Commentary on the Prophet Zephaniah by Saint Jerome of Stridon, a Presbyter, Book One.

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

Table of Contents Prologue 1:1 1:2-3 1:4-6 1:7 1:8-9 1:10 1:11 1:12 1:13-14 1:15-16 1:17-18 2:1-2 2:3-4 2:5-7 2:8-11 2:12-15 3:1-7 3:8-9 3:10-13 3:14-18 3:19-20

Prologue

Before I take on the book of Zephaniah, which is the ninth in the order of the twelve prophets, it seems necessary to respond to those who consider me worthy of ridicule, because I write to you first, O Paula and Eustochium, instead of men. If they knew that women like Deborah prophesied and judged, and that Judith and Esther, as types of the Church, killed their enemies and saved Israel from danger, while men remained silent, they would never raise a hand against me behind my back. I am silent about Anna and Elizabeth, and the other holy women, whose bright lights, like stars, hide the shining light of Mary. I will come to the pagan women, so that they may see, as even among the philosophers of the world, it is the differences of souls that are usually sought, not of bodies. Plato presents Aspasia arguing: Sappho is mentioned with Pindar and Alcaeus: Themista converses among the wisest of Greek philosophers: Cornelia, of the Gracchi, that is, yours, is admired by the entire crowd of the Roman city: Carneades, the most eloquent of philosophers, the keenest of rhetoricians, who was accustomed to arouse applause among consular men and in the Academy, did not hesitate to discuss philosophy in a private home, with a matron listening. What shall I say about Cato's daughter, Brutus' wife, whose virtue makes us marvel so much at the constancy of her father and husband? The history of female virtues is full of both Greek and Latin examples, and they demand entire books. But for now, because I have another task at hand, it suffices to say at the end of the prologue that the Lord first appeared to women when he rose again (Matthew 28 and Luke), and those women were apostles so that men would be ashamed not to seek what the more fragile sex had already found.

1:1

(Chapter I, Verse 1) The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah. The Septuagint similarly. The Hebrews report that the father or grandfather of any prophet is mentioned in the title, indicating that they themselves were also prophets. Therefore, Amos, one of the twelve prophets, who said, 'I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet, but I am a herdsman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit' (Amos 7:14), does not have his father's name mentioned in the title. If this is true, Sophonias the prophet, whom we are now attempting to explain, received a prophetic name, so to speak, and was born from the glorious lineage of his ancestors; for he had Chusi as his father, Godolias as his grandfather, Amarias as his great-grandfather, and Ezechias as his great-great-grandfather: and he himself completed such a team of horses as the last charioteer. Some have translated the name Sophonias as "watchtower," others as "hidden by the Lord." Therefore, whether it is interpreted as a watchtower or as hidden by the Lord, both meanings apply to the prophet. For it is said also to Ezekiel: Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel (Ezek. III, 17). And in another place: The Lord does nothing unless he reveals his secret to his servants, the prophets. And the title of the ninth psalm is interpreted as for the hidden things of the son. Therefore, this prophet, who was in the watchtower and stationed on high, and knew the mysteries of the Lord, was the son of Cush (which is interpreted as humility, or my Ethiopian, about whom we will discuss later), and he also had a grandfather named Godoliah, who is called the greatness of the Lord, and a great-grandfather named Amariah, who also turns into the word of the Lord: and a great-great-grandfather named Hezekiah, which means the strength of the Lord. About the strength of the Lord, the word of the Lord was born. And from the word of the Lord, the magnitude of the Lord was born. And from the magnitude of the Lord, humility was born, so that when someone reaches perfection, they may say: I am not worthy to be called an apostle (I Corinthians 9). And that in the Psalms: Lord, my heart is not exalted, nor are my eyes lofty (Psalm 130:1). Up until now, we have stumbled like one in a downward slide, and running on level ground, in what Chusi, even my Ethiopian, interprets. For after so many virtues, how can the name of the Ethiopian sound in praise? And indeed, if the Scripture had said 'Chus', that is, Ethiopian, the question seemed unsolvable; for Chus was born of Cham. But in what he says, 'Chusi', that is, my Ethiopian, it seems to sound a mystery: that he who was once an Ethiopian, turned to repentance (according to what is said: 'Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands to God' (Ps. 68:32)). And in another place (Ps. 71, 9): Ethiopians shall fall before him. Let the bride say in the Song of Songs: I am black, but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem (Song of Songs 1, 4). We also read in Jeremiah that Abdimelech, an Ethiopian eunuch, pleased God (Jer. 38). And in the Acts of the Apostles, we learn that the Ethiopian eunuch of the queen Candace had such a devotion to the Scriptures and the Law of God that he would read them in his chariot, and came to Jerusalem to worship the Lord in his temple (Acts 8, 9). Where such faith is crowned with fitting reward, and Philip the evangelist is sent to him, and immediately he is taught, believes, is baptized, and is saved. And not only is he a eunuch, but with the additional descriptor of man, he is an Ethiopian eunuch. For because he was a eunuch for Christ's sake, and had castrated himself for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, therefore he had not lost the label of man. And rightly also does Zephaniah, like the son of Cush, that is, the Ethiopian, in the later books write of the repentance of the Ethiopians: Through the rivers, he says, of Ethiopia, they shall bring my offerings from there. This is about the genealogy of Zephaniah, who prophesied in the days of Josiah. However, the days are also called of Elijah those who were enlightened by him: just as the days of Josiah, who had risen to the Lord (for Josiah means the lifting up of the Lord) and he was a righteous man. The history also writes about his praises, as well as the Chronicles and the Book of Kings (2 Kings 23 and 2 Chronicles 34). And he had a father named Ammon and a grandfather named Manasseh (2 Kings 21). We read that Manasseh, after many crimes and after the captivity in Babylon, repented and obtained the mercy of the Lord, who turned him to better things. And because of his faith, by which he believed in God, he called his son ἐπώνυμον, that is, Ammon: since Ammon () means faith. At the same time, consider that the ten tribes, that is, the kings of Israel, are not mentioned above, but only the kings of Judah. For indeed, the ten tribes had been taken into captivity by the Assyrians under King Hezekiah, the father of Manasseh (2 Kings 17). This is in the prologue and in the title of the book of Zephaniah, concerning the generation and time. Now let us see what the prophecy itself contains.

1:2-3

(Verse 2, 3.) Gathering I will gather all from the face of the earth, says the Lord, gathering man and beast, gathering the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea: and the ruins of the wicked will be, and I will destroy men from the face of the earth, says the Lord. LXX: They will fail from the face of the earth, says the Lord: man and beast will fail: the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea will fail ÷ and the wicked will be weakened, and I will remove the unjust from the face of the earth, says the Lord. What we have placed in the Septuagint, and the wicked will be weakened, was added from Theodotion's translation: for which Symmachus interpreted, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked, so that it is understood, will be gathered, or will fail. But the fifth edition, the weakness will fail with the wicked. Therefore, following our custom, we must first relate the history, and afterwards debate about the higher things. For it is beyond doubt that the final kingdom of the two tribes, which were called Judah and Benjamin, was under Josiah. For, with him being killed, his sons who later reigned and his grandsons should not be believed to have ruled so much as to have been mocked by the Egyptian king and the Chaldeans and various captivities and tortures. Therefore, because the people were able to excuse themselves in the face of wicked kings and say, 'We want to serve God, but we are prohibited by the kings,' a just king is given, who zealously seeks the zeal of the Lord, and yet the people persist in the worship of idols. Thus, a just cause for anger is brought forth by the Lord, and the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of Judah and the victory of Nebuchadnezzar are prophesied. And the Lord said through the prophet: I will no longer show mercy; instead I will consume everything on the face of the earth: no man, no beast, no bird, no fish of the sea will remain. For even the animals feel the anger of the Lord; and with cities destroyed and people killed, a desolation and scarcity of beasts, birds, and fish also occurs, as witness is Illyricum, witness is Thrace, witness is where I was born, a land where everything, except the sky and the earth and the growing thorns, and the thickets of the forests, has perished. However, as the prophet says, this will happen because there was an excessive multitude of the wicked. Therefore, the wicked will fall and people will be scattered, and there will be desolation upon the face of the earth. But we can also understand this as referring to the end of the world: both humans, animals, birds, fish of the sea, and everything will fail and weaken, and the wicked will be weakened, and iniquity will be removed from the face of the earth. And if we want to understand something deeper (because it is also said in the Septuagint, 'Defection will fail from the face of the earth'), we can take the defection in a positive sense according to this: 'And Abraham died in a good old age, an old man and full of days, and was gathered to his people' (Genesis 25:8), and we see how those who are of the descendants of Isaac and Jacob fulfill this by defection from the world, in accordance with the command: 'For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ' (Philippians 3:20). But if someone opposes this which we have accepted in a positive way, let him perish by defection from the face of the earth, that which is written about Ishmael: These are the years of the life of Ishmael, one hundred and thirty-seven, and he died in defection, and he was assigned to his own tribe (Gen. XXV, 17): we will first respond to him that Ishmael is the son of Abraham, and he received gifts and portions from his father, according to his measure: then, it is absolutely written, he died in defection, and it is not added (as it is written about Abraham) in a good old age, an old man and full of days, and he was assigned to his people. Concerning Isaac: Now the days of Isaac's life were one hundred and eighty-five years. And Isaac grew weak and died, and he was gathered to his people, an old man and full of days (Genesis 35:28-29). Also concerning Jacob: And Jacob ceased commanding his sons, and drawing up his feet onto the bed, he grew weak and was gathered to his people (Genesis 49:33). From this we understand that there is a difference between simply growing weak and having many virtues together with weakness. But what he had first said in a general way, let man fall away from the face of the earth; afterwards scripture divided it into parts, let man fall away, and let the beasts, let the birds of the sky fall away, and let the fish of the sea. There are four things which are commanded to fall away, first rational man, then the three things which are subject to man, the beasts, and the birds, and the fish which I think are also mentioned in the eighth psalm: Also the animals of the field, the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, which travel the paths of the sea (Psalm VIII, 8). But that which he first said, he separated all the sheep and cattle, as if they were the principal of the livestock, and he did not want to count the remaining livestock with them. Let man fail, let the livestock fail, let the birds of the sky fail, let the fish fail; and he did not say, let the beasts fail, let the reptiles of the earth fail. For these should not fail, but perish; but let those things fail which can have correction. How the feminine qualities of Sarah failed, and Abraham is commanded to listen to whatever Sarah commands. Who fails as a human, if he despises human things, and does not die anymore as a human, and listens: I said, you are gods. Another fails as an animal, who, when ascending to higher things, is not accused in prophetic speech: Man, when he was in honor, did not understand, he was compared to foolish animals, and became like them. He departs like the fleeting heaven, who makes wings for himself like an eagle, and returns to the house of his rich teacher, leaving all poverty behind (Prov. XXIII). He departs like a fish of the sea, who, caught in the nets of the Lord, is separated from the good fishes (Matt. XIII). When these things are done according to the commandment of the Lord, the wicked will be weakened, not having as much strength as before. And the unjust will be removed, not said to be killed, but removed, so that, having been converted to better things, from impiety and injustice, they may begin to be what they were not before: pious and just. This is according to allegory. For we must also include the interpretation of the Ancients. Now it will be in the reader's discretion whether they wish to convey severity or clemency in what has been said.

1:4-6

(Verse 4 and following) And I will stretch out my hand over Judah and over all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and I will destroy from this place the remnants of Baal, and the names of the idolatrous priests together with the priests, and those who worship on the rooftops the host of heaven, and those who worship and swear by the Lord, and swear by Melchom; and those who turn away from the Lord, and those who have not sought the Lord or inquired of him. LXX: And I will stretch out my hand over Judah, and over all who dwell in Jerusalem, and I will remove from this place the names of the Baals, and the names of the priests with the priests, and those who worship on the rooftops the host of heaven, and those who swear by the Lord, and swear by their king, and those who turn away from the Lord, and those who do not seek the Lord, and those who do not retain the Lord. After the downfall of the impious and the removal of the wicked from the face of the earth, consequently, regarding Judah and Jerusalem, it is said in the person of the Lord: 'And I will stretch out my hand over Judah and over all the inhabitants of Jerusalem' (for the stretching out of the hand indicates the gesture of striking); 'and I will destroy from this place the remnants of Baal' (not that the names of the Baals according to the Septuagint are to be completely eradicated, but rather that the worshippers of Baal, who remained few in number from the slaughter of the enemies in Judah and Jerusalem, are to be removed). The names of the priests, as well as the temple attendants, were also mentioned. Judas and Benjamin had fallen into such great impiety that they set up a statue of Baal in the Temple of the Lord, as Ezekiel writes and the fourth book of Kings shows. This statue, which the Lord calls the image of jealousy, and the idols in the same sanctuary were worshipped both by priests and the Lord (Ezekiel VIII). Hence, the priests of the idols were specifically called not priests, but 'temple attendants' or fanatics, which in Hebrew is called Acchumarim (4 Kings X and XVII). So the Lord will remove from Jerusalem the judges and priests who once served him, as well as those who worshiped the army of heaven—the sun and the moon and the stars—and those who swore allegiance to the Lord but also worshiped Molech, the detestable idol of the Ammonites. The Lord will sweep them away and erase even the memory of them from Israel. He will destroy the leftovers of Baal worship and the names of the pagan priests. Those who worship on the rooftops, those who swear oaths by the Lord and also by Molech, those who turn back from following the Lord and neither seek nor ask for his guidance will be cut off as well. But the people of Israel turn their backs on the Lord, abandoning his worship and swearing by Melchom, and worshiping the host of heaven and bowing down to the idol of the Sidonians, Baal. So far the meaning of the story has been explained; now let us consider the moral sense. Because of the Lord who came from the tribe of Judah, and because of Jerusalem where Judas reigned, that is, the Lord and Savior, let us say that when wickedness has multiplied and the love of many has grown cold, and when the Lord comes, faith will be rare on earth to the extent that God's chosen ones will even be tested (Matthew 24, Luke 18). Then the Lord will stretch out his hand in punishment for sins upon Judas, who seems to confess the name of the Lord, and upon Jerusalem, the Church which has received its name from peace, and will remove the names of the Baals from the Church, which is interpreted in higher things. But the Lord will take away the names of empty glory and false admiration, which are found in the Church, in which, according to James, a golden ring is honored, and the poor is despised, when at the coming of the judge and senator, and in the common gathering of all the rich, the whole people rise up, and the holy poor is not even given a place to stand among the ranks of the powerful, and their privileges are not granted; but also the names of the priests with the priests who applaud themselves in vain in the name of bishop, and in the dignity of the presbytery, and not in work (James 2). Where he particularly says, that the works of the priests with other priests are not necessary, but only for show they assume false titles of dignity, and by evil works they destroy their own names, and those who worship the celestial host above the roofs, who rise up against the knowledge of God; and everything that is done in the world, they falsely claim to possess knowledge about, and they attribute it to the movements of the stars and the rising and setting, and they follow the errors of the mathematicians, and those who worship the Lord and Melchom, who think they can serve both the world and the Lord, and satisfy two masters, God and mammon: they, while claiming to be soldiers of Christ, bind themselves to worldly affairs, and offer the same image to God and Caesar, and although they claim to be priests of Christ, they consecrate their sons to Melchom, that is, to their king (2 Timothy 2). For they are right who have a king for a man, who have lost the Lord as their king, and who turn away from the Lord through wicked works, and do not seek him, holding onto their sins as they flee. But if anyone wishes to understand this according to the interpretation of the names of Judah and Jerusalem upon the soul of each person, he will not err, that the Lord may take away all that we have said, either at the consummation of the world, or at the departure of each individual, when they will hear: 'Fool, tonight your soul will be taken from you.' (Luke 12) And may He stretch out His hand upon him who does not confess the Lord, and upon him who boasts of having the sense of peace, so as to remove and destroy from such Jerusalem all pride, and false worship of God, and errors of doctrines, and servitude to God and the world alike, and through daily sins, turning away from the Lord and neglecting God.

1:7

(Verse 7.) Be silent before the face of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is near, for the Lord has prepared a sacrifice; He has sanctified His called ones. LXX: Fear before the face of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is near, for the Lord has prepared His victim; He has sanctified His called ones. Because the LXX translated 'fear,' and we have put 'be silent,' in Hebrew it is an interjection of commanding silence, which is often used by the Comedians; but it is also commanded absolutely for all to be silent, because the day of the Lord is coming. But let us understand the day of the Lord as the day of captivity and vengeance upon the sinful people, and the destruction of Jerusalem, and the sanctification of those whom He has dedicated to be killed, according to what is said in Jeremiah: Sanctify them in the day of their slaughter (Jeremiah 12:3). And the meaning is: The predicted captivity will come upon the wicked people. It is now near. Under the reign of King Josiah, the prophecy is fulfilled: with him being killed, fear the face of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is near, for the Lord has prepared His sacrifice, and sanctified His called ones. The whole devastation comes, from which also in Ezekiel: The end comes, he says, the end comes (Ezek. VII, 2), and so on. This sacrifice pleases me, these offerings I have sanctified. However, what he says can be understood as sanctifying his chosen ones, and even accepting those from Babylon whom he calls as his own servants for the vengeance of his people, avenging his injustice. I have called, he says, my servant Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. XXV, 9). And in the same volume, he not only calls him his servant, but also a dove: From the face of the sword a dove (Ibid., 30). Furthermore, according to the allegory, because the face of the Lord is upon those who do evil, to wipe their memory from the earth, and the day of judgment is near (for in comparison to eternity, the time of this world is brief), or the end of each individual: let everyone fear and be silent, lest the face of the Lord (of which the saint says (Ps. IV, 7): The light of your face, Lord, is shining upon us) consume the hay, straw, and wood of sins. For the Lord has prepared His sacrifice, the entire mystery of Leviticus, when through fire and the pouring out of blood, and the true offering, the saved ones will be made well and the called ones will be sanctified. Some of us understand the day of the Lord and His sacrifice, and the sanctification of the called ones, in the coming of the Savior, when the Lamb was sacrificed and the apostles and others who were called through them were sanctified in His blood.

1:8-9

(Verse 8, 9.) And it shall come to pass on the day of the Lord's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes and the king's sons, and all who are clothed with foreign apparel. And I will punish everyone who arrogantly enters over the threshold on that day, those who fill the house of the Lord their God with iniquity and deceit. LXX: And it shall come to pass on the day of the Lord's sacrifice, that I will avenge the princes and the king's household, and all who are clothed with foreign garments; and I will avenge openly all who are in the vestibules on that day, those who fill the house of the Lord their God with impiety and deceit. In the captivity of Judah, when the whole people were to be sacrificed, the Lord will visit, both upon the princes who drank wine in the morning, and upon the sons of the king, or upon all of the royal lineage, or certainly upon the sons of Josiah, whom we read were either killed or captured, and upon all who were clothed in foreign garments, that is, those who worshiped idols. And upon all who proudly enter over the threshold on that day, that is, against the arrogant, who with a certain arrogance and a brow of dignity ascend the steps of the temple and the threshold of the sanctuary. Moreover, because in that place where we have interpreted, above the threshold, can be understood according to the Hebrew, those who leap over the threshold; and this is to be understood historically, I will vindicate against those who, according to the first book of Kings, do not trample upon the threshold of idols, but serve superstitions, who have filled the house (or temple) of their Lord God not only with the worship of idols, but also with iniquity and wickedness and every kind of lie, so that, along with the error of religion, iniquity is also joined to deception, directed both at those who are subject and at their neighbors. But because we have once explained it both literally and tropologically: The Lord will visit in the advent and passion of the Savior, that is, on the day of the offering of His Son above the high priests and priests of the Jewish people, and above the royal house. For until that time, the kings of Judah from the line of David persevered, according to the prophecy of Jacob: The ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor the leader from his thighs, until the one comes to whom it is reserved, and He shall be the expectation of the nations (Gen. XLIX, 10). For the host of the Lord has been taken away from the Jews. And above all, he says, those who are clothed in foreign garments, those who have departed from the protection and clothing of God, and who have covered themselves with their own error. And I will take vengeance upon all those who are clearly in the vestibules, that is, those who have left the temple of God: and although they should be inside, they have gone outside because of their sins, and have departed from the Church of God, filling His temple with impiety and deceit. This should be understood at the first coming of the Savior. However, since we have already explained about the end of the world and the day of judgment, which all interpret as the day of the Lord, we must know that during that time the Lord will visit the rulers and the shepherds who consume the milk of the sheep and shear the wool, but do not care about the flock's welfare. He will also visit the sons of the king who boast of being Christians and claim to be the children of Christ the King, and all those who are clothed in the garments of others. The clothing of the king's sons and princes, is Christ (or, We have received Christ), which we receive in baptism, according to that: Put on the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. XIII, 14). And: Put on the bowels of mercy, goodness, humility, meekness, patience (Col. III, 12), and so on. In which it is commanded that we put on the new heavenly man, according to our Creator, and cast off the clothing of the old man with his works (Ephes. IV). Therefore, when we should be clothed with such garments, we are clothed with cruelty instead of mercy; with impatience instead of patience; with injustice instead of justice. And, to say it once, with vices instead of virtues; that is, with Antichrist instead of Christ. Thus it is said of this kind of man: 'He has put on cursing as his garment' (Psalm 109:18). The Lord will also vindicate clearly in His coming, even over those who should be in the Church with good works, but have abandoned themselves to wicked behavior, and are given over to Satan in the vestibules, no, not even in the vestibules, but before the vestibules, which is more significantly said in Greek as 'on the porches.' And he will judge above all those who fill the Church with various injustices and sins, with impieties and lies, and mix blood with blood. And if we desire to accept this upon the souls of each individual, let us understand reasonings (Alexander adds 'and perceptions'), that is, thoughts and senses, and the soul itself, which should be the dwelling place of the king. And according to the previous explanation, let us also refer the foreign garments and everything that follows to each believer, who, although they should have been clothed with Christ and always dwell within, have covered themselves with the various garments of sins and, having departed from the Church, that is, the congregation of the saints, have filled the temple of their body with wickedness and deceit.

1:10

(Verse 10.) And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord, there shall be a voice of crying from the fish gate, and a wailing from the Second Quarter, and a great crashing from the hills. LXX: And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord, there shall be a voice of crying from the gate of the mourners, and a wailing from the Second Quarter, and a great crashing from the hills. In the day of the sacrifice of the Lord, when he stretches out his hand over Judah and over all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the enemy army surrounds them, there shall be a voice of crying from the fish gate and a wailing from the Second Quarter, and a great crashing from the hills. They called it the Fish Gate, which leads to Diospolis and Joppa, and it was closer to the sea than all the roads to Jerusalem, as Ezra also relates: They built the Fish Gate, the sons of Assena, they covered it and set up doors, bolts, and bars (2 Nehemiah 3:3). But what he says, and the wailing from the second, signifies the gate of the second wall in the same region, as it is also written in the book of Kings: Then went Hilkiah the high priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah, to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe, who dwelt in Jerusalem in the second (2 Kings 22:14). But great contrition speaks from the hills of the mind of Zion and the higher part of the city: for when the higher and fortified parts of the city were occupied, it is easier to descend the slope. But if we want to accept that day which the Lord threatens, the day of judgment as mentioned above, at that time when the Ancient of Days will be seated, and the books will be opened, and the conscience of each person will be laid bare, then the voice of the cry of those repenting will be fulfilled from the gate (Dan. VII). For the first gate of the eyes will be the one through which sins will be presented before our eyes, and all the splendor and image of ancient crimes and vices and excesses will be brought forth into the open. Then that which is written will be true: Behold the man and his works before his face. Therefore, conscience will torment him, and after he has been struck with remorse and cried out at the first gate of the eyes, he will also howl at the second one, which we can understand with our ears. For through these very senses, by which vices had crept in, their punishment will be felt, when we see what we have done and, being instructed by words, listening to the entire order of sins, we will be compelled to wail, and in us whatever had been exalted will be crushed, and because of our blindness and deaf ears, it was unknown to us. Or certainly, when lofty words and erudition coming from on high crush and break us, and are fulfilled in action: I groaned with the groaning of my heart (Ps. 39:9), so that the sacrifice of a broken spirit may be pleasing to God (Ps. 50); in us, who are humans, and have not committed such great sins to be compared to mountains, the hills are broken. However, in the devil and his angels, the heights of the mountains will be crushed. Many believe, according to the history that we have recounted to the times of the Babylonians, that this should be understood as referring to the first coming of the Savior, when because of excessive sins and the clamor of the people: 'His blood be on us and on our children' (Matt. XXVII, 25), Jerusalem was surrounded by an army and consumed by a crowd of mocking children, namely Vespasian and Titus, the two bears (IV Kings II). Indeed, this understanding is more in line with our faith, but in such a way that we know it can also be consistent with the previous history, or at least be a type of the second and perfect destruction of Jerusalem. Moreover, it must also be noted (for the proverb () clearly means in Hebrew not the gate of those who wound, but the gate of the fish) allegorically, that the gate of the fish is in Jerusalem, through which good fish are brought in, having been separated from the bad, and they mourn while the others enter who remained outside. Certainly, at the end of the world and in the consummation, those who did not observe their baptism will mourn from the first gate of fishes; those who did not perform worthy penance will mourn from the second; there will be great sorrow over the hills, which were not bent down for sins to submit their necks and bewail their crimes. Through these two gates, the gate of baptism and the gate of penance, one enters or returns to Jerusalem, that is, to the Church of God.

1:11

(Verse 11.) Ululate, inhabitants of the ball: all the people of Canaan are silent. LXX: Mourn, you who inhabit the broken one: for all the people of Canaan are compared. The ball which is called Machtes in Hebrew, and is reversed by Aquila, εἰς τὸν ὅλμον, must be read with a long syllable first, not a short one, so that we do not think of a sphere, but of an elongated one, so that we know it is said about the ball in which grains are pounded, a concave vessel, suitable for the use of physicians, in which ptisanae are usually prepared. Someone may say that they understand what 'pila' means, but they want to know why it is mentioned in the present context. Because once there was a description of a captured city, and it is said: 'The voice of shouting comes from the Gate of Fish, and the howl from the Second, and great destruction from the hills.' Now the same order of description is maintained, and it is said about the howling of those who live in the Valley of Siloe. And Scripture beautifully did not say those who live in the valley, those who live in the gorge, but those who live in the pila, because indeed just as grains are crushed by a beam striking from above, so an army will rush out from the Gate of Fish, and the Second Gate, and the hills against you. But the people of Canaan he called the people of Judah, according to what we read in Daniel: The seed of Canaan and not of Judah (Dan. XIII, 56); and to Jerusalem: Your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite (Ezek. XVI, 3); and in another place: Canaan is in your hand, the scale of iniquity (Hosea XII, 7). And if we want to weave a moral interpretation according to both translations, those who dwell in the deepest depths of sin are rightly stirred to howling and lamentation, and those immersed in the lowest depths of their crimes say: I am stuck in the mud of the deep, and there is no substance, they say (Ps. LXVIII, 2). And it is added: you who dwell in the shattered, that is, a soul wounded by many iniquities, or the Church, which is torn by schisms and heresies, and laments over each wound and mourns the children who have been killed. But what it says: 'The whole population of Canaan has become silent, or rather their blasphemy has ceased on the day of judgment' signifies that their mouths, which they have raised up to the skies, and their tongues, which reach down to the earth, will be silenced for eternity. And because Jerusalem has sinned, and therefore has been thrown into turmoil, the people are called Canaan, which means 'commotion'. For it cannot be said: 'He has set my feet upon a rock' (Psalm 39:3), but instead he is uncertain and always in motion. Therefore, even the holy man Noah, after he awoke from his sleep, placed a curse on Canaan, saying: 'Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers' (Genesis 9:25). Not only are sinners likened to Canaan, but according to the quality and diversity of sin, one is likened to Pharaoh, another to the giant Nimrod. And conversely, through good works and virtues, since the paths of virtues are different, one person takes on the spirit of Abraham, another of Moses, another of Elijah; therefore, it is said by the Apostle: Be zealous for better gifts (1 Corinthians 12:31). But whoever is perfect, according to that perfection which human condition can attain, is marked by the likeness of God.


They all perished, wrapped in silver. LXX: They all perished, those who trusted in wealth. They said to themselves, 'We have such great riches that we consider ourselves wrapped up and protected by them.' Or at least according to the LXX, those who were lifted up in pride and despised the poor were destroyed by anger. Consider also that it does not say 'those who trusted in wealth will perish,' but rather, even now, before the day of punishment comes to them, in their very pride and constant thoughts of their treasures, they have already perished and fallen. But whoever understands this, I think he does not desire riches enough, in which they will not perish, but have perished who have been proud. Nor indeed should it be estimated that only those who have been proud of silver have perished, but according to this definition, he who boasts in the nobility of his race will also perish. He who boasts in dignities will perish; he who is inflated will perish; he who boasts in the strength of his body will perish. He who is softened by the weakness of women, nourishes his hair, plucks his hairs, polishes his skin, and gazes at himself in the mirror, which is properly the passion and madness of women, will perish. But if anyone wants to be exalted and boast with holy pride, let them be exalted with the apostles, when they are worthy to suffer insult for the name of Jesus Christ, let them boast with the Apostle, who rejoiced in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces patience, and patience produces hope, and hope does not disappoint (Rom. 5).

1:12

(Verse 12.) And it will be in that time, I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will visit those who are fixed in their filth; those who say in their hearts, the Lord will not do good, nor will he do evil. LXX: And it will be on that day, I will search Jerusalem with a lamp, and I will avenge against those who despise their guards, and say in their hearts, the Lord will not do good, nor will he do evil. In the time and day of the captivity of Jerusalem by the Babylonians or by the Romans (because they have forsaken the law of the Lord, and acted impiously towards the Lord their Creator), the Lord will search with a lamp all the hidden things of Jerusalem, and he will not allow any to escape unpunished. We read Joseph's histories, and there we find written about sewers, and caves, and caverns, and tombs, where princes and kings and powerful men and priests had hidden themselves in fear of death. And I will visit, he says, upon those who trust in their bodies, and in their strengths, which he scornfully calls filth or sins, in which they have been completely immersed: those who, rejecting providence, have said that neither a good nor an evil God is the author: that is, that he does not render good to the good, nor evil to the evil: but that all things are ruled by chance and carried by uncertain fate. But in the consummation of the world, because it is understood as the day of the Lord, the Lord will search Jerusalem, that is, his Church, with a lamp: and he will avenge himself upon the contemptuous men, who did not want to keep their guard, that is, they despised the commandments of the Lord, and, moreover, by reasoning, they sinned, saying, they blasphemed in their hearts: that doing good would be of no avail, nor would doing evil be harmful, because God would neither reward the good works, nor punish the evil. But rightly so, Jerusalem, that is, the Church (which was previously called Jebus, which is said to be trampled), when it was trampled by the Gentiles and was a mockery of demons, was called Jebus, and after the peace of the Lord began to dwell in it, and it became a place of peace, it took the name Jerusalem. Therefore, in the last times, which we have often mentioned, with increased wickedness, love will grow cold, and the light of the sun will withdraw from Jerusalem, and there will be such devastation that even the chosen ones of God will have difficulty being saved (Matthew 24): then the Lord will scrutinize all vices in Jerusalem with the lantern of his word and reason, and he will bring them to light, and even idle words will be judged and avenged, not in sinners (for they could obtain forgiveness for their sin), but in the contemptuous, of whom it is said in Habakkuk: Look at the contemptuous and behold (Habakkuk 1:5); and in another place: Why do you not look at the contemptuous? And then: But the arrogant, contemptuous man, the proud man, and so on. Above all, there will be revenge upon those who have not kept the Lord's commandments, and they say in their hearts: The Lord will not do good, and he will not do evil: not because God does evil, but because punishment seems evil to those who suffer it. Likewise, a bad surgeon's scalpel will be, because it cuts wounds and amputates rotten flesh. And a bad father, beating his son to correct him, and a bad teacher, admonishing his student to educate him: For every discipline at the present moment does not seem to be a joy, but a sorrow: afterwards, however, it will yield peaceful fruit to those who have been educated by it (Hebrews XII, 11).

1:13-14

(Verse 13, 14.) And their strength shall be for plunder, and their houses for desolation. And they shall build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink their wine. The great day of the Lord is near, it is near and hastens quickly. LXX: And their strength shall be for robbery, and their houses shall be destroyed. And they shall build houses, but shall not live in them; and they shall plant vineyards, but shall not drink their wine, for the great day of the Lord is near; it is near and hastens quickly. It is evident that, according to both captivities, their entire army has been cut down and their houses have been destroyed, and the fields and vineyards have been laid waste: and no longer will God delay his patience towards them. But when they spoke to the prophets, they said, this will be in the time to come, and for many days, a great and exceedingly swift day of the Lord will come upon them. According to the interpretation, however, when the time of judgment comes, whether for the death of each individual or the departure from the world: then all their strength will be turned to ruin, so that what was once strong and lifted up against the Lord will become weak and broken, turned to something better. Just as if someone were to rob the strength of a bandit, a pirate, and a thief, and render them weak, their weakness benefits them: for their weakened limbs, which they were previously not using well, will cease from evil work. And that which follows: 'And their houses become a desert,' many in the Church are building Zion in blood, and Jerusalem in iniquity, to whom such houses being destroyed benefits. Let us read Leviticus, where it is commanded to destroy a leprous house (Lev. 14). And because leprosy remains and spreads, its stones and wood and all dust are commanded to be thrown outside the city into an unclean place. But also in the beginning of Jeremiah, something such is written, 'Behold, I have given my words in your mouth: behold, I have set you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms: to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to build, and to plant' (Jeremiah 1:9-10). The wicked construction is destroyed so that later a good construction may be built: the unjust plantation is uprooted so that a righteous plantation may be placed nearby. And in Solomon we read: It is better to dwell under the open sky than in a disputed house with iniquity, and in a new house (Prov. 21:9). As if God, therefore, brought ruin upon the homes of those who were fixed in their own filth and said in their hearts: The Lord will not do good, nor will he do evil. He does not allow them to dwell in leprous and impure houses, nor does he allow them to drink wine from the vines they have planted. For if they had planted the vine of Sorek and the chosen vineyard, they would have drunk their wine and become intoxicated with the patriarch Noah and Joseph at noon (Gen. 9 and 43). But because they said: The Lord will not do good, nor will he do evil (Deut. 32:32-33), and their vineyard was the vineyard of Sodom, and their offspring was from Gomorrah, their grapes were grapes of gall, and their clusters were bitter, their wine was the fury of dragons and the incurable madness of asps (Jer. 9:23), therefore they planted vineyards and will not drink their wine. And mystically it is said of Sodom and Gomorrah, that all their plantation perished. For if they had remained in what they had begun, so as to be as it were the paradise of God, and had not ended in evil, so as to be as it were the land of Egypt, their plantation would certainly have remained. Such a thing and that sounds above the Egyptians in the Psalms: He destroyed their vineyards with hail, and their mulberry trees with frost. (Ps. LXXVII, 47). Indeed, as a most merciful God, He killed and overturned all the Egyptian plantation and little trees, which have blood-like fruits rooted in Egypt, so that those who planted evilly may not drink and eat from them. The day of the Lord is near and very swift, to which no one can resist: it is near either because of eternity, since nothing is long to it, or because of the magnitude of punishment, since to the one who endures, the punishment that is to be inflicted never seems far away. Whether near, as we have said, when we depart from the world, and the death of each person will bring about the end of the world; and not only near, but also very swift, as the speed of his coming is shown in the fact that it is added, very swift.

1:15-16

(Verse 15, 16.) The voice of the day of the Lord is bitter: there the strong shall be troubled: the day of wrath, that day shall be a day of tribulation and distress, a day of calamity and wretchedness, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and whirlwinds, a day of the trumpet and the cry against fortified cities, and against the high corners. LXX: The voice of the day of the Lord is bitter and harshly appointed: there the strong shall be troubled: the day of wrath, that day shall be a day of tribulation and necessity, a day of wretchedness and perdition, a day of darkness and whirlwinds, a day of clouds and gloominess, a day of the trumpet and the cry against fortified cities, and against the high corners. According to the above, either take from the Babylonian captivity or from the extreme sufferings they endured from the Romans, over which the Lord wept for Jerusalem, saying: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to you (Matthew 23:37), and so on. Truly, a preferred vengeance has been sought from the blood of Abel the just to the blood of Zechariah, whom they killed between the temple and the altar (2 Chronicles 24); and finally, concerning the Son of God, saying: His blood be on us and on our children, they experienced a bitter day, because they had provoked the Lord to bitterness; a day appointed by the Lord, on which not just anyone, but the strongest men are humbled, and wrath will come upon them in the end. For often, indeed, they had endured the anger of the Lord before, but that anger had not been the consummation and end (Matthew 27:25). Why now is it necessary to describe the great calamities they endured in each captivity, and how those who rejected the light of the Lord were cast into darkness and gloom, and those who refused to listen to the trumpets of the solemn days heard the clamor (or clangor) of warriors? But as for the fortified cities and high corners of Judea, which have been completely destroyed, I think that it is a judgment of the eyes rather than the ears: especially for us who now live in this province, we can see, we can prove what has been written. We can hardly see small traces of ruins in once great cities. In Shiloh, where the tabernacle and the ark of the Lord's Covenant were, we can barely see the foundations of the altar. That city of Gibeah, Saul's city, is completely destroyed to its foundations (Joshua 18). Ramah and Bethoron and the other noble cities built by Solomon are now just small villages. Let us read Josephus and the prophecy of Zephaniah, and we will see his ((Al. we will see)) history: and this is not only about the captivity, but until the present day, the treacherous colonizers, after killing the servants and finally the Son of God, except for mourning, are prohibited from entering Jerusalem, and in order to be allowed to mourn the ruin of their city, they buy it at a price, those who once bought the blood of Christ now buy their own tears: and not even their weeping is free for them. Do you see on the day when Jerusalem was captured and demolished by the Romans, the mournful people coming together, the decrepit old women and men covered in rags and years, demonstrating the anger of the Lord in their bodies and appearance? The crowd of miserable people gathers, and with the Lord's shining and radiant resurrection, with the flag of the cross also shining from the Mount of Olives, they lament the ruins of their temple, the miserable people, and yet it is not to be pitied: still there are tears on their cheeks, and livid arms, and scattered hair, and a soldier demands his reward, so that they may be allowed to weep more; and does anyone doubt, when they see these things, about the day of tribulation and distress, the day of calamity and misery, the day of darkness and gloom, the day of clouds and whirlwinds, the day of the trumpet and clangor? For they have trumpets even in mourning, and, according to the prophecy, the voice of solemnity has turned into lamentation. They wail over the ashes of the Sanctuary, and over the destroyed altar, and over once fortified cities, and over the lofty corners of the temple, from which they once cast James, the brother of the Lord. These things have been said about the captivity of the Jews. Furthermore, if we apply the day of the Lord, as mentioned above, to the end of the world or to the end of each person's life, the interpretation will be clear, that the voice of the day of the Lord is bitter, full of necessity and anger, and the strong will be troubled there, for even the holy ones will be saved, but as if through fire. That day will be a day of tribulation, distress, and calamity, a day of misery when they will declare: Woe to us, for we have become miserable. It will be a day of darkness: For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light (John 3:20); and it is necessary that those who hate the light will be enveloped in darkness. It will be a day of fog and whirlwind; for the storm of the Lord will come upon them, and the sound of the trumpet, as the Apostle indicates, saying: In the last trumpet (1 Corinthians 15:52). For there will be a day of trumpet and the sound of shouting over fortified cities, which they had built for themselves in the multitude of sins, just as Cain had. And over the high corners, wicked works and those deviating from the straight path of the Lord (or deviating from the straight path). Therefore, the hypocrites, the Pharisees, are also accused by the Savior, because they pray in the street corners (Matthew VI). For the straight and narrow path that leads to paradise is narrow and difficult, and it leads to life. But the path is narrow and crooked, wide, and spacious, which leads to death (Matt. VII). At the same time, amidst the words of the severity of the Lord, perceive His mercy, that for this reason the days are bitter, and the days of wrath, and the days of tribulation, and the days of trumpet and clamor, so that poorly fortified cities and perverse angles may be destroyed.

1:17-18

(Verse 17, 18.) And I will trouble the people, and they shall walk as blind, because they have sinned against the Lord: and their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their bodies like dung; but their silver and gold shall not be able to save them in the day of the Lord's wrath, and all the earth shall be devoured by the fire of his zeal: for he will make a speedy consumption of all the inhabitants of the earth. LXX: And I will trouble the people, and they shall walk as blind, because they have sinned against the Lord, and he shall pour out their blood like dust, and their flesh like the dung of oxen; and their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's anger, and all the earth shall be consumed by the fire of his zeal: for he will make a speedy and complete destruction upon all the inhabitants of the earth. It is not difficult to say, according to the previous meaning, that Jerusalem, which endured because of the cross of the Lord, has suffered: for the visitation of the Lord has departed from it, and all men in Judea have been troubled, and because of the greatness of the affliction they have walked like blind men, not knowing what to do. And they have suffered this because they have sinned against the Lord, that is, against the Son of God. For because they have shed the blood of the prophets and the blood of Christ, their blood has been poured out like the earth in the whole region, and their bodies have remained unburied, like dung upon the face of the earth. Those who amassed great wealth through excessive greed, hoarding silver and gold, were unable to free themselves from the wrath of the Lord on the day of judgment. For the fire of the Lord's zeal burned against them and consumed the entire province. And there was no respite in their midst, for forty-two years after the crucifixion of the Lord, Jerusalem was surrounded by an army and its downfall came swiftly, not only for Jerusalem but also for all the inhabitants of the land of Judaea. But in the end, whether of the world or of each individual, all men who remained as men will be troubled, and the dead will be like men. And they will walk as blind, for they have lost the light of virtues, and they will not have a place for repentance: and they will suffer these things because they have sinned against the Lord. For if the Lord is justice, truth, holiness, and other virtues, whoever has acted unjustly, lied, and pursued vice and sins, has sinned against the Lord. But what follows, 'And their blood will be poured out like the earth, and their bodies like the dung of bulls,' seems absurd, that in the resurrection of the dead and in the consummation of the world and judgement, we should say that blood is poured out and bodies lie like dung. Therefore, what is said to Noah, 'And I will require the blood of your lives from the hand of every beast, and from the hand of man, and from the hand of his brother I will require the life of man, who sheds the blood of man: by man shall his blood be shed' (Gen. IX, 5, 6), it is ridiculous to believe this in the resurrection, and it cannot hold true in this life. For how many have shed blood, and their blood has not been shed? And others have killed a man with poison or hanging, and yet when the man is dead, no blood has been shed? Therefore, how is the Lord going to shed their blood in vengeance when the one who kills has not shed blood? Therefore, the blood of man, which is the vital principle by which he is nourished, sustained, and lives, must be understood: whoever sheds it, either through scandal or perverse doctrine, will be poured out by him on the day of judgment, that is, what he seemed to have as vital, he will be forced to lose. According to this kind of blood, and flesh is understood, of which Isaiah says: All flesh is grass (Isa. XL, 6). And in Genesis the Lord said: My spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh (Gen. VI, 3). And the Apostle, speaking of both: Flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God: neither will corruption inherit incorruption of God (Al. God is silent) (I Cor. XV, 50). Therefore, on the day of consummation, whether general or specific, all blood that has been shed will cry out to the Lord, and it will appear in the midst, and the works of blood and earthly things will lie as dust and filth, and the rich, with their silver and gold, will not be able to free themselves on the day of wrath, with him who is dying hearing: Fool, this night your soul will be taken from you; and what you have prepared, whose will it be (Luke XII, 20)? Not that we deny that the rich can be saved from death by gold and silver; for the redemption of a man's soul is his own wealth (Prov. XIII, 8); but rather that they cannot be saved at that time when they must forsake their riches out of necessity. For all the earth and everything that is earthly will be devoured by the zeal of the Lord. And when he says 'zeal,' understand that he is still speaking of one who loves the Lord. For if he did not love the human soul, he would never be zealous for it; and, in the likeness of a husband, he would avenge the sin of his wife, whom he would not be angry with if he did not love her. And the Lord will do this with haste for all the inhabitants of the earth, those who have completely devoted themselves to the earth and are not strangers or foreigners, as the righteous one who speaks: I am a stranger in the land, and a foreigner like all my ancestors (Ps. XXXVIII, 13). And again, elsewhere, not wanting to dwell any longer in the tent of the flesh, he testifies with tearful voice, saying: Woe is me, for my journey has been prolonged (Ps. CXIX, 5). For we who are in this body's tabernacle, groan and lament: Miserable wretch that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? (Rom. VII, 24)?

2:1-2

(Chapter 2, verses 1, 2.) Come together, gather, o unlovable nation: before the command gives birth, like passing dust, to the day: before the wrath of the fury of the Lord comes upon you, before the anger of the indignation of the Lord comes upon you. LXX: Gather and collect, o unlearned nation: before you become like a passing flower of the day: before the wrath of the Lord comes upon you: before the day of the anger of the fury of the Lord comes upon you. After the description of the evils that are to come on the Lord's day (according to the double exposition of captivity which we mentioned above), the people are called to repentance and it is said to them: Come together and gather, or as it is written in the Septuagint, be gathered, that is, be united by the bond of love (according to the Apostle): an unlovable people, who are unworthy of God's love, or an unlearned people, of whom it is said in Deuteronomy: A foolish and senseless people (Deut. XXXII, 6). And in Jeremiah: You have struck your children without cause; you have not received discipline (Jer. II, 30), before what has been prophesied comes to pass, before the prescribed command takes effect (which will come as easily as dust blown by), before the fury of the Lord is fulfilled upon you. At the same time, behold the mercy of God: it was enough for the wise to have described the onslaught of the impending evils; but because He does not want to impose punishment, but only to frighten those who will suffer, He himself prompts them to repentance, so that He does not do what He has threatened. But in general, the entire multitude of believers, and those who are called the people of God, gathers in the Church, and it is said to them: Come together in the Church, join us with love and peace, O uninstructed people, who do not want to receive God's discipline, nor have knowledge of His commandments; but you delight in the riches and physical well-being and beauty of this world, and also in the pleasures of the flesh, which pass away like a flower that withers in a single day. Therefore I say to you, come together, unite, so that when the time of judgment comes and all your glory has passed away, you may be willing to repent, when there is no longer a place for repentance, but only for punishment. Someone may ask, how can this be understood as each person passes from the world? Therefore, it is said to each individual: O you, who are occupied with the affairs of the world, running in different directions, return to the Church of the saints and join yourself to their life and community, which you see pleases God, and gather the scattered parts of your soul, which do not cohere with each other, into the unity of wisdom, and cling to its embrace, and listen in a mystic way: Take courage, weak hands; strengthen your feeble knees (Isaiah 40:7); do not boast in the good things of the flesh and its fleeting beauty; for all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the grass. The hay withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. We can use this chapter for a time: if ever we see someone dedicated to worldly honors and amassing wealth, coming to the Church rarely or never, we can say to him, gather and join the people of God, you who do not hear the Lord's commandments, before your glory passes away, before the day of the Lord's wrath comes upon you.

2:3-4

(Verse 3, 4) Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, who have practiced His judgment; seek justice, seek meekness, perhaps you shall be hidden in the day of the Lord's fury. For Gaza shall be deserted, and Ashkelon shall become a desolation. Ashdod shall be driven out at noon, and Ekron shall be uprooted. LXX: Seek the Lord, all you lowly of the earth; do justice, seek righteousness, and answer it, that you may be protected in the day of the Lord's wrath. For Gaza shall be plundered, and Ashkelon shall become a desolation; and Ashdod shall be cast out at noon, and Ekron shall be uprooted. He is called humble of the earth, who, not by humility, which signifies virtue, but by sins, has been humiliated, and cannot say with Christ: Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart (Matt. XI, 29). For everyone who humbles himself will be exalted. And in another place, a sermon is directed to the saint: the greater you are, the more humble yourself, and you will find favor before God (Eccl. III). But he who is humiliated by sins, and burdened with the consciousness of offenses, and says: Like a heavy burden, burdens are upon me (Psalm XXXVII, 5), must hear: Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you (Matt. XI, 28). Let this saying be in the beginning according to the 70 interpreters. However, according to the Hebrew, there is another sense. For it is said to the saints: O you, who keep my commandments, who are placed in the land, and knowing that everyone who humbles himself will be exalted, you have imitated my meekness, and you have acted in judgment, seek the Lord in your meekness. And if you want to know who this Lord is, seek the just, seek the meek: For the Father has given all judgment to the Son (John 5:22), who will judge justly. And since you are gentle, seek a gentle one, so that whatever is lacking in your gentleness may be fulfilled by the one who is the source of gentleness. But I say this to you: If you hide on the day of the Lord's fury, that is, if you are able to escape the wrath of the coming day and the captivity that is to be inflicted by either Nebuchadnezzar or the Romans on the people of Judah, because you have sought the Lord and have acted justly. But if they doubt (others say) who have made his judgments, saying (others say). If you wonder how you will hide on the day of the Lord's wrath, what will happen to the sinners? For such a great devastation will come to the land of Judah, and such a high-ranking Babylonian army will ascend here, that even the most powerful cities of the Philistines, which have always resisted you in fair combat, will be captured. Gaza will be destroyed, and Ascalon will be reduced to a wasteland, and Ashdod, not by theft but by war, that is, by open light and victory, will be taken captive; and Ekron, which means uprooting, will endure what it signifies in its name, that is, it will be uprooted. This is according to the literal and Hebrew truth. According to the Septuagint, however, it is commanded to the humble of the earth, of whom it was said above, that they should work for justice and seek righteousness, which I believe is none other than Christ. And because everyone who seeks will find (Mat. VII, 8), what they have found, let them respond to others, that is, let them teach others: for hidden wisdom and a treasure not appearing, what usefulness is there in both (Eccl. XX, 32)? And this, he says, I command you, that on the day of the Lord's wrath you may be protected, either at the end of the world or at the departure of each one from the world, for Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, and Ekron will suffer different punishments: for Gaza means his strength. Therefore, all those who applaud themselves in bodily strength and worldly power, and say with the devil, by my own strength I will do it, will be plundered on the day of the Lord's wrath, and brought to nothing. Ascalon also, which is called weighted or murderous fire, when the day of the Lord's anger comes, will experience the measure of its wickedness, and by the same weight with which it operated, it will be depressed. And because it burned to shed blood, and scandalized many souls, and it was fulfilled in it: The Lord will abhor the bloodthirsty and deceitful man (Psalm 5:7), it will not be plundered like Gaza, but reduced to solitude, it will be consumed by the fires of Gehenna until it turns to dust. And also Azotus, which in Hebrew is called Esdod, and in our language means the fire of generation, will be laid waste by bright light. For it burned with desire, and was consumed by the fire of generation. And because all who commit adultery are like an oven whose hearts are burning (Hosea VII), and are wounded by burning arrows, not in darkness, not in hidden judgment; but at noon, that is, when the saints receive full clarity, they will be cast into darkness, and will not have the fellowship of the saints. But Accaron, which is interpreted as sterility or eradication, because it has produced no fruit and by the perversity of its teaching has eradicated many, it itself will also be eradicated. But all these various things understand in the vices and sins of the souls, and because what each one's work is like will be tested by the fire of judgment on the day (I Cor. III).

2:5-7

(Verse 5-7.) Woe to those who dwell by the sea, the nation of the lost: the word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines; and I will destroy you so that there will be no inhabitant. And the sea coast shall be pastures, with shelters for shepherds and folds for flocks. And the remnant of the house of Judah shall possess it; they shall feed on it. In the houses of Ashkelon they shall lie down at evening; for the Lord their God will visit them and restore their fortunes. LXX: Woe to those who inhabit the edge of the sea, strangers from Crete! The word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, land of the foreigners; and I will destroy you, and there will be a pasture for flocks in Crete, and a sheepfold for herds. And the edge of the sea shall belong to the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed their flocks in the houses of Ashkelon; in the afternoon they shall rest, for the Lord their God will visit them and turn back their captivity. As for the history, it is not difficult to interpret, because in the previous statements it was said: Gaza will be destroyed (or deserted), and Ascalon will be turned into a desert: Ashdod will be cast out to the south, and Ekron will be uprooted. With these four great cities of Palestine named, now it is evident that the Lord's discourse is directed towards the province itself, and a woe is pronounced on it: Woe to those who dwell by the sea, when the Babylonian comes; for even those who dwell near the sea will perish and be taken away. But it is doubted by no one that the land of the Palestinians is the land of Canaan. And I will destroy you, he says, so that there will be no inhabitant: and you will come to such a great devastation, that you rejoiced in the destruction of Judaea, so that all your well-fortified cities will become grazing grounds for shepherds. And after the Lord has visited his people, and has caused them to return under Zerubbabel and Joshua, and they have built the temple and rebuilt Jerusalem, you will be so uncultivated, and will be covered with thorns and nettles, that shepherds will rest from the remnants of the Jews in Ashkelon in the afternoon, and make their flocks lie down in the once noble city, and this will happen because the Lord will visit his people, and will turn away their captivity, whether it has happened or not, God will see. For our purpose now is not to weave a true history, but to communicate to our own people what we have learned from the Hebrews. However, the spiritual sense and translation of the LXX is difficult to understand, especially because there are discrepancies in interpretation. For where we have translated, nation of the lost, they said, strangers of the Cretans: and what is written in Hebrew as GoiChorethim (), they read as Goi, meaning nation, and Gar, meaning stranger: and for Chorethim, which means lost, they thought it was the name of the island of Crete. Finally, both Aquila and the fifth edition were translated, ἔθνος ὀλέθριον: And Theodotio ἔθνος ὀλεθρίας: Symmachus also ἔθνος ὀλεθρευόμενον, which all together with our interpretation make. Again, where we have said, And the cord of the sea will be the pasture of the shepherds, and all the interpreters agree with this translation, it is written in the LXX: And Crete will be the pasture of the flock, and the sheepfold. Therefore, comparing spiritual things to spiritual things, and holding onto the path once begun of the Vulgate edition, we search if we have read the name of Crete elsewhere in the Holy Scriptures. And, if I am not mistaken, it is quite clear: Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. (Tit. I, 12, 13). They are unstable and easily deceived, carried away by every wind of doctrine, by human trickery, by their cunning in deceitful scheming. Instead of living in the land of confession, which is Judea, they preferred to be foreigners, those Cretans who are constantly battered by the varying waves of the sea and resonate with the sound of the Cretan lyre. According to the Apostle, they are like a tinkling cymbal. (I Cor. XIII, 1). And because the Cretans are foreigners, therefore the word of God, that is, admonition, is directed towards them: and they are called the land of Canaan, always in agitation, always in motion, and the land of the Gentiles: for they are alienated from God, they are tossed to and fro in the cable of the sea, and are situated in the region of Crete. Therefore, the word of God is directed towards them, either at the consummation and end of the world, or daily by ecclesiastical men, and those who are able to say with the apostle: Do you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me? (2 Corinthians 13:3) So that they may be driven out of Crete, and perish from their former dwellings, and that region which previously contained a lost flock, may begin to be the sheepfold of Christ; and let Judas, that is, true confession, dwell in the ropes of the sea. And when the world has now begun to be evening, and out of many who are called, few are chosen, and those who are now called the remnant of the house of Judah, may feed those who were first fed in the sea, and in Crete, and in falsehood: they will turn aside into the houses of Ashkelon, that is, where previously the fire of the devil and the blood of the slain flowed: for Ashkelon is interpreted as the murderous fire. And this will happen because the Lord will visit His people, and those who were easily captured by the sophisms of heretics, like those coming out of captivity, will overcome their adversaries and dwell in their own tabernacles. However, what is read in the Septuagint, 'From the face of the sons of Judah,' we have marked with an obelus, for it is not found in the Hebrew or in any other interpreter, and it disturbs the context and meaning of the chapter: not that it would be difficult in some way to weave in the sentence even with this included; but once we have decided on the truth of the interpretation, we choose the judgement of a more learned reader rather than the opinion of the common people.

2:8-11

(Ver. 8 onwards) I have heard the reproach of Moab and the blasphemies of the sons of Ammon, who have reproached my people and magnified themselves against their borders. Therefore, as I live, says the Lord God (God remains silent), the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Moab shall be like Sodom, and the sons of Ammon like Gomorrah, a land of thorns and salt pits, and a desolation forever. The remnant of my people shall plunder them; the survivors of my nation shall possess them. This will happen to them because of their pride, for they have blasphemed and exalted themselves above the people of the Lord of hosts. The Lord will be terrible against them; He will destroy all the gods of the earth, and men from their places will worship Him, even all the coastlands of the nations. I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the insults of the people of Ammon, with which they have reproached My people and exalted themselves against their borders. Therefore, as I live, says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, surely Moab shall be like Sodom, and the people of Ammon like Gomorrah, a possession of nettles and salt pits, and a perpetual desolation. The remnant of My people shall plunder them, and the remainder of My nation shall possess them. This shall be their lot in return for their pride, because they have reproached and exalted themselves against the Lord of hosts. The Lord will be known to them; He will destroy all the gods of the nations on the earth, and men from their places will worship Him, even all the coastlands of the nations. Except for the prophet Daniel, who frequently sees visions of four kingdoms and explains their differences using various images (Dan. VIII), Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel also do this, so that after seeing the vision of Judah against the other nations surrounding it, they prophesy and proclaim what will happen to them according to the specific events, and they dwell on the description of these events for a longer time. Now the prophet Zephaniah does the same, although briefly, in the same manner. For against the Philistines, against whom the previous threat has been made, he says, 'Gaza shall be destroyed, and Ascalon shall be turned into a desert, Ashdod shall be driven away to the south, and Accaron shall be uprooted.' Now a prophecy is woven against Moab and the sons of Ammon, or as it has been added in the Septuagint, against Damascus, which is called Aram in Isaiah (Chapter 17), because they, who had offered aid to Nebuchadnezzar, devastated Judah, trampled on its sanctuary, and even destroyed the temple, and having subjugated the people of Israel, they blasphemed the Lord. Indeed, Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans, after destroying the cities of the Jews, oppressed other nations, and so it happened that those who had insulted the people of God were themselves pressed by the same distress of evils, and held captive Judah, whom they thought they had subjected. Therefore, before the captivity came under King Josiah, while Jerusalem and the temple were still standing, a prophecy is directed against the insolent, so that the evils that once afflicted the people of God would be alleviated by the evils of other nations. I heard, he said, the reproach of Moab, which is now called Areopolis, and the blasphemies of the sons of Ammon, which itself is also called the second city of Arabia after Bosra Philadelphia: in which they reproached my people, and having expelled the Jews, they extended their borders in their land. Therefore, because they blasphemed me and reproached my people, I, the Lord of hosts, who am able to fulfill what I threaten, and the God of Israel, who myself suffer injury among my people, will make Moab like Sodom, and the sons of Ammon like Gomorrah. We find such visions in Isaiah and Jeremiah, and we will find the same things that we now read here. The dryness of thorns and heaps of salt, and a desert forever, for which I do not know why the Seventy translated Damascus as uprooted and abandoned, unless I am mistaken, deceived by the ambiguity of the word: for the dryness that is said in Hebrew Mamasac (), if the first letter Mem is changed and Dalath is taken, has the same remaining letters as Damascus, and can be read instead of the previous word Damasec. But it is asked how these cities, that is, Moab and the sons of Ammon, were reduced to Sodom and Gomorrah, and as dry as thorns and heaps of salt, they will not be built again forever? And indeed, there is no difficulty in explaining that they were laid waste like Sodom and Gomorrah. However, what follows: They will be deserted forever, we interpret either as the destruction of their kingdom (because they were later overthrown by the Chaldeans and lost their kingdom, and then were either attacked by the Antiochians or the Ptolemies, and finally submitted their necks to the Roman Empire), or certainly it must be taken exceedingly: for Lolam signifies both eternity and age: from which it can be understood as referring to one age, or for some time, or one generation. And those who remain from the people of Israel shall be devastated, and they shall possess the blasphemous aid once of the Chaldeans. But this shall happen to them because of their pride, for they have blasphemed and magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of hosts, who will be terrible over them, and his terror will not destroy the proud. He will not shed the blood of blasphemers, but he will destroy and weaken all their idols, so that those who were previously held by error and did not feel the blessings of the Lord, pressed by the necessity of evils, may know that idols are of no use and may each worship him from his own place, all the islands of the nations. So far according to the Hebrew. Now let us turn to the Septuagint interpreters, and let us compel the Jews, who only follow the history, to explain to us when Moab and the sons of Ammon became like Sodom and Gomorrah, and like a heap of ruins, and deserted forever; they should show the sulphurous rains, the vineyards, the land turned into ashes and dust, the sea that once was a well of salt, now called the Dead Sea, flooded: when the Jews plundered them, when the remaining Israelite nations possessed them. But what is the indignation of the Lord against blasphemy and insults? Not against Moab and Ammon, but against the whole earth, so that every person from their own place may worship Him, all the islands of the nations? What is more, He grants more favor to those who blaspheme, so that they may turn from error to salvation. But if they wish to say that after the return from Babylon these nations were subject to the people of Israel, first we will demand the authority of the Scriptures, from which they can prove this: then, when they are unable to demonstrate it, we will grant them that it happened as they say: that it was the justice of God to blaspheme the ancestors and reproach the forefathers, and then repay it to the grandchildren. Since certainly that statement, which was previously said in the Law, that the sins of the fathers will be visited upon the children in the third and fourth generation (Exodus 20), is dissolved by Ezekiel: 'As I live,' says the Lord, 'this parable shall no longer be spoken; but the soul that sins, it shall die' (Ezekiel 18:20). And at the same time, observe that it is a parable that has been spoken, and it does not mean what the words on the surface suggest. But if it is unjust to impute to grandchildren the sins of their grandfather that they have committed, how much more unjust is it for the folly of the Jews to hope for this to happen at the end of the world, when it is not their Christ, as they suppose; but the Antichrist that is to come. For whenever they are pressed in history, so that they may teach that what has been said is completed, they immediately leap to future times of Christ, and they promise and say to themselves after many centuries all the things that they cannot explain, and that Moab, and the sons of Ammon, and Egypt, and the Philistines, and Edom, which now insult the Jews, will be punished at that time. Let us therefore ask them why God punishes these nations in particular, and not the entire world in which the Jews have been scattered far and wide. For if Moab deserves rebuke, insulting the Jews, and the sons of Ammon and the other nations around, why isn't Gaul rebuked? why doesn't he threaten Britain? why is Spain exempt from punishment? for what reason is nothing said about Italy? why is Africa silent? and to say it once, when the whole world holds the Jews captive, why do only the nations that are around it commit so much wickedness, to the point that they are particularly named? Now, as for what we said before, that Damascus is not named in Hebrew either by the Prophet, or by any of the other Prophets anywhere when predicting what will happen to the Gentiles, we will also prove from the very order of the Scripture. For in connection with the words: 'I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the blasphemies of the children of Ammon', he adds immediately afterwards: 'because Moab will be as Sodom, and the sons of Ammon as Gomorrah.' Therefore, what follows: 'And Damascus, deserted, like a heap of grain, should have sent something from Damascus, as he had said about two nations: Moab will be like Sodom, and the sons of Ammon like Gomorrah, whose sins he had already mentioned: thus he would have described the insults or blasphemies of the Damascenes, so that it would appear fitting to inflict punishment afterwards. But even this itself that is said: 'Like a heap of grain', which in Greek is said ὡς θιμωνία ἁλὸς, we think were translated by the LXX as ἁλὸς, that is, of salt; but by the uneducated, who mistook θιμωνίαν, that is, a heap of grain or produce, for ἁλὸς, adding the two letters ω and ν, as if to indicate the abundance of produce, ἅλωνος, that is, of a threshing floor, was used. It is said about the variety and error of interpretation, and about the difficulty of history. However, the learned man compares spiritual things with spiritual things, and does not seek the things that are below, but the things that are above, and with Christ rises from the underworld, and taking off the old man, puts on the new, he will bring accusations against the teachers of the contrary doctrines of the Church, who themselves also seem to be of the lineage of Abraham, and to have escaped the fire of Sodom and Gomorrah, and to dwell in the city of Segor. But because their generation is in darkness, and they cannot see the light of truth (for they have turned away from God the Father, which is interpreted from the names Lot and Moab), and they have ceased to be the sons of God (which is called my people), and they have stood still in a dark cave conceived from incestuous marriages: therefore, even to this day, insulting the simplicity of the children of Judah, they desire to magnify their possession beyond its boundaries, of which it is said in Proverbs: Do not move the everlasting boundaries, which your fathers have set (Prov. XXII, 28). See heretics in dialectics, applauding themselves in rhetoric and in all the dogmas of sophisms, despising the simplicity of the Church, and considering it unworthy of their mysteries, which they have imagined as idols for themselves, and mocking them as worthless. And you do not seek out what are the reproaches of Moab and the insults of the sons of Ammon, in which they reproached the people of God. Therefore, the Lord swore by Himself, saying: As I live, says the Lord. And beautifully to distinguish the dead gods, who are called idols, God of Israel speaks of Himself as living, that is, the God of the people who see Him: and thus these nations, that is, Moab and the sons of Ammon, of whom we have spoken above, are blaspheming. They will be like Sodom and Gomorrah, not because they come from Sodom and Gomorrah, but because they blaspheme the people of God and act against Israel. They will be reckoned as Sodom and Gomorrah, and they will be destroyed in the same way as those cities were destroyed before, having no trace of strength and life. It is no wonder if we understand this about heretics, since they are considered like Sodom and Gomorrah, as it is also said to the ecclesiastics who did not observe God's commandments and have departed from his precepts, through Isaiah: Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom, and give ear to the law of the Lord, you people of Gomorrah (Isaiah 1:10). And to the elders desiring to corrupt the chastity of the Church under the guise of Susanna, Daniel says: This is the judgment of God: the seed of Canaan, and not of Judah (Daniel 13). And so that you may know that whenever Sodom and Gomorrah and Egypt are mentioned, it is not about those provinces that we see with our eyes, but about other spiritual things that the prophetic discourse warns us about: read in the Apocalypse of John: The place in which the Lord was crucified is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt (Rev. XI, 8). Therefore, if Jerusalem, in which the Lord was crucified, is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, why should not, on the other hand, Egypt and Sodom and Gomorrah, if they have done the works of Jerusalem and the land of Judah, be transferred to the land of the Lord's inheritance? Finally, David was not of the priests, nor was he allowed to eat the showbread (I Sam. 21), but because his works were increasing one by one, and Saul's persecution was advancing his virtues, therefore in his flight he doesn't hesitate, suddenly he becomes a high priest, and he receives the showbread, and he does not violate God's command. We have said all of this because Moab will be like Sodom, and the sons of Ammon like Gomorrah. Damascus, which also means 'drinking blood' or 'blood shed,' will be abandoned by God's mercy, like a heap of salt. For since its ruler is King Aretha, and the people of Damascus want to kill Paul, and he is let down through the wall in a basket (Acts 9), it is not said to Damascus: You are the salt of the earth; nor is that called salt, which is always offered in sacrifices, but rather that which is tasteless and about which it is written in the Gospel: But if salt has lost its taste, with what shall it be salted? It is useless, neither for the earth, nor for the dung heap; but it is thrown out, so that it may be trampled underfoot by men (Matthew 5, 13). And so Moab, and Ammon, and Damascus, who prepared themselves against the knowledge of the Lord, and blasphemed the people of God, and said many insults against him, and wanted to extend their boundaries in the land of the Church, and possess the people of God, they will be deserted and destroyed, and the remaining people of God, that is, the men educated in the Holy Scriptures, will plunder them, and the remaining of the Lord's people will possess them, and this will be their disgrace, because they reproached and magnified themselves against the Almighty Lord. See the mercy, see the compassion of the Lord: His boundaries are insulted, He is blasphemed, His territories are plundered. And what does He do? He sends to the remnants of His people, of whom we have spoken, to divide those who blaspheme against Him, and to lead them into His possession. For it is much better for a fool to serve the wise, and for his foolishness to be corrected by the wisdom of the Lord, than for him to be abandoned to his own foolishness. Therefore, the almighty Lord will come, and He will be more clearly revealed to those who now do not know Him, whom they are ignorant of. And He will destroy all doctrines, that is, their gods, and the idols of the various nations, so that when the statues, which they had composed in their own understanding, are demolished, the nations may turn to the Lord, and each one may worship Him in his own place whom they did not know before.

2:12-15

(Verse 12 and following) But even you, Ethiopians, will be killed by my sword: and he will stretch out his hand over the North, and will destroy Assyria: and he will make a beautiful place desolate, and like a deserted wilderness. And flocks will lie down in the midst of it: all the beasts of the nations, and the pelican, and the hedgehog will dwell in its thresholds: the voice of the singer in the window, the raven on the top. For I will weaken its strength. This is the glorious city, dwelling in confidence, which said in her heart: I am, and there is no other besides me: how has she become a dwelling place of beasts in the wilderness? Everyone who passes by it will hiss and shake his hand. LXX: And you, Ethiopians, wounded by my sword will be; and I will stretch out my hand over the North and destroy Assyria, and make Nineveh a desolation, a dry and desolate land. And flocks will graze in its midst, and all the beasts of the earth; and chameleons and hedgehogs will lie down in its folds, and the beasts will cry out in their dens, and the ravens at its gates: for its height is like a cedar; this is the city devoted to evil, which dwells in hope and says in its heart: I am, and there is none after me; how has it become a pasture for beasts? Everyone who passes through it will hiss and shake their hands. The Jews interpret this whole chapter and the two preceding ones against the Philistines, Moab, and the sons of Ammon, referring to the coming of Christ, whom they believe will come at the end of the world to rebuild Jerusalem and deliver his people from the hand of the nations by which they are held captive. And this is what is meant by what is said: 'And men shall worship him, every man from his place, even all the isles of the heathen.' But not only the nations mentioned above, but also the Ethiopians and Assyrians and the city of Nineveh at that time must be laid waste and become a habitation for all the beasts of the earth, or as it is written in Hebrew, 'all the beasts of the nations.' From this, they believe it is intended to signify all the nations that will overthrow Nineveh. And because Nineveh, which means ‘beautiful,’ in the present place is referred to as beautiful in relation to Babylon. And everything that follows: the pelican and the hedgehog will dwell in its thresholds, and so on, rather applies to Babylon, of which the same desolation is predicted in Isaiah. And on the contrary, others assert that it is clearly about Assyria, of which it was already said: It will stretch out its hand against the north, and it will destroy Assyria, and it will make Nineveh a desolation. According to Al. Post, the Assyrians are better understood as being associated with Nineveh rather than Babylon, which is a city of the Chaldeans. And when he says that the Onocrotalus and the Hedgehog are signs of solitude, it should be understood as signs of judgment. There are two kinds of Onocrotalus: one that is aquatic, and another that is associated with solitude. And when he says the singing voice in the window, it can be understood as either demons or the voices of various birds that are known to inhabit deserted cities. Furthermore, both we and the Seventy similarly translated: 'Corvus' is placed on the threshold in Hebrew, which, according to the differences in reading (), is understood either as drought, or sword, or raven. Therefore, the Eagle, others interpreted as sword or drought. And after its overthrow, as if mocking its ruin, the prophetic speech says: 'This is the glorious city, dwelling in confidence, which said in its heart: I am, and besides me there is no other; how has it become a dwelling place of beasts in the desert?' Anyone who passes by it will hiss and shake his hand. According to what we have said above, either true beasts will dwell in the deserted city, or the varied multitude of nations is certainly indicated under the form of beasts. But if anyone asks how this prophecy applies to the time of Nebuchadnezzar according to the history: let him read the histories about the Ethiopians and Assyrians, to whom the Medes and Persians did nothing, and he will see that the Assyrians and Ethiopians were also subject to the Medes, and that Cyrus had a kingdom, and the power of Cyrus, and everything that has followed thereafter. Let these words be said in Hebrew. However, if we observe in all the Scriptures that the Ethiopians are called those who are deeply sunk in vices, according to what we read in Jeremiah: 'Can the Ethiopian change his skin?' (Jer. XIII, 23). With the Ethiopians turned to better things, there will be hope for anyone who wishes to repent, that they will not be excluded from salvation. Hence, the previously defiled soul, and stained with the filth of sins, says: 'I am black' (Cant. I, 4). And afterwards, at the end of the Song of Songs, it is written about the same, now purified and washed through repentance: Who is she who ascends, all white? (Song of Songs 8:5); Moses also, that is, the Law of the Lord in a spiritual sense, took an Ethiopian woman from the nations as his wife (Exodus 2); and Mary, that is, the synagogue of the Jews, and Aaron, that is, the carnal priesthood, not according to the order of Melchizedek, murmured against the Law, but in vain. For immediately the synagogue is struck with leprosy, and cast out outside the camp, for the entire time, while Moses himself is praying, it is brought back into the camp. For the hand of Ethiopia had already reached God (Psalm 68). Therefore, the divine word now threatens those who cling to sins and forget the filth of their offenses, who do not want to turn to better things and wash away their dark color. And it threatens them with a sword, which I think is written about in Genesis: He placed Cherubim and a flaming sword, which turned to guard the way of the tree of life. And in Isaiah: He will bring forth a great and holy sword against the twisted serpent dragon, and he will kill him on that day (Isa. XXVII, 1, sec. LXX). And he says that they should be wounded or killed with a sword, so that, fearing punishment, they may imitate Nineveh, and repent (Jonah III), and not endure what the Lord threatens. Indeed, this is also the prophecy of Jeremiah: I will speak, he says, concerning the nation and the kingdom, and I will remove and destroy them: and if they repent, then I will also repent of all the evils that I have spoken to do to them (Jer. XVIII, 7, 8). And so, in order that you may know, for this reason the Lord now threatens the Ethiopians with a sword, so that he may turn them to better things. He introduces this in a little while in this very book about the Ethiopians: Beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, my dispersed sons will bring me an offering. (Below III, 10) Or, as it is found in the Septuagint: From the borders of the rivers of Ethiopia, I will receive my dispersed ones, and they will offer sacrifices to me. After this, the Lord does not speak as before; but the prophetic spirit speaks about him: And he will stretch out his hand over the north, and he will destroy Assyria. (Jer. I, 14). The North wind, of which Jeremiah wrote: ‘Out of the north evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.’ And of which Solomon speaks: ‘The north wind bringeth forth rain; so doth a backbiting tongue, (Prov. 25:23). Therefore God stretches out His hand to inflict punishment, so that both the North wind may feel its penalties, and those who dwell in its land, to which the black horses hasten, concerning which it is said: ‘There were (or, in which were) black horses, and they went into the north country’ (Zech. 6:6). And beautifully, he who moves his feet and withdraws from the East, of whom the same prophet says, Behold a man, his name is the Orient (Ibid., 12), and he looks towards the West, immediately goes to the North, which is not on the right, but is called the right by name. And this is understood both literally, so that whoever stands in the East and turns towards the West, has the North on his right, which they call the right because those who are refreshed by its breath, which is only called the right by name, but in reality and in deed it is rather on the left. But after the Lord has extended His hand over the North, He will also destroy Assyria, which is interpreted as 'the one who directs', which many think means 'the one who directs', but it is false: for 'the one who directs' is said to be the one who accuses and convicts. And since the devil himself is an enemy and an avenger, and he himself suggests sins, and then accuses sinners of their sins, therefore he is called 'the one who directs'. I believe this to be the prince of the Assyrians, who dwells in the North, and has Nineveh as his capital, and he says in Isaiah: With strength I will act, and with wisdom I will remove the boundaries of nations, and I will plunder their powers (Isaiah 10, LXX). Moreover, what follows about the destruction of Nineveh seems to me to be understood according to what is written either in the prophet Jonah or in Nahum. In Jonah, indeed, we interpret Nineveh, that is, the beautiful city that repented at the preaching of Jonah, that is, the dove, as the Church gathered from the Gentiles. But indeed, we have ordered intelligence upon the world. And of the world, it is not difficult to interpret and say that when the Ethiopians have been wounded by the sword of the Lord and have stretched out their hand upon the north, and have destroyed the Assyrian prince of the world, then the world itself shall perish with its prince, and be reduced to the greatest solitude, and be miserable to no one, but all shall hiss and wave their hands at its ruin. But on first appearance the Church seems blasphemous because it is destined to become impassable and deserted, and beasts will inhabit it, and afterwards it is insultingly said to it: This is a city given over to evil, which dwelt in hope, which said in its heart: I am, and there is no other besides me, how is it made into a wilderness, a pasture for beasts? But anyone who considers that saying of the Apostle in which it is said: In the last times there will be times of great evil, and people will be lovers of themselves, greedy, arrogant, proud, blasphemous, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, without peace, accusers, unrestrained, cruel, hating good, traitorous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God: having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power (2 Timothy 3:1, following). Moreover, this is also written in the Gospel, that because of the increase of wickedness, the love of many will grow cold, so much so that during that time it will be fulfilled: Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, do you think he will find faith on earth? (Matthew 24:12) It will not be surprising that the Church will be severely devastated at the end, when the Antichrist reigns, and will be reduced to desolation, handed over to beasts, and will suffer all the things that the prophet now describes. For if God spared not the natural branches on account of unbelief, perhaps He broke them off, and set rivers in the desert, and fountains in the thirsty land, turning fruitful land into salt, because of the wickedness of its inhabitants; why did He not on the contrary do the same to those concerning whom He had said: He turned the desert into pools of water, and the dry land into fountains of water, and made the hungry dwell there; and the rest, and those whom He had grafted from the wild olive tree into the good olive tree, if they, being forgetful of the benefit, have departed from their Creator and worshipped Assyria, may He overturn and lead them back to the same thirst in which they were before? Although it can generally be understood in the coming of the Antichrist, or in the end of the world: nevertheless, it can be understood daily in those who pretend to be of the Church of God, and deny it by their works, and are hearers of the law, and not doers, who vainly boast of being beautiful, while they dwell in them, namely, a multitude of vices, and brute animals serving the body, and all the beasts of the earth, which devour their hearts, and chameleons which do not have one color; but are changed by various sins, now by greed, now by luxury, now by cruelty, now by lust, now by sadness, now by joy, in moments. And in their mangers there will be hedgehogs, a spiky and thorny animal, and it will wound whatever it touches. And the animals will lie in their burrows, that is, in their hearts, and unclean birds will be in their gates, either in their mouths or in their ears, so that they may always speak or hear evil. After this it is brought forth and said: therefore the Church will suffer or has already suffered these things, because it has lifted itself up in pride and has raised its peak like a cedar, given over to wicked deeds, and yet promising itself future happiness, despising others in its heart, thinking that there is no one besides itself, and saying: I am, and there is no other besides me: so how has the pasture of the beasts become a wilderness? For where the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit formerly dwelt, and the angels presided over their ministries, then the beasts will dwell, of whom the prophet also laments, saying: Do not deliver the soul confessing to you to the beasts (Ps. LXXIII, 19). Everyone who passes through it will hiss and move their hands. But if we understand this about the angels, we will interpret it thus: when the angels pass through it, and do not remain in it as they used to do before, they will be amazed and astonished: and they will not support it, and they will not sustain it as it falls with their hand, but they will lift up their hands and pass through it. Certainly, when they raise their hands with a hiss, and they will crackle like mourners in the manner of lamenting. But if we want to understand this about the devil and his angels, who also devastated the vineyard that had been transferred from Egypt: we will say that, by the soul from which Christ has departed, which was previously the temple of God and has ceased to be, the serpent passes through it and hisses, and vomits the poison of malice; and not only does it do this, but it also moves its works, which are figuratively called hands. So that you do not think that we have named it ‘snake’ just for the sake of it, understand violently, as it were, the hands of the snake in the work. Take the testimony of Solomon: Death and life are in the hands of the tongue (Prov. XVIII, 21). We have said these things, serving as best we could the allegorical interpretation. But if someone finds something more plausible and reasonable than what we have discussed, let the authority of that reader prevail.

3:1-7

(Chapter 3, verses 1 onwards) Woe to the provoking and redeemed city: the dove did not hear the voice and did not receive discipline. It did not trust in the Lord and did not approach its God. Its princes are in its midst, like roaring lions. Its judges are wolves of the evening, they do not leave anything for the morning. Its prophets are insane, unfaithful men. Its priests have defiled the holy, they have acted unjustly against the law. The Lord is righteous; he will not do injustice. Every morning he brings his justice to light; it does not fail. But the wicked know no shame. I have cut off nations; their battlements are in ruins. I laid waste their streets, so that no one walks in them; their cities have been made desolate, without a man, without an inhabitant. I said, 'Surely you will fear me; you will accept correction. Then your dwelling would not be cut off according to all that I have appointed against you.' But all the more they were eager to make all their deeds corrupt. However, rising at dawn, they corrupted all their thoughts. LXX: O illustrious and redeemed city, the dove did not hear a voice, nor receive discipline: it did not trust in the Lord, nor did it approach its Lord. Its princes in it are like roaring lions; its judges are like Arabian wolves, not leaving anything until morning; its prophets are men who carry the spirit, contemptible men; its priests defile the holy things and act impiously against the law: but the Lord is righteous in its midst, and will not do iniquity. In the morning, it will give its judgment in the light, and it is not hidden, and it does not know iniquity in its demands, nor eternal injustice: I have removed the proud, their corners are scattered: I have destroyed their paths so that they may not pass: their cities have failed, because no one remains, nor does anybody dwell. I have said, nevertheless you will fear me, and you will receive discipline, and you will not perish from my sight in all the ways in which I have taken vengeance upon her. Prepare, rise early in the morning: all their buds have been destroyed. Many people think that because of the context of the discourse, it is said against Nineveh, about which it was said above: And he will destroy Assyria, and make Nineveh a wasteland. But the Scripture never called Nineveh a dove: although in Jeremiah, some think that what was said about the doves fleeing from the face of the sword of Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. 15) can refer to Nineveh. But it should be known that others assert the opposite, that instead of dove, it could be understood as Greece, so that the meaning is, from the face of the sword of Jonah, that is, from the face of the sword of Greece: for Jonah signifies both a dove and Greece. And to this day the Greeks still call it the Ionian sea, and the Hebrews retain their ancient word. And even the Roman emperors, when dealing with foreign nations, retain the ancient title of Caesar. So all talk about Jerusalem is: Alas for that city which was once a dove, always sinning and handed over to captivity, but redeemed again by the Lord. Alas for that provocative city, which in Hebrew is more significantly called Mara, meaning 'bitterness', which we can interpret as making God bitter, that is, turning a sweet and merciful Lord into bitterness because of your fault, so that he who desires to show mercy is compelled to punish. She did not hear the command of the Lord, and she refused to accept discipline; she also trusted in the Lord her God in times of distress; she did not walk after His back; and when He said, 'I am the approaching Lord, not from afar' (Jer. XXIII, 23), she wanted to approach Him. Her princes, judges, prophets, and priests are also described, so that in the city we may consider them as the people, and in the names of these dignities that I have mentioned, we may take them as princes. Therefore, his princes were like lions always prowling in the prey and shedding the blood of their subjects. His judges were rapacious, not leaving anything for others to plunder. His prophets raved or were stunned, which in Hebrew is called 'Phoezim', and Aquila translated it as 'astonishing'. They spoke as if from the mouth of the Lord, and they proclaimed everything against the Lord. The priests in the holy place committed sacrilege, and while acting against the law, they offered sacrifices according to the law. Therefore, because they acted unjustly, the Lord, who is just, will not do iniquity; but he will restore to the wicked city what it deserves. Morning, morning, that is, clearly and without any ambiguity, he will pass judgment on it, and there will be nothing that can be hidden from him. And the Lord will do this so that the reformed city may turn to better ways. But the wicked people of Israel did not recognize their own confusion, nor did they understand the punishments inflicted upon them, in order to repent. I have avenged you, he said afterwards, on the nations, and I have destroyed their empires, so that those who did not feel me through blows might at least recognize me through favors. Or certainly it should be understood thus: I have scattered all your cities, O Judah, and all the towns and tribes subject to you, and the diverse borders, and there was such a vast number of people that there was no one to dwell in your cities; and after I did this, I sent my prophets, rising early and calling for repentance, and I said: I have indeed done these things to you, O Jerusalem, but I have done it so that you might fear me and accept discipline, and so that your dwelling place, that is, the temple, might not perish because of all the crimes you have committed. On the contrary, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, provoked by me to repentance, intentionally and competitively rose early in the morning, so that they could fulfill all their thoughts and demonstrate in action what they had conceived in their minds. This is according to the Hebrew. Furthermore, the illustrious and redeemed city of Christ by blood is clearly understood as the Church, which is also called a dove, because of the simplicity of the multitude of believers in it. She did not hear the voice of the Lord, nor was she willing to receive discipline, nor did she trust in the Lord, because she did not want to draw near to her Lord God, in order to deserve forgiveness of sins. For in vain does anyone say that they hear the voice of their Lord God, and trust in the Lord, when they destroy faith with their actions, and are more joined to money than to their Lord God, and approach Him with a double heart, believing they can serve two masters, the world and God. The leaders of this [country] are like roaring lions. We have no doubt about the roar of the lions and the actions: when we see its leaders thundering against the subjected people, and crushing the commoners with tyrannical voices and raging insults, you would think they are barking like lions among little sheep. Its judges too, like Arabian wolves, prey in the evening and leave nothing in the morning: not looking towards the rising sun, but always lingering in darkness, and turning the possessions of the Church and the things that are contributed to God's gifts into their own profit, so that the poor have nothing to eat in the morning, who, like in the night and with no one watching, plunder everything; and like wolves, they snatched away everything, not even leaving small meals for the needy. Even the prophets, that is, the teachers who think they can teach the people and speak about the Scriptures, are carriers of the spirit, or spiritual (and this should be read ironically): they are men of contempt. For it is fitting for them to act in the Church, not to destroy words with deeds. However, when you teach someone else and you yourself do not do it, you are to be called not a teacher, but a despiser, as is written in Habakkuk: See, you scoffers, be astounded and perish (Habakkuk 1:5). Moreover, the priests who serve the Eucharist and distribute the blood of the Lord to his people act impiously against the law of Christ. They think that the words of the one who offers the Eucharist are more important than a virtuous life, and they believe that only a solemn prayer is necessary, not the merits of the priests. As it is said: 'And the priest who has a blemish shall not come near to offer the oblations to the Lord' (Leviticus 21, according to the Septuagint). Despite the fact that the princes, judges, prophets, and priests of Jerusalem do these things, the Lord remains merciful and just. Clement, in that he does not depart from his Church: just, in that he renders to everyone what they deserve. For when the morning comes, and the night of this age passes away, he will give his judgement in the light, and he will not hide himself or his judgement. And when he begins to demand the money that he entrusted to each person, he will not be unjust, nor will he allow injustice to prevail forever; but he will remove the proud rulers, whom God opposes, from their thrones, and from the heights they held, and their angles, that is, their wicked desires, will be dispersed, and they will deviate from the right path, on which the Pharisees always used to pray, with the cornerstone rejected. But I think that it is advantageous for the proud to be detracted from their arrogance, and for their narrow and winding paths to be scattered, so that afterwards they may walk on a straight path. Finally, it follows: And I will make their ways deserted, because there is no one who will pass through them; according to what is written in the first psalm: And the way of the wicked will perish (Psalm 1:6). Likewise, in Hosea, where it is said about Jerusalem fornicating: Behold, I will close her paths with thorns, and obstruct her ways, and she will not find her path, and she will pursue her lovers, and will not apprehend them, and she will seek them, and will not find them; and she will say: I will go and return to my former husband, for it was better for me then than now (Hosea 2:6-7). Note that unless the roads had been closed, and the paths blocked, and unless the Lord had destroyed their ways, the adulterous soul would never have been able to say: I will go and return to my former husband. Therefore, let the paths of the proud be scattered and their corners, so that they do not walk in pride and wickedness, and their cities, which were built poorly in arrogance and pride, are destroyed, so that they do not remain and have the most wretched inhabitants. So that no one thinks that we are using force on the Scripture, let them learn from the following: But I have done these things, he says, so that I may say to them: Behold, the paths of evil have been destroyed, from now on fear me and learn ((or receive)) my teaching, lest my teaching perish and I find no fruit of conversion in you; and let everything be in vain through which I wanted to correct you, and that the word written in Jeremiah may be applied to you: I have struck your sons without cause, you have not received discipline (Jer. II, 30). Indeed, fear me and accept discipline, so that all things may not perish from the sight of Jerusalem, and so that they may not be completely led into desolation because of these evils in which I have threatened her. Let it not trouble anyone (as I have often said) that these things are interpreted as being against the Church, since it is known that Jerusalem always has a typological meaning for the Church in the holy Scriptures: from which whoever sins is either led into Babylon or, if they willingly desire to descend, is wounded by thieves in Jericho. For what Church is so illustrious, which is founded throughout the whole world, so redeemed by the blood of Christ and called together from the nations by the dove for the grace of the Holy Spirit? In it, there are many who claim to believe in Christ but have not heard His voice, have not received His teaching, and do not wish to be close to Him. But what is said: 'Its leaders in it are like roaring lions,' I know that this will offend many because they interpret it as referring to bishops and priests, when in fact there are wicked priests who desired to violate Susanna, but they do not condemn the other priests who have lived uprightly. And the evil princes, whom the prophetic discourse describes, are not an insult to good princes: For when a fool is flogged, he becomes wiser, as it is written: 'When the ignorant is punished, the fool becomes wiser' (Prov. XIX, 15); if the fool becomes wiser, how much more so the wise? But his judges and princes, accepting bribes and selling justice, are they not rightly called 'Arabian wolves' or 'evening wolves', as Symmachus translated? For they do not deserve to be called 'Benjamin's wolves' who snatch in the morning and give food in the evening (Gen. XLIX); but 'evening wolves' who feed at night and leave nothing in the morning. But moving on to what follows: His prophets are spirit-bearers, that is, bearers of the spirit, men of contempt. Let it not bother us that, while interpreting the doctors, we also refer to them as prophets and men of contempt, since the Apostle also instructs us: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30). And let David speak in the fiftieth psalm: Do not take away your Holy Spirit from me (Psalm 51:13). For if the Holy Spirit had not been grieved and accustomed to flee from a place first, and to leave his dwelling, never would Paul have commanded what I have said above; and David, after committing adultery, would not have been afraid of losing what he had received, about which it is also written to the Hebrews: How much do you think he deserves worse punishments, who has trampled on the Son of God, and has esteemed the blood of the testament as unclean, in which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace (Heb. X, 29)? But it is also written in the third book of Kings: 'The man of God, undoubtedly a prophet, who spoke at the altar in Samaria, saying: Altar, altar, thus says the Lord: Behold, a son shall be born to David' (3 Kings 13:2) and so on; because he despised the words of the Lord and ate with the false prophet (for this is how Josephus explained this passage), he was killed by a lion. And so that it would not be thought of as a chance occurrence and not the judgment of the Lord, the false prophet who deceived him predicted that this would happen, and the lion itself, punishing the despiser, spared the donkey. Therefore it is not surprising that the doctors who were filled with the Holy Spirit could become contemptuous, since among the negligent ones who do not keep their hearts with all diligence, this very cause often gives rise to pride in the Lord and contempt, because they have knowledge of God and know His great goodness, which He hides from those who fear Him, and they despise the riches of His goodness, treasuring up for themselves wrath on the day of wrath and revelation. The priests also (who give baptism and pray for the advent of the Lord at the Eucharist: make the oil of chrism: impose hands; instruct catechumens: appoint Levites and other priests) do not despise us as we explain and prophesy, but rather they pray to the Lord and diligently strive that those priests who violate the holy things of the Lord do not deserve to be. For it is not the dignity and the names of dignities, but the work of dignity, that is accustomed to save princes, judges, prophets, and priests: 'He who desires the episcopate,' it says, 'desires a good work' (1 Timothy 3). See what he said: a good work desires, but not dignity. However, if, despising the work, he only looks at dignity, the tower in Siloam quickly falls, and the tall cedars are struck by lightning, and the raised neck is broken, and the swan, with its neck stretched out and reaching high, is counted among unclean birds. Furthermore, what we have set forth according to the Hebrew: Nevertheless, rising at dawn, they corrupted all their thoughts, for which it is written in the Septuagint: prepare, rise at dawn, their foliage is scattered, because it deviates greatly from the Hebrew, and it seems to agree more with the subsequent versions, which we will explain in what follows.

3:8-9

(Verse 8, 9.) Therefore, wait for me, says the Lord, in the day of my resurrection in the future: because I will gather the nations and gather the kingdoms to judge them, and I will pour out my indignation, all the fury of my wrath, for in the fire of my zeal all the earth shall be consumed. For then I will restore to the peoples a pure speech, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord and serve Him with one accord. LXX: Therefore wait for me, says the Lord, on the day of my resurrection as a testimony: for my judgment is in the gatherings of the nations, to receive kings, to pour out all my wrath upon them, the fury of my anger; for in the fire of my zeal all the earth will be consumed, for then I will turn to the peoples a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, and serve him under one yoke. The Jews interpret these things as referring to the coming of Christ, whom they hope will come, and they say to all the gathered nations, with the Lord's fury poured out upon them, the earth will be devoured in the fire of his zeal. And just as before the building of the tower, when one language was spoken by all people, so now with all turned to the worship of the true God, speaking in Hebrew, the whole world will serve the Lord. But we, who do not follow the letter of the West, but the life-giving Spirit, and do not listen to Jewish fables, hear from the Lord: Prepare, rise early: all their clusters are scattered; and we, prepared, say: My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready (Ps. 56:8). And we hear in Proverbs the commandment: Prepare your work in the field (Prov. XXIV, 27). And that which is sacredly said in Leviticus (Chapter XVI), where on the seventh month, the tenth day of the month, Aaron offers a goat sent away, and living, and placing his hands upon its head, he curses upon it all the sins of the people of Israel, and delivers it into the hands of a prepared man, and sends it into the wilderness (we understand within ourselves), and preparing ourselves under the true command of the priest, we remove evil from the midst of the Church. And when we have done these things, the night passes, the day draws near, and as if walking properly in the day, we say: God, my God, I am awake to you from the light (Psalms 62:1). And immediately we conclude: In the morning, you will hear my prayer, in the morning I will stand by you, and I will see (Psalms 5:4, 5). For if we are not prepared, the sun of justice will not rise for us. But when the sun rises, all the clusters from the vineyard of the Sodomites are scattered and perish, so that not only the great bunches, but also what seemed small in us, may be dispersed by the shining lamp of Christ. And promising us a reward for all these things, God said: Expect me on the day of my resurrection as a testimony. For after our vices and sins, God will rise in us. And according to what He commands in another place: Be witnesses for me, and I am a witness, says the Lord God; and the boy whom I have chosen (Isai. XLIII, 10): the Father is a witness with the Son and the Holy Spirit, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established (Deut. XVII). And it seems to me that the opinion stands in this way, and truth is confirmed by these three witnesses, rather than according to the letter. For there were two witnesses against Susanna (Dan. XIII), and against the Lord Himself (Matt. XXVI), and yet their words did not stand in their mouths. Likewise, the whole city testified against Naboth, but the agreement of wicked witnesses did not have the strength of truth, but the conspiracy of crime (III Reg. XXI). For, he says, it is my judgment to gather the nations together, to assemble the kings in the place of their punishment, to pour out my anger on them, all the fury of my wrath. The one who is lesser quickly deserves forgiveness, and mercy is close at hand. But the powerful endure torments with power. (Wisdom 6:6) From where the peoples and the multitude of nations gather for judgment; but the kings, that is, the leaders of perverse doctrines, will be brought for punishment, that all the fury of the Lord's wrath may be poured out on them. And this is not done out of any cruelty, as the bloodthirsty Jews think, but out of mercy and the counsel of a healer. For it follows: For in the fire of my zeal will all the earth be consumed. For the nations, gathered for judgment, and the kings, for punishment, so that wrath may be poured out upon them, not in part, but in whole, and wrath combined with fury, so that whatever is earthly, whatever belongs to the works of the earth, that is, of the flesh, may be consumed, laying waste all its brambles and thorny thickets, the fire of my zeal will devour it all. And then I will restore to the people their pure language, that every one may return to the ancient confession of the Lord, after having cast off error; and that in the name of Jesus, every knee may bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue may confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father. And having cast away the burdens and the bitumen which we had for stones and mud, with which we were building up the pride of our error against the Lord, let us receive the language which we formerly lost, and let us be under the yoke of Christ, who says: My yoke is sweet and my burden light. But it must be noted that in the place where we have translated, 'I will give peoples a chosen lip, for the chosen one,' the Septuagint said, 'in his generation, so that the earth may be understood.' And hence the error arose, because the Hebrew word 'Barura' which Aquila and Theodotion translated as 'chosen,' Symmachus interpreted as 'world.' The Septuagint read 'Badura,' thinking that the letter 'Resh' was a 'Daleth,' due to their strong similarity, which is distinguished by a small apex. Moreover, where we have been transferred to, on the day of my resurrection in the future, and all have interpreted, as a testimony. The Hebrew who instructed me in the Scriptures claimed that the word 'Laed' in the present context should be understood more as 'in the future' than as 'as a testimony.' For, what is written with the letters Ain and Dalet can be understood as 'future' and 'testimony.' We can also explain this passage in relation to the first coming of Christ, when all errors were removed, demons were defeated, and earthly works were destroyed, and the apostles spoke in all languages (Acts 2), and through the removal of the old error, one confession was restored. But even the kings who are destroyed and consumed by divine fire are regarded as leaders of perverse doctrines.

3:10-13

(Verse 10 onwards) Beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, there my scattered children, the offspring of my dispersed ones, will bring a gift to me. On that day you will no longer be ashamed of all your rebellious acts against me, for then I will remove from your midst those who proudly boast of their arrogance, and you will no longer exalt yourself on my holy mountain. I will leave in your midst a humble and oppressed people, and they will trust in the name of the Lord. The remnant of Israel will not commit injustice or speak falsehood, and no deceitful tongue will be found in their mouths. They will feed and lie down, and no one will make them afraid. LXX: Concerning the boundaries of the rivers of Ethiopia, I will gather my dispersed ones. They will bring sacrifices to me. On that day, you will not be ashamed of all your inventions, in which you have acted impiously towards me, for then I will remove from you the arrogance of your insults, and you will no longer exalt yourself upon my holy mountain. I will leave in you a gentle and humble people, and they will revere the name of the Lord, those who remain of Israel. They will not commit iniquity, nor speak falsehoods, nor will there be deceitful language found in their mouths, for they will be nourished and lie down, and no one will make them afraid. When the Lord returns the chosen lip to the people of the believers, and all invoke the name of the Lord, and bear his yoke, then even beyond the rivers of Ethiopia (where the queen of Sheba came to hear the wisdom of Solomon) they will bring offerings to the Lord. And Ethiopia will stretch out its hand to God. And truly, the Ethiopian woman, who the lawgiver struck Egypt with ten plagues, will marry, while the Hebrew synagogue looks on with envy. But what he says according to the Hebrew: From there my supplicants, the daughter of my scattered ones, will bring me a gift of this kind: O Israel, formerly the assembly of daughters, whom I dispersed throughout the whole world, although you may envy, although you may be tormented by emulation, nevertheless from Ethiopia sacrifices will be brought to me, that is, from the Gentile people. In that day, that is, when the multitude of the Gentiles believes, even you will not be completely confounded above all your errors, by which you transgressed against me, choosing Barabbas and crucifying the Son of God (John 6). Then I will remove from your midst the scribes, and the priests, and the Pharisees, proud of your arrogance, and you will no longer boast on my holy mountain; but you will have a poor people, uneducated men, and fishermen, who will hope in the name of the Lord. The remnants of Israel, not the multitude that cried out, 'Crucify him, crucify him' (John 19:6): not the priests and the nobles; but the remnants will not commit iniquity, nor speak falsehood against Christ, believing in the truth: nor will deceitful language be found in their mouths, knowing that every lie is from the devil (John 8); for they themselves will be shepherded and will say: The Lord shepherds me, and I shall lack nothing; in the place of pasture, there he has placed me. He has led me beside still waters, he restores my soul (Psalm 23:1): and there will be no one to frighten, the pride of the persecutors being conquered by the faith of the believers. Let it be understood that this refers to the first coming of Christ, which the Jews promise to themselves in the end, and hope to dwell in Jerusalem, and to be satisfied and nourished with bodily gifts and Jewish resources like sheep, and with green herbs, and with all nations destroyed and subjected to themselves, so that no one can frighten them. But we, taking from this fable an opportunity for a true story, say that, by washing our stained and sinful souls, and by our lips being restored to their chosen and pure state (as Symmachus has explained), we have left behind us in the rivers of Ethiopia the masters of perverse doctrines, with whom we were once associated, and we will bear the gifts to Christ, the scattered Israel. On that day, in which the light of Christ rose for us, it will be said to each of us: you will not be ashamed of all your inventions, namely, the worst thoughts with which we acted impiously against the Lord, and all pride and contempt through which we exalted ourselves against the Lord and against His holy mountain, our Lord and Savior, and for proud and empty names there will be left in us a gentle and humble people, so that we may think of nothing arrogant, nothing boastful, nothing that displeases God. At the same time, consider that on the day of judgment and at the end of the world, all names of dignities will be taken away, and only one people will remain, and a flock under a good shepherd, who is meek and humble. Then even the people of Israel, as the fullness of the gentiles enters (For God has concluded them all in unbelief, that he may have mercy on all. - Romans 11:32), will fear the name of the Lord. And the remnant of Israel will no longer commit iniquity, having denied the Lord exceedingly, nor will they speak vanity, promising themselves foolish stories. And in their mouth, the tongue of deceit will not be found, while Christ, who is truth, speaks through them. For then they will feed, both themselves and in one flock, and they will recline in the Church, and they will not fear the true attacks of Nebuchadnezzar. Seeing and reading such great mysteries, let us cry out with the Apostle and say: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! (Rom. XI, 33). Which indeed the prophet, sensing and pondering within himself, suspects concerning the judgments of God. In the night, while I was meditating in my heart, and my spirit was tormented, I said: Is God going to cast off forever, or will he no longer show his mercy? Or will he keep his mercy locked up in his anger? And I said: Now I begin: this is the change of the right hand of the Most High (Psalm 76:7, following). And the meaning is this: I understood that what I thought, that the Lord would abandon sinners forever and hold back his mercy with anger succeeding, was done for this reason, so that by the change of his right hand, which is the right hand of the Most High, he would change everything and have mercy on those whom he had previously cast away. And we, both ourselves and the rest of Israel, knowing that we shall render an account for every idle word (Matthew 12), and that the Lord will destroy all lips that speak falsehood, let us not speak vanity. For vanity of vanities, and all is vanity (Ecclesiastes 1:2). And also: All the vanity of every living man (Psalm 38). Let us not speak lies with our mouths; but having received the power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy (Luke 10), let us fear no terror, neither let us dread the snares of wolves with Christ as our guardian. But let us say, 'The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?' (Psalm 27:1). And so forth, which are contained in the twenty-sixth psalm.

3:14-18

(Verse 14 and following) Praise, daughter of Zion, shout for joy, Israel, rejoice and exult with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away your judgment, he has turned away your enemies: the Lord, the King of Israel, is in your midst, you will no longer fear evil. On that day, it will be said, Jerusalem, do not be afraid: Zion, let your hands not be weak: the Lord your God, in your midst, is mighty he will save, he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will quiet you with his love: he will exult over you with praise. I will gather those who turned away from the law, because they were from you, so that you will no longer have reproach against them. Rejoice, daughter of Zion; proclaim, daughter of Jerusalem, rejoice and delight with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away your iniquities, he has redeemed you from the hand of your enemies, the Lord, the king of Israel, is in your midst: you will no longer see evil. In that time, says the Lord, Jerusalem, have confidence, Zion, let your hands not be weak: the Lord your God, who is mighty, will save you, he will bring joy upon you, and renew you in his love, and he will rejoice over you with delight, as on a solemn day: I will gather your broken ones. Woe to anyone who receives reproach upon it. It does not seem strange, as we have often said, that Hebrew chapters end differently from the Greek Septuagint and the Latin. For where there is a different sense of translation, there must necessarily be different beginnings or endings. The Jews, who expect Christ to come, promise themselves all these things, which we who have received Christ have already obtained with him. Therefore, if anyone, especially among the new wise men of the Christians, whose names I will not mention in order not to appear to harm anyone, thinks that prophecy has not yet been fulfilled, let him know that he falsely bears the name of Christ and has a Jewish soul, having only the circumcision of the body. For if these things have not yet been done, but are to come, we have believed in vain in the coming of the Savior. But in vain do we understand that the mystery, which has been kept secret from eternal times, is fulfilled in us who do not believe, and is now manifested through the prophetic Scriptures and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Finally, let us consider the order of the reading, and we will see that it is said to pertain not to the Jews, but to the Church of Christ. For after that which went before (My judgement concerning the nations, that they might receive kings, even unto that place where it is said: They shall call upon the name of the Lord, and shall serve him under one yoke. And I will take of my dispersed into Ethiopia, and they shall offer to me victims. And in that day there shall be no more a Pharao in the land of Egypt: but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they would not be converted. And the remnant of the house of Israel, and they that shall escape of the house of Jacob, shall lean upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. A remnant shall be converted, the remnant, I say, of Jacob, to the mighty God. For if thy people, O Israel, shall be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them shall be converted. Consummation, and that determined, shall overflow justice. Because the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, and an abridgment in the midst of all the land. The Holy Spirit, preaching about the general consummation of the world, speaks: Rejoice, daughter of Zion, proclaim, daughter of Jerusalem, be glad and delight with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem. For every soul of the Church, which is established on the watchtower and contemplates peace, rejoices and is glad that its iniquities have been removed and redeemed by Him who redeemed all with His precious blood. For Christ has become wisdom for us from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption (I Cor. I, 30). And the king of Israel, who dwells among us, redeemed us, saying: I and my Father will come, and we will make our abode with him (John XIV, 23); and I will dwell and walk among them (Lev. XXVI, 12): and we will no longer see evil, but only think and do virtues. In that day, says the Lord, we will see peace, and placed on high, let not your hands be dissolved, who also said through Isaiah: Strengthen the weak hands, and let your works be strong (Isaiah XXXV, 3). For the Lord is strong, against whom no one can resist: your savior, he himself will restore to you the joy that you have lost, and after casting off the old man, he will make you walk in the new, and he will do all this out of his love: not because of your merit, but because of his mercy. And he will rejoice in you, and delight in you, receiving your salvation like a rich sacrifice of your solemnity; and he himself will say to you: I will gather your contrite ones; for a contrite and humble heart, God will not despise. (Psalm 50:19); and, a crushed reed he will not break. (Isaiah 42). But for now, if we want to understand the second coming of the Savior. Moreover, because the prophet Zechariah encourages Zion and Jerusalem to similar joy, and Matthew says that this same prophecy was fulfilled in the first coming of Christ (Matt. 21), we are compelled by necessity, or rather we are led by the very order of truth, which is said in Zephaniah, not to hope for what is to come, but for what has already happened. For it is written in Zechariah: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; proclaim, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your king comes to you, righteous and saving: he is humble and riding on a donkey (or a colt) (Zech. 9:9). These things are said according to the Septuagint. However, according to the Hebrew, the Church is commanded to praise and Israel is commanded to rejoice, perceiving God with understanding, and to exult and be joyful with their whole heart in the place of peace, to which it was said: Peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you (John 14:27). For in the end and consummation of the world, he took away his judgment, by no means judging or reproving it, but saving it; and he turned away his enemies, the hordes of demons. The Lord God of Israel will be in its midst: it will no longer fear evil. On that day it will be said to Jerusalem: O thou free city, thou shalt no longer serve with thy sons, but thou shalt be the mother of the saints (Galatians IV). Fear not, O Zion (for thou art indeed Jerusalem): none of thy works shall be destroyed, nor shalt thou mourn for the things which thou hast done (or, shalt thou lament, Isaiah 54:9). The Lord thy God, who will save thee, is strong and mighty: he himself will dwell in the midst of thee, he will rejoice over thee with gladness and joy, and he will silence thy sins with love (or, with peace), wherewith he hath loved thee: and he will exult over thee with praise, either because thou art praiseworthy, or because thou singest praises with thine own (people). Just as the Eagle, or, as it is interpreted, the Aquila, gathers those who have strayed from you, because they were from you, that is, those who had fled from your bosom through vice and sin, and had come under the power of demons, when the state of all things is restored, they will come to you, and you will no longer allow any reproach against your lost children. Let us know that what we have said is nonsense (), in Hebrew it is the same as the Latin language, and therefore it is placed by us as it was in Hebrew: so that we may know that the Hebrew language is the mother of all languages, which is not for this time to discuss. But I marvel at Aquila and the Septuagint, because we translated them, in that place namely where we said: I will gather because they were from you: instead of, they were, they translated it as woe, or οἴ: which Aquila always puts not for lamenting, but for calling and crying out: Haja (), for the beginning of the word signifies 'they were,' the past tense in the plural number, either were or had been. I know that this will be bothersome to the reader, who, if he notices, will not accuse me of writing controversies and declamations, nor of rejoicing in commonplaces: but rather will criticize me for playing in the manner of rhetoricians, rather than blame me for dwelling in so great obscurities, as is worthy of one lingering.

3:19-20

Verse 19, 20: Behold, I will kill all those who have afflicted you at that time; and I will save the lame, and gather her who was cast out; and I will make them a praise and a name in all the earth's confusion. In the time when I bring you; and in the time when I gather you: for I will give you a name and a praise to all the peoples of the earth, when I turn your captivity before your eyes, says the Lord. LXX: Behold, I will do in you, for you, at that time, and I will save the oppressed, and I will receive the rejected, and I will place them in glory, and those who are named in all the earth. And they will be confounded at that time, when I have done well to you: and at the time when I have received you, for I will give you a name, and glory among all the peoples of the earth; when I turn your captivity before you, says the Lord. And this is the synagogue that does not limp, but is cut off on both feet, promising itself in the coming of its Christ, whom it hopes to come: and it thinks that all the nations that have afflicted Israel will be destroyed by the Lord, and the synagogue will be saved, and the one who had received the bill of divorce will be gathered, and they will be placed in praise, and in the name in all the land of their captivity, where they were previously confused. And this happened during the time when the captivity of Jerusalem had been reduced, and the temple had been rebuilt, and the remaining order of ceremonies had been observed. She promises this to herself, and therefore does not repent, and while she hopes for uncertain things, she loses certain salvation. I am not surprised that the synagogue says these things, which, because it does not receive Christ, it hurts its eyes, and when it winks, it is not loved by Jacob, and when Rachel succeeds, it is neglected (Gen. XXIX). I marvel at the Christians, or rather semi-Jews, who claim to be of the Church and profess those things which, if true, we believe in vain in Christ, and all our sacraments are taken away, and we are more miserable than all men, believing in him who did not come. But since our hope is certain and the vows of the Jews are empty, according to the earlier understanding, let us now weave the present and final chapter and let us bring forth the testimony of Jesus son of Sirach: He who casts a stone high, casts it upon his own head (Eccl. XXIII). For indeed, because Zion and Jerusalem are situated on high, whoever detracts from Zion and Jerusalem and hurls stones of contempt at them, casts them upon his own head; and their reproach will return upon his own head. And his pain and wickedness will descend upon his own head. How many today reproach the souls that seek God's mysteries, that desire to see His peace, and say: He is insane and drunk, and full of wine; he avoids the company of men; he spurns pleasure; he considers gold as mud; he loves only poverty. But those who are unbelievers even reproach the cross of Christ to Him, even though when they see Him in distress and temptation, they say: Where are Your mercies and the justice that You have wrought? What shall I say concerning unbelievers, when certain leaders of the Churches reproach such men and consider their lives folly, and do not praise their present conduct, but reproach their old sins? Nor do they hear that it is commanded: Do not reproach a man who turns away from his sins (Eccl. VIII). Woe therefore to him who brought reproach and took it upon himself, and surrendered himself to such a duty, to slander Zion and the city of God. For by this injury, the Lord is the avenger of his own city, and he will say to Zion: Behold, I will do in you for your sake, that is, I will do your vengeance, and I will save the afflicted, or as it is said in Greek, the oppressed; so that the meaning may be: I will save her, who at present is like a grape and an olive, so pressed and afflicted by trials and troubles, as if she were crushed and pressed by a winepress and a beam, in order to make wine and oil, and Jesus would drink of the wine in the kingdom of his Father; but he would be anointed with the oil by his fellow partakers. I think that because of the expression of such wine and oil, Job suffered many things; but after he had made wine and oil, he heard from the Lord, 'Do you think that I have responded to you in any other way, except that you may appear just?' (Job 40:70). As if he were speaking to a grape and an olive; Do you think that I have pressed and afflicted and crushed you in any other way, except that I may extract wine and oil from you? It follows: And I will receive her who was rejected. It seems that God repels us when he allows temptation. Hence Job says, 'The visitation of the Lord has looked upon me' (Job 10:12). And not only do the just speak, saying, 'But now you have repelled and confounded us,' as it is written in the forty-third psalm, but the Lord and Savior himself, speaking in the person of the man he had assumed, says, 'But you have repelled and despised: you have delayed your Christ; you have overthrown the testament of your servant.' But the identity of the righteous person is confirmed in the 43rd psalm, which says: Now you have rejected and humiliated us, but all these things have come upon us, and we have not forgotten you, nor have we acted unjustly in your covenant; our heart has not turned back. Therefore, the Lord will receive her who appeared cast down in temptations, and he will place them in glory and make them renowned throughout the earth, namely, the children of the Church, who have been manifested and rejected. But who else can we understand as children of the Church, if not the apostles? Look at Peter and Paul and Matthew and John; and consider this that was promised to Abraham: I will magnify your name, accomplished in them by their works. Every day their names are mentioned in the Church, every day their names are magnified: not because it benefits them to be mentioned by us in the Church, but because by magnifying their names and reading what they wrote, we obtain salvation. In that time, he says, when the repulsed attack had been undertaken, and his sons had been placed in glory (for the Lord glorifies in his athletes, when he sees them crowned, just as he gloried against the devil concerning Job), so the Apostle, rejoicing in the progress of his disciples, says: Even through your glory, those who were your adversaries will be confounded, and they who had hurled reproach against you will see those whom they had considered miserable to be happy, and those whom they had regarded as poor and lowly to become powerful and glorious. Then they will see their captivity, by which they had been subjected to a harsh rule in this world, being brought back to heavenly Jerusalem; and they themselves rising to eternal shame and confusion. Grant us, Jesus Christ, who are expressed and afflicted and rejected in this world, that you may receive us and place us in glory: may confusion prevail in the time of his remaining, may his idle words cease, may his poisons become dull, and may his confusion lead to salvation. This according to the Septuagint. However, the Hebrew text does not require much explanation because, apart from the beginning that we mentioned at the end of the previous chapter, it does not differ significantly from their translation.