Commentary on Joel

(Verse 1.) The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Phatuel. The Seventy interpreters, instead of PHATUEL (פתואל), translated Bathuel; which among the Hebrews signifies nothing at all.

But Phatuel is translated into our language as "the breadth of God," or "God opening," as we read in Mark, the Savior saying to the deaf and mute man: EPHPHETA (אתפתח), which is, "be opened". For since he could say with the Apostle: "Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians, our heart is enlarged": and he was hearing from the Lord: "Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it": the very opening of the mouth is not in the power of man, but of God, Paul saying: "A door has been opened to me, great and evident; but there are many adversaries"; for this reason God is called "one who opens." And since the saint always makes progress, knowing in part and prophesying in part, until that which is perfect comes, he who is born of breadth and opening is called Joel (יואל), which among us signifies "beginning," or "he is God," the Apostle saying: "Brethren, I do not consider myself to have attained"; growing by which humility he deserves to hear with Moses: "He who is, has sent me".

For as a distinction from those who are not, of whom also we read in Esther: "Do not deliver your scepter to those who are not" (Esther xiv, 11), God and his saints are shown to be. Let these things concerning the name Joel and his father be briefly touched upon, so that rightly it may be told that the word of God, which was in the beginning with God, was made, as John the Baptist relates: "He who is to come after me was made before me, because he was before me". Furthermore, "the word was made" is referred to the merit of him to whom it comes, not to the condition of him who is said to be made, as we read elsewhere: "The Lord has become my salvation".

But just as in the prophet Hosea, whom we explained at the beginning of the twelve prophets before this book, the prophecy is referred under the name Ephraim to the ten tribes, which are often called either Samaria or Israel: so in Joel, who according to the Hebrews is second, everything that is said is to be believed to pertain to the tribe of Judah and to Jerusalem, and no mention at all is made in this of Israel, that is, of the ten tribes. We ought also to understand the same times in which he prophesied, as we read in Hosea: "In the days of Uzziah, Jotham, and Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel." (Verses 2, 3.) Hear this, old men, and give ear, all inhabitants of the land, whether this has happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers: tell your children of this, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

LXX: Hear these things, old men, and give ear, all inhabitants of the land, whether such things happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers: instead of these, tell your children, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. The old men are bidden to hear, the inhabitants of the land to give ear. To the old men it is not said, "Hear, all"; to the inhabitants of the land is added, "Give ear, all." For hearing in the Holy Scriptures is not that which resounds in the ear, but that which is perceived by the heart, according to what the Lord says in the Gospel: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear". But what we have translated "give ear," both among the Greeks and among the Hebrews is one word: among the Greeks, ἐνωτίσασθε; among the Hebrews, HAAZINU (האזינו), which is properly perceived not by the heart, but by the ear.

And that we may know that hearing is more sacred than what resounds in the ears, let us learn from Isaiah's speaking: "Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth". Those who are old and heavenly hear spiritually; those who dwell on earth, and are called earthly, give ear. And this is to be noted in all the Scriptures, wherever these two words are placed together. This we also read in Lamech the sinner, who spoke to his wives Adah and Zillah: "Hear my words, wives of Lamech, give ear to my words, for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt": he knew that what he spoke was obscure, and therefore he called his wives not merely to the simple sound of words, but also to the hidden understanding of what was said.

If, then, anyone is an old man, and an old man chosen for ripeness of age in the Lord, as we read in what follows according to the Seventy interpreters, and has left behind the infancy of little children, let him hear the things that are said. But whoever still dwells on earth, and cannot say, "I am a sojourner and a pilgrim, as all my fathers were", let him give ear. "If this has happened," he says, "in your days, or in the days of your fathers." By a rhetorical art he makes the hearer attentive from the greatness of the matters: "no age," he says, "remembers what I am about to tell, nor were these things done in your time, nor in the time of your fathers and elders." But know fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, and children of children, all offspring thereafter, according to that Virgilian line (Aeneid, book iii):

And the children of children, and those who shall be born from them;

Therefore, both old men and inhabitants of the land, tell your children and your descendants; let him who is an old man teach his children the mysteries; let him who is an inhabitant of the land relate the simple history. Whence even to this day we who believe in Christ, from whose eyes, together with Moses, the veil has been taken away, and of whom it is said: "The gray hair of a man is his wisdom", tell our children secret and wondrous things. But the Jews who dwell on earth speak earthly things, and things clinging to the ground, of whom it is written: "He who is of the earth speaks of the earth: he who comes from heaven is above all". (Verse 4.) What the palmerworm has left, the locust has eaten; and what the locust has left, the cankerworm has eaten; and what the cankerworm has left, the blight has eaten. LXX similarly.

The narrative follows the exordium: there, in order to make the hearer attentive, he promised that he was about to tell great and incredible things, which neither ancient history knew nor the present age recognized as having happened. Here he set down the palmerworm, the locust, the cankerworm, and the blight, so that things which each rarely occur might be remembered as all having happened together, and therefore be wondrous. The palmerworm, which in Hebrew is GEZEM (גזם), called in Greek κάμπη, the Hebrews interpret as the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Chaldeans, who, proceeding from one region of the world, laid waste all things, both of the ten tribes and of the two, that is, of the Israelite people. The locust, however, they interpret as the Medes and Persians, who, having overthrown the empire of the Chaldeans, held the Jews captive. The cankerworm, as the Macedonians, and all the successors of Alexander, and especially King Antiochus surnamed Epiphanes, who, like the cankerworm, sat in Judea and devoured all the remnants of the former kings, under whom the wars of the Maccabees are related.

The blight they refer to the empire of the Romans, who, fourth and last, so oppressed the Jews as to drive them from their own borders. Josephus writes more fully in seven volumes, narrating the triumphs of Vespasian and Titus. We also read of the expedition of Aelius Hadrian against the Jews, who so overthrew Jerusalem and its walls that from the remnants and ashes of the city he founded a city of his own name, Aelia. These four kingdoms which overthrew Judea, Zechariah writes that he saw in four horns, the angel saying to him: "These are the horns which have scattered Judah and Israel and Jerusalem". And again: "I lifted up," he says, "my eyes and saw, and behold four chariots coming out from between two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of bronze: in the first chariot, red horses; and in the second chariot, black horses; and in the third chariot, white horses; and in the fourth chariot, strong, mottled horses".

And when the prophet had said to the angel who spoke in him, "What are these, my lord?" the angel answered: "These are the four winds of heaven, which go forth to stand before the Ruler of all the earth": and the sense is: these are they who go forth from the face of the Lord, to fulfill his will. Having perceived with the inhabitants of the land, by ear, what the palmerworm, locust, cankerworm, and blight signify: now let us hear with the old men what has been said. That there are four disturbances by which the health of souls is overthrown, all the schools of the philosophers proclaim together. Two are present and mutually contrary to each other, two are future and mutually at odds. The present ones: distress and joy. We speak of distress of soul; otherwise, distress of the body is not called distress but sickness.

Either, then, we are sad, and are consumed by grief, and the state of our mind is overthrown: whence also the Apostle warns lest the brother be swallowed up by excessive sorrow. Or, on the contrary, we rejoice, and exult in gladness, and cannot bear our good fortune with moderation; and it is the mark of a just and strong man neither to be broken by adversity, nor lifted up by prosperity, but to be moderate in both. We have spoken of the disturbance of present things; let us also speak of future things, in which there is fear or hope. We fear adversities, we await prosperities; and what distress and joy work in the present, fear and hope do concerning the future, while we either fear more than is fitting that adversities are coming, or the prosperities we hope for make us exult so much that we keep no measure, especially in things that are uncertain, since future things are hoped for rather than possessed.

These disturbances the illustrious poet comprises in one, and not even a full, verse (Aeneid, book vi):

These fear and desire (this concerning the future), grieve and rejoice (this concerning the present), nor do they, he says, look upon the upper air, shut in darkness and a blind prison.

For those who are wrapped in the darkness of disturbances are not able to gaze upon the clear light of wisdom. We must therefore beware lest sadness, like the caterpillar, devour us; lest the locust lay waste in joy, flitting hither and thither, and, in exultant gladness, flinging itself about in various directions; lest the bruchus, that is, dread and fear of future things, devour the roots of wisdom; lest the blight covet useless things through desire of future things, and carry us off to ruin: but that in all things we may govern, with the reins of wisdom, the four chariots and the four horns, and the four horses—red, and dappled, and white, and black, that is, whether adverse or prosperous circumstances, or a mixture of both.

I consider the caterpillar to be a passion beginning in the soul, which is slow and cannot run about, and by its very delay and persistence drinks up and sucks out all vigor: which, if we do not kill it, grows within us and flies off, and now devours whatever it touches, now, leaving it half-eaten, moves on to other things; and returning to its former seat becomes the bruchus, so that by its slowness it devours not only the crops, the leaves, and the bark, but even the pith itself. But if it should happen, though this is rare, that even after the bruchus some vital spirit remains in us, the blight lays waste everything, so turning the stubble and worthless hay to blackness that they become useless not only for food but even for dung.

Concerning these four disturbances we shall discuss also at the beginning of Amos, if life accompany us, where it is written: For three transgressions, and for four, of Damascus, of Gaza, of Tyre, of Idumea, of the children of Ammon, and of Moab, and of Judah, and of Israel, I will not turn them back, says the Lord. These we have translated as "disturbances," the Greeks call πάθη, which if we render, in a bad taste, as "passions," we would express the word rather than the sense of the word. (Verse 5.) Awake, you drunkards, and weep, and wail, all you that drink wine with sweetness: because it has perished from your mouth. LXX: Awake, you that are drunk with your wine: and weep and mourn, all you that drink wine in drunkenness: because it has been taken away from your mouth. We ought to hear this as elders and presbyters: nothing so intoxicates as disturbance of the mind. There is a sadness which leads to death: this is an abominable drunkenness.

There is anger which does not work the justice of God, and, being close to fury, deprives a man of mastery over his own mind: to such a degree that the lips tremble, the teeth chatter, the countenance changes with pallor. Rightly is that saying of Archytas of Tarentum praised, who, when angry with his steward, said: "I would kill you now, were I not angry." Why should I mention joy and pleasure, and especially love, which blinds the eyes of the heart, and allows the lover to think of nothing but the object of love? Is it not to be called drunkenness, when, for the sake of a vile harlot and a shameful part of the body, the liberty of the soul is bent down to servile flatteries? When one makes his own labor the delight of another? When by theft, crime, and perjury he prepares wealth for future pleasure? And when, though seen by all, he thinks himself unseen, provided only he obtains what he desires.

But avarice too blinds the mind of him for whom nothing is enough: and so does womanish fear, and the desire for sweet vices. Whence it is said to them: Awake and be roused, you that are drunk: not with wine only, as is contained in the Septuagint alone, but with every disturbance of vices: Weep, and mourn, and do penance: and take up the sadness that leads to life, and wail, all you that drink wine with sweetness, or, in drunkenness. For vices are sweet: because honey drips from the lips of the harlot woman: and therefore it is not offered in the sacrifices of God: because it has perished, or been taken away from your mouth, the wine, the drunkenness and sweetness which had deceived you. For often it is by the providence of God that those who did not know God in prosperity come to know him in adversity: and those who abused their riches wickedly are corrected toward virtues by poverty.

According to this sense let the elders hear: but let the inhabitants of the land perceive with their ears, that it is now commanded concerning that wine in which is luxury, and by which those who are made drunk cannot possess the kingdom of God. Let him who is lulled asleep by the drunkenness of wine awake and weep that he was drunk, and wail: so that afterward his wailing and weeping may be turned into laughter, and he may rejoice that he no longer has the material for drunkenness which through its abundance had made him drunk and insane. (Verses 6, 7.) For a nation has come up upon my land, strong and innumerable: its teeth are like the teeth of a lion, and its jaw-teeth like a lion's whelps. It has laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: it has stripped it bare and cast it away: its branches are made white.

LXX: For a nation has come up upon the land, strong and innumerable: its teeth are those of a lion: and its jaw-teeth are as a lion's whelps. It has made my vine into desolation, and my fig trees into breakage: examining, it has thoroughly examined it, and cast it away: it has made its branches white. The Jews think that in the days of Joel so innumerable a multitude of locusts came upon Judea that they filled everything, and I will not say the crops, but even left behind only the barks and branches of the vines and trees, so that, all the greenness consumed, the withered branches of the trees and the dried shoots of the vines remained. Whether this happened or not we cannot clearly affirm: for neither does the history of Kings and Chronicles narrate it. Indeed, if it had happened, how could Scripture ever have been silent about it, when we read of the famine of three years and six months under Elijah?

We say only this, that under the metaphor of locusts the coming of enemies is described, whether of the Assyrians and Babylonians, who were then threatening; or of the Medes and Persians, who were to come afterward; or of the Macedonians, whom we know to have come much later; or lastly of the Romans, of whom we spoke above. Although now it seems to us rather to be said of the Babylonians and Chaldeans, whose cruelty and ferocity against the people of God is described: and, unless I am mistaken, I seem to myself to have found something in this Prophet. The impiety of the enemies is narrated under the figure of locusts: and again it is spoken thus concerning the locusts themselves, as though they were being compared to enemies, so that when you read "locusts" you may think of enemies, and when you think of enemies you may return to locusts. There ascends, then, a nation of locusts from the wilderness, or the army of the Chaldeans, upon the land of God, and it is strong and innumerable.

For what is more innumerable and stronger than locusts, which human effort cannot resist? Its teeth, that is, of the nation of locusts (understand all this typologically), are like the teeth of a lion; and its jaw-teeth, like a lion's whelps, so that as they are equal to locusts in strength and multitude, they are compared to lions in ferocity and cruelty. This nation, he says, has laid my vine waste, which I transplanted and planted out of Egypt, and has barked my fig tree, the people of the Jews, to whom the Savior came, that he might eat fruits, and did not find any: and he cursed it, and it withered forever. Let us understand that all this is said under the metaphor of locusts: which so devastate all things that they gnaw off the bark of trees, and cast it away stripped, and, all the greenness consumed, leave behind white and dried branches.

We have spoken according to the historical sense; let us pass to the spiritual understanding, so that we may be able to hear with the elders: A nation has come up upon the land of God, that is, upon the human soul. For all souls belong to God: as is the soul of the father, so is the soul of the son. And there comes up the nation of the princes of this world, and of darkness, and the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places, against whom we have struggle and combat, of whom it is said: If the spirit of him that has power ascend against you, do not leave your place: whose teeth are as the teeth of a lion, of which the apostle Peter speaks: Our adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour. And its jaw-teeth are like a lion's whelps. Understand by the lion's whelp either him who exalts himself against everything that is called God and religion, or certainly every perverse dogma.

Concerning whose broken jaw-teeth, which lie hidden within and are not seen, lest they be easily avoided, the Psalmist also rejoices, saying: The Lord will break the jaw-teeth of the lions. If, then, we give place to this nation, that it ascend in us, it will immediately lay our vine, from which we used to make wine that gladdens the heart of man, into desolation; and it will bark, or break, our fig trees, so that we may not have in us the sweetest gifts of the Holy Spirit, lest a holy man rest beneath our vine and fig tree; under which, when he is, he will not fear the assaults of adversaries.

Nor is it enough for this nation to destroy the vine and break the fig tree, unless, examining, it examines them thoroughly, and destroys whatever vital thing is in them: so that, all the greenness consumed, the white and dead little branches may remain, and it may be fulfilled in us: If they do these things in the green wood, what shall be done in the dry? (Verse 8.) Mourn like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. LXX: Mourn to me over the bride girded with sackcloth, over her virgin husband. "The husband of youth," or, as the Seventy translated, παρθενικός, which people commonly call "virginal," because he first took away the flower of virginity, is understood to be none other than God, who in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob betrothed to himself a virgin bride stained by no filth of idolatry. To whom also he speaks through Jeremiah: Have you not called me, as a lord and father, and prince of your virginity?

Whence the Apostle also speaks to believers: I have espoused you to one husband, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ. As long as the bridegroom is with this bride, he cannot fast, nor mourn, nor show by tears his longing for an absent bridegroom. But when the bridegroom has been taken away from her, she mourns and weeps, and girds herself with sackcloth and haircloth, and instead of a girdle is bound with a rope.

We have understood who the virginal bridegroom is: but because this bridegroom, or husband, took not only a virgin as bride, but also took a harlot to wife in Hosea, therefore it is written in Deuteronomy: If you go out against your enemies, and the Lord your God deliver them into your hand, and you take them captive, and you see among the number of the captives a beautiful woman, and you fall in love with her, and wish to have her as wife: you shall bring her into your house: and she shall shave her hair, and pare her nails, and put off the garment in which she was taken, and sitting in your house, she shall mourn for her father and mother for one month, and afterward you shall go in to her, and sleep with her, and she shall be your wife. Of such a woman the husband is not, that is, is not a virginal lord, but he has taken a harlot from the filth of the nations as wife.

And this we can say of every soul of believers. If from a young age it has believed in the Lord, it has the Lord as its virginal bridegroom. But if it has come to the truth of the faith out of Judaism, or out of the paganism and the filthiest dregs of the heretics, and has passed from darkness to light, it will indeed have a bridegroom, but not a virginal one: and of such persons it is said: In Egypt your breasts were bruised, and there you were deflowered. (Verses 9 and following.) The sacrifice and the libation have perished from the house of the Lord: and the priests, the ministers of the Lord, have mourned: the country has been laid waste, the ground has mourned, because the wheat has been destroyed. The wine is confounded, the oil languishes, the farmers are confounded.

The vine-dressers have wailed over the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished: the vine is confounded, and the fig-tree languishes; the pomegranate, and the palm, and the apple-tree, and all the trees of the field have withered: because joy has been confounded from the sons of men. The Septuagint: The sacrifice and the libation have been taken away from the house of the Lord: mourn, O priests, ministers of the Lord, because the fields are laid desolate: let the earth mourn, because the wheat has been afflicted, the wine has dried up, the oil has been diminished: the farmers have dried up: mourn, ye possessions, for the wheat and the barley, because the vintage has perished from the field, the vine has dried up, and the figs have been diminished: the pomegranate and the palm and the apple-tree and all the trees of the field have been dried up, because the sons of men have confounded joy.

As far as concerns the history, on account of the multitude of locusts, or of enemies, who are described under their appearance, all things having been laid waste and consumed, the sacrifice and the libation have perished from the house of the Lord: of which the one they were accustomed to offer of fine flour, the other of wine. Therefore the priests, who are the ministers of the Lord, have mourned, since neither sacrifices nor libations have been duly celebrated: especially since the tithes also, which they were accustomed to receive, have by no means been offered. For the whole country has been laid waste. The ground has mourned, by metonymy, for those who dwell upon the ground: the wheat, the wine, and the oil have languished: the farmers themselves also and the vine-dressers have been confounded, and have wailed: because not only the wheat, but the barley also, which is cheaper and more fruitful, has dried up.

And the pulse crops too, which I think are signified in that he says, the harvest of the field has perished, that is, all that the ground is wont to bring forth. Why should I speak of wheat, wine, oil and barley, when even the fruits of the trees have dried up, the fig-tree has languished, and the pomegranate, and the palm, and the apple-tree, and all the trees, whether unfruitful or fruit-bearing, have been consumed by the ravaging locust? All these things have happened, that joy might be taken away, or confounded, from the sons of men.

We may say that these same things happened also, after the coming of the Saviour, to the people of the Jews, when with equal fury they cried out and said: Crucify, crucify such a one: we have no king but Caesar; when Jerusalem was surrounded by the army, and they came into such straits of famine and pestilence, that they fed upon the not yet mature bodies of their children: and all sacrifices were taken away, and joy was confounded from the sons of men, because they refused to receive the joy of which the angel speaks to the shepherds: I announce to you great joy.

According to the anagogical sense, this meaning seems to us to be intended: After the bride, who had received the doctrine of God, has been separated from the bridegroom through sins, and instead of fine linen and byssus garments has been girded with sackcloth, that is, has taken on the garb of one mourning, then will perish the sacrifice, of which it is written: A sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit, and the libation of wine, which gladdens the heart of man, from the house of God, which is the Church, the Apostle saying to Timothy: That you may know how you ought to behave in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God.

But the sacrifice and the libation will be taken away from the house of the Lord, when, iniquity being multiplied, the charity of many grows cold: and the leaders of the people and the ministers of the altar shall see that the fields and the plains of believers do not bring forth the fruits of virtues; but that all things bristle with vices: when the locust, the caterpillar, the bruchus, and the mildew shall have consumed the wheat and the barley, the vines and the oil, and we shall by no means have the cup, of which it is written: How excellent is your inebriating cup! And the oil shall have perished, of which we read in Ecclesiastes: At all times let your garments be white, and let not the oil fail from your head: by which the face is made cheerful, and the head of the one fasting is anointed.

Then shall the farmers be confounded, when they shall see that on their possessions the wheat is not springing up, by which men are nourished, nor the barley by which the irrational beasts of burden are sustained, and that the vine has been confounded, of which it is written: The vineyard of Israel is leafy, abundant fruit is in it: the Lord waiting that it should make grapes, and it made thorns. The fig-tree also has languished, under which, before he believed, was Nathanael, and the pomegranate, to whose rind the cheeks of the bride are compared in the Canticle, and the palm, which, its verdure lost, has dried up, of which formerly it was said: But the just shall flourish like the palm-tree: and the apple-tree, of which we read in the same Canticle: As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons.

What need is there to run through all the trees, since all have withered, and instead of joy and gladness, mourning and confusion have oppressed the sons of men? (Verses 13, 14.) Gird yourselves and lament, O priests; wail, ye ministers of the altar; go in, lie in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God, because the sacrifice and the libation have perished from the house of your God; sanctify a fast, call an assembly, gather the elders, all the inhabitants of the land, into the house of your God, and cry unto the Lord. The Septuagint: Gird yourselves and lament, O priests; wail, ye who minister at the altar; go in, sleep in sackcloth, ministers of God, because the sacrifice and the libation have failed from the house of your God; sanctify a fast, proclaim a healing; gather the elders, all the inhabitants of the land, into the house of your God, and cry vehemently unto the Lord.

He who is a holy priest, and eats the Passover of the Lord, let him be girded with the belt of chastity, and hear with the apostles: Let your loins be girded, and lamps burning in your hands. But whoever is a sinner, and whose own conscience gnaws at him, let him be girded with sackcloth and lament, either his own sins, or those of the people, and let him enter the Church, from which because of his sins he had gone out, and let him lie down, or sleep, in sackcloth, that he may compensate by austerity of life for the past delights by which he had offended God. For those who are clothed in soft garments are in the houses of kings. Let the priests be girded, then, and lament and wail, and sleep in sackcloth, the prophet exhorting them to repentance, who says: Ministers of my God, how has the sacrifice and libation perished from the house of your God, of which it was spoken above.

Nor does it suffice to weep, or to lament and to take on the garb of one mourning, unless they sanctify a fast, and call an assembly. If every fast pleased God, he would never say: Sanctify a fast. And: Is this not the fast which I have chosen, says the Lord? And in the Gospel those are condemned who disfigure their faces, that they may appear to men to fast; and in the days, he says, of your fasts you strike with the fist, and oppress the poor. Therefore he now says: Sanctify a fast. Manichaeus fasts, and many heretics, and especially the Encratites, whose leader is Tatian, but this fast is worse than fullness and drunkenness. And call an assembly, or a healing, that through repentance we may heal our sins. Instead of "assembly" in the Hebrew is read ASARA (עצרה), which Symmachus interpreted as "synod," Aquila as "day of gathering." Gather the elders, whose age, being near to death and of ripe judgment, receives more the fear and worship of God.

Also all the inhabitants of the land, of whom he had said above: Hear this, O elders, and give ear, all inhabitants of the land, so that both elders and inhabitants of the land might be gathered into the house of God, which is the Church. And when they shall be in the Church, and out of the differing flock of priests and people, of elders and inhabitants of the land, one flock shall have been made, cry, he says, to the Lord in your hearts and say: (Verse 15.) Ah, ah, ah for the day, because the day of the Lord is near, and it shall come as destruction from the Almighty. The Septuagint: Woe is me, woe is me, woe is me in the day! Because the day of the Lord is near, and shall come as misery upon misery. For what we have rendered "from the Almighty," and in Hebrew is said SADDAI (שדי), which we have said several times is one of the ten names of God, the Septuagint have rendered "misery," reading SOD (שד) for SADDAI.

So the voice of the priests and of the people crying out to the Lord is introduced, so that they say three times, Woe is me! Because, I believe, on account of the sins they had committed, they had offended the holy Trinity. But that is the day of the requital of all sins, of which all the prophets write, and especially Isaiah cries aloud: Behold, the day of the Lord comes, incurable, of fury and wrath, to make the whole world desolate, and to destroy the sinners out of it. This day is rightly called incurable; because when the day of judgment shall come, there will be no place for repentance, which, compared to eternity, is near, and not far off. And that which follows: And as misery upon misery it shall come, or, destruction shall come from the Almighty, the sense is this, that evils succeed evils, and every affliction is dispensed with God as judge, who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.

What we have said generally of the day of judgment, let us apply specifically to the time of the Jewish captivity, when Jerusalem was taken, and the temple destroyed; for not long after came also the captivity of the ten and the two tribes by the Assyrians and Chaldeans: and it is foretold as coming, so that when it comes, it might not seem to have happened by chance, or by the strength of enemies; but by the wrath and threat of God; or certainly, the people doing penance, it might not come, which is to come, if they persist in their sins. (Verse 16.) Have not the foods perished before our eyes; and from the house of our God, gladness and exultation? The Septuagint: Before your eyes the foods have perished: and from the house of our God, gladness and joy.

The foods of sinners perish before their eyes, when now the hoped-for crops are snatched from their hands, and the locust anticipates the reaper, so that what was stored in hope in the granaries, the bruchus and the mildew consume. To those also who dwell in the Church, according to the quality of their merits, if they have sinned, the wheat of the spirit, and the barley of the letter are taken away, that they may suffer famine of the word of God. And when the foods have been taken away, consequently joy and gladness are taken away from the house of God, so that those who before heard the Apostle saying: Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice; may afterward hear the Lord calling them to repentance: Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. (Verses 17, 18.) The beasts have rotted in their own dung: the barns are pulled down, the storehouses are destroyed, because the wheat is confounded; why did the animal groan, the herds of cattle bellow?

Because there is no pasture for them; but the flocks of sheep have also perished. The Septuagint: The calves have leapt about in their stalls: the treasuries are scattered, the wine-presses are dug up, because the wheat is dried up: what shall we store up for ourselves? The herds of oxen have wept, because there was no pasture for them, and the flocks of sheep have perished. After the foods perished, and joy and gladness were taken away from the house of God, the beasts also rotted in their own dung, or, according to the spiritual understanding, grew wanton in their stalls, and kicked against their Creator, that it might be fulfilled which is written: If they are not satisfied, they will murmur.

He rots in his own dung whose god is his belly, and who says: Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die: for this man the barns of future happiness are pulled down, and the storehouses of eternal abundance are scattered, or the wine-presses are overturned, because if there be no wheat and wine, in vain are barns and wine-presses prepared. And when all things have withered, then with tearful voice they will complain and say: What shall we store up for ourselves? And that which follows according to the Septuagint: The herds of oxen have wept, because there is no pasture for them, compels us to understand what is said not of oxen and herds; but of those who, because of their simplicity, are called oxen and sheep. Of whose pastures the Saviour speaks: He shall go in and go out, and shall find pasture.

But understand all these things under the metaphor of the caterpillar, the locust, the bruchus, and the mildew, that, the crops having been taken away and laid waste, famine and pestilence have taken possession of all things. (Verses 19, 20.) To thee, O Lord, will I cry: for fire hath devoured the beautiful places of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the country; yea, and the beasts of the field have looked up to thee as the parched ground panting for rain: for the fountains of waters are dried up, and fire hath devoured the beautiful places of the wilderness. LXX: To thee, O Lord, will I cry, for fire hath consumed the beautiful places of the wilderness, and flame hath burned up all the trees of the field, and the beasts of the field have looked up to thee, for the outlets of the waters have been dried up, and fire hath devoured the beautiful places of the wilderness.

The prophet crying to the Lord, or the people through the prophet: because fire has devoured the beautiful places of the wilderness, and flame has burned all the trees of the region, the beasts and cattle of the field, or the plain, have looked up to the Lord, as a little threshing-floor thirsting for rain. For this Aquila signifies by one word, saying, ἐπρασιώθη: and they looked up to him, because the fountains, or outlets of the waters, are dried up, and fire hath devoured the beautiful places of the wilderness, which the locust-swarm and the locust and the cankerworm have done, and what the rust has done, that the fire has done in the stubble, the flame among the briars. Now the beautiful places of the wilderness, which in Hebrew are called NAOTH (נאות), let us understand either the level plains, or the flowering meadows, or places green with grass, which afforded pasture to the cattle.

Now the fire that devoured the beautiful places of the wilderness, and the flame that burned all the trees of the region, made the cattle look up to him and cry to the Lord through the prophet, so that the crops and fruits alike perished, and because the fountains of waters were dried up, and whatever could be found in the wilderness, the devouring flame consumed. And let us consider at the same time, that unless it were for the straitness and the taking away of delights, neither the prophet nor the beasts would have cried to the Lord, nor would they have looked up to the Lord; which indeed can also be referred to a righteous man of old, who, when he has turned aside and done evil, his former virtues will by no means profit him; but the Lord will judge him according to what he shall find in him.

We may call the beautiful places of the wilderness those of whom it is written: More are the children of the desolate than of her that hath a husband. And the flame that burned all the trees of the region must be believed to be that which is cast in by the burning arrows of the devil, that nothing of good fruits may remain in us, but all be consumed by the fire. For all committing adultery, their hearts are as an oven; and not only the prophet, or the people through the prophet, which is a rational animal (Hosea VII), but also the cattle, of whom it is said: Men and cattle thou wilt save, O Lord. And elsewhere: I am become as a beast before thee. And again: I will sow them with the seed of men and of cattle, they looked up to the Lord, and begged for the dew of his mercy; because the fountains of waters, which the hart desires, were dried up.

And of these the Lord speaks through Jeremiah: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water. Now, the fountains of waters being dried up, which water and cool all things parched, consequently whatever beauty was in us has been consumed by the burning of fire, of which the Lord speaks in the Gospel: I beheld Satan as lightning falling from heaven.

(Verses 1 and following.) Blow the trumpet in Sion, sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand, a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of whirlwinds; as the morning spread upon the mountains, a great people and a strong; there hath not been the like from the beginning, nor shall be after it, even to the years of generation and generation.

Before the face thereof a devouring fire, and behind it a burning flame; the land is like a garden of pleasure before it, and behind it a desolate wilderness: neither is there anyone that shall escape it. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, and as horsemen so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots upon the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. At the presence thereof the people shall be in grievous pains: all faces shall be gathered into a pot. They shall run like champions: like men of war they shall climb the wall. They shall march every one in his way: and they shall not turn aside from their ways. No one shall press upon his brother; they shall walk every one in his path. Moreover they shall fall through windows, and not be broken.

They shall enter into the city, they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up the houses, they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. Before the face thereof the earth hath trembled, the heavens have been moved: the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their shining. And the Lord hath uttered his voice before the face of his army: for his camp is exceeding great: for his forces are exceeding great and strong, and do his commandment. For the day of the Lord is great and terrible, and who can endure it?

LXX: Blow the trumpet in Sion, proclaim in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the earth be troubled; for the day of the Lord is at hand, for the day of darkness and gloominess is near, a day of cloud and of hoar-frost; as the morning shall be poured out upon the mountains a people numerous and strong; there hath not been the like of it from the beginning, and after it there shall not be to the years of the generations of generations. Before it a consuming fire, and behind it a kindled flame. As a paradise of pleasure the land before its face; and after it, as a desert plain, and there shall be none that shall be saved from it; like the appearance of horses, so is their appearance, and as horsemen so shall they pursue.

As the sound of chariots they shall leap over the tops of the mountains, and as the sound of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, and as a numerous and strong people set in array for battle; before it peoples shall be crushed, every face shall be as the scorching of a pot; as warriors they shall run, and as men of war they shall climb over the walls, and every one shall walk in his own way, and they shall not turn aside from their paths; each one shall not withdraw from his neighbor; laden with their weapons they shall go, and shall fall amid their darts, and shall not be consumed; they shall seize the city and run upon the walls; they shall climb upon the houses and enter in through the windows like thieves.

At its presence the earth shall be confounded, and the heaven shall be shaken; the sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their light; and the Lord shall give his voice before the face of his might, for his camp is exceeding great, for the works of his words are strong; for the day of the Lord is great, great and exceeding glorious, and who shall be sufficient for it? Again, under the metaphor of locusts, the onset of the Chaldeans is described, and the prophet is bidden—rather through the prophet all who are able to hear the word of God—to lift up their voice as a trumpet, and to proclaim it in Sion, and to sound it forth on his holy mountain, that at the noise of the shout and the trumpet all the people of Jerusalem may tremble.

And when, he says, you have sounded it, say this: The day of the Lord shall be delayed no longer, that is, the day of vengeance and requital; the captivity is now near at hand, already the army of the Babylonians has gone forth from its place; near is the day of darkness and of anguish, a day of gloom and of cloud and of whirlwind, in which all the light of gladness shall be taken away, and all things shall be oppressed with darkness. As, he says, the morning and the dawn suddenly put darkness to flight, and the dawn lights up all the mountains: so shall the army of the Babylonians be poured out over all your land.

And do not think it a weak throng; it is a numerous and strong people, whose like can be found neither in the past nor in the future among any other nation: whatever it touches, it will consume like a devouring flame, and will leave nothing whole behind it; the whole land is like a garden and paradise of pleasure, wherever it has not touched: it is like a wilderness and desert, wherever it has plundered, nor can anyone be found who may escape its hands. Their appearance is like that of fierce horses, and like horsemen they shall run to and fro. Not that the Babylonians are compared to horsemen; but that the locusts, by a transfer applied to the enemies, are said to run to and fro like horsemen: Like the sound, he says, of chariots and wagons, so shall be the sound of the locusts.

They shall leap over the tops of the mountains, so as to mount all high places; and as flame quickly consumes stubble, so the sound and terror of their voice shall lay waste all things. And what follows: Like a strong people set in array for battle, again refers to the locusts, so that it may seem to speak not of enemies but of locusts; and yet while we read of locusts, let us think of the Babylonians. So great shall be the terror, that all the nations round about shall shudder, both in mind and body, or rather be tormented; and by the greatness of dread, the faces of all shall be turned into the likeness of a pot, which, burned by fire, shows the blackness and soot of a foul appearance.

They shall run, he says, like mighty men, no doubt the locusts; and like warriors they shall climb the wall, so that the height of the walls cannot check the onset of the strong, and they shall enter not through the gates but over the walls: They shall walk each in his own paths, and shall not turn aside from their ways. This we have recently seen in this province. For when swarms of locusts came, and occupied the air that is between heaven and earth, they fly by the ordering of God's command in such array that, like little tiles set by the artificer's hand in pavements, they keep their own place, and do not swerve even a hair's breadth, so to speak, to one side or the other. And to make the metaphor plain, he says, they shall fall through the windows, and not be broken. For nothing is impassable to locusts, since they penetrate fields, and crops, and trees, and cities, and houses, and the secret recesses of chambers.

But this is said of locusts, that it may be understood of enemies. And what we have translated, they shall fall through the windows and not be broken, the LXX rendered, laden with their weapons they shall go, and shall fall amid their darts and not be consumed: which does not seem to me to fit at all the order of the exposition, but an error arose there, because the Hebrew word SALA (שלה), they understood as darts, we as windows. And he keeps up the narrative he has begun, saying that they enter the city, run about the walls, climb the houses, and enter through the windows like thieves, not because those who are victors have the fear of thieves; but as thieves are wont to enter through windows and snatch things secretly, so they, when doors are shut, that there be no delay, burst in through the windows with all boldness.

At the presence of such locusts the earth trembled, and the heavens were moved, which let us take as spoken hyperbolically, not that the force of locusts or of enemies is so great that it can move the heavens and shake the earth; but that to those suffering adversity, by the greatness of their terror, both heaven seems to fall and earth to reel. Finally, because of the multitude of locusts covering the sky, the sun and moon shall be turned into darkness, and the stars shall withdraw their brightness: while the cloud of locusts placed in the midst does not allow the light to reach the earth. The Lord too will give his voice before the face of so mighty an army, because his camps are numerous, and the greatness of his power is shown even in small living creatures. Now these many camps, and countless things, are exceeding strong, and do his word. By which it is shown that the Babylonians will come by God's will, and will obey his command.

Great, he says, is the day of the Lord, in which Jerusalem is to be taken, and exceedingly terrible, and no one shall be able to endure it, or to escape the necessity of captivity or of death. I was unwilling to divide the connected and coherent passage, lest what was one in sense should be torn apart into different chapters. Let us pass over to the spiritual understanding, taking up each point in turn. We read of the sound of trumpets and clarions not only in the book of Leviticus and Numbers, in which Moses is bidden to make two silver trumpets, with which, both at the new moons, and in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, and at the jubilee, and at other festivals, and when they go forth to war, those appointed to this office are to sound; but also it is written that the walls of Jericho fell at the sound of trumpets (Joshua vi).

And the Lord says he will send an angel with the sound of a trumpet, and the Apostle preaches that the resurrection of the dead will happen at the sound of the trumpet. And in the Apocalypse of John also we read that seven angels received each a trumpet, at whose sounding in order the things which Scripture describes took place. It is commanded therefore now to priests and teachers, that they lift up their voice like a trumpet, and fulfill what is written: Get thee up upon a high mountain, thou that bringest good tidings to Sion; lift up thy voice with strength, thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem, that the trumpet may sound in Sion, that is, in the Church, which is interpreted as watchtower and loftiness. And on the holy mountain of God, who is Christ, that all the inhabitants of the earth may be troubled, or confounded, and that confusion may draw them to salvation.

Now understand the day of the Lord as the day of judgment, or the day of each one's departure from the body. For what will happen to all on the day of judgment, this is fulfilled in individuals on the day of death. It is a day of darkness and of anguish, a day of cloud and of whirlwind; because all things are full of punishments and torments. There will come a multitude of angels, numerous and strong, to render to each according to his works; and as the morning and dawn rising first occupies the mountains, so judgment will begin from the lofty and powerful, that the powerful may suffer torments powerfully. There hath not been the like from the beginning, nor shall be after it, even to the years of generation and generation.

For all the evils that are contained in ancient histories, whether by flood of the sea, or overflow of rivers, or pestilence, diseases, famine, wild beasts, the devastation of enemies, that have befallen men, cannot be compared with those punishments which are to be rendered on the day of judgment. Before the face of this people, which is strong and numerous, there will be a devouring, or consuming fire, so that it may consume all the hay, wood, and stubble in us. Whence also it is said of God: God is a consuming fire, and behind it a burning flame; that it may leave nothing without punishment. Whomever this people has not touched, nor found in him fuel for burning, shall be likened to the garden of God and the paradise of pleasure, which in Hebrew is called EDEN (עדן).

But if it has burned someone, it will reduce him to ashes and cinders as a wilderness, nor is there anyone who can escape its fury, whose cruel appearance will have the likeness of raging horses, and thus they will run to and fro to torment those they have taken into their power, like horsemen flying here and there: terrible will be their sound, like that of chariots running downhill; and they will leap upon the tops of the mountains, desiring to torment those set high and placed on the summit of the Church. And because before their face is a devouring and consuming fire, so they will lay waste all things, as flame consumes stubble: so will they come to punish; so will they be ready and prepared, like a strong people for battle. So great will be the fear of all, so great the consciousness of sins, that none will shine, nor have the brightness of joy, but like the face of a burnt pot his countenance will be turned into darkness.

They will climb the wall and every fortification; and fulfilling the task laid upon them, they will not turn aside to another part; but they will gape after the torments of the wretched, nor will they be satisfied with their torments; but each one will carry out the punishments entrusted to him against sinners. But they will also enter through the windows, or fall; or laden with their weapons they will walk, and those whom they have taken to be consumed will fall amid their darts. These are the windows of which Jeremiah also says: Death shall enter through our windows: for the enemies desire to enter all our senses, and to take the city of good conscience, and to run about our fortifications, and to destroy the houses which we have built for ourselves by good works. And they do all this, entering through the windows, like a thief: for they do not enter openly, that they may shoot in the dark at the upright in heart.

At the presence of this people, which is numerous and strong, the earth trembled, and the heavens were moved. For heaven and earth shall pass away, but the word of the Lord remains forever. But even the sun and moon will not be able to see such great torments of the wretched, and will grieve, not having the righteousness of their office, and instead of clear light, will be covered with dreadful darkness; the stars too will withdraw their brightness, since even those who are holy will not see the presence of the Lord without dread. In all these things the Lord will give his voice before the face of his army. For just as the Babylonians, punishing Jerusalem, are called the army of God: so the worst angels (of whom it is written: Wrath and indignation and trouble, sent by evil angels) are called the army of God, and are named his camps, while they do the will of the Lord.

Great is the day of the Lord and terrible, of which it is elsewhere written: Why do you desire the day of the Lord? And this is darkness, and not light; and exceedingly terrible; rare or none shall be able to endure it, without furnishing in himself material for its fury. (Verses 12 and following) Now therefore the Lord says: Turn ye to me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning; and rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, patient and of much mercy, and ready to relent from evil: who knoweth if he will return, and forgive, and leave a blessing behind him, sacrifice and libation to the Lord our God?

LXX: And now the Lord our God saith: Turn ye to me with all your heart, in fasting, in sackcloth, in weeping, and in mourning; and rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God: for he is merciful and full of pity, patient and of much mercy, and relents concerning evils: who knoweth if he will turn back and repent, and leave behind him a blessing, sacrifice and libation to the Lord our God? The preceding chapter, from the place where it is written: Blow the trumpet in Sion, sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the earth tremble, up to the place where we read: Great is the day of the Lord and exceeding terrible, who can endure it? By the metaphor of locusts announces the coming of the Chaldeans, and the evils that are to come upon the people.

Now he calls them to repentance, and exhorts them to be converted to the Lord, that being corrected with their whole mind, they may not suffer what the Lord threatens, and the sense is: All that is contained in the previous discourse I have spoken for this reason, that I might terrify you by my threat. Wherefore turn to me with all your heart, and show the repentance of your soul by fasting and weeping and mourning; that now fasting you may afterward be filled, now weeping you may afterward laugh, now mourning you may afterward be consoled. And because it is customary, in sad and adverse circumstances, to rend your garments, which the high priest is also recorded in the Gospel to have done to increase the charge against the Lord Savior, and we read that Paul and Barnabas, on hearing words of blasphemy, did the same: therefore I command you not to rend your garments, but your hearts, which are full of sins, which, like wineskins, unless they are rent, will burst of their own accord.

And when you have done this, return to the Lord your God, whom your former sins had made a stranger to you; and do not despair of pardon because of the greatness of your crimes; for great sins great mercy will blot out. For he is gracious and merciful, preferring the repentance of sinners to their death, patient and abundant in mercy, who does not imitate human impatience; but for a long time awaits our repentance: and ready to relent, or repenting of evils, so that if we do penance for our sins, he too may repent of his threat, and not bring upon us the evils he has threatened, and by the change of our resolve, he too may be changed. But we must not take "evil" in this passage as contrary to virtue, but as affliction, according to that which we read elsewhere: Sufficient for the day is its own evil. And: If there be evil in a city, which the Lord hath not done.

And likewise, because he had said above, gracious and merciful, patient and abundant in mercy, and ready to relent, or repenting of evils, lest perhaps the greatness of his clemency should make us careless, he adds, in the person of the Prophet, and says: Who knoweth if he will turn and forgive, and leave behind him a blessing? I, he says, exhort, which is my part, to repentance, and I know God to be ineffably merciful, as David says: Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy; and according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquity. But because we cannot know the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, I temper my statement, and I wish rather than presume, saying: who knoweth if he will turn and forgive? What he says, "who," must be understood as either impossible or difficult.

Sacrifice and libation to the Lord our God; that after he has given a blessing, and forgiven us our sins, we may be able to offer sacrifices to God. (Verse 15 and following) Blow the trumpet in Sion, sanctify a fast, call an assembly, gather the people together: sanctify the church, assemble the elders, gather the children and those that suck the breasts. Let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride out of her bridal bed. Between the porch and the altar the priests, the ministers of the Lord, shall weep, and shall say: Spare, O Lord, thy people, and give not thy inheritance to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples: Where is their God? LXX: Sound the trumpet in Sion, sanctify a fast, proclaim a healing, gather the people together, sanctify the church, choose out the elders: gather together the children and those that suck the breasts, let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride out of her bridal bed.

Between the porch and the altar the priests, the ministers of the Lord, shall weep, and shall say: Spare, O Lord, thy people, and give not thy inheritance to reproach, that the nations should rule over them, lest they say among the nations: Where is their God? He is still exhorting them to repentance, before the hostile army comes. Above, he says, I had said: Blow the trumpet in Sion, howl on my holy mountain, and so forth, for the day of the Lord comes, for the day of darkness and gloom is near, a day of cloud and whirlwind, announcing to you that a people, many and strong, is coming, who would overthrow your possessions and cities.

Now, because I am kind and merciful, patient, and abundant in mercy, I command and say again: Sound the trumpet in Sion, and preach repentance among the peoples; sanctify a fast, proclaim a healing, or an assembly, of which we have already spoken before: gather the people together, so that he who, being scattered, had sinned, being gathered together, may cease to sin. Sanctify the church, that no one in the church may be unholy, lest perhaps your prayers be hindered, and a little leaven corrupt the whole lump. Assemble, or choose the elders, so that not age but holiness be chosen in them. Gather together also the children and those that suck the breasts, that there be no age which is not converted to the Lord. The little ones and the sucklings, of whom we read in the Psalms and in the Gospel: Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings thou hast perfected praise.

Whom Peter says were nourished with rational milk without guile: to whom Paul speaks: I gave you milk to drink, not meat: of whom the Savior also makes mention: See that you despise not one of these little ones. Let the bridegroom also go forth from his chamber, and the bride out of her bridal bed: so that in the time of fasting, of calling and assembly, of the sanctification of the church, of the choosing of the elders, of the gathering of the children and sucklings, the bridegroom and bride may not serve the work of marriage, from which even the Law permits them to be excused, so that they need not go forth to war. Whence also the Apostle commanded that they should withdraw for a little from intercourse, that we may be free for prayer. Therefore he who, being conquered in self-restraint, says that he is doing penance by fasting and almsgiving, promises this in vain by his words, unless he go forth from his chamber, and fulfill the holy and pure fast with chaste penance.

And as for what follows: Between the porch and the altar the priests shall weep, for "porch" the LXX have translated "crepido" (edge/border): Symmachus, προπύλαιον; Aquila, πρόδομον; Theodotion put the Hebrew word itself, ULAM (אולם); which we may call the entrance before the doors of the temple, and the portico. And note what he commands the priests, who are the ministers of the Lord, that they weep between the temple and the altar, and say with the Apostle: Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I do not burn? And: To weep with them that weep. And the place fit for penance and confession is the temple and the altar: and he teaches what the priests ought to say, or rather how they ought to beseech the Lord: Spare, O Lord, thy people; who, when it was sinning, was called not thy people; now, after it has withdrawn from its vices, is called thy people. And give not thy inheritance to reproach, that the nations should rule over them.

The riddle that lay hidden is now made plain. For that people, many and strong, which above was described under the name of the caterpillar, and the locust, and the cankerworm, and the mildew, is now shown more clearly who it is: That the nations, he says, should rule over them. Now the inheritance of the Lord is given to reproach, when they shall have served enemies, and the nations shall say: Where is their God, whom they boasted to be their ruler, their defender? We may interpret "nations" also as the adverse powers, which, as long as we do not do penance, rule over us, and reproach us and say: Where is their God?

The Jews refer this passage to Gog and Magog, most savage nations, which they say will come at the last time against Israel, concerning whom it is written more fully in Ezekiel. (Verse 18 and following) The Lord hath been zealous for his land, and hath spared his people: and the Lord answered and said to his people: Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and you shall be filled therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations. And I will remove far off from you the northern enemy, and will drive him into a land unpassable and desert: his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea: and his stench shall go up, and his rottenness shall go up, because he hath done proudly.

LXX: And the Lord was zealous for his land, and spared his people, and the Lord answered and said to his people: Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and you shall be filled from them, and I will no more give you up as a reproach among the nations, and I will drive far from you him that is from the north, and I will lead him into a land that is without water, and I will scatter his face into the first sea, and his latter parts into the last sea: and his stench shall go up, and his rottenness shall go up, because his works were magnified.

After the priests had prayed on behalf of the people, and had said: Spare, O Lord, thy people, and give not thy inheritance to reproach, and the people had done what was commanded, that it should sanctify a fast, proclaim a healing, gather the multitude together, sanctify the church, choose the elders, gather together the children and sucklings, and that the bridegroom should go forth from his chamber, and the bride out of her bridal bed, and that they should devote themselves in no way to flesh and pleasure, but to soul and weeping. The Lord was zealous for his land, which before he had despised as if it were foreign, and had allowed it to be laid waste by the devastating locust of the people, and so far spared those who repented, that he made them worthy of his answer, and said, since the locust, the cankerworm and the mildew had laid waste all your crops: therefore I will give you corn, and the rest that the prophet describes, and I will no longer hand you over to captivity.

And the Assyrian and the Chaldean, who is from the north, I will remove far from you, of whom it was written above: A people numerous and strong, before whose face is a devouring fire, and behind him a burning flame; their appearance is as the appearance of horses. And I will drive him, he says, into a land of solitude, and the first parts of him shall fall into the eastern sea, and the latter parts into the last sea, and his stench shall go up, that is, of him who is from the north, and his rottenness, because he hath dealt proudly. Often, under the common metaphor of locusts, the onslaught of the Chaldeans, by which Judea was laid waste, is described. So he keeps the metaphor in the rest, and speaks according to the situation of the province, as though he seemed to be speaking not of enemies but of locusts.

Even in our own times we have seen swarms of locusts cover the land of Judea, which afterward, by the mercy of the Lord, while priests and people were beseeching the Lord between the porch and the altar, that is, between the place of the cross and of the resurrection, and saying: Spare thy people, were, when the wind arose, cast headlong into the first and the last sea. Understand the first sea, which is near the wilderness and inclines toward the east, to be that in which formerly were Sodom and Gomorrah, Adama and Seboim, which is now called the Dead Sea, because no living creatures live there. But the last sea is this one which is toward the west, and which leads into Egypt, on whose shore Gaza, and Ascalon, Azotus and Joppe, and Caesarea, and the other maritime cities are situated.

And when the shores of both seas were filled with heaps of dead locusts, which the waters had vomited out, their rottenness and stench were so noxious that they even corrupted the air, and a pestilence was engendered both of cattle and of men. Let the learned reader inquire where this happened literally in the case of the Chaldeans. Not long after the time when these things were prophesied—since indeed we read in Isaiah that a hundred and eighty-five thousand Chaldeans, under king Hezekiah, were struck down in one night by a raging angel.

This we have said according to the history.

But according to the tropology, every soul is the land of the Lord, in which the father of the household sows his seed, which, when it has produced tares instead of wheat, that is, oats and darnel, and has offended its Lord, and afterwards does penance, and weeping says: Spare, O Lord, thy people, the Lord is zealous for his land, and spares it, which he had formerly despised, and deigns to address it with his own speech and says: I will send thee corn, of which it is written: Amen, amen, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit; and wine which gladdens the heart of man, and oil which makes the face cheerful, so that the old sorrow of sins may be tempered by the gladness of corn, and wine, and oil, that is, of the virtues, and they shall have such an abundance of all good things that they shall be filled and satisfied with them.

And when they have attained this, they shall by no means be handed over to the reproach of the nations, of whom the Apostle speaks: We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spiritual wickedness in high places. Him also who is from the north (of whom Jeremiah speaks: Out of the north shall evils break forth upon all the inhabitants of the earth: of whom also Solomon writes: The north wind is a most harsh wind) far, he says, will I remove from you, and I will drive him into a land unpassable and desert, which has no knowledge of God, in which the Holy Spirit does not dwell.

And his face shall be in the first sea and in the last sea, in those who have opened to him the door of sins, and among whom he has remained even to the last moment of life, and his stench and rottenness rise even in those who promise themselves great things, and fall through pride: because human frailty is never secure, and the more we grow in virtues, the more we ought to fear lest we fall from the heights.

According to the letter, swarms of locusts are wont to be brought more by the south wind than by the north, that is, they do not come from cold, but from heat: but since he was speaking of the Assyrians, setting forth the likeness of locusts, he therefore introduced the north wind, so that we might understand, not the true locust, which is wont to come from the south, but under the figure of the locust the Assyrians and the Chaldeans. (Verses 22 and following) Fear not, O land: exult and rejoice, for the Lord hath magnified himself to do great things: fear not, ye beasts of the field; for the pleasant places of the wilderness have sprung up, for the tree hath brought forth its fruit, the fig-tree and the vine have yielded their strength: and ye children of Sion, exult and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he hath given you a teacher of justice, and he will cause to come down for you the early rain and the latter rain in the beginning, and the floors shall be filled with wheat, and the presses shall overflow with wine and oil, and I will restore to you the years which the locust, the bruchus, the mildew and the palmer-worm hath eaten.

My great strength which I sent among you: and you shall eat abundantly, and shall be filled, and you shall praise the name of your God, who hath done wonders with you, and my people shall never be confounded: and you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and I am the Lord your God, and there is none other, and my people shall never be confounded.

The Septuagint: Be of good confidence, O land, rejoice and be glad, for the Lord hath magnified himself to do great things: be of good confidence, ye cattle of the field, for the fields of the wilderness have sprung up, for the tree hath brought forth its fruit, the fig-tree and the vine have yielded their strength: and ye children of Sion, rejoice and be glad in the Lord your God, for he hath given you the food of justice, and hath rained down for you the seasonable rain and the latter rain as at the beginning, and the floors shall be filled with wheat, and the presses shall overflow with wine and oil.

And I will restore to you for the years in which the locust, and the bruchus, and the mildew, and the palmer-worm did eat, My great strength which I sent among you, and you shall eat abundantly, and shall be filled: and you shall praise the name of the Lord your God, who hath done wonders with you, and my people shall never be confounded, and you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and I am the Lord your God, and there is none other besides me, and my people shall never be confounded. To all the things which he had threatened above, he now promises the contrary. Above he had said: fire hath devoured the pleasant places of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned up all the trees of the country, and the beasts of the field like a parched field have looked up to thee for rain: for the fountains of waters are dried up, and fire hath devoured the pleasant places of the wilderness.

Now he tempers sadness with joyful things, and turns tears into laughter. Fear not, he says, ye beasts of the field: for the pleasant places of the wilderness have sprung up: for the tree hath brought forth its fruit, the fig-tree and the vine have yielded their strength: and there shall be such an abundance of all things, that you shall in no way lack grain, wine and oil with which to be satisfied; but let the floors be filled with grain, and let the presses overflow with wine and oil, so that you may be able not only to eat yourselves, but also to give to others.

He also speaks specially to the children of Sion, that they may exult and rejoice, not in any light matter; but in the Lord their God, who has given them the food of justice: and, as the Seventy translated, both the seasonable rain and the latter rain, that they may eat and rejoice, and praise the name of the Lord their God, who has done wonders with them, and that they may in no way be confounded; and that they may know that the Lord God of Israel dwells in their midst, and besides him there is no other, because the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father; and his people shall not be confounded forever. These things, according to the letter, since they were promised by the Lord, we believe to have happened, and that the past sterility was compensated by new crops: so that whatever the locust, the bruchus, the mildew, and the palmer-worm had consumed was made up in the following years.

We ask why the palmer-worm should be called the strength, or power, of the Lord, and not only power, but great power? Just as the power of God was shown in the plagues of Egypt through small animals, and especially the ciniphes, which are gnats so small that they can scarcely be seen with the eyes. So also now, in a small and slow little worm, which can scarcely move, and is crushed by a light touch, the power of God and human frailty are shown. Not that God cannot at his nod and the majesty of his power overturn lands, and cover everything with a flood, or burn all things with a thunderbolt; but through small, and, so to speak, mere specks of bodies, he shows human frailty.

Hence we are accustomed to reply this also to Marcion and the other heretics who tear apart the Old Testament, that God made fleas and gnats and bugs, and creatures of this kind, in order to show the frailty and weakness of our flesh, which is so utterly nothing, that it is wounded by things which are small. But if the palmer-worm, a slow and small little worm, is stronger than man, why does earth and ashes boast; and, being lifted up through pride (since man is from the ground, from which he is called man), does he despise human things? Some interpret this passage thus: On the right hand and on the left we read of the powers and strengths of God, which the Greeks call δυνάμεις.

On the right hand, the Seraphim and Cherubim, and all the angelic powers; on the left, the contrary strengths, of which it is written: He sent upon them the wrath of his indignation, fury and anger and tribulation, sent by evil angels; of which also Micheas speaks in the book of Kings: I saw the Lord God of Israel sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on the right hand and on the left. I think that this was the left-hand spirit, which went forth and stood before the Lord, and said: I will deceive Achab, and I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. To this left-hand and contrary power, which was apt for deceiving, and practiced in ruin, and had already deceived many before, God says: Thou shalt deceive, and shalt prevail: go forth, and do so.

Also that spirit which troubled Saul, of which his servants said to him: Behold, an evil spirit of God troubleth thee, was of the left-hand parts, which minister to the Lord for the punishing of those who have deserved to be tormented on account of their sins. For not only men are ministers, and avengers of his wrath, upon those who do evil, and do not bear the sword without cause; but also the contrary strengths, which are called the fury and wrath of God, which the prophet, seeking to avoid, says: O Lord, rebuke me not in thy fury, nor chastise me in thy wrath. To such (so to speak) tormentors and torturers the Apostle delivered the sinner unto the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved; of whom also Satan is one, to whom he delivered others, that they might learn not to blaspheme. This is why the palmer-worm has been called the strength of God.

Let us pass on to the order of spiritual understanding: Fear not, O land, rather be confident and rejoice, thou who before hadst lost the Lord's seed through thy dryness: for the Lord hath magnified himself, to do mercy with thee, so much so that even the cattle of the region and of the desert solitude might be filled with joyful new tillage, and the wood of the cross might bring forth its fruit, and the most sweet gifts of the Holy Spirit might bestow their bounty upon all. You also, whom after repentance I rightly call children of Sion and of the Church, rejoice and be glad, for God the Father hath given you a teacher of justice, or hath bestowed upon you the food of justice, and hath caused to come down upon you the seasonable and the latter rains. The seasonable rain is when we first receive the rain of doctrine; the latter rain, when we receive the fruit of our labor, and arrive at the perfect knowledge of the holy Scriptures.

The seasonable and latter rain can also be understood as the Old and New Testament. And not only, he says, has he given this; but he has made you abound with the new fruits of the virtues, and be filled and made drunk with grain, wine and oil, of which we have often spoken. And the years which you had lost in yourselves under the former ruling disturbances, when the locust, the bruchus, the mildew, and the palmer-worm had consumed your works, God did not allow to perish for you. Then shall you eat the fruits of justice, and be filled, and shall praise the name of the Lord your God, who hath done wonders with you. But if God, after repentance, promises such great abundance of all things, what will Novatus answer, who denies repentance, and that sinners can be restored to their former state, if they have done works worthy of repentance?

For God receives penitents to such a degree, that he calls them his people, and by no means asserts that they will be confounded; and he promises that he will dwell in their midst, and that they will no longer have any other God; but will trust with their whole soul in him, who abides among them forever. (Verses 28 and following.) And it shall come to pass afterward, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Moreover upon my servants also and upon my handmaids in those days I will pour out my spirit. And I will show wonders in heaven and in earth, blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

The Septuagint: And it shall come to pass afterward, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions; and upon my servants and upon my handmaids in those days I will pour out of my spirit, and I will show wonders in heaven, and upon the earth blood, fire, and vapour of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord come. The blessed apostle Peter expounded this passage as fulfilled at the time of the Lord's passion, when the Holy Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost upon the believers, and all spoke as the Holy Spirit gave them to speak; so that those who were present marveled, and said: Are not all these who speak Galileans? And how have we heard, each in our own tongue wherein we were born?

Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the rest; but others said, What does this mean? And when others mocked and said: They are full of new wine, Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said: Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known to you, and hearken to my words: for these are not drunk, as you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day; but this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass afterward, saith the Lord, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh, and they shall prophesy, and so on, down to the passage which we set forth in the chapter above.

Since therefore Peter, at that very time when the Lord suffered, records that the prophecy of Joel was fulfilled, we ask this one thing only: how the earlier part, and the middle, and what follows to the end of the volume, can hold together with one another, lest under a single text and continuous course of speech there seem to abound a diverse and dissonant explanation among the parts? From the beginning, then, up to the place where it is written: The great and very terrible day of the Lord, and who shall be able to abide it? There is a threat and description of what the Lord is about to bring upon a sinning people. But from the place where we read: Turn ye to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning, down to the place where it says: Wherefore do they say among the peoples, Where is their God? It is the exhortation of the Lord, after punishments and chastisements, calling to repentance.

Again, from the passage that follows: The Lord hath been zealous for his land, and hath spared his people, and the Lord answering said, down to the place where it is written: And my people shall never be confounded, it is a promise of future things, of the good things which they ought to await after they have done penance. And after many things which it would now be tedious to unfold, these things also are spoken in promise, which we are now attempting to expound: I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and so forth. I seem to myself to have kept the continuity of the discourse from the beginning up to this point. It is a matter of the greatest labor how what follows is to be fitted to what we are now discussing. One person says that the things generally promised for the last time have now been in part fulfilled.

And because the apostles perceived the reward of the future in the first coming of the Lord, they recall certain first-fruits and foretastes of the wonders as already accomplished, so that, until that which is perfect should come, we might perceive that which had come in part beforehand. Another asserts that it is characteristic of apostolic usage, according to what is written of the holy man: He will dispense his words with judgment: that whatever they perceived to be useful to their hearers, and not opposed to present circumstances, they would confirm by testimonies drawn from another time—not that they abused the simplicity and inexperience of their hearers, as the impious Porphyry slanderously charges, but, following the apostle Paul, they preached in season, out of season.

And following the rule of the prophets, whatever the Jews carnally promise themselves for the last time, they declared to have been spiritually fulfilled at the first coming of the Lord the Savior: especially since both they and we say that the things promised are to be fulfilled in Christ, differing in this alone, that they contend these things are yet future, while we maintain that they have already come to pass—a matter which must be discussed more fully in what follows. Now all flesh, upon which the Lord promises that he will pour out of his spirit, is that of which Isaiah speaks: And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Therefore the salvation of God cannot be seen unless the Holy Spirit is poured out. And whoever says he believes in Christ, without believing in the Holy Spirit, will not have the eyes of a perfect faith.

Whence also in the Acts of the Apostles, those who had been baptized with John's baptism unto him who was to come, that is, in the name of the Lord Jesus—because they answered Paul when he asked: But we have not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Ghost—were baptized again; nay rather, they received the true baptism, because whatever is received in one or another person without the Holy Spirit and the mystery of the Trinity is imperfect. Nor indeed does everyone who has received the Holy Spirit at once have spiritual grace as well; but through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit he obtains diverse graces. To some, prophecy, as to sons and daughters who are of greater merit; to others, dreams, as to old men already of more advanced age; to others, visions, as to young men who have conquered the evil one.

But servants and handmaids, who still have the spirit of fear, and not of love, because perfect love casteth out fear, shall not have prophecy, nor dreams, nor visions; but, content with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, they shall possess only the grace of faith and salvation. Then the Lord will give wonders in heaven and on earth: in heaven, because the sun is turned into darkness, and the moon into blood; on earth, because the earth trembled with so violent and unwonted a motion, that tombs were opened, and rocks were split. But as for what is said, blood and vapours, or vapour of smoke, that is the blood of which we read in the Psalms: That thy foot may be dipped in blood. And in Isaiah: Why are thy garments so red! And that which, when the Savior's side was pierced, the Roman soldier poured out mingled with water.

And the fire is that of the Holy Spirit, which descended from heaven, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles: There appeared unto them cloven tongues as of fire, and it sat upon every one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with various tongues, according as the Holy Spirit gave them utterance. This is the fire which the Lord came to cast upon the earth, and which, before he suffered, he desired to see already burning in his disciples. Fire is of a twofold nature: it has light for believers; it has darkness and torments for unbelievers, who are called vapours of smoke.

This is that most bitter smoke, which blinded the eyes of the Jews, of which we read in the Proverbs: As smoke is hurtful to the eyes, and unripe grapes to the teeth, so is iniquity to those who use it (Prov. Concerning this smoke Isaiah also speaks in a great vision, in which the blindness of the Jews was foretold: And the lintel was moved, and the house was filled with smoke. Whence afterwards it follows: Go, and say to this people: Hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive: for the heart of this people is grown fat, and with their ears they have heard heavily.

The sun also is turned into darkness, when it did not dare to look upon its Lord hanging on the cross, and the moon into blood, whether we should believe this to have happened literally and to have been passed over in silence by the evangelists—for not all the things that Jesus did are recorded in writing, which if they were written down one by one, I do not think the world itself could contain the books that would have to be written. Or certainly, just as the sun is said to be turned into darkness, not because it itself was changed into darkness, but because it brought darkness upon the world: so also the moon was not turned into blood, but the Lord condemned the Jews, covered with the horror of blasphemies and denial against Christ, by the eternal blood of their own testimony, saying: His blood be upon us, and upon our children. All these things he describes as about to happen before the day of the Lord comes, great and terrible.

Now the great and terrible day of the Lord must be believed to be either that of the resurrection, or certainly, much time afterward, the day of judgment, which is truly great and terrible. But because it follows: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, and the apostle Paul refers this to the time of the Lord's passion, it must rather be understood of the day of resurrection. For he says, writing to the Romans: There is no distinction of Jew and Greek. For the same is Lord of all: rich unto all who call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they be sent.

And as to what he says: Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, let us not think this a light matter, for although the same apostle writes: No man says, The Lord Jesus, but in the Holy Spirit; yet this very act of saying must be weighed not by the word, but by the affection of the heart. Whence also Paul and Sosthenes write to the Church of God which is at Corinth: To them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: according to that which we read in the Psalms: Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among them that call upon his name. They called upon the Lord, and he heard them: he spoke to them in the pillar of the cloud.

If therefore it is written of the believing Corinthians, and of Moses and Aaron and Samuel, that they called upon the name of the Lord, let us believe this to be the grace not of beginners, but of the perfect. The word of "effusion" also, which in Hebrew is called esphoch (אשפוך), and which all have translated similarly, shows the abundance of the gift, that the gifts of the Holy Spirit would descend not upon a few prophets only (as used to happen of old in the Old Testament), but upon all who believe in the name of the Savior: not upon this one and that one, but upon all flesh. For there is no distinction of Jew and Greek, of bond and free, of male and female: because we are all one in Christ. Whence also Agabus prophesied at Caesarea, and at Antioch there were very many prophets: and the Apostle commands that if, while one is prophesying, something be revealed to another, the first should be silent. And we read that the four daughters of Philip the evangelist prophesied.

The old men also saw dreams, when Paul, now an old man, heard a man of Macedonia saying to him: Come over into Macedonia, and help us. And all the young men who proved themselves most valiant in Christ, and fought the wars of the Lord, saw visions, the Lord fulfilling his promises to them: I multiply visions, and by the hands of the prophets I have been figured (Hosea, 12). (Verse 32.) For in mount Sion, and in Jerusalem shall be salvation, as the Lord hath said: and in the residue whom the Lord shall call. The LXX: For in mount Sion, and in Jerusalem shall be he that is saved, as the Lord hath said: and one bringing good tidings whom the Lord hath called.

In the passage where we have placed "salvation," or "he that is saved," and in the Hebrew it is written phaleta (פליטה), Symmachus translated it "he who shall have fled." And again, where we said "in the residue," and the LXX translated "one bringing good tidings," in the Hebrew is read saridim (שרידים), which the Jews consider to be the name of a place. After therefore the great and terrible day of the Lord has come: and he has become safe, whoever after the Lord's resurrection has called upon his name, everyone who was in mount Sion, and in Jerusalem, has been saved: for out of Sion went forth the law, and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem, of which it is written: It cannot be that a prophet perish outside of Jerusalem. The beginning, therefore, of those who were saved was in Sion and Jerusalem, in the watchtower, and in the vision of peace, and in those who were left as a remnant, whom the Lord called.

We must understand as "the residue" those who believed out of the people of the Jews, of whom Isaiah speaks: Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. These remnants the Lord called, or evangelized them whom he called: for so the LXX interpreted it. This passage is most difficult, and admits of manifold explanation: so that under a tropological sense we may refer all that has been said to those times to which the apostles Peter and Paul referred, that is, when the Lord suffered and rose again. For it cannot be that we understand the former things as referring to the time of the passion, and the things that follow as referring to the day of judgment, especially since it follows: For behold in those days, and in that time, and this verse, joining the following to the preceding, states that all things were accomplished in one and the same time.

(Verse 1 and following.) For behold in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather together all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Josaphat: and I will plead with them there for my people, and for my inheritance Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and have parted my land. And they have cast lots upon my people: and have set the boy for a harlot, and have sold the girl for wine, that they might drink.

The LXX: For behold I, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, will gather together all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Josaphat: and will plead with them there on behalf of my people, and my inheritance Israel, who have been scattered among the nations: and they have parted my land, and cast lots upon my people: and have set the boy for a harlot, and sold the girls for wine, and drunk it. Let us say, as we have promised, first following the anagogical sense, joining what follows to what precedes, and try, if we can, to refer the same to the day of judgment.

Once believers are saved in mount Sion and Jerusalem, and the remnant of the people of the Jews called, who believed with the apostles and through the apostles, in that time, after the Lord shall have converted the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem—he who had come to preach recovery of sight to the blind, and remission to captives, and freed those who confess the Lord and dwell in the Church, in which is the vision of peace—he will gather together all the nations that were unwilling to believe: and he will bring them down into the valley of Josaphat, which more significantly, according to the Hebrew truth, is said in Greek καταξω, that is, "I will lead downward," and I will drag them down from the heights to the depths. And consider at the same time, when the Lord summons any unbelievers, or the adverse powers, to judgment, and pleads with them for his people, he says: I will bring them down into the valley of Josaphat.

But when he exhorts believers to battle, he says: Rouse up the mighty men: let them come near, let all the men of war come up: let the nations rise up, and come up into the valley of Josaphat—they are exhorted not to go down, but to go up. For everyone who is judged for his sins is placed in the valley which is called Josaphat, that is, "the judgment of the Lord." For he who believes in the Lord shall not be judged. And there he will dispute with them, not by the power of majesty, but convincing them by the truth of reason—those who have divided up the people of God among themselves, and have scattered his inheritance among the nations, that they might compel the servants of God to serve themselves: and they have divided his land, separating it among themselves by many errors, so that some worshipped Jove, others Juno, and Minerva, and Fever, and Rust, and Anubis and the crocodile, and the ibis, owls, hawks, and storks.

Under these names the people of God was once divided: which adversary nations, that is, the princes of this world, and the rulers of darkness, not only divided the people of God among themselves, but set boys in a brothel, that they might compel them to change their manly nature, of whom the Apostle speaks: Wherefore God gave them up to shameful affections; for their women changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. And likewise the men also, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another, men with men working that which is shameful, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error. Nor content with having done this, they sold the girl for wine, that they might drink, and preferred gluttony to lust. All these things the Jews relate to have been fulfilled literally in the times of Vespasian and Titus, and especially of Hadrian.

But if we wish to refer what is written to the day of judgment, we say that everyone who is saved is saved in the Church, or in the heavenly Jerusalem. And after the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem shall have been converted, then all shall be gathered and brought down into the valley of Josaphat: and there the Lord will plead with those who have persecuted his people, and have divided among themselves the Lord's inheritance, and have scattered them among the nations, and cast lots over his land: which we must understand not only of the heretics, who have divided among themselves the people of God, and make them to be gentiles, but of every rigid and proud teacher, who under the name of doctrine and priesthood lord it over the clergy, and oppress those who are subject to them.

And when they have been negligent, and have scandalized one of the little ones, they even set boys in a brothel, or hand them over to harlots: and for the sake of their own pleasure (whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame) sell girls, that they may drink wine. For he hands over young men to harlots, and sells girls to luxury, who for the sake of shameful gain does not rebuke those who sin. (Verses 4-6.) But what have you to do with me, Tyre and Sidon, and all the coast of Palestine? Will you indeed render vengeance to me? And if you take vengeance on me, I will swiftly and speedily return the recompense upon your own head. For you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my desirable and most beautiful things into your temples; and you have sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the children of the Greeks, that you might remove them far from their own borders.

The Seventy: What have I to do with you, Tyre and Sidon, and all Galilee of the foreigners? Will you indeed render retribution to me, or do you keep anger in your heart against me (for this is what μνησικακεῖτε signifies in Greek)? Swiftly and speedily will I return your retribution upon your own heads: because you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my choice and best things into your temples, and have sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the children of the Greeks, that you might cast them out from their own borders. And the Jews suppose that these things are said against Tyre and Sidon and the coasts of the Philistines, or Galilee of the foreigners, because at the time of the Jewish captivity, when they were conquered by the Romans, they persecuted the people of God—nay rather, in the people of God, God himself who was set over the people, according to that which is written: He who receives you, receives me.

Therefore conversely, he who persecutes the people of God persecutes God himself, whose people it is. I will render to you, he says, what you did to my people: because you have taken my silver and gold, that is, the vessels of the temple, and whatever was most precious and beautiful in it—the golden candlestick, and the golden table of the presence, and the two golden Cherubim, and the mercy-seat, and the golden bowls and censers—and consecrated them to your idols. But history relates that the Chaldeans did this more, who placed the vessels of the temple of the Lord in the temple of Bel; whence afterward Belshazzar drinks from the bowls, and immediately his kingdom is transferred to the Medes and Persians (Daniel).

But since these things are said to be future after the great and terrible day of the Lord—which the apostles interpret with reference to the resurrection of the Lord, while the Hebrews put it off to the future time of judgment—it should rather be understood of the Romans: that Vespasian and Titus, having built at Rome the Temple of Peace, consecrated the vessels of the Temple and all the votive offerings in its shrine, as Greek and Roman history relates. At that time the children of Judah and Jerusalem (by no means Israel and the ten tribes, who to this day dwell in the cities and mountains of the Medes) were sold to the children of the Greeks, that they might be exterminated from their own borders, and the whole world was filled with Jewish captives. This they relate, that they may confirm that the vengeance for the blood of Christ and the overthrow of Jerusalem, which happened by the judgment of God, happened of itself against Tyre and Sidon.

But we, following the tropology we have begun, interpret Tyre and Sidon and the Philistines as those who straiten, afflict, and persecute the people of God (for this is what Tyre signifies in our tongue), and hunt him unto death, which the name of Sidon indicates, and, drinking blood, fall down or wallow in mire, which Philistia and Galilee signify. Swiftly and speedily will the Lord restore to them what they deserve, because they have persecuted him. And his silver and gold—namely, the utterances of the Scriptures, and the νοήματα, that is, the meanings, and all that was beautiful in the Church—they have handed over to their own errors.

Whatever heretic has deceived anyone, and made him worship his own idols, sells the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the Greeks, or to the Gentiles, and turns them from Christians into heathens, so as to exterminate them from their own borders, in which they had been begotten in Christ, and to make them dwell no longer in Judea and in confession of the truth, but in the error of the nations. All of which we can also refer to the day of judgment, the vengeance not differing, though they may seem to differ in time from what precedes.

Instead of "Galilee," in the Hebrew it is written GALILOTH (גלילות), which Aquila rendered θῖνας, and Symmachus, "Borders": but θῖνας, that is, "heaps of sand," let us refer to the shores of Palestine, not to Galilee of the Philistines, which does not exist at all. (Verses 7, 8.) Behold, I will raise them up out of the place in which you sold them, and I will turn your recompense upon your own head; and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabaeans, a nation far off: for the Lord has spoken. The Seventy: Behold, I will raise them up out of the place in which you sold them, and I will render your recompense upon your own heads, and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them into captivity to a nation which is far off, since the Lord has spoken.

The Hebrew word SABAIM (שבאים), which Aquila and Symmachus rendered just as it is written, the Seventy interpreted as "captivity," which better signifies "captives." Now the Sabaeans are said to be a nation beyond India, from whom also came the queen of Sheba, who came to hear the wisdom of Solomon; of whom Isaiah also speaks: And the men of Sheba, men of stature, shall pass over unto you. Whence also frankincense is said to come, as Virgil says (Aeneid, Book 1):

... and a hundred altars
Are warm with Sabaean incense:

though some suppose the Sabaeans to be Arabs. The Jews therefore promise themselves—nay, dream—that in the last time they will be gathered together by the Lord and led back into Jerusalem. And not content with this happiness, they assert that God himself will deliver the sons and daughters of the Romans into their own hands, so that the Jews may sell them—not to the Persians and Ethiopians and other nations which are near, but to the Sabaeans, a most distant nation—because the Lord has spoken, and avenges the wrong done to his people. These things they and our Judaizers assert, who promise themselves a reign of a thousand years within the borders of Judea, and a golden Jerusalem, and the blood of victims, and sons and grandsons and incredible delights, and gates set with a variety of gems. But let us say that the Lord both raised up after his coming, and daily raises up, and will raise up, those whom various error had led out from their own borders.

He says, "I will raise up" as it were those lying down and falling, so that those who lay in heresy might stand in the Church, rendering to the heretics what they had done: that he might deliver their sons and daughters, whom they had trained both in mystical and in carnal things, into the hands of the sons of Judah, into the hands of those who stood out as leaders of the Churches, and were equipped with the armor of the Apostle, and have the shield and lance of the Old and New Testament. So that, when they have taken them, they may sell their sons and daughters to the Sabaeans, and make them captives, so that they may be far from their own borders: and, converted to better things, may begin to be subject to the doctrines of the Church. (Verse 9 and following.) Proclaim this among the nations: sanctify a war: rouse up the strong. Let all the men of war approach, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your mattocks into spears.

Let the weak say, I am strong. Break forth and come, all you nations from round about, and gather yourselves together: there shall the Lord cause your mighty ones to fall. The Seventy: Proclaim this among the nations: sanctify a war, rouse up warriors, bring near and come up, all you men of war. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your sickles into spears. Let the weak say, I prevail. Gather yourselves together, and come in, all you nations round about: and gather yourselves together there; let the gentle be a warrior.

This passage is understood in two ways: some think that these things are preached to the holy nations, that they may be prepared for war, and fight for the people of God, so that they may turn all the instruments of agriculture into swords and spears, so that the weak may say he is strong, and that all may come from round about, and be gathered together for the contest of the Lord, especially since according to the Seventy what follows is: "let the gentle and mild be a warrior," according to that which is written in the Chronicles (I Chron. V, 8): And beyond the Jordan, of Reuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh, there were, in all instruments of war, a hundred and twenty thousand: all these were men of war, ready for battle, of a peaceable mind: they wish these to be imitators of the true David, of whom we read: Remember, O Lord, David, and all his meekness.

And he himself says in the Gospel: Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, or gentle. They also wish to understand as "men" those who, putting away the beginnings of childhood, have advanced to the strength of full age, and have turned all the zeal with which they formerly cultivated the fields of their own souls to the necessity of battle. But to us, following the opinion of the Hebrews, it seems to be the opposite. For it is the nations hostile to Israel who are prepared for battle, and who exchange their plows and mattocks, or sickles, for swords and spears, and the weak one says he is strong, and they break forth and come from round about, and gather themselves together against the army of the Lord, so that the Lord may cause their mighty ones to fall, and they may understand that, with God opposing them, they have been overcome. This, according to the letter, wretched Israel promises itself.

We, according to the tropology we have begun, may take it of the nations of demons, and of those who daily fight against the Church, and, at the last, of those who under Antichrist are to fight against the saints of the Lord, who are gathered together for this very purpose, that they may perish. (Verse 12 and following.) Let the nations rise up and come up into the valley of Josaphat: for there I will sit to judge all the nations round about: put in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe. Come, get down, for the winepress is full: the presses overflow, for their wickedness is multiplied. The Seventy: Let all the nations rise up and come up into the valley of Josaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the nations round about: send forth the sickles, for the vintage is at hand. Go in and tread, for the press is full, and the vats overflow, for their evils are full. And these are interpreted in two ways, according to the sense given above.

For some understand that the nations go up into the valley of Josaphat, which is interpreted "judgment of the Lord," and that God sits there, to judge all the nations that come from round about, in a good sense: namely, that the saints also may be gathered together against the adversaries of God, and may put in their sickles, to reap the ripe harvest of their enemies, and may come and go down, and tread the winepresses, since the vintage is at hand, and the new wine may so overflow that the presses cannot contain it. And that we might know what the vintage is, and the full winepress, he added: their wickedness is multiplied—no doubt meaning those who have gathered themselves together against the Lord.

But others assert that the nations rise up, and assemble in the valley of Josaphat, and that the Lord sits there to judge all the nations, precisely so that they might prepare themselves and take up all the weapons of warriors, and be mown down by the sickles of the Lord in the valley of Josaphat. For the time of judgment has come against them, and their evils have grown to such an extent that they have overcome the patience of God. For the Amorites too were then expelled, when their sins were completed.

The Jews refer this passage to Gog and Magog, most savage nations, of whom we spoke above, supposing that in the last time, when Jerusalem shall have been restored, under the thousand-year empire, they will come against the people of God, and will fall in the valley of Josaphat which is situated on the eastern side of the temple: for the time of their slaughter has come, and the shedding of blood presses on like the vintage. (Verses 14, 15.) People, people in the valley of decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon are darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their shining. The Seventy: Sounds were heard in the valley of judgment, because the day of the Lord is near in the valley of judgment. The sun and moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.

In the place where we have put "people, people," and the Seventy translated "sounds were heard," in the Hebrew it is written AMONIM, AMONIM (המנים המנים), which indeed signifies the multitude and crowds of those who are to be judged, and the noise and sound. Again, where we said "in the valley of decision," following the translation of Aquila and Symmachus and the fifth edition, the Seventy and Theodotion rendered τῆς δίκης καὶ τῆς κρίσεως, that is, "of the cause and of the judgment": for which in the Hebrew it is written HARUS (חרוץ), which the Hebrews think signifies not only "decision" but also "gold," namely because in the valley of judgment, which they suppose to be Gehenna, after the filth of sins has been burned away, pure gold remains. Therefore the peoples of the nations, of whom we spoke above, are gathered together in the valley of judgment, or of decision, that they may be slain and fall, and be judged by the Lord.

The sorrow of that day and the torments of the perishing not even the sun and moon and the other stars will be able to look upon; but they will withdraw their brightness, and will not dare to behold the severity of the Judge as he renders to each his own work upon his own head. Not that the judgments of God are milder than these; but because every creature, in the torments of others, is greatly afraid concerning its own judgment.

Verse 16. And the Lord shall roar from Sion, and shall give forth his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall be moved, and the Lord is the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Sion my holy mountain, and Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall not pass through her any more. LXX: But the Lord shall cry out from Sion, and shall give forth his voice from Jerusalem, and heaven and earth shall be moved, and the Lord shall spare his people, and shall strengthen the children of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Sion my holy mountain, and Jerusalem shall be holy, and a foreigner shall not pass through her any more.

When the splendor of the sun and the moon and of all the stars shall have been changed into darkness, the Lord shall roar from Sion after the manner of a lion, or shall cry out, and his voice shall be so lofty and terrible, that the hinges of the heavens and the foundations of the earth shall be shaken. And whereas he shall have been so severe toward those who are to be punished, he shall be merciful toward his people, and shall give strength to those who are called the children of Israel, that is, the mind seeing God; or εὐθύτατος Θεοῦ, which we may call "the most upright of God": who have not walked by crooked paths, but walking in the way of Christ, have done all things rightly. Then shall know both those who shall be punished, and those who shall be taken up into glory, that the Lord dwells in his watchtower Sion, and in Christ his holy mountain, or in him who has prepared himself worthy of God's dwelling.

Then shall holy Jerusalem, the vision of peace, from which also Solomon took his name, be holy, and strangers shall not pass through her any more. Understand the strangers as either the demons, who are foreign to God: or all the worst thoughts and sins, of which the prophet speaks: Spare thy servant from strangers: which shall by no means further find a way in us, if we shall have had the peace of God, and our heart shall not have lain open to adversaries. These things the Jews, and our own who judaize, as we have said, refer to the fable of a thousand years, when they think Christ will dwell in Sion, and that the peoples of the saints will be gathered in a golden and bejeweled Jerusalem, so that they who in this age have been oppressed by all nations, may in that same age command all nations.

Verse 18. And it shall come to pass in that day, the mountains shall drop down sweetness, and the hills shall flow with milk, and waters shall flow through all the rivers of Judah. LXX: And it shall come to pass in that day, the mountains shall drop down sweetness, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the outflows of Judah shall flow with waters. With the Lord dwelling in Sion and in his holy mountain, when no one shall have attempted to pass through holy Jerusalem, whatsoever mountain shall be in her, and shall have attained to the heights of the virtues, shall sweat sweetness and honey, and spiritual graces shall drip from it, concerning which the prophet speaks: How sweet are thy words to my throat, above honey to my mouth!

But he who is lower than the mountains, and has not yet ascended to the summit of perfection, shall be called a hill, and streams of milk shall flow from him, by which the rude infancy in Christ is nourished, and rivers of waters, which the Lord testified would flow from his belly. For all the streams, or outflows of Judah, shall be filled with waters, and nothing in them shall be dry, all things overflowing with spiritual grace.

And a fountain shall go forth from the house of the Lord, and shall water the torrent of thorns. Instead of "torrent of thorns," the Seventy translated "torrent of cords," that is, σχοίνων: which signifies either cords, or, according to the Egyptians, a measure of a fixed journey, as the Psalmist says: My path and my line thou hast searched out. For on the river Nile, or on its channels, they are wont to draw ships by ropes, having fixed intervals, which they call "cords" (funiculi), so that fresh necks of those drawing may succeed to the labor of the wearied. Nor is it strange if each nation calls fixed intervals of roads by its own names, since the Latins call a thousand paces a "mile," and the Gauls "leagues," and the Persians "parasangs," and all Germany "rasts," and in each name there is a different measure.

This is said because the Hebrew word SATTIM (שטים) the Seventy translated as "cords." For the rest, no one doubts that all the things we read of in the tabernacle of God were made of shittim wood: which the Seventy interpreted as "imperishable wood." Now it is a kind of tree in the desert, similar to white thorn, in color and leaves, though not in size. Otherwise the trees are so large that very broad boards are cut from them, and the wood is very strong, and of incredible lightness and beauty, so that from these even the vessels of the winepress, which they call ἄρσενας and θαλύας, are made by the richest and most zealous, which woods are not found in cultivated places, and on Roman soil, apart from the wilderness of Arabia. Instead of "torrent of cords," or "of thorns," Symmachus interpreted "valley of thorns." Now there is a place near Livias across the Dead Sea, distant from it six miles, where once Israel fornicated with the Midianites.

Of this place, in the person of God, the prophet Micah makes mention, saying: My people, remember, I pray, what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam son of Beor answered him, from Shittim even unto Gilgal. For which also there the Seventy translated, ἀπὸ τῶν σχοίνων, that is, "from the cords even unto Gilgal." Therefore a fountain shall go forth from the house of the Lord, which is interpreted "the Church." Of which Ezekiel and Zechariah also speak at the end of their volumes, so that it may change our thorns and vices and sins, which bore no fruit of righteousness, into the tilled fields of the Lord, and may water our dryness with most abundant waters, and instead of thorns and briars, we may sprout manifold flowers of the virtues. And in that place, where once Israel fornicated, and was initiated into Beelphegor, may the lilies of chastity and the roses of modesty and virginity abound.

Verse 19. Egypt shall be a desolation, and Idumea a desert of perdition, because they have dealt wickedly against the children of Judah, and have shed innocent blood in their land. LXX: Egypt shall be in perdition, and Idumea a field of desolation, because of the iniquities of the children of Judah, because they have shed righteous blood in their land. And in this place the Jews sleep a most heavy sleep: at the last time, when they shall receive not Christ but Antichrist, they fashion for themselves, with the vainest hope, vengeance upon the Egyptians who are neighbors, and upon the Romans, whom they interpret as the Idumeans. That is, just as Pharaoh and all his army, who held the people of God captive for four hundred and thirty years, were drowned in the Red Sea, so also the Romans, who will possess the Jews for the same span of years, will be destroyed by the vengeance of the Lord. This they promise themselves with vain hope.

For they cannot explain why, when there are so many nations in the world, only two peoples, the Egyptians and the Idumeans, are singled out for punishment; or why the Romans should be understood under the name of Idumeans, since with the same license of lying we could conversely assert that under the name of Idumeans are signified either the Persians, or the Elamites, or the Franks, the Alemanni, and other nations.

But let us say that at the time of the Lord's resurrection, or on the day of judgment (for we accept both), both Egypt and Idumea, in that they are Egypt and Idumea, are to be destroyed. Egypt is called MESRAIM (מצרים), which is interpreted ἐκθλίβουσα, that is, one persecuting and afflicting the saints of God: Idumea, earthly, or bloody. Whoever therefore has persecuted the people of God, and has devoted himself to earthly works, and by a multitude of sins has daily shed innocent blood, namely of those whom he deceives (or: has deceived), shall come to perdition, just as we know also that the souls of the martyrs cry out from under the altar: How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? (Verse 20 and following) And Judea shall be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem to generation and generation: and I will cleanse their blood, which I had not cleansed, and the Lord shall dwell in Sion.

LXX: But Judea shall be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem to generation and generation, and I will require their blood, and will not suffer it to go unavenged. And the Lord shall dwell in Sion. Certainly this is not that Judea which we see to be desolate, that shall be inhabited for ever: not this Jerusalem, whose ruins we behold: but that Judea, whose daughters have exulted and rejoiced in all the judgments of the Lord. And concerning which we read at the end of the fiftieth psalm: Deal favorably, O Lord, in thy good will with Sion, that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up. In this province of confession and glory, and in this city in which the peace of the Lord is beheld, there shall be an eternal habitation, not for one, or three, or several generations, but to generation and generation, that is, in the two generations of those who have believed, from the Jews and from the Gentiles.

And the Lord shall cleanse the blood of all sins, which he had not before cleansed, that he may cleanse in the Gospel those whom in the Law, sinning, he had left unclean. For therefore he shut up all things under sin, that he might have mercy on all; or he shall avenge the blood of his servants, which they shed in martyrdom for the confession of his name. And the Lord shall dwell in Sion, of which it is written: Her foundations are on the holy mountains; the Lord loves the gates of Sion above all the tabernacles of Jacob.