COMMENTARY ON THE PROPHET MICAH

Book 1

The purpose for all the holy prophets is one and God-loving, to persuade Israel to depart vigorously from the desire to wander, and to choose rather to serve the living and true God, and to delight in the boasts of righteousness, casting as far away as possible the condemnation for their wicked deeds. And many there have been, one after another, as God in a way testified beforehand, and through as many mouths as possible clearly proclaimed in advance, that if they should not choose to live rightly, nor indeed make it of great importance to practice a return to better things from then on, they themselves would pronounce judgment against themselves, and enduring a self-inflicted destruction, they would attribute the causes of their suffering to their own judgments. But if the words of the holy prophets should contain the same narratives, let no one find fault, accusing them of tautology, but rather let him clearly consider this: for there should have been no time in which there were not those able to correct sinners. And just as no one, if he had any sense, would find fault with the fact that at all times there are physicians, who check the same of our afflictions with the same appropriate remedies, so, I think, no one would reasonably rebuke the holy prophets, if they should appear to be going through the same deeds and words. For it was one Lord who spoke to all, and who at all times showed to the wandering those who knew how to bring them back to a straight path, as it were. For they all foretell the wars, the captivities, the desolation of cities, the toils, the sorrows, the lamentations for the dead, the miseries of those who are taken away, the cruelty of the destroyers; and one might see that the narratives proceed with all harshness, for the necessary benefit of those who are wandering. For at times, that which has unrestrainedly inclined towards apostasy and sin is checked by fears. Therefore, the blessed Micah also prophesies in the times of the reigns of Jotham and Ahaz and Hezekiah. And while Jotham was reigning, Pekah son of Remaliah campaigned against Jerusalem, and Rezin king of Syria; but when he died, Ahaz succeeded to the rule, who also, as it was extending for the war he hired the Assyrian with money, and called on him to help, since he was unable to lead out an army against the forces of the attackers; who, having come, captured Damascus and also killed Raasson. Then, at that time, when Jeroboam son of Joash, and after him Azariah, and thirdly Manaeim were reigning in Samaria, Phul king of the Assyrians came up, who, having been persuaded with difficulty by a great deal of money, was brought back to his own land. After Phul, Tiglath-pileser the Assyrian campaigned against the land of the Jews, and he uprooted very many cities of Samaria; and to them he added also all of Galilee as far as Naphtali. These things were therefore spoken of in detail when we composed the exegesis on the blessed prophet Hosea, and we have now made mention of them necessarily because the times of the prophecy of Micah were also set forth. For it was necessary, it was necessary for the eager listener and lover of learning not to be ignorant of the reason for which those who had reigned over Jerusalem were named, I mean Jotham and Ahaz. The time of the prophecy extends even to the reign of Hezekiah, in whose time again was Sennacherib, he also being king of the Assyrians; he took by force the city of the Samaritans, and also plundered the cities of the Philistines, that is, of the Palestinians. Then having taken Lachish—this being a city of the kingdom of Judah— from there he sends Rabshakeh to besiege Jerusalem, who also pays the penalty for his arrogance and verbal abuse against God, when one hundred and eighty-five thousand of the Assyrian army died in one night. The word of the Lord, it says, therefore came to Micah of Morathi. And the word of the Lord came to Micah the Morathite, in the days of Jotham and Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. It is necessary to know again that the Hebrews have written "the Morathite" instead of "of Morathi," so that it might not be designated as from a father, but as from a place. For they say that Morathi is a village or a small town that was in the country of the Jews. The other commentators also agree with this version. Therefore, Morathi would not be the Prophet's father; but, as I said, it indicates rather from a place, and Morathite. What, then, were the words that came to him, it is necessary to examine. Concerning what he saw about Samaria and Jerusalem. For he has seen as in a vision the things that will be, and having grasped not only the knowledge of the evils that are about to come or are even at the gates, but inasmuch as it came to sight—I mean as in a vision—fearing the outcome, he necessarily makes his speech about both Samaria and Jerusalem. Hear, all peoples, words, and let the earth and all who are in it pay attention, and the Lord God shall be among you as a witness, the Lord from his holy house. He commands them to prepare for docility, and, as it were, inclining their ear, to understand subtly the power of the divine oracles. And that the narrative is not from human opinion or will, but from the very God who rules over all, he confirms by adding, that the Lord will be among you as a witness. For he says, as it were: Even if I, Micah, make the speech, and even if I should happen to mediate as a man, yet the God of all things himself testifies to you, and I lend my voice to the Lord’s decrees. Therefore he himself will be a witness to you, for whom you have established this renowned and illustrious temple, for whom the divine altar was founded by you, for whom you have been taught by the law to offer worship; who from his own house has always spoken to holy prophets, and before all others to the blessed Moses, who had raised that ancient tabernacle in the wilderness. For he spoke from above the mercy-seat, and as the sacred scripture says: "Moses spoke, and God answered him with a voice." And now he testifies to you, it says, from his house. Therefore hear, O peoples, and let the earth also pay attention. Similar to this is that through the voice of Isaiah: "Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken." For the Most High dwells not in those things made of in temples of stone or in sanctuaries made by hand. But since we say that the holy houses have been raised for the glory of God, for this reason we have believed that the God of all things does not disdain to dwell in them, although He fills the heavens and the earth and the things below. And one might reasonably apply these things also to Christ, who calls to salvation not only peoples who were also of the blood of Abraham, but indeed also the whole earth. For He testified, as it were, through the voice of David, saying "Hear these things, "all you nations; give ear, all you who inhabit the "world." And how can one doubt that the Word has come down to us from heaven as from His own house, which is exceedingly dear to Him? And it is in no way strange to call heaven the house of God, since the divinely inspired scriptures also call the earthly Zion, which is taken as a type of the Church, both His house and His city. For the divine David somewhere sings and says, "Glorious things have been spoken of you, O "city of God." Therefore, as a city, so also would be the house, the Church of Christ who fills all things according to the nature of His Divinity. For behold, the Lord comes forth from his place, and will mount upon the high places of the earth, and the mountains shall be shaken from under him, and the valleys shall melt like wax before the fire, and like water carried down a steep place. This saying is indeed very obscure and full of riddles. But we say this of necessity, that even if things concerning God are signified in words according to our manner, yet the one who is skilled in these things, and knows how to understand "a parable and an obscure saying, the words of the wise and their riddles," will understand subtly, and in a way that is as fitting as possible to the divine and ineffable nature. For its establishment, and thrones, and rising are spoken of through the voice of the saints, and indeed also ways and journeys, and certain other small and human things besides these, but, as I said just now, such contemplations would reasonably be understood subtly and finely by the good and sound-minded. For the words come about as if from a likeness and metaphor of things concerning us. Therefore, when you hear the Prophet saying, For behold, the Lord comes forth from his place, and will mount upon the high places of the earth, and he adds that the mountains will be shaken, and the valleys will be melted down, then indeed, being raised a little above the things of sense, ascend in your contemplations to subtle thoughts. Here, therefore, you will understand the going forth of God as from His own place to be, as it were, a movement from rest, upon some of the things to be done. For he all but says, He who was long-suffering for a long time has at last been moved, and will somehow no longer spare to remain quiet toward those who have offended, and having in a way left behind the gentleness dear to Him, He will at last inflict punishment. For He will mount upon the high places of the earth, that is, He will at last trample upon those in excessive preeminence, that we may understand the kings in both Samaria and in Jerusalem. And the mountains will be shaken, that is, again, they will be moved from their own dignities, those who surpass others and stand very high in glory; for such men are very well compared to mountains. And the valleys shall melt like wax, that is, the humble and the cast down, and those who have the measure of the common herd, but although they are very hard, and do not endure to yield to the divine decrees, as if encountering the fire from the divine wrath, they will be melted down like wax; and they will become like water carried down a steep place, that is, rushing down a slope in a swift and unrestrained course. For as I have already said, the kings of the Assyrians, having savagely ravaged both Samaria itself and the kingdom of Judah, deported some of the kings, and also killed all the leaders, and like a runner and like water coming down a slope they carried away the multitude of the common people to their own land. And this was the water carried down a steep place, and running from Samaria into the land of the Persians and Medes. And the word of God has come forth from of this place. For being God by nature He became man; and He seems somehow to have endured motion, in this respect I mean, although not knowing change, but rather being established in his own nature, and having stability as God. And He stepped on the high places of the earth, and shook mountains, and melted valleys, and caused them to flow like water carried downhill. And the high places of the earth could be understood as the intelligible powers that rise up against all, and the spiritual hosts of wickedness; and the shaken mountains as the demons who were driven from their rule over us. For they have been cast out, and we are henceforth called to be subject to the one who is by nature and in truth God. And the valleys in turn are the swarming multitude of demons, the lowly and cast-down, that which has been melted like wax, and which has flowed like water into the recesses of Hades. For the evil spirits came to Christ, and "they begged him not to command them to depart into the "abyss." For since others had already been sent away before, those who were still left shuddered at the event. But if someone should wish to understand the high places and mountains and valleys as the teachers of the Jews, and indeed also the peoples under them, who on account of their insolence toward Christ were also driven from their own rule; for they were melted, and like wax coming into contact with a flame, so they were with the calamities of the war from the Romans, "But they were made as nothing and as passing water, and as "wax that is melted they are taken away," according to the voice of the psalmist; he will not stray from the proper aim. For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sin of the house of Israel. Saying that the God of all will step upon the high places of the earth, and that the mountains will be shaken by him, and the valleys will be melted like wax and water and will flow down, he then adds, For the transgression of Jacob is all this. See therefore how he speaks hidden mysteries, and does not limit the meaning of the preceding things to what is perceptible, but knows how to narrate indirectly the calamities that were about to befall those in Samaria and those in Jerusalem. For what terror would it hold, and how would the shaking of the mountains grieve those in Samaria, for instance, or the others? And in what way would the valleys be melted, or be like water carried downhill? But he knows, as I said, having suitably indicated the things that would happen to those of Israel. For this reason, therefore, he necessarily brings forward the punishments, not speaking to them as if they were ignorant, as I think, but as it were rebuking them, and excellently persuading them to choose to think what is useful and more fitting. He said, therefore, that For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sin of the house of Israel, so that the entire race of Israel might be understood to have sinned against both God and men. For he seems to call the offenses against God transgression, but those against brothers and kinsmen sin. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the sin of the house of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? Having named Jacob those who are from Jacob, I mean Ephraim who is in Samaria, he makes their accusations clear. And he says that Samaria is the form of the transgression. And we certainly do not say that he accuses the country itself; for it is utterly senseless to think this way; but by Samaria he means the things pertaining to Samaria, such as the heifers, Chemosh, Baal, and the things done in it against certain people through the greed of the rulers. For he said that "They struck the heads of the "poor, and turned aside the way of the humble." And in addition to this they said, "When will the month be over, that we may sell, and "the sabbath, that we may open our treasures, to make the measure "small and the weight great, and to make the balance "unjust?" He says that Jerusalem also became a sin for Judah. And thinking rightly, we will by no means accuse the city itself in these matters; but we will rather suppose that the things done in it became a sin for Judah. For God somewhere accused the Jews of their insolence, and indeed also said clearly, "For according to the number of your cities were "your gods, O Judah, and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem, "you have set up altars to burn incense to Baal. Why do you speak "to me? All of you have committed iniquity, and all of you have "acted impiously against me, says the Lord Almighty." And He rebukes them also through the voice of Isaiah, saying, "How has the faithful city Zion become "a harlot, full of judgment, in which "righteousness lodged, but now murderers. Your "silver is worthless; your merchants mix wine with water. "Your rulers are disobedient, partners with thieves, loving "gifts, pursuing rewards, not judging for orphans, and "not attending to the judgment of the widow." Therefore the things impiously done in Jerusalem have become a sin for Judah, and not so much the city. It is necessary, then, to love God, and this from the whole soul and heart, and to cast off laziness in doing good, and in no way to harm one's neighbor, but rather to win them over by good deeds, and to reject evil things, but rather to be devoted to the boasts of righteousness. But for those who are supine regarding such venerable things, and have chosen to be contemptuous, He will bring upon them the things of wrath, and like wax He will melt them down, punishing them in fire, and like water He will scatter them, no longer deeming us worthy of mercy and love. And I will make Samaria as a fruit-watcher's hut in a field and as a planting of a vineyard; and I will drag her stones into chaos, and I will uncover her foundations; and they will cut down all her carved images; and they will burn all her wages in fire; and I will bring all her idols to destruction. He clearly recounts what again will be the sufferings of those who have so offended. For Samaria, he says, will be as a fruit-watcher's hut in a field and as a planting of a vineyard. For some guard the things growing in the fields, weaving together huts and sitting in them. Then they drive away all harm from them. But when the fruits are gathered, the guards cease from their labors, they return home, and they overturn the huts themselves. This we shall find Samaria to have suffered. For since she has transgressed not moderately, but rather has also acted impiously against the very God of all, attributing reverence to her own works, she was overturned and has fallen, those having been appointed to guard her long ago having perhaps abandoned her, I mean the holy powers and angels. The blessed prophet Isaiah also said something of this sort about her, "The daughter of Zion will be left behind, as a tent in a vineyard "and as a fruit-watcher's hut in a cucumber field." But how was she left behind? For, as I said, the attending and rescuing rational host of the orders above has departed. Therefore it will be as a fruit-watcher's hut in a field and as a planting of a vineyard. It is as if he were saying: both deserted of cities and houses and transformed into the appearance of fields. Or you will understand it in another way, if you please. The vine-dressers of the vineyards, having taken a place most suitable for them, cut it up with plows, turning it up and down. He threatens that the land of the Samaritans will suffer this, that it will become practically arable land, its cities and houses, as I said, having been removed. Because of this he says, that I will drag her stones into chaos, and I will uncover her foundations. And in addition to this, he says there will be something ridiculous. For those whom they expected to be saviors to them as gods, these are also destroyed together with those accustomed to worship them; and her wages will be burned up, and he says all her idols will go into destruction. The wages for the idols that are burned up along with them, perhaps indicates the votive offerings. For they used to bring to the sanctuaries, distributing from their own wealth for the glory of the idols, and to those who were accustomed to being of no help, or rather having no strength, as if a wage and recompense for what they thought they received from them, they offered thanksgivings. And we remember that also through the voice of Hosea he accused the Synagogue of the Jews, saying thus, "And she did not know that I gave her the grain "and the wine and the oil, and I multiplied for her silver and gold; "but she made silver and gold things for the "Baal;" therefore the votive offerings are clear. But that the senseless Israel reckoned prosperity as wages and a recompense for its zeal in going astray, you will no less understand from God saying again, "And I will destroy her vine "and her fig trees, of which she said, 'These are my wages "'that my lovers have given me.'" For, as I said, she thought that by the nods of idols she boasted in wealth and lived in luxury and prospered. Therefore, the mind of those who go astray is blind. For surely, had it not been ignorant of the God by nature, it would have offered worship to Him rather, and not to any others; to Him it would have offered prayers of thanksgiving; Him it would have confessed as the giver and ruler of every good thing; and having determined to think thus, it would not have become like a watch-post in a field, nor like a planting of a vineyard, but rather would have continued to be blessed with unshakable prosperity, and fortified by heavenly benevolence, having come into a good state of cheerfulness, it would have been admired. Because she gathered from the wages of prostitution, and from the wages of prostitution she amassed. The discourse indeed laughs again, and with great character derides the ignorance of the Jews; for it makes manifest the stupefaction of their inherent madness, and clearly lays bare the things that lie within their mind and heart; For yes, he says, Israel, full of sense, grateful and wise, rightly and justly offered thanksgivings to the stones; it knew those who honored it, the providers of its prosperity, those who had gathered wealth for it, and who prepared it to be in a state of well-being. For it thinks that to prosper is the wage of its spiritual prostitution; and since it has sacrificed to idols, and serves wood and stones, it will be in no want of the things it prays for. It has gathered, as he says, and has grown rich from the wages of prostitution, it has amassed and brought together, it has an unshakable cheerfulness. Therefore, in character and irony, with a threat intertwined, we shall understand the force of what has been said. On account of this she will beat her breast and wail, she will go barefoot and naked, she will make a lamentation like that of dragons and a mourning like that of the daughters of sirens; because her plague has prevailed, because it has come as far as Judah and has reached the gate of my people, as far as Jerusalem. For since she lived, he says, in error, and in no way ceased grieving her own Master, but ascribed to carved images the thanks for which she is well-off and praised, and to this point of impiety, he says, she has now advanced, for this reason she will beat her breast and wail; and she will not grieve for any others perhaps, that is, for foreigners, shedding a tear as if from love, but being struck down by her own calamities. And the nakedness and being barefoot shows the condition of captives; so also the blessed prophet Isaiah, signifying the captivity that was about to befall them, went about Jerusalem, "naked and barefoot," God commanding this thing to happen. She will therefore imitate in her own sufferings the mournings of dragons, and the laments of sirens. For some say that if a dragon is struck, it then laments being in danger, and signifies this by striking the earth with its tail, and is accustomed to make no moderate sound. And sirens the Greeks and their children say are winged creatures that know how to sing melodiously, and are able to bewitch their hearers with the beautiful rhythms of their songs. But the divinely inspired scripture calls sirens the most talkative and sweet-voiced of sparrows, or sometimes even the nightingales themselves, which nest in maritime bays; then, when their nest is taken by the waves, they sing a mournful song, and in a way bewail the loss of their own offspring. Thus he said Samaria will bewail the destruction of her own children. For her plague, he says, has prevailed, and has come as far as Judah, and up to the gates of Jerusalem. And the discourse in these things seems to us to allude to the war by Sennacherib, who, having taken all of Samaria, and having ravaged Judea, besieged Jerusalem, and having arrived at the gates, threatened he wished to burn it; but yet he was not able, with God defending it, during the time of the reign of Hezekiah. Therefore, when having abandoned the one Lord who is so by nature and in truth, we are zealous to cleave to the unclean demons, then we shall by all means and in every way lament for ourselves, and wailing over our own foolish counsels, we shall be stripped of his grace and help, and we shall live a shameful and uncomely life; for this the being unshod signifies. We shall also be subject to Satan striking us, and there will be nothing anymore to prevent us from being in every evil. You in Gath, do not be magnified, you of Enakim, do not rebuild from a house of laughter; sprinkle earth upon your laughter. The saying is circumspect and the meaning of the preceding words and of those which still follow is very hard to grasp. Nevertheless, I will try to explain as far as possible. As the war overran the cities in Samaria, and others under the scepter of Judah and Benjamin were being captured, the neighbors of the foreigners and whatever nations were somewhat bordering the land of the Jews and were neighbors, laughing broadly, were mocking Israel, as having received no help from God. For they thought that the hand of the savior had to suffer weakness and be powerless against the attacks of those who were ravaging them. But it were better to understand that because they had chosen to grieve the savior and had offended God, they experienced terrible things, and were given into the hands of their enemies. And since it was absurd for them to think to themselves, that by the power of their own objects of worship, they had remained in a good state of prosperity, while Israel had perished and been destroyed through the weakness of their savior, for this reason God also delivered the cities of the neighbors to Sennacherib for desolation. And so the Rabshakeh, speaking to those on the wall of Jerusalem, mentioned these very things, saying, "Where is the "god of Hamath and Arphad? Where is the god of the city "of Sepharvaim? Was he able to deliver Samaria from my "hand? Which of all the gods of these nations has delivered "his land from my hand?" Gath, then, is a city of the foreigners called Philistines, and a metropolis of Palestine. But Enakim is likewise another small town situated in the furthest parts of Judea, near the southern desert, yielding indeed to the scepters of Judah, yet no longer thinking the things of the Jews, but rather attached to the neighboring nations, I mean the Moabites and Idumeans. O then, he says, inhabitants of Gath, O you of Enakim, do not make the misfortunes of others occasions for a festival; do not be magnified because of these things, nor because your neighboring house is desolated, that is, that of Israel, for this reason do you laugh broadly, he says, all but dancing over the perished. Do not build from a house of laughter, but as you yourselves are about to suffer worse things, sprinkle as with earth the mockery that will be against you, and lament your own misfortunes. For the Babylonians will dance over you, and your enemies will smile upon you when you have miserably perished. It is wise, therefore, to remember him who says, "If your enemy falls, do not rejoice over him, because "the Lord will see and it will not please him, and he will turn "his anger away from him." But those also do this who do not know Christ. For when the churches are sometimes persecuted, and the saints in them are tested, then indeed, at that very time, they especially marvel at their own gods. But their laughter ends in tears, while Christ makes light of their terrible deeds, and calms the things that have been stirred up, and scares away what causes grief, and broadens gladness and joy for the saints; for the end of labors is glory and delight. And it seems to me that the blessed David says something like this to the God of all: "We went through fire and water, and you brought us out "into a place of refreshment." She who dwells beautifully in her cities did not come forth, she who dwells in Sennaar, to lament for the house next to her; she will receive from you a plague of pain. The Seventy have rendered it Sennaar, but Aquila said Senan, but Symmachus has “prospering,” perhaps this subtly indicating Senan. But if Sennaar should be understood, we say that it is a wide region inhabited in cities and villages by foreigners, yet within the borders of Judea; but if indeed Senan should be understood, it signifies a splendid and renowned city of Egypt. And that it prospers because the land is fertile, and covered with crops, how is it possible to doubt? Sennaar, therefore, he says, or Senan, inhabiting her cities well. But the word will come against those who inhabit them; she did not weep for those near who perished piteously and miserably; she did not go out to mourn the neighboring house, that is, she has not lamented her neighbors. And Sennaar is near Judea, as I said, and certainly also Senan, that is, the Egyptian one. But when Israel was falling and being ravaged, she felt no pain, but mocked, and she herself also rejoiced, just like those from Gath and Enakim. What then of Israel? Will the neighboring nations laugh in vain, and while they are doing these things, will God forbear? Will he endure his glory being mocked by enemies? By no means, he says, but from you or on account of you, she will receive a blow of pain; that is, she also will be ravaged together with the others. And Sennaar has been ravaged, and certainly Egypt too, when Sennacherib overran it. Therefore indeed it is necessary for him who stands well to fear lest he fall, and to cast as far away as possible the smiling upon those who have suffered, "but rather to weep with those who weep" and not to be haughty at the misfortunes of others, but rather to fear exceedingly falling into the same things. Who, dwelling in sorrows, was the first to return to good things? Because evil came down from the Lord to the gates of Jerusalem, a noise of chariots and of horsemen. O Gittites, he says, O inhabitants of Enakim, O of Sennaar or Senan, you were not struck by the misfortunes of your neighbors; the falling and perishing of the once terrible and unbearable Israel became for you an occasion for laughter. And you thought that God who saves them had become weak, but that your handmade things are strong and have reached such a point of strength as to be able to save your cities without effort. Therefore, from the facts, come, let us observe who is God by nature and in truth; who is the all-powerful, and who bestows invincible aid on whomever He may choose. For they were captured and have been ravaged, he says, both the cities of Israel and those among you, and you have endured a common misfortune, as it were. What city, then, indeed, being in pains and in fears about the utmost things—for this is what “dwelling in pains” is—has unexpectedly turned towards good things, that is, to cheerfulness and prosperity? Was it one of yours? By no means, he says, but again my Jerusalem. For evils came down upon it from the Lord, that is, I have grieved and disciplined, and I brought the Assyrian upon them, and from my wrath the affliction against them happened. But it has been quenched and loosed, by my conquering hand and miraculously delivering those who revere my dominion. For the distressing thing stood as far as the gates. And we know that Rabshakeh, having many horsemen, arrived indeed at Jerusalem, but all but touched its very gates, yet did not take it at all; for the Assyrian was consumed in one night. And so those in Jerusalem had lamented, as if about to die at any moment, and had spent a sleepless night weeping; but as the dawn scattered, the miracle was seen. For countless corpses lay on the ground, so that those who had miraculously conquered and been saved through God leaped up to say, "Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning." Do you see then how first and alone among the other cities she began to turn toward good things, although dwelling in pains? For God will not completely overlook his own, but having disciplined them in measure, he saves them again, and of the good repute that befits him he does not take moderate care, even if we offend. For he said somewhere through one of the prophets, "It is not for your sake that I will act, says the Lord, but for my name's sake." Inhabitant of Lachish, she is the beginning of sin to the to the daughter of Zion, because in you were found the impieties of Israel. Lachish, again, is a city subject to the scepter of Judah, a neighbor and bordering the Philistines, and this one is also exceedingly bitter and idolatrous, spurning piety toward God and reverence for the law, but esteeming highly to love to wander and to destroy others besides. Perhaps Sennacherib, having taken this city first among the cities under the scepter of Judah and Benjamin, sent the Rabshakeh from there to Jerusalem. Therefore Lachish, he says, which once was well-inhabited and securely established, has become the beginning of sin to Zion, that is, to Jerusalem. For in it have been found the impieties of Israel, that is, the man-made things and no small number of falsely-named gods. What then does the saying wish to show? It makes a defense in a way to the peoples of the foreigners, and tries to persuade them to be disposed henceforth, that the saving God would not have been weak. But since the cities of Judah have acted impiously toward him, they are delivered up to their enemies. For Lachish, he says, becoming the beginning of sin to Zion, and the first pretext of apostasy, has been given to Sennacherib. Israel therefore has perished, as it is possible to see from Lachish, not because God was sick with cowardice; far from it; but rather because he was sick with wandering, and senselessly attached to the worship of idols. Therefore you shall give ones sent away as far as the inheritance of Gath, vain houses, it became empty for the kings of Israel, until they lead away the heirs; Lachish inhabiting an inheritance shall come as far as Odolam. Israel having fallen under the impulses of wrath, and paying the penalty for its transgressions against God, those from Gath and Enakim dared to laugh at the glory of God. For they thought that, as I have already said, he did not save his own, as one being defeated by the hand of the Assyrians. Then concerning this God wished to persuade, from Lachish, that they were given to the enemies because many impieties of Israel were found upon them, and because they became the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion, that is, to Jerusalem. When God said these things, the blessed Prophet, understanding very well what was being shown and before the others, accepts the words, and, as it were, crowning them into truth with his own votes, immediately cried out: Therefore you shall give ones sent away as far as the inheritance of Gath, vain houses. Yes, he says, O Master, they will go to their enemies, and they will be sent away by you, leaving the land that bore them, and moving to the land of the Assyrians, not only, he says, those in Samaria, but also those in Gath. For the one group became apostates and insolent, not enduring to follow your ordinances; and the others, mocking those who acted miserably, made what happened a contempt for your glory. You yourself therefore will give ones sent away as far as the inheritance of Gath, vain houses. For the houses of both Ephraim and those from Gath are vain, on account of not enduring to honor God, but assigning worship to carved images, and because they have thought only of the things of the flesh, and being attached to earthly things, they made no account of virtue. Then in the midst he becomes indignant in a way, and the blessed Prophet, as it were, strikes his hands together, coming to the thought of the things that were done from time to time in Samaria. He considers the arrogance of the kings, and that the impious deeds for which Israel transgressed were the result of their perversity. For their inventions were both the heifers and the precincts of the other idols. And they did not cease in every way provoking the Creator. The Prophet therefore, being distressed, says: It became empty for the kings of Israel, until they lead away the heirs. It is as if he were saying: The kings did not cease from their labors unto vanity, until they had fallen into such misery, that the inheritance assigned to them by God became the possession of others. That the Assyrians were about to rule all the land of the Jews, he receives two cities in situated in the extremities of the whole country, I mean both Lachish and Odollam, which Rehoboam built, and he says, The inhabitant of Lachish, an inheritance, will come as far as Odollam. For he will inherit Lachish, although it was very well fortified; for this is what it is to inhabit; and it extends, he says, even to Odollam. Therefore, if one should choose to be wise and well-reined and hating to oppose the divine commands, he will be in long-lasting prosperity, and will be situated in the good part of his own lots; for he will be full of good hope and will shine forth with the saints in due seasons; but if he should appear harsh and intractable and not yielding to the divine laws, he will be utterly cast out from the hope of the saints and will lose his lot with God, and he will also be the lot of his enemies, according to that which is sung in the psalms concerning some, "They shall be portions for foxes," that is, a portion of wicked, crafty, and malicious powers. The glory of the daughter of Israel, shave yourself and cut your hair for your delicate children; make your widowhood wide like an eagle's, for they have gone into captivity from you. It is as if he were to say again, O once thrice-blessed daughter of Jerusalem, who received a most glorious and conspicuous glory, Jerusalem or Samaria, your delicate children are gone, and the multitude that once lived lavishly has perished, the brilliant and luxuriously-living, who slept "On beds of ivory, and lived lavishly on their "couches; who ate kids from the flocks "and milk-fed calves from the midst of the herds; who clapped "along to the sound of instruments; who considered them "as abiding and not as fleeting; who drank strained "wine and anointed themselves with the finest myrrh;" Therefore, disrobe yourself, O daughter of Jerusalem, that is, put off your glory and be shown naked of that ancient prosperity; then, wailing widely and unusually and striving to imitate the deep grief of eagles; mourn your children, for they will go as captives, and you will be a widow and desolate. And those who are wise in these things and who study the natures of birds as much as possible, say that the eagle is a creature that loves its young; and that it laments terribly when its nestlings have fallen from its nest, or rather, have been snatched by someone. And that the bird would not be without the character of loving its offspring, the divinely inspired Moses will also persuade us, saying, concerning both God and those of the blood of Israel, "As an eagle would shelter his nest and yearned over his young, he spread his wings and took them up and carried them on his back." You see how he said the eagle yearns over its own nestlings, and loves to place them within its wings, overshadowing what was born out of great love. Make your widowhood wide like an eagle's, therefore, he says. And one might fittingly exclaim this not only to the more ancient peoples of the Jews, but also to those who lived at the time of our Savior's sojourn, when, having handed him over to the cross, they fell into terrible and inescapable calamities; and they were scattered to every wind, enduring the pains of captivity in another way, as it were. They were devising troubles and working evils in their beds, and with the daylight they accomplished them, because they did not lift up their hands to God; and they desired fields and seized orphans, and oppressed houses, and seized a man and his house, a man and his inheritance. Whenever the God of all makes long speeches about the punishment of certain ones, so that no one may be thought to be harsh or grievously wrathful, but rather a just Judge, weighing rightly according to the faults of each, and repaying transgressors according to their works, He immediately sets forth their accusations, and lays bare the magnitude of their impiety; Therefore, he says, they have become wicked in their ways and have finally reached such a point of awkwardness as to plan at night and to make an occupation of troubles, that is, to compose against certain ones vexations, and to work evils, that is, again to devise pretexts to fulfill and to be able to harm the weaker. Then, though they should have reconsidered and chosen to do the better thing, giving no time to their own deliberations, at dawn they brought to completion what seemed good to them, although they should rather have lifted up their hands to God, as the morning sacrifice was being offered according to the law. But for them, there were the counsels of the night and the leisurely deliberation, desires for others' fields, the overthrow of houses, oppressions and covetousness, and the plundering of both a man and his inheritance. For this reason they were justly sent away as futile houses, not knowing how to think the things that please God. It is therefore better and incomparably so to rise above such things, and to depart from all wickedness, casting covetousness as far away as possible, and not desiring superfluous things, to seek food and coverings, and whatever is sufficient for the temperate for living. "For those who want "to be rich fall into many foolish and harmful desires, "which plunge men "into ruin and destruction." And in addition to this, it is harmful to spend the leisure hours of the night on thoughts of sin; but it is good to emulate the blessed Psalmist saying to the God of all, "At midnight I arose to give thanks to you for the judgments of your righteousness." and again "O God, my God, to you I rise early, my soul has thirsted "for you, how many ways my flesh for you." and again "If I remembered you upon my bed, in the morning "I would meditate on you." Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I am devising against this tribe evils, from which you shall not remove your necks, and you shall not walk upright suddenly, because it is an evil time. For since they themselves devised troubles and worked evils for some, thrusting aside the lifting up of their hands to God as unprofitable and useless, for this reason I also, He says, will devise evils against every such tribe, that is, I will consider in what evils they might be, that is, in incurable calamities; and He says the things that will be brought upon them will be so hard to bear and burdensome that those who suffer them will be in the same state as those who are bent over, and will be bent down in a certain way, being terribly and unbearably weighed down. for it will be an evil time, He says, in which He would inflict upon them the things that come from wrath. And this, I think, is what is wisely sung by someone: "For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden they have been heavy upon me." But our Lord Jesus Christ called those who were so weighed down to the laying aside of the things laid upon them, saying, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy "laden, and I will give you rest." But those who honored the one who called them by faith shook off the burden; but they have remained laboring and oppressed, and very fittingly, those who have grieved by their disobedience, both scribes and Pharisees, and the other multitude with them, who also would not be able to walk upright. And knowing this, the divine David cried out to God, "Let their eyes be darkened "so that they do not see, and their back "bend down always;" so that not seeing the things above, nor indeed being able to lift up the eye of their mind to the hope of the saints and the beautiful city in the heavens, they may look only at the things on the earth, as it were, bent over and fixing their insolent and God-hating mind on temporary and fleshly things. In that day a parable shall be taken up against you, and a lamentation shall be lamented with a song, saying: We have been utterly despoiled; the portion of my people has been measured with a line, and there was no one to hinder him from turning it away. He says that two things will happen at the same time, both a parable and a lamentation. And the parable seems to signify that somehow in the mouth of all the talk against them, or about them, will arise; for there is always remembrance even of extraordinary evils, and the fame of such things visits both cities and countries, and rushes to the ends of the whole earth. But the lamentation... a tear and the wailings over them, which others might happen to make, or rather, they themselves weeping for their own sufferings among themselves. Therefore he says, We have been afflicted with misery. And what might be understood as the manner of this misery, he makes clear, saying, The portion of my people has been measured with a line, and there was no one to prevent him from turning it away. The lot, he says, which was assigned to my and beloved people; it is clear, that is, to Israel; has been measured by enemies, that is, has been subjected to tributes and taxes. For that which is measured is under tribute and taxes. Then, when this had happened and occurred contrary to expectation, there was no one to prevent it. Where then, he says, are the heifers, Chemosh, Dagon, Beelphegor, Baal, and the manifold handmade things in the precincts of Samaria? They have fallen silent, they have not set themselves against those dividing the portion; they have not helped their own worshippers; they have not brought wrath upon those measuring the land. He says something similar also through the voice of Jeremiah concerning those from Israel, "And in the time of their evils they will say, 'Arise and save us.' And where are your gods whom you made for yourself? Will they arise and save you in the time of your affliction?" But how could they save others, they who would easily suffer whatever anyone might choose to do? For they are "the works of men's hands, silver and gold," and stone and wood, deaf and senseless matter. Let the divine David therefore sing, "May all who make them and all who trust in them become like them." Your fields have been measured out; therefore there will be no one for you to cast a line by lot. He makes clear the meaning of what has been said. For you have become disinherited, he says, and your things have been measured out to others, but it is not permitted for you to measure out your own. And we will find the arrogant Jews having suffered this at the time of the visitation. For having acted insolently toward Christ they lost the lots that had been assigned to them. For he was the firstborn, and the most wise Paul says the promises belong to them, the fathers are theirs, and from them is Christ according to the flesh. But he has fallen from the hope and from all glory in this regard; and the multitude of the Gentiles has rushed in and ascended to their lot. For the promises have become theirs, Christ is theirs, the fathers are theirs. They are called children of Abraham, following "in the steps of the faith" of his "uncircumcision"; "For not all who are from Israel, these are Israel, nor because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children, but 'the children of the promise, these are counted as seed'." Therefore also the divine John, bringing down the haughtiness and considerable puffing up of the Jews, says, "Produce therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say within yourselves that 'We have Abraham as our father'; for I say to you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham." Therefore the senseless Israel has fallen away from the inheritance, but the flock from the Gentiles has sprung up in its place, and to them Christ assigns the glorious and worthy lot of the good things from above. For they have become fellow citizens of the saints, and members of the household of God, and fellow members of the body of Christ, and made resplendent by the unity with him through the Spirit, they will live a truly much-prayed-for life, in holiness and sanctification and incorruptibility. In the assembly of the Lord do not weep with tears, nor let your eyes shed tears over this; for he who says, "The house of Jacob has provoked the Spirit of the Lord," will not put away reproaches. Are these his practices? Does he then prevent Israel from choosing to repent? Tell me, does God check his gentleness toward them, even if they should wish to learn what is most especially fitting for them, and to do somehow now what is pleasing to him? He does not say this. But it is a custom for some, if they should happen to be convicted of having erred by one of the wise, to measure the manner of their repentance only as far as shedding tears, and to confess their sin, and by this alone to seek forgiveness; but not yet to cease from their present evils. Some of those from Israel did this, so as not even at times to spare their own garments. But what does He say Who looks into the heart and reins? "Return to me with all your heart, in fasting and in weeping and in lamentation, and rend your hearts and not your garments." Therefore, that by merely pouring a tear from their eyes, and pretending to speak good words, while not ceasing from their own desires, they would not make the Judge favorable and gentle toward themselves, he teaches, saying, In the assembly of the Lord do not weep with tears. Do not, he says, make the divine temple a house of mourning; nor weep for this reason, so as to seem to weep only in the house of God; for such a thing is completely unprofitable; nor indeed should some say that, The house of Jacob has provoked the Spirit of the Lord. For he would by no means wipe away the reproaches for the things in which he has transgressed, even if one should choose to use such good words. Are these his practices? And what are these, he says; "They were devising troubles, and working evils in their beds, and with the day they accomplished them, and they did not lift their hands to the Lord; and they coveted fields, and plundered orphans, and oppressed houses, and plundered a man and his house, a man and his inheritance." Therefore, if such, he says, were his practices, how could he ward off the reproaches by merely pouring out a tear, and confessing and saying, The house of Jacob has provoked the Spirit of the Lord? It is necessary, then, for those who have chosen to repent to be rid, on the one hand, of the accusations of wickedness, and thus to weep and confess to God, having already honored doing good. For God will not look simply at a tear, nor at good words, but at character and ways. And then indeed, he says, weeping will be profitable for some, when the ways of doing good appear to run together with the overthrow of wickedness. For when sin is destroyed in us, the genesis of virtue slips in. Are not his words good with him, and have they not walked uprightly? And before, my people stood up in enmity against his peace. He accuses them again, then, as being accustomed to speak excellently, but having a mind inconsistent with their words. For the words among them are upright, he says, and very good; for they confess their faults, they call God kind and good, and they dissemble in many ways, while in their deeds they have not ceased to provoke him. And one might see them having become enemies to themselves, and scaring away their own peace. For my people themselves, he says, have set themselves up as an enemy to their own peace. For though it was possible for them to be in well-being and luxury and in sure glory and to have a steadfast cheerfulness, if God had been honored, they willingly slid into apostasy. For this reason also, having cast away remaining in peace, they stir up, as it were, a self-summoned war upon their own heads. But that it is not entirely unprofitable for those who have sinned to speak good words to God, that is, if one should choose to blush at his own failings, we shall demonstrate from the divinely-inspired scripture itself. For it is written in the second book of Chronicles concerning Rehoboam, "And it came to pass, when the kingdom of Rehoboam was established and when "he was strengthened, he forsook the commandments of the Lord, and all " Israel with him." Then Shishak the ruler of the Egyptians armed himself against Jerusalem, and with his whole army marched out from his own land. And after this, "Shemaiah "the prophet came to Rehoboam and to the rulers of Judah, "who were gathered in Jerusalem from the face of Shi- "shak, and said to them, Thus says the Lord: You "have forsaken me, and I also will forsake you into the hand of Shi- "shak. And they were ashamed, he says, the rulers of Israel and "the king, and said, The Lord is righteous. And when "the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to "Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves; I will not destroy them." Then again he says, "And when he humbled himself, was turned away from him on him the wrath of the Lord, and not for destruction to the "end; for in Judah, it says, there were good words." Do you see, then, how it is not unprofitable to have good words on the tongue, if it is accompanied by reverence, and blushing for the things in which one has sinned. Therefore as Paul says "The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power," and Christ himself somewhere openly said "Not everyone who "says to me 'Lord, Lord,' will enter into the kingdom of heaven, "but the one who does the will of my Father "who is in heaven." It is therefore in vain, then, as I just said, to say good things about God, when that which is approved in deeds does not accompany it. They have flayed his skin, to take away hope, the shattering of war. He again brings the accusations against those appointed to lead for the destruction of the flock. For whereas they should have been sufficiently able to instruct them, and to lead them to the right and uncrooked path, and to hold fast as much as possible to loving piety toward God, while rejecting as useless and a cause of ruin and putting farthest away devotion to carved images, they themselves have become destroyers and corrupters, turning the minds of those under their hand to the very opposite, persuading them to depart from God, and rather to exult in the ways of error. For this reason, offending God, they also slipped away from the hope in him, which if they had continually possessed, nothing would have prevented them from being able to crush their enemies. Therefore he says, as of a sheep, that they flayed his skin, to take away hope, the shattering of war. It is as if he said: Having shown him naked of the coverings that come from hope, and having stripped him, as it were, of my care and assistance, they have made him vulnerable and easily captured. For their hope in God has been taken away, and this for them was the shattering of war. For just as for irrational animals the hide is a safe garment—for the naked flesh is entirely vulnerable—so also for us a safe covering and a hide, as it were, is the power of hope in God, which if we possess, in no way grieving God, we will prevail over our enemies, and we will overcome every war, both carnal and spiritual; and we will also tread "Upon the asp and the basilisk, "and we will trample the lion and the dragon," according to what is written; and we will sing with confidence, "O Lord God "of hosts, blessed is the man who hopes in "you." For this reason the leaders of my people will be cast out from their houses of luxury; for their evil deeds they have been driven out. For since, he says, those who were able to benefit with their guidance and admonitions those subject to them, the guides and fathers, the shepherds and overseers, have flayed his skin, and have taken away the hope in God, through which it was easy for every war to be shattered, for this reason they will justly abandon the good things at home, and being deprived of their most beloved things, and having lost enjoyment and luxury, they will go to their enemies, and will pay a bitter penalty for their indolence and worthlessness. But that the cause of their suffering was not someone else, but they themselves were rather the cause for themselves, he makes clear by saying: For their evil deeds they have been driven out. "For not in vain are nets spread for birds," according to what is written; "for they who partake in murder, "store up evils for themselves." We ourselves then will wrong ourselves, if we should wish to do what is not right; and we are cast out even from houses of luxury. For those who offend God will not see the mansions above and in the heavens, but will remain without a share both of the hope of the saints and of eternal luxury. But the wise and good and those who have set their minds on everything praiseworthy, will not be among these; how could they? But they will have the city, the Church in heaven, and will dwell in the mansions above, delighting in heavenly goods. Approach the eternal mountains. Arise and go, for this is not your rest. The discourse is still addressed to those appointed to lead. He speaks ironically, and as if it were a custom, introducing what is grievous as something useful. For he all but says, O you leaders of the peoples, perhaps it seems burdensome and troublesome to you to live in luxury at home, and to possess the land that bore you, and to live in peace, and to follow a way of life befitting the free. But since this, as it seems, does not seem good to you, go to your enemies, run off to the land of the Persians and Armenians. Approach the eternal mountains, he means Ararat; eternal, either because they were destined to spend long periods of time in them, or because they were famous from of old, perhaps because the ark remained in them. The argument could also apply to the Jews at the time of the Lord's coming, who, following the opinions of the scribes and Pharisees, did not accept the faith. For they were like mountains, more illustrious among them, and lifted up by the boasts of the priesthood, and coming to a share of glory. But those things were temporary; for the shadow has ceased, the worship in types has grown old, and the sacred lineage of that time has become inactive. For the eternal mountains were then revealed, that is, the preachers and deacons of the new covenant, who speak the mystery of Christ, who are renowned and most illustrious, and who are distinguished by the heights of virtue. For God calls them mountains through another prophet, saying thus, "And the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and "all the hills shall be planted." For the word of the theologians is very sweet, and sweeter than honey itself to those who are truly most devoted to God, for whom it would be fitting to say to Christ, the Savior of us all, "How sweet are your words to my throat, "more than honey and the honeycomb to my mouth." Therefore, to these spiritual mountains, those who have not yet believed, if they should draw near, that is, in a spiritual relationship, will find rest. For they will immediately unload the sin that has come upon them, although having no rest in the life according to the law, if it is true that "The letter kills, but the spirit gives life." Therefore let the Jews hear from us ourselves: Arise and go, for this is not your rest. For since you do not have rest in the law, go and move through faith to the teachings of Christ. Because of uncleanness you were destroyed with corruption. By uncleanness he means the infamous defilement of outrageous and abominable idolatry; for it is truly shameful and foul-smelling. Another kind of filth and uncleanness is to defraud brothers, to seize what belongs to another as plunder, and injustice against many in another way. Because of this uncleanness, he says, you have been utterly destroyed, miserably corrupted with the corruption that leads to death. And those who fight against faith in Christ have also been utterly destroyed, and for no other reason than because of uncleanness. Christ himself will make this clear to us, saying to the disbelieving Jews, "Truly, truly, I say to you, if "you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins." Is this not, 'Because of uncleanness you were destroyed with corruption'? For they did not wash away their offenses, nor, having been freed from their ancient charges, did they partake of the salvation from Christ, as did those who received the faith. You were pursued with no one pursuing. You have endured a voluntary captivity, he says, or rather, the flight to foreigners, and it is clear that it was also to enemies. For with no one pressuring or compelling, they themselves chose to do those things, and very zealously, through which it was necessary to be punished against their will. The multitudes of the Jews, therefore, were pursued with no one pursuing. For though it was possible for them to continue prospering, and to be in every good thing, having honored Christ, they slipped into apostasy, and have stumbled in many ways: disobeying, being insolent, and what evil thing did they not do and say? Therefore with no one pursuing we will pursue ourselves, and having become responsible for incurable evils to our own souls, we shall no longer piously blame the one of all God the Giver, but rather ourselves, if indeed we are in a good state of both mind and understanding. A spirit has set up a falsehood, it has dripped for you into wine and strong drink. Certain ones in Samaria, sitting before the precincts of idols, practiced divination in many ways, and feigning to have an accurate grasp of future events, they announced things that were pleasing and dear to those who approached, seeking cold and despicable gains, and for a few obols, or "a piece of bread," as it is written, they sold false little words. This especially corrupted and destroyed Israel. He says, therefore, that an evil spirit has set up a falsehood as a snare for Ephraim, and like one of the poisonous drugs, has instilled into wine the demonic error, and has shown him as one who is, so to speak, thoroughly drunk with incontinent impulses towards everything that is most shameful. The evil one, the apostate dragon, also instilled into the Pharisees the false opinion and outlandish error concerning Christ. For at one time he was saying, If this man were from God, he would not break the Sabbath; and at another time they dared to call him a Samaritan, and indeed a drunkard. And if it is true that no one says, Jesus is accursed, except by Beelzebul, how is it not easy to see that especially among them a spirit has set up a falsehood? And it dripped down into their mind and heart the drunkenness that comes through error, for which they have also justly perished, attacking like wild beasts, using every kind of audacity and slander. And it shall be from the drop of this people; Jacob shall be gathered together with all, I will surely wait for the remnant of Israel, I will make their turning away one and the same. Evil things, proceeding little by little towards increase, and having blossomed at first among a few, somehow always seize upon even more, and extend beyond their initial measures. And one might see the truth of what I say, if one chose to consider subtly what happened to Ephraim. For first Jeroboam, and some of those who thought like him, after setting up the heifers in the precincts, have worshipped them, and have heeded the words of the unholy false seers, or rather, false prophets. Then, as the evil crept on, and always added other things to the first, all of Israel was finally brought together and ran together to one purpose, and was possessed by the transgression, and no longer in part, but rather in a great multitude and in every way. Therefore, he says, from the drop which the word of the false seers might drip on them; for very many among Ephraim were accustomed to do this. All of Jacob, he says, will be gathered together, that is, will be brought to one mind, and the disease will be spread among all. But I will not bring upon them the penalties for this in part, but will rather wait for those who will be added to those already corrupted. For this is the meaning of, I will surely wait for the remnant of Israel, and then indeed, then I will make one turning away against all. And this would be an indication of the forbearance inherent in God, who does not punish immediately, but kindly postpones, and awaits the correction and the return of those who have gone astray. But if this should not happen, but the sickness should rather appear to be on the increase, then indeed with difficulty and reluctance He turns away. And in every case, it follows upon His turning away that those who have suffered this must be afflicted. Therefore the divine David also sings in the Psalms, "Turn not your face "away from me, and do not turn aside in anger from your "servant." But it must be known that just as Beelzebul instilled into the scribes and Pharisees the false and abominable opinion concerning Christ, the disease was also distributed, as it were, among all, and the rest of the multitude concurred with the deceptions of the leaders. Therefore, having also endured one sentence, I mean that of condemnation and turning away, they have paid penalties equal to their sins. As sheep in affliction, as a flock in the midst of its fold, they shall be utterly destroyed from among men by slaughter; before their face they broke through, and they passed through the gate, and went out by it, and their king went out before their face, and the Lord will lead them. It is a custom for the holy prophets, even in the visions themselves, often to be in the midst of things foretold as they will be in time, and to see, as it were, present and at work, things that would come to pass many years later. For example, the blessed prophet Isaiah, relating the things concerning Christ, and as it were seeing him being led away to the saving passion, says, "As a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent." And he asks, as if observing the prints of the nails, and says perhaps to him, our Lord Jesus Christ, "What are these wounds between your hands? And he said, 'Those with which I was struck in the house of my beloved.'" Moreover, the divine Jeremiah, having foretold the coming war against Jerusalem, and already seeing a great multitude of the Jews lying dead—that is, clearly, in prophetic visions—laments, saying, "Woe is me, for my soul faints over the slain." So also the blessed Prophet Micah seems somehow to see the future tumult in the cities of Samaria, with many already terrified, others fleeing, leaping over walls and ditches, and the very hordes of the enemy breaking through gates, and pouring through them along with the conquerors, with God, as it were, defending and inciting those of the blood of Israel, as one who has been grieved. Therefore, he says, they will be so terrified, as if a sheep should happen to be in distress, that is, a whole flock, if it were resting in places, and then some wished to take it, one would see the animals leaping up and down, and where a breach might be made, going and fleeing through it; so, he says, it will be with those against whom the war of the Babylonians should go. And breaking through gates, while they are watching, that is before their face, they will enter and go out through them, that is, effortlessly and without any fear they will pass through into the cities, having the Lord of all as their leader; because it was not the work of their strength to overcome Israel, but rather by the decree of God who delivered Israel over. We say these things happened also to those who had acted insolently toward Emmanuel himself. For their cities and villages were sacked when Vespasian and Titus were then conquering and fulfilling the divine wrath upon them. And he will say, Hear now these things, you rulers of the house of Jacob and you remnant of Israel. Is it not for you to know judgment? You who hate the good and seek evil, snatching their skin from off them and their flesh from off their bones. In the same way they ate the flesh of my people, and stripped their skin from their bones, and broke their bones, and chopped them up like flesh for a cauldron, and like meat for a pot; so they will cry to the Lord, and he will not hear them; and he will turn his face away from them at that time, because they have done evil in their practices against them. He who opens the gates to those who war against Israel, he who smooths all things for them, and overthrows difficulties, so that they may then go with great ease, and effortlessly seize those who resist, is the Lord their leader. He himself will also say to the rulers, and to the remnant of the people. And he has put "he will say" instead of "he will converse with." And to those who manage the offices he charges with indolence, and that having neglected those under their hand, they have become destroyers and corrupters; but to those who have been subjugated, and have been deceived by the perversities of the rulers, he gives to understand that for the sake of the sins against them, justice is cast upon those who have done wrong. For the Creator of all things cares even for those who are led astray, he who created man "for good works, which he also prepared beforehand," as the divine Paul writes, "that we should also walk in them." What then, Is it not for you to know judgment? And he says *judgment*, either the holy and blameless sentence passed upon them, or condemnation; but it would be fitting in these things for the knowledge of the judgment to be understood not as in learning only; for what harm would this have done to those who transgressed those things? Or how would it have grieved the impious? but as through the very experience of what is to come; for those accustomed to transgress, paying the penalty to their punishers, are then said to learn both the excess of the power they possess and the power of the Lord's judgments. Therefore, it is necessary, he says, for you especially to learn the judgment through the things that will happen; you who are always inclined to evil, but spurn what is good; you who make a certain wild and savage assault against my sheep, and yield in nothing to the most cruel of beasts, who flay the sheep, and tear their flesh, and dismember them unsparingly, and as it were boil them in a pot. And through these things he signifies every kind of greed, insatiability, and oppression. And since they have done these things, he says they themselves will cry out; and I would not deem them worthy of my oversight; nor if they should cry out asking for mercy, would I grant it. For they themselves dealt craftily with those under them, and inflicted on them every kind of wickedness, of bitter and unholy devices and deeds. And one might very fittingly apply such things to the scribes and Pharisees, who, being leaders of the peoples and set over the flocks, together with the common folk like certain sheep, cruelly attacked those who believe in Christ, and all but flaying them, they dismembered and devoured the saints, differing in nothing from wild beasts. Therefore they also heard God proclaiming beforehand through the voice of Isaiah: "When you stretch forth your hands to me, I will turn away "my eyes from you; and if you make many prayers, "I will not listen to you; for your hands "are full of blood."

Book 2

Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who bite with their teeth and proclaim peace upon him, and when nothing was given into their mouth, they stirred up war against him. He strongly accused those of Israel of enduring destruction willingly, and of giving themselves over to self-inflicted evils, and of greatly tending towards indifference. He added that they were also greatly wronged, with the evil and unclean spirit always deceiving and tricking them. And he spoke thus: "Draw near to the everlasting mountains; arise and go, "for this is not your rest; on account of uncleanness "you are corrupt with corruption. You were pursued with none pursuing. "The spirit set up a lie, it dripped for you into wine and drunken- "ness." For this reason he rebuked not moderately those chosen to be leaders; and he now usefully turns his discourse to their false prophets and diviners, who all but dripped for them as wine the things from the evil and unclean spirit, that is, false words and deceptions, and thus having enveloped them as with a kind of drunkenness, they drove them out of their sound mind. For they bit and wronged them not moderately, persuading them to adhere to their words, and not rather to those from God through the holy prophets; and they spoke falsely, saying that they would live their lives in peace and prosperity, and that nothing of what is naturally grievous would trouble them at all. But their one word for this was not from God. For it would not have been given to unclean tongues to speak the things so brilliant and worthy of reception. But when they persuaded them to pay attention to them, they stirred up war against them, not themselves rousing the Assyrians to this; how so? but rather sharpening the holy wrath against them. For because they had paid attention to them, the evils from the war were justly brought upon them. This is an accusation, indeed one of the most true and fitting, against the chief priests and Pharisees, whom the wretched multitude of the Jews followed and was utterly destroyed and ruined; for it became impious and a slayer of the Lord. Therefore it will be night for you from vision, and darkness for you from divination, and the sun will set on the prophets, and the day will grow dark over them. For since, he says, you have distilled falsehood as wine and strong drink for the people, and bit them like wild beasts, while you proclaimed the good news of peace, lying to them, and prepared them to be caught in the disasters of war, for this reason justly night and darkness will be upon you, even though you pretend to see, and, as you think to yourselves, have practiced divination excellently and truthfully. For the sun will set for you, and the very light of day will grow dark. And we do not say, of course, that the sun truly withdrew its rays from them, or that the light of dawn was darkened, but that the magnitude of the disaster was like darkness to them and a lightless night, and a setting of the sun's ray and a withdrawal of light, and what of such things did not happen to occur? For terrible and extraordinary evils intoxicate the mind, and trouble the heart, and fill it with darkness. And one might say truthfully that for the peoples of the Jews who acted insolently toward Christ, the intelligible sun finally set, with God no longer shining upon them, nor the intelligible day dawning for them, but rather their hardening spreading over them like night. For they have been hardened, as Paul says, and "Whenever Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart." "For professing to be wise, they became fools, and their foolish heart was darkened." And that these things would happen to them, Christ himself foretold, saying "While you have the light, walk in the light, lest darkness overtake you." But since they did not accept the divine light, that is, Christ, they were overtaken by darkness, and it became night for them from vision, according to the Prophet's voice. This same thing will also happen to the inventors of heresies, who, pretending to see, and insisting that they are able to understand the mystery of Christ brilliantly, the wretches speak falsely, and they almost drip the harms from deceit into the hearts of the more simple, and then lead them away from the doctrines of truth. Therefore, for them there will be night from vision, and darkness, for they will go away into the outer darkness, "having sinned against the brothers and wounding their weak conscience for whom Christ died." And those who see the dreams will be ashamed, and the diviners will be laughed at, and they will all speak against them, because there will be no one to listen to them. For they were divining that there would be great peace, and seizing those who approached them with silly little dreams, they prepared them to be disposed to think that everything would go smoothly for them, and that their prayers would prevail. But when experience showed the outcome of events to be contrary to what they were saying, and their hopes turned out completely opposite for them, they were then necessarily condemned as false speakers, as buffoons and impostors; and indeed they slipped into such disgrace that no one wanted to pay attention to them; for how, or from where? they who spoke good things, but have cast the deceived into an unexpected disaster, and as far as possible from what was hoped for? Unless I fill myself with strength in the spirit of the Lord and of judgment and of power to declare to Jacob his impieties and to Israel his sins. He shows that in every way and altogether It is necessary for those who have a counterfeit glory of prophecy to speak falsely. For how could one who does not speak in God, who is truth, speak the truth? For concerning Cain, Christ said somewhere, "He was a mur- derer from the beginning, and has not stood in the truth, because he is a liar, as is his father;" giving him as a father the one who also invented falsehood, that is, satan. How can it be doubted that it is necessary for those who speak from a diabolical spirit, saying his things, to lie? But those who are through God, in every way and altogether, speak excellently and truthfully; for they have the truth in themselves. Therefore, how, he says, could the word of prophecy not be falsified by some, unless I filled some with power and righteousness, that is, judgment, through my Spirit, so as to fearlessly and boldly rise up against sinners and convict them? For I think those who speak the things of God need very great and good bold- ness. For at times they rebuke whole peoples, and indeed also kings, and those who are in high places, who especially gnash their teeth at those who wish to correct them, and do not consider the word of those who help them tolerable. For the blessed prophets have labored, or rather, have been endangered, and have been slain in many ways, falling at times into the unholy rages of those being instructed. And the divine disciples were also scourged. For being full of power and judgment and righteousness, they brought to God through faith in Christ the flocks of the Jews. But they rejoiced being tortured, and left the councils exulting, having been dishonored for the name. For they knew that having suffered with Christ, they would also reign with him. Hear this now, you rulers of the house of Jacob and the remnant of the house of Israel, who abhor judgment and pervert all that is right, who build Zion with blood, and Jeru- salem with iniquities. The Creator, being exceedingly good, and then not being ignorant of the magnitude of the evils that would befall them, comes in every way, and introduces every kind of suggestion and threat, so that perhaps somehow the sinners might be persuaded and choose to repent, unlearning the more shameful things and having chosen to do right those things through which it was likely they could escape the effects of wrath without a struggle. It is necessary for the eager learner and most devoted to words to know that while the word of the prophets is continuous in books and writings, it came about at times and in parts, so that even if they sometimes seem to say the same thing, it is still logical to understand that they did not, as I said, address such things at one time, nor to the same people, but with long intervals often inter- vening, they spoke to different people at different times. For it was necessary for all to know the things that would happen, and for the prediction of the common calamity to be for those throughout all the land. To you, then, he says, is the word, who have finally come to such a point of madness as to abhor judgment, that is, righteousness, and to declare perverted the law that directs toward good knowledge; to you who think perhaps to restore Zion with murders and unjust bloodshed, and to make Jerusalem glorious and admired. But it were better to understand that they are rather destroy- ing it, although they were appointed for building and for correction, since they were leaders of the flocks, priests and guardians of the law appointed by God. And they have truly torn down Zion with blood. For they have killed the prophets, and they added to them also the Master of all, I mean Christ. For being builders of Zion, they rejected him; although God said clearly, "Behold, I lay in the foundations of Zion a stone, a chosen, precious corner- stone, and he who believes in him shall not be ashamed." But, as I said, the builders of Zion rejected the chosen and precious stone; yet he has been made the head of the corner; for Christ has reigned over us, and over those of the circum- cision, whom he also created "into one new man, making peace through the cross" and joining them like a corner into unanimity in the Spirit. For it is written that "the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul." But since they have been conformed through sanctification and faith to the most precious cornerstone, the divine Peter writes well and wisely to them, "and you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house," "into a holy temple, into a dwelling place for God in the Spirit;" for Christ has dwelt in the hearts of those who believe. And somewhere concerning them he says through the voice of a prophet, "For I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people." Its leaders judged for a bribe, and its priests gave answers for a price, and its prophets divined for silver, and they rested upon the Lord, saying, "Is not the Lord among us? No evil shall come upon us." Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall be like a watchtower for fruit, and the mountain of the house as a grove of the forest. An abominable thing, and among those especially hated by the all-holy God, are both unjust judgment and bribery. For it is written that "for one who receives bribes unjustly in his bosom, his ways will not prosper." For some are so defeated by accursed greed and shameful gains as to consider it nothing to pervert justice and to sell the truth. And just as those who get dust in their eyes have the activity of their power of sight weakened, so too those who receive maiming in their mind no longer see; "For gifts blind the eyes of the wise, as it is written, and pervert just words;" those who pervert justice wrong the pure beauty of the divine dignities. For it is proper for God alone to judge, and knowing this, the blessed Moses said, "You shall not show partiality in judgment, for the judgment is God's." He who has practiced judging unjustly all but touches the divine and highest thrones, and let him know that he has sinned against the ineffable glory itself, which knows how to judge rightly and justly. For the judgment is God's, as I said. And besides this, it is altogether terrible to make piety a pretext for gain, and to consider the things from God a source of revenue. For see how he does not leave blameless the prophet and priest who wish to work for hire, so as to promise to speak to those who approach, if indeed they should choose to bring wages and gifts. I think that the word here again makes mention of false prophets, and not entirely of priests of the law and true ones, but of those whose custom it was to run after such honors, and to acquire for themselves a purchasable glory. For a holy prophet, or a true priest, would not make his own soul liable to such offenses. Then, while sinning in such ways, he says, they rested upon the Lord, saying, "Is not the Lord among us? No evil shall come upon us." For admittedly the God of all was in Israel, and he delivered them from the misery in Egypt, brought them into the land of promise, and showed them to be stronger and more valiant than their enemies. But they surely ought to have understood that when they sin terribly and are condemned for such outrageous things, God would not have endured to be with them. For the holy is incompatible with the profane, and the pure is unconnected with what defiles. That they have thought vain things, therefore, supposing that even if they should be workers of wickedness, even if they should choose to do things beyond all evil, God would nevertheless be with them again, they will recognize, he says, from the things that will happen. For Zion shall be plowed, and the famous Jerusalem shall be like a watchtower for fruit, that is, desolate and destroyed, and the mountain of the house itself, that is, the temple lying on a high hill, into a grove of the forest. This is like saying, a haunt of wild beasts and the holes of serpents. For just as beasts and the untamed kinds of reptiles dwell in the mountains and in the forests, So also in the deserted places, and wherever very many calamities might appear. But these things have happened to the peoples of the Jews, when they also acted insolently against Emmanuel himself. For then, then they were utterly destroyed, and not a stone has remained upon a stone, according to the voice of the Savior himself; and the once venerable and admirable Zion has finally been shown to be arable land and suitable for farmers. However, it must be known that God will also be in us, not in those having faith alone, nor in those as it were resting on him for this reason, but if there is added to faith also the being well-pleasing from works. "For faith without works is dead" according to what is written. And with works running together with the good things from faith, then indeed then God will also be with us, and he will readily strengthen, and will consider us friends, and will gladden us as genuine, and will deliver us from every evil. And it shall be in the last days that the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, established on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and peoples shall hasten to it, and many nations shall go to it; and they shall say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and they will show us his way, and we will walk in his paths. In these things is now clearly seen the prediction of the Church from the gentiles. With Israel according to the flesh having been, as it were, removed from the midst, and the sacrifices according to the law having ceased, and the priesthood from the blood of Levi also being at rest, and the renowned temple itself having finally been burnt, and Jerusalem having been destroyed, Christ revealed the Church from the gentiles, and as in the last time, that is, at the consummation of this age; for then he came to be among us. Therefore, he calls the Church a mountain, which is the house of the living God; and a high one, because in it there is nothing at all low; but the knowledge of the dogmas concerning God is raised on high, and the very life of those justified in Christ and sanctified in the Spirit has also been built up. For there is not in them what is cast on the ground and trodden underfoot with respect to life, just as, of course, one might see in the case of those of the circumcision. For they were overcome by love of the flesh and of shameful gains, and they were caught murdering unjustly, and liable to very many other offenses; "But those who are of Jesus Christ, as the divine Paul says, have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." And they have so hated the need to be rich, that one might hear them crying out with boldness "Having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition." And they have so abstained from murder, that even to those who strike them on the right cheek, they turn the other also. The Church might also be understood as a mountain in another way, when compared to the doctrines of the Greeks. For they most foolishly teach that one must worship stones and wood and creation itself, but she makes manifest the God who is by nature and truly, who fashioned this universe, and holds it together for its well-being, and is Lord of all as God. Indeed, he says the mountain of the Lord has been raised up upon mountains and hills, and to be established, signifying by this that it lies and is, as it were, in great prominence. For what is set on a mountain is conspicuous, and very easy to see, and perhaps unknown by no one, not even by those lying farthest away. And that the nations were going to rush to it very eagerly, the word of the prophecy has clearly declared. And the very outcome of events has borne witness to this, and shown it to be true. For peoples, he says, will hasten to it, clearly meaning to the Master of the house, that is, Christ. And what will they say? Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of our God, and they will show us his way and we will walk in it. Do you hear that, urging one another on, they command each other, saying, "Let us go up," both correctly and intelligently; for I would say that of those among the Greeks the lowly and rejected state of dogmas not having been ignorant, they say "Let us go up," as leaping up high henceforth, as far as it pertains to the thoughts concerning the God who is by nature and truly is. And they long for righteousness, and they have thirsted to learn the way of the Lord, and indeed they profess to go, and very eagerly, in his paths. And who might be the teachers of such things? Or clearly the disciples of the Savior, those entrusted with the divine proclamation, to whom Christ said: "Go and make disciples "of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the "Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching "them to observe all that I have commanded you." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. and he shall judge between many peoples, and shall rebuke strong nations even to a distant land. The myriads and innumerable multitudes of the nations, those who are walking to the mountain of the Lord, that is, the Church, and longing to learn the way of the Lord, and eagerly promising to go by it, here state the reason for no longer wishing, so to speak, to be initiated into the law and to run to Judaism. For before the coming of our Savior, while the customs according to the law were still in force, some of the erring came forward, and bidding farewell to the evils of idolatry, then being circumcised in the flesh, they were eager to live by the customs and laws of the Jews. And such a multitude among them is beyond number. And so Solomon, when he was planning to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, appointed one hundred and fifty thousand stone-cutters and work- men from the proselytes; for so it is written in Chronicles. But what was done was a type of a mystery. For they were about to build a temple to God, the true and conspicuous one, that is, the Church, not the Jews so much, but those from the nations, bearing the Jew in secret, and having a circumcision not so much in the flesh, but in the spirit. Therefore, before the advent, some of the idolaters came and lived by the laws of the Jews. But when the truly conspicuous mountain of the Lord was at last revealed, they approach it instead, rejoicing and saying: For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And they seem to want to show, and to have proclaimed that clearly as well, perhaps, that Zion will be desolate even of the law, and Jerusalem bare of the divine words. For in a way the law and the word of God spoken through angels has departed from them. For the shadow has been abolished, and the things in types have ceased, and the sacrifices have also been taken away, and all the things through Moses have now in a way been brought to a close, as far as the letter is concerned, I mean. But that Christ was about to judge and convict many nations, they, so to speak, prophesy and foretell; but it is necessary to say how and in what manner he would judge and convict. For by persuading them to abstain from the ways of error, and showing them clearly that they are hastening to destruction, if they should not choose to live rightly, and to wipe away the charges of their ancient transgressions, he will in a way judge and convict and not only one nation, but even to a distant land, that is, to the ends of the earth under heaven; for everywhere the saving word is sung. "For this gospel," he says, "will be preached in the whole world." And the prophetic word seems to hint to us at another subtle and hidden mystery. For it relates, as it were, in what way those from the nations would be received, and leaving that ancient error they will henceforth walk to the mountain of the Lord, that is, the Church. For he says, from the Zion above, and from the spiritual Jerusalem, a law and a word of the Lord will go forth. For the Word of God has come down to us from heaven, who also has become for us a law and a lawgiver, and he himself will judge between many peoples, and will rebuke strong nations even to a distant land. But what the 'will judge' and 'will rebuke' might mean, I will say according to what has come to mind. Satan has tyrannized over all, and together with the evil powers with him he waged war against the world under the sun, and placing the yoke of his greed upon all, he led astray from God the race upon the earth. But "The Lord God has appeared to us," according to what is written, the good shepherd then appeared on earth, and rescued those who had gone astray from that one's greed, and condemned those who led them astray, and convicted those who did wrong, that is, "The principalities, the authorities, the cosmic rulers "of this age, the spiritual forces of evil "in the heavenly places." And Christ himself makes this clear to us, saying, "Now is the judgment of this age, "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." For he has judged for many and innumerable peoples, that is clearly, for those who were wronged, and he has justified them in mercy and faith. He has cast out the ruler of this age, and has driven him away from his rule over us, convicting him as unjust, as unholy, as a murderer, as one who has taken advantage of the world under heaven. And with him were surely also convicted the other nations of demons, those once terrible and strong, not wandering about one city, but scattered as far as a distant land, that is, to the ends of the world under heaven. For they had divided the earth as it were, and no one at all was without experience of their wickedness. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; and each one shall rest under his vine, and each one under his fig tree, and there shall be no one to make them afraid, because the mouth of the Lord Almighty has spoken these things. All things have become new in Christ, and Paul speaks the truth when he says that "in Christ, a new creation, and the old things "have passed away." For the state of affairs itself has also changed for the better, no longer giving birth to wars and battles, which had an unbearable and truly wretched assault against all. For the reshaping of the instruments of war for the work of farmers, and for each to rest, says the Prophet, under his own fig tree and indeed his vine, and for there to be no one to frighten them, what else could this suggest to us, other than that there will be a deep and unbreakable peace, and a time without war? And these things were accomplished during the times of the visitation. And indeed Christ himself said, "My peace I give to you, my peace "I leave with you." But when or how did peace in the world come to be? For since the rule and most glorious kingdom of the Romans then held sway over the world under heaven, all the nations were brought together and came under one yoke, and they ceased from war against one another, and turned to the works of peace, clearly to agriculture, and each inhabited their own cities in safety. For before the hand of the Romans held sway over them, wars and uprisings of countries and cities occurred everywhere, and it was possible for those who wished to ravage whomever they chose, to plunder the property of others as if they had conquered them, and it was necessary for those in each country and city to be well fitted with the implements of war, and to practice military tactics, to defend themselves and their children. But since the strength of the Roman kingdom was then established, such things have ceased, and the implements of war have become mattocks and sickles and indeed also plows, and they were then reshaped into certain other such things. But if someone should choose to approach the preceding things also spiritually, he will understand again that with Christ awarding us peace from his own gentleness, and abolishing the principalities and those who formerly fought against those who wish to be pious, we have ceased from fears, and we have been put beyond assault and battle, having turned to the cultivation of spiritual things, and we gather the fruits of righteousness, and we have rested at last under a fig tree and of the vine. And the fig tree will be a symbol of sweetness, but the vine of spiritual gladness. For the word of the Savior is exceedingly sweet, and knows how to gladden the heart of man, according to what is written. And in addition to this, sweet and full of gladness is the hope for the future, which we have richly received in Christ. For all the peoples will walk, each in his own way, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and beyond. Those who have made it their business to go up to the mountain of the Lord, and who wish to learn his paths, profess docility, and accept the glories of the life in Christ, and that they will pursue with all their strength the studies of piety, they signify this very well to us through these things. For each one, he says, of those in every country and city, may travel whatever path he should choose, and may live again according to what seems good to him or is even supposed to be right; but for us, Christ is our care, and we will make his ordinances our straight path, and we will walk with him, as it were, and not only for the present and passing age, but for much longer and beyond. And the saying is true; for those who now suffer with him, will be with him forever and will be glorified with him and will reign with him. Indeed, they make Christ their care who prefer nothing to the love for him, who cease from the vain distractions of the world, but seek rather righteousness, and what is pleasing to him, and to excel in virtues, such a one as was also the divine Paul. For he writes that, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." And again, "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified." In that day, says the Lord, I will assemble the one that is crushed and I will receive the one that was cast off, and those whom I cast off; and I will make the one that was crushed into a remnant, and the one that was cast off into a strong nation, and the Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion from now and forever. That Israel would in no way completely slip from hope, he then indicates; for it was crushed and became an outcast, that is, it has been rejected on account of its very great impiety; for it was a fighter against God and an idolater, abominable and profane, and was held not moderately by the charges of blood-guilt. For they killed the prophets, then finally they also crucified the Savior and Redeemer of all, yet the remnant has been shown mercy on account of the fathers and has been saved, and it has also become a great nation. For it is true that the holy multitude of those justified in Christ would be considered a very great nation, and very reasonably so. And its excellent qualities, and the things for which it ought to be admired, are the good things for the mind, the glories for the heart, that is, sanctification, hope in Christ, genuineness in faith, what is marveled at in virtues, what is worthy of admiration in endurance, and to be ruled by Christ himself and to be shepherded by him, and to make him our guide; "For one is our guide, Christ." And if indeed the dead should be raised, also "we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord." And by Mount Zion he means the Jerusalem above, the mother of the firstborn, in which we will also be with Christ himself. And you, tower of the flock, parched, daughter of Zion, upon you will come and enter the first dominion, the kingdom of Babylon to the daughter of Jerusalem. Things from gentleness are announced to those who have suffered, and he said that in due time he will receive the crushed one, and will make her into a great nation. Yet in the meantime he lays blame, and that she has suffered utterly, has been crushed and cast out, he helpfully reproaches. For as the blessed Paul said, "Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret." He strikes, therefore, out of love, and because, while it was possible to experience none of the grievous things, she came to this through voluntary inclinations. But he calls Sion a squalid tower of the flock, that is, he also names Jerusalem itself, speaking as it were in character, almost even frowning at her. O Sion, that is, Jerusalem, wretched daughter, O wretched and lightless dwelling of my sheep, you will certainly be given over, even unwillingly, to your enemies. For she will come, she will come, and not long from now upon you, the preeminent and stronger of the kingdoms on earth, that is, that of the Babylonians. And he calls Sion, that is, Jerusalem, a squalid tower and a dark dwelling, because all who were in her walked as it were in darkness, from not wishing to make the law of God a lamp, as it were, and a light, and to receive into their mind the illumination from him. For thus, and not otherwise, was it possible to traverse a straight path, and to depart from pits, and to leap over sin, and not to stumble over the evils that fall in between. Let us therefore also sing ourselves, saying to God, "Enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep in death, lest my enemy say, I have prevailed against him." For being illumined by divine light, and having received into our mind the brightness of the wisdom from above and from God, we shall be unconquerable by our enemies, and escaping the things from divine wrath, we shall be in the goodness of cheerfulness from above, and in Christ we shall certainly prosper. And now, why have you known evils? Was there not a king for you? Or has your counsel perished, because pains have seized you as a woman in labor? Be in labor and be strong and draw near, daughter of Sion, as a woman in labor, because now you shall go forth from the city, and you shall dwell in the plain, and you shall come to Babylon; from there he will rescue you, and from there the Lord your God will deliver you from the hand of your enemies. The first rule, he says, will therefore come upon you. But what then is the reason for which you are crushed by such terrible evils? For to know evils is to fall into evils, that is, into the things that are accustomed to do evil, I mean the calamities of war. Was there then not a king for you? Or have you not practiced deliberating wisely, and making the best decisions for yourself? But again he cleverly rebukes, and indirectly reproaches her as being utterly senseless and not refraining from offending God. And what is the manner, I will speak briefly. God of all ruled over the children of Israel in the beginning, through the mediation of the all-wise Moses, then after him, Jesus the son of Nun was taken into the generalship; then through the judges appointed from time to time, and after them through the blessed Samuel. But when their affairs were in this state, and were arranged in the best possible order, the wretched ones contrived bitter things against themselves. And shaking off, as it were, the yoke of the kingdom under God, they went to the blessed Samuel saying, "Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your way, and now set a king over us to judge us, as do the other nations; and the word was, he says, evil in the eyes of Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us; and Samuel prayed to the Lord; and the Lord said to Samuel, Listen to the voice of the people in whatever they may say to you, because they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from reigning over them." Then when the blessed Samuel announced to them the rights of the kingdom, and terrified them with very many fears, and strongly turned them away from such unsound and unholy thoughts, they no less insisted, saying, "No, but a king shall be over us, and we also shall be as the other nations, and our king will judge us, and he will go out before our face, and he will fight our war." Therefore he brings them to the remembrance of those ancient and perilous counsels, and as it were, he speaks ironically of what has happened and says, How have you known evils? Was there not a king for you? Or has your counsel perished? "Did you not ask for a king," he says, "saying, he will go before our face, and will fight our war." Did you then ever deliberate well? Behold of the matters the at last showed your counsel, that it was both best and necessary. You made the yoke of the kingdom under God a thing to be cast off. Behold, birth pangs have seized you like a woman in labor. Therefore be in travail and be courageous, O daughter of Zion. Again the discourse is in a moral tone: for, O good daughter, he says, be patient in your pains, endure your sorrows, draw near to giving birth, that is, you will not be far from what is expected; but like a woman already in labor you will cry out from your toils, and having left your well-towered cities you will encamp in the plain, you will lodge, he says, in deserted places; and you will even arrive in Babylon itself; yet He does not leave her completely without comfort; for He immediately added that she will both escape and be brought back again by the mercy of God. It is therefore most excellent to remain under God and be ruled by Him and to make Him one's power, defender and helper, to bow the neck of the soul to Him alone, to live by His will, and to consider what pleases Him worthy of all account. Or if we do not do this, we shall in every way and altogether be under the spiritual Babylonians, I mean the opposing and unclean powers, and under the first principle, that is, Satan, and cast out as it were from the holy city "whose architect and builder is God," we shall inhabit the city of the Babylonians. For we shall be in confusion and turmoil, with sufficient distractions of the present life. For Babylon is interpreted as confusion. And now many nations have gathered against you, who say, 'Let us rejoice,' and 'Our eyes will look upon Zion.' But they did not know the reasoning of the Lord, and did not understand his counsel, that he has gathered them like sheaves of the threshing floor. Arise and thresh them, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horns iron, and I will make your hooves bronze; and you will crush many peoples, and you will dedicate their multitude to the Lord, and their strength to the Lord of all the earth. We have already said many times that while Hezekiah was governing the kingdom in Jerusalem, Sennacherib ravaged Samaria, and took many cities of Judah along with it. Then he sent the Rabshakeh from Lachish, who babbled not moderately against the divine glory, at which time one hundred and eighty-five thousand of the Assyrians perished in one night by the hand of an angel. He mentions this history again. For many nations were gathered against you, he says, almost playing wantonly and dancing over her who was not yet laid low. But they did not know what God had planned. For they were gathered as to a threshing floor, and like a sheaf they will be subject to your feet. Arise, therefore, and thresh them, for you will have horns of iron and hooves of bronze, that is, you will be difficult to conquer and invincible to your enemies, and you will all but trample down those who stand against you. For since he has made mention of a threshing floor and a sheaf, he has preserved the fitting manner in the metaphor, and as if speaking of a calf he mentions horns and hooves. But since they were not consumed and did not fall by human hand, but lay as a work of divine wrath, do not, he says, take the boasts for these things to yourself, but rather ascribe to the Lord of all the earth both their multitude and the strength of the perished. But this is the sense of the history, and perhaps the very sudden turn of the prophetic proclamations will disturb some of those who encounter them. For just now we heard him saying, 'The first dominion, the kingdom of the Babylonians, will come and enter upon you,' and the manner of the captivity was described to us; then immediately we see her saved, and trampling on her enemies. Therefore, there is need of a clear distinction of the times; for thus the consideration of what is said will be unconfused and clear. For while Hezekiah was reigning, Sennacherib went up against Jerusalem, then after the death of Hezekiah there were four other kings, and the fifth was Jeconiah. Then Nebuchadnezzar took all of Judea and Jerusalem itself, and carried away all Israel into captivity. And the blessed one clearly writes for us the history concerning these things The prophet Jeremiah. Now the daughter of Ephraim shall be completely hedged in: he has set a siege against you: with a rod they shall strike the tribes of Israel on the cheek. For many peoples and many nations will be gathered together against Zion, then, expecting to dance over her and mock her, they have been threshed and crushed, God casting them down at the feet of the victors as in the form of a sheaf. And the city of the Samaritans was captured and destroyed, and has been consumed by the war, and concerning her he says, that she will be fenced in and restrained, God clearly ordaining that she be in distress and must suffer it. He calls Samaria the daughter of Ephraim, that is, the populace in Samaria. For it seems that in some way the one entrusted with kingship is in the position of a father to those under his yoke. And those from Ephraim have reigned over Samaria. Therefore, he says, the city of the Samaritans will be, as it were, surrounded and girdled by the forces of the enemies, who will all but strike her on the cheek, not slapping with merciful hands, but even crushing with rods and abusing her violently. And through these things he indicates, in addition to the dishonors, also the unbearable pain of captivity. For slaps on the cheek are an unambiguous sign of dishonor. But if it should be understood as being done also with a rod, it will certainly convey what is wicked, and what is fitting, as it were, for a slave. Therefore, he says, Samaria, which is ruled by those from the tribe of Ephraim, will be dishonored and in abuses and pains. But the hand of the one who strikes will be idle, and we will remain untouched by abuse, if with all our strength we refuse to provoke to wrath against ourselves the Lord of all by doing what is not lawful and by making a special effort for what is hateful to Him. But rather by honoring Him with kindnesses we will be in a good state of prosperity, and we will live through a life truly brilliant and worthy. 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 one who is to be a ruler in Israel, and his goings forth are from the beginning, from the days of eternity. In these things the prophetic word proclaims to us the return of our affairs to their original state. And it also remembers very clearly the recapitulation which is said to have happened in Christ. For the things in him are a new creation, as it is written, and "The old things "have passed away, but through him new things have come to be," transforming human things and renewing them again for well-being. For he has reigned, and has again made the rule over all things desirable. And the universal is signified also through the things that are particularly dispensed. For Israel was ruled, as I said, in the beginning by God, with the saints mediating. Then, not long after, having fallen ill with foolishness, and dishonoring acting under God, they have honored human powers more. And so they asked for Saul as king over themselves. Then they offended not moderately; for the God of all, being grieved, said to the blessed Samuel, "They have not despised "you, but they have despised me, that I should not reign over "them." But that the matter was in no way beneficial for them, but rather bitter and harmful and a cause of destruction, experience itself has shown; how could anyone doubt it? For because of this they have fallen into terrible and inescapable evils. Therefore, bringing Israel back, as it were, to its original state, I mean to being ruled by God himself, he proclaimed beforehand Christ, who would be for them the Savior and Redeemer from Bethlehem. And it would not be off the mark even if it should seem to someone to make the statement a kind of general one. For since we on earth have fallen away from the kingdom under God, fashioning a foreign yoke for ourselves, and inscribing as master one who is not by nature a master, but rather a boaster and an apostate, I mean Satan, we have been in every evil; but, as I just said, God the Father was pleased "to sum up all "things in Christ, both the things in the heavens and the things on "the earth," and "He has rescued us from the dominion of "darkness, and transferred into the kingdom of the Son of "his love in the light." Therefore, he makes the discourse to Bethlehem, that is, the house of Ephrathah. And the region is called Ephrathah, but the town Bethlehem, that is, the village in the region, from where were Jesse and David, and she again, the holy virgin, who bore to us the divine infant, her own son Jesus, "Whose government was upon his shoulder, and his name is called Angel of Great Counsel." for he has reigned through the cross, and since he became "obedient unto death, even the death of the cross," for this reason, as the divine Paul says, "God also has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus Christ 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, amen." O then Bethlehem, he says, house of Ephrathah, though you are little to be among the thousands of Judah, that is, countless are the splendid and great cities of Judea, and teeming with a populous multitude of inhabitants, but even if very few are those who dwell in and possess you, you will become a nurse, and will be called the city of the one who rules over Israel, who is a good shepherd so as even to lay down his life for the sheep, and he will rule over all of Israel. And not at all only of Israel according to the flesh, but also of those from the promise promised beforehand to Abraham; for God said somewhere to him, "For in Isaac shall your seed be called." And the 'In Isaac,' he says, is by promise. Therefore the promise is sure not only to those of the lineage of Israel, "but also to those who walk in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while still uncircumcised;" for these are Israel, because "the children of the promise are counted for the seed." It is therefore as if he were to say: He will rule over everyone who believes in him and who appropriates himself to me through him. For we have been brought to the Father through the Son, and he himself will testify, saying, "No one comes to the Father except through me." Therefore, Christ was revealed from Bethlehem, the good shepherd, "who feeds us in the gardens and among the lilies," and setting forth the fragrance of the evangelical decrees, and bringing as it were ripe flowers concerning himself, to those willing to pluck them and to be filled with their fragrance spiritually; for he said, "I am a flower of the plain, a lily of the valleys." But he says his goings forth are from the beginning and from the days of eternity, either signifying the pre-eternal existence of the Word; for he is, he is co-eternal with his own Begetter, and he himself is the maker of the ages; that is, that he became man as in the last time of the age, but the mystery concerning him was predestined in the foreknowledge of the Father even before the foundation of the ages. Therefore, by 'going forth' he means either the timeless birth from God the Father into the Son's own existence, or his manifestation, which would be in due time, when he became flesh, even if from the beginning and from the days of eternity he was predestined and appointed by the Father as Savior and Redeemer, who was not ignorant of the intervening things that would happen to the human race on account of the transgression in Adam. Therefore you will give them up until the time of her who is in labor. She will give birth, and the rest of their brethren will return to the sons of Israel. The Prophet seems to have considered this in himself and perhaps to reason and say: God will not speak falsely, but will by all means bring to pass the things that have been promised. And if Israel is in such splendid hopes, and the ruler will be born for them, and he will rule, and will deliver from every evil, why will he be captured by the spear at all? Then, having understood the time of the promise, and perceiving it was not yet present, he in a way apologizes to himself, saying: For since the time of the promise is still at a long postponement, and they themselves are in no small stumblings, and do not cease from sinning at all, for this reason you will give them up, that is, you will deliver them to enemies, O Master, until the time of her who is in labor, until, he says, that divine an infant from a virgin’s loins. For then there will be the most complete redemption, and they will be established in sure prosperity, with nothing at all that leads to gladness lacking for them. As the Prophet was pondering these things, as I said, and as it were whispering to himself, God overhears "She will bear a son," and calls him to a firm faith. Similar to this is what was said to the prophet Habakkuk, "Yet a little while, and he who is to come will come, and will not delay." For he says that he will be born in every way and in all circumstances, and the remnant of their brothers will return to the sons of Israel. For not a few of the Jews accepted the faith in Christ, and before all others, the blessed disciples; but those who were insolent in their disobedience have slipped from hope. However, in the last times they will be brought to the others, and as if from a late start they will with difficulty run back to what it was better to have come to in the beginning. And he will stand and see, and the Lord will shepherd his flock in strength, and they will exist in the glory of the name of the Lord their God; because now he will be magnified to the ends of the earth. And this will be peace. The phrase "he will stand," he says, is instead of "and he will take charge." And the shepherd will be the one who works for his own sheep, not entrusting the instruction to another, as he did long ago to the blessed Moses, but he himself through himself; for it is true that "Not an ambassador, not an angel, but the Lord himself saved us;" and he will shepherd us in strength, placing us above all sweat and toil. For he will act as a shield, as it were, and will save them universally, not allowing false shepherds to wrong them through deceit, nor wild beasts to leap upon the flocks, nor permitting the wicked and opposing powers, just as they did carelessly of old, to lord it over those who have believed and to take advantage of the sanctified, but rather giving them "to tread upon the asp and the basilisk, and to trample the lion and the dragon." For we have become glorious through him, and we have been lifted up on high, brilliant and transparent, and we have reached the ends of the world under heaven. For he himself is our strength and power, he is the mediator and reconciler, he is our peace. For he broke down "the dividing wall of the partition," and abolished in his decrees "the law of commandments," and created the two peoples into one "new man, making peace," according to what is written, and binding them into unity with the bonds of love. Therefore, a fitting and true name for him is peace, even if he is called Christ. When the Assyrian comes upon your land, and when he treads upon your country, then there will be raised up against him seven shepherds and eight bites of men, and they will shepherd Asshur with the sword and the land of Nebrod in its trench, and he will deliver from the Assyrian, when he comes upon your land and when he treads upon your borders. The Hebrew version of the present chapter begins with, "And this will be peace, when the Assyrian comes upon your land and when he treads upon your country." For this, he says, will be the manner of peace, if indeed the Assyrian should wish to attack your land and country. But in interpreting the verses, we will say that the discourse again departs from perceptible and more manifest matters, and is lifted up on high, as it were, and from a visible image subtly leads to things that happen intellectually. For in these verses "Assyrian" no longer signifies the man from Babylon, but rather signifies the inventor of sin, I mean Satan, or rather, to speak simply, the untamable and warlike multitude of demons, which rises up intellectually against every saint, and fights against the holy city, the spiritual Zion, "which is the church of the living God," and is a kind of type and a similar image of the Jerusalem which is understood to be above and heavenly. Thus also the divine psalmist remembered her, saying, "Glorious things have been spoken of you, O city of God;" for Christ inhabits the Church, and has made it a kind of city of his own, although by the nature of his divinity filling all things. This city of God, then, is a kind of land and country of the sanctified, who have been enriched with unity toward God in the Spirit. When, therefore, it says, the Assyrian comes upon your land, that is, if the barbarian and opposing powers should fight against the saints, they will not find them destitute of leaders. For there shall rise up against them seven shepherds and eight bites of men. But the meaning of the prophecy seems, from the times, that is, from the numbers seven and eight, I say, to wish to signify the saints: those before the advent, and at the same time those during it, and those who have come after it. For before the advent, according to the Law of Moses, the sabbath rest on the seventh day was honored, and it was still the time of the shadow. Then also the company of the holy prophets was revealed, instructing toward piety and the knowledge of Christ. But when at last the Only-Begotten appeared, and endured the cross for the life of all, and rose again, having plundered Hades on the eighth day, then he commanded the holy Apostles to "make disciples of all nations, "baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son "and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that he had "commanded them." These, then, he calls the eight bites of men, signifying those who came at the time of the resurrection and after it. When, therefore, he says, the Assyrian or the foreigner and barbarian comes, then indeed he will come against seven shepherds, and against eight bites. For we will find both the saints who were in the time of the Law, whom he calls seven shepherds, and in addition to these, the Apostles and Evangelists, and the teachers of the churches in their times, always warring against and generally resisting the deceits of the demons, and setting forth their own sobriety, as it were, against the perversities of the evil one. For they save those who inhabit the holy country and land, fortifying them with admonitions and securing them with instructions unto everything that is best. And that the choir of the saints was about to plot in a certain way against Satan, and to consume him intellectually with bites, God again made clear through the voice of a holy one, saying concerning him: "Woe to him who multiplies for himself what is not his! For how long? "and who makes his yoke heavy and strong. For suddenly "those who bite him shall arise, and those who plot against you shall awaken, "and you shall be plunder for them. Because you "have plundered many nations, all the peoples that are left "shall plunder you." Do you hear that he says that the one who multiplies for himself what is not his, that is, Satan, will be bitten and plundered? Then he names those who plundered him 'the remnant,' that is, those from the remnant, or rather, those from Jacob. But if, he says, some Assyrian should come, that is, a man of a different mind and gone astray, not having the faith that runs straight, but limping, as it were, and broken in mind, they set against this one also the power of the truth, and showing the unpleasantness of his rottenness, they drive him away as a wolf, almost biting him down and making him, though unwilling, to be for a time very far away from the flock of spiritual sheep and to be carried outside. These, then, the seven shepherds, also understood as eight bites, will shepherd the Assyrian with a sword. He says 'they will shepherd' instead of 'they will pursue.' For since he mentioned shepherds, he has kept what is fitting to the metaphor of the word, by saying 'they will shepherd.' And what the sword might fittingly be understood to be, which it is the custom of the saints to use, the psalmist will make clear, saying of them: "And "two-edged swords in their hands, to execute vengeance "on the nations, and rebukes on the peoples;" "For "the word of God is living and active, and sharper than "any two-edged sword." And Paul also, equipping the soldier understood to be in Christ, gives him "The "sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." But that the divine and all-powerful sword pursues the Assyrian, that is, the Word of God, no less will the prophet Isaiah persuade us, saying "And it shall be in that day, God will bring "his holy and great and strong sword upon the dragon, the crooked serpent, and will slay "the dragon;" and again "And it shall be, when the "Lord has finished doing all things in mount Zion and in Jerusa- "lem, he will bring punishment upon the great mind of the ruler of the "Assyrians, and upon the height of the glory of his eyes. "For he said, By my strength I will do it, and by the wisdom of my under- "standing I will remove the boundaries of nations, and their strength I will plun- "der, and I will shake inhabited cities." With this sword, then, they will shepherd Assyria, and all the land of Nebrod in its trench. But through these things he wishes to say this. He names the land of Nebrod the country of the Assyrians, that is, Babylon, around which, as they say, a deep trench was cast. And he names it the land of Nebrod, because he was the beginning and origin and father of the race of the Babylonians. For it is written thus in Genesis concerning him, "And the sons of Raamah, Sheba and Dedan. And Cush begat "Nebrod; he began to be a giant on the earth. He was "a giant hunter before the Lord God; for this reason "they will say, As Nebrod a giant hunter before the Lord. And "the beginning of his kingdom was Babylon and Orech "and Archad and Calneh in the land of Shinar." That the tower was raised in Calneh; and this is a Persian place; so says the divine scripture. Therefore, then, he says the land of Nebrod is Babylon, which is girded by a trench, just as I said recently. Thus then, he says, they will shepherd Assyria, and all the land of Nebrod, so that it remains within the trench, and no longer expands into cities and countries, but remains as it were at home, full of fear and trembling; this very thing we shall find the hordes of demons have suffered through Christ. For they no longer boast over the world under the sun, as they did long ago and before the visitation; but they remain as it were where they are, being checked by the vigilance and good counsels of the saints, and being barred from the land of the saints, so that they might be able to live through a quiet and warless life, accomplishing what is pleasing to God, and being brightened through the good order most dear to Him. And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations in the midst of many peoples, as dew falling from the Lord and as lambs on the grass, so that no one might be gathered nor stand among the sons of men. I have already said many times, that the remnant of Israel has been saved, and the race from Jacob has not utterly perished. For not a few in number have believed in Christ, and have been enriched with salvation through faith even before the others, I mean, those from the nations. But from this part that was left and preserved through faith have come the divine disciples themselves and those who struggled and suffered with them in the gospel of Christ. These then, he says, have been saved among the nations, as some dew poured out upon the fields, and putting an end to the burning heat of diabolical mischief. For just as in gardens or in fields, if the glare of the sun's ray falls upon the grasses and lilies, it causes them to slacken into ugliness, and seem to have already withered into it; so too the inventor of sin, when with worldly pleasures he inflames the human mind, withers it in a way and makes it appear very ugly indeed. But the Word of God sets it upright again, just as the dew does a flower or grasses. And so shall be, he says, those from Jacob among the nations, watering the souls of those who are persuaded with some dew by their words of piety, and richly fattening them with evangelical teachings. And they shall dance upon it like lambs on the herbage, that is, they will find the most abundant and plentiful pasture; for the nations are always somehow more ready for obedience and much inclined to believe in Christ, and, I say, to choose the incomparably better life than their former one. But just as when for lambs much and flowering grass lies beside them, then indeed then they both luxuriate and rejoice; in the same way, I think, the mind of teachers also makes the tractability of their pupils and the obedience of their initiates a delight and a pleasure. And indeed, our Lord Jesus Christ made the obedience of the Samaritan woman his own food, as was fitting for him. For he said to the holy Apostles, "I have food to eat that you do not know." Then, explaining this, he added, saying, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work." Therefore, the work of God is food and delight for the saints. Therefore, he says, they will leap about as though mowing common grass, that is, a flowering herb, and those of Jacob in a way feeding on the believers from the nations, and they will find the way of preaching so widened, that no one will be able to be gathered together and withstand them, that is, neither to assemble nor to resist; for this is to withstand, if some of the sons of men should choose to do evil. For many plots and attempts have been devised against them by many, but they have been harmed in no way, as God calms the anger of the powerful, and surrounds his own as with the weapon of goodwill, and paradoxically delivers and saves them from every temptation. And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, as a lion among the beasts of the forest, and as a cub in the flocks of sheep, in the manner that when it passes through and tearing seizes, there is no one to deliver. Your hand shall be lifted up against those who afflict you, and all your enemies shall be utterly destroyed. The good and worthy narratives, even if they should come through the same words, would not be burdensome, but rather much charm will follow them. The remnant of Jacob, he says, that is, those of Jacob saved through faith in Christ and appointed preachers and priests of the evangelical decrees, will be as dew among the nations, and will also graze like lambs rejoicing in good and abundant grass. But they will become no less also like a lion among the beasts of the forest, roaring fiercely and dreadfully, and instilling unbearable terror even in those far away. And they will be as lion's cubs in the flocks, clearly rising up nobly and pouncing on whomever they choose, with no one resisting, that is, able to deliver what has been seized. For our Lord Jesus Christ said to the holy disciples, "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves," that is, gentle and submissive; even if some in the world should be ready to kill, and yield in no way to the cruelty of wolves, yet by my own strength I will crush the hearts of those who make war; I will make them cowardly and unmanly; and I will work a great reverence concerning you. Thus they have prevailed over their enemies, they have conquered those who resisted, they have become fearsome to the wolves, although being in the rank of sheep. They escaped the plots, "dangers from robbers, as the blessed Paul writes, dangers from my own people, dangers from false brothers," and the flocks of the nations were seized as if by lions; but Satan, who had fed them for destruction by his own will, was not able to defend them, nor to snatch from the hands of the apostles what had been taken for salvation. And this was what was said to him through the voice of Habakkuk: "Woe to him who multiplies for himself what is not his! For how long? And who makes his yoke heavy and strong. Because suddenly those who bite you will rise up, and your plotters will awake, and you will become plunder for them. Because you plundered many nations, all the remaining peoples will plunder you." For the eight bit down, and like cubs they seized what had been gathered by him; for he gathered to himself what was not his, for man belongs to God, or rather all things do, and nothing at all is his; but he was plundered by the of the remaining peoples, that is, of those from the remnant, so that you may again understand the ministers of the evangelical ordinances. Then to them the Lord who strengthens and holds them together: Your hand, he says, shall be lifted up against those who afflict you, and all your enemies shall be utterly destroyed. For they have conquered, as I said, in Christ, and were superior to every plot, and shone forth in the world, and prevailed over enemies, acquiring for God those who were lost. And it shall be in that day, says the Lord, I will destroy your horses from your midst and I will destroy your chariots, and I will destroy the cities of your land and I will remove all your strongholds; and I will remove your sorceries from your hands, and there shall be no soothsayers in you; and I will destroy your carved images and your pillars from your midst, and you shall no more worship the works of your hands; and I will cut down the groves from your midst, and I will destroy your cities, and I will execute vengeance in wrath and in anger among the nations, because they did not listen. The discourse returns again to the sorrowful things, and for a time ceases from the brilliant and admirable narratives concerning Christ, and connects these things, as it were, to what came before, and declares the things that will come from wrath. He said therefore that "And you, O tower of the flock, a parched place, O daughter of Zion, to you it shall come, and shall enter the first dominion, the kingdom of Babylon." At that time, therefore, at that time, he says, your cavalry will be gone, and with them the arrogance of chariots will be destroyed, and the cities will be ravaged, and you shall be desolate of your strongholds, that is, of your walls; for the Babylonians burned their cities along with the men; And the practices of your folly, both sorceries and false divinations, and the very workshops of deceit, and the sacred precincts together with the idols will certainly be utterly destroyed, and the groves will fall from their foundations. And what follows from this? The judgment is renowned, and the manner of the punishment would not escape the neighboring nations. And they will know that it befell them to suffer all things because they did not listen, that is, the charges of disobedience. Wisdom also said something of this kind to those who have an unbridled inclination to disobedience: "Because I stretched out my words and you paid no attention, but you made my counsels void, and you did not heed my words; therefore I also will laugh at your destruction, and I will rejoice when ruin comes upon you, and when tumult suddenly comes upon you, and your overthrow is present like a tempest;" And the fruits of turning away are "wrath and anger, tribulation and anguish" upon everyone beyond the one who is accustomed to listen. It is necessary, therefore, and very much without delay, to follow God swiftly when he calls to what is profitable, and to fulfill what is pleasing to him; since to choose to be slow and indolent in doing the good will be a cause of great loss to us, and involves us in bitter pains. But see how God also benefits by demanding penalties for sins. For he frees Israel from profane and abominable idolatry, and from unholy enterprises, sorcery and false divination, altars, precincts, sacrifices, and from worshipping the works of their own hands. Therefore, to be disciplined is not without profit, "provided it be in judgment, and not in wrath," according to the prophet's voice. But if anyone should say that these things happened to the Jewish peoples who had behaved insolently toward Christ, he will not err in a thought that has probability in itself. For it is true that the cities among them have been desolated, and the whole fighting class has perished, consumed by the hands of the Romans. And perhaps they have been held accountable for that ancient idolatry, even if there were those among them who still wished to worship creation and engage in sorceries. For somehow these things always tend to follow those who have chosen to practice idolatry, and there is nothing among them of the things that are excessively out of place, which has a base reputation. Hear then what the Lord has said: Arise and plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, O hills, the judgment of the Lord, and the ravines, the foundations of the earth, for the Lord has a judgment against his people, and he will argue his case with Israel. The word is indeed reproachful, and it cries out, as it were, against the insensibility of the Jews, if they should treat the divine words as nothing, which would be spoken gently and with restraint, as from a father to children, revealing the genuineness of his love, and making their obedience without excuse. But it is a custom for the benevolent God at times to frighten sinners beforehand with a foretelling of terrible things; not, however, to leave them unsoftened and harsh as though having despaired, but along with the things that are about to happen to bring in the word of comfort, and to keep a place for them, as it were, to escape, if they should choose to return to repentance. This indeed He now does again out of His innate gentleness. Hear therefore, he says, what the Lord has said. And what has he commanded me? Arise and plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. This, then, seems similar to that through the voice of Isaiah, "Hear, "O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken." For he probably calls the mountains and hills the intelligible powers, which manage this whole universe according to the will of God, warding off the aggressions of demons from those on the earth. And since these especially, even before others, recognize the excess of God's gentleness, and have learned how much care He takes for our affairs from what they effect for us, obeying the laws from Him, He commands that the judgment should take place before them. But it is likely that the prophetic word also indicates something else to us. For since the people of Israel, occupying mountains and hills, there offered rites and sacrifices to demons "under "every oak and white poplar," for this reason, then, the judgment is against the hills, on which the crimes of the accused were manifest. It is likely that he calls hills and foundations of the earth those who are superior in glory and preeminent in honor over the common crowd, who especially have become for those under them both a path and a snare to destruction. For he said somewhere to them, "Because the judgment is for you, because you have become a snare "at the watchtower, and like a net spread upon Tabor." O therefore, he says, you who are raised up above the others, O foundations of the earth, that is, on whom the affairs of others are established, hear the judgment of the Lord of all against you. But he who thinks rightly psalms and says to the Master of all, "Do not enter into judgment with your servant." For He who knows all things will surely prevail, and no one will boast that he has a pure heart, nor would he be clean from sins. Therefore it is a very terrible thing to be judged by God. But it must be known that the edition of the Seventy has "ravines"; but that of the Hebrews names "hills" and "foundations of the earth," so that we might know through "hills" how the leaders of the peoples were lifted up high, and how they surpassed and rose above the measure of others, and "foundations" refers to the same people. For the leaders of countries or cities, just as they are conspicuous in glory and lifted up on high, so also would they be foundations of the earth, that is, lying as a support, in a way, and a pedestal for affairs. For the affairs of others depend on them, and are in a way established on them, as I just said. My people, what have I done to you, or how have I grieved you, or how have I wearied you? Answer me. For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and from the house of bondage I redeemed you, and I sent before your face Moses and Aaron and Miriam. God pleads his case through the voice of the Prophet, showing the manner of apostasy of those who acted impiously against him to be without excuse, and their acts of audacity to be beyond proper reason, or rather, beyond all madness, and the magnitude of their insensibility to be unusual and strange even perhaps to the very ungrateful. For what, tell me, he says, is the pretext for the impieties committed against me? And what at all is unbearable or at all burdensome in my ordinances? or what is grieving? he brought into the middle, showing; I have sinned, it seems, against fitting reason, because I delivered you from bitter slavery, I powerfully brought you out from clay and brick-making and the sweats that come from them; I have offended those who have received mercy when I also armed creation itself against the wrongdoing Egyptians, and saved my own. Perhaps you will even blame my instructor, I mean Moses, who leads to glorious understanding, and clearly shows what is pleasing to God, so that you might have an unshakable basis for living splendidly, and attain the height of prosperity and glory; and perhaps you will also make no small outcry against the priestly service itself; For I have anointed Aaron, and have appointed him to mediate between God and you, and to appease God with sacrifices in type. Are you yourselves distressed at this also? And what might I say of Miriam, who mocked the perished Egyptians, and led the dancing women? For she, striking the tambourine, saw both horse and rider drowned in the waters; but for you, perhaps, even victory is to be shunned, and the things of God are of no account, He who grants you to pass through the midst of the waves, but makes the sea savage for your enemies. Therefore, he makes his complaints in character, stirring up to remembrance the good things they have had, and as it were gracefully reproaching them as having received forgetfulness of things which it were better to remember always, and to delight the Benefactor in return with obedience in all things whatsoever. But the Savior also led us ourselves out of a spiritual Egypt, that is, from darkness and the rapacity of demons, and delivered us from clay and brick-making, namely, from fleshly passions and unclean love of pleasure; and He brought across the sea the distractions in this world, and all but delivered them from the bitter waves of the dangers upon them, and He engraved the divine laws upon the mind; and He also appointed a priest, the "author and finisher of our salvation, Jesus." And He sent forth, as it were, a Miriam, that is, clearly, the Church, who will shout triumphantly over the plot of the enemies, ascribing the glory to God who has saved. For always there are hymns and thanksgivings, and praises and proclamations of the glory of God in the churches. We ourselves must therefore be on our guard, lest indifference somehow subject us to the charges of the Jews, and lest we consider what is pleasing to God to be burdensome. For as the blessed John says, "His commandments "are not burdensome;" and Christ himself, "For my "yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Let us therefore offer what is pleasing to God, for nothing from him is burdensome; but all things are good and entirely well-ordered for those who have chosen to live best. My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab devised against you, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim to Gilgal, that the righteousness of the Lord might be known. He corrects them again, as having impiously acted insolently against His dominions, although having nothing to say for which it was likely that, being justly grieved, they would incline toward apostasy. For, he says, I deemed you worthy of so much forbearance and love from me, as not even to endure the thought of your being slandered. For the accursed Balak, the tyrant of the Moabites, hired Balaam the sorcerer and augur, and then called upon him to curse Israel; but the God of all accomplished something paradoxical and extraordinary, turning the tongue of the false prophet into a blessing. And when Balak made this an accusation, and blamed the augur, he immediately took him away to other hills. Then, ordering him to erect altars and to sacrifice bulls, he thought perhaps that God was not able in every place, but He blessed them everywhere, although running about from what is called Shittim; a place of Moab; to mount Gilgal. Remember, therefore, what Balak devised, and what Balaam answered. For I was checking the very slanders against you, not even allowing the augur to grieve you with words. But you also having been unmindful of these things, you have assigned the glory fitting for me to lifeless matter, crying out and saying to the golden calves, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt." Therefore, while God distributes to us good things out of love, and enriches us with the greatest generosity, and shakes our enemies, and paralyzes their attempts against us, what should we ourselves do, we who have chosen to think rightly, except that very thing by which we ourselves might also be seen as beloved of God. And this is, to follow His will, and to accomplish very well what is pleasing to Him, having, so to speak, drawn near by the disposition of our mind, to say that which is in the Psalms, "My soul has clung close to you."

Book 3

With what shall I take hold of the Lord? Shall I lay hold of God most high? If I shall take hold of him with whole burnt offerings, with year-old calves? Will the Lord accept thousands of rams, or ten thousands of fat he-goats? If I give my firstborn for my impiety, the fruit of my womb for the sin of my soul? Has it not been told to you, O man, what is good? Or what does the Lord seek from you, but to do judgment and to love mercy and to be ready to walk with the Lord your God? After God showed that the apostasy of those from Israel was without excuse, and in a certain way judged and clearly convicted them, that while He had been a benefactor in countless ways, they, having driven to immeasurable insensibility, grieved not moderately the one who saved them, the person of the penitent is immediately introduced, as if weeping over the things already sinned, and seeking to learn in what way he might put aside the charges, and hold fast to the pursuits most dear to God. He says then, With what shall I take hold of the Lord? For what shall I offer, he says, and what shall I do now, having thus offended? Will I be clean by sacrificing young and tender calves? And will God praise me if I should choose to make a burnt offering? And I might find him; that is, I will be near, and I will be received into spiritual intimacy; even if I should dedicate a great multitude of cattle? But leaving those things, I will take hold of the fruits of my womb; and will I be well-pleasing, having sacrificed to him the choicest of my children, that is, the firstborn? While someone is, as it were, considering and saying these things, the Prophet answers again, and says in the spirit: The matter is not obscure, nor is it to be obtained with sweat. You surely know the good will of God; you have heard what seems good and is dear to Him. Therefore, do you doubt, O man? For what else does the God of all seek from you, than only to do judgment and to love mercy and to be ready to walk with the Lord your God? Now to do judgment is to work out and fulfill righteousness; for judgment is righteousness; and to love mercy has the boasts of love for one another, and enriches the glory of love for the brethren. And to be ready to walk with the Lord your God, signifies being obedient and tractable in everything whatsoever. And the blessed Paul said that we also must put on "the breastplate of righteousness, and have our feet shod with the readiness of the Gospel of peace," that is, of Christ; and he further commands, saying, "Put on tender mercies," and indeed the Savior Himself says, "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." These things are a dear and acceptable sacrifice to God, an odor of spiritual whole burnt offerings beyond blood and smoke and frankincense. For those things were in in types; but the truth itself makes it fragrant to God, who also says through another prophet "I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God "rather than burnt offerings." But observe how the person of the repenting one considered fulfilling the sacrifices according to the law; but God, showing beforehand that it is indeed powerless, and the law is incapable of purifying from sin, and that much better and incomparably superior is the power of the way of life in Christ, as it were, He makes unacceptable the things according to the law, and said that what is pleasing to God is, to do justice and to love mercy and to be ready to walk with Him. And these are the boasts of the life in Christ. The voice of the Lord shall be called upon to the city, and He shall save those who fear His name. And in another way He makes it clear, that there is no fruit from the offering of blood, but the power of spiritual worship would benefit someone not moderately. And in these things He has placed the voice instead of the name, that is, of the invocation. It is as if he were to say, perhaps, "If the name of God were proclaimed to the city, it will be saved in every way and altogether." For do not think, O man, He says, that I delight in sacrifices of blood, nor consider a city impious and lawless if it does not offer calves for a burnt offering; but I would not save it at all when in danger, having chosen to sacrifice oxen, even if it should stain the altar with the slaughter of sheep, and should choose to offer flocks of rams, but it will be more sufficient for its salvation for the name of God to be called upon. For mine altogether is she who honors my dominions, and chooses to do diligently and to think the things pleasing to me. Then I will save those who fear me. Therefore, when we are called God's, then we also fear Him, and are saved by Him, and the power of spiritual worship might reasonably be understood as such. The God of all said something like this also through the voice of David, "Hear, my people, "and I will speak to you; Israel, and I will testify to you; God, "your God, I am. I will not reprove you "for your sacrifices, for your burnt offerings are before me "continually." Then, adding to these things, that He will not eat the flesh of bulls, nor will He drink the blood of goats, again He says, "Offer to God a sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows "to the Most High; and call upon me in the day of your affliction, "and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me." Hear, O tribe, and who shall adorn the city? Is it fire and the house of the law- less, treasuring up treasures of lawlessness and with insolent injustice? For according to tribes and families they have inhabited the land of the Jews, and indeed also Samaria, those of the blood of Israel, the land of promise being allotted to them as an inheritance by Jesus, who is called the son of Nun. Therefore God speaks not to one tribe, but as it were to all, that is to each, the word being fitting both specifically to each one, and to all. Hear then, O every tribe, a city is saved upon which the name of God might be proclaimed. For He will by no means overlook those who fear Him, but will be an unbreachable wall, and an adornment and glory to those who wish to do what is pleasing to God. But if you wish, He says, to see the opposite, what will adorn a city? The house of the lawless, or injustice with insolence? Is it then, He says, if a city, because of much sin, is consumed by fire, having been captured by the hands of enemies, will it be seemly and beautiful, and would a house of the lawless, the one treasuring up treasures of injustice, render it splendid and most glorious, and will injustice with insolence profit it? But no one of those accustomed to thinking rightly would doubt, that such things render it inglorious. For a city would not have been captured and consumed by fire unless it had altogether stumbled because of much sin. Why then, He says, having abandoned the things by which a city might be saved and beautified, have you rather made enviable the things that are by nature destructive, and have honored the things by which it might be seen as shameful and unlovely, having wicked inhabitants, lovers of money and unjust and treasuring up lawlessness? And shall the lawless be justified with a balance, and in a bag the weights of deceit, from which they filled their wealth with impiety, and its inhabitants spoke lies, and their tongue was exalted in their mouth? For do you think, he says, that the lawless man will be justified in the balance? That is, if I should test and, as it were, weigh the life of each one, have you believed that I, the lover of virtue, would ever endure to cast a vote of righteousness for the unrighteous? And have you considered that those with treacherous weights in a bag, that is, those wishing to be rich from greed and inequality and unseemly avarice, are able to escape my wrath? For from such gains they have filled their wealth with impiety. They have also become liars and boasters. For the love of lying always follows the lovers of inequality, and those overcome by shameful gains and avarice; and boasting and arrogance follow those who have already become rich. And the inventors of unholy doctrines also have treacherous weights in bags, those who “pervert all the right paths,” and who undermine the mind of the more simple with deceits and tricks, and who become rich by ensnaring many; yet they gather for themselves such wealth full of impiety, they speak confessedly nothing true, but counterfeit and false things, and as it were colored with elegances from deceit. And such men again lift up their own tongue, “speaking iniquity against God,” according to what is written, and “uttering pompous words of vanity,” to whom it is fitting to say, “Hear, O tribe, and what will adorn a city? Shall not fire, or a house of the lawless treasuring up treasures of lawlessness, and iniquity with insolence?” For the fire of punishment will be for them not for adornment, but for judgment. And since they have become houses treasuring up lawlessness, they will be for a curse and judgment and will fall into every evil. And I will begin to strike you and I will destroy you in your sins. You will eat and not be filled, and I will cast you out from within yourself, and you will be caught and not be saved, and whoever may be saved will be given over to the sword; you will sow and not reap, you will press the olive and not anoint yourself with oil, and wine and you will not drink, and the statutes of my people will be destroyed. And you have kept the ordinances of Zimri and all the works of the house of Ahab, and you have walked in their counsels, so that I may give you over to destruction and its inhabitants to hissing, and you will receive the reproaches of peoples. For since they have become houses of the impious, treasuring up lawlessness and gathering wealth from injustices, he then threatens judgment, and says that the attack of things expected to be has somehow already been placed in its beginnings, so that the destruction will be upon them in proportion to their offenses. And he usefully terrifies, and with the fears of things to come, as with a kind of bridle, he turns them to choose to do better things, and to appease God with secondary considerations. And he enumerates, as it were, and places the plagues before their eyes. For he says they will be punished with famine, and with lack of necessities, and they will be destroyed among themselves, and will be caught, but not able to escape completely. But even if any should be able to escape the immediate harm, these will be caught, and not long after, and will become the work of another's sword. And he seems to us to declare this through this. For very many wars have been stirred up against those of Israel, that is, against all of Judah, yet not always by enemies; but they also armed themselves against each other, so that at one time Ephraim, that is, the ten tribes, rose up against Judah, and at another time those in Jerusalem themselves made war against Ephraim; and not a few cities were destroyed, so that they were often cast out from among themselves; and in this way, being driven from cities, they seized others, yet were captured at times, either when the Syrians and the kings of Damascus invaded, or perhaps even by the Persians and Medes themselves. This, I think, is the meaning of, I will cast you out from within yourself, and you will be caught and not be saved, and whoever may be saved will be given over to the sword. That also being deprived of the fruitfulness of the fields, and in the want of necessary things wasted away, they will live wretchedly, but they will pay the penalty for the impious things done by them, he makes it clear through what follows. For you will sow, he says, and you will not reap, God, I think, destroying the fruits, and you yourself will press the olive; for the country of the Samaritans is olive-bearing; but you will be so in want of oil, he says, that not even if you wished, would you perhaps be able to find any for anointing. And though your country is exceedingly rich in vines and produces abundant wine, so as even to distribute it to other cities, you yourself would not find any to drink. And the statutes will cease, he says, which you have established for the idols, offering to them the first-fruits of your harvest. For what offering of first-fruits will there be then, if all your fruit has perished and the things in the fields have been destroyed? Or what thank-offerings will you bring, and for what, reasonably, you who are falling wretchedly and being consumed? Then, teaching that not another would be considered responsible for his misfortune, but he himself will be convicted of having wronged himself, having emulated the ways of those who were most impious, he adds and says: And you have kept the statutes of Zimri and all the works of the house of Ahab, and you have walked in their counsels, so that I may deliver you to destruction. Zimri was king over Israel, and he is the father of Ahab, but as the holy scripture says, he walked "in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat," who made Israel to sin; "and he did evil above all who were before him." Therefore he was also consumed by fire, having himself set fire to his own house over himself; for it is written thus. And the house of Ahab, as it seems, he calls Jezebel; and in her were murders and robberies and the practices of persecuting saints. These things, then, you have kept, he says, so that I may justly destroy you, and make you a laughingstock and a reproach to others. But we will apply such a word also to the enemies of the truth, who, emboldened by their own eloquence, and gathering heaps of wretched thoughts, grow rich as if by injustice, collecting for themselves things that are not theirs, and being accustomed to ravage the flocks of the more simple like enemies, and carrying them away into monstrous error. Let them hear God saying, then, "And I will begin to strike you and I will destroy you for your sins. You will eat and not be satisfied." For encountering the divine scriptures, then not being filled with the dogmas of the truth, although seeming to eat, they are destroyed by famine, and thinking they are grasping the way of salvation, they would not find it, and sowing, as they suppose, they will find no reward for their labors, and pressing out the spiritual olive, that is, the holy scripture, they are in no way fattened by the grace of the Spirit, and thinking they are gathering wine, they will be far from spiritual gladness; for they have kept the statutes of Zimri and all the works of the house of Ahab, that is, they have done evil, they have been greedy, and they have worked persecutions against the saints. They will be, then, for destruction, and they will truly come to a reproachful and accursed end. Woe is me, for I have become as one gathering stubble in the harvest and as a gleaning in the vintage, when there is no cluster to eat the first-ripe fruits. Out of love the Prophet bewails Israel, as it will presently go away to destruction, and will henceforth come to such a number, that very few and scarcely any will be left, and that they will be like the ears of corn that fall, which the hands of the reapers pass by, and these are few and rarely caught by those gathering the stubble. And to be no less like the so-called gleanings, which the sickles of the vintagers passed over. But I think that through these things he also indicates that the saints are hard to find, as being among the few remnants at that time, and being found in such a way, as if a single ear of corn in reaped fields, or even among the first-born clusters the offshoots of the second crop. For when the air is warm, the cluster which is at the beginning and first is brought forth from the vines. But as time goes on, there is sometimes also a spurious one and a second gathering of grape clusters follows after them. These are indeed hard for the vintagers to find, both because they are easily hidden in the abundant foliage, and because they are in small clusters. Those who follow the vintagers gather these, not without sweat, casting their eye more carefully into the vines. It seems, therefore, that the prophetic word laments to us in these things the scarcity of the decent. But that this matter became a loss for those of Israel, I mean, being in want of the saints, how can one doubt? For sometimes He cares for both lands and cities, and He forgives very many charges, the Master being philanthropic, when scarcely five saints are found in them, and even the cities of the Sodomites would have been saved at one time, with God taking pity out of respect for the saints, though very few, and checking his wrath. Woe is me, O soul, for the pious one has perished from the earth, and there is no one who acts uprightly among men; they all lie in wait for blood, each one oppresses his neighbor with oppression, they prepare their hands for evil; the ruler asks, and the judge has spoken words of peace, the desire of his soul. The word, as it seems to us, is precise. For the Prophet laments that there is no pious person in all the earth, that is, clearly, the land of the Jews, although it once boasted of very many heads of saints, who had a manifest glory. For this reason God also says through the voice of Isaiah, "How has the faithful city "Zion become a harlot! She was full of judgment, in her righteousness "lodged, but now murderers." For what was most burdensome and caused them to rush to the extreme of depravity was that they were judged for blood and murdered savagely, and that doing good was completely cast aside as stale, so that they also made it a necessary endeavor to have their hands ready only for doing evil to others. For nothing is unattempted by those accustomed to live this way, even if it is punished by law, even if it is decried by the ways of freedom. Has then the subject part in these matters grown weak, while the ruling part is strong, and the judging part is healthy? Not at all, he says; for the ruler asks and the judge has spoken words of peace. Many times, many of those appointed to rule have become unholy and most avaricious, and they easily sell their own judgments to those willing to corrupt them. But even if they have already inclined to seem thus conquered by gains and bribery, they somehow turn away and hasten to adorn their own ways with a good reputation; but to have finally come to this point of wretchedness of mind and shameful ways, so as to all but hold out one's hand, and even if one does not receive, to corrupt the word of justice when judging, and to threaten shamelessly, how would this not be beyond all abomination? With emphasis, therefore, is the word, and as if crying out against greed: The ruler asks and the judge has spoken words of peace. Would one then blame him who brings together into peace those who are divided into disagreement? Then how would it be true that "Blessed are the peacemakers," and what is their reward? But the boasts from this are preserved for the arbiters of peace. However, he who judges rightly interprets what seems right to the divine law, and he will convict the wrongdoers, and will certainly speak in favor of those who have been wronged. But when we speak peaceful words to wrongdoers, not convicting them as having sinned, then indeed we shall clearly undermine what seems right to the Lawgiver. For He said that "The priest's mouth shall keep judgment, and they shall seek the law "from his mouth." But it always somehow follows for those accustomed to taking bribes that they are neither able to judge rightly, nor indeed to convict sinners with boldness, but rather to advise things that lead to peace, even if they inflict the greatest possible greed on some. And making the cause of the disease clear, the Prophet says, It is the desire of his soul; for what has happened outrageously is perhaps pleasing to him, he says. Then how will he rebuke those who have done wrong? For what he has praised has, how could he still find fault? Truly, therefore, greed and the oppression of others are an unholy and harmful thing. And in addition to this, it is accursed to be overcome by shameful gains, and to come to such ill-counsel as to then disregard even ways leading to uprightness, and to judge without taking bribes, and not to hold it of great account, but rather to incline towards those accustomed to doing wrong, and to share their impiety with them, and thus to partake in the sins of others. But that he who gives himself over to such terrible offenses will in every way and manner be subject to wrath and justice, how could anyone doubt, if he should choose to think rightly? And I will take away their good things as one who eats up moths, and walking by a rule as in a day of watching. He threatened to bring upon them a twofold manner of justice. For he said that, "And I will begin to strike you, and I will destroy "you for your sins. You shall eat, and shall not be "filled, and I will cast you out from among you, and you shall be caught and shall not "be saved." And he added that "You shall sow and shall not "reap, you shall press the olive and shall not anoint with oil, and "wine and you shall not drink." Therefore, that the abundance of the good harvest from their fields will be gone for them, and that the means of life will fail, and they will be oppressed by a lack of the most necessary things, he teaches by saying, as if in the form of a moth he would consume all their good things, that is, those things in which it was likely they luxuriated not moderately, and possessed the breadth of prosperity. And that they were about to be struck and destroyed, and cast out, as if even among themselves, that is, to be destroyed along with one another, and to be piteously sent out from their own homes and cities, he makes clear by saying "And walking by a rule as in a day of watching"; for "I will take away their good things," he says. And not only "as one who eats up moths," but also "walking by a rule as in a day of watching." And the saying is quite difficult to grasp, but I myself think it could not be understood by us in any other way, unless a clear preliminary narration of the histories that look to this matter were given, which indeed I will try to do. Geba, then, is a certain village, or rather a small town in Judea, situated on a hill, and it was allotted as an inheritance to those of the tribe of Benjamin, and it is named both hill and watchtower. And we remember that a Levite man, as is written in the book of Judges, when his concubine was violated by those of the tribe of Benjamin in the very land of Gibeah, cut up the body into twelve pieces and sent them to all the tribes, making the offense of the tribe of Benjamin manifest to all. Then it happened from this that the other tribes rose up against the tribe of Benjamin according to the law of war, and a number not easy to count fell, with the tribe of Benjamin being victorious at first, but later the other tribes completely destroyed them. The prophet Hosea also mentions this history. For he says, "They have set up madness in the house of the Lord, they were corrupted "according to the days of the hill." For since, he says, idolatry and false prophecy—for madness indicates these things to us here—they established in the house of the Lord, for this reason also they were corrupted as in the days of the hill, that is, of Gibeah. And that the hill, or Gibeah, is also called a watchtower, you will learn clearly from what is written in the third book of Kings. For Asa was king of Jerusalem, and Baasha of Samaria at the same time. But since they were divided into discord, and being angry with one another armed themselves with the law of war, "Baasha," it says, "king of Israel went up against Judah, and built "Ramah, so that there would be no one going out or coming in "to Asa king of Judah." And as Adad was overrunning the Samaritans, Baasha was moving out of Ramah, rising up against the enemy. And Asa ran out of Jerusalem, and then having come to Ramah, "He commanded," it says, "all Judah in Enacim, and they take the stones of "Ramah and its timbers which Baasha had built, and "with them king Asa built every hill Ben- "jamin and the watchtower." Therefore Gabaa was called both a hill and a watchtower; for Gabaa is thus interpreted, because it was raised high, and situated on a mound and a watchtower. "I will begin, therefore, to strike you, and I will destroy you for "your sins," and in no other way, than that very one in the day of the watchtower. For I will walk as if by a rule, and I will not turn to the right nor indeed to the left, coming on the path of judgment against you. And again the prophetic word seems to suggest some such thing to us. For Micah prophesies in the days of Jotham and Ahaz and Hezekiah. But Jotham was a pious man, while Ahaz was abominable and hateful and one of those most notoriously accused of impiety. And during his rei- gning Pekah the son of Remaliah, then reigning over Samaria, made war on Judah, having as an ally Rezin the king of Damascus, and he killed a great many in one day. For it is so written in the sec- ond book of Chronicles concerning Ahaz "And the Lord his God deliv- "ered him into the hand of the king of "Syria, and he struck him, and took many "of them captive, and brought them to Damascus, and "into the hands of the king of Israel he delivered him, and "he struck him with a great blow, and Pekah "the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, killed in Judah, in one "day one hundred and twenty thousand mighty men of valor, because "they had forsaken the Lord their God." It must be known, therefore, that by offending God we shall immediately be in want of every good thing, and a terrible famine of divine and spiritual goods will consume us, and we shall consume one another as if by biting. For Christ does not award his own peace to those who do not love him, which is seen to happen especially to the enemies of the truth, among whom it is not possible to find a spiritual gift, but as it were cannibalism and str- ife, contention and contentiousness and schisms; and concerning them God would say "For I have removed my peace from this people, "and they will die by a morbid death" and strength and concord not to them; whence? but distributing to those who revere his things, and to whom he would reasonably grant the good of peace, to those who honor the power of truth, and who do not tolerat- ing being cut off by strange and foolish counsels, but are eager only to admire the beauty of the truth. Woe, woe, your vengeances have come, now will be their wailings. Do you hear how he also imitates the voices of those who mourn, not expecting the calamities any longer, but as if they had already happened, and they were weeping like women? For he says, your vengeances have come, that is, the time of judgment is at hand, the war is in our hands, the trouble is at the gates. For by add- ing that Now will be their wailings, he has shown clearly that the things of the prophecy are not for a long postponement, but lie as it were before our eyes. For indeed immediately after Jotham came Ahaz, wicked and an apostate, and a slayer of his own children, whom he offered on the altars of demons. In his time "in one day one hundred and twenty thousand" from the tribe of Judah and Benjamin fell. But it must be known that at that time Israel itself also paid the penalty. For while Pekah was reigning, Tiglath-pileser, king of the Assyrians, came up against Samaria, and very many of its cities he dest- royed, and he took Damascus, and kill- ed Rezin himself, so that at one time it happened that Judah and Benjamin were des- troyed by the ten tribes in Samaria, and that those in Samaria themselves suffered what they had done at the hand of the Babylonian. Do you see, therefore, how almost running through the rule of wrath, that in the time of the hill, or of the watchtower, he has punished the sinners. But those things "happened to the ancients as a type, and were written "for our instruction," so that by always avoiding being caught in the same offen- ses, we may continue in a state of well-being, having the God of all as gracious and friendly and our protector. har- and he might be angry, and very rightly so, with those who pervert what is right, and paralyze the faith of the more simple, and we ourselves so to speak, Woe, woe, your vengeances have come, now shall be their lamentations. "For by sinning against the breth- "ren and wounding their weak conscience, "you sin against Christ." and that in every way and altogether they will give an account to the Judge, and "will eat the fruits of their own impiety," how is it possible to doubt? "For because "they wronged infants, they will be slain, and examination "will destroy the impious," as it is written. Do not trust in friends, nor hope in leaders, from your wife beware of entrusting anything to her; because a son dishonors a father, a daughter will rise up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, all the men in his house are enemies. Those of Israel, sinning in many ways, and bringing down upon themselves to wrath the Master of all, then learning beforehand through the holy prophets that they would be in inescapable evils unless they chose to appease the Master with kindnesses, though it was necessary to choose to think rightly, and to tame the aggrieved one by returning to what is better; this the wretched ones did not do; from where could they? but rather they slipped into such ill counsel, as to suppose and believe that they would be safe from the divine wrath, and would prevail, and very easily, over every war, if they had the aid of the neighboring nations, and the conspiracies and promises of the rulers. But that they have put their trust in cold and vain deceits, and will have a completely unprofitable hope, the Prophet tries to teach them, saying, Do not trust in friends, nor hope in leaders; for the thing is precarious and completely unprofit- able. For when the Babylonian came to ravage Samaria, then indeed the leaders of the neighboring nations, although they had promised them the greatest possible aid, having no small struggles on their own behalf, consid- ered it welcome just to be saved, but the need to also help others, they perhaps did not even take into mind at all. Therefore do not trust in friends, nor hope in leaders; but know, he says, that when God moves things out of wrath against you, not even the law of nature itself nor the power of innate affection will grant you goodwill, even from those close by blood and kin according to the flesh, but they too will imitate enemies. And a wife will then disregard her husband, and sons will rise up against fathers, and indeed daughters against mothers. For he himself, he says, who engraves the laws of affection on nature, could easily persuade and change it towards indifference. Except that the manner of our indifference in these things would not be understood as one and the same, but twofold and different. For some stumble against the laws of affection, impiously attacking their own parents, while others do this both pleasing God and saving their own souls. And so the Savior said, "Do you think that I came to give peace "on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from "now on five in one house will be divided, three "against two and two against three. Father will be divided against "son and son against father, mother against daughter and daugh- "ter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law "and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." Therefore with a right judg- ment we will crown such a splendid lack of affection. for it makes one familiar to God, even if it cuts some off from kinship according to the flesh, so as to sing very well that which is by the voice of "David, For my father and my mother have forsaken "me, but the Lord has taken me up." But I will look to the Lord, I will wait for God my Savior, my God will hear me. This would be fitting, and very rightly so, for Zion as she repents and foresees that the end of the toils of captivity will come in due time. For Cyrus took the city of the Babylonians, but with difficulty he sent up in that Israel, being a remnant, along with the sacred vessels, he commanded to go home and to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. For then, as if escaping from darkness and unbreakable bonds, they came into the light, as God had mercy, and were somehow brought up to the freedom from above most fitting for them, being released and rejoicing. I therefore, he says, will look upon the Lord, very late indeed and after the experience of those things whose attack one ought to avoid. Nevertheless, he says that he will have his hope in God, and will wait for salvation from him, and be firmly disposed, because being a lover of mankind, he will be an attentive hearer of her laments and will accept her prayers. But the beginning of salvation, I think, would be understood as putting away for a time the mind from the ancient deceit, and choosing hereafter to think rightly, and to consider the Lord of all to be the provider and governor of salvation, and not to assign so excellent a good to assistances from men, or rather, most foolishly and ignorantly to expect it to be a gift from the most powerless multitude of idols. For of old they would go down to the Egyptians, and they departed also to the Assyrians, purchasing alliances and aid from both for no small amount of money. And they would approach lifeless idols, offering sacrifices, and in addition to this, offering up prayers for themselves. But now they say that they will look upon the Lord, and they will wait for him, that is, they will await the salvation and grace from him, and indeed that they will be heard by him, offering their supplications clearly to him and no longer to others. And this was Zion, as I said, becoming sober again, and seeing already what was necessary, to cast off that ancient error, and to change her mind for the better and choose to do what is useful. Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; for if I sit in darkness, the Lord shall give me light. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness. The speech of Zion seems to me now to have been most gracefully fashioned against the harsh and insolent and arrogant city, clearly that of the Babylonians, which was in a way mocking the land of the Jews as having been sacked. For do not exult, she says, over me as one who has fallen. For you have conquered, not by being stronger yourself, but by casting down me who was sick from stumbling against God, and for this reason lying prostrate. But a time will come, when I shall also rise again, even if I have been, she says, in darkness, 'Saying to a stock, Thou art my God; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth' and uttering the saying about the heifers; for I said, I said in my frenzy, 'These are thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt;' but I shall even come into the light, I shall know the Lord, the savior, the helper, the provider of strength; and I will endure the things that have happened, and I will bear the terrible things, and I will in no way cry out as though God were unjust, but I will rather be disposed as one upon whom he has passed a right sentence, even if he has sent me into captivity. For I have transgressed, and I bear the consequences of his wrath, until he vindicate my cause, that is, until having measured out a punishment equal to my transgressions, he at last has mercy, and makes bright her who was formerly darkened by the mist of error, by causing her, through the knowledge of the true God by nature, to be in the light as it were; and he might be justly marveled at, she says, showing upon me the purity of his own righteousness. For just as he did not punish her for transgressing without justice, so in the same way will he account her worthy of care, having now suffered and repented, and will have mercy on her as she lies prostrate. Therefore the Lord of all is good, and to those who turn to him he distributes mercy without delay, and he gladdens them very richly with the good things that come from his gentleness, forgiving without remembrance the sins committed long ago. And mine enemy shall see it, and will be clothed with shame, saying to me, Where is the Lord your God? my eyes will look upon her; now she will be for trampling like mud in the streets; a day of plastering brick, that day is your erasure. The land of the Jews was indeed captured, and Israel was carried away captive by the spear to Babylon and the Medes at different times, not because their conqueror prevailed by his own powers, but rather because God who saves was turning away from him as one who had sinned, and, as it were, bringing him under the hand of his enemies, because he chose to worship lifeless idols, and to shake off the law long ago established through Moses, and simply to incline towards everything that is amiss, and to leave no manner of wickedness unpracticed. Then the Babylonians, having taken them, and attributing the victory to their own powers, behaved insolently even against the divine glory, and they thought they would conquer Judea, even if the God of all chose to save them; and having taken the sinners under their hand, they tormented them with terrible and unbearable labors, imposing a harsh servitude upon them. And so God said somewhere through the voice of Jeremiah to the unholy multitude of the Assyrians, that is, to Babylon, "Behold, I am "against you, O insolent one," and yet also concerning those of Israel, "I gave them into your hands, but you "showed them no mercy; on the aged you made your "yoke very heavy, and you said, 'I shall be a queen forever.'" For there was no mercy with them, no sparing of age, no reverence for old age, no bowels of compassion. For this very reason, therefore, they themselves were justly given into the hands of both Persians and Medes, under the generalship of Cyrus, who captured Babylon. And perhaps concerning them the prophet Jeremiah says somewhere, "They shall set upon "you, and you will be captured, O Babylon, and you will not know it; you were found "and taken, because you opposed the Lord. The Lord has opened his "treasury and has brought out the instruments of his wrath." And by instruments of wrath he means those who sacked her. It happened, then, that the city of the Babylonians was taken by Cyrus, and Israel was released from captivity. For this reason the redeemed say, that my enemy will see it and will be clothed with shame. For when she sees her own children lying on the ground, having perished miserably and unexpectedly, and those once under her hand rejoicing and set free, and finally running back home, how will she not in every way and altogether be clothed with shame, although she once said, "Where is the Lord your God?" For I will look upon her like mud in the streets, cast down and trampled under the feet of enemies. Then the word says to Babylon herself, "That day is your erasure," meaning, "The time in which you will be," it says, "under the feet of your enemies," that is, Cyrus trampling and crushing the boastful and insolent one like mud. Therefore, as far as it is necessary to understand such things again historically, our account has been made sufficiently well and properly. But one could no less apply these things also to the spiritual Zion, that is, to the Church, which prevails over its enemies and tramples on its persecutors and mocks the powerlessness of those accustomed to warring against her, even if at times they seem to overcome and prevail. For many indeed are those who impiously gnash their teeth at her and whet their angers and contrive every kind of plot; on the one hand, the children of the Greeks, striving not moderately with their own foolish inventions, and generally contending for the deceit of idols; on the other hand, the heretics who especially rage against the saints, and perhaps rage more harshly against those who have chosen to think rightly, than even those who have not accepted the faith. For when at times the all-powerful God trains the saints, and allows them to fall into temptations, and tests his genuine worshipers as if in a fire, the wretched ones raise their arrogant brow against them, and when they see them suffering, so to speak, they foolishly cry out the "Where is the Lord your God?" But she... a wise and all-pure and holy virgin, the one having no spot or wrinkle, would reasonably say, "But I will look upon the "Lord, I will wait for God my Savior, my God will hear "me;" and that he will trample down those who oppose him as the mire of the streets, and how can one doubt that those accustomed to tempt her would not rejoice at all over her, even if she were somehow shaken? "for she is founded upon the rock," and her support is Christ, an unshakable foundation, and continuous security, Savior and Redeemer. And I suppose the human soul might say, "Do not rejoice over me, my enemy, "because I have fallen," and all that is harmonious with this, having transgressed and been condemned, but turning somehow to the need to repent and awaiting the grace of salvation through Christ. for she will say as to an enemy, the sin that tyrannized her, Do not rejoice over me; for I have admittedly fallen, having transgressed what seemed good to God, and having cast down my own mind to worldly pleasures. but I am not far from the hope that I will also rise again, even if I have somehow been in mist and darkness; for I myself will find Christ as a light, and the sun of righteousness rising in my mind will show me whitened. "I will bear the Lord's wrath, because I have also sinned against "him." For if indeed I have been, he says, for a short time out of his presence, and have been given over to a reprobate mind, yet I shall be wise, and having justly suffered rejection I will know the judgment, and indeed I say it has happened rightly; for I have not been punished in vain. But since I have paid the most fitting penalty, "I will see his "righteousness." And what else could the righteousness of God the Father be, but Christ? For thus God the Father calls him to us, saying, "My righteousness is near to come, "and my mercy to be revealed." Then such a soul, having likely understood the grace of righteousness in Christ and the destruction of sin, will wisely and keenly cry out, And my enemy will see and shame will cover her who says to me, Where is the Lord your God? My eyes will look upon her; now she will be for trampling like the mire in the streets; a day of smearing a brick, that day is your erasure. For since Christ has come, justifying sinners by faith, the mouth of lawlessness has been stopped, and its inventor has been put to shame as well. And he has been driven out, and has fallen from his rule over us, and it has finally been trampled like mire in the streets, having been, as it were, subjected to the feet of the saints. And the day of Christ has also become its erasure, on which he declares each of those who come to him clean from their old accusations through holy baptism, and seals them with the Spirit for sanctification, and enrolls them among the children of God. And that day will cast away ordinances; and your cities will come to be leveled and to a division of the Assyrians, and your fortified cities to a division from Tyre to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to the mountain. and the earth will be for destruction with those who dwell in it, from the fruits of their deeds. The person of Zion is placed in the midst, that is, of Jerusalem already somehow turned to repentance, and having placed her hope in God, and disposed that she will also be redeemed, and will see that of the Babylonians trampled, although it says to her out of arrogance, "Where is the Lord your God?" But one would apply the meaning of what has been said not so much to the intermediate things, but to what comes shortly after; and what these things were, we will recall in a few words. For he has commanded them not to trust in friends, nor indeed to hope in leaders. And it showed that even a wife will disregard her husband, and a child will neglect its father, and daughters will be unsparing of respect for their mothers, the terrors of war calling them to this. For wherever the fear of suffering might appear to run equally against all, there indeed surely for each one the more urgent concern will be for his own life, that of another being in every way neglected. According to Therefore, he says that of the time, that is, on that day, on which sons might become neglectful of their affection for fathers, and daughters in turn of that for mothers, the customs will be cast aside, that is, the principle of what is fitting will then also grow weak; for a father will not have the leisure to accuse his son as having neglected the laws of nature, nor indeed will a grieved mother subject her daughter to the punishments of duty, another care being imminent, or rather of destruction and the ultimate evils. For the cities will go into desolation, and into division and destruction. For some will campaign against that city, others against its neighbor, and others against the one bordering it, and they will overrun the whole land from mountain to mountain, from east to west, as from north to south, so that the entire land is simply ravaged to its ends, from Tyre to the river and from mountain to mountain. And it is likely again to speak of "customs" in these things as the festivals established by custom in the precincts of idols, that is, the sacrifices. For with their cities having been destroyed, and their houses and all things in them plundered, who will still fulfill the customary rites, and bring worship to the statues and temples of the idols? And the argument might go, and very likely, also against those, if one should choose, who are heterodox and would-be-wise and who distort the correct doctrines of the Church. For they were captured like cities, and became a portion for the enemies; clearly, that is, for the world-rulers of this age; and they have become portions for foxes, as it is written, having divided among themselves impiety and the ways of blasphemy and the rejection of the truth. And these things also happened to the peoples of the Jews, when, having wickedly insulted Emmanuel, they cast him out of the vineyard, as it is written, and handed him over to the cross, although saying and having recognized that he is the heir. Therefore they have been sacked and have perished ingloriously, not for any other reason, than from the fruits of their own practices. For though it was necessary to admire the Creator for his love for the world, because "He gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life," this they did not do; how could they? But being puffed up to arrogance they killed the Master, returning to him evil for good, as it is written, and wickedly practicing every form of impiety. Therefore let them hear, "Walk by the light of your fire and by the flame which you have kindled," and indeed also this, "You shall eat the fruits of your own practices." Shepherd your people with your rod, your tribe, the sheep of your inheritance, who dwell by themselves in a forest in the midst of Carmel, they will graze Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old. And according to the days of your exodus from Egypt you will see wondrous things. The discourse is again applied to what lies in between, and turns toward the good, urging toward the better with the hope of the good things understood in Christ and changing very well toward choosing to live rightly. For it has disturbed not moderately with the prediction of grim things those who easily go toward negligence, but it recovers them again, inserting very well that which knows how to cheer, so that those to whom the discourse of admonition is made, not despairing, might rush down a cliff, irrevocably and unbridled. For it is written, "When the wicked man comes into the depth of evils, he scorns." Therefore there is introduced either the very person of God the Father, saying to the Son "Shepherd your people with your rod, your tribe, the sheep of your inheritance," or else again for us the prophetic person in a certain way crying out to Emmanuel himself, that he must shepherd with a rod his own people or inheritance. And the people of Christ, and indeed also the sheep of his pasture, might be understood as both those who believed from the circumcision, and those called to holiness from the multitude of the Gentiles. For he created the two peoples into one new man, making peace and he reconciled both through His body to spiritual union. And so Christ Himself said, "And other sheep I have;" namely those of the circumcision; "them also I must bring, and there will be one flock, one shepherd." Therefore, the people of Christ, both tribe and sheep and inheritance are those "not by works of the law," but rather justified through faith. For the one group was under a curse, according to the voice of the blessed Paul; but the other might say, speaking truly of themselves, "Blessed are we by the Lord who made heaven and earth. The Lord is God, and has appeared to us." But Christ shepherds His own with a rod, not striking them with one of iron, and shattering them like a potter's vessel, according to the voice of the psalmist, but turning them back in gentleness, and like a good shepherd, checking with moderate fears the impulses towards indolence of those who have believed; for thus says the Master of all, as in the person of David, fashioning the discourse concerning the Son: "If his sons forsake my law, and do not walk in my judgments; if they profane my statutes, and do not keep my commandments, I will visit their transgressions with a rod, and their iniquities with scourges; but my mercy I will not scatter from them." Therefore, He shatters, as if striking with an iron rod, the unbridled, the disobedient and arrogant, and the one who does not accept the faith; but He kindly instructs those who have believed, and pastures them among lilies, and brings them to a good pasture and a rich place, clearly the divinely-inspired scripture, making plain through the Spirit to the more intelligent the things hidden in it, so that they may "ascend to a perfect man, and to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ," having a rich and well-nourished mind, and revelling in intelligible delights. But we, the chosen and the elect, dwell apart, having withdrawn from the others, who mind only the things upon the earth and have prized the possession of temporary things, and being clothed in the pleasures of the flesh, have immoderately inclined towards everything that is amiss. Therefore, having a quiet mind, and freeing it from vain and detestable turmoil, we are placed somewhere outside, and we live a revered and admirable life, and we are alone, just as indeed was the prophet Jeremiah. For he said that, "O Lord Almighty, I did not sit in the council of those who were mocking, but I was cautious because of your hand; I sat alone, because I was filled with bitterness." And we dwell alone as in a thicket and on a mountain. And you will understand the thicket as the two-fold discipline, well-wooded and flourishing, I mean both moral and dogmatic, and the mountain as that which is, as it were, lofty and exalted. For nothing of what is philosophized among us, and deemed worthy of zeal in the Church, is lowly. But that such pasture is rich and good for grazing, he indicates again as from more concrete examples, saying that those who are instructed by Christ will graze in both Bashan and Gilead; and these are regions which cause to gush forth for the flocks a very great and abundant pasture, and are richly crowned with varied grass. Therefore, leaping up wisely from things corporeal and lying, as it were, in the senses, to things spiritual, we also understand the inner and hidden contemplation, that by delighting in the theorems of the divinely-inspired scripture the mind of the saints is preened, and is filled as if with a certain richness, having partaken abundantly, as I said, of practical and theoretical virtue, not for a certain short and contracted time, but as the Prophet says, as the days of the age, that is, for a long and endless time. For the things that delight the flesh fall with it and wither and, passing by like shadows, after a short time are contracted; but the participation in the good things from above and spiritual things is extended through long ages; for the possession of such things cannot be lost. And he said that you shall see wonderful things according to the days of your exodus from the land of Egypt. just as For when the God of all was freeing Israel from the slavery in Egypt, he punished with various plagues those who wished to oppress and wear him out with clay and brickmaking, so also the Savior, placing us who have believed outside the hand of the devil and spiritual slavery, bound the strong man, as he himself says, and cast out the ruler of this age. And just as Pharaoh was drowned and perished together with his own shield-bearers; so again Satan, together with the unclean spirits, has all but been submerged, cast down to Tartarus with chains of darkness. And just as Israel were baptized into Moses, yet in the cloud and in the sea; so we also have been baptized into Christ. For he is the spiritual cloud, which waters the world under the sun, as with rains, with the evangelical proclamations. And just as for them he sent down the manna in the desert, so also to us he gives himself for food, "the living bread which came down from heaven, and gives life to the world." And they were brought into the perceptible land; but we inherit the city above, the heavenly Jerusalem, the Church of the firstborn; and the Savior says this is the land which he also promised to the meek. Therefore, as from the likeness of things that happened of old to Israel you will learn clearly the power of the things accomplished in us through Christ. But since it is necessary for us to provide from every source what tends to the benefit of the hearers, come, let us go another way, and speak, taking from the interpretation of the names. For Carmel is interpreted as knowledge of Circumcision, Bashan as shame, and Gilead as transference of the Covenant. And the argument has very much plausibility especially in these things. We shall be, therefore, with Christ as shepherd, in knowledge of circumcision, that is, the one understood in the Spirit. for we have been circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, and we bear the Jew who is one inwardly, while Israel according to the flesh has only the perceptible one and the one in letter, and not at all the one in the heart through the Spirit. For this is the true circumcision, making those who receive it known to God. Therefore the prophetic word also said to us: "Be circumcised to God, and circumcise the hardness of your heart, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem." We shall be, then, in Carmel, with Christ shepherding, that is, in knowledge of circumcision, and we shall be no less also in Bashan, that is, in shame and disgrace, not being convicted for sin, but because we have transgressed, for this very reason repenting, and finally coming to an awareness of the things sinned in ignorance; and this thing is a way of salvation. For a clear proof of the utmost insensibility is for some to choose to live with a hard and shameless heart, and least of all to blush at their own faults; and to lie perhaps even in ignorance of the things sinned. Therefore, those in the knowledge of the spiritual and divine circumcision will blush at their own faults, and having come into an awareness of that which is naturally unjust, they will by all means turn to that which is most fitting for them. And such people will be also in Gilead, that is, in a change of legislation, or rather, of a covenant. for we, having come under Christ, shall live as citizens, no longer according to the law, but we shall live rather evangelically, and running past the crudeness of the letter, we shall perform spiritual worship to God, and being transferred to what is incomparably better, we shall exchange the types for the truth. Nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might, they shall lay their hands on their mouth, their ears shall be deafened. They shall lick the dust like serpents dragging themselves on the ground, they shall be confounded in their confinement. By nations in these words he means the abominable and unclean hordes of demons, who in every way and altogether, whenever they see those called in Christ to justification, to sanctification, to redemption, to adoption, into incorruption, into glory, into a relaxed and free life, then indeed then they will be put to shame, being thrust out from their dominion over them and seeing their own strength failing and growing weak. For our Lord Jesus Christ has given us "to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy." Therefore they will lie under the feet of those who have believed, those who formerly conquered, having grown weak in their cowardice and being enervated through Christ. And they will put their hands on their mouths, no longer being permitted to accuse the sinners; "For it is God who justifies, who is he who condemns?" according to what is written. And the blessed David said somewhere that "All iniquity shall stop its mouth." Therefore they will be silent, and not willingly, he says, those who are clever at accusations, and as if struck by thunder by the wonder concerning us, that is, they will be deafened. For the report concerning us is extraordinary, and like a great and truly supernatural crash, if it is true "That while we were still sinners, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly," so that we who were formerly entangled in terrible and unbearable offenses, might now be sanctified, and "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but" by mercy and grace, we who were formerly grieved and as far as possible from all hope, now beloved, bright and conspicuous, "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." Therefore, he says, they will be deafened, having become, so to speak, even thunderstruck because of God's serenity toward us and the excess of his wondrous goodness, they will lick the dust, creeping on the ground like serpents, that is, they will not find food. For it is the custom of serpents, if they should be in want of things to eat, at times to knead the dust with their tongue, and to consider whatever they happen upon as food. And he says that the unclean demons will also be in equal want. For those accustomed to revel of old and to utterly devour all upon the earth, will no longer find one who endures to suffer this, because all have been saved by Christ, and have henceforth come to such spiritual strength, as not to endure those ancient bites, but rather to tread upon the asp and the basilisk, according to what is written. Not only will they lick the earth, but they will also be confounded in their confinement, that is, being constrained by weaknesses and griefs, and as if besieged by the power of the one afflicting them, I mean, of Christ, they will not be in moderate terrors. And it is likely that the confinement hints at something else for us in these things. For when the Only-begotten became as we are, he worked countless wonders, but I suppose the things unseen were more numerous than the things seen. For he commanded the unclean spirits to go down to Hades, and to be shut up henceforth in the abyss, so that he might rid the earth of the bitterest beasts. And we have seen an image of this matter in the more ancient writings; for when Joshua son of Nun took the lands of the nations, he shut up five kings in a cave, and rolled a stone over its mouth, prefiguring, as I said, in himself the power of the Savior's dispensation. And indeed the demons "begged him not to command them to go into the abyss." Therefore, he says they will be confounded in their confinement, as if being shut up henceforth into Hades, and cast into Tartarus with chains of darkness, so that, as I said, he might henceforth deliver the human race from the bitter and savage beasts. They shall be amazed at the Lord our God, and shall be afraid of you. Who is a God like you? taking away iniquities and passing over injustices for the remnant of his inheritance, and he did not keep his anger for a testimony, because he is a willer of mercy. he will turn again and have compassion on us, he will sink our injustices and cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. He will give truth to Jacob, mercy to Abraham, as he swore to our fathers in the days of old. For the mystery of Christ is truly an ecstasy, and all- the superiority of the gentleness towards us is beyond the power of words for one who knows how to marvel. And indeed the divine Habakkuk, being astonished at the manner of the incarnation, cried out clearly, "O Lord, I have heard thy report, and was afraid; O Lord, I have considered thy works, and was amazed." For being in the form and in the equality of God the Father, the Only-begotten, and being rich as God, became poor for our sakes, that we through his poverty might become rich; that he might save that which was lost, heal that which was sick, bind up that which was broken, give life to that which was corrupted, cleanse that which was defiled, release from judgment that which was condemned, declare blessed that which was cursed, and adorn with the honor of adoption that which was by nature a slave. Therefore let him hear from all, "Who is a God like unto thee?" that is, good and forgiving, pardoning iniquities for the remnant of his inheritance; and the remnant of his inheritance would be understood as those from Israel who believed, since the other multitude was destroyed because they did not believe. And Christ said somewhere, "He that believeth on the Son is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the Son of God." He therefore leaps over sins and passes over iniquities and has not kept his anger for a testimony. The phrase "for a testimony" means "to the end," or "forever." For we were cast out in Adam, but we were received in Christ. And he cursed in the one, but blessed again in the other; "For as," he says, "by one man's offense many died," so also by the one man's righteous act shall the many live. He has therefore ceased from his anger, because he is a desirer of mercy; and in the time of the conversion of all, that is, of the incarnation, he will, as it were, baptize the sins of all in the sea. And since to the holy fathers, I mean Abraham and Jacob, he promised to multiply their seed as the stars of heaven, he says he will give them the things promised. For they will be called fathers of many nations, their children being counted not only among those of the blood of Israel, but also among those of the promise. And these are they of faith, also called the uncircumcision, being mixed, as it were, into spiritual unity with those of the law and circumcision. For it is written that "They are not all Israel, which are of Israel: But, the children of the promise are counted for the seed." For as many as are "of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." And the manner of the blessing would be understood as the grace which is in Christ, through whom and with whom, to God the Father be the glory with the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.