OF OUR FATHER AMONG THE SAINTS CYRIL ON THE PROPHET HABAKKUK

Book 1

It has been arranged for us very wisely and skillfully and of the proposed prophecy's manner, yet we will find it full of a holy economy; for it is fitting for the saints themselves to exclaim and say, "It is not you "who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks "in you." But those who wish to understand need no small intelligence; since one might perceive the purpose of the prophecy laboring with a twofold contemplation within itself, both spiritual and historical at the same time; I will narrate beforehand usefully, and having brought together as in brief, the parts of the prophecy, and I will say for what purpose it was made. For thus the meaning would come to the readers with ease, and will find nothing arduous. Since Israel, then, was not moderately vexed at what was foretold through the prophets; for they knew, they knew, that at times it would be captive, and would fall into the hands of enemies, and lie under the yoke of unaccustomed slavery; this blessed Habakkuk tries to teach that by a just decree of God who rules all things, such things would happen to them at times, and for reasonable causes. For having prized a lawless and most outlandish life, and having inclined towards every falsehood, they did not cease sharpening the undefiled mind against themselves, until their affairs finally descended to this misery. And this he makes clear, making a condemnation of those who chose to live unholily, and placing this matter as a kind of prelude and hypothesis for the whole prophecy, then having brought in God threatening the despisers with the attack of the Babylonians. And since it was necessary for him not only to appear as a foreteller of grim things and of those which are most accustomed to cause grief, and to come into the midst, and to proclaim beforehand the most shameful of evils that would at times befall them, but also to narrate beforehand usefully something of the things that lead to a cure, and to utter beforehand the things through which it was likely that the sufferers would find respite; he cried out against the cruelty of the Babylonians themselves, and calls despisers those who burned down the divine temple itself, and sacked the holy city, and had no regard for the sacred vessels. "For why," he says, "do you look upon those who despise, will you be silent "when the wicked swallows up the righteous man?" Then he adds also very clearly the capture of Babylon itself, and the redemption from unaccustomed slavery of those who had suffered, through Cyrus at the appointed times. And from the partial redemption he passes to the the discourse cleverly on the universal and most general, that is, that which has come about through Christ for all those redeemed through faith, and laying a- side the yoke of sin, and escaping a bitter and savage master, Satan. You have in these things the purpose of the whole prophecy for us collected as if in brief; and we will speak, treating each point in turn as is possible. The oracle which Habakkuk the Prophet saw. By "oracle" he means in this the reception of the vision, or of foreknowledge, which one might take, God giving it; for he multiplied visions according to what is written, and he has spo- ken to prophets, revealing to them beforehand through the Holy Spirit the things that will be, and placing them almost as if already present and in sight. that they are not known to speak from their own hearts, but rather convey to us the words from God, he clearly persuades, by nam- ing himself a Prophet and showing himself full of the grace for this. How long, O Lord, shall I cry out, and you will not hear? I will cry out to you being wronged, and you will not save? The Prophet indeed assumes the per- son of one who is defrauded, and who endures unbearable insolence and drunken violence from those accustom- ed to do wrong; and very skillfully he testifies to God's love for humanity which is beyond description. For he shows Him as being very patient, although He is accustomed to hating the wicked. and that he does not immediately inflict punishments on those who stumble, he has shown clearly, say- ing that He has come to such a point of silence and long-suffering as to require henceforth even an outcry, as some are no longer making their greed against others bearable, but as it were are letting loose unbri- dled insolence upon the weaker. For through the things by which he cries out against God's patience, by these very things he testifies to God's love for humanity which is beyond measure. For "how long," he says, "O Lord, shall I cry out, and you will not hear? I will cry out to you being wronged, and you will not save?" although threatening very many and bitter punishments for those who wish to transgress. Why have you shown me toils and labors to look upon, misery and impiety? From this you might learn the hatred of evil of the saints; for they call the labors of others their own. For this reason also the most- wise Paul says, "Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who "is made to stumble, and I do not burn?" and He has commanded us ourselves to "weep with those who weep," showing that compassion and love for one another are most befitting of saints; But he says that God showed him toils and labors; clearly, of those who are transgress- ing; and the impiety of those accustomed to do wrong, not as if He him- self had prepared this suffering for him, but as one who has been long-suffering with those who have done these things and for so long a time, that is, as one who could have removed him from life, so that he would not be a spectator of such extremely monstrous things. But it is a custom for the saints in such bitter discouragements to seek to depart, just as indeed the blessed Jonah [says], "And now, Lord, take, he says, "my soul from me, for it is better for me to die than "to live;" and the most wise Paul also writes that "It is far better "to depart and be with Christ." For the laying aside of labors for those who wish to live holily is to be freed at last from the affairs in this world, and to be released, as it were, from the dreadful care of this place. Judgment has come to be against me, and the judge accepts [bribes]; because of this the law is scattered, and judgment is not carried out to the end, because the impious man oppresses the just, for this reason judgment will go forth perverted. That nothing of his own persuades him to be discouraged, but rather he is distressed as a saint and a lover of justice seeing those who disregard the divine commandment, not just any random people, but those who are resplendent with the highest honors, and who are set o- ver the peoples, and who are appointed to the dignity of judges he shows clearly, saying that the votes for righteousness have been subverted, although the law has clearly forbidden, "You shall not show "partiality in judgment, for the judgment is God's." Therefore, to judge is a great thing, and a wise and incorruptible man would become an imitator of the divine pre-eminence and glory a judge, and not enduring to pervert the vote of the just; but exceedingly insolent, and the bribe-taker comes against the divine dignities themselves, since he indeed defaces the beauty of truth, and has practiced perverting what is right, saying "evil is good and good is evil," and impiously reckoning "darkness for light, and light for darkness." Therefore, the Prophet reveals that in this one most excellent and exceedingly renowned commandment, the whole law is immediately trampled. For he who has erred concerning the most important part of what is fitting, how could he be secure concerning the greater? And the Prophet has brought himself in as a witness and spectator of the greed. But since he says that judging rightly is neglected, for this reason the law is weak, and the correctness of judgments is not carried out according to what seems good to you, O Lord, and the impious man oppresses the just. This is an accusation against the Synagogue of the Jews, and it has been brought by God through the voice of other prophets. For he said that "Her leaders judged for bribes;" and again to her through the voice of Isaiah, "Your silver is dross, your wine merchants mix wine with water, your rulers are disobedient, companions of thieves, loving gifts, pursuing rewards, not judging orphans, and not attending to the judgment of the widow." And now the Prophet Habakkuk seems to want to fulfill that which is in the book of Proverbs, "What your eyes have seen, speak;" and he further demonstrates that he made a most reasonable outcry against the serenity inherent in God, who is long-suffering in such a way as befits him; for God is good; except insofar as it came to the human mind that his long-suffering was beyond all measure. And against Christ the judgment has gone forth perverted, and the law has been scattered. For him whom it was better to honor as God, and for this reason a wonder-worker, the leaders of the Jews did not cease slandering, and setting everything in motion with their own foul mouths, there is nothing absurd which they have not dared to say against him; so that at one time they thought he cast out demons by Beelzebul, and at another they called him a winebibber and demon-possessed. Then, when it was necessary to name him Savior and Redeemer of all, they impiously killed him, the wretched ones having brought forth a perverse verdict against him, although the law clearly stated, "You shall not kill the innocent and the just." And Christ also accused them in another way, as not enduring to think right and just things, but being silent, and as it were closing the eye of their mind to what Moses might say, although he broke the law concerning the sabbath; but leaping up, and very bitterly, at the god-befitting things he himself would do on the sabbath; for he spoke thus: "I have done one work, and you all marvel. For this reason Moses gave you circumcision, not that it is from Moses, but that it is from the fathers, and on the sabbath you circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on the sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because I made a whole man well on the sabbath? Do not judge by appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." Behold, you scoffers, and look, and wonder marvelously, and perish; for I am doing a work in your days that you will not believe, if anyone should declare it to you. When the Prophet had cried out against the greed of the lawless, and almost accused the delay of the long-suffering towards them; for a just and virtue-loving soul is a thing that hates evil; to those who are accustomed to scoff, the God of all then proclaims to see and to look and to deem worthy of wonder all such things as ought to be wondered at. And these were the things that were somehow impending, and about to happen almost immediately, and having a dreadful attack and a hated assault, which indeed he has usefully commanded them to look up at beforehand, not being unable to destroy those against whom it might appear to be coming; but wonderful that they are also unexpected, and beyond hope and hard to bear and, because of their extreme terribleness, apt to strike with terror, and perhaps somewhere even disbelieved. For somehow evils of great magnitude are always very near to having to be disbelieved, especially if they are seen happening to those who had in no way hoped to suffer. For who would ever have thought that the beloved Israel, the firstborn among children, for whose sake Egypt perished, and countless nations have fallen, of Canaanites and Amorites, Hivites and Perizzites and Jebusites, would arrive at this point of misery, so that their whole country would be driven out, and they would endure an inglorious and unbearable slavery, wandering in a foreign land after the attacks of the war, for which every word is insufficient, if one should wish to explain each thing clearly? For there have been arsons and murders, and the dragging of women, and the dashing of infants against the ground, and as the prophet Jeremiah says, "The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children." And the holy places themselves have been sacked, and by the captors, who had come to the very height of wickedness, nothing was left unattempted. Therefore, they are unbelievable and, as it were, unpersuasive for narration on account of the extreme cruelty of those who committed them. For this reason he says that in their days he will do a work which they will not believe, if anyone should happen to relate it to them. And by saying "in your days," he allows it to be understood that not a long time will gallop past in between; but that the war is, as it were, at the door and immediate and near, and the judgment is not far off. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, the warriors, the swift and bitter nation, which goes upon the breadth of the earth, to take possession of dwellings not its own. What the thing disbelieved is, if the story should be told, he shows immediately. For he threatened to bring upon them the Babylonians, the most warlike and savage race, and one in no way yielding to untamed beasts in cruelty, and always condemned for its unbridled madnesses; and he called it swift, for they are for the most part horsemen; and bitter because it is sharp and very difficult and not unskillful in tactics, having practiced generalship excellently. And strength running together with intelligence for the needs of war would, I think, most easily achieve what seems best to those warring, and will easily overcome those who are eager to resist. But since it was the custom of the Babylonians neither to always stay at home, nor indeed to ward off the attacks of those coming against them by defending themselves, but to spread out as if over all the earth, and to ravage the lands of others, and to be fond of always making their inheritance things which in no way belong to them, he says necessarily "the nation which goes upon the breadth of the earth, to take possession of dwellings not its own." For, as I said, it is fond of raging against the lands of others, and of always extending its own dominion. And the Jews, having killed the Lord, have suffered something of this kind; for although it was possible to inhabit their own land freely, with no one oppressing them, they have been given over to their conquerors, and have come under tribute and taxes, and have been placed under the scepters of those who are always expanding and have conquered all under heaven. For shaking off for themselves being ruled by Christ, they said expressly, "We have no king but Caesar." But it must be known that the soul of a man also, if it should treat the divine laws as nothing, will be under bitter tyrants, the unclean demons, and will serve wicked powers, which are always thirsting to inherit dwellings that are not their own; For man belongs to God; for He dwells in holy ones, and lodges in the souls of the pious. He is terrible and renowned; from himself his judgment shall be, and his dignity shall go forth from himself. The discourse passes to the leader of the nation, that is, to the tyrant of the Babylonians, perhaps Nebuchadnezzar, who took Judea, and having burned down the divine temple itself, carried away Judah as a captive into his own lands. Therefore, he says that he is terrible on account of his cruelty and lack of restraint in anger and his untamed mind and his harshness in judgments, but renowned again, as ambitious and boastful and an insatiable lover of glory; for those who have reigned in Babylon are always boastful and exceedingly ambitious. But since they themselves were the source of every counsel, yes, and of undertakings, commanding that what seemed good to them should simply be carried out by their subjects, for this reason he says, From him his judgment shall be; that is, he goes with self-willed impulses toward what moves him, and from excessive haughtiness would not tolerate the opinion of others, even if he did not command something that was possible to be done. For the counsels of the Persians are arrogant. But since it was again their custom to divine beforehand concerning battles, and to try to learn in advance by the art of magic where the matter at hand would end, he said again, that his oracle shall go forth from himself. And he calls the oracle a *lēmma*. For he will not summon those who know divination from other nations or lands, he says; but rather has them living with him, always lying and knowing nothing of the truth, except that they are always somehow stirring him up and are accustomed to proclaiming in advance that he will be victorious. And the rule of the Babylonians was exceedingly proud of this. And indeed Balak the king of the Moabites, when he planned to curse those of Israel and sought knowledge of the future, had Balaam summoned from Mesopotamia. For he thought that the magi of the Babylonians were clever and precise, and most mighty to accomplish anything whatsoever through the art of magic. But let us also receive, if you please, the interpretation of the text at hand in another way. For having defined the tyrant of the Babylonians, and having said that he is terrible and illustrious, he immediately added, From him his judgment shall be, and his oracle shall go forth from himself. And it will be possible to understand something like this. For God, the Master of all things, planned to punish Israel, which had chosen to live shamefully and wickedly. This judgment upon it, therefore, will come from him, he says, the Babylonian. It is similar to if he were to say, He will be a vessel of my wrath, and through him I will punish you, and the oracle concerning you, that is, whatever deliberation and will I might take up, will go forth from him again, that is, it will be accomplished; for he will bring to completion the things from my counsel and deliberation. And his horses will leap more than leopards, and will be swifter than the wolves of Arabia; and his horsemen will ride forth and will rush from afar, and they will fly like an eagle eager to eat. He strikes them again with exaggerations of the terrors, and tries to teach that the multitude of the enemies is terrible and unbreakable; and he drives them to repentance and to the need to learn the things which it was better for them to be seen to have accomplished. That the Babylonians, therefore, are very light-footed for running, all-daring and bold, and differing in nothing from wild beasts, and as it were swooping down on those who can be caught, he again intimates, comparing the horses to leopards; for the leopard is very good at leaping, and very agile in being able to pounce on those it pursues; and them to the wolves of Arabia, which they say are indeed wilder than all others, and dart with a swift run, making an assault on whomever they might choose; and he says they are not only like wolves, but also like eagles that run down upon dead bodies without delay and swoop down, as I said. And the mind of the Jews has become easy to capture and their heart, as it were, trampled by horses, that is, easily overrun, both by the passions of the flesh, and by the unclean spirits themselves, and in addition to these, by the most powerful attacks of the Romans. For they have stumbled against him who says, "And I will be to them," says the Lord, "a wall of fire round about, and I will be for glory in the midst of her." But I think every mind deprived of strength from above is easy to capture and completely easy to overturn; for all our strength and safety is from God; for in him we shall also "do valiantly, and he will bring to nothing those who afflict us," according to what is written. Destruction will come upon the ungodly, who have resisted in opposition to their faces. This indeed is the end and crown of the evils that were foretold. For he says the Chaldeans will come, and they will be of such a kind, and they will do this, and they will add that, and the result of these things, is that the impious will be destroyed utterly and with their whole household, along with the cities and villages themselves, with God pitying them in no way, but giving up to desolation, as it were, those who had impiously resisted His commands, and meeting Him face to face, as it were, and openly rising up against and clearly opposing what God might wish as His own will. The Synagogue of the Jews has also been brought to an end in this way, thinking things contrary to Christ, and fighting against the Lord's doctrines and for this very reason unreservedly and shamelessly raising its face against Him, and doing and saying, so to speak, the most monstrous of all evils, and indeed nailing Him to the wood, and slandering the resurrection. For not only did they kill the Savior and Redeemer of all, but they also gave money to Pilate's soldiers, after Christ had been raised, so that they might say that He by no means came back to life, but rather the disciples stole Him secretly. And he will gather captives like sand; and he will revel among kings, and tyrants will be his playthings, and he will mock at every fortress, and he will cast up a mound and take it. Although the holy prophets had proclaimed up and down to the people of the Jews the things that would happen to them, and were almost charming them with such evils, they themselves slipped into such ignorance and unholy thoughts, that they were inflamed with boldness and anger, raising a high brow, and sometimes they thought they would very easily overcome their enemies by their own multitude; and at other times, gathering the surrounding kingdoms for aid, they were confident that the attackers would perhaps concede victory to them even without a fight. But having grown negligent of their ancestral customs, they no longer sought aid from God and from above, but collecting, as I said, that of the neighboring nations, sometimes that of the Egyptians, sometimes that of the Syrians, yes, and that of the Tyrians, they based their hope on unshakable prosperities, and they continued to be delicate and cheerful. That therefore such a thought of theirs is exceedingly vain, and the outcome of their affairs will not proceed in this way, he explains again. For when the Babylonian comes, he says, even if he should find the race of Israel equal in number to the sands, he will nevertheless be brought back home again, holding the inhabitants of Judea as spear-won captives, even if they should have ten thousand and most valiant defenders, yet he will easily overcome these too. And he will revel among kings and tyrants will be his playthings. For he deported Jeconiah to Babylon in chains, and not a few others of the local rulers, who were also made a laughingstock to their captors. And he will so overpower the cities, even the most well-walled, that the capture of each was reckoned by him as a kind of plaything. And he will also raise up earthworks. And thus he took Tyre, although it was extended far from the mainland into the sea like an island. And Satan also took Israel captive when it disobeyed Christ, and all the leaders became his delight, and those who boasted in the glory of the priesthood, whom I think it is not unseemly to call tyrants, because of their presiding over peoples, and being held in great glory and power over them. But they would not have become playthings of diabolical perversity, if they had followed the Savior's commandments, and had kept the faith, and the sanctification through the Spirit. For the Savior of all, who places every enemy under his feet, would have said to them too, "Behold, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and "scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Then his spirit will change, and he will pass through and be propitiated. That the race of Israel will not be utterly destroyed, nor will it be overlooked forever, but there will be for them some season of prosperity, and a release from the incurable disaster having been brought home, and the yoke of slavery having been broken, it allows us to understand, as he says the Lord of all will be in a change of spirit, that is, in a change of mind and a different counsel. And we certainly do not say that he will condemn the counsel already made against them, as if it did not have in itself the quality of having been well made at that time, but rather this, that having exacted sufficient justice, and having inflicted punishment in proportion to their transgressions, He will turn to mercy, and His anger will pass, and He will be gracious to those who have suffered. For I think this is what "he will be propitious" signifies. This is the strength to my God. Are you not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my Holy One? And we shall not die. God having promised to pity them, and having announced the change of their gloomy circumstances for the better, the Prophet out of great joy all but leaps up and says that it would not be fitting for any other to restore Israel, and to free him from bonds and slavery, and to pity him when crushed, except for God alone, who is able easily to accomplish all things, smoothing the rough, and as it were leveling what is high and steep, to whom it might be said by every saint, "You can do all things, and nothing is impossible for you." Then the Prophet says, Are you not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my Holy One? and we shall not die. For even if Israel has been deceived, he says, and led astray into error and strange false worships, yet you were again the God of all, who as holy also pities those who have long transgressed, and preserves them from destruction, and does not allow Israel to perish completely. Therefore, it is not far from hope, that he will both be saved and will pass beyond his gloomy circumstances, since you pity him, and accomplish things beyond reason. And the saints also rejoiced, learning of the salvation of Israel in the last times, and they offered up prayers, and raised thanksgiving voices and odes. And indeed the blessed David, having foreknown through the Spirit the clemency that would be shown to them, and all but seeing them released from the bonds of captivity, sings and says, "Lord, you have been favorable to your land; you have turned back the captivity of Jacob. You have forgiven the iniquities of your people; you have covered all their sins." Lord, you have appointed him for judgment, and he has formed me to reprove his chastisement. Your eye is pure, so that you do not see evil, and you will not be able to look upon troubles. The word is again with the Prophet; but about whom he says he was appointed for judgment by God is very obscure indeed. Come now, therefore, let us, out of necessity investigating the meaning of what has been said, consider these things. For if it were said concerning the king of the Babylonians, that he has been appointed by God for judgment, we say that he has been appointed to fulfill the judgment that has come down from above against those of Israel, that is, the sack, the captivity, the burning of the cities, and, in short, the devastation of Judea. But if not this, and we turn the force of the meaning to the person of Israel, we say this again, that he himself has also been appointed for judgment by God; and we say "for judgment" means for condemnation. And indeed our Lord Jesus Christ said somewhere concerning the Jews, "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind;" and he says "for judgment," for condemnation. Israel, therefore, has been condemned as having done wrong, as having been neglectful of the laws, as having grieved the Lord of all not moderately. But me, he says, that is, the Pro- phet, He formed, that is, He made and prepared, for the necessity of reproving the chastisement which He ordained against him; for as a chastisement and a scourge the war has been brought upon Israel, and what happened was a form of punishment, not simply an undertaking of the Babylonians. But if anyone should ask and say, he says, For what reason indeed has the Babylonian been appointed as a punisher, that is, for condemnation and for suffering, Israel, he will hear in reply That the Lord's is pure an eye, and it would never endure to become a spectator of wicked and unholy things, nor would it look upon the toils that come from injustices and greed happening to the weaker ones. For it always turns its eye away from those accustomed to do such things. When this has happened, in every way and altogether dreadful things will happen, and he who has suffered the turning away will be in the last of evils. And knowing this, the divine David begged, "Turn not your face away from me, and do not "turn aside in anger from your servant." For the things that happen out of anger will surely follow the divine turnings away. Why do you look upon those who despise? Will you be silent when the wicked swallows up the righteous? And will you make men like the fish of the sea, and like the creeping things that have no ruler? Having announced beforehand that the eye of the divinity is pure, and that it would never look upon the workers of wickedness, nor would it look favorably upon any who have chosen to be greedy, and who weave pains for the weaker, the Prophet is immediately seized by thoughts of this kind. For the most savage multitude of the Babylonians has wrought countless dreadful and very difficult evils upon the peoples of the Jews, who also brought the excess of their own savagery to this measure of dreadfulness, so as not even to abstain from the divine places themselves, but to burn down along with Jerusalem also the renowned temple, and together with the common people to seize the priests of the divine altars and to profane the holy things, according to what is written. But when they were at home, they continued to be cheerful, and possessing wealth from plunder, not demanding justice for the unholy things they had committed, not fearing enemies, nor the terrors of war; but rather rising up themselves against all, and easily overpowering whomever they chose, and prospering exceedingly, and exulting in the misfortunes of the destroyed, and making a matter of boasting their unrestrained anger, their unbridled greed, their superiority over all. The Prophet therefore is astonished, seeing them expanding in prosperity, and he now touches upon divine judgments, and things unsearchable to all, and untouchable by any mind, he attempts to investigate and prays to learn, what then could be the reason for such long forbearance of the all-powerful God, so as to at times cast a mild and gentle eye even upon those accustomed to despise thus and who have chosen to live unholy lives, and to be silent and to endure a wicked man all but devouring the gentle and just man. From this, he says, that the necessity of being punished does not follow immediately on the heels of the transgressors, but rather wrath has proceeded to a postponement, for this reason those on earth have slipped into planning hereafter, and indeed also to attempt in the same manner as fish to devour the weaker, and as it were to swallow one another with a gaping and insatiable mouth; and to pursue thus a hard and unsociable and harsh life, so as to differ little from the creeping things in mountains and holes, which through great savagery and excess of bitterness are both untamable and do not imitate the natures of other animals, which at times even in a herd and under one leader and one set over the herd make their pastures, and are seen as if led by a general. And the Babylonians are unsociable, and unapproachable to others, both bitter and venomous and full of destruction and greedily swallowing the weaker. But it does not seem improbable that the voice of the Prophet was against both the devil and the wicked powers with him. For they are truly despisers, completely shaking off the divine fear, and coming to the full measure of all depravity and indeed perversity, although God is very forbearing. But since we have once come under them, we wretches have devoured one another. For the arbiter of peace was not ruling over us, that is, Christ, the lord of earth and heaven and all things; for this reason we have become like fish, most irrational and completely speechless. For there was not in us a word of piety, nor a voice of doxology to God, but rather killing one another and having a most irrational life, we lived in the world on a par with fish, and the mind in each was so bitter, that we seemed to have become completely bestial, and as far as anger and bitterness were concerned, to be equal to venomous creatures, or even to hasten to surpass them. He drew up the full number with a hook, and drew him with a casting-net, and gathered him in his drag-nets; for this his heart shall be glad and rejoice; for this he shall sacrifice to his drag-net and burn incense to his casting-net, because in them he fattened his portion and his foods are choice; for this reason he will cast his casting-net, and he will not spare to slay nations forever. Having named them fish, he still dwells on the trope, and makes his words as if about one of those who work the sea, that is, of the fishermen. For the fish-catchers engage in their own pursuits in many ways. For either they snatch the fish with hooks, and draw them up struggling from the waves with their lines, or surrounding them with drag-nets they pull them in great numbers, or they enclose them with some other nets. And when they do well, with many gathered, they rejoice in their craft, and almost sacrifice to their nets, as having provided them a very rich portion. The Prophet says that something of this kind was done by Nebuchadnezzar, who, as with a hook and drag-nets and indeed also his casting-net, having encompassed Israel itself, and other nations with it, gathered them to himself, and as if setting a feast before his own shield-bearers, he commanded them to revel, and that the captured should become the inheritance and richest portion of those who had once seized them. For this reason, he says, perhaps he will both sacrifice to his drag-net and burn incense to his casting-net, that is, to his own powers, by which he caught the nations in a net, and in addition Israel, he will light the thank-offerings. And since the matter has turned out so very successfully for him, he says he would not refrain from slaying nations, and seizing tribes, and making countries his own, and deeming absolutely no one worthy of mercy; Satan has done this both against the whole human race, and especially against Israel. For with one net, as it were, and a single drag-net, I mean that of sin, he has encompassed all; but especially Israel on account of its impiety towards Christ. For it says his foods are choice. And the Jews are chosen in their way of life above all others. "For when, he says, the Most High divided the nations, as"he scattered the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the nations according to the number "of the angels of God, and the Lord's portion became his people "Jacob, the measuring-line of his inheritance Israel." Israel, therefore, was chosen above the others, as also the firstborn among the children, as from a holy root, that of the fathers I mean, and as having the law as a tutor, and as being called to the knowledge of the one who is by nature and truly God; but even though possessing glory and grace, he himself was also captured along with the others. And some, because they have been led astray, have become the devil's portion; but others, because having known the God by nature, they have unholily killed the Son begotten of him according to nature, who had come in human form and in a shape like ours, are bound in his drag-nets; and his purpose is to destroy completely all upon the earth and to spare no one. I will stand on my watch and mount upon a rock, and I will look out to see what he will speak in me, and what I will answer to my reproof. In these words he explains to us a prophetic mystery; for it is a custom for the saints, if they wish to learn the things from God, and to receive knowledge of future things, with him sounding in their mind and heart, to keep the mind far from distractions and cares and all worldly anxiety, and thus having and keeping it at leisure and quiet, just as to some hill and to then leap up to a watchtower and a rock for the contemplation of whatever the Lord of knowledge might choose to make clear to them. For indeed the low and dejected state of the mind is hateful to him, and he seeks hearts able to fly on high, and raised above earthly affairs and temporary desires. For it is written, "For the mighty ones of the earth have been greatly exalted unto God." And again, "And the young of the vulture fly on high." For the mind of the saints is far removed from earthly habits and more worldly affairs. Therefore, I will stand upon my watch, he says, that is, I will again make practiced and customary soberness my own, I will purify my mind, I will rid it of worldly care, and I will fly up as to a rock, that is, to a most firm and, as it were, highly-placed security of thoughts; having arrived there, as from a summit, I will consider in my mind what words might come to me from God, and what I myself might be about to say, if God should wish to reprove me, as one who has not spoken safely the words, "Why do you look upon those who despise? Will you be silent when the wicked devours the righteous?" And the Lord answered me and said, "Write the vision clearly on a tablet, that he who reads it may run. Because the vision is yet for a time, and it will rise up at the end and not in vain." He commands that the vision be committed to writing, that is, the revelation of things to come; for the matter is worthy to be heard, and among the most wonderful things; and somehow writings directed to what is exceptional are always accustomed to be honored with long and unending remembrance. Write therefore, O Prophet, he says, the vision, so that those in due time might know the things foretold, and encountering your words they may pursue them, that is, desire to understand the power in them, and so they might believe that the prophecy will surely be true. For the vision is for a time, that is, for a delay and a postponement, and a short time will pass in between. But it will end in truth and not after a long time, and not in vain; for the truth will in no way speak falsely; and nothing spoken by it could become empty and futile. If he should delay, wait for him, because he who is coming will come and will not delay. If he should draw back, my soul has no pleasure in him; but the righteous shall live by faith. Naming no one clearly, he says, "wait for him," that is, expect him who is to come, and do not entertain a faltering hope in him, but rather one that is firm and established, even if there should be some extension of time in between. It seems, therefore, that the God of all has whispered in the mind of the Prophet and has revealed mystically that the one foretold will surely come; but he commanded to wait for him, on account of the time of delay in between, as I just said. For if there should be any drawing back and hesitation from the one who has believed, "I would have no pleasure," he says, "in him," seeing him held fast by the faults of his soul, nor would I be forgiving to such a one; but rather I will count him as faithless and hateful. And it will surely follow for the one who testifies to the truth of my words, that he will also be a partaker of life, and this is a prize for those who honor God, and a good wage for goodwill. Now, as far as the historical account is concerned, it was Cyrus, son of Cambyses, about whom he says, "if he should delay, wait for him." For he did take Babylon, having laid waste along with it the other cities as well. But as for the mystical words and for the spiritual narrative, I would say that the power of the preceding words would rightly be understood as concerning Christ, the Savior of all. For he is "the one who is, and who was, and who is to come," and the word of the holy prophets has proclaimed beforehand that he would be present in due time. And that having arrived he was about to overthrow the power of the devil, and to drive out the unholy and profane multitude of demons from their greed against us, the sacred scripture has clearly prophesied, and furthermore the outcome of the deeds accomplished will enter as its own witness, except the prophecy is "for a time." For in the days In the last times of the present age the Only-begotten shone forth, and the one who drew back, and most foolishly rejected faith in him, has offended God and remained without a taste of the heavenly goods, and has been driven out from the sacred multitude of the saints, according to the word of the prophet, "like the wild tamarisk in the desert, which will not see when good things come." But the one who is superior to hesitation and drawing back, and who has made love and faith in him to dwell in his mind and heart, has as a recompense for such a disposition, and as an extraordinary prize, unending life, and the putting away of transgressions, and sanctification through the Spirit. For we have been justified "not by works of the law," as it is written, but rather through faith in Christ. And "The law brings about wrath," for it calls transgressors to judgment, but grace sets aside wrath, absolving their offenses. But the arrogant and contemptuous man, a boastful man, will accomplish nothing. Having foretold that the one who was fore-announced will be present at the proper times, to put an end to sad things and to deliver the crushed from all misery, he then mentions the one who laid waste, and who had fulfilled every kind of inhumanity and beast-like cruelty against them all. And by these things are signified, historically, the profane and God-fighting Nebuchadnezzar, but spiritually, again, Satan. And he calls him arrogant and contemptuous and boastful, and very rightly so. For this is his nature, whether the force of the words is understood of Satan himself, or whether one speaks of the Babylonian man. He says arrogant, meaning one who is presumptuous or stupid concerning himself, and again contemptuous and boastful, as one who from excessive haughtiness and empty puffing up is not willing to consider, so to speak, the incomparable preeminence of the all-powerful God. And such a one, he says, will accomplish nothing; for the outcome of affairs will not in every case turn out according to his mind, nor will he revel forever and be enlarged and be in brilliant glory. And it is true, which the blessed David also said in song: "I have seen the ungodly highly "exalted, and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon, and I passed "by, and behold, he was not, and I sought him, and his place "was not found." For arrogance always creeps toward humiliation; but a measured disposition is crowned with the highest honors. And the disciple of the Savior confirms this for us, having written and saying, "Let the lowly brother glory "in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation, because as a "flower of the grass he will pass away." Who has enlarged his soul like hades, and he, like death, is not satisfied, and he will gather to himself all the nations, and will receive to himself all the peoples. God is in harmony with the Prophet, and has shown him to be speaking truth, sealing as true by his own words the accusations of both the devil and Nebuchadnezzar. For the Prophet was saying, "He has drawn up a consummation with a hook, "and has dragged him with a casting-net, and has gathered him "in his dragnets;" but the God of all, referring the causes to something still greater and truer, compares him finally to hades and death. For a thing insatiable are both death and hades. And it is true that, at least according to what seemed good to the Babylonian, all the nations would have been gathered to him. And such evils might rightly be understood as accusations of Persian ambition. For what is under heaven is small to them, and all the races of men would not be sufficient to serve them. And the inventor of sin himself might also be caught, that is, Satan, striving to place the whole earth, so to speak, under himself, and like hades swallowing up those who are perishing by his perversities. And he himself also said somewhere, that "I will grasp the whole inhabited world in my hand as "a nest, and as abandoned eggs I will take them up, and there is no one who "will escape me or speak against me." For the beast is insatiable and untamable and full of arrogance, truly abominable and misanthropic. Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a riddle as a tale about him? And they shall say, Woe to him who multiplies for himself what is not his! For how long? And who makes his yoke heavy and strong. That his rule is not unshakable, nor indeed that he should revel in the multitude of things gathered, but that he will certainly fall from power and glory, and that when he has fallen he will be a song for many, he has clearly indicated. For he said that a parable would be taken up against him, like a riddle and a popular saying and on the tongues of many. And what is this? Woe to him who multiplies for himself what is not his and makes his yoke heavy and strong, that is, always making the penalty for his impieties more burdensome for himself, having destroyed nations and brought together whole countries, and always leaping upon those who in no way belong to him, and placing them under his own scepters as if by necessity, and having countless peoples under his hand. And in the midst he has exclaimed, For how long? showing that he is insatiable in greed, unbridled in cruelty, and not hating the limit of injustice. Therefore, the tyrants of the Babylonians were insatiable and terrible in cruelty and accustomed to dare the most shameful things of all. Such also is Satan, always gathering what is not his own, and imposing a more grievous punishment upon himself. And it has been said somewhere to him, "Just as a garment stained in blood "will not be clean; so you also will not be clean, "because you have destroyed my land, and you have slain my people; "you shall not remain for eternal time." For what peoples has he not destroyed? Or what nations has he spared? What of the most odious things might he not be caught having dared to do? Therefore, the woe will justly follow him, and he will become a parable, his rule having been taken down, and his greed against all having been driven out. And again, the wise Jeremiah alludes to this for us, saying about him, "A partridge cried out, it gathered what "it did not hatch, making its wealth not with judgment, in the midst "of its days they will abandon it, and at its end "it will be a fool." And this has been done historically. For the Babylonian took Judea, and indeed also Samaria, and having depopulated other countries along with them, he carried them away to his own lands; but when Cyrus with the Persians and Medes encamped against the Babylonians, those who had been gathered went away again, and those held in the bonds of captivity, as if flying away, went home again. And the gentiles have departed from the worship under the devil, and having left desolate him who of old cried out and called them to himself, they have run to Christ. For that one gathered what was not his, but Christ received what was his. For he is Lord of all, as God. Because suddenly those who bite him will rise up, and your plotters will awaken, and you will be plunder for them. He says that unexpectedly those who, as it were, bite and devour him will rise up against him, and by the attacks of war will consume the strength under him; and these were certainly Cyrus, and around him the Persians and Medes and Elamites, who, as if shaking sleep from their eyes, and sobering up as from drunkenness, will barely be stronger than their old fears and taking up the battle against him, will generally overrun him. Then, plotting in many ways, they will easily crush him, leading and carrying off the affairs of the Chaldeans and plundering those of the Babylonians. And we will find that the accursed Satan has also suffered this. For he gathered to himself all the nations, spreading the net of polytheistic error, and binding them fast with the snares of sin. But those who bite him rose up, that is, the heralds of the evangelical decrees, tearing his body as with teeth, namely those who have chosen to think his thoughts. For just as "He who is joined "to the Lord is one spirit," so he who is joined to the devil is one body with him. They will awaken then therefore counselling him. For understanding that he is finally placed under the feet of the saints, Christ saying clearly, "Behold, I have given "you to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all "the power of the enemy," they will seize those who think his thoughts, and will easily transport them to the knowledge of the truth, teaching who is by nature and truly God, and explaining the mystery of Christ, who indeed is also seen as the first to have plundered him. For one can hear him saying, "Or how can one enter into the house of the "strong man and plunder his goods, unless he first "binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his goods." And immediately upon being born of the holy virgin, he began to plunder his goods. For the Magi came from the east, "saying, Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? "For we have seen his star in the east, and have come "to worship him." And indeed they have worshipped, and have honored him with gifts, and have become the firstfruits of the church of the gentiles; and being diabolical vessels, and of his members the most honored of all the others, have run to Christ. But that he was about to plunder the goods of the strong man, the prophet Isaiah also proclaimed enigmatically beforehand; for he spoke thus again concerning him, "For "before the child knows how to call father or mother, he will take "the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria before the "king of the Assyrians." Now the force of the saying seems to allude to something of what was done historically; for Samaria had been sacked both by the king of Damascus and by the ruler of the Assyrians. Yet it implies an intelligible mystery. For the prophetic word has shown us that the power of the Savior will easily despoil those who have sacked his people. Because you have spoiled many nations, all the remaining peoples will spoil you, because of the blood of men and the impiety of the land and of the city and of all who dwell in it. The word is precise, even if it is understood again of both. For the Babylonian sacked many nations; and Satan has done this also. Therefore they have suffered being caught in the same things. And the affairs of the Chaldeans were sacked by Cyrus; but Satan by the saints. For both, the accusations are equal, and the transgressions are kindred, and the savagery and cruelty against all is as if related. For they have slain countries and cities, the one carnally, the other intelligibly, using sin as a sharp missile. But it says very well indeed that all the remaining peoples will spoil him. For as the Babylonian had destroyed all, it says that those who were strong enough to escape became most hostile to him, and that being few they would easily prevail, God apportioning the victory and granting to them to be able to accomplish all things. And the matter would be understood as true, even if it were applied to the enemy of all, I mean, Satan. For he both seized and sacked all those on the earth, and bound them in the yokes of sin. But he himself was also plundered by the remaining peoples, that is, by those justified in faith through Christ and sanctified in the Spirit. For the remnant of Israel has been saved. And the divine disciples, being from them, have become the firstfruits of those who have plundered the sinner. Then after them, even until now, the leaders of the peoples plunder, both rightly dividing the word of truth, and bringing back to the path of piety those who have been yoked. Woe to him who is greedy with an evil greed for his house, to set his nest on high, to be delivered from the hand of evils. You have devised shame for your house, you have finished off many peoples, and your soul has sinned. The word rebukes the Babylonian again, who wishes to build up his own rule from greed against all, and lifting up his own house on high, and indeed being accustomed to gild it with excellencies beyond measure and to fortify it exceedingly, so that perhaps he might be able readily to be delivered from the hand of evils, that is, to always escape the the evils that occur. For the aim of the Babylonians was always to be fenced in by great multitudes of defenders, and to have innumerable men who knew tactics and were equipped with the law of war, so as to be able to effortlessly repel the harm from those attacking them. But that the matter would be to his shame and disgrace, as his hope fell away to its opposite, he taught by saying, You have devised shame for your house. For you have finished, that is, you have brought to an end, many peoples, having destroyed them with utter ruin. And since your soul has sinned, you will pay bitter penalties, you who were once glorious and setting your nest on high, pitiful and cast down and unexpectedly found under the feet of your enemies. This saying would be most fitting indeed both for Satan himself and for the inventors of heresies, who, being overcome by love of power and of seeming to lead many, have brought many peoples to an end, and have truly caused an evil greed in their own houses, and have set their nests on high, "speaking swelling words of vanity," and belching out against the divine glory things which would be fitting only for their tongues and minds. Therefore their souls have sinned; for they have acted insolently towards the Savior of all, Christ himself, "sinning against the brothers and wounding their weak conscience," according to what is written. Because a stone from the wall will cry out, and a beetle from the wood will utter these things. Holy Scripture often gives voices even to inanimate and senseless things, not as if they were able to say anything, but as if the things themselves were almost crying aloud. And so the blessed Isaiah says, "Be ashamed, O Sidon, says the sea"; and David indeed, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands." For creation itself, through those things for which it is admired as being well-made, through these very things proclaims the glory of the one who made it. Therefore, the voices are in the things themselves, even if they do not become words. You will understand something of this sort here also. For it says a stone from a wall, and a beetle from wood will cry out against the Babylonian; and in what way, we shall say: the Babylonian, invading the cities of Judea, or also others, burned down all the houses in them. Then it necessarily happened that stones were also shattered and walls shaken down, and timbers fell with them, and roofs from extreme old age, having small beetles, that is, woodworms. For this reason, he says the ruined things will cry out against his cruelty; and these, as I said, were scattered stones, and lying in the middle of the squares, and timbers certainly half-burnt, and from their decay testifying at last to the ancient state of the cities. So it is an accusation against the Babylonian for having thus burned the old and most ancient cities, and for tearing down houses as well, the people in them having clearly been killed. But it should be known that instead of saying, beetle, other interpreters have published "a bond of wood." Whence one may understand that perhaps at that time they called the joints of the houses and the interlocking of the timbers in them, that is the bond, beetles, because it holds up the roof laid upon them as if with many feet. Woe to him who builds a city with blood, and prepares a city with iniquities. Are not these things from the Lord Almighty? And mighty peoples have failed in the fire, and many nations have grown faint-hearted. He pronounces the Babylonian wretched again, as one who raises his own glory on high, and the renown of his rule, being zealous to do so not from things which he ought to have, but rather from things which he least ought to have. For it was not necessary for him to be famous because he destroyed many peoples, but rather to be dignified with a different kind of ornament, and to be seen resplendent in boasts of righteousness. But having abandoned this as useless, he built it with blood and iniquities. For that the rule of the Chaldeans became most cruel, and by leaping upon simply all cities and countries in a beastly manner, has wrought evils beyond all description, would be manifest to all who have the divine to those who have read scripture. But these things are not from the Lord Almighty. For it is not, it is not possible to say that such evils have come from above; nor would it be thought God-given, that one ought to glory in these things. Therefore, they will not be unsupported, or rather not outside of justice. For what the divine and pure mind does not know how to praise, it certainly punishes, as not having what is fitting. For how is it not dissonant and completely unholy, for sufficient peoples to fail in fire, and for many nations to lose heart, that is, for splendid cities to be burned down along with their inhabitants, and for whole nations and tribes to give up in evils? And one might rightly exclaim this also to the leaders of the Jews, who killed all the holy prophets; indeed they thought to benefit Jerusalem not a little, and to build it in blood and with greed against all; for some they insulted, some they killed, and some they stoned, and finally to the others they added the Son, and the law was their pretext for their madness. For they feigned to be grieved that the commandment through Moses was set aside by Christ. But that their zeal was God-hated, and "not according to knowledge," as, at any rate, the divine Paul writes, the Prophet would easily show, saying, These things are not from the Lord Almighty. Therefore they have also failed in fire and lost heart, as the war consumed them and famine wasted them away. For such things have happened to the peoples of the Jews who have acted violently against the Son, and killed, as I said, the prophets before him. Because the whole earth was filled with knowing the glory of the Lord, as much water to cover the seas. The divine scripture is often indifferent concerning times, and it sets down future things as though they have already been completed. So then, we shall find this to have happened here also. For whereas it should have said "will be filled," it says "was filled." Therefore, when the divine wrath is cast upon Babylon, and all things in it come to pass through both Cyrus and those with him, and she who was long ago terrible and unbreakable, and always raising up her own difficult-to-meet cruelty against others, appears henceforth pitiable and weak, and utterly desolate and under the feet of her enemies, then indeed, then all that is under heaven will understand how great and of what sort the divine glory is, and will be filled with the knowledge of it. For the rule of the Chaldeans prevailed, and was so conspicuous, terrible and invincible, with God being forbearing and giving it power to rule even over Judea, and to destroy countless cities. But when it considered inflicting its own fitting evils, it was shaken and has fallen and has been given over to desolation. The prophet Jeremiah also says something like this about it: "How the hammer of the whole earth was broken and shattered? "How Babylon became a desolation among the nations? "They will set upon you, and you will be captured, Babylon, and you will not know it; "you were found and were taken, because you resisted the Lord. The Lord "has opened his treasury and has brought out the instruments of "his wrath, for there is a work for the Lord God in the land of the Chaldeans, "for her times have come." But it must be known that after the sack of Jerusalem, Christ passed over to the nations, and then all under heaven knew the glory of God the Father, that is, him, as a torrent flooding the earth. For Christ turned toward them like a river, He who also long ago said through the voice of a prophet: "Behold, I am turning "toward them like a river of peace, and like a torrent "flooding the glory of nations." For when Israel once made a calf in the desert, and had for this reason offended God, He promised the manifestation of the Savior and the abundance of grace through him, saying: "But as I live, and my name lives, "the glory of the Lord will fill all the "earth." For all things are full of Christ, who is the glory of the Father. Therefore he also said, "I have glorified you on the "earth; I have finished the work which you have given me to do." Woe to him who gives his neighbor a murky overthrow to drink, and makes him drunk, so that he may look upon upon their caves; drink a surfeit of dishonor from glory. He utters again the "Woe" to the unholy audacities of Nebuchadnezzar, proclaiming what he will suffer, and signifying through this that the blow is full of bitter pain. He seems to call "murky overthrow" the unmixed grief or torment, which, by almost giving it as a drink, he caused those who were captured to be seen as differing little from those in wine and drunkenness. And what of that? As if opening a cave, he made the mind of each one transparent to all the others. For, as I said, by inflicting bitter torments upon the more distinguished of the captives, or perhaps even upon the kings themselves, he caused them to lament and to lay bare their sometimes hidden pusillanimity or cowardice, as if from unbearable necessity. But he was so terrible and harsh that, when it was necessary to feel pain for them and pity them, he reveled in their groaning, and made this a boast of his own rule. And this, I think, is what it is to give one's neighbor a murky overthrow to drink, so that he may look upon their caves, that is, the hidden and secretly inherent things of some. Since, therefore, he employed unrestrained passions and, with all mercy removed, clothed small and great, illustrious and obscure, with incurable misfortunes, for this reason the Master of all says, "Drink a surfeit of dishonor from glory." That is, for you were indeed renowned and famous and conspicuous to all everywhere and most well-known for your cruelty; but you shall henceforth be dishonored, and for your preeminence in fame you will endure a commensurate punishment. This would also be fitting to say, if one should choose, concerning the unholy Pharisees themselves. For they have given their neighbor a murky overthrow to drink; and we say this is their teaching, the commandments of men, and in addition to these, their madness against Christ, and the accusations of their unbridled mouths. For he was calling them to life, but they had slipped into such folly as to say even to their listeners, "He has a demon and is mad; why do you listen to him?" And they did this so that, shaking off the word of salvation which enlightens the mind, they might look into their own caves, that is, into their dark and lightless and dead teachings. Therefore they have drunk a surfeit of dishonor, although they were formerly illustrious and had attained no small glory. For they were leaders of flocks, and they were also priests and judges. And such a saying would also be fitting for the inventors of unholy dogmas, who truly give their neighbor a murky overthrow to drink, pouring the poison of deceit into the souls of the more simple, so that they may look upon their caves. For their mind is dark, full of deceit, truly filled with diabolical mist, and differing, I think, in nothing from caves, which are full of dead bodies and all stench and impurity. But I think it is necessary, for a more accurate clarification of what has been said before, to say this as well. The Hebrews say—and the account is again from tradition—that after Nebuchadnezzar sacked both Judea and all the other countries, and brought the leaders of the nations to his own land, he would hold drinking parties from time to time. Then bringing in the captives, and making them drunk with exotic drinks, he would compel them to dance; and as they were shaken about and fell down and were stripped bare, sometimes showing even the hidden parts of the body, he would smile and make the affair a luxury and a pretext for merriment. They say that these things were cleverly called caves; and the account has some verisimilitude. For the other translators have rendered "nakedness" instead of "caves," so that what is said is of this sort: Woe to him who gives his neighbor a murky overthrow to drink and makes him drunk, so that he may look upon their nakedness. And you, heart, be tossed and shaken; the cup of the right hand of the Lord has come around to you, and dishonor has been gathered upon your glory. Because the impiety of Lebanon will cover you, and the misery of beasts will terrify you, because of the blood of men and the impieties of the land and of the city, and of all who dwell in it. Somehow it is always present and seen to be terribly attached to the souls of the arrogant to have the greatest possible insensibility of mind, and moreover, in addition to this, to think that they themselves will have an unshakable share of prosperity, and they shake off, as it were, and very generally, the expectation that there will ever be a change of affairs for the worse. Such is that which is said through the voice of David as from the person of those who are in comforts and luxuries, "But I said in my "prosperity, I shall not be moved forever." Therefore, since the Babylonian was sick with insensibility from excessive arrogance, he almost rebukes him now as being inflexible, saying, "And you, O heart, be shaken," that is, do not think you are settled in unshakable prosperity, receive now the thoughts [about] grievous things, come to an awareness of what will happen, and yield to experience, although before it you did not deign to grasp, so to speak, even in mere thoughts, that you yourself will one day be in gloomy circumstances, and your heart will fall into things naturally not moderately distressing. What then is it that shakes it and agitates it into sorrows? A cup from the right hand of the Lord has come around upon you, and dishonor has been gathered upon your glory. For just as you gave your neighbor to drink with a murky overthrow, in the same way, having fallen under the things to be brought on by divine wrath, you will be loathsome, dishonored by all, pitiful and cast out, and in every way overcome by that ancient renown. But by saying that the cup is of the right hand of the Lord, the blessed Prophet persuades one to think, as it were, that it would not be possible not to drink it, since God himself offers it. For it was necessary by all means to endure the things from wrath; "For if he shuts a man in, who can "open?" according to what is written, and as the prophet says, "Who will turn back the high hand?" And for what reason, then, these things will happen, he makes clear, saying, "Because the impiety of Lebanon will cover you, and the misery of beasts will terrify you." And Lebanon is a mountain of Phoenicia, one of the most distinguished, with goodly wood and fragrant as incense-bearing. And the sacred scripture at times compares Jerusalem to it, on account of its being glorified with many holy heads, raised on high and thinking the things in heaven, and submerged in the beauty of piety. The blessed David also remembers these, saying thus to God, "The cedars of "Lebanon which you planted, there the sparrows will make their nests." For like a cedar, each of the saints, as I just said, is raised on high, by not enduring to think on the things that are cast down, that is, the things on earth, and he becomes like a shelter to others, receiving like sparrows those wishing to be discipled under him. Therefore, since the Chaldean sacked Jerusalem, and was impious and offended God, setting fire to the divine temple in the city, and was captured for also having insulted the holy things themselves, for this reason he says that the impiety of Lebanon which was directed against it will cover him. And Lebanon, as I said, he calls either Judea, or Jerusalem; and one might think perhaps that he also means the temple itself, having much fragrance, and adorned with the heads of the priests as with certain cedars. And in what manner the impiety committed against Lebanon was to cover him, he showed by adding, "Because the misery of beasts will terrify you." And he seems again to call beasts the Persians and Medes armed with Cyrus, as having much untamable spirit, and being whetted for cruelty. But that God does not punish in vain, but brings balanced penalties for whatever one might do, he taught by adding, "For the blood of men and the impiety of the city and of all who dwell in it." Each of the Pharisees also will hear, who were inventors and composers of the madness against Christ, "And you, O heart, be moved and be shaken." For a cup from the right hand of the Lord has come around upon them, and dishonor has been gathered upon their glory. And they have drunk as a cup of destruction the wrath that came upon them, dishonored they have become and as far as possible from all good repute. For they also acted impiously against Lebanon. You will understand Lebanon to be the Church, which is truly fragrant, the conspicuous mountain, and most well-known everywhere. They persecuted the Church after the cross of the Savior. Therefore they have also been terrified as if by beasts that have ravaged them, and having become guilty of much blood of the holy prophets, they added to these also that of those who have believed in our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the blessed Stephen became the first-fruits, having been shown to be a kind of first spoils and first-fruit of the holy martyrs. What does a graven image profit, that they have graven it? A molten image has fashioned it, a false fantasy, because the one who fashioned it trusts in his own fashioning to make mute idols. So the proposition of the saying is in this manner. For what, he says, does the graven image profit that they have graven it? And what does the fashioner profit by his own fashioning, that he trusts in it? But what, again, is the Prophet's purpose, we will say as best we can. Cyrus and the Medes having invaded the land of the Babylonians, and war having at last been announced all around, the magi, doing their customary things, called upon the falsely-named gods for aid to the city in peril, and they brought sacrifices and libations to the senseless things, placing on them their whole hope of being saved. But those things were nonsense and deception, deceit and vain counsel, and nothing else; for it was captured and has been ravaged, though it never thought to suffer this. Therefore, the God of all things laughs at the thought of the transgressors, and their hope in lifeless things. For what, he says, does the graven image profit, being nothing other than a false fantasy having nothing true? For how or from where could divine power at all be believed to be in things fabricated by human hands? Therefore, to trust in them is indeed vain, and the matter is truly ridiculous, at least to those who have a sound mind and an awakened spirit. But it seems someone might unfold the force of the preceding words in another way. For the Babylonian, having taken the cities and, so to speak, having desolated all the lands, turned immoderately to the lofty and unbridled, and was henceforth sick with arrogance, and the wretched one, having placed the glory of God upon his own head, fashions a golden image, just as the divine prophet Daniel has written. Then he commanded tribes and tongues to worship it, and for those who did not endure to do this, death was the penalty. What then was the benefit from this? Tell me, he says. For he who thought he was also a god has now at last come to the end of all evil, and has fallen into disasters beyond description. Woe to him who says to the wood, 'Awake, arise,' and to the stone, 'Be exalted.' And it is a fantasy, and this is an overlay of gold and silver, and there is no spirit at all in it. But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be reverent before his face. Again, as I just said, the force of the preceding words follows. For he rightly pronounces wretched the deluded, who, having abandoned the one God who is so by nature and in truth, and running past the path of reverence toward him, proceed to destruction, crying out to the wood, 'Awake, arise,' and saying most mindlessly to the stone, 'Be exalted.' For it is the custom of the deluded, if any fear should terrify them, to light altars, to open shrines, and to cry out to lifeless idols: 'Have mercy, save us, be exalted you also, O stone, defending as a god the realms of those who revere your power and have chosen to worship you.' Woe then indeed to such people, rightly, because, cleaving to things made of gold and silver, to things that have no spirit, they utter such words, which it were surely better to say to God who inhabits heaven and has the city above as his own temple. For the holy one dwells among the holy, and abides with those who revere him. Therefore the Prophet utters something useful and necessary to us: 'Let all the earth be reverent before his face.' For those who are truly sound of mind must worship the one who is by nature and truly God, and to him every wise man will kindle reverence, to him he will bring also his supplications, from him he will seek to be saved, and him he will confess as Creator, Lord of all, Savior and Redeemer, all-powerful, all-holy, and the one who transforms the natures of things, to whatever he might choose at various times and by his own commands directing this universe.

Book 2

Having thoroughly completed the discourse on Babylon, and that they will pay bitter penalties who ravaged the holy city, and having very clearly proclaimed beforehand that they would carry off Israel captive, he aptly comes to the mystery of Christ, and as from the redemption which happened for one nation and partially, he brings the discourse to the one that is for all and most general, by which the remnant of Israel was saved, and no less was the whole earth saved. For Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, released Israel from captivity, having overthrown the arrogant and God-hated kingdom, I mean that of the Chaldeans. But what was done was therefore an image and a type of the things accomplished through Christ; who found all humanity as if taken by the spear, and laboring under the tyrannical hand; for Satan had reigned over us as it were through sin; He made them free from bonds and labors, and having released them from that monstrous servitude, he brought them back as if to the holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem. For we have become, according to what is written, "fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of "God," and we have henceforth claimed heaven as our homeland. Therefore, the Prophet, astonished at the power of the mystery, and exceedingly admiring the ineffable and God-befitting economy of the Only-begotten's coming in the flesh, makes his prayer in the manner of a song, according to that which is spoken through the voice of David, "My tongue shall meditate on your "righteousness, all the day long your praise." O Lord, I have heard your report, and I was afraid, O Lord, I considered your works, and I was amazed. The saying might be understood as addressed to him, if one should choose, who is the Father and God of all, as revealing the Son, and making clear the report concerning him through the Spirit; or also, reasonably, to the incarnate Word himself. And if one should say it was directed to the Father, we shall understand it as something like this: O Lord of all, he says, the given revelation, that is, the report concerning your offspring, has astonished me; for the accounts are dreadful and beyond speech, and the manner of the economy would henceforth be beyond all mind; but if, sending forth the slender eye of my heart, I should perceive the power of your works, the result will be ecstasy, and nothing else. But with the discourse looking to the Son, we shall no less approach it in some such way as this: O Lord and ruler of all, even though you have become flesh, having received the report concerning you, that is, the hearing and revelation, I have fallen into fear. And I am astounded, and very reasonably so, at the extraordinariness of the matter. For I learn that, existing in the form and equality in every respect with the one who begot you, you will bring yourself down to a voluntary emptying, and will become a man like us from a woman, and will endure the form of a slave, and with us will call your own Father God, and you will become obedient, even "unto death, and the death of the cross." Therefore, I have heard your report and was afraid, I considered your works and was amazed. For you preached recovery of sight to the blind, you proclaimed release to the captives, you healed those broken in heart, you turned back the one who was wandering, you bound up that which was broken, you became a light to those in darkness, a door and a way to life and sanctification, you have become peace, uniting through faith into one people those from the circumcision, and also those from the nations, you have become "a cornerstone, chosen, precious;" you have acquired the world for God the Father, you have freed from sins those who were captured by weakness, you rescued from the hand of the devil, by the grace of adoption the servile was made glorious, the man from earth has become a citizen of heaven; and besides these, that is also worthy of hearing, I think; for you, who give life to all things, have endured with us the death of the flesh. But you have become "the firstborn from the dead," and the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, and the first offering of humanity brought back to incorruption. For you rose again as God, having trampled the harsh and irresistible beast, that is, death, you have undone the power of that ancient curse. And in you and through you has ceased "You are earth and to earth you shall return," spoken against us. You will be known between two living creatures. This has been interpreted by some in different ways. And one said that the Spirit and the Son are called two living creatures, and that God the Father is known between them. But I think it is ignorant to understand it this way, and has much foolishness in it. For who would dare to say that life is a living creature, that is, the Son or the Holy Spirit? For life is rather that which makes alive, while a living creature is that which partakes of life from another. It is also absurd in another way for the Father to be understood as being between both, who is indeed named first according to the arrangement of the confession of the holy and consubstantial Trinity. And surely we do not say that, being placed before the Son and the Spirit in naming, he has precedence over them; for this is nonsense and false speech; but rather we hold and have believed that he also has the co-eternal Word who appeared from him, and he was, what he is, not without his own Spirit, but as soon as God the Father is conceived, the existence of him through whom he is Father, and his own divine and holy Spirit, immediately enters with him. But since he is, as it were, a source of his own offspring, he has been named first economically. How then he will be between the Son and the Spirit, I cannot conceive. But perhaps they will say, as is likely, that the "between" should be understood in terms of place. But this too is absurd. For the divine is not in a place, because it is neither in quantity, nor indeed according to a body. Others again have said that the two living creatures are the new and the old testament, between which Christ is known. But in such speculations let anyone take whatever path he wishes for himself; but we, turning the discourse once for all to the person of Christ, will make our exposition of the concepts according to the Law. Therefore our Lord Jesus Christ has become a propitiation through faith; for so the divine Paul seemed to think and to say; for through him we have been freed from every accusation, and have found the Father merciful and approachable. And the wise John will testify, saying, "My little children, I write these things to you, so that you may not sin. "And if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the "Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he himself is the propitiation "for our sins; not for ours only, "but also for the whole world." And since the things represented of old through riddles were types of things that were to be in truth, let us say something showing the Son to be the propitiatory made in the holy tabernacle by the Father. Therefore the God of all commanded an ark to be made, and a lampstand, and also a table in the holy tabernacle; then in addition to these, a propitiatory of gold and purple and fine twisted linen and scarlet finely woven, and this, raised on four pillars, was hung over the holy ark; then two Cherubim on the right and on the left, made of gold, surrounded the propitiatory, their faces stretching towards it. And the thing was again a riddle of the mystery concerning Christ. For the Word became flesh, although he was God and Lord of all, as from God the Father having been revealed according to nature. But even if he became flesh, and was set forth by the Father as a propitiation, he has not cast off what he was, that is, being God; but even so he is in power and glory befitting God, and again the powers above stand around him, completing the liturgies assigned to them. For this reason the Cherubim stand around the mercy-seat, and look towards it continually. For it is the custom of the powers above, being holy and all-pure, to always contemplate the things of God, and to look to him, and to be turned continually to the things that seem good and are dear to him. You will be known, then, O Master, he says, who you will be, having become like us; for that you are a propitiation, as from the example of the one in the holy tabernacle, you will be clearly known. For you stand in the midst of two living creatures, that is, the Cherubim, and your name is the mercy-seat. And the saying is true; for as Christ himself says, "The Father did not send "the Son into the world to judge the world, but that "the world might be saved through him." When the years draw near, you will be recognized; when the time comes, you will be revealed. The law has indeed prophesied the mystery of Christ; and indeed also the choir of the holy prophets proclaimed it beforehand; and the mystagogues in various ways establish us more firmly in the faith in him, by usefully connecting the things that happened and were accomplished at the time of his sojourning with the things written about him long ago, and we will often find them strengthening their own understanding from this; such as that which is through the voice of the evangelists. For our Lord Jesus Christ cast out of the temple those who sold the sheep and the oxen, and overturned the tables of the money-changers, "And making a whip "of cords he drove them all out, saying, 'Do not make my Father's "house a house of trade';" and what of it? "His disciples remembered," it says, "that it was written, "'Zeal for your house will consume me.'" And when Joseph once thought that the virgin betrothed to him had been defiled, and was wanting to dismiss her secretly, "An angel of the Lord appeared," it says, "to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not "be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for that which "is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear "a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he "will save his people from their sins.'" Then he brought forward a sacred oracle for assurance; for he spoke again thus: "All this took place to fulfill what was spoken through "the prophet, saying, 'Behold, the virgin shall be with child "and bear a son, and they shall call his name Em- "manuel.'" And we will find Emmanuel himself strengthening faith in himself from the things foretold by the prophets, and deeming it right to be recognized already through these deeds, and by bringing together the outcome of the results with what had already been said, that one should in no way doubt that he himself was, therefore, the one who was preached through the law and the prophets. For some of John's disciples came to him, inquiring and saying, "John the Baptist has sent "us saying, 'Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect another?'" But he, although it was possible for him to say, "I am, and not another," persuades them to return to the ancient proclamation, saying, "Go "and tell John what you hear and see: the blind "receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and "the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news preached "to them, and blessed is the one who is not offended by "me." It is certain, therefore, that, as the Prophet says, when the years draw near, you will be recognized, and that at the times long ago foreordained, according to the will and counsel of God the Father, Christ was revealed. For in the last times of the age he appeared to us, and was recognized and confessed, just as, indeed, even before the others, Nathanael cried out, saying, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the king of "Israel." He was recognized, then, when the years drew near, that is, at the time of the economy in the flesh. And he was recognized both by of the saints and of all, now henceforth, that is under heaven. For we have known the one in the midst of two living creatures, prefigured as a propitiation in legal enigmas, that is, Christ. In the troubling of my soul in anger, you will remember mercy. Human nature has offended the Creator through the transgression in Adam, who gave almost no regard to the commandment that was given. Therefore we have been troubled and have been destroyed, we wretches having fallen into a curse and a judgment, and we have been held by death, God having been angered; for our forefather Adam, as the root of the race, heard, "You are earth, and to earth you shall return." Yet the Creator did not overlook us forever, but had mercy as God. For even if "death having grown strong has swallowed up" according to the voice of the Prophet, yet "again God has taken away every tear from every face; the reproach of the people He has taken away from all the earth." For in Christ the power of death has been abolished, sin having been destroyed, on account of which we were also reproached; "For the Lord has remembered us, and has had mercy on us," just as the divine David also sings. For he has brought us back to incorruption and life, although we were troubled, as I just said, by the divine anger, so as to be in a departure of the spirit, that is, in the laying aside and casting off of the soul; for thus is death accomplished in us. But that we were condemned to death for having offended God, and have been saved again through mercy, the blessed David will confirm, saying to the Creator of all, "When you turn your face away, they shall be troubled, and they will return to their dust. You will send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and you will renew the face of the earth." For having suffered the turning away on account of the transgression in Adam, we have returned to the dust from which we also came. But since again in Christ and through Christ we have been enriched with the divine Spirit, having become partakers of his nature, according to the scriptures, we are reconstituted to what was in the beginning, and have been made new and have been saved. For it is true, what the divine Paul himself also wrote to us, that all things "in Christ are a new creation, and the old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new." Therefore we were troubled from the beginning, having endured the things from the divine anger. But since, when the years drew near, Christ was known, and was revealed according to the times foreordained of old, he then remembered mercy. For we have been justified not "by the works of the law," according to the scriptures, nor "by the works in righteousness which we have done, but according to his great mercy." God will come from Teman, and the holy one from Mount Paran, a thick-shaded forest. The mind has a twofold contemplation of the things set forth, and indeed we shall speak on them as is possible; for Teman is interpreted as the south. And the desert of Paran is very southerly, where Mount Horeb is also said to be, where Moses presented to God the people of Israel as he was defining the laws that determine what must be done. Therefore, applying one understanding to what is set forth, we say this: God will come, he says, from Teman, from Mount Paran or Horeb, that is, he who of old appeared in the most southerly desert on Mount Horeb to the fathers in the form of fire, he who of old spoke the law, will come, and will be seen with flesh like us, in the role of a prophet and mediator, just as, of course, the divine Moses, to whom it was said by God, "I will raise up for them a prophet from among their brothers like you, and I will put my words into his mouth, and he will speak to them according to all that I shall command him." But if one should wish to approach what is written in another way, it is also thus. Teman, as I said, they called the most southerly desert. Therefore they say that Bethlehem, in which Christ was born, is situated in the most southerly parts of Judea; for it has been said somewhere to her through the voice of a prophet, "And you, Bethlehem, house of Ephrathah, you are too little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of you shall come forth to me a ruler, who will shepherd my people Israel." Therefore God from Teman shall come, that is, from Bethlehem which is to the south. For the Word, the Only-begotten of the Father, who is by nature and truly God, having become as we are, was born of a woman in Bethlehem. And since it is the custom of the divine Scripture to sometimes liken the Synagogue of the Jews to the more conspicuous of the mountains, because it is seen to be luxuriant with very many and most glorious men, for this reason it now likens it to Mount Paran, saying that he will come from a thick, shady mountain; and it says the mountain is shady and thick because of the fathers from whom Christ is genealogically descended. For it is possible to hear clearly the blessed Luke tracing the reckoning of the genealogy from Joseph up to Adam, and Matthew in turn bringing it down in order from David and Abraham, as I said, to Joseph. The Synagogue, therefore, is a thick and shady mountain, having brought forth in due season many from whom Christ sprang. For that he is from the Jews, how is it possible to doubt? For he was born of the blood of Abraham and David, I mean according to the flesh, and he himself somewhere says of himself, "For salvation is from the Jews." His virtue covered the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise. For the Only-begotten Word of God became a propitiation through faith for those on earth, when he appeared as we are and in the form of a servant, that is, a man. And for this reason he seemed in a way to be made inferior to the holy angels themselves, and to come after their glory; but he was again supreme as God. And the most wise Paul will confirm this, saying, "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor." For since he became "obedient unto death, even death on a cross," for this reason; as the same one wrote again, "God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Therefore the Prophet will indeed speak truth in saying, His virtue covered the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise. For those who inhabit the holy city, and dwell in the mansions above, "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?" But he is seated on the thrones of divinity; and to none of them was it said by God the Father, "You are my Son," but him he both confesses as Son and names beloved, and has as his associate, co-hymned and co-worshipped. For again the divine Paul said of him, "And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, 'And let all the angels of God worship him.'" Therefore, even if he became a propitiation, having descended into humanity for us and on our behalf, he is no less God, and above all creation, I mean both visible and invisible. For thus his virtue covers the heavens; and the earth will be full of his praise. This the holy Seraphim also have cried out clearly, standing around his divine throne, and with praises greatly honoring him as Lord Sabaoth and God of all; for they say that heaven and earth are full of his glory. But if someone should wish to say this, that the virtue of Christ is great and surpassing, so as to cover the heavens themselves, if it were conceived in measurable size, he will accept a plausible thought; for somewhere the blessed David also said, "O Lord, your mercy is in heaven, and your truth reaches to the clouds," signifying the loftiness of his goodness and the excellence of his truth as in a quantity according to body and according to places. And his brightness will be as the light. That the propitiation through faith, that is, Christ, has come to enlighten those in darkness, would become clear also through the voice of the holy prophets. For one said, "The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and the rest who dwell by the sea, Galilee of the Gentiles, the the people who sat in darkness, have seen a great light;" and "Shine, shine O Jerusalem, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you," and God the Father himself has also testified, saying thus "For Zion's sake I will not be silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until my righteousness goes forth as light, and my salvation as a burning torch." For Christ is righteousness and salvation, "who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption," according to the scriptures. Therefore, Christ was revealed to us as a torch for those walking as it were in darkness, through evangelical instruction delivering from that ancient mist, which the enemy of all, casting into our minds, did not permit us to behold the God who is by nature and truly is, nor indeed to contemplate the path of piety and life. The brightness, therefore, which Christ showed us, will be as light, that is, not dim nor as if weak, just as, of course, that which was through Moses; for the law was in riddles and shadows; but as a light pure and unmixed with mist, and entering into mind and heart, and flashing on us the intelligible radiance, and implanting the ray of unadulterated knowledge. Horns are in his hands. The horn is always taken in the divinely-inspired scriptures either for kingdom and power, or for arrogance. And the blessed David teaches this, saying "I said to the transgressors, "Do not transgress," and to the sinners, "Do not lift up the horn; do not lift up your horn on high, and do not speak injustice against God." "For "uttering" arrogant "words of vanity," some, according to what is written, speak injustice against God, falsifying the orthodoxy of the dogmas concerning him, or even insulting in any other way. But the horn is significant of power, when it is said concerning God the Father who revealed the Son to us; "he has raised up a horn of salvation for us," and again, "His horn shall be exalted in glory." And in good repute are all things wondrously accomplished in the power of Christ. So then, the Only-begotten has come in a form like ours, and insofar as he came into flesh and humanity, enduring the appearance of the weakness in us; except, as God, holding in his hands all the horns, that is, all the kingdoms, according to all the power of opposing energies. And when we say "in his hands," we mean "in his authority." And indeed we have been taught to say to God in our prayers, "In your hands are my lots." That every diabolical power is subject to Christ, and the so-called horns, that is, the tyrannies of the unclean spirits throughout cities and countries; for they divided among themselves the entire earth; how could anyone doubt? For he cast some out with authority from men, and others came "and begged him not to command them to go away into the abyss." For it is written thus by the holy Evangelists. And that he scared away from his tyranny over us even the overseer of the unclean spirits himself, that is, Satan, we will easily perceive, from Christ himself saying, "Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." Therefore, even if he became man, nevertheless in his hands, that is, in his authority, he has the tyrannies or kingdoms or even powers of the opposing forces. But if someone should wish to understand that more simply, that Christ has horns in his hands, that is, an invincible and unconquerable strength, and one which easily gores and readily destroys whichever of his enemies it should choose, and like a calf leaps upon them unbearably, he will again understand correctly. And he established a strong love of his strength. Christ came to accomplish these two things, to cast down those who are in opposition, who led astray all under heaven; for they carried away from God the creator, stealing the glory most fitting for him and him alone, and for their own kindling on their heads; and that he would save those who had been deceived and had endured a truly inescapable greed. But that their things are gone and have completely vanished, he taught by saying "Horns are in his hands," that is, those that overthrow their powers, and as it were de-horn their arrogance. But that he was about to save us, he further demonstrates by saying He set a mighty love of his strength. For we have been saved "not by works of righteousness which we have done" ourselves, not by legal boasts; for the law has perfected no one; but by the gentleness of God the Father, who set the love of the Son on our behalf as mighty, that is, strong and great. "For God the Father so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that everyone who believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life." We have been saved therefore by the love of God the Father, and indeed also of the Son himself, who endured death for us; even though he rose again, having abolished the power of corruption, and having removed sin from us. Therefore he also said, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." Mighty therefore, truly, is the love of the strength of God the Father, through which we have been delivered from death and sin and the greed of the devil. A word shall go before his face. A proclamation will go before him, he says, and a rumor will fly ahead, and there will be much talk about him. For as soon as Christ was born of the holy virgin, the Magi came immediately from the east, with the star that miraculously appeared in the sky all but announcing his birth to them according to the divine plan. But when, as time went on, he began signs and to be a worker of miracles, then "the report of him went out," as the evangelist says, "into all Syria." And in other ways he became famous in all truth under heaven. For who has not known the glory of Christ? What nation or country has remained unheard or unexperienced of the strength that is in him? For as he himself said again, the gospel has been preached to all the nations, and the splendor of the things done by him has traversed the whole earth like the sun. And his feet shall go out into the plains. It is as if he should say again, Nothing is steep for him or impracticable; but he will walk as if on each matter by a bare and smooth road. For the bare parts of the plains are passable and easy to travel; but those rising into hills are difficult and not fit for horses. All things therefore are easy for Christ, and whatever path he should wish to traverse, I mean in respect to each of the things being done, this is surely completely free of all difficulty. For what could he not accomplish, and very effortlessly, being God by nature and Lord of hosts? Therefore he makes the declaration from the likeness of those going in the plains to the consideration of things. But if someone should wish to understand "plains" as the humble in heart, who are also called a "delightful land" and "God's tillage," since they receive the seed from above and from heaven, and produce fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty, he will again understand correctly. For the Son will go out as if to farm such plains, according to that which was certainly said by him in the form of a parable, "A sower went out to sow his seed." And David also sings somewhere, "And your fields shall be filled with fatness;" and he added that "And the valleys will abound with grain." But that the valleys are again to be understood spiritually he allowed us to understand by adding immediately, "They will cry out, and indeed they will sing hymns." For it is not for the unfeeling valleys to sing hymns, or to have cried out, but for the spiritual ones; and on these the divine and heavenly word would settle like dew. He stood, and the earth was shaken. The word "he stood" may often be understood in the divinely-inspired scripture as concerning some matter that has come to its completion. For example, as if someone should say perhaps, "This matter stood," that is, the word concerning this, which is to say, it has been determined and done. So also the Zipporah the wife of Moses, circumcising her child with a stone, said to the destroying angel, "The blood of the circumcision of my child is staunched." For she did not mean to signify that the flow of blood had ceased, but that the deed of circumcision had been done, and what was sought had been accomplished; for he who is circumcised with the spiritual stone averts death; and this is the Spirit of Christ, just as indeed Joshua, who after Moses led the sons of Israel across the Jordan, commanded them to be circumcised with stone knives, fulfilling the type of the circumcision in the spirit. For just as Christ is called a rock, so also a stone, that is, a stone knife, is His Spirit. Therefore "it stood" often signifies also the fulfillment of a matter. Therefore Christ "stood"; that is, the things concerning him have come to fulfillment, and he appeared to those upon the earth; and the earth was shaken. And by "earth" he means the inhabitants of the earth, who were also shaken. And in what manner, then, let us say as far as we can. For those who formerly had their minds, as it were, unshaken in the will to do evil things, those who were firm in impieties, fixed in love of the flesh, established in error, have been shaken and moved, having been transferred to the knowledge of God and to the desire for virtue. And likewise those of the blood of Israel have been moved from the worship according to the law, having accepted faith in him; for they have passed over to choosing to live according to the Gospel, and to be governed by the Savior's laws. And that "to be shaken" sometimes signifies a transfer from one thing to another would be clear from the blessed David, who psalmed and said, "You who are seated upon the Cherubim, let the earth be shaken." For we do not say that he was entreating him for the earth to be shaken violently—I mean this perceptible one under the feet of men—but rather he was seeking the transition to occur from the worse to the better. And this is one meaning of the proposed text, but one might also accept another for it in some such way. He says, "It stood and the earth was shaken." The earth has experienced these two things, for it both stood and has been shaken. And what again might be the explanation for both, it is necessary to make clear. It stood, therefore; for being drunk, as it were, and easily shaken toward anything whatsoever that is amiss, and, as it were, carried about by every wind, it now has a firm and established position, with Christ making it firm, according to that which was in some way said through the voice of Isaiah to the Synagogue of the Jews, "Establish yourself, Zion." And it has been shaken again, as I have already said, having departed from the ancient deceit, and honoring the transfer to anything whatsoever that is pleasing to God. It is truly paradoxical, therefore, that at one and the same time the earth both stood and was shaken. For Christ is the one who both makes it established for every good work, and persuades it to practice the movement from the worse to the better. He looked, and the nations melted; the mountains were shattered by force. For God to look upon sometimes signifies a consideration as in meekness and love, but at other times one in anger and threat. "And indeed, upon whom," he says, "will I look, but "upon the one who is meek and quiet and who trembles at my "words?" And somewhere the divine David also besought, saying thus, "Look upon me and have mercy on me;" but through the voice of Ezekiel he said concerning someone, "And I will set my "face against that man, and I will make "him a desolation and a ruin, and I will cut him off from the "midst of my people, and you shall know that I am the Lord." and this was of one threatening anger and destruction and the fitting justice for those who provoke. Therefore as soon as Christ looked, that is, he brought his eye in anger upon some, and immediately they melted like wax, and as if by a consuming fire the mountains were shattered by force. And by "nations" and "mountains" he means the unclean spirits, and those among them who are lofty and exalted and standing like mountains above the others; but the preeminence is entirely in worthlessness, and the advantage in arrogance. or perhaps also according to the strength, the measure of the ferocity inherent in them. For the demons are arrogant, and indeed he sets in opposition to God, and they hasten to claim for themselves the glory that is fitting for Him. But they were violently shattered. For they are crushed by the power of Christ, and have come to nothing, and have been placed under the feet of those who have believed. And elsewhere again satan has been called a mountain, to whom God spoke somewhere through the voice of the prophet, as from the person of Nebuchadnezzar, "Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, who destroys all the earth." The eternal hills melted. Having mentioned enigmatically the evil and opposing powers, which also work against the glory of Christ, casting down to sin those on the earth, he has necessarily introduced also the leaders of the Jewish Synagogue, whom he also calls hills, because they seem to be raised up high and to be above the others, at least according to the order of the priestly ministry and the honor from it. And he calls them eternal, because of the perpetual nature of the matter; for the liturgy of God is unceasing; for he is glorified in every season and time. For even if the power of the worship in shadows and types has perhaps ceased, yet the nature of the matter has passed over to something better. For the leaders of the holy churches minister to God no less, and perform for him the bloodless sacrifice. Therefore the hills are eternal because of the perpetual and unceasing nature of the liturgy. But they were crushed together with the spiritual mountains, and melted together with the nations. For since they have thought what is pleasing to demons, and have fulfilled what seemed good to the devil, by delivering the author of life to the cross, and having behaved insolently toward him in many ways, for this reason, justly enduring the same punishment as they, they have been deposed and have fallen, and as the prophet says, "The house of Israel has fallen, there is no one who will raise it up." They saw his eternal ways as toils. Sometimes the sacred writings are accustomed to call the divine commandments 'ways' and 'roads' and 'paths', such as what is said through the voice of Jeremiah, "Stand by the roads and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord, and see which is the good way, and walk in it and you will find purification for your souls;" and indeed also through the voice of the blessed David, "I ran the way of your commandments, when you enlarged my heart." The hills melted, he says, that is, those among the Jews who had received the glory of leadership, and the boasts attached to the priestly ministry according to the law. For they saw the ways, that is the commandments of Emmanuel—clearly, the evangelical decrees, and the incomparably better and more manifest instruction of the ancient oracles—as toils, that is, they considered it burdensome and full of sweat, although Christ the Savior of us all says clearly, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." And in another way some made his ways unbearable, through which it was possible to pass easily into eternal life. For our Lord Jesus Christ was clarifying what the power of the mystical blessing is, saying, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you." But those who heard such sacred words spoke deliriously, saying, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it? How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" And the Evangelist testified, saying that "After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him." when Christ added this to the disciples themselves, if they also chose to depart from him, saying, "Do you also want to go away?" But the divine Peter answered, crying out, "Lord, to whom shall we depart? You have the "words of eternal life." For they did not see the journeys as labors, but the word was truly sweet and worthy of being heard by them. And he says that the journeys are eternal. For it will in no way cease, but will rather extend into the present age, and the evangelical and saving proclamation will stand forever, even though the older and legal commandment has grown old and does not have blamelessness, as the most wise Paul says, and for this reason the second has been introduced, "which is said to have been enacted on better promises." And so the divine David cried out beforehand in the spirit, saying to our Lord Jesus Christ, "Your righteousness is a righteousness for "the age, and your law is truth." For, as I said, the things in shadows have not remained, but the types have ceased, while the things of Christ have been firmly established, and have their unshakeable nature forever. The dwellings of the Ethiopians will be terrified, and the tents of the land of Midian. The better of the narratives somehow always has what is worthy of being heard, and an unobjectionable promise, even if one should go through the same words. Therefore, having previously narrated the rush to cowardice of the opposing powers, and having shown them as melting in the likeness of nations, and indeed also as being crushed like mountains, he again compares them to the foreigners who campaigned against the land of the Jews. These were the Ethiopians to the east and south inhabiting the Indian sea, and indeed also the Midianites, themselves inhabiting the neighboring desert. Therefore, he says, those who fight against the holy city will be terrified, that we might understand the spiritual Zion, which is the Church of Christ, which the saints inhabit, and the chosen race, as in a type of old, Israel, just as Israel is also interpreted as Mind seeing God. And Nathanael was also admired, as "truly being an Israelite, in whom there is no "deceit." Therefore, as in an image and in types in the Ethiopians and Midianites, who always wished to harm the chosen race, that is, Israel, we will understand the hordes of demons that stand against the saints. And one might say in another way that the idolaters are called Ethiopians, whose life is carnal, earthly and in impurities; and such are the Ethiopians; for they do not have the divine light in their mind, but are, so to speak, black in heart and darkened in their minds, to whom the dragon is also said to have been given for consumption. For David somewhere sings and says to the God of all, "You crushed the head of the dra-"gon, you gave him as food to the Ethiopian peoples." For just as we have made the life-giving Word of God our spiritual and holy food, so also the lovers of sin and those who have not known the God by nature, so to speak, feed on Satan, having him in mind, and thinking and saying his things. And the Midianites again would be, as I said, those hostile to the saints. But if someone should choose also to investigate the power of the name, Midianite is interpreted as judged, or rather condemned; and such a name would be fitting for Satan himself and for the wicked powers with him, "For whom the gloom of darkness has been kept for "eternity." Are you angry with the rivers, Lord? or is your wrath in the rivers? or your assault in the sea? For you will mount your horses, and your riding is salvation. Bending you will bend your bow against the scepters, says the Lord. The Prophet's purpose is to show that the second economy is better and more manifest than the ancient one and has come about with incomparably greater goods. For long ago through Moses he led Israel out of carnal slavery, having changed the rivers of the Egyptians into blood, and having performed signs and wonders; then parting the Red Sea, and bringing across the redeemed, but drowning in the waters the most warlike of the Egyptians. But when the Only-begotten Word of God became man, he delivered the whole world under heaven, which was yoked to the greediness of the devil, not rivers having changed [it] into blood, not pouring out His own wrath upon waters, not dividing the waves of the sea, not bringing destruction upon men; but rather killing the blood-guilty serpent himself, and casting down the sin found by him and through him, and destroying the irresistible power of death, and calling everyone to the knowledge of God, through the holy Apostles, who, running all over the world under heaven, and carrying the name of Christ, and very justly, were admired. O then Master, he says, very worthy to be heard are the things of which You Yourself have become the author, and the things accomplished again by You are much better than those through Moses. For You will not bring wrath upon rivers; You will not rush against the sea; not in those things; from where? The wonder of Your God-befitting authority will shine forth; but You will rather mount upon Your horses, and Your riding is salvation. And who might the horses be, again? The blessed disciples, both Apostles and Evangelists, who were wholly yoked to His divine will, who were gentle and easy to rein and ready for anything whatsoever that seemed good to Him, who had Christ as both rider and charioteer, of whom the blessed Paul is one, concerning whom He Himself says, "For this one is a chosen instrument of Mine to bear My name before the Gentiles." And very swift indeed are the horses, traveling all over the world under heaven. Thus also "The chariot of God is said to be ten thousandfold, having thousands of prospering ones." For very many who from time to time, and after them, have become leaders of peoples and have submitted the neck of their mind to the yokes of the Savior, and carrying His glory everywhere, and rightly dividing the word of truth, and, as it were, making the whole earth resound with the clatter of hooves. And the riding of the horses is salvation. For they ran not in vain, but so that they might save cities, and countries and nations alike, as Christ was overthrowing the principalities of demons, who had divided the whole earth, so to speak, subjecting its inhabitants to their own wills. But since the ancient principalities of the demons were about to fall, for this reason he says fittingly, Bending you will bend your bow against the scepters. For he will rush, as I just said, not in rivers or seas, but will rather overthrow the scepters of the demons. The land of rivers will be rent, peoples will see you and be in travail; scattering the waters of his course. He remembers again the achievements of the Savior, and to the other nations, against which the bow is bent, or rather, will be bent, he says that the land of rivers will also be added, perhaps indicating that of the Babylonians; for under it at that time was also the land between the rivers; so that through this, again as by an image of perceptible enemies, the multitude of the intelligible and invisible ones might also be signified, against which is the struggle for the saints. But in some way the word of the prophets is always hidden. Therefore, as from a part of the land between the rivers, the land of the Babylonians is signified, and through it, enigmatically, the herd of demons. Or perhaps the prophetic word hints at something else for us. For he seems to call Judea the land of rivers, because of the many prophets who arose in it, watering the nation like rivers, and, as it were, flooding it with divine streams. concerning whom, I think, the blessed David also says, "The rivers will clap their hands together;" and indeed also through the voice of Isaiah, God [says]: "The beasts of the field will bless me, the sirens and the daughters of ostriches, because I gave water in the desert, and rivers in a waterless land to give drink to my chosen race, my people whom I have acquired to declare my virtues." For our Lord Jesus Christ has perhaps been named a torrent of delight, and He truly is, and indeed also a river; for He said somewhere concerning Him through the voice of the saints, "Behold, I am turning upon them like a river of peace, and like a torrent flooding the glory of the nations." And it was also said through the voice of David, "The streams of the river make glad the city of God." And it in no way harms, in likeness to Him, the saints themselves to be called rivers, since indeed they have become conformed to him spiritually. For just as he is the true light, he said somewhere to the holy apostles "You "are the light of the world;" so also, being himself a river and indeed living water, he grants to the saints to be glorified by the same titles. The land of the spiritual rivers, therefore, that is, Judea, not having endured to drink the living water, and not having received the word of the holy prophets, nor indeed that through Moses; for if they had believed Moses, they would have believed Christ, for he wrote about him; it will be broken, that is, it will thirst. For thirsty land breaks apart. The Prophet therefore marvels, and as if in character says: The land that formerly had many rivers, and a most abundant supply of the divine streams, will be thirsty and unwatered land. But since, he says, O Master, the peoples have seen you appear spiritually, that is, those from the nations who understood the mystery concerning you, they immediately received the good in birth-pangs, and have become fruitful. And it would be fitting for them to say "Through "fear of you, O Lord, we have conceived in the womb and have been in travail "and have brought forth. We have wrought the spirit of your salvation upon the "earth." For those who have inscribed Emmanuel as Savior and Redeemer travail with the divine fear, and every conception of their mind will be a fruit of virtue, and their endeavor will result in a spirit of salvation; therefore peoples will see you and will travail, drinking your stream, and having become drunk with the streams of the gospel. For they eagerly approached him as he said "If anyone "thirsts, let him come to me and drink," for you were, he says, so bountiful and good, as to scatter waters even in your journeys, that is, the life-giving word of evangelical instruction. For as Matthew says "Jesus went about all the cities and villages, "teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the "gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease "and every infirmity among the people." This, I think, is the meaning of scattering the waters of his journey. But that the word of divinely inspired teaching is called water everywhere in the sacred writings, how can it be doubted? The abyss gave its voice, the height of its appearance. The sun was lifted up, and the moon stood in its order for a light. He calls the peoples who have been in travail and have now become fruitful an abyss, showing that they are many and innumerable; for such is the abyss. And by such a name the multitude of the holy angels is also called through the voice of Ezekiel. And so God said somewhere, as from the person of the prince of Tyre concerning Satan, When I cast him down into Hades, the abyss mourned for him. For with him who was beyond all and preeminent in glory, who was also placed with the Cherubim, according to the voice of the prophet himself, having been cast down and having fallen, it is not at all unlikely that the spiritual abyss, that is, the hosts of the spirits above, was greatly grieved, and as it were, became sad for him who had suffered and had offended the God of all. Therefore the abyss, he says, that is, the immeasurable and incomprehensible multitude of those who have believed, and indeed also the height of the appearance in it, that is, again, all that is splendid and exalted in it, and adorned with the appearances in this world, or rather with vain glories, gave its voice. For Christ is glorified by every nation of men, and one may see small and great, illustrious and obscure, and those more distinguished than others, having pre-eminence either perhaps in glory, or in wealth and splendor in life, doing this eagerly; which he very rightly called appearances or the height of appearance. For to them it is nothing other than an opinion, because "All flesh is grass "and all the glory of man as the flower of grass." And that the abyss gave its voice, and that small and great honor our Lord Jesus Christ with praises, the blessed David will also make clear when he says "Praise the Lord "from the earth, you dragons and all deeps." And having added to these mountains and hills, fruitful trees and all cedars, beasts and cattle, creeping things and winged birds, he adds again "Rulers and all judges of the earth, young men and maidens, old men with younger men, let them praise the name of the Lord." And somewhere our great Isaiah also said concerning him "Kings shall see him and be afraid; rulers and they shall worship him." And he gives as it were the reason for the deep, and indeed the height of its appearance, to give its voice, adding immediately: The sun was lifted up, and the moon stood in its order for light. And just as we have understood the deep, not according to the sensible account, for it is too crude, but rather spiritually and intellectually, so also now we will not fix the eye of the mind on the elements, I mean the sun and the moon; but by the likeness from them, darting toward better things, we shall perceive the power of the concepts. Therefore, we say the sun is the luminous and brilliant initiation into the evangelical ordinances, and the moon, in turn, the lesser and dimmer light of the Law, shining, as in night and darkness, in the time before the advent. For it is called day in which Christ shone forth, the sun of righteousness, the spiritual morning star, rising in the hearts of those who have believed. And indeed the divine David says, "This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." And just as the physical sun, while still low and barely rising from the earth, does not yet have a broad and brilliant light, but has its own light as if contracted within itself, but leaping up on high, it makes the emission of its ray most brilliant to all everywhere; so also the instruction through Christ, that is, the evangelical, was contracted in the beginning, and was unknown to many; but like the sun, all but rising, and going on high little by little, and sending forth the gleam of the knowledge of God everywhere, it stuns the deep, that is, the whole race of men; for this reason it also gave its voice. For it gives glory, as I said, and names God, and confesses Emmanuel as Lord and redeemer of all. Therefore, the sun was lifted up, and no less the moon, that is, the Law, stood in its order for light. For the instruction through Moses comes after the evangelical instruction, and this is its order, because it is both a shadow and a type. But since Christ is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, the Law also shone forth. For by comparing the things that have come to pass with those formerly announced through it, we have already marveled also at the light of the Law itself prefiguring to us elegantly in many ways the mystery of Christ. It stood, therefore, for light. And Christ himself also blesses those who have brought together in themselves both the legal and the evangelical instruction. For he spoke thus: "Therefore I say to you, that every scribe," that is, one who knows the law, "who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven, is like a rich man, who brings out of his treasure new and old things." But we will also accept another meaning for this, not an implausible one, as it seems to me, but rather one that approaches what is likely. For we say, and very rightly, that Emmanuel is the sun. For so he has been named, and so he truly is. And it must be supposed that the Church of God is called the moon, by likeness to the element, shining for those in darkness, and gleaming as if in the night. When, therefore, the sun was lifted up, according to the voice of the Prophet—for Christ ascended the precious cross for us—then also the church from the gentiles shone forth and stood in its order for light, that is, like a full moon, and preserving the order of its own cycle, it became a light for those in darkness, just as I said a moment ago. And that when Christ was lifted up and endured the cross for the life of all, the Church was then established, he himself will teach again: "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, fruit bears more fruit.” And again, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to my- self.” Therefore, the sun being lifted up, surely signifies either the passion on the cross, or the ascent to the heavens; for indeed we also say that he is lifted up in this way. Your missiles will go forth into the light of the lightning of your weapons. Here he calls missiles those who went throughout the whole earth, and as if sent from a bow, that is, from a strong hand, the holy apostles and evangelists, about whom the blessed David also said somewhere, “Like arrows in the hand of a mighty one, “so are the sons of those who have been cast out.” For the nation of the Jews was cast out and expelled, for insulting Christ who was calling them to life; but their sons, who are also of the blood of Israel, the chosen disciples, became missiles and arrows, as if running from a most mighty hand, and easily piercing everything struck for death. Such missiles are sent, as from the hand of Christ, and are fixed in the entrails of the devil, and destroy the dragon. And so the blessed David also sings somewhere, saying to our Lord Jesus Christ, “Your arrows are sharpened, O mighty “one, peoples will fall under you, in the heart of the king’s enemies.” Therefore, by such arrows the hordes of demons are destroyed, and they become a means of destruction to the enemies; but for those who have recognized his epiphany and honored him through faith, they fulfill another need. for they make them wounded with love, according to the bride who says in the Song of Songs, “For I am wounded “with love.” And they are found in another way to be the light of the lightning of his weapons; and his weapons could be understood as those with which the blessed Paul commands that we ourselves must be armed, saying, “Put on the whole armor of God.” And this is the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, having shod your feet with the readiness of the gospel of peace, the sword of the Spirit. Therefore, such are the weapons of Christ, not clothing himself, but rather being given by him to the worthy. And the weapons are bright, and as if full of lightning; for virtue is most manifest; therefore, the missiles will be a light of the lightning of your weapons. For because the weapons flash, they themselves will give light, teaching those who were ignorant. For among lovers of sin, virtue is a kind of unadorned thing, and not yet bright; but among those who know it, it is nothing less than lightning, making a person bright and transparent, and most well-known everywhere. Therefore, the divine disciples, having the lightning of your weapons first, will also be a light of it for others. For just as experts in the medical art, when they free those who have fallen into diseases of the eyes and who flee the light of the sun’s ray from their suffering, they then persuade them to endure the assault of the light, and having become a kind of light for them, they would be taken, and very reasonably so; so also the divine disciples, admiring and praising the virtues, which have also been appointed as weapons of Christ, are found to be a kind of light of the lightning in them, that is, of their radiance, for others. In threat you will make the earth small, and in wrath you will bring down nations. Through these things, the Prophet subtly indicates to us the devastation of the land of the Jews, and the destruction of the nations dwelling in it. For since they did not accept faith in Christ, but rose up against him, and killed the author of life, for this reason they have been given over to desolation, and Isaiah foretold this to them, saying, “Woe to the lawless one; evil according to his works will “befall him.” You went out for the salvation of your people, to save your anointed ones; you cast death upon the heads of the lawless, you raised up bonds to the neck forever. Again he explains to us, as it were, the whole economy of the incarnation of the Only-begotten. For he has saved those through faith justified, and anointed with the Holy Spirit, and shown to be partakers of his divine nature; but he has permitted those who have chosen to disobey to be consumed in their sins, to whom he also said clearly, "Amen, amen, I say "to you, that if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your "sins." You went out, therefore, it says, as a king coming against the hordes of the enemy, and armed with the law of war. And the purpose of the departure was to save your anointed ones; clearly meaning those anointed with the Holy Spirit, concerning whom he also long ago commanded through prophets, saying "Do not touch my anointed ones, "and do no evil to my prophets;" but to prepare death for the lawless, which they, having drawn it down upon their own heads, would be caught in, by not accepting the justifying faith. For this reason they are also bound with unbreakable bonds, and are tightened by the chains of their own transgressions; and not partially, but as it were through the whole body, and up to the neck. But if indeed the bonds are said to be of Christ, let no one be disturbed. For always somehow the things that happen to some by the permission of God are said to be his; such as the saying, "There is no evil in a city, "which the Lord has not done." For he himself does not do the evil, but rather he often permits it to happen to the sinning cities. But if indeed the bonds spoken of here might be understood as things to be praised, again we say this, that death is indeed cast upon the heads of the lawless, but the God of all binds, as with bonds of love, those who approach him, and have been justified by faith and sanctified in the Spirit, in accordance with that which was certainly spoken through the voice of the prophet concerning those of the blood of Israel, "And I bound the feet of "Ephraim, I took him up on my arm, I drew "them with the bonds of my love." But the bond upon the necks is here understood also as the easy rein of those who have submitted to him the neck of their mind, and have taken upon themselves the truly good yoke of our Savior. You have cut off in ecstasy the heads of rulers, they will be shaken in it. The name of ecstasy is understood in different ways in the divinely-inspired scripture. For sometimes it means astonishment, as if it might be said, for example, concerning the sins of those of Israel, "Heaven was astonished at this;" and again, "Astonishment and horrible things have happened in the land;" and then again at other times the removal from an earthly way of thinking to a certain divine and spiritual state of character and of life. And so the divine Paul writes to some, and says, "For if "we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you." And just as we say that the turning from worse things to better things is an ecstasy beloved by God; so also we maintain that the change from useful things to shameful things is an ecstasy that is wicked and reproached. In such an ecstasy, therefore, he says, you have cut off the heads of the rulers. and he indicates those of the leaders of Israel, certainly scribes and Pharisees, and of the priests according to the law. for they were truly driven out of their senses and out of right thinking and a good mind and of the love for God, not receiving the Son, but rather even killing him, although they both knew and said, that "this is the heir." And what, then, might the manner of the cutting off be understood to be? The divine David will fittingly clarify, saying to the Savior God of all, "Divide them in their life;" for "Israel" was both the "portion" of God, and "the line of his inheritance." But since they have wickedly provoked the Son, the beloved has become sent away, and has been divided, and has been separated from the hope of those who have believed, disinherited and cast off, and has been put out of his presence, and in a second portion, and after the nations, who indeed also say of themselves that, "Blessed "are we by the Lord who made heaven and "earth;" "God is the Lord, and he has appeared to us." Therefore Israel was cut off, and having fallen from the blessing, a portion... no longer of God, but rather diabolical and most dishonorable and profane. Then concerning the ecstasy he says that they will be shaken in it, that is, they will fall. For what is in vibration and agitation is near to falling. And the prophet laments for them, as if they were destroyed in many ways, saying, "The house of Israel has fallen, there is no one who will raise it." They will open their bridles, like a poor man eating secretly. The difficulty of both its syntax and its wording is very great indeed; nevertheless we will speak as we are able, distinguishing very well the meaning of the thoughts. Having narrated, then, the situation in which the heads of the rulers absolutely had to be, that is, those who had been chosen to lead the Synagogue of the Jews, he moves on immediately to the holy apostles, who in the beginning had great fear of their persecutors. For they were scourged in the councils and commanded to speak to no one in the name of Christ; and coming together secretly they made their supplications to God, saying, "For in truth both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, were gathered together in this city against your holy child Jesus, whom you anointed. And now, Lord, look upon their threats;" clearly, those of the Jews; "and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness." Therefore, those who were, so to speak, constrained by fear as by a bridle and forced to be silent, those who were scourged and afflicted, who spoke to some secretly and with difficulty, and who resembled a poor man eating, will open their bridles. It is as if he were to say, they will by all means be broadened into the boldness that is most dear and fitting for them. For they will in no way care about the Synagogue of the Jews; but spitting on the threats, and, so to speak, breaking the bridle cast upon them, like some noble and proud horses, they will henceforth neigh, with no one rebuking them, and will fill the whole world with their voice. The divine Isaiah says something similar to those who minister the evangelical proclamation: "Go up on a high mountain, you who bring good news to Zion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good news to Jerusalem. Lift it up, do not be afraid; behold our God, behold the Lord comes with strength, and his arm with dominion." Therefore, he says, those who were formerly like a poor man eating secretly, that is, those who had no boldness, those who were secretly and with difficulty nourished by the faith of the believers, will open their bridles to cheerfulness, in the manner already stated. And that the faith of those who are saved is a kind of food for both God and the saints, Christ himself confirms when he says concerning the conversion of the Samaritans, "I have food to eat that you do not know." And again, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work." And you mounted your horses into the sea, troubling many waters. The discourse has again maintained the figure of a trope. For having named bridles, he called the holy Apostles horses, on whom Christ himself also rides, having settled as it were into their mind and heart. Therefore, he tries to teach that they were destined to lead to faith not only those of Israel, but also the very great and countless multitude of the other nations. For he compares the world to the sea, according to what is sung in the Psalms, "This is the sea, great and wide; there are creeping things without number;" and to many waters the herds of the nations, throughout all the earth; and indeed, as I said, the holy Apostles to horses, who, travelling about the whole world, usefully troubled the idolaters who were, so to speak, snoring and resting in error; for they have caused a disturbance, summoning to fear those who were proceeding to punishment, and who would undergo the judgment by fire, if they did not choose to repent and to know the God who is by nature and truly God. And indeed the divine Paul, speaking to the Athenians, and then to all the others having called them more supersti- tious, he has disturbed them not a little, adding this, "The times of ignorance God overlooked, but "now he commands all people everywhere to re- "pent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the "world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, having offered assurance "to all by raising him from the dead." Therefore the trou- bled water is the multitude throughout the world; for at times it is compared to waters, and very fittingly; since the life of men is like the sea; because great is the turmoil of the affairs in it, and the pouring forth and movement upwards and downwards and towards everything whatsoever; and the troubled water is much, at least in comparison with Israel; for they were one nation; but these are greater than any number. I watched, and my heart was startled at the voice of the prayer of my lips, and trembling entered into my bones, and under- neath me my frame was troubled. I will rest in my day of affliction, that I may go up to the people of my sojourning. It is a custom for the holy prophets to call the watchfulness in heart and mind, which they might happen to make, when the Holy Spirit proclaimed to them beforehand the knowledge of things to come, a "watch" or a "hearing." Therefore the same Habakkuk says, "I will stand on my watch, and mount upon "the rock, and watch to see what he will say in me, "and what I shall answer to my reproof;" and another again, "I have heard a report from the Lord, and he sent a message to the "nations," and indeed in addition to this the divine David also says, "I will hear," he says, "what the Lord "God will speak in me." The Prophet now implies something of this sort, saying, "I watched and my heart was startled." "I have observed," he says, "the power of the things that were said; then I have been terribly startled at the voice of the prayer of my lips." For he made his supplication to God with an ode, and the manner of his prophecy was a song; but his aim and mind were not on the rhythmic utterance, but he was rather embittered into grief, and was exceedingly fearful, as the Spirit articulated in him the things that would happen to those of Israel in the last times. And that which especially disturbed him and persuaded him to fear was, in all likelihood, perhaps this alone, lest he somehow be left behind in the evils, and witness the crushing of the people, and see death cast upon the heads of the lawless, and them being cut off in ecstasy, and shaken in it, according to the sense already explained. Then, learn- ing that the vision would be for appointed times, and the things foretold for a long postponement, almost recovering from his ut- ter despondency from then on, he says, "I will rest in my day of affliction, that I may go up to the people of my sojourning." "For I will not be held fast," he says, "in such evils, nor will I be found in this life, when the time is at hand in which such evils will surely befall those of Israel." "For I will go from here, and I will depart to the people that has become such a sojourner in this life, just as, indeed, I myself am." For all the saints are sojourners and strangers in this world. Therefore they say, "Here we have no lasting "city, but we seek the city that is to come." And David also sings somewhere to the God of all, "Spare me, for "I am a sojourner in the land and a stranger, as all "my fathers were." Therefore the aim of the saints is worthy of admiration, not even bearing, so to speak, to see those things on account of which God might happen to be provoked; and having practiced making their depar- ture from this world more pleasant than life itself, if the things for the glory of God were not saved by us. And indeed the divine Paul said that to depart is better, and to be with Christ for those who have come to this mind, so as to consider life in the body a sojourning. Because the fig tree will not bear fruit, and there will be no produce on the vines; the work of the olive will fail, and the fields will produce no food; the sheep have failed from the food, and there will be no oxen at the stalls from their healing. Just as to one who was asking and wishing to learn, for what reason he made it of great account to die, or rather to ascend to the people of his sojourning, he overshadows with much obscurity the abolition of the Synagogue of the Jews, and all but seems to lament the barrenness that would befall it. And he indicates it to us in many ways, saying that it would be like a fig tree, from which no fruit would come. For the Savior Himself also named it thus, speaking as in a parable: "A certain man had a fig tree planted in his "vineyard." And since it was barren, He said that it must finally be cut down, lest it render the ground useless. And somewhere He also cursed the fig tree before Jerusalem; for not finding fruit on it, "May no fruit," he says, "come from you "forever." He also compares it to a vine devoid of grape clusters. For it is again, as the prophet Isaiah says: "The "vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth is a man of Judah, a new plant, "beloved." But "he trenched it, and put a hedge "about it, and built a tower in it, and dug a "winepress, and waited for it to produce grapes, but it produced "thorns." For this reason, then, it was laid waste, as David says, "A boar from the wood, and a wild solitary beast has "devoured it;" and he took down "its hedge, and all "who pass by the way have plucked its fruit." And the produce of the olive also failed, that is, again, of the Synagogue of the Jews. For the prophet Jeremiah also indicates it thus, saying, "A beautiful olive tree, shady in appearance, "the Lord called your name. At the sound of its pruning "a fire was kindled upon it, great is the tribulation upon you, its "branches were made useless, and the Lord of hosts who "planted you has spoken evil against you." But since, as the Prophet says, its produce failed; for though they were tutored for Christ through the law and the prophets, they did not accept the faith; for this reason it was also cut off, and its branches have fallen, and those from the wild olive tree, that is, those from the Gentiles, were then grafted in, "and have become partakers of the root "and of the richness of the cultivated olive tree." Then he says that the fields will not produce food. He again compares Israel to ruined crops, I think, from which the farmer could not even gather enough for food. And this would be a clear proof of the utmost barrenness. And he clarified that they were about to suffer a famine of divine teachings and fall into the last of all evils, adding that the sheep have failed from food, that is, from having no food; and that there are no oxen at the manger. By this is signified the complete failure among them of the sacred and chosen race, that is, those from the tribe of Levi, who, like oxen, thresh the spiritual threshing-floor and strip the word given through the all-wise Moses of the veils of obscurity, and set forth a kind of grain of wheat to others for understanding and as a sort of spiritual food. But they themselves were feeding at mangers on the offerings from the people, tithes, first-fruits, thanksgiving offerings. Therefore, the sheep have failed from food; and there were no longer oxen at the manger, that is, the guides and teachers of the peoples. For this reason also the divine Paul applies the saying, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain," to the heads of the teachers, clearly interpreting for us the things in the law. Moreover, he says the oxen have failed from their healing. And the saying is obscure; yet it signifies this, as I think again. For since they foolishly spurned being healed by Christ, although He strengthens the weak and justifies the ungodly, for this reason they have also failed, that is, they have been completely weakened and have come to nothing. It is a terrible thing, then, to stumble against God, and it will be the cause of the utmost barrenness. And we shall lack spiritual food, and as a result we shall be in a state beyond all evil. But I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be glad in God my Savior; the Lord God my strength, and He will set my feet for a consummation; He will make me walk upon high places, that I may be victorious in His song. Here then either the very person of the Prophet is clearly introduced, saying such things; or one might say the words belong to those justified in faith, who make Christ their delight, and rejoice in Him, and they record him as the provider of their inherent strength, and say that they can do all things in Him, just as, of course, the divine Paul also says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." And somewhere the blessed David also sings, "For you are the boast of their strength;" and they expect to be well and truly enriched by Him alone with a firm standing in piety. For "He will set my feet for a consummation" surely indicates to us nothing other than this. And indeed the Hebrew edition has put "security" instead of "consummation". But feet being set for security, what else would it signify to us, than a firm standing, as I said, in piety, and the unshakable in virtue, and being fixed in faith and love for Christ? And that the life of those justified in Christ is not lowly and groveling, but is both lofty and removed from every earthly and carnal matter, he makes clear by saying "He will make me walk upon high places". For the boasts of the evangelical way of life are truly lofty before God. And that we shall overcome those who oppose us, and shall be superior to our enemies, glorifying Him, he will persuade by saying, "That I may be victorious in His song".