the beginning in its bosom up to the great mercy seat which is beneath, of two cubits, and the breadth of a cubit; and from the lesser mercy seat up to the greater mercy seat four cubits, and the breadth of a cubit. The 'ariel' of four cubits, and from the 'ariel' up to the upper parts of the horns one cubit. And the 'ariel' itself had twelve cubits in length, and twelve cubits in breadth, of four corners on each of its sides. And the mercy seat of fourteen cubits in length by fourteen cubits in breadth on its four sides; and its 'gisus' round about, encircling it by half a cubit, and its circuit by a cubit round about; and its steps looking toward the east.") It is written: The abyss and wisdom, who will search them out? and: O the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God!: whose depth is profound, and who will find it? It is a great matter if we wish to compare the temple of Solomon with this temple, and all its parts and those of the tabernacle; and since that is most difficult, for the present let us compare, in a small part, the altar which was shown to Ezekiel with the altar which we read of in Exodus: there an altar of five cubits in length and five cubits in breadth, that is, square, and of three cubits in height is described; here, departing from the five senses, it tends toward unity, in which a perfect or truest cubit is set down, to which a handbreadth is joined, that is, a παλαιστής, having, as we said above, the sixth part of a cubit; and in its bosom, that is, the altar's, there was a cubit, namely the one that received the things which were consumed by fire, and in its breadth another cubit, so that the inner parts too, that is, the secret places and spaces of the altar which are shown in breadth, might be bounded within one cubit. And as for what follows, And the 'delimitation' up to its lip — for which Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion put 'boundary' —, the Seventy again translated 'gisum' — of which word, as I already said before, I cannot know the reason, nor say confidently to what language it belongs, except to advise the reader of this, that where I have now translated 'delimitation', above I rendered 'crown'; and this is briefly shown, that round about the altar itself, that is, at its margin and circle, there was a lip bent back and, as it were, a crown in the manner of a lily, having very great beauty in appearance —; which 'delimitation', or 'gisus', extended round about in the breadth of one handbreadth, or παλαιστοῦ. But the 'pit' of the altar, or 'depth' and 'height', for which in the Hebrew 'gab' is set down, was of two cubits from the bosom of the earth up to the lowest ledge, or up to the greatest mercy seat, and its breadth of one cubit: for the lower parts, deep and clinging to the earth, are contained in the dual number — which was also set down for the unclean animals —, but the upper parts, reaching to the ledge or mercy seat — which Theodotion called by the Hebrew name itself, 'azara' [ledge, enclosure] — have a breadth of one cubit, so that the dual number passes over to the single, and the good of marriage, which is lower, attains to the blessedness of unity. And as for what follows, And from the lesser ledge up to the greater ledge four cubits, and the breadth of one cubit — for which in the Seventy is set down: And from the lesser mercy seat up to the greater mercy seat, and Theodotion in both places translated 'azara' —, this is to be understood: that the lesser mercy seat is the stone cut from the mountain without hands, and the great mercy seat is the stone itself which grew into a great mountain and filled the whole world; or, according to another sense, the lesser mercy seat is when he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and the great mercy seat when he received back the glory which he had with the Father before the world was made: for first we come to know the humbler things of Christ, and so we arrive at the height of his divinity; and yet the mercy seat of both natures, that is, of the lesser and the greater, pertains to the mystery of one altar. And between the two mercy seats, the lesser and the greater, there were four cubits, signifying the four elements of the world, which themselves too arrive at the breadth of one cubit — and this is to be noted, that in the measure of the altar the first cubit in breadth is coupled to none but is perfect in its own unity, while the second cubit of breadth grows to the top after two cubits, and the third cubit, after the lesser and greater mercy seat, tends through the four elements to the mystery of one cubit: so that the one and the second and the third cubit in the altar of the Lord are by no means said to be first, second and third, but one and one and one —. And the 'ariel' itself was of four cubits, and from the 'ariel' upward four horns (or, as is said in the Seventy, and from the 'ariel' up to the upper parts of the horns one cubit): 'ariel', as most suppose, means 'my light is God' — about which we have spoken more fully in the prophet Isaiah too, where it is written: Woe to you, city 'ariel', which David stormed (or surrounded) —, but, as I think, 'lion' or 'strong one of God' — a name which refers properly to the altar, in which there is either the illumination of God, or the lion and his strength, as Jacob says to Judah: A lion's whelp, my son, Judah; to the prey, son, you have gone up. Resting you lay down as a lion, and as a lioness: who will rouse him? —; and it is of four cubits and has four horns, or the upper parts of the four horns are bounded by one cubit: so that the measure of the Gospels and the strength running out into the whole world may be shown under the illumination of God and the strength of the lion, and may pertain to the one cubit of the divine confession. And so that the obscurity of the present passage may little by little become clearer, there follows: And the 'ariel' twelve cubits in length by twelve cubits of breadth, square with equal sides, which no one doubts pertains to the twelve tribes which are written in the Revelation of John, and to the number of the apostles, about whose mystery I remember having spoken above; along the four sides — the sides of the world — twelve cubits each together make forty-eight cubits — of the priestly cities —, so that, with these as it were foundations distributed through the whole world, the strength of the Church may be made firm. Furthermore: The ledge (for which the Seventy translated mercy seat, Theodotion, as above, 'azara', Symmachus περίβολον, that is, 'circuit') was of fourteen cubits of length by fourteen of breadth, in its four corners; and the 'crown' round about it of half a cubit (for which again the Seventy translated 'gison'), and the bosom (or, according to Symmachus, 'consummation') of it (and 'perfection') of one cubit round about: this covertly shows that our Lord, who is truly called the mercy seat, not only for our sins but for the whole world, came through fourteen generations from Abraham to David, and again through another fourteen to the captivity of Jeconiah, and by the mystery of the same number descended to earthly things, so that in the third tesseriscedecade [set of fourteen], and by the mystery of the divine number, he might save the four corners of the world — of which it is written: Many will come from the east and from the west and from the north and the south, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven —. And what follows, And the crown (or gisus) round about it — 'of the mercy seat' being understood — had half a cubit, and the 'bosom' of the mercy seat itself (or consummation and perfection, which Symmachus translated περιγραφήν [outline, circumscription]) had one cubit, signifies this: that both sinners and the righteous are saved by the propitiation of the Lord — as the apostle Paul says: We have been reconciled to God in the blood of his Son —; and of sinners it is said that they have the measure of half a cubit round about: who nevertheless are saved by the mercy of the Creator — according to what is written in the psalm: For nothing you will save them —; of the righteous: that they are saved in the one number, single and perfect and imitating the one divinity — as the apostle says: God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself —. But as for what is set down at the end of this testimony, And its steps turned toward the east, by the steps of this mercy seat we ought to understand either the twenty-four books of the Old Testament, which had harps in the Revelation of John and crowns on their heads, or the mystery of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in which true propitiation is given to us; and to speak more openly: the number of the steps is left uncertain for this reason, that with however much zeal we may have been able to climb to higher things, we may think that we are still to be placed in the inner things, and may ponder that saying of the psalm: They will go from strength to strength.
43:18-22
And he said to me: Son of man, thus says the Lord God: These are the rites of the altar on whatever day it shall have been built, that a holocaust may be offered upon it and blood poured out. And you shall give to the priests and Levites who are of the seed of Zadok, who approach me, says the Lord God, that they may offer me a calf of the herd for sin. And taking some of its blood, you shall put it upon the four horns, and upon the four corners of the ledge, and upon the crown round about, and you shall cleanse it and expiate it. And you shall take the calf that has been offered for sin, and you shall burn it in a separate place of the house outside the sanctuary. And on the second day you shall offer a he-goat of the goats without blemish for sin, and they shall expiate the altar as they expiated it with the calf. (LXX: "And he said to me: Son of man, thus says the Lord God: These are the precepts of the altar on the day on which it shall have been made, that holocausts may be offered upon it and blood poured out upon it. And you shall give to the priests and Levites who are of the seed of Saddoch, and who draw near to me, says the Lord God, that they may minister to me a calf of the oxen for sin. And they shall take of its blood, and shall put it upon the four horns of the altar, and upon its base round about, and they shall cleanse and expiate it. And they shall take the calf for sin, and it shall be burned in a separate place of the house outside the Holy Place. And on the second day they shall take two kids of the goats without blemish for sin, and they shall expiate the altar as they expiated it with the calf.") After he had shown the prophet the altar and its cubit and two cubits, and again a cubit and four cubits and, thirdly, a cubit, and also twelve cubits by another twelve, and the four horns of the altar, and the 'ariel' of twelve cubits by twelve cubits, and the ledge, that is, the mercy seat, of fourteen cubits by fourteen cubits, and also its crown and bosom of half a cubit and one cubit round about, and the steps toward the east whose number is uncertain, the man in whose hand were the reed and the cord spoke, and he teaches him how, once the work of the altar is completed, the altar ought to be expiated and consecrated. And first a victim is offered, and it is given to the priests of the race of Levi who are of the seed of 'Sadoc' — why the Seventy name him 'Saddoch' I am not able to know. And 'Sadoc' means 'righteous' —. And there is offered, according to the Seventy and Theodotion, a 'calf', according to Symmachus a 'bull', which in Hebrew is called 'phar' — and many passages of the Scriptures, and especially the epistle of Barnabas, which is held among the apocryphal scriptures, name him who was sacrificed for us a 'calf' —; and a he-goat of the goats is offered on the second day: whence also those who are to keep the Passover take from the flock a lamb and a kid, and those who could not keep the first Passover keep it in the second month: of which the one pertains to the righteous, the other to the penitent. But if the translation of the Seventy pleases us — who said: And on the second day they shall take two kids without blemish for sin —, what we are about to say is bold indeed, but nevertheless the opinion of others must be set down plainly, who say that two kids without blemish were offered at the altar of the Lord after the passion of the Lord: James and Stephen, of whom the one was of the number of the apostles, the other was the chief of the seven chosen for the ministry of the Lord — this is the James who saw the Savior transfigured on the mountain, who with the Lord and Peter and John beheld the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue rising, who in the κατάλογῳ [catalogue, list] of the apostles — in which the names are joined in pairs — is placed before his brother: him Herod killed, and as it were sacrificed as a kid without blemish on the second day after the passion of the Savior; Stephen too, whose wisdom and teaching no one could resist, and who saw the Son of man standing at the right hand of the Father, and said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, the Jews overwhelmed with stones; and as the apostle names certain of the believers the firstfruits of Achaia and of Asia, so these too were the firstfruits of the martyrs, whom the confession of Christ afterward crowned —. And this is to be noted, that the calf is offered whole as a holocaust, and the fatness of its body is consumed by divine fire — for even if we had known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we no longer know him according to the flesh —, but James and Stephen, who were offered on the second day, or the he-goat, which according to the Hebrew is related to have been offered, is indeed offered as a victim, but the holocaust is reserved to the preeminence of the Lord. And that the blood is taken — of which Peter speaks: We have been redeemed from our vain manner of life of paternal tradition by the precious blood of Christ; and the apostle Paul teaches: You have been redeemed with a price, and in another place: Making peace through the blood of his cross, whether on earth or above the heavens — signifies this: that by the blood of the Savior the four horns of the altar are purified — that is, the four regions of the world —, and the crown of the mercy seat, or the bases round about, is sprinkled, so that all things may be cleansed and the propitiation may be firm. And for this reason, on the second day, either two kids — of which we spoke above — or a he-goat is taken, because it is an animal always hastening to the heights and suffering no danger on precipices, and it finds a way there where for the other animals there is destruction — whence also in the Greek language 'a flock of she-goats and he-goats' is called 'the dwelling of the lofty', that is, 'αἰπόλιον', as if 'αἰπυ-πόλιον': since αἰπύ signifies, as it were, 'lofty', and πολεῖν 'dwelling' —. Furthermore, the altar of Christ is expiated with blood, so that the prayers of the saints may reach God clean. This too is to be noted, that according to the Hebrew Ezekiel himself, as a priest, is ordered to take the calf and to make the holocaust and to sprinkle its blood round about, on the altar as well as on the corners and the crown, or base; but the Seventy translators show that other priests do this, of whom it was said: And you shall give to the priests and Levites who are of the seed of Zadok, who approach me.
43:23-27
And when you have finished expiating it, you shall offer a calf of the herd without blemish, and a ram of the flock without blemish; and you shall offer them in the sight of the Lord, and the priests shall cast salt upon them, and shall offer them as a holocaust to the Lord. For seven days you shall make a he-goat for sin daily, and a calf of the herd and a ram of the flocks without blemish they shall offer. For seven days they shall expiate the altar and cleanse it, and they shall fill its hand; and when the days are completed, on the eighth day and onward the priests shall make your holocausts upon the altar, and those which they offer for peace; and I will be appeased toward you, says the Lord God. (LXX: "And when you have completed the expiation, they shall offer a calf of the oxen without blemish, and a ram of the sheep without blemish; and you shall offer them before the Lord, and the priests shall sprinkle salt upon them, and shall offer them as holocausts to the Lord. For seven days you shall make a kid for sin daily, and a calf of the oxen and a ram of the sheep, without blemish, they shall make for seven days; and they shall expiate the altar and cleanse it, and they shall fill their hands; and they shall complete the days; and it shall be, from the eighth day and onward the priests shall make your holocausts upon the altar, and for your salvation; and I will receive you, says the Lord God.") After the altar and its measures on the top of the mountain had been shown, and again its expiation and consecration had been shown to the prophet through one calf without blemish and a he-goat or two kids, of which we have referred the first to the Lord Savior and the two following to the apostles and ministers, then, lest in the consecration of the spiritual altar, which properly pertains to the Church, the Law and the Prophets should seem excluded, for this reason, once the altar has been consecrated, a calf without blemish is taken, and a ram; and they are offered in the sight of the Lord, and the sons of Zadok, that is, the priests of the righteous, sprinkle salt upon their heads: so that both the Law and the Prophets may be seasoned with the savor of the Gospel; nor is there any sacrifice — according to the command of the Law and the interpretation of the apostle, who says: Let your speech be seasoned with salt — which lacks salt. And both are offered as a holocaust to the Lord, so that the fatter body — the letter, which is signified in the Law — and the cloud of prophecy may, by the fire of the Lord — that is, by the Holy Spirit, of whom Paul says: Fervent in spirit — be converted into a spiritual and fine substance. Do we wish to know more openly who is the calf of the herd without blemish, and the ram of the sheep with the purest fleece? Let us understand Moses and Elijah — of whom the first was the meekest among all men who dwelt on the earth, the other in ardor of faith was like Moses, whence he also dared to say: I alone am left —. But that in the Hebrew it is written, 'You shall offer' a calf, and in the Seventy, 'They shall offer', the priests, raises no question — for Ezekiel himself too, to whom these things are said, is of the number of the priests, of full and perfect age: and the grace of prophecy increased his priestly rank; and Moses and Elijah, that is, the Law and the Prophets, are seen on the mountain with the Lord, announcing to him what he was going to suffer in Jerusalem —. And when the altar has been expiated, for seven days a he-goat or kid is offered for sin daily, and a calf of the herd and a ram of the flocks without blemish, so that through these sacrifices over seven days the altar may be expiated to perfection: in the seven days is shown the sabbath rest which, according to the apostle, is reserved for the people of the Lord, in which we hope for eternal and true rest and may by no means do the servile work of sins; and in the he-goat and the calf and the ram are shown three general offenses to which the whole race of mortals is subject: for we sin either in thoughts or in speech or in deed — thought is referred to the ram, which is the first of all sins and from which the other two sins are born; and the kid, or he-goat, to utterance and speech, which always disputes about loftier things; but deeds are properly assigned to the calf, which is bound over to the plowshare and to labor and to earthly works —. These, therefore, without blemish, we ought to offer to God through the seven days of the true and perfect sabbath, and to expiate the altar, so that our prayer may reach God clean. And what is added, And they shall cleanse it, and shall fill its hand, as both the Hebrew and the other translators rendered it, signifies this: that the gifts of the altar itself too, for whose expiation the sacrifice is offered, must be filled up, just as it is offered for the priests and the people and the high priest, lest anything should seem to have stood empty in the sight of the Lord; for which the Seventy put: And they shall cleanse it, and shall fill their own hands, so that 'the priests' is understood, who, when they have been full of good works — for this is what full hands signify —, once the sabbath is past, may come to the eighth day of the resurrection — and say with the apostle: We have risen with Christ —, and beyond the eighth may tend toward heavenly things, and offer for us holocausts, or those offerings which are for the peace of our sins and for our salvation, so that, through the fire of the Holy Spirit, all that we think, speak and do may be converted into spiritual substance, and the Lord, delighted with sacrifices of this kind, may become placable toward us.
44:1-3
And he turned me back to the way of the gate of the outer sanctuary which looked toward the east, and it was shut; and the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut, and it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it, because the Lord God of Israel has entered (or will enter) by it, and it shall be shut for the prince: the prince himself shall sit in it to eat bread before the Lord; he shall enter by the way of the vestibule (that is, 'aelam') of the gate, and by its way he shall go out. (Where it is written in the Hebrew: It shall be shut for the prince, the Seventy translated: And it shall be shut, because the leader himself shall sit in it.) There are many gates which Scripture mentions in the description of Ezekiel's temple, both within and without; the preceding discourse also ran through the shape of the altar, its consecration and its sacrifices. That being finished, he comes to the gate of the outer sanctuary which looked toward the east, and it was shut; and at once that man who was the prophet's guide and was showing him everything spoke to him: 'This gate, which you see shut, will always be shut, and it will not be opened, and none of men will pass through it'; and he gives the reasons why it is always shut: Because the Lord of Israel has entered (or will enter) by it, and it shall be shut — according to the Hebrew — for the prince (whom the Seventy translated 'leader'): who, the prince (and leader, that is, 'nasi') shall sit in it to eat bread before the Lord, and: By the way of the vestibule of the gate he shall enter, by the same he shall go out. What, then, is this gate which is always shut, and by which the Lord God of Israel alone will enter? Surely it is the one of which the Savior speaks in the Gospel: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, and: Woe to you, doctors of the law, woe, who take away the key of knowledge: you yourselves do not enter, and those who are entering you hinder — of this, under the name of a book, Isaiah writes: The words of this book shall be like sealed words; when you give it to a man who does not know letters, and say to him: Read; he will answer you: I do not know letters. And they will give it to a man who knows letters, saying: Read; and he will say: I cannot read, because it is sealed: and this is the book whose seals no one can loose and open, neither in heaven nor on earth nor under the earth, except him of whom it is said in the Revelation of John: Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered, the root and offspring of David, to open the book and loose its seals: for before the Savior assumed a human body and humbled himself, taking the form of a servant, the law and the prophets and all the knowledge of the Scriptures were shut, paradise was shut; but after he hung on the cross and said to the thief: Today you will be with me in paradise, at once the veil of the temple was torn and all things were opened; and with the veil taken away we say: But we all, beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory. But if all things have been unveiled — for in Christ, according to the word of Paul, all things are unveiled — how is it: The gate shall be shut, and it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it? From this we learn — even though we may have come to the highest knowledge, by comparison with the divine knowledge — that now we know in part and understand in part: But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. Hence in another place too the Apostle himself says that he is imperfect and again perfect, which, if it lacks interpretation, seems to be a contradiction; for he says: Not that I have already received, or am already perfect. Brethren, I do not reckon that I have laid hold; but one thing: forgetting what lies behind, stretching forward to what lies ahead, I pursue the appointed goal, toward the prize of the upward calling of God; and when we would think that by his own profession he is not perfect, and that he is seeking rather than has found what is true, he says that not only he himself but others with him are perfect: As many then as are perfect, let us be of this mind; and the sense of this place is: 'In comparison with the rest of men, who have no care for the knowledge of the Scriptures nor of the mysteries of God, I confess that I am perfect; but as regards the knowledge of the divine majesty, I now see in an enigma, and through mist and darkness, and I say with the prophet: Your knowledge has become wonderful to me; it is too strong, and I shall not be able to reach it' —. This gate, then, which is shut to all — for No man shall pass through it —: It shall be shut for the prince (or for the leader), and will be reserved for his coming: who shall sit in it to eat bread before the Lord — of which he himself declares in the Gospel, saying: My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work —; he himself is prince and high priest according to the order of Melchizedek, both victim and priest, who in the sight of the Father eats the heavenly bread with us and drinks the wine — of which he speaks in the Gospel: I will not drink of this fruit of the vine until I drink it new in the kingdom of my Father: namely in that kingdom of which the Apostle also writes: The kingdom of God is within you —; and the gate will be shut: for no one can know the mysteries of the Lord's passion and of his body and blood as the majesty of the thing deserves; and our prince is of such goodness and mercy that, although he alone sits in the gate which is shut and eats bread before the Lord, he wills to have many sharers of his table and banquet — and he says: Behold, I stand and knock; if anyone opens to me, I will come in to him, and I will sup with him, and he with me —; but he alone eats bread before the Lord, because his substance and divine nature is set apart from all the substances of created things. He himself enters and goes out through the same gate of the vestibule, because he is both within and without — that is, poured into all things and poured around all things —: entering through the gate to bring in with him those who cannot enter without his teaching and help, and going out to bring in others again, and to speak to those who do not grasp the more difficult things. — That the eastern gate beyond the bounds of the world is always shut and by no means lies open to human sight, the Gospel of John proves — when it says: No one has ever seen God except the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father; he has made him known, as if he had said in other words: And it shall be shut for the prince: the prince alone shall sit in it to eat the bread 'of perfect and consummate knowledge': for No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal him —. Some fittingly understand the shut gate, through which the Lord God of Israel alone enters, and the leader for whom the gate is shut, as the Virgin Mary, who remained a virgin both before giving birth and after giving birth — for both at the time when the angel was saying: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and that which will be born of you will be called Holy, the Son of God, and when he was born, she remained a virgin forever —, to confound those who think that after the Savior's birth she had sons by Joseph, taking occasion from his 'brothers' who are so called in the Gospel: on which little question I know that in my youth, at Rome, I wrote a book of no great size against Helvidius, a heretic of that time —.
44:4-5
And he brought me by the way of the north gate in front of the house; and I looked, and behold, the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord, and I fell on my face. And the Lord said to me: Son of man, set your heart, and see with your eyes, and hear with your ears all that I say to you concerning all the ceremonies of the house of the Lord, and concerning all its laws; and you shall set your heart on the ways of the temple, through all the exits of the sanctuary. The man who is the prophet's guide, and through whose showing he learns everything in the temple, after he had shown him the gate shut, never to be unbarred and yet open to him who entered through shut doors, leads the prophet to the way of the north gate, which itself too was in front of the house: no doubt this signifies the temple; and when the prophet, from directly opposite, had seen the house of the Lord full of the glory of the Lord — the same, namely, which he had beheld facing him when he was placed in the region of the north —, at once he fell on his face, not enduring to bear the majesty of the glory of the Lord. Therefore, because he had been cast down in humility, it is no longer the man but the Lord who says to him: Son of man, set your heart, and the rest: at the completion of the tabernacle and at the building of the temple which was erected by Solomon the glory of the Lord appeared, which afterward was done away by comparison with the glory of the Gospel — as the Apostle says: For what was glorified has not been glorified in this respect, because of the surpassing glory. For if what is done away was through glory, much more what remains is in glory —; and we must beware of thinking the doing away of the former glory to be its abolition, but must understand it thus: After that which is perfect has come, that which was in part will be done away — as if you were to compare a torch to the rays of the sun, or the light of a torch to a little lamp; for which reason it is also said of John the Baptist: He was a lamp shining in the house; but after the sun of righteousness came, the light of the lamp was hidden, as the prophet and Baptist himself says: He must increase, but I must decrease —; and the prophet fell on his face lest, while he longed to discern more than human frailty can behold, he should lose even the very light of his eyes; hence the Lord calls him more familiarly son of man, and commanded him to set his heart, and see with his eyes, and hear with his ears — for first the mind must be opened to understand what is said, second the eyes of the heart must be directed, of which it is said to Abraham: Lift up your eyes and see the stars of heaven, third one must hear with those ears of which the Savior says: He who has ears to hear, let him hear —, so that he may be able to understand all the ceremonies of the temple and its ordinances, and finally to set his heart on the 'ways' of the temple — because there are various entrances to it —, or the 'way' of the temple — it signifies the order of the ceremonies —, and the exits of the sanctuary. It is, then, a preface and a preparation of the prophet for understanding what he is afterward to learn concerning the order of the temple. And this too must be noted: that in the region of this world, which lies in the evil one and is set in the cold of the north, the order of the heavenly ceremonies is shown to us.
44:6-8
And you shall say to the house of Israel that provokes me: Thus says the Lord God: Let all your crimes suffice you, house of Israel, in that you bring in alien sons (or foreigners) uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary and to pollute my house; and you offer my loaves, the fat and the blood, and you dissolve my covenant (or you pass over my precept) in all your crimes. And you have not kept the precepts of my sanctuary, and you have set keepers of my observances in my sanctuary for yourselves. When he says: Let all your crimes suffice you (or your iniquities), he exhorts to repentance for former sins, lest we add sins to sins and prepare fuel for the fire to come — but let us hear what Isaiah says: Woe to those who draw sins as with a long cord, and iniquities as with the yoke-strap of a calf —. And the first sin is that they bring in alien sons — or foreigners — uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in the sanctuary of God and to pollute the house of the Lord — for A little leaven corrupts the whole lump, and in some copies of Proverbs there is found: Do not bring the wicked man into the tents of the righteous —. At this place the Jews and the Ebionites — who accept circumcision of the flesh — press us as to how we can explain the present passage: uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, meaning, that is, that after the spiritual understanding we ought also to undergo circumcision of the flesh; but — we who read Paul saying: And I testify to every man who is circumcised that, if you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing, and that word of Jeremiah: Behold, your ears are uncircumcised, and you would not hear, and in Exodus: Moses spoke before the Lord, saying: Behold, the sons of Israel have not listened, and how will Pharaoh listen to me? But I am slow of speech (for which the Seventy said: Ἐγὼ δὲ ἄλογός εἰμι [But I am without speech], which is better rendered in the Hebrew: But I am uncircumcised of lips) —, let us question them — nay, let us compel them to circumcise their ears and cut off their lips, that they may be seen to fulfill the Scripture —: but if they begin to interpret circumcision of the 'ears' as when we allow ourselves to hear nothing base and unseemly, and circumcision of the 'lips' as when we speak nothing indecent, let us say to them: you ought to keep the same exposition also for 'heart' and for 'flesh': we circumcise the 'heart' with the knife of God, and the foreskin is removed from our heart, when base thoughts in no way go forth from our heart — and it is not said of us: The heart of this people has grown fat, and with their ears they have heard heavily —; so the 'flesh' too is likewise circumcised, so that we by no means do the earthly works which we are compelled to do for the necessity of the body — to take food and drink and sleep and to use clothing —, which we circumcise then, if we do all these things not for pleasure and for luxury and for idleness, but for the necessity of nature and the sustenance of this body — he who drinks a little wine for his stomach and his frequent infirmities and hates drunkenness circumcises his flesh; he who sleeps as much as nature allows will hear from Solomon: If you sit, you will be without fear; if you sleep, you will sleep sweetly: and you will not fear the terror coming upon you, nor the assaults of the wicked coming upon you; and he who flees fornication and renders to his wife her due, coming together again lest Satan tempt him, will hear with the people of Israel: On this day I have taken away from you the reproach of Egypt; he will also use clothes that keep off the cold, not those that by their thinness show bodies naked —: the flesh worn down by fasts and circumcised by continence escapes the reproach of the Egyptians: Who are of great flesh — and it can say that which is read in most copies according to the edition of the Seventy: As my flesh has wasted away, in a land desert and pathless and waterless, so in the holy place I have appeared to you —. If ever, then, we wish to bring foreigners into the temple of God, let us circumcise their ears and lips and heart and all their flesh, and their eyes, taste and smell: so that we may do all things with the fear of God and with reason; let the bishops and presbyters and the whole ecclesiastical order hear this, that they may not bring in alien sons uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, lest they be in his sanctuary and pollute his house; for if they do this, what follows will be fitted to them: And you offer my loaves — the loaves, namely, of proposition, in all the churches and throughout the world, springing up from the one bread —, and not only the loaves but also the fat — of which it is written: He fed them with the fat of the wheat —, and the blood — which was poured out in the passion of Christ —. And it must be read thus, and the order of the reading rendered so: 'Since you bring alien sons, uncircumcised in heart and in body, into my sanctuary and pollute my house, you dare to offer loaves and fat and blood — the mystic sacraments — and you do not understand what you have dissolved, and that you have transgressed my covenant in all your crimes and impieties; and that you have not kept the precepts of my sanctuary nor set keepers of my ceremonies in my sanctuary' — and the whole threat is against those who have not heeded the Apostle warning beforehand: Lay hands hastily on no one, and do not share in other men's sins —; or certainly it must be understood thus: 'You have dissolved my covenant in all your crimes and have not kept the precepts of my sanctuary, and you dare to set unworthy and alien keepers in the observance of my sanctuary — so that 'for yourselves' is understood, not 'for me', and the sense is —: who serve you and minister to you in carnal things, and for the sake of your comforts pollute my sanctuary'.
44:9-16
Thus says the Lord God: No foreigner uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh shall enter my sanctuary, no alien son who is in the midst of the sons of Israel. But also the Levites who went far away from me in the straying of the sons of Israel, and strayed from me after their idols, shall bear their iniquity, who were in my sanctuary temple-keepers and doorkeepers of the gates of the house and ministers of the house: and they slaughtered the holocausts and the victims of the people, and they stood before them to minister to them. Because, then, they ministered to them in the sight of their idols and became to the house of Israel a stumbling block of iniquity, therefore I have lifted up my hand against them, says the Lord God, and they have borne their iniquity. And they shall not draw near to me to exercise the priesthood for me, nor shall they approach any of my sanctuary next to the Holy of Holies, but they shall bear their shame and their crimes which they committed. And I will make them doorkeepers of the house in all its service and in all that is done in it. But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who kept the ceremonies of my sanctuary when the sons of Israel strayed from me, they shall approach me to minister to me, and they shall stand in my sight to offer me the fat and the blood, says the Lord God. They shall enter my sanctuary, and they shall approach my table, to minister to me and to keep my ceremonies. (LXX: "Therefore thus says the Lord: No foreign son uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh shall enter my holy places, among all the sons of foreigners who are in the midst of the house of Israel. But also the Levites who went away from me when Israel strayed from me after their own thoughts, and they shall receive their iniquities, and they shall be in my holy places ministering, porters at the gates of the house and ministers of the house: they shall sacrifice the holocausts and the victims for the people, and they shall stand before the people to minister to them, because they ministered to them before the face of their idols, and it became to the house of Israel a torment of iniquity. Therefore I have lifted up my hand against them, says the Lord God, and they shall receive their iniquity: that they may not approach me to exercise the priesthood for me, nor to offer at all the holy things of the sons of Israel nor at my Holy of Holies, and they shall bear their disgrace in the error in which they strayed. And they shall appoint them to keep the charges of the house in all its works and in all that they have done in it. The priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who kept the charges of my holy places when the house of Israel strayed from me, they shall approach me to minister to me, and they shall stand before my face to offer me the sacrifice, the fat and the blood, says the Lord God. They shall enter into my holy places, and they shall approach my table, to minister to me and to observe my charges.") I have set down the testimony according to both editions, so that by comparing them we may be able to know what the Seventy meant and what the Hebrew contains. The Seventy signify this: that foreigners uncircumcised in heart and flesh, who dwell in the midst of the sons of Israel, ought not to enter the sanctuary of God; but that the Levites, that is, the priestly rank, who went far away from the Lord in the straying of the sons of Israel and strayed after their idols, after they have received their iniquity, are to stand in the sanctuary of the Lord as temple-keepers and doorkeepers and ministers of the house, and slaughter the holocausts and victims of the people, and be in their sight to minister to them, because they ministered to them in the sight of their idols and became to the house of Israel a torment of iniquity; and that the Lord God therefore says he has lifted up his hand against them, so that they may not approach him and exercise the priesthood for him nor offer for him in the Holy of Holies, and may bear their disgrace in the error in which they strayed: so that, namely, they are appointed to the observance of the charges of the house in all its works and in all that is done in the house — but if this is so, how can it stand that the Levites — who went far away from God in the straying of the sons of Israel and strayed from him after their idols — should themselves minister in the house and slaughter the holocausts and victims of the people, and themselves stand in their sight to minister to them — for what more are the priests, the sons of Zadok, to do, who kept the ceremonies of the sanctuary of God, of whom he says: They shall approach me to minister to me, and they shall stand in my sight to offer me the fat, and the rest —? —. But the Hebrew has this sense: 'No foreigner uncircumcised in heart and flesh shall enter my sanctuary, even though he seems to be with the people of Israel. But the Levites, that is, the priestly rank, who went far away from me in the straying of the sons of Israel and followed idols, shall bear their iniquity, because they were in my sanctuary ministering in the office of the gates of the house and its ministers: for they offered the holocaust and the victims of the people, and they stood in their sight to minister for them. Because, then, they ministered for them in the sight of their idols and were to the house of Israel a stumbling block of iniquity, therefore I have lifted up my hand against them, says the Lord God, and they have borne their iniquity. And they shall not draw near to me to exercise the priesthood for me, nor shall they approach any of my sanctuary next to the Holy of Holies, but they shall bear their shame and their crimes which they committed — for instead of the priestly office, they who had been accustomed to offer the holocaust and the victims and every sacrifice will be reduced to the lowest rank —. And they will be doorkeepers of the house, to everlasting disgrace — so that they may be seen by the whole people, entering and going out, from what lofty dignity they have come to what lowest rank —. But the priests,' he says, 'that is, the Levites who are the sons of Zadok — that is, of the righteous, or of the righteous one of God — and who in the time of the straying of all Israel kept the ceremonies of my sanctuary, they shall approach me to minister to me, and shall stand in my sight and offer me the fat — that is, the richest sacrifice —, and the blood — that is, a living sacrifice and pleasing to God —. And they shall enter my sanctuary and approach my table, to burn incense to me and to keep the whole rite of sacrifice' — but if this is so, that those who in the time of error or of persecution followed idols which they had fashioned from their own heart, and asserted not only by voice but also by the subscription of their hand that the Son of God is a creature: And they served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever: how do they assume for themselves the priestly and pontifical eminence, and dare to offer victims to God, they who were once worshipers of idols? — but, as the most ardent poet testifies: Whatever is sinned by many goes unpunished; the multitude of sinners has made pardon easier for the impious to obtain: so that those who, reduced to the laity, ought to have bewailed the former crimes of their sacrilege, now sit leaning back on the pontifical throne, and belch at us the nauseas of a feigned faith, nay rather the open epitomes of a misborn perfidy —; let them hear, then, at least late, and observe the precepts of almighty God: No foreigner uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh shall enter my sanctuary, though he be a son, though joined by kinship, though he cling to us by an old bond: if he is uncircumcised in heart or flesh, let him not be brought into the sanctuary of God, lest we make the ministers of Christ our own ministers, and pollute the altars of the Lord for the sake of carnal comforts —. Where we have put: And I will make them doorkeepers of the house in all its service and in all that is done in it, them, namely, of the Levites who went far away from God in the straying of the sons of Israel and followed idols to which they sacrificed victims, Symmachus, considering the order of the reading and its sense, translated more correctly, saying: For I had made them keepers of the doors of the house, of all its service and of all that is done in it, so that it does not refer to those who are to be in the temple, but to those who were.
44:17-21
And when they enter the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with garments (or robes) of linen, and nothing woollen shall come upon them (or and they shall not be clothed with woollens) while they minister in the gates (or from the gates) of the inner court and within. Linen fillets shall be on their heads (or they shall have linen turbans upon their heads), and linen breeches shall be on their loins, and they shall not be girded in sweat (or violently). And when they go out to the outer court to the people, they shall put off their garments (or robes) in which they had ministered, and they shall lay them (or them) up in the chambers (or exedras) of the sanctuary (or of the holy places), and they shall clothe themselves in other garments (or robes), and they shall not sanctify the people in their garments (or robes). But they shall not shave their head, nor let their hair grow long, but clipping they shall clip their heads (or: They shall not shave their heads, and they shall not crop their hair close; covering they shall cover their heads). And no priest shall drink wine when he has entered into the inner court. First the words of the history must be laid open. Among the other things which the word of the Lord commanded the priests, it orders this too to be observed: that in the very gates of the inner court they be clothed with garments — that is, robes — of linen, and that they not use woollen clothing, whether in the gates of the inner court or within — that is, in the inner shrines and the Holy of Holies —; that linen fillets too — or turbans — be on their heads, linen breeches on their loins; and what follows according to the Seventy: And they shall not be girded violently (for which Aquila and Symmachus translated in sweat, Theodotion expressing the Hebrew word itself, 'in ieze', Aquila's second edition 'buza'), by which he signifies that they are not to be girded violently, tightly and constrictedly like men in bonds, lest in the priestly and Levitical ministries they become unfit both to hold and to slay the victims, and be unable also to drag them and to run about. And because he had once commanded what garments the priests ought to use when they are within at their ministries, he orders again that, going out into the chambers — or exedras — of the holy places, they put off their former garments and put on others, lest, if they have the holy garments, they sanctify the people placed outside, who have not yet been sanctified nor prepared themselves for the sanctification of the temple, so as to be a Nazirite of the Lord; by which we learn that we ought not to enter the Holy of Holies in everyday garments, any whatever, polluted by the use of common life, but to hold the sacraments of the Lord with a clean conscience and clean garments. As for what follows: But they shall not shave their head, nor let their hair grow long, but clipping they shall clip their heads, it is clearly shown that we ought neither to have shaven heads like the priests and worshipers of Isis and Serapis, nor again to let our hair hang down, which is properly the mark of the luxurious and of barbarians and soldiers, but that the seemly bearing of priests should be shown at first sight; as for what the Seventy said: They shall not shave their heads, and they shall not crop their hair close, but covering they shall cover their heads, according to them we learn that baldness is not to be made with the razor, nor is the head to be cropped so close that it seems like those of the shaven, but the hair is to be let grow only so far that the skin is covered — or certainly that the priests are always to cover their heads, according to that line of Vergil: Covered, to veil his locks with a purple mantle; but this is a forced interpretation —. And wine the priests and Levites shall not drink, not only for their ministry, but indeed when they are about to enter the Holy of Holies, lest the mind be weighed down and the understanding become duller — hence the Apostle too says: It is good, he says, not to drink wine and not to eat meat, and in another place: And wine, in which is debauchery — for The people ate and drank, and rose up to play —; and what he grants Timothy, to drink a little wine, he clearly shows why he granted it: For your stomach, he says, and your frequent infirmities —. The priests of Egypt use linen garments not only within but without — but the divine religion has one dress for the ministry, another for common use —; and the fillets and breeches are rightly put on, so that seemliness and decorum may be preserved — namely, lest in climbing the steps of the altar and running about at the ministries they uncover their shame —; shaven heads belong to the superstition of the Gentiles; but from wine, as far as my knowledge goes, I do not think any of the Gentiles abstains. What all these things indicate according to the spiritual sense, what follows will show. That there are holy and spiritual garments the Apostle teaches, saying: Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and in another place: Put on the bowels of mercy, goodness, humility, meekness and patience, and again: Strip off the old man with his works, and put on the new, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of the Creator; and I think this too signifies the same: For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. And when this corruptible has put on incorruption — and this mortal immortality —, then shall come to pass the word that is written, and the rest — concerning the priestly garments it is written more fully in Exodus, and we once published a book to whose interpretation the diligent reader must be sent: for we cannot comprehend a broad subject in a brief discourse —; these garments we make for ourselves by our own labor, woven from the top — such as the tunic which the Lord also had, which cannot be torn —, and we are clothed with them when we know the secrets and hidden things of the Lord and have the spirit which searches even the high and deep things, which are not to be shown to the crowd nor brought out to the people who are not sanctified nor prepared for the holiness of the Lord — lest, if they hear things greater than themselves, they be unable to bear the majesty of knowledge and be choked, as it were, by solid food, they who are still to be nourished with the milk of infancy —; but that there are, on the contrary, very evil garments the divine Scripture teaches, as is that which is sung in the Psalms of Judas the traitor: And he put on cursing like a garment, and a little after: Let it be to him like a garment which is wrapped about him, and like a girdle with which he is always girded: hence the Lord too, who suffered for us and bore our sins, is said in Zechariah to have filthy garments — of which it is written: And Jesus was clothed in filthy garments —, which he afterward lays aside — as Scripture says: Take the filthy garments from him and clothe him with a full-length robe, and the rest —. As for what follows: Linen fillets (or turbans) shall be on their heads, I think it shows the crown of grace of which it is written: For your head shall receive a crown of graces; nor let that which the Apostle says about the uncovered and bared head raise a question for us: A woman ought to have authority over her head because of the angels. For if a woman is not veiled, let her be shorn; but if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man: for if it belongs to men not to cover the head, it seems contradictory how the priests are now ordered to cover their heads with linen fillets or a turban; but let us read more carefully: the present words will be resolved from the preceding ones: for it is said above: When all minister in the gates of the inner court and within — for if we enter into the holy places and stand in the sight of the Lord, we ought to cover our heads, because: No living man shall be justified in the sight of the Lord, and from infancy the heart of man is set on malice —; and further, we use breeches within, lest any shame of a polluted conscience and of the marriage act appear in the sight of the Lord: with which breeches the Savior also girds his apostles, saying: Let your loins be girded, and lamps burning in your hands, and the Apostle says to believers: Stand therefore, having your loins girded in truth, and let the imitators of Christ hear what is written of him: He shall be girded with righteousness about the loins and encompassed with truth; and with this very holy Levitical girdle he who is holy and has climbed to the summit of the virtues is by no means bound violently, lest he seem to keep the good of continence unwillingly and to eat bread in the sweat of his face, rather than to do the Lord's precept with his will. Further, when he goes outside and mingles with the people, he lays aside the priestly garments in the chamber in which the riches of the Lord are kept, and the priests use other garments and other teaching for the common crowd, lest the people be sanctified in their robes: for it is a grave thing to take up the burden of the multitude beyond one's strength, as Solomon says: It is a snare to a man to sanctify hastily anything of his own: for when he has made a vow, repentance steals upon him. — Further, the Nazirites too offer themselves of their own accord; and whoever has vowed anything and has not fulfilled it is guilty of the vow; hence it is also said of widows: When they have grown wanton in Christ, they wish to marry, having condemnation because they have made void their first faith — for It is better not to promise than to promise and not to perform —: Hannah offered Samuel, who remained in perpetual holiness; and Manoah offered his son Samson, but the lust of Delilah defiled the consecration of his hair: then the Lord departed from him and he was condemned to blindness, except that afterward, as his hair grew, he received his former strength, and, in a type of Christ, by far more of the foreigners did he kill in death than in life —. And the Lord wills his priests to have perpetual hair of consecration and to cover their heads, not with any veil from outside but with their own natural hair, not for ornament and luxury but for seemliness — hence the hairs of the head of the apostles too are numbered, as the Savior says: But even the hairs of your head are all numbered: of that head of which it is also written in Ecclesiastes: The eyes of the wise man are in his head. And the head of the man is Christ, which the sinner tramples and despises and, so to speak, shaves with a razor and takes away its beauty: which the Ammonites also did to those whom David had sent as envoys —; but if transgression of the law dishonors God, it follows that he who keeps the precepts of the law honors him — that what is written may be fulfilled: That all may honor the Son, as they honor the Father —. Further, as for what follows, that: No priest, when he is about to enter the inner court, shall drink wine, it is clear that by drunkenness and strong drink the state of the mind is overturned, and that we are not fully wise when the mind is taken up with wine and satiety; but drunkenness is shown not only in the drinking of wine but in all things by which, both in contracts and in the business of the world, in losses and gains, in love and hatred, the mind is made drunk and wavers and cannot keep its state; and because we are encompassed by frail flesh and are compelled — for food and clothing and the necessities which pertain to the body — to do some things which we ought not to do, at least this is required of us: that — when we return into ourselves and know why we were born and enter the inner parts and shrines of the temple — we withdraw from the vices of the world and commit not even the least sins; by which it is shown both that we sin — when it is for the necessities of the flesh — light sins, and again that there is a time when — entering the inner court — we ought to be clean and estranged from all drunkenness.
44:22-31
A widow and a divorced woman (or a woman cast out) they shall not take as wives, but a virgin of the seed of the house of Israel; but also a widow who has been the widow of a priest they may take. And they shall teach my people; what the difference is between holy and polluted, between clean and unclean, they shall show them. And when there is a controversy (as is added in the Seventy, of blood), they shall stand in my judgments, and they shall judge; my laws and my precepts they shall keep in all my solemn feasts, and they shall sanctify my sabbaths. And they shall not go in to a dead man, lest they be polluted, except to father and mother, son and daughter, brother and sister who has not had another man: in these they shall be defiled. And after he has been cleansed, seven days shall be counted to him, and on the day of his entry into the sanctuary, into the inner court, to minister to me in the sanctuary, he shall offer for his sin, says the Lord God. But they shall have no inheritance; I am their inheritance, and you shall give them no possession in Israel, for I am their possession. The victim both for sin and for trespass they shall eat, and every vow of Israel shall be theirs; and the first portions of all the firstborn, and all the libations of all that are offered, shall be the priests'; and the first portions of your foods you shall give to the priest, that he may lay up a blessing for his house. Anything that has died of itself or been caught by a beast, of birds or of cattle, the priests shall not eat. This whole passage contains precepts for the priests, who, after the many things which we have expounded above, are ordered not to take as wives a widow and a divorced woman, or one cast out — the widow and the divorced woman is the Synagogue, that is, the congregation of the Jews, which did not receive the Lord; hence the Synagogue is also rightly called 'cast out' or 'widow': but the one cast out is the throng 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 nurtured in the house of God, in the law and the prophets, of whom the Apostle also speaks: I wish to present you all as a holy virgin to Christ; this is the virgin of whom the divine word also says elsewhere: Love her and she will keep you, encircle her and she will exalt you, honor her that she may embrace you; and who the virgin is who is to be loved and guards her lover, he will know who has read this: Her I loved and sought from my youth, and I sought to take her as my bride, and I became a lover of her beauty; and the Lord of all loved her. And not only a virgin, but also a widow the priest ought to marry, one, however, who has been the wife of another priest: knowledge, namely, which another worshiper 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 the office of the priest too to teach the people: What the difference is between holy and polluted, between clean and unclean, so that we refer the first to doctrines, the second to the works which are performed through the flesh — for who understands transgressions? —. And when there is a controversy 'about any matter' or, as the Seventy translated, 'of blood', that is, what pertains to a mortal crime: The priests shall stand in my judgments, so that they do not judge according to rank nor accept the person of poor or rich in judgment, but stand in the judgments of God — and remember that psalm: God has stood in the synagogue of gods, and in the midst he judges gods, calling 'gods' those who have the power of judging men —: for with what judgment they have judged, they themselves will be judged. My laws, he says, and my precepts they shall keep in all my solemn feasts, so that they may know how Christ our Passover was sacrificed, how we ought to fulfill seven weeks of joy and gladness, and humble our souls in fasting and in the sound of trumpets, and understand also spiritual feasts of Tabernacles — in which we say: I am a sojourner and a stranger, as all my fathers were —; these are the true solemn feasts of God, which one discussing the Pentateuch will interpret more fittingly: the first virtue of a priest is not only to teach what he knows, but to keep all the festivals of God, so that he may be able to command 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 angel of the Lord of hosts —. And they shall sanctify my sabbaths. And they shall not go in to a dead man, lest they be polluted (for which the Seventy translated: And they shall not go in upon the soul of a man, lest they be polluted), except to father, he says, and mother, son and daughter, brother and sister who has not had a man: they shall be defiled. And after he has been cleansed, seven days shall be counted to him, and on the day of his entry into the sanctuary and into the inner court, to minister to me in the sanctuary, he shall offer for his sin to the Lord God (or he shall offer a propitiation). And there shall be to them their inheritance, and you shall give them no possession in Israel, I am their possession, the priests are still being commanded; in which it must be observed that he did not say absolutely: and they shall sanctify 'sabbaths' — or, according to Isaiah: Your new moons and sabbaths my soul hates —, but with a distinction: 'my' sabbaths — hence it is written in the Gospel too: The priests in the temple violate the sabbath and are without blame: not the sabbath of God, but the sabbath of the letter, the sabbath of the Jews, which they rightly violate who are: A chosen race, a royal priesthood —; but the sabbath that has been sanctified let us understand as that which the Apostle too teaches has been left for the people of God — of which it is written: If they shall enter into my 'rest', which in Hebrew is called 'sabbath' —; and he sanctifies the sabbath of God who does not carry the burden of sin on the sabbath nor say: Like a heavy burden they have weighed heavy upon me: he who is such does not gather wood on the sabbath, nor build upon the foundation of Jesus Christ wood, hay, stubble, nor kindle a fire to consume useless material, and on the sabbath day he remains in one place and does not go outside, but remains set like a pillar in the temple of God — of which John writes in the Revelation: He who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more —. As for what follows: And they shall not go in to a dead man, lest they be polluted: it belongs properly to the priestly office not to touch dead things, so that he who prays for the vices of others may himself approach the altar clean — of which dead the Savior too speaks in the Gospel: Leave the dead to bury their own dead —; these are defiled in a dead father when they forsake their Creator, and in a dead mother, departing from the Church, in a son also and a daughter, in that the one pertains to thoughts, the other to works — which is said more expressively in Greek, νοητὰ καὶ αἰσθητὰ [things of the mind and things of the senses] —; in brother also and sister: he who, reborn of the same spirit, if he has reckoned him dead, is defiled in him, only on this condition, if the sister has remained a virgin and not been stained by the embrace of any man — from which we understand the virginal privilege, that the contact of any man whatever takes away perfect purity; whether these things have been said rightly or wrongly, let us leave to the judgment of the reader —; the affection of nature too is approved herein, so that in the order of charity — according to what is written: Set charity in order in me —, after God the parent of all things, the father of the flesh too is loved, and the mother, son and daughter, brother and sister, only on this condition, if she has not gone out of the house nor passed into the power of another. And after the priest has been cleansed by the order of purification which is written in the Mosaic law: Seven days shall be counted to him — either the perfect number of penitence, or after the consummation of the world, when we have passed over to the true ogdoad —, that he may enter the Holy of Holies — for this is the inner court — and be able to minister in the sanctuary and always to offer a victim for the sin of conscience; and let there be no time in which he does not remember that he was stained over father and mother, son and daughter, brother and sister: for we are compelled to do many things, set as we are in the straits of this world, either by the condition of the flesh or by the frailty of nature. But he who shows himself such as to minister in the sanctuary and enter the inner court and always offer sacrifice to the Lord — so that, a true priest, he may be true, or rather an imitator of him of whom it is written: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek —, he shall have no inheritance except God, who is his inheritance, nor shall he receive a possession in Israel — that is, among the common crowd —, but a priestly one, so that the Lord may say of him: I am the inheritance and: I am their possession — whom, when they have found him, they will speak and say: I will hold him and will not let him go, and they will sing with the prophet: The Lord is my portion —. The victim both for sin and for trespass (or for ignorance) they shall eat, and every vow (or separation) in Israel shall be theirs; and the first portions of all the firstborn, and all the libations of all that are offered, shall be the priests'; and the first portions of your foods you shall give to the priest, that he may lay up a blessing for his house (or that he may put blessings upon your houses). For 'victim' and sacrifice, which in Hebrew is called 'manaa', Aquila and Symmachus translated 'gift'; again, for 'vow', which the Seventy translated ἀφόρισμα, that is, 'separation', Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion translated ἀνάθημα [a thing devoted], which in Hebrew is called 'herem'; and it must be considered that all the things which the Lord now speaks through the prophet he had already said before through Moses; and it must be asked why he repeats the same things that have been said: namely, that the things which are in the minds of men, blotted out either by negligence in reading or by contempt and forgetfulness in hearing, may be renewed by the living voice: things which are not written with pen and ink but by the Spirit and the Word of God — hence the Savior too left no volume of his teaching of his own, as the ravings of the apocrypha invent in many places, but by the Spirit of the Father and his own he speaks daily in the heart of believers —; and this will be the answer against those who slander the prophets: why they repeat in their own volumes what is contained in the Pentateuch. The victim, then, both for sin and for trespass (or ignorance) the priests are to eat — of whom it is written: They shall eat the sins of my people —; and we should not so much rejoice at the offering of gifts as fear the condemnation of our honor if we abuse it unworthily. The first portions, according to the letter, are those of living and lifeless things which are born first and which the earth first brings forth; the firstfruits of our foods too are offered to the priests, so that we taste nothing of the new crops unless the priest has tasted it first; and we do this so that the priest may lay up our blessing and offering in his house, or so that at his prayer the Lord may bless our houses: great is the dignity of priests, but great the ruin if they sin; we rejoice at the ascent, but let us fear the fall: it is not so great a joy to have held the heights as it is a grief to have fallen from the loftier places — for we shall render account not only for our own transgressions but for those of all whose gifts we abuse; and we are by no means anxious for their salvation —. Anything that has died of itself or been caught by a beast, of birds or of cattle, the priests shall not eat; and according to the letter these precepts befit every chosen race, royal and priestly — which refers properly to Christians, who have been anointed with the spiritual oil of which it is written: God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows —: that he not eat 'what has died of itself', whether of birds or of cattle, whose blood has not been shed — which in the Acts of the Apostles is called 'strangled', and that these things must necessarily be observed the letter of the apostles from Jerusalem warns — and what has been caught by a beast, because that too is likewise strangled: and it condemns priests who, out of the greed of the gullet, do not keep these things in the case of thrushes, figpeckers, dormice and other things of this kind. But according to ἀναγωγὴν [anagogy, the higher sense] we can call that dead of itself in which the blood of the soul has died, and which imitates 'Nabal' the Carmelite, whose name means 'fool', and who, when he heard of the wrath of David, trembled with fear: And his heart died within him; and caught by beasts — the beasts by whose bites the prophet sighs not to be torn, saying: Do not deliver to the beasts the soul that confesses you — must be said of him who is devoured by the bites of the adversary lion, and of the leopard which does not change its spots, and of the she-bear raging for her stolen cubs, and by the fury of wolves, and of the other beasts, which we take as the variety of demons; and the birds we say are those who set their mouth in heaven; and those cattle, the ones that, bent down and turned toward the earth, serve only the belly and the things that are below the belly.
45:1-8
And when you begin to divide the land as a possession, set apart firstfruits to the Lord, a sanctified portion of the land, twenty-five thousand in length and ten thousand in breadth; it shall be sanctified in all its border round about. And of this there shall be a sanctified portion five hundred by five hundred, four-square round about, and fifty cubits for its suburbs all around. And from this measure you shall measure a length of twenty-five thousand and a breadth of ten thousand, and in it shall be the temple (or the sanctification) and the Holy of Holies. The sanctified portion of the land shall be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary, who approach to the ministry of the Lord; and it shall be a place for them for houses and for a sanctuary of holiness: twenty-five thousand of length and ten thousand of breadth. But the Levites who minister to the house, they shall possess twenty chambers (for which the Seventy translated: they shall hold a city to dwell in). And you shall give the possession of the city five thousand in breadth and twenty-five thousand in length, according to the separation of the sanctuary, to the whole house of Israel. To the prince also, on this side and on that, by the separation (or the firstfruits) of the sanctuary in the possession of the city, over against the face of the separation of the sanctuary and over against the face of the possession of the city, from the side of the sea to the sea and from the side of the east to the east, and of length along each part, from the western border to the eastern border, of the land: it shall be his possession in Israel, and the princes shall no more ravage (or lay waste) my people; and they shall give the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes. After the ceremonies of the priests, and their worship and their food — what they ought to take and what to avoid —, he now gives a description of the holy land; and before he divides the whole land among the tribes, he commands that out of all the tribes a place be chosen which should have twenty-five thousand in length and ten thousand in breadth — and since 'of cubits' or 'of feet' or 'of ells' is not set down, we are given to understand that it signifies 'the reed', which was in the man's hand and had a measure of six cubits and a sixth part of one cubit, that is, a παλαιστήν [palm, a handbreadth]: let the diligent reader reckon how many reeds make a thousand paces and how many thousands there were in length and breadth —; after this description he again commanded that, from the sanctified land which was chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, that is, of twenty-five thousand reeds in length and ten thousand in breadth, another land within, of five hundred reeds round about, that is, of two thousand, be chosen for building the sanctuary, that is, the temple of the Lord. And lest perhaps other buildings should be joined to the building of the temple, he commanded that for fifty cubits round about the land be empty 'for suburbs', or, as Symmachus, Theodotion and the Seventy translated, 'for a boundary' and 'a separation' and 'a space'. When this description is finished, another measure, of a sanctification to be set apart, is prescribed afresh: that after the former measure another land be measured, of twenty-five thousand reeds in length and ten thousand in breadth, in which there is by no means the temple, that is, the holy place, but the Holy of Holies. And in it let the priests dwell who approach to the ministry of the Lord; and let them dwell there at the time when they discharge the priestly office: and let this possession be, as we have said, of twenty-five thousand reeds in length and ten thousand in breadth. Further, the Levites, who serve the priests and have ministries of their own, will receive a place for building twenty 'chambers' — according to Aquila; 'exedras' according to Symmachus; 'cells' according to Theodotion; or, as the Seventy translated, 'a city', by which we understand that a certain separate place for the dwelling of the Levites is called by the name of a city —, a place which is to have five thousand reeds in breadth and twenty-five thousand in length. All these things, that is, the sanctuary and the second sanctuary, and the Holy of Holies, and the dwellings of the priests and the houses of the Levites who minister to the priests, are called places separated and consecrated for ministry and for sanctification for the house of Israel. After the fourfold description of the holy land a fifth division is set down: that the prince or leader of the people should receive on this side and on that, that is, on either side of the sanctuary, for his possession, and should dwell in the city, and that his possession should face the place set apart for the temple and the face of the city, and should be from the side of the sea, that is, from the west, as far as the other side of the sea, having the breadth which the prophet describes below in the description of the individual tribes. Then follows: But in length along each part — which the individual tribes receive — from the western border — that is, of the sea — as far as the eastern border — where this ends we learn in the description of the tribes —; and this will be the possession of the leader or prince in the land of Israel. These things have been said for the present so that the plain account of the history may be known. But if we wish to compare spiritual things with spiritual and, following certain interpreters, to climb to higher things — they assert that the present things are a figure of things to come, and that all that is said pertains to the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all, and to the Church of the firstborn —, it will not indeed be difficult to say what has been said by others, but we fear that the prudent reader may by no means accept an exposition of this kind; hence all things are to be referred both to the present time and to the Church, which now labors in the world and hastens to go to heavenly things: so that out of the whole world some are chosen as a possession of God to possess the holy place, and others, who have advanced to greater things, to hold the Holy of Holies; in the ministries too the order of priests and Levites is different: some of them daily offer sacrifice to God by their prayers and virtues, others are in a second and lesser rank, so as to minister to these, and through those who have climbed to the summits of the virtues; and last of all there is a leader or prince who has such power that he receives a possession over against one tribe and by the merit of one balances the merits of very many, and first, while he lives in the world, possesses the breadth from sea to sea, then from the west, or from the sea, as far as the east, so that, leaving the present things behind, he may hasten to the things to come, and may have his own fixed possession, and the prince may by no means desire what belongs to others, and each tribe may hold its own part: which can properly be referred to bishops and presbyters, to whom it is said that they should no more lay waste and ravage the people of God, nor possess the land of Israel as an inheritance, but that each should have his own possession, the one appointed to his rank. Now the twenty-five thousand they refer to the senses, which are set down four times; and the ten thousand to perfect knowledge, so that in the one only the plain history is held, while in the other there is discussion also of θεολογίᾳ [theology] and of the heavenly powers, because ten is a perfect number. This too must be considered: that the priests, who are set in the higher rank, possess twenty-five thousand in length and ten thousand in breadth; but the rank of the Levites, that is, the lower one, has indeed the same number in length, that is, twenty-five thousand, but its breadth is bounded by the number five: hence too they hold only twenty chambers — the number in which the gifts for Esau are offered —; but the prince, who is truly a prince among the people and deserves to receive the name of leader, receives a possession of the sanctuary on this side and on that, namely from all who are subject to him of their own will, and he is a dweller in the city, and makes the salvation of many his own reward. In the first temple, which is called the sanctuary, five hundred reeds are described on each side, and again fifty cubits by which the whole possession of the priests is separated; but in the second sanctuary, where the Holy of Holies is, the breadth of the temple and its space are not described, but the number is uncertain: and this we find also in the possession of the prince, who has a possession among the people of Israel without any number, since the progress of all overflows to the prince: and the salvation of the disciples is the reward of the teachers.
45:9
Thus says the Lord God: Let it suffice you, princes in Israel; leave off iniquity and plunder, and do judgment and righteousness: separate your borders from my people, says the Lord God. For 'plunder' the Seventy translated 'misery'; for 'borders', 'oppression'. And the sense is: 'Since you have received your portion, O princes — as Scripture says: To the prince also on this side and on that, in the separation of the sanctuary, in the possession of the city (understand: you shall give) —, and your power is so great that your possession has received the portion of one tribe: therefore I command and admonish you that it suffice to have committed iniquity and plunder up to now, while you invade and snatch away what belongs to others; and — since it is written: Put away evil and do good, and conversely: Do judgment and righteousness, judging for the orphan and justifying the widow —: Separate your borders from my people, namely so that you do not move the boundaries, and because the very neighborhood harms the humbler man, who cannot bear the haughtiness of one greater and more powerful. Let this be said for the present to the people of that time; but the command can also be fitted to our own princes — who after the manner of Pharaoh and the Egyptians oppress the children of Israel through their power, and do not remember that it is written: Have they made you leader? Do not be lifted up, but be among them as one of them —, and also that which the Lord says in the Gospel κατὰ [according to] Luke: But if that servant says in his heart: My master delays to come; and begins to beat his men-servants and maid-servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk: the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect and at an hour that he does not know, and will divide him, and will put his portion with the unbelievers; his disciples too he instructs with these precepts in the Gospel according to Matthew: You know that the princes of the nations lord it over them, and those who are greater exercise power over them; it shall not be so among you, but whoever wishes to be great among you shall become your minister, and whoever wishes to be first, let him be the servant of all. Just as the Son of man came not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give his life as a redemption for many: there are many passages, if I wished to unroll them from the sacred Scriptures, where the pride of the greater is restrained and all are called to the humility of the Lord, who says: Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.
Book Fourteen
What I ought to have said at the beginning of Ezekiel's temple I am now about to say at the end, in reversed order, mindful of that little verse: Here is that toil of the house and the inextricable wandering, of which the same poet also sings in another place: As once in lofty Crete the Labyrinth is said to have held a path woven between blind walls, and a treacherous deceit of a thousand ways, where the undetectable and irretraceable wandering would break the tokens for following. So I too, having entered the ocean of the holy Scriptures and, so to speak, the labyrinth of the mysteries of God — of which it is written: He made darkness his hiding place and: Clouds round about him —, do not dare to claim for myself a perfect knowledge of the truth, but only to have offered to those who desire to know some indications of the teaching: not by my own strength but by the mercy of Christ, who, while we were wandering, ... himself unravels the deceits and windings of the house, guiding the blind by the Holy Spirit footsteps. Following him, we shall be able to reach the harbor of the explanations of the prophet Ezekiel, toward which this book is the last, that is, the fourteenth; and if, with you praying, virgin of Christ Eustochium, I bring it through to the end, and the Lord grants the span of this life, I shall pass over to Jeremiah, who alone of the prophets remains for us; and his interpretation will be indeed of my labor and of your prayers, but properly of the clemency of Christ.
45:10-12
A just balance and a just 'oephi' and a just batus you shall have; the 'oephi' and the batus shall be equal and of one measure, so that the batus holds a tenth part, and the 'oephi' a tenth part: according to the measure of the 'corus' shall be their equal balancing. And the shekel has twenty obols; moreover, twenty shekels and twenty-five shekels and fifteen shekels make a mina. (LXX: "A just balance and a just measure and a just choenix you shall have for measure, and likewise there shall be one choenix for receiving: the tenth part of the gomer the choenix, and the tenth part of the gomer the 'oephi'; in relation to the gomer it shall be equal, and for weight twenty obols: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels and fifteen shekels shall be your mina.") This passage, according to the Seventy, does not hang together and cannot be understood at all, since they changed not only the numbers of the measures but also the names: for in place of 'oephi' they translated 'measure', a general name for a specific one, and in place of 'batus' 'choenix'; in place of the Hebrew 'omer' too, which in Greek is called 'corus', they translated 'gomor', and again in place of 'batus' 'choenix'. Let us therefore speak according to the Hebrew and the letter, and let us explain more plainly what seems right to us in each particular. The 'balance', which in Hebrew is called 'mozene', is understood of the things that are weighed; but the 'epha', which in the Greek language is corruptly called 'oephi', pertains to the measure of various crops, for example wheat, barley, legumes; moreover the 'batus', which in Hebrew is called 'bath', is the same measure as the 'oephi', and only in liquid kinds, wine and oil and other things of this sort; the 'corus' holds thirty modii, and in both measures, that is, of dry things as well as of liquids, it holds the first place; the tenth part of the 'corus', in things that are measured by the modius, is called 'epha' — that is, three modii — and the tenth part of the 'corus' in liquid kinds is called 'batus' or 'badus': so that the 'epha' and the 'batus' are of the same measure; moreover the 'siclus' [shekel], which in Greek is called 'stater', has twenty obols; but the 'mina', which in Greek is called 'mna', has sixty shekels, which make one thousand two hundred obols; but what he says: Twenty shekels and twenty-five shekels and fifteen shekels make a mina, ought not to disturb the reader: for the difficulty is placed in the numbers for this reason, to make the hearer's mind attentive — whence also many things are spoken in parables and riddles, as: He who has ears to hear, let him hear; and all prophecy contains the truth in obscurity, so that the disciples may hear within, while the ignoble crowd placed outside may not know what is being said —. The divine Scripture therefore commanded that weights be just — saying: There shall not be in your purse a large measure and a smaller. A true and just balance you shall have, and a true and just measure you shall have; and in Proverbs it is said: A large balance and a smaller, both are abominable in the sight of God —, which indeed is to be observed by us not only in commerce and in the use of daily life, but righteousness must be guarded in all things — as Scripture says: By your words you shall make a balance and a weight —, so that, in words and in deed and in thoughts, we may do all things by weight and reason. That the obol, that is, the twentieth part of the 'siclus' or stater, is the smallest little portion, we read in another place: To the one who is faithful, the whole world of riches; but to the one who is unfaithful, not even an obol — as if he had said in other words: 'The unfaithful man possesses nothing in the world, but lacks even the smallest portion', of which it is said in another word in the Gospel: He shall not come out from there until he pays the last quadrans, that is, even the very last and smallest coin —; we read of ten minas handed over to individual servants for trading, and in another parable of talents divided among servants, and of the debtor of five hundred denarii, and of fifty, and of the laborers of the vineyard who each receive a denarius, and of the widow woman who lost a drachma and scarcely found it again by lighting a lamp: what sense all these things have, this is not the time to discuss.
45:13-14
And these are the firstfruits which you shall take: the sixth part of an 'oephi' from a 'corus' of grain, and the sixth part of an 'oephi' from a 'corus' of barley. The measure of oil also, a batus of oil, is the tenth part of a 'corus'; and ten bati make a 'corus', because ten bati fill a 'corus'. (LXX: "And these are the firstfruits which you shall set apart: the sixth part of a measure from a gomor of wheat and the sixth part of an 'oephi' from a 'corus' of barley. And the ordinance of the oil: a cotyle — that is, a cyathus — of oil from ten cotylae, because ten cotylae are a gomor.") Here too, the names of the measures having been changed, everything in the edition of the Seventy is confused, so that what is said cannot be understood: for they who above had said 'measure' for 'oephi', and 'choenix' for 'batus', and 'gomor' for 'corus', 'weight' for 'siclus', here too say 'measure' for 'oephi', for 'corus' now 'gomer', now 'corus' itself, and in the measure of oil 'cotyle', that is, 'cyathus', for 'batus'. Let us therefore speak first according to the letter. Δεκάτας — that is, the tenth part — of all crops the people owed by the law to the Levitical tribe; again, from these very tithes the rank of the Levites — that is, of the lower ministers — gave tithes to the priests, and this is what is called δεύτερον δεκάτη [the second tithe] — there were also other tithes, which each one of the people of Israel set apart in his own granaries, so that he might eat them when he went to the temple in the city of Jerusalem, and in the vestibule of the temple they would invite both priests and Levites to banquets; and there were also other tithes, which they stored up for the poor, which in the Greek language are called πτωχοδεκάται [poor-tithes] —; but the firstfruits which they offered from their crops were not defined by a specific number but left to the discretion of those offering, and we have received a tradition of the Hebrews, not commanded by the law but grown into custom by the discretion of the teachers: he who gave the most gave the fortieth part to the priests, he who gave the least the sixtieth; between the fortieth and the sixtieth it was permitted to offer whatever they wished; what therefore was left doubtful in the Pentateuch is here specifically defined on account of the avarice of the priests, so that they may not exact more from the people in the bringing of firstfruits, that is: that they offer the sixtieth part of the things that grow from the earth — for if the 'corus', which in Hebrew is called 'omer' and by the Seventy is called 'gomer', holds thirty modii in dry kinds as well as in liquids, and the 'epha' and the 'batus' too, according to what we said above, are the tenth part of the 'corus', and it is commanded that the sixth part both of the 'oephi' and of the 'batus' be given to the priests in offering the firstfruits, which out of three modii makes half a modius, it is clearly reckoned that the priests ought to receive the sixtieth part as firstfruits —. Let it suffice for the meantime to have perceived and heard these things according to the letter and according to the Hebrew truth. Now let us return to the spiritual understanding, in which it must first be asked how it is said: 'Honor the Lord from your righteous labors, and give him the firstfruits of the fruits of your righteousness, so that your storerooms may be filled with grain, and your winepresses may overflow with wine, so that, after you have offered the firstfruits of your labors and virtues and have said: Behold, now I have brought you the firstfruits of the fruits of the earth, which you gave me, O Lord, you may deserve to hear: Blessed are you in the city and blessed in the field; blessed the children of your womb and the produce of your land, and the fruit of your beasts and so on, and you may possess — according to the Apostle — every blessing of spiritual things in the heavenly places in Christ, while you hold that whatever you have is not of your own virtue but of the mercy of him who gave the crops'. And if indeed we have so much knowledge of the Scriptures that we lay open all the mystical things and teach men, that is, the rational animal, we give the firstfruits of our grain; but if, after ἀναγωγὴν [anagogy, the higher sense], we follow only the pure history, which can nourish the simple — according to what is written: Men and beasts you will save, O Lord —, we give the firstfruits of our barley — which barley: Isaac also served in the land of the foreigners, and it rose for him a hundredfold —. He who gives the firstfruits of barley can say: The Lord feeds me, and I shall lack nothing: in a place of pasture, there he has placed me, beside the waters of refreshment he has brought me up, but he who feeds rational living creatures with grain turns the sentence and says: You have prepared a table in my sight against those who trouble me, and after he has offered the firstfruits of oil and wine he joins on and says: You have anointed my head with oil, and your cup that inebriates, how splendid it is: with that oil which is prepared, most pure, without dregs, for the lamp of the Lord — and whoever has prepared it: His face is gladdened with oil, with the oil of exultation with which Christ was anointed above his fellows, and, made an olive tree, he will sing with the prophet: But I, like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God —, and with that wine which overflows from the true vine in the winepresses of the Savior — as the Lord says: I am the vine, you the branches, my Father the vinedresser —; of these winepresses we read three psalms, Psalm 8, Psalm 80 (81) and Psalm 83 (84), all of which refer to the mysteries of the Church. And indeed in the old law the firstfruits were without measure and number: For God did not give the Spirit by measure; but in the second building of the temple, which the prophecy of Ezekiel contains, there is a fixed measure, that is, the number sixty: by which the world is filled up, and it is said to us: With whatever measure you have measured, it will be measured back to you.
45:15-17
And one ram from a flock of two hundred, from those which they nourish in Israel, for a sacrifice and for a holocaust and for peace offerings, to make expiation for them, says the Lord God. All the people of the land shall be bound to these firstfruits for the prince of Israel; and upon the prince shall be the holocausts and the sacrifice and the libations, at the solemnities and at the calends and at the sabbaths: at all the solemnities of the house of Israel: he shall make the sacrifice for sin and the holocaust and the peace offerings, to make expiation for the house of Israel. Above he said what portion of the things that are weighed, and of the measures too, both of dry kinds and of liquids, ought to be offered to the prince; now he keeps the same order of firstfruits in living creatures, and commands Israel to offer one out of a flock of two hundred rams: Which Israel nourishes, for a sacrifice and for a holocaust and for peace offerings, to make expiation for the people of Israel, says the Lord God. What we translated: From those which Israel nourishes, is written in the Hebrew 'memmasce', which Aquila and Symmachus translate ἀπὸ τῶν ὑδάτων, the Seventy and Theodotion ἀπὸ τῶν ποτιστηρίων: of which the one means from irrigated places, the other from channels or pools, so that, evidently, the firstfruits of the prince are nourished nowhere else but in irrigated places. And as in the preceding we read that the sixtieth part of the things that are weighed and that are subject to measure ought to be offered to the prince, so now the two-hundredth part of the living creatures is commanded to be offered, and the whole people is subject to the precept of this law and of this command: that it offer to the leader or prince, because, of course, through him holocausts and sacrifices and libations are offered for the people at each solemnity, and the house of God is expiated; from which it is to be noticed that, as the people is debtor to offer firstfruits to the prince, so the prince is debtor to the people to offer victims for it; and him, according to tropology, we can understand as none other than God the Savior. He receives a ram out of two hundred living creatures — or, as the Hebrew word shows more significantly, βόσκημα [a grazing beast], which can refer to all living creatures and not properly to a ram —, and he receives the animal or ram which has been nourished in irrigated places, namely those of the holy Scriptures, and can say: The Lord feeds me, and I shall lack nothing: into a place of pasture, there he has placed me, beside the waters of refreshment he has brought me up; these were the irrigated places, nay rather these the channels, to which Jacob too led his flocks, so that in them they might drink and conceive and, according to the color of the rods, bring forth offspring for the Lord. In place of 'sacrifice', that is, θυσίᾳ, Aquila and Symmachus translate 'gift', which in the Hebrew is called 'manaa', and it properly pertains not to a victim but to the things which are offered in sacrifice from fine flour and parched grain and oil; but the 'holocaust' is what is offered whole to God and consumed by the sacred fire; the 'peace offerings', when we are reconciled to God: and on our behalf the Apostle says: We pray on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God, and in another place: God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. But this prince, to whom the firstfruits of living creatures are offered, is himself the king, as is shown also in the title of the cross in Hebrew and Greek and Latin letters — and when the Jews strove to have the triumphal title taken down, the throng of the Gentiles, in Pilate, answered: What I have written, I have written —. Upon the prince, he says, shall be: finely is the priestly dignity reminded to what office it is subject, so that it may know that it ought to offer for the people the sacrifice and the libations which are offered from wine at all the solemnities: namely at the calends, that is, the new moons, as well as at the sabbaths, when, with darkness covering all things, there is the beginning of the moon's light, in the rest of the sabbaths: so that he may make, namely, for sin, to make expiation for the house of Israel, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth: for this is the house of the living God and the house of Israel, which needs the expiation of its sins.
45:18-25
Thus says the Lord God: In the first month, on the first of the month, you shall take a calf from the herd without blemish, and you shall expiate the sanctuary. And the priest shall take of the blood of what will be for sin, and shall put it on the doorposts of the house and on the four corners of the ledge of the altar and on the doorposts of the gate of the inner court. And thus you shall do on the seventh of the month for each one who was ignorant and was deceived by error, and you shall make expiation for the house. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall have the Passover, a solemnity; for seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten. And the prince shall make on that day, for himself and for all the people of the land, a calf for sin; and in the solemnity of seven days he shall make as a holocaust to the Lord seven calves and seven rams without blemish daily for seven days, and for sin a he-goat of the goats daily; and the sacrifice he shall make of an 'oephi' for each calf and an 'oephi' for each ram, and a 'hin' of oil for each 'oephi'. In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, at the solemnity he shall do as has been said above, for seven days, both for sin and for the holocaust, and in sacrifice and in oil. (I have set down the whole chapter so that, divided into its single parts, it should not confuse the reader's mind; and first we must speak about the variety of the translation; where we translated: On the four corners of the ledge of the altar, the Seventy translated: And upon the four corners of the temple and upon the altar; and where we said: For each one who was ignorant and was deceived by error, they put: For the ignorant and the little one; also in the place where we said: And the sacrifice he shall make of an 'oephi' for each calf, an 'oephi', and an 'oephi' for each ram, and a 'hin' of oil for each 'oephi', their edition has: And the sacrifice and a cooking for the calf and a cooking for the ram you shall give, and a 'hin' of oil for the cooking; in the last little verse too, where we said: In sacrifice and in oil, they said: As in the manaa, as in the oil.) In the first, he says, month and on the first day of the month — no doubt he means Nisan —, and: You shall take a calf from the herd, not one which has been nourished at home but one in the herd, that is, from the flock and number of many; on the seventh day of the same month too: these two solemnities, that is, the first day of the first month and the seventh of the same, are not found in the Mosaic law; but the fourteenth day of the month, on which the Passover is celebrated, Moses too commanded to be observed: when we eat unleavened bread for seven days; but the fourth solemnity, of which he says: In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, at the solemnity and so on, seems to me to signify the Scenopegia [the feast of Tabernacles], which he has set down here without a name. Let us run back, then, to the particulars, and briefly discuss what seems right to us. That there are spiritual solemnities too the Apostle teaches: Let no one therefore judge you in food or in drink or in solemnities or of the new moon or of sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come; and if God says through Isaiah: Your new moons and your sabbaths and the great day I do not accept: the fast and the holidays and your new moons and solemnities my soul hates, it is manifest that he who hates the solemnities of the Jews loves his own, namely the sabbath which is left for the people of God: That we may see the things that have been given to us by God: and may speak not in the learned words of human wisdom, but in the teaching of the Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual: for in the present age, which is set in the evil one, we cannot see good days, but in the new, of which days the Holy Spirit sings in the Mosaic song: Remember the days of antiquity, understand the years of the generation of generations, of which the holy man also spoke in the psalm: In the night I meditated in my heart, and again: And I had the eternal years in mind and I meditated; let him who has not accepted this understanding answer how he can expound what Isaiah prophesies about the future and new age: There shall be month from month and sabbath from sabbath, and all flesh shall come to worship the Lord, when the true worshipers will by no means worship on Mount Gerizim nor in Jerusalem, but in spirit and truth, when there will be a new heaven and a new earth and: The whole creation shall be freed from the servitude of corruption into the liberty of the children of God and the sun will receive seven times as much light and the moon will be compared to the sun: We have come, indeed, to Mount 'Sion', which means 'watchtower', and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to thousands of angels' solemnities, of which solemnity another prophet also speaks: What will you do in the days of assembly and in the days of the solemnity of the Lord? this is what is also said elsewhere: Celebrate, Judah, your festivals, pay your vows. If then we have learned spiritual solemnities, we shall consequently be taught spiritual victims too: a calf is taken from the herd — or a bull, as Symmachus translated —, free and pressed by no yoke, that is, by the burden of sins, and without blemish: Who did no sin, nor was guile found in his mouth, a young calf putting forth horns and hoofs: so that in him the sanctuary may be cleansed and expiated. And the priest, he says, shall take of its blood which will be for the sin of all, who in other words is called a lamb in Exodus, and in the Gospel, as John the Baptist says: Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world; and the blood itself is precious, in which we are redeemed in the passion of the Lord Savior, by whose flesh we are fed and with whose blood we are given drink, by which are touched the four corners of the ledge of the 'altar' — for which Theodotion put the Hebrew word itself, 'azara' [ledge, court], or of the 'temple', as the Seventy translated —, so that the house and the altar may be sanctified — for all the elements of the world are sanctified by this blood — so that, when someone has been expiated and cleansed, he may enter the gate of the inner court and be able to know the secrets of the Lord, and consequently come to the seventh day of the first month and attain rest and offer sacrifice to the Lord: both for ignorance — of which David speaks: The sins of my youth and of my ignorance remember not —, and for the little one — who, when he has come to the measure of the perfect man, destroys the things that belong to a little one and speaks confidently: When I was a little one, I spoke as a little one, I thought as a little one —, or for him who was deceived by error and sinned not so much by will as by the supposition of good. And when the two solemnities of the first month have been completed, that is, of the first day and of its seventh, he comes to the fourteenth day of the month, on which is the solemnity of the Passover, of which it is written: For our Passover has been sacrificed, Christ; then we eat unleavened bread for seven days in rest and security of all things, when, destroying the leaven of malice and wickedness, we eat the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, while our prince offers all these things for us: and first 'for himself' — for he took up a human body and for sin destroyed sin, he who grieves for us and bears our infirmities —, then 'for his house' — which is written in the Seventy but is not found in the Hebrew — that is, for the Church, and for all the people of the land, namely the whole human race: He is the Savior, indeed, of all men and especially of the faithful; and he himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for us, but for the whole world. And when the calf has been offered for all the people of the land, on the seven remaining days of the Lord's passion seven calves and seven rams without blemish are offered daily, so that they may be burned up as a holocaust and by the Lord's fire: and the seven calves and seven rams are those who are conformed to the Lord's passion, so that they may imitate the true calf and the true ram, and by the blood of the martyrs through seven days the sins of the whole world may be cleansed; a he-goat of the goats too is offered for sin daily, namely for seven days. And it must be noted more carefully that in the sacrifice an 'oephi' for each calf and an 'oephi' for each ram and a 'hin' of oil are offered, which are commanded by the law, but in the offering of the he-goat neither an 'oephi' nor, as the Seventy translated, a 'cooking' is set down — they who for 'oephi' translated πέμμα, that is, 'cooking' —; but the 'hin', which is a fixed measure of oil, of which we have already spoken before, is taken up in the sacrifice of the calf and of the ram, so that we may receive the fuel of everlasting light, and rest from labor, and healing from weariness after the appeasement of sins. In the seventh month too, on the fifteenth day of the month, that is, of the Scenopegia, the same order of oblation and sacrifices is to be kept: Both for sin and for the holocaust and in sacrifice and in oil, so that, darkness having been put to flight and the light of the oil having risen, we may attain the festival of the Lord, and may have brighter solemnities, in which all our sins are forgiven us.
46:1-7
Thus says the Lord God: The gate of the inner court that faces toward the east shall be shut on the six days on which work is done; but on the sabbath day it shall be opened, and on the day of the kalends also it shall be opened, and the prince shall enter by the way of the vestibule of the gate from outside, and shall stand on the threshold of the gate, and the priests shall make his holocaust and his peace offerings, and he shall worship upon the threshold of the gate, and shall go out; but the gate shall not be shut until evening. And the people of the land shall worship at the entrance of that gate on the sabbaths and kalends before the Lord. And this holocaust the prince shall offer to the Lord on the sabbath day: six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish, and a sacrifice of an 'oephi' for the ram, but for the lambs a sacrifice such as his hand shall give, and a 'hin' of oil for each 'oephi'; but on the day of the kalends: a calf from the herd without blemish, and six lambs and a ram shall be without blemish, and an 'oephi' for the calf, an 'oephi' also for the ram he shall make as a sacrifice, but for the lambs as his hand shall find, and a 'hin' of oil for each 'oephi'. Where we have translated 'oephi', which is the tenth part of a 'corus', the Seventy translated πέμμα, which in our language means 'cooking'; and where we said 'sacrifice', they set down the Hebrew word itself, 'manaa', which Aquila translated 'gift' or 'sacrifice', Theodotion 'sacrifice'. And meanwhile, before we discuss what these things signify, the very words of Scripture must be laid open παραφραστικῶς [by way of paraphrase]. The gate, he says, of the inner court on six days — of which it is written: Six days you shall labor and do all your works — shall be shut, and not just any gate, but the one that faces toward the east, whence the sun of righteousness rises; further, on the sabbath day, that is, the seventh, on which there is rest, it will be opened every week, and again, when thirty days are completed, when there is the end of one month and the beginning of another, on the new moon, namely the day of the kalends, it will be opened, so that the privilege the seventh day has in the week, the beginning of the month may have as its privilege too. But why the gate of the inner court that faces toward the east is opened on the seventh day and on the day of the kalends, the following discourse will show: And the prince shall enter, he says, by the way of the gate from outside — namely of the outer court —, and shall stand on the threshold of the gate — of the inner court, which faces the east —, and he shall not enter the inner court, but, while he stands, other priests are to make for him the 'holocaust' — which Symmachus translated 'offering' —, and the peace offerings — or those which pertain to salvation —, so that, after the prince's victim has been burned up by the sacred fire and the leader has been reconciled to God, he may then worship upon the threshold of the gate of the inner court on which he has stood, and go out. What then? After the prince's going out will the gate be shut at once? By no means, but it will be open until evening, so that after the prince: All the people of the land may worship before the entrance of that gate: and they are to worship on the sabbaths and on the kalends, when the gate is opened. And since he had said above: The priests shall make his holocaust and his peace offerings, and had not indicated the number of the holocaust, he now adds: And this holocaust the prince shall offer to the Lord on the sabbath day — he will offer it, however, not by himself, but through the priests, of whom it is written: And the priests shall make his holocaust and his peace offerings —: six, he says, lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish, so that the sacrifice of the ram is the measure of an 'oephi' — which in Hebrew is called 'epha' —, while for the six lambs the sacrifice is what the hand of the one who offers was able to offer, and for each 'oephi' there will be the measure of oil that is called 'hin'; but the kalends, that is, the day of the new moons, had this privilege beyond the sabbath day, that: A calf from the herd (or a bull) without blemish be sacrificed, while the rest, that is, the six lambs without blemish and the ram without blemish and their sacrifices, will keep the rite of the sabbath, only in such a way that, just as with the ram an 'oephi' of sacrifice is offered, that is, of fine flour, and a 'hin' of oil, so it is offered with the calf too. Let these things be set down for the sake of clarity; now, the Lord granting, let us unfold the spiritual sense. During the six days on which we work in the world, the eastern gate of the inner court is shut to us; but after we have come to the seventh day, that is, to the sabbath day on which there is eternal rest, or to the day of the kalends, when after blind night and dreadful darkness there is the beginning of light, the eastern gate is opened to us; and if any of us, through the merits of the virtues, has attained the name and dignity of a leader, he will enter by the way of the vestibule of the gate from outside, that is, through the labors of this world, and through the gate of the Church, which is still set within earthly bounds, not into the inner court — for this is what is written in the present passage — but to the threshold of the inner gate: and he will stand in it; but if the prince in the present scripture does not enter the inner court, but stands on its threshold, no one doubts that we now see in part and know in part, and do not yet contemplate the glory of the Lord with unveiled face. Then, while the prince stands on the threshold of the gate of the inner court, the other priests, to whom this office has been delegated — whom we can understand as the angelic powers —, will make for him the holocaust and peace offerings — for we need the mercy of God, and every creature, in comparison with the Creator, is unclean and must be purged by the divine fire, by which the lips of the prophet Isaiah too were purged —, so that, after he has received peace through the sacrifice, then, standing on the threshold, he may worship the omnipotence of God and confess himself unworthy of entering the inner court, and at once go out; but after he who is first has gone out, that very gate of the inner court will not be shut until the evening of this age, but will be open, so that the people of the land too may be at the entrance and worship toward him: by no means at every time, but when they have rested from sins and, the darkness of faith having been put to flight, have received the light of knowledge. And this very holocaust, which the prince offers through the priests on the sabbath day, is bounded by the number of six lambs without blemish — namely after the six days on which we work in the world — and a ram without blemish, which is the prince of the flock, so that for each ram an 'oephi' is offered in sacrifice, that is, the tenth part of a 'corus'; but in the sacrifice of the six lambs no fixed measure is laid down, but as much as the hand of the one who offers shall give, that is, according to the quality and measure of his works; and he will offer a 'hin' of oil for each 'oephi' — that is, the oil which the five virgins prepared for themselves —, to anoint the fine flour or mix it, so that every offering to God may be full of the light of truth, and the face of the one who offers may be made glad with oil; but on the day of the kalends, that is, the thirtieth day, when the firstborn and the Levites are numbered according to the law apart from all Israel, of whom we spoke above, a calf from the herd without blemish is offered — about which we discoursed more fully in the previous chapter — and six lambs and a ram without blemish, and the rest that are offered on the sabbaths, so that we may attain eternal rest and may deserve to hear: Well done, good servant, because you have been faithful in a few things, I will set you over many: enter into the rest of your Lord, and may be able not only to come to the gate of the inner court but also to enter its innermost parts, and to possess in deed that saying: Planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God.
46:8-11
And when the prince enters, let him enter by the way of the vestibule of the gate, and let him go out by the same way. And when the people of the land enter in the sight of the Lord on the solemn feasts, he who enters by the gate of the north to worship, let him go out by the way of the southern gate; and he who enters by the way of the southern gate, let him go out by the way of the gate of the north: he shall not return by the way of the gate by which he entered, but shall go out opposite it. But the prince in their midst shall enter with those who enter and shall go out with those who go out. And on market days and on solemn feasts the sacrifice shall be an 'oephi' for the calf and an 'oephi' for the ram, but for the lambs the sacrifice shall be as his hand shall find, and a 'hin' of oil for each 'oephi'. That prince, of whom it was said above: And the prince shall enter by the way of the vestibule of the gate from outside, is both to enter by the same way and to go out by the same way: for he is of free will and has power to lay down his life and to take it up again, and, as much in coming to us as in ascending to the heavenly places, he uses the same freedom of his majesty. Then too, he does not seek market days or solemn feasts, nor does he observe any difference of days, because every time is a festival as well; but the people enter and go out only on market days and on solemn feasts, and not by the same way, but by one way and then another: for it is written: And when the people of the land enter in the sight of the Lord on the solemn feasts, he who enters by the gate of the north to worship, let him go out by the way of the southern gate; and he who enters by the way of the southern gate, let him go out by the way of the gate of the north: he shall not return by the way of the gate by which he entered, but shall go out opposite it — which is commanded not only to those who go out of Sodom, and to whom it is said: Do not look back, nor only to those who put their hand to the plow, that they not look back at the things that are behind their back, but those too who are set in the house of the Lord are commanded not to look behind their backs and return to the weak and beggarly elements, and, having begun in the spirit, be finished in the flesh, but to advance from spiritual things also to greater ones and to say with the Apostle: Forgetting the things past, and stretching myself out to the things before, so that they may by no means know in part and prophesy in part, but come to the perfect: yet according to that perfection which human nature can contain, so that we may understand that saying of the Gospel: And you, when you have done all things, say: We are unprofitable servants; what we ought to do, we have done; whence the Apostle too, in the same epistle, speaks of two perfections: for as one perfect he writes: Not that I have already received, and that I am already perfect; but I pursue, if I may lay hold of that in which I also have been laid hold of by Christ, and at once he speaks as one perfect: But one thing: forgetting the things behind, stretching myself out to the things that are before, I pursue according to the purpose toward the prize of the upward calling. As many therefore as are perfect, we are of this mind — for how can the statement stand, that he who had said: Not that I have already received or that I am already perfect, should dare to say: As many therefore as are perfect, we are of this mind? —, from which it is plain that every human being and the whole creation, although it has come to perfection, nevertheless needs the mercy of God and possesses full perfection from grace, not from merit —. And so the people of the land are commanded that, if they enter by the gate of the north to worship, they go out by the way of the southern gate. Who is this people to whom this is commanded? Surely that of the Gentiles: so that he who, leaving the gate of the north — from which: Evils blaze up upon the earth —, has entered the temple, should not go out except by the way of the southern gate, to the gate of light, to the gate of warmth, to the gate at which the bridegroom lies at noon; and indeed it is said in the same Song of Songs: Arise, north wind, and come, south wind. But he who enters by the way of the southern gate also goes out by the way of the gate of the north. Which people is that? Clearly that of the Jews, which, leaving the way of the gate of light, goes to the gate of the north — of which it is said: The north wind is a most harsh wind; for Jeremiah's pot too is kindled from the face of the north —. Let us say it another way too: he enters by the gate of the north who lets go of sins, and he goes out by the southern gate who follows the virtues; and conversely, if a righteous man has fallen into sins, he enters indeed by the southern gate, but goes out by the way of the gate of the north. But the prince, he says, in their midst will be, namely in the midst of those entering and going out, according to what is written: In the midst among you stands one whom you do not know, and the Apostle: Or do you not know that Christ is in you? — but if it is said to those who do not know that Christ stands in their midst, how much more to those who know; but when Christ has stood among those who know, then the body will become dead because of sin and the spirit living because of righteousness! —; and the prince enters with those who enter, and goes out with those who go out, standing by as witness of both, of virtue and of sin. Therefore on market days and on solemn feasts — namely of the sabbaths and kalends and of every festival, of which we have spoken earlier — both with the calf and with the ram a single 'oephi' will be offered in sacrifice; but with the lambs there will be no fixed number, nor is the choice left to the will, but one will use his strength and the good of his conscience, so as to offer as much as he can, not as much as he wishes; and over all, a 'hin' of oil for each 'oephi', so that the fine flour may be anointed and the lamp lit in the sight of the Lord, and those who use it may be able to say: But I, like a fruitful olive tree in the house of the Lord.
46:12-15
But when the prince makes a spontaneous holocaust or voluntary peace offerings to the Lord, the gate that faces toward the east shall be opened for him, and he shall make his holocaust and his peace offerings as is usually done on the sabbath day, and he shall go out, and the gate shall be shut after he has gone out. And a yearling lamb without blemish he shall make as a holocaust daily to the Lord; morning by morning he shall make it. And a sacrifice (or manaa) he shall make with it morning by morning, a sixth part of an 'oephi' (or of a measure), and of oil a third part of a 'hin', to be mixed (or according to Symmachus sprinkled) with the fine flour; a sacrifice (or manaa) to the Lord, lawful, continual and perpetual. You shall make the lamb and the sacrifice and the oil morning by morning, an everlasting holocaust. Where we read 'without blemish' and in the Hebrew is written 'thamim', Aquila translates 'perfect'; and where the Seventy have 'manaa', Theodotion translated 'sacrifice', Aquila and Symmachus 'gift'; and for what we said, 'spontaneous', the Seventy rendered ὁμολογίαν, that is, 'confession'; and for 'prince', 'leader', for this is what 'basi' means. Moreover, the discourse is still about the prince — of whom Isaiah speaks: Behold, I have given him as a testimony among the nations, a prince and instructor among the nations, and Ezekiel: And I the Lord will be their God, and David a prince in their midst —. When therefore this prince makes a spontaneous — and says: The voluntary (or spontaneous) things of my mouth make well pleasing, O Lord —: and a 'spontaneous' holocaust, so that he offers the whole to God, and 'voluntary' peace offerings — which is not found in the earlier passages, for it is written: And the priests shall make his holocaust and his peace offerings, and about the spontaneous and voluntary ones, of which it now speaks, there is complete silence —, so that he does it not by necessity but by will; after the holocaust let him offer peace offerings, and be reconciled to God — whence virginity too is greater than marriage, because it is neither exacted nor rendered, but offered —; for 'peace offerings', which in Hebrew are called 'selamim', the Seventy translate 'saving offerings': so that the very reconciliation of the peace offerings may be the salvation of the one who offers. When therefore the prince has done this: The gate will be opened for him (or, according to the Seventy, he will open the gate for himself) that faces toward the east — that gate, namely, of which it is written: This is the gate of the Lord, the righteous shall enter by it, and whence the sun of righteousness rises —. And he shall make, he says, his holocaust and his peace offerings — of which we have just spoken —; and 'he shall make': as being a spontaneous sacrifice, and not other priests 'shall make' it for him: namely as is usually done on the sabbath day; therefore at every time the holocaust and peace offering that is offered voluntarily has the gate of the Lord unbarred, and it does not observe the sabbath, but all days are reckoned to it as rest. Then, after he has offered the holocaust and peace offerings, at once: He goes out, and the door is shut after him (or he shuts the door), so that the prince's privilege may be kept for him and his sacrifices not be mingled with the people. And since he had said in general: A spontaneous holocaust or voluntary peace offerings to the Lord, and had not added bull or calf, ram or sheep, and a he-goat for sin, he teaches what this holocaust is: A yearling lamb, he says, without blemish he shall make as a holocaust; and not on fixed days, but: daily; nor at any other hour, but: morning by morning he shall make it: namely each 'morning', when, the sun having risen, there is the beginning of light — of which 'morning' David speaks in a psalm: In the morning you will hear my voice. In the morning I will stand before you, and will see, and in another place: In the evening weeping will linger, and in the morning gladness, and again: O God, my God, to you I keep watch from the morning. But who this lamb without blemish, or perfect, and yearling is, Isaiah teaches more fully, saying: As a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer, without voice and not opening his mouth, and Jeremiah: But I, like an innocent lamb led to the slaughter, did not know, and John the evangelist: Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world; this is the lamb that is sacrificed in Egypt and with whose blood the doorposts of faith are armed, and the destroyer is shut out; and a yearling, because: He proclaimed the acceptable year of the Lord, the day of retribution. Nor let the reader wonder if the same one is both prince and priest and calf and ram and lamb, since in the holy Scriptures, according to the variety of circumstances, we read of him as Lord and God and man and prophet and rod and flower and root and prince and judge and righteous king and righteousness, apostle and bishop, arm, servant, ointment, shepherd, son and child, only-begotten and firstborn, door, way, angel, arrow and wisdom, and many other things, for all of which, if I wished to cite the testimonies, they would need a book of their own —. And so in the holocaust of this lamb, without blemish and a yearling, which is always offered in the morning: the prince himself shall make a sacrifice (or 'manaa', and fine flour or gift) morning by morning, a sixth part of an 'oephi', of fine flour being understood — and a sixth part of an 'oephi' is half a modius; for if an 'oephi' is the tenth part of a 'corus', that is, three modii, no one doubts that the sixth part of an 'oephi' makes half a modius —. Of the oil also, a third part of the measure 'hin' is offered, to be mixed (or sprinkled) with the fine flour; a sacrifice to the Lord, lawful, continual and perpetual, which is interrupted on no day but at every time, when the sun has risen, is always offered, so that what is set at the end of this chapter may be fulfilled: He shall make the lamb for a sacrifice, and the oil, morning by morning, an everlasting holocaust.
46:16-18
Thus says the Lord God: If the prince (or leader) gives a gift to any of his sons, his inheritance shall belong to his sons; they shall possess it by inheritance. But if he gives a legacy from his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be his until the year of remission (for which Theodotion set down the Hebrew word itself, deror), but it shall return to the prince; but his inheritance shall belong to his sons. And the prince shall not take from the inheritance of the people by violence and from their possession, but from his own possession he shall give an inheritance to his sons, so that my people be not scattered, each one from his possession. Thus far the discourse about the prince; now precepts are given about his heirs, or rather about gifts, inheritance and legacies: to whom he ought to give, and whose the possession is, whether for a time or everlasting. 'If', he says, 'he gives either a gift or an inheritance to his sons, they will possess it, because it is owed to them by right of succession, and the possession cannot pass from one to another; but if he gives it to one of his servants under the name of a legacy, he will hold the possession only so long as until either the seventh year, of remission, which is called 'deror', or the jubilee, that is, the fiftieth, arrives, when every purchase and gift will return to its former owners: so that the servant has the use for a time, and the sons of the prince the ownership of the possession'. But what follows: And the prince shall not take from the inheritance of the people by violence (or, as the Seventy translated, so as to oppress them, or, as Aquila and Symmachus, afflict them and sadden them), but from his own possession he shall give an inheritance to his sons, censures not only the priests and princes of that time but also those of ours, who grow richer through the dignity of the priesthood and, beyond what is owed them by the Lord's ordinance, take from the poor by violence, or despoil the rich under the name of honor, so that even to their own sons, to whom the paternal inheritance is owed, they ought to leave nothing except what was left to them by their parents; therefore the priest who is richer than when he came to the priesthood ought to give whatever more he has, not to his sons, but to the poor and to the holy brothers and to those of the household of faith, who surpass the merits of his children, so that he may render to his Lord the things that are the Lord's — who speaks in the Gospel: Whatever you have done to one of these, you have done to me; for he himself, in the poor, is received in hospitality, visited in prison, clothed when naked, drinks when thirsty, is filled when hungry —: So that my people be not scattered from its possession: for if the prince has license either to take or to seize or to hold under the guise of honor what is not his and to leave it to his children, the people that had been gathered in the name of God will be scattered into parts and torn apart, or, according to the law, the inheritance of one may gradually pass to another and the cord of division perish, through which, as it happened, the inheritance came to each one; therefore he scatters the people of God and takes from it the everlasting possession of faith who leaves to his sons and brothers and kinsmen the goods of others, whether by plunder or by flattery or by blandishments or under the pretext of religion.
46:19-24
And he brought me in by the entrance that was at the side (or behind the back) of the gate into the chambers of the sanctuary for the priests (or exedras, and cells) that faced toward the north, and behold, there was a place sloping toward the west (or toward the sea, and, as the Seventy translated, separated); and he said to me: This is the place where the priests will cook for trespass and for sin (or for ignorance and for sin), where they will cook the sacrifice (or manaa, and gift), so that they do not carry it out into the outer court and the people be sanctified. And he brought me out into the outer court and led me around through the four corners of the court, and behold, there was a little court in a corner of the court, a little court in each corner of the court. In the four corners of the court little courts were laid out, of forty cubits in length and thirty in breadth: the four were of one measure. And a wall round about encircled the four little courts, and kitchens were built beneath the porticoes all around (or beside the couches, which Aquila translated στιβάδας [pallets], Symmachus περιφράγματα [enclosures], while Theodotion set down the Hebrew word itself, turoth). And he said, he says, to me: This is the house of the kitchens, in which the ministers of the house cook the victims of the people (or victim, for this is what zeba means in Hebrew). The man who held a reed in his hand and a mason's cord with which to measure the building: 'He brought me in', he says, 'by the entrance that was at the side of the gate (or behind the back of the gate) — and he did not state which gate, the eastern, the southern or that of another quarter, but left it uncertain —, so that I went to the place of the sanctuary and into the chambers, or rooms, of the priests, which faced toward the north and toward the sea': namely toward the northern quarter and toward the west, Holy Scripture having this custom, that by reason of the position of the land of Judah it always calls the west the sea — and it must be considered that the place of the priests where for trespass (or for ignorance) and for sin the sacrifices are cooked, lest they be carried out raw into the outer court, is set toward the north and the west, whence the coldest wind arises and where the light of the sun goes down; from which it is shown that whatever pertains to food is either for error or for sin: but if a sacrifice is offered even for ignorance, how much more for the consciousness of trespass!: whence Job too offered a victim every day in the morning for his sons, fearing lest they had transgressed through ignorance —. But what follows: 'So that they do not carry it out into the outer court and the people be sanctified, the people who had not been prepared for sanctification', signifies this: that we should not readily give holy things to the unsanctified; that we should not, according to the Gospel, cast pearls before swine nor give what is holy to dogs — indeed Moses wishes the people to be sanctified for three days from all uncleanness and from the embrace of wives, so that they may approach Mount Sinai and, sanctified, receive holy things. But if those about to approach to hear and receive the words of God are commanded to be sanctified from their wives, it is manifest that that apostolic saying too is contained in the law: Do not defraud one another, except perhaps by consent for a time, that you may be free for prayer; and that by consent one must abstain from wives, that we may be free for prayer —. After this it is written: And he brought me out into the outer court and led me around through the four corners of the court, and behold, there was a little court in a corner of the court, a little court in each corner of the court; in the four little courts of the corner, little courts laid out; that man whom he often mentions brought him out of the place of the priests which sloped toward the north, or which was separated, where the priests cook for trespass and for sin or ignorance; and he brought him out into the outer court: from which we understand that the court from which he went out was the inner one, and that there are many courts in the holy Scriptures — of which we read: You who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God, and in John: And other sheep I have, which are not 'of this court'; and them too I must bring: and they will hear my voice, and there will be one 'court' and one shepherd — for this is what the Greek αὐλή means, which Latin simplicity translated as 'fold' —: for when he says 'of this court', he shows that there is another as well, which is pointed out either in the throng of the nations, as distinct from Israel, or in the heavens, as separate from the earthly court, and that to each office a court has been assigned according to the quality of merits, a subject that was argued more fully earlier —; and this court, of which the discourse now is, had four little courts, one in each corner — which the Seventy call 'lesser ones' and we, for ease of sense, have called ὑποκοριστικῶς [in diminutive form] 'little courts' —: they were of forty cubits in length and thirty in breadth, numbers which I remember having discussed in this same prophet: that the one refers to tribulations and straits, the other to the perfect age — whence Moses and Elijah and the Lord and Savior fasted forty days in the desert; and they come to the priestly office not, as the Seventy have it, after the twenty-fifth year of age, but after the thirtieth, for which reason the Lord too was thirty years old when he came to baptism, and in this same prophet the thirtieth year is set at the beginning. Where, therefore, there is food, there are also the straits and the temptation through which food is procured; and when we have come to the age of the perfect man, there everything must be trodden underfoot, and one must say: Having food and clothing, with these we are content, and: If the Lord gives me food to eat and clothing to cover me, or surely that saying: Food for the belly and the belly for foods: but God will destroy both it and them; for in the future we shall not eat and drink, but shall feed on that bread: Which came down from heaven, of which it is sung in the psalter: Man will eat the bread of angels, and: My food is to do the will of him who sent me —. And that the four little courts which occupied the corners of the greater court were of one measure signifies the four quarters of the world: that we eat bread in the sweat of our face and all our labor profits the belly and the dung. And these four little courts one wall also encircled: And kitchens were built beneath the porticoes all around, or they had couches nearby, so that where the food was, there was also the preparing of the tables. And lest the prophet perhaps not know what he was seeing, he said to him: This is the house of the kitchens, in which the ministers of the Lord will cook the victims of the people: victims of the people indeed, which are offered for trespass or for sin and ignorance, but nourishment and refreshment for the priests, so that they may remember that they ought to desire nothing else, since even in the temple refreshments for their flesh have been prepared.
47:1-5
And he turned me to the gate of the house, and behold, waters were going out beneath the threshold of the house toward the east; for the face of the house looked toward the east, and the waters were going down into the right side of the temple, to the south of the altar. And he led me out by the way of the gate of the north, and he turned me to the way outside, to the outer gate, the way that looked toward the east; and behold, waters overflowing from the right side. When the man who had a cord in his hand went out toward the east, he both measured a thousand cubits and led me across through the water up to the ankles (or he passed over in water, water of remission). And again he measured a thousand, and led me across through the water up to the knees (or and he passed over in water, water up to the thighs). And he measured a thousand, and led me across through the water up to the kidneys (or and he passed over the water up to the loins). And he measured a thousand, a torrent which I could not pass across, for the deep waters of the torrent had swelled, which could not be forded (for which the Seventy translated: And he measured a thousand, and he could not pass across, for the water was borne along like a headlong torrent which cannot be crossed). These waters which were going out beneath the threshold of the house, that is, of the temple, were not borne toward the north and toward the west but toward the east and on the right side of the temple, that is, toward the south, and that south not of just any place, but of the altar — from which it becomes clear that the waters are sacred and signify the teaching of our Savior, according to that which is written: Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and in another place: All things have been filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as much water covering the sea; of these waters the prophet Zechariah too prophesied, saying: On that day living water shall go out from Jerusalem, and the middle of it into the first sea, and the middle of it into the last sea; of these waters the Lord too spoke to the Samaritan woman: If you knew who it is who says to you: Give me to drink, you perhaps would have asked him, and he would have given you living water, and again: Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will not thirst forever, and in the temple he cried out and said: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture says, rivers of living water will flow from his belly. But this he said of the Spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive; these are the waters of which the prophet spoke in the psalm: Beside the water of refreshment he has brought me up, and in Ezekiel: I will take you from the nations and from the lands, and I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be cleansed from all your uncleannesses. For there appeared the springs of waters, and in Psalm 92 (93) it is sung: The rivers have lifted up, O Lord, the rivers have lifted up their voices. From the voices of many waters, wonderful are the swellings of the sea; these are: The waters of Shiloah that go with silence, of which Isaiah speaks: You shall draw waters from the springs of the Savior, and the psalmist: Bless the Lord from the springs of Israel, and the same Isaiah of the Lord Savior: He, he says, shall dwell in a lofty cave of the strongest rock; bread shall be given him, and his water is faithful. For water has broken forth in the desert, and a valley in a thirsty land, and it is said to believers: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; you are mine. And if you pass through water, I am with you, and again: You who thirst, go to the water; and through Jeremiah God speaks: For my people has done evil things: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have dug for themselves cisterns, which cannot hold water. Just as, then, we read in a good sense the waters which go out from the threshold of the temple and are referred to the teaching of the Church, so there are bitter waters and most evil waters which the prophet Jeremiah forbids us to approach, saying: What have you to do with the way of Egypt, that you should drink of the waters of 'Geon'? — which in Hebrew is called 'Sior', that is, 'turbid' and 'muddy' —, of which God, angered over the heretics, speaks: Behold, I will feed them with distresses, and I will give them water of gall to drink; in which the Egyptian dragon reigns, who says: The rivers are mine, and I made them, who: Sees every high thing, and he himself is king of those who are in the waters; whence the man of the Church entreats the Lord and says: Save me, O Lord, for the waters have come in even to my soul. I am stuck fast in the mire of the deep, and there is no substance; I have come into the depth of the sea, and the tempest has overwhelmed me, and again: May I be delivered from those who hate me and from the depth of the waters. Let not the tempest of water cast me down, nor the deep swallow me up; nor let the pit press its mouth upon me, and in another psalm: Unless the Lord had been among us, let Israel now say, unless the Lord had been among us, when men rose up against us, perhaps they would have swallowed us alive; when their fury was angered against us, perhaps the water would have swallowed us up, and the bride in the Song of Songs: Much water will not be able to quench love, and rivers will not overwhelm it; this is the water of which Hosea says: Gilead has despised me, the city that works vanities, troubling the water, and its strength pirate men; which water is called by another name 'merra', that is, 'bitterness' — into which the wood of the Cross is cast, and bitter things are turned into sweet —; consider the law of Moses, if it is understood according to the carnal sense of the Jews, how bitter it is — digging out: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth —: the fornication of Judah with Tamar, and Hosea joined to a harlot, Jeremiah's περίζωμα [loincloth], Moses' Ethiopian wife, the killing of the Egyptian, and a thousand other things which, if we understand them according to the letter that kills and not according to the spirit that gives life, are bitter and do not so much edify their reader as destroy him —. These waters, then, which go out from the temple of the Lord, proceed toward the east and go down into the right side of the temple, to the south of the altar, where the bridegroom feeds his guests and reclines. But what follows: And he led me out by the way of the gate of the north, and turned to the way outside, to the outer gate, the way that looked toward the east, secretly shows that we cannot come at once to the eastern gate unless we come to it by the way of the gate of the north, by a long circuit: for unless we overcome the coldest wind by the heat of faith and trample its regions — so that that apostolic saying may be fulfilled in us: But God will crush Satan under your feet swiftly —, we are not able to enter the gate through which the waters enter and are on the right side; and note that these waters, which go out through the gate of the east, flee the left-hand parts to such a degree that they are described as proceeding from the right of the altar toward the south. 'But that man who had the cord in his hand, when he had led me through the gate of the north, outside, to the way that looked toward the east, and he himself too was in the same place, measured a thousand cubits of the same water'. And he led me across through the water up to the 'ankles' — which Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion translated ἀστραγάλους [anklebones] — (for which the Seventy translated: But he passed over in water, water of remission), which we can understand to signify the first sins of men, which are remitted to us as we enter the waters of the Lord, and they show the saving grace of baptism, and are the beginnings of progress; finally, they reach as far as the ankles, which are neighbors to the sole and the heel — which lies open to the bites of the snake, as the Lord says: You shall watch for his head, and he shall watch for your heel; and in the Psalter it is said of Judas the betrayer: He who ate my bread has magnified tripping-up against me (or the heel: for this is what the Greek πτέρνα means). And after the thousand cubits which reach as far as the ankle: He measured another thousand cubits in the water and led me across up to the knees: since after the remission of sins and the beginnings of progress, when we strive to climb a little from earthly things to higher ones, we bend the knees to the Lord — as the Apostle says: That every knee should bend, of things in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father —. Thirdly: He measured a thousand cubits, and led me, he says, across through the water up to the kidneys: for by these steps we come to the heights, which heights themselves, however, reach up to the loins and kidneys, so that all lust in us may be cut off, and we may possess the sanctification of the body without which no one will see God — whence also in this same prophet God is seen fiery from the feet up to the loins: for the works of the loins need fire and purgation, as the righteous man says: For my loins have been filled with illusions, through which the enemy mocks us both by day and in the phantasm of the nights; but from the loins up to the head and crown he shines with the brilliance of electrum, the most precious metal, so that he has in himself nothing of filth, nothing of baseness —. Whence now fourthly it is said: And he measured a thousand, 'cubits' being understood, a torrent — which the Seventy did not translate —, which I could not pass across (much better than the Seventy, who said: which he could not pass across): for the prophet, and all human nature, cannot after the loins pass across the torrent of thoughts and the incitements of vices; but that man: Who was clothed in 'baddi' [linen], and the guide of the prophet, clearly passes across: Who did no sin, nor was guile found in his mouth. And he gives the reasons why the prophet could not pass across the fourth thousand cubits: For, he says, the deep waters of the torrent had swelled, which cannot be forded — and how is it written, with the prophet glorying: Our soul has passed across the torrent? But it is easily resolved if we know that in place of this it is written in the Hebrew: The torrent has passed across my soul —. Of this torrent Isaiah too speaks: Behold, I incline upon them like a river of peace, and like an overflowing torrent glory, and in Psalm 35 (36) it is said of the saints: In the protection of your wings they will hope, they will be inebriated with the abundance of your house, and with the torrent of your delights you will give them drink; for with you is the fountain of life, and in Psalm 124 (125): Turn back, O Lord, our captivity, like a torrent in the south, and of the Savior: He will drink of the torrent on the way — for who of men can boast that he has a chaste heart?, or: Into whose mind has the death of concupiscence not entered through the windows of the eyes and, to say little, a tickling of the soul? For the world is set in the evil one, and: From childhood the heart of man is set on evil, so that from the very beginning of birth the human condition is not without sin for even a single day; whence David too confesses in the psalm: 'For behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins my mother conceived me, not by the iniquities of my mother or indeed my own, but in the iniquities of the human condition'; whence the Apostle too says: Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of the transgression of Adam —. That we say 'cubitos' [cubits] in the masculine gender and not, according to the rule of the grammarians, in the neuter 'cubita', I have also taught above: that we do this not from ignorance but from custom, for the sake also of the simple and unlearned, whose number in the congregation of the Church is the greater.
47:6-12
And he said to me: Surely you have seen, son of man; and he led me out, and turned me to the bank of the torrent (or of the river). And when I had turned (or he had turned me), behold, on the bank of the torrent (or of the river) a great many trees (or very many trees) on either side; and he said to me: These waters, which go out to the mounds of sand of the east and go down to the plains of the desert (or this water which goes out into Galilee, which slopes toward the east, and goes down to Arabia), will enter the sea; and they will go out, and the waters will be healed: and every living soul (or of animals) that creeps (or of creeping things), wherever the torrent (or the river) comes, will live, and there will be very many fish after these waters have come there, and all things will be healed and will live to which the torrent (or the river) comes. And fishermen will stand over them from En-gedi to En-eglaim; there will be a drying of nets; very many kinds of its fish there will be, like the fish of the great sea, of exceeding multitude. But in the places that go out beyond the banks and are marshy they will not be healed, but will be given over to salt-pits. And over the torrent (or river) there will rise on its banks on either side every fruit tree (or fruit-bearing tree); its leaf will not fall from it (or nothing will grow old from it), and its fruit will not fail: each month it will bring forth early fruits (or all things will be renewed), because its waters will go out from the sanctuary, and its fruit will be for food, and its leaves for medicine (or and its ascent for health). I wished to set down the whole passage together, although it is lengthy, so as not to break in upon the sense of the reader, and so that the order of the reading, divided into parts, might not confuse the understanding of the hearer. And first it must be said that for 'torrent', which in Hebrew is called 'nehel' and in the Greek tongue is named χειμάρρος, the Seventy translated 'river'; next, that for 'Galilee', which in Hebrew is called 'galila', Aquila translated θινάς, which means 'mounds' 'of sand', Symmachus μεθόριον, which we can translate 'border-region'; for 'Arabia' too Symmachus translated 'uninhabitable', Aquila 'low places' or 'plains', Theodotion 'arabas' [a transliteration of the Hebrew word]. Let us say, then, what seems right to us in each point. That man, who was Ezekiel's guide, admonishes the prophet to look more carefully and see, and to attend with the eyes of the mind to hidden mysteries; and he calls him 'son of man' either as a figure of the Lord Savior — for 'Hiezechiel' means 'strength' or 'dominion of God' —, or certainly as a reminder of human frailty — lest he forget his condition while great things are shown to him —; and having admonished him he leads him and turns him to the bank of the torrent so that, since he could not cross the middle depth, he might at least recognize the things that are on the banks. And when, he says, I had turned (or he had turned me, who was guide and admonisher), behold, on the bank of the torrent (or of the river) many trees (or a great many trees) exceedingly, on either side: this 'torrent', which on account of the abundance of its waters is borne along in the manner of a torrent and receives rains from heaven, of which we spoke in the preceding reading, is itself called by the Seventy 'river', because it has perpetual waters, not collected from rains here and there but abiding from a living and perpetual spring — of which river we read many things in the holy scriptures, but for the present a few things must be said, and first that: The rush of the river makes glad the city of God, and in another place: The river of God is filled with waters; you have prepared their food, for so is your preparation, and again in the plural: The rivers have lifted up, O Lord, the rivers have lifted up their voices. From the voices of many waters, wonderful are the swellings of the sea, and in Isaiah: I will make a way in the desert, and rivers in the pathless place, and in another place of the same it will appear more plainly that in Zion a river runs down, glorious in a thirsty land —; above this river there were very many trees on either side of the bank, so that, namely, the river ran enclosed between the two instruments, the old and the new; and the many trees, or the very many and exceedingly numerous trees, I take to be those which scripture records in paradise as abounding with various fruits. And the guide who goes before, the teacher, teaches the prophet and says: These waters, which go out (or into Galilee of the nations according to the Seventy, or, as is more truly contained in the Hebrew:) to the mounds of sand of the east and go down to the plains of the desert (or to Arabia), will enter the sea (or to the outlets of the sea), and the waters will be healed; we said long ago that the waters signify either the grace of baptism or the teaching of the Gospel, which, if they go out from the threshold of the temple of the Lord and hold to the apostolic discipline, make the mounds of sand, previously sterile and unfruitful, to be fruit-bearing, and so water all the plains and deserts as to express among themselves too the mystery of the spring of Jericho — which Elisha healed with the evangelic and apostolic salt, to such a degree that where there had previously been sterility and death, there was fertility and life —; nor did they heal the deserts only, but they enter the eastern sea — namely the 'Dead' sea, in which nothing living could exist, and the 'most bitter' sea, which in Greek they call λίμνην ἀσφαλτῖτιν, that is, 'lake of bitumen' —; and in a wonderful manner the dead waters are healed by the waters of the Gospel — which, from the fact that they have nothing living in them, have obtained the name of death: for they did not know him who says: I am the life; and in truth, according to the letter, up to now nothing that breathes and can move about can be found in this sea because of its excessive bitterness: not even little snails and small worms and eels and the other kinds of animals or creeping things whose little bodies we can know better than their names; finally, if the Jordan, swollen by rains, flowing in there, has carried fish along, they die at once and float on the fat waters —. Since, then, these waters have nothing of usefulness, as the plain account testifies, even if it should come about, as the foolish superstition of the Jews believes, according to the spiritual understanding, healed by the torrent of the Lord, they will have very many fish, and all things to which this torrent comes will live, so that fishermen stand over the banks from 'Engaddi' to 'Engallim' — of which the first means 'spring' or 'eye' 'of the kid', the next 'spring, or eye' 'of calves': En-eglaim is at the beginning of the Dead Sea, where the Jordan enters, and En-gedi where it ends and is consumed; and I think the Dead Sea is the one of which Zechariah speaks: On that day living water will go out from Jerusalem, and the middle of it into the first sea; Daniel too agrees with these words: I was seeing, and behold, the four winds of heaven were rushing into the great sea, and David: Wonderful, he says, are the upliftings of the sea, and in the person of the Savior in the psalm: I have come into the depth of the sea, and the tempest has overwhelmed me; the king of Egypt too, according to this same Ezekiel, is called a dragon who dwells in the sea and fans the rivers as with his horns, and again: This great and spacious sea; which, as long as it has not received into itself the water of the river or torrent, kills everything it has in itself: but the Lord — of whom it was said: He will strike: and he will heal after two days, and on the third day we shall rise and live in his sight — himself speaks in the same prophet Hosea: I bound Ephraim, I took him up in my arm, and they did not know that I healed them in the corruption of men — he who: Was wounded for our sins and made weak for our iniquities; the discipline of his peace is upon him, and by his bruise we have been healed —; he himself healed by his death this sea, which is most salty and dead from excessive bitterness, he who says through Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me; he has sent me to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal those who are contrite of heart, whence through Jeremiah too he cries out: Turn back, you turning sons, and I will heal your contritions — for the people, impatient and not enduring to bear the pain of its wounds any longer, had said: The summer has passed, the harvest has gone by, and we are not saved, whence the Lord also answered it: Is there no resin in Gilead, or are there no physicians there? Why has the healing of my people not gone up? —, and Jeremiah himself cries aloud and says: Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me and I shall be saved; finally the angels — who were the guardians of the Jews at that time when the foolish multitude cried out and said: His blood be upon us and upon our children, and the veil of the temple was torn and all the mysteries of the Hebrews were laid open — answered the Lord who commanded them, and said: We have treated Babylon and she is not healed; let us leave her, namely the city of confusion and of vices — whence Josephus too relates in his History that, after the Lord was crucified and the veil of the temple was torn, or the lintel of the temple broke and fell, a voice of the heavenly powers was heard in the inner shrines of the temple: Let us pass over from these seats —. Let all this have been said not superfluously but necessarily, because the Dead Sea is said to have been healed when the river of the Lord flowed into it —. Over this sea — from 'Engaddi', 'the eye and spring of the kid', which is always offered for sins, up to 'Engallim', 'the spring of calves', which are slaughtered to the Lord and imitate the calf that puts forth horns and hoofs, which are slaughtered at the altar in type of the Savior — there will be fishermen, to whom Jesus speaks: Come to me and I will make you fishermen, of whom Jeremiah too: Behold, I, he says, will send fishermen; and very many species, or rather kinds, of fish will be in the sea once dead, which fish Peter drew out on the right-hand side at the Lord's command, and they were one hundred and fifty-three, so that the nets were breaking because of their multitude — and those who have written on the natures of animals, and especially those who have published ἁλιευτικά [works on fishing] in the Latin as well as the Greek tongue — of whom Opianicus the Cilician is a most learned poet —, say that there are one hundred and fifty-three kinds of fish; all of which were caught by the apostles, and nothing remained uncaught, while both noble and ignoble, both rich and poor, and every kind of men is drawn out of the sea of this world to salvation —. But what follows: On its shores and in the marshy places (or in those which go out from the shore) the waters will not be healed, secretly shows that whoever was not in Noah's ark perishes while the flood reigns, and that those whom this river has not touched do not receive healing: But they will be given, he says, to salt-pits, according to that which is written: When the pestilent man is scourged, the fool will be wiser — for the examples of the worse instruct the good —, or: They will be given to salt-pits, according to that which is written in the Gospel: Salt is good; but if the salt has become foolish, it is useful for nothing, so that they may lack crops and greenness forever — which a city too, sprinkled with salt after its ruin, demonstrates —. But over the torrent (or the river) there will rise on its banks on either side every fruit tree (or, as all have translated with one voice, βρώσιμον, 'that which provides food and nourishment' and 'that which can be eaten'; and in the Hebrew tongue it is called 'machal'). And: (nothing, according to the Seventy, will grow old in it, but its produce will be renewed daily, or:) its leaf will not fall from it, and its fruit will not fail, according to that which is written in Psalm 1: And he will be like the tree that is planted beside the runnings of waters, which will give its fruit in its season; and its leaf will not fall. Each month, he says, it will bring forth early fruits (or, as is written in the Seventy: its fruit in its renewal will give early fruits), so that all the fruits of believers may be firstfruits and the single months may be assigned to the single apostles; and this will come about: Because its waters will go out from the sanctuary: lest we think that so great an abundance of produce belongs to the banks or the trees or the months, he gives the causes of the fertility and adds: Because its waters will go out from the sanctuary — So then it is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy —. The primacy among all these trees is held by the tree of life, which is understood as wisdom, of which it is written: She is a tree of life to all who believe in her. That which is said: And its fruit will be for food, and its leaf for medicine, shows the mysteries of the divine books, of which the one pertains to the letter, the other to the spirit, so that we understand the simple words in the leaves, but in the fruits the hidden sense: for just as the knowledge of the scriptures leads to the kingdoms of heaven and offers us the bread who says: I am the bread who came down from heaven, so its leaves, which contain moral teaching, bestow health, so as to heal the wounds of those who sin. For 'leaves', which in Hebrew are called 'ale', the Seventy, on account of the likeness of the word and of the sound, translated 'ascent', which itself too can be explained thus: that, after the food of the fruits, we may climb by the admonitions of the words to heavenly things.
47:13-14
Thus says the Lord God. This is the boundary by which you shall possess the land in the twelve tribes of Israel, because Joseph has a double cord; and you shall possess it — each one equally as his brother — the land which I lifted up my hand to give to your fathers; and this land shall fall to you as a possession. In place of what we said: Because Joseph has a double cord, the Seventy translated: Increase of the cord — for 'Ioseph' means 'increase —, understanding a thing in place of a name and confusing the mind of the reader: for when the Levitical tribe had been subtracted and assigned to the sacrifices of the temple, there remained eleven tribes, of which Joseph was divided into two, Ephraim and Manasseh, who said to Joshua son of Nun: Why have you given me a possession of one lot and one cord, though I am of so great a multitude and the Lord has blessed me?, to whom Joshua answered: If you are a numerous people, go up into the forest and cut down spaces for yourself in the land of the Perizzite and of Rephaim, since the possession of mount Ephraim is narrow for you, and again: And Joshua said to the house of Ephraim and Manasseh: You are a numerous people and of great strength; you shall not have one lot, but you shall pass over to the mountain and cut down and clear for yourself spaces for dwelling; and you will be able to proceed further when you have overthrown the Canaanite, who you say has iron chariots and is very strong; I have said this for this reason, because scripture now records that Joseph, that is, Ephraim and Manasseh, has a double cord. And the individual tribes receive equal spaces of land according to their multitude, by no means at the discretion of the one dividing but by lot, which rests in the power of the Lord. Finally Joshua himself too, who was the divider of the land, did not set apart his own land for himself, lest he should seem to have chosen the best, but received from the princes of all the tribes: Timnath-serah in mount Ephraim.
47:15-17
And this is the boundary of the land: toward the northern quarter, from the Great Sea, by the way of Ethalon, for those coming to Sadada, Hamath, Berotha, Sabarim, which is between the middle of Damascus and the border of Hamath, the court of Thicon, which is beside Hauran (or of Auranitis); and the boundary shall be from the sea up to 'the court of Enom' (or 'Aser-Enan'), the boundary of Damascus; and from north to north the boundary of Hamath, the northern quarter. Between the description of the holy land of the twelve tribes by Joshua son of Nun and the one which is now commanded to be made through Ezekiel there is this difference: that there the land is divided among the tribes by lot, here it is assigned by the discretion of the Lord who commands. In the book of Numbers, then, in which the whole land of promise is divided by four quarters in brief speech, this is the description from the north, that is, from the northern quarter: Moreover, on the northern side the boundaries will begin from the Great Sea, reaching as far as the Highest Mountain, from which you will come into Hamath, up to the borders of Sedada. And the borders will go as far as Zephrona and 'the village of Enan' (or 'Aser-Enan'). And the Hebrews say that the northern quarter begins from the Great Sea, which stretches along the shores of Palestine, of Phoenicia, and of the Syria which is called Coele, and of Cilicia, and extends through Egypt to Libya. But as to what he says: Reaching — the boundaries — as far as the Highest Mountain, the same Hebrews assert that it signifies either Mount Amanus or the Taurus — which seems truer to us —. From which, he says, you will come into 'Emath', which is now named 'Epiphania', its name having been changed by Antiochus, the cruelest of tyrants, for he had the surname Ἐπιφανής [Epiphanes, the Manifest]. Up to the borders, he says, of Sedada, which place is also set down in the present reading of Ezekiel. And the borders will go as far as Zephrona, which city they today call Zephyrium, a town of Cilicia. And what follows: And 'the village of Enan' (for which in the Hebrew is written 'Aser-Enon' or '-Enan'), the present passage also contains. And meanwhile let it suffice to have touched on it briefly according to the history and to have joined side by side the description both of Numbers and of Ezekiel, so that the prudent reader may understand in which points they record either the same or neighboring or different things; now, having interpreted the names of each, let us follow the ἀναγωγήν [anagogy, the higher sense], and let us set out, the Lord granting it, what seems right to us in each point. 'Ethalon' means 'cradle of grief'; 'Sedada', 'his side' — understand it from 'side', not from 'breadth'; 'Emath', 'fury', which in Greek is called χόλος; 'Berotha', 'wells'; 'Sabarim', 'circuit of mountains'; 'Damascus', 'blood of sackcloth' and 'of a kiss' or 'of a cup'; but the 'house' or 'court of Thicon' Symmachus translates 'the middle court', which goes on to the borders of 'Auran'; therefore 'Thicon' means 'middle'; 'Auran' — which the Seventy turned into the Greek tongue as 'Auranitis' —, 'wrath'; but 'Asar' '-Enon' — which is the boundary of Damascus — is called in our language 'court of the spring'. The northern quarter, then, begins from the Great Sea and goes by the way of 'Ethalon', which means 'cradle of grief'; through penitence it comes to 'Sadada', where there is a turning aside 'from the side': for we understand 'Emath', that is, the 'indignation' of God, impending over us, or, 'Emath' having been found to be 'truth', the 'wells' of 'Berotha' are opened to us, which the princes Abraham, Isaac and Jacob dug, and by a long 'circuit' we come to the 'mountains' of 'Sabarim', which are set between 'Damascus', that is, 'the blood of haircloth', and the border of 'Emath', that is, as we said above, 'of truth' — for just as through grief we turn aside impending evils and avoid them from the side, so after the blood and haircloth of a bloody life, before we come to the borders of Emath, we go around and come to the mountains of which it is written: Mountains round about it, and the Lord round about his people —, which place is called 'the court of Thicon', that is, 'the middle court', as Symmachus translated, beside the borders of 'Auran', which means 'wrath' — so that we may say with the prophet: I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him —, and from the sea up to the borders of Damascus: in which the apostle Paul too, from Jewish fury and the shedding of the Church's blood, beheld the light through blindness and, having taken up the haircloth for his old persecution, preached the Gospel, so that he might come to the eternal 'court of the spring' and, once set in the north, might lay hold of the boundary of truth.
47:18
But the eastern quarter, from the midst of Hauran and from the midst of Damascus and from the midst of Gilead and from the midst of the land of Israel, the Jordan dividing, to the eastern sea; you shall measure the eastern quarter. For which in the book of Numbers I have found it written thus: Thence they shall measure the boundaries toward the eastern quarter from 'the village of Enan' (that is, 'Aser-Enon') as far as Sephama, and from Sephama the boundaries will go down to Rebla, opposite the spring; thence they will come toward the east to the sea of Chinnereth, and they will extend as far as the Jordan, and at the last they will be closed by the sea. Above he had said: And the boundary shall be from the sea up to Eser-Enon, the boundary of Damascus: from the end of the northern quarter, then, that is, from the court of Enan, the boundaries extend according to the book of Numbers as far as Sephama, which the Hebrews name Apamea, and from Apamea the boundaries will go down to Rebla, which is now called Antioch of Syria; and so that you may know that this Rebla signifies the city which is now the most renowned in Coele-Syria, there follows: Opposite the spring, which it is evident signifies Daphne, from which spring the aforesaid city enjoys most abundant waters — this place was planted by the military hand of Gnaeus Pompey, who first subjected Judea to Roman rule, and from him — following the fable of the poets — it received the name of Daphne, on account of the laurels and cypresses, trees which are very frequent in that very place too —. Thence, he says, the boundaries will come toward the eastern quarter to the sea of Chinnereth: as far as the lake of Tiberias; and it is called a sea although it has sweet waters, according to the idiom of the scriptures, which call gatherings of waters seas. And the boundaries, he says, will extend as far as the Jordan, and at the last will be closed by the sea: either by the Dead Sea or, as others think, by the tongue of the Red Sea, on whose shore Aila is situated, where a legion and garrison of the Romans is now stationed. Let this have been said according to the book of Numbers. But according to Ezekiel: from the midst of Hauran, which is a town of Damascus in the wilderness, and from the midst of Gilead, which, a mountain joined to the hills of Lebanon, fell into the lot of Reuben and Gad and of the half tribe of Manasseh, and is behind Phoenicia and Arabia — to which mountain Jacob came, having set out from Carrhae, and was overtaken by Laban; of which Jeremiah too speaks: Gilead, you are to me the beginning of Lebanon; which Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manasseh, took from the region of the Amorites —; and the end of this quarter: the river Jordan bounding it, and the eastern sea, which in this place they understand as the Dead Sea, not the tongue of the Red Sea. Let us speak according to tropology. After the boundaries of the north, by a long circuit through Ethalon and Sedada and Berotha, Sabarim too and Thicon and Auran and Damascus and the court of Enom, the eastern quarter reaches as far as Emath: from the midst of the 'wrath' of 'Auran', and from the midst of 'Damascus', namely of the 'blood' 'of penitence', and from the midst of 'Galaad', which means 'revelation' or 'mound of testimony': so that, after wrath and penitence, it may show the hope of salvation; and from the midst of the land of 'Israel', which contains the 'vision' 'of peace', it reaches to the most sweet streams of the Jordan, which, with the sea set far apart, attains the light of the east, so that it is ended by the 'river' 'Iordanis', which means 'stream of judgment', and by the boundary of the 'torrent'; but what is set down in the Seventy, 'phoeniconos', that is, 'of the palm grove', is not found in the Hebrew, for which we translated 'you shall measure': and the error is manifest, because for 'thamoddu' [you shall measure], deceived by the likeness of the letters 'daleth' and 'res' [d and r], they read 'thamorru' [palm].
47:19
But the southern quarter, the meridional, from Tamar up to the waters of contradiction (or to the waters of 'Mariboth' — for these mean 'contradiction' or διαδίκασμοι, that is, 'disputes' —) of Kadesh too, and the torrent up to the Great Sea; this is the southern quarter toward the south. For which in the book of Numbers it is written thus: It will begin from the wilderness of Sin, which is beside Edom, and will have as boundaries toward the east the sea. And they will go around the southern quarter by the Ascent of the Scorpion, so that they pass Senna and come into the south as far as Kadesh-barnea, whence the borders will go out to a village named Addar, and will extend as far as Asemona. And the boundary will go around from Asemona as far as the torrent of Egypt, and will be ended by the shore of the Great Sea. Which briefly signifies this — lest on the occasion of Ezekiel we seem to pass over to a very broad exposition of Numbers —: that the boundary goes around from the wilderness of Sin, which is beside Edom, and from the Red Sea, and, through the Ascent of the Scorpion and through Senna and Kadesh-barnea and the court of Addar and Asemona, reaches as far as the torrent of Egypt, which flows into the sea beside the city of Rhinocorura; but this boundary of the southern quarter, that is, the meridional, begins from Tamar — which is a city in the wilderness, which Solomon too built with wondrous works, and today it is named Palmyra, and in the Hebrew tongue it is called 'thamar', which in our language means 'palm' — up to the waters of contradiction of Kadesh, which beyond doubt is in the desert, and the torrent entering the Great Sea, this sea which stretches along the shores of Egypt and Palestine, and this is the southern quarter toward the south. After the quarter of the north, then, and of the east, when the sun of righteousness has risen for us, we receive the meridional quarter, when the whole light is poured upon us from above, and with Abraham we enter the banquet and are inebriated with wine — which makes glad the heart of man — with Joseph and his brothers; and this possession and these boundaries begin from 'Thamar', namely from the 'palm' and the victory over vices, up to the waters of contradiction: for virtues are always contradicted — whence the Jews too, disputing against Paul, assert that the preaching of the Gospel is contradicted in the whole world; and in the Gospel we read, as Simeon says: This one will be for the ruin and resurrection of many, and for a sign that will be contradicted —, but all contradiction is of 'holiness', which 'Cades' means — as the psalmist says: The Lord will shake the desert of Cades: which, namely, at first did not have the holiness of the Lord, but was shaken and moved, so as to receive God as its guest, who says: Upon whom will my spirit rest, if not upon the humble and quiet and the one who trembles at my words? —; after the desert of Cades, up to the Great Sea, in the south of the southern quarter, is the torrent of which we spoke above, which has rains not from the earth but from heaven, collected from the variety of diverse virtues.
47:20
And the quarter of the sea, the Great Sea, from the border straight on until you come to Hamath; this is the quarter of the sea. Of which the book of Numbers writes more plainly and more briefly: But the western quarter will begin from the Great Sea, and will be closed by that same end, that is, from sea to sea: namely from the torrent of Rhinocorura, which flows into the sea, up to that place which is opposite Hamath, the city of Syria, of which we spoke above. But the west, according to the laws of tropology, is always in the sea, always in the brine and the waves, where every day shipwrecks are stirred up, and the deaths of the wretched, and the loss of riches and merchandise; and yet, when we have broken all these things by patience, we come straight on to 'Emath', that is, to the 'truth' of the Lord, who, once persecutions are overcome, has promised us eternal rewards.
47:21-23
And you shall divide this land for yourselves by the tribes of Israel; and you shall cast it as an inheritance, for yourselves and for the strangers who have come to you, who will have begotten sons in your midst, and they shall be to you as natives among the sons of Israel: with you they shall divide the possession in the midst of the tribes of Israel; and in whatever tribe the stranger shall be, there you shall give him a possession, says the Lord God. Through this passage we learn — and the haughtiness of the Jews is struck down — that nothing is divided between Israel and the people of the Gentiles: for if the land is divided to strangers and foreigners together with those who are of the people of Israel, that is, the natives, no one doubts that the inheritance is the same for the people of the Gentiles and for the people of the Jews, if only they have been converted to the worship of the God of Israel — which properly possesses the name Christian —, the Jews having the letter of the law and we the spirit, they holding the parchments and we him who is written in the parchments; and with Moses the land is divided by lot, but here, as we said, it is assigned by the judgment of the Lord, and there is one possession for the stranger and for Israel, and in the individual tribes the inheritance is given, at the command of the Lord God.
48:1-7
And these are the names of the tribes: from the borders of the north, beside the way of Ethalon, for those going to Hamath, Court Enon, the border of Damascus toward the north beside Hamath; and its eastern side shall be the sea, Dan one. And from the border of Dan, from the eastern side to the side of the sea, Asher one. And above the border of Asher, from the eastern side to the side of the sea, Naphtali one. And above the border of Naphtali, from the eastern side to the side of the sea, Manasseh one. And above the border of Manasseh, from the eastern side to the side of the sea, Ephraim one. And above the border of Ephraim, from the eastern side to the side of the sea, Reuben one. And above the border of Reuben, from the eastern side to the side of the sea, Judah one. Now that the possession of the holy land has been described, both according to the present prophecy of Ezekiel and according to the book of Numbers, the possession of the individual tribes is now described, from the eastern side to the side of the west, that is, of the sea. And first they receive their boundaries from the north, beside the way of Ethalon, for those going to Hamath, 'Court' — or 'Aser' — Enon, the border of Damascus toward the north beside Hamath, of which we have already spoken before; and the tribe of Dan begins first, Asher second, Naphtali third, Manasseh fourth, Ephraim fifth, Reuben sixth, Judah seventh: that is, on the left side, and the number seven is completed. — Then the firstfruits of the priests and of the Levites, and the sanctuary of the Lord in the midst, and the Holy of Holies; the city itself also is described, foursquare, having four thousand and five hundred reeds on each side; the suburbs of the priests and of the Levites are also described in order, and the possession of the prince; and again on the right side follow five tribes, likewise from the side of the east to the side of the west, of which the first is Benjamin, the second Simeon, having its own possession specially and by no means mixed with Judah as before, the third Issachar, the fourth Zebulun, the fifth Gad; and the gates of the city, three on each side, and the name of the city itself, which is contained on the plate of gold on the forehead of the high priest — about all of which we shall discourse in their places —. This too is to be noted: that the names of the forty-eight cities which in the volume of Numbers are given to the Levitical tribe to dwell in, with their suburbs, are passed over in silence here, and so are the cities of the fugitives, of which three beyond the Jordan, namely Bezer and Ramoth and Golan, were given in the two and a half tribes, and three on this side of the Jordan, namely Kedesh and Shechem and Kiriath-arba: for there was no need, in a mystical description and in the dwelling of the saints and a perfect way of life, to describe the refuges of fugitives, which Israel needed while still set upon the earth and hastening through many labors and dangers to come to this city, and saying in each of the saints: I am a stranger and a sojourner, as all my fathers were, and in another place: I have dwelt with those who dwell in Kedar; much has my soul sojourned.
48:8-9
And above the border of Judah, from the eastern side to the side of the sea, shall be the firstfruits which you shall set apart, twenty-five thousand in breadth, and in length as each of the portions from the eastern side to the side of the sea; and the sanctuary shall be in the midst of it. The firstfruits which you shall set apart for the Lord: the length twenty-five thousand, and the breadth ten thousand. It is superfluous to discuss again what has been discussed, and to labor once more, as though they had not been said, over things on which we labored above. After the boundaries of the seven tribes, the firstfruits are described from the east to the west, whose breadth is to hold twenty-five thousand reeds, but the length as much as the individual tribes hold from the east to the sea; the number of this length is uncertain, for no measure was set down in the description of the individual tribes; but if the breadth has twenty-five thousand reeds, one may infer that the number of the length, which is always greater than the breadth, is much greater. In the midst, moreover, the sanctuary is placed, beside the firstfruits which are set apart for the Lord, of a length of twenty-five thousand reeds and a breadth of ten thousand — reading which, we can say nothing else but that saying of the Apostle: O the depth of the riches and of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments, and untraceable his ways!, and in another place: That you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, to know also the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God —. The number twenty-five, moreover, is referred to the senses — of which it was said: You shall possess a divine sense —, and that of ten thousand to perfect and consummate virtue — which by the decalogue of the old instrument reaches to the mystery of the Gospel; we touched on this briefly before, and here we shall recall it in part: for if, adding from one, you reach four, you will fill up the number ten, and so it will come about that the Old Testament is bound together in the New, and the New is expanded in the Old —.
48:10-12
These moreover shall be the firstfruits of the sanctuary of the priests: toward the north twenty-five thousand in length, and toward the sea ten thousand in breadth, and also toward the east ten thousand in breadth, and toward the south twenty-five thousand in length; and the sanctuary of the Lord shall be in the midst of it: the sanctuary for the priests, of the sons of Zadok, who kept my ceremonies and did not go astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray. And there shall be firstfruits from the firstfruits of the land, the Holy of Holies, beside the border of the Levites. The four sides of the firstfruits of the sanctuary are described — a portion which belongs not to the people or to the common crowd, nor to the Levites, a lower rank, but properly to the worship of the priests —: namely of the north and of the west and of the east and of the south; and part by part the order of progress is told: so that, leaving the cold of the north, we may come to the west, where, that is, our vices may set and perish, and thence pass over to the east, and, when the sun of righteousness has risen for us, come to the south, in which the light is brightest and perfect; and both from the north to the sea and from the east to the south there are to be twenty-five thousand in length and ten thousand in breadth, so that everywhere the same measure of length and breadth may be kept. The sanctuary, moreover (that is, the temple) of the Lord, shall be in the midst of the priestly firstfruits, and it will be walled about on every part with equal sides; and because he had said: These moreover shall be the firstfruits of the sanctuary of the priests, lest under the common term all priests should claim for themselves the possession of this place and the ceremonies to be observed, he sets it down specifically, adding: The sanctuary shall be for the priests, of the sons of 'Sadoc' — which means 'righteous', of whom it is said: The Lord is righteous and has loved righteousnesses; his face has seen equity; for 'Sadoc' the Seventy write 'Saduc'. This Sadoc speaks in the Gospel: For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, and of him, under the name of Solomon, the prophet mystically sings: O God, give your judgment to the king, and your righteousness to the king's son —. Those priests, however, shall possess the sanctuary of the Lord and keep his ceremonies: Who did not go astray when the children of Israel and the Levites went astray, about whom there was discussion in the earlier parts: they do not offer victims but, content with the privilege of the name and with the humility of their error, always say in their heart: I know my iniquity, and my sin is ever against me — let the priestly rank hear this, and he who was overcome by the heat of the Arian persecution and afterwards bowed his neck to the true faith lest he lack wealth and power: let it be enough for him if he is not expelled from the temple, if he holds some shadow and image of his former name, and let him not, lolling back and belching up delicacies, as though spotless and pure, belch upon us from a most lofty throne the nausea of his ignorance and barbarous garrulity —. For there shall be, he says, for 'them' firstfruits from the firstfruits of the land — that is, for the priests, and for those Who did not go astray when the children of Israel and the Levites went astray; and firstfruits from firstfruits, as tithes of tithes —, and the Holy of Holies beside the border of the Levites, so that the Levites indeed may have the borders adjoining the priests, but may not be able to hold the navel, that is, its middle, and the possession itself.
48:13-15
And also for the Levites likewise, beside the borders of the priests, twenty-five thousand in length and ten thousand in breadth; the whole length twenty-five thousand and the breadth ten thousand; and they shall not sell of it, nor exchange (or measure), nor shall the firstfruits of the land be transferred (or taken away), because they are sanctified to the Lord. But the five thousand that remain in breadth by twenty-five thousand shall be profane, of the city, for dwelling and for suburbs; and the city shall be in the midst of it. What we have rendered as 'profane', for which Aquila translated βέβηλον, Symmachus and Theodotion λαικόν, the Seventy said προτείχισμα, which we can call 'outer wall'; but 'profane' and 'lay', that is, 'common', is what all the people may dwell in anywhere; and what they said: Nor shall it be measured nor taken away, for what we said: It shall not be exchanged nor transferred, plainly has no sense. The possession of the Levites is also described, which is indeed neighboring to the borders of the priests, and has, for the multitude of the Levites, the same spaces in length and in breadth that the fewness of the priests has, but nevertheless uses its own boundaries and understands that it is separated from the priestly rank, to strike down the pride of the ministers who, ignorant of the humility of their station, swell up beyond the priests, that is, the presbyters: they reckon their dignity not by merit but by riches; certainly, whoever is first of the ministers, because he makes proclamation item by item among the people and yet does not depart from the side of the high priest, thinks it an injury if he is ordained a presbyter, and he does not remember, minister of tables and of widows, that he was appointed to the service not only of the priests but also of the widows and of the poor. And they shall not sell, he says, of it, nor exchange, so that the possession of the Levitical allotment may remain eternal, and the merit of the dignity may not be overcome by price, nor be transferred from one to another: because the things that are sanctified to the Lord do not belong to those to whom they are given, but to him in whose name they are possessed. But the five thousand that remain in breadth by twenty-five thousand — 'of length' is understood —, shall be profane, of the city, so that all the Israelites and anyone of the common people may dwell there; not that they are unclean, or that anything in the dwelling of the holy land is thought defiled and filthy, but that, besides the priests, all are permitted to dwell in them; by which we understand that all the things we refer to the senses, that is, to the desires of the body — what we take in by sight and hearing, by touch, smell and taste — are profane and do not have the sanctity of the temple, and are not of priestly privilege but of lay cheapness. And the city shall be in the midst — of which it is written: The rush of the river gladdens the city of God, and: A city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden —; of it we shall speak in what follows. Προτείχισμα, that is, 'outer wall', and διάστημα, that is, 'space', which the Seventy translated for 'suburbs': what sense it has in this place we do not know.
48:16
And these the measures of the same: toward the northern side four thousand five hundred, and toward the southern side four thousand five hundred, and toward the eastern side four thousand five hundred, and toward the western side four thousand five hundred. As to his saying: And these are its measures, 'of the city' is to be understood; for at the end of the preceding chapter it was set down: And the city shall be in the midst of it, that is, of the land. And first he begins from the northern side and sets the southern side opposite it, and again he matches like with like, so as to set over against the eastern side the western, that is, the sea; and each side of the city has four thousand and five hundred reeds, which, when reckoned, make eleven thousand and eighty-five paces, so that the whole city together, as is written at the end of this volume, has eighteen thousand reeds round about, which make forty-four thousand paces and three hundred and forty — whence also Psalm 44 (45), which is entitled: To the end, for those who shall be changed, and pertains 'to Ididia', that is, 'to the beloved of the Lord', or, as Aquila translated, 'for the lilies', and Symmachus 'for the flowers', contains the mysteries of the Church, which is the city of the Lord, of which it is written in the same psalm: The queen stood at your right hand in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety, and again: All the glory of the king's daughter is within, so that she is not like tombs whitewashed outside, but washes all things of the dish both within and without —. And when we have withdrawn from the north, the coldest wind, we pass over to the south, and, after the light of knowledge has risen in us, we dread the setting of our strengths, considering by no means the things past but the things to come, and not holding a sure possession of virtue, but saying daily in prayer: Lead us not into temptation, which we cannot bear.
48:17
And the suburbs of the city shall be toward the north two hundred fifty, and toward the south two hundred fifty, and toward the east two hundred fifty, and toward the sea two hundred fifty. For 'suburbs', which in Hebrew are called 'magras', the Seventy again translated διάστημα, that is, 'space'. As to its saying 'two hundred fifty' on each side, 'reeds' is understood, which have six cubits each and one handbreadth, and on each side they make a little less than six hundred and seventeen paces, and all together a thousand reeds, amounting to two thousand four hundred and sixty-eight paces: these spaces surround the walls of the city round about, so as to divide between the city and the things that remain. From this it is shown that no one, whether of those who carry out the works of the city or of those gathering produce, has license over these spaces, but that they are free from the use and work of men, so that the surroundings of the city walls may have the pleasantness of shrubs and herbs springing up of their own accord, and of the other things that the earth brings forth.
48:18-20
And what remains in length alongside the firstfruits of the sanctuary, ten thousand to the east and ten thousand to the west, shall be as the firstfruits of the sanctuary, and its produce shall be for food (or for loaves) for those who serve (or work) in the works of the city. And those serving (or working) in the works of the city shall serve the city (or shall work) from all the tribes of Israel. All the firstfruits of twenty-five thousand, by twenty-five thousand foursquare, shall be set apart for the firstfruits of the sanctuary and the possession of the city. After the description of the holy city and its suburbs, he wishes the remaining part of the firstfruits of the sanctuary, ten thousand reeds stretching to the east and another ten thousand to the west, to be assigned to those who carry out the works of the city for various uses and for whatever the city needs: namely, that they be sown, and that the workers feed on the produce that grows in this space of land, those who either build the walls of the city or restore what is broken and ruinous, so that the city may have its adornment, and its roofs be kept in repair and restored when necessity demands — and this we find done not only in Israel or in the possession of the holy land, which spiritually contain the mysteries of the Church, but in the Roman empire too, so that certain estates belong to the jurisdiction of cities, either by royal munificence or by the inheritances and donation of many, lest, namely, the buildings gradually collapse and the public edifices, which are an ornament to the city, be harmed by long neglect —. And the workers, he says (or those who serve in the works of the city), shall be from all the tribes of Israel, so that no one may think himself exempt from the works of the city, but all may vie with one another in building up the Church — which we read was done in the tabernacle too, so that, according to the variety of their means, one offered gold and silver, scarlet, fine linen and purple, and various and diverse woofs, others skins and goats' hair; and, though the gifts were diverse according to the measure of their substance, the reward of the givers was one, nay rather greater for those who offered small things indeed but greater in proportion to their means, after the example of the poor widow who put two mites into the gifts of the treasury and was praised by the judgment of the Lord, who said: Truly I say to you that this poor little widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put into the gifts of God, but she out of that which she lacks has put in all the living that she had —. As therefore we have spoken about the works of the city, so this must be touched on briefly: that all the firstfruits of the sanctuary and the possession of the city, reckoned together foursquare, contain two hundred and forty-six thousand and a third part — for if twenty-five thousand reeds — which have six cubits each and one handbreadth — make of our paces, that is, Roman paces, sixty-one thousand six hundred and sixty-seven, no one doubts that these, reckoned fourfold, produce the number above —; from which we perceive that all things are to be understood spiritually, and that the possession of the Church is much broader than it once was in Judea, where they did not even receive portions of the holy land, but from the individual tribes received, in forty-eight cities, not a full possession but a dwelling and lodgings; so that those too who seem to be lay and not to have attained to the priestly and Levitical rank may nevertheless, if they work for the city of the Lord, feed on the holy land of the meek, and on the land of believers, one of whom said: I believe I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.
48:21-22
And what remains shall be the prince's, on every side (or on this side and that) of the firstfruits of the sanctuary and of the possession of the city, over against (or before the face of) the twenty-five thousand of the firstfruits as far as the eastern border, and also from the sea over against (or before the face of) the twenty-five thousand as far as the border of the sea, likewise in the portions of the prince it shall be; and the firstfruits of the sanctuary and the sanctuary of the temple shall be in the midst of it. And of the possession of the Levites and of the possession of the city, in the midst of the portions of the prince, it shall be toward the border of Judah and toward the border of Benjamin, and shall belong to the prince. About this prince it was argued more fully above, and that he alone was to receive as much as one tribe; but now we learn something else: that whatever remains from all the tribes, he alone receives, so that there is no tribe that does not offer gifts to the prince, not from elsewhere but from the firstfruits which serve the temple and the sanctuary and the parts assigned to the city — for this is what he says: Over against (or before the face of) the twenty-five thousand of the firstfruits as far as the eastern border (or as far as the eastern border of the sea), so that the firstfruits are between the seven and the five, and in the firstfruits themselves the city and its suburbs, and in the midst of the city the sanctuary of the temple —. But also whatever remains of the possession of the Levites and of the possession of the city will be allotted to the prince, and the furthest part of the seven tribes, neighboring the firstfruits and the city and the temple, will be in the tribe of Judah, and the furthest part of the five tribes, by the same right as above, in the tribe of Benjamin; and that furthest part itself will belong to the prince. Hence the mysteries of holy Scripture are to be marveled at, and pondered rather than set forth in speech. For in the earlier division of the lands beyond the Jordan, through Moses, the land was divided to the two tribes, Reuben and Gad, and to the half tribe of Manasseh; but within the Jordan, through Joshua son of Nun and Eleazar son of Aaron, Judah took possession on the south, and Ephraim and the half tribe of Manasseh on the north; afterwards, however, when spies had been sent out from Shiloh through the individual tribes and the description of the land had been brought to Joshua and Eleazar, Benjamin received a possession beside Judah on the south and beside Ephraim and the half tribe of Manasseh; the second tribe, Simeon, received its inheritance within the tribe of Judah — that what is written of Levi and Simeon might be fulfilled: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel —; the third, Zebulun, received Galilee, in which is Mount Tabor; the fourth, Issachar, where Jezreel is, as far as the Jordan; the fifth, Asher, as far as Mount Carmel, which overhangs the Great Sea, and Tyre and Sidon; the sixth, Naphtali, in Galilee as far as the Jordan, where Tiberias is, which was once called Chinnereth; the seventh, Dan, as far as Joppa, where are the cities of Aijalon and Selebi and Emmaus, which is now called Nicopolis — although we have read that afterwards, passing over other tribes, they took for themselves the city of Leshem in the tribe of Dan, which today is called Paneas. Since these things are so, and there is so great a difference between the earlier description of the tribes and the one now given, let us consider this: how, both in the present description and in the past one, the city and the temple are placed between the tribe of Judah and Benjamin; and in the earlier description Judah was on the south and Benjamin on the north, but here, on the contrary, it comes about that Judah is on the north and Benjamin on the south; after whom the second is Simeon, the third Issachar, the fourth Zebulun, the fifth Gad: namely five tribes, as is said in what follows; for it is written:
48:23-29
And for the remaining tribes: from the eastern side to the western side, Benjamin one. And over against the border of Benjamin, from the eastern side to the western side, Simeon one. And above the border of Simeon, from the eastern side to the side of the west, Issachar one. And above the border of Issachar, from the eastern side to the western side, Zebulun one. And above the border of Zebulun, from the eastern side to the side of the sea, Gad one. And above the border of Gad, toward the side of the south, toward the midday; and the boundary shall be from Tamar as far as the waters of Contradiction, Kadesh, and the inheritance over against the Great Sea. This is the land which you shall allot to the children of Israel, and these are their divisions, says the Lord God. As to the fact that with the five and the seven tribes 'una' [one, in the feminine] is always placed at the end, either 'part' or 'possession' or 'inheritance' is understood, although Aquila and Symmachus translate in the neuter gender τό ὅριον, which signifies 'border'. And this is briefly to be noted: that the tribe of Gad, the last of the five tribes — which in the earlier description was beyond the Jordan — is placed in that part which Judah held before, namely toward the side of the south, toward the midday, and that the boundary is from Thamar as far as the waters of Contradiction, Kadesh, the inheritance over against the Great Sea; Thamar is the very place of which we have already spoken, which they now call 'Palmyra', and which was once built by Solomon: for 'palm' in the Hebrew tongue is called 'Thamar', and some think it obtained this name from the fact that there are very many palm groves there. And as to what follows: As far as the waters of Contradiction, Kadesh, the inheritance over against the Great Sea (for which the Seventy translated from Theman and the water of Mariboth, Kadesh, the inheritance as far as the Great Sea), this is to be observed: that in the Hebrew the same word 'nehela', because it is ambiguous, means both 'inheritance' and 'torrent', and that here it ought to be taken as 'torrent' rather than 'inheritance': for this is the torrent which enters the Great Sea at Rhinocorura, as we have already said before; Kadesh, moreover, which in the book of Joshua is called Cadesbarne, is in the desert which extends as far as the city of Petra; 'Mariboth', however, which means 'of Contradiction', is not the name of a place, as most suppose, but of the waters at which the people contradicted the Lord and Moses offended God, as the psalm says: They tempted him at the water of Contradiction, and Moses was afflicted on their account. And the whole inheritance of the holy land on the southern side, beside the borders of Egypt, is bounded by the torrent of Rhinocorura. And because 'Gad' means 'temptation', in his possession we pass from the palm groves to the waters of Contradiction, as far as 'Cades', which means 'holy', so that we may understand that even after the victory over the world we ought to be anxious and always in fear, and to remember that little verse: The life of men upon earth is temptation, and to arrive at holiness while adversaries resist, and so to obtain the victory; and let us contemplate close at hand the torrent full of rains.
48:30-35
And these are the outgoings of the city: from the northern side you shall measure four thousand five hundred. And the gates of the city after the names of the tribes of Israel: three gates from the north, the gate of Reuben one, the gate of Judah one, the gate of Levi one. And toward the eastern side four thousand five hundred; and three gates: the gate of Joseph one, the gate of Benjamin one, the gate of Dan one. And toward the southern side you shall measure four thousand five hundred: the gate of Simeon one, the gate of Issachar one, the gate of Zebulun one. And toward the western side four thousand five hundred; their gates three: the gate of Gad one, the gate of Asher one, the gate of Naphtali one. Round about eighteen thousand; and the name of the city from that day: The Lord is there. Concerning the circuit of the city, that on each side, foursquare, it had four thousand five hundred reeds, the preceding discourse has told; these make eighteen thousand reeds, as is also set down in the present chapter, that is, forty-four thousand paces and three hundred and forty paces. Now it is written that on each side, that is, along eleven thousand paces and eighty-five paces, there were three gates, which Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion call διεξόδους, the Seventy διεκβολάς, and which we have translated 'outgoings' and 'exits' of the city. And first this is to be briefly pointed out: that the same tribes encamped around the tabernacle in such a way that on the east were Judah, Issachar and Zebulun, sons of Leah; and on the south Reuben, Simeon, Gad, two sons of Leah and the third a son of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid; but on the west Ephraim, Manasseh and Benjamin, namely two sons of Rachel — because Joseph, in place of the tribe of Levi, which was assigned to the sacrifices, was divided into two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh —; and on the north Dan and Asher and Naphtali, of whom the first and the third are sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid, the second a son of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid: ignoble, and placed toward the north, inasmuch as they were begotten of the stock of handmaids at odds with one another. This is according to the book of Numbers and the description of the tabernacle which, at God's command, was dictated by the mouth of Moses. But our city — which is The city of the great king: Whose artificer and founder is God, of which the psalmist also sings: Will Zion say: A man, and a man was born in her, and the Most High himself founded her? — has another description of the tribes in the holy land, and another measure of the city, order of possession and sides of the individual tribes. For first, three gates or exits of the city are set over against the northern side, of which are Reuben the firstborn, and Judah, the founder of the royal stock, and Levi, about whose name nothing was said in the description of the tabernacle and of the camp: so that, possessing the birthright, as a royal and priestly race, we may despise the cold of the north; secondly, toward the east are Joseph, Benjamin and Dan, both sons of Rachel and one of Bilhah her handmaid; toward the south, Simeon, Issachar and Zebulun, of whom three are sons of Leah; further, toward the west Gad, Asher and Naphtali, of whom the first two are sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, the third a son of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid — Who is wise, and will understand these things? understanding, will know them? For the ways of the Lord are right, and the righteous will walk in them; but the transgressors will fall in them —. These twelve gates or exits, I think, were joined to the individual tribes, according to the quality of their merits and virtues, under the names of the apostles and of the patriarchs; of them it is written more openly in the Revelation of John too, and the wonderful mysteries of the divine Scriptures bear witness. And it is necessary that such a city hold eighteen thousand reeds round about, under which number, in Psalm 18 (19) also, the natural law is set down, and the grace of the Gospel is described, by which the Church, that is, the city of the Savior, has been built. The name of the city itself, too, will by no means be, as before, 'Hierosolyma', which means 'vision of peace', but 'Adonai sam', which is rendered into the Latin tongue 'The Lord is there': who will never withdraw from her, as he departed before from the former people, saying to the disciples: Arise, let us go hence, and to the Jews: Your house shall be left to you desolate, but will have an eternal possession and himself be her possession, promising to the same disciples: Behold, I am with you even to the consummation of the age.