Commentary on Zechariah

(Verse 1.) In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zachariah, the son of Barachiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying. LXX: In the eighth month of the second year under Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zachariah son of Barachiah, son of Iddo the prophet, saying. That in the second year of Darius the son of Hystaspes, the seventieth year of the desolation of the temple, which had been foretold by Jeremiah (Ch. XXV and XXIX), had been completed, Zachariah himself is witness, saying: O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, with which thou hast been angry?

Behold, this is the seventieth year: nor is there any doubt that Cyrus, king of the Persians, who destroyed the empire of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign sent back from Babylon into Judea about fifty thousand captive men: who also restored the vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had carried off, and ordered the temple to be rebuilt in Jerusalem: and he appointed as leaders of the people who returned, Zerubbabel, son of Salathiel, and Jesus, son of Josedec the high priest. Cyrus, therefore, having been slain among the Massagetae—who reigned thirty years over the Persians—by Tomyris, queen of the Massagetae, his son Cambyses succeeded to the kingdom, who, after eight years had elapsed, had as successors two magi brothers: these having been slain by the people, Darius, son of Hystaspes, was made king of the Persians by the decision of the seven families. In the second year of his reign the word of the Lord came to the prophet Haggai, and to Zachariah, son of Barachiah, son of Iddo.

Concerning Haggai we have already spoken; concerning the title of Zachariah a few things must be said. Since he is the son of Barachiah, it is asked why he is called the son of Iddo. Nor is there doubt, according to the book of Chronicles, that he is that Iddo who was sent to Jeroboam, son of Nebat, under whom the altar was destroyed and the king's hand withered, and again at his prayers was restored. Therefore from the first year of King Cyrus to the second year of Darius, son of Hystaspes, forty years are reckoned, during which only the altar had been built, and the foundations of the temple laid, the neighboring nations round about hindering the work, and Cambyses, king of the Persians, having sent letters concerning this matter to the princes of Coele-Syria, and Phoenicia, and Samaria. On this matter Ezra writes the history more fully. But Haggai began to prophesy in the sixth month, on the first day of the same month.

Zachariah, however, prophesied in the same year indeed, but not in the same month: for after two months, in the eighth month of the year, he poured forth his prophecy. Whence rightly, according to the order of the twelve prophets, the former is placed tenth, and this one eleventh. And it is a mark of great confidence, indeed of hope and faith in the Lord, that what had been neglected for so long a time—whether by the king's prohibition or by the nations—they begin to do at the admonition of two men. These things we have set forth beforehand according to history, in our usual manner. Now we must discuss briefly according to anagogy. The eighth month among the Hebrews, which among them is called Marheshvan (מרחשון), among the Egyptians Athyr, among us November, is the beginning of winter: in which, the heat of summer having been consumed, all the earth is stripped of its greenery, and mortal bodies contract, nor is there any solemnity prescribed by the law.

For it is written that three times a year every male should appear before the Lord our God. The first festivity is that of the Unleavened Bread, the Passover, which among us in Greek and Latin speech is called Pascha. The second is Pentecost, after seven weeks, in which the loaves of proposition are offered first from the new crops. The third, in the seventh month, is that of trumpets, of propitiation and of tabernacles, that is, of Skenopegia, whose last day is called the day of going forth and the terminus. Therefore the people, being established in captivity, and still under the king of the Persians, the temple not yet built, the ramparts and walls of the city not yet constructed, does not see prophecy in a time of joy, but after joy. And yet he who had the memory of the Lord, and because of memory, blessing, and because of blessing, testimony: therefore to him Zachariah, son of Barachiah, son of Iddo, is sent.

Zachariah is interpreted "memory of the Lord": Barachiah, "blessing of the Lord": Iddo, "his testimony." Let us see, then, what the word of the Lord, which was in the beginning with God the Father, spoke to the people in the prophet Zachariah. (Verses 2, 3.) The Lord was very angry with your fathers with wrath, and thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Turn ye to me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn to you, saith the Lord of hosts. Be ye not as your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried, saying. LXX: The Lord was angry with your fathers with great wrath, and thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord almighty: Turn ye to me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn to you, saith the Lord of hosts: and be ye not as your fathers, whom the prophets who were before rebuked, saying.

The wrath of the Lord signifies not the disturbance of him who is angry, but the merits and sins of those against whom the wrath of God rages: otherwise the Lord never takes vengeance in anger; but he chastises for this reason, that he may correct. Whence also the prophet prays in the Psalms: O Lord, rebuke me not in thy fury, neither chastise me in thy wrath. And in another place we read: Chastise us, O Lord: yet not in thy fury, but in mercy. The Lord, therefore, was angry with the fathers of those who are now being chastised—not, as the Seventy interpreters have it, with great wrath, but with wrath simply. For if he had been angry with great wrath, he would never through Daniel and Ezekiel have called the captives to repentance.

And though he was angry with them, the Lord of hosts speaks to you—for which in the Hebrew is placed SABAOTH (צבאות), which the Seventy have translated sometimes as "almighty," sometimes as "of hosts." And he says: Turn ye to me, and I will turn to you, according to that which we read: Draw near to the Lord, and he will draw near to you. To which is contrary this: You have withdrawn from me, and I have withdrawn from you. He commands them, who have returned from Babylon, to return to the Lord, that the Lord too may return to them, lest the sons begin to endure what the fathers once endured, to whom likewise the prophets of that time had spoken.

It should be noted that in the few short verses and brief sentences of Haggai and Zachariah it is always added, saith the Lord of hosts, that they may know it is the Lord who commands, against the empire of the king and the enemies raging round about; and that they may be stirred by this confidence to the building of the temple. (Verse 4.) Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Turn ye from your evil ways, and from your most wicked thoughts: and they did not hearken, nor attend unto me, saith the Lord. LXX: Thus saith the Lord almighty: Turn ye from your most wicked ways, and from your evil devices: and they did not attend to hear me, saith the Lord. The sense depends on what precedes, and what follows must be joined to what went before.

For Zachariah is not speaking to the people; but shows what the former prophets said to their fathers, to which they cried out, saying: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Turn ye from your evil ways and from your most wicked thoughts. This Isaiah cried out, this Hosea, Joel, Amos, and Jeremiah, that they should abandon their evil ways, and forsake their most wicked thoughts, by which they sinned both in deed and in mind: and nonetheless, though the Lord admonished through the prophets, they did not hearken, nor attend—not to the prophets who spoke to them, but to me, saith the Lord: for it was I who was in them speaking, and I who was despised. Whence also the Lord in the Gospel says: He that receiveth you receiveth me. (Verses 5, 6.) Your fathers, where are they, and the prophets? Shall they live forever? Nevertheless my words and my ordinances, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers?

And they turned and said: As the Lord of hosts thought to do to us according to our ways and according to our devices, so hath he done to us. LXX: Your fathers, where are they, and the prophets? Shall they live forever? Nevertheless receive my words, and my ordinances, which I command in my spirit to my servants the prophets, who overtook your fathers: and they answered and said: As the Lord almighty prepared to do to us according to our ways and according to our devices, so hath he done to us. Where, he says, are your fathers, who neither heard nor attended to me? Where are your prophets? For it is to be understood from the common sense: where are your fathers, and where are your prophets?—that is, the false prophets: for he would never say of the holy prophets, shall they live forever?

And so to those who sinned and were unwilling to return to me, and to those who by their false promises deceived while sinning—these having been removed by death—my words, which I spoke through my prophets, endure forever, which overtook your fathers, and showed to be true what I said. Your fathers, confirming by the outcome of events the prophecies of my prophets concerning themselves, turned to repentance and said: As the Lord of hosts foretold that he would do to us, according to our works and sins he has rendered to us. Let us read Daniel, confessing in his own person and that of the people to the Lord, that they were unwilling to hear him, and that whatever they suffered happened to them justly.

Verse 7. On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month Sabat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zachariah, son of Barachiah, son of Addo, the prophet, saying. The Septuagint: The twenty-fourth, in the eleventh month, which is the month Sabat, in the second year under Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zachariah son of Barachiah, son of Addo, the prophet, saying. Some, instead of the eleventh month, put the twelfth; and interpreting the twenty-fourth day of the same month by arithmetical reasoning, they suspect a square, firm, and stable number, wishing that what is written be certain and stable; but let us say that in that same second year of King Darius, in the third month after the first Vision, that is, the eleventh after the eighth, which among the Hebrews is called SABAT (שבט), the word of the Lord again came to Zachariah. We have often taught that this is an unclean number, and pertains to the conjunction of flesh and worldly things, to matter.

But the eleventh month, which is called SABAT, and in our language is rendered "rod," conveys austerity and reproof, according to that saying of the Apostle: What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod? And of the Psalmist saying: Your rod and your staff, they have comforted me. And it falls in the harshest time of winter, which is called Mechir by the Egyptians, Peritios by the Macedonians, and February by the Romans. Also the twenty-fourth day of the month signifies the dark shadow of night made plain, the moon failing into darkness, and the blind and unending horror of night increasing. Whence fittingly, those who were still in captivity, and for the greater part exiled among the Medes and Chaldeans and Assyrians, in the second year and in the eleventh month, in the harshest cold, and on the twenty-fourth day of that same month, behold what follows concerning the Jewish people.

(Verse 8. Seqq.) I saw by night: and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the deep place, and behind him were red horses, speckled and white, and I said: What are these, my lord? And the angel who spoke in me said to me: I will show you what these are. And the man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said: These are they whom the Lord has sent to walk to and fro through the earth. And they answered the angel of the Lord who stood among the myrtle trees, and said: We have walked to and fro through the earth, and behold, all the earth is inhabited and at rest. And the angel of the Lord answered and said: O Lord of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, with which you have been angry? This is the seventieth year. And the Lord answered the angel who spoke in me good words, comforting words.

The Septuagint: I saw by night: and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood between two shadowy mountains, and behind him were red horses, and speckled, and white, and I said: What are these, my lord? And the man who stood among the mountains answered and said to me: These are they whom the Lord has sent to go about the earth. And they answered the angel of the Lord who stood among the mountains, and said: We have gone about all the earth, and behold, all the earth is inhabited and at rest. And the angel of the Lord answered and said: O Lord almighty, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, with which you have been angry? This is the seventieth year. And the Lord answered the angel who spoke in me good words, and comforting speeches.

Let us first discuss the history: I saw, he says, by night: not by day, as Moses, who saw God face to face; and Isaiah, who spoke: I saw the Lord upon a throne, high and lifted up: before the people were led into captivity, before Jerusalem was destroyed and the temple; but while the people were still set amid the evils of servitude, what he sees on their behalf he beholds in darkness. And behold a man riding upon a red horse. The Hebrews think this to be the angel Michael, who is the avenger of the iniquities and sins of Israel.

And as to his standing among the myrtle trees that were in the deep place, they wish the myrtles to be understood as the prophets and the saints, who dwelt in the midst of the captive people, and were in a deep place: and the man, that is, Michael, was followed by red horses, and speckled, and white ones, the order, as they reckon, being changed: so that the white signify the Medes and Persians, because under them the captivity was released and the temple restored; the speckled, the Macedonians, of whom some were friends, others persecutors (the last vision of Daniel [chap. 8] speaks most fully on this); but the red ones, the kingdom of the Romans, bloody and gory, which slew the people and overturned the temple. Others, however, keeping the order as it is written, interpret the man who rode upon the red horse, and the red, speckled, and white horses, as four kingdoms. The first and second, bloody, the Assyrians and the Chaldeans, of whom the former led the ten tribes captive under Salmanasar.

The second, Judah and Benjamin, when the city Jerusalem was burned and the temple overturned. The third and fourth, the speckled and white, they think signify the Medes and Persians: of whom some were merciful, as Cyrus, and Darius the son of Hystaspes, and Ahasuerus, whom the Greeks call Artaxerxes, under whom the history of Esther is fulfilled: others cruel, as Cambyses, and the rest. So then, the prophet, seeing a man riding upon a red horse, and behind him red, speckled, and white horses, and not knowing what he had seen, and desiring to know the meaning of his vision, says: What are these, my lord? The angel who spoke in him promises that he will tell; and while he is silent, the man who stood among the myrtle trees explains. These are the kingdoms which the Lord commanded to walk to and fro through the earth, and to subject it to their power.

Then the angels who presided over kingdoms and nations come to no other, but to that very man and angel of the Lord who stood among the myrtle trees, and say: We have walked to and fro through the earth, and behold, all the earth is inhabited and at rest. And the sense is: All the kingdoms under us are safe and peaceful, nor are any pressed by distress. From which answer the angel, who was interceding on behalf of Israel, takes occasion to plead on behalf of the people, and says to the Lord: Since the whole world is at rest and at peace, why, O Lord, will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, especially since, according to your promises, the time of captivity is fulfilled? And the Lord answered the angel who spoke in the prophet good words, comforting words: good, concerning the promise of things to come; comforting, concerning the necessity of present things.

This according to the letter, lest we seem to hide from our own people what we have learned from the teachers of a foreign tongue. But the teachers of the Churches understand the night in which the vision is beheld as the obscurity of a mystical vision. For God has made darkness his hiding place ([18:11]). And according to the Septuagint translators it is said of him: The deep, as a garment, is his clothing ([104:6]). But the man who rode upon the red horse is the Lord the Savior, who, taking on the dispensation of our flesh, hears in Isaiah: Why are your garments red? He who is now shown red to the captive people, is described in the Apocalypse of John as clothed in white garments, and sitting upon a white horse.

But as to his being said to stand between two shadowy mountains (though in the Hebrew "two" is not found), they understand the New and the Old Testament, which is said to be covered with very dense leaves, and grove, and shadowy woods, because it is wrapped in many obscurities. But the myrtle trees that were in the deep place, among which he is described as standing, they understand as the angelic powers, which ministered to him even when he was placed in the flesh. Or indeed the mountains (that we may remove what is not written, "two"), taken absolutely and without number, we may understand as very many saints and apostles and apostolic men, who are remembered to have traversed the whole world, red, and speckled, and white. Of whom some were crowned with martyrdom, and are called red. Others, by works and doctrine, and by the variety of signs, are termed speckled. Others received the rewards of virginity and of sound doctrines, and of the pure heart which sees God.

Then the prophet questions that same man and angel who stood among the myrtle trees, and says: Who are these, my lord? And the angel who spoke in him, namely the prophetic sense, promises that he will show what is seen. And when he had promised, it is not he who answers, but another who stood among the myrtle trees, and says: These are they whom the Lord sent to walk to and fro through the earth. For the apostles were sent by the Lord, to fill the whole world with the preaching of the Gospel, who, after they had completed the work, returned to the angel of great counsel who stood among them, who spoke with the Apostle: We are the good odor of Christ in those who are being saved, and in those who are perishing, and among the peoples of both callings.

And they said to him: We have walked to and fro through the earth, we have fulfilled the work enjoined upon us, and behold, all the earth is inhabited and at rest, which before was deserted by God: now it is his habitation, it rests from wars, from the battles of vices and from sins: because it has received the inheritance of the Lord returning to the Father, and saying: My peace I give you, my peace I leave with you. But as to the fact that full mercy is asked, that with the seventieth year approaching God may have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, they refer this to that understanding: that as long as true peace comes, and the sabbath-rest, and the number of seven decades, that is, the seventieth year, is fulfilled, neither does Jerusalem, which is interpreted "vision of peace," and is the Church, receive full liberty, nor the cities of Judah, the souls that confess the Lord.

Then the Lord promises good words, comforting words: which now in part we see, and in part we prophesy. But when that which is perfect shall come, the things which are in part shall be destroyed: and freed from the Babylon of this age, we shall cry out: When the Lord turned back the captivity of Sion, we became like those who are comforted. (Verses 14 and following.) And the angel who spoke in me said to me: Cry out, saying: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: I have been jealous for Jerusalem and Sion with a great jealousy, and I am angered with great anger against the wealthy nations: for I was angry but a little, but they helped forward the evil. Therefore thus saith the Lord: I will return to Jerusalem in mercies: and my house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts: and a measuring line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem.

The Septuagint: And the angel who spoke in me said to me: Cry out, saying: Thus saith the Lord Almighty: I have been jealous for Jerusalem and Sion with a great jealousy, and I am angered with great anger against the nations that are set upon her: because whereas I indeed was angry a little, they laid on evils excessively. Therefore thus saith the Lord: I will turn again to Jerusalem in mercy, and my house shall be restored in it, saith the Lord Almighty: and a measure shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. These, still, are good words, and words of consolation, which the prophet is now commanded to cry out: that the Lord has been jealous for Jerusalem and Sion with a great jealousy. Now he who is jealous shows that he loves the one for whom he is jealous—by no means saying, as through Jeremiah: As a woman despises her husband, so has the house of Israel despised me.

To whom the Lord spoke through Ezekiel: Being angry, I will no longer be angry with thee, and my jealousy has departed from thee. He therefore who has been jealous for Jerusalem and Sion (for it is one and the same city) is now angry against the wealthy nations, whom above he named the red, white, and speckled horses: because he himself had delivered them over for correction, but they raged savagely against those delivered to them; he wished, as a father wishes a son to be corrected by a tutor; they strove, as an enemy, to slay and punish. Like to this is that saying in Isaiah: I gave them into thy hands: but thou hast shown them no mercy. Thou hast made the yoke very heavy upon the old man, and hast said, I shall be a mistress forever. Now jealousy is here understood ἀνθρωποπαθῶς [in a human manner], as is anger.

From this passage the heretics are refuted, who disparage the Old Testament, on the ground that God, being angry, desires not to destroy those against whom he is angry, but to correct them. Because therefore, he says, I have been jealous for Jerusalem, and for Sion with a great jealousy, whom the adversaries have oppressed more than I had wished: therefore thus saith the Lord: I will return, not with one mercy, but with many mercies, to Jerusalem, and my house, that is, the temple, shall be built in it under Zorobabel and Jesus the son of Josedec: and the measuring line of the masons shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. It is possible to understand Jerusalem and Sion, “the vision of peace” and “the watchtower,” which contemplates not the wars of this age, nor lowly and earthly things, but peace and concord, and the heights of the heavens, as the Church.

To whom, because of vices and sins, and charity growing daily cold, the Lord, being angry, delivers her over to persecutions, so that, as in a furnace, the gold and silver of the world may appear. But the adversaries, to whom she has been delivered, striving to destroy her, fill Jerusalem with the blood of the slain from gate to gate. Whence the Lord, promising peace and mercy, says again that he will build her. And that the measuring line, or cord, is to be stretched over her according to the measures and orders of each individual thing in her. But what the cord is, is shown in the following chapter, where the prophet says: I lifted up mine eyes, and saw: and behold, a man, and in his hand a measuring line. The temple of God, moreover, which the adversaries destroyed, can also be understood as the Lord's venerable body, of which he himself said: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

Which, destroyed in the passion, was raised up in the resurrection, and was the seed-plot and beginning of all temples, of which the Apostle also speaks: You are the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit dwells in you. (Verse 17.) Cry yet again, saying: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: My cities shall yet overflow with good things; and the Lord shall yet comfort Sion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem. The Septuagint: And the angel who spoke in me said to me: Cry yet again, saying: Thus saith the Lord Almighty: My cities shall yet overflow with good things; and the Lord shall yet comfort Sion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem. The words "who spoke in me," while present in our manuscripts, are not found in the Complutensian and Aldine Greek copies.

The angel who above had said to the prophet, "Cry out: Thus saith the Lord of hosts," now again urges him to cry out—not with an intensity of voice, but of mind: and this is what he commands to be cried: My cities, which now you see laid waste by the Babylonian fire, shall yet overflow with good things; again they shall abound with all things, and the Lord will console past misery with present goods, and will choose Jerusalem, which shortly before he had cast off. But if we refer this to the Church, to whom he promises true and everlasting good things, those good things are to be believed of which we read it written: Mayest thou see the good things of Jerusalem. And in another place: If you be willing, and will hearken to me, you shall eat the good things of the land. And this: Thou shalt trust in the Lord, and he shall lift thee up above the good things of the earth.

Which the wise man, to whom the Lord had revealed the uncertain and hidden things of his wisdom, promises to himself in the hope of things to come, and says: I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living. With these good things, after the fires of most savage persecution, which the churches of the Lord endured both from the pagans and from the Arian heretics, peace being restored, we see the Lord's churches overflowing, and Sion comforted, and Jerusalem chosen, which had before been cast off. This same thing we can also understand concerning the temple of the Lord, and concerning each one of the believers. Some refer "Sion comforted" and "Jerusalem chosen," and the other things which are foretold in this manner by all the prophets, to the heavenly Jerusalem, which, destroyed by ruin, is to be built up again through virtues. All of which we shall more rightly interpret concerning the Church. (Verses 18, 19.) And I lifted up my eyes and saw: and behold, four horns.

And I said to the angel who spoke in me: What are these? And he said to me: These are the horns that have scattered Judah and Israel and Jerusalem. And the Lord showed me four craftsmen. And I said: What come these to do? And he spoke, saying: These are the horns which scattered Judah, man by man, and none of them lifted up his head: and these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations, that have lifted up the horn upon the land of Judah, to scatter it. The Septuagint: And I lifted up my eyes and saw: and behold, four horns. And I said to the angel who spoke in me: What are these, Lord? And he said to me: These are the horns which have scattered Judah, and Israel, and Jerusalem. And he said: These are the horns which scattered Judah, and broke Israel in pieces: and none of them lifted up his head: and these have gone forth to sharpen them in their hands.

The four horns are the nations that have lifted up the horn upon the land of the Lord, to scatter it. That the four horns which scattered and dispersed Judah, and Israel, and Jerusalem, are four nations—the Babylonians, the Medes and Persians, the Macedonians, and the Romans—the Lord, being now asked by the prophet, explains, and Daniel repeats most fully. Who, in the vision of the image which had a head of gold, and a breast of silver, and a belly of brass, and legs and feet of iron and clay, interpreted these as the four nations. And again, in another vision, of the four beasts—a lioness, and a bear, and a leopard, and another dreadful beast whose name he did not give—he showed the same nations under another figure. That the Medes and Persians were one kingdom after the victory of Cyrus, no one doubts who has read either the secular or the sacred writings.

And most rightly has he put horns for kingdoms, since sacred Scripture has this custom, that it always interprets kingdoms as horns, as in that saying: And he has exalted the horn of his Christ. And in another place: And he has raised up a horn of salvation for us, in the house of David his servant. And that ten horns are to reign at the last, the same prophet Daniel testifies. At the time, therefore, when this vision was seen, the kingdom of the Babylonians had already passed away, that of the Persians and Medes was at hand, and that of the Greeks and Macedonians, and of the Romans, was yet to come. What the Babylonians, what the Medes and Persians, what the Greeks, that is, the Macedonians, did to Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem, a learned man knows, especially under Antiochus, surnamed Ἐπιφανής [Epiphanes], under whom the history of the Machabees is woven.

After the coming, too, of the Lord the Savior, what the Israelites suffered when Jerusalem was surrounded, both the Gospel foretells beforehand, and Josephus, the native writer of Jewish history, teaches most fully. These horns scattered and dispersed Judah, man by man almost, so that not one of them, weighed down by the heavy burden of evils, could lift up his head. The four craftsmen also, or artificers, whom the Greeks call τέκτονας, the prophet does not himself behold, but the Lord shows them to him, and explains who the craftsmen and artificers are, whom we understand to be angels obedient to the Lord's power, so that what the nations destroyed, these might build up.

Now what we have translated from the Hebrew as "these have come to wear them down"—the kingdoms, that is—the Septuagint translated as: "These have come to sharpen them in their hands." "To sharpen them," however, is to be taken as equivalent to "to wear them down." Or certainly, "to wear down," so that they may make all necks submit under the yoke of Christ, and not—as someone has interpreted—that when sharpened they might become worse. For if the angels come for this, that they might make the wicked worse, they are not to be called craftsmen, that is, destroyers of evils and builders of good things; but they themselves would have to be reckoned among the evils and the destroyers.

And this must be noted, that these four horns of the nations lifted up one horn against the people of God; for they did not reign at the same time, nor did they oppress Israel simultaneously, but succeeded one another—after the Babylonians, the Medes and Persians; after the kingdom of the Persians, the kingdom of the Macedonians; after the kingdom of the Macedonians, the empire of the Romans. These things we have said following the order of history. But that the prophet says he lifted up his eyes is to be fitted to that spiritual sense: I have lifted up mine eyes unto the mountains, from whence shall come my help. And: Lift up your eyes, and see the regions, for they are already white for the harvest. And what we read in Isaiah: The Holy One said, Lift up your eyes, and see who has shown all these things?

There is need, then, of a lifting up of the eyes and of spiritual understanding, that we may see the hostile powers which have lifted up their horn against us; concerning whom the Apostle speaks: We wrestle not against flesh and blood: but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. These four adversaries, who have always fought against the Saints, Christ, at his coming, has crushed. And concerning these the Psalmist doubles his saying: Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and thou shalt trample under foot the lion and the dragon. We may also take the four horns which reigned against the people of God as the four πάθη [passions], which the learned, not rendering word for word κακοζήλως [with awkward literalism], interpret not as "passions" but as "perturbations"—grief of mind and joy: two present, and two future—fear and desire, concerning which the illustrious poet also indicates (Aeneid 6):

Hence they fear, and desire, and grieve, and rejoice.

Against these, four craftsmen, and (so to speak) physicians, good artificers, are not seen by the prophet, for he could not yet, without God's showing, see them of himself, but they are shown to him by the Lord—namely, the four virtues, prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, concerning which Tully [Cicero] discusses most fully in the books of the Offices, writing also a separate book on the four virtues. Those, therefore, who destroy vices and build up virtues, and all the saints who, possessing these remedies, ever restore the Church, are to be called craftsmen. Whence also the Apostle said: As a wise architect, I have laid the foundation. And the Lord, angry with Jerusalem, says he will take away from her the architect and the wise man. And the Lord himself, the Son of God Almighty and Creator of all things, is called the carpenter's son.

I have read in a certain man's Commentaries that the four craftsmen are to be understood as the four Evangelists, who restore the oppressed Israel—that is, the mind that sees God—and Judah, confessing the Lord, and Jerusalem, the vision of peace, to their former seat, and who, through the preaching of the Gospel, drew back to salvation those whom the vices of the nations had scattered from the Church.

(Verses 1, 2.) And I lifted up my eyes, and saw: and behold a man, and in his hand a measuring line. And I said: Whither goest thou? And he said to me, that I may measure Jerusalem, and see how great is its breadth, and how great its length. LXX: And I lifted up my eyes, and saw: and behold a man, and in his hand a geometer's line, and I said to him: Whither goest thou?

He who before, with eyes lifted up, had seen sad things among the four horns, now again lifts up his eyes, to see the man of whom it is written: Behold the man, the Orient is his name; of whom also we read above: And behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees which were in the deep, or, among the shady mountains: and of whom the Father speaks: This man built my city, whose maker and founder is God. He is also seen by Ezekiel, having a line in his hand, and a reed for the measure of a man's cubit, that he might measure Jerusalem, whose description, that is, breadth and length, the same prophet pursues in mystical discourse. Some think this was in part fulfilled under Zorobabel, and Jesus, and Esdras, and Nehemiah, and the other leaders or kings, who ruled the people of Israel up to the coming of the Lord the Saviour.

Others, however, and especially the Jews, interpret it of the thousand years' reign, seeking carnal things in a carnal manner. But very many of our own interpreters refer it to the heavenly Jerusalem, and say that it is to be built again, which had been abandoned through the ruin of sinning souls. Let heretics suspect this. But let us interpret Mount Sion, and the mother of the firstborn and of the saints, as the Church, which was built in the passion and resurrection of the Lord, and is daily built by him who knows the measures and the merits of each.

What we have said of the Church can also be understood of the souls of believers, which are daily built by the Lord, and behold his peace which was left to the apostles. (Verses 4 ff.) And behold the angel that spoke in me went forth; and another angel went out to meet him, and said to him: Run, speak to this young man, saying: Jerusalem shall be inhabited without walls, by reason of the multitude of men and cattle in the midst thereof. And I will be to it, saith the Lord, a wall of fire round about, and I will be in glory in the midst of it. LXX: And behold the angel that spoke in me was standing, and another angel went out to meet him, and said to him, saying: Run and speak to that young man, saying: Jerusalem shall be inhabited fruitfully by reason of the multitude of men and cattle in the midst thereof.

And I will be to it, saith the Lord, a wall of fire round about, and I will be for glory in the midst of it. The angel who spoke in the prophet, and stood, or as it is read in the Hebrew, went forth (for this is what JASA (יצא) signifies), the Hebrews think is Michael. And the other angel who went forth and came to meet him, they suppose to be Gabriel, who speaks to Michael, that he may tell the prophet how great an abundance of all things, and multitude of men, and of cattle, and firmness of walls, Jerusalem is to have, which at the present time seems to be destroyed even to ash and cinders.

But let us, according to the spiritual sense, interpret all these things of the Church, which shall be inhabited without a wall, or as the Seventy translated, κατάκαρπος, that is, in abundance of all fruits, and shall have a multitude of men and of cattle, and the Lord shall be a fire round about it, and he himself shall dwell in the midst of it in glory. This is the city of which we read elsewhere: Glorious things are said of thee, O city of God. And again: Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in his holy mountain. Whoever dwells in this city can say: But I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God. And: The Lord ruleth me, and I shall want nothing: he hath set me in a place of pasture. He hath brought me up beside the waters of refreshment. And Jerusalem, it says, shall be inhabited by reason of the multitude of men and cattle without a wall, or in abundance of all fruits.

Some interpret men and cattle as the two peoples, of the Jews and of the Gentiles, because those who, having lived in the Law, came to the faith of Christ, are called men: but we, who after idolatry were as it were in the desert of the Law and in the solitude of the prophets, and received his passion, ought to be called cattle. Others, however, wish men to be understood as all who are reasonable and learned in the knowledge of the Scriptures: but cattle, all the simple among believers, and of these it is said: Men and beasts thou wilt save (or, thou shalt save), O Lord.

These cattle, and these living creatures, hear the voice of the good shepherd, and know him, and follow him: who is himself both the shepherd, because he rules us; and the door, because through him we enter into the Church, and to the Father; and the wall of fire round about, that it may warm those believing and dwelling in the midst, who before had grown lukewarm through the cold of charity, and that they may be fervent in spirit. But the wolves and most savage beasts (of whom it is written: Deliver not up to the beasts the soul that confesseth thee: and whose fruit is hay, wood, stubble: and who bring thorns and briars) let his fire consume; and let him who is a fire to adversaries, be a glory in the midst of believers. That the Lord is the wall of Jerusalem, we also read in another place: The mountains are round about it, and the Lord is round about his people.

All these things the Jews, under the ἠλειμμένῳ (anointed one) whom they promise themselves with most vain hope, think are to come carnally, namely, that Jerusalem is to have so great a blessedness, that by reason of the multitude of men and of all cattle it cannot have a wall; but that the wall shall be the defense of the Lord himself, and that it shall enjoy the glory of him dwelling in the midst of it. (Verse 6. Seqq.) O O flee from the land of the North, saith the Lord: for I have scattered you into the four winds of heaven, saith the Lord. O Sion, arise, thou that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. For thus saith the Lord of hosts: After glory he sent me to the nations that have spoiled you: for he that toucheth you, toucheth the pupil of his eye. For behold I lift up my hand over them, and they shall be a prey to those who served them, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me.

The Seventy: O O flee from the land of the North, saith the Lord, for out of the four winds of heaven will I gather you, saith the Lord. In Sion be ye saved, ye that dwell with the daughter of Babylon. For thus saith the Lord Almighty: After glory he sent me to the nations that have spoiled you: for he that hath touched you, is as one who toucheth the pupil of his eye: Behold I bring my hand upon them, and they shall be a prey to those who served them, and you shall know that the Lord Almighty sent me. The regions of the world, which the Greeks call κλίματα (climates), are understood according to the position of Jerusalem and of the temple. The Assyrians therefore and the Babylonians, who laid waste the people of God, dwell in the land of the North. Accordingly in Jeremiah, the cauldron which, according to Ezechiel, is full of flesh (and by which the city of Jerusalem is understood), is kindled from the face of the North.

Since therefore the angel had commanded—he who had met the angel prophesying in Zachariah—that he should speak to the boy (for in comparison with angelic dignity, all human nature is called childhood, because it is not the angels who advance toward us, but we who advance toward the angels), and should say to him: Jerusalem shall dwell without a wall, and so forth. Now the same word of the Lord is directed to those who dwell in the North: that they may be gathered from the four winds into which they had been scattered throughout the whole world, and that those who dwelt in Babylon may return to Sion. Or else thus: You who have been scattered into the four regions of heaven, flee from the land of the North; and, O Sion, thou who now dwellest in Babylon, flee and return to thy former seat.

But the fact that "O" is said three times, in the vocative case, is an exhortation to flight, so that they may know themselves to have been admonished to flee not once but repeatedly. It may also be explained otherwise: the North wind is the harshest wind, which makes the hearts of its inhabitants harshest, and from which evils are kindled upon all who dwell in the land, and toward which, according to this same prophet Zachariah, black horses go forth, that they may take their stand in their own region. He too who in Isaiah boastfully said: I will ascend into heaven, I will set my throne above the stars of heaven, I will sit upon the lofty mount, above the high mountains in the North, boasts that he holds his kingdom in the coldest place of the earth. We read elsewhere: Behold, smoke cometh from the North: and of those who had gone far from the holy city it is said: Behold, these come from far, from the North and from the sea.

And through Jeremiah the Holy Spirit speaks, calling those who are in captivity to return to Jerusalem: Go and read these my words toward the North, and thou shalt say: Return to me, O habitation of Israel, saith the Lord. It is commanded therefore to us who have dwelt in the North, and have lost the warmth of the Lord's fervor, who are scattered throughout the world, and of whom the Gospel proclaims that the Lord sends his angels to the four winds, and gathers us—we who are engaged in the vices and confusion of this age—that we should flee to Sion, the Church of the Lord, and, leaving behind low things, take our stand upon her watchtower and the loftiness of her doctrines.

As for what follows: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, after glory he hath sent me, and so on, the voice of the Saviour speaking is introduced, who, though he is the omnipotent God, says that he was sent by the omnipotent Father, not according to that in which he is omnipotent, but according to that in which he was sent after glory. Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and became obedient to the Father even unto death, and the death of the cross. Nor is it strange that Christ should be called omnipotent, since we read from his own person in the Apocalypse of John: Thus saith the faithful witness, the beginning of the creation of God, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Lord God Almighty.

Likewise that which we read in the twenty-third psalm: Lift up your gates, O princes, and be ye lifted up, O everlasting gates, and the King of glory shall enter in; and again it is said by other angels who do not know the mystery of the flesh assumed: Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory—this is referred to Christ. For where we read "Lord of hosts," in the Hebrew it is written SABAOTH (צבאות), which the Seventy interpreters translate as "Almighty." From this we understand that wherever "Lord of hosts" is said of Christ, he must be understood as Almighty. Nor is it strange if Christ is called Almighty, to whom all power in heaven and on earth has been given. And he who says: All things that are the Father's are mine. But if all things—that is, God from God, Lord from Lord, light from light—then also Almighty from the Almighty: for it cannot be that those who share one nature should have different glory.

He was therefore sent, after the glory of the divine majesty, to the nations who had despoiled the people of God, so that those who had before been their plunderers might become the prey of those who serve them, and that the whole multitude of those once in servitude might know that the Almighty God had sent him. As for what he says: He who toucheth you toucheth the pupil of his eye—understand "touch" as meaning vexation and injury, according to that which we read: Touch not my anointed ones, and do no evil to my prophets. For whoever touches the saints of the Lord acts as though he wished to vex the pupil of his eye, and strives to deprive him of that clear light of which he speaks in the Gospel: You are the light of the world. Now God lifts up his hand, that he may strike the adversarial nations, and bring back his people either to Jerusalem or to the Church.

Understand the "adversarial nations," according to the tropological sense, as the hostile powers, which daily subject sinners to their dominion, and compel them to serve themselves. (Verse 10. Seqq.) Sing praise and rejoice, O daughter of Sion, for behold, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall be to me a people, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me to thee. And the Lord shall possess Judah, his portion, in the sanctified land, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.

The Seventy: Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Sion, for behold, I will come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord: and many nations shall take refuge with the Lord in that day, and shall be to him a people, and shall dwell in the midst of thee: and thou shalt know that the Lord Almighty hath sent me to thee, and the Lord shall possess Judah, his portion, in the holy land, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.

And this too is to be understood from the person of the Lord: that he exhorts his people, restored from captivity to their former seat, to rejoice and be glad, because the Lord himself is coming, and will dwell in their midst, and many nations are going to believe in him, of whom it is said: Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thy inheritance, and the ends of the earth for thy possession; and that he dwells in the midst of them, speaking to the disciples: Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world. And let the Lord possess Judah, his portion, confessing and believing in his name, and let him possess it nowhere else than in the holy land, which is interpreted as the Church, and let him yet choose Jerusalem, which he had abandoned to trial in persecutions.

Some of the Jews think that this was fulfilled in part under Zorobabel and Jesus, Esdras and Nehemiah, especially since Jerusalem is chosen and Judah is possessed: namely, the two tribes which returned from the Babylonian captivity, and were called Judah, and not Israel, who to this day remain among the Medes. Others, however, defer this to the future, holding that the nations will believe then in him who is sent by the Lord, and that Jerusalem is to be chosen then, when indeed all nations shall already have believed in the Lord the Saviour, nor can that which has been utterly destroyed be chosen. Rightly, however, after the captivity the daughter of Sion is called to rejoicing, of whom it is also said in the Psalm: When the Lord shall turn away the captivity of his people, Jacob shall exult, and Israel shall rejoice. Verse 13. Let all flesh be silent before the face of the Lord, for he hath risen up out of his holy habitation.

The Seventy: Let all flesh fear before the face of the Lord, for he hath risen up out of his holy clouds. Since these things are so, and the Lord is about to possess Judah, his portion, and to choose Jerusalem, let the whole race of men dread the coming of the Lord, because he hath risen up out of his holy habitation. Now the Lord is said to rise up, and as it were to awaken from sleep, when he arises for the vengeance of his people, according to what is written: Arise, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Or, according to the Seventy, who said "he hath risen up out of his holy clouds," understand the patriarchs, the prophets, and the apostles, to whom the Lord commanded that they should not rain a shower upon Israel. These are the clouds, of which it is written: And let the clouds rain down justice; for surely those corporeal clouds, in which the denser air is condensed, cannot rain down justice.

In these and with these clouds the Lord says in the Gospel that he will come. And we read in Isaiah, that the Lord came into Egypt in a light cloud. Egypt is understood as the world, into which the Lord is remembered to have descended in the flesh, which, brought forth from the virginal womb, was burdened by no weight of human seed and of sins. But that "all flesh" is not to be understood absolutely of men, and beasts, and birds, and fishes, but is to be taken specially of men, that Scripture indicates: Hear my prayer, unto thee all flesh shall come. For surely it is not that all flesh of irrational animals is going to come to the Lord; but that flesh which is going to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and of which it is said: I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.

(Verses 1 and following.) And he showed me Jesus the great priest standing before the angel of the Lord: and Satan stood at his right hand, that he might be his adversary. And the Lord said to Satan: The Lord rebuke thee, Satan, and the Lord rebuke thee, who hath chosen Jerusalem. Is not this a firebrand plucked out of the fire? And Jesus was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the face of the angel, who answered, and said to them that stood before him, saying: Take away the filthy garments from him. And he said unto him: Behold, I have taken away thy iniquity from thee, and I have clothed thee with changes of raiment. And he said: Set a clean mitre upon his head; and they set a clean mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments. The Septuagint: And the Lord showed me Jesus the great priest, standing before the face of the angel of the Lord, and the devil stood at his right hand, that he might be his adversary.

And the Lord said to the devil: The Lord rebuke thee, devil, and the Lord rebuke thee, who hath chosen Jerusalem. Is not this as a firebrand plucked out of the fire? And Jesus was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the face of the angel, and he answered, and said to those standing before his face, saying: Take away the filthy garments from him. And he said to him: Behold, I have taken away thine iniquities from thee; and clothe him with the ankle-length robe, and set a clean mitre upon his head; and they set a clean mitre upon his head, and clothed him round about with garments. Before we come to the spiritual understanding, it must be said briefly and succinctly how the Hebrews expound this passage. They wish Jesus the great priest, whom the Greeks call ἀρχιερέα, and the Latins pontifex, to be understood as the son of Josedec, who together with Zerubbabel presided over the people. At his right hand stood the adversary (for this is what Satan means), that he might oppose him.

And rightly did he stand at his right hand, not at his left, because the accusation was true, since he himself, along with the others, had taken a foreign wife, a matter most fully written in Esdras and in Malachi, who follows this prophet (alachi ii). And the Lord said to Satan, to the accuser and his adversary—for he is indeed the enemy, and the avenger, and the accuser of his brethren: The Lord rebuke thee, Satan: as it were, the Lord rained down from the Lord: and the Lord rebuke thee who hath chosen Jerusalem. Since, then, of all the cities of Judah, Jerusalem is now the chosen one, the Lord not imputing to her the sins she has committed, why dost thou strive to overwhelm Jesus, as though he were a firebrand—which is commonly called a brand—who escaped, as it were half-burnt, from the Babylonian captivity?

As for what follows: Jesus was clothed with filthy garments, this is interpreted in three ways—either on account of the unlawful marriage, or on account of the sins of the people, or on account of the squalor of the captivity. Now the angel, before whose face Jesus stood, commanded the other angels, in the person of the Lord, to take away from him the filthy garments of which we have spoken above. And when they had carried out the command in deed, the same angel again spoke to Jesus: Behold, I have taken away thine iniquity from thee: these are the filthy garments; and I have clothed thee with changes of raiment—that is, I have joined to thee an Israelite wife—for which the Seventy translated ποδήρη, which we may call the ankle-length tunic, because it flows down to the ankles and feet.

And what follows: Set a clean mitre upon his head—for “mitre” we read in the Hebrew SANIPH (צניף), which many call a turban, and in this they wish the dignity of the priesthood to be understood, in that, the filth of sins having been taken away, he had a clean priesthood. These are the views of the Jews. But our own writers expound it thus: that he is the great priest to whom it is said: Thou art a priest forever, according to the order of Melchisedech. And since he cannot be seen in himself, he is shown to the prophet by the Lord as standing before the angel of the Lord—whom they wish to be understood as the angel of great counsel; not that there is one and then another, nor that we admit two persons in the Son, but that the same and one is shown both as a man defiled, and is said to appear as an angel, mediator between men and God.

That Jesus is not the son of Josedec, they try to show from the fact that in this present passage “son of Josedec” is not added, whereas in other places, where it truly speaks of Jesus the son of Josedec, he is always designated by his father’s surname. Jesus, then, is seen standing, and standing firm with steady step: and Satan stood at his right hand, that he might oppose him. For he was tempted in every way, without sin. And in the Gospel the tempter approaches him, always seeking to oppose his right hand and his powers.

And as for what follows: The Lord rebuke thee, Satan, and the Lord rebuke thee who hath chosen Jerusalem—thus they expound it: that the Father and the Son are Lord, and in the hundred and ninth psalm we read: The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand: the Lord speaks of another Lord, not because the Lord who speaks cannot himself rebuke, but because, from the unity of nature, when the one rebukes, he who speaks himself also rebukes. For he who sees the Son, sees also the Father: and this is he who chose Jerusalem, the Church which contemplates the peace of the Lord. Now the firebrand plucked out of the fire may most rightly be understood as him who, though he was in Babylon, was not consumed by the Babylonian fire, nor touched by the flame of this world. Whence also Moses in the wilderness beholds a great vision, in which the bush burned and was not consumed.

This Jesus was clothed with filthy garments; who, though he had done no sin, was made sin for us, and himself bears our infirmities, and grieves for us, and we esteemed him to be in sorrow, and in affliction, and in anguish. But he was wounded for our sins. And in the Apostle we read: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us. This one speaks in the twenty-first psalm: Far from my salvation are the words of my sins. And in the sixty-eighth psalm: God, thou knowest my foolishness, and my offenses are not hidden from thee. All these are called filthy garments, and they shall be taken away from him when he has blotted out our sins, so that, because he was clothed with filthy garments, we, rising again in him, may hear after baptism: Let thy garments always be white: and the whole Church of believers hears through Isaiah: Wash yourselves, be clean.

And of her it is prophesied in the Song of Songs: Who is this that goeth up made white? Take the ποδήρη as his incarnation, which is of the earth, and is signified in the feet. The clean mitre upon his head, understand as the splendor of the divine majesty, so that the same and one may be seen adorned, according to man, with the ποδήρη, and according to God, with the mitre. (Verses 6, 7.) And the angel of the Lord stood, and the angel of the Lord testified to Jesus, saying: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: If thou wilt walk in my ways, and keep my charge, thou also shalt judge my house, and shalt keep my courts, and I will give thee some of those who now stand here to walk with thee.

The Septuagint: And the angel of the Lord stood: and the angel of the Lord testified to Jesus, saying: Thus saith the Lord almighty: If thou wilt walk in my ways, and keep my precepts, thou also shalt judge my house; and if thou keep my court, I will give thee some to walk in the midst of these who stand here.

The Hebrews, following the order of the interpretation they have begun, understand these words as spoken by the angel of the Lord to Jesus the son of Josedec: that after the removal of the filthy garments, and the restoration of the dignity of a clean priesthood, he is commanded—according to that which is written in the Gospel: Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing befall thee—and a reward is promised him, if he shall walk in the ways of the Lord, and keep his precepts, namely that he himself be judge of his house, that is, that he remain as pontiff in the temple, and keep its courts and its vestibules, and that the Lord give him from the number of the angels (who at that time stood before his presence) some by whose aid he might be surrounded, and be secure from every deceit of his enemies.

According to our own writers, who refer all these things to the Lord Savior, this seems to be difficult, that it is said to Jesus by the angel: If he shall walk in the ways of the Lord, and keep his precepts, he himself also shall judge his house, and keep its courts, and the Lord will give him some of those who stand by to walk with him. This is easily resolved, if we consider him who deigned to take the form of a servant. And though he was rich, he became poor for our sakes. Whatever, then, is said of the members, is referred to the body: our advancement is the Lord’s victory. And when we shall have come to be a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, he shall judge the house of God, according to what the Apostle said: But Christ as a son over his own house, whose house we are.

And to Timothy: If I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And not only shall he judge his house; but he shall keep the courts of the Lord, of which it is written: Worship the Lord in his holy court. Moreover, he shall judge, or rather adjudicate concerning, his lord’s house, and according to the merits of each, giving to one ten cities, and to another five, and appointing some in the Church as prophets, and others as apostles, others as teachers, others as workers of miracles, having some as eyes, others as hands, others as feet, according to that which we read: God stood in the congregation of the gods, in the midst he judgeth the gods. He also gave him ministers from the number of the angels, who, though established in the flesh, are like the angels, and of whom the Apostle spoke: Our citizenship is in heaven.

For if the angels neither marry nor are given in marriage, and those who persevere in virginal continence are like the angels, why should we not think the apostles and all the saints given to Jesus to be of angelic dignity, standing by him in the Church, and never having wavering feet, but standing with the Lord who stands? (Verses 8, 9.) Hear, O Jesus, great priest, thou and thy friends that dwell before thee, for they are men portending things to come. For behold, I will bring forth my servant the Orient; for behold the stone which I have given before Jesus, upon one stone are seven eyes. The Septuagint: Hear then, O Jesus, great priest, and thy neighbors who sit before thy face, for they are men τερατοσκόποι, that is, watchers of portents, for behold I will bring forth my servant the Orient, for the stone which I have given before the face of Jesus, upon one stone are seven eyes.

Our own writers are here hard pressed by the Jews, in that, according to the coherence and sequence of the text, they should rather understand Jesus the priest, son of Josedec, than the Lord Savior. For if the word is addressed to the Lord, and it is said to Christ: Hear, O Jesus, great priest: who then is he of whom it is added: Behold, I will bring forth my servant the Orient, who is called by another name the stone, and was given before us because of our iniquities, and was made weak because of our sins Jesus, and upon this stone are seven eyes? On the other hand our writers strive to assert that Jesus the high priest, and the Orient, and the stone, according to different understandings, are called Christ. But how this can be said of him as though of another is most difficult to explain.

Those, then, who wish Jesus to be the son of Josedec the high priest, interpret his friends who dwell, or sit before him, and the men who are portents, as his disciples and the prophets. For prophets are set as a sign of things to come. What then is it that Jesus and his friends are made to hear: I will bring my servant the Orient, and the rest? Above God had promised to Jesus the son of Josedec the high priest, that if he had walked in his ways and kept his commandments, he himself would judge his house and keep his courts, and would give him ministers of angelic dignity: now he says to him and to his friends that full happiness and perfect blessedness would then come, when the Orient should come, of whom it is written: Behold a man, the Orient is his name. And in Malachi: There shall arise to you who fear my name the sun of justice, and health in his wings.

And in Numbers: There shall arise a star out of Jacob, and a man out of Israel. In the Gospel too we read most plainly of Christ: In which the Orient from on high shall visit us: To give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, to direct our feet into the way of peace. This Orient is himself called also the corner stone, because he joins both peoples, and unites the two walls into one house: to unbelievers he is a stone of stumbling, of whom it is also said in the Psalms: The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing.

Upon this stone are seven eyes, of which Isaiah speaks: There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root, and the spirit of God shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and godliness, and he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of God. Those who wish the high priest and his friends to be understood as the Lord Savior, and his disciples to be understood as men who are τερατοσκόπους (portent-observers) and portending, take it thus, referring it to the apostles (or disciples), who perceived his mystical signs, and from present things knew things to come, while in him who was blind from birth they interpret the eyes restored as signifying the people of the nations, and in the woman with the flow of blood they explain the Church as freed from the works of blood.

But that which follows: for behold the stone which I have set before Jesus, lovers of the historical sense so understand of Christ, that they say Christ was to come after Jesus the son of Josedec. For this, to be before Jesus, that is, in his sight and before his face, signifies things to come, and he is called a stone for strength and firmness, by which he shall crush all kingdoms, whom we also read of in Daniel as cut from the mountain without hands. Verse 10. Behold I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will take away the iniquity of that land in one day. In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, every man shall call his friend under the vine and under the fig tree. The LXX: Behold I will dig a pit, saith the Lord Almighty, and I will handle all the iniquity of that land in one day.

In that day, saith the Lord Almighty, every man shall call his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree. Above he had said: behold the stone which I have set before Jesus, upon one stone are seven eyes. Now consequently he keeps the metaphor from the stone, and says: I will engrave the graving thereof; or I will carve the carving of it. For what is written in Hebrew Maphate phethee (מפתח פתחה), Aquila interpreted διαγλύψω ἄνοιγμα αὐτῆς, that is, I will carve the opening of it: Theodotion and Symmachus, I will carve the carving of it. And the sense is: I will cause this stone to be wounded by the nail of the cross and the soldier's lance, and in his passion I will take away the iniquity of the land in one day, of which it is written: This is the day which the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

In that day of Christ's passion, the man who is perfect in Christ, and who with the apostles has ascended to the height of the Lord's benevolence, shall call his neighbor, either those believing from among the Jews, or certainly the people of the Gentiles, under the vine which is called Sorec, and of which he says in the Gospel: I am the vine, and whose fruit rejoices the heart of man: and under the fig tree, the sweetest fruits of the Holy Spirit, that they may rest in eternal peace, and, sedition of the world and the blood of warriors having been suppressed, may know themselves to be under a king, whose name in Solomon mystically is peace. Concerning this same sitting under the vine and under the fig tree, the prophet Micah also records, saying: In that day every man shall call his neighbor, and his brother, under the fig tree, and his own vine, and there shall be none to affright.

But as for what is written according to the Septuagint: Behold I will dig a pit, we can understand pit or trench as meaning the sculpture of the stone: for whatever is carved is also dug. Yet if anyone should more contentiously refuse to refer this to the stone, but wish it to have, as it were, its own separate beginning and meaning, let us say that Almighty God, in the day of the passion of his Son, or (as the Jews think, at the very end of the world, when he shall come to judge) digs up and brings forth into the midst the works of each individual, and handles the whole earth in the day of judgment: for this is that one day, and in that day each of the saints calls his companions and friends, who are themselves also saints, to rest, and to rejoice in the virtue of their own works.

(Verse 1.) And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep. The LXX: And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me as a man is wont to be waked out of his sleep. For where had he gone, that he should return, especially he who was speaking in the prophet, and could not be apart from him in whom he spoke? But whenever human frailty is left to its own weakness, it must be believed that the help of God and of his angels departs from us. So the prophet too, stunned by the astonishment of the great vision, grew numb in his whole mind, and could not see the clear light of truth: hence he is roused from the former vision to another vision, as though awaking out of sleep, that he may see what with closed eyes he did not see. Let us say it another way too.

There is a testimony in the Proverbs of Solomon: If thou sit down, thou shalt be without fear: if thou sleep, thou shalt sleep sweetly, and thou shalt not fear sudden terror coming upon thee, nor the attacks of the wicked assailing thee. He who sleeps with this sleep, and hears said of himself what we read written of Lazarus: If he sleep, he shall be safe, will be able to sing with the bride: I sleep, but my heart watcheth. Let us see, then, to what things the prophet rises up, as though out of sleep, to contemplate. (Verse 2. Ff.) And he said to me: What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, and its lamp upon the top of it, and the seven lamps thereof upon it: and seven and seven pipes for the lamps upon the top thereof. And two olive trees over it, one on the right side of the lamp, and one on the left side thereof.

And I answered and spoke to the angel that talked with me, saying: What are these things, my lord? And the angel that talked with me answered, and said to me: Knowest thou not what these things are? And I said: No, my lord. And he answered, and spoke to me, saying: This is the word of the Lord to Zorobabel, saying: Not with an army, nor by might, but in my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain, before Zorobabel? Even a plain, and he shall bring out the chief stone, and shall give equal grace for its grace. The LXX: And he said to me: What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, and a lamp upon it, and its seven lamps upon it, and seven pipes of the lamps that were upon it.

And behold two olive trees over it, one on the right side of the lamp, and one on the left: and I asked, and said to the angel that talked with me, saying: What are these things, Lord? And the angel that talked with me answered, and said to me: Dost thou not know what these things are? And I said: No, Lord. And he answered and said to me, saying: This is the word of the Lord to Zorobabel, saying: Not with great strength, nor by might, but in my spirit, saith the Lord Almighty: Who art thou, O great mountain, before the face of Zorobabel, that thou shouldst be made straight? And I will bring out the stone of the inheritance: the equality of grace is its grace. My spirit, saith the Lord. Let us then, going through each point, say first what seems to the Hebrews, by whom we were instructed in the Old Testament: then through these, as by steps, let us ascend to the heights of the Church.

The solid golden candlestick they interpret as the Law, that is νόμον. But the lamp, that is, the flame shining and blazing at the top of the candlestick, they interpret as Christ, who is the head of the Law and illumines the whole world. The seven lamps upon the candlestick, they interpret as the seven graces of the Holy Spirit, of which we spoke above, that in one stone there are seven eyes. For no one doubts that the Law was written at the dictation of the Holy Spirit. The seven vessels of oil, moreover, from which oil is poured into the lamps that shine upon the candlestick, they wish to be understood as these seven graces descending from heaven to men through the Law. The two olive trees upon the candlestick, on the right and left side, between which the middle lamp shines, they interpret as the Law and the Prophets. And when the prophet had related his vision, not knowing what he saw, he asks the angel speaking within him—that is, the sense enlightened by God.

For this angel is our own, who, understanding prudently, declares to us the will of God, and says: What are these things, my lord? But the angel does not explain the vision to the prophet, as he had been asked; rather he in turn asks the questioner: Do you not know what these are? To which he replies, I do not know: and the angel himself then answers: This is the word of the Lord to Zorobabel, saying: Not by an army, nor by strength, but by my spirit, saith the Lord. Therefore the word of the Lord to Zorobabel, who spoke, not by an army, nor by strength, but by my spirit, is itself the interpretation of the vision: not by an army, nor by a multitude of warriors, but by the Spirit of God the people were brought back, and are more fully to be brought back, and the adversaries are to be laid waste.

And what follows: Who art thou, O great mountain, before Zorobabel, to become a plain—this they understand as spoken to the devil, who stood at the right hand of Jesus to oppose him, and lifted himself up against Zorobabel and the people of the Jews. But he was turned into a plain and humbled: and Israel lies beneath his feet, because God will bring forth the chief stone, Christ his Son, who has always been a help to the people of Israel. And his grace, that is, the grace of the stone toward those whom he has brought back from captivity, will equal the grace which he always exercised toward their fathers. These things we have found said by the Hebrews. Now let us discuss what has been written by ecclesiastical men in their Commentaries. The golden candlestick, of purest gold, they understand as the Church, which in the sacred Scriptures seeks the sense and the mind rather than the words.

That gold is taken in the sense of understanding is shown by the hindmost parts and the wings of the dove in the sixty-seventh psalm, which are said to shine with the greenness or brightness of gold. The lamp they too understand as Christ, because he shines in the Church, who said of himself: No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel, that is, under the measure of the Law; but upon a candlestick, that is, the liberty of the Gospel, so that it may shine to all who are in the house. The seven lamps and their vessels they too understand as the graces of the Holy Spirit, through which the Church receives the oil of the mercy of God and of all the virtues. The two olive trees upon the candlestick they too understand as Moses and Elijah, who spoke with the Lord on the mountain, and signified what he was to suffer in Jerusalem. For all the Law and the Prophets proclaim the passion of Christ.

Others interpret the two olive trees, on the right and on the left, as the Law and the Gospel, so that on the right is the Gospel, on the left the Law: of which right hand and left hand it is said in the Song of Songs: His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me. But the mountain most of our writers interpret as the devil, and Antichrist, who dares to stand before Zorobabel (of whom Christ is to be born), and to raise himself up, and to say in the Gospel: All these things have been given to me, and I will give them to you, if falling down you will worship me. Whom the Lord, casting down beneath his feet, and making humble from proud, and cast down, says: Get behind me, Satan, for it is written: You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve.

And they give as an example in the Gospel the lunatic, whom when the apostles could not heal, they ask why they were unable to heal him, and hear: Amen I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, remove from here, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you. But this kind is not cast out except by prayer and fasting. There the mountain is openly taken as the devil. But others, with no small rashness, refer what is plainly said of the devil to Christ, who is often called a mountain in the sacred Scriptures. Nor is it necessary to give examples, of which there is a great abundance. But they are led into this error because it is written in the Septuagint: Who art thou, O great mountain, before the face of Zorobabel, that thou shouldst correct?

Namely, that this mountain which is before the face of Zorobabel, that is, which descends from the stock of Zorobabel, wishes itself to correct the world, and that of it is said what follows: I will bring forth the stone of the inheritance—of which it is written: You are he who shall restore my inheritance to me. And in another place: He has chosen for us his inheritance, the beauty of Jacob which he loved. And again: The portion of the Lord became Jacob, Israel the line of his inheritance. And in the second psalm: The Lord said to me, You are my son, this day have I begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance. And the Lord will bring forth the chief stone, of whom we read: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And: All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made.

But as to what he says: He will equal grace to his grace, this signifies: We have all received of his fullness, and grace for grace, that is, for the grace of the Law, the grace of the Gospel, so that both those believing out of Israel and the people of the Gentiles may receive equal grace and an equal gift. Whence Gabriel also says to Mary: You have found grace with the Lord. And the apostle Paul writes: For by grace you are saved. And the evangelist John: The Law, he says, was given through Moses: but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (Verses 8 and following) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: The hands of Zorobabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands shall finish it, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. For who has despised the small days? And they shall rejoice, and shall see the tin stone in the hand of Zorobabel.

These seven are the eyes of the Lord, that run to and fro through the whole earth. The Septuagint: And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: The hands of Zorobabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands shall complete it. And you shall know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you: for who has despised in the small days? And they shall rejoice, and shall see the tin stone in the hand of Zorobabel: these seven are the eyes of the Lord, that look upon the whole earth. Many things are said both by the Hebrews and by our own writers, of which, following most and rejecting others, let us set forth what seems good to us, preserving the truth of the history, so that from this we may be able to recognize him who is prophesied through the history.

The hands of Zorobabel, prince of the Jews, who returned from Babylon, laid the foundations of the temple, and his hands shall come even to the pinnacles of the temple, completing what they had begun, and building up all things that had been begun. We read in Ezra that the temple was begun by Zorobabel and finished. When, says the prophet Zachariah, you shall see the summit placed by yourselves upon the temple which you are now building, then you shall understand that I was sent by the Lord, and that I have spoken what he commanded me to say. "Who" here is taken to mean "rare," according to that: Who, do you think, is the faithful and prudent steward? And, Lord, who shall dwell in your tabernacle, and who shall ascend into your holy mountain? Rare, then, is he who despises the small days of this age, and thinks the power of kings to be nothing.

When we see the powerful of this world gleaming with gold, glowing with purple and gems, surrounded by an army, let us say within ourselves: who, do you think, despises the small days? Whence also Jacob, understanding the brevity of human life, says: Few and evil are the days of my life. Those, then, who shall have despised the small days (this refers to royal power, so as to admonish Zorobabel, and Jesus, and the people building the temple of God, by no means forbidding them to fear their adversaries, but bidding them to hear the Lord exhorting them), from the fact that they despise royal splendor, shall rejoice and shall see the help of the Savior, who is promised from the stock of Zorobabel, and on account of his strength is called a stone, and a tin stone: for which in Hebrew is written ABDIL (הבדיל), because he is the wall and strength and might of believers.

For just as tin protects other metals from fire, and although brass and iron are by nature very hard, if they were without tin they would be burned and consumed, so all the strength of angels and men, if it does not have the help of the Savior, proves weak and fragile. But this stone, that is, this mass, which among the Hebrews is written ABDIL, that is, tin, ἐτυμολογεῖται ἀποχωρίζων, that is, "separating" and "distinguishing," so that just as tin separates from one another mixed and adulterated metals through fire, so the Lord, the true assayer and χωνευτὴς (refiner), separates from gold and silver the good works, the brass of vices and the lead, so that pure gold and silver may remain. In other words this "separator," ἀποχωρίζων, is written in the Gospel: Whose winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and will separate the chaff from the wheat, who cries out through Jeremiah: What is the chaff to the wheat? Says the Lord.

Many of our writers interpret the hands of Zorobabel, who laid the foundation of the house and himself completed it, as Christ. But if we accept this, we shall be compelled to explain what the tin stone in the hand of Zorobabel is. For is another Christ to be approved of in the hand of Christ? Though some have taken the tin stone as the body of the Lord, which was stained by no spot of sins, and is called not lead but purest tin. But the seven eyes, that run to and fro through the whole earth, and judge all things, we have explained above to be the seven spirits: and that nothing escapes God, who is conscious of things past, present, and future, and renders to each according to his works, especially when he comes in the person of him who separates the good from the evil, and the refiner. (Verses 11 and following.) And I answered, and said to him: What are these two olive trees at the right of the candlestick, and at the left thereof?

And I answered a second time, and said to him: What are the two olive branches, which are beside the two golden spouts, in which are the golden pipes? And he said to me, saying: Do you not know what these are? And I said: No, my lord. And he said: These are the two sons of oil, who stand beside the Ruler of all the earth. LXX: And I answered, and said to him: What are these two olive trees on the right of the candlestick, and on the left? And I asked a second time, and said to him: What are the two branches of olives, which are in the hands of the two golden nostrils, and which pour out and draw back the golden pipes? And he said to me: Do you not know what these are? And I said: By no means, lord. And he said: These are the two sons of fatness, who stand beside the Lord of all the earth.

When the prophet asked what the two olive trees signified, of which one stood at the right of the candlestick, the other at the left, the Lord, or the angel of the Lord, was unwilling to answer. Perceiving this, the prophet inquires a second time, and says: What are these two ears of the olives, or two branches? Asking about lesser things, since he had not merited to hear the greater. But these two branches are in the hand of the two nostrils, or upon the two golden spouts, which in Hebrew are called SINTHOROTH (צנתרות), in Greek called μυξωτῆρες, which themselves are two μυξωτῆρες, upon which are the two ears, or two branches of olives of purest gold.

And when the prophet inquired also about the two branches, and was again asked by the angel whether he knew what the two branches signified, and he had said: No, Lord: the angel of the Lord answered: These are the two sons of oil, as Symmachus rendered it, or from στιλπνότης, as Aquila interpreted, that is, of splendor: or ποιότης, that is, of fatness, as the Seventy translated: or λαμπρότης, that is, of brightness, as Theodotion rendered: who stand beside the Ruler of all the earth. Concerning the two olive trees which were at the right and left of the lamp, we have read above.

And therefore now, when the prophet inquires about these, he does not merit to hear, either because he does not retain the former things, or because what was said there more obscurely he desires to hear more plainly here, or certainly his persistence is rebuked by the silence of the angel, in that he strives to know greater things; although the Hebrews affirm that he heard nothing when he inquired about the olive trees for this reason, that he did not ask well, nor sought the whole of what he ought to have known. Finally afterward he inquires more fully, adding the ears or branches of the olives, about which he had been silent above: for there he said: What are these two olive trees? Here he asks: What are the two ears of the olives? Metaphorically, because in the manner of ears the trees stand upright, and just as ears are covered with awns, so these are covered as it were with a hedge of branches and leaves, and rise on high.

Certain of our own writers interpret the two olive trees as the Son and the Holy Spirit, and the middle lamp as God the Father. But I know not how, without blasphemy, they take one at the right, the other at the left. The branches too, or ears of the olives, they expound as the incarnation of the Savior and the likeness of the dove of the Holy Spirit, because we cannot see the whole olive trees, but a certain part, and, so to speak, little branches of the incarnation of Christ and of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit are shown to us. Others understand the two Testaments, the Gospel at the right, the Law at the left, because in the one there is a spiritual sense, in the other a corporeal; and because we can explain neither the whole Gospel nor the whole Law, and now we know in part, and prophesy in part, and cannot yet grasp what is perfect.

There are those who interpret the two branches of olives, or the two ears, and the sons of fatness or of splendor, as the priesthood and the Law, which furnish joy to the whole earth. Others interpret Enoch and Elijah, of whom the one pleased God in uncircumcision, the other in circumcision, and was taken up with his body into heaven. For splendor, and oil, and fatness, and brightness, in the Hebrew we read ISAAR (יצהר), according to what is written of the joy and happiness of the saints in the Psalms: They shall be inebriated with the abundance, or fatness, of Thy house: for πιότης signifies fatness rather than abundance. These things, as we have been able, and as the powers of our small talent could bear, we have spoken, briefly touching upon the various opinions both of the Hebrews and of our own writers; if anyone shall say something better, or rather truer, we too gladly acquiesce in the better.

(Verses 1 and following.) And I turned, and lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold a flying scroll, and he said to me: What do you see? And I said: I see a flying scroll: the length thereof twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits. And he said to me: This is the curse that shall go forth over the face of the whole earth: because every thief, as it is there written, shall be judged, and every one that sweareth shall in like manner be judged by it. I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts, and it shall come to the house of the thief, and to the house of him that sweareth falsely in my name, and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it, and the timber thereof, and the stones thereof. LXX: And I turned, and lifted up my eyes, and saw a flying sickle. And he said to me: What do you see?

And I said: I see a flying sickle, of length twenty cubits, and of breadth ten cubits. And he said to me: This is the curse that shall go forth over the face of the whole earth: because every thief shall from this be punished unto death, and every perjurer shall from this be tormented unto death. And I will bring it forth, saith the Lord Almighty, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely in my name, and it shall rest in the midst of his house, and shall consume him, and the timber thereof, and the stones thereof.

Turning, says the prophet, to another vision, and lifting my eyes from glad and happy things to sadder ones, I behold a flying scroll, which in Hebrew is called MEGELLA (מגלה), and was rendered by Aquila and Theodotion διφθέρα, by Symmachus κεφαλίς, that is, a little head or chapter, according to what we read in the Psalm: In the head of the book it is written of me; or according to the Seventy δρέπανον πετόμενον, that is, a flying sickle. For all the things which he had seen above—the building of the temple, the coming of the Lord the Savior, the freedom of the people from Babylon—had announced good tidings. Therefore, lest his heart be lifted up, as with the Apostle (to whom was given an angel of Satan to buffet him, lest he should be exalted), he too sees things that are sad, so that whatever arrogance had grown from the revelation of good things might be diminished by the threat of sad things.

Now a flying scroll is shown, in which the sins of all are inscribed, so that each one may receive according to his works, whether good or evil, as Daniel says: The thrones were set, and the books were opened. But if we take it as a sickle, as the Seventy translated, let us take an example from the Apocalypse of John, where it is written: And the angel answered, and said to him that sat upon the horse: Send forth thy sharp sickle, and reap thy vineyard, for its grapes are ripe. Instead of a sickle, in Deuteronomy we read of arrows and a sword: I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh. And because God did not spare the sinning angels, who by their own fault lost their heavenly dwelling, therefore He Himself says through Isaiah: My sword is made drunk in heaven.

For by the sword all the sinners of the people shall perish, not indeed by a bodily sword (since there are many and diverse ways to death besides the sword), but by the spiritual sword, by which those who have not done penance are to be struck, and to whom the Psalmist threatens, proclaiming: Except ye be converted, he will brandish his sword: he hath bent his bow, and made it ready: and in it he hath prepared the instruments of death. And in Jeremiah we read: How long wilt thou cut, O sword, or sword of the Lord? How long wilt thou not be quiet? Return into thy scabbard. This sword is called not only a sickle, which cuts down hay, stubble, and thorns; but is also called the axe of the trees, which shall cut down those who have not brought forth fruits worthy of repentance.

And of these John the Baptist proclaimed: Behold, the axe is laid to the root of the trees: every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down, and cast into the fire. This scroll, in which the sins of all are inscribed, or the sickle which cuts down the sins of all, is sent into the vineyard of Sodom, of which it is written: Our enemies are foolish: for their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and their branch of Gomorrah: Their grape is the grape of gall, and their cluster is most bitter. Their wine is the fury of dragons, and the incurable venom of asps. This sickle has twenty cubits of length, and ten of breadth, in which number sad things are joined with joyful ones. For the Lord rebukes in order to amend. In the twenty, which is made up of two tens, austere and sad things are announced: in the ten, that is, one decade, better and prosperous things. For by all manner of scourges and punishments Israel is instructed.

And let us at the same time warn those who think theft and perjury small crimes, that the curse which is described in the scroll and sickle is brought into the house of the thief and the perjurer, and remains in it, and consumes all its timber and stones. But if in these things which are thought lesser (I mean theft and perjury) there is so great a threat of punishments, what shall we say of fornication, adultery, murder, sacrilege, and all the crimes which are numbered by the Apostle among the works of the flesh? I have read that the twenty cubits of length, and the ten of breadth, refer to the age of the Lord the Savior, that is, make up the number thirty: because the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, and the world is to be judged by Him. (Verses 5 and following.) And the angel who spoke in me went out, and said to me: Lift up thy eyes, and see what this is that goeth forth.

And I said: What is it? And he said: This is the amphora going forth; and he said: This is their eye in all the earth. And behold a talent of lead was carried, and behold one woman sitting in the midst of the amphora. And he said: This is impiety, and he cast her into the midst of the amphora, and put a mass of lead upon its mouth. LXX: And the angel who spoke in me went out, and said to me: Look up with thine eyes, and see what it is that goeth forth; and I said, What is it? And he said: This is the measure that goeth forth. And he said: This is their iniquity in all the earth. And behold a talent of lead was lifted up: and behold one woman was sitting in the midst of the measure, and he said: This is iniquity, and he cast her into the midst of the measure, and cast a stone of lead upon its mouth.

The amphora or measure was going forth, and was borne in the air. And lest we should doubt by what proper name it is called, the angel himself who had shown the amphora, or measure, gives it a name, and said, according to the Septuagint, this is their iniquity in all the earth; according to the Hebrews: This is their eye, that is, the showing forth of all sins. And behold a woman was sitting in the midst of the amphora, or measure, which among the Hebrews is called EPHAH (איפה), and is frequently rendered by the Seventy as οιφι; and this same woman was called impiety. When, therefore, he beheld these things, behold a talent of lead, that is, a mass like a stone, was being borne, either by its own impetus, or by the command of the Lord, or was borne by another whose name is left unspoken.

But this angel who was speaking in the prophet, and going forth from him, showed him all these things, and he seized the woman who was called impiety, and cast her headlong into the midst of the amphora, which before was borne freely, and, sitting atop the amphora, appeared to all. And lest perhaps she should again lift up her head, and rejoice in her iniquity and impiety, he puts a talent of lead, in the manner of a most heavy stone, upon the mouth of the amphora: that he might press down and shut up impiety in the midst, lest it should be able to burst forth in any way. These things we have drawn as certain shadows and lines of the future image, that we may fill in what remains with its own colors.

The angel who was speaking in the prophet, having gone forth from him, and speaking as it were close at hand, bids him lift up his eyes, and see the sins of the people of Israel gathered together into a full measure, and the transgressions of all completed: and that this is their eye, which in Hebrew is called ENAM (עינם), and is written with AIN, JOD, NUN, MEM: or their iniquity; which, if it were written with the letter VAU, would rightly be read ONAM (עונם), as the Seventy supposed: and this error has frequently taken root in the Vulgate edition, because the letters VAU and JOD have the same form, but differ in measure, so that one is read for the other.

This amphora or measure is their eye in all the earth, that is, the showing forth of sins, so that the vices of those who lay hidden scattered might, gathered together into one, be spread open before the eyes of all, so that Israel might go forth from its place, and might be shown to all the nations such as it had been in its own land. And behold a talent of lead was carried. Instead of a talent of lead, in what follows we read a stone of lead. A talent is called CHACHAR (ככר); a stone, ABEN (אבן). This, then, is the stone of lead, which is also the talent of lead, which we, expressing it more plainly, have interpreted as a mass or sphere of lead, by which is signified the most heavy weight of sins. And upon this measure and amphora of all transgressions there sat in the midst impiety, which by another name we may call idolatry, and the denial of God.

Whence it is said by the Savior to the Jews: Fill ye up the measure of your fathers. This impiety which sat upon the sins of Israel, and gloried in its own wickedness, is afterwards sent into the midst of Babylon, and pressed down by the evil of captivity. Or, according to Theodotion, she herself casts herself down and hides in the midst of the amphora, and draws upon herself the most heavy weight of lead, that her mouth might be stopped up, and she might not be able to fling herself out any further. Or certainly she is pressed down by the angel of God, that she who before rejoiced in wickedness might be silenced in eternal silence.

But by whom and to what place, once shut up, she is carried, the following reading teaches. (Verses 9 and following.) And I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold two women going forth, and the wind was in their wings, and they had wings like the wings of a kite, and they lifted up the amphora between the earth and the heaven. And I said to the angel that spoke in me: Whither do these carry the amphora? And he said to me: That a house may be built for it in the land of Sennaar, and that it may be established, and set there upon its own base. LXX: And I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold two women going forth, and the wind was in their wings, and they had wings like the wings of a hoopoe. And they lifted up the measure between the earth and the heaven. And I said to the angel who spoke in me: Whither do these carry the measure?

And he said to me: That they may build a house for it in the land of Babylon, and prepare it, and set it there upon its own seat. The Jews suppose the two women going forth to be the kingdom of the Medes and of the Macedonians, either of whom afflicted the Babylonian people, and there their impiety set its seat. But they contrive this by art, lest that which is said of themselves should be understood of themselves. For the two women who go forth are, without doubt, to be taken as the twelve tribes from the land of Judea: of whom some were taken captive by the Assyrians, others by the Chaldeans. And in their wings was the wind, that is, the power of the devil, of whom it is written in Ecclesiastes: If the spirit of him who has power ascend against thee, leave not thy place.

And in the Gospel we read of the unclean spirit who, when he has been cast out of his house, going about through desert and dry places, returns with seven other spirits worse than himself into his former house. By this spirit, then, these women, as if snatched up by a wind and a blast, were borne along in swift flight, and had wings; according to the Hebrew ASIDA (חסידה), which Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion render as the heron; only the Seventy translated it as the hoopoe. The Hebrews think the asida to be the kite, a most rapacious bird, and always lying in wait for domestic birds; but the heron, those who have written of the natures of birds hold to be of three kinds: one white, another speckled; a third black, which is also most fierce and bloodthirsty, and impatient in fighting for mating, so that blood bursts forth from their eyes.

But the hoopoe, which we have drawn from the likeness of the Greek name (for they too call it popa, from the fact that it considers human dung), they say is a most filthy bird, always dwelling among tombs, always in human dung: indeed it is said even to make its nest from this, and to feed its young with worms from the rotting dung. Whichever of the three birds you wish to understand by asida, it fits these women, Judah and Israel, who on account of their rotting sins were handed over to the power of demons, and led away by them into captivity. And they carried the amphora or measure, in which impiety was held shut up, with a mass of lead placed above so that it could not go out, and the most heavy weight of all sins through the air between earth and heaven.

Which the prophet, understanding, did not ask what these women were (for this was clear to the prophetic spirit), nor what they carried, concerning which he had been instructed above; but whither they carried it. Accordingly there follows: I said to the angel that spoke in me: Whither do these women carry the amphora? Who answered: That a house may be built for it in the land of Sennaar. For which the Seventy translated, in the land of Babylon. For Sennaar is a plain of the Chaldeans, in which those who had moved their feet from the East, and could not stand in the service of God, built the tower of pride; whence also the city itself was called Babylon, that is, confusion, because there the languages of all were confused and mixed together. Impiety, therefore, is carried by these women into Babylon: that there a house may be built for it, and established, and set upon its own base, and rest in an eternal station.

For truly in Babylon is the seat of impiety, both according to the history and according to the mystical understandings.

If you wish to take the two women as the peoples of the heretics and of the Jews (both of whom go forth from the face of God, and are borne by an uncertain spirit, and have the wings of the kite, of the heron, and of the hoopoe, while, always after the manner of the partridge, they make riches, not with judgment, and hasten to snatch from the Church, and delight in contentions and strife, and drag whomever they have deceived to destruction, wallowing in the mire of lusts and in everlasting filth), these women lift up the most heavy weight of impiety, and build their house in confusion, and serve the king of Babylon, so that there the peoples of the heretics and of the Jews may dwell, where the practices of idolatry dwell, serving wood and stones.

And I turned, and lifted up my eyes, and saw: And behold four chariots going forth from the midst of two mountains, and the mountains, mountains of brass.

In the first chariot were red horses, in the second chariot black horses, and in the third chariot white horses, and in the fourth chariot spotted and strong horses. And I answered, and said to the angel that spoke in me: What are these, my lord? And the angel answered, and said to me: These are the four winds of heaven, which go forth, that they may stand before the Ruler of all the earth. In which were the black horses, they went forth into the land of the North, and the white went forth after them, and the spotted went forth to the land of the South. But those that were most robust went forth, and sought to go and range through all the earth. And he said: Go and walk through the earth, and they walked through the earth. And he called me, and spoke to me, saying: Behold, they that go forth into the land of the North have caused my spirit to rest in the land of the North.

LXX: And I turned, and lifted up my eyes, and saw: And behold four chariots going forth from the midst of two mountains, and the mountains were mountains of brass. In the first chariot were red horses, and in the second chariot black horses, and in the third chariot white horses, and in the fourth chariot spotted, starling-colored horses. And I answered, and said to the angel that spoke in me: What are these, lord? And the angel who spoke in me answered, and said: These are the four winds of heaven, who go forth to stand by the Lord of all the earth. In which were the black horses, they went forth over the land of the North, and the white went forth after them, and the spotted went out into the land of the South, and the starling-colored went forth, and considered how to go about the earth.

And he said: Go and go about the earth, and they went about the earth: and he cried out, and spoke to me saying: Behold, they that go forth over the land of the North: they have caused my fury to rest in the land of the North. I passed over, he says, to another vision, and lifted the eyes of my heart higher toward heaven: and I saw four chariots going forth from the midst of two mountains which were of brass, that is, unconquerable and most strong, and which could be consumed by no age. For what he had above called mountains of myrtle, or shady and wooded, he now calls of brass. In the first chariot were red horses, bloody, and murderous, and terrible with Babylonian cruelty. In the second chariot, black horses, the kingdom of the Medes and Persians: which, sitting and going forth in a chariot pair by the edict of king Ahasuerus, bore forth by a sad message the death of all the Jews.

In the third chariot, white horses, the Macedonians, under whose king Antiochus we read of the victory of the Maccabees. In the fourth chariot, spotted, strong horses. For we know that some of the Roman kings were clement toward the Jewish nation, such as Gaius Caesar, Augustus, and Claudius: others were persecutors and terrible, such as Gaius Caligula, Nero, Vespasian, and Hadrian. Instead of "strong," which Aquila and the Septuagint rendered as ψαρούς (grayish), in the Hebrew is written AMASIM (אמצים). And certain copies wrongly have πυρρούς (red), confounding the differences of colors and of kingdoms, since πυρροί, that is, red, would not be called AMASIM, but ADAMIM (אדמים), which word signifies starling-colored, of which, so far as I know, none survive: all have πυρρούς, wrongly, as Jerome notes. Let them be [understood]. The prophet, therefore, asking what those things which he beheld meant to signify, the angel who spoke in him answers, and relates that there are four winds of heaven, that is, four regions of the world, which the Greeks call κλίματα, which stand by and obey the will of the Lord.

For these four kingdoms which we have mentioned did nothing apart from the will of the Lord. In the one in which were the black horses, they went forth, he says, into the land of the North. How beautifully the first chariot, in which were the red horses, is passed over, while what the second and third did is described, and the fourth is set forth. For already at that time when the prophet was reporting these things, the Babylonian kingdom had passed away, and the power of the Medes possessed all Asia: under whose king Darius, in his second year, in the eleventh month (some read tenth), which is called SABAT (שבט), on the twenty-fourth day of the month, he beholds all the things which we have expounded above. In the chariot, then, in which were the black horses, they went forth into the land of the North: so that the might of the Medes might overthrow the kingdom of the Chaldeans.

And this must be noted, that κλίματα, that is, the regions of the world and the earth, are named in the Holy Scriptures according to the position of Jerusalem and the temple. The white horses also went out after them, following in the footsteps of the Medes and Persians—the kings of the Macedonians—so as to subject the Chaldeans and Babylon to their own rule. But the fourth, that is, the dappled and spotted, for which in the Hebrew is read BORODIM (ברדים), and which are called by another name AMASIM, that is, strong and robust, went forth to the southern region, and traversed the whole earth with swift onrush. And the angel who was speaking in the prophet cries out to the empire of the Romans: Go, walk through the earth, and go about the circuit of the world, and lay all the kingdoms beneath your feet.

And turning to the prophet, he testifies with a clear voice: Behold, those who go forth into the land of the North have made my spirit rest in the land to which they set out. It has been handed down to me by the Hebrews, in a passage of great difficulty, that Alexander and all the Macedonians, that is, the white horses which went out after the Medes and Persians (who themselves also had gone into the land of the North), made the prophetic spirit rest in the land of the North, in that they had fulfilled the will of God against the Medes, and in a short time the empire of the Medes and Persians was destroyed by the Macedonians. For great is the consolation of those who are oppressed, if they know that their enemies will soon perish.

These things, as we have been able—rather, as we have received them—we hand down to the students of our tongue, following the truth of history; not hunting after the chariots of Pharaoh and the chariots of Babylon after the manner of the Egyptian exposition, clinging tenaciously to memory; for it is not what is written where, but for what reason it is written, that must be considered. According to the allegory, whatever we said concerning the four horns and the four smiths, let us take up also in the present passage. I have read in a certain man's volume that the four chariots, in which are the red, black, white, spotted, and strong horses, are to be understood as the four Gospels, and the horses as the Apostles, possessing different graces through the diversity of colors: of whom some are red in martyrdom, others dark and black, and knowing the mysteries of Christ, of whom it is said in the Psalms: Darkness under his feet. And: He made darkness his hiding place.

Others are white through virginal grace; others dappled and strong, having the grace of healings and of various powers. These four chariots, or teams, were sent into the four winds of heaven, that is, to the corners of the world, and to the whole circuit of the earth, that they might fulfill the will of the Lord: to whom it is afterward said by the angel: Go, and walk through the earth, and sow the Gospel in all the ends of the earth. This also which follows: Behold, those who go forth into the land of the North have made my spirit rest in the land of the North, he explained thus, saying that the spirit of the Lord, or of the angel, rested when in the land of the North the most hardened kingdoms of the devil were overthrown by apostolic preaching, and these are the kingdoms which the devil, showing them to the Lord and Savior on the high mountain, boasted had been delivered to him.

From dark things we pass to darker things, and with Moses we enter into the cloud and the darkness. Deep calls unto deep, at the voice of God's cataracts; and the spirit goes round and round in its circuits, and returns again to its circles: we suffer labyrinthine wanderings, and with a blind thread we trace the footsteps of Christ. To this difficulty the hat-wearing bearer of the book urges us on (Horace, Epist. 1.2): He who has begun has the half of the deed done [lacuna] how much more ought we, who have already accomplished a third part of the journey, to sweat with the same labor through the rest, lest we lose what is past, and lest the unfinished work increase the reader's longing!

Therefore, my venerable Pope Exuperius, be present in prayers, you who are absent in body, and obtain from the Lord that the veil of Zachary may be taken away from before my face, the veil which was cast before the eyes of Moses, because the common, ignoble crowd could not bear the brightness of his countenance: so that I too, with David, may be able to say: The Lord will give the word to those who preach the gospel with great power.

This is the beginning of the second book of the Explanations on Zachariah, which I am dictating with such speed that there is scarcely room for correction: while brother Sisinnius hastens to go to Egypt, that he may carry there also the odor of good fragrance which was sent by you to the brethren; and that the thirsting fields may be watered not by the river of Ethiopia, but by the most abundant waters of the Gauls.

(Verse 9 ff.) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Take from those of the captivity, from Holdai, and from Tobias, and from Idaias, and you shall come on that day, and shall enter the house of Josias son of Sophonias, who came from Babylon.

And you shall take silver and gold, and make crowns, and place them on the head of Jesus son of Josedec the high priest, and you shall say to him: Thus says the Lord of hosts, saying: Behold the man, the Orient is his name, and under him shall he arise, and he shall build the temple of the Lord. And he himself shall build the temple to the Lord, and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne: and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both. And the crowns shall belong to Helem, and Tobias, and Idaias, and Hen the son of Sophonias, as a memorial in the temple of the Lord. And they who are far off shall come and build in the temple of the Lord, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. And this shall come to pass, if you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God.

The Septuagint: And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Take those things which are of the captivity, from the leaders, and from its useful men, and from those who have known it: and you shall enter on that day into the house of Josias son of Sophonias, who came from Babylon, and you shall take silver and gold, and make crowns, and place them upon the head of Jesus son of Josedec the high priest, and you shall say to him: Thus says the Lord Almighty: Behold the man, the Orient is his name, and under him shall he arise, and he shall build the house of the Lord, and he himself shall receive power, and shall sit, and shall rule upon his throne.

And there shall be a priest at his right hand, and the counsel of peace shall be between the two: but the crown shall be for those who wait, and for its useful men, and for those who have known it, and for the favor of the son of Sophonias, and for a psalm in the house of the Lord, and those who are far from them shall come and build in the house of the Lord. And you shall know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you, and it shall come to pass, if you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God. I have once set forth the secret lore of Hebrew learning, and the hidden discipline of the teachers of the synagogue, only that which agrees with the holy Scriptures, to disclose it to Latin ears.

Wherefore it is necessary for me, in the most obscure passages, to draw the lines of history, and thus bring forward into the open what I have received from churchmen, leaving it to the reader's judgment which he ought rather to follow. And first the order of the reading must be rendered, so that what is said may become clear according to the letter. Take, he says, from Holdai, and from Tobias, and from Idaias, who came from the Babylonian captivity, and you shall take from them the gifts that are offered, silver and gold, and you shall enter the house of Josias, son of Sophonias; and there you shall make crowns, distinguished by a variety of gold and silver, not one crown, but two or more: for ATAROTH (עטרות), that is, στέμματα, signifies not a single but either a dual or plural number.

And when you have made the crowns, you shall place one of them on the head of Jesus son of Josedec the high priest, and you shall speak to him: Thus says the Lord Almighty: Behold the man whose name is the Orient, which in Hebrew is said SEMA (צמח), written not with the letter Sin, but with Sade. He is therefore called the Orient, that is, ἀνατολή, or ἀναφυή, or βλάστημα, that is, a shoot, because he shall suddenly spring up of himself, and from his root shall sprout in the likeness of a shoot—he, the man who shall build the temple of the Lord. And when he has built it, he himself shall also bear the glory, that is, another crown, which in Hebrew is HOD (הוד), and by one is written ἐπιδοξότης, by another εὐπρέπεια, by another ἀρετή, by another δόξα, words which mean either renown, or comeliness, or virtue, or glory.

And they think that Zorobabel is signified, who, rising suddenly from a lowly and captive state to be leader of the Jewish people, built the temple of the Lord, and sat upon his throne, and ruled with the power of a prince: but the priest, he says, Jesus son of Josedec, shall sit on the priestly throne, and with joined minds and counsels they shall govern the people of God. And there shall be peace between those two, that is, between him who is of the royal tribe, and him who descends from the Levitical stock, so that priesthood and kingship together may rule the people of God, and the very crowns which you shall make of gold and silver, after they have been placed upon the head of Jesus son of Josedec and upon the head of Zorobabel son of Salathiel, you shall consecrate in the temple under the names of those by whom they were offered, that is, of Helem, and Tobias, and Idaias, and Hen. The second and third names are the same as above.

The first has been changed, and instead of Holdai he now put Helem. The fourth, which he had not mentioned above, is added, namely Hen, of whom we shall speak in what follows. And after the crowns, he says, have been laid up in the temple of the Lord, and consecrated to everlasting memory, from the whole world, and nations placed far off shall come, and shall build in my temple, each according to his strength. And then, by the outcome of events and the prosperity of all, you shall know that the Lord has sent me, and that I have foretold everything at his command. But all these things shall come to pass, if you obey the precepts of the Lord, and do his commandments. Holdai is interpreted "the supplication of the Lord," which is more significantly expressed in Greek as λιτάνευσις Κυρίου.

Tobias, "the good of the Lord." Idaias, "known of the Lord." Instead of HOLDAI (חלדי), he has now put in the first place HELEM (חלם), which is interpreted "a dream"; and in the fourth place he added HEN (חן), that is, "grace." The crowns of these four men shall be with the son of Sophonias, whom above we read as Josias, who is the keeper and guardian of the temple of the Lord, and there they shall rest in eternal station. The Hebrews relate that Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, coming from the captivity, brought gold and silver as gifts for the temple, and crowns for the high priest and the leader, and that he whom he had not named above, Hen, that is, "grace," was Daniel, who came with a gift; and that therefore Helem was put in place of Holdai, so that from the interpretation of the name, which means "a dream," it might be shown that Daniel, placed in captivity, and the three young men, understood the mysteries of the royal dream.

For having taken the three young men with him, Daniel prayed to the Lord, and obtained the interpretation of the dream. These things the Circumcision attempts to expound according to the history. But it falls to us as a necessity to say, according to the Septuagint translators, what our elders have said. Take from the captivity, and from the leaders, and from its useful men, and from those who have known it, gold and silver, and having entered into the house of Josias son of Sophonias, who himself also came from Babylon, make in it crowns of gold and silver, which you shall place upon the head of Jesus son of Josedec the high priest.

The captivity of the Jews, that is, of the people confessing the Lord, are vices and sins: and whoever begins to do penance for these, and to desire the former Jerusalem, that is, the Church of Christ, leaves and abandons them in Babylon, and it is offered by the leaders of the captives, and by its useful men, that is, of the captivity (who themselves also, for their own advantage, were delivered to the angel of Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved), and by those who recognize it, namely the captivity, as something to be turned to good after its punishments. And gold and silver are offered by those who confess the Lord both in mind and in speech, and from it, that is, from the gold and silver, crowns are made in the house of Josias, which is interpreted "saved," and he is the son of the visitation of the Lord, that is, ἐπισκοπῆς Κυρίου. For he is visited by the Lord who before had been grievously ill.

And rightly is he called Josias, "saved," because he too returned from Babylon. And crowns, or a crown, are placed upon Jesus son of Josedec the high priest, because, as we confess and return to better things, the Lord is crowned through each of our virtues: nay rather, when we are crowned by the virtue of penance, the Savior receives a crown in each of us, according to what Paul also says: "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord the just judge will render to me: and not only to me, but to all who love the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ". Whence also the Father of the Lord Savior took his name from the crown of justice. For Josedec is interpreted "the Lord of justice," in that he renders to each according to his works.

Of this crown James also speaks in his Epistle: "Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been proved, he shall receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him". And the prophet is bidden that, after he has placed the crown, or crowns, upon the head of Jesus son of Josedec the high priest, he should speak to him and say: Thus says the Lord: Behold the man, the Orient is his name: and under him shall he arise, and so on. We do not divide Jesus, nor can we make two persons into one person; but he himself who is called Jesus, because he saved the world, is also called the Orient, because in his days justice arose.

And it is sung in the Psalm: "Truth has sprung out of the earth", because he, born of the Virgin's womb at the consummation of the ages, said, "I am the truth", and the last hour has come, according to the Epistle of John, saying: "Little children, it is now the last hour," in which he hired the people of the Gentiles standing idle and doing nothing, from a denarius, and sent them into the vineyard. Otherwise, if he became different according to the diversity of names, then he would be one as shepherd, another as ram, another as lamb, another as door, another as stone of stumbling and rock of scandal. This one, therefore, who is crowned with our virtues, shall arise and shall be called the Orient.

To whom the Father has said: "You are my Son: today I have begotten you": And under him shall arise a multitude of believers, and he shall build the house of the Lord, the Church, and he himself shall receive power and comeliness and advancement, and the glory of each one, and he shall sit and rule upon his throne, upon the throne of David, of whom it is also written in the Gospel: "And there shall be a priest at his right hand", or according to the Hebrew, upon his own throne; because he is both king and Pontiff: and he shall sit both upon the royal and upon the priestly throne, and there shall be a peaceful counsel between the two, so that neither does the royal eminence depress the priestly dignity, nor the priestly dignity the royal eminence, but both agree together in the one glory of the Lord Jesus.

I have read in a certain book that this which is said, "And there shall be a peaceful counsel between the two," is referred to the Father and the Son: because he came to do not his own will, but the Father's, and the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father. And the crown, that is, the token of victory, when Christ shall have been crowned, is also promised to those who wait for him, and understand the usefulness once of their own captivity, and have come to know all the mysteries of God, that they may be in the favor of the son of Sophonias, that is, of the visitation of the Lord.

And those who in Babylon said: "By the rivers of Babylon there we sat and wept, when we remembered Sion: on the willows in the midst thereof we hung up our instruments," after they have returned to Jerusalem, let them take up the psalm and the timbrel, and sing in the Church of the Lord, and let those who through greater sins had been far from Judea come, with the truest confession, and through each of their advances build the house of the Lord, and then let all with one mind know that the Lord Almighty has sent the prophet to them. And all these things which have been promised shall come to pass, if they are willing to hear the Lord, and, having done penance, shall persevere in good works.

(Verses 1 ff.) And it came to pass in the fourth year of King Darius: the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chisleu.

And they sent to the house of God Sharezer and Regemmelech, and the men who were with him, to entreat the face of the Lord: to say to the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts and to the prophets, speaking: Must I weep in the fifth month, or should I sanctify myself, as I have already done for many years? And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying: Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying: When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, did you truly fast a fast unto me? And when you ate and when you drank, did you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? Are these not the words which the Lord spoke by the hand of the former prophets, when Jerusalem was still inhabited, and was prosperous, both it and the cities round about it, and was inhabited to the south and in the plains?

The Septuagint: And it came to pass in the fourth year under King Darius: the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chisleu, and King Sarasar and Arabesser sent to Bethel, and his men, to entreat the Lord, saying to the priests of the house of the Lord Almighty, and to the prophets, saying: The sanctification has entered here in the fifth month, according as they have already done for many years: and the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying: Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying: If you fast, and mourn in the fifth and seventh months, and behold, seventy years, did you truly fast a fast unto me? And if you eat or drink, do you not eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?

Are these not my words, which the Lord spoke by the hands of the prophets who were before, when Jerusalem was inhabited, and was abounding, and its cities round about, and the mountain regions and the plains were inhabited? In the fourth year of King Darius, in the ninth month, which is called CASLEU (כסלו), and on the fourth day of that same month, they sent to the house of God, that is, to the temple which had already been restored by Zerubbabel and Jesus, Sharezer and Regemmelech and the others who were with them, whom the Hebrews suppose to have been Persian leaders of King Darius who feared God: so that, because they had already heard that the temple was built, they might ask of the priests of the house of the Lord and of the prophets, whether according to the former custom they ought to weep and fast, or should exchange mourning for gladness.

And the sense of those inquiring is this: In the fifth month, which among the Romans is called July, Jerusalem was overthrown by Nebuchadnezzar, for which reason, because of the desolation of the temple, we have up to now fasted and mourned, and have consoled our sorrow with weeping and fasting. Now, because it is said that the temple has been built, and we see that the cause of sadness no longer remains at all, we ask that you answer whether we ought to continue doing this, or should exchange mourning for joy? And at the same time it must be considered that weeping and fasting are called sanctification. Whence also in Joel it is commanded to the priests that they sanctify a fast and proclaim a healing. For abstinence and fasting heal the wounds of the offender, and sanctify all who are healed.

After the leaders of the Persians had inquired through those whom they had sent, and the embassy of those inquiring to the priests and prophets had been completed, the word of the Lord comes to the prophet, commanding him to speak to the common people and to the priests what answer they should give to the envoys. When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month of the captivity of Jerusalem, and in the seventh month, when Gedaliah was slain by Ishmael, through the seventy years of the desolation of the temple and the overthrow of Jerusalem, did it profit me at all that you fasted? And on the other hand, if at any time you eat and drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves? For God is not appeased by these things, but by good works, and if we do his commandments; for food does not commend us to God. Neither shall we be diminished if we do not eat, nor shall we abound if we do eat.

Are not these my words, while Jerusalem and the cities of Judah still stood, which I spoke to you by the hands of my prophets, when Jerusalem still stood, and the cities of Judah abounded in all things, and both the mountain region and the plain overflowed with produce, and enjoyed the most trustworthy peace? Now these were the words of the Lord, which the following Scripture testifies: that he wills true judgment and mercy toward one's neighbors, and that the widow, and the orphan, and the stranger, and the poor should not be oppressed, and that no one should devise evil in his heart.

These things, he says, they refused to do, and with deaf ears they despised my commands: for which reason great indignation came upon Jerusalem; and just as they refused to hear me, so I also did not hear them: and now with such scrupulousness they ask when they ought to fast and mourn, whereas I had already said before through Isaiah: I have not chosen such a fast, says the Lord, nor that a man should afflict his soul; but loose every bond of iniquity: dissolve the bonds of violent contracts: give your bread to the hungry from your heart. If you see one naked, cover him; and clothe the poor and the homeless in your own dwelling. Then your light shall break forth early, and your healings shall quickly arise (Isaiah 58:5 ff. As for what is written in the Septuagint: "King Sarasar and Arabesser sent from Bethel," none of our scholars has been able to explain it; for what has been badly translated from the Hebrew cannot be explained by any reasoning.

For who is this Sarasar, or King Arabesser? Or king of what province, or into which or from which Bethel did he send? Or of what Bethel could Arabesser be king, which had once been abandoned along with Judea, and at that time was by no means called Bethel, that is, "house of God," but Bethaven, that is, "house of an idol"? This also which follows: "The sanctification has entered here in the fifth month, as they have already done for many years," they try to explain thus: that the sanctification which entered was the vessels of the temple, which had been taken away by Nebuchadnezzar, restored at that time. But concerning the fifth and ... (Verses 8 ff.) And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts, saying: Judge true judgment, and show mercy and compassion, each one to his brother. And do not oppress the widow, and the orphan, and the stranger, and the poor: and let no man devise evil against his brother in his heart.

But they refused to attend, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and withdrew: and they made their ears heavy, that they might not hear: and they made their heart like adamant, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts sent by his spirit through the hand of the former prophets, and great indignation came from the Lord of hosts. And it came to pass, just as he spoke, and they did not hear: so they will cry out and I will not hear, says the Lord of hosts. And I scattered them among all the kingdoms which they knew not; and the land was made desolate after them, because there was none passing through or returning; and they made the desirable land into a desert.

The Septuagint: And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying: Thus says the Lord Almighty, saying: Judge righteous judgment, and let each show mercy and compassion to his brother: and do not oppress the widow, and the orphan, and the poor: and let none of you remember the malice of his brother in your hearts. But they refused to attend, and gave a back of contempt: and they made their ears heavy, that they might not hear: and they made their heart disobedient, that they might not hear my law, and my words which the Lord Almighty sent by his spirit, through the hands of the former prophets. And great wrath came from the Lord Almighty, and it shall be as I said, and they did not hear him.

So they will cry out, and I will not hear them, says the Lord Almighty: and I will cast them out among all nations whom they knew not: and the land was made desolate after them, with none passing through or returning, and they made the chosen land into a wilderness. These are the things I rather desired, these I sought; and because you did not do them, you were handed over to captivity; and it is not the fast of the fifth and seventh months of desolation and death that I desired. Judge righteous judgment, lest you hear in the Psalms: How long will you judge unrighteousness, and accept the persons of sinners?

Judge for the orphan and the widow: justify the humble and the poor, lest Isaiah also say of you: Who justify the wicked for gifts, and take away what is just from the just (Isaiah 5:23): and lest, because of you, Habakkuk, speaking on behalf of those who are oppressed, bring reproach upon God: Judgment is given against me, and the judge takes bribes: therefore the law is scattered, and judgment does not reach its conclusion, because the wicked oppresses the just (Habakkuk 1:3-4). Nor should we think this a new commandment of God; long ago through Moses he had commanded these things: You shall judge the great as the small: you shall not accept persons, and you shall not have pity on the poor in judgment: for judgment is God's. Let each also show mercy and compassion to his brother. After the severity of judgment, let clemency follow toward all, and especially toward brothers, whom we perceive to be either of the same blood, or of one faith with us.

Also the widow and the orphan, concerning whom it is commanded us: Be a father to the orphans, and as a husband to their mother; judging for the orphan, and justifying the widow (Ecclesiasticus 4:10). And do not oppress the stranger and the poor, because the one is made humble by pilgrimage, the other by poverty. And let no man devise evil against his brother in his heart, or as it is said by the Septuagint: And let none remember the malice of his brother in his heart. But we ought to understand "brother" and "neighbor" as either the whole human race, because we are begotten of one parent, or those who are of the household of the faith, according to the parable of the Gospel, which wills that "neighbor" be understood not as a blood relation, but as all men.

That anger ought to be ended before the sun sets, and the memory of all the evils we have suffered from others ought to be blotted out, we read in many places, and especially in Jeremiah, who speaks in the person of God: And let none of you remember in your hearts the malice of his neighbor. When I had commanded these things, they refused to attend, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and withdrew, or "a back of contempt," rejecting my commands by the very posture of their body. For we are accustomed, when with wrinkled brow and contracted nostril we despise those who admonish us, to turn our back, according to what is written: They turned their backs to me, and not their faces (Jeremiah 2:27). And their ears, he says, they made heavy that they might not hear, like the deaf asp that stops up its ears, which will not hear the voice of enchanters, nor of the skillful charmer casting his spells.

For they made their ears heavy that they might not hear, and set their heart so as not to consent to the law of God. Whence Isaiah, threatening them, speaks: The heart of this people is grown fat, and their ears are heavy of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest perhaps they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them (saiah 6).

Further, as to what is said according to the Hebrew: And their heart they made adamant (Or: as adamant), it shows the hardness of heart, and the heart of stone, in that they refused to receive the words of God. For the adamant is the strongest stone, which in Hebrew is called SAMIR (שמיר), so hard that it breaks all metals, and it itself is broken by none. Whence by the Greeks it is called "indomabile" (untamable). By this adamant the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, so that he would not let the people of God go.

And because they had, nay rather placed their heart as adamant, taking on the hardness of heart by the will of their own hearts, so that they might not hear the words of the Lord, which he sent in his spirit, that is, in the Holy Spirit, by the hand of the former prophets, Isaiah, Hosea, and the rest, who had clean hands, whom it is manifest lived before the captivity: therefore against great sins great indignation was made, and the words of the Lord were fulfilled, rendering like for like, so that just as they walked toward him perversely, so he too proceeded perversely against them, and would not hear the words of those crying out, because they too had scorned the words of the Lord with a deaf ear. Wherefore also he scattered them through all the kingdoms which they did not know, of the Assyrians, and the Chaldeans, the Medes, and the Persians, and the other nations which were subject to those empires, and in whose lands they were dispersed.

And all Judea was made desolate, in that it had no inhabitant, and there was none passing through and returning in it. And the land which was a honeycomb before all lands, and by reason of the abundance of its plenty flowed with milk and honey, they turned into a wilderness. We can also refer these things to those who, sinning within the Church, have been cast out from the land of confession; because they refused to hear the Lord, and turned to him a withdrawing shoulder, and made their ears heavy, and set their heart as adamant. And the indignation of the Lord came upon them, and they were scattered through all the kingdoms of vices, and their land was made desolate, whether soul or body, having no inhabitant, the Lord, nor within itself a returning spirit. And the land that was once desirable, which was the lodging of the Trinity, was turned into a desert, and a dwelling-place of dragons.

Let us pass quickly over what is plain, so that there may be room for discussion in the obscure passages: for we are not writing long and flowery treatises, in which pleasing rhetoric plays, but commentaries, whose office it is to pass over what is manifest, and discuss what is obscure.

(Verses 1 and following.) And the word of the Lord of hosts came, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I have been jealous for Sion with great jealousy, and with great indignation have I been jealous for her. Thus says the Lord of hosts: I have returned to Sion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth; and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the sanctified mountain. The Septuagint: And the word of the Lord almighty came, saying: Thus says the Lord almighty: I have been jealous for Jerusalem and Sion with great jealousy, and with the greatest fury have I been jealous for her.

Thus says the Lord almighty: I will return to Sion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called the true city, and the mountain of the Lord almighty, the holy mountain. That the Lord took Jerusalem, that is, the Israelite people, in the wilderness after the manner of a wife, and, finding her lying in the blood of idolatry, covered her with his mantle, and cherished her with marital love, we learn more fully in Ezekiel, who afterward, eating fine flour, and honey, and oil, and adorned with the most beautiful garments, and having, from the generosity of her husband, all ornaments of gems, played the harlot with the Assyrians and the Chaldeans, and heard from the Lord: As a wife despises her husband, so has the house of Israel despised me.

But being handed over to captivity, and mocked by her lovers, and stripped of her former beauty, after she had spread her feet to every passer-by, and was defiled even to the crown of her head, remembering her former happiness, she groans: I will return to my former husband: for it was better with me then than now. Whom he, receiving her, and again holding her in marriage—to whom he had before said, I will not be angry with you, and my jealousy has departed from you—now says: I have been jealous for Sion with great jealousy, and with great indignation have I been jealous for her.

As much as I was before indignant, because she was defiled by many lovers, and stained my bed: wherefore also I handed her over to her lovers, not indeed as an adulteress under a husband, but as a harlot and a vile slave, and one prostituted in brothels: so much the more now have I returned to her; because she has done penance, and has built my temple, in which I will dwell in her midst. And she shall be called the city of truth, who before was called the city of lying, of which it is also written in Isaiah: Truth has slept in her: but now murderers. She shall also be called the mountain of the Lord almighty, the sanctified mountain, on which, the temple having been restored, victims are sacrificed, and the order of ceremonies is kept. These things according to the history.

But it is doubtful to no one that Sion and Jerusalem, the watchtower and vision of peace, can be understood as the souls of the faithful, to whom, when they have sinned, the angered Lord hands them over to captivity, so that they who had not perceived God through good and prosperous things, may perceive him through evil and adverse things. And when they have done penance, the Lord will return to Sion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, which we understand to be one and the same city, and in which, where before the lies of vices and sins reigned, afterward Christ the truth will dwell. And the mountain of the Lord of hosts shall be called the holy mountain, of which it is said: They who trust in the Lord are like mount Sion. And: Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, on his holy mountain.

Of which Isaiah and Micah cry out: In the last days the mountain of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of the mountains, and exalted above the hills, and all peoples shall flow to it, and many nations shall hasten, and shall say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob. Of this mountain, and of this city, the apostle Paul too (if indeed, in receiving the Epistle, the Latin tongue does not reject the authority of the Greeks), disputing in sacred discourse, says: You have come to mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to many thousands of angels, and to the Church of the firstborn, who are written in the heavens. (Verses 4, 5.) Thus says the Lord of hosts: Old men and old women shall yet dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for the multitude of days.

And the streets of the city shall be filled with children, and girls, playing in its streets. The Septuagint: Thus says the Lord almighty: Old men and old women shall yet sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each holding his rod in hand, because of the multitude of days: and the streets of the city shall be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets. So great, he says, shall be, when I have returned to Sion, and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, the prosperity of all things, and the quiet and tranquility from wars, that with no enemy remaining, both sexes shall attain to old age even to the last age, and their trembling limbs shall support themselves with a guiding staff. The streets of the city too shall be filled with boys and girls playing. This is wont to happen when there is security and deep peace in cities, so that the joy of cities is celebrated by the playful age with games and dances.

But if we refer this to the Church, of which it is said: Glorious things are said of you, city of God; and: The rush of the river makes glad the city of God: the Most High has sanctified his tabernacle: God in her midst shall not be moved, who could doubt that the streets of the Church are the virtues, in which wisdom acts with confidence and is proclaimed on the tops of the walls? Whence also the Psalmist cries out to the Lord: Your commandment is exceeding broad. In these streets, the bride, seeking the Lord Savior, says in the Song of Songs: I will rise, and go about the city in the market, and in its streets, until I find him whom my soul loves. Old men, then, or old women, shall dwell, or sit—of whom it is written (if it pleases anyone, however, to accept the book): Honorable old age is not that of long time, nor is it measured by number of years.

For gray hairs are the prudence of men, and old age is a life unspotted: of whom the Lord also speaks to Moses: Gather to yourself seventy elders, whom you yourself know to be elders; wherefore also before Abraham no one was called an old man, of whom we read it written: Abraham failed and died: nourished in a good old age, an old man and full of days. For the glory of old men is gray hairs, of whom it is said: The gray hair of a man is his wisdom. They shall hold, because of the multitude of days, rods and staffs in their hands, and shall say to the disciples: What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in the spirit of gentleness and meekness? For he who brings forth wisdom from his lips strikes the senseless man with a rod. And on the other hand: He who spares his rod hates his son: but he who diligently corrects, loves.

And not only old men, but old women too shall sit in the streets of Jerusalem: whom Paul, describing with apostolic mouth, says: Honor widows who are truly widows. And in another place: Let a widow be chosen not less than sixty years old, who has been the wife of one man, having testimony in good works: if she has brought up children, if she has received strangers to hospitality, if she has washed the feet of the saints, if she has ministered to those in tribulations, if she has followed after every good work. Such old men and old women shall sit in the streets of Jerusalem, and shall hold staffs in their hands, and the streets of the city shall be filled with boys and girls playing. These are the boys and girls, the old and the young, whom the Psalmist exhorts to sing to the Lord, saying: Young men and maidens, old men with the young, let them praise the name of the Lord.

And John the evangelist and apostle: I write to you, he says, children, because your sins are forgiven for the sake of the name of the Savior: I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. And of these Solomon speaks in the Proverbs: And that he may give to the innocent shrewdness: and to the younger boy sense and understanding. And again: Hear, children, the discipline of your father, and attend, that you may know understanding. Of these boys, little maidens and girls, the forty-fourth psalm also speaks: Virgins shall be brought to the king after her. According to what is written: The daughters of Judah have exulted and rejoiced in all your judgments, O Lord. Who, when they have heard from the Apostle: Rejoice, again I say rejoice, will show the gladness of their mind by the gesture of their body, and, dancing in joyful leaps, will say with David: I will dance and play before the Lord.

Verse 6. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: If it seem difficult in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, shall it also be difficult in my eyes? Saith the Lord of hosts. The Septuagint likewise: Thus saith the Lord Almighty: If it shall be impossible before the remnants of this people in those days, shall it also be impossible before me? Saith the Lord Almighty. Through each single word and sentence by which prosperous things, and things almost incredible by reason of their greatness, are promised to Israel, the prophet sets forth: Thus saith the Lord Almighty, speaking in other words to this effect: Think not that these things which I promise are mine own, and as it were disbelieve them as coming from a man; for it is God's promises which I repeat.

He had said above that old men and old women should sit in the streets, and by reason of length of days should hold staves in their hands; that the streets should be thronged with a multitude of men; that boys and girls should lead dances as on festal days; and that Jerusalem should be rebuilt and restored to her former state of felicity. This seemed incredible to the remnant of the people who had come from captivity, seeing that the city, utterly forsaken, displayed the ruins of its walls, its burnt walls, and the hands of the Babylonians; therefore he adds: If to you who are the remnant of the captive people it seem either difficult or impossible that what I promise should come to pass, namely, that in those days in which Jerusalem is to be built there should be such felicity: shall it be either difficult or impossible in the sight of the Lord, who promises by my mouth that these things shall be? For the things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

These things we have seen fulfilled in the time of persecution in the Churches of Christ, when the fury of the persecutors was roused to such madness that they even destroyed our places of assembly, delivered the divine books to the flames, and filled all the islands, the mines, and the prisons with chained troops of confessors and martyrs. Who at that time would have believed that Churches would again be built by those very persons who had before destroyed them?

Not that they were the same men, but that the same royal power which before had sat in ambush with the rich, and had endeavored, as it were by decree of the senate, to extinguish the name of Christ, now at the expense of the state builds basilicas for the Churches, and raises their highest pinnacles, so as not only to adorn the ceilings and roofs with shining gold, but also to clothe the walls with slabs of various marble, and now venerates, for the safeguarding of the Roman state, those divine books which it formerly delivered to the fire, gilded and clothed in purple, and adorned with a variety of gems.

Verse 7. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will save my people from the land of the East, and from the land of the setting of the sun. And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness. The Septuagint likewise. Some of the Jews say that these things were fulfilled after Zorobabel and Nehemiah, when the temple had been built, and the walls of the city constructed, and the Jewish state restored by the Machabees and the various princes who ruled Judea up to Herod. Others recall that they are to be fulfilled at the consummation of the world, under Christ whom they await in vain.

But we say that at that time also, that is, after Zorobabel and Nehemiah, they were fulfilled in part, and as it were preceded in types and images, when the people were brought back from captivity, and dwelt in Jerusalem, and were called the people of God, and the Lord was again called their God—not indeed in falsehood and iniquity, but in truth and righteousness. And now, most fully, under the Lord the Saviour, in the Church, that is, in the true Jerusalem, the promise is fulfilled in reality, especially since it is said: Behold, I will save my people from the land of the East, and from the land of the West, of whom the Lord also spoke in the Gospel: Many shall come from the East and the West, and shall sit down in the kingdom of heaven with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And long before, the Psalmist had promised, saying: The God of gods, the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth.

From the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof, out of Sion is the perfection of beauty. For he shall come out of Sion who shall deliver, and turn away iniquities from Jacob, when from the East and the West incense is offered to the name of the Lord in every place, and a pure sacrifice—not indeed in the victims of the Old Testament, but in the holiness of evangelical purity, of which incense we read also elsewhere: Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight. And what this incense is, the following words show: The lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice. For after there sprang from the rod of Jesse he who should rule over the Gentiles, and in him the Gentiles hoped, and from the East and from the West both the first people and the last believed in the Lord, and there was made one flock: then all nations were roused to gladness, and stirred up to joy, the prophet saying: Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people.

According to that which is written elsewhere: All the ends of the earth shall remember, and shall be turned unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before him. And what follows, In truth and righteousness, signifies this, that the shadow of the old Law should depart, and the truth of the Gospel should come, not indeed in the righteousness of the Jews, but in Christian righteousness; for the Lord himself is truth and righteousness, of whom we read: Truth is sprung out of the earth, and righteousness hath looked down from heaven. Whence also in the fourteenth psalm, righteousness and truth are named together: He that walketh without blemish, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. (Verse 9.) Thus says the Lord of hosts: Let your hands be strengthened, you who hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, in the day when the house of the Lord of hosts was founded, that the temple might be built.

The Seventy, instead of "Lord of hosts," translated "Almighty Lord," and rendered the rest similarly. After the temple had been built under Zerubbabel and Jesus (for in the fourth year of King Darius, on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is called CASLEU, all these things are spoken, when the temple had already been constructed), the same prophets Haggai and Zechariah, who had exhorted both the leaders and the people that it should be built, now exhort them to give credence, from the truth of what had gone before, to the things that are promised for the future, and to strengthen their hands, in no wise fearing the assault of the Medes and the plots of surrounding nations desiring to hinder them: and let them be strengthened by the mouth of the prophets from the day when the foundations of the temple were laid, until the day when the temple was built upon them, and let them hear what follows.

We briefly explain the history; whatever is said concerning Jerusalem and the temple is to be understood spiritually as regards (Verse 10.) For before those days there was no hire for men, nor was there hire for beasts, and there was no peace for him that went out and him that came in, because of the tribulation: and I let go every man against his neighbor. LXX: For before those days the hire of men shall not be for gain, nor shall the hire of beasts subsist, and there shall be no peace to him that goes out and him that comes in, because of the tribulation: and I will send forth every man against his neighbor. The Seventy referred all this to the future, but it is better referred to the past, as it is in the Hebrew, and the truth of the exposition will confirm this. Before the house of the Lord was founded, and the temple of the Lord built, all your labor was in vain.

And both men and beasts, in farming, in trade, and in various works, were frustrated by fruitless efforts: enemies abroad, sedition at home, disturbed the peace, and everywhere there was cessation of business because of the frequency of wars and domestic treacheries, while brother showed no faith to brother, and every kinship was hostile. This same meaning the prophet Haggai, comprehending in other words, expresses thus: And now set your hearts from this day and onward: before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord. When you came to a heap of twenty measures, and there were but ten: and you went into the winepress to press out fifty vessels, and there were but twenty. I struck you with blasting wind and mildew and hail, all the works of your hands, and there was none among you that returned to me, says the Lord: which we may also understand as applying to the Church and to each of the believers.

For before the foundations of the house of God are laid in us, and we are built into a temple to God, and hear from the Apostle: You are the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit dwells in you, whatever good work we seemed to have, whether we be rational beings who are called men, or simple ones who are called beasts (for "men and beasts, Lord, you will save,"), it has no reward with God, and there are wars and discords in us, and everywhere tribulation and no peace of Christ, which, going to the Father, he left to the apostles, and there is fulfilled in us the sentence of the Lord: A man's enemies are the men of his own household. For every brother utterly supplants, and every friend walks deceitfully, and a man mocks his brother, and does not speak the truth; their tongue has learned to speak lies.

But if we turn to Christ, and become his temple, at once we shall hear the Apostle proclaiming: Each one shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. (Verses 11, 12.) But now I will not do to the remnant of this people as in the former days, says the Lord of hosts; but there shall be a seed of peace. The vine shall give its fruit, and the earth shall give its increase, and the heavens shall give their dew: and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. LXX: And now I will not do to the remnant of this people as in the former days, says the Lord Almighty; but I will show peace. The vine shall give its fruit, and the earth shall give its increase, and the heaven shall give its dew, and I will cause the remnant of my people to possess all these things.

Before the foundations of the house of God were laid, and the temple built, there was no hire for men, nor hire for beasts, nor peace, because of tribulation and distress, for those who went in and those who went out, and all men were at odds with one another with hostile hatred. But now, because the foundations of the house of the Lord have already been laid, and the temple built, I will by no means do as I had done before to those who have returned from the Babylonian captivity; but there shall everywhere be peace and joy, and a future abundance shall compensate for the drought and famine of the former time.

For the vine shall give its fruit, and all the winepresses shall be filled, the earth shall be clothed with joyful harvests, and by watering rains and nightly dew all things shall burst forth: all the things I have said, I will cause the remnant of my people to possess; because the foundations of the house of the Lord have been laid, and the temple has been built. These same things also the prophet Haggai speaks at the same time, who had said above: I struck you with blasting wind and mildew and hail, all the works of your hands, after the foundations of the temple were laid: Set, he says, in your hearts from that day forward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month: from the day when the foundations of the temple were laid, set it upon your heart. Is the seed yet in the bud: and has the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree not yet blossomed?

From this day I will bless, and again I will move the heaven together with the earth. Let us say it also in another way, following the exposition begun concerning the Church. Before anyone receives the faith of Christ, and the foundations of the Holy Spirit are laid in him, no one can hear, "there is a reward for your work." Whether he be a Jew, or a heretic, or a Gentile: whatever good work he has done, unless he has done it in the name of Christ, he will not have the reward of his good work. We see the virgins of heretics, the austerity of philosophers, the observance of the Jews in the variety of their foods: and yet we say, according to Haggai, that they eat, and are not satisfied; they drink, and are not made drunk; they clothe themselves, and are not warmed; and he who gathers wages, puts them into a bag with holes.

But after they have received the faith of Christ, both these and those who had been sinners in the Church, and, on account of the greatness of their sins, had been handed over to the captivity of this world, and burned by the Babylonian fire, and have heard the Lord proclaiming: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, wherefore he has anointed me: he has sent me to preach good tidings to the poor: to preach to captives release, and to the blind that they may see: to heal those who are broken in heart, and there is fulfilled in them what is said through Amos: I will turn the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the ruined cities, and I will plant them, then in those days shall righteousness arise, and abundance of peace. The vine shall give its fruit, of which he says in the Gospel: I am the vine, you are the branches. Every branch that remains in me, the Father prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

And when its branches, that is, its shoots and offshoots, have been pruned, and with budding eyes have begun to promise hope of future fruits, so that what is written may be fulfilled: The flourishing vines gave forth fragrance: then the sun of righteousness shall color the hanging clusters, so that, cast into the winepresses of the eighty-third and eighty-eighth psalms, which are entitled "for the winepresses," they may be trodden by the foot of the Lord who comes up from Bosor, that he may pour out the wine which gladdens the heart of man. The earth also shall give its increase, not arid and stony and full of thorns; but good earth which gives a hundredfold and sixtyfold and thirtyfold fruit: that those who have sown in tears may reap in joy. But the heavens also shall give their dew, of which it is written in the eighteenth Psalm: The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows forth the work of his hands.

Of these heavens it is said in the Canticle of Deuteronomy: Rejoice, you heavens, with him, that is, with the Lord the Savior, whom he foreknew and predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, who speaks with Moses: Let my speech be awaited like the rain, and let my words descend like the dew. For those who were dead in sins shall rise again, and those who lay in whitened sepulchers, which are full of the bones of the dead, shall be awakened, and those who dwell in the earth shall rejoice. And what is the cause of the joy, the following word shows: For the dew that is from you is their healing. And all these things, namely peace, and the fruit of the vines, and the abundance of the lands, which has grown by the dew of the heavens, the remnant of my people shall possess, of whom Isaiah speaks: Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been made like Gomorrah.

For the remnant, according to the election of grace, are saved: not of works; otherwise grace would not be grace. (Verses 13 ff.) And it shall come to pass, that as you were a curse among the nations, house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you, and you shall be a blessing: fear not, let your hands be strengthened. For thus says the Lord of hosts: As I purposed to afflict you, when your fathers provoked me to wrath, says the Lord, and I did not relent: so, turning, I have purposed in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah: fear not.

LXX: And it shall come to pass, as you were a curse among the nations, house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you, and you shall be a blessing: be confident and be strengthened in your hearts, for thus says the Lord Almighty: As I purposed to afflict you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, says the Lord Almighty, and I did not repent: so I am prepared and have purposed in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah: be confident. He promises these things to come after the building of the temple, that just as the house of Judah and the house of Israel (namely the two tribes, and the ten tribes) had been among all nations a curse and a hissing and an example, so, when they have been saved and returned into Judea, they may be a blessing to all.

Fear not, he says, the rebelling adversaries: trust that the things which the Lord promises through me are true: let your hands be strengthened: complete the works which you have begun. The cause of this strengthening is the promise of the Lord: for thus says the Lord Almighty, to whom nothing is impossible, who is able to fulfill what he promises: as I devised to afflict you, and to hand you over to captivity, because your fathers provoked me to wrath, and I did not relent—which the Seventy translated οὐ μετενόησα, that is, "I did not repent," which in Hebrew is written Lo naamathi (ולא נחמתי); I did not relent, in order that I might correct you by captivity, and instruct you through all torments and scourges: so now, in the present time, I have purposed to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

And it should be noted that, when he is angered, the curse is upon the house of Judah and the house of Israel among the nations, that is, all twelve tribes who were given over to captivity. But after he has purposed to do good, he does not do it to Judah and Israel, that is, to the two tribes and the ten tribes, namely Jerusalem and Samaria, Oholah and Oholibah; but leaving Israel in captivity, he does good to Jerusalem and the house of Judah: and he joins at the end: Fear not, or, Be confident, in the sense we explained above.

But as regards the Church, and each of the believers, it can be understood thus: that in time of persecution the Christians were a curse and an example to all the surrounding nations, because they had offended their Lord: and afterward they are in blessing, when peace has been restored, and all this comes to pass, because the Lord, who had first been angry, is afterward merciful to Jerusalem, the vision of peace, and to Judah, which confesses the faith of the Lord. Each of the believers also, who because of their vices are cast out of the Church, and handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that they may learn not to blaspheme, when they have done penance, shall return to their former state, and shall see the peace of God, and shall possess the glory of their confession. As for what is written: I did not relent, or I did not repent, the heretics slander this, as though God were either cruel or mutable, if he either does not repent, or does repent.

For if he repents, they say he is mutable; if he does not repent, they assert he is cruel. Yet God repented that he had anointed Saul king. And among the Ninevites, to whom he had announced through the prophet: Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown, who did penance, he too is said to have changed his sentence, not from any fault of an improvident mind, but from the variety of what they do, whether evil or good. For if they do evil, he threatens; if they weep for their former sins, he has mercy: God is not changed, who is one and the same, and cannot be changed; but when they have changed from evil to good works, he himself also changes his own decree. He who also speaks in Genesis: The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is multiplied, and their sins are exceedingly great: therefore going down I will see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me; and if not, that I may know.

What he said means this: If they persist in their fury, punishment will not fail the sinners; if they cease from their madness, they will become most worthy of my acknowledgment. Now the Lord knows those who are his. And the Apostle writes to the Galatians: But then, not knowing God. And though God knows all things, and nothing of the past, nor of the present, nor of the future escapes him, in the Gospel he says of the impious that he does not know them: Depart from me, workers of iniquity, I do not know you.

Therefore let us understand knowledge, and repentance, and anger, and indignation, and all the affections of God, not by the fault of human speech, but according to the sense of the divine majesty. (Verses 16, 17.) These then are the words which you shall do: Speak the truth each one with his neighbor, judge truth and the judgment of peace in your gates, and let none of you think evil against his friend in your hearts, and love not a lying oath: for all these are the things that I hate, saith the Lord. The Septuagint: These are the words which you shall do: Speak the truth each one with his neighbor: judge peaceful and just truth and judgment in your gates, and let none of you think evil against his neighbor in your hearts, and love not a lying oath, for I hate all these things, saith the Lord Almighty. I have promised that I will not deal with the remnant of the captive people according to the former days.

And as I thought to afflict them, when their fathers had provoked me to wrath, and I did not have mercy: so now I have thought, being turned, in these days, to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Therefore that my resolve may stand, and the promise not be made void, do these things which I command: Speak the truth with your neighbors. Let us take “neighbor” to mean the whole human race, since we are all begotten of one parent. Otherwise, if “neighbor” is taken to mean a relative, one would have to lie to strangers and foreigners. The Apostle says the same thing: Putting away lying, speak the truth each one with his neighbor. Judge, he says, truth and the judgment of peace in your gates. In judgment let truth and justice come first; then let mercy follow.

For this is the judgment of peace, that the judge should have as his purpose to bring peace to those at variance, according to that word of the Gospel: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. And what follows: In your gates, agrees with that prophetic saying: They have hated him that rebuketh in the gate, and have abhorred the holy word. And in another place: They shall not be confounded when they speak with their enemies in the gate. David also used to judge in the gates, when Absalom, promising true judgment, laid snares for his father. And it is asked why among the Jews the place of judging was in the gates. In order that farmers might not be forced to enter the cities, and undergo some loss, the judges sat in the gates, so that they might hear both townsmen and countryfolk on the way out and in of the city, and when the business was finished, each might return promptly to his own home.

And let no one, he says, think evil against your friends in your hearts: RAAH (רעה), which all with one voice have rendered κακίαν, that is, malice, we may take in two ways, both as affliction and as evil. As affliction: Shall there be evil in a city, which the Lord hath not done? And: Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. As evil, God speaks in the prophet Jonah: The cry of their wickedness is come up to me. And in the Apostle we read: Filled with all iniquity and malice. In either sense, then, he who is holy neither afflicts his friend, nor thinks evil against him in his heart. And love not, he says, a lying oath: the Lord commanding in the Gospel: But I say to you, that you should not swear at all, but let your speech be, yes, yes, no, no; for he who does not swear can never be forsworn. Let him who swears hear that which is written: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

All these are the things that I hate, saith the Lord: according to the words of Malachi, who says: And all the things I hated you did. In precepts which pertain to life and are plain, we ought not to seek an allegory, lest, as the Comic poet says, we seek a knot in a bulrush (Plautus, Menaechmi 2, 1). (Verses 18, 19.) And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: The fast of the fourth, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth month shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and great solemnities: only love ye truth and peace. The Septuagint: And the word of the Lord Almighty came to me, saying: Thus saith the Lord Almighty.

The fast of the fourth, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth month shall be to the house of Judah for joy and for gladness, and for good festivals (for this is what is said in Hebrew, TOBIM (טובים), that is, ἀγαθὰς), and rejoice, and love ye truth and peace. In answer to that which above Sharezer and Regemmelech had inquired through envoys, whether in the fifth month and in the seventh month, as it stands in the Septuagint, they ought to fast and mourn, or after the building of the temple to end the fast and lay aside mourning, many things having been set forth as to what they should do, and what they should hope for, the prophet answers in the person of the Lord: the fast of the fourth, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth (for “month” is understood ἀπὸ κοινοῦ) shall be turned to the house of Judah and Jerusalem into festal days and joy.

God requires only truth and peace. On this passage many of our own writers have said many things, and things at variance with one another. Some, professing obscurity by silence, have passed over it as though it were a most profound pit in their commentaries: judging it wiser to say nothing at all than to say too little. We are compelled, therefore, to have recourse to the Hebrews, and to seek the truth of knowledge from the spring rather than from the streams: especially since it is not some prophecy concerning Christ, where they are wont to prevaricate and hide the truth with falsehood, but the order of history is woven from what precedes and what follows. The fast of the fourth month, which among the Latins is called July, on the seventeenth day of that month, they suppose to be that time when Moses, coming down from Mount Sinai, cast down and broke the tablets of the Law, and according to Jeremiah, the walls of the city were first breached.

In the fifth month, which among the Latins is called August, when, because of the spies of the holy land, sedition arose among the people, they were commanded not to go up the mountain; but for forty years to circle around toward the holy land with long delays, so that, except for two, Caleb and Joshua, all fell in the wilderness. In this month, both by Nebuchadnezzar, and many ages afterward by Titus and Vespasian, the temple at Jerusalem was burned and destroyed; the city Bether was captured, to which many thousands of Jews had fled, and the temple was ploughed up, to the disgrace of the oppressed nation, by Turannius Rufus. In the seventh month, however, which among us is called October, as we have said above, Gedaliah was slain, and the tribe of Judah and the remnant of Jerusalem were scattered. Let us read Jeremiah (chapters 39 and 41).

In the tenth month, which among us is called January, because it is the door (janua) of the year and its beginning, Ezekiel, being in captivity, heard, and all the captive people, that in the fifth month the temple had been overthrown, which we learn most fully in that same prophet. This, then, is the whole meaning of what is said: The days of mourning and of fasts which you have had until now for grief, know that I have thought to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah, that they shall be turned into gladness and joy and solemnities: provided only that you love truth and peace.

According to the anagogical sense, because we fast then, when the Bridegroom is taken away from us, and we do not deserve to have his presence, when the Lord shall have returned to us, and shall have thought to do us good, all sadness shall be turned into joy; and the former famine of the word of God shall be compensated by the presence of his teachings, and by the fullness of the heavenly bread. (Verses 21, 22.) Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Until when shall peoples come, and dwell in many cities, and the inhabitants go one to another, saying: Let us go and entreat the face of the Lord, and let us seek the Lord of hosts. I also will go. And many peoples shall come, and strong nations, to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to entreat the face of the Lord.

The Septuagint: Thus saith the Lord Almighty: Yet many peoples shall come, and the inhabitants of many cities; and those who dwell in the cities shall be gathered together into one city, saying: Let us go, that we may entreat the face of the Lord, and seek the countenance of the Lord Almighty. I also will go, and many peoples shall come, and very many nations, to seek the face of the Lord Almighty in Jerusalem, and to entreat the face of the Lord.

The fast of the fourth, and fifth, and seventh, and tenth month shall be changed into the best solemnities, to such a degree that the cities of Judea, which before were deserted, shall be filled with a frequent population: and one city shall go to another, and they shall mutually exhort one another, and say: because for these seventy years the ways of Zion have mourned, because there was none to go to the solemnity, all her gates deserted, and her priests groaning: now that peace has been restored, let us go up to Jerusalem, in which it is commanded by the law that we should offer sacrifices, and that all our males should appear three times a year in the sight of the Lord, and one saying to the other: Let us go and entreat the face of the Lord, and let us seek the Lord Almighty, the other city will answer: I also will go: at which time many peoples and countless and strong nations shall come, to offer sacrifices in Jerusalem to the Lord of hosts, and to entreat his face.

For the Lord draws near to those who do not tempt him, and shows his face to those who are not unbelieving. He who has seen the Son, has seen also the Father; and the Lord and Saviour is the image of the invisible God: not that the Son is visible and the Father invisible, but that when the Son is named, the Father is understood. For there is no Father, if he has no Son. Whence he himself says in the Gospel: Father, I have manifested thy name to men. What we have said concerning Jerusalem and Zerubbabel, or after Zerubbabel, is more rightly and fully referred to Christ, and to Jerusalem, which is understood as the Church: and that then peoples and nations from the whole world would come running together to offer sacrifices in the temple of the Lord.

Also in time of persecution, as we touched on before, let the teachers and priests of the Church boldly promise to the captives and believers, that once more the παροικίαι (dwelling-places) are to be rebuilt, and the tranquility of peace restored, and that in the churches the face of the Lord is to be entreated. Let us pass quickly over what is clear, that we may dwell longer on what is more obscure. (Verse 23.) Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days, in which ten men out of all the languages of the nations shall take hold, and shall take hold of the hem of a man of Judah, saying: We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you. LXX: Thus says the Lord Almighty: In those days, if they shall take hold of the hem of a Jewish man, saying: We will go with you, because we have heard that God is with you. Certain of the Jews say that these things were fulfilled under Zorobabel, and after Zorobabel.

Others put them off to a future time, when they hope Christ is to come. But we, more rightly and more truly, understand them of the coming of the Lord the Saviour, when He was born of the Virgin Mary. For it is written: How long shall they come, the peoples? When it is said, "how long," it does not signify the present time, in which were Zorobabel and Jesus; but the future, when many peoples and strong nations shall come, that they may seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and entreat the face of the Lord. In that time therefore, and in those days, ten men out of all the languages of the nations shall take hold of the hem of a Jewish man, saying: We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you. And in Isaiah we read: Seven women shall take hold of one man, saying: We will eat our own bread, and be clothed with our own garments: only let your name be called upon us: take away our reproach.

Those seven women there named are, that is, the Churches, whose number is contained also in the apostle Paul: for he writes to seven Churches, to the Romans, to the Corinthians, to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Philippians, to the Colossians, to the Thessalonians. And in the Apocalypse of John, in the midst of seven candlesticks, that is, of the Churches of the Ephesians, Smyrnaeans, Pergamenes, Thyatirenes, Sardians, Philadelphians, Laodiceans, the Lord enters girded with variety (or, truth), and with purest gold: now in the prophet Zachariah ten are named, whom the Lord also sought out, that if He had found them in Sodom and Gomorrah, Adama and Seboim, He might deliver them from destruction. For the letter Iota, from which the name of the Saviour takes its beginning, signifies, not only among the Greeks, but also among the Hebrews, the number ten.

And by this mystical word it is shown, that all who are reckoned by the name of Christian—whom the Lord also says He left as seven thousand in the time of the persecution of Jezabel and the flight of Elijah, who did not bow the knee before Baal—and who shall come to the measure of a perfect man out of all languages and nations, shall take hold of the hem of the Jewish man, that is, of the Lord the Saviour, of whom also it is said in the Psalms: Judah is my king. And: Judah, your brothers shall praise you. And again: The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a ruler from between his thighs, until he come to whom it is reserved: and he shall be the expectation of the nations. For there shall be a root of Jesse: and he who shall rise up to rule the nations, in him shall the nations hope.

And when they have taken hold of him, they shall desire to cling to his footsteps; because God is with him. Or certainly, whoever out of all languages and nations shall have believed, shall take hold of the Jewish man, the apostles who are of the Jews, and shall say: Let us go with you: for we have heard through the prophets, and have learned by the voice of all the Scriptures, that Christ the Son of God, God and Lord, is with you. Where the prophecy is most manifest, and is foretold both of the coming of Christ and of His apostles, and of the faith of all the nations, let us seek nothing further. And that we said the number of seven thousand pertains to the name of Christians, compute in Greek ἑπτάκις χιλίους εἰ χριστιανούς, and you will find the same number and sum, that is, one thousand nine hundred and forty-one.

But also the parable of the ten virgins in the Gospel, whom we interpret according to the senses of the flesh and of the spirit, if they shall have prepared the oil of good works for their lamps, and shall have doubled the number five, that they may be holy (according to the Apostle) in body and spirit, they refer to the mystery of this number. The ten cities also, which he who has governed best the senses of the body shall receive doubled in number in the future.

(Verse 1.) The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Adrach, and Damascus is the resting-place thereof: for the eye of man is the Lord's, and of all the tribes of Israel. LXX: The taking up of the word of the Lord in the land of Adrach and Damascus of his sacrifice, for the Lord looks upon men, and all the tribes of Israel.

This whole Vision, or weight and burden of the word of the Lord, as Aquila has interpreted it, pertains to the calling of the nations, and the building up of the Church. And the order of the words is this: The taking up of the word of the Lord, sharp against sinners, gentle toward the just: for ADRACH (חדרך) so sounds, being a name compounded of two whole words: AD, meaning sharp, RACH, meaning soft and tender: and not, as is wrongly read by some, Sedrach. Some refer Adrach to the people of the Jews, Damascus to the calling of the nations. Whence the people, or the taking up of the word of the Lord, comes to pass in the land of Adrach, upon which the Lord has exercised both His severity and His clemency. Severity toward those who would not believe: clemency toward those who returned with the Apostles. But Damascus is on account of the rest of the Lord, according to that which is written in Isaiah: And his rest shall be honor.

Since before the child knew to choose the good or the evil, and to call father and mother, he received the strength of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria. Whence also Damascus is rendered in our tongue, "drinking blood" or "blood of sackcloth," so that the first interpretation signifies a bloody people; the second, penitence joined to its cruelty. And that which follows: For the eye of man is the Lord's, and of all the tribes of Israel, they expound thus: Therefore the temple of God is to be built out of both peoples, that is, both out of the land of Adrach, and out of Damascus its resting-place: because the Lord is his, whoever, even of the nations, looks upon God, and hopes in Him, as well as out of all the tribes of Israel: or, according to the LXX, because the Lord looks equally upon all men, and upon all the tribes of Israel.

Let us say it also otherwise: in the land of Adrach is the burden of the word of the Lord, and a most heavy weight. But in Damascus are His victims and sacrifice, because the Lord regards without any respect of persons both the faith of the nations and the perfidy of Circumcision, and is equally the God of all: others say the Jews declare that all these things are to be fulfilled at the coming of Christ, whom they promise to themselves in the last time, and that the land of Adrach, and Damascus, and Emath, and Tyre, and Sidon, and Ascalon, and Gaza, Accaron also and Azotus and the Philistines, shall bow their necks to the most powerful king, and shall serve him dwelling in Jerusalem; and that no one shall dare to raise a hand against Israel, all things round about being at peace.

All of which we prove to have been fulfilled spiritually at the coming of the Lord and in His Church. (Verses 2 and following.) Emath also in its borders, and Tyre and Sidon: for they took to themselves wisdom exceedingly. And Tyre built her fortress, and heaped up silver as the dust, and gold as the mire of the streets. Behold, the Lord shall possess her, and shall strike her strength in the sea, and she shall be devoured with fire. LXX: Emath in its borders, Tyre and Sidon: because they were exceedingly wise, and Tyre built her fortress, and gathered silver as dust, and gold as the mud of the ways. Therefore the Lord shall possess her, and shall strike her strength in the sea, and she shall be consumed with fire. Emath, which is interpreted χόλος, that is, indignation, is that which received the name Epiphania from Antiochus Epiphanes, and is now a city of Syria Coele.

And this, therefore, and Tyre and Sidon shall be in the borders of Damascus, or in the borders of the land of Adrach, that they may believe in the Lord the Saviour, to whom it was said by the Father: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession. The daughters of this Tyre, that is, the souls of those believing in Christ, shall bring gifts to the king, that what is written may be fulfilled: The daughters of Tyre shall worship him with gifts. And when the city of God, the Church, shall have been built, of which the Psalmist sings: Glorious things are said of you, city of God, immediately the rest follows also: Behold the strangers, and Tyre, and the people of the Ethiopians, these were born there. Concerning the strangers it is said in two psalms: Strangers serve me, or, are subject to me.

Concerning the Ethiopians we read in the prophet Sophonias: From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia they shall bring me gifts. And in the Psalm: Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands beforehand to God. But of Tyre the Gospel speaks: Woe to you, Chorozain; woe to you, Bethsaida; for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which have been done in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. From the borders of Tyre and Sidon that Chananean woman, a Syrophoenician, whose daughter was grievously vexed by a demon, came to meet the Lord the Saviour; and she dedicated the firstfruits of the faith of the Tyrians and Sidonians, so that those who at the time of Christ had not—through the sport of divination, and to say something further: as is that which Menasse Ben Israel teaches, that often a unity is added to the number which the letters of some word make, which they call כולל (that is, "universal"), because it is set for the whole word.

Believed, because they had not yet seen the signs and mighty works, might afterward see them through the apostles and believe, and might be partakers of that blessedness which the Lord promises, saying: More blessed are they who have not seen and have believed. But Tyre and Sidon (of which the one is interpreted συνοχή, that is, "straitness"; the other θήρευμα, that is, "hunting"), took to themselves wisdom to such a degree, that by their sophisms and the nets of the dialecticians and the weavings of the sophists, which the Scripture calls fortifications, Tyre proposed riddles to Solomon, that is, to the peaceful king, and gathered her silver, that is, the brilliance of eloquence, and her gold, the cunning of the senses, like dust and mire that is in the streets and ways, so that she might possess the kingdom of idolatry which she had fortified.

But against these fortifications the Apostle speaks: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty to God, unto the pulling down of fortifications: casting down imaginations, and every height that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. And under the person of Nineveh, which is interpreted "adorned," or "beautiful" (for nothing is more adorned than the world), the word of the prophet of God is directed against the men of the world: And you shall be drunken, and you shall be despised, and shall seek help from the enemy: all your fortifications shall be like fig trees with their green figs: if they be shaken, they shall fall into the mouth of the eater.

And Tyre, therefore, and Sidon the Lord shall possess, when He shall first have struck their strength in the most salt and bitterest sea of this world, and lest anything of their former wisdom, that is, of their swelling folly, by which they procured for themselves feeble fortifications, and silver and gold like mire, should remain in them, He shall refine them with fire and cleanse them thoroughly, of which the Saviour speaks in the Gospel: I have come to send fire upon the earth, and what do I desire but that it be kindled, according to that which is written in Mark: Everyone shall be salted with fire. (Verse 5 ff.) Ashkelon shall see, and be afraid, and Gaza, and shall grieve exceedingly: and Ekron, because her hope is confounded, and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. And a separator shall sit in Ashdod, and I will destroy the pride of the Philistines.

And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth, and he too shall be left unto our God, and shall be as a governor in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite. And I will encamp around my house on account of those that serve me, going and returning, and no exactor shall pass over them any more: for now I have seen with my eyes. The Septuagint: Ashkelon shall see, and shall fear: and Gaza, and shall grieve exceedingly: and Ekron, because she is confounded of her hope, and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.

And foreigners shall dwell in Ashdod: and I will destroy the injury of the foreigners, and I will take away their blood out of their mouth, and their abominations from between their teeth, and these also shall remain unto our God, and they shall be as χιλίαρχος, that is, a tribune in Judah: and Ekron as the Jebusite, and I will set up an elevation in my house, so that no one shall pass through, or return, and no plunderer and howler shall ever again come upon them: for now I have seen with my eyes. Ashkelon is interpreted "ignoble fire," or "weighed"; Gaza, "strong," or "empire"; Ekron, "barren," or "uprooted"; Ashdod, which in Hebrew is called ESDOD (אשדוד), "fire begetting," or "fire of an uncle," or "fire of the breast"; Jebusite means "trodden down." We have set forth the etymologies of the names, so that we might briefly run through the sense.

Ashkelon and Gaza and Ekron, seeing that Hamath was within the borders of Damascus, and Tyre and Sidon, after they were struck round about, and all their hay, wood, and stubble had been consumed by fire, were possessed by the Lord, and they themselves, terrified with fear and grief and confusion, began to hope for better things. Accordingly Ashkelon, in which the devil formerly dwelt, an ignoble fire, and one that had come to the full measure and weight of sins, trembled with dread, because it ceased to have inhabitants. And Gaza grieved exceedingly, doing penance for her former crimes, she who once had been strong and hard, untamable, and had promised herself the kingdom of all things, because her king and prince, the adverse word and the power of the enemy, had lost his dominion.

Ekron also, barren, because without the Law and the knowledge of God she had no children, was uprooted, that she might hear that prophetic word: Rejoice, O barren, that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the children of the desolate are more than of her that hath a husband. And when Ashkelon and Gaza and Ekron have been terrified and have grieved, either because they had no inhabitants, or lost their king, or their former hope was disappointed, foreigners shall dwell in Ashdod, where fire begets, which the Lord sent upon the earth, and desires that it burn. For he himself baptizes in the Holy Spirit and fire, where there is a cousin and an uncle, ἀδελφιδοῦς καὶ πατράδελφος, whom the bride desires in the Song of Songs: where there is fire of the breast and of the most bountiful bosom, of which we read in the same Song: He shall abide in the midst of my breasts. And in the Apostle: I have given you milk to drink, not meat.

Where, according to the Septuagint, we said: and foreigners shall dwell in Ashdod, in the Hebrew it is read, MAMZER (ממזר) shall dwell, or sit, in Ashdod, for which we have put: and a separator shall sit in Ashdod. Understand the separator to be the Lord, who separates the wheat from the chaff, and the good fish from the bad fish, and discerns silver and gold from filth and dross. And when he has done this, he promises the rest also: I will destroy the injury, or pride, of the Philistines. For which the Septuagint translated "foreigners." The Philistines are interpreted in our tongue as "those falling by the cup": because they drank of the cup of Babylon, and fell down drunken. These, therefore, at the time of the calling of the nations and the coming of Christ, shall not have pride, but shall follow the humble and meek Jesus.

And he shall take away from their mouth the blood, the words of blasphemy, and the abominations, the worship of idols, and the eating of things sacrificed to idols, from between their teeth: so that after these things have been taken away, the Philistines themselves, that is, the foreigners, may be left unto the Lord, and there may be a governor in Judah, that is, in the people confessing the Lord, so that the former people, who were at the head, may be turned into the tail, and the last, who were at the tail, may pass over into the head; and Ekron, once barren, and therefore uprooted, may be as Jebus, that is, as Jerusalem. For this city is called by three names, Jebus, Salem, and Jerusalem. And I will encamp, he says, around my house, that is, the Church, on account of those who serve me as soldiers, that is, those who serve me in various ministries, and run hither and thither at my command, going and returning.

Or: I will encamp around my house the garrisons of angels, of whom it is also written in another place: The angel of the Lord shall encamp round about them that fear him, and shall deliver them: so that there may be none who goes and returns, that is, who plots snares against my people. Nor shall an exactor pass over him any more, of whom Isaiah says: The exactor has ceased: or indeed, ἐξελαύνων, that is, one driving out, and dragging the bound into captivity: because with his own eyes, which we may understand as the prophets and all the saints, the Lord has seen the calling of the nations and the security of the Church.

Rejoice greatly, daughter of Sion; shout for joy, daughter of Jerusalem: Behold, thy king will come to thee, just and a saviour: he himself poor and mounted upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. And I will destroy the chariot out of Ephraim, and the horse out of Jerusalem, and the bow of war shall be broken, and he shall speak peace to the nations, and his power shall be from sea to sea, and from the rivers unto the ends of the earth. The Septuagint: Rejoice exceedingly, daughter of Sion; proclaim, daughter of Jerusalem: Behold, thy king will come to thee just, and saving, he himself meek and mounted upon a beast of burden and a new colt, and he will destroy the chariots out of Ephraim, and the horse out of Jerusalem, and he will destroy the bows of the warriors and the multitude, and peace out of the nations, and he shall have dominion from the waters unto the sea, and from the rivers unto the ends of the earth.

The Evangelists write that this prophecy was fulfilled when the Lord entered Jerusalem, sitting upon an ass and the colt of an ass, and a crowd of children with branches of palms met him, crying: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord: hosanna in the highest; and when the Pharisees rebuked him, asking why he did not check the children who cried out, he answered: Have you not read: Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? Therefore Sion rejoices and Jerusalem shouts for joy, one and the same city (for Sion is the citadel of Jerusalem), because her king has come to her, who was promised by the prophecies of all the prophets: he himself just, a Saviour, that is, Jesus, as the angel interpreted, speaking to the Virgin: And he shall be called Jesus, because he himself will save his people from their sins.

Poor also, or, as the Seventy translated, meek, who, though he was rich, was made poor for our sake, and says in the Gospel: Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart. And, mounted upon an ass, a beast of burden, or upon a new colt, evidently signifying both peoples, of the Circumcision and of the Foreskin, of whom the former had borne the very heavy yoke of the Law, as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles: Neither we nor our fathers were able to bear the heavy yoke of the Law. Whence also Paul writes to the Galatians who wished to be circumcised: Stand, and do not be held again under the yoke of servitude. But the new colt is the multitude of the nations, having no bridle of the Law, nor guided rightly by anyone, but always dashed and broken upon the precipices and abysses of idolatry, which learned to walk and to enter upon the right way by the Lord's sitting upon it.

And I will destroy, he says, the chariot out of Ephraim. This is still spoken in the person of God the Father, that the chariot, or car, out of Ephraim should perish, and the horse out of Jerusalem. And meanwhile according to the letter he speaks thus: There shall be no wars, all things having been pacified by the coming and birth of Christ. But according to a higher understanding, Ephraim refers to the multitude of heresies, which is interpreted καρποφορία, that is, fruitfulness and abundance of fruits, concerning whom it is written in the seventy-seventh psalm: The sons of Ephraim, bending and shooting the bow, turned back in the day of battle. Of these chariots and cars we read: These in chariots, and these on horses, but we will call upon the name of the Lord our God: they are bound and have fallen, but we have risen and stand upright. The horse which is destroyed out of Jerusalem is that of which we read: A horse is a vain hope for safety.

And in Jeremiah, those who were given over to luxury and lust hear: They were made for me like horses maddened after females: each one neighed after his neighbor's wife. Whence they are called back to repentance, the Psalmist saying: Do not become like the horse and mule, in which there is no understanding. And when God shall have destroyed the chariots of Ephraim and the horse out of Jerusalem, those who shall have been freed from horses and chariots of this sort will be transferred into the service of the Lord, and will be made Cherubim, and of them it will be said: The chariot of God is ten thousandfold, thousands of them that rejoice. And: I have likened thee, my companion, to my cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh. And: Thou wilt mount upon horses, and thy riding shall be salvation. The bow of war shall be broken, so that fiery darts, which could pierce the hearts of the voluptuous, may not be shot.

And he shall speak peace to the nations, concerning whom it is written: He shall be the expectation of the nations. And again: In him shall the nations hope. And: His power shall be from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the earth. This ought not to be diminished by allegory, but is to be believed to have been truly fulfilled, according to Thou also, by the blood of thy covenant, hast sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water: return to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope: this day also, declaring, I will render double unto thee. The Septuagint: And thou, by the blood of the covenant, hast sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit which has no water: ye shall sit in the stronghold, prisoners of the congregation, and for one day of thy wandering I will render double unto thee.

After the word of the prophet—rather, God the Father Almighty himself—announced to Sion and Jerusalem that their king would come to them, gentle, and mounted upon an ass, a beast of burden, and a colt of an ass, and that his power would be from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the earth, he makes an apostrophe to Christ himself, of whom the prophecy speaks, and says: Thou also, by the blood of thy covenant, or of thy pact, hast sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit in which there is no water. This is to be understood thus: By the blood of thy passion thou hast, in thy clemency, freed those who were held bound in the prison of hell, in which there is no mercy at all. Finally, after the Lord rose again, those who were held by the bonds of the sins of Adam, or, as some would have it, of inbred error and of death, rose with him, and appeared in the holy city.

Concerning this blood of the covenant, he himself, indicating his coming passion, spoke to the disciples: Take, and drink of this, all of you: for this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood. In prefiguration of this is the pit which has no water: and Joseph was sent by his brothers into a pit; and Daniel, and Jeremiah, by the Chaldeans and the people of the Jews; Banaias also, in the time of snow and cold, went down into a pit, that he might there kill a lion. But Jeremiah was submerged not in the water of a pit, but in the mud and mire of a pit, which could suffocate rather than refresh one thirsting. Whence in the psalm it is written: I am stuck in the mire of the deep, and there is no standing ground.

In this pit of hell dwelt that once-purple-clad rich man, whose boastful tongue was scorched by the flames of punishments, and had no refreshment of waters at hand, so that he begged that the very tip of the poor man's finger, dipped in water, might bring refreshment. And again the word is directed to those who were bound, and who were to be freed by Christ's mercy: Return to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope.

And the sense is: You who are now bound and held by relentless and terrible hell, who hope for the loosing of your bonds at the coming of Christ, return to the stronghold, or you shall sit in the stronghold, concerning which it is written: The fear of the Lord is the stronghold of the holy one; that you may be able to learn: Be thou unto me a God, a protector, and a place of strength, that thou mayest save me, and that the prophet may also declare of you: Behold a strong city, our salvation shall set for a wall and a bulwark. But this stronghold, to which God exhorts the prisoners of hope, or the prisoners hoping in the Church, we ought to take as nothing other than the dwelling of paradise, into which the first thief entered with the Lord: and therefore through Zachariah they are summoned to the stronghold, because even then, and from that time, the Lord was promising that, for brief tribulation, they would receive eternal rewards.

Or, as it is read in the Septuagint: for one day of thy wandering, I will render double unto thee. For, in comparison with eternity, all that we suffer in the world ought to be called one day—not of dwelling, but of wandering: because we are strangers and pilgrims, as were all our fathers. For our present momentary and light tribulation works in us, beyond measure, in the sublimity of eternal glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at those which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

For I have bent Judah for myself, as a bow I have filled Ephraim, and I will raise up thy sons, O Sion, over thy sons, O Greece, and I will make thee as the sword of the mighty. The Septuagint: For I have bent thee, Judah, for myself as a bow: I have filled Ephraim, and I will raise up thy sons, O Sion, over the sons of the Greeks, and I will handle thee as the sword of a warrior. This the Jews refer to the times of the Maccabees, who conquered the Macedonians, and cleansed the temple defiled by idolatry after a space of three years and a half.

And what follows: As a bow I have filled Ephraim, they judge to signify those who came from the ten tribes which are called Israel, under Hezekiah, over whom also Josiah is recorded to have reigned: provided only that they interpret the earlier testimony otherwise than we have explained it, and say: O Christ, whom we hope will come, and who shalt reign in all the bounds of the earth: by the blood of thy covenant, with which thou didst find Jerusalem sprinkled, according to Ezekiel, in her own blood, and didst make a pact with Abraham in the dividing of the calf and the ram and the she-goat; thou didst release thy people Israel from captivity and the furnace of the Chaldeans, in which there was no mercy. Therefore also you, O Israelites, who were bound, and hoped in the Lord, return to Jerusalem, most fortified: because today you have the Lord promising that, for the brief wrong of captivity, you may receive all things doubled, just as we read that Job also received.

According to the tropological sense, this passage can be explained thus: Judah is bent as a bow, when the Lord and Saviour is sent by the Father into this world, who is himself both the bow, and the archer, and the arrow. The bow, as in the present passage. The archer, as in the forty-fourth psalm: Thy arrows are sharp, most powerful, by which, when he has been wounded, he says: I am wounded with love. But the arrow is he himself who speaks through Isaiah: He has made me as a chosen arrow, and hid me in his quiver. The chosen arrow is the Word of God; the quiver in which the arrow is hidden is the dispensation of the flesh. The dispensation of the flesh assumed.

This is fulfilled in Ephraim, that when he shall have been armed and prepared for war, he himself also, with the nations, may be wounded by the arrows of the Lord, from whose tribe Jeroboam first split the people, whom the prophet Hosea more fully shows to be taken in the person of heretics, and what we said above: The sons of Ephraim, bending and shooting the bow, turned back in the day of battle. For when the Lord raises up the sons of Sion, that is, the sons of the Church, both the masters of contrary dogmas and every assertion of the philosophers, and the arguments of the gentiles, are destroyed, because the Lord himself is the sword of the mighty, of whom it is said: Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty one. In thy comeliness and thy beauty, look forward, proceed prosperously, and reign; because of truth, and meekness, and justice, and thy right hand shall lead thee wonderfully.

By this sword the Ethiopians are wounded, of whom it is written: And you, Ethiopians, shall be wounded by my sword, who, after they shall have been wounded by the sword of Christ, will lay aside their foul color, and shall say rejoicing: The splendor of the Lord our God shall be upon us: which David also promises himself, after repentance: Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow. This is the sword of which the Apostle writes: The word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword, and reaching unto the division of soul and spirit.

Verse 14. And the Lord God shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as lightning, and the Lord God shall sound with the trumpet, and shall go in the whirlwind of the south. The Lord of hosts shall protect them. LXX: And the Lord God shall appear over them; and his arrow shall go forth as lightning: and the Lord God almighty shall sound with the trumpet, and shall go in the commotion of his terror. The Lord almighty shall protect them. And this passage they refer to the times of the Machabees, because when those men were fighting against Antiochus and conquering, it was the Lord's battle and victory, who went forth mighty to war, and appeared in power like that lightning, and having defeated the adversaries and scattered them by the death of the whirlwind, protected the people of the Jews. But we shall refer everything to the understanding of the Saviour, of whom it was said above: I have bent Judah for me as a bow.

When this is bent, and the heretics and Gentiles have been slain by the children of Sion, the glory of the Lord shall appear, and his arrow shall go forth as lightning, concerning which lightning we also read in Habacuc: In the light of thy arrows they shall go, in the brightness of thy glittering spear. And this lightning and brightness is called by another name a trumpet and a blast, so that when the holy shout has sounded, he who before had deaf ears may say: The discipline of the Lord hath opened my ears, and he hath given me an ear to hear. And that which follows: And he shall go in the whirlwind of the south, or, he shall go in the movement of his threatening. Therefore he threatens, and says that he will bring on punishments, that he may have mercy on those who repent. Finally he joins and says: The Lord almighty shall protect them, whom he had before terrified by his threatening. Let us read the history of the Ninevites.

Verse 15. And they shall devour, and subdue with sling stones: and drinking, they shall be inebriated as it were with wine, and they shall be filled as bowls, and as the horns of the altar, and the Lord their God shall save them in that day, as the flock of his people, because holy stones shall be lifted up upon his land. LXX: And they shall consume them, and shall overwhelm them with sling stones, and they shall drink their blood as wine, and they shall fill the altar as bowls, and the Lord shall save them in that day as sheep, his people, because holy stones shall be rolled upon his land.

For what we have rendered "shall be lifted up," in the Hebrew it is written METHNASASOTH (מתנוססות), which can be interpreted as "wandering" or "fleeing." With the children of Sion protected, and the Lord sounding and going in the whirlwind against their adversaries, so great shall be the ruin of the Greeks that they shall be overwhelmed, I will not say by swords, but by the throwing of stones and the whirling of slings, so that they shall be prey and devouring to their enemies. Then those drinking shall be inebriated as it were with wine. Not that those who have been slain shall be drunk with their own blood; but those who conquer, as though drunk, shall fight with desperation, and shall be pleasing to the Lord like the horns of the altar and his libation. For this is understood in the bowls, in which libations are poured upon the altar.

The Lord shall also save them as sheep and the flock of his people: for he shall not fight against the Macedonians as an armed army trained in the art of war; but he shall come as a flock ready for death, and with the Lord's aid, shall prevail. And the holy stones which had been oppressed (he calls them stones on account of the hardness of tribulations and firmness of spirit) shall be lifted up from their lowliness, and shall be glorious in his land. Otherwise: His holy stones, of the priestly race, fleeing in various directions, shall obtain victory by his gift; let us also speak according to the anagogical sense, or rather let us explain a prophecy wrapped in many obscurities. The children of Sion, protected by their Lord, shall devour their adversaries, whom we understand to be the sons of Greece.

And they shall subdue them with sling stones, that is, with the threatenings of the Scriptures, making their adversaries subject and humble: for nothing strikes so much as an example from the holy Scriptures, and a testimony hurled forth by the whirling of the mouth. But as to what is said in the LXX: And they shall drink their blood as wine, we do not read it so in the Hebrew; but, drinking, they shall be inebriated as with wine, so that they may hear that saying from the Canticle of Canticles: Drink, friends, and be inebriated. And thus their inebriation shall be pleasing, like a sacrifice of the altar; and like the horns, or corners, of the altar.

The Lord shall also save them, as the flock of his people, because holy stones shall be rolled upon his land, who shall be so light and striving upward, that they shall not wait for the hands of builders, but shall themselves hasten to be placed upon the foundation of Christ, and to be contained by the corner stone, of whom the apostle Peter also speaks: As living stones, be ye built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God. These are the stones which shall cry out, if the people of the Jews shall be silent, and they shall be rolled as long as they are in the body upon the earth, because the earthly habitation weighs down the mind that museth upon many things, and the Saint, placed in the flesh, says: Who will give me wings like a dove? Who, as far as in him lies, strives and is rolled about, and is lifted up on high, but is held back by the frailty of the flesh.

And that land upon which the stones are rolled is that of which we read: Sing to the Lord, all the earth. And: Let all the earth adore thee, and sing to thee.

Verse 17. For what is his good thing, and what is his beautiful thing, but the corn of the elect, and wine springing forth virgins? LXX: For if there be anything best of his, and if there be anything good from him, it is corn for the young men, and wine of good odor for the virgins. Therefore, they say, the Machabees, fleeing hither and thither, shall prevail with the Lord's aid, so that, the Macedonians being cast out of the land of Israel, the temple may be cleansed, the precepts of the Law observed, and the teaching of the Scriptures again bring forth virgins, that is, the peoples of those believing in the one God, who before had been defiled by the worship of idolatry. In "corn of the elect," that is, BAURIM (בחורים), they wish it to be understood not "young men," as the Septuagint rendered, but chosen and learned men, who may deserve to eat the corn, that is, the Law of God.

For "wine," which in Hebrew is called THIROS (תירוש), Aquila translated as οἶνον: which itself also can be referred to the abundance of the vintage. This the Jews suppose. But we understand the corn of the elect, or of the young men, and the wine springing forth virgins, or the wine of good odor for the virgins, to be the Lord the Saviour, who says in the Gospel: Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remains alone; but if it die, it brings forth greater fruit. Of this wheat is made that bread which came down from heaven, and which strengthens the heart of man. This bread they eat who are strong in Christ, and to whom John the Evangelist speaks: I write unto you, young men, because the word of God abideth in you, and ye are strong, and have overcome the wicked one.

He who is the corn of the elect, or of the young men, he himself is also the wine which gladdens the heart of man, and is drunk by those virgins who are holy both in body and in spirit, so that, inebriated and rejoicing, they may follow the Church, and it may be said of them: Virgins shall be brought to the king after her, her neighbors shall be brought to thee; they shall be brought with gladness and rejoicing. For how shall they not have gladness, who, inebriated with the cup of the Saviour, are begotten into virgins, and dare to say: Bring me into the wine cellar, strengthen me with perfumes? This wine is of good odor, whence in the same song it is said: Thou shalt make me drink of the spiced wine, of the juice of thy pomegranates. With this wine they are inebriated who follow the Lamb of God wherever he goes, clothed in white garments, because they have not defiled themselves with women: for they remained virgins.

(Verse 1 seqq.)

Ask ye of the Lord rain in the latter season, and the Lord shall make snows, and will give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field. Because the idols have spoken vain things, and the diviners have seen a lie, and the dreamers have spoken vainly, they shall comfort in vain: therefore they were led away as a flock: they shall be afflicted, because they have no shepherd.

LXX: Ask rain of the Lord in due season, early and late: the Lord has made phantasies, and shall give them the winter rain, to every one grass in the field: because those who spoke, have spoken labors: and the diviners have spoken false visions and false dreams, they shall comfort in vain: therefore they are dried up as sheep, and are afflicted, because there was none to heal. Thus the felicity which was promised in the time of the Machabees, when the holy stones were lifted up upon the earth, and the Israelite state grew greater, so much so that they again fed upon the corn of the Law, and your virgins were made drunk with the wine of the Holy Spirit, is promised in part.

But because it is now the last time of the prophets, and the world is declining toward its end, and all things that have been foretold await their fulfillment: Ask of the Lord that he give you the latter rain: that Christ, who is promised, may come and grant you dews and snows, for which it is written in the Hebrew AZIZIM (חזיזים). And I know not what the LXX intended in translating "phantasies," unless perhaps by the name of "phantasy" they wished to describe the greatness of grace and the wonder of the gifts. The Lord therefore, who is about to make snows and the dryness of all the earth, shall irrigate with the rains of evangelical preaching: he himself shall give showers to believers, and all things shall be filled with abundance, so that after the nations have believed in Christ, they may understand that the things they worshipped before were vain.

Or let Israel himself understand, who was once held fast, deceived by the errors of idolatry, that he had worshipped idols in vain, and had heard the lies of diviners, and had acquiesced in dreams, which the Scripture commands not to be believed. And for this cause they were led away as a flock into captivity, and afflicted without a shepherd, God, because they had no knowledge of the Law. This whole passage is obscure and doubtful, and the reader must pardon us if, in these things that are ambiguous, we too proceed with a wavering step.

We may, however, according to the spiritual understanding, say that the Lord exhorts those believing in Christ to ask for the latter rain at the consummation of the world, when the fulness of grace is to be given, and grass shall grow up for each in his own field, so that they may be able to say: The Lord ruleth me, and I shall want nothing: he hath set me in a place of pasture; he hath brought me up beside the waters of refreshment. For all the idols, and the diviners and dreamers, have spoken in vain, and comforted vainly.

This he speaks concerning heretics, who under the Christian name understand neither of whom they speak, nor of whom they affirm, and give heed to erring spirits, and to teachers of demons speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared: that those who believe in Christ may in no way be led away by the consolations of those who promise vain things, and are therefore delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, and are led away into the captivity of the king of Babylon, and shall be afflicted, because they have not Christ for their shepherd, whom they falsely promise themselves under a false name. (Verse 5. Ff.) My fury is kindled against the shepherds, and I will visit upon the goats, for the Lord of hosts hath visited his flock, the house of Juda: and hath made them as his goodly horse in the battle.

Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the pin, out of him the bow of battle, out of him shall go forth every exactor together, and they shall be as mighty men treading down the mire of the streets in the battle, and they shall fight, because the Lord is with them. LXX: My fury is stirred up against the shepherds, and I will visit upon the lambs: and the Lord God almighty will visit his flock, the house of Juda, and will make them as his goodly horse in the battle, and out of him he hath looked, and out of him he hath set, and out of him the bow in fury, every one that leadeth forth together shall go out, and they shall be as warriors treading down the mire of the streets in the battle, and they shall be made ready, because the Lord is with them. And in this passage there is a twofold explanation among the Jews.

For some suppose that all these things are to be fulfilled at the coming of Christ; others, that they were already fulfilled under the Machabees. Now this is their explanation of what the Lord promises: The Lord was angry against the shepherds and princes and priests, and he visited upon the goats and the people, according to what is written: My people is become a lost flock, their shepherds have cast them out, so that the disciples should be punished for the fault of their teachers, not by the injustice of the judge who visits the sins of the fathers upon the children, but because, while those were sinning, the people applauded together: and then indeed the Lord visited his goats, or his fattest lambs, and caused them, according to the Septuagint, to be dried up with drought.

But afterward the Lord almighty visited his flock, the house of Juda: for he raised up Judas Machabeus and the rest of his line against the leaders of Antiochus, and made them as his goodly horse in the battle, that is, those who were begotten of his stock: for a long time they oppressed the Macedonians. And what follows: Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the pin, out of him the bow of battle, out of him shall go forth every exactor together—this they understand metaphorically, so as to interpret the corner as the royal power, because it holds the walls together. And out of him, he says, the pin, that is, the priesthood. Read Isaias, in whom Eliakim is fixed in the temple of God like a pin.

Out of him the bow of battle, the mighty for warfare: out of him also every exactor together, which in the Hebrew is written NOGES (נגש), and Aquila rendered it εἰσπράσσων ("the one exacting"): so that not only the strong and good, but others among them, were unworthy of their descent. For Judas Machabeus and all the princes who were of his lineage among the people, were both the corner, because they held the people together by royal power, and the pin, for they were priests, and the bow of battle, because they were most valiant men, so as not only to arrange the army and the battle line, but to be the first to rush into battle. We may take what follows: Out of him shall go forth every exactor together, for which the LXX translated: Out of him shall go forth every one who leads forth together, and understand this to mean: There will be no rank in the army that is not disposed by his judgment.

And they shall be most valiant men, treading down the Macedonians like the mire of the streets in the battle: and they shall be most valiant, and shall fight, because the Lord is with them. Our own writers refer these things to the times of persecution, that on account of the fault of priests the people also is frequently delivered to adversaries: and yet the Lord almighty afterward visits his flock, the house of Juda, which confesses God both in word and in soul: and makes them as his goodly horse in the war, of whom the saints say: Thou didst ride upon thy horses, and thy riding was salvation. He himself will also be the bow of the Lord's fury, of whom he says: I will make my arrows drunk with blood. And again: My arrows shall be spent upon them.

Of this bow and of these arrows we read in the seventh Psalm (verses 13, 14): He hath bent his bow, and made it ready; and in it he hath prepared the instruments of death, he hath made his arrows to be burnt. And they shall tread down, he says, their adversaries, crowned in martyrdom, and they shall say: The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? Whilst the wicked draw near against me to eat my flesh. My enemies that trouble me, have themselves been weakened, and have fallen. If armies in camp should stand together against me, my heart shall not fear: If a battle should rise up against me, in this will I be confident—when that saying shall be fulfilled: One of you shall pursue a thousand, and two shall put ten thousand to flight. Verse 6.

And the riders of horses shall be confounded, and I will strengthen the house of Juda, and I will save the house of Joseph: and I will bring them back again, for I will have mercy on them: and they shall be as they were before when I had not cast them off: for I am the Lord their God, and I will hear them. And they shall be as the mighty men of Ephraim, and their heart shall rejoice as with wine: and their children shall see it, and shall rejoice, and their heart shall be joyful in the Lord. LXX: And the riders of horses shall be confounded: and I will strengthen the house of Juda, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will cause them to dwell, because I have loved them.

And they shall be as when I had not cast them off, for I am the Lord their God, and I will hear them: and they shall be as the warriors of Ephraim, and their heart shall rejoice as in wine, and their children shall see it and shall rejoice, and their heart shall be glad in the Lord. And these things they explain in a twofold manner, following the sense above, so that they either say these things were already accomplished under the Machabees, or they mention them as to be accomplished under Christ in the last age.

And the sense is: When Judas has been set as a goodly horse in the battle, and has trodden down the adversaries as mire, and, the Lord fighting with him, has conquered: then all the cavalry of Greece will fall, and the house of Juda and the house of Israel (for he calls it the house of Joseph, that is, of the ten tribes) will be saved alike, and I will bring them back from the captivity in which they were, and they shall be as they were at the time when I had not cast them off: for I am the Lord their God, who will hear them praying. And Ephraim, who are now held captive, shall afterward rejoice, and shall come into such great joy that you might think them drunk with wine. Their children indeed shall behold the triumphs of their fathers, and shall rejoice in the Lord, by whose grant they obtained the victory.

Let us inquire in history when Judas and Israel fought together against the Greeks, or at what time Ephraim returned from the Assyrian captivity, when, according to Ezechiel, the two rods, that is, Juda and Ephraim, were joined together, and coupled into one staff. This can be explained thus according to tropology. When the Lord almighty shall have visited his flock, the house of Juda, then the riders of horses shall be confounded, of whom it is written: Let us sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously magnified, the horse and rider hath he thrown into the sea. Of whom also it is sung in the voice of the Psalmist: At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, they have slumbered that mounted horses. And the choir of the saints repeats: Some in chariots, and some in horses: but we will call upon the name of our God: they are bound, and have fallen: but we are risen, and are set upright.

In this cavalry the king of Egypt trusted; and he was cast headlong into the sea, and sunk like lead into the depths, and by his own example he learned that what is written is true: A horse is a vain thing for safety. These chariots and quadrigas we have interpreted above, in the four perturbations, which, unless ruled by the reins of a good charioteer, are carried headlong. But there is another charioteer, of whom Elisha speaks: My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the driver thereof. Then God says he will strengthen the house of Juda and the house of Joseph, so that those who were divided under the reign of Jeroboam may be joined together under the rule of Christ, and there may be one shepherd and one flock. For both Juda and Joseph, though different men, are referred to a single understanding of the Saviour, because Joseph also distributed grain to the peoples starving in Egypt, and the Lord satisfied the hunger of the world with his own presence.

And he will convert them, and have mercy on them: and thus they shall be one, as they were before he cast them off. Understand all this in terms of persecutions, when, all being in despair, the Lord heard his servants. And they shall be as the mighty men of Ephraim, who were first weak and feeble, and afterward strong, and worthy of their name: for Ephraim is interpreted "fruitfulness." And their heart shall rejoice, when they have drunk the wine that was pressed out from the vine of Sorec. Their children also, to whom the apostle Paul speaks: My little children, of whom I am in labour again, until Christ be formed in you. And Peter, prince of the apostles: As children, he says, of obedience, not fashioned according to the former conversation. And in the Psalm we read: Come, children, hearken to me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord. These children, then, shall exult and rejoice, and their heart shall be glad in the Lord.

(Verse 8. Ff.) I will hiss for them, and gather them together, because I have redeemed them: and I will multiply them as they were multiplied before. And I will sow them among the peoples: and they that are afar off shall remember me: and they shall live with their children, and shall return. And I will bring them back out of the land of Egypt, and will gather them out of Assyria: and I will bring them into the land of Galaad and Libanus, and there shall not be room enough for them. LXX: I will make a sign to them, and I will receive them, for I will redeem them, and they shall be multiplied as they were very many before, and I will sow them among the peoples, and they that were afar off shall remember me.

They shall nourish their children, and shall return, and I will bring them back from the land of Egypt, and receive them from among the Assyrians, and I will lead them into Galaaditis and into Libanus, and none of them shall be lacking.

As a sign of gathering them together, whether under the Macedonians, or at the consummation of the world, as we said before, they shall have that hissing, so that by my hiss I may gather them, and teach myself to be their shepherd. For I have redeemed them, and freed them from captivity with outstretched arm: and I will multiply them, whom I had multiplied before, so that their dispersion among the peoples may not seem to be a division, but the work of sowing, and, the harvest of children and grandchildren being multiplied, they may live with their children: and may return not only from the land of Egypt, but also from Assyria, and from both parts of the world may they come back to Judea, and to the land of Galaad and Libanus, which the ten tribes formerly possessed, which are called the house of Joseph and Ephraim: and so great shall be the number of those brought back, that the land will not be able to contain the multitude.

According to the anagogical sense, the Lord signifies and hisses to those who had before been captives to their sins, and speaks to them: Come to me, all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: for my yoke is sweet, and my burden light. What is more merciful than this sign and hiss, by which the scattered people is gathered? But they are gathered because the Lord has redeemed them: not with corruptible things, as gold or silver, from their vain manner of life; but with the precious blood, as of a lamb unspotted, of the Lord Jesus. Whence he speaks in the Psalm: My exultation, deliver me from them that surround me. And again: Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, the God of truth.

And he will multiply them as they were multiplied before, that what was promised to Abraham might be fulfilled: I will multiply him, and bless him, and he shall be blessed, that he may become the father of many nations. But we ought not to understand as children of Abraham those to whom the Lord says: If you were the children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham, but those of whom the Apostle says: As many as are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. Of this multiplication Isaias testifies in mystical speech, saying: He that is small shall become a thousand, and a little one a strong nation. But let us not understand this multiplication and blessing of children carnally: otherwise Elias and Elisha and Jeremias and John the Baptist (than whom there hath not risen a greater among them that are born of women) would lack this blessing. They perished, but that by which the multitudes of the nations are called to the faith.

Then follows: I will sow them among the peoples, and from afar they shall remember me. They were sown among the peoples, who heard the word of the Lord: Going, teach all nations. And in another place: You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and appointed you that you should go, and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain forever. And when the apostles were sown among the peoples, the nations and peoples placed far off will remember me, that prophetic saying agreeing with this sentence: All the ends of the earth shall remember and be turned to the Lord. And all the families of the nations shall worship in his sight. For the kingdom is the Lord's, and he shall have dominion over the nations. And what is said: From afar they shall remember me, is like that: You who are afar off, remember the Lord, and let Jerusalem ascend upon your heart.

Far off was the whole multitude of the nations; but it remembered God, because we are all begotten of one parent. And when the apostles had been sown among all the nations, the nations placed afar off, having remembered God, will live with their sons, so that those who before were dead through unbelief may begin to live through faith. These are the sons whom Paul nourished in the Gospel, writing to the Corinthians: I gave you milk to drink. And Peter writes to the faithful in the dispersion, who had been reborn: Not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of the living God, and abiding, as newborn babes, that they might desire the reasonable milk, and grow thereby unto salvation. To these sons the evangelist John also wrote: Little children, keep yourselves from idols. And I will bring them back, he says, from the land of Egypt, and I will gather them from the Assyrians.

From the land of Egypt, in which the king Pharaoh ruled, who once boastfully said: Mine are the rivers, and I made them. And from the land of Assur, which the Assyrian king held, a great mind, who himself also said: Above the stars of heaven I will set my throne, and I will be like the Most High. But when the Lord has gathered the nations from the darkness of Egypt and from the tribulation of the world, and from the power of the Assyrian—who is interpreted as one accusing and convicting (for he is the enemy and the avenger)—he will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon.

Galaad is rendered in our tongue "testimony of transmigration," when we pass over from carnal things to spiritual, when we come from the part to the whole: we leave earthly things, and pass over into heavenly things: but Libanus is interpreted λευκασμὸς, that is, "whitening." We are therefore led out of the darkness of Egypt, that after we have passed over and migrated from the world, we may be made white in the Lord, and it may be said of us: Who is this that comes up made white? Others, following the ambiguity of the Greek word, by which both the mountain of Phoenicia and frankincense are called Libanus, now interpret Libanus as frankincense, and think that by frankincense God is signified, so that after we have passed from earth to heaven, there may be fulfilled in us the prayer of the Saviour: Father, grant that they may be one in us, as I and you are one. Whence also the bride in the Canticle says to the bridegroom: The smell of your garments is as the smell of Lebanon.

And when he has led us into the land of Gilead and Lebanon, no place shall be found for us, so that we may not at all be confined by the straits of earth; but may enjoy the breadth of the heavens. (Verses 11, 12.) And he shall pass through the strait of the sea, and shall strike the waves in the sea: and all the depths of the river shall be confounded: and the pride of Assur shall be humbled, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart. I will strengthen them in the Lord: And they shall walk in his name, says the Lord. LXX: And they shall pass through the sea, narrow: and they shall strike the waves in the sea, and all the depths of the rivers shall be dried up: and all the injury of the Assyrians shall be taken away, and the sceptre of Egypt shall be removed. And I will strengthen them in the Lord their God, and they shall glory in his name, says the Lord.

The Hebrews relate that the captive people of the Jews were carried away not only into Media and Persia, but also into the Bosphorus and the northern region, by the Assyrians and Chaldeans, and that afterward they were in part recalled, God's clemency turning them back to himself; and that this is what is now said: They shall pass through the narrow sea. The straits of the Propontis, which by a short strait divide Chalcedon and formerly Byzantium. And the Lord, he says (going before his people), shall strike the waves of the sea, and all the depths of the rivers shall be confounded, as was once done, when the Jordan was dried up, and the people crossed the Red Sea in the desert. And when they have been freed from the depth of captivity and the bitterness of evils, Assur shall be humbled, and the dominion of Egypt shall depart from them. And they shall be strengthened in the Lord, and shall walk in his name in the land of Israel, says the Lord.

These things, as they have been handed down to us by the Hebrews, we have expressed for the men of our own tongue, referring the same sayings back to those to whom they were spoken. But we who are reckoned by the name of Christ leave behind the killing letter, and follow the life-giving spirit; rather, comparing spiritual things to spiritual, we seek not the Bosphorus and the drying up again of the sea and the parched streams of the Jordan, which are like fables, but the clemency of God, worthy toward his servants, by whose leading, and by his opening the way for us, we pass through the strait of the sea, or the narrow sea, which for sinners is very wide: For wide and spacious is the way that leads to death: narrow and strait is the way that leads to life.

Of this sea we read also in the Psalms: They that go down to the sea in ships, doing business in the many waters, these have seen the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. Into this sea of the world, in which the number of the saints is straitened, and is placed in tribulation, the apostles descended, and first the Lord, that he might free us from the bitter waves. Into this sea the net of the Gospel is cast, which is woven of the testimonies of the Scriptures, that it may draw out many fish, overwhelmed by the whirlpools of this world, into the free air, that they may be able to sing praises to God.

These are they who went down into the sea, and in the ships of the Churches do many works, and behold the wonders of God in the depth of the riches of his wisdom and knowledge; and in the Holy Spirit, who searches even the deep things of God, to whom the Lord speaks: Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men. Concerning these fishermen who go down into the sea, and are in ships, Isaiah also prophesies: They shall fly in the ships of foreigners, and shall plunder the sea together. For in the Churches gathered from the number of the Gentiles, the apostles flew about the whole world, that they might plunder the sea, and carry off the spoils of the dragon who reigned in the sea, and of whom it is written: This is the great sea and wide, in which are creeping things without number: small animals with great, there the ships shall pass through: this dragon whom you formed to play with.

Wide and spacious is the sea for small and great living things, which consort with the dragon, and are without number. But those who are upon the sea, and who fly upon that sea in ships, shall hear together with the Saviour: You have dominion over the power of the sea; you calm the movement of its waves. And when they have crossed through the strait of the sea, and have trodden its waves under their feet, all the depths of the river shall be confounded, of which it is written: Who turns the sea into dry land, they shall pass through the river on foot, so that the injury, or pride, of Assur may be humbled, and the dominion of Egypt may depart from the saints and believers, and those who have been freed may be strengthened in the Lord, and say: My strength and my praise is the Lord. And again: I will love you, O Lord, my strength. And with Jeremiah: My strength, and my help, and my refuge, O Lord my God.

Whence also the Apostle, in whom Christ was speaking, said: I can do all things in him who strengthens me. And not only shall they be strengthened in the Lord, but they shall also glory in him and say: But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world. And: He that glories, let him glory in the Lord. And in another place: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the rich man in his riches; but let him that glories, glory in this: to understand and know the Lord, and to do mercy and judgment in the midst of the earth.

But because it is written in the Hebrew: And they shall walk in his name, it is to be understood thus: that Christians walk in the name of Christ, and that a new name is written on their tokens, and that under the dignity of so great a name they walk with the Lord, as Enoch walked, and pleased God, and was translated.

(Verse 1.) Open your gates, O Lebanon, and let the fire devour your cedars. Howl, fir tree, for the cedar has fallen: for the mighty are laid waste. Howl, oaks of Basan, for the fortified forest is cut down. LXX: Open your gates, O Lebanon, and let the fire devour your cedars. Let the pine howl, for the cedar has fallen, for the nobles are crushed. Howl, oaks of Basanitis, for the wooded forest is laid low. Clearly Lebanon, to whom the prophetic word is turned, saying: Open, O Lebanon, your gates, is understood as the temple of the Jews, which, having been restored—rather, built—by Zerobabel, is again to be overthrown by Vespasian and Titus, as is foretold. And because they metaphorically called the temple "Lebanon," and in the rest he preserves the metaphor, so that by the cedars and firs and oaks of Basan and the wooded forest he signifies the princes and priests and the people of the Jews.

And Lebanon opens his gates, that the Roman army may enter, and fire devours his cedars, that either all things may be laid waste by burning, or the leaders and princes may be consumed by hostile onslaught. The firs howl, because the cedar has fallen, the priests and princes mutually lamenting their own devastation. And what he said before obscurely, he now sets forth more plainly: because the mighty are laid waste. I should like to know what are the cedars of Lebanon that were burned: what are the firs, to whom a howling is enjoined: what is the pine, which fell: the mighty, he says, are laid waste. Howl, oaks of Basan—that is, of confusion and ignominy—because the most fortified forest, which in Hebrew is called BESOR, and was rendered by the LXX "wooded," has been cut down; because the temple, which had grown with impregnable strength, and had been built by various kings and princes, and afterward by Herod, has been destroyed by the Roman assault.

Certain persons, not understanding this passage, refer Lebanon and the firs and the pines and the oaks of Basan, and the wooded or fortified forest, to opposing powers, concerning which it is also said in Ezekiel under the name of Assur and Pharaoh: Behold, Assur is a cypress in Lebanon, and fair in branches, and thick with shade, and lofty in stature, and its top was among the clouds: the water nourished it: the deep exalted it, and the rest, which is said both of Assur and of Pharaoh, they suppose to be spoken either of opposing powers, or of any proud men and princes, concerning whom we also read in the Psalm: The voice of the Lord breaking the cedars, and the Lord shall break the cedars of Lebanon. And in another place: The day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is haughty and proud, and upon every one that is high and lifted up. And a little after: And upon every high cedar of Lebanon (Al. Of the lofty ones), and upon every tree of the oaks of Basan. And of this Lebanon they assert it is prophesied: Lebanon shall fall with the lofty ones. But let us follow the former interpretation, especially since what follows also agrees with this sense.

Verse 3. The voice of the wailing of shepherds, because their magnificence is laid waste: the voice of the roaring of lions, because the pride of Jordan is laid waste. LXX: The voice of the shepherds mourning, because their magnificence is made wretched. The voice of the roaring lions, because the roaring of Jordan is afflicted. This is part of the preceding chapter, and is contained in these verses. Those whom he had called cedars, firs, pines, and oaks of Basan, and explaining what these trees were, he had said: Because the magnificent are laid waste, now by another metaphor he says that the shepherds—that is, the princes and teachers, and those who were first in the people—ought to weep and mourn, because their magnificence and beauty and glory have been laid waste and consumed: namely, the temple in which they used to glory. And the voice, he says, of the roaring of lions, whom he had called lofty trees, and again shepherds, he now calls by the same name, lions.

And because he had said lions, he keeps the metaphor, so as to add: Because the pride of Jordan is laid waste, or the roaring and sound of the water rushing down, which in Hebrew is called GAON (גאון). And just as he compared the height of the temple, according to the situation of the land of Judaea, to the height of Lebanon (for nothing in the land of promise is loftier than Lebanon, nor more wooded and dense), so to the river Jordan, which is the greatest in Judaea, near which lions dwell, he joined the roaring of lions, because of the burning thirst, and because of the nearness of the desert and the breadth of the vast solitude, and the reed-beds and sedge. Whence also it is said by the prophet: A lion has come up from Jordan, wishing to show that Nebuchadnezzar had gone forth from his own abodes, like a lion from his den, against Jerusalem. Otherwise: The voice of the roaring of lions, because the pride of Jordan is laid waste.

The voice, he says, of the nobles, because the temple is destroyed, from which they always hoped for help, and which once nourished the just and warriors and the powerful, like lions.

Verse 4. Thus says the Lord my God: Feed the flock of the slaughter, which they that possessed slew, and repented not, and sold them, saying, Blessed be the Lord, we are made rich, and their shepherds spared them not. LXX: Thus says the Lord Almighty: Feed the sheep of the slaughter, which they that possessed slew, and repented not, and they that sold them said, Blessed be the Lord, and we are made rich, and their shepherds suffered nothing over them.

This is a most manifest prophecy, and by way of the historical sense the true order is narrated; the interpretation by tropology is superfluous, that we should say some shepherds are good, others bad, and that it may be referred equally to the old people as to the new—that is, both to the priests and princes of the Jews, and to the bishops and presbyters of the Christians, and whoever among the shepherds have been negligent, and have scandalized one of the little ones, are those who nourish the flock of slaughter, and suffer nothing over them, nor grieve, nor can say with the Apostle: Who is scandalized, and I am not on fire? And sell the peoples entrusted to them, of whom it is written: Who devour my people as they eat bread, and gain riches from the deaths of others, praising those who prey upon the wretched, and blessing the unjust. Let others interpret this as they wish; let us hold to the order of explanation which we once took up.

Since Lebanon is opened, and its cedars and firs are burned with consuming flame, and the wailing of shepherds is heard, and the roaring of lions, because all the beauty and pride of Jordan is laid waste and consumed: therefore the Lord my God said this to me: O prophet Zachariah, this word is directed to you: Feed the flock of the slaughter, that is, let it now meanwhile be nourished and grow, which afterward is to be slain by enemies—which sheep and flocks, the princes of the Romans, who possessed them, and held them by right of victory, slew, and had no mercy, or offered them up, and felt no grief, that is, they suffered no evil for so great cruelty, and sold those which they kept not out of mercy, but for the price.

Let us read the ancient histories, and the traditions of the mourning Jews, that in the tabernacle of Abraham (where now every year a most famous market is held), after the last overthrow which they suffered from Hadrian, many thousands of men were sold, and those who could not be sold were carried off into Egypt, and were destroyed as much by shipwreck and famine as by the slaughter of the nations. These, then, the victors, and the avengers of the Lord, who slew and did not grieve, and sold the flocks and said: Blessed be the Lord, we are made rich, held this opinion: Because of their sins the Jews offended; therefore we oppressed them, and from their price we are made rich. Nor is it any wonder, he says, if the enemies by right of victors slew the flocks, and did not grieve, sold them, and gloried in their crime; since their own shepherds and teachers did not spare them, and by their fault the flock was handed over to wolves.

Verse 6. And I will no more spare the inhabitants of the land, says the Lord: Behold, I will deliver men every one into his neighbor's hand, and into the hand of his king, and they shall cut in pieces the land, and I will not deliver them out of their hand, and I will feed the flock of the slaughter, therefore, O poor of the flock. LXX: Therefore I will no more spare the inhabitants of the land, says the Lord. And behold, I will deliver men every one into the hands of his neighbor, and into the hand of his kings, and they shall cut in pieces the land, and I will not deliver them out of their hand, and I will feed the sheep of the slaughter in the land of Chanaan. This which the LXX translated at the end of the chapter: And I will feed the sheep of the slaughter in the land of Chanaan, is not in the Hebrew, and is not rendered by any other of the interpreters.

Since, therefore, their shepherds did not spare them, and they themselves first devoured my people: therefore I also will no more spare the inhabitants of the land of Judaea, says the Lord. For he speaks of this land, of which the discourse was to him, and not of the whole world, as the Jews, wrongly interpreting, wish to twist to their own advantage the sentence of God to a different meaning. For after the overthrow of the temple (which happened to them for this reason, that for forty-two years after the Lord suffered, having received the space, they were unwilling to do penance), I will send, he says, each one against his neighbor, and they shall cut one another down in mutual slaughter, whether during the very siege of the temple, when the Roman army shall besiege Jerusalem: for there shall be such wars and discords among the Jews themselves, that the people is divided into three parts.

Let us read Josephus and the seven books of the Jewish captivity, and we shall see by the truth of history that this prophecy has been fulfilled. And they shall cut in pieces, he says, the land—there is no doubt that the Romans destroyed the whole land and all the cities of the Jews. And I will not deliver them out of their hand. Hear, O Jew, who promise yourself the vainest hopes, and do not hear the Lord saying and affirming: I will not deliver them out of their hands, that your captivity under the Romans shall be eternal. And I will feed the flock of the slaughter, that the Jews may always be nourished unto death; therefore because this is the sentence of God: O you who are the poor of the flock, that is, the just of Israel, Verse 8. And I took unto me two staves: the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.

And I cut off three shepherds in one month, and my soul was straitened in them; and their soul also varied toward me. And I said, I will not feed you: that which dies, let it die; and that which is cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest devour every one the flesh of his neighbor. LXX: And I will take unto me two staves: the one I called Beauty, and the other I called the Band, and I will feed the sheep. And I will take away three shepherds in one month, and my soul shall be aggrieved over them: for their souls also roared against me. And I said, I will not feed them: that which dies, let it die; and that which fails, let it fail; and let the rest devour every one the flesh of his neighbor.

Above he had said: Because of this, O poor of the flock, and with an aposiopesis made, it was to be understood, attend, that the doors of Lebanon are opened, and the oak of Basan, the firs and cedars are cut down, and he had added, threatening: I will no longer spare the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord. And this seemed to be said of the one Jewish people alone, that having slain the prophets, they had also laid hands on the Son of God, and had cried out with a rash voice: His blood be upon us, and upon our children!

Now the Creator and Lord of the universe expounds the mysteries of his world, and says that he had two rods, of which he called one Beauty, the other Bands, and with the two rods he fed the bound flock: also that he cut off three shepherds in one month, and his soul was straitened, or indignant, or (as the Septuagint translated) my soul shall grow heavy over them; there is no doubt that he means the shepherds whom he cut off in one month. And he gives the reason why he was so indignant with the shepherds that he cut them off in one month: For their soul also, he says, varied against me. And the sense is: They did not love me with a full heart, nor did the hireling shepherds love the true shepherd: For the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.

Wherefore also I, being indignant, gave sentence, and to those very shepherds whom I had cut off in my indignation, or, the shepherds having been cut off, I spoke to the remaining flock: I will not feed you; but let that which chooses death die of its own will, and let them devour one another, and tear each other with mutual slaughter. We have said these things paraphrastically, that we might pave the way for the explanation to come. The Creator and shepherd whose sheep know his voice, and follow him, took to himself two rods, or two σκυτάλαι, that is, staves, which are called in Hebrew MACALOTH (מקלות), to show the garb of a shepherd. One rod he called Beauty, that is, under Noah he protected with his blessing the whole race of men, when the world had been restored, and sins had not yet defiled it.

And therefore the calling of all nations is called beautiful and fair, because nothing is more just than that the parent of the universe should call equally all whom he begot under an equal condition. And the other he called Bands; for when the Most High divided the nations, and scattered the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. And the portion of the Lord became his people Jacob; Israel the cord of his inheritance. And I fed, he says, the flock: either Israel itself, or with Israel the whole race of men. And I cut off, he says, three shepherds in one month. I have read in the Commentaries of a certain writer: that the shepherds cut off by the Lord's indignation are to be understood, in the priests and false prophets and kings, of the Jews; because after the passion of Christ, all these were cut off at one time, of whom Jeremiah speaks: The priests did not say, Where is the Lord.

Those who held my law did not know me. And the shepherds transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied in Baal, and followed idols. Not content with this explanation, he wishes the three shepherds cut off in one month to be understood as those who sinned against the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; for all heretics sin either against one, or two, or three persons at once. Let him say what he wished, for another's opinion is not to be disparaged. To us the three shepherds who were cut off in one month seem to be Moses, and Aaron, and Miriam; of whom Miriam died in the first month, which is called NISAN (ניסן), in the desert of Sin, and in the same place, on account of the water of contradiction, and in the same month, Moses and Aaron were condemned, that they should not enter the land of promise. And so it came to pass that of the three shepherds, one was cut off by present death, the others by the sentence of a future death.

And my soul, he says, was straitened over them: namely over the three shepherds whom I had set over my flock. Because their soul also varied against me, for they did not glorify me at the water of contradiction. But if we refer it to the people, that the soul of the people varied against God, it is to be explained thus: Therefore I was indignant with them, because they too, wavering between me and idols, fought against me in various ways. Wherefore, being indignant, I said to Moses: I will not feed you: let me alone, and I will destroy them. Now when he says, in his wrath, Let me alone, he provokes to entreaty, and shows that he can be restrained by him. Let that which dies, he says, die, and that which is cut off be cut off; let the bodies of all fall in the wilderness, and, turned to sedition, let them tear one another like beasts with mutual bites, and let none enter the land of promise.

Some have understood the two callings of the Jews and the Gentiles, in the first the name Israel, and in the last Christians. But how the Christian calling was cast off before, and the Jews remained and were fed by God, they have not sufficiently considered. Verse 10. And I took my rod which was called Beauty, and cut it off, that I might make void my covenant which I struck with all peoples. And it was brought to nothing in that day, and so the poor of the flock who keep watch for me knew that it is the word of the Lord. The Septuagint: And I will take my beautiful rod, and cast it away, that I may dissolve my covenant which I disposed toward all peoples, and it shall be dissolved in that day, and the Chananites shall know, the sheep that are kept for me, that it is the word of the Lord.

After the calling of Israel, and the taking up of the second rod, which was called Bands, the Lord took the first rod, the nations of the whole world, which was called Beauty, and cut them off from his worship, because they had venerated idols, and all had turned aside, together they became unprofitable. And explaining more clearly what this rod was, he added: That I might make void my covenant which I struck with all peoples: For as soon as Israel was taken up, the crowd of the nations was cast off: and as the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue was born, who afterward in the Gospel, when she was twelve years old, is narrated to have been sick and to have died, the woman with an issue of blood began to flow blood, and to be tormented with perpetual infirmity. And into nothing, he says, was my covenant brought which I had made with all nations.

And the poor of the flock understood, that is, the people Israel who keep my commandments, that it is the word of the Lord, that is, it is the will of the Lord to cast off the nations who deny, and to take up Israel in Abraham who confesses. For what we have translated, and so the poor of the flock knew, the Septuagint translated, and the Chananites shall know, the sheep that are kept for me, which some explain thus: The people of the Jews shall know, to whom it was said: Seed of Canaan, and not of Judah; who is now kept by my ceremonies: or because Chananites are interpreted, prepared for humility, they shall know who were once prepared to be humbled by the Lord, and to be abandoned.

But why, for what we have translated as "so the poor," they said "Chananites," the reason is manifest: for among the Hebrews, "so" is said CHEN (כן): ANIE (עני), poor; joining these two words into one, for what is "so poor," that is, Chen anie (כעני), they interpreted the name of the Chananite nation. Verse 12. And I said to them: If it be good in your eyes, bring my price, and if not, forbear; and they weighed out my price, thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, Cast it to the founder, the handsome price at which I was prized by them: and I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them into the house of the Lord to the founder. The Septuagint: And I will say to them: If it be good in your sight, give as my price, or refuse. And they weighed out my price, thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me: Put them into the furnace, and consider whether it is approved, as I was approved for them.

And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them into the house of the Lord, into the furnace. When the poor of the Israelite flock, who keep my commandments, know that it is the word of the Lord which I have spoken, and true what I have said, he says to them, that is, to the poor of the flock, if it please you (for you are men, and I once created you with free will, to whom also I spoke in the wilderness: If you will hear me, you shall eat the good things of the land) in return for this adoption, whereby I cast off the whole race of men, and chose you for myself as a peculiar flock, and I, the Creator of all, willed to have a small cord, render to me my price, that is, keep my precepts. But if you do not wish to render the price, nor does it please you to be called by my name, openly refuse, and do what you will.

Who then indeed answered Moses: All things whatsoever the Lord says, we will do. But at the end of the times, in return for my having chosen them from the midst of the nations, and delivered them from the iron furnace of Egypt, they weighed out my price, thirty pieces of silver, giving it for my blood to Judas the betrayer. And the prophet says, the Lord said to me, or the Savior himself, whose words the former are, testifying that the Father had spoken to him: Cast it to the founder: for which in the Hebrew is read JOSER (יוצר), that is, τὸν πλάστην, whom we can call the fashioner and potter. And the sense is: Cast my price to the potter, who is the Creator and fashioner of all. Nor did he say, lay down; but, cast, that by the judgment of the fashioner and potter the price of the Lord might be weighed.

And ironically, seeing his own price, that is, of the divine majesty, appraised at thirty pieces of silver, and himself betrayed for so vile a price: The handsome price, he says, at which I was prized by them; but this is to be read more pointedly with the irony and mockery of one saying: At so much a price my people, and once the poor of the flock, and those chosen by me as sons, judged that I should be bought and sold. And I took, says the Lord through the prophet, as I had been commanded by God, thirty pieces of silver, and did not lay them down, but cast them into the house of the Lord to the fashioner: in the house of the Lord I caused them to be returned by the betrayer to the priests and Pharisees, he himself confessing who sold him: I have sinned, in betraying innocent blood.

But they, since it was the price of blood, were unwilling to put it back into the corbona, that is, into the treasury; but with it they bought the potter's field for the burial of strangers. For we all who were strangers and sojourners of the Law, redeemed by his most precious blood, are buried and rest in the house of the potter and Creator of all things. For πλάστῃ and fictor, I once translated "statuary," compelled by the ambiguity of the word, because it signifies both statuary and potter with one term. The Jews, interpreting this passage maliciously, recall the thirty pieces of silver as the thirty commandments of the Law which they are bidden to do in the Law, and again thirty-six others which are forbidden in the Law, and say that it is told them to render the silver of the commandments of the Lord to God, their own potter and fashioner: which because they were unwilling to do, they were cast off.

I have wished briefly to indicate what they think; otherwise it would be tedious to unravel their most convoluted explanation, so let us pass on to the rest. (Verse 14.) And I cut my second staff, which was called Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. The LXX: And I cast away the second staff, which was called Bands, that I might dissolve the covenant which was between Judah and Israel. And in this place I know I have read a lengthy explanation of a certain man, or rather inextricable tangles, bringing forth from the volume of Ezekiel the joining of two staffs into one fellowship, and fitting to this chapter everything that is to be understood spiritually about the concord of Judah and Ephraim. But let us follow the order we have begun.

After the Lord was crucified by the Jews and valued at thirty pieces of silver, and the price of his blood was cast for the burial of the Gentiles, who were strangers from the Law and the commandments of God: at once the Lord, no longer deferring his judgment, says, "I cut my second staff," which was properly mine, which clung to me so that in Jeremiah it was called the girdle and belt and loincloth, or, to use the customary word, the "coxale": which second staff, once called Bands and my portion, was cast away by me for this reason, that I might dissolve the covenant and brotherhood and concord which had been between Judah and Israel, and separate the brothers from one another. So that among the number of the apostles and of those who did penance, Judah should again be named, confessing his God: but Israel and Ephraim and Joseph should be called those who, remaining in hardness of heart, said, "We have no king but Caesar".

Whence he did not add: that I might make void the pact, or covenant, which I had with Judah and Israel (for even to this day he extends his hand to the penitent), but that he might divide, from one people, those who believe from those who do not believe among themselves, saying: "Do not think that I have come to send peace on earth: I have not come to send peace, but a sword.

For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies shall be those of his own household". (Verses 15 and following.) And the Lord said to me: Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd: For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who shall not visit those that are forsaken, shall not seek the scattered, nor heal that which is broken: and that which standeth he shall not feed, and he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and shall tear off their hoofs. O shepherd, and an idol, forsaking the flock: the sword upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be utterly dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.

The LXX: And the Lord said to me: Take unto thee yet the pastoral instruments of an unskillful shepherd: For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd upon the land, who shall not visit that which is forsaken, nor seek the scattered, nor heal the broken, nor set right the whole, and he shall devour the flesh of the chosen, and pervert their ankles. You who feed on vain things, and who have forsaken the sheep, the sword upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be utterly dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened with blindness. When it says, "Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd," it signifies that which above he had taken up for himself, two staffs, one Beauty, and the other Bands.

And because he cast those away by his own fault and sin, and the brotherhood between Judah and Israel was dissolved, we have been grafted into the root of the good olive tree, and blindness in part has happened to the house of Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in; now it is said to the prophet that he should take up the most grievous prophecy of the foolish, or unskillful, shepherd. The foolish and unskillful shepherd is without doubt Antichrist; who is said to be coming at the consummation of the world, and it is indicated what sort of one he will be who is to come. But by the instruments of the shepherd we ought to understand his insignia and attire: the scrip, the staff, the pipe, and the whistle.

And just as Isaiah, to demonstrate the captivity of the people, goes naked; and Jeremiah goes to the potter's house, that from the breaking of the vessel which ran upon the wheel and was fashioned by the artisan's hand, he might show both the destruction of Israel and the power of God; and Ezekiel, to demonstrate the overthrow of Jerusalem and the flight of Zedekiah, and the burdens of the captives, not only by voice but also by attire, digs through the wall, and is carried out upon his own shoulders: so Zechariah assumes the attire of a foolish and unskillful shepherd, to announce him who is to come.

This shepherd will therefore arise in Israel, because the true shepherd had said: "I will feed you no more." He who under another name is also prophesied in the prophet Daniel, and in the Gospel, and in the epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians, as the abomination of desolation, about to sit in the temple of the Lord, and to make himself as God, who is also, through Isaiah, called "a great mind". And he comes for this, not to heal, but to destroy the flock of Israel. For the good shepherd visits the sick flocks, seeks out the scattered, brings back the forsaken, sustains the weary. On the contrary, the evil shepherd does all things adversely, and devours the flesh of the fat ones, and tears off and perverts the hoofs of the rams and sheep, so that they do not walk with a straight foot.

This shepherd the Jews have taken up, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the spirit of his mouth, and will bring to nothing by the brightness of his coming; so that those who did not believe the truth, that they might not be saved, will believe a lie, and be judged, because they consented to iniquity. Now that the worst, foolish and unskillful shepherd has been described, the prophetic word turns to him directly: "O shepherd, and an idol." So wicked is the shepherd that he is named not a worshiper of idols, but himself an idol, since he calls himself God, and wishes to be adored by all. He who has forsaken the flock to be devoured by beasts, which the Lord had guarded for so long a time. "The sword upon his arm," and his strength, "and upon his right eye," by which he boasted that he sharply discerned the mysteries of God, and saw more than all the prophets of old had seen, thinking to call himself the Son of God.

And that sword is the one of which we have also spoken above, and of which we shall now speak in part, of which Isaiah also speaks: "My sword is made drunk in heaven". And therefore the sword of the Lord shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: that his strength and all the boasting of his might may be dried up in aridity, and the knowledge which he falsely promised himself under a false name may be darkened in eternal shadows.

(Verse 1.) The burden of the word of the Lord upon Israel: The Lord said, stretching out the heaven, and founding the earth, and forming the spirit of man within him: Behold I will make Jerusalem a lintel of surfeit to all the peoples round about; and Judah also shall be in the siege against Jerusalem.

And it shall come to pass in that day, I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone to all peoples; all who shall lift it up shall be torn by laceration, and all the nations of the earth shall be gathered together against her. LXX: The taking up of the word of the Lord upon Israel, saith the Lord, stretching out the heaven and founding the earth, and forming the spirit of man within him: Behold I will make Jerusalem like lintels that are shaken, to all the peoples round about, and in Judea. And there shall be a siege round about Jerusalem, and it shall come to pass in that day, I will make Jerusalem a stone that is trodden down by all the nations: everyone who tramples upon her, mocking shall mock; and I will gather together against her all the nations of the earth.

There is a threefold interpretation from that place where we read: Behold I will make Jerusalem a lintel of surfeit to all the peoples round about, down to that place where it is written: Sword, awake against my shepherd, and against the man who cleaves to me, saith the Lord of hosts: Strike the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. For some of the Jews think these things already partly fulfilled from Zerubbabel down to Pompey, who was the first of the Romans to take Judea and the temple, which history Josephus records. Others think that, when Jerusalem shall have been restored, these things are to be fulfilled at the end of the world: which the wretched Jewish nation, together with its glutton, whom above we read of as the foolish shepherd, promises to itself. Others, that is, we who are reckoned by the name of Christ, hold that these things are being fulfilled and are to be fulfilled daily in the Church until the end of the world.

And lest we extend the size of the volume through each point, proposing: "These say this; thus others suppose; we think thus," we have set forth three opinions, so that from the variety of interpretation the prudent reader may understand what is to be fitted to what. The Lord, therefore, who stretched out heaven like a skin, and made the earth solid with its lofty mass, and formed the spirit of man within it, is the same Creator of all souls, so that from two substances, soul and body, he might frame one living being. For "spirit" is frequently taken for "soul," as in that place: Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And: Thou wilt take away their spirit, and they shall fail, and shall return to their dust. This Creator of the universe and Lord, therefore, testifies that he will make Jerusalem a lintel of surfeit to all the peoples round about, so that whoever touches its threshold may become drunk and fall, or the very lintel itself may fall upon him who touches it.

But Judah also, when Jerusalem was besieged, was captured by the nations, and passing into fellowship with them, is compelled to besiege his own capital. Not only, however, will the Lord make Jerusalem to all peoples as a lintel of surfeit; but he will make her as a burdensome stone, which whoever wishes to lift shall be torn by laceration. For all the kingdoms of the earth shall be gathered together against Jerusalem. It is the custom in the cities of Palestine, and even to this day throughout all Judea the old custom is kept, that in villages, towns, and fortresses round stones of very heavy weight are set up, at which young men are accustomed to exercise themselves, and to lift them up according to the variety of their strength, some up to the knees, some to the navel, some to the shoulders and head, some over the crown of the head, with hands stretched straight and joined, showing the greatness of their strength, they raise the weight.

On the citadel of Athens, near the image of Minerva, I saw a bronze sphere of very heavy weight, which I, on account of the weakness of my little body, could scarcely move. And when I asked what it meant, it was answered by the worshippers of that city, that in that mass the strength of the athletes was proved, and that no one descended to the contest before it was known, from the lifting of the weight, who ought to be matched with whom. The sense, therefore, is this: I will make Jerusalem to all the nations as a very heavy stone to be lifted up. They will indeed lift her, and according to the variety of their strength lay her waste; but it is necessary that, while she is being lifted, in the very effort and raising of the weight, the very heavy stone should leave some tear or graze upon the bodies of those who lift it.

As regards the Church, it can be interpreted thus, that all persecutors who have fought against the house of the Lord are made drunk with that cup with which Jeremiah gives to drink to all the nations, that they may drink, and be made drunk, and fall, and vomit, and go mad. I know that in the time of persecution many of our own were compelled to fight against the Church; but whoever wishes to lift this weight will indeed lift it, and, in the wrath of the Lord by which he chastises sinners, will sustain it with his own hands: yet he himself shall not go unpunished, the sword of God fighting against him. Instead of "a burdensome stone," which we have translated as best we could, the Seventy rendered "a stone trodden down by all the nations.

Everyone who tramples upon it" (or her, that is, Jerusalem), "mocking shall mock." Which sense is plain, that in either way Jerusalem is to be trodden down both by enemy nations and by persecutors, and is to be mocked according to the will of those who mock. But the former sense is better and truer. We expound each point briefly, that we may at length come to the end, lest, if we should write at greater length, the reader's mind be confounded both by the obscurity of the matters and by the length of the discourse. (Verse 4.) In that day, saith the Lord, I will strike every horse with amazement, and its rider with madness: and upon the house of Judah I will open my eyes, and every horse of the peoples I will strike with blindness.

LXX: In that day, saith the Lord Almighty: I will strike every horse with amazement, and its rider with madness: upon the house of Judah I will open my eyes, and all the horses of the peoples I will strike with blindness. At that time (for this is what "day" signifies), when Jerusalem has been besieged, so that Judah too is compelled to besiege her, the Lord will strike, both carnally and spiritually, all the horses of the adversaries with amazement, so that all who see them struck are amazed, and their riders, under the pressure of the greatness of their evils, shall be turned into madness; and upon the house of Judah, who were being compelled to do something against their own capital, the Lord will open his eyes, that he may have mercy on them, and make them worthy of his gaze, and illumine them with the light of his eyes: but all the horses of the peoples he will strike with eternal blindness.

What horses are to be understood spiritually we have said above: A horse is a vain hope for safety. And: These in chariots, and these on horses, and other things like these. We have also said that their riders are either demons or false teachers, who shall all be turned into amazement and madness, so that they are convicted of knowing nothing: but palpable darkness shall oppress them, such as there was when the firstborn of the Egyptians were struck. But upon the house of Judah, that is, the people who confess God, and who, broken by the straits of persecution and terrified by fear, seems to be numbered among the persecutors, the Lord will open his eyes, that he may look upon many who say to him: Look upon me, and have mercy on me, and that they may merit to hear: The Lord shall be to thee an everlasting light.

This is the laceration of the very heavy stone which the Lord threatens against his adversaries, who have tried to lift and vex Jerusalem. (Verse 5.) And the leaders of Judah shall say in their heart: Let the inhabitants of Jerusalem be strengthened for me in the Lord of hosts, their God. LXX: And the tribunes, that is, οἱ χιλίαρχοι, of Judah shall say in their hearts: We shall find for ourselves those who dwell in Jerusalem, in the Lord Almighty, their God. When the Lord shall have opened his eyes upon Judah, and shall have struck all the horses of the nations with blindness, the leaders of Judah, of whom it was said above: "But Judah also shall be in the siege against Jerusalem," will make vows in their hearts, because they will not dare to speak freely, that Jerusalem may conquer, and that Judah, though conquered, may conquer along with its fellow citizens together with the enemies.

For that which we have translated "let them be strengthened for me," the Seventy rendered εὑρήσομεν ἑαυτοῖς, "we shall find for ourselves"; in the Hebrew it is written emsa li (אמצה לי), which Aquila translated καρτέρησον μοι, that is, "be strengthened for me," so that the sense is: The chiliarchs, and tribunes, and leaders of Judah will wish, and will make vows in the hidden secret of their mind, that God may strengthen the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the Lord their God, and that they may conquer their adversaries. According to the tropological sense, the leaders and tribunes are the apostles, and all apostolic men and teachers, who presided over the army of Christ, who would wish to find for themselves none but those who dwell in Jerusalem, the vision of peace, and who dwell in the Lord Almighty, their God.

Among these leaders was the apostle Paul, who found Titus, and Timothy, Luke and Silvanus: Peter also, who trained Mark, the writer of the Gospel, and the other apostles who filled the whole world with their doctrine and instruction, that they might have disciples who were inhabitants of Jerusalem. (Verses 6, 7.) In that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a furnace of fire among wood, and like a firebrand of fire in hay: and they shall devour on the right hand and on the left all the peoples round about: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, in Jerusalem.

And the Lord shall save the tabernacles of Judah, as at the beginning: that the house of David may not boast greatly, and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, against Judah: LXX: In that day, I will make the tribunes of Judah like a firebrand of fire among wood, and like fire in stubble, and they shall devour on the right hand and on the left all the peoples of the Lord round about, and Jerusalem shall be inhabited still in herself, and the Lord shall make safe the tabernacles of Judah, as from the beginning: that the glory of the house of David may not be magnified, nor the elation of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, above Judah.

When the leaders of Judah shall have said in their hearts: Strengthen for me, O Lord, the besieged of Jerusalem, that they who have been conquered by their own weakness may prevail by thy help: then I, the Lord Almighty, their God, will make the princes of Judah like a furnace of fire among wood, and like a firebrand in stubble, that they may devour the adversaries, to whom they were joined with feigned friendship. May they devour, moreover, on the right hand and on the left, and slay all the peoples round about, that Jerusalem may again be inhabited in her own place, and no longer fear hostile assaults.

Let also the cities and towns, and the villas and villages of the tribe of Judah, which had been plundered and laid waste, be restored as they were before they were laid waste, and let neither the royal house, nor the illustrious and magnificent tribe of Judah, nor the inhabitants of Jerusalem, glory against the tribe of Judah, that it is ruled by its own authority, governed by its own counsel; but let them know that the victory in both is the Lord's. These things, according to the historical sense, whether they have been fulfilled or are yet to be, we leave the truth of the matter to the judgment of the Lord, and to his saints, who have received from him the spirit of wisdom and truth.

Let us say that in the time of the persecution of the Church, the leaders and tribunes of the Christian name, of whom we spoke above, when the Lord shall have restored peace to Jerusalem, and shall have slain the adversary with the spirit of his mouth, shall be like a furnace of fire among wood, that they may devour the unfruitful trees, and like firebrands in stubble, that whatever grain does not have substance, and is carried about by every wind of doctrine, may be given over to the fire. And they shall devour (it says) the leaders of Judah, and the tribunes, on the right hand and on the left, those who were unwilling to walk in the middle path, and did not know that ὑπερβολαί are of κακία, whence the people of God promise, we will not turn aside to the right hand, nor to the left, we will walk the straight way. The way on the right is stinginess, which the Greeks call φειδωλίαν: on the left, luxury: the middle and straight way is frugality.

All, therefore, who are on the way of the right, to whom it is said: Be not overly just: and on the left, who hear: The ways that are on the left are perverse, the devouring flame shall consume; and, the adversaries being deserted and removed, Jerusalem again, that is, the Church, shall receive her former glory, and shall be in her own state, and the tabernacles of Judah shall be saved, the assemblies of Christians scattered throughout the whole world, from which, as from tents and tabernacles, we desire to go to the house which is not made with hands, and to the heavenly Jerusalem.

For this reason, moreover, the tabernacles of the people, and of all who are reckoned by the Christian name, and are counted among the common folk, shall receive their ancient peace, though the princes of the Churches be besieged and turned to flight, that the teachers and masters may by no means think it is by their own doctrine and wisdom, but that peace has been restored to the Churches by the help of the Lord. (Verse 8.) In that day the Lord shall protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that shall offend among them in that day shall be as David; and the house of David as of God, as the Angel of the Lord in their sight. LXX: And it shall be in that day, the Lord shall protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that shall be weak among them in that day shall be as the house of David; and the house of David as the house of God, and the angel of the Lord in their sight.

Judah having obtained the victory, and the Lord restoring its tabernacles as they had been from the beginning, so that the royal house may in no way glory against the people, in that day and at that time the Lord (by whose help Judah shall devour the adversaries on the right hand and on the left) will protect also the besieged of Jerusalem; and all things shall be changed into so great felicity and blessedness, that he who was thought most vile shall be as the royal house; and he who was of the royal house shall be as of the house of God, that is, as a messenger of the Lord and of angelic dignity, in the sight of those who shall at that time be saved anew.

According to the anagogical sense: the Lord will protect the inhabitants of the Church, peace being restored to the Churches after the most grievous persecution, at which time it will also be adorned by the interpretation of its own name: for Jerusalem is rendered “vision of peace.” And they who fought for the Church and confessed the Lord in persecution shall be so blessed, that he who was least, and who as a man had offended in some sin or word, shall be set in the rank of teachers; and the teachers, who have kept their own rank, shall be as the house of God, and as the angel of the Lord; because it is this that we labor toward with all zeal, placed on earth and sweating with varied labor, that we may be transformed into angelic glory. (Verse 9.) And it shall come to pass in that day: I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

And I will pour out upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of prayers. LXX: and it shall be in that day: I will seek to take away all the nations that come against Jerusalem, and I will pour out upon the house of David: and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and mercy. In that day, when the Lord shall protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Lord will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. But he will destroy them not unto perdition, but unto amendment, so that they may cease to war against Jerusalem, and begin to be of Jerusalem. For if he created all things out of nothing, he did not therefore make them in order to destroy what he had created; but that by his mercy the things created might be saved.

Whence also in the book of Wisdom, which is inscribed as Solomon’s (if it pleases anyone, however, to accept the book), we find it written: He created all things that they might be, and the generations of the world are healthful; and there is no poison of destruction in them. For as the Lord came that he might seek that which had perished, and saved the human race: so also he destroyed the nations in that respect in which they were nations hostile to him. Then follows: I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and mercy. Of this grace Paul also writes: The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given to us. And in the aforesaid volume it is contained: The things that are in heaven, who shall search out?

Unless thou hast given wisdom, and sent thy Holy Spirit from on high: and so the paths of those who dwell upon earth are corrected: and men are taught the things that please thee. And in Isaiah God speaks: I have given my spirit upon thee. And again Scripture records concerning the same: I have given my spirit upon him. But the word “outpouring” shows the sense of bounty; as is manifest in what we have said: The love of God is shed abroad in your hearts. And in another place, in the person of God: I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh. But what the spirit of grace is, the same Apostle tells the Hebrews: How much more, do you think, shall he deserve worse punishments who has trodden underfoot the Son of God, and has esteemed the blood of the testament, in which he was sanctified, as unclean, and has done despite to the spirit of grace? Whence also the diverse graces are said to be of the Holy Spirit.

And the Apostle’s greeting: Grace, he says, and peace be multiplied unto you: so that, after he has forgiven us our sins, peace may then follow through mercy. These things the Jews reckon as partly already accomplished, and as more fully to come at the consummation of the world. We, however, understand and prove that after the coming of Christ they are fulfilled daily. (Verse 10.) And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced: and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for an only son: and they shall grieve over him, as the manner is to grieve for the death of a firstborn. LXX: And they shall look upon me, because they have mocked: and they shall mourn over him with mourning, as over one most dear: and they shall grieve with grief, as over a firstborn. The Hebrew letters DALETH and RESH, that is D and R, are similar, and are distinguished only by a small point.

From this it happens that those reading the same word differently translate it differently, one way and another. For the sake of understanding let us give one example: And Samuel, it says, was clothed with an Ephod bad, that is, with a linen garment, for BAD is called linen; whence also BADDIM are called linens. In place of this Hebrew and Latin word, some wrongly read Ephod bar: since BAR is called either a son, or a sheaf of grain, or elect, or οὖλος, that is, curly. What has happened there by an error of interpretation, we find has happened here too. For if one reads DACARU (דקרו), it is understood as ἐξεκέντησαν, that is, they have pierced or transfixed: but if, on the contrary, with the letters transposed, one reads RACADU (רקדו), it is understood as ὠρχήσαντο, that is, they have danced. And on account of the similarity of the letters the error was born.

But John the evangelist, who drank in wisdom from the breast of the Lord, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, whom the Savior loved most, did not much concern himself with what the Greek letters contained; but translated word for word, as he had read in the Hebrew, and said that it was fulfilled at the time of the Lord's passion. But if anyone does not accept this, let him give testimony as to from what place of the sacred Scriptures John drew these words: and when he shall not find one, he will be compelled unwillingly to accept the truth. But the Jews shall mourn as over an only son and a firstborn, the same thing being signified in the Lord the Savior, both only-begotten and firstborn. He is called only-begotten, on account of the property of nature; firstborn, according to the Apostle, of those rising from the dead.

In place of "only-begotten," the Seventy translated "most dear," concerning whom we read in the Gospel: This is my most dear Son, in whom I am well pleased. Then they shall grieve that he was crucified by them, when they shall see him reigning in glory. The word κατωρχήσαντο, among the Greeks, is formed not from mockery, but from dancing, namely because they danced against the Lord as though in jest, when mocking and laughing they said: Ah! Thou who destroyest the temple, and in three days buildest it up: save thyself, coming down from the cross (—cited as xv). These things and other things they said mocking, and dancing as it were in a certain frenzy of exultation. (Verses 11, 12.) In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo. And the land shall mourn, family and family apart: the families of the house of David apart, and their women (or wives) apart (for the Hebrew word NE-E, that is γυναῖκες, signifies both).

The families of the house of Nathan apart, and their women apart: the families of the house of Levi apart: and their women apart: the families of Shimei apart, and their women apart. All the remaining families, family and family apart, and their women apart. LXX: In that day there shall be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning for a pomegranate that is cut down in the field, and the land shall mourn tribe by tribe: the tribe of David apart, and their women apart: the tribe of the house of Judah apart, and their women apart: the tribe of the house of Nathan apart, and their women apart: the tribe of the house of Levi apart, and their women apart: the tribe of Simeon apart, and their women apart: all the remaining tribes apart, and their women apart.

HADADRIMMON (הדדרמון), which the Seventy translated as ῥοῶνος, is a city near Jezreel, which was once called by this name, and today is called Maximianopolis, in the plain of Megiddo, in which Josiah, a righteous king, was wounded by Pharaoh surnamed Necho: over whom Jeremiah wrote Lamentations, which are read in the Church, and the book of Chronicles testifies that he wrote them. Just as, therefore, at that time, after sinful kings, all the hope of the people was in Josiah, and when he was slain, a great mourning was stirred up in the city, as we read in the Hebrew: The breath of our mouth, Christ the Lord, was taken in our sins, to whom we said: In thy shadow we shall live among the nations (though others, according to a spiritual understanding, refer this to the Lord Jesus), so, when the Savior was crucified, mourning will be renewed in Jerusalem, as it once was in the city of Hadadrimmon, in the plain of Megiddo.

And what follows: They shall mourn family and family, or tribe and tribe, apart: the families of the house of David apart, and their wives, or women, apart, signifies this, that in a time of tribulation and mourning we ought not to serve marriages and the work of weddings. Whence also in Joel, when the captivity was near, it is said to the Jews: Let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride from her bridal bed. And when the flood was impending, Noah is commanded: Enter into the ark, you and your sons, and your wife, and the wives of your sons. And afterward, when the flood was finished, it is said to him: Go forth, you and your wife, and your sons, and their wives, so that those who, when danger impended, had been separated in the ark, being restored to the world, might attend to generation and children.

But this happens not only in a time of distress, but also in a time of prayer: when we wish to entreat the Lord, as the Apostle says to the Corinthians: Defraud not one another, except perhaps by consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to prayer. Therefore now also the tribe of the house of David, and the tribe of the house of Nathan, and the tribe of the house of Levi, and the tribe of the house of Shimei, are separated from their wives: that they may mourn for the only-begotten and firstborn Lord Jesus, of whom it had been said: His blood be upon us, and upon our children. In David the royal tribe is understood, that is, Judah. In Nathan the prophetic order is described. Levi refers to the priests, from whom the priesthood arose. In Shimei the teachers are understood: for from this tribe the throngs of masters sprang forth. The remaining tribes he passed over in silence, which have no privilege of dignity.

But in that he says: All the remaining tribes, tribe and tribe apart, and their wives apart, he includes all without naming them. Let us say also, according to the Seventy, ῥοῶν is named—not one tree of pomegranates, that is, of the Punic apple, but a place planted with these trees, of which, according to spiritual understanding, the bridegroom says in the Song of Songs: I went down to see in the fruit of the valley whether the vineyard had flourished, whether the pomegranates had budded. For the Savior went down to the torrent of this world and its turbid waters, of which, in a type of him, Elijah is described as having drunk: that after the flowers of the vine and of the pomegranate he might receive the fruit of both, and, inebriating his Church, might hear from her: Thou shalt give me to drink of the spiced wine, of the juice of my pomegranates.

A drink of this kind not only banishes the heat of the stomach, but is also said to heal a corrupted belly, and to profit the other inward parts. Nothing is more beautiful than this fruit; in its redness it signifies the modesty of the Church: in the order of its seeds, the degrees and members of the whole body distributed through their several offices. When in a vineyard and in pomegranates of this kind the Savior shall find no fruit, he will say: Every branch that beareth not fruit, the Father will take away; and every one that beareth fruit, he will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit. And in another place John the Baptist cries out: Now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree that does not bring forth good fruit shall be cut down, and cast into the fire.

In the cutting down of the vines or of the pomegranates—when, on the day of judgment, all the names of dignities shall be laid aside, and that which is written shall be fulfilled: Behold the man and his works; and the chaff separated from the wheat, there shall be great mourning, not in another place, but in Jerusalem. For the stroke and the judgment shall begin from the saints, and kings and priests and prophets and teachers shall beat their breasts with their hands: when they shall have seen the most beautiful pomegranates cut down, and him whom they had pierced reigning in the majesty of the Father and his own.

(Verse 1.) In that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for the washing away of the sinner and of the menstruous woman. LXX: In that day there shall be every place opened in the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and for transmutation and sprinkling.

Concerning this fountain, which goes forth from the house of David, it is also written in the prophet Ezekiel, that a fountain bursts forth in the house of the Lord, and grows into a river, which is called the water of remission and forgiveness; and it proceeds toward the wilderness and toward the sea, which is now called the Dead Sea, and gives life to all the fish, and on both banks of the river trees of various kinds arise, always abounding in fresh fruits every month. And that we may know that the house, that is, the temple of God, is itself the house of David, which in Ezekiel is called the house of God, in Zechariah the house of David: this fountain going forth from the house of God is referred to the Church and to the knowledge of the Scriptures, so that we may all be reborn in Christ, and in the water of baptism our sins may be forgiven us.

Nothing is more unclean than a menstruous woman, who makes unclean whatever she touches: and yet even her filth shall be washed away by the baptism of Christ. Instead of "for the washing away of sinners and of the menstruous woman," the LXX translated "transmutation and sprinkling": that we should pass over from the Law to the Gospel, from the letter to the spirit, from the shadow to the truth, that for brief and present things future and eternal things should succeed. But the sprinkling signifies the blood of the Lord, of which the apostle Peter also speaks: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

And again: Knowing that you were redeemed not with corruptible things, silver and gold, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled, by which whoever has been sprinkled and redeemed will be able to say with the prophet: Thou shalt sprinkle me, O Lord, with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed: thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow. (Verse 2.) And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, I will destroy the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall be remembered no more: and I will take away the prophets, and the unclean spirit, out of the land. LXX: And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord Sabaoth, I will destroy the names of the idols out of the land, and there shall be no more remembrance of them: and the pseudo-prophets, and the unclean spirit, I will take away out of the land.

In that day, which he so frequently mentions, all idols will be taken away from the earth, whether those idols of which the Psalmist speaks: The idols of the Gentiles are silver and gold, the works of men's hands, so that there may be no other religion, save only that of the Christian name, and concerning which it is written in the prophet: Howl, ye graven images, in Jerusalem and in Samaria. For as I have done to Samaria and her graven images, so will I do to Jerusalem and her idols. Or these idols, of which the Apostle speaks: Now the Spirit manifestly saith, that in the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared. For as idols are made by the hand of the craftsman: so the perverse doctrine of heretics turns into an idol whatever it has feigned, and causes Antichrist to be worshiped in place of Christ.

Instead of "pseudo-prophets," in the Hebrew "prophets" are simply read, that is, NEBIM (נביאים), which also themselves signify pseudo-prophets; but also among the pagans the priests of idols are called prophets. (Verse 3.) And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, his father and his mother that begot him shall say unto him: Thou shalt not live, because thou hast spoken a lie in the name of the Lord: and his father and his mother that begot him shall thrust him through, when he shall prophesy. LXX: And it shall come to pass, if a man shall yet prophesy, his father and his mother that begot him shall say unto him: Thou shalt not live, because thou hast spoken a lie in the name of the Lord: and his father and his mother that begot him shall bind him, when he shall prophesy.

When the names of idols have been taken away from the earth, and the pseudo-prophets, and the unclean spirit that spoke in them, if anyone should still wish to attempt it, and to prophesy something in the person of the Lord, immediately his father and mother will forget the ties of parenthood, so as to retain their service of God, and will pronounce sentence of death against their son: and the minds of all toward God will be so pious that public judgment will not be awaited; rather let such men perish by the sentence of their own kin. In place of what we have translated "thrust him through," the same word is in the Hebrew as above, DACARU (דקרו).

By what reasoning, then, did the LXX interpreters render there κατωρχήσαντο, that is, "they insulted" or "mocked," and, to express the word literally, "they danced against him"; and here wish to translate συμποδιοῦσιν, that is, "they will bind"; when both Aquila, and Symmachus, and Theodotion, both there and here, likewise rendered "they pierced through." Rightly is he who has prophesied falsely called a man, the Apostle saying: For whereas there is among you envying and strife, are ye not carnal, and walk according to man? And in the Psalms: But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.

And those unworthy of the Spirit of God deserve to hear: My spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh. (Verse 3 ff.) And it shall come to pass in that day, the prophets shall be confounded, every one by his own vision, when he shall prophesy, neither shall they be clothed with a garment of sackcloth to deceive: but he shall say, I am no prophet: I am a husbandman: for Adam is my example from my youth. And one shall say unto him: What are these wounds in the midst of thy hands? And he shall say: With these I was wounded in the house of them that loved me.

LXX: And it shall come to pass in that day, the prophets shall be confounded, every one by his own vision, when he shall prophesy: and they shall put on a garment of hairy skin, wherewith they have deceived, and he shall say: I am not a prophet, for a man begot me from my youth, and I will say unto him: What are these wounds in the midst of thy hands? And he shall say: With these I was struck in the house of him that loved me. He who has attempted to prophesy, and has been condemned by the judgment of his parents, and the falsity of his prophecy has been proved by the contrary outcome of events, will be confounded by his own vision, nor will he be clothed any more with sackcloth in order to deceive. For this was the garb of the prophets, that when they called the people to repentance, they were clothed in sackcloth.

Whence also Isaiah is commanded to take off the sackcloth from his loins, and to walk naked: for it was by no means a time of repentance, but of impending captivity. Therefore this pseudo-prophet also will by no means take up the prophetic garb, lest under a foreign garment and covering he deceive simple people; but rather he will plow the earth with the plowshare, and being devoted to agriculture will prove himself a man, and subject to the sentence of God, who spoke to Adam: Cursed is the earth in thy work: in labors shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee: and thou shalt eat the herbs of the earth: and in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. And when he has shown himself born for this purpose, that in the sweat of his face he should eat his bread, another will question him, and say: What mean these wounds, and these injuries, which are in the midst of thy hands?

And the sense is: Why do you cling to a gibbet? Why are your hands pierced through with nails? What have you done, that you should be subject to this punishment and torment? And he will answer, and say: These wounds and these blows I received, condemned by the judgment of my parents, and of those who did not hate me, but loved me. And to such an extent, once falsehood has been put to flight, will truth prevail, that even he who was punished for his own fault will confess that he suffered rightly.

The Hebrews explain what is written: "Neither shall they be clothed with a garment of sackcloth to deceive," thus: and they shall not be filled with a demonic spirit, whom we read of in Isaiah as τριχιῶντας, that is, "hairy," lest through this occasion of a feigned habit, they lie about God's words concerning themselves, or deny the Lord: for CHAESU (כחשו) can be interpreted both "they shall lie" and "they shall deny." (Verse 7 ff.) O sword, awake against my shepherd, and against the man that cleaveth to me, saith the Lord of hosts. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn my hand to the little ones. And it shall come to pass in all the land, saith the Lord: two parts in it shall be scattered and shall perish; and the third part shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined: and I will try them as gold is tried.

He shall call on my name, and I will hear him: I will say, Thou art my people: and he shall say, The Lord is my God. LXX: O sword, arise against my shepherd, and against the man his fellow citizen, saith the Lord Almighty. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will bring my hand upon the shepherds. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, two parts shall perish and fail, and the third part shall be left in it: and I will bring the third part through the fire, and will burn them as silver is burned, and I will try them as gold is tried. He shall call upon my name, and I will hear him, and I will say, This is my people, and he shall say, Thou art the Lord my God. Instead of "sword" which the LXX translated ῥομφαίαν, in the Hebrew AREB (חרב), in Aquila and Symmachus we find μάχαιραν, that is, a sword or blade.

And in place of what we have rendered "against the man that cleaveth to me," that is, προσκεκολλημένον μοι, Aquila interpreted "against the man of my own tribe," that is, σύμφυλόν μου: Symmachus, "against the man of my people," which in Hebrew is called AMITHI (עמיתי): the LXX, "against the man his fellow citizen": reading VAU at the end of the word instead of JOD, letters which differ from each other only in size; and if JOD is read, it signifies "mine": if VAU, "his." But I marvel that certain persons wish to weaken with allegorical interpretations this prophecy (which the evangelist Matthew referred to the Lord Savior, after the disciples fled at his passion, and then says it was fulfilled), and while desiring to appear more learned than the rest, fail to hold to the rule of truth. For the evangelist Matthew relates: Then Jesus said unto them: All ye shall be scandalized because of me this night. For it is written: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.

And again: Now all this was done, that the Scriptures of the Prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples, leaving him, fled. Nor is it to be thought that the testimony was taken from another passage, because in the Gospel God says that the shepherd was struck by himself, and in the present passage we read that it was commanded by the sword and the blade: Strike the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. This is the sword, and this is the "romphaea" and the "framea," of which the Lord also speaks to the Father in the twenty-first psalm: Deliver my soul from the sword, and my only one from the hand of the dog. Concerning this "romphaea" it is also written in the prophet Amos: By the sword shall all the sinners of the people die. Which cannot stand strictly according to the letter: for many sinners perish by shipwreck: others by poison: some are drowned in waters, others consumed by fire.

But by this sword and this "romphaea" all sinners perish, even the dark-colored Ethiopians, of whom Zephaniah testifies with sacred mouth, saying: Ye Ethiopians also shall be slain by my sword. After the good shepherd who laid down his life for his sheep, who said to the Father: Whom thou hast struck, they have persecuted, let them be given, which correction, he says, both the Hebrew word יכרתו and the Greek ἐξολοθρευθήσεται approve. And upon the pain of my wounds they added, he was struck by the Father's will, and the man cleaving to God who says: I am in the Father, and the Father in me, hung upon the gibbet, and said: Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: immediately the sheep were scattered, all the multitude of believers in Christ. And the Lord turned his hand, as we read in the LXX, against the shepherds, whom many wrongly interpret as the princes of the Jews.

But as it is written in the Hebrew, against the little ones, to whom the Lord had said in the Gospel: Fear not, little flock. And in Isaiah: Behold I and the children, or little ones, whom God has given me. And two parts were made in all the land of the Jews and of the Gentiles, who alike perished and failed: for in his passion, the voice of the Psalmist was fulfilled, saying: Save me, O Lord, for the holy one has failed. And: All have turned aside, they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no not one. While the Gentiles and Jews were perishing, the third part in the world, that is, the third people, the Christians, suddenly grew up. And he beautifully says: A third part shall be left in it, that is, in the land: because of the Jews and Gentiles those who confessed the Lord alone were reserved for life and habitation of the land.

That third part also, lest it be delicate and secure from confession, is led through fire like silver and gold and proved, which the Lord also desires to burn in believers, and Paul desires to be fervent. Whence also the apostles, baptized in the Spirit and fire of the Lord, speak in the psalm: For thou hast proved us, O God, thou hast examined us by fire as silver is examined. And a little after: We have passed through fire and water, and thou hast brought us out into a refreshment: And in another place it is said to the believer: If thou pass through the fire, the flame shall not burn thee: for I am with thee. And for this reason the fire does not consume, and the flame does not devour, because the voice of the Lord cuts off the flame of fire.

When the little ones, over whom the Lord turned his hand, shall thus have been proved, and through their calling the whole crowd of nations shall have believed, then the people of believers will call Christ by his own name, and he saying: Thou art my people, the people will answer: The Lord my God art thou. The Jews refer these things to Christ, and contend that they are to happen in the last time; but this is the difference between us and them, that we say these things are already fulfilled, while they recall them as still to be fulfilled.

(Verses 1, 2.) Behold, the days of the Lord come, and thy spoils shall be divided in the midst of thee. And I will gather all nations to Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken, and the houses shall be laid waste, and the women shall be ravished, and half the city shall go forth into captivity, and the remnant of the people shall not be taken away from the city.

LXX: Behold, the days of the Lord come, and thy spoils shall be divided in thee, and I will gather all nations against Jerusalem, to war, and the city shall be taken, and the houses shall be plundered, and the women shall be defiled, and half the city shall go forth into captivity: but the rest of my people shall not perish from the city. The days which the Lord threatens are coming, so that the spoils of Jerusalem should be divided in the midst of it, and the rest which the prophetic word contains, these are the days of which we also read in Isaiah: The day of the Lord shall come, incurable in fury and wrath, to make the whole world a wilderness, and to destroy sinners out of it. But what necessity will there be that its spoils be divided in the midst of it?

This is often wont to happen, that things suddenly plundered by assault in a city are divided outside in the field or in the wilderness, lest by chance the enemies come upon them. But here so great a weight of evils will press down, that the things plundered are divided in the midst of the city, for the security of the victory.

And not only shall Jerusalem be taken, all nations being stirred up against her in battle; but also the houses of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be laid waste, and the women shall be ravished to the grief of their lords and husbands, who will be able to prevent neither the plundering of their houses nor the violation of their wives by the enemies, according to that which we read elsewhere: They who are gathered in the midst of thee shall fall by the sword, and shall dash your sons in pieces before your eyes, and shall plunder your houses, and shall have your wives, than which nothing more cruel nor more miserable can be found, that from fear of their own death, they dare defend neither the safety of their sons nor the chastity of their wives. This very thing the prophet Amos also speaks, threatening the impious priest Amaziah: Thy wife shall play the harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be measured by a line.

And all these things shall befall the people of the Jews: Because the nations raged, and the peoples devised vain things. The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes gathered together as one against the Lord and against his Christ. Who laughed them to scorn, and mocked them, and in his fury troubled them, to such a degree that the Apostle also, seeing that the years which had been given for repentance were now complete, and that nevertheless those who slew the Lord and persecuted the prophets and apostles persisted in denial, said: Wrath has come upon them to the end. All these things Josephus, who wrote the Jewish history, relates most fully, and that they endured much greater things than we read in the prophets. Cornelius Tacitus also, who from after Augustus down to the death of Domitian composed the Lives of the Caesars in thirty volumes.

But how half the city was taken, and the remaining people remained in the city, is proved both at that time and at other times, that the northern and lower part of the city was taken, but the mountain of the temple, and Sion, in which the citadel was, remained intact. The Jews say these things are to be fulfilled under Gog: others say they were fulfilled in part in the times of the Macedonians and Egyptians, and of various nations. We, leaving the truth of the time to the Lord's knowledge—leaving it to the judgment of the Lord, let us explain what has been written. (Verses 3, 4.) And the Lord shall go forth, and shall fight against those nations, as he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is over against Jerusalem toward the East, and the mount of Olives shall be split in the midst thereof toward the East and toward the West, with a very great breach.

LXX: And the Lord shall go forth, and shall fight against those nations, as in the day of engagement, and in the day of battle: and his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is over against Jerusalem toward the eastern quarter. And the mount of Olives shall be split, the middle part of it toward the East, and the middle part of it toward the sea, with an exceedingly great chasm. That God goes forth, and fights against nations, and that his feet stand upon the mount of Olivet, and other things which in the holy Scriptures are set down ἀνθρωποπάθως (in the manner of human passions), and are held in a carnal sense, we ought to receive in a manner worthy of God. Otherwise, since the Apostle says: Who is the image of the invisible God. And again: But to the King of ages, incorruptible, invisible God.

And it is written in the Gospel: No man hath seen God at any time: the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. And again: Not that any man hath seen God, save he who is of the Father: just as we understand his wrath and repentance, and soul, and hands, and feet, and belly, and eyes, and the other members of the body, according to the variety of causes and senses of interpretation: so also that which is written, The Lord shall go forth, and shall fight, is to be understood according to that which we read in Habacuc: Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, for salvation with thy Christ. And in Micheas: For behold the Lord will go forth out of his place, and will come down and will tread upon the high places of the earth, and the mountains shall be consumed under him, and the valleys shall be cleft.

In Isaiah also: The Lord of hosts shall go forth, and shall crush war, and shall stir up zeal, and shall cry out against his enemies with strength. Therefore God shall go forth out of his place, when he is compelled to break his quiet and gentleness and clemency for the correction of sinners: who, though he be sweet by nature, is by our fault παραπικραίνεται, that is, made bitter: not to himself, but to those who suffer, to whom the torments are bitter. He who elsewhere speaks through the prophet: I am God, and I am not changed (Malachi III, 6). And it is said to him: But thou art the same, and thou remainest. And in the epistle of James: With whom there is no change: now he goes forth and fights as in the day of battle, when he drowned Pharaoh in the Red Sea, and fought for the Israelite people.

And his feet shall stand for those on whom he shall have had mercy, and they shall in no wise be moved, so that it may again be said of him: And the Lord shall sound the trumpet; and he shall walk in the threatening of his wrath. Nor shall he walk with the sun now declining, and darkness drawing near after noon, which we read he did concerning Adam. And when he shall have stood, he will not stand in a valley and in low places, but on a mountain, which does not have fruitless trees and a barren wood; but where olive-groves grow, by which eternal light is nourished, and infirmities are dissolved, and rest is granted to the weary. And that very mount of Olives on which the feet of the Lord stand is over against Jerusalem toward the East, whence the sun of justice rises, and it is planted with those olives of which it is said: Thy children as young olive plants, round about thy table.

The middle part of it shall be split toward the east, in which are trees planted from the nations, of whom one says: But I am as a fruitful olive tree in the house of God. And the other middle part shall be split toward the West and the sea, with a very great breach, which is the people of circumcision, to whom God speaks through the prophet: What hath my beloved done in my house, that she has committed abomination? Shall vows and the holy flesh take away thy wickedness; or wilt thou escape by these? This beloved one committed abomination in the house of God, in that she crucified the Son of God, and heard: The Lord called thy name a shady olive tree, and a beautiful woodland; and thy branches, which are broken off from the good root, have been made useless, that we might be grafted in their place.

And observe the mysteries of the Scriptures, that the middle part which inclines toward the West, and is beaten by salt and bitter waves, is not said simply to be in the sea, but in an exceedingly great and precipitous chasm of the sea, of which Micheas also speaks: I will bring down her stones into the valley (there is no doubt this refers to Jerusalem), and will lay bare her foundations. These things we have said, as best we could according to the slenderness of our powers, concerning matters most difficult and very obscure. But the Jews, following the letter and going astray, try to show that the Lord stood upon the mount of Olivet, and that the mountain itself was divided into two parts, so that the cleft has its beginning toward the east from one part, and the other part extends its end toward the West: and that in the very deep middle, one part is divided toward the North, another toward the South. Verse 5.

And the middle of the mountain shall be divided toward the North, and the middle of it toward the South. And ye shall flee to the valley of my mountains: for the valley of the mountains shall be joined even to that which is next to it, and ye shall flee as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Ozias king of Juda, and the Lord my God will come: and all the saints with him. LXX: And the middle part of the mountain shall lean toward the North, and the middle part of it toward the South. And the valley of my mountains shall be blocked up, and the valley of the mountains shall be joined even to Asael: and it shall be filled as it was filled before the earthquake in the days of Ozias king of Juda, and the Lord my God shall be present, and all the saints with him.

For what we have rendered as "ye shall flee," the LXX and the other interpreters translated ἐμφραχθήσεται, that is, "it shall be blocked up," or "filled." And for what we have set down, "for the valley of the mountains shall be joined even to that which is next to it," the LXX translated Asael for "that which is next to it": Aquila set down the Hebrew word itself, ASEL (אצל), with a short (ἀζέλ), Theodotion with a long one (ἀζήλ); only Symmachus rendered it "that which is next to it," whom we also have followed. Let us speak παραφραστικῶς so that what is written may become clear: When the mount of Olivet shall be broken by a great chasm, so that one part of the chasm looks toward the East, the other toward the West, suddenly, and in that same chasm, high on either side, a breach shall burst forth, another chasm toward the North, another toward the South, and a four-sided breach shall be made, so that the chasm shall stretch fourfold into four quarters, of East and West, North and South.

And ye shall flee, he says, to the valley which is between the temple and Sion. For these two mountains, of the temple and of Sion, are called the mountains of God; because that valley of the mount of Olives, which is girded on either side by broken mountains, shall draw its chasm even to the mountain of the temple, which is holy. Now the earthquake in the days of Ozias king of Juda is handed down as belonging to that time when Ozias, who is also called by another name Azarias, having attempted to claim for himself an unlawful priesthood, was struck with leprosy on his forehead; of which earthquake we read also at the beginning of Amos: The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Thecua, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Ozias king of Juda, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joas king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

Finally, after this wicked king died, by whose impiety the whole earth was shaken, Isaiah saw a great vision, which he wove into his volume. Let us pass over to the spiritual understanding. After the mount of Olives shall have been divided toward East and West by the calling of the Gentiles and the rejection of the Jews, again another cleft shall be made, of North and South. The North shall be joined to the West, the South to the eastern quarter; on the left shall stand the Circumcision, on the right the Christian people. Of these two winds the Church speaks: Arise, O North wind, and come, O South, that, the North wind, which is most cold and is interpreted as the devil, withdrawing, the warm South wind may come, which the bride, seeking, says: Where thou feedest, where thou liest down, at noon? Of which also Habacuc speaks mystically: God will come from Theman, for which it is written in the Hebrew: God from the South, that is, from the fullest light.

Of which the Psalmist elsewhere exclaims: Thou shinest forth wonderfully from the everlasting mountains. Now when there shall be so great a division of the two peoples throughout the whole world, that some are separated toward the East and the South, that is, toward the right; others toward the North and the West, namely toward the left, then whoever is holy shall flee to the valley of the mountains of God, of which we spoke above, of the temple and of Sion, namely the two Testaments: because that chasm which formerly belonged to each mountain shall extend even to Asael, that is, even to the house of God, which is near to paradise, and to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the holy mountain on which the temple is situated.

And just as at that time, when under the leprous king Ozias a most violent earthquake terrified the hearts of mortals, and scattered them, terrified, hither and thither: so the separation of the two peoples, and again the fellowship of believers in one faith, shall rest between the two mountains in a peaceable seat: because both the old and the new Testament shall be joined, each to the other. But that which is said, "even to Asael," that is, "even to that which is next," signifies this, that the two Testaments of the Law and the Gospel are indeed joined to each other; but joined in such a way that they are more neighboring than united: for we have lost many things of the old Law, and have received the new grace. But when this shall have been accomplished in reason, then, he says, the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with him.

But if we should wish, instead of what we have said, "ye shall flee," to follow what the other Interpreters translated, "it shall be blocked up," or "the valley of their mountains shall be filled": we shall say this, that the coming of the Lord the Savior, the two peoples having been separated among themselves, blocks up and fills that chasm which divided the two peoples, so that they may walk toward one another by a level path. (Verses 6, 7.) And it shall come to pass in that day, that there shall be no light, but cold and frost. And there shall be one day, which is known to the Lord, not day nor night, and in the time of evening there shall be light. LXX: In that day there shall be no light, but there shall be cold and frost for one day, and that day shall be known to the Lord: and it shall not be day nor night, and toward evening there shall be light.

This is plainly foretold of the second coming of the Savior, of which John also speaks in his Apocalypse: Behold he comes with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they that pierced him. And the Lord in the Gospel declares that the Son of man shall come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. He shall come with clouds, that is, with angels, who are ministering spirits, and are sent to various offices, and with prophets and apostles, of whom it is written: Thy truth reaches even to the clouds. And when the day of his coming shall have been fulfilled, there shall not be light, but cold and frost, the charity of all growing cold, and, on account of the multitude of evils that shall come upon them, all growing cold, and losing the warmth of their former faith.

But after cold and frost shall have contracted all sinners to themselves, there shall be one day, and a perpetual one: light and darkness, day and night, in no wise succeeding one another; but the Lord himself shall be the light of all: of whom Isaiah more fully says: Thou shalt no more have the sun for light of day, neither shall the brightness of the moon give thee light by night; but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Who also in another place cries out to Jerusalem: Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for thy light has come, and the glory of thy God has risen upon thee. For behold darkness and gloom shall cover the earth over the nations: but upon thee the Lord shall appear, and his glory shall be seen in thee. And kings shall walk in thy light, and nations in thy brightness

(Verse 1. Et seqq. If darkness and gloom shall cover the earth over the nations, how then again shall the nations walk in the brightness of the Lord? But those nations shall be in darkness which cold and frost shall have contracted: and those shall walk in the light of the Lord which shall have followed kings, apostles, and prophets, of whom it is written: The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord. Finally in the time of evening, that is, of the darkness and sadness of all sinners, there shall be light for the saints, and one and everlasting day, which, if it shall be known to the Lord (for he could not be ignorant of what he created), it must be considered how he says in the Gospel, that neither the angels, nor the Son, know that day, but the Father alone.

Verse 8. And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the eastern sea, and half of them toward the utmost sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth. Septuagint: In that day living water shall go out from Jerusalem, half of it toward the former sea, and half toward the utmost sea: in summer and in spring it shall be so: and the Lord shall be for king over all the earth.

At that time (for this signifies the day which is known to the Lord alone, in which light and darkness will not succeed one another; but there will be perpetual light, according to what we read in the Apocalypse: And the city shall not need the light of the sun, for the Lord God Almighty shall be its light), living waters shall go out from Jerusalem, concerning which we have discussed above, setting forth the testimony of Ezekiel; half of these will go to the eastern sea, which the books of the Greeks call λίμνην Ἀσφαλτῖτιν, and is commonly called the Dead Sea, from the fact that nothing can live in its waters. And half toward the utmost sea, which leads to Egypt, and forms the shores of Palestine.

In summer, he says, and in winter it shall be thus, so that these waters which shall go out from Jerusalem will neither be bound by the frost of winter, nor dried up by the excessive heat of summer: although the Septuagint have translated "spring" instead of "winter," which does not suit the distinction from summer. And when the vital waters shall have entered both seas, and shall have sweetened the bitter waters with the sweet stream: then the Lord shall be king over all the earth. The water that goes out from Jerusalem, that is, from the Church, signifies the doctrine of the Saviour: For out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; according to what is written elsewhere: All things are filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as much water covering the sea.

Half of these waters shall go to the eastern sea, the people of the Circumcision, who are chosen in the apostles and through the apostles; and half of them to the utmost sea, so that from East and West may come those who shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Or indeed let us understand by the eastern sea and the utmost sea the Old Testament and the New, which unless it be sweetened by the river of the Saviour and by his spiritual understanding, is most bitter; the West by the letter, and the East by the life-giving Spirit. And what follows: In summer and in winter they shall be, is to be understood of the living waters that go out from Jerusalem, so that both in peace and in persecutions these living waters may not cease to flow.

Or since the Septuagint translated, In summer and in spring it shall be so, let us say this, that at that time there will be no winter, but spring, and perpetual summer, when the voice of the turtle-dove shall be heard in our land, and the fig trees shall put forth their green figs, and the vines shall flower, and the winter shall pass, and the rain shall depart, and go its way. At which time spring will be necessary for this reason, that flowers will appear in our land so that we may celebrate the Passover and Pentecost, in which we pass from earthly things to heavenly ones, and offer all our fruits to God. For at the Passover is the end of winter, the beginning of spring; at Pentecost the beginning of summer, when we offer to God the labors of our hands and their fruit. Of this perpetual summer and spring the just man speaks to the Lord: Thou hast made the dawn and the sun, thou hast fashioned summer and spring.

Then shall the Lord be king over all the earth, when we shall say: The Lord has reigned, let the earth rejoice. And again: Say among the nations, that the Lord has reigned. For he has established the world, which shall not be moved. And that the living water, rightly expounded by us as the doctrine of the Saviour, he will know who has drunk it, and who has heard the Saviour proclaiming: If any man drink of the water that I shall give him, it shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. And again: He that believes in me (as the Scripture has said) out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. For just as he who has drunk of his doctrine will have in himself a living fountain: so he who believes in him, according to what is contained in the words of the Scriptures, rivers of living water shall flow out of his belly.

Many refer the living waters to baptism, which are to be bestowed on those who thirst in spring and in summer, that is, at Passover and Pentecost, when that which is written shall be fulfilled: Wash yourselves, be clean. (Verse 9. Ff.) In that day there shall be one Lord, and his name shall be one: and all the land shall return even unto the desert, from the hill of Remmon to the south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and shall be inhabited in its place, from the gate of Benjamin unto the place of the former gate, unto the gate of the corners: and from the tower of Ananeel unto the king's winepresses, and they shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more curse, but Jerusalem shall sit secure. Septuagint: In that day there shall be one Lord, and his name one: encompassing all the land, and the desert from Gabaa unto Remmon to the south of Jerusalem: but Rhama shall remain in its place.

It dwell, the gate of Benjamin, unto the first gate, and unto the gate of the corners, and unto the tower of Anamael, unto the winepresses of the king they shall dwell in it, and there shall no more be a curse, and Jerusalem shall dwell secure. The building up of the city of Jerusalem, and the going forth of waters from the midst of it, which flow to either sea, the Jews and the Judaizing Christians promise to themselves for the last time, when circumcision is to be practised again, and victims are to be sacrificed, and all the precepts of the Law kept, so that not Christians become Jews, but Jews become Christians. In that day, they say, when Christ shall sit reigning in a golden and bejewelled Jerusalem, there shall be no idols nor diverse worship of divinity, but the Lord shall be one, and all the land shall return unto the wilderness, that is, to its ancient state.

And he sets down the names of the places from which to which Jerusalem is to be built: from the hill of Remmon (for this signifies Gabaa, where the pomegranate tree is) unto the southern region of Jerusalem. And that which follows: But Rhama shall remain in its place, Aquila and the others have interpreted better, who rendered it: it shall be exalted; for Rhama means exaltation, according to that prophetic and evangelical word: A voice was heard in Rhama, that is, it sounded on high. Jerusalem then shall be exalted, and shall be built in its former place, from the gate of Benjamin, unto the gate which is called of the corners, and from the tower of Ananeel (not, as the Greeks and Latins wrongly read, Anamael) unto the winepresses of the king: which in Hebrew is written AMMELECH (המלך). And they shall dwell, he says, in it, that is, in Jerusalem: and there shall no more be a curse: namely, no fear of hostile attack, no dread; but Jerusalem shall sit, or shall be inhabited, resting in eternal peace.

These things the Jews dream of according to the letter, and our chiliasts also, who desire again to hear: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and instead of the continence and brief fasting of this life, they promise themselves bulbs, and wombs, and the birds of Phasis, and the heath-cock—not Ionian, but Jewish—of whom the Lord can truly say: My spirit shall not remain in these men, for they are flesh. For the flesh fights against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. Nor let them set against us the Apocalypse of John, because it too must be discussed spiritually. But let us interpret the heavenly Jerusalem as the Church, which, walking in the flesh, does not live according to the flesh, whose citizenship is in heaven.

For after the Lord Jesus shall be king over all the earth, of whom the Holy Spirit speaks to the Father through the Prophet: O God, give thy judgment to the king, and thy justice to the king's son: then there shall be one Lord, of whom it is written: Know that the Lord himself is God: and one name of his, all perverse religion having been trampled down, according to that which the Prophet sings: O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is thy name in all the earth! And again: Thou hast magnified thy holy name above all things. And elsewhere: As is thy name, O God, so also is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: of whom Habakkuk also speaks: The earth is full of his praise. Of the glory of this name God himself speaks: Besides me you shall not know God, and besides my name, which is magnified above all.

Then all the land shall return, in which the Jews dwelt, unto the desert, that is, unto the people of the nations, which before was deserted and had no knowledge of the Law: from Gabaa unto Remmon, that is, from the hill to the height, because from the earth and the desert we rise up to the hills, and from the hills to the mountains. Whence also the bridegroom in the Song of Songs leaps over the hills that are lesser, and bounds upon the lofty mountains, of which it is written: The high mountains are for the harts. But if we wish to take Remmon as pomegranate (for both are so interpreted among the Hebrews), let us say this, that the borders of the Church begin from the hills, so that the whole order of the Church may be built up, of which we spoke above, when we interpreted the mourning of the only-begotten, and the mourning as at Hadadremmon.

Nor is the Church content with this boundary; but it shall reach even unto the South in fullest light, concerning which we have already given exposition, and now for that reason we pass over it in silence, lest by repeating the same things too often we become tedious to the reader. And the Church shall be exalted, which began from the hills and reached to the south; and it shall dwell in its own place, of which it is written: In a place of pasture there he has set me. From the gate of Benjamin, who is interpreted "son of the right hand," and not "son of days," as some wrongly suppose: for one thing is meant if it ends in the letter NUN, another if in MEM. And it shall reach unto the place of the eastern and former gate, unto the gate of the corners.

We begin from strength: for this is what the right hand signifies; and we come unto the former gate, that through it we may enter unto the rest: and immediately the gate of the corners meets us, where is the corner stone, which the builders rejected, and it became the head of the corner. This corner stone joins both walls together, and reduces the two peoples into one, of whom God also speaks through Isaiah: Behold, I will lay in Zion a corner stone, elect, precious, in its foundations: and he who believes in him shall not be confounded. This corner stone willed that the other corner stones also be built upon it, that the apostle Paul might freely say: Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone. These stones the heretics do not imitate, who do all things for glory and gain, and pray in the corners of the streets, forsaking the straight path.

For every corner breaks the straight line: and therefore the harlot in Proverbs, however we choose to understand her, whose feet do not rest at home, but who either wanders abroad, or lies in wait in all the corners of the streets, when she sees a foolish youth (for she does not invite one whom she perceives to be prudent and mature in old age, of whom it is written: The wisdom of a man is his gray hair), she at once seizes him, and kisses him and flatters him, and leads him to the brothel, and invites him to intercourse. Let us then leave the false corners, and pass over to the firm and sturdy corners of Christ, and when we have reached them, at once the tower of Ananeel meets us, which is interpreted "most pleasing to God." For what is more pleasing than the tower of Solomon?

Of which it is said to the bride: Thy neck is like the tower of David, which is built with bulwarks: a thousand shields hang upon it, all the weapons of the mighty. This tower the Lord in the Gospel wills to be built, the cost first reckoned and computed: and of which it is said to Jerusalem: Let peace be in thy strength, and abundance in thy towers, of which also the saint speaks to the Lord: Thou hast led me, for thou art become my hope: a tower of strength from the face of the enemy. From the tower of Ananeel we come to the winepresses of the king, for which also three psalms bear a title.

And the Lord says in Isaiah: I have trodden the winepress alone, that our vintage may overflow in them, and we may press out the clusters, and tread the must reddening in the blood of Christ; that we may drink the wine that gladdens the heart of man; and the bride desires, speaking to the companions of the bridegroom: Bring me into the wine cellar, set charity in order upon me. If winepresses of this kind make us drunk, we shall dwell in Jerusalem, in which there shall be no more a curse, that is, no more malediction and abomination. Whence the Apostle also says: If any man does not love the Lord, let him be anathema. And in another place: No one speaking in the Spirit of God says, Anathema to Jesus. And for the salvation of his brothers he desires to be anathema, wishing to imitate his Lord, who himself, though he was not a curse, was made a curse for us.

But when every curse has been removed, Jerusalem shall dwell secure and confident, expressing in herself that saying: He who trusts in the Lord is blessed. And: It is better to trust in the Lord, than to trust in man: of which security and confidence the prophet Jeremiah makes mention: Blessed shall be the man who trusts in the Lord. (Verse 12.) And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the nations that have fought against Jerusalem. The flesh of everyone who stood upon his feet shall waste away, and his eyes shall waste away in their sockets, and their tongue shall waste away in their mouth. LXX: And this shall be the ruin with which the Lord will strike all the peoples who have made war against Jerusalem. Their flesh shall waste away, of them standing upon their feet, and their eyes shall flow away out of their sockets, and their tongue shall waste away in their mouth.

What things the nations who will fight against the city of the Lord are to suffer, the present Scripture testifies: They shall stand, it says, upon their feet, and their flesh shall waste and flow away, and their eyes shall rot, and shall fall out from their own sockets; the boastful tongue, which blasphemed the people of God, shall dissolve into corruption, and shall rot within the enclosure of the teeth. That the Romans who overthrew Jerusalem did not suffer these things is plain to all; unless perhaps the Jews assert that those nations will suffer these things which are to fight against the golden and bejewelled Jerusalem. But we shall say that all the persecutors who afflicted the Church of the Lord, to say nothing of future torments, even in the present age have received what they did.

Let us read the Ecclesiastical histories, what Valerian suffered, what Decius, what Diocletian, what Maximian, what Maximinus most savage of all, and lately Julian: and then we shall prove by facts that even according to the letter the truth of the prophecy has been fulfilled, that their flesh rotted, and their eyes wasted away, and their tongue was dissolved into foulness and corruption. Moreover, if from this saying the cruelty of God seems to the heretics to be shown, let them hear that all this happens so that, as evils fail, good things may grow up. For whoever shall have stood in the Lord and with the Lord, his carnal things will flow away, that spiritual things may arise, and the eyes that saw wrongly will fall from their sockets, that others may be put in their place, which can look upon the Lord with the prophet saying: To thee have I lifted up my eyes, thou who dwellest in the heavens.

And the blaspheming tongue shall rot for this reason, that another tongue, telling forth, may spring up, which glorifies God, and can say: My tongue shall meditate thy justice, thy praise all the day. Whence also Simeon, receiving the Infant in his arms, and foretelling things to come, says: Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many, so that evil things may fall, and the best things may be raised up. Whence also the Lord says: For judgment I have come into this world, that they who do not see may see; and they who see may become blind.

The people of the Gentiles did not see, and after the faith of Christ began to look upon the light of truth, which speaks through the prophet: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, wherefore he has anointed me, he has sent me to preach the gospel to the poor, to proclaim release to captives, and to the blind that they may see, and be enlightened with wisdom, of whom it is written: The wisdom of a man enlightens his face. And in the Psalms we read: The Lord enlightens the blind, that is, makes them wise. For this is more what σοφοῖ signifies. The Jews saw; and because they refused to receive the light, they have been covered with eternal blindness.

Verse 13. In that day there shall be a great tumult of the Lord among them: and a man shall take hold of the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall be joined against the hand of his neighbor. Moreover Judah also shall fight against Jerusalem: and the riches of all nations round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and garments in great abundance. The Septuagint: And in that day there shall be a great stupor of the Lord upon them: and each one shall take hold of the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall cleave to the hand of his neighbor: and Judah shall be prepared in Jerusalem, and shall gather together the strength of all peoples round about, gold, and silver, and garments exceedingly many.

When these miracles shall have been accomplished, so that the flesh of the enemies melts away, their eyes waste away, and the tongue rots in the mouth of the blasphemers: then there shall be a great tumult, or stupor, among them; for this is what ἔκστασις signifies, which the Septuagint translated: And each one shall take hold of the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall be joined with the hand of another, because of fear, and the weight of the evils which shall come upon them. Judah also shall fight against the metropolis, of whom we have also spoken above, and victory shall be granted by the Lord: the riches of all the nations which warred against Jerusalem shall be gathered together, gold and silver, and a multitude of garments, which are the most precious of things. These things unhappy Judah promises to himself, hoping to receive gold, he who valued the Lord at thirty pieces of silver.

But let us, following the order we have begun, refer all these things to the blessedness of the Church, that all who shall be in her may marvel at the subjection of the enemies, and at their own happiness, and each one may take hold of the hand of his neighbor, that they may join right hands, and be bound together by mutual faith and kinship. Now as to what we read in the Hebrew: And Judah shall fight against Jerusalem; for which the Septuagint translated: And Judah shall be prepared in Jerusalem, let us take it in both ways: that Judah, who once confessed the name of the Lord, and being compelled in persecutions persecuted the people of Christ, may himself also be turned to joy. Or certainly, let Judah, everyone who confesses and believes, not fight against Jerusalem, but prepare himself in Jerusalem, that he may fight against the adversaries. And Judah himself shall gather together the riches of all the nations round about, gold, and silver, and garments exceedingly many.

We have often said that gold and silver are to be understood as sense and speech: whence we ought equally to take garments, with which the Church of Christ is adorned, of whom it is written: The queen stood at thy right hand in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety. Clothed in which garments the multitude of believers rejoices and says: I will exult in the Lord, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, and with the tunic of gladness. For the Lord had said to her: I clothed thee with τριχάπτοις and fine linen. By τριχάπτοις let us understand fine garments, which are so beautiful and delicate that they seem to resemble hair. These garments the Church gathers together, that she may have wherewith to clothe her people, to whom it has been commanded by the true preacher: At all times let thy garments be white.

Verse 15. And so shall be the ruin of the horse, and of the mule, and of the camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in those camps, as this ruin. The Septuagint: And this shall be the ruin of horses and mules, of camels and asses, and of all the beasts that shall be in those camps, according to this ruin. And these things the Jews contend must be fulfilled carnally under their ἠλειμμένος (anointed one). Truly great is the strength of the Lord, that in the camps of the enemies horses, and mules, camels, and asses, and all their beasts of burden should fall, just as men also had fallen. It is a great triumph, a glorious victory, that brute animals should be overcome while God fights. Let us say, then, following the tropology we have begun: that for this reason all the evils fall which formerly fought against the Church, that good things may suddenly arise.

Finally, he who was formerly a horse neighing after the wife of his neighbor, and was borne impatiently to lust, and lay wallowing in disgrace: when he shall begin to follow chastity, it shall be said to him: Arise, let us go hence. And: Arise, come, my neighbor. And in the Apostle: Arise, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall enlighten thee. And when the horses that had before fallen shall have risen, and shall have offered their soft backs to the Lord to sit upon, they shall say to God: Ascend upon thy horses, and thy riding is salvation. According to this sense let us take the mules, which are barren, and do not beget children; but wanton in pleasure: of whom the Psalmist makes mention: Be ye not as the horse and the mule, which have no understanding.

Therefore as those who are prone to lust are called horses: so we shall rightly call mules those who are virgins in flesh and not in spirit: who make themselves eunuchs not for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, but for the pleasure of men. When such ... therefore these mules, and these eunuchs, shall have been turned into offspring, and shall have begotten spiritual sons, they shall hear through Isaiah: And let not the eunuch say, I am a dry tree. For thus saith the Lord to the eunuchs who shall keep my sabbaths, and shall choose the things that I have willed, and shall hold fast my covenant, I will give them in my house and within my walls a place with a name, and a better name than of sons and daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, which shall not fail. Such mules and mares the kings of Israel had, and especially David, who is referred to Christ.

Having understood who are the horses and mules falling and rising again, let us pass on to camels, an animal that chews the cud, and does not divide the hoof: and let us say that a camel is every sinner of the earth, who is weighed down by the heavy burden of sins, and seems to himself to read the holy Scriptures, but does not divide the hoof, chewing the cud of the divine words, and neglecting the things that are written. But more rightly can the people of the Jews be called a camel, who also himself meditates on the Law of God, and chews it and turns it over in his breast, but does not divide the hoof, so as to believe in the Father and in the Son: and in this he is unclean, that he in no way separates the letter from the spirit, the shadow from the truth, and bears the burdens of the Law, and hears through the prophet: Woe, sinful nation, a people full of sins.

Of such a camel, which chews the cud, and does not divide the hoof, it is also said in the Proverbs, as if to a son: He who forsakes keeping the discipline of his father, will meditate on evil words. After the camel let us pass to the ass, which was once ridden unbridled, and was unclean, and had many masters, and was slipping down precipices, so that, having suddenly fallen, it might rise up again, and might carry the Lord the Savior, and enter into holy Jerusalem, and be received in triumph by the multitude of believing children. This ass the Savior is said to have tied to the vine and the vineyard, of which it is written in the Psalms: Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt, and hast cast out the nations, and planted it. To which the vinedresser himself speaks: I planted thee a fruit-bearing vine, wholly true.

All the beasts of burden also, and living things, which the prophet comprehends under one name, are to be interpreted according to the natures of each, and this suits the Son of God more than what the foolish people of the Jews presume in their prophesying.

Verse 16. And all who shall be left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year, to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles. The Septuagint: And it shall be, that whosoever shall be left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem, shall go up year by year, to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles. All, he says, who shall be left of the nations that came against Jerusalem, shall go up year by year, to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles.

These things too the Jews promise for themselves in vain hope to come in the reign of a thousand years, of which solemnity this is the origin: the people of Israel, having gone out of Egypt through a vast and terrible and broad wilderness, in which there was no house, village, town, or cave, made for themselves tabernacles and tents (which now, from the likeness of a small bird, are called pavilions), in which they stayed with their wives and children, and took food, and by day avoided the heats of the sun, by night the damp, and cold, and the injury of the dew: and it was commanded that in the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, the solemnity of tabernacles should be held: And when thy son, he says, shall ask thee tomorrow, saying: What mean these tabernacles?

Thou shalt answer him: We wandered a long time in Egypt, from which the Lord led us out into the wilderness, and therefore we set up tabernacles, that we may remember the benefits of God at all times, when we shall have begun to dwell in cities. He also commanded that they should make tabernacles of the most beautiful wood, which the Jews call citrus, and of palm branches and the foliage of the densest wood, and of willow, and of poplar. We have laid the historical foundations, that from these we may pass over to spiritual things. As long as we are in progress and in the course and in the contest, we dwell in tabernacles, striving with all our mind for this, that we may pass from tabernacles to a firm and stable seat, that is, the house of God. Whence also holy David says in the Psalm: Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged! And: I am a sojourner and a stranger, as all my fathers were.

This is spoken by one who is in Egypt, and still established in the world. But he who goes out of Egypt, which in Hebrew is called MESRAIM (מצרים), and is interpreted "tribulation"; and enters the wilderness of vices, takes up his journey, and says in the Psalm: I shall pass into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even to the house of God. For it is a wonderful thing not to wish to dwell with the Egyptians; but, Pharaoh being drowned, to desire to enter the land of promise. Whence also he speaks elsewhere: How beloved are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord. And a little after: Blessed are all who dwell in thy house, they shall praise thee for ever and ever. For the voice of exultation and salvation is in the tabernacles of the just. And we find it written in the Proverbs: The houses of the just shall remain, and the tabernacles of them that do right shall stand.

Of houses, he promises that they shall remain: of tabernacles, that they shall stand. The holy man says also in another place: One thing have I asked of the Lord, this will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, and behold the delight of the Lord, and visit his temple. He who dwells in such tabernacles, and hastens from tabernacles to courts, and from courts to the house, and from the house to the temple of the Lord, ought to celebrate the solemnities of tabernacles with the most beautiful wood of wisdom, of which it is said in the Proverbs: She is a tree of life to all who draw near to her, and to those who rest upon her, as upon a house of firmness.

And with palm branches, in which is contained the sign of victory, and the reward of virtue, and with the foliage of the densest tree, which the Jews understand to be myrtle, on account of the mortification of the flesh and of lusts. Whence also myrrh is offered to the Lord Savior as a gift by the Magi. And with branches, he says, of willow and poplar, which some call one tree; and the very name of the wood, which in Greek is called ἄγνος, indicates chastity. Physicians say, and those who have written of the natures of trees and herbs, that if anyone drinks the flower of the willow or the poplar mixed with water, all heat in him grows cold, and the vein of lust is dried up, and he can no longer beget children.

Let him who is sheltered by the branches of such trees celebrate the feast of tabernacles, passing through the sixth month, which is referred to the world, and in the seventh keeping the spiritual sabbath, on the fifteenth day of that same month, when the moon of the night is fullest, and all its darkness is dissolved by clear light. These things we have said briefly, contemplating in mind for a long time the great extent of the books, that we may pass on to the rest. (Verse 17.) And it shall be, that whoever of the families of the earth shall not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, upon them there shall be no rain. LXX: And it shall be, that whoever of the families of the earth shall not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, these shall be added to them.

For what the Seventy have translated, and these shall be added to them, in the Hebrew it is written Ulo alehem eje gesem, which Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion have likewise interpreted, and upon them there shall be no rain. The Church of the Lord Jesus is called the heavenly Jerusalem, of which the Apostle writes: But that Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all; and: You have come to Mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. And this Jerusalem is not situated in lowly places, but on a lofty mountain, of which the Saviour speaks: A city set upon a mountain cannot be hid. Wherefore he who is to worship the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem must ascend to the mountains.

But whoever of the families (Verses 18, 19.) And if the family of Egypt shall not go up, and shall not come: neither shall it be upon them, but there shall be the ruin with which the Lord shall smite all the nations that shall not go up to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles. This shall be the sin of Egypt, and this the sin of all the nations that shall not go up to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles. LXX: But if the tribe of Egypt shall not go up, nor come thither: upon them also shall be the ruin with which the Lord shall smite all nations that shall not go up to keep the feast of Tabernacles. This shall be the sin of Egypt, and the sin of all the nations that shall not go up to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles.

Whoever is Egyptian, and of the other nations, so long as he remains Egyptian and heathen, shall not go up into Jerusalem: and because he cannot ascend, nor lift his step to the heights, therefore upon him there shall be no rain of the Lord's blessing. And this shall be the greatest sin to the Egyptian, the Assyrian, the Chaldean, the Syrian, the Moabite, and the Ammonite, if they refuse to go forth from their own lands and go up to Jerusalem, that through the tabernacles they may pass over into Jerusalem, and find the eternal home, and cease to be men of other nations, and become Israelites in whom there is no guile.

All these things, which we touch upon in swift discourse, the Jews, and our Judaizers—nay, not ours, because they Judaize—hope will be fulfilled bodily, promising themselves indeed both circumcision and marriages in the thousand-year kingdom, lest the curse be fulfilled in them which is written: Cursed is the barren woman who bears no seed in Israel; and: Blessed is he who has seed in Sion and household in Jerusalem. But if this is true, all the virgins whom the thousand-year kingdom shall find shall lie under curse and perpetual barrenness: or else they must certainly marry, so as to escape the curse.

To the Lord Almighty. The Hebrew word MESULOTH (מצולות), Aquila and Theodotion have interpreted as βυθὸν, that is, the deep: Symmachus, περίπατον σύσκιον, that is, a shadowy walk. The Seventy alone rendered it χάλινον, that is, bridle; whom we also in this place have followed, lest we should seem to bring something new into a well-known question. When I inquired of a Hebrew what it signified, he told me that we ought not to read MESULOTH, but MESALOTH, which signifies the trappings of horses and warlike ornament, and that, except in this passage, this word is found nowhere at all in the whole volume of the sacred Scriptures. But bridle, he said, is called in the Hebrew tongue RESEN (רסן), and not MESULOTH, which the LXX translated. And the sense is: that in the time of perpetual festival, and of the kingdom of Jerusalem, when all things are at peace and quiet, there will be no need at all of cavalry, which is the strongest kind of warfare; but all the ornament and adornment of trappings will be devoted to the worship of the Lord.

This they may say. Let us refer the "deep" of horses, and the shadowy or dark "walk," to mystical knowledge, which David also boasted that he possessed, like a most excellent horse, saying: The uncertain and hidden things of your wisdom you have made known to me. And the Apostle: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! Concerning this depth the prophet cried out to the Lord, and He heard him. In these depths and darknesses God set his hiding-place: into these darknesses and divine mysteries Moses entered, in the gloom of Mount Sinai, that he might see God: of which David also spoke in another Psalm: The judgments of the Lord are a great abyss. These are the secret and holy mysteries of the Lord, which the evangelist John knew, who dared to say what perhaps even the angels did not know: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

And for this reason he was loved by the Lord, because he possessed the best "deep"; and he had reclined upon the breast of Jesus, whence also he had drawn wisdom. But if we prefer, as the LXX translated, to take the word of God as "bridle," let us understand by the bridle him who restrains from their vices horses maddened with lust, and mules barren and wanton, and curbs them, and does not allow them to rush headlong—of whom it is said: Do not be like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding. With bit and bridle bind fast their jaws, who do not come near to you. Of this bridle James also speaks: We put bits into the mouths of horses, and we turn about their whole body, so that they may walk, of course, by a straight path, and be able to offer a soft back for the Lord to sit upon.

Such a bridle, and such a word, composed with the variety of gold and silver, prepares wild horses for the Saviour to sit upon; and makes them holy, and properly consecrated to His worship. I have heard from a certain woman a thing said indeed with pious feeling, but ridiculous. That the nails of the Lord's cross, from which the emperor Constantine had made a bridle for his horse, are called "holy to the Lord." Whether this ought to be so understood, I leave to the reader's judgment. Let us pass on to the cauldrons, which shall be in the house of the Lord, like the bowls of the altar. For every cauldron in Jerusalem, and in Judah, shall be sanctified to the Lord Almighty. Let them love bronze cauldrons, who loved the pots of Egypt, and the meats, and melons, and garlic, and onions, and cucumbers.

Let us turn the Jewish cauldrons, in which the flesh of victims used to be cooked, into bowls of spices before the altar of the Lord, of which the bride says to the bridegroom: My kinsman has gone down into my garden to the bowls of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies. The garden and paradise into which the bridegroom descends to the bride is the reading of the holy Scriptures: from which he plucks lilies, and violets, and roses, and various spices, that he may fill the bowls of believing souls, and pour out from them libations to the Lord.

When cauldrons of this sort have been turned into the Lord's bowls, and are able to say: We are the good odor of Christ, and instead of the rankness of flesh have begun to bear the varied flowers of virtues: then they shall be in Jerusalem, and in Judah, sanctified to God Almighty—of which we have often said, that Jerusalem expresses "vision of peace," and Judah "one who confesses." (Verse 21.) And all who sacrifice shall come, and shall take of them, and shall cook in them: and there shall no longer be a merchant in the house of the Lord of hosts in that day. LXX: And all who sacrifice shall come, and shall take of them, and shall cook in them, and there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord Almighty in that day. For "Canaanite," Aquila has interpreted "merchant," whom we also have followed in this place.

When the cauldrons have been turned into bowls, all the nations round about shall come, or those who shall have been left of all the nations, sacrificing, and shall take the cauldrons, and shall cook in them the flesh of victims, so that they may not eat the raw flesh of the lamb, but, all the moisture of the flesh being boiled away, what has been prepared by fire may remain to be eaten. What the bowls before the altar of the Lord are, into which the Israelite cauldrons are converted, we have said above, and shall now say in part. The bride praises her bridegroom in the Song of Songs: His cheeks are as bowls of spices.

By "cheeks" is understood the word, which, brought forth by the Lord, pours out various ointments, and there will be so great a fragrance of sweet odor that the Lord will make for himself a scourge from the testimonies of the text of Scripture, and cast out of the temple those selling and buying, and say to them: It is written, My Father's house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations: but you have made it a house of merchandise. Some apply to this passage that which is written in Daniel, though it is not read in the Hebrew: The seed of Canaan, and not of Judah; and what is said by the prophet Hosea concerning Ephraim: Ephraim is joined to idols: he has set up stumbling-blocks for himself, he has provoked the Canaanites: they that commit fornication have gone a-whoring (Hosea iv, 17, 18)—and they wish every fornicator to be called a Canaanite and a foreigner, whom they assert must be removed from the house of God.