Commentary on Zephaniah

(Verse 1.) The word of the Lord which came to Sophonias the son of Chusi, the son of Godolias, the son of Amarias, the son of Ezechias; in the days of Josias, the son of Ammon, king of Juda. The Septuagint likewise. The Hebrews relate that whatever prophet has his father or grandfather set down in the title, these fathers too were themselves prophets. Whence Amos also, one of the twelve prophets, who had said: I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but a herdsman of goats, plucking sycamore fruit, does not have his father's name in the title. If this is true, the prophet Sophonias, whom we now attempt to expound, was born with a name, so to speak, prophetic, and of a glorious lineage of ancestors; for he had as father Chusi, as grandfather Godolias, as great-grandfather Amarias, as great-great-grandfather Ezechias: and such a team of four he himself, as the last driver, completed.

The name Sophonias some have translated "watchtower," others "the secret of the Lord." Whether therefore it be interpreted as "watchtower" or as "the hidden thing of the Lord," each suits the prophet. For it is also said to Ezechiel: Son of man, I have made thee a watchman to the house of Israel. And in another place: The Lord will do nothing unless he has revealed his secret to his servants the prophets.

And the title of the ninth Psalm is interpreted, "for the hidden things of the son." This prophet therefore, who was in the watchtower and set on high, and knew the mysteries of the Lord, was the son of Chusi (which is interpreted "humility," or "my Ethiopian," of which we shall treat later); he had also as grandfather Godolias, which means "the greatness of the Lord," and as great-grandfather Amarias, which is likewise rendered "the word of the Lord"; and as great-great-grandfather Ezechias, which sounds "the strength of the Lord." From the strength of the Lord, then, was born the word of the Lord, and from the word of the Lord was born the greatness of the Lord, and from the greatness of the Lord was born humility; so that when someone has arrived at perfection, he may say: I am not worthy to be called an apostle. And that saying in the Psalms: Lord, my heart is not exalted, neither are my eyes lofty.

Thus far, as it were on a downward and smooth path, running along level ground, we have stumbled at the fact that Chusi is also interpreted "my Ethiopian." For after such great virtues, how can the name "Ethiopian" sound to his praise? And indeed, if Scripture had said "Chus," that is, "Ethiopian," the question would seem insoluble; for Chus was born of Cham. But in that it says "Chusi," that is, "my Ethiopian," a mystery seems to sound forth: that he who was once an Ethiopian, turned to repentance (according to that which is said: Ethiopia shall come with hands outstretched to God; and in another place: Before him the Ethiopians shall fall down) may say with the bride in the Song of Songs: I am black, but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem.

We read also in Jeremias that Abdimelech the Ethiopian eunuch pleased God; and in the Acts of the Apostles that the Ethiopian eunuch of Queen Candace had such zeal for the Scriptures and the Law of God that he read in his chariot, and came to Jerusalem to worship the Lord in his Temple. Whence such faith is crowned with a worthy reward, and Philip the evangelist is sent to him, and forthwith he is taught, believes, is baptized, and is saved. And he is called not merely "eunuch," but with the addition "man," "the eunuch, a man of Ethiopia." For because he was a eunuch of Christ, and had made himself a eunuch for the kingdom of heaven, therefore he had not lost the title of "man." Rightly too Sophonias, as it were the son of Chusi, that is, of the Ethiopian, writes in the books that follow concerning the repentance of the Ethiopians: From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, he says, they shall bring me offerings.

So much concerning the genealogy of Sophonias, who prophesied in the days of Josias. Now as the days of Elias are said to be those who were enlightened by him, so too the days of Josias are those of him who had raised himself up to the Lord (since Josias is interpreted "the elevation of the Lord"), and he was a just man, and of his praises both the book of Kings and of Chronicles writes the history. And he had as father Ammon, as grandfather Manasses. We read that Manasses, after many crimes, and after captivity in Babylon, did penance, and, turned to better things, obtained the mercy of the Lord. Whence also he named his son, as a kind of "surname" (ἐπώνυμον) of his own faith, by which he had believed in God, Ammon: since AMMON (אמון) is interpreted "faith." And observe at the same time that, unlike above, the kings of the ten tribes, that is, the kings of Israel, are not here set down, but only the kings of Judah.

For already the ten tribes had been led away captive by the Assyrians under king Ezechias, the father of Manasses. This much concerning the preface and the title of Sophonias, as to lineage and time. Now let us see what the prophecy itself contains. (Verses 2, 3.) Gathering I will gather all things from the face of the earth, saith the Lord, gathering man and beast, gathering the fowl of the air, and the fishes of the sea: and the ruins of the wicked shall be, and I will destroy men from the face of the earth, saith the Lord. The Septuagint: By defection let there be a defection from the face of the earth, saith the Lord: let man fail, and cattle: let the fowls of the air fail, and the fishes of the sea—and the wicked shall be weakened: and I will take away the unjust from the face of the earth, saith the Lord.

That which we have set down in the Septuagint, "and the wicked shall be weakened," is an addition from Theodotion's translation; for which Symmachus interpreted, "and stumbling-blocks with the wicked," so that it is understood, "shall be gathered," or "shall fail": but the Fifth edition has, "and weakness with the wicked shall fail." We ought, then, following our custom, first to weave together the history, and afterward to discuss the more sublime matters. That the last reign of the two tribes, which were called Judah and Benjamin, was under Josiah, no one doubts. For after he was slain, his sons who reigned afterward, and his grandsons, are to be believed to have not so much reigned as to have been made a mockery by the Egyptian king and by the Chaldeans, and to have been tormented by various captivities and deaths.

Since therefore the people could excuse themselves in the matter of wicked kings, and say: "We wish to serve God, but we are prevented by the kings," a just king is given, in whose zeal for the zeal of the Lord, and the people nevertheless persevering in the worship of idols, a just cause is brought forth by the Lord, and there is prophesied the overthrow of Jerusalem, and the captivity of Judah, and the victory of Nebuchadnezzar. And the Lord says through the prophet: No longer will I grant repentance; but I will consume all things from the face of the earth: neither man, nor beast, nor fowl, nor the fishes of the sea shall remain.

For even brute animals feel the wrath of the Lord; and when cities have been laid waste, and men slain, a solitude and scarcity even of beasts and of fowls and fishes comes to pass—Illyricum is witness, Thrace is witness, and the land in which I was born is witness, where, apart from heaven and earth and growing brambles and the thickets of the forests, all things have perished. But this, says the prophet, shall come to pass, because the multitude of the wicked was excessive. Therefore the wicked shall fall and men shall be destroyed, and there shall be a solitude upon the face of the earth. But we can also understand this same thing of the consummation of the world: that men, and cattle, and fowls, and the fishes of the sea, and all things shall fail, and the wicked shall be weakened, and iniquity shall be taken away from the face of the earth.

But if we wish also to understand something more deeply (because of what is said by the Septuagint, "By defection let there be a defection from the face of the earth"), and to take "defection" in a good sense according to that: "And Abraham, failing, died in a good old age, an old man and full of days, and was gathered to his people", and according to what Scripture relates of Isaac and Jacob, we see how they fail by defection from the face of the earth, and how they fulfil that precept: "Who, having their conversation in heaven, and in the flesh not warring according to the flesh," because they know that those who live according to the flesh cannot please God, as much as is in them do all things that they may not be in the flesh, but in the spirit, and departing from the earth say: "He hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ".

But if someone should object against this, which we have taken in a good sense, "by defection let there be a defection from the face of the earth," that which is written of Ishmael: "These are the years of the life of Ishmael, a hundred and thirty-seven, and failing he died, and was gathered to his kindred": we shall answer him, first, that Ishmael himself was also a son of Abraham, and received gifts and portions from his father, according to his measure; and then, that it is written absolutely, "failing he died," and there is not added (as is written of Abraham) "in a good old age, an old man and full of days, and was gathered to his people." Or of Isaac: "And the days of Isaac which he lived were a hundred and eighty-five years, and Isaac, failing, died, and was gathered to his kindred, an old man and full of days".

And likewise of Jacob: "And Jacob ceased commanding his sons, and drawing up his feet upon the bed, he failed, and was gathered to his people". From which we understand that it is one thing merely to fail, and another to have, along with the failing, many virtues at the same time. But what he had said first generally, "by defection let there be a defection from the face of the earth," afterward divine Scripture divided into parts: "let man fail, and cattle, let the fowls of the air fail, and the fishes of the sea." There are four things which are commanded to fail: first, man endowed with reason; then three things which are subject to man, cattle, and fowls, and fishes, which I think are also set down in the eighth psalm: "moreover also the beasts of the field: the birds of the air and the fishes of the sea, that pass through the paths of the sea".

But what he had said first, "all the sheep and oxen," he separated, as it were, the chief things from the cattle, and did not wish to number them with the cattle that remained. Let man therefore fail, let the cattle fail, let the fowls of the air fail, let the fishes fail: and he did not say, let the beasts fail, let the reptiles of the earth fail. For these ought not to fail, but to perish; but let those things fail which can have correction. Just as the womanly things of Sarah failed, and Abraham is bidden to hearken to whatsoever Sarah shall command. One fails as man, if he despises human things, and no longer dies as a man, and hears: "I have said, ye are gods". Another fails as cattle, who, ascending to higher things, is not accused by the prophetic word: "Man, when he was in honor, did not understand; he is compared to senseless beasts, and is made like unto them".

One fails as a fowl of the air, who makes for himself the wings of an eagle, and returns to the house of his teacher rich, forsaking all poverty. One fails as a fish of the sea, who, caught in the dragnets of the Lord, is separated together with the good fish. When these things have been accomplished according to the Lord's precept, the wicked shall be weakened, not having as much strength as before. But also the unjust shall be taken away—he did not say, they shall be killed; but, they shall be taken away, so that, being converted to better things, translated from impiety and iniquity to piety and justice, they may begin to be what they were not before. This according to the tropological sense. For we ought also to set forth the interpretation of the elders.

It shall now be in the reader's judgment, whether he wishes what has been said to sound of severity, or of clemency. (Verses 4 and following.) And I will stretch out my hand upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and I will destroy from this place the remnants of Baal, and the names of the temple-keepers with the priests, and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops, and them that worship and swear by the Lord, and swear by Melchom: and them that are turned back from following the Lord, and that have not sought the Lord, nor inquired after him.

The Septuagint: And I will stretch out my hand upon Judah, and upon all who dwell in Jerusalem: and I will take away from this place the names of the Baals, and the names of the priests with the priests, and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops, and them that swear by the Lord, and swear by their king, and them that turn aside from the Lord, and that do not seek the Lord, and that do not hold fast the Lord.

After the ruin of the wicked, and the taking away of the unjust from the face of the earth, there follows against Judah and against Jerusalem, spoken in the person of the Lord: "And I will stretch out my hand upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem" (for the stretching out of the hand shows the gesture of one striking): "and I will destroy from this place the remnants of Baal": not that, according to the Septuagint, the names of the Baals are to be utterly erased; but that, according to the Hebrew, he threatens to take away its worshippers from the people, who had remained few after the slaughter of the enemies, in Judah and Jerusalem.

And also "the names of the temple-keepers with the priests," because Judah and Benjamin had come to such a pitch of impiety that (as Ezekiel writes, and the fourth book of Kings shows) they set up in the Temple of the Lord a statue of Baal, which the Lord calls the "image of jealousy," and in the same sanctuary they worshipped idols and the Lord together. Whence he pointedly called the priests of the idols not priests, but τεμενίτας, that is, temple-keepers, or fanatics, which in Hebrew is called ACCHUMARIM (הכמרים). Therefore both the temple-keepers and priests once of God, and those who on the roofs worshipped the host of heaven, the sun and moon and the rest of the stars, and those who swore in the name of the Lord, and in the name of the idol of the Ammonites, Melchom (which the Septuagint rendered as "king"), the Lord will take away from the place of Jerusalem, or destroy—for ἀπὸ κοινοῦ is to be understood.

"And I will destroy from this place the remnants of Baal," and "I will destroy the names of the temple-keepers with the priests," and "I will destroy those who worship the host of heaven upon the housetops," and "I will destroy those who worship and swear by the Lord, and swear by Melchom," and "I will destroy those who are turned back," or turn aside, "from following the Lord, and who do not seek him," or do not hold him fast. Now those of Israel are turned back from following the Lord, who, forsaking his worship, swear by Melchom, and worship the host of heaven, and venerate Baal, the idol of the Sidonians. Thus far the sense of the history has been expounded: let us now look also at the anagogical sense. On account of the Lord who arose from the tribe of Judah, and on account of Jerusalem in which Judah reigned, that is, the Lord and Savior, let us say: when iniquity shall have been multiplied, and the charity of many shall have grown cold, and at the coming of the Lord scarce faith shall appear upon earth, so much so that even the elect of God are tempted—then the Lord stretches out his hand for the punishment of sinners upon Judah, who seems to himself to confess the name of the Lord, and upon Jerusalem, the Church which took its name from peace, and takes away from the Church the names of the Baals, which is interpreted "in the higher things." Now the Lord will take away the names of vain glory and false admiration, which are found in the Church, in which, according to James, he who has the gold ring is honored, and the poor man is despised, when at the coming of the judge and senator, and in the common assembly of all the rich, the whole people rises up, and to the holy poor man not even a place is granted to stand among the crowds of the powerful and their seatings; but also "the names of the priests with the priests," who vainly applaud themselves in the name of bishop, and in the dignity of the presbytery, and not in the work.

Whence he pointedly does not say, "and the works of the priests with the priests," but "the names": who bear only the false names of dignities, and destroy their own names by evil works; and "those who worship the host of heaven upon the housetops," who are lifted up against the knowledge of God; and everything that is done in the world, promising themselves a feigned knowledge, they refer to the risings and settings of the stars, and follow the errors of astrologers; and "those who worship the Lord and Melchom," who think they can serve the world and the Lord alike, and satisfy two masters, God and mammon; who, while serving as soldiers of Christ, entangle themselves in secular business, and offer the same image to God and to Caesar, and though they say they are priests of Christ, consecrate their sons to Melchom, that is, to their king.

For rightly do they have a man as king, who have lost the Lord as king; and those who by evil works turn aside from the Lord, and do not seek him, hold fast their sins, though he flees from them. But if anyone should wish, according to the interpretation of the names of Judah and Jerusalem, to understand this same thing of the soul of each individual, he will not err, that the Lord takes away all the things we have mentioned, either at the consummation of the world, or at the departure of each one, when they shall hear: "Fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee".

And he stretches out his hand upon him who does not confess the Lord, and upon him who boasts that he has a sense of peace, so as to take away and destroy from such a Jerusalem all pride, and false worships offered to God, and the errors of various doctrines, and servitude to God and to the world alike, and, through daily sins, the turning away from the Lord and neglect of God. (Verse 7.) Be silent before the face of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is near, for the Lord hath prepared a victim: he hath sanctified his called ones. LXX: Fear before the face of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is near, for the Lord hath prepared his victim: he hath sanctified his called ones.

Instead of what the LXX translated, "fear," we have put "be silent"; in the Hebrew there is an interjection commanding silence, which the Comic poets also often use; but silence in all things is also enjoined absolutely, because the day of the Lord is about to come. Now let us understand by "the day of the Lord" the day of captivity and vengeance upon the sinful people, and "the victim" as the overthrow of Jerusalem, and "the sanctification" of those whom he dedicated to slaughter, according to that which is said in Jeremiah: Sanctify them for the day of their slaughter. And the sense is: There comes against the impious people the captivity long ago foretold; now it is near. For under king Josiah the prophecy is woven; he being slain, fear before the face of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is near, for the Lord hath prepared his victim, he hath sanctified his called ones.

The whole devastation comes, concerning which also in Ezekiel it is said: An end is come, an end is come, and so forth. This victim pleases me, these victims I have sanctified for myself. Now what he says, "he hath sanctified his called ones," can also be understood of the Babylonians, whom he calls even his servants for the vengeance of the people, avenging his own injury. I have called, he says, Nebuchadnezzar my servant. And in the same book, not only servant, but he also calls him a dove: From before the sword of the dove.

Further, according to the tropological sense, since the face of the Lord is upon those who do evil, that he may destroy the memory of them from the earth, and the day of judgment is near (because in comparison with eternity all the time of this age is short), or the departure of each one: let all fear, and be silent, lest the face of the Lord (concerning which the saint says: The light of thy countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us) consume the hay, stubble, and wood of sinners. For the Lord hath prepared his victim, the whole mystery of Leviticus, when through fire and the shedding of blood, and the true oblation, those who are to be saved will be saved, and the called will be sanctified.

Some of our writers understand the day of the Lord and his victim, and the sanctification of the called, of the advent of the Saviour, when the Lamb was immolated, and in his blood the apostles were sanctified, and the rest who were called through them. (Verses 8, 9.) And it shall come to pass in the day of the sacrifice of the Lord, that I will visit upon the princes, and upon the king's sons, and upon all such as are clothed with strange apparel. And I will visit every one that proudly entereth over the threshold in that day: those who fill the house of the Lord their God with iniquity and deceit.

LXX: And it shall be in the day of the sacrifice of the Lord, and I will take vengeance upon the princes, and upon the house of the king, and upon all who are clothed in foreign garments: and I will take vengeance openly upon all who are in the porches in that day, who fill the house of the Lord their God with impiety and deceit. In the day of the Jewish captivity, when the whole people is to be immolated, the Lord will visit both upon the princes who in the morning drank strong drink, and upon the king's sons, or all of the royal stock, or certainly properly the sons of Josiah, whom we read to have been either slain or captured, and upon all who are clothed with strange apparel, that is, who venerated idols instead of the worship of God.

And upon all who proudly enter over the threshold in that day, that is, against the proud, who with a certain pomp and haughtiness of dignity ascend the steps of the temple and the threshold of the sanctuary. Further, because in that place where we have translated "who proudly enter over the threshold," it can be understood according to the Hebrew as "who leap over the threshold": and this is to be understood historically, I will avenge myself upon those who, according to the first book of Kings, do not tread on the threshold of idols, serving superstitions, who have filled the house of the Lord their God not only with the worship of idols, but with iniquity and crime and every falsehood, so that to the error of religion iniquity also toward subjects and falsehood toward neighbors might be joined.

But since we have once begun to expound tropologically: the Lord will visit, at the advent and passion of the Saviour, that is, in the day of the sacrifice of his Son, upon the Pontiffs and Priests of the Jewish people, and upon the royal house. For up to that time the kings of Judah of the stock of David persisted, according to the prophecy of Jacob: The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until he come to whom it is reserved, and he shall be the expectation of the nations. For after the sacrifice of the Lord the kingdom was taken away from the Jews. And upon all, he says, who are clothed with foreign garments, who withdrew from the protection and garment of God, and were covered with their own error.

And I will take vengeance openly upon all who are in the porches, that is, who have gone out from the temple of God: and when they ought to have been within, on account of their sins they went out, and withdrew from the Church of God, filling his temple with impiety and deceit. Let this be understood of the first advent of the Saviour. But since concerning the consummation of the world and the day of judgment, which all interpret as the day of the Lord, we have once expounded: we ought to know that at that time the Lord will visit upon the princes, and upon the shepherds, who eat the milk of the sheep, and shearing the wool, care not for the affliction of the flock, and upon the sons of the king who boast themselves Christians, and glory that they are the sons of Christ the king: and upon all who are clothed with foreign garments.

The garment of the sons of the king and the raiment of princes is Christ, whom we receive in baptism, according to that: Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. And: Put on the bowels of mercy, of goodness, of humility, of meekness, of patience, and so forth. In which it is commanded that we put on the new heavenly man, according to our Creator, and cast off the garment of the old man with his deeds. Since therefore we ought to be clothed with such garments, instead of mercy we are clothed with cruelty; instead of patience, impatience; instead of justice, iniquity. And to say it once, instead of virtues, vices; that is, instead of Christ, Antichrist. Whence it is said of a man of this sort: And he is clothed with cursing as with a garment.

The Lord will also avenge himself most manifestly at his advent, even upon those who ought to be in the Church with good works, but cast themselves out on account of their most wicked manner of life, and, having been delivered to Satan, dwell in the porches, nay not even in the porches, but before the porches: which is more significantly expressed in Greek as ἐπὶ τὰ πρόπυλα ("upon the fore-gates"). And he will avenge himself upon all who fill the Church with various iniquities and sins, and with impieties and falsehood, and mix blood with blood.

But if we should wish to take this same thing concerning the souls of individuals, let us understand by the princes and the house of the king the λογισμοὺς, that is, the thoughts and senses, and the soul itself, which ought to be the lodging of the king: and according to the above exposition let us also refer the foreign garments, and all that follows, to each one of the faithful, who, when they ought to have been clothed with Christ, and always to dwell within, covered themselves with various garments of sins, and having gone out from the Church, that is, the congregation of the saints, filled the temple of their body with iniquity and deceit instead of virtues. (Verse 10.) And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and a howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills.

LXX: And it shall be in that day, saith the Lord, the voice of a cry from the gate of them that prick, and a howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills. In the day of the sacrifice of the Lord, when he shall have stretched forth his hand upon Judah and upon all who dwell in Jerusalem, and a hostile army shall have surrounded her, there shall be the voice of a cry from the fish gate, and a howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills. They called that gate the fish gate which leads to Diospolis and to Joppa, and it was nearer the sea than all the other roads of Jerusalem, concerning which Esdras also relates: And the sons of Asnaah built the fish gate, they roofed it, and set up its doors, and the bolts and bars (2 Nehem. Iii, 3).

Now as to what he says, "and a howling from the second," he signifies the gate of the second wall in that same quarter, concerning which it is also written in the book of Kings: And Helchias the priest went, and Ahikam, and Achabor, and Saphan, and Asaias to Olda the prophetess, wife of Sellum the son of Thecua, son of Haras, keeper of the wardrobe, and she dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quarter. Now he speaks of "a great crashing from the hills" concerning the mind of Sion and the higher part of the city: because when the higher places and the citadel of the city have been taken, the descent to the lower parts is easier. But if we should wish to take that day which the Lord threatens, as the day of judgment as above, at the time when the Ancient of days shall sit, and the books be opened, and the conscience of each be laid bare: then shall be fulfilled the voice of a cry from the gate of them that prick.

For the first gate will be that of the eyes, by which our sins will be set before our own eyes, and all the pomp and image of ancient crimes and vices and luxury will be brought forth into the midst. Then that shall be true which is written: Behold the man and his works before his face. Conscience therefore will torment him, and after he has cried out, pricked from the first gate, that of the eyes, he will also howl from the second, which we may understand as the ears. For through these senses especially, into which the vices had crept, their punishment will be felt, when we shall perceive what we have done, and, being instructed by the report and hearing the whole order of our sins, we shall be driven to howling, and whatever had been lofty in us shall be crushed, and on account of blindness and deaf ears was unknown to us.

Or certainly when lofty words and teaching coming from on high shall crush and break us, and it shall be fulfilled in deed: I roared for the disquietness of my heart, that there may be for God a sacrifice, a broken spirit; in us, who are men, and have not committed sins so great as to be compared to mountains, the hills are crushed. But in the devil and his angels, the heights of the mountains shall be crushed. Many think, according to the history which we have referred to the times of the Babylonians, that it is to be understood of the first advent of the Saviour, when, on account of exceeding great sins, and the cry of the people shouting: His blood be upon us, and upon our children, Jerusalem was surrounded by an army, and by two bears, namely Vespasian and Titus, the crowd of mocking children was consumed.

This understanding indeed better suits our faith, but in such a way that we know it can also agree with the former history, or certainly that the former captivity is a type of the second and complete overthrow of Jerusalem. Nor is this to be overlooked (since ADAGIM (דגים) clearly in the Hebrew sounds not "the gate of them that prick," but "the gate of fish")—allegorically, that the fish gate is in Jerusalem, through which the good fish are brought in who have been separated from the bad, and they will mourn, while the rest enter in who have remained outside. Or certainly at the end of the world and at the consummation, those who have not kept their baptism will mourn from the first, the fish gate; those who have not done fitting penance for their sins will mourn from the second. And there shall be great crushing upon the hills, for those who have not been bowed down for their sins so as to bend their neck and bewail their crimes.

For through these two gates of baptism and penance there is either entrance into, or return to, Jerusalem, that is, into the Church of God.

Verse 11. Howl, ye inhabitants of the mortar: all the people of Chanaan is become silent. LXX: Lament, ye who dwell in the pounded place: for all the people of Chanaan is made like unto it. The mortar, which in Hebrew is called MACHTHES (מכתש), and which Aquila rendered εἰς τὸν ὅλμον, is not to be read with the first syllable short (or: first) lest we think it means a sphere, but long, so that we may know it is spoken of the mortar in which grain is pounded, a hollow vessel, fit also for the use of physicians, in which barley-groats are properly beaten. Someone may say that he has understood what a mortar signifies, but wishes to know why it has been assumed in the present passage.

Because there is a single description of the captured city, and it is said: A voice of crying from the fish gate, and a howling from the second quarter, and a great crashing from the hills: now the same order of description is kept, and mention is made of the howling of those who dwell in the valley of Siloe. And beautifully Scripture did not say, ye who dwell in the valley, ye who dwell in the hut; but ye who dwell in the mortar, meaning that just as grain is pounded by a pestle striking from above, so from the fish gate, and from the second gate, and from the hills, an army rushing down shall run upon you. Moreover he called the people of the Jews the people of Chanaan, according to that which we read in Daniel: Seed of Chanaan, and not of Juda; and to Jerusalem: Thy father was an Amorrhite, and thy mother a Hethite; and in another place: Chanaan, in whose hand is the balance of deceit (Osee xii, 7).

But if we wish, according to either translation, to weave a tropology, rightly are those roused to howling and lamentation who dwell in the utmost dregs of sins, and, sunk in the depths of their own crimes, say: I am stuck fast in the mire of the deep, and there is, he says, no sure standing. Whence it is also added: ye who dwell in the pounded place, that is, a soul wounded by many iniquities, or the Church, which has been torn by schisms and heresies, and laments over each of her wounds for her slain children. But when he says: It has become silent, or, is made like, all the people of Chanaan, he signifies that their blasphemy shall cease on the day of judgment, and that the mouth which they set against heaven, and the tongue which penetrated even to the earth, shall be silenced with eternal silence.

And because Jerusalem sinned a sin, and was therefore made into a commotion, the people is called Chanaan, which is interpreted "commotion." For she cannot say: He hath set my feet upon a rock; but is ever uncertain and wavering, always in motion. Whence also Noe, that holy man, after he awoke from sleep, gave the name Chanaan out of a curse, saying: Cursed be the boy Chanaan, he shall be servant to his brethren. But not only are sinners likened to Chanaan; according to the quality and diversity of sin, one is likened to Pharaoh, another to the giant Nemrod. And conversely, through good works and virtues—since the paths of virtues too are diverse—this one takes on the spirit of Abraham, that one of Moses, another of Elias; wherefore it is said by the Apostle: Be zealous for the better gifts. But he who is perfect, according to that perfection which the human condition is able to attain, is marked by the likeness of God.

All that were wrapped up in silver have perished. LXX: All that were lifted up with silver have perished. Those, he says, who trusted in themselves because of their riches, and had such wealth that they reckoned themselves as it were wrapped and hedged about by their riches. Or, indeed, according to the LXX, those who were lifted up in pride and despised the poor were, when wrath came, laid waste. And observe at the same time that he did not say: they shall perish who are lifted up with silver; but already now, before the day of punishment comes, in the very fact that they are proud, and always think of their treasures and serve them, they have perished and fallen. Whoever understands this will not, I think, desire riches enough, in which men do not merely perish in the future but have already perished, that is, those who are lifted up.

Nor indeed should it be thought that only those perish who are lifted up by silver, but according to this definition he too will perish who boasts in the nobility of his birth. He who glories in dignities will perish; he who is puffed up will perish; he who glories in bodily strength will perish; he will perish who, softened with feminine weakness, tends his hair, plucks his hairs, polishes his skin, and dresses himself before a mirror, which is properly the passion and madness of women. But if anyone wishes to be lifted up and to be proud with a holy pride, let him be lifted up with the apostles, when he shall be found worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus Christ; let him glory with the Apostle, who exulted in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience hope, and hope confoundeth not.

Verse 12. And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and will visit upon the men that are settled in their lees: who say in their hearts, the Lord will not do good, and he will not do evil. LXX: And it shall be in that day, I will search Jerusalem with a lamp, and I will take vengeance upon the men that despise their own charges, and say in their hearts: the Lord will not do good, and he will not do evil. In the time and in the day of the captivity of Jerusalem, whether by the Babylonians or by the Romans (because she forsook the law of the Lord, and acted impiously against the Lord her Creator), the Lord will search out with a lamp all the hidden things of Jerusalem, and will suffer none to escape unpunished.

Let us read the histories of Josephus, and there we shall find it written that from sewers also, and caves, and dens, and tombs, princes and kings and men of power and priests were dragged out, who had hidden themselves there for fear of death. And I will visit, he says, upon those who trust in their own bodies and in their own strength, which διασυρτικῶς (derisively) he calls "lees," or sins, in which they were utterly fixed: who, taking away providence, said that God was the author neither of good nor of evil: that is, that he would render neither good things to the good, nor evil things to the evil; but that all things were governed by the arbitrary decision of fortune, and were carried along by uncertain chance.

But at the consummation of the world, since the day of the Lord is understood to be that very day, the Lord will search Jerusalem, that is, his Church, with a lamp: and he will take vengeance upon the men who despise, who were unwilling to keep their own charges, that is, who despised the commandments of the Lord, and moreover sinned by reasoning, saying, they blasphemed in their hearts: that it would profit nothing to do good, nor harm to do evil, because God would render neither reward for good works, nor punishment for evil. Rightly, however, is Jerusalem—that is, the Church (which was formerly called Jebus, which means "trodden down")—when she was being trodden down by the nations, and was the mockery of demons, called Jebus; and after peace of the Lord began to dwell in her, and her place was made in peace, she received the name Jerusalem.

Because therefore in the last time, as we have often already said, iniquity being multiplied, charity shall grow cold, and the light of the sun shall withdraw from Jerusalem, and there shall be such devastation that even the elect of God shall scarcely be saved: then, with the lamp of his word and reason, the Lord will search out all vices in Jerusalem, and bring them into the midst, and judgment and vengeance shall be exacted even for an idle word—not upon sinners (for sin could still merit pardon), but upon those who despise, of whom it is said in Habacuc: Behold ye despisers, and look; and in another place: Why dost thou not look upon the despisers? And then: But he that is arrogant, and a despiser, a proud man, and so forth.

Upon these vengeance shall be taken, who did not keep the charges of the Lord, and say in their hearts: The Lord will not do good, and he will not do evil: not that God does evil, but because the punishment seems evil to him who suffers it. Otherwise the surgeon's scalpel too would be evil, because it cuts open wounds and amputates rotten flesh. And the father would be evil, who strikes his son that he may correct him from his vices, and the teacher evil, who reproves his pupil that he may instruct him: For all discipline for the present indeed seemeth not to bring joy, but sorrow: but afterward it will yield the peaceable fruit of justice to them that are exercised by it.

Verse 13. And their strength shall become a spoil, and their houses a desert: and they shall build houses, and shall not dwell in them: and they shall plant vineyards, and shall not drink the wine of them. The great day of the Lord is near: it is near, and exceeding swift. LXX: And their strength shall be for a prey, and their houses shall be dissipated. And they shall build houses, and shall not dwell in them, and they shall plant vineyards, and shall not drink the wine of them, because the great day of the Lord is near: it is near, and exceeding swift. It is clear that, according to either captivity, their whole army was cut down, and their houses were destroyed, and their fields and vineyards laid waste: nor did God's patience delay against them any longer. But whereas they used to say to the prophets, this shall be at a distant time, and after long days, the day of the Lord came upon them, great and exceeding swift.

According to tropology, however, when the time of judgment comes, or of each man's death and departure from the world: then all their strength shall be for a spoil, so that what was evilly strong, and was lifted up against the Lord, weak and broken, may be turned to the better. As if someone were to strip a robber, or a pirate, or a thief of his strength, and render them weak, their weakness would profit them: for the limbs, once weakened, which they formerly used ill, will cease from evil work. But as for what follows: And their houses shall become a desert—there are many in the Church building Sion in blood, and Jerusalem in iniquity, for whom it is profitable that such houses be destroyed. Let us read Leviticus, where the leprous house is commanded to be destroyed. And because leprosy persists and spreads, its stones and timbers and all its dust are commanded to be cast outside the city into an unclean place.

And in the beginning of Jeremiah something similar is written: Behold I have put my words in thy mouth: behold I have set thee this day over the nations and over the kingdoms: to root up, and to pull down, and to waste, and to destroy, and to build, and to plant. The worst building is destroyed, that afterward a good building may be constructed: the wicked planting is uprooted, that a fitting planting may be set nearby. Whence also in Solomon we read: It is better to dwell in the open air, than in a plastered house of strife with iniquity, and in a new house. As a good God, therefore, he destroys the houses of those who were settled fast in their lees, and had said in their heart: The Lord will not do good, and he will not do evil; nor does he permit them to dwell in leprous and unclean houses; nor does he let them drink wine of the vineyards which they have planted.

For if they had planted the vine of Sorec, and the whole true chosen vine, they would have drunk their own wine, and been made merry with it, as were the patriarch Noe and Joseph at noonday; but because they said: The Lord will not do good, and he will not do evil, and their vine was of the vine of Sodom, and their offshoot from Gomorrha, their grape a grape of gall, and their clusters most bitter: their wine the fury of dragons, and the incurable venom of asps—therefore they planted vineyards, and shall not drink the wine thereof. And mystically it is said of Sodom and Gomorrha that all their planting perished. For if they had remained in what they had begun, so as to be like the paradise of God, and had not ended in evil, so as to become like the land of Egypt, their planting would surely have remained. Something like this is also sounded concerning the Egyptians in the Psalms: He destroyed their vineyards with hail, and their mulberry trees with hoarfrost.

As a most merciful God, indeed, he slew and overthrew every Egyptian plantation and the little shrubs which, rooted in Egypt, bear bloody fruits, lest those who planted evilly should drink, and eat the fruit of them. Near is the great day of the Lord, and exceeding swift, whom no one can resist: and it is near, either because of eternity, since nothing is long to him, or because of the greatness of the punishment, since to one who suffers, the punishment that is to be inflicted never seems far off.

Or "near," as we said above, when we shall have departed from this world, and each man's death shall have made for him the consummation of the world; and not only near, but also exceeding swift, so that the swiftness of his coming is shown in that which is added, "exceeding." (Verses 15, 16.) The voice of the day of the Lord is bitter: there the strong shall be afflicted: a day of wrath, that day, a day of tribulation and distress, a day of calamity and misery, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and whirlwind, a day of trumpet and clangor over the fortified cities, and over the lofty corners. The Septuagint: The voice of the day of the Lord is bitter and hard, it is set, strong: a day of wrath, that day, a day of tribulation and necessity, a day of misery and destruction, a day of darkness and whirlwind, a day of cloud and gloom, a day of trumpet and shouting over the fortified cities, and over the lofty corners.

In accordance with what precedes, you may understand this either of the Babylonian captivity, or of that final one which they suffered from the Romans, over which the Lord also wept for Jerusalem, saying: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, and so forth. For truly vengeance was exacted from the blood of righteous Abel even to the blood of Zachariah, whom they slew between the temple and the altar: and at the last, concerning the Son of God, saying: His blood be upon us, and upon our children, they experienced a bitter day: because they provoked the Lord to bitterness: a day appointed by the Lord, in which not any feeble person, but the strongest men shall be brought low, and wrath shall come upon them unto the end. For often even before this they had endured the Lord's wrath; but that wrath had not been one of consummation and finality.

What need is there now to describe how many calamities they endured in each captivity, and how those who spurned the light of the Lord dwelt in darkness and gloom, and how those who would not hear the trumpets of the solemn days heard the shout of warring men? But concerning the fortified cities and lofty corners of Judea, which have been razed even to the ground, I think the judgment belongs more to the eyes than to the ears: especially for us who now are in this province, it is permitted to see, it is permitted to test what has been written. We scarcely discern small traces of ruins in cities once great. Shiloh, where the tabernacle and the ark of the Lord's Testament were, scarcely shows the foundations of its altar. That city of Saul, Gibeah, has been razed to its foundations. Ramah and Beth-horon and the other noble cities built by Solomon are shown to be small villages.

Let us read Josephus and the prophecy of Zephaniah, and we shall discern his history: and this is to be said not only of the captivity, but even unto the present day, the faithless tenants, after the slaying of the servants, and finally of the Son of God, are forbidden to enter Jerusalem except for lamentation, and in order that they may be permitted to weep over the ruin of their city, they redeem this at a price, so that they who once bought the blood of Christ, now buy their own tears: and not even weeping is granted them free of charge. You may see on the day when Jerusalem was captured and destroyed by the Romans, a mournful people coming, decrepit little old women flocking together, and old men clad in rags and years, showing in their bodies and in their attire the wrath of the Lord.

A crowd of wretches is gathered, and while the gibbet of the Lord gleams and his resurrection radiates, while from the Mount of Olives also the shining standard of the cross gleams, the wretched people mourn the ruins of their temple, and yet are not to be pitied: still there is weeping on their cheeks, and livid arms, and disheveled hair, and the soldier demands payment, that they may be permitted to weep the more; and does anyone doubt, seeing these things, concerning the day of tribulation and distress, concerning the day of calamity and misery, concerning the day of darkness and gloom, concerning the day of cloud and whirlwind, concerning the day of trumpet and clangor? For even in mourning they have trumpets, and, according to the prophecy, the voice of festivity is turned into lamentation. They wail over the ashes of the Sanctuary, and over the destroyed altar, and over the cities once fortified, and over the lofty corners of the temple, from which they once cast down James the brother of the Lord.

Let these things be said concerning the captivity of the Jews. But if we refer the day of the Lord, as above, to the consummation of the world, or to the departure from life of each individual, the interpretation will be manifest, that the voice of the day of the Lord is bitter, and full of necessity and wrath, and there the strong shall be afflicted: since even those who are holy shall indeed be saved, but yet so as by fire. That day is a day of tribulation, and distress and calamity, and misery, in which they will say: Woe to us, for we have become wretched. A day of darkness: For everyone that doth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the light; and it is necessary that whoever hates the light should be followed by darkness. It will be a day of cloud and whirlwind; for the tempest of the Lord shall come upon him, and the clangor of the trumpet, which the Apostle signifies, saying: At the last trumpet.

For it shall be a day of trumpet and clangor over the fortified cities, which they built for themselves in the multitude of sins with Cain. And over the lofty corners, the perverse works declining from the right way of the Lord. Whence also the Pharisees are reproved by the Savior as hypocrites, because they pray in the corners of the streets. For the way that is straight and tends toward paradise is narrow, and strait is that which leadeth to life. But the broken way, having corners and being tortuous, is broad and spacious, which leadeth to death.

And at the same time, amid the words of the Lord's severity, discern his clemency, in that the day is therefore bitter, and a day of wrath, and a day of tribulation, and a day of trumpet and clangor, so that the ill-fortified cities and the perverse corners may be destroyed. (Verses 17, 18.) And I will distress men, and they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord: and their blood shall be poured out as earth, and their bodies as dung: but neither shall their silver nor their gold be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath, and the whole earth shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make an end, and that speedily, of all them that dwell in the land.

The Septuagint: And I will distress men, and they shall walk as blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord, and he shall pour out their blood as dust, and their flesh as the dung of oxen, and their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath, and the whole earth shall be consumed by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make an end, and speedily, over all the inhabitants of the earth. It is not difficult, according to the former sense, to say that Jerusalem suffered these things, which she endured on account of the Lord's cross: for the visitation of the Lord withdrew from her, and all men in the whole of Judea were afflicted, and because of the greatness of the pressure they walked as blind men, not knowing what to do. And they suffered these things, because they sinned against the Lord, that is, against the Son of God.

For because they shed the blood of the prophets and the blood of Christ, their blood was shed as earth in the whole region, and their bodies remained unburied, like dung upon the face of the earth. The rich among them also, who had gathered silver and gold by excessive iniquity, could not be delivered by their wealth from the day of the Lord's wrath: for the fire of the Lord's jealousy, kindled against them, devoured the whole province. Nor was the time in between great: for after forty-two years from the Lord's crucifixion, Jerusalem was surrounded by an army, and her consummation was accomplished with speed, and not only hers, but that of all the inhabitants of the land of Judea. But at the consummation, whether of the world or of each individual, all men shall be afflicted who have remained men, and have died as mere men.

And they shall walk as blind men, because they have lost the light of the virtues, and shall have no place for repentance: and they shall suffer these things because they have sinned against the Lord. For if the Lord is justice, truth, holiness, and the other virtues, whoever has acted unjustly, and has lied, and has pursued harlots and vices, has sinned against the Lord. But that which follows: And their blood shall be poured out as earth, and their bodies as the dung of oxen, seems absurd, that in the resurrection of the dead, and in the consummation of the world and the judgment, we should say that blood is poured out and bodies lie like dung.

Therefore that which is said to Noah: And your blood of your lives will I require at the hand of every beast, and at the hand of man, at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man, whoever sheds man's blood: for his blood shall his blood be shed, is ridiculous to believe of the resurrection, and cannot stand in this life. For how many have shed blood, and their blood has not been shed? And others have killed a man by poison, or by hanging, and yet, though the man is dead, has blood not been shed? How then shall the Lord shed their blood in retaliation, when he who killed did not shed blood?

Therefore the blood of man must be understood as the vital cause, that is, the vital principle by which he is quickened, and sustained, and lives: whoever has poured this out, whether by scandal, or by perverseness of doctrine, shall have it poured out from him in the day of judgment, that is, he shall be forced to lose what seemed to him to be his vital possession. According to this sort of blood, flesh also is to be understood, of which Isaiah also says: All flesh is grass. And in Genesis the Lord says: My spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh. And the Apostle, concerning both: Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God: neither shall corruption inherit incorruption.

Therefore in the day of consummation, whether general or particular, all blood that has been shed shall cry out to the Lord, and shall appear in the midst, and the works of blood and earthly things shall lie like dust and dung, and the rich shall not be able to deliver themselves with silver and gold from the day of wrath, while he who dies hears: Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? Not that we deny that gold and silver deliver the rich from death: For the ransom of a man's life is his own riches; but that they cannot deliver at that time, when they let go their riches by necessity. For all the earth and all things that are earthly shall be devoured by the jealousy of the Lord. And when he says jealousy, understand him still as one who loves the Lord.

For unless he loved the human soul, he would never be jealous over it: and after the likeness of a husband, he would avenge the sin of his wife, whereas, if he did not love her, he would not be angry at her adultery. And this the Lord will do with haste to all the inhabitants of the earth, to those who have wholly given themselves to the earth, and have not been sojourners and pilgrims, as the just man says: I am a sojourner in the earth, and a pilgrim as all my fathers were. And again elsewhere, not wishing to dwell any longer in the tabernacle of the flesh, he testifies with a tearful voice, saying: Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged. For indeed we who are in the tabernacle of this body groan, being burdened: and again, because it is said in Scripture concerning the blood of the soul: For the soul of all flesh is in the blood.

We cry out complaining: Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

(Verses 1, 2.) Assemble yourselves together, gather together, O nation not worthy of love: before the decree bring forth as dust passing away the day: before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord's indignation come upon you. LXX: Gather yourselves together and collect yourselves, O nation without instruction: before you become like a flower passing away the day: before the wrath of the Lord come upon you: before the day of the fury of the Lord's wrath rush upon you.

After the description of the evils that are to come in the day of the Lord (according to the twofold explanation of the captivity, which we have spoken of above), the people are called to repentance, and it is said to them: Assemble and gather yourselves together, or, as it is written in the LXX, collect yourselves, that is, be bound to one another (according to the Apostle) by the bond of charity: O nation not worthy of love, who art unworthy of the love of God: or nation without instruction, of whom it is said in Deuteronomy: A foolish people, and unwise. And in Jeremiah: In vain have I struck your children, you have not received instruction, before that which has been prophesied comes to pass, before the effect follows the command (which will come as easily as dust passing by), before the fury of the Lord is fulfilled upon you.

And at the same time observe the clemency of God: it would have sufficed for the prudent to have described the onrush of coming evils; but because He does not wish to inflict punishments, but only to terrify those who are to suffer them, He Himself calls to repentance, lest He do what He has threatened. Generally, however, the whole multitude of believers, and those who are called the people of God, are gathered into the Church, and it is said to them: Assemble into the Church, join yourselves together in charity and peace, O nation without instruction, who will not receive the discipline of God, nor have knowledge of His commandments; but delight in riches and bodily health and the beauty of this world, and also in the pleasures of the flesh, which pass away like a flower that withers in a single day.

Wherefore I say to you, assemble, join yourselves together, lest when the time of judgment comes, and all your glory has passed away, then you should wish to do penance, when there will be no place for penance, but for punishments. Someone may ask how this itself can be understood concerning each person departing from the world. It is said, then, to each one: O you who, occupied with the affairs of the world, run about through various pursuits, return to the Church of the saints, and join yourself to the life and company of those whom you see pleasing God, and gather the dissolved members of your soul, which do not cohere to one another, into one framework of wisdom, and cling to its embrace, and hear mystically: Strengthen the feeble hands, and confirm the weak knees: and do not glory in the goods of the flesh, and in its flower which passes away: For all flesh is grass, and all its glory as the flower of grass.

The grass has withered, and the flower has fallen: but the word of the Lord remains forever. We can use this chapter for the present time: whenever we see someone occupied with the honors of the world and the gathering of riches, coming to the Church rarely or never, and say to him, gather yourself together and join yourself to the people of God, you who do not hear the precepts of the Lord, before your glory passes away, before the day of the Lord's fury comes upon you. (Verses 3, 4.) Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, who have wrought his judgment: seek the just, seek the meek, if by any means you may be hidden in the day of the Lord's wrath. For Gaza shall be destroyed, and Ascalon shall be a desert. Azotus they shall cast out at noonday, and Accaron shall be rooted up.

LXX: Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth: work judgment, and seek justice, and answer it, that you may be protected in the day of the Lord's wrath, for Gaza shall be plundered, and Ascalon shall be a desert: and Azotus shall be cast forth at noonday, and Accaron shall be rooted up. He is called humble of the earth who has been humbled not by that humility which signifies virtue, but by sins, and who cannot say with Christ: Learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart. For every one that humbles himself shall be exalted. And in another place a word is directed to the saint: the greater you are, the more humble yourself, and you shall find grace before God. But he who has been humbled by sins, and is weighed down by the conscience of his offenses, and says: As a heavy burden they are become heavy upon me, he ought to hear: Come to me all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you.

This is said first according to the LXX interpreters. But according to the Hebrew there is another sense. For it is said to the saints: O you who keep my precepts, who, being placed on earth, and knowing that every one who humbles himself shall be exalted, have imitated my meekness, and have wrought judgment, seek the Lord in your meekness. And if you wish to know who this Lord is, seek the just, seek the meek: for the Father has given all judgment to the Son, who is to judge justly. And because you are meek, therefore seek the meek one, that whatever is lacking in your meekness may be filled up by him who is the fountain of meekness.

But this I say to you: If by any means you may be hidden in the day of the Lord's fury, that is, if perhaps you may be able, from the fact that you have sought the Lord and wrought his justice, to escape the wrath of the coming day, and to flee the captivity which is to be brought upon the people of the Jews either by Nebuchadnezzar or by the Romans. But if he doubts concerning these things, even of those who have done his judgments, saying: If by any means you may be hidden in the day of the Lord's fury, what shall become of sinners? For so great a devastation of the land of Judea shall come, and so lofty a conquering army of the Babylonians shall ascend hither, that even the most powerful cities of the Philistines, which have always resisted you with equal contest, that same captivity shall seize.

For Gaza shall be destroyed, and Ascalon shall be reduced to a wilderness, and Azotus shall be dragged into captivity not by stealth but by war, that is, in manifest light and by victory: and Accaron, which is interpreted as "eradication," shall suffer that which its very name signifies, that is, it shall be rooted up. This according to the letter and the Hebrew truth. But according to the Septuagint, it is commanded to the humble of the earth, of whom mention was made above, to work judgment, and to seek justice, which I think is none other than Christ. And because every one that seeks shall find, let them answer to others what they have found, that is, let them teach others: For wisdom that is hidden, and a treasure that is not seen, what profit is there in either?

And this, he says, I command you, that you may be protected in the day of the Lord's wrath, whether at the consummation of the world, or at each one's departure from this life; for Gaza, and Ascalon, and Azotus, and Accaron shall endure different punishments: for Gaza is interpreted "its strength." All, therefore, who applaud themselves in bodily strength and worldly power, and say with the devil, "by my strength I will do it," shall be plundered in the day of the Lord's wrath, and reduced to nothing. Ascalon also, which is called "weighed" or "murderous fire," when the day of the Lord's wrath shall come, shall feel the measure of its own wickedness, and shall be weighed down by the very weight with which it worked. And because it burned to shed blood, and scandalized many souls, and there was fulfilled in it: The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man, it shall not be plundered as Gaza, but, reduced to a wilderness, shall be burned to ashes by the fires of Gehenna.

Azotus too, which in Hebrew is called ESDOD (אשדוד), and in our tongue signifies "fire of generation," shall be laid waste in clear daylight: for it burned with lust, and raged with the fire of generation. And because all who commit adultery are like an oven, their hearts (Osee vii), and are wounded with burning arrows, not in darkness, not in secret judgment; but at noonday, that is, when the saints shall receive full brightness, they shall be cast into darkness, and shall have no part in the fellowship of the saints. But Accaron, which is interpreted "barrenness" or "eradication": because it had no fruits, and by the perversity of its teaching rooted up very many, it too shall be rooted up.

But understand all these varieties in the vices and sins of souls, and that the fire shall test the quality of each one's work in the day of judgment. (Verses 5-7.) Woe to you that inhabit the sea coast, O nation of the perishing: the word of the Lord is upon you, Chanaan, land of the Philistines: and I will destroy you so that there shall be no inhabitant. And the sea coast shall be the rest of shepherds, and folds for flocks: and it shall belong to the remnant of the house of Judah: there they shall feed, in the houses of Ascalon they shall rest in the evening: because the Lord their God will visit them, and turn away their captivity. LXX: Woe to you that inhabit the sea coast, sojourners of the Cretans: the word of the Lord is upon you, Chanaan, land of the Philistines, and I will destroy you from your habitation.

And Crete shall be the pastures of flocks, and the sheepfold of cattle, and the sea coast shall belong to those who remain of the house of Judah: upon them they shall feed in the houses of Ascalon: after noon they shall turn away from before the face of the children of Judah: because the Lord their God will visit them, and turn away their captivity. As to the history, it is not difficult to interpret, because in the preceding he had said: Gaza shall be destroyed, and Ascalon shall be a desert: Azotus they shall cast out at noon, and Accaron shall be rooted up. The four great cities of Palestine having been named, now it is clear that the word of the Lord is directed generally to the whole province, and it is foretold to it: Woe to you that inhabit the sea coast, when the Babylonian comes; because even those who dwell near the sea shall perish and be taken away. That the land of the Philistines is the land of Chanaan, no one doubts.

And I will destroy you, he says, so that there shall be no inhabitant: and you shall come into such great devastation, you who rejoiced in the overthrow of Judea, that all your most fortified cities shall become sheepfolds for shepherds. And after the Lord has visited his people, and made them return under Zorobabel and Jesus, and they have built the temple, and constructed Jerusalem, you shall be so untilled, and so covered with briers and nettles, that shepherds from the remnants of the Jews shall rest in Ascalon after noon, and shall make their flocks lie down in a city once noble, and this shall happen, because the Lord shall visit his people, and turn away their captivity—whether this has been fulfilled or not, God knows. For it is not now our purpose to weave the truth of history, but to convey to our readers what we have received from the Hebrews. But according to the spiritual sense and the translation of the LXX, the understanding is difficult, especially because they disagree even in interpretation.

For where we have translated "nation of the perishing," they said "sojourners of the Cretans": and what is written in Hebrew CHORETHIM (כריתים), instead of GOI, that is, "nation," they read GAR, that is, "sojourner": and instead of CHORETHIM, which is said to mean "of the perishing," they took it as the name of the island of Crete. Accordingly, both Aquila and the fifth edition have translated it, ἔθνος ὀλέθριον: and Theodotion, ἔθνος ὀλεθρίας: while explaining the same word as "fire of the race," or "fire of the uncle," or "fire of the breast," he shows that he had both readings, so that the word might be written either with the letter ד or with the letter ר. Indeed, since "generation" is written דור, "uncle" is דוד, and "breast" is דד.

Symmachus likewise has ἔθνος ὀλεθρευόμενον (a people to be destroyed), all of which agree with our own translation. Again, where we said, "And the cord of the sea shall be the resting-place of shepherds," and all the interpreters agreed with this translation, in the LXX it is written: "And Crete shall be the pastures of the flock, and the fold of the sheep." Therefore, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, and holding to the path once begun of the Vulgate edition, we ask whether elsewhere in the holy Scriptures we have read the name of Crete. And, unless I am mistaken, this is at hand: "The Cretans are always liars: evil beasts, slow bellies: this testimony is true".

Those who waver and are carried about by every wind of doctrine, in the deceit of men, in the craftiness of error: these, though they ought to have dwelt in the land of confession, that is, in the land of Judea, chose rather to be strangers of the Cretans, who are beaten hither and thither by the diverse waves of the sea, and resound with Corybantic brass, and are, according to the Apostle, like a tinkling cymbal. And because they are strangers of the Cretans, therefore the word of God, that is, the threat, comes upon them: and they are called the land of Canaan, always in wave, always in motion, and the land of the Philistines: for, being estranged from God, they dwell in the cord of the sea and in the region of Crete.

Thus the word of God comes upon them, either at the consummation and end of the world, or daily through men of the Church, and those who can say with the Apostle: "Do you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me?"—that they may be cast out of Crete, and perish from their former dwellings, and that region which formerly held the lost flock may begin to be the sheepfold of Christ's flock; and that Judah, that is, true confession, may dwell in the cords of the sea.

And when the world shall now have begun to be at evening, and of many called few are chosen, and those who are now called the remnant of the house of Judah shall have fed those who at first fed in the sea, and in Crete, and in falsehood: they shall turn aside into the houses of Ascalon, that is, where formerly the fire of the devil and the blood of the slain flowed: for Ascalon is interpreted "murderous fire." And this shall come to pass because the Lord will visit his people, and those who before were easily taken by the sophistries of heretics, as though coming from captivity, shall conquer their adversaries, and shall dwell in their tabernacles.

As for what is read in the LXX, "From the face of the children of Judah," we have marked it with an obelus, for it is found neither in the Hebrew nor in any of the interpreters, and it disturbs the context and sense of the chapter: not that it would have been difficult in any way to weave together the sense even with this reading included; but we have once determined to follow the truth of the translation, and the judgment of the more learned reader rather than of the common crowd. (Verses 8 ff.) "I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the blasphemies of the children of Ammon, with which they have reproached my people, and have magnified themselves against their borders. Therefore as I live, says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel: Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah: a drought of thorns, and heaps of salt, and a desert forever: the remnant of my people shall spoil them, the residue of my nation shall possess them.

This shall befall them for their pride, because they have blasphemed, and have magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of hosts. The Lord shall be terrible upon them, and shall consume all the gods of the earth: and every man shall worship him from his own place, all the islands of the nations." The LXX: "I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, with which they reproached my people, and magnified themselves against my borders.

Therefore as I live, says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, and Damascus shall be forsaken like a heap in a threshing-floor, and laid waste forever, and they that are left of my people shall spoil them, and the residue of my nation shall possess them: this shall be to them for their reviling, because they reproached and magnified themselves against the Lord Almighty: the Lord shall be manifest upon them, and shall destroy all the gods of the nations of the earth, and every man shall worship him from his own place, all the islands of the nations." This—except for the prophet Daniel, who more often sees visions of the four kingdoms, and expounds their differences under one set of images after another—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel do: that after the vision concerning Judah, they turn their prophecy against the other nations that are round about it, and, according to the ἰδιώματα (peculiarities) of each, announce what is to come upon them, and dwell rather long in describing them: this the prophet Zephaniah now does, though briefly, in the same order.

For after the Philistines, against whom the threat had already run its course above, he says, Gaza shall be destroyed, and Ascalon shall become a desert, they shall cast out Ashdod at noonday, and Ekron shall be rooted up. Now against Moab and the children of Ammon, or, as is added in the LXX, against Damascus, which in Isaiah is called Aram, the prophecy is woven, because, by giving aid to Nebuchadnezzar, they laid waste Judah, trampled upon her sanctuary, overthrew also her temple, and, when the people of Israel were subjugated, blasphemed the Lord. For Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans, after the cities of the Jews had been overthrown, oppressed the other nations as well, and thus it came to pass that those who had insulted the people of God were themselves also pressed by the same distress of evils, and had as their fellow-slave Judah, whom they had thought to hold subject.

Therefore, before the captivity comes, while Josiah is still king, and Jerusalem and the temple are not yet overthrown, prophecy is directed against those who insult, so that the former evils of the people of God might be lightened by the evil of the other nations.

I have heard, he says, the reproach of Moab, which is now called Areopolis, and the blasphemies of the children of Ammon, which is itself the second city of Arabia after Bosra, called Philadelphia: in which they have reproached my people, and having cast out the Jews, have enlarged their own borders in their land. Therefore because they have blasphemed me, and reproached my people, I, the Lord of hosts, who am able to fulfil what I threaten, and the God of Israel, who myself suffer injury in my people, will make Moab as it were Sodom, and the children of Ammon as it were Gomorrha. Let us read visions of this kind in Isaiah and Jeremiah, and we shall find the same things which we now read here.

The dryness of thorns and heaps of salt, and a desert for ever, for which, I know not what they meant, the Septuagint have interpreted "Damascus torn up and abandoned," unless I am mistaken, deceived by the ambiguity of the word: for what in Hebrew is called dryness, MAMASAC (ממשק), if the first letter MEM be changed and DALETH be taken, has the same remaining letters as Damascus, and can be read for the preceding word DAMASEC. It is asked, however, how these cities, that is, Moab and the children of Ammon, were reduced to Sodom and Gomorrha, and, like the dryness of thorns and heaps of salt, are never to be built up for ever? And that indeed they were laid waste like Sodom and Gomorrha presents no difficulty of explanation.

But as for what follows: They shall be deserted for ever, either we shall interpret it as the destruction of their kingdom (since afterward, overthrown by the Chaldeans, they lost their kingdom, and thereafter, held either by the Antiochi or by the Ptolemies, at last bowed their necks to the Roman empire), or certainly it must be understood as spoken hyperbolically: for LOLAM (לעלם) signifies both eternity and an age; from which it can be taken either for one age, or for some period of time, or for one lifetime. And those who shall be left of the people of Israel shall lay them waste, and shall possess the aid of the blasphemers, once the Chaldeans'.

But this shall come upon them for their pride, because they blasphemed, and were magnified against the people of the Lord of hosts, who, the Lord of hosts, shall be terrible upon them, and his terror shall not slay the proud: he shall not shed the blood of the blasphemers; but he shall destroy and diminish all their idols, so that they who before were held in error, and did not perceive the Lord's benefits, being pressed by the necessity of their evils, may know that idols avail nothing, and may adore him, each one from his own place, all the islands of the nations. Thus far according to the Hebrew.

Now let us turn back to the Septuagint interpreters, and let us ask the Jews, who follow only the historical sense, to explain to us when Moab and the children of Ammon were made as Sodom and Gomorrha, and as heaps of salt, and deserted for ever: they ought to show us rains of sulphur, vineyards, the land turned into ashes and cinders, the sea that once was the pits of salt, now called the Dead Sea, having flooded over; when the Jews plundered them, when the remaining Israelite nations possessed them. Or what indignation of the Lord is it, for blasphemy and insults, to diminish and destroy them—not Moab and Ammon, but the whole earth—so that they may worship him, each from his own place, all the islands of the nations? Which he would rather grant as a benefit to the blasphemers, that they might return from error to salvation.

But if they should wish to say that after the return from Babylon these nations were made subject to the people of Israel, first we shall demand the authority of the Scriptures, whence they may prove this to have happened: then, since they will by no means be able to demonstrate it, we shall grant it to them beyond what is due, and shall say: Grant that what you say happened: what justice of God would it be that the grandfathers had blasphemed, and the great-grandfathers had been reproached, and afterward it was repaid upon the grandchildren? Since indeed that sentence, which was formerly said in the Law, that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation, has been dissolved by Ezekiel: As I live, says the Lord, this parable shall no more be spoken; but the soul that has sinned, it shall die. And observe at the same time, that what was said is a parable, and does not mean what it sounds like on the surface of the letter.

But if it is unjust to repay upon the grandchildren what the grandfathers had committed, how much more unjust is it, out of the foolishness of the Jews, to hope that this very thing will happen at the consummation of the world, when it is not their Christ, as they think, but Antichrist who is to come. For wherever they are pressed hard in history, so that they must show that what was said has been fulfilled, they immediately leap over to the future times of Christ, and everything they cannot explain they promise to themselves after many ages, and they say that Moab and the children of Ammon, and Egypt, and the Philistines, and Idumea, who now insult the Jews, are to be punished at that time. Let us ask them, then, why God punishes these nations especially, and not the whole world, in which the Jews are scattered far and wide. For if Moab deserves to be chastised for insulting the Jews, and the children of Ammon and the other nations round about, why is Gaul not chastised?

Why does he not set the Britains among the threatened? Why are the Spains exempt from punishment? For what reason is nothing said of Italy? Why is Africa passed over in silence? And, to say it once for all, since the whole world holds the Jews captive, what crime have only those nations committed which are round about it, that they alone especially should be named? This we say against the Jews, and as a general explanation applicable in all the prophets wherever any prophecy is spoken against the nations. Now let us prove, from the very order of Scripture itself, what we said above, that "Damascus" is not found in the Hebrew, nor in any other translator. For to that which he had said: I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the blasphemies of the children of Ammon, he afterward added: Because Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrha.

What follows, then: And Damascus deserted, like a heap of the threshing floor, ought to have had something said beforehand about Damascus, so that, just as he had said of the two nations: Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrha—whose sins he had already mentioned before—so too he should have described either the reproaches or the blasphemies of Damascus, so that afterward the punishment might seem justly inflicted. But also this very phrase, "like a heap of the threshing floor," which in Greek is ὡς θιμωνία ἁλὸς, we think the Septuagint translated ἁλὸς, that is, "of salt"; but by the unskilled, who thought θιμωνία meant a heap of grain or produce, in place of ἁλὸς, with two letters ω and ν added, as if to match the sense of produce, ἅλωνος, that is, "of the threshing floor," was substituted. Let this be said concerning the variety and error of interpretation, and concerning the difficulty of the historical sense.

But whoever is a learned man, and compares spiritual things with spiritual, and seeks not the things that are below, but those that are above, and rises with Christ from the dead, and putting off the old man is clothed with the new, will refer the reproaches of Moab and the blasphemies of the children of Ammon to the teachers of doctrines contrary to the Church, who themselves also seem to be of the race of Abraham, and to have escaped the burning of Sodom and Gomorrha, and to dwell in little Segor.

But because their generation is in darkness, and they cannot look upon the light of truth (for they declined from God the Father, which is what is meant by the names Lot and Moab), and have ceased to be sons of God (which is what "my people" means), and, conceived in a dark cave from incestuous marriages, have substituted themselves: therefore, even until today, insulting the simplicity of the children of Judah, they desire to magnify their possession beyond its borders, of whom it is said in Proverbs: Remove not the eternal landmarks which your fathers have set. See the heretics, applauding themselves in dialectic and rhetoric and the doctrines of all sophistries, despising the rusticity of the Church, and, as though unworthy of their mysteries which they have fashioned for themselves like idols, holding it in contempt, and counting it as nothing: and you will not ask what are the reproaches of Moab, and the insults of the children of Ammon, in which they have reproached the people of God.

The Lord therefore swore by himself, saying: As I live, says the Lord. And beautifully, in distinction from the dead gods who are called idols, God calls himself the living one, the God of Israel, that is, of the people who see God: because these nations, blaspheming, that is, Moab and the children of Ammon, of whom we said above: They shall be as Sodom and Gomorrha, seem indeed to themselves, in that they are not gentiles, to have gone out from Sodom and Gomorrha, but because they blaspheme the people of God, and act against Israel, they shall be reckoned as Sodom and Gomorrha, and shall be destroyed as those were destroyed before, having in themselves no trace of greenness and life.

Nor is it strange if we understand this of heretics, since they are reckoned as Sodom and Gomorrha, when even to churchmen who did not keep God's commandments, and departed from his precepts, it is said through Isaiah: Hear the word of the Lord, princes of Sodom, and attend to the law of the Lord, people of Gomorrha. And to the elders desiring, under the figure of Susanna, to corrupt the chastity of the Church, let Daniel say: This is the judgment of God: seed of Canaan, and not of Judah. And that you may know that wherever Sodom and Gomorrha and Egypt are named, it is not said of those provinces which we see with our eyes, but of other spiritual ones, against which the prophetic word threatens: read in the Apocalypse of John: But the place where the Lord was crucified is called spiritually Sodom and Egypt.

If therefore Jerusalem, in which the Lord was crucified, is called spiritually Sodom and Egypt, why should not, on the contrary, Egypt and Sodom and Gomorrha, if they do the works of Jerusalem and the land of Judah, be transferred into the land of the Lord's inheritance? Furthermore, David also was not of the priests, nor was it lawful for him to eat the loaves of the presence, but because he was growing in each and every work, and the persecution of Saul was the increase of his virtues, therefore in his flight, while he knew it not, he suddenly becomes as it were a priest, and receives the loaves of the presence, and does not violate the commandment of God. All this we have said, because Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrha. Damascus also, which is interpreted "drinking blood," or "blood of a sack," shall be abandoned by the mercy of God, like a heap of salt.

For because its prince is King Aretas, and the Damascenes desire to kill Paul, and he is let down through the wall in a basket, it is not said to Damascus: You are the salt of the earth; nor is that called salt which is always offered in sacrifices, but that which has become tasteless, and of which it is written in the Gospel: But if the salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is good for nothing, neither for the land nor for the dunghill, but they cast it out, that it may be trodden underfoot by men.

Moab therefore, and Ammon, and Damascus, who have set themselves against the knowledge of the Lord, and have blasphemed the people of God, and have spoken very many insults against him, and have wished to enlarge their borders in the land of the Church, and to possess the people of God, shall be deserted and destroyed, and the rest of the people of God, that is, churchmen learned in the Lord's Scriptures, shall plunder them, and the rest of the Lord's people shall possess them, and this shall be to them in requital for their insult, because they reproached and were magnified against the Lord Almighty. See the clemency, see the mercy of the Lord: he suffers insult, he is blasphemed, his borders are plundered: and what does he do? He sends to the remnants of his people, of whom we have spoken, that he may divide among them those who blaspheme him, and lead them into his own possession.

For it is much better for a fool to serve a wise man, and to have his foolishness corrected by the wisdom of the Lord, than to be left to his own folly. The Lord Almighty therefore shall come, and shall be more manifestly revealed above them, whom now they do not know, whom they do not recognize: and he shall destroy all their doctrines, that is, their gods, and the idols of various nations, so that after the images which they had fashioned according to their own understanding have been overthrown, the nations may be converted to the Lord, and each one, in his own place, may adore him whom before he did not know. (Verses 12 and following.) But you also, O Ethiopians, shall be slain by my sword: and he will stretch out his hand over the North, and destroy Assur: and he will make the beautiful city a wilderness and impassable and as it were desert.

And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her: all the beasts of the nations, and the pelican, and the hedgehog shall lodge in her thresholds: the voice of one singing in the window, the raven on the lintel: for I will make her strength thin. This is the glorious city, dwelling in confidence, that said in her heart: I am, and there is none besides me any more: how is she become a desert, a couch for beasts? Every one that passes by her shall hiss, and shake his hand. The LXX: And you, O Ethiopians, shall be wounded by my sword: and I will stretch out my hand over the North, and I will destroy the Assyrian, and I will make Nineveh a wilderness, and waterless as a desert.

And flocks shall feed in the midst of her, and all the beasts of the earth: and chameleons and hedgehogs shall lie down in her mangers, and beasts shall cry out in her pits, and ravens in her gates: for her height is as a cedar: this is the city given to evils, that dwells in hope, that says in her heart: I am, and there is none after me besides; how is she become a wilderness, a pasture for beasts? Every one that passes by her shall hiss, and shake his hands. The Jews refer this whole chapter and the two preceding ones, against the Philistines, and Moab, and the children of Ammon, to the coming of Christ, whom they think is to come at the consummation of the world, who will build up Jerusalem, and free his people from the hand of the nations by whom they are held: and that this is what is meant by what is said: And they shall worship him, every man from his place, all the islands of the nations.

And not only the aforementioned nations, but the Ethiopians also and the Assyrians and Nineveh, the city of the Assyrians, are, at that time, to be laid waste, and all the beasts of the earth are to lie down in her, or, as it is written in the Hebrew, all the beasts of the nations: from which they think is signified all the nations who are to overthrow Nineveh. And because Nineveh is interpreted "beautiful," in the present passage they refer "the beautiful one" to Babylon. And all that follows: "the pelican and the hedgehog shall lodge in her thresholds," and the rest, is said to fit Babylon better, of which the same wasteland is foretold also in Isaiah. And on the other hand, others affirm that it is clearly said of the Assyrian, of whom it had already gone before: "And he will stretch out his hand over the North, and destroy Assur, and make Nineveh a wilderness." For by "Assyrians" is meant Nineveh rather than Babylon, which is a city of the Chaldeans.

But as to what is said: "the pelican and the hedgehog on her hinges, and the raven on the lintel," these are signs of desolation, and there are two kinds of pelican: one aquatic, the other of the desert. And as to what is said, "the voice of one singing in the window," this is understood either of demons, or of the voices of various birds, which are accustomed to dwell in deserted cities. Moreover, what both we and the LXX have likewise translated: "the raven on the lintel," in the Hebrew there is set down HAREB (חרב), which, according to the diversity of reading (חרב), is taken either as "dryness," or "sword," or "raven." Whence Aquila interpreted it "sword," others "dryness." And after the overthrow, as though exulting over her ruin, the prophetic word speaks: This is the glorious city, dwelling in confidence, that said in her heart: I am, and there is none besides me any more; how is she become a desert, a couch for beasts?

But according to what we said above, either beasts will truly dwell in the deserted city, or certainly under the figure of beasts is indicated the variety of many nations. But if anyone should ask how, according to the historical sense, this prophecy is referred to the times of Nebuchadnezzar, since the Ethiopians also and the Assyrians are named, to whom the Medes and Persians did nothing, let him read the histories, and he will see that the Assyrians also and the Ethiopians were subjected to the Medes, and to the kingdom of Cambyses, and the power of Cyrus, and all that followed thereafter. Let these things be said in the Jewish manner. But if we note that in all the Scriptures those are called Ethiopians who are utterly plunged in vice, according to that which we read in Jeremiah: "If the Ethiopian can change his skin", then there will be hope for Ethiopians converted to better things, that no one who is willing to do penance will be a stranger to salvation.

Whence also the soul, formerly polluted and stained with the filth of sins, says: "I am black". And afterward at the end of the Song of Songs, of that same soul now purged and washed by penance it is written: "Who is this that comes up made white?" Moses also, that is, the spiritual Law of the Lord, took an Ethiopian woman from the nations as his wife; and Miriam, that is, the synagogue of the Jews, and Aaron, that is, the carnal priesthood, and not according to the order of Melchizedek, murmur against the Law, but in vain. For at once the synagogue is covered with leprosy, and cast outside the camp, and when the time was fulfilled, at the prayer of Moses himself, she is led back into the camp. For "the hands of Ethiopia had already forestalled God".

Therefore the divine word now threatens those who, clinging to their sins, and forgetful amid the filth of their offenses, are unwilling to be converted to better things, and to wash away their dark color, and it threatens them with the sword, of which I think it is also written in Genesis: "He placed the Cherubim, and a flaming sword, which turned to guard the way of the tree of life." And in Isaiah: "He shall bring a great and holy sword upon the dragon, the crooked serpent, and shall slay him in that day". And he says that they are either to be wounded or slain by the sword, so that, fearing punishments, they may imitate Nineveh, and do penance, and not endure what the Lord threatens. This indeed the prophecy of Jeremiah also declares: "I will speak," he says, "concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, and I will take away and destroy them: and if they shall do penance, I also will do penance concerning all the evils which I have spoken to do to them".

And that you may know that the Lord now threatens the sword to the Ethiopians for this reason, that he may convert them to better things, a little later in this very book he adds concerning the Ethiopians: "From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, thence my suppliants, the children of my dispersed ones, shall bring me a gift" (below, 3:10); or, as it is in the LXX: "From the borders of the rivers of Ethiopia I will receive my scattered ones, and they shall offer sacrifices to me." After these things the Lord does not speak as above; but the prophetic spirit speaks concerning him: "And he will stretch out his hand over the North, and destroy Assur". The North, concerning which Jeremiah wrote: "From the north evils shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the earth." And concerning which Solomon recalls: "The north wind is harsh: but by name it is called the right hand".

Therefore God stretches out his hand bringing punishments, so that the North also may feel the penalties, and those who are in its land, to which, according to Zechariah, black horses go, of whom it is said: "There were black horses, they went into the land of the North". And it is fitting that he who has moved his feet and withdrawn from the East, of whom the same prophet says: "Behold the man, the East is his name", and has looked toward the West, at once proceeds to the North, which is not the right hand, but is called the right hand only by name. This indeed is understood also bodily, so that whoever has stood in the East, and turned himself to look toward the West, has the North on his right hand, which those call "right" who have grown cold from its blast—that which is right only in name, but in reality and in deed is rather on the left.

But after the Lord shall have stretched out his hand over the North, he will also destroy Assur, which is interpreted εὐθύνων, which many think means "one who directs," but that is false: for εὐθύνων means "one who reproves," and convicts. And since the devil himself is the enemy and avenger, and he himself suggests sins, and afterward convicts sinners of their sins, therefore he is called εὐθύνων. This I consider to be the prince of the Assyrians, who dwells in the North, and has Nineveh as his metropolis, and says in Isaiah: "By strength I will act, and by the wisdom of understanding I will remove the boundaries of the nations, and I will devour their strength".

Furthermore, what follows concerning Nineveh laid waste: "And flocks shall feed in her, and all the beasts of the earth, and chameleons, and hedgehogs shall lie down in her mangers, and beasts shall rest in her hinges, and ravens in her windows," and the rest—this seems to me to be understood according to that which is written either in Jonah, or in the prophet Nahum. And in Jonah indeed we have interpreted Nineveh, that is, "the beautiful one," which at the preaching of Jonah, that is, the dove, did penance, as the Church gathered from the nations.

But in Nahum we have applied the understanding to the world: and concerning the world indeed it is not difficult to interpret and say, that when the Ethiopians shall have been wounded by the sword of the Lord, and he shall have stretched out his hand over the North, and destroyed the Assyrian, the prince of the world, the world itself also, together with its prince, will perish, and be reduced to utmost desolation, and be pitiable to none, but all shall hiss at its ruin, and shake their hands. But concerning the Church it seems at first sight to be blasphemous, that she should become impassable and deserted, and that beasts should dwell in her, and that afterward it should be said to her with insult: This is the city given to evils, that dwelt in hope, that said in her heart: I am, and there is none besides me any more, how is she become a wilderness, a pasture for beasts?

But whoever considers that Apostolic saying in which it is said: "In the last days perilous times shall come, and men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, arrogant, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, without peace, false accusers, incontinent, cruel, haters of good, traitors, stubborn, puffed up, lovers of pleasures more than of God: having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof". And also that which is written in the Gospel, that when iniquity has abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold, to such a degree that at that time this shall be fulfilled: "But yet the Son of man, when he comes, shall he find, do you think, faith on the earth?"—will not marvel at the utter desolation of the Church, that, in the reign of Antichrist, she should be reduced to a wilderness, and handed over to beasts, and suffer whatever the prophet now describes.

For if God, on account of unbelief, did not spare the natural branches, but broke them off, and turned rivers into a desert, and springs of water into thirst, a fruitful land into saltness, on account of the wickedness of its inhabitants: why should he not, on the contrary, overthrow those of whom he had said: "He turned the desert into pools of water, and a land without water into springs of water, and made the hungry to dwell there," and the rest, and whom he grafted in from the wild olive into the root of the good olive tree, if, forgetful of the benefit, they shall have withdrawn from their Maker, and worshiped the Assyrian, and reduce them again to that same thirst in which they had formerly been?

Although this can be understood generally of the coming of Antichrist, or of the end of the world, nevertheless it can be understood daily of those who pretend to be of the Church of God, and deny it by their works, and are hearers of the law, and not doers, who in vain boast themselves to be beautiful, when there dwell in them flocks—that is, the multitude of vices—and brute animals serving the body, and all the beasts of the earth, which devour their hearts, and chameleons who do not have one color; but by various sins, now avarice, now luxury, now cruelty, now lust, now sadness, now exultation, they change by the moment. And hedgehogs in their mangers, a spiny animal and full of thorns, wounding whatever it touches. But beasts also shall lie down in the holes, that is, in their hearts, and ravens, unclean birds, in their gates, whether in mouth or in ears, by which either they always speak, or hear, evil things.

After which it is added and said: therefore the Church is to suffer these things, or has suffered them, because she has lifted herself up into pride, and like a cedar has raised her crown, given over to evil works, and nonetheless promising to herself future blessedness, and in her heart despising others, and thinking there is no one but herself, and saying: I am, and there is none other besides me any more: how then is she become a wilderness, a pasture for beasts? For where formerly the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit dwelt, and his angels presided by their ministries, then beasts shall dwell, of whom the prophet also laments, saying: "Deliver not up to beasts the soul that confesses to you". Every one that shall pass by her shall hiss and shake his hands.

But if we understand this of the angels, we shall interpret it thus: when the angels shall have passed through her, and shall not have remained in her, as they were formerly wont to do, they shall be astonished and marvel: and they shall not prop her up, and sustain her as she falls with their hand, but they shall lift up their hands and pass on. Or certainly with a hiss they shall raise their hands, and, as if mourning, shall clap in the manner of those who lament.

But if we should wish to take this of the devil and his angels, who also laid waste the vineyard that had been transplanted from Egypt, we shall say that through the soul from which Christ has withdrawn, and which had formerly been the temple of God, and has ceased to be so, the serpent passes, and hisses in it, and vomits forth the poisons of his malice: and not only does this, but also moves his works, which are tropically called "hands." And lest you think, because we have named the serpent, that we are forcing "the hands of the serpent" to be understood as "his work," take the testimony of Solomon: "Death and life are in the hands of the tongue". These things we have said as best we could, in the service of allegorical interpretation. But if anyone should find things more probable, and having more reasoning than what has been discussed by us, let the reader rather be led by that one's authority.

(Verses 1 and following.) Woe to the provoking and redeemed city: the dove did not hear the voice, and did not receive discipline: she trusted not in the Lord, she did not draw near to her Lord. Her princes in the midst of her are like roaring lions: her judges are evening wolves, they left nothing until the morning. Her prophets are mad, faithless men: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have dealt unjustly against the law. The just Lord is in the midst of her, he will not do iniquity. Morning by morning he will give his judgment in the light, and it shall not be hidden: but the unjust one knew not confusion: I have destroyed the nations, and their corners are scattered: I have made their ways desolate, so that there is none that passes through: their cities are laid waste, with no man remaining, nor any inhabitant.

I said, yet thou shalt fear me, thou shalt receive discipline, and her dwelling place shall not perish because of all the things in which I visited her. Nevertheless rising up early they corrupted all their thoughts. The Septuagint: O illustrious and redeemed city, the dove did not hear the voice, did not receive discipline: she trusted not in the Lord, and will not draw near to her Lord. Her princes in her are like roaring lions: her judges are like the wolves of Arabia, they did not let go until the morning: her prophets bearing the spirit, men who are scorners: her priests pollute the holy things, and act impiously against the law: but the Lord is just in the midst of her, and will not do iniquity.

Morning by morning he will give his judgment in the light, and it is not hidden, and he knows no iniquity in exaction, nor injustice forever: I have brought down the proud, their corners are scattered: I have destroyed their ways so that they may not pass through at all: their cities have failed, because none remained, nor dwelt therein. I said, yet you shall fear me, and you shall receive discipline, and you shall not perish from her eyes in all the things in which I have taken vengeance upon her. Prepare, arise at dawn: all their clusters have perished. Many think that, because of the sequence of the discourse, this is said against Nineveh, of which it was said above: And he will destroy the Assyrian, and will make Nineveh a wilderness. But Scripture would never call Nineveh a dove: although in Jeremiah, some think that "from the face of the sword of the dove" is said of Nebuchadnezzar.

But it should be known that others assert the contrary, that instead of "dove" one may understand there Ἑλλάδα, that is, Greece, so that the sense is: "from the face of the sword of Jonah," that is, "from the face of the sword, Greece": for Jonah signifies both a dove and Greece. Whence even to this day the Greeks are called Ionians, and the sea is called the Ionian, and among the Hebrews their old name remains. But also the Roman princes, retaining the ancient designation among the barbarian nations, are called Caesars. Therefore the whole discourse is against Jerusalem: Woe to the city, once a dove, always sinning, and given over to captivities, and again redeemed by the Lord. Woe, provoking city: which is more forcefully expressed in Hebrew as MARA (מרה), that is, παραπικραίνουσα: which we may render as "making God bitter," that is, by your fault turning the sweet and merciful Lord into bitterness, so that he who wishes to have mercy is compelled to punish.

She did not hear the precept of the Lord, and having been reproved, refused to receive discipline; nor, when pressed by evils, did she ever trust in the Lord her God; nor did she walk after him; nor, when he said, "I am the Lord who is near, and not far off", did she herself wish to draw near to him. Her princes also are described, and her judges, and prophets, and priests, so that in the city we may understand the people, and in these things I have mentioned, under the names of dignities, we may take the princes. Her princes therefore, like lions, were always engaged in plunder, and in shedding the blood of their subjects: her judges were rapacious, leaving nothing for others that they themselves could seize. Her prophets were raving, or stupefied, which in Hebrew is called PHOEZIM, and which Aquila translated θαμβευταί, spoke as if from the mouth of the Lord, and proclaimed everything against the Lord.

The priests committed sacrilege in the place of the sanctuary, and while acting against the law, offered sacrifices according to the law. Because they acted unjustly, the Lord, who is just, will not do iniquity, but will render to the most wicked city what it deserves. Morning by morning, that is, openly and without any ambiguity, he will render judgment upon her, and there shall be nothing that can be hidden from him. And this the Lord will do, that the reproved city may be turned to what is better. But unjust Israel did not recognize its own confusion, nor did it understand that the plagues inflicted upon it were for the sake of doing penance.

"I have avenged you," he says afterward concerning the nations, "and I have destroyed their empires, so that you who did not perceive me through the plagues might at least recognize me through benefits." Or certainly it may be understood thus: "I have destroyed all your cities, O Judah, and all the towns and tribes subject to you, and the various borders, and there was such a devastation of men that there was no one to dwell in your cities; and after I had done this, I sent my prophets, rising up at dawn, and calling you to repentance, and I said:

I have indeed done these things to you, O Jerusalem, but I have done them that you might fear me, and receive discipline, and that your dwelling place might not perish, that is, the temple, because of all the crimes you had committed." But on the contrary, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, when I called them to repentance, rose up at dawn as if deliberately and in a spirit of contention, so that with the same haste with which they ought to have returned to me, they completed all their own devisings, and by their deeds demonstrated what they had conceived in their minds. This according to the Hebrew. But as for "the illustrious and redeemed city," redeemed by the blood of Christ, in keeping with what has gone before, the Church is clearly to be understood, which is also called a dove, on account of the simplicity of the multitude of believers within her.

She has not heard the voice of the Lord, nor wished to receive discipline, nor trusted in the Lord, because she was unwilling to draw near to the Lord her God, so as to merit the forgiveness of sins. For in vain does anyone say that he hears the voice of the Lord his God, and trusts in the Lord, when by his works he destroys faith, and is joined more to mammon than to the Lord his God, and approaches him with a double heart, and believes he can serve two masters, the world and God. Her princes are like roaring lions. We do not doubt the roaring and the running about of lions: when we see her princes thunder so over the subject peoples, and with tyrannical voice and rabid abuse crush the common folk, that you would think not a shepherd amid the flock, but a lion gnashing among the little sheep.

Her judges too, like the wolves of Arabia, killing in the evening, and leaving nothing until morning: not looking to the rising of the sun, but always lingering in darkness, and turning the little possessions of the Church, and the things offered into God's treasuries, into their own gain, so that the poor have nothing to eat in the morning, since they, as though in the night and with no one watching, plunder everything; and like wolves ravaging all things, they leave not even small scraps of food for those in need. The prophets too, that is, the teachers who think they teach the peoples, and discourse on the Scriptures, πνευματοφόροι, that is, bearers of the spirit, or spiritual ones (and this must be read εἰρωνικῶς, ironically) are men who are scorners: for it is not fitting in the Church to teach, but to do, not to destroy words by deeds.

But when you teach another, and do not yourself do what you teach, you ought to be called not so much a teacher as a scorner, of whom it is also written in Habakkuk: "Behold, you scorners, and look, and wonder at wondrous things, and perish". The priests also, who serve the Eucharist and distribute the blood of the Lord to his people, act impiously against the law of Christ, thinking that the Eucharist consists in the words of the one who prays, not in his life, and that only the solemn prayer is necessary, and not the merits of the priests, of whom it is said: "And the priest in whom there is a blemish shall not approach to offer the oblations of the Lord". Though the princes, judges, prophets, priests of Jerusalem do these things, nonetheless the Lord is merciful and just. Merciful, in that he does not withdraw from his Church: just, in that he renders to each what he deserves.

For after the morning has come, and the night of this age has passed, he will give his judgment in the light, and neither he himself nor his judgment shall be hidden. And when he begins to require from each the money he had entrusted to them, he will not be unjust, nor will he allow injustice to prevail forever; but he will pull down the proud princes, whom God resists, from their thrones and from the height they held, and their corners will be scattered, that is, their perverse wills, and those who turn aside from the straight path, in which even the Pharisees were always accustomed to pray, having despised the cornerstone. I think, moreover, that it profits even the proud to be brought down from their arrogance, and to have their alleys and corners scattered, so that afterward they may walk in the straight path.

Then it follows: And I will make their ways desolate, so that there is none who passes through: according to what is written in the first psalm: "And the way of the wicked shall perish". And also in Hosea, where it is said of Jerusalem committing fornication: "Behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will wall up her paths, and she shall not find her path, and she shall pursue her lovers, and not overtake them; and she shall seek them, and not find them; and she shall say: I will go, and return to my former husband, for it was better with me then than now" (Hosea II, 6, 7).

Observe that unless her ways had been shut up, and her paths hedged in, and unless the Lord had destroyed her ways, the fornicating soul could never have said: "I will go, and return to my former husband." The ways of the proud, therefore, and their corners are scattered, lest they walk in pride and perversity, and their cities, which had been badly built in arrogance and pride, are destroyed, lest they stand and have the most wicked inhabitants. And lest anyone think we are doing violence to Scripture, let him learn from what follows: "But this," he says, "I have done, that I might say to them: Behold, the ways of malice have been destroyed, henceforth fear me, and learn discipline, lest even my discipline perish, finding in you no fruit of conversion; and lest all things be in vain by which I wished to correct you, and that saying which is written in Jeremiah may be applied to you: In vain have I struck your children, you have not received discipline".

Or certainly: fear me, and receive discipline, lest all things perish from the sight of Jerusalem, nor be utterly reduced to a wilderness on account of these evils with which I have threatened her. Nor let it disturb anyone (as I have often already said) that I interpret these things against the Church, since he knows that Jerusalem always bears in the sacred Scriptures the type of the Church: of which whoever sins is either led away to Babylon, or, if he voluntarily wishes to go down, is wounded by robbers in Jericho. For what is so illustrious as the Church, founded throughout the whole world? So redeemed by the blood of Christ, and a dove through the grace of the Holy Spirit, as the Church gathered from the nations? In which very many who say they believe in Christ have neither heard his voice, nor received discipline, nor wished to be near him.

And as for what is said: "Her princes in her are like roaring lions," I know that I shall offend many, because I interpret this concerning bishops and presbyters, since even wicked presbyters, who desired to violate Susanna, do not condemn the other presbyters who lived well. And wicked princes, whom the prophetic word describes, are no reproach to good princes: "For a fool being scourged, the simple will become wiser": but if the simple becomes wiser, how much more he who is already wise? But her judges and princes, taking bribes, and selling justice, are they not rightly called wolves of Arabia, or evening wolves, as Symmachus translated? For they do not deserve to be called the wolves of Benjamin, who seize in the morning, and give food in the evening; but evening wolves, who devour by night, and leave nothing in the morning.

As for what follows: "Her prophets πνευματοφόροι, that is, bearers of the spirit, are men who are scorners," let no one be troubled that, in interpreting this concerning teachers, we call the same men both prophets and scorners, since the Apostle also commands: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption". And David speaks in the fiftieth psalm: "Take not your Holy Spirit from me".

For unless the Holy Spirit, once grieved, were accustomed first to flee its lodging, and to abandon its dwelling place, Paul would never have given the command I mentioned above; nor would David, after his adultery, have feared to lose what he had received, of whom it is also written to the Hebrews: "How much worse punishments do you think he deserves who has trodden underfoot the Son of God, and has esteemed the blood of the covenant unclean, by which he was sanctified, and has done despite to the Spirit of grace?" But also in the third Book of Kings it is written concerning the man of God—undoubtedly a prophet—who had said at the altar in Samaria: "Altar, altar, thus says the Lord: Behold, a son shall be born of the house of David", and so on; because he despised the words of the Lord and ate with a false prophet (for so Josephus, expounding this passage, interpreted it), he was slain by a lion.

And lest it be thought a mere accident and not the judgment of the Lord, even the false prophet who had deceived him foretold that this would happen, and the lion itself, punishing the scorner, spared the ass. It is not, then, surprising if teachers who had been full of the Holy Spirit can become scorners, since among the negligent, who do not keep their heart with all watchfulness, this very thing frequently becomes the cause of pride against the Lord and of contempt, that they possess the knowledge of God, and know his abundant goodness, which he hides for those who fear him, and yet despise the riches of his goodness, storing up for themselves wrath in the day of wrath and revelation.

The priests too (who give baptism, and invoke the coming of the Lord for the Eucharist: who make the oil of chrism: who lay on hands: who instruct catechumens: who ordain Levites and other priests) should not so much resent us for expounding these things and the prophets for foretelling them, as beseech the Lord, and take care lest they deserve to be counted among the priests who defile the holy things of the Lord. For it is not the office and the titles of office, but the work of the office, that has been wont to save princes, and judges, and prophets, and priests: "He who desires the episcopate," it is said, "desires a good work". See what he said: he desires a good work. Work, not office. But if, disregarding the work, he has looked only to the office, quickly the tower in Siloam falls, and the lofty cedars are struck by lightning, and the raised neck is broken, and the swan, with outstretched neck, straining upward, is reckoned among the unclean birds.

Furthermore, as for what we have expounded according to the Hebrew: "Nevertheless, rising at dawn, they corrupted all their thoughts," instead of which it is written in the Septuagint: "Prepare, arise at dawn, all their foliage is scattered," since this differs greatly from the Hebrew, and seems rather to agree with what follows according to the LXX, we shall explain in what comes next. (Verses 8, 9.) Wherefore wait for me, says the Lord, in the day of my resurrection that is to come: for my judgment is to gather the nations and assemble the kingdoms, that I may pour out upon them my indignation, all the wrath of my fury: for in the fire of my zeal shall all the earth be devoured: for then will I restore to the peoples a chosen lip, that all may call upon the name of the Lord, and serve him with one shoulder.

LXX: Therefore wait for me, says the Lord, in the day of my resurrection for a testimony: for my judgment is upon the assemblies of the nations, that I may take up kings, that I may pour out upon them all my wrath, the wrath of my fury; for in the fire of my zeal shall all the earth be consumed, for then will I turn upon the peoples a tongue for its generation, that all may call upon the name of the Lord, that they may serve him under one yoke.

The Jews interpret these things of the coming of Christ, whom they hope is yet to come, and they say that when all the nations have been gathered together, and the fury of the Lord poured out upon them, the earth is to be devoured in the fire of his zeal. And just as before the building of the tower, when all peoples spoke one tongue, so, they say, when all are converted to the worship of the true God, they will speak Hebrew, and the whole world will serve the Lord. But we, who do not follow the killing letter but the life-giving spirit, nor Jewish fables, hear from the Lord: Prepare, rise up at dawn: all their clusters have been scattered; and we say in preparation: My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready. And we hear it commanded in Proverbs: Prepare your work outside.

And that which is sacredly said in Leviticus, where in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, Aaron offers for the people the scapegoat, still living, and, laying his hands upon its head, invokes upon it all the sins of the people of Israel, and delivers it into the hands of a prepared man, and sends it into the wilderness (we understand this in ourselves), and preparing ourselves under the command of the true Priest, we take away the evil from the midst of the Church. And when we have done this, the night passes, the day draws near, and, as if walking honorably, we say: God, my God, I watch for you from the light. And immediately we add: In the morning you will hear my prayer, in the morning I will stand before you, and I will see. For unless we have prepared ourselves, the sun of righteousness will not rise for us.

But when the sun has risen, all the clusters of the vine of Sodom are scattered and perish, so that not only the great clusters, but even what seemed small in us, perishes when the lamp of Christ shines forth. And promising us a reward for all these things, God says: Wait for me in the day of my resurrection for a testimony: for after vices and sins, God will rise again in us. And according to what he commands in another place: Be my witnesses, and I am a witness, says the Lord God: and the servant whom I have chosen: the Father, together with the Son and the Holy Spirit, is a witness to us, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand. And it seems to me that the sentence stands better this way, and that the truth is confirmed under these three witnesses, rather than by the letter. For there were two witnesses against Susanna, and against the Lord Savior himself, and yet the word did not stand in their mouth.

Against Naboth also almost the whole city gave testimony, and the agreement of the wicked witnesses did not have the firmness of truth, but the conspiracy of crime. For my judgment, he says, is upon the assemblies of the nations, that I may take up kings, namely in the place of their punishments, that I may pour out upon them my wrath, all the wrath of my fury. He who is lesser more quickly obtains pardon, and is nearer to mercy: But the mighty shall be mightily tormented. Whence the nations and the multitude of the nations are gathered to judgment; but kings, that is, the leaders of perverse doctrines, will be brought to punishment, that all the wrath of the Lord's fury may be poured out upon them. And this is done not by any cruelty, as the bloodthirsty Jews suppose, but by mercy, and by the counsel of one who heals. For it follows: For in the fire of my zeal shall all the earth be consumed.

For when the nations have been gathered to judgment, and the kings to punishment, so that wrath may be poured out upon them, and not in part, but wholly, wrath and fury being joined together, whatever is earthly is consumed in the whole world, whatever pertains to the works of the earth, that is, of the flesh: laying waste all its briers and thorny thickets, the fire of my zeal shall devour. And then will I turn upon the peoples a tongue for its generation, that each one, error having been laid aside, may return to the ancient speech of confession of the Lord: and at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue should confess the Lord Jesus in the glory of God the Father.

And having cast away the bricks and the bitumen, which we had instead of stones and mud, with which we built up the pride of our error against the Lord, let us receive again the tongue which we had lost before, and be under the yoke of Christ, who says: My yoke is easy, and my burden is light. It is to be noted, however, that in that place where we have translated: I will restore to the peoples a chosen lip, instead of "chosen," the Seventy said, "for its generation," so that "of the earth" is to be understood. And this error arose because the Hebrew word BARURA (ברורה), which Aquila and Theodotion interpreted as "chosen," and Symmachus as "clean," the Seventy read as BADURA (בדורה), mistaking the letter RESH for DALETH, because of the great similarity of the letters, which are distinguished by only a small stroke.

Likewise where we have translated, In the day of my resurrection that is to come, and all the interpreters have rendered "for a testimony." The Hebrew who instructed me in the Scriptures asserted that LAED (לעד) in this passage ought rather to be understood as εἰς ἔτι, that is, "in the future," than "for a testimony," for ED, which is written with the letters AYIN and DALETH, is understood as both ἔτι and μαρτύριον, that is, "future" and "testimony." We can also expound this passage of the first coming of Christ, when, all error having been taken away, and the demons trodden down, and earthly works destroyed, the apostles spoke in all tongues, and the old error having been removed, one lip of confession was restored. But the kings who are destroyed, and consumed by the divine fire, are to be understood as the leaders of perverse doctrines. (Verses 10 and following.) Beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, thence my suppliants, the daughters of my dispersed ones, shall bring me an offering.

In that day you shall not be confounded because of all your inventions, by which you have transgressed against me: for then I will take away from your midst the boasters of your pride, and you shall no more be exalted in my holy mountain, and I will leave in your midst a poor and needy people, and they shall hope in the name of the Lord. The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies, and a deceitful tongue shall not be found in their mouth, for they shall feed and lie down, and there shall be none to make them afraid. LXX: From the borders of the rivers of Ethiopia I will receive my dispersed ones: they shall bring me victims.

In that day you shall not be confounded because of all your inventions, by which you have acted impiously against me, for then I will take away from you the reproach of your contumely, and you shall no more add to be magnified upon my holy mountain: and I will leave in you a meek and humble people, and they shall reverence the name of the Lord, they who shall remain of Israel, and they shall not do iniquity, and they shall not speak vain things, and a deceitful tongue shall not be found in their mouth, for they shall feed and lie down, and there shall be none to make them afraid.

When the Lord shall have restored to the believing peoples the chosen lip, and all shall have called upon the name of the Lord, and shall have borne his yoke, then also, beyond the rivers of Ethiopia (whence the queen of Sheba came to hear the wisdom of Solomon), they shall bring victims to the Lord: And Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands to God: and to the true lawgiver, who struck Egypt with ten plagues, the Ethiopian woman shall be wedded, while the synagogue of the Hebrews looks on with envy. But that which is said according to the Hebrew: Thence my suppliants, the daughter of my dispersed ones, shall bring me an offering, is of this sort: O Israel, O synagogue, once a daughter, though dispersed throughout the whole world, though you envy, though you are tormented with jealousy, yet from Ethiopia victims shall be brought to me, that is, from the people of the Gentiles.

In that day, that is, when the multitude of the Gentiles shall have believed, even you shall not be utterly confounded because of all your errors, by which you transgressed against me, choosing Barabbas, and crucifying the Son of God. Then I will take away from your midst the Scribes, and Priests, and Pharisees, the boasters of your pride, and you shall by no means boast yourself any more in my holy mountain; but you shall have a poor people, unlettered men, and fishermen, who shall hope in the name of the Lord. The remnant of Israel, not the multitude which cried out: Crucify, crucify him: not the priests and nobles; but the remnant shall by no means do iniquity, nor speak falsehood concerning Christ, believing the truth: nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth, knowing that every lie is of the devil; for they shall feed, and shall say: The Lord feeds me, and I shall want nothing: in a place of pasture there he has set me.

Beside the water of refreshment he has brought me up, he has converted my soul: and there shall be none to make them afraid, the faith of believers overcoming the pride of persecutors. Let this be understood of the first coming of Christ, which the Jews promise themselves at the end, and hope that they shall dwell in Jerusalem, and, after the manner of cattle, be filled with bodily things. A little later, from the same source and from Victorinus, we read of the Jews being filled with wealth and fed with green pastures, and, all nations having been destroyed and subjected to them, none being able to remain who might terrify them.

But we, taking from this fable an occasion for the true history, say that all the blackness of the soul, and its foul color, and the venom of the dragon, with which we had been dyed by vices and sins, our lip being restored to us chosen, or clean and white (as Symmachus interpreted it), we leave behind us in the rivers of Ethiopia the teachers of perverse doctrines, by whom we were formerly watered, and, together with Israel once dispersed, we shall bring gifts to Christ.

In that day, in which the light of Christ shall have risen upon us, it shall be said to each of us: you shall not be confounded because of all your inventions, namely, your most wicked thoughts, with which we acted impiously against the Lord, and all the pride and contumely by which we rose up against the Lord, and against his holy mountain, our Lord and Savior, shall be taken away, and instead of proud and vain names there shall be left in us a meek and humble people, so that we think nothing arrogant, nothing swollen, nothing displeasing to God. And at the same time consider that in the day of judgment, and at the consummation of the world, all names of dignities shall be taken away, and one people shall remain, and a flock under the good Shepherd, which shall be meek and humble.

Then also the people of Israel, the fullness of the Gentiles having entered in (for God has shut up all under sin, that he might have mercy upon all), shall fear the name of the Lord. And the remnant of Israel shall no more do the iniquity by which they denied the Lord, nor shall they speak vain things: promising themselves foolish fables: nor shall a lying tongue be found in their mouth, Christ, who is the truth, speaking through them. For then they shall feed, they too, in one flock, and shall lie down in the Church, and shall not fear the assaults of the true Nebuchadnezzar. Seeing and reading these so great mysteries, let us cry out with the Apostle, and say: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are your judgments, and your ways past finding out. This indeed the prophet also, perceiving and turning over in his mind, surmises concerning the judgments of God.

In the night I meditated with my heart, and I searched my spirit, and I said: Will God cast off forever, and will he not be favorable any more? Or will he shut up his mercies in his anger? And I said: Now I have begun: this is the change of the right hand of the Most High. And the sense is: That which I thought—that the Lord would abandon sinners forever, and, wrath succeeding, would withhold his mercies—I understood was done for this reason, that by a change of his right hand, which is the right hand of the Most High, he might change all things, and have mercy on those whom he had before cast off. And so we too, and the remnant of Israel, knowing that we are to give account for every idle word, and that the Lord will destroy all lying lips, let us not speak vanity. For vanity of vanities, and all things return to nothing, in place of what was to stand firm. Vanity. And: All living man is entirely vanity.

Nor let us bring forth falsehood from our mouth; but having received power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, let us fear no dread, nor, with Christ as our guard, let us be afraid of the ambushes of wolves; but let us say, The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? And the rest that is contained in the twenty-sixth psalm. (Verses 14ff.) Praise, daughter of Sion, shout for joy, Israel, be glad and exult with all thy heart, daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thy judgment, he hath turned away thine enemies: the king of Israel, the Lord, is in the midst of thee, thou shalt fear evil no more.

In that day it shall be said, Jerusalem, fear not: Sion, let not thy hands be loosed: the Lord thy God, mighty, is in the midst of thee, he himself shall save thee, he shall rejoice over thee in gladness, he shall be silent in his love for thee: he shall exult over thee in praise. I will gather those that have departed from the law, because they were of thee: that thou mayest no longer bear reproach over them. The Seventy: Rejoice, daughter of Sion; proclaim it, daughter of Jerusalem, exult and delight with all thy heart, daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thine iniquities, he hath redeemed thee from the hand of thine enemies, the king of Israel, the Lord, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt see evils no more.

In that time, saith the Lord, Jerusalem, be confident, Sion, let not thy hands be loosed: the Lord thy God is in thee, mighty, he shall save thee: he shall bring upon thee gladness, and shall renew thee in his love, and shall rejoice over thee in delight, as on a solemn day: I will gather thy broken ones. Woe to him who has taken up reproach against her. Let it not seem strange, as we have often said, that the Hebrew chapters and the Greek, that is the Septuagint and Latin, end differently. For where the translation differs in sense, there of necessity either the beginnings or the endings must differ. The Jews promise themselves all these things with the Christ whom they think is yet to come, whereas we who have received Christ have already, together with him, obtained all things.

If therefore any Christian, and especially of the new so-called wise men, whose names I withhold lest I seem to injure anyone, thinks that the prophecy is not yet fulfilled, let him know that he bears the name of Christ falsely, and has a Jewish soul, lacking only the circumcision of the body. For if these things are not yet done, but are still to come, then in vain have we believed in the coming of the Savior; and in vain, not believing, do we understand that the mystery has been fulfilled in us, which was kept silent through ages eternal, and is now made manifest through the prophetic Scriptures and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Finally, let us consider the order of the reading, and we shall see that what is said pertains not to the Jews but to the Church of Christ.

For after what had preceded (My judgment is in the gathering of the nations, that I may take unto me kings, down to the place where it says: That all may call upon the name of the Lord, and serve him with one accord: And, From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia I will receive from among my scattered ones those who shall bring me sacrifices: and after the remnant of the people of Israel, believing in Christ and saved, of whom it is said: And they that are left of Israel shall fear the name of the Lord, and there shall be none to terrify them), the Holy Spirit, speaking of the general consummation of the world, says: Rejoice, daughter of Sion, proclaim it, daughter of Jerusalem, be glad and delight with all thy heart, daughter of Jerusalem. For every soul of the Church, which has been set upon the watchtower and contemplates peace, rejoices and is glad that its iniquities have been taken away, and that it has been redeemed by him who redeemed all with his precious blood.

For Christ was made for us wisdom from God, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption. And the king of Israel has redeemed us, who dwells in the midst of us, saying: I and my Father will come, and will make our abode with him; and I will dwell and walk among them: and we shall no longer see evils, thinking and doing only virtues. In that day, saith the Lord, when we behold peace, and are set on high, let not thy hands be loosed, he who also said through Isaiah: Strengthen ye the feeble hands, and let your works be strong. For the Lord is mighty, whom no one can resist: thy savior, he himself will restore to thee the gladness which thou hadst lost, and, the old man being cast away, will make thee walk in the new, and this he will do in his love: not by thy merit, but by his mercy.

And he shall rejoice over thee, and shall delight, as one receiving the richest victim of thy solemnity, thy salvation: and he himself will say to thee: I will gather thy broken ones: for a contrite and humbled heart God will not despise; and, A bruised reed he will not break. These things, meanwhile, if we should wish to take them of the second coming of the Savior. Further, because the prophet Zechariah exhorts Sion and Jerusalem to a similar joy, and Matthew says that this very prophecy was fulfilled at the first coming of Christ, we are compelled by necessity, indeed led by the very order of truth, to hope that what is said in Sophonias is not something to come, but something already done. For it is written in Zechariah: Rejoice greatly, daughter of Sion; proclaim it, daughter of Jerusalem: behold thy king comes to thee, just and a savior: he himself lowly and riding upon a yoked animal (or, a beast of burden) and a young colt. These things are said according to the Septuagint.

But according to the Hebrew, the Church is bidden to praise and Israel to shout for joy, seeing God with understanding, and to exult and rejoice with all its heart, being the place of peace, to which it was said: My peace I give unto you, my peace I leave with you. For in the end and consummation of the world he has taken away her judgment, in no way judging and rebuking her, but saving her: and he has turned away her enemies, the throngs of demons. The king of Israel, the Lord, shall be in the midst of her: she shall fear evil no more. In that day it shall be said to the free Jerusalem: not the one who is in bondage with her children, but she who is the mother of the saints: Fear not, Sion (for she herself is also Jerusalem), thy works shall in no way be dissolved: nor shalt thou see the face which thou didst grieve to have made.

The Lord thy God, who shall save thee, mighty and powerful, he himself shall dwell in the midst of thee, he shall rejoice over thee in exultation and gladness, and he shall keep silence over thy sins in the love (or, in the peace) with which he has loved thee: and he shall exult over thee in praise, either because thou art praiseworthy, or because thou shalt sing with thy own praises. Those who have wandered off, or, as Aquila translated it, the transplanted, who have departed from thee, I will gather, because they were of thee, that is, those who through vices and sins had fled from thy bosom, and had come under the power of demons, when the state of all things is restored, will come to thee, and thou shalt no longer suffer reproaches over thy lost children.

As for what we have rendered "nugas" (נוגי), let us know that in the Hebrew it is itself a Latin word, and for that reason we have set it down by us just as it was in the Hebrew: so that we may know that the Hebrew tongue is the mother of all languages, a matter not to be discussed at this time.

But I marvel that Aquila and the Septuagint, for what we have translated as "erant," in the place where we said, "I will gather because they were of thee," wished to translate it as "vae," or οἴ: which Aquila always uses not for lamenting but for calling and exclaiming: for HAJA (היה), whose root meaning is "to be," signifies the past tense, plural number, "they were," or "they had been." I know these things are tedious to the reader, who, if he notices that I am not writing controversies and declamations, nor exulting in commonplaces, but Commentaries, and Commentaries on the Prophets, will rather rebuke me if ever I choose to play in the manner of the rhetoricians, than blame me for lingering, as is fitting, over such obscurities. (Verses 19, 20.) Behold, I will slay all who have afflicted thee in that time: and I will save her that halteth, and I will gather her that was cast out: and I will make them a praise and a name in all the earth of their shame.

At that time when I will bring you in; and at the time when I will gather you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all the peoples of the earth, when I shall have turned back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord. The Seventy: Behold, I will do unto thee, for thy sake, in that time, and I will save her that is oppressed, and I will receive her that is cast out, and I will make them a glory, and renowned in all the earth. And they shall be confounded in that time, when I shall have done good to you: and at the time when I shall have received you, for I will make you renowned, and a glory among all the peoples of the earth; when I shall have turned back your captivity before you, saith the Lord.

And this the synagogue, which does not merely halt, but is maimed in both feet, promises itself at the coming of its Christ, whom it hopes is yet to come: and it thinks that all the nations who afflicted Israel are to be slain by the Lord, and that the synagogue, having received the bill of divorce, is to be saved and gathered, and that they are to be made a praise and a name in all the land of their captivity, in which they had before been put to shame. And it thinks this will happen at the time when the captivity of Jerusalem shall be brought back, and the temple rebuilt, and the remaining order of ceremonies observed. These things it promises itself, and therefore does not do penance, and while it hopes for uncertain things, it loses certain salvation.

Nor do I wonder that the synagogue says these things, since, because she does not receive Christ, her eyes ache, and like Leah she is bleary-eyed, and is not loved by Jacob, and, Rachel taking her place, she is neglected. But I marvel at Christians, indeed half-Jews, who seem to themselves to belong to the Church, saying and professing such things, which, if true, would mean that in vain we believe in Christ, and all our sacrament is annulled, and we are more pitiable than all men, believing that he has come who has not come. But because our hope is certain, and the vows of the Jews are empty, let us now, according to the former understanding, weave together the present and final chapter, and bring forward the testimony of Jesus the son of Sirach: He who casts a stone on high, casts it upon his own head.

For since Sion and Jerusalem are set on high, whoever detracts from Sion and Jerusalem, and casts stones of insult upon her, casts them upon his own head, and his reproach shall return upon his own head: And his sorrow and iniquity shall come down upon his own crown. How many today reproach the soul that is pursuing the mysteries of God, and desiring to see his peace, and say: He is mad, and drunk, and full of new wine: he flees the company of men: he spurns delights: he counts gold as mud: he loves poverty alone. But those who are unbelievers even reproach him with the cross of Christ, and if ever they see him in distress and in temptation, they say: Where are thy mercies, and the acts of justice which thou hast wrought? Why should I speak of unbelievers, when some rulers of the churches reproach men of this kind, and consider their life madness, and do not praise their present manner of life, but reproach them for their former sins?

Nor do they hear that it is commanded: Reproach not a man who turns from his sins. Woe therefore to him who has borne and taken up reproach, and has enslaved himself to such an office, as to detract from Sion and the city of God: for this injury to his city the Lord is the avenger, and he will say to Sion: Behold, I will do unto thee, for thy sake, that is, I will exact vengeance for thee, and I will save the afflicted, or, as it is said in the Greek, the pressed one; so that the sense is: I will save her who at present, like a grape or an olive, is so pressed and afflicted by temptations and pressures, as by the winepress and beam, pressed and afflicted, that she might make wine and oil, and that Jesus might drink of the wine in the kingdom of his Father; and might be anointed with the oil above his fellows.

I think it was for the sake of pressing out such wine and oil that Job suffered so much: and that after he had made wine and oil, he heard from the Lord: Do you think I have answered you otherwise than that you might appear just? As if he were speaking to a grape and an olive: Do you think I have pressed and afflicted and crushed you otherwise than that I might press out wine and oil from you? There follows: And I will receive her that had been rejected. God seems to reject us when he leaves us to temptation. Whence also Job says, The visitation of the Lord has regarded me. And not only the just speak and say, But now thou hast rejected and confounded us, as it is written in the forty-third psalm; but the Lord and Savior himself, from the person of the man he had assumed, says, But thou hast rejected and despised us; thou hast put off thy Christ; thou hast overturned the covenant of thy servant.

That it is the person of the just speaking in the forty-third psalm, saying: But now thou hast rejected and confounded us, is proven by what follows: All these things have come upon us, yet we have not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant: nor has our heart turned back. Her, therefore, who in her temptations seemed cast off, the Lord will receive in the end: and he will make them a glory, and renowned in the whole earth, namely, the children of the pressed and rejected one, that is, of the Church. But what other children of the Church can we understand as renowned, except the apostles? Consider for me Peter and Paul and Matthew and John; and consider that what was promised to Abraham: I will magnify thy name, was accomplished in them in deed.

Daily their name is named in the Church, daily their name is magnified: not that it profits them to be named by us in the Church, but that we, by magnifying their name, and by reading what they wrote, may attain salvation. In that time, it says, when the pressed and rejected one shall have been received, and her children set in glory (for the Lord glories in his athletes, when he sees them crowned, just as he gloried before the devil concerning Job: whence also the Apostle, rejoicing in the progress of his disciples, says: Even by your glory), they that had been your adversaries shall be confounded, and had brought reproach against you: and then they shall see that those whom they thought wretched are blessed, and those whom they esteemed poor and cast down have become powerful and glorious. By which they had been subjugated by harsh dominion in this world, to be led back into the heavenly Jerusalem: and that we ourselves shall rise again unto reproach and everlasting confusion.

Grant to us, Jesus Christ, oppressed and afflicted and repulsed in this world, that thou mayest receive us and set us in glory: let the serpent be put to confusion in due time, let its hissings cease, let its poisons grow numb, and let its confusion turn to salvation. This according to the Septuagint. But the Hebrew, since apart from the beginning, which we discussed at the end of the previous chapter, it does not differ much from their translation, I do not think needs exposition.