Commentary on Malachi

(Verse 1.) The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel, by the hand of Malachi. LXX: The taking up of the word of the Lord upon Israel, by the hand of his angel. What "burden," that is, "weight," which in Hebrew is MASSA (משא), and is called by Aquila ἄρμα, signifies, or what λῆμμα, that is, "assumption," which both the Seventy and the other interpreters have translated, we have said in the other prophets. For Nahum also writes: The burden of Nineveh: the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. And Habakkuk: The burden which Habakkuk the prophet saw. And Zechariah: The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach, and of Damascus its resting place. And again in what follows: The burden of the word of the Lord upon Israel.

Let us then be content with that explanation, and now let us only say this, that the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel, or, as the Seventy say, upon Israel, is indeed heavy, since it is called a burden, but it has something of consolation, in that it is taken not against Israel, but to Israel. For it is one thing when, for example, we write to such and such a one, another thing when we write against such and such a one: because in the one there is a part of friendship, in the other an open confession of enmities. And it must be known that once Israel had been led into captivity, that is, the ten tribes, the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin are also called by the former name, Israel, indifferently.

But as to what is said: By the hand of his angel, or of Malachi, understand "hand" for "works." Whence also the word of God came to be "by the hand of Haggai," and "by the hand of Jeremiah," and "by the hand of Moses." For in whose hands is iniquity, and whose right hand is filled with gifts, and whose hands are full of blood, in these the word of God is not made; but in those who wash their hands among the innocent. With which waters Pilate too tried to wash his hands, lest he should consent to the blasphemies of the Jews; of which the Psalmist rejoices, saying: He brought me up beside the waters of refreshment. Of this water the Lord promises through the prophet: I will sprinkle you with most clean water. But whoever is a sinner is made drunk with the Babylonian cup, and it is said of him: Thorns grow up in the hand of the drunkard. LXX: Lay it upon your hearts.

This is not found in the Hebrew, but I think it was added from Haggai, in whom we read: And now lay it upon your hearts, from this day and forward. After the title of the prophet, or the preface, therefore, it is to be understood in two ways: Lay it upon your hearts, that is, pay attention to and consider what was said above: The taking up of the word of the Lord upon Israel by the hand of his angel.

Or diligently pay attention to the things that are to be said afterward, so that you may know them not with the ears of the body, but with the understanding of soul and heart, and may make for yourselves treasuries, in which you may receive the riches of the words of God, and let wisdom act with confidence, when you have been enlarged, and, your heart filled with the words of God, you have driven out the worst thoughts, which go out from the heart—murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, and the rest—and you fulfill what was said by the Savior: He who has ears to hear, let him hear. I have loved you, says the Lord. And you have said, In what have you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, says the Lord: yet I loved Jacob, but Esau I hated? And I have laid his mountains waste, and given his heritage to the dragons of the desert.

But if Edom shall say, We are destroyed, but returning we will build up the things that are destroyed: thus says the Lord of hosts: They shall build, and I will destroy: and they shall be called the borders of wickedness, and the people with whom the Lord is angry forever. And your eyes shall see, and you shall say: The Lord be magnified upon the border of Israel. LXX: I have loved you, says the Lord: and you have said, In what have you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, says the Lord: and I loved Jacob, but Esau I hated: and I have laid his borders waste, and his heritage as the dwellings of the desert. Because Idumea shall say, It is destroyed: let us return and rebuild the desolate places. Thus says the Lord Almighty: They shall build, and I will destroy: and they shall be called to them the borders of iniquity, and the people over whom the Lord has been prepared forever.

And your eyes shall see, and you shall say: The Lord is magnified upon the borders of Israel. Israel, that is, Judah, to whom the word of God and the vision of the Lord used to come, is compelled to bear this burden and the heaviest weight of punishments, in order that he may lay down his more grave sins, and feel through torments what he did not feel through benefits. And lest the punishment upon his own seem unjust, the Lord adds: I have loved you: For whom the Lord loves he corrects: and he chastises every son whom he receives. And by saying "I have loved," in the present he denies, while in the past he confesses. And they answer with the rashness with which they sin, forgetful of his benefits: In what have you loved us?

To which the Lord says: To pass over the rest, and the fact that you have lately come from the Babylonian captivity, I will deal with your very cradle, before you were born, indeed before Rebecca poured forth from her womb Esau and Jacob: in Jacob I loved you; in Esau I hated the Idumeans. Which passage the apostle Paul, weighing it in mystical disputation, writes to the Romans, joining together two testimonies alike, from Genesis and from Malachi: But Rebecca also having conceived by one act, from Isaac our father. For when they were not yet born, nor had done anything either good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand: not of works, but of him that calls, it was said to her: that the elder shall serve the younger, as it is written: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. For this that is said, "as it is written," is referred both to the book of Genesis and to the prophet Malachi.

Not only, he says, did I love Jacob before he was born, and hate Esau before he was brought forth from his mother's womb; but in their descendants also I have preserved my love and hatred: hatred toward Esau, whose mountains, which are called Seir, I have reduced to solitude, and made his cities to be deserted, and to be held by serpents and beasts. But if Edom, that is, Esau, shall say: We are indeed destroyed by the anger of God, we will build the cities again: know this by the Lord's foretelling: that while they build, I will destroy, and my anger their everlasting devastation shall prove. Hatred, therefore, toward Esau I have shown by deeds, but my love toward you, that is, toward Jacob, I will prove by what follows.

When they have been destroyed and reduced to solitude, your eyes shall see, and you shall say: The Lord be magnified upon the border of Israel; and from the comparison of the evils which your brother suffers, you will perceive the benefits of God toward you. The Jews falsely flatter themselves that Edom refers to the Romans and Israel to themselves at the consummation of the world: that when the Roman empire, that is, Edom, is destroyed, the kingdom of the world shall come to the Jews. These things, as we have been able, laying the foundations of history, we have spoken: now let us come to the spiritual understanding. Israel, "a man," or "a mind seeing God," or, as I think better, εὐθύτατος Θεοῦ, that is, "most upright of God," is loved by the Lord, and wishes to know the reason of his love toward himself.

And the Lord answers, that Esau and Jacob were begotten of one stock, that is, that vices and virtues proceed from one fountain of the heart: while by freedom of will we incline in either direction as we wish; but the earlier vices are born through infancy, boyhood, youth, which a firmer age afterward corrects and supplants. The elder brother is shaggy and bloodthirsty: he delights in hunting, woods, and beasts. The younger is smooth and simple, and dwells innocently at home. God places the borders of Idumea, that is, of the earthly and bloodthirsty one, in solitude, and allows nothing to grow from the land or to be permanent. But if shameless malice should strive to rebuild again those things which have been destroyed by the word of God, the Lord declares himself the adversary of those things which are restored from vices.

And after all the borders of the hostile territory have been overthrown: then we can see the eyes of Israel, and every holy one can say: The Lord be magnified in the borders of those who behold God with the mind. Furthermore, the love and hatred of God arise either from foreknowledge of things to come, or from works: otherwise we know that God loves all things, nor does he hate anything of what he has created; but he claims for his own love, in a special way, those who are enemies and rebels against vices. And on the contrary he hates those who desire to rebuild again what God has destroyed. But God is said to hate ἀνθρωποπαθῶς, that is, in a human manner of speaking: as to weep, as to grieve, as to be angry: so that when we hear of his hatred toward the wicked, we may flee those things which we understand God to hate. (Verse 6.) A son honors his father, and a servant his master: if then I am a father, where is my honor?

And if I am a master, where is my fear? Saith the Lord of hosts. The Septuagint: The son glorifies the father, and the servant will fear his master. And if I am a father, where is my glory? Saith the Lord Almighty. Although before you were born I began to love you in Jacob as sons: yet choose by which title you will call me, either your father, or your master. If a father, render the honor due to a father, and offer a piety worthy of a parent. If a master, why do you despise me? Why do you not fear a master? He speaks, moreover, to those who returned from the Babylonian captivity under Zorobabel and Jesus the son of Josedec, and Ezra the priest, and Nehemiah, and who, having built the altar, had not yet built the temple, nor raised the walls of the city, and nevertheless remained in their former sins, venerating God with neither love nor fear.

Now what we have called glory, or honor, is one word both among the Greeks δόξα, and among the Hebrews CHABOD (כבוד); but we, according to the property of the Latin tongue, have rendered it "honor." For also in the Gospel, where the Lord and Savior speaks: "Father, the hour is come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee", among the Greeks it is read δόξασον, that is, "glorify." Which passage most of the Latins have translated "honor." Let us also consider together that son and servant are made in the Holy Scriptures by will, not by necessity of nature. For he who has received the spirit of adoption becomes a son of God; but he who has received the spirit of servitude unto fear is made a servant of God. Therefore God wishes first that we be his sons, and that we do good by our own will: if we wish to attain this, at least let him have us as servants, and let us withdraw from evils through the fear of punishments.

We read of sons in a bad sense: "We were children of wrath, and children of hell", whom the Pharisees, compassing sea and land, begot worthy of torments. And Judas the betrayer is called the son of perdition; and in the eighty-eighth psalm it is written of the Lord: "The son of iniquity shall not add to hurt him". In Hosea also they are called sons of fornication, who are begotten of a harlot mother, of whom it is written: "Your mother has played the harlot" (Hosea 2:5). And in the Gospel the Jews are branded as sons of the devil: "You are born of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do". We read of sons in a good sense, as sons of God: "As many as received him, he gave them power to become sons of God". And sons of wisdom, the Gospel proclaiming: "Wisdom is justified by her children".

And sons of Abraham: "Amen, amen I say to you, God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham". And sons of the Apostle: "My little children, of whom I travail again in birth, until Christ be formed in you", and many things of this sort. The son, therefore, honors, or glorifies, the father, according to that which is written: "So let your light shine before men, that they may see your works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven". The servant also honors his master, not with the same love as the son; but it is understood ἀπὸ κοινοῦ, "the son honors the father, the servant his master"; and yet God Almighty, knowing the difference between son and servant, requires glory from the son, fear from the servant: "For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom", that from the fear of servants we may pass over to the glory of sons. (Verse 7.) To you, O priests, who despise my name, and have said: In what have we despised your name?

You offer polluted bread upon my altar, and you say: In what have we polluted you? In that you say, the table of the Lord is despised. The Septuagint: You, priests, who despise my name, and have said: In what have we despised your name? Offering to my altar polluted breads, and you have said: In what have we polluted them? In that you say, the table of the Lord is despised, and what has been placed upon it you have despised. Now as for what follows: "And what has been placed upon it you have despised," we have marked it with an obelus, because it is not found in the Hebrew, and has been added from what follows.

To you, therefore, O priests, who despise my name, this word is directed: you who, returning from Babylon, ought, out of fear of your past servitude, to have been converted to the Lord with full mind: and not only do you not do this, but imitating Cain, answering with proud voices against God, you question him whom hidden things do not deceive, and it is said: In what have we despised your name? That by the impudence of dissimulation you may cover the wound of conscience. Do you wish then to know in what you have despised my name? You offer upon my altar polluted bread: namely, the breads of the presence, which according to the Hebrew traditions you yourselves were bound to sow, yourselves to reap, yourselves to grind, yourselves to bake: and now you take up whatever comes to hand, and with rash voice you reply; and you say, in what have we polluted them, or you? For when the sacraments are violated, he to whom the sacraments belong is himself violated.

Now as for what follows: "In that you say, the table of the Lord is despised," we may interpret it thus: that having returned from Babylon, the temple not yet built, dwelling in huts, and among the ruins of the ancient city, they had built only an altar, not of the same glory as the former one, and thought that the sanctity of religion was lacking, because the ambition of building was lacking. We have drawn thin lines, upon which the spiritual explanation is to be impressed.

The divine word rebukes negligent bishops, and presbyters and deacons, or rather—since we are a priestly and royal race, all who, baptized in Christ, are reckoned by the name of Christ—why they despise the name of God: and to those who ask in what they have despised his name, it shows the causes of the offense: "You offer," it says, "upon my altar polluted bread." We pollute the bread, that is, the body of Christ, when we approach the altar unworthily, and, being unclean, drink the pure blood, and we say, the table of the Lord is despised; not that anyone would dare say this, and utter in wicked voice what he impiously thinks; but the works of sinners despise the table of God.

We may also say otherwise: if the teacher of the Church, who prepares the spiritual bread and divides it among the peoples, speaks to the peoples either for the sake of human glory, or for the gains of the world which follow glory, and flatters the rich, and honors sinners, and, following James, receives those who come to him with golden rings, and repels the poor who are saints, he despises the name of God, and pollutes the bread of doctrines, and casts insults upon God himself, thinking the table of his Scriptures to be common with the tables of idols and of worldly teaching. (Verse 8.) If you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Offer it to your governor, if he will be pleased with it, or if he will accept your face, saith the Lord of hosts. The Septuagint: For if you offer the blind in sacrifice, is it not evil?

Offer it to your governor, if he will receive you, if he will accept your face, saith the Lord Almighty. Concerning the diversity of victims, and what ought to be offered or not offered, we learn more fully in Leviticus. So then the priests and Levites, the porters and singers, and the Nethinim and the servants of Solomon, whose catalogue Ezra writes down, having returned from Babylon, offered to God unlawful victims, namely blind and lame ones, and afflicted with various infirmities; for this is what is meant by "sick," comprising all in one word. If, he says, you were to offer such gifts to your governor, would he not reject them? Would he not think an injury had been done him? And do you dare to offer this to God, which you dare not give to men? It would be long now to unfold the mysteries of all the victims: I will speak only of those which are contained in the present chapter.

Blind is the sacrifice of a soul which is not illumined by the light of Christ, nor has an eye looking upon the Gospel. Lame is the prayer of one asking, which approaches to pray with a double mind, and hears with the people of the Jews: "How long do you halt between two sides?" And sick, and covered with every infirmity, is that which does not have the power of Christ, the wisdom of God. Prayers of this sort, which are without the light of truth, and do not have the firm footprints of wisdom, and waste away with various infirmities, if they are offered to the prince of the Churches, or to any learned and wise teacher, will they not be rejected, and fall back in insult upon him who dared to offer such things? (Verse 9.) And now beseech the face of God, that he may have mercy on you: for by your hand has this been done, if by any means he will accept your faces, saith the Lord of hosts.

Who is there among you that will shut the doors, and kindle my altar for nothing? The Septuagint: And now beseech the face of your God, and entreat him: with your hands have these things been done, if I shall accept your faces from among you, saith the Lord Almighty: for even in you the doors shall be shut, and my altar shall not be kindled for nothing. In this passage the Seventy interpreters differ greatly from the Hebrew truth: and it is necessary that where the interpretation is different, the sense also should be different.

Because you have offered lame and blind and weak victims—for you have done all these things which I have mentioned—do penance, that God may perhaps have mercy on you: for there is no one among you, down to the lowest ministry—I do not say pontiff, I do not say priest, I do not say Levite, I do not say singer, but not even the doorkeeper, and he who puts fire under the altar to burn the holocausts—who does not receive from me the wage of his labor. Now in saying this, he signifies the tithes of all the crops which are offered by the peoples. From which it is shown that service which does not demand a present reward is more acceptable to the Lord. Whence also the Apostle preaches the Gospel freely; and labors night and day with his own hands, lest he be a burden to anyone, and testifies that this glory of his, the gratuitous preaching among the nations, is by no means to be made void.

Furthermore, the Seventy suggest quite a different sense: O priests, who sacrifice weak victims, be converted to penance, and beseech the face of the Lord, and pray for the works of your hands. But as for what follows: "If I shall accept your faces from among you," I do not know whether it agrees with an exhortation to penance. For no one says, pray to me, and I will not spare you. It follows: "In you the doors shall be shut," namely, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Whence the Savior speaks: "I am the door". Or otherwise: The doors of the Scriptures shall not be opened to you, nor will you be able to gaze into the holy of holies, nor to know the sacraments of the Lord; nor to kindle his incense at the altar: because your prayers will not reach him.

And this which is said, δωρεὰν, we have translated "for nothing"; those who follow this understanding which we are now expounding render it "for grace," namely, that they do not have the grace of serving the altar of the Lord. (Verse 10. Seq.) I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand: for from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place sacrifice is offered, and there is offered to my name a pure offering, because my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts. But you have profaned it, in that you say: The table of the Lord is defiled, and that which is set upon it is contemptible, with the fire that devours it. And you have said: Behold, this comes of labor, and you have puffed it away, saith the Lord of hosts.

And you have brought in of robberies the lame and the sick, and you have brought in the offering: shall I accept it from your hand? Saith the Lord. LXX: My will is not in you, saith the Lord Almighty, and I will not accept sacrifice from your hands, because from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is glorious among the Gentiles: and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice, because my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord Almighty. But you have defiled it, in that you say, the table of the Lord is polluted, and the foods that are set upon it are despised; and you have said, these come of affliction, and you have puffed them away, saith the Lord Almighty. And you brought in things taken by robbery, and the lame and the weak, and you offered sacrifice: shall I accept these from your hands, saith the Lord Almighty?

It is a rule of the Scriptures: where a most manifest prophecy is woven concerning future things, one must not weaken by uncertain allegory what has been written. Therefore now the word of the Lord is properly directed to the priests of the Jews, who offer the blind and the lame and the sick for sacrifice; that they may know that spiritual victims are to succeed the carnal victims. And by no means the blood of bulls and goats; but incense, that is, the prayers of the saints, are to be offered to the Lord, and not in one province of the world, Judea, nor in one city of Judea, Jerusalem; but in every place an offering is to be made, by no means unclean, as from the people of Israel; but pure, as in the ceremonies of the Christians. For from the rising of the sun even to its setting the name of the Lord is great among the Gentiles, the Savior saying: Father, I have manifested thy name to men.

And since, he says, my name is to be great among the Gentiles, O you princes of the Jews, you have profaned it and do profane it. For thus he weaves the prophecy of future things, so that he does not abandon the present time. Therefore, O priests and princes of the Jews, in every place a pure offering is offered to me, and my name is great among the Gentiles, because you say the table of the Lord is defiled, and that which is set upon it is contemptible with the fire that devours it. The people returned from Babylon built only an altar of chance and unhewn stones, according to the book of Ezra (1 Ezra vi), without a temple, without buildings of the city, without the construction of walls, and thought the worship of religion to be less, because the adornment of the temple was lacking.

To them the Lord speaks: You think the altar polluted, and the burnt offerings and victims which are placed upon it: you think also the fire which devours the victims to be polluted; and you do not understand that the almighty God seeks not gold and gems and a multitude of victims, but the wills of those who offer. But those who think that not the altar, but the table on which the loaves were placed, must be understood, how they can interpret what follows, "with the fire that devours it," I do not see at all: for fire does not devour the loaves of proposition, which they always exchanged, new for old, and those taken away went to the use of the priests. Or certainly it is to be understood thus: You have profaned my name in that you say: what does it profit if we offer the best? Whatever things are offered are to be devoured by fire. But the fruit of the altar is fire, and the food of fire is the victim or burnt offerings.

Nor is the impiety of the former speech enough, but you have also said this: Behold, this comes of labor, and you have puffed it away, saith the Lord of hosts. The sense of this speech is this: You have said, we have returned from captivity, we were plunder for the enemies, we labored much on the long journey, we are poor, whatever we could have was consumed by the labor of the road: whatever we have, we offer; and by saying this you have puffed away your sacrifices, that is, you have made them worthy of my scorn: or as can be read in the Hebrew: And you have puffed me away by saying this; you have done injury not to the sacrifice, but to me, to whom you were sacrificing. Wherefore I will by no means accept it from your hand, saith the Lord Almighty.

Some think that this, which is said specifically to the Jews, on the ground that their victims are unclean and defiled, and the sacrifice is transferred to the Gentiles, ought to be understood of the priests of the Church, who negligently offer victims to the Lord. But if we accept this: then the victims must again be transferred from the Church to another religion. And just as I have succeeded the Law with the Gospel, so again things not yet future will succeed the Gospel. They also refer the table of the Lord being defiled to the holy Scriptures, if they are understood otherwise than as they are written.

(Verse 1, 2.) Cursed is the deceitful man who has a male in his flock, and making a vow sacrifices a blemished thing to the Lord. For I am a great king, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the Gentiles.

And now, O priests, this commandment is for you: If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name, saith the Lord of hosts: I will send poverty upon you, and I will curse your blessings, and I will curse them, because you have not laid it to heart. LXX: And cursed is he who was powerful, and had a male in his flock, and his vow was upon it, and he sacrifices a blemished thing to the Lord: for I am a great king, saith the Lord Almighty, and my name is illustrious among the Gentiles. And now this commandment is for you, O priests, if you will not hear, and if you will not set your heart, to give glory to my name, saith the Lord Almighty: I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessing, and I will curse it: and I will scatter your blessing and it shall not be to you; because you do not lay it to your heart.

That which is written, "and I will scatter your blessing," was added by the LXX, and is not found in the Hebrew. Whatever the human mind can find in excuse of its sin, and defend itself with false satisfaction, this the divine word, foreseeing it, rebukes and condemns. And the sense is this: because you offer the blind and the lame and the sick, and this itself not from your own, but from plunder and spoils and the tears of the wretched, and moreover you say, we offer from our labor and poverty what we have: therefore I speak generally, so that his own conscience may accuse him. Certainly you plead poverty and the injury of captivity, and the slenderness of your household means: hear what I bring in: Cursed is the deceitful man who has a male in his flock, and making a vow sacrifices a blemished thing to the Lord. If you do not have a male, the curse does not harm you at all.

By saying this, he shows that they have what is best, and offer what is bad. To you therefore, O priests, this commandment is given, you have done what is impious in contempt of me. But because I prefer the repentance of the sinner to his death, even now I say: If you will not hear me, nor understand, so as to give glory to my name, which is dreadful among the Gentiles, I will send true want upon you, so that, no longer lying, but compelled by the poverty of all things, you may say that you do not have the best things to offer. And I will curse, he says, your blessings, that is, those things which you now possess by my blessings: or whatever shall be blessed to you, shall be cursed by me.

And I will curse them, understand, your blessings; because you would not understand what is said; for this is what is meant by "you have not laid it to heart." We can understand the cursed and deceitful people to be the people of the Jews, who, though they had in their flock a male, the Lord the Savior, and the spotless lamb who takes away the sins of the world, and though warned by the prophecy of all the prophets to sacrifice and receive the ram which was caught by its horns in the thicket of Sabek, refused to do this; but sacrifices a blemished thing to the Lord, crucifying the Savior, and choosing Barabbas, the author of robbery and sedition, who according to mystical understanding is referred to the devil: and while they despise and prefer the devil to the Savior, the name of Christ is dreadful among the Gentiles, who have received the passion of the Lord, and venerate him with fearful honor.

Of us also it can be said: If, created wise by God, and having a nature suited to sacred disciplines, we neglect our own talent, and give ourselves to vices and luxury, and having a male, we sacrifice a blemished thing to the Lord. And our prayer is blemished and stained, when it is corrupted by anger, envy, enmities, and other disturbance of the mind: if, offering a gift at the altar, and remembering that our brother has something against us, we do not go first and make satisfaction to him. Whence also the Apostle commands: I will therefore that men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands without anger and disputing. It is the sense of the shepherd of our thoughts and virtues, of which it is said in the hundred and second Psalm (verse 1): Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

If he has ruled his flock well, that blessing is fulfilled in him: Blessed shall be the herds of your oxen, and the flocks of your sheep. But if, having naturally a male, that is, strong, firm, and robust, he sacrifices something light or exceedingly soft, feminine and wanton, or weak and corrupted by various disturbances of the soul, he will feel fulfilled in himself what is written: The mighty shall be mightily tormented. And: To whom more is given, more shall be required of him. Whence it is properly said to priests, that if they will not hear, and keep in heart, so as to give glory to the name of the Lord by good conduct; but on the contrary his name is cursed among the Gentiles because of them, he will send want of all good things upon them, and turn their blessings into cursing. Those who abuse health for lust, and turn riches into luxury, and defile a good name by sordid conduct, these turn the blessings of God into cursing.

Or certainly, since the commandment is properly given to the priests, their blessings are turned into cursing, when they do not bless the saints from true affection of heart, as Isaac blessed Jacob, and Jacob the patriarchs, and Moses the twelve tribes, but by sweet words and blessings deceive the hearts of the innocent, and those who act unjustly are blessed by them, and they flatter sinners provided they are rich, and fawn upon their vices, of whom it is said: O my people, they that call you blessed, deceive you, and destroy the way of your paths.

Verse 3. Behold, I will cast the arm to you, and I will scatter upon your face the dung of your solemnities, and it shall take you away with it. And you shall know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. LXX: Behold, I will separate the shoulder for you, and I will scatter the stomach-refuse upon your face, the refuse of your solemnities, and I will take you away together: and you shall know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant might be to the Levites, saith the Lord Almighty. Since he speaks to the priests: I will cast, he says, into your faces, those things which you think more sacred in the Law, and which were granted to you by God as a reward of virtue out of the victims: The arm, which the LXX translated as "shoulder," that is, the right foreleg of the animal.

And I will scatter, he says, ἔνυστρον, that is, the stomach; or according to the Hebrews, dung, that is, PHARES (פרש), by metonymy, calling that which is contained by the name of that which contains it, and indeed the priests received from the victims the shoulder and the breast, and the tongue, and the stomach, and those things described in Leviticus. All of which he testifies he will cast away because of their sins, and throw into the faces of the priests, so that, namely, those who offer may be such as the things that are offered. And it shall take you, he says, with it, that is, the dung of your solemnities, so that your stinking faces may be disgraced by the foul mixture of dung, and from the fact that I cast you away, you may understand that it is I myself, by the very context.

Who once chose your father Levi, and through Levi, Aaron, and bestowed on you the glory of the priesthood, that my pact or covenant might be with Levi, and that he might minister to me in an eternal priesthood. It should be noted that the Hebrew word BRITH (ברית), Aquila interprets as συνθήκην, that is, a pact. The Septuagint always renders it διαθήκην, that is, a testament, and in most passages of Scripture, testament does not signify the will of the deceased, but the pact of the living. Now God willed that all men, but especially priests, should have no blemish, and should adorn either shoulder or arm with good works. In the breast is signified a good conscience; in the tongue, holy confession, so that what we believe in the heart unto righteousness, we may confess with the mouth unto salvation.

In the belly too, one should have nothing deadly, but that which sustains and enlivens our life; for unless the foods in the belly are digested, and the body is nourished by their juice, it grows weak in strength and is carried toward death. But we turn everything to the contrary, so that the Lord casts away our arm, that is, separates our works from the works of the saints; and we, who were commanded to anoint our head and wash our face from the filth of sins by fasting, and with unveiled face to behold the glory of the Lord, now say: "Shame has covered my face", and like Cain our countenance has fallen, nor can we fulfill what is commanded: "Lift up your eyes and see"; but we have our faces smeared and polluted with the dung of vices, and we say: "My scars have festered and become corrupt, because of my foolishness".

Whence all these things have been turned into dung, as Scripture says: "And the dung shall take you to itself," namely that with which our faces are smeared, we who ought to have come full and clean to the solemnities of God, either to eat the flesh of the lamb shod, or, after seven weeks completed, to offer the fruits of our works to God, or to live passing through the tabernacles of this age, and say: "I am a sojourner and a stranger, as were all my fathers".

And because for what we translate, "the dung shall take you to itself," the Seventy interpreted, "and I will take you along with it," an understanding is subjoined, that after the priests have been covered with disgrace and shame, and have understood their sin, and have done penance, then they are taken up by the Lord, and this sense agrees with what follows: "And you shall know that I have sent this commandment to you." But the former interpretation seems true to me, lest amid words of threatening he should place words of flattery, especially since what follows also sounds of God's indignation. (Vv. 5 ff.) My covenant was with him of life and peace, and I gave him fear, and he feared me, and trembled before the face of my name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found on his lips; in peace and equity he walked with me, and turned many away from iniquity.

For the lips of the priest shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law from his mouth, because he is the angel of the Lord of hosts. Septuagint: My testament was with him of life and peace, and I gave him fear that he might fear me, and might dread before the face of my name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found on his lips. Walking in peace, directing his steps, he walked with me, and turned many from iniquity. Because the lips of the priest shall keep knowledge, and the law shall be sought from his mouth: because he is the angel of the Lord Almighty. The office of the perfect priest is described from the person of God, what sort he ought to be, and what sort he willed him to be, who commanded him to be.

For above he had said: "That my covenant might be with Levi, says the Lord of hosts"; and through Levi the patriarch it reaches down to his descendants, Aaron and Eleazar, Phinehas and the rest who were born of his stock; now at the end he says: "You have made void the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts." From this it is clear that whatever is said "through Levi" pertains to the priests, and especially to the high priest.

We read in Numbers concerning Phinehas, who struck Zimri with a dagger together with the Midianite harlot: "Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has made my fury cease from the children of Israel, because he was zealous with my zeal against them, and I did not destroy the children of Israel in my zeal," thus saying: "Behold, I will give him the covenant of peace: and it shall be to him and to his seed after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the children of Israel". Now let us think that the covenant, or pact, of life is not of this life which is common to us with beasts and all animate creatures, but of that life of which he said: "I am the life". For indeed our life is hidden with Christ in God: of whom we can say that he himself is also our peace, the Apostle confirming: "For he himself is our peace".

The Lord therefore gave to Levi, and through him to his descendants, that they should fear him: "For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom", and that they should dread before his face, or withdraw and contract themselves, showing by the horror of the body the dread of the mind, according to what is written: "Upon whom shall I rest, but upon him that is humble and quiet, and trembles at my words"? "The law of truth was in his mouth," that is, the doctrine of the peoples, which ought not in any priest to be disfigured by falsehood, but should proceed wholly from the fountain of truth. "And iniquity was not found on his lips," that he might imitate his Lord, of whom it is said: "Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth".

"In peace and equity he walked with me," that he himself might have peace within himself, and make peace among others, and accept no man's person in judgment, and therefore walk with God, as Enoch walked, who was translated to the Lord, and was not found. "And turned many away from iniquity." Whoever is a priest, and does not rebuke those who transgress, oversteps the office of priest. "The lips of the priest shall keep knowledge": he did not say "shall bring forth," but "shall keep," that they may speak in due time, in fine, giving fellow-servants their food in due season. "And they shall seek the law from his mouth." The same thing is written in Haggai: "Ask the priests concerning the law of the Lord". It belongs to the discipline of the priest to answer, when asked, concerning the law. And if he shows himself diligent in overlooking the ignorance of others, but negligent in the sacred Scriptures himself, he vaunts his dignity in vain, since he does not exhibit the works of it.

This is what the apostle Paul writes to Titus: "That he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers". And to Timothy: "Because from infancy you have known the sacred letters, which are able to instruct you unto salvation," that you may rebuke sinners before all. There follows: "Because he is the angel of the Lord of hosts." Ezra, the priest of God—that is, Malachi, which is interpreted "angel of the Lord"—explains his own name; and "angel," that is, "messenger," is most truly said of the priest of God, because he is the mediator between God and men, and announces His will to the people; and therefore on the priest's breast is the rational, and in the rational both doctrine and truth are placed, that we may learn that the priest ought to be learned, and a herald of the Lord's truth.

Some falsely think that what is said "to Levi" and "through Levi" to the priests ought to be understood of Christ, not observing that what follows is contrary to the person of Christ. (Vv. 8, 9.) But you have departed from the way, and have caused many to stumble at the law; you have made void the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts. Therefore I also have made you contemptible and base before all the people, since you have not kept my ways, and have accepted persons in the law. Septuagint: But you have turned aside from my way, and have made many weak in the law, you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord Almighty; and I have made you contemptible, and dissolute among all the nations, because you have not kept my ways, but have accepted persons in the law. That these things do not pertain to the person of Christ, nor to those who are dedicated to his worship, even were I to say nothing, the prudent reader understands.

And the sense is: I wished you to do the things contained in the previous chapter, and of which I spoke through Moses in Deuteronomy: "Give to Levi his doctrine, and truth to the righteous man", and the rest; but you have departed from the straight way, or turned aside, though I said: "Turn not aside either to the right hand or to the left"; and you have made many weak in the law, or have caused them to stumble, as Aquila and Symmachus translated. To turn aside to the right is to abstain from foods which God created for use, to condemn marriage, and to fall into that which is written elsewhere: "Be not righteous overmuch". To turn aside to the left is when one gives himself to luxury and lust, and causes many to stumble at the law; for whom it were better that a millstone be tied about his neck, and that he be cast into the sea, than that he should scandalize one of the little ones.

Now they make many weak who, when believers have received the strength of faith in Christ, cause them to grow weak through the negligence of their own conduct; to whom it is most rightly said: "You have made void the covenant of Levi," the covenant of life and peace, and the rest, which we have said pertains to the office of the priest. For which cause, he says, I also have made you contemptible and base before all the people, that they should despise you, and, instead of honor and glory, should trample on you as cast down and lowly: "Since you have not kept my ways, and have accepted persons in the law." Among all the sins of Levi, or of those who are of Levi, the priests of God, this is set forth as the last and the greatest, that they accept persons in the law, so that they consider not the causes, but the persons, and, despising the righteous poor, receive and honor the wicked rich.

To whom it is said in the eighty-first psalm: "How long will you judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked"? And Paul to the Galatians says: "God accepts not the person of man". And more fully the apostle James rebukes and condemns this sin. Whatever is said to the former people, let us think it is said also to us, that we may withdraw more cautiously from vices, and not accept persons in the law, nor, being worshippers of God, prefer falsehood to truth. (Ver. 10 and following.) Is there not one Father of us all? Has not one God created us? Why then does each one of us despise his brother, violating the covenant of our fathers? Judah has transgressed, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: because Judah has profaned the sanctification of the Lord, which he loved, and has taken the daughter of a strange god as wife.

The Lord will destroy the man that has done this, the master and the disciple, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offers a gift to the Lord of hosts. The Septuagint: Is there not one Father of you all? Has not one God created you? Why have you each forsaken his brother, so as to make the covenant of your fathers an abomination? Judah has been forsaken, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, because Judah has profaned the holy things of the Lord, in which he delighted, and has devised for himself strange gods. May the Lord destroy the man who does these things, until he be driven out from the tabernacles of Jacob, and from among those who offer sacrifice to the Lord Almighty. Before we discuss the present chapter, the tradition of the Hebrews must be set forth, or rather the truth of Scripture must be explained.

We read in the book which bears the title of Ezra, from the person of Ezra himself speaking: The princes came to me, saying: The people of Israel, and the priests and Levites, have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, and from their abominations, namely the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Ammonites, and the Moabites, and the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, and have mingled the holy seed with the peoples of the lands. The hand of the princes also and of the magistrates has been foremost in this transgression. And when I heard this word, I rent my mantle and my tunic, and I plucked out the hairs of my head and of my beard, and sat down mourning.

And again in what follows: And there were found among the sons of the priests those who had taken foreign wives, of the sons of Jeshua, son of Josedec, and his brothers, Maaseiah, and Eleazar, and Jarib, and Gedaliah, and they gave their hands that they would put away their wives, and for their trespass would offer a ram of the flocks. Also at the end of the chapter, after the enumeration of those who had taken foreign wives, Scripture records: All these had taken foreign wives: and there were among them women who had borne children.

Therefore, returning from the Babylonian captivity, the princes, and the priests, and the Levites, as well as the rest of the people, cast off their wives of Israelite stock, who, being unable to bear the labor because of poverty and the hardship of the long journey and the frailty of their sex, had been worn out, and had contracted weakness and disfigurement of body: and they had joined themselves in marriage with foreign women, either flourishing in youth or fairer in bodily adornment, or the daughters of the powerful and the rich. Therefore the prophet Ezra rebukes them, and urges them to put away their new wives, so that they might take back the wives whom they had dismissed, saying: Is not Abraham the one father of us all? Of whom it is written in Isaiah: Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah, who bore you, for he was one, and I called him (Isaiah 51:2). Has not one God created us, who chose our race from Abraham?

Why then do we despise our former wives, and cast off the daughters of our brothers, so as to abandon the covenant of our fathers, and not take wives according to the Law? Judah has transgressed (for this tribe returned from Babylon with the priests and the Levites), and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. Not at all among the ten tribes, which were held by the Assyrians; but among those who, under the command of King Cyrus, returned from Babylon under Zerubbabel and Ezra and Nehemiah. Because Judah has profaned the sanctification of the Lord, which he loved, and has taken the daughter of a strange god as wife, by mingling the seed of Israel with foreigners, and, that is, by taking as wives the daughters of the heathen, who serve idols. Because therefore they did this, the word of the prophet is directed to them, and they are drawn back from sin by curses. The Lord will destroy the man that has done this.

How beautifully he does not cut off pardon for the error, nor say, may the Lord curse him who has done this; but him who shall do it, extending the curse into the future, so that he may call sinners to repentance. The teacher, he says, and the disciple, out of the tabernacles of Jacob; whether he be priest or layman, they will be struck by one curse, and there will be no difference of punishment among those whose sins are equal. And him that offers a gift to the Lord of hosts: it is understood, may the Lord destroy also him who, on behalf of such men, would wish to offer a gift at the altar, for whom the only remedy is not to do what they have done. Some, not understanding this passage, and not knowing the truth of the history, interpret what he says: Is there not one Father of us all?

As referring to Abraham in such a way that they even mention Abraham as the father of the Gentiles, according to what is written: God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham? Or else they affirm one God the Father according to what we read in Deuteronomy: Is not he your Father, who possessed you, and made you, and created you? And again: You have forsaken God who created you. And elsewhere: I have brought up children, and exalted them: but they have forsaken me (Isaiah 1:2). And in the book of Psalms: Strange children have lied to me: strange children have grown old, and have limped from their paths. And departing from this one father, they who have sinned have made many fathers of their vices: For every one who commits sin is born of the devil.

And that which follows: Why does each one of us despise his brother, violating the covenant of our fathers, they have interpreted thus, saying: We, all begotten from one father, ought to be one, and to have one lip of confession; but afterward, through pride and the building of the tower against God, we were divided into many tongues and opinions. They also refer it to almsgiving, so as to say: We despise our brothers when we do not share with them what we have received from God for the sustaining of life. And they go on to this, to assert that our brother, according to the Scriptures, is called Lord, who commanded Mary Magdalene to announce to his brethren that the Lord had risen, and who speaks in the Psalm: I will declare your name to my brethren, in the midst of the church I will sing to you.

Therefore the Jews forsook their brother, and defiled the covenant of their fathers, which God had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that in their seed, which is interpreted Christ, all nations should be blessed. These things they surmise in various ways, because they do not find the certain path. Finally, what follows also, according to the Septuagint: Judah has been forsaken, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, they explain thus: that the Jews have been forsaken, because they blasphemed the Lord the Savior, and endured what is written: According to the multitude of their impieties cast them out, because they have provoked you, O Lord, so that they might be scattered as wanderers and fugitives into all provinces. For they have defiled the holy things of the Lord, loving in place of the Son of God, and devising for themselves strange gods: For he who does not receive the Son, does not receive the Father who sent him.

And therefore, because they have done this, they perish so long until they be humbled, either by the injury of captivity, or on account of the consciousness of their sins: and are cast out from the tabernacles of Jacob, so that, the temple and the altar being destroyed, sacrifices are by no means offered among them. Nor content with this explanation (because Judah [יהודה] is interpreted "confession of the Lord"), they transfer the understanding to the penitent, who, after he has confessed the Lord, if he sins, commits abomination in Israel and in Jerusalem, that is, in the sense that sees God, and in the vision of peace.

For he pollutes the mysteries of Christ, receiving unworthily his body and blood, because he has loved vices, and has devised for himself strange gods, having as many gods as he has sins. According to the apostle Paul: Their god is their belly, and according to Peter: By whom a man is overcome, of the same he is brought into bondage (2 Peter 2:19). And whoever does this shall be cast out from the church, and from the tabernacles of Jacob, who tramples underfoot vices and sins, until he be humbled for his own good, and a victim be offered for him to the Lord Almighty. (Verses 13 and following.) And this again you have done: you covered the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and groaning, so that I no longer look upon the sacrifice, nor accept anything acceptable from your hand. And you said: for what cause? Because the Lord has testified between you and the wife of your youth, whom you have despised: yet she is your partner, and the wife of your covenant.

Did not one make you, and the residue of his spirit is his? And what does the one seek, but the seed of God? Therefore keep your spirit, and do not despise the wife of your youth. If you hate her, put her away, says the Lord God of Israel; but iniquity will cover his garment, says the Lord of hosts: keep your spirit, and do not despise. The Septuagint: And these things which I hated, you have done: you covered the altar of the Lord with tears, with wailing and groaning, so that it is worthy to look any longer upon the sacrifice of labor, or to accept an acceptable thing from your hands. And you said, for what reason? Because the Lord has testified between you and the wife of your youth, whom you have forsaken, and she is your partner, and the wife of your covenant, and no other has made you, and the remnants of your spirit. And you said: what else besides seed does God seek?

And keep watch in your spirit, and do not forsake the wife of your youth: but if hating her you put her away, says the Lord God of Israel, impiety will cover your thoughts, says the Lord Almighty: and keep watch in your spirit, and do not forsake. Let us interpret the history, and, fitting brief explanations to each little verse, let us discuss what has been handed down to us by the Hebrews. The forsaken wives of Israel, seeing the women of the foreign nations in the beds of their husbands, fled for aid to God alone, prostrated day and night before the altar of the Lord, and by tears, groaning, and wailing they cast reproach upon his providence, as though he did not regard human affairs, nor help their miseries.

Hence God says that he cannot accept sacrifice and offering from the hands of the priests who committed these things, hindered by the weeping and lamentation of the wives, and that moreover they inquire for what reason he does not accept sacrifice from their hands; and immediately he adds: Because the Lord has testified between you and the wife of your youth, whom you have despised, saying: For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh: and therefore she is called a partner, and the wife of union and of covenant, who was made by God from the rib of the man. And the residue of his spirit—whether of God, as some think, or of the husband, as others suppose, because through a certain affection one soul seems to exist in two, joined in spirit, united in mind. Since therefore one made both, man and woman: therefore the union of both was made by God, that children might be born.

For the one God, what does he seek but the seed of God, that is, sons begotten of the Israelite stock? Since therefore you have fruitful wives, and rejoice in children, why do you seek the beauty of wives, which is suited to harlots, not to wives? Therefore God commands through the prophet, and says: Keep your spirit; lest you be led away by lust, lest you be conquered by love of foreign women. And do not despise the wife of your youth, that she who was first joined to you in virginal marriage may persevere unto old age. But it might happen that the princes, priests, Levites, and people would answer: God commanded through Moses that when we hate our wives, we should put them away. And it is to be read: You say to me, it is written: When you hate your wife, put her away, says the Lord God of Israel. And immediately he answered: this indeed was commanded in the Law, but on account of the hardness of your heart.

This the Lord more fully pursues in the Gospel: But whoever, except for the cause of fornication, unjustly puts away his wife, iniquity will cover his garment, that is, the body with which the soul is clothed, says the Lord of hosts: that in that in which he sinned, in that very thing he should be punished. Wherefore, this little question being resolved, he presses and repeats what he had said above: Keep your spirit, and do not despise, or the keeping of your spirit, or certainly the wife, if she is poor or unlovely. This we have expounded specially, according to the book of Ezra, concerning the forsaken wives: this others think is said more generally against those who plunder the goods of others, and, unjustly amassing riches, dare to offer gifts to God, which he says he can by no means accept, hindered by the tears of those who have been despoiled, and by weeping and groaning, and that this place agrees with that testimony: Honor God from your righteous labors.

But they also insert this meaning: that those who, on account of the loss of household goods, and the death of children, and shipwreck, and the other things that pertain to the damage of worldly affairs, turn to weeping, and give themselves wholly to lamentation and groaning: not with strength of mind, and hope in God, and the rewards of things to come, despising all things: even if they direct a prayer to God, it is not received by him, because they are disfigured by lamentations unbecoming and unsuited to a man. But what follows: Because the Lord has testified between you and the wife of your youth, or of your adolescence, whom you have despised: and she is your partner, and the wife of your pact, or covenant; and no other has made you: and the remnants of your spirit, they interpret thus: that they call the wife of youth the natural understanding, and the law written in the heart, which is implanted in all men.

Whence also the Gentiles, not having the law of God, do the things that are of the Law. And of this wife it is proclaimed in Proverbs: A wife is joined to a man by God; and we are bidden to drink of our own waters and fountains: and let no one be a partaker in the drinking, and let us rejoice with the wife of our youth. This wife impels even the unbelieving to say: God judge, and God see (Judges vii, 15): and I myself permit all things to be judged between me and you, of whom also Ecclesiastes speaks: And live your life with the woman whom you have loved, all the days of your vanity, which are given to you under the sun. This wife is the residue of our spirit, because she is always joined to our understanding: and if she withdraws from us, we straightway offend God, and our impiety covers us.

Whence again it is urged: Keep your spirit, not the flesh, in which those who are cannot please God, not the soul: for the animal man does not receive the things that are of the Spirit; but the spirit: because the Spirit intercedes for us with unspeakable groanings. (Verse 17.) You have wearied the Lord with your words, and you said: In what have we wearied him? In that you say: everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and such please him: or else, where is the God of judgment? The Septuagint: You who have provoked the Lord with your words: and you said, in what have we provoked you? In that you say, everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and in these things he is well pleased with himself; and where is the God of justice? This passage the seventy-second Psalm pursues more fully, whose beginning is: How good is God to Israel, to those who are of a right heart!

But as for me, my feet were almost moved: my steps had well-nigh slipped: For I was jealous of the wicked, seeing the peace of sinners: For there is no regard to their death, and there is strength in their affliction. They are not in the labor of men, and shall not be scourged with men. And then: And I said, therefore have I justified my heart in vain, and washed my hands among the innocent.

Therefore the people, having returned from Babylon, and seeing all the nations round about, and the very servants of the idols of Babylon, abounding in riches, thriving in body, possessing all the things that are reckoned good in this world; while they themselves, who have the knowledge of God, are covered with squalor, hunger, and servitude, are scandalized and say: There is no providence in human affairs, all things are carried along by uncertain chance, nor are they governed by the judgment of God; rather evil things please him, and good things displease him: or certainly, if God judges all things, where is his equitable and just judgment?

Such a question the unbelieving mind of those to come raises daily against God, and when it sees the wicked powerful, and the humble saints abounding in all things, while these do not have even the things necessary for sustenance; and sometimes, with deaf ears and blind eyes, and afflicted in every part of their members with ulcers and infirmity, such as in the Gospel Lazarus is read of, who at the gate of the rich man clothed in purple desired to sustain his needy soul with the crumbs that fall from the leavings of the tables; while the rich man is of such fierceness and cruelty that man has no pity on man, whose case even the tongue of a dog pities—not understanding the time of judgment, nor that those things are true goods which are everlasting, they say: Evil men please him, and where is the God of judgment?

(Verse 1.) Behold I send my angel, and he shall prepare the way before my face: and presently the ruler whom you seek shall come to his temple, and the angel of the testament whom you desire. LXX: Behold I will send my angel, and he shall prepare the way before my face: and suddenly the Lord whom you seek shall come to his temple, and the angel of justice whom you desire. This the Lord interpreted in the Gospel concerning John the Baptist, saying: This is he of whom it is written: Behold I send my angel before thy face, and he shall prepare thy way before me; nor did he use the same words which the Seventy interpreters translated. Mark the evangelist also, weaving together two testimonies, of Malachi and of Isaiah, under the speech of one prophet, began thus: The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: Behold I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way.

This, though in other words, we read in Malachi. But what follows: The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths, is spoken by Isaiah the prophet: and immediately he expounds concerning whom each testimony is spoken: There was, he says, John in the wilderness, baptizing, and preaching the baptism of repentance, for the remission of sins. But the evangelists also interpreted the prophecy of the prophets concerning John, and though they agree in sense, they differ in words. For instead of what the Seventy translated: Make straight the paths of our God, Mark and Luke said: Make straight his paths. But John says: Make straight the way of the Lord.

From which it is clear that the apostles, and the evangelists, and the Lord Savior himself, did not follow the authority of the Seventy interpreters, which those who have knowledge of the Hebrew language do not need; but translated from the Hebrew what they read, not concerned with the syllables and points of the words, provided the truth of the meanings be conveyed. That indeed they did this in many places we have shown, and especially in the book which we entitled, Of the Best Kind of Translating, it is proved by many testimonies together. This therefore which is said: Behold I send my angel and he shall prepare the way before my face, is spoken from the person of Christ, in that he sent John into the desert of Judaea to preach the baptism of repentance, for the remission of sins.

But what follows: And presently the ruler whom you seek shall come to his temple, and the angel of the testament whom you desire, he speaks thus of himself as if of another, according to the custom of the Scriptures. And there is no doubt that this Ruler is the Savior, who is the Creator of all things, and is called the angel of the testament, and the Angel of great counsel. But others think that what is said: Behold I send my angel and he shall prepare the way before my face, is spoken from the person of the Father; and they understand what follows: Presently the ruler whom you seek shall come to his temple, and the angel of the testament whom you desire, to be spoken by him concerning the Lord the Savior. Now John prepares the way, and makes straight the paths of our God in the hearts of believers, in which, because of their perversity and unbelief, God could not previously walk.

And they interpret the temple either as the Church, or as each one of the believers within the Church: Be built up as spiritual houses, a holy priesthood: offering spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And of those who have believed: Know you not that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? The Jews understand what is said: Behold I send my angel, as spoken of the prophet Elijah, and what follows: Presently the ruler whom you seek shall come to his temple; and the angel of the testament whom you desire, they refer to ηλειμμένον, that is, their Christ, whom they say is to come in the last time. But I marvel how the outcome of events does not teach them the truth. For what temple of his own will the ruler find, when it has been destroyed even to its foundations, or if it is to be built by another before Christ comes, what more will their Christ do, since everything has been restored by another?

Our Lord in the Gospel, interpreting the prophet Elijah as John the Baptist, says: If you will receive it, he is Elijah who is to come, concerning whom also this same prophet, whom we have now been discussing, writes at the end: Behold I send you Elijah the prophet, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come (Below iv, 5). But how Elijah is John, he gave us a way of understanding, by mentioning that he came in the virtue and spirit of Elijah. (Verse 2, and following.) Behold he cometh, saith the Lord of hosts, and who shall be able to think of the day of his coming? And who shall stand to see him? For he is like a refining fire, and like the fuller's herb. And he shall sit refining and purifying as it were silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and shall refine them as gold, and as silver: and they shall offer sacrifices to the Lord in righteousness.

And the sacrifice of Judah and of Jerusalem shall please the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in ancient years. And I will come to you in judgment, and I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, and adulterers, and perjurers, and those who defraud the hireling of his wages, the widows and the orphans, and oppress the stranger: and have not feared me, saith the Lord of hosts. For I am the Lord, and I change not. LXX: Behold he shall come, saith the Lord Almighty, and who shall endure the day of his entrance? Or who shall be able to bear it, that he may look upon him?

For he entereth as the fire of the smelting furnace, and as the herb of those who wash: and he shall sit refining and purifying as silver, and as gold, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and shall smelt them as gold and as silver, and they shall offer sacrifices to the Lord in righteousness: and the sacrifice of Judah and of Jerusalem shall please the Lord, as in former days, and as in prior years. And I will draw near to you in judgment, and I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, and against adulterers, and against those who swear falsely in my name. And those who defraud the hirelings of their wages, and oppress by power the widows, and strike the orphans, and pervert the judgment of the stranger, and who do not fear me, saith the Lord Almighty: because I am the Lord your God, and I change not.

Above we read of a question raised against the Lord by those who say: Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and such please him, or certainly if they displease him, where is the God of judgment? That is, where is the truth of justice? To resolve which the word of the Lord answers: I will send my angel, who shall prepare my way, and the ruler whom you seek shall come to his temple, who is the judge of truth, of whom it is said in the Psalm: Give to the king thy judgment, O God: and thy justice to the king's son. For the Father judgeth no man; but hath given all judgment to the Son.

And he is the angel of the testament whom you seek, whom evil things do not please, who accepteth no man's person in judgment, who is changed by no mercy, nor by any severity: For the cup in the hand of the Lord is full of pure wine mixed, and he hath poured out of this into that, that is, mercy tempers justice, and justice tempers mercy. This one, therefore, shall come presently and swiftly to his temple, that is, the Church. And who shall be able to think of the day of his coming? If, because of the power of his majesty, no one can think of it, who shall be able to bear it? And who shall stand to see him, that is, who shall be able, with bleary and dim eyes, to behold him in his own brightness, who is the sun of justice, and in whose wings is healing?

He himself shall come like a refining fire, and like the fuller's herb (below, 2): For a fire shall burn in his sight, and a mighty tempest round about him. Then he shall call the heaven from above, and the earth, that he may judge his people, rivers of fire shall draw before him, sweeping away all sinners. And the Lord is called fire, and a consuming fire, that he may burn our wood, hay, and stubble. And not only fire; but also the fuller's herb, which in Hebrew is called BORITH (בורית), and the Seventy render it πόαν κενήν, going forth before him. His throne a flame of fire. His wheel a burning fire: A river of fire flowed forth from before him. It drew, says Jerome, all sinners, wrapping them in flames. That is, they translate it as fuller's herb.

He himself is a smelting fire to those who sin grievously, and a consuming one; but to those who commit light sins, fuller's herb, so that it may restore cleanness to the washed, according to that which is written in Isaiah: The Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Sion, and will cleanse the blood from their midst, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning. Those who have filth need the spirit of judgment, that they may be washed; those who are full of blood, the spirit of burning, that the blood which is smeared upon them outwardly may be taken away. And he will sit smelting and cleansing as silver, so that according to Ezechiel, whatever in our gold and silver—that is, in sense and speech—is mixed with brass, tin, iron, and lead, may be melted down in the Lord's furnace, so that pure gold may remain, and silver.

Whence also the Lord speaks in the Gospel: I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled; and he will purify the sons of Levi. For it is time that judgment begin at the house of God. And elsewhere it is written: Begin at my sanctuary. By the sons of Levi understand the whole priestly dignity. But if the priests must be purged and refined, so that pure gold and silver remain, what must be said of the rest? When they have been cleansed and refined, then they will offer to the Lord just sacrifices, and their sacrifice will be pleasing, which they offer for Judah and Jerusalem, that is, for those who confess the Lord and behold his peace in mind, as in the days of old, and as in ancient years; so that as in the beginning they pleased God, so after sin and repentance they may begin to please him, when they have been purged of every filth of sins.

And I will come near to you, he says, in judgment, and I will be a swift witness. How great is the dread of judgment, when he himself is both witness and judge. He is witness against all sorcerers and adulterers, for these crimes are committed in secret, and are therefore brought forth into the open, lest they lie hidden long. After sorcerers are placed adulterers; after adulterers, perjurers; after perjurers, those who defraud the hireling of his wages, and refuse to render what is due for the labor of his work. Widows and orphans too are understood to be defrauded and oppressed, along with the stranger and the foreigner, or certainly the catechumen, who has not yet become a citizen in the city of Christ. And if they have not done all these things, this crime alone suffices for their punishment, that they did not fear the Lord.

Let us by no means think perjury a light sin, nor the withholding of wages from the laborer, nor defrauding the widow and the orphan, nor oppressing the stranger and the foreigner: these are compared to sorcery, poisoning, and adultery. We understand these things both according to the history and according to the tropology, so that what was said then to the princes of the Jews, may now be said to the princes of the Churches. And as for what follows: I am the Lord and I change not, he places this because he had said above: he is like a smelting fire, and like fuller's herb, lest we think he changes the nature of his divinity, since for our sake he is called either angel, or fire, or BORITH. Verse 6. And you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed. For from the days of your fathers you have departed from my ordinances, and have not kept them.

LXX: And you, sons of Jacob, have not departed from the sins of your fathers, you have turned aside from my ordinances, and have not kept them. He had said above: I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, and adulterers, and perjurers, and those who defraud the hireling of his wages, widows and orphans, and oppress the stranger, and have not feared me, says the Lord of hosts. And declaring himself a just judge, that he accepts no person in judgment, he added: I am the Lord and I change not. And the sense is: You, through sorceries, adulteries, perjuries, frauds, and violence, change daily; I am changed by no variation of persons in judgment.

And though I confess myself a severe and just judge, O sons of Jacob, yet you are not consumed by the diversity of torments, according to that which is written in Jeremiah: In vain have I struck your children, you have not received discipline; nor do you do this recently, nor once, so that you might deserve pardon for an error, but you will have hereditary impiety, departing from my ordinances from the days of your fathers, and not keeping what I commanded. But let us understand the sons of Jacob, according to the anagogical sense, of the supplanter and one who seizes his brother's birthright, who do not depart from the sins of their fathers, and turn aside from the ordinances, and do not keep what has been commanded, as those who, though established in the Church, do not depart from vices, and assume for themselves a false name of Christian religion. (Verse 7. Ff.) Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. And you have said, In what shall we return?

Shall a man afflict God, since you afflict me? And you have said: In what have we afflicted you? In tithes and firstfruits. You are cursed with want, and you have afflicted me, the whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, and let there be food in my house, and test me in this, says the Lord: whether I will not open to you the floodgates of heaven, and pour out upon you blessing even to abundance. And I will rebuke for your sakes the devourer, and it shall not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine be barren in the field, says the Lord of hosts. And all the nations shall call you blessed: for you shall be a delightful land, says the Lord of hosts. LXX: Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord Almighty. Does a man supplant God, that you have supplanted me? And you have said: In what have we supplanted you?

Because the tithes and firstfruits are with you, and you, seeing, look on, and you supplant me: the year is fulfilled, and you have brought the fruits into the treasuries, and there shall be plunder in your houses. Return therefore in this, says the Lord Almighty: Unless I open to you the floodgates of heaven, and pour out upon you my blessing until it be sufficient, and I distribute foods to you, and I do not destroy the fruit of your land, and your vine is not weakened in the field, says the Lord Almighty: and all nations shall call you blessed, because you shall be of a desirable land, says the Lord Almighty.

And at the beginning we said that the prophet Malachi should be understood as Ezra the priest; and that all things which are written in his history are also contained in this volume; and now we say that in his times and Nehemiah's (whom it is clear lived at the same time), there was a most grievous famine, and on account of the famine a sedition, and the poor, compelled by necessity, sold their sons and daughters, and all their possessions, and their whole substance. Accordingly they say: Our sons and our daughters are very many, let us take grain in exchange for them, and let us eat and live. And there were those who said: Let us mortgage our fields and vineyards and our houses, and let us receive grain in the famine.

And I was very angry, says Ezra, when I heard their outcry according to these words: my heart deliberated within me, and I rebuked the nobles and the magistrates, and so forth: In the time of famine, therefore, the price of grain was so very dear that they were compelled to sell their own children, and those who had little, and those who had gathered much grain into their barns, out of necessity or because of the great price, refused to give the tithes to the Levites, who had no portion in the inheritance of Judea; but the firstfruits and tithes were their inheritance. And lest this be thought to be our own invention, let us set forth Ezra's testimony: And I knew, he says, that the portions of the Levites had not been given, and each of the Levites, and of the singers, and of those who ministered, had fled to his own region: and I pleaded the cause against the magistrates, and said: Why have we forsaken the house of God?

And I gathered them, and made them stand at their posts. And all Judah brought the tithes of grain, wine, and oil into the storehouses, and we set over the storehouses Selemiah the priest, and Sadoc the scribe (Neh. Xiii, 10 ff.), and so on. We have heard Ezra's history; now let us repeat the prophet's words, examining more carefully whether prophecy and history agree. When it is said: Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord Almighty, it is plain that those he exhorts to return had departed from the Lord. And see the mercy of the Lord: he promises like for like, that in the measure they have measured, it may be measured back to them. And as it is written in Leviticus: If you walk contrary to me, I also will walk contrary to you in perverse fury. So now too he exhorts the people to return, that he himself also may return to them.

They, not understanding that they had departed from the Lord, ask impudently: In what shall we return? And they say: For when did we depart, that we should rightly be compelled to return? The Lord answers: Shall a man afflict God, since you afflict me? The Hebrew word which is written HAJECBA (היקבע), the LXX translated "if he supplants"; for which Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion put "if he defrauds," so that the sense is: Does a man defraud God, since you have defrauded me? And indeed, according to the order of the history, because the people did not give the tithes and firstfruits to the Levites, the Lord says he himself sustains the fraud, whose ministers, driven by hunger and want, abandoned the temple. For if he is visited in prison through others, and the sick person is received, and the hungry and thirsty receive food and drink, why should he not receive tithes in his own ministers, and if they are not given, be himself deprived of his portion?

This word we said, HAJECBA, is interpreted in the tongue of the Syrians and Chaldeans as "if he afflicts": whence also we, many years ago, so translated it, referring the writing more to the mystery of the Lord's Passion, in which men crucified God, than to tithes and firstfruits (by which he is visited in prison, and the sick person is received, and the hungry and thirsty receive food and drink). Let the prudent reader inquire how our translation agrees with what follows: In tithes and firstfruits, and see whether we can say this: That you might crucify me, that you might lay wicked hands upon your God, you did this after long premeditation of many things, by withholding tithes and firstfruits, I do not say from my priests and Levites, but from me, who commanded them to be given through Moses. Let this be said by us concerning one word, leaving the judgment of understanding to the reader's discretion; now let us follow the order of the prophecy.

Because you have not given me tithes and firstfruits, therefore you are cursed with famine and want, and you supplant me, or defraud and deprive me, the whole nation. For "nation," which is written in Hebrew AGGOI (הגוי), the Seventy translated "year," ἔτος for ἔθνος. And the sense is: Behold, the year is completed, and you have brought nothing into my treasuries, but into your own barns. And instead of the tithes and firstfruits, which were small, if they had been given by you, you have lost the fertility of your possessions and all abundance of crops. But that you may know that I am angered because you have defrauded me of my portion, I exhort you and admonish you to bring the tithes into the storehouses, that is, into the treasuries of the temple, and let the priests and Levites who minister to me have food: and test me, whether I will not pour out such rains that the floodgates of heaven may be believed to be opened. And I will pour out upon you blessing even to abundance.

The word "pouring out" shows the name of bounteousness. But it can happen that, though the fields are watered by rains, there is indeed fertility; yet the locust or the caterpillar, or the blight or the canker-worm may destroy it, and the labors of men perish; therefore he joins and says: And I will rebuke for your sakes the devourer, namely the locust, and the rest which we have mentioned: and it shall not destroy the fruit of your land. The vine also will fill the winepresses, and all the surrounding nations will marvel at the fertility of your land, so much that all will desire to dwell in it, and you will be an example to all nations by the abundance of all things.

What we have said about tithes and firstfruits, which were once given by the people to the priests and Levites, understand also of the peoples in the Church, to whom it is commanded not only to give tithes and firstfruits, but also to sell all that they have and give to the poor, and follow the Lord the Savior. But if we are unwilling to do this, let us at least imitate the beginnings of the Jews, that we give a part of everything to the poor, and pay the honor due to priests and Levites. Whence the Apostle also says: Honor widows who are truly widows; and the presbyter is to be honored with double honor, especially he who labors in the word and doctrine of God. Whoever does not do this is convicted of defrauding and supplanting God, and is cursed with want of all things: so that he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who sows in blessings shall gather fruits abundantly in blessings.

If at any time famine and want, and lack of all things, oppress the world, let us know that this comes down from the wrath of God, who says that he is defrauded in the poor, if they do not receive alms, and deprived of his portion. We can also interpret tithes and firstfruits thus: If anyone learned and trained in the Law of God is able to instruct others, he ought not to attribute this to his own prudence and the talent he possesses; but let him give thanks first to God, who gives all things; then to his priests and teachers, from whom he was taught. For if he does not give thanks, but claims the knowledge for himself, he will be cursed with want.

But if, understanding that God is the giver, and giving thanks to those through whom he was taught by God, he humbles himself, and brings food into the storehouse of God, that is, ministers the nourishment of Holy Scripture to the peoples in the Church: at once the floodgates of heaven will be opened over him, and spiritual rain will be poured out, and God will command his clouds to rain a shower upon him, and he will enjoy an abundance of all things, and he will rebuke for his sake also the devourer, namely the contrary powers, and his labor will bring forth fruit, and he will attain to that which is written: Blessed is he who speaks in the ears of hearers. He will also lift up his eyes, and see the regions, for they are already white for harvest: and he will gather fruits unto eternal life. Nor shall the vine be barren in his field—he who says in the Gospel: I am the vine.

And he who speaks through the prophet: I planted you a fruit-bearing vine, wholly true; and he will attain such blessedness (through humble confession, and thanksgiving to God, and to the teachers of his Church) that all nations will call him blessed, and desire to dwell in his land and his doctrine, those who have heard him disputing in the Church. (Verse 15. Ff.) Your words have prevailed against me, says the Lord, and you have said: What have we spoken against you? You have said, He who serves God is in vain, and what profit is it, that we have kept his precepts, and that we have walked sorrowful before the Lord of hosts? Now therefore we call the arrogant blessed, since they that work wickedness are built up: and they have tempted God, and are delivered. LXX: You have made your words heavy against me, says the Lord. And you have said, In what have we spoken against you?

And you have said, He who serves God is in vain: and what more, that we have kept his commandments, and that we have walked as suppliants before the face of the Lord Almighty? And now we call strangers blessed, and all who do iniquity are built up, and they have resisted God, and are delivered. He had said before: You have made the Lord labor with your words, and you said, In what have we made him labor? In this, when you said: Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and such please him: or certainly, Where is the God of judgment?

Now he repeats the same more fully: For the people who seemed, upon returning from Babylon, to have knowledge of God, and to observe the law, and to understand their sin, and to offer victims for sin, to render tithes, to observe the sabbath, and the other things which are commanded by the Law of God, seeing all the surrounding nations abounding in all things, and themselves set in want, and famine, and misery, were scandalized at every point, and said: What profit is it to me, that I worship the one true God, that I abhor idols, and, pricked in conscience for my sins, walk sorrowful before God? Which passage, as we said above, the seventy-second Psalm pursues more fully and at greater length.

Whence the prophet, who is a spiritual physician, heals all wounds, and attests that words of blasphemy recoil upon the Creator, and says in the person of God: Your words have prevailed against me, or have grown heavy: for according to Zachariah, iniquity sits upon a talent of lead: and what is said against God is weighed down by the heavy mass of blasphemies. They, not understanding their most grievous words and their own blasphemy, ask: What have we spoken against you? To whom the Lord answers: You have said: He who serves God is in vain, and what profit is it that we have kept his precepts? In the present age they demand a reward for their service of God, and therefore they do not receive it. And that we have walked sorrowful before the Lord, according to that which is written in the Psalms: All the day I went about mourning. We call the arrogant blessed, therefore, who are proud against God, and hurl impious words of blasphemy.

Since indeed they are built up, and after their crimes and blasphemies enjoy all prosperity. They have tempted God, or resisted God, and are delivered. They think safety and happiness in the present age, and therefore they are deceived by errors. We can understand these things also of the heretics Marcion and Valentinus, and the rest, who do not receive the Old Testament, and speak against the Creator of the world, that they prosper in their impiety, and have many companions in crime: at whom those who persevere in the Church, and are scandalized, not knowing the causes of God's judgment, weave together the words of the prophet.

Verse 16. Then they that feared God spoke, each one with his neighbour. LXX: These things spoke they that fear the Lord, each one to his neighbour. According to the Hebrews it must be understood thus: while those blasphemers were speaking of judgment, those who fear God spoke among themselves, that the retribution of good or evil deeds is not in the present and brief age, but in the future and eternal one; and that man cannot know the judgments of God, nor dispute about His equity and justice; and the other things that a just man ought to say to a just man. Nor does he say what they spoke; but from what follows: Then they that feared God spoke, each one with his neighbour, we ought to understand that those who feared God spoke the things that are contained in the words of all the Scriptures.

According to the LXX, however, εξαίρετον must be read, and with emphatic voice, so that we say: These things spoke they that fear the Lord, each one to his neighbour: that is, they who idly boast and say, What profit is it that we have kept His precepts, and have walked sorrowful before the Lord? For if they truly feared the Lord, they would not say these things.

Verse 17. And the Lord gave heed, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that fear the Lord, and think upon His name. And they shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day that I make, as a peculiar possession, and I will spare them, as a man spares his son that serves him. And you shall return, and shall see what is between the just and the wicked, and between him that serves God and him that serves Him not. LXX: And the Lord gave heed, and heard, and wrote a book of remembrance in His sight for them that fear the Lord, and reverence His name. And they shall be mine, says the Lord Almighty, in the day that I make, as a possession of acquisition, and I will choose them as a man chooses his son who serves him: and you shall return, and shall see what is between the just and the unjust, and between him that serves God and him that does not serve Him.

When the just, that is, they that feared God, were speaking thus, each one with his neighbour—they who would neither hear nor speak the words of blasphemy—the Lord gave heed and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that fear Him and think upon His name: so that when the day of judgment comes, He may render punishments to the blasphemers and rewards to those who feared Him. Now the book that was written is that of which we read in Daniel: The thrones were set, and the books were opened. And they that fear the Lord shall be to the Lord of hosts a peculiar possession, in the day when the time of judgment shall come. Instead of "peculiar possession" is read in the Hebrew SGOLLA (סגלה), which Aquila translated περιούσιον, and the others περιποίησιν. Therefore they that fear the Lord, who spoke with their neighbour, and answered the words of blasphemy, shall be in the day of judgment as a peculiar possession, and He will spare them: because every man is under sin.

Or He will choose them, as a man is wont to choose his son who serves him. In which there is a twofold affection, both of piety toward a son, and of service toward a servant. And then you who now blaspheme and say, What profit is it that we have kept His precepts, and walked sorrowful before the Lord? From the election and blessedness of those others, you shall recognize your own misery, and being turned to repentance, you shall see what is between the just and the wicked, and between him that serves God and him that serves Him not.

(Verse 1 ff.) For behold, the day shall come, burning like a furnace, and all the proud, and all that do wickedness, shall be stubble: and the day that comes shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

And unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise, and healing in its wings, and you shall go forth, and leap like calves out of the herd. And you shall tread down the wicked, when they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet, in the day that I make, says the Lord of hosts. LXX: For behold, a day comes burning like an oven, and it shall burn them up, and all foreigners, and all that do iniquity, shall be as stubble: the day that comes shall set them on fire, says the Lord Almighty, and there shall be left in them neither root nor branch. And unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise, and healing in its wings, and you shall go forth, and leap like calves released from bonds, and you shall trample down the unjust, and they shall be ashes under your feet, in the day that I make, says the Lord Almighty.

For the wicked have made me weary with their words, and have said: Every one that does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and such please Him: and, vain is he that serves God: and, what profit is it that we have kept His precepts, and walked sorrowful before the Lord of hosts (at the end)?

And against their rash words spoke those who feared God, and each one with his neighbour discussed the things that pertain to the fear of God: the Lord gave heed and heard, and a book of remembrance was written for those who fear the Lord, and think upon His name, and when the day comes, He promises to hold them as a peculiar possession, and to spare them as a man spares his son who serves him; and He impresses it more fully, and says: Behold, the day shall come, that is, the day of judgment, which shall be light to the saints, and darkness to sinners; and that day itself shall be burning like a furnace, or an oven, so that all the wicked shall be turned into stubble, and shall be consumed by the burning heat of the furnaces. And when it has set them ablaze and consumed them, it will leave in them no root or shoot of wickedness at all. This is said of what the wicked shall suffer in the day of judgment.

On the contrary, it is said what shall befall those who fear the name of God: And unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise: who shall judge all things truly: and shall suffer neither good nor evil, neither virtues nor vices, to remain hidden. And healing shall be in His wings, that He may carry on His shoulders those healed through penance, according to what is written in Deuteronomy: Spreading His wings He took them up, and carried them upon His shoulders. Then they shall go forth who are now shut up in the world as in a prison, and shall leap like calves out of the herd, or like calves freed from their bonds. Whence the Apostle says: I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ (Philipp. I, 23), that he may go forth and leap like a calf freed from its bonds, and like a victim of the Lord.

Nor is He content with this end of joy alone; but He shall tread down the wicked, when they shall have become ashes. Whence also there is made for the just this imprecation: But may God crush Satan under your feet swiftly. Abraham spoke to the Lord, feeling himself, in comparison with the divine majesty, to be but ashes: I am earth and ashes; and therefore he shall see the sun of righteousness, and shall rest among the midst of its portions, and being carried by it shall be lifted up to heavenly things. But he who through pride said: I will set my throne above the stars, I will be like the Most High, shall be brought down to the earth, and shall be as ashes under the feet of the saints, when the day of the Lord who judges shall come.

Verse 4. Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded him in Horeb, for all Israel, the precepts and judgments. LXX likewise. There will be a just retribution of merits in the future, when the flame, devouring the root and shoot of the proud, shall consume and burn them up, and unto them that fear the Lord shall arise the sun of righteousness, and healing in its wings. Therefore remember the law of Moses my servant, which I gave him on mount Horeb, which is Sinai, for all Israel, the precepts and judgments.

Since the Apostle says: We know that the law is spiritual: and blessed David: Open my eyes, and I will consider the wonders of Thy law: and since all spiritually ate the heavenly manna, and all the people of Israel drank of the same spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ: they who believe in Christ ought spiritually to keep the precepts of the law, which He gave in HOREB (חרב), which is interpreted "dryness," by which the moisture of all vices is dried up, and, under the rays of the sun of righteousness, the flow of lust is dried up. Now the Lord spoke to all Israel, who with the perception of the mind beholds God, and of whom it is said in the Gospel: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Verse 5. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the sons, and the heart of the sons to their fathers: lest perhaps I come and strike the earth with a curse. LXX: Behold, I will send you Elijah the Tishbite, before the great and glorious day of the Lord come: who shall turn the heart of the father to the son, and the heart of a man to his neighbour; lest perhaps, coming, I strike the earth utterly. After Moses (whose commands we have taught must be spiritually kept), He says that Elijah is to be sent: signifying in Moses the Law, in Elijah, prophecy, as Abraham said to a certain purple-clad rich man: They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And the Lord and Saviour, transfigured on the mountain, had speaking with Him Moses and Elijah in white garments, who told Him what He was to suffer in Jerusalem.

For the Law and the whole chorus of the prophets preach the passion of Christ. Therefore before the day of judgment comes, and the Lord strikes the earth with a curse, or utterly, or suddenly, as the LXX translated: for this is what ἄρδην signifies, the Lord will send in Elijah (which is interpreted "my God," and is from the town of Tishbi, which signifies conversion and repentance) the whole chorus of the prophets, who shall turn the heart of the fathers to the sons—namely, of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and of all the patriarchs—so that their descendants may believe in the Lord the Saviour, in whom they too believed: for Abraham saw the day of the Lord, and was glad: or the heart of the father to the son, that is, the heart of God to every one who has received the spirit of adoption. And the heart of the sons to their fathers, that Jews and Christians, who now disagree among themselves, may agree in equal devotion to Christ.

Whence it is said to the apostles, who make the seed-bed throughout the whole world the assertors of the sentence of the Gospel, who interpret Moses and Elijah as the two witnesses appointed for the day of the Lord, and destined to fight against Antichrist. It is known, however, that most other Fathers understand this of Elijah and Enoch. Here meanwhile one reads "especially" rather badly, instead of "spiritually."