Three Books of Commentaries on the Prophet Amos by Saint Jerome of Stridon, Priest

Latin Text from public domain Migne Editors, Patrologiae Cursus Completus.

Translated into English using ChatGPT.

Table of Contents Prologue Book One 1:1 1:2 1:3 1:4 1:5 1:6-8 1:9-10 1:11-13 1:14-15 2:1-3 2:4-5 2:6-8 2:9-11 2:12 2:13-16 3:1-2 3:3-8 3:9-10 3:11 3:12-13 3:14-15 Book Two 4:1-3 4:4-6 4:7-8 4:9 4:10 4:11 4:12-13 5:1-2 5:3 5:4-5 5:6 5:8-9 5:10 5:11-13 5:14-15 5:16-17 5:18-20 5:21-22 5:23 5:24 5:25-27 6:1 Book Three 6:2-6 6:7-11 6:12-14 7:1-3 7:4-6 7:7-9 7:10-13 7:14-17 8:1-3 8:4-6 8:7-8 8:9-10 8:11-12 9:1 9:2-5 9:6 9:7-8 9:9-10 9:11-13 9:14-15

Prologue

The prophet Amos, who follows Joel, is the third of the twelve prophets, but he is not the same person as the father of the prophet Isaiah whom we read about. The name Amos is written with the first and last letter of his name, Aleph and Sade, and it means strong and robust. However, the name Isaiah is written with Ain and Samech, and it means a people torn away: the middle letters Mem and Vau are common to both names. But for us, who do not have such a distinction between vowels and the letter s, which has three forms in Hebrew, these and other names seem to be common, which are distinguished among the Hebrews by the diversity of the elements and their properties. Therefore, the prophet whom we now have in our hands was from the town of Thecue, which is six miles to the south from the holy Bethlehem, which gave birth to the Savior of the world; and beyond that, there is no village, not even any rural huts resembling ovens, which the Africans call mapalia. Such is the vastness of the wilderness, which extends as far as the Red Sea and the borders of the Persians, Ethiopians, and Indians. And because nothing at all grows on the dry and sandy ground, the whole area is full of shepherds, in order to compensate for the sterility of the land with a multitude of livestock. From this number of shepherds Amos was a prophet, unskilled in speech but not in knowledge. For the same Spirit of the Holy Ghost spoke through all the prophets. Hence we translate from the Hebrew.

Book One

Book One

1:1

Chapter 1 - Verse 1. The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel. However, the Septuagint, wanting to add something, interpreted it as: The words of Amos, who was among the vine-dressers of Tekoa, which he saw for Jerusalem. And it should be known that this prophet saw not for Jerusalem, which is not found at all in the Hebrew text, but concerning Israel, that is,

In the days of King Uzziah of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of the ten tribes called Israel, who were in Samaria, there were prophets. Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion also translated this. Therefore, the first prophet Hosea speaks to the ten tribes called Ephraim, Samaria, the house of Joseph, and Israel. The second prophet Joel, prophesies to Jerusalem and the two tribes called Judah and Jerusalem, with no mention at all of Israel. The third Amos, not at all in Jerusalem, which was ruled by the tribe of Judah, but in Israel in Samaria, preaches. This can be proven from the whole volume of his work, and especially from what is written: Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam the king of Israel, saying: Amos has rebelled against you in the midst of the house of Israel (Amos VII, 10). And shortly after, Amaziah said to Amos: You see, go, flee to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and there you shall prophesy, and in Bethel you shall not prophesy anymore, for it is the sanctity of the king and the house of the kingdom. To whom Amos responded: I was not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but a keeper of sycamore trees, gathering their fruit. And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and said to me: Go, be a prophet to my people Israel; not to Judah and Jerusalem, as is wrongly stated by the Greeks and Latins, but to Israel, that is, the ten tribes, which had retained their original name due to the multitude of the people. And in the place where the Seventy translated, in Accaron, Theodotion placed the Hebrew word itself: in Nokedim (), which Aquila rendered as ἐν ποιμνιοτρόφοις, that is, in pastures: Symmachus and the fifth edition rendered it ἐν τοῖς ποιμέσιν, that is, among shepherds. And I think because of the similarity of the letters Daleth and Res, they were also deceived here, for Nocedim, as if it were Nocerim: and from there they placed the word Accarim, although the letter Nun at the beginning of the name leaves no excuse for the error. However, I have not read that Accarim is Hebrew until now. And those who interpret sterilitatem, that is, στείρωσιν, express more the city of Accaron, which belongs to the Philistines, than Accarim, which is not found at all. Therefore, the sermons of Amos, who was from the town of Thecue and among the number of shepherds, are contained in this volume, because both the region and the message are pastoral. He saw these sermons concerning Israel, not with physical eyes, but with the vision of the mind, since the prophets were called seers; otherwise, the sermons are not seen according to the letter, but heard. Hence, the people saw the voice of God, and Moses spoke silently to the Lord when he said to him: Why do you cry out to me (Exodus 14:15)? In the New Testament also we read: That which we have seen with our eyes, and have heard with our ears, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life (John 1:1). For the Word of God, which is in itself invisible, is seen and touched by the apostles with their own hands. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:14). But Jehoiada's son, the king of Israel, saw these words two years before the earthquakes. When Sardanapalus reigned among the Assyrians and the cities of Cilicia, about whom the renowned orator said: More shameful in vices than in name. And among the Latins, Procas Silvius, to whom Amulius succeeded in the kingdom after expelling his brother Numitor. After killing him, Romulus, with the hand of shepherds and outlaws gathered, founded the city of his own name. But this is Ozias, king of Judah, surnamed Azariah, who, attempting to claim the priesthood which was not due to him, was struck with leprosy on his forehead (2 Chronicles 26), when the wrath of the Lord not only punished him for his sacrilege but also manifested an earthquake, which the Hebrews then commemorate. But Jeroboam is not the son of Nabath, who made Israel sin (III Kings XII), but the son of Joas, the son of Joathan (also called Joachaz and Joachan), the grandson of the same Jehu, under whom Hosea, Joel, and Amos prophesied. Therefore, Ozias is interpreted as 'the power of the Lord,' that is, authority or strength of the Lord. Jeroboam is 'the judgment of the people,' that is, the judgment or cause of the people, although some, reading the Greek letter chi, suspect it means 'the division of the people.' Joas' time, that is, the delay of the Lord, or temporal existence. Therefore, the words of Amos, at the time when the people of Israel were separated from the Lord and served golden calves, or when they were separated from the kingdom of the Davidic line, they sang with a clear voice like the sound of a trumpet, which is interpreted as Thecue. And they sang over Israel, who once was most upright before God, that is, most righteous before God. In the days of King Uzziah of Judah, when, due to the temple and the Holy of Holies, the strength of the Lord remained and ruled over a people who confessed. The name Jeroboam, who arose for the division of the people, signifies that Israel remained in idolatrous error for a long time before the captivity completely shook them, which in two years showed the double distress of the ten tribes and the two, so that those who were willing to do penance would no longer feel the shaking of the earth.

These, most beloved Pammachus, I have gathered together in a long discourse as a brief reminder, interpreting the sayings of the prophet Amos, that you, through the interpretation of your name, demonstrate yourself to be a fighter in every art of battling against the devil and opposing powers. I have also promised an explanation of the prophets Hosea and Zechariah to myself and other holy men, but most of all to your holy and venerable mother, Paula, while she was alive. And I will not greatly err in my promise, if I deliver to my son what I have promised to his mother. But now it is time for me to explain in detail, using the words of the prophet himself, what I think.

1:2

(Verse 2.) And he said: The Lord from Zion shall roar, and from Jerusalem he shall give his voice. And the pastures of the shepherds have shone, and the top of Carmel has dried up. LXX: And he said: The Lord from Zion has spoken, and from Jerusalem he has given his voice, and the pastures of the shepherds have shone, and the top of Carmel has dried up. It is natural that all artisans of their craft speak with examples, and each one brings forth the likeness of the one in which he has spent his time: for example, the sailor and the navigator compare their sadness to a storm; they call damage, shipwreck; they call their enemies, adverse winds. Once again, it names prosperity and joy, the most gentle breeze and favorable winds; calm seas and waters, like peaceful fields. From the opposite direction, the soldier signifies whatever he says, shield, sword, armor, helmet, spear, bow, arrow, death, wound, and victory. In the mouths of philosophers, Socrates and Plato are always present, Xenophon and Theophrastus, Zeno and Aristotle, Stoics and Peripatetics. Orators praise Lysias and Hyperides, Pericles and Demosthenes, Gracchi, Catos, Ciceros, and Hortensius in heaven. If they are epic poets, they frequently mention Homer and Virgil; if they are lyric poets, they celebrate Pindar and Flaccus. Why were these things said? To show that even the prophet Amos, who was a shepherd of shepherds, not in cultivated places with planted trees and vineyards, or certainly among green forests and meadows, but in the vastness of the wilderness, where the fierceness of lions and the killing of livestock dwell, made use of his skill in words, in order to mention the terrible and fearful voice of the Lord, the roaring of lions, and the growling of a lion. Comparing the destruction of the Israelite cities to the solitude of shepherds and the dryness of mountains: The Lord, he says, will roar from Zion, and from Jerusalem he will give his voice. In Hebrew, to roar is called Jesag: Beautifully he will roar from Zion, and from Jerusalem he will give his voice, where the temple and the religion of God were, in order to teach that God is not present in the cities of Israel, that is, in Bethel and Dan, where the golden calves were, nor in the capital city of Samaria and Jezreel, but rather in the true religion, which was practiced at that time in Zion and Jerusalem. With the roaring of Zion, and giving his voice from Jerusalem (for the law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem), all the shepherds and kings of Israel have mourned, and the peak of Carmel has dried up, which once abounded with joyful pastures. Carmel is called in Greek and Latin, but in Hebrew it is called Chermel: and there are two mountains, which are called by this name. One in which Nabal was, Carmelus, the husband of Abigail to the South. According to Ptolemy, the place formerly called Acho, which is close to the sea, where the prophet Elias obtained rain on bended knees (1 Kings 15). If therefore it refers to Chermel, where Nabal lived, it is more suitable for the flocks of shepherds, because it is close to the wilderness (3 Kings 18). But if it refers to that place which is near the coast, it pertains to the kings and the pride of the kings of Israel, whom he says are to be devastated like the desert mountains when captivity is imminent. Otherwise, when the Lord from Zion and Jerusalem, from the watchtower of the Church, which is situated on the mountain and cannot be hidden, and in which the vision of peace is, has given through the old and new Testament, and through the ecclesiastical teachers his voice, and has sounded as a clear trumpet, then all the beautiful things of the shepherds, that is, the doctrine of the heretics, which seemed composed in beautiful language, and the knowledge of circumcision (for this is interpreted as Chermel, through which they promise themselves the knowledge of the true circumcision), will mourn and wither, and thousands of peoples, who are called flocks because of their simplicity, will wither suddenly with drought.

1:3

(Version 3.) Thus says the Lord: Because of three transgressions of Damascus, and because of four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron. LXX: And the Lord said: Because of three transgressions of Damascus, and because of four, I will not turn away from them; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron. Regarding the tribes, which are called Arsoth in Hebrew (), and have been translated by Theodotion as iron wheels, which we have interpreted as iron sledges, the Seventy have translated as threshing sledges of iron. But there is a type of wagon that is propelled by iron and toothed wheels, which, after the grain has been beaten out, crushes the straw in the threshing floor, and grinds the straw into food for animals due to the scarcity of hay. Furthermore, in the Hebrew language, where it is written Benadad (), and it is one name, the Seventy translated it as the sons of Ader, Res and Daleth by the similarity of false elements. In that place also where we said, concerning the house of pleasure, which is called Mebbeth Eden () in Hebrew, and they all translated it similarly, the Seventy translated it as from the men of Haran, considering Daleth as the middle letter of the name Res, and according to their custom, placing the Greek letter Chi (Χ) before the first Hebrew letter Ain. They also translated Cyrene, which is called Cira in Hebrew (ἑπήκλητον), that is, called or named, because of the similarity of the word, because Chares (Χάρης) can be called a calling, and they understood it as a proper name, an appellative. We have briefly mentioned the reasons for different translations: now let us move on to the meaning of what has been said. First, the word of God is directed against Damascus, where Azazel was reigning, who at that time when Amos was prophesying, was severely oppressing Israel, that is, the ten tribes: to such an extent that, after King Ahab of Israel was defeated in Ramoth-gilead, he would slaughter and crush all the region that was called Gilead, and had passed into the possession of the half tribe of Manasseh, like the wheat of tribulation in the threshing floors. What the prophet Elisha says more fully in the book of Kings, where we read: And he stood with him, and was troubled even to the reddening of his face, and the man of God wept. To whom Hazael said: Why does my lord weep? And he answered: Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel. You will burn their fortified cities with fire, and you will slay their young men with the sword, and you will dash their little ones against the stones, and you will rip up their pregnant women. And Azazel said, 'For what am I, your servant, but a dog, that I should do this great thing?' And Elisha said, 'The Lord has shown me that you will be king over Syria.' (2 Kings 8:11ff). And what follows in the prophet.

1:4

(Ver. 4.) And I will send fire into the house of Azael, and it shall devour the houses of Benadad. And I will break the bars of Damascus, and I will destroy the inhabitants from the plain of idols. LXX: And I will send fire into the house of Azael, and it shall devour the foundations of the son of Ader, and I will break the bars of Damascus, and I will destroy the inhabitants from the plain, being. Give understanding, that Azael, when Ozia and Jeroboam reigned, was already dead in Syria, and his son Benadad succeeded him in the kingdom, from whom all the later kings of Aram, that is, Syria and Damascus, took the name Benadad. He did not say beautifully, I will send fire into Azazel, but into the house of Azazel, that is, into his royal house, over which Ben-hadad, his son, was ruling at that time. And I will break down, he said, the bars of Damascus, and I will destroy the inhabitants of the idolatrous field. Namely, all the strength (or multitude) of the Syrians, which, like a kind of cart and bars, repelled the attacks of their enemies. Now the idolatrous field, which is called Aven in Hebrew, is interpreted by the Septuagint and Theodotion as meaning "iniquity"; Symmachus and the fifth edition translated it as "useless," in order to show the useless help of idols, since the people of Damascus will be captured when the Assyrians come. For we read that Theglathphalasar, king of Assyria, after killing King Rezin of Damascus, of whom Isaiah speaks, transferred all the people of Syria, who were called Aram, to Cyrene, and for this reason it is said now (2 Kings 16).

1:5

(Verse 5) Holding the scepter from the house of pleasure, and the people of Syria will be transferred to Cyrene, says the Lord. LXX: And I will cut off the tribe from men from Haran, and the captive people of Syria will be led, says the Lord. So that it is understood, I will crush and destroy, and the people of Syria will be transferred to the farthest borders of Egypt. And that which is said at the beginning: Concerning the three sins of Damascus, and concerning the four, shall I not (Alternate: shall I not indeed) turn away from him, and according to the Septuagint, shall I not (Alternate: shall I not indeed) reject him, that is, the people of Damascus, or Aram, that is, Syria, can have this meaning according to the history: If they had persecuted my people once, or even twice, I would have forgiven them. But now, since they have become cruel for a third and fourth time, to the point of driving captive multitudes with iron chariots, should I not punish them with blows? Doesn't the mercy of my mother turn away from him? But according to tropology, we can say this: the first sin is to think of evil things. The second is to find rest in perverse thoughts. The third is to carry out what you have decided in your mind. The fourth is not to repent after the sin and to take pleasure in your own wrongdoing. All heretics do this, who not only think and do evil things, but deceive the innocent with their teachings, and, following the example of the Damascenes, who interpret that they drink blood, they also drink the blood of those they have deceived. The Lord says of such great sins: is it not fitting that I punish them with blows and turn my face away from them? For those who do not see the truth of my teachings, let them be overwhelmed with darkness by the turning away of my countenance. Indeed, they have contrived and dissected in iron chariots the pregnant women of Gilead. These are the pregnant ones of whom the Lord speaks in the Gospel: Woe to the pregnant and nursing women in those days (Luke 21:23). The souls of believers are pregnant, who at the beginning of faith can say: We have conceived and given birth from your fear, O Lord (Is. XXVI, 17, 18); and if they are not equipped with iron and toothed wagons (of which the Psalmist says: The teeth of men are their weapons and arrows (Ps. LVI, 5), cut and ironed, they can also say what follows: We have given birth, we will bring forth the spirit of your salvation upon the earth. At the same time, consider that they cannot cut down men of perfect age; but those who are still in the womb, or who are unable to take solid food and are still being nourished by milk, belong to infancy. Now, these pregnant women are from Gilead, which means translation or transmigration of the testimony. For they have migrated from the Church into heresy, and have transferred the testimonies of God, which they had previously received, to foreign boundaries. But the Lord will send fire into the house of Azel, which they themselves call Azel (), that is, the vision of God: a fire that will consume the wood and straw in them, and devour the foundation of the son of Ader. For we ought to say also according to the Septuagint, lest we seem to have proposed them in vain: Ader is translated as 'elegance', which we can also call 'beauty': because every heretic discourse is well-arranged and composed, and has the beauty of secular eloquence, it deceives the listeners more easily. However, the beams of Damascus, like very strong and firm bolts, are to be understood as those who are trained in the art of dialectic and the arguments of philosophers. For example, the door is called, which conceived and gave birth to false doctrine, like Arius in Alexandria: its bolts and strongest bars, Eutychius and Eunomius, try to strengthen with syllogisms and enthymemes, even with sophisms, and pseudo-reasonings and arguments, which they have poorly invented compared to others. And when the bolts of Damascus are broken and shattered, he will also destroy the inhabitants of the field, which is interpreted as labor or pain. For all heretics have made great effort and endured great pain in seeking some order and consistency in their heresy. And I will destroy the tribe of Charram, which in our language means 'holes.' For they do not have windows, through which the light of truth may enter; but rather they have certain holes and hidden passages, through which harmful and impure creatures may enter. And the captive Aram shall be led away, a proud and lofty people, who have exalted themselves and made promises of heavenly things to themselves, so that they may be captured in their own salvation. And they shall be transferred to Cyrene, according to the Hebrew, where the calling of God is.

1:6-8

(Verse 6 and following) Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not revoke its punishment; because they carried into exile a whole people to deliver them up to Edom. So I will send fire upon the wall of Gaza, fire which shall devour its strongholds. I will cut off the inhabitants from Ashdod, and him who holds the scepter from Ashkelon; I will turn my hand against Ekron; and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, says the Lord. LXX: Thus says the Lord: Because of the three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away from it, because they carried away captive the captivity of Solomon, to shut them up in Idumea, and I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, and it shall devour the foundations thereof, and I will cut off the inhabitant from Azotus, and him that holdeth the sceptre from Ascalon, and I will turn my hand against Accaron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord. In the third and fourth generation, the Lord threatens to repay the sins of the fathers in the Law to the children: not in the equality of judgment, so that some may sin and others may be punished, but by the magnitude of His mercy, as He always waits for repentance: and what is committed in the first generation, He does not correct and amend until the third and fourth generation comes. The apostle Paul also speaks of this to the Romans: Or do you despise the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will repay each one according to his works (Romans 2:4-6). Therefore, what He says is this: I have waited a long time for them to repent, and for this reason I did not want to punish the sinners, so that they might eventually return to health. But because they keep doing the same things for the third and fourth time, I am forced to change my mind and correct the wrongdoers with punishments. Now let us see what the Philistines and their cities have sinned, whom the Seventy always translate as foreigners; for wherever in the Old Testament we have read ἀλλοφύλους, that is, foreigners, it should not be taken as a general name for all foreign nations, but specifically as the Philistines, who are now called Palestinians. What did Gaza do to provoke the Lord to anger and vengeance? It transferred the complete captivity of the people of Judah and sold them to the Edomites, whom it had captured from the Jews. For the complete captivity, the Seventy interpreted the name of Solomon as the Hebrew word Salma (), which means complete and perfect. Finally, Aquila translated it as ἀπηρτισμένην and ἀναπεπληρωμένην; Symmachus and Theodotion as τελείαν, which signifies not Solomon, but complete and perfect, so that no captive remains who has not been handed over to the Edomites. He threatens to send himself against the walls and buildings, or even the foundations of Gaza, in order to devour and swallow everything. And because we read in the book of Kings that there are five cities of the Philistines that were struck with plagues due to the disrespect of the Ark, after Gaza, he goes to Ashdod (1 Samuel 5), which is called Esdod in the Bible, and then to Ashkelon. With a terrifying voice, he threatens to destroy the inhabitants of Ashdod and the ruler of Ashkelon, along with the royal power or tribe of Ashkelon, so that no one remains there, not even the last generation of people who have trembling limbs supported by a ruling staff. And again he moves his hand to strike Accaron. And after enumerating four cities, he includes the remaining Philistine cities in one discourse. And the rest of the Philistines will perish: whom we must either accept as the city of Gath or all the villages that are subordinate to the aforementioned cities. According to tropology, it seems that this should be explained to us: Gaza, which is called Aza in Hebrew, signifies strength or power; Salomon, peace; Idumaeus, bloodshed and earthly; Azotus, that is, Esdod, a fire of abundance or of the father; although some, reading "dod" instead of "dor," mistakenly understand it as a fire of generation; Ascalon signifies a murderous fire or one that is suspended and weighed down; Accaron, στείρωσις, that is, sterility, and ἐκρίζωσις ((Al. ἐκρίσωσις)), which means eradication. Therefore, Gaza, which boasts of its strength of knowledge and authority, is accused of imprisoning captives from the family of Solomon in Idumea. I believe these are the Jewish teachers and all those who follow the letter, do not want to receive the life-giving spirit; but whatever they interpret and understand, they want to be earthly and do not listen when the Lord speaks in parables to his disciples, saying: 'He who has ears to hear, let him hear' (Matthew 11:15), especially since the Apostle understands the clear history in two testaments (Galatians 4). One over Mount Sinai, which is Agar, and she serves with her sons: the other over Jerusalem, which is our mother. Therefore, she asserts that she will send fire onto the walls of Gaza, and all its defenses, in order to surround and protect her lies. And when she will have sent fire onto the walls, the houses or foundations of it, whatever can have strength (if it can have any), and everything built by dialectic art, will be devoured. Also, from Ashdod, which itself is foreign, she will take away its inhabitant: whose breasts are full not of milk but of fire, because she follows the letter (literal interpretation), and everything that lies about having fire as its father, its whole generation must be attributed to fires. (Hosea 9:14) And they will take the scepter, or tribe, from Ascalon, where the destructive fire is. For just as the fire of the Lord will save those whose hearts it has penetrated, so this fire that descends from heaven, like lightning, which ignites the devil's arrows, will kill whoever it strikes. He will also stretch out his hand over Accaron, where there is barrenness and uprooting. For whoever does not receive spiritual understanding, will hear through Hosea: Give them, O Lord. What will you give them? Give them a barren womb and withered breasts. And to sum up everything in one word, he says that he will destroy all the remaining Philistines, whether in the city of Gath, where the devil's winepress is, or all the other Philistines, who are also called fallen by the cup. For when they are intoxicated, they will fall and roll in their own vomit.

1:9-10

(Verse 9, 10.) Thus says the Lord: Because of three crimes of Tyre, and because of four, I will not revoke my decision, because they delivered up a complete captivity to Edom, and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood, I will send fire upon the wall of Tyre, and it will consume its palaces. LXX: Thus says the Lord: Because of three acts of impiety of Tyre, and because of four, I will not turn away from it, because they delivered up the captivity of Solomon to Edom, and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood. And I will send fire upon the walls of Tyre, and it will devour its foundations. The same three or four acts of impiety or crimes that he had charged to Damascus, Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ashdod, and to the other cities of the Philistines, he also assigns to Tyre and reproaches it for having brought to completion and perfection the captivity in Edom, of which we have spoken above: And they have not (or were not) mindful of the covenant of their brothers. We seek to know how the Tyrian brothers are related to the Jews. These brothers call them friends and connected by a bond, because Hiram, the prince of Tyre, had friendships with David and Solomon, to the extent that Hiram sent cedar wood for the construction of the Temple and palace, all the way from Joppa. And these brothers would provide grain and oil to the Tyrians, and give twenty cities in Bashan as a gift, which he refused to accept because they were full of grass (1 Kings 5, 2 Chronicles 2). He says, therefore, that he will hurl fire onto its walls and devour its buildings or foundations, which the Prophet Ezekiel mentions that King Nebuchadnezzar of the Chaldeans did in a vision of Tyre, where he says: 'He will surround you with siege works and build a siege ramp against you' (Ezek. 29:6). And again: 'King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre. Every head was shaved bald, and every shoulder rubbed bare, yet he and his army got no wages from Tyre for the labor he had spent against it' (ibid., 29:18), because his army built a siege ramp to capture Tyre, which was once an island. The history tells that Alexander the Great did the same thing to make a peninsula out of an island, which the Greeks call a chersonese. Tyrus interprets as tribulation or confinement: and all perverse doctrine tries to grasp the truth and conclude it in earthly senses, and does not remember the covenant of his brothers, which we should ascend from earthly things to heavenly ones: and the commandment is for us to inscribe the sacred Scripture in our heart in a threefold manner. But God will send fire into all the strongholds of Tyre, which will devour not only its walls, but also its foundations. We have already mentioned the captivity of Solomon, for whom it is recorded in Hebrew, as being completed and perfected.

1:11-13

(Ver. 11 and following) Thus says the Lord: For three crimes of Edom, and for four, I will not revoke my judgment; Because he pursued his brother with the sword, and violated all pity, and his anger tore at them constantly, and he kept his wrath to the end. I will send fire into Teman, and it will consume the fortresses of Bozrah. LXX: Thus says the Lord: For three crimes of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away from them, because he pursued his brother with the sword and violated the womb above the earth, and seized his horror as a testimony, and kept his fury forever. And I will send fire into Teman, and it will consume the foundations of its walls. Edom himself is the same as Esau, so named because of the cooking of red lentils, whose birthright he lost with this nourishment: he is also called Seir, hairy and rough. Hence the mountains of the Edomites are called the mountains of Seir, and in Greek language Edom is called Idumea. This one pursued his brother with a sword, namely the sons of Jacob, concerning whom it is written more fully in the blessings of Isaac, to whom Jacob was blessed first, and afterwards Esau: so that the hatred of the brothers might be preserved in their descendants, and the Idumean people would persecute their brothers to such an extent that they would not even grant passage through the holy land to those leaving Egypt; and not only did he persecute his brother with a sword, but he violated mercy, or rather according to Symmachus' interpretation, his own womb: so that he would forget his kinship, and harden the bowels of mercy, and would not know that he was his brother, and would despise the womb of Rebekah, who had given birth to twin infants in one childbirth. And what follows: And he held on to his fury, and kept his indignation until the end, he shows his ancient hatred, which was never reconciled with peace. Therefore, he threatens punishment for sins, and he said: I will send fire into Theman, which is the region of the Edomites, and it extends to the southern part, which is called Theman: this province is called not only Theman, but also Daron and Nageb, because it faces the east, south, and the African wind. And when he says, 'He shall devour the houses of Bozrah,' it does not mean, as some suppose, another city, but Edom, fortified and well-fortified, according to what we read in Isaiah: 'Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This one, beautiful in his robe, walking in the greatness of his strength' (Isaiah 63:2)? Whatever we have said about Esau and Jacob, let us apply it to the Jews and the Christian people. For they, who were earthly and bloodthirsty, persecuted the brother Jacob, who supplanted them, and took away their firstborn, and persecuted with the sword, so that they seized the possessions and wealth of believers, which we read about in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:4): and they violated mercy and the laws of nature, forgetting their mother Rebecca, who is interpreted as patience, and at the same time they were born in Christ: holding onto their ancient fury and anger, to this day in their synagogues they blaspheme the Christian people under the name of Nazarenes: and as long as they kill us, they want to be burned with fire. But the Lord will send fire into Theman, into the dry and deserted parts of Judaea (that are not irrigated by the rains of the prophets), and it will consume all their fortifications, even the foundations of its walls, so that with the complete collapse of all literal sense, the Church of Christ the Lord may be built upon its foundations. For misericordia, they translated the Septuagint as vulva. And for furore, they used horrorem. And for indignatione, they chose impetum, led by the ambiguity of the words: because Rehem signifies both the womb and mercy; Aphpho signifies his rage and horror; and Ebrath is said to mean both indignation and impulse. Furthermore, Armanoth (), which we have interpreted as houses, Aquila and Symmachus βάρεις, that is, homes; Theodotius transferred the inhabitants: only seventy and here and above, they called foundations.

1:14-15

(Verse 14, 15) Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of the Ammonites, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead, that they might enlarge their border. So I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour her strongholds, with shouting on the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind; and their king shall go into exile, he and his princes together, says the Lord. LXX: Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of the Ammonites, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they ripped open the women with child in Gilead, that they might enlarge their borders. So I will kindle a fire in the walls of Rabbah, and it shall devour its palaces, with shouting in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind. Their king shall go into captivity, he and his priests and his princes together, says the Lord. The divine message captures the sons of Ammon, who are descendants of Lot, and who dwell in Arabia, where Philadelphia now stands. They question why, during the reign of Saul, the king of Judah, Naash, the prince of the Ammonites, ravaged Jabesh-gilead and mutilated its pregnant women in order to expand his territory and subdue all of Gilead with his empire (1 Samuel 11). Therefore, God threatens to kindle a fire on the walls of Rabbah, the capital city of the Ammonites, so that its houses may be devoured amidst the clamor and wailing of the conquering army. This will happen on a day of turmoil and whirlwind, when its captives are led away as captives by Nebuchadnezzar. The idol of the Ammonites, called Molech or their king, will be carried off to Assyria, and its princes or priests will also be taken captive. Priests are not recognized in Hebrew, but rather princes. So the Seventy priests were added, so that if you want to know who those princes are, you will listen to the priests. However, there is a difference between the cruelty of Damascus and the sons of Ammon, because they shattered the pregnant women of Gilead in iron carts or in iron saws: but these (priests) dismembered the pregnant women of Gilead in order to expand their territory. In Damascus, those who drink blood are deemed heretics, who have not only plundered the people of God from the Church but have also shattered them and chewed them with iron teeth, about whom it is written: Why do they devour my people as if eating bread? (Ps. LII, 5). Among the sons of Ammon, which is interpreted as the people of mourning, or my people, we receive the schismatics, who indeed separate the deceived multitude from the Church of God, and they break and divide the ignorant souls, who have recently conceived the word of Christ: yet they do not do this with cruelty, by which heretics slaughter any deceived individuals, but by remaining in the same rule of faith, they desire to expand their boundaries and send the name of glory to future generations. Therefore the Lord threatens that he will burn the walls of Rabbah, that is, of the multitude, in a day of wailing and of war, of commotion and of swirling, and will lead their king, the author of the schism, captive, and make the leaders of the Church submit their necks to the yoke.

2:1-3

(Chapter 2, Verse 1 and following) Thus says the Lord: Concerning the three sins of Moab, and concerning four, I will not revoke my punishment, because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to ashes. And I will send fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth, and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. And I will cut off the judge from the midst of her, and will slay all her princes with him, says the Lord. LXX: Thus says the Lord: Concerning the three impious acts of Moab, and concerning four, I will not turn away from them, because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to ashes. And I will send fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the foundations of its cities, and Moab shall die with affliction, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. And I will cut off the judge from her, and will slay all her princes with him, says the Lord. Not only the sons of Ammon, but also Moab, was descended from Lot, who was the son of Abraham's brother. And in order to demonstrate that He is the Lord of all and that all souls belong to Him, who is their creator, He avenges the injustice of the king of Edom, indeed the crime that was perpetrated against him by the Moabites, that they burned his bones to ashes, and their cruelty and rage did not end even in death. The Hebrews tell that the bones of the king of Edom, who had gone up with the king of Israel, Joram, and the king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, against Moab in revenge for a grievance, were later torn apart and burned by the Moabites (2 Kings 3). Therefore, they say, God declares that he will send fire upon Moab, or the capital city of the Moabites, from which the whole province is named, or the entire province, to devour the city of Carioth, which is the name of the city. Although the Seventy translated it as 'the cities of Moab', that is, Moab: and it will perish in the sound and wailing of the conquering army, of which one is called Saon in Hebrew, the other Therua; and in the blast of the trumpet or horn, for this is what Sophar means. And when Moab shall perish, the counsel of the princes and judges shall be in vain, with the cities and leaders being overthrown. However, it is necessary to transfer the perfect captivity, or Solomon's, and conclude it in Edom, so that it may make them humble and earthly from the high and heavenly, as Gaza and Tyre are said to have done. Thus, we should not burn the bones of the king of Edom and dissolve them into ash and dust. The Jews transfer spiritual understanding into Edomite flesh, and weaken and diminish the royal sense, which is found in scripture and is most solid and firm, with certain genealogies and unnecessary traditions, reducing it to dust. And it is not only they who do this, but all heretics who want to sit God on a high and elevated throne in a human likeness, and to place feet on the ground so that they do not hang; to have a nose to smell the fragrance of good scent, eyes to see, hands to work, feet to walk, ears to hear, a mouth to speak, teeth to chew food. He who reads that Judah went in to Thamar the harlot and from her begot two sons (Gen. XXXVIII): if he follows the disgraceful letter and does not ascend to the beauty of spiritual understanding, he will burn the bones of the king of Edom. He who thinks that Hosea took a harlot as a wife (Hosea I), and understands nothing more in the statement than what is contained in simple words, he will burn the bones of the king of Edom. And therefore the Lord will send fire into Moab, which is interpreted 'from the father,' because although he was indeed born from God, yet he has forsaken him. And it shall devour cities, or towns, because it is interpreted as Carioth. Hence Cariathiarim is translated into our language as the village of the woods. And Moab shall not die in any other way except in a clamor, and a noise, and a wailing, and the blast of the trumpet, so that they may be overwhelmed in their high senses, which are compared in holy books to the blasts of the trumpet. Then the judges and princes, and all those who are in charge of earthly works, are destroyed by the divine word, and the Church commands to the teachers: \"Climb up to a high mountain, you who preach Zion, lift up your voice, you who proclaim Jerusalem\" (Isaiah XL, 9).

2:4-5

(Verse 4, 5.) Thus says the Lord: On account of three crimes of Judah, and on account of four, I will not turn them aside, because they have rejected the law of the Lord and have not kept his commandments. They have been deceived by their idols, after which their fathers walked, and I will send fire into Judah, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem. LXX: Thus says the Lord: On account of three impieties of the sons of Judah, and on account of four, I will not turn away from them, because they have rejected the law of the Lord and have not kept his precepts, and they have been deceived by their vanities, which their fathers followed, and I will send fire into Judah, and it will devour the foundations of Jerusalem. Regarding the other aforementioned cities and peoples, such as Damascus and Gaza, Ashkelon and Gaza, Ashkelon and Azotus, Tyre and Idumea, and the sons of Ammon and Moab, it does not reproach them for rejecting the law of God and despising His commandments; for they did not have the written law, but the natural law. Hence, it says that they violated their own bowels and the bowels of mercy, and crushed pregnant women in iron chariots, and carried away the captivity of Solomon, whether it was perfect or incomplete, and confined it in Idumea, and did not remember the covenant of their fathers, and pursued their brother with the sword. And they burst forth not only with cruelty, but with fury, to the extent that they burned the bones of the king of Idumea, and did not allow death to be the final evil for everyone. But Judas, at that time, in which these things were being said, had the religion of God and the temple and the ceremonies, who had received the law, and the precepts, and the judgments, and the testimonies, and the commandments (concerning the difference of which is more fully debated in the eighteenth psalm, and in the one hundred and eighteenth), is reproached by the Lord and convicted, and will receive worthy punishments, because he has rejected His law, and has not kept His commandments. Because he rejected and despised them, his idols deceived him in order and way. For he could not be deceived by idols before he rejected the law of the Lord and did not keep His commandments. These are the idols after which their fathers went in Egypt, fabricating the images of the Egyptian bull, and worshiping Beelphegor, and honoring Astaroth and Baalim. Therefore, the Lord threatens even Judah that he will send fire, which will devour the houses and foundations of Jerusalem: not the one in which the vision of peace dwells, but those that have risen under the name Jerusalem in different cities. Whatever we have said about Judah, it pertains to the Church, in which there is true confession, and the peace of the Lord, and the vision of truth. And therefore it is argued against him, that he has despised the law of God and has not kept his commandments, and each one, worshipping his own vices and sins, has begun to have God from whom he has been conquered, as the apostle Peter says: For by whom a person is overcome, to him he is a slave (2 Peter 2:19). The covetous worships gold, the glutton worships his belly, the lustful worships his genitals and Beelphegor: the lascivious woman, although she may live in luxury, is dead, and she worships the pleasures of Venus. Where will the Lord send fire upon Judah, and it will devour the most wicked and sinful houses, which have lost the glory of Jerusalem; at the same time, we learn that the Creator of all things does not only care for the Jews and Israel, but also for all the nations, and according to the Apostle, those who sin without the law will perish without the law, and those who commit sins under the law will be judged by the law of the Lord (Rom. II).

2:6-8

(Vers. 6 seqq.) Thus says the Lord: For three crimes of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke my word: Because they sell the just man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of sandals. They trample the heads of the weak into the dust of the earth, and they force the lowly off the path. Son and father go to the same prostitute, profaning my holy name. Upon garments taken in pledge, they recline beside every altar; and the wine of those who have been fined, they drink in the house of their God. LXX: Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away from them: because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes. They trample on the dust of the earth and crush the heads of the poor. They turn aside the way of the humble, and a man and his father go in to the same maiden to profane my holy name. They tie themselves to altars with cords and drink wine obtained through fraud in the house of their God. Therefore, he places the last of Israel, that is, the ten tribes, because we have foretold in writing nearly everything that follows in order to include the prophetic discourse of the book under one text. Therefore, first of all, their wickedness or impiety is in three or four crimes, namely, that they sold a man for money, and a just man, who is more admirable in this, that he was not overcome by poverty so as to do anything unjust: and indeed, if they had sold a poor just man compelled by the necessity of hunger for a price, there would be some excuse for the crime; but now they have sold the precious soul of a man for a most worthless thing, for shoes with which they trample on dust and dung. These people, according to the Septuagint, strike the head of the poor; according to the Hebrew, they crush the heads of the poor into the dust of the earth, and they are so filled with pride that they refuse to walk with other men. And so, not satisfied with this wicked deed, both the son and the father have violated together a young girl, in order to desecrate the holy name of God. Therefore, whatever is done shamefully is attributed to an injury against God, who says: Through you my name is blasphemed among the Gentiles (2 Peter 2:2). This is what the Apostle writes to the Corinthians: Indeed, fornication is heard among you, and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles, so that someone may have his father's wife. And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you (II Cor. V, 1, 2). It often happens that a father defiles his son's wife, the father-in-law defiles his daughter-in-law, which is prohibited in the Law: You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, and you shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law (Leviticus XVIII, 7). Therefore, the letter also has the greatest usefulness if it is preserved. And because every vice, if it exceeds the boundary of shame, punishes crimes with other crimes, and it always proceeds to worse things, even over the pledged garments, ten tribes slept next to every altar, which the Hebrews interpret as follows: On the garments of those who did not want to go to idols, and they reclined on what they had forcibly taken while feasting in the idol. According to the Septuagint, there was such contempt for God that they would stretch out their garments in which they sleep or commit fornication, with ropes next to the altar, and they would make παραπετάσματα, that is, veils, so that no one could see the fornicators in the Temple. And they would also serve drunkenness and lust, even buying the wine they drank not with their own labor, but with deceit. And they would do this in their god's temple, so that they would defile those whom they thought were gods with filth and debauchery. They speak these things and thus explain, those who follow a simple history. But we, who taught in Hosea, under the name of the Israelites, and Samaria, and Ephraim, and the sons of Joseph (from which tribe Jeroboam was, who separated the people from the kingdom of David and Jerusalem, and the temple of God), are understood to signify heretics: even now, after Judah and Jerusalem, which is interpreted as the Church, let us understand that the prophetic discourse is directed towards heretics, who sell a holy and righteous man, but poor, for money. A poor and just man, he is an ecclesiastic, who does not have knowledge of the Scriptures, but is content with simplicity, and does the commandments that are given, of whom it is written: The poor man does not endure threats (Prov. XIII, 8). And to the Galatians: Only that we should be mindful of the poor (Gal. II, 10). All heretics do these things for wealth, and for the shoes with which they trample on the dust of the earth: for they cannot stand with bare feet on the holy ground (on which Moses and Joshua the son of Nun stood, Exod. III; Josh. V): therefore the apostles are commanded to walk with bare feet (Luke X), so that they have no possessions or skins, which pertain to the flesh), thus they strike the poor on the head. And the Savior commanded his disciples that, if perchance, because they were still in the world, some mortal thing had clung to their actions, they should shake the dust off their feet (Matt. X, Mark V). But the heretics strike the heads of the poor, although this is not written in Hebrew (Let it be read in Greek), because they have turned away from the path of the humble. That path of the humble is the one that says: I am the way, the truth, and the life (John XIV, 6), which urges us to walk in it, and it says: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest (Matt. XI, 28). But all the leaders of the heretics swell with pride, concerning whom the Apostle also speaks: 'Lest being puffed up he fall into the judgment of the devil' (1 Timothy 3:6), who says: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north' (Isaiah 14). Therefore, God resists the proud heretics, but gives grace to the humble ecclesiastics (James 4). Moreover, the son and the father entered unto a maiden, to violate and defile the holy name of God. We often read that our father is the Jewish people, as Paul says: I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea (I Cor. X, 1, 2). And in another place: Ask your fathers, and they will tell you; your elders, and they will declare to you (Deut. XXXII, 7). And again: For your fathers, sons are born to you (Psal. XLIV, 17). And the Church of the Gentiles speaks: The sons of my mother fought against me (Song of Songs 1:5). Therefore we are sons, and the father is the Jewish people. We sin and commit a crime, when we enter into the observation of the Sabbath and circumcision, abolishing the ceremonies of the law with our parent, to whom the Apostle says: Behold, I Paul say to you, that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing (Galatians 5:2, 4). And again: Those who are justified by the law have fallen from grace. Whoever enters the Church in such a way that he keeps the law in the gospel, he enters with the father to the virgin and commits fornication, and violates the name of the Lord. Hence those who say that they do not harm the Jews after the advent of Christ, if they believe in the Lord in such a way that they also keep the precepts of the Law, they contaminate the father and the son with one fornication. And they also tie their garments with ropes and make veils next to the altar, pretending the faith of Christ. For as many as have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ (Galatians 3), and they oppose their garments, which have bound them with the cords of sins, to the eyes of those who see, so that their wicked deeds may not be seen: so that whoever looks at the altar may not suspect immorality. All heretics under the name of Christ do this, fornicating and obscuring the testimonies of the Scriptures with their errors and lies. Therefore, the apostles spread their garments on the colt of an ass, so that the Lord may sit more comfortably (Matthew 21), and he may trample the path adorned with the Law and the Prophets. On the contrary, heretics do not lay down their garments in the footsteps of the Savior; but they bind them next to the altar, and they pretend their sins, in order to drink the wine of deceit, or of the condemned, who, because they have departed from the Church, have been condemned. This wine is the wine of Sodom, the fury of dragons and adders, which whoever drinks it cannot be healed. But they drink the wine not in the house of God, where the temple is and Jerusalem; but in their own house of God, which they have fabricated for themselves with crafty speech.

2:9-11

(Verse 9 and following) But I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of cedar trees, and he was strong like an oak tree. And I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from below. I am the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt and led you into the wilderness for forty years, so that you could possess the land of the Amorite. And I raised up prophets from among your sons and Nazirites from among your young men. LXX: But I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; and I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots beneath. I brought you out of the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in the wilderness, that you might possess the land of the Amorites. And I took your sons as prophets and your young men as consecrated ones. Is it not true that you have sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals? You have struck the heads of the poor, crushing them to the ground, and you have turned aside from the way of the humble. So much so that both father and son go to the same girl, defiling my holy name. Your garments are stained with the blood of the innocent and your clothes are polluted with adultery. You have bound yourselves with the chains of sin, committing adultery even in the sanctuary and joining injustice with drunkenness. You drink wine bought with foreign money in the house of your God. But on the contrary, I bestowed good things upon you in return for the evils you inflicted on me, so that I might destroy, before your presence, Seon, the king of the Amorites, who was so lofty and strong like a cedar and an oak, and I broke his fruit from above and his roots from below. I led you out of Egypt (Deut. 29), and for forty years I made you go around in circles to reach the holy land, so that you might possess the land of the Amorites, of which we have spoken before: which Moses divided to the sons of Reuben and Gad, and to half the tribe of Manasseh (Num. 32); and after so many benefits, I also added this, that I would take prophets for myself from your sons, and from your young men or chosen ones, I would make Nazarites, who the Seventy have interpreted as sanctified. And indeed, when it comes to praising God, the order of history must be preserved; but it often happens that what happened first is told last, and what is most recent is related to what came first. The seventy-seventh and one hundred and fourth psalms, where the power of signs is described, not the order, will teach us this, as well as the titles of the psalms, of which we will give just two examples: the third psalm and the fifty-first, where what happened first is narrated last, and what we read last is referred to in the beginning. For before we read in the book of Kings about Doeg the Edomite (1 Kings 21, 22), which is titled as the fifty-first psalm, how Absalom rose up against his father (2 Kings 15), which is mentioned in the title of the third psalm. And so the last Amorite was exterminated or erased, as is now first reported, and he made them go up from the land of Egypt and led them into the desert for forty years, we read about this in the beginning (2 Kings 21), which are called the last here with the order changed. Therefore, before God brought us out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, He exterminated before our face the Amorite, who is called bitter or insolent, that is, speaking, or notorious, and celebrated in frequent conversation. But this Amorite is also called Seon, an unfruitful and barren tree, not because it does not produce fruit, but because it produces bad fruit, of which it is said: Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire (Matth. 3:10; 7:19). And concerning false prophets, we read: They come in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves, by their fruits you shall know them (Matthew VII, 15, 16): namely, by their evil fruits. Therefore, whether they do not bear fruit, or they bear fruit but not good fruit: they are called fruitless trees. This is similar to Seon, about whom it is written: Now the axe is laid to the root of the trees (Luke III, 9), because he was a fruitless tree, and when the Lord struck, he was cut down, whose height is compared to that of cedars, of which we read: I have seen the wicked exalted, and lifted up as the cedars of Lebanon: and I passed by, and behold, he was not; and I sought him, and his place was not found (Psalm XXXVI, 35, 36). And he says that he passes beautifully, because he who passes from the world can say: Passing, I will see this great vision (Exod. III, 3), the cedar is removed, and the place of pride cannot be found. His strength, like that of the hardest and strongest oak tree. From which word, Philo, the most eloquent of the Hebrews, thinks that Esau is called 'δρύινον', that is, oaken and strong: although Esau can also be understood as 'ποίημα', that is, a work, referring to evil deeds. About this strong and robust, the Lord speaks in the Gospel: When a strong armed man guards his courtyard, all the things he possesses are in peace; but if a stronger man comes and defeats him, he will take away all his weapons in which he trusted, and distribute his spoils. And the Lord has granted us that he would crush and take away the fruits of this Amorite Sihon, whom we have interpreted as the fruitless tree, because they were evil, so that no one, thinking them good, would eat and perish. He also cut and crushed its roots, so that nothing would grow afterward from the evil tree. The Lord Himself made us leave the world, and for forty years, which is always a number of affliction and fasting, mourning and sorrow, through tribulations and distress, to come into the holy land, so that we would possess the land of the Amorites first, and that region would become our possession, and later He would raise up Prophets from our descendants, all holy men who received the prophetic spirit, about whom we read more fully in the first Epistle to the Corinthians (I Cor. XIV). And from our young men, or chosen ones, let him take the Nazarites and the sanctified ones, who offer their souls to God as a sacrifice, and who do not touch wine that can intoxicate and disturb the state of mind, so that they may have the hair of Samson, in whose head (for the head of a man is Christ) strength and victory resided (Judges 16).

2:12

(Verse 12.) Is it not so, sons of Israel, says the Lord, that you offered wine to the Nazarenes and sent commands to the prophets, saying: Do not prophesy. Likewise, the Septuagint. I granted you so many benefits, that I would kill your enemies and give their land to you, and I would choose prophets and Nazarenes from your sons and young men, and I would consecrate them to my worship. Can you say that I have not done these things, and that I have denied my mercy towards you, by which you live? Why did you burst forth into such rage, that you would get my Nazarenes drunk with wine, whom the law commands not to drink anything that can intoxicate? (Num. VI): and you would command the prophets not to prophesy in my name. This is what the priest Amaziah of Bethel commanded the prophet Amos, whom we now have in our hands: and it was commanded by the king to Jeremiah, not to speak the words of the Lord to the people, to the extent that his words were even burned with fire. Tatianus, the leader of the Encratites, attempts to construct his heresy on this matter, stating that wine should not be drunk, since it is commanded by the law that Nazarenes should not drink wine, and now they are accused by a prophet who provides wine to the Nazarenes. If they follow the letter in all things and introduce Jewish fables into the churches of Christ, then they should also grow their hair long, abstain from eating dried and green grapes, and not approach their deceased mother and father. And if by chance they have done these things and have been overcome by human frailty or necessity, they should shave their heads, and all their days of dedication and work shall be void. But if they do not do these things, nor are they able to mix water with wine like the Jewish innkeepers, let them understand the shadows of truth, the grace of the Gospel, the necessity of the Law, and that drunkenness with which the vigor of the soul is intoxicated and overwhelmed by worldly cares, and let them command those prophets, saying: 'Do not prophesy, you who, overcome by envy, forbid learned men from speaking the word of doctrine.' And as the Lord says: 'Go and say to this people' (Is. VI, 9), they on the contrary command them not to speak in the name of the Lord, especially if the one teaching provides for the utility of the readers and listeners, not for shameful gain, fame, and boasting.

2:13-16

(Verse 13 onwards) Behold, I will roar underneath you, like a heavily loaded wagon roars with hay, and the fleet warrior shall perish, and the strong shall not retain his strength, and the mighty shall not save his soul, and the archer shall not stand, and the swift-footed one shall not be saved, and the rider of the horse shall not save his soul, and the strong of heart among the strong ones, shall flee naked on that day, says the Lord. LXX: Therefore, behold, I will roll under you like a wagon full of straw is rolled, and the swift one shall perish in flight, and the strong one shall not retain his strength, and the warrior shall not save his soul, and the archer shall not endure, and the swift-footed one shall not be able to be saved, and the horseman shall not save his soul, and his heart shall be found among the mighty, and the naked one shall flee on that day, says the Lord. With me granting benefits to you, and leading you out of the land of Egypt, and destroying the Amorite before your face, so that you could possess his land, and raising up prophets from your sons, and Nazarites from your young men, you made my Nazarites drink wine, and said to the prophets: Do not prophesy. Therefore, just as a cart is burdened with a load of straw or hay, and it screeches and makes a loud noise from afar, so I, unable to bear your sins any longer, and handing you over to the fire like straw, will cry out and say: The quick will perish in flight, whom the Hebrews understand to be Jeroboam the son of Nabath, who had previously fled to Egypt (1 Kings 11). But here we will not take the princes themselves, but their houses and offspring. And the strong will not retain his strength: strong is interpreted as Basan, who was very ready for war (3 Kings 15). And the mighty will not save his soul: they understand this as referring to Amri (or Omri) here. And the one holding a bow will not stand or sustain: they think this refers to Jehu son of Namsi (or Nemsi), who struck King Joram of Israel with an arrow (4 Kings 9). And he who is swift on his feet will not be saved: Manahen they understand, who vainly hastening directed gifts to the king of the Assyrians (2 Kings 15): And the rider of the horse will not save his life: this Phacee, the son of Romelia, they interpret, who united with Aram, that is, Syria, devastated many things under the reign of Achaz, king of Judah. And with a strong heart, he will flee naked among the strong on that day, says the Lord (Ibid.). Only Osee, who was the last king of the ten tribes, and who attempted to bring back the errant people to the worship of God (2 Kings 18), will go out as if naked from the fire. Moreover, he calls them naked because under him the ten tribes were captured. This is what the Hebrews assert, and as it has been handed down to us, we have faithfully explained it to our people. But now let us return to our own matter. God threatens to roll a cart over them, burdened with hay or straw, so that because they do not have grain to store in granaries, their hay and straw will be consumed by fire. This is the hay of which the prophet says: Let it become like the hay of buildings, which withers before it is uprooted (Ps. 128:6). And: All flesh is grass (Isaiah 40:6). But that straw is what the prophet mourns lamentably for when it catches fire, saying: Woe is me! for I have become like one who gathers straw in the harvest, and like grape clusters in the vintage, when there is no bunch to eat the firstfruit. Woe is me! my soul (added in some versions), for the kind-hearted person has perished from the earth, and there is no one who does what is right among humanity: all are judged by blood (Micah 7:1), and so on. This is hay and straw, of which the Apostle speaks: Each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire. And the rolling cart, that is what we read about in Isaiah: Moab shall be trampled down as straw is trampled in the dung-pit. And in another place: I will make you like a new threshing sledge with sharp teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff. And after you have broken the mountains and hills, the swift flight shall cease, as Paul says: Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. And in another place: You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth (Gal. 5:7) ? And about himself, fearing, he said: Not that I have now received, or am already perfected; but I pursue, if I may apprehend, in which also I am apprehended by Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:12) . He did all these things, lest the flight from the swift be in vain: wherefore when he had now reached the end, and had received the reward of victory, he said securely: I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; as to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord, the just judge, will render to me in that day; and not only to me, but to them also that love his coming (2 Tim. 4:7, 8) . If we flee with quickness, sin will not be able to apprehend us; but if malice binds our feet, we will speak with the prophet to God: Where shall I go from your spirit, and where shall I flee from your face (Ps. 138:7)? The Apostle speaks about wicked runners: It is not of the one who wills, nor of the one who runs, but of the one who has mercy of God (Rom. 9:16) . It follows: And the strong will not obtain his strength: not because he is strong, but because he boasts of being strong. Whether one trusts in their own strength and not in God's mercy, according to what is written: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart' (1 Corinthians 2:19): not that true wisdom can perish, and the understanding of truth be rejected; but that the wisdom of those who consider themselves wise and trust in their own erudition may perish. Likewise, the strong or warrior who does not save his own soul is the one who does not possess the full armor of the Apostle: having a shield, but not faith; girded with a belt, but not in truth; clad in armor, but not in righteousness; wielding a sword, but not for salvation (Ephesians 6). A warrior of this sort does not sanctify battle, nor can he wage war in the name of the Lord, fighting against truth for the sake of lies. Such a warrior cannot say: Blessed be the Lord my God, who teaches my hands to fight and my fingers to war. My mercy and my refuge (Ps. CXLIII, 1). The heretics also have archers who, in vain, try to draw the bow, they cannot withstand the arrow of the Lord, as spoken by Isaiah: But I said, 'I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity' (Isa. XLIX, 2). These are the archers, of whom David also sings: Look, the sinners have bent their bow, they have prepared their arrows in the quiver, to shoot at the upright in heart in the darkness (Ps. X, 2). And the swift (he says) will not be saved by his feet, who runs through the testimonies of the Scriptures because of the sharpness of his wit, and tries to oppress the truth with the eloquence of speakers or with the sophisms of the dialecticians, and is hindered in it and falls, because he trusts not in God but in his own feet. The horse also will not save his own soul, who disregards the saying through the prophet: The horse is a deceitful hope for salvation (Ps. 32:17). And he does not know that it is written: All who mounted horses have slumbered (Ps. 75:7). This one will not save his own soul; but perishing, he will hear: Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will call upon the name of the Lord our God. They are impeded and have fallen; but we have risen and have been raised up (Ps. 19:8-9). A strong man, even with a courageous heart, will flee when naked among the brave. This place can be interpreted in two ways: either he is able to escape because he has stripped himself of the old man and the garments of sins, and he is burdened by no weight, or on the contrary, he is naked and has lost the clothing of Christ, of which it is said in the Apostle: Put on Christ Jesus (Rom. XIII, 14) . And in another place: For if we are clothed, we shall not be found naked (II Cor. V, 3); his strength will be of no use to him; but on the day of battle and struggle, he will flee from those who pursue him, and not being able to resist the enemies without armor, he will show them his back.

3:1-2

(Chapter 3, verses 1-2) Listen to the word that the Lord spoke against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family that I brought out of the land of Egypt, saying: You alone have I known out of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. LXX: Listen to this word that the Lord spoke against you, O house of Israel, and against all the tribe that I brought out of the land of Egypt, saying: However, I have known you among all the tribes of the earth; therefore I will avenge all your evils upon you. He addresses the sons of Israel, and in the following verse, he shows who these sons of Israel are: Above all, he says, the kindred that I brought out of the land of Egypt, which we must not only consider in the ten tribes, but in all twelve, including Judah and Benjamin. For he brought all out of the land of Egypt, and he says: Only, or as Symmachus interpreted: Only you have I known of all the kindreds of the earth. And because I have known only you, who are the Creator of all, and I have considered you my peculiar people, for this reason I will restore all your sins only upon you: For the mighty will powerfully endure torments (Wis. VI); but he who is the least, is worthy of mercy. And in Ezekiel we read: Begin from my sanctified ones (Ezek. IX, 6). And the judgment of God is said to begin from his house (I Pet. IV). Let this be said for now according to the history. Moreover, because hearing is understood in the Holy Scriptures, not only in the sense of perceiving with the ears of the flesh, but also in the sense of understanding, as the Lord says: He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Luke 8:8). Therefore, when the whole people saw the voice of God (Exodus 20), it was a direct message from the Lord to those who perceived God with their senses, namely those whom He brought out of the land of Egypt and from the power of Pharaoh (so that they would no longer serve mud and straw by building Egyptian cities), and those whom He knew from all the tribes of the earth, as the Apostle says: But now, having come to know God, or rather, having been known by God (Galatians 4:9). And in another place: He who is ignorant, will be ignored (I Cor. XIV, 38). Therefore, not all know God, but those who are worthy of His knowledge, as it is said in the Gospel: Depart from me, workers of iniquity, I do not know you (Luc. XIII, 27). For in being workers of iniquity, they are ignorant of God: therefore He says: Because I knew only you, and I had mine, I will visit upon you all your iniquities. Whom the Lord loves, He chastises, and He corrects every son whom He receives (Hebr. XII). And he said beautifully: I will visit, and I will not strike; for the plague of God is a visitation, and a healing. And he said, I will visit all your iniquities or sins, so that nothing may remain unstruck, so that nothing may not receive healing.

3:3-8

(Verse 3 onwards) Will two walk together unless they have agreed? Does a lion roar in the forest unless it has prey? Does a lion's cub give a cry from its den without capturing something? Does a bird fall into a trap on the ground without a trapper? Does a trap spring up from the ground before catching something? If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid? If there is calamity in a city, has not the Lord caused it? For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. The lion roars, who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken, who will not prophesy? Amos: If two shall walk together, except they know each other? If the lion shall roar in his den, having no prey? If the lion's cub gives forth its voice from its lair, unless it has taken something? If a bird falls to the ground without a fowler? If a snare is laid upon the ground, unless it has caught something? If the trumpet sounds in the city, and the people do not fear? If there is wickedness in the city that the Lord did not make, because the Lord God will not do anything unless He reveals His teaching to His servant prophets. Will a lion roar, and who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken, and who will not prophesy? I read in the commentaries of someone who desired to convince of a difficult matter, about eight crimes, wickednesses, and sins: first, Damascus; second, Gaza, and the other cities of Palestine; third, Tyre; fourth, Edom; fifth, the sons of Ammon; sixth, Moab; seventh, Judah, that is, the two tribes; eighth, which is the last, Israel, that is, the ten tribes, with the same number of judgments, now given, and the first answering the first, that is, Damascus, the second answering the second, that is, Gaza, and the rest answering the rest. The one who wrote it knows whether it is true or not. However, another person thinks that the six examples given, of two people walking together on a road, and a lion roaring while leaping, and a lion cub making its voice when it catches something, and a bird caught by a bird catcher, and a snare set in the ground for catching prey, and a trumpet sounding in the city, and with these examples, a similar argument is given, that just as the previous things have a cause and do not happen unless those things have preceded them: likewise, no evil occurs in the city that has not been done by the Lord's command. There are those who consider the first example to contain doctrine, because two cannot walk together unless they have agreed to do so beforehand. He who made both one, and destroyed the middle wall of partition, and created of the two one new man (Ephesians 2): and made peace between them, and joined them together with the bond of charity, so that when they are together, the two may ask the Father and obtain whatever they have requested. These are the two sticks that are joined together in Ezekiel (Ezek. VII), and the two peoples, the circumcision and the Gentiles, about whom the Lord speaks to Elijah: I have left for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee before Baal (3 Kings XIX, 18). And in another place, God says: I was found by those who did not seek me; I appeared to those who did not ask for me (Isaiah LXV, 1). But when the two are brought together, they will cling to the Lord, and they will become one spirit: for he who clings to the Lord is one spirit (1 Cor. VI, 17). Therefore, these two who agree with each other and walk together in the way of Christ, cannot fear the attack of any adversaries. But if they are separated by discord, immediately the roaring lion will invade them, about which Peter the Apostle said: Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (I Pet. 5:8). This roaring lion does not roam in cultivated fields, nor among vineyards, nor in olive groves, nor among fruit-bearing trees which praise God; but where there are forests and uncultivated ground, and where wild beasts dwell. And not only will they be exposed to the bites of the lion, but the lion cub will capture them and lead them to its den, fleeing from the light and going towards darkness. For everyone who sins loves darkness and hates the light (John 3), as we read in the psalm: You have set darkness, and it has become night: in it all the beasts of the forest will roam. The lion cubs roaring, to snatch and seek food from God (Psalm 104). For the lion cub seeks not the prey which it possesses and is under its power; but that it may snatch from the Church of Christ, of which it is written in Habakkuk: Its choice food (Hab. 1:16). The third punishment is for those whom discord has separated, that they lose their wings, on which they were previously carried aloft, and fall from heaven to earth, and are caught by the birdcatcher, who is better called the fowler, because he catches birds that are entangled in birdlime, which have descended willingly to earthly things. About which it is written in Proverbs: 'The nets are not unjustly spread for the birds' (Prov. I, 17, and XXIX, 5). For it is a just punishment for sinners, who, having the wings of doves, ought to fly through the air, that they are weighed down by the burden of sins and are brought down to earth, sticking to their vices. Concerning this, we read in the Apostle: 'He who joins himself to a harlot becomes one body with her' (I Cor. VI, 16). The fourth punishment is for those who are in discord, so that they are caught in a snare not set in heaven, but on earth. Regarding this, the holy one rejoices and says: 'Our soul has been delivered as a sparrow from the snare of the hunters; the snare has been broken, and we have been set free' (Ps. CXXIII, 7). This is the broken snare, of which the Apostle speaks to believers: God will crush Satan beneath your feet quickly (Rom. XVI, 20). And again in David we read: They have set a stumbling block on my path (Ps. CXXXVI, 6). For they cannot deceive the simple ones of the believers unless they propose the name of Christ, so that while we think we find Christ, we may go on to the Antichrist. The fifth punishment is for those who have forsaken the peace, which surpasses all understanding (Philipp. IV), and which the Lord, going to the Father, left to the Apostles, saying: My peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you (John XIV, 27), so that as citizens of the Lord, they are terrified by the sound of the trumpet. For whatever is said in the Holy Scriptures, it is like a threatening trumpet, penetrating the ears of believers with a loud voice. If we are righteous, we are provoked to blessedness through the trumpet of Christ; if we are sinners, we hear what torments we will suffer. However, the evil that the Lord does in a city is not contrary to virtue, but it is affliction and torment, as we read: Each day has enough trouble of its own (Matthew 6:34), that is, tribulation and distress. And in the Prophet, we read: I am God who made light and darkness, who brings peace and creates evil (Isaiah XLV, 6, 7). Just as darkness is contrary to light and day, so war is contrary to peace, which in itself is not evil, but seems evil to those who suffer it. And so we know, from the holy Scriptures, that sometimes wickedness is not opposed to virtue, but is rather affliction, punishment, and distress. Let us take one more example from Jonah: And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil ways, and he repented of the evil which he had said that he would do unto them (Jonah III, 10). Surely there is the evil overthrow of the Ninevites, which God had threatened through the prophet, and it is not contrary to virtue, which pertains to sin, for which He threatened torment to sinners. It follows: The Lord God will not do a word unless He has revealed His secret, or His correction, to His servant prophets: not that God reveals to the prophets all that He does in heaven, or has already done before; but what He is about to do on earth. Noah revealed to his servant that he would bring a flood. Abraham and Lot revealed to their servants that Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim would be destroyed. Joseph revealed the interpretation of a dream of seven years of famine in Egypt. And Jonah revealed the destruction of Nineveh, so that those who heard of the coming punishments would either repent and avoid torment, or those who ignored them would be justly punished. And now the Lord reveals through his servant and prophet Amos what he will do to the ten tribes, that if they are converted to better things and forsake their idols, they may be delivered from the impending danger. And note that the merciful and gracious God always foretells the future so that he is not compelled to inflict punishments. And as for the heretics who slander the Creator as if he were severe and harsh, cruel and only a judge, because there is no evil in the state that he does not do, we refer this to the greatness of his mercy, that he does not inflict punishments unless he has foretold them beforehand. But whoever predicts does not want to punish the sinners. The lion, he says, will roar, and who will not be afraid? The Lord God has spoken, who will not prophesy? Who in this place is not accepted as being for the rare, but not for the impossible. For he who disregards the Lord due to his own stubbornness will not be afraid and will not prophesy. And the meaning is according to the story: if everything trembles at the voice of the lion, and all the nature of animals is frightened, shall we, by God's command to speak and announce to the people the coming punishments, not prophesy? Shall we not speak? I know that someone has written in his Commentaries about a roaring lion to be understood as the devil, and roaring towards those who are about to perish: but God, who speaks through the Prophets, should be referred to the Lord Savior, just as those who hear the roaring of the lion in a bad way and are captured unto death, so the holy ones should hear the Lord commanding in a good way and be saved.

3:9-10

(Vers. 9, 10.) Make it heard in the houses of Azotus, and in the houses of the land of Egypt, and say: Gather yourselves together upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the many follies in the midst thereof, them that suffer wrong, and that oppress in the innermost parts thereof, and they have not known to do the right thing, saith the Lord: treasuring up iniquity and spoils in their houses. LXX: Declare ye in the countries of the Assyrians, and make it known in the land of Egypt, and say: Gather yourselves together upon the mountain of Samaria, and behold the many wonderful things in the midst thereof, and the oppressions in it, and they have not known the things that are to come in it, saith the Lord, who treasureth up iniquity and misery in their countries. We have already mentioned that the prophet Amos specifically, indeed a large part of the volume, prophesies to the ten tribes called Israel and Ephraim, and Samaria. Therefore, he is also commanded to announce now to Ashdod and the land of Egypt that follows. For Ashdod, the Seventy Assyrians wanting something, since Ashdod is called Esdod in the language of the Hebrews, and the Assyrians, Assur. For the buildings that are called Armanoth, they rendered regions, which are called Sadoth, and they have nothing in the word of similitude. He said, 'Tell them to gather all the nations that are nearby, and let them see the crimes of Israel, so that they do not think that God's judgment is unjust. Just as if he were to say, 'First see what they do, and then you can approve of my opinion.' And he introduced it beautifully: Over the mountains of Samaria, or the city that is now called Sebaste, then known as Samaria, or the whole province that is situated in the mountains: and see the many insanities in their midst, that they worship calves as gods and sacrifice their own children. Not content with this wickedness, they defame the poor in their own homes and do not know how to do what is right, storing up not gold and money, which are sometimes obtained through labor, but wickedness and plunder in their own houses: so that because they have deserted the worship of God and have worshipped idols, God may give them over to a reprobate mind, to do what is not fitting.' And since, according to the laws of tropology, Samaria is referred to as the heretics who falsely claim to be the keepers of God's commandments, the divine word commands that they preach among the Gentiles who do not have the knowledge of God, in whose doctrine there is a consuming fire, tribulation, and distress. So that they may consider the false Samaria and ascend to the mountains of its pride, and see the many insanities in the midst of the city, while each one imagines whatever he desires and worships his own creation - like Marcion who considers God to be good but inactive, like Valentinus who believes in thirty αἰῶνας and an ultimate Christ, whom he calls an abortive, like Basilides who calls the omnipotent God by the wondrous name Ἀβράξας and says that the annual course of the sun is contained within the circle, which the pagans call Μείθραν under the same number of other letters. And the follies of Iberians marvel at Balsamo Barbeloque. Are these not insanity and many insanities, with each person imagining whatever comes into their mind? They also endure slander in their innermost places, or the simple ones who believe are oppressed; while under the guise of truth they cultivate falsehood, and they do not know how to do what is right at all, because they have lost the path of truth, and they do not believe in the one who says: I am the truth (John 14:6): and they hoard for themselves the doctrines of wickedness, and they seize and enclose in their houses those whom they can deceive with false error. But if it pleases to read the Assyrians (which, however, is not found in Hebrew), let us say that they are those of whom it is written: I will bring upon you a great chief of the Assyrians, who said, With my strength I will act, and so on, so that the heretics may be captured by the Assyrian and held in the land of Egypt, from which they have already come to the Church and been released.

3:11

(Verse 11) Therefore thus says the Lord God: The land shall be troubled and surrounded, and your strength shall be taken away from you, and your houses shall be plundered. LXX: Therefore thus says the Lord God: Tyre and the surrounding land will be deserted by your strength, and your regions will be plundered. Regarding Tyre, which is written in Hebrew with two letters, Sade () and Res (); and it is called Sor (): which both Aquila and the Seventy translated similarly: a Hebrew who instructed me in the Holy Scriptures interpreted it as tribulation, and we did not reject his opinion: for Symmachus, who is accustomed to follow not the wordplay, but the order of meaning, says, siege and encirclement of the land. For the siege, which is called πολιορκία by him, was placed by Theodotion who thought not Sar and Sor (which is called tribulation, or Tyre, but Sur should be read: which properly refers to a very hard rock, which is called ἀκρότομος in Greek, and which we can call flint in Latin. Let us therefore speak about each one. The LXX said: Tyre and the land surrounding it. And the sentence seemed to hang: they added therefore of their own, it will be deserted: nor is it an error of the interpreters, where because of the ambiguity of the word, both tribulation and Tyre can be said. And the meaning is: Over the mountains of Samaria my people have done many insanities: slandering and completely ignoring what is right, and hoarding for themselves injustice and plunder: therefore they will be afflicted, or crushed, and surrounded by the Assyrian army, and, she says, strength will be taken away from you, o Samaria, o ten tribes, o once my people: and they will be plundered in your houses, which you have gathered through the tears of the wretched by means of slander. The heretics also will be afflicted on the day of judgment, and all their strength will be weakened, and what they had gained through plunder will be taken away, so that the people whom they had deceived may be freed: or certainly they will be afflicted every day by ecclesiastical men, and they will be surrounded by testimonies of the Scriptures, and strength of syllogisms, and clever words by which they had confirmed their own doctrine will be taken away from them. And their houses will be plundered: so that those who were taken from the Church may return to the Church.

3:12-13

(Vers. 12, 13.) Thus says the Lord: Just as a shepherd rescues from the mouth of a lion two legs or the tip of an ear, so will the sons of Israel who dwell in Samaria be rescued, on the corner of a bed and in Damascus on the sheets. LXX: Thus says the Lord: Just as a shepherd tears away from the mouth of a lion two legs or the tip of an ear, so will the sons of Israel who dwell in Samaria be torn away, in front of the tribe and in Damascus. In the beginning of Amos, where we discussed those verses: The Lord will roar from Zion, and from Jerusalem He will give His voice; and the beautiful pastures will mourn, and the top of Carmel will wither, we said that He was using his art of speaking so that, since as a shepherd of sheep He knew nothing more terrifying than a lion, He would compare the anger of the Lord to lions. According to this meaning, he now also takes an example from what he had often seen, and thus describes that the small remaining remnants of the Assyrians must be extracted by hand: just as if a shepherd, with all the other parts devoured, were to snatch two legs or the outermost part of the ear from the jaws of a lion. And with the example of comparison set aside, he says that the sons of Israel, specifically the ten tribes who dwell in Samaria, will be extracted in the same way, from the edge of the bed and from the grab at Damascus. What seems to me to be explained in this way: we read in Isaiah that Rezin king of Aram, that is, the Syrians, who reigned in Damascus, and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel, with the intention of fighting against Judah, came (Isa. VII): concerning whom the Lord directs Achaz king of Judah and Jerusalem not to be afraid of the two half-burnt torches: because as a sign of complete liberation, the Virgin's conception and childbirth are shown to him. Therefore, the children of Samaria dwell in the region and district of the bed, resting in the help of the Syrians, and promising victory to themselves in the bed of Damascus: just as one who is tired is refreshed in bed: so they fortified their weakened forces with the help of the neighboring nation. And in the same Isaiah, it is said by way of a type of future events, that a child will be born who, before he knows how to call his father and mother, will receive the spoils of Samaria and the power of Damascus, which, of course, fought against Jerusalem with united forces (Ibid.). For the blow of the bed and of Damascus, the Seventy translated it against the tribe and in Damascus: so that, according to the symbolism, we may refer the tribe to Judah, and Damascus to the calling of the Gentiles: from which one flock of the Lord was made, whose wild beasts often tear apart the sheep: from whose jaws scarcely two legs or the very tip of the ear are taken away. In the calf the path of teachings is shown, in the ear the sacraments of words. Therefore, even the apostles were commanded to walk without shoes and any skin of a dead animal on their bare feet (Matth. X). And it is said to the believers: He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Luc. VIII, 8). In the Apocalypse of John, we also read: He who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches (Apoc. II, 7). And more explicitly through the prophet: Set your words in the ears of your heart. Both heretics and their teachers rush to hinder this journey and to weave nets so that we may fall on the way that is Christ. But if a man from the church and a man of God come, and Samson, who is interpreted as 'sun', kills the lion: descending into the lake of the underworld, which cools the waters, he suffocates the lion in the time of snow, storm, and winter: so that we may be able to follow the Lord with sure foot and safe ears, and hear his words.

3:14-15

(Verse 14, 15.) Listen and testify in the house of Jacob, says the Lord God of hosts, because on the day when I begin to visit the transgressions of Israel upon him, I will also visit the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and shall fall to the ground: and I will strike the winter house with the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish: and many houses shall be destroyed, says the Lord. LXX: O priests, listen: testify in the house of Jacob, says the Lord God Almighty: because on the day when I will avenge the iniquities of Israel upon him, I will also avenge upon the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altar shall be undermined, and shall fall upon the ground. I will confuse and strike the house with wings over the summer house, and the ivory houses will perish, and many other houses will be added, says the Lord. What is written at the beginning of the chapter according to the Septuagint is not found in Hebrew, but instead the word Ares () is read for this, which Aquila interpreted as bed; and I think the Septuagint used this Hebrew word, which some who did not understand read as ἱερεῖς, that is, priests. But the prophetic word commands that they first listen, and then respond in the house of Jacob, that is, in the ten tribes that the Lord has spoken about. 'When I begin,' he says, 'to punish the transgressions or impieties of the house of Israel, and to give them what they deserve, and the time of captivity comes, then the altars of Bethel, where the golden calves were, will be destroyed, and the horns of the altar, which was also broken by Jeroboam's hand, will be cut off (3 Kings 13); and they will fall to the ground, shattered by the invading Assyrians.' And I will strike, he said, the winter house with the summer house, which we can simply understand literally: they had such great wealth that they had two houses, a winter house and a summer house, and some of them faced the North, while others faced the South, so that they could provide for the variations in weather, cold and heat, and the temperate climate. We can call the winter house the kingdom of Israel, where there was the cold of religion and worship of God, and the fierce storms of various winds; and the summer house, Judah and Jerusalem, where the temple was, and morning and evening burnt offerings were made, and the fervor of religion thrived. And they shall perish, he said, the ivory houses, which can also be supported by history. For we read that Ahab, king of Israel, indulged in such great delights that he made for himself an ivory house (3 Kings 22). Instead of ivory, we find the term 'tooth houses', that is, houses made of elephant tusks, in Hebrew. Concerning these, it is written in the forty-fourth psalm: From ivory houses: from which the daughters of kings have delighted you in your honor. When the Lord begins to visit the transgressions of Israel, who previously beheld God with their mind, he will also visit the altars of Bethel: not just one altar, as the Church has, but many altars of heretics. For as many altars as there are schisms, so many will the altars be stripped of their horns, which they boast of having through pride. And their horns will fall, that is, their arrogance, upon the earth; and it will strike the wintry house, those heretics who engage in continence and fasting, in dry diets and camel's hair garments, among whom are Tatianus and Manichaeus. And it will strike the summer house, that is, the Nicolaitans and Eunomians, and the followers of the old heresy, who, because of the gluttony of their bellies, indulge in every pleasure. And the ivory houses, which are composed of the skillful tooth and the splendor of rhetorical brilliance, will perish. And many buildings, which are dispersed throughout the whole world, will be scattered. For when one truth arises, many lies will be destroyed. Regarding the winter house, they have translated it as 'peripteros', which we have interpreted as 'winged', because it has small doors through the windows, and as if wings to repel the severity of the cold.

Book Two

Book Two

I read in a certain controversy: Weakness of the body also drags down the strength of the mind. On the contrary, the Apostle Paul says: When I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians XII, 10); and: Power is made perfect in weakness (ibid., 9). For the spirit is against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit (Galatians V); these are opposed to each other, so that we may not do what we want. Hence, it is also said in the Gospel: The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matthew XXVI, 41). Old age brings many things with it, both good and bad. The good, because it frees us from shameless desires, imposes limits on gluttony, weakens the force of lust, increases wisdom, and gives us more mature advice; and with the body growing colder, it sleeps with the perpetual virgin Sunamite: despising luxury with Berzellai, it entrusts it to the young son Chamaam (also called Maacha), and does not want to cross the Jordan, and to leave its own boundaries, that is, its own territories, and go into foreign lands (II Kings XIX). But the evils that are considered to be the burdens of old age are as follows: frequent weaknesses, the most troublesome phlegm, which some Greeks call κόρυζα, others φλέγμα, dim eyes, sour foods, trembling hands at times, teeth bare of gums, and falling between meals. In addition to these, it is often plagued with stomach cramps and needle-like pains, as well as the pains of gout and arthritis, to the extent that it is unable to even hold a pen or a stylus; so that it is unable to walk with its own feet and appears to have lost a large part of its life, and many of its limbs are almost dead. Since these things are so, I will tolerate diseases more bearably in comparison to the most severe mistress of lust, as long as I am free from one and very grave desire. Indeed, old age sometimes suffers the incentives of vices: and no one is safe for a long time next to the holy martyr Cyprian, as danger is always close. But it is one thing to be tickled, another to be overwhelmed by pleasures. There, young age speaks with the apostle, who knows the needs of a youthful body: 'For what I want, I do not do, but what I do not want, I do' (Rom. VII, 15); and: 'Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?' (Ibid., 24) But here the rare sparkle of a shining light tries to revive among the ashes of the dead, yet it cannot ignite a fire. Therefore, Pammachus, listen to me, obtain for me from the Lord that I may deserve to have wisdom as my companion, of which it is written: Love her, and she will keep you; honor her, and she will embrace you (Prov. IV, 8): so that, with her help and partnership, I may complete the work begun in Amos, and the second book may take its beginning from the cattle of Bashan: so that, just as I have discussed in full discourse about the cattle or calves of Bethaven in the prophet Hosea, now I may also discourse about the fattest cattle.

4:1-3

(Chapter 4, Verse 1 onwards) Hear this word, you fat cows of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, 'Bring us something to drink!' The Lord God has sworn by his holiness: behold, days are coming upon you when they will take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks. And you will go out through breaches, each one straight ahead, and you will be cast out into Harmon, declares the Lord. LXX: Hear this word, you cows of Bashan ((Or Bashanites)), who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, and crush the needy, who say to your lords: 'Give us something to drink.' The Lord has sworn by his holiness, behold, days are coming upon you when they will take you away with hooks, even those with you in pots, you pestilent merchants, and you will be thrown naked one against another, and cast upon the mountain of Remmon, says the Lord. For the fat cattle, the Seventy interpreted it as Basan's; Aquila and Theodotio interpreted the Hebrew word Basan itself (); we followed the interpretation of Symmachus, who says, 'the well-nourished cows,' that is, fatted cows, we have interpreted as fat cattle. However, he speaks to the leaders of Israel and the best men of the ten tribes, who were occupied with pleasures and rapine, that they may hear the word of God, and know that they are not plowmen's oxen, but fat cattle of the herd, or those nourished in the pastures of Basan, which are the most fertile places for herbs: and by this he signifies that they are prepared not for agriculture, but for sacrifice and eating. You fat cows of Samaria are on the mountain, and you humble ones are crushed. And you say to your lords, that is, to the shepherds through whom we understand the kings, 'Give us, and we will drink,' that is, command and we will destroy everything. But from what he said, 'Give us, and we will drink,' and he did not say, 'Give us, and we will eat,' he signifies their drunkenness in wine and luxury, which overthrow the state of the mind. Therefore, the Lord God swore in His sanctuary, either in Himself, or in the Son, or in the Temple, or in every one who is holy and called the Temple of God, that the day is coming not far off and after many ages, but now imminent, the day of captivity and distress, in which the cows will be led with hooks, and the remains of them in boiling pots, for which it is also written in Hebrew and by Aquila, 'in the bowls of the fisherman.' Furthermore, those shields that are called Sannoth in Hebrew, Aquila interpreted as clypeos; Symmachus and the LXX [interpret as] weapons; only Theodotion [interprets as] dorata, which we have followed and interpreted as contos or hastas. However, this signifies that they are captured in battle, and are carried and taken away by the right of victory; still preserving the metaphor of cows that he had begun, so that just as he had said the cows were fat, he states that their flesh should be carried in contis velscutis. And just as a boiling pot wraps up small fish, so the cows of Basan are to be oppressed with no order of captivity. And what follows: And through the openings you will go out one against another, can be explained thus: The way of captivity is open to you, and when your pots are burned up, you will go out one against another, according to the Hebrew idiom, which for that which we mutually or reciprocally, woman and woman, that is, one against another, call. And he said, 'You will be cast into the places of Armenia, which are called Armona.' Finally, Symmachus interpreted it as follows: 'And you will be cast into Armenia, in place of which the Septuagint has the mountain of Remma, Aquila [has] the mountain of Armona, Theodotion [has] the mountain of Mona; but the fifth edition has translated it as the lofty mountain.' But the word of the Lord which commands the cows of Bashan to listen, according to the begun tropology, commands the heretics, who serve their belly and throat, and are rightly called very fat cows or disgraceful cows. For Basan, in fact, translates to 'shame,' which if we want to say means 'confusion,' we will interpret it more as Babylon than Basan. These fat cows, or rather dishonorable and dry ones, are located on the mountain of Samaria, which is also referred to in Hosea: Take away your calf, Samaria. And again in the same [book], Because your calf has led you astray, Samaria (Hos. VIII, 5, 6): and therefore on the mountain of Samaria, because they are always lifted up in pride and promise themselves lofty things. Samaria is also called a custodian, not because they guard the words of the Lord, but because they boast of being guardians of his precepts. They falsely accuse the needy and crush the poor. By the needy and poor, understand the ecclesiastical man who is content with the simplicity of truth and does not seek the wealth of heretical arguments or the brilliance of eloquence. These cows say to their masters: Bring us and let us drink. We can call their masters or leaders of perverse doctrines, Valentine, and Marcion, and Arius, and Eunomius, or those who support their wrongly invented teachings through multiple books. These Basanite cows say: Bring us, and let us drink. For if they do not give them, they do not have what they devour, indeed what they drink to become drunk. But in order that we may know that waters and cups signify doctrine, the Lord speaks to the Samaritan woman: Everyone who drinks from this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will not thirst forever (John 4:13). Therefore, those who drink from the waters of the Samaritan, that is, of heretics, will always be thirsty and will not be able to refresh the heat of their dry throats, as Isaiah proclaims: As one dreams of drinking when thirsty, and when he arises, he is still thirsty, and his soul has hoped in vain; so will all the nations that fight against Jerusalem (Isaiah 29:8). For truly, he who drinks from the waters of heretics, and fights against the Church of God in Jerusalem, drinks in his dreams and his soul is deceived by empty images. And when he considers himself satisfied, then he will have the beginning of thirst. Hence it is said to the religious man: Drink the waters from your vessels, and let your own waters flow from the fountains of wells, and let them be for you alone (Prov. 5:15). And the Lord your God swears in his sanctuary against the fattened cows and the feasts that serve them, whether he swears by his saints, that the days of judgment and punishment will come upon them, to carry them in their arms, and to cast those who are with them into stewpots, or to carry them as well. And let those cows themselves be pestilent merchants, or let those who come to carry them be thrown out naked, seeing each other: let them be cast upon Mount Remman, says the Lord God. For we must say, according to the Septuagint, so that we do not seem to have proposed them in vain. When the day of judgment and vengeance comes against the heretics, then they will be taken away in arms, that is, with their weapons with which they fought against the Church; or, having been conquered by the armor of God and overcome by His warriors, they will be thrown into boiling pots to be burned and cooked, who were previously pestilent merchants; for they engaged in this trade in order to deliver those whom they had deceived to death. These are the ones of whom it is said: the sons of Heli, the sons of pestilence (1 Samuel II), who sat in the chair of pestilence (alternatively, pestilences). And when they have been sifted and burned, they will go out naked, having nothing of what they had previously presumed. And they will see their shame, and they will be cast upon the mountain of Remman, which is translated as sublimity, so that they may be crushed in their pride. Some interpret Remman as the sight of someone, that is, the vision of someone. For they could not see everything; but they promised themselves knowledge of a certain part, so that they might be projected into it, because they believed they knew it. We can, according to the letter, understand that when the days of captivity come upon the cows of Samaria, they will prevail over them in battle, and oppress them with their weapons, and in the encounter compel the defeated to go to fortified cities, which will be compared to boiling pots: just as Jerusalem, having its people shut in and besieged, is likened to a boiling pot full of meat; so the cities of Samaria will be compared to boiling pots, which will force the shut-in people to leave due to famine and plague, and to go into captivity seeing each other mutually, and be transferred to the mountains of Armenia, which are adjacent to Media and Persia.

4:4-6

(Verse 4 and following) Come to Bethel, and act wickedly: to Gilgal, and multiply transgression, and bring your morning sacrifices, your tithes for three days. And offer praise with leaven (Vulgate: with fermented dough), and call for voluntary offerings, and proclaim. For thus you have desired, O children of Israel, says the Lord God. Therefore, I have given you the stench of decay in all your cities and the lack of bread in all your places; and you have not returned to me, says the Lord. You entered Bethel and acted wickedly in Gilgal, multiplying your impious acts. And you brought your offerings in the morning, your tithes on the third day. And you read the law outside and made confessions. Proclaim that the children of Israel have loved these things, says the Lord God. And I will give you the astonishment of teeth in all your cities, and the lack of bread in all your places, and you have not returned to me, says the Lord. Let us lay the foundations of history first: O wretched Israel, captivity is now near to you, the Assyrian army is now advancing: do whatever you please, act impiously: freely fornicate with idols, so that the more shameless you are, the more just my sentence will appear above your torments. 'Come,' he says, 'to Bethel, where you have set up a golden calf, and act impiously towards God. Come to Gilgal, the place of idolatry, of which I spoke through Hosea: 'All their wickedness is in Gilgal' (Hosea 9:15).' And again in the same place: They were in vain in Gilgal, sacrificing to cows (Ibid., XII, 11). And when you come to Gilgal: multiply transgression. For whatever you do there is transgression against God, to whom you prefer idols. And bring your offerings in the morning, lest there be any delay in wickedness. On the third day, give your tithe: or, as Symmachus interpreted, give your tithe on the third day. The explanation of this place seems to us to be: in the Book of Leviticus it is commanded (Lev. VII) that certain offerings should not be reserved for another day, and that others should not remain until the third day: if they do, they shall be unclean. So the meaning is: Sacrifice unclean victims every day, and offer polluted sacrifices, and make a sacrifice of leaven as praise, which is not completely offered to God according to the precepts of Moses. For praise, Eucharist has been interpreted as thanksgiving, which in Hebrew is called Todah (). And he says to call them voluntary offerings, which the Hebrews call Nadaboth (), meaning spontaneous. But a voluntary sacrifice belongs to joy: which in Latin we can call a feast. And when you have done this, announce your impiety to everyone: so that you not only seem to have done it, but also to have taught others. But I command this, and I speak in an imperative manner, in order to satisfy your wishes, because you have acted and desired this way, O children of Israel, says the Lord God. Therefore, I have also given you a shock of teeth, which the Septuagint translated as 'astonishment', whom we have followed in this place because of the simplicity of the word: either the cleanliness of teeth, as Aquila and Symmachus interpreted it, in order to demonstrate the magnitude of hunger through clean teeth. And I made a scarcity of bread, not in one city, but in all your cities; neither in one place, but in all your places. And when I did this, it was not to punish, but to give an opportunity for repentance; yet you did not turn back to Me, says the Lord. This is what we have said according to the Hebrew text: let us now turn to the Seventy Interpreters, and briefly discuss what seems to us, according to the anagogical interpretation, in each (verse); for the greatness of the books does not allow us to say both in each edition. You entered into Bethel, that is, the house of God, which is understood as the Church: and you acted impiously towards the Lord, trampling upon His commandments. But in Galgala, which means revelation or scroll, you have multiplied impieties, claiming knowledge of the holy Scriptures for yourselves: and while you are exalting yourselves in pride, you have fallen to the lowest filth. Moreover, you have brought your morning offerings, your tithes on the third day, transformed into an angel of light: and you have confined the triple understanding of the Scriptures (which we have been commanded to write in our hearts in three ways) into a single interpretation. For we must understand Holy Scripture, first according to the letter, doing whatever precepts are in ethics. Secondly, according to the allegory, that is, the spiritual understanding. Thirdly, according to the future blessedness. But you, despising the first and the second day, compose for yourselves certain spiritual figments without foundation, and place a roof upon them without walls. Nor are they heretics, concerning whom and to whom it is said, being content with the end of ungodliness: but they have read outside the Church the law of God, and have attempted to join together confessions and testimonies to their own perverted heart: or they have sacrificed of the leaven, concerning which it is said in the Gospel, 'Beware of the leaven,' that is, the doctrine of the Pharisees. And they did these things not by error, but by study: not by chance will, but by the fullest charity of their ancestors. Hence the Lord threatens vengeance upon them: I will give you the astonishment of teeth, which in Greek is called 'γομφιασμός'. For if anyone, according to Ezekiel (Ezek. 18), eats a sour grape, his teeth will be astonished: so that those who abuse the testimonies of the holy scriptures, consuming them immature and without their sweetness, may lose the strength of their teeth: so that they are unable to chew tough things, which are beneficial to the whole body, and pass into the stomach. I will give you this wonder of teeth and scarcity of food in all cities, and in all your places, so that you may suffer the hunger of the Word of God, and its bread which descended from heaven (John VI), and of which it is written in the Psalms: Man ate the bread of angels (Psalm LXXVII, 15). All these things I have done not out of cruelty and savagery, as heretics may calumniate, but out of severity and seriousness of judgment, so that you may convert to me, according to what is written: I have struck your children in vain, they did not receive discipline (Jeremiah II, 30).

4:7-8

(Verse 7 onwards) I have also withheld rain from you, when there were still three months until the harvest. I caused it to rain on one city and not on another. One part was rained upon, while the part on which it did not rain became dry. So two or three cities went to another city to drink water, but were not satisfied. Yet you did not return to me, says the Lord. LXX: And I have withheld rain from you three months before the harvest. I have caused it to rain on one city and not on another city. Part of it will be irrigated, and part of it, upon which it does not rain, will dry up. And two or three cities will gather in one city, so that they may drink water and not be satisfied; and you have not returned to me, says the Lord. Not only have I caused astonishment of teeth in all your cities, and a scarcity of bread in all your places, but I have also prevented rain from you when there were still three months remaining until the harvest, which is called the late rain, and is especially necessary for the thirsty fields and Palestinian lands, so that when the grass swells in the harvest and the wheat bears fruit, it will wither due to excessive dryness. However, the significant time of spring at the end of the month of April, from which there are three months remaining until the harvest of wheat. May, June, July. For the harvest, seventy days, in their own way, were transferred to the vintage, which, if we accept it, is completely unusual and impossible next to all the regions of the East. For we have never seen rain at the end of June or in the month of July in these provinces, especially in Judea. Finally, in the Books of Kings, as a great sign and wonder, rain was brought about on the days of summer and harvest, when Samuel prayed (1 Samuel 12). And it was excessive to threaten now the dryness of the month of July, in which it had never given rain. It prevented rain, so that they would endure not only a shortage of bread, but also the heat of thirst and a scarcity of drinking. For in these places where we now live, besides small springs, all the water is in cisterns, and if divine wrath withholds rain, the danger of thirst is greater than that of hunger: which Scripture also mentions to have happened in the days of the prophet Elijah for three years and six months (3 Kings 17). And perhaps they might not think that this happened by the law of nature, and the course of the stars, and the variety of seasons, to rain on one city and its fields, and to suspend rain from another: so that two or three cities may go to another city and yet be not satisfied with the drinks of water. And when He has done these things, not for punishment but for healing, He rebukes those who persist in wickedness: and even so you have not returned to me, says the Lord. The Lord also forbids or restrains spiritual rains and all the riches of divine wisdom from the heretics; and He commands His clouds not to rain the showers of rain upon them before three months of harvest or vintage, so that they cannot come to the fruits of the mystery of the Trinity. And as this sun, which we see, completes its annual course until it returns to its original point, in twelve months, which consist of thirty days each; and the moon, which in Hebrew is called 'Jare', and in Greek 'μήνη', gave the name of months in both languages from its own name, and is illuminated by the sun's rays from that part which is near it, receiving more or less light according to the changing seasons: so also the Church, adorned by the splendor of the true Sun, completes the number of the twelve apostles. And so, the twelve tribes are called in Israel, and as a testimony of eternal memory, twelve stones are taken from the bed of the Jordan, to be placed in the location of the second circumcision (Joshua 4). But the Lord rains upon one city, the true Church of confession, and does not rain upon the other, which is in the assemblies of heretics. And while the former receives eternal rain, the latter is dried out by constant aridity: so that those who thirst, compelled by scarcity, may come to the city of the Lord, from which a most abundant fountain flows, irrigating the torrent of thorns. But this is the fountain which speaks through Jeremiah: They have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and have dug for themselves broken cisterns that cannot hold water (Jeremiah 2:13). This fountain, flowing from one source, runs in threefold union: the fountains of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, which the psalmist yearns for in the manner of a thirsty deer, saying: As the deer longs for the streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God (Psalm 42:1). And when two or three cities have journeyed to one city, in which there is an abundance of water, they will not be satisfied with hope, faith, and charity, because they have come not by choice, but by necessity, to seek divine grace.

4:9

(Verse 9) I struck you with scorching wind and with blight. The abundance of your gardens, vineyards, olive groves, and fig trees were eaten by the locusts, yet you did not return to me, says the Lord. LXX: I struck you with burning heat and with blight. You multiplied your gardens, vineyards, fig trees, and olive groves, yet you did not even turn to me, says the Lord. It was not only the past that I did to correct you; but whatever remained of the drought, I struck with scorching wind and blight. For vento urente, Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion are interpreted as 'Septuaginta πύρωσιν,' which we can translate as 'combustion.' All of them translated 'Auruginem' as 'ἴκτερον,' except Theodotion, who translated it as 'ὠχρίασιν,' which means 'pallor.' And when they multiplied against the anger of the Lord, they consumed all the gardens, vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees with 'eruca,' which is further explained in Joel (Joel. I). And not even by means of wounds did they want to come to God, burdened as they were by the weight of evils. With this saying, let the heretics be confounded, who interpret the discipline of the Creator, and, so to speak, medicine, as cruelty. But the Lord spiritually strikes the heretics with the burning fire, about which the Apostle Paul said: It is better to marry than to be burned (1 Corinthians 7:9). And the prince of the apostles: Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that comes upon you for your testing (1 Peter 4:12), and like rust that, with bile poured out, changes the redness of blood into paleness, and allows nothing healthy in the body, so much so that even the sweetest honey seems bitter. And those who recently heard in the Church: Taste and see that the Lord is sweet: and they said: How sweet are your words to my throat, more than honey to my mouth (Ps. CXVIII)! Let them be called bitter, and their waters and rains not drip sweetness: let them not be from the promised land, which we read flows with milk and honey: but let them be called Mara, that is, bitterness. These multiplied gardens for themselves, into which Naboth (( Al. Nabutha)) did not want his vineyard to be changed, and so he wanted to die (III Kings XXI). For the one who is weak, let him eat vegetables (Rom. XIV). And because heretics are always swollen with pride, and falling into the judgment of the devil, they promise great things to themselves and invent images of good things, so that they may mix poison with honey: they boast that they have vineyards, olive groves, and fig orchards; but their vineyard is the vineyard of Sodom; their olive groves are not from good olives, but from wild olive trees, which the Apostle commands to be grafted onto the roots of good olive trees (Rom. XI). Figs also have such things, which fill the basket of the worst figs, which Jeremiah testifies that he cannot eat because of bitterness (Jerem. XXIX). When the Lord comes to them, he curses them with eternal drought (Mark. XI), so that they never bear fruit, lest they deceive passers-by with the greenness of their leaves. And so that we understand that the gardens of heretics and vineyards and olive groves and fig groves are referred to in a negative way, he adds the word 'yours' to each of these phrases, to show that they belong not to God but to the heretics: your gardens, your vineyards, your olive groves, and your fig groves: all of which have been ravaged by caterpillars, the final punishment of all; they do not fly away like locusts, and scattering in all directions, but rather remain and consume everything slowly, with a lazy and sluggish bite, all that is doomed to destruction. And when they had suffered these things, they did not even want to return to the Lord in this way.

4:10

I sent death upon you on the way of Egypt, I killed your young men with the captivity of your horses. And I made the stench of your camps go up into your nostrils, and you did not return to me, says the Lord. LXX: I sent death upon you on the way of Egypt, and I killed your young men with the captivity of your horses. And I led your camps in fire in my anger, and yet you did not return to me, says the Lord. Through all the whips and tortures Israel is educated: and at that time when they asked for help from the Egyptians, death was sent upon them, and their young men were struck down by the sword, and the captivity cruelly confined those horses which they had multiplied against God's commandment, so that the rottenness of the camps and the stench of the dying army would fill the nostrils of the living. And even after doing all this, to seize the wrongdoers and correct those who went astray, they did not return to Him, says the Lord. Not only at that time, but every day, he puts to death on the way of Egypt, so that one who treads the path of Egypt may hear, dying, the teaching of the Apostle: For the sin I am dead, I am dead; but in what I live, I live in God (Galatians II). And in another place: If we have died with Christ, we will also live with him (Romans VI, 8). And again: I always carry about in my body the dying of Jesus (II Corinthians IV, 10). And again: It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Galatians II, 20). The Lord wants to give us life through this death, so that, dying to sin, we may live for God. But we die to sin when we mortify our earthly members, that is, fornication, impurity, sensuality, idolatry and so on. We read in Isaiah, according to the Septuagint translators: otherwise in Hebrew it is expressed differently: 'I have sent death unto Jacob, and it has come upon Israel' (Isa. IX). Jacob is the name of the body that is being born; Israel is the name of blessing. For he wrestled all night and prevailed in the struggle (Gen. XXXII), and when the morning star arose, he could say with the Apostle: The night is far gone; the day is at hand (Rom. XIII, 12), therefore Israel, seeing God, received his name. Therefore death is sent first to Jacob, so that we may mortify our members upon the earth, and through the mortification of our bodily members, we may come to the death of Israel, so that all incentives of disturbances may die within us. God strikes whatever is strong in evil, and perversity rises up in youth, so that it does not reach old age, and He delivers horses to captivity, so that they do not slip into the abyss of hell; and He causes the stench of decay of their camps to rise up into their nostrils, so that they may recognize their own sins and feel the rottenness, and they may say with David: My wounds have putrefied and become corrupt because of my foolishness (Ps. XXXVII, 6). And when they have done all this according to the desire of the healer, they have not even turned back to Him, says the Lord.

4:11

(Verse 11) I will overthrow you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you will become like a bundle snatched from the fire, and yet you did not return to me, says the Lord. LXX: I will overthrow you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you will become like a bundle plucked from the fire, but even so you did not turn back to me, says the Lord. This is the ultimate remedy for the ten tribes, the heretics, and all sinners. After sending death along the way of Egypt and striking down their young men with the sword, and consuming their horses, and bringing the stench of their camps into their nostrils, and yet they did not return to Him, may He overthrow them as He overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. And when they are overthrown, for the likeness of the crimes of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the worst of their buildings is burned by divine fire, they themselves will be delivered like a bundle snatched from the fire. And how Lot, while Sodom was perishing, was saved, losing his possessions and part of his body, namely his wife, as we understand (Gen. XIX): so let all those who lose the riches of Sodom be found naked, according to what we read in the Apostle: If anyone's work which he has built endures, he will receive a reward: if anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss: but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire (I Cor. III, 14, 15). Therefore, whoever is saved by fire is snatched away like a torch from a fire. And concerning those people whom the Savior was rebuking in the Gospel, saying, 'If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham' (John 8:39), John the Baptist says, 'Progeny of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?' (Matthew 3:7, 8, 9) So produce worthy fruits of repentance, and do not say within yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Therefore, both Israel and all heretics, because they had the works of Sodom and Gomorrah, are overthrown like Sodom and Gomorrah: that they may be delivered, as it were, a brand plucked out of the fire. And this is what we read in the prophet: Sodom shall be restored to her former state (Ezek. 16:55): so that whoever is a Sodomite by his own fault, after the works of Sodom have burned in him, may be restored to his former condition.

4:12-13

(Verse 12, 13.) Therefore, I will do these things to you, Israel: but after I have done these things to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel. For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth - the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name. LXX: Therefore, I will do these things to you, Israel: but because I will do these things to you, prepare to call upon your God, O Israel. For behold, He who strengthens the thunder, and creates the spirit, and proclaims His Christ among men, making morning, and mist, and ascending above the heights of the earth: The Lord God Almighty is His name. Because we have interpreted, after it is written in Hebrew 'Eceb', and Aquila interpreted it as 'afterwards', and Theodotion as 'finally', and the Septuagint yet 'in Hebrew it can be read as: Therefore I will do these things to you, Israel, afterwards, that is, much later, and in the last times, so that it may begin again from another beginning: And when I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel.' And again, in that place where the Septuagint translated, prepare to invoke your God, and we have set it according to Theodotion, prepare to encounter your God, Symmachus and the Fifth Edition have translated, prepare to oppose your God: which is said in Hebrew, Hechin Lacerath Eloica (). Also, for the mountains which are called Arim in Hebrew, the Seventy alone translated it as thunder. But the reason why they said 'spirit' and we said 'wind', which is called Rua in Hebrew, is clear, because both wind and spirit are referred to by this word. And what follows, proclaiming his message to humanity, which we translate as interpreters, only the Seventy translated it, proclaiming his Christ to humanity: deceived by the similarity and ambiguity of words. For if we read his Christ, which in Hebrew is called Messiah (מָשִׁיחַ), it is written with the letters Mem, Sin, Yod, Het, and Vav, which the Seventy presumed. But if, as in Hebrew, it is according to Aquila 'his speech', according to Symmachus 'his voice', according to Theodotion 'his word', according to the fifth edition 'his eloquence', all of which can be interpreted as 'his speech', it will be written with these letters: Mem, He, which is called Ma (מָה), which means 'what' or 'something'. Then Sin, Iod, Heth, which we read as Sia (Σία), that is, eloquence. But O, which is written with the single letter Vau, αὐτοῦ, that is, his, signifies, and at the same time is read mixed with Masio (Μασίω), having the second letter from the word He with more. We have talked about the variety of interpretation, which will be troublesome for the negligent and pleasing for the studious: now let's move on to the meaning of what has been written. I gave astonishment to your teeth, and you did not return to me, says the Lord. I withheld rain from you, and it rained on one city and not on another; one field had rain, but another had none and withered. So two or three cities staggered to one city to drink water, but were not satisfied; yet you did not return to me, declares the Lord. I struck you with blight and mildew; your many gardens and vineyards, your fig trees and olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me, declares the Lord. I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me, declares the Lord. I will overthrow you as the Lord overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you have become like a brand plucked from the fire, and yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord. Therefore, I will do this to you, O Israel; because you have despised the past, at least be corrected for what I am about to bring upon you. And when he says, 'I will do this to you,' he remains silent about what he will do, so that while Israel hangs in uncertainty about each specific type of punishment (which is all the more terrifying because they suspect everything), they may repent and so God does not inflict what he threatens. But after I have done what I promise you I will do, prepare to invoke the Lord your God. For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Joel 2). Whether you prepare to meet your God, and eagerly receive the Lord coming to you with all your heart. It is he who strengthens the thunder, or confirms the mountains, at whose voice the pillars of heaven and the foundations of the earth tremble (Eccl 16). It is he who creates the spirit, not the Holy Spirit in this place, as heretics suspect; but we understand it as the wind, or the spirit of man: for no one knows what is in man except the spirit that is within him; and the same spirit intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings (Rom 8). Certainly, we must receive the spirit, the soul, according to what is written: 'You will take away their spirit, and they will perish and return to their dust' (Ps. 104:29). And: 'Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,' and saying this, he breathed his last (Luke 23:46). And when he creates the spirit, he proclaims his word to mankind, or he proclaims the word of him who knows the secrets of thoughts, and understands what the hidden mind ponders in silent speech, according to what we read in Jeremiah according to the Hebrew: 'The heart of man (or of all and of every man) is small and unfathomable, who can know it?' I am the Lord, searching the heart and testing the reins (Jer. XVII, 9, 10). This is also testified in the one hundred and thirty-eighth psalm: Your eyes have seen my imperfect form. The meaning is: Before I was formed, before I was deformed in limbs, while I was still contained in the seed, your eyes saw me. And Jeremiah hears from the Lord: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you came forth from the womb, I sanctified you, and I appointed you as a prophet to the nations (Jerem. I, 5). And the evangelist, seeing, said, 'The Lord knows their thoughts' (Luke 11:17). But if we read further, proclaiming man's speech according to what was said above, in which he says, 'The Lord God will not speak unless he has revealed his secret to his servants the prophets' (Isaiah 3:7). But the one who proclaims man's thoughts and speech, whether his own or another's, he is the one who makes the dawn and the sunrise, and covers everything with clouds, and walks above the heights of the earth; his name is the Lord God Almighty. For in the Septuagint it is read: Announcing in men his Christ: under which occasion heretics, want to create the Holy Spirit in order: creating the spirit, and announcing in men his Christ: so that he may be created, he may be announced in the peoples. To these things we will respond according to their meaning, and to the Vulgate edition: Who is the creator of all, and establishes the thunder, or forms the mountains, consequently brings forth the winds from his treasures, and as the founder of the universe, promises his Son Christ to men. But when Christ has been proclaimed, then the light of truth is opened to us, not perfectly; for now we see in part, and we know in part, and through a mirror and an image we contemplate those things that are to come (I Cor. XIII). Hence it follows: making morning and mist, and rising above the heights of the earth. For the Lord is high above the high things, and does not dwell in the lowly, He who is high; but the creator of mountains ascends to the mountains, in those who have a share in heavenly things, and walking in the flesh they do not live according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. But if we read according to Symmachus and Aquila: these things I will do to you, O Israel, afterwards, and when I have done these things to you, prepare yourself to oppose your God, it is to be understood thus: I have done this to correct you, as the past speech described, and because you did not want to return to me, I will do to you what is contained in my secret. You have killed the servants whom I sent to you: finally I will send my Son: but you, according to your usual custom, by which you always oppose the will of the Lord, prepare yourself to contradict and oppose your God: according to what is written: Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many, and for a sign that will be contradicted (Luke 2:34). And he says this, not because he commands what should be done; but rather he foretells what he will do willingly, as if reproaching and accusing, so that at least when corrected he does not do what was foretold.

5:1-2

(Chapter 5, Verses 1-2) Hear this word, which I bring against you as a lamentation. The house of Israel has fallen, and it shall not rise again. The virgin of Israel is cast down upon her own land; there is no one to raise her up. LXX: Hear this word, which I will take up against you as a lamentation. The house of Israel has fallen, it shall not rise again. The virgin of Israel is cast down upon her own land, there is no one to raise her up. As for the order of the letters and the true beginning of the story, the ten tribes that are called Israel were led into captivity and have never returned to their own land. But the people of Israel are called the Virgin, not because they remained in the purity of virginity, but because they were once united with the Lord like a virgin. Therefore, the prophet is commanded to take up lamentation over them, so that they may not be restored to their former state. But as for spiritual understanding, the prophet takes up lamentation over all of Israel who once beheld God with their minds and then ceased to serve Him, according to what is commanded in Ezekiel (Ezek. 2), to devour the book in which lamentation, song, and woe were written both inside and outside. Understand within the following song of Solomon, which says: The king has brought me into his chamber (Song of Songs 1:4). And the forty-fourth psalm, in which it is written: All the glory of the daughter of the king is within. But whatever is read in the letter, and appears in the bark, and is not held in the marrow of the spirit, is outside. Therefore, both literally and figuratively, in all the books of the prophets, there is lamentation written over those who repent after sin: A song is worthy for those who are not stained by the filth of sins: Woe to those who do not repent; but according to the hardness of their heart, they store up wrath for themselves on the day of wrath. But if, as we have said, there is lamentation over those who repent; and repentance restores the health of the wounds: how is it said according to the Septuagint, The house of Israel has fallen, it will not rise again. The virgin of Israel has strayed in her own land, there is no one to raise her up? This can be explained as follows: After the house of Israel has fallen of its own will, it will by no means regain its former dignity; after the virgin of Israel has strayed in her own land, she will no longer be able to find anyone to raise her up. And consider the properties of words. He who is a house, and is counted among the crowd, is said to fall. But he who errs about the number of virgins, even for a light offense, cannot be raised up: not that he will not be raised up, but that the virgin of Israel will not be raised up, and the Lord of Israel will not rise. For the glory of the one who has always followed the Lord is not the same as the glory of the one who has strayed from the flock and then was carried back on the shoulders of the good shepherd (Luke 15). And through another prophet the Lord says: I desire the repentance of the sinner rather than death (Ezek. XVIII, 32). Repentance is better compared to death and hell, not to the most pure sanctity of the Church of Christ (which has no wrinkle or blemish). We say this, not to do away with the hope of repentance according to Novatus, but to make those who are more timid and solicitous, who, while hoping for the future, lose the present through the open door of repentance, and who could have remained without injury, but receive a wound unawares, and afterwards suffer with pain. There are many mansions in my Father's house (John XIV), and star differs from star in brightness; so also is the resurrection of the dead (1 Corinthians XV): shining like the sun and moon, evening and morning star. But those who repent after sinning will be equal to other stars according to the diversity of their merits.

5:3

(Verse 3) Because thus says the Lord God: The city from which a thousand went out shall be left with a hundred, and the city from which a hundred went out shall be left with ten in the house of Israel. Similarly in the Septuagint. The divine word gives the reasons why the fallen house of Israel shall not rise again, and why the wandering or cast-down virgin of Israel shall not have a saviour. It says: The city, it says, from which a thousand went out shall be left with a hundred, and the city from which a hundred went out shall be left with ten in the house of Israel. So that where there was once a multitude, because of excessive desolation, scarcely a tenth part remains. And let us not leave the letters of the sacraments of numbers untouched: the number seven is proven to be holy, even the Sabbath, on which God rested from all his works (Gen. II). And it commands that no servile work be done on it, except only that which pertains to the soul: and that we not bear burdens on it (Num. XV). Hence, even in the wilderness, the one who gathered wood on the Sabbath, which is destined to burn, is condemned by the judgment of the Lord. And seven weeks complete the number of holy Pentecost: and the Jubilee year of remission and the sounding of trumpets is woven with this number. In the seventh month, the tabernacles are also set up, and the Hebrew, after serving for six years, will be set free in the seventh year. This is also known in secular philosophy and in the books of the physicians, of whom Galenus, very eloquent and learned, wrote three books on judgments and critical days, in which he shows the power of the number seven, saying that the most intense fevers are resolved on the seventh day: or if the magnitude of the harmful fluid and phlegm is so great that it is in no way consumed by the heat of the first week, the last day of the second week is awaited, that is, the fourteenth. But if this disease, as Hippocrates says, conquers, they pass to the twenty-first day, that is, to the end of the third week: so from the beginning of the world, the days being numbered, all labors and troubles rest on the seventh number. Finally, the captivity of the people of Israel, the destruction of the temple, was completed in the seventieth year of desolation, and seven planets are said to wander according to the number of days. Tullius gives a more detailed account of the mysteries of this number in Scipio's dream, and Plato's Timaeus is very obscure, which even Cicero's golden mouth does not make clearer. Therefore, just as the number seven has its sacrament, so it is sanctified and perfected, and, so to speak, is the true number, which is preserved by union, and is enclosed within the majesty of one God. Hence the Son says: I am in the Father, and the Father in me (John 14:11): desiring that all should be one with the Father, he speaks to him: Father, grant that just as I and you are one, so may they be one in us (ibid. 17:21). Therefore, the first beatitude is to be in the first number, which is one and true; the second, in the second, that is, in the decade; the third, in the third, that is, in the hecatontade. For just as the decade is completed by the tenth union, so the hecatontade is built from ten decades. The fourth number, which is contained in a thousand, consists of ten hecatontades. Therefore, when someone repents, they rarely return from the thousand and fourth number to the hundredth and third number. Again, he who is in the hundredth, scarcely returns to the second number of the first decade, and so it happens that the house of Israel, which had fallen, cannot rise again, and the virgin of Israel, who had gone astray, does not have a restorer on the earth. For once someone has departed from union and has lost the glory of most pure virginity (of which the Apostle says: For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin, 2 Corinthians 11), they will not be able to regain their former state and the blessedness of union. And it will scarcely be granted to them to return from a thousand to a hundred, and from a hundred to ten. I have spoken these things briefly so that I may not appear to have completely avoided tropology in this chapter on account of the difficulty of numbers.

5:4-5

(Vers. 4, 5.) Because thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: seek me, and you will live, and do not seek Bethel, and do not enter Galgala, and do not pass through Bersabee, because Galgala will be taken captive, and Bethel will be useless. LXX: Because thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: seek me, and you will live, and do not seek Bethel, and do not enter Galgala, and do not pass over the well of the oath, because Galgala will be taken captive, and Bethel will be as if it does not exist. It is the custom (Al. the habit) of the Scriptures always to join joyful things after sad things and after God has threatened with punishment, He calls those whom He has terrified to repentance, according to what we read in Isaiah: Woe, sinful nation, people full of sins, wicked seed, wicked children (Isa. I, 4). And when He has said, your land is desolate, your cities are consumed by fire, foreigners will eat your regions before you (Al. in your sight), He speaks to them promising better things: Be washed, be clean: remove your evils from your minds. Learn to do good (or do good): seek justice, judge the orphan, defend the widow: and come, let us reason together, says the Lord (Isaiah 1:17). Therefore, just as in Isaiah, he sustains those whom he had terrified with his severe voice with gentle speech, so also in this prophet, he says to them: The house of Israel has fallen, it will not be added that it may rise again; the virgin Israel has wandered on the earth, there is no one to raise her up. He does not speak to them and say: The house of Israel, that is, the ten tribes, seek me and you shall live; for in not seeking me, you are dead. And when you seek, you will find; and when you find, you will live. And do not seek Bethel, where the golden calf was, and Galgalam, the place of idolatry, of which I have spoken before: All their wickedness is in Galgal (Hosea 9:15). And you shall not go to Bersabee. In Bersabee, he says, there is a well of oath, you shall not go there: where if ever the tribe of Judah erred, they used to worship idols. But Israel was so inflamed with the worship of idols that he was not satisfied with his own idols, but he went to foreign ones. Finally, he said that Galgata will be led captive, and Bethel will be useless, or completely non-existent, when those idols are overthrown. He completely overlooked Bersabee; because, after the ten tribes were defeated, the city called Bersabee, which was in the tribe of Judah at that time, was neither captured nor destroyed. It should also be noted that in this passage the Seventy Interpreters have translated the name Bersabee as 'well of an oath,' and in subsequent passages they used the same name: 'Your God lives, Dan,' and 'the way to Bersabee lives.' But they put the road by Bersabee, because they were traveling from Israel to the farthest borders of Judah, which were in Geraris, and were connected to the desert of Egypt, in order to worship idols. And it is the place where Abraham lived: and because when he and Abimelech, having given seven sheep, swore an mutual covenant, it was called the well of the oath, or the well of the seventh, because of the number seven sheep (Genesis 25): for 'Sabe' signifies both. However, according to the allegorical interpretation of the laws, it is enjoined upon the house of Israel, that is, those who profess to have knowledge of God, not to seek Bethel, and not to enter into Galgal, and not to pass by or ascend to the well of the oath; but rather to seek God and live in him. However, they seek Bethel, which is interpreted as the house of God, those who say: The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord; and they trust in the buildings, of which the Lord spoke to his disciples: The days will come, in which there will not be left a stone upon a stone that will not be destroyed (Luke 21:6). And they enter into Galilee, who after the coming of Christ desire to be circumcised again. For in Galilee the people were circumcised a second time. Hence the place itself received its name: because the Lord took away the reproach of Egypt from them (Jos. 5). And in Beersheba, he says, you shall not pass unto the well of the oath: lest you consider those the borders of Judaea, which according to the letter of Scripture were promised from Dan to Beersheba. And do not say with the prophet: God is known in Judaea, his great name in Israel (Ps. 75:1); but listen to the apostles: Their sound has gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world (Ps. 18:4): for Galilee, that is, the circumcision of the flesh, will be led captive by the true circumcision of the heart; and Bethel, which you think is the house of God, will not remain, or, as I think better, will be useless, that is, Aven: so that it may by no means be called the house of God, but may be called the house of inutility, or of idols. Another way: Bethel seeks only the letter that sets in the west, and not the meaning, which is God, seeks in words: and it enters into Galgala, which aims for greater revelations, promising himself knowledge of the supernatural, and it passes, or ascends to the well, from which the Samaritan woman, desiring to draw water, which could not quench her thirst, did not know him, from whose belly spring forth rivers of living water into eternal life (John 4).

5:6

(Verse 6.) Seek the Lord, and live: lest the house of Joseph be burned with fire, and it devour, and there be none to quench it. LXX: Seek the Lord, and live: lest the house of Joseph be kindled with fire, and it consume it, and there be none to quench the house of Israel. Just as it is said from the person of God, 'Seek me, and you will live,' so the prophet speaks of the Lord, that they should seek him and live. For in seeking the Lord, they begin to live; but if they do not seek him, and therefore do not live, the house of Joseph will immediately be kindled like fire, which we must understand as referring to the ten tribes called Israel, who held the original name for the greater part of the people, because of Jeroboam, who was from the tribe of Ephraim and the house of Joseph. But there were two tribes which were ruled by the lineage of David, who was from the tribe of Judah, called Judah, and they possessed Jerusalem, in which the temple of God was. And when the house of Joseph is set on fire, it will devour and consume Bethel, of which I spoke earlier: Do not seek Bethel, and there will be no one to extinguish it, when it is set on fire by its kings. For in the Septuagint, instead of Bethel, the house of Israel is read, with those interpreting the meaning more than the word, so that, with the reign of Jeroboam and all the subsequent kings who succeeded him in power, the ten tribes, which are called Israel, may burn. This is the fire that is kindled, or shines and inflames the house of Joseph, so that Bethel is consumed, of which it is said elsewhere: Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame that you have kindled (Isaiah 50:11). And because we have frequently referred the house of Joseph (because of Jeroboam, who separated the people of God from the lineage of David and made golden calves in Dan and Bethel, and said, there is no part for us in David, neither inheritance in the son of Jesse (1 Samuel 22:36)), to the person of heretics, who, with composed speech, have fashioned beautiful and attractive, and, so to speak, golden images, and worship the works of their own hands, and promise themselves an image under the form of cows for agriculture, it is said to them: Seek the Lord and live, the one who says: I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:16): so that after they have walked in him and found the truth, then those who were previously dead may begin to live. And if they do not do this, they will be burned by the fires of the devil, and no one will be able to be found from their leaders who have themselves been consumed by the heretical fire, who can extinguish the devouring flame of all, especially Bethel, which assumes for itself the false name of the house of God.

5:8-9

(Verse 8 onwards) You who turn judgment into wormwood and abandon righteousness on earth, who makes the Bear and Orion, who turns darkness into morning and darkens day into night. He who calls the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth: His name is the Lord. He who laughs at destruction, bringing devastation upon the strong. The One who brings judgment from on high and establishes justice on earth; the One who does all things, who transforms and turns the shadow of death into morning and darkens day into night. He who calls the water of the sea, and pours it out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name. He who brings destruction upon strongholds, and brings misery upon fortresses. In this place, the Hebrew truth diverges greatly from the Vulgate edition, as the discerning reader immediately understands without our prompting. Therefore, let us first explain according to the Hebrews, and then what seems to us in the translation of the Septuagint, if we are worthy of Christ revealing it to us. Let us say, the house of Joseph, that is, the house of Ephraim, and through this, the royal house, and Bethel, or as the Septuagint translated, the house of Israel, that is, both kings and peoples, worshippers and idols alike will be overthrown, who have provoked God to anger with their unjust judgment. And they turned the sweetness of judgment into the bitterness of wormwood, which is a type of very bitter herb, taking up wickedness, and abandoning justice. Now what is this justice, the following verse shows: The one who makes the Bear and Orion, and turns darkness into morning, and transforms day into night. Of whom it was said above: He who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and announces his word to man, making the morning mist, and walking on the highest points of the earth: The Lord God of hosts is his name, he is the Creator of the Bear, which in Hebrew is called Chima (חִימָה), and in Symmachus and Theodotion it is translated as Pleiades. It is commonly known as Boötes: and what follows, Orion, which in Hebrew is called Chasil (חָסִיל), Symmachus interprets as absolute stars, Theodotion as the evening. However, the Hebrew, who has taught us in the holy Scriptures, thinks that Chasil should be interpreted as splendor, and generally signify shining stars. But when we hear about Arcturus and Orion, we should not follow the fables of poets, and the ridiculous and monstrous lies, with which they even try to defame the heavens and place the wages of prostitution among the stars, saying (Aeneid. book I and III):

Arcturus, the rainy Hyades, and the twin Bears: And Orion armed with gold looks upon them. But the Hebrew names, which are called differently among them, have been translated into the words of the mythological Gentiles into our language, which we cannot understand what is said, except through those words which we have learned and absorbed through usage and error. Hence, in the book of Kings, they have rendered the Hebrew word Raphaim into Greek as 'titans': which is a famous tale among the pagans, from which they write about the battle of the giants, and the Typhoean weapons, and the mountain of Etna placed on Enceladus, from whose movement Trinacria trembles. But this is the God, the creator of all things, who makes the Bear and Orion, who changes night into day and day into night, and nurtures the most bitter waters of the sea with ethereal heat, and distills them into the sweet taste of rain, like a medicinal gourd, which, by the heat of the higher circle, draws up moisture and blood aloft: from which we learn where the rains come from. And what follows: Who smiles upon vastness over strength, turns back to the present time, and there is order: Who is the creator of all things, also threatens captivity upon Samaria, and brings depopulation upon the mighty: for he turns judgment into wormwood, and leaves justice on the earth. Where we said, 'he who smiles,' Aquila interpreted as 'the one who smiles.' Properly, however, it is called 'a smirk,' which we can refer to as a smile when someone is angry, and with slightly parted lips pretends to smile in order to show the magnitude of their anger. Let us also say according to the Septuagint: 'God judges from on high when He judges the truth, and He renders to each one according to his deeds.' And everyone who desires to be an imitator and a son of His, and to be perfect just as His Father is perfect, who dwells in heaven (Matt. V), judges from on high and does not imitate that judge who did not fear God and did not respect man, and with a perverse judgment did not elevate his sentence to heaven but rather lowered it to the lowest levels (Luke XV). And what follows: and He has placed justice on earth, according to that which we must accept, that Christ has given us His righteousness, and has not rejected it: but has laid it on the earth, so that, with all iniquity overcome, He might make us heavenly from earthly. I think from this passage even a pagan poet has stolen, who, while expounding on the simplicity and blessedness of country folk, introduced.

Justice, surpassing the limits of the Earth, made its extreme footprints through them. And what they say, that He does everything and transforms everything, in one word they comprehend Arcturus and Orion, neglecting the proper names in Greek translation. But God transforms everything when He makes heavenly things from earthly ones, and bestows upon human beings the likeness of angels: when the moon shines with the brightness of the sun, and the sun has sevenfold light, when the animalistic, weak, and corruptible human is transformed into a spiritual, robust, and incorruptible being, changing glory but not nature: when the intelligent ones will shine like the splendor of the firmament, and what is written will be fulfilled: One glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars. For star differs from star in brightness; so also is the resurrection of the dead (1 Corinthians 15:41). For when every creature shall be freed from the slavery of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. This is the God who transforms all things, also changing the shadow of death into light (Luke 1); for when those who sat in darkness and the shadow of death saw a great light, and those who were the children of night and darkness became the children of light and the children of day. This is God who also turns day into darkness: their day who said: Crucify, crucify him (John XIX, 6), remove such a person from the earth: when from the sixth hour the day turned into the darkness of Jewish blindness. And not only literally, but also according to a higher understanding, the light that rose for them in the Law and the prophets, turned into darkness, ignorant of what they read, what they heard, so that what was written about them may be fulfilled: Let their eyes be darkened so that they may not see: and their backs be constantly bent (Psalm LXVIII, 24). This God calls the water of the sea to Himself, and pours it out upon the surface of the earth, making the righteous out of sinners. To illustrate this, let us put forth just one example to emphasize brevity. The Apostle Paul, like a turbulent and fierce storm, pursued the raging waves of the sea and endeavored to oppress the Church of God. But when he was called by the Lord, he was poured out upon the entire surface of the earth to preach the Gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum, and to build not upon another foundation where it had already been preached (Rom. XV); but rather to extend as far as Spain, and to run from the Red Sea, or rather from one ocean to another, imitating his Lord and the sun of righteousness, of whom we read: His going forth is from the end of heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it (Ps. XIX, 6), so that the earth would grow faint before him before his zeal for preaching. This God divides contrition over strength, so that he may make those who are strong in a bad way weak, and they may imitate the Apostle saying: When I am weak, then I am stronger (2 Cor. XII). For even the children of this world are wiser than the children of light in their generation (Luke XXVI). The strength of the body is weakness of the soul, and again the strength of the soul is weakness of the body. Therefore, the Lord, who dispenses all things by reason and truly does all things by judgment, divides contrition over the strong enemy, so that he may bring misery upon the fortification which he erected against the knowledge of God. Regarding this, we read in Proverbs: The wise man enters fortified cities and destroys the stronghold in which the wicked have put their trust (Prov. XXI, 22). This applies to all worldly strength, but it specifically applies to heretics who try to strengthen the falsehood of their doctrines with arguments, sophisms, and dialectical art. However, the wise man destroys it and with the help of God's aid, shows that all these fortifications are utterly vain, in order to bring misery upon them and, with their pride humbled, they can say with the Apostle: 'Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?' (Rom. VII, 24).

5:10

(Verse 10) They hated the one who reproves at the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks truthfully. LXX: They hated the one who reproves at the gates, and they abhorred the holy word. These are the ones whom God derides with devastation and brings upon them destruction. They hate the one who reproves at the gate, that is, in judgment: either me, or other prophets who were sent to them, speaking truthfully or the flawless word, as Symmachus interpreted, or the holy speech, as Theodotion and the LXX translated. But at the gate, according to the ancient Jewish custom, there were judgments of the people, as we often read and frequently interpret, so that neither a farmer coming to court would be terrified by the crowded city and the new appearance, nor a dweller of the city would hurry far from the city and seek transportation for his livestock. This we have said according to the literal meaning. However, it is a great sin to hate someone who corrects, especially if they correct out of love and not out of hatred, if it is done in private to private, if with the inclusion of another brother, if afterwards in the presence of the Church, so that it may not seem like the accusation is made to detract from you but to bring forth the accusation for your improvement (Matthew 18). We often read in the Scriptures about the two gates, of death and of life, of vices and virtues, as in the Psalms: 'You have lifted me up from the gates of death, that I may declare all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion' (Isaiah 9:16). There is no doubt that it signifies the Church, the lofty mountain of Zion, and the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, and the multitude of angels, and the early Church, who are enrolled in heaven. He who has been exalted in the gates of Zion will not be able to fear the gates of death, of which the Lord spoke to Peter: Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matt. XVI, 18). Clearly in another psalm we learn about the gates of virtue: Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them and give thanks unto the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter into it (Ps. XVII, 19). And finally, Wisdom, confident in the gates of the city, said: As long as the innocent possess justice, they shall not be confounded (Sap. VI, 11). I consider the gates of the city, that is, the souls of believers in Christ, to be virtues, through which Christ enters into believers. And because it is not written in which gates they hate the one who rebukes, whether in the wicked or in the good, we refer to both. The prophet accuses sinners standing at the gates of vices, and for this reason he is held in detestation by them. Or certainly the prophet himself stands at the gates and beginnings of virtues, and he is hated by those whom he rebukes, and it is not enough for sinners to hate the one who rebukes at the gates, unless they also abhor the holy word that is spoken from his mouth. For whoever does not receive the prophet does not receive the one who sent him (Matt. X). But if the holy word, or he who spoke perfectly, they abominated (moreover, the holy word is the Lord Jesus, of whom it is said: You will not allow your holy one to see corruption (Ps. XV, 10)), all the Jews saying anathema to Jesus, they abhor the word of God, which is both perfect and holy and immaculate. For the abomination of the sinner is piety. Whatever we have said about the Jews can be applied equally to the Gentiles and to heretics, all of whom abhor the holy Scriptures, in which the word of God is found. Some of them, while perversely interpreting what they read, place abomination in the House of God.

5:11-13

(Verse 11 and following) Therefore, because you plundered the poor and took the choice spoil from them, you will build houses of cut stone but not live in them. You will plant pleasant vineyards but not drink their wine, for I know your many crimes and powerful sins, you who oppress the righteous and take bribes, and push aside the needy in the gate. Therefore, the wise will be silent in that time, for it is an evil time. LXX: Therefore, because you struck the poor with fists, and took from them choice gifts, you built houses with hewn stones, but will not live in them. You planted desirable vineyards, but will not drink their wine; for I know your many wicked acts and your mighty sins: trampling the righteous, accepting bribes, and turning away the poor at the gates. Therefore, those who have understanding will keep silent at that time, for it is an evil time. Lest perhaps Israel might think that they were delivered to punishment by the enemies only for idolatry, he joins other things which he committed, having lost the religion of truth. 'You were ravaging,' he says, 'the poor so that you could take from him who scarcely had necessary food, and whatever precious and beautiful things you saw, you handed them over to your own uses. And from the price of those things which you were seizing and taking from the poor, you built houses with squared stone, so that by despoiling men, you could clothe walls with marble, which, because you built them from plunder, and not only a dwelling and a roof, which human weakness requires, but also beauty and delights, you prepared them suddenly for captivity or death, you will not dwell in them.' You have also planted very loving vineyards for future drinks, and you do not drink wine from them, because I know all your sins and crimes, and strong sins that provoke my wrath. You are enemies of justice, all of you who accept gifts and oppress the poor in judgment. Therefore, the poor and wise person, when he sees the judge who redeems him, will be silent in that time, because it is an evil time. Certainly, it should be understood in this way: what profit is there now in enumerating your sins, since there is already no remedy, and the enemy army surrounds the walls of your cities? We can also say this about heretics, who plunder the poor or strike his head with a raised hand, for this is what κατεκονδύλιζον means in Greek, according to what we read above, striking the head of the poor. For heretics do not strike anyone except the poor, who cannot withstand the threat: not in other members, but in the main part, the heart, and in the truth of faith. I consider them poor who, relying on simple faith alone, are unable to respond to the malice of heretics. And whatever good works they have prepared for the gifts of God, they will lose in the time of battle and struggle unless they resist their adversaries. Those adversaries, on the other hand, build homes for themselves through the composition and structure of words, in order to remain safe and secure. But they will not dwell in them, for they will be destroyed and overthrown by men of the Church. And they not only build houses, but also plant most loving and desirable vineyards, so that they may imitate the mysteries of Christ; but they do not drink wine from them, except what is the unstoppable fury of dragons. For the Lord expected these vineyards to bear fruit, and they brought forth not grapes, but thorns and briars: not judgment, but outcry, with which they blaspheme against their God with insane mouths. Therefore, they will not dwell in their houses, and they will not drink the wine of the vineyards they have planted, because the Lord has known many of their wickednesses. Here, knowledge is to be understood not according to what we read elsewhere: The Lord knows those who are his (2 Tim. 2:19), but according to the fact that nothing is hidden from God, and he knows all the secrets of sinners. 'I have known', he says, 'many impious acts: which are not only many, but also strong and oppressive, trampling on justice itself, or on the one who is just. And you receive, he says, a payment: for which all likewise transferred propitiation: we have said gift; but according to the language of the Scriptures, price is called 'ἄλλαγμα', which we also read in the Gospel: But what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matt. 16:26)? Even the poor have turned aside at the gates: or as Symmachus interpreted, they have oppressed, so that they could sell judgments contrary to the truth of the law by means of bribes, falling into that which is written: Gifts blind even the eyes of the wise (Deut. XVI, 19). This is what heretics accept, so that they can turn the severity of the Scriptures, which threaten torment to sinners, into blessings; and while they promise prosperity to the rich, they are only harsh and severe with the poor. Therefore, when a knowledgeable and wise ecclesiastical man recognizes many impieties in what is called the house of God, and not only many, but also strong ones that can suppress justice, and the madness of scholars has gone so far that they accept bribes in court and do everything for gifts, and they also avoid the poor at the gates and disdain to hear them, let him be silent at that time, lest he give the holy to dogs, and cast pearls before swine (Matt. 7), who, when converted, will trample them and imitate Jeremiah saying: I was alone, for I am filled with bitterness (Jer. 15:17). And that in the Psalms: I am alone until I pass by (Is. 140:10).

5:14-15

(Vers. 14, 15.) Seek good, and not evil, so that you may live, and the Lord God of hosts will be with you as you said: Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gates, perhaps the Lord God of hosts will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph. LXX: Seek good, and not evil, so that you may live, and the Lord God almighty will be with you, as you said: We have hated evil and loved good, and establish justice in the gates, so that the Lord God may have mercy on those who remain from Joseph. You say that God is with you because you are children of Abraham; listen to what follows: If you are Abraham's children, do the works of your father. What are the works of your father Abraham? Love what is good, and not what is evil. It is a great sin, not only to do evil, but also to love it. Many sin, and when the heat of desire is fulfilled, their conscience bites them, and they regret their sin. But there are those who not only do not feel sorry for doing what is evil, but they also boast in their wickedness, fulfilling what is written: When a sinner comes into the depths of impiety, he despises it. Seek good, therefore, and not evil. For if you seek good, in seeking good, you immediately repel evil. However, you would never seek good unless you had first repelled evil, fulfilling the words of the Psalmist saying: Turn away from evil, and do good (Ps. XXXVI, 27). And when you seek good and avoid evil, then you will live in him who says: I am the life (John XIV, 6). He seeks good who believes in him who speaks in the Gospel: I am the good shepherd (Ibid., X, 11). He who flees from evil repels it, of whom it is written: The world is placed in wickedness (1 John 5:16). And in the Lord's Prayer he says: Deliver us from evil (Matthew 6:13). And when you seek good and not evil, and live, then the Lord God of hosts will be with you, as you have said, because you are descendants of Abraham. It is not enough to seek good and not seek evil, unless you have ἐπιείκησιν in both, so that you first hate evil, then love good. He hates evil, who is not overcome by pleasure alone, but he hates the works of pleasure: and he loves good, who does what is good not unwillingly, or out of necessity, or out of fear of the laws; but rather because it is good, so that he may have the reward of good work in his own conscience, and the love that he possesses for good. Therefore the Apostle says: 'God loves a cheerful giver' (2 Corinthians 9). For not every act of charity pleases God, unless it is offered with cheerfulness. And when you hate evil and love good, establish justice at the gates, of which it is said above, so that, with iniquity expelled, truth may return. And if you do this, perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy on the remnants of Joseph from the tribe of Ephraim and the ten tribes, and they will be able to escape captivity. All these things can be applied to heretics, so that, leaving behind the error they have fabricated, they may return to the Church and hate their former doctrines, and love in the Church of the Lord the truth, and exercise true judgement at the gates of vices and virtues, leaving those behind and passing to these, and may hope for mercy those who have been able to escape from the jaws of the devil. By changing the order according to the LXX, the reading of this chapter can be made clearer: Just as you said, we have hated evil and loved good, so seek good and not evil, that you may live, and may the Lord God Almighty be with you, and bring justice in the gates, so that the Lord God Almighty may have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

5:16-17

(Verse 16, 17.) Therefore, thus says the Lord God of hosts, the ruler: In all the streets there will be lamentation, and in all the public squares people will say, ‘Alas! Alas!’ They will summon the farmer to mourning and those skilled in lamentation to lament. And in all the vineyards there will be lamentation, for I will pass through your midst, says the Lord. LXX: Therefore, thus says the Lord God Almighty: In all the streets there will be lamentation, and in all the roads people will say, ‘Alas! Alas!’ The farmer will be called to mourning, and those who know lamentation to lament, and in all the streets there will be lamentation: for I will pass through the midst of you, says the Lord. I have commanded you to seek good, and not evil, so that you may live, and the Lord God of hosts will be with you. And again I say (lest you say you were only warned once): Hate evil, and love good, and restore justice in the gates; those who hated the one who rebuked in the gate, let the Lord have mercy on the rest of Joseph; and because you refused to do so, trampling on my commandments and turning against me, a turning away shoulder: therefore the Lord God Almighty, who is the Lord of hosts, says this: everywhere there is lamentation, everywhere there is mourning. The farmers will be called to mourn, and those who know the customs of the province will be called to incite tears, so that there will be mourning and lamentation not in all the streets, as was said above, but in the vineyards; where once there was material for joy, let it be the origin of tears. And all these things will happen, because I will pass through, says the Lord. The Hebrew word, 'I will pass through', which in their language is called Evor (), whenever it is used in the Holy Scriptures in the person of God, is to be understood as punishment, so that it may not remain among them; but let it pass through and leave. And in other places according to the interpretation of Aquila, when God is angry, He calls His fury and wrath 'ἀνυπερθεσία', which can all be applied to heretics, because they have refused to do both what is right and what is just, so there will be mourning in all their streets. For the wide and spacious road leads to destruction (Matthew 7); and each heretic and gentile has their own streets in their sand and fantasies, to which it is subsequently added: 'Woe, woe' will be said about everything that is outside. For those who are in the Church do not listen, which is the ultimate punishment; but if perhaps they have sinned, lamentation will be taken upon them. Therefore, however, it will be said outside or in all ways, woe, woe: because they do not have one way that leads to life, and which is the royal way, but crooked and perverse, and deviating to the right and to the left, while they do not hear the Lord saying: Do not be too righteous. And: The ways that are on the left are perverse. And they encounter a twofold woe, of the flesh and of the spirit, of the present age and of the future. When, on the other hand, ecclesiastics hear: Rejoice, I say again, rejoice (Philip. IV, 4). But even the farmer is called to mourning (for heretics indeed have their farmers, in whose fields thistles and thorns grow), and those who know how to lament are called to mourn, either for their own sins or for the sins of others; although we can take these things in a good sense, so that the man of the Church, powerful to provoke penance, may imitate his Lord saying: We have lamented, and you have not mourned (Luc. VII, 32), and let him mourn for the heretics, as King Saul of Israel once mourned for Samuel (I Reg. XV). And the Apostle says that he mourns over those who have not repented (II Cor. XII). And in all vineyards there will be lamentation, because the vineyards of Sodom are their vineyards. And for the wine of joy, which gladdens the heart of man, they have brought the wine of dragons and the incurable rage of asps. And all these things they will suffer; for the Lord will pass through their midst, so that he does not dwell among them, nor say: I will dwell in them, and walk among them. And behold, I am with you all days even to the consummation of the age. (Matthew 28:20)

5:18-20

(Verse 18-20.) Woe to those who long for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for it? That day will be darkness, not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him. Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light— pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness? Woe to those who long for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord? And this is darkness, and not light. As if a man should flee from the face of a lion, and a bear should meet him: or enter into the house, and lean with his hand upon the wall, and a serpent should bite him. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? and obscurity, and no brightness in it? Lest the tribe of Juda be thought to neglect men of his own stock, and to confer the speech of prophecy upon the ten tribes: Thou also shalt go to the king against Babylon, and shalt speak to him: There are gathered together all the kings of the earth against Jerusalem: how art thou fallen, thou virgin, daughter of Babylon, to be destroyed? Shall not day overtake thee suddenly, and thou perish with the sword? For there is not so much evil in the injury of captivity, as there is good in the things which the Lord promises after captivity: to which the prophet replied that it is in vain for them to wait for what will happen a long time after, in the coming of the Son of God after seventy years of captivity in Babylon, which will be followed by devastation, poverty, and countless miseries. For, he says, when those fleeing from the face of Nebuchadnezzar meet Assuerus, under whom the story of Esther is narrated, or when the empire of the Assyrians and Chaldeans is destroyed, the Medes and Persians will rise up. And when, during the reign of Cyrus, you returned, and at the command of Darius began to build the house of the Lord, and you placed all your trust in the temple, so that you may find rest in it and weary hands may rest upon its walls, then Alexander, the king of the Macedonians, also known as Antiochus Epiphanes, will come and dwell in the temple and will bite you like a snake, not outside in Babylon and Susa, but within the borders of the holy land (or yours). By these things it is proven that the day which you desire is not one of light and joy, but of darkness and sorrow. We have briefly stated these things according to history, so as not to completely leave the opinion of the Jews untouched. However, there is no doubt that all of our people understand the day of darkness, the day of judgment, about which Sophonias also writes: The great day of the Lord is near, it is also very swift: the voice of the day of the Lord is bitter and harsh (Sophon. I, 14). And Isaiah says: Behold, the day of the Lord comes, a day of incurable rage and wrath, to make the earth a desolation and to destroy sinners from it (Is. XIII, 9). At the same time, the confidence of the proud is shaken, who, in order to appear just in the eyes of men, usually wait for the day of judgment and say: Would that the Lord would come, that we may be allowed to be dissolved and be with Christ (Phil. I), imitating the Pharisee who spoke in the Gospel (Lk. XVIII, 11, 12): God, I give thanks to you, because I am not like other men, robbers, unjust, adulterers, and like this tax collector. They fast twice on the Sabbath: they give tithes of all that they possess. For from this very thing, because they long for the day of the Lord and do not fear it, they are judged worthy of punishment, because there is no one without sin among men, and the stars are unclean before him (Job 25). And he concluded all things under sin, so that he might have mercy on all (Galatians 3). Therefore, since no one can judge the judgment of God, and we will also have to give an account of every idle word (Matthew 12): and Job offered sacrifices daily for his children, lest perhaps they might think anything perverse against the Lord (Job 1), what audacity is it to hear among the Corinthians: You reign without us (I Corinthians 4, 8): and I wish you did reign, that we also might reign with you. Certainly, if their own conscience did not prick them, they ought to imitate Paul saying: 'Who is scandalized, and I am not on fire?' (2 Cor. 2:29) and to be concerned for all, so that, as lovers of themselves, they may not desire the torments of others, as if they themselves were the rulers, just as someone would want their homeland and city to be destroyed so that they alone may enjoy the friendship of the victors. We often say in times of distress and tribulation: 'Oh, if only it were allowed for me to depart from this body and be liberated from the miseries of this world', not knowing that as long as we are in this flesh, we have a place for repentance; but if we depart, we will hear that of the Prophet: 'But who will confess to you in hell?' (Ps. 6:6). This is the sadness of the world, which leads to death, as the Apostle does not want to perish the one who has fornicated with his father's wife (I Cor. V), as Judas perished unfortunate, who connected betrayal and murder with even greater sadness (Matth. XXVII), and murder worse than all other murders: so that where he thought to find a remedy, and death to be an end to his troubles, there he would find a lion and a bear and a snake. By these names it seems to me that either different punishments are being signified, or the devil himself, who is rightly called lion and bear and snake. And when we think that Isaiah says: Go, my people, into your chambers; shut the door, hide yourself for a little while, until the wrath of the Lord passes (Isa. XXVI, 20), and be as if in our house, as if resting in hell: then the snake will bite us, which in this place is called Nahas, and in Job is called Leviathan. We learn more fully about its nature and terror in the very volume itself. However, in the darkness and shadows that are contrary to light and splendor, the diversity of torments is explained.

5:21-22

(Verses 21, 22.) I hated and rejected your feasts, and I will not take the smell of your heavens. But if you bring me burnt offerings and your gifts, I will not accept them, and I will not look at the fat of your animals. LXX: I have hated and rejected your feasts, and I will not be pleased with your assemblies. And if you bring me burnt offerings and sacrifices, I will not receive them, and I will not look upon the pleasantness of your presence: This is specifically said against the tribe of Judah, and those who had migrated from Israel for the ceremonies of God, and yet did not depart from the high places, and worshipped idols, and defiled the sacrifices of God with the magnitude of their sins. For I never said concerning the oblations of the calves, which they offered in Dan and Bethel: If you offer to me holocausts and your offerings, I will not accept them. But God hates and not only hates, but also has cast away their festivals, those who flee from the lion and fall into the bear, and enter the house and are bitten by the serpent, because they do not celebrate the festivals of God, but their own festivals, says the Lord: I hate and have cast away your festivals. And it does not receive the assembly of such men, nor does it have a fragrance of good scent, and it abhors all their gifts, and it does not regard the richest offerings. Indeed, this happens not only to the people of that time, but also to us, if we commit similar offenses, and think that we can offer to God the gains from robberies and perjuries and wicked deeds, and redeem our sins, when we have read that Zacchaeus restored fourfold whatever he had stolen and offered half of his well-acquired possessions (Luke 19). For one could not offer what was wrongfully acquired in the gifts of God, unless one first returned it to its rightful owners, and afterwards fulfilled what is written: Honor the Lord with your just labors (Prov. III, 9); and: The redemption of a man's soul is his own riches (Prov. XIII, 8): for God does not accept the vows of a prostitute's earnings (Deut. XXIII). On the contrary, the just one can say: Let my prayer be directed as incense in your sight (Psal. CXL, 2). The speech of Judas, the traitor, was turned into sin: for it did not have a good odor; but it spoke through actions: 'My wounds have become foul and corrupt, because of my foolishness' (Psalm 38:6). All of this can also be said about heretics, who while fleeing from a lion, run into a bear, and upon entering a house which they think is the Church of God, they lean on walls which they themselves made, and they are bitten by a serpent. Darkness and gloom take away their light and day, so that tangible darkness surrounds them, and their beginnings are destroyed. God hates their sacrifices, and distances himself from them, and whenever they are gathered in the name of the Lord, he detests their stench and closes his nostrils. To hate, to distance oneself, and to not smell, is spoken in the likeness of human language, so that we may understand the attitude of God through our words. And if they offer burnt offerings, or appear to fast, or give alms, or promise chastity, which are true sacrifices, the Lord does not accept those, nor does he deem worthy to look at their fattest offerings. For God judges not the greatness of sacrifices, but the merits and reasons of those who offer them. Hence, the widow who in the Gospel (Luke 21) gave two small coins as an offering is preferred by the Savior over those who believed they were offering the fattest vows and the choicest sacrifices, when in reality they were giving very little, since she had given everything she had. These things are said more clearly and truly after the coming of the Lord to the Jewish people, who, with the temple and altar destroyed, believe they are offering sacrifices, which God abhors and rejects their festivals, and does not accept the aroma of their assembly when they gather and say, 'Crucify him, crucify him' (John 19:6) and 'His blood be on us and on our children' (Matthew 27:25). And if they offer holocausts in synagogues, and gifts in the councils of Satan, and the richest vows, the Lord does not regard them, just as He did not regard the gifts of Cain (Genesis IV). Those who worship the one true God and offer rightly, yet they are not regarded because they do not acknowledge the confession of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But our offerings, that is, the Church, which we offer from our first fruits, are regarded by God, just as He once regarded the sacrifices of Abel.

5:23

(Verse 23) Take away from me the tumult of your songs, and I will not listen to the music of your harp. LXX: Take away from me the sound of your songs, and I will not listen to the melody of your instruments. Beautiful songs of the Levites, with which they praised God, he calls tumult and confused sound, because there is no beautiful praise in the mouth of a sinner, and they were accustomed to offer these same things to idols as well (Eccles. 15). The prayer and psalms of the Jews, which they sing in the synagogues, is a composed praise of heretics to the Lord, and, if I may say so, the grunts of their own and the braying of donkeys, whose songs are more comparable to the works of the Israelites. But receive psalms and songs, lyre and organs, either literally understood among the people of Israel, which were once made in the image of things to come, or spiritually understood in us and in heretics, which are heard by the Lord if we direct them with good works; if with evil, He closes His ears and does not deign to hear the songs of the wicked.

5:24

(Verse 24) And judgment will be revealed like water, and justice like a strong torrent. LXX: And it will roll like water, and justice like an impassable torrent. Just as water, when it flows downhill, uncovers what it previously covered and exposes it to the eyes of all, so will the judgment and justice of God, which once judged His own people, be revealed to all, and it will be carried like the strongest torrent. Whatever it seizes, it drags along with it, and it does not allow anything to stand in its way. But the judgment of the wicked is tossed like water according to the Septuagint; for it does not stand in one opinion, but is carried about by every wind of doctrine, condemning what it had once approved, and considering what it had formerly praised as worthless. Their justifications are compared not to pure and clear springs and rivers, but to turbid and muddy torrents, which do not have their own waters, but collect them from rocks, cliffs, and brambles. Whoever wishes to cross them will immediately be seized and thrown headlong, and with his feet overthrown, will not be able to say: He established my feet upon a rock (Ps. 123:5). For he will walk upon the sands, which do not have a foundation, and when he will be in danger, he will speak according to the Hebrews: A torrent has passed over my soul (Ps. 39:3). On the contrary, the judgments of the just are firm and unchanging, not flowing like water, and justice does not rush like an impassable torrent: The thoughts of the just are judgments (Prov. XII, 5).

5:25-27

(Verse 25 and following) Did you offer to Me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel? You also took along the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images which you made for yourselves. Therefore I will exile you beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts. LXX: Did you offer to Me sacrifices and victims in the desert for forty years, O house of Israel, and take up the tabernacle of Melchom and the star of your god Repham, the figures of them which you made for yourselves. And I will transfer you beyond Damascus, says the Lord: God almighty is his name. From this place we learn that all the sacrifices and offerings that Israel made in the desert were not offered to God, but to their king Moloch, whose tabernacles they carried and worshiped the image of their idols and statues. And in the following statement, it shows what this image or idol is: The star of your God, which is called Chocab in Hebrew, that is, Lucifer, whom the Saracens have been worshiping until now. For what reason did the Lord make them migrate across Damascus, that is, to the Assyrians and Chaldeans: his omnipotence is demonstrated by the fact that he is the Lord God of hosts. We ask why they did not offer sacrifices and offerings to God in the desert; but to their king, whom they call Lucifer? From the time they transformed gold into the head of a calf, saying: These are your gods, Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt (Exod. III, 24), it is shown that everything they did was not for God, but for idols. And what we read afterwards that they offered certain things to the Lord, they did not do so willingly but out of fear of punishment, and by the killing of those who fell because of idols. But the Lord does not look at what is offered, but at the will of the one offering. Finally, wherever the opportunity arose, they always turned back in their hearts to Egypt, desiring garlic and onions, and cucumbers and Egyptian meat, and despising the manna that was given from heaven (Numbers 11). To understand this, let us turn to the story told by the first martyr of the Gospel, Stephen, worthy of his name, in the Acts of the Apostles: 'And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands. But God turned and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: Did you offer victims and sacrifices to me for forty years in the desert, O house of Israel?' And you took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the figures that you made to worship; and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon. It should not be thought that the first martyr erred, who, because it is written in the prophet: 'Beyond Damascus,' said 'beyond Babylon.' For he placed more emphasis on understanding than on the exact word, because they were led from Damascus to Babylon, or beyond Babylon. But in that place where Luke put Μολὸχ, and it is written in Hebrew as Melchechem (): Aquila and LXX translated Μολχὸμ: Symmachus and Theodotio, for your kings. Also, for what is read in the Septuagint as Rephan; Aquila and Symmachus translating the Hebrew itself, they put Chion (), Theodotio 'amaŭrōsin', that is, darkness. Again, for Sochoth (), Aquila 'syskiasmoùs', that is, tabernacles: Symmachus and Septuagint, tabernacle: Theodotio translated it as vision. And this is to be observed in all holy Scriptures, that the apostles and apostolic men, in laying down testimonies from the Old Testament, do not consider the words but the meaning: nor do they follow the same paths of words, as long as they do not depart from the intended sense. But whatever is said literally against the Jewish people, all of this is to be referred to those who worship idols under the name of Christ, and who fabricate corrupt doctrines for themselves, carrying the tabernacle of their king, the devil, and the image of their statues and idols. For they do not worship one idol; but for the variety of teaching, they worship different gods, and the star of their god (2 Corinthians XI). He, being the angel of Satan, transforms himself into an angel of light, and falls from heaven like lightning (Luke X), and Antichrist imitates Christ. And he beautifully introduced what you have made for yourselves. For they have not received these things from God, but have imagined them in their own minds. Therefore, the Lord will cause them to migrate across Damascus, so that they do not drink the blood of the Lord, but go to Babylon, and listen to the prophet: A golden cup Babylon, intoxicating all nations (Jeremiah LI, 7). For Damascus, as we have often said, signifies drinking blood, or the blood of Cilicia, so that through penance we may be moved to drink the blood of the Lord.

6:1

(Chapter 6, Verse 1) Woe to those who are rich in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the nations, who enter pompously into the house of Israel. The Septuagint version says: Woe to those who despise Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, they have gathered the first fruits of the nations for themselves. The prophet's words are directed primarily to those who are the nobles and rulers in both peoples, and who indulge in the luxuries as an example of the rich man dressed in purple, who delighted in feasting and was so filled with pride that he disdained to even look at Lazarus, covered with sores at his gate, and would not give him even the scraps from his table (Luke 16). These are the heads of the people who trust in riches, and are wealthy in Zion, and have confidence in the mountain of Samaria, and enter triumphantly into the house of Israel, to show the swelling of their hearts and appear to be like the pompous feasts. According to the laws of tropology and the Septuagint interpreters, Zion refers to the Church, of which we read: He who lifts me up from the gate of death, that I may declare all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion (Psalm 9:15). But Mount Samaria, because of the pride and arrogance of the custodians of God's commandments, is understood to be about heretics who despise the Church; for God chose the weak of the world to confound the strong, and the foolish to destroy the wisdom of the wise and the understanding of the prudent (1 Corinthians 1). These have harvested the first fruits of the nations, to introduce them under the Christian name into their winepresses, where grapes are not crushed, but lost; where must is not expressed, but venom is. And they entered for themselves. Beautifully, he said to himself: for they did not enter for God, but they entered for themselves. Otherwise, they would have left for God, as they depart from the Church. And what follows, the House of Israel, according to the Septuagint, should be read at the beginning of the next chapter; according to the Hebrews, at the end of this chapter, which we have explained.

Book Three

Book Three

We have begun and, with Christ's help, we will complete the work of the twelve prophets in a disorderly and confused order. For we have not discussed them in the order in which they are read from beginning to end, but as we were able and as we were asked. First, I addressed Nahum, Micah, Zephaniah, and Haggai to the ever-diligent Paula and her daughter Eustochium. Second, I have assigned the two books of Habakkuk to Bishop Chromatius of Aquileia. Third, after a long period of silence, I explained Obadiah and Jonah to you, Pammachius, who commanded it. In the current year, which is named in the Fasti of the consulship of Arcadius Augustus and Anitius Probus, I have interpreted the prophet Malachi to Exsuperius, the bishop of the Church of Toulouse, and to the monks Minervius and Alexander of the same city, Zacharias. And immediately going back to the beginning of the volume, I could not deny you Hosea, Joel, and Amos. And after a very serious illness of the body, I showed my recklessness by the speed of dictation: that which others do not dare to write by frequently turning the stylus, I committed to chance, which always follows those dictating, and makes the danger of audacity from talent and learning: since, as I have often borne witness, I am not able to bear the labor of writing with my own hand, in expounding the Holy Scriptures, composite words and adorned with rhetorical flourishes, but the erudition and simplicity of truth are sought.

6:2-6

(Vers. 2 seqq.) Go through Chalane, and see: and from there go to great Emath, and descend to Geth of the Philistines: to the best of their kingdoms, if their boundary is wider than your boundary. You who are separated on the day of evil, and approach the throne of wickedness. You who sleep on ivory beds, and indulge in your own beds: you who eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the middle of the herd: you who sing to the sound of the harp. Just as David thought he had the vessels of a song, drinking wine in cups, and they were anointed with the finest oil, and they did not suffer from the sorrow of Joseph. LXX: House of Israel, all of you pass over and see in Chalane, and pass through there to Emath Rabba, and descend to the best of the foreign Geth in all these kingdoms, if their boundaries are greater than your boundaries, you who come on an evil day, who approach and touch the lies of the Sabbath. You who sleep on ivory beds, and overflow with delights in your couches, and eat young goats from the flocks, and suckle calves from the midst of the herds, who make noise at the sound of the organ: as if they considered themselves stable, and not fleeting; you who drink refined wine, and anoint yourselves with the finest ointments, and do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. Pass over all of you to Chalane, which is now called Ctesiphon, and pass over all. Who are these people? Both of those mentioned above: the nobles, the leaders of the people, and those of you who are wealthy in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria. Therefore, go to the city of Persis, and pay close attention, and from there, go to the great city of Emath, which is now called Antioch. It is called great, to distinguish it from the smaller Emath, which is called Epiphania. And to this day, for those traveling to Mesopotamia, the first stop is called Emmas, although the name has been corrupted; but it retains traces of its original name, whose region is called Reblatha, in which, in the presence of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Judah (or Judea), the sons were killed, and his eyes were blinded. And descend, he says, into Gath of the Philistines (2 Kings 25). You who dwell on Mount Zion and Mount Samaria, descend to the Philistines who dwell in the plains, and to the best of their kingdoms, which are subject to different cities: Gaza and Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, and Gath. And see if their territory is wider than yours, whether you or they possess the larger provinces. You, I say, you from the people of Israel, who are separated for the day of evil, namely the day of captivity, and approaching the throne of wickedness, going to the unjust judge, the king of Babylon. For those who are about to suffer these things, you now sleep on ivory beds and indulge in soft cushions, so that you may unite desire with sleep. For you do not eat to drive away hunger and sustain the human body, but for pleasure and luxury, so that whatever is tender and fat in herds and flocks may serve your gluttonous appetites. Your desires are not satisfied with the pleasures of sex, throat, and drink, but you must also soothe your ears with the songs of flutes, harps, and lyres, imitating what David did in the worship of God (1 Chronicles 23-26), finding the variations of the Levitical orders and instruments, you indulge in pleasure and luxury. And you drink wine from goblets, not to quench your thirst, but to intoxicate your mind. And you anoint yourselves, not to soothe the fatigue of the body, with pure oil, but with precious ointments. And when you are filled with these things, if you see any of the people perishing, you have no mercy on their suffering, but you treat them like dumb animals, and you allow them to perish in their own blood. This same sentiment is also expressed by the prophet Ezekiel in the example of the shepherds: They consume the milk of the sheep and clothe themselves with their wool, and they devour whatever is best, and they do not heal the wounded, nor mend the broken, nor seek out those who are perishing. Let us transfer all the things we have said according to the history, according to the Septuagint interpreters, to the allegory of the clouds. O house of Israel, you who have departed from me, who trust in the mountain of Samaria, who have harvested the firstfruits of the nations, go beyond and see, and proceed to many walls. For this is the interpretation of Emath Rabba: and then descend gently into the presses of those who fall while drinking. For Geth and the Philistines resound with this. And consider all things, especially the best (or all) kingdoms, or the best cities among all kingdoms; and consider if their boundaries are more numerous than yours. For if we wish to ponder with our mind, and to explore the wisdom of all nations, we will find that the boundaries of the Egyptians, Indians, and Persians are narrower than the holy boundaries of the Scriptures: Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. To those whom he had previously said: House of Israel, all of you pass through and see, from what vices they are commanded to pass over to better things, the following discourse describes: Those who come into an evil day, preparing for themselves their evil day according to their own vice: not that any day is inherently evil; but rather, each person prepares for themselves their own evil, according to what we read in Ecclesiastes: Do not say, 'The former days were better for me than these,' for it is not in wisdom that you ask about this (Ecclesiastes 7:11); for it is foolish to compare times, when it is within our power to either make a good day for ourselves or an evil one. These are those who approach and touch the sabbaths of falsehood. For just as the circumcision of the flesh is called, and the circumcision of the heart, and they are manifestly Jews, and in secret, one of which is rejected, and the other is approved: thus the sabbaths of the Lord are holy, and supported by truth, and the others are not holy and are falsehoods, which follow the idleness of the western letters. That which follows: those who sleep on ivory beds, we can interpret it as follows: He who is an athlete of the Lord, and exercises for the struggle, and prepares himself against opposing powers, sleeps on bare earth imitating Jacob (Gen. XXVIII); and he places a stone at his head, which the builders rejected, and it became the head cornerstone (Ps. CXVII, and Act. IV). But those who indulge in pleasures and luxury, and do everything for the sake of their stomach, sleep on ivory beds made from dead animals and cling to unclean bones; and because vices appear beautiful and delight in their present splendor, they rest on their beds and are weighed down by deep sleep. They do not eat solid and nourishing food, which strengthens the powers of those who wrestle, but rather soft and delicate food, such as young goats from the flocks and fattened calves, and tender ones, in fact still nourished by milk. For this is what μοσχάρια γαλαθηνὰ signifies. Moreover, they clap their hands to the sound of the organ and the noise, as if all their works expect pleasure: and they do nothing but provide for the belly and lust. Nor does the wise reader immediately oppose us with this, and how it is written: Let the rivers clap their hands (Ps. XCVII, 8). And: All you nations, clap your hands (Ps XLVI, 1). And: Rejoice in God our helper (Ps. LXXX, 1). For there, they are not said to clap their hands to the sound of the organ; but to have one consent in praising God. He introduced the voice of the organs: they thought it was standing still, and not fleeing. For according to Epicurus, things of the world and all bodies flow and pass away in moments, and nothing remains in its own state, but everything either grows or diminishes, and they flow down like rushing waters. Hence we read also in secular literature (Virgil, Georgics III):

But meanwhile it flies, irretrievable time flies. And in another place (Horace, Odes II, 14).

Alas, fleeting, Posthumus, Posthumus, the years slip away. For nothing is more fleeting than the century and the things of the century. While we hold onto them, we lose them, through infancy, childhood, youth, and the growing and maturing age, and the final years of old age, which Philo describes as the seven stages of human life, we are changed, and we run, and unknowingly we reach the boundaries of death. And what follows: Those who drink clarified wine can properly be referred to heretics, who approve some scriptures and reject others, desiring to drink clarified wines: since in the Holy Scriptures there is nothing turbid and muddy, but everything is most pure in the divine stream. Those who do not have the art of anointing, without any knowledge of the Scriptures, traditions, and teachings of the apostles, claim the dignity of priesthood and say that they are anointed by the Lord; and they contaminate the purest oil of their own understanding with the dregs. And when they do these things to the destruction of those whom they have deceived, they are not tormented by any pain; but they rejoice in the deaths of others and delight in the blood of the wretched. This beautiful sense in which it is said 'they thought as if things were standing, and not as if they were fleeing' is not found in Hebrew; but instead it is written: as David thought he had vessels of song. Therefore, it seems to me that the interpreters added it, who, in describing luxury, expressed a sentiment against vices and pleasures of this kind, so that they would not translate what was written, but would add or even change it, according to what seemed to them.

6:7-11

(Vers. 7 seqq.) Therefore now they will migrate to the head of the transmigrants, and the faction of the revelers will be removed. The Lord God has sworn by his own soul, says the Lord God of hosts: I detest the pride of Jacob, and I hate his houses, and I will deliver the city with its inhabitants: and if there are ten men left in one house, they shall die; and their close relative shall take them, and burn them, to carry out the bones from the house; and he who is in the innermost chambers of the house shall say: Is there still anyone with you? And he will answer: It is the end; and he will say to him: Be silent, and do not remember the name of the Lord. LXX: Therefore now the strong ones will be captives from the beginning, and the noise of horses will be taken away from Ephraim; because the Lord has sworn by himself, says the Lord God of hosts: because I will abhor all the reproach of Jacob, and I will hate his regions, and I will take away the city with all its inhabitants. And it shall come to pass, if ten men remain in one house, and they die; and the household members shall take them, and they shall make an effort to remove their bones from the house; and those who are in charge of the house shall say: Are there still any with you? And he shall say, by no means; and he shall say, Be silent, and do not mention the name of the Lord. Because of the higher causes that the prophetic discourse describes (of those who sleep on ivory beds, and revel on couches, and eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the midst of the herd, and sing to the sound of the harp and drink from bowls, and are anointed with the finest ointment, and yet suffer nothing in the destruction of their people, who are descended from Joseph), now the Lord threatens, and says: Because they have done these things and these things, now they shall migrate at the head of the exiles. And the meaning is this: Punishment is never delayed for the future, nor is it prophesied for long centuries to come. What is now imminent, is now coming, my words predict, that they will go in the beginning of the transmigration, namely the rulers and the powerful, of whom he said above: Hear this word, you fat cows, who are in the mountain of Samaria (Above, IV, 1). And again: Woe to you who are wealthy in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria: you nobles, heads of the people, who enter pompously into the house of Israel. You who are the first in wealth, will be the first to endure the yoke of captivity, according to what is written in Ezekiel: 'Begin from my sanctuary' (Ezek. IX, 6). Not from the saints, as many think; but from the destruction of the temple, which was holy. For the powerful will endure torments powerfully (Wisdom VI), and to whom much is entrusted, much will be demanded from him (Luke XII). And as it is said, the faction of the indulgent will be taken away, those who had one consent in taking pleasure and engaging in feasts and revelry: they will be taken away together, so that for those whose unity was in luxury, their punishment will also be united. As for why the LXX translated it, the neighing of the horse of Ephraim shall be taken away: which is not found in the Hebrew, and will be discussed by us as unnecessary when we begin to weave the tropology. The Lord has sworn by himself, or as we read in Hebrew, by his soul, according to what is written in Isaiah: My soul hates your new moons and your Sabbaths and your feast days (Isa. I, 13): not that God has a soul, but in order to speak in human terms. It is not surprising if it is said to have a soul, since even the other parts, which are less valuable than the soul, such as the feet, hands, stomach, and other organs, attest to having themselves. But if those who deny that Christ had a human soul oppose us, saying that God was in the human body instead of a soul, let them hear that in Christ the substance of the soul is demonstrated: just as the members of his body had substance. In God the Father, however, the head, feet, and other things that are said to be, are not members, but the diversity of efficient acts is indicated by the words used to describe them: similarly, the soul is not substantial, but the seat of the inner mind and the place where thoughts reside, through which God reveals His will. Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, that is, Sabaoth (which the Seventy translated as powers), swore that he detests the pride of Jacob and hates his dwellings. This is Jacob according to the previous chapter, where it is written: And they allowed nothing to prevail over the affliction of Joseph, or the ten tribes, or certainly the entire house of the twelve tribes. And he will deliver the city with its inhabitants; either Samaria, or certainly Jerusalem, or both in common. As for the time of the Lord Savior, after whose coming and passion God detested all the pride and injury of Jacob, because they cried out against him, the son of a carpenter and a Samaritan and possessed by a demon (Matthew 13; John 8): therefore Jerusalem was handed over to the Roman armies with its inhabitants. And to such an extent did the wrath of God rage against them, that even if ten men were to remain in one house, they would also die, and the neighbor or neighbor would burn the corpses of the dead to remove the bones from his house, because they are not able to remove the whole bodies due to the crowds of the dying. And when he has become tired from carrying [the body], let him ask the person who is in the innermost part of the house if there are any bodies left for him to hand over, and let that person respond: It is over, I no longer have anyone to give to you for burial; and before he swears that he does not have [any bodies], let that person, who asked the question and was outside, and did not know [that there were no bodies], order him and say: Be silent, and do not remember the name of the Lord. But he mentions this in order to show that even those who are not compelled by the weight and necessity of evil do not want to confess the name of the Lord, and that the name of God has come into such great oblivion among the people of Israel that it does not even deign to be heard in a simple oath. We have drawn fine lines of history, now let us imprint the hand of allegory. The leaders of heretics, who devoured my people because of their pleasures, and allowed nothing to stand in the way of Joseph's torment, will be led first to punishment, and the neighing of the horse will be taken away from Ephraim: which is understood in holy scriptures in two ways, either in the pride and power of those who neigh, or in the magnitude of lust. In the pride and consent of evil people, as it is written: Some trust in chariots and some in horses (Psalm 20:7). And: A deceitful horse for salvation (Ps. XXXII, 17). And to the kings of Israel, it is commanded that they not multiply horses for themselves (Deut. XVII). And in the book of Job, the voice of the horse is compared to the sound of the trumpet (Job. XXXIX). In Zachariah also we read, which is confirmed by the testimony of the Gospel, and it is referred to the presence of the Savior: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion: proclaim, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your King comes to you righteous and Savior: He is gentle, and riding on a donkey and the foal of a donkey: and he will destroy the chariots from Ephraim, and the horses from Jerusalem (Zach. IX, 9). But the magnitude of lust and unrestrained desire for sexual intercourse, as Jeremiah, describing the luxurious adulterers, declared: Each one neighs over the wife of his neighbor (Jer. V, 8). The coming of Christ subdues such horses, as does the wrath of God. And the Lord swears by Himself (since He has no one greater to swear by) that He abhors all heretical blasphemies and hates all their regions (Heb. VI). For whatever they speak is injustice, and worthy of God's hatred. And He will take away their city and their assemblies with those who dwell in it, and the people indeed, and the leaders, even if there were ten men left (for if they had been in Sodom and Gomorrah, no fire would have come down upon them), they will all die the same death that leads to Tartarus, of which Ezekiel writes: The soul that sins, it shall die. Their relatives and domestics bury the bones of these people, of whom it is said: Let the dead bury their own dead (Luke 9:60). And the one who is outside and does not enter the house of the dead; but rather casts out the dead outside, the one who burns the dead gives orders, and reduces them to ashes, and breaks their bones, so that he may remain silent; and the most pure name of God not be defiled by the mouth of the dead. For to the sinner, God says: Why do you declare my righteousness, and take my covenant in your mouth? (Psalm 50). Wherefore, we also must provide, that we may not bury the dead dead, but rather, that as living, we may bring forth to life those who are dead. And if we do not do this, it is commanded to us and it is said: Be silent, for we are judged unworthy of the name of God.

6:12-14

(Verse 12 onwards) For behold, the Lord will command and strike down the great house with ruins, and the small house with breaches. Can horses run on rocks, or can it be plowed with oxen? For you have turned justice into bitterness, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood. You who rejoice in nothingness, who say: Have we not taken horns for ourselves in our strength? Behold, I will raise up against you, O house of Israel, declares the Lord God of hosts, a nation, and they will oppress you from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of the wilderness. LXX: Therefore, behold, the Lord will command and will strike the great house with ruins and the small house with breaches. Will horses run on rocks? Will men be silent at women? For you have turned justice into bitterness and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood. You who rejoice in nothing good, who say, 'Have we not relied on our own strength?' For behold, I will raise up against you, O house of Israel, declares the Lord God of hosts, a nation, and they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath to the brook of Egypt. Because you have sprung into such rage that, even in the time of death and impending evils, you were unwilling to utter the name of the Lord, therefore the Lord will command and strike the greater house with ruins, and the lesser house with divisions. If He commands, how does He strike? If He strikes, how does He command? But in that which He commands and orders to His ministers, He Himself seems to strike. Just as in commanding the Father and acting through the Son, He Himself who commanded does the work, the verse being fulfilled: He spoke, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created (Ps. 148:5). For all things were made through him, and without him was made nothing that was made (John 1). And in Egypt, where the firstborn who were killed by the destroyer are reported to be referred to, the Lord testifies that he himself killed them (Exodus 12). So also in the present place the Lord commands, and he himself strikes through his ministers the greater house with ruins, that is, the ten tribes, who were called Israel, and the lesser house with divisions, the two tribes, who were governed by the lineage of the house of David. And note the properties of each. Israel, because it had sinned more, is struck by ruins and is handed over to eternal captivity. But the house of Judah, in which the temple exists, and which had sinned in part, is held in captivity for seventy years and is not struck by ruins but by divisions. For a divided house can be repaired: ruins require not so much restoration as rebuilding. He compares the ruins and divisions of both houses to horses and oxen, of which the former cannot run on rocks, and the latter are so untamed that they do not accept the yoke on their necks, and since they are wild oxen, they are unwilling to plow the earth due to their fierceness. But you, though horses and buffalo cannot change their nature, have changed the nature of God, turning the sweet into the bitter and the fruit of his justice into wormwood, which is a very bitter herb. You who take delight in things that are nothing, like golden calves and idols, which are nothing, as Esther said to the Lord: Do not give your scepter to those who are not (Esther 14:11), or in nothing and falsehood. You who think you have taken horns and kingship and power by your own strength, with which you can scatter your enemies. Therefore, because you have done these things, behold, I will raise up against you, O great house and O lesser house, that will be struck by ruin and division, that is, O house of Israel and all twelve tribes, the most savage nation of Assyrians and Chaldeans, who will crush and overthrow you from beginning to end, from head to tail, from the borders of your land, which face the sun, to the desert river, or the West, as the LXX translated, that is, from Emath to Rhinocorura, between which the river Nile, or the stream coming from the desert, enters the sea. We have mentioned Emath above Epiphaniam, which got its name from Antiochus who was called Epiphanes. However, those who think that this refers to the house of Israel and the ten tribes, cannot explain how it is said in the threat against the ten tribes that they should be crushed from Epiphania to the borders of Egypt. These borders do not include only the ten tribes, but all twelve, including Judah and Benjamin. Some people, according to the allegory, believe that the large house and the smaller house symbolize the Jewish people and the Church gathered from the Gentiles. They are called 'great' because of their ancestors, the law, and the prophets. We are called 'lesser' because we were without the Testament and the commandments of God, of which we also read in the Song of Songs: 'My sister is little and has no breasts' (Song of Songs 8:8). If the great and small house, gathered into one family of God, does not have discipline and does not follow God's commandments, it will be struck by ruins and divisions. Whenever, therefore, the house of God, which is the Church, collapses and is torn apart, either in persecutions or in heresies and schisms, it shows the hand of God striking: which if we want to avoid, let us listen to and follow the comparison and example. They are not able to pursue on the rocks of the horse. Christ is the rock (I Cor. X), who gave to his apostles that they also be called rock: You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church (Mat. XVI, 18). Those who are in these stones, called horses, about which we have spoken above, will not be able to pursue him, their courses hindered and falling down through each stone. Let us come to another comparison, according to our custom, discussing the edition of the Seventy Interpreters, lest if we adhere too much to the Hebrew, we seem to have deceived the reader's diligence, and by not mentioning the Vulgate edition, we appear to have proposed it in vain. But they will certainly be silent in women, he said, no doubt meaning horses, about which he had spoken above. If they pursue horses on rocks. These horses, that is, contrary strengths, who go mad for women when they see a masculine spirit, and having been strengthened by the power of God, are not bold enough to approach. But when they see a effeminate mind, weakened by ointments and pleasures, and turned towards feminine softness, they immediately go mad and cannot hold themselves back; and they long for lust. It follows: Because you have turned judgment into fury. Judgment turns into fury for the one who judges in anger, and the Lord says: You shall not show partiality in judgment (Deut. XVI, 19). And in another place: You shall not pity the poor in judgment; for it is God's judgment (Exod. XXIII, 3): with an angry mind he descends to judge, indeed, without knowing the cause, nor does he know the truth of the judgment, he prejudges what sentence he should pass: he also turns the fruit of justice, which is most sweet, into bitterness. What we have said about one virtue, let us understand about the others as well: prudence, courage, temperance. Whoever is angry cannot enjoy their fruits, and when they do, they will be bitter. Hence it is said in Isaiah: Woe to those who call sweet bitter, and bitter sweet (Is. 5:20). This is what those say who do not consider the causes in judging, but rather the individuals, and they turn the fruit of Christ's righteousness, which is most sweet, into bitterness. Therefore, whoever is guided in judgment by either blood ties or friendship, on the other hand, is led by hostile hatred or enmities, perverts the judgment of Christ, who is justice, and turns its fruit into bitterness. Those who do this rejoice in no good word, or, as Symmachus translated, irrationally, and proudly say: Have we not had horns in our strength? But let the righteous glory in the Lord and say: In you we will scatter our enemies with horns. And in another place (Al. in the same place): For I will not hope in my bow, and my sword will not save me (Ps. 43, 6, 7). Hence, in Exodus according to the Hebrew and the Aquila edition, we read: And Moses did not know that the appearance (Al. face) of his face was horned (Exod. 34, 29), which truly could be said: In you I blow away my enemies with a horn. We also read in another place: And he will exalt the horn of his people; And: He will exalt the horn of his Christ (Ps. 148, 14, and 1 Sam. 2, 10), and the horn of the altar, and clean horned animals, which are offered only to God, whose interpretation is not of this time. Because of these great sins and extreme pride, which speaks unrighteousness against God and exalts its mouth, the Almighty Lord God declares that he will raise up the most savage nation, which will crush and afflict them, indeed, even prevent them from entering into Emath, and as far as the Western torrent. Emath is interpreted as a wall or fortified town. Therefore, they will be forbidden from seeking refuge in the most savage nation, to whom punishments have been assigned, to flee to the fortified city, which is the celestial Jerusalem, lest they enter and be saved, similar to that chapter which we read in Genesis, where God placed Cherubim and a flaming sword (Gen. II), which turned to guard the way to the tree of life, so that the one who had been expelled from paradise would by no means enter there unworthy. And what follows: We will interpret the 67th Psalm, in which it is written: Sing to the Lord, sing a psalm to his name: make a way for him who ascends upon the west: the Lord is his name (Psalm 67:5). For unless evil works have died in us, Christ will not ascend upon us. And when they have died, and we have Christ as our charioteer: then as we make progress and advance to better things, it will be commanded in the same psalm: Sing to God, sing psalms to the Lord who ascends upon the heaven of heavens towards the east (Psalm 67:33, 34). And in the mysteries, first we renounce him who is in the West, and who dies for our sins, and thus turned towards the East, we make a covenant with the sun of righteousness, and we promise to serve him. Regarding the stream of the West, Symmachus interpreted it as a valley plain: Theodotio, a stream in Arabia: Aquila, a stream that is in the plain. With these words, it is shown that those who are not excluded from the walled city cannot die to sin, nor can they reach the plain and level stream of the desert, which is called the stream of pleasure, according to what we read: You shall make them drink from the stream of your pleasure (Psalm 36:9).

7:1-3

(Chapter 7, verses 1-3) The Lord God showed me these things: And behold, a swarming locust at the beginning of the late crops, after the king's mowings. And it came to pass, when it had finished consuming the grass of the land, that I said: Lord God, please be merciful, I beseech You: who will raise up Jacob, for he is small? The Lord had pity on this: it shall not be, said the Lord. LXX: Thus the Lord showed me: And behold, a swarm of locusts was coming in the morning, and behold, one Gog, the king, was a bruchus. And it shall come to pass, when it is accomplished, that it shall consume the grass of the earth. And I said: Lord God, be merciful, who shall raise up Jacob, for he is little. Be sorry for us, O Lord, upon this: and upon this let it not be, saith the Lord. The prophetic word not only predicts things that will happen in the distant future, but also those that are near and will immediately follow the prophecy. For we humans often think more about ourselves than about future generations, as Ezechias says: Let there be peace in my days (2 Kings 20). So that those who have witnessed the fulfilled events that were previously announced, may turn to the worship of God, in whom the truth of prophecy resides. Therefore, the Lord revealed that Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians, would come with an infinite army, like a swarm of locusts, to annihilate everything, just as a locust devours all when it begins to rain late in the season, when the people of Israel needed the extreme mercy of Almighty God. However, the one who commands and creates this swarm of locusts is the Lord. The locust comes at the beginning of the late rain, when everything is green and the whole field is giving birth, and the flowers of different trees burst into their own kind of fruit. And to summarize in one word what I want to convey, they promise abundance of all things, flowers of trees, and the crops of the fields. But these locusts, which fly in early spring, are followed by countless beetles, which come after the late rain, and are called the barber or the king's barber because they devastate everything and leave nothing of the green grass on the earth. This barber, or haircut, Isaiah calls a sharp razor (Isa. VII), which will shave all the hair and the beard of the body of the children of Israel. And when, he says, I doubted what this razor was, he immediately brought in the king of Assyria. Therefore, the razor and barber of the king is the army of the Chaldeans, which has devastated everything like a locust, not only crops, but also wood, hay, and straw. And it came to pass, when the locust had finished eating the grass of the earth, and the prophet understood what he saw, he turned to prayer and said: Lord God, be merciful, I beseech you. I do not want my words to be fulfilled in the subversion of my people. I do not want to be chosen from the number of shepherds to announce the ruin of the ten tribes. For who can raise up Jacob, except for you alone? When everything collapses, there is no one who can restore it. Jacob is weak and is frequently destroyed by attacks from the enemy. But when he prays and sheds tears from his inner self, the Lord takes pity on him and responds: I will not destroy all of the people of Israel, there will be saved remnants. Certainly, it must be understood in this way: he saw two things that would happen at the same time. First, a locust, then a caterpillar. He prayed to the Lord for both, and only one was heard, so that the caterpillar would not devour everything to the point of annihilation. However, the flying locust would devour some things and leave others untouched. It seems to me that the 70 interpreters understood the Hebrew word Gozi (), which is interpreted as a barber or tonsure, as Gog, considering the letter Zai as Vau, and compared the countless multitude of caterpillars to the most savage Gog nation, which is described as devastating the land of Judea. But what Aquila wanted to say, I do not quite understand, unless perhaps he placed the word 'Gozi' instead of 'Gaza,' and gradually 'Gaza' was corrupted by error. Let us also say spiritually: those who have committed serious sins after the works of justice (as it is said in the prophet: 'Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you' - Hosea 10, and Jeremiah 4), are brought forth with offspring or a generation of morning locusts when the darkness of night passes, and they begin to recognize their own sins, because they did not repent. And because they did not repent, the bruchus is brought forth, which is called King Gog. But 'Gog' is translated into our language as 'roof,' a certain proud and arrogant strength. And when the hay and stubble of our land are consumed, whoever have been holy for the people will pray for forgiveness and say: Lord God, be merciful. For who else can raise up Jacob (Isa. X)? Who can heal the woman with an issue of blood, except you alone, at whose touch her health is immediately restored (Luke VIII)? For Jacob is small, or of small number, because there remain no or few traces of virtues in them. May you feel remorse, Lord, regarding this, for which you have threatened to do to your people. However, we must understand God's repentance in the Scriptures as we do sleep and anger: not that God feels remorse or changes his mind, as he speaks through the prophet: I am God, and I do not change (Mal. III, 6). And to whom we say: But you are the same, and your years will not fail (Ps. CI, 28); but rather that, when we turn to better things, it is he himself who repents of his decision, so that he does not give rewards to the righteous that he promised, if they turn to wickedness, nor does he inflict punishment on the sinner that he has threatened, if he turns to salvation. He is said to those who are going to repent: Do not give sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids, so that you may be freed like a gazelle from the traps, and like a bird from the snare (Prov. VI, 4, 5). If he who despises the Lord's commandments first, and then, when he is in distress, begins to wake up, he awakens the Lord who is sleeping to him, and says: Arise, why do you sleep, Lord (Ps. XLIII, 23)? On the other hand, he who treasures up wrath for himself on the day of wrath, will feel God's anger (Rom. II). But if he repents, anger will turn into mercy, and the Lord will change with our troubles and virtues into both punishment and mercy.

7:4-6

(Vers. 4 seqq.) This the Lord God showed me, and behold, the Lord God called for judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and will consume it together with a portion. And I said: O Lord God, please cease; who will raise up Jacob since he is small? The Lord had mercy on this also, but even this shall not be, said the Lord God. LXX: Thus the Lord God showed me, and behold, He called for judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and consumed a portion. And I said: O Lord God, stop, who will raise up Jacob, since he is small? Let it repent thee, O Lord, upon this: and let it not be, saith the Lord, God of hosts. First the Lord shewed the prophet the workman of the locust in the beginning of the germination of the late crop, and after the late crop, the cutting off of the king or kingdom, and to express the word from word, the cutting off of the king Sennacherib, by which he sheared and laid waste all the ten tribes. Now the same Lord sheweth Nebuchadnezzar, yea, he calleth and commandeth him to come against Judah and Jerusalem. However, he calls upon the fire to set ablaze the temple and Jerusalem, and to carry out judgment in the fire against those who were once his people. And when the fire came for judgment, to fulfill the command of the Lord, it consumed a great abyss, and it also consumed a part, all the cities of Judah, and a part of the Lord's which was called his temple. And when the prophet saw this, he said to the Lord, not as before, be propitious, I beseech you, but be still, or cease; so that he may obtain by his prayers the person whom he had already seen begin to cease: especially since there is no other who can raise up the lying down and little and humiliated Jacob, except the Lord who is able to bring back the captive and those transported into Chaldea into the land of Judah. Because once, according to the prophet Hosea and the Psalmist saying: The sons of Ephraim, bending and shooting with the bow, turned back in the day of battle (Psalm 77, 9), we have attributed the ten tribes to the person of the heretics, who were called Israel, and the two, over which Judas presided, to the Church and the sinners of the Church, who indeed confess the right faith, but are in need of purging themselves from the filth of vices with flames: for this reason now the Lord shows that he calls himself to the fire of judgment, so that the fire may prove the quality of each one's work (1 Corinthians 3), and that which is written may be fulfilled: Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame you have kindled (Isaiah 50, 11). And it is said to Babylon: You have coals of fire, you shall sit upon them; they shall be to you for help (Isai. XLVII, 14, sec. LXX) . And in the psalm, The deceitful tongue, full of lies, is said to be purified by the fire of coals: What shall be given to you, or what shall be added to you, for a deceitful tongue? The sharp arrows of the mighty with coals of desolation (Ps. CXIX, 3, 4) . About these coals of the altar, the coal of the desolating coals of the two Testaments is taken with a pair of tongs, and the unclean lips of Isaiah are purified, so that he may be able to prophesy the word of the Lord (Isai. VI). But the fire, summoned for judgment, first devours the abyss, that is, all kinds of sins, wood, hay, straw, and then it consumes at the same time the part, that is, it reaches the saints, who are considered as the possession of the Lord and as part of him; for it is the time for judgment to begin from the house of the Lord. And in Ezekiel it is commanded to those who will suffer punishment: Begin from my own sanctified ones (Ezek. IX). And in the Apostle Paul we read: If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire (I Cor. III). And when we all have been in sin, and we have lied in the truth of judgment, our Lord will have mercy on us, and because we are children, He will raise us up at the time of resurrection, or He will raise us up through the virtues in which we lay in vices, with the Lord promising this and saying: But even this will not be. He said well, but He also said: because He had already said above: this will not be. For He will not be angry forever, nor will He threaten eternally (Ps. 102). He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.

7:7-9

(Verse 7 and following) This is what was shown to me: And behold, the Lord stood (in the Latin Vulgate, 'standing') on a wall made of stones, and in his hand was a trowel of a mason. And the Lord said to me, 'What do you see, Amos?' And I said, 'A trowel of a mason.' And the Lord said, 'Behold, I will set a trowel in the midst of my people Israel. I will not add to pass over him anymore, and the high places of idols will be demolished, and the sanctuaries of Israel will be deserted, and I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.' LXX: Thus the Lord showed me: And behold, a man standing on a adamantine wall, and in his hand a diamond. And the Lord said to me: What do you see, Amos? And I said: A diamond. And the Lord said to me: Behold, I will cast a diamond in the midst of my people Israel. I will no longer pass by him, and the altars of laughter will be scattered, and the sacrifices of Israel will be desolate, and I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. Before we discuss adamante, which Symmachus and the Septuagint translated as Enach in Hebrew, it should be briefly stated that this word was translated by Aquila as γάνωσιν and by Theodotion as τηκόμενον: the former meaning tinning, the latter meaning rotting; like that frying pan (which we read about in Ezekiel 4) where the siege of the people is symbolized, is also referred to as frixura (or signetur), both in the ten tribes and in the kingdom of Jeroboam (who was the grandson of Jehu, under whom this prophecy is seen) in 2 Kings 1, by the term stannaturae. Therefore the Lord is seen standing on the top of a wall made of tin or lead, and in his hand is a trowel or a mason's tray, with which walls are usually covered, and not only to receive beauty, but also strength against the damage of rain and frequent storms. We read in Ezekiel (Chapter XIII) that the Lord threatens that when a storm and hail arise, it will by no means harm or cover the wall of Israel, but will let it be scattered by the rain. And now the one of whom it is written says: He will be called the Builder of the wall, the cornerstone, the builder of the house, who will place a measuring line in the midst of his people Israel, and will make them cease and be dormant, so that he will no longer bring upon them the burden and will clothe and protect them with his help. And when the Lord withdraws his protection, and, so to speak, removes the covering of the wall, then the high places of the idols, which are called Bamoth in Hebrew, will be demolished, and the holy places of the ten tribes will be desolated, so that Dan and Bethel will be destroyed, where the golden calves were worshiped. We have said that as much as we were able, we shall tell what has been handed down to us from the Hebrews according to history. Let us move on to the anagoge, from Xenocrates, who writes a few words about the nature of stones and precious gems: 'The diamond is a stone of its own name, which we can call indomitable in Latin: because it yields to no material, not even to iron. For if it is placed on an anvil and struck with a strong blow of a hammer, the anvil and hammer receive a wound before the diamond is crushed.' And when fire consumes everything and consumes all metals, it makes adamant harder, so that not even the excessive force can dull a small corner of it. I have seen a diamond in gold the size of a thousand millia: and while gold nearby is consumed by long use and excessive age, the diamond alone is not worn down, and no file can diminish it: on the contrary, it wears down the file, and whatever it touches, it leaves a mark. This stone is the hardest and most untameable, yet it is dissolved by the blood of goats alone, and when placed in warm blood, it loses its strength. But he is small and unseemly, having a rusty color and the brilliance of crystal. Four kinds of diamonds are described. The first is Indian; the second is Arabic; the third is Macedonian; the fourth is Cyprian, possessing varying degrees of hardness depending on the quality of the regions. It is also said to detect poisons and resist the evil arts, similar to amber. Such is our Lord and Savior: who, being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in human form: he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2). Of whom Isaiah writes: He has no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. (Isaiah 53:2). This refers to Christ standing on the adamant wall, that is, on his holy apostles, whom he enabled to be called adamant and to say that they were not overcome by anyone, asking, 'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?' tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? And again: I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. VIII, 35 seqq.). And even Peter, who was the strongest diamond, the gates of hell did not prevail against him (Matt. XVI). Here is a man and Lord, who stands upon an adamant wall, holding in his hand an adamant, which unless held by the hand of God and aided by his help, loses all strength, as the Lord says in the Gospel: No one can snatch them out of my Father's hand (John 10:29). And he is so strong that it can be said to him: If you pass through fire, the flame will not burn you (Isaiah 43:2). And the more he is beaten by temptations, the stronger he becomes, and he delights in the name of the Savior amidst the lashes. And since it cannot be overcome by anyone, it is dissolved by the heat of deadly lust alone. For this is said to be the nature of the blood of goats and of the goat itself, that it is very hot for lust, and what fire cannot tame, only its blood dissolves. Therefore, the Lord places such a diamond in the midst of his people Israel, and it does not pass beyond it, nor does he allow the altars, which are worthy of ridicule and mockery, to be destroyed, and he may strike down with the sword all the mysteries of the heretics and the household of Jeroboam, who first separated the people of God, and overthrow them.

7:10-13

(Verses 10 onwards) And Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, 'Amos has rebelled against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos says: 'Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive from their own land.'' Then Amaziah said to Amos 'You seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah. There eat bread, and prophesy there. But never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is the royal residence.'' LXX: And Amasias sent priests from Bethel to Jeroboam, the king of Israel, saying: Amos is gathering groups against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land cannot endure all his words. For Amos says: Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will be led captive out of its own land. And Amasias said to Amos: You see, go forth and depart (or go) to the land of Judah, and there live and prophesy there; but do not continue to prophesy in Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary and the house of the kingdom. The proverb of Solomon, or rather the commandment, is: Do not argue with the bad, lest they hate you (Prov. IX, 8): And on the contrary, he has commanded about the good: Argue with the wise, and they will love you. In another place also: Whoever rebukes, he says, the ways of a person, will have more favor than the one who speaks what is pleasing (Prov. XXVIII, 23). Therefore, even Amos spoke to the people with the desire for correction, and he threatened terrible things from the words of God, so that those who repent would return to God and forsake idols. Then the priest of Bethel, where the golden calf was, whom Jeroboam the son of Nebat had made (3 Kings 12), and others who had succeeded him in power, sent to Jeroboam the grandson of Jehu, to inform him, saying: Amos has rebelled against you, and he is making assemblies and gatherings in the midst of your kingdom, Israel, and he speaks so boldly that the land of your kingdom cannot bear his words. Yet he dares to send to the king of Israel as if he were a high priest, fearing that if the people turn to the worship of God, he will lose his priesthood glory. And when he has heard the two, the high places will be demolished with idols, whether it is the laughter of altars or the sanctifications, or the ceremonies of Israel will be desolated, and I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword, because the idols are completely destroyed, over which Amaziah the priest presided, and may God rise up against Jeroboam with the sword, unless he repents: for he does not command harm from his own, but rather he seems to grieve only at the insult to the king. For, Amos says, these things are spoken. You are mistaken, slanderer. In all his words, he does not speak as if he were a prophet himself, but always prefaces them with: Thus says the Lord. Therefore, he recalls that Amos the prophet has spoken, in order to provoke the king to seek vengeance. What did Amos say? Jeroboam will die by the sword. And in this, you are lying: for he did not say, 'he will die'; for if he had said this, it seemed that he did not take repentance upon himself; rather, the Lord will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword: threatening punishment, not imposing it. He said not, In the sword shall Jeroboam die, but, I will arise in the sword over the house of Jeroboam. For Jeroboam indeed is not dead by the sword, but his house, that is, the son of Zacharias, was destroyed by God's striking. And Israel, he said, shall be carried away captive out of his own land: add also the rest, if he does not repent. Moreover, Jeroboam, despising the empty commands of Amos, did not want to respond to what he had commanded: hence he assumes for himself the authority of the priestly office, and speaks to Amos: Thou seest, go: flee into the land of Judah. The prophets, as we have often said, were formerly called seers, because they saw with the eyes of their heart the things that were going to happen. Let the wise reader ask why he calls the seer a prophet and forces him to come out of the land of Israel? To this, one must respond: either he says it in mockery, suggesting that he lies about everything; or because he saw that there were many people who gladly listened to him. This is why he reported to the king, 'Amos is conspiring against you.' He does not dare to openly commit an injustice, lest he appear to harm those who listen to him. Go, he said, to the land of Judah, where you were born, where the insane are gladly heard: and eat your bread there, or live there, or certainly practice your craft by which you can find food for yourself, and prophesy there, for you have many whom you are accustomed to deceive. But in Bethel, where I am the priest, you shall no longer add to prophesy, for it is the sanctification of the king and the house of the kingdom. And this false priest speaks as if flattering the royal authority, so as not to say: the sanctification is of our God and the house of the idol; but of the king and the house of the kingdom: all those who worship false gods have this custom, that they attribute their pride to kings, and what they themselves do, seems to have been done by the king. All that we have interpreted about Amasias, Jeroboam, Israel, and Amos must be referred to heretics in a rhetorical manner: of whom the priest Amasias sometimes sends to the heretical king Jeroboam, and accuses the heretical patron and holy men and preachers of faith before him, and orders the teachers not to preach in Israel or go against the will of the king; because Bethel, that is, the house of God, and the false Church, is the sanctification of the king and the house of the kingdom. For they are wont to say: 'The Emperor communicates to us, and if anyone resists them, they immediately accuse them: so are you acting against the Emperor? Do you despise the commands of Augustus?' And yet, let us consider that many Christian kings, who persecuted the Church of God, and endeavored to establish Arian impiety throughout the whole world, surpass in wickedness Jeroboam, the king of Israel. For he despised the commands of the false priest and did not want to respond to his suggestion. But they, along with many of their fellow Amasian priests, killed the prophet Amos and the priests of the Lord with hunger and shortage, imprisonments and exiles.

7:14-17

(v. 14 onwards) And Amos answered and said to Amaziah, 'I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet, but I am a herdsman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. And the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me (the Vulgate adds 'the Lord'): Go, prophesy to my people Israel. Now hear the word of the Lord: You say, 'Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of idolatry.' Therefore thus says the Lord: 'Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by a measuring line; and you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.' LXX: And Amos answered, and said to Amasiah: I was not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I gathered sycamore fruit ((or: a kind of wild fruit)), and the Lord took me from among the flock, and the Lord said to me: Go, and prophesy to my people Israel, and now hear the word of the Lord: you say, Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Jacob. Therefore, thus says the Lord: Your wife will commit adultery in the city, and your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword, and your land will be divided by a measuring line, and you will die in an unclean land; but Israel will be led captive from their own land. The Scripture recounts this which the blessed apostles did when the Scribes and Pharisees forbade them to teach in the name of Jesus; and they responded, saying: It is necessary to obey God rather than men. (Acts 4:16) We also know that the prophet Amos did this, who, being forbidden by the high priest of idols, prophesied in Bethel; he not only prophesied, but also showed that he feared God more by sending him, than by prohibiting him; and boldly and freely he himself denounced the punishment that he had tried to forbid and hinder the word of God. Not only, he said, am I not a prophet, or was not (one of whom is of humility, the other of truth) nor the son of a prophet, nor descended from the prophetic lineage; but when I was a shepherd and was pasturing the herds in the meadows, the Lord took me following the flocks. For the term 'shepherd,' which is called 'Bocer' in Hebrew, Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion, and the fifth edition translated it as 'herdsman,' who pastures herds; not sheep. The Seventy alone have called him 'shepherd' (αἰπόλον), who is properly the shepherd of goats, from the αἰπολία (the high country), which of course means a flock that grazes in high places, showing that herds of goats always climb steep rocks and lofty heights. But since he continues: 'And the Lord hath brought me forth from the sheep' (ἐκ τῶν προβάτων), he seems to suggest sheep more than goats, although in the beginning we read in Leviticus that sheep and goats are designated by the name of cattle. For thus the Lord speaks. If someone offers from the sheep, that is, from the flock, to the Lord a lamb or a kid, and a sheep or a goat (Leviticus 1:10). Furthermore, what he says, 'plucking mulberries', which Aquila interpreted as 'inspecting sycomores', and Symmachus, having sycomores, some have explained it in such a way that 'mulberries' are understood to be a type of tree that grows in the plains of Palestine, and they bring forth wild figs if they are not plucked, which become extremely bitter and are infected by mosquitoes. But for us, since the solitude in which Amos stayed does not produce any such tree, it seems more fitting to say brambles, which cause delay and provide consolation for the hunger and scarcity of the shepherds. However the reader wishes to understand it, it must be said that the Lord took on a humble and rustic shepherd, and sent him to his people Israel, and commanded him to go out from his land and journey to Samaria, and there prophesy about what is to come. Therefore, as the Lord said, you tell me, Amos: Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not drop dew upon the house of idols. Listen to what the Lord threatens against you. Concerning the house of idols, it is written in Hebrew as Beth Isaac, that is, the house of laughter (for Isaac is interpreted as laughter), which the Septuagint translated as the house of Jacob, substituting one name for another and not understanding the meaning. Again, where it says, 'Do not drop dew,' Symmachus interpreted it as 'Do not rebuke.' But to drip prophets, the language of the Scriptures is: that they do not pour out all of God's wrath at once, but rather proclaim it in small drops. Therefore, because you have said to me, 'You will not prophesy; your wife will fornicate in the city,' which Symmachus has interpreted better as 'she will be prostituted,' not that she will commit fornication herself, but that she will endure prostitution inflicted by others in a passive manner. However, it is a great pain and an incredible disgrace when a husband, in the midst of the city and in the presence of everyone, cannot prevent harm to his wife. Your sons and your daughters, he says, will also fall by the sword. There is not as much pain in a raped daughter as there is in a polluted wife, nor is there as much pain in a wife who is killed as there is in slaughtered sons. For a husband would rather hear of his wife being killed than being defiled. And this is not enough for him to feel wronged, unless his land is also divided by enemies with a rope and receives new cultivators. Even Amaziah himself, who now boasts in the power of the priesthood, will not die in his own land, but will be led captive and die in a land polluted by idols, and he will not die until he sees the people he deceived serving and captive. According to allegory, Amasias the priest is interpreted as strong and rigid ((or cold)), because he forbids the rebellious and fierce ecclesiastical man and true prophet from speaking the words and teaching of God and correcting the erring people. His wife, the false Church, will openly engage in fornication with everyone. And his sons and daughters, whom he has generated badly in error, will be struck by the sword of the Lord. His land and all his possessions will also be a portion of demons, and he himself will die in a defiled land that does not have the indwelling of God, but is contaminated by the errors of a corrupt religion, and every people who assumes a false name for itself, Israel, will migrate as captives from their land, so that they do not serve God, but submit their necks to the yoke of heretics and demons.

8:1-3

(Chapter 8, verses 1 and following) This is what the Lord God showed me: Behold, a basket of summer fruit. And he said, 'Amos, what do you see?' And I said, 'A basket of summer fruit.' Then the Lord said to me, 'The end has come upon my people Israel; I will not pass by them anymore. The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,' declares the Lord God. 'Many shall be the dead bodies, cast out in every place. Silence!' LXX: This is what the Lord God showed me: Behold, a basket of summer fruit. And he said, What do you see, Amos? And I said, A bird trap. And the Lord said to me: The end is coming upon my people Israel; I will no longer pass by them. The ceilings of the temple will wail on that day, says the Lord God. Many will fall; I will bring silence to every place. Just as Jeremiah sees with the staff of the watchmen, or the nut, because he watched over the sins of his people, so now Amos looks upon Judah and Israel together under the guise of a hook, which in Hebrew is called Chelub and is translated as a bird trap by the Septuagint; since the bird catcher is properly called Moces, as we read earlier in this same prophet: If a bird falls to the ground without a bird catcher. And the sense is this: Just as the branches of trees are drawn towards the apples to be picked, so I have drawn near the time of captivity. And so that we may know that this is what we say, God himself interprets what the vision, which the prophets had shown, signifies. The end has come upon my people Israel. And what follows: I will not pass through him anymore, signifies that he will no longer pass through the iniquities of his people, nor neglect them, nor allow their crimes to go unpunished. And not only does it seem to be said about the ten tribes, it also says: The hinges of the temple will creak, or the rafters on that day, says the Lord. But this must be understood with great excess, because such a heavy burden of evils is looming: that even the hinges of the doors themselves and the lofty rafters will howl, and they will feel an incredible devastation: when many will die, and with the inhabitants captured or killed, silence will be thrown everywhere. But if we want to read the vase of the bird-catcher instead of the hook of the apples, it must be said that just as bird-catchers attract flying birds through the air with birdlime or nets, and when they are soaring higher they pull them down to the ground, so God through Sennacherib or Nebuchadnezzar, whom we now understand as bird-catchers, first captured, bound, transferred, and killed his own free people, whom he had previously elevated through obedience to the Law. For nets are not unjustly stretched out for birds. And this is not only to be referred to the time of the captivity of Babylon, but also to the coming of the Lord Savior, when they said: Take away such a one from the earth: crucify him, crucify him (John 19:15), and they destroyed the wings of the dove. And the end came upon them, and the final captivity, and the Lord did not spare them. And the hinges of the temple wailed, or the ceilings of the temple, falling upon the slain people. And in every place there was silence, with the Jews having Moses and the Prophets, and those without the Word of God: reading the letter, and losing the spirit, when their table became a snare, and a retribution, and a ruin, and their eyes were blinded so that they could not see, and their ears were stopped so that they could not hear; and their backs were bent so that they could not look up to heaven, but rather always lay on the ground like that woman in the Gospel who had a spirit of infirmity (Mark 7), and their ears were stopped so that they could not hear; and their backs were bent so that they could not look up to heaven, but rather always lay on the ground like that woman in the Gospel who had a spirit of infirmity. And the anger of God was poured out upon them, and the fury of his wrath caught hold of them, so that their habitation became deserted, and in their tents there was no inhabitant: for when the time was fulfilled, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I will send a famine upon the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord (Hosea, ch. 4, v. 11) : of which, if we shall have arrived at the end, more fully is to be explained. Therefore, seeing this, that God spared not the natural branches, let us fear that the same may happen to us, and let us avoid the snares of the fowler; and let us say to the Lord: Be not silent, neither be thou still, O God, and depart not from me; lest being like unto them that go down into the pit (Psalm 27:1). In the whole world there has fallen a stupor of the Jewish people: wherever they are, they are the mute and dumb images of what they used to be. Blaspheming against Christ, they invoke a malediction in their synagogues and in their prayers. That their interpretation of the Scriptures may find no entrance anywhere, what new thing is said by them that have no faith? For they bore witness to what they understood not; and like human beings, they rendered judgment as diviners.

8:4-6

(V. 4, seqq.) Listen to this, you who crush the poor and make the needy of the earth fail, saying: When the month passes, we will sell our goods, and on the Sabbath, we will open the granary to decrease the measure and increase the weight; we will use deceitful scales to possess the poor in silver and sell the refuse of wheat. LXX: Listen to this, you who crush the poor in the morning and oppress the needy from the land, saying: When the month passes, we will trade and on the Sabbath, we will open the granary to make the measure smaller and the weight greater; we will use dishonest scales to possess the poor in money and the needy for shoes, and we will engage in every sale. Let the hook of the apples not appear in vain, and let the vessel of the bird catcher be shown, and through these things, the impending captivity is briefly described as the cause of offense to God. Oh, you Juda, oh you Israel, hear the crimes you have committed, rising in the night, for prayer and hymns to God: you have the zeal to oppress or crush the poor, so that they, consumed by hunger and poverty, may be taken from the land. You who wait for the new moon to engage in business, and increase interest on loans, and open your storehouses on the Sabbath, and give more grain in return, and turn the sacred festivals of God into sordid profits for your own gain: you who make the measure smaller when selling goods, and use heavier weights when receiving, and use unfair scales in order to possess the money of the poor, and hold people in such low regard that you fulfill what was said above about you: Because you sold the just for silver, and the poor for shoes: you have leaped into such greed for profit that you sell to the poor not the grain which sustains human bodies, but the refuse and chaff of the grain, mixing dust and bran. Indeed, we sometimes see even perverse teachers and rulers, who dominate the clergy without the fear of God, of whom Jeremiah speaks: Their shepherds have not benefited them (Jer. XII, 13, LXX), making a profit out of piety. They sit in the temple like moneychangers, not in cages but in seats as if they were masters, selling the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They give a smaller and larger measure to the poor, either too little or nothing at all, but to the rich and those from whom they seek profit, they speak with lengthy sermons like preachers. And for the sake of money, they crush the heads of the poor and trample on them, not offering them the Lord's grain that strengthens the heart of man, but rather feeding them scraps and the cheapest dust with eager mouths. They even sell things that are worthless, despite the fact that the Lord commanded his apostles, 'Freely you have received, freely give' (Matt. X, 8).

8:7-8

(Verse 7, 8.) The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their works. Shall not the land tremble concerning this, and every inhabitant mourn? And it shall rise up wholly like the River, and it shall be driven out and fall like the River of Egypt. Septuagint: The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will not forget all your works forever. And the land shall not be shaken because of this, and every inhabitant shall mourn, and it shall rise up like a consuming River, and it shall fall like the River of Egypt. The Scripture describes God swearing repeatedly. First in Genesis: the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven, saying: 'By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord: because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore' (Genesis 22:16-17). And in the 109th Psalm: The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: 'You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek' (Psalm 110:4). Now, whoever it is that wrote the letter to the Hebrews, discussing it says: Since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself (Heb. 6:13). And in this same prophet above we read: The Lord swore in his sanctuary, or by his sanctuary: because behold days shall come upon you and they will take you away in arms, or spears, and the rest. Therefore, he who had sworn previously in his sanctuary, or by his sanctuary, now swears against the pride of Jacob: so that if they do not believe the one threatening, they may believe the one swearing in human likeness: who assumes an oath at that time when trust is not placed in their simple words. It is not surprising, therefore, if God is said to swear, when he sleeps with those who sleep, and watches over those who are awake: and it is said that he is angry with those who have stored up wrath for themselves on the day of wrath (Rom. II) . He swears that he will not forget their works until the end; for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (Jacob. IV) ; but let them remember all the sins they have committed, and bring them to the end and the time of judgment. Hence, those who repent ((or endure patiently)) pray: Do not remember our old iniquities (Psal. LXXVIII, 8) , especially when the earth itself is moved and disturbed against the proud, not the tenant or stranger, but its inhabitant: and let the completion rise like a river, and let it descend like the river of Egypt: so that those who repent may ascend with the rising river: but those who persist in their sins may descend like the river of Egypt, and be swallowed up by the sea. And by this, it is shown that the pride of Jacob, against which the Lord swears, is to be devoured by eternal punishments.

8:9-10

(Verse 9, 10.) And it shall come to pass on that day, says the Lord (Vulgate adds God): The sun will be darkened at noon, and I will make the earth go dark in the midst of light. I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation. I will bring sackcloth upon every waist, and baldness upon every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day. LXX: And it shall come to pass on that day, says the Lord God: the sun will be darkened at noon, and darkness will come over the earth in the midst of light. I will turn your festivals into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation. I will bring sackcloth upon every loins, and baldness upon every head. I will make it like the mourning for a beloved one, and those who are with him like a day of sorrow.


That day, which is called the day of captivity, signifies the day when both peoples will be led into Assyria and Chaldea, where the sun will set at noon due to the magnitude of sadness, and clear light will fill everything, while darkness will envelop all. On that day, their festivities and all their songs will be turned into mourning and lamentation. And they will wear sackcloth on their backs or loins, and according to the custom of ancient mourners, they will have baldness on their heads, which we also read that Job did for the deaths of his children (Job 1). And so great will be the magnitude of mourning and sadness, that it will overcome the grief of a mother and a most beloved only son dying: and all things will be filled with lamentation and bitterness. We can understand this place also in the Passion of the Lord, when the sun withdrew its rays at the sixth hour, and the one not daring to look at his hanging Lord on the cross. (Luke 23): when darkness filled all things, and their festivities and songs, surpassing Vespasian and Titus, were transformed into mourning and sorrow: when all things were filled with tears, penitence, and sackcloth, and they had bald heads, who previously adorned their hair in the Nazarene style, nourished for the Lord. Then the firstborn Son of God, the people of Israel, who had extended their hand to the Only Begotten and true Son of God, was handed over to eternal mourning: and his last moments, along with those who were with him, were filled with bitterness. Now, those who rejected the sun of justice are left in darkness: we, who were sitting in the shadow of death, have seen a great light (Isaiah 9), and all their festivities have been transferred to the mysteries of the Church, so that, while they weep, we may sing praises to the Lord. They are girded with ropes and cilices: for us it is said with the apostles: Let your loins be girded ((or girt)), and lamps burning in your hands (Luke 12:35). We are girded with the truth of Christ, fulfilling that which is written: Stand fast therefore in the truth, girding your loins with truth (Ephesians 6:14). But they, on the other hand, are surrounded by the lie of the devil for the sake of truth. Our head, of whom the Savior speaks: But the very hairs of your head are all numbered (Matthew 10:30), has perpetual hair, and in our head, which is Christ, we possess strength to slay the lion. But they slept in the concubine's synagogue, and their hair was cut off by the devil, losing the power of their heads, losing their eyes with their strength, about whom it is written in Ecclesiastes: The eyes of the wise are in their head; but the fool walks in darkness. Their companions are in mourning, our companions are clothed in garments of joy.

8:11-12

(Verse 11, 12) Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will send forth (Vulgate: send) a famine upon the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the word of the Lord. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. In that day, the fair virgins and young men shall faint for thirst. Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria, and say, 'As your god, Dan, lives,' and, 'As the way of Beersheba lives,' they shall fall and never rise again. LXX: Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. And the waters shall be stirred up from the sea to the sea, and from the north to the east they shall go to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it. In that day, the fair virgins and young men shall faint with thirst, those who swear by the sin of Samaria and say: As your god lives, O Dan, and as your god lives, O Bersabee. And they shall fall, and not rise again. In Hebrew, there are no waters, and 'propitiatio,' which we translate as forgiveness, and in Hebrew is called 'Asamath', signifies idol: which is the beginning of sins. The old story tells, both in Latin and Greek, and of all barbarian nations, nothing is harsher than hunger, which often compels the besieged to feed on human flesh, and to act according to their cruel nature: so that even parents do not spare their young children, and the marital affection tears apart the limbs of the beloved wife who was once loved. If hunger of bodies causes this, what should be said about the hunger of souls? which on the day of the resurrection of the Lord oppressed the people of the Jews, and joined with the most burning hunger, the thirst of those who do not have the bread that descends from heaven, and those waters that flowed from the belly of Jesus. The Law has been taken away from them, and the Prophets have fallen into eternal silence: they move from sea to sea, and from the British Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, that is, from the West to the South, and from the North to the East, foreigners throughout the whole world, are unable to find the word of God. In what place shall we ask the Jews where they think that day signifies, in which they endure the hunger of hearing the word of God: especially when they read the Scriptures and follow the humility of the letters? To them we suggest that the predicted hunger is spiritual understanding, in which Christ is seen, the passion of the Lord is found and the resurrection is discovered. They go around the world and seek the word of the Lord, and do not find it: because they have denied the Word of the Lord, which was done in the hands of all the prophets, which was in the beginning with the Father, which was made flesh, and dwelt among us (John I). At that time, beautiful virgins and young men, both chosen and educated (for this is what 'Baurim' signifies), became scarce due to thirst. The beautiful virgins represent the synagogues, and the chosen ones represent the teachers of the people. When they became scarce, they taught that the curses of Deuteronomy were fulfilled among the Jewish people (Deut. XXVII, XXVIII, XXIX). These chosen ones and teachers swore by the idol of Samaria, namely the golden calves, and said: 'May your God, Dan, live in the borders of the land of Judah, where Paneas is now, and at that time the golden calf was worshipped there. And may your way, Bersabee, live, for they rarely traveled there due to its long and difficult journey, both the just and unjust kings of Judah.' And because they have done this, therefore they shall fall down, and shall not rise again, that is, they shall not regain the state which they had before. But the Lord sends famine into the land over those who are earthly-minded: and it is not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the word of the Lord, when because of the sins of the people the teaching fails in the Churches. And from sea to sea, that is, from the salty and most bitter waves to the sea they reach: not encountering rivers, not sweetest and various springs, but again flowing toward bitter things. And from the North to the East, desiring to abandon the North (which is the most harsh wind and is called the right one by the ignorant) and to reach the East, which they will not be able to find, because they do not travel in a straight path, but wander on winding paths, and not holding to the royal road, they are led astray by crooked windings. At that time the souls of virgins would fail, whom the Apostle calls incorrupt: and he desires them to possess eternal chastity, writing to the Corinthians: For I have espoused you to one man, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear lest as the serpent seduced Eve by his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted, and fall from the simplicity that is in Christ (II Cor. X, 2, 3). And if all virgins were beautiful or good, he would never have said that good virgins would fail; but he placed good virgins in contrast to bad ones, who are holy in body and spirit. There are five foolish virgins who did not prepare oil for their lamps (Matthew 23). But those are good and beautiful virgins who had the light of virtues and entered the bridegroom's chamber. But the virgins will fail because they will not find the word of the Lord. From this we understand that when there is no teaching in the Churches, chastity will perish, purity will die, and all virtues will depart, because they have not eaten the word of the Lord. Whoever eats it will be satisfied, as Solomon says: The righteous person satisfies his soul, but the souls of the wicked will be hungry (Proverbs 13:2). And David, who reached old age, freely sang: I was young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging for bread (Psalm 37:25). How many martyrs perished of hunger in persecutions and lacked the sustenance of these bodies? Therefore, about the bread that comes down from heaven, it is said that whoever eats it will neither hunger nor thirst. With the virgins failing, the young men will also fail, those who had previously conquered the world. And they will fail because they swear by the idol of Samaria, which we always understand to be in the person of heretics, as the same prophet says: Woe to those who despise Zion and rely on the mountain of Samaria (Amos 6:1). For heretics despise the Church of God and rely on the falsehood of their teachings, raising themselves against the knowledge of God, dividing His people, and saying: We have no share in David, no inheritance in the son of Jesse (1 Kings 12:16). If anyone swears by the sin of Samaria and says, 'As the Lord lives, Dan, and as the way of Beersheba lives,' that person will fall and will not rise again. Dan could not find a possession in the last borders of Judah, as it is written in the book of Judges (Judges 18), and it is interpreted as judgement. And Beersheba, due to the variation of accents, is translated into our language as 'well of the oath' or 'well of satisfaction' or 'well of the seventh.' Therefore, heretics at the ends of the holy Scriptures thirst, despising the judgement of God and desiring the way of Beersheba, which was in the tribe of Judah. And desiring to imitate many sacraments of the Church, they claim to be satisfied and filled. To them, the Apostle Paul reproaches: Already you are satisfied, already you have become rich (1 Corinthians 4:8), and they swear in the name of the Lord, who once fell because they regarded their idols as their god and will not rise again. But those who want to repent and do not say, 'As the Lord lives, Dan, and as the way of Beersheba lives,' will hear through Jeremiah: Can one who falls not rise again? Or one who turns away not return? (Jeremiah 8:4).

9:1

(Chapter 9, Verse 1) I saw the Lord standing upon the altar, and he said: Strike the hinge, and let the thresholds tremble: for greed is at the head of all, and with the sword I will kill their last one. There will be no escape for them: they will flee, and no one who flees will be saved. LXX: I saw the Lord standing upon the altar, and he said: Strike upon the mercy seat, and the vestibules will be shaken: and scatter upon the heads of all, and with the sword I will kill the rest of them. He shall not flee from those who flee; and he shall not be saved from those who are saved. He who, with Ezekiel and John the Baptist, has seen the heavens opened (Ezek. I; Mat. III), and the veil that was placed before the face of Moses (Exod. XXXIV), has been taken away from his eyes, so that what is written may be fulfilled: The commandment of God is a clear light illuminating the eyes (Ps. XVIII, 9); this person will see the Lord standing upon the altar, and commanding the prophet, or, as many believe, the angel who is bound to administer the punishments for sins, to strike the hinges of the temple, or the mercy seat, and cause its lintels or vestibules to tremble. And when, he says, the temple has been dissolved and destroyed because of the wickedness of men, and my wrath has begun from my sanctuary, let everyone recognize that they cannot escape, with greed possessing all things, and that their final end is death, and no defenses can help them escape the judgment of God: and what we read according to the Septuagint, that he dispersed it among the heads of all, their heads are beautifully divided, who by their own choice have separated themselves from him who is the head of all, and have said: We have no king except Caesar (John 19:15), who with impious voice cried out: Crucify, crucify such a one. And: His blood be upon us, and upon our children. All of these things we can refer to the heretics, whose altar is struck, and all initiations and sacraments are profaned, who have greed in their heads, with the partridge crying out through them, and gathering those whom she did not bring forth, and making riches without judgment (Jer. XVII). Therefore, the Lord will also destroy his final remains or relics, so that the begun chapter may be completed, and his end will be foolish. But when the Lord strikes the hinges and wields his sword against them, there will be no one who can escape or deflect the impending sword of the Lord. And at the same time, it should be noted that, while the Lord is standing on the altar, the propitiatory or hinges of the temple are struck first, then the vestibules are shaken, thirdly the heads of all are divided, and fourthly those who remain are killed with the sword. For unless the Lord tramples the arrogance of heretics with his foot and strikes their perverse and wicked doctrine with the spiritual sword, and divides their masters, who are accepted as leaders, among themselves, and strikes them in a good way, the disciples cannot be brought to life, according to what is written: I will kill and give life: I will strike and heal (Deut. XXXII, 39). The teachers are killed and beaten so that the students may live: the heads are divided so that the other members may be healed.

9:2-5

(Vers. 2 seqq.) If they descend to the depths, my hand will bring them up from there. And if they ascend to heaven, I will bring them down from there. And if they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, I will search and take them from there. And if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, I will command the serpent to bite them. And if they go into captivity before their enemies, I will command the sword to kill them. I will set my eyes upon them for evil and not for good. And the Lord, the God of hosts, who touches the earth and it withers, and all who dwell in it mourn, and it rises like the Nile, and sinks again, like the river of Egypt. Seventy: If they are buried in Sheol, from there my hand will pluck them up; and if they ascend to heaven, from there I will bring them down. If they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, from there I will search them out and take them; and if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, from there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them; and if they go into captivity before their enemies, from there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them; and I will fix my eyes upon them for evil and not for good. And the Lord God Almighty, who touches the earth and shakes it, and all its inhabitants will mourn, and their end will come like a flood, and their downfall like the river of Egypt. He who said before, there will be no escape for them, now cuts off their escape into separate parts, and hyperbolically testifies that even if they do this and that, they will not be able to escape. If they descend to the depths, he says, my hand will bring them out from there: not because anyone is able to be pulled back from the depths before the day of resurrection, but because even those in the depths are under His power. We learn that what was foretold about Dathan and Abiron has come to pass, whom the gaping earth swallowed up while they were still alive (Numbers 16). And if they were to ascend, it is said, even to the heavens, I will bring them down from there; for Enoch and Elijah, taken up with their bodies into heaven (Genesis 5; 2 Kings 4), are governed by the will of God. Consider the different realms: we descend to hell, we ascend to heaven; we are brought forth from hell, we are brought down from heaven. In the former, there is extreme despair; in the latter, there is the greatness of pride. If they should hide in the summit of Carmel, or near the borders of Phoenicia in the northern region, or towards the south due to the vastness of the desert, where Nabal the Carmelite used to live (1 Samuel 25), then, he says, I will search and take them away: and if they attempt to avoid the eyes of God in the depths of the sea (Jonah 1), or as I speak of the prophet, in Tarshish, there I will command the serpent, which here signifies Leviathan or a whale, to come against the enemies through the serpent and the whale. And he will bite them, that is, he will devour them with his jaws. And lest we feel any captivity from the enemies through the things he said above, Scripture opens up what he had previously said in riddles. And if they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it will kill them, so that they may not think of the end of their evils as servitude; but let the hostile sword also pierce the captured ones: and those who are able to survive and escape death, may not escape the gaze of God, but he shall set his eyes upon them for evil, and not for good, so that he may always visit them and compel them to penance through torments. And the almighty God declares that He will do these things, at whose touch and command the foundations of the earth are shaken or decay, and all its inhabitants are filled with weeping and mourning. He speaks these words to show the magnitude of His divine power, not that He actually desires to do what He threatens; for His powers do not fulfill His will. But if the earth decays or trembles, even insensible nature perceives its Creator; how much more so does man, a fragile creature whose spiritual treasure is enclosed in earthen and corporeal vessels? And just as the river of Egypt flows into the sea and is sucked up, so too the land of Israel, of which it was said above: Whoever touches the land and decays, shall go into captivity and be devoured by enemies; in a metaphorical sense, what is possessed emerges from what is possessed, as indicated by divine speech. And we have interpreted these things in accordance with the order of the following history, as best we could, although our understanding may have failed in some instances. Furthermore, David explains the entire extent of this place, saying: Lord, you have tested me and you know me (Ps. 139:1). And immediately he adds: Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your face? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn and settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me; your right hand will hold me fast (cf. Ps 139:7-10). In Deuteronomy, we read something similar: This commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away. It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?' (cf. Deut 30:11-12). Nor is it placed beyond the sea, so that you may say: Who will go across the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it, but the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it (Deuteronomy XXX, 11, 12). For when the soul, released from the bodily bonds, has the freedom to fly wherever it wishes or is compelled to go, due to its subtle substance, will it be led to the underworld (of which it is written: Let sinners be turned into hell, all the nations that forget God (Psalm IX, 18)). And, in hell, who will confess to you? (Psalm 6:6) And, your glory descended into hell. (Psalm 48:18) Certainly, he will be lifted up to heavenly things, where spiritual wickedness is in the heavens, and if he desires to claim the knowledge of true circumcision, for this is interpreted as Carmelus, and with contempt for humility, he will dwell in the mountains, and there he will not be able to escape the searching hand of God. But if, in despair of salvation, he attempts to avoid the eyes of the Lord and reaches the furthest boundaries of false waves, even there the Lord will command the twisted and ancient serpent (Revelation 20), who is the enemy and avenger, and he will bite her. Also, she will be punished by the sword of the Lord for her vices and sins, and He will set His eyes upon her for evil, not for good, so that through torture and punishment she may return to the Lord. And when Almighty God touches their land and shakes it, and causes all earthly things to wither, understanding their crimes, they will turn to mourning, and the Lord Himself will ascend and descend twofold. He will ascend over the saints like a river of consummation, that is, of the earth, in order to consume their earthly works. He will descend upon sinners like the river of Egypt, so that they may be cast into the bitterness of torment by the force of the Lord.

9:6

(Verse 6.) He who builds his ascent in heaven and establishes his foundation on earth: he who calls the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name. LXX: He who builds his ascent in heaven and establishes his promise on earth: he who calls the water of the sea and pours it out upon the face of the earth: The Lord Almighty is his name. The Lord God Almighty, who looks upon or touches the earth and moves it, is the one who daily builds his ascent in heaven and says in the Gospel: My Father is still working, and I am working as well (John 5:17). And not only did God build Eve from Adam's rib as a figure of the Church (Gen. II), but He daily builds believers and members of His body, and lifts them from the earth to heaven, so that He Himself may ascend in them. The Lord ascended into heaven with Enoch (Gen. V), ascended with Elijah (IV Kings II), ascended with Moses, whose burial place could not be found on earth because he had ascended to heaven (Deut. XXXIV). He ascended with Paul, who was a chosen vessel, and was transformed from a persecutor into an apostle (2 Cor. 12). He was caught up to the heights, so that he ascended to the third heaven, and through the Holy Spirit and the Son, he reached the Father, and heard unspeakable words, the mysteries of the Trinity, which are not lawful for humans to hear. Therefore, he who ascends daily in the holy ones, has established his bundle on the earth, of which it is said in the Gospel: Fear not, little flock, for it has pleased my Father to dwell in you (Luke 12:32). This bundle is bound together by the one religion of the Lord. From this, the religion itself received its name from being bound and united in the bundle of the Lord. Moreover, according to the Seventy, it founded its promise upon the earth so that all the promises that the holy prophets sang with their mouths may not be empty sounds and the mere names of tropology, but be poured out upon the earth. And when they have the foundations of history, then they may receive the summit of spiritual understanding: that truly Christ was born of the Virgin, truly raised Lazarus from the dead, truly healed the woman with a flow of blood at his touch, truly the blind saw upon the coming of the Lord, the lame ran, the contracted hands were extended, the leprosy was cleansed; even though according to tropology the divine word is born every day from the virginal soul, every day those dead to sin and bound by the cords of vices may be ordered to come forth from the tomb of their crimes, every day the works of blood may be restrained, the blind may see in the faith of Christ, the lame may run in the way of the Lord, and the withered hands of greed may be stretched out for almsgiving, and the leprosy of Mary, which contaminates whatever it touches, may receive its former purity (Num. 12). But this Lord also calls the most bitter waters of the sea, and pours them out upon those who have turned their faces to the Lord. He calls them bitter waters so that he may make them sweet and brings forth winds from his treasuries and commands the heavy waters to be suspended in the height with its saltiness, straining and boiling them with ethereal heat, and dispenses them as rain, and sends them down upon the face of the earth, so that dry things may be moistened by rains, and where sin has abounded, grace may superabound.

9:7-8

Are you not like the children of Ethiopia to me, O sons of Israel, says the Lord? Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Cappadocia, and the Syrians from Cyrene? Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth: yet will I not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the Lord. LXX: Are you not like the children of Ethiopia to me, O sons of Israel, says the Lord? Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir? Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth. Yet I will not completely destroy the house of Jacob, says the Lord. As for Cyrene, Aquila and the fifth edition have put the Hebrew word itself, Cir (), and the Septuagint the pit, that is, βόθρον, Theodotion the wall, Symmachus Cyrene: whom we also followed in this place. I will conclude the understanding of this whole passage that I have proposed, and of all that is contained in this chapter, with a brief discourse, up to the point where it is written: Those who say, 'Evil will not come to us, and the sword will not come upon us,' so that we may know what is said: I am the Lord God Almighty, who cannot be hidden, who touches the earth and it quakes; who builds my ascension in heaven; who calls forth the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the face of the earth; whose name is the Lord, who am the creator of all things: I fashioned all peoples from the same clay and generated them by an equal lot. Finally, I have brought together the Ethiopians, Palestinians, Syrians, and Jews, who are distant in location and body, under the law of mortality. I also exchange and move my slaves here and there at my own discretion, and transfer them to all provinces. Do not become proud because I led you out of Egypt and did not allow you, as my chosen people, to serve Pharaoh: I have done the same with the Palestinians, whom the Seventy foreigners transported, who are called Caphthorim in Hebrew, in order to transfer them from Cappadocia and settle them in the regions of Palestine. I also transferred the Syrians, that is, the Aramaeans, from Cyrene. From this, those who have become equal in status will be punished by the judgment of my equal justice, and I will overthrow all impious kingdoms without discrimination of persons. But you, O sons of Israel, of whom I said: My firstborn son is Israel (Exod. IV, 22). And: Out of Egypt I called my son (Hosea XII, 1), I will strike with a rod, and I will visit your sins; but I will not destroy you forever, and I will not take away my mercy from you (Ps. LXXXVIII), and like those shaken and sifted in a sieve, I will cleanse and choose, so that whoever is a stone, and strengthened by repentance, will not fall from my sieve; but whoever falls like dust to the ground, let them be struck by the sword, so that they may die, the sinners of my people, not because they have sinned before, but because they have persevered in sins until death. But everyone in Israel, who sees God with their mind and is led out of Egypt, if they desire the vices of Egypt and the delights of the world, not only return to Egypt, but also to Ethiopia, in which, according to Jeremiah (Chap. 13), they cannot change their skin; they are saved by the coming of Christ, and what is written is fulfilled in him: Ethiopia will stretch out her hands to God (Psalm 68:31). And when they worship him, it will be said of them: The Ethiopians will fall before him (Psalm 72:9). Those who have fallen down and carried victims from Ethiopia across the rivers to the Lord, will be able to say: I am dark and beautiful, because the sun has made me pale (Song of Solomon 1:4). For bodies withering in shadows and idleness cannot endure the temptations and heat of the world; but those that are prepared for struggle and contests, having been dried by the sun, overcome the injustices of the world and obtain the blessing of the Holy Spirit, as it says to the just: The sun shall not scorch you by day, nor the moon by night (Psalm 121:6). Therefore, the Ethiopians are turned into the children of God, if they repent, and the children of God are turned into Ethiopians, if they have fallen into the depths of sins. For the Creator God Himself turns the Cappadocians into Palestinians, and those who were engaged in the coldness of faith, and were subjected to the harsh northerly wind, He made to fall, and having set aside their pride, they felt the judgment of the Lord. He also transferred the Syrians, that is, the lofty and sublime ones, who were called Aramaeans, from Cyrene to a weak wall, or that which threatened the most bitter sea, and was near the Syrtes, and was held in a pit next to seventy (others), into a good direction, so that He might make them lofty. For the eyes of the Lord are over all kingdoms of sin, which the devil shows to the Lord (Matthew 4), and about which the Apostle says: Sin does not reign in your mortal body, to obey its desires (Romans 6:12). However, when he visits sinners with his rod and crushes and strikes those who remain in sin, he does not allow those souls who are called the house of Jacob, who supplant sin and overcome in battle, and attack the heel of the bloody brother, to perish forever.

9:9-10

(Verses 9, 10.) Behold, I will give the command, and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations, as grain is shaken in a sieve, and not a pebble will fall to the ground. All the sinners of my people will die by the sword, those who say: 'No disaster will come near or overtake us.' LXX: For behold, I will command and sift the house of Israel among all the nations, as one sifts with a sieve, and no fragment shall fall to the ground. All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say: 'Evil shall not come near, nor shall any good come upon us.' God, who measures the waters with the palm of his hand, and the heavens with his span, and closes up the whole earth with his fist (Isaiah 40), he himself, by his greatness, will shake the edges of the earth to and fro like a sieve: so that the chaff and the filth of sinners falling to the ground, may leave behind pure wheat, which will be stored in the barns; or as the Septuagint translated, he will hold a fan in his hand and will cleanse his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barns, but he will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire; concerning which the Lord speaks through Jeremiah: 'What has straw to do with the wheat?' (Jeremiah 23:28). Of this same thing, under the figure of another parable, that fishing-net shows, which is cast into the sea of this world, and draws forth fishes of every kind; and when the bad have been cast away, only the good are kept (Matthew 13). In the same way, the Lord has dispersed the wretched house of Israel throughout the whole world, and has shaken it in a sieve and fanned it with a winnowing fork; and the stones and pebbles not falling to the ground, those who are called sinners on account of the filth and dust shall die by the sword. And they endure this because they do not believe the prophecies of the prophets, nor do they think that the things which the Lord threatens through them will come to pass. And when they promise themselves prosperity, they will suffer evil afterwards, opposite to the saints who fear and do not sin, and therefore do not die by the sword, because they said: Evils will come near us, and punishments will come upon us, which our sins have deserved, about which God speaks more fully in Jeremiah: I will take up and speak against that nation and kingdom, to pluck up and to break down; if that nation turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it (Jer. XVIII, 7, 8). Therefore God is not changed, who is always unchangeable; but we change him by our conversion. He rages, he gets angry, he threatens, and he says that he will inflict punishment: if we repent, he too will repent of his sentence. Again, next to the same Jeremiah (Chapter XVII), he promises prosperity: if we are dissolved in negligence, he will repent of his promise and change it. We can see an example of this in Nineveh and Jerusalem, some of whom were freed from impending punishments, while others lost what had been promised to their fathers.

9:11-13

(Vers. 11 seqq.) In that day I will raise up the fallen tent of David, and rebuild its broken walls, and restore what has collapsed, and rebuild it as it was in ancient times, that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name, declares the Lord who is doing these things. LXX: In that day I will raise up the fallen tent of David, and rebuild its broken parts, and raise up what has been buried, and restore it as in the ancient days, that they may seek me, the remnant of humanity, and all the nations over whom my name has been called, declares the Lord who is doing all these things. Where the authority of the apostles prevails, especially that of Peter and James, whom the vessel of election calls the pillars of the Church (Galatians 2), there all suspicion of various explanations is to be removed, and what is expounded by such great men is to be followed. In the book of Acts, a question arose among the apostles as to why Paul and Barnabas had received men from the Gentiles without circumcision and observance of the Sabbath. Peter answered, as he should: and James, approving his opinion, spoke these words: Men, brothers, listen to me: Simon has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for his name, and the words of the prophets agree with this, as it is written: After this, I will return and rebuild the fallen tent of David. I will rebuild its ruins and set it up again, so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who does these things, known from of old (Acts 15:13 and following). Therefore this tabernacle of David, which had fallen (had fallen, however, among those who say, it will not come near, and no evil will come upon us: those whom the Lord had shaken and tested with His sieve, and whose threshing floor of His majesty He had purged with His winnowing fan, and all sinners He had killed with the sword), now according to the custom of the Scriptures, after tortures, after punishments, promising prosperity and joy, declares that He will raise it up, and in the resurrection of the Lord restore all things, so that what had fallen in the synagogues may rise in the Churches, and believers may possess the remnants of Edom, and all nations, so that whatever remains of the bloody and earthly kingdom may be transformed into heavenly kingdoms, and all peoples who have forgotten the Lord may be converted and return to Him. But if we want to read according to the LXX, those who are left of mankind, and all the nations upon whom my name has been invoked, we should accept as those who have believed from the Jewish people, and as those who have not fallen like a small stone from the sieve, nor have been thrown out with the dust and chaff. For the remnants will be saved at the beginning of faith, and at the end of the world, so that when the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, then all Israel will be saved (Romans 11). But the name of the Lord which is invoked above the rest and above all nations, that is what the Savior says: Father, I have revealed your name to men (John 17:6). And so that I do not delay the rule of covenants with a long discourse, and in this prophet, and in the other things whatsoever are preached about the building of Jerusalem (the walls of Jerusalem) and the temple, and the blessedness of all things, the Jews in the last time promise themselves in vain expectation, and they mention things to be fulfilled carnally. But we who do not follow the letter that kills, but the life-giving Spirit, now in the Church we are convinced of fulfillment, and every day it is fulfilled in individuals who, falling through sin, are rebuilt through repentance.

9:14-15

(Verse 14, 15.) Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will bring back the captives of My people Israel; they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; they shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them, says the Lord your God. LXX: Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will bring back the captives of My people Israel; they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; they shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them, says the Lord your God Almighty. The raising up of the tent of David, which had fallen, and the rebuilding of what had been destroyed and overturned, is described as the abundance of all things, how those who previously went, went and wept, carrying their seeds, and those who come will come with joy, carrying their bundles; so that the threshing of the bundles may yield a harvest, whether the plowman is reaping and the grape is being gathered, and bring forth color in the time of sowing; or, more truly, that the wine presser may grasp the seed of the grape, and so all things may succeed one another, that no day may be without wheat, wine, and joy. At that time, grapes will be crushed in full winepresses, and must flowing with the blood of Christ and the martyrs will be poured out. And the one who crushes the grapes in this way will be the seedbed of the Word of God, so that their blood may cry out in the world more than the blood of Abel the just cried out. But whoever has rightfully ascended to the mountains of virtue will sweat with honey, indeed, will drip with the sweetness of the Word of God, of which it is written: 'Taste and see how good the Lord is' (Psalm 33:9), and 'How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth' (Psalm 119:103). And those who are below the mountains, or rather, second from the mountains, which the bridegroom leaps over in the Canticle of Canticles (Song of Songs), and calls hills, they will be planted and will imitate the paradise of God: so that all the fruit of doctrine may hang on them. Then if anyone is held captive by unbelief, and has not yet believed in the name of the Lord, and is from the remnants of his people, the former Israel, he will return to the faith of Christ, so that he may hold in the Gospel what he heard in the Prophets. But the mountains shall drop sweetness, and the hills shall be planted with vineyards: after the conversion of the Lord, they shall build cities which were desolate before, and shall dwell in them: and they shall plant vineyards, and shall drink the wine of them: they shall make gardens, and eat the fruits of them. And I will plant them upon their own land: and I will no more pluck them out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God. (Amos 9:14-15) And in the Psalms it is said: The impetus of the river gladdens the city of God (Ps. XLV, 4). They will also plant a vineyard of Noah (Gen. IX), and they will drink its wine, and they will become intoxicated, and they will hear from the Lord Savior: Drink, my friends, and become intoxicated (Cant. V, 1). But they will drink the wine, which he promised to drink anew with his apostles in the kingdom of the Father (Mark XIV). This is the vineyard of Sorec, whose wine we drink daily in the mysteries. Not content with the happiness of these things, they will make delightful gardens and water them, so that no kinds of virtues are lacking in them, and they will eat their fruits. For whoever plants and waters, he himself also will eat. And when all these things are done by mountains and hills, giving forth sweetness, and by building cities, and by dwelling in them, planting vineyards, and drinking their wine, making gardens, and eating their fruits, then the Lord will plant these planters upon his land, of which it is said: I believe that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living (Psalm 26:13). And in the Gospel: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth (Matt. 5:4). But after he has planted them and their roots have grown deep, they will no longer be uprooted from the earth he has given them. From this we understand that the Church, even though it is shaken by persecutions, can never be destroyed; it may be tested, but it will not be overcome. And this will happen because the Lord God Almighty, or the Lord God of the Church, has promised to make it so, and his promise is the law of nature.