Commentary on Hosea

(Verse 1.)

The word of the Lord that came to Osee the son of Beeri. The Septuagint likewise. The Word of the Lord, who in the beginning was with God the Father, and the Word was God, was made to come to Osee the son of Beeri, so that God might make even the prophet God, the Saviour saying: If he called them gods to whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken: whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, you say, You blaspheme, because I said, I am the Son of God. So that just as God makes gods, and stands in the assembly of the gods, and judges gods in the midst; and although he himself is the true light which enlightens every man coming into this world, yet he says to the apostles: You are the light of the world, so too the Saviour himself may make his own prophet a saviour.

For Osee, in our language, means "saviour": which name was also held by Joshua the son of Nun, before his name was changed by God. For he was not called (as is wrongly read in the Greek and Latin codices) Ause, which is altogether unintelligible; but Osee, that is, saviour; and to his name was added "Lord," so that he might be called "the saviour of the Lord." This saviour, then, is the son of Beeri, that is, "of my wells"—the wells which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob dug, and which the Philistines were always trying to fill in. Between a well and a pool, that is, a cistern, there is this difference: that a well has perpetual waters, flowing from a living spring. A cistern, which merely cools, holds waters that are external and brought in from elsewhere. Hence through the prophet Jeremiah God says: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have hewn out for themselves cisterns, which cannot hold water.

Concerning this fountain the psalmist cries out to God: With thee is the fountain of life, and in thy light we shall see light. Hence some think that Beeri is interpreted "my light"; but the former translation is the true one. In the days of Ozias, Joatham, Achaz, and Ezechias, kings of Judah; and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joas, king of Israel. The Septuagint likewise. Azarias, who is also called Ozias, of the stock of David, reigned in Jerusalem over the two tribes which were called Judah, for fifty-two years; to whom succeeded in the kingdom his son Joatham, who himself also reigned sixteen years; after whom his son Achaz reigned likewise sixteen years. After Achaz his son Ezechias reigned twenty-nine years, in whose sixth year the ten tribes, which were called Israel, were taken captive by Salmanasar, king of the Chaldeans, and settled in the mountains of the Medes.

From which it is clear that, while Osee, Isaiah, Joel, Amos, Abdias, Jonah, and Micah—who were his contemporaries—were prophesying, the kingdom of the ten tribes came to an end, which from the first king Jeroboam down to the last, Osee, endured for two hundred fifty years. Now at the time when Ozias began to reign over Judah, Jeroboam, the great-grandson of Jehu, was reigning over Israel, to whom the Lord had promised that his offspring would reign to the fourth generation, because he had struck down two wicked kings, of Judah and Israel. We say this in order to show you briefly that the prophet Osee prophesied both before the captivity of Israel and after its captivity, and saw things both near at hand and present and past, and foretold what was to come, and mourned over what was impending, and, for the correction of Judah, unfolded again things past—which we shall try to establish in the prophet himself according to the history.

Ozias is interpreted "the strength of the Lord"; Joatham, "the consummation and perfection of the Lord"; Achaz, "strength"; Ezechias, "the dominion of the Lord." These reigned over the people of Judah, whose name means "confession." But over Israel, which had made idols for itself and had been separated from the people of God, reigned Jeroboam, who is interpreted χρονισμὸς, that is, "temporality," or "delay": because he loved the world, and thought that to tarry long in it was everlasting life, delighting not at all in things to come, but in things present.

Verse 2. The beginning of the speaking of the Lord in Osee. The Septuagint: The beginning of the word of the Lord to Osee. Because, as we said above, in the title of the other prophets also there are set before them Ozias, Joatham, Achaz, and Ezechias, in whose reigns they prophesied: therefore he now says that among all these it was to Osee first that the Lord spoke, and afterward to the rest. But it is one thing for the Lord to speak in Osee, another to speak to Osee. In Osee, he does not speak to Osee himself, but through Osee to others; but speaking to Osee, it is signified that the discourse is addressed to himself. Others, however, do not wish Osee to have been the very first of all the prophets, from the fact that it is said: The beginning of the speaking of the Lord in Osee; but they hold that what follows is shown to have been the first thing the Lord spoke to Osee.

And the Lord said to Osee: Go, take to thyself a wife of fornications. The Septuagint: And the Lord said to Osee: Go, take to thyself a wife of fornication. The Hebrew word ZANUNIM (זנונים) does not mean "a fornicatress" and "fornication," as many suppose, but sounds "many fornications." From this it is shown that this woman, whom the prophet takes as a wife, fornicated not once but very often, so that the more sordid she is, the more patient is shown to be the prophet who took such a wife. And what is added: And children of fornications: for the land, fornicating, shall fornicate away from the Lord. The Septuagint: And children of fornication: for the land, fornicating, shall fornicate after the Lord. It is understood ἀπὸ κοινοῦ: Take to thyself a wife of fornications, and take to thyself children of fornications.

Both can be understood, that he receives the children previously conceived in fornication by the fornicatress, and that he himself begets children from the harlot, who are for that reason to be called children of fornication, because they were begotten of a harlot. Nor is the prophet to be blamed, meanwhile as we follow the history, if he converted a harlot to chastity, but rather he is to be praised for having made a good woman out of a bad one. For he who remains good is not himself polluted, if he be joined to one who is evil; but he who is evil is turned to good, if he follows the examples of the good.

From which we understand that the prophet did not lose his chastity by being joined to a harlot; but that the harlot took on the chastity which she did not have before: especially since the blessed Osee did this not for the sake of luxury, nor of lust, nor by his own will, but obeyed the command of God, so that what we read of him carnally, we might prove to have been done spiritually in God. He who took to himself the Synagogue, that is, the people of the Jews serving fornication and lust. To whom the Lord speaks through Ezechiel: And thou, harlot, hear the word of the Lord: For her breasts were broken in Egypt; and she wallowed in blood, and had been polluted even to the crown of her head, so that there was no part of her body and members which did not have the stain of turpitude.

Such a one the Lord covered with a mantle, and joined to his embraces, gave her honey and oil and fine flour to eat, and clothed her in most precious garments, put ornaments of jewels on her neck, adorned her ears with gold and most precious stone, gave bracelets also for her arms, that she might use good works. And nevertheless, having spurned such generosity and goodness of her husband, forgetful of her former turpitude, she followed after lovers, Chaldeans and Assyrians and Egyptians, who are men of great flesh. Concerning the type of the Saviour and the Church we said in the little preface, that he took to himself a harlot wife, who had before served idols. But if anyone contentious, and especially of the Gentiles, should refuse to accept this as said figuratively, and should mock the prophet as joined to a harlot, let us set against him that which Greece is wont to praise, and which the schools of philosophers agree in singing.

On what ground do they proclaim that most learned man Xenocrates, who made Polemon, a most luxurious youth, drunk among psaltery-players and flute-girls and unchaste women and crowned with ivy, obedient to wisdom, and changed the most disgraceful youth into the wisest of philosophers? Why do they raise Socrates to the heavens, who transferred Phaedo, from whose name there is a book of Plato, out of a brothel, where because of the cruelty and avarice of his master he served the lust of many, into the Academy? And whatever they answer concerning the masters of philosophy, we refer to the defense of the prophet. These things we have said against the pagans and those who are like the pagans. But for our own people, who nevertheless wish to receive the truth, let us briefly show this, from what is said: For the land, fornicating, shall fornicate away from the Lord, that it is not so much the prophet who was joined to a harlot, as that the whole race of mankind had withdrawn from fellowship with the Lord.

It can also, from the fact that "all the land" is not added, be understood now as Judea, or properly as Samaria and Israel, that is, the ten tribes, which at the time when these things were spoken had withdrawn from the Lord. Verse 3. And he went, and took Gomer the daughter of Debelaim: and she conceived and bore a son. And the Lord said to him: Call his name Jezrael: for yet a little while and I will visit the blood of Jezrael upon the house of Jehu, and I will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease. The Septuagint: And he went, and took Gomer the daughter of Debelaim: and she conceived, and bore a son. And the Lord said to him: Call his name Jezrael: for yet a little while and I will avenge the blood of Jezrael upon the house of Judah: and I will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease.

The prophets so promise many things after ages concerning the coming of Christ and the calling of the Gentiles, that they do not neglect the present time, lest they seem to play games about uncertain and future things rather than teach the assembly, called together for another purpose, about the things that are at hand. And so this Gomer too, daughter of Debelaim, who is taken by Osee as wife, and conceives by him, and bears him a son named Jezrael, which is interpreted "seed of God," in vengeance for whose blood Jehu overthrew the kingdom, or, as the error wrongly holds, Judah—so it must be referred to the calling of the nations, that it corresponds to that time under which he is recorded to have begotten a son.

And lest I delay the reader's eagerness with a long treatise: these two women, of whom one is called Homer [Gomer], and is a harlot, and bears three children, first Jezrael, second a girl who is called Without Mercy, and third a male, who is also called Not My People: and the other woman, who is hired for fifteen pieces of silver, and a homer, and half a homer of barley, and is called an adulteress, are referred to Israel and to Judah, that is, to the ten tribes which were in Samaria under king Jeroboam, who was of Ephraim, and to Judah, who reigned in Jerusalem of the stock of David. These are the two women who in Zechariah are said to have the wings of a hoopoe, or of a kite, or of a heron, and to go into the land of Shinar, where Babylon was founded. These women he signifies under the name of two sisters, Oola and Ooliba; they are shown in the two rods which Ezechiel joins into one rod.

And because we are writing commentaries, not extensive volumes, reserving proper explanations for their own places in each chapter, let us now discuss only the present chapter. Gomer is interpreted τετελεσμένη, that is, consummated and perfect: others think it signifies θώρακας, that is, breastplates. There are those who suspect "measure," or "bitterness," who would be correct if it did not have the letter GIMEL. Debelaim sounds like παλάτας [cakes of pressed figs], of which there is a very great abundance in Palestine, and which Isaiah the prophet commands to be applied to the ulcer of King Ezechias. It is a mass of fat dried figs, which, shaping them in the manner of bricks, they tread and press together so that they may remain unspoiled for a long time.

Therefore Israel too, consummated in fornication and perfect daughter of pleasure, who seems sweet and delightful to those who enjoy her, is taken as wife by Osee in the type of the Lord Saviour: and the first son of God is begotten of her, that is, Jezrael; and this is the metropolis city of the ten tribes, in which Naboth was killed, for whose blood Jehu was raised up, who destroyed the house of Achab and Jezabel. But because Jehu himself also, the avenger of righteous blood, walked in the ways of Jeroboam son of Nabath, who made Israel to fornicate, and set up golden calves in Dan and in Bethel, his kingdom too is said to be destined for overthrow: under whose great-grandson Jeroboam Osee began to prophesy; on whose death his son Zacharias succeeded to the kingdom; whom, in the sixth month of his reign, Sellum, born of another stock, killed.

For which reason it is now said: Yet a little while, and I will visit the blood of Jezrael, that is, the slaughter of my people, upon the royal house of Jehu, which at that time ruled over Israel. Nor is it strange if the house of Jehu is overthrown, since even the kingdom of the house of Israel, that is, of the ten tribes, was to be utterly destroyed not many years later. For from Zacharias son of Jeroboam, whose great-grandfather was Jehu, up to the ninth year of Osee, under whom the ten tribes were led into captivity, forty-nine years are reckoned. And when Zacharias, who was the last of the stock of Jehu, was killed, immediately the Assyrian kings took Reuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh, which were beyond the Jordan; and then many cities of Samaria, and then all of Naphtali, and at last all the remaining tribes.

Instead of Jehu, in the Vulgate Edition "Juda" is read: but this seems to me to have arisen not from a fault of the Seventy interpreters, but from the ignorance of scribes, who not knowing "Jehu," which was less familiar, wrote "Juda." But the type of the seed of God, and the vengeance of his blood, refers to the Lord's Passion, on account of which both the house of Judah and the kingdom of all Israel are said to be destined for overthrow.

Verse 5. And in that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezrael. The Septuagint similarly. When I shall have avenged the blood of Jezrael upon the house of Jehu, and shall have destroyed the kingdom of Israel by the conquering Assyrian, then on that day, and at that time, I will break all the strength of the army of Israel in the valley of Jezrael. We said above that Jezrael, which is now near Maximianopolis, was the metropolis of the kingdom of Samaria, near which are very wide plains, and a valley of immense extent, which stretches more than ten thousand paces. In the battle fought there, Israel, that is, the ten tribes, was slain by the Assyrians—the tribes which, because of Jeroboam of the tribe of Ephraim, who first made a schism in the people, were called Ephraim.

Sometimes, because of Joseph, who was the father of Ephraim, it is called Joseph: sometimes Samaria, which itself was also another metropolis city of the ten tribes, which was later called by Augustus Caesar, Augusta, that is, Σεβαστή, in which the bones of John the Baptist were laid. Therefore after the division of the two tribes and the ten, on account of the very great part of the multitude which followed Jeroboam, the ancient name Israel remained with the ten tribes.

And because of the tribe of Judah, which reigned in Jerusalem, the other tribes that were called Judah's [with it]: and at the same time the truth of the type is unfolded. For just as, on account of the blood of Naboth, which was shed in Jezrael, the house of Achab was destroyed, that the prophecy of Elias might be fulfilled: so on account of the blood of the true Jezrael, that is, the seed of God, the kingdom of the Jews was destroyed. In all the prophets indeed, but especially in Osee, the ten tribes are referred to the heretics, whose multitude is very great: but the two tribes which are called Judah hold the person of the Church, which reigned under the stock of David.

The bow of the heretics, therefore, concerning whom it is written: The children of Ephraim who bend and shoot the bow, turned back in the day of battle, shall be broken in the valley of the seed of God, concerning whom they held low and earthly opinions. (Verses 6, 7.) And she conceived again, and bore a daughter, and he said to her: Call her name, Without mercy, for I will not add any more to have mercy on the house of Israel; but I will utterly forget them. And I will have mercy on the house of Judah: and I will save them in the Lord their God: and I will not save them by the sword, and by the bow, and by war, and by horses, and by horsemen.

LXX: And she conceived again, and bore a daughter, and he said to her: Call her name, Without mercy; for I will by no means add any more to have mercy on the house of Israel: but I will set myself against them as an adversary: but I will have mercy on the children of Judah, and I will save them in the Lord their God: and I will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by war, nor by horses, nor by horsemen. After the bow of Israel was broken and shattered in the valley of Jezreel, and the kingdom of the ten tribes was left destitute, so that they were led into captivity, no longer is Jezreel, that is, the seed of God, nor a son of the male sex born: but a daughter, that is, a female of fragile sex, and one who lies open to the contumely of the victors, and she is called Without mercy. For this reason indeed she was led captive, because she did not have the mercy of God.

And the indignation of the Lord is to be considered. For he says that he will by no means show mercy any longer to the house of Israel, but that he will blot them out from his memory in eternal forgetfulness; for even to this day they serve the kings of the Persians, and their captivity has never been dissolved. But to the house of Judah he promises mercy, and says that he will save them in the Lord their God, or in himself who is speaking: or that the Father saves in the Son, according to that which is written: The Lord rained from the Lord. For he saved them when Israel had been handed over to the Assyrians, from the hand of Sennacherib, not by bow and sword and war and a multitude of horsemen, but by his own strength, when he sent an Angel, and struck from the army of Sennacherib king of the Assyrians, in one night, a hundred and eighty-five thousand.

According to the type, we say that those who, because of the blood of the seed of God, are called Without mercy, and dared to say: His blood be upon us, and upon our children, have up to now been slaves to the Romans. But the house of Judah, namely those from among the Jews who confessed the Lord, were saved not by strength of armies, but by the preaching of the Gospel. What we have interpreted concerning Israel and Judah, both according to the history and according to the type, let us refer to the assemblies of heretics, and to the Church of the Lord Saviour; that, while those were left without mercy and lost their kingdom, the Church of God prevailed by his power. (Verses 8, 9.)—And she weaned her that was without mercy: and she conceived, and bore a son, and he said: Call his name, Not my people: for you are not my people; and I will not be yours. The LXX likewise.

He who was called the seed of God, turned into a female, and because of the weakness of strength, and the offense against God, having been led into captivity, since he did not have the mercy of the Lord, is by no means said to be weaned, but weaned female: for the strength of the male had already been lost. He who is weaned withdraws from his mother, is no longer nourished by the parent's milk, and is sustained by external food. So also Israel, cast off by the Lord, and surrounded by the straits of captivity, and sustained in Babylon on unclean foods, is called not the people of God, and the eternal sentence of an alien nation is inflicted, so that it is said, not my people, and is cast off forever.

This we can rightly understand both of the whole people of the Jews, who, because of the offense against the seed of God, were handed over to captivity, lost their kingdom and province, and are called not the people of God: and also of the person of the heretics.

But if some contentious interpreter shall be unwilling to accept these things which we have said, but shall understand that the harlot named Gomer, daughter of Diblaim, bore males the first and third times, and a female the second, which is the middle one, meaning that Scripture intends what is read literally, let him answer how he explains that passage in Ezekiel, where he is bidden by the Lord to bear the iniquities of the house of Israel, that is, of the ten tribes, and to sleep continually for three hundred and ninety days on one, the left, side—though in the LXX one hundred and ninety days are written—and to sleep in such a way that he never wakes, nor changes side, unless perhaps, sated with sleep, he opens his eyes a little to take the most sordid food of bread baked under ashes, made from wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, cooked in human dung.

For the nature of things does not allow that any man should sleep for three hundred and ninety days always on one side. And again, he says: You shall take up the iniquities of the house of Judah, and for forty days you shall sleep on the right side. These days, however, are reckoned as years, during which Israel and Judah are held by a very long siege and captivity, so that, bound and immobile, they cannot turn themselves from one side to the other. If he is unable to show that those things, and other similar things which we read in the Holy Scriptures, actually happened, but contends that they signify something else, then this harlot woman too, and the other adulterous woman, who either was joined to the prophet, or was kept by the prophet, indicate not a shameful union of fornication, but sacraments of things to come. (Verse 10.) And the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which is without measure, and shall not be numbered.

And it shall be, in the place where it shall be said to them, You are not my people; it shall be said to them, Sons of the living God. And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together: and they shall appoint themselves one head, and shall go up from the land: for great is the day of Jezreel. LXX: And the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which shall not be measured, nor can it be numbered. And it shall be, in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people: they shall be called sons of the living God. And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together: and they shall appoint themselves one sovereignty, and shall go up from the land, because great is the day of Jezreel.

We have read of the casting off of the ten tribes, and of Israel that is unmeasurable, no longer the people of God, condemned by perpetual indignation. Now we learn how the children of Judah and the children of Israel are gathered together alike, and appoint for themselves one head or sovereignty, and go up from the land, and in the place where before it was said, Not my people, are called sons of the living God, and that this comes about because great is the day of Jezreel.

To one who is doubtful and wavering in various opinions, that saying of the Apostle Paul writing to the Romans occurs: What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make known his power, endured with much patience the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, that he might show the riches of his glory upon the vessels of mercy, which he prepared for glory, us whom he has called, not only from among the Jews, but also from among the Gentiles: as also in Osee he says: I will call that not my people, my people; and her that had not obtained mercy, one that has obtained mercy. And it shall be, in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there they shall be called sons of the living God. But Isaiah cries out on behalf of Israel: If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.

For the Lord will make a consummating word and cutting it short in equity: because the Lord will make a shortened word upon the earth. And as Isaiah had foretold before: Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us seed, we should have become as Sodom, and we should have been made like unto Gomorrah. What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not follow after righteousness, have attained righteousness? But the righteousness which is of faith: but Israel, following after the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Therefore the blessed apostle, taking up the testimony of the prophet Osee, and expounding it concerning the calling of the Gentiles, and the faith of those from among the Jews who were willing to believe, has cut off from us all difficulty of interpretation, asserting that it was fulfilled in the times of Christ: namely, that in Israel the twelve tribes are chosen, that is, the whole people of the Jews, and in Judah those who from among the Gentiles confess the Lord Jesus.

But if anyone, alien from the faith of Christ, and not receiving the authority of the New Testament, but reasoning from the number of the circumcision, shall answer that the children of Judah and the children of Israel signify two tribes and ten, of which we have often spoken, and, granting this, we shall show that it does nothing to harm our faith.

But after the number of the children of Israel shall be, like the sand of the sea, scattered throughout the whole world, and the multitude of the people shall have surpassed all computation, then Israel, who is even today still captive, and who was before called Without mercy, and Not my people, shall have leave to enter into concord with the two tribes, that is, Judah and Benjamin, a great part of whom have believed in Christ, so that faith may join those separated in body, and they may appoint for themselves one head and prince, of whom Ezekiel wrote: And one prince in the midst of them, David my servant, and they shall be raised up as if from the dead below—that is, Judah and Israel, who had been dead in unbelief. And all these things shall come to pass, because great is the day of the seed of God, which is interpreted as Christ.

From which it is clear that in the type the blood of Naboth the Jezreelite went before, in order that the truth might be fulfilled in Christ. For it is in this one, and not in that other, that the day of Jezreel is great, concerning which it is said: This is the day which the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad in it. Of the third interpretation which we have undertaken, expounding Israel as the heretics, Judah as the men of the Church, the sense is this: that after the Lord shall come to reign in his glory, those who before were called not his people, shall be called sons of the living God: when they shall have been joined to Judah, that is, to the Church of God, and shall have Christ as one head, and shall have gone up from the land, that is, from earthly senses and the lowliness of the letter, and shall have received the great day of the seed of God.

For οὐκ ἠλεημένη, that is, without mercy, in certain copies is found οὐκ ἠγαπημένη, that is, not beloved. But the truer copies are those which have, without mercy; especially since, for the sake of distinguishing it from Israel, on whom he does not have mercy, God adds: But on the house of Judah I will have mercy.

(Verse 1.)

Say to your brothers, my people, and to your sister, she who has obtained mercy. LXX: Say to your brother, my people, and to your sister, she who has obtained mercy. Because great is the day of Jezrael, in which Judah and Israel shall have one prince, and it shall by no means be said to Israel, not my people: but on the contrary they shall be called sons of the living God: therefore, O men of the tribe of Judah, do not despair of the salvation of the ten tribes, but call them daily both by speech and by wish and by letters to penitence, because they are called your brother and sister: brother, from the fact that it is said, my people: sister, from the fact that they are called, she who has obtained mercy.

Otherwise: You who believe in Christ, and are both of the Jews and of the Gentiles, say to the broken branches, and to the former people, who has been cast off: my people, because he is your brother, and she has obtained mercy, because she is your sister. For when the fullness of the Gentiles shall have entered in, then all Israel shall be saved. This same thing is enjoined upon us, that we should not utterly despair of heretics, but call them to penitence: and desire their salvation with the affection of kinship. (Verses 2, 3.) Judge your mother, judge, because she is not my wife, and I am not her husband: let her take away her fornications from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts: lest perhaps I strip her naked, and set her as in the day of her nativity.

LXX: Be judged with your mother, be judged, because she is not my wife, and I am not her husband, and I will take away her fornication from before my face, and her adulteries from between her breasts: that I may strip her naked, and restore her as in the day of her nativity. Up to this point the discourse has been directed to the people Israel, that is, to the ten tribes. Now another head begins, and it is enjoined upon the sons, that is, upon the people, to enter into judgment against their mother, who bore them, who, having been made a wife from a harlot, did not leave her former ways, and again committed fornication with her lovers. And see the clemency of the husband.

Already she has been repudiated, already she has been cast off, already he has said to her: This one is not my wife, and I am not her husband: yet he charges the sons to speak, not to the wife of the father whom he has dismissed, but to their mother who bore them. And let them speak calling her to penitence, that she may take away her fornications from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts. A fornicatress is she who is joined with many. An adulteress is she who, deserting one husband, is joined to another. Both of these the Synagogue is, which, if it shall have persisted in fornication and adultery, God will take away from her the garment and ornaments which he had given. Of which Ezekiel writes: In the day when you were born, your navel was not cut, nor were you salted with salt: and I passed by you, and found you naked, and defiled, and wallowing in your blood.

And a little after: I clothed you with fine linen and delicate garments, and I put ornaments around you, and gave bracelets upon your hands, and a necklace about your neck. These things the most bountiful husband gave to her then, when he found her in Egypt defiled by the lust of idolatry and spreading her feet to all. And now he threatens that, if she is unwilling to return to her husband, she shall be, without God and without her husband, just as she had been before in Egypt. Lest we always extend our volumes by a threefold explanation, let it suffice to have noted rarely that the things said apply both to the Jews who deny Christ, and to the heretics who abandon the faith of the Lord: whose fornication is properly between the breasts, and dwells in the heart in the craft of idols and various doctrines, who shall return to the day of their nativity, so that, if they do not do penance, they may be made equal to the heathen.

And I will make her as a wilderness, and I will set her as a land without a path, and I will kill her with thirst. LXX: And I will make her as a desert, and I will set her as a land without water, and I will kill her in thirst. If she is unwilling to be converted to better things, I will do to her what I did in the wilderness, so that, led into captivity, they may fall in a foreign land, suffering thirst for all good things, and be unable to return to their own country. Or indeed let them hear in the Gospel: Your house shall be left to you desolate. And the Lord will send upon her not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord. Of which Isaiah also speaks: They shall be as a garden without water.

The heretics who have been cast off by the Lord, if they do not return to their former home, shall so suffer want of all things, that even what they seem to have falsely, is reduced to nothing. (Verses 4, 5.) And I will not have mercy on her children, because they are the children of fornications, because their mother has committed fornication: she who conceived them is confounded, for she said: I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread, and my waters, my wool, and my flax, my oil, and my drink. LXX: And I will not have mercy on her children: because they are children of fornication, because their mother has committed fornication: she who bore them is confounded, for she said: I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, and my garments, and my linens, and my oil, and all things that are necessary for me.

This I will do more to her, to whom I said, you are not my wife, and I am not your husband, and I will set her as a wilderness, and I will make her as a land without a path. For when I led her out of Egypt, her parents having been slain, their children entered the land of promise. But now the children of the fornicating mother shall perish along with the harlot mother, because they are children of fornication, and evil ones begotten of evil ones. To whom it is said in the Gospel: Generation of vipers: who came to such shamelessness, that she heard through Jeremiah: You have gotten yourself the face of a harlot: you have become shameless. Is it not this the hardness of brow and harlot's shamelessness, that she should glory in her own crime, and say: I will follow my lovers; I will go to the idols who provided for me both food and clothing. All the things which the prophetic word describes, the Jews received spiritually from the Lord.

And because they denied the Son of God, choosing for themselves Barabbas, the author of robbery and sedition, and crucifying the Son of God. Therefore even to this day they follow demons, and attribute the benefits of God to those who have destroyed the souls of their worshippers. Bread and waters even the heretics have, whose bread is mourning, and whose waters are muddy, which suffocate and kill those who are baptized. They have also wool from mangy sheep, and flax persisting in blackness, and oil, of which the prophet says: Let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head, and drink of the waters of Egypt, of which Jeremiah cries out: What have you to do with the way of Egypt, that you should drink the water of Geon? And: What have you to do with the way of the Assyrians, that you should drink the waters of the rivers?

Briefly we run through everything, so that we may pass to the rest. (Verses 6, 7.) Therefore behold I will hedge up your way with thorns, and I will hedge it with a wall, and she shall not find her paths, and she shall follow her lovers, and shall not overtake them, and she shall seek them and shall not find them, and she shall say: I will go and return to my former husband, because it was better with me then than now. LXX: Therefore behold I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will block up her ways: and she shall not find her path. And she shall pursue her lovers, and shall not overtake them, and she shall seek them, and shall not find them; and she shall say: I will go and return to my former husband, because it was better for me then than it is now. The harlot had said: I will go after my lovers, who provided for me an abundance of all things.

The Lord answered: I will hedge your way with thorns, or stakes, so that you cannot go where you desire, and I will interpose a wall, or barrier, and your paths, which you had often trodden with your foot, you shall not find, lest you overtake those whom you followed with such great zeal, so that, compelled by want of things, you may return to your husband, and say that saying from the Gospel: How many hired servants in my father's house abound with bread, but I here perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and now I am not worthy to be called your son, make me as one of your hired servants. From which we understand that by the providence of God evils often befall us, so that we may not have the things we desire, and, oppressed by various calamities of this age and its miseries, we may be compelled to return to the service of God.

But by the lovers of Jerusalem and of the Jewish nation, according to the history of that time, let us understand the Assyrians and the Chaldeans and the Egyptians and the other nations, with whose idols she committed fornication, from whom, in time of wars and under the pressure of evils, she hoped in vain for help. These lovers, according to the spiritual understanding, the heretics follow, by whom, often deserted, under the weight of evils they return to the bosom of mother Church. For through all scourges and torments Israel is instructed. (Verse 8.) And she did not know that I gave her grain, and wine, and oil, and multiplied silver to her, and gold, which they made into Baal. LXX: And she herself did not know that I gave her grain, and wine, and oil, and multiplied silver to her: but these silver and golden things she made into Baal himself.

This answers to what was above; for she had said: I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread, and my waters, wool, and flax, and oil, and my drink, all of which she had received, that she might turn to the worship of God. But she turned into idols the bread and wine, which strengthens and gladdens the heart of man, and the oil which enlightens every man coming into this world, and the silver of which we have often said: The words of the Lord are pure words, silver tried by fire, tested for the earth, purified sevenfold. And the gold of which we read: If you sleep between the midst of the lots, the wings of a dove covered with silver, and the hinder parts of her back with the greenness of gold, and she made it Baal, which is interpreted "the one above" and "devouring": while she either thinks she has greater doctrines than the Church, or is devoured in the very knowledge of false opinion.

But that, according to the letter, Jerusalem abounded in gold and silver and all riches, and made idols to Baal, the demon of the Sidonians, or, as some more rightly think, of the Babylonians, from whom he is also called Bel, Ezekiel more fully sets forth in his volume, and the whole chorus of the prophets relates. (Verse 9.) Therefore I will return and take my grain in its time, and my wine in its time, and I will recover my wool and my flax, which covered her ignominy. LXX: Therefore I will return and take away my wheat in its time, and my wine in its time, and I will take away my garments, and my linens, lest they cover her ignominy. It is a heavier punishment when, at the time of hoped-for harvest and vintage, the crops and the wine are taken away, and in a manner already grasped are snatched from the hands.

But if in the time of the threshing-floor and the press and the winepress, when the earth makes the past barrenness fruitful with new crops, there is a want of all things, what ought we to reckon about the rest of the year's time, when the old stores are kept? But the wool and the linen, or the garments and the linens, are taken away, lest they any further cover the ignominy of the harlot: that is, that she may be stripped of God's help, and that the guardianship of all the angels may depart from her. Whence the Apostle also says that the creature is to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God.

Many have received the gold and silver of wisdom and eloquence, of which they might make the candlestick of seven lamps of purest gold, and the golden table of showbread, and the mercy-seat, and the cherubim gleaming with the splendor of gold, and the silver bases of the pillars, and the wheat of the word of God, and the wine of the joy of the Holy Spirit: garments too and linens with which believers might be clothed in Christ: all of which they turned into the worship of idolatry, composing various doctrines of errors, and, being deceived, deceived others. All of which God will take away, that they who, out of abundance, had not perceived the Giver, may perceive Him out of want.

(Verse 10, 11. And 12.) And now will I discover her folly in the sight of her lovers: and no man shall deliver her out of my hand, and I will cause all her joy to cease, her solemnity, her new moon, her sabbath, and all her festival times: and I will destroy her vine, and her fig tree, of which she said: These are my hires which my lovers have given me: and I will set it as a forest, and the beast of the field shall eat it. LXX: And now will I discover her uncleanness in the sight of her lovers; and no man shall deliver her out of my hand: and I will take away all her joys, her solemnities, and new moons, and sabbaths, and all her festivals, and I will destroy her vine, and her fig trees, of which she said: These are my hires which my lovers have given me: and I will set it for a testimony, and the beasts of the field shall eat it.

What follows: the birds of the sky and the reptiles of the earth, is to be marked with an obelus. Also, for "forest," which in Hebrew is called JAR (יער), whence Cariath jarim (קרית יערים), interpreted as "village of the forests," the Seventy translated "testimony," on account of a false resemblance of the letters RES and DALETH. For if RES be read for DALETH, it is called "testimony": provided only that the letter jod does not precede. Freed then from garment and linen cloth, that they might no longer cover the shame of the harlot, all the disgrace of Jerusalem, or the folly by which she wrought disgrace, will be revealed in the sight of her lovers, so that what they had desired veiled they might despise when uncovered.

And when she shall have been handed over to her lovers the Assyrians, or to the demons whom both she and the Assyrians serve, no one, he says, shall be able to snatch her out of my hand, the demonic weakness being proven, in that those whom, when they were abounding in all things, they had received, they cannot deliver when oppressed by evils. But having been handed over to the servitude of Babylon, she will by no means be able to celebrate the three solemnities of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. She will not exercise the joy of the new moons, that is, of the calends, nor of the sabbath, nor of all the festivities which he comprehends under one name.

The vine also and the fig tree and the abundance of all things will be destroyed: understand by the vine, joy, by the fig tree, sweetness and delight, which are taken away by the evils of most grievous servitude: and they are taken away for this reason, because she reckoned them not as given to her by God as to a wife, but by her lovers as to a harlot, for the wages of lust. Then she will have no fruit-bearing trees at all, but everything will be turned into a forest. And since he had once taken up the metaphor from the forests, he finishes it in what remains, so that he calls the enemies, by whom all things are to be devoured, beasts. These things, both according to history and according to tropology, unhappy Judea has suffered, whose entire disgrace has been revealed in the eyes of the nations, and no one has been able to deliver her out of the hands of God.

All the ceremonies have ceased, the festival has been turned into mourning: she now knows that all the things she thought were given to her by the demons have been taken away on account of the offense against God. First the Assyrians and Chaldeans devoured her, then the Medes and Persians and Macedonians, and at last the most savage beast, the empire of the Romans, whose name is kept silent in Daniel, so that greater dread might be increased for those who were to be devoured. What we have said about Judea, apply to the heretics, who at first promising doctrine and knowledge, having gone out from the Church, are abandoned by God, and all their shame is set in the sight of the lovers whom they had before deceived, and having been handed over to the beasts which the prophet shuns, saying: Deliver not up to the beasts the soul that confesseth thee, they will be left to their bites.

Verse 13. And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense, and decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith the Lord. LXX: And I will take vengeance upon her for the days of Baalim, wherein she sacrificed to them: and decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers: but me she forgot, saith the Lord. He preserves the character of the harlot, who is adorned with gold and jewels, that she may please her lovers, and whatever beauty she does not have by nature, she seeks by art. These earrings, with which her ears had been adorned by the teaching of God, and these pearls which hung precious from her neck, so that the bridegroom and husband said to her: Thy neck is like jewels, she cast before the feet of swine, and gave what is holy to dogs.

And that was fulfilled which we read in Proverbs: As a golden ring in a swine's snout, so is beauty in a wicked woman. But all these things she did that she might follow her lovers, and forsake her husband. And so great was the desire of pleasure and lust, that she lost all memory of marriage, and forgot that she had been a wife. Wherefore, in the very solemnities in which she burned incense to demons, she will be visited with plagues, and chastised with punishments. Baal, in the singular number, Baalim in the plural, are the same idols named, in the masculine gender. For wherever at the end of a Hebrew word we read the syllable IM, it is plural in number, masculine in gender: but where OTH occurs, it is plural in number, feminine in gender. Therefore we understand Seraphim and Cherubim as plural in number, masculine in gender. But Sabaoth, which is interpreted as "of hosts," or "of armies," or "of powers," is plural in number, feminine in gender.

So also Baalim is masculine in gender, plural in number: although some wrongly read τῇ Βαὰλ and ταῖς Βααλεὶμ in the feminine gender. But how the heretics deceive their lovers, and adorn themselves with charm of speech and elegance of composition, so that lies may simulate truth, and forsake conjugal chastity, and burn incense to Baalim, that is, to the idols which they have fashioned from their own heart, we see every day. For they have no care for rustic simplicity, which seeks no harlot's ornaments; but for the elegance and skill of falsehood, so that they may please their lovers, the devils and demons.

Verse 14. Therefore behold, I will allure her, and will lead her into the wilderness, and will speak to her heart. And I will give her vinedressers out of the same place, and the valley of Achor for an opening of hope. LXX: Therefore behold, I will seduce her, and will make her as it were a desert; and will speak to her heart, and will give her her possessions from thence, and the valley of Achor for an opening of her understanding.

For what we have rendered, "for an opening of hope," and the Seventy translated, "for an opening of her understanding," Symmachus interpreted εἰς θύραν ἐλπίδος, that is, "into the door of hope," Theodotion, ἀνεῴξασθαι τὴν ὑπομονὴν αὐτῆς, that is, "to open her patience," or "her expectation." After the disgrace of Jerusalem, or of the harlot Judea, shall have been revealed in the eyes of her lovers, and every solemnity shall have ceased, and either drought or hail shall have destroyed the vine and the fig tree, and it shall have been reduced to forests and unfruitful trees, and been devoured by the beasts, and the Lord shall have returned to her torments and torture; because she had burned incense to the demons Baalim, and shall no longer think herself able to rise up from the ashes and cinders, then, that is, at the coming of Christ his Son, he will open the hope of salvation, and will give room for repentance, and will speak soothingly to her: for this is what is meant by "I will allure her"; so that after the greatness of the punishments, he may temper her former sorrows with the promise of prosperous things.

And I will lead her, he says, into the wilderness, that is, I will bring her out of evils, just as I had before brought her out of the servitude of Egypt: and I will speak to her heart soft words, words of consolation, that I may temper sadness with joy, according to the idiom of the Scriptures: with which words Shechem also spoke to the heart of Dinah, and Joseph in Egypt to his sorrowful and fearful brothers, that grief might be changed into joy. What follows.

Verse 15. And I will give her her vinedressers out of the same place. Since he had already, in the earlier history, put forward beforehand the endearments and the wilderness, by the likeness of those going out of Egypt, in which Moses and Aaron, princes of the same nation of the Jews, arose, even now he promises that he will give her vinedressers from the same place. That the vine is understood to be Israel, the Scripture both of the Old and of the New Testament testifies. The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel: and: Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt. And in the Gospel: The householder let out his vineyard, and received not the fruits. And having slain his son, at last he let it out to other vinedressers.

This the prophetic speech, then, sets forth beforehand, that the princes of this vineyard, coming out from the nations and out of the captivity of enemies, or of vices, are of the very stock of the Jews, that is, the apostles: and the place of tumult, and the valley of tumults, for this is what Achor means, is changed into a door of hope, or for an opening of hope and patience, because for this reason she suffered punishments and torments, that through these she might arrive at prosperity. But that the valley of Achor, in which Achan was slain for the theft of the things that had been consecrated to God, is interpreted "trouble" and "tumult": not, as some think, διαστροφή, that is, "perversity," Jesus himself interprets, speaking to Achan: because thou hast troubled us, may the Lord trouble thee this day.

Whence that place was called Emec achor (עמק עכור), that is, "valley of such trouble." And at the same time we understand in this, that at the beginning of the holy land, near Jericho, when the people went out of the wilderness, on account of the streams of the Jordan, in the first victory of Israel, mourning was changed into joy. And there hope was opened, where there had been despair: that, those who had sinned against Christ, and committed sacrilege, being punished, those of them might be saved who, having blasphemed, detested the Jews, and, so far as in them lay, put them to death. Hence the Circumcision, and our Judaizers, refer this to the thousand years' reign, which we see was fulfilled at the beginning through the apostles as vinedressers, and many thousands of believers out of Israel, and is fulfilled daily in those who are willing to believe.

And what we have said, "I will allure her," and which the Seventy interpreted, "I will seduce her," they refer to the time of Antichrist: that those who have not received the truth of Christ may receive his falsehood, and afterward, at Christ's coming, be saved.

And she shall sing there according to the days of her youth, and according to the days of her coming up out of the land of Egypt. LXX: And she shall be humbled according to the days of her infancy, and according to the days of her coming up out of the land of Egypt. In the place where we have put "she shall sing," the Seventy translated "she shall be humbled"; in the Hebrew it is written ANATHA (ענתה), which Symmachus interpreted "she shall be afflicted," Theodotion, "she shall respond," Aquila, "she shall obey," that is, ὑπακούσει: we take it kata λέξιν more nearly from the Hebrew, that is, "she shall sing before"; so that, since he had once put forward the alluring and the leading out into the wilderness, and the vinedressers out of the same place, and the valley of Achor, and had, in brief speech, touched upon the whole history of those going out of Egypt and journeying toward the holy land, even now he might preserve the likeness of the history.

So that, just as at that time, when she went out of the land of Egypt, Pharaoh having been drowned in the Red Sea, Miriam took up the timbrel, and singing before the rest, exulted and said: Let us sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously magnified: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea: so now also, according to the days of her youth, or of her adolescence, when she went out of the land of Egypt, let her sing and rejoice, and let her, together with the choirs of the Church, sing in harmony the kingdom of Christ and her own salvation. And observe that when we go out of Egypt, and pass over to better things, we are said to ascend: because Jerusalem is set among the mountains, from which he who wished to go down to Jericho was wounded. But to those who seek the aid of Egypt, that is, of this present world, it is said: Woe to them that go down into Egypt for help.

The interpretation of Aquila and Theodotion, of whom the one put ὑπακούσει, that is, "she shall hear," the other ἀποκριθήσεται, that is, "she shall answer," agrees with us, in that when some sing before, others answer, singing in harmony. But "she shall be humbled" and "afflicted," which the Seventy and Symmachus translated, does not suit the time of joy, unless perhaps he is imitating Paul, who, after he was called an apostle, laments his former sins, and calls himself unworthy of the calling of apostle, because he persecuted the Church of God: so that the humbling and affliction may be understood in the conscience of a past wound, not in sorrow for present evils.

Verse 16 and 17. And it shall be in that day, saith the Lord, that she shall call me "My husband," and shall call me no more "Baalim": and I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and she shall no more remember their name. LXX likewise. That Ninus, the son of Belus, first reigned over all Asia, both Greek and Barbarian histories relate: he among the Assyrians founded the city Ninus of his own name, which the Hebrews call Nineveh. His wife Semiramis, of whom many marvelous things are related, built the walls of Babylon: of whom a distinguished poet testifies (Ovid, Metam. IV, 58), saying:

Which they say Semiramis of old
Girded round with walls of baked brick.

This one fought with a strong contest against Zoroaster the Great, king of the Bactrians: and he attained to such great glory that he referred to his father Belus as a god, who is called in Hebrew BEL (בל), and in many prophets, and especially in Daniel according to Theodotion, this name is applied under the idol of Babylon. The Sidonians and Phoenicians call this one BAAL (בעל): for the same consonant letters BETH and LAMED are used, with the vowel letter ain placed between, which according to the property of that language is read now Beel, now Baal. Whence also Dido of Sidon, of royal lineage, when she received Aeneas in hospitality, poured out wine to Jupiter with that bowl with which Belus and all descended from Belus were accustomed. We have learned the origin of the demon, or rather of the man consecrated into a demon: for all idols grew out of the error concerning the dead. Let us hear the rest: In the Hebrew and Syriac tongue BAAL is interpreted ἔχων, that is, having.

If we wish to say, having me, we say BAALI (בעלי): and among both peoples wives call their husbands Baali, that is, my husband, which is understood as, having me: and the sense is, he who has me in marriage. In the same Hebrew tongue a man is called IS (איש): whence also the wife, who was taken from the man, is called in Genesis ISSA (אשה), as it were from man: a she-man. Therefore what the Lord says is this: since in either speech, ISSI and BAALI, my husband, or my spouse, is called, I so hate the names of idols that even what could well be said, on account of the ambiguity and similarity of the word, I would by no means wish to be said, but that I be called ISSI, rather than BAALI: lest, while speaking of one thing, he should be reminded of another, and in naming his husband, think of an idol.

Forgive the obscurity, which arises from three causes: either the difficulty of the matter, or the inexperience of the teacher, or the excessive slowness of the learner. For in expounding a Hebrew prophet I ought not to play with little oratorical declamations, and in narrations and epilogues to sing in the Asiatic manner, but with the help of your prayers, and with incredible zeal for learning, to open what is closed. Finally Aquila, a diligent and careful interpreter, says: My husband will call me, and will no longer call me the one who has me, that is, BAAL. (Verse 18.) And I will strike a covenant for them in that day with the beast of the field, and with the fowl of the heaven, and with the creeping thing of the earth: and I will break the bow, and the sword, and war from off the earth: and I will make them sleep securely.

LXX: And I will dispose for them a covenant in that day with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the earth: and I will break the bow, and the sword, and war from off the earth: and I will make them dwell in hope. When all the vocabulary of the opposing religion shall have been removed from the people confessing the Lord, and when he has called me, he says, my husband, and by no means Baali, that is, my idol, then I will strike for them a covenant and concord with the beasts of the field, and the fowls of heaven, and the creeping things of the earth. Of this time Isaiah also speaks: The wolf shall dwell with the lamb; and the leopard shall lie down with the kid. The calf, and the lion, and the sheep shall abide together, and a little child shall lead them.

The calf and the bear shall feed, and their young ones shall rest together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; by no means desiring flesh and blood, but feeding on clean and simple foods. When it was revealed to Peter, that he might receive Cornelius from the nations, and it was commanded that he eat all beasts, and know that nothing is unclean, which was received with the giving of thanks: concerning which he hears afterward: What God has cleansed, do not you call common. Therefore at the coming of the Lord the Savior, after the triumphs of his resurrection, and his ascension to the Father, the two walls were joined by the cornerstone by him who made both one. And he called her who was called without mercy, one who had obtained mercy: and him who was called not my people, his people: and with all things pacified, the bow and the sword shall be broken and war. For the instruments of fighters will not be necessary, since those who would fight will be lacking.

Israel shall be joined to the nations, and that saying of Deuteronomy shall be fulfilled: Rejoice, ye nations, with his people. For God is known in Judea, his name is great in Israel. And: His place is made in peace, and his habitation in Sion, that is, in the Church, in which he has broken the powers of bows, shield, sword and war: with which broken and crushed, believers will sleep securely, and rest under one shepherd, or shall hope, in those things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they ascended into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him. (Verse 19.) And I will espouse you to me for ever: and I will espouse you to me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in mercy, and in mercies: and I will espouse you to me in faith: and you shall know that I am the Lord. LXX likewise. O how great the clemency of God!

A harlot who has fornicated with many lovers, and on account of the crime was handed over to beasts, after she returns to her husband, is not said to be reconciled to him, but espoused. And see what difference there is between the union of God and that of men: a man, when he takes a wife, makes a woman out of a virgin, that is, no longer a virgin; God, even when joined to harlots, changes them into virgins, according to that which is said to the adulteress through Jeremiah: Have you not called me as lord, or father, or the prince of your virginity? Whence also the apostle, after fornication and the worship of idols, speaks to the believing Corinthians: For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. We ask why he repeated the name of espousal three times. First he says: I will espouse you to me for ever. Second: I will espouse you to me in righteousness and judgment, and in mercy and mercies.

Not content with this ending, he adds also a third: I will espouse you to me in faith, and you shall know that I am the Lord. First he espoused her in Abraham, or in Egypt, that he might have her as wife forever. Second on Mount Sinai, giving her for the espousal of the Law righteousness and judgment, and mercy joined to the Law, so that when she sins, she is handed over to captivity, and when she does penance, she is recalled to her homeland, and obtains mercy. Of these espousals the psalmist sings in various places: I will sing mercy and judgment to you, O Lord. And: Mercy and truth have met each other, and justice and peace have kissed. We read of these two cups in the seventy-fourth psalm: A cup in the hand of the Lord, full of pure wine mixed, and he poured out from this into that: from the cup of justice into the cup of mercy, and again from the cup of mercy into the cup of justice.

If you shall observe iniquities, O Lord, O Lord, who shall abide it? For with you there is forgiveness. This harlot, therefore, who had first been joined by the vow of her spouse in eternal embraces, so that she would never withdraw from the marital bond, because she withdrew and fornicated in Egypt, is again taken up through the Law: which because she transgressed, the prophets, as it were companions of the bridegroom who had been sent to her, being killed, at last there came the Son of God, the Lord Jesus: by whom, when crucified, and rising from the dead, she is espoused, not in the righteousness of the Law, but in the faith and grace of the Gospel, so that when she has known the Only-begotten, she may know the Father also. For he himself says to Philip: Have I been so long with you, and you have not known me?

Philip, he who sees me, sees also my Father: how do you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? Whoever shall have been espoused in faith and shall have believed the Gospel, will immediately know that he himself is God, believing in him whom before he had denied. (Verses 20 and following.) And it shall be in that day: I will hear, says the Lord: I will hear the heavens, and they will hear the earth, and the earth will hear the wheat and the wine and the oil, and these will hear Jezreel, and I will sow her for myself in the earth, and I will have mercy on her who was without mercy, and I will say to that which was not my people, You are my people: and it shall say, You are my God.

LXX: And it shall be in that day, says the Lord: I will hear the heaven, and heaven will hear the earth, and the earth will hear the grain, wine, and oil, and these will hear Jezreel, and I will sow her for myself upon the earth, and I will have mercy on her who was without mercy, and I will say to that which was not my people, You are my people: and it shall say, You are the Lord my God.

In that day and in that time, when I shall have espoused you to me in faith, and you shall have known that I am the Lord, I will hear the heavens, which declare the glory of God, and the heavens will hear the earth, so that they may irrigate her with heavenly rain, and the earth, from which truth has arisen, and into whose field the householder goes out, that he may sow his seed, will hear the wheat and the wine and the oil, of which we spoke above, and all these will hear Jezreel, that is, the seed of God, so that it may be understood that the abundance and fertility of all things is granted on account of the seed of God, which is Christ, because the seed of God is sown in the earth, that it may bring forth manifold fruits, a hundredfold, sixtyfold, and thirtyfold.

And that harlot, who had been joined to God, and had brought forth three children, two males and one female; the first Jezreel, the second, without mercy; the third, not my people, may see that on account of the seed of God the names of things have been changed, and that in the faith of Christ mercy has been obtained by her who was without mercy, and that the people of God has been called, who before was called not a people. From which we perceive that all these things can be referred both to the ten tribes which are called Israel, who under the name of the harlot brought forth three children, and to every nation of the Jewish name. Concerning the hearing of the heaven and the earth, and of the wheat, wine, and oil, and of Jezreel, some understand this thus, that after Christ has come, all things run in their own order, and every creature serves the usefulness of men, as it was established from the beginning.

All of which the Jews and our Judaizers await bodily after Antichrist at the end of the world.

(Verse 1.)

And the Lord said to me: Go yet again, love a woman beloved of her friend and an adulteress, as the Lord loves the children of Israel, and they themselves look toward strange gods, and love the husks of grapes. LXX: And the Lord said to me: Go yet again and love a woman loving evils and an adulteress, as the Lord loves the children of Israel: and they themselves look toward strange gods, and love pastries with the husks. The prophet is joined to the former woman as a type of the ten tribes, or of the whole fornicating Jewish people, and at last he receives back into salvation the rejected and tormented children: here he is bidden to love yet again the adulterous woman. When it is said, "yet again," it shows that he had loved a harlot before: who, being an adulteress, either loves evil things, or is loved by a friend and neighbor: for the Hebrew word RE (רע) is read either as evil, or as friend.

And lest we suppose that the prophet's love for the adulteress signifies anything other than God's love for the children of Israel, he added: as the Lord loves the children of Israel. Therefore, because the prophet loves the adulteress, and yet is not joined to her in marriage, nor united by fornication, but only loves her as a delinquent, he is a type of God, who loves the very wicked children of Israel, who, although loved by the Lord, look toward strange gods and idols, and love the husks of grapes, which have no wine, and have lost their former grace, like demons who, having fallen from their own dignity, and possessing nothing of their ancient grace, are dry, and withering in old barrenness. Whence in place of husks, which in Hebrew is called ASISE (אשישי), Aquila translated παλαιά, that is, old things. Symmachus, ἀκάρπους, that is, barren: and they are not only husks, but old husks, so that they bear witness to ancient offenses.

And it should be noted that this adulteress signifies the present time of the Jews, who, without God and the knowledge of the Scriptures and the grace of the Holy Spirit, are loved by the Lord, who awaits the salvation of all, and opens the door to those doing penance, and nevertheless they love useless things, the traditions of men and the dreams of the δευτερώσεων (second teachings), and by no means have grapes and wine and winepresses full of new wine, but old husks which have been thrown away. For "pemmata," which the LXX translated, and which are eaten with raisins, or husks, we can say in Latin cakes, or little pastries, which are offered to idols, and are called in Greek πόπανα. But the children of Israel in the present passage are called the twelve tribes; whereas above, the ten which were in Samaria, and possessed the metropolis of Jezreel.

Verse 2. And I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver, and a homer of barley, and half a homer of barley, and I said to her. The LXX: And I hired her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver, and a gomor of barley, and a nebel of wine, and I said to her. In place of "Gomor" it is written in the Hebrew OMER (עמר), which all the translators, except the LXX, have rendered as "corus," in Greek speech and especially Palestinian, which contains thirty modii. And in place of "nebel of wine," in the Hebrew is read Lethech seorim (לתך שערים), which the other translators have rendered as "half-corus of barley," that is to say, καὶ ἀγαπήσω τὴν οὐκ ἠγαπημένην ["and I will love her that was not beloved"]. That is, the half part of a corus, which makes fifteen modii.

And what is added in the Vulgate edition: "Neither shalt thou be for another man": "another" is not in the Hebrew, but simply, "thou shalt not be for a man." For if "another" be placed, it is understood that she is had by her own husband. But when it is said absolutely, "thou shalt not be for a man," we understand that she is joined to no one at all, and is without marital intercourse. Now we read the measure of the corus in Ezekiel, and in the Gospel. He therefore dug her for himself, that is, the adulteress, or hired her for fifteen pieces of silver. When he says, "I dug," he shows forth the vineyard which was planted by the Lord, and is set forth in many places of Scripture, signifying the people of the Jews. But if we read "I hired," it is the price of the adulteress, not that she should sleep with the prophet, but that, content with her wages, she should cease from adultery, and not be joined promiscuously to others.

She is also dug, or hired, for a homer of barley and half a homer of barley, that is, for forty-five modii, and having received this wage, she heard from the Lord: Verse 3. Thou shalt wait for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for a man; but I also will wait for thee. The LXX: Thou shalt sit for me many days; and thou shalt not play the harlot, nor be for another man, and I for thee. That is, neither shalt thou shamefully prostitute thyself to other lovers, nor shalt thou be lawfully joined to me, the husband by whom thou wast hired.

And lest thou think an injury done to thee, because I said "thou shalt wait for me," I will return like for like, "and I will wait for thee." On the fifteenth day, at the dawning of the month Nisan, the firstborn of the Egyptians were struck, and the people of Israel was led out of Egypt, and hired into the service of God for a wage. Then, for the firstborn of Israel who did not feel the common plague, take five shekels of silver apiece, which are brought into the offerings of the temple. Many of our writers refer the fifteen to the week of the Law, and the eighth day to the Gospel, that is, the sabbath and the day of resurrection, on which spiritual circumcision is performed. But how the adulterous woman, who is fed with barley and is estranged from her husband, receives both Testaments as her wage, they cannot explain.

On the forty-fifth day the people came to Mount Sinai, and immediately on the next day it was proclaimed that they should be sanctified from intercourse with women for three days, and prepare themselves to receive the law of God. When three days had passed, on the fiftieth day Moses went up into the mountain, and received the decalogue. So the people of the Jews sits, having once been hired for fifteen pieces of silver and forty-five modii of barley, after the coming of the Lord the Saviour, and awaits the coming of her husband. And when it says, "Thou shalt not play the harlot, and shalt not be for a man," this shows that meanwhile she serves not idols, yet does not have God; but is despoiled both of lovers and of husband. And because she has no husband, she is not fed with the food of men, wheat and pulse, but with the barley of unreasoning beasts of burden, chewing the vileness of the letter, which kills, and not having the spirit that gives life.

Whence also in the law, the woman who is accused by her husband of adultery, in the drink of ἐλεγμοῦ, that is, of conviction, when she is charged with sin, receives flour of barley; for she who has imitated horses and mules, which have no understanding, is sustained on the food of horses and mules. In place of "half a homer of barley," the Seventy translated "nebel of wine," which is not at all in the Hebrew. And we may say that in the "nebel of wine," that is, the full and perfect measure, the adulteress was made drunk, and afflicted with full punishments. Whence Jeremias also serves the cup of pure wine to the nations and to Jerusalem. The husband too sits, or rather awaits the repentance of the adulteress, so that after the fulness of the Gentiles shall have come in, and Israel at last shall have believed, so that he who was the head may be turned into the tail, and the tail turned into the head, then there may be one flock and one shepherd.

Verse 4. For the children of Israel shall sit many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without altar, and without ephod, and without teraphim. And after this the children of Israel shall return, and shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king: and they shall be in awe of the Lord and of his goodness in the latter days. The LXX: For the children of Israel shall sit many days without king, without prince, without sacrifice, without altar, without priesthood, without manifestations (which in Greek are called δῆλοι). And after this the children of Israel shall return, and shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king: and they shall be astonished at the Lord, and at his good things, in the latter day.

In place of "ephod" and "theraphim" (תרפים) the Seventy have translated ἱερατείαν, that is, "priesthood," and δήλους, that is, "manifestations." Now it must be known, as we have often said, that ephod signifies the priestly vestment, which in Exodus and Leviticus is called by the LXX ἐπωμὶς, that is, "superhumeral," and by Aquila ἐπένδυμα, that is, "over-garment." But theraphim properly they call μορφώματα, that is, "forms" and "images," which we may, at least in the present passage, call the Cherubim and Seraphim, or other things which were commanded to be made as ornaments of the temple. But because the Seventy translated δήλους, for which Aquila rendered φωτισμοὺς, and these very things are in the λογεῖον, that is, in the Rational, we understand by this that in the breast and heart of the high priest there ought to be ἀλήθεια and φωτισμοὶ, that is, truth and doctrine: so that he should not only know the right faith, but also be able to utter with his mouth what he knows.

This too the apostle Paul writes to Titus, teaching what sort of man a bishop should be ordained: "For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God: not proud, not angry, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but hospitable, kind, sober, just, holy, continent, embracing that which is according to sound doctrine, faithful in word, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers". We also read of ephod and theraphim in the book of Judges, which the Levite had made for himself, who afterward set out with six hundred armed men of the tribe of Dan. After the passion of the Lord the Saviour, down to the present day, there is completed a little less than the four-hundredth year, and how much time remains until the day of judgment, neither the angels know, nor the Son. And he says he does not know this because it is not expedient for us to learn it.

These, then, are the many days in which the unhappy Synagogue and adulterous woman is fed with barley, and sits bent down, because she cannot stand with Christ. Without a king, of whom the Father has spoken: "I have raised up a king with justice". And he himself says in the Psalm: "But I am set king by him over Sion his holy mountain". Without a prince, either the Lord the Saviour himself, or certainly the high priest, of whom it is written: "Thou shalt not speak evil of the prince of thy people". And without sacrifice, and without altar. For the temple having been overthrown, and Jerusalem burned, the Jewish nation can exercise neither sacrifice nor priesthood. And without ephod and without theraphim, that is, the instruments of priestly attire. Of this king Jacob also speaks in the blessing of the patriarch Judah: "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a ruler from between his feet, till he come that is to be sent, and he shall be the expectation of nations".

Therefore, after the prince ceased from Judah, and the ruler from between his feet, and Herod, a foreigner and proselyte, received the empire, we understand that he has come to whom the kingdom was reserved, and he was the expectation of the nations. This is the blindness that has happened in part to Israel, that the fulness of the Gentiles might come in, and then all Israel might be saved: and after a long time they shall return, and shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king, who was born of the stock of David, and whose name is interpreted "strong of hand." For he loosed the captivity of his people, and gave remission to the bound. And when the children of Israel, who have refused their own brother, shall see him reigning in the majesty of the Father and his own, they shall be in awe, and shall be astonished at the Lord and at his goodness.

Who, being the good Son, was born of a good Father; or unto the good things of the Lord, of which the saint speaks: "I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living": for this land which we sinners inhabit is the land of the dead. This passage some interpret concerning the Jews with reference to the Babylonian captivity, when for seventy years the Temple was desolate, and there was neither altar nor victims nor priesthood, and afterward under Zorobabel they returned to their former abodes. Others, as we do, refer it to a future time, and as to what may be the cause of so great an offense, that they should be left for so long a time, especially since they do not worship idols, they can find no other cause than the slaying of the Saviour.

(Verse 1, 2.)

Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel; for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land: for there is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God in the land. Cursing, and lying, and killing, and theft, and adultery have overflowed, and blood hath touched blood. The LXX: Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel; for the Lord hath judgment against the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God upon the earth. Cursing, and lying, and murder, and theft, and adultery is poured out upon the land, and they have mingled blood with blood. From the beginning of the prophet up to this place, under the description of the harlot and the adulteress, whose most grievous punishments and long abandonment are followed afterward by restoration to the former, or to a better, state, the sins of the ten tribes, or of the two, are reckoned in common for all.

Now again the discourse turns to Israel, that is, to the ten tribes, showing that God is not angry in vain in threatening and bringing such grievous punishments: lest perhaps it should seem that the sentence pronounced was not from the truth of judgment, but from the mere power of God, unjustly against those who had not sinned. "Hear," says the prophet, "the word of the Lord, O children of Israel": for the Lord wishes to be judged with his people, and to set forth the causes of his indignation. There is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God in the land. For truth cannot be sustained without mercy, and mercy without truth makes men negligent; whence the one is mingled with the other, and whoever does not have them will consequently not have knowledge of God either. But instead, for truth there is lying, and for mercy, cursing, murder, theft, adultery.

He did not say "is"; but, to show the abundance of crimes, he added "have overflowed": and instead of the knowledge of God, which is not in the land, "blood hath touched blood," or "they have mingled blood with blood," that they might increase sins with sins, and heap new upon old. Rightly indeed are those who are inhabitants of the land, and not sojourners, called to judgment: because from the face of the north evils burn forth upon the inhabitants of the land. And in the Apocalypse of John: "Woe, woe, woe" is said upon the inhabitants of the earth. But he who can say with the prophet, "I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were", and passes through this world as a sojourner and a stranger, follows truth and mercy, and the knowledge of God, lest he be overwhelmed by the flood of cursing and lying, murder, and theft, and adultery and blood.

(Ver. 3.) Because of this the land shall mourn, and every one who dwells in it shall languish: in the beast of the field and in the fowl of heaven, but also the fishes of the sea shall be gathered together. LXX: Therefore shall the land mourn, and shall be diminished with all that dwell in it, with the beasts of the field, with the creeping things of the earth, and with the birds of heaven, and the fishes of the sea shall fail. Because there is no truth, and no mercy, and no knowledge of God in the land, but instead cursing, and lying, and murder, and theft, and adultery have overflowed, and blood has touched blood: therefore the land shall mourn with its inhabitants, and shall languish, so that it shall have no beasts of the field, and the birds of heaven, and the fishes of the sea shall fail.

For when the captivity of the ten tribes came, the inhabitant being removed, the beasts also and the birds of heaven and the fishes of the sea failed; and even the mute elements felt the wrath of the Lord. Whoever does not believe that this happened to the people of Israel, let him look upon Illyricum, let him look upon Thrace, Macedonia, and Pannonia, and the whole land which stretches from the Propontis and the Bosphorus even to the Julian Alps, and he will find that both men and all living creatures failed, which had before been nourished by the Creator for the use of men.

But if we wish, as some think, to interpret the beasts as wild men, and the birds of heaven as those who are lifted up in pride, and despise all human things, and the fishes of the sea as those who are irrational, and so brutish that they understand nothing at all, and do not see the free air and the sky: this is the work not so much of an angry as of a merciful Lord, that the evils which are in the land should be taken away. (Verses 4, 5.) Nevertheless let no man judge, and let not a man be reproved: for your people are as those who contradict the priest, and you shall fall today, and the prophet also shall fall with you. LXX: So that no one may be judged, and no one may be reproved: but my people are as a priest who is contradicted, and shall be weakened by day, and the prophet also shall be weakened with you.

According to the Septuagint interpreters, this which we have set down, "so that no one may be judged, and no one may be reproved," is to be joined to the preceding chapter: but we are following the Hebrews. The children of Israel, who dwelt in the land, having been summoned to the judgment of God, that they might hear the causes of the divine indignation, and recognize the past sins on account of which they were being handed over to the enemy, now, because they persist in their crimes, and with shameless brow despise God, hear: It is not necessary for you to come to judgment, that you be reproved in your crimes; because you are of such shamelessness that not even when convicted do you have shame and modesty; but you contradict me, as if a disciple should contradict his master, or a common people, which does not have the dignity of the priesthood, should contradict a priest.

And because you are such, therefore today you shall fall, that is, you shall be led into captivity, and you shall lose the kingdom of Israel. What he says, "today," either signifies the present time, or signifies that you shall be led into captivity not by fraud and treachery, but in clear daylight, and such shall be your weakness that even the prophets, who used to prophesy falsehood to you, shall fall with you, and experience captivity. Here we ought to understand either prophets or false prophets, or certainly all prophetic grace. For as long as the ten tribes were not yet captured, they had both the prophet Elijah and Elisha, and the rest of the sons of the prophets, who prophesied in Samaria.

Whence also the prophet Amos, who was of the tribe of Judah, and of the little village of Tekoa, was compelled to return to his own country, lest he should prophesy in a foreign kingdom and in Samaria. (Verse 6.) In the night I have made your mother to be silent, my people has become silent, because it has not had knowledge: because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you may not perform the priesthood for me: and you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. LXX: In the night I made your mother like unto silence, and my people has become like one having no knowledge: because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you, that you may not perform the priesthood for me: you have forgotten the law of your God, and I also will forget your children.

Not that there is another mother, and other children, does he call mother and children; but just as the Lord speaking to the people of the Jews said: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets, and stone those who are sent to you, how often would I have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not? Not that there is another Jerusalem, and another people of hers: for he was not speaking to the mortar and wood and stones of the city apart from the people. So the multitude of the people and the whole crowd of the Hebrew nation, to whom he speaks, is called mother: but the children are either individuals from the people, or those scattered through towns and villages.

Therefore in the night and darkness of captivity and of grief and of pressing distress Israel is handed over, and its people falls silent in eternal silence; because it did not have knowledge of the Law, nor did it keep the precepts of God, and it received what it had done. For she herself rejected the law of God, and therefore lost the priesthood forever, worshipping golden calves in Dan and Bethel: and because she has forgotten the law of God, and has utterly given herself over to Egyptian idols, therefore the Lord also will forget her children, handing them over to eternal captivity: For he who does not know shall not be known, and in the Psalms we read: They knew not, neither did they understand, they walk in darkness.

All things which are said concerning the ten tribes we can refer to heretics, who have left the kingdom of David and Jerusalem, that is, Christ and the Church: and therefore they are covered with eternal night, and do not have knowledge of God, and are rejected by the Lord so that they may not perform the priesthood for him, and he never remembers the children whom they have begotten, because they have become alien children to him. (Verse 7 and following.) According to the multitude of them, so have they sinned against me: I will change their glory into shame, they will eat the sins of my people, and to their iniquity they will lift up their souls, and it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest, and I will visit upon him his ways, and I will render to him his devices.

LXX: According to the multitude of them, so have they sinned against me, I will set their glory into shame: they will eat the sins of my people, and in their iniquities they will receive others' souls, and it shall be, as with the people, so also with the priest, and I will avenge upon him his ways, and I will render to him his devices. As many men as Israel had, so many altars did it build to demons, in whose sacrifices it sinned against me. Therefore I will change their glory, in which they gloried to themselves, and preferred idols to God, into shame, so that both priests and peoples shall be taken captive. Since indeed the priests eat the sins of my people, of whom it is written: Who devour my people, as they eat bread. And therefore they eat the sins of my people, consenting to the crimes of those who transgress: because when they see them sinning, not only do they not reprove them, but they praise and extol them, and proclaim them blessed.

Of whom Isaiah also speaks: My people, they who call you blessed, seduce you, and trouble the paths of your feet. Of these also he cries out through the Psalmist: For the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and the unjust man is blessed ([10:3]). Whence equally the people and the priest shall bear the sentence of an indignant God; because he will visit not only their works, which are called "ways," in which they walk; but also the thoughts, by which they schemed to do such things. For not only the deed, but also the thought of an evil deed shall pay the penalty. As for heretics, the understanding is easy, that the more numerous they are, the more they offend God, and glory among the peoples: and therefore they deceive the unhappy, so that they eat the sins of the people, and through sweet words devour the houses of widows.

For when they see some transgressing, they say: God seeks nothing else but the truth of faith, which if you keep, he does not care what you do. Saying these things, they lift up their souls in their iniquities, so that they not only do not do penance, nor humble themselves; but rejoice in their crimes, and walk with erect neck. Whence both the people and the priest, both those who were taught and those who taught, shall be bound by an equal judgment. (Verses 10 and following.) And they shall eat, and shall not be filled: they have committed fornication, and have not ceased: because they have forsaken the Lord in not keeping his commandments: fornication, and wine, and drunkenness take away the heart. My people has asked counsel of its wood: and its staff has declared unto it. For the spirit of fornications has deceived them, and they have gone a whoring from their God.

LXX: And they shall eat, and shall not be filled: they have committed fornication, and shall not be set aright: because they have forsaken the Lord, so as not to keep him: fornication and wine and drunkenness has taken up the heart of my people: they inquired by auguries: and by their rods they gave answer to it: because they have been seduced by the spirit of fornication and have gone a whoring from their God. Pleasure is insatiable, and the more it is seized, the more it creates hunger for those who indulge it. On the contrary, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be filled. Just as justice fills, so iniquity, having no substance, deceives with fraud those who eat vain things, and leaves the bellies of those who devour it empty. They have committed fornication, and have not ceased. Strength fails in fornication, but the desire of fornicating does not rest.

The ten tribes also committed fornication with the idols of Jeroboam the son of Nebat: and they forsook the Lord their God, by not keeping what he had commanded, saying: You shall adore the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve; but it must be read emphatically: Fornication and wine and drunkenness take away the heart. For just as wine and drunkenness make him who has drunk lose control of his mind: so also fornication and pleasure pervert the sense, and weaken the mind: and out of a rational man make a brute animal, so that he pursues brothels and dens of vice and lairs of lust. And when the heart has thus been moved from its place, it thinks wood and stones to be gods, and adores the works of its own hands. Whence the prophet speaks as one astonished and marvelling: My people, who once was called by my name, has consulted wood and rods: which kind of divination the Greeks call rhabdomancy.

Whence we read in Ezekiel that Nebuchadnezzar mingled his arrows against Ammon and Jerusalem, and the arrow came forth against Jerusalem: and the cause of this madness is the spirit of fornication, which deceived them, so that they went a whoring from their God. He calls idolatry "fornication," according to what we read in Jeremiah: And they committed adultery with wood and stone, and I said: after they have committed fornication with all these, return to me, and she did not return with her whole heart but in falsehood. And again: You have forsaken me and said: I will go up upon every high hill, and I will pour myself out in my fornication under every leafy tree. And in the Psalm it is said: You have destroyed all who go a whoring from you. For the beginning of fornication is the invention of idols.

Heretics are never satisfied with their error, nor do they cease from the shame of fornication, and daily, by not keeping the Law and the holy Scriptures, they forsake the Lord, they rave and are made drunk, and, their judgment of mind being lost, they adore idols which they have fashioned from their own heart, and are possessed by the spirit of fornication. (Verse 13.) They sacrificed upon the tops of the mountains, and burned incense upon the hills: under the oak and the poplar and the terebinth, because its shade was good. LXX: They sacrificed upon the summit of the mountains, and offered sacrifice upon the hills: under the oak and the poplar and the shady trees, because the shelter was good. In the Law it is commanded that sacrifice not be made to the Lord except in the place which the Lord God shall choose: and that beside the altar a grove and trees not be planted, lest, namely, a passive and pleasurable religion overturn the austerity of the one true religion.

On the contrary Israel sacrificed on the mountains, and burned incense on the hills, loving the high places of the earth, because it had forsaken the exalted God, and seeking shade had lost the truth. This is what we read concerning each of the kings: Nevertheless he did not take away the high places: the people still offered sacrifice and burnt incense in the high places, which in Hebrew is called BAMA (במה). Heretics promise themselves the loftiness of their teachings, and sacrifice under the oak and the poplar and the terebinth, unfruitful trees, having no fig tree and no vine, under which the Holy One is said to rest. But sometimes they take to themselves the terebinth, which according to Isaiah has no leaves, that they may seem to imitate the example of Abraham.

Verse 14. Therefore your daughters shall commit fornication, and your spouses shall be adulteresses. I will not visit upon your daughters when they shall have fornicated, and upon your spouses when they shall have committed adultery: because they themselves conversed with harlots, and sacrificed with the effeminate, and the people that does not understand shall be beaten. The Septuagint: Therefore your daughters shall commit fornication, and your spouses shall commit adultery, and I will not visit upon your daughters when they shall have fornicated, and upon your spouses when they shall have committed adultery: because they themselves were mingled with harlots, and sacrificed with the initiated, and the people that does not understand clung to the harlot. The word CADESOTH (קדשות), which Aquila translated ἐνηλλαγμένων, Symmachus ἑταιρίδων, the Septuagint τετελεσμένων, and Theodotion κεχωρισμένων, we have rendered "effeminate," so that we might open the sense of the word to the ears of our own people.

These are they whom today at Rome, serving the mother not of the gods but of demons, they call Galli, because it was from this nation that the Romans, mutilated by lust, gave over as priests of her, in honor of Attis (whom the harlot goddess had made a eunuch). And for this reason the men of the Gallic nation are made effeminate, so that those who had taken the city of Rome might be struck by this disgrace. Idolatry of this kind existed in Israel, especially the women worshipping Beelphegor because of the magnitude of the obscene member, whom we may call Priapus. Whence also King Asa took away the high places from the people, and priests of this sort, and deposed his mother from her august rule, as Scripture testifies, saying: And Asa did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, as David his father had done, and he took away the effeminate out of the land, and purged all the filth of the idols which his fathers had made.

Moreover he also removed Maacha his mother, that she should not be chief in the rites of Priapus, and in his grove which she had consecrated: and he overthrew her cave, and broke in pieces her most shameful image, and burned it in the torrent Cedron. But the high places he did not take away: nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect before God all his days. Now it must be known that in the present passage CADESOTH signifies harlots, ἱερείας, that is, priestesses, dedicated to Priapus. In other places, however, we read of men castrated by lust, CADESIM (קדשים), Isaiah saying, And mockers shall rule over them, for which it is written in the Hebrew: And CADESIM shall rule over them, which we have rendered "the effeminate." But Aquila, translating ἐνηλλαγμένους, that is, "changed," wished to show by this that they had changed their nature, and had become women instead of men. Symmachus called them properly ἑταιρίδας, harlots.

The Septuagint, τετελεσμένους, that is, "consecrated" and "initiated," to show them as worshippers of idols; Theodotion, κεχωρισμένους, that is, "separated from the people," who seemed to themselves to have something more than the common crowd. We have discussed the word briefly; now let us return to the sense of the chapter. It is a great offense, after you have sinned, not to deserve the wrath of the Lord. Israel had committed fornication away from the Lord his God, and had been seduced by the spirit of fornication: therefore his daughters and spouses also commit fornication, and are left without any vengeance in their crime, so that what the sons and the wife had done to their true parent and husband, this they might feel in their own children and wives, and from their own grief might understand the grief of God, who was so angry that he does not even strike the offenders.

This the Apostle also, writing to the Romans, attests in mystical language: For, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents. And because they had committed fornication with idols, they are struck with such a sentence: Wherefore God gave them up calling them thus, he puts them to confusion. Ovid, in book iv of the Fasti. Sings quite charmingly of this error arising from a play on names: Why then do we call the Galli those who cut themselves off? Since the Gallic land is so far distant from Phrygia. Between, he says, green Cybele and lofty Celenae, There runs a river, mad in name, called Gallus. Pliny also, in book, the last chapter, mentions this river in Phrygia, from which the Gallic priests took their name.

God gave them up unto the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness, that they might dishonor their own bodies among themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. But that we may know that a visitation, as it were of the wounded and the sick, is thus brought upon them by God, so that, as by cautery and most bitter potions, they may recover health and be freed from disease, let us hear the Lord speaking through the prophet: I will visit their iniquities with a rod, and their sins with stripes: but my mercy I will not take away from him. He therefore who is loved is chastised; he who is neglected is left to his own sins. So great was the number of the fornicators of Israel, that vengeance ceased, despairing of amendment. For what is more shameful than that men should be joined to the worship of harlots, and sacrifice victims of their lust along with the effeminate?

Now the addition, "the people that does not understand shall be beaten," for which the Septuagint has translated, "and the people that does not understand clung to the harlot," signifies that it shall be beaten in captivity, and afflicted with various plagues, so that through pain it may receive discipline. Concerning heretics the meaning is easy, namely that their sons commit fornication, and their spouses—that is, the souls which they have begotten in error and betrothed to their own dogmas. Such as these are unworthy of God's correction, because all their worship is fornication, and the shameful are joined to the shameful, and therefore they shall be beaten, that at some time through the blows they may understand what God they should seek.

When you see a sinner overflowing with riches, boasting in power, rejoicing in health, delighting in a wife, surrounded by a crown of children, and fulfilling that which is written: "They are not in the labor of men, neither shall they be scourged like other men", say that in him the Prophet's threat has been fulfilled: I will not visit upon your daughters when they shall have fornicated, and upon your spouses when they shall have committed adultery.

Verse 15. If thou, Israel, play the harlot, let not Judah at least offend, and do not go into Galgal, and go not up to Bethaven, nor swear ye, "The Lord liveth," for Israel has turned aside like a wanton heifer. Now the Lord will feed them like a lamb in a large place. The Septuagint: But thou, Israel, be not ignorant, and Judah, do not enter into Galgal, do not go up to the house of ὤν, and do not swear, "The Lord liveth": for Israel has grown mad like a heifer struck by the gadfly (asylus). Now the Lord will feed them like a lamb in a spacious place.

Instead of "house of ὤν," in certain copies, and especially in Theodotion, it is read "house of iniquity," which Aquila and Symmachus interpreted as "house of ἀνωφελοῦς," that is, useless, which profits nothing, and is called by another word an idol. Now this is Bethel: which was formerly called the house of God, but after calves were set up in it, was named Bethaven, that is, "house of the useless," and "house of the idol," which we have rendered as it is read in the Hebrew. It seems to me, moreover, that the people of Israel made for themselves in the wilderness a calf's head to worship, and that Jeroboam the son of Nebat fashioned golden calves, for this reason: that what they had learned in Egypt—that Apis and Mnevis, who are worshipped under the form of oxen, are gods—they might preserve in their own superstition.

Let us state the meaning of the chapter: If once, O Israel, you were deceived by error, and mingled yourself with harlots, so that whoever filled the hand either of himself or of the king, by offering and giving him gifts, became a priest of the high places: at least you, Judah, who possess Jerusalem, and have Levites from the Law, and perform the ceremonies of the temple, ought not to follow the example of the fornication of your once-sister Oolla, and worship idols with her. Do not enter Galgal, of which we read in this same prophet: "All their wickedness is in Galgal" (Hosea 9:15), in which Saul was anointed king; in which the people, going out from the desert, first pitched camp, and were purified by a second circumcision. From that time an error of hostile religion took root in a celebrated place.

And do not go up to Bethaven, that is, what was once called Bethel, because after golden calves were set up there by Jeroboam the son of Nebat, it is no longer called the House of God, but the house of the idol. As to this, I marvel why the Septuagint translated it "house of ὤν"—unless perhaps, by the usual error, they mistook the letter Jod in the middle, which is flanked on either side by Aleph and Nun, for a Vau, which differs from it only in size. Nor shall you swear, "The Lord liveth." For I do not wish my name to be mentioned by your mouth, which has been polluted by the remembrance of idols. For as a heifer, wanton and casting off the yoke: so Israel, that is, the ten tribes, has turned aside from the service of the Lord. Instead of "wanton heifer," the Septuagint has translated παροιστρῶσαν, "struck with the gadfly (oestrus and asylus)," which is commonly called the tabanus.

Of this Virgil also, in the third book of the Georgics, speaks: … whose name is asilus,

In Roman speech: the Greeks turning it, call it oestrus,
Harsh, sounding bitterly: at which, driven wild through the woods,
The whole herd flees in terror: the sky rages with bellowing,
Shaken, and the woods, and the bank of dry Tanagrus.

Therefore, because Israel went mad, and, struck by the spirit of fornication, raved with incredible frenzy, therefore not long afterward, but while the prophet, while the spirit still rules these limbs, the Lord will feed them like a lamb in a large place. Since he had taken his metaphor from the wanton heifer, or the gadfly, he preserves it in the rest, so that he calls the captivity into Assyria, and the dispersion of the people of Israel into the vast land of the Medes, as it were a pasturing of a flock and of lambs in a most spacious field and in a spacious land. Concerning heretics the meaning is ready at hand, to whom, or of whom, it is said: If you have once fornicated, O heretic, at least do not you, man of the Church, offend, nor enter into Galgal, the assemblies of the heretics, where the sins of all are revealed, and they wallow like swine in the mire. Do not think you are going up to the proud and arrogant fabrications of false doctrines.

For there is no house of God there, but a house of the idol. Nor shall you swear by the name of Christ, whose majesty you have polluted by mingling it with idols. For as the heifer struck by the gadfly, so the heretics have been struck by the burning arrows of the devil, and have abandoned the knowledge of the Law: therefore they shall be fed in the broad and spacious way that leads to death, and the patience of the Lord and the good shepherd shall nourish them unto destruction. (Verses 17ff.) Ephraim, a partaker of idols, let him alone: their banquet is separated: they have committed fornication with fornication; his protectors have loved to bring shame, the spirit has bound him in her wings; and they shall be confounded because of their sacrifices.

LXX: Ephraim, a partaker of idols, has set up stumbling-blocks for himself, he has provoked the Chananites, committing fornication they have fornicated, they have loved shame from his roaring; a whirlwind of spirit shall hiss upon his wings, and they shall be confounded on account of their altars. Ephraim, of which tribe was Jeroboam the son of Nabath, who first set up the golden calves in Bethel and Dan, is the king of the ten tribes. O Judah, therefore, to whom I said above, if Israel commits fornication, let not Judah at least offend; hear my counsel, do not despise the words of the prophet; because Ephraim, once the friend and partaker of idols, let him alone, lest you follow his impiety, whose worship and religion and food is separated from your banquet.

For they once serve idols, and sacrifice to demons, and daily commit fornication, and love their fornication: indeed the princes and protectors of him, that is, the kings, have loved to bring shame upon the people, that is, by the vice of the princes the unhappy people took up the worship of idols, whose unclean spirit has bound Israel in her wings, and does not allow him to fly freely. They shall therefore be confounded in their sacrifices, and shall receive the shame of the princes in their confusion. Symmachus, for what we have translated “the spirit has bound him in her wings,” renders it in Greek in this manner: as if one should bind the wind in the wings of the wind, so as to assert that both princes and people, indeed both demons and Israel, the vain are joined to the vain, the empty to the empty. For wind and spirit among the Hebrews are called by one word RUA (רוח).

That which the Seventy translated, “he has provoked the Chananites,” is not found in the Hebrew: yet it can be interpreted thus, that we say Israel had such zeal in the worship of idols, that he did not imitate the Chananites, that is, the heathen; but provoked them to the imitation of his own error. This same thing can also be referred to heretics, and it is said to Judah, that is, to the man of the Church, because Ephraim, which is interpreted καρποφόρος (fruit-bearing), promises to himself a false richness of doctrine, and fruitful teachings, and is once a friend of demons: let him alone and despise him: especially since their sacrifices are separated from yours.

For this is what is meant by “their banquet is separated”; they have once committed fornication, and their princes have deceived the unhappy people; and instead of the worship of God they have imbued them with the shame of idols, and the spirit of the devil has bound them in his wings, who are carried about by every wind of doctrine; and cannot remain with a stable foot in the Church. They shall truly be confounded in their sacrifices, because their bread is the bread of mourning. And what is said, “he has provoked the Chananites,” can be referred in the same sense to heretics, because many heretics have contrived things so filthy and abominable, and have unclean sacrifices, that idolatry is the lesser evil. Or certainly, because Chananite is interpreted “merchant,” or μεταβόλος, that is, “one who transfers,” all who make the house of the Father a house of merchandise, and seek gain from the peoples, and transfer the truth of the Church into a lie, must be called Chananites.

(Verses 1, 2.) Hear this, O priests, and attend, O house of Israel, and O house of the king, hearken with your ears, for judgment is for you: because you have been made a snare to the watchtower, and a net spread upon Thabor, and you have turned aside the victims into the depth. LXX: Hear this, O priests, and attend, O house of Israel, and O house of the king, give ear, for judgment is for you, because you have been made a snare to the watchtower, and as a net spread upon Itabyrium, which those who take it have fastened as game. The priests of the ten tribes are called to judgment, and the kings, not because the priests were of the tribe of Levi, but because they were called priests by the people.

Hence also the priests of Baal, and the four hundred fifty prophets whom Elias slew, and afterwards Jehu the son of Namsi, in the presence of Jonadab the son of Rechab, were called priests; but Israel too, that is, the people, is called to judgment, and no one is excepted, so that both priests and people and kings, who had led the people astray and appointed the priests, might together hear what they had done, and why they are being handed over to the enemies. I made you, he says, watchmen and princes among the people, and set you in the high summit of dignity, that you might rule the erring people. But you have been made a snare, and are to be called not so much watchmen and princes as hunters. For you have spread a net upon Mount Thabor, which the Seventy rendered Ἰταβύριον, having this custom, that they decline Hebrew names in Greek fashion, just as they always translate Edom, that is, Esau, and Seir, as Idumæa.

Now Thabor is a mountain in Galilee, situated in the plains, round and lofty, and bounded equally on every side. Of this mountain we also read in the Psalm: Thabor and Hermon shall rejoice in your name. This mountain the Seventy also rendered Itabyrium in Jeremiah, on which birds are wont to be caught by snares. And the victims, he says, you have turned aside into the depth, so that no one might do penance, nor the slain lift up his head. The kings and priests also forbade the people to go to the temple of Jerusalem: therefore the victims are said to have been turned aside into the depth. According to the tropology, the people is accused, lest it think itself free from the crime, if it was led astray by the kings and priests, whom we understand as the princes of the heretics. The princes themselves are also accused, because like a snare they have caught the people, and being set as watchmen in the Church, have led them into error.

And on the mountain Thabor, lofty and most beautiful, which is interpreted “light coming,” they have set snares, that they might drag away all whom they had deceived into the depth, and sacrifice them to demons, and turn the victims into the pit, lest they should ever come to their senses, lest they should sigh for the house of God, the Church. Some think that Thabor is interpreted “lake,” that is, “cistern,” and that this fits the present sense, because the heretics have dug a lake, and fallen into the pit which they made. (Verses 3, 4.) And I am the instructor of them all, and I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me: because now Ephraim has committed fornication, Israel is defiled: they will not give their thoughts to return to their God, because the spirit of fornications is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord.

LXX: For I am your teacher: I have known Ephraim, and Israel has not withdrawn from me, because now Ephraim has committed fornication, Israel is defiled: they have not given their thoughts to return to the Lord their God, because the spirit of fornication is in them: but the Lord they have not known. O priests and kings, who have deceived my people; and you, O people, who have been deceived, you have sinned so gravely, that you not only slew the victims, but also sent them into the depth of hell: do not think that by the greatness of the crime you have utterly withdrawn from me. I am your teacher, indeed your instructor, who desire to correct, not to punish; and to save, not to destroy. I, he says, know Ephraim, that is, Jeroboam, by whom the people were seduced, and all the kings who followed him both in dignity and in crime, and Israel is not hidden from me, that is, the people of the ten tribes, because, the king committing fornication, Israel is defiled.

The king first began to commit fornication from the worship of God, desiring to worship the golden calves, and the people, willing, followed, and they fulfilled equal impiety with equal zeal. Finally they will not return to the Lord, because they have found what they wished, and the spirit of fornication, which according to the Apostle works in the sons of unbelief, holds their hearts captive, and therefore, while he reigned, they knew not the Lord, indeed they forgot their Creator. Whence the Lord is not ignorant either of the leaders of perverse doctrines or of the people: not that they are worthy of his knowledge, but because nothing escapes him of what they do secretly, of whom some have deceived, others have been deceived. Nor will they give their thoughts to do penance, who always advance in perdition.

For the spirit of fornication, by which they have fornicated in the Church, and withdrawn from the true marriage, dwells in the midst of them: therefore they have not known the Lord. (Verse 5.) And the arrogance of Israel shall answer to his face, and Israel and Ephraim shall fall by their iniquity, Judah also shall fall with them. LXX: And the injury of Israel shall be humbled before his face: and Israel and Ephraim shall be weakened by their iniquities, Judah also shall be weakened with them. The word GAON (גאון) the Seventy and Symmachus interpret as “injury,” Aquila and Theodotion as “pride.” Whatever therefore Israel did, whether acting proudly against the Lord, or venerating idols to the injury of the Creator, shall answer to his face so that it may not go unpunished, but his insult shall be humbled, and the people and the kings alike shall fall together in their iniquity, or be weakened, so that those who were strong in crime may be compelled, weakened, to return to the Lord.

And this shall happen not only to Israel and Ephraim, that is, to the ten tribes and their kings, that they be led into captivity; but Judah also, that is, the two tribes that reigned in Jerusalem, shall follow the footsteps of the captives, so that those whose crimes they imitate, they may also imitate their punishment. Heretics have pride as the mother of their iniquity, while they always boast of knowing higher things, and rage with insult in the Church. But their arrogance shall be weakened, and the people and the teachers alike shall fall: Judah too, who seems to be in the house of God, and in the Church, dwells there not in mind but in body: and he holds the same opinion in error with the heretics; in vain does he claim the name of churchman, because he too must be punished along with the heretics. We pass over the manifest things quickly, that we may dwell on the more obscure.

Verse 6. With their flocks and with their herds they shall go to seek the Lord, and shall not find him: he is withdrawn from them: they have dealt treacherously against the Lord, for they have begotten strange children: now shall a month devour them with their portions. The Septuagint: With sheep and calves they shall go and seek the Lord, and shall not find him, he has turned aside from them, because they have forsaken the Lord: for they have begotten strange children unto themselves, now shall rust devour them, and their lots. Not only shall Israel and Ephraim go with flocks and herds to seek the Lord, but Judah also, of whom it was written above: Judah also shall ruin with them, all of them having this same contention, that him whom they had offended by their transgressions, they should endeavor to appease with victims; and they shall not find him whom they seek, because he himself has departed along with those who depart.

Especially since elsewhere he also says: Shall I eat the flesh of bullocks, or drink the blood of goats? And again: I will not accept calves out of your house, nor he-goats out of your flocks. And in Isaiah: I desire not the holocausts of rams, and the fat of lambs, and the blood of goats and bullocks. For they have dealt treacherously against the Lord; because, committing fornication with idols, they have begotten children not to God, but to demons. Others think this signifies what is said much later, in the time of Ezra, when they took foreign wives, begetting children by them, and afterward were compelled to put them away. But here it is better to understand strange children as those begotten in the error of idols, or whom, leading them through fire, they consecrated to idols.

Because, then, they did this, not after a long time, not after infinite spans of years, and as I was accustomed formerly to foretell things far in the future; but now, and at the present time, the Assyrian and the Chaldean shall come, and shall devour them with their portions, or lots, that is, with the possessions which they received in the division of the land by measure of the cord. In place of what we have rendered, a month shall devour them, the Seventy translated rust: since indeed rust, that is, ἐρυσίβη, is called HASIL (חםיל), as they themselves also said in the Prophet Joel: What the locust has left, the rust shall eat, that is, HASIL. But "month" is called HODES (חדש): indeed Aquila interpreted it as "new moons," that is, the Kalends; Symmachus and Theodotion, "month"; and the sense is, in every single month the enemy shall come, and shall lay waste everything.

Let us read the books of Kings and Chronicles, and we shall find that under king Pekah, who reigned over the ten tribes, Tiglath-Pileser king of the Assyrians came, and transferred a great part of the people of Samaria into Assyria, at which time, among the Greeks, was the second year of the first Olympiad; and among the Latins (Rome not yet founded), in the twentieth year of Alba, Amulius was reigning, whom afterward Romulus drove from the kingdom. Heretics suppose that they please God by a multitude of sacrifices; and ecclesiastical persons, that by giving alms they redeem the sins in which they persist: whereas every sacrifice blots out past sins, not present ones; therefore they do not find the Lord, who is taken away from such, and withdraws far off. These indeed have dealt treacherously against God, and have begotten strange children, not to Christ, but to the devil: therefore their works are cursed at all times, and everything they do is ravaged by the blood-colored rust, because they are close to blood and slaughter.

But rust is properly said to descend in the night dew, and to stain the milky grains in the ears with the color of vermilion or ruddle; and fittingly, according to the ἀναγωγή (anagogical sense), it lays waste the lots of the heretics, of whom it is said: Their lots shall profit them nothing.

He who sails often, sometimes suffers a storm: he who frequently sets out on a journey either endures the assaults of robbers, or at least fears them; and in every art, both glory and detraction arise from favorable and adverse winds, while either friends praise beyond merit, or enemies detract beyond what is just: and rarely will you find one who is led on either side not by favor or hatred, but by fairness of judgment. This I see happening to me as I labor in the exposition of the Scriptures. For some despise, as it were, small things, and whatever we have said, they scorn with a wrinkled nose; others, out of hatred of my name, consider not the matter but the person: and they approve the silence of others more than my own diligence. There are those who boldly assert that we do this because we have seized upon a work which none of the Latins before us dared to attempt.

Some think themselves eloquent and learned in this, if they detract from another's work, and judge not what they themselves are capable of, but what we are not capable of. But you, Pammachius, who have bidden me to do this—it is necessary that you be a defender of your own command—and be the Amafinius and Rabirius of our time, who out of good Greek make bad Latin; and translate the most eloquent men themselves as tongueless, and trample the Gospel under an evangelical foot; and burn with a cautery the hydra and the scorpion, after the fashion of the poets' fables, and crush them under your sole: and pass by with deaf ear the dogs of Scylla and the deadly songs of the sirens: so that we may equally hear and know what the prophet Hosea foretells, in the exposition of which we now dictate the second book.

And while I rejoice in your support; and rejoice to have as my defender, in the first city of the earth, one first both in nobility and in religion: yet I would rather wish that what Titus Livy writes of Cato should befall me, whose glory neither anyone profited by praising, nor harmed by finding fault, since both were done by men endowed with the highest genius. He means Marcus Cicero and Gaius Caesar: of whom the one wrote praises, the other censures of the aforesaid man. For while we live, and are contained in a fragile vessel, the zeal of friends seems to profit, and the reproaches of rivals to harm.

But after the earth shall have returned to its own earth, and pale death shall have carried off both us who write and those who judge concerning us, and another generation shall have come, and, as the first leaves fall, a green forest shall have grown up, then, apart from the dignity of names, talents alone are judged: nor does he who is about to read consider whose it is, but what sort of thing it is that he is about to read; whether it lies with a bishop or a layman, an emperor and lord, a soldier and a slave; or in purple and silk, or in the vilest rag: it will be judged not by the diversity of honors, but by the merit of the works.

Verse 8. Blow the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah: cry aloud in Bethaven, behind you, Benjamin: Ephraim shall be in desolation in the day of correction, among the tribes of Israel I have shown a faithful thing. The Septuagint: Blow the trumpet upon the hills, sound aloud upon the high places, proclaim in the house of On: Benjamin is out of his mind; Ephraim has become a desolation in the days of correction; among the tribes of Israel I have shown faithful things. Ephraim and Israel and Judah, month by month, or rust with its portions, shall devour them. Wherefore I command you who hear, that you sound aloud not with a lofty voice, but with a clear trumpet: for a clear hearing is needed, that all who are round about may hear.

Blow the horn in Gibeah, whose etymology the Seventy rendered "hills"; and the trumpet in Ramah, which is interpreted "high places": now these two are in the tribe of Benjamin, cities neighboring one another, that is, Gibeah, where Saul was born; and Ramah, which is near Gibeah, situated at the seventh milestone from Jerusalem; and which the king of Israel tried to occupy, so as to close off the going out and coming in of the tribe of Judah. In Gibeah, then, and in Ramah, sound aloud with clear horn and trumpet; of which the horn is pastoral, and is made of a curved horn: whence properly in Hebrew it is called SOPHAR (שופר), in Greek κερατίνη. But the trumpet is made of bronze, or silver, with which they sounded in wars and solemnities. Over Bethaven, which formerly was called Bethel, and is in the tribe of Ephraim, in which was the golden calf, there is need not of blaring and sound, but of wailing: because captivity is near.

And well he said that Bethaven is behind the back of Benjamin: for where the tribe of Benjamin ends, not far off in the tribe of Ephraim, this city was founded. Therefore I say and command: Blow the horn in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah, and wail in Bethaven; because the royal house of Ephraim, or Ephraim himself, that is, the kingdom of Israel, shall now be in desolation; and captivity is near at hand. In the day of the correction and punishment of the ten tribes of Israel, I have shown my faithful words, which I threatened through the prophets: that what I had foretold by speech, I might prove by deed. Some, following the Seventy who said "house of On," have interpreted it as the city of the sun, and, saying that Christ is the sun of righteousness, would have that city be the Church. This displeases me: for neither can the house of the idol, which Aquila interpreted as "the useless house," be referred, according to tropology, to the Church.

But let us rather say this: that the Heretics, who in Gibeah and Ramah promise themselves lofty knowledge, are bidden to wail in the house of the idol; and are not before the face of Benjamin, who is interpreted "son of the right hand," but behind his back, where he has no eyes. For all the boasting of Ephraim, which is interpreted "fruitfulness," shall shortly be in desolation, and when, he says, the day of judgment and the time of correction shall come, I shall show that my words are not empty in their effects. In place of what we have translated, behind you, Benjamin, the Seventy rendered, Benjamin is moved in mind: always applying ἔκστασις, that is, a going out of the mind, to Benjamin, as fitting a man of the church. Whence also in the sixty-seventh psalm it is said: There is Benjamin, a youth, in ecstasy of mind.

And in the blessings of Jacob, under the person of Benjamin, of which tribe the apostle Paul was, we read it written: Benjamin is a ravenous wolf: in the morning he shall eat the prey, and in the evening he shall give food. For he who at first persecuted the Church, afterward, throughout the whole world, bestowed nourishment on those who believed the Gospel. Whence also Saul, who was of the tribe of Benjamin, in ecstasy of mind, prophesied the whole day until evening among the choir of the prophets.

Verse 10. The princes of Judah are become as those who remove the boundary; upon them will I pour out my wrath like water. The Septuagint: The princes of Judah are become as those who move boundaries: upon them will I pour out my onrush like water. When Ephraim and Israel had been led into captivity, and their land reduced to a wilderness, the princes of Judah, who ought to have wept, and exhorted their own people to withdraw from idolatry, lest they too should suffer the same things, began to rejoice and be glad, that their land now lay open to them to possess more widely: and they became like those removing the boundaries of Israel, crossing over their own borders; and desiring, in the places once belonging to them, to extend their own kingdom and possession. Wherefore the Lord says: And upon these very princes of Judah shall come the Babylonians; and thus, like a rush of water, shall they overwhelm them: not by their own strength, but by my indignation.

He says this also to the princes of Judah, that is, of the Church, that they ought not to exult; nor to reckon the destruction of the heretics as their own salvation: but rather to grieve, that they have perished. Whence also the apostle Paul teaches men of the Church, not to glory over the breaking off of the Jewish branches, but rather to fear lest they themselves also be broken off. And in another place: Who, he says, is made to stumble, and I am not inflamed? Otherwise, upon such princes as glory in the miseries of others, and therefore think that they themselves stand, if others fall, the Lord will pour out his wrath like water. In place of "wrath," the Seventy translated ὁρμήν, that is, "onrush"; and some think it should be taken as a blessing, according to that which we read elsewhere: The rush of the river makes glad the city of God.

But it is more correct (as all besides the Seventy have translated) to take it as wrath: especially since the term of "pouring out" agrees with wrath, the prophet saying to the Lord: Pour out upon them your wrath, and let the fury of your anger overtake them. The princes of Judah remove the boundaries which their fathers set, when they change truth into a lie; and preach something other than what they received from the apostles. (Verse 11.) Ephraim suffers calumny, broken in judgment, because he began to go away after filth. The LXX: Ephraim oppressed his adversary, trampled on judgment, because he began to go away after vain things. If Ephraim is impious, and on account of his impiety will be brought to desolation, how is it now said: Ephraim suffering calumny, broken in judgment? For he who suffers calumny and is broken, his judgment is unjustly oppressed, especially when a just cause is set forth for which he was handed over to captivity.

For there follows: because he began to go away after filth, that is, after idols which are compared to filth. What he says, then, is this: Ephraim is oppressed by the Assyrians, first by Phul, then by Tiglath-pileser, afterward by Shalmaneser: not because those who oppressed him were just, and therefore he was handed over to them; but because those who were once my people, with me abandoning them, are handed over to punishments, and in this there seems to be calumny, not toward God, who inflicts a just sentence, but toward those who endure the torments, since they are given over to worse adversaries. And the Lord gives the reason why they suffer calumny in this regard, and are handed over to worse ones, and why judgment is not observed toward them: because Ephraim, that is, Jeroboam, began to go away after idols, and to forsake God: for he himself fashioned golden calves.

According to the Septuagint interpretation, Ephraim, that is, Jeroboam, oppressed his adversary Rehoboam, that is, the tribe of Judah, and in this he oppressed him: because, having deserted Jerusalem and the temple, he followed the images of the filth of the Egyptians. Concerning heretics the sense is manifest: that by their false sophisms and dialectical art they often oppress churchmen; but when they have done this, they follow not the cleanness of true faith, but the filth of lying, and, having been handed over to the devil and his angels, they seem to themselves to suffer calumny, and that the truth of judgment is broken in them. Thus Israel is laid waste, and all his labors are plundered by the conquering Assyrian; and he has lost God as his ruler, and therefore is broken in judgment, because he followed idols. (Verse 12.) And I will be like a moth to Ephraim, and like rottenness to the house of Judah. The LXX: And I will be like a disturbance to Ephraim, and like a goad to the house of Judah.

In the Hebrew tongue AS (עש) means moth; RECOB (רקב) means rottenness and decay; the one consumes garments, the other wood; for these the LXX rendered ταραχήν, that is, tumult, or disturbance, and a goad. And it should be noted that the moth is referred to Ephraim, and the rottenness to the house of Judah. Just as a moth consumes garments, and rottenness or decay consumes wood, and both happen over a long time, so God, giving room for repentance both to the ten tribes and afterward to the two tribes over a long time, and calling them to salvation, while they store up wrath for themselves against the day of wrath, becomes like a moth and like rottenness—not that God is a moth or rottenness, or a disturbance or a goad, but that this is how all these things appear to those enduring the punishments.

First, therefore, Ephraim and Israel were consumed, then the house of Judah followed: not Judah himself, but his house; for otherwise there was reserved from the family of Judah him to whom it was kept in store: And he was the expectation of the nations. But when heretics are punished, who are understood as Ephraim, Judah also—that is, those who remain with the Church but are held fast by the errors or vices of the heretics—will be subject to a like sentence. (Verse 13.) And Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his bond, and Ephraim went to Assyria: and sent to the avenging king, and he will not be able to heal you, nor will he be able to loose from you the bond. The LXX: And Ephraim saw his infirmity, and Judah his pain, and Ephraim went to the Assyrians, and sent envoys to king Jarib, and he was not able to free you, nor will he make the pain cease from you. "Envoys" is not found in the Hebrew.

And where the Septuagint has placed Jarib, we, following Symmachus, have translated "avenger"; for Aquila and Theodotion interpreted it as "judge." That JARIB (יריב) signifies both avenger and judge is shown by the name of Gideon (Judges 6), whom, when the worshippers of Baal sought for punishment, because he had overthrown the grove and altars of Baal, his father answered: let Baal avenge himself, or let Baal judge him; and he was called, it says, Jerubbaal, that is, let Baal avenge himself. Thus Ephraim, understanding his own infirmity, and Judah his bond, by which he had been bound together with the ten tribes in sin, sought help not from God, who was able to loose it, but from the king of the Assyrians. We read that under king Menahem, who ruled the ten tribes, Israel sent gifts to the Assyrians; and Judah, under king Ahaz, demanded the aid of Tiglath-pileser, king of the Assyrians, who, with God opposing them, could not free them, nor loose the bond of captivity.

We may take "bond," for which in the Hebrew is written MEZUR (מזור), and Aquila interpreted as ἐπίδεσιν or σύνδεσμον, that is, a binding or conspiracy, and refer it to that time when Rezin and Pekah son of Remaliah laid waste many thousands of men from the tribe of Judah, because Judah in vain demanded against the two kings not God's aid, but that of the Assyrians. Some, following the tropological sense, refer Ephraim and Judah to heretics and to churchmen, in that both they and Judah are bound by the bonds of sins, according to what is written: Each one is bound by the cords of his own sins, and sent to Assyria and to the avenging king, that is, to the devil, of whom we read: That thou mayest destroy the enemy and the avenger. And because they sought neither a true helper nor a true judge, therefore he made them remain in the pain of sickness and in the bonds of their sins.

I have read in the commentaries of a certain writer that king Jarib is interpreted as Christ. And because there follows: He will not be able to heal you, he used this argument, that Christ cannot heal heretics or sinning churchmen at the time of judgment, where there is no mercy, according to what is written: But in hell who shall confess to thee? And that he cannot heal or free them, not at all through his own weakness, but through the merit of those who sought help too late. Just as also the Lord is said to have been unable to work signs in his own country: and the reason why he could not is explained: because, it says, they did not believe in him. That writer said these things; let us in the bad sense interpret the king as avenger.

For what we have expounded as Jarib, that is, avenger, others wrongly read JARIM with the letter MEM, which is translated "into the woods"; whence also Cariath jarim is interpreted "town of the woods." (Verse 14.) For I will be like a lioness to Ephraim, and like a lion's whelp to the house of Judah. The LXX: For I am like a panther to Ephraim, and like a lion in the house of Judah. To them going to Assyria, and sending to the avenging or vindicating king, who will not be able to heal them, nor to loose the bond that binds them, I will show that with me opposing, all human help is vain: for I will be like a lioness to Ephraim, and like a lion's whelp to the house of Judah.

For "lioness," which in Hebrew is called SOHEL (שחל), the Septuagint interpreted as panther, which is called the same in Greek and Latin, and can be taken both as the name of the beast and as any beast; so that whatever is fierce among beasts, you may recognize this in God's indignation. Nothing is swifter than the panther, nothing stronger than the lion: in the swift panther the destruction of the kingdom of Samaria through the Assyrians is signified; and in the lion the strongest kingdom of the Chaldeans is shown, coming somewhat later against Jerusalem and Judah. And because he had said he was a lioness or panther, and a lion, he preserves the metaphor, and says: (Verse 15.) I, I will seize and go, and I will carry off, and there is none to deliver: going I will return to my place until you fail, and seek my face.

The LXX: And I will seize, and go and carry off, and there will be none to deliver: I will go and return to my place until they perish and seek my face. It is asked, if, when God seizes, and carries off, and holds fast, no one can snatch from his hands, according to what is written: No one can snatch out of my Father's hand, how was Judas snatched from the hand of God by betrayal? To this we shall briefly answer: no one can snatch from the hand of God; but he who is held can, by his own will, fall away from the hand of God.

And what follows: Going I will return to my place, we ought to take as referring to the place of God, to his magnificence and majesty: so that he by no means descends to men according to dispensation, grows angry, has mercy, forgets, becomes as it were a panther, is turned into a lion, is changed into beasts; but rather that he disdains human affairs, and permits those whom he formerly protected to lie subject to enemies, that they may waste away, and fail, and perish, and afterward seek the face of the Lord, and say: Cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. And: Show us, O Lord, thy mercy, and grant us thy salvation.

To heretics also, and to a negligent Church, God is turned into a panther and a lion; and he will take from them the prey which they formerly seized from the Church, so that those who perished while free may be saved by being captured; and he will by no means dwell in the assemblies of the perverse, but will return to his own place, of which he says: I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and he will spurn and despise them, until they fail in their impiety, and seek through repentance him by whom they had been forsaken. Others suppose the place of God to be heaven; from which God, offended by those who dwell on earth, will turn away, and will make them perish who have turned the most merciful Lord, by the magnitude of their sins, into the rage of wild beasts against themselves.

(Verses 1, 2.) In their tribulation they will arise early to me: come, and let us return unto the Lord, for he has taken hold, and he will heal us: he will strike, and he will cure us: he will bring us to life after two days, and on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight: we shall know and follow, that we may know the Lord. LXX: In their tribulation they will watch early for me, saying: let us go and return to the Lord our God: for he will scourge, and he will heal us: he will strike, and he will cure us: he will make us whole after two days: on the third we shall rise again and live before him, and we shall know, and we shall pursue, that we may know the Lord.

Therefore God delivered Ephraim and Judah to captivity, and there is none who can snatch them from his hand, and he will return to his own place until they fail, and seek his face, that they who had not perceived him as gracious and present might seek him as angry and absent, and that in their tribulation, the light of penitence having arisen upon them, they might rise early to him, according to what we read in Isaiah: In tribulation I remembered the Lord. And in the first psalm of the steps: When I was in tribulation I cried to the Lord, and he heard me. And when they shall have risen early to the Lord, what shall they say? Come, and let us return to the Lord. They are not content with their own salvation, but urge one another to return to the Lord whom they had abandoned, whom because of their sins they had forsaken, by whom they had been forsaken.

For he himself has taken hold, and he will heal us: he who had said above, I, I will seize, and go; he will strike, and he will cure us. For what we have rendered as “he will cure,” all alike translated “μοτώσει”; and properly “μότα” are called the little linen cloths which are inserted into wounds, so that they may eat away the putrid flesh, and draw out the pus: and it is the art of physicians to heal great wounds over a long time, and through pain to restore health. Therefore the Lord strikes, and cures us: for whom the Lord loves he corrects, and he chastises every son whom he receives; and he not only cures, but he brings to life after two days, and rising from the dead on the third day, he raises up with himself the whole race of men. And when he has cured the stricken, and brought to life the cured, and raised up those brought to life, then we shall live in his sight, we who, while he was absent, lay dead.

But we shall live in his sight: we shall know him, and with all zeal we shall pursue, that we may know the Lord, by whose rising on the third day we ourselves have risen. By these words is explained what we have already often noted, that both Israel and Judah, that is, the ten and the two tribes, will then have one shepherd, and King David, when they shall have believed in the Lord rising again; and the Jews vainly promise themselves dreams of a thousand years, since the salvation of all was promised for the third day, on which the Lord rose from the dead. The Hebrews interpret the second day as the coming of their Christ, and the third day as the judgment, when they are to be saved. But even if we grant this, let them answer us what the first day is, that is, the first coming of the Savior.

And when they are unable to answer, let us infer that the first day, according to what they themselves wish, is the coming of the Savior in humility, the second in glory, the third in the guise of one judging. But those who accept the second and third testify that they have lost the first: because the second and third cannot be so named without the first. (Verse 3.) His going forth is prepared like the dawn, and he will come to us like the early and the latter rain of the earth. LXX: Like the morning we shall find him prepared, and he will come to us like the early and the latter rain of the earth. Come, he says, and let us return to the Lord, for he who has taken hold, and will heal us, will strike and cure us, and will bring us to life after two days, and on the third day will raise us up, he himself and no other, is prepared for us like the morning and the dawn.

Of whom also is the title of the twenty-first psalm: For the morning assumption; although in the Hebrew it is written: For the morning hind: because, death having been slain, and the twisting and ancient serpent, he desires to ascend to the mountains, and he himself, the darkness having been scattered, rises for us as the sun of justice, that he may illumine our blindness. And beautifully it is said, his going forth is prepared. Of whom, according to the tropology, in the eighteenth psalm we read: And he himself goes forth as a bridegroom from his chamber. Who is called not only morning, and dawn, and daybreak: but he will come to us like the early and latter rain of the earth. We receive Christ as the early rain, when the foundations of faith are laid in us; and we shall receive him as the latter rain, when, the crops being ripe, we shall gather the eternal harvests, and be stored in the barns of the Lord.

Therefore the Jews, who did not receive the early rains, and cast their seed without rains, shall not receive the fruit of the crops in the last time. This is the rain of which the Lord promises, saying: I will give you the early and the latter rain. According to allegory, the early rain is given when we know in part: the latter rain is given when that which is perfect comes. And the Lord is always ready for those who rise early, who can say, I will arise at dawn. And: O God, my God, I watch for you from the light. My soul has thirsted for you. (Verses 4, 5.) What shall I do to you, Ephraim? What shall I do to you, Judah? Your mercy is like a morning cloud, and like the dew that passes away in the morning: therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, and slain them by the words of my mouth, and your judgments shall go forth like the light. LXX: What shall I do to you, Ephraim?

But your mercy is like a morning cloud, and like the dew that passes away in the morning: therefore I have cut down your prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and your judgment shall go forth like the light. When he says: What shall I do to you, Ephraim? He shows the affection of a parent toward lost sons, according to what we read in Isaiah: What is it that I ought further to have done to my vineyard, and I have not done it? And in Micah: My people, what have I done to you, or in what have I been troublesome to you? Answer me; for I brought you out of the land of Egypt, I delivered you from the house of bondage, and I sent before your face Moses, and Aaron, and Miriam. What then shall I do to you, Ephraim, what shall I do to you, Judah?

Your mercy, with which I have always had mercy on you, has passed away like a morning cloud, and like the dew rising in the morning, which, the sun having risen, is dried up. For now captivity is near, now I see you being led away in chains into the Assyrians and the Babylonians: I have hewn you by the prophets, and I have threatened you with terrible words, I have brought forth the scalpel, fires and cauteries, that you who despised the merciful one might fear him offended, and I have slain the negligent by the words of my mouth, that I might punish sinners with the terror of words before captivity should threaten. And all these things I have done, that the truth of the judgment, with which I am about to judge you, might appear, and that no one might doubt that you have justly suffered what you suffer.

For what is “I have hewn them by the prophets,” the Seventy translated, “I have cut down your prophets,” understanding the false prophets themselves as slain by the Lord: that they who had been the cause of error, promising prosperous things, being slain, might be turned into an occasion of salvation. And the sense is: Lest you should say, we believed the prophets, I have slain even them: that every occasion of sinning might be removed from you. We read in the book of Kings that four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal were slain under Elijah, and another innumerable multitude under Jehu, who overthrew the house of Ahab. We understand these same things to have been said also against heretics, and against the true Judah, who is to suffer similar things, because the Lord provokes them to mercy, and desires them to return to salvation.

But they pursue the delights and refreshments of this world, like a cloud and dew that quickly pass, to whom it is said in the Gospel: Fool, this night they require your soul from you: and the things which you have prepared, whose shall they be? And that rich man clothed in purple, who despised Lazarus lying before his gates, knew that all he had enjoyed had passed like a cloud and dew. But God always slays the prophets of heretics: while he threatens them with eternal punishments, and takes them away from true life, and abandons them to the death of their sins. But let us love that cloud which is perpetual, and which protects us from the burning of this world, sitting upon which the Lord came into Egypt, and broke all the idols of the Egyptians. Let us love that dew, of which Moses speaks: Let my words descend like dew.

And of which Isaiah says: The dead shall rise, and they who are in the graves shall be raised up: for the dew that is from you is their health. There are those who reckon the slain prophets to have been truly holy, because for the sake of the sinning people even the prophets were slain and delivered to enemies. (Verses 6, 7.) For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice: and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings; but they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant: there they have dealt treacherously against me. LXX: For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings: but they are like a man passing over the covenant.

What follows in the Seventy: There Galaad, the city that works vain things, has despised me, and the rest, are to be joined to the following chapter: let us discuss what we have proposed: I have hewn them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth, I have threatened grave things, that I might have mercy on the penitent, that I might extend a hand to the fallen as they rise. For I am not delighted by sacrifices and victims, and a multitude of burnt offerings. My victims and burnt offerings are the salvation of believers, and the conversion of sinners. But they have imitated Adam, so that what he had done in paradise, transgressing my covenant and law, these did on earth. And there, that is, in paradise, all transgressed against me, in likeness to the transgression of Adam. For it is no wonder if what preceded in the parent is condemned also in the children.

Daily God provokes both those who are outside the Church, and those who sin while dwelling in the Church, to repentance, and says to them: I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. But they offer sacrilegious bread, and give alms, and seem to pursue humility: which I interpret as burnt offerings, if they are truly done. But when they have abandoned the knowledge of God, in vain, the head of faith having been cut off, they boast of having the other members: for they have transgressed the covenant of God in the Church, as Adam transgressed in paradise; and they show themselves imitators of the ancient parent, so that just as he was cast out of paradise, so also they are cast out of the Church. (Verse 8.) Galaad is a city of workers of idols, tripped up by blood, and like the throat of robber men (or of a robber man)—for it may be read either way.

LXX: There Galaad has despised me, a city that works vain things, and troubles the water, and your strength is like a pirate man. We read that in Ramoth Galaad Jehu was anointed king, who mingled blood with blood, and overthrew the house of Ahab, and before sunrise ordered heaps of the heads of his sons to be set up; in this city across the Jordan, in the possession of the tribe of Gad, an idol was consecrated: which was inhabited by priests, for it was itself also a city of fugitives. The more celebrated therefore and of greater authority, because it had been allotted to a portion of the priests, the more it became, for Israel dwelling across the Jordan, the beginning of idolatry and of all evils, so that they who sinned first were the first to be captured by the Assyrians. And since that province is full of robberies, he compares them to robbers, that just as those lie in wait for travelers, so the priests lay in wait for the simplicity of the people.

Further, according to the tropology, Galaad is interpreted as “the migration of testimony”; and it despises God, while it distorts the testimonies of the Scriptures to perverse doctrines, and all its works are vain, and it troubles the waters of the Church, and out of the purest fountains makes muddy and filthy streams, which stain rather than cleanse those who are baptized. And all the strength of this city is like a pirate man, while it imitates the devil, who in the sea of this world, through which ships pass, lies in wait for those who strive to reach the harbor. Indeed Symmachus translated it more clearly, saying: And your throat is like that of a man lying in ambush. Of such pirates we read in Job: There is no delay for pirates.

For although in the present age they seem to boast themselves, and to trouble the waters, and to work vain things, and to practice piracy—Galaad, which is to be joined to this chapter, the Father himself had taught above.—yet there is no delay of punishments, which will swiftly overtake them. (Verse 9.) A partaker of priests in the way of murderers, going on from Sichem: for they have wrought wickedness. LXX: The priests hid the way of the Lord, they slew Sicima: for they have wrought iniquity.

Symmachus has interpreted this passage thus: A society of priests were slaying Sichem in the way: Theodotion in this manner, The priests hid the way, they were slaying on the back: Aquila, A participation of priests in the way were slaying the shoulders: whose meaning, when we sought it according to the history from the Hebrew, was thus explained to us: The priests of Bethel, or rather the fanatics of Bethaven, at the times of the Passover and of Pentecost, and of the Feast of Tabernacles, when it was necessary to go through Sichem, which today is called Neapolis, to Jerusalem, where alone it was lawful to offer victims, used to set robbers in the way, who would lie in ambush for those going, so that they might rather worship God through the golden calves in Dan and in Bethaven than in Jerusalem and in the temple. But when he says: Participation and society of priests, he signifies their conspiracy, and consent unto evil.

But if we read, as we have translated it: partaker of priests, it must be referred, he says, to Galaad, which works the idol: and it is also tripped up by blood, because it followed the impiety of the priests, and is given to robberies and to blood. This is what they would say: But let us say that the heretics block the way, lest we go from Sichem, that is, from good works, into Jerusalem, that is, into the Church. These are as it were the jaws of robber men, and they kill those who desire to go through the way of this world to the truth. Sichem is interpreted ὦμοι, that is, shoulders: by the shoulders we understand work, and all false priests hide the way, and kill men by evil works, lest they arrive at Jerusalem. That the shoulder signifies work is shown by this: Set your heart upon your shoulder, that is, turn into works what you understand.

And of Issachar we read, that he put his shoulder to labor, and became a husbandman. (Verses 10, 11.) In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing; there is the fornication of Ephraim, Israel is defiled: but also, Judah, appoint thyself a harvest, when I shall have turned back the captivity of my people. LXX: In the house of Israel I have seen horrible things, there is the fornication of Ephraim, Israel and Judah are defiled: begin thy vintage when I shall have turned back the captivity of my people. Of this crime and terrible horror Jeremiah has spoken: The heaven was astonished at this, and the earth trembled exceedingly. For what is more horrible than that the ten tribes suddenly went over to the worship of idols?

Whence it is said to their metropolis: Take away thy calf, O Samaria, in which Ephraim first committed fornication, that is, Jeroboam of the tribe of Ephraim, and by his fornication Israel was defiled, namely the people of Samaria, which for the greater part obtained the common name of Israel. Whence also the discourse turns to Judah: Thou also, Judah, appoint thyself a harvest, and the sense is: Do not think yourself secure because Israel is led captive; you too prepare for yourself crops, that they may be reaped; for not long after you will be led captive into Babylon, and the time of your harvest will come. And when the Chaldeans shall have reaped you, I will again turn back the captivity of my people, and under Cyrus king of the Persians, and Artaxerxes, I will bring back my people.

And note how significantly both the captivity of Judah and the return are together prophesied; but concerning Israel, that is, concerning the ten tribes, it is now passed over in silence, and if ever anything favorable is said, it is deferred to the coming of Christ. But in the house of the heretics we daily see horrible things: their teachers first committing fornication, and the people who are led by them being defiled. Judah too, that is, the Church, is bidden that he also, on account of sins, prepare for himself a harvest, or a vintage, when the time of judgment shall arrive. But to this one pardon is granted, and the Lord promises forgiveness, because he chastises whom he loves, and scourges every son whom he receives, that, proved and purged, he may store him up in his treasuries.

Some refer this saying, Judah, begin thy vintage, or, appoint thyself a harvest, to a good sense, so that, Israel being punished, this one may receive the fruit of his own works according to what is written: They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. To us the former sense is more pleasing.

(Verse 1.) When I would heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim was revealed, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they have wrought a lie, and a thief has entered in, a robber plundering abroad. LXX similarly. Many times Israel received wounds of idolatry, and especially that one, when in the wilderness they melted a calf's head, and said: These are thy gods, O Israel, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Whence I, who prefer the repentance of the sinner rather than his death, and afterward speak in the Gospel: The healthy need not a physician, but they that are sick, attempted to heal the wounds of my people.

And while I was handling these things with every art, that the wretched people might be cured, suddenly there arose Jeroboam of the tribe of Ephraim, who made the golden calves, and the wickedness of Samaria was revealed, following an impious king: for both king and people wrought a lie, that is, an idol. For just as an image is contrary to God, so a lie is contrary to truth. And the king himself entered in like a thief unto the people of Israel, and, like a plundering robber, stripped the unhappy flock of God of its help. And the sense is: When I wished to wipe away the old sins of my people, on account of the ancient idolatry, Ephraim and Samaria found new idols.

But this too can be said, that when the Lord the Savior, after the shedding of his blood, and wishing to gather his Church from both Jews and Gentiles, and to heal the sins of the people, and lead them back to repentance; suddenly Ephraim, who promise the fruitfulness of false doctrines, and the people of Samaria who say they keep the precepts of God, arose and wrought the idol of false doctrines, and through them the thief and robber the devil entered into the Church: or the very doctrine of the heretics entered in, like a thief and a robber, of whom the Savior says in the Gospel: All that came before me were thieves and robbers. Thieves lie in wait, and deceive by hidden fraud: robbers boldly seize what belongs to others. For those who steal, steal by night and in darkness. Whence he says significantly, that the thief entered secretly, and the robber plundered abroad.

For they cannot strip of Christ's garment those whom they have taught, unless they have led them forth out of the Church, and made them walk in the perverse way of their own doctrines. By the thieves and robbers who came before the Lord we ought to understand not Moses and the prophets, who are always praised by the Savior's mouth, but the false prophets, and afterward the heretics, who were not sent by the Lord, but came of their own will. (Verse 2.) And lest perhaps they should say in their hearts, I have remembered all their wickedness: now their own devices have surrounded them: they have been done before my face. LXX: That they may sing together as though singing in their hearts, I have remembered all their wickednesses: now their own thoughts have surrounded them, they have been done before my face.

Lest perhaps, he says, they should say in their hearts: God has requited us for the old sins, and we have paid the debts of our fathers: they ate the sour grape, and the teeth of the children were set on edge; therefore what they have done now and at present, before my eyes, and what they do daily, I will relate in the following discourse, and I will show them their own devices, or thoughts by which they have most eagerly pursued evil things, and what they have done in my presence, not fearing my face.

But what we read in the Septuagint, that they may sing together as though singing in their hearts, must be referred to this, that the thief who entered in, or the robber who plundered abroad, did so lest, remaining in their former riches and garments, they should repel the consent of the thief and the robber; but when they have been despoiled, they sing together with them, and are made of one heart: therefore they will receive what they have done, and all their thoughts or works will not merit my regard. The heretics too cannot plead old sins against God; since daily they add new impiety to their ancient works, and perish with the perishing, and are bound by their own errors, and although they think they hide themselves from God, they cannot avoid his eyes. (Verse 3.) In their wickedness they have made glad the king, and in their lies the princes. LXX: In their wickednesses they have made glad the kings, and in their lies the princes.

He explains what they did before his face: In their wickednesses they made glad king Jeroboam, and in their lies the princes who had been set over the people under Jeroboam. The heretics also, in the wickedness of their works, have made glad the king, the devil, and in the lies of their perverse dogmas, the princes, doubtless of this world, whose false wisdom God destroys. We may say that among the heretics he is the king who first devised the heresy, and the princes are those who, being set over the peoples of the heretics, claim for themselves a false priesthood. And it must be noted at the same time, that the contrary powers and the rulers and princes of these darknesses rejoice in our sins. (Verse 4.) All are adulterers, like an oven heated by the baker: the city rested a little from the mixture of leaven, until the whole was leavened. LXX: All are adulterers like an oven burning for baking unto the burning of a flame, from the mixture of leaven, until the whole was leavened.

Those who in their wickedness made glad the king, and in their lies the princes, are all adulterers, and like an oven kindled by Jeroboam with the fire of idolatry, that they might bake the bread of impiety, which, when it had sent the fire of error into their souls, like a furnace and oven first kindled, rested a little, so as not to use force upon the people, but to leave them to their own will, until the whole lie should be leavened: for whatever is done by necessity is quickly dissolved; what is seized upon by will endures. Therefore here too, because he had taken the metaphor from the oven, which is kindled for the baking of loaves, he preserves it in what follows, so as to show, in the mixture of leaven, the assent of the whole people: namely, that both king and people fell together with equal ardor into idolatry.

That the hearts of heretics are kindled with the fire of the devil, so that in them the loaves of Antichrist may be baked, no one doubts: who therefore at first are quiet in the Church, and speak secretly, and promise all things peaceable, so that the cancer may creep gradually among the peoples, and the leaven of their doctrine (which the Lord also, understanding, speaks of: Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees) when it has swelled in the hearts of the deceived, then they break forth into open madness, and there is fulfilled in them what is said by John the Apostle: They went out from us, but they were not of us: for if they had been of us, they would surely have remained with us. (Verses 5 and following.) The day of our king: the princes began to be mad with wine: he stretched forth his hand with the mockers: who applied their heart like an oven, while he lay in wait for them.

All the night he slept baking them, in the morning [and] they promise all things peaceable. But he speaks of the heretics, who always promise prosperity and happiness, and without labors and works claim for themselves the kingdom of heaven: which plague in our time wonderfully creeps through the Church. He himself was kindled like the flame of fire: all grew hot like an oven, and devoured their judges: all their kings fell, there is none among them who cries out to me. Septuagint: The day of your kings. The princes began to rage with wine: he stretched out his hand with pestilent men, because their hearts were kindled like an oven, while they were being cast down all night long. Ephraim is filled with sleep: morning came: he was kindled like the flame of fire. All grew hot like an oven from burning fire, and fire devoured their judges. All their kings fell: there is none among them who calls upon me.

This is an obscure passage requiring the reader's careful attention, that we may first grasp the historical sense. For a little while Israel and the city of Samaria rested, having taken into itself the heat of error, until the whole mass became like leaven, and grew and burst forth, and the swelling people cried out at the doors of King Jeroboam, saying: This is the day of our king Jeroboam, this is the festal day which our ruler has appointed for us: this we celebrate, this we sing, in this we exult and play, in this we worship the golden calves. When the people cried out, the princes were not angered, as some suppose; but they themselves also began to rage from wine, and to lose the understanding of their mind, to forget God, and to dash themselves against the wood of idols.

When the king saw this—namely, that the people were crying out and saying: this day is our king's day, and that the princes, like drunken and frenzied men, knew not what they said—he stretched out his hand to the mockers, he gave his assent to those who mocked him with vain praises. These mockers, when their king was laying snares for them and leading them away from God, offered him their heart like an oven, so that he might kindle them and make them burn with the flames of idolatry. For this reason he assented to the people, because he perceived that they had all turned their mind entirely to error.

And what follows: all night he slept, cooking them, in the morning he himself was kindled like the flame of fire—this signifies: after he had put fire into the oven of their heart, and saw them raging, and that there was none to resist his will, all night he slept, that is, he was at ease: he passed his time in darkness, while they were being cooked and were producing the bread of impiety. Whence afterward he arose in the morning, and by open madness displayed the flame of his crimes, so that no longer by stealth, but shamelessly, they might leap over from the worship of God to the ceremonies of idols. What more? All grew hot like an oven, kindled by the fire of idolatry, and devoured their judges, so that even he who by nature might have been good, and might have remembered the religion of the Lord, seeing both princes and people subjected to the calves, and thinking them gods, was himself also devoured by the crime.

Finally all the kings of Israel fell, and walked in the ways of Jeroboam the son of Nabat, who made Israel sin, and none was found who, having forsaken idols, returned to God. These things, according to the tradition of the Hebrews, I have spoken more boldly than with certain knowledge, leaving the credibility of the statements to their authors. Now let us pass to the spiritual understanding: Unhappy are the peoples who are seduced by the devil their king, and by his princes; or those who from the leader of a heresy, and his chiefs, have taken up other solemnities, forsaking the Church, and trampling upon the truth of the faith, are wont to cry out and say: This is the day of our king: for example, of Valentinus, of Marcion, of Arius, and of Eunomius.

Hearing this, those who are set over them are not made drunk with wine, lest the sin be thought light; but they rage from wine, of which Moses wrote in the Song of Deuteronomy: The wine of dragons is their fury, and the incurable fury of asps: for these eat the foods of impiety, and are made drunk with the wine of iniquity. Of this the Apostle also speaks: Be not drunk with wine, in which is excess. And in Proverbs we read: Let not princes drink wine: lest they forget wisdom, and be not able to judge rightly. Whence, both peoples and leaders being deceived, the prince stretches out his hand to the mockers and the pestilent men, such as the sons of Eli were, and of whom we read in the first psalm: He has not sat in the seat of the pestilent; of whom it is said: Cast out the pestilent man from counsel, and strife shall go out with him: whose hearts are kindled, that they may dash down those whom they have deceived.

For this, according to the Septuagint, the cataracts signify, which he did not lift up, but they dash down. And what he says: All night Ephraim was filled with sleep, shows that heretics sleeping do not see the light of the sun of justice. For those who sleep, sleep by night: because their understanding is oppressed. And of these we read in the Psalms: They have slept their sleep, and have found nothing. Their hearts grow hot with various disturbances: anger, love, avarice; and they devour their judges, whether whatever powers of soul they might have, or the faculties by which they discern good from evil. Or this may be said, that the leaders of heretics are devoured by their own peoples, so that as they devour the houses of these for the sake of base gain, they themselves are devoured by their assent. All the princes of heretics have fallen: although one cries to the Lord, there is none who calls upon his name: For everyone who shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among those who call upon his name: they called upon the Lord, and he heard them—whom the kings and princes of heretics he does not hear, because there is none among them who cries to the Lord. (Vv. 8-10.) Ephraim was mingled among his peoples himself, Ephraim has become a cake baked under the ashes, that is not turned: strangers have devoured his strength, and he himself knew it not. And even gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, and he himself knew it not; and the pride of Israel shall be humbled before his face: neither have they returned to the Lord their God, nor have they sought him in all this.

Septuagint: Ephraim was mingled with his peoples: Ephraim has become a cake baked under the ashes, that is not turned: strangers have devoured his strength, but he himself knew it not, and gray hairs have blossomed upon him, and he himself was ignorant of it: and the reproach of Israel shall be humbled before his face, and they have not returned to the Lord their God, and have not sought him in all this. The kingdom of the ten tribes became like all the nations, because they departed from the Lord: and like a cake baked under the ashes that is not turned, that is, does not do penance, the Assyrians and Chaldeans devoured his strength, and whatever powers he could have, they devoured. And such was the foolishness that he did not know he had been devoured: or at least he was ignorant of the cause on account of which he had been given over to the devourers: finally even unto old age, that is, even unto the final captivity, he remained in the error he had begun.

Whence the pride of Israel shall be humbled not long afterward, but now and at present: for this is what he means by, before his face: but he shall be humbled, because he had exalted himself and trusted not in God, but in the multitude of his army. And because God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble, for "pride," that is GAON (גאון), the Septuagint, according to their custom, rendered ὕβριν, that is, injury. And because he had said above: Ephraim has become a cake baked under the ashes that is not turned, and it seemed ambiguous, and did not sufficiently express what he meant, now he states it more plainly: They have not returned to the Lord their God, and have not sought him in all this. For if they had returned to the Lord their God, they would surely have heard God speaking through Jeremiah, Return to me, and I will return to you. And though they did such things, they did not seek him whom by their own fault they had lost.

But since Ephraim ought, to pass to another meaning, to teach the peoples, and draw them to his own likeness, he himself is mingled with the peoples, and becomes like them, according to what was said above: It shall be as with the people, so with the priest. Or Ephraim is mingled with the peoples and the nations, so that all heretics differ in nothing from the error of the gentiles. And he who was once a leader in the Church has become a cake baked under the ashes, surrounded on every side by unclean ash and the heat of fires, so that he might not return to the Lord, but remain in the error he had begun.

Demons have devoured his strength: for these are strangers and enemies of all Christians, and he himself knew it not, thinking his adversaries friends, and supposing his devourers to be companions at table; but gray hairs also have been scattered upon him, indeed have blossomed, that is, he has erred for a long time; and nevertheless he was ignorant of his own old age and decrepitude, of which it is written: What is worn out and grows old is near destruction. And if to the just man, and the man of the Church, it is said: Gray hairs are the wisdom of man, why should it not be said to the wicked man and the heretic: Gray hairs are the folly of man? Concerning this old age Daniel said to the elder: Thou grown old in evil days. Whence also in the book of the Shepherd (if indeed it pleases anyone to accept its reading) of Hermas, the Church first appears with gray head, then as a young maiden, and as a bride adorned with braided hair.

And although the pride of heretics, or the reproach which they daily inflict on churchmen, is humbled, they do not return to the Lord; but in all these things they by no means seek him: because they are heated like an oven, and have not sought him: they have devoured their judges, and their kings have likewise fallen, nor is there any who cries to the Lord. All these things they have suffered, that they might seek the Lord, whom they were unwilling to seek. (Vv. 11, 12.) And Ephraim has become like a dove seduced, having no heart. They called upon Egypt, they went to the Assyrians: and when they shall have set out, I will spread my net over them, I will bring them down like a bird of the sky, I will strike them according to the report of their assembly. Septuagint: And Ephraim was like a foolish dove having no heart. He called upon Egypt, and they went to the Assyrians as they shall go.

I will cast my net over them, that I may bring down the birds of the sky, I will chastise them at the hearing of their affliction. The Lord commanded in the Gospel that we be simple as doves, and wise as serpents, so that, imitating the simplicity of doves and the cunning of the serpent, we may neither be able to harm others, nor suffer snares from others, but by simplicity and prudence show forth a well-tempered man: for prudence without goodness is malice, and simplicity without reason is called foolishness. Ephraim therefore has become like a seduced dove, which in Hebrew is PHOTHA (פותה): rendered by Aquila and Symmachus θελγομένη, or ἀπατωμένη, that is, enchanted, or deceived: and by the Septuagint, foolish, or senseless: for ἄνους can express either. And fittingly is it called a seduced or foolish dove, because there is also a wise dove, which says in the Psalms: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly away and be at rest?

Whose wings are covered with silver, and the hinder parts of her back with the greenness of gold. But Ephraim, the foolish dove, having no heart, is shown to be of so brutish a mind, that calling upon Egypt, he went instead to the Assyrians. For he who besought the help of the Egyptians is led away captive by the Assyrians. Egypt is a reed staff, on which whoever leans, it will straightway break under him, and being broken and crushed will pierce through the hand of him that leans upon it. And that God might show that, though we change our places, we cannot avoid his eyes, and are always governed by the power of God: When, he says, they shall have set out to the Assyrians, even there I will spread my net, and if they be lifted up like birds, from there I will bring them down.

But I will strike them not for destruction, but that I may chastise them as sons: and I will strike them, not with the greatness of punishments, but with fear, so that hearing of coming punishments, they may be corrected by terrors alone. It is asked why Ephraim is compared not to other birds but to the dove. Other birds hasten to protect their young even at the peril of their own life, and when they see a hawk, a snake, a raven, or a crow approach their nest, they fly this way and that, and hurl themselves upon it with their beak, and tear it with their claws, and testify their parental grief with plaintive voice: only the dove, when her young are taken away, does not grieve, does not seek them: and therefore Ephraim is rightly compared to her, because though the people is being laid waste part by part, it does not perceive it, but is negligent of its own safety.

And what he says, I will strike them according to the report of their assembly, may signify this: just as by joint counsel they all fashioned idols, so, when I am angered, they will all likewise be laid waste together. The teachers of contrary doctrines, who have forsaken Christ, the wisdom, and have gone out from the Church, we may rightly call a foolish and heartless dove, who, desiring earthly things, have been handed over to the Assyrians. And when they shall have set out from the Church, the Lord spreads over them his net, woven from the testimonies of the Scriptures and with the skillful discourse of wisdom, so that, as they raise themselves against the wisdom of God, and, like a bird, fly toward the heights, he may draw them down to lowly things, and chastise them with threats, and with the hearing of punishments, so that, being corrected, they may not perish forever. (Verse 13.) Woe to them, for they have withdrawn from me: they shall be laid waste, because they have transgressed against me.

I redeemed them, and they have spoken lies against me, and have not cried unto me in their heart, but have howled upon their beds. The Septuagint: Woe to them, for they have withdrawn from me: they are manifest, because they have dealt impiously against me: but I redeemed them: but they have spoken a lie against me, and their hearts have not cried unto me, but they have howled upon their beds. When I stretched out my net to catch them, and to bring them down like a bird of the sky from their pride, and to strike them when the report of the distress was heard, they withdrew and leapt back from me—for this is what ἀπεπήδησαν signifies, which the Seventy translated: and therefore they shall be laid waste, because they have transgressed against me.

For what we have rendered as "they shall be laid waste," it is written in the Hebrew Sod laem (שד להם), that is, "devastation to them": Symmachus interpreted it as "destruction," Theodotion as "misery." Moreover in the Vulgate edition we read it two ways; for some codices have δῆλοί εἰσιν, that is, "they are manifest," others δειλαῖοί εἰσιν, that is, "they are timorous," or "wretched." They shall therefore be laid waste and shall be wretched, and always fearful and dreading, because they have transgressed against God, worshipping golden calves, and forsaking him who redeemed them from Egyptian servitude, and led them out with an uplifted arm. But they have spoken lies against the Lord, saying of the idols: These are thy gods, O Israel, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt; and they have not cried to the Lord in their heart, but have wallowed in the fornications of idolatry. Or because lust and luxury follow the worship of demons, those who worshipped demons consequently wallowed, after the manner of swine, in the mire of their lusts.

And he fittingly calls the songs of those who serve idols not hymns to God, but howling. Concerning heretics the interpretation is easy: that they have an everlasting woe, because they have withdrawn from God, and are wretched, because they have abandoned their Creator who redeemed them with his own blood; and they themselves speak lies against him, composing impious doctrines of falsehood, and do not cry out in their hearts, but howl continually in their conventicles, which he fittingly calls "beds," and lairs of wild beasts. Such as these cannot say: Every night I will wash my bed, I will water my couch with my tears; but they wallow in the filth of their lusts, are given over to debauchery, and whatever they say, and think they say in praise of God, is the howling of wolves and the sound of raving bacchantes. Rarely does a heretic love chastity, and whoever pretends to love purity, as Manichaeus, and Marcion, and Arius, and Tatian, and the restorers of ancient heresy, promise honey with a poisoned mouth.

But, according to the Apostle, the things which they do in secret, it is shameful even to speak of. (Verses 14 and following.) Upon wheat and wine they ruminated: they have withdrawn from me, and I have trained and strengthened their arms: and they have devised evil against me: they turned back, that they might be without a yoke: they have become as a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword, because of the rage of their tongue: this is their derision in the land of Egypt. The Septuagint: Upon wheat and wine they were being cut asunder; they were trained by me, and I strengthened their arms, and they have devised evils against me: they are turned into nothing, they have become as a bent bow, they shall fall by the sword following, they hold onto all things given to lust and earthly in their bosom: or certainly in the port and refuge of their voyage, they gather nothing precious, but earthly things.

But we, following the Hebrew truth, shall weave the order of the exposition we have begun. It is commanded to the prophet, and it is said to him: Let there be a trumpet in thy throat—that is, raise your voice so that it is like a trumpet, that many may hear, because many have sinned. And when you have raised your voice, say this with a cry, as an eagle over the house of the Lord; and the sense is: Nebuchadnezzar shall come with his whole army so swiftly, so speedily, that he shall imitate the flight of an eagle hastening to its prey: and he shall come not to another place, but to Jerusalem, in which the temple of God is situated, that he may destroy and overthrow it. Ezekiel speaks more fully of this eagle: of great wings and feathers and claws, which has the power to enter into Lebanon, that is, into the temple of God.

According to the prophet Zechariah, in whom it is written: Open, O Lebanon, thy gates, and let fire devour thy cedars. This, then, O prophet, which I say to you and command: Let there be a trumpet in thy throat, that you may cry aloud and say, as an eagle over the house of the Lord, that the king of the Chaldeans is coming—I command this for no other reason than that they have transgressed my covenant and abandoned my ceremonies. Whence in the time of necessity and distress, when captivity shall come, they will call upon me and say: My God, we have known thee, O Israel; we who are called Israel, know thee and are acquainted with thee, and we keep the ancient name of Jacob, who was pleasing to thee, that we may be called Israel. To whom the Lord answered: How are you called Israel, when Israel has cast off the good, that is, the Lord his God, from whom he was named Israel?

Therefore because Israel cast off the good, the enemy, that is, the Assyrian, shall pursue him and seize him: they who, having forsaken me as king, sought for themselves a king, as the other nations did, and acted against the will of God. Accordingly Samuel therefore sets before them the harsh commands of a king, and says their sons and daughters shall serve kings, that they might be turned to the Lord, the most merciful King; but they set up princes without the will of God. And this crime did not suffice them, unless they doubled the deed with a greater impiety, so that they turned their silver and gold, which they had received for riches and ornament, into idols. Therefore Saul was made king not by the will of God, but by the error of the people. And because he had no root of piety, as soon as he began to reign, he was inflamed with impiety.

What is said here: They have reigned, and not by me: they have set up princes, and I knew it not, can also be taken of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and of the other princes who succeeded him in rule. Nor, because God being angry with Solomon willed his kingdom to be divided, did Israel therefore rightly receive a king. For according to the precepts of the law they ought to have inquired of the Lord whether he willed this to be done. For of the Savior it is said: that indeed it must needs be that the Son of man be betrayed, but woe to him through whom he is betrayed. We very often read that the devil, who desires to place his nest above the stars of heaven, is called an eagle: Though thou be exalted as an eagle, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord.

Also the eye that mocks a father, and despises the old age of a mother, shall be plucked out by ravens, and the young eagles shall devour it: meaning through the devil and demons, losing the clear light of its vision. Whence in the Law it is commanded that we should not eat the eagle. This eagle, then, comes upon the conventicles of heretics, which had once been the house of the Lord: and it comes for this reason, that they have transgressed his covenant, and have forsaken the law of God: and in vain they call upon him, and say: Thou art my God, and we have known thee, we who are called Israel, seeing God, and are called by the Christian name. In vain, he says, do they do this, since they have set up kings for themselves, and have acted against my will, and have as princes my adversaries, whom I do not know, because they do not merit knowledge of me.

Their silver too, and gold, and whatever they could naturally possess, their words and thoughts, they have turned into idols which they fashioned from their own heart: and they turned them, not that they might perish; but because they turned them, therefore they perished. Neither did they act for this reason, that they might perish; but because they did so, therefore they perished. (Verses 5, 6.) Thy calf, O Samaria, is cast off: my wrath is kindled against them: how long will they be incapable of being cleansed? For it also is of Israel: the workman made it, and it is not God: for the calf of Samaria shall be as the spider's webs. The Septuagint: Cast off thy calf, O Samaria: my wrath is kindled against them: how long will they not be able to be cleansed in Israel? And this the workman made, and it is not God: for the calf of Samaria was a deceiver.

In the place where we have set "spiders' webs," it is written in the Hebrew SABABIM (שבבים), with the letter IOD as the penultimate letter—not, as some falsely suppose, SABABUM (שבבים), that is, with VAU—which the Septuagint and Theodotion interpreted πλανῶν, that is, deceiving, and misleading: Aquila, "of those erring," or "converted": Symmachus, "inconstant," or "unstable," that is, ἀκαταστατῶν: the Fifth edition, ῥεμβεύων, "wandering and fluctuating." We have learned from the Hebrew that SABABIM properly denotes the threads of spiders flying through the air, which, while they are seen, perish, and dissolve into atoms and into nothing. And rightly is the calf of Samaria compared to these, which at that time the people worshipped because of the greatness of its price, since it was made of gold. What he had said above: They made for themselves idols of their silver and their gold, that they might perish, he now expounds more plainly: Thy calf, O Samaria, is cast off, my wrath is kindled against them: or against the calves, since they had made two; or against the inhabitants of Samaria, who worshipped them.

Moreover what we read in the Septuagint: Cast off thy calf, O Samaria, exhorts its inhabitants—not of one city, but of all the ten tribes, which are called Samaria (otherwise in the city of Samaria there were not likewise calves; the workman made it, that is, the calf, concerning which they were, but in Dan and in Bethel)—to cast off the calves against which God is angry: or ἀποτρίψεται, that is, let him rub them off: that those whom he had long worshipped, he may gradually rub off and cleanse from himself. And when they do not listen, he turns to others, and speaks as it were to a third person: How long will they be incapable of being cleansed? What madness is this, he says, that though I give room for repentance, they are unwilling to be converted to soundness?

And because he had said: Cast off thy calf, O Samaria, he explains what this calf is: for it also is of Israel: not from others, he says, did you receive a calf from the nations, as Baal and Astaroth from the Sidonians, as Chemosh from the Moabites, as Molech from the Ammonites; but you yourselves, and your king Jeroboam, made in Israel what you had learned in Egypt. Or what sort of god is that which is formed by the hand of a craftsman? Finally, as the threads of spiders are dissolved into the wind, so the calf of Samaria shall be reduced to nothing.

The Lord casts off the calves of heretics and of Samaria, who say they keep the precepts of the law: which calves cling to the ground, and work in the earth, not in the spirit, nor do they lift their eyes to heaven; and therefore the wrath of the Lord is kindled against them, and he marvels what perversity this is, that they are unwilling to abandon the idols which they have fashioned for themselves, and love heretical filth in place of the cleanliness of the Church. These calves Israel did not receive—Israel who pretends to see God more than other nations—but he himself, out of the Holy Scriptures, has cast for himself a depraved understanding, and is the craftsman of his own god, which shall soon perish and shall be like the spiders' webs, which are broken at the lightest touch. (Verse 7.) For they shall sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind: there is no stalk in it, the bud shall yield no meal: and if it should yield, strangers shall eat it.

The Septuagint: For they have sown things corrupted by the wind, and their overthrow shall receive them: a sheaf having no strength to make meal: and if it should make it, strangers shall eat it. He compares the calf of Samaria to spiders' webs; and so he preserves the metaphor in the rest, so that what he had called spiders' webs, he compares to wind, and whirlwind, and stalks not standing; and if they should stand, having no meal; and if they should have meal, he says, it shall be devoured by others. And since the sense is common both to the heretics and to those who fashioned idols in Samaria, the matter must be discussed in common. These sow the wind, or the seeds that have been corrupted by the wind, which have no pith—which the Greeks call ἐντεριώνη—and therefore, sowing empty things, they receive vain and empty things; indeed, sowing in the flesh, they reap corruption of the flesh, and are carried about by every wind of doctrine.

And when they have sown the wind, they shall reap whirlwinds and tempests, and first of all there shall be no stalk, that is, no stubble, from these seeds, nor will they be able to have any appearance of a fruitful harvest.

But if it should rarely happen that men of the Church appear to have something similar in doctrine: the sprout itself and the ear will not make flour. Into the sufficiency of this flour the Gospel woman puts leaven in three measures: that both the spirit by which we perceive, and the soul by which we live, and the body by which we move, may be brought back into one Holy Spirit, according to the Apostle: In him we live, and move, and have our being. But if it should rarely happen to heretics that their sowing too makes flour, from this flour will be made a bread baked under the ashes, which is not turned, and which strangers will eat. Whence also now he says: And even if it makes flour, strangers shall eat it. And by "strangers" we ought to understand those of whom it is written: The sons of strangers have lied to me. And in the eighteenth psalm: Cleanse me from my hidden faults, O Lord, and spare thy servant from those of strangers.

If these have not had dominion over the just man, then he will be immaculate, and will be cleansed from the greatest offense.

Verse 8. Israel is devoured; now he has become among the nations as an unclean vessel. The Seventy, instead of "unclean," translated "useless," and the rest likewise. The Hebrews call an unclean or useless vessel a chamber-pot, which we are accustomed to use for receiving and casting out dung. To this uncleanness he compares idolaters and heretics, who are mixed with the nations, since they do not keep the truth of God, and, having been made a vessel unto honor, are turned into vessels of contumely. For what is more unclean than a demonic spirit, and the dogmas of heretics, which have mixed them with the heathen? Such was Jechonias, given over to idols, of whom God speaks through Jeremiah: Jechonias is dishonored, like a vessel of which there is no use. On the contrary, Paul, who could say: Do you seek a proof of him who speaks in me, Christ? Is called a vessel of election, of gold and of silver: because he had wisdom, and eloquence, by which he preached the Gospel of Christ.

But when it says, he is devoured, or swallowed up, this signifies that, mixed with idols and with the nations, he has lost the proper name of Israel and of Christian.

Verse 9. For they themselves have gone up to Assur, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim has given gifts to his lovers, and moreover has hired the nations with a price: now I will gather them together, and they shall rest a little while from the burden of the king and of the princes. The LXX: For they themselves have gone up to the Assyrians, Ephraim has sprouted up within himself: they have loved gifts: therefore they shall be handed over among the nations, now I will receive them, and they shall rest a little, so that they may anoint kings and princes. Israel is devoured, he says, and has become like a useless, or unclean, vessel, of which not even a shard remains in which water might be drawn, or a little spark of fire.

And because he has become an unclean vessel, therefore they have gone up to the Assyrians, imitating the solitary wild ass: not at all as sheep fed by the Lord, but wickedly abusing their freedom, and being led away into captivity—these the prophet laments and says: Ephraim has given gifts to the Assyrians, and hired their lovers with a price, of whom Ezekiel writes: To all harlots gifts are given: but you have given gifts to your lovers, and the contrary has come to pass in you. And when he has given gifts to the nations, and hired nations for a price to help him, they will be gathered together for battle, and led away bound together. And because they love to offer gifts to their adversaries, therefore they will obtain a benefit for a little while, so that they will not pay tribute to the king and the princes, until they come among the Assyrians, where they will by no means give tributes and stipends as free men; but will be reduced to the utmost servitude.

As for the heretics, we do not doubt that, going according to the error of their mind to the Assyrians, they think they are ascending, and not descending. Whence it is said to them through Isaiah: What has happened to you now, that you have all gone up onto vain rooftops? Whose prince of the Assyrians is "great understanding." Whence Ephraim has sprouted up within himself, thinking by his own presumption that he has grown. Or he has become a solitary wild ass, so that he might penetrate not the plantings of the Church, but the deserts of the devil. He has loved gifts on account of his error, promising himself rewards, or doing all things for the sake of shameful gain. Or certainly he has given gifts and rewards to his lovers, the demons, and having done this, he shall be handed over to the nations.

For just as the nations venerate bodily images: so these men think idols to be gods, which they have fashioned from their own heart, and therefore they will be reckoned in the number of the nations. But if, he says, now, even in the present age, they shall have done penance, and I shall have received them, they will cease to set up over themselves for a little while a king and his princes. So that we may understand the "little king" as the devil, in distinction from the great King, who can have no fellowship with Belial; but as soon as he has been received, he puts to flight from the heart of believers the little king and his princes.

But according to the Hebrew, those who had before been scattered will be gathered together in the Church of God, and had hired the nations for themselves with a price, and they shall rest from the burden of the king, concerning which the Apostle rebukes those cut off from the Church, saying: Without us you reign: and would that you did reign, and from the princes whom they have set up in the synagogues of the devil.

Verse 11. For Ephraim has multiplied altars unto sinning, altars have been made for him unto offense. The LXX: For Ephraim has multiplied altars: unto sin have altars become dear to him. Led away, he says, into captivity, they shall rest a little while from the burden of the king and of the prince. And this they shall suffer because Ephraim, their prince, multiplied altars, not on which to sacrifice to the Lord, but on which to join sins to sins: which altars, that is, "arae," shall be turned to him into offense, so that the more numerous they are, the more his crimes are multiplied. Then, as he had said above: What shall I do to thee, Ephraim? What shall I do to thee, Judah? As though hesitating and inquiring by what remedy he might heal the sick man, and by what counsels he might draw the sinner back to salvation. Verse 12.

I will write for him my manifold laws, which have been reckoned as if of a stranger: they shall offer sacrifices, they shall sacrifice flesh, and eat it, and the Lord will not accept them. The LXX: I will write for them a multitude: his statutes have been reckoned as strange—altars: for if they sacrifice victims, and eat the flesh, the Lord will not accept them: which I had before given through Moses. But what profit is it to write yet others, since he has despised those which he formerly accepted? Is it not contempt of God, when, though I commanded that there should be one altar in Jerusalem, they have fabricated idols throughout all the mountains and hills, by which they might provoke the Lord?

They also made altars for this reason, not that they might please me; but that, having sacrificed many victims, they might eat their flesh, according to what the Lord says in the Gospel: Amen, amen I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw signs; but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled. For their whole zeal about victims is directed to devouring the sacrifices, not to pleasing God through them: nor will the Lord accept those which they have sacrificed not to him, but to their own belly and throat. But the Apostle teaches that there is one altar in the Church, and one faith, and one baptism, which the heretics, abandoning it, have fabricated many altars for themselves, not to appease God, but unto a multitude of offenses. Therefore they do not deserve to receive the laws of God, since they have already despised those which they had received.

And if they say anything from the Scriptures, it is by no means to be compared with divine words, but with the sentiments of the heathen. These men sacrifice many victims and eat their flesh, forsaking the one sacrifice of Christ: nor do they eat his flesh, whose flesh is the food of believers. Whatever they do, feigning the order and rite of sacrifices, whether they give alms, or promise chastity, or feign humility, and by feigned flatteries deceive any simple souls, the Lord will accept nothing from sacrifices of this sort.

Verse 13. Now he will remember their iniquities, and will visit their sins: they themselves shall turn back into Egypt, and Israel has forgotten his Maker, and has built shrines, and Judah has multiplied fortified cities, and I will send fire into his city, and it shall devour his houses. The LXX: Now he will remember their iniquities, and will avenge their unjust deeds: they themselves have turned back into Egypt, and Israel has forgotten him who made him, and they have built shrines, and Judah has multiplied fortified cities, and I will send forth fire into his cities, and it shall devour his foundations. Between ἀνομίαν, that is, iniquity, and sin, there is this difference: that iniquity is before the law, sin after the law; and for those who remain in their offenses, the Lord will remember their iniquities, which they had committed before the law: but he will not remember their sins, but will take vengeance.

Therefore he will both remember their ancient iniquity, and will visit their former sins: because they have returned into Egypt, either asking for help, or worshiping the same gods in which they had before erred, ἄπω and μνεῖν. For Israel has forgotten his Maker, and has built shrines on the high places, consecrating whole hills and mountains, and shady trees, to Baal and Astaroth, and to other idols. Judah too, understanding that Israel had departed from the love of God, and that their sins had been visited, was not converted to the Lord, but trusted in the fortification of cities, which the Lord says he will destroy, and will devour even to its foundation.

"Its," doubtless, meaning Judah: although some read "their foundations," that is, of the cities, instead of "its." But according to the anagogical sense, iniquities, that is, ἀνομίαι and ἀδικίαι, are called those which we committed before baptism, and which have been remitted to us in baptism: but sins are those which we have committed after baptism, of which it is also written in the psalm: Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. All these things will be imputed to heretics, so that both their old iniquities and new sins are laid to their account. For those who had gone out of Egypt through the confession of Christ have returned into Egypt by perfidy. Israel has forgotten his Maker, and, having despised the Creator, has fashioned for himself another lord.

Judah too, that is, the man of the Church, in evil works, or in the perverse interpretation of the sacred Scriptures, has built for himself fortified cities; not by the help of God, but by crafty falsehood: which the Lord says he will set on fire with the fire of his Spirit, and will devour the βάρεις thereof, that is, the great houses built after the fashion of towers: and he will overturn the ill-laid foundations, that they may not be able to construct sacrilegious shrines against God. Some take "cities fortified by Judah" in a good sense, and strive to reconcile what seemed contrary to this meaning: I will send fire into his cities, and it shall devour his houses, in such a way that, after that which is perfect has come, that which is in part shall be destroyed. What we read according to the Seventy interpreters, "and among the Assyrians they ate unclean things," is not found in the Hebrew, and therefore is to be marked with an obelus.

We may, however, say that the Israelites, longing for Egypt, captured by the Assyrians, ate unclean things there, according to Ezekiel, who describes them as having eaten things sacrificed to idols in Chaldea: and so polluted with the filth of idols, that they are compared to human dung. The heretics too, whose princes are the Assyrians (of whom we have often spoken), eat unclean things among them, since they are defiled by their filth.

(Verses 1, 2.) Rejoice not, O Israel: exult not as the peoples do: for thou hast gone a-whoring from thy God: thou hast loved a reward upon every threshing-floor of wheat. The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the wine shall deceive them. LXX: Rejoice not, O Israel, and be not glad as the peoples: for thou hast gone a-whoring from thy God: thou hast loved gifts upon every threshing-floor of wheat. The floor and the winepress hath not known them, and the wine hath deceived them.

Those who have withdrawn from God, when they have come into the depths of sins, and have despaired of their salvation, despise all things. So too Israel, withdrawing from the law of God and worshipping idols, says that out of many nations he has become one nation: rejoicing and congratulating himself that he has withdrawn from the knowledge of God, and has become a nation mingled with the rest; and therefore he now rebukes them, and says: Do not rejoice, do not be glad, nor think that you are such as the other nations are. For one who does not know God is punished differently than one who withdraws from God, since the servant who knows the will of his lord, and does not do it, shall be beaten with many stripes.

The reward of your fornication you reckoned to be many threshing-floors and winepresses, that you might enjoy an abundance of all things: therefore the floor and the winepress, the wheat and the wine, shall not do this, and the winepress shall deceive them, or shall deny them its wine, with which they thought they would be made drunk. We read that in the days of Achab king of Israel, and of Elijah the prophet, there was a very grievous famine in Samaria; so that mothers ate the corpses of their own sons. At that time, according to the letter, the floor and the winepress did not feed them, and the wine deceived them, and they wasted away in want. This is said also to the heretics, that they should not exult and rejoice, and think themselves like the other nations.

For those nations did not believe in God; but these, under the name of God, worship idols, and go a-whoring from their God: and they multiply for themselves more threshing-floors and countless winepresses, and eat wheat, from which is made the bread of mourning, and drink the wine of Sodom, which is trodden out with the gall of asps. And because they have prepared for themselves more winepresses, and many threshing-floors: therefore of the true and one floor, and of the winepress which the Lord Jesus has trodden, they shall not eat, nor shall they drink; but whatever they thought they had shall be falsified by a lie. (Verses 3 and 4.) They shall not dwell in the land of the Lord: Ephraim is returned to Egypt, and hath eaten unclean things among the Assyrians.

They shall not offer wine in libation to the Lord, and their sacrifices shall not please him: it shall be to them like the bread of mourners; all that eat it shall be defiled: for their bread is for their soul, it shall not enter into the house of the Lord. LXX: They have not dwelt in the land of the Lord, Ephraim has dwelt in Egypt, and among the Assyrians hath eaten unclean food: they have not poured out wine in libation to the Lord, nor have their sacrifices pleased him: it shall be to them like the bread of his mourning: all who eat of them shall be defiled; for the loaves of their souls shall not enter into the house of the Lord.

Not only did the floor and the winepress fail to feed them, and the wine deceive them in the land of Israel, when for three years and six months all things perished, but the very inhabitants shall depart from the land of the Lord, and shall be led into a foreign land, so that they may not dwell in the holy land which they have defiled by their fornications. Ephraim, he says, is returned to Egypt, and hath eaten unclean things among the Assyrians. To this place some have added above: and among the Assyrians hath eaten unclean things, which is not found in the Hebrew, as we have already said. But when they shall be in Chaldea without temple and without altar, they shall not pour out wine in libation to the Lord, but to demons, and their offerings shall not please him who pours libations to strange gods; and they who are kept in captivity and eat idol-offerings among the Assyrians are as it were the bread of mourners.

For it is not lawful to eat of the sacrifices of mourners, and if one should eat, what was lawfully offered becomes unclean. The Greeks call the suppers of mourners νεκρόδειπνα (funeral feasts), which we may call "parentalia," from the fact that they are offered for dead parents. And not only he who has offered, but also he who has eaten of such foods, shall be unclean: for their bread, that is, the food which they offer, shall not enter into the house of the Lord, which has been destroyed, which has been consumed by the Babylonian fire; but it shall be for their soul. And the sense is: they provide for their own gullet and their own pleasure; but as for me, polluted things do not please me.

They shall not dwell in the land of the Lord, who have withdrawn from the Church, and have returned in mind to Egypt, and eat the sacrifices of the Assyrians, that is, of demons: nor do they pour out to the Lord the wine with which they have been made drunk unto luxury, and neither what they offer pleases him, nor those who offer it. The sacrifices of heretics are the bread of mourning and of tears: for all that they do is turned into weeping. Nor shall they be able to hear: Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted; but on the contrary they shall hear: Woe to you that laugh, for you shall mourn. Whatever they offer, they offer not to God, but to the dead: namely, to those who have fashioned wicked heresies; and whoever shall eat of their victims shall be defiled. The blind shall be led into the ditch by the blind.

Whatever they do, they do for the sake of pleasures, that they may deceive the people, that they may devour the houses of widows. We may call "the bread of mourning" the deadly words with which they speak iniquity against the Lord: which bread does not enter into the house of God: for the assemblies of heretics are called not houses of God, but dens of robbers. (Verses 5 and 6.) What will you do in the solemn day, in the day of the feast of the Lord? For behold they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them together, Memphis shall bury them: the nettle shall inherit their beloved silver, the burr shall be in their tabernacles. LXX: What will you do in the day of assembly, and in the day of the solemnity of the Lord? Therefore behold they shall go from the misery of Egypt, and Memphis shall receive them, and Machmas shall bury them: destruction shall possess their silver, thorns shall be in their tabernacles.

When, he says, the day of captivity shall come, and the most savage enemy shall press hard upon them, what feast is mine? What pleasing sacrifice do I have? Because he avenges me of my enemies, and sets a limit to injury, and scourges impious sons. What then will you do in the day of the feast of the Lord? Answer. And when they are silent, he answers for himself, or rather beholds with divine eyes what they are about to do: Behold, he says, when misery and devastation press upon them, and the Assyrian and the Chaldean desire to bind the captives, they have fled to Egypt. There Memphis shall bury them, which at that time was the metropolis of Egypt, before Alexandria, which was formerly called No (נא), received its name from Alexander the Macedonian and from the greatness of the city.

But as for what is said in the Septuagint, "Machmas shall bury them," this is not found in the Hebrew; but MAMAD (מחמד), which is called "the beloved" or "desirable." From which it is clear that they were misled by the similarity of the letters DALETH (ד) and CAPH (כ); and instead of Mamad, which all have translated "desirable," they thought it was Machmas, a city of Egypt. We can also understand what is said: For behold they are gone because of destruction, Egypt shall gather them, Memphis shall bury them, as referring to the tribe of Judah: when, after Godolias was slain by Ismael, whom Nabuchodonosor had set over the land, the remnants of the people fled with the prophet Jeremiah to Egypt, and there, the Chaldeans afterward pursuing them, were either captured or buried. Their desirable silver, moreover, which the nettle possessed, we shall understand as their villas and all the ornaments of their villas, which are bought with the price of silver.

And what follows, "the burr in their tabernacles," signifies a long desolation, so that where their houses once stood, there burrs and nettles and thorns now grow. It is said also to the heretics: When the solemn day comes, what will you do? Instead of "solemn day," Aquila translated "time." From which it is clear that it does not signify a feast day, but the time of retribution: for immediately follows: The days of vengeance are come, the days of thy retribution are come.

Behold, you have been laid waste by many enemies: the Assyrians and the Chaldeans have slaughtered you, you have fled to the world, and have been made like the other nations: there Memphis shall bury you, which is interpreted "from the mouth"; and the sense is: according to your blasphemies you shall receive, and what you have spoken you shall feel in your torments: your desirable things, that is, the doctrines which you had composed for yourselves with skillful speech, which is interpreted "silver," the nettle shall possess, which shall consume you with everlasting burning: and there shall be a burr or thorn in your tabernacles, for thorns shall indeed spring up in the hands of those who have been made drunk with the Babylonian cup. And in the Gospel we read that shameful thoughts and the cares of this world, and clinging vices, are called thorns, which choke the grain springing up among the herbs.

Verse 7. The days of visitation have come, the days of retribution have come: know, O Israel, that the prophet is foolish, the spiritual man mad, on account of the multitude of your iniquity, and the multitude of your madness. The Septuagint: The days of vengeance have come, the days of your retribution have come, and Israel shall be afflicted like a raving prophet, a man who had the spirit, on account of the multitude of your iniquities, your madness has been multiplied. And in this place there is the usual error: for where we have translated, know, O Israel, that is, ye Israelites, and in the Hebrew is read JADAU (ידעו), the Seventy translated "and he shall be afflicted": taking the letter JOD for VAU, and reading RES for DALETH: of which the one signifies knowledge, the other affliction or malice. There have come, then, the days of visitation, of which he had said above (Ver. 5): What will you do on the solemn day, and on the day of the Lord's festivity? The days of retribution have come.

O Israel, now recognize your own words, you who called the prophet, who spoke true things to you and prophesied by the Holy Spirit, foolish and mad, according to that which the princes said at Ramoth Gilead to Jehu: Why did this madman come to you? Therefore, because of the multitude of your iniquities, in which you have long raved in wickedness, know that it is not my prophet, but you, who are mad, you who have labored at this, to trample underfoot my words. For "madness," Aquila renders ἐγκότησιν, which we can say in Latin either as wrath, or as the memory of grief. The day of vengeance and retribution some interpret as the day of judgment, when Israel shall be afflicted, who now boasts that he sees God, and is not ruled by the Holy Spirit, but is carried about into various directions by a demonic spirit, not knowing what he says: calling the Son of God a creature, denying the Holy Spirit to be God.

And again asserting that one God is good, another is the creator of the world: whose madness is manifold, because their iniquities also have been very many. Him whom we have called "the foolish prophet," the Seventy have interpreted as "the false prophet." And lest, by often repeating the same things, we seem to distrust the reader's discernment, we briefly remind him that whatever is said in this prophet concerning Israel and Ephraim is to be referred to heretics, who, truly raving, speak lies against God. Verse 8 and 9. The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: the prophet is a snare of ruin upon all his ways: madness is in the house of his God, they have sinned deeply: as in the days of Gibeah he will remember their iniquities, and will visit their sins.

The Septuagint: The watchman of Ephraim was with God the prophet: a crooked snare upon all his ways, they have contrived madness in the house of God: they are corrupted according to the days of the hill: he will remember their iniquities, he will take vengeance upon their sins. For this reason God gave princes, that they might correct the sinning people, and draw them back to the right way: whence also he says to Ezekiel: I have given you as a watchman to the house of Israel. Therefore Jeroboam was given as a watchman, as it were, among the people, and as it were a prophet with my God, that is, with the God who speaks these things through Hosea.

But he, according to what was written above: You have become a snare to watchfulness, and a net spread out over Tabor, and you have turned aside victims into the depth, is even now called the snare of the people of Israel, because all fall into his snare, especially since he has placed, or rather contrived, madness in the house of God, that is, he made the golden calf in Bethel, for this is what "house of God" means: and he has sinned so deeply in wickedness, and has been so plunged into the abyss of impiety, that he surpasses the wickedness once committed at Gibeah, when they slew the wife of the Levite returning from Bethlehem by unlawful intercourse (Judges 19). We can take "the days of Gibeah" also to mean that time when, instead of God, they chose for themselves a king from the city of Gibeah, that is, Saul.

And he says that they have now sinned much more greatly by choosing Jeroboam and worshiping idols, than at that time when they chose Saul: for here idolatry has also been joined to schism, whereas there the worship of God remained among the people. Therefore he will remember their iniquities, which now, through patience, are thought to be forgotten, and he will visit their sins, and the wounds which have long since festered. Searching the ancient histories, I cannot find that anyone rent the Church, and led the people astray from the house of the Lord, except those who had been appointed by God as priests and prophets, that is, watchmen. These, then, are turned into a crooked snare, placing a stumbling-block in all places, so that whoever enters by their ways may fall, and be unable to stand in Christ, and be led away by various errors, and be carried by crooked paths to precipices.

These are the watchmen of Ephraim, who have contrived madness in the house of the Lord, that is, in the Church, or in the Holy Scriptures, interpreting them perversely, or indeed in each one of the believers, who is most rightly called the house of God. Therefore they are corrupted, and have perished according to the days of the hill, when they spoke iniquity in high places, and ascended to vain roofs. God will remember their iniquity, by which they dealt unjustly with their neighbor, leading him out of the Church, and he will visit their sins, by which they have sinned against their own souls. This is what we read in the Psalm: They have laid a stumbling-block for me beside the path. For unless one sees the path of God, that is, hears the name of Christ, he will not enter by it.

Therefore heretics also, under the name of Christ, place snares beside the path, so that whoever believes he is walking in Christ, of whom we read that he himself is the way, may also tread in their snares, who have contrived madness in the house of God. Verse 10. I found Israel like grapes in the desert, like the first fruits of the fig tree in its top, I saw their fathers: but they went in to Baal-peor, and were alienated unto confusion, and became abominable, like the things which they loved. The Septuagint: As a grape in the desert I found Israel, and as an early fig on a fig-tree I saw their fathers: but they went in to Baal-peor, and were alienated unto confusion, and became abominable like the beloved ones. Instead of which, in other copies we read: and they became beloved, as it were abominable, which agrees more with the truth.

When the whole world was desolate, and had no knowledge of God, I found, he says, the people Israel like a grape in the wilderness, and how he found it, he says: Like the first fruits of the fig tree, I saw their fathers in its top. Therefore the people were found in Abraham, in Isaac, and in Jacob. And note the propriety of the words: the parents are seen, the people are found, and in both there is a vine and a fig tree, under which he who trusts in the Lord is said to rest. But they, having been led out of Egypt, committed fornication with the Midianites, and went in to Baal-peor, the idol of the Moabites, whom we may call Priapus. Indeed, Baal-peor is interpreted as "the idol of lust," having in its mouth, that is, at its top, a skin, so as to display the shamefulness of the male member.

And because they went in to Baal-peor, they were therefore alienated from God, given over to their confusion, that is, to the idol, so that they might worship that on account of which they had departed from God, according to what is written: For by whom a man is overcome, of him he is also the servant (2 Peter 2:19), and as those who serve gluttony have the belly as their god: so those who serve lust have Baal-peor as their god. And they became, he says, abominable, like the things which they loved, according to that which is written in the Psalms: Let them who make them become like unto them, and all who trust in them, so that they may be called not only idolaters, but idols themselves. Now, the Lord saying in his passion: I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the nations there was no man with me. And in the Psalm: Save me, O Lord, for the holy one has failed.

When the whole world was held fast in sin, and the nations were ignorant of God, and Israel had rejected him whom it had formerly known, the Lord found first, in the apostles and apostolic men, the Christian people as Israel, and one perceiving God with the understanding: and he was satisfied with their sweetest fruits, the grape and the fig, which, if found in the desert, and not yet in season, are of greater grace because of their rarity. But they, that is, Israel, who take to themselves the Christian name (for it is not to be understood of the fathers), have gone in to the idol Baal-peor, which has a skin in its mouth. For whatever a heretic speaks is deadly, and cut off from the living word of God.

Or they have gone in to lust: for it is difficult to find a heretic who loves chastity, not that he ceases to praise it with his lips, but that he does not keep it in his conscience, saying one thing and doing another; whence they also have been alienated from God, and have their glory in their confusion, and have become abominable, they who were formerly beloved in their fathers. But if we wish to read, "they became abominable, like the beloved ones," which however is not found in the Hebrew, we shall say that the Gentiles have become such, who are abominable, just as the heretics who were formerly beloved in their fathers, that is, that both the one and the other alike are abominable and guilty of blame. (Verse 12.) Ephraim flew away like a bird: their glory from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception: for even if they shall have reared their sons, I will make them childless among men. But woe also to them when I shall have departed from them.

Ephraim, as I saw, was Tyre founded in beauty: and Ephraim shall bring forth his sons to the slayer. The LXX: Ephraim flew away like a bird: their glory in the birth, and in the pangs of childbirth, and conception: for even if they shall have reared their sons, they shall be without sons among men: for woe also is to them: my flesh is from them. Ephraim, as I saw, gave up his sons unto capture: and Ephraim, that he might lead forth his sons unto slaughter. In this passage the interpreters greatly disagree among themselves. For in the place where we have said, "woe to them when I shall have departed from them," the Seventy and Theodotion translated, "woe to them, my flesh is from them"; and inquiring the cause why there should be such great variety, I seem to myself to have found this: "My flesh," in the Hebrew tongue is said BASARI (בשרי); again, if we should say "my departure," or "my declining," it is said BASORI (בשורי).

Therefore the Seventy and Theodotion, instead of "my departure" and "my declining," translated "my flesh." Again, where we have set down, "Ephraim, as I saw, was Tyre," the Seventy have interpreted θήραν, that is, hunting, or capture; Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion, "a very hard rock," that is, flint, which in the Hebrew tongue is called SUR (צור); but if we read SOR, it is called Tyre. Now the Seventy interpreters, thinking, on account of the similarity of the letters RES and DALETH, that it was not RES but DALETH, read SUD, that is, hunting, or capture; whence also BETHSAIDA (ביתצידה) is called "house of hunters." We have set forth the diversity of the interpreters; let us return to the sense. Ephraim, that is, the ten tribes, flew away like a bird into captivity, and departed from its own place. Now he called it a bird, that he might show the swiftness of the passage into Babylon. But if we should read, "their glory flew away like a bird," we say this, that the help of God departed and flew away from them.

And what follows, "from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception," can be understood in two ways: either that the glory which flew away from Ephraim departed also from their birth, and from their womb, and from their conception, that is, that it forsook their sons and abandoned their descendants; or else we say, "I had all the glory of Israel," in multitude, and in this he reckoned himself greater than his brother Judah, because he ruled over ten tribes, that one over two. Whence the Lord speaks, that even if they shall have reared their sons, and shall have gathered a multitude of children, they shall be delivered to slaughter: and now let true woe fall upon them, when God shall have departed from them.

And accordingly he explains what sort of Ephraim once was, who is now deserted: so beautiful, he says, was he, and so was he fortified with the help of God, that he was like Tyre, which is girded by the sea, or indeed, like a very hard rock, which, fixed in the earth, despises all storms, and cares not for whirlwinds and winds. But he himself, that is, Ephraim, or Tyre, which was founded in the beauty of the sea, shall lead forth his sons into captivity. Many refer this chapter to the times of Hazael, who besieged Samaria, and for a long time afflicted it with famine, so that the besieged reckoned it lighter to perish by the sword than by hunger.

But let us say according to the tropology, that Ephraim, that is, the heretics, flew away like a bird from the Church, and have all their glory in the birth, and in the womb, and in the conception, if they have begotten many sons, whom the Lord threatens, even if they shall have been reared, they shall be punished, not by any other, but by the Lord himself, since they have begotten sons of fornication, and true woe shall be to them, when God shall have departed from them. And at the same time he repeats what sort of Ephraim was: when, he says, he was in the Church, he was so beaten by the temptations of this age, like Tyre by the waves of the sea, and yet he could sustain no adversity, because he had the foundation of Christ, upon which the house being built cannot be overthrown. But now he leads forth his sons to the slayer: that is, to the devil. And beautifully he said "leads forth," that is, makes them go out of the Church.

We may call the sons of Ephraim the worst thoughts, and doctrines contrary to the truth, which the Lord slays with the breath of his mouth, and does not allow to have such children, and abandons to eternal destruction. But what we read in the Seventy, "My flesh is from them: Ephraim, as I saw, gave up his sons unto hunting," we understand thus: If Christ is the head of the body, that is, of the Church, we are all members of Christ and of the Church. Whoever therefore departs from the Church tears the body of Christ; therefore Ephraim also was flesh and a member of the Lord Savior. But he gave up his sons unto hunting, that is, into the hunting of those of whom it is written: "Our soul is escaped like a sparrow from the snare of the hunters".

And he led forth his sons from the Church, unto slaughter, or unto wounding: that they might be wounded by those who send burning arrows, that they might strike and burn at the same time. (Verse 14.) Give them, O Lord: what wilt thou give them? Give them a womb without children, and dry breasts. The LXX likewise. If we abuse for evil the things which God has given for a blessing, and they are turned to the contrary of that for which they were given by him, it is expedient that they be taken away from us. Finally, the tongue was given for praising the Lord God, and for speaking good things: if anyone abuses it unto blasphemy, against him the Psalmist entreats the Lord: "Let the deceitful lips become dumb, which speak iniquity against the just in pride and in abuse". And in another place: "May the Lord destroy all deceitful lips, and the tongue that speaketh great things".

Since therefore Ephraim gloried in the womb, and in the conception, and in the birth, and in the multitude of peoples, the Prophet entreats the Lord and says: "Give them, O Lord." And he himself answers himself: "What wilt thou give them?" and immediately adds: "Give them a sterile womb, and dry breasts," lest they have causes for pride, that in that in which they are wont to glory, in that they may be confounded. That this also can be understood of the teachers of contrary doctrines is plain, who glory in the multitude of the peoples, and in those children whom they have reared unto destruction, so that they might lead them out of the Church and bring them to the slayer. For they slaughter as many devils as the heretics have begotten sons in error. Of such a soul it is said: "Blessed is the barren that is undefiled, who has not known the bed in sin". For blessed is the man of the Church, who, in comparison with the heretic, has not begotten sons in error.

And in another place we read: "Better it is to have no children, with virtue. For of unrighteous bed the seed shall perish": and though they be of long time, they shall be reckoned as nothing, and their old age shall be ignoble in the last days; for the fruitful multitude of the impious is profitable for nothing; neither ought we to think that he prayed corporeally for a sterile womb and dry breasts. (Verse 15.) All their wickednesses are in Galgal: because there I hated them. The LXX likewise. At Galgal Saul was anointed king, Samuel announcing to the people the wrath of God. There, he says, I hated them, and, demanding for themselves a man for king, they departed from my rule. Or else, because Galgal is a place of idolatry, where they committed all their crimes.

But since Galgal is interpreted "revelation," or κυλισμοὶ, that is, "wallowing-places," he says that all the wickednesses of the heretics are to be revealed at that time, when God shall have given them a sterile womb and dry breasts, and they shall have seen their own shame. And those who boasted through pride that they had climbed to the heights shall be rolled down to the earth, or shall be dragged down to the depths below. Truly the heretics are worthy of the hatred of God, who speak a lie against the Lord, of whom he says in what follows: "Because of the wickedness of their inventions I will cast them out of my house. I will not add to love them: all their princes are departing," or disobedient. The LXX likewise.

And of the heretics indeed there is no doubt that they are cast out of the house of God, and that he does not add to love them, so long as they remain in error, and all their princes are departing from God, as Valentinus, Marcion, and the rest. We may call the princes of the heretics the demons, who have truly departed from God, and are called princes, according to what the Lord speaks in the Gospel: "The prince of this world shall come, and shall find nothing in me". And the Apostle says that we fight against powers, principalities, and the rulers of this darkness. But it is inquired, according to the history, how he cast them, that is, the ten tribes, out of his house, since they were not in the house of God? But we shall call "house of God" either the holy land, into which they were brought in, or the false name of Israel, or the fact that prophets were sent to them as to the people of God.

But that he does not add to love them, and that all the kings of Israel departed from God, is plain: for even to this day they remain in captivity. Others think that this which is written, "I will cast them out of my house," refers to the kingdom of Judah, because they too were to be led into captivity. But how can "I will not add to love them" be fitted to them, since afterward they were brought back to Jerusalem: and "all their princes are departing," since we read that David, Asa, Josaphat, Ezechias, and Josias were righteous kings? Whence we must pass over to the times of Christ, that at his coming they were cast out of the house of God, and are by no means saved as Israel, but as the Christian people.

Whence also the Lord made himself a scourge of small cords, and cast them out of the temple: because they had made the house of his Father a house of merchandise. (Verses 16 and 17.) Ephraim is struck: their root is dried up: they shall bring forth no fruit: yea, though they should bring forth, I will slay the most beloved fruit of their womb. My God will cast them away, because they have not heard him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations. LXX: Ephraim has grieved over its roots: it is withered, it brings forth no fruit at all: for even if they should bring forth, I will slay the desirable things of their womb. God will repel them, because they have not heard him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations. He takes a metaphor from a tree, whose roots, if they have withered, cannot bear fruit, and if it should bear a little, it will straightway be dried up in its very flower.

Now he speaks of Ephraim, whose root has withered, because it has lost the God on whom it had been founded, or has not deserved to have as its own its fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in whom it had put down root: and therefore it bears no fruit of righteousness; and even if it should bear, I will slay, he says, the most beloved fruit of its womb, according to what he had said above: If they should rear their children, I will make them childless among men; whence also God has cast them away, and made them go into captivity. And they shall be wanderers among the nations. We can say this very thing also of all the Jews, whose princes, because they departed from God, stirring up the people to demand his death, therefore he cast them out of his house, and will not add to love them any more.

He has struck their root and dried it up, and they shall bring forth no more fruit: and even if they should do so, and should be seen to meditate on the Holy Scripture and the Law, and should bring forth from their own heart, as it were, most beloved children, something of knowledge and doctrine, the Lord opposing, it shall be cut down. For God has cast them away from all the prophets, because they have not heard him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations, having no altar, no seat, no city of their own. Whence David also speaks in the psalm: Slay them not, lest at any time my people forget: scatter them by thy power. And in another place: According to the multitude of their iniquities cast them out, for they have provoked thee, O Lord. Of this tree also we read in the Gospel: Now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree which brings not forth good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire.

Let no one doubt that heretics cannot bear the fruits of virtues, because they have lost the Lord, on whom, according to the Apostle, they ought to have been rooted and grounded: and even if they should do so, and should beget some by the fecundity of their womb, with the Lord opposing, they will die. Or because their fruits are all the things they invent, and beget from their own heart, they will wither and perish: and it will be plain to all that a dried-up root cannot bear fruit. These shall be cast away—nay, they have been cast away by God: because they have not heard him saying: Do not remove the boundaries which your fathers have set. And therefore they shall be wanderers among the nations, now passing over to these opinions, now to those: since what they have once found does not please them, but they always change old things for new, and imitate the errors of the heathen.

(Verse 1.) Israel is a luxuriant vine: its fruit is proportioned to it: according to the multitude of its fruit he has multiplied altars: according to the fertility of his land he has abounded with idols. LXX: Israel is a leafy vine: its fruit is abundant on it: according to the multitude of its fruits he has multiplied altars: according to the good things of their land they shall build up pillars. For "leafy vine," Aquila translated ἔνυδρον, which we may call "watery," or ἐξίτηλον, because it loses the flavor of wine: Symmachus, ὑλομανοῦσαν, that is, one which has grown entirely into foliage. Vines which have not been pruned by the vinedresser run riot into shoots and leaves, and squander in the vain ambition of foliage and leaves the moisture which they ought to have turned into wine: such a vine is ruinous to farmers. Such was Israel, growing in the multitude of its peoples, and not rendering to God the farmer the fruits due him.

Let us also say it another way: A leafy vine, or, according to the Septuagint, εὐκληματοῦσα, that is, having good shoots and fruit-bearing branches, brought forth many clusters, and the fecundity of the grapes matched the size of the branches: but this vine, which was such before it offended God, afterward turned the abundance of its fruits into a multitude of offenses: so that the more peoples it had, the more altars it built, and by the number of its idols surpassed the abundance of its land. For "idols" the Septuagint translated στήλας, which we call statues or pillars, which properly belong to demons or to dead men.

So too the heretics, while they were planted in the Church and were growing in the house of God, were called the vine of Sorec, and brought forth most abundant fruits: but afterward, the more numerous they became, the more altars they multiplied for themselves, so that instead of the one true altar, they built up many altars of their own error, and according to the fertility of their land they abounded with idols. The land of heretics is fertile, who, having received from God sharpness of mind and talent, that they might turn the good things of nature to the worship of God, have made for themselves idols out of these. For no one can construct a heresy unless he be of burning genius, and possess gifts of nature which are created by God the artificer. Such was Valentinus, such Marcion, whom we read to have been most learned. Such was Bardesanes, whose genius even the philosophers admire.

These, then, have turned the good things of their land into monuments of the dead, because all their teaching is not referred to the living, but to the dead—both those whom they worship, and those whom they deceive. (Verse 2.) Their heart is divided: now they shall perish: he himself shall break their idols: he shall lay waste their altars. LXX: They have divided their hearts: now they shall perish: he himself shall dig up their altars: their pillars shall be afflicted. The Hebrews hand down a fable of this sort, confirming their conjecture by the authority of the Scriptures: As long as both kings and peoples alike worshipped the golden calves, and were in agreement in impiety, captivity did not come.

The last king of the ten tribes was Hoshea, of whom it is written that Hoshea indeed did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel who were before him; in whose ninth year Shalmaneser, king of the Assyrians, took the people of Israel, and led them away into Assyria, and made them dwell by the river Gozan in the cities of the Medes. It is asked, therefore, why they were not taken captive under the worst kings, but under him who had begun in some part to turn to better things? To this they answer as follows: at first the people excused themselves, and said, We obey the commands of kings, and cannot resist their tyranny: we worship the calves which we are compelled to adore. But in the days of Hoshea it was commanded by that same king that the calves should no longer be worshipped with such zeal, but that whoever wished might go to Jerusalem, and sacrifice to God in the Temple; to this decree, they say, the people objected.

And this is what he now says: their heart is divided, that is, the heart of the king and of the people, and with no excuse remaining, now they shall perish, and be delivered over to eternal captivity; for as soon as the people dissented from the king, destruction came. And what follows: he himself shall break their idols, he says of God: and he shall lay waste their altars, not because God himself did this with his own hand, but because his will was fulfilled through enemies. That the hearts of heretics are divided among themselves, and clash with contrary opinions, they themselves do not deny, since they hold diverse views.

Whence they shall be destroyed, and the Lord shall break, or dig up, their idols or altars, which have flowed from their own heart, and shall lay waste the pillars by which each is called by his own name, and they have called their names over their lands, so that they are said to belong not to the Church of Christ, but to this man or that. (Verses 3 and 4.) For now they shall say, We have no king: for we fear not the Lord; and what shall a king do for us? Speak ye words of a useless vision, and ye shall make a covenant, and judgment shall spring up like bitterness upon the furrows of the field. LXX: Therefore now they shall say, We have no king, because we have not feared the Lord: and what shall a king do for us? Speaking words, false pretexts: he shall arrange a testament: judgment shall arise like grass upon the desert of the field.

After God has broken the idols of Israel, and laid waste their altars or statues, and the final captivity has come, they will say: We have no king. And lest they think the sentence prolonged for a long time, he added: Now they shall say—when they are laid waste, when they perceive that Hoshea, the last king, has been taken away from them: therefore a king has been taken away from us, because we did not fear the Lord, the true king: for what good could a human king do? Say what you will, sigh after your old errors, promise yourselves prosperity, which shall be turned into its opposite, make a covenant, not with God, but with a lie.

And after the covenant—which the Septuagint translated as "testament"—there shall spring up for you, not a fruitful crop of grain, not even fodder for cattle, barley, not various legumes, not vines which sweat out their fruits into new wine, not fruit trees which the trees will bring forth, turning the moisture of the earth into various flavors; but there shall arise for you bitterness, indeed a judgment of bitterness, or ἄγρωστις, which in Latin we render as "grass." For it is a kind of herb like a reed, which at each joint sends up a shoot and sends down a root, and again these very shoots and twigs become seed-beds of another herb, and so in a short time, if it is not dug up by its deepest roots, it makes whole fields resemble briars. Indeed, even if some dried part of it, provided it has a joint, falls upon cultivated ground, it fills everything with grass.

We have said this according to the Septuagint translators; but in the Hebrew it has written "rosh" (ראש), which is rendered "bitterness," that is, the judgment of bitterness, of which the Lord also speaks in the Gospel: For judgment I came into this world: and of others it is written, that they shall receive greater judgment. The disciples also of contrary doctrines, when their falsehoods have been crushed, and their altars and groves overthrown, will say too late: We have no kings who formerly ruled over us, by whose deceiving we did not fear the Lord; for what good did it do us to follow them, whose help we do not feel in time of need? They will say these things, seeking some excuse, that they may seem to have erred not through themselves, but through the worst teachers. Whence the Septuagint translated their words as "false excuses," which the prophet avoids, saying: Incline not my heart to words of malice, to make excuses in sins.

We gladly applaud our own vices, and, overcome by pleasures, we plead the weakness of the flesh, or the harsh commands of our elders: whence the words and visions of heretics shall be useless. And they shall make a covenant, not with God, but with bitterness, which, when the day of judgment comes, shall spring up upon the furrows of their field, so that they who sowed in joy shall reap in tears: they who laughed shall weep: they who had consolation shall mourn.

I am not unaware, Pammachius, that I am forging a most difficult work on the Twelve Prophets, certainly one already interpreted for the Latins, and one that may argue our rashness more than reveal our knowledge. But because we can deny nothing to you when you exhort, nay, when you command, and because, in proportion to the strength of those who offer into the treasury of God, the two coins of the poor woman surpassed the riches of many: whatever we are able, we pay first to God, then to you, who are God's own; and we ever recall that little verse: Pollio himself also composes new songs. And though I rejoice that you, by the right of friendship, are an open supporter of mine, I dread the silent judgment of your learning: and I fear you more when you praise than my adversaries when they detract. For to them rivalry takes away credibility, and they are to be called not so much judges as accusers.

But you—who, he says, are they who boldly assert that we do wrong in undertaking a work which no one of the Latins before us has dared to attempt. You love, you pronounce judgment not on persons, but on things: although even love may admit error, and that saying of Theophrastus is beautiful, which Tully translated more according to sense than word: τυφλόν τὸ φιλοῦν περὶ τὸ φιλούμενον, that is, the judgments of lovers are blind. Yet in this matter I ask that you rather lean, not out of hatred, but out of love. We are dictating the third book on the prophet Hosea, and we have come as far as the calves of Bethaven: and as we spread the sails of our interpretation, you ought to say that prophetic word: Come from the four winds, O breath, that with swift course, passing by the various rocks of those who lie in wait, we may carry the Lord's merchandise, amid the raging shipwreck on every side, to the safest harbors.

Verse 5 and 6. The inhabitants of Samaria have worshipped the cows of Bethaven, for the people thereof mourned over it: and its priests exulted over it in its glory, because it had departed from it. For it also has been carried away to Assur, a gift to the avenging king; confusion shall seize Ephraim: Israel shall be confounded in its own will. The Septuagint: They that dwell in Samaria shall abide by the calf of the house of On: for the people thereof mourned over it. And as they provoked him, they shall rejoice over his glory: because it has been carried away from him, and binding it, they carried it into Assyria as gifts to king Jarib in his house. Ephraim shall receive confusion: Israel shall be confounded in its own counsel. What Bethaven is, for which the Septuagint translated “the house of On,” and who the king Jarib is, who is interpreted “avenger,” we have discussed more fully above.

In Bethaven therefore, that is, Bethel, the inhabitants of Samaria worshipped golden cows, which he called, with derision, not calves of the male sex, but cows, that is, females: so that Israel might be seen to worship not only gods that were calves, but goddesses that were cows. And to show that the cows of Bethaven were to be understood as the one calf in Bethel, he did not say “the people mourned over them,” but “over it,” that is, over the golden calf. But if the people mourned, why did its priests exult over it? The Hebrews relate that the golden calves were stolen away by the priests, and that bronze and gilded ones were put in their place. Therefore, while the people mourned in the time of necessity and distress, because the golden calves also, among other gifts, had been sent by the king of Israel to the Assyrian kings, and especially to king Sennacherib, the priests exulted, because their fraud could by no means be proved or discovered.

And this is what he says: its priests, that is, the calf’s, exulted over it in the glory of the people, that is, in the calf, which they held as their glory; because it had departed from it, that is, from the people, and had been carried off to the Assyrians. And that we may know, they say, that this is what is meant, the following verse clearly shows: For it also has been carried away to Assur, a gift to the avenging king. And immediately follows: Confusion shall seize Ephraim, and Israel shall be confounded in its own will, or, in its own counsel. For the fraud of the gilded calves being discovered is reported by letters to the king of Israel, and from that source whereby they had thought to please, from that very source they are especially confounded, and they offend those to whom they had sent gifts, thinking that this had been accomplished not by the theft of the priests, but by the deceit and counsel of kings.

We read in the book of Kings that Menahem king of Israel sent to Phul king of the Assyrians a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him, that is, that he might afford him aid; among which some suppose that golden calves also were sent. For Jarib in the present passage Symmachus translated ὑπερμάχοντι, that is, “protector” and “defender.” According to the spiritual understanding, we must labor to fit all this to the heretics. The heretics have worshipped the cows of Bethaven, or of the house of On, which is interpreted “labor,” who boasted that they dwelt in the keeping of God’s commandments, that is, in Samaria; and on the day of judgment, when judgment shall spring up like bitterness over the furrows of the field, the people shall mourn over it, that is, over the calf, and over the perverse doctrine, which it thought was God.

But the priests too—he did not say “shall exult,” but “exulted,” referring to past time—over their own glory, in which they had once gloriously fixed themselves, because the people had departed from God, or because the very glory of God had departed from the people, by whom it had been forsaken. But whatever the heretics speak, and compose in fair speech, they send gifts to their king, the devil, referring all things to him, whence confusion shall seize them forever, and they shall be confounded in their own wills. A certain one, both above and in the present passage, has left it written in his commentaries that the king Jarib, that is, the avenger, is to be understood as Christ. This displeases us altogether. For it is impious that what according to the history is understood of the Assyrian king should, according to the tropology, be referred to Christ.

Verse 7 and 8. Samaria has made her king pass away like foam upon the face of the water, and the high places of the idol shall be destroyed, the sin of Israel. The Septuagint: Samaria has cast off her king like a chip of kindling upon the face of the water, and the altars of On shall be taken away, the sins of Israel. Instead of “foam,” which the Septuagint and Theodotion translated φρύγανον, that is, kindling-wood, dry things, namely herbs and dry twigs, which are prepared for the furnace and the fire, Symmachus put ἐπίζεμα, wishing to show the upper waters of a boiling pot rising into foam and bubbles, which the Greeks call πομφόλυγας. Just as foam, therefore, which is upon the water, is quickly dissolved: so the kingdom of the ten tribes shall swiftly come to an end, and the high places shall perish, that is, the BAMOTH (במות), of which it is written: Nevertheless the people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places.

These high places, moreover, belong to On, or AVEN (און), that is, of the idol, which is interpreted “useless,” because the idol and the useless thing is the sin of Israel. Now that the idol and its high places have been scattered.

Verse 9. The burr and the thistle shall grow up upon their altars, and they shall say to the mountains, cover us, and to the hills, fall upon us. The Septuagint: Thorns and thistles shall grow up upon their altars, and they shall say to the mountains, cover us, and to the hills, fall upon us. This is a sign of the utmost desolation, so that not even the walls and the last traces of the buildings might be left. At that time, they shall say to the mountains, cover us, and to the hills, fall upon us. Which the Lord says is to be fulfilled at the last time of the Jewish captivity.

Whatever, therefore, is now said against the ten tribes, or against all Israel, let us know that it can also be transferred typologically to the whole people, so that when the Romans shall have taken Jerusalem, and overthrown the temple, or when, as others suppose, the day of judgment shall come, they may say, fearing with great horror, to the mountains, cover us, and to the hills, fall upon us, choosing rather to die than to see the things that bring death. But also the Samaria of spiritual wickedness, which had separated herself from the people of God, has made her king pass away swiftly—namely, the discourse of the heretics, and their doctrine—like foam, or like a chip of kindling upon the face of the water, of which the one, while it is seen, is suddenly dissolved, the other is easily taken from the surface of the waters and cast into the fire. Such are the heretics, swelling with foaming words, and mixing with those doctrines and discourses of Christ’s baptism things that are fit for burning.

All these shall pass away, and the magnificent words in which they have labored—which is interpreted On—shall be scattered forthwith, in which Israel sinned: and such shall be the desolation of that most wicked doctrine, that thorns and thistles shall grow up upon their altars. That thorns and thistles are born there where there is no cultivation of the fields, is evident to all. These are the thorns that choke the seed, and do not allow what is born to grow in the hand of the drunken man, which Israel made instead of the grape. For the Lord waited for it to make grapes, and it made thorns, or the wild vine which has the likeness of a grape, and twists the mouths of those who taste it with its bitter flavor. Therefore, when the time of judgment shall have come, and all things shall have been overthrown, they shall say to the mountains, which they formerly thought exalted, and to their former teachers, cover us; and to the hills, fall upon us.

But because he set “cover us” with the mountains, and “fall” with the hills, something more sacred must be explained. To the mountains, that is, to the saints who have a true and not a feigned height, they shall say: cover us. For blessed are they whose iniquities are covered. And to the hills, which have no natural height, whom they had formerly thought to have some eminence, they shall speak: fall upon us: for the mountains shall cover, and the hills shall fall: and these things shall come to pass through dread and incredible fear, by which both mountains and hills shall be humbled. Verse 9. From the days of Gabaa Israel has sinned: there they stood. The battle in Gabaa against the children of iniquity shall not overtake them; according to my desire I will chastise them: the peoples shall be gathered against them, when they shall be chastised for their two iniquities.

The Septuagint: From the time the hills exist, Israel has sinned; there they stood: war against the children of iniquity did not overtake them on the hill: it came that it might chastise them: and the peoples shall be gathered against them, when they shall have been chastised for their two iniquities. From that day on which Benjamin shamefully and cruelly slew the Levite’s wife in the city of Gabaa, all Israel sinned against me (Judges 19): not because it avenged the wrong, and vindicated the crime with blood; but because it rushed to battle out of the husband’s grief, yet was unwilling to avenge the sacrilege against its own God: in that they neglected the ephod and teraphim in the house of Micah, which were worshipped instead of idols.

Here, then, Israel stood: there it checked its own step, so as to walk no further in the ways of the Lord: therefore the battle shall not overtake them on account of Gabaa, or the captivity, as they themselves suppose: for there they did well in persecuting the children of iniquity; but I will chastise them, he says, and instruct them with the whole will of my mind, and I will gather against them a multitude of peoples, because they have committed two iniquities, in avenging the man, and in neglecting the injury done to their God. Or, two iniquities: because first they sinned in the idols of Micah, secondly in the calves of Jeroboam: or certainly we may call the two calves of Samaria, in Dan and Bethel, two iniquities, of which Jeremiah also speaks: My people have done two very evil things: they have forsaken the fountain of living water, and have dug for themselves broken cisterns, which cannot hold water.

These two iniquities broke forth against the two precepts of the Decalogue, in which it is said: I am the Lord your God: you shall have no other gods besides me. The Seventy interpreted Gabaa as “hills”: From the days of the hills therefore Israel sinned: when it forsook the mountains of the Church, and descended to the hills, or slopes, of the heretics: thinking itself more learned than the Church, and to have discovered something more sublime: there they stood, that is, they persevered in error. And what follows: The battle shall not overtake them on the hill, some have interpreted thus: because they begot children of iniquity, and departing from the Church, began to be on the hills, when persecution should come, the battle shall not overtake them, the devil being unwilling to assail his own. Others thus: Since from the days of the hills Israel sinned, and there it stood and could walk no further: ought it not to be overtaken by battle upon the hills?

Ought not the men of the Church to fight against it, so as to destroy them upon the children of iniquity? Who, if they shall be overtaken and overcome, shall no longer be able to beget. And at the same time the Lord promises that he will chastise them and instruct them, that when the masters have been overcome, their disciples, whom they had formerly deceived, may be gathered together against them, and may see the chastisement for their two iniquities, because they both forsook the Church, the fountain of the Lord, and dug for themselves broken cisterns, namely the caves of the heretics, which cannot hold the water, that is, the doctrine of the Savior and the sacrament of baptism.

Verse 11. Ephraim is a heifer taught to love the threshing: and I passed over the beauty of her neck, and I will mount upon Ephraim: Judah shall plow, Jacob shall break up the furrows for himself. The Seventy: Ephraim a heifer (or cow: for what is said in Hebrew EGLA (עגלה), that is, μόσχος and δάμαλις, signifies both), Ephraim therefore a heifer taught to love contention: but I will come upon the beauty of her neck: I will set a burden upon Ephraim, and I will keep silence concerning Judah: Jacob shall be strengthened for himself. This passage, nay rather all things which follow in this chapter, are involved in great obscurities. Wherefore let both us, who attempt to explain it, and the prudent reader as well, give heed, that if not the truth, which is most difficult, we may at least be able to search out a suspicion of what is probable. This is the custom of the divine word, to express the truth of history through tropology and metaphor.

Ephraim then is like a cow or heifer, which in her youth learned to tread the threshing-floor, and to drag iron wheels over the heaps of grain, so that the chaff might be separated from the wheat: and she not only learned it, but through excessive habit came to love what she was taught. And I, He says, passed over the beauty of her neck. The Hebrew word ABARTHI (עברתי), that is, I passed over, especially when said of God, always signifies blows and adversities. Accordingly the destroyer also is recorded to have "passed over" in Egypt. Since therefore Ephraim, a cow or heifer, loves to tread the threshing-floor, I, He says, passed over the beauty of her neck, and tamed the swelling muscles of her neck by imposing a yoke. Why should I mention the yoke of the Law? I myself mounted upon her, and while I thus labored, Judah, that is, the two tribes, began to cleave the fields with the plowshare, and to lay back the earth in furrows.

But while Ephraim bore the yoke, and Judah plowed, Jacob broke up the furrows for himself. Here let us understand by Jacob, as distinguished from Israel and Judah, the twelve tribes: because they began to break the clods with plows, and to crumble the earth, so that being softened it might receive the seed, and after a little the fruitful crop might spring up. For "threshing," or "threshing-floor," the Seventy translated "contention," and the sense is: Because Ephraim does not wish to receive the yoke of the Law, I will pass over and mount upon the beauty of her neck: that the contentious and wanton heifer may learn to labor at what she does not wish. But Judah will plow of his own accord: because he has the temple, and abides in the Law, so that the whole twelve tribes in rivalry may prepare the fields for sowing.

And what follows according to the same Seventy: I will set a burden upon Ephraim, and I will keep silence concerning Judah, Jacob shall be strengthened for himself—this can have the following sense: Upon Ephraim, who is contentious and unwilling to bear the burdens of the Law, I will impose captivity. But Judah I will leave alone for a little while, and say nothing concerning him: but whoever, whether of Ephraim or of Judah, shall have kept my precepts, shall be strengthened for himself and shall be called Jacob. According to the ἀναγωγή this may be said, that Ephraim, who was instructed in the law of God so as to thresh the floor of the Scriptures, and meditate upon it day and night, began to love contention and to cast off the yoke of the Law, and to contend against churchmen to the subversion of hearers.

Wherefore the Lord will either press down with a yoke the neck that is lifted up and promising itself lofty things, or He Himself, passing over, will trample it with His feet, and will mount upon it, that it may know that it has a Lord. But Judah, that is, the churchman, will plow, persevering in the work begun. Or: I will retain, He says, Judah. For they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But Jacob, who is interpreted "supplanter," and daily supplants vices and sins, and receives the birthright of his brother, and is heir of his father's possession, and sleeps in Bethel, which is interpreted "house of God," will break up the furrows and clods, so that the earth may receive the seed cast into its soft bosom, and produce a hundred measures of barley, or, as it is found in the Hebrew, a hundredfold. For it must not be believed that the patriarch Isaac was zealous for barley, and not for wheat.

Even to this day the churchman Jacob breaks up the clods of history and the hardness of the letter into parts, and divides them spiritually, that they may be able to yield spiritual fruits. This indeed we read that the Lord also did, so that the five loaves of the Law, which the people could not eat whole, He broke into fragments, that through the hands of the apostles He might give them to be eaten by believers. And what He says according to the Seventy, Jacob shall be strengthened for himself, shows that everyone who labors, labors for himself, that he may receive everlasting fruits.

Verse 12. Sow for yourselves in righteousness, reap in the mouth of mercy. Break up for yourselves new ground: but the time of seeking the Lord is when He shall come who will teach you righteousness. The Seventy: Sow for yourselves in righteousness, gather the vintage of the fruit of life: light for yourselves the light of knowledge, for it is the time: seek the Lord, until the fruits of righteousness come to you. He keeps the metaphor once begun from farmers. He had said that Ephraim, a heifer, was taught to love and delight in the threshing of the floor, and that He had mounted upon her neck, and that Judah had plowed, and had broken the furrows, or clods, of Jacob. Now He commands them to sow for themselves through repentance, and to sow in righteousness, that is, in the Law, and to reap in mercy, that is, in the grace of the Gospel.

For there we read: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth: but here we read: Whosoever shall strike you on the right cheek, offer him also the other. And when you have sown in righteousness, and reaped in mercy, break up for yourselves joyful new ground. And He gives the reasons why they should sow, why reap, why break up joyful new ground. The time, He says, of seeking the Lord is, when He shall come, Christ and Savior, who will teach you the righteousness which you now hope for in the Law: For Christ is the end of the Law unto righteousness to everyone that worketh good. For what we have translated, reap in the mouth of mercy, the Seventy rendered, gather the vintage of the fruit of life: and reaping is more fitting to seed than the vintage: but the fruit of life is He Himself, who is also the tree of life.

And for what we have put, break up for yourselves new ground, they rendered, light for yourselves the light of knowledge, that from the works and commandments of the Law we may deserve to have knowledge, according to that which we read in a certain book: Hast thou desired wisdom? Keep the commandments, and the Lord will give it to thee. For he who turns the commandments into works, sows in righteousness, and shall reap from it the fruits of life. Wherefore elsewhere too we read: The commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes. And Isaiah says to the Lord: Thy precepts are a light upon the earth. And in another place: From thy commandments I have understood.

These also, who are separated from the Church and falsely assume to themselves the name of Christians, are commanded to do penance, and to receive both Testaments: in the Old to sow righteousness, in the New to reap mercy: and to light for themselves the light of knowledge, or to break up for themselves new ground, and to seek the Lord, who can teach them true righteousness, and to destroy false teachers, from whom they learn not righteousness, but iniquity.

Verse 13. You have plowed impiety, you have reaped iniquity: you have eaten the fruit of lying. The Seventy: Why do you keep silence concerning impieties, and you have gathered the vintage of its iniquities: you have eaten a deceitful fruit. I am compelled, against my own will, more often to dispute concerning the properties of the Hebrew language: for we do not, after the manner of rhetoricians, repeat sentences, construct words, and stir up hearers or readers to our praises with declamations: but we strive to explain, especially to men of another tongue, what is obscure. Above, where we interpreted, Judah shall plow, in the Hebrew is read JEROS (יהרוש) with the first letter JOD, which the Seventy, thinking it a VAU (והרוש), interpreted, and I will keep silence. Now also in the Hebrew is written ARASTHEM (חרשתם), which we have translated, you have plowed: for which the Seventy rendered, why do you keep silence: by a similar error to the one above, interpreting silence for plowing.

But the sense of the words is this: Over the neck of the heifer Ephraim, contentious and loving the threshing, I passed over, and I mounted, so that, while Judah plowed and broke the furrows, Jacob might tread the threshing-floor, and bear the heat of the sun. And I admonished them to sow in righteousness, and to reap in mercy, and to make for themselves new ground: and to know that the time of seeking the Lord was that in which He should come who would teach us righteousness. While I bade this, and wished to receive from the joyful new ground the fruits of righteousness and mercy, they plowed impiety, whereby they acted impiously against the Lord, forsaking the Creator, and worshipping idols, and they reaped iniquity, receiving evil fruits from evil seed, from which they made not only unleavened bread, but bread fraudulent and false, which by vain hope deceived him that ate it.

Such are the heretics, who plow with well-composed speech, and shield or keep silent about impiety: lest it should seem to be impiety, but be believed to be piety. Wherefore, because they said in their heart, There is no God, they became corrupt and abominable, and they reaped, or gathered the vintage of, iniquities. For as avarice is the root of all evils: so impiety is the root of all sins and crimes, which whoever shall have plowed, or sown, shall reap iniquities.

Those, therefore, who plowed impiety, and reaped iniquities, ate the fruit of lying: preaching to deceived peoples all things which are false, so that they might not seek the true bread, which came down from heaven: but the bread of lying, which chokes and kills those who devour it. (Verses 14 and 15.) Because thou hast trusted in thy ways: in the multitude of thy strong ones a tumult shall arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be laid waste: as Salmana was laid waste by the house of him who avenged Baal in the day of battle, the mother being dashed to pieces upon her children, so hath Bethel done to you because of the malice of your wickednesses.

LXX: Because thou hast hoped in thy chariots, in the multitude of thy strength, destruction shall arise among thy people, and all thy walled places shall pass away; as the princes of Salmana of the house of Jerobaal in the days of war dashed the mother upon her children, so will I do to you, house of Israel, because of your malices. Therefore you have eaten the fruit of falsehood, and in all that you have proposed, vain hope has deceived you; because thou hast trusted, O Ephraim, in the ways of thine idolatry: for these are thy ways, and in the multitude of thy strong ones, having hope not in God, but in the strength of an army.

Therefore a tumult shall arise among thy people, which in Hebrew is called SAON (שאון), that is, the sound and roar of a howling army, by whose shouting all thy fortresses shall be laid waste, and those things which thou didst think fortified and safe shall lie open to the enemy, and shall be laid waste in the same way that Salmana, prince of the Midianites, was laid waste and crushed, who was slain by the house of Jerobaal (Judges 8). There is no doubt that this signifies Gedeon, who, because he destroyed the shrine of Baal and cut down the grove, and Baal was not able to avenge himself, obtained the surname Jerobaal, that is, let Baal avenge himself; so that just as Salmana slew the sons before their mothers, the mothers themselves afterward being also slain, so too thy sons, O Ephraim, shall be slain in thy presence, thou thyself also being about to be slaughtered.

We ask where it is written that Salmana slew a mother over her sons: we read in the book of Judges, Gedeon speaking to the prince of Midian: As thy sword hath made many mothers childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women (Judges 8). Just as, then, Salmana was laid waste by Jerobaal—whom some wrongly suppose to be Jeroboam the son of Nabat, who ruled the ten tribes—and was laid waste, as is contained in the Hebrew, by ARBEL (ארבל), signifying the very same thing as Jerobaal, but in a shorter and more expressive word: so hath Bethel done to you, O Israel, because of your malices, in which you set up the golden calf and worshipped the gods of the Egyptians. For Bethel, which is interpreted "house of God," the LXX translated "house of Israel," which is not found at all in the Hebrew. We have somehow made our way through the rugged places: now, spreading our sails for the deep, let us cross the sea of allegory.

Because thou hast trusted, O Ephraim, in thy ways, or in thy chariots, of which it is written: These in chariots, and these in horses: but we will be magnified in the name of the Lord our God: and thou hast trusted in the multitude of thy strong ones, whom thou hast strengthened for thyself by false knowledge: therefore a tumult and a sound shall arise among thy people. For whatever heretics say, they have not a voice explaining opinions, but tumult and clamor and noise. And all thy fortresses, or those that are walled, shall be laid waste (for they are fortified and built not by the testimonies of the Scriptures, but by dialectical art and the arguments of philosophers) just as Salmana was once laid waste by Gedeon, the mother being slain over her sons.

The eighty-second psalm also recalls this history: where among the other leaders of Midian it mentions Salmana also, saying: Do to them, O Lord—there is no doubt that this signifies those who entered into a pact or covenant against the Lord, as did Midian and Sisara. And afterward: Make, it says, their princes as Oreb and Zeb, and Zebee, and Salmana, all their princes who said: Let us possess the sanctuary of God by inheritance. And in this same psalm the leaders of the heretics are described, who tried to claim for themselves the altar of God.

And what follows: As Bethel hath done to you because of the malice of your wickednesses, is properly fitted to the leaders of the heretics, that Bethel—which they themselves call Bethel, that is, house of God, and the false Church—has done this to them; so that the sense is: Thus your Church, which you call the house of God, will do to you: but since it is held by you, it must be called Bethaven, that is, house of an idol, because of the multitude of your malices.

(Verses 1 and 2.) As the morning passes, so the king of Israel passes away: for Israel was a child, and I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son: they called them: so they went away from before them: they sacrificed to Baalim, and offered sacrifice to idols. LXX: In the morning they are cast off, the king of Israel is cast off, because Israel was a little child, and I loved him, and out of Egypt I called his children.

As I called them, so they went away from my face themselves: they sacrificed to Baalim, and burned incense to graven images. He explains the same meaning through various figures. Whereas above he had said: Samaria has made her king pass away like foam upon the face of the water; because foam and bubbles floating on the surface of waters quickly dissolve: now he sets forth the same thing under another comparison. For just as the rising of dawn and the twilight and the beginning of day, which is called morning, passes quickly between the closeness of night and sun; so that night is ended and day grows clear: so the king of Israel, that is, of the ten tribes, will pass away swiftly. And he sets forth the benefits which God bestowed upon him. While, he says, he was a child and a little one, and held captive in Egypt, I loved him so much that I sent my servant Moses, and out of Egypt called my son, of whom I said elsewhere: Israel is my firstborn son.

And because Israel is indeed spoken of in the singular, but is understood in the plural: as also the people and Ephraim and Judah: since in the singular number there is a great number, which is contained under this number—he recalls the ancient history, that indeed he called them through Moses and Aaron, who called them to go out of Egypt: but they, being called by them, withdrew from before their face, turning their backs on him, and showing by bodily gesture the hardness of their mind. Nor was it enough for them to despise those calling them, unless they also sacrificed to Baal and burned incense to their graven images or idols. We read that they first worshipped Baal under Achab, king of Israel, who took to wife Jezebel, daughter of the king of the Sidonians, and brought the Babylonian and Phoenician idol into Samaria.

Therefore he joins in one statement sins separated in time: how they were first called out of Egypt and named sons, then in the wilderness withdrew from God, worshipping Beelphegor rather than God, and afterward in the holy land served Baalim and Astaroth and the other idols. And it is understood that the heretics pass away like the twilight, and their king is understood to be the devil, or the heresiarch. We have said, whom in infancy (when they believed in the Church, and were little ones, and were reckoned by the name of Christ) God loved, and called them out of the tribulation and darkness of Egypt. He called them, moreover, through the apostles and doctors of the Church. And when, he says, they had been called by my leaders, they withdrew from their face, and worshipped Beelphegor, that is, they served their own vices and lust, and afterward sacrificed to Baalim and to the idols which they had fashioned for themselves.

For each of the heretics has his own gods, and whatever they have feigned, that as a graven and molten thing they worship. As to what we have translated: Out of Egypt I called my son, the Seventy translated: Out of Egypt I called his sons, which is not found in the Hebrew: and there is no doubt that Matthew took this testimony from this place according to the Hebrew truth. Therefore let those who detract from our translation produce the Scripture from which the Evangelist took this testimony, and interpreted it of the Lord Saviour, when he was led back out of Egypt into the land of Israel. And when they are unable to find it, let them cease to wrinkle their brow, raise their eyebrow, crinkle their nose, and snap their fingers.

This passage the emperor Julian, in his seventh volume which he vomited forth against us, that is, against the Christians, slanders, and says: that what was written of Israel, Matthew the Evangelist transferred to Christ, so as to mock the simplicity of those who had believed out of the Gentiles. To whom we will briefly reply: First, that Matthew published his Gospel in Hebrew letters, which could not be read except by those who were of the Hebrews. Therefore he did not do this in order to mock the pagans. But if he wished to mock the Hebrews, he was either foolish or unskilled: foolish, if he fashioned an open lie; unskilled, if he did not understand of whom these things were said. The volume itself excuses him of foolishness, since it is composed with prudence and order. We cannot call him unskilled, whom we know from other testimonies of the Scriptures to have had knowledge of the Law.

It remains for us to say this: that those things which precede typologically in others are, according to truth and fulfillment, referred to Christ: which we know the Apostle to have done in the case of the two mountains Sinai and Sion, and in Sara and Agar. For it is not that Sinai is not a mountain, and Sion is not one; nor that Sara did not exist, and Agar did not exist; for the Apostle Paul referred these to the two Testaments. So then, that which is written: A little one was Israel, and I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son, is indeed said of the people of Israel, who was called out of Egypt, who is loved, who at that time, after the error of idolatry, was called as it were an infant and a little one: but it is fully referred to Christ.

For Isaac too was a type of Christ in that he himself carried the wood of his future death: and Jacob, in that he had Lia with sore eyes, and Rachel as a beautiful wife. In Lia, who was the elder, we understand the blindness of the Synagogue; in Rachel, the beauty of the Church: and yet those who were in part types of the Lord Saviour are not to be believed to have done, in their type, all the things which are narrated of them. For a type indicates a part: but if the whole should precede in the type, then it is no longer to be called a type, but the truth of history. These things we have said briefly, as in the Commentaries; now let us return to the rest. (Verses 3, 4.) And I, as a nurse to Ephraim, carried them in my arms, and they did not know that I was healing them. I will draw them with the cords of Adam, in the bonds of charity.

And I will be to them as one who lifts the yoke upon their jaws, and I bent down to him that he might eat. The Septuagint: And I bound Ephraim, I took him up upon my arm; and they did not know that I healed them in the corruption of men: I extended them in the bonds of my charity. And I will be to them as a man giving blows upon his jaws: and I will look upon him, prevailing over him. The Hebrew and the edition of the Seventy interpreters differ greatly from one another. Let us try then to weave the history according to the Hebrews, and the ἀναγωγή (higher sense) according to the Septuagint.

He who had said above: a boy was Israel and I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son; and afterward added that they perpetrated wickedness, they sacrificed to Baalim, and offered sacrifice to idols, now narrates with what love he loved Israel, according to that which is read in Deuteronomy: The Lord your God carried you, as a man is wont to carry his little son, in all the way by which you walked, until you came to this place. And in another place: He spread out his wings and took him up, and carried him on his shoulders.

I, he says, who was a father, became a nurse, and I myself carried my little one in my arms, lest he be hurt in the wilderness, and lest he be terrified either by heat or by darkness; by day I was a cloud, by night a pillar of fire: so that those whom I had protected I might illumine and heal with my own light, and when they had sinned, and had made for themselves the head of a calf, I gave place for repentance, and they did not know that I was healing them, and that I was covering over the wound of idolatry over a space of forty years, and restoring them to their former health. But I healed them on account of the cords and bonds of charity, by which I had bound Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to myself. For instead of "Adam," Aquila and Symmachus and the Septuagint and Theodotion translated "men": so that they said, I will draw them with the cords of men, in the bonds of charity.

And that which follows: I will be to them as one who lifts the yoke, for which Symmachus interpreted: and they thought that I was imposing a yoke upon their jaw, is understood in two ways: either I took away from them the yoke of all the nations round about; or they judged my Law to be a most heavy yoke of weight. And I gave them manna as food in the desert, that they might eat: for this is what he says, I bent down to him that he might eat; for which Symmachus interpreted, and I bent down foods to him. Not that God bent down to him, but that he made the food of manna bend down to him.

Otherwise: I loved them so much, and was so gentle a shepherd, that I myself carried the sick sheep on my shoulders: but they did not know that I was healing them by my own passion: and I, who am the lover of all men, was drawing them to belief in the bonds of charity, according to that which is written in the Gospel: No one comes to me, unless the Father who sent me draws him. And they thought my yoke, which was light, to be most heavy: and I bent down to them, forsaking the kingdoms of heaven, that I might eat with them, having assumed the form of man, or that I gave them to eat of my Body: I myself both the food and the guest. Let us pass over to the spiritual understanding, according to the Septuagint interpreters only: lest, if we should wish to expound both according to the history and according to the ἀναγωγή, we extend the size of the book.

While they were sacrificing to Baalim, which they had fashioned out of their own heart, and while, at my calling, they were fleeing from my face (for so it is contained in the Septuagint), I, the most merciful Lord, was binding the feet of Ephraim, lest they flee farther from me: for this is what συνεπόδισα signifies. And I was binding them with the testimonies of the Scriptures, and the disputation of the teachers of the Church, so that, being bound, I might hold them by patience in my own arms, they not understanding that the patience of God was the occasion of their salvation. Whence, in the corruption of men, namely of the teachers who had deceived them, contracted by the cold of unbelief, I extended the warmth of faith, and, as it were, bound them, struggling against it, with the bonds of my love. And because they were not running of their own accord, but were being dragged along, bound with ropes, I struck their jaws a little with blows, not punishing, but correcting and amending them.

A judge tears the flesh, tortures with ropes, torments with scourges and fires. But he who is a father strikes his wanton son with the palm of his hand. And beautifully he did not say, I will be striking them with blows, but as a man striking the jaws with his hand. Now God strikes his erring sons with the threat of penalties, with the reading of the Gospel, and with the testimonies of the prophets. And when he has struck them thus upon the jaw, so as to shake out from their polluted mouth the bread and the doctrine of the heretics: then he looks upon him, the beaten son saying to him: Look upon me, and have mercy on me. And again: Look and hear me, O Lord my God. And when he has looked upon him, he will prevail, or it will profit them, that is, he will overcome the adversaries, and from fugitives will make them servants.

Or he will give them true and sweet food, who before were devouring the lies and most bitter foods of the heretics. (Verses 5, 6, and 7.) He shall not return into the land of Egypt, and Assur himself shall be his king, because they refused to be converted. The sword has begun in his cities, and shall consume his chosen ones: and shall devour their heads, and my people shall hang in expectation of my return. And a yoke shall be imposed upon them together, which shall not be taken away. The Septuagint: Ephraim shall dwell in Egypt, and Assur himself shall be his king: because he refused to be converted. And the sword was weakened in his cities, and it rested in his hands, and they shall eat of their own thoughts: and his people is suspended from his sojourning, and God will be angry over his precious things, and will not exalt him. When it says: he shall not return into the land of Egypt, it shows that he desires to return, but cannot go.

Now Israel was desiring to return, imploring help from the Egyptians; but he was possessed by the Assyrian, who took him captive, and ruled over him by the right of a conqueror, and he suffered this because he refused to be converted, nor to do penance. Or certainly let us say that he returned into the land of Egypt, when he worshipped Egyptian gods in the holy land, or it should be understood in that sense in which it was said above: They called upon Egypt, they went to the Assyrians. So then the sword has begun in his cities, or it will rush in, as Aquila translated, or it will wound, as Symmachus rendered. And see how great a weight of miseries this is, that not fields or possessions or country estates are laid waste; but the enemy enters into the midst of the cities, and consumes his chosen ones, or his arms, as Symmachus interpreted, which in Hebrew is called BADDAU (בדיו).

And when the sword has consumed the chosen ones, and the princes, or the strength of the army, and has devoured either their heads or their counsels, so that they can find no defense, then the wretched people, who refused to return to me, will await my return to them. And it will do penance too late, while the enemies lay everything waste. Therefore, because great sins must be punished with great punishments, they will impose upon those who shall have been left of the people (their king and princes having been beheaded by the Assyrian sword) a most heavy yoke of servitude, and they will impose it likewise so that it shall not be taken away according to the letter, unless it be spiritually removed in Christ. According to the Septuagint, Ephraim shall dwell in Egypt, saying that he has the holy land, and the Church of the Lord Saviour; but through vices and sins and perversity of faith he has always dwelt in Egypt.

Because therefore he has dwelt in Egypt, the great Assyrian sense will be his king: for he refused to return to the Church, and having lost virtue, that is, Christ, who is the virtue of God and the wisdom of God, he was always occupied in weakness, and was infirm, lying subject to all demons and disturbances: therefore the sword, that is, spiritual knowledge, or the word of the ecclesiastical man, laying waste and warring, will always be occupied in his cities, which he impiously built up against the Lord, and the sword itself will rest in his hands, so that, being slain by another, he cannot slay another, nor raise his hand against an adversary. Finally they will take back, and devour according to their own counsels. But the unhappy people and untaught crowd will sigh for their ancient homeland, and will feel that he has been taken captive, or will hang suspended in his sojourning, not knowing what to do, and ignorant of where to turn.

But God, over their precious things, namely the gold and silver which they had received from him, of which we have often spoken, will be angry, and will by no means free him who has fallen by his own fault. This according to the Septuagint; but we will fit the same sense also to the Hebrew. (Verses 8 and 9.) How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? Shall I protect thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Adama, shall I set thee as Seboim? My heart is turned within me: my repentance is stirred up together. I will not execute the fierceness of my anger: I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man: the holy one in the midst of thee, and I will not enter into the city. The Septuagint: What shall I do to thee, Ephraim? Shall I protect thee, Israel? What shall I do to thee? As Adama I will set thee, and as Seboim: my heart is turned within itself: my repentance is stirred up together.

I will not deal according to the fierceness of my wrath. I will not leave Ephraim to be destroyed: for I am God, and not man: the holy one in thee: and I will not enter into the city. In the place where we and the Septuagint have translated: shall I protect thee, Israel? In the Hebrew it is written AMAGGENACH (אמגנך), which Aquila rendered, ὅπλῳ κυκλώσω σε, that is, I will surround thee with a shield. And whereas we thought this should be understood in a good sense, and to signify protection, from the edition of Symmachus a contrary sense is presented to us, he saying, ἐκδώσω σε, that is, I will deliver thee up. From the translation also of Theodotion not favorable but adverse things are shown: ἀφοπλίσω σε, which signifies, I will strip thee, and take away from thee ὅπλον, that is, the shield with which I had before protected thee: and this sense agrees better with the Lord uttering a threat.

What therefore he says is this: since they were unwilling to be converted, and Assur became their king, the sword shall devour both cities and princes and people, and a yoke shall be laid upon them which shall not be taken away from them: and because this seemed a harsh sentence, leaving them no place for repentance, now God speaks to Israel with the affection of a parent: What shall I do to thee, Ephraim? How shall I strip thee of my help? What shall I do to thee? By what art shall I chastise thee? With what medicine shall I be able to heal thee? I will set thee as Adama and Seboim, which are two of the five cities, as we read in Genesis: Sodom and Gomorrah, Adama, and Seboim and Bale, which is Segor, and in the Syriac tongue is called Zoura. I will therefore set thee and turn thee into a wilderness, and I will destroy thee even to ashes and cinders, as I destroyed Adama and Seboim.

And when he had uttered this harsh, nay cruel sentence, again by the affection of a parent mercy overcomes, and the severity of judgment is softened by a father's tenderness. For he says: My heart is turned within me: my repentance is stirred up together. As soon as I had spoken that I would set Ephraim and Israel as Adama and Seboim, my inward parts were moved. I repented that I should destroy forever my own people once beloved: therefore I will not act according to the fierceness of my wrath, nor shall I be changed from my clemency, so as to destroy Ephraim: for I do not strike in order to destroy forever, but in order to amend. My severity is an occasion of repentance and of mercy: for I am God, and not man. Man punishes in order to destroy, God chastises in order to amend.

The holy one in the midst of thee, and I will not enter into the city, that is, I am not one of those who dwell in cities, who live by human laws, who consider cruelty to be justice, for whom the highest law is the highest malice; but my law and my justice is to save those who are corrected. We may also say otherwise: since Cain, the first parricide, built a city in the name of his son Enoch, the Lord does not enter into a city of this kind, which has been built out of crime and blood and parricide. But if we should wish to read, how shall I give thee up, Ephraim, shall I protect thee, Israel? It is to be understood thus: What shall I do to thee? Art thou worthy of protection, who hast done such things? It is also to be noted that where it is spoken against Judah, that is, the people of God, Adama and Seboim are not set down, but Sodom and Gomorrah.

For we read in Isaiah: Hear the law of God, ye princes of Sodom: attend to the word of the Lord, ye people of Gomorrah. In the Gospel also, of the city which shall not receive even the apostles, they shaking off the dust of their feet, it is said concerning it, that it shall be more tolerable in the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that city. And to Jerusalem the prophetic word is directed: Sodom is justified rather than thou. There is given to us, then, a suspicion, that Sodom and Gomorrah were leaders in sin, and that Adama and Seboim followed their examples, so that the mighty shall be mightily tormented: and the servant who knows the will of his lord, and does it not, shall be beaten with many stripes.

Whence also churchmen, if they are held by the same crimes as heretics, shall in no wise be subject to the torments of Adama and Seboim, which are lesser; but to those of Sodom and Gomorrah, which are said to belong to greater crimes. To heretics also, and to the people deceived by them, the Lord speaks, that unless they do penance, they be set as Adama and Seboim, so that they have no hope of salvation. Again, as a most merciful father, he says that he changes his sentence, and repents of having spoken such things, in order that he may also call them to conversion and to repentance. I will not, he says, act in my fury, I will not destroy Ephraim. As far, he says, as is in me, as far as I desire, if he shall correct his error with truth, if he shall love me more than the princes of heresy, for I am God, and not man, I will stretch out my hand to the fallen, I will call the erring to salvation.

And because I am holy, therefore I will not enter into the city, that is, the gathering-places and cities of the heretics. Those who come out of their cities I gladly receive: into their cities I will not enter. As to what he said, I will not enter into the city, and, according to the Septuagint, there follows: I will walk after the Lord, some have interpreted it thus, that they say the people answered the Lord, and the sense is: Because thy heart is turned within thee, and thou hast not dealt with us according to our sins; but thou dost imitate thine own clemency, and dost not punish our offenses, and dost promise that thou, holy and merciful, wilt dwell in our midst; therefore I also will not enter into the city of wicked men: nor will I be of the number of sinners; but I will walk after the Lord my God.

But the Hebrews thus explain it from the person of God: I will not forsake thee: I will not go to another nation: nor will I enter another city. (Verses 10 and 11.) They shall walk after the Lord: he shall roar like a lion: for he himself shall roar: and the sons of the sea shall fear, and they shall fly as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove from the land of the Assyrians: and I will place them in their own houses, saith the Lord. The Septuagint: I will walk after the Lord: he shall roar like a lion: for he himself shall roar, and the sons of the waters shall fear, and they shall fly as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove from the land of the Assyrians: and I will place them in their own houses, saith the Lord. With the Lord promising prosperous things, the people shall be turned to him: and shall walk after the Lord; for the Lord shall roar like a lion.

Of this the prophet Amos also makes mention: The Lord shall roar from Sion, and shall utter his voice from Jerusalem. And he shall roar when he says: as Adama I will set thee, as Seboim. And when he has roared, then the sons of the sea, or of the waters, as the Septuagint rendered, shall fear. For the word MAIM (מים), which is written with three letters MEM, JOD, MEM: if it be read MAIM, it signifies waters: if MEJAM, it is understood of the sea. The Hebrews refer these things to the coming of Christ, whom they hope is yet to come. We prove that these things are already past; because both from Egypt and from the Assyrians, that is, from East and West, and from North and South, have come, and daily come, those who recline at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And we may call sons of the sea, or of the waters, those who have been caught by the Lord's net, and drawn out of the sea of this world.

And when they have been taken from death into life, they shall be placed in their own houses: which the Gospel calls barns, in which the chosen grains, separated from the chaff, are stored. It is said to be the nature of lions, that when they have roared and thundered, all living creatures tremble, and cannot move from their fixed position: so great is the fear and so great the terror. So also the Lord, when he shall have roared like a lion, and thundered, and uttered his voice, all the birds and all the flying creatures shall be terrified: and they shall go to their nests, that is, to their own houses in which the Lord shall dwell with them.

Let us also say otherwise: When the true lion has roared, the false lion who is, according to the apostle Peter, our adversary (I Peter V), shall at once fall silent, and every perverse doctrine shall not be able to open its mouth; and those who before had been captured by him, loosed by the roaring of the lion and by his terrible threat, shall follow the Lord their God. Then the sons of the sea, or of the waters, who had been begotten in the bitter and salty waters of the heretics, shall fear; and having taken on wings, they shall fly as birds out of Egypt, and as a dove from the land of the Assyrians, and they shall say: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly away and be at rest? That those who had labored among the heretics may rest in the Church, and dwell in their own houses, from which they had been led astray by error.

We know that Egypt, that is, MESRAIM (מצרים), is interpreted tribulation and anguish: and the Assyrians also, "directing," or, as we rather think, "convicting." From these, then, the heretics shall be freed, when they begin to dwell in their own houses, and shall say to their evil parents: Your house shall be left to you desolate. (Verse 12.) Ephraim hath compassed me about with lies: and the house of Israel with deceit: but Judah went down a faithful witness with God, and with the saints. The Septuagint: Ephraim hath compassed me about with lying: and the house of Israel and of Judah with impiety: now God has known them: and the holy people shall be called God's.

The Hebrews hand down a fable of this kind: at the going out of Israel from Egypt, when on one side a mountain, on another the Red Sea, and on another Pharaoh's army hemmed them in, and the people, shut in, were held fast, the other tribes despairing of safety, and desiring either to return to Egypt or to fight, Judah alone faithfully entered the sea, whence he also merited to receive the kingdom, and this is what is now said: Judah, witness of the words of God, and supporter and vindicator, went down with God into the sea, and among the saints was most faithful, so that he believed the words of the commanding God. This they say. Let us follow the order of the exposition begun, that the royal tribe Ephraim compassed him about, and the house of Israel, the people who served the royal tribe, and compassed him about in negation or lying, while they deny the Lord, and confess idols.

But Judah, that is, the two tribes which had the Temple, the Law, the Prophets, and kept the legal precepts, were witnesses, and, walking with God and with the saints, were faithful. We may call "saints" either angels, or patriarchs and prophets, and the rest who served the command of God. For, in comparison with that time in which these things were spoken, Ephraim having wholly gone astray, and Israel having been deceived in the worship of idols, Judah alone remained, who continued in the worship and testimonies of God, and was able to go down with him, or to be strong with the strong: for RAD (רד) signifies both descent and strength: for which Aquila rendered ἐπικράτειαν. According to the anagogical sense, heretics compass the Lord about with lying, nay with negation. For whatever they speak is negation, nay a lie: and they compass him about with deceit, or with the impiety of the house of Israel; while they compose all the things they feign with crafty speech, and speak impiety against the Lord.

But Judah, that is, the churchman, is not proud, is not puffed up with heretical swelling, but is humbled with God, and with the choir of saints is faithful and steadfast: while he builds his house upon the rock, which is shaken by no storm. The Septuagint translated much otherwise: that both Ephraim and the house of Israel and Judah compassed God about with lying and with impiety, and that God is of such great clemency that he does not cut off from them the hope of salvation; but knows them, and is ready to call holy people and the people of God, that which is now perverted by impiety. According to the tropological sense also, God wishes both heretics and sinning churchmen to be saved, and all to be called by his own name. But he who is truly holy does not compass God about with lying, but with truth, the Psalmist saying: Thou art mighty, O Lord: and thy truth is round about thee.

(Verse 1.) Ephraim feeds on wind, and follows the burning heat: all the day long he multiplies lying and desolation: and he made a covenant with the Assyrians, and carried oil into Egypt. The Septuagint: But Ephraim is a most evil spirit, he pursued the burning heat: all the day long he multiplied vain and empty things, and struck a covenant with the Assyrians, and was purchasing oil in Egypt. Sacred history relates that Manahem, king of Israel, having made peace with Assur, sought help from the Egyptians, and this is what is now said, that Ephraim feeds on winds, that is, deceives himself with vain hope, and follows καύσωνα, that is, the burning heat, and goes toward the South, doing nothing all day but mocking himself. And while he runs hither and thither, he prepares devastation and overthrow for his own cities. Is it not desolation and lying, to have struck a covenant with the Assyrians, and to have carried oil into Egypt?

By synecdoche the whole is put for the part, namely, that he sent gifts to the Egyptians. Though some think that oil is by no means produced in Egypt, but that the most precious oil was sent from Ephraim, whose land, Samaria, is most fertile in oil. Further, according to the tropology, all heretics are possessed by the most evil spirit of demons, of whom it is also written in the Apostle: Against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. And when the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, and finds no rest, it joins to itself seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and returns to its former house. By the most evil spirit, therefore, they follow καύσωνα, that is, dryness, or the burning wind, which is contrary to blossoms, and destroys all growing things; all day long it pursues vain and empty things, and is not content with its own error, but multiplies many disciples, or rather companions of its vanity and error.

It also makes a covenant with the Assyrians, whose prince is great understanding, so that whatever it has feigned may seem to have been wisely contrived, with that wisdom which is destroyed by God, which the Apostle also bids us avoid, saying: Beware lest any man deceive you through philosophy and vain seduction, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world. But it also carries oil into Egypt, or purchases the wisdom of Egypt, desiring to mix with Ecclesiastical doctrines the oil of anointing, with which the prophets and priests were anointed, with which also the kings were anointed. This oil the saints also have, of whom it is said: Thy children shall be like fresh olive-plants round about thy table. And the good olive tree into which our wild olive is grafted. But although heretics strive to mix falsehood with truth, oil cannot be joined with water and other moist and liquid things. Truth is always above, and falsehood below.

All other kinds, that is, heresies, which do not have, as we have said, the oil of truth, can be mixed with one another, and out of many one body can be made. But of these the oil which is carried into Egypt, and descends from the holy land into the kingdoms of Pharaoh, the prophet detests, saying: Let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head. (Verses 2, 3 and following.) Therefore the Lord has a judgment with Judah, and a visitation upon Jacob: according to his ways, and according to his devices, he will repay him. In the womb he supplanted his brother, and by his strength he had power with an angel, and prevailed over the angel, and was strengthened: he wept and made supplication to him; he found him in Bethel, and there he spoke with us, and the Lord God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial; and thou shalt return to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and hope in thy God always.

The Septuagint: And the Lord has judgment with Judah, that he may avenge Jacob, according to his ways, and according to his devices he will repay him. In the womb he supplanted his brother, and in his labor he prevailed with God, and was strengthened with the angel, and was able: they wept and made supplication to me: in the house of Ὤν they found me, and there it was said to them: The Lord God Almighty shall be his memorial, and thou shalt be converted in thy God, keep mercy and judgment: and draw near to thy God always. Ephraim, once feeding on winds and following lying, who came to such madness that he wavered doubtfully between two adversary nations, making peace with the Assyrians and carrying oil into Egypt—now, he says, all judgment is mine with Judah, and a visitation upon Jacob.

He calls visitation the scourges and punishments, so that as he repaid Ephraim what he deserved, so also to Judah, who arose from the seed of Jacob, he repays according to his ways and according to his devices—Judah who was not merely deceived by chance error, but fell by human frailty; rather he sought out and found the things in which he might sin and fall. He sets forth, moreover, how great were the blessings Judah, that is, Jacob, received, and the son is named in the father, and he recalls the old history, that both God’s mercy toward Jacob and Jacob’s own hardness against the Lord may be known. While still in the womb of Rebecca, he supplanted his brother Esau, not indeed by his own strength, since he could not yet perceive anything, but by the mercy of God, who knows and loves those whom he has predestined.

And not only in the womb did he supplant his brother, but also by strength he had power with the angel, when at the torrent Jacob wrestled all night against the angel. And because he had power with the angel, therefore he received the name εὐθυτάτου, which in Hebrew is called ISAR (ישר), that is, of one directing, or directed. And he prevailed, it says, against the angel; and was strengthened by the blessing of him whom he had overcome. He also wept, and made supplication to him, that is, to the angel, saying: I will not let thee go, unless thou bless me. And when by the counsel of his father and mother he fled into Mesopotamia, he found the same angel in Bethel, who spoke to him—spoke with us, that is, spoke in the father and to the sons, and he loved both Jacob and Judah: from that time to the present, the memory of the name imposed on him by the Angel and by God persists.

Since these things are so, thou too, O Judah, imitate thy ancestor; weep and beseech the Lord of hosts, and turn to him. Keep both mercy and judgment, and when thou hast done both, hope in thy God always, advancing to greater things by good works. For what the Hebrew has, "he wept and made supplication to him: in Bethel he found him, and there he spoke with us," we read in the Vulgate edition: "they wept and made supplication to me, in the house of ὤν they found me, and there it was said to them"; ὤν is interpreted "grief." If anyone therefore weeps, and does penance, and entreats the Lord, he will find him in the grief of his heart, and when he has invoked him, he will hear him answering.

We can understand Judah as the man of the Church, who is rebuked by the Lord because he is not mindful of the former benefits toward him, but daily joins sin to sin; and he sets forth what those benefits are: When the Church, he says, was bringing thee forth in the faith, thou didst supplant thy Jewish or Gentile brother, and didst receive his birthright, and by thy strength thou wast directed with the angel, either overcoming the adversary powers, or strengthened by the blessings of the angel, who is himself God, and thou didst prevail in a figure against the angel, that thou mightest prevail against men, and wast strengthened. And when thou hadst obtained the victory, thou didst weep, and beseech the angel of the Lord, and remembering thy old sins, thou didst find him in Bethel, that is, in the house of God, which is the Church, or in the house of ὤν, of grief and tears and penance.

And that we might know who this Judah is, there, he says, he spoke with us, that is, with us Christians, and from that time to this present day we are reckoned by the name of Christ, and by his direction we are corrected. O then, man of the Church, who art called Judah, both confess, and be converted daily by penance to thy Lord, and if perchance thou hast sinned, imitate the prophet who says: I have labored in my groaning, every night I will wash my bed, I will water my couch with my tears. Nor let it suffice to have said this, but keep God's commandments, show mercy to others, that thou too mayest obtain mercy. Judge true judgment, that in whatever thou hast judged, thou mayest be judged.

And hope in thy God always, or draw near continually to thy God, that advancing at all times in virtue, thou mayest draw near to thy God. (Verses 7, 8.) Chanaan hath a deceitful balance in his hand, he loved calumny, and Ephraim said: Yet I am become rich, I have found me an idol; in all my labors they shall not find me the iniquity which I have sinned. The Septuagint: Chanaan hath in his hand a balance of iniquity, he loved to oppress by power: and Ephraim said: Yet I am become rich: I have found rest for myself; all his labors shall not be found in him, because of the iniquities in which he sinned. He had warned Judah that he should be converted to the Lord his God, and keep mercy and judgment, and hope in the Lord always, or draw near to him continually.

Now the discourse turns to Ephraim, that is, to the ten tribes, whom he calls Chanaan, according to what Daniel says to the elder, who was indeed of the seed of Judah: Thou seed of Chanaan, and not of Judah, beauty hath deceived thee. And in Ezekiel we read it said to Jerusalem: Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite. And in Isaiah it is said to the tribe of Judah: Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom: give ear to the law of our Lord, ye people of Gomorrah. In Zechariah too, in the last verse, we read: And there shall be no more a Chanaanite in the house of the Lord. He says, then, that Chanaan, that is, Ephraim, has in his hand a deceitful, or unjust, balance, whereas Scripture commands, "Let your weights be just"; and not only to have an unjust and deceitful balance, but to love calumny, and to oppress men through power.

And lest we should think some other Chanaan is meant, he sets forth more plainly who this Chanaan is. Ephraim said: Yet I am become rich; and the sense is: It does not matter whence I possess, so long as I possess. With this disease many labor, of whom it is written: Riches gathered unjustly shall be vomited up: For the redemption of a man's soul are his riches. Wherefore we are bidden to make to ourselves friends of the mammon of iniquity, who may receive us into everlasting habitations. But Ephraim, who boasts and says: Yet I am become rich, has found me an idol, or ἀνωφελές, that is, AVEN (און), which does not profit its possessor, has sweated in vain labor. But as the belly is a god to the gluttonous and luxurious, so also the miser adores the idol of gold, and says in his heart: I have found what I sought; but he shall hear: Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?

And when once, I will not say the glitter, but the blindness of riches has seized his eyes, he says: All my labors shall not find my iniquity, in which I have sinned. And the sense is: whatever I shall have sinned, if I have riches from those who need my help, it cannot be imputed to me, according to what is written: And he that does iniquity is blessed: for the rich have many friends. Whence this too is referred to heretics. For Chanaan can be interpreted as "those who move" or "movers." And note that it says "as it were moving," not "moving." They are movers of those whom they have deceived; as it were movers, of those whom they have tempted. But because they are founded upon the rock, they cannot be shaken by any storm, nor change the print of their feet.

In such a Chanaan's hand, that is, in his works, there is a deceitful and unjust balance; for whatever the heretic speaks does not have the justice of God, and is full of guile and fraud; whence they love calumny, while they oppress the innocent, or crush them by power. The poor man of the Church is oppressed by the verbosity and subtleties of heretics, who, after they have deceived some, are wont to say: We have become rich, we have a very great multitude; a crowd of disciples follows us; we have found an idol or refreshment for ourselves. For heresies are composed chiefly for this reason, that they may devour the houses of widows, who are ever learning, and never come to the knowledge of the truth. And beautifully he says, I have found an idol for myself. For all the fabrications of heretics are idols and images of the Gentiles; nor do they differ much in impiety, though they seem to differ in name.

And they are wont to say, whatever I have done, whatever I have committed, it cannot be imputed to me; for I have my riches, the arguments of the philosophers, I have a multitude of people, which whoever beholds will not think that I sin. (Verses 9 and 10.) And I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt: I will yet again make thee dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the festival, and I have spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied vision, and by the hand of the prophets I have been made like unto them. The Septuagint: But I am the Lord thy God, I brought thee out of the land of Egypt: I will yet again make thee dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of solemnity, and I will speak to the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and in the hands of the prophets I have been made like unto them.

Thou indeed hast sinned so greatly that thou didst rejoice in wickedness, and didst reckon the multitude of thy sins to be riches, and didst say: I have become rich, I have found an idol for myself: all my labors will not be able to find my sins. But I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, when thou wast serving Pharaoh, and building cities of clay and straw, still I grant thee a place of repentance, and I urge thee by the greatness of my promises to return to me, for I will yet again make thee dwell in tabernacles as in the days of the festival. He calls the day of the festival the Feast of Tabernacles, in the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, when the children of Israel went out of Egypt.

As, he says, at that time I delivered thee from Egypt, and thou didst dwell in tabernacles hastening toward the holy land and toward the place of the temple: so also now will I bring thee out from tribulation and distress, and from the impending captivity, if only thou wilt do what I have commanded. For I am he who through all the prophets and through various kinds of visions have been made like unto men, and have called thee to repentance. Is it not of human likeness, when Moses, lifting up his hands on high, prays that Joshua may conquer Amalec, and the mysteries of the cross are shown forth in him? Is not God made like unto man in the hands of the prophets, when Jonah is three days and three nights in the deep, that he might signify the Lord rising from the dead on the third day? We read too of multiplied visions in all the prophets, when Ezekiel beholds the Lord sitting after the manner of a charioteer upon the Cherubim.

And Isaiah says, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and two Seraphim round about him crying one to another, holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of Sabaoth. And Habakkuk stood upon his watchtower, that he might see horns in the hands of the Savior, in which his strength was hidden. Whence also the Psalmist exclaims: I will hear what the Lord God shall speak in me. And that we may know that all prophecy in the sacred Scriptures is called vision: And all the people, he says, saw the voice of the Lord: whence also the prophets were formerly called seers. To those also who have been led astray by heretics it is said that they should return to the Lord, who prefers the repentance of the sinner rather than his death: for it is he who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that is, out of the darkness and error of the Gentiles.

And lest perhaps, mindful of their sin, they should return too slowly: I will yet again, he says, make you dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the festival: so that what baptism does, repentance may do also, and that they may dwell in the tabernacles of the Savior, that is, in the Churches, of which it is said: Planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of the house of our God. And lest they should think that the heresiarchs and the leaders of their error have spoken by the Spirit of God: I am he, he says, who spoke to the prophets, and not to your teachers: and I have multiplied visions, and in the hand of my prophets who are established in the Church, I have been made like unto them. (Verse 11.) If Galaad be an idol, then in vain were they in Galgal sacrificing to oxen; for their altars also are as heaps upon the furrows of the field.

The Septuagint: If Galaad is not, then false were the princes in Galgala who sacrificed, and their altars are as tortoises upon the desert of the field. For what we have translated as "oxen," which in Hebrew are called SURIM (שורים), the Septuagint translated as "princes," which are called SARIM (שרים), being deceived by the similarity and ambiguity of the word. Again, where we have put "heaps," which in Hebrew are called GALLIM (גלים) and properly signify θῖνας, that is, mounds gathered of sand, which especially in the desert and on the shores, when the wind blows, are either increased or diminished, the Septuagint translated "tortoises" (χελῶνας): for which Symmachus interpreted "heaps of stones": Theodotion, "hills." And indeed if you look at θῖνας, they have the likeness of great tortoises in the desert field, or on the banks and shores rising a little above the ground.

What he says, then, is this: if in Galaad, of which it is written: Galaad is a city of them that work idols, tripped up with blood, the gods are false and the religion perverse, and this is beyond the Jordan where two tribes dwell, Ruben and Gad, and half the tribe of Manasses: then also in Galgal, of which we read in this same prophet: All their wickedness is in Galgala, which is behind Bethaven; whoever worship idols do not sacrifice oxen to their gods, but offer sacrifices to oxen, imitating the error of Samaria. For at the time when these things were prophesied, Galaad was in the kingdom of the ten tribes; and Galgal under the rule of the two tribes, which were called Judah. Therefore both the ten tribes and the two were deceived by an equal error of idolatry, and their altars were like heaps and mounds gathered of stones, or of sand.

And when both these and those had been led away into captivity, their altars, once theirs, without worshippers, will have the likeness of tortoises or of mounds. But because Galaad is interpreted "transference of testimony," and Galgal, "a wallowing place," we may say this, that the princes of heretics transfer the testimonies of truth into falsehood, and whatever they worship is an idol, and their sacrifices have the likeness either of heaps gathered of stones, or of tortoises. For just as θῖνες, that is, heaps, are gathered here and there of stones and sand, so also heretics compose their images out of worldly wisdom and the subtleties of men, by fraud and falsehood. And when they have done this, they move with slow steps in one place, and cannot occupy the whole world.

The tortoise, slow-paced and burdened, or rather oppressed by its own weight, does not so much walk as move, signifying the very grievous sins of heretics, who sacrifice in the mire and wallowing place of their errors, worshipping the works of their own hands, and, like oxen, laboring for all things for the sake of earthly crops. (Verses 12 and 13.) Jacob fled into the region of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept watch. And by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved. The Septuagint: And Jacob withdrew into the plain of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept watch, and by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved.

It seems, without reason and prophetic order, that after the idol of Galaad and Galgal and the altars like heaps of stones, he suddenly wished to narrate the history of Genesis concerning Jacob: which he immediately resolves, since he remembers having read above concerning Jacob: In the womb he supplanted his brother, and by his strength he prevailed with the angel, and he was strong against the angel, and was strengthened: he wept and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spoke with us. This Jacob, then, was not without reason strengthened by the angel; but because he wrestled all night, and overcame his adversary, so that from this he might learn not to fear his brother, from fear of whom he fled into Syria to Laban his uncle, and served for the wife Rachel seven years, and for Lia kept the sheep of his father-in-law Laban for the same span of years.

And because Jacob had once been called Israel, he joins the father and the sons together, and recalls the following history, when by the prophet Moses the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and the twelve tribes, which were begotten of Israel, were preserved by the prophet's leading them out. He will not err who says that Jacob the supplanter, and Israel the seer of God, went before in a type of the Lord, and that Rachel, at first barren and beautiful, whom Jacob loved above all, signifies the Church: and that Lia, bleary-eyed but fruitful, shows forth the mysteries of the Synagogue, and that he himself has led the people of believers out of the darkness of this age, and has brought them to the sweetest streams of Jordan, that is, of baptism. (Verse 14.) Ephraim provoked me to wrath with his bitternesses, and his blood shall come upon him, and his Lord shall requite him his reproach. The Septuagint likewise.

Since, then, I have shown Ephraim such great favors, that I brought him back, naked and exiled and alone, rich and a lord, and the parent of many children, Ephraim has forsaken me, indeed has provoked me to wrath: and by his bitterness he has made bitter him who am sweet. Whence his blood shall come upon him, that is, he himself shall be the cause of his own death, according to what David says to him who announced Saul's death, and reported that the king of Israel had been slain by himself: Thy blood be upon thy own head. Not by my judgment, but by the blood of Saul shall thy blood be shed.

And what follows: And his Lord shall requite him his reproach, agrees with that sense which Nathan speaks to David: Because thou hast made the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme his name, for this thing, that is, because of this sin by which thou didst slay Urias, that very blasphemy and reproach, whereby the Lord was blasphemed through thee, shall be turned upon thy own head. Heretics always provoke the merciful Lord to wrath, and by the hardness of their heart they compel him, who prefers the repentance of the sinner rather than his death, to punish them; and their blood, wherewith they have poured out both their own and much other blood, shall come upon their own head, and the reproaches with which they have blasphemed the Lord, their Lord shall requite them, not because he is their Lord, but because he once was their Lord.

(Verses 1, 2.) When Ephraim spoke, horror invaded Israel, and he sinned in Baal, and died, and now they have added to their sinning: and they made themselves a molten thing of their silver as a likeness of idols; it is all the work of craftsmen; to these very things they say: Sacrifice men, adoring calves. The Septuagint: According to the word of Ephraim, he himself received justifications in Israel, and he set them at Baal, and he died, and now he has added to sin, and they made themselves a molten thing out of their gold and silver, according to the image of idols, the completed works of craftsmen; to these very things they say, Sacrifice men, for the calves have failed.

In place of what the Seventy translated, Sacrifice men, for the calves have failed; and we have rendered, Sacrifice men, adoring calves, Symmachus interpreted it, Sacrifice, let men adore the calves; so that the sense is: Sacrifice, that is, offer sacrifices to idols, and up to this point let the distinction follow: the rational animal, men, should adore calves, the mute animals. When Ephraim then spoke—that is, Jeroboam the son of Nebat, of the tribe of Ephraim—horror invaded Israel, that is, the ten tribes. In place of "horror," which in Hebrew is called RATHATH (רתת), which Symmachus and Theodotion translated as "trembling," the Seventy, meaning I know not what, rendered δικαιώματα, that is, "justifications." And so great a horror invaded Israel that he sinned and offended God in Baal and died, losing him who says: I am the life. For the soul that sins, it shall die. And the Apostle says: The widow who lives in pleasures is dead while she lives.

And not only did he die in Baal, but he added sins to sins, so that out of the silver which the Lord had given, idols were fashioned, the works of men's hands. To whom these very ones say—that is, the priests and the princes who ought to have taught the people good things: Sacrifice men, adoring calves; which indeed is also said in the Psalms: They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. In place of what we have rendered, following Symmachus and Theodotion, "adoring," Aquila translated καταφιλοῦντες, that is, "kissing." For those who worship are accustomed to kiss their own hand: which Job denies having done, saying: If I kissed my hand, putting it to my mouth, let this be reckoned to me as the greatest iniquity.

But if, as some would have it, demons speak to the people: Sacrifice men, for the calves have failed, their gluttony is shown, they who are nourished by the blood of victims and the smoke of burnt offerings: that when victims fail, they desire men to be sacrificed to them, in whose not only death but also blood they rejoice. But when heretics speak, or rather the princes of heretics, that is, Ephraim, horror and trembling invade the wretched people; and he sinned in idols, which he fashioned from his own heart, and he died together with the people whom he seduced. And it is not enough for him to have fallen, unless he also turns the tongue which he had received for singing to God into images of idols, and composes with crafted eloquence a teaching resembling truth, which is nothing else than the invention of human depravity.

And they instruct their disciples, that they too should sacrifice men, that is, steal them away from the Church of God, and bring them in to the heretics, and slay those whom they have deceived. And what follows, For the calves have failed, has this sense: Do not seek those whom you may seduce from among the Gentiles, who are called brute animals; but seize those, sacrifice those, who, being established in the Church, are reckoned by the name of Christ, and are called men.

Verse 3. Therefore they shall be like a morning cloud, and like the morning dew passing away, like dust caught up by a whirlwind out of the threshing floor, and like smoke from the smoke-vent. The Septuagint likewise, changing only what is at the end: and like vapor from locusts, or from tears—for in most manuscripts we find ἀκρίδων, in others δακρύων. Because, he says, they sacrificed men in place of calves, and worshiped calves, therefore they shall be like a morning cloud, and like dew passing away in the morning, like dust caught up by a whirlwind out of the threshing floor, and like smoke from the smoke-vent. All of which seem to be for a time and suddenly slip away, according to what had been said: Samaria has made her king pass away like foam upon the face of the water. And again: As the morning passes, the king of Israel passes away.

And that a cloud or dew passes quickly, and dust from the threshing floor, and smoke from the smoke-vent, no one doubts, according to what is written: As smoke fails, let them fail. But we ask why the Seventy, in place of "smoke-vent," which Theodotion rendered καπνοδόχην (the printed editions read καπνοδόχον), have translated "locusts"? Among the Hebrews, "locust" and "smoke-vent" are written with the same letters, ALEPH, RES, BETH, HE. For if it is read ARBE (ארבה), it means "locust"; if OROBBA, "smoke-vent"—for which Aquila rendered "cataract," Symmachus "opening." Now he properly calls a "cataract" an opening made in a wall, through which smoke goes out.

But if anyone, being contentious and unwilling to accept the Hebrew truth, should seek the sense of "locust," let him hear that Ephraim is compared to ἀτμίς, that is, to vapor or to a breath and breeze, which comes forth so thin from the mouth of a locust that it is not perceived: and if he should object on the contrary, why he did not liken the perishing Ephraim to other, smaller things—for instance, to a flea, which has all its members, head, eyes, feet, belly, and the rest, which although we do not see with our eyes, yet we perceive by sense; so much so that though we do not see with our eyes the mouth and teeth of a flea, we perceive them by its bites—it must be answered that the glory of those about to perish was compared to the vapor of a locust, or to a most thin breeze, for this reason: that the locust is harmful, and is so hostile to mortals that it causes famine, and lays waste the cultivated crops; so much so that it also strips the bark from trees and vines: which we read more fully in the Prophet Joel. And to this locust, and to the morning cloud, and to the dew, and to the dust, heretics are compared, of whom it is also said in the Catholic Epistle: These are clouds without water.

For they have the appearance of prophets, and of apostolic clouds, to whom the truth of God has come: but they do not have the waters, that is, the grace of the Holy Spirit, the Lord saying in the Gospel: He who believes in me (as the Scripture says) rivers of living water shall flow from his belly. But this he said of the Spirit which they who believed in him were to receive. As for "tears," which in the Greek tongue bear some similarity to "locusts," δακρύων καὶ ἀκρίδων, it is a manifest error, some reckoning "tears" in place of "locusts."

Verse 4. But I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. In place of which is read in the Septuagint: But I am the Lord your God: who established the heaven, and created the earth; whose hand created all the host of heaven, and I did not show them to you, that you should walk after them. And I brought you out of the land of Egypt. Since these words are not found in the Hebrew, and are rendered by no translator, and are not read in the ancient edition of the Seventy either, they ought to be marked with an obelus: especially since their sense is clear. Whence let us pass to the rest, joining what follows with the chapter above.

Verse 5 and 6. But I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and you shall know no God besides me, and there is no savior except me: I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of solitude: according to their pastures they were filled and were satisfied: and they lifted up their heart and forgot me. The Septuagint: But I am the Lord your God, and I brought you out of the land of Egypt; and you shall know no God besides me, and there is no savior apart from me. I fed you in the wilderness, in the uninhabitable land, according to their pastures: and they were filled to satiety, and their hearts were lifted up: therefore they forgot me.

He who had said above: Jacob fled into the region of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept watch; in a prophet the Lord God led Israel out of Egypt, and in a prophet he was kept safe; even now he relates what he bestowed on them: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, who commanded you through Moses: take heed lest perhaps you eat and be satisfied, and forget your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt: for there is no other God besides me, and there is no other who can save. I, who am the maker of all things, knew, or fed you, in the desert and in the uninhabitable land, where there was scarcity of all things, where there were no waters: I gave you manna from heaven, and I brought forth for you springs of waters from the hardest rock.

Who, according to what is written elsewhere: The beloved grew fat, was made thick, was enlarged, and kicked: now also they ate and were satisfied, and lifted up their heart, and forgot him, whose benefits they ought to have remembered. For through so great a wasteland of the desert, where not only crops and trees and vineyards, but not even grass grows, and there are no waters to temper the heat of the sun, Israel could not for forty years have reached the land of the Jordan, unless the Lord had provided everything. The Lord also led the heretics out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, and out of the iron furnace: who first served King Pharaoh and his leaders; and he commanded them in the Church that they should know no other God, except him who is the creator of all things, and who knows how to save those whom he made.

He himself knew them and fed them in the land of solitude; so that they might be able to say: The Lord feeds me and I shall want nothing: in a place of pasture, there he has placed me; beside the water of refreshment he has brought me up. And he gave them the bread of angels, manna from heaven, which they had never eaten in Egypt, and waters from the rock that followed them. Now the rock, according to the Apostle, is Christ: who ate and were filled, and did not bear the foods of the Lord. To whom the same Apostle says: You are already filled, and you have already become rich; you reign without us, and would that you did reign, that we also might reign with you. For they ate in the sacred Scriptures the bread that came down from heaven, and said with David: The uncertain and hidden things of your wisdom you have made known to me.

And having been filled and satisfied, they lifted up their heart against the Creator: and fashioned for themselves another god, attributing whatever they had drunk and eaten to their own merits, not to God's mercy. Therefore they forgot God, who had commanded them to bind the words of the Law between their eyes and on their hands, and on the fringes of their garments, lest they should ever forget their God.

Verse 7. And I will be to them like a lioness, like a leopard in the way of the Assyrians: I will meet them like a bear robbed of her cubs: and I will rend the inner parts of their liver: and I will devour them there like a lion: the beast of the field shall tear them. The Septuagint: And I will be to them like a panther, and like a leopard in the way of the Assyrians; I will meet them like a bear in want of food, and I will rend the inner parts of their heart, and the beasts of the forests shall devour them there, the beasts of the field shall tear them. They were filled and satisfied: they lifted up their hearts, and forgot me.

I, he says, will be to them like a lioness, or a panther, of which we have spoken more fully above: and like a leopard in the way of the Assyrians, when they shall be led captive by the Assyrians: and I will meet them like a bear robbed of her cubs, or in want of food: and I will rend all their vital parts. Those who have written about the nature of beasts say that among all wild animals none is fiercer than the bear when she has lost her cubs, or is in want of food; and he threatens not only the ferocity of the panther, the leopard, and the bear, but also that of the lion and of all the beasts that are bred in the forests: and he says he will be turned into all these, when they shall go to the Assyrians: lest, when they have suffered hardships there, they should attribute their miseries not to the power and indignation of the Lord, but to the strength of the enemy.

And let us at the same time consider, that he who in the Gospel says to believers: Come to me, all who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you: for my yoke is easy and my burden is light, now through the prophet, to unbelievers and those unwilling to do penance, becomes a panther, a leopard, a bear, and a lion: not only to the Israelites, because on account of idolatry they were settled in the cities or mountains of the Medes; but also to heretics, because on account of pride of mind, and the vanity of false teachings, they forgot their God, fashioned idols, and followed after strange gods. (Verses 9, 10 and 11.) Your destruction, O Israel, only in me is your help. Where is your king? Let him now especially save you in all your cities; and your judges, of whom you said: Give me a king and princes: I will give you a king in my fury, and I will take him away in my indignation.

The Seventy: To your corruption, Israel, who will bring help? Where is that king of yours? And let him save you in all your cities: let him judge you, of whom you said: Give me a king and a prince, and I gave you a king and a prince, and I gave you a king in my anger, and I held him in my fury. In place of what the Seventy translated as "I held," all others translated "I took away." Unhappy Israel, and worthy of perpetual malediction, who has descended into such a depth of impiety that he is saved only by the mercy of God alone. But it can also be read in the Hebrew with this sense: May you perish, Israel, since nothing is left to you except that you be preserved by my clemency alone. But in the Seventy there is another sense: To your corruption, Israel, who will bring help? That is, to your captivity and final servitude, who will be able to bring help of those whom you esteemed as your rulers?

Where is your king, of whom you said to Samuel: Set up a king over us, that he may judge us, just as the other nations have. And when he opposed you, you answered: By no means, but there shall be a king for us, and we too shall be like all the other nations, and our king shall judge us, and shall go out before us, and shall fight for us. Where then is he, of whom you had promised yourself that he would fight your battles, let him now help in your need, and free all your cities from servitude. Where are your judges? Where are your kings? For you said: Give me a king and princes: and so I gave you Saul as king in my fury; to such a degree that in the days of harvest I showed rain against the nature of the province of Judea. And I took away, he says, in my indignation the king, namely Zedekiah: so that whom I had given with fury, I might take away with indignation.

Others think that Jeroboam the son of Nebat was the king given in fury, and that Hoshea, the last king of the ten tribes, was the one taken away in indignation. What we have explained—I gave you a king and I took away the king in my indignation—the Hebrews refer to future time. At that time, he says, when you said: give me a king and princes; I answered you through Samuel, that I would give to you in my fury, and would take away in my indignation. Every heretic is lost and given over to corruption; for he who has corrupted the temple of God, him the Lord will corrupt: and he has help in nothing else, except in the mercy of God alone, which he obtains through repentance.

His king and judges are the devil and the demons, or all the princes of perverse doctrines, who will not be able to free them in the time of necessity and distress, who were given in fury, and will be taken away in indignation: not that the Lord wished them to have such kings; otherwise he would not take away those whom he had willingly given, but because he abandoned them to their own wills: so that, eating and having grown fat in flesh, they might grow nauseated, and vomit them out through their nostrils, and begin to hate those whom they had followed with such great zeal. (Verses 12 and 13.) The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up: his sin is hidden: the pains of a woman in labor shall come upon him, he is a son not wise: for now he shall not stand in the breaking forth of the children.

The Seventy: The congregation of the iniquity of Ephraim: his sin is hidden: pains as of a woman in labor shall come upon him: this is your wise son: because now he shall not endure in the breaking forth of the children. Just as, if something is bound up in this age, it is kept, and does not perish for the one to whom it is bound: so all the iniquity by which Ephraim has sinned against God is bound up for him, and is kept hidden as in a purse. Then, when the day of vengeance shall come, and the final captivity, the pains as of a woman in labor shall come upon him, or shall seize him. A woman in labor, long before she gives birth, from the time she conceived, knows that she is going to give birth, and expects daily that the final torments and torture are to come.

So also Ephraim, the unwise son, of whom he had said above: Ephraim is a foolish dove, having no heart, in the breaking forth of the children and of his people, when the day of childbirth and captivity comes, he will not be able either to stand or to endure. In place of "unwise son," the Seventy read by irony: "This is your wise son," that is, whom you thought to be wise, so that it should be understood the opposite, that is, unwise. But for all heretics the iniquity is bound up, which they have spoken on high: and their sin is hidden, while they think that they are hiding the poisons of their heart and having their secrets: which, when the day of childbirth comes, will be laid open with grief and lamentations.

This Ephraim is an unwise son, because he abandoned the wisdom of God, of whom it is written in Jeremiah: His end shall be unwise, and in the breaking forth of his own children whom he slew, whom he butchered, he will not be able to endure the wrath of God. (Verse 14.) I will free them from the hand of death: I will redeem them from death. I will be your death, O death; I will be your bite, O grave. Consolation is hidden from my eyes: because he himself shall divide between the brothers. The Seventy: I will free them from the hand of hell, I will redeem them from death: where is your cause, O death? Where is your sting, O hell?

According to both understandings of Ephraim, that is, both of the ten tribes and of the heretics, who will not be able to endure in the breaking forth of their own children, when the pains as of a woman in labor come upon them, the Lord promises that he will free them from the hand of death, and redeem them from death. Now by "the hand of death" he means the deeds by which he kills, according to what is written: In the hand of the tongue is death and life. And the Lord freed all and redeemed them in the passion of the cross and the shedding of his blood: when his soul descended into hell, and his flesh did not see corruption, and he spoke to death itself and to hell: I will be your death, O death. For I died for this purpose, that you might die by my death. I will be your bite, O hell, who used to devour all in your jaws.

And seeing the harsh necessity of death, and that there is no man who lives and does not see death, the most merciful Father recalls the ancient sentence: that in Adam we all die. Or the prophet, understanding his own frailty, and the condition of human flesh, says: Consolation is hidden from my eyes, and the sense is: I am not able to be consoled; whatever I may conceive in my mind cannot mitigate my grief at seeing the dearest names to one another separated by death: for hell itself divides between brothers. Whatever, therefore, separates brothers, is to be called hell: and especially the harlot woman, who, calling the unwise to herself, says amid the riches of prudence: Touch gladly hidden breads, and drink the sweetness of stolen waters: and the unwise one does not know that the earth-born perish with her, and fall into the depth of hell. For whatever is not permitted is more desired, and what is sweet by its rarity turns to bitterness through constancy.

And honey drips from the lips of the harlot woman, who for a time fattens the jaws of the unwise, but in the end is found more bitter than gall, and sharper than a two-edged sword. Whoever is earth-born, and is not born of heaven, is slain by her embraces, and is bound by the bands of her beds, and unwisdom's feet lead down those who use her, together with death, to hell. But between death and hell there is this difference: death is that by which the soul is separated from the body; hell is the place in which souls are enclosed, whether in refreshment or in punishment, according to the quality of their merits. We have said this, in order to show that death does what the harlot woman does. For death divides brothers, and the woman does this too. Under "brothers" understand all charity, so that mother is divided from daughter, and father from son, and brother from brother.

But that death is one thing, and hell another, the psalmist also shows, saying: There is none in death who is mindful of you: and in hell, who shall confess to you? And in another place: Let death come upon them, and let them go down alive into hell. In place of what we have translated: I will be your death, O death: I will be your bite, O hell, the Seventy translated: Where is your cause, O death? Where is your sting, O hell? For which the Apostle put: Death is swallowed up in contention; where, O death, is your contention? Where, O death, is your sting? And explaining the force of the testimony he added: The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who has given us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus what he has interpreted as referring to the resurrection of the Lord, we neither can, nor dare, interpret otherwise.

Death, and hell, and the devil can be understood, who was slain by the death of Christ, of whom Isaiah also speaks: Death prevailing has devoured (according to the Seventy). And afterward it follows: The Lord has taken away every tear from every face. But some understand the two brothers divided from one another by death, according to the history of that time, as Israel and Judah: so that what was then figured in a part, may now be understood as a whole, and with the entire human race Israel and Judah must be freed and redeemed.

In that place, where the Seventy translated, "where is your cause?" and we said, "I will be your death": Symmachus interpreted, "I will be your plague": the Fifth Edition and Aquila: "where are your words?" which is written in Hebrew DABARACH (דברך): reading DABAR, that is, "word," instead of DEBER, which is interpreted "death": according to what we read in Isaiah: The Lord sent death into Jacob, and it came into Israel, that is, deber, for which we translated: The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it came into Israel, that is, dabar. For "sting" also, which we have translated "bite": Symmachus has ἀπάντημα, that is, "encounter": Theodotion and the Fifth Edition interpreted it as "plague" and "confinement." (Verse 15.) The Lord shall bring a burning wind coming up from the desert, and shall dry up her veins, and shall lay waste her fountain, and he shall plunder the treasure of every desirable vessel.

LXX: The Lord shall bring a burning wind from the desert upon them, and shall dry up her veins, shall lay waste her fountains; he shall dry up her land, and all her desirable vessels. I have read in a certain man's Commentaries that the burning wind which the Lord shall bring from the desert is that which smote the house of Job on the four corners, and made it fall upon the sons who were feasting, and that it is one of those winds which we read of in the Gospel as blowing and coming with a whirlwind, with rains and floods, so as to overthrow the house that was built upon the rock, or upon sand.

This does not seem to me to be so at all: for it is not written in Job that the Lord brought the wind from the desert; rather, the name of the Lord is passed over in silence, so that the wind from the wilderness, which had come against the holy man of its own accord, might be understood as a contrary strength, and the winds which overturn the foundations of houses certainly cannot be referred to a good sense. It remains that we should understand the burning wind which the Lord shall bring coming up from the desert to be that of which we also read in Habakkuk: God shall come from the south, and the Holy One from mount Pharan: which is indeed situated in the wilderness and in the south. And in the Canticle we read: Where thou feedest, where thou liest down at noon?

This burning wind, then, which shall dry up the veins of death, and parch her fountains, the Lord shall bring coming up from the desert: from the desert, that is, of the human race, in which even the devil, seeking rest, could not find it. Or else we may understand by "desert" the virginal womb of holy Mary, which without human seed budded forth from no shrub-growth: but the simple and most pure rod, made fruitful by union alone, brought forth that flower who says in the Canticle of Canticles: I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys. And beautifully, both in Isaiah and in the present passage, he is called an ascending flower and an ascending wind: because he ascended from the lowliness of the flesh to the heights, and led us with him to the Father, saying in the Gospel: When I shall be lifted up, I will draw all things to myself.

He himself, like a root, shall ascend out of the uninhabitable land, and death shall by no means come upon him, but he himself shall come upon death; for death found no way of its power in him, and this is what is said in Proverbs: It is impossible to find the tracks of a serpent upon a rock. And he himself says in the Gospel: Behold, the prince of this world shall come, and shall find nothing in me. This one shall dry up the veins of death, and lay waste her fountains. The veins of death and the fountains and the sting are named by the Apostle as sins: when these are dried up, death itself also shall be dried up.

And what follows: He himself shall plunder the treasure of every desirable vessel, is understood in two ways, either that these things are desirable to those who dwell in death, or that by the desirable vessels which were kept in the treasury of hell we are to understand the saints, whom the Lord, having perhaps bound the strong one, snatched away and carried off from the lower regions, and led with him into paradise as the most precious vessels. Instead of "treasure," the LXX rendered "land": land, without doubt, signifies death. And in the Psalms we read: I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living. And according to the Gospel: The meek shall possess the land. On the contrary, we ought to understand the land of hell as not being the land of the living, but of the dead, which is plundered and laid waste when, by the death of Christ, the souls bound in the lower world are set free.

According to the tropological sense, in the same Commentaries (of which we spoke above) we read that the burning wind is understood as the devil and the various heresiarchs. This does not please us: for the devil cannot dry up the veins of death and the fountains of error, since he himself is the fountain and beginning of the dead. So then, in ecclesiastical speech, the burning wind is to be understood as that which dries up all the doctrines of the heretics and reduces them to nothing, and plunders and scatters those who had been gathered together in death by the teaching of the heretics.

(Verse 1.) Let Samaria perish: because she has provoked her God to bitterness: let them perish by the sword: let their little ones be dashed in pieces, and her pregnant women be ripped open. LXX: Samaria shall be destroyed, because she has resisted her God, they shall fall by the sword, and their sucklings shall be dashed against the rock, and those with child shall be ripped open.

We have often said that the ten tribes are called Samaria after the metropolis Samaria, which from the name of Augustus is now called Augusta, that is, Sebaste. But why the city was called Samaria we read in the book of Kings. The prophet therefore commands, or, to speak more truly, speaks in the optative mood, that Samaria may perish. To her, though God had prepared so many good things, she acts against God, and rather follows after the images of demons. Symmachus, however, did not say "let her perish," but μεταμελήσει, that is, "she shall repent," and shall be sorry for her own error, in that she turned the sweetest God into bitterness, so that her warriors shall perish by the sword, her little ones and sucklings shall be dashed to the ground, and her pregnant and expectant women shall be ripped open unto death. All these things must be believed to have happened to her in the time of captivity and distress, when they lost their homeland, and those who escaped the sword were led away into perpetual slavery.

As to the heretics, the understanding is easy, that they are called Samaria, because they boast that they keep the commandments of God, not because they are guardians of his Law; but because they say that they are this, in likeness to the schism of the Novatians, who also call themselves καθαρούς, that is, "clean," though they are the most unclean of all, denying repentance, by which sins are cleansed, according to what is written: Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow. And in Isaiah: Wash yourselves, be clean. By "washing," moreover, he does not mean baptism, but every repentance which washes away the filth of sins. Let such a Samaria, then, perish: because whatever she speaks is against her own God, and she turns his clemency into cruelty, to such a degree that those among her who are men and have come to the full age of malice are cut down by the spiritual sword. But the little ones and sucklings are dashed against the rock.

Of these we also read in the psalm: Blessed is he who shall take and dash his little ones against the rock. Her pregnant and expectant women too, who have conceived of evil seed, shall therefore be ripped open, lest they bring forth the worst of children. Something of this sort is also suggested to us in the Gospel: Woe to them that are with child, and that give suck, in those days: namely, the days of tribulation and distress. Moreover, the warriors of Samaria are slain by the sword, the sucklings are dashed in pieces, and the pregnant women are ripped open: so that, with the evil seed perishing, and its tares burned up, only the wheat may remain, to be stored up in the Lord's barns. (Verses 2, 3 and 4.) Return, O Israel, to the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity, take with you words, and turn to the Lord; say to him: Take away all iniquity, and receive good, and we will render the calves of our lips.

Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride upon horses, neither will we say any more: Our gods, the works of our hands, for thou wilt have mercy on the fatherless that is in thee. LXX: Return, O Israel, to the Lord thy God, for thou hast been weakened by thine iniquities: take with you words, and return to the Lord, say to him that you may not bear iniquity, but may receive good things, and we will render the fruit of our lips. Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride upon horses, we will by no means say any more: Our gods, to the works of our hands: he who is in thee will have mercy on the fatherless.

With Samaria perishing, and her men, and her infants and pregnant women slain, dashed to pieces, and torn asunder, all Israel is summoned to repentance: that he who has been weakened, or has fallen by his iniquities, may return to the physician and receive health, or that he who had fallen may begin to stand; and he is taught how he ought to do penance. Take, he says, with you words, that is, prayers and confession of sins, and turn to the Lord both in word and in deed; and say to him: Take away all iniquity, leave in us nothing of former weakness and ruin, lest fresh plantings of the evil seed spring up again: and receive, he says, good: for unless thou take away our evils, we cannot have any good to offer thee, according to what is written elsewhere: Decline from evil, and do good, and we will render, he says, the calves of our lips.

Instead of "calves," which in Hebrew are called PHARIM (פרים), the Septuagint rendered "fruit," which is called PHERI (פרי), by a similarity of the misread word. The calves of the lips, moreover, are praises unto God and thanksgiving: For a sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit. Therefore, at that time, with carnal victims already rejected, a pure confession is a sacrifice pleasing to God.

Those who say they will render the calves of their lips, and will sing the praises of God with continual voice, promise this also, that they will by no means place their hope in the Assyrians, nor upon Egyptian horses, since a horse is a vain thing for safety, and that they will no longer worship the works of their own hands, the golden calves which they cast in Dan and Bethel, and therefore, they say: We will by no means say to the work of our hands: our gods, for thou wilt have mercy on the fatherless that is in thee, that is, on the people of Israel, of whom thou hadst said: Israel is my firstborn son. And: I have begotten and exalted sons, but they have despised me. And in another place: Strange children have lied to me. He is called an orphan, because he has lost God as his father.

But a certain writer has explained "orphan" as him who has withdrawn from an evil father, the devil, and is therefore lifted up by the mercy of God. And the prophet daily speaks also to every perverse doctrine, and summons its followers to repentance, saying: Turn to the Lord your God, you who have fallen, or grown weak, having lost the health that comes from the Lord: take with you words, a true confession of faith, and say: Take away the iniquity which dwells in our heart, and receive the good of faith: For with the heart man believes unto justice, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. The calves and the victims, or the fruit of the lips, consist in believing in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and in the passion and resurrection of the Lord: whoever offers this to him shall by no means hope in the king of Assyria, of whom we have often spoken.

Nor shall he ride upon the horse which the Lord commands should by no means be multiplied, which Pharaoh had, and with his cavalry was drowned. For every heretic mounts upon horses through pride, which he himself has bred in his own error. And they shall no longer say to the works of their hands, which they themselves have fashioned with crafty speech, "our gods." The glutton's belly is his god: the covetous man worships mammon, the heretic the doctrine he has invented; whoever shall forsake all these things, that is, Assyria and the horse and the works of his own hands, shall return to the Lord, and shall appease his Father, by whom he had been cast off. (Verse 5. Seqq.) I will heal their bruises, I will love them freely, for my wrath is turned away from him: I will be as the dew. Israel shall spring forth as the lily, and his root shall burst forth as Lebanon: his branches shall spread, and his glory shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.

They that sit under his shadow shall be turned, they shall live on wheat, and they shall grow as the vine. His memorial shall be as the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim, what have I to do any more with idols? I will hear and I will direct him: I am like a green fir tree, from me is thy fruit found. The Seventy: I will heal their dwellers: I will love them openly, for my wrath is turned away from them, I will be as the dew: Israel shall flourish as the lily, and shall send forth his roots as Lebanon: his branches shall spread, and he shall be as a fruitful olive, and his odor as that of Lebanon; they shall be turned and shall sit under his shadow: they shall drink and be inebriated with corn, and his memorial shall flourish as the vine, as the wine of Lebanon, Ephraim. What has he to do any more with idols?

I have humbled him, and I will strengthen him, I am like a dense juniper: from me is thy fruit found. To those turned to repentance, and, like an orphan, recognizing the father whom they had abandoned, God replied: I will heal the bruises, or the dwellings of them, in which they had been wounded, or broken, or in which they had dwelt so ill: I will love them freely; which the Seventy translated ὁμολογουμένως, plainly and openly, or without any doubt. Now the Lord loves those who love him, of whom he says also in another place: I love them that love me. For I who before was angry with them on account of the sins which they had committed: now I will have mercy because of my clemency. And I will be to them as the dew; that with my dew I may quench the Babylonian furnace, and the furnace of the burning fire, I who also spoke through the patriarch Isaac to Jacob my servant: Of the dew of heaven shall be thy dwelling.

For just as the Lord becomes to believers light, way, truth, bread, vine, fire, shepherd, lamb, door, worm: so we who need his mercy, and burn with the fevers of sins, he is turned into dew for us, to whom Isaiah says: For thy dew is health to them (according to the Seventy). And in the Song of Deuteronomy Moses speaks: Let my words descend like the dew. Now when the Lord shall have sprinkled us with his dew, and watered the dryness of our breast with his rains, we shall germinate, indeed we shall flower as the lily, imitating the Lord Savior, who says in the Song of Songs: I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys, and speaks to his bride, who has neither wrinkle nor spot: As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.

And when we shall have grown in the Lord, we shall send forth our roots like the trees of Lebanon, which, as much as they rise upward in their crown into the air, so much do they sink their root into the depths, so that they may be shaken by no storm, but stand firm in stable mass. The branches of these trees stretch this way and that, so that the birds of heaven may come and dwell in them. And lest perhaps we should think, because he had said, his root shall burst forth, or he shall send forth his roots like Lebanon, that he speaks of cedars and unfruitful trees, he compares the holy man converted to the Lord to a fruitful olive, who says in another place: But I am like a fruitful olive in the house of God. Of whose fruit the five wise virgins prepared for themselves, from which the swelling of wounds is soothed, the limbs of the languishing find rest, in darkness light is kindled, those contending in the contest are anointed.

This olive shall have an odor as of Lebanon, or of frankincense, which is a kind of incense: ὁμωνύμως among the Greeks and Hebrews both the mountain is so called, and frankincense, or certainly of Mount Lebanon, which, most fertile and green, is covered with the thickest foliage of trees, so that the olive may say: We are the good odor of Christ. Now those who shall have been converted to the Lord will receive the reward of their conversion, so that they may sit in his shadow and say: Under his shadow I rested and sat, and his fruit is sweet to my mouth. And when they shall have sat in his shadow, they who before were dead shall live, or according to the Seventy, they shall drink and be inebriated with wheat, that is, with the abundance of all things. Now that inebriation here signifies not the overthrow of the mind but the abundance of all things, that verse declares, saying: Thou hast visited the earth and inebriated it.

And the banquet of Joseph, at which he is said to have inebriated his brothers. And the Lord speaking to the apostles: Eat, my friends, and drink, and be inebriated, brethren. Or because our Lord himself is the corn and the vine, whoever shall have believed in him is said to be inebriated. Finally it follows: And his memorial shall flourish as the vine, as the wine of Lebanon. Now we may call the wine of Lebanon that which is mixed and seasoned with incense, so that it may have a most sweet odor, or the wine of Lebanon which is poured out to the Lord in the temple, of which in Zechariah, under the name of Lebanon, we read: Open, O Lebanon, thy gates.

Since therefore there shall be so great an abundance of things to come, O every Ephraim, who doest penance, and who hast begun to be mine, put away idols, despise images: for I am he who humbled thee, and I will exalt thee, or I will hear and direct, and make him as a green fir tree, so that of him it may be said according to the Hebrews in the psalm: The fir is his house. Or certainly I will be as a dense juniper, that under my shadow he may rest. Of ἄρκευθος, that is, of junipers, according to the Seventy Interpreters, Solomon is recorded to have made the doors of the temple, because Christ, through whom we approach the Father, has this nature, that he always flourishes, always brings forth new fruits, and never lays aside his verdure.

This juniper, to those resting under its shadow, lest they be struck by the heat of this world, and the burning strike their head, as it once struck even Jonah, gives fruits, and provides not only rest for the sleeping and the sitting, but also fullness for those who eat. Whatever we have interpreted according to ἀναγωγή, in the coming of the Lord Savior, and in the conversion of the true Israel, this can be referred both to heretics and Jews, and to the Gentiles and to every perverse doctrine: so that when they shall have done penance, they may obtain pardon. If therefore the fullness of the promise has been fulfilled in the coming of the Savior, and is fulfilled daily in the Church, it must be believed that it will be fulfilled more fully, when, perfection coming, that which is now in part shall be destroyed.

It must be noted, what we have already often said, that the salvation of Israel and the return to the Lord, and the redemption from captivity, is not to be taken carnally, as the Jews suppose, but spiritually, as is most truly proven.

Verse 10. Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? Intelligent, and he shall know these things? For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them, but transgressors shall fall in them. The Seventy: Who is wise, and shall understand these things, or intelligent, and shall know them? For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them: but they who are impious shall be weakened in them. When he says: Who is wise, and shall understand these things? Intelligent, and shall know them? He shows the obscurity of the book and the difficulty of its explanation. But if he himself who wrote it confesses it to be either difficult or impossible, what can we do, who with bleary eyes and darkened by the filth of sins, cannot behold the most brilliant radiance of the sun, except to say that which is written: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments, and how unsearchable are his ways!

For who, without Christ teaching, can know what Jezreel signifies: what his sister, not having obtained mercy: what the third brother, not my people: who is the adulteress, who without the law of God is to sit a long time: what is the covenant with the beasts of the earth, and with the birds of heaven: who is the David to whom the people shall return, whose is the resurrection on the third day, and whose going forth is compared to the dawn: what is the early and the latter rain: who is he whom the prophet says is to come, who shall show us justice, or in whose type Israel is led out of Egypt, and carried in arms, and drawn with cords of charity: who is he who shall slay death, and dry up its veins, and parch its fountains, and plunder the vessels which were kept stored in the treasury, and the other things which it would take long to unfold? Whence whoever is holy and just will know that the ways of the Lord are right.

Now we know the ways of the Lord to be the reading of the Old and New Testament, the understanding of the holy Scriptures. Whoever walks in these ways, unless he be converted to the Lord and the veil be taken away from him which was before the eyes of Moses, will not be able to find the right path. But if he shall say with David: Reveal my eyes, and I will consider the wondrous things of thy law, he will walk in them, and will find Christ: and he will perceive that the Jews and heretics, whom Scripture now calls either transgressors or impious, stumble in them, and are weakened and fall, according to that which is written: Behold this one is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel.